Marathon Monday – 1/7/18 (Live Blog)

11:50 AM: Struggled to wake up this morning. Missed yoga. Skipped meditation. Showed up thirty minutes late for $15/$30. I wasn’t even sure it would go today. There were four names on the list when I left last night. But I received texts asking where I was so I headed on in and four players were sitting around the table not playing.

Staring lineup consists of Chief Wiggins and Radio Mike and three other Palace regs, one of which never plays very long.

Pretty great start. I’ve VPIP’d four hands and lost all of them, including this gem: I open UTG with ATcc and only the big blind defends. Flop is KJ4 with two clubs and I double barrel and get check-raised unimproved on the turn. I call, whiff, fold, and the big blind kindly shows me J4o. Solid defend.

12:16 PM: Four players limp, I limp A3dd on the button, blinds call. Flop 876ddd. Checks to second to last limper and he bets, fold, I just call. I would raise here a lot but I have four players yet to act and I think calling makes me more than isolating usually. I do pick up two callers and the turn is 2d. Checks to me and I bet. Only the flop bettor calls. He ends up having K5dd. Brutal turn.

I raise one limper from cutoff with KQo. Four ways to K97 flop. Chief Wiggum donks from the big blind, folds to me, and I raise. He calls and check-calls the turn before donking a 9 on the river. Pretty weird for him to lead flop with a 9, so I’m tempted to raise but I land on call and he shows 98cc. Okay.

More fun: two limpers, I raise QQ on the button. Flop is 998 and both limpers call. Turn is a 6 and only one of the calls. River is a king, I bet and he calls with… KJo.

At least the game is good.

Trying to give off a tilty vibe:

12:44 PM: Full game now. The player to my right’s breath is launching an attack on my nostrils so ferocious I’m considering the rare seat change that has no strategic purpose – except maybe tilt reduction?

12:50 PM: One limper, button raises, I defend 22. Three ways to T62 with two clubs; I check-raise and call a 3-bet. Turn is an ace and I check-raise again. He calls. River pairs the ace, he calls, and shows KK. Pretty lucky to get a check-raise in on this turn, which makes me wonder if I’m taking the optimal flop line. I think it’s fine but I should at least consider leading this turn since it seems like he has an overpair most of the time. His flush draws are usually to the nuts though, so I dunno.

1:05 PM: Battling with s7 today. He had the J4o, KJ and KK earlier. He opens HJ, I 3-bet AA on the button, and Chief Wiggum caps from the big. Flop is Q53 and they both check to me and call. Turn pairs the 5 or 3 and the action is the same. River is a 6 and now the s7 donks??? Comical. I mean it looks like 66 to me and his lead is hilarious because I’m obviously betting the river most of the time on this run out (my entire range – not this specific hand, which I’m always betting). I call and he shows 66.

Very next hand he opens in the lo-jack and now that I’ve seen he’s opening medium pairs I’m 3-betting KQo here. Chief Wiggum caps from the small blind and I say, “didn’t we just play this hand?” Flop is KQ3 and for the second hand in a row Chief Wiggum caps out of position and checks the flop. You don’t see that everyday. This time the board runs out KQ3Q and s7 check-calls me down with AK.

1:49 PM: Radio Mike opens UTG, Wiggum cold calls next to act, someone else calls and I defend A4ss from the big. Flop is A43 two clubs and I check-raise a bet and call from Radio Mike and Chief Wiggum. Turn is a 5 and they both call again. River is an 8. I bet, Mike folds, and Wiggum calls with… 55. I guess losing in weird and unexpected ways is the theme today.

3:19 PM: Radio Mike opens UTG, one or two call and I defend J9o. Flop is AT7 and I peel with one other player in. Turn is a queen giving me additional straight outs. Mike bets, Wiggum calls, and I call, planning to lead kings and check-raise 8s. River is an 8! I check-raise and Mike pays it off.

4:05 PM: Nothing too exciting to report. The game is kind of dull at the moment, with two players sitting out, and more chopping than normal – like three in a row as I’m typing this. Players have been filtering in and out of the game and we haven’t really had a 9-handed game for a few hours probably.

I’m floating around even at the moment. We are recently joined by a spazzy Palace reg I will call Taz because he reminds me of the Looney Toons character both in demeanor and in body shape.

4:50 PM: Multiple limps, Radio Mike raises cutoff, I 3-bet AK on the button and six of us see a JTx rainbow flop. It checks to Mike and he donks. I opt to raise since I’d rather clear some players out and calling really telegraphs my hand – also Mike is less likely to 3-bet than most players. Three players cold call and Mike calls. Sheesh. Turn is a king which is good because it gives me top pair but it improves a lot of other hands and I will have to bet-call if I get raised. Only two players call. I feel like my hand is good. But the river is an ace and it goes lead and call in front of me. I fold and they chop it up with QJo and Mike’s QThh.

5:05 PM: JJ holds in a button straddle pot and I believe I have sugar for the first time today.

6:08 PM: Back to a full game. Radio Mike and Taz still in the lineup. One of the bigger action Palace regs is also in the game and a 4/8 player that also writes a blog (link later – AJ’s Blog) is taking a shot in this game. It will be interesting to see if we clash and write about the same hands.

6:33 PM: Action Bronson – my name for the active Palace reg I mentioned earlier – straddles. I didn’t play or pay attention to this hand but at showdown Action is scooping a big pot with J3o after making a full house.

He says to Radio Mike: “You see that, Mike? I straddled and won a big pot!”

Mike says, “Oh wow, I missed it.”

I say, “Look at everyone’s face and guess who he beat,” as his opponent is sitting there with steam coming off his head (oh stop – some people deserve a little needling).

7:08 PM: Fun sequence of hands:

Hand 1 – I post my big blind coming back from a break. Five players in before my action and I decide to check AJo. Flop is AQJ rainbow. I lead out, the guy that’s been in s7 all day raises me, heads up now, I 3-bet, and he calls. I’m happy about that. I think he would cap the flop with KT and since he limped in he never has sets and probably not AQ. Turn is an 8. I bet and he calls. River is a ten, which seems bad, but I think he has QJ exactly and I don’t think he ever has a king and probably doesn’t have A9. I bet, he calls, and my hand is good.

Hand 2 – Two hands later on the button, I open with QTo and the big blind 3-bets me. I call. Flop is QJ8. He bets, I raise and he calls. Turn pairs the jack and he’s telegraphing a check-call, but my Spidey senses are tingling. I check back. River is a ten. We both check again and he wins with AA.

Hand 3 – A few orbits later, but happened as I was typing this. Two limpers, small calls, and I raise JJ in the big. Four of us see a 765dd flop. I lead, new player calls, Action Bronson raises, fellow blogger in the small calls two cold, I 3-bet (Jd in my hand) and everyone calls. Turn is a 3. Pretty bad. I decide my best line is bet-fold, so I fire into the field and no one folds, but no one raises. The river pairs the 3 and I think for a bit and determine my hand is good. I bet, two folds, the blogger calls, and I win the pot.

Reading good.

8:47 PM: Player announces he’s going to raise every hand now and does so UTG, folds to me and I 3-bet QQ, next player caps and it’s three of us to the Q64 flop with two hearts. Bets go in. 8h on turn and UTG still leads. I still raise. He calls. River 3h, he checks, I check and announce set of queens and he rolls A9o with the ace of hearts.

9:28 PM: Not much movement in the game or with my chips for a while. Action Bronson left after the NCAA championship game and was replaced by one of the most solid regs at Palace. Not ideal. We have managed to lock Peter out of the game for about two hours now which is pretty cool. He’s next up though.

I am currently up about $140. Radio Mike is up over $1500 hitting basically everything and sucking out like it’s his job. In fact, Radio Mike is running so pure that he’s completely tuned out of the game and timing out basically every time it’s his turn to act while he strolls Twitter and reads messages on his phone. Not a single care in the world. He’s won pots he didn’t even know he was in.

10:11 PM: Pay-Off Pete has made it into the game!

Pretty inactive on my part. I opened AA from the button and won a showdown. I defended my big with 22 heads up, flopped a set on an ace high board, whiffed my check-raise on the flop and got called on the two big bet streets by JJ.

10:20PM: Doesn’t take long for Peter and I to clash. He buys the button to come in and then on his button I open UTG with 88. Taz and another player cold call and Peter 3-bets. We all call. Flop is QT2 rainbow. Checks to Peter, he bets and I decide to peel getting 18-1. The other two call also and I bink my set on the turn. I check-raise, Taz cold calls, and Peter 3-bets. Really? I call down and he shows TT.

10:35 PM: I come back from a break and post in the cutoff. I’m still getting situated and the dealer prompts me and I ask “did it fold to me?” He says, “yes.” And I respond “then I’m probably going to be raising.” I give my cards a courtesy look, see 96o, and raise it up. The button cold calls and Peter defends. Flop is KQ5 and the button calls my flop bet. He’s been pretty sticky today so I’m surprised to see my double barrel on the 8 turn get the job done.

11:28 PM: Peter waits two hours to get into the game and an hour later we are five handed and it’s not a good five. I have flopped sets twice in the last 20 minutes and got no action. I will be leaving shortly.

But I’m giving action! Folds to SB and he raises. I defend T8ss. Flop is Js7s4 and we are in Overs. He bets, I raise, he raises. I estimate my fold equity at 0% so I just call. Whiff turn and call again. Whiff river and fold. Blah.

11:57 PM: Quit the $15/$30 game and finished -$324. There is a $3/$6 game going with some loud and rambunctious players and I decided to convert some chips to white and sit down in it with my $1676. I thought it would be hilarious to sit down with a massive amount of chips and play super serious. I couldn’t stomach a full game but it is 6-handed with me.

12:03 AM: Everybody limps in and I raise with A6ss for the big blind. Flop is Q87sss. I don’t win. KQ way too strong.

12:14 AM: One of the players just noticed that all the chips under my top rack are red and green and says “damn, he has money we can’t even fathom!” 😂

12:23 AM: Drunk kid limps on the button, scared money (I know this because I floored here for over a year) raises in the small blind and I 3-bet AK. They both call and then call me down on QJT73. Small blind has AA. 😂. Ruining people’s nights now.

12:34 AM: Not gonna lie. I broke the game. One of the players wanted to have raising wars with me but I always had something and he never had anything and I busted him and the game crumbled beneath my $45 win.

1:20 AM I was curious when the last time I even played a hand of $3/$6 was and discovered that I played zero seconds of $3/$6 in 2017, but I did used to prefer sitting in $3/$6 games in 2016 while I was waiting for a seat in something else as opposed to sitting around doing nothing. But then I lost 11 times in a row. My longest “session” in that span was 31 minutes. Most of them were 15 minutes or less. I would usually post my blinds a couple of times without playing a hand and move on. I decided it was a better use of my time to do literally anything else. Especially since the wait was never very long.  I enjoy warming up in $4/$8 LHE and $1/$3 NL though.

Not much to say about the $15/$30 session. I have run really mediocre in that game so far. The competition is not necessarily stiffer at the higher stakes. The games have been very good, but my results have been really ho hum. I am running at $29.27/hour overall but that’s inflated because I hit a $2300 jackpot while playing $15/$30. Take that away and my win rate has been $6.09/hour over my first 100 hours of Palace $15/$30. Yuck!