This weekend I headed over to CMU to party with some of my friends for one of their birthdays. I got pretty wasted on Friday, and on Saturday I decided to pay a visit to the Indians at the Soaring Eagle Casino. I arrived at the casino about 3:00 p.m. and headed straight to the poker room. I put my name on the list for 3-6 hold ’em and took out $60 in chips. After about a 10 minute wait they called my name and I took a seat. Things were pretty slow for the first couple of hours as my chip stack stayed around $100, but at least I wasn’t down. Things started to pick up pretty heavily around 8-9 p.m. when I took down a nice series of pots, boosting my stack to around $250 or so. I had a nice run going and I thought it was about to get even better.

I limped from the button with A4 suited with 4-5 players to the flop. The flop came down a rainbow 3 5 9. The big blind raised and a player in middle position (player 2) and I both called. The turn brought a 2 making my 5-high straight. The big blind again raised, called by player 2 and reraised by me. The big blind now reraised me back and I capped the betting. Player 2 called every bet making this 3 players to the river. The river brought a 6, now the big blind checked and player 2 raised. ??? Odd play, so I just called and so did the big blind. The big blind showed 9 5 for a flopped two pair, I showed a 6-high straight and player 2 showed 4 7 offsuit for a 7-high straight. Talk about a bad beat, player 2 called preflop, a flop, and a capped turn with 4 7 offsuit and nothing more than a gutshot straight draw.

At about 10-11 p.m. I decided to take a break and eat at the sandwich place with some of my friends. I was at $325 before I had left to eat. When I returned there were a few new faces who had taken seats at the table, and I was about to lose the biggest pot of the night. I was on the button against a UTG raise. I looked down at pocket 8’s and called, hoping to catch a flop. The flop came down K 9 8, another rainbow. The UTG player raised, and we capped the flop. The turn came down a blank and we capped the turn. The river came down another blank, and I was getting worried so I just called the river. The entire time, I figured him for either rockets or big slick, I knew he didn’t have K’s and I didn’t put him on 9’s. The roll over came and I flipped my trip 8’s to his trip 9’s. There went about a $150 pot. Not a bad beat, but still a hell of a hand. This player ended up losing all of that, and what he had, and having to rebuy. He was not a very good player.

The night rolled on, and I had some rebuilding to do, but never quite made it back to the point I was at before that big hand. I left the table at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday morning up $198. Not a bad day, as I pulled out ahead, but a day that could have been much better if it weren’t for a few unlucky hands.