Hella Hold'em

Mostly unscathed... mostly.

Yesterday's trip to Empress came after a virtual bloodbath online.

I logged into Full Tilt Poker for a little afternoon delight. The waiting lists on $1/2 LHE were 3-deep, so I said, eff this. If you build it, they will come. I started up a new room, and within moments, had 4 opponents. Before the table could even fill up, I was up $20, thanks partly to pocket rockets on my first hand. I thought to myself, "I should just hit and run and log out now!" Then I reminded myself, "Don't walk away from a rush... if the cards are coming, ride it out."

Ride it out I did - except that in the first hand I played on the 2nd table I pulled up, my KK ran into AA and I lost nearly the maximum possible. My opponent was a Purple on whom I'd logged nearly a thousand hands. (In my world, I tag the Maniacs purple). He sure was a maniac, but this time with good reason to be.

I 4-tabled for a couple hours, with disastrous results. Huge hands came in for me, to huge beats. They went a lot like this: I've got pocket 9's and flop a boat when the board comes 9-7-7. I bet like a champ all the way, and on the turn, when the Ace hit, one opponent went nuts raising me. The river brought a third heart, and he continued raising. I figured I had him crushed, since there was no raise preflop.

He had 77, to beat my boat with 4 of a kind. I was drawing to 1 out the whole time.

Nauseating.

I figured my bad luck could be cured by a trip to Empress. This time, I called an hour ahead, hoping not to have to wait an hour to get seated. I called in, then stopped at Subway for a sandwich. When I arrived at Empress, I was 5th on the list. Ugh. The waiting there is really annoying, considering I have no desire to gamble to pass the time.

I finally got seated at the feeder 5/10 table, and discovered a new variation of fish. This table was loose as usual, with most players playing all manners of junk hands (63 offsuit under the gun, for example) - but they weren't paying off. They were seeing flops and folding if they didn't hit. Pots were small, and I didn't see myself making any money at this table. I figured it wise to tighten up, play the nuts, and pray that my call to the main game came soon (as it was much juicier).

Luckily for me, I was completely card dead, so folding was easy (if not a bit tiresome). I played one hand voluntarily in 3 hours - AJs from the button. Flop came J-x-x, and it checked around to me. I bet out, and got one caller. Turn came a 10. My opponent checked to me, and I bet. He raised. He was a bit egomaniacal, so I resolved myself to my fate of seeing the hand to showdown as cheaply as possible. (I thought he might be running a move on the only girl in the cardroom). I checked the blank on the river, and he bet out. I called, and said, "Jack ten, eh?" He turned over the aforementioned cards with a surprised look on his face (duh, of course you have JT). From that point on, he stayed out of my pots. Ha!

I folded about half of my small blinds and completed about half of them, so that 3 hours cost me: 3 hours x 30 hands/hour = 90 hands. 90 hands / 11 handed table = 8-ish rounds of blinds. (5+2)*4 + (5+5)*4 = -68. Add that to my AJ loss of (5+5+20+10)= 40... I'm down $108. Subtract a few bucks for diet coke...

3 hours in, I hadn't won a hand yet. I had decided to go home when the blinds got to me, since I was 4th on the list to move to the main game, when a seat opened up over there, and oddly enough, the 3 people ahead of me declined the seat and left. I decided to give it a go at the main game.

My cards were a little better, but with bland results. I flopped a straight with KJ on a board of 9-10-Q. I raised and bet it all the way down, and was called down by a guy who called UTG with K4 of diamonds. The river came a Jack, so we split the pot. Then, the guy explained that the only reason he played the hand was hoping to hit the straight, so when he flopped a gutshot, he "hit what he was looking for" and there was no way he was going away. I immediately thought of Felicia's post on how to think like a fish.

In another hand, I raised preflop from middle position with pocket ten's. I got a few callers, and flopped a set on a board of T-Q-K. The turn came a J, and the river an Ace. I was chased down by a guy playing A7 offsuit, and we split the pot with the onboard straight. Ugh.

I managed to leave the cardroom down thirty bucks, so considering how horrifically cold my cards were for 5 hours, I am considering myself lucky for my lack of luck. I was disappointed not to have made any progress in my Spring Break Rush for 1k, but at least it wasn't a huge setback.

Also, I managed to catch my once-per-session donkey leak. I completed from the small blind with J2s (deja vu), thinking that I should have folded it, but due to the multiway action, figured I'd hope to see some hearts. I flopped top pair jacks with one heart, and check-called. The turn didn't give me the flush draw, and I realized my donkey ways and managed to fold on the turn. So, I didn't leak as much as I usually do on my nightly donk hand, but I still have some work to do to get rid of the hand a bet earlier. My signal really should be - any time I get the urge to check-call, drop it, because that is my donkey hand.

I plan to head back to Empress tonight. Randy has offered to possibly take me to Resorts on Thursday, so I'm definitely looking forward to checking out their cardroom.

Spring Break Rush for 1K:

+142

858 to go...