Live Session #49: Back To Cash

Yesterday, as we had glorious sunshine here on the south coast, I decided to head into Bournemouth town centre for a small pub crawl of my own. Four pints later and with a steak and chips from Weatherspoons thrown in (Who says I don't do fine dining?) it was time to give the ol' Gala Casino a second chance.

After vowing to steer clear of their MTTs, their £5 rebuy tourney looked like fun at the time and seemed far too tempting to ignore so I went and signed up. Yep, it still had the atmosphere of a home game and I still felt like a stranger gatecrashing their little tournament so I promised myself not to rebuy and to see how far my initial £5 buy-in would last. One beer, five minutes and five hands later it was onto the cash games...

Ah, the cash games! After settling in with another beer and striking up a conversation with the guys next to me about being happy to be in Bournemouth cos of the riots in London, we were all soon merrily chatting away. From then on, with a few laughs and light-hearted comments about the hands, the whole experience became so much more friendly and civilised than those tumbleweed-like MTT tables and it was a genuinely more enjoyable night all-round.

Results-wise I would say it was more like a merry-go-round than a rollercoaster and, sitting down with a buy-in of £120, I kind of hovered between break-even and being about £50 up through the session. The main, key hand, happened when I was about £40 up. A new player had just joined the table and I looked down at K 10. The flop came 9 10 Q and I think it checked all round. The turn came a 10 and I raised which was called. The river came an 8 and I made another raise - but then got re-raised by the villain who immediately chucked in £20 which was virtually an all-in from him. Now, normally, a player who smiles at you wants a call and that is what this player was doing. He was new to the table and I had no reads on him and so had to put him on the Jack. I reluctantly folded and he showed 8 9 for the two pair.

Yes, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't annoyed as I folded the best hand which would have rewarded me with a healthy stack of around £200 and would have put me up £80 - which would have been nice - but that's poker. Anyway, the evening continued and I soon replenished my stack a little bit when I caught a nut, Ace-high, straight on the turn against a good player who had raised my £10 to £20 on the river which was a brick. I then re-raised him back another £50 which had him huffing and puffing and tanking for an age. He eventually folded - and showed - a pair of jacks which meant he made a good fold with a set of Jacks!

By 2AM, the table got down to just 2 other players - who were fairly decent - so I called it a night while holding a stack of £155 - and it was off into the night for the 3 mile walk back to base. With the £5 taken off from the £5 rebuy we're talking a net profit of £30 for the night - not bad. It has to be said though that I really enjoyed the cash game table tonight as it was a much more friendly affair and I never really felt that my stack was in any sort of jeapordy.