Friday, September 4th, 2009

I hate getting up early, so I usually leave late/arrive super late for these trips. Today I was up at 10am and out of the house by noon, a time that I hoped would be good enough to beat the DC traffic driving up from North Carolina to Atlantic City.

I did ok, but not great. I hit the DC area around 3:30 which is not early enough. The fact that Baltimore immediately follows as you head up up I-95 after Washington, DC makes that stretch of driving a complete nightmare. I listened to an entire 2+2 pokercast during this stretch, but eventually got out of that mess and got up to my hotel around 8pm.

I decided to head down to the casino and play on my first night. No PLO running, and the 10/20 OE game broke up shortly after I arrived. I ended up sitting in a new 10/20 LHE game. The game I got in was a must-move, the 3rd 10/20 game feeding two main games. For about 90 minutes(3 dealers worth of time…) we were 5-6 handed. I got down $150 early making some light plays like I would normally make online in shorthanded blind defense before I got in a groove and adjusted to the fact that these guys live knew that they needed to adjust 5 handed, but not nearly to the level that one might find in an online game. I was aggressive on the button and 3-bet over some steal raises out of the blinds and won more than my fair share of small pots.

I was up a couple bets when I got called to the main game. I get a seat to the left of a guy that I recognize and remember playing against before. This is a bit odd since I only play up here 3-4 weeks a year. I thought I recognized him as I sat down as I saw his chips stacked not in the normal stacks of 20 but in stacks of 50-60 instead. When he played 8 of his first 10 hands, raising most of them preflop, i was sure it was him. I was glad to have position on the dude, but I have a hard time playing against him. If he folded a little more often in early position I’d probably categorize him as a very good LAG.

Anyway, I end up playing extremely tight for most of my LHE play as a result. Many of the other players loosen up to try to take pots off the LAG, and god knows isolation raises aren’t going to work often. In one early hand I 3-bet Mr LAG with KJs on the button he caps, flop AQx, one of my suit. I call a bet on the flop and fold on the turn, he shows me KK. Another hand I 3-bet TT and fire on a QJx board, getting only one caller(of the 3 that called preflop), an older guy who telegraphed his actions quite a bit. I fired the turn to see if he’d raise me, but he check/calls. On the river, pairing the queen (QJxxQ where xx are very safe looking cards). My oppenent looks like he wants to just open fold, picking up his cards and sighing before checking. I bet/he shows a jack and folds.

I’m still up about $50 after a couple hours, when it all goes to shit in a couple hands.

i raise KQs from mid-position and am 3-bet by a semi wild player who has position on me. I call the 3-bet and we’re heads up to the flop. Flop KQ8, I check/raise and he just calls. I bet the turn and he raises, I 3-bet and get capped. I check/call the river and lose a pretty big pot to pocket 8s.

A few hands later I have 66 in the big blind, about 17 people limp before the LAG raises, I call as do all 17 people. Flop KJ6 two hearts. I check-raise the flop and we go about 12 ways to the turn. turn is the ten of hearts and i puss out and check/call a bet, no explanation for that. The river is the queen of hearts and I check/fold. LAG shows AA with the ace of hearts.

I end up getting up soon after, down $300 at 10/20 LHE. Even with position on the LAG, I just didn’t feel like dealing with it in a game that isn’t my best game anymore. The entire table wants to show up the LAG and the action behind me is so unpredictable. I ended up taking my $200 to a 1/2 NL table and goofing around for a few hours. No hands worth mentioning here.

A couple observations though:

1) Why in the world do so many males in their 20s expect their girlfriend’s to steal a chair from another table and watch them play poker for hours? How many women really enjoy this? Is it *ever* not weird and awkward? I do appreciate the attractive young lady sitting with her boyfriend across from me for an hour or so at 1/2 though. A nice low cut top and she was basically leaning over the entire time to whisper with her boyfriend. NL is slow and boring, I’m not above staring to pass the time.

2) As someone who avoids confrontation in general, I’m probably never equipped to argue with a stereotypical aggressive new yorker(or at least my perception of this stereotype as a southerner). At 4am I’m *really* not equipped to argue with Mr Aggressive Homer Yankee Fan as he makes the case that CC Sabathia’s whale-like frame is built perfectly to support a pitching career into one’s late 30s.

Hopefully PLO goes today. -$300 on the trip at this point.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 6:19 am by Posted By Radii and is filed under Live Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.