The Masters Eve, The BBT & a positive Cash game session

Lots to talk about today as you can tell by the title. So away we go...

It almost goes without saying, but The Masters is BY FAR my favorite tournament of the entire year. In fact, it is the Masters that really got me into golf when I was about 11 or 12 years old, and it is the Masters that produced part of my nick name... You see, the year was 1994 and I had just set up my first Masters golf pool with a bunch of buddies. The guy who won it that year was none other than Jose Maria Olazabal. Quickly, guys started to call me Olaschauble... and over the years it was shorted down to just plain "Ola." My weekend plans are... you guess it - sitting on the couch all weekend (I'm so happy its on Easter weekend this year) including Friday! I've even got my own green jacket. Yes, that's right, I made one. Ok so it was for halloween. I went as Mike Weir in October 2003 after Mike pulled off one of the most exciting vicorites that I have ever witnessed. I cut a golf ball in half and stuck it to my head like it was "embedded" in my forehead (fake blood and all). It was pretty funny, I even used a Nike golf ball and put the name "tiger" on the ball. Tiger is and always will be the King (IMHO), and I predict another green jacket for Woods in 2007. I also like Phil's chances along with Adam Scott. This will be Tiger's 5th green jacket and it will continue to soldify the fact that he will go down as the greatest player to ever play the game professionally. Hands down. I am sure everyone remembers 2005 when he made that once in a lifetime chip in on the 16th green on Sunday to set up the playoff and win against Chris Dimarco... maybe this is his year for revenge? The only person that will beat Tiger, is Tiger.

**Edit... It looks like my prediction is not going to come true... However I am putting this in here in the hopes that Tiger somehow makes the cut and stages some sort miraculous comeback (if he makes the cut)... stay tuned... at this moment he is 5 over with 3 to play... the cut looks like it might end up at 6 or 7 over... **
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Well, much to my surprise... bloggers are now betting on me! You see, as many of you know there is a new Blogger tournament series that just got started on Monday (what a turnout for the first event by the way). I couldn't make it out Monday as I had already made plans with some friends. I do plan on making it tonight though to the Mookie as usual. This will be event #2 of a 40 event series. Check it out and be sure to show up as often as possible, because there are some really great bonuses (rake back and Nintendo shit baby) attached to this series that are just too good to pass up. So I'll be there, and I'll be grinding out for the guys that laid some cold hard cash on me. I'm not going to speculate why I was picked by both Sir Al and PokerWolf but I do know that I will try my best to make it out to as many events as possible (ok maybe that is why...?). With the golf season just around the corner, I'll take my best shot at at least playing in one of these, if not two events per week. If I could average 1.5 events per week for the entire series then I think I could make a nice showing overall. Good luck everyone, I look forward to the challenge. I plan on taking my share of wins and losses over the next few months... because "I am a lucky player. A powerful winning force surrounds me." Say it. Believe it.

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However what I can't believe is that... I actually won cash in a cash game last night! I stuck to my 3 beer rule and it worked to perfection. The Canucks were on (they won... again) and we were all up for some good old $0.50/$1 NL Holdem donkey play. I managed to stay out of the way and watch the game for the most part. I made one great call where I checked top pair with 5 players and called a guys bluff on the river to clean him out... double up! After that we played a bit more, and a few (3 of 8) wanted to play some Omaha as well. So we decided you could deal whatever you wanted each orbit. I've come to the conclusion that there is a lot of cash to be made in Omaha just based on the simple fact that if you are patient enough, you will eventually win your share. The pots just get so huge. Everyone is raising and reraising preflop it is hilarious. No one at this particular table knew what they were doing except for the 3 of us. So everyone would usually fold and the three of us would just battle it out. I want to detail a hand that I played in and get some feedback. I made a laydown at the end of the night and I am not sure if it was correct. Check it out:

6 players
I was in the small blind
LP calls
Button (who is a loose cannon) raises to 10 chips
I call
BB folds
LP calls

I had Ad7d7c10d
(should I have raised knowing that the button plays pretty much anything hoping to hit?)

Flop comes 6d7cAc

I bet 15 chips into a 32 chip pot

LP raises to 30
BB calls
I call (should I have pushed right there? I am covered)

Turn - 5s

I check

LP (chip leader) goes all in!
Button calls!
I put the button on the nut straight
and i had no idea what the LP had, but i wasn't sure if even had him beat... if I was sure, of course I would call, but I wasn't. But really in hindsight, what hand could he realistcally have that would beat my set?

I had to call the rest of my stack because LP had me covered for another $50

There was probably $75 in the pot at the time, plus another $50 from LP to cover me
it was a nice move by him, i just couldn't figure it out, but i knew i was behind, so i folded.

LP has 6c6sragrag (a set of sixes)
Button has 8c9hJs10d (nut straight as predicted).

River 8d

LP rivers the full house and scoops the whole pot.
I would have filled my higher boat and taken down a massive pot.

Instead, later on I turned that $50 into $100 and had my first live winning cash game session in what seems like an eternity. So I'll take it, but I am still reeling as whether or not I made the right lay down. I'm still an Omaha rookie, but its times like these that make me want to be a better player. I just need to do some more work on and off the felt.

Good luck tonight, see you there.

GO TIGER!