A Night with a Buy-In

Inspired by CJ's Coushatta trip reports, I decided to chronicle my no limit play for a couple of hours at a $50 buy in table at Full Tilt. Hopefully it will provide some perspective on why may play has been so horrendous of late. I use that term confidently.

01 - My first hand where I'm the forced bring in I find A6 and see a K64 flop. The button weakly bets into an unraised pot and I smell steal. I triple his bet and he flat calls. I bet the turn and river and am smooth called the whole way. In fact, the button does have a K and I'm down a quick $16.

02 - I find Q5 clubs on the button and it's folded to me. I raise and win the blinds. Yay. I only post this hand because it's one of the few highlights.

03 - AJs in LP and I raise to $2. I'm called by someone in later position and we see a flop of all undercards with no spades. I still come out firing with a $4 bet and am immediately raised to $8. I call to see a turn that offers no help. I check call and lose to someone holding 87 suited who paired the 8 on the flop. -$12

04 - AKo in LP. UTG min raises to $1 and I re-raise to $2. UTG re-raises to $5 and I call. Flop is all undercards - this will be a recurring theme this evening. I check call two more bets and fold to an all-in river bet. With the board showing T,J I believe I had 10 outs to the underpair I put my opponent on. Still, I lost. -$11

05 - AA on the button and 3 limpers call the BB. I raise to $3 and get only 1 caller. The flop is KQ8 with two clubs and it's checked to me. I bet $6 and the caller folds. Nothing special here, pretty standard poker. +$4

06 - A5c UTG and I limp preparing to fold to a raise. The flop comes 983 with 2 clubs and I bet the pot. I'm called by LP and the Q of clubs comes on the turn. I check hoping to trap, but LP checks as well. The river is a J and I hope the guy made his straight so I bet $5. I'm called, turns out he did make his straight on the turn, but decided to check. Nice play that saved him some money. +$7

07 - Pocket T's in MP and I raise to $2 only to be called by the button and EP. Flop is K-high and it's checked to me. I come out firing again for $4 and it's insta-raised to $8 by the button. EP folds and I call. The turn is an A and I check fold again to an all-in bet. Button shows AK for top two pair. -$10

08 - A9s UTG and again I limp preparing to fold to a raise. But this time, there are 5 callers and the button min-raises....why do people do that? Everyone calls and the flop is Q53 with two spades. I check and MP bets $3. Min-raiser calls as do I as I'm getting more than sufficient pot odds here. The turn is a 2 of spades giving me the nuterinski. I check hoping to induce a bet, but it's checked around. The river pairs the 3 and I push. MP folds and LP calls for less showing Kx of spades for a worse flush. +$15

09 - 67s in MP and I limp. Five players come along and I see a dream flop of 458, but two of them are diamonds. It's checked to me and I bet the pot to make the flush draw unfavorable. Two callers see a turn and it's the Q of spades. I again bet the pot, $10, but it's folded all around. +$7

10 - Pocket J's in MP and I raise to $2 and am called by 3 players. The flop is A-high and I'm out of position to two callers. I checked and it's checked all the way around. The turn is junk and I think I may be good, so I bet out $4. The button raises to $10 and I muck. -$6.

11 - Pocket T's in the SB and I call the button's raise to $2. Again, an A-high flop comes and I check. Button bets $3 and I raise to $6 hoping that the A is a scare card. Button simply calls. Turn is no help and I check fold to an all-in. -$8

12 - AJo in MP and I raise to $2 as first into the pot and get one EP caller. Flop is NOT A-high (of course) and I check fold to a post rag-on-the-turn bet. -$2

13 - 96 suited in the SB and I complete. Another dream flop of 599. I check and button bets $2. I call. Turn is a Q and I check. Button wisely checks. The river is an A and I bet the pot hoping the A hit him. It didn't and he folds. He then berates me for playing A-rag. I sadly inform him he's a moron, but he disagrees. +$3

14 - AJo again in MP. I'm first in, so I raise to $2 and am called by cutoff and the button. No position for me, and of course, no A on the flop. I check fold to the button's bet.

15 - AQ in BB......folded to me. Sigh.

16 - KK in LP and I call a $3 pre-flop raise from UTG. The flop is Q-high and original raiser checks. I check trying to get cute, desperately wanting to win a decent pot. I give 1 free card and then bet the turn. UTG folds.

17 - I end the evening totally misplaying the BB by flopping middle pair. It's checked all around to the button again and he bets small. I raise on the turn and am flat called again. My instincts are so totally wrong lately, that I lose my last $15 on this hand and call it quits for the evening.

****

In a nutshell, I dropped $60 on missed flops, poorly played hands, and getting little value from the monsters I managed to hold. While this night was frustrating, it was revealing to me just how bad my NL ring game play has become.

I've cashed out of FullTilt to go chase the Party bonus, perhaps I'll turn things around. Still learning...