Oh wow, an actual post.

I havent done a ful fledge poker recap in a long while so here goes:

I get to the casino at about 9:00 and theres like 5 people sitting down at the cash table. I recognize most of them. One dude who is the best player at the table, probably the best player who goes to this casino, just because he knows how to 3bet, squeeze, apply pressure, and buy in for the full 500 (250bbs) is sitting down with about a 400 pound stack. Theres one other big stack on the other side of the table and everyone else is cliche old people with something like a 100 pound stack or so. Unfortunately i have to sit to the right of the good player, but we know each other and im not going to fuck with him. Plus, he knows that im tight as a rock so hes not really gonna mess with me.

Now, the problem with me going to a place like this and sitting down with a 200 pound stack is that i really cant afford to lose it. My "bankroll" is the money im using to live off and travel with and i cant really take a 300 dollar hit. Fortunately, if i simply nutpeddle, see cheap flops, and get value out of my hands i can crush this game. But, if i allowed myself to play a higher variance strategy i could crush it so much more.

Anyways, the first hand i sit down im i post in between the button and small blind. A number of new players had just sat down so including the blinds 7 people were in the pot. The rest of the table limped along and i looked down at AK. I raise it up to 17 and three people tag along. The flop is 8c4d6c and I check fold to this aggro guys bet of like 30. Kind of annoying to toss away 20 bills on the first hand but im not really sure how differently i could have played that.

My second hand is in the hijack, the button passed me and the dude to my left, and i look down at AA. A couple people limp along and I raise to 12 seeing 1 caller, the aggro dude. we get a flop of Ad7d4s. The aggro guy checks and i make a cbet of 30 pounds into like a 38ish pot. He thinks and raises me to 70 total. I think about this and im pretty sure he has a good hand. Imnot quite sure if he has like a set or maybe 74 or good diamonds but im pretty sure i can get him to commit his stack here so i jam for another 100 on top. He calls and doesnt flip his hand. The turn river are J J and I take the pot. He never showed his hand but im pretty sure he had something like 77 and thought i was on diamonds. IDK.

A few hands later i look down at JJ. A guy to my right with a medium, bad asian player, makes it 7 bucks and I think about popping him to like 25. problem is the really good player is behind me and I dont want to get pushed out of this pot now that I have a big stack, if he jams im probly folding. So I call and good player calls and then this short stack shoves for 25 pounds. bad asian player calls with like 30 behind and its on me. Im pretty confident that good player wouldnt play a big hand this way, hed have 3bet the original raise so i toss in my stack and he folds as expected. Bad player calls. The board runs out AAT76 and bad asian player tables QJ for the raise/call/call all in. shorty mucks and i scoop the pot.

There were like 2 hands that happened a sporadically that kind of sucked. heres one example. I raise with 99. Good player calls, shorty jams for 40, bad asian calls and I tank. I would love to call this except i dont know what good player is going to do. I end up folding, not wanting to play a huge pot with 99 and good player sure enough jams and ends up cracking AA with 66.

The next hand of note is a hand that I basically butchered. I have a 450ish stack and look down at AQhh in the sb. I call a raise and we see a 5 handed flop of Q24hh. I basically flop the nuts. I decide to check because im pretty sure someone's going to bet and I really dont want to get raised if i bet out. The original raiser fires out 20 bills into the 40ish dollar pot and bad asian player calls and i think. I could raise here but this dude has me covered. If he manages to have KK or AA or 22 or 44 I really dont want to lose a 450 pound stack. that would be brutal. I decide to flat and reevaluate later. If the flush comes ill be happy to raise. I call and one other guy does as well. The turn is an offsiit 6 and again it checks to original raiser who bets out 30. The same thoughts go through my head as bad asian call and i call. The river is another blank and we check original raiser who fires 40. bad asian folds and Im still not going to raise so i call. He tables KQss. Turns out, i might have gotten a nice pot if i had raised the flop or turn but also, he might have given up and stopped firing. Im not sure.

Nevertheless after this hand i was up to a solid 600 pound stack. I proceed to raise a bunch of limpers to 15 w/ AK and cbet 30 on a rag flop and fold to aggro dudes raise. Then i saw a pot w/ 64 and flopped an oesd, called one bet and had to fold the turn. All in all i left the table w/ about 525. After some roullette and blackjack i walked away with a solid 500 pounds in my pocket. Ill take that any day of the week. Im definately going to go back soon and see if i cant capitalize again and im also going to try my luck at a weekly 75 pound freezeout over at the empire.