Even though I’ve got about 2 months left, I think tonight was my last poker game at Ali AB. I just took two “bad beats” in a row to get knocked out of the championship qualifier round … again. I actually have a decent record in the regular poker games. I’ve won about once a month since I’ve been here. But every month, they also have a “champions tournament” for everyone who’s placed 5th or better in any of the regular tournaments. They have two qualifying rounds, with about 20 people playing each night, with the top 4 going on to the finals, to play for a $325 1st place prize. I haven’t made it to that final table yet. Tonight was looking like my best shot …
I was playing pretty decent, but not great. We were down to 6 people, with 4 qualifying for the next round. Due to the blind structure, almost everybody at the table was “short stacked” (had less than 10x the big blind) with the blinds at 1000/2000. My chip count put me either 3rd or 4th …
The first hand I lost, was for about half my stack. I bet with top pair (10s) and get raised 5K more by middle pair (9s), make the call for all the other guy’s chips; he should be gone … until he hits another 9 on the river. Ok, stuff happens, I still have 8k chips. Until 2 hands later …
I get dealt Ace Jack suited, and push in my 8K. Dealer calls with Ace Ten. Everyone else folds. Flop comes AA8. Turn 3. River … you guessed it, a 10. I was out. Two bad beats in 3 hands.
I don’t think I’ll be going back. Lately the pool tournaments always seem to be on the same nights as poker. And when I play pool, I win about once every 3 or 4 times I enter. And even better, it only takes about 45 minutes … much less frustrating than playing cards for 3 or 4 hours, and not winning.
Ok … rant over … and in the scheme of things, it’s not really anything I’m terribly upset about. But, it was a good excuse to write my blog post for the day 
p.s. I apologize to any non poker players reading this, but I figure with ESPN showing it 23 hours a day, a fairly good percentage of people will have at least some idea what I’m talking about.
p.p.s. The picture was taken hand-held, at night (you should be impressed), and it actually is a picture of a vent on the back of a building.
