super crazy loose $1/$2 game = big win

Let me start this post by having a small history lesson. Before I started dealing I never really had a job that allowed me to play poker on any kind of high level. If I played $1/$2 and lost a $200 buy in my spirit was crushed for a few days. In those days I wasn't playing on the level that I play on now. I am not saying I am a world class player but my skill level has increased 100% since last November when I started to play online and read the 2plus2 forums. Dealing at the local card room enabled me to get a lot of money together and allowed me to play the big game at the local room with is a $2/$5 pot limit. It really is a great game, you have to be able to play after the flop because you can't just stick it all in. There are a lot of loose bad players so the swings are pretty large, but it is a great game if you can run well.

After playing the $2/$5 game the $1/$2 game at the same room lost all of its appeal. The play was horrible, and people were playing who couldn't afford a full buy in. Nothing worse than trying to play against someone who is playing a short stack because you never know when they are going to shove and if they are shoving how good their hand is. You talk to any online player and ask them what their biggest pet peeve is and they will tell you short stackers. There is some wisdom with playing a short stack, you wait for a big hand shove win and then get up with your profit and sit at another table with a short stack again. There was an article in a poker magazine talking about a guy who did that all over Vegas, he wasn't well liked but he made a pretty good living.

After making the decision to play full time I decided that I wouldn't bother playing the $1/$2 at the local room where I had worked because I just couldn't really enjoy myself. There is another room and I decided to go play there because I wanted to talk to the owner about helping deal in his big tournament once a month. I had heard from a number of people that this game played a lot higher than your normal 1/2 game, I was skeptical but figured lets check it out and see.

I show up at the room and the game has been going on for an hour or so and there is a lot of money on the table. The owner says the MINIMUM is $200 which surprised me because usually 100 times the big blind is the maximum you can buy in for. A number of these guys already had over $1,000 in front of them. I take stock of the table and there are a number of guys that I know from the other room where I was dealing. One of them has a stack of over $3000 I know him to be a semi weak player and want a shot at those chips before he loses them to someone else. I buy $200 in chips and sit down, folding the first few hands to get a feel for the table and because they are not playable. The preflop raise is usually $12-$17 dollars which is slightly higher than most 1/2 games I have played in but still you will have about 3 to 4 people calling behind you. The cards being shown down are not premium by any stretch and I am feeling confident that as long as I can hit some cards I will make some good money.

In my first orbit I am in the small blind and have my mandatory $1 in the pot there is a straddle to $5 and a re-straddle to $10. A straddle is a bet made in the dark to ensure you get last action, it is commonly used by people who have a lot of gamble. So anyway the person who acts first the guy with the big stack raised to $30 and there is a call and I look down to see K and a K. I know that I am going to raise here but I am unsure of the amount that will be best. I decide to raise it to $110 to show that I have a big hand and that I am committed to the pot and wont be folding. The action folds around to the guy who raised initially and he bets reraises enough to put me all in. I am slightly worried about pocket aces but I will never fold pocket kings in a cash game for only 100 times the big blind. If I had like $1500 in front of me then I might have to think about it, but not for only $200. He happened to have ace king and my hand held up so now I am up to $400. I like his play here because he has a lot of chips and he is a coin flip to a lot of my possible hands. If the roles were reversed I would make the exact same play.

After that I play a few hands and bleed off a little by calling preflop in multiway pots with suited connectors only to miss the flop completely. I am used to playing 4 tables at the same time when I play online so even though I am playing only about 15% of my hands since there are 4 games going at once I usually have a hand going on. Playing live and playing a good deal tighter than usual was making me pretty bored. I am not hitting anything at all and not getting any respect from any other the other players. Getting called down by someone with bottom pair when I have played a total of 4 or 5 hands is a little strange, but not big deal I will wait for big hands and stop trying to bluff. I pick up ace king and miss completely and have to fold to a raise and a reraise.

I then have a pretty interesting hand I have pocket 8's and call a raise in position and the flop comes 8,9,10 with two clubs. I am excited because I have hit a set and will bet because the board is pretty draw heavy. There is a bet, then a raise and then a call and its my action. I was expecting action but this is crazy. I don't have enough money to just call, it is pretty much do or die time here, I have to play for my whole stack or fold. Online players will tell you that you pretty much always go broke with a set (three of a kind) because if someone has a better set you just got unlucky, and if someone has a straight or a flush you still have enough outs to fill up by the river. I think and think and then decide to fold because there is so much out there, I might be up against a set, or a made straight or a flush draw. The original raiser folds and on the turn the 6 of clubs comes. It completes a lot of draws and I feel better about my fold. These two guys get all their money in and turn the cards up one has pocket kings and the other has pocket jacks. I am shocked at their hands but I still would have had to dodge a lot of outs on the turn and the river and being the shortest stack at the table neither one of these guys will fold to my all in raise. The river is a queen giving the guy with pocket jacks a straight. I know its a very passive play but I think its the best play for the situation, even if I do shove on the flop I don't have enough to make them fold.

Then I pick up pocket aces in a straddle and re-straddle pot and I make a big raise and get called in two spots. The flop is queen, 9, 5. I am first to act and don't have much left so I stick it in the middle and get called in both spots. I know from the calls that I have the best hand right now because anyone with a set is going to raise. The turn is a queen and I know I am in trouble. The first players checks and the second player the guy with the big stack just moves all in the first player sighs folds and shows pocket jacks. Now lets talk about his play for a minute. He called a large raise from someone who hasn't been playing a ton of hands with a pretty strong hand, I am ok with that because its adds deception to his hand and if he hits a jack he will win a huge pot. On the flop through when I move in for over $100 he calls with a person behind him to act. I think this is not such a good play, I know that I don't have enough chips to make anyone fold so would I really be sticking my money in with a hand worse than pocket jacks there? HELL NO. Anyway he folds and the other guys shows queen ten for trip queens, I am disgusted. His play preflop even though he is getting like 2.5 to 1 is still pretty marginal. He might be dominated by a hand like ace queen. No ace hits the river and I lose.

I get more chips and don't really do much with them just hanging around. The owner of the game usually calls it at 4 AM but if the game is still good he will extend it. At 3:30 I am still around $300, then all of the sudden I go on a sick heater. All my waiting pays off, I pick up some hands and am hitting the flop. Flop a straight, turn a flush and all of the sudden an hour later I am +$400 for the session, this is not a big win considering how deep I am in the game but I will take it.

I am excited to be even and I decide that I am going to just play tight till the game ends then leave with my $200 profit but the heater isn't over yet. I play a few more big hands and when I cash out a little after 5 AM I have $1,000 profit after my buy in of $340. Talk about patience paying off. A number of times when I was short stacked I wanted to just push so I could get broke and go home. I know this was a hard situation to put myself in and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else, but I sincerely felt I was still playing well and could do well if I just hung on. The game situation was also very out of the ordinary for your normal game, this table had buy ins for like $2/$4 or even $3/$6 game. The moral of this story is, if any of you readers (if I indeed have any) are playing poker for a living do as I say and not as I do.

I slept until almost 2 PM so needless to say I didn't go to winstar today. I am hanging out with Melissa and I am supposed to hang out with a friend of mine tonight and his girlfriend if he doesn't flake out. If they flake I think I am going to go see Superbad, I will write again tomorrow.

Later