I left for my trip to my first Mississippi Masters with the goal of playing good golf and getting my mojo back in cards. I am back from Mississippi and I content on both fronts.
The opening round of the tournament I played pretty good but for whatever reason after a good run I lost the driver on 8,9,10,11 and 12, I simply started duck-hooking my tee shots. Fortunately I have lost enough distance that I wasnt hooking them out of bounds or even deep in the woods but it was ugly and I did take a couple of doubles in that stretch of holes but recovered and carded a net even par round. I am a 13 GHIN handicap but in this tourney I was getting 16 so I shot 88 gross.
Day 2 final round we were back on the other Azalea course and I have played it 3 times now so I felt a good round was possible. I was 8 shots out of the overall lead so winning the tournament wasnt that realistic but a good round would win some cash and that wouldnt be a bad thing.
Im not bragging (I am but Im not) but I played maybe one of the smartest rounds of golf I have ever played. I managed to hit my spots and stay out of trouble for the most part. I did hit into one deep greenside bunker where you couldnt even see the flag and hit the best bunker shot I have hit in maybe 3 years to save my par. After that I got on a role and finished the round with a net 67 for a 5-under round and a 5-under tournament.
The final day swept the money for the dailies and I managed to take 2nd Place for the tournament losing by just 2 shots.
Oh wait, there were two goals on this trip right? We arrived on Wednesday and after checking in and getting settled I went down to the poker tables and played for an hour won $140 and left. Not a great accomplishment but it has been 9 months since I had a winning session at cards. My goal was to get a feel for the play get a little profit and get out.
Thursday night I did basically the same thing with approximately the same amount of profit but on Friday night I had one of Those Moments that you tell over and over again.
Myself and a buddy sit down at a table and start playing. We are there for about 45 minutes when a floor comes over and tells my buddy he has to move to the main table. My buddy is a couple hundred into the game ($150 to me, he is always trying to beat me) and he doesnt want to leave for obvious reasons. I question the floor about their rules because technically my buddy was on the list before me and beyond that another guy JUST sat down. The floor said my buddy had to move or leave or someone else would have to volunteer.
Well at this point I normally would want to show my ass and deal with how their rules were totally ridiculous but I am also on a mission to make only profit and I am up $300 on this table so if I move to a new table I will just put $100 in play so I volunteer.
As soon as I take my seat at the new table a couple other golf buddies who are waiting for a table come over and take a seat at an empty table behind me. We are talking and it has been about 20 minutes when one of my buddies ask me if I am ever gonna play a hand. I wait 2 more deals and then announce to the table that I am gonna raise $25 dark (not looking at my cards) and then continue to play the hand dark. I only have $100 in front of me so its not like any big loss. So I lead out with the $25 in the dark and 3 other players call. The flop comes and while I am still turned around talking to my buddy I shove the remaining $75 in. The next 2 guys fold and it comes down to the guy sitting next to me. I see him contemplating so I speak up and say, do you realize that if you fold right now this will prove what the pros always say about its not the cards that matter and he goes you are right, I call. He calls and we flip over the cards and the dealer runs out the rest of the deal and I win.
So between golf and cards I won a little over $1500 this weekend and only gave back around $1000 in Craps, Roulette and Blackjack so it was a GREAT trip.
great weekend, great post wally
