Online Poker

"I was seated next to Steve Dannemman (my right) and Tony Fagin (an Irish pro ) to my left. There was a third guy who Steve had played wtih before who I think is an experienced amateur. John someone?

I actually had a pretty good run of cards at that table. I had AA and KK twice each, QQ, and caught sets twice. I had to lay down my QQ on a AK flop when I met resistance and my best play of the day might have been laying down my AA to big flop checkraise when the third guy, John, who had been playing conservatively and who I never saw bluff. Fagin commented to me that he thought the third guy had a set of jacks and Fagin had been reading hands very well. Danneman was a great guy and his cheerfulness and joking made me feel a lot more comfortable.

When our table was broken up I had about 15k chips, down a bit from my high of 18.5 k. There were no pros at my second table that I recognized but shortly after I sat down they moved an experienced amateur/pro to my left. He was the red haired balding guy who called a clock on the asian guy on a recent episode of the Pro Poker Tour. I stayed about even with the blinds for a while staying out of the way the best I could from the three players to my left who were by far the most aggressive players.

The critical hand for me was when I called a short stack all in with JJ against a player with 88. The aggressive guy to my immediate left went into the tank for several minutes deciding whether to try and force me off my hand from the BB. I was the SB. He eventually folded and seemed fairly pissed when I turned up my JJ. But the 88s hit a straight by the turn and even hit a set by the river just as another little kick in my nuts by the poker gods. I lost 1/3 of my stack on that hand.

The guy to my immediate left and the red haired guy then raised every single pot I entered after that forcing me to lay down hands before and after the flop. And then for three hours I never saw a hand. I was around 6k to start the card dead run and ended down to 2.5k by the time the blinds went to 150/300 25 ante. During that entire period the two best hands I had were KTs and 44. I missed the flop with the KTs and had to fold and I folded the 44 preflop to a raise and reraise before me (of course a 4 hits the flop but I think I would have been dead to a higher set). I would have been more than happy to push during this time with any ace, and pair,any two broadway cards, even a decent suited connector like 98s. I may have folded ace rag when there was a raise in front of me but I never saw any of those other hands.

I pushed in finally with 44 for my final 2.5 k and the guy to my left immediately calls with AJo. A jack hits the flop and I don't improve. I'm pretty disappointed of course but thanks to poker.com for sending me."

Liam @ Poker.com
Live from Las Vegas