thisfool's microscope

If you want to read about some live hands in which I crushed souls and ran reasonably well, this post is for you. Note: posting this doesn't make me cool; it was just kind of fun and the hands might be fun to read about! I sat down for some table poker this week, played crazy aggro, and ran up some bucks. The money's going to get dropped into Full Tilt so I can move back up to 25NL... yay!

NIGHT 1: LIVE .25/.50NL $40 BUY-IN
This was a home game at my friend's house three nights ago. By my estimates, this game has one thinking player, two or three basic competent players, and a few who like to splash money around and don't have much game awareness. It's usually legit. Here are some hands of note:

) Early in the night. The thinking player opens from MP. I call from the SB with KQ. Effective stacks $40.
FLOP: QT6. I check, MP bets close to full pot. I actually pick up a strong tell from him. I call.
TURN: K. Cool, but I'm actually still scared of him TBH. I plan to check-call in order to evaluate the river spot and keep the pot small. He bets between 1/2 and 2/3 pot. I call.
RIVER: Q. So, I lose to KK, which is only one combination in his range. I decide to check-raise, but he checks behind. He mucks face-down and says I owned him.

) One orbit later. The same villain opens from MP, SB calls, and I call in BB with KQ. Effective stacks about 60BB.
FLOP K96. SB checks, I check, MP bets half pot, SB calls, I check/raise about 4x, both fold. It seemed like a good time to put pressure on the raiser, since I'd just taken him for a pot and he might mistake under the pressure.

) UTG competent player limps. I raise from MP with 68. BB splasher calls, UTG calls. Effective stacks about 80BB.
FLOP 45K. BB donks out a bet, UTG calls, I raise 2/3 pot. BB calls. UTG raises all-in, but it's less than a min raise, so I call, and BB calls.
TURN T. BB checks, I shove. BB thinks for about twenty seconds and then calls. BB has a set of fives. UTG has KQ. I get really surprised at BB's turn play.
RIVER J. I scoop a massive pot. Someone calls me a donkey. I ignore that.

) Competent player sits down at the table about ten minutes before this. I have a mini rivalry with him because he's one of the more consistent winners in the game, but I think I can take him down on all fronts.  I swore that if this player came to the game tonight, I would try to destroy him. The table knows this.
I open raise from MP with JJ. Rival player calls from the button. Blinds fold.
FLOP J79. Pot: $4.25. I lead out $2.75. Rival calls. BB folds.
TURN 7. Pot $9.75. I bet $6.75, then cover my mouth with my hands and start to stare at the cards. Rival thinks for thirty seconds, then calls.
RIVER: 5. Pot $23.25. I reach for $20 in one-dollar chips, stack them in the middle with a bit of emphasis, then go back to covering my mouth. I let my leg shake and go back and forth between looking at the board and looking up at the roof. He calls, then immediately asks, "do you have pocket queens?" Ha. He mucks AJ face-up. My acting wins me an Oscar.

) My brother has now joined the game. He lives about 30 miles away.
My brother limps UTG, I limp from MP with A6, BTN splasher limps, BB checks.
FLOP: A34. Pot $2.25. BB checks, brother checks, I check, BTN checks. I intend to bet turn and river.
TURN: 6. I turn top two. BB min bets $0.50, my brother calls $0.50, I raise to $2.50. BTN folds, BB calls. Bro says "eight more" and puts in $10.50. I take about twenty or thirty seconds, then announce "fold" and hold on to my cards. BB folds quickly, and I instantly show the table my hand. I say to bro, "this is what I folded to you, fool!". He says I made a good fold.
Hours later, at the end of the night, as I'm fixing my brother a plate of food, I ask him what he had. He says he had 5x7x and adds "nice fold".

) A splasher limps from MP, I iso-raise with KT. My brother calls from the BB, splasher folds.
FLOP: 8T3. Brother donks out into me, I raise him, he raises all-in for only a little more, and I call. He has 9J. A monster!
TURN: Q
RIVER: Q
Apparently I was a 2:1 dog on this flop?!!?


The most ridiculous hand of the night:

) A competent, semi-splashy player is on his fourth buy-in (only $20 each time). He's got about 17BB here. He raises from EP, and the cutoff player (an unknown to me) re-raises with TT. EP goes all-in, gets called by the guy with the tens, and shows 89. Everyone laughs.
FLOP: 8 (everyone gets excited), 7, 8 (everyone goes nuts). Maybe this guy's luck is turning around.
TURN: T. Nope, it isn't! Everyone at the table screams and the hand just couldn't get any crazier, right?!
RIVER: 8. Everyone in the room goes fucking insane. I'm not joking. Wowwwwwwzers.

I leave the night with $181 from my $40 buy-in. That's the most anyone's taken from this home game in a night. I plan to deposit it on Full Tilt, but...


NIGHT 2: LUCKY CHANCES $1-1-2 NLH

The night after the home game. My entire bowling team and I have an awesome night on the lanes and decide to all go to Lucky Chances to play after our league gets out. I bring my $140 winnings hoping to run it up or go home even on the week. Note, my bowling team includes the guy who won the previous hand listed. His luck wasn't as good tonight. :)

My plan is to buy in for $100, and if I lose it, to rebuy $40. That's my stop loss.

) We take a multiway flop in a limped pot. I have 57 in MP1.
FLOP: 234. I check, guy to the left of me checks, CO bets something, SB calls, I raise to about 1/3 of my stack, guy to my left INSTANTLY shoves in his stack of $80, it folds to me, and I call. He has QQ. What the hell?!? I'm a favorite, but I don't hold. I'm down to $23.

) Two hands later. A three-way limped flop. I'm in the BB with J6 and $23. I plan to shove top pair or better.
FLOP: J23. SB checks, I shove. Guy to my left calls, SB calls.
TURN: Q. SB donks out full pot. Guy to my left folds and says he had a jack. SB shows 3Q. I lose that ish. Rebuy $40.

) Someone puts in a $4 kill from UTG, which is basically like a straddle but worse; the minimum to call becomes $8, the pot gets inflated, and the guy who kills never ever follows up with a raise. CO calls, I have K8. I shove in my stack of $39 as a steal attempt (about $20 or so in the pot). The guy in the BB asks the dealer if he can raise. I sweat a little. He just calls, though, and everyone else folds.
FLOP: T87. The BB ended up having K9. He wanted to raise that? I held up to win. Up to $90ish.

) A drooler to my right limps from MP. I iso-raise with JJ. He calls.
FLOP: 327. He checks. I lead out 2/3 pot. He calls quickly. My bet sizing sets up a turn shove.
TURN: T. He checks. I shove all-in. He takes about ten seconds to call it. He ends up having QJ. On the brick river, he announces sadly, "I missed..." I drag pot. At about $160.

) I limp with 35 from EP. This is probably my second or third limp of the night. A guy from MP limps as well. Then a guy behind him raises only 3x. We both overcall getting insane odds. I have $140 or so.
FLOP: 359. Pot about $36. I check. MP donks $20. Raiser smooth calls the $20. I acted on instinct here. I don't remember taking more than few seconds to think about this. Sensing some kind of weakness, I shoved in my $140. So there's $96 in the middle and another $120 to call. The donk folds, and the preflop raiser goes into the tank. It takes him about a minute. I start to put him on an overpair+diamond with more and more certainty. Or maybe some kind of pair+diamond. Definitely not a flush or set. Two pair is unlikely. He finally says "I call", and I say "I think I'm ahead right now".
TURN: 2. I feel sunk and say "well, I WAS..."
RIVER: J. I toss up my hand to show the two pair, and he pats the table with his hand and says "good hand". As he throws it away, I see the A. I ask him if he had aces. I don't remember what he said, but there's no other hand in the universe that makes sense there. I double to more than $300, built from my $40 rebuy.

I cash out $339, making my profit $340 on the two sessions. I ran pretty well, and I felt pretty cool about my play. I definitely played it aggro.

Back to the $25NL grind!!!