So it’s been about 6 weeks since the Joe Hachem Deep Stack Series wrapped up, and since then I’ve logged heaps of hours online playing both cash and tournaments until I had a really bad session a short time ago. Consequently I transferred my remaining funds to Heath to mind and I took a break from the online world; apart from the occasional
PokerNetwork Online Championship event. However I have picked up my live cash game in home games and at Crown.

I’ve made a conscious effort to stick to low-limit cash games especially in preparation for the Melbourne Championships and World Series to preserve my bankroll and because I’m not a strong (therefore terrible) cash game player.

I started on the down logging some losing sessions in home games before hitting two big wins on the $2-3 NLH tables at Crown before playing a combined 15-hour session two nights ago after a crushing 4-2 victory at indoor soccer . . . with a man down too!

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Anyway, so I headed into Crown at around 4pm and sat down on a $1-2 NLH table with the max buy-in of $80 and was seated opposite my good mate Michael ‘Spanish Miguel’ Walters. On my second hand I was dealt A♥ A♦, and following a limp under-the-gun I made it $10 to go and found two callers. The flop fell down 2♥ A♠ 3♥ and I led out for $22 with only one player making the call. The turn landed the 7♥ and decided that I’m just going to go with it, and moved my last $51 into the middle and got an immediate call with my opponent tabling Q♥ 5♥. ‘Well played sir’ was all that my sarcastic undertone could muster under my breath as my 38% faded when the 8♠ fell on the river . . . REBUY!

That session finished with $5 profit to my name as I departed to indoor where we scored our first victory of the season after a draw last week and a loss before that. Afterwards me and Mat Pater decided to venture to the Veneto Club to participate in some APL-degeneracy and after an early bust with Kings and Mat’s final table bubble we returned to Crown to play a night-session.

We both found ourselves on the same $1-2 NLH table and it took about an hour before I played my first real pot when I was faced with a $7 raise from early position and three callers as I looked down at 9♥ 10♥ in the big blind as I made the call. The flop fell down a (seemingly) perfect 7♥ 8♥ 3♠ and I checked to the original raiser who made it $15 to go before a caller in middle position raised it to $40. With my combo-draw and two overcards I moved my $65 stack all-in with both players making the call to be up against Jacks and a set of Eights. I was at about a 35% chance to win the hand, but just like the earlier session I missed everything and was forced to rebuy.

My next buy-in went much better, running that up to $640 by the time I left Crown at around 7am. There were no really big hands as it was more of a grind, but I was very disappointed near the latter ends of my session where I missed some value with big hands that probably cost me around $100 in potential profit. However I was happy with a lay down that I made on the turn with top-two pair holding A♣ 10♠ up against a set of nines when he led the turn after I checked to him.

All-in-all it was a good session having to deal with a range of different players and the occasional tough run of cards. However with the upcoming Melbourne Poker Championships I don’t think I’ll be at the cash game tables too much as most of my time will be focused on tournament poker both playing and from behind my laptop.