Fun Day @ Pechanga (for my sister!)

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 30, 2008 in General | 0 comments

So the night before we did our poker trip to Pechanga here in San Diego (I am visiting my sister, nephew, and mom) I put my sister through the ringer on NLHE so that she would at least last a little bit and have some fun at the $25 poker tournament.

We ended up getting to the casino about 1 hour early, so I sat down at the $40 NL 1/2 table to show her how its done and so she can watch and see proper table manners, as she had never played poker in a casino before. The game was, as usual, full of ridiculous gamblers and morons. There was two other decent players at the table but for the most part it was a flush-draw fest. And we're talking the PREFLOP variety with people gunning for flushes with crap like J9s.

I pick my spot and pick up AA UTG. I raise it to $6 which was the going rate. UGH - I get 3 callers. Flop comes JT3 with two clubs. Now if you know my history you know I hate any flop with JT in it. Pot is about $20 and I have $25 in my stack and I'm first to act so I just go all in. The lady next to me insta-calls as if she has a set. CRAP. The second guy takes about 5 minutes and calls too. CRAP. Third guy folds. Lady turns over 74c and the other guy turns over 93o. WTF. You can guess that (OF COURSE) the lady hits her flush on the river for a huge pot and I'm out $40. That sucked.

In the tournament I was basically card dead the entire time. I doubled through with the short stack with 88 and later hit a miracle 3-outer with A9 against AQ. With three tables left I'm finally given some chips and use my agression and All Ins to steal blinds to get to a point where I am about 3rd at the table in chips. Final table pays ... AND MY SISTER IS STILL playing! Wow! Apparently she had picked up AA three times and KK twice. I hadn't seen anything above those 88 yet.

Finally we were down to two tables playing down to the final table and the money. We had about 4 more to go, and I pick up TT UTG and everyone has been consistanly folding. I raise 3x the BB for about 35% of my stack (which is retrospect was a huge mistake). The SB calls and BB folds. Flop comes 369 with two spades. Other guy goes all in, and I had seen him do this before and show crap. I insta-call and he shows K2 two spades. Two of diamonds on the turn, and the J of SPADES on the river. Turns out he had my exact same stack and I'm out to my VERY LOUD cursing.

I check in on my sister (this is at the 3 hour mark now) and she's got enough to fold her way to the final table. Two people get knocked out, so the final table is down to NINE, and they all chop. My sister, in her first "real" tournament EVER and first time playing in a casino not only gets to the final table but chops the entire prize pool and walks out with $228. She paid me back for her buyin, and also bought me lunch.

At the time I was so super pissed about how the day had gone for me, but looking back I was extremely happy that my sister had such a great time and at least one of us came away a big winner.