NL Update

After dinner, me and two other PAO players (Mr & Mrs Samarama) went out for a walk on the strip. After getting back I popped down to the $1-$2 NL table for another go at it. I started out a little shakey, playing a little weak and loose, and quickly found me down to $30 (I had bought it for $140). I waited a bit and pushed with Ace-Jack of spades and tripled up. A few more steals and I found myself floating around $60 for at least two hours while I got dealt an endless string of unplayable garbage. Patience is a virtue in this game. In about 5 hours of play I was dealt only two pocket pairs. The first one was 66 and I was forced out of the pot early with some heavy action between two other players. Ending my long streak of crap, I finally got a playable hand — AQo. Since I’d only limped into pots most of the night, I didn’t want to tip my hand by raising pre-flop, which is what I would normally do. Instead I limped in (90% of the hands at this table were not getting raised pre-flop) The flop was AQx rainbow. The tight little-old-lady to my right bet out $20 and I pushed all-in. She quickly called with her AKs, but my top two pair held up, finally putting me back to my original buy-in after four hours spent in the hole.

A few hands later I woke up to my second pocket pair of the night — black Aces, in late position. Four people limped and I raised to $12, getting one caller — a fishy looking guy who had recently joined the table. The flop was Qd4cQc. He bet out $10, I re-raised $20. He looked at his cards again, then called. The turn was a blank. I bet $30 and he thought long and hard, then called. Another rag on the river, he checked and I paused for a while. I figured he had probably been on the flush draw or possibly a medium pocket pair, but I was definately scared shitless that he might be sandbagging trip queens. From watching him closely, my best effort at reading him said he didn’t have it. I bet $50. He again thought a long while, then mucked with a big sigh. Woohoo! I was finally comfortably back in black!

I checked my watch — 3AM. No wonder I was sleepy. So I cashed out with a $45 profit before I got too tired and stupid to keep it.

So that puts me now at -$8 net for the $1-$2 NL game. We’ll see how tomorrow fares. Good night and good luck.