I am annointed: King RuckBox

My evil plan is coming to fruition. We had a tourney/cash night at Wall Street Poker, and a full 8 out of the 11 players tonight were women. Sweet, beautiful, wonderful women. I gave up my seat to CK so she could play (hey, I gotta stack the deck in my favor "so to speak"), but even so it was a pleasure to watch these incredibly beautiful women rock these 3 guys into oblivion. Ok, so Brian did place second after skating into the money, but with the way Olga was playing, it's a wonder he made it that far. Olga just could not be beat. She amassed a huge chip stack, trading jabs with Liezl, who also had a huge stack (no jokes, please). Both of these gorgeous women were going at it aggressively (ohmigod, no jokes) when Olga managed to clean out Liezl and take her place as the chip leader by a good margin. Tony tried to double up with KK, but that was no match for Olga's call with Ah5h. Not only did she flop an Ace, she rivered a flush as well! Still, Olga is quite new to the game and we were worried for her on the bubble, even though she outchipped everyone about 4-1. But our fears were unfounded, as the bubble fell, Mary gave up the rest of her chips and Brian eventually fell to Olga's onslaught. At one point, I thought Brian would make it back. He flopped AhKhQs with ThJh in his hand and managed to get Olga to put him all in when he checked first to act. She pounced with middle pair and he got in his chips so fast I thought he was the Bionic Man. But Olga took a big pot off of him later on when she flopped top pair and bet it through. Finally, he pushed all in with A6 and she called with AJ and won the tourney! Congrats to Olga on her first Wall Street Poker victory!

Then it was on to a very eventful cash game. I finally got to play a bit and I was doing quite well up to a certain point. I had won a large early pot against Brian when my Asian Jew flopped top pair and turned a four flush. I bet out all streets, finally increasing to 22 on the turn. Brian was with me all the way and he checked the river. I was worried he was slow playing a larger flush but he mucked his hand when I showed down, putitng him a little tilty. He managed to double up later and then again through me! I had built up about a 125 profit when I got AKo UTG+2. I had laid down AQ a few times to large large raises and re-raises and I was getting frustrated. I raised to my relatively standard 8 dollar pre-flop bet, getting 3 callers. More than I wanted, but the flop came a craptacular 862 rainbow. Brian was first to act and he checked to me. I bet $30, trying to take it down right there, hoping to represent JJ or TT but still having outs against a call. It folded around to Brian who took a while to act. He agonized, squirmed, tried to get a read off of me (which I think he might have) and finally called (but not raised). He was about 50 behind, which I found odd. I thought he might have been on a draw. Why no raise? So when the turn came a 3 and he checked to me, I went all in quickly. Brian again took a few beats but called with T8o! He wasn't confident about it and when the river was a blank and I announced "Ace High" he almost visibly sighed in relief. He gave me an encouraging pat and I said, "Good Hand". "No, it wasn't!," he said, "it was stupid." He's right and I'm right and yet he's wrong and I'm wrong. I think I played that as best as I could and he might have folded if he hadn't been frustrated or trying to double up quickly. So there I was, now stuck for 30 after being up all night. A few hands later, I get KcJc in the SB. There's a small pre-flop raise, to 4, and a few callers, including me. The flop is J75 with one club. Brian leads out with $12, I raise to $25 and it folds to Viv, who pops to $60. Now, Viv was the big cash stack at the table and had shown a bluff about 20 minutes ago which was fresh in my mind. She had also put me off 66 with JJ about 4 hands ago, so I thought she might be trying to overbet this pot with middle pair. There was also a frush draw on board which sh might be trying to put someone off (or she might have herself). So when Brian folded, I thought a while about it and decided to push my remaining $24 on top all in. I was hoping I would catch her in a bluffing situation and it seemed to be the case when she said, "What on earth can you have?!?". But then she flipped over 55 for the bottom set!!! Holy cow was I crushed. Until the dealer (Brian bless your heart), flipped over a club and then rivered another club for the runner runner flush suckout. That's right, it happened to me! I haven't hit a runner runner situation for that much money (about $240 total) in a long long time. That's a good thing though, because it means I haven't been putting myself in 5% situations very often. But god does it feel good to be a ruckbox every so often.

Speaking of ruckboxes, and this is not to take away from her stellar play tonight, W caught AA against PP's KK to double up early. Then she flopped a straight against Mary's top set to double up again. Then, on the last hand of the night, she flopped another straight against Brian's top pair to win another $50. Again, I'm not saying she's winning because she's lucky, but it's nice to be paid off when you get the big hands.