...winner, no chicken dinner.

...Winner (3/4)

My second session this week went as well or I guess even better than the first session.

I get to Hollywood Park, the floorman gives me the first open seat and three or four of the players at the table were at my table the night before.

I like this because their style of play and tendencies are fresh in my mind. Two of them like to build pots all the time with weak raises. The other one plays super tight and stays out of hands with me due to some mutual respect type of thing. He's a good player so I don't mind staying out of his pots either, especially because I raise much more often than he does so I'm pretty sure it benefits me more than it does him.

Anyways, I quickly developed a good feel for this table and it was a good combination: two loose raisers and the rest were super-tight players. This meant anytime I was playing a pot in position, I could easily (for the most part) steal the pot if I senses weakness.

Example: Loose player raises to $15, guy after him calls, I call in late position, tight chick on button folds, big blind calls. Flop comes 7-7-4. Everyone checks to me, I fire $50, everyone folds. This happened a lot.

Another thing the weak player did was raise his button every single hand, then continuation bet it if everyone checked to him. I check-raised him once with nothing when he did this and he folded but for the most part I didn't risk it and wasn't catching hands but this guy was easy money. Somehow he wisely left with about $500.

Our table conversation was interesting as the co-star of the "Joe Schmoe" show was at the table (he's a HP regular) and a couple of the players were big fans. He's actually an SC alum and the guy that doesn't mix it up with me. He wrote the show and it was hilarious because they were asking him what he was working on and he said he has a script deal with Paramount and some guy yells out "My girlfriend is a GREAT actress!" as if the guy was gonna give her a part right there based on the endorsement.

I lost a stack or two when some new players sat down. One guy is a good player and pretty aggressive. The first hand he raised and I called him with nothing much from the big blind (he raised 3x the blind). There were three of us in the pot. The flop comes out K-7-x. I check and the raiser bets $35, which looked weak to me. The button folds and I call. The turn is a second seven. I check and he checks. The river is another king and I bet out $50. He fake thinks and shoves on me and I fold.

Then this other dude, who based on his appearance I thought might be decent, played nine out of every ten hands. I get A-7 in the big blind, everyone limps. Flop comes A-T-5. New loose dude bets $30 and gets one caller. I don't really think I'm good here but I'm looking to spike a 7 on the turn. The turn is another ten and here's my opportunity. I fire out $45. Loosey calls me and the other player folds. I'm pretty sure Loosey has a good ace here. River is a second 5 and now I know I can bluff him out so I bet $75. He thinks for a minute and finally calls with... A-6. Guess I wasn't bluffing after all.

A new guy sits at our table and I'm in the small blind. I haven't looked yet. The new guy raises to $30 from UTG and I'm reading strength on his part. Another player goes all-in for $49 and Loosey calls the $49. I look down at kings. Typically I should re-raise here but with one player all-in, I'm guessing if I push everyone out, I'll lose the pot if an ace hits anyways so I'd rather call the $49 and see what flops, then go after Loosey, who's on the button. So I call the $49 and then the new player thinks for a while and pushes all in. He obviously doesn't have aces the way he was thinking. Loosey thinks for a while and I'm praying for him to call so I can get a huge pot but he folds. I call and my kings hold against AK and the $49 hand.

End of session.

...No Chicken Dinner. (3/5)

Went last night while I was waiting for someone to pick up from the airport. Ended up losing $48 in an hour.

Winner

For the second time in my last three sessions at Hollywood Park I looked around the table and could only spot two players that I thought knew what they were doing. This is a good feeling.

So I did my best to be patient and watch everyone trade huge pots and build their stacks up. Then an old guy that I recognized as basically a chip donator showed up and I felt like I had to get involved.

I picked up my boy Freddy's favorite hand in middle position: T8 suited. I bump the bet to $15 from middle position just to build a pot. Four callers. The flop comes 7-9-J, rainbow. Solid. Two checks to me, I toss out another $15 to see what's going on with the other players. One fold, button raises to $45, other two players fold. Turn is a deuce and I check to the button, who bets like $65. I raise him to about $125 and he calls. The river is an Ace and I bet $100. He thinks long and hard and folds. I know that ace killed my action. Dude probably had like KJ or QJ. I'm becoming a fan of T8.

For about an hour I'm on the table in the first seat of the roller coaster. Up to $500, then back down to like $150, then doubling with fours against AK when a guy bluffed to the river, then I moved in on the river for my last $61 and he thought for an hour then called with the AK high. Dude went to SC too so I felt bad but he tried to get in too many pots with me so I got tired of it. Obviously if he hits the river I'm toast but so is the life.

Then the man aka Ricky the dealer shows up, deals me pocket aces twice and I get a lot of action on both hands. The first one someone else raised to $20 and I was the only caller in the small blind so I called him. He bets the flop, I call. He bets the turn, I raise, he folds. Then another one a guy went all-in, got a caller and I re-raised with AA. The caller called and I put him in on the turn with a board of J-8-8-5, river 8.

Anyways these cards obviously can run good and bad. Five weeks ago I was sulking about not being able to win a session and it's important for me to keep that in mind.

I went out with some friends on Saturday night to a club called Opera (TJ is hopefully providing a write-up in the "On The Rocks" section), got faded and blew a lot of money. I definitely need to stay away from that. That drank. After a certain point in the night, my recollection is real foggy about the whole night. I'd say after about 2 a.m. Not to mention I made a cameo on TMZ that some friends brought to my attention and I had no memory of the fight I was watching that they filmed.

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.