Pompano has poker too, but the fish bite back

Abbie flew in last night and went directly from the airport to the casino in Pompano Beach. What a trooper! I've never been so proud... :-)

The Pompano racetrack (harness horse racing), like all other parimutuels down in Florida, has poker. What's more, they redid the whole complex a few months ago and it's absolutely beautiful. Of course, with all that beauty comes very long waits for tables. I got there early and couldn't get a seat at a no limit table, so I ponied up for a limit game. Along with the regular 1/2 and 2 straight limit games, the new Florida poker laws allow for strange new limits like 3/5. This is the game I played in. I sat tight, which is the right strategy in this game, and ended up even after an hour when Abbie arrived. We had dinner at Myron's deli, which is one of the best New York Jewish delis I've ever eaten in. The pastrami was delicious and just the right size (and only 9.00 for a full sandwich!).

Abbie and I went to the brush desk and tried to get on the list for no limit, but it was huge (about 40 players ahead of us). We put our names down on the 1/2 NL and the 2/5 NL tables, and signed up for the $100 sit'n'go tourney, which seated nearly immediately. I'll make a long story short. Abbie won the tourney. I placed 5th but I really should have cashed. In these turbo tourneys, you have to get lucky on occassion, and I did early on by doubling up when my AJ flopped two pair to beat an AK. But on my last hand, a bully player to my right went all in for 3000 UTG. Blinds were at 300/600 and I had TT. I had 3300 in chips. I had to make a decision here. If he has a larger pocket pair, I'm crushed. If he has AJ or higher, it's a race. I decided to gamble and pushed all in. He ended up showing AT, which was the best I could hope for! But an Ace spiked on the flop and sent me out. The same guy rode all the way into heads up with Abbie, but Abbie absolutely *crushed* him in heads up play. Another win for Wall Street poker!

We played in a $50 sit'n'go as well, but the structure of the tourney was even more oppressive than the $100 tourney. If you didn't double up in the first blind level, you were done. I tried making a move on the button with Jh9h, but I ran into AK who flopped an Ace and I lost 2/3 of my meager stack. I managed to actually survive for a while, but lost when I got AQ. Abbie and I ran over to beg for a spot in the now very full 2/5 NL games and we both ended up playing at the same table. I went card dead and kept making moves into the same guy who kept flopping two pair, so I lost a bit. But Abbie was up a bunch when we finally left at 1AM.

Tomorrow, we're going to play at the JaiAlai fonton AND the Greyhound racing track. I'm looking forward to it.