Regarding Bovada, I do already have the HI software and may get the hand convertor at some point in the future likely after I get HEM2 working.
After just 10 days, I was on pace to shatter my record for most profits in a month ... until I went to my local casino for some $1/$3 last Saturday that is. Actually, I'm still on pace to have my best month, just not shatter it... although, the month is only a third over, so I guess there is still time to have my worst month
I'm on a bit of a downswing in live play cashing up in only 1 of my last 7 outings at casinos. I was card dead more than usual it seemed and the few times I could manage a good hand, the villain had a better one. Some of the more memorable hands:
Hand 1: Raise preflop with AK. Flop King on a dry board, I bet, he calls. Turn is blank. I bet, he calls. River is queen. I check. He bets. I call. He turns over KQ.
Hand 2: Q9 limped pot. Flop is Q92 two diamonds. Villain overbets small pot. I call thinking he's on a flush draw or maybe just a queen. Turn is ace. He bets something reasonable. I call. River completes flush. He checks. I check. He turns over AQ. I thought people raised AQ preflop live.
Hand 3: QQ I raise. Flop is 942 rainbow. I bet and get raised by KQ guy from hand 1 who I also saw bluffing in another pot. I'm generally not crazy about calling a raise but I think a call is appropriate since I don't have a lot of reads. Turn is a 9. I generally think this is a good card because I'm afraid of sets and this effectively took one of those combinations away (I always discount quads). I guess he could have had top pair and now has trips, but reraising my pre-flop raise with a pair of 9's seems like an odd line. I'm hoping he has AK, AQ, 55-88, possibly TT/JJ or some draw like A3/A5, and I'm worried about sets and possibly slowplayed AA/KK or something like 98 or 9T. I check. He bets. River is a blank. I check. He bets again. Both were like 50% to 60% of the pot or something - nothing too crazy. He turns over A9.
Hand 4: Q7 limped pot. Flop is Q42. Small villain bet. I call. Turn is Queen. Bigger bet. I call. This guy seemed reasonable and I think he saw me as reasonable, too. I figured he most likely had a queen and I actually thought about folding, but river could be a 7 or pair another board card, or maybe my 7 is good. River is 10. He bets some more. I call. He has AQ. AQ again no raise? Different villain than the last AQ. Apparently these guys don't raise AQ.
This was the hand that could have erased all the card deadness and 2nd best hand madness that plagued me ...
Hand 5: AJs (hearts) MP. Table was getting looser and more aggressive. I raise to $17 and get at least 5 calls. Pot is at least $85. Flop is KQ9 two hearts. I have the nut flush and straight draw. Villain donks into me for $50. Another villain calls. I call. Another villain behind me calls. Pot is at least $235. Turn is a blank 8. Villain donks $100. Villain calls. The pot is at least $435. For all I know at this point, even an ace river MIGHT give me the best hand the way this game is going. I call. Villain behind me raises all-in for an extra $140. Villain who had been donking folds. Villain in front of me calls. Pot is at least $815. I know an ace isn't going to win it for me now, but a ten and I split worst case and a heart I scoop plus IF I call I still have like somewhere between $100 to $150 left I might be able to get all-in against villain to my right. I call the $140. River is a blank 4. Villain checks. I check. All-in won with a straight. And, all those bets add up to $955, which I think is off because that guy had like $1100 in his stack after he stacked it, so I might had some of the bet values off a tad or missed a villain or two pre-flop or flop, but that's the gist of it.
Anyway, that's poker. Maybe I could have or should have played some of those hands better, but I think at $1/$2 and $1/$3, it's better to try to pot control than try to make big folds in marginal situations. And, in the first 4 hands, neither myself or villains got allin. If the situation is more polarized or if I have better reads, I can make big laydowns, but just waiting for the nuts isn't going to be profitable.
Between the $800 pot I lost in Florida when I got AA allin preflop to two villains and lost to QQ (only 2 cards in the deck to help him) and that last hand this weekend where I have 12 cards that can help me win and miss, that's a $2000 swing. Unfortunately, I am not able to make it to the casino that often, but hopefully I can turn it around next time or at least not lose as much. Losing two buy-ins that session drained 1/3 of my career "casino" profits. I've only been to the casino only 24 times total, though.
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