Pocket Nines

Played 20/40 last night. Got to the casino rather late, since my wife went out with her girlfriends in the early evening. Got in around 11:30pm, planning on playing the 40/80 but the game had already broken. Not sure if it is the economy or just the poker craze subsiding, but the limit holdem games at Oceans-11 have been pretty weak lately.

I had a winning night, up $470. Should have been more, but I got a couple of bad beats. Both times I had pocket nines, both times I flopped top set, both times I lost to a straight when my opponent held 10-7! It was different opponents each time, but still. In the first I raised the button and the SB 3-bet me with 10-7 suited. He flopped a gut-ball plus a flush draw, and hit his straight on the river. The other time I raised in the cutoff with pocket nines and the big blind called and he flopped open-ended and got there on the river.

Other funny thing happened last night, some player I had never played with before sat in the 20/40 game and the first hand he played he tried to go all-in preflop. The dealer and the players explained to him that we were playing limit, not no-limit. He played a hand so weird against me that I was totally confused. Short-handed I raised UTG with A3 suited. Called by the cut-off (weird no limit guy abbreviated WNLG), and the big-blind (Chuck an off-duty bad playing dealer). Flop comes 8 3 2 rainbow. Chuck bets, I raise, WNLG 3-bets, call-call. Turn A, checked around. River 2. Chuck checks I bet, WNLG cuts out $120 in chips to raise. Dealer tells him he can only raise to 80. Chuck folds, and I'm completely at a loss of what to do. I have no history with the guy and am totally confused by his line. Against anybody I have some reasonable history with I would likely raise like 90% of the time, but since he played it so weird I just called. He tabled pocket queens, and I win the pot. What a weird line to take with pocket queens.