Another day in Vegas! Woke up at 7am, went to the gym (much needed), then went out to find a game.
Randomly found myself at The Mirage where a new game just started. I was by far the youngest player at the table - always a good confidence booster!
Unfortunately my starting stack became the highlight of this session, in which I think I was running bad and not doing too horrible with my decisions. I'll run through three quick hands.
1) There is a limp for $2 and I raise
AQdd to $10 and get two calls. On the flop
A-7-2 with one diamond I c-bet $16, only to see the caller push all-in for $100. Can't imagine him playing a set that way, so.. I guess I call ? Unfortunately he has AK and I don't improve.
2) I raise
ATcc to $8 pre from UTG and get 3 callers. Flop comes
K-J-3 with both J and 3 being in clubs. Nice! I bet $20 and get two callers. Turn is a red
five, so no help for me. Despite this I still think I can continue to bet, so I bet $40 (too small probably). Frist opponent folds, but the big blinds check-min-raise to $80. He has around $100 behind. In game I didn't want to push as his line seems very strong, but in hindsight I should have just done that. Basically only have to risk $100 more to win around $450 (he has $100 or so behind), so that would have been a better play. Instead I just call, the river is just a red
2, and opponent check. Don't really see a reason for a suicidal bluff here, so I just give up and show my hand. He shows KJ of clubs, so it's actually a small chance he might have folded the river. Just too bad a club didn't come though.
3) UTG limps for $2 and I make it $10 behind him with
98ss. Bit loose, but sees fine at such a passive table. I get two calls, and we see the great looking
9-8-2 with two hearts. I bet $17, and get one call. Turn is a
Q. I still think I can bet for value, so I make it $35. Opponent min-check-raises to $70 (this seems to be the move of the day). JT came in, and he could also have something like Q9 and Q8, or 22. Obviously not very likely that he has 99 or 88. Anyway, I call and see what he does on the river, which comes a
blank. I check and he quickly pushes me all-in, and after agonizing for a minute I make the fold. Don't think I'm good here often enough, unless he's randomly making a huge overplay of something like KQhh or maybe slow-played AA.
Furthermore, I lost T high flush vs J high flush (not a huge pot), I got A high flop when having QQ, and also missed a few other good draws in some spots. So even though I managed to win some pots here and there, the end result was a frustrating -$295 USD. Not good enough - but that can happen, and I think the session easily could have been a winner under other circumstances.
Just watched the Norway vs Sweden game (soccer) now. It ended 3-3, which means that peace is restored between all travelling parties
Gonna play more poker tonight - we have all decided to enter the $80 KO at Flamingo 6pm for some crap-shoot poker, and might jump into a cash game before that as well.
/O