November wrap up

So November came and went and I didn’t blog for the last two weeks (I know totally standard). The reasons are two-fold. First I was waiting till my grind week finished before posting the wrap up, but then I ended up not having enough free time to address it before I went home for thanksgiving. While I was home I wasn’t playing as much, and I really didn’t feel like explaining the blog to my folks so I just figured I would wait until I got home.

So Tuesday I made it a goal to write another entry, but then I just kept putting it off. Then Thursday night I went down to Foxwoods again (lol the games are so easy +$530) and then I had to grind for 4 hours yesterday afternoon in order to maintain my VIP elite status on AP (ship the bonus monies).

So I ended up having my second best month ever, just under $6k with another $2k or so in RB and bonus. The interesting thing is that I actually won more money playing NL2 than I did playing limit, and in about half as many hands. I think I ran decent in NL, but nothing spectacular. Frankly I find the games much easier than limit games, and I think I’m going to play more NL this month with a goal of moving up to NL4 by the end of the month. Because the vip points are worth less on FTP than AP I plan on playing NL exclusively on FTP and playing limit exclusively on AP. Obviously if the limit games are fantastic on FTP or if I feel like playing deep-stack NL I might switch it up. But that is my plan.

I didn’t reach my goal of a five-figure month, but that was purely because I didn’t play enough hands over the thanksgiving break (and at the beginning of the month). I only played about 23k hands and I had hoped to hit 30k for the month. I am really working hard on game selection and only playing when I am focused, but I am sure I can find more good spots to play especially now that I will be playing NL half the time.

The Foxwoods trips was fun the other night. Got there about 10pm and played NL2 for about 2.5 hours to start the night. I bought in for the max ($200) and had to play tight. I actually had so-so seat at the table, but then it quickly got better as a couple of the players to my right really opened up. Basically I just played super nitty since my stack size really didn’t let me tangle in the frequently raised pots (typical raises were $12-15). I had my stack up to about $250 after I won a pot where I limped in the cutoff with T9o the flop was 998 with two spades. A fairly aggro player who had bluffed a couple of times before lead at the pot from early position for $12 (pot was about $26 then) and I raised it up to $36. He thought for a short time and called making the pot about $75. The turn was an off-suit J giving me an OESD to go with my trips and he checked. I was pretty much positive I was ahead so I bet $65 and he folded after a lot of thought.

About 12 hands or so later I am in the HJ and I see QQ. The same loose aggressive player (but seemingly not an idiot) raises from EP to $15. He has raised fairly frequently but I don’t think he is raising with total trash. I decide I need to raise enough to charge the small pkts and suited connectors, also because if I don’t reraise I’m going to induce 3-5 callers and be playing QQ purely for set value. I make it $45 to go and a loose but decent player with a really big stack calls on the button. The EP initial raiser then makes it $135 to go. I ask him how much he has and it around $280 or so and after thinking for about 45 seconds I muck. The button thinks for longer and then folds. The EP player then flips KK face up. The button says he had QJ (lol) and I tell him I had QQ. They believe me but are pretty surprised at my fold. Obviously if the guy with KK had a smaller stack I would have gone with it and he would have won a nice pot. But when a non-maniac live player 4-bets preflop into a tight player’s 3-bet and a bigstack cold-call you can pretty much assume he has AA or KK. I actually would have had to think longer if he had shoved because then AK might have been in his range. But as played it reeked of AA or KK. So the hand cost me $45, but I saved $200 thanks to his raise. If I was him I probably would have either called and open shoved any non A flop, or just moved in. As played his bet folds out pretty much all hands but AA. So he really isn’t making any money with that bet.

I later won a decent pot when I raised 77 from the SB to about $6. I was just trying to build a pot so I could win big if I hit a set. However when the flop came 864 I really figured to have the best hand so I bet out for $20. I got one caller who had a med stack and was fairly loose. The turn was another 8, but I figured he would have raised with an 8 on the flop (he was one of those players who wanted to find out where he was at) so I fired another $35 into the pot. He thought for awhile and said he was thinking about raising, but in the end he mucked what he claimed was a 6.

Then I stacked the guy from the KK vs QQ hand (he was tilting from bluffing off $280 while playing the 72 game with some guys at the table) when I raised to $15 pf with QQ. I got 6 callers ($90 pot) and lead out for $75 on a 985 flop. I planned to get it in if someone raised, sets be damned because I just didn’t have enough behind and certainly couldn’t just check the flop. The tilting guy thought for a long time. Remarked that I was the tightest player at the table, no one had seen me SD a hand, but I always bet everyone out. He said against anyone else that he would already be all-in. He thought and thought and thought. At this point I put him on TT, A9, or a pair and a gutshot. Basically I was really really hoping he shoved. He did for about another $40 and I of course insta called. The turn and river where unimportant and he flipped up K9. He muttered some stuff and walked off. Two hands later I picked up AK in the BB. The player two to my left open raised to $17 without looking at his cards (his friend dared him) and he got 4 callers (about $90 in the pot). I made it $90 to go and everyone fold. Once short stack though for awhile about going with his 97s but decided to muck. At that point I was up to about $500, but I had busted most of the loose money to my right. I was sitting with three big stacks to my left who were all fairly loose aggressive competent players (not good but not bad). Needless to say my seat was horrible to be playing a bigstack especially compared to the normal live action at Foxwoods. So I got up and took a break and ate and orange I brought with me while I walked around the casino.

When I came back I didn’t feel like playing NL so I found a $5/10 limit game that was playing with a kill when there was a $100 pot. After a pot of $100 the next hand would be played as $10/20 game with a $10 dead blind from the guy who won the pot (for those that haven’t played with a kill). At first I walked by the game three times and couldn’t decide whether or not to sit. It was the deadest game in the casino with 7 old guys who weren’t speaking and looked like someone had stolen their dentures. But I saw that their was a lot of loose limpers and check-calling going on, and I quickly noticed that the best seat at the table was open. I could sit to the left of all of the goofy limpers an to the right of all of the tighties that would actually fold pf. I hit some hands and played decent and won $230 over the next 2 hours. My biggest win was when I limped 87s in the CO in a kill pot and then proceeded to spike the nut straight on the turn (with a flush draw no less). We got 2 bets in on the turn and another bet in on the river (amongst 3 players). Then the next hand I was the kill and I got dealt AA (woooohoooo) but lost when a guy with AK hit his gin KKT flop. He actually checked the river after c/r’ing the turn, and thus missed at least one bet against me. I probably could have folded to his turn c/r, but he had made some screwy plays and I really didn’t want to muck in a big pot. If I had spiked the case A on the river some fire works would have gone off because the other player had the QJ (would have made a straight) and I would have the nuts boat against the second nut boat. I tried to talk the table up and loosen the players up, but nothing was happening. Needless to say it was a super easy game, and the only mistake I think I made was missing a river bet with KK when a guy bluff raised me on the turn and I didn’t donk into him (he had bottom pair or something) on the river.

Plan on making a couple more trips to Foxwoods this month. The games are super soft, the drive isn’t too bad if you avoid rush hour traffic, and it is a nice break from online grinding.

That is all for now. December started off well. I played like a big dumb LAG on some 5/10 and 10/20 tables on AP and got up $700 over about 450 hands. Going to play some NL on FTP now. Rooting for OU against Missouri in the Big 12 championship game because I want to see OSU in the title game. Whoever ends up playing against WVU I will be rooting for, because I hate those classless hill-billies with a passion.