Seeing as how it was Wednesday and I didn't have anything else to do, it was prime time to hit up the ol' LC and stack some fools. Now I slept in until like 2, which is a little later than usual. I didn't expect to sleep so late, but I had been up late the night before screwing around on the internet and chasing the occasional fish online. Plus Jenny was doing a pretty poor job of waking me up since she's lazier than I am. Anyhow, I finally head down and get there around 3:30. As usual there's a list for the big game so I end up getting on there and on the list for 2-3-5 as well. A new game opened up shortly after I arrived, so I headed over assuming that I would get a seat in it. To my surprise (and delight!) the floorman informed me that this was, in fact, NO LIMIT TEXAS HOLD THEM! No more of that spread limit nonsense for me! They still spread the spread limit, because I guess there are plenty of people who are accustomed to it, but now they have 2-3-5 blind NL with a 200-1000 buyin. Thank god. Bay area 2+2ers take note, theres finally a decent mid-stakes NL game on the peninsula! Wooo!
So anyhow, we get into the game, and the lineup isnt all that great but has a few obvious soft spots. Theres also a few of the 10-10-20 regulars waiting for their seats, as usual. So I buy in for 1k, as do several of the other regulars. Some of the fish are in for 200 or 400 or 500 or something, but that just means they're happier to give me their money. The first interesting hand arises after I open JTdd to 30 from EMP, some young asian kid with glasses calls, and Keith, who probably hasn't sat on a stack this short in years, reraises another 100 on top from the blinds. Well obviously I call, and the other guy comes along too. The flop is a pretty gorgeous AQ9 with two diamonds, but for some reason they both check to me. Well, not wanting to let my 90% equity slip away so easily, I bet 300, and the kid calls. Keith doesnt take too long to shove all in, and I beat him into the pot with my stack. Now in retrospect, I probably should have hollywooded a little, so that the kid would be more likely to call with marginal hands, but apparently he wasn't folding his Ace Ten no matter what kind of action happened in front of him. The turn bricked off, the river was a pleasant black King, and I scooped the 3k pot.
It wouldn't be long before Keith had his revenge though, as shortly thereafter I raised JT again (hearts this time) and he was the only caller OOP. The flop came Q9x with two hearts, he checkraised me, and before he could finish putting in his raise I had slammed to the felt a stack of white $100 chips big enough to cover his $1k stack. Well he snapcalled and called out my hand exactly. Guess I could have called the flop, but, meh. May as well just get it in with guaranteed at least 50% equity and the occasional fold from him rather than sweat a turn card and have to give up the pot. Plus, gamboooooool! Anyhow, this time the turn and river both bricked off, and he got his monies back. But I kept the 1k from the fish (booya).
Fortunately, it wasn't too long before I got moved into the big game. Lineup wasn't super-great, but it wasn't terrible. There were a few guys who looked like complete marks. One guy, who looks like he came straight from the rail at the world series (or perhaps anywhere in Atlantic City?). Anyhow, he was big, dark, wearing sunglasses, boisterous, and had an oversized white shirt on advertising some obscure poker website with a picture of a Jack of hearts (for some reason). He also had a fairly undersized stack, and a rather obnoxious but somewhat endearing habit of changing seats every single time a new one opened up, because presumably the one he was in wasn't lucky. I wanted to prop-bet with Keith on which seat he would be sitting in when he finally busted, but he got up and left before we could finalize any details.
So anyhow, one of my first hands at the table I picked up AQo in the SB. The CO opened and button called, but seeing as how I wasn't sure about their styles (or their perception of mine) and the stack sizes were a little awkwardly large, I just called, as did the BB. The flop came out T77 rainbow, we checked to the PFR who bet 160 (half pot), the button called, and I checkraised 400 more. The pfr folded but the button called again. Turn came a 6, which wasn't really the card i was looking for (not that there was any card that I
was looking for, but you know) so I checked and he checked back. The river was a Queen, so I bet 500 as a value-blocker of sorts, and he called quickly with T9. Nice.
Not much happens for a while, as the game has gotten somewhat tougher (ken the cow and his friend gene and 2+2's spinoli show up, none of whom are fish in the least). On the plus side, i'm the first of the group of solid players to get moved to the significantly softer main game. Unfortunately it too gets a little tougher pretty quickly, and most of the seats are filled with regulars who aren't horrible. The one main fish who plays there a lot had a shortstack too the whole time, which was unfortunate. He seemed to actually play somewhat decently on a shortstack, since calling off your whole stack with TPNK is a much smaller mistake. Meh. Well, the next hand of note was me raising preflop on the button over a few limpers with A9o, and getting called by one. I end up 3-barreling him on a KJx x J board and he calls all the way without thinking too much and shows K7 suited. Ni han, ni han... I think that was actually the first big bluff i've shown down there in recent days, which is a little unusual. Clearly though, my "clean image" isnt enough to get somebody to fold the toppest pair.
After opening QQ from MP, a quiet nit reraises me, but because he only has like 1800 I end up just shoving it in and losing to his KK. I actually think that my biggest leak in live games is not folding hands like that preflop when stacks arent too deep. That and running my big pairs into bigger ones in the first place. Seems to happen more than the inverse when I play live. So it goes. At this point i'm probably just a little under even on the day. I actually pick up a few solid hands over the next orbit and play them super-steamy-fast, but don't get the action i'm looking for.
I play another hand shortly thereafter against ken, but since its posted in the high stakes forum for its strategy content, I may as well just
link you to it.. Actually the next hand of note is also posted in HSNL right now, heh, so
heres the link to that one.
A new guy is at the table now, and the game is as bad as its ever been since he's not really a fish or anything. He's telling stories about Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari, since he used to play in the game back when they were coming up in the poker world and played there too. The important thing though is that I had raised about 3 times in a row going into the hand, and the previous hand involved him limp-calling and then checkraising over my $200 c-bet, which I turbomucked. Well this time I have KQo, again raise over his and a few other limps, and he calls. Flop comes down KQ4 all hearts and he check-calls $200. Turn is an offsuit Ten, he checks again, and I don't like the smell of it so I check behind. River I spike a King-ball for the niggity-nuts and he checks and snapcalls my $500 bet with what apparently was a Ten high flush.
The next hand was probably the sickest of the night, but I'm afraid revealing my hand is too much info, seeing as how anybody can read the internet and all. Suffice it to say, it was a sweet play. I open XX to 80, and Marcus (who has recently joined the table to my immediate left and is sitting behind a mountain of chips big enough to cover the table as usual) reraises to $260. Well, this pretty much means he has 2 cards. I get the feeling he's really trying to outplay me a ton since i'm about $11k deep at this point and he knows i'm aggressive and tricky too. So I call. Flop comes TT5 rainbow, I check and he checks back. Turn is a Jack which brings a spade draw, I lead a $400 stack, and he calls. River is an offsuit deuce, I think and bet $500. He counts out the call and then annouces a raise to $2100 more. After some contemplation I shove over the top for about $8k more. He thinks for a while and then folds. Probably would have been my biggest pot of all time (for better or worse) if he called. But he didn't.
We played another big pot with him sitting on my left, but I realized that it probably was against my better interest to keep doing that. He won that pot obv. On the plus side playing deepstacked pots is really fun and interesting. Almost all of the coolest hands i've played happened while deepstacked. I wish there was more opportunity to play online deep, but I'm afraid it could kill big live games if the online kids learned how to play deeper than 100xBB correctly. And by kill I mean we'd all be more rich than we already are, heh.
The last interesting hand happened after somebody left the table and, his seat being two to the left of Marcus, I jumped at the opportunity to nab it before they moved somebody else in. I had Gene and Keith and Ken lined up on my left, but I think it was a pretty good move as they were acting much more in line against me than he was. Anyhow, he opened the HJ to 60 which probably meant the weaker part of his range, I called on the button with Q9ss, and the blinds both called. Flop was 842 with two spades, and everybody checked to me so I bet $200, and when it folded back around to Marcus he checkraised to $780. (He likes weird bet sizes for some reason, I guess they seem like theyre bigger or psychologically harder to call, and he probably likes it when people fold all the time) anyhow, because I have position and two overs which I think are very live, I call. The turn brings an offsuit queen giving me the toppest pair, and he leads $1500. Its an unusually large bet, but given that he's probably a little steamed up, and I've seen him make big multistreet moves with draws before, I call eventually. I think that my Q is good here a lot, and if its not, my draw is. And I can decide which is which on the river, heh. River comes down a non-spade K (which I don't like too much) but he checks and I flip my hand over. He gives a frustrated "meh" of sorts and mucks. Must have had a hand like A5ss or something.
Well, pretty soon after that it was almost 1:30 and the game was as bad as ever, so I headed out. Booked a $5000 win on the day, which is cool. Oh, and the reason I had to leave early is that my new personal assistant started working for me today and came around noon so I had to get up early. She cleaned my room, did all my laundry, went out to bring me lunch, and mailed a check for me (all of which are American dreams). Life is good when you don't have to do that kind of nonsense yourself.
Two Plus Two
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