« Kevin Ngo

Poker Sessions #7/8/9 - So I'm Not Immortal

17 Feb 2014

Over the last several days, I played at the Encore, Spirit Mountain, and the Final Table. A small downswing, making breakeven for the week. I played poorly at the Encore but just ran card dead and coolered in the latter two. Used to it though and still eager to play with the games being really soft. So. much. old. people.


Encore Club 6pm $500 Guaranteed - Busted

Tuesday night. With about 24 players in, I was able to stumble my way into around 7th. I made two related blunders over the course of this tourney: handling an all-in with players left to call.

When a player goes all-in, and you are holding a hand you want to play (say JJ), you want to raise to protect your hand and get it heads-up. In the first instance, player to my right shoves. I hold JJ so I push all-in for deep. Unfortunately, SB shows up with KK. Lesson learned, only raise around 2.5x for hand protection leaving me room to play post-flop or fold to a 4bet.

In the second instance, I was on the button with A9o. A player shoves for 2.5x, and I flat. That was a mistake; I either should have protected my hand or folded. The BB called. Another blunder, I expected to check it down. Flop comes A9x two-tone for second pair. I should have bet to get the eventual flush draw paying, and I shouldn’t have paid off a double-barrel on the river for half my stack.

Spirit Mountain Cash Game - -$10

My girlfriend and I drove to the Spirit Mountain Casino on a Sunday to check it out. I played in a $1/$3 game for four hours.

Everyone was really old. Like farmer grandpa old. It was a soft game, limping everywhere. I played pretty optimally but got sucked out on one of the early hands to make it a session where I lose to the house rake.

I hold TT UTG. I raise 3x, one caller. I lead out the flop. Guy calls with ace-high-no-kicker. Turn comes an A. I double-barrel and shut down after the call for a -$90 pot. When he showed A2o or whatever, I was a bit confounded on the preflop call and flop call. But whatever, the game was soft and I was able to grind back through a card-dead session.

An old lady asked me how old I was and complimented “oh, good for you!”.

Final Table

I spent my holiday (President’s Day) at the Final Table, playing three tournaments. I got coolered, finished a min-cash, then got double sucked-out.

11am Freeroll Guaranteed - Busted

Pretty standard up until I got coolered straight over straight. GG.

3pm $25 Buy-in Freezeout - 5th Place for $35

Min-cash. Yay. I played standard to the final table where I started getting aggressive as the blinds raised. Another Vietnamese-American player was pretty cool to me and was calling me K-Fed and Young Buck (because I was the youngest and everyone was old). I calculated my M-ratio to be 5 so I shoved with 56s in the CO. Someone woke up with KK. GG.

5pm $300 Guaranteed Freeroll - Double Busted

I get it in two-pair. Old guy calls my cbet with air. We get it in and he runs runner-runner flush for my stack. Rebuy.

I hold QQ. Someone shoves with JKo, I reshove, same old guy calls with 99. Old guy spikes a 9. Meh, going home.

Session Conclusion