Vacation ! -- ahhhhhhh and some poker !

Went to Destin Florida for vacation, highly recommend it. We rent a house within walking distance to the beach, this was the second year. Great to just laze around and relax. Read a bunch of books (only one poker book :-) ... and played some Scrabble, love that game !

This time we got to hang out with some good friends, and we also brought the dogs again. They were much better behaved this time than last year.

Ohhh and we went through New Orleans on the way back, stayed at the W hotel ... most awesome, great rooms, but felt like we were in a night club. Lot's of black and white decor. It was right across from Harrah's Casino. So of course, I couldn't resist the bug. I needed to pay for the trip somehow, I like free stuff !

Told my most excellent partner I was off, and she said, "I'm not waiting up on you, but have fun". Got on the list for the 2/5 and then said, hmmmm .. why not 5/10 NL ? They were running two tables of 5/10, so I sat down at the feeder table for the main game which was playing shorthanded. I short bought in for $500 and gave it a whirl. WOW, played like the 1/2 game I normally play at. I really hate poker stories, so I'll just day that I played for 2 hours and cashed out $1857 and went back to the bar and met up with my little lady to tell her I just paid for the trip. I did have a moment where I thought I was getting stacked, but the guy turned up the same hand as me, pocket KK. Although I picked up the redraw flush on the turn that would have been SWEET .... instead we just chopped the pot.

Fast forward to tonight, and I just dropped off my lady at the airport. I called up R's game to see if it was still going from Sunday night. I felt like it might because of the holiday, and yes it was, they were still playing 8 handed almost 24 hours in and plenty of money on the table. I bought in for $1500 and cashed out 5 hours later for $3120. So now the back yard is paid for too ! ..... vacation and back yard paid for from 7 hours of work. If only I were always so lucky.

I did get lucky on one hand when I got pocket AA in the SB. Bunch of limpers and I pop it to $25. One caller and then a small stack pushes all in for about $135. I glance at the other caller and it looks like he wants to try an isolation play if I come in. He is the big stack with about $3400, I almost raised to isolate myself, but luckily caught that he was likely to try that move himself. I tried to look weak, but not too weak, and not take too long to make my move. Sometimes the longer you act, the more suspicious they get. I've been trying hard not to fall into too many patterns, just give enough action to get good action. So I make my move and say , "Call." ... He had definitely made up his mind for the isolation play, because it didn't take him long to push all in. The next player to act was Mr.R, the host, and while he was thinking, the guy to my right started talking about how I should act to get all the big stacks money in the middle. He didn't know that the big stack had already went all in. I informed him of this and flashed him my AA, as well as the guy next to him. I made a mistake with that because Mr R saw the look on their faces and decided not to get involved.

Flop, turn and river were good to me and I doubled up to about $2600. Gotta love it when a plan comes together !

So thanks for the vacation and grass in the back yard ! Ohhh and I still love the Camaro you bought me.