I took a drive up to WinStar last night having been inspired by some friends recently posting their gigantic winnings in a text thread. I figured if they could have such success then why not me. While the evening ended in a profit, although not as large as my buddies, it was a struggle in the beginning to get there.
I arrived and sat right down at a $1-3 table at 8 p.m. and didn't have to wait long to get something worth playing. I was dealt pocket aces and raised it up $15 after one or two limpers came into the pot. I was called by at least two players. The flop came out with two spades and I made a continuation bet of $25. Two opponents called and the turn was another spade. I made one more bet of $40 and was called by both players again. At this point I was going into check-call mode. The river was a fourth spade and I didn't hold the ace of spades. The second player bet and I had to fold. The other player folded also, so we didn't get to see his spade, but I'm sure he had one. That meant I was now down $80 after only the fourth hand at the table.
Within 30 minutes of sitting down I then turned a straight that gave someone else a flush. And after another 30 minutes I lost with pocket queens and pocket jacks on back-to-back hands.
It took 75 minutes to win my first hand, which was a double-up with pocket kings against a crazy gambler that would move all in blind. He happened to look at his hand this time when he shoved my pre-flop raise. I didn't hesitate to call. The flop came with two aces and I thought I was surely dead, but he said he was likely way behind without knowing I didn't have an ace. That made me feel really good about my hand. But it ultimately didn't matter because a king came on the river giving me a full house. I showed and he showed the case king. He didn't show his other card, but I suspect it was a suited face card.
Another 15 minutes went by and I won my second hand of the night, which got me back to even, which was now $400 as I had added an additional $100 to my initial buy-in since things were going so poorly.
I hovered between $400-500 for most of the night once I got back to even. I would win a pot that put me up and get a little confidence to play more aggressive, but then get knocked down a peg and go back into conservative mode as I really couldn't afford to lose anything on this trip. Playing scared is not the recipe for success, but it was a priority last night.
Willing to hang around for a few more hours, the table dynamic changed pretty drastically when most of the big money winners left and we were six-handed for about 20-30 minutes. I was planning to leave since most of the money had left the table, however, then they broke up another $1-3 game and we got three new players, two of which were holding $900 and $800 each. That enticed me to stay a little longer and see what I could do.
As it was coming up on midnight I was dealt pocket jacks on the button when it had been straddled under the gun. Once the new players from the other table arrived, the straddling became pretty frequent and at least half the hands were $6 to come in. Something in me said to just call with the jacks and see what the final three blinds did before committing more chips. Whatever spider-sense I was feeling, it paid off as the big blind, who was only sitting on about $100, raised it up to $52 total. That bet was called by two larger stacks (one of which was a little less than my $500 starting stack and the other was the chip leader). The other players folded around to me and I decided now was a good time for a large raise and make them think I was doing a squeeze play.
I re-raised another $200, leaving myself approximately $250. No matter what the flop was, I was likely moving all in with the next bet if called. The original raiser called for his final $50. The other two players struggled mightily with the play I had made, but both ultimately folded. They didn't end up showing their hands, but they claimed to be holding pocket fives and pocket eights. Neither hit the board and my jacks would have beat both of them.
I tabled my jacks and the short-stacked opponent flipped his wrist to show a single ten. I didn't know if that meant he had pocket tens, ace-ten, 10-9 suited, etc. The first card in the window was a ten and I immediately was on high alert. I quickly looked back at my opponent to see if he was going to show a pair of tens in his hand, but he wasn't showing the second card yet. The turn was a random card below the ten. The river was a king. So now I was waiting to be slow rolled by a king-10 or pocket tens. Yet, it never came. He mumbled something in a foreign language possibly (English was his second language and he was wearing a mask), but never showed the other card. I scooped a $300+ pot and was now up $305 for the evening.
I played one more round and folded everything as I was determined to leave up and healthy. The only real mistake I made for the night was when holding A-K suited I flopped top pair on a K-6-2 rainbow board and made a continuation bet of $50 after raising pre-flop to $25 (again it had been straddled) and got two callers. One opponent thought for almost a minute but finally folded. The other player immediately folded. The first guy said, "Good bluff. I folded a six with an ace." If I had made a smaller continuation bet that would have likely enticed him a little more to play one more street and he was drawing to two outs. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bet so big on the flop when there was about $80 in the pot and I came out firing $50. Normally when I hit and make a continuation bet I keep it a little under half the pot. Making it $40 probably gets at least one call and maybe even has him try something goofy on the turn.
The takeaway from last night is that no matter how bad things are going, they can turn around at any point. You just have to be patient and keep making good decisions. Don't let bad luck or a bad beat dictate poor decision making. Also, I need to take more time thinking out my bet sizing. That is one area I haven't improved as I make decisions and take action very quickly and need to slow things down.
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