Two Wins

What's up blog? I feel like the last few times I've written on here, the posts have been prefaced with an apology for not updating this in a long time. (Okay, I just checked my previous entries and this isn't entirely true, but I digress.)

The reason I haven't updated this shit is because I hadn't really been playing any poker at all. I think the last time I blogged, I was headed to a poker game at The Loft, and that was over two months ago. I ended up losing $50 in that session, but chalked it up as a win after being stuck almost 3 bills. I got most of my money back on the very last hand of the night with AQ against pocket 7s and another players unseen cards in a 3-way $250 pot.

Besides that, I haven't been doing much gambling this past couple of months except some regular action on the Mexican soccer league with this guy from work. We each pick a team we like each week (we alternate 1st picks) and then bet $20 on both games. We've been doing it for a few months now and usually end up washing since we both pick the top favorites obv.

Anyway, last week I got the itch to get back on the poker grind and headed to the charity casino. I put in a brutal 6.5 hour session that netted me +$59. That's after being up almost $300 at one point. I think my stack peaked at around $480 ( bought in for $200) but a couple of key pots sent me home a small winner. The first involved trying to use my tight image to try and pull an ill-timed bluff against the wrong guy. I picked up 7-3off on the straddle, flopped bottom pair and fired all the way. After my $50 bluff-bet got raised on the river, I insta-mucked and got up, disgusted with myself.

About 10 minutes after getting back to the table, I pick up QQ on the button. A few limps, then the cut-off raises to $8 and I repop to $20. Him and another player call and we see a K-Q-10 rainbow flop. 1st player checks and the original preflop raiser bets out something like $22. I re-raise to $72 with middle set, and the cut-off's flat call after tanking for a bit, has got me a little worried that AJ might have me hurting bad. We go heads up to a Jack on the turn, (board is now a rainbow K-Q-10-J) and the cutoff immeditly fires out a $100 stack. I hate my life at this point, along with my set of Queens. I tank for maybe 5 minutes, and one of the problems was that I couldn't just flat the $100, it was either push or fold. I kept putting my opponent on AJ, and so many other hands are in his range with his pre-flop raise that ultimately I decided there was no way I was ahead. I muck my ladies face up and my opponent shows JJ. I feel sick to my stomach and want to vomit.

I don't know if my opponent really thought JJ was good there or if he was just bluffing at the scariest turn card possible, but neverthless, the hand put me on mad tilt and I began to bleed chips left and right. I was down to my last two green chips ($50) when I said to myself "Self, you made a good laydown. 95% of the time you are going to be up against a straight. Time to nut up, shut up, and play some poker" So I went into what I like to call my ninja poker mode, which includes hoodie over head, iPod blasting Jay Z on full volume, and complete focus on every hand with no bullshit chit-chat or socializing with anyone at the table. Ninja poker mode was good to me as I grinded my stack back to $259, cashing out around 11PM.

The next day I was scheduled to work but I called in for someone to cover for me and headed to the poker room again. I got there at around 5pm, and there was no list for the 200nl game so I immediately got a seat. And I also immediately got two-outtered pretty ugly. About 6 hands into the session I pick up 10-5off in the BB and check my option. I almost have to double check my cards when the flop comes 10-10-5. With five of us in the pot, it checks around. The turn is a 6, bringing two diamonds to the board. Gets checked to me and I bet $10 hoping not to scare away a flush draw. I get called in two spots and the river is a 7d bringing the flush to the board. I check, hoping to induce a bet from a made flush. The 2nd player to act bets out $22. Then the 3rd player tries to raise, but string bets and is only allowed to call the $22. At this point, I'm hoping they've both made their flush and I'll get paid off with my full house. I raise $53 more, making it $75 all day. One player tanks for about a minute and begrudgingly mucks his cards. The other player insta calls and I proudly announce full house, thinking how nice it's going to be to start off the session being up a cool hundo.

Oops! Not quite. My opponent flips over his cards and tables 10-6 for a better full house. I get that sick illy feeling that only a two outter can produce. I have no idea why he didn't raise me on the river though. Only hand that beats him is 10-7. He missed out on the rest of my stack, haha.

Anyway, that pot got me off to a rocky start and I couldn't get anything going for a while. I kept raising with big hands and then whiffing the board and having to check fold. Once again I found myself short stacked with about $35, when I decided it was time to go into Ninja Poker mode again. So on goes the hoodie and the headphones, and my luck immediatly starts to change.

I pick up Aces and win a smallish straddled pot. Then I doubled up with AK on a K high flop against KJ. A few hands later I pick up KK in the small blind, and make it $16 to go. I get 5 callers and the flop comes 2-3-4 with two diamonds.. I'm first to act and bet out $50 not wanting to fuck around, with such a draw-heavy board.. The guy sitting next to me, this young kid who is somwhat of a decent player tanks for a bit and then calls. Folds around to the button who goes all in for $67 total. I call the extra $17 as does the other kid. The turn is an offsuit 5. I hate my Kings at this point, but the pot is just to big so I throw in my last $45 or so hoping neither player has an Ace. The young kid tanks and finally makes a crying call asking if I've made my straight. Since me and the button are all in, we all turn our cards up, and I find out I'm up against the young kid's pocket 8s and the button's 9d-10d for a flush draw. The river blanks and I drag in a nice pot.

Then some weird shit happens a the table. The player in seat 2 comes back from smoking a cigarette or something and asks the dealer what the fuck happened to his stack of chips. At first the whole table thinks he's kidding, but it soon becomes apparent that he isn't. He says he left around a $50 stack on the table and now it was gone. I'm sitting in seat 4 so the dealer starts asking everyone on our side of the table if we saw what happened. I honestly didn't see shit. I definitely saw the guy get up from the table but I don't recall whether he left his chips or not. Just a few minutes before the guy had come back to his seat, the player in seat number 3, a white dude in his mid 20s, had gotten up to cash out. The table starts theorizing that maybe he accidentally grabbed the guy's stack when he was racking his chips. I honestly doubt this is what happened, but whatever.

The floor is called, and then the floor calls the guy who runs the entire charity casino. He has a long talk a few feet away from the table with the guy who lost his chips. I'm not sure what is said, but I guess the guy didn't want to fucking deal with this shit over $50 so he reaches into his wallet, and hands the guy a crisp Grant note.

The whole thing is forgtotten and we continue to play poker. I went on a bit of a heater and started dragging in small pot after small pot. The last big pot I won on the night was when I turned a straight with pocket 5s and got paid off by a terrible player who made Aces up. I cashed out for $430 (+$230 profit) around 10pm.

Today is Tuesday and I'm planning to head to the card room again around 2pm. Hopefully I can keep the winning streak going, and I'll try to post another update tonight.

Peace out homies and good luck at the tables!

P.S.- I've jumped on this twitter craze, so check out my tweets on the left hand side of the blog. I don't tweet too regularly, mostly when I'm at the poker table.