Dec 22nd Trip to the Horseshoe-Bossier City

I took a day off from work Friday to extend my holiday weekend and to give me some time to play cards and finish up my Christmas shopping. Well, finish up really isn’t the correct word there; I had to do my Christmas shopping. After doing my shopping and errands, BJJIII and I hit the road around 11:30 headed to our favorite card room, the Horseshoe-Bossier City! The Shoe was busy and almost full, but they quickly had us seated at the same table. Within an hour we’re splitting a huge club sandwich, compliments of the $1/hr comp rate that we’ve accumulated that the Shoe offers its poker players.

Sputtering Start…

I’ve been on a bit of a downswing lately, so I really didn’t expect to come out smoking like I did on my last trip. In fact, I started the day off by flopping on my face multiple times. I check-raised a flush draw vs. some lady who was running uber hot. She, of course, called, then proceeded to win the hand as my draw didn’t get there. I guess that I thought that she might be capable of a fold. What was I thinking? I had top pair turn into trips on the turn, which got scorched by some-young guys full house. This is not the way that I like to start sessions!

Table Change Please!!

At BJJIII and my table were a couple of decent players, a grouchy old rock and an old lady who couldn’t fold due to the fact that everything was going her way. She was $1,200+ deep at a $1/3 game and had obvious flaws in her strategy that we were looking to exploit. When she announced that it was time for her to head home, we begged her to stay since her leaving would cripple the table and probably leave it on a course to be broken up. We kept her around for 30 minutes despite her saying that each hand was her last hand, but I think she came out to the positive in this time period, so it might have been better if we would have just let her leave. A call to her husband 1 hour away sealed the deal and she stacked up 2 racks of red birds and headed out the door.

BJJII got hit in the face w/ the deck when his 10-7o flopped the nut str8 and he doubled through an old man w/ the idiot end of it. He had a day that we all dream of card wise. A really good reg sat down in the 2 seat to BJ’s left and the game seemed to get much tougher. I was down about a buyin at this point and felt it was time to make a move to a softer seat. When I talked to Joe (the night floor manager) he pointed me to the back of the room where the table seemed loose and jolly! Ahhhh! That’s more like it, limp, limp, call my raise, fold to my Cbet. That’s right!

A snake in the weeds

When I sat down in the 8 seat, I noticed a tough spot in the line up that I hadn’t noticed on my first glance through. Two seats to my right sat a man who goes by the nickname of Ace. Well, he used to, but he goes by a different name now since ever dealer in the room used to announce his presence when he walked through. He’ll always be Ace to me and he is a pleasure to talk to for the long hours of a live poker session. He’s the man who set over set me in my last session at the HSBC, which is linked at the top of the page.

Don’t call it a comeback!

Soon enough I started making my money back. I’ve gotten really good at recognizing orphan pots and I’m able to pick them up like they were quarters on the sidewalk. My top pair hands were good for a few wins then I got dealt the mother of all starting hands, Pocket Aces!

Dealt to Hero: A A
3 folds
Hero ($400+) raises to $12
CO folds
Button calls $12
SB ($222) calls $11
BB folds

Flop - J 6 4
Pot - $39
SB cks, Hero bets $30, Button folds, SB calls $30

Turn - 6
Pot - $99
SB cks, Hero bets $100, SB calls

River - 10
Pot - $299
SB cks, Hero bets $80, SB calls $80 and is All In

Villain shows Q-Jo for One Pair- Jacks
Hero shows A-A for One Pair- Aces

The SB was an older man and had seemed very straight-forward since I had been watching him. He said that he played online at UB. He seemed uncomfortable throughout the hand and mostly squirmed in his chair. I thought that he was on a draw and was floored when he called the $100 turn bet. He looked very resigned when I put him in on the river, in fact, he held his chips out after he checked in a manner that hinted at surrender. As if he had no choice but to put them in. Thanks for the crying call. He reloaded instantly for a full buy-in and a short while later I’d tie into him again.

I had moved to the 3 seat across the table to get a better view of the whole table. (I always try to stay in the 2,3,7 or 8 seats because they offer the best view of my opponents.)

Playing small flushes

I played 5 4 and made a small flush, only to lose to the 6 3 for a bigger flush. This didn’t really bother me that bad since it wasn’t that big of a pot. The table was loose passive and I felt that I had solid reads on everyone. I don’t limp much at all out of position in these games, but for some reason I caught a wild hair and decided to play a very unorthodox hand.

Dealt to Hero – 6 4

Hero ($500) calls $3
1 fold
MP1 calls $3
MP2 ($300) (SB from hand above) calls $3
3 folds
SB calls $2
BB checks

Flop – A 9 8
Pot - $18
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $15, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $15, SB folds, BB folds

Turn – K
Pot - $48
Hero bets $25, MP2 calls $25

River – Q
Pot - $98
Hero checks, MP2 bets $75, Hero….

This put me into a tight-spot. The old man played his hand like he had a draw and any FD almost had to be bigger than mine. I planned to check-call the river to snap off a bluff, but this was a rather large bet for a straight-forward player when a FD gets there on the river. That 5 4 hand kept running through my mind and I kept asking myself if flush over flush could happen again in such a short period of time. I studied the old man and found that he was quite rigid and was pushed back into his chair. Not in a super confident “I have you kind of way,” but in a “I hope that snake doesn’t bite me” kind of way. I counted his breathing to see if he was excited or scared, but I didn’t get much from that. Finally, based on the fact that I did have a flush and that the villain was quite rigid, I dumped $75 into the pot prepared to be behind. He tapped the table and said “Good call.” I showed him my flush and he mucked his hand. Later, he admitted that he had TP.

BJJIII had gotten up from his table to come over for a visit and watched the hand progress. He said that he would have snap called the river, I don’t think the hand was that simple. My estimate of the villain being a straight-forward player, coupled w/ how he played the hand made it a much harder call, IMO. Also, losing to a flush over flush just before this didn’t make things any easier.

One More Round

An hour or two later, I’m still hovering at about even (+/-$30) when BJJIII comes over to tell me that he’s ready to go and that we’ll play one more round. Some new guy had joined my table, he looked a little buzzed and wore his feelings on his sleeve. I think he was the type that liked to play blackjack and thought that he’d give poker a try. Earlier, I stated that I’ve gotten good at picking up orphaned pots. This isn’t really anything that I can put my finger on most of the time, it’s kind of a gut feeling based on the flop texture and the reactions of the other players. It also helps when you’re checked to in position. Two such hands came up as we were preparing to leave. One I took down uncontested and the other I got called by the man mentioned above. He seemed so uncomfortable and couldn’t remember his cards for anything. I guess that he may have been trying to reassure himself that his middle pair was good. Based on this read, I fired 3 streets into the guy w/ bottom pair before I convinced him to fold w/ my river bet. The very next hand I picked up K Q and raised it preflop and, of course, the new guy calls. I flopped a king and bet the flop and turn before he finally gave up again. Next thing that I knew, BJJIII handed me 2 empty racks and I headed for the cage. I cashed out a $120 winner that I scraped together on my “One Last Round.”

I love live poker!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! with this Christmas card.

BJJIII and I made a trip to the Horseshoe-Bossier City this weekend, I hope to have that report up soon. I netted a $120 profit while BJJIII took home the chedda w/ a $700+ win.

PokerStars has been good to me in December and I have all of my money off of Bodog. I'm only 170 points away from Silver Star, which I don't feel is bad since it's my first month there and I'm still learning to multi-table well. I hope to earn the rest of the FPPs by this weekend so that I don't have to cram just to make SS. I've played up to 12 tables comfortably at 25NL and hope to move up to 50NL very soon where my FPP earn rate will double. My 10k hand estimate appears to be on target for my moving up plans. I'll move up to 50NL short for a while, but plan on staying there until I'm fully rolled for 100NL.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and remembered that the reason we celebrate this holiday is for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

So, I decided to open a PokerStars account. I've never had one before, so I took advantage of a promotion from Pokersourceonline.com to get an annual subscription to StoxPoker. I'm really trying to get better and feel that playing tougher competition and joining a site like Stox will greatly benefit me.

I need 250 FPPs to complete the bonus and I picked up 47 in 2 hours tonight. I was able to get in 390 hands in 2 hours on PS, where I usually get in 300 in the same time frame on Bodog. I really like the software and I can definitely see where people can play so many tables at once on this site. I think I'll keep some money on Stars even after I finish the bonus.

I was actually doing really well tonight and was up 3 buyins at 25NL when this hand came up.

POKERSTARS GAME #13717389690: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2025/12/07 - 22:05:12 (ET)
Universal pokerstars Poker HH Converter Tool from TwoRags.com

Hero (UTG) ($90.15 in chips)
hollonusar ($23 in chips)
GrandJury23 ($39.10 in chips)
vinny mcgraw ($31.55 in chips)
KHSPoker21 ($27.55 in chips)
black dallas ($47.60 in chips)
spunkmonk:
KHSPoker21: posts small blind $0.10, black dallas: posts big blind $0.25
kapsell: sits out

PRE-FLOP:
Dealt to Hero [8 8]
Hero: raises $0.75 to $1, hollonusar: calls $1, GrandJury23: folds, vinny mcgraw: calls $1
spunkmonk leaves the table
KHSPoker21: calls $0.90, black dallas: calls $0.75

FLOP: [8 3 T]
KHSPoker21: bets $2.50, black dallas: calls $2.50, Hero: raises $10 to $12.50, hollonusar: folds, vinny mcgraw: folds, KHSPoker21: folds, black dallas: raises $34.10 to $46.60 and is all-in, Hero: calls $34.10

TURN: [8 3 T] [T]

RIVER: [8 3 T T] [T]

SHOWDOWN:
black dallas: shows [K K] (a full house, Tens full of Kings), Hero: mucks hand, black dallas collected $97.70 from pot

RESULTS:
Total pot $100.70 | Rake $3
Board [8 3 T T T]
Hero mucked [8 8], black dallas (big blind) showed [K K] and won ($97.70) with a full house, Tens full of Kings


If bad players couldn't suck out, then eventually there'd only be a bunch of sharks swimming around trying to take each other's rolls. I was in the process of exiting tables, so I just took my 1 buyin win and checked out for the night. I'll definitely be back!

NEW BEST MONTH EVER!!!

October may have been meh, but November was ROCKIN’! With one hot handed trip to the Horseshoe-Bossier City I posted my biggest single session win ever. This trip propelled me into my biggest month ever. I also had my best month ever at online Full Ring games, I won $1,013, mostly at 100NL on Bodog.



I definitely earned it this month, I played a lot more hours than I usually do. My typical month is around 20 to 30 hours, but I got in 53 hours this month online. I was about 500 hands short of 10k hands with a 6.2 BB/100 Hands win rate. I got in more hours due to my wife being gone for a play that she was dancing in. This caused me to miss Monday night volleyball also, which just added to the time that I could play cards online after my son went to bed.

200NL online was a real challenge this month. I took 3 shots at that game, the first one went really bad. I dropped a full buyin and made a really bone-headed play here:

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

MP1 ($125.50)
Landlord79 ($266.00)
CO ($302.50)
Button ($414.50)
SB ($284.50)
BB ($46.50)
UTG (CompleteRock) ($200.00)
UTG+1 ($287.00)

Preflop: Landlord79 is MP2 with A, A.
UTG (CompleteRock) calls $2, 1 fold, MP1 raises to $8, Landlord79 calls $8, 1 fold, Button calls $8, 1 fold, BB calls $6, UTG (CompleteRock) calls $6.

Flop: ($41) 8, 7, 4 (5 players)
BB checks, CompleteRock bets $23, MP1 folds, Landlord79 raises to $64, Button folds, BB folds, CompleteRock bets $192 (All-In), Landlord79 calls $128.

Turn: ($425) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)
.

River: ($425) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $425

Results below:
CompleteRock has 4 4 (full house, fours full of eights).
Landlord79 has A A (two pair, aces and eights).
Outcome: CompleteRock wins $425.




The second run at it I found a table with a total donk who stacked off really easily. I got into a big hand w/ him here:

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

Landlord79 ($212.50)
SB ($331.00)
BB ($200.00)
UTG ($200.00)
UTG+1 ($103.00)
MP1 ($588.00)
MP2 ($319.50)
MP3 ($183.00)
CO (theMark) ($515.50)

Preflop: Landlord79 is Button with 5, 7.
UTG calls $2, UTG+1 calls $2, 1 fold, MP2 calls $2, 1 fold, CO (theMark) calls $2, Landlord79 calls $2, 1 fold, BB checks.

Flop: ($13) 8, Q, 2 (6 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, theMark bets $5, Landlord79 calls $5, BB folds, UTG calls $5, UTG+1 calls $5, MP2 folds.

Turn: ($33) 7 (4 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, theMark bets $5, Landlord79 raises to $25, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, theMark calls $20.

River: ($83) 2 (2 players)
theMark bets $8, Landlord79 raises to $91, theMark raises to $174, Landlord79 bets $180.5 (All-In), theMark calls $6.50.

Final Pot: $444

Results below:
theMark has J K (flush, king high).
Landlord79 has 5 7 (flush, queen high).
Outcome: theMark wins $444.



Upon further review by the 2+2 Forums, this river was better played as a raise of $60 followed by a fold to any reraise. I really have to work on these spots.

On my final shot at 200NL for the month, things finally went right. I played about 30 minutes single tabling and caught Aces, Kings and 7s for some good wins. I didn’t win a buyin back, but I did win 2/3s of one back. I think the table was just a little softer and obviously my card distribution was really excellent for that session.

I practiced a lot more table selection at the end of this month than I have in the past. It’s amazing how many players you actually recognize when you’re not overwhelmed by the volume of the micro stakes games. Most of my table selection was based on who was sitting at a table rather than by the stats of the table. It’s the same principle as playing the player and not their stats. I’m finding weak players before I’m focusing on playing loose games.

I’m happy with how my game is growing, I’m still reading Professional No-Limit (going on the 3rd month now,) and I just bought my 1st Cardrunners video. (Sorry Adanthar, it wasn’t one of yours.) I really don’t play a lot of tournaments; so I felt like a Full Ring video would be better suited to my needs. Daut’s video was at 600NL, so some of the techniques that he taught aren’t really relevant for 100NL, but I have to start learning them sometime. He also ran bad card distribution wise, which puts me into a poor mind frame going into a session, so I probably won’t be watching it that often. I’ve also made a few great contacts w/ some players that are making real money at Full Ring games. I think these contacts will really propel my game forward.

My goals for December are to enjoy the holidays and only play about 5k hands. I’d also like to visit the Horseshoe-Bossier City one more time before the year ends, preferably during the Christmas or New Years weekends. I’d also like to run in the black for 200NL this month.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! This was the worst Thanksgiving that I can remember. We spent the day, cooped up in the house; my wife was sick and I had a two-year old running around that I had to keep up w/. I did make a little online for Turkey day while my son was napping, but nothing significant. I’m not depressed about it being the worst Thanksgiving or anything, but it was the first time that I wasn’t w/ my family and friends on this much beloved holiday.

Friday was much more rewarding! My wife’s stomach bug was gone and we loaded up and drove an hour to her sister’s house. We helped her move for a few hours then I caught a ride w/ my cousin over to my favorite card room, the Horseshoe- Bossier City for some Live $1/3NL action!

OUT OF THE BLOCKS FAST!

Once again, I won the first hand that I played (this is always a good sign in my book.) It wasn’t the first hand dealt to me, but the first hand that I put money into the pot with. I won a small hand w/ K-Qo on a Q high board against a black kid named Bundee (as in Al Bundee.) He had been talking a lot when he had strong hands and he was talking during this hand so I never raised him since I only had TPGK. Turns out he had a worse kicker and I missed a lot of equity in the hand. He was in lots of pots though and I really thought that I’d get another shot at him overvaluing his hand. Things ran well and I quickly picked up a good stack.

Soon enough I tied into Bundee again, this time w/ QQ on the button in a pot where everyone had limped in. The $1/3 game works out well for me since I can make my standard 4x+1 BB per limper raise that I normally make online. It never worked the same for $1/2; the SPR’s were always screwed up and I always felt like I was playing w/ a short-stack. Of course, back then I didn’t know why I felt this way, but now that I understand SPRs it makes plenty of sense. Here’s the cliff notes from PNL, SPR= Stack to Pot Ratio. You buyin for $200 at a $1/2 game and the normal pfr is $12, w/ one caller this leaves an SPR of ~8. At $1/3NL, you buyin for $300 and make the same raise to $12 and you now have an SPR of ~12. You’ll have to read the book for further understanding.

Okay, I’ve got QQ on the button and make it $25 to go with a >$500 stack. There are three callers, one of which is Bundee who is still >100BBs deep. The 9 seat is an old man who doesn’t play all that well and calls way too often. He’ll raise pf w/ AA but not AK or QQ. I’m in the 2 seat so I can’t really see around the dealer to get his stack size and I’m not sure who the other caller was as he quickly folded on the flop of 8-6-6r to Bundee’s $25 donk bet. The 9 seat called the $25 and I made it $100 to go and got called in both spots! OH BOY! (Pot = ~$410) The turn was another 8 and both players checked to me again and I decided that I may want to try some sort of pot control just incase one of them just filled up. For some reason the old man in the 9 seat thought the hand was over and he turned up his pocket 7s. The river spiked a Q for me and when both players checked again, I made it $200 to go and Bundee quickly jumped into this boiling pot w/ his remaining $183. I assume the old man folded to this action because the dealer swept his cards into the muck. I turned over my Qs full and scooped a $775 pot. Within the first 3 hours of being there, I was sitting north of a $650 profit and changed gears to an ultra-tight mode for a while to help protect my win.

There was a TAG regular in the 1 seat on my right, and since I recognized him and he could tell that I knew what I was doing we started talking and having a good time. We talked about our opponent’s tendencies, mistakes and tells, and also discussed the change in the game dynamic that the HSBC’s stake change to $1/3NL from $1/2 NL had brought about. I want to mention a hand because it sets up the next that I want to talk about. “Ace” in the one seat, ended up winning his first pot after having sat there for 2 hours. He had limped from EP w/ A J and I had folded behind him w/ A-10o. He won the pot uncontested when an Ace fell on the flop. I made mention to him after the hand was over that I had folded A-10. And he asked if I had tightened up trying to protect my win. We talked about this briefly and he knew that I wasn’t getting involved w/o a premium hand for a while.

THE COOLER

Within 20 minutes, Ace raises to $13 from EP and I look down at a pair of Snowmen (8-8) and elect to do some set mining since if I miss it will only cost me $13 and I can win a big hand if I hit. There are several callers to help bloat the pot pf and the flop comes J 8 7 . Yahtzee! Middle set! Let’s go! Ace leads out for $40, I make it $90 to go and the 3 seat pushes all in for $148 total. It folds around to Ace who just calls, which really surprises me. He knows that I’m rocking it up, why would he call my raise and a reraise behind me? I thought at least 20 seconds about laying down my hand, but who can lay down middle set here? Ace has about another $90 behind him, so I don’t feel that exposed in the hand incase he has top set. If he doesn’t and the 3 seat has the flopped str8, I’ve got a good draw for the board pairing to catch me up with a possible side pot from Ace ta boot. Would Ace call here w/ overpairs? I don’t think that he would, especially after the conversation that we had had about the A-10 hand. Against my better judgment, I called the additional $58. The turn was a brick and Ace pushed his remaining $88 into the pot. @%#$&%$#%^$#%$!!!!! There’s no way I can lay down my hand now getting 6.5 to 1 w/ middle set. I call again and sure enough Ace has the set of Jacks, the board pairs on the river (not an 8 obv) and Ace scoops the near $700 pot.

EXERCISING THE STOP-LOSS

I had set my stop-loss at $700 and this pot brought me down to $625. So I quickly got up, grabbed a rack and made a B-line for the cage to cash in my $325 win before I hit full monkey tilt. The weather was quite frigid for north Louisiana, but I went out in the cold anyway to sit on a bench and call up my good buddy BJJIII for some emotional reinforcement. He quickly reminded me that I had just cashed out a winner while he was busy keeping Harper at home (Mr. Mom! LOL.). I didn’t feel so bad anymore and I don’t even know if I would have tilted, but who needs the added risk from that situation? This was the first time that I had acted on a stop-loss and I felt quite proud of myself for having the fortitude to follow through with it. Yeah for poker discipline!

After a walk around the 2nd floor craps and blackjack tables, I walked the High Roller area on the 3rd floor then headed back down to the cardroom on the 1st floor to see if my cousin wanted to grab something to eat. It was around 5pm and I was starving! Luckily, he hit a set and a str8 while I was cooling off and he had gotten back to even, so he entertained the idea of grabbing some grub. (He hates to get up when he’s down.)

HS-BC BUFFET

The HSBC buffet isn’t near as big as the Beau Rivage's or even it’s counter-part the Horseshoe- Tunica , but the service was awesome and the food was great! Just an FYI, Doyle Brunson considers the buffet at the HS-T to be the best buffet in the world. On Friday nights the HS-BC has a seafood buffet, which is incredible. I’m more of a buffalo wings kind of guy and if you ever want to surprise me, that’s the meal to bring. Being raised in the great state of Louisiana, spicy food is what I crave! I still give it an A for being one of the best buffets that I have partaken of, the Chinese food was exceptionally good!

DIDN'T MISS A BEAT

Immediately upon sitting down, I’m dealt Q -10 in the CO and limp in behind several limpers. The flop is K J 3 , the SB leads for $10 into the $12 pot, there is a call ahead of me and I call behind. The turn is a 9 to give me the nutz and the SB leads for $15 into the $42 pot. The BB makes it $45 to go and I smooth call hoping to keep the SB in the hand. Unfortunately, he folds. The river is a brick (5 ) and the BB makes it $40 to go and I raise him up to $100, which he instantly calls (Grrr! I left money on the table!) He doesn’t show and I rake in a $180 profit from my 1st hand back from the break. I love playing poker w/ other people’s money!

TABLE CHANGE PLEASE!?!

Not long after this a guy in his early 30s sits down and immediately raises his 1st 3 out of 4 hands. My cousin recognizes him from previous sessions as a good and aggressive player. I take the hint and scout out a soft seat one table over and make the change. This table seems to be filled w/ people who are laughing and enjoying themselves and my visual clues lead me to believe that most are playing poker because it’s fun and that they don’t need no stinkin’ books to tell them how to play poker! Good thing for me that I was right!

There is one good player at this table in the 1 seat. He’s young and plays a lot of hands, but his pfr is usually small (as in min raises.) He does raise big w/ big hands, but otherwise he’s just min-raising pf fairly often. He picks up a lot of orphan pots and no one is standing up to him. He’s about $700 deep when I sit down w/ $600.

Mostly, I’m raising pf and taking down w/ Cbets, which is quite rare at live games, but things continue to run very well for me. I limp-rr pocket Kings UTG+1 for a decent win AI pf vs. A K . That guy reloaded for $100 at least 4x at our table, I should have chased him around the room when he took a table transfer. I actually got into a super +EV situation vs. the 1 seat when I had AA vs. his QQ. The board was 6 7 8 J and we checked the turn and river. That was a huge missed opportunity, though I did win about $100 in the hand. I bet some combo draws and made some loose moves to keep my image loose. I showed down my favorite hand 6 3 after taking the pot w/ a Cbet. I got a lot of funny looks for raising it UTG. =)

REDNECK POKER

The faces changed out a bit and I’m up another $600 for this second session of the night. A redneck sits down to my immediate left; he’s in the 8 seat. His type is the kind that is aggressive all of the time and is too proud to learn how to play well. He’s not betting very big except for on a few occasions and he is chasing and hitting draws to win some very big pots. He’s dodging well when others are strong, but his small-string of wins are just a mirage and a lucky run. He bullies most of the table around, hits 2 OESD’s to swell his head and his stack. I start chatting it up w/ him and find that he is exactly how I thought he would be. He pushes me off a TPWK hand once, then I countered him a round later w/ a total bluff. He was buying my black chips off of me because he thought they were cool. He let himself get a little short stacked in the red chips department and I used that against him. In a BVB situation, I open-limped the SB and he raised me. I called and we saw a ragged flop. I could tell that he didn’t hit any of it, and I floated his Cbet OOP. I led the turn brick for $20, he had 3 red chips in front of him and he commented on not wanting to break his black chip down. I obliged him and pulled back one red chip so that he wouldn’t have to break his black chip on this street knowing that I’d fire the river and force him to break it or fold. Sure enough, the river bricked and I led for $25, he squeezed that black chip then threw his cards face up into the muck. A-10o, which completely had my A-4o crushed. I looked at him and said, “You know the difference between me and you? I can play well after the flop.” He laughed and we resumed our normal banter.

One round later I’m on the button and open raise to $12 w/ Aces and the redneck, of course, defends his SB, the BB folds. He’s ~$250 deep at this point. The flop is 6 4 3 and I Cbet for $25 and he calls. The turn is the 7 completing the FD and the many SD’s that were out. He checks again, I push $60 into the pot and he check-raises me all in! I checked my Aces and the Ace is indeed in my hand. I think about it a second and decide that I can’t fold this hand to his guy. I’ve got outs if he has me beat at this point, but I really don’t think that he’s got me beat here. It’s around $150 for me to call and I bite the bullet and do it. He turns over J 6 for a pair of 6s. He should have left w/ his 2 black chips a long time ago.

YOU PLAY ON THE INTERNETS?

I’m now >$1k deep and feel like a juggernaut! The redneck is replace by a young guy who hits 2 pair on his first 3 hands to run his $200 up into a sizable stack. I ask him if he plays on the internet and he comments that he doesn’t since everyone just pushes all in all of the time. I probe a little further and he admits that he has only played fun money online! Yippee for me, I love live poka!!

I did get to bet a black chip in this session and get paid off w/ the nutz! The new kid above limps from MP right behind me. I have the 10 9 and am deep enough to play any hand I want to and not have to worry about losing much. I’ve got ironclad reads on the whole table and feel in control of this tiny universe. The flop is Q 8 7 and I led out for $15 when it checks to me. The new kid calls along w/ a guy in the 4 seat who called preflop almost every hand; he’d then call the flop then fold to the turn bet w/o fail. (I love live poka!) The turn brings my money card, the J , the 4 seat checks and I bet $40, which the new kid calls and you guessed it, the 4 seat folds. The river is a brick and I look at my loose $5 chips, not enough there to make the bet I want to make, I have 3 stacks of 40 deep reds, but they’re stacked up w/ the paint lined up w/ one another and I’d hate to break ‘em down, so I toss a black chip into the pot which gets called. Woo Hoo! Nutz buddy! He comments that he didn’t think people bet their draws all that often. “Well, I’m not your avg bear!” He showed J 7 and said that the turn card was the perfect card for him to lose a lot of chips. I don't know why he called w/ a lonely pair of 7s there.

BRAGGAGE

The Stack is >$1,400 deep at this point, which, if you want a mental picture is 4 stacks of 40 tall reds w/ 6 black chips on the top. Holla!! It’s big enough that people are stopping to ask me what I’m going to do w/ all that money. Christmas, man! Christmas!

The game breaks soon as I’ve got all the money wrapped up into neatly aligned stacks w/ 2 black chips straddling 2 red stacks each 3x. I’m only playing w/ the loose red and white chips that I can never seem to get rid of, and no one there was aggressive enough to start bullying me beyond this tiny stack of loose chips. Did I mention that I love live poka! I cashed out my $1,205 win instead of transferring to a new table. I sat around another hour or so waiting for my cousin to get back to even (which he never did.) We left the casino w/ me dragging him out at 4:30 in the a.m. I rolled into the house at 6:15. $1,530 settles a lot of anger about why I was out so late. Thank goodness for the big wins!