Welcome to the Love Fest

Ladies and Gentlemen. Friends and family members. Please join me now as we follow my meteoric rise from NYC rounder to the top of the poker world. This journey isn't starting now, rather, it's been in progress for years and blogspot is just catching up to me. Now, let us begin. Onward and upward.

Step one: The I Had Outs monthly tournament.

After years of being a fan of The Real Dawn Summers and her poker blog, I Had Outs, I finally invited myself to her home game. The field was stacked with names I'd heard of before like Vinnay, Ugarles, and KJ A.K.A. Kearns. Participants traveled for many hours from all over the state to battle over chips in this prestigious event. The play was fast and furious, and the game went late into the night, but as with all poker tournaments there can only be one winner. In true King O' Clubs fashion, that winner was not me. Kearns actually earned the W by steamrollering over the table like a real man should. Folding my way into second place was pretty much the best I could do considering the steamroller was directly to my left. Shutting down turned out to be the best strategy because every time I folded my small blind (giving him a walk) he would flash an ace. Dawn was right, he always has it!

When we got down to head's up I was heavily out-chipped (approximately 10-to-1?) but I've come back from worse before so I was all ready for a real battle. It wouldn't have been easy though because (A) his aggressive style is perfect for heads-up, and (B) I had shown him a lot of cards at that point so he probably had a good idea of how I played. About three hands in he shoved with QJ and outran my 55. I would have needed a few more double-ups to get back into contention, so I guess I'm satisfied with second place.

All-in-all the night was a lot of fun. A good time was had by all despite THREE spilled beverages and a bag of rather questionable potato chips. Much appreciation to Ugarles for hosting this loud and messy collection of poker enthusiasts. Everyone laughed at my suggestion to tip the house, but I think he deserved it. Also thanks to Dawn for being a lighthouse on the murky shores of the NYC poker scene, keep up the good work. HAPPY PANDA FACE!!