Last night I played some live poker with some poker league players. This was a last minute cash game so only 5 players came to play (including myself).
I have a handle on the the styles of the players. There were two rocks, one steady ABC player and Jay who’s the most aggressive of the bunch.
Jay will bet aggressively and play a lot of hands aggressively. He’s sitting to my left which puts me in a bad spot. The only way to fight fire is with fire. It’s the classic fight or flight response mechanism that is ingrained in all living things. Stand up and take on the bully or stand down and live to see another day.
The blinds are .25/.50 and we all buy-in for $50 bucks.
Right off the bat Jay is aggressive. He’s taken down a round of blinds early on.
I’m probably the other aggressive player at the table but I’m not as aggressive as Jay is. I’m probably the only player that will play back at Jay, I’ll make some tough calls and I’m not afraid of throwing in a big bluff here and there. And he knows I will make it costly to draw out against me if I have a decent hand.
I understand that to fight aggression one must be aggressive. Jay understands this as well. I’m not going to let Jay dictate my play whether he’s in position or not (although I must be careful as we will soon find out).
Between the two of us we pretty much had our way with the game. We didn’t tangle in too many big pots except for these three:
I get J/9 diamonds on the button. I raise to $2. Jay in the SB re-pops me for $5. I don’t allow him to bully me and I test his mettle and raise to $12. He calls. Gulp, not what I was looking for.
The mother of all flops hits me:
10, 8, 7 rainbow. Ka-ching. I hope Jay will stay aggressive. He bets out $8. I flat call.
The turn is harmless. He checks and I check.
The river is another 8.
He bets out $10, I raise him $12 and he folds and shows me A/10. I don’t show a damn thing.
Jay gets his revenge when I get QQ UTG and he calls my raise.
The flop is 3,6,9. two hearts.
I bet out $4. He calls.
The turn is a J.
I bet out $10 and he calls.
The river is another heart. This kills the action. I check and he checks behind me. I show QQ and he shows 3/6 spades for two pair. Round two to Jay.
Round 3:
I get 10/9 clubs in the cutoff. I raise the standard - $2.
Jay re-pops me to $5 and I call.
The flop is 4, K, 6 two clubs.
I check and Jay raises $5. I call.
The turn is a Q clubs. I hit my flush, sweet! I bet $12 and Jay smooth calls.
The river is a blank.
I’m first to act again and I’m thinking I’m good here. So I bet out $12, a seemingly decent value bet with $40 or so in the pot already. But something interesting happens. Jay raises me to $30. This changes things a bit. The only hand that beats me is A/x or J/x clubs. I think for a moment, and I call. He shows 8/7 clubs. Round 3 to me.
Jay wins back $20 from me in the form of a well timed bluff in my opinion.
So we’re going at it back and forth. Fight or Flight. We’re not giving an inch. It’s not personal it’s poker. I know his style and he knows mine. I’m not going to allow him to bully me and vice versa.
After a two hours, we come to an unconscious agreement, just about the time I decide that tangling in a pot with Jay can cost me dearly, he is thinking the same thing. We didn’t do this consciously, it was more of a silent nod to each other that we should take it easy on each other and concentrate on the other players as their money is just as good as ours.
The game settled down for the last hour and 1/2 or so. In the end I wound up +$37 on the evening. I would’ve won more except I lost a $30+ pot to Tony when he hit a set against my top two pair (he hit his set on the flop and I hit my two pair on the turn). Otherwise I’m happy with the way the night went.
The satellite tournament is on Saturday and the top two finishers go onto the quarterly freeroll for a prize pool of just over $600. I’m looking forward to continuing my solid play and maybe get seat in the quarterly freeroll.
Updates to come.
