More Matter

Went to Harrahs to drop off my weekly $50 donation to the luck fest they call a tournament. I did just that in three hands. I call a five times blind raise with AJs. I get heads up with a older guy who has just open raised every hand of the tournament. Flop is JJ7. Woot Woot. He continue bets and I call. Turn is a blank. He bets bigger and I call. River is a blank and he bets bigger and I push. He has 77 for the flopped boat. IGH. On to cash.

I had played about half of hour of cash before the tourney. The last hand before I have to go to the push fest, I pick up KK on the button. Four limpers ahead of me, so at least I can pick up some dead money. I raise it to $15. The small blind folds and the big blind makes it $45. Folds around to me. I decide to just call. I am in position and can get away from the flop if an ace falls. The guy I was up against I had played with a bit. He is tight aggressive and easily could have aces or even as low as AK. I was on the button, so he could put me on a steal. We had even stacks so one of us was probably gonna double up. If no ace flops, I am pretty much committed to the pot. The flop is T73 rainbow. He pauses a split second and pushes out a stack of $100. This is a bit over the pot size. The size made me think he did not have AA or TT, the only two hands I am really afraid of here. I think he bets smaller with those hands. $100 felt like QQ or JJ. He wanted to win there and was getting rid of AK. I think this through for a moment and move all in. I have him covered by $10. He has to call and does. I flip over my kings and ask if he has aces. He gives a slight shake of the head and I know I am ahead. He does not show his cards. The turn is another 3, great. The river is the very nasty Qh. My insides fall a little in anticipation of the bad news. He shakes his head and mucks and I am up $180 in half an hour. Nice.

How do you feel about opponents not revealing their hands on all in hands? If he had hit his jack, it would have felt a lot like a slow roll. I know it is not, it just feels that way. I do not mind it here because he called my all in. What really gets me is the guys that I call down and do not show. It not raging mad, just annoyed.

I went to another table after the tourney. I was absolutely card dead. I saw zero pairs and one big ace in the first three hours of play. This is where Zen and the Art of Poker has really helped me. I just kept repeating it is not my turn in my head. In the past I would have pressed and lost money. I just waited for the cards to turn. The guys at my end of the table kept needling me. I just told them the truth. I got T3 four hands in a row. Q2, 86, J5, all the goodies. I did pick up KK in the small blind for the chop. There is a bad beat at Harrahs, but he did not have a cheeseburger hand. When my cards did come, I stole some blinds. I finally strung together four playable hands in a row and then started to get action. I picked up AA in the small blind and flatted a raise from utg. I flopped a set and won a small pot. I hit a couple of flushes and another set and ground to a $167 profit. Up about $350 for the day.

There was one guy at the table who could not lose. All the cards came to his seat. He left with $1300 for his eight hours of work. The one big hand I saw was his 22 vs KQ vs KQ on a 2KJ4 board. The set was betting the whole way and both KQ called the whole way. One had picked up a flush draw, but still bad calls. he won a $700 pot there.