Multi Tasking

I had a good night at Tin Man's $5 NLHE Tournament last Friday.

Fifteen runners showed up to pitch some cards. I was seated at table 2, with Bondo Chris seated to my immediate left, followed by the Music Man, Philly Phanatic, Random Order, Bluffing Bev, and Lil' Okie Annie.

I started fast, winning a couple decent sized pots off of the Music Man, out kicking him twice when we both paired our aces. It only took about 30 minutes to get to a final table, which is unusually quick for this particular tourney.

Mama Chas had a HUGE stack when final table play began. She plays a very laggy style. I mentioned how many chips she had collected and Tin Man observed that she had drawn out on several people to build her stack.

I was card dead for the first hour at the FT, but managed to double thru Mama Chas. I checked a limped pot in the BB with the hammer, and hit bottom two pair on an A-7-2 rainbow flop. I checked, knowing Mama would C-bet as sure as the sun rises in the east. She didn't disappoint, throwing out a pot sized bet, which I smooth called. I check- called the turn and pushed the river, getting the call I was hoping for. Mama tabled top pair, but it was only good for second place.

Double R busted Random Order on the bubble when his J-5 outdrew Random's K-8. I busted Mama Chas in third place a few hands later and Double R and I agreed to chop the first and second place money. I walked away with a $25 profit in the tourney.

Nice.

My first hand in the $2 cash game was interesting. I was in middle position when I looked down at Q-9 offsuit. I limped, but Philly Phanatic raised to .50 cents and I called. The flop was 9-4-4, giving me top pair. I bet out for .60 cents, with Philly my only caller. The turn was another 9, giving me the boat! SAH-WEET! I shoved and was insta-called by Philly, who quickly flipped over his flopped quad fours!

Busto on my first hand. Geez!

I had to rebuy three more times before finally hitting a few flops and finished with a small $1 loss.

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Online poker today has been interesting. My phone rang at 4:30 this morning, requiring me to get out of bed and stay by the phone as a family situation unfolded.

I had a 9:00 meeting at church, giving me a couple hours of down time before I had to start getting ready. I figured I might as well get a few tourneys in while I waited by the phone and fired up two $6-18 man, one $6-90 man, and two $3-90 man tourneys, thinking that two hours would be plenty of time to finish them all.

Wrong!

I bricked one of the 18 man tourneys, finishing in 11th, but won the second one, assuring a profit of at least $17 for the session. I also busted in the $6-90 man shortly after the first break when my A-Q ran into A-K, felting me in 46th place. Nothing better than getting it all in when you're dominated! Yeah, I'm that good.

The $3 tournaments went much better. I final tabled both of them, but my problem was time; I was running out of it. I needed to start getting ready for my meeting, but the tourneys were running longer than I expected.

What to do, what to do?

When we hit the second break, now two hours into the tournament, I decided my only chance of completing the games and making the meeting on time, was to multi-task.

So now, for the first time in my poker career, I'm playing two final tables while brushing my teeth! I bust quickly in one, finishing ninth for a minor cash. Now down to one tournament, I play a hand, shave, rinse the razor, and play another hand.

WOOT! Double up! Oops, spilled a little Afta on the keyboard. That won't hurt anything will it? It goes nicely with the Colgate stain.

I busted over half the players at the FT, building a 2-1 chip lead when I finally got to heads-up play. I limped the final hand with an 8-6 offsuit, hitting bottom two pair on an A-8-6 flop, with two spades. The villain min-bet for $8,000 and I smooth called, hoping he was putting me on a flush draw.

The turn was an offsuit J, and the villain pushed for his last $70,000, tabling A-5 for top pair. I called and shipped the tournament when the villain didn't improve on the river.

WHEEEE!

No time to celebrate, I was now running late. I jumped in the shower barely long enough to get wet, dressed and was out the door in record time! Fortunately, I hit most of the lights green and arrived two minutes early. Gotta love that!

As I turned into the parking lot, I received a phone call from Sonny Boy, alerting me that the family situation had been handled and all was well. Whew.

I netted a little over $95 in my session, all before 9AM. Not a bad start to my day.

Happy trails.