Other people's money

I played a 0.05-0.10 cash game last night, that went really well. The players were myself, Marc, Lee (see previous blogs), Chris, Dale, and Daniel. We started a lot earlier than we usually do, and it felt a little weird playing poker while the sun was still coming in through the windows. I put a harsh beat on Marc early on, and from that point kept amassing chips (though subsequent pots were taken with the best hand going into it). One of the plays I made which I'm most happy about is my call of Lee's all-in checkraise with second pair. Preflop, one player had limped, and I raised it up to .50 to go on the button with 99. Lee called in the small blind, and the big blind folded to the limper, Dale, who called. The flop came King of hearts, trey of clubs, seven of hearts. Lee checked, Dale checked, and I decided that if no one held a king, I might be able to take the pot right there. If I was right, it was important to protect my hand not only from flush draws, but also overcards since I was only holding nines. I bet around 2/3 of the pot, something like 1.25. At this point, Lee raised all-in for somewhere around 4 more. getting a little better than 2 to 1, I made the call. I knew that if I was behind, facing a king, that I wasn't getting the odds I needed to call here, but I thought there was a solid chance I was actually ahead in the hand since Lee is a more sophisticated opponent than some of the others. He flipped up A2 of hearts, for the nut flush draw. However, none of us improved and Lee ended up buying more chips.

I left with $73.45, of which all but $10 was profit. This is great in a 0.05-0.10 game, and in & of itself implies a lot of loose action in the game. In fact, I made just $15 less than two fridays ago when the game was 0.25-0.50! This despite the fact that many of the players at last night's table have more experience than those in the Friday night game.

Oh, and the video has been updated at the bottom of the page, if anyone's keeping up.