Poker: Casino Trip

Decided to get back to Reading Maxims Casino for their £35+5 NL Hold’em tourney, as haven’t been there for this (my “normal” game) since December!…

Being the Thursday night before Good Friday, wasn’t sure what the turnout would be like… and as the roads were the quietest I’ve ever seen them was worrying we might struggle to get 10 players.

As it happened, there were 52 runners, so I needn’t have worried.

By some bizarre fluke, Alex was not only seated on my table again but was on my immediate left!    With 11’500 starting stack and 50/100 blinds, we are pretty deep stacked so can sit back and relax…. but no, I get 44 first hand (limp/folded flop)   88 next hand (limp/folded flop) nothing the next hand, then 88 again!     Sadly I was missing all the flops but in the first 45 mins level had a huge variety of good starting hands…. but at the end of the level I had dropped to 10’000 chips.   Then I went completely card dead and only saw A-Qo UTG for the next 45 mins (which did me no good either) so was still at 10’000 chips the end of that level.    The third level saw me with A-T twice, once taking the blinds then second time I raised from late position and was re-raised to 2000 from button.  The SB called and I called so we had over 6000 chips in the pot    The flop came Txx and SB checked.  With only about 8000 behind and the button being aggressive player, I knew he was betting big if I checked… so shoved all-in!  After a long dwell and much talking, the button folded and SB folded, giving me a nice pot to add to my stack.… phew!

At the break, I was at 14’900 chips with 44 players left and the average being about 12’000  

Sadly Alex had been busted on the last hand before the break when he raised AA and got called by two players… he hit A on the flop and got it all-in against one of the players, but the villain had flopped a straight and Alex didn’t improve so was out in 44th place!

After the break I didn’t get much I could play with and just held station.   With the blinds up to 1000 by now I had around 12’500 on the button and look down at 5-5    One of the Lady regulars min-raised from mid position.    She had only recently joined the table and had been insisting the dealer kept her cards to show what good hands she was folding to raises (they weren’t always all that good ), but anyway knew she was fairly solid.  I guessed she could fold small pairs and weak aces, but would call bigger Aces and pairs, so decided to go for it.   She shows A-Jo so we’re racing and the flop and turn comes small cards and gives me a str8 draw as well, but the J on the river cruelly took me out in 27th place

I was actually pretty happy with my play overall… but never really got much over my starting stack so was always going to be one hand I had to commit to in order to double up or get knocked out.   Sadly I was knocked out this time……  oh well, there’s always another game round the corner

As it happens there was a £1/£2 cash game running, so decided to join as it was only 11:30pm, so bought in for £100.   First hand I got dealt Q-Q and raised and was happy to get a re-raise all-in from a short stack (he had around £15)    His K-T didn’t hit so I was up around £15 already, so a good start.   My hope was to make back the £40 entry to the tournament, but realistically my target would be to make £8 per hour at this stack levels, so this was certainly the best start I could hope for.   

Sadly the next hour saw me hold station between £110-£90 stack size and the player numbers went from 7 to 3 then gradually more players joined, eventually getting up to 8 players by the time I left.     A few hands after a new player had joined, I got A-Q and raised, seeing only the new player call.   I bet the 8xx flop, checked the low card on the turn, then decided to put him all-in for £25 on another low card river when he checked to me.  Despite the possible straights, draws and full houses, he decided his J-8 was good for top pair, which sadly it was!      This took me down to about £50 which definitely wasn’t in the plan!

The next hour or so saw me grinding away, playing tight aggressive and managed to get back to a peak of £118 before finally leaving the table around 2am with £116.   The £16 profit for 2.5 hours wasn’t too far off my target so pretty pleased on reflection, although slightly disappointing to not have made more (if only I hadn’t made that reckless big bluff on that one hand!)

All in all, an enjoyable and cheap night out , getting in nearly 6 hours of playing Poker  which can’t be a bad thing