- Stupid regulars...

Started playing around noon today after a couple hours of trombone practice and it seems like every regular is playing today. To counteract the loss in equity, I've tried to only register for 4 60s at a time and see who else joins - then get out if too many regs are around. Unfortunately, I didn't unregister from one such game and ended up with 8 regulars at the table. Only 4 of them were decent/good regs, but still.

With all those guys at the table and me only playing around 10 games (since it was impossible to get less than 4 regs in every game down to the 16s...), I decided to alter my play a little bit and mix up some situations.

Here's a hand with one of the better regs at the table. It's the first hand of the sng and we've played probably around 500 in the same games. Because of our history, he knows without a doubt that I'm limping a pocket pair here (early position, early game, etc.) and he's usually aggressive against me pre/post flop (since I'm unlikely to put up much resistance early in the game).

This was a $60 -
Seat 1: dumb reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: good reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: fish (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: fattymcbones (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: dumb reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: vgood reg (1500 in chips)
good reg: posts small blind 10
reg: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fattymcbones [5c 5s]
fish: folds
reg: folds
fattymcbones: calls 20
reg: folds
dumb reg: folds
vgood reg: folds
dumb reg: folds
good reg: raises 80 to 100
reg: folds
fattymcbones: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [7d 4s 8s]
good reg: bets 146
fattymcbones: calls 146
*** TURN *** [7d 4s 8s] [Kd]
good reg: checks
fattymcbones: bets 250
good reg: folds
Uncalled bet (250) returned to fattymcbones
fattymcbones collected 512 from pot
fattymcbones: doesn't show hand

His range on the preflop raise I figured was somewhat wider than what I would raise in this situation, probably TT+ and AQ maaaaaybe AJs+. Since he knows I'm set-mining, he figures I'll miss the majority of the time and he'll pick up some early chips. However, his lead out bet seemed somewhat strange to me. Normally, this reg continuation bets pretty often (even though he's out of position) but not with strange amounts. If he had a big pair, it would make sense for him to bet 2/3 - 3/4 pot to get me off of a drawing hand - BUT, he knows that I don't play suited connectors in those spots (especially limp-opening the pot) so there's no real danger that I've got something sneaky like 56 or two medium spades. The only real danger for him is if I have 88, 77 or 44 which are all very possible holdings for me.

The rest seems pretty obvious: I float the flop, he checks the turn, I semi-bluff and he folds what was most likely a stronger hand. My question is whether or not that play was worth it? Sure, it's early and I made the conscious decision to deviate from my everyday play, but I only picked up 250 chips (half of which were mine anyway). I guess there was a chance I'd flop a 5 and he'd stack off to me, but that seems unlikely in hindsight. Most of the good regulars will at least notice that another good regular is involved and toss their AK and QQ/JJ in that situation. I could've folded pre, but he was giving me ok odds (would've preferred 80 chips) and I was in position. Eh, I don't know. The more I look at it, the more I wonder if alterring your game is worth it in early sngs. Most of these guys pay less attention than they should anyway. Suggestions are welcome.