Poker down time

The significance of poker goes up and down in my life - this is one of the down cycles.

I'm pulling the plug on my hosted cash game. Too frustrating trying to get enough players lately, and it will only get worse as summer starts, with golf, softball, etc. I'll look for another Friday game, and simply stay downtown and play in the casino after work if that doesn't work out.

Online poker is out, also. I was on Lock - with all the rumors and talk this past week, I've cashed out. I'm hopeful but not confident that I'll ever see that money (it's not that much money).

But I still love playing. I played at the Shoe yesterday and faced a rough session with several of people sucking out on me - took a one buy-in bite out of me. But I kept my calm and played well throughout.

I also saw the usual truly awful, Level 0 poker - enough to make me realize there will always be a table waiting for me somewhere where I can make a few extra bucks. Yesterday's head-scratcher was a loose, semi-aggressive player raise up to $10 and get one caller - a tight guy who had barely made a peep all night. He had a big stack after winning a 3 way all in with QQ vs. AK and AQ.

The flop came Jack-Jack-Five. The tight guy bet out $15, at which point the loose guy raised to $35. The tight guy thought for a few seconds and then called.

I had the tight guy on Ace-Jack, King-Jack or Five-Five. I wasn't even sure of King-Jack because this guy played so few hands - I wasn't sure if he would call a raise with it. But I left it in because he was perhaps adjusting to the wide-ish range of the other guy. I ruled out any type of shlong-measuring contest with pocket eights or something like that. Tight guy was pretty ABC.

The loose guy was a bit tougher to range at this point - I felt like his range could be "for information", meaning he had a pair and was just trying to figure out how strong the tight guy was. After tight guy made the call, I figured he had all the info he needed.

I don't recall the turn card, but tight guy lead out for $50, and loose guy called pretty quickly. I still had tight guy ahead - either outkicking loose guy with his trip jacks, or already with the full house.

Tight guy took a glance at the river (again, I don't recall the card), looked down at his chips for several seconds, and exclaimed "I'm all in". Loose guy still had over $200 in his stack at this point - this had blown up into a massive pot. Loose guy shook his head a bit, then said "I call", and flipped over.... pocket aces.

How in God's name did he think aces were good on this hand? I have no idea, and will never know. But as long as people think this way at my table, I will find success in poker, even if I play infrequently.