Hot on Wednesdays, cold everywhere else

I am still incredibly hot in the Wednesday night game.

I am finally implementing some of the tells that I learned from “Read’em and Reap” by Joe Navarro.

Two weeks ago I called on the button with K5 suited with Mike in the hand. I flopped absolutely nothing. Mike made the minimum bet on the flop and then started stroking his throat. I remembered that Navarro says that is a soothing behavior when you are uncomfortable. The physical tell plus the minimum bet led me to believe that Mike could be made to fold this hand. I raised with absolutely nothing. Mike thought about it for around a minute then folded. I decided to show the bluff, hoping to keep him from trying to bluff me in the future. Mike said he had middle pair.

Last week, I raised a couple of limpers on the button and Devin called the raise from early position. I think I had KQ or something like that. The flop was A-T-X and I flopped an inside straight draw. Devin checked and I made a continuation bet. I figure it would not be hard for me to represent an Ace here. Devin called but he started touching his face and covering his mouth. Again these are soothing measures so I put him on middle pair and I figure I can get him off the hand with another bet. The turn was no help and I made a ¾ pot sized bet. He hemmed and hawed for a little while and said, “I’ll show you some respect and laid down A-7 for top pair and bad kicker. I decided to show him no respect and turned over my bluff.

I came in 2nd last week to Kory. Kory built up another monster stack but by the time it was heads up, I was in the chip lead. Unfortunately I think I ran into some cold decks, because it seemed like every time I raised preflop, he was able to reraise me off the hand. Then I went on a streak of 7-8 hands in a row where my highest card was an 8. When the blinds are high, that is a killer. I could not luck my way back into it and Kory finished me off. Still I have cashed in 6 of the last 7 weeks.

Since the golf courses are overseeding, I was bored and got the kitchen pass to go to the casino. Last week I snuck out and lost a quick $150 at 3-6 hold'em to a bunch of middle pair flush chasers. This time I wanted to take a shot at the 5-150 game again.

I was dealt a few hands including pocket Kings and pocket Queens and won some small pots. The problem was I lost two really big ones and they cost me my $300 stack. The first one was AhQh on the small blind. I raised a bunch of limpers and got one caller. The flop had an Ace so I bet and he just called. The turn brought a blank, except that put two spades and two diamonds on board. I thought about checking and keeping the pot small, but I did not want to give him a free draw. I bet and he raised all in which was just $25 more. He turned over the AsQs. Same hand except now he has the spade draw which of course hits on the river. He runner-runner flushes me for $200.

My last hand I had A9o in late position. There were a bunch of limpers so I decided to come along. The small blind raises to $20. I had seen him earlier limp with AQ so I am figuring him for a high pocket pair or AK. The flop has an Ace and he checks. It checks to me and I bet $30 into a $80 pot, just to see where I am. Everyone folds except the initial raiser who calls. Since he just called, I am feeling like he has KK or QQ and can't lay it down yet. The turn puts the third heart on the board. He checks and I figure a big bet will get him to lay it down or maybe even lay down A-10 or A-J. Instead he instacalls with QhJh for the flush. Bad read on my part. I still don't know how he raises that hand preflop with all those callers but it paid off.

I am still waiting for my good run at Casino Arizona. It's been 10 years over due.