Late Night Cash Game

Immediately following my poor showing in Event #3 I decided to play a little $1/$3 NLHE. I wasn't going to make the same mistake of buying in for the minimum this time. I decided to buy in for $300, and hoped to have similar results to the earlier cash game. Well unfortunately things didn't go the way I had planned initially. I never could seem to get anything cooking and my stack seemed to hover between $250 and $350 for hours and hours. I started playing at about 6 or 7 and it was going on midnight. I was determined to grind out a win, but even though I wasn't winning I was having a really great time. I felt I was really holding my own at the table and eventually I was going to win some big pots.

Well it took a bluff to get this started. A new player at the table sat down on my right in a Redskins jersey, and he was clearly a confident player. He had just missed cashing in the noon tournament, and was talking it up with anyone that would listen. The player that was in his seat before was a really cool guy that I talked with the entire time, but this new guy didn't seem as nice. I could tell he was a deep thinker, so I decided right then if a good spot came up I would try to run a bluff. The big bluffing pot came up with Mr. Redskins straddling in the first position. This is where the player places down double the big blind, and is last to act. I was the first to act and looked down at AQs and decided to make it $20 to go. One other player to my left called and Mr. Redskin called from the straddle. The flop was a total air ball for my hand and it checked around. The turn was another brick and Mr. Redskin decided to lead out for $25. I felt here if I was to raise it to $75 that he would make me for the overpair and throw his hand away. So I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The other player quickly folded. You could tell Redskin was a little frustrated, and when he folded his hand he said to me, "Bet your hand dude. You don't need to be all hollywood... just bet your hand." Well I wasn't going to do it, but after that speech I had to show him the bluff. He was pretty pissed after that. I think he was leaving the table anyway for a higher stakes table, but he left pretty quickly after that bluff.

After making that move I knew I would have to play a little tighter, but the players at the table kept rotating out. So it didn't really matter. I seemed to be the only one willing to play late. The players that were rotating in were visibly drunk, and I ended up winning a huge pot off one guy with KK. He raised from middle position, and I re-raised from the straddle. Picking up a big hand in the straddle is crazy profitable. Usually people think you are just defending your straddle. He called my re-raise and the flop came like 9 high or something. I bet big and he moved in. I got a count and it wasn't much more. I had to call, but figured he flopped a set. I was wrong. He had nothing and his cards went flying in the muck when he didn't improve on the turn and river. I said, "What did you have?" and he said, "Nothing I'm drunk." and left the table. I picked up a couple more pots off the drunk fish, and ended up clearing a $350 profit. I didn't get back to my room until 3 am, but it was worth it. I decided at that point I was playing in Event #4 the next day, errr I mean that day...