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Live game vs an Fgators fan

Cross post from my blog, I thought you BBV guys might enjoy this.
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King Me!!!!

BJJIII and I decided to make a run to the Horseshoe-Bossier City this past Friday night. BJ's friend Ben was in town and also made the trip with us. Ben is a great guy and an awesome poker resource. Right now he's a student and aking his living off of online poker, you could say that he's living the life. I think he's gonna stay with it after he graduates here in the near future, so anytime I get a chance to pick his brain I jump on it. He, BJ and I had some great strategy conversation on the hour and a half drive over there and I think that really put me into the proper frame of mind for a great live session.

Pulling into the Horseshoe's parking garage I felt mentally ready to take on the live donks. I also felt the "ON" switch click over on my luck box. Literally, I felt lucky! We were immediately seated at a $1/3 table since we had called ahead and had Josh put our names on the list. I hadn't even gotten seated before I was dealt the 2nd best starting hand in Holdem. Literally, I was still standing when I looked at my cards. Without pause I tossed 3 red chips into the pot for a 5xBB raise behind one limper. I got called by a guy in an orange and blue long-sleeved polo (we'll call him Fgators) who only had around $175 in front of him. The flop was Q high and very uncoordinated, Fgators checked to me and I bet $25 into the $30 pot. He came over the top of me for a min raise and after thinking about it for a second and evaluating his remaining stack size, I pushed all my chips into the middle of the pot. This was my very first hand and I'm all in! Well, he was all in. He thought about the situation briefly, folded then let it spill that he had Q-9o. That's a great piece of information for future reference. I think to myself, "Welcome to the game, sir!" and settle in for a great session of cards. I immediately straddle on the next hand to build on this loose table image that I've walked into.

My next play is rather questionable, but it was against Fgators (who I had quickly figured out was a donk) and my hand (kicker) was concealed. I had A-Jo in the BB and 4 people limped into the pot and the SB completed. I check here almost always due to the fact that A-Jo is such a trap hand. I didn't vary from my standard play in this spot. The flop was J-9-7r, which wasn't the best looking flop for my hand, but I definitely think that testing the waters was fine in this situation. I led out for $10 after the SB checked to me and got 2 callers before Fgators made it $35 to go from the cutoff. This should probably have been a fold for me, but the pot still wasn't too huge and I didn't think that I was breaking into any commitment thresholds w/ my call. I called to await further action by the CO and to see if either of the 2 callers would hang around. Both of the flop callers folded and I'm left heads up with Fgators. The turn was a 6 and I check-called $20 thinking that I'm probably behind, but for $20 I couldn't fold in this spot. The river was an Ace giving me Aces Up and I looked over at my opponent's stack to gauge what my river bet would be. He only had $25 left in front of him and my dreams of winning a truly massive pot were crushed. I put him AI and he calls w/ his flopped 2 top two pair (Jacks up.) I sure heard it from my pals when I stacked this pot, but it wasn't the first time that I had sucked out in my life. I was disappointed w/ myself, I had completely ignored the commitment thresholds that were set by my opponent's smaller stack and really felt that I had grossly misplayed my hand. He was in the 4 seat at the time though and seeing his stack was very difficult from the 7 seat that I was sitting in. If it were anyone else but Fgators, I probably would have quickly folded on the flop.

We had been playing for about 3 hours or so and my stack had grown to ~$500. I had the table covered and had 2 total rocks on my immediate left who I gave a lot of respect to due to the fact that one of my buddies who happened to be there had pointed them out to me as regulars. When I say they were tight, I mean they squeaked when they put money into the pot. The 1 seat was really loose-passive, the 2 seat was now Fgators, the 3 seat was Fgator's wife who we (my pals and I and the 2 rocks on my left) had stacked multiple times only to have her reload again and again for $100. The 4 seat was Ben, followed by BJ, I was in the 7 seat, an Asian man was in the 8 seat, a cowboy in the 9 seat and an older cowboy was in the 10 seat.

I had had a really good card distribution for the day, I had stacked Fgator's wife w/ Aces once and had consistently had raising hands spread throughout the afternoon. When I looked down to another pair of Kings , I made it $15 to go behind BJ's UTG+1 limp. The cowboy in the 9 seat called, as well as Fgators in the SB. The flop was so beautiful, K-6-5 rainbow! YAHTZEE!!! Fgators checked to me, since I had the board crippled I figured that I would weak lead for $20 and take down the $50 pot. When the cowboy called behind me I knew that he had to have a good piece of that flop. He was around $250 deep after his $20 call. I wanted to jump up and dance a jig when Fgators came over the top of me for a check-raise. When he made it $70 to go I realized that I was actually going to play a big pot w/ this flopped set of Kings. Now I started thinking about how to keep the cowboy in the hand and not lose any of the potential business that I had going on at this point. I knew he was tight and would fold easily, so I banged the table with my shuffling chips just as I got check-raised. I paused for some Hollywood effect, and then counted out the $50, which I, with a tinge of disgust, tossed into the pot. The cowboy came along! Yee Haww!! The turn could have been better; it was the 4 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] that put 2 diamonds on the board. Fgators immediately pushed for $132. I was kind of nervous about the straight draw getting there, but I knew that I could never fold top set in that spot. I repushed to put the cowboy all in and he reluctantly called w/ his flopped set of 5s! I'll give it to him, he knew something was up, I could see it in his
eyes, but he couldn't fold a set in that spot. Fgators turns over 6-5o for bottom 2 pair on the flop. They're both drawing stone cold dead on the turn and just for
good measure, my favorite dealer Kathy turns over the case King to give me quads on the river!

Not long after this, the LP player in the 1 seat went broke, as well as the contributing couple (Fgator and his wife) that had continually rebought all afternoon. The remaining players looked around at each other for a second, determined that the loose action was gone, then decided to find greener pastures. It was kind of slow for a Friday
night at the Shoe and the seats weren't being filled (it was only 7pm.) There were nothing but regulars filling the other tables, so my buddies and I talked about heading over to the El Dorado to see if the action was any better over there. Upon further thought, BJ and I decided to go home to our wives and we dropped Ben off at a nice restaurant with some of his friends so that he can do what single guys do. I had netted a $670 profit in 4.5 hours and felt great! This was quite a relief after having lost in the previous 4 live sessions that I had played.

Once home, I realized that I had drank too many Red Bulls and couldn't sleep. With my wife passed out on the couch, I cranked up an online session of $100NL on Bodog. Within an hour and 15 minutes I had picked up $143. It should have been a +3 buy in session, but a guy hit a 3 outer on me on the river after we gotten all the money in on the flop. I'll take a one buy in win in just over an hour though; it's much better than a sharp stick in the eye! Despite a horrible start to the month when I lost $500 at the Shoe, the month has really turned around and I have gotten back into the black for a nice little profit on the month. Hopefully I don't blow it in the next 3 days!

Hopefully I'll keep running goot and keep the winning trip reports coming!