Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Day at the Casino

Our house is currently undergoing renovations and this week has been designated painting week. In other words, I had to get out of my room and house quick smart this morning so people could come in and paint my walls. What’s a poker player to do?

Go to the casino obviously!

When I got there I signed up to the 5/5 $500 buy-in game and took a seat at a 1/2 $80 max buy-in game to kill time while I waited. About fourth hand in I pick up JJ in the big blind and shove after there was a raise to $7 and four or five callers. I get called by a half-stack (aka $40…) with A9 and manage to hold. Yayyyyyyyy….swimming in riches! An orbit later I pick up TT utg and raise it to $10. I get 2 callers, flop a set on QTx rainbow and make a c-bet. Unfortunately I get no action and a few minutes later I take my seat at the 5/5 game.

I’ve never actually played this high before live. I’ve either been a total novice (the first summer I learnt poker), building my online bankroll (the second summer), or busto (last summer), so today was the first time I sat down with some black chips in tow and I have to say it felt pretty cool.

The first hand I’m dealt J3c in the big blind and we see a flop 7 ways. LOL. The flop comes 6c8c3d and I lead into the entire field for about 3/4 pot. While I wait for everyone to make a decision, I quickly wonder to myself whether this was actually a good bet or not. On the one hand, betting into this many players doesn’t seem too bright and I really don’t want to get raised and have to play a bigger pot than necessary out of position. Also, if I do hit my flush on the turn, if I bet and get called by multiple people I’d probably have to check the river anyway since I’d only have the fourth nut flush. This means that the normal reason to bet – to build up a big pot so you can get paid off handsomely later – doesn’t really apply here. Then I think to myself “but Joey if you bink off a 3 or a Jack on the turn it’s going to be awesome!’ So I get one caller and of course the 3 of spades comes on the turn! Good bet, sir.

I bet the turn and he calls and the river comes an offsuit King. I debate whether to check and induce from a busted draw or bet huge and make it look like I missed a draw myself. The king is an unfortunate card because it’ll make it hard for him to call with the made hand part of his range which consists almost entirely of weak one pair type hands, but I decide to bet anyway since I don’t know if he’ll even bluff a busted draw if I check. So I bet about 180 and he folds and shows his 79o for a busted straight draw. I was a bit annoyed that I didn’t check but really happy to get off to a good start in my 5/5 adventure.

The very next hand in the small blind I see an 8 way flop of A82r with A8. I can remember thinking to myself “man, I’m running so hot, today is going to be easy!” I go for a check-raise and only the original bettor calls. At this point the pot is $180 or so and the turn comes a beautiful 8. As Vince from the WPT would say, show-tunes were going off in my head! There is simply zero chance a live player is going to fold an ace on this board and I held the mortal nuts. What an awesome spot! So I bet $145 and he folds. Wait...WHAT???!!! I died a little inside.

The next five hours however proved tremendously uneventful and there were only two more hands worthy of note. In the first, I flatted 99 from the BB and flopped top set on 964cc. to my dismay, the five way flop checked through and the 5c came on the turn. I led out for $150 into the $200 pot and got one caller and the river brought the ugly Qc. I checked and fortunately he checked too and I got to showdown my nines which were good enough to best his turned set of fives. He asked me whether I would’ve folded to a river bet and honestly I don’t know. It’s pretty hard to believe he peels just the naked Ac on the turn to that big a bet with relatively shallow stacks and I also don’t think live players would bet anything less than the Ac on the river. So that would lead me to want to call. On the other hand live players never bluff. So I’m really not sure.

To introduce the final hand, I need to introduce my opponent. It was basically this Vietnamese dude who thought he was really cool because he could spew loads of money and, in his own words, ‘not care’. He’d been raising every hand and c-betting every flop and then showing his J3o type hand and declaring to the table ‘look how sick I am, can you believe I raise this stuff? I don’t even care what I have! I raise anything from 72 to Aces!’. LOL whatever. Anyway he opens to 35 and I call with AJo in the hijack along with the button and the utg limper. The flop comes Ac8c5d and I have the Jc. Utg checks and to my surprise loud crazy-Viet dude checks too. In fact, he checked so quickly and silently that I actually missed the fact he checked. I was simply told by the dealer that it was on me. I was pretty sure that he had simply given up on this hand since I had a really tight image and this flop was likely to have hit me hard. So I happily bet $100 into the $140 pot and the button and utg fold. As I mentally begin raking in the pot I see this splash of green and black and suddenly my opponent has declared that he’s all-in. HUH???

It’s $295 more to me to call and against someone this crazy this would seem to be a snap-call. Yet I had never seen him take this line before and with my tight image I really didn’t think he was bluffing. If he had simply c-bet and barreled off multiple streets I would’ve stacked off in a heartbeat, but this line really confused me. Eventually I decided to muck and he flashed his 32c for the flush draw and gutter-ball. The table roared at the sight of the nut-low but I was pretty happy with my fold as I think I’m behind his range there which is made up of made hands that beat me or semi-bluffs with which I’m flipping.

Anyway, I finished up the session a solid $5. Not bad for five hours work!

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