A Bad Night, A Good Day: Part 2

Following up on yesterday's post, which was recapping my first two playing sessions of 2010, my bad night that left me with a loss of $300 was followed up by a good day Monday at Winstar where I made $275.

After sitting down at my table I folded only three hands and then found myself with pocket threes. The player on my right, who was Asian and are stereotypically aggressive cardplayers, raised it up to $10. I, along with another two players and the raiser, saw a flop. The flop was jack-high with a three. The raiser bet $50 quickly and I called pretty quickly. This left me with $130. We were the only two to make it to the turn, which was nothing scary. The raiser put out another $50. I immediately went all in for another $80. My opponent said he called rather quickly, which at first scared me, but when I flipped over my set of threes he showed his disappointment in not being able to win the hand. I never saw what he had, but it doubled me up immediately and that made me happy.

I took a bit of a dip about an hour later when I turned a set of sixes that lost to a set of kings. I did spend as little money as possible though, so I was pleased about that. The guy with kings raised pre-flop, and three of us called the bet. The flop was K-Q-5. The three of us checked it around and saw a turn, which was my third six. The first player, who was not the raiser, bet $25 into a pot of $40. The original raiser smooth called the bet. The third player folded and it was on me.

Now usually I would be ecstatic to have a set and would likely raise in this situation. But something wasn't quite right with the original raiser checking the flop and just calling the turn bet. This could mean one of two things: he either flopped a very big hand and wants to try to disguise it or he has nothing yet and is on some sort of draw. I felt like he had flopped the big hand and was trying to be sneaky, so I simply called the $25. The river was a two, resulting in a board that was K-Q-5-6-2 and didn't do much in putting anything out there that could reasonably beat me. Sure, a 3-4 would beat me, but that was extremely unlikely.

So now it was down to a higher set beating me. The first player checked and the original raiser bet $35. Again, I really felt like this guy was beating me, which has to mean he has kings or queens in his hand. So I did call the bet. I couldn't reasonably fold with $115 in the pot and his $35 bet out there, but I wasn't going to go crazy by raising. The third guy folded and the original raiser showed me his set of kings. My line of thinking was sound sure enough.

The only other hand worth mentioning was when a guy kept hounding me for beating him by hitting runner-runner, but it wasn't completely my fault. I limped in for $2 with K-9 of clubs. The angry gentleman raised behind me to $7 and four players called. So once it got back to me I was getting 7-1 to see if the flop helped me any. I called the raise. The flop was A-Q-3 rainbow with one heart. I was all ready to fold to a bet, but everyone checked.

The turn came out with the nine of hearts, which gives me third high pair (or second lowest pair; however you want to look at it). The original raiser bet $30 into the pot that had $40. Everyone folded to me and I begrudgingly called. I wasn't thrilled with my hand, but since the bettor had checked the flop I thought I might be okay with my nines.

Now this may contradict my earlier explanation of the guy who had flopped the set of kings and checked the flop. Well that is where poker is a crazy game, because the player this time seemed like someone who knew checking a set into five players after raising pre-flop would seem suspicious, which means he wouldn't have done that. No, instead I put him on a marginal hand, maybe a pair with a poor kicker or the nine, which meant it would come down to our kickers, and mine was better.

So I called the $30. The river was the king of hearts. This put three hearts on the board, which was made up of A-Q-3-9-K. My opponent bet $35, which was all in for him. I called with my two pair and he said he only had an ace. It really was his fault for not betting the flop. If he had done that then I wouldn't have had the chance to beat him.

Since picking up the game again on a regular basis, after the past two sessions I have profited $1,590 and for 2010 I am down $25. I'll probably go back to Winstar tomorrow. Until then.