I spent the better part of last week in Sedona, Arizona, which is a beautiful part of the American Southwest featuring tremendous red rock structures. Unfortunately, someone decided that these red rock formations have somehow created spiritual vortexes (and yes that is the correct pluralization, not vortices, I checked):
“In Sedona vortexes are created, not by wind or water, but from spiraling spiritual energy. The vortexes of Sedona are named because they are believed to be spiritual locations where the energy is right to facilitate prayer, mediation and healing. Vortex sites are believed to be locations having energy flow that exists on multiple dimensions. The energy of the vortexes interacts with a person’s inner self.”
Consequently, Sedona is a hotbed of new age spiritualism, home to dozens of fortune tellers, spirit healers, mystical book stores, and all-around crazy people. I’m mad that I lost the exact language, but the visitor’s guide provided by the National Parks Service specifically prohibits the rearranging of sticks and stones to create “medicine wheels” in the park and asks guests to “pray, chant, sign, drum, or meditate quietly” so as not to disturb others.
I spent about an hour playing poker and watching the sun rise from the porch of our hotel room while waiting for my girlfriend to wake up one day, though, and I must admit that maybe there is something to those vortexes after all (ugh apparently I don’t FTP set to save hand histories on my laptop- sorry for botching the hell out of this post).
I was playing 10/20 heads up with a relatively weak regular. She was ridiculously over-aggressive, and I didn’t respond to it quite as well as I should have. Still, I four-bet bluffed her twice pre-flop and flopped huge both times.
The first time, I had 54o, put $440 in pre-flop, and flopped the nuts on a 236 board. Since I knew my opponent could have a wide range pre-flop and it was my first time four-betting, I checked it back. The turn brought a J, she potted, and I shoved. She tanked and called with 95o for a gutshot which did not get there.
The second time, I 4-bet with Q7 and flopped Q77 for the second nuts. This time we were 4K deep, so I bet like 1/3 pot on the flop. In retrospect I probably should have just checked but I feared it would look too strong given how I played last time and the fact that my opponent knew I knew she could have almost anything.
The best one was when I called one of her 3-bets with T9o (again, 4K stacks) and flopped Q83. She bet, and I called. The turn brought another Q, and she bet smallish. I was pretty sure she didn’t have a Queen, so decided to execute one of my new favorite moves where I make a raise I know my opponent will call and set myself up to bluff shove a future street when I am almost sure she will fold. I raised like 2.5x, enough to leave slightly less than a pot-sized bet in the effective stacks. Sure enough, she called and check-folded to a shove on a river 8. Sadly, she also quit after that.