Swingy Session Part 1

Okay finally some good content I can throw on this blog. As I said in my last post, I hadn't really played any poker in a while so there was really nothing much to write about. But I decided to hit up the casino last night and had quite the swingy session. I played some monster pots, took some massive beats but ended the night in the green.

As I made my way to the casino I was fully intending on playing either 2/4 or 3/6 limit. Needless to say I've never played limit poker in my life, but I've been wanting to learn the game for a long time now and I figured I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately when I got there, there wasn't a single limit table running. So I decided to sit in my usual 200NL game instead.

Before that though, I had a bit of a problem at the cage. I didn't have an ID with me because the charity casino rarely cards. In fact I can only remember being carded like two times there in my life. But the guy refused to sell me chips with no ID. I decided to go talk to this floorguy T.C. and see if he could help me out. T.C. went and talked with the guy at the cage and told him I was a fairly regular player there despite the fact that I haven't played there in months, so that was cool of him.

So I finally sit down with a rack of $200 at the NL table around 3:40pm. I'm pretty much card dead for the first hour at the table, getting dealt like K3 and J2 every other hand. I'm slowly bleeding chips and then lose a biggish pot with Ad 10d after chasing a flush draw, not getting there and giving up on the river. So after that hand I'm steaming a bit and decide to gamble it up and raise with 5-2 of spades UTG. I make it $12 to go and get 4 callers to the flop. Flop comes A-Q-5 and I figure I can represent an Ace here with my pre-flop raise. I lead out for $22 and get one caller, this older lady who kept reminding me of Mac's mom from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Anyway, the the turn brings a second Ace on the board and I decide to check. Mrs. Mac's Mom checks behind and I'm now fairly certain she has a Queen and I need to bet big on the river if I want to get her off it. Mind you I still only have a pair of fives at this point. Luckily the river brings another five, giving me Fives full of Aces. Now instead of betting big I try to figure out an amount to bet that she can call with a Queen. I settle on $25 and she thinks it over for a bit and finally calls. She seems a little shocked when I turn over the 5-2 of spades and mucks KQ face up.

I then send this text to my guy Z who is asking about my session.

4:50 PM: Bro i just won a sick $140 pot wid the good old 5-2 of spades.

So that pot brings me up to about even and then I go on a mini heater raking in a few smallish pots in a row. So I'm sitting with around ~$240 when I get pocket Jacks in MP. A couple of limpers before me and I pop it up to $10. Then the small blind, this gangsta looking black dude re-pops me to $30. Folds back to me and I have a bit of a decision to make. I can 4-bet and commit myself to the hand there, or wait to see what the flop brings. I decide to smooth call and we go HU to a flop of 2-2-2. Gangstalicious thinks it over for a bit and then throws two green chips out ($50). I go into the tank a bit, asking myself if he would do this with anything other than AA, KK or QQ. Tens seem possible and I say fuck it, and push all in. He calls rather quickly which makes my heart sink thinking I've run into Queens most definitely. But surprisingly he flips over AK of clubs and I sweat the turn and river and can't help myself but to fist pump in celebration when he goes brick brick. I drag in what's probably one of the bigger pots I've won in my life and send the following text:

6:33 PM: Just won a $445 pot bro! Now netting $245 for the day.

Shortly thereafter though, I suffer a heart breaker. I'll tell it as best I can remember.

UTG and MP limp in before me and I look down at 4-5 of diamonds on the button and decide to limp in as well. The SB folds and the BB checks. The flop comes down 6-7-J rainbow. BB checks, UTG who I have a bit of history with (more on that in a bit) checks and MP, a player who just sat down, bets out $15. I call the $15 on the button with my open-ender, BB folds and UTG calls the $15 as well. The turn is an 8, completing my straight. UTG checks, MP again bets $15 and I raise it to $45 on the button. To my surprise they both call my raise and we see a blank river, something like a deuce of hearts.

So the board now reads 6h-7c-Jd-8c-2h. To my surprise, UTG leads out for $70. Now, UTG is this older Korean guy in his 60s who I've played a lot with in the past. He's a straight forward ABC player but he puts me on tilt every time he seats at my table just because he acts like the biggest douche bag in the world. Every single decision the dealer makes, he wants confirmation from the floor which slows the game down. He berates the dealers for absolutely no reason and is just an all around jerk. A few hands earlier I asked if he could trade me some of his white ($1) chips for some of my red ($5) so I could pay the blinds, and he refused, mumbling something about how he likes his stack to look bigger with the white chips or something, so the dealer had to call a chip runner to bring me some whites.

Quick snap shot of Mr. Korea I managed to take with my phone for the purposes of this blog.

But ANYWAY, back to the hand. Mr. Korea (is this racist? I don't really think so, I just can't come up with a more clever nickname for him) leads for $70 on the river and MP tanks for about two minutes before making a crying call. Now I have a huge decision with what is effectively the second nuts. The only possible/reasonable hand that beats me at this point is 9-10. (9-5 beats me as well but makes no sense what so ever.)

So I make the call as well, not even remotely considering a raise, and of course Korea turns over the 9-10. As soon as he did, I wanted to grab my cards and throw them in his face. I just could not believe I had gotten cold decked in such a sick pot against the one person at the table I'd hate to give my chips to the most. But I kept my cool, said nice hand and went for a short walk, sending the following text:

7:11 PM: Major tilt dude. Just lost a $350 pot wid the 2nd nuts. Woulda been up $500 for the night man. still up 150 tho.

I actually have to cut this post short for now because I gotta get ready for a home game I'm headed to tonight. It's another 200NL game and hopefully I can create a bit of a win streak for myself. Anyway I'll try to update the info for the rest of yesterday's session as well as the results for tonight. Peace!