Morongo June 26th... Getting back into the Swing of Things.

So it was my first trip back to Morongo after a little break due to finals and finishing up my year in college. I started the re-entry to poker playing home games with friends and after a few games i started crushing and winning 3-5x my buy in on several occasions consecutively. So when my friends Eric and Sai told me they were going to attend the Sunday Morongo poker tournament I decided it was a good time to get my cash game chops back into action. The downside was I didn't have alot of extra cash to gamble so i decided I'd "sell off" 50% of my action. What that means is that I'll be playing with other people's money and will take a percentage of the winnings as a "fee" for my time/expertise. What this does is lets me play my poker game without having to worry about losing as much. Funny enough my mom/sister jumped at the opportunity and booked me for 20% of the action and Sai bought the other 30% and i chip'd in $40 to my buy in of $100. I was pretty card dead the first 2 hours and was mainly just trying to survive. Had pocket 10's 3 times and EVERY time i raised with them i got 3bet and had to fold but was lucky enough each time to find out that my opponent had a bigger pocket pair so they were all good folds.

I slowly grinded up a little bit of money playing position and taking down some pots with bluffs when i ran into an interesting hand against one of the tight/aggressive players. I had pocket Jacks in the UTG +1 seat and opened to $12 with ~$125 in my stack. The Asian gentlemen raised to $35 and after much deliberation i decided to flat call. I Figured he could be raising me with A/Ksuited or possibly a slightly smaller pocket pair and wanted to have the betting lead/position and to isolate me. Anways the flop came k/k/x and i check'd it to him. He check'd it back and a queen came on the turn and he bet $40. His bet SCREAMED call me to me so i made the obvious fold against what was either trip kings/aces or Queens full.

I was on the short stack and ended up winning my flips to get myself back into the game. An interesting hand against another gambler it was a 6 way limp pot for $3 and i had ~$50ish left and i decided to shove to pick up the dead money from the BB and i ended up getting CALLED i had A/4 off suit and he had k/9 suited. The cards got run out and i ended up winning with ACE HIGH!!! And i heaved  a HEAVY sigh of relief! I was still in it!!! I ended up getting trippled up a few hands later by the ULTRA OMEGA Lagtard (loose aggressive player) when i hit top two against him and another fish when i had K/Q.

My BIG hand of the day involves a certain amount of "history" that me and this lagtard had developed during my time at the table. He had doubled me up but i had also made a HUGE bluff on him that got called i was at ~$220ish and had K/Jsuited and i opened from EP and he 3bet me to $30 as he had done countless times before. The board was 3 spades queen high. I checked and then he bet. I decided to mini-raise him to $40 total on the flop $140 going into the turn. A useless blank came on the turn and i checked. He check'd back and then on the river i fired $100 it was an ace and it fattened up his A/Q hand to top two and he called me off. Leaving me with $54 left.

Obviously that was a devastating hand. It really sucks running a big bluff and getting caught he had made a comment to me in the middle of the hand that i was "breathing a little hard? you have the flush?" so maybe he meta-game'd me into bluffing but looking into my live tells is DEFINITELY something i need to be careful of. I know I'm playing correctly and not playing scared but that doesn't stop my heart beat from racing any time I'm in a big pot!!!

The next hand happened after i worked my chip stack back up to ~$200. The lagtard had straddled and I limp called from middle position with a suited A/6. He ended up checking his straddle and we saw the flop 4 ways. The board came 10/5/6 2 diamonds. He lead for $15 and I called. A 9 came on the turn and he check'd it to me. I check'd it back and then a King came on the river to which he fired $35. I contemplated for a LONG TIME figuring ALOT of hands got their and even if he is bluffing he might be bluffing with the best hand because i can only beat a complete air ball. I looked over the action and looked at his bet sizing on the river and ended up making the call. Everyone at the table congratulated me on the sick call and you could tell he was disgusted/pissed.

THE NEXT HAND:
Me UTG ~$255ish
Lagtard Small Blind ~$500
Fish Button ~120ish

I have A/Ko (o means off suit) UTG [realizing im playing ALOT of big pots out of position now that i'm writing this]. I raise to $12, fish calls, Lagtard pops it to $40, me and fish both call. Flop comes As/9s/8d the lagtard leads for $70 into the pot of $120. I Jam for the remaining around $200 i have left in my stack knowing at the moment i have the best hand and trying to pick up the money that's in the middle and trying to make it TOO expensive for them to pay for a draw. My WORST NIGHTMARE OCCURS. BOTH OF THEM CALL MY ALL IN. At this point I think I'm definitely behind and that one of them must have 2 pair or better or be on a huge combo draw. Luckily the turn was a king giving me top two pair and the river was a blank (the flush draw missed). And i scooped an over $600 pot. That feeling is SOOOOOOOOO good. The lagtard was SO tilted and I have to wonder if the fact that i hero called him the hand before that was the reason why he over called. Looking back the big failed bluf and the hero call we ran against each other was a great history of cards to have been played against two random strangers at Morongo over 4 hours. He DEFINITELY wasn't a fish either even if he may have been getting to aggressive because I've seen him playing before. But he may just be a gambling degenerate!