Took my second crack at Commerce Saturday with lkim. Things were a little quieter in the $2/$4 area – not nearly as crowded as my first trip. We sat at separate tables, I bought in for $40 and spent the next hour folding poor cards from the 5 seat. Limped a couple of times with marginal hands, looking to hit a flop, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, and elderly Indian woman in the 1s was putting most of the table on mild tilt by chasing every hand and hitting many of them with wacko low straights and bottom 2 pair type hands. Drunk guy in 4, gangbanger in 6 and lebanese girl in 7 were all commiserating about her as if she could not hear them, making for a somewhat uncomfortable situation. lkim eventually transferred over and was down a bit. After powering though a rebuy, he suggested we move to $3/$6. I was down $25 without really getting involved in any hands – not what one would consider results that lead one to want to move up in limits – but the table was not fun and I figured if I’m going to slowly bleed away money, I’d like to have a good time doing it. So we picked up and moved across the room.
I was unsure what to expect from $3/$6. I guessed that the play would be a little better, but not much. I figured things would be a little tighter and a little more aggressive. I sat in the 4s with my $15 left from the $2/$4 game, bought in for $60 more and sat out for a few hands until the blind came around. I took the opportunity to study the action a bit and get comfortable. Older guys in the 7, 8 and 9 were active – seeing lots of flops and betting out regularly – but not running over the table. When they had to turn hands over, it became clear that a “premium” hand had to have at least once card with a picture on it.
Early on, I limped a few times with medium pairs and suited connectors when I had position in unraised pots, but, again, could not really catch anything. Then, I checked a pair of 4s in the big blind with 4 limpers. Flop came KJ4 and I bet first. 6s calls, 8s calls, 1s folds, 2s folds. Turn is a 6, no flush draw, I lead out again. Call, call. River is a King and I’m hoping they both have kings for their set against my full house. I bet. Call, call. 6s had AJ for 2 pair. I say “full house” and turn over my 44. 8s also says full house and shows me K6o! Ugh. Well, I guess one of the cards had a picture on it. I don’t think I was wrong in not raising with the 44 from the blind, and I imagine he would have called a raise anyway.
So it hurt a bit to lose house over house for a big pot. Later, I got it all back from the 8s when I rivered a jack to turn my two pair into a house and beat his top pair for another big pot. After my river bet, I was down to the felt and a little worried that, it I didn’t pull this one off, my night may be over a little early. Thankfully, the house was good that hand got me close to even for the night.
From there, I started getting some starting hands and hitting cards on the flop. I had AJ turn into 2 pair against pocket kings. I made a couple of top pairs and either pushed people off the pots or made them pay to draw on me. I felt very comfortable and was up at one point about $75 for the night.
Little later, lkim came over from his seat and was busted. I looked down and was still up about $50, but things had cooled a bit. Rather than give it back, I agreed to pick up and cash out. My second small win in as many tries. It felt good and was a nice confidence boost before Vegas in two weeks.
