Gold Rush – Poker League Week 2

Week 2 began with me at a table with some players I have played before. Not a new person at the table.

I follow the same strategy I used last week. Play the player and the situation. The person on my right, let's just call him Rev. Falwell (OK…for some reason he just looks like him to me). This guy never saw two cards he wouldn't call the BB with. As I watched him play throughout the night, he'd stay in with any pair or decent high card. That's not to say he wouldn't have a hand, but let's just say that wasn't necessary to reach the river. On my immediate left was Officer Jeff. He's a solid player and was making moves. He his right was Walter. He's a retired guy that I've played many times. He plays very tight, but watch out, he'll turn over a monster when you bluff him at the wrong time. His biggest weakness is he sometimes stays too long with a marginal hand; he misses the draws that hit quite often. Jen G was seated directly across from me. That's what I remember, the texture of the table changed over the course of the night.

The table was pretty weak to start with, but my raises were usually met with many callers. I did up the raise size from 3x to 3.5x and that seemed to help. I really need to keep track of how various size bets work from different positions. UTG, a standard 3x raise usually caused a cascade of callers, each getting better pot odds than the one in front of them. Since my goal is to stay out of the way of variance (donkeys), I kept a pretty close tab on where I was, who was after me, and did they look at their cards and give away anything. Rev. Falwell didn't seem to miss any pots along the way (ok, it was just really rare), I used this to my advantage.

Rev. Falwell and I got into a pot that walked around to him in the SB. He calls and I check. I think I had J 2, maybe 10 7…as it turns out, it really didn't matter anyway…I flopped 2 pair. I bet pot size, he calls, there wasn't anything bigger than my top pair, so I just hopped he caught at little. Turn, a blank, but paired the suit of another card, that seemed to get him a little happier. He calls my pot size bet. The river pairs my deuce…again. Filler Up! I was trying to think of a bet he would call. I bet out 700, which was 100 more than my turn bet, but that was too much, he folded. He was on a straight draw and as he folds says, huh, there was a flush draw too…I didn't see that. He tried telling me all of his outs he could have hit to beat me…most of the time, he kept forgetting that a full house would have won. He had gotten an early big chip stack, but Office Jeff and I helped remove most of his chips. The blinds kept raising and we kept losing players.

And my cards started to REALLY suck. I went 2 hours with the best hand I saw was AJo, it was UTG. A 4x BB raise was met with 4 callers, and the board came out all spades…a K and Q…and everyone else at the table felt compelled to bet. Nice. I think I'll fold.

I sat helplessly stealing, just treading water, until 3 new people eventually showed up at the table, all on my right, all loving the raise and call pre-flop. One was our good friend Bodie25. He spotted the weakness in the table that I had been stealing from to tread water, and picked up in earlier position than me where I was about to leave off. There was one time; I very seriously considered a resteal. He raised when I was in the BB. His raise was a 3x, and everyone folded to me. My Spidey Sense was tingling and telling me he was just making a move. I guess, he'll have to tell the story. I prefer to bluff when I have a hand that might draw well. I had Jc 7s. Not a particularly strong hand, but I really think a bluff might have pushed him off. We'll never know.

I survived to break, just limping along. I just wasn't able to get anything together. I saw 8 2 off suit 4 times one orbit. That's never good. I made some gallant pushes when the blinds reached 200/400 and then pushed one too many times. I had 1700 chips left and saw my first pocket pair of the entire evening, 77. Grant, was trying to steal again with his raise before me. I just knew he was, but I also knew I was probably a coin flip to him, the question was, and would he fold rather than put 900 more chips in the middle. He called. He turns over J 10. We all know how well I do at coin flips. I got home pretty quick after that. Sucked some more at some online SNG's...and went to bed. Time to head back into the tank and rethink my style or my inability to switch style to fit the table. Any advice?