Crash and Burn and I Write A Travel Guide

Friday night at Mo Sun was a disaster.

I'll let that phrase marinate for a second. Ive documented on here how I've been pissing money away on table games the last few times Ive went to the casino, mainly because I like to gamble and secondly because I had some reservations about playing live poker again.
Well thanks to various people (not limited to but including HoP)I've kicked the table games habit and headed right for the poker room Friday night determined to build my bankroll.

Everything started out fine, no nerves, and I splashed around early. The table was about 6 regs/decent players with 3 absolute fish. I bought in for $120 just to get a feel for the able before I dump all my money in. And it worked until this particular hand....

Im in seat 10 and UTG, I haven't raised pre-flop yet so when Ip ick up 8-8 I figure I can go here. Standard raise was to 12 and I caught only one caller, seat 1.

Flop comes down J-9-J

Figure this is a fairly decent flop for me givin my table image (tight pre, loose post)and the caller being a guy who can find a fold.
I throw out a $20 bet, and seat 1 calls.

Turn A

Heres my thinking, if the dude is calling with a naked Ace on the flop and thinks im continuing the bet with A-K/A-Q he'd smooth call the flop to see what develops on the turn. When the Ace comes out I figure my best chance for a fold here is put a decent sized bet on the turn to show that the A probably hit me good and any lesser Ace is walking into a trap. If he has the J here, im expecting a re-raise. So I put a $50 bet out into a pot of $80ish, and to my surprise the guy again just calls. Im perplexed by this move. J would probably raise here because I've stated I like my hand. A call here pretty much telegraphs I'm beat.

River is a Xx

I check. I can only beat a rediculous bluff and 2 calls from this guy pretty much says he has a hand.
Expecting a betI am confused when seat 1 checks behind. He flips up A-9 for aces up and I muck.

Basically the rest of my night was summed up by my worst mistake. I had K-K and raised preflop and caught one caller, the rock of the table.
Flop was all undercards, and I bet at it and rock called. This is where the bells should have been going off, but I was blinded by something. Turn was still an undercard and I bet again, this time the rock pops me from 60 to 200. And inside I should be screaming to let this hand go, but like an idiot I call off half of my stack in front of me. I ran into a set of tens which turned into quads on the river. Even the biggest of idiots could have seen that coming, yet I was caught up in the moment and didnt put on the brakes to think.

In the end I ended up down to full buy-ins and obliterated my bankroll. And all I can do is shake my head as I think of that stupid play...

In other news, blogger Jordan asked me to write a small tour guide for Bethlehem, PA since that seems to be the eventual destination of a bunch of poker playing New Yorkers due to its 90 minute closeness to NYC.
Heres my write-up: Bethlehem
I only hope I did Bethlehem proud. It still is so amazing to me a casino got built there, if you had asked me 10 years ago if I thought they would ever get a casino I would have laughed. The place is an insanely religious area and have had some close friends turned into cult-like followers (not an exaggeration, and no Im not anti-religion) the protests that took place during the Sands opening actually surprised me that they weren't bigger.

Well now at least when I go home to visit my fam, I have a place to crash when the hotel opens and play some poker! Maybe even some Mid-Atlantic blogger gatherings.

Thanks again HoP for letting me guest write!

Home Game and Upcoming Adventures

Last Saturday I had my monthly home game, lowest turn out in a long time just 5 guys. Ended up playing 5 games, and I won 3. I felt pretty good and while my home game isn't as serious as Jason's game or as intense as the casino, on a night where the merriest of men where not at the game it made me focus more on the game itself. Got A-A 3x, which is more than the last 10 games in total. Bagged another 110 to add to the poker coffers.

Upcoming we have 2 big tournaments in Connecticut. March 12th through the 28th is the New England Poker Classic at Foxwoods. It takes place during my bday, so ill probably be hitting up a few of those, including the $400 HOSE and the $200 NLHE.

Starting 03/28, Mohegan Sun's Pokerstars tourney takes place and runs through 04/11. Not sure how much, if any, i'll do in this one.

So to anyone who may be coming down for either one, good luck and maybe catch ya at the tables