So let's get the predictable stuff out the way first... 'Twas Friday night and I couldn't resist the temptation to play in The Fox Club's £33 freezeout once again. Prior to this, I dropped about £17 in a 25 minute cash game session but that was no biggie. In the freezeout, I did my usual good run by getting to the last 3 tables but failed to cash after my all-in on a flush draw, with a fairly small stack, got called by top pair - I didn't improve. I then followed this up with three, short cash game sessions (including a whirl on the £1/£2 table) but ran card-dead throughout. Despite a successful £15 bluff on a high card flop while holding 2 3s, I ended up dropping a further £30 in the 3 sessions. My cash game losses, added to the £33 blown in the freezeout, meant I had a total deficit of £80 when I left The Fox at about 12:45AM and headed for The Empire.
After a ham and cheese bagel at Leicester Square and then about a 30 minute wait by the poker room at The Empire (I was about 15th on the list and falling asleep at this stage), I was called to the cash game table with the time at around 1:30AM. I fished out £300 in cash but remember just feeling very sleepy and kind of hamming up the dozey/tired old man image when taking my seat. In early position, on the very first hand, I looked down at AQ and decided to limp. The flop comes A Q 6 and I doze off in my chair again. The action is on me and, "struggling to keep my eyes open" and feigning disinterest I check. Then I see a mid-position player throw in £25 - bingo! It's folded around to me.
Now I know this player in the past as being someone who makes a lot of loose calls so I decide to just raise him all-in right there, hoping that he just has me pegged as a clueless old fart. He has about £200 behind and tanks for about 4 minutes and it looks like he's going to fold so I start jabbering a little bit (using the talk-if-you-want-a-call trick) and he does indeed reluctantly make the call. The turn is a harmless looking 10 and the river comes a brick. He announce two pair, probably A 6 (music to my ears) as I turn over my own top two to take down over a £500 pot on the very first hand of the session!!
Needless to say this first hand was the only key hand of the session but does go to show that you can sit around for 5 hours enduring garbage getting thrown at you and seeing an entire dearth of any sort of premium hand for what seems like an eternity (my entire 5 hour session at The Fox) but get the whole nightmare wiped and washed away in a single hand! Thank you Empire once again!
Anway, I then start to get a few more nice hands (but win small amounts) and end the one and a half hour session when they break the table at 3AM. I cashout £570 in chips and am quite exhausted although obviously happy with my £270 profit for the session. On the night, however, taking the £80 away that I blew at The Fox, we end up with a fairly respectable £190 profit.
Lesson learnt? Well yet again, in view of the fact that after I have written specifically in previous posts about the need to eschew visits to The Fox in favour of heading straight for The Empire, I am disappointed that I gave in to temptation and entered that bleedin' freezeout again. (Maybe I just enjoy them too much and just like starting the evening off with a safety net and with little pressure?) I've also written about avoiding Fox Club cash game sessions in the past - but dived into these as well! So let's just write it out again (although I'll probably ignore it):
Try not to play too many freezeouts at The Fox and aim to head for the cash games at The Empire instead of The Fox as these are a LOT more profitable.
Not that I'll be following this lesson, of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment