Victory!

Yesterday I got to the cardroom kind of late and was unable to get an immediate seat at my usual 2/5 NL game, but fortunately for me, there was room at the greatest 1/2 table of all time. I absolutely crushed this table, there was action, and there were lots of donkeys. I played for about 4 hours, and increased my buy-in 5-fold. It was my single biggest 1/2 session I've ever had, and there was one beautiful hand that set it off for me and gave me total control of the table. Here it is...

It was on my second orbit at the table. I'd already taken down a nice pot when my K-9 (button hand) notched a guy's J-9 and we both had trip 9's. Anyway, super tight guy to my right makes it $12 to go and I look down at 10h-9h on the big blind. I put my $10 in, and then three more people call. Flop comes 10-9-4 rainbow. I checked, having put the raiser on a big hand and expecting a C-bet. The other two people check and the raiser bets $20. I raise to $50, hoping to keep him in, but lose the rest of the field. One guy smooth calls, and the raiser also calls. Turn comes 9, giving me 9's full of 10's, and I decide to check. Normally I would bet here, because I think a check makes it pretty obvious I've made a huge hand, but with the donkeys at this table I'm pretty sure they're not thinking at that level, and I think the raiser still likes his big pocket pair. The other guy checks behind me, and the original raiser goes all in for $60. I can see the other guy playing with his chips and getting his call ready, so I just smooth call, anticipating he'll come along to the river. River comes an 8, and I push my last $115 into the pot and get instacalled. The second guy turns over A-9, I show my full house, the original raiser throws K-K into the muck, and I rake both of their stacks. God bless 1/2 NL.

Back in the Black...

So after a not-so-good trip to KC earlier this week (got stuck one buy-in, some of the worst cold-decking I've ever encountered), I made my return to my local cardroom. Tonight's session was very good, both in terms of profits made, but also in terms of how I played. I picked my spots, used some selective aggression, and remained very patient through some very long stretches of dead cards. One of the biggest things I've been concentrating on since I moved up to the 2/5 level is plugging some of the pre-flop leaks in my game. It's easy to get into the habit of limping with "pet hands" (suited connectors, suited A-X, J-10, etc.), and it's great when the pot goes unraised. But when the cut-off or button raises to $25 and you get priced in by four other callers, miss the flop, and have to fold, it starts to get really expensive. So I've been really trying to tighten this up and concentrate on not-limping, and I feel I did an excellent job with this tonight. Didn't make any real monster hands, but consistently took down the pots that I raised, didn't pay off too many hands, and did make a pretty sick call on a big river bet. I also did a solid job of getting up when I got too tired to play my A-game. When the clock hit 4, I noticed I was thinking more of protecting my profits than making the right decisions, so I decided to leave. I'll be getting back after it tomorrow, hopefully with the same focus and similar results.

A Tale of Two Hands...

So my session last night was kind of frustrating. Playing 2/5 NL at Harrah's in KC, things started off very well. In fact I had the absolute, pre-flop wet dream scenario play out for me. Here's how it went.
The Dream:
Full 10-person table, and the guy UTG opens up for $20, which is a smaller than usual bet. There are 6 callers to me and I look down at A-A in the big blind. I absolutely have to thin out this table, so I raise to $100. The guy UTG smooth calls the $100 after some deliberation, and then second to act GOES ALL IN! YES! He pushes his last $225 into the middle and the table folds to me. At this point I've got all the action I need, one player heads up to the flop, plus theres over $200 of dead money in the pot already. I shove my remaining $450 in the pot and UTG quickly folds. Flop comes 5-5-A, YAHTZEE! I show the guy Aces Full, and he tosses his QQ into the muck. Ship it!

As sweet as that preflop action was, there was another hand which was the exact antithesis.

The Nightmare
Full 10-person table, and again UTG opens, this time for $25, much more standard. 4 callers to me, I'm on the button and look down at K-K. Again, I need to thin out this field, so I bump it to $100. SB folds, then BB announces all in for $350 total. Fold around to me, and I instacall ($250 into a $550+ pot against the short stack) and he shows me aces. Cold deck! I didn't hit, and he scooped the huge pot.

Those two hands essentially dictated my night. The Dream happened fairly early, and at that point I was running real well and felt like I was well on my way to a real nice session. I went on a long stretch where I didn't pick up any real hands and was relying on some aggressive play to pick up small pots just to stay even, then I picked up the KK. What I thought was gonna be the start of another run, turned out to be just the opposite as I spent the next two hours finding ways to lose $ with JJ, QQ, AQ, AK, etc. The session ended when the table closed, and after 4 hours and a bunch of up and downs I essentially broke even for the whole thing. Disappointing, but hey, it beats losing.

Taking the show on the road...

Being done with class for the summer, I now have absolutely nothing that I HAVE to do. The problem with my local cardroom is that they are only open from 12pm-4am, and there's not a huge pool of players that they draw from so you can't always find the game you want, especially early in the week. So I'm taking a couple of days and going up to KC to hit Harrah's. Harrah's KC is my favorite cardroom in the state. Not quite as big as Harrah's StL, but I think it's nicer, the players are not as crazy, and I've always had a lot of success up here.

Going Online...

I'm think I'm somewhat of a rarity in the Midwest. I believe that most people here who eek out a living at the table do so on their laptops. Myself, I have been an exclusively live game player for virtually the entire time I've played poker. A couple of years ago I put some money on PartyPoker and pissed it away pretty quick. My problem is that I don't take it as seriously on-line as I do live, and the money isn't tangible to me so I don't think about each click as carefully as I do each move I make at a live game. But I've decided that I need to get on-line. I need to see more hands, and there's a ton of time when I'm just sitting around doing nothing when I could be grinding. Also, it's really the only way to gain tournament experience here as our local card-room only has 6 tables and NEVER runs tournaments. So I'm going on Full-Tilt, as soon as I find an easy way to put some money on there, any suggestions?

Here goes nothing...

I've given in and joined the ranks of the "bloggers". My main reason is to help me keep track of my poker play, and also to hopefully get some input from other players if anyone happens to read this. I've been playing a lot, and doing well, but I don't really keep track of my play or strategies. It's my hope that if I have someplace to put them, and also hopefully some people that would care to read or comment on them, that I'll commit myself to remembering big hands, and will also be more careful keeping track of the results of my sessions. Another contributing factor is my little brother's got a blog (http://amerracuda.blogspot.com - DISCLAIMER -his blog is political in nature and his thoughts in no way reflect my own) , and honestly with summer school getting over, I've got a lot of time on my hands and nothing better to do most of the time.

Here's a quick snapshot of me and what I do. I'm a pre-med student at the University of Missouri. Poker is my favorite activity other than watching football, and the beauty of it is that oftentimes I can do both. I've had lot's of bullshit jobs, and hated all of them, so I got a student loan for a bankroll and decided to attempt to grind out a living. We've got one casino about 20min from my house where I play several times a week . The games they spread are $1/$2NL and $2/$5NL. I started out as a 1/2 player, but recently have moved up to the 2/5 game because the game is a lot looser and the pots are much bigger. I also play in several home games around my hometown with structures anywhere from .25/.50 to $1/$2. Being a student, I don't have a lot of expenses, so I don't have to earn too much to get buy, also when I'm at a poker table I'm NOT at the bar, which helps the bottom line as well.

So that's a quick intro. Hopefully, if anyone reads this, they find it interesting, and eventually informative and helpful as well. I hope you all get hit with the deck.