The Beatings Happen Per Minute

Hello everyone!

My apologies for the delay in posting. There were some technical difficulties in getting my Internet connection set up. We (my landlady and I) finally got it running a few hours ago, but then I had to take a nap, after getting to bed around 0300 and waking up at 0700.

Yesterday (Saturday) can best be described as slightly surreal. My four-hour drive to Vegas commenced at 1030. About 20 miles outside of Barstow, the rain that had been causing a few slowdowns in traffic turned to snow. I wouldn't have expected that in March! It snowed off and on the rest of the way. Actually, I was thankful for the cold weather because I was sleepy, and it helped keep me awake. It's not like the L.A.-Vegas drive is the most scenic in the world.

So I made it to my apartment around 1430, and was pleasantly surprised to find it is nicer than I expected. Unpacked, ate and even showered, despite not having any compelling reason to do so. I just wanted to be fresh, baby! So at 1830 I hopped in the ol' truck and made my way to the MGM Grand. An open chair at a no-limit table with $1-$2 blinds and $200 maximum buy-in was soon populated by my derriere, and things were looking good. The table surrounded by a typical-looking cast, but there were a few drinks around the edge, and some of the guys were young and looked really tired. Perfect. I pulled out my cell phone, paper, and pen, noted my initial conditions (i.e. start time, location, buyin) and donned my sunglasses and went to work. I must have had an air of legitimacy about me, because the dealer immediately asked me if I would like a player's card. Since I anticipate being at the MGM quite a bit over the next few weeks, I accepted.

The general lack of playable cards at the beginning of my session afforded me the opportunity to observe the action at the table. That's where the surreal part kicks in - the way people were playing was really odd. Limping in was a way of life, regardless of the holding. Still, substantial raises, as in 8x the big blind, were commonly called by 3 or more players! People would subsequently call down or even bet with marginal hands. I've never been at table like that before. It felt exactly like a $2-$4 limit game! But it was actually a pretty good situation to make money. The passive play and poor hand selection made for a favorable environment. Or so I thought at the time.

To make a long story short, I ended up down $400 on the evening. I did start getting a few decent hands as the night wore on. Also, a woman sitting across from me played almost every hand she had, would call a pre-flop raise to $15 with literally anything, make a weak post-flop bet and then fold to pressure in the form of re-raises and large continuation bets. So after I figured that out, I took advantage of it on a regular basis. But by and large, the night was defined by my hands being beaten by inferior hands, and a couple of bluff attempts that failed. My AK lost to A5 on an A53 flop. My A9 lost to A4 on an A74 flop. My JJ got sucked out by a runner-runner straight for some dude holding 99. The final hand of the night was my AA in the big blind getting hit by J6 and a Q66 flop. This is after I did put in the standard $15 raise. Of the two bluff attempts, I don't feel too bad about either. In one the guy just had a hand...the other, I strongly believe the guy should have folded, but he appeared to hit his straight on the river with an AKQ Jx board, because he went all-in after a substantial amount of scared play. My guess is he had AT.

Anyway, overall I don't feel bad about my play, but the results don't reflect that. I did get a compliment on my play by the other big stack at the table, who was seated to my right. Sadly, you can't cash in compliments. By the way, I don't want to turn this blog into a list of bad-beat stories. The truth is, the only person that cares a given bad beat is the person who suffered through it. I'll talk about them in the interest of describing what happened, but I'm not complaining. It's just what happens.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that I did had a taste of what it would mean to be a poker pro last night, in one respect. After not having a particularly restful Friday evening, packing/driving/unpacking for hours on Saturday morning and afternoon, I was not at my best. Around midnight or so last night, I was tired, hungry, and losing, and I wanted to leave. But I'd only been there for 5 hours, and the table was good, and I knew that I wasn't playing poorly. So to stay true to my mission and goal of 8 hours/day, I stayed. But I didn't like the feeling that I had to stay.

Anyway, total result so far is -$400 over 6.5 hours, for an hourly rate of -$61.53. The good thing about that is there's room for improvement. Ha!

Congrats to Joe M. for the Metallica song/artist. Joe, I'll get you when I'm back in L.A. This week's $1 prize is a lot tougher than the previous ones. Probably, this is due to a subconscious wish not to pay anyone else off today. :)~ My mom mentioned that she thought the "no Internet searches" rule was a little unfair. But I'm going to stand by it. The point is to reward fans of the bands or music, not who can type a phrase into a search engine. I'll also throw in a Roger Whitaker or Celine Dion one in there later on, so she has a chance.

I have thought about including a "Hand of the Day" feature every post, to describe what I thought was the most interesting or significant hand I played yesterday. I'll close the posting with this.


HAND OF THE DAY
-----------------------
Me in 1st position with QQ, raise to $10
Big stack immediately to my right, re-raises to $20
Button calls $20
I call $10.

My thinking now is that I probably have the best hand, but I'm not sure. This was early in the evening, and the big stack seemed to be one of the more observant and thoughtful players at the table. The fact that he re-raised an under-the-gun raise by me was enough to make me worry. The button was an unknown, as he was one of the call-with-anything players.

Flop: 887

I check because I'm out of position and not sure about my hand. Big stack bets $20, button raises to $40. I fold. Big stack calls.

Turn: 9
River: 7

With two pair and a possible straight on the board, big stack shows AA and wins the pot. The button never showed his cards, but it seems odd that he would re-raise and not show an 8 or a 7 for a full house at the end. I don't give him credit for a "buy a free card" re-raise, because I don't think he was that tricky. My guess is that he was hoping to bluff big stack out of an AK-type hand.

Anyway, maybe for some, a story about post-flop fold is not that interesting. But I was proud of this laydown, as it was pretty difficult to lay down an overpair to the board at this table, because everyone was so crazy with their hands. For the record, I was going to lay it down even before the button re-raised the $20 bet to $40. The hand just didn't feel right to me.

All right, I'm off to the MGM. Play well, everyone.