Summer Poker Adventures Part 3
After arriving home from Vegas I basically recovered then my family and I headed to Europe on a 3 week trip celebrating our 15th anniversary. If you've been reading here for a while you may recall we went to Hong Kong/Thailand/Macau for our 10th anniversary and I played poker in Macau (I still think it was the worst slow roll I have ever received on that trip!)
Anyway we spent some time in Barcelona before embarking on a cruise. The cruise ship had a casino with 2 electronic poker tables and I was given permission by my wife to go play one evening. It was a 1-2 NL game with $200 max buy-in. When I sat down with $120 I was the 4th biggest stack at a full table. Many guys would just buy-in for $40 and piss around. Anyway there was a guy in his early 20's who was quite a solid player and the other guys all seemed to know him and get out of his way. While I was playing he raised 4 times from EP. He c-bet every time and took down 3 pots right away. On the 4th hand after the c-bet he and his one opponent checked it down and he showed 3-7o for a rivered pair of 3s that took down the pot. He played position well also. The table has been pretty goofy, with 7 or 8 people to a flop and pre-flop raises being anywhere from $4 to $18. A couple of drunk guys were at the table with stacks of between $75-$100. The one guy called a $40 bet on the river with a busted straight draw! He re-loaded. So I pick up AKo from MP. A few of the guys call so I just call too. The young kid on the button makes it $15 and has about $250 behind. One drunk calls and I call. Perhaps I should have re-raised here???? Flop comes KQ7 rainbow. The drunk bets $5 and I shove, hoping to take it right there. Unfortunately what I read as a position move from the young kid was actually QQ and he flopped his set. Thoughts on this hand? I reloaded for another hundred and pretty much was blinded away after a couple of my AKs and AQo hands I raised missed the flop against 5-6 players each time. Finally I get my last $45 in with a flush draw and open-ended straight draw against a guy with A2o who had flopped an A. I can't connect and am down $220 for the night. I am not sure about the electronic tables, I guess I could get used to it. The only problem on the ship was table talk. There was no real manager and actually when I finished playing at around 2 am there were only 7 of us in the casino! The bar was closed, the cage was closed and the table games had shut down! The regular players said it was because of shore excursions early next morning. Perhaps the worst was reporting to my wife and kids that I had lost (again, after Vegas). My wife thinks I should quit playing poker-in spite of records for the past 6 years that indicate I am a winning player at my stakes level-and do something else. She just doesn't get variance! She dropped a bundle at the spa on the ship and actually gave me permission to go play again but when I went by there was either no game or just one full table.
Anyway we spent some time in Barcelona before embarking on a cruise. The cruise ship had a casino with 2 electronic poker tables and I was given permission by my wife to go play one evening. It was a 1-2 NL game with $200 max buy-in. When I sat down with $120 I was the 4th biggest stack at a full table. Many guys would just buy-in for $40 and piss around. Anyway there was a guy in his early 20's who was quite a solid player and the other guys all seemed to know him and get out of his way. While I was playing he raised 4 times from EP. He c-bet every time and took down 3 pots right away. On the 4th hand after the c-bet he and his one opponent checked it down and he showed 3-7o for a rivered pair of 3s that took down the pot. He played position well also. The table has been pretty goofy, with 7 or 8 people to a flop and pre-flop raises being anywhere from $4 to $18. A couple of drunk guys were at the table with stacks of between $75-$100. The one guy called a $40 bet on the river with a busted straight draw! He re-loaded. So I pick up AKo from MP. A few of the guys call so I just call too. The young kid on the button makes it $15 and has about $250 behind. One drunk calls and I call. Perhaps I should have re-raised here???? Flop comes KQ7 rainbow. The drunk bets $5 and I shove, hoping to take it right there. Unfortunately what I read as a position move from the young kid was actually QQ and he flopped his set. Thoughts on this hand? I reloaded for another hundred and pretty much was blinded away after a couple of my AKs and AQo hands I raised missed the flop against 5-6 players each time. Finally I get my last $45 in with a flush draw and open-ended straight draw against a guy with A2o who had flopped an A. I can't connect and am down $220 for the night. I am not sure about the electronic tables, I guess I could get used to it. The only problem on the ship was table talk. There was no real manager and actually when I finished playing at around 2 am there were only 7 of us in the casino! The bar was closed, the cage was closed and the table games had shut down! The regular players said it was because of shore excursions early next morning. Perhaps the worst was reporting to my wife and kids that I had lost (again, after Vegas). My wife thinks I should quit playing poker-in spite of records for the past 6 years that indicate I am a winning player at my stakes level-and do something else. She just doesn't get variance! She dropped a bundle at the spa on the ship and actually gave me permission to go play again but when I went by there was either no game or just one full table.
Comments
Likely should have re-raised the AKo hand, but villian still calls you with QQ (and may four bet you, which you likely still call based on his image). Even LAG players pick up hands once in a while.