Day 17: Night to Remember

Last night I headed to Hustler Casino to meet up with my boy Matt and my co-worker/homie Viet. They wanted to play at Hustler and I haven't played much there so I was willing to go see what the action was like.

Once I got there I sat down and first hand I got AQ and hit the Q with one player all-in for about $100. Then about two hands later I got KK and raised to $30. One loose player called me and the player after him went in for about $200. I went all-in as well and the loose player thought about it then called. The flop came 10-9-3 turn rag, river rag. The all-in player showed AQ and the loose player showed 10-10 for a set. Basically this was how my first two hours went. Last night I went deeper into my pocket then I had ever gone. Before I knew it I had bought in three times at the $100-$300 NL table, all three times for the maximum $300. This was around 11 pm and I decided that was enough for this table. There really were no weak players at the table and who knows, maybe I was the weakest player. So I got up and went to check on Matt. Matt was winning and feeling satisfied with his play. I watched him for a few hands, he had 77 and the flop came 7-6-6. Matt played it perfectly and got the maximum out of the hand that he probably could have when two people caught the jack on the turn. After contemplating if I should go to Hollywood Park to try and recoup my losses, I decided to just sit down at a different table.

The new table started off just the same, as I lost with QQ, AQ twice, etc. My play right now was probably questionable, I think I was tilting somewhat but this new table was much more promising based on the players. I bought in originally at this table for $200 and lost that. I was now down $1100!! WOW. This is a lot of money for a beginning player like myself. I decided I would buy in one more time for $200 and if I lost that, I would go home and plan the rest of my life. Just kidding. But it was my last buy-in.

Somehow I managed to get back to the $400 I had put into the table. Then a donk showed up and I made it over $500 (or a rack of $5 chips) playing hands with the donk. Then somehow I inched my way over two racks ($1k) and then I started my third rack. I was actually getting close to even, grinding and winning $100-$300 pots at a time. The donk tried to bluff me several times and was unsuccessful. Another player tried to bluff me with pocket 77 when I flopped a 10. My table broke around 430 am (yeah long ass time!) and I moved to the original table I had started out at, but this time with $1400.

I caught some great hands at this table. Pocket aces and I raised to $30. Three people called then the big blind says "I'm on all-in...I'm tilting." He went all-in for over $300, which was a good enough pot for me so I went all-in to get the other players out. I flopped an ace and the rest was history. I caught aces again, again raised to $20 and got four callers. Then the big blind, who was the only player who had me outstacked (2k) raised to $100. I told him there was only one hand I could go all-in on him with and then I went all-in. He folded and showed me jacks and I showed him the aces.

Then around 5:30 am Matt's table erupted in cheers and I looked over to see Matt giving everyone the "white guy" high fives. It was obviously a jackpot as several players were doing there versions of touchdown dances, etc. I was happy for Matt, assuming he won the table share for around $200-$500. About ten minutes later when the action settled down at my table I went to see how much Matt won and found out that he hit the bad beat hand! He had AK and made a full house AAAKK against a diamond royal flush. Damn!! This guy won 40% of the 13k jack pot. Sweet.

We left not too long after that, I was extremely happy not only getting back to even after being in the hole $1150, but I was actually up $600+ .. that really hasn't set in yet. Matt was obviously happy too. It felt good to be at the cashier's window cashing out for 2k and 5k next to each other. Hopefully that won't be the last time that happens.

The day started off right when we went to the Nike outlet at 9 a.m. and bought some cheap discounted stuff. But unfortunately the day took a turn for the worst when USC lost to UCLA (WTF?) in the season final. Really disappointing for the simple fact that (1) I hate UCLA and (2) we would have been in the national championship game if we won. Based on today's performance, I think that Florida and Michigan are both much more deserving of a shot at OSU then USC is. We made a good run but today really showed we have a lot of improving to do against a good defensive team.

The good news is that I started off December in the profit and met my goal of at least $200 a day. I'm about to go back tonight (right now) and eat dinner at HP and try to stack my $200 for the day. If I have the energy (I haven't slept since Thursday night...it's Saturday night right now) I'm going to go out with my boys. We'll see what happens....hopefully it'll be a great night, the weekend started off really well.

Summary: 11 hours (7:30 pm - 6:30 am), +668 (first table -900, second two tables +1568)

Friday Night:
200NL: +668
Overall: +668
Hourly: 60.73/Hr.

To date:
4/8 Limit: +201
6/12 Limit: +170
40 NL: -79
100 NL: -114
200 NL: +7861
December: +668
Overall: +8039