Session 5

This one wasn’t pretty, but it still goes in the win column.
After buying in with $200 and going through about half of that in a little less than 25 minutes I milked a short stack almost all night. For about two-and-a-half hours of the session I was hanging at approximately $50-80.
I was at a very loose table and if I could have hit anything on the flop in the first half of the session I might have been able to make some money, but instead I was struggling to make anything that came across my path into a winner. I finally got some momentum going when I doubled up with pocket eights.
A live straddle was implemented three to my left, which was pretty normal at my table seeing as we had three guys who frequently straddled, putting me on the button. The guy two to my right raised it up to $15 and said, “I’m raising to protect our hands sir.” It got to me and I looked down at my snowmen. I decided to make this the hand that decided my fate and I said, “I’m going to protect all of our hands. I’m all in.” The all in was for $55 total.
It folded around to the raiser (the guy two to my right) and he thought for awhile and finally said, “Okay, let’s gamble.” He had A-J offsuit and never improved.
That gave me some room to breathe and set up the next hand, which took place maybe 10 hands later. It was raised to $5 pre-flop and there were about two or three callers ahead of me. I decided to see a flop with 9-7 of hearts. By the time the flop was seen there were six of us and $30 in the pot.
The flop was 10-8-2 with two hearts. I flopped a heart draw and open-ended straight draw. It checks two spots and a guy leads out for $22. One guy calls ahead of me and I had $99 in front of me. I decided to just call, wanting as much in the pot from every player possible in case I hit one of my hands. I know this is giving anyone with a better heart draw a chance to crush me but I was willing to take the chance at this point. Nobody else called and there was now $96 in the pot and I had $77 left.
The turn was a black 7. I now have more outs to win the hand. The bettor shoots out $20. The guy in the middle of us calls. I figure now if I hit one of my new found outs, which included a seven or a nine I could win the hand, so of course I am playing the hand until the end.
Having only $77 there is a strong argument for putting it all in right here and letting somebody call me. However, I wanted to make sure I had something better than third pair before putting everything I have in the middle. Sometimes I will gamble in these situations, but at this moment I wanted to see another card for just the $20. I called.
The river was a non-heart Jack, giving me my straight. It was checked around to me and I immediately went all in for $57. The first guy called me and he had rivered two pair with J-10. The other guy said he folded 10-8, which means he flopped two pair.
I ended the night with $251 putting my bankroll at $1,799.75. After 15 days of the month, a normal pay period for most, I have made $800. I am on par to reach my goal of $1,000 a month.