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If you’ve been reading my previous posts, you’ll know my poker has not being going very well lately. In fact I was a constant loser in the game. I think I have finally overcome my run of bad luck last weekend. I was at my local bar all day when a friend invited me to a late night cash game. Great plan I thought … but better get home first and get some rest. I had been drinking since the early afternoon and when I said ‘call’ it sounded like ‘fold’.
So, I went home and took a little rest for a few hours, before Hassan phoned me to tell me the game was about to start. I got in around 1:30 PM but was not the last to get there. The rest of the crew showed up shortly after and we quickly got everything ready to play. 
The game was no limit texas holdem with the blinds at 25c/50c. Minimum buyin was 10 euro and everybody bought in for just the $10. I decided I could not win more then 10 until someone had doubled up, but it WOULD be possible to lose more. Thus I bought in for the minimum as well.
The very first hand got me off to a great start. I picked up KK on the small blind. A (drunk) player had raised to 1.50 from early position, and it was folded around to me. I re-raised to 4 euro. The drunk gave it some thought and called to see the flop. As the little voice in my head said ‘Kings … Ace magnets …’, the flop came 8d, 9s and … the Ace of spades. I thought about putting a bet in, but since it was my very first hand of the night, I also considered checking and folding to a bet. I guess the correct play is to put out a bet, but instead I checked. I was expecting him to bet and I would have to fold .. the small advantage I did think I had was I had a very tight image and I often check top pair because they are all overly aggressive. HE CHECKED ! now I was confident I had the best hand and put him on some kind of lower pair then mine … 10’s Jacks or Queens possibly. Time to move the rest of my chips in (another 6 euro) and see if he can lay down his pair or will pay of my bet. He folded and I showed my KK.
After this first hand I continued to play pretty tight. I tried to limp in a few times but there was a guy to my left who kept raising when I tried to limp. He also seemed to pick up on standard poker moves like button raises, raises after a bunch of checks or bets on a paired board. He kept re-raising me every time I made a move. So I slowed down a little. In the course of the night made some great calls and later on some big bluffs. One of the reasons I was able to pull off bluffs at the end of the night was because I showed strong holdings in the beginning of the evening. I won a few more big hands and worked my way up to 30 euros. By this time most of the players were eliminated. With just 3 players left, it wasn’t a real cash game anymore and the ‘smart’ player I mentioned earlier started speeding to steal blinds. He only had about 10 euros left so every blinds steal was profitable for him. We waited for a hand to knock him out and took his money. Then when we were heads-up we decided to call it a night. All in all it was a good poker night. I was a little disappointed by the lack of any real poker equipment. They had some chip cases and plastic cards, but there was no poker table, no dealer button, and the plastic cards they had looked a hundred years old. They had so much dirt stuck on there, I was sure that if you tried, you would be able to recognize some of the cards because of the dirt-pattern on the back. I guess they didn’t do that though, since I WON !!!
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