Poker tonight

[Grits and Shins]

Had my local game tonight. We always start with a no-limit tournament $20 buy in gets you $1500 in chips, no re-buys. Eight people pays top 3 - 100, 40, 20. First hand of the night I win $800 in chips from another player at the table. It finally game down to me and one other guy head-to-head. He had about a 6 to 1 chip advantage over me. I offered to chop 1st and 2nd so we could get to the cash game, obviously his response was no. I doubled up a couple of times and had about a 3 to 1 chip advantage over him and he offered to chop the pot, I politely declined. He should have chopped when I offered ... I completed the come back and won the tournament.

 

Cash game - $60 buy in, 1/2 limit. I had two memorable hands that made my night. I scored a straight flush and got action from a player that had the misfortune of having 2 pairs (Aces and sevens). The biggest hand of the night though was when I started with pocket aces. Board flops A-5-6 rainbow. I'm betting the whole way and getting action from a couple of other players. Turn is a 4. Obviously I hate the turn but I don't read anybody betting on a straight. River card comes up a 5 making the board A-5-6-4-5. Now I am extremely pleased as the only hand I lose to his pocket fives. At this point only 1 other player is hanging with me ... in our game when you get to heads up there is no limitation on the number of raises. So me and this other person go through quite a few rounds of re-raises before she finally decides to call instead of re-raise. Can you guess her cards?

 

Suited 5-6 ... her boat lost to mine.

 

One of the reasons I got so much action from her, besides the fact she had a boat ,was because of an earlier hand (literally about 10 minutes earlier). In the earlier hand I am on the button with A-J off suit and I raise the limpers/blinds ... only 2 stay, including the woman that will lose with the smaller boat to me in the later hand above. Board flops 3 small hearts, everybody checks. Board pairs on the turn she bets, we call. Another heart comes on the river putting 4 hearts on the board ... UTG checks, she checks, I bet. I have a tight/solid player image and the player to my left thinks long and hard about it and folds, she looks at her and and declares she is not going to pay me off with her two pairs and folds. I show her the bluff (something I very rarely do ... to the point that one player at the table declared that was the first time he EVER recalled me actually showing a bluff) ... as it turns out that put her on tilt just a bit which I took advantage of later when we both had boats.

 

We had a player at our table tonight lose to pocket aces with pocket kings, lose to quad 5's with a boat and lose to straight flush with two pairs. He did not have a very good night.