4:11am: I had a massive amount of cleaning to do around my place, so I knew my session would have to be split in two parts: afternoon and late night. The afternoon session was played on Cake, and I was actually kind of surprised at the quality of play I saw today. Not to say I was pleasantly surprised, because the players I faced today were definitely a LOT harder to play against than the typical player I had become accustomed to playing on Cake since I started. I would never reveal what I believe to be my “leaks” are (everyone has them), in case I ever have to face any of you. With that being said, I felt like the players I played today on Cake were always a step ahead of me and what I was thinking.

It was quite a humbling experience because I temporarily had to stick my foot in my mouth about the quality of play on the Cake network. However, despite this I was still somehow able to eek out a 5-3 day on Cake (and a 2-0 day on PokerStars) and an overall record of 7-3 on the day.

Some of the highlights/notable hands of the day included this stop-and-go against a relatively reckless/aggressive opponent on PokerStars. The blinds were 50/100, and he was raising pretty much every hand. I finally woke up with a hand to challenge him with, so my original intention was to just min raise so that he would put it all in. When he decided to JUST call, I knew I had to pull a stop-and-go on the flop being first to act. In situations like this, what I like to do is cover the flop with my hand, so that I don’t change my mind if I see over cards, and then proceed to go all in as soon as the flop comes out. Needless to say it worked, but what is shocking is to see that he didn’t call, given what he had invested in the pot, and what he had left. Can you believe how bad he played this hand?

PokerStars Game #16474416015: Tournament #83422252, $50.00+$2.50 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level IV (50/100) - 2008/04/04 - 04:36:21 (ET)
Table ‘83422252 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: shenanigans (720 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2280 in chips)
shenanigans: posts small blind 50
trujm: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [5h 5d]
shenanigans: raises 200 to 300
trujm: raises 200 to 500
shenanigans: calls 200
(cover the screen/flop with my hands)
*** FLOP *** [As 4d Tc]
trujm: bets 400
shenanigans: folds
trujm collected 1000 from pot
trujm: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1000 | Rake 0
Board [As 4d Tc]
Seat 1: shenanigans (button) (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) collected (1000)

That fold left him with 220 in chips, and he was never able to recover from it. The point I was trying to make was that if his hand was good enough to call my re-raise with, then unless he was EXTREMELY strong (AA, KK, QQ), he should have just went all in pre flop.

Once again, the irony was that this happened on PokerStars, NOT Cake. Whoever says the players on PokerStars are too good to turn a profit seriously needs to reconsider that thought.

More later…