Lydias

another weak, weak turnout. 8 people at first, so I got into watching the Red Sox-Indian game and enjoying it. Then Chris showed up so we switched it to two tables of 5 people each.

I deliberately went into weak mode, limping into several pots, losing most of them. Then I got to about 2000 and went into all-in or fold mode.

Sadly, it was mostly fold...fold...fold...fold...fold...fold...fold...just horrendous hands.

Finally I was blinded down to 1400 with the blinds at 400, so well past the danger zone mark. I finally got to isolate against one guy so went all in with a K/7, the first card I had seen higher than a 7 in quite a while. He had a better hand, something like A/j maybe? Well, I hit a 7 on the flop but I was calling for them to give him his Jack or Ace to get the night over with. Just wasn't fun poker sitting there folding and listening to them yap at each other. But instead the board gave us both a straight so we split the pot and I was right back to 1400. I could have worked with it if I had won or gone and watched the game if I had lost...I would much rather have lost than split that pot.

A couple hands later the blinds were about to raise again, I was under the gun and picked up 8/10 suited. Not a very good hand for an all in...but the 10 was the highest card I had seen in the entire circuit, so I went all in, 2 callers. Flop came 10 high giving me top pair on the board. Todd raised, other guy folded, and he flipped up...10/9. Done in by one pip. I got no help and finally escaped...err, busted out.

It was a sad, sad night. No interesting hands whatsoever. A blind retarded monkey could have played the same hands I did and would have had the same results. I think I won 3 or 4 hands, 2 of them when I went all-in with something like A/q suited and everyone folded, the other 2 where I raised after hitting a flop and everyone folding. I think the most interesting hand was the one where I limped in with A/10, flop came 10 high, I raised 300, Chris called, something about her call did not feel right, I put her on 2 pair, we both checked the Jack on the turn, river was a blank, I raised a meek 300, she called, I showed my 10s with A, she showed her pocket rockets. Only vaguely interesting in that she limped with Aces so I did not put her on Aces, but I did put her on enough of a hand to only put out a feeler bet at the end instead of a high end, proper bet. Small victory...that cost me 650 chips (50 for limping, 300 for betting the pot with the first bet, then another 300 as a value bet/am I thumped so let's limit the pot size bet...

I guess that is a good concept to explore; betting to limit the size of the pot. Sometimes I have a hand that really is not raise or call worthy but wants to see another cheap card. In those cases I often will make a small bet designed to keep someone from doing something crazy. If someone is regularly over-betting the pot...say, betting 1000 into a pot of 300 as I have seen a few times lately...and I want to see another card, if I have the option to act first I might bet say...200, an under bet that will price in any reasonable hand. When I do this, even if someone re-raises, they tend to match my raise though more typically they merely call. My raise indicates some strength so often players will grow somewhat timid and incorrectly merely call. Of course, I also occasionally under bet with the nuts or close to it to keep people in so those paying attention cannot simply raise big to get rid of me. This is a case where mixing up my game a bit means I can control pot sizes when I need to.

So there is something to think about from the evening. Well, that and the fact that bored poker is bad poker...