A Poker Day

Yes my friends, I drove about a hour to a Indian Casino to play some poker today. Just a ring game, 3-6 limit to be exact.

I started with 100 dollars and was up to about 130 in about a half hour. Then I won the occasional hand after that. The hand that broke my stack and crippled me was a huge pot. I had KQ suited. I preflop raised and the flop came A,10,10 with a ten in my suit. So now I had a gut shot straight and three to the flush. There were six people in the hand and I raised the pot again and two people folded. The turn came a 4 of clubs (my suit) so now I had a flush draw and a straight draw. I had a ton of outs to make my hand with one card to come.

I raise, everyone folds but one guy who has been regaling us with his tales of all of the casinos he has played in and how much money he has earned. A basic loudmouth who feels he is the best player on the table but isn't thinking about what I could have for some reason. I feel that he doesn't have much or he wouldn't be checking first and letting the guy between us bet it up. He hasn't raised and only called. So now he and I are heads up and I am over half my stack in the pot. I bet six, he raises so I cap it with 12 bucks and now I am down to about 40 bucks in my stack. The pot is huge, well over 130 dollars.

The river comes and I miss my straight and flush, however he checks since he is acting before me. I bet six dollars and he calls. No raise. I turn over my KQ suited and everyone looks at the board sure I had a straight and I say I was on a draw that fell short but had 10's with a King kicker. He turns over pocket 4's. He stayed in all that time with only two pair and the board had the high pair. He won that pot and crippled me and then started in on the stories again.

Everyone was wondering what he was doing calling an aggressive raiser in position with only a small pocket pair.

If it had been a no limit game I would have pushed him out of the hand and made it painful to call me down.

Overall I feel I played well today. I did survive two all-ins to build my short stack to around 40 bucks before committing it all again on a suited Ace Junk.

I kept track of the hands that I folded to see if I made the correct call and after that many hours of playing I would have won only three hands if I had stayed in. I never had trips or a flush and only a small straight all day. I won mostly by forcing others to fold and having a high pair with no straight or flush combinations on the board.

I feel that I am for sure a tournament player though. If I can't pressure people more as in a no limit game then my game just isn't up for low limit poker. I only played most hands while in the big blind, folded a couple of those when raised and I had junk and folded a couple of small blinds as well.

My next trip I feel that I will play the 2-5 no limit game. Yeah it isn't as high stakes but there is a 200 dollar maximum buy in so I will be fine. At least I could put more pressure on someone and force them to consider what I am holding in my hand before they call me with a small pocket pair.