Comeback Kid

I was playing an 18 man $6 tournament on Full Tilt last night. We were down to three players when I lost a flip, leaving me with T450 chips. The blinds were T800-1600.

Not good.

I managed to double up in each of the next three hands. All of the sudden, I'm back in it!

A few hands later, I'm sitting on all 27,000 chips with the virtual first place trophy in hand!

From T450 to T27,000.

Comeback Kid indeed!

Home Game Report

Another good week of live poker for Lucki Duck.

We had 11 runners at J-Dawgs Poker Extravaganza Thursday night. Farmer Harry brought pizza. Pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and hamburger were on the menu. Very tasty. The dough was thin and crispy, which is how I like it!

We played our usual .25/.50 limit game with a $20 buy-in. Omaha, Coconut, Pineapple, Stud, Double-Flop Hold 'em and regular Hold 'em were all dealt.

Like last week, I started fast and built my stack up to over $50 during the first hour and a half. Things went south after that, as I lost a couple big pots.

In one hand of hold 'em, I limped into an unraised pot in late position with 7-6 offsuit. The flop was K-7-6 with Woody betting out from UTG. I raised and everyone folded except Jeremy (a new player) and, of course, Woody. The turn was a blank and Woody checked, I bet, Jeremy folded, and Woody called. The river was my "bingo" card, another 6, giving me the full house. Woody checked, I bet, and Woody called. I tabled my full house, confident I had won the pot, but Woody flipped pocket kings for a bigger house!

I guess my house was in the wrong neighborhood!

"You didn't raise pre-flop with kings Woody?" I asked.

"No."

"And you didn't re-raise me on the river?"

"Nope."

Another interesting hand also involved hold 'em. I was dealt pocket aces and raised from UTG. I got two callers, Larry the Mailman and Ray-Ray. The flop was Q-9-4, rainbow. Not much to worry about there.

I bet, Larry folds, and Ray-Ray calls.

The turn is a K and I bet once again. Ray-Ray calls.

The river is a 3. No straight or flush possibilities, I must be good here!

I bet and Ray-Ray calls, tabling Q-3 for a rivered two pair.

UHGGGG!

"You called a raise with Q-3 Ray-Ray?"

"I always call when I have a queen. They're lucky!"

I guess he was right this time!

I won the high hand jackpot this week with aces full of sixes. I hit the hand early in the game and was surprised that it held up all night. Usually, it takes quads to win the HHJ, so I was happy to take down the $13 pot.

Sah-weet!

I left with a $23 profit for the night.

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The $5 NLHE Tournament at Tin Man and Lil' Annie Okie's house Friday was a blast!

We had nine players, but two were knocked out early.

Big Daddy was felted on the second hand when he shoved two pair on the flop, only to be called by Lil' Annie Okie's nut flush draw, which she hit on the river.

Bondo Chris followed shortly when he also shoved two pair on the flop and was called by Bluffing Bev's flopped straight. Bondo didn't improve and we were down to seven and still at the first level of blinds.

My opening stack of T100 dwindled to T65, when I open raised from UTG with pocket nines. Bluffing Bev called and we were heads up. The flop brought only one over, a jack, so I C-bet, but was quickly raised by Bev. I folded and Bev showed her pocket kings.

Bev, Sonny Boy and I survived to make the money, with Bev pushing for 1BB twice, winning both times for the triple up when we were down to three players. We stayed at three for quite a while, considering none of us had more than 5BB at any time.

Bev finally knocked out Sonny Boy and we were heads up with Bev holding a 3.5 to 1 chip lead. I shoved K-8 the first hand and was called by Bev's Q-6. My hand held and I was back in it!

I also shoved A-T the next hand and was called by Bev's K-6. I hit my ten on the flop and was looking good, but the turn brought the king and Lucki Duck's goose was cooked. Congrats to Bev for the win!

The $2 buy-in NLHE cash game was wild! There was already a lot of chips on the table by the time I got there, with Philly Phanatic owning the largest stack.

I limped with Q-T soooted from early position, only to be raised and then re-raised, forcing me to play for all my chips if I wanted to be involved. There had been several callers in front of me, building the pot to over eight dollars. I only had another $1.40 in my stack and figured that it would be a +EV call with these pot odds and a hand that plays well against overpairs, which is what I thought I was up against.

After a lot of checking, the board was completed, showing a Q high. Would you believe my pair of queens took down this huge pot! WHEEEEEE!

Sonny Boy hit a queen high straight flush to win a nice pot. He also ended up stacking Big Daddy, winning two big pots off of him at the end of the night and cashed out with a $27 profit! Pretty good for a $2 buy-in.

That's my boy!

I cashed out with a $7 profit in the cash game, plus a $10 profit in the tournament, so it was another good night for the Duck!

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I'm up to five tabling on Full Tilt, with my winnings briefly going above $500 for the month, but I gave some of it back when I bricked my last set. So far I'm pleased with my results and plan to keep playing multiple tables.

Wishing everyone a good week and a profitable one at the tables.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy trails.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

The thermometer hit 111 degrees earlier this week in the Heart of Texas! I even saw the Devil fanning himself. The only thing hotter around these parts right now is my poker game.

I'm on fire!

I'm running so good that I'm actually winning half of my "flips" on Full Tilt and my hands are holding when I get my opponent in with only three outs.

It's a beautiful thing.

I'm playing four tables now in my multi-table experiment, and tried five for a little while last night. I'm able to keep up with the action pretty well and haven't timed out on any hands thus far. I've made almost $200 this week alone during my heater, putting my winnings just short of $500 since I started this experiment a month ago. I don't know how long this streak will last, but I'm gonna enjoy it while I can!

J-Dawgs Poker Extravaganza is tonight and the $5 NLHE tournament is tomorrow at Tin Man's. I've been running good at live poker also, so I hope to keep it going the next couple of nights.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy trails.

Quad Tens

I played live poker two nights last week, Tuesday at J-Dawg's Poker Extravaganza, and Friday at Tin Man and Lil' Annie Okie's home.

I arrived a little early to J-Dawg's and was treated to some chicken strips and fries from a local fast food chain called Bush's. Their chicken isn't anything special, but their cream gravy is "slap yo mama" good! And I can eat just about anything, if you pour enough gravy on it! A piece of pineapple cake for dessert and eleven poker players were pitching cards!

I won two of the first three hands and never looked back! It was one of those nights when all my draws were hitting and I was getting paid off on most of them. Sah-weet!

Woody won the high hand jackpot when he hit quad tens with an ace kicker playing Omaha. His kicker came into play later because J-Dawg also hit quad tens later in the evening, but could only produce a Q kicker. I guess it's not your night when your quads aren't the best hand.

I was involved in one interesting hand playing hold'em. I rivered the nut flush, but the river also paired the board. Bobby Dee had been betting the whole way, and he doesn't bet unless he has a big hand, so I put him on a flopped set, improving to a full house on the river. I checked my flush, and Bobby checked behind. Needless to say, I was surprised when he tabled the full house. I asked him why he didn't bet the river and he said, "I figured we were just gonna chop it anyway." Gotta love that!

I bought in this .25-.50 limit game for $20 and left three hours later with $63 in my pocket. Anytime you triple your money, it's a good night!

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We had 12 punters in the $5 buy-in NLHE tournament at Tin Man's on Friday. I managed to finished ITM, with third place paying $10... a double up! Once again, quad tens made an appearance, when Flyboy rivered quads on Philly Phanatic.

What are the odds of seeing quad tens three times in two nights?

Flyboy, who was on leave from the Air Force, took down the tourney, with Philly Phanatic winning the silver medal. I was glad Flyboy won, he can use the gas money for his drive back to Florida.

The $2 cash game wasn't much fun. Tin Man's next door neighbor came over to play and brought a couple of friends. No problem there. All three were pretty much blitzed. No problem there, they weren't driving. The problem was that they slowed the game down SO MUCH. Two of then didn't know how to play very well to begin with, which slowed things. Add a couple six packs of Bud Light and it was a fiasco! We only played 10-12 hands per hour. One of them had a huge stack of chips and literaly shoved his chips in. Unfortunately for him, he also shoved his cards in with them, which were mucked, and he lost about $15 on the hand. Because the play was so frustratingly slow, I left about an hour early, even though it was a juicy game.

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One of our hosts and a good poker player, Lil' Annie Okie, got some great news this week. She is a wonderful artist, painting mostly still lifes, featuring crystal and other glassware. She really has a talent for capturing the many colors that are reflected in glass. We've told her for years how talented she is! Last week she FINALLY took her work to a well known art gallery.

They were blown away!

She will be given over 10% of the gallery to display her paintings and will also be introduced to the art world with a one woman show. They are pricing her paintings at $4,000 and up, and think her work will go for 5 figures in the future. I can't wait to see how far she goes! I'll post a link to the gallery representing her when they get her paintings up on their site.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy trails!

Multi Tabling

I'm about a month into my multi-tabling experiment.

I'm up almost $300. So far, so good!

I began three tabling and in the past week have moved up to four, still playing the $6-18 man tournaments on Full Tilt.

I downloaded a "hotkey" program called TableNinjaFT several days ago and I'm really impressed with how much time it saves. My setup is as follows; A= fold, S= check, D= call, F= raise, Z= pre-fold, space bar= all in, F1= toggle between tables. I also have it set so that the table requiring the next action comes to the top of the stack (I stack my tables). Finally, if I hit the "esc" key, "TableNinjaFT" is disabled.

I have 30 days of free use, then have to make a decision on purchasing this product, but I'm already pretty sure I'm going to be laying down a few sawbucks for TNFT.

I played 12 tourneys in about an hour and a half last night, netting a $30 profit, not including my 27% rakeback. That puts me at another new high in my Full Tilt account.


Gotta love it when you're running good!

Happy trails.

The Shot Heard 'Round The World

Bobby Thompson died today. He hit what was, arguably, the most dramatic home run in baseball history, securing the 1951 pennant for the NY Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers (although Mazeroski's HR in game 7 of the 1960 World Series is a close second).

I think it is also one of the most exciting play-by-play clips I've ever heard!

What do you think? What was the biggest HR ever hit in MLB and what is your most memorable radio or TV call? Finally, who's the best broadcaster to ever speak into the microphone?

RIP Bobby. Thanks for a great memory!

Long Week

After getting home from Vegas late Friday night, I was awakened early Saturday morning by a phone call from my sister. Her 17 year old daughter was spending the night with our mother and heard her fall in the bathroom. When she went to see what happened, she found Mom unconscious and laying in a pool of blood. Being a quick thinker, she immediately called 911 and 30 minutes later we were all meeting at the local hospital emergency room.

After a battery of tests, it was determined that she had some internal bleeding (duh!), probably caused by diverticulitis. Shortly thereafter she was sent up to the ICU where she spent the next 2 1/2 days.

She was given two units of blood to get her numbers up to an acceptable level, and then a third the next day. She was stable enough Monday morning to run some more tests.

The tests revealed a stomach ulcer (whew!) and she was put on medication and sent home Tuesday.

As you can imagine, it has been a stressful week for our family. Between working and making visits to the hospital, I am one whipped pup, but a thankful one!


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I know some of you were upset over the Very Josie Tournament being rescheduled, but it was great for me, because I wouldn't have been able to play last week and it was a nice stress reliever to be able to pitch some cards with some of my favorite bloggers.

Waffles was there, and as a fellow jogger, I have enjoyed following his effort to get into running shape. Big ups for Waffles!

Also present were lightning and Wolfman, both who are great reads, as well as Hurricane Mikey, MemphisMOJO, and of course Josie.

I felted Josie at the final table when she open shoved pocket sevens and ran into my QQ. I must have been running good, because she didn't give me any grief over it!

Shortly after getting ITM, Ratdee click raised at the $200-400 level from the small blind. I had KQ and felt like he was either stealing or had a so-so hand, maybe a small pocket pair or a baby ace. MemphisMOJO had a big chip lead over both rat and I, and I wasn't playing for second, so I shoved for 9BB, hoping the villian would fold, and if he didn't, I was willing to race a pocket pair for the pot. Even if I was a little behind ace rag, I was willing to gamble in order to win the tourney.

Alas, rat did have a small pocket pair... pocket ones, but in the bizarro world of Full Tilt, I felt like I would probably suck out. I hit my king on the flop, but amazingly, didn't improve and finished in third.

Another fun night at the Very Josie, plus a little coin! Thanks VJ!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy trails!

Quick Trip To Vegas

Ms. Lucki Duck and I spent a few days in Vegas last week.

I played in a few cash games at the Plaza, Flamingo, and South Point casinos. I haven't played at South Point (pictured) in a while, because it's a pretty long drive to their resort. I had forgotten what a nice poker room they have and was impressed both with the room and the personnel. Check out South Point if you haven't already.

I only played in one tourney. I placed second at a $50 buy-in tournament at Treasure Island. I was down 3-1 in chips when we got heads-up. I lost when I pushed my AK preflop and was called by QT. There was a K in the window and I thought I was good, but there was also a Q on the flop and another on the turn and that was it. Had I won the hand, we would have been almost even in chips and who knows?

Overall, I made a decent profit on the felt last week and am looking forward to my next trip already.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy trails.