I had been running really bad and took a break for about 10 days or so. This is my email to Melissa after my first session back.
So my buddy from NY that I have been playing with a lot lately was back in town and wanted to play some cards.
I haven't played at all in February and have been looking forward to starting off a fresh month.
We went to the Bike and it was so packed that we had to park in this other lot that I didn't even know existed.
We get in and the place is the most packed I have ever seen. Excellent, the games must be really good.
The last time I was at Commerce, a guy that I play with on occasion was telling me about a good game that they spread at the Bike. He said it's the $300-$500 buyin and has $5/$5 blinds. He said it plays exactly like the $200 game that I play except you can buy in for more. He said that if you buy in for the full amount that you can go in and mop the game fairly easily. i decided I was going to give it a shot while my buddy played the $80 NL.
I go to the podium ask for $500 NL and they tell me they have a seat available.
I sit down and give the chip-runner my cash.
They were about 3 positions away from my BB so I decide to wait it out and watch a couple hands.
In the first 2 hands I saw, there were $1000 bets on either flop or turn. I was like wow. Not only that but the blinds were $5/$10 and not $5/$5 like I had hoped. Not only that but they were straddling every hand making for huge action. I had recently played some $5/$10 so I decided to stick it out since the adjustment wouldn't be that great. It gets to my UTG and I decide to come in on the straddle so I post my $20.
The first hand I get dealt, the player UTG pops my straddle to $85. There are several callers and I look down at K 10 clubs.
It's only $65 more to call and theres already close $400 in the pot. Easy call, plus I know if I hit I am going to get paid off.
We take the flop of
K 6 3 2 hearts
I check and UTG bets out $275. It folds around to to me and I look at the way the guy had put his chips in because it didn't make sense. He had thrown in 5 chips. 2 whites ($100 each) and 3 off-color chips that looked like dollar chips. I looked closer at these "dollar" chips only to realize that they are $25 chips. Not only that but everyone had A LOT of them. I was like "OH SHIT, what did I just get myself into."
At Commerce they have the $200, $400 and the $600. The biggest I have ever played is the $400. The $600 has no max buy-in and has blinds of $10/$20. I am really really far away from ever playing that game as it is too expensive. It turns out that the game I was playing in was the Bike's equivalent to the Commerce $600. It took me a minute to realize but I looked around and saw 4 players who had at least $6000.00 in front of them. Everyone else had at least $2000.00 I had just bought into the game for what I guess is the minimum. $500. Obviously had I known what I was getting myself into I would have passed on the seat but like I said I didn't know.
Since I have now realized what I have gotten myself into, I am starting to realize that my pair of Kings on the flop is probably good. I start studying my opponent and know that the poker that these "high-rollers" play is much different then the poker we play. The bluffing in this game as it turns out was absolutely relentless.
I put the guy who had bet $275 on QQ JJ or an even weaker holding.
I go all in.
He doesn't call right away so I knew that my hand was probably best.
He asked how much more it was and I told him that he was pot-committed. It was about $150 more to call. He calls.
Bear in mind, this is my very first hand.
Turn Q I literally gasped out-loud when I saw that card.
River J At this point I had already excepted defeat and shook my head.
I flipped over K 10 and expected to have gotten sucked out but my opponent said nice hand and threw it into the muck.
WELCOME TO THE BIG GAME I thought to myself.
It literally took me over 5 minutes to stack all the chips from the nearly $1300 pot I had just won.
The guy sitting to my right, and thank God he was on my right is the best LAG player I have ever played with. He was awesome although he was a total prick. His game was like mine if I was actually a good player. From the moment I sat down until about 10 minutes later he was winning almost every pot. He even showed down a couple of monster hands, so I knew that he had the goods some of the time.
This is about the 6th or 7th hand now and I am just finishing stacking my chips when there is a straddle and the LAG to my right pops it to $80 UTG. I look down at QQ and only call.
I almost never just call there, but this guy was playing so loose and had over $6K that I had a feeling that if I made it $200 to go that he would have put me all-in and thats not what I wanted.
Several other players call. The LAG comments on how he has a good hand and its a little better then the last hand he just showed down which was a bluff. AQ. I couldn't imagine that he had a hand better then my queens so I gave him credit for 10's.
Flop:
2 2 4
LAG immediately fires out $300. Once again I'm taken aback because I have never even come close to playing this big before and every hand feels like a brand-new experience.
I declare raise and put out the $300. After putting out the $300 I sit in place for about a minute to make myself look strong and counted out 5 white chips and popped his bet to $800.
It folds back to the LAG and he considers what to do. I end up telling him that I have a good hand and that he should fold. He says, what do you have 9's? I say something along those lines. He says, ok I'll double you up and goes all-in. Obviously I call and this is the new biggest pot I have ever played in my life.
Turn Q
BAM!!!! It doesn't matter what he has at this point, I know I have just won the biggest pot of my life.
River J
I flip over my Queens and the LAG gets all pissy and starts complaining about his luck and that he had KK.
First off, I don't believe he actually had Kings. For 2 reasons.
1. I never hit that 2 outer on the turn. Ever. So thats the first thing.
2. He loved showing his cards and even showed his bad beats so I know he would have showed me Kings. I told him I put him on 10's and he got really defensive that he didn't have 10's. Whatever.
I never got to counting how big my stack was because it took another 15 minutes to stack my chips. But I would assume it was around $2700-$2800.
I won a couple more small pots and never could really get into the game like I wanted too because they were just committing way too much money in spots where I don't like to commit a lot of money.
The 3-betting was the most relentless I had ever seen. $300 re-raises pre-flop were not uncommon and a lot of the time that bet would be quickly called by the original raiser.
In this game, there was no such thing as a free card. This is the perfect game to play in if your catching cards. If you hit something on the turn and check, you are probably going to be faced with a $500 bet.
Overall, I would say that the guys I sat down with were by far the most talented and richest players I had ever played with. I essentially jumped up two levels even though I didn't mean too. On the other hand, these guys were such whiners. They always whined like crazy when they were outdrawn and a couple even went on tilt. I know it's a lot of money but if you're playing at those stakes professionally, you should already be trained to handle the swings. Some of these guys weren't and that was nice to see.
My buddy couldn't stay long so I left about 2 hours after I sat down and ended up cashing out $2222.00 for a come up of $1722.
I went to Commerce and tried talking myself into playing the $400 but instead went with the $200 only so I could lose to a couple 3 outers on the turn and river. Standard. I dropped one buyin and called it a night.
I'm heading to Commerce in a few minutes. Hopefully February keeps treating me well.
Take care.
-Gary
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