Up, Down, Up, Down

Interesting night last night. Felt I played pretty well although I did get caught up in some hands that I needed to get away from towards the end of my session. Also at the beginning, once again I had to buy-in a few times to get rolling.

I started off on a table that I thought looked good and easy to read. It consisted of a couple loose/weak players, a few extra tight players and some average players. When I first got there I was taking down a lot of small pots by bluffing on the flop when I knew no one hit, etc. I also made two calls, one which was pretty ridiculous:

I have 9-7 in late position, I limp. Button raises to $25, three callers before me and I call. Flop comes 9-4-5. Everyone checks to player behind me, who bets $30. One player calls and I call. Flop comes Q. Everyone checks. River is ace and a guy who I know bluffs a lot bets $75. I call, guy behind me says he folded 1010 (I don't believe him) and bettor mucks his hand.

Another call I made on the guy directly to my left, who sucked big time and went on tilt because of me (When I called with 9-7 and he supposedly mucked 1010). I have K10. Guy on my left raises to $30 in middle position. I'm the only caller because I know he's an idiot, normally it's a bad call to go head's up with K10. But this guy sucks. Every hand he folds he claims he's folding a great hand. I'm after him like a bounty hunter. Flop comes 10-3-6. I check. He bets $55. I raise his punk ass to $110. He thinks for a minute, then goes all-in, purposely flashing his cards to his neighbor as if he has aces or some shit. I can tell he's nervous though because he's all antsy. I call and I'm like I got the 10. Then the king hits the turn and I say "Now I have two pair" and he says "fucking unbelievable" or some shit like that. He's about to muck after the river when a guy on the table asks for his hand and he shows 10-8, so he was toast all the way and my two pair was unnecessary.

I built my stack up to about 400 (from 200) pretty quickly. My pre-flop raises were rarely getting called and I was showing most of them with hands like QQ. A guy told me he made a "tough fold" for a $35 raise when he had KQ suited and I told him I had QQ. Then I got AK in middle position, raised to $30 and he calls. The flop comes Aqx and he asks "Do you have QQ again" I said "yeah" and bet $35. He raised it to $75 and I insta-called, which obviously worried him. He checked the turn to me and now I know he doesn't have AQ. However I know he has AJ or A10. I bet $100 on the turn and he thinks for a LONG time. Then he goes "well I guess I'll go home or double up" and goes all-in. I have him covered by like $13 and I call. The river is a jack and I say "You just hit that river didn't you" and he says "yeah" and shows AJ. I rebought for $200 and doubled up with a flush draw that hit on the turn with 4h5h. The flop was A75 with two hearts. I led out betting $45 and the button, who had raised to $15 pre-flop moved all-in for about $125, so it was like $80 more. I called and hit the 2h on the turn. My next big hand I had 10h7h in the big blind. EVERYONE limped. The flop came 10c2h3h, a great flop for my hand. However, it was a tricky play considering I have seven people behind me and my 7 kicker is weak. So I came out somewhat strong, betting $30. One tight (tiiiight) player raised me to $80. I re-raised him all-in and he reluctantly called. The turn was the 5c and the river was another 10. He cussed when the river hit and showed 2c3c. I took that down and had more outs then I thought as I figured he had a higher 10 then me. That's why you don't play 23! The guy who beat me with AJ had a huge stack and we became five-handed. A few of us really wanted to play with him but one player wanted to re-seat to full tables so we broke and I won $525 on the table.

So after the table breaks, this cat named Omar who I have become cool with tells me to sit at his table because the action is crazy. He tells me seats 7, 8, and 9 call anything anytime no matter what the the bet is. So I sit and second hand I get 33. The flop comes 2-4-6 and I bet 10 as a feeler. One guy calls and the button, seat 9, raises to $30. I can tell he is trying to steal, I'm not sure why but I just know. My mistake was not re-raising him. I call and the other player folds. There are actually two hearts on board as well. The turn is the king of clubs. He bets 60 and I call, I don't think he hit the king. The river is the 3 of hearts, giving me my set, putting a straight and a flush on board. I check and he bets 100, which seems like an overbet to me. I call almost out of curiosity and he shows Q-5 off-suit for the rivered one-card straight. It was a bad call on my part but I got a little too curious and it cost me.

So I have to rebuy for 300. I don't even remember what happened to that 300, but it was still "house money." Actually now I remember. I just dwindled down to like $75. Then I called a $25 pre-flop raise with J-8 suited trying to crack. Button goes all-in, another player goes all-in, and I go all-in for the chance to quadruple up hoping that I have two live ones. WRONG!! The guy that went all in had KK, the guy that called had JJ. So, from now on I'm referring to the KK guy as "KK" because the case J hit the flop, JJ took down a huge pot and from this point on, "KK" was on TILT.

So I rebuy for 300 (now this is my money again)...

This is where it starts getting better. I made some good calls again, notably when I held Q-8 and the flop hit Q-9-5, I bet and loose player called me. I bet the turn again and he asks me if I want to check it down. I said no and then the third spade hit the river. He bet $75 but after evaluating his crazy ass mannerisms (he tried to call the clock on me) I put him on 10-J draw, not the spade draw. So I essentially put him on a J high hand. I called, he shows me the 10 of spades like he has a flush and then mucks.

I ran my stack up to about 1100 through nothing but solid all-star play. Just phenomenal. Actually loose aggressive asian dude raised to $25 pre-flop (he had been raising on 50% of hands pre-flop). I called with AQ on the button. Everyone calls. The flop comes AQ4 with two clubs. Everyone checks to lag asian guy, who bets about $40. I raise him to $80 then the small blind, "KK", who is a tight player but tilting, goes all-in for $175. LAG Asian folds and I call with top two. He shows Kc3c and I feel like he's gonna hit his flush easily but he misses. That pot was about $400. He later said he made a bad play but he was on tilt.

Then my downfall came. This kid sits down who I had seen playing on the other table when a commotion came up because he CALLED two all-ins for $200 with 7-2 offsuit. He obviously lost and when he sat at our table he said that he's trying to make his money back because he lost $2k on the other table. So he plays a few hands then raises to $25 and I have AK. I raise to $125 and he goes all-in for $150. I call and he is saddened to see his AJ against my AK. Especially when the flop is 6-8-10 all clubs and I have the ace of clubs. He has no clubs and is now down to two outs. Turn is nothing and the river is...................jack of spades.

Not much later I get AA in the small blind. Everyone limps and I raise to $35. Well this youngster calls and everyone else folds. I know he has dog shit because he never raised before me. Flop comes 8-9-J rainbow and I push him all in for another $94. He goes into the tank moaning and groaning and shit. He calls, I say "all you have is a 10, huh?" he says "yeah" and the turn is a 7. Obviously I need a 10 on the river to chop and it doesn't come. He had A10.

So I lost a lot of my stack and left a small winner, $245. I'll take it after some of the beats I took.