Good times at the cash table

So bored after work yesterday, I take a trip to Aspers for for something to do. I buy into the £5 donk fest and try to build a stack quickly. I keep running my suited connectors into big hands though, so pretty quickly I look like the biggest donk at the table. Would you believe that everyone thinks I'm an idiot for shipping with 89s, getting called by AKs (why does the BB always have a hand!) and then telling everyone 'if you're not getting it in behind, you're not getting it in enough'. Obviously almost zero percent of these players have ever ground the margins in SnGs online. They thought I was joking -- I wasn't, or that alternatively I'm an idiot -- I'm not. ;)

I then wander past the cash table and chat to Bomber for a bit, sweating a couple of his hands and telling him 'I want action from you Bomber!!'. He proceeds to donk about £20 whilst I'm watching and I feel only a little bit responsible. I mean, there was no way he was calling an UTG raise with K5ss unless I was there! He encourages me to sit down and play a while, so I think about it, fully aware that I have to work early and that if I sit down now, it'll be a long session, but then decide to go have a cigarette and think about it.

I don't play cash that often, particularly live full ring, because frankly, I'm not that good. I'm a little too tight and weak passive if I'm honest. I much prefer shorthanded games, particularly heads up cash. Looking around the table, there were lots of decent players, including Gaz Walker, Ridla, Bomber and a lad called Graham who I know to be a solid player. There also look like there could be a couple of softer players though, so I grab the next open seat because with SamJ dealing, the banter on the table is flowing nicely. I decide to sit for £60 with the blinds at 25p/50p and the occasional straddle from Ridla.

Pretty early in, I flat a small raise on the button with JTs, and four players, take a flop. It's a pretty marvellous JTx rainbow flop from me. Small blind leads for £3, I make it £8 and he ships for £40. I snap, obv, and he flips QQ. How he doesn't 3bet pre is completely beyond me if I'm honest. The turn is a 9 adding more outs, but he bricks the world and I make a nice start. Getting it in good only to have people turn more outs than they flopped is a common theme for me tonight.

With that in mind, Gaz has the straddle on (he pushed a couple of times already tonight, generally being banterous and having fun) and I find AA UTG. I make it £4.50, and get called in about 4 spots.  Bomber takes a little while before he calls, and it kinds looked like he was thinking of 3betting preflop, so when the flop comes down Q24 with two clubs, I'm just hoping that he doesn't have QQ and I know I'm gonna be trying to get my money in. I lead for £16 and Bomber instajams for £45 total. Everyone else folds and I call. I can't ever pass here I don't think. He is nice enough to show me the AzobKING in clubs, so he has a bare draw. Are Aces ever holding against the Azbo? I think not!! Turn is a ten, and this time I can't brick the world as a club on the river seals it.  I ask the table if I'm allowed to call Bomber a cunt, and Keith thinks it's fine, so I do. Nice hand sir, you truely are the AzboKING and I was owned. :D

I must admit, after the profit from the first hand, I'm just about even, maybe down a small piece and a little tilted. I put the straddle on next hand and check with A3hh. Flop is 335dd and I lead, get a caller before Waaaaaalker check raises me. I'm content to shove and get called by a flush draw. He tanks for a long time and then calls, flips 94dd. Turn is a 5 to give him and up and down but this time I manage to fade the world again I've got the double up my Aces deserved!

I go pretty quiet for a while, then limp in the BB to the straddle with 66. Flop comes 68x with two diamonds. I win a nice pot getting it in against Gaz and a tourist. Gaz had a open-ender with 97 and tourist decided that A8 no diamonds was a nice spot to go broke in. Turn's an 8 and I fill up. Pass the sugar pls!

A little later, and i've been pretty tight, there's a raise from EP to £4, a flat caller and I raise the SB to £20 with AA. Original raiser passes, then it's coolertime as I get reshipped on for £45 by KK. AA holds and I take another little pot.

A couple of other hands where I felt I was too weakpassive:
Later in the evening, Adam (who has replaced Gaz, and seems a totally solid player) raises the hijack and I just flat in the cutoff with TT. This tempts Graham to flat on the button and we see a flop. Flop isn't great, but no shocking with J89. Adam fires £6, I flat and Graham passes. The turn is some awful card, like a 3 or something and I fold the Adam's bet. He does get flatted by some other dude who had a bare 7 for a gutshot. Pretty sick, imo. He bricks obv and Adam shows 89s. Nh sir.  I think I should have three bet for value here. I should have realised that Adam's range contains hands like 89s in late position, but he hadn't played many pots (except against one dude, really) and I don't know him that well, so I just flatted. A bit still really.

Later still, I have J4o in the BB and lots of limpers we see a 44X rainbow flop. I check, someone bets, gets one caller and I flat behind planning to lead any turn.  Turn is irrelevant and I lead £6 which gets the original player out, but then I'm raised to £16 by a MP limper. I think a flat is fine here, because I don't want to fold out any draws or X's (I think it was an 8). I'm planning to check-raise most river cards too, so I check and now the bet is only £12.50 on a K river. Player has maybe £30 behind that, and for some reason, I decide that I should only call here, because the bet looks so fishy. That makes total sense, because he also has a 4 but my kicker is good. *sigh* £30 of missed value there. I should have led the river...SamJ rightly berates me for playing like a tard.

That's pretty much all I can remember from the night and I left at around 1:30am with a lovely £220 profit for the evening. I must admit, I should play cash more often, I have some really obvious leaks which I can work on, but the banter with Ridla, Gaz, Bomber, SamJ and the other guys, including James 'Brickontheriver' Howerd who dealt for a while (and was the architect or my two biggest pots, and yes I did say 'thanks for the brick on the river, James' --< I'm such a tard, was tremendous. It's nights like these when I remember why I love live poker. So good. So fun. I genuinely would have said that if I'd been stuck a couple of hundo too.

Oh, and my needle of the night goes to Bomber who says 'Mulhuzz, do you know Brickontheriver? He used to be somebody.' :D

Banteriffic.

Gl at the tables,

--mulhuzz