Epic no chop story

I went up to Red Rock last night and played in the 2/5 game for a couple hours.  Game was decent.  I played one hand that was pretty interesting.

Folds around to the small blind, I'm in the big blind.  Guy asks if I want to chop.  I say I always play.  I've played with this guy before and he has given me shit about not chopping, although I never got in a situation where I didn't chop with him specifically.  He gets grumpy about it and calls. 

I look down at Q-Q.  Perfect situation, not chopping here.  :-)  So I raise it to 20 total. 

He snap-shoves on me for like $430!!!!

I just sit back in my chair and am like whoa... I did not expect to be in this situation.  I had about $530 in front of me so I had him covered.  As a general rule I do NOT want to put a ton in preflop with Q-Q.  I mean Q-Q is a hand where if I raise to 20 and someone raises me to 60, I'm either set mining or sometimes even folding.  I just don't like to F around with Q-Q (although maybe this is a weak spot in my game).

Kenna James at Red Rock 2/5 NL

Anyway, I have played with this guy a bit and have heard good people talk about how he is good for the game and it sounds like he's not a very good player.  And I've seen him go crazy in some hands.  So adding that info together with the fact that I know this guy is pissed off that I don't chop, I decided to call.

So I call and he says good call, and that he was going to do that with any 2 cards basically to teach me a lesson because he thinks it's disrespectful to casual players to not chop and blah blah blah, and he flips up the 10-9 offsuit!  Sick spot.

Flop : J-9-4.  Turn, 10, gross, but at least I have a ton of outs (K, Q, J, 8, 4).  16 outs, pretty damn good draw to win still.  River, brick.  So I ship this guy a $850 pot.

 That was pretty gross.  I didn't sweat it though, just rebuy casually.  I think I broke the guy's brain, he obviously 100% didn't expect that to work out and even though that he won the pot, I mentally owned him at that point and I think I'll have some kind of magic mental control over that guy for a while.  He went on some weird tilt after winning, and eventually left the game.  He kept complaining that I was a "professional" and obviously could not handle my mad skillz at the table.  :-)  Also I think he got frustrated when I raised with 6-4 suited, checked to the river, I hit a 6 and check-called him when he bet with 9 high.

Later I got some of it back.  Bunch of people limp and I raise to 20 on the button with 6-6.  Flop is sick, K-6-3 rainbow.  Does not get better than that.  Checks to me, $50, 1 caller.  Turn is the worst card in the deck, 7.  Makes the only draw.  He checks, I bet $75, he calls.  So I think I'm probably OK now.  River is a 2, great card.  He checks, I bet $200, he calls.  Said he had 2 pair.  So I did get some money back.

I ended up losing $320, but it was a ton better than losing the $600 I was down at one point.  Pretty good night considering the beat I took, and also that besides the set I didn't have any other really good hands to play. 

Venetian 2/5 Sunday, Monday

Super quick post about a couple sessions this weekend at Venetian.  Nothing that interesting, just some nice hits.

One SICK pot I played was with pocket aces.  Guy raises to 20.  I reraise to 55.  Guy cold calls out of the blind, and the raiser calls.  Flop comes Q-J-5.  Checks to me, I bet out 75.  They both call.  This pot is getting ridiculously big.  Turn is an offsuit 4.  Check to me.  At this point there is like (55*3) + (75*3) = 165 + 225 = 390 in the pot.  I have a little over 400 left, so I just shoved.  The guy in the blind folded.  The other guy took a little while and called.  It was great he didn't snap call because I figured as long as I didn't get snap called I was good.  River was a jack which was a little scary (nowhere near as scary as a queen though) and my aces were good.  $1200 pot.

Later I got A-A again on the button and made it 30 after a bunch of people limped.  Guy in the blind makes it 100.  He had me covered, so I was a little scared to play A-A this deep.  So I over-raised it a bit (in my opinion) and made it $300 total.  He folded.  I normally would have made it a bit less (like $240) but I didn't want to get called and have to play super deep with a pretty tough hand to play, even in position.  Lot of potential to lose a bunch playing A-A there.

Played a TERRIBLE hand on Sunday that really haunted me for the rest of the day, but I have to just let it go.  :-)  I raise with K-J offsuit to 15, get called out of the big blind.  Flop comes A-A-10.  I bet 15, he calls.  I figure I have the gutshot so I can bet it.  When he called I just didn't really feel like he had the ace.  I really put him on a 10, but that was completely based on feel and ignored the fact that he was a 70 YEAR OLD MAN.  LMAO.  I am such an idiot.  But fine, maybe he just has a 10.  The turn comes out and it's a 4.  He checks, I bet 40, he calls.  At this point I should be 100% confident that the guy has an ace.  It's completely insane to think otherwise.  But the river comes out another blank, he checks, I bet like 110, he insta-calls with A-Q.  STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!  That one really pissed me off because I've heard people talking about 3 barrel bluffs on podcasts saying that in general, you're just throwing money away doing them.  And plus if you just LOOK at the guy and what his typical play style will be, it was SO retarded to throw away the last 110 on him.  On the turn, maybe a bad idea but fine.  But on the river that's just suicide.  Competely stupid. 

On Monday I played a short session and cashed out +$225.  Basically flopped a set and got some value out of an old lady, that was my main hand. 

More poker tonight!  Probably more Venetian, I'm running good there so far.

Best session in a while

Bellagio

I played a ton of poker this weekend.  On Friday night, I played 1/3 NL with my wife at the Wynn.  On Saturday, I played 1/2 at Red Rock and later, 2/5 NL at Bellagio.  On Sunday I ventured over to the Venetian.  When all was said and done, I won $400 this weekend.  My best session though was at the Bellagio.  I played for 5.5 hours and broke dead even, but I think I played about as good as I've played in a very long time.

Few hands from the Bellagio 2/5 on Saturday:

I call 20 preflop with 10-10.  The raiser was in early position.  Flop comes out 9-7-3.  He bets 20.  I raise to 55.  He calls.  Turn is a 3.  He checks, I check.  I figure he probably has one of two hands : an AK/AQ type of hand, or a JJ+ type of hand.  Since my hand has good showdown value I'm just going to try to check it down, and maybe use it as a bluff catcher on the end.  The river is another card below 9.  He now bets out 110.

I definitely thought about calling.  However, I felt like this person was a pretty tight player overall and I didn't feel like this was a bluff.  He was looking at me (not away) which is one of those Caro tells that someone is bluffing.  However, based on the fairly large bet size, the fact that I thought he might be a reasonably good player, and the fact that I hadn't seen him bluff other times, I figured I'd just let it go.  If he bet less I think I may have called.  Just the overall feel of the situation I got was that he didn't look nervous, and there were really no legitimate betting hands that I could beat.  In my mind this was one of those spots that would have been easy to call, but overall I think it was a good fold and I saved myself $110 there.

I had a couple huge hands where I got zero value, which was frustrating.  Maybe there wasn't anything I could do to get more out of them, but either way I think I could have played them differently.

First, I called a raise out of the blind with 4-4.  Flop comes K-7-4 and there are 3 people in.  I check to the raiser, he bets 30, I raise to 75, he folds Q-Q faceup.  This one I think I played fine.  If he didn't have a king, it was going to be hard to get much more out of him.  I could have lead out, but whatever. 

lol

Next, I raise with Q-J suited.  Flop comes K-T-9 with the T-9 of my suit.  SICK flop, just absolutely hammered this flop.  Now some guy leads out into me for $30.  This seems like a pretty good spot to raise.  I didn't actually hit anything on the flop so it's more likely that he has a king.  If he has a flush draw or a straight draw, I want to raise.  Basically there was no reason against raising here, but I just called.  In retrospect I could have put in a small raise, like to 75 maybe.  Or hell, maybe even a min-raise even though I'm not generally a fan of that.  So I just called, the turn was a blank, I bet 80, he folded.  I also could have bet much less on the turn, like $50 I think.

Next, I call a raise out of the blind with 5-5.  Flop comes 8-5-4.  I check, it checks around (3 ways).  The turn is an 8.  I guess I should have bet there, but I checked again.  I figured nobody hit anything on the flop, and I seriously doubted the 8 would help anyone, so I might as well check again (plus there is like zero chance of being drawn out on).  River is a 10 and it brings a flush.  I bet out 40, everyone folds. On this one, I could have pretty easily bet out on the flop small, or maybe the same on the turn.  Definitely a small feeler type of bet seems like it would have made the most sense.  Like whatever the preflop raise size was, putting that out on the turn could potentially have gotten a call from as weak of a hand as A-K.  I probably couldn't have gotten much out of that one but I should have tried.

Then I played some pretty big pots, and some fun ones.  :-)

I raise UTG to $20 with AJs, 2 callers.  I'm not really loving that raise honestly, but whatever.  Flop comes T-8-4 and I flop a flush draw.  First guy checks, I bet 35, call, and then I get check-raised 70 more.  I felt like I had reasonable odds to call especially since this guy probably had a big hand, so including the implied odds I felt it was worth a call.  60 preflop + 110 on the flop + 70, so I need to call 70 to win 240, so around 3.5 to 1 odds.  I need like 5 to 1 or so if I'm only going to see one card, but that's where the implied odds kick in.  So I call, I miss, he bets 150, I fold. 

Neverending nightclub line

Fun with floating : I raise preflop in late position with 7-5 offsuit.  Girl in the blind calls me.  Flop is J-6-3.  She bets out 15.  I call.  I figure I have the gutshot, and maybe I can take it away later.  Plus F you for betting out into my raise!  :-)  Turn comes a king, she bets out 25, now I raise to 75.  She folds.  I love representing strength when an overcard comes on later streets, thats something new I'm messing around with.  It's pretty nice because it's hard to have the turn hit you if the flop also hit you.  She could have flopped a set here, but at least if that happened I can easily give up.  And if she did have a somewhat big hand maybe I river my straight and get paid.

This one was fun.  Guy raises to 20, I call with 87s.  There are 4 people on the flop.  It comes A-K-6 with 1 spade.  Checks around.  The turn is an ace.  Checks to the raiser, he bets out 35.  I'm just like, this guy does NOT have an ace here.  I thought he would for sure bet it if he had it on the flop.  So I just call, planning on taking it away on the river.  River kinda messed up my plan, it was another ace.  :-)  So now I basically have to represent quads if I want to bluff.  AND, the guy bets out 65!  Still, I went with it and decided to rep quads.  I figured a min-raise would be great, totally looks SO strong.  So I make it 130 and he insta-folds.  Even though I have to represent quads there which is a little silly, it did fit completely with the story I was trying to tell, in my opinion. 

This next hand was the best I've played in forever.  At least, it felt amazing.

I limp in with A2s after another guy limps.  I was listening to some podcast that talked about limping with suited aces to encourage others to limp with dominated flush draws, so that's what I was thinking (whether it's actually smart or not).  Next guy makes it 30 to go.  2 people call, I call, and we see the flop 5 ways. 

Bellagio hallway

The flop is T-8-7 with 2 of my suit.  First guy checks, I check, preflop raiser fires out 70.  Guy behind me calls.  I was thinking about calling the 70 already but when the guy behind me calls I think I definitely have to call.  I'm getting 4 to 1 on the call (70 to 150 + 140), definitely good odds.  So I call.  Turn comes out an offsuit king, and there is now like 360 in the pot.  First guy checks, and I fire out 175!  :-)

I was thinking, the pot is fucking huge.  The guy behind me had something like 350 or 400 left.  If he shoved, I'd just call and hope to hit.  But I figured again, it's an overcard to the board so unless this guy flopped a set, he would be pretty scared by my big bet.  Even if he had A-A he would have to be a little afraid that I flopped a set or straight or something.  Well, I guess that doesn't make THAT much sense since my call did close action on the flop.  Maybe it would have made more sense if I put in a monster raise on the flop.  Either way though, they both folded and I took down a huge pot with nothing.  That felt unbelivably good.

It was fun playing at Bellagio.  There are a lot of things to hate about Bellagio.  The self park is really far.  The room is SUPER crowded.  The tables are too close together.  The floor is not particularly friendly.  But the room does have an amazing energy that you just don't get anywhere else.  It's SUPER busy.  At 1 AM, there were still 5 2/5 NL games and even 5 5/10 NL games, each with a 20 person waiting list.  That is completely unheard of in Vegas.  There are a ton of high limit games running, and I saw an all star lineup playing in Bobby's Room : Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Gus Hansen among others were in there.  I also saw James Woods out in the hallway talking to some people.  It's just THE place to be for poker in Vegas.  So for that reason I did really enjoy it.  I'll probably go back again next weekend.

I ended up losing $300 on Saturday, and winning a whopping 1 dollar at 2/5 NL.  Overall though I was really happy with how I played and it gave me good confidence in my game going forward at 2/5 NL.

Monday at Wynn

Played last night at Wynn.  Nothing special, and I bounced back and forth between 1/3 and 2/5 NL.

Sat down at 1/3 NL, played for 10 minutes and lost $70.  Haha.  Basically played like 4 hands, raised 2 or 3 of them, cbet the flop and got called, had to give up on both.  lol.  Then went over to 2/5 NL.

The 2/5 game was too tough.  It was bad for a couple of reasons.  First, there weren't any really terrible players there.  There were 1 or 2, but at a 2/5 game I can do so much better than that.  There were a couple guys that seemed really good, a few just super tight old guys, and one LAG guy that might not have been great but he was definitely putting the pressure on.  Second, I was in literally the worst seat at the table.  The two best players in my opinion were in the two seats to my direct left.

Raised a few hands and the guy 2 seats to my left would just call me, call a cbet on the flop, and take the pot away from me on the turn.  I tried to trap him a bit once when I had KK.  I raised preflop, cbet the jack high flop, checked the turn out of position (and he checked) and then bet the river and he folded. 

Biggest pot I played at 2/5 was against the LAG guy (pictured, white v-neck).  I am in the big blind and call 10 more with 10-9 suited.  Heads up the flop comes K-7-6.  I check and call 15.  His bet looked weak, and I have a gutshot and overs that could be good as well.  Turn is a good card for me (maybe), a 10.  I check/call 45.  River, 9.  Gives me 2 pair.  I check, he throws out a $100 bill.  I throw out a bill.  8-6 (straight).  Damn.

Eventually I just figured the game was too tough and there was no reason for me to play it when I could just play 1/3 instead.  Live to fight another day.  So I got on the 1/3 list and they immediately started a new game, which was nice.

Jumping between 1/3 and 2/5 is really nice.  When I go back to 1/3, I feel like I just have such a huge edge on the game.  The money feels a lot smaller, which makes bluffing a lot easier.  The players aren't as good so the game feels easier in general.  And I can buy in relatively deep ($500) and feel comfortable with that amount of money, whereas other people in the game might have 200-300 in front of them and be scared about losing it.  I think the main difference is one of confidence.  I feel comfortable in that game, and once I start playing 2/5 the 1/3 game seems like it's beneath me, which is fantastic.  It's the opposite of the way I see myself at 2/5.  When I go to 2/5, I have $500 and I know I look super short and weak to the other guys at the table.  Often times people have 2k, 3k+ in front of them.  That's who I want to be eventually, and it's great to ease into that by playing a little there, gaining some experience, and moving back to just crush 1/3 when I'm not playing 2/5.  Plus it's awesome because it gives me a wider range of games I can play.  Or if I get a huge win at a game, I can always go to the other stakes and immediately get off my table and lock up a win if I want to.  In the future I imagine I'll want to play deeper, but for now locking up $600 is a good idea with my somewhat short bankroll.

So I get a little beat down at 2/5, go back to 1/3 and just own for a while.  :-)  I won the first like 5 out of 6 pots and I don't think I paired up once.  Straddle with K-Ts.  2 callers.  Raise 20 more (to 26).  2 callers.  Flop Q-Q-x, first guy checks, I bet out 40, win.  Raise with A-K, one caller.  Flop is all babies (9 high) and I just check, because in the book I've been reading lately it says that people peel more liberally on a board with all small cards.  Plus I do have some showdown value against all high card hands.  Checks around on the flop, turn, and river (which was a queen).  Guy had J-Ts so I won that pot too.  I was up like $75 in the first few minutes.  Ended up going up $150, eventually only ended up winning $71, but I was still happy with it.

Overall I lost $220 yesterday, but I got some good experience playing 2/5 which is always good.  Not playing tonight, maybe tomorrow though!

Big day - Wynn and the Nugget

It's been an up and down weekend.  On Friday night I went to Red Rock and played 2/5 NL and won $600 in like 2 hours.  On Saturday, I went back to the Rock and gave it all back.  Then today, everything's coming up milhouse.  Had a good win at both the Wynn and downtown at the Golden
Nugget.  Won almost $1000 today.

So many hands, I'm not sure where to begin.  I got a little crazy with bluffs this weekend but luckily it worked out overall.  At Red Rock on Friday I ended up 4-betting A-Q suited to $150 preflop.  I raised to 15, aggressive guy reraises me to 45.   I reraised to 150, hoping to take it down.  He calls *gulp*.  Flop comes bad, like K-9-x with 2 clubs (and I have no clubs), I bet out $225, he folds.  And I show. 

Today at Wynn I had a pretty crazy bluff hand too.  I called a $10 raise with A-J.  The preflop raiser had gone crazy with some hands and I was hoping to flop something big on him.  We saw the flop 4 ways and the flop was 9-9-3.  The raiser bet out $14.  I raised to $37.  He called.  I didn't think his bet felt very strong, so I thought I could just take it there.  Then he called and I thought maybe he had overcards or something.  Turn was a king.  He checked.  I bet $50.  He raised to $110.  At this point, I thought he probably hit a king.  But I thought that since I raised the flop and bet out on the turn, I could really represent a super strong hand like a 9 with a reraise here.  So I counted out a $150 raise, and made it $260 total.  He folded and I felt indestructible.  Unfortunately, later I saw him coming out of the bathroom and he said that he had J-7 and knew I was bluffing but didn't think he could raise me off of the hand, but whatever.  Not sure if that is true or not.  Again, I showed this bluff and I really need to stop doing that.  At least after I showed I played super tight and waited for some big hands.  Didn't really capitalize on it, but I did get to bet-bet-bet my way to success with A-2 on a Q-2-2-?-J board and got called all the way by Q-8.  I think it was a limped pot and I bet 7, 22, and 65 after the flop.

Of course, I had some bluffs go wrong too.  I think I reraised preflop on Friday night with A-Q suited at the Rock as well, bet $75 on the flop when I missed and got called, and had to give up on it.  Then today at Golden Nugget I sat down with $500 at the 1/2 NL game and the very first hand I was dealt I got A-K.  I raised to 10.  Got 3 callers.  Flop came all small cards with 2 clubs.  I don't think I had any hope for a flush.  Checked to me, I bet 25, 1 caller.  Turn was a small overcard, like a 9 after the 7 high flop.  Guy bets 25 into me.  I felt like the bet was weak and maybe he was trying to set the price with a flush draw.  So I raised to 85.  He called.  On the river he bets 80 into me and I fold, and it sounded like he flopped a big hand.  My bluff was stupid here, I had no reason to think he was bluffing me at all.  I literally just sat down and had no reads on anyone, and just wanted to be a hero. 

I got my stack back to even at the 1/2 game at the Nugget by flopping a set of jacks vs AA and getting some value out of it.  Not a ton.  I called a $20 reraise preflop out of the blind with J-J and 3 people saw the flop.  Flop was K-J-x and I check-called 40.  Probably should have just bet out.  Turn was a blank and we both checked.  River was a queen, and I bet out $80.  He called.

After that, I got called for the $5/$5 NL game they had going.  There was about a billion dollars on the table and people were yelling and going crazy.  Sounded like a good game and I was hoping to just flop some big hands and crush.  I get in and on my 3rd hand (in the small blind) I have pocket 3s.  I had $500 in front of me to start the hand.  It gets raised to 30 and I call.  5 people saw the flop.  The flop was pretty damn good for 3s.  3-4-7 with 2 diamonds.  I check, it checks to the raiser and he bets $100.  The next guy calls $100, and clearly this guy was a really crazy player that everyone could not stop talking about.  Like this guy was busting everyone and just playing insane.  The action is on me next, and with all that money in the pot I just ship the rest of my stack in for $475 total.  The preflop raiser folds, and the crazy guy calls.  He called me with 4-6 suited (not diamonds).  So he had middle pair and a gutshot.  Luckily the turn and river were a deuce and an ace, and I more than doubled up.  When the ace hit the preflop raiser started going crazy, because he had folded pocket aces and would have made a bigger set on me!  I was also lucky this guy didn't happen to have 4-5 instead of 4-6.  Hand would have gone exactly the same and he would have made a straight on me. 

I didn't really play many hands after that.  I had Q-Q and called a raise preflop once, and had pocket aces twice and in both cases I didn't get to see a flop.  In one hand I limp-reraised the crazy guy from 15 to 55 and he folded.  I was OK with that though because I didn't want to play that hand postflop with $1200 in front of me anyway, he would have made it really difficult.  And the second time there was a $10 straddle, and after a few callers I made it $50 and everyone folded.  I didn't really want to play that much anyway.  Once I get over $1000 at a 2/5 game (or in this case, 5/5 but basically the same thing) I just don't feel super comfortable.  I'd rather sit down with $500, double up or run it up to maybe 1200-1300, and just cash out.  Maybe play 1/2 or whatever for a while, lock up the win, and come back.  I'll probably feel more comfortable playing deeper once I have a bigger bankroll.  Right now I'm sitting on about $6k which is great, but I'd like to avoid the possibility of losing $1200 in one pot if I can for now.

Overall, great weekend.  Was pretty much a wash (up $60) between Friday and Saturday, but then I end up winning almost $1000 today.  Felt awesome.  :-)

Red Rock 2/5 NL

Played 2/5 at Red Rock last night.  I had a limited amount of time to play so I got there and just said, put me on every list.  I was fine with playing 2/4 limit, Omaha, 2/5, whatever.  It's nice to have that freedom, because in the past I definitely wouldn't have been OK with playing 2/5 since my bankroll was pretty short.

I immediately got into a 2/5 NL game, so I was cool with that.  I sat down and it was a full game, but I quickly realized it was a must move game.  They didn't fill me in on that when I sat down, but whatever. 

I figure if I'm going to play 2/5 and eventually higher limits, I'm going to have to learn how to play at shorter tables anyway.  So if I'm at a must move game that is 6 or 5 handed, I should just embrace it and continue to learn how to play under those conditions.  In theory if I'm playing well and we are shorthanded with some bad players, it will be better for me than playing full ring anyway.  Once I get better at playing shorthanded.

I didn't play for that long, and I didn't get in that many interesting hands.  I'm struggling to determine what the best raise size for me is preflop.  I've been using really small raise sizes at 1/2 and 1/3.  Basically like 6 or 7 dollars at 1/2, 8 dollars at 1/3 if nobody else is in the pot yet.  At 2/5, you can't raise in non-$5 increments.  So I'm thinking $15 or $20 for my opening raises.  I've been using $15 and probably will continue to do so, although I'm raising to $20 in earlier positions sometimes.  I do tend to raise with garbage so that's why I like $15 more than $20 in a lot of spots.  Just keep the pot smaller when I'm raising with non-premium hands. 

Back in the day, $30 was my standard raise.  I would play super tight and always make it $30 preflop.  I feel like I'm probably raising too small right now, but I don't know.  Often times in these games I do see the guys that I perceive as better players raising larger amounts, but not all the time.  Maybe I'll play around with some larger raise sizes.  I think at $15 and $20 the different isn't that big as far as making people fold hands preflop, so I tend to just like $15.  Once you start getting to $25 though that seems like a big enough raise where people might fold more preflop.  I guess hey, why not explore $10 too?  Seems pretty lousy but I can give it a shot sometimes.  Like maybe under the gun with 4-4, that type of thing.  Weak raise, but at least I raised so people might think I have a big hand.  Then when I lead the flop with my set it won't be as obvious.  And plus I think putting a raise out there typically blocks people from reraising, because someone might open to 20 or 25, but they aren't going to reraise as often even if it's to the same 20 or 25.  Just my opinion though, I don't really have facts to back that one up.

In one hand a guy in middle position opened to $15, another guy called (actually, the two guys in my picture above), and I called on the button with K-Q.  Flop came either 10-10-8 or 10-8-8, I think the latter.  It checked around (about 5 people in the pot).  Turn was another blank.  Checked to the preflop raiser, he bet 40.  Other guy folds, I raise to 110, he folds.  Seemed like a good spot to pick up the pot.  While that flop is probably a way ahead, way behind kind of flop for something like A-A, there are a lot of people in the pot, and plus there are some draws out there.  I don't know if there was a flush draw or not, but it didn't seem like a great spot to just check if you had an overpair.  If it was like 10-3-3 rainbow, that could have made more sense.  So I was happy with that play.

At one point this old guy next to me was exposing his hand EVERY TIME.  It was crazy.  He had about 800-900 in front of him, and I could see his cards every single time.  He was playing SO tight!  I couldn't even believe it.  One time this kid raised in early position to $15 total.  Old guy looks down, 8-8.  FOLD.  WHAT?!?!???!?!  Wow, so ridiculous.  I think maybe he was on his phone and just was not trying to play a pot while he was on his phone, but if you are folding 8-8 there, just get up and leave the table.  That makes ZERO sense. 

Of course, the one time I don't see his hand was in this pot.  This tilted me a bit.  I am under the gun and look down at 10-10.  I make it 20.  Old guy calls, and I'm already like, wow, what kind of hand can he possibly have here, he has been playing so tight.  And I didn't get a chance to see his hand.  2 other people call.  Flop comes Q-x-x with a flush draw.  I bet 45, old guy raises to 145, I fold.  I felt like I had to bet the flop, although on average this guy is calling with a pretty damn strong range I think.  Maybe he didn't expose his hand that time, I'm really hoping he didn't.  Because after that he was covering his cards with another hand when he looked at them.  I think just when he was on his phone he was exposing his hand.  That sucked, I could tell you his exact 2 cards every other hand, but this one time I don't see them and I'm in a pot with him and he beats me out of it.  I guess just based on the fact he was playing SO tight, maybe I could have just check-folded that flop, but that seems SO tight I don't think it makes a lot of sense.

Had another hand where I had A-10 suited in early position and made it 15.  Got called by the two worst players at the table, so it was a good situation.  Flop was A-J-4 with 1 heart.  I bet out 20 and got called by 1 guy.  Turn was a 5 of hearts.  So now I pick up the flush draw.  I bet 35, he calls.  River, queen.  He had about 130 left.  At this point, I didn't know exactly where I was at but I didn't feel like he had 2 pair.  I figured he had a weaker ace.  A-K through A-J didn't make sense, because I didn't put him on a strong hand preflop, and if he had A-J I figure I would have gotten raised by now.  Probably same for A-4, A-5.  So on the river I bet the rest of his money and he folded.  In retrospect maybe I should have just bet like 75.  Only thing that sucks there is if he raises I have to call or else I'm folding for an extra $50.  But maybe $75 could have been perceived as more of a bluff than putting him all-in.  Probably overthinking it though, I think my bet was fine. 

I ended up winning $40.  At my min/max, I was up like $120 and down about $50, so leaving up $40 is fine.  Wasn't the most exciting game, but it was nice to get some more table time at 2/5 NL.  The dream of playing 2/5 again is way more exciting than the reality of it, but I'm definitely excited to get back into it and see where it takes me.  I'm optimistic that I can definitely win some good money playing 2/5 in the coming months.

Wynn last night, new blog promotion idea

Last night I went up to the Wynn to play.  I didn't know if I would play 1/3 or 2/5.  I figure 2/5 is probably tougher than average at Wynn so I might just wait and play elsewhere.  Also, maybe I should just focus on weekend play for 2/5.  So I ended up playing 1/3.

The game was fucking tough.  I lost.  It was frustrating.  And yet, at the end of the session I had an awesome time and it was one of the more enjoyable sessions that I've had in a while. 

There was one guy there that was FUCKING GOOD.  Like the best I've seen at 1/3 basically ever.  Or maybe he was just a maniac with no talent, but it looked like he was playing awesome.  3 betting constantly, and 4 betting preflop multiple times as well.  Just really owning the table.  I was in awe for sure.  I just never see anyone crushing like that.

Some other guys were good too.  There were a couple just old rocks that were playing super tight.  There was one younger guy, talking about how they have a team of people they are backing in WSOP events, and he seemed to be positionally-aware and was playing pretty TAG basically.  The rest of the table just seemed relatively tight.  Not a good table, and if I was really smart I should have just changed tables.  But, I didn't.  :-)

I was in a ton of interesting hands.  Here are some of them.

Few people limp to the button, the TAG guy I described earlier.  He raised to 18.  Pretty big raise, but there were some limpers.  This guy seemed to be playing more hands around the button and cutoff.  I had Q-Q in the blind.  I figured the guy on the button could be stealing so my hand was most likely the best hand (for SURE), so I'd just reraise and probably take it down.  Plus it would help me avoid having to play this tough hand out of position.  I raised to 48.  Folds back to him, he makes it 125.  This hand was crazy.  You NEVER see 3-bets at 1/3 without a huge hand, and 4 bets, thats just insane.  That guy ended up playing pretty snug overall so I think I made a good fold and he probably had aces or kings. 

Really good LAG guy raises to 13.  I have A-Q suited in position.  I reraise to 33.  Now this guy 4-bets me up to 75!  To other people I'd definitely fold, but I've seen this guy be super aggressive and I thought this could even be a bluff.  Just like F you, get out of my pot, I own this table.  I thought about reraising, but I didn't want to commit my whole stack and obviously I didn't have a great hand to reraise with.  It would have basically been a bluff if I did reraise.  However, I still thought my hand might be ahead of his range (maybe this is me being an idiot though) so I called.  I was definitely thinking about making a big move on the flop.  Flop came out K-x-x with 2 diamonds.  I have spades.  He bets out 69.  I definitely thought about just pushing over the top here and took a while to think.  I just didn't think this guy had a good hand every time and thought he could still easily be bluffing here.  Although, again, maybe that's just me being a dumbass.  I thought about it, and obviously this board is terrible for me.  I have no redraws, one overcard, just nothing going on.  No backdoor flush, nothing.  Plus, maybe this guy really does have A-A or K-K or whatever.  Who knows.  So I folded.  I'll pick a better spot.  I guarantee I would have shoved if I flopped a spade draw, and maybe if the board was just all babies I could have shoved too.  For better or worse.  :P  Overall it's probably better the board came the way it did, I don't really need to shove 300 in with A-Q no pair.

LAG guy raises to 15 in the cutoff.  TAG guy calls him on the button.  I'm in the blind with A-J.  I figure I can easily be ahead of both of their ranges.  The LAG guy raises in position a LOT (and just raises a lot period).  The TAG guy has been pretty quiet but he has been calling the LAG guy in position sometimes.  My guess is because he knows the LAG guy has a wide range and he is probably ahead of a lot of it.  So my A-J looks pretty good to me right now.  I reraise to 50.  Probably could have made it 60.  The LAG guy thinks about it for a while, grabs a huge stack of chips (which had me mentally freaking out) and eventually he just calls.  The other guy just shakes his head like, this pot is pretty crazy right now but how can I fold, and he calls too.  So now I'm in a super bloated pot with A-J out of position against the two best people at the table.  lol.  I still think my hand is probably ahead of a lot of their range.  Flop comes K-9-x with 2 clubs (I have no clubs).  At this point, I showed a lot of strength preflop and I'm not just giving up.  So I bet out 110 and cross my fingers.  They both fold.  Whew.  I'm not usually getting myself in spots like that.  But it was pretty exciting. 

Another fun hand.  I had 9-9 and again, the LAG guy raises, this time to 13.  I call.  Everyone else folds.  Now this guy bets 25 dark and says "I have a good feeling about this one".  So the dealer is about to put the flop out and I do something I have literally never done before in my life... I call dark!  LOL!  So the flop action is already done before the flop even shows up.  My reasoning was, I think my range is well ahead of his preflop.  I don't want to be scared off of the flop, so I'm just going to completely ignore the flop and call dark.  The flop was A-Q-4, so I was pretty happy I called dark (or maybe sad) because I certainly would have had a hard time calling if I considered the flop.  In fact if he hadn't bet dark I would have folded the flop.  Turn was another 4.  He checks, I check.  River, 7.  He says, I bet you have 7s and checks.  I check too and flip up the 9s.  He had pocket 8s.  :-)  So I won that one.

I was down as much as 300 at one point, but eventually only ended up losing 130.  I was pretty happy with that because I didn't flop a ton of big hands or anything, and I really thought through some tough situations and played some real poker.  It was a ton of fun.

As far as my blog goes, I don't think anyone's reading it (although comment on it if you are!).  What I'm thinking about doing is just printing up some pieces of paper with my blog address, Twitter account info, and email (the.best.ever.poker@gmail.com).  Then if someone is like "what did you have?" I can say I'm not going to tell you, but I'll blog about it and you can see the blog here.  That might get people viewing my blog and talking about it, and getting me more interested in it.  In fact I think I'll do that today!