Frustrating day at Dino's

Yesterday was the last tournament before next week's fall finale at Dino's, and since I didn't have to actually do anything in order to advance to next week's game, my job was just to mess around, play different strategies here and there, and see where that takes me.

I liked my table selection at the start - only 22 players this week, and 5 at our table. We have Ronald, who will play any two cards, on my left. Ronald never raises pre-flops, and chases like nobody's business on his 4 outers...pot odds, be damned! Next we have Nicole and Jay, 2 decent players who know my game well enough, then on my right is Pat, a very pleasant lady to play poker with...but who is an uber-tight player. Could be fun.

I take down the first 2 pots of the night with a little aggressive post-flop play...no great pots, but I'll take my small ones to help me later. Ronald stars winning hand after hand after hand as everything he is chasing is hitting. He frustrating the table because the dude doesn't know half the time what his blind amount to put in is, doesn't understand things like "betting" and "raising", and will merely call your river bet with the nuts (he did this twice on straights last night). He'll also call pre-flop, then merely check-call with pocket queeens (he had this hand 3 times last night, so I got to see it in action)...even if he makes a set.

I did win a nice pot off of Jay early on when my Q-J flopped trip queens...Jay bet out both the flop and the turn, with me smooth-calling, then after hitting quads on the river, I got him to send me 50 more chips after I made the perfect value bet there.

Few hands later, I get Q-6 in the small blind...4 of us see the flop, and on a J-10-9 (2 hearts) flop, I bet out 100 to chase Nicole out of the hand, but Ronald and Pat stay in. 7 of hearts gives me a flush draw, and after a bet and 2 calls, a 4 of hearts hits the river. Only 2 cards beat my Queen of hearts here, so I lead out 200, which Ronald calls, then Pat min-raises to 400....she only does this with the nuts, so I fold. Ronald thought his pair of 7's were good (he was holding a 3 of hearts, too...and didn't even know that he had a flush, either), however. :-\

At 25/50 level, I get A-10 UTG, and raise to 150, where Nicole promptly min-raises me to 300. Ronald actually folds a hand here, which is something he doesn't do a lot of...and he wonders why he "never has any luck in the casino". I smooth-call here, with a feeling that I'm gonna have to suckout here. Ahhhhh, yes....10-8-5 flop, and after smooth-calling Nicole's continuation bet, checked down as she shows A-J.

A few hands later, I raise again to 150 on the button with A-9, and Nicole smooth-calls my raise. After a flop of 9-7-2, I make my normal continuation bet, and promptly get raised to 400, which gives me some pause here. Nicole doesn't make this type of play with K-7, for example...she's got an overpair, I figure, and I reluctantly fold. After the river she shows pocket Queens, so at least my read was right.

Big hand of the night was versus Ronald at the 50/100 level. In the SB I merely call with A-5 - it's a marginal hand, at best, and any raises aren't respected anyways, so might as well get in as cheap as I can. Flop of A-5-J comes out, and with 4 players in the pot, I want to induce a bet, so I check. No one takes the bait, and on the turn a Queen comes out. No flush draw for anyone, so I know I have the best of it now, so I bet the pot of 400, Ronald fumbles his chips around and calls. A 10 comes out, and gives me pause here...could Ronald really have been chasing with a King here? Naw, he couldn't, could he? I bet out 700, thinking I'm getting an easy call here....and Ronald calls with K-6 for the nut straight.

I toss my cards in the air, let out a "You've got to fucking kidding me!" comment, and am now officially on tilt. Pat's shaking her head at everything, and Nicole's got a look of "OMG!" about everything going on. It was after this hand that Ronald makes the "I wish I had this much luck in the casinos!" comment. I'm down to 555 chips at this point.

I take a couple of hands off to cool down, then in the BB jam my K-Q all-in...Ronald insta-calls with Q-J. K-high survives, and at least I have some chips to play with. Since 2 tables were down to 4, we split up to new tables. Nothing of note for an orbit, then with 700 chips UTG I open-jam 10-7 sooooooted, and PJ lays down pocket 5's after debating for a few minutes to call. After seeing his hand, I wish he would have called, actually...I need a double-up somewhere soon.

Lose 400 chips the next hand, then in the SB after it's folded to me, I shove the remaining chips (1100 or so) after seeing a Jack, and called by Mike...who's kind of a calling station and doesn't call all-ins usually unless he has something big. Since his stack is the same as mine, he decides to gamble "for the hell of it", and flips over K-3...has my J-5 dominated. No help to either of us, and I'm knocked out.

Oh well, an early night for me - at least I spent some time with the Mrs. before we both went to sleep for the night. Finale next week...time to plug a leak or 2 and get my A-game in order.