WinStar (November 18)

In the course of a night of playing poker, the littlest decisions can greatly affect the outcome of your game. Electing to go to the bathroom could result in missing a hand that might have garnered a double-up or, just as easily, maybe stopped you from going broke. Folding one hand might keep a little extra money in front of you for the next hand that ends up as an all-in double-up. These are the kinds of minor details of a poker game that can have major consequences, both good and bad, later in a game. During last night’s trip to WinStar with Clint I had one of these types of situations that a split-second decision on my part netted me far greater money than I would have had I not taken action when I did.

We will touch on that a little later though. For now let’s work our way chronologically through the night.

I bought in for $180 and was not getting anywhere after about an hour or so. I think I was down about $15 when the following hand took place. I was dealt A-6 of clubs in middle position and limped in for $2. A man two to my left, who we will call Senor Chang, also called the $2. It got around to the blinds, which one of the players raised it to $7 total. When it got back to me I called the extra $5, as did Senor Chang. There were four people seeing a flop and that put $28 in the pot.

The flop came 10-5-2 with two clubs. I now had a flush draw and checked it when it got to me after the original raiser and another player checked. Senor Chang, who was last to act, bet $25, leaving himself another $79. The original raiser, who had about $200 at the start of the hand, called after thinking for a while and it came back to me when the other guy folded. At this point I know I need a club or probably an ace to win the hand. The pre-flop raiser’s check-call on the flop didn’t seem like the “I hit a huge hand with my pocket tens and now I’m going to slow-play this until the river” kind of play. He truly acted as if he wasn’t sure what he should be doing.

My options were to fold and save $25, call and see what comes on the turn and possibly river if it is checked around, or raise the bet and become the aggressor. Looking back, I maybe should have raised it to $75 or $100 and put Senor Chang to the test for everything he had. However, in the moment and after thinking for a good amount of time about it, I elected to call. The pot now had $103 in it.

The turn was a red seven, showing a board of 10-5-2-7 with two clubs. The first guy checked, I checked, and Senor Chang moved his remaining $79 into the pot. The first guy quickly folded and I counted out what would have been the call. If I called and lost I’d have a remaining $60 and need to re-buy with the $120 I had in my wallet. After going through the possibilities of what he had I decided I couldn’t risk nearly all my money on nine outs, or maybe 12 if a pair of aces could have won.

After I folded Senor Chang showed me 6-2 offsuit for a lowly pair of twos, which still had me beat. So my ace would have been good had it hit.

Well, folding to keep me from being at $60 didn’t help much because I ended up having nearly that anyway about 20 minutes later, and the worst part is I don’t remember how I got there. I can’t recall any big hands I lost except one that I flopped top pair and was beat on the river by two pair with betting throughout the hand, but I really don’t think it was for an amount large enough to take me from $130-ish to $55, so there had to be some more hands in there that I lost a little at a time on. The point is I was down to $55 when the following happened.

Deciding that the difficulty in having to double up and then double up again to get back where I started was greater than the threat of re-buying for another $120 and possibly losing $300 total, I slapped my money on the felt prior to being dealt the ace and queen of hearts. It was raised by a country boy who apparently had been playing for somewhere between 22 and 26 hours, which his chip-stack did not reflect a great amount of profit from a day’s length of playing. With my $120 in play and $55 on the table, I had more money than he did at the start of the hand. A handful of players called the raise and we saw a flop of A-K-3 rainbow.

I don’t recall the specific bets that took place, however, I know going to the turn it was heads-up between the country boy and myself. The turn came with a six and he went all-in. I didn’t hesitate too long to call and showed my A-Q. A king came on the river and he said I had him out-kicked, showing A-9. By the end of the hand I had $305, putting me in the black.

At this point I became the table’s executioner. It just happened that two or three guys at a time would have anywhere from $20-60 in front of them. One at a time they would push all-in pre-flop. It just so happened that during this brief window of opportunity I had a hand good enough to call, or the bet was small enough compared to the amount of money I had, and won five pots this way. I did this with queens, tens, A-J offsuit, A-Q suited, and J-10 suited, building my money towers higher and higher until after some more bullying with very questionable hands that I raised pre-flop and continued betting on the flop I had a chip-stack of $575.

It just so happened that the hand I held tens is something worth discussing because it involved a little more action than a simple all-in, call.

I was sitting in the big blind and had posted my $2 bet. A foreign gentleman who looked to be from Central America made his all-in push of $24. It folded around to a hoodied-Youth who I hadn’t seen show a hand, or win one, all night. He made the all-in call, as did the small blind on my right. At this point I was ready to fold my hand unless I had an upper-echelon starting hand. I looked down to see my cards and found two tens looking back at me. This made things very interesting.

The small blind had a smidge more than $200 in front of him after calling the $24 bet, but his during this hand and conversation with him prior to this moment made me fairly confident he had only called hoping to see five cards for the $24 fee and see who has the best of it at the end. The real concern was the hoodied-Youth. He had his arms crossed in front of his chips and I had to ask how much he had in order to gauge how much the hand would ultimately cost me. He uncovered the chips, which were about another $75. I decided my hand was only good enough to go against one player and I made a raise to $100 total.

Hoodied-Youth frustratingly mucked his cards in the middle and the small blind laughingly told me I was on my own. I don’t recall the hand I was up against, but I think it might have been A-3 offsuit. Hoodied-Youth never let it be known what he had or even if he would have ultimately won the hand or not had he called my bet.

The final hand of interest was when I held 9-10 offsuit. This was at about the time I had reached my peak of $575. There were seven of us who limped in for $2 each to see a flop, which came out 9-10-J. Flopping two pair is a good position to be in, but flopping bottom two pair and the three community cards make it fairly easy for a straight to exist is not the ideal circumstances when holding two pair.

The first player to act led out with a $5 bet and two players after him called. This put $29 in the pot. The next player, sitting on my right, raised it $15, making it $20 total. Had the guy on my right not raised, I would have because I wouldn’t have wanted any straight draws hanging around. But with a feeler bet of $5 made (which I expect he held a ten or possibly a jack with a small kicker and wanted to see who would be hanging around), two calls, and a raise all going on before it got to me and I had another player on my immediate left to act after me, I decided it was best to play with caution and see if I could improve any.

I called the $20, as did the guy on my left and one of the $5 callers. This left four of us for the turn with a pot of $104. The fourth community card was an ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A. The only reason I don’t like that card is because it gives someone holding A-J, A-10 or A-9 a higher two pair. It didn’t affect the outcome of a straight, so that had no bearing on things.

The first player checked, as did the guy who raised it on the flop. Being my turn and a little curious at the two checks ahead of me, I elected to take the free card should the guy on my left also check. What scared me most now was the guy on my left and the first guy to act. Either one of them could be slow-playing their flopped straight, which in my opinion is a bad idea considering there are three people showing interest in the hand and would call a bet from the player who flopped the straight.

The check from the guy who raised on the flop made me feel like he was holding a mediocre hand with a draw and hoping to either take it on the flop or hit his hand on the turn and make a lot of money. By slowing down and checking I felt he hadn’t improved and didn’t want to try and semi-bluff again into three opponents.

The guy behind me checked and the river came out as another ace, creating a board of 9-10-J-A-A. My hand is now completely ruined and all I can do is give up should a bet be made. However, the first two players checked, creating quite the opportunity for me. Everything in me said a bet of about $50-60 would win the hand because nobody held anything good enough to call. I pondered how much to bet for a good two minutes, debating back and forth whether I wanted to risk a tenth of my stack on a complete bluff. While I don’t usually mind making that kind of a bet when I believe it will work, doing so against three opponents is a tough sell.

Once I had decided I could have bet and won the hand, I took so long to come to that decision I felt my bet would scream of bluff because the other players would realize I was making the only play that would win me the pot. By thinking through my play and coming to a conclusion on what to do, I ruined my play by not acting quickly enough.

I finally did check, surrendering the hand, and the guy behind me checked. The players to my left and right split the pot with Q-J, flopping top pair and an open-ended straight draw. I was correct in my assessment that they would have folded to a bet, but just to make sure I stated that I really wanted to bet. Both men agreed that I looked like I was going to and had it been about the amount I was going to put in the pot they likely would have folded.

At that moment in the game I was playing scared poker, not wanting to lose any of my profit. That is a losing way to play cards and it is something I am going to have to rectify if I want to continue improving at cards.

I ended up not winning too many hands after that and quit after nearly five hours of play with a $180 profit. My hourly rate for the night was $37.89, bringing my year-to-date hourly rate up to $11.70. I have won $1,580 in 2010 playing cash games in Weatherford, Oklahoma, and Shreveport.

I have been on a bit of win streak lately. The last five games I have played in have netted me a profit of $575.

In a weird twist of fate, last night was the one-year anniversary of when I started playing the game of poker again seriously. In that year, I won $3,195 and earned $16.68 an hour. That gives me hope that in 2011 I can reach my goal of building a $300 bankroll into $5,000. Let’s hope this past year’s success continues in 2011.