OH NO

I should be working today but it seems like for the last 3 weeks the daughter, wife and I have been passing colds around and this morning I felt like extreme shit. So I'm playing hooky even though I could easily be doing, bids, billing or expense filings in my PJ's. Maybe I'll call out again and do all that stuff tomorrow. I don't have a lot of motivation right now, we're only working 3 days this week before christmas and then 3 days the week of new years.

I'll share with you a hand from last Wednesday that I thought was pretty exciting. At this point in the night I'd already flopped about 19 top sets and was sitting on 270 from my former short stack of 70.

The SB and BB post and UTG, puts the 5 dollar straddle out. He pretty much always straddles when he's utg. UTG +1 puts the 10 re-straddle out and then it's to me ,UTG+2, and I decide to put the re-re-straddle on to 20. Not sure why I did it other than it seemed fun now that I had some chips to play with. At this point before any action or even before all the down cards are dealt the short stack, close to the button, calls all-in 20 blind. Already 58 in the pot before we've seen our cards.

Folds all the way around to the blinds, who also fold. UTG calls 15 more and UTG+1 calls 10 more. I am already telling myself to pop the shit out of it but look down and see the K2 of hearts. If I raise it and UTG and +1 both fold I still have to beat the all-in short stack. If I raise it and they call there is a huge pot out there which makes an all-in bet by any of us a pot size bet on the flop. So I decide to check and see a flop. Maybe I should of shoved and took my chance against the all-in short stack, I don't know.

Flop comes K Q 8 rainbow. UTG leads out 30, which means almost nothing because I'm not sure if he knows he's allowed to check. UTG could literally have nothing or the nuts. +1 calls fairly quickly. Doesn't surprise me too much the pot is huge and he knows UTG could have nothing. I feel somewhat confident I have the best hand or that I'm in a position to have a hand that's slightly better then mine fold. I've got 250 behind. If I call there is 90 in the side pot (83 in the main pot) so I make it 100 straight hoping these guys fold and if not leaving myself with room to fold to a re-raise or enough for a fairly large looking bet on the turn.

There were a couple reasons I made the raise on the flop besides having the K. UTG has shown respect for my raises in the past. I like to call preflop bets from him and make it a point to fold or just call his continuation bets so when I do raise him he always folds. +1 was stacked earlier and has just gotten most of his chips back. He usually locks them up and he was spending a lot of time away from the table making sure he's not loosing them again. I really believed that the raise to 100 on the flop would do the job.

Back to the hand. I make it 100 straight, UTG folds for 90 more pretty quickly. +1 hits the tank, starts mumbling to himself, making hand gestures, and even looks like he's going to muck his hand at one point. Now I'm feeling really good about the situation. He does not want to put that much money into this pot. He definitely doesn't have a big King. Finally to my surprise he ends up calling and we're off to the turn.

I'm already sure that no matter what card comes if it's checked to me I'm betting all-in 150 and when a harmless looking 6 comes off on the turn I'm sure of it. +1 does indeed check to me and I bet all-in. I really didn't think he was going to call. I've already bet all-in at least 3 times tonight and every time showed down the flopped nuts. On top of that another guy at the table has made a comment that every time I've bet all-in I've had the nuts. Also I know none of these guys has seen me run a bluff for all my chips, or if anyone has. I guess he thought the pot odds were too good and made the call.

"Oh-No........I need help on the river, good call Indy". River is an Ace and he turns over K5 off. Wow "does that 5 play". I must of asked "if that 5 plays" 4 times before I got dealer conformation that my K2 and +1's K5 split the 500+ side pot. Mister all-in 20 preflop takes the main pot of 80 with a rivered Ace. Then UTG says he had us both beat with K 10.

Looking back the size of the pot preflop made if almost impossible to get away from any kind of hand. On all my bets I thought the percentage of thier stacks they were going to have to put into the pot and the chance they were going to go broke was enough to get them off a moderately strong hand. Luckly I lost almost nothing in the hand. Still don't know how you call off your stack with top pair no kicker. Had me beat though.