Barona 1/2 NL $20-60 (2nd nuts)

Not that you want to hear, but I want to tell you so just appease me...:-) It was interesting, how I played last night. I sat down at a table in the #10 seat, which I hate because you are right next to the dealer and you cannot see the #1 or 2 seat very well and can easily make mistakes by not knowing that someone is in the hand. Anyways, I immediately request a seat change so that as soon as someone leaves I get their seat and the new player would get my seat. I like #3 or #7 for the best visibility of the table. Ok moving on, very first hand I am under the gun, so right after the big blind and the first person to act. I have 9/10 of spades or 9Ts,. This is one of the types of hands that I really like to play. So, I decide to limp in for $2 to see what happens on the flop. There are several folds and then the small blind says "raise 10" so he makes it $12 to go. The big blind calls $10 more and I decide to call $10 more and see a flop. This is not unusual for me at all. The flop was 466, so for the most part I figure that it did not help anyone as they probably have big cards. Long story short on that hand is the big blind had 44 and flopped a full house. I caught a 10 on the turn and lost a decent pot, but I pushed a lot of chips in to create a table image right away that says "lookout" this guy will stay in with nothing.

Ok the very next hand I get to move to seat #7 and I get 99 and I decide to limp in from late position because now I am behind the blinds. Well the flop was something like A9X so perfect for me. One guy bets $7 and I slide a stack of $20 in there. The turn comes off and I cannot even recall what it was, but I he checked and I pushed the rest $28. He calls and I end up winning that pot. So now I am even...

and then the dreaded hand... I had AK, my nemesis, although this time I did not play the hand for high pair value at all.

I limped in with black AK, in late position, which I do sometimes to see a flop and get away if I miss. There were a few other limpers as well. The flop comes down with three clubs Q high. So, I announce "club check" and I look at my cards again. I have the Kc so if another club comes I will have the 2nd best flush you can have (you can imply where this is going). I go ahead and bet about $6 into the flop to see if I can just win it there and I get 1 caller. The turn is what I think to be a very good card for me. It was the Jc so I made my flush, king high. The only other card that would have been better, of course, would be the Ac so that I have the best flush possible. I check the turn with the intentions of check raising if he bet. Well, he bet $6 and I made it $18 to go. He announces raise and throws in the extra $12 that I raised. The dealer then proceeds to say ok you can only raise another $12 now. This is because he threw in the $12 that I raised already. There is a rule at this casino, at least that states that if you want to raise more than the minimum, then you need to put in that raise along with the call of the previous raise not separate. It's strange, but their rule. I was a victim of this myself one night. Anyways, so he can only raise $12 more and does. I call that figuring I still have the best hand and will push on the river or check raise all in. The river was a blank (meaningless card) and I went ahead and pushed. He instantly called with the AcJd and had the best hand you could have. As it turns out, I was behind he whole time except preflop. So, needless to say I was a bit ahead and dumped it all on the 2nd nuts. I hate when that happens.

until next time..

It's hard being me, but somehow I seem to manage.