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.

What?

Played today. Played loose and relaxed. Up and down. Chipped up $200 over my buy in. Four hands until I leave to pick up the kids. Look down at 33 on the button. Utg raises to $13. Five of us see the flop including the big blind. Flop brings 33Q. Super gin!!!! Now to get paid. Big blind bets $20. Middle position calls. Now all the books and blogs say I just call here. So I did Turn is a 2. Bb bets $20. Middle guy class. Blogs and books say call so I do. River is a 9. BB makes it $45. Middle guy pauses a sec and calls. I am confused as hell What do they have? I make it $100 after fake deliberation. Bb thinks a bit and moves in. The middle guy tanks Tanks a long time. He finally calls. I cannot raise him in due to the bb not having enough to reopen the betting. I call and immediately table my quads. I really wanted to know what they had. Must be quads over full house at least. Right? Bb had KK. Played itbso bad. Other guy had had AQ. Just needed one three

Nice day

Played again. Finished up for a change. Flopped a set twice. Both times I was up against a flopped straight. Lost the minimum with my tens. Turned quads with my threes. Got paid Get 2d4d in the big blind. $12 raise. Three callers so I come along. The flop is the oh so nice Ad 4c 4s. I check. Original raiser checks. The button bets $20. I call as does the original raiser. The turn is the 3d. Checks around. 5 d would be nice but I will settle for a 2. River is the 2. I bet $35. Called in both spots. One made the straight. The other AK. Good to run well

Blind

Been playing at Hollywood often. Still running bad and playing bad. That is a bad combination. I was playing a few days ago. I was sitting next to a regular. His name is Doug. Nice guy. I had been away from the table so I straddled back in. He was on my right. There are four limpets to Doug and he makes it $30. I fold my 9d2d quickly. There is one caller from the button. The flop is A35 rainbow. Doug makes a big c-bet. The button tanks for minutes. He must have an ace. He finally folds. Doug announces he has not even looked at his cards. He flips up 24 os. Hilarity ensues grump grump grump

Beat goes on

Played again today. Dropped a buy in.

. KK cracked by T5. I am continually amazed by how many people check call at Hollywood. I get kings on the button. Four limpets in. Make it $25. Get five callers. Great. Flop comes with two tens. Bets and calls in front of me. I invest $25 more to spike a king. Fold after whiffed turn

AK utg. Make it $15. Folds to big blind who decides to defend. He flops trips. I lose the minimum when a king hits the river and I call

. Did make quad jacks. Had JJ. I limp utg. Looking to get it in. I had about $90 Argo guy makes it $20. One caller. I push. One fold. gro finally calls. Jack on all club flop. Turned quads. He had KQ. Other guy would have flopped a flush. If I had only had more money. Might have made more

. Did not donk off the the rebuy. God I hope the cards or me gets better soon

Junk Punched at the Tables

I have been running incredibly bad lately. Mostly due to AA. The last five times I have had it, they have been cracked. KK cracked the last time I had it got taken by J3.

Saw that a 1/3 game had been going all night so I went to Hollywood. Sat down and promptly got AA. Bump it to $15 Two callers. Board is low cards kind of connected with two spades. Small blind bets $35 I bump it to $100. He calls we are heads up. The turn is a Js. He checks. I have the ace of spades. I move in. He calls. Flips K2s. I have $40 left. Next hand get 44. Move in. Called twice. Flop set and triple up. Play a while. Get KQh on the button Flop is Qd 5h Jh. Late position raises. I re raise. He moves in. I instant call for my stack that I had since built to $300. I should have probably slowed down and thought about it here. Loose call I think. What do you think. Fold here? Just call the initial bet? He had bottom set. River saves me with the flush and I am up a buy in. Should have bolted then, but the K3 guy was playing so loose and bad. The game was so good. I lose some pots. Flush vs full house. Down to $400. Waiting to pick up a hand. The K3 guy is in the six seat. The five seat had arrived and started running over the table hitting hands left and right. He had amassed his stack of $1200 in about thirty minutes. I finally get two black aces in early middle position. There is a raise ahead of me of $15. Sweet. I make it $65. Trying to isolate. The five and six seats both flat. The original raiser pushes all int. He had $101. Now here is where I am kicking myself. I would have liked to re raise but all I could do is complete the bet as per the rules of the game. BUT. I am almost sure the dealer had pulled in his original $15 bet meaning he doubled my raise by $1. I did not realize this later while driving home screaming like a mad man. Doing my best imitation of Old Man Parker working on his furnace. Let me know if you get the reference. Anyhoo I actually stopped the game to make sure I could not raise. The dealer said no, but I never double checked to see if she had dragged original bet in. I am learning. Flop comes 3d5c6c. I move in and the five seat calls. Six seat folds. Five seat says he has a ton of outs. Turn is the 7h. He flips over his cards to expose the 7c. River is the 9c. Straight flush. AA goes down in flames. Horse shoe firmly implanted up five seats ass. I am at my wits end. What are the odds of AA going down five times in a row. And it has been so dirty too. Vs 36os T3c 56c K3s. A lot of these guys are the first callers too. It is not like they were priced in. I think I am moving in pre flop next time just to book a win with them. I can accept set mining but come on, those hands? To compound the problem I lost with AA when I made a horrible fold. I put the guy on KK. The flop came 3K3. I checked and he bet. I folded the aces. In retrospect, no way he has KK here. He would slow play it. He confirmed the next day he has AK. He was just so tight. I could now see him calling my $35 bet on the straddled hand with anything less than a premium hand. Any advice for me. Should I take a break?