Live Poker

This weekend I decided to go to our closest casino.  It was an hour and forty five minutes away.  I played some slots and lost.  Then decided to step into the poker room for some 1 3 NL. 

The table was aggressive.  For the first couple hours, I got nothing for cards and when I did attempt to play I would get pushed right out of the pot.  Finally I got pocket 2's and min raised out of position.  Five players called.  A 2 fell on the flop along with a 6 and an 8.  I bet 2 bb's.  Everybody had been paying attention to my tight play and folded.  Except for one sleep deprived guy.  The turn was a 10.  I bet about half pot and he called.  The river was a 10.  I thought about checking to get him to throw out a bet, but judging from his previous play, he would have checked so I put out a pot size bet.  He called with a 10 J.  I finally won a decent pot.

Another hour went by and I didn't do much but lose a few chips.  Then a hand came up.  I had pocket aces and the table aggressor raised.  Everybody folded up to me.  I considered raising but he has been folding to 3 bettors some and I wanted this hand to play out so I called.  Everybody else folded. 

The flop was a 3 5 J rainbow.  He led out 25.00.  I figured he had the J or Q's or K's.  I didn't put him on a lower pair with that bet.  I raised him to 50.00.  He sat staring at me for 10 minutes before he finally raised me all in.  I called.  Before we got our cards turned over the dealer was flipping the last 2 cards.  I saw the Q on the turn before I saw the other players hand and thought I was probably in trouble.  I looked at the other players hand and saw his pocket Queens.  The hand had played out like I wanted it to.  I was all in with the best hand, it was just unfortunate he cuaght a 2 outter.

I told him nice hand and left the casino.  I have played 1 3 NL twice now and have ended both times exactly the same way, losing my pocket aces to pocket Q's to the table aggressor.  This time it was a 500.00+ pot.  The first time it was only about 100.00. 

It's only 1 hr 45 min to the casino but it seems like such a long drive.  If it was closer I would go there weekly to play.  I may have lost 150.00 this time, but feel that I could do decent in this game, most of the time.