Las Vegas tune-up...

Yesterday after work I headed to the local casino to play poker with lightning36.  He had arrived earlier in the afternoon.  I got there around 5, and there were two tables going.  Each table had 1 seat open, and I decided to pick the table lightning was at....especially due to the fact that the open seat was directly to his left!  During the evening, we talked about several blogger friends who shall remain nameless.  We managed to stay away from each other most of the time, mainly due to our lack of playable hands.  We were both relatively card dead, especially early on.  Lightning didn't have much luck with his cards, and didn't stay very late.  I got off to a slow start.  I did play a much tighter game than usual, due in part to not playing in the past few months and also trying to tighten up and hope that helps my game.

The first big hand I got was KK, and it was right after lightning had left the table for a break.  Obviously, had he been at the table, the hand would have been much different.  I had dwindled down to under $100 from my original $200 buy-in.  There was a raise to $11, a call, and I 3-bet to $30.  The original raiser called.  The flop was 9-high, but all hearts.  It was checked to me, I shoved, and she called and showed Q-10 of hearts for the flopped flush.  The turn was a blank, but the river saved me....it was the Ace of hearts!  I had a much needed double up.  The very next hand I was dealt AA.  I raised preflop, and had no callers.  I was able to win a few smaller post here and there, and then I was dealt AKo OTB.  There was a raise to $12 ahead of me, 1 caller, and I 3-bet to $35.  Only the original raiser called.  Sound familiar??  The flop was 9-high, and checked to me.  I lead out for $65.  The other player took several moments, and finally folded QQ face-up!  I could never have made that fold.  While I got VERY lucky with that hand, it also goes to show that aggression does help at the poker table.

I chipped up to around $385 when the next hand happened.  I limped into a pot early with Ac6c.  I flopped 2 pair, and checked, but it checked around.  I bet a Q turn, and had 2 callers.  The river was a K, and I bet again.  There was a raise, and while I was pretty sure I was behind, I made a crying call, to be shown J-10 for Broadway.  This took me down under $300 again.  A short while later, I limped in in early position again with AJo.  There was a raise to $20, and I called.  The raiser had been raising his button often, and shown a mix of solid and not so strong starting hands, ranging from pairs down to K-10 suited.  We were heads up and saw a flop of J-2-2.  I checked, and the pre-flop raiser bet $50.  I raised to $125.  He thought for a bit, and pushed all in.  I was covered, but with half my stack in the middle already, I felt I had to call.  The turn was a blank, but the river was a J!  He turned over QQ, and saw that I had hit a lucky river card.  He took the beat graciously, unlike many players these days.  The dealer counted my chips and asked for $271.  I looked at my chips and knew right away that he had miscounted.  I pointed out the error, which was that I had only 3 green $25 chips, and he thought it was 4.  My opponent appreciated my honesty and was again gracious in the transaction.  I stayed for a short while, and ended up cashing out for $540 after about 4 and a half hours.  Over 1.5 buy-in profit!  It was mainly due to some luck but I'll take it.  It was a good tune-up for Vegas in 3 weeks.