Friday, March 25, 2011

Friday is Here

I have done well this week in sitting down at the poker table and playing the $2-$20 limit spread. I am not surprised at myself but I don't want to get the feeling that I will always do this well. There will come a time when I walk away from the table and will be down. I know it and at times will let the thoughts creep into my mind.

I was having a hard time talking myself into going to the casino last night. When you look at it I was up for the week to $135 and had met my goal and why go another night when you could get that loosing night. Wow, those negative thoughts in the background. I would push them out and tell myself this is what I want to do and this game is what I want to play.

At 8:15PM I headed down to Jokers Casino and walked in the door and they still had the tournament going on at this time. This just meant the game would start soon. I sat down in the number 6 seat this time since someone already took my number 9 seat. I purchased my chips for my buyin and waited for the game to start.

Down at the other end of the table were a couple of young teenagers,(18), I would imagine since that is the limit here to play. They will usually buy in for $40 and play aggressive to get the stacks to grow. They will raise just about anything to get you out of the pot. In this game I will just be patient and wait for a good hand and then play against them and hope I have the goods.

The game got started and we had a full table of nine players tonight. I start slowly to get the flow of the game and see who is doing what at the table. Who is playing loose and who is playing aggressive. I picked out the students and was waiting for the hand. I finally picked up 88 and the flop came 8xx. I made my set and now I will go after the student. He ended up going all in and I called. I rolled over my set of 8's and he turned over KK. He didn't get any help from the turn or the river and the pot was mine. He started complaining about the hand. What I have learned is you need something better than a pair in a live cash game.

The rest of the night was pretty much non eventful. We had a couple more experienced players enter the game which made me play a little bit tighter. They started throwing chips into the pot and making people give up their hands. I just sit and wait. One of the last hands I played last night was 1010 and made two pair and mine was better than the other player.

I ended up walking out with $7 added to my final tally for the week. I am now up +$142 for the week. I think the most important thing is I am playing and seeing hands and gaining the experience. Since I can't play online in this state I have to learn where I can and I enjoy sitting down playing and talking with the players. Especially the more experienced players. I was told last night that I am playing well and doing the right things. One guy told me last night that he could see a difference in my play from Monday to Thursday night. My decisions are better and I think that comes with the amount of time I have spent for the week.

My hours at the table were 7 hours at $142 for an hourly rate of $20.28. Not bad for the first week.

Now I will go back to study and get ready for the next week.

Have a fun day......

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