all poker'd out



we got to ocean's 11, and sat down around 7:30pm after having some food at the bar. i was looking forward to playing a tight game, but the first 3 hands i was dealt were monsters. first hand, 2 pairs. jacks and queens. second hand, straight. third hand, straight. so within 5 minutes i'm up 80 dollars. for the next 4 hours, i fluctuate from being up 60 to being up 100. me and stan notice an ususual pattern of kings showing up. there seems to be 2 kings always showing up on the flop, or on the turn. unfortunately, everyone plays with kings, and the luck seemed to be distributed evenly.



i played one had wrong where i had pocket queens, 2 kings came up on the flop, no one raised, so i just called everyone's raises after the turn. and they were reraising representing they had kings. i'm not sure when would have been a good fold, but the pot was incredibly large, and both people rerasing had the kings. i still lost a lot of money on that hand. probably close to $30. i'll need to think about this one.



there was this hand where i had A7, and another guy had A6. i sensed his hesitation to raise when he made his pair of aces on the flop. he ended up checking. so i raised, every change i got, and he called every raise with quite a bit of hesitation. and lucky for me, the 7 kicker played. i thought that was a really good read on my part.



another memorable events of the night was that i saw this bald chubby hispanic guy. playing super agressive. literally buying out every pot. like he was board, and really didn't care about his money. i picked up on that. he had JQ suited. i had QK suited. the board came up 56564. he bet every turn, and i quickly called as soon as he got chips in there. when it was done, i had taken all of his money except $1. he gave that to the dealer and left the table. i felt like i had taught that guy a lesson, and did good for the entire table by kicking a guy like that out.



there was this indian guy...looked like he was 18. there was this one hand where i had top pair, and he flipped over pocket 5's to make trips. you can never read what cards someone has when they have pockets. he took a lot of money from me that hand. me being the chip leader at the table, i sensed his david vs goliath complex the way he was firing at the pot whenever i raised. knowing this, i knew he wouldn't be playing as tight, so i was overjoyed when he kept reraising my raises when i was holding big slick (AK). the flop comes out, and i flop an inside straight draw. the miracle card comes out on the river, and i make the nut straight. and the indian guy is still betting at the pot. so i raise him. i flip over my monster, and bitch slap his overagressive immature ass back in his seat. i make my money back, and then some.



so the big blind position is circling towards me. i tell the dealer i need a rack for my chips. so as i'm racking another full rack of chips, i have some left (4 or 5) that i can carry in my hand. so i wait to fold my next hand. well what do you know? pocket aces once again. then there was this drunk guy at the table who was rerasing my raises. i'm like, man this is great. he's doing all the work for me. and some crappy flops come out, and i know he hasn't made anything. so i keep betting, and he's reraising me. so i don't even look at the turn or the rivers as they come out, and i'm just throwing money into it every chance i get. he finally decides to call, and i turn over my pocket aces, and it turns out he had top pair on the flop and nothing else. i don't know what he was rerasing me with, but it was an easy victory. so i'm kinda off my chair, and i'm like...."ummm...i need a...." someone hands me anoter rack. i tip the dealer, and make my exit.



one odd thing is that i never had a single hand of trips. a totally different thing than what i had experienced last time i was at ocean's. this time i had a few flushes, few striaghts, and a lot of high pairs and 2 paris that got me the win. i came out with more than 3x of winnings i had when i went last thursday. one thing i didn't like doing was reraising on the flop whenever stan was in an hand since he rarely seemed to be playing his hands. but everytime he finally decided to call, i was holding AK, KQ suited, AJ, etc. seriously, i never raised preflop with anything less than AJ unsuited, and he seemed to be in the majority of those hands.



in all honesty, i felt really drained afterwards. i got lucky with some great hands last time. this time, i went up against really agressive players and i had moderately good hands so it wasn't so easy. i was up a lot by hour and a half, and i already got my fill at that time. even though i had walked out with more money after 4 hours, it felt like i had to grind it out. and i don't think i could ever have the patience be a rounder for a living.