Sloe Times

So it's time to gear up for the upcoming bloggers tourney so I found me a $25 NL table on Party to strengthen my NL play up a bit. The first lesson I recalled is that it can actually pay to watch the table closely at NL and figure out who the weak players are because betting can mean more than the cards you hold, unlike limit where the no-foldem flop-monkeys will see you to the river with any two cards. So my first table I'm looking rock like for what seems like ages before I decide that I need to make something happen or I'm just wasting time and paying blinds. I figure I'm either going to create a table image that will give me action, or I'll bend the weak guys over and pick some pockets.

For BG's benefit, this is what I meant when I said I wasn't catching stellar cards but I was working with what I had. An example of this is finding 5, 6 in early position (UTG+2). Setting my self up to try and take advantage of any decent cards that may hit me as I move into the blinds, I limp in hoping for lots of other limpers which don't play along so it's me and the blinds. The flop is A, 6, T which really doesn't give me anything other than a 3-flush and bottom pair. If UTG bets big, I'm gone. Fortunately he does a minimum bet and I figure that this is ideal, I can play a 'fishy' looking hand with bottom pair real cheap and accomplish my goal, and I call. The turn brings 5 and now I've actually got a hand. UTG does another min bet so I figure he has big cards but hasn't paired anything up. The pot is around $4 so I figure I'll either take it down now or build it up a bit and hope that he catches his big pair on the river so I raise it up to $4 and he folds. Hmm, that worked out well but karma has a funny way of balancing things out as you'll see later. This oddly enough began a mini-rush because sure enough I started catching some decent cards right away. The next hand was K, J which I took the pot down on the flop with top pair. The next hand was K, T which turned out like the previous hand. A whole orbit goes by with nothing coming and I find myself in the BB with Q, 2 and it limps around to me so I check to see the flop. The flop is 8, 9, 8. I've got nothing but why let that stop me? SB min bets so I front something big and pot it for $2 which brings us heads up at the turn. The turn brings 7 and the SB checks to me. Well, he didn't have anything before and this probably didn't help him so I lean on him and pot it again for $6, and he promptly folds. I wanted to try another little rush here, but the dealer did not play along and even I couldn't bring myself to play 5,8 offsuit. He did however make up for it the next hand with 7, A on the button and some heads up play thanks to the fellow who raised it to $1 just before the button. The turn brought Q, A, 4 giving me top pair. UTG bets out $1 and figure I'll see if I can scoop it with top pair so I pot it with a raise to $3. No such luck, he calls. The turn is an 8 giving me the 4-flush and it gets checked to me. Ok he's either slow playing a set, or he's got maybe a Q and hoping for a little more. I lead out with a $5 bet which is a little more than it would take to bring him all-in and he calls all-in for $4. The river is 4 putting a pair on the board and the pot heads my direction because the guy couldn't lay down J, J to two overcards. Maybe he thought I was bluffing a bigger pair, but I don't recall taking any weak hands to showdown. About this time I trade emails with BG and figure out where he's sitting and figure maybe a table change would improve my cards. I play through one more orbit before the BB hits me and I get up ~+$10. Oddly enough, all the hands I just described here make up all of the hands I played pretty much at that table. A sad state of affairs to be sure. Unfortunately I was right about the table change improving my cards but I'll have to get to that one later, time for work.

Tune in next time to hear about being sandwiched between Boy Genius and Al.