Session #21

Well, I took my advice to heart and was rewarded for it today. I played a semi-tight yet aggressive game early on, and was rewarded by several nice pots and then reverted to a tighter mode and managed to hang on to my stack. Here are a couple of notable hands.

An interesting story to the first hand. The player in position three is actually reading Phil Helmuth's book "Play Poker Like A Pro" and I make a comment as to how I don't really like Phil's book as his recommended play is too tight for the low limit games we play. The player to my immediate right is a loose player who I've noticed in the past tilts easy and folds readily when his hand doesn't finish strong. He bets out from UTG plus one and I make a comment of how Phil's book told me I should make this hand two bets to go and then I raise. Everyone folds to the button who calls and he loosy-goosy calls as well. I'm hold K-7 offsuit by-the-way. ;-) The flop comes down 9-8-A. He bets out to me and I've already made up my mind to be aggressive all the way to the river as I figure he's playing crap like 4-5, 10-6 and such. I make it two bets while making another comment about how Phil says I should play this hand this way and the button folds and he calls. The turn brings a 10 and he checks and I bet and he calls. The river brings a J and I bet out again and the loosy-goosy says that he figures he can't beat my ace and folds showing me his pair of 9's. I rub it in a bit and show him the bluff and he lets out a loud sigh and mumbles something about how he should have called. I think this hand put him a bit on tilt for the rest of the afternoon as I watched him pump off around $200.

The second hand is one that I lost but that I deliberately played for information. I came in with K-J suited and it was heads up for me against one of the older fellas in the club. The flop produced an ace and a jack so I made second pair with a big kicker and I bet out to him. He raised me so I figured I needed to know right now whether he had an ace or not so I immediately re-raised and he thought for no more than a second before raising me back. He's a tight enough player that I gave him credit for the ace. He didn't show but I caught the underside of his cards as he folded and saw the ace. This was a good play that only cost me four small bets (two preflop, two flop).

The very next hand I'm in the big blind with two black deuces and the same old fella plus a mid-position player and a loose-aggressive in the small blind come in. The flop comes down A-A-2! What a beautiful flop! I start the trap by checking and the old fella does it right for me and bets out, the other two call and I call as well. The turn is a jack and I again trap-check and the old fella beautifully bets out for me and the other two call. I make it two to go and get three calls. The river brings a scary card in producing another overcard for possible bigger tights so I check as do the other three and I rake the pot with deuces full of aces bringing a few "wow"s from the players and the old fella turns over A-5. I didn't see the other two hands but I raked a nice pot.

Session Total = +$174.

Live MTD earnings are +$190 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$197 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.