Coupla Bust Outs, Coupla Hours Cash

Very little poker to report. I played the $40 tournament last week and this week. Last week started out first hand with AK and got called by K9 and called on the flop when I cbet cause a 9 was there. I had never played the guy and ended up being glad I shut down because he never folded ever with anything. I would flop a flush draw against him too and same thing. I raised preflop with AQsuited and flopped the draw and bet and he called. I never got there and we checked it out. Being the true definition of a calling station this dude had pocket Aces and never raised or bet once. Anyway I went down and up a few times but never over my starting stack and eventually when I had 10 big blinds left and started pushing in preflop I got my little pair on the button called by AQ in the big blind and lost. Same thing happened last night. I got my little pair called by a bigger pair who only had a third of my chips but then the UTG limper who had me only slightly covered calls with 2 people all-in. He had the monster KJ and he put us both out.

The cash game was juicy from the start. I doubled my short stack of $100 to $200 pretty quick. The hands werent very memorable. I would pretty much stay around that same stack for the rest of the night. I only could play for 2 hours and man it was a good game. The big hand of the night for me I limped with 3,4 (cause I seem to do well with that hand for some reason) and no one raised. Flop 5,2,J and check. Guy to my left bets $15 and 4 people call so I call. There was a flush draw out there so I hate to draw to the worst draw but the perfect card would pay off so I chased. The turn is an Ace and I have the nuts. I decide to donk out $40 and the guy who had made the $15 bet raises. Then the guy to his left makes it like $150. It fold around to me and i ship it but I only had about $150 anyway. The original flop better and turn raiser flops top two pair. So what was I up against? 3,4. Chop. Lame. I had raised earlier with 3,4 out of boredom and history of running well with that hand but got reraised to like $100 and folded. My friend who dont give much of a shit called it with KJ. He was up against Aces. He flopped two pair and boated the river. Sicko. It was getting time to go and I hadnt really hadnt won or lost any big pots when I pick up AK. I decided I would limp and reraise. The straddle was on so I toss in my $5 and to my direct left makes it $80. Shit now I know its all going in and he isnt folding. But to my surprise the guy to his immediate left goes all-in for $150ish. This guy hadnt been messing around so I figured his range was pretty high and I would have to hope he had Jacks or Queens to play and I only had $5 bucks in. Plus the original raiser coulda had one or even two of my outs. I fold and the overbetter calls and evens up winning with his 88. The reraiser had 77 and said he was sick of getting nothing and ready to double up or go home. No Ace or King came so I was saved from going broke. So thats it. That was the big action. Net $65 for the night and it never sucks to leave up but man I know there was some serious chip dumping going on after I left.

My Only Reader Hates Me in a Scary Way

My favorite commenter stopped by again. He left a 181 word comment about how much I suck and have no balls, I'm a lair and I dont tell the whole story to make myself look better and how I should quit playing poker. He knows Im not publishing it but I just love to talk about it. He doesnt agree with the way I played AA with the heart flush draw. I didnt love it either really but I was probably beat by a low flush and I had a shit load of money on the table that I didnt feel like losing it by pushing there. My commenter thinks he coulda had an over pair and a heart. Really? So he was raising with multiple players in the hand and firing 3 streets with 99 and a heart? Good read. He was either bluffing the whole way or he had the flush or some 2 pair or set. I guess you would really hate the fact that I check folded AA to one bet in a 5 way pot when the flop was 9,8,7. But here is the apex of bad poker player: Why would you spend so much of your life trying to convince bad poker players like me to quit playing? I admit Im bad a lot of the time. But if I find someone even worse than me Im surely not going to discourage him. I guess he is one of those Phil Helmuth types that like to run the bad players off. Maybe he plays such high stakes that he doesnt really care what he says to the $1/$2 donkeys like me. Oh and he doesnt like my "gay" terms like cbet or set mine. I guess he prefers words like "lingo". Come to think about it he likes the word fagmo too. Maybe he has a thing for words the end in "o". So heres to you Mr. Angry Obsessed Commenter Guy. I hope all of the 70% of poker players you think are fucking losers, liars, no nuts, dumb asses, goof fuckers, fucking queers, and fagmos all quit playing so you will stop being so successful at poker and can find your true calling as maybe a militia soldier in Montana. But until then I got a habit so I aint quitting. Im sorry if my blog negatively impacts your life. I hope for you all the best things in this world including peace and serenity.

Good Bye Roll. Hope I See You Again Soon.

OK dammit I guess I gotta tell about my stupid poker Sunday. I went to Harrahs to play in the $555 6 handed nooner. I dont think 6 handed is a good format for me but fuck it. Its my big tournament splurge. I woulda rather the Saturday no limit tournament but family obligations didnt allow. Well I played $1/$2 cash before the tournament and was drooling over this numb nuts who raised it to $15 everyhand. He went broke every 2 hands. I got a coupla low pairs and didnt hit the flop. I woulda reraised the dude preflop with any pair but usually I had 4 callers of the $15 in front of me so I just set mined. Whatever. Probably a bad move. I dont really remember what happened but I went broke with AK with an Ace high flop against a set. I went to the tournament. Tried to oopen up just slightly and succeeded to fail. I didnt get any starting hands. I hovered around 9k for a long time. I moved tables to this dream table full of tight passives. I stole a few pots and lost a few too. I went up and down between 7 and 10K chips. Before the break I had JJ and raised pre and got 2 calls and the flop was 9 high so I cbet and got raised and then the guy behind the raise went all in for his last $2500ish. I wasnt worried about him but the raiser made it 4k to go so it was all or nothing. He just wasnt the kind to do that with A9 so I fold and he had a set of 3s. When I get back from the break I get a pair of 9s and I raise and get 2 callers and the flop is 8 high. I cbet and get basically min raised plus a few hundred from the only player at the table who was bluffing and being agressive with his position. Well my stack is pretty low now compared to the blinds. I just dont want to lay down every freaking over pair. I ship it. He has a set of 3's. Im out. Fuck it. I go put $10 on the number 3 a few times just to see if 3 wil give me some money back. I then go to play cash and do well and run good the first hour. Im up like $450 after an hour and would spend the next like 7 hours hovering around $400 up. Then I flop two pair and check raise and get called by top pair jack kicker and he hits a jack on the turn. I flop a set of Queens and get beat by a straight on the turn. I have AdAh and the flop is all hearts and I raised on the flop by a tight player so I call that and the turn and fold teh river. I probably shoulda ship it on the flop just on general principle. I reload and eventually go broke with an under set. That hand was shitty. Guy raises to $7 in early position and I call with 44. $7 was a sweetener. $15 was the standard raise. A guy in late position calls too. I flop a set and just call the cbet and so does the late position guy. I raise the turn which is a 3 and the late position guy puts in $200 over my $60. The original raiser must have AA because he is really upset even though he does have but $27 in the pot. I ship my stack to watch the guy turn over a set of Queens. He fucking smooth called in late postion with Queens. Maybe he had a read on the original raiser. I highly doubt it though. Just an old tourist dude with a wife running around the slots. I was really thinking a set of 3s made more sense but fuck me what do I know. So there it is. I dumped $700 in cash, $555 in tournament. Not to mention the roullette before and after my cash game. I just had to try and hit that 3. So 13 hours of straight poker and I busto. Fuck. But ya know Im ok with it. I have had a great week actually. Usually after a bad day I will stew in it for days but I never did. I may have missed a few marginal moves but Im not upset with the decisions I made that day. I had been running good and just had to give a few back to the cash gods and the tournament is a two or three times a year expense for me if i happen to have the bankroll. Anyway so it looks like Im in poker jail for a few weeks. My bankroll is loaned out except for a few hundred so I guess Im not gonna play this weekend. I may play Monday since I get paid and just play the tournament and 1 bullet for the cash game.

Big Fold. Good Win. New Orleans is on the Horizon.

Well another night at the Shack. I played the donkament. Bluffed my way to even until blinds got high and I pushed with JJ and was up against AA. Oh well. Went to the cash game with a good attitude. I was very ready and willing to lose my $200 buyin playing good poker. Actually I dont know if I was going to play good poker but I was going to play aggressive and try to open my game up a bit in the right spots. I raised the very first hand with A2 up to $8 and flopped an ace. I cbet and got check/called by a solid passive player in the small blind. Basically an old Belle of Baton Rouge style rock who likes to protect his good hands, call his medium hands and call his draws. Well at least thats how I read him. Who knows really. I bet the turn again to see if he was flushing. He wasnt. He obviously had a better Ace. Well the board paired on the river and any Ace worse than AK was gonna split. He checked to me and I bet. He made a crying call and we chopped. From that point on he called me wild man which was fine with me. I think it paid off later but it coulda really reversed itself when I had to consider that he might make a move with less than I would usually give him credit for. A few hands later I called a raise from the button with A6 suited. I missed the flop but floated the pretty weak cbet into me to see if he would check fold the turn. He checked but didnt fold to my turn bet. He checked the river and I was pretty sure he had 2nd pair or a very bad kicker so I bet a nice size on the river and he mucked after some torturous consideration. When I get to the Big Blind I have KQ. A couple people limp and the button raises but its a guy who loves to raise the button to limpers (which is very +EV and correct btw). The SB calls so I make a big raise. It folds around to the SB who calls. Huh? ok. The flop is J high and he checks. I make a big bet because Im representing a big pair. He folds AK. I would see this guy later triple up after playing KK pretty bad and being behind two allins until the river hit his 2 outter. At this point I make a lame joke to the massage girl about how much $4 would get me and she takes the time to explain it to me so I feel like now I gotta get a massage so she doesnt think Im clowning her. I get a 10 minute massage and wow it was worth the $15 I gave her. I felt very relaxed and since I wasnt picking up any hand I could really just enjoy it. I felt super relaxed for like an hour after that. A while later I get KK in late position. UTG raises to $10 and the next guy calls him. I fold to me and I make it $35 to go. The wild maniac degenerate behind me calls having nothing in the pot and the original raiser calls. Well the original smooth caller makes it $100 more. He is the older dude who likes to protect his hand. Aces right? Im like 90% he has AA and 10% AK but definitely not QQ, JJ, or 10s. He would have repopped the first time for sure. He isnt gonna slow play any of those hands. He coulda tried to play AK cheap and then since he was calling me wild man decided I was being wild again and decided to run with AK. I thought that was a long shot really with two people smooth calling 3 bets behind me though. It had to be AA. I took forever to fold until the dealer asked me to please act. I fold and so does everyone else. He shows AA. I fell smart and like a pussy all at once. Well now I feel like Im free rolling. I eventually go broke in a hand where I flop a flush draw and open end straight draw against the maniac. I check raised all in on the flop and he called. He didnt wanna run it twice. He had raised with 87 and flopped two pair. They turned into a boat for him. That would be about the last time he felt good for the next 7 hours. I rebuy. Im not so excited about losing this next $200 so I switch to value bet mode. I did have one hand where I raised preflop with 10,9 spades and got a few callers. I flopped open ended and bet it and got called by the guy I folded KK to. The straight hits the turn but it makes a flush. He checks and I check. He checks a blank river and he is so sure Im going to check that he also flips his cards. I quickly grab some chips and throw them out. I think he thinks I saw him wanting to check/check so maybe I was trying a last ditch effort to buy it. I really was gonna bet it the same way but wanted to get it out before he did something dumb. He called the $60. I dropped back to $200 ($400 in the game) when I smooth called the flop and turn out of position with top pair and got rivered by the bluffing buddy with A6 who checked behind. Later I got AK and raised and got a call from a very tricky player. The flop is AK3 and I bet after he checks. He calls. I bet the run and he calls. I move in on the river for a little more than pot and he calls. he has AQ. Double up and almost even. I would basically stay right there for a couple hours. I went card dead and there was a drunk friend of mine raising everything behind me so I probably lost $50 bucks limping or calling small raises and folding to his raise. Eventually I moved to the open spot that opened up behind him. Cha ching. My luck changed and I was in a good spot to use it. I called a raise with 42 suited and flopped the flush. I checked, the orig raiser bets and drunk friend reraises to like $40. I make $150. Orig folds and drunk friend goes all in. Now Im really very worried that Im crushed and dead. But I only have like $150 more. Call and ask him if he has the diamonds and he nods yes. Im starting to get that sinking why do I play this shit feeling when he then says "if a diamond comes". By the time I can get the real deal out of him the pot is over and he doesnt improve. I was still was on edge until he actually mucked. Sweet. Now Im up a buyin and a half for the game. I would then start hitting a bunch of straights and sets and two pairs and they were holding up. One hand I had QJ and flopped a gut shot in a limp pot. The flop bet was $6 so called with 2 overs and a gutter against 2 players. The turn gives me the nuts. The very aggressive guy who bet the $6 bets out $10 and I just call to the small stack behind me who goes all in for $55. The original guy calls but isnt happy. I move him in for another $120ish since there a flush draw that he could have. He woulda called the flush draw but he folded whatever he had. I beat the short stacks two pair. I wanted to leave since I had work in a few hours but I woulda felt bad runnin with the money. Not that I was gonna risk too much anyway though. My drunk friend left and the action slowed down. He had actually started playing very much more passive by the end of the night anyway. The maniac was still there but he was playing half buyins. There were actually 3 big stacks and like 3 short stacks and maybe an average stack who did really wanna get to involved. The other big stack woulda put his money in play but he was a tricky good player so I wasnt seeing an opportunity there. The other one was just protecting his win. We just played small ball for a couple hours at the end and then I left. I left in time to go get 1.5 hours of sleep for work and up 3 buyins. The next day was pure hell but I'd say I would do it all again. Looking forward to New Orleans this weekend. Probably play the Saturday night and hopefully the Sunday 6 handed depending on how the cash game runs. I really wanna play the Tuesday Head Up tournament but I will have to do really well this weekend to justify taking work time off and getting my sons to stay somewhere else for that night. Last New Orleans event I played 3 nightly's and cashed in all three but not in the top 10 ever. I wanna pop a top 5 in there this time.