Dino's 10/20 game

Very frustrating evening at Dino's, as it turned out. Things started off very well, then went south for an extended time...bubbled before the final table, bleh!

From my left, I have "Some ATC Player" (Any Two Cards), Scott (Hevad Donk), Dennis (Lucky Bastard), and Pat. There will be chips flying at this table, which is a good thing.

First hand in I limp in with 8-6, and win a nice pot off of Some ATC Player after hitting trip 6's on the turn.

A few hands later I take a decent pot off of Lucky Bastard after a 3rd heart hits the river and bet out 2/3 pot with middle pair. This would not be the last time I bluffed Lucky Bastard out of a hand after the river.

2nd level I nearly got to make a great call with A-high on a 7-7-5-5-J board against Some ATC Player, but after Pat called Some ATC Player's bet, I figured my hand wasn't good anymore...good laydown, at Pat had 9-9 to beat King-high.

Nearly donked off a sizable portion of my chipstack to Some ATC Player while holding 2nd pair with top kicker - on the turn I entertained thoughts about check-raising the dude, and actually had chips in my hand, but after thinking about his actions and bet sizes, the "story" didn't make any sense to how he normally plays a hand...I said "nice hand", and dude shows trip Kings...good read me!

Shortly after that, I got involved in a 3-way pot with Hevad and Lucky Bastard holding pocket 3's. All low cards on the flop, which got checked around - it was on the turn that the action got interesting. I needed to push Hevad out of the pot on the turn to be able to steal on the river against Lucky Bastard...if that makes any sense, and I accomplished this with a good 2/3-sized probe bet. I then ramped up the aggression on the river against Lucky Bastard to get him to fold...unless LB has a big hand, he's not calling on the river very often. Hevad grunts that he thinks he had me beat, and he probably did.

Near the end of 25/50 level I get 10-10 on the button, raise to 200...Some ATC Player and Hevad call me. Hit my set (with 2 spades on board) on flop, and bet the pot out to make drawers looking for flushes pay...both players fold, and I think I left some chips out there on the table, oh well.

Couple of hands later (50/100 level), I raise 5xBB on the button to Hevad with K-K, basically telling him that he's going all-in if he wants to defend his blinds. Hevad thinks his cards are live and decides to gamble...no luck for Hevad, and my stack gets healthier.

At 50/100 level, raise Some ATC Player 3xBB with AA in the SB, too bad he decides that this is the time 3-2 isn't worth defending. A few hands later, Pat busts out Fred, and we get broken up...I have about 2500 chips at this point.

At 100/200 and 200/400 I get extremely card-dead...hard to make moves when a raise, then all-in occurs before you get to act, and you look at rags like 9-3. Finally, push my last 1200 in from the button with A-8 - Any Ace Ron insta-calls with 10-8 suuuuuuited, nothing on flop, 10 on turn (never a doubt!), bubkus and river, and everyone is happy because they're down to 10.

Recap: Good first 60-75 of play there, not so good last 45 minutes of play...and too late to give away my money in the cash game.