Just for the record...

Maybe it is the competition.  Barry says he plays better and wins more against good players because they know when to fold.  I on the other hand tell Barry that I play better against bad players, just because they make more mistakes.

The $1- $2 No Limit Hold'em game at Green Valley Ranch is a good example.  We headed down there last night after work to relax a little after our day of grinding out 14 downs of Pot Limit Omaha.  People kept betting into me with inferior hands.  I just kept calling and winning.  It all started with jacks.  I raised to $8 pre-flop and got two callers.  The flop came out king high so I checked and caught a third jack for free on the turn.  A player bet into me and I raised.  After a blank fell on the river, he checked to me and I bet about the pot and he called with the pair of kings that lost to my set of jacks.

A few hands later I woke up with QQ and made a healthy raise to $15, I think and got called by three or four hopefuls.  A king showed up on the flop along with two tens.  I didn't really even notice that there were two diamonds there also.  I didn't like the king too much, nor the tens but made the continuation bet anyways.  I got a caller, so i figured I better shut it down.  Check, check and I caught a Queen of diamonds on the river.  I was so excited about catching a card to beat somebody with a king or a ten that when he bet $40 into me, I just called.  I was just so happy to have made a winner that it didn't occur to me to raise.  Silly me.  When I called he flipped over an ace high diamond flush and the whole table realized that I could have probably won his whole stack with a raise on the end.

After that beginning, I cooled off a little and kind of treaded water for a few orbits before catching a set of sixes against Johnny, the local bully.  When Johnny had a hand he would make it $30 to go.  Mostly, I suppose, with A-x or small pairs.  I flopped a set of sixes with an ace on board and Johnny bet $25 which met my raise to $50.  He called.  He then led out for $50 on the turn and I made it $100. Johnny called. The board paired tens on the end giving me an uncomfortable sixes full of tens made more uncomfortable when Johnny put a stack of 20 red chips in the pot.  I called the $100 and Johnny showed a weak two pair "Aces up" that lost to my upside down boat.

This was a great result but generally, I don't like having upside down boats.  They usually sink.  When you make sixes full of tens and you bet, most players with weaker hands will fold while an opponent holding tens full will call or raise you back.  It puts you in a situation of not getting paid by any hands worse than yours and getting called only by hands that beat you.  In Poker, the desire is to have just the opposite situation where a better hand can fold to your bet or a weaker hand than yours will call.

I am sure that a more skilled group of players would have lost a lot less to me over the course of the evening.

And just for the record, Barry also took home enough profit to buy us a steak dinner at Smith and Wollenski's.  He didn't, but he could have.