Friday, May 06, 2005
How do you know when it's going to be a good session?
Simple.
You get dealt 7 2 offsuit on your first hand. Bump it up three bucks, get reraised to nine and flat call. Flop comes King high, you catch nothing and you lead out for fifteen bucks and your opponent lays down his pocket Jacks. Then you look him in the eye and say, "This is a little something some friends and I like to call, 'The Hammer'," and throw it face up in the middle of the table as you pull your money in.
Everyone at the table seemed to appreciate it. Sorry, Footloose, it had to be done.
And so it came to pass that I had my first winning session at the Warehouse last night. We were playing $.25/$.50 NL as has apparently become the game of choice on Thursday evenings. I had bought in for $60 but after a couple more people showed up and a few big pots moved around, I put $50 in cash under my chips which put it in play if I needed it. Second best decision I made all night as three hands later I decide to make a move on a pot. I get J5 clubs in Early Position (EP) and bring it in for a raise to $3. I get two callers and the flop comes K74 with two clubs. I lead out for nine bucks, Footloose calls and the other guy folds. Turn is a brick and I lead out for $15 and Footloose smooth calls me again. River is the Ace of clubs. Footloose is a pretty aggressive player and I knew he sensed something was off with my preflop and flop action, so I looked at him and told him he was all-in. I didn't realize he had an additional thirty bucks hidden behind his stacks of chips but he went ahead and called and showed me 79 of clubs. He was more than a little heartbroken, he thought I was trying to buy the pot with a pair of Kings.
Toward the end of the night I got QJ hearts in the big blind and lead out for a $4 raise as had become the table standard at that point. I got everyone out except for one new guy and he had been an absolute rock. I'm talking Stonehenge, I think he had played like four hands the entire time he had been there. Flop comes mostly black and Jack high. I lead out for ten bucks and he calls, the turn brings the King of diamonds, putting two on the board. Without hesistating I lead out for $20 and he stares me down for a minute before he reaches deep and raises me another $40. He seemed more than surprised when I didn't even pause before going all-in. He looks at me and says, "I guess I got a little greedy, huh?" I give him a little shrug and after two minutes he pushes it all to the middle and turns over Q 10 offsuit for an open-ended straight draw (OESD). I think he thought he had the three queens as outs as well when he made his decision but he didn't catch on the river and I gathered in his $130 from the pot. Finally made it into a hand at the Warehouse and didn't get sucked out on. It's a marvelous feeling.
I stopped about fifteen minutes later and all told for the evening, $300 win. $60 an hour ain't a bad salary, I hope it can continue.
You get dealt 7 2 offsuit on your first hand. Bump it up three bucks, get reraised to nine and flat call. Flop comes King high, you catch nothing and you lead out for fifteen bucks and your opponent lays down his pocket Jacks. Then you look him in the eye and say, "This is a little something some friends and I like to call, 'The Hammer'," and throw it face up in the middle of the table as you pull your money in.
Everyone at the table seemed to appreciate it. Sorry, Footloose, it had to be done.
And so it came to pass that I had my first winning session at the Warehouse last night. We were playing $.25/$.50 NL as has apparently become the game of choice on Thursday evenings. I had bought in for $60 but after a couple more people showed up and a few big pots moved around, I put $50 in cash under my chips which put it in play if I needed it. Second best decision I made all night as three hands later I decide to make a move on a pot. I get J5 clubs in Early Position (EP) and bring it in for a raise to $3. I get two callers and the flop comes K74 with two clubs. I lead out for nine bucks, Footloose calls and the other guy folds. Turn is a brick and I lead out for $15 and Footloose smooth calls me again. River is the Ace of clubs. Footloose is a pretty aggressive player and I knew he sensed something was off with my preflop and flop action, so I looked at him and told him he was all-in. I didn't realize he had an additional thirty bucks hidden behind his stacks of chips but he went ahead and called and showed me 79 of clubs. He was more than a little heartbroken, he thought I was trying to buy the pot with a pair of Kings.
Toward the end of the night I got QJ hearts in the big blind and lead out for a $4 raise as had become the table standard at that point. I got everyone out except for one new guy and he had been an absolute rock. I'm talking Stonehenge, I think he had played like four hands the entire time he had been there. Flop comes mostly black and Jack high. I lead out for ten bucks and he calls, the turn brings the King of diamonds, putting two on the board. Without hesistating I lead out for $20 and he stares me down for a minute before he reaches deep and raises me another $40. He seemed more than surprised when I didn't even pause before going all-in. He looks at me and says, "I guess I got a little greedy, huh?" I give him a little shrug and after two minutes he pushes it all to the middle and turns over Q 10 offsuit for an open-ended straight draw (OESD). I think he thought he had the three queens as outs as well when he made his decision but he didn't catch on the river and I gathered in his $130 from the pot. Finally made it into a hand at the Warehouse and didn't get sucked out on. It's a marvelous feeling.
I stopped about fifteen minutes later and all told for the evening, $300 win. $60 an hour ain't a bad salary, I hope it can continue.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
More Critical Thinking
I've still been going over that last hand from the other night trying to decide if there's anything else I could pull from it to improve my game. In doing so, I think I've come to my ultimate conclusion, both Jack and I made bad plays. The decisions we each made are the difference between great play and mediocre play.
After Jack showed me his cards he offered up that he just didn't see how he could lay down a full house, and if I had fours full of Aces or better, well he was willing to lose to a hand like that.
My mistake:
There are three paths of thought on what I can do when that four hits the river and I see all that action in front of me.
Folding
This would be a phenomenal laydown. A professional laydown. There are two hands I can put Jack on after his bet: Ace high club flush or a full house. A full house is clearly a strong possibility given the board, so when he makes his raise over Rob he obviously isn't afraid of that hand. There is no full house that I can beat, I can only hope that he has 4's full of 8's as well and split the pot with him.
Calling
I'm not even considering this as a possible decision. Flat-calling Jack's $60 is tantamount to giving it away. If I think he has me beat I shouldn't bother with the $60, if I think I have the best hand, I need to get all my money to the middle and hope he has a hand that he can't see laying down.
Raising
If I don't have the best hand, I can most certainly represent it by going all-in. Jack has to know at that point that I have a full house and nothing else. There is only one full house on the board that he can beat (And yes, it was the one I was holding, dammit!).
So now we get to Jack's decision, which I also feel is on the same level as mine. He's applied a lot of pressure with his pot raise of Rob. After his bet there is $120 in the pot, after my raise there is $291.75. If he calls the pot goes to $403.50, of which he would have put in around half. He's basically investing $112 of his total of $180 with only one hand that he can beat. He's making a call into a re-raise and I just don't see how you make that call. The smart thing to do is to lay that hand down.
It's certainly not the easiest decision to make and I absolutely don't begrudge him for calling. It was a gamble that paid off but I think we both made poor decisions on how we finished our hands off. And even though I lost, I'm honestly beginning to think his decision may have been a little worse.
After Jack showed me his cards he offered up that he just didn't see how he could lay down a full house, and if I had fours full of Aces or better, well he was willing to lose to a hand like that.
My mistake:
There are three paths of thought on what I can do when that four hits the river and I see all that action in front of me.
Folding
This would be a phenomenal laydown. A professional laydown. There are two hands I can put Jack on after his bet: Ace high club flush or a full house. A full house is clearly a strong possibility given the board, so when he makes his raise over Rob he obviously isn't afraid of that hand. There is no full house that I can beat, I can only hope that he has 4's full of 8's as well and split the pot with him.
Calling
I'm not even considering this as a possible decision. Flat-calling Jack's $60 is tantamount to giving it away. If I think he has me beat I shouldn't bother with the $60, if I think I have the best hand, I need to get all my money to the middle and hope he has a hand that he can't see laying down.
Raising
If I don't have the best hand, I can most certainly represent it by going all-in. Jack has to know at that point that I have a full house and nothing else. There is only one full house on the board that he can beat (And yes, it was the one I was holding, dammit!).
So now we get to Jack's decision, which I also feel is on the same level as mine. He's applied a lot of pressure with his pot raise of Rob. After his bet there is $120 in the pot, after my raise there is $291.75. If he calls the pot goes to $403.50, of which he would have put in around half. He's basically investing $112 of his total of $180 with only one hand that he can beat. He's making a call into a re-raise and I just don't see how you make that call. The smart thing to do is to lay that hand down.
It's certainly not the easiest decision to make and I absolutely don't begrudge him for calling. It was a gamble that paid off but I think we both made poor decisions on how we finished our hands off. And even though I lost, I'm honestly beginning to think his decision may have been a little worse.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
The Last Hand: Redux
Okay. I thought I'd go over a little process on how that final hand played out last night and how it may have been played differently and even if it could have acheived a different outcome.
The game is loose-aggressive, though not all the players are. In my limited experience with most of them here's what I know:
Uncle Rob: Very loose pre-flop to go with how the games at the Warehouse are played. Generally solid play post-flop but not afraid to bluff.
Jack (Don): He is a very solid player. The first time I went to play at the Warehouse Moe was giving me some low down on the players. He told me that if Jack is betting hard, he has a hand. I've found that to be pretty universally true.
Myself: I'm a pretty tight player. At least that's the image I try very hard to cultivate. I can be very agressive however and, thankfully, most of these players haven't caught on to how often I'm bluffing.
Rob and Don were in the blinds and Bill, Eric and I all limped in for $.50. Rob pot bet to make it $2 total to go and only Don and I joined him for the flop.
My hands is 8h4h5d6h and the pot is $6.
Flop comes down 9c8c4s.
Rob leads out for $3, Don calls and I call. The pot is now $15.
I've definitely got Rob on the club draw and I'm not sure whether or not to place Don on a straight or club draw or both.
Turn card is the Ah. Rob checks, Don checks and I check...
Now I definitely have Rob on the club draw as his bet on the flop didn't move anyone so he has to put us on actually having a piece of the board when he has to decide what to do on fourth street. Don's check leads me to believe that he's drawing as well. Here's where my post-game analysis leads me to believe I could have acted differently.
After both players check to me I can make a strong bet. I can certainly believe that my two pair are the best hand at the moment if they are both drawing. If I make any bet it has to be a pot bet of $15. Rob on the draw would still be getting 3-1 on his money with the club draw and if he calls, Don is getting 4-1 on what I imagine is his draw as well. I'm not convinced that I move Rob off his hand and if Rob calls I think Don still calls because he's getting decent odds and he has what he must consider the strongest hand showing with two pair.
The river is the 4c. Rob immediately asks if it was a club. Not sure if he couldn't actually see the card or not, but he has to be on the club draw, and probably a weaker one since he's basically announcing that he made it. He makes a pot bet of $15 which Don immediately pots back at him, making it $60 to go. I'm a little surprised by that as I didn't expect Don to make that move. So now I've got him on the nut club flush or a full house. I think for about twenty seconds before I pot it again, which puts me all-in and makes it $111.75 for Don to call.
Rob folds easily and I can tell Don is stressed. He thinks for about three minutes before finally making the call. I give a crying question, "Do you have clubs?" When he says no I know I am beat. I ask him what boat he has and he shows me fours full of nines to kill my fours full of eights.
So if I pot bet on the turn and they both call, and then follow through with the same river action I still don't think I acheive a different result. The pot would have been $60 going to the river assuming they both call. I imagine that Rob leads out for somewhere in the range of $25-40 and then Don pots himself all-in. I can't see myself laying down my full house so I call and lose.
The ideal situation would be to represent a stronger hand on the turn by betting such that when Don pots on the river and re-raise him he has to consider that I might have already made a set either with the Aces or the Eights and my boat is considerably stronger than his.
But I still don't see him laying down his full house, so alas I don't reasonably believe a different outcome could have been acheived.
Love to hear some other people's thoughts on this though.
The game is loose-aggressive, though not all the players are. In my limited experience with most of them here's what I know:
Uncle Rob: Very loose pre-flop to go with how the games at the Warehouse are played. Generally solid play post-flop but not afraid to bluff.
Jack (Don): He is a very solid player. The first time I went to play at the Warehouse Moe was giving me some low down on the players. He told me that if Jack is betting hard, he has a hand. I've found that to be pretty universally true.
Myself: I'm a pretty tight player. At least that's the image I try very hard to cultivate. I can be very agressive however and, thankfully, most of these players haven't caught on to how often I'm bluffing.
Rob and Don were in the blinds and Bill, Eric and I all limped in for $.50. Rob pot bet to make it $2 total to go and only Don and I joined him for the flop.
My hands is 8h4h5d6h and the pot is $6.
Flop comes down 9c8c4s.
Rob leads out for $3, Don calls and I call. The pot is now $15.
I've definitely got Rob on the club draw and I'm not sure whether or not to place Don on a straight or club draw or both.
Turn card is the Ah. Rob checks, Don checks and I check...
Now I definitely have Rob on the club draw as his bet on the flop didn't move anyone so he has to put us on actually having a piece of the board when he has to decide what to do on fourth street. Don's check leads me to believe that he's drawing as well. Here's where my post-game analysis leads me to believe I could have acted differently.
After both players check to me I can make a strong bet. I can certainly believe that my two pair are the best hand at the moment if they are both drawing. If I make any bet it has to be a pot bet of $15. Rob on the draw would still be getting 3-1 on his money with the club draw and if he calls, Don is getting 4-1 on what I imagine is his draw as well. I'm not convinced that I move Rob off his hand and if Rob calls I think Don still calls because he's getting decent odds and he has what he must consider the strongest hand showing with two pair.
The river is the 4c. Rob immediately asks if it was a club. Not sure if he couldn't actually see the card or not, but he has to be on the club draw, and probably a weaker one since he's basically announcing that he made it. He makes a pot bet of $15 which Don immediately pots back at him, making it $60 to go. I'm a little surprised by that as I didn't expect Don to make that move. So now I've got him on the nut club flush or a full house. I think for about twenty seconds before I pot it again, which puts me all-in and makes it $111.75 for Don to call.
Rob folds easily and I can tell Don is stressed. He thinks for about three minutes before finally making the call. I give a crying question, "Do you have clubs?" When he says no I know I am beat. I ask him what boat he has and he shows me fours full of nines to kill my fours full of eights.
So if I pot bet on the turn and they both call, and then follow through with the same river action I still don't think I acheive a different result. The pot would have been $60 going to the river assuming they both call. I imagine that Rob leads out for somewhere in the range of $25-40 and then Don pots himself all-in. I can't see myself laying down my full house so I call and lose.
The ideal situation would be to represent a stronger hand on the turn by betting such that when Don pots on the river and re-raise him he has to consider that I might have already made a set either with the Aces or the Eights and my boat is considerably stronger than his.
But I still don't see him laying down his full house, so alas I don't reasonably believe a different outcome could have been acheived.
Love to hear some other people's thoughts on this though.
Pulse Rate: 65 bpm
I've been staring at a blank screen for like ten minutes trying to decide how exactly I was going to encapsulate this evening's poker experience.
Tuesday night at the Warehouse with six/seven of us playing.
I buy in for $60, get silly and play a hand blind and end up taking it down. Up to $110.
Get J10 and lose it all after a ten high flop and Uncle Rob, who is clearly on tilt after I extracted his money on my blind hand, had pocket Jacks when I thought he was on a diamond draw.
Rebuy for $60 more.
Proceed to get J10 five of the next seven hands. Lose my final $45 when the flop comes Jack high and I push. Run into Don's (tourney winner from last night) AJ which he had limp-called my raise with.
J10 six times in eight hands. I had J5 on one of the other hands. The only time I didn't have J10 in that series, the flop comes J10x.
Sit and do nothing but watch for about the next forty five minutes. Two people cash out at midnight and leave the table four handed. I watch that for another twenty minutes or so, before I pull out $20 when the big blind comes my direction. That's it. $20 is all I'm reaching for for the duration of the night.
We agree to a PLO/PLH rotation. I drop a couple bucks on preflop action before we get to the PLO series.
I have J10 (hmmm) 47 with the 10 4 being diamonds. Flop comes AKQ. Two checks, I bet $3 into a $6 pot and both call. Turn is the Ace of diamonds, putting two diamonds on the board. Both guys bet out $5 and I call. River is a diamond. They both bet $15, I put in my remaining ten and my diamonds hold up to two sets of Aces. Whoa.
Tripled up to $48.
Next hand I get 99QJ. Flop comes 559 with two diamonds. We check the flop around and the turn is a brick. Uncle Rob leads out with a pot bet of $12, Eric calls and I call. River is a ten of diamonds. Uncle Rob pots for $36, Eric pots back and get his last $45 in the pot, I call with my last $34. Uncle Rob made the Ace high flush, Eric filled up fives full of tens and I take down the main pot with my flopped nuts.
Tripled up to $144.
I turned $20 into $144 in eight minutes and I'm now up four bucks for the night. Utterly ridiculous.
I take down another decent pot in the next PLO series and I'm sitting at around $170. It's about 1:22 am and I announce that I am done at 1:30 am.
At 1:27 am I get dealt 8456, all red cards. Flop comes 8c9c4s. The pot was at $6 and Uncle Rob bets $3, Don calls and I call. Turn is an Ace of hearts. Rob checks, Don checks, I check. River is the 4 of clubs. Rob bets the pot of $15, Don pots for $60, I pot all-in for $161.75. Rob folds and Don takes about three minutes before he finally calls.
I ask him if he has clubs and he says no. He shows me fours full of nines.
1:33am: I'm stuck $140 on the night.
And my heart rate never changed a beat during or after that last hand. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Tuesday night at the Warehouse with six/seven of us playing.
I buy in for $60, get silly and play a hand blind and end up taking it down. Up to $110.
Get J10 and lose it all after a ten high flop and Uncle Rob, who is clearly on tilt after I extracted his money on my blind hand, had pocket Jacks when I thought he was on a diamond draw.
Rebuy for $60 more.
Proceed to get J10 five of the next seven hands. Lose my final $45 when the flop comes Jack high and I push. Run into Don's (tourney winner from last night) AJ which he had limp-called my raise with.
J10 six times in eight hands. I had J5 on one of the other hands. The only time I didn't have J10 in that series, the flop comes J10x.
Sit and do nothing but watch for about the next forty five minutes. Two people cash out at midnight and leave the table four handed. I watch that for another twenty minutes or so, before I pull out $20 when the big blind comes my direction. That's it. $20 is all I'm reaching for for the duration of the night.
We agree to a PLO/PLH rotation. I drop a couple bucks on preflop action before we get to the PLO series.
I have J10 (hmmm) 47 with the 10 4 being diamonds. Flop comes AKQ. Two checks, I bet $3 into a $6 pot and both call. Turn is the Ace of diamonds, putting two diamonds on the board. Both guys bet out $5 and I call. River is a diamond. They both bet $15, I put in my remaining ten and my diamonds hold up to two sets of Aces. Whoa.
Tripled up to $48.
Next hand I get 99QJ. Flop comes 559 with two diamonds. We check the flop around and the turn is a brick. Uncle Rob leads out with a pot bet of $12, Eric calls and I call. River is a ten of diamonds. Uncle Rob pots for $36, Eric pots back and get his last $45 in the pot, I call with my last $34. Uncle Rob made the Ace high flush, Eric filled up fives full of tens and I take down the main pot with my flopped nuts.
Tripled up to $144.
I turned $20 into $144 in eight minutes and I'm now up four bucks for the night. Utterly ridiculous.
I take down another decent pot in the next PLO series and I'm sitting at around $170. It's about 1:22 am and I announce that I am done at 1:30 am.
At 1:27 am I get dealt 8456, all red cards. Flop comes 8c9c4s. The pot was at $6 and Uncle Rob bets $3, Don calls and I call. Turn is an Ace of hearts. Rob checks, Don checks, I check. River is the 4 of clubs. Rob bets the pot of $15, Don pots for $60, I pot all-in for $161.75. Rob folds and Don takes about three minutes before he finally calls.
I ask him if he has clubs and he says no. He shows me fours full of nines.
1:33am: I'm stuck $140 on the night.
And my heart rate never changed a beat during or after that last hand. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Monday Night (Tuesday Morning) Poker
*yawn*
It's 4:45am and I'm just laying down to sleep. I'm stretched out in bed and replaying a few of the nights events before I finally pass out. I finally finished in the money again after quite a long drought and overall was very pleased with my play. Nothing I can do about how the night ended for me, felt like I needed to gamble... *I bolt wide awake*
10:30pm
I roll up to the weekly game and it's a packed house. There are 13 of us, far and away the most we've had for this weekly sit n' go. Buy in is $40 so there's a decent payday for the top three. I get seated at a table with a whole range of players. One complete maniac, one moderate maniac, one rock, two guys I've never played against before and a guy who is a very solid player. First hand the total maniac gets into it with the rock, my buddy Matt, and they trade three pre-flop raises and re-raises. The flop comes ten high, and Matt moves all in with Jacks, unfortunately Ryan (Maniac) has Kings. Matt is out in one minute and thirty seconds, thankfully it's his house so he can move on to other things. That set the tone for the first 45 minutes or so, some very aggressive preflop action, but solid post-flop play was taking down a lot of pots from aggressors. I manage to get up about 50 bucks during that time.
The other table was made up pretty much the same as mine and at one point we hear a lot of commotion and then to quick all-in calls. We stop our hand to watch the play unfold. The guys turn over the cards and it's Kings versus Queens, and one of the other players turns up his hand and shows his King-Queen. The flop comes AQ5 and the room goes wild, man hits his case queen to take control of the hand. The guy with the Kings turns and starts to get ready to leave and I pat him on the back and say, "Hold on buddy," as the Jack comes on the turn, "all you gotta do is ask nicely and the ten will come," as the Ten comes on the river. He hits his runner-runner for the straight and knocks the other guy out. I have to say, I have a certain knack for talking the straight runs out of a deck lately, even if I'm not doing it for myself for some reason.
Play slows down for a while after that as we wait for one more elimination to move to a single table. I deal out another runner-runner to demolish a higher pair and we consolidate to our final table. That's where I went absolutely card dead. It was ugly and it last for about 35 minutes. I didn't play one hand that entire time and then finally got disgusted and tried to play. I had a shortstack to my left and I raised his blind with K8 of hearts (best hand I had seen to that point). Naturally he came back over the top all-in and I had to call. So I doubled him up and sat another ten minutes or so before the cards finally came back around. There were a couple big Aces that I took down pots preflop with, or caught top pair with after the flop and got no more action. The in the big blind I look down and I've got Eke and Ike. Sweet, sweet Aces. The shortstack on my left limps, middle position calls, and I raise. Shortstack moves all-in, guy across the table moves all-in and I can only too happily call. I'm up against KJ offsuit and AK spades, flop comes with a spade so I ask the dealer to put a red two and three on the board. The turn and river were a duece of diamonds and a three of hearts. The dealer and I shared a look at how that turned out.
Now I'm sitting pretty and a few hands later I took out a pretty sizable stack when I flopped top pair with AQ and he pushed with the nut club draw but didn't make it. Now I'm just waiting people out and we get down to four handed play with me the chip leader, Don with a pretty big stack, Bob Grizzle and Britton both playing shorter stacks compared to the two of us. After a half hour or so Don knocks Britton out and we're in the money. I have two plans going in my mind. One, as soon as Bob as out I'm gonna chop the pot with Don and go to damn bed. Two, I've been setting Bob up by consistently raising him. A couple times I was able to move him off the best hand and showed him my trash to get him to play back at me. Finally with Bob down to about 150 in chips remaining he limps in to my big blind. I look down at two Cowboys and raise him again. He immediately pushes all-in and I call. He turns over A9 of spades. He seemed very surprised I actually had such a big hand and even though he had plenty of outs, I felt good. Flop comes Q92, one spade. Turn, Jack of spades. River... 5 of spades. MOTHER OF GOD!
I fold away for a bit while I wait for my demeanor to come back to normal. Now it's 3:15 am, I'm tired and I look down at A3 diamonds, I raise, Bob folds and Don calls. Flop comes Jack high rainbow and I lead out for 150. Don immediately reraises me 150. I look down at my stack (very pissed that I'm in a pot with the other real chip stack at the table) and it leaves me with about 215 in chips if I fold. Blinds are going up to 30/60 very shortly and I'm thinking my Ace might even be good. I decide what the hell and reraise him all-in after thinking it over for a few minutes. It cost him another 123 chips, and I could tell he was calling only because he was pot committed, but he certainly didn't like his hand that much anymore. He turns over J7 offsuit and I never improve and I'm out. Still made $60 for the efforts and I head home pretty pleased.
3:48 am
I bolt pretty much wide awake as I'm replaying that last hand and realize I made a monumental error. I had just combined a few of my stacks into three big towers. So what I had said was 150 dollars when calling Don's raise was actually 300. So my re-raise was actually 273 chips not 123, which would have been almost all the rest of Don's stack. At 3:50 am I'm faced with two realizations, I had enough chips to fold and make second still or I had enough chips to put the pressure back on Don and possibly even make him fold. Hands down one of the most boneheaded things I've done because I don't think Don had me covered in reality. And that's what happens when you're in the sixth hour of a poker game during the middle of the night. Stupid boneheaded mistakes.
I'm not so pleased with my play from last night anymore.
It's 4:45am and I'm just laying down to sleep. I'm stretched out in bed and replaying a few of the nights events before I finally pass out. I finally finished in the money again after quite a long drought and overall was very pleased with my play. Nothing I can do about how the night ended for me, felt like I needed to gamble... *I bolt wide awake*
10:30pm
I roll up to the weekly game and it's a packed house. There are 13 of us, far and away the most we've had for this weekly sit n' go. Buy in is $40 so there's a decent payday for the top three. I get seated at a table with a whole range of players. One complete maniac, one moderate maniac, one rock, two guys I've never played against before and a guy who is a very solid player. First hand the total maniac gets into it with the rock, my buddy Matt, and they trade three pre-flop raises and re-raises. The flop comes ten high, and Matt moves all in with Jacks, unfortunately Ryan (Maniac) has Kings. Matt is out in one minute and thirty seconds, thankfully it's his house so he can move on to other things. That set the tone for the first 45 minutes or so, some very aggressive preflop action, but solid post-flop play was taking down a lot of pots from aggressors. I manage to get up about 50 bucks during that time.
The other table was made up pretty much the same as mine and at one point we hear a lot of commotion and then to quick all-in calls. We stop our hand to watch the play unfold. The guys turn over the cards and it's Kings versus Queens, and one of the other players turns up his hand and shows his King-Queen. The flop comes AQ5 and the room goes wild, man hits his case queen to take control of the hand. The guy with the Kings turns and starts to get ready to leave and I pat him on the back and say, "Hold on buddy," as the Jack comes on the turn, "all you gotta do is ask nicely and the ten will come," as the Ten comes on the river. He hits his runner-runner for the straight and knocks the other guy out. I have to say, I have a certain knack for talking the straight runs out of a deck lately, even if I'm not doing it for myself for some reason.
Play slows down for a while after that as we wait for one more elimination to move to a single table. I deal out another runner-runner to demolish a higher pair and we consolidate to our final table. That's where I went absolutely card dead. It was ugly and it last for about 35 minutes. I didn't play one hand that entire time and then finally got disgusted and tried to play. I had a shortstack to my left and I raised his blind with K8 of hearts (best hand I had seen to that point). Naturally he came back over the top all-in and I had to call. So I doubled him up and sat another ten minutes or so before the cards finally came back around. There were a couple big Aces that I took down pots preflop with, or caught top pair with after the flop and got no more action. The in the big blind I look down and I've got Eke and Ike. Sweet, sweet Aces. The shortstack on my left limps, middle position calls, and I raise. Shortstack moves all-in, guy across the table moves all-in and I can only too happily call. I'm up against KJ offsuit and AK spades, flop comes with a spade so I ask the dealer to put a red two and three on the board. The turn and river were a duece of diamonds and a three of hearts. The dealer and I shared a look at how that turned out.
Now I'm sitting pretty and a few hands later I took out a pretty sizable stack when I flopped top pair with AQ and he pushed with the nut club draw but didn't make it. Now I'm just waiting people out and we get down to four handed play with me the chip leader, Don with a pretty big stack, Bob Grizzle and Britton both playing shorter stacks compared to the two of us. After a half hour or so Don knocks Britton out and we're in the money. I have two plans going in my mind. One, as soon as Bob as out I'm gonna chop the pot with Don and go to damn bed. Two, I've been setting Bob up by consistently raising him. A couple times I was able to move him off the best hand and showed him my trash to get him to play back at me. Finally with Bob down to about 150 in chips remaining he limps in to my big blind. I look down at two Cowboys and raise him again. He immediately pushes all-in and I call. He turns over A9 of spades. He seemed very surprised I actually had such a big hand and even though he had plenty of outs, I felt good. Flop comes Q92, one spade. Turn, Jack of spades. River... 5 of spades. MOTHER OF GOD!
I fold away for a bit while I wait for my demeanor to come back to normal. Now it's 3:15 am, I'm tired and I look down at A3 diamonds, I raise, Bob folds and Don calls. Flop comes Jack high rainbow and I lead out for 150. Don immediately reraises me 150. I look down at my stack (very pissed that I'm in a pot with the other real chip stack at the table) and it leaves me with about 215 in chips if I fold. Blinds are going up to 30/60 very shortly and I'm thinking my Ace might even be good. I decide what the hell and reraise him all-in after thinking it over for a few minutes. It cost him another 123 chips, and I could tell he was calling only because he was pot committed, but he certainly didn't like his hand that much anymore. He turns over J7 offsuit and I never improve and I'm out. Still made $60 for the efforts and I head home pretty pleased.
3:48 am
I bolt pretty much wide awake as I'm replaying that last hand and realize I made a monumental error. I had just combined a few of my stacks into three big towers. So what I had said was 150 dollars when calling Don's raise was actually 300. So my re-raise was actually 273 chips not 123, which would have been almost all the rest of Don's stack. At 3:50 am I'm faced with two realizations, I had enough chips to fold and make second still or I had enough chips to put the pressure back on Don and possibly even make him fold. Hands down one of the most boneheaded things I've done because I don't think Don had me covered in reality. And that's what happens when you're in the sixth hour of a poker game during the middle of the night. Stupid boneheaded mistakes.
I'm not so pleased with my play from last night anymore.
