Live By The River - Die By The River: May 2009

So last night I went to Mohegan Sun to play some cards. I haven't been to Mo Sun in a while. I stopped by once when we first moved to CT, but never went back since they didn't have a poker room. I stuck with Foxwoods. But now with Mo Sun's new poker room, it gives me more options to play. More competition is good for the customer.

For those who haven't been, the poker room in Mo Sun is significantly smaller than the one at Foxwoods, but that's not saying much since the Foxwoods poker room is like the 2nd largest poker room in the world... or something to that effect. On a Friday night, there was almost never any wait for 1/2 NL.

Here's a recap of my night.
I play good- I lose.
I play bad- I lose.
I play patient- I win.
I play bad- I win.
I play good- I win.

It was a roller coaster night for me. I got there around 6 and sat down to play. There seemed to be a bunch of people everyone knew at my table. They were all singing the praises of this poker room over Foxwoods'.

To my immediate left, there's an Indian (as in India) dude who didn't seem to know what he was doing, but was a freakin' luckbox. At first I thought his "This is my first time playing" was an angle. But once his luck started to run out, it was pretty clear he wasn't all that good. He had an obvious betting pattern. If he has nothing he folds. If he has a marginal hand, he bets small. If he has a big hand, he bets large amounts, just grabbing handful of chips and tossing them in.

Unfortunately, I didn't pick up any hands against him early on. I bought in for $100. The max is 300, but I only had about $300 on me, so I didn't want to only have one bullet.

The first big hand, my stack is a little low and I limp with KQ. This table is a limpfest (as are many 1/2 nlhe live tables). I flop a Q with 2 low cards, and 2 hearts. One guy who looks like a dorky Bill Cowher, best about 15 into the put, and I push all in for about 70 total. He calls with a flush draw and hits it on the river.

If that was online, I'd probably tilt. But as it's live, I didn't even flinch. Just pulled out another $100 and rebought. This is where I start to play bad. Not horrible plays, just with a small stack I shouldn't really be making continuation bets all the time. Many of my C-bets are called and I shut down. I had one good call with I limped with A9 suited. I hit the ace and put out a small bet of about 20. I get 2 callers, including Indian dude. The turn is a low card and everyone checks. The river is another blank for me. I check, figuring I'm going to fold to a large bet. Indian guy bets 20 and it comes back to me. I was thinking of folding but realized that this is a small bet, and decided he would have bet more if he had something bigger. I call and he turns over 2nd pair and I take down a rare pot.

Unfortunately, my play doesn't improve and I'm left bleeding chips. With only about 40 bucks left of my 2nd buy-in, I get T9 in the SB and limp. Multiple limpers in the pot. The flop was KJ7. One person bets out $10, and I push with by double gut shot. I get two callers and I don't improve. I bust.

At this point, I contemplate leaving. I really don't know if I want to play my last 100. This was the buy-ins for the rest of the League that I was playing with. With $100, I still had enough for the next 3 buy-ins. I saved my seat, but went for a walk.

I love the casino atmosphere. I don't know why, because I hate slots and not a fan of most table games, but something about the lights and sounds of a casino gets to me. It's an energy that is sometimes easy to miss in the face of all desperation you can see.

The worst casino for that was Horseshoe in Bossier City. That was the worst place I've seen. Not that the casino was run down, but it just looked like a place that was only interested in taking old ladies' money. Foxwoods sometimes has that feel.

With the stroll through the Mohegan Sun, I didn't feel that desperation. I made my decision. I hadn't been there long. If I left at that point, the time playing vs the time driving would be about even. Maybe even a little more driving time. Plus, one of my buddies was on his way. Besides, I love live poker. I really do. Even if I'm losing, I'm still having fun. Plus, I have a chance to win money. I take my last $100 and return to the scene of the crime.

Unfortunately, I'm:
1) Still kind of card dead.
2) Playing a poor loose passive game. Lots of limping. Though raises don't get much respect.

Unfortunately, no much happens. I loose a lot of chips to the Indian dude when I flop an open ender and he bets too small for me to fold. But ultimately I have to let the hand go on the river even though the bet was tiny.

I try to hit a few hands, but miss everything. I steal an occasional small pot, but not enough to keep me afloat. I count my chips and I'm down to under $30. Yes, for the night I'm a $270 loser. I'm card dead, but I'm tempted to just push with anything and get the inevitable over with. Ultimately, I convince my self to go into a lockdown and wait for a hand.

When my stack is down to $23 bucks I pick up AK in early position. I can't really raise and fold if I miss, so I just toss in my stack. It folds around to one of the blinds. Some old guy who folds, looks over at me and says, "Oh, you're still there. You haven't played a hand in forever. I thought you left." I coulda killed him. Yes, thanks, just point out how tight I'm playing now. Prick. The SB tanks, and reluctantly calls me. I am happy to see his KJ. The flop gives him a J, but it gives me an A. On the river, it can be split with a T, but we both make Two pair when the K hits, and I double up.

The very next hand I'm dealt AA. I push my entire stack in, but get no callers. I fold, get another big hand in the BB, many limpers, I push and collect those free chips. Soon I'm back to around 100. A little bit of winning definitely puts me in a better mood. I wasn't in a foul mood, but when I was losing, I was just sitting there quietly, listening to my iPod. Now I begin to engage my table mates in conversation.

I look down at another big hand. KK. I raise it up to 12 and get one caller; Russian kid who seems to play a good game. Flop comes with the Ah, 7h, X. I have position on the kid, he checks. I decide to check for 2 reason. I don't like the A, but also maybe he thinks I'm setting him up, if I hit the ace. The turn brings a 3rd heart. Russian guy bets out 20. I tank for a moment. I figure I'm not good here. But how good can his ace be? AK is out since he just called my raise. AQ, that might be out too. Can I push him off his ace? He checked the Ace high. He could have a lower pair or missed and is betting because he smells weakness with my check. I decide I can push him off a weak ace since there's a flush out there. Plus I have a redraw to the nuts flush. I ship in my stack and he insta-calls with AK. Rut-roh. So much for making a comeback. Oops, a beautiful heart on the river gives me the flush and I double to 200. Nice, Only down 100 for the night.

Things fun for me, as Slappy introduces me to the new guy sitting to my left. Rake Feeder (aka Rob). We chat. He's very aggressive. His first hand at the table, he straddles. Bunch of limpers, he raises everyone folds. He has AA. Nice way to start. Nice guy and we chat a bit while playing.

Slappy busts froma SnG and joins our table. Always fun to play with Slappy. Though a cash game in a live casino is a little bit different than playing the home games. A little bit more money at the casinos, but I can't say that I play him any differently.

Also about that same time, a very attractive brunette sits down. She was very flirtatious. And friendly. She pulled out some food. I mentioned that I was starving and she shared. It was good. Another good quality... she seemed to like to use her sexuality at the table and was wearing a very low cut tank top to distract the guys (at least my impression anyway). We chatted a little, but I tried to keep my focus off of her. She did bet aggressively, so I proceeded with caution around her.

I win a decent size pot off Rob. He's to my immediate right and straddles again. I limp with 99. I plan to re-pop him when he raises his straddle. It gets to him and sure enough, he raises to about 17. I repop him to 50. He doesn't take long to call. This worries me a little. Flop is KK3. He checks. Now this is a big leak in my game I think, and I'm trying to work on it. If I see a paired board, I almost always figure my opponent to NOT have the trips there. With only 2 Ks left, he's a small percentage to have one. Apparently, I'm not trying to fix the leak tonight, because I push my stack into the middle. He tanks for a while, shows A and a Q then folds. I take a nice pot there.

Another thing to learn, I'm a magnate for others to have good hands in the straddle spot. Over the last few straddles I've gone up against, I've faced AK, AQ, AK, AA, AQ. Yikes.

Shortly there after, he moves to sit next to Brunette (I was looking to move over there before she came) and Slappy takes Rob's spot next to me.

I decide to get creative and limp with the Qc4c. I see a club flop (with the Ac) and slow play it. I check the flop, it gets bet, I call. I get one additional caller. I don't want to go crazy because if someone has the Kc, they're not going to fold on the flop. No club comes and the original better bets again. This time I re-pop him a good amount. He thinks for a while and then folds.

I'm pretty much unstuck for the night. I've turned a $23 stack to over $300. I'm pretty impressed with that, even if I do say so myself. What I liked about my play was that I didn't tighten up and fear losing. I still didn't have trouble playing hands and putting money in the pot, even if it meant losing my for the night.

My last big hand was against Slappy. He's to my right and raises to $12. I look down at QQ. I re-pop him to $30. It folds back to him and he just calls. The flop comes K high. He checks. I worry that he is going for the check raise here with AK. I check behind him. The turn is a blank and he checks again. This is where I make a mistake. I should probably have bet here since he showed weakness twice. I don't and check behind him. The river is another blank. Slappy fires in $20. A small bet and I call. He has TT and I win a good sized pot.

The rest of the night is slow. Winning and losing small pots. I won more small pots than I lost.

In the end, I went from $-277 to up over $+100.00. A small profit for the night, but an awesome comeback.

This might put me into the casino a little more after the League is over. It should restart next week.

Until then...

-My name is Unimpressed, and I'm an donkaholic.

Live By The River - Die By The River

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