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Monday, June 7, 2010

So This Is What's It Like To Be A Card Rack

Yes, it finally happened. At my final $1/$2 session at the Seneca Niagara Casino before heading home on Sunday, I was a Card Rack.

It started on my very first hand at a newly opened table. Someone raised in Mid position to $8. The SB called. I'm the BB with Qs Qc, and I pop it to $25. Both player call. Flop came A-high with two Diamonds. We all check. Turn was the Qd, putting the Flush on the Board, but giving me a Set. SB bets $40. I call with my Boat Draw, and Mid player folds. River was a brick. SB bets $40, and I call. He's got AK, no Diamond.

Over the next five hours, I had five Big Pairs (JJ+) that hit Sets; AA once, JJ once, and QQ three times, including the first hand. I also had other Big Pairs that didn't hit their Two Outer, and other pairs that did become Sets. Plus, I had a good assortment of Flushes, Straights, and Two Pairs.

And for all of these glorious cards, I ended the session +$362. Does that seem small to you? Yeah. Me, too.

So what happened? Did I screw up a hand, or have some nasty cooler that cost me $500? Nope. I did have a few pots that didn't go well. I lost around $100 in a 3-way pot with AK that I might have misplayed a bit. I also ran into a Set over Set hand (66 vs AA), but the Old Guy only had $41 in his stack.

The reason for the relatively small cashout was because nobody at my table wanted to put a @#$% chip into the pot.

It was so frustrating scooping small pot after small pot. I think the biggest pot I won all day was the first one. I mentioned to the dealer a few times, "I'm at the wrong table today." 

Here is one of the worst examples. A rather tight, 60 yr old gentleman raised to $6 in Mid position. One player called before it got back to me in the SB. I look down at JJ. I decide to just call. If I 3-Bet, everyone will probably fold. The BB also calls. Flop Ah Jh 6c. Sweet! I hit middle Set with an Ace and a Flush Draw out there for someone to chase. It's a great Flop for a Set to win a big pot. I check with the intention of making a small check-raise, but the other three players also check. Turn is [Ah Jh 6c] 8s. Ok, I need to build this pot, so I bet $15 into the $20 pot. Everyone quickly folded.

Was everyone folding due to my tight table image? At most table, I'm one of the tighter players, and I let other players drive the action. But at this table, I was Action Guy. I was raising to my standard $7 at least 1-2 times per orbit. I would raise in Late Position (Button, Cutoff, Hyjack) with a wide range of hands. I would also raise in other positions, including the Blinds, with quality hands, which I had plenty of today. I even 3-Bet squeezed in Late Position twice. Once with K9o, and the other was ATo, I won both pots, and showed both times to try to entice some sort of action. But it didn't do any good.

So why did I stay at this table, instead of moving to another one? Because I was winning, and you never want to leave a table when you're winning. Just because I move to an Action table, it doesn't mean that the Cards will follow me to that table. It could have just ended up as a repeat of the $2/$5 game from the night before. If I had these cards at that table, I could have easily won over $2000. Instead, I end up +$126 between both sessions.


Other notes from my trip:

- I ended up playing four session of $1/$2, and won all of them. On Friday night, I played $5/$10 Omaha-8 at Turning Stone, and won. The only games where I lost money were the tournament and the $2/$5.

- As for the Pit (Table Games), I completely stayed away from it. I'm really proud of this. This has been a major leak for my bankroll for awhile now, and I'm working on fixing it.

- I discovered that Seneca Niagara will be having a tournament series in July, the Summer Slam. The Main Event is a $540, two day tournament. It will be held on Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18. That happens to be my next Weekend Off. Right now, it's 60% that I'll be heading back up there for this.

1 comment:

JRaz said...

Agree with your decision 100$ to stay at the table and keep winning small pot after small pot. Keeping a cool head is what it's all about and whilst less experienced players would've moved on, you listened to your gut instinct and played it tight and safe. Don't let the "what ifs" get to you.