Made the trip to the Queen City this past weekend to play in the Falstaff Invitaional, leaving G-Vegas mid-morning with Badblood, his metalfied iPod, and an old-school FM transmitter in-tow. Having thoroughly cleaned the Mrs' vehicle of every vestage of Bon Jovi, and having dodged the possibility of a Phish-y ipod making the trip, quality tunage was almost as important as decent poker play later in the day. Alas, Otit could not be persuaded to make the trip – even after his tourney win the previous evening at Casa Blood.

We were the first to arrive, followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the G-Vegas contingent: TeamScottSmith, Shep "8-Ball" Tiltstein, Mrs. Shep, Wolverine, and two Texan representatives of the Smith Clan. The rest of the field was rounded out by Wes and the Columbia contingent, TripJax, and the local Charlotte players.

After appropriate beverages were secured among the players, cards were in the air and I was seated in the living room table along with Chef & Mrs. Shep. I was rather happy early on to accumulate some chips, especially since my cards were anything but stellar. I must give some props to Shep who helped create a table image for me by repeatedly announcing my nickname, which seemed to sufficiently intimidate some of the other players. As thanks, I stayed out of Shep's pots... and he seemed to stay out of mine. It was, however, a rather unaggressive table. I don't recall many preflop raises more than 2X BB, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that twice I was called down with a weak flopped ace by a player who had limped with AK and AQ. Bled off some chips there.

Movement of players between tables became commonplace soon, so there seemed to be new faces, and even returning faces, quite often. Drunken yells from the downstairs table, emanating from a Patron and Pinot-mixing player also became commonplace as the afternoon rolled along. It's often been rumored that said player just puts on an act of being overly intoxicated. It wasn't one of those days. It wasn't an act.

No big hands really come to mind, then I was down to one of the short stacks when we combined to two tables and picking spots to push was becoming a necessity. I was able to nearly double up when I pushed all in with 66 and got called with ATo. While the flop and turn brought two more Aces, the fourth club on the river game me flush, and the pot. The next opportunity to push ran into another pocket pair and my (one) over did not improve. AxeMan out.

The cash game table was full so I spent a little time after my bustout making a quick grub run with Wolverine and dealing for the Final Three. By the time I did sit for the cash game, it was 4-handed dealer's choice and only lasted about thirty minutes, which saw an orbit of Omaha Hi and Crazy Pineapple. Nothing like flopping quad Queens in the Queen City during the Pineapple orbit, only to split the pot when BadBlood made his low hand. Regardless, a super day with more of the blogging crew and other regional talent. Great job, Falstaff.