Pro day 2
Tough day at the office, the real office, today. My day bookended by video conferences with HK and the US, each of which required a hefty quantity of preparation, and to be honest no small amount of poker skill to navigate and negotiate trecherous waters.
By the end of my last meeting I really wasn’t in the mood for yet another working day at the table, but this experiment wouldn’t be much of a success if I threw in the towel after day 1, even considering that I played poker on two of the preceeding three days before start of my mini pro career.
Deven got me spurred on though, txting me at 8pm to confirm he was heading to the our venue for the night. I jumped in the car, and arrived just in time to catch him for a quick dinner.
As anticipated, our chosen casino proved to be a complete and utter contrast to the madness of the night before, populated by calling stations and aggressive Chinese men who view TPTK at the nuts. Fortunately my slightly sad run of cards of the last few weeks also came to a juddering halt, as I managed to get it all in pre-flop three ways holding aces versus kings and jacks on my first straddle of the night, to stack Deven and a random chap.
Good cards and solid play followed for a five hour period. I flopped top pair and a flush draw about six times, getting paid or finding passes on all but one.
With my stack increased from £200 to £750, and Deven not far behind having chipped up through a series of rather effective steals, I called time on my first table and switched to take on a different set of unwary opponents, leaving Deven to clean-up alone.
Second table proved to be slightly more fierce, however nothing that pro-Luke’s continue run of good cards and good play couldn’t deal with.
Only one foot put wrong all night really, raising pre- from the button with 65s and double-barrelling the flop and turn versus a chap with a big draw that he just couldn’t lay down. However the mis-step presented an opportunity to show a failed steal attempt, so used that to switch gears into all out thievery mode, nicking and showing a further three successful bluffs before stacking the player who won the original pot after I massively over-shoved my 54s small flush draw and pair versus his bare Q8s flush draw (a move straight out of the Baron’s play book, thank you Sir). My lowly pair of 5’s held and I chipped to a high point of £900.
Once again though, the measure of the pro week experiment isn’t money won or lost, it’s temperament, ability and consistency. So, my self assessed scores on the doors for this evening are:
5 hours played, only one small error (missing an opportunity to buy a medium sized pot with a bet on the river), adapted perfectly to the conditions, really looking forward to playing again tomorrow.
I’ve locked-in Friday with the Nit at the Empire, and with a vacant Saturday morning it’s doubless going to be a monster session. May therefore play a light session tomorrow night, possibly dropping into the International to catch the side action from their regular tournament schedule.
Much as I’d like to play this Saturday night as well, am trying to score a Valentine ‘date’ with a one of the girls I’ve only seen once since the wedding. If that falls through though will definitely plan on continuing pro week into its fifth consecutive day.
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