I had five hours sleep last night. I gave blood in the morning. I went to play poker. I stunk.
Early on, I limp in with J-9 suited. The flop is J-x-x, turn is nothing either. We raise each other a couple times until he puts me in. I suspect he has J-A. He probably has J-A. What the heck, I’m calling. He had J-A. I bought in again.
Still early, I get A-A. I raise preflop and get three callers. The flop is J-J-x. Player one bets out. Did my Aces hold up? What are the odds that one of them has a Jack? Pretty good. Nevertheless, I stay in and lose a lot of money to the set of Jacks. Very poor discipline.
I stayed low stack for the rest of the night. I won just enough pots to stay alive. Other people knocked each other out. Somehow I found myself in the final three. I was waking up and playing more aggressively. I knocked out the short stack. Down to headsup! The very first hand, I called a 4-4 all-in bet with K-J suited. Didn’t make it. I was now down 28K to 2K in chips, with blinds at 2K and 4K. The next two hands were dealt up since I had to go all-in in the dark. I won them both. I made it back up to 12K. I called an all-in with the best hand, but he caught the flush and knocked me out. I was very happy with second place.
Some other hands were interesting, but I’m too tired to remember any of them.
Tonight: $32
Running Total: $570
Morning after update: I remembered my favorite hand of the night. I was in the big blind. Everyone folded except the small blind who limped in. I checked the option without looking at my cards. The flop was A-4-3, the 4-3 was suited diamonds. The small blind bet big. I figured he had A-x or a set. I looked at my cards and found a nice pair of aces underneath. Now I had trip aces. The only likely hands that could beat me were 2-5 and a flush draw. I was sure he didn’t have 2-5, he would have folded the blind to me. I didn’t think he had a flush draw, he would likely check with that. I figured him for a set of 3s or 4s. As it turned out, he had the set of 4s and I took most of his money with the better set. Fun!
Later I tried the same thing. I was short-stacked in the big blind and checked my option without looking. I needed to look on the turn and by then I had to fold. It’s interesting to not look at your cards. If your opponent doesn’t have premium cards, they don’t know how to play you. And because you make your betting decision after seeing the flop, if you make a big bet, they have to figure you for a much wider range of hands. They can’t assume away the terrible starting hands that got lucky.