[GoldenEagle]

August 4th, 2012 Session

Once again, this session happened quite a bit ago. I wasn’t going to bother recapping them, but they are some major lessons that can be learned here. Some details are going to be fuzzy.

I started at around 6:45 PM. The initial $1/3 table that I sat at was very good. The first hand I get involved with is J9. I flopped top pair and an open-ended straight draw. I make my straight on the turn and bet for value. The river is a scary card, an A. My notes say that I checked instead of betting. Looking back now, this is very bad. We have to get thin value in a situation like this. Yes, the board is scary and if I am raised I can re-evaluate. But you have to go for value in this game.

My next involvement is with pocket Tens. I flopped a set and try to slow-play a bit since I think I was heads-up, but really didn’t get much action.

The next hand thing that happened was something that was inexplicable. I decided to move to the $2/5 game. I don’t know what possessed me to do this. I didn’t have the roll for it but I just decided to take a shot.

My first impression was simply wow. I noticed a guy sitting down that was playing a $1/3 with me last night who was definitely a mark. There was an Asian guy who was gambling with every hand. The pots were huge and the action was mesmerizing. I noticed that my focus on the action was greatly increased.

I sat down in the game for $565. There is no cap on what you can buy in for.

The first hand I played was A5o which I opened from the button and got called by a fishy type player in the small blind. The flop was KQ5. I cbet the flop, checked back the turn, and folded to a river bet. I didn’t note what the other turn/river were.

My second hand involved getting AK and three-betting it pre-flop. I also c-bet the flop and got called. I made the second-nut flush on the river and called a $55 bet, but the other player had the nut flush.

The next hand was, unfortunately, my last at $2/5. I picked up QQ and opened to $25 and got two callers. I get called by a younger guy who had just sat down. The flop came T73. I lead for $50 and get raised to $120. I only had about $205 and decided to just ship the rest of it. The V showed TT and took the pot with a set.

I sat back down at a $1/3 game at around 9 PM, but I should have just gone home. The only hand that I put in my notes is that I had Q8, limped in and made a flush on the turn for a decent sized pot.

I think this hand happened that night, but I can’t remember. The details are a bit fuzzy in my mind, but I know I had JJ and the V wound up having three Tens. I stacked off with just an over-pair when it was painfully obvious that he had a strong hand.

I wound up losing like $1000 this night. I am foreshadowing a bit, but this was the beginning of the end sort of.

Lessons Learned
-Don’t take shots when you are not ready. Looking back now, my game was not in a good spot at this time. I wasn’t really putting in that much work. I was doing decent at $1/3, but I spent a very good portion of my bankroll on this night.
-When players are making min-raises on dry boards, it is almost always indicative of a strong hand. Take my QQ vs set of tens in the $2/5 hand. What can he possibly have there besides a set? The only other thing that even remotely makes sense is AT, but does he call pf raise with that?
-Avoid marginal situations when you are playing on a short roll like the A5o hand.