Full House
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 940
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I played 4 different stakes at two different casinos today. Here's a taste:
I started out at Hustler. I was there to play 6/12 or 8/16, but some regulars I know were trying to get a 25/50 table going and were short, and I was rolled enough for it, so I decided to play a bit of 25/50. This level is full of good players, just about everyone at the table was a TAG, though some were better at making +EV calls and raises than others.
I quickly started bleeding chips. Here are a couple of typical hands.
Guy to my right loves to steal blinds. I am in the SB with Q9s. Folds to guy to my right on the button, who raises. I call from the SB, and the big blind folds.
Flop is Q74. I check, button bets, I raise, button calls.
Turn is 2. I bet, button calls.
River is a K. I check, button bets, I call.
He had K2. Lovely.
Next orbit he again opens from the button. I have A8o. I call, BB again folds.
Flop is AT4. I check, he bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I call.
Turn is blank. I check, he bets, I call.
River is blank. I check, he bets, I call.
He's got A4. Yuck.
I started my big comeback by hitting the flop with AK a couple of times. Then I got pocket kings in a multi-way pot and they held up when everyone missed their draws. Sweet.
Then, this hand:
I am on the button with pocket aces. Folds to MP2, who raises. I 3-bet, he calls.
Flop is JJ8 rainbow. He bets, I raise, he 3-bets, I call
Turn is a blank. He bets, I call.
River is a blank. He checks. Hero.......
I won't tell you the result yet.
I ended up +$51 after 2 hours of 25/50, and my seat opened up at 6/12 so I chipped down. Nothing remarkable at 6/12, and then I got a seat playing 8/16.
There, these two hands happened in succession against a player who was tilting.
First hand (which exacerbated his tilt):
I am on the button with 8h6h. 4 players limp, including the villain. I limp too. SB completes. BB checks. Great!
Flop is AT4 with 2 hearts. Checks to the villain in MP, who leads. A couple of callers, I raise to get the free card, he 3-bets and one of the other players "courtesy caps" (that's a strange phenomenon in California where players will cap with a weak hand just to get the extra action). Pot is bloated beyond belief.
Turn is a blank. Checks to villain, he bets, now he gets a fold or 2, and I call him.
River is the 2 of hearts. Villain bets, folds to me, I raise, villain lets out a string of profanities, calls, and shows down his ATo. Now he's really mad and saying he's gonna get me.
Next hand, I'm in the CO. Villain limps, everyone else folds. I got A5o. OK, aggression wins poker hands, and aces play well heads up, right? I raise, folds to villain, who calls.
Flop is 557. Yahtzee!
Villain checks, I bet, villain calls.
Turn is K. Villain donks. Oh boy. I raise. Villain calls.
River is 7. Villain checks. I bet. Villain calls. He had 76 suited. He wins. Immediately (I didn't ask him), he says "oh my god, I put you on pocket kings when you made that turn raise". Monsters under the bed, anyone?
Ended up plus another $200 after 1 1/2 hours of 6/12 and 8/16. I cash in and have dinner.
Then it's out to Normandie. Normandie is a small cardroom near Hustler which is historic in a sense-- it was here where California gamblers first got together to play ace-to-five lowball, exploiting a loophole in California law that allowed people to play poker even as casinos were banned. In any event, Normandie is cozy, full of regulars, and is generally ignored by younger players who like the flashier, nicer larger cardrooms.
I started out at the 4/8 table, while I was waiting for 8/16 (their biggest limit, they only have one table of it). All the 4/8 players were saying "wow, you are going to play 8/16, that table carries the $43,000 jackpot!". Like that's the criteria for choosing what stakes to play. (The 4/8 jackpot is only 15K.)
Well, I made one ace-high flush with my AK suited. But soon, I was called over to play 8/16.
As I said, Normandie is full of regulars. They are not very good and most of them act like they've never seen a good poker player. Seriously-- I win a pot with AQ after raising pre-flop and someone says "I never raise with AQ, it never seems to hit for me" and half the table agrees. Sigh.
But there is one lady there in seat 9 who is raising. Indeed, she's taking down a lot of pots with pure aggression, because the rest of the table is so weak-tight that they give nits a bad name. They all know her and treat her condescendingly-- I suppose what usually happens is her luck changes when she runs into one of these nits when they get a monster. Well, OK, I know what I want to do. I want to get heads up against Ms. LAG every chance I get.
I ended up winning $330 at this table, and I will spare you all the gory details, but here were my 4 big isolation hands against her:
Hand 1. I am in the CO with AK. She is in early position and raises. Everyone folds. I 3-bet, she caps. Flop is QT4 rainbow. She bets, I call with my outs. Turn and river are blanks and she checks it down. She's got Q9o. Nice hand.
Hand 2. I am in the BB with 44. She raises from late position, folds around to me, I call. Flop is T97 with 2 hearts. She bets, I call. Turn is an A. Both players check. River is a jack. I check. she bets. I go into the tank and fold. She says "good fold", turns over Q8 of hearts.
Hand 3. Kill pot. She's won 2-pots in a row. The kill at Normandie is a full kill, which means the game plays as 16/32. She gets to act last pre-flop as the kill poster. I am in late position.
1 limper, folds to me. I raise with A9o. The button calls me, she calls me, as does the limper.
Flop is A94 all hearts. Checks to me, I bet, button calls, she calls, limper folds.
Turn is a blank. Checks to me, I bet, button calls, she calls.
River is a heart. Uh oh. Checks to me, I check. Button bets. She folds. I decide to make a crying call. It pays off as the button had flatted me with AQo, no heart.
And then the coup de grace-- a hand that caused everyone at the table to look at me like I was a complete weirdo.
I am in the SB. She raises, folds to me. I have AJo. I 3-bet her, The BB folds, she calls.
Flop is J96, couple of spades. I bet, she calls.
Turn is a 7. I bet, she calls.
River is an 8. I check, she checks, I turn over AJ, she mucks. BB next to me immediately says "I would have made a straight, why do you 3-bet AJ? That's not that good a hand". Then ensues a long discussion where at least 6 players berate me for 3-betting AJ offsuit.
I picked up pocket kings and pocket jacks on a couple of consecutive hands, took down a couple of more pots, and figured I had overstayed my welcome. It was a nice day of poker.
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