Rudy Edwards

I wasn't doing a good job of playing the NL game I had been training myself in for the last two months or so. I kept getting caught up in the limit games I would find, but over the past week I've focused pretty hard on the small stakes NL games around town. If I keep having success, I'll move up from 1-2 to 2-5. I doubt I'll try to climb any higher than that on this trip.

Last night I sat at a $1-2 NL table at the MGM, with a $200 max buyin. A man across the table from me was sitting with what must have been $1600 or so, and he was building the stack by making large bets, and occasionally getting lucky. After a lap or so, I limped A9s after two other callers in late position, and Stacky Stackerson raised it to $15. I was one of two callers, and the flop came down 249 with a flush draw not of my suit. Big Stacks bet out $50, and after the other player got out of the way, I had a decision to make. I was pretty sure he'd drop a bet this large with almost anything, including worse nines, fours, twos, and even air. unfortunately, there were plenty of hands better than mine he'd play that way as well, or at least I was guessing. I didn't want to have to make decisions if overcards came, because I was confident he'd put me to those decisions, so I went all in, and he called with 94o, beating me with two pair.

Big Stacks played this way for the most of the night, but once I built a stack myself, stopped giving me any action at all. I tried to goad him into it, by pointing out that he wasn't even playing with me anymore. I decided to stop being aggressive at all with him if I could, and draw a little more action from him. I picked up a straight draw in a limped pot with 75 on a 68J board. There was around $10 in the pot, and he bet $15. I called out of position, for a head up turn. It came a 9, making my straight, but I still had to be a little bit worried about T7 or QT. I check called again for $50, and the river came a unconcerning 3. I was about $600 back, and knew he was the kind of man who would raise a real bet all in with any large hand, including hands that beat me. The thing is, I was pretty sure he did have a hand from the way he'd acted up to this point, so I felt reasonably comfortable check-calling, and hoped he'd bet big. Instead, he checked behind with top pair.

Okay, so I felt like I left some money on the table, but I'm still new to this NL thing, and I'm learning as I go along.