Another solid cashgame session.

I was up forever for the last tournament, the session itself was running on 28 hours and I had been up a while before that, so when I came home I thought I was gonna pass out for an entire day of sleep. I go to bed at about 10 pm, wake up at 2am wide awake and I can't sleep. I try to get back to sleep until about 3 am when I realize I have no shot, so I call Chris and ask him to pick me up and drive me to the casino.

I go sit down in the must-move $2/5 NL game, I buy in for $1000. I win a couple pots early just playing kind of straight-forward, the third hand I play on the button and get dealt K8 of clubs, a few callers, I check my option and the small blind, who was a middle-aged asian guy with lots of money raises to $25. Four others call and I call. Flop KJ7 two hearts, the preflop raiser and all limpers check to me, I decide to test the waters and bet $80 into the $130ish pot and I take it down. Then I just play real tight and straight-forward winning me about $250 or so playing VERY few hands, I move seats so I'm on the other side of the very loose aggro asian player and I'm on the other side of the table now.

The next pot I play is a big bluff against him as he loved to raise to $25 after a lot of limpers and I decided to make a play at it. I limped in for $5 as did plenty of others, he makes it $25 out of the big blind, again four people call it's $125 in the pot when I make it $120 to go with A8 of hearts in late position. He says, "I call" immediately, everybody else folds. Flop is 973 with two spades. He leads for $80 which is a sign of weakness too to me, if he flopped a monster he'd surely check-raise, that's just how I perceived that he would play. I raise to $180 employing the "hundred on top" bet which lot of people do when they have a huge hand. Like if someone bets 60 they make it 160 and it usually means a big hand, no idea whether he'd pick up on it or if it mattered but I'm just saying! Anyway he insta-calls. Turn is a 6 of clubs putting a spade and a club-draw out there and giving me an open-ended. He checks. I am now wondering if I should take this freecard if this guy is just thinking I am putting on a play and I might have 11 good outs in best-case scenario but I thought that I probably need to bet this to give me another chance to win. I didn't think he was that strong so I wasn't afraid of a check-raise, I bet $330 and he folds fairly quickly.

Our must-move game gets shorthanded and we're playing four-handed. I'm talking a good bit to the guy on my left who seemed to be a pretty good online player, it was funny though that he was always trying to put me on hands saying outloud what I had before I turned it over on showdown. So far he was 0 for 3 putting me on air twice when I had the near-nuts once, the stone nuts the second time and last time he said I was huge when I bet the river and I had nothing. Basically, he was off every time. I raise K9 of hearts first one to act in our four-handed game to $30. Button calls. Flop is 10-9-4 one heart. I bet $40 he calls. Turn is the J of hearts which gives me a gutshot straight draw with a Q and the second nutflushdraw. I check, he checks. River ace of hearts giving me the nuts, I overbet the pot and bet $120. The guy calls and the hand-reader on my left goes, "Uh oh, I think he caught you bluffing" and I show the nuts, it gave me a laugh.

I finally get moved into the main game and I only play two notable pots really that are somewhat interesting. In one I complete the smallblind with 5-2 of spades, big blind makes it $25, UTG limper calls, I call. Flop is Q-5-2 two hearts. I check, orig. raiser bets $50, next guy calls $50 I just call because I wanted to make sure a safe card rolls off on the turn. The 10 comes on the turn which is a somewhat bad card incase the original limper had QT. I check, preflop raiser bets $75 and the UTG limper folds which made me feel better and here I opt to take a line that wasn't ordinary. This raiser didn't give me much credit, I knew this, so I didn't want to pop it up a whole lot have the ten or Q pair on the river and give up the hand. I think he had me on a flushdraw so I decided to just call this turn and if a non-scary non-heart came on the river I'd fire an overbet to make it look like a missed flushdraw that was desperate. I call $75, river is the 4 of clubs total blank. I fairly quickly lead out for $350. He thinks for a minute and says I think I gotta call, and shows AQ. Another funny thing to note, the hand-reader I was talking about earlier is now sitting on my right and before I show my hand he goes "KJ of hearts, right?" and once again he was wrong. At least I get it confirmed that I played the hand like a missed flushdraw and that I'm not easy to put on a hand, which is always good.

Then I have another pot that I played very poorly against Tim Campbell who is a semi-regular in the game who knows what he is doing. He raises to $40 on a straddle, and I call with A2 of hearts. I have about $2200 infront he has me covered. Flop is 10-8-4 rainbow, no hearts. He bets $50 I decide to float here and raise the turn if he shows any weakness. Turn is the 7 of spades making a spade-draw possible. He checks, I bet $80 and he calls quickly. River is a low blank he checks. Now that he called the turn I really had him on either 99 or a JJ type hand, or perhaps AK of spades but truthfully I didn't think too much about a spadedraw because I thought he'd lead the turn again with that hand so I kind of ruled out the draw. I also thought I'd get called by 99 or JJ both or even AT, or any overpair for that matter, so I give up the hand and check. He says, "I have nothing", and since I had ace high that sounds fairly good hoping he had QJ or something. I ask "How big is your nothing?" he laughs and shows AJ of spades. He turned a gutshot and the nutflushdraw, I wish I had bet river. I tap the table and tell him its good. :)

I cash out $1300 winner in the game and finally go home and get some sleep. Me and Chris then went over to Andys for a superbowl party which was a lot of fun, the first one I had been to. It was me, Chris, Andy, Donald, Steve and Mark and I had a lot of fun. Andy cooked some great food and had some amazing chicken wings, ribs, steak, all kinds of snacks, fruit platters and god knows what else. It was the stone nuts. Then went home after the game and passed out and finally got a good nights sleep.

$550 NLHE live tournament at the Horseshoe

I hadn't played live in a while but I felt like playing, so I got some cash transferred off of PokerStars and decided to play the $60 with $40 rebuys. I ran pretty awful, never really getting anywhere or even getting any chips and busted out. I had about $1000 left to work with after that, and I go play some 1/2 NL and later some 2/5 pot limit Triple Draw. I get stuck about 250 in the hold'em game when I play triple draw. I misplay the shit out of hand, I think, when I raise a straddle to $40 and get two callers. One of the callers draws all five cards, which was pretty interesting, he said he wanted to set this kid who has been raising straight, just playing around.

Anyway, I had A-2-3 and we're playing A-5 lowball. I bet pot after the first draw, discard two and I draw a 7 and a K on the second draw, they both discard two. I keep my seven (mistake #1?) and draw one. Third draw, I toss my J and one guy draws one, other draws two. I catch another king. They check to me, there's about $320 or so in the pot, I decide to make a small bet of $120 (mistake #2?) because I didn't want to go full pot because it in my opinion would look too much like I'm obviously going to steal this pot. I really thought a $120 and a $180 bet would have the same effect since if they had made a hand they'd call regardless, and both being better than the full $320 bet which in my opinion looked more like a steal. Anyway, the guy goes, "All I can beat is a bluff." thinks for a while and calls with a A-2-3-4-J and takes the pot.


I go buy in the Horseshoe 1/2 NL $300 max for $300. I run amazingly well getting AA all-in preflop for $300 against AK, flop a set of 10's and get it allin on the flop for $240 against JT on a T-6-2 flop (the game was off the hook) and other sweet things.

I had another nice pot, two guys were talking lots of trash to each other, one younger black guy and one older black man. They kept talking a lot of shit saying how they were going to bust the other guy in every pot blah blah... so the guy announces he's gonna raise the young guy no matter what this hand. I'm sitting here observing the madness when I look down at A-A UTG. I limp for $2. Folds around to the older black gentleman who makes it $50, a tilting, steaming and horrible farmer guy calls the $50. I make it $155. They both snap call me immediately. One has another $140, the other has about $250 behind. Flop is Q-T-5. Two clubs. I bet out $300 enough to cover both, they BOTH insta-call. I'm wondering what the fuck I need to dodge. Turn is a 5, best card in the deck I thought. River is another Q. How about the worst card one time? Q-Q-T-5-5 on the board. I turn up my aces. First guy goes "I can't beat it, I can't beat it." I look over to the next guy who looks puzzled but finally taps the table. They had 7-7 and J-J respectively, is this game good or what?

I had one more interesting hand with an asian guy who seemed to be a crafty player. I raise it up to $15 on the button with QJo both red cards. He calls and someone else calls. The flop is T-7-3 with two spades. They check to me, I bet $30. He check-raises me to $90. Here is a funny thing to notice. I had seen him play three big pots earlier that he won with big hands, every time he would bet $95 and follow it up with a bet of $195. One time the pot was real big, and he bet $295. I'd seen him make another couple bets that wasn't a 95 number and lose pots, so before I decided to give this hand up entirely I thought "Wait a minute... something doesn't smell right..."

I also had been fairly active so I thought he wanted to just stop me from raising. I just call, floating him with Q high to make up my mind further on the turn, we were both over another $1000 deep. Turn is the 8 of spades putting a spade flush on the board, I don't have a spade in my hand. I really didn't think if anything this card would be good for him as I doubt he checkraised me on a flushdraw the way this guy was playing. One other time he flopped a set, filled up the turn and he checked it down all the way waiting for me to bet and I didn't, so this also wasn't like any other line he had taken in any other pot. I was totally convinced he was trying to take this when he started to make a bet. He grabs $100 in reds and count them out, add another $20 on top, add another $20 on top... thinks for a minute puts another $20 on top. It seemed like he was trying to figure out the appropriate amount for me to fold. He bets $160. I pause for a moment, ask him about how much more he has left... he doesn't look entirely comfortable and doesn't say anything he just moves his hands a bit so I can see his chipstack. He has at least $700 behind. I said, "I raise." and I put the $160 out... I put $225 on top. He goes "I can't beat spades." and folds, I show QJ hoping it'll loosen him up and potentially tilt him and planning to use the exact same play with a good hand later and he looks a bit shocked and made some complimentary comment about that I played it good. A few hands later he goes, "I actually couldn't beat the queen high, I was trying to take it from you" which I don't know whether it was true or not, I know the second part was but it doesn't matter, won the pot.

Anyway to make an incredibly long story short, I win my money back and I cash out $2200 from the game. I decide to enter the $550 tour on a whim even though I've already played for 24 hours straight. I get off to a good start, I call 250 with 76 of hearts, 5000 start chips blinds 25/50 against a guy who I know is very straight-forward, tightish. Four others call, pot is 1250. Flop is 789 bottom pair open ended, orig. preflop raiser leads for 700 I believe it was, it folds to me I make it 1700 fully expecting to take it down as this is a very scary flop for him unless he has JJ or TT. He folds fairly fast, I claim a set of sevens (sorry, I lied)

I chip up to 9k nothing special happened, then I have a huge major suckout for a lot of chips. Blinds 50/100 two limps, I limp on the button 63 of clubs. Flop 6-3-2 two diamonds. BB leads for 250, folds to me, I make it 750. He makes it 1500. He has just over 4000 total. I really thought about this hand and I didn't love it because it was a draw heavy board but I didn't think he flopped the nuts. He led out from the BB real fast and I somehow thought he might've flopped some kind of two pair himself. Or a pair and a flushdraw, or a pair and a gutshot with something like 65. I shove. He thinks for a moment, I like my hand now, then he calls. He has 45 for stone nuts. River 6, ship it to the luckbox. I end up with 12000 after that hand instead of 4000 if I lose.

Nothing spectacular for a while, I lose a big race AK to QQ for 8k chips then just kind of hang around. I open a lot of pots when antes kick in and I can't remember any big hands but I was up to 19k at 400/800. We're down to 14 players and top 5 pays. Two seven-handed tables. I start trying to raise a lot but the guy on my left moves in a whole lot on me. I lose a bunch of chips. One hand I limp the button instead of raising, tired of the all-ins, with 96c. Flop is A-T-7 two clubs I flop gutshot with a flushdraw. Blind leads for 600, I just call, as he was a good player and I didn't wanna play a huge pot yet. Turn a blank, he bets 1200 I call. I miss the river he bets 1200 again I fold, I played the hand fairly scared.

I lose down to 8000 and I'm in dead last on my table with blinds now at 500/1000 100 ante. I feel like shit and I thought I fucked my tournament up. I start moving in a lot as we are now 6-handed and everybody wants to make the final table. I get up to about 16k without a showdown, stay afloat around there when I pick up aces to a raise, I move in and he folds. I forget if I win any other hand but I don't think so, I was involved in very few showdowns, I had 28k entering the FT with 800/1600 200 ante level.

I stay out of the way opening only one pot in that level with AQ, just sticking around. I also defended my blind after SB limped in, I flopped top pair with 82, no kicker of course, he bets flop I call he bets turn I call he checks river I check behind and I pick up some chips there.

We go all the way down to 6 handed with the money bubble at 5. I start raising a little bit more frequently and it is successful this time, I chip up to about 35k. Bubble bursts and we're guaranteed like 970 bucks. I start raising a lot more now. The guy on my left wanted to chop real badly and one guy who had objected to chopping loved raising his blind cause the guy on my left was playing weak tight wanting to squeak up in the money. One hand he mini-raises his BB to 6000 (1500/3000 level), I have A8o in the sb. I have 35k, the has 20k. I move in, he folds quickly. The very next hand I raise A9 and everybody folds. Hand after this I pick up AA raise again everybody folds. I finally bust the guy on my right when he has 16000 at 1500/3000 I have about 60k. He moves in SB on my BB, he's a good player and he knows when he's supposed to push so I thought his range is huge, basically any two. I have KT and I call. He has 87 off and that's one of the few big showdowns I had, and I win that. It wasn't for a crippling amount of chips but important nevertheless.

I really don't play any showdown pots as I take down so many hands without a showdown. One hand was huge for me three-handed and one of the more important hands. I have A9 in the SB, and I limp in to the chipleader who has me covered by a bit's BB. He raises it 8000 more, I called. Flop is K-2-2 two clubs. I check, he sloppily bets 10000 very fast. I miniraise to 20000 leaving myself with 45000. He thinks for a moment and calls. This is "mr all.in" that had moved in on every hand he flopped anything with, and some he didn't, so I really didn't think he was very big. Also important to note is we are three handed with the third guy having no chips, so I really think he didn't want to get near busted by me as we were close in chips and one man is about to go out third at any time. Anyway, the turncard is another K. Board K-K-2-2. There's like 50k+ in the pot, and I bet a small bet of 14000. He folds and I take that one down.

We finally get down headsup, I'm 130k to his 75k blinds 2000/4000 with 500 ante. He wants to chop, I decline because of chip count. I'm low on money though and playing on a short bankroll so I offer him that we move $1000 from 1st to 2nd, the reason I decided to do this is because HU vs this guy was very volatile. He was a very aggro player and I had no doubts I'd be able to trap him eventually, but as with any guy who likes to push all-in, if you catch him with 86 vs your AK he can still draw out =)

So it's $7600 for first and $5400 for second instead of 8600 and 4400. We play. He starts moving in a lot, I make a couple raises he moves in, and we're at 110k/95k and we're almost even. I limp in Q4 on his blind he checks. Flop 653 I flop open ended. I check he bets 6k. I call. Turn is a 2 giving me a straight, I check. He moves all-in, I call. He has 97 for a double gutshot, I gotta dodge 7 outs and the river blanks off and I take it down for $7600. Sweet feeling as always.

Same old, same old...

Just more playing, nothing really interesting that happened lately. Made few hundred session before last, dead even on the session late last night. I played a few MTT's but no serious cashes, just a couple cashes where I got my money back.

I've really wanted to go up to Tulsa, Oklahoma and play some of their live tournaments though. I know this will be yet again playing out of my bankroll so I'm not sure if I should stick to this disciplined stuff or actually take a shot, I'm going to play the nightly tournament down at the Horseshoe tonight and afterwards play some $2/5 cashgames and try to make me a little bit of money. Hopefully enough to cover tonights $65+$40 rebuy tournament and if I do well, I might play tomorrows $550 freezeout. It all depends.

Besides that I really feel like going snowboarding. St Louis and their Hidden Valley Ski Resort sounds pretty sweet to me, it's like $65 bucks a day to rent the equipment and for lift tickets and what not and it would be a lot of fun. I used to snowboard some but I haven't in forever, time to go up there and bust my ass on the mountain and knock out the teeth on the other side to even it out!