Crawling into the black.
Jul. 5th, 2015 05:06 amFriday night was a "meh" couple of hours. I won $13 with no hands of interest.
Saturday morning and I'm seeking to win $133 so that I can go home with more than $3k. I get to Flamingo at about 11.45am and there's a table with three people who have been there all night.
There's a view that getting to these tables first thing in the morning is a good move because you are fresh and they are rather drunk. I do not really follow this line. The ones who survive that long tend to be rather good. The weak players have gone bust overnight.
1) In this particular case the strength or weakness of the opposition played no part. I trundled along and within half an hour saw KK under the gun. I played my normal limp-reraise. Two more limpers. Button raises to $12 Big blind calls, and I reraise to $37. Button calls and Big Blind folds. I have $77 behind. Flop is KJT two clubs and I bet $40. Opponent goes all in. I call. He shows AQ. No improvement for me and I am a stack down having done nothing wrong at any point.
I reloaded but did not hang around for long. I think that it's a good idea to move to another casino when something like this happens. It's a "fresh start" for you and it gets you away from a table where you are pegged by the others as "unlucky", thus tempting them to take a shot at you.
2) Over to Bally's and I win a short-stacked all-in (opponent only had $47) with QQ vs T9 suited. Amazingly, he didn't even have an out on the river.
I slowly built up to $190 from my $120 start.
3) Then came the oddest hand of the week, which opponent misplayed to a quite staggering degree.
I had QQ in the Big Blind and I reraised a late raise of $11 to $32. He flat called. I have about $85 behind, a fraction less than he has.
Flop is A T 5 two clubs. I ponder a continuation, but in my experience this tends to end in tears in this scenario. So I check.
He checks.
Turn is a King and, well, that's about it. I am ready to check-fold. I check, and once again, he checks. What does he have? 88? 99? JJ?
River is a very nice Jack, giving me the nut straight. I bet a derisory $25 and he calls. Now I am even more mystified. QK? QJ? Nope, he had KK.
Always nice to win a pot that you had no right to at all, particularly from an opponent's misplay.
4) I returned to the Flamingo the grand sum of $1 up for the day. A short session with Sean on my left was brought to a close when the table was broken so that a tournament could start. An odd decision by the floor manager, but one that was to work to my advantage.
The table I moved to had one guy with a very large stack, but I just had a feeling about him. After about three hands I picked. up AK off under the gun. This is a different dynamic from the normal limp-reraise. I put in a small raise to $7 One caller and my large-stacked friend duly raised it to $35. I shove without hesititation and he looks at me and says "Don't be mad at me when I suck out on you". I assured him that I wouldn't be mad.
Board came 8d 7h Ts and he said "Gutshot!" To be honest I am not optimistic. I'm less optimistic when Turn comes a 2 and River comes a 3. However, he turns over 54 off (!!) and my AK high is good for a double through to $230.
He stacked off most of his $1000 fairly quickly after that, and was down to $200 before he decided that it might be an idea to play sensibly. At that point I took my leave, at about $85 up.
It's July 4th and the fireworks have started. I didn't want to stay on the strip because I was frightened of New Year's Eve style traffic jams if I stayed until late in the evening. And I had been playing for seven or so hours.
About $58 up for trip, plus about $140 in Total rewards benefits. Still less than $3k in cash, though. :-(
Saturday morning and I'm seeking to win $133 so that I can go home with more than $3k. I get to Flamingo at about 11.45am and there's a table with three people who have been there all night.
There's a view that getting to these tables first thing in the morning is a good move because you are fresh and they are rather drunk. I do not really follow this line. The ones who survive that long tend to be rather good. The weak players have gone bust overnight.
1) In this particular case the strength or weakness of the opposition played no part. I trundled along and within half an hour saw KK under the gun. I played my normal limp-reraise. Two more limpers. Button raises to $12 Big blind calls, and I reraise to $37. Button calls and Big Blind folds. I have $77 behind. Flop is KJT two clubs and I bet $40. Opponent goes all in. I call. He shows AQ. No improvement for me and I am a stack down having done nothing wrong at any point.
I reloaded but did not hang around for long. I think that it's a good idea to move to another casino when something like this happens. It's a "fresh start" for you and it gets you away from a table where you are pegged by the others as "unlucky", thus tempting them to take a shot at you.
2) Over to Bally's and I win a short-stacked all-in (opponent only had $47) with QQ vs T9 suited. Amazingly, he didn't even have an out on the river.
I slowly built up to $190 from my $120 start.
3) Then came the oddest hand of the week, which opponent misplayed to a quite staggering degree.
I had QQ in the Big Blind and I reraised a late raise of $11 to $32. He flat called. I have about $85 behind, a fraction less than he has.
Flop is A T 5 two clubs. I ponder a continuation, but in my experience this tends to end in tears in this scenario. So I check.
He checks.
Turn is a King and, well, that's about it. I am ready to check-fold. I check, and once again, he checks. What does he have? 88? 99? JJ?
River is a very nice Jack, giving me the nut straight. I bet a derisory $25 and he calls. Now I am even more mystified. QK? QJ? Nope, he had KK.
Always nice to win a pot that you had no right to at all, particularly from an opponent's misplay.
4) I returned to the Flamingo the grand sum of $1 up for the day. A short session with Sean on my left was brought to a close when the table was broken so that a tournament could start. An odd decision by the floor manager, but one that was to work to my advantage.
The table I moved to had one guy with a very large stack, but I just had a feeling about him. After about three hands I picked. up AK off under the gun. This is a different dynamic from the normal limp-reraise. I put in a small raise to $7 One caller and my large-stacked friend duly raised it to $35. I shove without hesititation and he looks at me and says "Don't be mad at me when I suck out on you". I assured him that I wouldn't be mad.
Board came 8d 7h Ts and he said "Gutshot!" To be honest I am not optimistic. I'm less optimistic when Turn comes a 2 and River comes a 3. However, he turns over 54 off (!!) and my AK high is good for a double through to $230.
He stacked off most of his $1000 fairly quickly after that, and was down to $200 before he decided that it might be an idea to play sensibly. At that point I took my leave, at about $85 up.
It's July 4th and the fireworks have started. I didn't want to stay on the strip because I was frightened of New Year's Eve style traffic jams if I stayed until late in the evening. And I had been playing for seven or so hours.
About $58 up for trip, plus about $140 in Total rewards benefits. Still less than $3k in cash, though. :-(