Played two nights this week. Here's a roundup.
Tuesday -1/2 NLHE
Started out short handed and bled quite a bit. I clearly need to adjust my play for short-handed, as I was getting smoked with pot-sized river bets that I never wanted to call with only a pair. Needed to rebuy.
I was moved to a full table, with a short stack and at least two wild players. I limped once and got pushed out, then caught EP KK and limped again, wild player 1 raises to 15 and gets two callers, and my push to 60 isolates to heads up, and kings hold. I eventually get past even, leaving with four times my low-point stack for a tiny profit.
Wednesday - Tourney at Horseshoe
Blind structure is reasonable, and I see 90 minutes of hands before going bust, without ever getting my chip stack back to break-even. In the second hand, in BB I make a bump-raise with Ts Js and catch a pair and an outside draw, and I bet heavy and one player calls. The turn is a flush card, and I check and he pushes. I figure that even best case, he's got a pair of Queens, so I muck. Within 10 hands of that I get KK and raise 4bb and get two callers, and an ace flops. Player 1 bets and I muck, and they turn over AJo and ATo respectively. Nothing eventful happens for the next 80 minutes. I'm allowed to see a few flops in BB and I always miss multi-way, and I push on the final hand of level 3 with 7M with 4d 6d, and get called by the SB w/Ad Jd, and the board gives two pair and his ace is good. My only second-guess moment is that I could have pushed at 7M with KQo, except a slightly smaller stack had pushed UTG, and I didn't like having 5 players yet to act in this bounty tourney. In retrospect, it was probably better to have pushed at that time.
1/2 NLHE at Gold Strike
I played pretty well, but there were two big hands that cost me.
1) 9c 8c MP with a straddle to my right, therefore EP. I limp with a handful of others, and I flop a flush draw with an inside draw Kc Jd 7c. The monk underbets (10) and I make a min-reraise (20) and we get to heads up. I turn my flush (3c?), and bet 25, which is half my remaining stack, and he calls. The river is the Ac for a four-flush on board, and I bet my last 27, and he calls and turns over Qs Jc for the better flush.
2) Q5o in SB, and I limp to see the flop six ways. I hit two pair on a Q45 two-suit flop, and check as first to act. The habitual orphan bettor overbets (15), as he always does with marginal hands, and the monk calls him. I raise to 45 and am surprised that both of them call. The turn help neither the straight or the flush draw, so I push, and the luck-box calls for his last 25, and the monk folds. He hits his outside straight on the river.
In both of these hands I think I was making appropriate bet sizes to encourage incorrect calls, and the incorrect calls were both rewarded.
There were some other hands I was happier with the results. I made a really nice 72o EP representation of a high pair, and managed to catch two pair on the turn. This was against the luck-box chaser, so I overbet the turn and he went away. I also made a bet into a decent sized pot with a semi-bluff and knocked out four players, and didn't hit any of my draws against the short-stacked all-in player, but wasn't obliged to show the crowd that I bet my draw.
The luckbox chaser also slow-played a boat against me reasonably well. He called my turn bet as first to act, and checked the river, which to me indicated that he really didn't have anything, so I bet just enough to find out, and when he pushed for his last few chips I didn't even call, since I was playing 9 high. He flips over a boat. That was his best play all night, otherwise he was generally chasing against odds and catching a lot. He didn't seem to hold onto all the money he won though.
