Weatherford (November 3)

With plans to go to Canton this past Sunday, my wife was expecting plenty of money to buy Christmas presents for the family and decorative things for the new house.  We've had a few unexpected expenses with our new home, but I was (begrudgingly) willing to give Joanna $300 to spend.  However, after my bountiful win in Weatherford on Saturday night I had no qualms about giving her $400 to have fun and get what she needed to make our house a home.

I was able to win $600 in Weatherford, playing for only five hours.  My hourly rate of $120 raised my year-to-date statistics considerably.

It would be nice to say that my amazing skill at poker is what won me all the pots, but in all honestly I had a lot of luck going for me.  I had the Broadway straight twice, once against the second nuts which resulted in an all-in, and another all-in hand where my quad fives beat a flush.  It was a lucky night.

I did make one bad fold that is worth mentioning.  I had A-K and after the flop came out with A-Q-4 I made a $10 bet and was check-raised to $30 from the guy on my right.  I called the additional $20 to see the turn, which was a 4.  This doesn't help me at all because if I was beating him before, I am most likely beating him now.  He likely doesn't have a single four to be beating me with three-of-a-kind because he wouldn't check-raise with bottom pair.  The only thing I can imagine him having now is A-4 for a full house, A-Q for two pair, or A-X with a high card for the kicker, which if it isn't the king then it doesn't matter what the card is as the queen is now his kicker.  I can only beat the A-X.

He bets another $30.  I can take this one of two ways.  Either he was making a semi-bluff with his check-raise and my call has scared him but he has to bet something to not look entirely weak, or he still has a big hand and isn't worried about being drawn out on.  I made a snap call without really thinking things through.

The river came with a card that didn't change much.  It was lower than a queen and didn't create any flushes or straights.  My opponent made another bet of $30.  At this point I figured I was beat and he was begging for a call.  Sometimes I will make a call like this when I know I am beat but the pot odds are worth calling, and other times no amount of money can get me to make a call if I know I am beat.  I elected to fold the hand as I didn't want to throw good money after bad.  It turns out I had the best hand as my opponent held A-9 and his kicker with the two pair was the queen.

That was a disappointing hand that would have ended up giving me more than another $150 in my stack with the money I would have won from him and gotten back from my calls on the flop and turn.  Oh well.  You can't expect to make every correct call or fold in a game.  In fact, if you do end up making no mistakes you are probably playing too few hands in a night and gambling too little to make any considerable money.

There may be a game on Thanksgiving that I will be going to.  That will likely be my second-to-last game for the year.  I am currently up $910 for the year and making about $11 an hour playing cards.  Not great, but better than losing.