poker is a game of patience…

Patience. There’s something I generally have little of. Waiting in lines, walking slowly behind people, waiting on other people to show up – these are not a few of my favorite things. However, without patience in poker, you’ll have days like my Day 2 at the Rio. Big losses.

I went back to the Rio yesterday, and plan to go today and tomorrow before my parents get to town on Thursday. Yesterday I was seated at a new table around 2pm and left around midnight when the table finally broke. Same seat #8 the entire time.

My day started slowly. Very slowly. Excruciatingly painfully slowly. (I’m not sure you can use –ly 3 times in a row like that. :) ) I saw no good hands to play, thus forcing the table to think I was ultra tight. I finally found a pair of fives. I limped, there was a raise, then a re-raise, and called all-in. I folded. I was up against JJ and TT. Good fold. The very next hand I get 55 again. I limp, and the SAME THING HAPPENS. I fold and they show JJ and 99. Of course the 5 hits the turn this time.

I find AK three times, raise with it and miss the flop horribly and have to fold. I’m now around 4 hours into my session and down a few hundred. I find KK and raise, getting one caller. I flop top set, bet and he folds, showing me a King. He folded because of my unfortunate tight image from getting bad hands. I should have checked that flop. Ugh.

A few hours go by (yes, it was that slow and painful), and I finally get AA. I raise to $20 and get one caller. The flop is Q96 and I lead out for 45. He raises to 145 and I push all-in. He had been a terrible player so I figured he had AQ. Nope. He had 96 for two pair which held up. Sick. Now I’m stuck for $600+. I buy in for $400 more and lose $100 of that to missed hands.

An army guy sits down to my right. He quickly loses one buy-in. I find 67s clubs and limp. It’s limped around and the flop is 458 with 2 clubs. The NUTS with a flush draw! I bet $10 hoping to induce a raise. Army guy raises to $45 and I come over the top for $145. He insta-calls. The turn is a Qd. I only have $190 left and push all-in and again he insta-calls. He shows Q8 and we sweat the river which falls as a 5. Whew. Ship it.

I find QQ later, and re-raise a bunch of $20 callers preflop. I get one caller – the flop is JTx. I bet and take it down. I won a few other small pots including a larger one with A8s diamonds hitting a straight on the turn and the nut flush on the river.

I left $27 ahead. Way better than the $1k loss it felt like I was going to take. In the end patience was key. The more you practice the easier it gets.

I was happy with my play all day. The AA hand wouldn’t have likely played any differently against that particular player. I might have folded against a few other better players, but definitely not him. On the drive home (25 minutes), all I could think about was where I had made my mistakes. I know I made one $75 mistake calling with AT on a board of AxQQQ against the same bad player. I knew he had a Q, but paid him off anyway. He showed the Q, and I mucked without showing. He says “Did you have an Ace?” followed by “There’s only one card in the deck that beats you, why didn’t you raise?” We’ll just leave it at “Um, duh.” (For those of you non-poker players, you’d never raise there because you are either splitting the pot, or losing. So raising can only lose you more money, not win it.)

Besides being a little less aggressive than I would have liked (the table was quite action filled, so it paid to sit back and wait), the only mistake I could find was my call of $50 on a board of J54 when I had 66. I folded to his river bet of $150. He had checked the flop and I felt like I had the best hand. I should have either folded or raised here I think. Calling was definitely the worst option.

Today I’m meeting up with a guy named AC that I met when I was on my sabbatical. I met him at the Bellagio and then saw him on TV busting Doyle Brunson in the main event in 2007. I texted him then and that was the last time I talked with him. Last week I was sitting at a table at the Rio and they were doing the bracelet presentation for the first event. To my surprise, they announce his name. I look up and sure enough – it’s him. Awesome!