Cross Corner

Last Thursday was somewhat eventful. The night before, my sister had texted me from a little bar around the corner called Paladino's. We've gone there many times over the years to see local cover bands like the Atomic Punks. Its also where we got to see the Foo Fighters open for the Punks a few years ago. That was cool.

Paladino's has always had two pool tables near the main bar in the front but Tara informed me they had added two more. I had been playing more pool over the previous month, mostly at Yankee Doodles (because its cheap and easy to get a table during the day), trying to get my game back to what it once was. I was also planning to play in some singles qualifying tourneys that the APA would be running at Paladino's on September 1. With four tables there, it seemed a good time to check out the new layout and the roll of the tables. So I headed over there Thursday afternoon.

I was pleased to see the pool tables laid out side by side in a single row in front of the main bar. It provided plenty of room around each. I was even more pleased to find they offered free play from noon to 6pm every day! Perfect! Its only two blocks from my home and I could get in a ton of practice daily. It also fits in with the routine I had recently established of playing pool during the day and poker at night with a trip to Starbucks in between. I'm really enjoying do that.

Time for poker...

On Thursday, I returned to the Bike, expecting attendance similar to Tuesday but only found two 5-5 NLH tables in action. There were four 3-5 NLH tables going so I put my name on the lists for each. A 3-5 game opened up first and I took the seat. It was a good choice as the table was full of easy players and I got the 7 seat. There was a guy on my left who kept showing me his cards whether he was folding or not. That caught on and the guys on his left and my right started showing me a bunch of their hands, too. It was wierd since I didn't show them any of mine but got all that free info from them.

I was able to take down medium-sized pots here and there while losing an occassional one. After a few hours, my stack had grown and shrunk a few times and I was sitting just slightly ahead when a big hand came up. I was second to act with A-Ko and decided to raise to $15. The cutoff, a man whose game I respect, called, the SB folded and the BB raised to $48. He was a young guy with his girlfriend sweating him while he held a small picture of a baby...apparently not hers. I had seen him raise without regard for position before so I put him on A-Js/9-9 at the bottom end with A-A a bit of a concern.

I went into the tank and, even though it should have been an easy call, I was seriously thinking about getting away from the hand. I wasn't really loving my position between these two. But I knew that was irrational and decided to explain some of what I was thinking since I was keeping everyone waiting. I said, "I know this shouldn't be such a tough decision." But I finally called. So did the cutoff. The flop was K-9-3 and the BB led out for $50 into the $150 pot. I should have loved my hand right away but I thought the kid might be playing A-A in this really cagey way. But I had TPTK and his bet was really weak. I came to the right decision and raised to $150. If he did have me beat, I was going to find out right there. The cutoff folded and it was back on the kid.

I was surprised when, after some thought, the kid just called. Then he looked at me and said "check." Checking dark? That's really strange in this spot. The turn was a J and it was immediately on me. I looked him over and saw nothing but confidence. Still, I was likely only losing to A-A at this point, as improbable as it would seem given the way the hand had played out (I did not put him on K-K). At any rate, there wasn't much value in betting there. There was no reason to put him on any kind of draw and I should only be called by something that beats me. I decided to check as well. The river was a 3 that paired the board but changed nothing. The kid bet out $50 and I quickly announced a call. He stated, "Boat!" and showed J-J for Jacks full of 3's. I was surprised as I folded my cards face-down.

Everyone else seemed to know what I had and was stunned that I was able to slow down when I was beat. I didn't explain what I had been thinking because I wasn't giving up any info that night. Then the kid explained his call on the flop. "I called there because I didn't want to look stupid." Huh? 'Well,' I thought, 'you ended up looking a little stupid anyway.' But I didn't say anything derogatory. Instead, I asked him what he meant. It turns out he thought I might be bluffing based on my pre-flop indecision and didn't want to appear that he could be bullied.

A few hands later, there was a limped pot involving the same kid with a flop of A-A-K. It checked all the way around and a rag hit the turn. It checked around to the kid and, this time, he bet. A few people started complaining that he was killing a potential jackpot as they all folded. But I knew he must have held A-little and understood that his kicker would not play into a jackpot (both hole cards must play). To appease some naysayers on his right who didn't believe he would bet with an Ace, he picked up his cards to reveal only that one. But he tilted his hand just enough to where I saw his bottom card (I was on his left)...a 7. When he showed the Ace only, the "pot-killer" theorists started in again. I helped out by explaining how his kicker was obviously too small to make the jackpot and he agreed, volunteering that it was a Jack. I decided to use the info I had to try to get in his head and said, "Naw. It was probably more like a 7." After the previous hand against him, he might think I was David Copperballs.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to take advantage of my magical image. It wasn't long after that when the kid racked up and took a nice stack off the table with him. Everyone was disappointed to see the chips go but we new it would happen sooner rather than later since his girlfriend was there. Guys don't usually stay long when a girl is sweating them.

As it usually happens, I stayed until the table got short-handed and broke. I opted out of a seat at a different table and cashed out at 2:30am +165. Overall, I played well and the result was an acceptable win. I could have easily lost with some of the hands I had.

SEEYa