First session back

Red Rock, Saturday, July 13th - $1/$2 NL Hold'em

Went up to the Rock tonight and played for a little over 3 hours.  This was my first NL session in a long time.

Overall it was pretty slow.  The table was fine, nothing special though.  Lot of regulars, although I don't think they are particularly good.  I played super tight the whole time.  A little passive in a couple hands too.  Maybe it was a mistake, although I thought I had valid reasons for both hands where I played a little too passive.  But it's up for debate.

Hand 1 : I limp with 6-5 of clubs in the cutoff.  My wife raises on the button to 7.  3 people call and I call.  Flop comes A-10-3 with 3 clubs.  Boom, I flop a flush.  Checks to me and I check.  I'm thinking I'll let her bet and I'll trap some additional people in there, and put in a big raise.  Unfortunately she checks.

Turn is another ace.  The blind bets out $10.  One guy calls, and I call.  I definitely could raise, but I figure this guy has an ace.  And the other guy either has an ace or something like the king of clubs.  So I'll see a river, and I can figure out what to do next since I'm in position.  If it's a club I can just fold.  Otherwise maybe I can raise the river and get value from an ace.  I've under-repped my hand for sure.

River is a king.  The blind bets out $10 again.  Now the next guy raises to $55.

I thought about it for a bit and called.  The blind folded.  This guy has A-10.  Flopped top two, turned a boat.  I feel like this one is just a cooler, although maybe I could get away from it.  Not sure.  I think I pretty much just have to call since I under-represented my hand so much.  But at the same time, what is this guy raising with?  Maybe an ace, especially since the guy bet so small.  So I guess it's OK.  But I don't know if most people are raising the river just with A-J or A-9 there.

Hand 2: Limped J8s on the button after 4 limpers.  Flop 10-9-4.  Guy bets out 10 in early position, I call.  Turn is an ace.  He checks, I check.  River I miss, he checks and I check.  He had 9-8.

This one was pretty weak.  I could have raised the flop, but I was OK with just calling.  On the turn though, after the guy checks, I think I really have to bet.  I was trying to just lose as little as possible, but a bet of $17-$20 on the turn would likely take it down.  And if he calls, I can still hit.  Seems really unlikely he would be check-raising.  So that was not good.

Hand 3 : I get pocket jacks on the button.  My wife raises to $10 to my left.  I decide to just call.  I would raise pretty much everyone else, so that is a mistake already.  3 others call.  Flop comes Q-9-x, it checks to me, and I check.  Turn is a jack.  Boom.  One guy checks, lady bets $20.  Folds to me.  I decide to just call.  River is a king.  First guy leads for $50, lady calls, I fold.  They have 9-10 and Q-10 respectively.

In retrospect, there's really no good reason to not raise that turn.  At the time I was thinking I'll just slowplay a bit, and hopefully trap her for another bet on the river.  The board wasn't super scary.  And if she checks to me on the river, I can bet big and maybe get her to call.  I had seen her snap off a bluff with a really weak hand earlier (snap off - more like make a terrible call and get lucky) so I figured she might do that with me too.  But I don't even know if I thought that at the time or not.

Overall, at the time I thought I played this session fine.  However, in retrospect I can see I'm just playing really passive even with my big hands, which is not great.  In this situation I probably saved money, but that doesn't mean I played them right.

Talking to my wife about it this weekend, I think I'm going to go back to the WPT Boot Camp style of play that I was using for a while.  There are some minor modifications I think I'd like to make to it, but overall I WAS winning playing that style. Even though I had some big downswings, I also had some huge sessions.

Lost $75 this session.  I'll report about the next one soon!

I'm going to try to go back to my Tuesday/Thursday blog schedule while I'm playing a lot.  I'm definitely going to get some more sessions in next weekend, and I have another blog lined up for Thursday already.  Enjoy!