PFP Sessions #17 and #18 - It's Good To Have a Plan

I had a half day at work on Friday and was in a game at the Oaks at 2:00 in the afternoon. I sat down at $200 Max with $400 in front of me and there were some fireworks about 15 minutes in.

It was a two hand sequence against the same opponent that went down almost perfectly. On the first hand there was an $8 live straddle. With two callers in front of me I called with 54 of spades on the button. The small blind called, the straddle made it $20 and we took the flop 5 way.

The flop came down 8 6 4 with one spade, the small blind fired out $70 into the $100 pot, and everyone folded to me. We both had a little more than $400 in front of us, and I had bottom pair with a gut shot and a back door flush draw. More importantly I could say with a high degree of confidence that the vast majority of the hands my opponent was likely to have couldn't call a big raise. If he had a set or two pair, he'd likely go for a check raise and with a big pocket pair he probably would have raised preflop. It felt like he had an 8 and I didn't think he's stack off with an 8.

I made it $200 to go, he thought for 20 seconds and mucked.

On the very next hand there were several limpers in front of me and I took a flyer with 52 of spades. It's hard to defend that play, but basically I've found so many good spots to bluff at the $200 Max that I'm playing very loose in position. Also I lost my mind for 1/2 a second and threw in the the $4 to call.

Anyway we took the flop 6 way, and the flop came down 6 4 3 with two spades! Zingo Zongo! Flopping a straight with a straight flush draw as back up requires gibberish exclamations.

It was checked to me and thinking that if I wanted to win a big pot I needed to build it on the flop, I bet $10. The button (the villain in the previous hand) called as did the big blind. The turn was a red Q, I bet out $20 and the button raise to $60. "Holy Christ I have him right where I want him!" I thought. I made it $120 which may have been a little lite, but he called without thinking much about it.

The river was another red Q and I wasn't sure what to do. What I probably should have done was, put my opponent on a Q and bet $200 which would have just barely gotten him all in. Instead I had a complex series of thoughts go racing through my head. I figured that if I checked I might get a bet from a missed draw, I'd certainly get a bet from a Q and I might save some money if by some chance I was up against a full house. With that in mind, when he bet $95 I just called and took down the pot. Unfortunately I rolled my hand over as soon as I called and my opponent didn't show. It was a very nice pot, but I played it like kind of a pussy and I'm not happy about that.

When my name got called for $15/$30 I walked over to table $18 with $439 in profit from $200 Max. My good luck continued over there and I ran it up to a total profit of over $1,200 for the session, before giving much of it back during a long card dead stretch. In the end I booked a $540 win for the day.

On Sunday I made my way back. The combo of 1st of the month (when people get paid) and a holiday weekend did not disappoint. I sat down in one of two $15/$30 games and I only recognized one player, and he's someone I'm always happy to play against.

There was one guy who was the worst of the group. He bought in for $300 and when he blew through that I figured he'd be done or pull out another $100 or something. Instead he pulled out another $1,000 and went to work blasting it off as fast as possible. I didn't make many hands, but when I did I won big pots. This caused me to bounce around between even and +$500 for the entire session.

One big hand came up toward the end of the day. I got dealt 22 and was the second caller. After a couple of other calls the button raised, the big blind 3 bet it and the button capped it. We took the flop 7 way for $60 each. The flop was A T 2 giving me bottom set and it checked around. ACK! The turn was a 7, I bet and 5 people called me! The river was a Q. It was checked to me, the small blind check raised and the big blind three bet it! Super ACK! I was 98% sure I was up against KJ so I let it go and sure enough the big blind took it down with KJ.

I was sad to see that one slip away and I ended the day with a modest $140 profit.

After 65 hours I'm losing $528 for the project. One nice win and I'll be back in black. I'm going to try to squeeze 5 sessions and 20 hours in to the last 11 days of The Project which ends September 14th (Play on the 14th will count). This week I'll be in action Wednesday and Friday night. I expect all of these sessions to be at The Oaks and maybe one of them will involve a shot at $30/$60 if conditions look good.