Up $5380 (thursday, 8/23)

I buy in for $1500, wait for my blind to start playing. The very first hand I get A5, check my big blind. Flop = Ac5c3h. I check. The button, a pretty decent, and mostly tight assed pro, who I find very funny, bets, I call. Turn = 4h. Check, bet, call. River = 6h. I check, he goes all in. The pot is only like $400. I say “wow, that's a horrible card.” Muck the hand face up. He shows me a 3 of clubs. I think I should have thought about this a little more, and maybe I could have called. It would have been a pretty amazing call. And of course a 2 beat me, or maybe he had a set of 3's? I'm not sure.

I sit for awhile, it's the must move, and I don't really like playing too much at the must move, as I usually don't feel I have enough time to get into people's games. But, this kid who's obviously really aggressive sits down. He's also talking to The Staker, bemoaning losing $3k the night before. Observing his play up to this point, I imagine his loss was because he can't fold a hand. So, I decided to call his $100 from the BB with 64 of hearts, with the plan to check raise anything he bets on the flop. I get a better flop than I'd expected in the form of KJ5 with two hearts. He bets $200, I make it $500, and he instantly goes all in. Doh! Well, I only have $750 left, I'm 2-1 to hit the flush, so I need to make $1500 to make the call right. There's already $1400 in the pot, plus his $750 makes it way in my favor. But... He turns over AT of hearts. Doh! But... Turn = 3 of not hearts, and river = 7 of not hearts, giving me a straight. Nice! As I'm taking the pot in he goes on about how bad he's running, how he was a huge favorite, blah blah blah. But I reason, that I had to put him on exactly Ax of hearts in order to give me bad expected value. I just looked it up and actually, I was 4.5 -1 so, not as horrible as I'd thought.

So, I'm up about $1k now, and am moved to the main game. I'm in seat one, and my first big hand is against seat 9 (they only play 9 handed at the Commerce). Because of the dealer between us, I don't get a really get a look at this guy. I only remember his hands always putting chips into the pot, a kind of disembodied arm feeding chips pots in hopeless situations. A real passive calling station, he could not fold any hand if he had any draw or any piece of the board. I get AA, I raise, he's the only caller. Flop = 9TX two diamonds. I bet the size of the pot, he calls. Turn = Ad. He checks, and I go all in. He calls almost instantly! Fiver = blank. I turn over the aces, he mucks. I still can not figure out what he had, maybe 9T? Maybe AT? I have no idea. He re-buys for $2k or so.

I lose a medium hand to a pretty tight Indian dude. I can't even remember the hand now, because it was somewhat inconsequential in the scheme of things. So, after this little loss I'm up about $2k, with $3500 on the table, when this hand comes: Donkey and I call this aggressive kid's $100 raise. I have 9T of diamonds. Flop = 9TX, two clubs. Donkey checks, I bet $200, kid folds, donk calls. Turn = 9!! I bet $500, donk looks at his cards, looks at the flop, looks like he's about to muck his hand, but he calls!!!!! River = 8 of not clubs. Donk makes a huge bet, I go all in, he insta-calls! He has me covered!! He proudly turns up QJ for a straight! I have a boat! He's got me covered!!! Yayaya I'm rich!!!!! He gets up immediately after this hand.

I'm feeling rather great about this whole thing, and my play in general. Which isn't the best thing for me, as I kind of get lazy, and don't get aggressive enough, and I lack the willingness to gamble, even when I'm pretty sure I have the best hand. I know a lot of people who think this conservative style of play is the way to succeed, but it's not, it will lead to missing a lot of pots you could win. Anyway, it's something I need to correct. There were a number of hands that I had big aces but, I was unwilling to see flops due to any sizable bet.

I also feel that I'm making a common mistake of getting too friendly with my neighbors at the table. It's ok to be chatty, but, I still must look into their games and find their flaws. I made a mistake in this manner against this middle aged lady who was sitting next to me, and kind of flirty and very flattering, in a way that reminded me of my high school friend's mothers. In one hand I call her bet pre flop, and I flop a set of 8's. I let her bet the flop, she obviously had an over pair, but I just went all in, kind of to let her know. I am not feeling good about this in retrospect, I should have let her hang herself, and let her bet again, or made a reasonable bet and done my best to give her a tough decision. I probably left about $1k, maybe even her whole stack on the table.