Finally Some Poker

I haven’t been able to play any poker over the past while because of connection problems, and it’s been driving me crazy! Firstly, I was just about to move up to $100NL online before I went on super massive monkey tilt and literally gifted the poker economy with $1500. Tilt is something I’ve always tried hard to control, yet never quite managed it and it’s the reason why instead of playing in pots of hundreds of dollars, I’m forced to play in pots for stacks of $10 in the murky depths that is $10NL! Once I get my rakeback for this month, I’ll be back up to $20NL, which I can beat quite easily as long as I can keep the tilt monkey away!

Tonight I decided to go up to Blazin’ Aces card club and play their €50 Freezeout. It’s their most popular game and attracted 42 runners which is a tidy amount for a mid-week game! I got off to a good start, the first hand I raised with was KK in the second level which I found UTG+1. UTG minraised to 200. I’ve seem him calling off his stack preflop with trash before, so I was happy to isolate and made it 750 with effective stacks at around 10k. I’m called by UTG+2 and then, a competent player in LP makes it 3k and he is instantly called by the button who is a bit spewy unless he’s running well. UTG folds and I shove for my 10k. The problem is, it was an instant shove. I didn’t dwell up and made it pretty obvious that I had QQ+. The 4bettor looked in pain before folding what he said was QQ. The button also folded and I took down the pot, increasing my stack by 70% without having to see a flop! I think if I had paused for a while, I could have got QQ to call the shove, but that’s something I’ll just have to chalk down as inexperience.

The next hand that I got involved with was with QQ and yet again there was plenty of action preflop. UTG raised 4.5x the BB to 450 and I reraised to 1400. I’m called by the player to my left and it’s folded around to the SB who pushes for 5400. This is the same player who folded QQ to my shove earlier, so I think he’s strong. He probably has TT+, AQs+ almost all the time here. I simply call because if I reshoved, I’d only get called by AA or KK by the player to my left. I want him to stack off on the flop to me. The flop comes 7 high and I shove, hoping to get a call by 88-JJ. Instead, he folds. The other player has AK but I don’t need to sweat because a queen comes on the turn leaving him drawing dead.

After the break, I move table and sit down to see 6s7s in my first hand. I’m the HiJack and limp behind several other limpers. UTG leads out on a 7 high flop and I flat call. The turn is a spade which gives me a flush draw and a gutshot. It’s checked to me and I bet 2.5 into a pot of ~3.5k which is called. I hit my flush on the river and value bet 4.5k but he folds.

It goes wrong when I move table. I don’t pick up any hands and start to blind away. I lose a lot of chips with QJ, twice! First time, I’m in the SB and raise after it’s folded around to me only for the BB to push for my entire stack (which at this point is still above average). I fold. Then, a fairly standard ABC player limps UTG. I raise with QJ to isolate. Early position limps by ABC players generally mean small pocket pairs, so I raised because I know he’s going to call me to hit a set and I can bluff him off a lot of flops when I miss. The flop comes K-J-6, he looks like he’s hit the jackpot as he quickly glances at his chips before checking. I foolishly bet out and he pushes. Am I ever ahead I wonder! I decide I’m not and fold. I ask him did he have a set of sixes and he shows them. Great read I say to myself, but I know my bet on the flop was bad and I’ve tilted myself.

A few hands later and it’s all over! I have KsQs on the BB and there’s an UTG raise of 4.1k, with blinds at 500/1000. I’m playing a stack of 16k and decide to flat call and shove any flop with my reasoning that I will often fold out better hands such as small pairs and Ace-x when I shove for the pot on the flop. However, the flop comes 533, probably the worse board I could have hoped for yet I shove anyway and am called by AK which holds. Oh well!

I seem to have sorted out my internet connection, so I’m going to try get some hands in to try and get back up to respectable stakes!