Good morning! Here is the rest of the 'adventures' from last night:
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I ended up taking a nap yesterday, but only for around 90 minutes before getting out of bed. Once I started feeling more awake, I took a look at Bravo and saw there were a ton of games all over town. Really impressive stuff for a Monday evening, and seems like poker is well alive in Vegas.
I ended up just playing here at the Horseshoe as they had no list, and there were a lot of spots during the hours and 45 minutes that I played. The first one of note is when we are 5-handed, and I raise
86hh to $12 from UTG. Bit too wide as per proper charts, but ok. Big Blinds is the only caller, and we go heads-up to
K-Q-7 flop with two hearts. Pretty good, so when he checks I bet $12 again. He calls.
Turn is a
4, so we add a gutshot as well. I considered overbetting on turn, but settled on $30 as I didn't think he was super strong. He does however check-call. River is an offsuit
T, so I am left with 8 high. Opponent checks again, and I decided to empty the clip. Board favors me a lot, and although he will run into something like KT on occasion, I think even a random King will have problems calling here. I make it $95, and he hems and haws a bit, says that it feels like AK, but that he will pay me off. Ouch. I instantly table, and he shows
AQo for second pair.
In hindsight I am not sure if bluffing this combo is the best, since I have the hearts - thus more likely he has a made hand instead of a draw. But I am still quite surprised that he called, although with AQ it makes more sense - it blocks AK and AJ which I could have. So if I could have it back I would have overbet turn + shut down on river. Something like $55 on turn and check back river is probably best.
Very next hand there are two limps, and I announce tilt-raise from BB to $15 (bit small) with
AQo. Both ends up calling, and the flop comes
6-2-5 rainbow. SB checks, and I bet $20 as this board shouldn't hit them insanely hard. They both end up calling however, so what do I know.
Turn is a
4, and checks around. River is a
J, and although an overcard, I think it's the worst one to bluff and I won't have much credibility after the bluff the hand before. So I just give up, it checks down, and SB wins with
Q6o (great limp-call from SB).
In for $400 then, and already down a bunch (I added on $100 in between the two above hands). And I continue to lose hands for the most part. In one I raise
KQo to $12, an OMC calls right behind me, and we go heads-up to
A-T-3. I bet $11 and he calls. Turn is a
King, and goes check check.
River comes a
6, and I decided to bet $17 here. He instantly checked back turn, so I am targeting a Ten - although I know I will value own myself a lot here. And that's what happened, as he calls and shows A2o. Maybe this OMC was the wrong guy to target with a thin value bet, as he is likely the type of guy who will only call river when he has an Ace. And he probably just check back his weak TP on river as well.
Then EP1 raises to $10, and I defend BB with
52hh (we are only 6-handed for this hand). I did however look up this spot afterwards and found that the defend is too wide and not correct.So I will learn from that, although it cost me in this instance. Flop comes
Q-3-4 two spades and checks around.
Turn is a
5 and I lead for $12 with what I assume is the best hand. He makes the call, and another
4 comes on the river. I check, trying to get to showdown, but he bets out $25. Story doesn't quite make sense to me, and I don't see this player as one who would go for two streets with something like TT here. So I end up making the curious call, only to get shown
QQ for a full house. Maybe it should have been obvious to me the whole way, but at least he gave me the chance to draw out on him.
For the next hour I did manage to win 1-2 small pots, but the ones I lost were always bigger and put a bigger dent into my stack. One example is a 3 way limped pot where I check
75dd in BB. The dealer puts out
3-4-5 with two hearts, and Small Blind leads out for $5. I call and the limper also calls.
Turn comes a black
T, and SB continues to bet, this time for $15. Maybe I should cut my losses here as I have a player behind me (multi-way responsibility), but I called, and third player folded. River is a
Q, and he checks. I have plenty of showdown value, so I check it back, but he shows
88. Extremely passive to just limp 88 in that spot, but it worked out for him I guess.
Then there is a limp for $3, and I make it $15 with
KQcc, a beautiful hand. OMC to my right calls, and the limper calls. We go 3-ways to
2-4-6 all red cards, and I decided to check it. Maybe too passive, but I don't even have a backdoor and likely a pretty terrible losing image at this point. It checks all the way down (
9 turn,
4 river), and the limper wins with
AJo. In hindsight I would win this pot if I bet, and maybe there are arguments for a small stab to get out some Ace highs that currently are beating me.
Lost another small pot, before I actually win one. I raise
78ss to $12 from EP1, a calling station who was running super hot calls in MP, and BB calls as well. Flop comes
4-9-5 with no spades, so I only have a gutshot. I do however bet $16, the station calls and BB folds.
I did however see a second of uncertainty from him before he called, so when the turn comes another
4 I muster up a bet of $45. That does the trick, as opponent folds. Assume he was calling fairly wide on the flop, and that my observation was real hesitancy.
Here is a random Vegas-picture to break up the text:
I then lose a pot with
AKo (terrible flop versus same calling station and some others), before it folds to the Small Blind a while later. They do not allow chopping at Horseshoe, so this OMC-looking guy makes it $15. I am in BB and look down at no less than
AA. Great spot, although he is fairly short stacked. He is however covering his stack with his elbow, and I didn't want to ask as to maybe give off the strength of my hand. So I just make it $45, and he calls.
I now see that he has only $30 behind, so obviously I should have just jammed pre. But oh well, flop comes
A-J-5 rainbow, and after he checks I actually check it back. Probably stupid though, should just put him in - doubt he will fold. Anyway, the turn is a
7, he checks, I go all-in and he snapcalls. No idea what he had, river was a
random card (no board pairing for a possible high hand) and my hand is obviously good.
Right back to losing however; there is a limp from the station, I complete SB with
J9o and BB checks. Flop is
7-8-3 and I decided to lead for $5 with a gutshot and two overs. BB folds, and the limper calls. Turn is a
J, so now we have a clear value bet on our hands, especially since I hold a 9 and it reduces the chances for him having a straight. I bet $10, and he calls again.
River is a harmless
4, and I bet $20 to target a 7 or an 8. Instead he does what he has been doing all night long on rivers when he has had huge hands - he puts in the min-raise ($40). Even getting ridicolous odds ($20 to win $99 I believe), I am just never good here. I fold, and he claimed a set of sevens (which I believe).
A new player then joins the table to my direct right, and goes guns blazing in his first few hands, including 4-bet jamming on a semi-short stacked OMC with A4cc after getting 3-bet (and beating the OMCs KK all-in pre). He is in a lot of hands, straddleing and being generally very active. I put in a 3-bet against him once with
54s after he raised to $10 (I went to $31 from the button), and he folded.
After winning 2 small/medium pots with
KTo and
55, I am feeling a little bit better about the situation. Then a tight German player raises to $15 from EP1 over the fishy guy's UTG-limp, the aggro calls in CO, and I call on the button with black
99. I could certainly squeeze here, but with how tight the German had been I didn't really want to reopen the betting.
The fishy limper also calls, and we go 4-ways to
2-3-7 two clubs. Limper checks, German checks, and the aggro guy bets $30. When the raiser has checked to him, I think his barrelling range here will be much wider than most, and there is a good chance I have the best hand. So I raise it up to $80, mostly for value but also to drive out any potential draws behind me. Both fold, although the German seemed really pained with his decision.
Aggro does however come along, and we see the
Ts on turn. When he calls I know he has something, and stack to pot ratio is very akward now. I have around $220 left maybe and the pot is already that size. So although I am still beating 7x, 88, and flushdraws, I chose to check back and hopefully get to showdown cheaper.
River is a
5 that does not fill the flush, and he leads for $30. Very tiny bet into $220 or so, and although a bit concerning that he is betting I am certainly not folding for that price. I call, and he turns over
T7 of diamonds for turned two pair. Sigh. Still think I played it ok though, it's just frustrating that this was the biggest pot of the night and he managed to turn a miracle card.
That guy immediately left for the $2/$3 table after the hand, while I added on another $100 and was now in for $700. Not fun, but I did win a few pots towards the end and managed to recover a little bit.
Biggest one was when there are two limps to me, and I make it $16 from BB with
KK. Both the UTG-limper and SB actually end up calling. We see
T-8-5 two hearts on the flop (I have Kh), and I bet $25. They both actually call, which was a bit surprising.
Turn is
Jh, so a flush comes in. SB checks, and although one of them could have a flush the SB only has like $40 behind, and I will hear from the UTG-limper (a real OMC) if he indeed has a flush. So I bet $50, only to see both fold. The OMC-limper claimed he had 77, which I assume is true.
After all was said and done I ended up with a $333 loss, which does not feel great. That said, I don't think I played horrible. There is a few spots I would have liked to have back (especially the riverbluff early), but apart from that I think I was just running into it a lot - often having enough to bet and/or continue, but opponents rarely ever bluffed or had anything weaker. That said, there are some clear pre-flop mistakes in here which I need to clean up, as they ended up costing me a bit.
One more quick post from me below as well, but here are the mediocre results so far:
Cash Games:
Hours played: 10h 00 min
Won/lost: +$187 USD
Hourly rate: +$18.7 USD
Last edited by BigWhale; 01-16-2024 at 11:11 AM.