One More Try at Casino AZ

Our Nanny was late Monday morning so she was going to stay on for a couple of extra hours. Since I lost the will to work at 2:30 PM and did not have to be home until 5, I decided to skip over to the casino of a quick session of poker.

I originally thought I would jump into a limit game, but then I got the itch to play the 5-150 No Limit Hybrid game instead. I got into a game right away and had 2 hours to try and make some money.

I bought in for $200 which is only 40x the big blind. I decided to try and play a little short stack poker to start. My first hand I was dealt pocket 7's in early position and I mucked them without even thinking. After I threw them away, I had a tinge of regret, but someone else raised preflop and we never even saw the flop so I can't tell if I would have flopped a set or not.

My third hand was pocket Queens. There were two limpers in the pot and I raised to $20 in middle position. I had two more call behind me and the limpers called, so there was $105 in the pot and 5 players. The flop was Jc-7c-5s. I was very disappointed that I had 4 other players in the pot with me. I guess I can give myself a little slack since I had only seen about 6 hands at the table so I had not figured out what amount to raise preflop to limit the field. Obviously $20 wasn't enough! Even so, this flop looked good for my hand. A middle aged gentleman who had limp called under the gun decided to donk bet $30 into the pot.

This bet seemed odd. He's betting into 4 other players out of position. The player to his left folded and it was up to me. I wanted to protect my hand and also find out where I am at, so I raised it to $100. The other two players quickly folded. UTG thought for a little bit and then called.

I am not happy about the call. This pot is over $300 and I only have $80 left. UTG has me covered. Now that he's called I'm thinking he has a set or maybe Ace-Jack. The turn is a red Ace so now the board is Jc-7c-5s-Ad. UTG checks and I check behind him. The river is a blank that does not complete any draws and is lower than a Queen. UTG bets $100. I think about it for a long time and decide to muck it. I just don't have a good enough read on him to think I could beat him with it. I heard a couple of other players speculate that he had a set as well so I think I made the correct laydown. The problem was that I was only there for 15 minutes and I had already lost $120.

I reloaded with another $100 and started over. I won a small pot to get over $200 briefly but it was short lived. Later I called a raise to $15 in late position with pocket 6's. Unfortunately someone else decided to reraise to $65. After one other player called, I knew if I called that a couple more may come along as well. My stack was only $200 so I don't think I quite had the right odds even with 4 players in for $65.

I made the call anyway and the flop was 7-4-4. It was almost perfect. The reraiser led out for $100 and that was all she wrote. Give me 4-5-7 and I could easily push and try to get lucky.

Eventually I was whittled down to $75. I decided to try and play it like a tournament and see if I could find a good spot to double up. I played patient poker. I folded for a couple of rounds. Then I raised with A-9 in the cutoff and steal the blinds.

Later I finally see a flop on my Big Blind with K-10. The flop comes out Kd-7d-Jc. I lead out with a bet of $30 and get one caller. He was a loose player and prone to get a little crazy. Everyone else folded. The turn was a non-diamond and I put the rest of my stack in and he folded. Now I am above $100 again.

Later a young punk who was slightly tilting, raised in middle position to $25. I looked down at Ace-Queen offsuit. I decided to take a chance and moved all in for $125. Everyone folded like lightning to the initial raiser. He took a good 90 seconds to think about it. He muttered something about if he had a pair he might call. That was good news, because I don't think he would have thought twice about playing Ace-King for all his chips. He eventually laid it down and I was up to $165.

Unfortunately my time was up and I had to go. So it was a better session than the last time I was there during the FBR Open Golf Tournament. Still not profitable though.