A continuation of
this thread in which I begged for B&M advice.
I planned on going to Harrah's, in the hopes that new players would flock there after watching the WSOP coverage (there is a Horseshoe in NW Indiana, but it
doesn't have a poker room [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]). Alas, a plan that convoluted would surely be doomed; Harrah's has evidently divested themselves of that market. It's called "Resorts" now.
So I went to Trump to play the 3/6 game (as referred by someone in the original thread), bought in for $250 and proceeded to give almost all of it away either in blinds or draws that didn't come in.
Down to about $50, I wanted to see at least one decent hand. I saw a few, and made all my money back with some interest. At $275, I wanted to stick around and make some more money, so of course I lost almost all of it again to lucky draws. Someone chased my set all the way down and hit a straight with 7/4. Someone chased my nut straight all the way down for a flush.
Despite this disaster, I felt I was learning the nuances of the table more. The advice given in the thread was right; the table was much more loose and passive than the average .50/1 game I play online. (I'll make another thread about this later.) I felt I was adapting, and could still fight back to break-even or better.
And it took me until 7:00 in the morning, but I did.
Only two hands of the many I played bear meticulous examination. Here's #1, in the midst of my first upswing:
On the button with black kings. A few limpers to me; I raise and everyone calls.
Flop is K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], another [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] and a blank. UTG bets, folded to me and I raise. He calls.
Turn is another blank but it doesn't boat me up. UTG checks and calls my $6 bet.
River is 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]; he checkraises my river value bet from out of the blue. The flush came in, but I can't fold. I call and he shows K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]/6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. I sigh and scoop the $54 pot.
As for the second, it's a hand like the ones David Sklansky probably has erotic dreams about.
It took place in a "kill pot." If you don't know what that is, don't be embarrassed; I didn't either when I sat down initially.
A kill pot happens when any player wins two consecutive pots (outright; no chopping). For as long as he continues to win, the limit is double; this means our 3/6 table turned into a 6/12. However, the blinds stay at $1 and $3 like they normally do; but the difference is that the player who owns the kill pot posts $6 blind no matter what position he's in.
The player on the kill pot was on the button for $6, and I was in the cutoff. About 73 people limped in and I looked at 10[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]/7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. Normally I wouldn't play this in a higher-limit pot, but I was getting about eleventy-thousand-to-one odds and didn't figure on a raise behind me — quite often, the poster will open-raise his blind post to $12 as a power move to knock out players, but from the button with everyone else in already, there was no point.
Flop came with two sixes, but also two diamonds. Checked all the way around to me, and I probably should have bet, but didn't want the kill player — who enjoys considerable leverage in the pot — to raise from the button and blow out the field.
Turn is 10[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. My flop checkaround produces action: the player two seats to my right leads out for $12. It's called by the next player and I immediately and enthusiastically jack it up to $24, leading the whole table to murmur that I slowplayed trips. My raises pushes out everyone else, including the last player to check, a cautious older gentleman who showed 10[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] before folding.
River is the 9½ of lampshades and now my turn raise really pays dividends, getting the other two passive players to check it to me. I considered a value bet, but figured anyone who could call me probably had me beat.
I showed my two pair with a lousy kicker, the older guy cursed his misread, the rest of the table gasped at my bold play, and the other two players mucked their cards. That win pulled down nearly $100 and put me over even-money to stay. I walked out of the casino after fifteen hours with a whopping $23 profit. Woohoo!
Obviously it'd be tough to analyze the quality of my overall play without observing a lot of hands, so I'll just ask . . . Is a swing normal?? Is variance that much of a killer at this limit?
Hopefully next time I go I'll swing up before swinging down and win more than ¼ BB/hr.