Two Days, Long Nights

The last two days I've gotten up at 10AM after going to bed between 3-5AM. It tires me out, but I am just not a late sleeper. The reason is poker (of course). I don't get to the local card club until around 10PM (they open at 7:30) because of either work or I'm just doing something else. Last night I watched Rounders with my dad. He hasn't seen it before, which I thought was a situation that had to be rectified.

To recap the Friday night action: I lost my winnings from Thursday. They, however, were both standard days as I won and lost little more than a full buy-in each time. The hand I went busto with was AQ vs. AK where I just couldn't get away from the AQ. I flopped an Ace and I ended up getting more than 2-1 on my call. Against the villain, his range was big enough that I think that I am ahead 80% of the time there, so I don't feel bad. It's just how the cards run. He could have just as easily had AJ-2.

Saturday was another pretty standard day but now my game is running at close to top speed. I wish I could say I made some crazy bluffs, but I didn't Well, I made one bluff on a double paired board against Aces, but it didn't work. It was close, though. The board read Q227 with two hearts and I raised a turn bet with a heart draw. He asked me if I had a Q and I said "yup". The river paired the Q and I made a decent-sized bet. He thought, nearly folded, and called. It was good for the image.

Besides that, I just played well. It was hard to bluff this table, so I just used my poker abilities to play marginal situations well. This guys were like open books. An older gentleman kept on doing the classic tell of looking at his chips when he had a hand. It made playing 2nd pair or top pair weak kicker really easy. It also let me make some big value bets. I raised AK preflop against a few limpers from the BB and he called. I checked an 8 high flop and he checked back. The K hit the turn and I just knew that he had a weak K from his body language. So I put a decent bet and he called. The river bricked and I put another decent bet in and was called with K6.

I was also able to value-bet AK high on the river against AJ high. That's always fun. It really was a standard night of laying with the lambs. People must have also thought I was out of my mind. I ended up drinking 3 Vaults (Drinks like a Soda. Kicks like an Energy Drink) and I was bouncing off the walls. I was fidgety and I wouldn't shut up. I just had a great table image. I was being real friendly so some of the players were annoyed, but I think most of them had me pegged as a fish. One guy thought I learned poker from watching ESPN. Since I will be playing with the same rotation of guys here, I'm glad I'm making a good first impression.

So I ended up 2.5 times my buy-in for the record.

Well, the next game isn't until Thursday, so I have nothing to do. Maybe I'll go back to sleep.