The night I found out why Ace-King is known as "Anna Kournikova"...

...because they're nice to look at, but they never win.

I went with my golfing buddy Brandon out to the Horse Shoe Casino tonight and entered another World Series of Poker Circuit tournament.  As with the last one, this was a No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament.  Tonight's event had 48 participants, and I ended up outlasting 37 of them.  While I was pleased with my performance, I thought I'd jot down a couple of observations while they were still fresh in my mind.

• I should have known it would be a long night when a drunk idiot was seated between Brandon and me at the opening table.  The guy was deaf, drunk, and dumb, which is a lethal combination for the flow of the table.  He never knew when it was his turn, he never knew what the bet was, and he never fully grasped the chip values.  And no one could knock him out.  He went all in at least twice before we moved tables, and each time, the entire table was rooting against him, but to no avail.  He doubled up numerous times.  About an hour into the night, he was asked to leave behind a substancial chip stack and was evicted from the poker room for his drunken behavior.  He was never mean/beligerent/angry drunk, just not cognicant enough to finish the round.

• I spent the entire night with about 5x the big blinds (which increased every half hour).  Using the strategy of only playing quality cards (which were few and far between), I was able to keep a chip and a chair.  

• One hand was particularly interesting.  As the cards were being dealt, the dealer accidentally turned over a Jack.  When I looked down at my hole cards I had pocket Jacks.  I was the big blind, but I couldn't get too aggressive with the best hand I had all night because I knew one of my Jacks was out of play.  I limped in.  The turn revealed a couple of low clubs and the fourth Jack.  I over bet the pot, in an attempt to thwart off any flush draws.  Everyone folded, and I had to turn over the pocket Jacks, just to show how funny my hand was.

• I doubled up a couple of times when my chips got too low and I knew I'd be blinded out of the game.  I'm pretty sure that my set of Jacks was the best hand of the night for me, but I did witness a guy go all in with AQ against AK after a flop and turn of AAQ8.  The turn was a King, so after going all in with the best hand and against only two outs, he lost the hand.

• Which leads me to my final hand.  I can't complain about it.  I was about to be blinded out, with blinds at 600-1200, and I only had 4400, I knew I needed to catch some good cards to stay in the game.  I looked down at an AK (off suit) and pushed all in.  A guy called with a J8 (off suit), which according to an online odds calculator is a 2 to 1 favorite to win.  When the flop came out Q-9-4 rainbow, I was still a 2 to 1 favorite (according to the calculator).  A 2 on the turn made me almost a 4:1 favorite going into the river, which, of course, was a 10, giving my opponent a Queen high straight.  I played the hand perfectly, got all my chips into the pot when I had the best hand, which is all I could have asked.  (Well, I wouldn't have complained had "Big Slick" held up.)

• I ended up missing the final table by one spot.  Had I won that final hand, I would have entered the final table a couple thousand under the chip average, but I would have had some room to gamble a bit, which would have been great.  I ended up getting 11th place, which is irrelevant in a poker tournament, but it was my highest placing so far (out of the four casino poker events I've been in).  I stuck with my strategy going into the event and did not make any dumb mistakes.  All in all, a great night.

• There are a handful of $40 satellites left this week, and I may sneak over and play in one more, but I'm pretty sure that my dream to work my way into the World Series of Poker Main Event for 2010 has been put to rest.  Until next year, I'll keep practicing online and in the occasional Friday night cash game at my friend Andy's house.

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Favorite Song on the iPod shuffle:  "Dead and Gone" by T.I. (featuring Justin Timberlake)
Looking forward to:  Warmer weather.
Thinking back on:  The wife and I were looking through some old photos of when we lived in Pueblo and were reminded of what an ornery kitty we had and how young and skinny Brodie was when we got him.  Also, I miss working outside in the summer, which allowed me to burn off winter fat and get a nice tan while riding a tractor.