A Winning Session At Greektown

First off let me apologize for the delay in getting this posted. Work has just swamped me over the last couple of days. I guess thats what happens when you are out of town for two weeks straight. Also, I will post up the links to everyones blogs later today.


After lasting three hands in the tournament I went up to the sign-up desk and was able to be put at the top of the list. Telling bad beat tales does work! I got an immediate seat at the 2/5 NL game (300 max buy-in). In the first lap around the table I got involved in one hand where I raised the flop with air to a c-bet from someone to my immediate right. I can't remember the board texture but it did not look like it hit him. I raised his $20 c-bet to $50 on the flop. He check-called a $50 bet on the turn and folded to my $100 bet on the river. Sometimes you follow your reads and it works although I'm not sure this was a great spot since I was only at the table around 5 minutes. Whatever, it worked I guess. After the hand I have $450.

The next couple of hours I didn't get much and hovered around the $400 mark making it down to as low as $290 before I made my run. The player to the right of me was playing fairly tight and kept asking me if I was a pro. Hahahahhaha. I'm not going to tell him otherwise. I swear wearing the Full Tilt hat gets me respect when I'm bluffing and action when I have the goods. This guy took a seat on the opposite side of the table a bit later and became a maniac. Before I knew it he went from $300 to over $1600 in a matter of 2 hours. This guy played top top like it was the nuts. One particular hand he straddled and made it 40 when it got back to him. Flop comes A,x,x and he leads out for $50 and gets one caller. Turn is a blank and he bets out $125 and gets called. River is another blank and he shoves for $300 or so and gets called. He shows A,K and the other guy shows A,Q. That's how you make money huh?

OK back to my hands. There were not a lot of dramatic hands but I chipped up fairly steadily. After getting nothing for 2 hours straight I pick up A,A in late position. A mid-position short stack makes it $30 to go leaving $50 behind and I call. All else fold and he shoves his last $50 dark and I call dark. He has K,K and my hand holds up. About 1/2 hour later I pick-up AhAd in late position again. Another short stacker makes it $25 to go from middle position and I call. Heads-up the flop comes KhJh10h. The short stack shoves for $85 and I call. He flopped a set of Jacks but I hit a heart on the turn and fade a boat on the river for another decent sized pot.

There were two hands where I was fortunate to win. The first hand I have 9,7 in one of the blinds and check my option. The flop comes 9 high and I check. The UTG player makes it $20 to go and I check raise to $60 and he calls. The turn is a 10 and it goes check check. The river is a quessn and it goes check check again. I roll over my hand and he mucks. The next hand I have Q,J in late position and limp. The flop comes 8 high and one of the blinds bets out $25 and I raise to $75 and he calls. OK I'm done with this hand when he calls but a Q comes on the turn. He checks to me and I bet out $100 and he calls. The river is a 9 and it goes check check and my queen is good.

I had K,K twice and was fortunate enough to get away losing the minimum. The first time I raise to $30 and get one caller. The flop comes A,J.x. Its checked to me and I bet out $50 and get raised to $150. I fold and he shows a set of jacks. The next time i get KK in late position and raise to $25 and get 2 callers, one of them being the guy who overvalues top pair. The flop comes A,x,x. Overvalue guy bets out $30 and the next player raises to $75. I fold. Both got all of their money in with A,Q for a chop. Easy folds in both cases.When I folded and showed the KK the first time I think people thought they could steal from me.

The next biggish pot I played I had 8d7d on the BB. Only one player limped and we went heads-up to the flop. The flop came 9,8,6 rainbow. I check called a $20 bet. Turn was an ace and I check called a $25 bet. River was another ace. I checked and the other guy shoves for $250. Wow. This was a tough one. He was a solid player who played some marginal hands but didn't seem to get too out of line for a lot of money. I thought about it for a minute but decided to fold. Later he told me he had the boat with A,9. He thought the over shove on the end may get me to call. It almost did but it was just too much money in that spot.

The last big hand of the night I limped on the button with Kd9d. There were 4-5 to the flop of Ad7d4c. The UTG player who seemed to be playing fairly tight (we had only seen one hand in 2 hours which was two pair which lost) made it $25 to go. All others folded and I called. The turn was the gin card for me, a baby diamond. He bets out $50 and I min raise to $100 and he calls. The river was a brick 2c. He leads out $100 with around $250 behind. The question I was wondering was how to get the rest of his stack or as much of it as possible. I decided to shove. After a few seconds he folded. I wonder if another min-raise or a bet to $225-250 would have worked. Oh well, I was happy with the pot.

After I had built up a decent stack to around $1000 I was able to make $25-$30 rasies with A,K and A,Q, hit top pair, bet out $40 and the 1-2 callers would fold. I had A,A one other time and raised to $30 with no callers.

The guy wondering if I was a pro or not took his $1600 stack and pissed it down to $200 and left. Imagine that.

One other hand I forgot to mention earlier was I had a 7d6d in early position and limped. I flopped the absolute nuts with a 5d4d3d board for the straight flush. It was checked around, damn it. The turn brought a 4th diamond. It gets checked around again. Damn!!! The river is a blank and I bet out $30 and get 1 caller. Why can't anyone have the Ad there?

After playing from 7:15pm till 3:15am and the table getting tougher with the fish now gone I got up with $1258 sitting in front of me for a $958 profit. Thank god I busted from the tourney early.


Next week I will be in Baton Rouge and will be able to get to Harrah's in New Orleans one night before I leave. Its been a long time since I have been there and I'm looking forward to it.