Rare Live Poker at the Taj

$1/$2 NL Hold'em. $300 Buyin.

The player directly across from me has been hyper aggressive all night. He likes the big bluff. He has used it and won a nice sized stack, $500, by pushing in a bunch of times and getting others to fold. I have about $260. I find suited connectors in the BB. He raises and I call along with 3 others. The flop is jack high but gives me an open ender. I check, table folds to my man who bets $30 into a $60 pot. He seems to be winning to bluff when no one shows strength, but what if someone shows strength. I raise to $90. He thinks for a while and pushes all-in. I have to fold, damn it. He shows AJ. It was just some bad luck that he happened to catch the flop and was willing to push into my raise. Oh well. I will get him later. I am sure of it. I did learn something though. He makes reasonable bets when he does make his hand. He makes unreasonable bets when he misses.

Time passes and I watch my man play many pots with all-in bluffs. He wins some, but eventually, as always happens, it catches up to him.

Outside of this one hand, he is not making hands, but continues his bluffing ways and gets himself caught a couple of times. He is down to $100 but shows no ability to change styles. Everyone has picked up on this guy and everyone is willing to call him with just about anything. I have $180 or so. I find A10 in the SB. It is limped to him and he opens for $15. He could do this with any ace or any broadway cards. Button calls and I call. The button is new to the table and has a stack of about $150.

The flop is AKQ rainbow. There is $50 in the pot. Knowing this guy, I can tell what he has by how he reacts to a weak bet by me. I bet $15. He will come over the top with a weak hand, probably for his whole stack. He will call if he hit two pair. Sure enough, he comes over the top for the rest of his $100 stack. I put him on a weak ace. I am going to call this. But the button thinks for a while and then calls.

What should I do?

In retrospect, given the amount of time that the button thought, I probably should have considered my hand good and pushed in. But I didn't have anything on this guy. He was new to the table. I didn't know how well or poorly he played. But, he has just flat called a bet and a giant re-raise. Don't I have to respect that? I am losing to AJ,AQ,AK,QK,TJ, JJ,QQ,KK,AA. How can I call now that the button has called? I fold.

Bluffer had A5. Button had Q3s! Argh.

A few hands later, bluffer catches a monster and then walks away from the table with $500 or so. Damn it!

I end up leaving down $180 for the day, my first ever loss at the casino cash games (4th trip). I would have scored a $500 pot on that hand if I had shown some steal ones. Instead, I let a call from an unknown take me off my play. It was probably wise, but it still hurts. Why did that fish have to sit down and be on the button on that particular hand. So frustrating.