Angel or Devil?

Playing a marathon game yesterday (10 a.m. until 2 a.m.), yes, I know, very very sick, I ran into a new memesis. "Angel" is a Latino calling station who is in every hand and plays aggressively. With a $250 high hand at stake plus possible quads I chose to just call a $5 bet on a great flop for me with the 5 and a fairly ragged board. Angel of course called with virtually nothing, 7/9 offsuit. The turn brought a 6, giving him a gutshot straight draw. A normal person would just call the next $5. bet, but he raises $20. I then reraise another $20 and he calls. The river brings his gutshot in and I call the final $20 bet. Then, in my opinion the worst part happened. I turned my hand over immediately showing and calling my set of 5's, he then sits there for 10-15 seconds before slow rolling his straight. Now that got me steaming!! He repeatedly slow rolled all night, sometimes with the dealer just pushing the pot to someone showing their hand first. He eventually went broke and left as his kind always do, but not before creating havoc destroying quality hands with their garbage.



The tone of my long day was set by the very first hand I played. Normally, I buy in for $100 in the $2-20 spread game but decided to change it up some. I bought in for $500, planning on pretty much playing my normal tight conservative game. My reasoning was this: as new players came in they would not know how much I had bought in for so would naturally assume that I was on a lucky winning streak and would play more cautiously against me. All of the players at the table knew me, so it was not a big deal...except for one person I had never played against before. I think that he thought I bought so much because I was a loose aggressive player and just liked to splash the pots and force people out. Unfortunately for me my very first hand was QQ. I decided to try to take it down immediately and bet $20. He called with AK. The flop was small, I bet $20, he called. The turn, small, $20/call. The river, ace. He bets, I call. Stuck $100 immediately. It took me almost an hour to get back to even mostly due to having the right hands against the wrong players. (See previous soft play comments). I flopped monsters against my best friends, Bob and Ron 3 times when they had very good hands (set of 10's vs. AA for example). I was unable to maximize my profits....where is Angel when you need him?



Last sad tale. This mornings tournament featured an unlucky situation for me. With blinds at $200/400 and me with about 4000 in chips (10 x BB), I had one limper in late position and I look down at 10/10. Reasoning that the blinds probably had squadush and the limper was weak, I raised all-in. In retrospect I probably should have just raised to $1000 or so, but with a reraise I am calling most of the time anyway, so think it was an o.k. move. So, the small blind, with more chips than me insta-calls. Gary, a very good player, in the big blind goes into the tank and eventually folds. He is assisted by the small blind who comments, "it is an easy call for me if that helps you". The limper turns his pocket 8's face up and the small blind turns over, drum roll please, pocket aces. When I turn up my 10's I then get to hear Gary say, "You are drawing dead, I threw away pocket 10's". And except for a lucky straight draw (didn't happen) I was. What the heck are the odds of 4 pocket pairs with two the same, being dealt to an 8 handed table? Slim I would guess.



Anyhoo, that is it. Knocked out with 10's like my friend Lynne earlier (but she was at least ahead preflop). Thanks again for the card protector, I will cherish it.