Upswing continues

Despite a little hiccup at Firekeepers when I was at the Michigan Publinx State Match Play, my upswing continued at Northville Downs yesterday.

Got to Northville at about 5:15pm after work. Table was reasonably deep stacked, with 3-4 players sitting on $400 or more, and only 1 short stack.

A good start: Immediately I get involved, 1st hand I raise up to 12 from MP with AQ, and get one of the blinds, a golfer to call, who has $300, and if I remember right is an action player. Flop is A87, he checks, I bet 15, he check raises to 30 and I call. Turn is a T, he bets 45 and I call. River is a K, which has to scare him if he has a hand like aces up, he checks, I check behind and he says he has queen high, so I am up a quick 80. I don't think betting the river is any good, as I don't see him folding any 2 pair hands, and he likely isn't calling with any 1 pair hands. My plan was to call almost all rivers, unless I picked something up on him.

Willard: Table is starting to get short (7 handed), but everyone has a stack. I am on a nice rush of cards, and raise pre-flop for the 4th straight hand, this time with AJ. I am called by the button and by Willard (tight old man who plays pretty passively, likes donk betting though, and has really had my number). Flop comes Jxx rainbow, and Willard donks 15, I call, and button folds. Turn is another low card putting 2 diamonds on board, and he bets 20, I raise to 55 and he calls. River is another low non-pairing diamond, completing the backdoor diamond draw, he checks and I decide to bet somewhat small for value, 65, and he folds QQ face-up. Says I got unlucky the diamond hit as he would have called.

Big flop, big hand: They combine tables and one of the biggest fish in the room gets moved immediately to my left, with a stack of 700. I have about 500 at this point. The hand is straddled by the button, and after 1 caller, I raise to 20 with AhTh. Fish calls and the limper folds. Flop is beautiful, Tx8h5h. I bet a little larger than normal, but probably imperceptible to him, 35, and he raises to 75. Generally in my experience he makes large bets and raises when he has nut-like hands. I make a small re-raise to 140 and he calls (in hindsight I think I should have raised a little bit more, as I would likely make a larger re-raise to 180 or so with an overpair). At the time I didn't want to fold out any draws that I dominate. The turn is another 8. I think his range is most tens, occasionally he will have an 8, sometimes J9 or even QJ, and a lot of flush draws. I was a little uneasy at the time, but I think the best play is to fire a smallish bet at the turn, maybe 125 or so. I am not folding if raised, but this way it allows him to call with hands that I want him to call with, while not allowing him to easily fold those hands. At the time though I chose checking, and he quickly checked behind. The river was a K. I checked with the intention of snap calling almost all bets, and he bet 65, which I called. He showed 6h3h. I would have gotten him for 250BB's if the heart had come.

A tough decision: Straddled pot, after a few limps I limp 8h6h, and we see a flop 5 ways. Flop is 764 with 1 heart, checks to me and I bet 15 (I had done this the previous hand in a straddled pot and took it down). Golfer on button calls (he has 600, I cover), and BB calls (he has about 325). Turn is another 6, check to me, I bet 40, button calls, and SB raises to 125, leaving himself 180-ish behind. I am pretty sure that the button is done with the hand based on my read of his range, and his demeanor after the raise. My read on him is that he was a thinking player, he was stuck about half of a buy-in, but seemed to play really straight-forward. I wasn't sure that he was capable of bluffing into two players in this spot, so I elected to fold. The button quickly folded. I told people that I folded a 6, just to try to get a response from him. Later in the night as he was racking up I asked him what he had, and he said that he was open-ended and repping the 6. I'm not sure I believe him, as most players would have taken the odds I was giving them to hit their draw (one of which would have given me a full house).

The one that got away: UTG to my right straddled, as he had done every chance he got (he was playing about 350). 2 things had happened when he straddled, the first was that I had raised it and he had folded, or after a lot of limps, he made a large re-raise. I sensed he was getting tired of me raising his straddle. I elected to call the straddle with AhQh. There were about 5 callers to him, and then he raised to 35. I was getting a little bit of a weak vibe from him, but I was a bit afraid to re-raise, knowing that the fish behind me had potential to call. In the end I elected to fold, and the fish took down the pot with A9 on an AJ7 flop. In hindsight, I wish I would have followed my read, and re-raised to 85. If called I could have played passively after the flop, and if re-raised I could easily fold.

There were a few other small wins and losses. I was definitely flopping well with my good pre-flop hands, though I wasn't hitting much on many of my speculative hands. Overall I felt I played good and controlled, and was pleased with the +400 overall result.

Interesting sidenote to the session, a guy a few tables over was selling new boxes of Titleist ProV1's for $25. I'm not sure what the story was on them, but since they are normally $40, I jumped at the opportunity to pick up a box, despite now having 3 dozen in my inventory at home.