In the past week regarding certain activities that can become nerve-racking like softball and poker, I have taken a page from Texas Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson’s playbook in that I am trying to live in the moment, not reflect on mistakes, breathe through my eyelids, and that sort of thing. When Wilson is shown in the dugout during a Rangers game, he is sitting calmly on the bench, trying not to focus on what has happened in the prior innings but instead simply look ahead at what he has to do coming up. While this attitude certainly didn’t work out for me at last week’s softball game, I think it has done a lot of good for my poker playing the last three days.
Following Saturday’s win of $210 in Weatherford, Clint and I kept the poker high going by making a trip to WinStar last night with my brother, Bart. Clint logged a win, Bart a loss, and me, well, that is debatable. I profited $30 for the night, fighting and clawing my way out of a hole to do it, but after playing for four hours and earning a measly $7.50 an hour it might not have seemed worth staying up late, stressing over pot odds and putting up with the riff-raff that goes along with a trip north to Oklahoma casinos. For me, it was a lesson in how to manage a single buy-in with tight, patient play.
I bought in for $180 and did not have anything left over to re-buy with should luck not be on my side last night, but had I asked Clint for a loan I probably would have gotten it. However, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So instead, I simply worked with the money I had and told myself if I went broke then I was sitting in the lounge waiting for the rest of my party.
After winning an $8 pot about thirty minutes after sitting down, which still didn’t put me above my $180 starting point, I didn’t win my next hand for another two hours. I simply folded hand after hand, occasionally seeing a flop when holding a pocket pair or an ace with a suited low card or unsuited high card, but never seeing it improve.
My lowest point for the evening was $70, which I hit a couple of times. At one point I made an all-in $53 bluff with king-high on the river into a $60 pot against a kid who had me slightly covered. He had called my continuation bet on the flop after I raised it pre-flop. We both checked the turn and I made my all-in bet on the river knowing it was the only way I could win the pot. My opponent thought for a good 30 seconds and finally folded.
The first time I was able to get back near even was with pocket aces against pocket kings. All the money went in the middle on the flop after raising it to $8, getting a call behind me from a guy with about as much money as me (which was $70 at the time), being re-raised to $30 from the small blind and smooth calling his bet in hopes that the player behind me on the button would call the bet as well. He didn’t call the extra $22 and when the small blind immediately moved all in on a J-2-2 board I called and had my hand win in the end.
Even though I had built my stack back up to about $150, that wouldn’t last as I continued my losing streak, which included one hand where I was dealt pocket queens.
I raised under the gun to $7 with the two red ladies, being called by two players, one of those being the player to my immediate left. He was a nice, older gentleman who didn’t talk much, but was pleasant when he did.
The flop came out as K-10-3 rainbow. I was first to act and bet $15 into a $22 pot. The man on my left called and the other guy folded. The turn was another 10. I decided I probably couldn’t beat what this guy was holding at this point and was ready to fold if he bet. I checked it and so did he.
The river was a 5 and I had a decision to make. The pot contained about $50 in it and my opponent had $45 left. I was sitting at about $90. If he had a monster hand and was hoping I would bet the river, he would have checked the turn like he did. But he would have done the exact same thing had he been on a straight draw or held a medium pocket pair just opting to take the free card. So I had to determine whether he had a big hand, a smaller pair than mine, or nothing at all.
My options included betting half my stack to put him all in with the hope he either folds and I win without a fight or calls and has a lesser hand, bet about half his stack and see what he does in return, or check it and let him decide what to do. Let us break down each preference and see what would happen in every possible scenario.
The first choice is to bet $45 and put him all in. He likely isn’t going to call for everything he has without at least a king, which beats me. The only way he would do that is a frustration call. Honestly, while this is the most aggressive play and aggressive play is a winning strategy, I don’t really like this move right here.
The second choice is to bet $20-25, leaving him with next to nothing if he calls. However, I doubt he simply calls for half his money if he has three tens or the king, which is what he would have to hold to make that call. If he had more money then calling $25 just to see what I have with a middle pocket pair is a little more likely. Yet, when it is nearly everything he has, he isn’t going to “keep ‘em honest” just because. So by betting $20-25, he is going to either fold with his lesser hand or move all in for the other half with his better hand. Also, I doubt he moves all in for his remaining money on a bluff because it is such a small amount he will likely think I am committed to a call. This seems a little better option than the first choice simply because I am going to get the same outcome, but am risking less money. I like this decision a little more than the first one so far.
Now for the final option: to check. This is certainly the most passive way to play the hand, but that was sort of the theme to my play last night. By checking, I am giving him all the power in the hand. If he elects to bet, I then have to decide whether he is betting his best hand for value or betting a bluff because it is the only way he can win. Checking results in me having to do all the work and it comes down to my feeling about if he has a hand or not, and this is all determined on how much he bets. However, not betting anything could result in him also checking and I risk nothing to see who has the best hand at a showdown.
Whatever option you prefer, I elected a check and make a decision should he bet. He did bet all of his money and after concluding he had the goods, I folded. He said he would show me for a dollar, which I was happy to pay for some peace of mind. He flipped over pocket kings, which means he flopped a set and turned a full house. Good fold and good play.
I only lost $22 on the hand, but it was a culmination of all my losing hands that should have sent me over the edge by this point in the night. Yet, I continued to be patient and keep up the C.J. Wilson tranquil attitude. My new approach to keeping a cool head while playing was put to the test on a hand that on any other night I would have brooded over for hours and possibly could have sent me into the normal tailspin of tilt that usually ends up in my complete demise and bankruptcy.
I was dealt the ace of clubs and five of diamonds on the button. It was $2 to call when it got to me and about six other players had limped in for the minimum amount. I decided to see a flop and watch what happened from there. At this point in the hand I had $98 after the pre-flop call. With seven of us seeing a flop there was $14 in the pot.
The flop was 4-6-7 with two clubs. I now had an open-ended straight draw, an over card and a backdoor flush draw. It was checked to the player on my right, who was an aggressive bettor that had been winning a lot of pots because he put players to the test for their chips and was not afraid to bluff with absolutely nothing. He bet $10. I decided to call this bet, figuring I would entice a player or two to come along with us, helping to build a good-sized pot should I hit my straight. Two players who had checked made the call and it was to the kid I had earlier bluffed with king-high on the river, who was sitting in middle position. He went all in for $35, a $25 raise. It now got to the original bettor. He re-raised the bet to $75. It is now on me and I have $88 left after my earlier $10 call.
Should I decide to play this, it is obvious I will go all in for my last $13. Although I had two people behind me to act, I really didn’t think they were going to make the call should I go all in because of their reactions to all the raising and re-raising that had taken place prior to my turn. So it really just came down to being up against the two opponents, one of whom had me covered. Should I beat the guy that had me covered but lose to the all-in player, I would have ended up with $106, resulting in a $6 profit of where I started at the beginning of this hand. If I won it all I would have about $270.
To recap, I have Ac-5d, the board is 4c-6s-7c and it is an all-in play for me with no money to pull out for a re-buy. What would you do here? We’ll have our answer … after the break.
Welcome back. After contemplating if I wanted to risk everything I had on an open-ended straight draw, I elected to fold. I took a lot of time to make the decision and was surprised nobody called the clock on me. Folding may be a weenie play to some of you, but I just couldn’t get myself to make the call getting 2-1 on my money with what could be only six outs if one of those two guys was on a club flush draw. I figured at best I had eight outs for my straight and an additional three outs should I pair my ace and it hold up, but that was best-case scenario.
Like I thought would happen, the two players behind me also folded and it was down to heads-up. The turn was the jack of clubs and the river was the five of clubs, giving me what would have been the nut flush, only losing to a straight-flush of 3-6 or 6-8 of clubs. The two guys both showed eights and no club, giving them both the same straight. One of the players held 8-6, which at the time of my decision was middle pair with an inside straight draw and I don’t recall what the other player’s second card was to go with his eight.
As I said earlier, this was one of those hands that usually I would go over and over in my mind second guessing myself about what I had done, knowing that had I called I’d be in the black and possibly winning more. But with my unworried outlook that didn’t dwell on the past, I put the hand behind me, moved on and focused on what was going on at that moment.
I’ve only played cards twice since taking on this new attitude, but I really feel like it helped factor into my profits for both nights. There were moments on Saturday that I could have said, “Oh, screw it,” and shoved out of frustration, but I stuck with it and continued to play as good as possible, not letting previous decisions influence current situations. We will see tonight how the C.J. factor works for me in softball as we play a very tough defensive team at the hottest possible moment of the evening.
Until next time…
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Weatherford Outing A Success
Saturday night was the monthly $1-2 hold’em game in Weatherford and I was more than content to log a $210 profit for the evening. I played for nine hours and earned $23.33 an hour.
Ever since winning $1,200 back in March, my wife, Joanna, has it in her head that every trip should end up like that one, but that just isn’t going to be the case. While there’s plenty of money to be made at that game, a really good night on a normal basis would be winning somewhere between $600-900. A good night is between $200-600. Any sort of profit less than that is certainly a good thing but feels like a waste because there are thousands of dollars in the room, and since the game is only held once a month it is a long wait until the next opportunity.
I had only three hands of interest, and one of those was played about as straight forward as possible. I started the night with $100 and quickly (within 20 minutes) was down to $60. The worst part of that was I don’t know where I lost $40 in so quick a time span. I even considered the idea that I didn’t get a full $100 when I started because I couldn’t recall where I had spent so much money in so little time. I did have a lot of speculative hands worth seeing a flop with, but I just couldn’t for the life of me think I had paid $40 in pre-flop and flop bets without something to show for it.
After that point I made an all-in bet when there was $60 in the pot and I had top pair, top kicker. I wouldn’t have gone all in had I more money, but with about $50 at the time, I couldn’t see why I would make a bet of $25-35 with a flush and straight draw possible, only leaving myself $15-25 on the turn. Had I done that I wouldn’t have enough to push out those on the draw or even people with an inferior hand hoping to hit two pair or three of a kind on the river for such a small risk to win a large pot.
So, I pushed all in for $50 or so and figured if they wanted to draw to a big hand then they would have to pay big for it. Even if I don’t get a call then I essentially double up without risking a showdown, which is what happened as nobody called my bet.
Back at a little more than $100 I started to build my stack with small-pot wins until I came to what would be ultimately the biggest pot of the night for me. At this point I had $175 in front of me and covered the two players involved in this particular hand. I was dealt the two red aces and raised it to $8 after two callers before me. A player after me called, as did one of the guys who had limped in prior to my raise. There is now $27 in the pot after three $8 calls and the $3 from blinds.
So with three players seeing a flop, the cards came out A-8-4 rainbow. With the very best hand at this point and little fear of being drawn out on, I decided to play it a little slower than I normally would, which meant not making a continuation bet. By checking the flop I might get them to think I have kings or queens and am not happy about seeing an ace on the flop, prompting them to bet if they happen to have the last ace.
Well, my plan didn’t get to take form because the first guy to act led out with a bet of $13. So now I have to decide if I want to raise or call. Raising shows I am not afraid of the ace and may scare off anyone holding top pair. Calling is more deceptive and entices the guy behind me to call the bet as well. The obvious play here is to simply call with no threat of being outdrawn on. Should something scary come on the turn then we can reassess the situation.
I called the $13 as did the guy behind me; excellent outcome for me. Now the pot has $66 in it.
The turn is the jack of clubs, creating an A-8-4-J board with two clubs. The first guy to act bet again. This time he went all in for $82. I am ecstatic over this. Of course, on the outside I am thinking hard about what to do and making it look like I am worried about what the guy behind me is going to do. After about 20 seconds I called.
Now this hand looked to be exactly what people who play cards dream about with a huge hand that doesn’t need a ton of decision making resulting in a big pot. Well, it only got better because after some hemming and hawing from the player behind me, he said he was going to go all in also. I politely said call after waiting a second or two, not even needing a count, and flipped up my set of aces. It turned out I barely had him covered by only about $10. The second guy called me an SOB in a friendly, joking manner and said he had a set of eights.
The final card came, which didn’t help his eights, and the other guy who was all in showed the final ace, not particularly caring what his kicker was because he knew it didn’t matter. After all was said and done I had $475 in front of me, which was my peak for the evening.
With a large amount of chips in front of me, I started playing a lot of speculative hands to see if I could hit a well-hidden straight or two pair that could get a lot of money in the pot against opponents with high cards thinking they were good. Instead it just resulted in a quick decline that made me have to tighten back up once I was down to $250. Two of those losses were against my kryptonite, Jay, one being because I didn’t bet enough with top pair, top kicker on the flop to get a fold and the other was a chess-like battle that never went past the flop. Let’s take a look at the latter.
Jay is a very good player who is aggressive and hard to put on hands. Of all the people at the Weatherford game, he is among those who I don’t like to be at a table with (a list which includes Jason, Phil, and Clint). The hand in question was one that I held K-Q offsuit. Jay raised it pre-flop to $10. I was the only player to call the bet, creating a $23 pot with the blinds.
The flop was A-10-6 with no real flush possibility for me and Jay made a pot-sized bet of $25. Here is where the thought-based fighting came in to play for both of us. The way Jay played this particular hand up to this point made me think he was holding a high pocket pair like kings, queens, or jacks. I ruled out aces and tens because he most likely wouldn’t make that big of a bet with such a large hand and I didn’t consider nines or lower because his pre-flop bet was not the right kind of amount for that holding. I’ve played with Jay enough to get these kinds of feelings during a hand with him and sometimes they prove right.
So, with him having a pocket pair that was lower than the ace, I thought a small raise would get him to fold, thinking I held the ace for a higher pair, and if I was wrong then I wouldn’t lose a ton of money on my misread. I made a minimum raise to $50. The size I chose was because a lot of times against lesser players a minimum raise means they are holding a monster hand. I thought he might take that into consideration when thinking about what to do.
After a minute of consideration and stacking chips around, Jay made a raise of his own, putting out an additional $50, making the bet $100. This put me in a tough spot because I certainly can’t make a call. I either have to make another raise, which would likely have to be an all-in because if I left anything behind it would be so small that I couldn’t do anything with it on the turn to get Jay to fold, or I have to fold my hand now. Keep in mind I have a king and a queen, which is nothing right now. I could make a straight with a jack, but I don’t really want to put everything I have on the line for an inside straight. So if I do raise, it is with the hope I don’t get called.
Let’s go back to what I think he has. After the flop and his initial bet I put him on kings, queens, or jacks. Those are looking less likely now with Jay re-raising my raise, but still a small possibility he is being stubborn. I have to now consider that he has the ace with either a king kicker or even a ten or six to make two pair. I still am not considering a set because he would let me bet it for him.
Since I have hardly anything to work with and I would have to go all in for any hope of winning the hand, I elected to fold the hand. Speaking with Jay later in the night, it turns out he did have pocket jacks like I thought he did. He said he had a feeling I was trying to represent the ace and push him off of his pocket pair, which is exactly what I was doing. So to recap, we both had the other person’s hand pegged and it was a matter of who would say chicken first, which happened to be me.
After breaking down from two tables to one for the final few hours of the night, I hovered between$200-300 for the rest of the night. I did have one big hand that put me up above that amount after I had dwindled down a significant amount when my pocket queens held up twice against A-K suited.
The pot was raised to $8 by a player two to my right, whose name was Steve. I re-raised with my two queens, one of which was a heart, and made it $30 to play. It folded around through the blinds to another guy named Matt and Phil, who both called after just limping in the beginning. I figure one of those two have a pocket pair that they are willing to pay through the nose for to see if it hits the flop. The other one I’m not too sure about. It came back to Steve, who called the $22 re-raise. So there was $120 in the pot at this point and I had only the other Matt covered. Phil and Steve both were beating me by about $400 each.
I should note that I did some table talk about how I thought all the money would be going into the middle pre-flop because I didn’t want to risk any more money without seeing three cards, allowing me to know if an over to my queens came on the flop. By making the statements I did, I was hoping to scare anyone with kings or ace-king from pushing again. And if they do push in the middle, I could be pretty confident they were holding aces because they would not only be confident of their hand, but they would think I was willing to call for all my chips pre-flop, which I wasn’t. The ploy apparently worked because one of the players did have ace-king and another guy said he was thinking about pushing until I said the comments I did.
So with four of us to go and me being last to act, the flop came with nothing higher than a nine and two hearts. I don’t remember the cards exactly, but they didn’t include an eight or a three.
The other Matt was first to act and with little hesitation he moved all in for $50. Phil immediately folded and Steve folded not too much longer after that. With $170 in the pot and getting more than three to one for a call, I took my chances against Matt flopping a set and called. I also wasn’t too concerned about him having a set because with the raising and re-raising going on behind him, he would probably let us bet it and get more people to call in order to build a bigger pot for his great hand.
After making the call I flipped up my over-pair to the board and he flipped over the ace and king of hearts for a flush draw. Someone asked if we wanted to do business, meaning run the final two cards twice, to which I said I would allow Matt to make the decision. At this game I will always give a single opponent the option if he wants to and normally do not initiate “the business.” Matt said he wanted to run it twice and we did, but it didn’t matter because I won both times.
I mentioned the flop didn’t have a three or an eight because Phil said he had pocket threes and Steve said he had pocket eights. Obviously, had the flop contained one of those cards they would have made the all-in call.
I was pleased with how the night went. So much in fact, Clint and I are going to WinStar tonight to play some more before his wife gets home from New York City.
With last month’s $200 loss and this month’s $210 win, I have won a total of $2,865 since last November and in 2010 I have logged a profit of $1,250. Sadly though, $1,185 of that $1,250 came in one nine-hour session. My hourly profit for the year would be $14.30 and it is $19.90 since starting to seriously play poker again in November. Not terrible numbers considering I make $12 an hour in my cubicle. Maybe living the dream isn’t such a fantasy after all.
Ever since winning $1,200 back in March, my wife, Joanna, has it in her head that every trip should end up like that one, but that just isn’t going to be the case. While there’s plenty of money to be made at that game, a really good night on a normal basis would be winning somewhere between $600-900. A good night is between $200-600. Any sort of profit less than that is certainly a good thing but feels like a waste because there are thousands of dollars in the room, and since the game is only held once a month it is a long wait until the next opportunity.
I had only three hands of interest, and one of those was played about as straight forward as possible. I started the night with $100 and quickly (within 20 minutes) was down to $60. The worst part of that was I don’t know where I lost $40 in so quick a time span. I even considered the idea that I didn’t get a full $100 when I started because I couldn’t recall where I had spent so much money in so little time. I did have a lot of speculative hands worth seeing a flop with, but I just couldn’t for the life of me think I had paid $40 in pre-flop and flop bets without something to show for it.
After that point I made an all-in bet when there was $60 in the pot and I had top pair, top kicker. I wouldn’t have gone all in had I more money, but with about $50 at the time, I couldn’t see why I would make a bet of $25-35 with a flush and straight draw possible, only leaving myself $15-25 on the turn. Had I done that I wouldn’t have enough to push out those on the draw or even people with an inferior hand hoping to hit two pair or three of a kind on the river for such a small risk to win a large pot.
So, I pushed all in for $50 or so and figured if they wanted to draw to a big hand then they would have to pay big for it. Even if I don’t get a call then I essentially double up without risking a showdown, which is what happened as nobody called my bet.
Back at a little more than $100 I started to build my stack with small-pot wins until I came to what would be ultimately the biggest pot of the night for me. At this point I had $175 in front of me and covered the two players involved in this particular hand. I was dealt the two red aces and raised it to $8 after two callers before me. A player after me called, as did one of the guys who had limped in prior to my raise. There is now $27 in the pot after three $8 calls and the $3 from blinds.
So with three players seeing a flop, the cards came out A-8-4 rainbow. With the very best hand at this point and little fear of being drawn out on, I decided to play it a little slower than I normally would, which meant not making a continuation bet. By checking the flop I might get them to think I have kings or queens and am not happy about seeing an ace on the flop, prompting them to bet if they happen to have the last ace.
Well, my plan didn’t get to take form because the first guy to act led out with a bet of $13. So now I have to decide if I want to raise or call. Raising shows I am not afraid of the ace and may scare off anyone holding top pair. Calling is more deceptive and entices the guy behind me to call the bet as well. The obvious play here is to simply call with no threat of being outdrawn on. Should something scary come on the turn then we can reassess the situation.
I called the $13 as did the guy behind me; excellent outcome for me. Now the pot has $66 in it.
The turn is the jack of clubs, creating an A-8-4-J board with two clubs. The first guy to act bet again. This time he went all in for $82. I am ecstatic over this. Of course, on the outside I am thinking hard about what to do and making it look like I am worried about what the guy behind me is going to do. After about 20 seconds I called.
Now this hand looked to be exactly what people who play cards dream about with a huge hand that doesn’t need a ton of decision making resulting in a big pot. Well, it only got better because after some hemming and hawing from the player behind me, he said he was going to go all in also. I politely said call after waiting a second or two, not even needing a count, and flipped up my set of aces. It turned out I barely had him covered by only about $10. The second guy called me an SOB in a friendly, joking manner and said he had a set of eights.
The final card came, which didn’t help his eights, and the other guy who was all in showed the final ace, not particularly caring what his kicker was because he knew it didn’t matter. After all was said and done I had $475 in front of me, which was my peak for the evening.
With a large amount of chips in front of me, I started playing a lot of speculative hands to see if I could hit a well-hidden straight or two pair that could get a lot of money in the pot against opponents with high cards thinking they were good. Instead it just resulted in a quick decline that made me have to tighten back up once I was down to $250. Two of those losses were against my kryptonite, Jay, one being because I didn’t bet enough with top pair, top kicker on the flop to get a fold and the other was a chess-like battle that never went past the flop. Let’s take a look at the latter.
Jay is a very good player who is aggressive and hard to put on hands. Of all the people at the Weatherford game, he is among those who I don’t like to be at a table with (a list which includes Jason, Phil, and Clint). The hand in question was one that I held K-Q offsuit. Jay raised it pre-flop to $10. I was the only player to call the bet, creating a $23 pot with the blinds.
The flop was A-10-6 with no real flush possibility for me and Jay made a pot-sized bet of $25. Here is where the thought-based fighting came in to play for both of us. The way Jay played this particular hand up to this point made me think he was holding a high pocket pair like kings, queens, or jacks. I ruled out aces and tens because he most likely wouldn’t make that big of a bet with such a large hand and I didn’t consider nines or lower because his pre-flop bet was not the right kind of amount for that holding. I’ve played with Jay enough to get these kinds of feelings during a hand with him and sometimes they prove right.
So, with him having a pocket pair that was lower than the ace, I thought a small raise would get him to fold, thinking I held the ace for a higher pair, and if I was wrong then I wouldn’t lose a ton of money on my misread. I made a minimum raise to $50. The size I chose was because a lot of times against lesser players a minimum raise means they are holding a monster hand. I thought he might take that into consideration when thinking about what to do.
After a minute of consideration and stacking chips around, Jay made a raise of his own, putting out an additional $50, making the bet $100. This put me in a tough spot because I certainly can’t make a call. I either have to make another raise, which would likely have to be an all-in because if I left anything behind it would be so small that I couldn’t do anything with it on the turn to get Jay to fold, or I have to fold my hand now. Keep in mind I have a king and a queen, which is nothing right now. I could make a straight with a jack, but I don’t really want to put everything I have on the line for an inside straight. So if I do raise, it is with the hope I don’t get called.
Let’s go back to what I think he has. After the flop and his initial bet I put him on kings, queens, or jacks. Those are looking less likely now with Jay re-raising my raise, but still a small possibility he is being stubborn. I have to now consider that he has the ace with either a king kicker or even a ten or six to make two pair. I still am not considering a set because he would let me bet it for him.
Since I have hardly anything to work with and I would have to go all in for any hope of winning the hand, I elected to fold the hand. Speaking with Jay later in the night, it turns out he did have pocket jacks like I thought he did. He said he had a feeling I was trying to represent the ace and push him off of his pocket pair, which is exactly what I was doing. So to recap, we both had the other person’s hand pegged and it was a matter of who would say chicken first, which happened to be me.
After breaking down from two tables to one for the final few hours of the night, I hovered between$200-300 for the rest of the night. I did have one big hand that put me up above that amount after I had dwindled down a significant amount when my pocket queens held up twice against A-K suited.
The pot was raised to $8 by a player two to my right, whose name was Steve. I re-raised with my two queens, one of which was a heart, and made it $30 to play. It folded around through the blinds to another guy named Matt and Phil, who both called after just limping in the beginning. I figure one of those two have a pocket pair that they are willing to pay through the nose for to see if it hits the flop. The other one I’m not too sure about. It came back to Steve, who called the $22 re-raise. So there was $120 in the pot at this point and I had only the other Matt covered. Phil and Steve both were beating me by about $400 each.
I should note that I did some table talk about how I thought all the money would be going into the middle pre-flop because I didn’t want to risk any more money without seeing three cards, allowing me to know if an over to my queens came on the flop. By making the statements I did, I was hoping to scare anyone with kings or ace-king from pushing again. And if they do push in the middle, I could be pretty confident they were holding aces because they would not only be confident of their hand, but they would think I was willing to call for all my chips pre-flop, which I wasn’t. The ploy apparently worked because one of the players did have ace-king and another guy said he was thinking about pushing until I said the comments I did.
So with four of us to go and me being last to act, the flop came with nothing higher than a nine and two hearts. I don’t remember the cards exactly, but they didn’t include an eight or a three.
The other Matt was first to act and with little hesitation he moved all in for $50. Phil immediately folded and Steve folded not too much longer after that. With $170 in the pot and getting more than three to one for a call, I took my chances against Matt flopping a set and called. I also wasn’t too concerned about him having a set because with the raising and re-raising going on behind him, he would probably let us bet it and get more people to call in order to build a bigger pot for his great hand.
After making the call I flipped up my over-pair to the board and he flipped over the ace and king of hearts for a flush draw. Someone asked if we wanted to do business, meaning run the final two cards twice, to which I said I would allow Matt to make the decision. At this game I will always give a single opponent the option if he wants to and normally do not initiate “the business.” Matt said he wanted to run it twice and we did, but it didn’t matter because I won both times.
I mentioned the flop didn’t have a three or an eight because Phil said he had pocket threes and Steve said he had pocket eights. Obviously, had the flop contained one of those cards they would have made the all-in call.
I was pleased with how the night went. So much in fact, Clint and I are going to WinStar tonight to play some more before his wife gets home from New York City.
With last month’s $200 loss and this month’s $210 win, I have won a total of $2,865 since last November and in 2010 I have logged a profit of $1,250. Sadly though, $1,185 of that $1,250 came in one nine-hour session. My hourly profit for the year would be $14.30 and it is $19.90 since starting to seriously play poker again in November. Not terrible numbers considering I make $12 an hour in my cubicle. Maybe living the dream isn’t such a fantasy after all.
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