The Lord does give, the Lord does take

Today's theme is "punishment".

Last night, I got told, for the third time this trip, that I looked like Thomas Jane, star of the 2004 movie "The Punisher". Frankly, I don't see it (click the thumbnail):



Even if someone could squint their eyes and scrunch up their nose and see a vague resemblance, there is no truth to the idea that I am punishing anyone. Quite the opposite, in fact.

However, if cookies were dollars, I think I'd actually be ahead on this trip! A couple of days ago Mary Kate asked me if I'd received a package from her and Joe. I hadn't, since it had been sent through regular mail and I don't have access to the mailbox for this apartment. So today my landlady got it for me, and lo and behold, it is chock full of Oreos, other cookies, crackers, and a bunch of little games. Very, very nice of you two - thanks so much! I'm looking forward to the little football game and am hatching a top-secret plan to slip the "magic card deck" into the next lunchtime tournament.

I was doubly surprised to find another care package from my sister Becky, filled with oodles of homemade Spritz butter cookies. Those of you who have been to my Christmas Cookie Party may remember these as the ones that get squeezed out of the cookie press, into little shapes. Well, this Spritz were in the shapes of hearts, spades, and diamonds. I didn't see any clubs in there, but I ate 5 spades. Aces to aces, flush to flush. Thanks sis - you're awesome!

Speaking of aces...

HAND OF THE DAY:
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Spoiler: It's not like this is original or anything.

I went back to the MGM last night to play $1-$2. I decided I would buy in only once, for $200. So I did, and then proceeded to be rather card-dead for the next 2.5 hours. I think I voluntarily played 3 hands during that stretch, winning only one when I turned a pair and rivered two pair with JT suited. Finally I flopped a straight with 84 off in the big blind, and doubled up my remaining $150 through someone who had flopped two pair. All we need is patience, right?

Since I was playing so few hands, my table image was once again super-duper tight, and just in case anyone hadn't noticed, there was a loudmouth at the other end of the table that kept spouting off about it every time I did enter a pot. And there were a couple of gentlmen from some European country that really liked to put people on the spot by going all in whenever a scare card appeared on the turn or river. Whenever they sensed weakness, they would do this, and it was working for them. One of them pushed me off KK and a 9-high flop when he called my initial bet, then raised me when a second 9 came that also put three to a flush on the board. So I was hoping at some point to use this against them.

Finally, I get AA when I'm UTG. No one at this table would ever call an UTG raise from me, so I limped, and got lucky when the guy right behind me raised to $6 - that silly, annoying, pointless raise - and 5 other people called. So it's back to me, and I make it $30. Loudmouth calls, as does my previous nemesis, Euroboy.

Flop is 972 with two spades. I'm first to act, and there's now around $120 in the pot. I'm not worried about Loudmouth at all, because he was totally and 100% afraid of me. Not only did he keep saying this, ad nauseum, but he had previously checked and folded JJ to me on a T-high flop when I bet (I had 66). I pretty much knew he would fold anything other than a set. So I wanted to throw out a little bit of bait for Euroboy.

I settled on $50. This would make a spade draw slightly unprofitable, but at the same time it would look kind of weak into a $120 pot. Loudmouth hemmed and hawed, talking about how good his draw was, and then folded. Then Euroboy, with a grand flourish, shoved all of his chips into the pot.

Trust me, my chips almost beat his into the center of the table. I immediately flipped over my aces, and saw by my opponent's Euroface that he was beaten. I'd gotten him to do exactly what I wanted him to do. The turn and the river were a K and a J, and I was getting ready to rake in the pot when my opponent flipped over T8 clubs for the straight. Egads! He didn't even have a flush draw. From his talk afterwards, he had put me on AK and thought I wouldn't call.

This around 0030. I had $5 remaining, so I cashed out and left. As I walked back to my car, I felt mostly like I have after my Hustler beats - OK with the fact that I'd gotten all my money in the pot with the best hand and being a strong favorite to win, and gotten drawn out on. I set the guy up perfectly, and he went for it. There's little else I can do.

I guess my sisters aren't reading the blog, because I'm pretty sure they would have gotten yesterday's lyrics from "Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy". This was a song from a piano lesson book that we all three played as children, and my dad loved this song.

Play well, everyone.