Long story real short:

Been kicking the ever lovin shit outta the cash games this month. +26.67 BB/100 over close to 4K hands.

Played my 1st MTT tonight in a week and only 2nd in 2 weeks. I don't know what the hell is wrong with my MTT game. I raised 2 hands in the first half hour, 3-bet both times. I tried to pick up one pot from the BB in a 3 way limped pot with middle pair. Call and then and all-in from the SB on the turn. Then a few hands later I pick up AQ short stacked and meet KK. I can't seem to buy an MTT hand anymore.

Finally got around to jumpin a bus to AC on Tuesday. The long, probably boring entire trip report is on my blog in 2 parts. Sadly there weren't many limit games running at the Trop. There was 1 4/8 game that I don't even think lasted. I was forced to sit in a 2/4 game, but I can't complain. Walked away +$117 in a little less than 7 hours. Whatever you've heard about live 2/4 is true. It's worse than the lowest levels of internet play. I wanted to use some of it as practice on reading players and looking for tells, but everyone is predetermined to call no matter what junk they have, there really are no physical reads. Otherwise, I had the entire table's betting patterns down in about 10 minutes. I really think I could have played with my cards face up and it wouldn't have mattered. Funniest moment of the night: I was approached by the same degenerate 2x (once on the boardwalk and then a half hour later at the bar in Caesar's while waiting for the bus at 2am) begging for "percs". I don't know. I must look like a dealer, or at least a user because this is not the first time it's happened. I'm sure I'd make an awesome narc.

Don't feel like really playing today. Might take the entire day off or maybe play a late MTT or 2. I've put in at least 2 hours every day this month so far so I guess I deserve some downtime. Anyway, here are some of the more interesting online hands from this week.

Firing 3 bullets.
I had been playing very tightly at this table. Fairly card dead. In fact, this may have been my 1st PFR after being there for more than a half hour. That was one reason I thought I might be able to get away with this move.
UTG, a tight, timid player (21/0/12 over 103 hands), limps
I raise to $2.25 from CO [4h]
UTG calls

[7c][6d] Pot $5.25
UTG checks, I bet $3.50, UTG calls

Pot $12.25
UTG checks again, I fire a 2nd bullet for $8.50, UTG takes some time before calling.
At this point, partially because of the hesitation and also because of his previous play, I put him on likely a Queen which he is uncomfortable taking any heat with or a flush draw in which case I've already determined that I'm betting the river on a non-dangerous card.

Pot $29.25
UTG checks, I fire $20, UTG folds
Balls? Obviously not something I'm in the habit of doing. I thought it was the right opponent and situation though.

Hand 2: More bluffing
Same table, a while later, another ballsy move. Button had been very aggressive in position. I'd played over 500 hand vs and his Button stats were 23/17/7 over 64 button hands. Makes me think that even though he's aggressive, I can get him off hands post flop.

CO limps
Button raise to $2
I call $2 from SB [4c]
BB folds, CO folds

[Jc][7d] Pot $5.25
I check/call a $4 c-bet

Pot $13.25
I'm pretty sure that added 3 more outs to my hand, giving me at least 12 (more if he's unpaired). The 8 could also complete a T9 straight. Also, if he's paid any attention to me over 500+ hands, he'd probably not see me as wreckless, so.....
I check, Button bets $8, I check-raise to $20.50, Button folds

Hand 3: Same table
Flop aggression with a set.
I limp [8s] UTG, CO posted (new), Button limps, SB completes, BB checks

[8h][Kc] Pot $2.50
Blinds check, I bet $2
I've toned down my flop aggression with sets a big lately because more frequently, everyone is folding. In this situation, there is a big card (K) and a flush draw out there so this is a situation I still like to bet at.
CO folds, Button raises to $7 (Button has $59 left, I cover)
Now I've shown some aggression in the previous two hands and not showndown which Button might remember. I'm obviously ahead here. I'm hoping he has a set of 3's or AK, but I figure he could have a flush draw too. Rule out the only hand that beats me cause he woulda raised KK.
I push, he calls with [Qh] which is obviously the best type hand he could have against my set as i'm only 70%, but luckily avoid any disaster on the turn or river.

Hand #4:When notes pay off
This is another set hand that is beautiful because I had previousl notes on BB that he would stack off with TPGK. BUTTON was a complete fish (62/5/35).
I open-limp [7h] in MP1
BUTTON limps
SB calls
BB raises to $2.50 we all have at least $50
I call $2.50
BUTTON calls $2.50
SB folds

[2s][Ad] Pot $8
SB bets $6, I call $6, BUTTON calls $6
I'm pretty sure, he would have checked a set of Aces there so I put him on AK more likely than anything else here so we're down to extraction tactics here. Different from the last set, I figure there's a good change that I could get him in here, but since BUTTON is such a fish and would likely call with any Ace and there are on real dangerous draws on this board, I elect to call and just as I planned, fish came along.

Pot $26
BB bets $20
BB just pretty much pot committed himself and I'm almost positive he has AK now. Now with additional draws on the board, no time to slowplay anymore.
I push $46.80, BB calls with [Kd] drawing dead.
MAN that's the best feeling in poker. Have them put it in dead.

Hand #5: Double Straight Flush Draw
Just posting this hand because it's pretty sick that the would have given us both the straight flush, but that was a pretty retarded flop call by CO even if mine was marginal.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180796

Hand #6: Flush draw in a bit pot
Here I had been playing rockish at this table due to being card dead so I decided to open up a bit in position because I also thought my tight image might allow me to take it away from a tight/weakish PFRer who I've played a lot with.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180800

SB is a new player who bought in short. I would have had a tough decision on the turn after his short push because now I may have straight outs too, but I thought PFRer's flat call made a call from me correct. Was it?
Then on the river, similar in some aspects to a hand Kenny just posted in his journal, but not in stakes, pot is $56 and I have $33 left. Is there anything I can bet here that he'll call? Probably not.

Hand #7: Another set, what are you thinking when he pushes flop?
I'm in the BB, orginal min-raiser was a short stacked bozo. CO, the re-raiser has shown nittish tendencies but he's only had about 50 hands so far.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180810

I'm pretty sure I'm looking for a set here, but what are you thinking about this push?

Hand #7 looks like panic with that push. I would put him on an overpair, set of queens or set of tens (not all that likely given the nittish read), or an AK, AQ. I don't think he has the flush, but he may have the , giving him draws to the straight or the flush. Aside from the overpairs, he will probably have a number of outs against you.

I'm currently getting ready for what could turn out to be the worst bachelor party in history this weekend. Didn't play at all today, but will probably get in a session tomorrow before I leave for AC Saturday.

It's a real shame too because this is something I had been looking foward to for a couple of months as I knew that a couple of old friends that I hadn't seen in years would be there and it was probably one of the last times that all the guys would be out by ourselves too. They had planned on staying at the Trop so I told them way back to giev me an exact date and I'd go down to play a few times and get the poker rate, also said one of them should come play too so we could get 2 rooms for $140. Instead they wait and wait and change the date 3 times until 2 weeks ago they finally settle on this weekend because it's the last one before the wedding. Then the dummies go and book 1 room for full price and tell everyone else where we are staying. Great, but it doesn't really matter as it turned out that all the poker rate rooms were already gone on so short notice.

Now it turns out that there are 6 or 7 people in total saying that they are going, but NOBODY else got a room. So this is already turning pretty bad. But now also, I have another friend who specifically tried to take off work on Sunday (he bartends at a restuarant) because I told him that I was going down there and would stay the entire weekend if he wanted to meet me there. So I figure I go down with the bachelor party group and then stay if my other friend gets off and shows up.

But now today it gets even worse. The bachelor has to leave at 9am Sunday morning because he has wedding stuff to do. Why the hell would you do that to yourself? So now we're all only going to be able to get a few hours sleep before having to check out and also I won't know if my other friend got the day off and is coming until about noon so I'm pretty screwed now because if I stay and he doesn't come, I got no ride home. But if I go home and he got the day off because of me, I'll feel stupid. To top it all off, the bachelor is saying that he probably won't even drink much or anything because he has too much to do the next day and my other friend who's the best man says he's probably not going to go that crazy either. So I went from really looking foward to this to now dreading it because it's being treated as more of an obligation or a nuisance now.

So, in summary, this is probably going to be one lame ass bachelor party and I'll most likely spend most of the day in the Trop poker room playing 2/4 just to waste some time because I have no idea how much this weekend is going to cost yet either AND I have no idea WTF to do about Sunday now either.

Tonight was the 1st time I played online since Friday. I flopped pretty well basically all night long, but didn't river very well until later on.

Immediately in my 2nd hand, I pick up [Jd] in SB.
There are 3 limpers until BUT raises to $3.25 with about $65 behind.
I have a full stack and decide that I don't want to fold and didn't like the option of just calling here either so I decided to re-raise and then fold if it got raised again. I made it $11.75 (just hit the bet pot button). Everyone folded including the raiser, but then the following short conversation:
BUT: AA
Me: something like that
BUT: yeah i folded kk
Me: wow. get outta here
BUT: had to be AA
BUT: you did have aces though
Me: probably?

Not long after, I limped UTG w/ [3d], the 2 players behind me limped, then a TAG raised it up to $2.75 from MP1.
BB called, I called, both limpers called. 5 to the flop.
[6s][8d] Pot $14
Checked to the raiser who bet $10 and had $19.15 left. Now I was sure that the PFR had a big pair, but I only called because this is the type of board you could get set over setted on. I wasn't saying that I was folding, but I wanted to see what happened behind me. Everyone else folded.
Pot $34
I checked and let MP1 put his last $19.15 into the pot. He flipped up [Qd] and promptly spiked the on the river.

This is the type of hand I had constantly been losing stacks with in the past, but since it hadn't happened in a while, I didn't get all that upset about it. Contrary to popular belief, I don't have to win 100% of the hands, just my fair share. Then I saw someone with a set of 6's get it in vs JJ on the flop a few hands later. Jack on the turn, 6 on the river. 2 out suck, 1 out re-suck. Figured it might be that kind of night so I cut the session short and came back later.

Seemed to work out ok as I picked up 3 decent sized pots in a later session. 2 vs players that wanted to dump off with KQ when they hit a Queen. On the first hand I had AQ, the 2nd time I had QQ and flopped top set. I had been letting this particular player run me over even when I was pretty sure I had him beat just praying I'd catch one agaist him. Fortunately I did before he gave away all my money.


Got in another live 2/4 session at the Trop on Sunday. After this one I pretty much feel comfortable enough playing live to where I'll probably move up to 3/6 or 4/8 next time.

I got in about 4 hours and made $55. Over 11 hours now, I've made a little under $16 per hour. This table wasn't as bad as last trip, but still pretty pathetic. There were a few players that had a clue though this time. It was amazing how many people actually give the impression and sound like they're decent but just suck. Then there was the guy who wore sunglasses the entire time and tried to engage in trash talk on the river. Ironically, he was probably the worst player at the table.

I literally won 1 hand in the first 2 hours. No exageration. I turned trip Aces with a 10 kicker and caught another player with A4. That hand actually came fairly early on.

I was rivered 3x over the next 2 hours, but mostly was dealt completely unplayable hands which led to a slow boring death. I remember seeing Q4o a lot.
The rivered hands:
1 - I raised AA from MP, surprisinly only a woman on the Button and the idiot with sunglasses called. Flop comes Q-hi, not dangerous. The button calls down and then raises when a 6 hits the river. I call. She has Q6s.
2 - I have K8s in the BB in a multi-way pot, no raise. I flop a King, bet and only UTG calls. Turn was an Ace and we both checked. River was a 6 again and we both checked. He flips up K6, didn't realize he rivered 2 pair. This apparently was going to be the theme today.
3 - This one wasn't as bad. I had a young female player all-in on the turn with TP2K. She had the OESD and hit on the river.

The 2nd hand I won, about 2 hours in, I flopped a flush and OESFD with [9c]. The turn was putting me 1 card away from the Royal, but Sunglasses folded on the turn and I picked up a smallish pot. Maybe I should have checked cause I think they have some kind of Royal promotion.

Soon after I picked up a big pot with [Qs] from SB. I flopped the flush draw on an A-hi flop and turned the nuts. The pot was raised and multi-way preflop so I made a nice profit when I c/r the turn. The river paired, but since it was just me and Sunglasses at that point I wasn't really scared. I bet, he called and mucked when I showed. The original raiser remarked that he was happy just to see my hand since I c/r'ed him.

Sunglasses got me a few hands later though. After a few limpers, I called with [9h] in CO.
Flop [9c][3h]
Checked to Sunglasses who bet, I raised and everyone else folded. Sunglasses called.
Turn
Sunglasses immediately bet into me and I just called
River was a blank and Sunglasses called again. I wanted to fold but had to see the hand so I gave him a gift. He showed 92o.

Won another couple of medium sized pots and I was hovering around even, maybe down about $10 when the big hand of the night came up. Actually, when you think about it, my entire session came down to one lucky turn card.

I was OTB with A8o, don't remember the suits. I fold this like 99% of the time, but all 6 players limped in so I did too for some reason. 9 to the flop.
A83 rainbow. I guess I got what I wanted.
One of the better, but timit players bet out UTG and I immediately figure him for a big Ace. Most of the table called and I raised. The blinds folded, but everyone who was already in for a bet came along.
Turn A
UTG bet out again and now I was fairly certain he had 3 outs, a young female player who I thought was pretty decent up till then called, as did a few others. I raised again and UTG 3-bet, putting himself all-in. The young female called the 2 bets, but everyone else folded.
For some reason here I knew she had a set of 3's and probably was slowplaying, but was now scared of all the heavy action by 2 of the tighter players on a board without any draws. I capped, creating a sidepot and she called.
River 7
She checked, I bet, she called. I turned over the nuts and she showed the set of 3's anyway. UTG showed AJ. He said he knew that I probably had him beat on the flop but then the 2nd Ace came and he was stuck.
BB, who was probably the most solid player I'd seen so far commented about my playing a junk hand.

So I played for 4 hours and it all really came down to that turn Ace. Afterward I was thinking about how much trouble I could have gotten in if I didn't hit that 4 outter, but then I thought that I'd most likely have slowed down if a different card showed up on the turn and she came alive because I hadn't seen her get out of line at all.

Let's say the turn is anything but an Ace and she check-raises. I probably just call her down because there was probably nothing that she'd have from EP and have waited until the turn to check-raise that I'd probably beat. So even though I got really lucky on a hand that could have gotten me in trouble, I don't think I would have lost nearly as much as I won if I hadn't sucked out.

If she had raised the flop, I probably would have 3-bet, but then gone into call down mode if she bet into me again. So either way I probably don't lose more than 4 to 5 BB in the hand. I do give her credit for knowing she was beat though.

At that point, it seemed that the table had gotten surprisingly tight for a 2/4, except for Sunglasses and maybe one or two other players. Anyway, my friend got knocked out the nightly tournament running QQ into KK and I could no longer fool my body into believing that it had gotten more than 1/2 hour sleep last night so it wasn't worth continuing any longer.