Much Better...

You know those "big scores" I was talking about yesterday that I couldn't quite bring home?

Yeah...well...put a big checkmark next to those.

Last night I bought into a .25/.50 NL game on Mansion, and in the blink of an eye was down $30. But I made sure to keep myself no lower than $45 at the table, and just tried to persevere. I eventually picked up A10 in LP and limped. The flop came A 10 Q w/2 spades, and I raised an MP bettor big to try and take it down. Both left in the hand stayed with me, so I was on alert. I honestly don't remember the rest of the hand, but the bottom line is that miraculously one had a pair and the other missed their draw and I won a $35 pot. Eventually I pick up pocket aces on the button. I preflop RE-raise from $2 to $6, and the original raiser calls along with a player that I pegged immediately two days ago as a bluffer/donkey. And yet somehow I hadn't seen him with less than $80 at a .25/.50 table, generally over $100.

That was about to change.

The flop comes a "couldn't be any more beautiful" Ace-high rainbow. It was almost *too* nice, and I was afraid I couldn't get paid off. But the original raiser goes ahead and fires a continuation bet of about $6, which gets called by bluffer and by me. The turn is another harmless card. First guy checks, bluffer checks, and I bet about 1/2 the pot. I lose the original raiser, but bluffer calls. The river is a 5, and with no flush possibilities and I don't think any straight possibilities, I may actually have the nuts. Bluffer bets, I raise, he re-raises, and I re-raise all-in. He eventually calls and shows J5o. JACK. FIVE. OFF. I didn't review the hand, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have trips, and I'm positive there wasn't a jack on the board.

That's right, folks, he pulled the ever so illustrious "bluff call" on me.

So here I am...$180. But I didn't stack him. His remaining $.71 went in on the next hand but didn't hold up.

A couple hands later the poker gods have the nerve to deal me pocket kings. I make a preflop raise and its called in a few places. I flopped a set again, and when all was said and done I had $211.

I ended my session at $213, bringing my bankroll to $220.

So, no more complaining for me for the immediate future. But I have to be sure now that I'm a little deep again that I stay disciplined. I'm going to stay at the .25/.50 level for now because its quite lucrative and fits *better* within my bankroll, even though its still technically above where I should be playing. But I think I could win just as much here as I can at .50/1 because the play is just SO bad. I just have to pick my spots and hope I don't get drawn out on when I pick up my hands.

I also played in a SNG last night. It wasn't a $10 because that would've taken too long to fill with the limited time frame I had. It was a good thing, as I bubbled in 4th. I never got a whole lot of early momentum, but with the good structure I eventually hit a run of cards in 6th out of 6 that propelled me to 3rd and some shoutin' chips. We got down to 4, and were just passing chips around the table. I spent time as the leader, then time as the dog, and then back to the leader, and obviously eventually out. Its the second SNG in a row where the bubble took FOREVER. Four players for probably 35 minutes. That does not suit me well, as bubble play is probably my biggest SNG weakness. But I'm not complaining, I love the play. I didn't really play badly to bubble, its just that I couldn't win a couple of coin flips to take players out, and when I should have been good with some decent A-high hands to take out short stacks, they were waking up w/pocket pairs or a 40% hand like JK. And for that matter, nobody else could whack a short stack either. So its always disappointing to bubble, but that's just the way they fell this time. I probably could've done better, but I'm not gonna dwell on it. I was busy winning $130 playing cash.

I have tomorrow off which hopefully means some serious hours, and then our monthly home game tomorrow night which I ALWAYS look forward to.

But for now, off to drink!