Poker Update

There were only seven players last night, so I liked my odds. It was a strange night. I couldn’t get people to bet how I wanted. I would have good cards, and they would fold. I would have good cards, they would stay in, and my good cards wouldn’t hit anything. I hit the nut flush and couldn’t get a caller. I would get bad cards and I could still bluff them out, but it seemed to take a lot more work.

I soon found myself with about 40% of my starting stack. There had already been two buy-ins so I was slipping further behind. It felt like time to make a move. With J-10 I raised the blinds 4x. One guy called. The flop was K-x-x, I confidently went all in. I didn’t really care how it went. If he folded that was fine. If he called and beat me, I was going to rebuy and start over with a decent stack. He called me and beat me. I rebought with a decent stack.

All the money was flowing to one guy. The luck was on his side tonight. He’s a value player. I don’t know what he has but I know if he has anything. He had anything all night. He had a huge stack, the other six of us were more or less even. Then the blood-letting began. He knocked out two players, one with the nuts, once with a little help on the river. I knocked another one out with K-K vs. his 4-4. He knocked out another one. Now there were three players left (in the money!). Two of us short-stacked, one guy with most of the money. The other player went all in with a pocket pair. He got counterfeited on the river and lost. Second place!

I started heads-up down 8-1 in chips. Maybe more. But he isn’t an aggressive player, he never made moves to put me away. I doubt he bluffed once in heads up. We went back and forth with him letting me slowly accumulate a respectable stack. I fought my way to even. With 9-9 I raised the blinds. He came over the top. Good enough hand for me! I went all-in, he called me with Q-A. My 9s held up and now it was me with the 8-1 chip advantage. I put him away quickly.

Tonight: $50
Running Total: $600