Meet the New Year, Same as the Old Year

Meet the new boss,
Same as the old boss.

—The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again"

After a day of boring college football, I managed to sneak away for an evening poker session at the Meadows ATM.  For a holiday and Saturday night, the room was rather dead, with maybe four 1/2 NLHE games and two 3/6 LHE games.  But the action was decent, and the game was entertaining.  A few highlights and lowlights:

• Early on, I had a great read that two guys were weak, so a big river bluff with 9-high on a busted draw bought me a nice pot.  It's good to be back on that part of my game.
• I had Aces once (small win), Ks twice (medium loss, small win), and Queens once (big win).  I also had the Spanish Inquisition twice (two small losses) and the Deuce-Four twice (two small losses).  Clearly I am running bad so far this year.
• Speaking of running bad, I had 33 on the button, and called a preflop raise to $15, as did most of the table and the cocktail waiter.  I saw a trey in the door, which gave me that wonderful "flopped set" thrill, but I got downright tingly when the dealer showed two treys on the flop! Yahtzee!  Even better was getting a bet, raise, and small stack push for action, all before I made the very reluctant call.  Easy game.  Oh yeah, the run bad part of the hand. Unfortunately, my opponent did not have pocket Tens, which would have made quads on the river for a nice $60K+ bad beat jackpot.
• Still speaking of running bad, I managed to melt away my stack with three coolers:  Q5s for flopped trip 5s vs. K5s; 96s vs. J9o for flopped straight over straight; and QJs where I flopped top pair of Yaks, then turned trip Yaks, but my opponent turned the nut flush.
• I also threw in some play bad.  Notably, I tried to semi-bluff an ET, which sort of makes the play just a semi-draw.  Error.
• In the realm of the bizarre, a middle-aged guy at the table was eating his sandwich and fries, when all of sudden he spits out half a tooth which had broken off.  Seriously, a chunk of this guy's tooth was suddenly his new card capper.  Yuck.

There was a lot of fun chatter at the table, but the only exchange I really remember was on the hand where I had Queens.  The guy next to me walked a few steps away to take a phone call, when his buddy across the table raised me all-in on the flop.  I eventually made the call (the flop was low cards with possible straight and flush draws, and two pair or sets also possible).  The board went running threes, and my Queens were good (other guy did not show).  Phone Call Guy returns to the table to see me stacking chips and his buddy getting out money to rebuy:

Phone Call Guy:  "Wow!  What happened?"

Me:  "I had Queens."  [pause]  "He didn't."

Best wishes to all my readers for a happy, healthy, and positive-variance year!