Session No. 1 Saturday Night (4/14-15) Part II

Alright well after a couple of big hands, playing out of my blinds, and a couple of minor hands, I found myself below $100 in chips without winning a single hand! The drought went until about 3am, when I finally won a hand with...pocket Aces (believe it or not...haha). I don't remember how the hand played out, but I think I had them UTG vs. three other players, bet the flop, then won the hand. At this point, however, I was down about $140 or so...

Anyway, around 3:30am, the table became a little more short-handed (6-7 players) and I started to actually pick up a few pots. Unfortunately, I had to move over to another table, and was down around $110 or so when I got there. I had a much better run of cards at this new table, as one of the first hands I received was AQ of hearts. Here's the HH from Cardplayer

http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47433

This hand lightened my mood up a little bit and actually made me crack a smile, something I probably hadn't done much of so far that night. While this hand may look completely standard to some people, I'll see some players check this turn when the King comes out. I'm HU, and my opponent either has a Queen with a weaker kicker than mine, or he is drawing. Unless he has the King of clubs (drawing for the club flush) or KQ, I am likely still ahead here, and should bet this turn. When the river pairs the board with the King of Hearts, I figure that is a great card for me. The flush draw missed, the straight draw missed, and I'm probably getting paid off by a bunch of weaker Q's. I see a lot of players check this river, and in my opinion, at Cache Creek and many other 4/8 tables around the world, checking here is a mistake. Enough weaker Queens or even a pair of 8's might look me up here.

The table ended up becoming even more short-handed, as we went from seven players down to six, and sometimes we were as low as five. I turned my aggression up in LP and found myself stealing a little bit in position either PF or with some Continuation bets (C-bets). I finally got caught one time when I open-raised with A7os OTB vs. the BB who defended. Here's the HH on CP:

http://forums.cardplayer.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47435

On the turn I have a double gutshot, an overcard, and maybe some fold equity. I'm torn on whether I should fire and pray for a fold, or check and take the free card. This guy was probably the most solid player at the table at the time (besides myself of course *wink*) and was very capable of CR'ing me here if he thought I was weak. After the hand I heard him talking to his buddy (we were across the table and he probably thought I couldn't hear him; he was in the 2 seat, I was in the 7) about how he thought I had AK. I'm pretty sure he calls me down if he hit any piece of this board, simply because I had been getting away with a lot lately. Still, by checking the turn, I felt like I might be letting him bluff me out on the river with smaller overcards. Someone help...

Anyway, this table wraps up a couple orbits later, but not before I get JJ in the small blind, raise pf, flop a set, and keep betting until I river quads. No High Hand for the night though. Anyway, I draw the 4 of clubs and lose to the other three players, so I am forced to wait about 20 mins before I can play again on one of the two remaining tables. I am up a whopping $7 at this point, but have 307 yellow chips in my possession. I walk over to talk to my friend Tommy to see how he's been doing, and he asks how much I was up. I point to the seven yellow chips out of the rack and say "there's the profit right there."

I end up playing the last 1hr+ at Tommy's table. Unfortunately, I can't think of much that happened. I remember flopping TP and a straight draw that didn't come through, raising with JJ and having an AK4 flop, and turning trips with a lower kicker than my opponent. Nothing I really feel like writing too much about. Like I mentioned before, I ended up losing $90 overall in this session, and feel like maybe it could have been a combination of rust and bad cards. I hate making excuses for myself, and will be the first one to admit if I played a hand incorrectly, but I can only think of a couple hands I'd like to play better.

Overall, I'd say I played alright when given the opportunity, and I really prefer playing live short-handed against these weaker players. Early on was probably my most profitable table, and I really wish I could have made some hands against them. Also, I think towards the end of the session, I was getting extremely tired, as I had been up for about 22 hours by the time 6am rolled around. It's probably not a good idea to play when I've been up that long, and next time I'll try and play when I'm fresh.

That's all for now, comments would be greatly appreciated.