Two out of three ain't bad, right?

First thing on my weekend menu was the RWC final - we arrived at the pub at around 11:20 am (game starts at noon), only to find a Vin Diesel look-a-like at the parking entrance who told us there is no parking for cars, let alone standing room for bodies inside, and that we’re better off heading to the next pub. I was almost upset, but his size convinced me not to argue with him, and I trusted the rugby gods (and the Irish) for room in the next pub. McMullan’s didn’t disappoint and we got some really nice seats for the game. We ordered some sausage rolls and I’m not sure if they were really that great, or if I’m just homesick, but accompanied by some kind of mustard dip, a cider and some kick-ass Springbok rugby, life just couldn’t get better. Before you know it, the pub was packed, the English supporters belted out ‘God safe the Queen’ with their team, while the South Africans stood around nervously when it was our anthem’s turn, because apparently none of us know the correct combination of South-African official languages as they were made part of our national anthem. That didn’t stop me from shedding a tear or two when I watched our boys sang along.

As expected, we won the game – I really wanted to see some running and a great try or two by Habana, that didn’t happen, but apparently he did his thing on the defense and I’m just as happy as the rest of the country that the Rugby World Cup is back where it belongs – in SOUTH AFRICA!



From there I went to Binions to play in their Ladies Event, met with some of the chixters for coffee and chat before the tournament started, which is always a lot of fun. Tournament started, and after a while I noticed something. We had a dealer named ‘Tess’, and for a split-second I thought ‘hmm, short name’. Next dealer came -- name tag ‘Kat’, and I thought ‘wow, even shorter’. Imagine my surprise when the next dealer sat down and her name tag reads ‘La’. Did they run out of letters to print or something? I would have been intrigued – but not surprised – if a dealer named ‘O’ or ‘E’ sat down followed by a nameless dealer – I was totally prepared for it.

I doubled up early -- had pocket 7’s in the BB, flop came 3-4-5. I checked UTG bet, one caller, so I decide to raise to find out what’s going on. I raised three times her bet; she pondered a little and called. Other person fold, turn came a 10. I bet out – BB really thought about it for a long time, by now I am pretty sure she doesn’t have a straight (yet) and I sent ‘fold’ vibes her way. Didn’t want her to catch whatever she was looking for. River is another 10, now I’m scared and I check. BB went all in for her last 1100, and I made a very worried call. Couldn’t fold, since the pot was too big at that point, and I was 87.985% sure I had the best hand. I was very relieved when she turned over pocket 6’s.

Little while later I got crippled when my flush lost to a higher flush, and from there on it just went worse. I got to the point where I had to pick a hand to try and double up. With 13 people left, everyone decided to make a deal and chop the prize pool so that everyone left gets at least $300, and the rest gets divided by the first 6 places as in the original distribution.
Found my hand, pocket 8’s – pushed, got called by AQc which flopped a flush and I was out. Got the $300, which was double my buy-in - so I was happy.

Sunday morning off to play in the Caesar’s Classic Ladies Event at 11am. While playing, I once again realized the huge difference between really good women players vs. men. Men (please note that this is a generalization, I realize that there are some men who are different) feel the need to advertise how good they are. “I had to call, I had a 35.64:1 chance of pairing my kicker while holding bottom pair and catching a backdoor flush draw” or “how can you call that with only 4 outs against my 16 outs” and then go on in great detail how they came to that conclusion. Guess what – NO-ONE CARES. If you’re really that good, trust me, we’ll notice. And if we don’t, well – face it, maybe you’re just not that good.
Women poker players on the other hand, are more likely trying to hide how good they really are. No need to give the other players at the table that piece of valuable information. No need to educate the other players at the table on how they think or how they play, we prefer they find out the expensive way. And THAT, my friend, is why women will be kicking some macho-butt at the poker tables. Testosterone gets beat by ‘chestosterone’ every day, not just in poker.

I also observed the following – during long tournaments the nurturing side of women surface - they feed each other, hand out Tylenol and tissues, offer advice and info on fashion, make up, children and every other topic under the sun. Guess that’s why Jose Whatshisface baseball guy stuck to the other side of the room this time.

I was doing OK for the first couple of rounds, manage to stay little above average stack and not make any costly mistakes. Then I got pocket 9’s, raised, got re-raised by semi-short stack and all the chips went in pre-flop. She turned over pocket 6’s and a wave of relief washed over me. Flop came with a 6, wave of relief turned into a tsunami and I lost a bunch of chips when no 9 came to my rescue. Oh well.

Now I was short stack, and my main focus was to stay out of trouble. A couple of times I’ve seen opportunities to make some creative moves, but I didn’t have the guts to do it. I didn’t want to be the one making a decision for all my chips at that point of the tournament, so I decided not to create an opportunity for other players to put me to the test. Guess I am missing an aggressive gene or something. Have to work on that.

I stayed short stack, and was looking for an opportunity to get the blinds and antes. With about 30 people left, I had to do something. And then it happened – folded around to me on the button, I decided to push no matter what I have, so I pushed, holding 64c. Then I heard the dreaded words from the small blind – “I’m all in too”. BB folded and SB turned over A10o. I reluctantly turned over my two rags. Flop came 23x, I had hope! Turn is a 5, I am embarrassingly happy and Indian SB lady didn’t say a word, I’m pretty sure she was thinking of which scalping method will work best on me.

With 25 people left, I vowed to do my utter best to make the money (18th), and I folded the majority of my hands. When I was on the button, the lady in the BB was a very solid, really good player, and I was able to pick up a couple of blinds and antes when I pushed. I knew she wouldn’t call at that point of the tournament without a really premium hand, and I relied on the poker gods not to provide her with that at that point. (I can’t remember what her name is, she told me, but I didn’t register!! But I hope karma got her and that she made the final table and that did well!)

I reached the bubble not in great shape, raised once with AQc and got re-raised all in – I folded. I didn’t come this far and played this long to bubble out. I folded my way into the money – HALLELUJAH!

First hand of final two tables, I got QQ, raised, everyone folded and I picked up some chips. Couple of hands later I pushed with AK on the button, lady in SB really thought about it for a while (I thought she was going to use her life-line!) and she finally called with pocket 10’s. I didn’t improve and I’m out in 18th place and cashed $423.

It was such a great tournament; I enjoyed every aspect of it. Can’t wait for the next one!!!

Rest of the weekend – lost all my football parlay bets thanks to the Ravens, the Redskins who couldn’t cover the spread and the Jaguars who lost their QB early in the game.

I’m content, Springbokke won, I cashed in two tourneys (barely, but who cares), so losing the football bets I can deal with. Great weekend!