THE CASH GAME

$2/4 NL has been my stomping ground lately at Full Tilt. I love the 6-handed tables. Last night, I bought in for $300 and lost it. I rebought for $300 and was down another $100 when things turned around. I played 99 against a raiser and caller. The flop came AQ9 two diamonds, and I recognized it as a gold mine. I lead out with a pot-sized bet, awaiting response from whomever held AK or AQ. The original raiser had AK and had me covered four-fold, so he raised me and I put it all in. This more than doubled me up, and the big pots kept coming. I ultimately finished over $300 up on the session.

I am playing NL much less tricky than the younger Dude, who used to love to check-raise and slow-play a lot. When I played 43d from the big blind, and hit a 632 two diamond flop, I made a pot-sized bet. It was called and the turn brought a 5 which gave me a straight. The pot was around $42, so I again bet the pot to let him know I was serious. He quickly called, which told me he is sitting on a set, since I quite obviously am saying I have a straight. The river was a 6 and I knew I was beat. I checked and he bet $100 into a $126 pot. It was a monster bet, designed to look like a big bluff that didn't want called. I knew he couldn't have an overpair because there is no way he makes a huge bet there when I am already representing a straight. It's not a busted flush draw, because nobody is that bad. It could only be a value bet from a guy who just filled up and knows how difficult it is to muck a straight. Sure, I wanted to see it, but I was so sure of what I was going to see that I simply mucked to save the hundred. Money saved is money earned.

There was a horrible player at the table and I was under orders from myself to stay up and play so long as this guy has money. I got him all in for $120 on a flush draw against my pair, but he nailed the club on the river to take me for a ride. Then he started cussing at me like I was an idiot. I played very loose against him for the next twenty minutes, but he kept getting lucky and beating me. Finally, somebody else at the table got his entire $320, most of which was mine, in one fell swoop and he left.

I was sad because my meal ticket was gone, but I still had a little play in me. A few times, I had raised from the button only to find the big blind defending. If the flop looked harmless, he would check-raise my continuation bet and force me to lay down my overcards. So, I raised with K3, giving myself a high and a low card to cover more ground. The flop came 432 and he check-raised me $45. This play had worked for him a few times, but this time I came back at him and bumped it to $225. He thought for a good while before mucking. He may have had a legitimate overpair there, but since I was playing like I had aces, he must have decided his sevens were no good.

I was gambling there, but about two hands later, it paid further dividends. I called his reraise with T9 and the flop came KJ8. I checked and he checked behind me. The turn was a blank and I bet my two-way straight draw. He called. I figured I was beat, but if a Q or 7 came on the river, I was going to get huge. The river brought gin in the form of a seven. I led out with a weakish bet that looked like a value bet but was less than what he would have bet if he had been trapping. He took the bait and put in a 2.5x raise. I came back all in, playing off the theory that a big show of force from me had worked recently and should work again. He took a moment, surely realizing that I might be sitting on T9, and he called off the rest of his chips to see it. He had 88, had flopped a set, had slowplayed it, had missed the opportunity to take down the pot on the turn when greed got the best of him, had looked for his revenge in how I got him off his overpair a few hands prior, and had ultimately doomed himself by carrying on the slowplay for one street too many. It's nice to be on the other side of the slowplay of death.