Turning Point?

Finally some good news to report on the poker front. Followers of this blog will know it’s been a wretched start to the year for me, but last night saw me post a sizeable £1,050 cash win at the Loose Cannon Tuesday night cash game.

I played very disciplined poker during the 6 hour session, admittedly getting lucky on one occasion, but I felt I deserved my win. I immediately lost a £100 buy in to The Baron at the start of the evening, and thought that it was to be another loss in store for me. The hand was an interesting one - we were playing 3 handed holdem at the time and the money went in on the flop:

Flop: 8s9dJs
Me: Q♠9♠ (flush draw/pair/gutshot)
Baron: A♠10♠ (nut flush draw/up and down)

The spade arrived to leave me dead and deliver first blood to Tom. We plugged the numbers after the hand and I was at 45%, and I would have been favourite against many hands so I have no regrets about committing here.

The turning point for me came when I slow played AA in the small blind, and myself and The Baron ended up playing a £400 pot on the turn. Tom had two pair, but was cruelly counterfeited on the river to kickstart my evening. A lucky river of course, but I probably deserved a little luck, after not really getting the run of the green so far this year.

The other key pot was against Steve, who in the past I am significantly down against. I raised to £4 in early position with 4♣5♣, and Steve made it £14 on the button. Being out of position, I’d normally pass here, but since we were both so deep I elected to call and see if I could flop a monster.

Flop arrives J54, which seems good to me if Steve has an overpair.

I check raise Steve’s £30ish continuation bet, and he puts me all in. I am fairly worried about a set of Jacks, as there are two hearts on the board, and he’d probably play that hand like that to protect it, given the pot is sizeable already. However, I call hoping he has an overpair, and in fact he has AJ and I hold to win a £700ish pot.

I then win a series of smaller pots, to finish the night with a highly satisfactory profit. Of course, the key here is to carry this forward and make sure it isn’t just a one off. If I can just put together a couple of winning cash sessions on the bounce, I will begin to feel the year is about to take off. A tournament cash would come in handy as well, but I can’t be too greedy :)

Next game is a tournament on Thursday, probably at Loose Cannon.