Session 8

My most profitable sitting of 2007 took place last night when James and I went to Choctaw for our usual Thursday game, and the funny part is most of my money came from two big hands.
The two of us were put at the same table at about 8:45 p.m. when they opened a new $1-2 no-limit game. For the first hour to hour-and-a-half I could not connect with a flop. Actually that isn’t entirely true. I did flop a set twice in that time period and got no action on it.
Finally things started rolling smoothly when I was dealt pocket nines on the button. There were already a few callers and this would be a good pot to have multiple people playing in case I hit a big hand. So I called.
The flop was K-10-4 rainbow. It checked all the way around to me. I decided to not get crazy with the hand and decided to check. I don’t fault a little probe bet here to see where everybody stands, but I elected for the checking routine.
The turn was a beautiful nine, completing the rainbow of suits and not allowing for a flush draw. The big blind led out for a $10 bet into a $14 pot. A player in middle position raised the minimum, making it $20. I didn’t like the minimum raise as it usually stands for a big hand, I just had to decide how big of a hand it was.
I was looking at a board of K-10-4-9. The only two realistic hands that could be beating me in a non-raised pot pre-flop was either a set of tens, which crushes me, or Q-J for the straight, which gives me a decent number of outs. I decided to call the minimum raise and see what happens on the river before getting too attached to my hand. That’s when things got really interesting.
The original bettor then raised all-in for $125 total. That led the raiser to call for his remaining chips, which was a total of $95. To call the bet would have left we with approximately $55. I was in a pickle.
I wasn’t worried about the blind player simply because he was a very loose player and continuously thought top pair with a weak kicker was good enough to play to the end, so two pair must be a monster to him. The player I was really afraid of was the minimum raiser. He had played this hand the same way most people would with Q-J. I now had to decide whether the guy had the straight or if he was losing to my set of nines. After about two minutes of thinking I got the feeling he didn’t want me to call, so I did.
The blind had 9-4 for two pair and the raiser never showed his hand, but he did say he had outs.
The river was a seven and I took down the pot. It was a $360 that gave me enough room to open up my game a bit.
The next big hand came when I got pocket kings in early position. I raised it up to $10. I was then re-raised by a player across from me who was wearing sunglasses at the table, which I’m not a big fan of. He made it $40 to go. It folded back around to me and I re-raised it to $100 flat. He quickly called the re-raise and we saw a flop.
The flop came down 7-4-2. This is a perfect flop for kings. I immediately said that I was all in, considering the other player only had about $125 remaining, and he insta-called. I thought this was bad news for my kings, but sure enough he turned over pocket jacks and didn’t improve.
After that I won a lot of little pots due to getting a lot of respect after showing down some big hands earlier. I stole some pots and got paid on a few hands where I had the best of it. It was a good night for me overall.
I logged a $558 profit for the night, which brings my yearly profit up to $1,900. In 2007 I am eight for eight on casino no-limit winning sessions and ten for ten since my last loss, which funny enough came from WinStar and the ten-winning streak is all Choctaw. I love that casino.