If there’s one thing any poker player can agree on, it’s that money comes and goes like water. Once we put enough away for a bank roll (and I know many of us don’t), it’s our natural instinct to go out and spend the big bills. Whip out that wad of Benji’s. Buy some toys.  One minute you’re going through the hottest run of your life where everything seems to make perfect sense to you. Your aces don’t get cracked by jack asses with Q 8 suited, you win every single race, and your opponents always  mistakenly bet enough to make the math right for you to call with your draw and you hit it… every – singe – time. 

And of course there is the other side of the playground. Where you are completely cold decked. You can never hit a draw. You lose every coin flip. And you can’t seem to get dealt two face cards at the same time. What seperates a real grinder from the others is that we don’t look at the short term – we look at the long term. We want our opponents to call with Q 8 when we’re holding AA because 75% of the time we’re going to get paid. No problem.

It’s been a while since I’ve last updated, and since then, I’ve done about three sessions in mini Vegas. One was a losing session, one I broke even, and the other (most recently) I went up large. I kept my losing session to only $400, and so when I went up large it was enough to cover the losing session, provide a large bank roll for next time, as well as pay some outstanding bills I have let alone be able to treat myself and some lucky women to a few wine and dine sessions. I was pretty cold decked in the beginning of March, not being able to get dealt anything. The worst is when you even hit the flop with mucked cards (say top 2 pair with A7) only to see someone had flopped a set. You knew there was a cooler waiting to get dealt to you. That sort of shit fucks with your mind because you never know if your monster is ever good enough.

It seemed that all my reads were off. Did his hand twitch? Did he sigh? Did he just mumble beneath his breath? Did he stare at the flop for longer then he should have if it actually helped him? Even all of my basic tells were wrong. I even went into my “intricate” mode, counting heartbeats and keeping mental notes of them, noticing twitches and hand movement, and despite being right on a few occassions, they were all for small pots which I eventually lost in a Set over Set rainbow board cooler hand that I could do nothing about. Frustrated with my tells, play, and the deck, I decided it was a poor decision to invest any more money and ended up just chillin’ in Atlantic City, heading to a few of the bars and chatting up the women with my fellow poker buddies, and strolling the board walk.

After heading back a couple weekends after and feeling unconfident in my game and playing poorly the first day, I was able to recupirate my losses. I was actually up a few hundred when I got sucked out on with a runner runner after trapping the living shit out of someone and talking him into bluffing me (I literally said – Hey, I know what you have … if you push, I will call – you will get your back door flush draw – yes, careful what you wish for) and finally breaking even. What a pain in the ass. 

This past session was good. Not my largest score by any means, but enough to be memorable. I wasn’t running hot, but I was hitting just the right amount of flops (about 1 in every 10 hands), and was able to capitalize on my image to pull off some spectacular bluffs on the donkeys, but the following bluff is one of the better ones I’ve made in a while.

The Power of the 3rd Bullet

I very rarely will pull the trigger on the river in a huge bluff. I am a very aggressive player, but unless it’s a tournament, I find it hard to put out that third bet unless I’m absolutely sure he’s going to fold. Most of the time I will get trapped because the only time I fire a bluff on the river is when my opponent has been calling me down on each street and not raising. An example is a pre flop raise of about $15 with AK, missing the flop, continuation bet of $25 (call), second bullet for $50 (call), and then a big bet of $125 will usually take it down (my opponent usually puts me on a set beating his small over pair of 10’s or 9’s). Weak players like these are easily taken advantage of. It’s against the stronger players that I”m very cautious of… however, in the following example I think I played the bluff very well and executed the right amount in my bets to represent a set. 

I was in the cut off when I was dealt AQ of diamonds. After playing for about 6 hours and with about $600 behind, my opponent in the 3rd seat with about $750 behind raised it to $15. Two players called. Normally with AQ I would call, but I knew this was a stronger player and he had respect for me at the table. My image was tight aggressive and about 90% of my hands shown were winners. We had been pretty much avoiding eachother the whole night knowing that we were the two best players at the table. Taking advantage of a well timed bluff could work. I knew that a player of his calibre would make the “right” read and fold a big hand. With this in mind, I raised it to $40 expecting a call and out playing him on the flop. 3rd seat called, and the other 2 folded bringing the pot to $114. 

The board ran 3, 8, 2 missing the flop entirely save for a back door flush draw. My opponent lead out with a $35 bet, an average contuation bet, but relatively weak given the pot size. I “faked” a hollywood, pretending to act weak to give an image of being strong (when in reality I was weak)… letting him soak it all in. I called hoping to float him on the turn, bringing the pot to $184. I put him in the range of 9’s – J’s – maybe even AK. Q’s and higher would’ve brought a reraise on the flop… If I popped here, he would’ve repopped forcing me to fold my hand. 

The turn brought a 10, putting two clubs on the board. My opponent lead out with $75. A nice bet here. I dropped the hollywood, and announced a raise, putting an additional $75 out there. My opponent went into the tank for a while. I thought he would fold here. On the verge of mucking his cards, he hesitated, took another look at his hole cards, and then elected to call to my surprise. He seemed extremely weak. If he was trapping me, he was doing a great job of it. At this point, I was pretty invested into the pot, but would fold on the river to an all in bet, or a $100+ bet. If he checked or put a bet out there less then $100, I was shoving. The pot was now $484. I had approximately $375 behind. I know he had given me credit for a big hand. I was trying to represent a set of 8’s, click-raising for only $75 looks like it is begging for a call. The right play here for my opponent if he is holding an over pair is to reraise. But he didn’t.

The river brought a 3, pairing the board. My opponent hesitated for a few seconds before putting out a $90 bet. Having already told myself that I would shove if a bet came out under $100, and if the board was 8’s and lower… I followed my instinct and immediately announced a raise, using both hands to shove my entire stack into the pot for an additional $280 or so. He immediately mucked his hand saying, “I knew you had a set the whole time”. Emotionless, I took down the $500+ pot, my heart soaring. I was tempted to show my hand knowing it may put him on tilt… but knowing that I’d be playing with him for the next few hours I elected not to, and just remained silent, mucking my cards and tipping the dealer. 

Not showing him was enough. Throughout the entire night he stayed away from me, and would occassionally ask me whether or not I had it. I beat around the answer knowing that if I kept him thinking, he may end up making a very bad call against me in the future because he’ll never know whether or not he got bluffed…

After some solid play and losing very small pots, I was able to walk away from the table in the 4 figures. The next day saw some slow play, but after a small rush of getting dealt a set, top pair top kicker, and flushing out, followed by a golden hand 3 hours later, I was able to hit the 4 figure mark again two days in a row. I went down stairs and played some roulette, losing about $150, and then Pai Gow, but broke even there. Had a few drinks at the bar with no luck, and after deciding lady luck had left me for another man, I claimed my bag and hopped on the next bus to Port Authority. 

I’m gearing up for another session this weekend with Brendan and Spencer. We’ll see how that goes…

Until next time,
B