thejimsheet

This may be a long post.

I went to my poker meeting tonight. I was a little disappointed. But, still a good meeting about quantifying the mistakes opponents make.

Then, I went to the Venetian. Sidenote: comps can now be used for tableside massage, which I utilized tonight. My back feels good right now. On to the hands.

I limp/re-raised once with JJ, and took down a pot. The table overall was LAG, but specifically in this case, the initial raiser. It also confirmed that in my short time there, I had a decent image. A couple orbits later, the same situation came up. I’m utg, get two black Jacks, and limp. The same guy raises, but he’s got a huge range here. The difference is that this time it folds back to me. So, I just smooth call the 15. Flop 552 rainbow. Good flop that doesn’t chance a whole lot. I check/call 30. btw, I started the hand with a little about 225, and he had me covered, barely. Turn 7h, putting two hearts on board. I check. At this point, I want to see if he shuts down and/or bets small again because maybe I can control the pot. Sure enough, he bet 40. At this point, I really can’t just call. I mean, I can, but I’m not going to. I still think I’m well ahead of his range, he hasn’t done anything physically to change that read. The problem is that by pushing, I almost allow him to play perfectly, calling with all better hands, and folding all worse hands (although I’m hoping to get calls from 88-TT, obviously). He goes into the tank, which makes me feel better, but then he calls. River 8c, I say just jacks, and he says he missed and mucks when I flip my hand. Maybe he had AKhh, or maybe had some weird straight and flush draws, but I was happy to double up.

About an hour later, I limp/re-raise with KK. A few people at the table had changed, including this initial raiser. He raised to 12 and got 3 callers to me. Picking up over 50 with KK is ok with me. This makes three times in the last few days (twice tonight) where I pulled off a limp/re-raise without callers. It’ll be interesting to see if the situation arises at a time when I’m willing to try the move as a bluff.

I leave, walk to Harrah’s, games don’t look good, so I keep walking. Get a 6″ sub from Subway at O’Sheas and watch drunks play beer pong for a few minutes. I keep walking, all the way to Bally’s.

I am greeted by the most attractive dealer in Vegas, who gets me chips and a seat. Thanks. She’s no Heather, but then again, who is? If I was single, though….you know what I’m sayin’.

I like to lay low for the first orbit or so and get a read on the table. I tend to get in trouble early when I pull moves before getting settled in. Tonight, however, I pick up QQ utg on my third hand. I limp. utg+1 limps, huge stack MP limps (I later realized he was drunk, but didn’t know it at the time). Old guy to hugestack’s left raises to 10 and it folds back to me. Ok, let’s play a small pot/see what happens. I just call, utg+1 calls, and now hugestack reraises, but only to 25. Huh. Old guy initial raiser calls. wtf. I can rere here, but I’m not feeling so good about my Queens. I call, utg+1 folds (I probably call pretty fucking wide in his spot, but his fold is probably good with the type of hands I later realized he must have there; hands that are easily dominated). We see a flop of AJ8 three ways with over 80 in the pot after rake. I check, hugestack checks and now I know he’s scared of the Ace. Ok, that’s good. Old guy checks. Turn 5. A lot of times, that’s a pretty easy bet, but what I really want is for hugestack to bet, old guy fold, and I c/r. No luck. Checks around again. River is a 3. No flush, only 24 makes a straight, weird board. I check, now just planning to catch a bluff. hugestack bets 24. Perfect. Old guy raises to 50. Not so perfect. I fold, hugestack folds, and I have no idea what just happened. This is probably one of those hands I’ll always wonder about.

A little later, I punish the limpers by raising to 17 on the button with T4cc. Except, old guy (yes, same old guy) who limped utg calls. Fuck. Flop Q66 rainbow. He checks. I c-bet, obviously. I bet 40, but think I should have bet 25 or 30 instead. He sighs, says “you’re killin’ me” and quickly calls. I am fucking done. Turn 7, checkcheck. River 9, checkcheck. I tell him it’s his and he flips QTdd. Wow. Awesome. Ok, that’s enough of Bally’s for me. IGHN.

Ok, not that long, but interesting to me. I’ll write more tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 5:24 am and is filed under Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.