Sunday Morning

Hey there, don't worry I am alive and well. I haven't posted in the past few days, and I'm making a little change to ensure that that doesn't happen again. Instead of writing my blog each day before I go to bed, I'm going to write it first thing in the morning. I always stay up until I'm tired every night, so by the time I'm ready to go to bed, I just haven't felt like writing.

So when we last left off, it was Tuesday night. Well basketball got canceled on Wednesday night because Vernon had a snow day. Luckily we managed to get a gym for Thursday. Because of the short notice however, only four guys showed up, and Mom was busy as well. So Ryan came along and we just played a little 3 on 3.

Wednesday night I managed to get a good score. I was going for my first repeat win. What I mean by that is I was on the verge of winning the same tournament twice for the first time in my career. I played pretty well the whole tournament, but really I did well because I was winning my coin flips. A key hand came up when the blinds were 150-300. I had about 10k in the small blind. A shortstack pushed all-in. Another player pushed all-in over the top for 6k, and I called them both with AK. The shortstack had a worse ace, and the player with 6k had QQ. I hit an ace on the river and I was able to maintain the big stack all the way to the final table.

Once I got to the final table, it seemed as though I could not win a pot. I lost about four consecutive hands at one point. Leaving me with about 35,000 with 1500-3000 blinds. I kept my head in it though, and managed to get down to three handed. The player to my right kept trying to give me all of his chips. I had him out-chipped the whole way, and several times when I would raise the button, he would just shove in for over 25 big blinds. It was starting to get pretty irritating. I came very close to calling him, and possibly losing a big pot when I raised the button with A 5 and he shoved again. I decided to stay patient though and made the fold. We traded two large pots, (both of which I had by far the best hand mind you) and after a little up and down, we were back to me having him out-chipped about 4 to 3. So here I am sitting in the big blind with JJ. He is in the small blind with over 70,000, blinds still 1500-3000. He just goes all in. CALL!! He surprisingly made the overshove with AK, and I flopped a jack and busted him.

Now I was still at a slight disadvantage heads up. I came very close to winning an all in when we both flopped a huge hand and it wound up being a coin toss. I had A 9 of spades in the big blind, and only called a raise. The flop came Ah Qd 9d. I bet, he raised, I reraised, he pushed and I called. He showed AdKd, for top pair, top kicker, and the nut flush draw (TPTK and NFD). He turned a diamond and that was it. It was a total cooler heads up, but oh well. I scored a little over $1,000 for that finish.

Friday I played as well, and had a few decent runs including bubbling the final table in the $16.50 360 max entrants. It was not enough to make a profit on the day though. Saturday was game day. I watched the first game, and surprisingly the team who I thought was surely going to win, lost. Our game went well. They were missing their number one player, and we were missing the player who usually swings from A to B. This meant we got to put two of our A players on the B team (not simultaneously). The first quarter was pretty close the whole way, and with five seconds left, we had the ball and a one point lead. We hit a three at the buzzer to take a four point lead, and momentum into the second quarter. Our A team stretched the lead into 8 or 10 points. Again the B team gave up a long run of unanswered points, but we never relinquished the lead and held on into the fourth quarter. The A team stretched the lead even farther, and we held on for the win, with a final score of 60-45 (or something like that).

When they ran the inbound plays correctly, they worked perfectly, but sometimes they were still a little sloppy in that regard. Overall it was a fast-paced game, and executing the press helped us stay intense and keep them on their heels.

Next week is the championship. We beat this team during the regular season, and there is no reason we shouldn't do it again next week. We don't have practice because the schools are closed for break, but neither does the other team. As long as we don't let that affect us, and everyone comes executing the plays properly and playing with intensity, we should be able to take it home.

After the game, in the evening, I went to SCSU to visit a friend. We went out to this pretty nice Italian place for dinner on Wooster street. Afterwards, we walked down to Tre Scalini. I used to work there while I went to Southern doing valet parking. I chatted with my old boss, the bartender, and one of the busboys, who were the people I mainly talked to. I didn't get to know too many of the waiters or waitresses because I was outside most of the time. But we got drinks there and it was nice to see everyone and chat with them. Today I'm playing the Sunday Million and a full schedule, so I'll update you all tomorrow on how the day went.

Until then,
Southrnctowl