E.K. NATION

LaTroy Hawkins?

I just don't get it. Looks like I'm going to have to figure out what kind of sauce goes well with blogs, 'cause I will be probably eating this one. Was this trade supposed to help? Isn't that the idea behind trades?

Without Bonds, this team is a mess, Benitez or no.

We are big stack at the table. Found Q-Q. Raised it. Got a caller. Flop comes three non-paired undercards. Guy next to us goes all-in with a massive amount of chips. We decide he does not have A-A or K-K. We call. He turns over A-K. The Qs hold up, and we take a massive amount of chips. The Queen Bitches hex is finished!

The sucky part: We were down to three guys. Guy to our right has a few more chips. Guy to our left is short-stacked. He goes all-in, and guy to our right calls. Guy to our right cleans up, assumes a big lead. In this, a timed tournament, all he has to do from here on out is fold automatically, and he wins the tournament. We finish second and feel like shit. That ain't poker. But what can you do? All we can do is take that guy out next time, and make him enjoy leaving the table.

Found Q-Q in the pocket. Had one guy raise all-in with fewer chips than we had. Went all-in. A third guy went all-in, also with fewer chips than we had. They both turn over K-x. Flop comes crap, crap, crap, turn is crap, the river is a miserable king. We are coming to the conclsuion that Q-Q is a horrible hand, the bitches.

(Got back our money from one of the guys by going all-in with 4-5 suited, before he went all-in with A-K. Got a 5 on the turn to suck out. Felt halfway vindicated.)

Twenty-six years and ten months after my first ever professional baseball game, a 3-0 victory by the Salt Lake City Gulls over the Portland Beavers, Josh Barfield hit the first minor league walk-off home run I ever saw, in the bottom of the tenth inning last night at PGE Park to give the Beavers a 3-0 win over the Salt Lake Stingers.

It only took maybe 100 minor league games.

Raise with Q-Q four times the big blind. Get one caller. See a K-Q-8 rainbow flop. Go all in with $750 after guy bets $200. Have him call and flip over A-J. Feel good about it when a 7 comes on the turn. Watch in horror as a ridiculous 10 comes on the river. Leave table after a whole 12 minutes. He risks his tournament life on what amounts to a gut shot straight draw and pulls it off. It's not right, it's not OK. When you play it like I did, you deserve better.

Do you ever feel like you're always on the losing end of bad beats without ever delivering any to anyone else? Don't worry; that means you're good player. You know how to play your cards, you know how to bet, you know how to fold, and these other people don't, and they just get lucky.

He hit a grand slam last night.

Stay with him, skeptical Giants fans. We'd mention last night's passed ball, but this is a Doing-Good-Things Update.

Find Q-Q in the pocket. Raise by simply doubling the big blind. Find a few callers. See a flop of 5-4-2. Check it. See an A on the river. Go all-in. Have the guy you allowed to stay in--by not raising enough before the flop and by slow-playing it afterwards--turn over a disgusting K-3. I'd say it was a lesson learned, but I already knew what to do and botched it.

I think this is the first reference to poker games that I have played in on this blog. I've started to play quite heavily recently, what with all the new poker leagues that have popped up around town, as I am sure is happening all over the country. I think this is a nice place to keep track of any memorable hands that I get involved in. So without further ado...

• Last Monday, at the Sports Page (Nationwide Poker Tour). Down to a stack of chips smaller than the big blind early on in the game, had to go all in with junk, and pulled a 7-high straight on the river to quadruple up. Won the next hand in similar fashion. Wound up finishing 4th out of about 26 people.

• Saturday, at Coach's (NPT). A very similar situation. Was down to a stack of chips smaller than the big blind, went all in, managed a low pair that won. Had to split two pots with an A high because of cards that came on the river. Had to go all-in with a 2-3, Giants Hat to my left had 3-3, and it was over. That's okay. I had A-A and went all-in a few hands earlier, he called with K-K, and he bemoaned the bad timing. Wound up finishing 4th out of 26 people.

• Last night, at Stars Cabaret (Northwest Poker League). The one and only hand I played with any investment. Found 6-6 in the hole in the small blind in an eight-handed game. Limped in. Girl in red shirt four seats down bets $200. Everyone else is gone, I call. Flop comes three clubs. I bet $200. She calls, and I have to figure she's on a flush draw. Turn is Jd. This is an overcard, so I check, waiting to see if maybe she turned a pair of jacks. She bets $200, and the similarity of this bet to her earlier call leads me to the conclusion she is still on the flush draw with nothing else. Cool thing about when your opponent is on the flush draw is that if most of everything she has is one suit, she may not have a pair. I think for a moment that my sixes are good enough right now and proceed to make her decide whether to go for it. I push all in with my remaining $500 or so. She thinks for about thirty seconds, so I know she doesn't have the flush yet. Finally she calls and turns over Ac-2d. Hands like these make me feel good about my opponent-reading instincts. But then a club comes on the river and after a whole 17 minutes of playing, I am done. Dismayed, I down my last ounce of Coors Light and she comes over to shake my hand. What can you do? That's poker. Left the establishment feeling bad about the loss but good about how I played it. It's unfortunate I didn't have more to go all-in with. She had a couple chips more than I did; if I had her covered maybe she wouldn't have taken the chance. Oh well; we'll find another game this week.