Hella Hold'em

I headed out to Trump this past Tuesday night after work. I think I'm going to try to make Tuesdays my regular night, since work is half way to Trump from home. Jose told me a great way to get to Trump to avoid all of the I-80 construction, and it was just the cat's ass.

I was all set to play $6/12, but when I called ahead, I was distracted by a confusing turn in the road and said $3/6 instead. (I should say, the phone distracted me from my ability to pay complete attention to my driving... ahem). So, whatever... it's frustrating late at night when the $6/12 table goes shorthanded anyway, so I was fine with $3/6. I had to wait a few minutes for a seat when I arrived, so I grabbed a fruit punch Gatorade from the nearby deli and had a seat. I caught up on reading a few poker blogs on my Blackberry while I waited. I'm so far behind in my reading. Bloglines has me at 170 unread poker blog postings right now. I swear I'll catch up this weekend. Work is still crazy.... should settle down a bit next week. Or the week after. Ayayayay.

I was seated in the 2s, to the right of a cool black guy named LSD, who I had seen before. I didn't recognize anybody else at the table. To my right, I had a gangster-rap guy who was rapping under his breath the whole time - quite the gambler, I discovered. The 3s was an unremarkable young Asian guy who was quite rock like. In the 4s, an impeccably dressed but trendy guy in a hip looking suit with a pink shirt underneath - but a trendy pink, not a girly pink. He had a bald shaved head, and expensive but classy looking rings on his fingers. He looked like he had money. I'm guessing he was pretty new to casino poker - his hands would shake like leaves any time he had a hand and was in a pot. Otherwise, his demeanor was calm. The remaining seats were somewhat merry-go-round-ish, and I don't remember much of who was in them, except for the 8s. The 8s was a kid - 21 or so - with glazed-over eyes, lids half closed from too much Corona with lime. LSD informed me when I sat down that the kid had already won 10 straights on his watch. (The kid corrected him - "it was only four!") I saw the kid take down 5 more straights in the time I was at the table. It was nutty. I also saw him lose back his entire monstrous stack before leaving - equally nutty.

The weather at the table was a bit harsh for me early on. I quickly saw my entire $100 stack swooped away to the felt within the first 45 minutes. Pocket Kings got rivered by a naked Ace. My king high flush with 2 diamonds in the pocket and 3 onboard lost a monster kill pot to the ace high flush, with 4 people calling bets to showdown. I once had a pair of 8's in the pocket, and bet a flop of A-A-4 with only 2 opponents (me being last to act). Both had called my preflop raise, and both called my flop bet. When the turn came an undercard, I bet out again, and lost one opponent. The river was another undercard, but of course by now I smelled a rat, and figured one of the two aces in the deck was in the hands of my lone remaining opponent. I checked behind him and said, "Show me your ace..." and he did... A3 offsuit, for a preflop raise. Nice hand. I made another bad laydown of the winning hand when I got to see a free flop from the big blind with K-4 suited. The flop came K-x-x, and I bet out as first to act. 2 callers. Turn came an undercard, putting two to the flush onboard. I bet out, got raised, and re-raised. It smelled like a goofy two pair to me - though I thought the first raiser could have been betting his flush draw, as I'd seen him do that before. No way my kicker was holding up here. I laid it down - and later found that in fact, the first raiser had been betting his flush draw, and the other guy had Jack high for a whole lot of nothing. My top pair kings with a shit kicker would have won the pot. Oh well. Considering the action, I think I still made the right play, but I really wish I had a fish-bluff-o-meter... Working on it.

With about $18 left in front of me, I had no sense of fear. No notion that I might have to rebuy. No feeling that I was about to make the long trek back home. I wasn't worried. I don't know why, but I knew I was just one good hand away from being right back in the game. I was very pleased with my patience and lack of anxiety with the short stack right then. None of my beats were irking me. They were in the past. I did very well to move on mentally after each hand and not dwell on the wins OR the losses.

In late position, I looked down to find 2-3 of clubs in my hand, and it was shouting, "Play me!" Sometimes goofy hands do that to me - not often, but occasionally. Maybe once per session. I've been trying to have the balls (proverbially speaking) to play them sometimes and test the ol' poker intuition. I know, many people consider intuition to be a load of crap, but I believe in it to an extent. I think faulty intuition is quite common, but I do believe it's possible in life to sometimes just "know" certain things. I had a feeling about this hand. So I raised it up preflop (if I'm going to play a baby drawing hand, might as well sweeten the pot and give myself some drawing odds, considering that preflop raises never discourage action in this game). Five players came to the flop, which was J-2-3. Excellent. There was a middle position bettor, a few callers, and I raised. We lost a player, and 4 came to the turn for a raise. It was an Ace. No flush draws out there. It checked around to me, and I bet my last $6 all in. 3 callers. River was a blank - no straights or flushes out there. There was no action on the last betting round (in my absence). Showdown - a pair of J's, and pair of Aces, and my two pair won the pot. All of a sudden, I've got 3+ stacks of white chips in front of me and I'm back in the game. I like it when my poker gut is right.

The rest of the night was more favorable. ATs hit trips for me with the ten's. Pocket ten's held up on a board of undercards - though I might have made a little more money on that hand if I wasn't so fearful of the pair of 4's on the board. A loose player was betting into me, and there were 2 callers ahead of me, so I just called it down. I had no other pocket pairs or big hands to speak of - just your random collection of top pair hands taking down small pots.

In the end, I made back my $100 buy-in plus $48, and got a free meal at the deli when I finally decided to sign up for my Trump player's card. I grabbed a couple hot dogs for the road (the plumpest hot dogs I've ever seen in my life - and quite tasty, to boot) and a free Gatorade, and headed home.

I played for about 4 hours, so that puts me at a profit of 8BB - so, 2BB/hour. Not exactly a windfall, but I'll take it! After the brutality of my first 45 minutes, I think I made a great comeback and was glad to leave a winner.

I'd like to go to Trump this weekend and pick off some of the Labor Day fishes, but Randy doesn't want to go. If I do go, I'll have to do it during the day while he's at work, because I haven't seen the boy too much this week (we've both been busy with work and other things), and I'd like to get some hang-out time in! We'll see what happens...

Hey - is anybody perchance going to be in Vegas the weekend of Oct 19-24? Randy and I will be :) Let me know if you'll be around!