Live Session #36 (Freezeout Bad / Cash Game Good)

Yesterday afternoon I took myself off to The Fox Poker Club for their £38 freezeout. Arriving at 5PM I registered for their tourney and then (armed with the latest copy of Stacked sent to me by the good people at PKR) took myself off for a mini pub crawl of the pubs in the surrounding area. I knocked back 3 pints; making a big saving on the prices they charge at The Fox and loosening me up a little bit. I then headed on over to The Fox for their 7PM start. With solid play and sound ABC poker I worked my way up to the final 3 tables and was doing ok but crashed out, when down to about 8BB, after going all-in with A 10 in the cut off and getting the call from the button who held 9 9. With no help from the board, that was that.

It was a good, pleasant evening although a little hampered by some seriously slow play at the tables with some folk taking a bleedin' age to make a decision. I still find it bizarre that so many players take it SO seriously but there ya go. Needless to say, I fought off the boredom by purchasing some aneasthetic in the form of bottles of Peronis. This got me into the "sweet spot" of allowing me to loosen up my table talk a little bit but did not hinder my game.

One plus for The Fox occured, though, after a player spilt my entire bottle of Peroni all over the floor. With just a "sorry" and nothing else, I felt a little aggreived that he didn't offer to buy me another. Feeling slightly tilted by this, I asked the waitress if she could replace it with a complimentary bottle and she said no, so I asked if she could ask her supervisor. The supervisor actually DID show up, told me that they didn't normally replace spilt drinks, but did get the waitress to bring me a complimentary bottle! That's a PLUS ONE for The Fox!!       

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Anyway, after a quick reconnoitre of the £1/£1 cash tables, I decided a trip to The Empire was more in order and once again, this lovely place did very well for me! I plonked myself down with £280 in chips and hammed-up the drunk guy image a little bit. (Actually, I had consumed about 5 pints so was in a slightly daft mood anyway.) With some incredibly loose play and a few players just finding it hard to fold any sort of hand preflop I managed to get paid off a little bit for my good hands and left the table with £350 and a £70 profit (£30 profit on the night). Not a huge result but not bad.

Three observations:

1) In one hand against a fairly loose player (who was a young lady of South-East Asian origin), I held a good two pair and threw a £20 bet in on the river  knowing that I had her beat. All I told myself was to act a bit funny but NOT to make eye-contact. I had played against her in the past and knew that if I made eye-contact she would likely fold. I then STUPIDLY glanced at her while she was making the decision and made direct eye-contact for a split second. The moment was enough and she insta-folded. This type of interaction is what puts the live game well ahead of the online game and is just what I love about it - but why the hell did I go and have to glance at her right at that moment!? Grr.

2) A comment about miserable dealers: if you are a dealer and you smile occasionally, look like you actually enjoy your job and generally respond to players in a positive way then I will tip you all day long. If you are a miserable git, grumpy or clearly have favouritism for some players over others then I wonder if I should really tip you at all.    

3) For those of you wondering where my poker winnings go then I'll tell you: the winnings, what little there is, go to my non-working 18 and 19 year-old daughters who need to dye their hair, put credit on their phones and drink while socialising with their friends. Sometimes I wonder who the mug really is in all of this.