UNNATURAL PART 2

So, i'm fresh off a 15 hour sleep and ready to vent frustrations built up over the last two weeks. The hands described are not in chronological order, instead they are listed as I remember them. It should be noted that I am only going to describe the big pots. As a backdrop, know that I did not win a single pot over 3k during the losing streak, which started with hand #1, so each of these beats were never softened by a good situation/suckout/or good pot. This made it all the more frustrating.

Hand #1:

This hand and hand #2 stick out most in my mind. Both took place in a wild 10-20nl game in LA where I inevitably lost 8.5k for the day. At the time of this hand I was stuck about 4k for the day.

I raised to $70 from utg with 1010 and the big blind defended. The flop came 1086 rainbow. He checked I bet $110 and was check raised to $375 I called. My opponent was about 4k deep and was a standard player. I knew he would not check-raise a draw here so I felt I could not lose the hand and I did not want to lose him by reraising if he had simply a pair of 8s, JJ, or whatever. So turn came 8 and he bet $550. Now, I feel he has a decent hand here as he has checked after check-raising flops a couple times when called. I am hoping he has an 8 or better yet 86 or 108. Anyway, I decide just to flat as I'm fairly certain he will fire the river, plus if I raise here it looks suspicious that I have a monster, I want it to look like I'm calling along with an overpair or big 10. River brings a 7 so the board is 108876. I thought this card would either kill my action or make it because when I raise the river it will look like I have 99 or J9 and if he has a fullhouse I should get maximum action. Anyway, he bets out $950 and I goon raise allin. His eyes light up and he says 'did you say allin?' I said 'ya', he said 'i call' and quickly turns over 88 for quads. Very nice. Obv in set over set here someone should go broke with 4k stack, too bad I couldn't fade the 1 outer.

Hand #2:

Later in the same night I had managed to battle back. I was only down 2.5k for the session and had about 10k on the table. A young kid had sat down about an hour ago and was pretty agressive but paid off thin. He was about 6k deep. By this point the game had a straddle and usually several went to the flop. I felt like I was getting a rush going and that I had a good read on the table, and still being a little stuck, I had my gamble on.

I was utg +1 and smoothed the straddle with 87 clubs. The young kid smoothed as did one other then a tight player on the button made it $160, not a big raise. The blinds and straddler fold but I feel $160 is cheap here and likely I will get a couple callers behind me so I call. Now the kid acting right after me makes it $460, I think to myself obv AA. Everyone else folds except original button raiser who calls, probably a big pair himself. Well, considering the guy calls thin and I have an aces crusher I gamble to see the flop. The flop comes down AQ10 with Q10 of clubs, i'm like great this one's gonna cost me. I check, the kid fires out for $650 (small bet into about $1500 pot). The tight guy looks confused and makes a reluctant call, I call. The turn is a 4 of clubs. I feel the kid has 3 aces and the other guy may even have a smaller set or minimum touch gutter so I refuse to give a free card and fire out for $2,000 with a flush, as advertised. The kid thinks a minute and calls, the other guy folds. The river brings an offsuit 2, a brick, at this point I'm like sweet, I finally win a big gambly type pot. I quickly tell him i'm allin, which is about 3k to him. He immediately calls and tables AK clubs. So sick. What kind of jackass smooths AK off the straddle then makes a small 4 bet out of position to a tight player on the button. Anyway, he thought he was a genius and I simply stared at his hand for a couple seconds in disbelief. This hand was one of the most suprising loses of my poker career, I quit the game after that hand.

Hand #3:

This was the hand that originally got me stuck that same day in LA. Early in the session I was up maybe 1k then this hand happened. I call on the button with QJs to utg raise of $70. The guy is maybe 2.5k. The flop is QJ3 rainbow. He bets $100 I raise to $290, he raises to $590. At this point I feel he has overpair and his small raise is for information, I figured I might lose him by pushing here as there is no flush draw and the cards are dangerously high so only made hands are going to give action. I elect to call in hopes of getting allin on turn as long as no AK or 3 come down. The turn is a 7, he bets $800, I shove, he deliberates and calls, the rivers a 3 and my two pair lose to AA.

Hand #4:

During my next session I played about 4 uneventful hours tredding water at about even. Then I pickup J10 diamonds and raise to $70 in the cutoff, the button called and the big blind shortstacker shoved for $220. I decided to call as did the button. The button was 4k deep and I had him covered. The button was an aggressive solid player who was about to move to the 20/40 game. He raised alot of flops so I could not assume he had a big hand whenever he gave action. Anyway, the flop came down 984 2 diamonds. I bet $450 into him and he raised to $1,100. No way was I folding this and I decided that his raising range was big and unless he had 98 or 44 he would probably laydown to my push. He immediately called when I pushed and the board went running black aces. My J high was no good and he won with 44 for a fullhouse.

Hand #5:

Probably my worst play of the trip. I had AK on the button and raised the blinds. A solid aggressive kid in the blind defended. The flop came down A75 all hearts. He checked and I checked. The turn brought an offsuit 3 and he checked so I bet $120. He check raised to $500. Honestly, I thought he was making a move with a somewhat overbet after double checking, and previous history between us proved that he is very capable of making a move in this spot. I thought for a minute and told him I was allin, which covered his stack of about 2k total. He snap called and showed a flush, I was drawing dead. In retrospect, I could have folded as I did not have much invested and I did not have a strong hand, but I went with my read and thats that.

Hand #6:

On Superbowl Saturday I was playing a 5/10 nl game at the Wynn that eventually played bigger than many 10/20 games. As a backdrop to the hand I am about to describe I must explain previous history I had with my opponent. He originally bought in for $600, but quickly built up with a flurry of lucky suckouts. First, he raised from utg and 3 of us saw a flop of QJ9 two diamonds, I had 108s, so flopped the straight. He led out for pot $150. I decided to smooth call because I knew I had him good and he would likely fire again on the turn, because thats what this guy does. The turn was not the best card the K of diamonds. He led out $300 into me heads up and he had about $700 behind. I could tell he was nervous and was sure I had the best so I shoved making all draws pay. He shrugged and said 'well I have too much invested, I call'. The river brings a diamond and he shows AK with A of diamond, what a goon flop and turn bet. About 30 minutes later another sick hand took place where he was up against Todd. He raised pre and 4 of us saw the flop 984 two clubs. The goon led out $200, Todd raised to $650 and the goon called. Turn came offsuit Q and buddy led out for $500. Todd paused then shoved for another $1500 and the goon called. The river came 10 and the goon tabled a straight with JJ. Todd lost flopping top set of 9s.

So, givin this history, i'm sure you will understand my aggressive play with 1 pair. The game developed a straddle and some guy made it $60 to go, I looked down at AA and raised to $180. The original raiser and the goon both called and the flop came down K72 rainbow. The goon bet $30o, original raiser folded, and understandably I raised it to $800. The goon called and the turn brought the 4 of hearts, bringing in a flush draw. The goon bet out $700. I decided I'm running bad here and the best hand he will show me is a K with a flush draw and givin that he has been running so well I actually don't want him to call so I decide to shove, which is about another 3k to him. He tanked for several minutes then finally decided his KQ was ahead and he called. The river brought a K, good times. Ah Superbowl weekend, it brings out the best.

Hand #7:

Later on in the evening in the same game as above I pick up 64 clubs on the button. Someone straddled and several called so I called. The goon, in typical fashion, jacked it from the blinds to $140, with what I'm sure was a 'pretty hand' I thought to myself. I had a couple callers so I called. The flop came down 875 two spades. The goon led out $300 and a young aggressive kid jacked it to $900. The kid was about 4k deep and givin the texture of the board and our previous history I decided this was a good spot to jam to make it look like a combo draw and I may get called light. So after I raised to 4k the goon thought for about 2 minutes with what I later found out was JJ. He finally folded, great fold LOL. Then the kid tanked for 5 minutes. He eventually called as he may have thought I was on tilt (which I don't really do anymore, at least live) because I lost $700 to him on the previous hand missing a royal flush draw against his top set of aces. He never saw my hand but I'm sure he thought I was just spewing chips. Anyway, he makes a stand with 98 hearts, which I thought was very thin, because even if I had a hand like A6/J10 spades, he is quite the dog. Anyway, its ok because I run so sick, the river brought a 6 and he won with a 9 high straight.

I quite that game after that hand and booked a 6.5k loss in what may have been the juiciest game of the trip.

Hand #8:

Playing at the Venitian in a 10/20nl game. The game wasn't that good, but was the only 10/20 game going on in Vegas that night. A hand came up with this guy Marvin, who is one of the better higher limit players around. There was a raise from utg he called and I called to see the flop with AJ. The flop came J75 all spades. I decided I was going to check the hand to induce action as I obv flop strong here, if the preflop raiser bets I will be checkraising, he's only 3k deep anyway. Instead the preflop raiser checks and Marvin picks up the bet. Both Marvin and I are 10k + deep and I know he likes to gamble big pots so I decide I'm gonna just call here as I haven't been running good and maybe I can get him to bluff off with a worse hand. The turn brings in an offsuit A. So now I have top two, with nut flush draw. I check and Marvin overbets to about $550 into a $400 pot. This seemed a little fishy. Normally I would raise here but something held me back and I flat. The river bricked a 2 and I checked, Marvin fired again this time for just under 1k. Blah, now I really don't like it, and I don't really have a read on him, and with his capability to bluff in this spot I donate as he shows KQ spades. The pot wasn't that big but really there is an arguement that it could have been build up either on the flop or the turn. Thank goodness I played it soft like a girl.

Hand #9:

Thursday night I played in a wild game at the Bellagio. It got short handed pretty fast as the game consisted of many of the old crusty rocks who felt uncomfortable with the high level aggression. The game was drivin by a guy named Oscar from Norwary. He was drunk and into the game for 3ok. When it got short-handed I raised the button to $70 with 108 sooted, my favorite hand. He called and the flop came 976, gin. He checked I bet $120 he check raised to $420. In many situations I would raise back here as many turn cards could negate action from a big hand, but considering Oscar was raising with air many times I wanted 1 more bet from him before I would apply pressure, as I knew he would fire almost any turn whether he had something or not. The turn was a 3, he fired and I moved allin he called and the river came 10. We chopped the 10k pot as he flopped the smaller straight with 85. I hope you are beginning to understand why I have labelled my luck as unnatural.

Hand #10:

On my last night I played at the Bellagio. Kathy and I only had about 5 hours to play before we had to depart for the airport. I had scrapped together a small 2k win the day before and I was hoping to make another small score before leaving so I wouldn't have to go home and hang myself (just kidding). Finally something went my way.

I was utg+1 and smooth called the straddle. The guy immediately after me made it $180 and everyone else folded. The guy was tight, agressive and about 4k deep so I decided to disguise my hand by flatting as his range would be a big ace or big pair in this spot and by three betting (1-2nl style) I would not get another penny. So the flop came 762 two diamonds. I felt this looked like a drawing board that I may hit so I decided to donk bet $240 looking for a raise. He immediately raised to $650. I thought for minute and decided I was happy to get it in on the flop if he wanted to so I raised another $900. Instead of shoving he flatted. I figured he had a big pair and would stand with it as long as a flush card did not come down. The turn brought an offsuit Q and with the pot at over 3k and he having less than 2.5k left I shoved hoping obviously that he didn't just hit a set of queens. He thought for a minute and eventually called with what I don't know, prolly 1010/JJ/KK, putting me on a draw (in the past couple hours I had raised him out of a few small pots so I'm sure that was factored into his decision, he did seem like a fairly good player). The river came another Q and I took it down. Yeah! My first big pot since the 1010 nonsense.

There were alot of other smaller pots that went bad including 2 or 3 that I played soft with a big draw that if hit would have resulted in big scores because my opponents had huge hands. Even when I started off the trip with some solid wins, I won with lock hands and not by gambling (granted I hit quite a few hands). In fact, in the 17k upswing I only won 1 gambling pot for about 4.5k where I had QQ on a J42 against an ace high flush draw that held. Included in that win was 1 suckout on a 2k pot with J9 against AJ allin on a flop of J77. I thought the short stacker's overbet c-bet on the flop was bs so I shipped and he called and I sucked out.

Now that I have completed my venting session I would like to say that I still view poker as a game of variance and sometimes nothing goes right. If I keep playing well it has to turn around. I'm trying not to look at this trip from a results perspective as it would clearly be a bust, but I do feel I'm in very good control of my table and my game and I get alot of respect from the other tough regulars. The game has grown tougher over the last few years, but after conversing with several regulars that I feel are on the same level as me, each are still making over 500k / year minimum. So opportunity still does exist. I will likely go back down in a few weeks with Trav and hopefully my luck will reverse (or at least I will not get nailed by a 3 outer on every 10k pot). The way I see it is I should gain average to good luck simply by bunking in the same room as Seabiscuit, so the trip should turn profitable very quickly.

Take care and will report in when I go back down south.....and next time around I will try to update more regularily, just so happens when your losing you don't feel like talking about it.

Joe