Day Five

Yesterday was short and sweet. I went to work like it was Monday morning. I worked seven hours and I went home. It is easy to take the rest of the day off when it is payday. Yeah, that’s right I got paid. When it was time to cash out, I had four full racks and a partial rack on top that I was carrying to the cage. I got up to the window, and bent at the knees to do the heavy lifting necessary to get the chips up onto the counter (the counter is a little high for me at the MGM.) I was in for $600 and out for $2227.

The action was very good at the MGM, with most of the regulars taking the day off after working all Super Bowl weekend. At the start of the session I had a good table. But the few other good players got the chips before I could and it started to dry up. Thank goodness for table changes. My second table was loose and I did get a lot of the chips. It was a lot of back and forth at first. I made a set and got paid a few hundo. I then gave up most of the winnings to someone else’s set.

The big hand of the day went down like this: I am in LP with 99. EP makes it $20 to go. I call, BB makes it $40 to go, EP folds, I think for a while. I am deep at this point and so is the BB. My read is that he is a bad player that has aces or kings and he is likely to pay me if I flop big. I call. The flop comes nine high, rainbow. In my head I am all “OMFG, OMFG, OMFG.” He bets $100, I calmly wait for just long enough to sell TPTK or TT, JJ, or QQ. I begrudgingly call. The turn is a blank. It is especially loud in the room at this time. He says what I think sounds like “all-in.” I am a little stunned as the pot is about $300 at this point and I still have $800 behind and he has me covered. I ask him to repeat himself. “ALL-IN,” He says again. I say in a loud, excruciatingly carefully enunciated voice “I call.” I immediately flip over my nines. He shows his kings, the river is a blank and I take it down.

Now, realistically, this was not a very hard hand for me to play. I was in the right place at the right time, I made the right read on him, and I played appropriately for my hand and my read. But I did do some things correctly yesterday that led me to this situation. First, I had eaten in small amounts at regular intervals. Second, I had taken regular breaks. Third, I did not get involved in pots out of boredom. Fourth, I made it a point to constantly scope out the other tables and move at the right time. Finally, I was patient, patient, patient. These are the things that I am going to keep doing since I got the appropriate reinforcement for these behaviors.

The other thing I did right yesterday didn’t even happen until I got home. I transcribed my scrawling excuse for hand written notes on my sessions into an Excel spreadsheet. I broke them out by poker, stupid bets on the Super Bowl, and craps. It is very sobering to see my some of my hard won dollars go down the drain in –EV wagering. But I am still improving. I used to have my own host, now I just have a player’s card. Soon, I won’t even be rated. Maybe I will even have to go to one of the skid row places to play $1 craps. The bottom line for poker is looking good. +$950 for the trip, and the trend is positive. I would be +$2150, were it not for that big hand at the Venetian the other day. I am not at all upset about it; I got my money in with the best of it. I am merely taking note of it here as I am trying to gauge how well I am playing overall.

Again, I ran out of time before I can tell you why I am really here.

Until tomorrow,

Weak