Full Boat on Lake Huron

Today I'm feeling great. Last night, not so much.

Around 5pm I headed in the direction of the Kewadin Shores Casino, located here in the beautiful upper peninsula town of St. Ignace, Michigan.It was my second night in a row attending thier 6pm poker tournament. Which was very beneficial to get to know some of the local players. The night before I made it to the final table, only to bust out in some non-exciting fashion. Net loss $30.

With newly found determination, I walked in and got to work. Slowly earning chips to a count of 6500, from an original 1500, I felt I was doing well. However I feel it must be said, the tournys these guys run are awfully generous to early risk takers. They have unlimited rebuys for $10 anytime your under 1500 chips while in the first hour. Thus anyone with a pocket full of cash can stick around in the first hour, hoping to suck you out on any one of a number of different long shots. Additionally, they have what they call a "Dealer ReBuy," which is an additional 1000 chips for $5. The point being, to help dealers make some tippage. But it doesn't stop there. They also have a one time only "All-In" rebuy, for $10 to get your original 1500 back. And to top it off, after that first hour you can fork over another $20 for an "Add-On" of 3000 chips. The long and short of it is, more money is put in the overall prize pool, but it makes the first hour of play much more hectic and absurd.

Fine, however they want to structure it is fine with me, I feel, as long as I physically feel fine. Which I did not. As I mentioned, I left around 5pm, and without eating any dinner. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, I can handle any mild hunger cravings. But, unfortunately for me, I've recently been prescribed anti-biotics for an inflammed in-grown hair. (totally sucky) And as a requirement for these little foul smelling pills, is that you take them on a full stomach.
I thought I would be ok. I had a decent lunch, and I was drinking a lot of water to help the situation. And as I said, I was doing fine for a while, until the headache came on. And it came hard. Temple rubbings, toe curling, and all the slow deliberate breathing did not help. But my soldier mentality told me to tough it out. After all, I had a decent chip stack, and a good handle on the players at the table.

Then, I got stuck. I held an A of diamonds and an 8 of hearts. With two of us in the flop came 5-6-7, all diamonds. The other dude checks first, I bet 900 chips. He raises to 2000. And in my shoes, I got an open ended straight draw, and the nut flush draw. Its not necessarilly a good early tourny move, but I go for it.I call. The turn comes A of clubs. Great I think, now I also got top pair. Dude bets 3000. Tough situation here. I quickly add up my outs. If he only has two pair, I have smething like 20 outs (cards that can help me). Any diamond (9 more left) any 4 or 9 to make my straight (8 of those), any 8 to give me two pair (3) or any other ace (2). And honestly, at the time I really figured he had the flush already. All my years of finely honed human/poker observation told me so. (after the hand, he showed that he did indeed flop the flush, king high) This left me with one shot at one of those diamonds. I'd like to believe that if my head was clear and headache free, I'd lay it down.
River came up something other than what I was hoping for. He went all in, and I had to fold. I still had chips and a chair, but I was crippled. Then, it got worse.

I hung around until after the first hour break, and bought another 3000 chips for $20. My stack was now around 4500, but the big blinds were up to 2000, effectively leaving me two more hands. After relentless 2-7s and 3-8s, I found myself posting the big blind with another garbage hand, just as my belly began to grumble. I was going to hurl, and please God, not during my blinds. The small blind called and checked at an excruciating slow pace for the entire hand. He took the pot, I posted my small blind and immediately left the room. I opened the bathroom door, took two steps, saw a trash can and launched chunks like an NBA free throw. (not Rick Barry style, more Shaq like) I hunched over the can for a few minutes, washed my face, and regained my composure. I stopped by the gift shop for a pack of double mint gum. Chomping heartily on the minty freshness, I took my seat and prenteded everything was normal. I'm not sure if it worked, perhaps not.
In the end, I was forced to go all in with a decent K-9 vs. A-J. No one paried and that was it. Net loss $50.

But today got better. I played some 15-30 online, and after half an hour of hovering around even, I caught 10s full of aces to rake in $180 over my buy in.

Then, just now, The Chisox clinched the central.
Damn those antibiotics, but I don't care, life is good.