It has been a while

Wow. It has been 3 weeks since my last post, and since the last time I played. Yesterday morning an Army buddy called me up saying he was headed to Foxwoods, and I immediately roll out the door. When I arrive JB is already seated, at what appears to be a friendly, loud, tourist laden table, half the table has less than 100 in front of them, yay $60 minimum buy-ins. There is no list for 1/2 NL, and after a quick recon of the room I take an empty seat at the next table over with a few regulars and some deeper stacks. I am right behind my friend which is nice, we can talk in between hands and not have to play against one another.

Seat 1 is old-old-regular-guy sitting on 1k, Seat 2 is bald-glasses-guy with about 800, seat 3 is crazy-asian-old-guy with about 250 (isn't there always a crazy asian guy?). Seat 4 is young-regular-kid with about 800, seat 5 is a regular with about 1200, seat 6 is a player from New Hampshire with 300, seat 7 is the cursed chair with a steady stream of play a hundo, lose it, reload and then lose it and leave players. Seat 8 is a 2/5 regular who says he is grinding back after getting stuck 1800, but he is sitting on about 1k, I am in seat 9 with 200 (shorty), and seat 10 is New Hampshire player #2 with 300.

Early on I get into it with the big stack old guy with top top + nut flush draw on an ace-high all club board. He calls me down with A5o - no clubs, my flush doesn't hit, he spikes a 5 on the river and my AK is no good. I add a hundo to bring me back to 200. For a while nobody can play since there is a lot of action at the other end of the table, seats 1,2,3 and 4 are trading big pots back and forth with crazy asian building up to about 1200. Seat 4 changes out to a new regular kid with about 300, and with the exception of seat 7 the table remains the same for about 5 hours. I build up to 300 or so and then get stacked with 57s. The board was 7c4s3s. Top pair, gutshot and baby flush draw, I lead out for about 35 on the flop with 2 callers. A 6h on the turn completes my straight and half my stack goes into the pot. Again 2 callers, the river completes my flush and it is set vs flush vs bigger flush. Change 300.

The table dynamics finally change with several of the bigger stacks racking up and leaving. New regulars take the empty seats and I consider calling it a day and licking my wounds, or changing tables. I take a break and look at the 4/8 Omaha Hi/Lo Kill game but it is the same 10 people that are always at that game. My Army buddy has to go, and I (being the degenerate that I am) decide to stick around out for a few more hours.

With new blood at the table, I earn several decent pots with scare-card re-raises and aggressive play. Since I can't possibly be catching that many big hands I get paid off when I do actually have a hand. New young aggro-dork sits down to my right and gets stacked twice within 20 minutes. He has been making it 20 to go with nothing in the pot with craptastic hands like KTo. I make the call with 88 as does my regular friend W across the table. J82 rainbow on the flop, aggro-dork bets 30 which I call and so does my regular friend. Ace on the turn is my money card, W bets out 30, kid calls and I put 100 on top. W calls leaving about 100 behind, and the kid folds. The river is a Q with the board J82AQ, W puts the rest in and I of course call. He has A8s for 2 pair on the turn and I take a nice pot. The kid would have hit his gutshot.

I manage to get away from QQ pre flop on the cheap. Seat 6 limps UTG (it is as common for everyone to limp as it is for everyone to call 15 at this table). Agrro-dork goes all in for 37, new guy to my right calls 37 leaving about 65 behind. I was going to raise to put them both all in, but decide to call the 37 and it folds around to seat 6 who puts 100 on top. New guy puts the rest in and I consider my options for a minute or so. I have been playing with him for about 9 hours now, and his stack has gone from 150 to 1400 and now is back down to about 400. Since I am nearing the end of my session, finally unstuck and in the profit zone I decide that now is not the time to stack off against someone who can hurt me. My QQ hits the muck and seat 6 flips AA (of course). Seat 6 later says that he was initially going to raise, but he noticed aggro-dork moving his chips in so he limped instead.

Final tally, +180 after being stuck 500 early on. It could have been worse.

Hammer is Good!

This morning I have a strange urge to play some SnGs on Full Tilt. I generally don't play many SnGs, and most of my play has been at Bodog for the past few months. At 9AM most of the players at my tables are Europeans. Some of the play makes me want to vomit.

At one of my tables I decide to punish the plethora of limpers by raising pot from the button with AKs. Late position frenchy-limper decides to call. K82 on the flop, frenchy checks I bet pot and he calls. The turn gives me a flushdraw to go along with my top-top, I bet about 3/4 of the pot and frenchy calls. The river is a seemingly blank 7, frenchy decides to bet out half the pot. I of course make the call and lose the pot. He then typed "Hammer is good!" into the chat box, which I thought was quite amusing. The Hammer is a raising hand, not a limp-call, check-calling hand.