Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Gold Strike - Tuesday Nighter

Another run of ABC-ish poker with good luck for a profitable evening last night. I was never down more than 4BB the whole night, catching some nice cards, and getting a little more creative with my bluffs.

Early on, after playing tight, I represented 97o as a high pair with a 3bb raise, and was able to buy it on the flop 3 way.

Then I had a very nice run of legitimate hands, which I generally collected smallish on.

I did collect nicely off a weak boat (TT - boat 88J-T) that rivered quads. Turns out the guy re-raised me on the turn with only a straight when I already had the weak boat. I weak-bet the weak boat, and he raised me, and I 3 bet him back without much hesitation, and he four bets me to more than half my stack, and I deliberate and call, with the intention of calling the river. (I had raised 3bb in the BB and he had early position limped, and not reraised my bump, so JJ was feasible but dubious. He seemed to come out swinging when he had cards.) When I hit my quads, I did not push, but instead put in a teaser bet only, which he called. I guess I could have tried to collect deeper, but I also felt my cold call of his four bet might have made him hesitant, despite getting five to one even if I had pushed.

I was up to 3x buy-in when I got moved off the must-move. For an hour plus I could neither catch cards nor buy a pot, despite my any two cards play. (Okay, I bought one pot when two other players showed weakness, but I also bled like crazy.) It's always frustrating when you feel like you've got a read on nearly the whole table, but you can't find the favorable circumstances to collect. I walked out after bleeding back down to 2x buy-in.

I went in with the intention of learning to read hand tells that Harrington talks about, but I still haven't caught on to that technique. It's on my list.