Getting to know Patrick

Well tonight I went down to the strip to play 1 -2 No limit at the Aladdin. When I arrived there were 3 games going all with open seats. Mike and AJ were at one table, most of the off duty dealers from the Aladdin were at another table. I chose to sit in this game. After I sat down I recognized a player I had played with the night before that was a calling station at the 3rd table. I requested a table change, and a seat opened up. The seat was right next to Patrick. Patrick is a guy that has been a regular at the Aladdin for some time. Although him and Mike are friendly, I have never really had the opportunity to get to know Pat at all. When I sat down he was very friendly with me and him and I talked quite a bit about the table, players etc. Patrick was talking to another player about going to eat and I decided to join them.

As we ate and I talked I learned a little about Patrick, including him being from D.C., which is where Mike if from also. Patrick also lived in San Diego for some time as well. All in all Patrick seems like a pretty nice guy, somewhat interesting, I am sure I will have him in future blogs as he plays at the Aladdin most of the time.

The person we went to dinner with was a female player, and for the life of me I cannot remember her name. I think it was Gina, for the blogs sake, we'll call her Gina. Apparently she is seeing one of the dealers at the Aladdin and did not want to eat alone so we joined her. She was a little too high energy for me, but that was OK she was nice overall.

When we returned from eating, Patrick and I had been moved into another game as our table had broke. We sat down and were also now at the same table as Gina. The table was average, mainly tight passive players, not a lot of action. Patrick left about 15 Min's later.

The only other No Limit table broke and Joe also known as the "Magic Man" was seated to my left in Patrick's seat. I have played with Joe many of times he is a Gothic looking kid, young plays a little unorthodox, but seems to be a winning style. After two button rounds I had not played a hand, I was in the big blind bullshitting with Joe when Gina who was in early position raised to $15. I had not looked at my hand and Joe said, "hey can I sweat ya". Sweating being a term used to look at another players hand when you are out of the action. I said "sure I have not looked yet", he looked at my hand and I said, "so what should I do"? He said, "well I cannot tell you, but you might want to look". as one other player called, I looked down and there they were, two glorious Aces, I thought for a minute and decided not to raise as Gina seemed to be the type of player that would only raise a premium hand. I thought for a few more minutes, noticed that the other player who called only had $40 in front of him left and I finally just called. I figured, Gina would only raise with JJ or better, and that I could get her to lead out on the flop, which will more then likely pot commit herself as she only had about $100 left. The flop of Qc 10s 4h came down I checked and Gina bet $25, the other player folded. It got back to me and I called I knew she was going to play for her stack so I would have her commit it on the turn. The turn was the 4c and I lead out for $60, she instantly went All In, I called, she turned over KK and I showed her the bad news with my AA. She somberly picked up her Ipod, said nice playing with you and left, I felt bad but that's poker.

I had figured she would have possibly folded had I re raised her before the turn as she was worried about playing in any pots with Patrick or I. She would know I was only re raising her with AA or KK so I figured this was the best way to play the hand. This play was something I had read in Angels book 'No Limit Hold Em'. In there he discuss play against short stacks in 1 - 2 No limit and in this situation, there was really no way I was folding my hand for the chips either player in the hand had. So instead of giving them a chance to fold their hands knowing they were beat I took a little bit of a chance and let them bet off their chips.

Well overall the session was successful I made $150 in about 4 hours of play, I left when the game was 5 handed and most players were above average in the game. No need to play in that game, when there are many other games in Vegas with players just looking to give their money away.