Empire on Tuesday

Short story: -210 tourney, -300 cash games....quite a poor showing.

Tourney (100 GPB re-buy)
Played a very bad table with 2 rocks, 3 maniacs, 2 calling stations, and 3 donks. My first mistake was calling an all-in against the Russian maniac (guy who threatened no less than half dozen people during the night). I held QQ and I knew he had an A, based on his eradict play, but I was hoping he had a low kicker, which he did (a 6). So, I lost the 70/30 against him, and was out of the tourney soon after topping-up. "say-la-vie" as the American paraphrases French. That's poker.

Cash (1/2 NLHE, 250 max buy-in)
This one is more painful. The guy to my right was a self-proclaimed "professional", which I didn't mind having him there to tell me when to fold. The guy two to my left ("big blind" when I'm the button) was just a bad player, and fairly easy to read. I raised/called him with suited connectors, knowing that he was raising/calling with high cards. I caught a couple flops with 4c2c and 7h8h and took about +200 off this guy early. Three hands led to my demise. (1) Holding Q9 off-suit, where I flopped an open-ender and hit the straight on the river. "Big Blind" raised pre-flop, pot-bet the flop, which was a rainbow. I called putting him on top pair. Unfortunately, when I hit my straight, it completed "Big Blind's" runner-runner flush, losing +500-600 pot. (2) "Professional" raises 30 into a 7 pot and I smooth call with AT and position. Flop of AQT (2-suited) gives me aces up, and I'm SURE I'm in the lead. He bets 25 into the 65 pot and I call. Turn blanks, and he bets 50 (115 pot), I raise to 150, putting him all-in. He calls to show KJ, having flopped the NUTZ. F**K!! That sucks. (3) Holding JsTs, "Professional" raises to 30 pre-flop and I call with position again. Flop comes 2sKhQs, giving me flush and up and down straight draw. "Pro" bets 50, I call. Turn of Ks is gorgeous, making my K-high flush and giving me the up-and-down Royal Flush draw. At this point, I'm pretty sure he has AK and hit his trips, but knowing the Ks is already on the board, he doesn't have the flush (maybe the As with a draw - 18%). "Pro" bets another 75 (170 pot), and not wanting to see another spade fall, potentially ruining my hand, I raise all-in for another 150ish. He calls with KQ, the full house, F**K**G CRAP! So wrong.

My Full House vs. Ace-up
One noteably positive hand came against "Pro" when I called his 10 raise pre-flop with A8. Flop of Q88 was golden. He bet-out 10 and I call. Turn is a K. He bets 15 and I raise to 30. He calls, and I'm pretty damn sure he has AK or AQ. When the river Ace comes, I'm licking my chops, and pretty sure he has Aces-up. He can't possibly put me on a full house?! Can he? When he bets out 25 (pot is 100), I'm sure he is setting a trap (or thinks he is). I think about it for about 5 seconds and push all-in (350, covering him), as one of the most obvious over-bets of the night. I'm gambling that he won't laydown AK, having hit it on the turn/river, and no inkling that I flopped trips. After about a minute and my best nervous acting job, he instead proves his "Pro" worthiness and lays down his hand. I don't know if he truly had AK and made the laydown, or was just 3-times continuation betting. I was half-expecting him to turn over AA/KK/QQ, just to spite me, but there's no way he would have bet 10 pre-flop with those hands, so I was willing to "shoot the moon" and go for the over-bet.....HOW DID HE LAY DOWN THE AK?!?!? Sucks.

Late-night, two Frenchies made an entrance, and quickly zero'ed in on the fact that I was American and started heckling me straight-away. So, my second mistake of the night was loosening up, playing pots trying to hit some big flops and embarass these pricks. I was running pretty well otherwise, picking up more than my fair share of pots, but kept donking off too many chips to the Frenchies. For example, calling him down with a pair of 4's, knowing he was weak, only for him to flip over 6's. Should have pushed harder, I guess. I threw away several more 100 GBP pots in this fashion...such a waste.

Considering those big 3 losing pots above, which failed to win about 1500-1700, and felt very good about when the money went in, having finishing the night at -300 wasn't so bad. I can only fault too-loose play, and maybe the 4 guinness, which probably didn't help my patience either. On the other hand, CC was playing to my left and was a ROCK, yes, a ROCK, which is totally out of character for him. He claimed he was "card dead", but I hope it was more than that -- a new-found appreciation for GOOD POKER. Given his results were significantly better than mine, let's hope we can all take a lesson from this session.