Relieved

This is kind of crazy.

Last year I got torched in January. This year I got torched in January.

Last year I went to all-star weekend in Vegas and that's where I started winning again. At the good old Imperial Palace, playing against the worst poker players I have ever played with. They didn't know if a set beat two pair, etc. and it was the perfect place to get my swagger back on the poker table.

This weekend was all-star weekend. No, I didn't make it to New Orleans, but I did make it to Hollywood Park. Granted it was on Monday, but because it was President's Day, it was still all-star weekend. Unfortunately I didn't get the worst players in the world, just a bunch of Hollywood Park regulars with a couple donks thrown in the mix.



I got to the casino and the tables were full with about three names ahead of me so I sat down at a $6/12 limit game. My first hand was the big blind and I got 9hTh to one raise so I called with four other players. The flop came ace high with two hearts. The raiser bet and two of us called. The turn was another heart. I checked, raiser bet, button called, I raised, they both folded and I was up $81 in three minutes. The next hand I folded and then the table broke and I headed to $2/5 no limit.

My table was ideal because even though the players were good, they were pretty much a-b-c players with one donk and one of my boys was at the table, so we didn't have to worry about each other.

It's funny because I started eating this fruit plate with $200 in front and when I finished I had around $800-900. Probably should order it more often.



One notable hand I got was KdQd. I raised to $25 pre-flop and got four callers. The flop came 6s7s6c. Everyone checked to me and I bet $100. Everyone folded to the donk, who sat there thinking. It was almost like I could see his thoughts: "I'm gonna have to gamble on a draw sometime tonight, is this my time to gamble? I think it is." He pushed all-in for $200 more and I called, just hoping he didn't have the ace-high flush draw, which would have me beat. I knew he had either a flush draw or a straight draw. The turn was the ace of diamonds and the river was the jack of hearts. He turned over 3s5s and played the board. If I had known that he had a straight draw AND a flush draw, I would have folded as I was obviously the underdog. And even though in retrospect it was a bad call, it felt like a good call at the time when he bricked out.



But if he just had a flush draw, I was a slight favorite:



And against a straight draw we were about even:



So I was calling about $200 for a pot that was over $500 and it made sense to me, although I wasn't a big favorite under any scenario.

It worked and I won a huge pot with king high.

Unfortunately I lost a huge pot later when I limped UTG (under the gun) with KQ. The flop came KQ4 rainbow and I threw out a $20 feeler bet and got two callers. The turn was a jack and I checked to induce a bet. The button bet $60 and I raised him to $160. He hesitated and then moved all-in. He was the only player that had my stack covered and I folded after someone called the clock on me. He later said he had KJ, then later later said he really had A-10, so who knows. The problem was the flop was so cheap that he could easily have called with a gut-shot.

After that I just tried to take advantage of the weaker players and got my stack back up because it had dwindled down to about $300 when I flopped top pair (QJ) against a wild player and he had pocket aces. So I was glad to get it back up to a healthy state and leave up.