A Premonition

Weekend poker was swingy and not as profitable as I would have liked, but by no means a disaster either. On Friday I was up a sizable amount early before hitting a large downswing back to breakeven, before finally closing out a meager profit. On Saturday I began with a nasty $800 downer, but ended +$800 on the day.

The Saturday comeback had two major contributors. The first was a whale who was open shoving preflop/flops over half the time at a E200 table who I stacked twice (AK vs junk AIPF and KT vs 32 on KQT). The second was a fish who I've played with some before. I first stacked him in the first hand below. My flop play is unconventional but I had my reasons against this villain (basically he's betting his whole range when checked to and is going to peel any gutter to a small raise and might spaz out with his complete airballs).


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (BB) ($101.15)
UTG ($37.50)
UTG+1 ($78.50)
MP1 ($290.45)
MP2 ($58)
MP3 ($100)
CO ($78.45)
Button ($107.60)
SB ($100)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A♥, A♦
2 folds, MP1 bets $3, 5 folds, Hero raises to $12, MP1 calls $9

Flop: ($24.50) 9♠, A♣, Q♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, MP1 bets $11, Hero raises to $29, MP1 calls $18

Turn: ($82.50) 8♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $60.15 (All-In), MP1 calls $60.15

River: ($202.80) J♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $202.80 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had A♥, A♦ (three of a kind, Aces).
MP1 had 8♠, A♠ (two pair, Aces and eights).
Outcome: Hero won $199.80


Nothing special there. One hand later, the same fish (who was 290bbs deep at the start of the first hand) opened from EP and I as I called with KQ on the button I thought to myself: "It would be funny if I flop the nuts and back to back stack him". Of course, I figured the potential for such an occurrence was decent due to the tilt factor. Lo and behold, I end up flopping the nuts and stack the bastard in a near 400bb pot that was actually quite a cooler. I felt a little bad about it given his hand strength.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed)
Hero (Button) ($199.30)
SB ($40.50)
BB ($40)
UTG ($189.30)
UTG+1 ($58)
MP1 ($100)
MP2 ($78.45)
MP3 ($107.60)
CO ($100)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, K
UTG bets $4, 5 folds, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, BB calls $3

Flop: ($12.50) 10, J, 9 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $11.90, Hero raises to $38.50, 1 fold, UTG calls $26.60

Turn: ($89.50) 5 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $58, UTG calls $58

River: ($205.50) 7 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $98.80 (All-In), UTG calls $88.80 (All-In)

Total pot: $383.10 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had Q, K (straight, King high).
UTG had 10, 10 (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: Hero won $380.10


I finished up Disgaea 4 last week, including a bunch of the optional post-game content which in previous Disgaea games I haven't been motivated to grind through. I found it a lot of fun this time around though. Definitely the best game in the series. I'm now probably a little half way through the remake of Persona 2: Innocent Sin for the PSP. It's similar to the remake of the original Persona which I couldn't endure the whole way through, but does a lot of things better so I would guess I'll be finishing this one. I wasn't expecting it to be in the same league as Persona 3 or 4, so I'm not disappointed.



Finally, the Flames have been an uninspired bunch and are already well on their way to digging (another) early season hole. The Stampeders aren't any better. It seems like every year the Patriots are my bright spot in the sporting world, until the playoffs at least!