Poker is booming in the bay area and going in on Friday often means having to wait as all of the poker tables are full. While waiting for my normal $2/$3/$5 last Friday I managed to get a seat at the limit $8/$16 with a half kill (the stakes go up to $12/$24 for one hand if someone wins two pots in a row). Every player in this game was absolute trash...I'm sorry...every player in this game was HIGHLY recreational trash.
I couldn't help but think back to my early days when $1/$2 limit hold'em was the smallest game in the house at The Oaks Club, the $3/$6 limit game had a couple of regulars who had read some poker books and played fairly well and the $6/$12 had 2-3 regular players in every game who were solid if not quite good. In my early 20's I would have stayed in this $8/$16 game until my clothes slowly decayed and my beard grew down to the top of my stack. I may have needed to be hospitalized after not sleeping and eating only Mongolian Beef for weeks. It was truly incredible how not a single player had any idea what they were doing at all. After 2 hours of waiting I had 3 stacks of low society (as pictured above) and finally got called for the no limit game.
Lately I'm needing to remind myself : "BEING PASSIVE DOESN'T WORK IN POKER! BE AGGRESSIVE YOU RECREATIONAL DOOFUS!" There is always the devil on your shoulder telling you to just call or give up and wait for the nuts, but that doesn't work in the long run.
On my first hand at the $2/$3/$5 game after buying in for $800 I got put to the test. I posted in the cutoff, got dealt KJ off and called after the player to my right raised one limper to $30. The button and limper called and the flop came down QT2 giving me an open ended straight draw. The action checked to me and I bet $75. I could make the argument that betting into 3 opponents as a semibluff is not always smart, but see my all caps reminder above. The button folded, the preflop limper called and the preflop raiser folded as well. Going to the turn heads up we had about $270 in the pot. The turn paired the 2 and my opponent bet out $25! I felt the devil's presence as he whispered "Hey bro. That's a real nice price for a river card. Why don't you just call and see what happens. Feels real safe to me." But I went with the angel's recommendation of "CRUSH SKULLS!" and put this dude all in for $400. He folded and I felt good about being aggressive. It works!
A little later I had changed tables and was back down to a stack of $720 when I got dealt KK under the gun. I made it $20 to go, the small blind called and the big blind made it $120. This is a big raise and felt like a squeeze play to me, but no matter what it was a clear 4 bet spot and I went to $320. The small blind quickly folded, the villain called and the flop came down A55. Gross! With $400 behind and $660 in the pot I would have said I was pot committed as we went to the flop, but then the flop was what it was and my opponent shoved all in. GAH! SO FRUSTRATING! I folded, but later realized this was a big mistake. If my opponent had an ace I don't think he'd play it this way. He seemed like a decent player and I really look like a passive middle aged white guy who is only 4 betting QQ, KK or AA. If he thinks I'm not 4 betting AK (I am) or AQ (I would in this spot) then with an A on the board 80% of my range is under pairs. This is one I wish I had back.
On the next notable hand I raised Q9 of diamonds to $20 and got one caller. The flop came down QJ2 with one diamond, I bet $20 and got called. The turn was the 8 of diamonds giving me top pair, a gut shot, and a flush draw. I decided to check and my opponent bet out $50. At which point the devil appeared again whispering... "Bro. Just call. See if you make it. Dude over there looks like he's got KQ to me or even T9. Don't want to mess with T9 do you? Slide in that $50." Surprisingly the angel made a similar read "LOOKS LIKE KQ AND I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! CRUUUUUUUUSH SKULLLLLLLLLS!" I moved all in for $400 and after thinking for about 10 seconds he mucked.
I ended up winning $597 on the night over 7 hours. My $10,000 starting bankroll sits at $9,238 after 15 hours.
My next session which is already in the books was at the very inappropriately named "Palace" in Hayward. It was super weird. More on that soon.
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