Hustler - Recent Results +$686

Let the bracelet accumulation / live game money commence.

Location:  Hustler Casino (Gardena) 

Stakes:  2/5 NL 

Time: 4:30pm - 7:00pm 

Buyin: 240$ 

Rebuy: 0

Cashout: 926$

Profit/Loss:  +$686 

After picking up the Tigre (GF) from CSULB I stopped by Hustler to start the accumulation.  Had a great session today, and could of stayed longer, but opted to leave as I didn't want to hold Sareena up horribly long, and wanted to go enjoy the night out still being Friday.

Pregame.  In the car, I reviewed a few notes on reads/tells I had taken, and notes from The Poker Blue Print. I then listened to half of a 22 min hypnotic session on winning in general.    

http://www.dailyvariance.com/poker-books/poker-blueprint_ebook/

I'm in seat 3, seat 1 is hyper aggressive, bluffing and raising the majority of pots.  His VPIP is probably around 75% with PFR around 45%.  Rest of the table is fairly standard except seat 8 who seems to be more willingly mixing it up with seat 1.   I opt to play my normal game of laying low and figuring out the table for a cycle or two around before loosening up and playing more based on position, players/tells/reads, and chipstacks. 

Session went fairly smooth.  Being happy hour, Sareena and I opted to have a couple gin and tonics :) while I retained focus on the game and she read University Of Success (Og Mandino).  Table dynamic were a bit looser with the loose aggressive seat 1, and other players adapting a bit..  Bigger raises preflop.  

I made larger than normal raises on average, and adapted a more aggressive stance this game -Mixing raising with draws and made TP/overpair type hands or other hands that figured to be good based on available info.

Two key hands.  I made a small raise in position to 15$ with 8cTc after one of the tighter players at the table limped in early position.  He called, which with his reaction made me fairly confident he wasn't limping in with any big pairs.   The board came out Qd7d9h and I watched his reaction to the flop and sensed confidence which scared me a bit even though I hit TP on a pretty clean board.  

Although he looked strong, he checked and I cbet 20$ or just over half pot.  He called relatively quickly.  I thought to myself 6, and sure enough a black 6 hits the turn. He checks and I bet 60$ in a sloppy aggressive somewhat pot splashy fashion intentionally trying to give off false strength..  and stared at the cards..   *More standard/semi-knowledgeable players might take both the pot splashing as a sign of weakness (the standard strong means weak, etc..) and looking at flop cards is often a sign of not hitting the flop - Players tend to look away from the flop when stronger more often... 

The river was another 7, and after seeing him hesitantly the turn, I was confident he didn't have a set or two pair... I opted to more aggressively bet 100$ on the river in one stack.  He thought again and called, and asked if he made a bad call.  "Probably so" I replied although I knew I was ahead.  He showed QJ for TP, Jack Kicker.

We'll keep these a bit shorter... I have QdKd in small blind after several limpers and opt to just limp in also.  flop is 9c2d5d, and check, check, bet 30$ (pot was probably 35ish) fold fold... call and I thought for a bit, and was putting the original raiser on a 9 by the way he bet to me it felt more like a protective bet.  The latter position was a little more creative... new to the table, but from what I've seen he seemed to be a good player that would mix it up in position.  I thought his most likely hand was also top pair, 34 or a weaker flush draw, once in awhile with ace high flush draw...  

..and made it 100$ to go.  He has about 250 in front of him left, and raises all in, which I of course call with the odds even if he has a set I would have too at this point... 

He flips over 55 for the set, and I nail a 3 of diamonds on the turn. My hand holds up and I take a nice pot. 

Another hand I caught a tighter player bluffing when I held top pair, marginal kicker and he bet 100$ on the river and I thought for awhile, intending to fold, but something ... just felt aloft. I called and he had a weaker pocket pair and was more or less bluffing... 

Towards the end I nailed an open ended straight flush draw  w/5c6c on flop.  Bet flop strong when checked too, got two callers, bet turn, one caller.. never connected, but bet river anyways on a very draw heavy board when checked too again (another flush/straight draw came on turn) and took it down.  

Cheers guys!  Time to go have some drinks.  Only 2.5 hours and +686$ so far.  Need to work in a minimum of 8 this weekend so I'll be back soon.. Stay tuned for some additional video's and charts after I get a few more sessions in! 

~Richard West