Hella Hold'em

... just as she’s about ready to cut it up, she says, "Wait a minute honey - I’m gonna add it up."

Add it up... add it up... add it up... add it up... add it up... see whatcha got... you gotta add it up...

This beautiful day brought to you courtesy of the Violent Femmes. I'm getting ahead of myself a bit here, so let me go back to the beginning.

I headed out to Empress, as mentioned in my last post. I arrived around 1pm, just in time for a new table to start up. Exxxxxcellent... The game was 5/10 limit holdem. Nothing too exciting happened at the feeder table, and within a half hour or so I was moved to the main game.

The fish were out in full force this afternoon, and no amount of tapping the glass was scaring these little buggers. I was seated in the 10 seat (they play 11 handed at Empress), and the two guys to my left (the 11s and 1s) played every hand. The guy to my right was a regular, and a good player. To his right was an any-ace-or-face guy who liked to gamble it up. The 7 seat was the any-two-suited elderly woman, and to her right was a ginormous man who was very passive (ie. check-call the nuts) but played decent starting hands (VPIP of maybe 25%). The 5 seat was a very serious Mexican guy who rebought... a lot. The 4 and 3 seats were older guys - regulars - who were neither good nor awful players, and the 2 seat was a regular who was decent but prone to tilt, and a bit passive (ie. limps with JJ).

Bring it on, guppies!

I continued to be conscious of my leaks, and avoided making those mistakes. Early on, I caught a couple hands where top pair held up for me, and was up $100 fairly quickly. I lost a bit of it back when my AJ flopped top two pair, and I bet it all the way (UTG). The guy to my left rivered a flush with 3-5 of clubs, a hand which on the flop had only the backdoor flush draw going for it. Nice. Hand. I almost got tilty after that one, but instead took a walk and reminded myself that it would all come back to me in due time.

Then came this gem: if I wasn't on the list already, I am now DEFINITELY going to hell. I limp under the gun with pocket Ten's. 7 people come to an uncoordinated flop of K-10-7. I bet. Call x7. Turn is a second club. I bet. Call x5. River is the third club, and pairs the board with 7's (giving me a full house, ten's full of seven's). I bet. Fold x4, and the 7 seat raises me. I raise her back. She calls. She had flopped two pair, K7, and rivered the smaller boat, seven's full of king's.

Remember who the 7 seat was? Yeah. The elderly woman. AND she was in a wheelchair.

I think popping an old lady in a wheelchair for a river re-raise qualifies me for a one way ticket to hell, don't you? That was after her 9th or 10th rebuy (though she only bought in for $40 per).

Is it getting warm in here?

I digress. My favorite hand of the day was one that I might have folded, had I not been conscious of my leakiness and what exactly defines my personal leaks. I had KQ of hearts in the big blind. Middle position raised, and I called the raise (along with 4 other people). 6 of us saw a flop of 10-7-2, one heart. I checked, and the original raiser bet out. 3 callers (including myself), and 4 of us saw a turn.

Now - I mentioned in an earlier post how one of my leaks was calling to overcard draws on boards that are coordinated against my favor. In this case, I was careful in considering my call. The board had no real coordination for any straight or flush draws, and gave me both backdoor flush and straight draws with my overcards. I discounted the overcards by a couple outs, in case the original raiser had KK, QQ, or AA, but based on the guy doing the raising, I wasn't much afraid of that.

The turn came a 9, giving me the gutshot and the overcards. I didn't make a flush draw, and with everybody still in the hand, I didn't really think my overcards were any good now. However, I was getting more than 10:1 on my money to see a river card, so - bring it on.

The river brought a glorious Jack, giving me the straight, nine through king, with no flush possibilities onboard. I risked missing a bet and went for the check-raise. To my surprise, the fish to my left bet out! Then, the original raiser raised him. I 3-bet it, and the guy to my left folded (???). The original raiser capped it, and I called.

He had J9 sooooted for 2 pair. (Interesting raise preflop?) The nut straight won me a monster.

I just about tripled my $200 buy in by the time I left, proving once again that Sundays are indeed my best day for poker.

I left the casino after only 3 1/2 hours - much shorter than my usual session. But, I'd lost back to back pots at the end there, and decided that if the cards were going to turn cold on me, I would take my profits and run. As I walked outside and headed for the parking lot, the 55 degree weather felt like a glorious heat wave, and it was hard to suppress a grin as I hiked to my car. As I approached the car which I truly adore (it's an 03 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder GT convertible), I grinned even more. I climbed in and rolled down the windows, and headed towards I-80, bopping along to the Violent Femmes and singing way too loudly for my skill level.

It was a good day. :)