it had to happen sooner or later

i didn't play at viejas, but i did sit in a live game at oceans 11 on saturday.

ran hot at the beginning of my session and was up $400 pretty quickly. normally i wouldn't overvalue 1 pair of 9s, but against this particular player who was in about 80% of the pots and raised / called raises almost every hand, i gambled with him a bit with 1 pair. i flopped top pair of 9s from the small blind and led out. he mini-raised and i re-raised, he pushed all in and i decided to call with 7-9. i put him on a flush draw and i was right. he had Kh8h for a flush draw with 1 over, so i was (slightly) favored. he bricked out and i took down a nice pot with 1 measly pair. i also turned the ace high flush vs. JJ and got paid off with his whole stack.

moved to a new table and quickly got hammered with my favorite hand, AQ. flopped an ace, and made a near pot size bet and was called in 1 spot. the turn was a pretty bad 5d, that put 3 diamonds on board and created a straight possibility. he check raised me all in, but with my Q high diamond draw and top pair, i couldn't get away for the price. i missed and he showed A-2 offsuit for the wheel. nice preflop and flop call. i should have shown more discipline and checked behind on the turn. wouldn't have had to play for stacks with 1 pair.

hung around not playing too many pots. it was a fun table with a decent amount of money on the table, so it was worth sticking it out for a bit. one player had been raising a lot, so i re-raised on the button with 66 to isolate. he called. flop was 3 diamonds including the 6d, so i felt pretty good about my hand. he checked and i bet 2/3 pot and he called. the turn paired the board with a 9. now i'm a lock. he check raised me and i pushed all in hoping for his call, which he did. the board is now : Ad9d6d-9h. unless he holds AA or 99, i'm a huge favorite. he flips over AsKd for top pair / top kicker and the nut flush draw. well, his flush was obviously dead vs. my boat and his top pair was only good if he could fill it up. 4 outs: Two Aces and two 9s.

the river, you ask? the 9 of spades. nice counterfit card. i would have rather lost to an Ace. just brutal. a big nasty bad beat was bound to happen sooner or later and i finally took it in the shorts on that hand. i've taken 2 outers on the river with an overpair many times, but when you have a full house and play it perfectly, it seems to hurt that much more.

i took a little breather, but still felt like i was playing well. after losing those two big pots, i was down for the evening. i persevered and made it back to + $50, which seemed pretty pathetic, but hey + is better than -. i felt like i made good decisions and that's the most i can ask for.

[EDIT:] oh yeah -- i was 12 hours into the session before i got AA. i made a standard raise from middle position and everyone folded. i won $5.

the 4 BB/hour i won brings me down to 23.5 BB/hour since Aug 1.

i got home, got a short nap in and heather and i headed to del mar racetrack for a day watching the races. a friend's girlfriend's family has some nice table service seats that were really cool. we could watch the races in comfort (including shade) and with drinks of choice. while they enjoyed frosty adult beverages, i stuck to red bull to stave off the sleep monster. we won our first bet and then lost all the rest, but it was a really nice afternoon with the horsies. also funny to see my normally cynical friend be so cutesy with his belle.