Just before 8 o'clock, I took my seat as the game was close to beginning. Took my usual $200 buyin ($180 in five dollar red chips, $20 in one dollar blues) and the game got underway. The guy to my immediate left, Ted, was someone who had just played for their first time last night, and was killing the game, up over $800 by the time I'd left. Ted took the maximum $300 buyin. Behind Ted was Chuck, a middle-aged cash game frequent who for the most part plays predictably straightforward. Then we had Ron in the 5 seat, an older guy who plays almost every day of the week. Ron actually plays a lot like I do - lots of limping for cheap with practically the range of the deck when a situation warrants it. Ron takes lots of speculative stabs at pots post-flop when in position, but he definitely isn't afraid to fold a made hand, so when his stack is going in, he's got the goods.
Rounding out the table is Paul, a fellow twenty-something who works the local harvest and calls himself a professional poker player during the offseason, but who frankly is a gambler who pushes way too many pots with too large of bets; the personification of the type of player who wins lots of small pots but is almost always on the losing end of the big ones. Then we have Jack, a local professor from the University who usually just plays for an hour or two before he goes home to bed. He plays to play, with an obvious disregard for money. Not to say he pushes the action like Paul does, but he speculates for larger bets quite often with less-than-stellar cards. Next is Ezra the redhead. Not much of a read so far, but he seems to play tighter that I first thought. Plays to gamble, but you can tell he understands the game at least enough to have a decent idea of where he's at in any given situation. Then there's Danny, probably about 28 years old, who likes to play poker and respects money and the game enough to not go batshit crazy with his chips. But I usually seem him either at the slots or in the pit, many times in lieu of sitting in at the cash game. And finally, to my immediate right is Ryan, who is basically a Danny who avoids the pit. He is also primarily a tournament player, whose main weakness is he never seems to go all-in when he's in a short stacked position with what figures to be the best hand (i.e. will call off 50 of his last 80 in chips preflop with AK and then fold to a bet when he misses the flop)
OK thats more than enough.
As this blog will be introducing new regulars and reoccurring players, I will continue to give a brief overview of their style and mentality towards the game, money and life. Though for the most part, this blog will be a rundown of the night's session, including interesting hands, big pots, funny stories or whatever else.
Tonight was special because it was the monthly poker room raffle drawing. $1,000 was up for grabs over three draws, the first for $200 and 8pm, the second for another $200 at 9pm, and the final draw for $600 at 10pm. I had acquired 35 tickets this month, so I have to say I went in expecting to win. Lo and behold, first draw was for me. Jackpot! I was basically freerolling for the night's session at this point, so I took the two black chips and put them in my pocket.
It didn't take long for Ted to realize the swings of cash game poker, and gave up his $300 stack quickly. In his place sat Bale, an old man and solid player who likes to play big pot poker. Bale is basically a pro, though I hesitate to use that label because I don't think it's hard to become a "pro" when you're rich and retired already. He basically plays poker as a hobby, to kill the time, but he makes money doing it, so more power to him.
The $6 straddle is on, and I'm on the button. We pick up three limpers and I limp in with Q6dd, Bale completes as does the big blind, and the straddle checks. Flop comes out 8c 5d 4s. Checked around to me, and while I have a gutshot, backdoor flush draw and an overcard with position, this is not the type of game that people fold on such coordinated flops. The minimum I would bet here would be top pair, or a pair+gutshot combo. So, I check, and the turn comes the intriguing Ad. Checked around to me again, it's really the perfect situation to make a bet - no one has shown interest in the pot, the ace is a good card for me to represent, and just in case I get action I have 9 flush outs and 3 gutshot outs I would be happy to value bet if hit on the river, and Q would give me enough showdown value to check. So I throw $20 into the pot, and right behind me Bale throws a wrench into my gears and raises to $65.
So, crunching some numbers, $45 into a pot around $80 sounds close to 2-1 to me, but I know Bale isn't messing around. The ace on board simplifies the situation - I am simply drawing to a straight or a flush. Sounds like 12 outs. I have roughly $120 of my original $200, Bale has his $300. $45 into $80 to win another ~$100 sounds even better. So, I obviously call, and bink a beautiful 7c on the river, filling my straight. Bale, apparently unfazed by the 4-card straight on board, puts me all in and I happily call, showing the straight and raking a close to $300 pot. Bale mucks what I'm guessing was aces up, though possibly a flopped set.
Just a few hands later I am UTG+1 and limp in with JcJh, which is a standard play for me in this game. Bale and Ron both tag along, the blinds call and check. Flop hits 8h 4d 3h, a fairly nice though draw heavy board for a bunch of limpers. Checked to me, I fire out $12. Bale smooths before Ron raises it up to $52. Back on me - decision time! As I said in my expose, Ron can somehow manage to play really loose AND super tight at the same time, but I also know there is NO WAY he thinks he's bluffing. I also know that *he* knows that I don't get my money in without the goods, or at least an ultra draw to the goods. Rundown - he would be happy to call $12 on a flush draw or an open-ended straight draw. I don't believe that he would raise that much with just the top pair. But I've also seen Ron make similar plays to this on draw heavy boards with less than stellar cards in hopes of just pricing out drawing hands. Conclusion - a shove of another ~$250 gets him to fold single pairs and overpairs up to QQ and possibly KK, and is obviously enough to price a draw out (Ron is one of the few players in this game who will fold a draw to the nuts if his price isn't right - most everyone else flops a draw and goes with it all the way). Having ruled out Ron holding aces, I narrow his calling range to sets or monster combo draws, of which I'm either flipping against or an 8-1 dog. The Play - ship it, baby! Ron tanks for quite a while, mumbling my name and '...a set, huh?' Finally after maybe 3 minutes, he says "I'm making a good fold" and tosses 8s4s up and into the muck. Grinning, I have to respond: "Sorry, but it wasn't" and show him my jacks. After running through the spectrum of hands I can honestly say that not only did two pair not cross my mind, but calling a shove with top two pair is such a given that I didn't have to even consider it - "if somehow this guy has two pair, which he doesn't, it's not like he would fold" was the thought that would have crossed my mind, if I'd only, well... thought of it. But no, I was wrong, and he made an astounding fold, much to my benefit.
The real benefit of that hand came less than 20 minutes later, which I flat called Ezra's $7 UTG raise in the hijack with Ron on the button coming along as well as the blinds. The Hand - 6h6c. The flop comes out a beauty - Jd 6s 2d. Ezra leads out $25 and I consider my options. We saw the flop 5 way. There is a gutshot and a diamond draw out there. I recognize that Paul is in the blind, and he would absolutely call $25 with just a gutshot, and any of the other players in the pot would be in with a flush draw, too. Furthermore, I have no reason NOT to believe Ezra's strength in raising UTG and leading out into a multiway pot. So I decide on raising to $90, ideally enough for Paul to either fold or shove a flush draw and let me get it in as a favorite, or Ezra to look me up with a good jack or an overpair. To my surprise, Ron min raises me to $180. Ezra complains for a minute and then folds, and it's back to me. I have about $240 back after my $90 raise. There is absolutely no way I'm folding here; if he has pocket jacks, oh well, REBUY! But should I flat or ship? I decide on selling the draw a little bit by waiting maybe 30 seconds before putting the rest in. I have decided that Ron is simply tilted, I just hope he's tilt-raising with a made hand and not a draw. He calls pretty quickly and shows AJo - wow! I guess he put me on a re-steal. But it's understandable - AJo on an J 6 2 board with two diamonds is easy to think your hand is good but vulnerable against draws, but he should've known the player better. I'm not raising there with one pair, unless it was a pre-flop slowplayed AA or maaaaybe KK. I'm repopping AKdd pre, so really for Ron the best spot for him to be in is if he's up against KQdd, which he is still a math underdog to. But that's the thing about gambling, particularly tilted players - their logic seems to lapse sometimes, and they convince themselves that the hand they WANT their opponent to have is the hand that the opponent HAS. The hand wasn't without a sweat, as the Ad hit the turn and I readied myself for a vomit-in-mouth, 30-1 suckout reaction. Alas, the hand held, and I found myself with a felted Ron and a nice stack of around $650 in front of me.
I speculated a dozen or so hands over the next few rotations and managed to whittle about $60 away before I decided it was a good time to leave. I ordered a steak sandwich, garlic waffle fries and a pint of Steelhead, tipped the dealers and floorman, and went back to the bar to finish the Giants-Marlins game in the 11th inning. Poor Buster Posey got knocked silly by a runner charging the play at the plate and I sent out a cynical text to my friend about it. I lit up a cigarette, and left the casino.
*author's note: as this is the maiden entry in a new blog, written about a continuing topic in my everyday life, almost guarantees regular posts. However, getting most of the basics out of the way here, I predict future blogs much more poorly written, lasting only two or three paragraphs, highlighting only three hands, maximum. Enjoy.
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