Posted by Junelli 8:48 AM
Last night I was playing $1-$2 NL at Northside. I initially bought in for $400. The game was extremely loose and aggressive and 2 very weak players were on huge rushes. Each had approx. $1,000-$1,200 in front of them and were catching hands like you wouldn't believe. At one point the dealer whispered to me that, "neither of these guys has ever left with chips." I licked my lips and waited for my opportunity.

Unfortunately I couldn't win anything at the beginning. My chip stack was shrinking and I was forced to reload for $300 more (putting me into the game for $700). I gradually bled that down to where I only had $120 left (and was stuck $580).

Several players had busted out, and the game was now 7 handed. Worse yet, 2 players said they were leaving shortly, and it looked like the game was going to break up soon (leaving me in a very tight spot). I contemplated leaving, but repeatedly made little comments hoping to induce those player into staying longer ("Man, you're hot! You can't quit! You never leave in the middle of a rush!"). Luckily 2 new fish arrived at the door shortly thereafter, and the game survived.

The moment they sat down I realized that $120 just wasn't going to cut it at this table (I was on the life-line, and couldn't play my normal game). If I was going to play I needed more ammo.

I reloaded for $300 more (putting me into the game for an even dime). "This had better work," I told myself.

No joke...within 3 hands, I was dealt KK against the chip leader's QQ. I doubled my stack up from $420 to $840. The very next hand I was dealt AK against the other chip leader's AQ. I took $520 off him.

I now had $1,360, and was back in the money. All of this happened within 5 minutes of reloading for the additional $300.

For those that don't understand the value of your chip stack, consider this: if I didn't reload, my first hand would've doubled me up to $220. My second hand would've doubled me up to $440. I would've had a mere $440 instead of a whopping $1,360. That's a big difference.

More importantly, I had cracked both of the chip leaders and was now way ahead of them in stack size. It was funny how their entire demeanor/mood/style did a 180. They went from raising ($20-$40 preflop) EVERY single time, to merely limping in and check-folding to any strength. Within 2 hours, both of them left busted.

Unfortunately I ended up giving some of it back and left the night with a small loss. But it could've been much worse.

Moral: "Don't go to war without ammunition."

5 Comment(s):

Posted by  Johnnymac, at 12:09 PM, May 18, 2005  

That story would have been so much better without the penultimate paragraph and none of us would have noticed. You need an editor, Junior!

Besides, I thought you were broke?

__________________________________________________

Posted by  Anonymous, at 12:11 PM, May 18, 2005  

god i admire you

__________________________________________________

Posted by  Junelli, at 2:52 PM, May 18, 2005  

I agree, and I seriously considered leaving out the part about losing some money overall. However, I did text message Morris on my way home last night, and told him that I gave the profits back.

AND I KNEW that if I didn't mention the loss (and made it look like I won), Morris would go apeshit and rag on me for writing a deceptive post. His comment would go something along the lines of:

"Why don't you tell everyone that you blew your lead and dumped off all your profit to those same 'fish' that sucked so bad. Next time write a truthful post asshole."

I figured I'd beat him to the punch, by being honest.

Yes, I'm kicking myself for staying too long (I'm going to write a much more in depth post about this later, including when to leave and game selection: two areas that I definitely need to work on).

__________________________________________________

Posted by  Johnnymac, at 3:18 PM, May 18, 2005  

Man, you and Morris are such good friends!

__________________________________________________

Posted by  Anonymous, at 4:00 PM, May 18, 2005  

Go get married, you big lug.

__________________________________________________

Post a Comment