Last night I had an all-nighter at The Empire after arriving there at the late time of 10:30PM. After about a 15 minute wait, I bought £400 in chips and was seated at one of the tables at the back in the corner. From the beginnning it was clear to me that it was a tough table and I asked for a transfer straight away (which never came). There were very big stacks to my left owned by strong players and slightly smaller stacks to my right but enough to do big damage. I'd say that there was only one poor player - who I did extract money from later into the evening.
Anyway, it started badly when I received a run of poor cards which I folded constantly making it easy for my opponents to peg me as very tight. Then, with marginal holdings I started to make lots of loose calls and proceeded to spew quite a few chips by chasing draws which never came - now I was pegged as weak/passive. By about 3 hours into the session I had only won about 2 or 3 hands and was feeling a bit stuck while down £120 and with a £280 stack.
I then struck gold (kind of) after following a string of limpers, who called the £5 straddle, while holding J 9s on the button and seeing a 10 Q K flop (with two diamonds). UTG plops in £12, mid-position calls and I raise it to £25. I'm sure they perceive me as tight but they call the extra ££s to make it a fairly meaty £100 pot. The turn comes a 9 of clubs. UTG checks as does mid-position and so I throw in about £170 keeping just £80 behind. UTG insta-folds and mid-position (a player who likes action) tanks for about 4 or 5 minutes before eventually mucking his hand.
He tells me that he held a set and, as he is a very likeable fellow, I tell him that I would have liked to have seen a call as I had him beat. He replies that I made a bad raise then but I'm not so sure. I think the raise was certainly in order but maybe just a pot-sized, £100, raise was more appropriate in that situation. However, with a possible flush draw out there, along with 10 outs for the full-house or quads (not to mention the possiblity of a Jack arriving on the river as well), I was still fine with taking the pot right there and I don't think my play was THAT bad (if at all).
Around about 4 hours or so into the session I then change seat and position myself to the left of all the big stacks. This turns out to be a good idea as I'm able to make a lot of raises in late position after the big stacks fold and I am able to kind of bully the small and big blinds along with the early position limpers with the help of my superior and dangerous looking stack-size. Unfortunately, while this works to a certain extent, I still don't connect with a few of the premium hands that I did happen to hold while on the button and lose £30 after a few of my big pre-flop raises back-fire. (Including a hand where my AQ on the button proved worthless against the villain who flopped a set of 5s.)
Nevertheless, I felt much more comfortable with my new seat and this built up my confidence simply because I was able to act after the bigger stacks and tougher players. I managed to add another £60 odd to my stack and by the time 4:30AM arrived I was really tired, yawning my head off and flagging like a good 'un. (I already had a day's work behind me.) With £420 in chips and £20 up on the night (a win is a win) I cashed out and took the night bus home on a glorious summer's morning and arrived home at 5:30AM.
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