A Few Thoughts

I played 1/3 at Hollywood last Friday. I buy in for the usual $300 I work it up to $450 I get JJ in middle position Jacks are a hand that I play differently every time. If there is a raise in front of me, a lot of the times I will re-raise to see where I am. Many times I will open limp with them. Just depends on the table, my position and my mood. Ep player makes it $15 Do not know much about him so I decide to play my hand like a small pocket pair. I just call. The button makes it $30 Now this is the older gentleman who got QQ and AA on the first two hands dealt after our table opened. He also had hit a set. He was sitting around $800 He is the only player at the table who can bust me or double me. The original raiser calls. I call. Flop is Kd Jh 7c. Here we go. Early position checks. I check to the raiser. He bets out $75 Ep folds. I think for a second and re-raise to $200 Villain thinks and smooth calls. Turn is a blank. I move my last $200 or so in He sighs and calls. Brick river He flips AA and I am a little over $900 for the session. I play for a bit I get AA More and more I do not like this hand in cash games. I get married to it and get committed and lose big pots. With that in mind I often over bet them pre flop I am in middle position Three limpers to me I make it $35 to go. I get called by one limper. Love how a three dollar hand magically becomes a thirty five dollar hand. Flop is T 8 2 rainbow. He bets out $75 In my experience this bet is almost always a pair or a draw. A set almost always checks to the original better. I have a pretty good feel for this player as well. He four bet into the AA guy earlier with JJ He is loose. Everybody knew the guy had aces. Back to the hand, I ask how much he had behind. He said about $200 I go with my read and raise him to $150 He instant calls. The turn is another 8 He shoves and I make the reluctant call. He moves all in and I make the reluctant call. Ends up he did not have ABOUT $200. As I was expecting to have to call a little over $100 He actually had $160 behind. Shame on me for not verifying I lost the hand Any guesses to what hand he called $35 pre flop out of position with? Tell you in comments if anybody guesses I still ended up the day with a tidy $412 profit for the day. Would have been 1k if that hand holds

Played again yesterday. A grinding kind of day. No big hands really Just a guy that would chase draws for any bet. I had AA Make it $16 and get three callers. The board is KcTc2h I make it $35 and get one caller The turn is the 8d nothing too scary I make it $100 about 3/4 the pot. He instant called. River is the Ks Ouch. We check it down. He has 9c7c Should have bet more on the turn.

The most interesting had was a bit later. We have a Mississippi straddle at Hollywood. Meaning you can straddle from any position sans the blinds. I occasionally straddle from the button like I did for the following hand. I look down at As3s I has been limped to me in 5 spots. Many times I will raise here with any two cards but there are three loose guys that play any two cards for raises so I decide to let my option go. the flop is 2s 5c 9h I have the gutter. Checks around and I take the free card. The river is the oh so pretty 4s I now have the wheel with a draw to the nut flush. One of the any two card guys comes alive from the blinds and makes it $15 I am thinking about my action when an aggressive younger guy flats. This feels like a flush draw to me so I decide to flat as well in position. The river is the Js giving me the nuts. First guy checks Younger guy makes it $30 I think a few seconds announce raise and make it $80 I felt a min raise would be obvious and I had seen the young guy pay off bets like this. First guy folds and young guy takes a minute before folding. I think I played this hand wrong on the turn. I put him on the flush draw. I should have min raised there. The first guy might have stayed and the flush guy would most likely have stayed. That bet would have also masked my spade holding possibly. I do not know. Ideas?

Draws

I played two draws big recently. The first hand I saw a raised pot $12 six ways. I had 89d. The flop comes Td 6d 3h. I have a gut shot straight flush draw. The big blind bets out $25. He was not the original raiser. The original raiser was in the CO Another guy calls. It's down to me and the original raiser to act. I decide to play it big and move in. There is $120 in the pot. I push for $280. Folds around to the big blind and he basically instant calls. He had T6os. He hold up nd I bust. I made the move here because I had been playing with the big blind for a while. He did the same thing with JT earlier when he had only top pair after calling a raise pre flop I think he folds here if he only had a pair. Did I play it right?

Second had

I have Q4hh in the big blind. Middle position player makes it $12 to go. It is called in three spots. I decide to come along. The flop is Ah 4c Th Small blind checks I check. The original raiser makes his standard c-bet of $25. Folds to small blind who moves in for $70 total. Now the small blind was the subject of my previous post. He got all in pre flop with K8cc vs my KK. But I digress. Point is he can have anything here. I do not really care He doesn't have enough money to really matter. The original raiser talks it out. Says one of us has a draw and one has a set. He hems then decides to call. Turn is Js. He immediately bets $100. I had already decided to shove the turn either way. I go through with it for. $240 morevnand he instant calls. He flips over Ad Jh. The river is the 3h. The small blind flips over AsQc. I scoop the pot. The original raiser starts berating me in a nice enough way. Not with venom more like the older gentleman he was imparting knowledge to a younger man. The small blind looked at me and quietly said the older man did not even know he was in third place on the flop. Did I play it correctly?

Donk poker

Played at Hollywood the other day. A player I have seen playing in the 2/5 game sat down two to my left. I had never played with him. We were playing 1/3. He immediately makes it $10 on his first hand. This proved to be his normal play. Lots of small raises. He min raised his button every time it was limped to him. I had been watching him and he always telegraphed his raises by having the bet ready in his hand over his cards. Oh and he only bought in for $100. He busted out in about fifteen minutes

He re buys. $100. Few hands later I get KK. It is the dudes big blind. Three people limp ahead of me. My normal play like most it to raise. But. I glance at the dude and sure enough he has his min raise ready. So I limp. Fold to him and he min raises. Small blind folds. Big blind comes along All the limpets come. I announce raise. I make it $75. I will be happy to get the $30. The donk barely thinks and moves in for $94. We are heads up. Qc 9s 3s. Great no ace and I have the Ks. Have not seen his cards. It comes running clubs. The donk says he got there. Any ideas as to what he had? AcJc. Nice guess. Ac2c. Nope. Kc8c. Yep. Called off $100 with that rag.

I am not exaggerating. Of the last fourteen times I have gotten my money in as a %90 favorite, I have lost nine times. I am still up. I should be crushing it.

73-27

I played three sessions of poker this week. I am up around $75 for my efforts. I should be up more. I have had KK four flushed by QQ. AKs flop the nut flush only to be boated out on by a flopped set. 44 flop a set and ATd call off his stack on a draw and hit the flush.

I was %73 to win or better when the money got all in on all the hands. Two of the three hold and I am having a good week. All three hold and I am up a cool grand. All in all I am happy. I am up after weathering the storm.

I am playing well. Making moves when I feel they will work. For instance. I have 8h9h in early position. I limp. Three calls to the button who makes it $20. Two callers so I decide to take a flyer. Five of us see the flop KK3 two hearts. Checks to button who makes it $40. Folds to me. I move in with my draw while representing the king. The button instant folds If he had AK so be it. I had the flush outs to save me. I was certain it would work though based upon my read

This is a play I would not make six months ago. I am learning how to put more pressure on my opponents. It is fun to explore this part of my game

Poker bored

Do you ever get just plain bored playing poker? I do. I play poorly when it happens I force the issue and back myself into a corner. I had A5os I limped in early position. Bad play A loose player raised in late position like he had been doing often. We get heads up and the flop comes Ac3c6d. I chech call his bet. Turn brings the Tc. I chech he checks. River is an ace. He puts me all in and I have to call. All because I made a horrid pre flop call out of position. He had 33 for the boat. I went home. Blah the loose player had been showing down KQ and ace small on his position raise. I could have been slightly ahead. But I need to pick better spots

3x3

Played Hollywood yesterday. 1/3. Bought in for $300. Chipped up to $500 early. Down to $400. Nearing the end of my session a new player sat down. He had all the tell tale signs of a professional player. Ear buds. Hat He sized everybody up before he sat down. Two players I am friendly with and play with often knew him. I had never seen him before.

He raises his first hand and takes it down uncontested. Three hands later I look down to JJ in the big blind. New guy makes it $12 to go. He is now called in five places before me. I decide to just call. Flop is Ac Jd Td. Bingo. Little scary with the flush/straight possibilities. I check. New guy bets $20. Folds to the small blind. He hems and haws. I have played with him before. I was pretty sure he had the flush draw. He haws a bit more and pushes all in. About $ 200. I instant move all in for about. $350. New guy instant calls and I instantly know I am sunk. Yep set over set. He had AA. The small blind had AdQd for the straight flush draw. There were bad beat chances but alas it was not to be. I went home.

Played today. Finished with a $434 profit. Feeling better

Courage

Money breeds courage. That's my theory anyway. I have finally ground my bankroll up to a respectable level. With that level has come some poker courage. Last week I had two great sessions cashing out up $800 and $1000. Now that I have a little money behind me I have started making moves and paying with more freedom.

I was playing earlier this week. I was down a bit. A good player takes a seat at my table late in my session. He is aggressive and is capable of playing any two cards from any position He makes a standard raise of $13. Three call ahead of me so I decide to call from the big blind. I have 2c3c. The flop comes KcKh5c. I check. The raiser makes it $35. Folds around to me. I consider folding then I consider the hand. I did not think he had a king. His betting pattern did not jibe with the board and my experience with him. I decide to flat and see. Turn is the 4d. Now I am up and down with the flush draw. I have $160 left. Villain checks. I check. I am nearly positive he does not have the king. I really want an ace now. Probably pairs him so I can extract value. River is another 5. Now I have issues. Old me would have shut down and abandoned the pot. Or put another way, chicken out. New me sucks it up and does the only thing I can to win the pot. I bet $100. He tanks. Cuts out the money and stacks and restacks. He asks me if I will show if he folds. My buddy Slick has a theory on the question. He asks it to opponents when he is on the fence to call. If they say yes he instant calls. No means muck. I remember this and say no. He mucks, showing the 5 for the bottom full house. He then says if I said yes he is instant calling Telling the correct story and courage bought me a pot.