Running like God on a Scooter

To quote 2p2er Big Bad Babar, I am running like "God on a Scooter". For those of you unfamiliar with poker speak, "running good" means that the deck has been dropping onto the felt in your favor and you've been winning your share of pots or more. It is possible to play very well but still lose, and vice versa. The last three days I feel like I've been playing OK (I've made some mistakes, even more than usual perhaps, but I think I'm actually getting better at identifying my mistakes), but have in fact been running like God on a Scooter. To wit:

Saturday, 8/23

I decide to give Garden City one last chance and rewarded for my loyalty. In addition to flopping or turning two pair after a free look from the big blind no less than 3 times, the following hands occur:

First hand of truly hilarious awesomeness:

One player limps and a bad, straight-forward and unimaginative player with whom I have played many hours raises. He will play his hand almost face up post flop, checking and calling with unimproved high cards but betting and raising with sets and over-pairs. This is basically good strategy, but for some reason I just always seem to know exactly what this guy has, as well as what he intends to do with it. The small blind calls, and I look down to find J3 of clubs. Normally I require 1 more limper to play a hand of this caliber (that is to say...none), but the limper and the small are both also terribly predictable and I make a loose call.

4 handed we see a flop for 8 small bets

A45 of three suites with one club

The astute reader will notice that while I have actually flopped "nothing", I do have some chance of winning the hand. I have a gutshot at a 5-high straight (only a 2 will make it), and a back door club draw. A rule of thumb is that a back door flush draw is worth 1.5 outs, and my gut shot give me four more, so I put my hand at about 5-6 outs. Anyway, we all check to the raiser who of course bets his hand. The small blind folds. I look left and try to see if the other player has a raising look about him, see no such thing, and call. He confirms my suspicions and just calls, so we see the turn card with me having gotten 10:1 on my money (My hand needs only 9:1 straight away to continue. When you factor in my tremendous implied odds I could call this getting as little as 6 or 7 to 1 I think).

3 handed we see the turn for 5.5 big bets, and it brings....

A glorious 2

I now have basically the nuts (36 beats me, but neither of these guys can possibly have that hand. They are bad, but they both contributed to the pot voluntarily. For all intents and purposes, I have the nuts and my opponents are probably drawing dead). Here's where I opt to take a life....The safe and standard play here is to donk-bet. There is a chance if I check that my two opponents will follow suite and no money will go in. Also, the third player in the hand is stuck between myself and the raiser, so a donk bet would get one bet from him for sure, where as a check/raise will ask him for two, which he likely cannot pay. Nonetheless I tap the felt, indicating that I would not like to wager at this point. The next player checks (as expected) and the third player, whom I always seem to have a perfect read on, bets. I unleash my raise as slowly as I can, and much to my surprise the player in the middle calls fairly quickly. I glance at the board and realize that a flush draw has materialized, and take note that I should probably check any heart river. The original raiser is very upset, but calls anyway.

We see the river 3 handed, for 11.5 big bets and...

It's a blank. I bet, the man in the middle folds muttering "frush draw" or something in accented English (I'm not a racist, I swear, but that's honestly what he said. I call 'em like I see 'em), and the pre-flop raiser calls like he has no other choice. I table my hand (which, remember folks, is Jack-Trey SOOOTED) and he visibly shocked. For the rest of my session he can't stop talking about it, and he completely stops trying to steal my blinds (which is a fantastic benefit, given that he's in the cutoff for my big blind). 2 hours later, on my way back from the cage to say good bye to a friend, he is repeating the story for the 7th time to the floor man. "He called two bets with J3! JACK TREY!!!"

Second hand of truly hilarious awesomeness:

This one is not nearly as good (few are) but is worth noting because it proves that I run like God on a Scooter. I end up in a 3-handed capped pot with pocket Kings, and the flop comes down all baby cards (nothing even above an 8 I think). The gentleman who is out of position (and who did the capping preflop) bets into me and I raise. The blind folds, and he 3-bets me. I tank for a second and decide against capping, as by now I honestly have to worry about aces but have to show my hand down because the pot already has like 400 dollars in it (40% of which used to be mine a few minutes ago). The turn brings an Ace (actually the best card in the deck I think, since it's pretty hard to believe he'd cap preflop out of position then bet/3-bet with AK) and he checks. I cannot hide my surprise, then compose myself, and then fire a bet. He calls. The river is a King, giving me a set that can only be beaten by pocket Aces. Now he bets!!!! This is the strangest line I think I have ever seen, and I raise, convincing myself that he may just have the worst played AK I have ever seen. He mucks his hand face up instantly, showing two red Queens that I was ahead of the entire time.

Third hand of truly hilarious awesomeness:

I raise a limper preflop with sexy red Aces and we see a flop 3 ways for 2 bets each.

QT2 with two hearts

I bet, a player check/raises me, another player takes 2 to the face, I 3-bet, the first raiser calls only and the other player calls 1 more bet. Got it? We've got about 8 big bets in the pot and it's 3 handed.

J (not a heart)

The both check to me and I bet. The first player calls all in, and the second player raises...I count down the pot and get 11.5 bets, decide that I have somewhere between 3 and 6 outs (leaning towards the high end...4 four the gut shot straight and 2 to make top set) and reluctantly peel off a call.

K (not a heart).

For some odd reason he bets into me and I raise with my nuts. He calls and disgustedly shows a set of 2s after I table my aces and say "Sometimes they hold up". He declares "You got real lucky there". Then the all in player reveals his hand: Pocket Kings!!! I actually only had 2 outs, since he was holding two and nullified the other 2 (by making a straight if I hit my set). I did get really lucky there, but I'd play the hand the same way 100 times in a row :)

Final Result

After 4 hours of play, I waddle to the cage carrying 3305 American Dollars worth of chips, only 1000 of which I purchased. I am happy.

Sunday 8/24

For this session I went back to Bay 101. I didn't get there until almost 5:30, as I had to take Tyson in for his shots at 3:30pm. I was very tired, only played 3 hours and 15 minutes, and cashed out up 644 dollars. I remember flopping a few sets.....or something.

Monday 8/25

Today I played about 4 hours at Bay 101 and again posted about a 500 dollar win (I lost 50 bucks at 6/12, then played solid 20/40 and again ran like white hot lightening). Three hands from today's session can be found on 2p2

Hand 1
Hand 2
Hand 3

I'm going on an actual vacation starting Wednesday, so there will likely be another lull in posts, but I promise to get back to it the moment I return. Also, I still owe everyone some stories from Reno, including how I lost 400 dollars to a stripper in a 1/2 NL game, then Steve won it all back from her once I went to sleep.