not always predictable

while i am, for the most part, a stone cold rock at the poker tables i can sometimes be just a little tricky. for the first couple hours of the session today i was my usual play only SUPER PREMIUM CARDS self but after i had gone up a little over two hundred dollars this hand came about: i am second position with ten-jack of diamonds, a hand that normally i would not play in early position because i don't want to call a raise with it, and so i raise ten dollars and am called in 4 places. the flop comes 6-7-9 with one diamond and two hearts, bb checks and i bet 15 dollars into the pot and am called in two places, the guy to my left and the big blind. the next card is the 8 of spades, mr. perfect himself, and bb bets 30 dollars into me, i don't want the heart flush to get a cheap draw here nor do i want any two pairs or trips to get off easy, so i raise to 90 dollars and the guy to my left calls all in and bb has the good sense to fold. i say to the man on my left, "i have the nuts" and he says, "so do i" but he turns over ace-ten. i tell him "no, partner, that's not the nuts! this is the nuts!" and show him the ten jack. it was a nice pot and it served another purpose by showing the table that i was not predictable all of the time.

i am not a big fan of "tricky" as a way to win at no limit hold-em, at least not at the levels i play, but it is an advantage to have your opponents not all that sure of just what you have.

lay-downs are still, i think, the key to posting more wins than losses. today i called from the cut off with ten-queen of diamonds, multi players already in. the flop comes Ac, Qs, Tc and the first player under the gun bets 25 dollars. i threw it away as did everyone else. i tell the guy that i thought he had ace ten but he told me he had ace queen. either way, the board was way too dangerous to call with that two pair. it is those kind of lay-downs that can keep bankrolls from shrinking.

anyway, just another day in paradise here in the last years of the american empire.