The Stage 2 Roller Coaster

*** This is a strictly poker post ***

Well I started my plan and let me tell you things did not start off as I planned.

Fuck.

When I got to Hollywood Park the $400 was full and so was the $200 NL game but I was seated at the $200 NL game first. I burned about $45 in 15 minutes with a small pocket pair and AQ.

Then I got moved to the $400 game.

Obviously I was excited to get started on this ambitious mission of making $24k but things did not start off well.

(1) I'm in the big blind with Ad8d. Everyone limps. Flop comes 10d4d3d. Jackpot. The small blind bets $75. I call, thinking I'm going to re-raise anyone else or slow play it with him. Everyone else folds. The turn is the 4 of clubs. He checks, I bet $75 and I can sense that something is fishy here. He calls. The river is a blank. He checks, I check and he shows TT. The good news is I think I lost the minimum possible on this hand. He's not folding the flop no matter how much I raise him. The bad news is I now know that the poker Gods might have it in for me.

So I go about the first three hours without winning a hand. In fact, I donked off quite a bit of money. First, I bought in for $400 and lost that. Then, I bought in for $600 and donked that off. Next, I bought in for $500 and donked that. Now this is really starting to add up. Twice I called huge pots with draws and completely bricked. On one of them I was actually drawing dead as someone else had the nut flush draw. So now I'm in for another $600 and pretty disgusted with the way the night has gone. At this point I was moved to the main table with the big stacks. Great.

The funny part about this is that when I walked into HP I asked Corner Sleeper if he thought it was possible to win 30 sessions in a row. He thought it wasn't and I told him I could do it.

However, the change of tables was apparently good for me as I was able to grind my way up to about $1100. We're talking like 3 a.m. here. At the main table there's a player that I recognize really well. He's a really big guy that looks like he's either a construction worker or in a bike club. He plays every single hand but he's a decent player and a nice guy. We'll call him Harley*.

(2) I'm under the gun with aces. I limp as this table has had a lot of loose pre-flop raising, especially from Harley. However, another guy raises to $50. Harley calls on the button and I raise it to $200 total. The raiser folds and Harley makes a quick call. The flop comes A-Q-X with two hearts. I'm trying a new method of betting the nuts hard and this is a perfect opportunity to do it. Even though I'm guessing Harley has a mid-range pair, I bet $200 to make it look like I missed the flop (pot size is about $450). Harley pushes all in quickly and I call. The turn: jack of hearts. My heart sinks and the river is a blank. Harley asks me if I have a set, I confirm and he shows AdKd for the loser. I would have bet my life he had the flush...but...I'm back in the game. After that hand I have $2300 and I'm actually up $200 due to that hand, which may have been the biggest pot I've ever taken down.

(3) I have pocket three's under the gun. A few people limp and Harley makes it $45 on the button. I call, a few others call. The flop comes Q-8-3. I check to Harley, he bets $100. I call. The turn is a blank and now I decide to bet $200. Harley goes all-in and when I call him he knows he's beat. I'm putting him on like QJ or KQ here. He asks me if I have a set and I confirm and he says, yeah I figured. But then the river comes a king and Harley shows pocket kings for the winning set. This pot was about $700 or $800 and Harley is now back. This river obviously sucked for me but Harley had a great hand and there's no way a player like him is getting away from it when the board is queen high with no flushes or straights.

By 4 a.m. we were four-handed and I had grinded my way back to $1900 when the $400 table broke. There was no $200 table going either so I resorted to the $100 table where I picked up $265 playing extremely loose-aggressive poker with the rookies. They got a good kick out of it and I did tilt some of them when I won with hands like 6-2 and 10-8. Hey, 6-2 is my birthday and 10-8 was on the button. I have good excuses for playing these hands and the funny thing is the little stint at the $100 table actually put me in the green for the night.

So I wrap it up around 8 a.m. to head to work but my car's transmission is all f'd up so I end up skipping work to get a rental. I finally picked my rental up around 4 p.m. and decided I might as well hit up HP again until around 8 p.m. because I need to get some rest. This is last night. I'm really planning to take a different approach then I did on Monday night because I went down huge on Monday night calling draws left and right.

(4) My first hand I have 77 in late position. I'm facing a $45 raise and I decide to call, hoping to hit the flop. Two others call. The flop comes J-T-x. The raiser bets $65 and everyone folds to me. My poker sense told me that he missed the flop with either AK or AQ so I call. The turn is a blank, the raiser checks to me and I bet $100. He calls quickly and now I'm a little concerned that he has either 88 or 99. The river is a nine and he checks so I obviously check and he shows AcKc for the loser. Nice.

(5) My second hand I get AhKh, again like two before the button. I raise to $50 and get two callers, one of course is the guy I just beat in a pot. The hand comes all low cards and is checked down the whole way and I win with AK high. Nice.

Anyways this session continues to go on with me winning and now I'm at like $1000 when the following hand comes up:

(6) I have JJ under the gun. I hate JJ so I limp. Loose Willie* raises to $45 in late position. The button, who is a new player that won a huge pot on his first hand with Ac4c calls loose Willie. The big blind calls Loose Willie. Now I know that Loose Willie doesn't have shit and I know that if the big blind had anything better than jacks he would have raised. I don't know what the new player has though. So I raise to $250. Loose Willie mucks and then the new player insta-calls. Big blind thinks for a LONG time and finally goes all-in for his last $145. So now our pot is $50 (Loose Willie) + $500 (me and new guy) + $200 (big blind) = $750. The only hand I can put new guy on here is AK. If he has anything better than jacks, he would have raised Loose Willie or pushed on me instead of calling. If he has an underpair I have to figure he's folding for $250 (blinds are $5/10). Well, the flop obviously comes 3-5-K. Great. I check. New guy checks in a heartbeat. Interesting. The turn is a blank and I bet $100. New guy calls. I have no idea what he has here so I check the river (blank) and he checks and shows TT. Wow. So that was a huge pot.

I started my session at about 6 p.m. At 7:30 p.m. Big Time calls me because he needs me to go pick up a check for him. In South Central L.A. right off of 50th and Crenshaw. Sweet, I can't wait. He's been buggin about this check for a long time and it's finally available so he wants me to pick it up asap. I tell him I will. I'm going to play these last three hands before the big blind.

Of course I'm racking up my chips when I'm in the big blind and the dealer deals me in, assuming I'm playing the hand. I don't want to be an ass so I pay the big blind, get a bad hand and fold. Well now I might as well play my button. At this point the guy on my left, who is a nice guy and his name is Opie* I think, tells me not to even look at my hands because whenever this happens to him he ends up losing all of his money. I agree with Opie but I still have to look at my hands.

(7) So of course I get JJ in the small blind. Everyone limps so I limp because I don't want to play a big pot here. Then Opie raises in the big blind to $35, which is a weak raise here with six players in the pot but he is a tight player. Everyone calls so I call when I really should have re-raised. The flop comes K-10-Q. Of COURSE. I check and Opie bets $35. This is a REALLY weird bet from Opie. He usually bets his hands really strongly or doesn't bet them at all. At this point I'm putting him on either AJ or KK. There's no reason at all that he would bet that weak with six guys acting after him. He's gotta be looking for someone to raise. However, everyone folds and I call, figuring I have two of the four jacks in the deck. The turn is the nine, which is solid for me but I don't feel safe with the way Opie is playing the hand. I check and Opie bets $75. I call. The river is an eight, which doesn't hurt my hand at all. I check, Opie bets $165. I really hate this because I have the second-best hand but I really feel like Opie has it. I call and he shows AJ. Opie then tells me I should have left.

I'm about to leave when I realize it's now finally my button. I can't leave on my button so I'm standing up and I peak at my cards.

(8) Two black aces. Are you serious? Now everyone at the table knows it's my last hand, which is always dangerous because they all want to double up. Five people call and I raise to $50 telling Opie how sick this is. I basically told him everything I could without telling him I have aces. No one cares, three people call. I'm obviously worried about just about ANY flop that can come except for the money flop that I get: A-Q-x rainbow. Everyone checks to me and I fire $100. Two people fold and a guy who is playing his first hand goes all-in. I call. He says "We probably have the same hand." I say "Yeah, probably not." and show aces. I have to admit in retrospect it was kind of an asshole thing to say. The poor guy had AQ and I take down a big pot on my final hand.

Yesterday was really great and the night before was pretty crazy. I was obviously lucky not to lose a lot on the first night, I was really in deep. There's only two times I've been in for $1500+ and suprisingly both times I've come out ahead.

Overall this was a really great start to Stage 2. I think I learned a lot on my first night and really played badly to teach myself some lessons. The second night I folded a lot of hands that I could easily have played bigger including top two pair and nut flush draw on the flop but due to the first night I laid them down.

Unfortunately, I had to take my ass to South Central with $5k in cash on me, which was not my favorite thing to do. Luckily I avoided any bad beats (or beatdowns) and made it out alive.

*Players with an asterisk after their name will probably be mentioned in future stories, hands, etc. I'll start noting these players now.

Here are the numbers:

Session 1 (9/24/07): +$15 (10.75 Hrs.)
Session 2 (9/25/07): +$2010 (2.25 Hrs.)
Overall: +$2025 (13 Hrs.)
Hourly: $155.77

$100 NL: +$265
$200 NL: -$45
$400 NL: +$1805

This is the only picture I took: