Cash Game Report, Part II

More hands from the $2/$5 No Limit at MGM Grand ...
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10x-9x, Stack $320
"Barney" raises to $25 UTG. I don't know why I call him that ... although with his build and blond hair there could be a Barney Rubble thing going on there. Apparently he and Greeny are from the same home casino in Canada, and play together often but are NOT friends. More like familiar acquaintances that kid each other a lot ... or so Barney informed me. Anyway, two people call including Greeny in the small blind, and I call as well in the big. The flop is 10-8-5 all different suits. Small blind checks, I check, Barney (yet another young gun LAG at this table) cbets $45. One fold, the Greeny calls, and I check-raise to $190. Barney makes an exasperated fold, and Greeny flashes a 10 and then folds. Hmm, maybe I wasn't good there, lol. Oops. Barney claims pocket 9's ... I don't show, but drag the pot. Stack up to $485 ... rolling along now.

Ad-Kd, Stack $660
Have won some nice pots without showdowns. Similar in action to this hand, sort of. On the hand immediately prior, I had raised preflop, then cbet $100 on an ace-high flop with pocket Jacks to take it down. On this hand, after Barney and Greeny both limp, I raise to $40 in the big blind. They both call. The flop is A-4-3 rainbow. I say aloud "Same bet," meaning the same continuation bet as in the previous hand of $100. But the dealer doesn't take it that way. He says "Forty dollars," and Barney immediately sets out $40 to call. When I explain that I meant $100, they call the floor over because they think Same Bet should mean the same as the previous street. Fair enough. The floorman sides with the dealer and my opponents, and they both call the $40 bet. The turn is a Jack. I bet out $150 and they both fold. They comment that had I bet $100 on the flop, they would not have called ... so the mistake earned me $80 extra. Woohoo!

9x-9x, Stack $900
By now, Fedora is long gone, and his absence has probably played a role in my chipping up so nicely. Fewer good players to contest my pots. But there has been another stack of $2,000 sitting at my table and not seeing much action. It belongs to a young local pro who has been in and out of the game (mostly out) since I sat down. He wasn't involved in the current hand so much as he was in the post mortem analysis.

There are two limpers, I raise to $40 on the button, and only one of the limpers calls -- Skinny. The flop is 10c-10s-6c. Check-check. The turn is the 4d. Check-check. The river is the 9h. Skinny bets out $45, and I pretend to tank before raising to $145. He folds instantly. The pro asked what I had, and I answer him truthfully. He frowns, and then asks why I didn't bet the flop. While it's normally not my policy to discuss strategy with my more dangerous opponents, I guess being up $500 is making me feel a little cocky. I explain to him reasoning. I don't see too many hands that call my flop bet, other than maybe a worse pocket pair or a club draw. But still, on that flop, I run the risk of getting check-raised out of the pot by a weaker hand. I have a pretty good idea of where I'm at, so why not wait to see if bad cards come, or wait until he tries to take a stab at it. If bad cards come, I can call down if my read says I still might be good. And if good cards come, I can raise his bluff and maybe make more money. It's both playing it small in case I get beat, and inducing bluffs for when my hand holds up. Do you all, my readers, agree? Discuss.

Ah-Jc, Stack $1,100
Skinny raises to $25 in the hijack. Greeny folds, and I decide I am going to try and use my rock solid tight image and make a move here. I re-raise him to $80. It is folded around to him, and he calls pretty quickly. The flop is 6-6-4. We both check. The turn is an 8. We check. River King, and we also check. He shows me A-J of spades! He smiles when he sees we are chopping, and says "I just wanted to beat you with A-J of spades like you did to me earlier." (On an earlier hand, we had gotten the money in on the flop, me having a flush draw. I hit the nut flush on the turn ... and he never showed what he had on that one.)

This hand really had me thinking, though. I couldn't figure out if Skinny somehow thought his hand was good preflop, if he really just wanted to beat me with A-J, or what. I did not consider A-J to be in my re-raising range. In fact, the only other time I had re-popped preflop was with the pocket 2's very early on in the session. He might have been remembering that hand, but I had really really tightened up since that crazy beginning where I was all in every two seconds, it seemed. Maybe he hadn't noticed that tightening up. And maybe since I had won a few pots without a showdown, he just decided to play with me. I don't know ... I just can't figure out what he thought A-J would be able to beat, out of position after the flop. To a rare three-bet. Couldn't figure out his reasoning ... he was either just a bad player (he did call down with J-10 earlier) or had a great read on me. Don't know which.
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Anyway, I finished that session +$850 after about five hours of play. It was pretty sweet to swim with the sharks and not get hurt! Can't wait to go back ...