Hella Hold'em

Headed to Trump tonight to warm up for Vegas. The only thing that would make the tail end of this week better would be if tomorrow, work got cancelled for a snow day. (I teach at a local college, and we're due to get hit with a bit of a snowstorm tomorrow morning and throughout the day). That would be SWEET! It's the last day of classes before final exams... who wants to go to school anyway??

Anyhooo, it was a good night at Trump. I did not see any rush of cards - in fact, I only took 3 hands to showdown over 4 hours. However, I managed to win them all and triple my buy-in, so I'm feeling good heading into the WPBT trip.

My biggest hand was KK, which held up for me. I was up against a drunk kid who, by some miracle suckouts, had quickly built up a stack of a good $1500 or so ($200-max NL table). Once this kid acquired his massive chip stack over the course of a few minutes, he was talking about how now he could afford to mix up his game and play some draws.

One of the first draws he chased - for BIG money that laid him nowhere near the necessary odds to call - was to a gutshot low-end of a straight. Then, he called a guy down with Ace high, claiming afterwards, "I didn't believe you had it." Them's the nuts, sir.

In my case, I raised preflop with KK in late position. The kid called 5x the BB out of position, and all other players that had limped folded. The flop came a rainbow of undercards. He checked, and I bet out $50, about the size of the pot. He called. The turn put two clubs up there, but still no overcards to my Kings, and no pairs onboard. He checked again, and I moved all in for $231. I've got him on overcards. If he has me beat, God bless him - but if he's dumb enough to call this bet without having me beat, then damn it - I'm due for a hand to hold up!!! He called immediately and as I gulped for air (the devil in my brain screaming, "You effing idiot!! You're only getting called if you're beat!!), he turns over K8 of clubs and says, "I'm on a draw..." Surprise surprise. No club! No club! The river was a lovely red deuce, and my pocket Kings held up.

WTF?? I gave him too much credit, putting him on big cards. He explained after the hand that he was counting his King as an out because it was an overcard. He then said, "That's what I get for playing K8 for a raise preflop." Well, at least he realized his mistake. According to my math, overcard or not, he needed about 12 more outs to justify that call of the turn bet. At any rate - thank you, kind sir!

The other hand I made some cash on was the result of limping into a large multi-way pot with 9-10 suited, on the very first hand after fellow player Tom dubbed it one of his favorite hands. I called a 3/4 pot sized bet on the flop with the open ended straight draw, and hit it on the turn. I was in position, so when my opponent bet out on the turn, I barely doubled his bet and went all in (I had about $125 all day at the start of the hand). He was not pleased to see my straight, but what can ya do.

My last money-making hand was one where I was in the big blind with AJ offsuit. The button pushed all in for $40, and the small blind pushed all in for $52. I thought to myself... the button had rebought several times already and treated his all-in's like a tournament. When he got short-stacked, instead of rebuying more chips to replenish his stack, he'd wait for his first Ace and push all in. THEN he'd rebuy (after losing). The small blind was also a short stack the whole time I'd been next to him, and he had a similar all-in strategy (though he would get lucky and win his all in's). I figured, the most I can lose here is the $47. Everybody else had already folded. I don't think either of them are as strong as the typical "raise, re-raise" scenario would indicate... so I called.

I was against Ace-Ten and King-Queen. I flopped a Jack, turned an Ace, and rivered another Ace. My boat won the pot.

I'd normally never play AJ (even sooooted!) in the face of even one raise, but for some odd reason, it just seemed to make sense to do it in this situation. I thought my hand was good. Turns out, it was. I'm feeling good about the fact that I thought through the situation and played it for what it was. Lately I find that I'm seeing more of the game or perceiving more of what's going on around me, such that it's no longer a game of just "playing the right starting hands." I'm still tied a bit too much to the "need to have a good hand" issue, but I'm working on it... and getting better, I think.

Friday morning, Randy will drop me off at the airport to part the skies for lovely Las Vegas. I have butterflies just thinking about it :)