Poker: trip to Casino

Following on from my Farnborough Poker Club success, it’s back to Reading Casino this week to get more live practise.

It’s the £35+5 NL Hold’em Freezeout with 11’500 starting chips (incl bonus chips)     32 runners start and we’re playing 6 handed to begin with

I have young loose aggro players to my left and right, plus Alex 2 seats to my left so interesting table!    I start out passive and get involved in couple of pots with the young guns which don’t go anywhere for me and I’ve bled off 2’000 chips already…   we get another player so are now 7 handed then get into a hand that didn’t please me…..

I raise A-9o and get called by Alex in the SB, tight lady in the BB and very tight lady who had limped UTG.   Flop comes a nice 9-5-3 (2 clubs) so I bet out when checked to me.  Only the very tight lady calls.   The K on the turn is a bit of a concern, but with very tight lady checking think it likely she’s on a draw (probably clubs)  so make a near pot size bet.  Her call makes me re-evaluate likely holdings, especially as an A comes.    Although she checks to me again, I’m wondering what she called with on the turn, and she may have something like flopped trips, so check behind and she shows…… 4-2 for a flopped str8 draw which she hits on the river.   This suck out takes me down to about 5000 chips, but was actually pleased how I played the hand as in the past I might be shoving all-in assuming she' was on a busted club draw !

I make a small recovery but am still struggling and with the break coming soon I’m going to be very short so am looking to shove at earliest opportunity.   It’s not until the last hand before the break when UTG limps and tight lady shoves her remaining 2000 chips from SB that I decide I can gamble with my Q-Tc so shove for about 6000 chips.   UTG calls and shows Q-To ! and the lady had 8-8    Lucky for me I pick up flush draw on turn and hit it on the river and go into the break with 14’200 chips.  Alex has 7’300 chips and the average is around 12’500 with most of tht eplayers still in.

On the restart the table breaks which is always annoying and my new table seems tight.  I get involved a couple of hands and was quite pleased to loose the minimum with my A-4 on A-K-x board when I put a player on K and folded to another K on the river…. he showed pocket K-K so I was right twice

Alex got knocked out around this time, shame we didn’t have a last longer bet

Soon after my table broke up again and my new table has the young gun who was on my left on the original table now on my right (I think they called him “Titch” ?)      

Got involved in couple of hands, loosing 1/4 stack when UTG limps then shoves all-in to my raise.  (seen him play previously and thought him tight/solid) so am down to about 10’000 chips with the blinds at 800/400  and looking for spot to shove.

There are three tight short stacks to my left, and the other players seem pretty tight other than Titch to my immediate right.   I’m UTG and look at A-3s which seems pretty enough to shove for 11 BB  Curly calls with around 1800 chips and Titch decides I’ve bet too much so he’s gonna teach me a lesson by defending his BB with 7-6h   Curly shows 7-6s which is a bit of a result for me, despite taking some of my outs.  I guessed I was 60% to win overall (just checked and was 59% ) so am pretty happy so far…. the A-K-8 flop still looks good for me, despite the 2 hearts (I’m still 60% to win) but the 2h turn ends it and I’m out in around 26th place

The result wasn’t as I would have hoped, but the main objective was to get deep stack practise and practise evaluating people in a live environment.  In that regard I did think I am getting better at reading, was focussing well and overall played pretty good overall so not too disappointed really.

It was only around 11:20pm so decided to put my name down for the cash tables, but was only two of us on the list so decided to hang around to see if the game got going.    After a brief relax, decided to have a quick go at Roulette.  On the plus side I got about 7 or 8 spins before I lost my £50, but of course I’ve lost more playing Roulette than playing Poker, so decide to cross my name off the cash game list and go home before I make any more poor decisions