Hella Hold'em

Pretty average night at the boats.

I headed for Trump after work last night. Randy was out for the night, so I settled in for a few hours of poker. I got there around 9:30pm and proceeded to play until 2:15am or so.

My best hand of the night was when I flopped quad seven's. The only thing that could have been better is if someone else had flopped quad eights or something (therefore triggering the bad beat jackpot). It was early in the night, a kill pot, and with 5 people in on the flop, I managed to keep two of 'em around to pay me off on the river.

Very late in the night, one guy who had seen the quad 7's questioned why I slowplayed the hand. "Well," I said, "The flop came 7-7-3, so that pair of seven's scares people with the potential trips. Someone pairing their 3 isn't going to feel all that strong - it's not like having a pair of Kings or something. If I went crazy betting, who in the world would have stuck around?" I know this is no-fold-em hold'em, but there was no way anyone liked that flop but me. And, it had been raised preflop by the button (I was one off the button), so after checking the flop (3 people checked ahead of me), I figured I was pretty safe when the button continued with a follow up bet. I check-called down the streets, and kept everybody in to see the turn, but lost 2 after turn betting. The third dropped out on river betting, and I check-raised the button, who was the last guy in. He called with nothing (??!?? thanks for doing my betting for me??) and I scooped a very nice pot.

I overheard one of the railbirds telling her husband (who was playing), "Wow, she has a great poker face - I had no idea!" LOL. That's probably because, unless I'm in conversation (which is rarely), I probably look cranky at the table :) I usually have my chin propped up on my hand, and stare at the board. I try to do most of my people-watching with peripheral vision, unless they're oblivious, in which case I can stare right at them. I just watch the game. I probably look too serious. I try to smile a lot when I first sit down to get the good first impression going, but I AM watching the game, and I AM serious, so when I'm not thinking about my image, that's probably how I come across... which doesn't seem to discourage action as much as flopping quads does.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a whole lot else going on for me in the way of good cards. I saw no monster hands in the pocket. AK was my best hand (other than the 77), and it won me a small pot whereby I was totally dominated by a rock playing K9 who'd flopped two pair. The turn and river came 10-10, giving me a higher kicker for my board-created two pair, winning the hand. I also saw AQs and raised it up preflop, and everybody folded to me.

Flopping quads in the first hour of a game REALLY kills the action that opponents are willing to give to you. They think you have quads every freakin' time.

Other than that, I have no real tales to tell. The fishes were catching, and I lost a couple good hands (including a button-played A8s with 2 opponents, when I flopped two pair and lost to A4 offsuit when a four-flush of the wrong color threw up all over the board).

I ended up leaving down -$3, the cost of a Gatorade (red or purple, please). With the lack of playable hands I saw, I'll take it.

With as few playable hands as I've seen lately, one may be inclined to believe that I'm playing way too tight, but honestly - I'm not even seeing good drawing hands. No suited connectors, not many big suited aces or big suited kings, not even any suited one-gappers like QT or J9. Nothing I can even stretch for a late position play. At one point last night, I saw ten-nine offsuit and almost played it, thinking - well, at least it's connected! I folded...

I did see 96 suited once on the button and almost played it (gettin' frisky and all), but there were only 3 other people in the pot (one limper and the blinds), so I didn't think there were enough people in the pot to have any sort of positive EV. I folded, and the flop came 9-9-6. D'oh! I also folded a K4 suited in middle position preflop, and would have taken the pot with the spade flush. But, come on - you can't play King 4!! What are you hoping for in that case? If you don't hit your suit, you're screwed, because even flopping a King sucks ass with a crappy kicker and the high likelihood that the fishes will play any king in their fins.

Ahhh well. Tonight, Randy is going to see U2 with his friend Flip (I wish I had a cool name like Flip), so it may be off to Trump again after work for me! Why not, eh? Gotta get back on the upswing :)