Session 7

In order to walk away with a $90 profit Monday night I broke two rules I set for myself in order to test my ability to turn playing poker into a career. The first rule was re-buying more than once in a single session. The second rule was playing longer than planned because I was in the hole, otherwise being known as stuck.
The first $200 I spent went rather quickly because although I was physically in my seat I was not at the game mentally. I bluffed off and called off my money faster than a three-song lap dance in a Vegas gentleman’s club, metaphorically you understand.
The second $200 went just as fast, but at least I put forth some thought behind my plays. I lost a large sum when my runner-runner flush with 5-3 of hearts ran into the nut flush. He bet on the flop and for some reason I stayed in the hand to see a turn card, which gave me the flush draw and we both checked it to the river. When the heart hit I bet $25 and he raised me the minimum. Since there were so many hearts bigger than mine I just called instead of raising. Calling was obviously dumb, but I figured my hand to be good enough times to validate the call.
The rest of my money lost on a set over set situation when my 10-10 went up against J-J.
Seeing as I was now mentally ready for the game and got the bad luck out of the way I wanted to see if I could recoup some of my losses. I bought in for another $200 and after about 30 minutes at the same table, and winning back about $50 of my $400 on the table, we broke up and went to different tables.
Two hands after sitting down at the new table I was in the big blind with 10-9 offsuit. The under the gun player raised the big blind, which was $2, to $7 total. He received three callers before me, which included the small blind. I was staring at 6-1 odds and decided to see a flop, which it’s a good thing I did. The pot was at $35.
The flop came 10-9-2 with two hearts. The small blind and I both checked. I was looking to trap the under the gun player. He led out with a $20 bet and was immediately raised by the player on his left. This guy went all in for $74 total. This then put $129 in the pot. The two players after this thought for a little bit and decided to fold. I now had a decision before me. I was sitting with approximately $240 in front of me and the under the gun player had about $150 in front of him. I could either just call the re-raise inducing him to call with his overcards or pocket pair or I could re-raise to get it heads up. I got greedy and decided I would take my chances against him in a side pot. Luckily for me he folded. You see, he had pocket jacks and the turn was a jack, so I would have lost.
The all-in guy flipped over his aces and lost the hand when no help came. I should also add that the other two players who thought about calling before I did both had hearts and a heart came on the river. So I got extremely lucky that three winning hands folded to the re-raise. Thanks so much to the guy who got cute with his aces.
The other big hand came when I had A-10 of diamonds in what would have been my small blind, but the guy on my right bought the button after being absent for his big blind, so I now was first to act after his small and big blind.
I limped to get a pot going in case I hit a big hand. There were four callers and the blind checked it. This put $13 in the pot.
The flop came 10-9-4 with two hearts. This was a very similar flop to the previous hand I discussed. I decided rather quickly that I had the best hand, unless someone got lucky and had a set, so I wanted to disguise my hand on the flop and catch someone betting what they thought was good. The blind and I checked and the girl on my left bet $10. The next three players called. That I didn’t expect. I thought about the situation and decided this was good enough and I wanted to win the hand as fast as possible, so I raised it another $50 on top of the $10. The original female bettor and the guy on her left both moved all in, which I covered with my $60 bet. The next player then called the raise. The guy in the blind asked if I was on a draw or had flopped a set and decided to get out of the way when I replied, “We’ll see.”
The turn was a black two. I immediately led out with a $100 bet, which would have covered the only other guy in the hand who wasn’t all in by about $5. He folded and I flipped up my top pair, top kicker hand.
The river was a nine and the two all-in players folded without showing. I won a massive pot that put me at $700 for the night.
I played another 15 minutes and then got up after five hours of play, which I only planned to play four hours but was stuck less than $100 and thought I could make it up in another hour.
I walked out with $690 for a $90 profit, which puts me up $1,342.75 for the year. After playing for the five hours I made $18 an hour. This is definitely a decent amount. I have played seven times at Choctaw Casino this year and have had seven winning sessions, but some were very small wins.
I am planning one more trip to Oklahoma tomorrow night and a tournament this weekend, which should complete the month for me. I will post my January results once I have completed all my games.