I got a chance to play some poker this afternoon at Venetian. Got up there at 12:20 today and played about 5 hours. When I got there they were starting a brand new $1/$2 NL game, perfect time to arrive. Bought in for $300 (max) and started the game.
For the most part it was a pretty slow day, but I did play some interesting hands.
In one hand I had KK in the big blind. 2 people limped, the SB called, and I raised to 12. Everyone called. The flop came J-8-6, rainbow. The small blind checked to me and I bet 35. It folded back around to him and he instantly made it 100 total.
He was reaching for his chips a bit when the flop came out, wasn't hiding it at all. I actually thought maybe he was trying to make me not bet by doing that. But then when it came back around and he made it $100, I knew it wasn't an act.
I thought about raising or reraising all-in. It was a pretty good board for me. Eventually though I just folded. I definitely didn't think he was bluffing and I had shown strength twice, so he had to know I had something. Unless he thought I just had A-K, but I really don't think he was bluffing. So that hand cost me $50 or so.
At that point I rebought for $80, bringing me back up to $300. Just a short while later I got A-5s (clubs) and called a $7 raise on the button from a girl that just sat down. 4 people saw the flop. The flop was pretty sick for me:
3c-4c-8h
Flopped a gutshot straight flush draw. The first two people checked, and she instantly fired out $30. Pot sized bet.
Normally I don't love calling such a big bet to draw. However, I called anyway. :-) I figure if the 2 rolls off I'm going to win a monster pot, and with the flush draw, it's just a really big draw that I do not want to fold. Plus I'm in position. So I call.
Turn is pretty good for me, the ace of diamonds. So now I make top pair in addition to my draws. She checks.
At this point I put her on either a pocket pair below aces (like JJ, QQ, KK) or she turned a set of aces and she's slowplaying. In retrospect, a set of aces sounds pretty retarded because with the flush draw out there and me calling a big bet on the flop, she should just keep firing away. No real reason to think a check-raise would work out well if I'm drawing. And there were so many draws on this flop.
Now I decide to play TERRIBLE and check behind. That move pisses me off pretty bad now, and it was totally the wrong decision IMO. What I was thinking is, if she did have something like KK, I had the best hand and the best draw and didn't want to chase her away. Of course that is STUPID because if that's what she has, she won't call much on the river anyway. Whether I hit my draw or not. She had like $110 left. Even if she had 3 aces at that point, I still had a great draw so getting it in there wouldn't be the worst. Plus since I have an ace, there's even less chance that she has that. So after the hand I really cringed at not betting here. It was just stupid.
River, offsuit queen. She thinks and bets $50. At this point because I didn't show strength when the ace hit, I felt like I had to call. I called, she had pocket queens, damn it. So overall I completely butchered this hand. Granted I think she literally had 1 out on the river, but still. She wouldn't have paid me off had I hit anyway (once the ace came) so I should have just bet the turn and won.
I have to admit I got slightly tilted after playing that hand so poorly, and started to go from TAG to LAG for a bit to try to get some of my money back. :-) Luckily I didn't do that for long and I didn't really lose any pots during that time, so it was OK. I didn't do anything really stupid.
Did start getting a little out of line with AJ. Raised to $10 with AJo in middle position. One caller in the blind, this guy was playing tight and overall just pretty good. Flop came 6-6-3, he checked, I bet $15. Normally I would give up here but I was recently reading a good post on 2+2 about good boards for double-barrelling. They pointed out that if you have a board with all low cards, that's a great double-barrel board. Reason being, people are going to be much more likely to peel one with 2 overs. So in this situation when the 3 came off on the turn and he checked, I decided to bet $30. He folded. Not saying it was the right play but that's what I did. Definitely was asking for trouble, as I'm generally playing really tight and not bluffing like this. Guy could have easily had 8-8 and I'm blowing $50 here.
Later on I had a pretty fun hand with J-J that I think I played awesome, especially regarding bet sizing. Guy under the gun raises to 7 (same guy I had my KK against earlier). I just call, as do 2 others. Flop comes out : T-8-3 rainbow. Blind checks, raiser checks. I bet $20 into $28. The raiser calls. I felt like he didn't really want to call much, or that he had a weak hand anyway. He had his cards in his hand and I seriously thought he wanted to fold, but just didn't for whatever reason.
Turn came a 4. He checked again. Since I still had the overpair and there were a lot of scary cards that could come on the river, I wanted to bet a decent amount again. I bet $50 into the $68 pot. He called again. At this point, I'm not kidding when I thought he might have just had A-K and didn't want to let go. I felt like he just decided, I'm going with this. It was crazy.
The river was another 4. He checked. I thought about it a bit. I really thought he had a weak hand. I had about $220 left, and he had me covered. I seriously considered just going all-in. Even now, I think it might have been the right decision because I don't think he wanted to fold no matter what he had. I ended up thinking for a bit and shoving out a stack of red for $100. You could tell he just felt like he had to call. I think he said something like "this is going to be the best money I spend all day" or something like that (which made no sense) and he called. I say "jacks" and throw them down, and he shows 9-9. Just a pair of 9s. He did not believe me AT all, that was just a bluff catcher.
Now that I'm thinking about the hand and the size of the pot at that time, maybe it would have made more sense to go all-in. However, $100 was still a really huge bet to get paid on the river, especially since I really thought he had a super weak hand, and might have even just had A-K. So I was really happy with myself on that one.
That hand got me back from being down $160, to where I was up $40. I hovered around there for the rest of the day and eventually left up $30. Overall not a terrible day.
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