Standard Kansas City Insanity

I compressed the normal Kansas City trip into 30 hours this weekend.

I left for the Jewel of the Midwest at almost 1pm on Saturday and arrived just in time for the home game at KingLucky's house. The game wasn't noteworthy except that I won a LOT more money than I thought I had. It's a good thing because gas was $2.799 and it's 600 miles round trip. I did flop quad sevens in omaha and rivered queens full in seven card stud to win a couple of monsters.

We finished the home game up fairly early...just after midnight and made it to the Ameristar Casino by 1am. Now I know I said I don't like to play that much after midnight because there are usually more serious gamblers at those hours, but Ameristar proved me wrong. I got check raised THREE times by a guy who had nothing better than a medium pair. He came over the top of me and I thought "holy shit" the first two times, but called anyway just to see his medium pair and crappy kicker against my straight or flush. And it's not like he caught the pair on the river and thought "I just made a HUGE hand!" He flopped his shitty hand and saved it up until he was POSITIVELY beat, then check raised. I'd say he was on a bluff but he wasn't that smart. The third time I re-raised him just to get the extra $6. He called, of course, and his T6 lost to my AT when the board flopped a T and it held up for top pair. The only thing better than a moron is a moron you can count on.

KingLucky and I demolished this table. We were each up $200 within two hours, which is a pretty good feat at $3/$6 limit. Finally four people said they were leaving and I didn't like the look of the replacements. I racked up and walked over behind KingLucky. He started racking and found out his $201 profit was just ahead of my exact $200. He said he wanted to play one more hand before the big blind got to him. I said "Aha! You'll lose the $1 and I'll be ahead!" Instead he got big slick and flopped the king. Top pair held up again and he took down a $50 pot to make my stack look bad.

We played some video poker and then hit the Diner around 7am. Comped, as usual. Their breakfasts are phenomenal. The rest of their menu might be good too, I've never eaten there except in the middle of the night and early in the morning. From there I caught a few hours of sleep on KingLucky's couch and drove back to Oklahoma City by 7pm. It was a great trip, especially because I acheived my goal, which was winning more than I spent on gas.

That's three times in a row that KingLucky and I have played at the same $3/$6 table, across from each other, and we both won money. He said he thought I played better than him each time even though he won more money every time. "How can you say that?" I asked. He gave examples of hands where he got very lucky and couldn't think of any where I had similar luck. Most of my wins came through griding out bet after bet, play after play, and he just got into dream situations. Like at the T-Bird when he flopped a set the only two times the action got capped pre-flop. Or the time last night when he turned Aces full of Kings with his big slick and he had an idiot with Ace-little betting into him. ON A KILL, no less. What feels better than sitting on the nut full house and being able to say "re-raise to $48" in a $3/$6 full kill game? It gets frustrating watching things like that when you have a hard time getting paid off on your big hands.

I have been thinking about that too. Is it time for me to start playing dumb at the table? Stop with the chip shuffling and table chatter? Am I not getting called because people are afraid of me? Or am I overreacting and people just aren't getting cards they can play back at me with? I don't think I intimidate people. Maybe I am just chock full of tells? I sometimes feel like I can make a guy lay his hand down if I act correctly, but I don't ever feel like I can make a guy play back at me. Is this a skill that some folks have?

I'm probably just overreacting and I'm just getting unlucky when I hit big hands and nobody has enough to call my bets. But if someone out there has ways to get called, I'd love to hear them.