My Dan Harrington Impersonation

First of all, Dan Harrington is one of the most underrated players in poker. He's made the final table at the WSOP Main Event in 3 different decades and has two Hold Em bracelets. He's finished well into the money 5 times in the Main Event.

I was getting pretty short stacked when I limped in with pocket Queens. The flop was all low cards and I checked to the preflop raiser sitting directly to my left. He put me all-in. I thought about it, put him on Jacks and called. He had Jacks. That was a nice pot. Another hand I had pocket Kings beaten by Aces but broke even on the hand because a crazy player (a Brazillian kick boxer actually) moved all-in with King Jack so I won a siezeable side pot.

I flopped three big hands but only two survived. I was able to survive flopping a 5 to 9 straight when a third Spade fell. Another hand, I flopped a straight 5-9 and for some reason was able to get action on it. This one retard called my $10 flop bet with King high. He hit a pair of 6s on the turn and for some reason thought they were good against me. Another hand, I flopped a King high flush and checked it while a pretty good player kept betting into me.

The strangest correct read I made was when I had pocket Jacks. The flop was Ace-Ace-7. The guy to my right bet out $15. For some reason, I put him on pocket Queens even though he limped in. I guess its because he limped in with gusto. Of course, I folded. He folded the Queens though as the player to my right had an Ace and re-raised strongly.

The best hand I played was with Big Slick suited. A very attractive preflop hand, I must say. The kid to my right raised to $12, I called and the player to my left called. The flop was Queen-8-Jack. The preflop raiser checked, I checked, and the third player bet $15. The raiser folded. I considered folding to his pair of Queens or Jacks but there was something about the bet that was suspicious. I decided to call hoping to catch a straight, a King, or push him out. The turn was a blank, but I bet $25. He called. Alot of players would just check the next card unless it gave them the straight. The river was a blank. I needed to bet to win the pot though. Most of the times you want to be last to act, but sometimes being first to act gives you an edge. I call it being in agressive position. I decided to bet, but not to bet too large. I didn't want to lose all my stack and I wanted it to seem like I wanted a call. The board had gotten pretty tricky as there were now three eharts on the table. Against an average player, I wouldn't have tried to make a move, but this guy was pretty intelligent and after 6 hours of playing together, knew I was pretty tight. I bet $30. This was after getting $40 of chips, trying to make it look like I decided to bet less. The pot was $116 and my bet of $30 made it look like I was begging for a call. He thought about it for a moment and then folded muttering "nice runner runner." I showed him my Ace-King high and he was shocked. He repeated "great bet" to me. I felt like Dan Harrington though, banking on my reputation in order to take down a pot without a winning hand.

It was getting late, I was getting tired/hungry, and there wasn't much money at the table, which was very tight so I got up and left. Its true I only profited $100, but I played about as well as I could play making no major mistakes, folding when I was outkicked, winning small pots and taking down a few large ones.

A few interesting side notes to the night: I was playing only a few feet away from Al Krux . Its true, I was playing $100 Max Buy-In and he was playing $300 Minimum buy-in with a stack about 20 times the size of mine, but it was still pretty cool playing near a great poker player like him. One with a World Series bracelt no less. What other game besides poker could you do that in? There was actually a fight at his table over slow playing or some other ridiculous thing. Two very large men dove down to the floor "Tilt" style. However, a minute or two after being broken up by casino staff, they were friends again. I guess it was kind of like a hockey fight.

The 3rd annual Empire State Championship is being held at Turning Stone. Hopefully I will be good enough with a big enough bankroll to enter into one of the events such as the $100 shootout next year. For now though, I'll only be an interested spectator. How great would it be though to be a Bostonian winning New York's poker championship?