Friday, November 20, 2009

Satellites, the Grind and Rubbing Elbows with Celebs

Friday, November 20, 2009  

November 19, 2009 was a busy day for me. I woke up with the sun, took the kids to school and got ready to roll out. I was at Commerce in time to play the 11 a.m. Mega Satellite in hopes of qualifying for the L.A. Poker Open main event. During the first two levels, I was the only girl in the room. I petitioned Matt to give me a consolation seat for "Last Woman Standing" but I was only rewarded with laughter. Later Crystal Osgood-Gray, Co-Founder of the LadiesPokerAssociation.com showed up, and truly ended up the last woman standing and qualified for a seat to the main event. Good for her!

I played my little heart out, but made some bad folds. Had I just limped at the cut-off with 7♠9♠ when the shortstacked nit limped under the gun I would have flopped the nut straight. Had I just called a raise from an aggressive player when I had A/J in the last hand before the second break I would've flopped Aces up. While I didn't loose any chips with those folds, I didn't gain any either; therefor, I didn't give myself enough ammo to get deeper in the tournament. The nail in the coffin was when the same nit limped in early position on my small blind, and I went runner-runner for Jacks-up. There was an Ace on board, but it was checked down to the river and I lost half my chips to his set of Aces. Although I only made it to the last two tables, only 10 players earned seats to the main event and I went out 18th just a little before 3pm.

I went to the Galleria to grind out at the $200 for a few hours. I was card dead so I tried to mix it up a bit, and found myself chipped down to under $50. Finally, just before I had to get up to register for the charity event and head over to Stakes for the media event, I picked up A♣J♣ in the big blind. The whole table limped around to me, so I shoved. I managed to get 4 callers. The flop came low with two clubs - BOOYA! The last card to come was the 4♣, I made a flush and a wheel. The players checked it down to the river, which is when Seat 10 decided to bet into the dry pot. All the other players folded and I showed him the bad news. After all of that, and I barely broke even for $200. I know I could have added on, but since I had intended on getting up, I figured I didn't want to put more money on the table if I wasn't running good and not staying for the long haul. Yes, I know, if I had more on the table - I would have made a profit on that hand... but I didn't, so I didn't. That's just the way it went down.



As previously posted, Lisa Wheeler of GreasieWheels.com invited me (amongst other media, press and writers) to play in the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night last night. So, after I got my chips back, I went up stairs to register and mingle with my friends who were all playing either satellites or the 3pm Mega. At 6pm Johan met me at Stakes and we schmoozed around with Jay Siegel and Stephen Hall then sat down to watch the DEF presentation put on by Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch and Annie Duke. All three were great speakers, but Annie was the most animated and well spoken. She truly is a naturally gifted public speaker, a skill that isn't as easy as it looks.

After the cocktail hour and presentation, the tournament began and let me tell you, those people came to gamble! My table was LIVE with Amit Makhija (one of Brunson's 10) and an accountant to the pros who kept a wad of hundreds in her left hand as she shoved her chips in with her right hand almost every other hand before the break! LOL! I got sucked out on in the third hand by the small blind when I hit my King in the big blind. Jay Siegel bought me a rebuy and I tripled up with Jacks a few hands later. The table was crazy and there was NO WAY to tell what anybody had. Pretty much just me and Amit were the only players that cared about our chips or what anybody else was holding. I busted at the break, but Matt Savage told me to sit back down and gave me another rebuy. I doubled up again, then the players went on break. After everybody bought an add-on and most of the tournament got serious, play resumed. I say most because Amit had to leave for dinner with his friends who were literally standing behind him waiting to go, so he began pushing every hand to donk off his chips (he was the chipleader by then). He systematically sucked out on player after player, hand after hand and quadrupled up. He totally luck boxed it when all he was trying to do was leave! I don't know how he eventually lost his chips, because I was one of his early victims when he pushed all in with 5/8 and cracked my pocket 4s when he hit his 8. Good times, good times.

Sooooooooo, I meandered back down to the $200 tables. Scott Diamond found me just as I was about to take my seat and took me over to meat Barry Greenstein. Mr. Greenstein had recently commented on a posting I had done on his website PokerRoad.com, and Scott thought it would be a good time to make an introduction. Mr. Greenstein was very gracious and thanked me for my contributions to PokerRoad.com and wished me success in my endeavors. He was playing one of the big limit games and the table was littered with white $100 chips that made me feel like such a pauper holding just two little white chips in my hand. DOH! I told him that I was doing the grind, and he said that all players have to do their time at the grind. That made me feel better.

I took my seat at a $200, cracked Aces with my pocket 6s (flopped a set) when I was down to $100 and then punked a couple of guys who thought they were buying cards to crack my A♥Q♠ with a spade flush, when the flop came Queen high, with a two card Jack-high spade draw, they turned the K♠ but checked it. When the A♠ hit the river, the small blind pushed, the big blind pushed, and I (on the button) gleefully called and turned over my hand. The big blind had the 10♠ and the small blind had 9♠2♠. (Before you wonder why I didn't let the blinds chop, there were other limpers in the hand before I acted on the button.) I only wish they had more chips! I made $170 on the hand just as Johan came by with his rack of chips and told me to get up to go home.

I can't say that I played my best game, in fact, most of the time I think I just got lucky. Over all, given the Mega Satellite buy-in, I left down for the day. However I still had a smile on my face from ear to ear because I had a lot of fun.

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