last four days

Well, it's been a pretty busy few days poker wise.

I went to AC Hilton on Saturday to play in the 2PM tournament.
It ended up being a 5 table tournament. I was a little up and then a little down in chips going into the 6th round ($400/$800 + $100 ante). I had about 7K in chips.
So, I was in a pretty much All-in or fold mode. I did break a rule I should have just adhered to - which is to be the first one to go all in and not call someone who was already all-in. This korean lady, who reminded me of my mom, went all in. I looked down at Ad-9d and re-raised all in to isolate. I noticed the BB wanted to call her but got out of my way. The lady flipped over Q-9 and I got lucky that I was in a situation where I dominated her hand. Unfortunately, she hit her Queen and I was left with next to no chips. The very next hand, ironically, I get J-5o. My all-time defining hand I get online. So I'm out.

So...on to the cash game. I got knocked out at the final two tables and then went to see what kind of action was at the $1/$2 table. It was around 4PM and I had only planned on playing for 3 to 4 hours then make the trek back home.

I usually expect aggressive players so my default play is a tight/passive game and trap a lot. I did that early with pocket Kings. I limped with them and got involved in a pot with 3 others. The flop came out A-A-K. So I had a great flop and of course checked it. It got checked around. Turn card - another Ace. Great. My hand could lose to quad aces....then I remembered there is a $30K bad beat prize. My hand would definitely qualify. So now I'm hoping someone did have the ace. It got checked down to the river and I finally bet for value and got no callers. Then I flipped up my Kings. I think that might have set the tone for the table. It basically announced that I can limp with a hand that strong and be able to check it down and trap. So I think that put everyone on playing passively.

The eventual problem was the whole table played tight and passive. This allowed me to limp into a lot of pots with a bunch of medium strength hands like QJ and even stuff like suited connectors from almost any position. Nobody was raising.

We went on like this for like the next 6 hours. It was just a grind-fest with everyone. I really couldn't catch anything and eventually started playing aggressively. So I eventually got felted with my initial $160 buy-in. This old lady raised pre-flop with JJ and I called with Kd-Qd. The flop came out rags with two diamonds and I went all-in. Of course, she insta-called. I think I was a slight favorite to win actually. 9 plus 4 outs twice. I put her on the overpair and was right on with my read. But I didn't catch any of my outs and had to go to the ATM to buy back in.

So I'm back with another $200. The table play still hadn't changed much. A lot of limping from everyone. It was getting to become a grind. However, that all changed around 9PM. We finally got some new blood at the table and there was some new action and it started to pick up. I kept on eyeing my watch to see when I should leave but as I was doing that, in walks this complete fish, half-drunk. Looks like I'm here for a while!

Me vs. drunk fish - Part 1
I limp with A2. I'm in the hand with drunk fish and this other guy who left and then came back. I know his style - he tends semi-bluff a lot.
Flop:

As Ad 9s.

I check. Semi-bluffer bets out $10. Drunk fish calls, I check-raise to $30. Semi-bluffer folds but Drunk fish calls. So at this point, it's my first tangle with this guy so I don't know how he plays so I put him on an Ace. So I really didn't like my kicker so the turn card comes - 7s. Now there's a possible flush. I check. He bets $10. At this point I have a hand strong enough to call but not necessarily enough to raise with.
River: 9c. Now, I've got a boat and am sure I have the best hand. However, I put him on an Ace after the flop so I figured it was a chop pot so I bet $20 and he called. He had a flush. I take down a nice pot. People asked me why I didn't bet more and I said I figured he had an Ace as well. So there's no point in building a pot for the casino to rake in more when I figured we'd be splitting.

Me vs. Drunk Fish (part 2)

This time, I limp with 6c7c in early position. A new guy sat down, who was a friend to one of the other players at my table. So he's doing pretty good in chips. Long story short, going into the river, I needed a 5 to make the nuts straight. It was me, new guy and drunk fish in the pot. I hit my 5 to make the straight to the 7 while at the same time, it made a lower straight for both of my opponents (A-5). When the 5 hit, I checked in early position. The new guy bet $25 into the pot. The drunk fish calls. I come over the top for another $75. At this point, I'm praying the drunk fish calls but instead the new guy calls and the drunk folds. Damn!

I get paid off and took another $$50 from the drunk fish. Thanks man!

After that, I started to amass some serious chips at my table. It's amazing how you can get sucked into the same tight/passive game if everyone else is doing it. I guess it's the fear of being trapped. I'm realizing this and had to wake myself up and change how I play. So I started to raise with some really shitty hands just to see if I can steal and it worked! I made someone lay down pocket Jacks with 7-3 offsuit. All I had was a pair of threes on the flop but bet it aggressively when a second King hit the board on the river.

Again, I raised with 2-7o. I bet on the flop, turn and river and this one guy kept on check calling me. I figured I was dead until I rivered my second 7 and won showing down my deuce-seven. I don't think he liked that.

Anyway, after that particular hand, I started playing tight since now I've shown some loose play to the table. I got hot for a while. I flopped a lot of two pairs. Someone lost all their chips when I flopped top two pair with A-J and they had pocket Queens. The Ace alone should have slowed him down but it didn't. I tried to sell him on a straight draw but I don't know if that worked.

I also made a pretty good laydown. I was against another asian guy. I had AJ and according to him, he had A-T. I raised pre-flop to $10 and he called in the small blind. He checked in the dark. I've seen him do that a few times so I got creative and bet $10 in the dark to take away his position. Fortunately, I hit my Ace so I felt like I had the best hand with that flop (A T x). However, I had opened the betting so now he could come over the top. And he did. He raised it up to $25.

I had to sit there and think about what he could have. The best hand he could have that I could beat would be A-9. I'm not sure if he'd call A-9 out of position, unless it was suited perhaps. But the fact that I bet $10 in the dark indicated I had a strong hand that could withstand most flops. He probably had to think I had AK or better (QQ to AA). He could at this point eliminate Aces since I'd insta-called or insta-raised with trips.

So his re-raise did seem like a legitimate hand. So I had to put him on a better Ace than mine. So I folded and showed him my hand, which I usually don't make a habit of doing but he said I made a very good read on him. Plus, I usually go with how I feel and have learned to trust my instincts on when I'm beat. I've gotten those feelings before but would ignore them because I just had to see the cards for myself. Never in my life would I hope to be wrong. Being right about being beat, regardless if I had the best hand going in, is never bittersweet. It always sucks.

Once, online, I had Aces and raised pre-flop and got a caller. The flop came out: K-Q-x. I raised a pot sized bet and my opponent went all in. My first instinct was he flopped two - pair. For some reason I put him on KQ. Maybe it was just because he just called and didn't re-raise pre-flop. But anyway, I put him on KQ but couldn't let my Aces go and paid him off. Of course I was right about his hand.

So, recently, I've gotten much better with having the discipline to lay down a hand I think is beat.

Next topic - my cash game endeavors.

If you remember, I started out with $250 for my bankroll in playing $0.05/$0.10 NL games on pokerstars.

I ended my first session at $271.30.

Last night I started there and was up quite a bit. But then got on a slight tilt after some donkey called my all-in with Jc9c and tripped up on his 9 vs. my pocket Queens. That did irritated me a little. I was trying to get involved with hands with him which was probably my first mistake. He min-raised this one hand. I had pocket Kings and re-raised all in which was way too much money. Someone had Aces and called me. I lost my stack there and had to buy back in.

But besides, that my play wasn't too bad. There was one hand somewhere else I could have layed down (pocket 10s). Two people went all-in. I thought I was up against two high cards but I was up against QQ and A8. Of course the donkey with A8 caught his Ace. Oh well.

I played for about 3 hours and my ending stack was at $266.85 (-4.45 for the session).

Which brings me today.
I started off with $266.85 and ended with $285.00 after over 4.5 hours of play.

Again, limping with pocket pairs and hitting trips has been the best money maker for me thus far. It is particularly profitable if there is a pre-flop raiser.

I have to say though, I hit my trips about 1 out of every 3 to 4 times I get a pocket pair. That is much, much more often than it should happen. But I'm getting paid off pretty well when I do so that's all that matters. I lose very little when I miss but get paid off a lot when I hit.

As I mentioned earlier, I've learned to throw away some decent pocket pairs. I've limped with pocket Jacks in late position because I just feel with a lot of callers in before me, I can't really raise a lot and risk facing an all-in pre-flop or face a tough decision when a scare card hits the flop. Additionally, with more callers, all it takes is one caller for everyone else behind him to be priced in. So I won't really bother raising with Jacks. I just treat them no differently than any middle pocket pair (66-TT).

So all-in-all, it's been pretty good. At this point, my expected bankroll should be at $258 or just beneath that amount. So to be at $285 is great so far. I still have to go through the swings of bad beats and other crap I'm sure I'll have to deal with but we'll see. I think I will move up to the next level ($0.10/$0.25) when I have built my bankroll to about $650. I'm not sure how many hours that will be but I guess I'll find out.

Okay, peace.