constant crises

RETURN TO THE FELT

so it took me long enough, but i finally got back to the felt last night at garden city. it was actually the first real live game i played in since getting one-outted at bellagio new year's day. that is a LONG time between sessions. in the meantime i had been keeping busy and playing a small bit online. i was reminded of how different playing in a live game is. the speed of the action, the physical tells, the multiple levels of thinking. it was fun to get back to it. i'll be re-instituting the wednesday night poker sessions from now on and treating it like a hard job. how'd i do? well, i grinded out a $42 win. not bad for the first day back. i made three different mistakes playing 6-12 hold'em that probably cost me about $100 in pots. interestingly enough, the mistakes were all on passive play, when the guy was actually weak and probably would have folded to a bet, raise, or re-raise. one hand that in which i made a horrid mistake went as so: two limpers to me in the cut-off. i see Ah8h. i raise it up to two bets. the button had just sat down, didn't even have chips yet. he called. the big blind and the two limpers called. flop came 10-high with two hearts. checked around to me. i bet (10 small bets in the middle already). button called. other three players folded. now here's where i begin to fuck up. turn card comes blank. inexplicably, i check. inexplicably, he checks. remember that there are 12 small bets out there. river comes another T, not a heart. now here i should take the pot away. my A-high is unlikely to stand up on its own here, but he hasn't shown any strength at all. for some bizarre reason i checked it down, hoping not to invest more money in the pot. he checks and flips over AQ. i muck and go puke outside. i'm still sick about how i played the hand. if i follow up on the turn and/or river with aggression, he lays the hand down easily. ugh. anyhow, i managed to right myself and actually play pretty well after a while, ending up $78 playing hold'em. i hit a couple of bad spots playing Stud-8 later on in the evening and ended the night with a small win. not bad considering i made several horrific mistakes in both games. the one thing i am proud of is that i got up and left the 6-12 table when the table got tough. proper table selection is something i need to work on. tags: poker

posted by Jack Chou @ 1/26/2006 10:00:00 AM