Talk about an ass kicking...this was the first time at an HPT event where I hadn't won any money in the cash games or tourneys, and I tell you it was frustrating. I played in two of the tourneys and lasted 15 minutes in the first and an hour and 15 in the second. I played a total of four hands in the tourneys. In the first tourney I busted on this hand: I picked up 1010 UTG+1 and made it 400 to go, player on the button made it 1400 to go, I studied him for a bit and all his tells were screaming that he didn't want a call, so I put him on AK or AQ, being that it was early in the tourney, I decided to just call and see a safe flop before I invest anymore of my chips. The flop came J103 with two clubs, now I have made mid set and am thinking how I could possibly extract more chips from AK or AQ without letting him draw freely to a gutshot. He bet 1000 into me, a very small and peculiar amount, I studied him some more, and now realized he was strong! all his tells have changed, could he possibly have JJ, if so I'd pay him off, but I believed he had AA or KK so he would definately call if I pushed. I pushed and he flipped over AA, splendid, I am now a 92% favorite to win, until of course the ace came on the turn, chalk up another bad beat at the HPT for me. Even tho this hand didnt have the end result I wanted, I am very happy with the way I played, and even more so at my flexibility to change my read mid-hand, this is never an easy task and am quite pleased with it. I then proceeded to bustout in tourney #2 on this hand. UTG+2 raises to 500, two players behind him call, and I pickup QQ on the button, I decide I want to shutout the pot now, or at least take it headsup, so I make 3000 to go. The small blind then goes into the tank and decided to COLD CALL my raise!!! What in gods name could he cold call with???? Everybody else folds and we take a flop headsup, the flop is JJ3 rainbow, this is a good flop for my Queens as he can't possibly have a jack in his hand, so I go ahead and bet 4500 into the pot, he thinks for a bit and then puts me allin! Now I know he either has JJ, AJ, or AK. Since I was getting about 10 to 1 on my money I was at the point of no return and see him flip over AJ!!! A few things about how poorly this particular player played this hand and how lucky he got. Aj is a very weak hand, especially out of position like he was, not only would most professionals not make a call with this hand out of position, but definately not for a third of your chipstack! It is too easily dominated by virtually any hand I could be raising with, and the only way I do pay him off if he catches a flop is the exact flop that comes, if an Ace flops, I fold, figuring him for AK. This play was just assaning, and yet again, another player gets extremely lucky against me and I am sent to the rail, arg!
Now for my saga known as the cash games, I played like an absolute idiot most of the time in the cash games playing $5-$60 spread limit, and the funny part was, I was winning large pots when I made stupid plays, and losing large pots when I was making good plays. I was just in a horrid frame of mind after the tourney and really shouldnt have been playing any side action. So I lost a total of roughly $1100 this weekend, but I still had fun, as me and Mike did get absolutely annihilated on Friday playing a new hybrid drinking game, called beer quarters, in which I was 7-0. I did also make $115 fucking around playing the video keno machine trying to get off tilt, lol. Mike had a rough weekend as well, but didnt lose any money, until of course me and him decided to play a high stakes game of bowling :-)
We ended up playing fifteen games, and i'll just say I won a pretty large amount from Mike, but somehow injured my back with an 11 pound ball!!!!! Who in god's name has ever heard of someone getting injured bowling???? That game that I got injured not only saved Mike a lot of money, but gave him hope, and that was all he needed to climb out of his deep, deep hole a little bit. But once again, it's all in good fun, we love to bowl and gamble.
So all in all, it was a fun a weekend and nice to get away from the city for a bit with one of my good buddies, i'll be back to the daily grind again tomorrow, grrrr...., time to do more drinking :-)

-Bakken