Another great outing. I’m starting to feel good about my game again. Once again my name strikes fear into their hearts.
Early on I caught a nut flush on the river, took most of one guys chips. The very next hand I caught the nut flush on the flop, took down another huge pot. Both hands I checked on every card (which no one ever expects from me). A few hands later I caught A-A and took down a medium-pot (not large because the flop had a straight draw on it – I put in a ludicrously large bet to scare them off). I was in good shape.
Am I proud of that? No. Anyone can get lucky cards. I’m proud of (1) Sticking to my plan and bullying from the big stack. It’s really fun when it’s working. Three people in pre-flop, I raise big. With 7-2. And they all fold. (2) Calling all-ins correctly. I was more willing to call them. I caught three people bluffing or with weak hands and knocked them out. For once I didn’t sit back and wait for players to eliminate each other. I actively eliminated them myself.
Entering heads up play, I was up about 17K to 3K with the blinds at 400-800. I had A-J, pushed him all in, and he caught a flush on the river. Arrgh! A couple hands later I had J-7, the flop was J-x-x. This time I wanted to get all his money in the pot. I checked, he bet, I called. Turn was the same thing. River was the same thing. With nothing higher than a jack on the board, I put him all in (there was ~10K in the pot and he only had another 1K anyhow). He had a pair of 10s, but the river card was a 10. My slowplaying cost me the hand. But I don’t think I misplayed it. My goal is to knock him out and I played it correctly to do that.
The blinds went up to 500-1000 and we were essentially tied. I vowed to get super-aggressive. I did. I raised almost every hand. I was soon up to 15K again. With K-8 suited I raised the blind to 3000. He went all-in. Of course I called, his J-9 didn’t get lucky. Ah, winning is fun.
Tonight: $92
Running Total: $208
C’mon Art. It’s twenty lousy bucks. Even if you have no idea what’s going on, you’ll get a couple hours of fun out of it.
And Men — c’mon, it’s twenty lousy bucks. As much as it’d be fun to see you (and fam?) again, it’s really not cost-effective to come out for this game.
Proud of you grasshopper. Your more aggressive play is more interesting to read too. I may fly out to Atlanta just to play in your game! A few years ago, I flew out to a wedding of a college friend, and there were about 15 or so college friends out. We had a poker tournament for the bachelor of about 20 people. Back in college at my fraternity house, we used to play every day with multiple tables (before poker got really popular with ESPN). At this tournament, I told the bachelor if I was in the money, any winnings would go towards his wedding gift. I finished in 2nd place, so he got a bigger wedding gift…fun taking money off old friends.
If it’s your intention to impress poker-dummies like myself, then you succeeeded. I am truly impressed. I am also scared of ever joining you guys. Not because of your good poker play, but because of all the strange poker lingo you are using. Is this some kind of secret code? Are you guys really playing poker? I hear a lot about nut flushes flopping, bullying from your big stack, three people in pre-flop, heads-up play and blinds going down. I’m a bit worried about being the fresh fish.