Breathe in, breathe in...I'm coming back again

I've got to hand it to Lan Whu. I might spill my guts about what's going on inside my head, but I don't think I'd ever admit to recognizing the words to an N'Sync tune, even for $1. In fact, I want to go on record as having to search for an N'Sync lyric for yesterday's post, which I did because of the whole synchronicity paragraph. I didn't know of one beforehand, honest!

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Yesterday I went to the Bellagio to play their $2-$5 with $200 buyin. Mathew L. had spoken to me prior to the session and had pumped me up to play well. Which, I must say, I did. In fact, I would say last night's session was the best I have played since I've been to Vegas. And here's the best part - I still ended up busting out.

I think there were a couple of reasons I played well. First, I got in a nice long nappy-nap in the afternoon, and I was feeling more alert than I have in a long time. Second, Mat's pep talk was unexpected but good. Third, I seem to feel a little more comfortable in the $2-$5 games than the $1-$2. I can't figure out why, exactly. The most likely reason for this is that there is enough money being thrown around at these tables that winning an occasional hand provides a good return on your time. So, being patient pays off.

I played a good, tight game. In fact, as the evening wore on, people were so afraid of my bets that I could pretty much take down a pot at will. I didn't abuse the privilege, but scored quite a few $15-$25 pots simply by betting at them.

Let me just say here that I am becoming a fan of selectively using the all-in bet as a tool. I pulled my AK all-in trick on another young gentleman who liked to raise quite often to $20, and was showing hands like AJ and KT in showdowns after those raises. Occasionally he would raise to $25, and although I can't remember seeing any of his hands after those raises, I interpreted them to mean "OK, now I really have a good hand". In this instance, I was UTG and limped for $5, another limper called, and this dude put in his $20. Now there's $25 in the pot that is not mine, and I am almost sure to have the guy dominated. So I'm all in. I love this. There is almost no way the guy can call, so it's basically a guaranteed pot. Even if he does, I'm very likely to be a heavy favorite based on the range of hands he's shown. It also relieves me of the burden of playing my hand from early position if I don't hit the flop.

Speaking of cool little tools, I want to share a flash of brilliance I had. I had taken home some carryout from a Chinese place a few days ago. And yesterday, I was making little mini-pizzas from English muffins, the first step of which is to toast the muffin. Well, as the English well know, those little muffins often don't protrude past the top of the toaster, even after the toaster has popped them back up. And everyone knows at least one person that has died by attempting to retrieve a toasted item using a metal utensil. The perfect cross-cultural solution? Extract your English muffins with the cheapo wooden chopsticks from your leftover Chinese! Mark my words, it will not be long before every toaster is sold with chopsticks in little holders on the side. And you will be able to say you knew me back when.

For more helpful hints on how to get through life, including my inside-out sock trick and soon-to-be-patented Loop Technology Dental Floss, send me $1.

Where were we? Oh, yeah. I managed to get my stack up to $430 when disaster struck, again in the form of pocket aces. I flat-called two $20 bettors in front of me, as I was in late position and I don't mind two opponents when I have AA. One of them will likely catch part of the flop, providing someone to call future bets. Anyway, a fourth guy called behind me. This I did not like. It turns out the 4th guy had pocket 99, and the J98 flop royally screwed me to the tune of a $470 pot. And just like that, I was back where I started, at $200. I swear, people, it has gotten to the point where every time I have AA, I am silently praying for an A on the flop so that I can have some confidence in my hand. It's like some kind of voodoo thing against me.

Regardless, I am proud of the way I played afterwards. I was calm and cool for a couple of hands, and then started dwelling on that hand, and could feel the anger building inside me. A few hands later I had 55 and a 234 board, giving me an overpair and open-ended straight draw. The small blind checked, the big blind bet $20, and I called. Then the small blind checkraised to $120. And this happened to be the same gentleman who had just cracked my aces. I so badly wanted to call and get revenge. But I realized that there are very few hands someone in the small blind would checkraise with on a 234 board. Two pair would be the absolute minimum. That meant I was way behind, and so I laid my hand down.

So I calmed myself back down, and managed to get back up to $270 or so when the final hand took place. I had AT diamonds in the big blind and called a $20 bet after the small blind also called. This was by far the loosest call I had made all night, by the way. As I did it, my mindset was, OK, if this flop doesn't hit me hard, I'm outta here. And then the flop hit me hard. It was J97, two of which were diamonds. The small blind led out, and I re-raised all in. For the poker uninitiated, this is why;
my hand could improve because of:
1. An Ace-high flush draw, counting the 9 diamonds remaining in the deck
2. A gutshot straight draw, counting the three non-diamond 8s
3. My overcard, the A, which could pair with the three remaining Aces

Any of these cards would most likely make me a winner, the exception being the As, although they would help. This is a total of 15 outs. The rule of thumb is that the percent chance of hitting one of your outs, post-flop, is 4 times the # of outs. In this case, it's 4 * 15 = 60%. So I knew that, even considering the fact that I had nothing, I still had the hand most likely to win. Add that to the fact that it was very possible my opponents would fold after my all-in bet, and it becomes a no-brainer.

I ended up getting called by QcQs, to which I was a 51-49 favorite, and hit none of my outs. However, I succeeded at what, I think, is the ultimate goal in poker: to get all your money in the pot with the best hand. It was midnight, so I left.

OK, I have the most awesome girlfriend. I just got the second of two care packages she's sent. This one contains Vegas jammies, Black Sabbath boxers, and a taped episode of 24 that I missed. Plus I think she's even a little jealous about the mysterious Limber Lips, hee hee! Don't worry, Amy; your lips are the ones I'm thinking about.

HAND OF THE DAY:
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The theme for today's hand is simple: the power of table image. As I said before, my image was such yesterday that people did not challenge my bets too often (except when they had trip 9s, argh!). Therefore, I could only bet $15 pre-flop if I wanted any callers.

So I had AQ in middle position. A young gentleman with a crew cut limped in front of me, and I raised to $15. He was the only caller.

Flop: K22, giving me a whole lotta nada.

CrewCut checks to me. I bet the pot - $30.

Then CrewCut does his patented "jump on the opponent" that I'd seen him do in the past, when he believed his opponent had nothing. It consisted of a very quick raise, accompanied by "Let's make it $60", in an authoritative tone. I'd seen him to this with as little as a pair of twos - and he was right about his opponent, because he won that hand in a showdown.

So I guess the guy has a K, or maybe a small pocket pair. And once again he was right about his opponent having nothing. But I had a feeling that he would fold to pressure. So I just as quickly and authoritatively said, "Let's make it $160" and re-raised him another $100. And indeed he did fold.

In retrospect, this play seemed almost obvious. If the guy had AK, he wouldn't have limped in. Therefore the best possible hand he could have had was KQ, and I suspect it wasn't even that good. I wish I'd consciously thought of all of this prior to the re-raise, but I didn't. It was more of a instinctive reaction. And because of my table image, my opponent had to put my on AK. It was a nice little pot to take down.

Dang! It's 1330 already. This blog takes a long time. I can't wait until Bryant and Cecile get out here later this week, so I can have some guest bloggers! :)

Play well!