Holiday Heater

I got back from Pittsburgh on December 29th and put in 24 hours of play on the 30th, 31st, 2nd and 3rd. It was, shall we say...good.

Not much happened on the 30th. But New Years Eve came with all the biggest and bestest things heaters have to offer. First of all, the games were fantastic. I mean, absofreakinglutely fantastic. There were 4 tables, and it was as if all the winning players decided to not to come all on the same day. There were 36 players seated and I was sure that I was the best one...without question. To quote the BigBadBabar, they were "snuggie soft".

For my first 2 hours I ran kind of so so, first winning some pots and getting ahead, then finally dropping back below even when my Aces got cracked by some body with some garbage suited hand that made a flush and I paid off. That happened when I was UTG, so I took some Tommy Angelo advice and went for a walk...paid my $3 lobby charge and walked around outside. I calmed myself down, went back into battle, and then....lost a little more. Had to buy a 3rd rack, and really wasn't too thrilled about how things were going. I changed tables and....

I won a pot with AK ui. I won a pot with AK improved. I flopped a set, turned a boat. Dragged a monster. Flopped a set, rivered a boat, dragged a monster. Flopped a set, turned a boat, rivered quads, and dragged a stupendously redonkulous monster. Eventually my stack looked like this:


I was within a stack ($100) of entering "10 rack territory"....I had $4430 or something insane like that on the table. The hits just kept on coming....

Sue, a 40ish Asian woman who is a practicing nurse and mega-fish fantastico was in my game. Sue finished 4th in the morning tournament for a score of like $1000 (lol, donkaments) and was ready to make the gambool even more so than usual. She arrived at the table already smelling of white wine (it was like, 1pm...maybe) and proceeded to play in her usual fashion. This was my favorite pot against her:

I raise AA after like 3 limpers. Somehow the pot goes off only 5 ways and the flop comes down:

K72r

That's right. K72 rainbow. What could be called a "dry" flop, one without much in the way of "draws" available. Short of flopping a set, this is about as good as they get. I bet and two people call, including Sue. At this point, Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangster starts playing in my ears, and a 5 of the 4th suit hits the board.

Then Sue check/raises the turn. I call pretty quickly, as there are like 10 big bets in the pot and she's probably just got some random ass two pair and I've got odds to draw out on her. The river is a brick (like a ten maybe) and she bets again. I take the phones out of my ears and say "Aces no good Sue?" and she says "If you've got a King you're good". Now from a normal player there might be some gamesmenship going on here. Not Sue. She simply doesn't lie....if she tells you she's got something, she's got it. I respond "well then I gotta call" and call her. MHIG and
the table has a pretty big laugh. I mean, had she just kept her mouth shut, I was probably gonna lay that one down. At least I was gonna try to....

I end up losing a bit before I go home, but still cash out for over 8 racks.

The next day I played (January 2nd) is more of the same. The games are amazing and I just can't lose. I peak at +5 racks, but end up taking home only about 2.5 in profit due to some run bad that I get out of my system toward the end. A hand that puts this day into perspective:

The button telegraphs a fold, so I raise 86 suited in diamonds from the cutoff. The button folds, the small blind calls, but Carlos 3-bets in the big blind. Carlos is a decentish player, but he's too passive. 3 bets here means like JJ minimum....He has a monster....I call though getting 8:1 in position and we see the flop 3 handed for 9 small bets:

Qd 7h 3d

Good result I say. SB checks, Carlos bets, I call, small blind folds.

5s

The astute reader will notice that I now have 15 outs at a fully certified nut hand. Carlos bets, I think for a minute and decide he's never folding because he's got an overpair or a set like 70% of the time so I just call.

4h

I have the nut 8-high straight and there is a zero percent chance Carlos can put me on it. He bets, I raise, and he some how, some way, folds his hand....I drag the monster.

January 3rd was more of the same, although I left up just 1 rack after a short 2 hour session.
All in all when the heater ended (1 hour into today's session), I had won about $6600 in 24 hours of playing time. Tomorrow, we'll talk about what happened when I got too big for my britches in the 40 game....