Do not check raise this man!
With my tournament play and the fact that I've been playing a lot more recently, I'm behind on going over my cash game sessions so going to mush the story of 5 sessions into one post!
On Tuesday (about 2 weeks ago now) it was one of the hottest days of all time in the bay area and seeking some much needed AC I abandoned my family to suffer in the heat and headed to Bay 101.
On the hand of the night I got dealt red KK in the small blind. The hijack opened to $20, the cutoff and button both called and I made it $105 to go. The raiser and the button called and the flop came down Q63 with two spades. Not a bad flop at all. I bet $150 and only the preflop raiser called with what I assumed a Q, flush draw or pair 77-JJ. The turn was a T and after eyeing my opponent's stack and seeing he only had about $550 left, I pushed all of my chips into the pot! When I didn't get snap called I knew I must be good. After about 2 minutes my opponent asked if I wanted to run it once or twice. I immediately said "once" holding up one finger and the dealer told us that we couldn't make arrangements until the action was closed. I guess however I said "once" looked weak, because at that point I got called with no further hesitation. The river was a J which I didn't love, but I rolled over my hand and it was good.
This was such a sweet hand! This pot was about $1725 which is one of the bigger one's I've won in my 2022 resurgence. After the hand another guy that has been a Bay 101 reg for quite a while said "Wow. You played those kings perfectly."
In an extremely smooth 4 hour session I booked a $1,382 win!
+$1,382!
My next session was much longer lasting 8 hours. On the most memorable hand of the session I called a raise to $25 with KQ of clubs and called a bet of $40 on a J98 two diamond flop heads up. The turn was the A of diamonds, bringing in the flush draw. When my opponent bet again I got suspicious and raised him from $100 to $300. He looked back at his cards and called. I figured he probably had a hand with a pair and a big diamond. The river brought another A and this time I bet $500 with total air! After about a minute he called with QQ with the Q of diamonds! Gross! He said he knew I was a "good bluffer" and would have folded to anyone else. Certainly this is my largest bluff gone wrong in 2022.
Despite the $800+ spew with total air, I still booked a $492 win.
+$492!
In the big hand of the next session I raised to $20 with AK of hearts, the dude to my left went to $60, one player called in between, I went to $220 and the guy who made it $60 ripped it for $850! I wasn't thrilled about this, but against this opponent I was never folding AK suited preflop. I called, showed my hand and he said "Wow. I need a five." Huh!? The board ran out J8722 and I was good. It's a common recommendation to play A5 suited aggressively so your opponent's can't always put you on a huge hand when you're pushing hard, but this guy took it too far. I won $692 on the night.
+$692 and an intimidating chip shadow ;)
The next time I walked into Bay 101 I felt like I was due for a loss and I got off to a terrible start. I lost $400 to QT with KK all in on the flop on a QT572 board and then I got involved in the biggest pot of my 2022 campaign.
I raised A2 of clubs and got 5 callers with $790 in my stack. The flop came down T 7 3 with the T and 3 of clubs giving me the nut flush draw. I bet $60, got one call from a guy with a $200 stack, and then a raise to $500 from a big stack who covered and a cold call from the big blind who only had about $700. My decision was to either fold or have all of us get it all in on the flop. I had $710 left with a shot to win a little over $1,700. I knew I was bout 1 in 3 to make my flush, but that if the board paired I'd likely make the flush and lose the pot. This was close. In the end I called and was up against TT and T7, a 7 came on the turn and I lost. :(
I was stuck about $1,300 after that pot, but came all the way back plus some and booked a $565 win!
+$565 that looks like +$1,800!
On Sunday I made my way back to Graton with 2 friends. One of the two has played a fair amount of small stakes limit hold'em, but almost zero no limit. I gave him one starting hand chart, a dozen rules to follow (e.g. Always raise if you're first in, raise 4X-5X the big blind, treat all turn and river raises or large bets as 2 pair plus hands etc.) a 45 minute lesson on the drive over and offered to sit with him at $1/$1/$3. We played for 5 hours each had 4 drinks, my friend won $170 and I booked an $826 win! My other friend sadly lost $1,600 in the $2/$3/$5. Boo! The games at Graton are certainly not as good as Bay 101.
While my original plan was to play 250 hours between mid July and mid May to fund my 2023 WSOP plans, I'm doing so well and feeling so good (and really having fun playing!) about it that I'm now thinking to try to run my profits up to $10K+ and then head to LA or Vegas for a few days to play bigger games in October or November. I know games in those areas that are nominally $5/$10, but actually $5/$10/$20 much of the time are always running. This would require maybe a $2,500 buy in which sounds equally terrifying and exciting!
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