More Catching Up

steven played a rebuy tournament at the radisson on sunday night. i really didn't feel like playing so i just chilled at home. the initial buy-in was $50 plus two re-buys for an additional $100. no luck. it sounds like he just couldn't get anything going.

on monday we headed down to the horseshoe about 7:30. it looked like it was going to be a good night, but it turned very ugly. i won a decent pot or two early and steven won a monster on one of the first hands we played. he raised pre-flop to $17 from the small blind with two callers. the flop was A 2 5 with two hearts. steven moved in right away. he got two callers. the first caller had two pair (A 2)and was shocked when steven turned over AA. i knew what he had before he flipped his card because it was the only strong hand he would play that fast. given how often people will play their draws down here with or without the pot odds to do it one learns to protect their big hands. the other caller never showed his hand, but i assume he had a flush draw. steven basically tripled up tight out of the gate. we should have just left after about half an hour up $400 - $500.

if we were only that smart. over the course of the night i did not have any notable hands - winners or losers. i ended our session down about $145. steven lost some huge hands and finished down $500. first big loser was when he had AK, flopped a K and rivered a K. the other player in the hand was a weak player. he didn't really understand the game very well. i read him for weakness the whole way. steven bet the flop, the turn, and moved all-in on the river. the dude had flopped a set of tens so that river filled him up. he thought he had lost the hand - he thought it was trips Ks vs. trip tens. he flipped over his cards saying he just had to see. i'm not sure exactly how big the pot was, but this guy had over two racks of chips in front of him after this hand -- over $1000.

next big hand for little bro was when he flopped top two pair. he was in the hand with two other players. he checked the flop. the pre-flop raiser who held AK, had flopped tptk, bet out. javier who flopped the nut flush draw called. steven moved all-in. the pre-flop raiser called and so did javier. the flush hit. the old guy who raised pre-flop actually thought he was ahead of steven even after the cards were flipped up and couldn't believe he moved all-in with an A and a mediocre kicker. javier easily had the pot odds to make that call, but is the type who would have called even if the first bet was all-in and the old guy in the middle folded.

throughtout the session there were plenty of fish at the table, but somehow the money was not ending up in front of us. we ended up playing until about 5:45 in the morning to bust out this one last player, edwin, who was drunk and giving his money away. he hit the atm a number of times. over the last couple of hours he just wouldn't give it up. i'm sure we didn't lose money, but with the rake we probably didn't do much more than break even during the last stretch of the session. this other guy justin, in town from san diego (official site), was able to pull in a ton of his money. the huge hand was when edwin called justin's K high flush with his 3 high flush. justin made the most noteworthy play i have seen since i have been down here. steven, justin and edwin see the flop. all i remember about the flop was that the board was paired and had two hearts. justin bets out and steven calls. edwin moved all-in for not much more. justin then raised edwin's all-in. steven read justin's play exactly the way justin wanted him too. he believed justin had flopped trips and was attempting to shut out the flush draw. since he wasn't getting the right price for his nut flush draw he folded. edwin turned up trips and justin turned up the J high flush draw. not only was it a great play, but the flush hit.

there was a fourth of july party at the jazz casino at the white house in the hills of escazu. i played in my first $3 - $5 no-limit game since arriving here. i was unsure about playing but steven encouraged me to play. we both bought in for $300. at first my stack dwindled down to about $225 or so and then i hit a hand to bring me up over $300 again. steven was up $200 almost right away. things were starting to get a bit of hand. several of the players wanted to play $5 - $10 and really hand no regard whatsoever for the money they were putting into pots. many pots were straddled or double-straddled. one pot even had three straddle's making it $40 to go. each straddle is like a new blind so it needs to be double the previous blind. utg is the first player to the left of the last straddle. the last straddle has the last option to bet pre-flop just as if s/he was the big blind.

in my key hand at the table i raised it to $15 from early position with QdQs and had three or four callers. the flop was all below ten with two clubs. i bet out $50 and tommy, who is a solid player called. i never played with him before, but that was my immediate read which was later confirmed by steven. the K of clubs hit and tommy bet out $100. i immediately sensed that this was a play. it took me about 30 seconds to convince myself to move all-in. tommy had over $1000 in front of him and my all-in wasn't wnough to make him lay down his hand. he held JJ with one club. a club hit the river and i was busted. i may have lost the hand, but it gave me confidence in my reading ability. steven was very impressed with call, but believed i shoud have made a bigger bet on the flop. maybe so, but the hand would still have played out the same way unless tommy lays down an overpair to my flop bet. unlikely.

i bought in for another $300. it was shortly after rebuying that things really got out of control. in addition to all of the straddling, one player was often betting $35, $40, or $50 on his hand in the dark. steven suggested that i move over to the $1 - $2 game that had started while we were playing. i took his advice. things worked out very well for me. i picked up some big pairs early and won some nice size pots. i busted one guy when i decided to limp in from the button with 10 10 with about three limpers plus the blinds in front of me. i had already started rebuilding my stack so instead of potentially taking down the pot immediately with a nice size raise i figured i would see if i could flop a set and win a larger pot. bingo, i flopped a set. a player in middle position made about a pot-sized bet and the player immediately to my right called. i called. the turn was a 3. the original better was short-stacked and moved all-in for about $35. of course, i'm saying a mini-prayer that the other player calls, but to no avail. the all-in player was bummed to see my set of tens because he had turned a set of threes. i ended the night up $25 which was fine by me after dropping $300 in the first hour or so. steven ended the night up $560 so all in all it was a good night.