Wow...over a month and no update...

So, it's been a little while apparantly. Maybe I should update this thing...

So let's see what's happened in the month since I wrote an update for the blog. Well, I got the job at Brantford Casino as a dealer, actually just passed my table test today as I'm writing this. Fairly excited about getting to deal for the casino, even if it isn't Hold'Em right away, it's still a very fun job and financially very sound.

The training for that has been eating my time, and I've barely touched a deck of cards(as it relates to poker I mean)... save for one weekend out at the Elite Poker Tour(my old employ), where I managed to eek out 3 final tables in 3 tournaments and one win, a very rewarding weekend from a poker standpoint.

The only other time I've played poker is making a fairly rediculous idea on Sunday night in some freezing rain that I was so bored I wanted to go to Fallsview and play, so off I went. Normally I'd have gone to Seneca since it's better, but given the timeframe(I was leaving my house at 10:30pm), most of Seneca's big games are dead at that point(I called and 2/4 NL was the biggest they still had running). So I went to Fallsview and hopped on what is actually, outside of the city of Las Vegas, the biggest cash game I've ever played in, the 5/10 NL game at Fallsview.

Right away I felt an overwhelming since of calm at the table, considering I was bringing $1000 to the table, I was fairly calm about it, and in control. Nothing much happened, I didn't want to mix it up early, and I was fairly card dead off the hop, so I got alot of time to get a real solid read on the table, and basically they worked as : Seat 1 had never played a hand for an hour. Seat 2 was a tight but solid player. Seat 3 was a pure POW(Pay-Off Wizard), and a large calling station. Seat 4 was a drunk guy who was begging to give his money away, and knew nearly nothing about Hold'Em, or if he did, the drinks had long since washed that knowledge away. Seat 5 was another big calling station. Seat 6 was a big time regular that knew everyone that worked there, was a large tilt monkey(I came to the table to the sounds of him whining about a bad beat that had happened over 3 hours ago), and wasn't overly impressive. And Seat 7 and 8 were two more fairly tight, reasonably solid players. Seat 9 was me, and Seat 10 was an immensely tight but very solid player I had played with a few times at 5/5 before.

So, there's the layout, down to business. I finally started to really feel comfortable and started looking to mix it up, taking down a few small pots and losing a few pots here and there, when I finally got into my first real big pot of the day.

The drunk asian guy in Seat 4 opened for a raise to 15 dollars UTG. Obviously this is infact, not a raise, so since he had said raise, they comitted him to 20 dollars. 3 players called to me, and I called in fairly late position with 9h/7h. The flop was 7/5/3 rainbow. The UTG player bet out now, 160 into 80. I had been looking to mix it up, and figured there was a strong chance I had the best hand still, so I re-shoved over the top all in for my $950 or so infront of me(to be fair, he only had another $250 infront of him), he snap called and I actually thought I might be in trouble, until he turned over his brilliantly played Q/4 offsuit. The turn was a 9 giving me top 2 and eliminating a Q as an out for him, leaving him just the 6 for the straight, which naturally was the river card. Ship half my stack over there please. He was polite enough, he laughed, he was having a good time, and I didn't really mind, he offered to buy me a drink, but since I don't drink, I declined, so he bought the entire table a round, and bought me a couple red-bull's to stash away for the session. Nice guy. But I wanted that money back.

So, it didn't take overly long for us to tango again, this time, he raised to 30, and I called with Ad/10d, we were the only 2 in the pot. The flop came Ac/7s/8c, and he bet out 100, another one of his rediculous continuation bets that I really had no idea what to do with. I decided to just smoothe call it, and the turn came a 9h, giving me an open ended straight draw to go with the top pair, reasonable kicker. I had seen him get way carried away a few times with ace rag, so 2 pair, or me flat out out-kicking him were all options, but I decided to just smoothe call his $150 turn bet. The river was a Jh. Perfect. He bet out $200, and only having another $150 ontop I shoved it into the middle, he snap called again, with A/J for top 2, and I showed the fact that it was my turn to suck out on him. That got me back to $1100 or so for the session.

Then it was Round 3 with the same guy, this time he raised to 30, and I looked at Ac/9c, and called again. The flop was ugly enough, K/J/9 rainbow, and he again bet out big, 100 again into 60. This is the part where I should explain, when I play, largely inspired by my summer trip to Vegas with Bruno, I almost always wear a hoodie now when I'm playing. This guy was incredibly bothered by the hoodie, and in each of these hands, he had complained about it because he wanted to be face to face with me. At one point he got up and threatened to leave the game(in the middle of this hand...) if he couldn't see my eyes. He asked me to take off the hoodie, obviously I didn't. He then asked the dealer to make me take of the hoodie. The dealer informed him he couldn't, and he looked back to me and said : "If you don't take it off I'm leaving the game". Part of me wanted to take it off just to ensure the dead money stayed, the other part of me was more vocal though, and quickly I snapped back at him, "What the fuck do I care if you stay?". That didn't impress him. Meanwhile, during all this, I'm still considering what to do, and I decide over time that I again think he's just drawing, so I call. The turn pairs that 9. That's wonderful. He bets out again, I call again. The river is a 6, and he goes all in. I snap call and he shows A/6 for bottom pair, and I show the trip 9's for the win. $1600 now.

I lose a bunch of it back over a couple sick hands, various draws and setup hands that lose me money, one in particular where it folds around to me on the button with AQ, I raise to 35, BB re-raises to 100, and I re-raise over to 250, and he shoves in. I fold and he shows he woke up with KK in the BB.

So eventually I'm at around $1200 when one of my favourite hands I've ever played comes up, I'm still so proud of this hand it scares me.

A bunch of players limp to me, and it's my button, I look down at Ad/Kd, and I raise to 60 straight(there were 5 limps so it was basically a pot raise), I get 2 callers behind. The flop is terrible, 8s/5h/3c. They both check and I bet out $100, a weakish bet, but I wanted to define my hand for fairly cheap. Right away Seat 6, the regular everyone on the staff knew, called, and the other guy folded. The way he called, I figured he either had 6/7, or a hand like 7/7, 6/6 and thought they were still good under my AK. The turn paired the 3. He checked again, and I decided he didn't have one of those pairs, because I felt like if he did, he'd have bet it there to chase me away and not let me see a river. Instead he let me fire again, which I did, another $250 with A high. He smoothe called again, and I felt absolutely positive he had 6/7 and was chasing a straight. The river really, really complicated the hand. It was a 7. I knew cold dead that he hit that card, and I had just lost the hand. I also knew there was $900 in the pot, and I didn't want to give it up that easily. He checked the river one last time, and trusting my read entirely I thought he figured I had an overpair this entire way, and was chasing the straight to steal it. I figured any fair bet on the river was going to take it, as long as I didn't wuss out. This entire thought process happened while he was checking, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had announced I was all-in. $800 on an Ace high bluff. If I thought the game was too big for me, this was proof positive it wasn't. He tanked for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually asked me a real dumb question, "Can you beat the board?", the board, once again, was 8/7/5/3/3, so I responded with a simple "Yes.", and he chuckled and said, "I beleive you too.". Well good, because I do beat that board. Infact, both my A and my K are going to play, thank you very much. He then flashed me what I already knew, and exposed the 7d. That wasn't getting him anywhere, I already knew he had that, so my reaction was nothing at all. He finally mucked and I showed him the AK, which nearly had him suicidal, slamming his chips around and swearing like crazy that he knew he had me. About 5 hands later we had a nice discussion about the hand :

"How do you make that third bet with fucking AK? What are you an idiot?"

This is the point where I'd normally let it be, but he was obnoxious, and I decided to come back at him a bit...

"I knew you weren't calling."
"Ya right, I knew you had that, I ALMOST called you fucking donk"
"Well, congratulations, you're almost a good player, and I almost didn't read you like a book, and you almost won all my chips. As it turns out...I do have all your chips, I did read you like a book, and you're not a good player. Bad beat huh?"

That'd be the point he went on insanity tilt and dumped off a wad of money before leaving in a fit of rage.

Anyway, after that pot, I had around $1900. I played one more huge pot before I left...

I call a preflop raise out of the BB with 8c/6c, because I love to put chips in play, and I felt comfortable at the table now. The flop was gin, 5/7/9 rainbow. The only time I flopped the nuts in the session. Naturally I lead right at the flop hard, betting 90 into 110. The original raiser takes two huge stacks of red chips and very slowly and carefully slides them into the pot, before I even have any idea what the dollar value is(I know both of them are over $300 from the size), I toss my stack of black chips into the middle(10 of them). The dealer eventually breaks down the guy's total bet of $740, and I take back 3 blacks and toss out the extra 40 dollars. He rolls over QQ, and I hold, and end my session at $2680, a profit of almost $1700.

And since these things are never exactly linear, or well thought out, crafted or written, who doesn't expect me to randomly switch topics again...back to today.

I went over to a friend's house from the training course at the casino, and we sat down to a game of Chinese Poker(we had both been studying up and practicing for the better part of 2 weeks now of training). We set up and played, and I crushed him for 56 points in about 4 hours of play. The game is maddeningly addicting, and a true gambler's game, moreso than anything I've ever played, the swings can be intense. 2 hours into it he had me by 14 points, and I took 70 points off him in the next 2 hours. Naturally we had money on it, so that's another nice winning poker session recently.