Wow, what a weekend. Most of it–far more than I had planned–was playing poker. In fact, other than the every-other-Sunday limit Hold ‘Em tournament (in which I busted out in 37th place, far from the money, after about just 3 1/2 hours), I spend nearly 18 hours (17/3/4 hours, to be mor precise) at the poker table.
Included in that wa a marathon Sunday session that went on well past my bedtime, an issue because I do have a regular job that expects me every Monday morning at a reasonable hour. (Thankfully, it’s not a clock-punching job.)
And for what?
Well, I did come out a winner. (That is, if you don’t count the tournament buy-in.) After nearly 18 hours, I made a net profit of…
..wait for it…
$27.
Yup. 18 hours at a $6/$12 games to walk away with a fraction of a big bet, or $1.50, per hour. Not exactly inspiring in terms of either continuing to build a bankroll or even for walking away completely satisfied.
Both sessions were similar in that I began at tables that didn’t feel right, that had a mix of players that didn’t look profitable. Friday night I got to the club a bit earlier than usual in part because I left work earlier than myusual late departure. The table I scored had a couple of players I knew and some that were coming off loose and party-like.
After about an hour of (a) not getting into the flow of the games and (b) not winning any pots, I asked for a table change. Of course, the way the world seems to laugh at your choices sometimes resulted in as soon as my name was called, I was getting dealt what turned out to be my last hand there, and what turned out to be pocket kings. Amazingly, they held up, and the blinds that I’d lost were replenished, and more.
I wish I could say that I played mistake-free poker, but that wasn’t the case. Not that I played all that badly, mind you, but I missed a couple of reads to incur some unecessary losses. And while the tbale wasn’t as loose as the first, it still presented some challenges that minimized the opportunities to try tactics such as bluffing. So I needed strong cards, which were feew and far between in coming.
Just as I’d score a win or two and build up my stack to near or just a bit mroe than my buy-in, I’d think that things were turning around, and the cards would go into decline again, resulting in my stack heading down a long, slow slope. The was the pattern of the whole weekend, and when I finally perked my stack above my buy-in a few hours before sunrise, I decided that it was time to pick up my chips and take my net profit, after 15 pots in 8 1/2 hours, of $6.
15 minutes after I busted out of the tournament on Sunday, I was seated at a $6/$12 table that I knew would be trouble. Again, several players who I’d played against before, and all were young, reckless, loose gamblers. Almost as soon as I sat down, I was back at the board asking for a table change.
The thable where I ended up was more sedate, with a few players I knew were solid. I knew if I could find a edge, I’d often be able to exploit it. There was one calling station at the table, in seat 5, across from my seat 10. Not the optimal positioning, but I was in a spot where I felt comfortable.
I made several laydows with some good hands when the calling station came out betting, and one time, when I bet into her on the flop, she raised. I complimented her on making the hand I knew she had. I love it when a calling station knows well how to push a winning hand but doens’t know the meaning of “bluff.” As expected, while she raked in a few pots after making some longshot draws, her stack shortly disappeared, and so did the money she pulled out to replenish her stack. Once again, I was truly sorry to see her leave.
However, I wasn’t getting much in good hands. The table was seeing 5-7 players seeing the flop pretty regularly, so I felt comfortable limping in with a high suited card fairly often, although if the high cards was a king or queen, I wanted the other card to be farily high too. I was staying away from connectors, though, and I can’t say much abou suited connetors because I recall getting them just twice in more than 9 hours (and they didn’t go anywhere either time).
One wild hand was one where I picked up pocket kings. The player to the right of me, a somewhat loose player, raised pre-flop, and I re-raised. She capped it and I immediately began to suspect pocket aces. No help for either hand came on the flop, but she was bet into and she raised, and I re-raised again. it was capped again, making me feel even more strongly about her having aces, and when a junk card came on the turn and she bet, i decided that I shoudl follow my read and get out. And as it turns out, my read was right, but her aces also were beated by another player who managed two pair.
This session saw my $300 buy-in go down to nearly $0, to the point where I felt that (a) I could still make this game a profitable one, and (b) I still had some time, so I pulled out another $100 bill. And while it was a grind, I was able to get my stack amount back on an upward trend. But the cost was that I stayed much later than I had planned. While it wasn’t the 4am of Friday night, it was well past midnight when I won a pot that boosted my stack back into the black and I decided to pick up and go home with 16 pots at a net profit of $21.
But hey, just like the bigger days and nights, that’s poker.