Just got back from my first live poker in well over a year. Was out with a buddy who just quit his job and needed to unwind, so we did it up. Sat at a 1/2 NL table with the full buyin and waited to see what happened.
It's amazing, after playing in the rock garden that is PStars 25NL seeing how lose these players are, and how fast the monies move around. I watched the first orbit with no cards, but the second orbit got interesting. I 3-bet with AJ in late position to narrow the field and ended up with position in a 3-way pot. Flop left me with TPTK on a pretty dry board. Much to my horror though, the first preflop caller tossed in 100$ like it was nothing, and the player to her left immediately called. I didn't have much information on either player, so I ended up folding, saying I was probably going to hate myself for doing it as I did so. The flop caller had only 30$ left, so the bettor said she was putting him all in blind. Turn came an A (shit) and the river was a rag. Turns out the biotch had freaking JT soooted, and the donkey to her left had the monster 44 unimproved. So I watched her drag a 300+$ pot that was rightfully mine.
At the time, it was absolutely inconceivable to me that they would both be so weak, throwing such crazy amounts of monies around after I had 3-bet preflop. Afterwards I realized that when I hear all these stories about the 1/2NL donkeys, they weren't lying.
About an orbit later I was in late position again with AQ. Another EP raiser, I 3-bet it, and we saw an ace high flop with 3 players. The EP raiser bet out about the pot, and I hummed for a second before pushing all in, since my instincts were telling me I was miles ahead, as I was in the last hand. The 3rd player folded, and the EP raiser thought for probably 2 minutes before he finally said "Im stubborn .. I call" and showed the monster A7, leaving me waay ahead with 2 cards to come. The turn, of course, was the 7 of hearts, and just like that my 200$ buyin was toast.
I left fairly briskly, but realized I still had 20$ in my pocket, so I thought it would be fun to see if I could get enough for a buyin back, and my buddy took me to a roulette table. After betting everything on red 3 times and doubling up 3 times, I went back to the poker room armed with 160$. This time I was mostly card dead and when I did get hands I either misplayed them horribly, or hit a monster and didn't get any action.
This hand is embarrasing...
Hero is dealt TT OTB. EP raises to 5, hero 3-bets to 25. Three callers. Flop comes A Q x. It checks around, and I make an absolutely recockulously retarded bet of 40$ into the 100$+ pot. All but one player fold. I give up and check the turn/river and buddy shows me a weak queen. I didn't like myself much after that hand, but didn't go tilting and hovered around an 80$ stack for another hour or so. Then I got the word my buddy was driving away, so I reluctantly cashed out and rolled out.
I was definitely comfortable with things by the time I left, and I'm excited to try it again, soon hopefully. Having identified the errors in my play, and assuming I can dodge my next 3-outter, I could/should have walked out with over 700$.
It's so much more fun playing live ... The table talk is very entertaining and the intensity is still there. Plus handling those delicious chips is so much more enjoyable than clicking mouse, clicking mouse, blah blah.
So there is definitely more 2NL in my future. Unless I have a couple good nights early, it'll be shortlived as I can only allocate ~600-800$ for this venture. We'll see how the next time goes!
This still works?
1 year ago
