Mixer's, 8/28

Had not played at Mixers for a long, long time. Went there again, truth be told, mostly just cause it is fun hanging out with Roman. Emily actually decided to come along, so I was excited. i love it when she plays.

Lately I have been playing, truth be told, a pretty crappy game. Last weekend I played at Lydias not so much because I wanted to but because Bob is kind of hurt when I don't. So I told Em I was going to bust out just into the second blinds. So I went, I limped, I called off chips knowing I was beat...actually, three times I even said, "I know I am beat but I will pay you off", once correctly calling trips, twice calling 2 pair. So ironically my reads were dead on and my chips were melting.

I milked them until the first hand after the break and called the rest off on one hand. It was about a perfect day. I played for an hour and change, did not look like a donkey (even though I played like one) and got in some pretty good practice reading people.

Monday was more of the same with a slightly different strategy. Since I wanted to last longer I limped more, called less after the flop. Still, I was up maybe 1500 when someone busted out and I switched tables. A few hands in I limped with A/3 spades. Flop came A/Q/2. Todd raised, I figured he actually had some sort of a hand this time...maybe A/better kicker or at the least 2 pairs so I folded. John folded next to me so I did something I rarely, rarely do...I pulled my cards back out of the muck to show him I had folded top pair. He then showed me he had folded middle pair. And we both believed we were correct to do so...and we were right. Todd showed down a set of 2s.

Well, I kept limping which pretty quick puts you on short stack. By the time I got to about 1100 or so I was pretty bored and ready to go. Then came a hand that was a good one to double up or bust out. Jason, a very erratic player, and I were the only 2 in the hand. Flop gave me 4 to the Queen high flush. He checked his cards as people often do when 3 of a suit fall and they are not sure what they have. I figured he had maybe a medium, possibly a high card. When the turn was another club I went all in for my last 1000. He called and had the King. I wasn't going to play the consolation table but they needed a 4th to get started...then we ended up with 7. Well, they decided they wanted to allow rebuys which, in my opinion, makes for a terrible game because people will call anything with anything since they can just rechip. Sadly, still limping, I was hitting like a fiend and so 4 or 5 times I just gave them their "rebuy" out of my chip stack. I hit a lot of hands and had a huge stack...but the truth is I was playing terribly. Just because you hit a few q/7 or 2/4 type hands does not mean you are playing well...it just means when you play a lot of hands, you hit a lot of hands.

So going into the Mixers I knew I was actually playing poorly. I usually but not always put people on some sort of hand, I limp a lot, raise seldom, and play sub-par hands. I don't set out to build any particular table image. I just...float.

So last night I had Em to my left, then some guy I did not know, then Roman, then Jeff, then...Cody? Corey? I should know his name but don't, and then immediately to my right was Cole.

I started off correctly, fold or raise, no limp. And so did everyone else. This was not a limp table. As I was folding, Em was hitting hand after hand. She hit a boat. They thought she didn't know she hit it (she did, she just did not know if someone had a higher one), trips, top/top, trips, a straight...she was crushing the table. Meanwhile I got up to about 4500.

Then something happened. I lost with 2 pair three or four times, then everyone limped, I was in the small blind with pocket 2s. I should have raised or folded. People had showed weakness by limping, I could probably have picked up the pot with a strong bet. Instead I limped, KNOWING it was a mistake. Sure enough someone hit a middle pair.

A couple hands later I went ahead and raised the pocket deuces after a couple people had limped. All but one folded. Then I got nervous and checked the flop even though I thought he had missed it. He had, he hit the turn, and I was suddenly down to about 1800. I decided to pick my spot and try to get doubled up or, at the least, steal the blinds.

And it worked. I was either folding or going all-in. But it was not random all-ins. It was strong drawing hands in late position so the odds of getting called were small and of having the better hand if I was called were good. And I got LUCKY. I successfully stoled three or four times...and another three or four times I got it all in against Emily in "race" situations, never better than about 60-40 advantages...and hit every one. She could not lose against anyone else and could not win against me.

I finally went all-in against Leti at the final table with a J/10 suited...and she flipped up A/J suited. I was crushed, a 4-1 dog. But this proved to be the 1 and she was gone. Then I put poor Em all-in one more time, but this time I had more chips and she was gone. We got down to 3...Scotty, Roman, and I.

Earlier Roman had a HUGE chip lead but he had bled off a fair amount. Finally, at the last break we stood here: Scotty had 14K, Roman had 16K, and I had 16K. However, Em had been out for a while and the only reason I had that much was they were running scared. I would take the most marginal of hands and push all in...a/5, K/Q, J/9.

One hand from earlier hurt pretty bad. I raised pre-flop, Scotty came over the top all in. I had pocket 9s with three players. You know I was calling. He flipped up ....10s. Uh-oh. And the flop brought me a set..but he also got one. So I was drawing dead to the case 9. No quads, he took it down and instead of being gone was chip lead. But there is no way I could have gotten away from this hand. Even if we don't get it all in pre-flop, unless he totally jumps out of his seat there is no way I out him on a higher set when I trip up on the flop and there is only one over card. I don't feel bad about this call even though I was bhind from beginning to end. Sometimes you are simply going to be beat no matter how carefully you play. And I was not playing carefully...to be honest, after Em went out I was playing quite maniacally so I could take her home. But it was working...

We traded chip lead a bit but then, first hand after the break, with the totals mentioned above, I got crazy and limped in with 8/10 spades. Roman folded. Scotty checked. Flop gave me 4 to the straight, 4 to the flush. Scotty raised 4000. I was getting 3 to 1 to call, the correct price, though there is some question if it is a good call at this point anyway. However, I (correctly) read Scotty for having a weak hand he might lay down. And I really did not care if I hit it or not. So I came over the top all-in. And he almost folded. Then Nipa...who had been out for quite a while...talked him into calling. And he had bottom pair on the board. It was a great call. And I did not hit my spade or straight and was gone.

And that pretty much proves I was playing terribly because when I am playing well I will lay that draw down in the finals. But when I play poorly, I play like I don't care...which I did most of the night.

On the bright side...poker was fun again. So I might play one more time. We will see.