Wednesday, December 23, 2009

An Up-And-Down Day

Although I finished the day with a profit of $130, I could have stopped playing about two hours prior to when I quit and had the same result. Probably 10 minutes before I was going to call it quits, I made a pre-flop call that cost me about $80 and it was a continued downward spiral for another $150 until I was finally able to get things together and start my comeback.

I started off well and won a few small pots that helped me get up about $30, but then lost that and more when my pocket kings that were raised pre-flop got beat for about $90 by Q-6 offsuit because the guy had already put out his $2 and wanted to defend it for another $12.

Being down about $60 I worked my way back to even and then gained some profit with more small and medium-sized pots. There really was no one hand that won me a lot of money, but eventually I had $150 in profit. That is the point that I decided to go home a little early and avoid the Dallas traffic.

Yet, I failed to cash out early enough and played a hand I shouldn't have called a raise with in the first place. I limped in on the button with Q-10 offsuit and when the small blind raised an additional $10 it folded around to me. I usually would fold that hand in a second, but I had been playing very tight and thought I would mix things up for one hand. I called the raise and saw a flop of J-10-4 with two hearts. Neither of my cards was a heart. So I was sitting with middle pair and a queen kicker. The small blind bet $25 into a pot with about that amount. I for some strange reason called. The turn was a stinking queen giving me two pair. The small blind bet $50 pretty quick and I called even faster. The river was a low heart, putting three hearts out on the board. The small blind checked and I contemplated betting out, but decided to just see if my two pair would hold up on the off chance that he had been betting the heart draw and when he hit it wanted me to bet the hand for him. When I said two pair, he also said two pair and showed Q-J for the higher hand.

I hated playing that hand and couldn't shake it, which led to me losing about another $75 resulting in being down approximately $100 at one point. I clawed my way back, luckily hitting three of a kind on a hand I raised pre-flop but had no business calling for $2 in the first place. I was also helped by getting kings and then queens back-to-back. Another hand that helped was getting pocket fours and ending up with four of them.

The biggest hand of the night that I was involved in for about two minutes but ended up folding (rightly so) was the following:

I was under the gun with 10h-9c offsuit and called $2. The guy on my left raised it to $10 straight. That was then called by four people (two of those being the small and big blinds). I figured I would see a flop for eight more dollars since there was $50 in the pot already. The flop came 8h-9h-Js. So I am sitting with middle pair, a open-ended straight draw, and a back-door medium-sized flush draw that would likely be no good even if I was able to get there.

So there are six people seeing this flop and $55 in the pot (after the rake is taken). The small blind checked before the flop was ever seen. The big blind bet $10. Well of course I am going to hang around for $10. Now, most of the time I would raise in this situation hoping to either win the pot right then, get a call or two to build the pot should I hit a big hand on the turn or river or get free cards later in the hand when it is checked to me because they believe I will be the aggressor. However, in the split-second time that I thought about my options, I noticed the guy on my left (who had raised pre-flop) reach toward his chips as if he were ready to make a big bet. That was a little screwy, so I decided instead of raising this time to see where things went. I called. That is when it got interesting.

The guy on my left did raise, like I thought he might. He added an additional $30, making it $40 total. That put $115 in the pot ($55 pre-flop, big blind's $10, my $10, and the original raiser's $40). The guy on the raiser's left (who beat my kings earlier with Q-6 and we will call defender) called the $40, as did the player on his left, who will be known as random guy.

This moves us to the small blind. He surprises everyone by raising an additional $100, leaving himself about another $150 or so. Let us recap this pot. There is $55 from pre-flop action. The big blind bets $10 ($65), I call ($75), the pre-flop aggressor raises $30 more ($115), defender calls ($155), random dude calls ($195), small blind raises an additional $100 ($295). So this means it is back to the big blind, who opened into a $55 pot for $10. He thinks for a good three or four minutes and finally calls the additional $130, also leaving himself about $150. This puts $425 in the pot.

Okay, so I have 9-10 on a J-9-8 board (in case you forgot where I was in this peculiar hand). This is an insta-fold pretty much every single time with that much action going on. I took my time to do so though, just to make sure I was comprehending what was going on. I guess I should add that at this point I had about $160 at the start of the hand and I would have been putting myself all in to win this pot had I called.

After my fold, there is $425 in the pot and it is back to the pre-flop raiser. He starts talking about how he can't believe this is happening and how much he wants to call. He finally says he is going to fold and shows me his hand. He also said he would have called had it been just him and the small blind. I am not going to say what he had just yet. We'll play a guessing game at the end of this.

So the defender folds pretty quick and random guy folds also. Both are saying how much they want to call though.

With $425 in the pot we see a turn. It is the four of hearts. The small blind instantly waves his arm forward, signifying his all in move for $150. The big blind insta-calls putting him all in or close to it.

So what does everyone have? You have the small blind who checked blind, then re-raised a re-raise, and then moved all in on a turn that put three hearts on the board. The big blind opened it up on the flop, called the re-re-raise and insta-called the all in on the turn. The original raiser painfully folded on the flop after lots of crazy betting. The defender and random guy called the $40 on the flop but got out when it was a large re-raise and call after that.

Well here are the results:
Small blind - 10-7, giving him the flopped straight
Big blind - A-2 of hearts, giving him the nut flush
Me - missed straight draw with a pair of nines
Original raiser - pocket eights, which means bottom set on the flop and no improvement
Defender - J-X of hearts, giving him top pair and the losing flush
Random guy - pocket 10, giving him an open-ended straight draw that never made it

A very interesting hand that everyone involved had some interest in.

So with my $130 profit, that increases my winnings to $1,745 since Nov. 18. I played for six hours, giving me an hourly profit of $21.67.

Until next time, which likely won't be for about a week until after the holidays.

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