Hella Hold'em

Wow! Today was Trump-o-Riffic!

First of all, I have a wonderful 4 day weekend going on here. I was off work today (Friday), and am off Monday for Labor Day, so for the first time in a few weeks since going back to work, I have a couple days to relax.

Today, Randy had to work and then planned to head to a fantasy football draft, so I figured to have the day and most of the evening to myself. For some odd reason, when Randy got up for work this morning at 8:30am (which is the ass-crack of dawn in my world), I sprung awake and couldn't for the life of me fall back to sleep. I hadn't even gotten my requisite 8 hours of zzz's!! Why fight it, though... I got out of bed and foraged around for some breakfast.

(Total Raisin Bran)

Once Randy left for work, I got on the computer and putz'd around the internet. I have no money left in Full Tilt, so I fired up my alternate form of pixelated heroin - Ultima Online. You see, the new expansion came out yesterday - Mondain's Legacy. Good stuff. I've been playing UO for almost 7 years now. Yes, I'm sick. I did a couple quests and checked out the new lands before getting pissed that I couldn't find any gazers to kill for one of my quests. I logged off.

Now what?

TRUMP!

Why not, right? At this point, it was maybe noon-ish. Why the hell not. So I went. Over the river and through the woods, avoiding I-80 I go... I drove past work and grinned at the fact that for once, I could just keep on driving.

I got to Trump around 1:15pm and was seated immediately, thanks to my call-in. I decided to sit $3/6 limit hold'em, since I figured on being there for a while and I only had $200 total on me to wager. I never needed more than my original $100 buy-in.

The table seemed to be made up of mostly regulars. It was a pretty loose game, though, which surprised me. Many of the regulars seem to play like rocks - tight passive, and very predictable when they've got a hand. Some are more tricky, but those varieties of Trumpians weren't around today. It was mainly a 50+ crowd for the first few hours, and I was definitely the youngster at the table (and now that I think of it, the only female for quite a while as well).

It was a slow start. I had spent $40 and an hour and a half of my life before winning my first pot with AQ suited. I saw AQ a bunch of times today; it held up all but once, when a river flush took out my two pair. When I finally dragged that first pot, I could feel it in the air... I was going to have a good day.

I wouldn't say I was getting smacked with the lucky stick - not like the first couple times I went to Trump. I was playing tight and a little more aggressively than usual (I think I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable playing live. I didn't consciously feel uncomfortable before, and was completely hooked on live poker after the June WPBT Vegas trip, but I can see in retrospect that I was playing a bit weak - calling too much and not betting or raising nearly enough). My good hands were hitting today, for the most part, and the ones that didn't weren't costing me a fortune. The board and the players were giving me enough information to enable me to get out of the way early and cut my losses.

Unlike my last 2 trips to Trump, I didn't lay down any winning hands. I stuck to my guns even the couple times I was getting bullied around, and ended up showing down the winning hands. I feel good about that. I just got this t-shirt that says, "Don't think of it as losing - think of it as getting beat by a girl." I would *never* wear it to a casino (it's for friendly prodding at my home games), but I'd really like to say that to some guys. If I was Dr. House like on TV, I'd say it. That guy says all the things that I only *think* about saying but don't have the balls to.

As the day wore on and evening approached, the average age of my table plummeted. A few twenty-something guys showed up with bells on, and they didn't come to fold. One was your typical LAG. Another was semi-loose but passive, and the third seemed to be a student of the game. He was always watching the action and paying attention, and seemed to be thinking really hard, but he was playing too many hands and taking them too far. He looked to be in his early twenties. Add ten years to him and I mighta thought he was cute - but cute or not, I took his chips all the same. Poor kid seemed to think that bets and raises actually mean something (other than acting as Trump Pot NutraSweet) at $3/6. In one hand, he raised it up preflop, and I was holding today's lucky hand, AQ (offsuit this time). 6 people came to the flop, including me in middle position. The flop came K-10-x, two clubs. OK - I assess the situation: I've got an overcard with a possibly good kicker (unless the kid's got AK or KK), a gutshot draw to the J, and a backdoor flush possibility to the nuts. After discounting my draw to the overcard, I figured I had a good 5 or 6 outs. There was $36 in the pot, and UTG bet out. 2nd to act called ($42 now). I figure I'm 20% or so to hit my hand, and the pot is giving me 14:1. No brainer. I call. Even if the kid raises (which he did), this pot is juicy - and if I can hit my straight or flush, I'm going to win a ton of chips. Turns out, 5 of the 6 of us came along to the turn for a raise. The turn put a 3rd club onboard. I could already be beat by a flush, but I have a draw to the nut flush and a draw to my straight. I'm seeing the river no matter what. This time, UTG checks, 2nd to act checks, I bet out, one player folds, and the kid just calls. UTG and UTG+1 both fold. It's now heads up between me and the kid. The river brings my glorious Jack. I'm very confident that the kid was unhappy to see 3 clubs out there. He doesn't have the flush. I bet out, and he raised me. I re-raised, and he sighs in frustration as he calls. As he went to flip his cards up, he said, "You have Ace Queen, don't you."

Yup. I did. He had KJ for top pair, and two pair on the river... poor kid.

The very next hand I ended up heads up with the kid again - and he was visibly frustrated as I kept betting into him. We split the pot, both holding KQ with a flopped King.

I just figured out who that kid reminded me of: Ben Affleck's little brother. What's his name? Casey? He looked quite a bit like Casey Affleck.

A little while later, a regular I'd seen before sat down across from me. She recognized me from last weekend, and started chatting. Eventually she introduced herself by name, and it was almost like being initiated into the little club of Trump regulars. Once she did that, a couple of the other guys who seemed to be regulars (knew the dealers by name) started chatting with me as well. It made me think that Mary was their ringleader. She's a little spitfire, that Mary gal. She reminds me of Shellmuth... when things don't go her way, she sure gets pissed! Complaining at the dealers, whipping her cards around in disgust. But when she's winning, she's just delightful. I think I've made great strides in containing Shellmuth's outburts, and I will continue to do so. It's not becoming at all to see someone acting that way at a poker table. I liked Mary though. She's a cool chick.

Other notable hands:

• Pocket Aces held up twice for me today.
  
• I had a suited hammer in the big blind, and as the dealer was laying the flop, I was chanting in my head, "Hammer power! Hammer power! Hammer power!" Sure enough, he flopped me a flush draw and completed in on the river. I took a nice little pot with that one.
  
• The Hilton Sisters won me a small pot - I was so happy not to see them get cracked.
  
• J7 of diamonds on the button in a kill pot flopped me a straight flush draw, and completed the measley regular straight on the river, which won me a very nice pot.
  
• Pocket 4's, Pocket 5's, and Pocket 7's did absolutely nothing for me.
  
• Saw AKo once - flopped nothing and had to get out of the way when action came knocking.
  

That's about all I can remember, hand-wise. Around 7:30pm I decided to set a stop-loss/go-home point. I would leave when either of these conditions became true: I lost 2 stacks of whites ($40), or 8:00pm hit on clock. I settled in for my last orbit. It turns out that instead of losing 2 stacks of whites, I picked up a couple more stacks, and when 8pm hit, I was leaving at a stop-win.

After 7 hours of play, I cashed out for $496 for a profit of $396. Add back in my tips from 3 bottles of water, and the tip I gave to the cashier in the cage, and I can call it an even $400 profit. Holy crap. Let's see... that's about $57/hour, or 9.52 BB/hour. Again - after a session that I don't think was particularly "lucky" - just not particularly UN-lucky, I'm thrilled at the results.

I wore a Flyers jersey to the casino today, just in case any area bloggers were around - though I don't think Baz was heading out till later tonight. I hear he's going to play there on Sunday - I might have to make a trip out while Randy's at work :)

Whew. What a day. I will sleep well tonight!