Cash Game Session Reports - Stories from a/the Local Northwest GA Suburbs Underground Game(s) (1 Viewer)

[Legend5555]

A long time ago... like 1.5 years ago. You know, ancients times. I started a thread about stories from the local VFW 1/1 $100 cap game here in NW GA (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/an-interesting-time-at-a-local-vfw-game.77037/#post-1567747). I had fun doing that, but it was a bit of hike, I was more into other hobbies at the time, looking for a different job, looking for a new house, and on a limited bankroll.

Well, a 2nd place finish in a $300 6-max tournament (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/tournament-follow-along-lkq-255-45-6-max.87830/), a trip to Vegas (https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/vegas-trip-report-june-11th-june-17th.91029/), and some desire to get out and play some stakes that matter, and I've found myself playing a regular $1/$3 $500 cap underground game with a $10 rake (yes it sucks, but it's that or drive many hours to Cherokee, NC and pay $8 rake).

The game is real, the action is real, the names have been shortened just in case and because I'm too lazy to type them all out. But I'm not too lazy to type thousands of words about my times and stories there as the best player in this game (that's correct, no modesty, because it's blatantly true).

More to come...

 

[Legend5555]

Background

This will be a bit too much info to set this all up. But I think it's important to set the stage for my comeback to the ring here in NW GA.

2005

I graduated from UGA. A degree in Math. No direction. I had been playing online for about 1.5 years and had a 5 figure roll. It was different back then. Everyone was terrible. You just made sets, fast played them, made the money. Nobody folded TP. But I couldn't treat it like a job. I managed to just survive with no job for a while.

I started playing at a local bar in Kennesaw, GA called Bailey's. It was the biggest bar game I had ever seen. But it was all because of $2 pint night. Suffice to say, Bailey's no longer exists, $2 pint night on a Tuesday being part of the problem. Bailey's was located 10 minutes from Kennesaw State University. A college that now is much larger than it once was since the HOPE scholarship caused attendance at UGA and GA State to surge. Plus it's in a nice suburban area of GA and not in some far away podunk place like Athens, GA, or in Atlanta like GA State or GA Tech. This has made it boom in attendance. Multitudes of 20-somethings flocked to Bailey's on $2 pint night. Even several non-20-somethings if you catch my drift. Thus was the downfall of Bailey's in about 2011-2012.

When I say it was a big bar game, I mean it. 10-15 8-handed octagon table toppers. All battling for the lucrative prizes of $50, $25, $10 in house cash. Prizes back then didn't have to be big. This was the heyday of poker in the US afterall. People would play for pride! ...Okay not really. But point is, it didn't have to be much. Baileys' was also just a massive venue. 3 separate areas. A pool and shuffleboard room with 10 pool tables, 2 shuffle board tables, and 5 dart boards. A cigar bar. A main room with a huge bar. And a media/smoking lounge. Poker was played in the main room in those days by a guy named Ben. Ben was a cool dude. I think he was in sales and did this on the side.

It was here I met the vast majority of people that are now my good friends, my poker buddies, and... my wife.

They played on Monday and Tuesday. 10k chips, 100/200 to start, with 30 min levels for the first 4, then 20 after. Often shortening even more as the night continued. They used these horrible super slippery slugged pieces of trash with no denominations. Excess and Surplus insurance lines wouldn't touch insuring the stack height of these chips beyond 10. Too much risk. Too many lives lost.

This game had other oddities. It was run completely in house. No league. No points. And no bonus chips for on time or buying food and drinks. Just pure 50bb starting stack freeze out. After 8 weeks, the winners from the Monday game would play a 8 person sit n go on the following Monday for $500, $250, $100. And the same for the past 8 Tuesday winners.

I wrecked this game.

I the final sit n go of both the Monday and Tuesday games twice in a row each. That's 4 sit n gos in 16 weeks. And I won all of them. Don't give me crap about humble bragging or just straight up bragging. These are facts. And two of the people I faced in these games went on to become actual pro poker players. One kind of already was. The other is now a tournament grinder with mid 6 figures in winnings. There were some other very good recreational players too. One of the people I beat heads up is now my wife. These were not slouches by any standards. We all lived poker at the time. We talked strategy frequently. We had the WSOP on the TVs blaring for all to here in the room while we battled it out.

I eventually took over running that game. I like to think the players put the idea into managements head so they would stop having to play with me. I ran that game until 2010. By the end, it was a shadow of itself. Down to just 6 tables on the best of nights. But still many familiar faces. Two of which are now good friends with kids of their own in the same age bracket as mine.

During this time, I was playing several local $1/$2 games. And most fun of all, a $2/$4 limit and .25/.50 pot limit mixed game where I learned all the studs and draw games before anyone else had. I was tight. Very tight. And I won. That's all you had to do in those days.

Through a friend, I learned of a $2/$5 no rake game run by a former police officer, now PI. He ran it out of a loft in the warehouse/garage section of his office in a local office park. $2/$5 was still out of my reach, but through my contacts, I got to deal the game from time to time. All the while making contacts that would pay dividends today.

But life catches up. My wife and I were dating and living together. I had basically no real job. So in 2010, through a guy that ran a pizza place where a friend ran his own bar poker game, I got a job working in Site Security. I held that job (and promotions) until March of this year, when I finally got a big boy job working at a rather successful small entrepreneurial insurance agency. My "boss" is actually someone I met through this site. We live just 20 mins from each other.

I lost $1500 on black Friday. Not a ton by any stretch. But to a poor 30yo, it sucked. I didn't play much poker between then and now. I dabbled online here and there. Played during vacations to Florida. But I never stopped consuming poker content. I always watched the WSOP. I started watching streams before anyone did. I was an OG LATB watcher when they started in 2005. I've been listening to Bart Hanson for over a 1/3rd of my life. The drive was always there. And after the tourney score and Vegas trip, my home life in a good place, our finances finally allowing us some freedom, I decided it was time to get back out there and start playing again.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I'll be following along, I'm at UGA now.

 

[dinosaur]

Howdy. Subbed.

 

[Legend5555]

I'll be following along, I'm at UGA now.

I have an old college buddy that works in administration there that plays in a local .50/1 game.

 

[NotRealNameNoSir]

I have an old college buddy that works in administration there that plays in a local .50/1 game.

Long as its not my Dean, I'm down. PMd

 

[LeLe]

I love to read a good story that don't involve any R & G at the moment.

Following

 

[OfficerLovejoy]

Definitely dooting this.

Excited to read more.

 

[Legend5555]

The Return
July 2022

Determined to set out and play something that is not my 50nl home game, I reach out to a buddy that I know had a recent 5 figure score at Harrah's Cherokee. I literally had not seen this guy in about 11 -12 years. Him and his cousin and their friends used to play at my bar game all the time. They were underage too. Let call him Z. Z says he's been playing in a game about 30-40 mins away from me. Says it's 1/3 with a $6 rake. (He sounded very unsure about the rake. And he was.)

I pick out a day I can go, get my wife's blessing, get $1k in cash, and i'm ready to go. Z tells me that the game can play a little big and the standard straddle is to $10. Bigger than I really want to deal with, but I'm not about to turn down an opportunity with tournament and Vegas winnings in cash still sitting around.

I drive out to the game. It's in a very nice neighborhood in NW burbs of Atlanta. A tightly packed neighborhood of houses in the 500k-750k range, which here in GA means you are getting 4br/3bth at minimum. 2300+ sqft. Game is played in a finished basement with a full bar. The poker room has corrugated metal sheets as the walls, 5 tvs, snack stand, a small convenience store cooler for drinks. Very nice setup. I buy in for $500. I am the short stack. I also find out that the rake is $10, sometimes $15 depending on what they feel like (though that was thankfully rare). And they do bomb pots every orbit.

I find out that they also play with a $10 "The Rock." Not a rock mind you, The Rock.

They play it a little different than most. You don't have to use it right away, although you can if you want. But you must play it on your button if you have it. As i'm about to sit down, a 2k pot finishes up with a young kid busting. I didn't see the hand. I take his seat (#2) to the left of my friend Z. The kid leaves, and I find out its the son of a guy that used to play and deal my $1/$1 home game back in like 2007. I don't even think this kid is 18 yet. But if he plays anything like his dad, he probably has massive swings.

After a few more hands, an older player at the table adds on for $2k. There is no cap in this game. Realizing what this is going to be like at this point, I put the rest of my $1k into play. I ain't scurrred!!!

Not much really happens. Z and I are the tightest players at the table by far. I get down to about $600 at one point when I pick up QQ in the SB. There is a raise to $15 from the CO from a guy there will be more to come framed that we will call BW. I 3 bet to $60. He comments on how tight I've been playing, but can't help himself and calls. Pot is $120 and the flop is QJJr.

I check. BW bets $100. I call. Pot $320, $440 behind, turn is a 9d putting a flush draw out there. I check, BW bets $150, I jam. BW goes into a super tank. Keeps asking if i'd play AJ this way. Asks me my name. He likes to think he can get good reads on people. But he ends up calling with KT and I double. The rest of the night is pretty uninteresting except for one spot that just exemplified this game.

There is a straddle to $6 from the button. There are 6 limps to me in the CO and I make it $50 with QQ. Button and all limpers call!!! So just the casual 8 way $400 in preflop pot in a "1/3" game. Flop comes K high, there is a bet and call in front of me, and I just fold.

I finish out the night up $120. Z and I head out.

The game played a bit bigger than I think I was really willing to deal with. Though obviously the game seemed amazing. But it was also really far away. So I didn't know how often I would really want to make the journey.

Next time...

A trip to nearby bar game for date night for me and my wife brings a new opportunity and some old friends.

 

[OfficerLovejoy]

Great write up! With two small kids I gotta live vicariously through you guys and my favorite vloggers most of the time.
I appreciate the effort you put into this.

 

[grebe]

Just played in a VERY local to me underground game I have been avoiding because the runner of the game refused to tell me what the rake was. Well, he should have, because it was capped at $5. It is a VERY good 1/2 game with many loose players. I value owned myself several times, lost a shitload playing bomb pots, and made a horrible $100 river call by a guy that flopped a straight and I convinced myself he was on a flush draw. Still only lost $200. This game should be fun!

Looking forward to hearing more from your games, too.

 

[Legend5555]

Great write up! With two small kids I gotta live vicariously through you guys and my favorite vloggers most of the time.
I appreciate the effort you put into this.

I feel the pain. My usual game runs 3 nights a week. I only make it out on Thursday. My wife plays Saturday. We have a 7yo and a 2yo. Definitely makes getting out there and playing difficult.

 

[OfficerLovejoy]

I feel the pain. My usual game runs 3 nights a week. I only make it out on Thursday. My wife plays Saturday. We have a 7yo and a 2yo. Definitely makes getting out there and playing difficult.

We have a 1 and a 2 year old and it's a real challenge to have my regular game once a month. It is getting better though and I hope to get to play semi weekly in about a year or so.

 

[Legend5555]

The Bar Game
July 2022

My wife and I have 2 kids. 6 (almost 7) and 2. We were in the process of buying a new house. Life was stressful. We needed a break.

As noted before, we live somewhat near a college town. There is a local bar that has changed ownership a million times that was now running bar games several times a week. We decided it was time to get a sitter and get away from the kids. Let's go play bar poker like the old days.

The place is a total dive. Exactly what you want on this kind of day. I don't really recognize anyone. We sit down at different tables. We only start off with 2 tables, but eventually we get to 3. After on time and food/drink bonuses, we start somewhere around 500bb deep. But the levels always double. They start at just 20 min. And the get down to as fast as 10min late in the tourney. Typical nonsense.

The dealer is a guy we'll call RC. He is playing and dealing. Craziest thing about this tourney btw, is that they are using Horseshoe Cleveland chips. I ask the game runner how they came about these. He said he has a buddy that got them. I don't bother trying to inquire further as he clearly doesn't really know much about chips other than he knows these ones are nice.

Back to the dealer... RC is connected to the local cash game scene as I find out. He also had come to my bar game a few times back in the day and kinda remembers me. Though I really don't remember him. He asked me during a break if I play "for real" because he can tell I know what I'm doing. I tell him about my recent tourney score at the now defunct Little Kings and Queens room in Buford, GA. My Vegas trip, and my one session at the game in my previous post. Turns out, he used to deal that game. But him and the proprietor had a mostly amicable split over differences of opinion about the direction the game should go. He apparently from what i've learned since this meeting had done a lot to grow that game and wasn't compensated like he had hoped. I get the feeling there is some bad blood, but not so much that it's real problem. But who knows, right?

RC also helps run an events company that does charity tournaments at local VFWs in the Atlanta area. I've known about these games, but never been to one. Charity tournaments are about the only form of poker in GA that is quasi legal. They have some decent sized events, but between the rake and the charity take, I don't think they are quite worth it. Plus tournaments aren't really my favorite thing. I'm pretty good at them. I just don't think the hourly is high enough in most cases to warrant traveling to them and playing them for the hours it takes.

I exchange numbers with RC and get on a his list for a new 1/3 game that will be starting in the next week or so near the bar. He also introduces me to K the owner of the bar and the proprietor of said game. Turns out K and his mom used to play at my bar game and several other bar games I would sometimes attend. Turns out I had been playing with his mom at the VFW about a year ago. I remembered her more than him.

During the 2nd break, a old friend of ours that lives about 10 mins from the bar comes in. We had posted to FB that we were playing here tonight and she and her husband came by to say high. L, was a REGULAR at my bar game back in the day. We used to play $20 tournaments at her place with her ex-husband all the time. We got caught up and exchanged some tales of what we had been doing in the last 10 years. Then, another player from my bar game, W, came in. Another guy I had not seen in 10+ years. And someone I had never kept up with either. We had played together a few times at some local 1/2 games back in the day too. As it turns out, he also deals at my current 1/3 game from time to time.

My wife and I get down to the final table. Tonight is the big prize to, $500 of real cash. Winner take all. At this point the avg stack is about 8bbs. Things are going quickly. My wife busts out in 6th. The final 5 of us agree to chop for $100 a piece and then play it out for the trophy. I jam on the very next hand with J7o because it's L's favorite hand and she is sweating me. It does not get there and I'm out in 5th.

We stay a bit and talk with our friends. I give me number to K so he can text me about when his new 1/3 game runs. Which will is perfect spot to end this installment on.

Next time...
My first trip to the much closer and less swingy 1/3 game gets me hooked.

 

[Legend5555]

The first time at K's Game
July 2022

We are stepping into the way back machine here... okay the moderately far back machine. My memory of all these past sessions is a bit hazy. But I'm going to try and get up to speed here. I at least kept notes and chat logs with some friends that will jog my memory of these older sessions.

I decided upon my return to playing live regularly, that I was going to keep an excel spreadsheet of my sessions. Nothing too in depth, but buy-ins, cash outs, hours, location, hourly, and any backing. I have a good friend that I learned to play poker with in college and I sell some action to him sometimes. So keeping track of that in excel is very useful.

So in the previous installment I got invited to K's game. He said it was close by his bar. He meant it. It's literally in an empty unit just down from the bar in the same strip mall. He had gotten a deal on leasing several units and originally had sub-let this one to a friend for his business. But after he no longer needed it K converted it into a sort of man-cave. It's been updated a bit since I took this picture.

Food provided at the game. Beer, hard liquor, soda, snacks, and you can even order food from the bar next door. Does this make me worry a bit about the security of the game? ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY! But it's close and I don't like many of the other options right now. For those of you that don't know, Georgia is one of the most anti-gambling states by law. In practice, underground games aren't super likely to be raided by the police. It happens, but it's rare. We had two places that tried to use the Texas model for cash games along with running it as a charity, and that still got nixed. But they were quite public about what they were doing.

So I bring $1k with me and buy in for the max of $500. Table is wood railed with cup holders in the rail...

But what can you do, right?

$10 rake. Yuck. Bomb pots every hour (which has now been reduced to every 30 min). Bomb pot button rotates around the table. You can call whatever game you want (within reason) for the bomb pot. Most often it's Dbl Board PLO or 5-card Dbl Board PLO. Spoiler: I fold every bomb pot on this night. Best being when I had the baby end of a wrap on a FD top board, and top and bottom pair on a FD bottom board. There was a pot bet and 2 calls in front of me. Not playing that junk there.

BW is in the game, but doesn't remember me from our hand a couple weeks prior. There is a younger guy next to me that shows me his hands a lot and won't shut up. But he's a nice guy. But southerners (which i'm not really having come from the Midwest) would have a saying about his poker ability vs. his desire to get better:

After I get up about $200 then the kid and I get tangled in the following pot:

I limp in +2 with because i'm bored and we go 6 ways to . SB leads out for $10, UTG calls, kid raises to $20, I raise to $75 to try and get the pot heads up. Folds back to the kid you thinks for a bit, then jams for $320 total, which is about $250 into $190. I obviously snap call. And I get teleported back to 2005 as the kid turns over . Seems like this game might be pretty good.

Later in the session, he asked me if I give lessons. I was just honest and said "not really. And if I did, giving lessons to people i'm playing against seems counterintuitive. Though never say never." I've only seen him once since because he's been too busy with work apparently.

We get tangled in another hand. UTG is an action player sitting on $150; in the game for $800. He blind raises to $20. Kid calls. I'm in the CO with and raise to $80. A little small, but the plan is that if action player jams, and kid calls, I can re-jam. UTG folds. Kid calls with about $270 behind. Flop comes . He checks. I down bet. He hems and haws and folds QJo face up.

Another old poker friend of mine wanders in. Another guy I hadn't seen in 11+ years. He occasionally deals at this game. He played as a live pro for about a year and actually is a professional dealer with his license in NC. Good guy, and very well connected to all the local games. He plays higher than I want to and mostly PLO. Neither of which i'm all that interested in right now. But still good to have the contact.

I'm by far the tightest player in the game. Though I don't feel i'm doing anything out of the ordinary. I'm not gonna limp in a $10 raked game with stuff like K9s or 89o like these guys. And the action so often goes multiway even for a raise, that trying to "isolate" with stuff like JTs seems counterproductive. So I appear very tight to these guys. But on the brightside, even though they talk about how tight I play, they still call my raises pre. So.... no real reason to loosen up.

Final interesting hand. Same villains, action player and the kid. (I realize now i'm going to end up saying "kid" about a lot of people I play against. In this case, it's generally going to mean someone in the range of 18-27. The game seems mostly made up of people 50+ and under 30. With only 2-3 of us in our 40s).

Anyway...

3 limps to me. I raise on the button with to $20. Action player and kid call. Flop . Checks to me, I bet $30. Action player calls. Kid min raises to $60. With his play he can both worse made hands, draws, or sets. Not folding to a min raise, and I'm not worried about the action player unless he does something crazy. So, I call. Action player calls. Turn . Checks to me. Well now i'm convinced the kid doesn't have me beat. But action guy can easily have straights or turned 2 pair and I don't want to be, get raised, and have to fold. So I check back. River . Brick city. Action players now leads for $100. Kid folds. Pot is like $340 and only $100 for me to call. If i'm going to pot control turn, I can't really fold to a brick river against an action player. I call and he turns over K9.

Night one in the books. Finished up $560.

Night 2
August 2022

VPIPed 5 hands in 4 hours. Won a bet and take it bomb pot and a few preflop 3 bet and take it pots. Finished up $60.

Night 3 will be a doozy though. Until next time!

 

[grebe]

Started playing in an uderground game last week that's literally a mile from my house, plays very similar. I keep getting stuck playing like I play online, but these fools do not fold. Also, bomb pots are absolutely killing me to the point that I stopped playing. Got lucky enough to grind it up both nights to get almost unstuck. -200 night one, -100 night two.

Step 1: stop playing bomb pots (for now)
step 2: tighten the fuck up. Nobody cares about your range (your = me + everybody)
step 3: stop bluffing, they arent going to fold
step 4: print money

 

[Legend5555]

As you will see from these posts in the future, bluffing is not something that comes up often for me. There are only like 3 guys that I know of in my game that actually try to put me on a range. And that's only sometimes.

 

[Legend5555]

Session 3
August 2022
No mems or pictures today. Feeling lazy.

Back for another round. K has started a jackpot for players that arrive on time. Currently at $200. You roll dice Yahtzee style except you can't hold between the 3 rolls. Must get a Yahtzee to win the JP. I did the math, with 9 players, at least one person will hit it 2%. After a few weeks, they change it up such that the highest roll of the night gets $50 if no one hits the JP.

I buy in for the standard $500 and we are off. 3 orbits in, and I've had no Ax, no Kx, best hand i've had is 22. I was so annoyed I almost 3 bet the old 67o. But, I stopped myself and kept playing disciplined. After about 90 minutes or so, I finally open a hand. Villain is someone i've never played with, but seems somewhat aggressive from the hour he has been there. He has seen me folding everything. But I usually don't give others' impressions of my play too much credence.

$460 effective
I open to $15 from HJ.
Viallin in BB 3 bets to $45.
I 4 bet to $130.
Villain thinks for a bit and jams.
I snap as I had already planned to do.

I don't remember the exact runout. But it was something like 48AAT. After the flop my opponent says "I guess you hit your Ace." This obviously alleviated all my fears of him having me beat now. I turn over the KK after the turn, and he mucks without me every seeing. So up to $920 now.

We get a $10 straddle. 3 limps to me on the button with KQs, and I raise to $60. Which is pretty standard for a straddle and 3 limps. Everyone folds and two people say, "Why so much?" Giggled to myself about that one. Most of them really have no concept of relative sizing and just look at $60 as $60.

3 limps to me. I raise TT from the CO to $20. Go 6 ways to flop of 555. Checks to me, I bet $50 into $120, everyone folds. There are a couple players that could have JJ or QQ in this spot, but it's not frequent. So given that flop, I just trying to get called by all the smaller pairs and overcards. If it wasn't 6 ways, I think I can make an argument for betting like 60-80% pot trying to stack a smaller pair. Some of these players are just never folding 66-99 on this board.

A somewhat loose cannon in the game is shoving pre frequently. He gets looked up once and has AK and doubles up to about $270. Then very next hand there is a raise to $15, a call, I 3-bet to $60 with AK, loose cannon in the BB jams for $270. I call and lose to QQ.

Tough hand alert...

I make it $15 UTG+1 with
LJ calls, HJ calls, SB calls.

SB, call him WM, is an uncreative player that over plays marginal hands; he only has $115 behind. One of the callers is a super loose calls station that basically only makes aggressive actions with 2 pair+. Other caller is a BW. He is loose and aggressive. But isn't super spewy. Both callers have $500+ behind.

Flop:

SB (WM) leads for $30.

I know his leading range is mostly Kx type stuff. Maybe some draws occasionally. I still have 2 people behind to act that can actually have K9, 99, 22, and basically every combo draw. And they are in position. I decide to call to see what develops, but in hindsight I wish I had just raised to try and isolate WM.

LJ (BW) and HJ call.

Turn

SB jams for $85.
I call.
LJ folds.
HJ jams for $425 total.
I tank and fold.

SB had KJo.
HJ has K8o.

At least I avoided that thanks to my read on the guys play.

So there is a young early 20s kid at the table. Different than any kid i've mentioned before. This is only the 2nd time i've seen him at the game. First was in my boring 5 hands in 5 hours session. He remembers how nitty I was. He has been somewhat aggressive. He has $820. I have him covered as I've been winning some small pots to keep my stack up above ~$1100. Then we get into this spot.

I raise from the LJ to $20 over two limps with .
I get 4 callers including the kid who is in the CO.

Flop:
Pot: $80
Effective stack: $800

Checks to me.
I bet $35.

Multiway and monotone boards don't require big bets to get folds. And it helps protect both your marginal made hands and strong value range mixed with some bluffs like KcX.

CO snap raises to $100. So fast that I had noticed just before I let go of the chips that he had already grabbed a stack of red.
Fold to me.

I'm never folding here obviously this deep. So I call.

Turn:
Pot: $280
Effective stack: $700

I check as I would with every hand I would play this way.
CO snap jams for $700.
I snap call.

He turns over .
We hold.

Yeah.... I got nothing here. I have no clue what he thinks he was doing. It basically had to be some old school thought of "I'm ahead, he has a draw, I need to just win this now." I find this to be one of them most common incorrect thought processes of mediocre to bad players. They never think about what will actually call them. Always ask, "what do I want to accomplish with this bet? What till fold to it and what will call?"

Up until this point, I thought the kid played somewhat normal if not slightly better than most people at the table. But he just spazzed this hand. Not sure why. Sometimes I feel like players want to or think they can bluff/push the tight guy around. Sometimes, they just play against the tight guy because they just want the satisfaction of busting a tight guy with a shitty hand.

So now I'm up to ~$2000.

Not much else interesting happens for a while until:

I open UTG to $15 with .
+1 calls.
HJ (the kid) calls.

Flop: .
I bet $15.
+1 calls.
HJ raises to $45.

I contemplate calling. And I think I would heads up. Best draw anyone can have is . I have the board pretty crushed. And even against most broadway turns, it's more likely they make 2 pair than a straight. But the guy in between is about $1k deep. And I really don't want to go 3 ways OOP. Then if a spade or broadway comes, I have to be much more cautious. And given what this kid did last time, I want to pile the money in.

I raise to $150.
+1 folds.
HJ goes into the tank for a bit. He still has $700 behind. HE JAMS!!!
That's $550 more into $360.
I snap.

He says, "SERIOUSLY?!?!" I turn over the aces right away. He flips up his cards so his neighbors can see, but I don't see it. They later tell me he had the case A, though I don't know the other card.

So I finish the night up $2100 after all is said and done.

 

[Legend5555]

Session 4
August 2022
I didn't take many notes this session. Had a lot of hands that went, raise, get called, miss, c-bet, get called, turn no extra equity, check fold. One hand where I raised JJ got two calls. BB lead into me on T high board, I raised because I sussed out that his leading range is pretty top pair heavy, and he just folded a T face up to the raise.

I get involved in a hand with a guy that is a pretty tight, but makes some weird plays sometimes. $500 effective, I raise AQo UTG 7 handed to 15. He 3 bets to 50 from CO. I call. Flop is Q34r. I check, he bets $100. I call. Turn is a 5. I check, he bets $100, I call. River is a 7. I check, he bets $100 again. I'm pretty convinced I'm beat at this point knowing the guys 3 betting range pre, but I called off getting crazy odds and lost to KK. My initial instinct was to just fold this hand pre to the guys 3 bet. But I was having such a struggle that session that I didn't want to pass on AQ.

Late in the session, 6 handed, I get involved in a 5 card double board PLO bomb pot where I have . The boards are:




Checks to CO who pots for 60. I call from button and we get a field caller as well. While my hand isn't amazing, I imagine I'm doing okay heads and can apply max pressure if I turn the nuts on top, and if some more players come along, then getting half of a big bomb if I hit will be decent. Turn:




MP checks, CO pots for 240 which is almost my entire stack at this point. I tank and fold and the other guy gets it in with him. They show down KKxxx w heart draw on top, other guy has 668xx for set on top and gutter on bottom which he ends up drilling.

If the A comes on the bottom board, I obviously get it in. But with it coming on the top board where I could already easily be behind a flopped straight, and having nothing but naked AA on the bottom, I just have to fold.

Finished this session down $760.