Played some 1/2 at the Golden Nugget last night. Not too eventful but I did have a couple things to share. Couple hands that were interesting.
In one hand, I check the big blind with A8. About 5 players in. Flop is 8-5-2 with 2 diamonds. I check, 2 more checks. This older guy that I had played a few pots against (and seemed to be betting a lot - granted over a very small sample size) bet out $12. Last guy folds, and I check raise to $40. I figure my hand is decent now especially since nobody raised preflop, and I can drive out the draws. Folds to him and he calls. Not the best situation.
Turn is an offsuit 10. I think about betting, but I just check. I figure I can get the information I need by seeing what he does. He likely won't semi bluff diamonds again (if that's what he did in the first place) because he just got check raised. And I doubt he will bet a worse pair.
He bets out $40. He has about $130 behind. I think about just shoving all in. I thought for quite a while, but just folded. I figure the worst hand he has is a flush draw which still has decent equity against me, and everything else has me crushed. Sets, weird 2 pair, small overpair, maybe even something like JTdd that hit the ten. Anyway, I fold.
Soon after I switched tables to a table that had way more money on it. He got up from his table and came over to tell me that he had 82cc. Called for the flush draw preflop and flopped two pair. Good fold!
Only other interesting hand was this one. Short stacked old guy (had around $50-60) raised in late position to $12. Button (also somewhat short, started with $100 and won a couple pots) calls $12. It's on me in the small blind and I have 9-9.
Calling... could be alright I guess. Pretty vulnerable hand and I'm obviously not getting the right odds to set mine. Folding - I guess it's not the worst overall. Raising? Eventually I made it $50. Enough to hopefully isolate to just the old guy.
Now a guy that limped in early position is counting out chips and is obviously pained. He has about $175. Thinks forever and folds. (Later says he had me beat preflop.) Old guy folds. Now the button goes all in.
Weird, calls $12 on the button, I make it $50, he goes all in. I knew he was short and insta-called. However, my mistake was not thinking about it more and getting a count. The total was more than I expected. I thought it would be another $50 or maybe a little more, but it was $92 more. I think that even if I thought about it I would have to call. $92 to win about $300 (50+50+12+maybe 4 + 92 + my 92). As it turns out, the guy had Q-Q? WTF? Just calls $12 on the button with Q-Q and I guess it makes sense, once I raise huge there isn't much else for him to do. Even if I thought about it longer I think I would have talked myself into calling. But I definitely should have spent a little more time thinking about it.
Here was a great breakthrough though. After that hand, I was fine. A little annoyed but OK. But I could feel my face getting hot which is how I get when I start going on tilt. I totally recognized it and started breathing deep, and just talking through with myself why I'm feeling frustrated and that it's OK, I think I played it alright, and so on. Not as structured as The Mental Game of Poker suggests (I need to have their strategy as a quick reference) but it was really good. Totally a hand that can tilt you, I recognize it's happening, and immediately squash those feelings - more or less. I thought that was a really great moment for me and shows that I'm making progress.
After the session I thought about it and thought about some of the metrics I'm tracking. How did I play? Overall, pretty good. The first fold above was good and I really thought it through. The 99 hand was kind of a weird setup and I think I played it fine. I should have thought through the call more, but I did run into the top of his range and I would call again even if I had way more time to think about it. I played great preflop even after I was losing. And mentally I held it together and I think I actually made some good forward progress. So it was a great session for me.
Ended up losing $200, but that's OK. Still a well played session, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Maybe tonight.
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