down $3000

So, talking to my mother yesterday afternoon, she asks something about if I've thought of a career change. “Well, I can make like $120k a year here if I play good all the time.” She says “but you can't play well all the time. No one can.” To which I start to argue about how I can do it! Through discipline, through money management, blah blah blah. And then as if to prove her right, I go and hang out with my neighbors who are BBQ-ing by the pool and break a good number of my rules: I smoked weed in the afternoon at a BBQ with my neighbors, I hung out too long and didn't get a chance to sit down and write before going to play. And so I made mistakes...

I sit down to a tough looking must-move with $1500. In my first hand I win a big pot with a flush, I bought in for $1500, and so I have like $2500 on the table.

First mistake:
A few hands later, I get QQ. I raise the straddle to $170, straddler and another call. Flop = J7T, two clubs. Checked to me, I bet $350, straddler raises to $800, other dude folds. I'm looking at the board, and thinking about all the draws that he could have, and how he probably just has a J, and so I go all in. Really really stupid. Wow, stupid. I mean, this is the reason why over-betting is the dumbest thing in the world. I don't want him to draw for cheap, but of course there's always the chance that he's flopped a big hand. I could have found out what he had for a raise of $1k, instead of this huge bet. Anyway, he insta-calls with the nuts of 98 off suit (why he defended his straddle for $130 I don't know, but whatever). Anyway, in my second runner runner suckout in as many sessions, the board comes A, K, giving me the nuts for broadway. Let's see, what was I here? I don't remember if I had the Q of clubs, if I did I was 9-1, if not I was 14 -1. So, I'm a bit tilted from this, which is a weird kind of tilt when the dealer is pushing you a monstrous pot.

Second mistake:
There's this super super aggressive kid on the table. Wearing this absurd yellow shirt, little goatee, and these dorky gold 80's cop glasses. I'm watching him raise to $130 every other pot, and so a few hands after I've sucked out with the QQ, I decide to pop him with 98 suited. I limp, knowing he's probably going to raise, which he obliges me with. One caller, and I pop him to $350. He calls, other guy folds. Flop = Q9X, 2 spades. I bet $400, he thinks for awhile and calls. Turn = X. Check, check. River = K of spades. Here's the mistake: I raise to $600. Why? Well, because I figure if he didn't have spades, he'd fold. Stupid. This $600 bet into an $1100 pot just screams that I don't have it, and I can be bluffed out. And this kid was good enough to pick up on that. I'm feeling that my pair of 9's was probably good here, and I could have just check/called him. But he grabs a $2k stack of hundred dollar chips, and pushes them forward. I'm thinking for a long long time, and I just know that I have him, or at least I'm pretty sure. But, I'm cursing at myself for betting the river, the check call would have only been like $1k, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a flush, but I'm wondering if he has a K. Anyway, I think for a long while, and I fold. He shows the AT of clubs. I shouldn't have tried to muscle him out in the first place. I've done so well being very patient with the super aggressive dudes. Wait wait and wait, and then hit them over the head with a huge hand, get them to fear you, and then pop them maybe once after that. However, this process takes a minimum of 5 hours. Playing with this kid this early was so so stupid of me.

I'm moved to the main game where I lose a couple hands trying to bluff a couple pots. I put the whole $3k I've taken out of my account on the table. I've gone from being up $2800 after that QQ suck-out, to being down a few hundred.

Third:
On the main table, I'm sitting with James Woods who I played with once before, he's pretty bad. Does the Daniel Negranu thing of calling out people's hands and then paying them off. I usually see him lose, and tonight he has a bunch of money in front of him. I limp in late position with A5. Flop = 55T, 2 clubs. He bets $100, folds to me, I make it $250 more. He thinks and thinks, and then calls. Turn = X. Checks to me, I bet $600, he calls. Before the blanked river is dealt, he's going on about how he has a boat, and how he's not going to bet, because he doesn't want to “ruin your night.” I say something like “I don't think you have a boat, I think you were on a flush draw.” He says some bullshit line about, “well, it's not a very good boat.” He checks to me, and I think and think, and I only have $1300 left, and I just check. I hate myself for this, he turns over 52, and I take the pot. The mistake was not betting the river. I knew I had him, and I could have put out a $700 bet, and he probably would have made a crying call.

Fourth:
I'm chatting with this this pretty good pro sitting directly to my left. He's going on about playing the 20/40 game with Sean Shikan the other night, talking about chip tricks, etc etc. He's not that aggressive, he's a pretty even, decent player. So, in the middle of our friendly conversation, I limp into the pot with him and three others with 9T of diamonds. Flop = AJX, all diamonds. I decide not to slow play it, and I bet $130, about the size of the pot, he calls, and another call. Turn = X. I bet $300, he raises to $700. Other dude folds. The only thought in my head at this point was how to get all the money into the pot, so, I go all in. And he insta calls with KT of diamonds, and I'm drawing dead. He had me covered by a ton, and this was about a $5k pot. The all in was the mistake here, again, I could have made a reasonable raise. Just calling would have been the best option, this guy was obviously very good, and he wasn't not putting his money in with nothing. I was hoping he had a set or maybe even AK, but that was such a stupid hope, because he wouldn't have been in the hand at this point. Although this was a really tough spot for me to be in, I still think that I could have just called him down on his raise on the turn, and check called the river for another thousand or so. If I'd been playing my best, I mean....

If there is a silver lining in this session, it's that I'm proud for leaving at this point. Taking my $3k loss on the chin, admit that I wasn't playing my best, and going the hell home. In the first week of this trip, I posted sessions of $5k and $4k losses, neither was necessary, and I'm glad to have saved myself a few thousand that I'm certain I would have lost.

Ok, been writing for the better part of 4 hours now. Feeling good finally. Got a little bit of nervousness that's pretty good for me. Time to go.