Donkeys are Real! I saw them in a Casino this weekend!!!

I decided to go to Newcastle Gaming on saturday to get away for a few hours. When I go to a B&M I ussualy go to Lucky Star or Newcastle since they are the closest in proximity to where I live. I arrived at the casino around 11:00 am and signed up for some $1/2 NL but I am about 3 on the list and it doesent look like they will be getting a new table going for awhile. So I go to over to the $1/2 HA (a round of NLH and Omaha Hi) to talk to a guy that plays in our Thursday Home game. He convinces me to buy in and play, so I do. Now Omaha is not my strong suit. I have played, understand the rules, but I am really weak with the strategy. I know it is a game of "Nuts" and I tried to play accordingly. However I made a crucial error misreading the board which cost me 2/3 of my stack and ended up re buying pretty quickly. The holdem pots were uneventful, but the Omaha pots were crazy big for this level. I lost several $200 - 300 pots when my nut straights with a re-draw to the nut flush or nut boat didn't connect, ect... But the biggie and killer was this key pot. I was in the small blind Ac3c5c6d it was limped by 5 people so I completed. The flop comes 2s4s5d, I flopped the current nuts and I fire a pot sized bet into to hopefully thin the field. Action goes fold, call, Pot ($20), raise ($50). WTF is going on here, so pot it again ($100) hoping to chase the draws out but I get a call and call. about $600 - 700 out there and I only have about $150 left. The turn is a blank, 9h I am all in and just praying that I survive but knowing I got my money in good. I get one call from a guy with a measly set of fives and of course the river pairs the 2 and I am left thinking about the $1000-$1200 could have been.

So I am tilted and stuck about $700, time to eat and probably go home. I go to the trusty truck and run down to Taco Mayo (mmmm burritos) after a Burrito Supreme I feel somewhat untilited. I go back to the casino determine to get my money back from the "Donks." I sign up for the HA game and also decide to sign up for the 1:00 $50 + 10 with $1000 added. The tourney starts before I could ever get back into the HA game which was probably best and I decide to just concentrate on making the final table.

First level clicks off I and get a few good hands and chip up to about 4k, started with 2.5k. After the break I get this hand which started me off to a good 2nd hour I get AhQh in the SB the and UTG makes $500 to go, (I believe the blinds were $50/100) and I call to see the flop. My read on this lady was this: overplayed big cards and small pairs and the wife of the donk who called me all the way to the river in Omaha with his set of fives. I was praying for a big flop because I was motivated to gobble up her stack (I had her covered but just barely) Flop is AKQ rainbow. Bingo! I check she throws out $1k and I call, turn is a blank, check she throws out $1K and I raise to 2.5K with about 1.5 still left (wanted to look like I could still fold if need, she pushes I insta call, KQ vs AQ thank you very much and I am up to over 10K at the second break.

During the 3rd hour I got lucky twice, AJ vs AQ runner runner straight and AQ vs AK, spiked a Q on the flop. I busted a big stack when I picked up "Rockets" on the Button and Re-raised a tight aggressive player's "Big Slick". Flop was K high, he checked I went allin with the overbet hoping that he indeed had slick and thank you very much I am Chip leader headed to the final table.

At the Final Table I went card dead, but since I had a massive stack I was able to wait, and wait is exactly what I did. We got down to 4 handed the stacks were all about the same. I offered to chop and that is what we did for $713 apiece.

So I ended down $37 for the day and was dam happy about it, considering the Donkey Pinata beat the cash out of me earlier.

Online at Full Tilt I had a decent weekend but nothing major. Satellited into the 400K but busted in the first hour to the eventual tourney winner when he slow played a monster and made me laydown TPTK on Ace hi flop. This crippled me and the same guy put me out of my misery when my A10 ran into his PP and thank you very much. Only other score I had was the T3 $75 token for cash that I won for a total investment of $13.75

I have started playing the $22 Turbos again and strangely enough I am seeing a better return. I am amazing 6 for 7 cashes and 3 wins, 2 nds and 3rd. I have been working on cooling my aggression to help me in the MTTs and went back to playing the $20 SNG to teach me patience but I am getting killed. In my last 15 I have only cashed 2 and both times 3rd. Now I cant remember all the details and will need to go through the hand histories but I know I have had my share of beats, but I still think I am trying to push to hard in these to in the mid levels and especially with the draws.

Tonight I will play in Hoy's MATH at (Full Tilt this week) for the start of the Battle of the Bloggers Tourney Series.