The Softest Game Ever (long post ahead)

So I know I don't blog very often, but I feel like I'm almost obligated to share a cash game I was lucky to take part in last night. The back story is whenever I'm home from college, I play basketball with my dad every sunday with all the other 45-50 year olds who play with him. I've been playing with these same guys since I've been in like sixth grade so I know most of these sweaty and awkward guys pretty well. Little did I know that since I started college two years ago, they started a cash game with one of the players and his business friends. My dad has gossiped about me to them about how I play quite frequently and I'm an alright player. So last night, they held a game specifically for yours truly. I felt somewhat like Phil Hellmuth almost because everyone was gunning for me and going nuts WHENEVER I would lose a pot.

The night started around 7:30 and was a $20 cash game, which was a bit more than I'm used to, but it did not affect my play at all. 11 guys showed up and at first, they all wanted to play at the same table. I nicely proposed to divide it into two tables because 11 is simply ridiculous and instead of hands per hour with these nice fish, it might turn into hours per hand. Luckily, they decided to split us up and my table draw was really loose and passive. There was a family pot about 3/5 of the time. All of the guys at my table were really nice and the atmosphere was good, but NONE of them had any game. I'm not sure if my game has gotten much better where I feel completely in control, but last night was a dream. Here's how the table went down:

Seat 1: Me - the shark obviously
Seat 2: Aeric - local bartender who was hitting his share of cards, but a calling station nonetheless.
Seat 3: Rich - The player who was the most cognizant, but extremely tight
Seat 4: Rob - athletic and competitive guy who limped in every unopened pot (which was almost every pot). had interest in the game.
Seat 5: Fat Dave: prototypical calling station. The guy who you hope just deposits every week on Full Tilt.

The other table that my dad was at was even more fishy. They minraised every single hand so I was somewhat jealous that there was more action, but knew that I would get a piece of them later in the night.

I'm actually not too great at remembering that many specific hands, but the first hand of note was when little dave moved to our table. He was the host and probably the biggest proponent of watching me lose. I hadn't played a pot in awhile so for some reason I was impelled to raise with K7o in the co. Little and Fat Dave called. Little Dave was a pretty cognizant player, who was pretty tight, but liked to raise large preflop when he was involved. The flop came pretty dry with the board 862 rainbow. It was checked to me. I've been taking my time with my decisions and was obviously going to cont bet. I decided on 3.25, which I thought would put people to the test. Dave instaraised me to 6 (which was kosher at this game) and Fat Dave folded. Here, it was very clear to me that Dave was just trying to push me out because he wanted to be the guy that can bluff me. So I took my time even though I was pretty sold at 4betting him here with K high. I'm silly like that. I'm also a young gun who thinks he's the shit obv. I had about 18 dollars behind, and made it to 13.50. This was my big hand and I knew it would probably dictate the rest of the night, which would obviously suck if he called. He took a long time and folded. It probably was a pretty reckless play and most of my friends know I'm known for pulling some crazy shit. It worked here and I showed the bluff because I'm not going to let Little Dave think he can outplay me.

Other than that, simple cont bets helped. 2/3 of the way through the night, we combined tables to play 9-handed. It messed up my feng shui because i was very happy with the hands per hour and now it just hit a concrete wall. I had to like do push ups in between hands because everyone and their grandmother was limping and min raising and I almost wanted to find a gun or just run home or something. I finally picked up AKss on the button and just took down a pot. After that, I decided to step my aggression up and took a few more pots down uncontested.

Anyway, I obviously lost pots as well with an overflush and when i didnt notice a flush on board when i had two pair.

Dream game all around.

WHOOO AHHHHH

Hey All. Quick Update. So far, pokering has been predominantly what I have done for this winter break. I'm really cool, I know. I only got about 250 to show for it so far, but not too bad for the stakes I've been playing. Interestingly enough, I really haven't even come into my groove until the last ten or twelve sessions. Oh and yeah, I have completely 180'ed what I had originally wanted to do and listened to my old high school friend and just grinded 9 man sng's again. I'm not sure if having a blog is beneficial for a boring grinder like me, but I'm more than welcome to let you in on my system since I doubt most people read what I have to say =). My main goal now is to make enough money for books, which I already think I have done with my total roll now, but my new goal is to make it to the 700 mark. That would be a MAJOR victory for me.

So my strategy?


Be a HUGE.......



MOTHA FUCKIN........



NIT



in a few days, I hope to recap on my goals from last year and see if I actually accomplished anything!