So, at the
Crackhouse game last night I was stacked. Again. Twice. Or maybe three times. Who's counting?
Yet, this is another moral victory post, instead of just a whine-about-luck post.
The victories?
Taking down some big hands against some people I really respect.
Making some very good decisions about when to push and when to fold. (Not including the one key hand and the last hand, unfortunately....)
Having the rest of the table generally wrong-footed regarding what I was playing at any given time.
The big hand of the evening (for me, anyway) was when someone pulled a "Way to go, Dutch!" rabbit out of his hat. Ron Lad sitting out of position goes toe-to-toe holding the premium hand of 6 3 off against my pocket Aces. I had him in for roughly half his stack pre-flop, put him all-in when he checks to me on the trash flop (that should have been an alarm, but what the hey...) he ends up boating up and more than doubling up, taking me for half my stack and the
dead money Ari contributed to the pot.
What made the suckout not-so-bad was Ari's running commentary at my big betting that she knew I was playing shit but couldn't call, followed by her explanation after showdown that of course she didn't have me on big cards because I play marginal hands, etc.
I know I play marginal hands at times. I lose money with them more often than not, but as long as they get people to follow my truly premium hands with 6 3 off, I think those marginal hands are probably good long-term investments.
So, if I feel so good about how I played, how come I lost multiple buy-ins?
Well, stuff happens.
Once in a while when playing play money on PokerStars I will imply that I'm a good player. When I do so, it's always meant to be relative to the cohort playing play money. In the real world I'm not a good player yet, although I see how I could become a very good player. I actually feel I'm making some progress in that direction.
Which is why this is a moral victory post.
p.s. In Dawn's writeup, she mashes up two hands in her description of what happened. The hand where everyone assumed I'd flopped a straight, and instead I had Aces, I recall winning without showdown. (I showed the Rockets to the table, and the general mis-reads on the two hands may be what jumbled them in her mind). Her reportage of the board is wrong too, but I don't recall exactly what it was, something like a rainbow T 6 3 I think. She has the action right up to the flop. It comes out, I have position on the table, it checks (GOOD check by Ron Lad) to me, and I look at the trash board, decide that if anyone hit any of it it was a glancing blow, but fearing a PokerStars-style suckout I go all-in. Ari does her "I know you have shit" speech, mucks, and Ron gleefully calls. At which point I know he's hit two pair, but I don't feel so bad about it because of all the
Sklansky dollars I'd earned pre-flop. Post flop Ron's check should actually have scared me, but I had him on a weak ace that might have caught part of the flop, so I'm okay with the all-in, even if the Sklansky dollars would be a wash.
(I had Rockets twice last night and Cowboys once. I won a pot at showdown after betting on the turn after hitting a boat.
F-Train folded to me on that, and I didn't show. I actually did win quite a few smallish pots without showdown. My cards were either great or crappy, with very little in-between. Dawn called me on complaining about my cards, and she's right; I did catch more than my share of premium hands, and I had a lot of easy folds. Just didn't have a lot of the types of hands i really like to
play.)
