Cigars and Poker.... These are a few of my favorite things.

Of late, I find myself playing a lot of Texas Hold'em.  I enjoy just about any flavor of poker, but with the popularity of Texas Hold'em, it seems the easiest game to find.

 My favorite Sunday past time is to play in a free tournament hosted at the The Independent (www.theindependentatlanta.com).  Besides the fact that I've been calling The Independent my Oasis away from home for the last 16 years, it's cigar friendly!

I found myself enjoying a Bolivar Corona Gigante this past Sunday while the Tournament started.  The first few inches of the cigar was pretty uneventful.  Nothing in the cigar distracted me from the card play which would probably lead me to make a hasty bet!

In the first blind round I found myself with A-K offsuit in middle late position.  The blinds were 1-2 and found myself acting after an early position raise to 10.  I've played with the raiser on several occasion, while he generally plays tight early, I sensed this raise was a little weak.  I don't like to commit too much pre-flop with A-K unless pressed.  This was one of those times where I felt I needed to push a little harder.  I raised to 60 (starting chips 250)and found everyone folding up the small blind who called.  The early position raiser pushed all-in, 109 on top of the 60 I had raised.

Not really what I was expecting, but I had a decision to make.   Against A-A or K-K I'm in trouble.  Any other pair, it's pretty much a coin flip.  Against A-x I like my odds.  I decided to push all in to isolate the early position raiser.  I was a little surprised to see the small blind call.  I guess he liked his odds.

 A smile came to my face when I saw both players turn over A-Q offsuit.  I couldn't have asked for a better showdown.

I flopped a K, turned a K, the hand was over.  I was in good shape to take me down to the top 3.  I finished third in this tournament after losing with my 5-5 against Ad-4D on this board Q-8-8 Q 10.  Needless to say that Bolivar sure did start to taste better after I took down that pot with A-K.