It's easy to get the idea stuck in your head that you only find good TAGs (Tight Aggressive) and LAGs (Loose Aggressive) at the casino on a weekday, even at 1/2NL.
So today I bravely ventured the Weekday Warriors at the local poker room. Turns out, it's not so bad after all. It's certainly not spewy like a good Friday night, but it's not some boogey monster. And since spewy sometimes means high-variance, and since I'm not always in the mood for high-variance, it was actually quite decent.
I suffered my first decent hit to my chipstack today in the 7 hours of live play I've put in since swearing off online poker. I had top pair against a flush draw.
Luckily, I had position on my Esteemed Opponent who raises EVERY flush draw. When he check-raised my pot-sized flop bet, I felt quite certain he was raising the flush draw and not two pair or better, which allowed me to comfortably call with my top pair of Queens even with a Ten kicker.
The turn came an Ace and he bet out. I figured if he was on the nut flush draw, he just pulled ahead but I wasn't going to fold to one bet just yet.
The river was another Queen, giving me trips but completing the flush. He checked.
Of course, once he checked the river the Hopelatron in me thought, "
Maybe he doesn't have the flush after all." Then I thought better of it, knowing what I know about how he plays flush draws and thinking back to the flop. Not being one to fall into his trap, I checked my trips behind. He turned over the nut flush. So my stack, which was originally $200 was now down to $125.
As I sat folding hand after hand, I contemplated how I played my top pair vs. his flush draw rather than tilt off more chips by playing any two cards. My conclusion: My call of his raise on the flop was fine, however, re-raising/shoving would have been fine as well, if not better. My call on the turn was bad. My check behind on the river was great (not because it was sooo amazing, although I am proud of it [a year ago I would've never checked there], but because he tried to lay a trap that I didn't fall into).
So, I kept folding and picked up pocket Fives utg (under-the-gun). I love playing low-mid pocket pairs, however, not utg. That being said, I can't just fold. So I limped. Why? Because if I get raised, I can call. If I raise utg and get re-raised, I'd have to fold. Luckily, my watch, which I use as a randomizer, agreed with me.
Sometimes my watch is gonna tell me to fold that hand in that position. Sometimes it's gonna tell me to raise. And sometimes limp. Thanks Dan Harrington for teaching me non-self-weighting strategy. Anyways, back to the hand...
A bunch of people limped as well. I'm not sure how many limpers since my head was down and I was wearing a baseball cap (just a cap, no shades, hoody, or ipod). My Esteemed Opponent, who likes to raise with draws, likes to raise limpers too. He raised 5x the big blind. He really just likes to raise. Now I was still keeping my head down but eyes up so I could see. I called. Two others called. And we're off to the flop...
4h 5d 6h. Success! I got my set...aaannd potential straight and flush draws out there. Isn't that always the case?
My Esteemed Opponent bet $40 into a pot already a little over $40. I wanted to flat call so bad here but the board and the two players still to act kind of forced my hand. I pushed all my chips in ($115, which worked out nicely to basically a standard 3x raise).
Actually, I initially missed one $1 chip and tossed it in once I saw it, apologizing for "so obviously" string betting ;-). The table forgave me and the dealer accepted it.
The two players behind me folded as I had hoped, and my Esteemed Opponent tanked and finally called, as I had hoped. Before the turn was even dealt, and before I'd turned over my hand, he said "Nice hand." The turn was a 4 giving me a full house. I forget what the river was. I turned over my Fives Full of Fours. My Esteemed Opponent mucked.
I'm so curious what he could possibly call with but then admit defeat before there was even another card dealt or I'd shown. Maybe pocket 10s or Jacks. That's my guess. I had the right to see his hand, in retrospect, since he called.
So winning that pot brought me back to even for the month! Well, depending on the exchange rate. Earlier today apparently I was still down $7. Tonight apparently I'm down $8. Freaking exchange rate.
