I've been a little disheartened with work recently, so I decided to head to Charles Town for a second consecutive week (winning at poker makes me feel better about myself). I generally would prefer not to play on Sundays, so given that the lines have gotten extremely long on Saturdays, I decided to head there in the morning. I got there at noon and began playing at 12:30.
At my first table, there's pretty much only 4 players that I get involved with. There's an old friendly guy to my left, and he's clearly horrible (he plays stuff like J5). Two seats to my left is an old lady, who's also clearly bad, as she ended up making certain moves just to "push back" against the LAG players at the table. The two LAG players sit to the old lady's left. The first is pretty bad, in that he's a lot more loose than agressive, and overrates his hands at all stages. The second is really the only other decent player at the table, and he's a typical young LAG player. Anyways, I get into the action almost immediately:
-Hand #1-
I'm dealt A4 clubs on the big blind with a stack between 250 and 300 before the hand. Villain is the decent LAG kid, and he has me covered at this point. He raises to 12, I call, and 4 players see the flop.
Flop is A65 with one club. Villain bets 25, only I call.
Turn is a club that doesn't affect the straight draws. Villain bets 60, and given that I think I'm behind, I only call.
River is another blank. I check, with the intention that I'm most likely folding to a river bet, villain thinks for a while, and checks. I act like I think I lost the hand and flip over my A with a weak kicker. Villain mucks. I think he may have had a pocket pair between middle and top pair, and he believed he had showdown equity over missed straight draws.
Both of the LAG players have been raising preflop a lot, which definitely affects the way I play the following hand:
-Hand #2-
I'm dealt AJo on my straddle. Villain (same villain as Hand #1) raises to 16. Only I call. At this point, the effective chip stacks preflop are about 350, as I believe he still has me covered.
Flop comes KTx rainbow. Villain bets 20, I call. If the villain were a tighter player, I wouldn't be calling here. I obviously have my gutshot to the nuts, but against this villain, an ace is almost definitely good, and a J might be too.
Turn is a Q. Villain bets 25, I raise to 75 (to pot build, as he's guaranteed to call this raise as long as he doesn't have total air), he calls.
River is an A (an action killer as there's 4 to a straight on the board). I bet 80 (to try to make it look like I'm betting something like two pair that's afraid of the straight), but villain folds (he likely had a lower two pair, which doesn't beat anything by the river).
My stack hovers around 400 before the following hand:
-Hand #3-
I have TT in the small blind. Villain #1 is the bad LAG player, and he raises to 16, I think about re-popping but I'm not good enough to play TT heads-up OOP. 5 players see the flop, including the old lady. Both villains have between 300 and 350 before the hand.
Flop comes AT9 with 2 clubs. Villain #2 (the old lady) leads out for 15, and Villain #1 raises to 60. I usually advocate for never shipping on the flop, but given that I'm OOP against two players with a flush and a straight draw out there, one of the draws is bound to hit, but I have no idea what the likelihood is that one of the two players has that draw. This is especially true since if I call, the old lady should call with any draw. Consequently, I ship (I have them both covered), and both villains fold. The old lady claims afterwords to have had a flush draw and that she definitely would have called had I not shipped.
My stack is around 500 now, and I pretty much have everyone covered now.
-Hand #4-
I have 69 diamonds in late position. Someone raises to 12, I call, and 4 players see the flop.
Flop is 85x with the 8 and 5 of diamonds. Villain (the old lady) bets 25 from the big blind, only I call.
Turn is the 7 of diamonds. Villain bets 15. I call. She's clearly afraid of the diamonds as she lowered her bet, so I'm hoping she's got 2-pair/a set that spikes the river boat/quads (quads would be awesome because of the bad beat jackpot).
River is a blank. Villian bets 15 again, and I raise to 60. She mucks instantly and I make the obligatory straight flush show.
Now, my luck is just getting ridiculous. Shortly thereafter, is more proof of this:
-Hand #5-
I have 66 on the button. The bad LAG player raises to 15, I think about repopping (simply to get a feel for his hand) but decide that I'll play my 66 as a set chasing hand.
Flop is KK9. Everyone checks to me, I bet, and only the player to my left calls. This should be a warning sign since while he plays a lot of bad hole cards, he doesn't call preflop raises with them. This ultimately doesn't matter much because he has only 30 more behind, but it is somewhat troublesome that my immediate reaction was to bet the flop.
Turn is a 6 that bails me out. We both check.
River is a blank. I put him all in for about 30 more, he's forced to call, and I apologize for spiking the boat.
Shortly after, the two LAG players (who also happen to be 2 of the 3 other relatively big stacks at the table) decide to leave for dinner, but they don't know the dinner break rule and leave their stacks at the table. As a result, the table will be playing 8-handed max for the next hour, and since the rest of the players are relatively small stacked and much tighter (i.e. no action), I decide to table change. I move my stack of 700 to my new table, and notice immediately that there's going to be a lot more action at the new table as there's a number of big stacks. Unfortunately, I go card dead for a while, but that gives me more time to study the players at the table, who I realize, generally speaking, tend to overrate their hands.
-Hand #6-
I have AJ in late position. Villain raises to 6 UTG, I repop to 21, and he calls. Heads-up to the flop.
Jxx with a flush draw. Villain checks, I bet 25, he ships for 116 more. I can't see him having anything that beats me (overpairs don't play this way preflop, and while a set is possible, sets usually want to milk some more). I reluctantly call, and he shows QJ.
Turn and river miss the Q, and I finally win a pot on my new table.
-Hand #7-
I have T9 of clubs in late position. I plan on raising to 12, but villain immediately to my right takes my move away by raising to 12 himself. I call, and there's three plays to the flop.
Flop comes ATx with 2 clubs. (I flop middle pair with a flush draw). Villain c-bets 20, only I call.
Turn is another T. Villain bets 60, I think he has a big ace, which I think will shut down if the club hits the river, and I can still rep a flush draw that's trying to force a big ace to fold, so I ship for the rest of his stack (about 200). He thinks about folding, but calls and shows T9 of spades. I'm freerolling and hope for a club.
River is a spade. Chop it up.
I'm talking to the guy from the hand about how we played. He says he was trying to rep an ace, which I bought, and I tell him that I thought he had AK, and that he would shut down if a club hit the river, which is why I ship. As we're still talking, the very next hand occurs:
-Hand #8-
I have K9 of spades late position. Same villain from the previous hand raises to 7 (and he says out loud that this is called a "pot-building move"), and we're still talking about the previous hand. 8 players see the flop.
Flop is JTx with 2 spades and a heart. Player two seats to my right leads into villain for 20. Villain calls, I reraise to 60 with my second-nut flush draw and gutshot, a player two seats to my left cold calls, and both players to my right call as well.
Turn is a heart. Checks to me. I look at the player to my left, and notice he has only 25 left, which obviously sucks. I also decide I can't check the turn here, because my hand becomes face up and it's obvious I'm drawing (given how strongly I'd played on the flop, I have to have a made hand or a big draw). I decide to make a smaller bet as a result (which also helps build the pot in case I hit the river), and bet 55. The other plus about betting is that if the player to my left is also drawing (which he's been especially known to do), then my K-high might have showdown equity if I can get the other two players to fold. However, they both call.
River is the Q of hearts. Original better on the flop checks, villain ships for 267, and that surprises the hell out of me. He clearly hit the river, which means he either has a straight or a flush. At first, I'm undecided, because both AK and a flush beat me. However, villain is not a horrible player, and more importantly, he opened preflop to 7 and claimed it was a pot building move. That essentially eliminates AK. Furthermore, since he was clearly drawing from the flop, that means he has to have 98 or Q9 on the flop. Since the river Q completes the flush, he also can't have Q9. So he has 98, and now the question is simply whether he also has the flush. At this point, there's obviously smaller than a 33% chance he has the flush (33% assumes he only plays suited 89's which is clearly not the case, although there's also some chance that 89 w/o the flush doesn't ship, but that's probably not that significant), and I have more than enough pot odds. I call. He seems confident and says he has a straight. Now, I know I'm good and show him the bad news with my higher straight. This may have been the biggest pot I've been involved in at 1-2 (probably totaling around 1000 before rake), and I scoop in my biggest win of about 600.
-Summary-
Time at 1-2 cash tables: 4.5 hours
1-2 Cash: +$1003
Poker total: +$1003
Gas and food: -$15
Net: ~+$990
-On record career to date-
Time at 1-2 cash tables: 71 hours
1-2 Cash: +$3345
Time at 2-5 cash tables: 9 hours
2-5 Cash: +$560
Total time at cash tables: 80 hours
Cash games: +$3905
Time at tournies: 12 hours
Tournies: -$570
Poker total: +$3335
Net: +$2810
Brags: $1000+!
Beats: I'm grasping at straws here... I keep getting headaches after my recent sessions, even though they've been pretty short. Either I'm still getting stressed (which shouldn't be the case, and hopefully isn't), or I simply need my daily nap.
Variance: I was a 3 outs away from just a normal day at the office (Q of spades might not get me the same action).
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