My Ideal Table

After sleeping through the afternoon and night football games because of my graveyard shift, I was wide awake at 1am Monday hacking up my lungs. I've been a bit under the weather this past week, but it seems like I get better as the day goes on. I ran some errands which included requesting time off of for my Vegas trip in January and getting some laundry done, then hit up Capitol at around 2pm.

As soon as I walked in the door and put my name on the lists Oscar started asking for interest in opening up a new 6/12 table. Wouldn't you know it, I run goooot and had a new 6/12 game opened 30 seconds after arrived. I walked over to the new table and locked up the three seat. I don't have a lucky seat or anything like that, but I do love the corners (like the two/three, seven/eight) because you usually get the most room and you can see everyone on the table. The seats that I didn't mention usually have a couple blind spots or seats where you'd have to strain/make an obvious attempt to look at the person.

As the seats filled in I liked my table more and more. There were quite a few LPPs (loose-passive preflop, passive postflop players) and a couple LAGs (loose aggressive). That dynamic usually makes for a fun table: lots of callers preflop and tons of chips in the middle. A lot of pots were at least five handed on the flop, even with an opening raise. Coldcalling raises in position was definitely the norm, and I almost never saw someone three bet a hand. I saw people coldcall a raise with Kings or Queens at least four times this session, and one pot I was involved in UTG limped in with Kings and the SB merely completed with Jacks. Both flopped sets, and fireworks didn't go off until the turn.

So anyway, now that you are familiar with my table, I'll get into my session. I started off a tad meh, missed my first few opens with cards like KQ suited and AQ, and soon found myself down a couple $40 stacks of red #2 chips. If you can't make a pair in this game you're probably not going to win. These types of players generally do not fold. No need to fear though, I got lucky in a big pot somewhere around my second hour at the table.

I'm in the BB with A5 of diamonds. UTG+1 (a cute asian girl, we'll call her NC) raised, cold called by about four people, small blind called, and I defended my BB with a suited ace. Seven way to a flop of K54 with one diamond. Small blind and I both check, UTG+1 bets, called in two spots behind her, small blind called, and getting roughly 18:1 on my $6, I called. NC is a bit of an LP preflop at times (so her raise was probably a big hand), but can get LAG after the flop. I'm putting her on a big hand at this point, probably AK, but maybe KQ. Obviously I'm looking for a five, maybe my ace is good if I hit it, and a diamond would give me an excuse to call a turn bet. The pot is much too big to fold for one more bet and I'm completing the action. Also, my position to the aggressor in the hand is fantastic; read the next sentence and you'll see why.

The turn brings out a five of clubs, actually putting a club flush draw on the board now. Small blind checks, I check, UTG+1 still bets and at this point in time I'm really hoping she has AK/KQ and not a full house (Kings full being the most likely option). Everyone folds behind except the small blind. He had been fairly tight in comparison to the rest of the table, so his turn call might be an OESD (67), he could have picked up a flush draw now, or he has a weak King. I raise to 12 chips ($24 total), NC quickly calls and the small blind calls.

The river brings a two of clubs out. Small blind checks, I value bet my trips top kicker, NC calls, and small blind folds. I showed my hand, NC flashed AK and a bit of frustration with the turn card (yay three outer), and I raked in a sea of red chips. Three outers (if you're not counting my backdoor draws) come and go, we all dish them out and we all take them.

Aside from this hand and a couple smaller pots, I was somewhat card dead and hovered around +$40-$+100 for a long stretch of time. I don't mind folding a lot of bad cards, it beats running into monsters or getting medium strength hands that finish second. I just enjoyed watching the action at the table and trying my best to read the hands I wasn't in.

The second half of my session I caught fire for awhile, picked up aces a few times and won all three. Also won with Kings once, but balanced some of that out by losing a couple big killpots with AK and another one after flopping two pair and getting gutterballed on the turn. Fun hands and big pots, I really enjoyed my time at the table. I was up a couple racks at about 8pm when my brother texted me and said his friend Billie (a cute/short brunette fwiw, too bad she prefers women) was going to hook it up with some free pizza and asked if I was interested. Well I hadn't eaten since about noon, I had been up since 1am, my cough had started to come back...hmmm, well, I do love pizza (combo no onions FTW). I raised AJ UTG, flopped TP but lost to JT turning broadway, cashed out about +$320 and called it a night.