Minnesota Mike and me...

I took a trip down the road to meet up with a good friend of mine, Minnesota Mike. A business owner from Minnesota who travels to Florida often. Well on this trip he decides to hook up with me and asked if he should come to New Orleans. I told him to stay in Biloxi and the Beau would probably be the best spot, he did and it worked out for him. I have worked with Mike on his game for the last few years and he is coming around. He is currently on an eight session win streak and yes he is more about results than play but he is starting to understand that though you may lose, it is how you played.

When I met up with Minnesota I talked about what we would be learning this day and it would be observing tells and making reads based on betting and body language and though we may be talking in between hands that we would watch the others and learn bits and pieces and discuss. Well we got into a 1-2 NL game after 9:30 pm and had to wait until the button passed us. So I get my first hand in the cut-off seat, multiple limpers to me and I look down at pocket 3's. The big blind raises the under the gun calls, so does another out of position. Hmm, guess I'll call the extra $10. The flop, 5 10 3...YAHTZEE! Big blind bets out...SCREAMS continuation bet, under the gun calls the other folds and I call also. The turn is a 5, BB bets again, UTG min raises, i'm confused but I give UTG a five at least...maybe A5, well I call and BB folds. The river is an A...ARGH! UTG fires at me, now I am going to call no matter what but I go into the tank and am just wondering if I can raise here? The kid has me covered and there is quite a bit of money in the pot already but if I raise will it be for not, this is my first hand and maybe he did limp call with A5 off. I decide that since it was my first hand and I do not have a solid feel for the table, because I did not scout first, that I would just call. UTG tables 45 off suit. I win and did not look back all night, I was never at risk for my initial buy in. Minnesota was up and down and finally got to a point where he was making a lot of money by making great reads and folding when he was supposed to.
Well after about eight hours of play I have doubled my buy in and have been folding like a tight wad. Believe it or not when I would raise they would lay down to me. There were a few times my top two got snapped off or my set got snapped off by the worst hand only because I slowplayed it and they sprinted to the river to get there. So eventually our table breaks and we move to the table right below the upper level right by the stairs, a couple of guys had big stacks and it felt like it was going to be a long one and that we should leave but I had a goal and wanted to get there. So Mike starts to snap off a couple of the guys and he is up big. I go to the bathroom and return to a very short game of six people and get back in time for the big blind. We now have a local dealer who is dating a female friend of mine, Gretchen, and a young guy with a decent stack but I have him covered another lunchbox weasel in the 10 seat and Minnesota in the three seat next to me. Mike folds, Gretchen's boy limps and so does young kid. The sixth person in the small blind calls, I look down at 10-3 off and knuckle the table. The flop comes 10 k 10...eeewwww so NICE! SB checks, I check it is checked around. The turn is a rainbow 6, check, I check, GB bets out, young kid calls, sb folds, I min raise. GB folds and young kid min raises me! WhAT! Crap...do you have K10, nah, but you have a 10. Geez! Maybe you think that I have a king and your king has a better kicker, nah! Ugh...I call, the river.....off suit 3!!!! I look at the kids stack he has a little over $200 left. I quickly push in $160, wanna make it look like I'm strong, yet weak, and I'll get a call, if he shoves all in quickly I may be dead but I'll have to call. The kid thinks about it, he doesn't have K-10 or a full house...YES!!!! After about 20 seconds the kid shrugs his shoulders and pushes all in...I make it look like I need to think about it, respect, and call the additional $60 or more. He tables the 10-8 off and I show my hand. The kid looks like I slapped him across the face and just sits there as the money is shoved towards me. MIRACLE RIVER, that goes my way...that is why I do not freak when it happens to me anymore.

The freaky thing is that I had several pocket aces, pocket kings, queens, jacks and 10's...once. I had AK several times and AJ several times but only made a bit at a time. 10-3 was my biggest gain and only because I got lucky. An hour later I scooped up my earnings along with Mike and we left and talked about our very long session.

Yes, we both won and yes it felt GOOD!!!!

Well thanks for sharing with me and hopefully there will be many more winning sessions and I'll break down more hands in the future from this session or the next.

Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!