Mad World of Poker

I played my first 12-hour live session yesterday, and I’m still somewhat shaking from the sleep-deprivation. I’m starting to realize playing poker under tough physical conditions is a challenge — but I had fun…

Decided to play the $2/$4 No Limit Hold’em game as I feel I can bust a couple times before feeling bad about the cash. Bought in for $200 and started playing. Decided to go with the tight-tight-tight strategy. Not even tight-aggressive, just tight. Raise 3BB with top-5 hands, limp with pairs, and bet out only if I actually flopped something.

People were stealing from me, and I knew it. I also realized I couldn’t wait too long for a hand as people would start to realize how tight I was. Luckily, I picked up KK about 45 minutes in, raised 3BB and got two callers. Flop came AK4, rainbow. Pretty much my dream-flop (okay, quad kings are better hehehehe), I checked under the gun. Player behind me bet about 80% of the pot, player behind him shoved all-in. I did my Hollywood and just smoothcalled the all-in as the guy on my left had a lot more cash than the all-in guy. The smoothcall worked like a charm. Villain on my left shoved behind me — I did a Phil Hellmuth style instacall. Villain show A4. Turn and river blanks, and I more than double up (Villain had me covered).

Now I had a superconservative table image, and I was going to use it. The next 3 hours were action-packed, and at one point I was up to $1400.

Then, a key hand came out. I was on the big blind with 10/3 OS, 4-way limping action — and I checked. Flop was: A-10-3. I flopped bottom two, and bet right out when the Small Blind checked to me. Player on the button came right over the top (but as I had been stealing a lot that could have been a weak ace in my eyes), so re-reraised him, when he instashoved. He had about $250 left, but the pot had about $350 in… I had to call, and he turned over pocket tens. WHAAT? The donkey limped with tens on the button with a caller in front of him and the two blinds behind ‘m…. That’s…. Argh.

Anyway, ended around $1000 and never had to rebuy. I’ll take it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Cash game, Casino, Personal, Phil Hellmuth, Poker. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.