I'm a professional player too

Last night I went to Red Rock to play.  Red Rock typically has one of the best 2/5 games in town and I was super successful at it earlier this year.  I called ahead and got my name on the list, and worked my way up from $4/$8 limit to $1/$2 limit as I waited for the $2/$5 game.

Major bummer, the bad beat is gone!  :(  Station Casinos always had the huge bad beat jackpot in Vegas.  When I first came to Vegas it was at its peak, and the dollar amounts eventually went down over time, but the last time I was at the Rock if you lost the jackpot hand you'd get $40k, if you win you'd get $30k, and the remaining money was split between all players.  Now it's gone.  If they weren't taking the jackpot drop that's one thing, but they still are.  Now they just have this progressive royal promotion so if you get a royal flush with the ace in your hand, you can get $1k, $3k, it goes up to $50k as the highest.  Total ripoff if you ask me, because they were running the EXACT same royal promotion for like a year alongside the bad beat.  Now they remove the bad beat altogether and are still taking the same jackpot rake.  Shady.

I scooped up a quick $35 or so at 1/2 before moving to $2/$5.  I bought another $1000 in green and went over there with around $1335.  As it turns out, the max buy-in is only $1000 and I had to take some off.  I could have sworn it was $1500.

Right away I started getting beat up.  First hand I play I have AdKd under the gun.  I raise to $25.  2 people call and the guy in the big blind makes it $150.  He has me covered.  I decided to just fold.  He showed KK when everyone else folded.

I got a ton of decent starting hands and was raising a LOT when I sat down, but I wasn't playing crazy.  Just had a lot of hands.  This guy next to me is like "Be careful - I'm a professional player too."  And something like "I'm only going to tell you once" or something about a fair warning or something.  What a joke!   I remember this guy.  I had seen him at the Golden Nugget recently and he played AWFUL.  I basically didn't say anything.  The guy was so annoying and he wouldn't shut up, but I luckily had some headphones and put them on to block him out.  That guy ended up making some TERRIBLE plays, like he went all in on a JTx flop with KJ for like $800 (and maybe $200 in the pot) when this other guy that had him covered was still in the hand.  Whatever.

So back to getting beat up.  I raise to $20 with AJ in the cutoff.  This annoying guy insta raises to $60.  At the Nugget I had seen him do this before with nothing, to try to be cool and prove a point.  However, I figured fuck it, I'll let this go right now.  I fold and he shows KK.  Then later I reraise preflop to $45 with AQ, same guy calls along with another guy.  Flop is 987, I check, annoying guy bets out 120, we both fold, he shows 99.

Couple hours in and I'm down, but I'm playing solid and feeling fine.  The breaks are really helping me out, and the warm up routine is really great.  It helps me remember what I'm trying to do and focus.

Then it started to turn around.  Some new old guy in early position makes it $15.  The annoying guy calls.  I reraise to $50 with AQ.  They both call.  Flop comes out 764.  Not the best flop.  They both check.  I bet the minimum I thought I could get away with, $65.  They both fold.  Yes.

I raise with AQ again to $25 after 1 limper.  2 calls including this old lady on my left.  Flop is Q92 rainbow.  Decent flop.  Checks to me, I bet $50, the lady calls.  I figure she could have a set, JT for the straight draw, or a queen.  Not much else.  Heavily weighted towards the queens for sure just based on combinatorics, although I didn't actually do the math at the time.  There are 6 combos of sets, 16 combos of JT, and if she could have AQ, KQ, JQ, QT, that's 30 combos of queens.

Turn is a queen.  Now I'm feeling pretty good.  I bet out 5 green chips - $125.  She goes all in for maybe $150 more.  I call.  River is a king.  She eventually shows QT and I win a decent pot.  Sweet, I'm back in black for the session.

Later an old guy raises in early position.  I look down at two red aces.  I raise to $50.  Kind of a big raise but why not?  People will call anyway if they have a big hand, so there's no good reason to make it less.  Now the button makes it $125!  YES!!!

The old guy folds.  The reraiser has about $900 more.  I reraise to $300 total.  He calls.  Obviously he has a big hand, but I figured no matter what happens after the flop, I'm doing OK overall because I got so much in preflop.

Flop is K-x-x with three diamonds.  I have the red aces so I also have the flush draw.  I don't love the king.  I'm not going to check fold though especially with the flush draw.  So I bet out smaller hoping that he would come along with AK or QQ or whatever (although realistically I didn't think he would have AK).  I bet $300, he goes all in, I call.  It was about $700 in on the flop.  River is the diamond and I flip up my hand.  He flips up his KK in disgust and walks out.  MONSTER pot!!!!

Not much else happened from there.  I had a great session and luck was on my side.  That's a great feeling.  Won about $1100, but better yet I think I played great and stayed in control.  Can't wait for the next session!