As I write this I'm sitting in my hotel room at the Hilton across the street from Fallsview, and I can't help but wonder...how the hell does my wallet only contain 2 100 dollar bills right now? Let's explore :
I wake up early, I want a full 2 days since I've learned I have to go to work early Saturday morning, so I'll probably have to go to bed at a somewhat reasonable time Friday night. So, I get to the Falls for noon, check in at the hotel, and where else am I going? Fallsview time.
So, I decide to start slow today, and sit down at a 1/2 table, the list is fairly long so I also decide I'm going to sit at a 3-card poker table while the list widdles away until I get to sit. The dealer likes me, not as much as she likes the guy to my right whom she gives a straight flush while he's playing 75 dollars on the pair-plus line, which cashes him for 3000 dollars. Me? I make some straights and flushes, and wind up turning 100 into 300. Good enough, the buzzer's going wild so time to go play some hold'em.
I sit down at a 1/2 table and take 2 rotations off because the table is very loose without being agressive. Usually 6-7 callers to a flop, rarely raised pots, lots of limps, so it takes me a while longer to get some kind of idea to where players are and what they're doing. Eventually I enter a pot with As/4s from the cut-off after about 5 limps infront of me. Blinds top up and we're off to the flop of 6/4/3 rainbow. UTG fires out 20 bucks. Folds around to me, and I decide to call, thinking I have the best hand and he has a draw. Turn is a 9, and he fires 50 bucks at the pot. This seems weird, so I take some time to think about it, to me a 6 freezes or maybe makes another small bet to try and manage the pot and keep it small-ish. The type of hands I can see betting again a pot-building bet would be some kind of combo-pair draw. 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, 5/6. Having decided I beleive he's in that range I shove the rest of it in, and he calls instantly(not all that scary shove is tiny compared to the pot. He actually didn't even have the draw I assumed he did, 8/4. Okay, bonus. After this I'm up to 200 but I'm getting hungry so I pick up and decide I'll come back to a 2/5 table after some food.
Enjoy a quality meal at Shoeless Joe's downstairs at Fallsview and after that head up to the 2/5 table.
I sit down at a 2/5 table and I'm playing way above the curve, absolutely ontop of my game, and I quickly take 200 up to over 800 without even really making a big hand, but merely springing some elaborate traps and milking chips.
An example of what I mean is raising in EP with 10/10 up to 25, and getting 4 callers. The flop is Q/9/3 rainbow, and I fire a continuation bet of 60 dollars. 2 folds and one call. I figure he likely doesn't have a queen, he's a reasonably smart player and I know he's got to assume my bet here is a continuation bet, and I figured he'd raise a good queen here, even a QJ or Q/10 he'd probably raise to test my bet. So he might have a straight draw, or he might have that 9. Turn is a 7. That's a good card, but I check now, hoping to conceal this hand, and he checks behind confirming to me he's deffinitely not holding a queen. The river is good as well, a 5. Now I check again, allowing him to either bet a 9 which he'd most likely assume is good, or I'll let him bet with a busted straight draw. Either way, there is no amount of money he can put in this pot that I'm folding to. The pot is a shade over 200, and he fires 125 at it which I insta-call and table my 10's. He flashes a 9 and mucks. Ship it over here please, you never had a chance in this pot.
Another trap of sorts was the only big hand I made all day today. A fairly solid player in late position raises it up to 25, and I call out of the SB with 4/4. Flop's alright, 10/4/4. I can't get a bet into the pot fast enough here, and fire 40 bucks at the pot almost instantly. I can hear your minds racing, "Why the hell would he bet quads out straight off?". It's not even a pot build or about masking my hand(although that's a nice side effect). When you bluff you tell a story for the hand, I want to bluff here. Just, you know, with the nuts. So my bet, to a decent player, which this guy is, could easily appear like a "pro-bet", or "donk-bet"(depending on who you're talking to, they're both ironically nicknames for the same play, the play being calling a raise preflop and betting at the raiser on the flop regardless of what you have). He raises over the top, as I would with a wide range here since I'd treat my bet like a pro-bet, and come over the top announcing that I'm still holding a real hand. He makes it 100 to go. I call now, hoping to sell him that I'm holding some high cards. Turn is a 6. I check and all his chips, 260 more, enter the pot. I insta-call and table the 4's, and he sighs and turns over JJ.
After the session I cash out over 1000, a profit of over 800 dollars. I go grab some dinner, and come back and sign up for a 1/2 game again while I wait for the sit-and-go WPT Stage 1 Satallite to open. I won't go into details on the hand, because the story here isn't all that interesting hand wise, it's more what happens after. So, I end up all in with a guy on the flop of 7c/5h/4s while I'm holding 7h/8d, he was running a bluff, and tables 4h/9h. Perfect. Turn is where the story gets fun, it's the 8 of hearts. Everyone looks at me approvingly as if saying "yay! you have 2 pair now", while I smack the table, real upset at the turn card, finally informing the table that's a terrible card for me. One guy, takes objection :
Guy : "How is that a terrible card? You have 2 pair now!"
Me : "Ya, and it gives him an extra 9 outs."
Guy : "Could have been worse, could have been a different heart. At least you took away some of his outs"
Me : "What?"
Guy(borderline condescending as if he thinks I'm stupid) : "You have 2 pair now man! You took away some of his outs"
*At this point in the pot I'm 100 dollars deep in the hand, the pot is 220. So I decide to try and take out some insurance on this river card, and prop-bet the guy 50 dollars that he still has all the outs he had on the flop, with 9 more now. He agrees to it. I appreciate no one at the table speaking up to ruin this for me, I could see some of them watching intently.*
Me(now that we have made the bet) : "On the flop his outs were a 4, or a 9. On the turn? His outs are any 4, any 9, or any heart since I'm holding the 7 of hearts and the 8 of hearts is on the board. He still has every out he had before. Trips beats me. A 9 for his 2 pair will beat me. And a flush beats me."
Guy : "Shit, I forgot that his 2 pair would beat yours!"
Me : "Yes you did, ship that 50 over here please"
Anyway, the heart hit on the river, and I took the 2 green chips from the prop bet and strolled over to the sit-n-go table which was opening anyway.
I only really play 2 interesting hands. The first one I got raised from the cut-off when I was BB, and I decided to send a message quickly that I wouldn't stand for that, while the blinds were still cheap(25/50), so I called with 10/2 intending to steal the flop. Not sure how, but I'm planning on stealing this pot. Flop comes K/K/7. Perfect. I check, he bets. Perfect, now I know I can take it by representing a King. So I call. Turn is a 3. I check again, he checks behind. River is an Ace. I fire a bet now. He calls and rolls over A/3. Shit, it would have worked if he didn't get there. He still thought I had the King but "paid to see it". Got to hate getting unlucky running a bluff when your target gets lucky to make a hand to be able to call you.
The last hand, I was short stacked, button raised when I was SB and I re-shoved with A/7 suited. He tanked for a while and called and exposed AQ, which I just flat out don't understand why he tanked, but ses la vi.
After that I decide to sit at a 5/5 table, and take a few real bad beats or bad setups in a row, having to hold top pair a few times to over-pairs. I played really well to not go broke for a long time, finally taking a real bad beat with Q/8 on a flop of 8/3/2 against 8/6 for a 250 dollar pot when he turned a 6. Bust for 500 here, and suddenly I'm back to only a couple hundred for the day.
Oh well, tomorrow, pancake house and poker with the Jackseven crew!
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