MAY, WEEKDAY 2 WRAP

MONDAY:
I didn't play at all.

TUESDAY:
I played a $109 during the day and missed the money. I played a $163 in the evening and busted early. He had the one hand that I feared. It was a queen-high flop which turned into a four-flush. I had the queen of the suit and check/called the flop/turn. On the river, he tanked and then pushed. The board had paired on the turn so I worried that he had flopped middle set and now was full. He did good on the river to get me to call. Anything less and I may have figured out that he was betting for value. The way he bet, it looked more like he was merely making a bet that I can't call unless I have the full house or if I checked the ace-high flush to him. It made me suspicious and since half my chips were in play already, I looked him up.

WEDNESDAY:
I bought into two cash games but was cursed from the get-go. First jacks, then tens lost to overcards in similar fashion: I raised the button, got re-raised from a blind, then put in a third raise. Both times the other guy went all-in and I was committed to call. The first guy had A-Q to beat my jacks and the second guy had A-J to beat my tens. Beyond that, I even lost a hand in which I flopped top set. There were two opponents so the third guy always had the odds to call and when the flush hit the river, he pushed and I folded. None of my bluffs worked, none of my hands held up, none of my speculative hands connected with any flops, and I was just dead meat all day. I finished down $1356.

I got out of the cash games and entered a four-player heads-up shootout for $210. The winner collected $800 and I wanted to try to salvage my day. I got an early lead on my first opponent and kept grinding away. After awhile, he made a couple of plays that convinced me that he was not really all that good a player, so I kept playing small ball. I finally got him down far enough that I was willing to go with K-J against his all-in and I beat his A-4 to take it. The other half of round one ended very quickly so I supposed that the winner was watching our match. I actually made a couple of plays that were mostly advertising for his benefit so that he wouldn't be able to fully trust his scouting report on me.

Against him, I got off to a good 2:1 lead when I tripped my bottom pair against him and he kept betting. The flop was 9-8-3 and if he had 9-8, he made a good laydown on the river when I raised him all-in on the 9-8-3-3-T board. He kept calling me lucky and calling things "sick" so I imagined he was a young guy playing beyond his ability. I kept at him and as the blinds rose, he got increasingly desperate. He was beginning to push pre-flop to pick up the antes, so I limped with J-J. He knuckled and the river came A-x-x with two clubs. We both checked and the turn was a jack. He checked, so I bet. He didn't fold immediately, so I was hoping he would push an ace, but he just called. The river was a club and he checked to me. I didn't know what the heck he had now unless it was aces-up. I bet to put him nearly all-in and he folded and called the river "sick". Two hands later, I got Q-Q and limped. He pushed with A-J and my queens held up. It was a nice win but it served mostly to stem my losses from the cash games.

THURSDAY:
I busted out of the 10A tourney early so I turned my attention to the cash games. I bought in for $300 and won my first hand with KQ over 87. I had the most chips at the table so I bullied a bunch of limpers pre-flop. One guy made a stand with connectors and he pushed the flop with bottom pair. I had the two overcards plus a gutshot for an easy call based on the amount bet, and the straight came on the turn to give me the nuts. He left the table complaining which made me laugh since he wasn't actually playing a powerhouse. My connection was horrible and I finally got booted off for good a few hands later when I held J-J on a 9-high flop. My bet never went through and when my connection was re-established, I was sitting out, so I quit the game to watch a movie. It's too bad I didn't get to expound on my auspicious beginning, but it was a quick $135 profit all the same.

The profit was short-lived as I played and lost three tourneys at night which cost me $150. In the $55 event, I was unjustly eliminated holding A-A when the 8-8 played it like it was the nuts and caught trips on the turn; In the $75 event, I was eliminated with a monster draw that didn't come to fruition after my opponent mustered a call with ace-high.

The third event I played was a $22 heads-up shootout. I won the first match and faced Chip Jett in the second round. He was the only pro in the event so I lucked out at having a chance to collect a bounty. I was surprised at how passively he played in the early stages. He folded more than half of the hands pre-flop. I didn't expect him to fold his button so often. I will generally put in a min-raise on my button to sweeten the pot a little and more often than not take it down with a half-pot sized continuation bet. I got out to a strong lead using this strategy. He raised so rarely that it was easy to get away from hands when facing a raise.

He seemed to be playing an uber-patient style, content in waiting for me to make an inevitable mistake. I finally obliged when I called a raise holding Td-9d. I figured him for high cards and thought I could end the contest with a favorable flop. It came K-Q-x and he put out a continuation bet. Folding was the better option but I convinced myself that he held A-x and I cold called him, looking to take it away on the turn and leave him on a desperately small stack. The turn was a blank and he bet $360 of his $800 remaining stack. I took this as strength and went ahead and abandoned ship. He stole the next couple of pots pre-flop to get a slight chip lead and then came the death blow. I held Ts-8s and the flop came T-9-6. He check-raised me on the flop and although I knew this indicated strength, I wasn't prepared to abandon such a strong hand heads-up. I considered calling but thought it would be unlikely I would win any more money if my hand improved, plus I thought if I put enough pressure on him, he might be able to fold a hand like J-T, so I pushed all-in with my top pair, straight draw and he called with bottom two pair, which held up to bust me.