Finally Got Pocket Aces

Jeez Im gettin behind.  Let see.... A week and a half ago I played the Monday tournament. About 20 minutes in someone tells me the line up at the cash game. Its the fuckin juiciest possible game imaginable. So I shove all in over two all ins with 7,4. Yeah I spit in the poker gods face. I dumped. Guess what. Totally not worth it. I played like 7 hours before I got in the positive. By the time cards started going my way there was only one crazy player left on the table. So Im sitting in this little 1/2 game with $800 on the table and Im covered by 3 people. Its like 2am by now and Im looking for the door. Then it happened. No big deal just the first time Ive had AA in a cash game in like 2 months. I reraise the raiser who has me covered. I dont wanna play a big pot really. I wanna leave. My buddy who raised first points out my shaking hands and I tell him its cause I got a big hand. He calls my big reraise. I know he is putting me on AA and Im putting him on QQ or KK. I offer to run it out from here and I think he decided maybe I didnt have AA. I really just didnt wanna crush him and then leave. Also I had way too much money on the table. Well the flop is Queen high and he bets into me. Im not real happy bout it. Im sure he would play Queens like this. I call. He bets the turn too. Im figuring I gotta go broke if I call here and he shoves the river. Fuck. The river is another Queen. He checks and I check. I coulda got another $200 outta him but I just wanted to insta leave so I didnt. He had KK. I played another round and split. Got my minimum 3 hours of sleep and off to work. It was a long night. I spent a lot of time outside smoking and trying to talk myself into staying patient. So much money was flying and it was 7 hours before I won a freakin decent pot.

Hit n Run at the Belle

Went down to the Belle again last Sunday. It was an ugly table but I had the best possible seat. I was on the insane Asian guys left. Unfortunately the rest of the table was littered with unpredictable players. I had Mr. Spoon on my direct left but he was buying in short like me ($300). The first thing that really happened was Spoon getting felted by the Asian guy who reraiased Spoon all in with top pair of 9's and a medium kicker. Spoon called and had a lot of outs he didnt hit. The game was basically to trap Asian guy. He wasnt a fool though. I actually hate playing those types. As soon as you take a stand against them with some big pair you end up all in with one pair against a ton of outs. If they have a lot of buyins you will go broke every third time you play a pot with em. My plan was to take me stab with my one short buyin then leave. I get my chance. Asian guy makes it $25 to go (its 2/5 NL btw). I find myself with 10s. Im not set mining here. I repop to $75. Well this weak tight behind me calls. Im thinking AK or maybe JJ. Well Asian guy calls. Im praying for a low flop but u never know with Mr. ATC whats gonna get ya. The flop is 9 high and Asian checks. I hi-de-ho my $205 into the pot and weak tight guys is instantly and openly fretting. Uh oh. He tells me only 3 things beat him. So he has JJ. I dont instanly cry or anything but Im thinking that most people make a crying call here. He folds. Phew. It was a good fold. My 3 bet range right there is very tight so over time I think he would lose money in that scenario. If you assume I dont ship it in with AK when I whiff then you gotta think 10s is the only hand you can beat there and people dont usually play tens like that anyway. Why I dont know. I think the only profitable way to play 10s or AK is to three bet but only cbet air heads up. Anyway Asian guy asks me how big my pair is and eventually calls. I say "Thats not gonna make this guy too happy." And I show my 10s to the folders dismay. Im thinking Asian guy had two high cards and was hoping to be good if one hit. If he is right which much of the time he wouldnt be then he is getting laid 2 to 1 but is only 3 to 1 to win (if he is live). Its a mistake Im happy for him to make once. He missed and Im up  like $350 now and Im leaving in 30 minutes for a thing at 7. I played two more pots and won one and lost one. I also broke even on my $20 slots investment which is a nasty little leak. If I donate $20 everytime just waiting on a seat Im really eating into my win rate. Those damn Sizzlin 7's.

Fun $60 Tournament

Well I didnt win or lose (other than time) in the $60 Saturday tournament. We got down to 6 and it took forever to lose the 6th and then we got down to 5 and it was taking forever. No one would call the 68 times the short stacks would push in. I proposed at that point that 4th and 5th get their buyin back and they agreed. About one hand later I flopped bottom two pair and got all in and got crapped on by the turn. Did I jinx myself with that deal or was I a genius? Whatever. Before that happened I started the tournament great. My first good pot I limped Aces UTG and the next guy raised everyone out. I decided to just call. I think if I reraise there I should just tell the guy I had KKs or AAs. So I let him bet the flop. I bet out on the turn because I know this guy and he is worried about that call and he might have checked behind. I bet out on the river too even though the flush got there. I was 90% he had JJ or QQ. He called and mucked when I showed. A little later I hit a queen high flop with AQ and made some good money against JJ and something else I never saw. Now Im doubled up and sitting pretty. I would run my stack from 25k to 85k before I lost my first big hand. It wasnt really a big hand. I called a raise from the button with 44 and the two guys in the hand checked the 10 high flop. So I make a big bet. At this point blinds are high and my big bet was 25% of my stack. The original raiser then reraises all in and I fold. It hurt. Both the guys in that hand would eventually out last me and they were both down to under 10k at a point. The rest of the game I just played short stack strategy. A lot of allins from the button and small blind with any ole Ace. A few standard raise and allin if I hit and dump if I dont. The only hand that sticks out with me was one I wasnt in. UTG who is very solid raised and kooky ass James pushes all in with 88. UTG decides to call. James is satisfied to be up against AK cause he was sure it was a coin flip. I asked James what he was smoking. UTG has a big hand. His range is AQ,AK, and Tens-AAs. Thats 7 hands and only 2 you wanna be against. I realize there are more combinations of AQ and AK but still lets not get too technical. To me thats such a bad move against this particular guy. But lucky ass James 88 held up. Of course the guy he left short stacked there would eventually be the chip leader long after James was busted out. This was a fun tournament and 4pm on a Sat is a great time for me. It doesnt kill Saturday night and if I bust out I can even play a coupla hours of cash before I go do something. And if i didnt have anything to do then it was cash all night. Actually I got a text at 10:45am the next day letting me know they were still playing. Jesus.

Chopped the Monday Tournament

Played the Monday tourny. It was so strangely easy. Every big pot I played I won. Every time I bet the flop with nothing I took it down. I dont think I ever made any marginal calls and ended up folding to another bet. I got AA against KK allin preflop. That was the hand that set me up because that was against another big stack. After that I just more less cruised to the chop. I did have one hand against my buddy who actually reads this blog. I had folded AK to him the hand before where he reraised his wife with QQ. I knew at best it was QQ. Well the next hand he raised UTG and I just call with AK. I dont flop nothing but he checks. I know he knows I have a big hand. I bet and he tanks. Im really thinking he has a flush draw but the blinds are real big so this pot could get ugly quick. He folds. So we chop soon after. I actually didnt wanna chop totally. I suggested everyone take $200 and we play for the $400 left. We had 5 left and all with very even stacks except for one who took less. I also want to play because one of the guys left was maybe in the top 3 tournament players on the gulf coast. I think he wanted to play it out but didnt care enough to insist. He said he wouldnt be the guy who wouldnt chop in a $40 home tournament. So I netted $245 after dealer tip and went and lost $45 in the cash game that I could only play an hour in. Im playing in a $60 tournament as I write this. Doing ok. Above average chips. I'll fill you in prolly after the Monday game.

A Harrahs, a LoveShack, and a Belle

Ok well I was not playing much but Ive gone a a playing frenzy (for me). I just got knocked out of the Sunday Double Deuce. Walked on 2 left feet the whole time. Mostly just had small pairs and Ace Kings and never hit a pair or a set. My big losing hand I limped in late position with QJ and flopped a pair. The open limper bet pot, pot, then half the pot on the river. I called the river because I had rivered top two but there was a pair on the board. Turns out he had open limped with Aces. I minimized my loses (givin that I didnt fold).

Yesterday I went to the Belle. I hadnt played that game in ages. It was the typical afternoon old man rock garden. I dont mind that. You always know where you are and its real easy to fold hands that in my Monday night game would be more of a decision. I still havent had AA or KK in a month now. Thats probably 1000 hands of live poker. There was only one guy at the table worth gunning for. He ended up insta calling an all in bet for like $400 dollars when he turned top two pairs on a board where any ole Queen wins. The guys had flopped the straight any way and bye bye went the one terrible donator. There were other bad players but they were bad on the tight side. I really like that game in the day time. Either the players play ABC poker but with no regard for position or they play limp in and be willing to go broke in a limp pot. Its really a game where I wanna not limp unless its in late position. Open raising or 3 betting is really the way to go there because they are usually gonna let you know where you are at. I only had one decent hand where I flopped good and made it to show down. I had AK and I three bet the original raiser from $50 on top of his $25. He just called. The flop is AA3. He bets $20 into me. Im thinking he either has an Ace and wants to see if I have a better Ace or he has a pair and is probing. I decide to just call. Im not too scared of the board. The turn is a Jack which I hate. He only bets $20 again which says that he isnt very strong. I just call. Im trying to represent KK or QQ and hopefully he will try to rep and Ace. He just checks the river. Now I just bet something pocket 10s can call. i bet $50 and he makes a crying call. He flips over KK. Whoops. Sorry dude. I stack my chips and realize Im $30 to $40 short. I say very low "damn how much do they rake here." Well my friend who was dealing heard me and started asking me what was the problem. I tell him how much I start with and we go through the last pot and Im $40ish short. But I tell him dont sweat it. We go back 20 years and know he didnt over rake me. Then we move on to the next hand and I say well maybe my stacks are tall. Yep I had an extra $10 in each stack. Idiot. I tip him another red bird and assure him I didnt think he had done anything wrong. I just knew something was wrong and obviously it was my stupidity. So that was my big pot. I took a picture of a guy who won with a straight flush against the nut flush because he had the baddest ass curly mullet ever. He even had his head shaved on both sides about 3 inches around his ears. Unfortunately the photos didnt come out good enough. I won a few smallish pots all day and left only $180 up.

My Monday game wasnt very fun. I was so very card dead. Sucks because I had 4 crazy players on my right. The only hand worth talking about was the time I flopped broadway holding A,10. I couldve actually went $300 in the black at that point and it wouldve made up for being card dead but how many times have I flopped the nut straight and lost especially broadway. Many many many times. The flop brings action and I make a big raise. A guy who hasnt had a hand all night goes all in for not much more than my bet and one of the crazies calls. The turn is nothing so I push in for like $130. The allin guy has basically told us he flopped 2 pair. Well mr crazy has 2 pair too but he knows they are no good. He folds after a long time. I ask the guy to run the last card twice. The other guy folded KJ so my opponent had 3 outs. Well the King hits and he wins the first and I win the second. I feel real smart and real lucky the other guy folded and opened up the running it twice possibility. It wouldnt matter though in the long run because i would eventually go broke. Lost $480.

The Sunday before that I went to Harrahs. Actually I stayed down there Sat night to play slots and table games and use a commp to the Besh Steak house. It was good food and we had a lot of fun but I dumped like $500 gambling. No regrets though. I did play the electronic roulette deal and that was fun. Sunday I hit the poker room. I was there for a really long time and I never had much. I didnt even get AK for the first 4 hours. Then of coarse AK would be my down fall. I three bet AK from the big blind and the UTG limper who was very very tight just called and the original raiser to $10 just called. So now there $100 in the pot and the flop is K,10,9. I bet out $100 to say I have it. and the UTG guy min raises and the original raiser moves in for his last $220. I only have like $130 left but I know Im drawing almost dead. I fold. I know the UTG has a set of 10s or 9s. I saw him check some huge hands and know he isnt doing that with out a set. Actually he flopped the straight with a heart draw to go with. the other guy had Aces. Damn. He fucked up just calling behind there. So that was my big hand. How I lost like $680 over the span of 6 hours and losing $130 in a hand was my big loss I dont know. I guess just calling too much with little pairs and suit connectors just adds up. I was probably chasing a little too much since I had dumped straight gambling the night before. Oh well.

So until my little cash yesterday I was on a 3 session losing streak and they were all pretty big in relation to my bankroll. Sucks coming of a good streak and then going on a losing streak right away. It pretty much wiped out my gains. Im still up for the last 45 days but it still stings a bit. I hope I can pull it together before the Bayou Classic. I would like to have some moolah ready to buyin to some nightlys and one $550.

Look for more updates since Im kidless and going to be playing more.