I’ve had a pretty good week at the poker table. I managed to make 306 dollars Thursday night, and then another 206 dollars on Saturday. Saturday’s win would have been better but for not coming in the money in any of four ten dollar tournaments before the cash game began. When it finally did begin, I managed to lose fifty dollars on the first hand. I can’t even remember how that hand went or even what cards I held or was beaten by. Perhaps what they say about how I remember the high points and forget the low points is a valid criticism. I bought in again and began rebuilding. I was facing only two opponents in Saturday night’s game, so I got the chance to see a lot of hands. We were playing dealer’s choice and my outs just kept hitting at Omaha so I established a large lead fairly early. As I told one of my opponents, it sure helps a lot when you get lucky. After a while we switched to playing only “crazy games” like Crazy 8, five card stud low, low in the hole, and Cincinnati. My luck didn’t run quite as well with these, but I was able to hold on to the majority of my chips to cash out far ahead. We even played two rounds of put and take, which isn’t really a poker game at all, but more just a complicated version of high card. I lost about twenty-five dollars on that. I think it was the first time I’d ever played it for one dollar, two dollar, four dollar, and eight dollar stakes.

I also managed to get a fair share of luck to produce Thursday’s large win. Though in general my cards were fairly poor, I managed to get in a pot for only two dollars when on the button with a T7 off-suit. There were already six callers behind me not counting the blinds, so I decided to take a chance, especially since the blinds were a little bit short stacked. Also the big blind was passive and the small blind seemed to be off his normally aggressive game. I guess I still feel like I have to justify calling the two dollars with that hand, but I did have a lot of reasons to call. In any case, the small blind called the dollar and the big blind checked. The flop came 689 rainbow. I was already thinking about how much money I could eek out of this unlikely flopped straight when the fairly solid player to the left of the BB bet out fifteen dollars. The extremely loose somewhat passive player to his left called, and then one other player at the far end of the table called. I decided a call was my best option at this point with my made hand. The small blind called behind me. The four of hearts made the turn making two hearts. The small blind checked into the bettor who obliged me with a twenty-five dollar bet. The loose player to his left called, the second caller opted to fold, and I hesitated over the amount I should raise. I wanted to trap the loose player into calling, but I didn’t want to lose all my chips when she hit her heart flush on the river. The contract with the devil she seems to have apparently stipulates that should happen a certain number of times per night. I decided on a twenty-five dollar raise, because that should price her in while not hurting too bad if the river makes her jump in her seat when it’s a heart. The small blind folds, and the bettor and the loose player both call. The river is a second nine, and not a heart, so I am immediately worried that the bettor might have filled up, but he checks into me, as does the loose player behind him. I bet fifty, and the bettor calls and the other player folds. I’m almost disappointed that he can call because if this solid player calls it seems to me it’s likely I’m beaten, but he shows me a pocket pair of aces. I’m a little dumbfounded, but more than happy to take the pot. His play indicated a pair of aces after I looked back on it, except for the smooth call under the gun with the aces. This was a fairly loose table, and he was likely to get some action with a bet large enough to force out the unlikely hands. As the player to my left commented, if he’d only raised ten dollars, he’d have won the pot. I corrected him. If he had only raised two dollars he certainly would not have lost the pot to me. My ten and seven would have been early in the muck.

The other hand that I made a fairly large amount of money on started out as a pocket pair of fours. My cards had turned ugly, and I was starting to get that feeling that I wasn’t going to get to play anymore. I hadn’t started keeping track of the time yet, but I would soon enough. I looked at a four, which isn’t a card one wants to see when he receives his first card in hold’em, because there are only three cards left in the deck that will justify seeing the flop, and then only for cheap. Lucky for me it was another of the fours, so I called the two blind. I might have even called a five dollar straddle, but I can’t remember for sure. I feel like the implied odds one gets when he flops a set in no-limit make the small pairs worth playing. That’s exactly what happened to me. The flop contained another four and a couple of large cards. I can’t remember how the betting went, but I was fairly aggressive, a little afraid of the straight draws, and then after the turn when a flush was possible, I decided I’d better do something to get all the draws out. I still faced two players in poor position, so I bet out fifty against them. The first player folded, but the second player called, announcing he only had fifteen of it. I immediately felt that I had overbet. Anything that would have kept the first player in for his draw would have been a better bet, because I knew I was going to have to survive the river one way or the other. With my caller being so short-stacked there was no way he wasn’t getting pot odds to call, and he could still take away everything in the middle, which was a pretty good little pot. The river was a blank and I won, but I think I would have won if I’d given exactly those same odds to the first opponent, and had fifteen more dollars to show for it, maybe even twenty-five if I’d bet that instead. In fairness to me, my caller was the only player whose stack was concealed from me on the other side of the dealer.