More tales from Maryland Live!

I rarely get time to play on the weekend, but I got the opportunity to play Saturday - and I seized the moment.  Going up with my buddy Josh, we hit up the new poker room, getting seated around 11:00 - immediately upon arrival.  Tangentially, I called ahead for the both of us - putting us on the list for 1/2, 2/5 and 2/2 PLO.  It was uncanny; 1 1/2 hours after calling and precisely when we arrived, we get called and seated...  sometimes I guess I run good.  At any rate, we were both seated at 1/2 tables right next to each other and started play immediately.

I dropped down $50 almost immediately, raising $15 with AKdd and flopping a gutter - weak cbetting $25 and check / folding the turn $45 bet from the single caller I got from my cbet.  Treading water for a bit, things started to look up when I found a bit of confidence raising AQo from MP to $15.  The same caller as described above called my $15 open and we saw a J 5 8 board.  I led for $25 and he flatted.  We checked through a deuce turn and the river paired the board with a J.  I checked once again, ready to give up on the hand, but dude leads for $~35 on the river.  I smell bullshit and look up his A9o to win with my better Ace high - from the looks of it, I probably fold the turn bet, but when he checks through and suddenly bets what seems like an improbable trips on the river, most pair hands are checking through.  My 2 street check also signaled weakness to the aggressor, making this spot seem like such an obvious spot for a bluff, which again, led me to look him up.  I hate the Ace high lookup, because there's so much bullshit that he can be "bluffing" with the best hand (i.e. X2, X5), but I just can't see weaker players not turn betting their top pair, but also not checking through what could possibly be trips for their opponent - if that makes any sense.

Anyway, the good times continued when I 3bet KK in the SB to $45 after a host of callers called a $10 open from an EP raiser - got folds out of all but 1 player who had recently sat down and run through $280 in immediate fashion (the chip runner could not replenish his chips quick enough...) - BINGO; the exact player I want calling with ATC.  The flop came AsXsXs and I held the Ks.  With $200 behind, I'm never folding here, so I opened the flop for $100 (there was probably around $140 already in the pot).  He thought for a bit and folded - bummer - but calling $45, I have to figure he's ready to play for stacks like he had in the prior 5-10 hands he'd played.  Anyway, a $95 win is a decent with on an Ace high board with KK and the nut flush redraw.

I later limped 66 and hit bottom set against a SB two pair who refused to lay down (bets of $15 -> $35 -> $65) which in retrospect probably could have been a bit more.  I hit AA once and KK 2 more times, but didn't get paid on them :-(.  All in all, it was a decent session, and my Maryland Live! experience has been most profitable thus far.

To round out the night, Josh played his free slot play - he won $15 in free play - and won $92 in a short time!  That's 2 for 2 for those counting the return on investment for slots.  Perhaps I should convert to a slot player instead of poker.