Hagar
02-01-2005, 03:03 PM
I'll not go into a full depth report of my weekend at Cache Creek because over all I had a very poor poker weekend and I don't want to burden you all with a recap of 2 or 3 hundred bad beat stories. But I will give you a brief recap.
I got there about 11:45 and see Hitman with a mountain of chips in front of him already. I guess he got there about 9:00 and had this wonderful shit-eatin' grin on his face. I got seated nearly right away in a 4/8 game after putting my name down on all the lists (3/6, 4/8, NL). They had 3 or 4 tables going when I arrived.
Flailed around on the 4/8 for about a half-hour before they called me up to the NL game. I never really go anything going (don't think I even drug one pot at the 4/8 game) and need to refill my rack for the NL game.
The NL game had a real interesting mix of local regular "pros", a few wanna bes like me and a few fish. The flow was decent (not too crazy, not too tame) and we got down to it. I managed to get on a pretty good roll for about an hour (maybe two) and I took stacks away from 3 or 4 players.
I had one encounter with this kid who had ben sitting at my 4/8 table (let's call him Sparky) who seemed to think we had some kind of bond. I think I've played with him before and I get the feeling that he recognizes that I play a solid game and I think he thinks he does too. I can't explain it, but he kept looking at me as if he wanted some approval for what he was doing or something. Anyway, Sparky had been flinging chips around like they were meaningless and lands several decent pots. And then he gets caught a few times and then he actually wins a minster pot when someone called a very large bet on the river who couldn't bead Sparky's A-high bluff. The caller was an other wise solid player, but I just didn't get that one - he put him squarely on a QJ (which he could beat) and decided to back his read with a lot of chips. Sparky's stack were going up and down like an elevator.
Anyway, we get into this hand. It had been raised pre-flop to something like 10 to go (a fairly mild raise) and there were 5 or 6 caller including myself. I had A7 suited and decided to see if I could out flop the table.
The flop comes 474 and Sparky bet something like 20 and we get 3 or 4 to the turn. I didn't feel like anybody had a 4, but I hadn't discounted the possibility. The turn brings an A. Well now. The action is checked to me and I'm suddenly pretty sure I have the best hand. I bet 50 and called by Sparky. The river brings a T. I'm not at all crazy about this card. Sparky could easily have had AT (I didn't put him on TT because of the way he had played it earlier). Well Sparky does a little 2-step and shoves the last $140 of his stack into the pot. I thought for a few seconds (just gave myself a chance to breath and make sure I was happy with my read) and called (I had him covered). He flips up AJ and my 2 pr are good. "There's no way I could have put you on A7!" "Yeah, that's what I figured."
So I drag this monster pot and 3 people helping me get the chips out of the middle, color up $250 and after all the dust had settled I'm sitting htere with like $550. "OK" I says to myself, "Maybe this is the session that's gonna make up for the last 6 weeks of running bad."
Click.
Somebody threw the switch back to reality. I went dead solid cold. I didn't drag one more single chip from that table. I sta there for about 3 hours and pissed away about $300 just trying to manufacture somekind of hand or some kind of opportunity. I never really got into any trouble because my cards were so bad, that I couldn't get deep enough into a pot to get into trouble. I finally decide to cash out and head upstairs to meet up with my friends (we were ther for a weekend long Hearts tournament). So I cashed out $280 (from $100) and went up feeling OK about a positive session even if the last 3 hours of "equlization" felt kind of shitty.
Hitman had come by sometime before all of the above happend and said goodbye with and extra 3 or 4 hundred in his pockets. Good work man, I'm glad someone know how to beat these fish.....
Went up, said hey and visited for about an hour. Had a few cocktails and ventured back down to the NL table. I went through 2 1/2 racks in about 2 hours. I don't think I drug one single pot. There were a couple hands where I got "out of line" (trying to push the wrong hand around), but for the most part, it was just a continuation of the earlier session. I fianlly got tired of feeling like they were just sticking needles in my eyes, grabbed my last handful of chips and went to bed.
I didn't hit the floor at all on Satrurday. We did day one of our hearts tourney including the prerequisite 15 or 20 stiff cocktails a piece. After we were done, a handful of us decided to have a little SnG (we brought some chips). OK, fine. It got down to me and G-Money for the battle for first and second. I caught him with his pants down when he shoved with a 93s and I had JTs. I hit 2 pair on the flop, and, continuing in the "Hagar don't get to win no more" vain he caught a runner, runner straight to stay alive. We finally ended up just chopping up the 1 and 2 places so we could get some sleep.
After the tourney on Sunday (I managed to have a really great tourney only to finish on our version of the bubble - tied for 4th to get into the final four and lost the tiebreaker by a very slim margin) I decided to go back and get some of my money back. I had been drinking (a lot) so I didn't want ot jump in the deep end, but I hadn't seen anyting at the 3/6 or 4/8 tables that required any great mental capacity to handle.
Sat down at 4/8 with a rack, and stepped right back into the ice age. Nothing, nothing and more nothing. It took me an hour to drag a small pot or 2. Then back in the freezer. I got down to about $15 and find a 99 in early position and decide that I'm playing these like AA. I managed to limp-raise so we had 7 or 8 to the flop for 3 bets. The flop came 887. I bet and get raised for my last chip. There's still at least 6 plyers in this hand. Well, now that I'm out of chips, the Poker Gods felt it was time to build me a hand and delivered a 9 on the turn. And they all just kept betting. The river managed to leave my hand good (it actually brought some fish a flush) and I watched the bigger side pot go to him and managed to stack about $80 for less than half the pot.
Even though I lost a bunch of chips (in the side pot), I felt that maybe it was time for things to turn around. Well I was wrong again. I watched the last $80 float away with out even a glimmer of hope of winning a pot. Again, my cards weren't even good enough to get any suckouts - I just couldn't hit any hands (and bluffing is just not an option at these tables). Busted when I shoved my last $7 in on a suited big slick which didn't connect and just didn't feel like burning through anymore chips that night.
I got up Monday morning hoping that something had changed. Hit the tables about 11:00 and again fell right back into the freezer. I did'nt win one single pot for over an hour. I had chances, but the board 4-flushed on both of them and had to throw my top pair away. Called for my second rack and finally drug a reasonable pot. Managed to get another pot or 2 and was only abour $25 down and then it all just went to hell. I started hitting hands and running into monsters. Example: KQ spades from early position. I just called (raising was pointless unless you wanted to build a pot) and get something like 9s4s9d on the flop. I bet out and get raised by this old guy who just sat down. He hadn't shown me anything but "solid" so far, so I respected his raise and called. Turn brought a blank. Check, bet call. River brings the card I'm looking for:7s. I hit the second nut flush. Check, bet, check-raise, re-raise! Christ, does he have the A flush or a boat? Of course he does. I have to pay him off and sure as shit he was holding 97.
The rest of my morning session went pretty much like that: make a hand earn nothing or get crushed. Fold and my draw would come through. I got a few stupid suckouts along the way, but all in all I was just horribly cold. I went and had some lunch tried like hell to forget the poker weekend. I have slipped into some kind of poker bizzaro world and need to figure out how to get out.
Yes, this got long, but I am leaving a lot of stories out, because I know you don't want to hear them.......
Anyway, the rooms at this place are pretty incredible if you care about that kind of thing. You could easily get away with a little "romantic getaway" excuse to take your wife there for the weekend. They even have a spa that you can book her into while you go down and get your fix.
No more to report - looking foward to Saturday!
I got there about 11:45 and see Hitman with a mountain of chips in front of him already. I guess he got there about 9:00 and had this wonderful shit-eatin' grin on his face. I got seated nearly right away in a 4/8 game after putting my name down on all the lists (3/6, 4/8, NL). They had 3 or 4 tables going when I arrived.
Flailed around on the 4/8 for about a half-hour before they called me up to the NL game. I never really go anything going (don't think I even drug one pot at the 4/8 game) and need to refill my rack for the NL game.
The NL game had a real interesting mix of local regular "pros", a few wanna bes like me and a few fish. The flow was decent (not too crazy, not too tame) and we got down to it. I managed to get on a pretty good roll for about an hour (maybe two) and I took stacks away from 3 or 4 players.
I had one encounter with this kid who had ben sitting at my 4/8 table (let's call him Sparky) who seemed to think we had some kind of bond. I think I've played with him before and I get the feeling that he recognizes that I play a solid game and I think he thinks he does too. I can't explain it, but he kept looking at me as if he wanted some approval for what he was doing or something. Anyway, Sparky had been flinging chips around like they were meaningless and lands several decent pots. And then he gets caught a few times and then he actually wins a minster pot when someone called a very large bet on the river who couldn't bead Sparky's A-high bluff. The caller was an other wise solid player, but I just didn't get that one - he put him squarely on a QJ (which he could beat) and decided to back his read with a lot of chips. Sparky's stack were going up and down like an elevator.
Anyway, we get into this hand. It had been raised pre-flop to something like 10 to go (a fairly mild raise) and there were 5 or 6 caller including myself. I had A7 suited and decided to see if I could out flop the table.
The flop comes 474 and Sparky bet something like 20 and we get 3 or 4 to the turn. I didn't feel like anybody had a 4, but I hadn't discounted the possibility. The turn brings an A. Well now. The action is checked to me and I'm suddenly pretty sure I have the best hand. I bet 50 and called by Sparky. The river brings a T. I'm not at all crazy about this card. Sparky could easily have had AT (I didn't put him on TT because of the way he had played it earlier). Well Sparky does a little 2-step and shoves the last $140 of his stack into the pot. I thought for a few seconds (just gave myself a chance to breath and make sure I was happy with my read) and called (I had him covered). He flips up AJ and my 2 pr are good. "There's no way I could have put you on A7!" "Yeah, that's what I figured."
So I drag this monster pot and 3 people helping me get the chips out of the middle, color up $250 and after all the dust had settled I'm sitting htere with like $550. "OK" I says to myself, "Maybe this is the session that's gonna make up for the last 6 weeks of running bad."
Click.
Somebody threw the switch back to reality. I went dead solid cold. I didn't drag one more single chip from that table. I sta there for about 3 hours and pissed away about $300 just trying to manufacture somekind of hand or some kind of opportunity. I never really got into any trouble because my cards were so bad, that I couldn't get deep enough into a pot to get into trouble. I finally decide to cash out and head upstairs to meet up with my friends (we were ther for a weekend long Hearts tournament). So I cashed out $280 (from $100) and went up feeling OK about a positive session even if the last 3 hours of "equlization" felt kind of shitty.
Hitman had come by sometime before all of the above happend and said goodbye with and extra 3 or 4 hundred in his pockets. Good work man, I'm glad someone know how to beat these fish.....
Went up, said hey and visited for about an hour. Had a few cocktails and ventured back down to the NL table. I went through 2 1/2 racks in about 2 hours. I don't think I drug one single pot. There were a couple hands where I got "out of line" (trying to push the wrong hand around), but for the most part, it was just a continuation of the earlier session. I fianlly got tired of feeling like they were just sticking needles in my eyes, grabbed my last handful of chips and went to bed.
I didn't hit the floor at all on Satrurday. We did day one of our hearts tourney including the prerequisite 15 or 20 stiff cocktails a piece. After we were done, a handful of us decided to have a little SnG (we brought some chips). OK, fine. It got down to me and G-Money for the battle for first and second. I caught him with his pants down when he shoved with a 93s and I had JTs. I hit 2 pair on the flop, and, continuing in the "Hagar don't get to win no more" vain he caught a runner, runner straight to stay alive. We finally ended up just chopping up the 1 and 2 places so we could get some sleep.
After the tourney on Sunday (I managed to have a really great tourney only to finish on our version of the bubble - tied for 4th to get into the final four and lost the tiebreaker by a very slim margin) I decided to go back and get some of my money back. I had been drinking (a lot) so I didn't want ot jump in the deep end, but I hadn't seen anyting at the 3/6 or 4/8 tables that required any great mental capacity to handle.
Sat down at 4/8 with a rack, and stepped right back into the ice age. Nothing, nothing and more nothing. It took me an hour to drag a small pot or 2. Then back in the freezer. I got down to about $15 and find a 99 in early position and decide that I'm playing these like AA. I managed to limp-raise so we had 7 or 8 to the flop for 3 bets. The flop came 887. I bet and get raised for my last chip. There's still at least 6 plyers in this hand. Well, now that I'm out of chips, the Poker Gods felt it was time to build me a hand and delivered a 9 on the turn. And they all just kept betting. The river managed to leave my hand good (it actually brought some fish a flush) and I watched the bigger side pot go to him and managed to stack about $80 for less than half the pot.
Even though I lost a bunch of chips (in the side pot), I felt that maybe it was time for things to turn around. Well I was wrong again. I watched the last $80 float away with out even a glimmer of hope of winning a pot. Again, my cards weren't even good enough to get any suckouts - I just couldn't hit any hands (and bluffing is just not an option at these tables). Busted when I shoved my last $7 in on a suited big slick which didn't connect and just didn't feel like burning through anymore chips that night.
I got up Monday morning hoping that something had changed. Hit the tables about 11:00 and again fell right back into the freezer. I did'nt win one single pot for over an hour. I had chances, but the board 4-flushed on both of them and had to throw my top pair away. Called for my second rack and finally drug a reasonable pot. Managed to get another pot or 2 and was only abour $25 down and then it all just went to hell. I started hitting hands and running into monsters. Example: KQ spades from early position. I just called (raising was pointless unless you wanted to build a pot) and get something like 9s4s9d on the flop. I bet out and get raised by this old guy who just sat down. He hadn't shown me anything but "solid" so far, so I respected his raise and called. Turn brought a blank. Check, bet call. River brings the card I'm looking for:7s. I hit the second nut flush. Check, bet, check-raise, re-raise! Christ, does he have the A flush or a boat? Of course he does. I have to pay him off and sure as shit he was holding 97.
The rest of my morning session went pretty much like that: make a hand earn nothing or get crushed. Fold and my draw would come through. I got a few stupid suckouts along the way, but all in all I was just horribly cold. I went and had some lunch tried like hell to forget the poker weekend. I have slipped into some kind of poker bizzaro world and need to figure out how to get out.
Yes, this got long, but I am leaving a lot of stories out, because I know you don't want to hear them.......
Anyway, the rooms at this place are pretty incredible if you care about that kind of thing. You could easily get away with a little "romantic getaway" excuse to take your wife there for the weekend. They even have a spa that you can book her into while you go down and get your fix.
No more to report - looking foward to Saturday!