After busting the tournament at Caesars, I went straight over to Venetian to play some cash instead. Here is a cool sign outside of Harrahs on the way there:
And here is the destination mentioned above:
After waiting for 10 minutes I got a seat in a $1/$3 game, and it sure became an interesting one! Basically was card dead first 30 minutes and didn't play a hand, before starting to get some more cooperating cards. I had raised 2-3 times and taken down pots on the flop with
KTo and
AQo, and was about break even when the following hand comes up.
It folds to me in the Small Blind, and because of the high hand promotion they do not allow chopping at Venetian anymore. I find
KJo and limp in for $2. In the BB is a new player to the table who had been super active preflop so far, and also continuating betting at a high frequency - but often forced to give up.
As expected, he raises my limp to $15. I had anticipated this, and 4-bet to $52 to take control of the pot with what is likely the best hand. He thinks for a while, before calling. Flop comes
K-6-5 all spades, and I bet $35 with my top pair, no spade hand. He thinks for a bit, before folding. It would have been very interesting if he had jammed, but I actually think a call would have been in order against this specific player type.
A few hands later there is a raise to $10 and a call from a new short stacked woman. I find
JJ on the button, and make it $50. They both fold.
Shortly after the woman limps from UTG, and a young-ish Spanish speaking player makes it $20 from EP1. I am right behind him with
KQdd, and chose to make the call after checking out his stack (around $200). A chart that I have on my phone tells me that KQdd should be a 3-bet 75% of the time. I did consider it, but figured hand played fine enough in position instead of having to fold if he 4-bet jammed. Anyway, we went heads-up to
2-4-6 all black cards, and I have to fold to a bet of $25.
I then win two small pots in a row with the exact same hand (
AQdd), before there once again is a limp from the woman, and the Spanish guy makes it $15. He is fairly short now, only around $70 behind or so. I look down at
AA, and situation reminds me a lot of the one I had at Horseshoe yesterday. That said, still need to 3-bet to drive out players behind and not go 5-ways or something.
I make it $46, limper folds and he jams all-in. I obviously call, and he shows
QJdd. Very light, but I had been very active the last 30 minutes and probably looked a bit like I was trying to run over the table. Either way, board runs out
A-T-3-6-9, and I win the hand. Too bad the board didn't pair, as that would have given me a good chance to hold up in the high hand promotion.
A bit later I find
QTcc from 2nd position. Good enough for a raise, so we make it $12. Only an OMC on the button calls, and we go heads-up to
A-Q-3 with one club. I bet $15, and he does the standard OMC-thing with a min-raise to $30. I have seen so many minraises the last few days, it's pretty insane. And most of them have actually been fairly weak holdings, which is worthy of note.
Since it's only $15 more and there are some good turns, I make the call. One of them lands on the turn, the
T. I check, and he instantly bets $50. Although I have a good hand, I don't think I should raise verus what he is representing, so I just call. River comes a
9, I check, and he checks quickly behind and shows AJo. That is no good, and I drag in the pot.
The very next hand I have
55 from UTG, and make it $12 as always. A hefty guy on the button reraises to $45, and it's back on me. He has a huge stack after getting AA vs KK either, and I also have close to $500 now after the last pot. So I chose to make the call, although only looking for a set obviously.
Set it is, as the flop comes
J-6-5 two diamonds. I check, and he immediately blasts out $100 (!) into $94. Seems clear he has a monster, so let's get all the money in. I jam, and he looks perplexed for a while, looks over at my stack, and then decides to fold. He immediately claims
KK, which I believe and is just really bad/frustrating. In one way I guess it's good that he folds, because I will on occasion have a couple of draws here that will play hard, but that prefer folds.
That said, maybe there are alternative ways to play it here. I am so used to just fastplay to the max and get paid here, but we were quite deep in this hand and he probably got scared off (he put me on Jacks, he said). MuckPls actually said I should have raised to $250 when I asked him about the hand, and I agree that something like that would be an option. Just make a silly raise to $225 or something, get him to call, and then I can jam turn when he is very much committed.
Nice looking stack now, and I hover around $600 or a bit more for a few orbits. Then a new Asian player makes it $7 from UTG, and I have
AQss right behind him. Bit of a silly sizing, and I think a 3-bet to drive out other opponents and play the hand in position is the way to go. That said, I do think this player is very tight based on a previous hand he had with QQ, and some of the things he said afterwards.
It folds back to him, and he 4-bets to $75. Sigh. I look over at his stack, and he doesn't have a ton behind, but over $100 at least. So I chose to make the call, even though it's very debatable on what the best option here is. But he is representing a lot of strength, and I thought that if the flop is completely terrible we can just get out of there.
The flop is not terrible, as it comes
A-J-3 with the latter two in spades. He instantly bets $75, and on this flop we just have to play for it. I go all-in, and he snap-calls (not that much behind). He actually has
JJ, but I still have a decent amount of outs. I do not hit however, and have to give away a lot of my profits ($142 + the $75 pre).
Very next hand I am UTG and find
TT. I obviously announce 'tilt-raise' and make it $12. An OMC right behind me calls, and BB (same Asian) calls. Flop is awesome, with
T-8-7. BB checks, I bet $20, and the OMC immediately says 'raise' and makes it $50.
He has around $200 left, but in this spot I think it's best to just move all-in. Obviously hoping that he has two pair or a lower set, and if he has a straight (not that likely), we still have a good amount of outs. Plus, with me recently losing a massive pot and announcing a tilt-raise, I really thought that I could get called lighter here.
But no, once again I get a fold although he thought about it for a while. Afterwards he claimed 78s for bottom two pair, but I just don't see any way how that can be true. If true, it's obviously very sad as I have that hand almost drawing dead. But I simply cannot imagine that he would fold a hand like that, when he blocks a lot of sets and the board doesn't really hit my UTG-range super hard. So I think he was lying, and maybe just making a move since he thought I was full of it.
That was pretty much the last interesting hand, I lost a little bit in another hand with a flush draw, but nothing too exciting. As I was getting very exhausted, I cashed out after 3 hours with a profit of $131 USD.
A win is a win, but I think this should have easily been a $500+ session or more. I think that I got a bit unlucky with finding a guy who is willing to fold KK post-flop, and also if I had gotten lucky in the AQ-hand it could have been a really huge win. But I can't do much with other people's decisions, so just gotta make better ones for myself.
Honestly not sure if I will play anymore tonight, as I definitely don't feel 100%. Currently have a headache, and might just have to rest up for tomorrow. Frustrating, but such is life.
Cash Games:
Hours played: 13h 00 min
Won/lost: +$318 USD
Hourly rate: +$18.7 USD
Tournaments:
Won/lost: -$200 USD (1 played)