Oh What a Fun Game

So my session was mixed tonight. Virginia (my girlfriend) had a late surgery, so I decided that I could get some quality playing in before she got home. I pulled up a $.10/.$25 NLHE game at Bugsy's and several $2 HU matches at FTP. The HU matches went well, the NLHE did not. First, the gory details from the ring game. I bought in for the table max of $20 and promptly dumped half of it in my first 2 orbits by being overly aggressive. I hadn't watched the table and I didn't give myself enough time to get a feel for it before I started plugging in bets and raises so it was no surprise that I kept getting slapped back and forced to fold hands. When I was around $9ish I doubled through with a straight vs top pair to get back to even. I flopped double gutted with T9 on a Q68 rainbow and pushed with it. I hit a J on the river to lift me over AQ and put me back around $18ish. I promptly caught one to my man bits 3 hands later. I raised UTG with AKo and got the BB to call. The guy in the BB had been check-raising with only moderately strong hands (top pair medium kicker, etc), so I was waiting to trap him for all of his chips. He had taken a chunk out of me earlier when I tried to bet him off AK on a final board of 68333 and wasn't successful. Anyway, flop comes Kc Qc 4d, he checks, I bet pot, he moves in over top of me for all but $.80 and I beat him in the pot. The turn is a T, the river a 3 and he shows the disgusting KT to take it down. Thanks poker. I rebuy for $19 and proceeded to ride the ride from $10 to $25. I called a raise with J9dd in the SB with 3 other callers and took a 9 high flop. I didn't like it and checked, the original raiser bet again and I was the only one to take another card with him. The turn was a second 7, I checked again and he fired again and I mucked. He showed QQ. I got away but not before losing a couple of bucks. I won two small pots to get back to $19ish before I took an AA in the crotch with my QQ on a J high flop to drop me to $10. I doubled with 97o on an A97 flop and scooped a few more small pots to get to $25 when I took another loss to QQ with AJ on a J high flop. QQ owned me tonight. That shot me back down to $13, but I doubled again when AQ held vs ?? on an A98 flop. I think the guy had A rag, but I'm not certain. The one bad thing about Bugsy's (or good, depending) is that their muck feature is accurate. If you wouldn't have to show in real life, you don't have to show at Bugsy's, and the hand histories don't fill you in either.

At FTP I started off hot. I took my first 3 $2 HU matches before promptly dumping 2 in a row to a different person. I got one back before he quit playing me and then I ran into a guy who I'm pretty sure had never played before. It was tougher than hell to beat him. I never knew what he was doing because HE never knew what he was doing. He insta-called a monster bet down on one pot with T high on a final board of AKJ88 with a flush possible. It happened to be good, but he didn't know this. All he used were minimum bets and he only reraised a bet of mine on his bust hand. I had 56dd and raised pot. He called and we took a 789 flop. He min bet, I min raised, he called. The turn peeled a 7 to give me a little scare, but he min bet, I min raised, and he called. The river was an ugly 9 and I had to think forever. He min bet, I pot raised to put him mostly in, he thought and pulled the trigger and I reluctantly called, fully expecting to see a hand like 94o. I saw AQ and took it down. It would be awesome if the guy actually did know what he was doing, because he was tougher than hell to play against, but it was quite obvious that he was lost. I then played another long series of matches against a dude who was trying to coach me as I missed 3 open-enders with overcards to dump the first 3 matches to him. I bit my tongue and luck decided to come back from his vacation and allow me to win when I was favored and I quickly tied it up. I think I ended +2 on him but I can't be sure because FTP doesn't have the user-friendly account history that Bugsy's does.

Overall, my roll stayed around even. I dumped $13ish at Bugsy's and gained $9ish at FTP. Current counts are $445.34 at Bugsy's and $18.80 at FTP. By the end of the week I'd like to be at $500 on Bugsy's and $30 on FTP. We'll see how I do.