Raising with air

After dinner last night I watched some tv with Mrs A before beginning my pokery fun with a 5 card draw freeroll at Pokerroom.I played at my first ever 5 card draw cash table the other night at ‘Stars and left quickly after losing nearly a buy-in when I got too attached to the Ace flush I was dealt.I stood pat ( didn’t change any cards) and lost to a full house.I was doing ok last night in the $100 freeroll but by 11pm I wanted my holdem fix so I blew my way out of the freeroll and hit Full Tilt.

The $11 turbo I played was very loose to start with and there were five players gone within fifteen hands.After that it tightened up so much I nearly joked about cutting a deal in the chat box.Eventually I picked up the Nolan sisters ( QQ) and made a decent raise from the small blind and the big stacked huge fish on my right called.The flop was K K 5 rainbow so I bet ½ the pot and got called.The villain was very fishy, had been calling most raises ( and getting lucky) and there were only two kings left in the deck so I continued to push on the turn and river and I felt like a right donk when he showed AK to knock me out.

I then hit a play money tables to blow off some steam.That helped remind me that it’s only cards and bad beats only really hurt when there’s money involved.I’d for forgotten what it’s like to lose to a big suckout and genuinely find it amusing.

From there it was on to Pokerroom for my last game of the night.I won a 20 player $10 turbo and felt as if I was in the “zone” throughout the whole game.My first move was to steal a pot with my big blind special hand 10c5h.The flop brought an Ace ,10 and 6 and as I was out of position I checked it.The other 3 players in the hand checked too but when another Ace fell on the turn I bet ( another Ace meant it was less likely one of the three players had an Ace) and took down a nice pot.

I’ve written about stealing more when it’s folded round to me, however until very recently I’ve always tried to make sure I had a least a high card to fall back on.Now I’ve moved on to ( unless your at my table of course..) betting with any two when it feels right to do so.Even after the bubble when we were down to three players the guy to act after me was kind enough to fold and let me overtake him.

Instead of going to bed I hit a Party $50 nl cash table afterwards and was heading for a small ( $16) loss until the last hand, when I played a weak Ace from the button to a raise, and probably managed to get the other guy to lay down a better hand when I bluffed $17 into a $24 pot.My $16 had been frittered away due to being pushed off hands that missed flops so I think the villain reckoned that if I was finally making a stand then I must have him beaten.I left $1 down but happy.

Ok,that's all for now.