Here fishy fishy fishy....

....was the call at the Empire last Tuesday. My early exit from the 250 GBP freezout was disappointing, but the cash games afterward made up for it.

The freezeout was a one-table, 10-man game with 5,000 starting stacks, 30 min levels 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 150/300....so very playable. Stayed out of the way for the first 2 1/2 hours, picking up a handful of pots, virtually uncontested as my tight table image paid off on some nice semi-bluffs. Worked up to 9,000 without fanfare. With blinds at 200/400, there were 9 players left with 3 very short stacks with me on the button. UTG short stack limps, middle position calls, table folds to me with QsTs. From the button, I raise to 1,500, given my tight image and position. SB folds, BB is short stacked and goes all-in for 1,200 (another 800 more). The limper (short stacked) calls all-in for another 1,000. Middle position calls the 1,500 getting pot odds. SO MUCH FOR PUSHING THEM OFF!! Pot stands at 5,500 and it is now heads-up for a side pot. Flop comes QcJdTs. Middle position checks to me. I bet 2,000, a weakish bet, hoping to get a re-raise back at me. Middle takes the bait and pushes in for 4,500. I call and see I'm ahead of his JhTh. The turn brings the 7s and river a 9h. I take down the side pot of 9,000 but lose the main pot to a short stack's 98-off suit straight. Stack stands at 13,500.

Continued to stay very tight with 5 players remaining now, blinds at 200/400. From BB , the table folds around to the SB, another American at the table. He was a bit of a maniac, but not a scary player. He limps from the SB, which makes me a little nervous. I look down at AhTh and want to find out where I'm at, and raise to 1,500. He flat calls. Flop comes Ts4s7h rainbow. Pot at 3,000, he checks. I bet the pot of 3,000. He calls. I'm putting him on the spade draw, so when the turn comes 4h, I'm feeling very good and have picked up a flush draw of my own. He checks. Pot at 9,000, he has 5,000 behind and I put him all-in. He calls and turns over As4d for trips. Unfortunately I miss my 25% chance at flush or T and am on life support with 2,500 chips left.

Exit hand: From the button, facing one limper, I move all-in with A8. Blinds fold and limper calls with JJ. Fail to improve, and move over to the cash game.

Cash Games

1/2 game with 500 buy-in limit. Seeing an average stack of 100-150, I make the full buy-in. There were 8 people playing, 5 absolute fish, 2 average players, and 1 reasonably good. I was forced to mix it up after a couple of strong hands get 2-3 callers after I bet 20 pre-flop. I'm forced to throw QQ and KK away after an A flopped both times. So, instead, I chose to limp on drawing hands and only small raise strong hands. Regardless, there are usually 4-6 players going to the flop. Out-playing the table after the flop proved very easy with calling stations all around. For instance, played 2s4s from the button, calling a raise of 10. Four players to the flop of 3s5sAd. Original raiser (fishy) bets out 15 into 40 pot. I call the 15. Turn is the money card, As, making the straight flush (and probably trip A's for fishy). He bets 30, I call. Turn is the Jh. Luckily, he confidently pushes another 50 in the pot with AT-off. Not even needing the straight flush, his trips go down and rake a 230 pot. Besides that, was winning 50-100 GBP pots consistently and only losing 2-6 GBP to get looks at flops. After 90 minutes, I was +400 GBP, making back my freezeout buy-in and then some.

CC was running very good over at the freezeout, placing 3rd eventually and doubling up my 50% equity stake in him. Was happy to see him cash, as I know he's been laying low of late. When he finally made it over to the cash game, the table was pretty well cleaned-out with re-buys coming at the table minimum of 50 GBP pretty consistently. This changed the dynamics of the game considerably and the action slowed.

Left the game at 3am, net +465 cash and +300 on the night after CC's equity paid off despite my cold showing in the freezeout.

Online update: Been playing $2/4, $5/10 a lot. Ran the stack up to $5,550 this weekend, when I hit a nasty streak of suck-outs. The worst ones were my QQ going down to JsTs after pre-flop $1,000 pot all-in from a total D-bag drunk fish. In another travesty, I called $70 raise on $5/10 table from the the button with AhKh to see a flop of KK7. Got all the money in the middle, $2,000+ against AA only to see the final A fall on the river and blugeon my fingers as I metaphorically raked the pot too early. In the end, I'm back to even par, despite the $3,000+ in absolute B.S. above.

Online Bankroll: $4,372