Friday, September 29, 2006

Gold Strike Wednesday w/Horshoe Stud

I made one very good read early on at a 1/2 NLHE session at the GS Tunica this past Wednesday. I haven't been at the table for 20 minutes, and I've doubled my usual buy-in since everybody appeared to be loaded for bear. In the BB I've got 7d 9d, and the SB bumps it up to 5, I call, and there are 3 other callers. (Jesse was doing nuisance bets and nuisance raises all night.) and I call, and flop a flush which includes the ace.

Jesse bets 5 as a tester, and I smooth call, hoping I will be interpreted as drawing to an unmade flush instead of a pat hand. two folds and the button raises up to 30. Jesse calls, and I also smooth call. I'm worried at this point about a higher made flush, as there are 3 higher diamonds unaccounted for.

The turn is a non-diamond, and Jesse makes a smallish bet which I smooth call, assuming that the button will come over the top. Sure enough, the button pushes for 95 more, and Jesse folds after some deliberation. I think that I may be in trouble here, but I take a minute to study the button. He is clearly not relaxed at all, and I can see his shallow breathing and what looks like a thinly masked panic attack, which tells me he's betting with something less than the nuts, and would prefer that we both folded and gave him the pot. (OK, his bet also says that too, but it wouldn't be ridiculous in that situation to push with the nuts to misrepresent your hand, right). After about 45 seconds I call.

He doesn't flip his cards till the river comes out, and sure enough, he's got 6d 5d for a made flush weaker than mine, and I've just doubled up based on what I consider to be a daring call.

Then I spent the next two hours giving most of my profit away, on many cold calls, raises that don't work, attempted pot purchases and the like. I don't actually get many decent hands at all, so when people come over the top, I usually have to let go. I think that by the last 30 minutes, people were coming over the top of me with anything because I had let so many pots go. I leave to go next door for 7-stud before I bleed to death.

7-stud I take down two smallish pots in 75 minutes, and otherwise bleed in dribs and drabs. I barely had any playable starting hands, and the few I had failed to improve by fifth street, and bluffing wasn't much of an option at this table.

BTW - I'm getting tired of blogging these days. I'll try to blog the live games as interesting things happen, but it will be more an more sporadic.