Turning Stone with Chuckmonk

Charlie and I had a fine time at Turning Stone. I lost money. He made money.
His win was directly related to his patience and good play. He has been reading books about the game and unlike my reading, he is able to actually apply even the mathematics he reads to the game.

He did make some careless mistakes. Once he turned over his trip aces before the last opponent had decided to call and it may have cost him one bet. Another time he tossed in his big blind hand of J-2 but it did not muck, so the dealer gave it back to him. By the turn Charlie had trip jacks and won the hand. He gets caught in that mistake easily, but that won't last as he plays more times.

When we first go there, I could not get on a 3-6, so I played in the seat next to Charlie in the 2-4 game and caught plenty of great hands. I sat to the left of the dealer and the guy to his right was a habitual raiser so I started to reraise whenever that was in my advantage. After a while I did teach him not to just automatically raise, but in the reraised hands, I made money. My best hand was pocket sixes. He raised and I rereaised. It flopped a six, turned a queen and rivered yet another queen. One fellow called me with trips. I was full.

Before we went the the Savoy in Rome for supper I was ahead by $66.

When I go back there was a new 3-6 opening and charlie could not get on a 2-4 so he decided to play at the new table for a while. He liked it so well, he never went to the 2-4. Again he sat right to my left, so we could talk and have a good time.
I only know one hand that put us head to head at the turn. I folded so I don't know what he had.
In general, I may have played too loose, but I also just did not get cards, and when I did, I was really unlucky. My pair of deuces caught trips on the flop and two bettors. One bettor drew a gut shot straight. I raised my pocket pair of Aces after a regular raiser made the first raise with K-Q. Everyone folded. One guy turned over his cards by accident. One card was a king so the initial raiser then folded and did not call my reraise. I had managed to isolate him, but the exposure of the folded cards discouraged him.

Most of the players were fairly good. A couple were too loose. One guy called me twice when he should not have called. He surprised me both times. I had not put him on calling down.

My favorite hand was right after I lost with trip deuces. A guy with two pair complained bitterly about the other fellow calling and getting the gut shot wheel. The table was annoyed with him. He left. I had K-X diamonds and flop was A-X-X diamonds. I had flopped in middle position the nut flush. Now I had not played much in a while and I had been complaining a bit to Charlie. A guy before me raised. I had to either reraise or just call. Calling was the right move. Instead I pretended that I was totally annoyed with this hand and on tilt. I reraised. It worked and everyone in that hand called around. Most also called me on the turn and the river in spite of no more diamonds coming. I suspect they put me on a pair of kings.

However, most of the night I just got sucked dry with rag cards. And any good cards were quickly beaten.

Toward midnight I was quite a bit down, but the nut diamond flush hand and a couple others brought me back a bit. I think they were very surprised to see me win. I had become invisible at the table.