I wake up early today and me and my brother, who is visiting me from Sweden for 12 days were going to go into Memphis and check out Graceland amongst other things. A tournament starts at 6pm though and before I get somebody to give me a ride to the casino to pick up my car that I left because I got smashed the night before, it was 3pm. We decided to postpone the trip and go with Austin, Donald and David to the gym. At the gym they have a racquetball court and I have never played racquetball, I had no idea about the rules, nothing. I got a quick explanation of the rules then we started playing, and I had a blast. My brother played it for the first time too and he enjoyed it as well. It was a lot of fun, something I'll definitely do more of.
Then we go and play the Goldstrike $125 freezeout. It was a short one for me as I played a little too fast and busted first level. You start with 4000 chips and blinds 25/25. First hand I raise A-9o get no callers, second hand I raise K-10 to 125 and get four callers, flop is king high I bet 400 they all fold. Decent start, I thought. Then I pick up QJ of clubs, I raise to 125, one guy calls, next guy makes it 400 straight... it folds to me and I decide to call.
Flop is 10c 4c 6h and I flop a naked flushdraw no other redraws. I check, the guy bets 500. I really thought he might have a big hand after the raise preflop, and I decide to play it slow and just call and see what happens. Turn is an ace, and I didn't like that at all. If he for some reason did have AK or AQ he just hit, so I check again. He bets 800. There's now around 2800 in the pot after his bet, and I figured a call is right. I call, I brick the river and check, he disgustedly checks behind and I thought damn I fucked up. He shows 99. I just didn't want to raise the turn incase he actually hit with AK or something like that, and I ended up fucking up the hand pretty badly.
Then comes the bustout hand, I'm down to 2100 chips still playing 25/25. I limp in with 76o, guy makes it 75, four people call including me. Flop Ac 7c 6d. Bottom two with a flushdraw on board, I check, orig. bettor bets 200, next guy calls. I decide not to slowplay at all and move in for a total of 2025. Original bettor folds and the next guy thinks for a while before he decides to call, I figured him for a flushdraw. He shows A-10, no clubs. Turn 8 river 9 and I busted.
I go over to the Horseshoe, just in time for their 7pm tournament their rebuy tour. $65 with $40 rebuys. I take a rebuy immediately and you start with 800 chips and another 800 for the rebuy. I win a couple small pots, then towards the end of the rebuy round I flop a flush with 98s and another guy flops a six high flush, I win a big pot and I end the rebuy round at 6000. I decide not to take the add-on and keep playing with my stack. I can't remember what hands I win, but I win a few hands in quick succession and before I know it I'm at about 21000 and in very good shape with blinds at 200/400. I get moved to a new table, which I hated because my first table was amazing. On the new table I fold through the entire 200/400 round and most of the 300/600 and I find myself sitting at 19000 chips when I play a key pot. The blinds are 300/600 with 75 ante. A loose asian guy limps in UTG, guy next to him limps in, a few people fold and another limper tosses in 600. There's a lot of dead money out there now and I have Q7 of diamonds on the button. I decide to just smooth-call and gamble to hit a flop. The blind calls as well and we are SIX people going to the flop.
The flop comes down Jd 9d 5x if I remember right, it was jack high with a diamond flushdraw. The big blind immediately leads out all-in into the pot that has like 4400 in it for a 8200 bet. It was a twice the pot bet. The UTG limper decides what to do and while he's deciding, a player behind for some unknown reason throws in 5000 chips. The dealer informs him there's an all-in bet infront and he's acting out of turn and he tries to take back his 5000. Tournament rules state that his money is already in the pot, and he cannot take it back, and when the UTG player folds and it is really his own turn he's faced with a decision. He can either fold, and forfeit the 5000 or complete the bet and call the additional 3200. He decides to call. The pot is now giganormous. I count out my chips and I would have just over 10000 left if I call and lose, if I call and win I have a final table stack for sure. I love having a big stack on the second two tables anyway as I feel my aggressive game is suited for chipping up around the bubble. I put the big blind on two pair of some sort and the next guy I had no idea. I thought for a long time before I decide to gamble and call. The big blind shows KK (no diamonds) the other guy has AJ no diamonds. I'm drawing pretty live, turn comes a Q and I need one of 9 diamonds or one of five two-pair outs. River bricks and I lose the pot.
Shortly afterwards, I lose all-in AQ vs 10-10 and I get down to 7500. I lose A6 vs 44 against a real short stack for another 3500 and I'm down to 4500 or so The blinds have now gone up to 500/1000 with a 100 ante. I have four big blinds total. Everybody folds to me on the button, I look down at AA and I put my 4000 and change in there and the chipleader is in the big blind with 35k+ but he doesn't give me the courtesy call. I'm now at 6500 after picking up the blinds and antes. A few hands pass by, I'm UTG+2. A tight old man is in the big blind, and they fold to me, I shove allin with 76o hoping to pick the blinds. Small blind wakes up with AA and I bust. Flop was an exciting 9-5-4 for an open-ender but I brick out.
I then go play a 2/5 cashgame and I play horrible and I get frustrated and I throw away $300 on total garbage hands. I had no reason to be involved, I move over to the neighboring casino and play 1/2 pot limit omaha high/low. The game is 5 handed and it is ultra tight, there were no pots over 50 dollars at all. I start raising a lot, and in one hand I flop an open ended with 2-3-K-10 in my hand. The flop was Q-J-5 with two spades. The preflop raiser checks the flop, another guy checks and I bet 25. They both call. Turn is a 7 of spades, I check. The preflop raiser checks again, another guy fires like 50 at it, I make it 120. The old man calls and for some unknown reason I thought he might have aces with A-2 for a lowdraw or A-2-3 something of that sort. I thought he'd raise a flush to protect against lowdraws, unless of course he had nutflush with a nut lowdraw. River blanks, no low possible, I bet 150 which I figure was good enough unless he's got a big flush. He says "I raise the pot" and I muck of course, and now I'm stuck 300 more from Omaha.
I switch over to Hold'em, 1/2. I buy in for 1000 in the game. I start playing insanely fast, raising every hand, calling with garbage, I'm in total tilt mode. In one hand I limp in for $2 with 54 of spades. Larry, one of the tightest players around and a dealer at the Horseshoe moves in for $57 total. I called $55 more with 5 high, flop two pair and bust him as he walks away saying "That's so fucking sick man"... I was tilting kind of hard. I get stuck 700 in the game and I've got $300 infront of me when I'm about to give up as I'm tired and frustrated. Happy, an asian guy who is a real fun guy to play with suggests we play a simple prop bet game. We put up $25 a piece, and call the suits on the flop. You can pick black or red, simple as that. I pick black, he goes with red. If the flop is 2 or 3 black cards, I win. If it's two or three red cards, he wins. Simple enough?
I take the bet for $25, first flop is 2 black and I win. Second hand, same bet... I win again as the flop is all black. He asks me if I want another one, I said sure and we bet 25 again. I win and I'm now 3-0 and up $75 on him! We do a fourth one and now we're at four black flops in a row and I'm up $100. He says one more but we gotta give me a chance to get even, I bet 100. I said fine, I'm freerolling, good enough. Flop is all black again for the fifth time. I'm up $200. He's getting low on money but still wants to get even so he wants to bet me for $50. The sixth time the flop is more black than red, and I win again. He takes a 7th bet for $50 and once again for SEVEN CONSECUTIVE FLOPS the cards were black and I go for a flawless 7-0 and I win $300 from the little prop bet.
This got me in better spirits, even though the money was insignificant compared to what I was losing and I actually started focusing on playing better. I had an interesting hand with Isaac who is a good, tricky player and Bobby the dealer from the Horseshoe. I'm in the small blind with A-8 and we call a raise of $10 to see the flop. The flop is 8c 6c 5s... I check, Isaac in the big blind leads out for $30, Bobby calls $30... they fold to me and I'm thinking about raising it to define my hand and get draws out but I wanted to get a little more info so I just call. Turn is a K of diamonds. I check, Isaac bets $50, Bobby calls $50 instantly and I have him pegged on a draw of course. I'm wondering if Isaac flopped two pair out of the blind. I thought maybe he's got a worse 8 than me and he just kept betting because he thought it was good. I'm still kind of unsure what he has, but I still decide to call $50 more. The river is a 10 of spades, no flush available and the board is K-10-8-6-5. I check, Isaac checks, Bobby instantly pushes allin for $130. Wow, I started thinking did he flop a set? Did he have a king high flushdraw and back into a king? I thought he had a draw originally, he could've flopped a straight but I thought with me calling and Isaac driving the action he'd try to raise the turn to isolate and get the clubdraw out. I just didn't think the line he played made any sense. I start trying to study Bobby and he asks the guy next to him for a chip to put on his cards to protect his cards "incase he loses the pot", he said. He is looking real nervous, trying to smile, he takes a gulp of his drink and he's looking real uncomfortable. It isn't a big bet by any means but I just hate paying somebody off with a bad pair incase my hand is no good so I take time thinking about it. I recall a hand he played the same way before, with the insta-allin on the river when checked to him and he tabled a stone cold bluff triumphantly... so I decide I have him beat. Now do I raise this to get Isaac out or just call? I thought if I call, Isaac would throw away any non-set and I start thinking he might've had 87 or something because if he had a bigger hand than that he'd lead the river, I reasoned. I just called, Isaac folds and Bobby instantly throws his hand in the muck. Isaac claims he folded 99. I win the pot.
A little later, I end up having a fairly brutal hand as I thought I'd get paid. Villain in the hand has about $600, he raises to $20. A fairly big raise for this game, I have 74 of spades and I take the call, so does four others. Flop is 8-6-5 with two spades. I flop a straight with a spade re-draw. The original raiser bets $50 and I thought he might have a big pair, I wanted to raise it right here because I thought he'd never get away from aces, he wasn't that kind of a player. I didn't want a scare card hitting the turn either so I make it $150. A guy inbetween us calls all-in for $80. The orig. raiser calls also.
The turn is a 4 which was a card I hated. The board is now a very scary 8-6-5-4. Not scary because I thought I was beat, but a scary board for someone potentially holding AA or KK. He checks, I decide for a "small" bet of $150 for value. He raises allin for something like $250 more, I call immediately. He tables red QQ. The river is a disgusting 7 for the board of 8-7-6-5-4 and all of a sudden we both play the board, and it gets worse. Remember the guy calling allin for $80? He has Q-9 and he wins the sidepot so not only do I not win the guys $600, I end up losing $80 in the pot to the shortstack who called allin. I was pretty disgusted with the turnout of that hand.
I lose another pot to one of the real soft spots on the table, I was trying to play every pot I could with this guy because his post-flop play and the ability to get away from hands was poor. He also played rag hands real hard. I called his $15 preflop raise with K-T and flop was J-T-3. A shortstack bets allin for $17, he calls and I call. Turn is another T giving me trips. He checks, I bet $40, he miniraises to $80. I thought he might have a ten with a worse kicker and I ask how much he has left. He has about another $400 behind. The way he responded though made me worried, I was like god damn he likes his hand... but then again he might like any trips at all, until he responded so confidently I was ready to raise him but I decide to play it safe and just call. River is a total brick and he leads for $80. I just call because for some reason alarm bells are going off even though he is a fairly bad player. He turns over A-T and I feel that against him, I did lose the minimum.
Then after that I had one more interesting hand, that I played quite recklessly although I like the play. Tight player with about $500 infront raises to $20, I call with 98o. Loose call, gambling to try to hit it big. Flop is 10-10-6. He leads for $50 I call intending to float the flop and raise the turn unless I hit my gutshot. Turn is a 3. He checks, I thought he might have a big pair still because he led at the flop into the whole field. I decide for an amount to bet and I decide $80 looks like a valuebet, if he calls this, my next bet was somewhere in the $220 range on the river. He immediately says "raise" and raises 120 more to 200 total. I did not believe he had a 10 at all, I didn't think he raises 66 UTG to $20 or 33 for that matter, I was totally convinced he had a big pair. I look at his stack and he has $260 more behind. I said "I'm all-in" and I throw a stack of $100's in the middle, he lets out a deep sigh and he starts taking the chip off his cards and goes in the tank. I feel confident the play is going to work, even though it was a risky one, I just don't see him calling without a 10 at all and he had enough chips left to leave room to fold. He eventually ends up folding, and I take the pot.
All in all on the day, I end up losing just around $400, which was alright considering at one point I was stuck somewhere around $1600.
One more fun pot to tell you about from yesterdays Omaha game, I have never nailed a flop that hard I think. We're playing 1/2 pot limit omaha straight high. Someone straddles for $5 and Andy on my right makes it $15. I look down at A-K-K-J with the AK of hearts, so I'm suited once. I don't want to raise and isolate Andy as he is one of the guys I really don't want to try and beat he's a good guy and a good player and there were plenty of weak spots on the table so I just called hoping to bring in some callers and hit a flop big. Guy on my left makes it $35 and he doesn't have much more behind that. Six people call the $35 including Andy, I decide to pop it pot which ended up being somewhere in the range of $235. Three people call and Andy call, they don't all have $235 infront of them as two of the callers had really small stacks and Andy said "I gotta call you too, if the flop comes high its yours if it comes low its mine."
Me, Andy and one other guy are the only ones left with any money to play with post-flop. The flop comes down Kd-8h-6h. Top set with nutflush draw, Andy leads out and bets allin, I call... the turn pairs the 8 and I fill up. Andy claims to have 9-8-7-6 in his hand for bottom two with open ender so it was a kind of an action board.
So that's a few small hands, I rarely remember the ones I lose since its usually lot of small pots and I can't remember losing any really big ones I didn't write about, all in all I played really bad for 80% of the time I played today and played really well for a short period of time too. I wish I had won some, but it was still alright, could've been worse.
