Few Bellagio hands

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

Good to play with some of you this weekend. Here are a couple hands. They're kind of meh but I never post hands anymore so here goes.

1. 60/120. Main opponent is George the doctor, he's an Indian/Pakistani guy who has a lot of money but is pretty terrible at hold 'em and was keeping a lot of the higher limit games running this weekend. He probably plays at about a 55/15 and is moody/weird/random on postflop streets, emphasis on moody, capable of bluffs and semibluffs and overplaying weak hands, especially when running well. At this time he was stuck pretty bad though and looked kind of sad.

Anyway George limps in EP, some other dude overlimps in MP, an Asian regular who is a little too laggy but tough and competent and probably views me the same calls in SB, I knuckle in the BB with Q8s.

Flop is 873 with a flush draw. SB bets, I raise, George cold calls, SB calls.

Turn is a Q giving me top two pair. SB checks, I bet and they both call.

River is a 9 no flush. I bet, George raises, SB tanks for a little bit and folds, I tank for a little bit and raise, George tanks for a little bit and 3-bets, I fold.

2. 100/200 game a couple of nights later. This is a really crazy, really great game. I open KTo from the hijack; I think my image is fairly strong as I've won a couple of big pots to make a nice comeback after being stuck a bit before. George calls in the SB, he's running better and much more jovial tonight. The BB calls -- I think his name is Rick -- friendly, clean-cut guy, looks like he's maybe 35 though I think he might look young for his age. We'd had a conversation earlier about players that come from live backgrounds versus Internet backgrounds; he recognizes that I'm a good example of the latter and he's certainly a good example of the former. He reads hands/people well, but is probably a hair tight/passive after the flop by hold'em v.2007 standards, not a lot but a little. He's stuck quite a bit tonight and that seems to be affecting his play some, though I'm sure he's still +EV against this lineup.

Anyway the flop is QJx rainbow, giving me an OESD. Checked around to me and I bet, they both call.

The turn is a blank putting two diamonds on the board. I check behind.

River is the 9 of diamonds giving me the nut straight although putting a backdoor flush on the board (I don't have any diamonds). SB bets into me and I just call.

3. 100/200 again, Villain is Terri, I hope I'm spelling that right. She's a regular's regular and has been talked about before on these boards. She's very tough/creative/aggressive in position and loves to raise flops or turns and then check behind. Anyway she raises from the cutoff and I 3-bet red 8's from the BB, she calls. Flop is like Q54 with a flush draw in something black, I bet and she raises. Of course what happened is that she checked behind the turn and didn't pay off when the river blanked off. Does anyone like a flop 3-bet or turn lead here? I'm not saying 100% of the time but some minority of the time for balancing purposes?

4. 100/200, folded around to me in the SB, I decide to compete with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7x, bicyclekick raises in the BB, I call. Bike has been playing a lot of hands but for the most part has been strong at showdown. The only other time it had been folded around to me in the SB I folded and let him have the blinds and made some remark about how he was never going to let me see a cheap flop.

Anyway this time the flop is AQx, with a spade flush draw (my K is the backdoor nuts), I check he bets and I fold ... I should probably have hung around here, right?