Where the Schmidt hits the fan
Driving from Bishop, CA, we arrived in Vegas right in the hot part of the afternoon. The thermometer on the car read 111 degrees! After heading downtown and getting checked in at the Four Queens, we got in a little bit of blackjack before heading to the airport to pick up my other brother, Ryan, and his wife.
Later on, Denise and I entered a small, 3-table poker tournament at the Golden Nugget. I was doing pretty well despite mediocre cards but I finally got taken out with pocket 8s.
I hosted Mark’s monthly poker game at my place last night. We had a pretty good turnout (not quite as good as the last couple) of somewhere around 20-25 people with 7 rebuys. This time, Mark and I had the foresight to put out a cup for a $1 donation to help me defray the $25 room rental fee. Although everyone must not have felt the need to help out since there was only $16 in the cup at the end of the night.
Anyway, I had a pretty solid night. I was pretty much middle of the road stack-wise all night until the final table. Fortunately, I got some pretty good hands at just the right times to get me into heads-up with Joey Vandermark. On the final hands, we each had pretty mediocre hands. But fortunately, it was an equally mediocre flop of 9-8-4(?). I had a 9 and Joey had an 8. He went all in, I called and my 9s held up.
With a few shootout tokens, I ended up taking home over $330. Not bad!
Last night, Scooter, Nicky, Molly and I drove out to Eden Prairie for Mark Kantor’s monthly poker game. All in all, it was a pretty impressive turnout. The original sign-up sheet had 33 people on it when the tournament started with several more people coming in late. Because of the large turnout and to keep the game from lasting until 4 in the morning, Mark limited rebuys at 9. Even better, because of the large number of players, Mark announced that he’d be paying out to the top 6 players.
In an odd coincidence, despite Mark having 4 tables set up, I managed to get seated at the same table as Scooter and Molly. In fact, I was immediately to the right of Scooter. I wasn’t especially crazy about this turn of events since I’d rather not sit at the same table as people I know. Or more importantly, people who know me and know how I play. But oh well.
Anyway, I managed to take a few key pots and survive to take 4th place before getting mowed down by Jay who took out like 3 or 4 people right before me and went on to take 2nd place. For taking 4th place, I got $132. I also had 3 shootout tokens which got me another $15.
So not a bad night, all things considered!
