Thursday, April 7, 2016
Started From The Bottom Now Were Here! Closing in on $20,000 Profit
With a wave of my wrist and flick of my fingers, "I'm All-In $650"...
"Call, I got you!" ---
This guy had his chips (all $1200) in the rack, playing his last hand at the table. I looked down in the small blind and see one of my favorites, Ace King of Spades. Villian is a regular and I have played with him many times. The first orbit I tried bluffing him on a QQ67A board and he had Q9. I had AJ and fired all 3 streets relatively strong. The river bet ended up being $185 by me and he just called with Q9. He got pretty confident after this and started to play more hands with me, mostly calling my raises. I started opening up more and was beating him around quite a bit at this point. I was punishing him by 3-betting and 4-betting him quite frequently.
He's a pretty solid player, but nothing special. He's pretty transparent with what hands he has. He plays them face up most the time. He's under the gun and has limped in. There were about 4 others who limped and I made it $35 from the SB with my AKs. He check-raised to $85 and my initial thought was to just jam all-in here and most the time take the pot down right here, as most people don't want to gamble all-in preflop and on their last hand of the night. He started talking when he noticed I was pondering what to do. He then, confidently splurted out, "This is my last hand, you know I am only getting involved here with the nuts". I knew he was super strong at this point after putting everything together. I figured I could possibly be dominated already and this is most likely the case here, but I'm never folding AKs to a single raise and not even that much more for me to call ($50 more). Even if I know for certain he has AA, 100% of the time, it's worth it to call because I know if I get a favorable flop, I can get all of his chips.
I decided to just call and see what kind of flop we were going to battle over. It came Qs9s3c -- I have the nut flush draw, with two over's... In my world, the virtual nuts, exactly what I'm looking for in this spot. I was pretty confident he had AA/KK/QQ/AK. This flop was just too good for my hand to consider folding and the way I have been raising and punishing his raises and 3-bets sets it up perfect for a check-raise. So, I checked it to him and he lead out for $50. Weird, I thought it was a bet designed to get me to check-raise him. Which is exactly what I planned on doing anyway. It was like he was setting himself up to get owned by me. Granted I had to hit to win the pot, but with this much equity in the hand, and with how deep we are, I'm getting it in here all the time vs this guy in this spot.
With a wave of my wrist, "I'm All-In, $650".
"Call", he said, while triumphantly flipping over AA and slamming it on the table. "I told you that you should have folded kid"
"Whatever bro, let's see the turn and river", I told him. There wasn't much of a sweat for me as the turn was the beautiful Jack of Spades and the river bricked out.
"You should never put your chips in the rack and then play another hand, dude", as I flipped over my Ace/King of spades. Dealer confirmed my $650 and had him count out the $650 and shipped it my way. "Oh, Tyler, Tyler, Tyler, I'm getting too used to doing this", Jean the dealer said while he pushed me the sea of chips. Villian was just so confident he had me crushed, it's always nice to double up off these guys.
Another cool spot I got into today was pretty interesting and had some wild table dynamics going on. This spot I'm about to tell you about was from my first session of the day, in which I was crushing my competition. I was absolutely running over my table. My good friend was also at the table, but wasn't much of a threat as he couldn't get much going. Myself, on the other hand was getting smacked in the face with the deck and I was also playing super aggressive. I had about $1300 in front of me at this point.
There was a new player that sat down, an older gentlemen, that was obviously a huge fish. I instantly knew he was a fish and was there to lose. We played a few hands and I observed him, shaking like a rag doll when he had big hands and had to showdown. It was a big tell. There was another player at the table, who's basically a whale. He knows what he's doing, but fishes so much. He will chase any draw, overplay top pair and just play real bad in general. He's in his mid-40's, going bald, looks stressed and tired, and looks like a degenerate gambler. To be fair, he may just be a normal dude --- Probably, but I like to speculate.
So, at this point, I'm owning it and I'm in the big blind and look down at JJ. There was a UTG straddle for $10. 4 people, including these two clowns (both have about $500 behind them), have limped in for the $10... "I raise, $70", I announced. Both of these clowns call the $70 and we go 3-way to the flop. 8c7c3h --- great flop for me, not the best, but we can work with it. I'm certain I'm ahead here, unless they hit a set on me, then so be it.
"$165", I throw 6 greens and 3 reds out to the middle of the table.
"Call, Call", the dealer says. Ugh, really? Both you clowns are calling me? Turn comes a 6c --- definitely not the best card for me, but it can also be a great card for me if they are both NOT on the flush/straight draws.
"I'm all-in, $1000", I said almost immediately after seeing the turn. Old man only had about $200 left and Mr. Bad only had $100 left, it was an easy shove considering their stacks. Old man, tanks for about a minute and folds with what seemed like he was letting his child go to the devil or something, I was super happy to see that he decided to fold. Mr. Bad on the other hand called and I was pretty confident I was good against Mr. Bad. I flipped over my JJ and don't even look at the river and he mucks his cards. Ship the pot my way. Old Man then stands up and slams the table. "I HAD QQ, THIS IS BULL****" ---
I stare at him, as he is getting more and more heated as he realizes he just folded the best hand. I can't help but laugh in these moments. "Sorry sir, bad luck for you", I remind him this is all about luck. "That's it, I'm tired of you idiots around here" --- He picked up the rest of his $200 and headed out the door, only to come back 1 minute later to lose the last $200 he had in his wallet within about 5 hands. I took the last $200. Savage.
Today was a good day overall. I took home a profit of $850 -- not too shabby. The day before I lost $650 though, so it evens out. April is looking good so far as I'm at 40 hours played, $2626 profit @ $68/hour. I need to be getting more hours in, 40 hours a week is just not acceptable. I really have to buckle down these next few weeks and put in every available hour I have at the tables. Especially since all the tournament donks are in town. I'm at $19,438 overall profit since starting in January with 386 hours total played, which comes out to $50.24/hour. I'm so stoked about these stats I have been able to put up. My dream is really coming true, to play poker professionally. I'm growing every day and I love (with so much passion) what I'm doing. It's honestly, my dream, come true. I've never been happier in the past 10 years.
Let's keep this train going my friends. Thanks to everyone for all the kind words and support you have shown me and continue to show me. It really means a lot to me when someone takes the time to comment on this blog.
As always, good luck in life and especially at the tables, but not mine!