Day 22: A Win is a Win

Damn what a night. What a weekend. Friday after work I went to the ADP Payroll company Christmas party. I had a good time and met some cool girls but my phone fell out of my pocket and some drunk 21-year-old found it, took it home and made calls to people in my phone. I finally got the phone back on Sunday night.

Saturday I was lazy as hell and finally mustered up the energy to go to 3rd St. Promenade with my roommate, who is now having fun in Hawaii. After 3rd Street, I headed straight to Hollywood Park. Matt, Miles and Jouji also wanted to go play at HP following their company dinner.

I arrived at HP and was immediately seated at a 200 NL table that was short-handed. I was the seventh player at the table and the table was extremely tight when I arrived (what a surprise for HP). I started off slowly, going down to about 150 in a short time. The first big hand that I recall was the woman to my left, who had about $1600 in front and only entered pots with a raise, raised to $20 from the cutoff. I was on the button and I called with 44, obviously hoping to hit a set. Two other players called and I hit my 4 on the flop, which was all rags. The two other players checked, she bet $60 and I called before the other two folded. The turn was a blank and she came out with a $75 bet. I raised to $200 and she thought for a long time and said "I must be in trouble if YOU'RE raising." So she finally laid down, probably JJ or QQ, possibly KK or AA.

I won some more pots and worked my way to about $800 when the following hand came up:

Early position (not a tight nor loose player) raised to $15
Two callers, including the tight lady on my right, who is on the button
In the small blind, I have AA. I raise to $40 (not a big enough raise)
Everyone calls, which worries me that someone will hit a set or two pair
Flop comes J-8-9 rainbow.
I bet $60
Initial raiser goes all-in for $125 total
First guy thinks for a long time before folding his flush draw, he didn't want to have to go all-in against me or the woman.
The woman asks how much and hollywoods for a while then calls.
Now I'm stuck in a bad position because this woman is very tight and she is the only one that has me covered. She sees me thinking for a long time and tells me "I have it." I put her on JJ or maybe even Q-10 suited and I fold because I think I have the all-in player beat but not her.
I also kind of trust her when she says she has it because of the way we have played against each other so far. So I show the AA and fold.
The all-in player wins the pot with 99 for a set and the woman shows AJ. UGH!!! That was a big chance to double up with $800!! Or at least win a side pot. The guy who folded the flush also would have made his flush.

So that hand sucked becuase it would've paid big. But I was happy leaving up $662 because I was at a pretty decent table and I was able to beat it. We headed to the "Standard" where it was very frustrating because they didn't want to let us in when they clearly should have.

I ended up staying up all night and went back to HP at 7:30 am. This was kind of a mistake because as soon as I got there I realized the only people left were ridiculously tight and I lost $400 pretty quickly playing badly.

My friends Matt and Miles also got involved in a hand at the $40 NL table against each other. I believe that Miles raised to $13 or something with 1010 (blinds at 1/2). Matt went over the top and all-in for about $27 with KK. Miles said he believed that Matt had AA but called anyways and spiked the 10 for a set. The question is, did Miles have the odds to call the $14 all-in even if he knew he was behind. My theory is no. Obviously Miles only has a two-outer to win this pot, so essentially he is giving away $14. I also believe (and so does Sklansky) that to get involved in a pot like this, you need to see the odds to win it if you spike the set. The problem with this hand is that if Miles does get lucky and hit hit set, he doesn't even get paid off on it because all the money was put in when he was behind. The only reason to call an underpair when you think you're behind is to hope for the set so you can get paid off by the big pair (like my 44 that night). Basically you hit a set 1/9 times on the flop. So if the odds are right for you to get paid off 9-1 or better when you hit your set, you should call. Say you're in the hand with a big stack. For example you raise to $5 with 1010 and he re-raises to $15 with KK. The big stack has $100 behind and so do you. So you have the opportunity to win 10-1 odds on your $10 call. Then you should call. But because there was no money in the pot between Miles and Matt, there really was no reason to call assuming Matt had the overpair to Miles' 1010. If Miles put Matt on AK or something, that is a different story.

Also, just for my own information and curiosity I added up my daily numbers to see which days are more successful for me. It's very clear that the weekends are my most profitable days. For some reason my numbers are off by $41 but I'm too lazy to find where the discrepancy is.

Monday (five sessions: [-,+,-,+,-] +209) -130, +219, -500, +820, -200
Tuesday (three sessions: [-,-,-] -1495) -200, -715, -580
Wednesday (three sessions: [+,+,-] +2662) +2462, +700, -540
Thursday (two sessions: [-,+] +606) -400, +1006
Friday (three sessions: [-,+,+] +3328) -360, +3020, +668
Saturday (three sessions: [+,+,+] +2581) +1159, +1160, +262
Sunday (three sessions: [-,+,-] +309) -350, +873, -214

Weekdays: 1982
Weekend (including Friday): 6218

And here are the updated numbers following this weekend...
Summary: 9.5 hours (6:15p - 11:45p; 7:30a - 11:30p), +262 (two sessions)

Saturday Night:
200NL: +262
Overall: +262
Hourly: 27.58/Hr.

To date:
4/8 Limit: +201
6/12 Limit: +170
40 NL: -119
100 NL: -114
200 NL: +8103
December: +870
Overall: +8241