Poker Weekend

This past weekend was all about one thing and one thing only... Poker. So, Alex, my Norwegian poker buddy, came over this past weekend. We both play a ton of poker online, and we have both been itching to play some cards in a live setting for quite a while.

Anyway, we hit Bay101 for two lengthy sessions of $6/12 hold'em, one for 8 hours and another for nearly 22 hours. After these two sessions of poker, I am spent and exhausted, even after sleeping for about 12 hours.

This weekend happened to be one of the best weekends to play because it is one of those special weekends that the alignment of paydays is achieved. This syzygy of monthly, semi-monthly, and bi-weekly paydays is a wonderful thing in the world of poker. It means tons of people have a lot of cash available, which they are more than happy to give away. To give you an idea of how many people were waiting in line to part with their money, let me say that Alex and I waited almost 3 hours to get a seat at a table on Friday night. Saturday night we only waited half as long, because many would-be players no longer had as much money at their disposal.

Here are some poker highlights from this weekend:

- 74 suited takes down a pot unimproved vs 23 offsuit. With betting and calling all the way to the river.

- One very special fish managed to get very lucky and win about 50 bets in an hour, only to give it all back plus another 150 bets in the next six hours rebuying into the game about 10 times. At least he had a ton of fun, as he was joking and smiling the whole time while giving up his money.

- Alex's 77 flopped quads and got paid off handsomely when a guy hits aces full on the river.

- After already having accumulated a mountain of chips, I added to the growing pile with a Royal Flush made on the river with KQ suited on an AJx flop with two of my suit.

- A man who really wanted to bust Alex and hurt him allowed a flop to get checked through with his top pair and top kicker, allowing me to spike a set and piss him off in a major way.

- On the turn, a very tight prop player announces to me that he has AA and allows me to look at one of his two cards after we both put in a lot of chips pre-flop and on the flop. At the turn, the board is Ten high, and I am sitting on QQ. I take a peek and see the Ace of spades. I lay my hand down. If he had AK, and thought that either card would scare me, then he made a wonderful move. But, I guess I will never know.

- A player has 64 suited in the blind. He is raised and calls. He sees a flop of Q64. He goes to war with another player when the turn is a 4. The players end up going all-in, and when the hands are turned over, we see that the other guy has QQ. The man with 64 says, great hand and congratulates him sincerely and is all about ready to push the chips his way when the miracle 4 hits the river. What a spectacle!

- After a guy folds and asks what he has, Alex tells a guy, "Pay me $2, and I'll show you my cards." The guy says, here you go, and shows him the bird.

All in all, it was an extremely fun weekend, but extremely draining, both physically and mentally.