Finally Some Live Poker!

Finally got some live poker action this weekend. OhCaptain and I headed down to a casino in Iowa to hit up the no limit tables. If you didn't know, Minnesota poker rooms can't spread no limit. Just limit, and I hate limit. We got down there about 5 PM and played for a good 5+ hours. There were no 2/5 tables going at all, just four 1/2 tables going. And unfortunately, both OhCaptain and I came back losers. He dropped about 20 or 30 bucks, and I ended at minus 60. At one point, I was probably down 150 or so, and actually climbed my way back toward even before dropping the last 60.

There weren't too many interesting hands that went down. The only interesting one is probably the one where I bluffed the best player at the table. I'll describe that one below. And to tell you the truth, I can't think of any non-limped hands where I even got to showdown. I played pretty loose, probably in the 40 VPIP/20 PFR range. I took down a lot of uncontested pots with cheap stabs. I think my biggest hands were both with KJ. One where I raised pre-flop after a bunch of limpers to $12 or so, got about 3 callers, and took down the pot with a continuation bet on a King high board. The 2nd was where I again raised PF and flopped top pair and got one caller of my flop bet, but he folded on the turn.

I flopped a lot of good draws ( about three or so flush draws + gutshots) but none of them came in. I hit an open ended straight draw once on the river, but the old guy folded to my bet. My biggest Pre-flop hands were QQ twice. The first was when I was in the SB. There were about 4 limpers, and I bumped it to $15 and got 2 or 3 callers. Flop was AKx, and one of the limpers led out so I quickly mucked the ladies.

The 2nd time was against the really good player(I think his name was Eric). UTG raised to $6, he flat calls from MP, and I look down at QQ and 3-bet it to $26. Original guy folds, and Eric goes all in (He had me covered, and I probably had $270 or so in front of me). I showed my QQ to OhCaptain and mucked em. Since OhCaptain and I had been having a good time and being very friendly/talkative and telling lots of poker stories with him, he showed us his AA. Expert laydown by the pokerfool.

On to the hand where I bluffed the good player. So prior to that hand, and actually just a few hands after I sat down at OhCaptain's table (we started off at separate tables), I raised to $10 with AK offsuit. Only caller was Eric from the button. Flop was terrible: JT4 all spades. I didn't have a spade. Since I had recognized him from the other times I've been to Iowa, I knew he was a good aggressive player. I knew that a c-bet here would get a fold about 0% of the time. So I checked with the intention to flat call with my gutshot and two overs and go with the plan of stealing the pot away on a lot of turn cards. he bet $17 into the $23 pot and I called. The turn was another ten, making the board read JsTs4sTc. I checked, and he bet only $20 into the $57 pot. I decided that the ten was a good card for me, so I raised to $60. He thought for a long time and folded. I actually don't think he had much of a hand. Maybe a Jack at best.

I would never make this play against someone who isn't a good player. My read was that he was good enough to lay down in this spot. I mean, you don't see many bluffs in live poker, especially on the turn. If you listen to Bart Hansen's podcast at DeucesCrakced, you know that he constantly says that "check-raises on the turn always are a monster".

So that was the highlight of my poker trip. Not too many soft spots at the 1/2 game in northern Iowa. I have a friend who goes down there more frequently that I, and he said that lately it is just a bunch of the same people playing there. And I believe him. Other than the old nits that are always there, there was only one really really bad player that I saw all night, and he was only there for an hour.

It was tons of fun though. OhCaptain and I had a good time, and the table was very talkative and easy going. Too bad I never win when I go play live poker, ha!

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Online has been going so-so. I was down about $900 or so for the month, but the last 2 days (and 700 hands) I'm up over $1200, so I am back in the black for the month. I'll post some interesting hands maybe tomorrow (That's right folks! Maybe two posts in one week!)

Here is a graph of the month so far.



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Other than that, things are going well. i picked up a couple games for the Wii, so I've playing that more. I got the new Tiger Woods golf game and Guitar hero World Tour. The kids are enjoying banging on the drums, that is for sure. The wife and I have also been watching seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men. We both are really enjoying it. I highly recommend it to you folks out there.

And this week is county fair week. I entered in about 10 or so vegatable categories this year. Way down from last year, but that is because the fair is little early this year, so I don't have tomatoes and peppers ready yet. But I do have to say, my onions and potatoes are doing awesome this year. We'll go to the fair tonight to see how many ribbons I won.

Cheers!