Fold, fold, fold for 2 hours. A few playable hands, a few PP to acceptable raises, no set, gone... You would think that "they" would realize that when I bet, I have something... (more about the calling station mentality later).
Ok, so I limp on 99 from MP, with 6 people playing the hand. Finally a nice flop for me: AA9. Well, there's $30 in the pot, blinds check to me, and I bet out $30. 2 guys with big stacks to my left (one has only kept his stack going through rebuys--is rather on tilt after having top set cracked by a straight, but he didn't bet it very hard, so no sympathy from me) call, and SB moves in for $115.
Well, I've been blinded down to about $320 or so by this time after buying in for $400 and catching nothing. So, I just move in myself. I do fear A9 here a lot, but there's only one 9 out there.
Believe it or not, the two LP players both call!!!! One is drawing to the flush!!! SB has AJ (at least he does have some outs) but doesn't improve, so I almost quadruple up.
Well, this time, while excited, I do want to see if I can get on a roll, although I often have frittered away chunks of big stacks like this, so I'm definitely watching myself to make sure I stay completely tight with $1,100 in front of me.
Now, shortly after this, I do pick up AK UTG. Well, at these tables, my feel for raises is that $25-$30 is usually about right, but I'm expecting them to be a little intimidated now, so I just make it $20 this time. Guy in CO comments, "That's a little scary" and promptly calls with Q8o (he hit quads on the river), along with 2 others. So, I'm playing my raised AK after all that 4-way.
Flop comes 88X (885 or something like that). I check and am done with the hand.
I really think the calling station mentality runs something like this: "Now I want to win it back." And they actually think they'll do it by playing crap!!
It's just amazing to me!! There are loose players in this game (or at least 1) who are actually good, and a pretty good tight player (although the way he bets, I'm pretty sure he's a semi-pro limit player who switched to NL--he's fairly tight, but his play does look strange to me still). These guys at least learn. The reaction of others is just beyond belief to me--but, hey, they're still calling...
