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  Saturday, May 08, 2004

A Day at the River

Since last Sunday went so well at Little River in Manistee, and since Thursday was one of my best days online, I thought I'd return to the scene of the previous crime and hope to find a game in Manistee as soft as I did the last time.

I've mentioned a couple of times that when I don't have demands on my time (like, say, the last few months), my days lengthen to 25 or 26 hours. Since the sun's day does not lengthen, I get increasingly out of sync with the clock's day/night sequence. So, this day I woke up around 3:30 PM, and decided to go play poker. I asked Gil if he was up for it, but he figures he'll play on Mother's day, and plus he had a gig the next day (today), and he had to prepare. As it happened, it was almost better he wasn't there, since he would have wanted to leave after a couple of hours, and I was up for a long session.

The game didn't turn out to be as soft as the last time I was there. In fact, the single holdem table that was open when I got there, was a very tough game. There were three dangerous loose-aggressive players in the 5, 6, and 7 seats, but most of the rest of the table varied from tight-passive to tight-aggressive. The 10 seat, on my left, was very much a tricky-aggressive player, the type who's as likely to beat you with 46o as AA, but he will beat you. He's quiet, though, and so he doesn't fit the mold of a typical aggressive player. Nobody at the table clearly was the sucker, and so of course (per the first line of Rounders) I began to wonder if it was me. Of course, the seat I filled was formerly the demesne of a tight-agressive player whose play I respect, and he stormed out in a huff that smelled like getting busted with a crap hand.

Needless to say, when they opened a second table, I jumped onto it. Fortunately I'd recently had KK hold up, so I was marginally ahead. The new table was a lot better, with several people who clearly hadn't played in the casino before. Unfortunately, after jumping, my cards went into the crapper, and I folded a lot, mixed in with the occasional bad beat. I even went into my pocket and put another $100 on the table, although I didn't end up having to buy chips with it. Most of the money on the table went to the 9 seat, who colored up several times, and so had at least five black chips to go with his mountain of yellow ($2) chips. He was another quiet one, and I didn't notice anything especially clever about his play, so I'm thinking he was getting hit by the deck. Of course, the quiet ones are quiet so that you don't notice things about their play.

As it started to get late, and the table started to go short-handed, the game got a lot more fun. It was mostly the better players who were leaving, and so even though my cards were still cold I staged something of a comeback. I was probably only down $40 or so when the table broke and we were moved to the "main" game.

Most of the tricky players had left the main game by now, and so my new table wasn't as tough, mostly populated by players I'd call "typical." The players who changed tables along with me were still the suckers, although they did win a couple of pots.

My cards didn't get any better, and so I became resigned to having a down session, when—on the next-to-last hand before they closed the room—I looked upon A♣10♣. As is my wont when I have this hand in early position, I limped in, wanting to know what strength there was behind me. When there were callers but no raisers, I liked my hand, and I liked it even more when the board came ten-high. I bet out, got a couple of callers, and the turn put a second club on the board, a small one. Now I have top pair and the nut flush draw. I still like my hand, and I bet out. Several callers. Finally, the river comes with a third club, and I have the nut flush. I bet, because I don't want it to check around, and get I think one caller before the girl who began the hand under the gun check-raises me. I lean back, pretending to think long and hard about my call. The board is at this point, if I remember right, 1056♣5♣4♣. I don't seriously have her on a full house or a straight flush (although I do think about it), and so I'm just acting. Eventually I seem to decide she couldn't have the flush, and I put in the third bet. This loses our third player, but has the desired effect of inducing a reraise from the UTG player. Now I'm wishing that the third player had dropped out at the turn, so I can put in a fifth bet, but instead I just call the capped bet and show my nut flush. As expected, she shows the smaller flush, and I rake in over $100 in profit on the hand.

It's my acting I'm most proud of here; nothing about the hand was atypical up until that point, but having to think about her check-raise earned me an extra two big bets out of that pot, and if raises weren't capped it could easily have been three. My tournament win during my last trip to Vegas featured a similar bit of acting, and it seems to be pretty profitable. But I don't do it often.

The Week Thirteen Wrapup is overdue; I don't know if I'll get to it today, so it may get rolled into my Week Fourteen Wrapup. So far week fourteen is going pretty well, although I'm not sure I'll get to play tomorrow.

I should ask: Does anyone read my wrapup reports? Should I keep posting my spreadsheets of my play? Or would much simpler reports of some kind suffice?