ALL-NIGHTER

My night was basically defined by three hands in which I flopped a straight. The first hand was a multiway raised pot in which I closed the action by calling with (T-9). The flop came (Q-J-8) with two spades. The preflop raiser bet out and the player to my right went all-in. I went all-in as well with the nuts. The raiser says aloud "can I possibly be behind here?" and calls with top set. The other player had the nut flush draw. It was over for me quick when the (8) turned and filled up the queens. I was down $200 and had to go to the pocket.

Several hours later, I was running about even for the night and I flopped another straight with (8-7) on a (9-6-5) board. I got check/raised, so I flat called in position to see how it played out. The turn brought a (6) and I called the $45 bet even though I had my suspicions. The river blanked and he bet out $125. The way it played out, I couldn't imagine he didn't have a full house, so I folded the straight face up, which earned me some street cred the rest of the night. My opponent later claimed to have flopped bottom two pair and filled up on the turn, as I suspected.

So I was 0-2 with flopped straights but I was able to use my cred to start bluffing since I was now the guy who always knew where he was at in the hand. The player to my right was a pleasant fellow who liked to gamble and had built up a big stack. Towards the end of the night, I limped in under the gun with (Kc-Qc). Everybody and their brother called and when it got to the player on my right, he casually tossed in a $100 raise, confident that everyone would fold and that would be that. I had spent many hours watching him raise light, but never more than around $45, so I liked my hand very much in this spot and liked that I had position as well. I made the call to see if I could manage to hit a friendly enough flop to relieve him of the hundo.

The flop came (J-T-9) rainbow, which was pretty much ideal, as you can imagine. He checked and I put in a $100 bet, which he called. He looked more worried than confident so I just wanted to see any card that wasn't a queen hit the turn. Fourth street brought a (9), which I didn't love, but didn't despise either. If he just filled up, then I'm just going to go ahead and stack off to him. With the board pairing, I feared he could be drawing live to a boat as well as the possible chop. I didn't want to see either scenario play out and the pot was plenty big enough already, so when he checked to me, I went ahead and shoved for $500 or whatever I had behind. He was drawing live with (Q-9) and made the call. For once, my straight held up and I raked a monster pot.

I dropped a couple of hundred a few hands later when I turned two pair against a set but I still managed to finish the night with $475 profit. There was one other notable hand from earlier. The dealer rakes a buck out of every pot for a bad beat jackpot which is paid out whenever somebody loses with aces full of tens or stronger and both players use both hole cards. I raised preflop with (Ac-Tc) and a tight player called along with another caller. The flop came (A-A-K) and I led out at it. The tight player raised in position and I was in an awful spot. I thought his most likely holdings were A-Q and A-J, which both had me beat. However, I had the lead in the hand and was still able to represent A-K or K-K with a reraise, so I went ahead and did so.

I had seen this player lay down a couple of hands I would never have dreamed of folding and he was also the guy who didn't snap call with top set of queens on that earlier hand. I was really hoping he could lay down A-J in this spot and maybe check down A-Q. It turned out he had (A-J) and he did indeed lay it down. The real kicker is that we rabbit hunted after he folded and the turn would have been a ten and the river would have been a jack. If I had not played it as I did, we would have seen the turn and if I had been thinking jackpot, I would have let him see the river on a freeroll, which would have filled him up and awarded us a split of the $4400 bad beat jackpot. Honestly, at the flop, the idea of the jackpot never entered my mind; I was solely interested in winning the pot.

So, I guess I could have brought home even more winnings, but at the end of the session, I was pleased to have beaten such a tough table - a couple hundred hands of running even, punctuated by one monster pot.