Hella Hold'em

Wahooo! I have sat with the poker bloggers, and was not consumed in a single gulp! (It will take some chewing, ha-HA!) That was a ha-HA like a pirate would do, if you can imagine that. It is invigorating not to get eaten alive, and I will as a result carry good poker vibes into tomorrow night's Diamond game, so thank you, oh gracious bloggers, for that!

I was watching the $25NL table on Party Poker where the infamous bloggers sat, casting fear aside and shoving chips this way and that into pots. I watched the chatter more than the cards, and had that feeling like in grade school when you show up on the playground late at lunch on the first day of class, and everybody's already all together playing red rover, and you wanna play too! I'm rather shy by nature (though most people tell me they'd never guess that), so when a seat became available and Party asked me if I wanted to sit down, I panicked and said no! LOL

Then I yelled at myself for being such a child, took a deep breath, and took a seat, armed with my free $20 from Party. Then I realized it was the Ugly Chair. (I haven't played at Party in a while... forgot what the characters all looked like). The chair where the girl actually looks like a guy in a gray cardigan. (No boobs, even! Sheesh!)

And then I folded a lot. :)

The Poker Tracker stats:

Total hands: 139
Voluntarily put $ in pot: 12.23%
Won $ when saw flop: 36.89%
Went to showdown: 26%
Won $ at showdown: 100%
Pre-flop aggression: 0.18%
Post-flop aggression: 2.60
Total aggression (inc. pre-flop): 0.76

I decided to compare these numbers to my first $25NL experience from last week. Surprisingly (or maybe not?) the numbers were similar. I played fewer hands out-of-the-blinds tonight than last week, but aggression numbers are similar (except for the pre-flop raise percentage... just call me Mighty Meek tonight), and I won more showdowns tonight than last week.

As PT started racking up hands on my table, I was none too surprised to see the icons of Great Players start popping up via the auto-rate feature. I was surrounded by eagles and rocks and mouseheads! The mice I would think would be a bad icon but I guess they just ran out of good icons in PT. So my mouse icon is good, anyway. (It's cute at least!) PT needs more icons. But that's another story.

Once my celebrity-induced nerves calmed, and the chatter began, I had a great time. Some stories:

AJ kicked my ass once again. I hate that hand. I swear. Except maybe against some of my less poker obsessed friends. But other than that, never again. Arg! (How many times have I said that this week?) I'm holding the love-hate AJo in late position. (At least I have that going for me). It is folded around to one before me, who raises it to 1.50. I call, button and blinds fold, and we're heads up, ladies and gents! Flop comes A-J-6, 2 hearts onboard. Wahoooooo, top two pair! (More like, flashbacks! No! Make it stop!) Bet comes at me - $3 to a 3.75 pot. Hmmmm. Me = dummy. Shoulda re-raised here. Make that flush draw pay, because my hand was probably still good at this point. I flat called. Turn comes 4 of hearts. It's checked to me; I bet it, 3.00. I am called. Weakness or trap? Doesn't matter - the 4th heart fell on the river, and a 5.00 bet came flying at me. I have no hearts in my hand. Top two pair, foiled again! I didn't pay it off and folded. -7.50 on that hand. I guess it could've been worse. I shoulda pushed out the flush draw. I don't know why I hesitate in that position - I always *think* about betting it to protect my hand, and then for some reason more often than not just gamble and do the "no hearts, no hearts, no hearts" chant. As if THAT will push away the flush draw.

That hand was one of a mere 10 that I played out-of-the-blinds. I was doing the premiums-only thing, with the exception of a couple hands that sucked me in. KJo was one of them, but I was on the button and it folded all the way around to me. I'm thinking at that point that there's a decent chance I've got the best hand here, facing only the blinds. So I raise it to 3.00. Small blind is (unbeknownst to me) holding a mid-pocket pair of 7's and goes all in over the top of me another 6.00. Big blind folds, and I figure it's off to the races if I call. Then I had a horribly bad thought - and I really cannot get into any sort of habit like this (I cursed myself all night for falling victim to the devil on my shoulder in this hand): I thought, "Well, it's free money anyway...." since it was a lure-back bonus from Party Poker I was playing on. I decided to gamble with my free money. I called, and it paid off, lucky for me. I in fact did NOT have the best hand pre-flop, and managed to pull a King on the turn.

I spent most of the night thinking that was a bad play, but after replaying it in PT, though it was a gamble, I now don't think it was as bad of a play as I'd scolded myself for. Pre-flop had me at about 46% to win with the 2 overcards, and considering the action folded to me, and my self-investment with my initial raise, I decided it wasn't a huge loss risk to race heads-up. Who am I fooling... I decided that if I lost, it was free money anyway. Bad bad bad way to think. I thanked my lucky stars after winning that hand, and swore I would not let the "free money" thing get anywhere near my decision making for the rest of the night.

I saw pocket 7's three times - no trips for me. Saw 6's once, ditto. I got to limp in after a bunch of folds to me, one off the button, with A-10 offsuit (one of those blackjack hands I've been trying to get away from). Tonight it paid off, but again, I'm calling it luck and swearing off that hand again. It's like eating chocolate on a diet. One Hershey kiss can't hurt, right? (Ayayayay!)

Pocket Snowmen were was my most profitable hands of the night. Flopped an 8 once for a single-digit profit, and the other instance was a bit crazy. I had the notorious Hammer played against me for the first time (at least, the first time that I've actually seen a showdown with it). I'm in the big blind, and it's folded around except for new-guy who has his BB in automatically. CJ raises it up to 3.00. Button and small blind fold (wow - I see now how hilariously cool it must be to raise it up with 7-2o and see people fold to you). I re-raise to 5.50 - let's see where I'm at. I mean, 8's are on my list of playables but I don't want to get crazy invested with them, either. My advantage, in my head at least, is that I'm nearly heads-up - or, that's what I'm going for, anyway. New guy folds, and indeed we will go heads up. CJ calls. Coming from a tight-aggressive (at least from what I'd seen that night), he's gotta have something. AA or KK would have probably warranted a re-raise over the top of me, so that's not it. Pocket pair? Maybe - I could be big-time beat here. I'd put it at higher than 8's with all that pre-flop raising/calling. AK? Also possible. I'da probably let an AK go, but I'm a wuss that way. Let's see a flop! J-7-2 rainbow. Well - THAT couldn't have helped too much, unless he has pocket J's. I throw out 4.00, get raised to 8.00. I'm thinking to myself, "Did that Jack really help him?!" I just don't think so, and my 8's are good to a pair of 7's or 2's, and I've ruled out trip 7's or 2's. I suppose at this point I'm going by my gut more than anything. I think my hand is good. I re-raise to 12.00. (CJ had to be tickled pink at this point - flopping 2 pair on me with the Hammer, with me betting into him. How sweet is that?) He re-raises to 17.60 all-in, and I call. (Wow - as I'm replaying this hand in PT, I really can't believe I didn't fold by now). Turn-river comes 3-3, giving me 8's and 3's, a higher 2 pair. I take the pot, and then MARVEL at the sheer amount of testicular fortitude required to make such a play with 7-2 offsuit. May I someday have so much bold assertion in me to do such a thing. Had I lost that hand, I don't know what I would have done. I've never had someone showdown a 7-2 to me before (probably because I typically fold to the people that raise me with it). Luck was with me once again - because, as you see, my read on my opponent was COMPLETELY off base!

Another lucky hand that had me racing pre-flop - I called a pre-flop raise of 3.00 with AQ-diamonds against the Roman (pocket 10's). Flop brought me a Lady, and the Lady held up. It's lucky she did, because the board ended up 2-paired, 5's and 6's. Heads-up though, I couldn't much picture a hand that warranted a pre-flop raise, containing a 5 or 6 (at least not from good players), so I held my breath and plowed through that one.

My session lasted 2 1/2 hours, and I left the table with about $75. I am thanking my lucky stars, as I really could have been disseminated on some of those hands, possibly scarred for life! I'll take some positive poker mojo with me tomorrow (err... I guess tonight, if you consider it's after midnight now) to Scott's house and hopefully roll myself into an even bigger win.

I linked up to the bloggers that I hadn't yet blogrolled (well, I'd been reading the blogs via Bloglines notifications but I get lazy about maintaining my linkage on this blog)... that is, for the ones whose Party names I was able to match up to a blog. If you're missing and would like some linkage, feel free to email me (phlyersphan97 - at - comcast - .net) or post a comment.

Thanks, everybody! It was fun, and you can be certain I'll be back!
And with that, I am off to sleep...