Ha. If only.
From that point on the table goes crazy on any pot I enter, and many I don’t. It is like they are saying ‘hey, see how loose we are, winning money from us is easy. Come on in, the waters fine’.
I make a four times Casino Malaysia raise with pocket tens from late position and get SIX callers before the flop. A single jack hits on the flop and there is a half pot raise and two calls to me, and I just know all seven of us are going to see the turn if I call. I really think my 10’s are still good at this point. Maybe a big raise would work? But despite my recent win, there are some much bigger stacks still in the hand and I figure at least two could have over cards and be prepared to risk the draw. Scared money again, but really, 10’s against six draw outs? I fold.
Blinds, time fees and loss of any probe bet or raise I make eats away at my stack.
Somehow I manage to take down another smallish pot ($70 with KK – funny that pot was so small when I had a premium hand), and pick up one round of blinds in the next three hours, while facing big re-raises and check raises from at least half the table on any pot I am in. Sometimes they are even kind enough to show me the 6,3 or 8,2 they were bluffing with to push me off the hand, but only sometimes.
It is very clear to me that any hand I play, I am going to be playing for my whole stack if there is any chance anyone at the table can beat me. And if not, then the pots I can pick up are only going to be small. In the mean time, my chips are going to be bled away in ‘punishment’ for playing with scared money.
It gets to midnight. I’m tired, time charges are called. Time for me to go fella’s, thank you. Net result – buy in $200, cash out $500. A good result, but only because of one hand at the start.
I have to say, total kudos to those guys in Melbourne. They put the weakest player at the table (or maybe second weakest) to the test on every hand I was in. There was no remorse and no pity. If I wasn’t prepared to play for my whole stack, then I shouldn’t be in the hand. Yet there was no rancor, they were friendly and chatty, and tried very hard to get me into as many hands as possible. It was really great poker, and a good lesson for me. And just that little bit nicer as the cashier peeled off those five crisp green opera singers.
