Short-Handed Frenzy

Been playing a lot of short handed limit lately, both live and online. Online I have been playing 4/8 6-max, and I am doing okay so far in that game. Live, I have been playing 20/40 and a little 40/80 when the game goes. Both games are weak however and almost always get short early in the night.

I took my family to the Padres-Dodgers game last night. They had fireworks after the game, that I didn't get to see. My youngest daughter fell asleep in my arms around 9:20 pm or so, and my eldest daughter wanted to go home. So we left early after the 7th inning stretch and the Padres down 6-3, which ended up being the final score.

I then got to Oceans-11 around 10:45 pm or so. There were 2 40/80 games going and a 8-handed 20/40 game. The main 40/80 game looked pretty good, but you had to go through a tough short handed 40/80 game first. So I declined the must move 40/80 and took a 20/40 seat. I promptly got stuck like $700 in about 20 minutes. I rebought another dime, switched seats when a good seat opened up and started winning a little. Slowly but surely the people starting leaving and we were down to 6, 5, 4, and then 3. When we were down to 3, the floor came over and was about the break the game, when I offered to play 3-handed, the other two players agreed.

Player 1 was a major fish, calling station, no hand-reading abilities, just all around bad. Player 2 was a TAGfish nit. In a full-ring game with mediocre loose players, he'll do fine and grind out a win. In a game full of people who know what they are doing, he'll get eaten alive. Plus he didn't really adjust for 3-handed play all that well.

In any case, seat 1 the fish said he was only going to play until 1 am. This was at 12:20am or so. I said ok, fine by me. After losing the first 4 or 5 pots, I then started running them over. The fish in seat 1 had over 3 racks in front of him at the start of short-handed. By the time that game broke, he had less than a rack. At least three times my unimproved ace high was the best hand against him and took down the pot. I think he was really upset when I called his button raise with 96o in the BB. I flopped bottom pair plus a gutter and I check-raised him on the flop, bet the turn, and checked the river, and he couldn't beat a pair of sixes.

Anyways 1am rolls around, he's now stuck and doesn't look like he's planning on leaving. Around 1:20am or so, Mac leaves the 40/80 game and takes seat 8 to my left. Great, I think to myself, why can't you leave these guys to myself? Mac is a good player and knows how to play short, so I really don't want him in the game. At this point I am no longer stuck and I am a little more than a rack winner. I decide to go to the bathroom, take a break, and then decide what I am going to do.

I get back to the table 5 minutes later, and the game has broken and the floor man is racking up my chips. Apparently the fish in the 1 seat was pissed saying that I took all his money and now I'm quitting. I never said anything about quitting, and in fact he was the one who said he was only going to play until 1am, but now that he's stuck he wants to play longer? Whatever, I hope that guy is pissed at me and continues to donate his chips my way.