BACK TO WORK

haven't played poker in so long. A combination of school and other things has reduced my ability to drive 2 hours just to play cards. Saturday afternoon I returned to the Turning Stone Casino to play.

The first few hands of $100 NL were pretty lackluster. I wasn't able to catch much. I won a few small pots that kept me at around $100. Then I hit a big hand. I limped in early position with Ace-Jack. I hate raising with Ace-Jack. It isn't a dominating hand. Someone else raised to $7 and a few people called, as did I.

The flop was Jack-2-2 with two diamonds. I bet $15 to protect my very crackable pair of Jacks. Then the preflop raiser raised to $30, then someone re-raised all-in to $86 on top of the $30. This put me all in. I was worried. Did the preflop raiser have a high pocket pair? I knew he must have a pair. I also knew because of the raise that nobody had a Deuce. I figured he didn't and that the all-in re-raiser didn't have me beat. I called. I had the best hand with Jacks. The preflop raiser had pocket 9s so he had 2 outs. The all-in re-raiser had an Ace and a 3 of diamonds so he had 8 outs. The turn was an 8 of diamonds. I was screwed. I needed one of 2 Jacks or one of two Deuces to fall on the river. The river was a deuce. I got lucky on the river but I made the right move on the flop. $275 pot.

Preflop, I was 31% to win, the pocket 9s were 51%, the Ace-3 was 14%. After the flop I was 61% to win, Ace-3 was 30% and the 9s were 9%. After the turn, I was only 10%, the 9s were 5% and the Ace-3 was 86%.

After that I sat and waited for cards. Eventually, I got pocket Aces. I was in the small blind. The button raised to $7. I re-raised to $17 hoping to go heads up. The big blind called me (with Ace-9 it turns out) as did the player on the button. The flop was as blank as it can get: 2-4-5. I wanted to take it down right there and knew neither of the other players in the hand hit anything. I bet $30 very aggressively. They both folded. A nice $35 of profit there.

My stack was getting up near $300. I was going to leave when the blinds were about to hit me. I was under the gun: my last hand. I looked down and saw pocket Queens. I raised to $12. Some runner-runner moron who had just sat down called me. He was calling everything with anything. He's the "but it wa ssuited" type of player, playing any two cards that are suited in any position for any amount of money. He had about $300 in chips in front of him. I got two other callers. The flop was 4-9-3. Great flop for Queens. One of the callers bet out $15. I quickly called. The moron raised to $55. The original bettor folded, I called. The turn was a 7. I checked, he bet $40. The river was a scary Ace. I checked as did he. He flipped over 9-7 suited, two pair. I was stunned. I lost $107 on the hand. Had the 7 not hit, I would have won a $146 in profit (the moron definately would have bet $40 if he didn't hit two pair, if not he would have bet more)

Here are the odds of the hand
Preflop: Queens 80%, 7-9 20%
Flop: Queens 81%, 7-9 19%
Turn: Queens 36%, 7-9 64%

I had a lot of outs after the turn. I had a flush draw so any heart would have won me the hand. Any of the two Queens would have won me the hand, and if a 3 had fallen to pair the board, I would have had a bigger two pair. I had 13 outs and missed each one of them.

The loss forced me to continue playing. I had about $150 in my stack. My stack slowly eroded for about 2 hours until it got down to $80. Then I got Aces and doubled up. I flopped a set of them and kept betting slowly. Then on the river a guy pushed me all-in. Even though there were three hearts on the board, I knew my set was good so I called. Then I got up and drove home.

The moron got all the way up to $500. This slowly eroded and he got busted due to stupid calls. He must have lost about $400 while he was sitting at the table. I only won about $60 and it would have been $325 had the 7 not fallen for the moron, but that's the name of the game. I got unlucky, but I kept my cool. I didn't go on tilt.

I played pretty tight. I folded Ace-King to a raise and a re-raise. Turns out I would have been in decent shape going up against pocket 6s and King-10 suited (once again, the moron). However, I would not have been in dominant shape. I folded Ace-Queen to a pocket pair and 3s to two high cards from the same person. I knew it was a race each time, but it just wasn't worth $15 to flip a coin. Had I felt that a few other people would call him, I may have stayed in, but nobody did and I knew they wouldn't even though I acted before most of them. Here are the top preflop hands I had and the result:

AA - hit a set, doubled up, $80 gain
AA - took it down on the flop, $35 gain
QQ - got outdrawn on the turn, $107 loss
33- folded preflop to two high cards
22 - folded preflop to a $15 raise from a tight player
AK - raised preflop, never hit, folded on the flop
AK - folded preflop to a raise and a re-raise
AQ - folded preflop to a pair
AQ - raised preflop, suited conenctors hit two pair, i bluffed on the flop but was called, didn't fire another bullett, $22 loss
AJ - hit Jacks, then a boat, $175 gain
AJ - hit two pair on the turn, $5 gain
AT - folded preflop to an all-in
AT - folded under the gun, player to my left went all-in
A6 - hit an Ace on the flop, $8 gain
A5 - folded preflop under the gun
A4 - hit a pair of 4s on the flop, kept chasing a straight draw, $20 loss
A3 - hit nothing
A2 - hit nothing
A2 - folded in early position

I was there for four hours which roughly translates into 125 hands of poker. In those hands I saw 9 premium hands, and won with them only 3 times. I won big enough with them though to make a slight and modest profit of $60 on the day. Again, it would have been $325 if not for that f*cking 7 on the turn.