True Beauty

Grace Kelly is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I have pictures of her in my office at home, which my wife doesn't seem to mind too much (although her Tom Cruise shrine gets under my skin at times; I mean, who really staples a Mission Impossible promotional popcorn bag to the inside cabinet door in the laundry room? Am I missing something here?).

So I've now seen the second most beautiful thing. Last night I go to the local bar poker tourney. Come to find out I'm tied for tenth because of my win in the second week of a ten week series (we're now in Week 9), although I only played in two tourneys during that time. Top ten qualify for a season ending tourney with other bars, where the winner gets something.

So we have 5000 in chips, blinds are 100/200, I've folded sb and bb once, and an older lady UTG raises to 400 to go (most people limp, and she is tight, so she has something). Guy to my right Kevin who organizes the tourneys calls (could be anything), I think for just a bit and call with my 33, and bb calls. Flop comes 3x3c7c--I've flopped quads! Now this is a bar tourney, but I am trying to just stay focused on breathing. Lady bets 500, guy on my right calls, and I call (bb gets out). Qc comes on turn, lady checks, Kevin checks, and I check. 2c comes on the river. Lady bets 500, Kevin calls, I raise to 1500, she goes all-in, I like some freak say I call before Kevin does anything, say I'm sorry, he then calls, and I call. We toss our cards out and you should be able to guess the hand. She tosses AcAs down and says, "I have the nuts." Kevin turns over 77 and is staring at my cards, trying to figure out what exactly I have. And the term for what I have: that would be quads, as in "I flopped quads." Of course, this would happen in the bar freeroll, but quads is quads, you know? I ended up playing really well, getting heads up with chip lead, putting the other guy all-in pre-flop with A9o, he flipped KTh over and flopped flush draw then caught a K on the turn. That put me down 2:1 in chips, which I then ended up slow playing T7 flop of T74, going all-in on turn when 4 hit (45 took me out).

I really liked my play making some semi-bluff moves, and I was also down to 10% of the chips with four people left. Bar poker tourneys aren't exactly the same as any others--people chop in these (which is bizarre to me in a tourney), most people limp and don't do too much. The worst part about it is the smoking. I'm sure it would be harder for me to play live if there was smoking at the table as it is very uncomfortable. Haven't played online in several days, trying to give myself a break to be sure I can play when I'm ready to play my best.