The Crooked Link

Life of a Low Stakes Gambler...

Monday, March 10, 2008

Feel Good Sunday

I've noticed that my blogging has become somewhat inconsistent. Not sure why really. And now that my internet access at home is limited for reasons beyond my control, I'll have to do most of my blogging from school. But I'll still try to post something up at least once every couple of days. If not here, then on one of the other sections at crookedstraight.com

Anyway, the weekend was pretty fun. Well, actually only Sunday was fun, since I had to work on Friday and Saturday. My plans for Sunday kept changing as first, my guy Furcio and I were going to host a poker game at his place but we failed to generate enough interest so we bailed on it. Then Chris from FCP was going to do a small FCP get together at his place. The plan was to just chill, play a little bit of poker and some Wii, while a couple of guys played the Sunday Majors online. So I was really looking forward to this but he ended up canceling late Saturday night because of some family thing.

So Sunday I was like, shit now what do I do today? I decided to take a drive up to the Charity Casino in Skokie to play some cards. I was suppose to meet up with Kurt, but I never heard back from him after an earlier text. Anyway, once I got there I got myself on the $1/2 list and a new table started right away. I bought for $200 and planned to stay out of any early pots and focus on trying to get some reads on the table. But nope, first hand of the night and I get dealt pocket nines in middle position. One limper before me and I raise it up to $6. Three of us see a flop that comes 7 5 2 rainbow. Not to shabby for pocket nines. First player checks and I bet out $10. The third dude mini raises me to $20 and I call. We go heads up to the turn and a King drops. Check check to the river where another blank falls. I thought about betting out here, but decided to check instead, planning to call any mid size bet from my opponent and he checks behind, flipping over pocket eights. Cool, first hand of the night is a winner. Can't feel to happy though, considering last time I was there I won my first hand with pocket Kings and ended up having a horrible session.

Fortunately that wasn't the case on Sunday and I went on a mad rush of cards. It seemed like every time I looked down at my cards, I had a playable hand. I won my first huge pot of the night when I got pocket sixes again in middle position. I raise it up to $11 this time and get 5 callers. Yikes! Flop comes something like Kc6c2h. Gets checked around to me and I throw in a $15 bet. 4 callers this time. Geez, no respect for my raises what so ever, lol. The turn is a heart putting two clubs and two hearts out there. Again it's checked to me and I bet $20 this time. Only one chick calls and we see a blank river. She checks and I bet out $25. She folds what was probably a missed flush draw and I win the pot.

Another interesting hand came up with pocket Kings which I think I played horribly. I'm in early position and UTG makes it $11 to go. Now I contemplate for about 30 seconds whether I flat call or raise here. I decide to flat call only to have 4 other callers after me. Now I'm just praying that an Ace doesn't hit the board, and instead a beautiful King drops. Gets checked to me and with a King high flop with no straight or flush draws I decide to slow play my set and check as well. The two other players check and we see a turn card that now brings possible straight and flush potential I finally bet my set only to see if get folded around. So many things I feel I did wrong in this hand, starting with the pre-flop flat call instead of a raise. The check on the flop is questionable as well.

The good thing is I found myself putting my money in with the best hand, for the most part. Except on a couple of occasions, one being a hand where I flopped top pair top kicker with AQ but with a flop with 3 diamonds. I bet out $20 and my opponent went all in for like another $60 more. I went into the tank for about a minute or so, and finally decided to make what I was sure was a bad call. My opponent flipped over AQ as well, but with the Ace of diamonds. Ouch! He was free rolling and with a 30% shot at winning the pot. Fortunately for me the turn and river bricked though.

Right when I was about to leave I announce to the dealer that this was my last hand, and I obviously get dealt pocket Aces. Oh man, no good could come out of this, lol. I was so sure I was going to go bust in this last hand that I almost didn't want to play it. I made it $7 to go and got 5 callers. Flop comes something like 10 7 4 and I bet out $12 this time. I get just one caller, this middle eastern dude who'd just sat at the table. Unfortunately for me he only sat down with about $40 dollars or so, because when I put him all in on the river for his last $12 he insta called me with jacks. So my Aces miraculously held up and I stuck around for a couple of more rounds before finally cashing out for $438. A solid +$238 profit.



2 comments:

The Hero said...

Nice work. IMO you should make them pay more when flopping a set, etc. Seems like your making bets that are like 1/4 of the pot at most.

crookedlink said...

Yea man, I completely agree. As I was writing the hand with pocket sixes, I was like, wait, I only bet $15 into an almost $70 pot? No surprise that I got 4 callers. My bet on the turn was even weaker with only $20.

I feel like I have a ton of leaks on my game so I think I'm going to focus on my live play, instead of online, to try to work them out.