I get bored of playing ring games all the time. Plus I’ve been running a little cold so I switch up to some SNGs.

I’ll do this from time to time when I’m running bad in my cash games. Besides it’s good practice when I’m playing my league games which are mostly SNGs anyway.

I start off playing one table. I bust out. Then I decide to fight the boredom of folding by playing 4 tables at a time. This works because I can just concentrate of playing good cards in position. With one table, it seems like I try and make too many moves which usually don’t work out especially (b/c of all the calling stations who can’t lay down middle pair only to suck out on you on the river) at the $5.50 SNGs I play.

The next twelve SNGs I play in, I crush. I mean I literally crush them. I finish in the money 9 times. I finish first 3 times, second 4 times and 2 thirds.

Total investment: $71.50
Total Profit: $66
ROI: 92%

Is this sustainable, certainly not but I’ll take the rush anytime of the week.
In truth though, the players playing at $5.50 are simply horrible for the most part. Sure you get some decent players and you have to really play well to win but that’s not so common.

The common theme in my SNGs is pretty simple. I try to play a lot of pots early on hoping to catch a big hand and get paid off. The middle levels, I tighten up but when I enter a pot I enter it aggressively. I’m always mindful of position and selectively steal when I need to and bet big when I have something very strong.

The key is not to pay off the fish who are chasing. One thing I noticed is that almost always, when an opponent catches a flush they always check it hoping I continue to bet for them, especially if I bet the flop. It’s almost comical b/c I’m never paying them off and if they don’t have the flush they’re giving me free cards. So either way it saves me chips.

During the late levels, when there’s 5 or less players and I can smell the money, I start to play my hands very very aggressively. By this time there are a few short stacks who are unwilling to mix it up unless they have a very strong hand. These are the guys I target to steal. Hopefully I build enough of a stack to withstand some races against the very short stacks and if that works out then I’m pretty much going to win some money.

In the end, it’s only 13 SNGs I’ve played but I’ve done very well in the past also.

This past 3 months I’ve played about 120 $5.50 SNGs and I have a ROI of over 30%. Small sample sure, but I’m confident I can beat this level consistently. Then again I may have jinxed myself as my next post could very well be how I can’t cash in a darn SNG anymore.

In my poker league I played a simulation of the WSOP final 9 where we bid for the exact stacks the November 9 have.

How it works is that we did a silent auction where noone else knew about the other’s bid until all the stacks were won. The minimum bid was $20.

We started with the exact chip count and used the same blind structure. The only difference was that we implemented 30 minute levels.

The big stack ($58,930,000) went for $137
2nd stack ($34,800,000) went for $101
3rd biggest stack ($28,885,000) went for $82- best value in my opinion.
4th biggest ($19,580,000) went for $66 (out bid me by $3)
5th biggest ($13,215,000) was won by me at $55.
6th biggest ($12,390,000) went for $47.
7th biggest ($9,765,000) went for $28
8th ($9,500,000) sold for $23
9th stack ($6,800,000) was $20.

$559 in the prize pool. 3 places payout.

The auction went well. I bid $115 for the big stack and wasn’t even close as 4 others bid more. The fact that I wasn’t going any higher than $115, I knew that I had to target the middle stacks. The surprise was that the 2nd biggest went for just over $100. Maybe I should’ve taken a stab at this but I decide to stick to my guns. I low bid for the next stack but get outbid for the 4th stackby $3. I now target the 5th stack, because I really don’t want to deal with playing the small stacks.

My bid of $55 wins this stack. I outbid the next player by $10. Value? I’m not sure especially since the next stack went for $47 (which was 600k less than me).
Now we’re ready to play some cards. The blinds start out at 120k/240k with 5k antes. It was kind of weird at first because it took some time getting used to betting and calling large amounts but it went smooth.

I didn’t want to mix up too much early on as the pots were pretty wild and I didn’t want to get crippled or short stacked too early. I played it pretty tight early on and during the second level I win a big pot against “Ivey”. I hit a flush on the turn and get paid off.

I’m cruising along playing small ball for the most part but I build up a decent stack after the first hour. After two hours, I’m riding about 19million in chips. Then I finally knock out seat 3 (Ivey).

Seat 6 takes down a huge pot when he hits his flush against a set on the turn. The curious thing about this hand is that seat 6 and seat 4 had a lot of chips and yet we get a shove and a call on the flop. This was a $30 million dollar pot and the guy drawing called a huge raise on the flop with nothing but a draw. Pretty sick.

We go back and forth and I’m still building my stack. I’m playing solid poker, I’m reading well and making good folds (at least I think I am). I folded some pretty strong hands at times but I was never truly in trouble, I never risked my stack at any time and I rarely played out of position.

After 4 hours, I’m sitting on a stack of about $36 million and there’s 5 of us left. The play has really slowed down and I get by winning blinds and antes from time to time. Then the two biggest stacks go at. One has JJ and the other has AA. JJ spikes a Jack on the turn and takes down a huge, huge pot (there had to be at least 70 million in that pot). So now we’re down to 4 players. Bubble time.

There’s one huge stack with over 100 million and I’m at about 39 million and the other two are about the same as me but I have them outchipped I think.

The big stack starts to bully and I mostly fold. My stack shrinks to about $32 million when I strike gold.

I’m in the BB with 67 suited. The blinds are 500k/1million with 50k antes. The big stack limps in. Button folds and the SB completes. I smell dead money so I raise to 5 million, hoping to take down this pot. The big stack calls. I get a decent flop. I have top pair with a gutshot straight draw. I bet out 8 million and the big stack calls. Not good, now I have to put him on an over pair but then this player is tricky so he could have anything at this point. I turn trip sixes and I’m golden. I check and the big stack bets, I push and he calls. He turns over AA.

I double up and now I’m in business.

Later on I take down a 40+million dollar pot when I have AK and flop broadway. The villain had top two pair and I knock out the bubble boy. I feel that I played this hand very well. I had AK in the BB. The button attempts a steal but I flat call hoping to trap. The rest is history.

Now I’m the big stack and I start to bully myself. I’m guaranteed a profit because I bought my stack for $55. The other two guys paid more than me, so they need to hit second in order to make some money. They’re playing relatively safe so I keep up the heat.

I finally take the short stack down with A10 when he shoves with A9.

We’re now heads up and I have over $130 million in chips, twice my opponent.

We go back and forth. He runs hot for awhile and we’re just about even.

He’s been trying to trap more often given my aggressive nature so I turn the screws on my opponent by limping with big hands.

This was how I was finally able to crack the other stack. I flat call a raise with JJ. The flop is 7 high with two hearts. I bet out and get flat called. The turn brings another heart. I still have an overpair to the board but no heart. I decide to take anther stab at it. Again I get flatted. The river was a scare card as it put 4 hearts out there on a 9 high board. Now I’m screwed, I decide to check and the villain checks behind me. He shows 88, no hearts. I am relieved because at this point the pot was pretty big but even though I had an overpair, I just couldn’t bet out of position on a board where its’ 4 to a flush. I was glad he didn’t raise because I would’ve folded if he did.

Now that I’m 3-1 in chips against my opponent, I get a decent run of cards and I finally take down the tournament.

The winning hand was 97 and I cracked 55.

I clear $245 for my trouble. Pretty sweet. The whole tournament last about 7-8 hours (with breaks for food and stuff).

Although, it took a very long time, it was worth it (especially since I won). It was fun, I think we’ll do it every year so now it’s tradition.

This tournament may given me a glimpse of what goes on during the final table of the WSOP, so that was an adventure in itself. Maybe the best thing about this tournament was that I was finally able to say “I raise to 10 million” on a bluff.

So the WSOP finally comes to a close. This year was just like any other year that I’ve been watching the WSOP on ESPN. The only difference is probably all the super young players making deep runs. It was due to happen. The younger kids are very adept at playing poker. They understand situations very well, because they play thousands upon thousands of hands daily and that gives them the advantage. They’re also willing to gamble and are not afraid of making plays that many people may think are stupid. Ok, the luck factor plays into it but still, they’re willing to stick in their chips because they know that one lucky swing in the tourney can mean a WSOP championship. They’re willing to play for huge hands at any given time.

I feel that it is this willingness to shove with any two at any time is the difference between the new and old guard. I think the old guard are still playing the old school style. Look at Ivey, he was playing super tight for the most part, nothing like the old Ivey that I used to see. Additionally, these young kids play a lot of tournaments every single day and they understand the nuances better than most because of the sheer experience of playing online tournaments.

Additionally, the hands they show on ESPN are taped and edited for the casual fan and not the hardcore poker enthusiast. The hands were picked for a particular reason, either a solid fold, a huge pot, a bold bluff or a terrible suck out. You’re not going to learn about how a pro plays a hand for the most part or are you going to get any new insights into poker that you haven’t known about before. I think the beauty of televised poker lies in the fact that an amatuer can beat a pro at any given time.

Despite this, I still watch the WSOP on TV whenever it’s on because it’s fun to watch players make incredibly tough decisions for millions of dolars and then watch somebody else hit a miracle river card. That’s the beauty of the game and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I played a little over 1,000 hands last night. I played 3 tables at once, two heads up and one full ring game (all $50 NL).

The thing I noticed is that playing heads up can be very lucrative if the villain isn’t catching cards. I was running very badly, it seemed that every move I made just didn’t work out the way I wanted to. For example I have JJ and I raise 3x the BB. In heads up play, you’re going to get a lot of callers. I hit my set on the flop, I slowplay. The turn gives a flush draw. I decide to bet $3. Villain re-pops me $9, I re-raise $20, villain pushes. I call he’s on a flush draw. He hits his flush on the river.

I tell him he got lucky and he tells me that I played this hand horribly. Maybe so but playing it this way I tried to maximize profit and it didn’t work out for me.

The funny thing about this player is that he kept betting big on the river because he kepton thinking that I missed my draws. I then started to use this against him. I started to bluff when there were 3 to a flush on the board. He would fold almost everytime. Then I started to outplay him, when I would check on the river, making him think I missed my draw, then he would bet out and I would check raise him with two pair or trips etc.

I managed to win back $28 before he left with a $20 profit. I’m guessing he was scared he was going to lose it all and I don’t blame him. I would’ve crushed him if he wasn’t hitting so much against me.

Crazy thing about playing heads up at $50NL, the rake really kills you. We did about $30 in rake during this session. That takes a lot away. Good thing I get rakeback. And if you don’t I highly recommend it. Believe me it all adds up. Just click on the link below and try it and you’ll see what I mean. I have received over $180 in rakeback this year.

I then play this Russian dude and I manage to win about $30 off him before he left. This time I was hitting on a lot of hands and kept getting paid off.

My full ring was up and down. I was card dead mostly, but that never stopped me from trying to make something happen. Maybe I was trying too hard, until I get paid off big time with QQ vs. JJ. Why anyone would call a shove with JJ is beyond me. You have to think you’re being dominated would’nt you? But then again I was playing pretty aggressive so maybe he thought I was making a move.

I was up and down, and then I lose a big hand when I call down a $14 bet on the river with top pair top kicker (villain hit two pair on the river…ugh).

After a few hours I finally decide I’ve had enough. I count my stacks. I wound up being up $3.85. Wow. 1,000 hands of high anxiety for only $3 bucks in profit.

There must be a better way to make money isn’t there?

I was talking to a guy who is a serious chess player. He told me that the position of your pieces is crucial between winning and losing. This got me to thinking about poker and how position is the single best weapon at the poker table.

I would bet that position is probably responsible for most of my profits. The players to my right are the ones who I make money from. It’s that simple. Maybe too simple. But it’s proven and who am I to re-invent the wheel. Playing position can help you control the pot and the betting, it enables you to get the most information you can before acting. Who wouldn’t want the last say in anything? If I had position on my girlfriend for every disagreement we had, I’d win every one of them.

It’s been a good while since I’ve set foot in a live casino. Atlantic City, the east coast’s answer to Vegas, hasn’t changed one bit. The games are just as wild and there’s money to be made. I don’t know why I decided to go to Atlantic City but I originally had plans but they fell through, there weren’t any poker league games and I just didn’t feel like playing online. I wanted that rush of staring down another player and making him/her squirm. So off I go to Atlantic City to cure my addiction.

The funny thing is that two other players from my poker league also thought the same thing. The bus ride was relatively uneventful, unless you consider old ladies argueing over seating as eventful, then you need help. I nap all the way to Atlantic City. I call Jack, and he’s over at Caesars. Frankly, I don’t play at Caesars. I played there once a few years back and there was something I didn’t like about it. Maybe it was the lighting or maybe it was the drab decor but Jack said they had renovated the poker room so I agreed to meet him there. The room did look nice albeit kind of smallish.

I buy-in at the table where Jack is sitting. $250 at a 1-2 NL table seems about right. I’m playing fairly tight early on just to gauge the other players and their tendencies. At this point in my poker learning curve, I strongly feel that I’m a pretty decent player post flop. I feel that I can outplay other players post flop because I have developed that “feel” for the game and I can make decent raises or value bet with middle pairs hands like that when I know I’m ahead or make a strong bet to represent something better than what I actually have. I especially know when to make tough laydowns. That’s the key to making money in my opinion because with all the crazy players out there, you have fold if you think your top pair top kicker is beat. I saw this one donkey call almost any bet on any streeet and hit two pairs or trips and he kept getting paid off. He ran his roll to over $900 by my estimation.

He takes down a $80 pot when he hits his trips against my top pair. Then I noticed a tendency in his play. He would call any amount but when he hit he would bet out and always something small enough that you had to call. I knew that if I could get him to play in a hand against me, I would relentlessly value bet him and hopefully take down a big pot against him to slow his confidence. I never got the chance, he lost a $300 pot and then left with about $600+. Meanwhile, I’m stuck about $120 at this point and I had to get something going.

I had been passive but tight at this point. Mostly making modest raises and folding to any bet if I didn’t hit. I just wanted to feel comfortable at the table before I started to ramp up my game. It took me about an hour before I started to really play poker. I was always mindful of position because an early position raise of $15 was sure to get called by 3 players. I just hate being out of position against weaker players. So mostly I limped in EP early with hands like AJ suited or AQ, pocket pairs like JJ,1010 etc. I know this is weak but again I wanted to ease into the game because I felt a little rusty.

After a few rounds of laying low, I decide to mix it up a little. Guy in 2nd position raises to $8 and two others call. I sense a little weakness, additionally I noticed that often a decent sized raise can take it down preflop so I decided to re-pop this baby and hopefully pocket the $27 in the pot right then and there. The SB and BB fold and I get two callers. Oh well, not the result I wanted so let’s see a flop and hope for the best. I hit the flop hard (J,2,2) and I’m in business. The original raiser checks and MP bets out $25, MP folds and I flat call again. The turn card is an Ace. This is a great card for me because now if the original raiser has AJ i’m gonna cash in. Then again, this Ace might be a kiler because they’ll certainly put me on an Ace because of the PF raise. This is the beauty of position because I can control the pot now and I can wait to see the action before me. The EP bets out again, this time it’s $50. Bingo, he’s got a decent hand. I don’t think he has JJ or AA (or at least I hope not) he’s got only about $60 left behind so I put him all in. He calls with AQ and I make a tidy profit of $195.

I’m up $70 and I”m feeling good.

It’s about 5 pm and I’ve been at the table for about 3 hours. I’m playing my game but I haven’t caught a decent since the 2/3 of spades. At this point I’m up about $37 when I get JJ in the cut off. A guy in middle position raises to $17, player next to me calls and I raise to $50 again. Original raiser is a bit of a wild card as he’s been the most aggressive player at the table and he re-pops me $125. I think hard for a bit, he’s done this before with junk. I really hate those super aggressive guys sometimes. I fold.

I leave to the Taj Mahal at around 8ish, to meet my bud Jimmy. I get there and he’s sitting with over $900 in chips. Wow. Even more importantly he’s in a hand with a Korean lady who’s yelling at him “I got you!”, “I got you!”. The pot is a decent one but Jimmy eventually folds. The lady then promptly leaves. I ask for her seat and I buy-in for $300. Jimmy has done some damage against her and she was out for revenge I’m told. This table was a juicy one. There were at least two players who were over aggressive and two that would call with any piece of the flop. The others were folding machines and they never entered the pot unless they had something. There was this one elderly guy who kept getting paid off by the bluffers. They thought they could bluff him but all he’d do is call and would win some pretty nice pots. I just hoped that I could capitalize on all this crazy action. I quickly get paid off when I have A10 vs. A9. We both hit two pair and I stacked him off (about $150). Over the course of 4 hours I build my stack to about $650-$700. Then I run into a bit of bad luck on two hands where the villain hits trips against my top pair. I go on a mini run and I run my stack back up. I lose with QQ vs. A9 (he hit a 9 on the flop, then called me down until an Ace hit the river).

I’ve been playing for 8 hours now and I’m up barely. I have about $400 in chips. Then I get real lucky when I hit a set of 7s to crack KK. That brought me back up to around $750. I then decide to protect my profits and play a little tighter. That proved useless because when you’re playing against super loose players, they will call any raise just about. I miss several times when I get dealt AK, AQ and AJ suited. I miss an OE flush draw and give up on the river. I hit two pair with 86 suited vs. JJ (hey he only raised to $10 and I was in the BB). Up and down when by the 10th hour I’m exhausted and hungry.

I decide to play one more orbit and then take a break when the BB hits me. I’m under the gun and I’m hoping that I don’t catch a decent hand so I can just fold and leave. Of course the poker gods are experts in Irony and they deal me QQ UTG. I raise to $15. I get 3 callers. The flop is 7, 9, 10. I have an overpair to the board. I bet out $35 and the two others call. I get the sneaky suspicision that someone has hit a set. The turn is a Jack. Great now I have an open ended straight draw to go with my top pair but I’m still not convinced that I have the best hand. What’s really killing me is that I’m first to act. What to do? I have an overpair to the board and a open ended straight draw to boot. I decide to check and defer the action to the two guys acting after me. Weak play? Maybe but I really wanted to see what they would do next. This was more of a pot control issue because if I check and somebody raises then I’m the last player to call a raise (in essence ending the action there). I loathe giving free cards but I felt this was the best move. One of the guys bets out $60, one guy finally folds and I flat call hoping to complete my straight. The river is a duece. Not the card I was looking for. I still have an overpair, and this time I decide to bet out to see where I stand. I figure if I’m ahead (the villain may have A10 for exmaple) and the other guy was semi-bluffing then I’ll take down the pot there but if he re-raises me I can fold if I have to. I bet out $60 and and the villain re-pops me $150. I go into the tank. I’ve hand the feeling all along that the villain had a set and was slowplaying. This particular player was pretty tight and I rarely see him raising unless he had a real good hand. I reluctantly fold because I figure that leaving the casino up $275 is better than leaving with $125. While the villain was mucking the dealer accidentally flipped over one of his cards it was a 7. Now I was sure he hit his set.

I take my $575 in chips to the cashier and treat myself to a Kobe Burger with the works and a chocolate milkshake. As I’m eating, I am struggling with the idea of playing more poker or quitting and going home with a tidy profit. Ultimately, I blow about $50 playing craps and decide to leave up $225 on the night.

I’m still alive and kicking in case anybody was wondering. I’m playing some poker also. I am actually rebuilding my Bankroll and it’s been topsy turvy to be honest.

Things in life get in the way of poker but I’m still playing and hoping things turn around. It’s funny when you don’t play poker for awhile, your game changes and it takes some time to get that “feel” back where you’re playing good and making nice plays.

I played some live poker in my league. I won one tourney and finished in the middle of the pack in the others.

I think that I’m going to take it easy for the next few months and start up again in the New Year. I just have to figure out what challenge I’m going to make up for myself.

Perhaps it’ll be a tournament challenge to see where I end up.

What to do with pocket Jacks? For that matter what do I do with QQ. Yeah I bet them but what happens when I get re-raised?

How many times have we run up against a bigger pair and we’re all in? I got QQ, I push and I run into KK. That stings.

How about getting pocket tens UTG. What now?

Calling a big raise with pocket sixes, because you feel a six is going to hit the board.

What about pocket twos?

Those pesky pocket pairs. They’re irresistible yet so dangerous.

I’ve played enough hands to realize something about online poker players. A lot of them are just plain bad. That’s not to say that I’m awesome at poker because God knows I’m not. I will say that I am definitely better than some and getting better everyday. I still can’t avoid the suckouts and such but hey that’s poker.

I have been taking notes on some of the players I run up against. And I’ve categorized them into specific playing styles. That way when I see them again I’m not going into the poker room cold.

You have the passive/tight players. They’re easy to play against. I min bet against them and they fold. If they call then they have something. If I have something big I pound them with bets. Sooner or later they’re going to pay me off when they can’t lay down their top pair weak kicker.

Then you have the sneaky passive/tight players…or they try to beat least. They’re not fooling me though. I don’t think they’re fooling any solid players out there. You know the ones where they call and call and call then bet huge on the river. If they’re out of position and I’m betting they’ll check call until the river once they hit their flush etc. Value betting is a stranger to them. Like I’m going to pay them off. You know it’s not a bluff because this player is incapable of making such a move. They only bet when they have the goods. Funny I had a friend ask me why don’t I bet huge to protect against a draw especially against this type of player. I tell him that it’s profitable for me when they chase a 2-1 shot. Sure they’ll hit but the times they don’t it keeps my bankroll growing. You can not be afraid of getting outdrawn.

This leads me to the players who are deathly afraid of the draws and they overbet the pot. We’ve all seen this. There’s like $1 in the pot and they shove their stack. These are the times when I hope that I have a set because more often than not I’m getting paid off. These are the same players that overplay AK also it seems. They get AK and they think they’ve hit lotto.

Then you have the min raisers. They’ll min 3 bet you. Now I know they have a strong hand. I’ve been able to fold KK against these players. It’s rare but it happens. I bet my KK hard usually and if they come over the top, well I’ve got to think about folding. I’ll wait for a better opportunity to win a big hand. I’ve learned this the hard way. I bet out with KK, I get a min raise, I raise him back and either the villain flats me or he pushes. I make my bets big enough to know where I stand. I won’t say it works all the time but I’ve noticed this play from a specific type of player.

Then you get the limpers with AA. They’re the ones complaining that they’re AA gets cracked all the time. It’s not because of luck, it’s because they play them poorly.

Another category I have is the player that always check raises when they hit the board hard. You know who they are. They don’t get paid off either. That’s why sometimes I’ll bet huge when I hit a monster hand because they’ll never believe you. They think that you’re bluffing because they’re thinking “why would anybody bet when they have the nut flush, they should be slowplaying, it must be a bluff”. They don’t think you have it because they expect everyone to play a monster the same way, their way, the trapping way.

Then there are the guys that chase down a hand and then they don’t bet it when they hit. They either wait for me to bet for them (which I’d like to think I’m smarter than that) or they check. An example of this is when you’ve got KQ for example, you’ve raised it preflop and this passive nitwit flat calls. You hit your King and you’re betting out. He keeps calling then an ace hits the river and the villain checks because he thinks you’re going to bet for him or maybe he’s scared of his kicker. You get the feeling that he has an Ace so you check behind him. He shows an Ace. I think to myself that if the villain is so concerned about his/her kicker, then why call in the first place, and when he/she hits their Ace, they’re afraid to bet it. Strange stuff.

Then there’s the super aggro player. They are raising and raising with any two cards. This I can respect. Some of them can really play this style and win with while the others are ATMs. I’m not sure if they’re on tilt or whatever but these players are the most difficult to play against (IMO). But the thing I notice is that they only respond to blunt force so when I have a hand I’m going in hard against this guy and if he has the goods then so be it.

Then the worst type of player is the turtle. They stop playing once they win a decent pot, they literally go into a shell, hence the moniker. These player will call/play with any two cards, they hit their 5 outer on you and win a big pot. Then they stop being calling stations and they play tight, and I mean super tight, or worse yet they leave. Good luck trying to get your money back from them.

God help us all.

There used to be a strip club here in Brooklyn called the Wild Wild West. I’ll be honest and tell you that I visited there from time to time. It wasn’t anything special to be honest but every once in awhile when I guy needed to see some boobs and hang with the fellas this was the closest thing nearby. The thing is you never knew what you were going to get. You had to pay a cover charge to find out if the ladies were Aces or rags. Sometimes we’d get there and had to get out of Dodge because the girls, well, I’ll be a gentlemen and say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Other times, the strippers were like Mana from heaven. It was that kind of place. You rolled the dice when you went there.

Same for poker. You just never know.

So I had a session that reminded of the Wild Wild West. Every hand was an adventure. I was up, I was down. I ran hot then super cold. My AA gets cracked by KK, my QQ cracks AA. I was out flushed once. I hit numerous flops hard only to lose it on the river. It was that kind of night. I played tight then changed speeds. I bluffed, and got caught bluffing. I slowplayed and I played fast.

You may think that I was all over the place, and I was to a certain extent but it was what the table I was playing at dictated. The flow of the game changed as players dropped in and in some cases busted out.

One particular player from Germany was a thorn in my side. He kept on calling and calling only to cripple me on the river. It was insane. I was betting decent amounts every time but I this guy just wouldn’t give up. I was hoping to get him back but he then lost it all to another player when he finally couldn’t catch. That sucked.

Another player I played against was super aggressive and after I won a $30 pot by making a hero call with AK (I guessed right that he missed his draws and tried to bluff on the river). After that he tried to keep pounding me. I win 2 buyins from this guy.

I lost 2 buy ins to a guy who kept hitting against me. He wins one buy-in when he hits a set of Kings against my AA. We were all-in preflop. He min bets in EP. Don’t you hate that. He’s telling me that he has a big hand. I wake up with AA. I re-pop him and he shoves. I call and he hits his third King and takes down a huge pot. He leaves quickly after that. I hate those guys.

I lost another buy-in to a super loose player. I flop a King high flush. Bingo, except that there’s one card that can beat me. The player with that one card, he shoves and I call. Another club hits the river and I reload.

I make that up when I enter a pot with K10 hearts on the button. Standard 3x BB raise from EP and 4 callers come along for the ride. I have a marginal hand but I have the odds to call. Besides they were suited. The flop is QJ hearts and a black 7. There’s a raise and a re-raise before me. I call and the original raiser shoves. MP calls and I call also. Even against a set I’m almost 50/50 so I’m ready to gamble. They both have QJ. Great I can’t get outdrawn (you know what I’m talking about) but I still need to hit. The poker gods love me and that’s a $70 hand.

I grind back to just about even on the night and I decide that I’m going play one more round then call it a night. Then the rush comes. I get AA, QQ and A8 suited in the span of 6 hands. The A8 I decide to play since this is my last round so I’ll gamble it up a bit. I flop a flush and get paid off nicely. My AA and QQ hands hold up and I win a couple more nice pots.

The blinds finally come around, and I sit out, exhausted from the marathon session. In the end I cleared a modest $20 profit but given the craziness, I’ll take that everytime.