Talk about card dead.
After a few hours of live NLHE, I’m a bill lighter but resigned.
Didn’t see many cards. Didn’t maximize my winnings on a few hands. But did learn a few things.
Nothing unusual about being card dead. Things run in cycles. A profusion of aces, kings and queens is often followed by a surfeit of rags.
As Sinatra once sang, “First happiness … then those tears.”
A little later we are “live” at wsop.com — and not running much better.
Savvy players back off and wait. Others keep plunging.
After being card dead for so long, a suited 10-9 looks like a premium holding. Q-10 looks like a monster.
Sadly, neither is true.
Back on my heels in the big blind with A-K, I call a raise. Or should you three-bet from the blind?
The flop is J-J-x. The turn a lovely king. The river a blank.
Turns out the raiser had J-8.
WTF?
It’s ditto for K-Q again in the big blind.
We call a bet and pick up a big draw — J-10-x. That’s 14 outs twice or a hand that makes a pair or better roughly half the time.
But nothing falls and the raiser has … K-10.
Groan.
So we splash around a little more. The hour grows late; the game grows short-handed.
Getting used to folding, but look up and find a hand that we haven’t seen literally in weeks: A-A.
Yeah, really.
It’s dangerous to limp in such situation but we do hoping to find just one caller. Two maximum.
A recognized villain late position makes a modest raise. We silently scream with joy and make a modest reraise, hoping to isolate.
The blinds go away and the villain makes it four bets to go.
Two bets later, and we’re all in. Let’s hope the villain doesn’t have the other aces.
In fact, the cyberdealer flips ’em up and he’s got K-K.
So here we go. The flop lands A-9-x, a very good start for pocket rockets. But the turn brings a king.
We’re still way ahead, but there is a king left in the deck.
But the river falls with a harmless brick.
Clunk.
It’s a very nice pot, thank you very much.
“nh,” the owner of pocket kings types in the chatbox.
“ty” I politely respond.
We go a few more laps and my chip stack has garnered me newfound respect.
I find pocket 10s and raise to the size of two stacks. But get no takers.
And finally, I find Ad-Kd. A solid raise gets me heads up with a smallish stack, and the flop is a sweet one: K-7-2.
After a harmless turn card, I push in for the size of his stack. He doesn’t hesitate to call.
A-K for me, K-J for him, and the river is no help.
Time to call it a day.
Gotta wonder how Sinatra would respond.
