9/6/25 Session Recap - The Decline of an Empire

As a regular Poker Super Hero (unassuming regular worker by day and poker player at night), I normally only get to play once a week, usually Saturday night. On the occasions that I can’t play Saturday, I will try to play Sunday. And when there is a long weekend, such as occurred with Labor Day last week, I’ll usually try to fit in a second session.

As I mentioned in last week’s blog (my very first blog), I’ve recently been playing at Palace Poker because of the promotions they introduced with the launch of their poker room. The plan is to play there for the remainder of the year and then likely switch back to Texas Card House, which is closer to my house.

I got to the card room around 8:30pm and was seated around 8:40pm. I sat down at the only seat available, which was seat 6. I bought in for $300 (max buy-in for $1/$2). As usual, I immediately surveyed the stacks of the other players. The only stack that really jumped out was in seat 2. He had a massive pile of green chips ($25) and had at least $1.5k sitting in front of him. I didn’t really see any other stacks at the table that would give me any concern.

I had literally just put my butt in the seat when the dealer dealt me J10h UTG. I raised to $15. Another player 3-bet to $36k and I called. The flop came all black low cards and I bailed when he bet out. And just like that, I had lost 12% of my stack within a minute of sitting down.

 

Open Mic Night

You’ve probably all heard of the term ‘Table Captain’. Many times, there will also be a ‘Table Comedian’. This is the guy who thinks that it's open mic night at the table. Table comedians can be very valuable and in many cases may act as the catalyst for a fun table. However, sitting right next to a table comedian can sometimes be problematic as you are their captive audience, and they'll give you a private audience when others at the table aren't receptive to their material. Nevertheless, I appreciate their attempt to bring levity to the table and try to support their cause.  It just so happens that the player to my immediate left was the table comedian. 

Always Remember to Wash Your Hands

It wasn’t long before the comedian left the table, which interestingly enough led to another comedy routine. Shortly after the comedian left, a new player sat down in seat 7. It was around that exact time that we had a dealer change. At Palace Poker (and at TCH as well), there is a optional bomb pot with every dealer change. As the new dealer was distributing the cards for the PLO bomb pot, he stopped after dealing the second or third card to seat 7, looked at the seat 7 player and asked him to wash his hands. Not surprisingly, the guy in seat 7 was a little confused and asked the dealer if he was talking to him. The dealer stated “Yes, please wash your hands or use sanitizer”. Everyone looked puzzled. My thought was that perhaps they were both in the bathroom just before sitting down at the table and that the dealer observed the player not washing his hands before exiting the bathroom (which unfortunately, is something I have witnessed countless times). Player 7 again replied to the dealer “You want me to wash my hands?”. The dealer then said “Yes, you just blew into your tissue.” 

While I certainly applaud the dealer’s level of sanitary scrutiny, he might be setting a pretty unsustainable bar. As mentioned, I think he’s lucky if everyone washes their hands after going to the bathroom, let alone after blowing into a tissue (or picking their teeth, or their nose etc.). At that point, the player seemed to express his reluctance to miss the bomb pot which prompted the dealer to offer to play a second bomb pot when the player returned. The player did end up going to the bathroom, at least he went in that direction, but I guess we’ll never know if he actually washed his hands or not. To add more comedy to the situation, when he came back, he got upset because the waitress had taken the tissue he had placed in the cupholder while he was away from the table. The dealer offered to get him another tissue and play resumed (with a second bomb pot). For the record, the player claimed to have allergies, to which the dealer replied "Come on, man," indicating his complete disbelief in this statement.

Moving back to actual poker, Seat 7 was one of those players who sits down with a shortstack, in this case $100 (50bb). It’s just always something you need to be aware of and has a couple of implications:

1. They are more likely to shove with good hands, particularly with betting action before them (so not great to have him to my immediate left);
2. The implied odds aren’t there for any speculative hands.

 

Top-Up (9:24pm)

Things didn’t get any better after losing that very first hand with J10h and I slowly chipped down to below $200. It was around 9:30pm when I bought another $100 in chips, bringing me up to around $290. This leads us to the first big hand of the night.

 

Big Hand #1 (10:03pm)

This hand occurred almost an hour after my rebuy and my stack had already dwindled back down to less than $200. I was in the cutoff with A3h. The table captain raised it to $12 and there were two callers before it got to me. I called. Small Blind raised to $49. The were two callers (including the captain) before it got back around to me and at that point I was priced in and put in the additional $37. 

The flop came AQ3 with two spades, giving me two pair but making me weary of flush draws, especially with three other players in the hand. Everyone checked to me. There was over $200 in the pot and I had less than that in my stack. So I jammed, everyone folded and I picked up a nice pot. I was still down for the night, but only slightly, and I finally felt like I might have some momentum on my side.

Big Hand #2 (10:32pm)

I was on the button and put on the straddle (giving me ultimate last action). I looked down at 85d.

The table captain called the $5 and it folded around to me. I checked my option and we went to a flop of 972 with two diamonds, giving me a gut shot straight draw along with a flush draw. The captain bet $6 and I called The turn was the 6h, giving me the straight. The captain bet $22 and I raised to $60. He then moved all-in and I snap called with my complete straight and flush draw. The river was a Kd, completing my flush. The captain turned over 108 for a higher turned straight. Unfortunately for him, my improvement on the river turned out to be a cooler (I had a 20.45% chance of winning after the turn). After doubling up on this hand, I was well on my way to turning in a profitable session.

The Decline of an Empire

Everything that rises eventually falls, including huge chip stacks. There's a reason Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler' includes the lyrics "know when to walk away". Whether due to variance, bad luck, or mental fatigue (or a combination of all three), things at the poker table can always turn in an instant. Unfortunately (for him), seat 2 waited too late to walk away.

His misfortune started when he lost two battles against Seat 7 (the tissue guy) in short succession. Coincidentally, in both hands, seat 7 ended up holding pocket 10's and in both hands he ended up flopping a set! By the time the first battle of the tens had taken place, Seat 7 had significantly improved his $100 starting stack (after buying in again for $100 and doubling up a couple of times). So the two battles with seat 7 put a dent in the captain's stack and the harbinger of things to come.

Not too long after the two battles with seat 7, seat 2 went up against seat 4. It was already a massive pot when seat 4 declared all-in on the river. Seat 2 had tanked on the turn to a big bet and tanked even longer on the river (to the point that someone asked to call the clock). While tanking, seat 2 turned up pocket sixes revealing a flopped set and stared down seat 4 to try and get a reaction. He ended up folding, which shocked the rest of the table. Interestingly, there was a 10 on the flop and I honestly wonder whether the two losses to pocket tens to seat 7 had rented some premium space in his head and whether the absence of a 10 would have resulted in a snap call. But after these three losses, the captain in seat 2 had been significantly demoted in rank.

Big Hand #2 (85d) also occurred within short order after the above three hands. Seat 2 was clearly spiraling and showing visible frustration, which leads us to the next hand.

 

Big Hand #3 (10:48pm)

I was in the big blind and looked down at AA. Seat 2 (I can no longer call him the captain), raised to $20 and it folded around to me. There was only one person left to act behind me. I called, choosing to slowplay my aces. The UTG player also called. 

The flop came 1086 rainbow. Seat 2 bet $32. I quickly tried to think of my best course of action and was really focused on seat 2. I thought about just calling and trying to give him some rope, although I was weary of the straight draw. 

But then I decided to think about the psychological angle. He had just lost four major hands in close succession and seemed to be somewhat tilted (which was quite understandable). More importantly, he and I had just gone up against each other and I had gotten lucky. I also now covered him and so he could think that I was trying to take advantage of his weakened mental state and stack. Bottom line is that I felt that he could be capable of calling something in this situation that he might ordinarily not call with. So I jammed. Seat 2 tanked and then called.

An ace gave me a set on the turn and the river was a blank. I turned over my aces. Seat 2 mucked his cards, shipped over his remaining stack and then left [Insert a joke here about walking the plank].

The guy to my left said that he heard seat 2 claim he had two pair on the flop, although no one else heard this (and it’s odd that he would be the only one to hear this from the opposite end of the table from seat 2). It's possible that seat 2 had two pair, although that would mean he raised to $20 preflop with 108 or 86. Perhaps I had coolered him yet again. The chips have the same value regardless.

 

Walking Away

Not much happened after that. We were down two players for a while. This is something I'm finding happens more often with Palace Poker as compared to my experience at TCH. I think it's just because Palace Poker is new and there is a smaller player pool, so hopefully that picks up as time goes on.

As I stated in my 'outro' IG reel last night, I tend to not play more than four hours during these sessions (quite different from when I'm in Vegas playing for 12-16 hours at at time). There are several factors I take into account in deciding when to call it a session (assuming I haven't gone bust):

• Is my momentum going up or down?
• Has my play changed to protect my profit?
• Am I still making proper decisions?
• Is the table full or short-handed?
• Am I still having fun?

At around 12:10am, the answers to the above questions led me to call it a night with a healthy profit.

I've now put together two winning sessions in a row and hope to continue next week, so stay tuned!