[DoubleG6]

So I finally got a chance to check out the action at the Bike. I arrived at the casino at 11pm Saturday evening and was dissapointed to find that satellites were only being ran until midnight. This meant that if I did well, I could only expect to play in one. They were running $70 and $120 sats and nothing else at that time. I inquired about the $515 ones and the staff said that they were not running supers till it got closer to the main event. There weren't many people there to play satellites, However, there were some big names already playing at the time. Among the notables were Kathy Leibert, Parlahd Freidman, and James Woods. There were some local players as well whom I did not know but have seen around the tournament circuit before in the L.A. area. I bought in for both the $70 and $120 but it seemed as if neither were going to fill up. With only a few minutes till midnight, I considered playing live action instead because I had limited time in L.A. because I had to head back home early. Just then players started showing up. I cashed out of the $70 since they were only wanting to play the $120 and we started the game. By the way, the satellite that was currently at play when I got there ended up being chopped between Kathy Leibert and James Woods.

We started with 500 in chips and I got off to a slow and rocky start. I was getting dealt crap plain and simple. I kept getting 10/3, 9/2, 9/3, 8/4, K/3, 6/2, and so on. I didnt get to play 1 pot during the first level and got blinded twice. With only 500 to start, its really important to accumulate chips early. At level 2, I finally got a pair of Jacks and limped in UTG looking to re raise preflop. No one raised and 4 of us took the flop of A 2 2. Great, I thought, I just let the A/2 or A/3 limp in and they flopped a monster. It checked around and the turn was an 8. BB checks, I check and middle pos bets $125. The button(Jack Baggoshian) then raised to $275. BB then flashed me his pocket Queens and folded. I then said that I still had a hand and the other players demanded to see the cards. The dealer then turned over the queens and I folded. This was pretty unusual and very unprofessional but what was done was done. I later told him that I held Jacks and was going to fold anyway. Back to the hand- MP goes all in and Button calls. MP flips over 8-2 ( yeah I know ) and button shows pocket rockets!!! The one time I get a decent hand and I almost get screwed with Queens and Aces! This isn't good man. My run of cold cards continued and Chris "The Armenian Express" Grigorian commented that I was too quiet and playing like a rock. I said that I was really tired and I was waiting for Aces or Kings. The table found it amusing and play went on and on. I was dealt Ah10h at the 50-100 level and considered pushing in for my last 375 but decided I would raise only double the blinds. With my table image so tight everyone folded to me and it turned out that that was the one and only hand I would win the entire tourney. I almost pushed in with K/7 and J/8 but was beat in the pot both times. I made my final stand with my last 225 with A/8 in a 3 way pot against A/Q and 77. Shit. That was that and I left a very unsatisfied 4th. Can you believe it. I played 3 hands, won 1 and made it to 4th place.

It was well after 1am when I busted out and considered just heading home. I really had not planned on being at the Bike that day and I went quite a bit out of my way just to get a few hours in. I decided I had about another hour or 2 at the most before I had to leave and joined a $4/$8 game while waiting for a $100 no limit seat to open. I lost $40 quick and was able to get about $26 back when I chopped a pot a few hands later. I heard my name called for the No limit and cashed out a $14 loser. I hopped in the game and found myself really short stacked because the average stack was $700. I won about $60 with a bluff on the flop and got myself rolling. I won a few other small pots and finally got doubled up on this hand. I found pocket 10\'s UTG and raised the $3 BB to $15. I called and got raised by a late pos. loose aggressive player $45 more. I pushed in $155 more and did not like the middle players quick call. The late player decided to call knowing he was way behind. The flop was Jd7d3h. The middle player decided to show his Ad7d nut flush draw w/ a pair and started begging for a diamond. The turn came Jh which gave me 2 more save cards at least with the remaining black jacks along with the 2 10\'s and any black card except for the 7\'s. I didnt know what the other guy had, but it seamed as if he didn't like his hand too much. The river was a pretty 5h. The other guy in the pot didn't show so I figured my 10s were good. They were and he finally showed AsQs, he missed completely. This gave me a stack of about $380. The next hand I found QQ and raised the short stack all in for about $40 and ran into KK. I lost that and decided to call it a day.

I don't mind these small wins especially after being able to get my shot at $1K or more earlier that evening. Im pretty sure that I could have done very well at that table since the conditions were very good for me at the time. Alas, time was the only thing that I lacked. In due time I believe that I will be able to play poker as more than just a hobby and that will be great. Baby steps.