Jacks are better!

Last night we had the inaugural NWA Poker club tournament and it was a great start of what should be some really good poker in the future!

As in my prior posts, I have been swimming in some pretty bad cards and some terrible beats lately. That apparently ended last night!

There were two tourneys last night. The first was a $20 buyin with 21 players. I was at table 1 (of 3) and since I had never played with any of these people before I decided to play very tight. On the first hand there was a three way all-in with the button, small blind and big blind (did I say that this was the first hand?) It started with large preflop bets, and after the flop all three went all in. The button and BB both showed pocket Jacks, and the SB showed pocked 7's. SB hit a set on the flop and put both of them out. Did I mention it was the first hand?

After that hand, it seemed that there was a Jack on every single board for the rest of that tourney. I won at least 7 pots by keeping a Jack and hitting high pair or a set on the board. Pocket Jacks showed up 8 times and only one once (mine of course), but people were winning with a single Jack. It was almost surreal how the Jacks captivated the table. I folded a Jack a few times and threw away a winning hand.

I busted Aces with a Jack hand. Pretty good night.

In the first game, I made it to the final table and eventually came in second.

And it couldn't have come at a better time!

In the second game, the cards came a bit quicker. I loosened up a bit, and that aggression worked well enough to get me to the final table again. There were two hands that defined my second game performance. In the first hand I was in the SB and was dealt KK. I raised into the BB with a 2xBB raise and BB folded and the button called all-in. I was able to pull back half of the bet because the button was short stacked. He showed Aces and they held up! Nice hand.

The second hand was with the same guy. I have about 1400 chips and he is at about 2200. I am dealt 10/10 and I push all-in. He calls and flips over 9's. He catches a miracle 9 on the river and puts me out. I made it to fourth place in that game.

First of all, I had a great time and relish times like this very much. Last night verified to me that my game is relatively sound which means nothing other than I can substantiate the win with the acknowledgment of hard work. Second of all it was very nice to win a little money to cover the cost that buy-in's.

I want to thank Chris Peplinski and his fiance Chrissy for the wonderful job that they did in hosting the first tourney. I met some really nice people like Rance, Don, Tom, J.Bo, and Cake Boy which makes the experience that much better!

I am looking forward to the next one!

This just goes to show you that in whatever you do there are times when things go your way and times when they don't. It is in those times when they don't go your way that you learn and mature to be better.