Session No. 89 Capitol Friday (2/22)

4/8-Kill: TP = -$140 TT: 6 Hrs

Meh, didn't run too hot and was down from the get go. I feel like I played pretty well though, and can only think of a few different hands I'd like to go back and play differently. I went with my friend Tony and he had a much better day than I did, so that was good at least.

I'll post some hands later, right now I gotta run.

Session No. 88 Capitol Tues Night (2/19)

4/8-Kill: TP = +$55 TT: 4 Hrs

Wow...sick heater pre-flop wise...not so much post-flop. After getting to the kill table, I went on a pretty sick run with AK/AQ flopping TPTK or better and actually holding. I was up $160 after about an hour and feeling pretty good...

Ever get those instances where you wonder "what if?" A "butterfly effect" sorta thing. Anyway, I skipped a blind so I could take a quick leak and grab a coke from the vending machine. I get back in time to post in the cutoff...cool, don't have to wait until the blinds get back...the next four hands are sick.

The guy from last session named Jeff is UTG+1 in seat 8, he ends up limping in, seat 9 (older asian guy, complete donkey) raises, seat 1 folds, I 3-bet out of seat 2 with QQ, Button folds, blinds fold, Jeff and seat 9 only call.

Flop: J:c:9:c:5:c:

Fuck me...did I mention I have no clubs? Jeff and seat 9 check, I bet, Jeff folds, seat nine calls. Alarms are going off in my head already...

Turn: Q:h:

Hey alright, I hit my set. Seat 9 checks, I bet, and he raises. Fuck. Did he flop the clubs? I call and hope to boat up...

River: 4:s:

He bets, I consider raising, but just call and he shows KT of spades for a turned straight. Wow...nice.

Very next hand I get dealt AKos, seat nine limps in, seat 1 folds, I raise, folds around to BB who calls and seat nine calls. I end up flopping a king and getting paid off each street by seat 9. Pretty standard.

Next hand I get dealt AQos. Seat 1 folds, I raise, Jeff defends from the SB and seat nine defends from the BB.

Flop: 8:h:6:h:3:h:

I have the Ace of hearts btw...checks to me, I bet, Jeff raises, folds to me so we're HU now, I 3-bet, he caps.

Turn: 3:d:

He bets and is all-in, I call, river blanks out, turns out he flopped a flush.

Hand after that I get dealt black Kings UTG. Yeah, you're reading this correctly, we're like 7-handed, and I've now had QQ, AK, AQ, and now KK in the last four hands. I raise UTG, folds to Jeff who is OTB and calls, seat 9 calls from the SB and the BB calls.

Flop: Q83 rainbow

Checks to me I bet, Jeff raises, Blinds fold, I 3-bet, Jeff calls

Turn: 4

I bet, Jeff raises, I call

At this point I didn't know what to do really. I wasn't sure if he thought I was full of shit because I've now raised four times in a row pre-flop or if he actually had a strong hand. Jeff almost never gets out of line after the flop, in fact, he's a bit of a nit, so I was almost positive this was a set of threes or eights...

River: J

I check, Jeff bets, and I call. He shows QJ :puke:

Meh, part of me is upset about the beat, and the other part is mad about the turn raise slowing me down. If I 3-bet does he fold? Or is 3-betting this turn OOP complete spew? Not sure...C? Anyone? Well anyway, just like that, I went from +160 to only +60 in four or so hands. Not a big deal, just a very true portrait of what live low stakes HE is all about. Had I held 3 out of 4 instead of 1 of 4 I'd be up three plus racks...but whatever.

After that I ran about even-keel then decided to call it a night once my friend Tommy met up with me for food. I had been up since about 6am (it was around 12mid or so), so calling it quits was probably a good idea. I plan on playing tomorrow night and Friday night so stay tuned for updates.

Session No. 87 Capitol Friday Night (2/15)

4/8-Kill: +$50 TT: 4 Hrs

The night started out really well to be honest. I lost my first hand after capping pre-flop and betting the whole way, but after that I flopped a couple sets in some big pots and had top pair hold a couple times. I moved over to the kill table up about a rack. I recognized a couple faces, one was this guy named Jeff (seat 6). He plays pretty decent most of the time, mainly a TAG, but he'll show up with some goofy hands occasionally.

Anyway, I sit down (seat 5) and fold my first couple of hands, then see KK in the BB. Jeff open-limps, limped in a couple more spots, button raises, SB calls, I 3-bet, Jeff folds, the other two limpers call, Button caps, all call...

Flop: K82 rainbow

Insanely dry board, I hope the guy has AK or AA. SB checks, I bet, limpers fold, Button calls, SB raises (huh?), I call, Button calls. SB only has about $20 left in front of him at this point, so I know he's just trying to go all-in. I figure by just calling, I'm sucking in the button for one more call and maybe he can hit enough on the turn to have to call two bets.

Turn: 7 and puts a possible diamond flush draw out.

SB bets, I raise, button folds, SB re-raises four more bucks all-in and shows a set of twos. Yikes, too bad he didn't have more money...the river bricks out and I win a decent sized pot.

After that I won a couple more hands, smallish pots really, then went card dead for at least an hour or so. I was hovering around +$220 for a good part of the night. After that were a couple hands where I missed some decent draws and found myself about +$160 when this hand happens.

It gets limped in one spot, folded to the button (seat 1) who raises. I was in the SB (I had moved to seat 2 after the first couple of orbits because I hate sitting in the middle of the table) and look down at A:h:K:d:. Button had been pretty aggro OTB all night, so this was an easy three-bet. BB looked like he was ready to three-bet too, so he caps, limper folds, Button and I call...

Flop: A:d:J:h:4:d:

Pretty decent flop for me, as I have TPTK with the backdoor nut-flush draw. I bet, BB raises, SB calls, I 3-bet, BB calls, Button caps, we both call. Button's cold-call then cap might have set off some alarms if he didn't have only 12 chips left at this point.

Turn: 9:d:

Blech, flush gets there, but I don't want it getting checked around so I bet, BB raises, Button calls all-in and I just call. BB had been showing me his cards most of the night when I was out of the hand, so I was almost positive he had the flush. His pre-flop game definitely sucked, but he wouldn't raise w/o a flush on this turn after I jammed up the flop.

River: 5:d:

Wow I run good. I bet out just in case BB decides to check behind on the river, and to my delight, the BB raises. Wow, he's really overplaying his Q-high flush...I 3-bet, and he re-raises me again. I do a double take on the board making sure that it's not paired...it wasn't...I'm getting my 5-bet (unlimited raising on the river HU) ready and say "come on man, I got it." "No, I got it." I stop and look at the board yet again. At this point I can't really remember much, it's like a blackout really, but I do remember saying a ton of expletives. Something like, "holy shit are you kidding me? Fucking seriously..." I only call and the BB shows the 32 of diamonds! What...the...fuck?!

You guys can ask the Superdonk if you want, he was sitting in seat 9. Him and Jeff couldn't believe wtf they just saw and said "hey man, I didn't see that either..."

Seriously, who the fuck sees the straight-flush out there after the BB caps it pre-flop? It's not like I had been going crazy all night either. I was easily the most solid player at the table, so if I'm 3-betting from the SB, it's probably a good idea to get the fuck out of the way. Wow so yeah, live poker is rigged. Oh, and just in case anyone asks, yes, there are auto shufflers built into the tables, and the dealer simply takes the deck out w/o cutting it, places it on the little protector, and starts dealing the hand. If it was a rigged cold deck, they can have my money, because they're ridiculously awesome at what they do. Unfortunately, I guess the real perpetrator is dumb luck and blatant stupidity...or the little gnomes inside the table shuffling the cards. WTF did I ever do to those little fuckers?

Session No. 86 Cache Thurs Night (2/14)

4/8-Kill: TP = +$500 TT: 6 Hrs

Enable God Mode. Wow so yeah, instead of shelling out a ton of money for flowers, chocolate, alcohol, ghb, etc; I decided to hit up the creek with my heterosexual life mate on V-Day i.e. Single's Awareness Day. It's cool, especially since the only chick I'm semi-interested in bought me Cheesecake Factory lunch yesterday (she spent ~$30 on me!)...I'd say I won the V-Day battle this year. I forgot to jerk it tho...whaa whaa...

Haha k anyway, I started the session off pretty hot. I had AQ hold with TP in a fairly big multiway and then won with AQ again in a HU killpot that got a couple big bets in on the turn. I was up a couple racks after a couple hours, but then some big AK-whiffs and a rivered set of tens loses to a running straight, I found myself up only about $80...that is until this hand.

Hero is in the BB with 62 of spades (this hand became known as "The Dirty Santi" sometime last summer after it won me some big kill pots out of the kill-blind). Anyway, two folds to the guy in seat one who raises, called in like five spots, and I defend my BB closing the action.

Flop: 9:c:6:c:2:h:

Bottom two FTW! By the way, the table had become ultra-donkeyfied at this point. I dunno what it was, but there was an insanely odd influx of new players tonight who have "never played before" or it was "their second time playing." People were bluff-raising the river with Q-high and all sorts of weird shit! So awesome. Anyway, seat one bets out and every person in the hand calls, I CR, seat one three-bets, we lose a couple players, the two biggest donks (seat three and seat five) call, the Superdonk (see "heterosexual life mate") calls, and I cap it. Good turn card please...

Turn: 7:d:

Meh...I bet, seat one calls, seat three calls, seat five raises, the SD folds, I look at the board and wonder what the fuck I am beating that I can actually 3-bet here, I can't think of much and opt to just call, seat one folds and seat three calls. I must say, seat five had been getting out of line with raises, so I wasn't convinced I was beat, but at the same time I didn't want to three-bet bottom two pair.

River: 2:d:

Praise Jesus, I run good, now anyway :). I bet out and both players call. Turned out I was ahead of seat five (she had A7 or some shit), but seat three had turned a straight. God I play bad...

After that hand and a couple medium-sized pots I remember being up about $220 at about 11pm. We had decided to bounce out around 11:30pm to have time to eat, so in the next half hour I managed to destroy the table for close to three more racks on top of that $220. A couple of these hands have to be kill pots, because I don't know how I was able to come up $300 in such a short amount of time...

- AK held on a KT986 board against four players, all called the pf raise, flop bet and turn bet
- QQ held against a possible flush turn and rivered Ace against four opponents (same bets as before)
- KJ flops top pair against four opponents and holds.
- K5 out of the BB flops trips

I just ran really really well, not much else to say. I think I played pretty well, but it's easy to do when you hit/hold in every hand you raise pre-flop. Like I've said before, I just wish I'd run "normal" sometimes, instead of this "500+ day, neg 300 day, neg 200 day, +400 day" shit. Swinging isn't fun when you're on the down end obv, but let me tell you, coming up five racks in a 4/8-kill game in six hours (the last three racks in basically less than an hour) is such a sick feeling.

Session No. 85 Capitol Tues Night (2/12)

4/8-Kill: TP = +$325 TT: 5 Hrs

So this is what running good feels like...oh how I missed you. The session started out at the extra 4/8 table in the Pai Gow room with Tony, but after a half hour or so, my name was finally called for the kill game. As soon as I sat down, I found myself in a capped pre-flop pot five or six ways with KK. I don't remember much about the hand, but I was ahead until the other pre-flop raiser hit an ace on the river (he had AJ of diamonds). It checked to me on the river and I checked behind, fairly certain my KK wasn't good anymore.

A couple orbits went by and sure enough I find myself in another big pot. There's a limp, a guy in seat four is posting after missing his blinds (he checks), the guy with AJ of diamonds in that last hand (seat five) raises. I look down at black Aces and three-bet from seat six. I get called by the BB, limper, the poster, and it gets back around to seat five who caps. Five handed we see a flop...

Flop: K:h:Q:h:7:d:

Blech. Checks to seat five who bets, I raise, BB folds, limper and poster call, seat five calls for his last two chips all-in.

Turn: 6:s:

Checked to me, I bet, both players call

River: Q:c:

Checked to me, and I think about checking behind, but I opt to fire. I get called by the poster and he shows me Q7 of diamonds for rivered trips. Yikes...way to cold-call two bets on that flop with mid-pair no kicker. I got $35 for having my aces cracked (net -$5 loss), a slight comfort for a mighty sting.

Good news though, the rest of my hands were playing out okay, and I was winning some small/medium pots whilst losing the big ones. I basically stayed in between +$80-+$130 for a majority of the session because of this...

Right around the last hour of play though I caught fire. This next hand was pretty crazy. There's a couple limpers, seat five (still the same guy) raises. I look down at red Kings and three-bet him yet again from somewhere in LP. I think seats 8 and 9 cold called my 3-bet, other players called, and it got around back to seat five who capped. I think we're six way to the flop...

Flop: J:d:8:d:4:d:

Checks to me, I bet, get called in every spot, seat 5 check-raises, I 3-bet, seat eight folds, seat nine calls, seats three and four fold, seat five calls

Turn: Q:c:

Checks to me, I bet, called by seats nine and five only

River: 4:s:

Check, I bet, seat nine calls, seat five tanks for awhile and folds. I show Kings and am good. Sick pot.

I think the next hand is KJos somewhere in MP. Limped in a few spots already, I decide to limp, folds to button who limps, BB raises, everyone calls. Maybe five or six handed to the flop.

Flop: Kxx

I honestly don't remember the other cards, but there wasn't a straight draw and the flop was rainbow. BB bets, gets called in a couple spots, I raise, fully expecting to get three-bet. Instead BB calls and the other callers call.

Turn: K:s:

Checked to me, I bet, and get called in a couple spots. There was now a spade flush draw I believe.

River: blank

Checked to me, I bet, BB calls, I show trip Kings and win another big pot.

Ahhh yes, good times. Thanks for reading, sorry for the horrible quality of my writing, but it's late/early.

I might come back and post more...we'll see.

Blahhhh

Cache = +90 6 Hrs
Cache = -240 5 hrs
Phoenix = -10 6 Hrs

Variance sucks...or I suck. Not sure which anymore.

Session No. 81 Capitol Friday Night (2/1)

9/18-Kill: TP = -$400 TT: 5 Hrs
4/8-Kill: TP = -$175 TT: 6 hrs

Yeah, not a good night whatsoever. Maybe I need to start talking about when I run bad, because not talking about it hasn't worked lately. My friends keep telling me about days where they run horrible and lose $40...that's not running horrible. Running horrible is having absolutely zero of your premium pairs hold in the biggest game you regularly play. Trust me, I'm more than rolled for 9/18, so this isn't a big deal, but what the fuck?

Aces in the SB (seat 1). This is maybe my eighth hand at the table? Limped in maybe three spots, I raise, BB and limpers call. I bet a QJ9 flop and don't get raised, two callers I think. Turn is a ten. Now there is this promotion where if the "Super Bad Beat Jackpot" is over $100k, you get $35 for having Aces cracked. If you're doing the math at home, the turn and river costs $36 in a 9/18 game (if you have to one bet each street), so I decided to turn my hand into a bluff catcher. Checks to the button who bets, I call, other player folds. River is a blank, I check, he bets, I call...he shows K5 of clubs (no clubs on the flop) and rakes it in. Wow. Yay.

Very next hand, I'm OTB with two black Kings. Limped in three spots, I raise (obv this looks like a steam raise as I'm collecting my $35 from showing down my cracked aces) and get called by the BB and the limpers.

Flop was blech...maybe 578 rainbow. BB Bets out, call, tard in seat 8 raises (I've played with him before and he is absolutely terrible), Cutoff (button last hand) folds, I 3-bet, BB calls all-in, other caller ends up folding, tard calls. We're now HU for a sidepot.

Turn: A:c:

This puts a club flush draw out. Tard checks, I bet, he calls.

River: 6:c:

Tard donk-bets into me. Ugh...you gotta be joking. I begrudginly fold and seat 8 shows J9 for a straight. I remember BB saying "I need a miracle" right before the river card came out, then when the six came he let out a "oh wow that might work..." Turns out BB had 66 and was open-ended...and that means set 8 had two outs. So yeah, terrible start to my session.

Suprisingly I was able to laugh it off. I remember sitting there with a smirk talking to seat two and just looking like "meh whatever, it happens." Fast forward a couple orbits, and I get Kings (heart/club) in the Cutoff.

One limper UTG, folds to the Hijack (seat 1) who raises. I 3-bet from Seat 2 (guy in seat 2 left for the night), so I slid over to seat 2 maybe an orbit before this hand. I liked my move to seat two for a couple reasons. First off, I love the view you get from seat 2. Secondly, you get position on a new player whose game you probably won't know, and lastly, the number one seat is unlucky. Okay, just kidding about that last part, I'm actually not superstitious about seat changes, lucky chips, or even wearing the same clothes everyday (I'm just lazy and don't feel like changing). K, back to the hand:

I 3-bet, button folds, and the small-blind (seat 3) looks at me with this "now wtf and I supposed to do?!" look. "I Guess I call" he says. UTG limper calls, and the hijack just calls.

Flop: J:d:8:d:4:d:

Fantastic. Checks to me, I bet, SB raises, two folds, I call. Small-blind was a pretty straightfoward player, so I figured he either had a set, TP with the Ace of diamonds, or just the Ace of diamonds. I didn't think he had the flush yet, so I was going to call and evaluate my turn card.

Turn: 3:d:

Yuck. He bets out, and I tank for a few seconds, check back to my cards like a donk just to make absolutely sure I don't have the K:d:, and muck my hand. He shows me a set of Jacks (no diamonds obv) and he asks "you didn't fold a diamond did you?" I remember laughing and saying, "fold a whaaaaaaat?" Omg someone kill me now.

Don't worry, nights not over. From there I proceeded to lose with Queens vs. K8, Jacks twice, and then this wonderfully awesome hand comes up.

I guess I'm somewhere in the final hours of my 9/18 session. The game looks ready to break as it has rocked up a tiny bit, with two regulars habitually taking smoke breaks and dropping their white chips ($100) at Pai Gow. I can tell players are getting sick of playing 7-handed and the game is coming to a breaking point. At this point the Superdonk is sitting down at the 4/8-Kill game (I signed his ass up somewhere around 11:30pm, he gets there around 1am and is seated five minutes later...you're welcome fucker), I'm stuck at least a rack of $3 chips, and I'm sixth or so on the waiting list for the kill-game that has 30 people on the list behind me (for two tables). Needless to say, I'm looking for a hand to finally hold...

So 9-handed, I'm UTG, and I peek at my first card as it's dealt to me and I see the K:c:. I look around and start counting. Hey, everyone's seated and is getting dealt in...give me a big card to go with this King. I squeeze out an A:c: and proceed to slide six rainbow chips in the pot. I get cold-called in four of the next six spots, sb folds, and BB jokingly pushes his ~12 or so chip towards the pot (pretending to go all-in blind). He instead looks at J:h:9:h: and then 3-bets it. Awesome. I cap it and we see a capped six-ways pre-flop flop of...

Flop: J:c:9:c:6:d:

Wow. BB is all-in at this point and I'm first to act, so I bet and get called by three of my four opponents.

Turn: 7:h:

I dunno...I'm trying to remember the board...and I'm not sure what the turn card was. It did put a possible straight out there, but I bet anyway. At this point I'm just trying to free up some outs and maybe get someone to fold a hand that might not make my Ace or King outs good. No dice as all three players call my turn bet. Club! Club dammit!

River: 4:d:

Whiiiiiiffffffffffffffff....I check, checks around. I show AK-high, get a couple of "oooohs and ahhhs" about my missed flush draws, Button shows J;d:5:d: and says "hey my hand is good!" He rakes the side pot and the BB rakes the much bigger main pot with top two. Wow...if this was 4/8-Kill at Cache...I woulda turned the nut-flush and gotten raised and re-raised :)

Anyway...I was pretty sure I wouldn't blog about this session, but I guess I was wrong. Who knew talking about beats could be so much fun?! Bhahahaha yada yada yada yada bahahhahahaa. Don't mind us, we're just going crazy. How in the fuck did I only drop $400 is what I'm wondering (a couple big pots out of the blinds and some overall good play IMO). Yeah I'm patting myself on the back, so what?

Oh, playing 4/8-Kill might have been a mistake, but I think I played pretty well over there. Big pairs sucked ass just as much there as they did over at the 9/18 game. Lost with Aces twice, Jacks three more times I think, and had Top-pair cracked by mid-pair trips on the river more times than I can count.

Whatever, I'll be alright, don't worry about me. Thanks for reading, sorry about whining, and in the name of all that is holy someone sacrifice a live chicken in my honor or some shit. I'm desperate, I'll accept any kind of superstition at this point. Except not showering...off to shower right now...

Later!