Couple of eggs in the basket Easter morning

Got up from my nap around 10:00. Got cleaned up and headed over to Caesars. Sat down watch/played. After about an hour or so, I pick up Kings and raise to 12 pre-flop. Get three callers. Three callers after a raise from the guy who hasn't voluntarily entered the pot all night. Flop comes out 9 9 5 rainbow. The paired board worries me a little but actually is good since it makes it less draw heavy. I hope no one has or wants to represent the 9. Checks around to me and I throw 35 at the pot. Every one folds and I have sugar. Couple more hours later I try limping in a couple times with pocket pairs but either get raised out or don't connect.

Next big hand is a battle of the blinds. All week I had been offering to chop blinds and even folded the button if it looked like the blinds were about to chop. I'm the the SB and the table folds around. I ask the n00b next to me if he chops and he shakes his head no. So I look at my hand and am welcomed by Jean Enersen, K5os, and I complete the blind. BB checks. Flop is K Q 7. I lead out 10. BB re-raises me to 20. I partly feel like just getting on with the next hand but I my hand is momentarily possessed and calls the raise. Turn comes another 7 and I make it 45 to go. He pays and I get a little concerned about my kicker. River is an Ace and I slow down and check it. He checks behind and shows QT. Shortly thereafter he asks for a table change. Looks like maybe he should have taken the chop....

After a while I start getting bored and open up my game. I come in with KJos and flop top pair. It's heads up and my opponent has shown to come in light so I'm confident that I don't have a kicker problem. Two diamonds on board though and he likes to chase. I make it 25 to go to charge him for the turn card. He calls and a non-diamond hits on the turn. I make it 45 to go. He comments "that's a lot to pay for a draw" and I say "that's what it is supposed to do" but he pays anyway. Non Diamond falls on the river and I try to get a value bet out of him so he can make sure that I had him beat. I put out 30. He then makes it 60 more. My mind rewinds to his comment about paying for a draw and I wonder how made he is. I scan the board and a 3 would make a straight so he may have backed into a straight and I wonder if he backed into it with a junky suited hand. Thoughout the night he has been making very poor value bets. Charging too much but when he is called he always had the goods so I decline his offer. He shows his hand anyway and he had a suited connector that gave him a two way draw on the turn so he actually didn't make as poor a play as I had assumed. Good lay down.

Later on I again pick up KJos and I can see a flop cheap enough. Board comes out KQT. Look familiar? I have top pair with an open ender and I charge him 20 for the turn card. He pays and a Trey falls. I then bill him 40 for the river. He makes the same comment about expensive for a draw. I again concur. He lets it go this time and opens his hand. He's holding a yucky J 3 os for an open ender and a pair on the turn that he didn't realize he had until we told him after his fold. I explained how behind he was and was essentailly paying money to pretty much only chop the pot and congratulated him on a good fold.

I take a break and saunter over to Ben's table where is in the middle of a hand. A flop of KQJ two Diamonds it out on the table. Seat 2 either bets or raises to 40 to go. Ben adds $100 to that and I'm wondering if/why Ben is playing AT? Back to Seat 2 and he is incessantly stacking and flipping chips processing this hand. He finally announces that he is all in and Ben exposes his pocket pair for a flopped set but he is behind the made sucker straight from Seat 2's 89os. Ben is about 1 in 4 to fill his house and take down a monster pot. Turn pairs the King and Ben stacks Seat 2's chips. I think back to the Zen/Poker book and remain non-bitter just because Ben draws out when he needs to. We discuss the hand a little afterward and he said he considered calling. However, once the board pairs I think the other player is smart enough to slow down so the re-raise introduces the possibility that this ends up an all-or-nothing pot.

Back at my table, players start to leave and our table breaks up. I move to a much better table. Table captain is in Seat 1 directly across from me in Seat 4. I've been watching the table pretty carefully and understand their protocols fairly well. Everyone folds around to him and he makes it 10 to go, standard issue for holding an Ace. Another fold and in the BB I pick up two black Nines, the Phil Hellmuth hand. I call and he pops an eyebrow since I haven't played any hands. Flop comes out and it doesn't appear that he hit. I look at the board and it is King high, no Ace. I lead out 20 and he folds without a fuss but reveals his Ace in an effort to show he wasn't trying to steal.

Next key hand. Pot gets sweetened to 10 by UTG. Four callers including Capitan. I am in BB and pick up the Daniel Negreanu, 7 T in Diamonds. I can cap the betting in a pot of 50 for another 7 bucks. I do so. Flop comes Ad T? 6d. I have second pair and four to the flush. I size up the pot and my stack. I was down already from the hand I got sucked out on and blinded down further to about 120. I size up the pot and my stack then lead with a bet of 35 which was enough of the pot to say that I have something and enough of my stack to commit me based on my outs. I have already decided that I am not folding this hand. 9 Diamonds presumably good. Two other Tens and three Sevens all win this for me I figure. Everyone folds around to Capitan. He starts to count out chips. I help him by cutting stacks myself and tell him I have 88 chips left. He announces his raise that is enough to set me all in and I call having already decided to do so before I bet out. I assume that he is bullying with Ace/decent kicker and thinks I'm going to protect the rest of my stack. He turns over T6 for two pair. Uh oh. Did not think that he was that strong and he is taking away two of my outs since a Ten now fills his boat. Turn is a Seven to give me a higher two pair. Blank on the river. That doubles me up plus pre-flop money so I'm now at more than two and a half stacks. I apologize for the suckout and told him I expected to hit my flush to take the hand. He gets kinda tilty about the hand. He assures me there is no reason to apologize. We actually spend the next half hour talking about the hand. It was really a great table because there would be a lot of hand analysis immediatly after hands are played out and everyone except seat 5 clearly enjoyed discussing the play of hands.

I see a couple more flops over the next hour or so then get a rack to cash out. Say good-bye to the table and get a warm farewell from other poker enthusiasts. The cashier gets a single from my $250 that I leave with. Total damage is now down to a more manageable $1425.