Quadruple Dipping, no not really

Sunday was an interesting day. My wife took the kids and me up to North County and dropped me off at the casino while she took the kids shopping.

I played the 5/5 NL for 20 minutes, played 2 hands in the blinds that I check/folded either the flop or turn, and then left for the 20/40 that just started. I played for 3 hours and booked a 515 dollar win. Then my wife called and we left and picked strawberries at the fields in Carlsbad and then went home for dinner.

After dinner, my wife gave me her blessing to return. So I played 20/40 again, some of the same people were there, some new faces too. This time I played for only 40 minutes and picked up $68, when the game got short handed and broke, so I'm not entirely unhappy with that. Since it was early, I decided to play 8/16.

I got into a very interesting game. There was a TAGfish nit, a maniac, a couple of calling stations, one other solid player, and some other randoms. The other solid player had about 5 or 6 racks in front of him. He eventually went busto when he moved 2 seats to my left to try and get position on me and the maniac who was mostly 2 to my right for most of the time, and then on my immediate right after the nit TAGfish moved to my left.

This maniac was a true maniac, check raising bluffing the river with air, 3-betting the river with bottom pair top kicker, etc. So of course, I run into his aces twice when I have big hands as well and he gets lots of bets out of me.

In a couple of pots I nailed him good. In one pot, he limped UTG, I 2-bet QsJs UTG+3, and got it heads up. I flopped the nizzles, when the board came 89T rainbow. 5-bets went in on the flop, 3-bets went in on the turn, and 4-bets went in on the river, with me holding the nuts at the end. Another time I rivered a full house with QQ on KT44Q, 3 club board on the turn, with me holding the Queen of clubs.

He did however, get atrociously lucky in a kill pot against me. I had 48 suited in the big blind in a kill pot. Unraised preflop I put in the 4 chips and saw a flop of A88. I bet, only he called. Turn was a blank, and I bet/3-bet him and put him all in. River came the case ace, as the TAGfish nit told me he folded an ace preflop. Joy, he should have been busto at that point. Unfortunately he seemed to take those chips and sprinkle them around the table. I ended up losing 2 racks in the game, but I would love to play with this fella again.

Not afraid of the Nuts!

So I put in two sessions over the weekend. Friday night, where the 20/40 game was really weak, and I ended up playing Helen heads up for like an hour and a half. I told Helen she could quit at any time. Twice I had her down to the felt, less than 5 big bets left, and twice she made a comeback. In fact she ended up taking 200 bucks off of me. That's typical heads up limit poker for ya.

On Saturday night, I got to the casino rather late and had to wait around for a bit before I got a seat around 11pm or so. For the first two hours I ran like a god. I didn't lose a showdown.

My first two hands, I mucked in my big blind and small blind preflop. My 3rd hand, Helen limped, Peter 2-bet, and Chi completed out of the small blind out of turn. I called time, Chi took back his call, I looked at my hand and 3-bet two nines. Chi and the big blind folded, Helen called, Peter called. Flop came 822. Checked to me I bet, Helen folded, Peter called. Turn was 7. Peter c/r me, and I 3-bet. River was a J. Peter checked, and I checked, hating the Jack, and knowing that he won't call with any hand that I am beating. He tables KTo, making a move on the turn. I collect my first pot of the night.

An orbit later, it's folded to me in the small blind. I don't chop, so I 2-bet pocket sevens. Chi calls in the big-blind. Flop comes 533 rainbow. I bet, Chi calls. Turn is a 7. I bet/3-bet/5-bet/7-bet. Chi finally just calls. I tell the dealer, no 5 please. River brings an ace, I bet and Chi calls. Chi had the pocket fives that I knew that he had to have. I was just calling an 8-bet. 8-bet is my limit with the top-full house with one card to come.

Variance sucks!

So I get to Oceans-11 on Saturday night around 8:30pm. I took the kids out for dinner and then to the mall for candy. The wife had the night off. After I dropped the kids off at home, I hit the road to the casino to attempt to make some money for my kid's tuition (that's what I use my poker winnings for, at least if I have any winnings).

Oceans-11 is dead, which is not entirely surprising, since the WSOP is going on in Vegas right now. In any case, there's no 20 game, and only a short-handed 40 game going. So I take a seat, and end up getting buried 2 racks in like 45 minutes. I'm in seat 9, seat 2 is a tight old man, seat 4 is bad, and seat 5 is awful. Eventually seat 5 goes busto, and the 3 of us agree to keep playing until at least 10:15pm or so. Well I eventually start running over the table and build it up to 5+ racks. Of course, the game keeps going.

Then, the hour from hell starts, and I get massively cold-decked for like the entire down, and don't drag a pot for like over an entire hour. Every draw missed, TP no good, etc, etc. I eventually quit when I'm a 5 rack loser, saying enough is enough. I quit, and the table breaks at about 1:30 am or so.

Whee, variance.

Heater definitely over

Ugh. Last three sessions, 40/80 -5000, 20/40 -3000, 20/40 -2500. Lost 200 BB's in 3 back to back to back sessions. Doesn't feel good.