Monday, June 2, 2008

Back to work...

Although I'm not playing in the WSOP anymore, they still have plenty of action at the cash games in town. I decided it would be a good idea to not go immediately to a cash game since I was probably so on "tilt" that I would've just given my money away. After a couple hours I decided to hit the tables again. I went to the Bellagio's poker room and they had a long, long list for the $2/$5 No-Limit Hold 'em game, so I got on to the $5/$10 No-Limit list. I bought in for $600 once I was called for a seat at that game.

The table I started at was a "feeder" table (alos called a must-move table) for the other $5/$10 No Limit games. What that means is that when a seat opened at one of the other $5/$10 games, a person from our table would be grabbed to fill that seat. Then the casino would go to the waiting list to fill our new empty seat. What it also usually means is that when you get moved you will find yourself at a table full of large stacks since the players sitting there cannot be people who have just bought in. That's not always the case, but it's pretty typical.

At our must-move table, I found myself a little card dead, and when I was getting hands I was either missing or getting flops that "didn't work" for my holding. So after about an hour or so, I was down about $400. I got a couple hands that I was able to push all-in with and chopped (ugh!), but one of the chops had a significant amount of other player's money in it so I made a couple bucks, and right around then I was told I was moving, so I knew I was coming in as a short stack.

After arriving at the new table I was able to double up once early with the Kh-Kd in an all-in preflop situation. Then I picked up some pots here and there, and then collected a nice pot when I got the following hand: Qd-Td. I was in early position, one spot after the Under the Gun player (also called UTG+1), and I limped for the $10. Normally I would chuck this hand, but this table had been doing a lot of limping to flops, so I thought I may be able to get to a flop cheaply. Only the button limped, and the small blind player raised to $40. I was about to fold my hand when I saw the button already had the three $10 chips ready to call, so I thought again and decided to make the call based on what I knew the pot would be. The flop was:

6h-7d-9d

Giving me the flush draw and the gutshot straight draw. The small blind led out for $90. He was the raiser so that could be just a continuation bet. It also could mean he's betting his good hand, too. I didn't know, but my draw was pretty good so I decided to find out where I stood. I raised it to $230. I also hadn't been playing very many hands at all, so I knew that the button, who had yet to act, and the raiser would have to have a decent hand to make any further action on the pot here. The button folded, and after some thought, the small blind called. That wasn't good, but it all became a moot point when the turn card was:

8s

Now putting the four-card straight on the board with me having the high end of it. My opponent checked, and I bet $230, leaving me a little over $200 left. My opponent had me covered, and he goes in to the think tank. I'm trying to figure out what he has, and one of my conclusions was that he might have a set. It would make sense that he would call my raise on the flop with that to trap me, but now might be worried that I have a straight with this board, although to hit it I'd have needed a gutshot, which happened to be what I did. Well, after a minute or two, he calls. Now I really think he has the set, but doesn't want to throw it away. Well the river is the 9c, pairing the board, and making any set good because it would have just turned in to a full house or better. My opponent quickly checked, and I also elected to check because of the thought process I went through, and my hand was good, landing me a nice pot. I also found out that I probably would have gotten paid off because my opponent had KK. If he was willing to pay me at the turn with that board, he certainly would have paid me after the river for a bet of less than $250, which was all I had. So, it was unfortunate to be a little off in my read there, but it was a nice pot anyway.

I had a long day of poker as I wrapped up things around 1:15am or so, then I went and played some craps for a little while. As it so happens, TJ Cloutier came over to the craps table that I was at and played for a while. There were only three of us at the table, and TJ and I were at the same end, so I was able to make some chit chat with him for about half an hour or so while playing craps. It was fun, and I even made a couple bucks at the craps table. Then it was time to get some rest before "clocking in" again at the tables the next day.

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