Sept. 15, 2007 - Chumash

Played for nearly 7 hours – which was good (but my butt was sore). Looking back over my last few sessions, especially this one, it seems that my first 45-60 minutes are my losing-est times (I probably make more donkey moves during this time or don’t play slippery enough [i.e., make idiot-calls] – but it’s something I need to work on), and then after that I settle down and play OK. I was in seat 7 the whole day, and these were some hands I remember…

1) I’d lost most of my initial $60 buy-in and rebought for $50 more when I was dealt 45 offsuit on the button. A few people limped and I called, since the blinds behind me were fairly tight and rarely raised from that spot. Flop was an interesting 6, 7, T rainbow giving me a problematic open-ender (an 8 puts four parts of a bigger straight on board), but I called seat 2’s $4 bet (which was his ubiquitous standard continuation bet). Turn was a Q and he check-calls my $6 bluff-bet; and the river was that problematic 8 - giving me the bottom-end of the smaller straight. He checked it and I bet out $4, as I was doubtful that he played this hand with a 9. He did some mental exercises and called, I announced “idiot straight”. He looked at me like I just stabbed his puppy – and mucked his hand. Ship it to the donkey (hee-haw).

2) The first big pot (for this table) that I won came while I was in MP and picked up TT – which I raised to $7. I was called in 2 places by seat 3 and seat 6. Flop was a lovely 5c, 9h, Ts – and noticed that seat 6 seems pretty happy about this. Seat 3 checks and 6 bets $10, now I go into my crummy acting mode and pretend like I’ve got a real dilemma – and raise it another $10. Seat 3 bails and seat 6 pushes all-in, which I gleefully call. He mumbles, “crap” and flips over JhTh, and I show the set. Running 7’s give me a minor turn-scare, until my boat comes in.

3) A couple of new players sat down at seats 3 and 4, and they’re buddies – both young and Asian, so my snap-judgment was to expect them to be hyper-aggressive (turns out that they were somewhat aggressive – but not overly so – but I didn’t know that when this hand happened). I look down at Tc7c on the button and call seat 4’s raise to $5 – 4 players to the flop. Flop is Th, Jc, Ac giving me just enough of a hand to want to stay in and see where it goes. So we all call seat 4’s $8 bet. Turn is Ts and I start counting my outs (worst case and he flopped a set – I’m dead to his full-house; if he flopped a straight, I’ve got 19 outs to a flush, boat, or quads; but if he’s just got top pair (now 2 pair), I’ve got him over a barrel). Seat 4 bets $10, 5 calls, and I pop it to $40 as a semi-bluff / see-where-I-stand bet (I’d like to take it right here though). 4 calls and everyone else folds. River double-pairs the board with the Jh, and he checks – I get cold-feet and check my small boat. He shows the KhQs for a flopped straight and I scoop a nice pot.

Was that a prejudicial remark about expecting those 2 young Asian players to be hyper-aggressive? You betcha.
Was it racist? As a middle-aged white male, that's not for me to decide – but it was not intended as such. There’s a huge difference between pre-judging a poker player and racism.
Pre-judging is a vital skill at the table – at least until you gather enough information about the player and adjust to his/her play. Racism (or sexism or age-ism or any other –ism) has no place in poker, or anywhere else for that matter, but that’s another lecture. Ultimately, every player at the table is the same color: $-green-$.

Anyway, back to the hand summary.

4) A few hands after #3, I pick up AsAc in EP and pop it to $7. Seat 2 and seat 4 call (button and BB). Flop is a 9, 5, 5, and seat 4 check-calls my $8 bet with seat 2 folding. Turn is a 4 and he check-calls another $8. River is a not-very-fun 9, double-pairing the board – to which he puts out $15. Now, I don’t know what it was, but something didn’t seem right – I review the hand and it all boils down to the fact that the only hands I can’t beat are a 9, a 5, or pocket 4’s. So I call and show, and he sighs as he says, “You got it, I missed my straight” and tosses his 87o into the muck.

5) From LP I picked up KcTc and decided to call the $8 raise from seat 6 – and everyone else folded. Flop was a 9QK rainbow giving me top pair and a gut-shot – so I bet $10 at it, which 6 called. Now 6 and I had been bantering good-naturedly back and forth for the entire session, and when the Jd fell on the turn, he laughingly told me, “Don’t raise me, I’m telling you.”, and bet out $10 – I decided that I would try to push him out of the pot – and I raised it to $30. He said, “I told you not to do that” and pushed all-in for $35 more. I’m thinking – ‘man, could he really have Ace-Ten?’ And I call – guess what… He had Ace-Ten. All I could say to him was, “You were absolutely right, I shouldn’t have raised you...”

6) I’d been quiet for a while and finally picked up AdKd in LP and popped it to $7, and got 3 callers. Flop missed me coming in Qd, 8h, 3c, but it was checked around to me and I bet $8 in the hopes of taking it down – but seats 4 and 5 called. Turn was the 6d and I decided that I was going to drop the hammer. They both check and I bet out $20 on a flush-draw semi-bluff, and was glad to see that they both folded. Sometimes being tight pays off, provided your opponents are paying attention.

It just continues to amaze me that I always seem to get people calling my re-raises and bets when they should know that I’m a tight-assed player. But I guess that’s the way this $60 NL table runs – and I’m not complaining, they’re keeping my poker drawer stocked. It just seems odd to me…

Net = $121