lightning Strikes Back!

I went back to the St Croix Casino yesterday to play a little (well, as it turned out, a lot!) more $1/2 NL. When I got there mid-afternoon, there was only a short-handed game going on. I bought in. I once again took a kick to the jimmy when I raised with Q-Q. I got called by a guy who was apparently tilting. The flop was non-threatening, and I pushed out a big raise. I do not remember the exact sequence of moves, but I ended up all in against the shorty. It turned out that he pushed the rest of his chips in after the flop with A-3os. All he had was an inside straight draw and an over card. You can guess what happened next: The turn was a 3 and the river was a 3! Losing that $130 pot was painful. The game broke up shortly thereafter and I was forced to play slots and bum around for a few hours until more poker players came into the room.

The evening session was one of those times when no cards came and nothing connected on the flop. I was very frustrated. I saw that the room would be awarding $100 high hand bonuses each hour from 10pm until 2am, so I hoped I would be able to stick around. There were only two tables going.

I was getting frustrated and called off a number of chips with 9-9 vs A-A. Yuck. As much as I was trying to stay patient, the hours of nasty beats and dead cards took its toll. Finally, I looked down to see K-K when I was in the hijack. I raised and was three bet by the button, a guy who appeared to be a solid but very aggressive player. I raised again and called his all-in push. I then weakly asked "Do you have Aces?" He nodded. Shitski on rye! However, I spiked a King on the flop and boated up on the river. Not only did I get a much needed double up, the hand was the high hand for the 11:00 p.m. hour and I got an extra hundo for that 45 minutes later. However, a few hands after my KK > AA, I was in a hand with 9-9. The flop: Ac, Kc, 9. Bazinga! I felted a guy who never did show what he had. So now the guy who had crappy luck all day, moments away from being felted, had a huge stack of chips. Such is pokah!

I failed to mention in my earlier posts that the poker room uses racks of yellow $2 chips for its $1/2 NL game. It takes a little getting used to.

I stayed until 1am, knowing that I had a 30-40 minute drive in the winter Wisconsin night. I left feeling a lot better than I had several hours earlier.