I made my way to Chumash after a miserable showing in the Lompoc doubles bowling tournament, determined to make back the $15 I lost bowling. After twenty minutes trying to find a parking spot, I started heading for the exit, and finally saw a couple of people walking to their car. I finally get into the poker room around ten, and then wait another 15 minutes for a seat at the NL game.

I sit down in the 9 seat, which I hate, because I can’t see the rest of the table well, and I constantly bang my knee against the metal box they use for the drop. I fold a couple of hands, and then look down at JJ, in late position. There’s an early position raise to $30 (2/5 blinds), and then the player to my right reraises to $60. I still have my $200 buyin sitting in front of me, have no read on the table yet, and have never played with either of these two before. Both players in the pot have a ton of chips in front of them. It was a pretty easy decision for me, and I flash my cards to the dealer, and muck. The guy in the one seat also gets a look at my cards when I do that. I never get to see their hands, but the reraiser fires out a big bet at the queen high flop, and takes it down.

Not too much later, the 3 seat opens up, so I move. The guy to my left (the initial raiser in the previous hand) has around $1200 in front of him. He would leave with nothing, after a string of second best hands against decent sized stacks, and then steaming off his last few hundred. A few hands after I move, I get dealt aces. After not getting them (while playing hold ’em) the whole weekend in Vegas, I get rockets within my first twenty minutes at Chumash. I make it $20 to go, and get a couple of callers. I bet $50 at the QJx flop, and get checkraised all-in by the one seat. For a minute I thought he might have QJ, but I call, and he turns over Q5, just top pair, no kicker. He gets no help, and I double up. I guess he figured I was tight and might fold because he saw me fold the jacks earlier.

I had bled some of my money back, from blinds and missed flops, when I get J7 in the big blind. I see a rare free flop, and it comes J7x, all spades. I want to bet, but the guy to my left doesn’t see that I have cards, and checks. Before I can say anything, it’s checked to the button, and he puts in a bet. I decide I don’t want to look too eager to have bet at it, and don’t complain. The 4 seat mucks out of turn as well, and I finally tell him that I have cards. I ask the button if he has a flush. He says yes, very unconvincingly. I call. I check-call sizable bets on the turn and river, neither of which is a spade, flip over my hand, and he mucks.

I build my stack up to a little over $700 from my $200 buyin. I decide it’s time to go home, and let the table know that it’s my last orbit. Of course, I’ve been known to say that in the past and stay four more hours, but this time I was serious. I start racking up my chips, and ask the dealer not to give me any playable hands, so I can’t lose everything I won. I get dealt A♦T♦ in middle position, and limp, with 4 others. The flop is a nice KQJ, but all black. Someone in early position bets $25. A solid player, and the only one at the table who can bust me, raises to $50. There’s now $95 in the pot, only $5 of which was mine, and I have the nuts. It folds to me, and I figure I’ve learned my lesson from flopping a full house and losing in Vegas. I’m going to take the pot down right there, and not let anyone draw at anything. I push all in for $700 into a guy who has me covered. He’s been watching me play, and has to know what I have. I put him on two pair (not a set, with no preflop raise). A pair and a flush draw or straight draw is also possible. Whatever he has, I don’t want him calling. Even if he’s only got a four outer with two pair, I just want the pot. I tell him I flopped the nuts. He finally folds, telling me he had KJ, and I flip my cards face up.

I folded a few more hands until the blinds came back around, and picked up my chips, with a nice $590 profit on the four hour session. I’ve now recovered my WPBT losses. On the way out, I registered for the Poker Extravaganza! at Chumash on July 9th. I got a $220 tournament entry, and still left the place $370 richer.

The confidence is slowly coming back.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the guy who lost all his money. He doubled up three fairly large stacks at the table (not me, sadly). One hand he had Q8 vs QT on a QQ9 flop. Another, he flopped second nut flush (queen) to the nut flush (king), with the ace on the board. A third player in that hand also had a 6 high flush. Three flopped flushes. He gave away a lot of money with KJ vs AJ when they both had top pair. He called off the rest of his chips with a draw against a set of fives, and missed. $1200 down in less than the four hours I was sitting there.

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