Session 15

I got back on that horse Tuesday night and drove to Choctaw to see if after breaking the losing streak in Shreveport I could perform well in Oklahoma. Greatest decision I ever made.
I played for my usual four hours and left with a profit of $951. It was a good mixture of great cards and well-timed bluffs. I did get caught bluffing once, but I got away with it on about three medium-sized to large pots so it was okay.
My initial surge to profits-ville was actually from a bluff. I had pocket threes in the big blind and called another $10 when it was raised from late position. Another player behind me called the raise and we went to a flop with the pot at $30.
The flop was Q-6-5 rainbow. I checked, the player after me checked and the raiser bet $20. I thought for a good thirty seconds about my options. I could either fold since I only held a small pocket pair. I could call to see what came later and see what the bettor did. I could raise since the bettor could simply be on a continuation bet.
While I was going through my thought process the bettor started to do some table talk and began hinting that he was afraid of me since I was in the blind and could have anything. I thought he wasn’t posturing for a call and actually didn’t want a call.
I decided not to fold and not get crazy. I wanted to see how the bettor reacted to a call. So I put in the money and expected to move on to the turn, but the guy behind me called. That’s not good. The pot now had $90.
The turn was a 2. This was good for me since it most likely didn’t help anyone and it gave me four more outs for an inside straight draw. I elected to check again and both players behind me checked. I now knew the pre-flop raiser was doing a continuation bet but I couldn’t figure out what the guy after me was doing.
The river was a 5, putting Q-6-5-2-5 on the board. I thought for a few seconds and figured I could bluff the best hand in this situation if I didn’t have the best hand and I led out for $60, which was about a third of what I had left. Both players instantaneously folded and the pre-flop raiser asked if I had a five. I said no and flipped up my threes. He said he had one of my outs and that probably means he had A-3. I don’t know what the other guy had.
My next big hand was a full house when I held pocket jacks. I called a pre-flop raise, flopped a set, checked to the bettor, called his bet, turned a boat and called his all in after checking to him. Pretty straightforward. Knocking him out gave me an additional $250 to work with.
Once I was up to $800 I knocked a player out by hitting one of my 15 outs with two cards to come. I limped in with 6-7 of clubs and the player two to my left raised it $10 more. Four others called the raise and I decided to speculate a flop. The flop came 8-5-2 with two clubs. I had an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. I checked. The original raiser bet $15 (into a $70 pot). The player on his left said, “If I can’t win with this then I need to go home,” and he went all in for $95 total. It folded around to me and I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. I figured the original raiser/bettor wasn’t going to call, even if he had a monster hand pre-flop like aces or kings. The only way he was calling the extra $80 if I called was with a set or A-K of clubs (which is still questionable). I figured it would end up heads-up so I called, not wanting to risk any more than I had to. Sure enough the original bettor folded and the all in player tabled top set of eights. I turned the flush and he didn’t fill up.
A few hands later I lost almost $100 when I called an all in pre-flop with Q-J offsuit. I was under the gun and raised it to $10. I usually don’t raise this early with a hand like this, but I hadn’t raised all night and with $900 in front of me I decided to show them I had this ability. I received two callers and then the big blind moved all in for $87 total.
On a normal day there is almost no way I am calling a $77 raise pre-flop with Q-J offsuit, but there are some details you need to know that influenced my decision. The big blind had in the last 10 minutes lost about $200 on some bad beats and loose plays. The hand before this one he had straddled the big blind, moved all in pre-flop and wasn’t called. When he did it again I had a feeling he wasn’t that strong, but I’ve been wrong before. He seemed very nervous, shaking his knee rapidly, and I just sensed his hand wasn’t good enough to make this kind of move. I also had to worry about the two guys behind me, but if they had just called my $10 raise and then face a re-raise and call from the original raiser I didn’t think they would play also. I called and the other two laid their hands down (one even said he had A-Q). The all in player had K-5 of diamonds (about the range of hands I figured him to have), but he hit his flush and I lost.
I made it over the $1,000 hump when my pocket queens were outdrawn on the turn and then hit a two outer for a boat on the river. It was pretty sweet. I was in the big blind and re-raised it after a player in late position made it $5 to go. The small blind called and I bumped it up to $20. Both players called. There was now $60 in the pot.
The flop was 8-7-6 rainbow. The small blind checked. I bet $40. The late position player raised the minimum to $80, leaving himself only about another $80. The small blind folded. I thought a while and after the guy stared me down for a few seconds I was sure enough that he didn’t have me beat. I said I was all in, which really put him all in and he put the rest out there. He flipped up A-8.
The turn was an eight, giving him trips, and the river brought one of my only two queens for a full house.
I played up the luck box mentality and let everyone think I was just this average player who was getting his fair share of cards until I snapped off a great bluff. Then I would show the bluff and it gave the others some doubt when I made big bets with big hands. I have to say that I was definitely in the zone last night. I was making great value bets and getting paid off with great hands. It was a good night.
The big profit from last night, along with the Shreveport trip, pretty much cancels out my string of losses from two weeks ago. My bankroll is back up to $2,699, giving me a $1,699 profit for the year. For the record, my hourly rate last night was $237.75. Much better than the $5.75 an hour I made in high school at Blockbuster Video.