A Near Push

I went play Tuesday at Harrah's and Wednesday at Shorty's only to lose $28. I won $130 at Harrah's and lost $158 at shorty's. Exhilarating huh? Well let's start at Harrah's. My girlfriend Lisa and I went to a costume shop on Camp St. conveniently located right near Harrah's. Afterwards we headed over to Harrah's. I sat at a 1-2NLHE game and got the ball rolling pretty quickly. I was down $50 early just not connecting with anything. I also got lucky when an Asian guy with a Raider beanie raised to $15 preflop. 1 caller to me and I call with A-K. The action gets around to an older gentleman who moves all-in for $62 total. Action goes back to Asian Raider who shoves all-in for about $150. Dammit! Folds to me and I decide to fold. The flop came A-J-6.. then brick brick.. The older man had A-K also and Asian Raider shows a set of jacks. Had he only called the all-in preflop I would have given him some more money with my A-K. Anyway, I dodged a bullet there.

Well not long after, a guy raises to $12 from the 1 seat. 2 callers to me in the BB with Qc-10c. I call the additional $10 and we see a 4-way flop.. BINGO.. Kh-Js-9s.. I check, 1 seat bets $45.. Asian Raider calls, other guy folds...action is to me. I only have about $120 total.. I'm all-in. Both players call! I'm thinking shit.. there's no way I can dodge 2 streets here. The turn is 6h.. check, check.. River is 2h.. Nice! Spade flush didn't get there.. nor did the board pair.. If someone back doored a heart flush, so be it. Nope.. I was up against K-Q from the 1 seat, and 10s-4s from Asian Raider. SWEET! So now I'm up like $200 or so.

I end up flopping a set of 2's to win about $150 from K-K. I was up almost $400 at one point... only a couple hours into play. Until disaster strikes. I haven't played a hand in a while until I'm dealt Js-9s. I swear to you my previous blog about my session where I made all my money with J-9 never even crossed my mind. For some reason I guess this hand looks good to me. Well it folds to me in MP and I decided to mix it up a little and raise to $15. Well a guy 2 seats to my left calls and starts a chain reaction.. We go to the flop like 5 or 6 handed. That wasn't exactly how I planned it. So I know I'm gonna have to smoke this flop or I'm pretty much done with the hand. Well the flop is 9h-2s-5s. Geez! Giving me top pair and a flush draw. Checks to me and I bet $45. The guy 2 seats to my left calls. A guy to his left moves in for $60 something total. It folds around to me and I call(because I can't raise even it I wanted to). Now here's the part that actually kinda messed with my head. The guy 2 seats to my left is a somewhat regular. I've played with him a few times before. He's pretty solid/tight. Now he asks the dealer, "Can I raise?" Which she promptly says, "No". And he calls. The turn is the 7s. Giving me a jack-high flush. For some reason I check, pretending to be afraid of the flush. I am hoping he flopped a set and will bet to protect against a spade so I can check-raise him. Him asking if he could raise the flop really fooled me. I don't think he did it as some sort of strategy. And if he did, Koo dos(if that's how you spell it) to him. He bets $80... leaving himself with about $120. Here's my thoughts.. I've played with this guy before. I don't think he's the type of player who would want to raise on the flop and isolate with just the nut-flush draw. After all, I did raise preflop then bet a nice size bet into 6 people. Maybe if he flopped a flush and straight draw. But I also didn't think he would be the first to call $15 with some type of As-3s or As-4s preflop. So I thought he had a set. I check-raise all-in.. He calls and flips over As-3s for the nuts and I lose like $280 or something on that one. The asking if he could raise thing really made me think he had a set or something. Damn J-9 suited lol. I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not that I raised with it preflop as apposed to calling. That board would have cost me a lot regardless.

I ended up playing a while longer until finally I picked up winning $130. It did do a little something for my confidence though. The last time I booked 3 winners in a row Michael Jackson had a fro.

Onto Shorty's. Like I mentioned before, I lost $158 on this session and I was damn lucky to only lose that. I only played from 1:15-6 but I was SOOO card dead. I showed up and started a new must-move table. It was only 1:15 or so and I was helping start the 3rd NL table. Nice. I buy-in for $300 and pick one of the only seats left available. With Tim Hebert to my right and Bruce to my left. Bruce is a tough opponent. He likes to mix it up. It was my second time playing with him and was impressed by his play. The only other time playing with him I lost about $1k to him on one of the worst hands I have ever played. I'm still kicking my ass for that one.. he reraised me preflop with 7-7 when I held A-K and the flop came K-7-x.. tough one, but I had plenty of opportunity to get away. You live and you learn. Anyway, onto this day. At least I was lucky enough to be on Tim's left as he was raising and betting a lot of pots. I didn't catch anything to play. Occasionally playing small pairs and Broadway cards for raises, only to completely miss. Well a couple of people were up from the table when everyone folded to me on the button with K-Qo. I raised the blinds to $25 and both called. The flop came down Qc-3h-7d. Check, check to me. I bet $45. Bruce studies for a moment and calls. Bruce is the type of player who likes to make very thin calls. Not that anything is wrong with that. He just likes challenging himself and making sure he doesn't have the best hand. The BB folds. Bruce's call on the flop makes me believe he has a 3 or 7.. possibly 5-6 or something like that also.. Remember, I said he mixes it up. Heads-up to the turn.. 9d. Bruce checks. I know he's thinking this is where he's going to see if I actually have something or I was just making a c-bet. Well the turn didn't really scare me. I'm really thinking he has a 3 or 7 and I'm pretty far in the lead. So I decide try and disguise my hand and check. By doing so I think he's gonna bet the river if he misses. In which case I'll just call. Or he'll check the river and try to make a hero call with a small pair. Well the river is the 10d. It puts a backdoor flush and straight out there. But I still think I'm in the lead.. Now he checks. I'm hoping he didn't make 2-pair with 7-10 suited or Q-10 or something. But I decide and go for the value bet. I bet $50.. leaving myself with about $120. Here is where I'm expecting him to call very light. After all, I played this how plenty of people would play A-K, A-J type hands.. Raise preflop, continuation bet, slow down once you get called... and bet the river as a final attempt to buy the pot. ANYWAY, he does something I wasn't expecting.. he raises. He starts cutting out enough chips to put me all-in. I beat him into the pot and he says, "That's probably a good call." I turn over my K-Q and he mucks. He was a little flustered but overall understood. We discussed it afterwards and I think he realized I'm not just someone who can't get away from top-pair. Here is the perfect example of the difference between most 1-2 players and a tricky 5-5 player. In the 1-2 game at Harrah's I would have just bet the turn like I'm supposed to. But just from playing with Bruce for a few hours I know some of his tendencies. I fully expected him to bet the river or just call light. But the all-in check raise didn't make much sense. I had been playing pretty tight. I checked the turn. If he made a set, flush, straight, etc... he should have bet the river. He can't rely on me to bet there.

I'm up almost $200 now. But after a while of catching shit..I'm back to the $300 I started with.. Or maybe a little lower. A guy named Bill(Not you Wild Bill) came sit to my immediate right. Though maybe this guy is nicknamed "Wild Bill" also. At least he should be. From the very first hand he came in raising preflop. And continued the trend quite often. He was raising A LOT preflop.. c-betting 100%, and overall didn't slow down too much. It was working for and against him. I played snug for a long time until the following hand. 1 guy limps for $5 and it gets to Bill in the SB. Like clock-work he pumps it to $25. I look down to see A-10off. I call from the BB. Normally I fold here but I haven't seen a hand in ages and I know I'm miles ahead of Bill's range. The limper calls. The limper is a very tight player who also commented that he was in the middle of the worse run of his life(which in my opinion makes him even tighter). Well the flop comes down J-7-3 rainbow. Bill is first to act and bets $45. I don't know why I want this pot but I do. I know if I call, the limper isn't gonna call/raise unless he has a J or flopped a set. So I call and the limper folds. The turn is a rag and Bill does something I didn't remember seeing before. He checks. What? Apparently he has some sense and knows I haven't played a hand in a hour and thinks I called the flop with something. Here is where I "misplayed" this hand. You'll see later why I put misplayed in quotes. I should have bet here. The board was nowhere near a raising hand and a bet from me here should probably take this thing down. But I'm still a little gun shy from running badly that I check.. Hoping he checks the river and I can see if my ace-high is good. Well the river is probably the worst possible card, Kd. It completes a backdoor flush but I'm not sweating that because there's not a chance in hell Bill is checking a flush draw if he picked one up on the turn. He pretty quickly says "One-hundred" and sticks a stack of red out there. I quickly call with my ace-high. Before I reveal my hand he says, "That's a good call." And I'm thinking, "Well you haven't seen my hand yet." Lol. Because he would say the same thing if he had A-Q or 55 or any pair for that matter. Well I flip over A-10 and he looks at it.. reviews the board.. looks back at my hand.. reviews the board and says, "Wait he's got nothing." I'm thinking, "Oh shit, here comes the pocket 2's or something." But he rolls over the Q-10 and I drag a nice little pot with ace high. This was a very risky call. One I don't make often. A lot of times that day he made big bets with strong hands. Every time he would say, "Ahhh let's make it $200." or "Wellll why don't we just put it all-in." Or something kinda laid back and casual. The $100 bet in our hand was much more forceful. He just said roughly, "One-hundred." I didn't think he had much at all(obviously). I stuck with my read and pulled the trigger. I mentioned earlier that I had "misplayed" the turn. I wrote misplayed in quotes because if I did bet the turn, he probably would have folded and I would have missed out on that $100. But it was still definitely the correct play. He ended up putting the pressure on me. And I was forced to make a tough decision I don't like making.

Well that's why I said I was lucky to only lose $158. That's about the only 2 hands I can write about. I was so card dead it was sick. There was plenty of action but I couldn't get my feet wet. I played for 5 hours and my best hands were A-K twice and 7-7. Luckily I'm bad enough to call off all my money with top-pair and ace-high. LoL.

That's it for this entry. I'm not sure when I'll play again. I work early again Saturday so I may make it to Harrah's 3 Saturdays in a row. Who knows.

"I'm the best poker player in Terreborne Parish." - Jerry Bergeron