I need to write more. I thought this the other night: I should commit to posting here after every session, no matter how late I get home, even if it’s just a short post. Dunno if I’ll be able to keep that commitment, but I’m going to try.
Meanwhile, after a year of ups and downs, of sometimes atrocious play and of seemingly magic reads, instead of slowing down in 2008, I’ve sped up. In fact, I’ve played 9 times already in the first 3 weeks (and those 3 weeks aren’t over yet), and I’ve had winning sessions 8 of those 9 times. And I’m not talking about just barely eking out a win to book a win. Nealry every one has been huge, topped by the 45 minute session of $8/$16 Thursday night with a $391 profit.
Tonight went a bit longer. I took the shorter drive to Artichoke Joe’s for some $6/$12. Started out down from my $200 buy-in, and shortly after I sat down, I repositioned myself at the table to put the majority of the calling stations to my right. Started heading back up when this loud aggressive bully sat down two seats to my right.
This was an interesting character, a middle aged overly chubby (but not quite “fat”) white guy with full headphones and a baseball cap and with a small young Asian woman in tow. He initially browbeat the dealer when he came in in the small blind and was asked if he wanted to post 4 or wait one hand. In part his response was “I didn’t come here to wait.” Mentally, I licked my lips, knowing that patience is a key element to long-term success in the limit game.
As time went on, I observed him to be a table bully, raising and reraising with impunity, and I picked off a nice pot when I had a big hand and he tried to play back with, presumably, nothing or very little. His smallish buy-in (less than $200, I think) was quickly whittled away. The dynamic of his off-the-felt relationship started to gel as he tried to cajole the Asian woman if w=she wanted something or other. The stereotype of the bug, plain, loud American with his Asian doll came very much to mind.
But then something happened that turned my tide: he bought in for more chips. But not $100 or so like most folks do. He bought $1000 in chips. I recognized that as likely he was going to try to use that stack to try and run over the table. Not only did I not really want to deal with that, I really didn’t want to deal with that two seats to my left. So I asked for a table change and got it almost right away. I never did see how he ended up.
The table I ended up at was more to my liking, with most of the calling stations to my right. There was one player 3 seats to my left I had tangled with before; he often played like it was no-limit, pushing not only marginal hands, but abysmal ones. During this session he flipped over a preflop raised with 7-2 offsuit.
One thing that I think has driven my success so far this year is that I’m playing a bit more loosely. I’ve loosened my standards in late position and I defend my blinds more often than I used to, especially with several callers. So with the general passiveness and looseness of this table, even though I came in a bit down, I was soon able to accumulate a stack and left 3 hours later up more than $300.
That puts me at about $1800 up for the year, and even more interesting, making more than $50/hour. I know this can’t last, but I’ve been getting some amazing catches.
For example,. more than a week ago, it was folded to me on the button. I found K-9 offsuit, a significantly better than average hand, and I raised to try and steal the blinds. But my plan backfired when the small blind, who had not been there that long, but whom I’d observed to be at least reasonably solid–not over-aggressive, not a calling station–3 bet. The big blind, who was the calling station type, called the 2 bets cold. I paused, being pretty sure that I was up against a monster hand in the small blind, but that “pot odds” concept led me to tossing in 3 more chips, closing the betting.
I flopped 2 pair. The betting turned out to be heavy on both the flop and the turn, and the big blind stayed in for awhile to help build a pretty doggone good sized pot. The small blind turned over his pocket aces at the end, even though he didn’t improve.
And then there was the table of loose passive folks at Garden City last night. I raised in early position with pocket queens and got several cold callers. The flop came 8-high with 2 hearts, and yet almost everyone called my flop bet. The turn brought another 8 and an early position player suddenly led out. I immediately put him on turning trips. I knew I had to call, but a couple of other people called too, including the person on my left between me and the bettor.
The river brought the Q of hearts, and absolute miracle card. The player who bet out checked, but the player between us suddenly bet. I raised, having made my full house, and I got reraised. I came back over him and he just called. He had made his (non-nut) flush, but I was the one who dragged nearly a $300 pot, quite nice for $16/$12. In fewer than 6 hours, I walked away with more than $450.
It’s been an amazing ride early this year, but I know it can’t last. Still, I’ll keep going, when I have the time, and we’ll see how 2008 ends up, hopefully at leat close to how it is beginning.