More Tales From the Felt

This past Friday night called for another Mash trip. We showed up at around 5PM to get an early start on the Friday night crowd, in hopes that the stacks would be built early in order to take advantage of Chumash's $200 max buy-in structure. It took about 10 minutes for me to get a seat with two full tables in play. I took the 1seat in the BB and got off to a crazy start right away. On the first hand in the BB I flopped top pair and it went for a betcall, betcall, betraise on the river and I was forced to dump it on a nonscary board facing a $100 call with a weak kicker. The next hand in the SB I flopped TP again and this time heard back from an AA on the turn. On the button I flatcalled a $20 raise with AQ and flopped a Q and doubled up on the turn when I got headsup with the raiser. By the fourth hand I was back to just under my starting stack of $200 and was ready to play some cards.

The dealer was crackin up at my three-hand entry to the table, and I couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened in a matter of minutes. After that, though, I was ready to play some cards. The table was pretty passive, and I took advantage of that to it's full effect. I was able to take a couple small pots early with some loose raises and continuation bets, and it looked like it was going to be a decent night. At this table it looked like I would be picking up some medium sized pots all night, whether I had the goods or not, and that's pretty much how it went. I took a lot of medium pots, but no monster pots, though I did lose a pretty big pot.

About an hour and a half in I had moved over to the 2seat and was sitting on about $500 when we lost a player in the 5s and picked up another. I had seen this guy around the card room a few times, and from what I knew of him he was a pretty weak player, and I really felt like I would be the one to take his stack. I got my chance to tangle with him when I picked up QQ from mid position facing one limper. I had just come off from raising four hands in the last round, taking down the pot preflop every time. I knew I would probably get played back this time and here's how it went. There was one weak-passive limper in EP and after her it folded to me. I made it $20 to go and it folds folds to the button in the 5s (new guy). He jammed for $185 all-in, forcing the EP limper to fold, and it was back to me for $165 more.

Now because my read on him being a weak player meant one of three things here. He either had a mid-pocket pair or he had AA. I quickly doubted that he had AK because of what I had seen with him earlier, and that left two very viable, and one very difficult choice. At the game at the Mash people push all-in with KK or AA for a massive overbet all the time, which is such a weak play, but coming from weak players so it makes sense. I called for time and took a quick mental recap of what I knew of the player. After not thinking that he would jam AA or KK like that, I put him on a mid-size pair and made the call.

Someone asked me if I had Queens and I gave an affirmative nod. "You got Jacks?" asked the same person to the guy in 5, and his answer was an affirmative nod as well. "You got Jacks?" I asked, and his answer was "Yeah I got Jacks." The flop came out 9-7-3. "Oh I just setted," he said. Huh??? He flips over 99 and I mucked my QQ as I counted out his $185. "Sorry."

Meh, oh well. Another $400 pot gone to bad luck. I still was $100+ up and could still control the table. By this time Joe had sat at my table in the 7s and watched the hand go down. He shot me a "Jesus Christ" look and I shrugged my shoulders and went back to playin ball. I came up against the guy one more time when I opened the pot for $15 with JJ and had him push again, this time for about $115. I made the call again and he said he had 99 again. A Queen and King on the flop made me weary since he'd been dishonest about his hand the first time, but it bricked the turn and river and he mucked. With about $570, I moved over the 8s when it opened up so that Joe and I could stay out of each other's way better, and we basically controlled the table until we left at about midnight (I know, I know, but I had to work in the morning).

We finished up with me a $560 winner.

I was a little saddened by my victory, partially because I had lost about $180 throughout the night on bad calls, which I had control over, and also because my QQ fell again as a 4-1 favorite preflop for a $380 pot, which I had no control over. Put those together and I could have been....SHOULD have been up another $560. I know that I couldn't do anything about the QQ vs 99, and I know I'll win that enough times to make me happy then. But I know I could've saved at least another $180 if I trusted my reads and wasn't an idiot. I know I wouldn't have made those calls three months ago, so now it's just a matter of being in that state again.

Overall it was a victory, but it also made me more aware of my play, which means next time I will definitely be shooting for a bigger win.

Oh, and I took that picture with my new Samsung a930, which is a wicked phone. It's got a 1.3 megapixel camera, plus mp3 capabilities, video capabilities, and it also supports a transflash card for extra memory and transfering. It rocks.

Until next time.