Just Some Hands

First, here's a hand from a few days ago that I played like a weak tight nit. I'm not really sure what would have been a better line, as it was pretty clear the preflop raiser had me crushed. I might just be having a little results oriented thinking, since the two players showed down KJ of diamonds and AK of spades. Had I been more aggressive, barreling until the end, neither could possibly have called me on the river. Alas....

I spent today at Garden City, working on my renewed pledge to play as much 30/60 and 40/80 as possible. I played 3.5 hours in the 40/80 game, then moved down to 20/40 once the lineup wasn't to my liking (specifically two players who are just complete ass hats sat down and I decided I didn't need that shit in my life today...also, Stockton Thunder was on the prowl but not up on the 40/80 list, and the chance to sit with him in the 20 is something no money-loving, rational person could possibly refuse). My first two hands in the 40/80 were very strange, with me literally calling 9 times without raising and breaking exactly even before rake.

Hand 1

It's a brand new game and the button is 3 seats to my right. I find T9s UTG and limp. Frank the prop raises and we see the flop 4 ways for 8 small bets. Thus far I have called twice, the first one being one of those "you say tomato and tamahto" calls, the second being fine.

KQ4 with one heart

We all check to Frank who bets, and I am the lone caller. This call is questionably thin, and I probably wouldn't make it without the heart on board. My 4 jack outs are not to the nuts, but at 9:1 I couldn't resist. The turn is:

KQ4-Q with two hearts now

Well gosh gee willikers, now I have a real honest to goodness flush draw. I call Frank again, this time getting 6:1 and obviously correctly.

KQ4-Q-A with all three hearts that I need

Hmmmm....Should I donk? Getting raised sure would suck, and there's full houses all over the place....OK I check. Frank bets. I call. Frank rolls KK for a full house, against which I was drawing dead on the turn. Yikes.

Hand 2

Now I'm the big blind, trying to shrug off losing $280 in the my first 45 seconds at the table, and it folds to the button who open raises. I've played with this guy before, and to say that he is a LAG would be a bit of an understatement. He's literally opening like 50% of his hands here. OK, let's see, something easy to play would be nice to pick up...what have we here? A2o? Frack....This hand is as far from easy to play as you can get in this spot, at least for me. Basically there are tons of boards on which I'm gonna have to call all the way down with Ace-High, hoping to catch him barreling. Great. But I sure as hell can't fold, so I call. To the flop heads up:

T94

Remember that call down thing I just said? Well this board is shaping up like one. I check and call his bet. Then the turn is:

T94-6 with all four suits represented equally :)

Yikes. I check, hoping he'll check...but no, he bets like a good little LAG. I tank for a bit and consider mucking, then decide that I have to grit my teeth and call this thing down.

T94-6-3

I check, now actually hoping he'll bet. If he checks back, he probabaly has a better ace high and I've lost. But if he bets, his range will be polarized between good (paired) hands and bluffs (KQ, KJ, QJ, J8, Q8, etc, etc), some of which I will beat. He bets, and I call quickly. He says "you got it" and turns over QJ. I table my A2o like it's the nuts and puff my chest out a little. The table quickly confirms that I must be on some sort of tilt, and I bunker down for a $1000 win.