WARNING! This post is long, so get comfortable and maybe grab a coffee…
A week or so ago I wrote a post talking about not having the emotional bankroll for 40, even though I have enough (250+BBs) to take a shot. Well that lasted a while.
I was ready for some juicy games on this Friday night at Commerce, since Friday nights are pretty much an excuse to print money for myself. I was not disappointed. I sat down at the must-move 20/40 game which ended up becoming a main game before I moved, so I never left. I was running well (flopping pairs, etc) and playing well too.
Here's my favorite hand from the session: most of the table limps to me in the CO with AJo. This has been an auto-raise for me for as long as I can remember, but I'm not really sure it should be. Why build a big multi-way pot with marginal equity? For the first time in a while, I decide to just limp this hand — and I think I should make this limp more often (AQo is still an auto-raise there, though there are probably occasions where you can mix it up and limp that too). The button folds, the loose SB completes, and the BB — a LAGgy fish — raises. Everyone calls, so it's like 7 to the flop for 14SBs. The flop is J84r, which rules. The SB and PFR checks, and it so happens that everyone checks to me. I bet of course, and I get 3 callers, including the unpredictable strange player on my right. The turn is a K. I expect PFR to wake up on this card but he checks again, and now the guy on my right donks into me. There's a good chance he has a K but this is a big pot and worth fighting for, so I decide I need to raise here and probably take a free showdown. The two other guys in the hand fold, and it gets back to the donker who smiles and shakes his head and goes "ahh, you got a king…" and folds. Cool.
There was one other hand where I got pretty lucky. I raised two weak limpers with KQo. I got a cold-call from the fish on my left and then a 3-bet from a TAGgy button. Aiya. Everyone calls, and now I'm in a 5-way pot for 15SBs with KQo. Luckily I run hot and flop KQ9. Now only afraid of JT, I decide to bet if it's checked to me, hoping PFR isolates and I can 3-bet. But the two guys behind me just call. The turn is a Q (putting 2 spades out there) because somebody up there likes me. I bet and now I get raised by the fish to my left. And the PFR cold-calls! I 3-bet and they both call. The river is a K which kind of sucks (AKs was in PFR's range) but it turns out he folds and the fish only had Q7s so I scoop it.
So anyway that's a long story way of saying I won 3 racks at the 20 and now it's midnight. I'm feeling good and I decide I should go meet some friends who are at a nightclub in Hollywood. On my way out I run into Gabe V. who tells me the 40 is good, and then as I near my car I realize it's almost 12:30 and at most I'll have an hour at the club… so I turn back around, go inside, and get on the 40 list.
It takes a while but I get into a game and proceed to stop getting any kind of good cards whatsoever. I don't mind, though, because a) it builds a tight rocky image for me which is the kind I like to have; and b) it gives me a chance to study my table's betting tendencies and get reads before I start entering pots. Here are the significant hands from the session that I can remember.
After folding for a few orbits, the first playable hand I pick up happens to be AA in EP. I raise and get 2 cold callers plus the BB. I continue to run hot and flop a set. The calling station in LP pays me off to the river so I get to showdown my fast-played trip aces.
The next interesting hand was when a weak player opened in the CO and it was folded to me in the BB. I was holding two 7s, so I decided to 3-bet. He casually 4-bet in a way that told me he had a pretty big hand. I called and had to check-fold a KTx flop. I probably could have just called PF and check-raised a lot of dry flops, but I wanted to define both our hands early on. I dunno, maybe that's a mistake.
A weak lady limped in EP and I found 66 in the CO. I raised but the weirdly loose-passive button cold-called (I also saw him cold-call 3 PF then turbo-muck the flop) as did the BB and the lady. The flop was J77 which looked okay for me but the button raised my c-bet and I went ahead and made the RIO fold. I think I'm folding the best hand here a certain % of the time but even getting 10:1 I think it's unwise to proceed.
I won a couple more small pots and then a maniac LAG came to the table and sat directly to my right. He immediately started spewing chips but took down some large pots with thinking post-flop play. I had to tighten up even more PF, but looked for spots to isolate him. I got one when he opened in MP and I 3-bet behind him with red AQo. The flop came down 753 with two clubs. He check-called. The turn was an offsuit 6. He checked and I stupidly bet. The second he checkraised I realized I fucked up. The right play here is to check behind and call any river bet, and I don't even really think it's that close. But I wasn't thinking and I acted too fast. I thought about his range of c/r hands and didn't think he had to have a 4 here, but I ended up folding and hating it. He showed the whole table his AcQc and laughed. He was free-rolling me, but I still felt angry at myself for not checking the turn back and calling the river.
I shook it off and decided to keep after him. A few hands later he limped after a couple other limpers and I completed the SB with A5o. This is a marginal play but the three guys who limped all would have raised good aces PF, so I didn't feel I was dominated; also the BB was passive, meaning I would rarely have to face a raise after tossing 2 chips in. Nevertheless I don't love playing Ace-crap out of position against 4 opponents. The flop came down JJ6 and it checked around to the LAG on the button who bet. This reeked of a position bet with bullshit, so I check-raised. Folded back to him and he hemmed and hawed and scowled and eventually mucked. I'm glad he did because I wasn't sure how I was going to play the hand if he called. Probably bet the turn and re-evaluate on the river, probably check-folding it most of the time. But to be honest I'm not good enough to be confident with that line so I dodged a bullet by getting everyone to fold me the pot. I chalk that up to my rocky image.
The last interesting hand of the night was a hand I think I played the best. There were two limpers to the LAG on the button who raised. I semi-cold-called in the SB with the Ac5c. The BB called and we all saw the flop of Ad Ts 8s. This is a pretty standard check-raising spot given the nature of my opponents and the texture of the flop. Everything went as planned as we checked it to the PFR who predictably c-bet. I raised and it folded back to him and he called. The turn was a 6h. I bet and he called. The river paired the 8, and I made what I think is a pretty good play of checking to induce a bluff from the number of missed draws he can hold — his range includes two spades, any straight draw like JT, J9, 97, QJ, etc. as well as hands that beat me. He's never folding a better hand to a bet, and he'll fold all his missed draws — or bluff-raise them. But if I check he may bet a lot of those draws (hey, he can only win by betting right?) and I spend the same BB if he has a better hand (though I didn't think he had a bigger ace because he's likely to pop the turn or 3-bet the flop). He fell right into the trap and bet the river. I called and he said "good call" and turbo-mucked. I didn't even have to show, and sort of smiled inside when one of the donks at the table pointed at my face-down cards and said to the LAG "that's gotta be ace-jack at worst… probably AQ or AK."
I ended the session up 10BBs which is fairly insignificant in such a short period of time in such a high-variance game as the Commerce 40. But the important thing to note is that regardless of my results (I could just have easily had lost a rack or won a rack and a half if a couple cards had gone differently), I continued to get my feet wet at this game. I don't think I played great, but I didn't suck — the only thing is, I wasn't so super-comfortable that I'm ready to move up. The 20 will still be my game; but every now and then you may see me take more shots like this.
