Choctaw (January 2-3)

My wife and I brought in the New Year this past weekend with a trip to Choctaw Casino. We had a really good time, ate some good food, and hope to do it again a few times throughout the year, but that could be difficult with Baby Jackson on the way. Along with the fun we had, I played three games of Texas Hold’em and among those sessions I couldn’t have seen more varied results. Although I profited $330 for the trip, I logged one large winning session, a losing session and a session that nearly broke even.

My first game was the winning one, and with the cards I received you could have put a 7-year-old who had never played Texas Hold’em in my seat and he would have won money. I was hitting straights over two pairs, flushes over straights, full houses over flushes, and even a straight flush over the nut flush. It seemed that every hand I voluntarily played I won and won big. Since I knew it was mostly the cards and not my ability that was winning money, what made this game so great for me was I got every dime possible out of my opponents. I bet just the right amount every time to get the most value from my dominant hands. There were numerous times I heard, “I know you have it, but I want to see it,” or “For $25 I’ll see your winning hand, but any more and I would have folded.” It wasn’t that I was winning the hand that made me proud of my ability, but that I was betting the perfect amount in each scenario.

When I turned a full house against a woman’s flopped straight is a good example of betting just the right amount to get a call. On the river she led out with a $20 bet. I raised her with a guy behind both of us still to act. Now, I didn’t have the best hand possible, but it was close enough that I wasn’t scared of being beat by either the man still waiting to act or the woman who had bet. I raised her $30, making it $50 to go. I felt a call wasn’t going to entice the last-to-act player to call against two people, so I had to choose an amount the woman felt comfortable with calling. I settled on a little more than the minimum. It turns out that was pretty close to the right amount because she kept saying, “I know you have it. I know you do. I just have to see it though. Show me your full house.” Had I made it $60 to go or even maybe $55 she might not have called. It was just the right amount of a raise and the most I could have gotten out of her.

After 3 hours of play and wanting to eat a steak dinner with my wife I got up with a profit of $510. This gave me an hourly rate of $170. What a great start to 2011.

My second session was a profitable one, but not nearly as nice as the earlier game. I played for 3 hours and 45 minutes and made $20. I was never up except for the final minutes of the session, which came on a hand when I held A-7 and rivered three-of-a-kind against a woman’s pocket queens. I actually felt kind of bad for her as she seemed like a really nice lady and I decided to not take everything she had in front of her when I raised her on the river. I raised her $30, leaving her with $20 after the call. I just couldn’t find the brutality to finish her as she came off as too nice of a person. That may make me the sucker, but oh well. If she had been holding another $100 I would have raised more, but I just didn’t want to be the reason she went broke.

The hourly rate for my second session of the trip was $5.33 and I had profited a total of $530 after two games. My year-to-date hourly rate had dropped from the stellar $170 from session one to $78.52 after 6 hours and 45 minutes of play.

My final session of the holiday weekend was the losing one and I gave away $200 in 30 minutes time. The main reason for the quick exit was my flopped set with pocket queens that lost to a flush on the river, however, had I won that hand I don’t think I would have stuck around too long because I did not like the table dynamics at all.

On Sunday night the poker room was full of life and the people at the table were from all walks of life. Yet, on Monday morning there was only one table going and it was full of locals who have nothing better to do with their day than trade money to one another. Of the nine players at the table, there was me, another guy about my age who played similar to me, six old men who were known by every employee in the poker room, and one younger guy wearing a matching Puma hat and windbreaker jacket who was also a regular among the group.

The group of regulars was calling raises with hands like 2-4 offsuit and 10-5 suited. One of the older guys made $12 raises with absolutely any two cards and he did so every two out of five hands, which led the others to call with the crappy cards I have mentioned. It was not a fun atmosphere to be associated with.

After playing a few hands and not winning anything except a $10 pot, I received my queens in the small blind and made it $8 to go after two callers limped in. The big blind and both limpers completed the bet and we saw a flop with $32 in the pot.

The flop was Q-8-4 with two clubs, giving me top set. I led out with a bet of $12, wanting to show that I was making a continuation bet with nothing but two high cards that missed or a medium pocket pair that I felt was no good any longer. I was raised by the big blind, who made it $25. The other two players folded and I called the $13 raise. I figured at this point the big blind had Q-x and thought he was ahead with his top pair. The small raise was probably to see how serious I was with this hand. The pot now had $82.

The turn was a red 7. I checked, fully expecting the big blind to bet and I would check-raise him. He let me down though and checked behind me. This gave me pause on him holding a queen and now I thought he might have two clubs. The type of play he made on the flop by raising me nearly the minimum is a maneuver to get a free card on the turn, which is exactly what happened.

The river was the ace of clubs, making a board that consisted of Q-8-4-7-A with three clubs. I made a bet of $25 to keep the pot small in case my read about the flush-draw maneuver was correct. I was then raised the minimum from my opponent. While the evidence I had collected up to this point said he had either A-Q or the flush, I was leaning toward the flush. There was this weird feeling in my gut that he had pulled off the small flop raise to get a free card and it had paid off.

Although my read was he had a flush I got greedy and wanted to get a little more money out of him should he be holding the A-Q for top two pair. I re-raised another $25 and was called by J-2 of clubs. It was a stupid play on my part and I only did it because I had planned on leaving very shortly after that since I didn’t like who I was playing with.

Soon after the failed queens hand I had $33 left and when the old man who was constantly raising it made it $35 to go pre-flop I called with pocket fives. He had pocket eights and I lost. It only took 30 minutes to go through my buy-in and I had no intention of sticking around for another $200 of irritation.

For the weekend I ended up winning $330 and earned $45.52 an hour after 7 hours and 15 minutes of play.

I recommend playing at Choctaw as there are less college-aged students at the table, but only do so on the weekends. If you go on a weekday you will find only one or two tables going and the action is too outrageous to be any fun.

2011 has started well and with $630 in my poker account I am more than 10 percent toward my goal of a $5,000 bankroll.