Abusin' every one of them and running wild

Meow meow meow meow. Last night, the fabled MGM lion was finally tamed.

And it wasn't just the casino. Last night, for the second time, I sat down with a dude named Lyon, and he's a solid, aggressive player. The guy is also entertaining to play with. He's a large black man with long dreds - I'm guessing he's from the Caribbean somewhere - and he's funny and outgoing. All around, he's someone I would avoid confrontations with at the table.

But I kept getting hands against him, re-raising his pre-flop bets and taking the pots down with continuation bets (to be fair, most of the time I hit my hand). Finally, with each of us at around $300, his TT ran into my JJ and I doubled up. Looking back on the hand, I probably played it too aggressively post-flop, but it ended up going my way.

I never looked back from there. It's amazing how different the world looks from behind a big stack of chips. I was able to play aggressively, and the passive nature of the table made that strategy easy and effective. I ended up +$622 on the night, over 8.25 hours of play. It would have been significantly greater if it were not for a couple of large pots lost to rivered bad beats (one of which was AK vs. my AA all-in pre-flop, with the 4-club board handing my opponent a flush). Anyway, for those of you keeping track (I am!!!) that means I have a *gasp* positive hourly rate! Granted, it's about 1/3 of the federal minimum wage. But it will buy me a lot of Ramen.

What made last night really enjoyable, however, was the social vibe around the table. I met several very cool people: this dude John who had moved to Vegas from Austin a few months ago to focus on poker, another girl whose name I never got, and a Kevin from Malibu who is a professional $10-$20 no-limit online player. Kevin also plays some of the $10k tourneys and has actually been on TV. I had a little fun with Austin John when I smacked him around like a bad puppy with a pre-flop raise and a roughly pot-sized bet on a KJx flop; he showed his K as he folded. Ha! Just kidding John! (I had told him about my experiment and he asked for the blog address, so he'll probably read this). Actually, I had KQ and certainly had him outkicked (AK or KJ would have called for sure), so he deserves some credit for a good read and a smart laydown. NH, John.

Kevin (the pro) also impressed me. He was personable, and as he was sitting next to me for a while, we got to talking about various aspects of poker. He was complimentary of my game, which was nice to hear, and offered bits of advice, such as "don't raise with QJ suited". This is something I already know, but by that time I had the run of the table and had a good chance of a) stealing the blinds and the limper calls, or b) taking down the pot with any decent post-flop bet. And QJ suited does have a lot of ways to win a pot on its own merits. Kevin later brought down a friend to play, and she was nice too, so I went to sit at their end of the table and basically just chatted with them from 0100 to 0200, and went home.

All in all, a very satisfying evening of play.

My Rage Against the Machine reference from yesterday, from "Take the Power Back", was not recognized by anyone, so I saved yet another $1. Today's reference should be easy, as it comes from the title track of one of the top-selling albums of all time. This song was chosen because its title is a basically a three-word synopsis of the recent transition of my financial state, from negative to positive. One thing's for sure; if you own a T-shirt with this band's logo on it, surely you would be enough of a fan to nail this one (ahem! coughAmy!).

HAND OF THE DAY:
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Finally, I get to highlight a hand that I won because of something I did correctly.

Late in the evening, a very poor player sat down to my immediate right. Calling station supreme! It was absurd to the point of being comical. In fact, this particular gentlemen had administered the other of my two bad beats mentioned above for a $300 pot. I then sadly watched as it was drained from his stack, so close to me, and yet so very far.

However, the net result of this guy being at the table was that it was much more difficult for me to push everyone around with nothing, because he'd always call. It took a couple of hands for me to adjust, and I'll admit it was frustrating, because it reduced me to waiting for premium/made hands like everyone else.

Or, maybe not. On the button, I decided to raise 9T suited to $12. Typical play for a drawing hand such as 9T suited is to simply call, or raise a small amount to build a pot that a lot of people are involved in, so that if your hand hits someone will pay you off. But I was still feeling aggressive.

Anyway, two callers, including Calling Station.
Flop: K84
Everyone checks to me. I bet $25 into the ~$40 pot.
Second caller folds.
Calling Station proceeds to count out $25, and I'm like, dang it! Why won't this guy fold? But he's agonizing over his decision. He's playing with his chips, counting the pot, mumbling to himself, and taking a lot of time doing it. He literally had his chips in one hand to call, and his cards in the other to fold. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there with T high and trying to figure out how to get him to fold. I see that after a $25 call, he'll still have about $70 left. Then, in a sort of instinctive/reflexive action, I say one thing to him.

"You better like your hand a lot, because I'm putting you all in on the turn."

This was, in fact, the perfect thing to say. I had put him all in on two previous hands, so he knew I was capable of putting the pressure on. I wish I could take credit for a brilliant, pre-planned strategic move, but really, it's just what came out of my mouth. He was obviously teetering on the edge, and a little push was needed. Note that I would never try this on a solid player. He mumbled something about how he'd want to go all in if his cards hit, then folded.

The reason that I was so pleased with this move is that I've never played verbal mind games AT ALL in a casino setting, i.e. with a decent amount of money at stake. But there have been several times after sessions at the Hustler that, as I was thinking later about certain hands, I couldn't help but think that a little bit of fast talking would have served me well. Unfortunately, my mind doesn't work well that way. It's not easy for me to improvise instantaneously (example - playing Taboo). But give me a few seconds, and usually I'll be able to come up with a decent course of action, like what to draw in Pictionary. In this case, my opponent gave me enough time, showed enough indecision, and was a bad enough player that I was able to manipulate the outcome of the hand in my favor.

Final thought for the day - anyone out there that still believes there is a large element of luck in poker should sit down and watch a Vegas casino game for 6-8 hours. You see players sit down, recognize in a short while if they know what they're doing or not, and watch the bad ones get eaten alive EVERY SINGLE TIME. They may win hands, double up, or whatever. But believe me, these people are identified and it's basically a question of who gets to them first.

So with that in mind, play well, everyone. Unless you're at my table.