Grind it out
I went to the Muck last night after I missed my usual Tuesday night session. Games are always good on Tuesday and Thursday as they have a tournament that attracts lots of players. I don't play in the tournament anymore as the structure sucks, and your average win in the $30 game is better than the average cash in the tournament. I don't get as much practice playing tournaments, but I would rather play and win money than just practice.
So off to the tables I went. I got in the game late for me on Thursday 7:00pm, and took the lay of the land. Not too many of the regular good players but mostly solid players, not too many soft gamblers tonight. I also proceeded to get off on my lately to usual foot of not picking up any starting hands and running poorly to get stuck $600 right off the bat. I will give you just one bad beat story as I found it rather funny. I three bet a late raiser from my position of one off the button with AA. The flop came 10,8,6, two hearts, he checked I bet, he called. The turn the K of hearts, not the best turn card for me, but he checked, I bet anyway, and he just called. The river was the A of spades, perfect I make my set and win, I thought until he came right out and bet. I initially put him on two pair, but slowed down before I raised. Then I got this funny feeling like he actually did have Q,J but thought this not likely enough to fold top set and just called. He showed me Q,J of Clubs. Wow what a crappy call on the flop, no heart and a gut shot heads up, there goes $240 down the drain.
I then went into grind it out mode. The table was playing very soft, not a lot of raising pre-flop which allowed you to make steals from late position, and see flops cheaply with draw hands in late position. I used this to my advantage and raised almost any un-raised pot with just one caller in it from late position and then bet the flop and won almost 80% of those hands. I just kept winning small pots and near the end of the night I was up over $1,000. I then proceed to get KK cracked by JJ on the river, and decided to call it a night. Tough session but another win. Finished up $882.
The other interesting news of the night was that two people I almost never get to play with both came into the casino last night. I convinced Aaron to join me for a bit. I thought it would be good for him to just get his feet wet with poker again as he was burned out. Bad idea. He played for 45 minutes, lost every hand he was in, and quit $1500 loser. That is no way to get you grove back. He is probably really done for a while now. Then late in the night Chris came in. He is moving to LA in two weeks, but essentially lives there right now. Awesome person, great player, good to see him. He spends his time in the $100/200, 200/400 or 300/600 games and up at Commerce. He just stopped by to see what was going on. We talked about stuff and stories of the WSOP, his night with Phil Ivey and pro basketball players form the Heat. We also talked about how a lot of the big name players are all broke or really low on cash right now. The games are just too big now in Vegas, and if you loose $1,000,000 or more a night, most can just not fade the loss. I knew Gus Hansen was low, but Chris said he is flat broke right now and borrowing to play. Too bad. There are a lot of name players right now borrowing to play, not a good position to be in. Much like Aaron, ego gets in the way and they can not play at the low(not for you and I) limits $300/600 or $400/800. Man what a wacky game this is, really screws with you head. Hope everyone is having a winning fall and talk to you soon, GO IRISH..SJ
So off to the tables I went. I got in the game late for me on Thursday 7:00pm, and took the lay of the land. Not too many of the regular good players but mostly solid players, not too many soft gamblers tonight. I also proceeded to get off on my lately to usual foot of not picking up any starting hands and running poorly to get stuck $600 right off the bat. I will give you just one bad beat story as I found it rather funny. I three bet a late raiser from my position of one off the button with AA. The flop came 10,8,6, two hearts, he checked I bet, he called. The turn the K of hearts, not the best turn card for me, but he checked, I bet anyway, and he just called. The river was the A of spades, perfect I make my set and win, I thought until he came right out and bet. I initially put him on two pair, but slowed down before I raised. Then I got this funny feeling like he actually did have Q,J but thought this not likely enough to fold top set and just called. He showed me Q,J of Clubs. Wow what a crappy call on the flop, no heart and a gut shot heads up, there goes $240 down the drain.
I then went into grind it out mode. The table was playing very soft, not a lot of raising pre-flop which allowed you to make steals from late position, and see flops cheaply with draw hands in late position. I used this to my advantage and raised almost any un-raised pot with just one caller in it from late position and then bet the flop and won almost 80% of those hands. I just kept winning small pots and near the end of the night I was up over $1,000. I then proceed to get KK cracked by JJ on the river, and decided to call it a night. Tough session but another win. Finished up $882.
The other interesting news of the night was that two people I almost never get to play with both came into the casino last night. I convinced Aaron to join me for a bit. I thought it would be good for him to just get his feet wet with poker again as he was burned out. Bad idea. He played for 45 minutes, lost every hand he was in, and quit $1500 loser. That is no way to get you grove back. He is probably really done for a while now. Then late in the night Chris came in. He is moving to LA in two weeks, but essentially lives there right now. Awesome person, great player, good to see him. He spends his time in the $100/200, 200/400 or 300/600 games and up at Commerce. He just stopped by to see what was going on. We talked about stuff and stories of the WSOP, his night with Phil Ivey and pro basketball players form the Heat. We also talked about how a lot of the big name players are all broke or really low on cash right now. The games are just too big now in Vegas, and if you loose $1,000,000 or more a night, most can just not fade the loss. I knew Gus Hansen was low, but Chris said he is flat broke right now and borrowing to play. Too bad. There are a lot of name players right now borrowing to play, not a good position to be in. Much like Aaron, ego gets in the way and they can not play at the low(not for you and I) limits $300/600 or $400/800. Man what a wacky game this is, really screws with you head. Hope everyone is having a winning fall and talk to you soon, GO IRISH..SJ
posted by Seattlejohn at 5:00 PM
1 Comments:
Red Dragon is owned by the same guy that owns Parkers. Same games differents spots. Stay out of the $4/8 games. You can not beat the rake and the swings are just to huge in the nuber of bets because any two cards will be played. When you get hands to hold, you win a ton as long as you are playing tight. The flipside is that if you are not running ok, you will lose a ton. Also, you just can't beat a $4 rake. The only winner is the house. You need to at least play $8/16. You have a chance to beat that game. The $4/8 is just for fun and it sounds like you don't have just for fun money. Good luck..SJ
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