Colorful Bug and Some Live Pokah!

I found this thing after hurricane Humberto passed by Friday night. I've never seen such a colorful bug before, and the patterns on him remind me of a small flower. He was hanging around the light on the deck, along with a couple of his friends.

Oh, I played some live poker Saturday night after the 'Bama game. What a comeback that was!

We had what turned out to be a $30.00 6 man Sit and Go starting with 80 chips. Neo Black was also playing. Thankfully he was on my right so I had a litlle more free rein on when I could play. Blinds start out at 1/2 and go up around every 40 minutes, or whenever we all needed a beer.

I chipped up a little bit by making a nice check raise on one guy's flop min. bet, and made some more on a couple pre-flop raise/ c-bets.

I made a huge bluff at the 2/4 level on a calling station who I knew would not call with something like a small pair. I led him by 30 chips and I've played with him before so I had a pretty good read on his game. Well, he got talked into it by the dude next to him. What ever happened to one player to a hand? He called with a pair of 7's on a board that showed a possible flush and a straight. I was steaming for two orbits before I cooled off. I liked my bet in that spot, given the read I had on the player.

So I'm down to 30 chips and it's time for the next level, 3/6. I look over to the player on my left and say to him to watch out because I only have 5 big Blinds left and it's time to start shoving. He laughs and pays me off three hands later. This level treated me pretty well, as I got all my chips back from the station on a really weak hand. I have Jack 7, suited, and hit the 7 on the flop with a back door flush draw. He bets the minimum and I shove all in and get called by 97. Nice double up and I'm back in it now. I made a few button raises to take some blinds and I'm starting to feel more comfortable and make a few button raises to take some blinds. I was never 3-bet the entire time.

Most of the pre-flop raises by the opponents were min. raises, except for Neon Black, who nursed a small stack most of the night and played extremely well. I knew I could 3-bet him in certain situations and that he would respect it but, as I said, he was pretty short for a while. If he raised 3-1/2 times the BB I was out. If I had a decent - but not premium - hand I would call and hope to see one or two more players enter, figuring I could steal on the flop with a raise.

We're 5 handed now and I knocked out the next 2 players to take a huge chip lead. The first player I knocked off was read based. I had been raising quite a bit (3-1/2 X BB) and this guy asked why I raised so much, and he folded. The next time I was on the button I did the same thing with Ace high, just trying to steal blinds. He starts to think and he looked frustrated (Neon Black just took a bunch of his chips with a straight on the river)and shoved all in. Something just didn't feel right about his shove. His normal style of play was to call the raise and try to take down the pot on the flop with a shove. I've never seen him shove pre-flop with any pocket pair, or premium Ace holding. So I called. He had Queen ten, off suit and I rivered a straight. The next guy went soon afterward when he called with Top pair and I had him out kicked.

Out of the starting 480 chips I'm sitting with about 380 of them and blinds are now at 5/10 and moving up fast. Two places pay out and neither of these guys will catch me, although I would prefer to see Neon Black go down in flames. He was the only player I really respected in terms of playing ability. That's not a knock on the other guys, as they are friends, but when it comes to poker Neon and I were the two best players there. There wasn't much action now and it was getting late so I offered a chop so that 3rd place could get some money for his effort. I thought it was the right thing to do.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Good luck and may the good cards hit your hand....