Happy (Wired Pair) New Year

Got up surprisingly early on this New Years Day of 2009. Everyone else was soundly asleep, so, after getting a few chores done around the house, I decided to play some hold'em. Opened 4 tables of $10NL and grinded away 215 hands of solid poker.

The interesting thing that happened was the profoundity of wired pairs dealt to me. I woke up to KK six separate times. I also was dealt AA twice, QQ twice, TT once, 99 three times, 88 twice, 55 once, 44 twice, and 22 once. Perhaps even more strangely, I was dealt Anna only once during the entire session.

Unfortunately, none of my AA, KK, or QQ hands paid off, despite being at three fairly loose tables. The only pair I managed to make any money on was right at the end of the session. I was down about $2 for the hour of play and was about to quit. In the one tight game I was at, I was dealt 55 and opened with a pot-sized bet from mid pos. Got one caller from late position and the blinds folded. Lo and behold, I flopped a set on a raggedy middling board. I bet, the opp raised, and I smoothed called. I checked the turn, he fired out a pot sized bet and I min-raised. Now it was his turn to smooth. The river was an ugly card, putting a one gap straight on the board. The opp was short stacked with just a buck or so left, so I figured I should bet it out and put max pressure on him. He hemmed and hawed for a long time and finally called with just King high. Wow. That little $4 pot moved me back into the black, and a few hands later (after losing on my last hand of the session with AQs from UTG) I end up posting a net gain of $1.50 for the session. Not great, but not bad either.

So, the New Year is here and I've managed to maintain my first (and most important) poker resolution for at least one day: I ground out 200+ hands of pretty good cash-game poker. Made a couple of loose calls in the middle of the session that I'd like to take back, but overall I played fairly tight positional poker, attacked weak blind players mercilessly, and tried to get off of losing hands. Felt pretty good. If I have time later today, I may grind some more.... or, more likely, I'll get in a single table SnG first. All in all, not a bad way to start to 2009.

All-in for now...
-Bug