Poker at Derby Lane the bane of my existance

The past few days have been good for me poker wise, I cashed in 6 out of 8 online Sit n' go's I played in a tournament on Ultimate Bet and I was close to cashing there, if it weren't for an unbelievable bad beat, I have gotten used to that crap online. Well Sunday I decided to go to the Dog Track (Derby Lane) to play in the daily poker tournaments they have there, I really don't like the format there much you only get 700 chips, and the blinds move up fairly quickly.

My history at Derby Lane is mixed and spotted, I have never made a final table there, but I have finished between 10 - 15 five times, Derby is like that nemesis that you can't conquer, plus it doesn't help that there are some bad players at Derby. Anyway I brave tropical storm force winds and I register, there is an hour or so before the tournament starts, so to pass the time I read some notes from my upcoming test on Tuesday (Big Mistake), but I figured it would be the most efficient use of the time.

I head to my seat about 12:55pm and I see Lamar Thomas walking off the elevator, those that don't know who he is, he used to play for the Miami Hurricanes on their National Championship team, and he played for the Dolphins. He now hosts a sports show here in the Bay area, even though I am a big UM fan and he is a UM legend I am never the type to ask someone for their autograph, I thought it was funny he also plays at Derby.

Anyway I survey the folks at my table and even though I haven't played at Derby in months, there were a lot of the same people there, I get dealt J 10 on the first hand in 3rd position I decided to play it even though I said I was going to sit back and watch a few hands to get a read on what type of players I was up against. The flop came A 6 9 3 people checked in front of me I checked as well, and scruffy bet 250, I laughed to myself because he bet 250 chips to win 60, so I immediately pegged him as an aggressive player, the next hand I was dealt J 7 off suit I folded and scruffy was in the pot with 2 other players, the flop came 6 Q 6 and the other to players check scruffy bets 300, once again a 300 bet to win 45 chips this time, so I knew he was going to be a prime candidate for the rope-a-dope if I could get him setup.

Here is where my life starts sucking, I am dealt Pocket 9's in first position I just limp, the guy next to me raises to 75, everyone else folds, raising in early position usually indicates a strong hand, I figured he had AK, AQ, a small pocket, or something along those lines, so I call his raise and the flop comes 4 8 2 I check he bets 50 I come over the top for 250 he goes all-in, I was sure I had the best hand, and before I even thought about it I called he flips over KK and I show my 99 and I don't catch a 9, and I am one of the first 5 people eliminated. I played for all of 10 minutes, sucked balls and is my biggest low in poker I have never been out of a tournament that early, so I start analyzing the hand. I already know it's hard for me to put people on Pocket pairs and sets most of the time, and if I had JJ, QQ, 1010 would I have made the same call the answer is yes, the problem was I made the wrong read, and I didn't stop to re-process the information, I only compounded the problem by not following my plan of playing conservative to start out until I get settled in. It was bad luck that he was dealt KK and I got 99, most of the time I would be in the lead in that situation, but you learn something new every time you play.

This is the reason I am going to try and play in more live games, you pickup bad habits playing online and you get lazy, I am playing in more live games to improve my reading skills, because online there is only so much reading you can do. Plus there is a process I need to go through at each stage of betting, for the most part it would have made more sense for me to let him have the pot it was only 150, once I made my stab I should have folded the 99, and lived to play other hands. Hopefully my next outing will be better.