Slump Breaker

Had a great time playing poker with the SNG superstar RikkiDee live at our local club. He of course played great and ended up finishing 2nd while his very sweet young lady managed to get to the final table. The club has a good mix of donks like myself all the way to some solid players so it was cool to see a blogger in the cash. My hopes are usually dashed by the time the third beer goes down too quickly!

Played the 1/2 200 max NL cash game and had a couple really tough laydowns. I did start off nice and strong when the SB rasies to 10 (call him wild Asian guy!) and since there was already 6 limpers (including me on the button) they all called! Flop is Ah Kh 9x and it checks around and my J10d isn't looking that good and since these guys call raises on flop bets I check as well. Turn is a lovely Q and it checks to me again so I bet a bit more than 1/2 pot. The SB beats me to the middle with the check raise push on the turn and I am expecting a set. Instead I see he had AK and a nice brick river gets me to $300 quickly.

Now to the tougher hands... 24o in the SB and I limp because 8 limpers already in the pot. Flop is 2x 2h 3h and I figure that from the SB one of these guys is going to bet to take down the uncontested pot. LP guy bets $15 and I raise it to $60 figuring he is on a flush draw or a better 2. Turn is the Ah and he now could have a flush, a better 2 (hard to not fold that 4 kicker), or a full house... ack! He pushes for another $74which really gets me down to a baby flush or a better 2.... I go in the tank wondering about how the Benicio Del Toro looking dude could call my reraise. Was my bet size to small? I think I should have put him all in on the flop because these guys don't mind to pay for a draw.

About an orbit later I see a tight EP player raise to $10. A slightly loose but thinking player calls the raise and I look down at JJ. I decide to call with the hooks and see how many to the flop... sort of play it like 88 and look for a set and a huge pot or an easy flop fold that is inexpensive. A guy to my right calls and then my wild Asian friend from the AK hand raises to $106! The two EP guys fold and it is back to me. I figure this could be a crazy steal or he has AA-QQ and all of them have me so dominated. That is where I think I made the mistake. I know he is wild and I should have been willing to race there against him. Instead I fold and the guy to my left pushes his $150 in the middle with QQ. Wild man calls with 44 and they race.... to make it worse a J hit on the turn in what could have been the biggest pot of the evening! I was a little perturbed by both of these hands and ended up down a bit on the night.

Fun time and glad to see RikkiDee show up and show us how to play poker.... no more downbeat posts from him.