I sit at a 2k/4k table that has one empty seat (which I fill), and one sitting out, so effectively 3-handed.
Shortly after sitting in, one of the active players leaves, and I’m playing heads-up for a few hands. A new player sits in, and I flop two pair, check-raise him off a 16k bet, and end up taking a smaller pot than I would have liked, but I’m up about 25k. I lose a few hands and am close to breakeven when I get A8o, miss a draw, decide to bluff the river with it, get raised all-in, read it as a counter-bluff, and stack myself. I bet pot on a gutshot draw, got called by a gutshot draw, and the wrong gutshot filled, so I paid the man, overbetting the pot and then giving him my whole stack when he raised. I feel good play deserves to be rewarded.
Hand #717340616 · Replay Poker ← Don’t look at this one, it’s embarrassing.
So pretty typical start for my night.
I reload, and draw pocket KK as a new player sits at the table. I open it pretty large and this new player calls with 54, and the player who stacked me previously also calls. We see a flop 3-way, and sure enough it’s 54, the usual coolers and sick plays starting immediately for me, and with a J-high dry J54-rainbow board, I bet at the pot, and get raised. OK, fine, cooler me, then, I sigh, and put the chips in to get it over with, re-raising. Pot is now huge, I’m obviously setting up to shove the turn and lose my second stack in as many hands.
V calls, and we see the turn, a brick 8d. I put in half-pot and V shoves; I call. River a King, finally a river that I want to see. I pull down a 1.5M chip pot to wipe out the terrible play I made with my A8.
Now it’s the new player’s turn to feel steamy. I’ve been there so many times, myself, and the evidence of it is spewed all over these forums. New guy reloads, and I get dealt pocket KK again, and once again I raise it like I did the hand before. V respond by 3-betting all-in. I of course call, and if if he’s got AA, well hey, fair’s fair. But he only has A5o. What is it that they say about betting too big forces your opponents to call only with their best hands? Well, that’s what happens. I get a lucky break and flop a set of KKKings again, and he’s drawing dead from the flop, I take down another 1M pot as the board runs out Q-Q to make me a full house.
There’s no topping that, I guess. No point in even trying. So I take my little windfall and that’s my night, 10 minutes or so of poker.
I can’t say I played good poker. I get lucky when I get lucky, and I get lucky when my opponents don’t hit the nuts – which, on this site, at least, seems to be every other hand… and when they don’t have the nuts, they’re beating me with bottom pair when I can’t connect with the board.
Still, my bankroll keeps going up. I can’t figure it out.