And, I'm glad I did. I needed to get back on a winning track, I didn't want to follow up my $300 loss at the casino with another big loss. And, I brought $300 to play with, so I could have lost all of that. Which would have crushed my poker fund and my spirit. Happily, that did not happen. I ended up winning $120 in about 3.5 hours of playing. Although, in hind-sight, I could have left up bigger after just an hour (but who wants to leave after just 1 hour?).
I went into the day knowing that I was going to be more patient. Which, for me, means not necessarily that I'll only play premium hands, but that I'll not play when I don't know what's going on in the hand. In fact, my 2 biggest pots of the night (no surprise, they were both within the first hour) were with 7-4 offsuit and 4c-5c.
In the first big pot, I was 2 spots to the left of the blind and had 7-4 offsuit. Knowing that I should fold, I realized that I there would be probably 5-6 callers and no raising because that's what our table has been doing AND the 2 blinds hadn't raised all day. As it turns out, I was right. The flop came 7-6-4 rainbow and the 2 blinds checked. I bet $8 to make it look like I was buying it and disguise the fact that I hit the board huge. There were 2 callers until the small blind and he raised to $22 all-day. I figured he could be doing this with an A-7 or even a 5, so I re-raised him to $50, hoping that he could fold either one of these hands, since it could draw to a better hand. The other 2 callers had folded and the small blind pushed all-in for another $24. At that point, I realized that he could also have a straight already (in which case, I'd be down to 4 outs), but I was already pot committed. So I called. Lucky for me, he had 6-4 and didn't get his 6 on the turn or the river and I won the pot. In retrospect, I'm happy how I played that because even after the hand, people were talking about how they couldn't have put me on that hand from my position.
The next big pot came from a similar situation. But this time, I got helped because someone who should have re-raised pre-flop didn't. I was big blind and the guy under-the-gun raised $10 (which was pretty common for him). There were 3 other callers and so I decided to defend my big blind with suited 4-5 (clubs). Defense: I knew it was only going to cost me $10, since I was last to act and he raised pre-flop a lot and made a continuation bet almost all the time. The flop came 3-6-7 (two diamonds), almost the perfect flop for me, but I was scared of the flush. So, I decided to bet big early and hopefully push someone off with 2 small diamonds. So, I bet $30 (the pot was $51). The early raiser folded, but a guy 2 to his left re-raised me to $75, everyone else folded. I knew he couldn't put me on a straight and I didn't think he's try to push me away if he had a set or 2 pair (because he couldn't put me on having a straight draw either, since I called $12 pre-flop). So, I guessed that he had a flush draw and probably a big one, so I felt good about me hand. So, I pushed all-in and he thought for a couple seconds, but then said "I don't see how the flop could have hit you, I think you have an overpair...I call". He showed Ad-Kd and I showed my straight. He took it very well and even complimented me because he said there was no way he'd have put me on that hand. As it turns out, no diamond came and I won another huge pot.
The rest of the day went pretty un-eventful, I got down a little and back up a few times after that. Then with about 30 min before I wanted to leave, I got down to about $140, which made me regret staying as long as I did (since I'd had $305 at my peek). But, I buckled down and worked my way back up to $224 before cashing out. After tips and food, I increased my poker fund by $100.
It was a good day for cards.
Poker Fund (+100)
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