More poker!

So, I've moved into the Wichita apartment now, settling into the new job, hoping like hell that the troubles in Iowa aren't going to exist as a permanent black mark and that people will be more or less understanding. So far they've been giving me stuff to do and I've been doing it, so it's hard to ask for more than that, I suppose.

This past weekend involved driving back to my Texas house (it's about a 5.5 hour drive, not too bad, I did it on Friday after work) to collect some things from my house prior to my proper move. I grabbed a microwave, some more work clothes, an air mattress, and enough books and DVD's to fill in the rest of the empty space in my car. I also nabbed my wireless router; It's not exactly the most efficient model, driving back and forth from Kansas to Texas in a 350Z, but it's the only registered car I have at the moment and it definitely makes the drive more fun.

So, Saturday, after I've finished my laundry and organized everything I'm going to pack, I play a little online poker and call up Sandra, with whom I share a nice 2+ hour conversation. I hadn't told her about what happened in Iowa, and it was good to talk with someone who offered something other than the tired sympathy. She is considerably less optimistic than I am about the situation in Wichita now, but even if things don't work out, I can't say I really care. I've only been out of my previous job for about four months now, that's not even that long a time to be unemployed even without a job in the interim. I have enough cash to last me a long time, a safety net in my parents, an imminently employable degree, good experience, and a profitable hobby. Speaking of which...

Sunday I get an early start (for me), 11:00 or so, with a specific plan in mind. I had over $1300 cash in my wallet and I decided to stop at one of the Oklahoma casinos (I chose the Riverwind, the largest casino in the state, just south of Oklahoma City, with a pretty decent poker room; I arrive there by 2:30 and by 3:00 I'm sitting 1-2 no limit hold 'em.

Why did I have over $1300 in my wallet, one might ask? Well, over the years, mostly as Christmas and birthday gifts from parents and grandparents that were a bit too out-of-touch with what I wanted as gifts, would give me cash instead, usually in the form of a single $50 or $100 bill. I don't generally like to carry those sorts of bills on me, and so I don't normally spend them; for the longest time they lived in my dresser. At the start of the year, I noticed that I had accumulated over $1000, and that was about the time I decided I would start seeking out live poker rooms, and that any bills in my possession of denominations $50 and above would be my bankroll. $1000 isn't much of a roll for 1-2NL, but the games are soft enough that it's not the highest of risk, and if I lose, I just take a break for a while.

As to why that cash was in my wallet, I've been living the past month-and-a-half or so out of hotels, while my house was on the market. I wasn't exactly comfortable with leaving that cash in my dresser while strangers are being shown my house, and I sure as hell wasn't leaving it lying around in a hotel room for a maid to stumble upon. So the safest place for it, I decided was on my person - I'm a big guy and still carry myself well, so a robbery is unlikely, and I've never lost a wallet in my life.

Anyway, the 1-2 table started out VERY nice, with at least 3 donkeys at the table. One was a pure, unadulterated calling station; one was a guy that telegraphed every play and was willing to commit all-in on pathetically weak hands (underpairs, 2nd pair top kicker, etc.), and the third was a clueless pseudo-maniac who bet and raised in very strange situations, but didn't seem to be conscious that his bets only worked as bluffs. More on that later. Pretty much everyone else at the table was a weak-tight nit; I decided to stay t-agg.

The first hand where I broke from that pattern was 9To from the button, with no fewer than 5 limpers to me. I decided I would mess around with a limp. The big blind, someone I had pegged as probably my best opponent at the table, who had been tight for the first few revolutions but already won a few pots by showing down good hands and betting amounts I felt were quite appropriate, made it $12. All five limpers called, and getting better than 7:1 in position, I made an exaggerated show of saying now I'm being forced to call, as I roll my eyes and gingerly place two red chips across the betting line.

The flop comes 68J, which caught my attention. The big blind bet out $25 (very weak, I thought, into the $80+ pot), and yet, to my annoyance, the limpers parted like the red sea. I made the call with my straight draw, and was rewarded with a Q on the turn. The big blind bet out $40 and I thought now that maybe he had KK or AA; I decided not to screw around and raised him all-in, another $105 or so. He went into a thought process that I thought was amusing as hell, naming all sorts of two-pair hands he thought maybe I could have backed in to. "Queen Eight, Queen Jack? Queen Six, Jack Eight, Jack Six. You didn't want to call the raise preflop but felt like you were priced in. Why raise so much if you're not trying to push me out?"

I realized something then: he didn't see the straight possibility! Once he saw it, I realized, he would focus in on it, and I feared his folding was a possibility. I decide to join in to his internal conversation to keep his mind off my hand possibilities. "If I'm going to raise here it has to be all-in," I point out. "There was eighty pre-flop and we put another fifty in on the flop; your bet makes the pot 170, my call makes it 210, so 105 more isn't that big a raise."

He frowned, like he hadn't realized the pot had grown that big. He had me covered, and from there he quickly called. Much to my surprise, he turned over AQ. "Got the nuts", I announce, flipping over the straight that has him drawing dead. He frowned and shook his head, realizing what a bad call he'd made. What did he think he was beating there? I was actually almost insulted. He thinks I'm pushing there with, what, KQ? AJ? Still, he was good-natured about it.

Typing out the hand, I also only now just realized what a bad bet that was on the flop. C-betting seven limp-callers on a jack-high board, out of position with AQ, with a bet that isn't even 1/3 of the pot? Yikes. He almost got lucky with that, but that makes me re-evaluate my position that he was the best of my opponents. The weak-tight nits weren't making moves that unprofitable. He had me covered, and bought another $100 in chips. I was up above $400 from the pot and now quite relaxed.

I only had a few more hands that were remotely interesting. A few revolutions later I catch KK, raise it up, get two callers from sub-100 stacks. The first was a young guy with only $25 or so left after he called my raise. The second was the guy whose play was inexplicably random. The flop came 6TQ random, and the young guy immediately went all-in. The random dude raised him all-in, and now I'm sitting on a $75 call with an overpair that doesn't look quite so hot anymore. Still, because the guy's play was so random, I decided I had to call, and indeed, it was correct. Before we turn our cards over the dealer puts out the rest of the board, and I grimace in near-physical-pain as a Q comes on the river. But neither of my opponents had a Queen. The young guy turned over TJ suited, and random dude turned over AK (!). Unfortunately the young guy had backdoored a flush, and I profited only about $15 from the hand. The guy with AK didn't seem to think he was bluffing; I think he honestly thought he thought he had the best hand. Maybe he figured he had 10 live outs (hard to believe he's not reverse-dominated against a hand that will call him), but I have a hard time seeing the profit in shutting out action behind him with a moderate percentage drawing hand. Unfortunately he got up and left at this point.

Later on, I caught a straight against my first big-pot opponent and stacked him again, sat tight for about 5 revolutions, then caught AQs in the cutoff against an EP raise. I call, as does the button, a new player, unknown. The flop comes AA6, the raiser checks, I bet $25 (5/6 the pot or so), new player calls, raiser folds disgustedly (later he said he folded QQ). Turn is a K, I bet $50, not realizing my opponent only had $65 behind. He quickly raises all-in, and I shrink, disgusted, thinking I've just slammed head-first into a boat. Obviously, though, I have to call the $15, and my mouth is literally agape when he turns over KJ (!!!). He's drawing dead and I rake my pot. He rebuys. I salivate.

Later, I catch JJ in late position, raise it up, and get two callers, the first of which is a young player, new, cocky, talking it up. He was the sort of kid it seemed was trying to make his living at poker, playing $1-2 only while he was waiting for his $2-5 table to open up, and was making a go at L-agg play. My instant judgment was that his judgment wasn't anywhere near good enough for L-agg play to be profitable for him (particularly at a 1-2 table, though by now the nits outweighed the donkeys). Anyway, the flop is 27Q rainbow, it's check-check to me, so I c-bet, $25. Cocky kid calls, the other player gets out of the way. I decide I'm done with the hand an instant before a J spikes the turn, then change my mind. :) He checks to me and I bet $40. He quickly calls.

The river is another 7, he checks to me again, I bet $100. He takes forever in folding, and doesn't show, but says that he had me until the turn, to which I blurt out, "yeah, I kinda figured". He also said that the river "saved him a lot of money", by which I thought he might have meant that he had QJ, and folded the river for fear of a counterfeited 2-pair against KK or AA. I said as much, and the guy to my left, a new player who was also waiting for a 2-5 table to open up, laughed quietly and said, so that the kid didn't hear, "No way does he fold QJ there."

"Why, he a regular?" I ask. He nods, grinning. "He pay your bills at $2-5?" He nods again, still grinning.

The 2-5 table eventually opened up and the two left. A third seat was open and I thought about following, but knowing I still don't have the roll for $2-5 (let's face it, I don't really have the roll for $1-2, but never mind), I restrained myself. I stayed for about another hour, losing maybe $50 in small pots, before 7:00 rolled around. That was my pre-ordained quitting time, and a good, aggressive player had joined the table; looking around, I didn't see anyone that I could confirm as a donkey, and I could feel my discipline waning; I had been the second caller of a raise to $12 with 8Ts, and found myself wondering WTF I was thinking when the flop came AK6, it was check-check to me, and I bet. With a 2+ hour drive in front of me, and work the next morning, it was time to leave. I cashed out for $614, over 400 in profit, and treated myself to the overpriced buffet. With the additional weight in my wallet to think about, the drive north was much easier than I might have feared.