Poker Update

I’ve never played so conservative in my life. I already wanted to play tight in the beginning rounds and when eleven players came that made it easier to play tight. In the first two hours I played to the flop only twice and never saw a turn. I won exactly one hand by stealing the blinds. These are the only two other hands I played in the first four rounds:

1) A-10. I bet 4x the blind. I’m called. Flop is K-K-J. I check, he raises a little over half the pot. I grudgingly fold. He showed the pocket jacks.
2) A-K of spades. I bet 3x the blind. I’m called. The flop is J-9-8 of diamonds. He goes all in. I have to fold.

I was slowly dying. By which I mean, it was ninety degrees out, under lights, next to a humid pool, and I had just played nine holes of golf – I was sweating like a pig. A big out-of-shape disgusting pig. Oh, also I didn’t have many chips left. I got down to 900. The blinds have just moved to 250-500, I obviously need to make a move. I look down and see pocket 9s. I’m just about to go all in when the person in front of me goes all in with 1800. That makes the decision harder. I decide not to do it. He had A-Q, so it could have gone either way. He gets knocked out on the play so I end up as big blind a hand early. Damnit!

I have A-8. I go all-in (only 400 more to go!) and get a caller who has A-Q. Uh-oh! The board ends up with 3-9-10, and the turn is an 7. I have an open-ended straight draw, but the J would give him a higher straight. Yes, I get the 6 on the river! I am alive and nearly tripled up.

Here my luck turns. There are only six players left, and I start to get cards. Not great cards, but cards good enough to play. I have enough chips that I can finally start playing some offense.

Down to four players. I take out two of them with hands like my A-8 vs. their A-3. So to Kid’s point, there are two big hands where I did not get big beated. That brought it down to two players, but I had a 9-1 chip advantage and won on the first hand.

Did I play well tonight? I dunno. I had bad cards and hung around long enough to give myself a chance, but it’s hard to take much credit for a crazy river straight. I made good calls on those A-kicker hands. I am impressed I played so few hands. I don’t know if it was the right strategy or not but it showed a lot of patience and discipline. Eh, who knows. So hard to figure out. That’s what you readers are for!

Tonight: $110 !
Running Total: $66, on the positive side again!

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