Somehow got talked into going down to Aspers Northampton for a 'big cash game' - £1/2 with 200 min sit down which is the biggest that runs there.
The table was a really good mix up of players and it was full by 1930 which since it was supposed to start at 8 is good.
I decided that if I'm going to spunk all my money from going to Madrid last weekend then I should at least do it in one big buyin, so £500 down and covering everyone and we're off.
I knew I'd need to play pretty snug and really good 'pleno poker' - initiative + position = $$
So I did for a long time, then found a nice spot to iso a relatively snug and well known on here Dan Muddiman with position... however he just insta-4bt and told me he had QQ's... sigh. Didn't really get involved in much/ anything for a few hours.. then managed to negotiate my way to showdown with a weak tp hand that took a nice small pot. Generally I think I played really really well for the first 2 or 3 hours. Despite my 'boredom' of not playing 1000hands/hour I was paying attention to the players, hands, lines and tells. Which is a good thing since I think a lot of 'live' players often get too involved in the 'entertainment' side of the game and sometimes lose focus. (not directed at anyone, i just mean in any 'general live' game)
I slowly chip up to 650/700 and have been relatively aggressive with position, which has been noticed... my btn 3bt was pretty high, but no one was adjusting and the ones that might try don't know how to do so effectively (i did have QQ's one hand and was praying for some 'playback').
Then I manage to find
on the button vs James Tomlin's EP open and we're deep-ish (350).
We peel a standard £8 open and find a
FLOP
3 way with a recreational player and all round nice guy in the SB.
The SB leads for 17, James calls and I decide to call.. in retrospect I'm unsure about this - I didn't raise at the time because its not like anyone can have any decent draw and its going to be really tough to get 3 streets in this spot even if Mason has AJ. And I think James can be a station sometimes but I'm not sure even he will call down here with AA's if I take off and bomb, bomb.
TURNis a completely harmless
Mason checks, James checks and I decide that in this spot Mason will have J10 at best and James is capped at AA's. I never think James is folding this turn so I decide to make it a pretty large sizing and go for 52, Mason folds and James calls swiftly.
RIVER 
I genuinely thought - fmfmfmfl.
James checks, I have like the 4th nuts or something and I'm not sure I can even vbet here.... I consider the options as i see them:
- bet small to guarantee a call from his AJ-KK range, he isn't check raising AJ all the time.
- bet massive to get a hero from the same range some % of the time but make it big enough to compensate for all the folds.
- bet big to get value but allow myself to bet/fold vs exactly AA's and sometimes a rarely played JJ
- check back and miss value from all one pair hands but be a super genius vs AA's which we think he has a decent % of the time.
Eventually I level myself into the mathematical play... James is a station some days, and here he can definitely have all one pair hands and hero me for a medium sized bet. So I have to bet.
I make it 135 and he takes 10 seconds before declaring
all in....
I sigh and lol it off... saying to myself "I almost did it, I really almost checked it back.."
He confirms two minutes later he had "dem Aces..." and I believe him, he's a spewy guy some days but I don't think I've ever seen him spazz check raise his stack in a big pot..
So we're feeling good about the fold, back to 'starting stack' and off again on the hunt.
I played pretty snug, getting comments from around the table but as I was finding 94o every hand its tough these days for me to do anything with that. I find
otb and 3bt with a raise and two calls in front, I've already decided that vs the raiser or first caller i fold to any aggression but the guy on my right is someone I know, he gets fed up with me reraises and he will literally reshove his entire range here for the extra 75/80 in his stack. So when they fold and he shoves I snap.
He had some kind of 9x as he said "I've made a pair" on the 9 high flop, I river a 10 and tyvm. He got really wound up afterwards about a pot he lost earlier to the player to his right where the guy cc flop with 72o and a pair, turns a 7 and wins a decent pot off his tpgk. I tried to calm it down because he got a little rude as he left the table but it was a horrible spot to be in. The guy left at the table is asking "wtf is going on..." and I'm trying to get my mate to calm down when he's super tilted and getting aggro.
Eventually I just give up, shut up and let him do his thing... these kinda spots really confuse me, as a technical guy i just want to 'fix it'.
Anyways, we carry on and the game changes a little with the addition of a strong player in the form of Wu.. he's realtively well known in the local area, think he came 3rd in a DTD deepstack and he's consistently solid. But he is on my right and I'm sure that now I'm a lot more capable of dealing with him.
Another interesting hand, which is actually a mini blowup is once again I get to 700 ish and then 3bt/5bt/fold
vs Sunny Mistri and his shown 89o... #forthelolz
After that I properly woke up, took a little break and went back to playing just good solid, valuebetting poker.
I got back to 650 again... and got into a hand with a 'newby' to the group, Alex... who seems a little scared money... clearly isn't comfortable playing big pots but wants to be in the game. He doesn't seem so solid and has had some rough hands which caused him to have some emotional ups and downs. I know he's still in a hole a little but is now sat with 350- 400 and I open
. Alex peels IP and we see a
FLOP Q10x
I cbet standard 14 into 20, and he calls quite quickly...
TURNxo
I figure that I should probably only bet once more, it will almost never get raised on this turn and I can play perfectly vs his Qx when he calls.
RIVERxo
I go through the options with the default being cf as previously discussed... then something comes into my head. I really haven't gotten out of line postflop much, if at all... and in this spot he can probably only have KQ/ AQ as the top of his range.. he's almost certainly folding the weaker Qx's.
What if I were to overbet/ bet really big? What can he do? he's in a hole of somekind... I've raised UTG and trippled..... its got to be a really hard call. I then take a look and he really doesn't look comfortable...
So I go for it.
I make it an over bet of 152 and he instantly sighs his life away...he takes a while and asks me "is a Q is good?" he takes a minute or so and then sighs it off saying "you've got Kings haven't you??"
I lol at myself, the situation and trying to make someone fold tpgk AGAIN! And tell him I have AK, his Q is good. He has KQ and spends a while telling himself what a good call it is, I don't mind... I really don't triple bluff anymore hardly ever, but I thought the combo of his hole and his capped range would result in a good spot, but instead it just means I'll value bet him harder in future.
Down for the first time in the night... but I get back to even and win a decent amount for the night in the end... mainly due to getting AA's 4 times in an hour and flopping a few sets. Only problem with topset is that noone can have anything.... so I won a little from James on his last hand when he paired a K, but that was about it.
Overall with the session I am happy with the progress I've made in my play... my adjustments vs specific players and my value betting in some of the spots.
I definitely spewed about 450 for little to no reason... the only good thing about a dynamic with Sunny is that if I can come out on top it could be very profitable. Normally its the two of us chopping the table up then throwing it between us.
I also made some nice reads and a couple of good bet/folds and one really good river 'just call' with top two vs a miracle
that just cold peeled a 3bt OOP for the lolz.
I may go down for the other 'big games' they have as its only once a week, but I'm definitely still focussing on my online game and getting through 10nl to 25nl.
(saw a graph of the rake vs stakes on a video the other day and almost puked... 10 and 25nl are just ridiculously high!).
That's all from me for the moment, going to fire up a session now.... probably going to keep the 'premier league V' on in the background but might just sack it off for some house music!
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