Good Old Fashioned Session Report

Today I played 6.5 hours of 20/40 at Bay 101. I woke up thinking I might take the day off, puttered around the apartment for 3 hours doing some chores and catching up on stuff, then quickly realized that 8 more hours of that was just not gonna fly, so I went to play. Sadly Danielle called me at 6:30 to inform me that she wasn't going to be able to get home after work, so I had to come home to take care of the dogs, meaning what I meant to be a 9+ hour session was cut short. I've decided that I want to try to play longer sessions, as it's more efficient and will allow me to take more days off.

For the day I lost 400 dollars, which was actually a pretty good result given how it started...I was down over 1400 at one point and was very excited to get out that cheaply. Here are some funny hands.

At first I'm seated with my two plus two friend Pete (again the names have been changed to protect the innocent). Pete plays 20/40 at lunch, seemingly every day. He has a job, yet somehow manages to gamble from about noon to 2 or 3 every day. If I ever decide to go back to work, his employer is one of the first places I'll try....moving on....

A week and a half ago, Pete was the recipient of 300 of my hard earned dollars in the following hand:

Complete lunatic raises UTG. This guy is...well, a complete lunatic. It folds to me in the small blind and I call with pocket 6s. Pete 3-bets, the guy caps, I try to fold but can't bring myself to do it and call.

Q45 is the flop.

I check, Pete bets, the maniac calls, and I call, getting 14:1 closing the action with a pair.

Q45-2

I now have, in my estimation, 6 clean outs. If I spike a 6 it's almost certainly good, and if a 3 rolls off I'll have basically the nuts. To note there are 7.5 big bets in the pot, and there is also still a small chance I have the best hand.

I check, Pete bets, and the maniac raises. His raise means that he has a hand that improves the board. That's it. Any pair will do. The fact that he didn't raise on the flop honestly probably means he has a 2 in his hand, and that's it.

10.5 bets in the pot....I call 2 bets cold.

Pete 3-bets. Maniac caps it.

4 million bets in the pot. I call two more cold again.

River bricks off, I check, Pete checks (???) and the maniac bets. I call, Pete raises, I cry, maniac calls, I fold.

Pete rolls QQ for top set. Maniac rolls A2 for...bottom pair (Ace Kicker!). My calls on the turn were questionable, but I thought Pete and I were like 4 levels above the rim here and that he was capable of playing a lot of hands that way. Of course, they can always just have top set, and I should have remembered that. The place to ditch the hand was for 2 bets cold on the turn the first time...I didn't really have odds to make that call unless my hand was currently winning a decent percentage of the time....the question is how often does Pete show up there with AK? I think a decent bit of the time actually.

So today this horrible loose passive woman limps in early/middle/some position and I decide to raise A7 suited on the button. Pete 3-bangs it from the small blind, the big blind clears out, the woman calls and I call, no doubt looking like a cat with the canary in his mouth. Then:

A73

Pete bets, the woman calls, I raise, Pete calls only (darn, him has only pocket pair), woman calls.

A

I have the stone cold nuts. Pete checks, she checks, I bet my nuts, and Pete raises me. She folds, I hollywood the appropriate amount (which is to say, very little) and 3-bet. Pete now looks like the aforementioned cat and dutifully calls me. The river produces a 9 and Pete calls my bet...of course MHIG against his AK....afterwards I ask him why he didn't 3-bet the flop and he mumbles something about not discussing strategy at the table :)

Another gem from today:

Funny shirt wearing guy who likes to take strange lines with big pairs (Twice he and I have put in 4 bets on the big streets with single pairs) and obviously wears really weird shirts limps and I raise with AK suited. We take the flop 5 ways and I see a pristine, yet dangerous, board of:

A95 with two hearts

At this point I should note that the order of action is: SB, BB, Funny Shirt guy, Me, Late position cold calling maniac.

Sadly my Ace and King are of the club variety, but I nevertheless bet. 3 players call me (the small blind managed to find a fold, somehow)...The turn is a heart. Two checks and I bet again. Cold calling maniac folds, and so does the BB. Funny shirt guy calls. The river is a brick, for a final board of really no consequence other than the 3 hearts. And funny shirt guy Donk Bets. I am visible struck back in my chair by the absurdity of it. The third heart came and I bet again. I clearly possess an ace, and if he has half a brain he should know I'm going to bet that ace. He also probably knows I can't lay that ace down in a pot of this size on the river if he check/raises me....anyway, as I usually do when I get confused, I call. Funny shirt guy rolls KT of hearts for the stone cold unbeatable nuts. I am confused and muck my hand, then get to thinkin....

1. On the flop, he had perfect position to jam his nut draw. There is no reason to think at that point I yet had an Ace for sure, and had he check/raised me he could have built a large pot when he had excellent equity.

2. His turn/river player is lol bad. To make a long story short, he stop 'n goes the absolute nuts, getting in exactly 2 bets against an aggressive player in a large protected pot.

Previously I had thought funny shirt guy was a tough and solid opponent. Turns out he doesn't have much of a clue :)

And for my final act....

A guy I don't know much about open raises from pretty late position (perhaps the lo-jack? 3 seats before the button) and I defend my blind with 87 of spades. The flop comes down:

K75 with one spade. I have middle pair, a back door straight draw, and a back door flush draw. Heads up against a young Asian dude who open raised in "not early" position, this is a hand I like to call "the freaking nuts". I check raise him and he confirms my hand is the nuts by merely calling the second bet.

The turn is another K, putting two spades on board (K75-K). I bet. He calls. Now I'm a little concerned. He shouldn't have called that bet, and the fact that he did leads me to think he has one of 4 types of hands:

1. A couple of big spades that just picked up a draw (something like AQ-AT). This is ok.

2. A pocket pair he intends to show down between 7s and Qs. This is bad.

3. Something like A7 or A5 he decided to get tricky with preflop. This is sorta bad.

The river blesses me with a 5th spade and I bet. He now raises and I am stunned. I go into the tank and eventually just call the bet. He tables KQo for "the worst played monster I've seen in a long time" and all he can say is "runner runner....I can't beat runner runner....guy keeps bluffing me". I am in shock, and Pete has a hearty chuckle.