Bay 101 is my friend !

so i got a fantastic session in at Bay 101 in San Jose last night. but first....a couple of weird things they do there.

they have an enormous building with lots of empty space and 20 people or more waiting on every poker game being spread. the board is a white board and pen (even oceans 11 has a projection system for the board in both rooms for cripesaxe). they claim to have food service available for poker players, but there was about 1 service person in the room for about 35 tables. i think i saw her one time and i was lucky enough to flag her down for a scrap. the blind structure: wtf? 2-3-5. the small blind is $3, the big blind is $5 and the "button" blind (??) is $2. since when and/or where is the button forced to put money in the pot blind? AND THERE IS NOT EVEN A BAD BEAT JACKPOT. they use standard shuffle machines. but the dealers are not allowed to deal with them if there is a flashing red light. they are forced to stop the action and call a floor man over to deal with the shuffler and make sure all 52 cards are accounted for in the spare deck. why then do we have to stop playing the hand in progress???

ok, enough complaining. on to the poker.

it was a pretty incredible night. i was off to a relatively slow start down about $200. i don't really remember how, but i worked back to up 400-500. i was playing a bit looser than i normally do and playing well after the flop. 10-8 is the nuts baby!

i raised in middle position with Ah9h and the blinds both called. i completely missed the flop, but they both checked to me so i bet. the big blind called. he checked again on the turn so i bet again. he called. the river paired the board. he checked. i bet. he thought and thought and called with AQ high, and won the pot. wow. 3 bullets - 3 calls. he said he had a read on me.

a bit later i got it back "in spades" from that guy. 3 of us ended up in a pot. the third guy had only $60 behind before the hand. i was about $800 back and the small blind (the guy who called with AQ) was about $650 deep. i held Ad5d. the third guy made a small raise and we both called preflop. the flop was: Jd9d4d. the nuts! we all checked around on the flop. the turn was the A of spades. we both checked and the short stack moved in for like $40. the small blind called and i made a small raise. then something truly beautiful happened: he re-raised me big. "got meself one on the line here betty!" i came back over the top. he called! i was praying for the board to not pair on the river. i could have kissed the 3c. he checked, i value bet and he called. i said, "sorry dude, i got the nuts." he showed pocket Js and had flopped top set. he was left with about $110 after the hand. tough beat, but he was behind any 2 flush cards. his play surprised me a bit since he had made a great call on the river with AQ high. my impression was that of a pretty good player. i guess my 2 street slow play earned me a nice pot here.

i was able to play pretty loose with a big stack. it's fun to play in a lot of pots. i started calling some small raises and doing some betting in the dark. there was a small raise to $15 when i was on the big blind, so i called dark with 4 other players already in the hand. the flop was K-4-3 with 2 spades. i didn't know what 2 cards i held yet, so i had no reason to bet. i checked. the initial preflop raiser bet $15. the next player raised to $100. the cutoff was now thinking about his action, so i decided to peek at my hole cards. i held KhKd. uhhhhhhh......huh huh huh. what? i flopped the stone cold nuts? is that possible? meanwhile the cutoff raised to $200. (!!!) i was next to act in the big blind. how to get the most money in the pot ?? i raised it to $400. the $15 bettor folded and the next player who had raised to $100 tried to re-raise it to $600 [side bar: bay 101 has a couple of other rules. the maximum bet or raise is $200 and there were just 3 raises allowed per street]. his attempted raise to $600 was overruled and he was forced to just call my $400 bet. the cutoff folded. the turn was a third spade, which i didn't really like all that much. i checked and he bet $200. i called. the river was a blank and i checked and he threw in his last $60. i called. he showed AA and my three Ks took it down. thanks dude for getting all your money in the pot with 1 pair. crazy hand! the cutoff said he folded AK!

ok, i just have to say thank you for bad players. he could and should have gotten out of the hand for $115, but instead it cost him $675. i mean how could you think you're still good with AA after a bet, his raise, a re-raise, and my re-raise? it could easily have been set over set, with him in 3rd place. at the very least, one of us has to have at least 2 pair or a set. would i be re-raising from the blinds with KQ?? i know there is a tendency to fall in love with AA, but seriously guy -- you played that hand terribly.

occasionally you flop the nuts. rarely someone bets into you. never do you have a better, a raiser, and a re-raiser before you've acted.

the chip runner came over to help me rack the mountain of chips. i played a few more hands, but left soon thereafter after one of my best nights in poker.