Week 3/Season 15 @ Aaron & Ilana's

Judd thought that I should add other commentaries, things like if the bathrooms were clean and such.  The and such, because I really kind of stopped listening to his ramblings.  As I have said before, anyone is welcome to post their perspective on here, in fact I encourage it.  I am struggling to remember hands tonight as I was in a bad spot, not complaining, just stating the facts.  So, I was playing under duress.  It was a great night for poker on the patio, thankfully the lights started working, the two kiddos were great hosts as well as the wonerful puppy. Though the dog stuck his nose in my bag of pistachios, not sure if he would have liked them much.  Since I was playing with the light in my face, I could not make out green chips and black chips.  So remembering hands tonight will be difficult. Eighteen showed up for a wonderfully cooperative night of poker weather. I do know that pocket 9's and J's were good at our table as we saw many of them.  I believe we saw 9's four times turn into trips and pocket J's four or five times, one run of three in a row.  I can only really remember some of the final table. I believe that J's did not hold up for Judd, but we'll ge to that.  

The final table consisted of Ilana, Ryan, me (Eliseo not Al), Ilana, Sean, Alan, Judd, Kevin, and my good luck charm of this night Yvonne to my left (with a huge stack).  Usually, I am Yvonne's good luck charm.  I'll try to recall a few hands as there was some good poker played tonight.  Sean went all-in and Yvonne called him.  I think Sean turned over Big slick and Yvonne KJ.  After the five cards were dealt, we thought Sean had won with his Ace kicker.  But, thanks to Kevin catching the four card diamond flush Yvonne had made, the hand left Sean with a chip and a chair, literally.  He had on green chip and was out on the small blind the next hand against my A-10.  Ilana played well, but got into a hand against Alan, in which Alan shoved with blinds at 1,000/2,000 for his last 10k.  Ilana called and turned over Big Slick.  Alan had pocket sixes.  The flop seemed good for Ilana, as K-5-7 was flopped.  But the turn and river were devastating as a 9 and then 8 rivered. I got into it with Judd heads up a little later, as I looked down at fish hooks.  To my delight Judd raised in early position.  I shoved all-in and Judd turned over Big Slick.  I am sensing a commonality here!  No ace or king and I doubled up leaving Judd short.  But, Judd was able to rebuild his stack and stick around long enough to get himself in trouble with all-in's in front of him.  Kevin went all-in, then Yvonne went over the top.  Judd made a fuck-it call as Yvonne had everyone covered.  Kevin turned over 9's, ILana A-9, and Judd 6's.  Ilana spiked an Ace, eliminating Judd in six and Kevin in fifth.  So four remained: Yvonne, Alan, Ryan, and me.  Yvonne and Ryan were the two big stacks.  I managed to keep my stack from diminishing due to the blinds, winning blinds a few times and a hand or two.  Alan went out in fourth, I don't remember the details, but he battled all night to try and gain ground, just wasn't working out for him.  I remember only that when there were three, that Yvonne had lost a big chunk of her stack to Ryan and was left with 1500. She managed to stick around a while.  But eventually got knocked out by me, sorry!  Ryan and I went heads up.  I was able to gain the chip lead, because I was getting good cards early in the bout.  But, Ryan grinded back and we were even.  We both limped in with blinds at 2000/4000 and the flop was 5-6-9.  Ryan bet 4000 and I called with 5-8.  The turn was a J.  Ryan bet 4000 and I called hoping for a straight.  The river was an 8.  I went all-in with two pair and Ryan called revealing 4-7 for the straight and a 1st place finish.  

There was a full cash game that lasted a while longer.  All-in-all a great night of poker and by the way, the bathroom was very clean and the hosts were gracious!  See you all next week, week 4!