Thursday, April 28, 2005

Balance

Typical. I go off yesterday about how good I've gotten at sucking people out of chips with pocket Aces and someone does it to me early tonight at Startime. I wasn't the first person to bust out of the tournament, but I was probably third or fourth.

There were five of us at the table, and I was in the big blind for 200. I had A6o. Everyone called the BB around to me and I thought I'd be a smart ass and raised it to 1200 to go. Two callers. The flop is all low garbage. I figure I'll blow the other two guys off and bet another 1000. First guy calls without blinking. The second guy thinks about it for a few seconds then folds.

Now at this point if I was playing even half way decent I'd be worried. Someone has called my large bets twice without thinking about it. Hubris was in the driver's seat at this point though. Has everyone met my Uncle Hubris? He's on the same side of the family as my cousin Cletus, but has a few more teeth.

Nothing on the turn. I throw another 1000 in the pot, mostly in desperation. Called.

The river is also no help. I check. For some reason he checks also and shows his pocket Aces. I muck without showing and stare down at my huge remaining stack of 900. The next hand I'm in the small blind and fold, leaving me with 800.

On the button, I'm dealt A8o. I usually like to play the dead man's hand as one of my hands to go crazy with so I don't play too tight. I push in my last 800 and everyone folds except the guy to my right who calls and flips up Big Slick.

Everyone had been congratulating me for winning on Tuesday and now they were looking at me and asking "what happened?" At least I can go to sleep early tonight.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

How Well Do You Know Your Hatch?

Because my loyal readers demanded it, I give you The Hatch Quiz.
Hatch on a Roll

Day four of ketosis has come and gone. No big problems. I walked after I got home from poker tonight for about 20 minutes. My pants were much looser today. Okay, okay, they were looser because the button fell off when I went to the can this morning at work.

Tonight at the Sidelines Grill poker tournament, I placed third, which is my best finish there so far. I made the final table of 8 people in about fifth place in chips, and slowly got grinded down by the blinds and fishing for some cards. My final hand was an measly 20k all in with KJo. I got called by one of the monster stacks with an A8. I hit a K on the flop, but he hit two pair and I walked away with 10 bucks in house cash.

I doubled up on the first hand of the tournament when I was dealt Big Slick offsuit. The flop was garbage with an 8 and the only other guy in the pot made a fairly small raise so I called. The turn was a K and I raised about 1k which he called. The River was an A. He pushes all in and I call with my two pair. He shows A8o and gets to sit there stunned as the first guy out of the tournament.

The hand I was most proud of was the only pocket Aces I was dealt tonight on the big blind, which was 600. I raised it 600 more and had about 4 callers, one of which was the short stack who was all in. The flop was an AK8 rainbow. I put on my semi-disgusted look and checked, hoping for someone else to bet. It was checked around and the turn was some garbage card. I pushed in at this point and the calling station across from me called. Everyone else folded and since I had him covered we turned the cards up and he had a K. The river was no help to him since he was drawing dead and I pulled a large pile of chips over to myself and knocked two players at once off the table.

I'm not bragging, but I feel like I've gotten pretty good at sucking large amounts of chips out of calling stations lately. When you know they can't beat you and they call you after you push in it's one of the greatest feelings in the world. You feel like you're a demigod among mere mortals, but then a few hands later your pocket cowboys get kicked in the teeth and you quickly come back down to earth.

I did make one large raise after it was folded around to me in the small blind with The Hammer, but I had to fold it after I got called and the flop was something like AKJ.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Tuesday at Startime

As I've said before, I've had no luck at Startime in the Tuesday tournament since the new round started about 8 weeks ago. With no points and no wins, the only way I can earn a spot in the Championship Round on May 10 would be to win one of the final two weekly tournaments or maybe place high in both and limp in on the edge with points.

It didn't look promising tonight. I almost didn't go because I'm on the third day of my low carb diet and spent the day in a sugar crash. I showed up on time though, and sat down at table 2. For the first hour I pretty much stayed even, though I did dip down to only about 2k in chips from my starting allotment of 5000.

Tonight ended up being one of those nights where things started to finally come together. I played in my first live Texas Hold'em tournment in Atlanta exactly 11 weeks ago. I've done a lot of studying since that first awful night. I've also played a lot of hands on PokerStars and the really crappy ESPN tournament.

I patiently threw away starting crap cards, even things like K9o or A6o that I usually really like to play. When I did hit something I sold the hand as best I could. I threw in some acting, with lots of misdirection. I kept up with how people were playing. I only paid to see the river on a straight draw once, but it was cheap and I had enormous pot odds.

One of my best hands I sold near the end of the tournament, just before the final table. I flopped a K high spade flush. In the past I probably would have raised large at that point to get the hand over with. This time I just called a small bet twice. On the final bet I check raised and pushed all in. I was worried about the Ace of Spades being out there, especially with 4 spades showing after the river, but I had the only other player pretty well covered in chips. He called showing two pair. One more victim bounced out.

Once the final table started, I was sitting in about the middle position in chips. I tightened down a lot, but was still agressive when I needed to be. By the time it got down to 3 people, I had knocked a couple of people out and had an enormous chip lead. I went in to bully mode at that point, but I also was getting some good cards. I knocked the 3rd place person out and finally it was down to me and a girl named Heather who is a school teacher who graduated from Auburn.

During the 6 hands before the final one, I pushed in 5 times, forcing Heather to fold. At this point I could tell she was getting really tired of me taking the blinds with brute force. On the final hand I would have folded if she had raised at all, which she probably should have done since she was on the button. She just called and I checked out of the big blind.

The flop was 72K. I went in to full acting mode at this point. She checked and I sighed, looked at my cards, sighed again then checked. Fourth Street brought a J. She checked. I looked at my hole cards again, made a face, then checked. Fifth street was some type of low card.

Heather checked and then started staring at me. I did a little more acting then said "All In" in a disgusted tone. She glanced down at her chips, looked back at me and said "I call, what've you got?"

I turned over my 7 and my 2 and exclaimed "The Hammer Baybee!"

I have no idea what she had since she mucked and accused my parents of not being married.

My first live tournament win, and against an Auburn grad to boot. How much sweeter could my poker life get?
Day Three

No cheating today. My appetite has actually slacked off, which is a good thing. It was raining most of the day here in Atlanta, so I walked in the parking deck after work. I went up about 5 levels, which was about half a mile with a good incline. The pace I set had me somewhat winded by the time I got in my car and headed off for poker. I'm in the groove now I think. Most of today was spent in the sugar crash stage, so my energy levels should pick up a lot later this week.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Deep Poker Thoughts

I've been thinking more about the hand I layed down last week where I was facing an all in from someone I was sure had a pair of Aces and I was on a flush draw with two cards to come. I've come to the conclusion after doing some research that I made the right decision.

A lot of what I've been reading lately relates to Texas Hold'em in general, mostly in regards to ring games. Since I play only in tournaments, I need to be careful to apply that fact to anything that I read. Pot odds are a great tool I think, even in tournaments, but it was still too early for me to risk what would have been most of my stack with only a 1 in 3 chance to make my hand.

If I had actually been in the money in the tournament at that point I think it would have been OK to gamble and try to knock the other player out, but with 8 people at the table I don't think you can justify risking your entire stack with a hand that you don't actually have yet.
Day Two

I'm in full blown ketosis right now. It tastes like I've been chewing on aluminum foil all day. No cheating today and I walked right after supper tonight. I'm going to walk at lunch tomorrow so it won't interfere with poker tomorrow night. I'll add a few extra steps by parking way in the back of the parking lot also. Using the steps instead of the elevator whenever possible is also in the plan currently.
Bologna Smuggling

Apparently part of Big Bill and Heff's bologna smuggling ring has been busted at the Mexican border. I've always suspected Bill and Heff were bologna pony riders, and now the whole world knows.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Full Blown Suckage

Apparently PAX TV has decided to remove any doubt and become the absolute worst cable network by its "plans to drop all network programming in favor of infomercials, direct response advertising and paid programming." They still probably won't be as bad as ABC or TLC.

They should jump on the bandwagon and become the first full time Poker Channel.
The House of Pain

I may regret this, but please welcome Big Bill and his House of Pain to the Family and Friends links over to your right. I take no responsibility if you wind up on the south side of Chicago and get accosted by Big Bill and a roaming pack of White Sox panty wastes.
Less Hatch or Die

Big Bill has talked me into trying his diet plan. I was going to start tomorrow, but after getting on the scales today and having the wife take digital pictures of me topless from the front and the side, there's no time to waste. I'm not going to post them yet. They're way too scary. I'd lose half my readers in disgust.

Today I weight 318 pounds. That's pretty much the heaviest ever for me. It's almost all gut and chin. I'm not going to bore you all with details every day or D.B.A.N. charts. I do promise to admit when I don't stick to it and I hope that Big Bill will come bust my ass when that happens. I'm only about a 6 hour drive from Chicago. Heh.

Today I had eggs, sausage, and bacon at Cracker Barrel for lunch, along with a cup of black coffee and a glass of water. I'm basically going to do lower carbs and exercise as much as I can. I walked about 1.2 miles on the Greenway in Hermitage this afternoon while the wife and kid abandoned me for Kohl's. Then there was more walking at Publix shopping for groceries. Look for a weekly Sunday Weigh-In from now on. It should at least be as exciting as the Sunday Borning over on TOL.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

More Dumb Celebrities

I swear, I thought this article was a parody when I first read it, but it's all true. You gotta love when actors suddenly think they have the moral high ground to start preaching to all of us peons about how wasteful we are and how wonderful these other countries are where their people live in the mud and piss and are lucky to live past their teens. Thanks to Novarese for the link.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Honda Beat Down, Part Deux

this is an audio post - click to play

Listen in amazement as Hatch and the Honda drive through one of the worst hail storms evar! Amazingly, no dents that I could tell in the Honda.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Thursday at Startime

My goal tonight was to make sure I made it to the final table so I could get more points towards the final tournament on May 12. After finishing 13th on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm sure many of my loyal readers were rooting for me to make it a 13th place Trifecta this week. Bastards.

About 45 minutes into the tournament tonight, I limped in with a K8o. The flop was 88x. I checked, the guy to my left checked, and an older guy across from me went all in. I called and turned up my K8 without realizing the guy to my left hadn't had a chance to do anything yet. I quickly grabbed my cards and apologized. The guy still called because, he later revealed, he thought my 8 was a 5 since the lighting wasn't so good at the table. That left him with about 4 chips. The turn was an 8! I think that was the first time at live games in Atlanta I've had 4 of a kind. I took down a very nice pot with that.

I made the final table of 8 people, and tightened up a lot. I threw away several A6 and K9. At one point a British guy across the table went all in after the flop. I had 4 spades at that point with two cards to come. I had him covered, but if I lost I would have been down to about 2500 in chips and only would have had about 2 orbits with the blinds at 400/800. I thought really hard about it. I agonized over it. I threw it away.

We do a lot of squirrel hunting at these games since we're mostly just there to have fun. We ran the next burn/turn and it was a spade. Richard only had Axo with an A on the board. Argh! Maybe I should have called it there, but oh well. I'm sure I'll agonize over that decision for a few days at least. You could easily tell who all the Calling Stations at the table were at that point, like I sprayed the area with Calling Station musk. Several of the guys were shaking their heads in disbelief that I didn't call. Several said I made the right call but that it was a tough one. Blah. I guess roughly a 1 in 3 chance to win with a 2 to 1 payoff. I dunno. I'm not good enough in pot odds to judge that right yet. One of the many holes in my play that I need to improve.

It took almost 45 minutes before anyone at the table finally busted out. Every time someone with a short stack pushed in, they got doubled up. Finally the guy to my right busted out in 8th place. I started to get worried about getting blinded down since they were at 500/1000 at that point and pushed in on the button with about 8k with an A8o, basically trying to take down the blinds. The big blind called me and showed A10o, with a 10 on the flop, so I finished in 7th place.

I achieved my primary goal, which was to get more points. I still need to hit the final table once in the last 2 games to make sure I reach the finals, but I feel a lot more comfortable about it at this point.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Wednesday Night Blah

I finished in 13th place tonight in the No Limit Hold'em tournament at Sidelines Grill in Alpharetta, continuing my mostly unbroken streak of having no luck there. The hand that did me in I raised 2000 with pocket 9's. The guy to my right with the monster stack put me all in and I called. He had pocket Kings. You can figure the rest out.

I changed the format of the blog again because I didn't like the way the old template had everything centered. I mostly use my laptop which has a very wide screen and it was showing everything scrunched up in the middle. The only thing I don't like about this template is the font it uses for Italics. I'll do something about that soon.

I'd also like to welcome Commander Wilfred Harrison and the Trailer of Love to the blog links list. It can get a little racy over there and it's definitely at least PG-13, so you've been warned. If you've every followed the link for the Dumb Brute you should be emotionally prepared to handle the ToL.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

More Crappy Tuesday Poker

Actually, I think I played pretty good tonight, but I couldn't get any cards and when I did I got wolloped by people pushing in and had to run away. I busted out in 13th place when I pushed in with pocket 2's and got called by KQo and a Queen flopped. It was a coin flip, but I was short stacked and only had about two orbits left in the blinds.

I made some serious adjustments in my overall tournament strategy recently that I practiced at PokerStars.com this weekend in some 27 and 45 player play money tournaments. I'm playing positional poker a lot better right now, and stopped fishing for flops with hands like K6o and A3o. You still have to actually be dealt decent cards for it to work though. My other strategy change has been an absolute refusal to bet or call when I'm chasing a straight or a flush. I did really well at that tonight, so I think it's going to pay off in the future.

I'm pretty much going to have to win a Tuesday night tournament at Startime to make the finals since I have zero points in the standings released tonight and there's only 2 regular weeks left. On Thursday night I'm in 8th place on points, with 2 people ahead of me that don't count because they're going to the finals due to winning a weekly event, so I'm really in 6th place. With 3 weekly games left, if I can make the final table at least once more I should be good for one of the 10 spots going to points players.
The Opera of Big Bill

this is an audio post - click to play

Note: Big Bill, seriously, if you need help finding the spell check button on Blogger just let us know!

Monday, April 18, 2005

More Heff Fallout

Editor's Note: At least he wasn't drunk this time.

What the hell ?!? What the *uck's wrong with you ? I don't know if it was my post, or Bill's personal cutdowns (or a combination of both), but you just don't flake like that. If you can't handle the tempo - don't play the music ! Let me know if it was my post that did you in, and I'll remove the post for you - if that's what it was. I really don't appreciate you posting my work address up there, but Hell, I'll deal with it. We act like we're 12 years old, and all of a sudden it gets too personal so you grow up ? I just don't get it. Go ahead and smash my vhs tape. It's been offered to the chopping block for way too damn long now anyway. - Geez.

I have to say, it's rare to actually get a real rise out of Heff. It's probably been over seven years since I've seen him actually pissed at me. Now we'll have to see how much further I can press it.
Hatch's Blog 'O War

Just wanted to make sure this information was out there so everyone could have it.

Hefferson Thurston Howell Faulkner, III

Home:
302 W Calcis St
Coontown, AL 35051
(205) 669 - 0xxx

If you're coming out of Chicago, just take I65 South until you get to Alabama. Take exit 238 and follow the signs to Coontown, a.k.a. Columbiana. I need to keep his address handy so I can mail the shreds of his CC VHS to him this week.

"If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in." - Sun Tzu

Edit: Heff called me up nearly in tears worried that "internet freaks" would start stalking him. I guess we know how he really feels about Wilfred and Big Bill now. I changed the information, but you can easily spend 5 minutes to look it up on the Internet like I did.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

There's a Tear In Heff's Beer

It's sad to see what a few beers and a guilty heart can do to a man. I reproduce below an email sent to me earlier tonight by a drunk Dumb Brute. Enjoy. When he sobers up I'm sure he'll be back in full force. I just wish Big Bill could pull up in Heff's driveway just about now.


Yep. Heff's drunk. Apologize to your wife for me...AGAIN. - As sent to Will :

Will - Obviously, this is Heff. I'm down about 12 Michelob Ultras on this beautiful Alabama Saturday night (I guess you guys are getting the same weather since it habitually tends to head east) - and just got through searing some cow on the massive Grill O' Heff. Anyway, just a few words for ya - I think your posse' is cool as snow ! If I EVER personally offend ANY OF YOU, LET ME KNOW. Heff is generally a nice, upper-middle class southern white boy, that leans into the guilty pleasure of beating a DEAD HORSE on a frequent basis. If that ever happens, I'll remove the post as soon as I hear from you. I can only assume that since you sent my parody of "Big Bill" to all of your friends, that he can take it as well as he can dish it out. I was also concerned about the "To Be, or Not To Be" Democrat post, but you took it like "THE TROOPER". - (No Iron Maiden reference intended.) Just wanted to clarify my position, and I look forward to "Sunday Borning"

- Ryan Seacrest - out.

P.S. Hatch is also a great southern white guy. I've know him since we were children. Please add him to your address book - jahatcher@gmail.com - thanks man.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Weekly Poker Roundup

Comcast has really been sucking this week, but what are you gonna do when faced with a monopoly? I played in three poker tournaments this week. I seem to have reached a plateau where I can't seem to bust through into the final 3 spots. I'm only going to talk about one hand in detail this week, since it was the worst call I've made in quite a while and I want there to be a record of my stupidity.

I was playing Tuesday night at Startime in Roswell. It was about the 3rd or 4th hand. I had a 97o that I had limped in with. The flop had a 9, 10, 8. It was checked around. 4th street was garbage. A guy named Michael sitting across from me raised 2000. The big blind was only 200 at this point. I knew I should have folded. You've got to respect that kind of raise, especially three hands into the tournament. I even stopped and thought about it for a while. I have no idea what made me call that bet. Part of my brain was screaming the whole time "Don't call that bet!" while I was pushing two black chips into the pot.

Fifth street brought a 7, giving me two pair. The trap was sprung. I pushed in my remaining chips and got called immediately. Michael showed QJ. He flopped the straight. I finished dead last in the tournament out of sheer stupidity. Bleh.

The next night at Sidelines in Alpharetta I finished in 4th place. I went all in with A6 after the flop had a 6. Got called with KQ and there was also a Q in the flop. There was one amazing hand I had that night. I had pocket cowboys. The flop was a king, an ace, and a 10. Two people pushed in ahead of me. I thought about it and decided I just couldn't get away from that. I called. First guy had a straight already and the second guy had a flush already. Fourth street was garbage. Fifth street brought the Ace to give me my full house. That knocked one guy out and severely crippled the other.

Tonight at Startime I finished 5th. Nine people were on the final table and I started next to last in chips. I went all in with A6 after the flop showed a 6. I got called by Sarah who beat me last week, plus a new guy named Mike. Sarah pushed in after the Turn and Mike folded. She turned up pocket Kings and no help came on the river. Busted out in 5th place by the same chick who busted me out last Thursday in 5th place.

So for the last 6 tournaments I've finished 10th, 5th, 5th, Last, 4th, 5th. Not too shabby but by no means good enough to satisfy me. I feel like I'm ready to win one if I can just stop making some mistakes during the game. I haven't been able to put together an entire tournament that I feel good about the moves I've made yet. I think if I could eliminate some of the bone headed moves I could sit down at the final table and have a lot more chips, which would mean I wouldn't have to push in with A6s like I did tonight when I was down to only 2 or 3 rounds of blinds in chips.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Thursday Night

Sorry about the delay in posting my poker after action reports. As I'm sure you all know, Blogger has been sucking it up lately. I should go ahead and move the blog to my regular website, but that might take more initiative than I have on hand right now.

Thursday was at Startime in Roswell. I had finished 10th there on Tuesday, and in 5th place the previous night at Sidelines, so I felt pretty good about my chances when I walked in. I'm still trying to make myself play tighter early in the tournament, and I was able to for the most part. When I am pretty sure I've got the nuts, I also need to sell my hand more, which I'm also slowly improving on.

I was doing OK until it was down to two tables, but I slowly got ground down to where I had the small blind and one 1k black chip left. I was tired at this point and had forgetten to put the small blind in yet, but the cards had already been dealt and I had also already looked at the A4o in my hand. Someone said something about the blind and I said "Oh, am I the small blind? I'm all in I guess." This was a poker faux paux, since there were four people before me that hadn't acted yet. It's not really that big of a deal, since it was only 1k in chips, and most people had well over 10k in their hands at the table at that point.

The guy to my left, however, who was about my age with a butch type hair cut and a stocky build, got overly pissed about it. He cussed, glared, and shook his head at me. I ended up winning the small pot after someone called me, so he kept glaring at me for the next 10 minutes. Normally everyone is laughing and cutting up at the table, but ours was quiet during that time. Finally he went all in after I called the blinds in front of him. He said something like "I raise all in 3300. 33 was my highschool football jersey so I've got a good feeling about this hand."

I was holding an A6o. This entire week I've held a lot of hands with an Ace and a low kicker and had done pretty well with them, so I called him. He was pissed that I called and he turned over a QJs, so it was pretty much a coin flip. I ended up winning the pot and knocking him out of the game. He stood up, cussed, and stormed out. I looked around the table and said "Well, I was in the band in highschool." Everyone laughed and the tension of the previous ten minutes was broken.

I made the final table again that night. Believe it or not I busted out with an A8o. I was on the short stack and pushed all in with it after a regular player named Sarah had just raised about 4k across the table from me and it was folded around to me. I pushed it in and it folded back to her. My raise was about 10k, so it was enough for her to think about it. She finally said "I'll contribute to your chips and called me."

"I just want to get all my money in with the best hand," I replied.

"I'm sure you have the best hand," she said and turned over an A4o.

I had won this type of hand a lot this week, but had also busted out with very similar hands the previous two nights. She pretty much needed a 4 so there were only 3 outs for me to really worry about out of the 48 that I hadn't seen yet, so I guess I was roughly 70% to win the hand.

So of course the flop had a 4 in it, turning the odds for me to win to about 12%. I finished in 5th place for the second night in a row, only two spots away from free food and drinks. For the week I finished 10th, 5th, and 5th, so I am definitely improving.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Wednesday Night

I made my usual appearance at Sidelines Grill in Alpharetta for Wednesday night poker. It's my favorite place to play because of the no-smoking, but I haven't had much luck there in the past. At first it looked like not many people were going to show up, but we filled up right at the end of signups. I sat down at my table to the right of a pair of older women, probably around 60 years old or so. They were complete beginners at poker. They had no idea of the hand strengths and had little cards that were given to them by one of the ladies father. His name was Bob and he sat directly across from me.

We had to help the women do everything. They didn't know how to do anything, including deal. They had no idea what anything was and would call or bet all the way to the river on a pair of 8's. The sad thing was that they won at first cause all of us were afraid to do anything with them. Bob was a little different. It was obvious that he had played poker before, but since he had to be at least 80 years old he wasn't playing with a full deck. I'm pretty good at putting nicknames on people and I came up with "Bob the Pot Builder" for him. He called or raised everything. He wasn't really so much of a calling station as he was a raising station. He raised or called every hand. At one point he just started matching the big blind automatically even before the cards had been dealt and out of position. The crappy thing was he kept flopping two pair and was chip leader for a long time at that table.

I finally hit him twice for a large amount of chips when I had a set of 6's and a straight. His chips took me to the final table. There were 9 of us to start the final table, including Bob the Pot Builder, but thankfully he got bounced out pretty quickly. As soon as I sat down at the final table, the cards went very cold on me. I didn't see any paint for at least 7 hands, and when I did have something and raised, everyone folded to me so I just took down the blinds for about 3 turns around the table.

When it was down to five of us, I was sitting in the short stack and went all in with an A6o from the button. The guy to my right called me with a KQ. I said "I need an ace!" I flopped a Queen and two garbage cards.

"I need an Ace!" Fourth street was a Queen.

"I need an Ace!" Fifth street was a Queen.

Sigh.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Tuesday Poker Roundup

Tonight I played at Startime in Roswell, which has been my best place to play so far. I got there a little late and missed the first hand, but I quickly settled down. There was a guy sitting on my left that I've seen there before. He was playing the role of "angry black man" the entire time and trying to talk a lot of smack. I got involved with a fairly large pot with him with me holding pocket 8's. The flop was crap so I raised 1000. He called. Fourth street was crap so I raised another 1000. He called quickly. I was a little afraid at that point, so I checked after fifth street brought the spectre of a possible straight.

He checked also and I flipped over my 8's. He stared at it a long time and finally showed an AQo so I took down a fairly nice pot. During the next deal he looks at me and says "F.Y.I. I'll bust your ass out a lot of times on that kind of hand." At that point I pretty much put him on my idiot list. Even a pair of two's will beat AQ over the long haul, so he was just talking trash or doesn't know anything about poker odds. About 4 hands later he lost another large pot to someone else with a pair of 8's and you could almost see steam coming out of his ears.

I'm no poker expert, but betting on pairing up an AQ after the flop is worse than betting to a straight draw. You've only got 6 outs to pair up the AQ, which is worse than the 8 outs you'd have on an open ended straight draw. You've got to be ready to walk away from your AQ after the flop if it doesn't help you, especially if your opponent is betting 5 times the big blind like I was. I can't really talk too much since I lost several thousand in chips tonight from calling a couple of bets on straight draws, which is a bad habit I really need to get out of. Those are what kept me off the final table most likely.

Nothing else was very memorable the rest of the tournament. I busted out in 10th place, missing the final table by 1 spot. I was down to about 3000 in chips and went all in with A6o. I got called by the monster chip stack who showed A3o. He pulled a 3 on 4th street to send Hatch home for the evening. I can't complain. I got all my chips in with the best hand, just like Phil Gordon often says on Bravo. Sucks to be outdrawn, but that's poker.
Daylight Savings Nazis

My friends Mike and Paul seem to have a problem with Daylight Savings Time. Is it really necessary to get up in arms over an arbitrary change in what's already an arbitrary system of time keeping in the first place? Isn't there something better to get upset about? I personally look forward to DST every year and wish we'd just stay on it year round. In fact, the US should just unilaterally change to two time zones and set them to whatever time we happen to want it to get dark on average. There's no sense in there being daylight before 9am I say! Let's stop the insanity of morning daylight! It should start getting dark about 10pm this time of year! Start the petition! Call out the troops! Beat down the cow farmers! Rar!