Update

It's been a while since I've updated this, mostly due to complications with my internet connection, but hopefully now I'll be able to update more regularly, and will try and post more hands and poker content. The past few weeks have been super stressful, and the session I mentioned in my last entry was the beginning of what ended up being the worst week I've ever had. Regardless of what game or stakes I played, I ran horribly and got killed all week. I ended up taking a day off just to get my shit together, and after some words of encouragement from my Mom and Dad, was able to put together a nice string of 5 consecutive winning sessions at 1/2 NL to recover. However, the week ended up on a pretty sour note, as the following two hands took place on Sunday night at the Mirage:

I have $340 and am dealt AA in the small blind. UTG +1, who is total dogshit, opens for $7. Just a quick note, on the hand immediately before this, this player got his entire stack in preflop with a hand that couldn't beat AQ high on a K33xx board. Needless to say, he is dogshit and tilting a bit.

Anyway, Dogshit opens for $7, two players call and it comes to me in the SB and I repop to $32. He slams his chips into the pot, giving off that "You can't push me around" air, that a lot of awful players occasionally give off when they tilt. The other two players fold, and I have my aces heads up against a terrible player who's tilting. Perfect.

Flop comes 2 3 5 with two clubs, and I lead out for $60. Dogshit beats me into the pot, and the quick call reeked of a draw, so I had already decided to slam the turn if a non club/non straight card fell. The turn wast the 8 of diamonds, I shove for a little over $200 (there was about that much in the pot as well), and he snap calls. This kind of shocked me, and I now figured he must have had QQ or KK, but after the river blanked off, he showed his lovely 88 for a turned set of eights, and I got stacked. $60 for a two outer? Nice hand, sir.

I immediately reloaded, and the next poker abortion took place on the very next hand. Dogshit, who is now under the gun, opens for $10, and gets 5 callers (yes, this was a very very good game). I'm on the button, look down at K9 of clubs, and decide to take a flop bc I have position, a playable hand, and am getting basically infinite implied odds from the lowlifes at this table if I hit a big hand. BOTH the small blind and big blind call (yes, thats 8 players seeing the flop in a raised pot), and we see a flop with $80 in the pot. The flop comes 7 8 10, with two spades and one club, so I flop and open ended straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. This is a great flop for my hand, but definitely an action flop, so I want to play it somewhat cautiously so I don't get blown off my draw. For whatever reason (did I mention these players were garbage?) the action CHECKS around to me on the button. In many cases, I would fire out here, but I found it hard to believe that no one got a piece of this, so I decided to check behind and take a free shot at my straight. Also, semi-bluffing into 8 assholes just doesn't seem like a very +EV play. So I check, and the lovely 6 of diamonds peels off to make my straight. Gin. NOW, the small blind (a retired gentleman who is a regular at the Mirage and terrible) leads out for $30. This is a pretty odd bet, considering its the most draw heavy board of all time, the straight just got there, there's $80 in the pot, and there are SEVEN PEOPLE left to act after you. Well, our good friend Dogshit calls for some reason, and it gets folded to me. At this point, I had no problem taking down the $140 pot right there, so I raise it $150 to $180, which is pretty much announcing what my hand is, and I'm ok with that. Well, after a second or two of thought, the small blind calls, Dogshit folds, and I figure that the small blind and I are going to chop the pot, since we must both have nines, right? Right??? Well, the river is the lovely 6 of hearts, which pairs the board and the small blind pushes all in. Vomit. Of course, there is no way I'm folding my last $60 into a $450 dollar pot, so I stack off, and he shows his 77, which makes his rivered full house. Now usually, I'm pretty reserved and respectful at the table, but this set me off, and I had a little explosion of sorts. When I eventually asked him what the fuck he thought I had, he answered "Well of course you had the nine!" So he basically called off another $150 knowing he was crushed and hoping to catch a miracle. Well played.

I've never been stacked on two consecutive hands before, and to have it happen on two bad beats was a little much to handle, so I had to take the next day off to cool off. It took some time, but I eventually reminded myself that ridiculous hands like this are why you play, because more often than not these terrible players will succeed in giving there money away.

Anyway, I had a great session at the Venetian last night, and will probably play there again tonight, so I'll be back soon with more updates.