I played the Golden Nugget’s donkfest at noon yesterday and was up and down in the first hour, but a specific hand played out that was quite interesting.  Starting stacks are 12k and blinds start 25/50 with 40 minute levels.

A player at the table had a habit of raising 2.5x and folding to any reraise.  It was bizarre.  This guy raises in the cutoff to 125, I call from the button with 2,3 suited.  The SB reraises to 375, BB calls, Cutoff folds, and I call.

Flop comes 9,8,7 rainbow.

SB leads out for 1100 and BB calls.

At this point, I’m certain SB is on a bluff.  If he’s reraising small from out of position, there’s just no conceivable way he flopped a straight.  The BB likely sees this and probably has one pair or maybe a pair and a draw or maybe just a draw.  This is a good time to strike.

I raise to 3200.

The SB INSTA-shoves.  BB folds

Now obviously I can’t call with 3 high.  The worst part is, there is just NO WAY he has a hand here.  His betting is reckless and his timing proves he doesn’t have anything.  Oh what I’d give to just have any parcel of a hand.  I fold.  He shows T,5 offsuit and seems proud of his play.  If only he knew he bluffed with the best hand…

I busted an hour later when I flopped top pair against aces (isn’t that how it always has ended this summer?) and I went over to Binions to find a PLO/8 tourney.  I figure that I’m not in that bad of shape in PLO/8 if I run into aces, so I’ll give it a try.

The first two hands had one raiser and all folds.  I instantly knew I was the worst player at the table.  It didn’t take even an orbit.  The next hour played out pretty poorly for me.  I rivered 2nd nut hi and a decent low only to get scooped by nut, 2nd nut.

I was heads up in a pot with a multi draw on high and low going into river and bricked.  I checked my 4th pair and villain checked his rivered nuts behind me.  He had the nut flush draw and didn’t realize he had a straight on the end and was turning his hand over for a 3rd pair victory.  Three people on my table INSTANTLY called the floor in fear of collusion.  I laughed.  The average age at my table was 50.  They were nice people, but one guy was really annoying and he seems to be on the “in” of a lot of bigger committees that deal with poker.  I don’t know who he was, but he annoyed me.

In the next level, I saw a flop of Q,7,7 and laughed at how my useless queen just joined my 7 for a flopped boat.  I bet out and got one caller.  Turn ace.  I bet the pot.  He calls.  River is another ace.  I check in frustration and he puts in a value bet of 1/2 the pot.  LOL.  I fold face up and he shows QQ only.  Dear God!!  I should have been gone!  He went on reverse tilt from not stacking me in this hand and I can only thank my two most hated cards of the summer (ace and ace) for saving my tournament life.  I was getting knocked around left and right by these guys.  They were all better than me.  It was that simple.

We got to level 3 and blinds went up to 75/150.  I started putting on the pressure with my small stack of 1500.  I went from limp mode to pot mode preflop and noticed the table really didn’t care to pay a nice price to see any flops.  I went into the first break at around 3k.  I knew what I had to do.  I had to get aggressive and play poker.  Forget playing this game, since they know it better than me.  I have to play poker.

We get back from break and I go on a mega-terror raising around 50-60% of the pots preflop and watch everybody just limp-fold.  I get back up to 6k when I take my first victim out of the tourney.  He flopped a set of aces against my nut low draw and flush draw.  Flush got there and suddenly I was the table leader.  I continued the hyper-aggro play leaving no pot unraised preflop and watching these old guys cringe as the Kill Phil method of playing poker was burying them.  Players began calling down VERY weak and I got three freerolls post flop for their tourney life.  I hit one of them and never slowed down.  I had guys calling off their entire stack on JUST a flush draw.  It was insane.  I couldn’t believe how bad these guys were getting their money in.  We go into the 2nd break and I’m up to 45k and the tourney chipleader with half the field left.  The second biggest stack at my table?  He had 8700…

I make a few phone calls and discuss how I’m playing.  I can’t believe it.  I’m the worst 0/8 player at the table and the best poker player.  How odd is that?  We get back from break, I’m on the button and steal the first hand.  The second hand, I pot from the cutoff and that second biggest stack decided he had enough.  He shoves all in with A,J,J,T RAINBOW!!!  LOLOLOL  I flip over my A,2,5,8 double suited and am pleased until I watch the board run out K4K4 and I’m drawing dead on the turn… Yuck.  A few hands later a guy limp/calls my pot raise and we see an A,T,6 rainbow flop.  He pots for most of his stack and I get the rest in there with my A,3,6,7.  He shows A,Q,J,T rainbow.  Lucky flop for him… I go brick brick on the low draw (wow…) and lose another chunk.  Just a few hands after that, I’m in the BB and the SB only has about 4.5k.  It all gets in on the 5,6,7 flop with his A,4,J,J against my 2,3,7,K in which I had a flush draw to boot.  So I’m looking for an A,2,3,4,7,k, or heart to win at least half.  Turn 6, river T.  Ship it all to him…  Wow…

I’m down to 18k, but STILL above the average (13.5k.)  A guy in EP pots up to 2800, I repot up to 9600 with A,2,5,7 single suited and it folds to him.  He calls off half his stack and I laugh out loud and ask him if he’s going to stop-n-go me.  The flop comes 3,6,7 and he shoves having me barely covered.  I snap call and the hands turn over… He has… J,4 suited and A,5 off… wow… not only does this seem REALLY questionable to call a repot, but what a funny flop.  He flops nut hi, I flop nut low.  River is a 2 and I’m counterfeited on the low and busted ten hands after being the tournament chip leader.

I’m heading down to the Hard Rock for Trash Talk Tuesday.  The game requires a button straddle, dealers and players are encouraged to talk trash, and slow-rolling is also encouraged.  Should be fun.

I gotta admit, I’ve done more than my fair share of bitching this Summer.  I read Shaniac’s blog the other day and read how he had his first cooler of the summer with QT vs. 22 on a Qt23 board.  What I would give to have that many coolers in one DAY!  Absolutely NOTHING has been easy (aside from mopping the floor with Ozone at golf.)  Last night, it all continued.

Just as Sammy Farha is superstitious, I’m mathticious.  I’m far more absorbed in the probability of outcomes than the result.  So it purely amazes me when I not only found myself on the short end of a set over set, but he turned quads for good measure.  Nothing like have a boat on the turn (again) and drawing dead…  Little help did I get on my rebuy when I ran AK into A8 on an A98 board.  This happening in 40 minutes just amazes me.

More amazing is in the 2nd hour (two rebuys in now) when in consecutive hands, I get A,J suited (flop a flush) AK (flop an ace) and AK again (flop an ace) and proceeded to take three different betting routes… The flop check, the flop big bet, and the flop small bet; all of which were folded by all opponents of all shapes and sizes.  Talk about running bad.

I also played with a guy who probably was the best and smartest player I’ve played to date at the TI HH.  This guy just read situations perfectly.  He played so many hands to perfection.  He had 27k and called a raise of 800 from the SB only to watch me shove 7.2k all-in with my AK.  It folds to him and he just perfectly peels off my hand and calls with 2,2.  I’d think he was nuts if he didn’t just map out his entire thinking process for me.  Fortunately, I flopped a king.  Unfortunately, he also flopped a flush draw.  NOTHING is easy for me.  I had to dodge the 11-outer twice to stay alive.

I took two bounties in this tournament, both of which I had to river the win.  In 7 of my 10 bounty attempts, I ran into Aces four times, KK, QQ, and JJ.  How am I CONSTANTLY on the other side of these monster hands on the all-ins?

The walls came tumbling down with 7 players left when it folded to the SB (fresh off such a bad bluff that he folded getting 5:1 on his money on an all in (and for a bounty.))  He raises the 1k/2k blinds up to 5k and I shove my 23.6k only to have him snap call and show me (like I even need to finish this sentence) Aces…  Oh, and how many chips did he have?  Yeah, that’s right.  He ALSO had 23.6k.

I’ve decided today that I need to change my game again.  I’m going to do what every player should do and that’s bet when last to act on the flop and action is checked to me.  When players run bad, they change their game for the worse, usually overplaying certain hands, bluffing more, or just playing TAG when they clearly should be aggro.  I’m taking the aggro route today at the Golden Nugget.  Maybe I’ll play 12 hours and bubble.  It’d be an accomplishment if I could bubble, as I haven’t gotten that far yet this summer.

Last night, I played my first tournament in 6 days.  After the re-buy period, I still had an average stack and we were already down to 11 players.  With 5 at my table, the following hand played out.

Blinds 100/200

A local who knows my game pretty well limps in from UTG.  I complete SB with A,T.  BB checks.

Flop is A,J,T

I check, BB checks, limper bets 425.

I call, BB folds.

Turn is T putting a double Royal Flush draw on board.

I check, he bets 600, I raise to 1875, he reraises all in and I call as quickly as I could catch my breathe (realizing I had just gotten all the money in on the turn with a boat!)

He flips over AA and I miss the one-outer on the river.

I was so inspired, I wanted to watch Rounders last night, but remembered I loaned it to a friend quite a while ago.

Instead, I played The Bigs, an arcade-like baseball game and put on a beating one would only wish on their worst enemy.

The TI Head Hunters is my goal again tonight.  Net profit one time?

It’s been 5 days since I played poker, thanks to a recording/editing project I’ve been working on with UNLV.  I’m quite excited about it and feel it will be the best CD we’ve made.  The only drawback is the insane amount of time it takes to put into them.  It’s equivalent to the fatigue of playing in a 6-day poker tournament, without breaks.

Even more exciting than starting up again, is that I’m playing in my most successful series of tournaments for the next five days, including two TI HH, two Golden Nugget, and one Binions.

My mind has pretty much shaken all the problems that occurred before this break and I’m anxious to get back out there and turn things around.

Today, I edit until 5 pm and hit the felt at 7 pm.

Things that have gone right this summer.

• The Magic, Rockets, and Blazers all did NOT win the NBA Championship (won a bet)
• I took the field against two players in a live tournament for a poker forum (won that bet)
• I destroyed UB and Lief Force in golf (won several bets and hit first birdie of my life)
• This is the 4th bullet point that needs to be filled with something poker related

A summary of how poker has gone this summer.

• 0 = The number of days I’ve had a netted money
• 11 = The number of tourneys that I’ve busted on my first all-in
• 12 = The number of tourneys that I was crippled by a set
• 0 = The number of Head Hunters Tournaments I’ve netted in (a tournament I average 120% ROI)
• 0 = The number of times I’ve won anything from swapping action with other players
• 6 = The number of tournaments I’ve had a top 3 stack with less than 40% of the field left
• 3 = The number of tournaments I’ve been chip leader with less than 25% of the field left
• 6 = The number of days off I’m about to have thanks to a side music project for UNLV that requires my time.
• 0 = The number of times I want to post one more negative result here on this blog

Two days ago I played golf with Ozone and Lief Force.  I owned all.  I shot a career best 58 (par is 36) and got my first ever birdie and second par.  I was pretty stoked.  I even won credit card roulette twice.

I headed to the TI head hunters and poker remains the same.  I took a 5-outer on the river for 80% of my stack and for the third straight HH tourney, I was the first out at the final table (and no bounties.)

Today, I played in the Golden Nugget $240 NL HE tourney.  The fields are just stupid soft with a better structure than any other place in Vegas this summer.  The only drawback… the dealers are AWFUL and the floor isn’t much better.  This is the same as last year.

I never had less than 50 BBs the entire tournament until level 11.  I was a top 5 stack for nearly the whole tourney and once back from dinner, only 53 of 202 remained.  I ran QQ into AA against the table’s 2nd biggest stack which took me down to an average stack.  I muscled back and then took a gutterball on the river for 1.5x the average stack.  I fought back AGAIN back to average before I picked up TT in the SB, got reraised by the BB and shoved.  He was pot committed to call with K,Q and like most tourneys I play, the first time I’ll all-in is the time I bust.  That pot was for 2x the average stack.  Just truly sick.  I busted 40th.

I really just want to quit poker.

Ever since I was a kid, I always was interested in math.  I was the kid that wanted to go further and learn more and find more applications to everything we did.  I loved the math competitions, not because I wanted to prove I was the best, but because I wanted to see how close to a perfect score I could achieve.  I participated in the math club all the way through high school and joined the academic team as the math specialist.  It was just… my thing.  In poker, we see some incredibly sick things.  One hand never amazes me.  I’ve seen perfect-perfect enough times that I’m rather immune to it now.  What amazes me now, are the completely improbably streaks one can go on in poker.  Yesterday was one of the days where I became so infused with the math, that it crushed me.

It all started when I went to the bank and the bank teller was not only incompetent, but couldn’t type either.  It took her 20 minutes to complete my transaction.  I followed it up with a trip to Sunset Station to cash in on some free slot play, only to find that even after I confirmed THREE times that this was the day I was to go in, that I had misread my little calender for the second time in a week and that I was a day early.  On the way back to my car, I realized I had forgotten my Club Grazie card to sign up at the Venetian.  I wondered to myself, was this how the day was going to go for me?

I drove to TI, where I met Ozone and we walked to the Venetian together.  The line for a card was about 20 players long and despite just needing a card reprint, we had to wait for all the foreigners to get their info put into the system and get their first card.  Following that, we had to wait in line to sign up for the tournament.  Ozone mentions to me he wants to eat, which is fine by me.  But Ozone doesn’t want to eat where our $10 comp can be used, he wants to PAY for lunch somewhere else.  I regrettably oblige to the Canal Shopps Food Court where we sit at a counter for some mexican cantina.  What a mistake.  Not only VERY overpriced, but they actually served me a burrito on a styrofoam plate and give me flimsy plastic-ware to try to cut and eat with.  What a disaster.  The signs should have been looming.

We head down to the poker room, arriving an hour late.  The tournament gives you $15k in chips and blinds were still just 75/150.  Cool.  I fold the first two orbits and it finally folds to me in the cutoff and I raise to 400 with T,5.  Only the big blind calls.  Flop comes Q,Q,T.  Check, Check.  Turn and river were rags and I value bet turn and river only to see him turn over A,T… While sitting there, the guy next to me is an open-mouth breather and has NASTY breath.  It’s so sick and I can’t get away.  I get some chips back when a guy tries bluffing me off top two pair and our table breaks.  I move over to the table with the undisputed chipleader.  He’s sitting on 65k and in the first hand, 4 bets and calls a 5 bet preflop.  He flops top set with 9,9 and cracks aces for a new stack of 85k.  He tries to bully for the next several orbits.  I take him up once.  Blinds of 100/200, he raises from EP to 700, MP calls, I reraise to 2500 from late position with 9,9.  And just like the past several days, the 4250 stack behind me wakes up with QQ.  I’m down to around 9k after another orbit of watching AK, AQ, and KQ all whiff the flop.  From MP I open raise to 575 with 9,9.  Big stack makes it 1650 to go from the SB.  I shove for my 9k and he snap calls with AK suited.  He flops a flush draw and rivers the flush to send me packing.

I head over to TI to play in their 2 PM donkament.  The very first hand, I pick up 3,3 and limp with four others.  Flop comes T,8,4.  Checks around.  Turn is a THREE!!!!  A guy bets, I raise, he shoves, I call.  He turns over 8,8.  Seriously.  No joking here.  What was a bigger kick in the teeth, was I had 150 left and shoved it all with 4 callers on the next hand with T,8 suited.  Flop came Q,J,T.  I had hope.  That was until one player turns over K,9 when she shoves the flop.  Wow…

I head to the cash game and quickly built a stack bulldozing the table.  I watched the Belmont Stakes, of which I had 7:4 of Mine That Bird to win.  He came in Third.  The new-formed short stacks started check-raising all in and pulling the ole stop-n-go on me.  I was back to $300 when my AK ran into J,9 in a raised pot on a  K,Q,T,K,x board.  So incredibly sick.  At this point, I’m amazed that the day could possibly have gone so sour.  I decide to test fate and go to the Ultimate Texas Hold em pit game.  If you are not familiar with this game, you get your hand vs. the dealer heads up.  All hands play.  The point of the game is to shove preflop with any ace, any king, any pair, and a lot of queens.  Wizard of Odds can assist you if you want more info.  It’s a very high variance game, mostly based around your 2:1 and coin flips holding up when you shove 4 times your bet preflop.  On the garbage hands, just hope you hit a pair and get the money in.  This little game was no better, as the first four times I 4x bet, I was at least a 2:1 favorite and lost ALL FOUR!  I only survived in the game due to the dealer putting trips on the board several times, aiding some bonus money to the players.  My final shove was with Q,9 suited finding a board of K,K,9,8,7 and the dealer turning over K,5.

I go back to the poker room and buy in to the 2/4 limit game, while awaiting my NL seat to open.  I get 2nd best hand in the first three hands and head to the 1/3 NL game with a minimum buy in of $50 and use the stop-n-go with K,J only to find myself with a king high board and losing to a set of 9s.  More sets??? I’m pretty sure the odds are supposed to be around 1 in 8 times to flop it…  I rebuy and move seats.  I raise my TT up for 1/3rd of my stack and get called.  On a Q,6,4 flop I move all in and get called by nothing else than Q,4 suited… LOL…  I rebuy for $150 and about an orbit in, I intend to raise it to $15 with A,9 suited, but only manage to get $10 out there.  Oh well.  I get reraised to $25 and a blind calls, so toss another $15 in there.  Maybe my error will pay off big dividends.  Flop is A,8,4.  Check, check, check.  Turn brings a 3.  Check, I bet $45, call, fold.  River is an offsuit queen.  I check, and the guy puts me all in for my $70.  I checked to allow a bluff, but hoping for a check-down.  I’m 99% sure I’m calling if he bets and only some stupid comment that brings him out of the hole to give away his hand could lead to a fold.  No such luck.  I cry-call and he turns over…. POCKET ACES!!! MORE SETS!!!

I leave wondering if I can maybe beat video poker.  $20 in and $0 out.  That was quick.  A slot machine perhaps?  Take out all skill, and maybe I’ll have my shot to win at something.  I mean… really… Any chance??? Nope…  I didn’t go bust though.  7 pm came around and I headed over to the TI HH and quickly get into the zone.  I was focused and determined to win.  The first hand I got AA and it was already 4-bet to me.  Ok… I’ll 5-bet.  One call and an 8 high flop got all my chips in with no caller.  I had QQ on a J high board and got 2 bets out of an opponent.  Things were starting to look up for me.  Then a man (I actually should not give him such a generous title) got COMPLETELY out of line and was yelling at a cocktail waitress for ignoring him, when in reality, she was taking orders from another person.  He was yelling at her from across the table.  Commotion ensued when several players, including myself, would not have him trash-talking her behind her back and this guy proceeded to be as rude as possible to everybody and claimed to “be a big player here” (which apparently gives him the right to be an asshole) and the floor manager was called over to be alerted of and defuse the situation.  The guy then challenges the manager to kick him out… Wow… The very next hand, a guy has the nuts on him and this guy misreads the board or something, because he thought he had a flush on a board with no more than two to any suit.  I take my shots at him with comments like, “In this game, you need five of a suit to make a flush.”  He rebuys and the manager makes a tough decision by breaking the three tables down to 2 with just 20 players left during the re-entry period (thus stopping any new players from joining and must be alternates.)  I understood his decision and agree with it, though I was unhappy since I had a GREAT table draw.  At the new table, I get AK in the BB.  I watch the pot get min-raised, then raised 3x on top, two callers, and I decide to just shove (14x on top of that) and will be fine with a call or fold from anybody.  I get called by QQ and I won my first race of the day!!! BOUNTY!!! I was only in for a single buy in.  This was just amazing.  Then the table played me like a fiddle.  I think every player at the table outplayed me over the next hour and I was down to 6 BBs when my QQ lost to AK suited (same exact cards that my 99 lost to at Venetian) and poof.

I get a text from my friend, requesting a ride to Palms Place, if I bust.  I reply and await his confirmation that he still needs me.  I go and put $20 in a slot machine while waiting.  A couple spins in, I win a bonus game to get me up to $38.75.  Ok, I’ll play it to $40 or $30.  The very next spin, I get the bonus AGAIN.  This time for some big payoffs!  I’m up to $106.25.  I lost the next 5 spins and cash out for $100.

To some, it’s the sunlight after an F5 tornado.  To others, it’s grandpa’s favorite bird that stops by the bird feeder after going to his funeral.  Two years ago, after busting from the main event, I took down my first ever 4-figure cash profit from a 1/3 game.  This highly improbable slot win just might be that sign to me.

I declined to post after my last two tournaments for no specific reason.  I played the $540 mega-stack event at Caesars on Thursday and got to the final 3 tables despite take a 2-outer on the river twice for a guys stack and losing to a 3-outer for another guy’s stack.  I ran 3 bluffs the entire 8 hours I played and got nailed on all three.  In my final orbit, I found myself up against KK twice and JJ once.  This ending was quite frustrating.

The TI HH (which is my bread and butter tourney) eluded me for the 5th straight time.  I took a 1-outer on the river on the very first hand and found myself up against top set THREE times in the first hour.  My final hand pitted me a chance for a double up, back to an even stack if I could just dodge 5 outs on the turn and river (with me having redraws to either if he hit.)  No such luck.  I rebought and just played it calm and call and found myself in the zone for the second time in two days and chipping up bit by bit.  I went to the final table with one bounty and twice the average stack.  In 7 hands I found myself against aces twice and I was gone.

After this, I just emotionally collapsed outside the TI poker room.  So much anticipation for this summer with all the work I’d done to improve my game.  The majority of it has never seen the need to be used, as the opponents are so bad that playing ABC is the way to win.  Unfortunately I cannot put a run together that will get the job done.  I’ve finished in the final 25% in half the tournaments so far and not cashed.  If not putting in a single cashing so far wouldn’t through the mind into some bizarre twists on its own, couple that with several deep runs and washing out.  I just don’t know how to react to failure, as it seems to only hit me in the first week of this summer challenge.  Three straight years it has happened and then I come roaring back in the second and third weeks.  That is what I have to go with.  I have to remember the past and trust that these tournaments are not the norm and that I will not continue to be the only guy playing against the best starting hands in poker when we are coming down to the wire.

This morning, I felt a sense of renewed confidence.  I can’t control some aspects of this game, but I know I’m playing well enough to have gotten into my elusive “zone” twice in two tournaments.  I took up a friend’s offer to have him stake me for 60% of the Venetian Deep Stack today, in order for me to get a shot at playing a bigger tournament.  This change in schedule is unprecedented, since I have never cashed at the V (0-25 all-time) but I feel my time is coming and I want it to be when the prize pool is big.

To the felt I go.

I finished 14th after winning my first 6 heads up matches in a massive online heads up shootout last night.  The 7th was a bit painful as I took a 6-outer on the river to swap a 2:1 chiplead and then caught the sucker end of a straight on the very next hand when my opponent caught the top end.

I have made my first change to the schedule.  While not playing the WSOP $2k tourney, instead of taking off today, I’ve replaced it with the Caesars Megastack $550.  New venue, new hope.

The WSOP 6-max tourneys are just golden.  The play is so stupid-aggressive (SAG) that you really just wait for hands and get paid off by slow playing them.  These guys just can’t stand checking.  My strategy was to simply just slow play everything but sets and flopped two pairs.

The early rounds were frustrating, since the only three times I got walks with my raises were when I had AA, QQ, and JJ.  I was losing more than winning.  I even pulled the dramatic flop of Qx,Tc,7c with J,9 of clubs and lost to a pair of 7s.  Yep… a 21-outer gone whiff…  I was damaged goods and down from 4,500 starting stack to just 2600 or so.  I raised with Q,6 s00ted and was called by the button.  The flop came Q,6,3 and I led out and called his raise.  The turn was another queen putting a double flush draw on board and it was check, check.  I checked my boat a second time on the river when a king made a spade flush possible.  My opponent couldn’t resist and bet.  I moved all in and he cry called and mucked.  sexy.

A few hands later I raised it up 3x and got one caller.  Flop came 4,4,3 and I led with my 9s.  Villain raised and I shoved all in, barely covering him.  He tanked and called with Tens.  Go me… a 9 on the river saved me and I felt vindicated from yesterday’s KK beating my AA.

I went back to 2nd best hand mode down to 7k before taking the final pot going into the first break with nearly 8k in chips.  Coming out of the break, my sheriff methods started to annoy my opponents and they started adjusting to my non-sense way of slow-playing everything.  So… I changed gears into aggro mode.  I stole 3 of the first 4 pots and was up to 10k.

A player then raised and I called with AQ, knowing the BB had ants in his pants and he might shove 7.5x over the top.  JACKPOT.  He shoves and initial raiser folds and I snap call.  BB shows 8,7.  Ace in the door and it’s already lights out.  Two hands later I 4-bet AK and take it down preflop.  I’m up to 15k and the table is intimidated.  Having 100 BBs after level 2 always feels sexy.

The button raises to 425 (blinds 75/150) and SB calls.  I looked at Kx, Qc in the BB and call.  Flop comes K,7,5 with two clubs.  We both check and button bets 600.  SB folds, and I make it 1,600 to go.  He flat calls.  Turn is 7 of clubs.  I lead with my pair and draw for 2,200.  He calls.  Now I’m in shutdown mode, barring a king or queen dropping on the river.  The river is the ace of clubs.  I now have the nut flush.  I check and he instabets 3,400 of his 6k.  Nasty.  I think forever and start putting all the pieces together.  A flopped set would mean he actually bet his set on the flop when checked to him and then flatted when check-raised.  That’s sneaky, but dangerous with  the double draw on board.  On the turn, he fills up (or quads) and just calls.  Why doesn’t he raise here?  If I have a hand like the one I actually do, I certainly would call a raise.  What is he waiting for?  Another 7 to drop on the river and counterfeit him?  On the river, a bet certainly makes sense.  There are a lot of doubts here in this hand in me putting him on a flopped set.  How bout some other hands?  How about a king and the jack or ten of clubs.  On the flop, he bets and likely calls my check raise.  He certainly calls my turn bet with the flush draw and on the river when I check, he could make a value bet with his flush thinking I’ll cry call with AK or a smaller counterfeited flush.  That all makes sense.  The pot is huge.  There’s enough chance that I’m ahead that I must call.  I do.  He shows pocket 5s.  Ouch.  Sick as hell turn and river for me.

Another player comes to our table and 4-bets 8,6 suited and flops a flush and O.E. straigh flush draw against KK and a flush draw.  He wins the pot (rivering a straight flush) and instantly starts trying to run over the table with his 18k stack.  I’ll have none of that and go back into sheriff mode getting him to commit two bets with the worst hand on two different hands.  I chip back up to 7k.

I raise from the cutoff with K,Q offsuit.  Button reraises 2.5x more.  He’s been doing this enough that he doesn’t always have a big hand.  I call.  Flop is J,T,7.  I check.  He bets nearly the pot and I shove all in for 4x his bet.  He snap calls with JJ.  Another set?  And I have KQ again???  ugh… Turn gives me a flush draw and I whiff the river and I’m gone.

All that happened in just 3 1/2 hours of play.

Wow.