Friday Night 15/30 (7/18)

Well like I mentioned in the last entry, I played 4/8 for a two to three hours and ran pretty awful. I outflopped QQ in a big multiway pot (88 in the BB, UTG raised, called everywhere) Flop was 863, CR'd QQ with everyone sandwiched in between. Turn: Q obv...:-(

Finally I got called away from that game and sat down at 15/30 in the four seat. A quick breakdown of the table was: seat 1 - older white dude sitting on a good amount of chips ($2k); seat 2 - Asian girl in her 30s, playing a bit Laggish pre/LPPish post; seat 3 - old Asian man, went on a sick heater while I was there, even made a diamond royal flush good for $500, Laggy; seat 5 - was Wilson for most of the night. He joined the table soon after I got there and seriously just ran bad. I said last time he didn't play too well, but today he just couldn't hold. His game looked pretty good today. seat 6 - Older Asian guy named Sing. Guy never stays in his seat, always smoking or playing Pai Gow; seat 7 - Can't remember seat 8 - older white guy...Italian-ish? Must've been card dead because I didn't see him play much; seat 9 - lpp-ish asian guy

Alright well I fold my first four hands or so and pick up QQ in the BB. Of course it's limped in five spots, sb complets, and then I raise. Wheeeeee. Flop was fantastic: 844...except seat two OTB had a 34os...lame. Great start.

About an orbit later seat two raises my BB from the button. She had been getting a bit ancy the last couple of orbits (opening with junk), seat three called, and I defended with KJ of clubs. The flop came down Q-high with a couple clubs; sb checks, I check, She bets, SB folds, I raise, she calls. Turn pairs the bottom card (a six I believe), I fire again and she tanks for a good while, stares me down a little bit, then folded. Phew. Had to earn that one.

After that I swung up and down a little bit, but mostly staying break even for three orbits or so. Won some small pots, lost some small pots out of the blinds, etc. A hand that finally propels me upwards was AKos holding in a pretty good pot. Seat two limped UTG, seat three called, I raised, folds around to the blinds in nine and one who call. Damn. Flop: A24 with a couple spades

Not bad. Checks to me, I bet, called in three spots. The turn is a three. Oh wtf right? Checks to me, I still fire, this time called by seats one and three. Both of these calls worried me a bit, considering they both had been somewhat ~solid on their turn calls up until this point. The river was a ten (non-spade) and it got checked to me. Not sure if I missed value here, but I wasn't sure what I was beating that could call me at this point. I'm almost positive no one had a straight (I would have been raised or donked into by now), but maybe a goofy two pair was out there? Whatever, I checked behind and took the pot. Seat two showed me his raggy spades as I took it down.

Orbit or so later I picked up Kings and won a good sized pot against seat two. There was a limper (seat one), seat two raised, I 3-bet, folded around, limper folds, and then seat two called and asked how I wanted to play it. I was kinda like "huh?" at first, since he spoke broken English, it took me a couple times to figure out he wanted to know if I liked checking pots down HU or if I liked the action. I told him as politely as I could that I appreciated the offer, but I always play my hands and encourage him to do the same. He had been checking down with the girl in seat two a bit (this has come to bug me less and less the more I watch people do it, because they do not force the action HU, but only check down if it happens to become HU). Anyway, he ended up having AK and he whiffed flop and check/folded the turn.

After that hand I took a breather and went outside to talk to the Superdonk and see what time he was coming by. I told him I had finally started to run good (he got my "4/8 IS MURDERING ME" texts earlier in the evening lol). I came back to the table after missing a full orbit and picked up a couple red Queens. Wilson raised UTG, folded around to seat three (who was up a rack and half since I left) seat three called, I 3-bet, Wilson capped (he's trying to go all-in at this point) and we're three-handed to a flop of KQ4 with a couple diamonds.

Sweet. Check, I bet, call, call. Turn is a J (uh oh). Check, I bet, Wilson calls all-in, seat three calls. I was a bit worried of the board getting coordinated, but the river was a four and I boated up, pretty much relieving me of any real anxiety. Check, bet, call. Wilson showed TT and said "nh, I just can't do anything right" as he re-bought (He did end up coming back before the night was over, when the game broke he was only down $300...pretty good compared to down $600).

After that big hand I was sitting on ~+$400-$500, and didn't move much from there. I traded some money back and forth around the table for awhile, the game got shorter and shorter, and JJ three times and at least eight or so walks in my BB later, the game broke and I cashed out up a rack for the second 15/30 session in a row. I think a big part of my win last night was the number of walks I got in the BB. Me and seat three were on a tear most of the night, so maybe that kept people from raising our blinds? Who knows, all I know is that chopping your BB every other orbit instead of choosing to defend or (most likely) muck makes things really easy.

If I get time, I'll blog about the quick psycho 4/8-Kill session I played with the Superdonk after my 15/30 game broke. Until then, thanks for reading.