+37 @ The Commerce Casino

After spending a part of the day working at home I thought that a perfect break would be to spend some time playing poker. I hoped that my karma from the morning would stick with me: As I was leaving the dry cleaners a lady asked me for a ride down to the Metro station. Of course I obliged and she thanked me profusely. Then again, I helped a blind man out on
Tuesday and that session was a fiasco. That wasn't the case today though. It was a live table but not too crazy and the people were a mildly sociable lot. Maybe I should have stayed longer, but I was feeling a little tired and wanted to get back home.

Unlike my recent sessions, I had lots of playable hands today and the session was quite enjoyable.

• I posted after the button and started with J,2 of hearts. The flop came Q,J,2 (with two diamonds) and I raised. By the time it came back to me it was three bets so I capped it. The turn was a blank, so I raised it to the fellow who had gone all in and got one caller. Another blank on the river and another all in caller player bet into me. Neither was happy to see my two pair.
• A,J suited early position. Hoping for a raise after me I just bet, but no such luck. A straight flush potential arrived with the 6,7,9 flop. I checked but there was only one bet so I paid for another card and mucked my hand when the blank turn was bet behind me. The flush took the pot.
• A,7 suited as big blind. I raised and got 7,9,Q for my troubles. The turn was a 3 as was the river. We all checked the turn, and a fellow bet the river. I didn't think he had the three, but I called to discover that he did have a 9. Bad call on my part. D'oh!
• Pocket 5s and a flop of 8,9,3. The turn was a 7 but I decided not to stick around and pray for a six.
• Suited big slick in early position. The table went with my raise and A,Q,3 (two hearts) came next. I bet the flop, the blank turn, and again when the river brought another A. That pot left me up over 80 dollars in just under 20 minutes at the table.
• A,10 late. Another two pair on the flop and I tried to play it hard, but the straight and flush possibilities showed up on the river and people were betting like they had one of them. As much as it hurt I mucked my hand.
• K,Q suited with and the river came 9,A,A. It was checked around, but I bet the turn when it gave us a K, and I (stupidly) bet the 9 on the river. My opponent didn't have the 9, but she did have the A. For those counting, that makes 6 hands I played in a under half an hour.
• The next hour was kinda dull until an embarrassing moment on my part and horrible play on someone else's part. With K,J in late position I folded when it came to me as three bets. I have no idea why I did this, and I started kicking myself when the board was A,Q,10,J,2. A fellow on the other side of the table kept betting into the fellow next to me who kept raising it. The guy next to me had a K, and the person who started the betting showed a 7,4 suited. What? There was never a time where he even had a flush draw. I guess he thought you could bluff at the Commerce Casino. This same fellow kept betting his pocket aces hard when the board had 3,3,4,4 and someone behind him kept raising. It was clear he was new to the game, and he should have been playing online or at $1-$2.
• The last hand I'll mention is when I raised my A,10 suited as big blind and it got capped with 4 players. The flop of rags gave me another of
  my suit, and I bet. No one else was very excited about it either. The turn was a blank, but I bet and got a couple callers. The river was was a 10 so I figured I would bet again. One player called and he was pissed that I beat his pocket sevens. He started berating me for playing crap as I raked in the pot and I just kept stacking. Yeah, it may not have been the best play on my part, but neither was making it three bets with pocket sevens. The fellow next to me said that he would have beaten me so I told him that it was important to know your players and he should remember that I play crap the next time he was in a pot with me. The fellow with the 7s declared that he wanted to have some fun when he played not worry about strategy, and he promptly left the table.