The Cowboys Ride into Town

Last night was another trip to Cherokee casino in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, right across the state line from Arkansas. Wednesday night is the weekly $50 buy-in freezeout (no rebuy) tournament. I don't really know why I play the tournament, other than because it's fun, because the cash games have been much more lucrative lately.

I was pretty card dead for the first several levels last night, being up only 275 chips (out of a starting stack of 4000) at the first break. Sort of usual, other than last week when I cashed out 8th (of about 85 people). I made it to about level 6 before, while blinding out, pushed all in with pocket 10s and losing to AJ that hit his A on the turn. Oh well...off to the cash game.

I was the 9th person on the wait list for a $1/$2 hold'em game, so a new table opened up. Great!! Fish from the tournament! It actually proved to be a very active, very aggressive table. I played low and tight and tried to stay out of the fray. I bought in for $100, which, after seeing the table action was too little. I should have bought $200.

I played a couple of early pots, taking down a couple of little ones. Pre-flop raises to $12 and $15 were not unusual at this table. Very few flops were seen for $2. There were a lot of people straddling to $5. About 30 minutes into the game, I looked down at pocket kings under the gun. I raised to $15 hoping to pick up a call or two but no more than that. Aces seem to flop way too often on me with an otherwise big pair. The guy to my left raised to $30. Next guy folded. Next guy raised all in to $65. A couple folded and another guy pushed for $95 and he got a pretty quick call. So, the action was on me with three people in heavy and $85 to call. Lay down my kings was probably the best answer. I labored over the decision for several minutes. I KNOW my odds with kings against 4 players aren't good. I considered that the cards had been pretty slow for me all night, and that I might not be able to look for any help from the board. I couldn't lay down the kings and I pushed my $125 into the pot. The guy on my left, the original raiser, called and I missed that play. Now there are four of in this pot, three all in, and one guy in that I was unaware of (not that it mattered to my play...I was in the pot.) I picked up my cards loosely, without covering them well, thinking that no one in the hand could see them. The guy to my left said, "well, you have me beat." "Oh, man, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were in the hand or I wouldn't have handled my cards like that." He was cool about it, and so was everyone else that caught what was going on. I mean, the pot was what it was and two players were in an empty side pot.

The flop came 8-4-K. Ahhh...trip Kings. The guy on my left said "well, that should help you out." As it turned out, he had pocket 8s. I relaxed just a little, knowing that I still had a back-door flush draw to dodge after that flop. The turn was...a king! I stacked my cards neatly, lifted up my sunglasses, and stood up. I stood behind my chair and looked across the table at a friend of mine who was not in the hand. He mouthed to me "Do you have a king?" I smiled and held up, inconspicuously, two fingers. He stood up too. After the river, which was a blank, I flipped over my kings and spread them out. Everybody groaned. One guy was holding pocket 8s. One guy had pocket 4s. The kings gave both of them full houses. One guy had AQ suited. Not sure quite what he was doing in a five way $400 pot. But hey, the more the merrier! I tipped the dealer $15 and took the next two hands to stack my chips.

I stuck around the table, wanting to get up and leave with my booty. I've been here before, and turned around and lost the stack right back to an active table. Instead of loosening up, like I knew was what my tendency would be, I consciously tightened up. About half an hour after the big hand, I was about to get up and leave, when an older guy, well dressed, drunk, sat down with seven $100 chips that he had just won on a blackjack table. "How much can I buy in for?" he slurred. $300 was the table max. I decided to stay. He dumped off all of that $300 plus another $200 chasing bad hands. Super donkey, whale, fish, whatever. He was a gold mine that made me another $100 before I was done. A great night over all.

Keep off the rail.