WinStar (January 29)

On the drive up to WinStar this weekend I decided I would try something new. Normally I wait to look at my hole cards until the action is on me. This gives me a good idea of what hands I have to hold to either call or raise the bet, depending on the action prior to getting to me. I wanted to switch things up a bit so I could know what I hold as the action went around the table and I could formulate a plan as things progressed before it ever gets to my turn. This plan lasted all of about three hands.

I stuck it out for a few rounds, but I just didn’t like this way of doing things. There were one or two hands that I couldn’t remember which suit went with which number. When the action started two or one person to my right and I was looking at my hand that wasn’t worth calling, I didn’t like being in the position of having to put my card protector down for a split second before folding after the guy on my right, simply to not give away what I was going to do and give the player on my right any sort of edge. Comparing the two methods of when to look at my cards, I simply prefer to wait until it is my turn before ever knowing what I hold, and that is the way I will do things from now on.

In regard to my play, after five-and-a-half hours of play I lost $200. I got decent cards throughout the night, hitting quads twice, but the hands I won weren’t enough to cancel out the hands I lost. I would get up, lose a hand that put me back at even, lose a few more hands to put me down, win and be even again, win some more and be in the black, lose a few that put me down for the night, and eventually I couldn’t ever get back to even or better.

Two hands that really hurt me included flopping two pair against a guy who flopped a better two pair. Where I went wrong with the second hand was calling a guy down who held ace-king and not raising him on the turn when I was pretty confident he didn’t have anything better than my medium pocket pair. Sure enough he hit a king on the river and won the hand. Had I trusted my judgment and made my bet on the turn he would have folded and I would have taken down the pot.

My final hand was also a soul crusher. I held pocket sevens and flopped a full house. By the river I raised all in and was called by a guy holding pocket queens. The only problem was he hit a queen on the river for a higher full house. I doubt I could have ever gotten the guy out since his pocket pair was higher than any card on the board, but, honestly, why would I have wanted him to fold. I had a dominating hand and don’t regret slow-playing it. It was just bad luck.

For the year I have won $395 after 16.75 hours of playing, equating to $23.58 an hour.