NLH - Rounds 1-2

Back in the saddle!!!! We start with 15,000 in chips. Today's game is 8-handed no limit hold'em.

First hand everyone folds to us on the button and we raise to 250 with Q7 hoping to buy the 50-75 blinds. SB calls and flop comes 46T. He checks. To press or check? We check. Turn comes Q. Perfect. He bets 350, probably with a pair from the flop. We smooth call. River comes 2. Wow. Couldn't have asked for a better river. He bets 525 and we min raise to 1050 hoping he will call. He folds.

In seat 5 we raise to 225 with QT and get called by seat 6 (playing 6 handed at the moment). Flop comes 6QK with 2 spades. Hmmmm, does he have a K? Bet 300 and he calls. Turn comes 8h. Bet 525 and he calls. River comes As. Worst possible card. If he is calling with TJ (open ended straight draw), two spades or an ace he has us beat. Oh, and lets not forget he could have a K! We check. He bets 1050 and we fold.

Odd note - the Chinese dealer just reminder two German players that it's English only at the table when there are cards out. Everyone started laughing because they were speaking English - the accent was so heavy the dealer couldn't understand them.

Seat 4 raises to 225 and we call with A9d. Bb calls and flop comes 69T with one diamond. Bb checks and seat 4 continuation bets 350. We are probably good with our 9 but let's check his pulse. We min raise to 700 and surprisingly the bb calls. Seat 4 folds - no pulse. Turn comes 4d giving us the but flush draw and likely doing nothing for the bb. He checks. We have a lot of big cards - an ace a 9 or any diamond - that's 14 cards. We don't want to have to see the river though. We bet 1600 and he folds.

Seat 3 raises to 200 and everyone folds to us in the BB with 56c. We call and the flop comes 67K with 1 club. We bet 200 as a prod. He raises to 800 as something more like a punch than a prod. We fold.

Now at a full table we raise to 225 from seat 7 with AT. The button and BB call and the flop comes 57J with 2 spades. The BB checks and we bet 350. They both call. Turn comes 2s. BB checks. Bluffing didnt look good before the third spade hit. We check and the button bets 775. We all fold.

From seat 5 we raise to 200 with 66 and get called by the blinds. Flop comes 799 and they check. We bet 400 and they both call. Turn comes 5 giving us a gut shot straight draw with our 2 pair. They check and we bet 600. They both call. River comes 3. They check. Unlikely they will both fold to a bet now and they have to have something better than we to call (ie if we bet now they will fold losers and call with winners, which is bad). We check and the BB takes it down with a T7.

Playing 50-100 now.

Seat 6 raises (a woman who oddly looks much like my cousin) to 275 and the SB calls. We call from the BB with JQ and the flop comes 8QK with 2 clubs. SB checks we check and seat 6 bets 400. SB folds and we cal. Turn comes 4c. We consider the bluff but check. She bets 1050. Easy board to bluff into. We call. River comes Td. Big card but not a club. We check. She checks. We show the Q and she mucks.

We raise from the button with A8s to 275 and get called by the BB. Flop comes 299 with 2 hearts. He checks and we bet 325. He raises to 975. Hmmm. Good bluff most likely but we cant call and then face another bluff on the turn. If we call and (even if we hit our ace) he bets 2200 on the turn, what will we do? Better to fold now.

We raise to 325 from seat 4 with JJ and get raised to 925 by seat 7. Hmmmm. He likely has pocket tens or higher or a big ace. We call hoping to get a J. 3 low cards would be good but in light of his hand options would leave us somewhat unsure of where to go. Flop comes 56K. We check. He bets 1025. We call mostly to see what he does on the turn. The turn comes 9. We check and he bets 2100. Well, there's our answer. We fold.

Next hand we limp with 33 from seat 3 and get raised to 325 by seat 4. We call and the flop comes 239 with 2 hearts. Giddey-up. He has been pretty aggressive so we check. He bets 525 and we call. The turn comes 2. Amazing - now we have a boat and no fear of the straight or flush draws. We check and he bets 850. We call and the river comes Qh. Hopefully he has a flush or a Q. We check and he bets 2650. Wow! Unless he has pocket queens or deuces we have the winner. We raise another 4000 and he starts asking us about our hand. We openly mock him explaining that it's irrelevant because he has no flush no 2 and no queen and no chance to win this his absurdly large river bet. He eventually folds.

Last hand of the round. People are folding and getting up from the table. The small blind races to 300. We are in the big blind with 78. Not a great hand heads up, but there is a good chance that he is bluffing from the small blind hoping that we want to get up and go on break. We raise to 900 and, unfortunately, he calls. The flop comes 38K. Good flop for us. He checks and we bet 900. He calls and the turn comes Jack. Not good. He checks and we bet 1625 hoping to convince him that we hit the king. Unfortunately, he calls. The river comes a 6. That is a pretty meaningless card. He checks. Not sure what he's been calling us with, but we cannot fire a huge river bet in hoping that he will fold now. We check and he shows ace queen. We take it down with our 8s.

Good couple of rounds for us. We were up a couple thousand before the last hand and finish round 2 with just over 20,000 in chips.