A Brief Visit to High Limit Territory

I was having one of those days today. One of those days where I was constantly finding new and horribly frustrating ways to lose. But I felt like I was playing really well.

Like many other days in the past and I'm sure many days in the future I made the dubious decision to play for tons of money in an effort to get even on the day. I went from a mix of $10/$20 and $5/$10 games to one $30/$60. I was losing about $1,500 on the day when I switched gears and after about 10 minutes of $30/$60 I found myself down about $2,500. CRAP!

Amazingly I was not feeling like a total moron, and wasn't feeling off my game, just unlucky. So I really decided to put my luck to the test and jumped into a $100/$200 game! Whoa baby!

It's been more than 2 years since I last played $100/$200 and it's the biggest game that I've ever played. On that occasion I was playing a full game in person at the Commerce in L.A. which is quite a bit different than a 6 handed, fast paced online game.

I sat down with $5,000 in front of me hoping to make a few hands...and I did. After playing for a little while I was dead even (in that game) and in the small blind. The button raised and I three bet with AJ. The flop came A high, I bet the flop and got called. The turn was a blank I bet and my opponent folded. Bang, an $800 pot and a $400 profit on a hand that didn't even have any action on the turn!

On the next hand the same player raised and I three bet with AT suited. The flop came down ten high, my opponent called a bet on the flop and the turn and folded on the river. This time it was a $1,200 pot and a $600 profit. Nice.

One round later I found myself in the small blind again, this time with QT of clubs. The button raised and I thought about three betting, but just called. The big blind three bet and we took the flop 3 way. The flop was AK5 with 1 club. I checked, the big blind bet, the button folded and I decided to take one look. There was $1,000 in the pot and it was only costing me $100 to continue. If I didn't hit a J or a club on the turn I was done with the hand. Guess what came on the turn...the jack of F-ing clubs! DING!

Now I had the total nuts (with a redraw to a flush) and I decided to go for a check raise. Happily my opponenet bet $200 after my check and I quickly raised him to $400. He called me down on the turn and put in another $200 on the river and I dragged a $2,400 pot (which may be the biggest cash game pot I've ever won). I went from down $2,500 on the day to up about $200 in the matter of about 3 minutes!

But I then I gave some of it back. I was all set to get up after playing to my blinds, but then I picked up AJ. I raised and got called by the guy who'd beaten with no showdown on the first two hands I mentioned. The flop came down 774 and he check raised me. The turn was a J which looked like a great card, but when I raised my opponenet after he bet the turn, he quickly 3 bet me. The river was a blank, he bet, I called and he showed me AA! I dropped $1,200 on that one hand and all of a sudden I was stuck $1,000 on the day. I had to just sort of stare at the screen for a minute after that one.

The money really moves in $100/$200! I wanted to keep playing, but thought better of it and called it a day. I think I'll give it another go if I find myself ahead $2,000 for the day sometime soon.

In other good news, I cleared my $5,000 bonus for reaching 500,000 points today (even though it's a bonus for hitting 500,000 points they make you earn another 25,000 before the actually give it to you - kind of stupid). Along with the money I made from Matt at the WSOP this is turning out to be a pretty profitable month!

Man, that jack of clubs was SWEEEEEEEET!