Goodbye Parx (except maybe for a tourny)

I love the Parx Casino. It is only a forty minute drive for me and I have a lot of friends among the players, dealers and floor people. The poker room is very professionally run and for a while I staked my claim in the high limit room. But now I have been forced to reevaluate and while I am not a superstitious person by nature, I have convinced myself that I cannot win in their cash games. I may be off base but I have also convinced myself that I am blameless and that the fault lies in the fall of the cards and the bad play of others. This is a situation that has been going on for quite some time and recently I have avoided the Parx, giving things an opporunity to settle down. Today I decided to test the waters again. There was no 10-10 game when I arrived so I played 2-5 in a slow grinding game but was ahead a few hundred dollars when they called a 10-10 game. I spoke with my friend Brian who agreed that the field looked soft and we sat down. For the first couple of hours I slowly built my stack further, although I had few playable hands. And then in a half hour period the following three hands sent me from the casino knowing that I should never look back. I lay them out here step by step and would love to know whether any of you poker players disagree with my play, and why.

Hand number one: A new player to the table who I know as being very aggressive raises to 50 and gets a caller. I call with K-9 of clubs on the button. The flop is 9-7-3 with two diamonds. He bets $120 and the other player mucks. What would you do? I called the bet. The turn is a king of diamonds giving me top two pair and putting three diamonds on the board. Again he bets $120. What would you do? I raised to $360 and here is why. He was the preflop raiser with a wide range of possible hands. His having two diamonds would be unlikely. He flat called my raise. I now put him most likely on a hand like A-K or K-Q with a big diamond. The river was a 5 of clubs and he checked. What would you do? I am a big proponent of value betting and with top two pair was confident that I was ahead so I bet 500 and he called, turning up 2-4 of diamonds.

Hand number two: A player raised to $50 and three people called so I called with J-10 offsuit on the button. The flop was J-5-3 with 2 hearts. One of the blinds bet out $100 and three other players called. What would you do? I flat called the hundred. The turn was a 10 of diamonds giving me top two pair. Everyone checked to me. There was over 600 in the pot. What would you do? I bet 600 hoping to end the hand there, strongly believing I had the best hand. The original bettor folded and the kid to his left then went all-in for $1500 followed by an over the top all-in from the aggressive player from hand one. How on earth can you put either one on a set when the flop had two hearts and especially when a blank hit the turn and they both checked? Only a truly bad player would have played a set that way. Unfortunately I ran into a truly bad player with pocket 5s and the only card that could cost me was a non-heart 10.

Hand number 3: The very next round I had pocket kings under the gun. The player to my left had just commented that if he had my luck he would be tilting so when I raised to 50 and he made it 150 I focused on the possibility that he thought I was tilting rather than the possibility that FOR THE SIXTH TIME IN A ROW AT PARX SOMEONE WOULD HAVE POCKET ACES WHEN I HAD POCKET KINGS. Even so my immediate reaction was to slow play the kings but that decision was taken from me when 3 other players called the 150. I had 1200 left and the reraiser had me covered. What would you do? I raised to 750 and he went all in which meant another 450 to me. But before I could call two other players called his all-in for more than 1000 each. Of course I had to call. He turned up his pocket aces and we both lost to a guy who played 7-8 suited when two 7s hit the flop.

My work here (and there) is done!