When Good Punkins Go Bad

Don't let your Halloween end up like this.



Been a pretty transformational fall over this way...will explain soon...

Once More Into the Breach, Please

Nope, it's not that time...not just yet. But it's getting close, the World Blogger Championships of Online Poker. Tasty, verily.

Royal Frush, No Crubs

I finally got a decent session in, over the weekend. Felt refreshing to get to play prime time poker, and to come out a wee bit a head. Funnest moment was getting paid on a turned royal flush in PLO8:




Oh, what to do, what to do....

I came in the hand with what I recall was around an average stack, and made a smallish raise preflop (prepared to call a 3-bet if necessary). This flop was actually a bit tough for me, given villian's possibility of a Q or two...but I figured if I checked here, villian could pot, and I'm faced with a tough decision for all my chips. So I elected to bet out about 1/2 the pot as a feeler, and got min-raised. Damn.

But then, the pot wasn't huge...bah, I'll see one more card.

Yahtzee!

The most beautiful jack of hearts ever. For all I knew, I'd just caught the ultimate one-outer. Stone cold nutzo. Pot. Mine. Ship it. But how to get more in it.

I didn't figure villian had a flush, and given the flushy board, I thought villain was more likely to have boated than to have hit broadway or trips, but who knows? All I knew was that villain raised me on the flop. So if I check here, he bets, and I can minraise and maybe start a raising war? Maybe I made the ultimate donk call on the flop and had chased down quad queens? That should get me paid. Okay, check.

Villian checks behind. Ugh. Wasted opportunity.

King of crubs on the river....this could only be a good card, I suppose, because it makes more boats possible. I know I can't check here. But damn, villain could have hands that fold any bet here, so I don't want to overdo it. Can't pot it. Bet about 3k? Sure.

Bet 3k.

Villian calls, and shows this:



Wow, guess I gave villian way too much credit, or he was simply trying to use the minraise bluff to try to show more strength than he had. Or, he's just a fish. Just now, while writing this post, I bothered too look him up on OPR, and he's actually not a terribad Omatard player. In fact, he's certainly been more profitable than I have in the game, so I'm now inclined to believe he was trying the minraise bluff.

Which means, I guess I can take my river bet as an actual good bet that extracted real value. He's not likely enough of a fish to have called a pot bet in that spot. And who knows, given his actual holding, a turn bet may have lost him entirely. So I feel good now. That pot certainly went a long way towards helping me to a final-two-tables finish. Unfortunately, once we got down to about 20 players, I caught nothing but junk and never connected again, going out 15th of 234.

Oddly enough, while I've only cashed in four of 24 PokerStars events in October thus far, my two best finishes have been in the same $22 PLO8 event. Neither resulted in a final table, of course.

More oddly, all four cashes have been in Omaha events. Which also includes my Sunday heartbreaker...Down to 30 players of nearly 400, and I flop trip kings on a KQx board with one low card. All the money goes in. Villian did have a broadway draw an a Q.

Turn Q. Boom, guess who boated.

River Q. Fuck me. Too pissed to take a screenie.

Well, guess that's Omatard. Win on a perceived one-outer that was anything but. And lose to perfect perfect turn/river to lose in the one possible way you think you're safe.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Little to Post, So Sentences Are Short

Poker? Total meh. I did learn a valuable lesson, though, in my last session. When you're already on mini-tilt because you're sorta not allowed to play the tournies you want (because of time constraints), you're far better off not playing at all. At all.

New rock project coming along....recording to start in a few weeks (as soon as our guitarist can finish up the three records he's engineering for other bands).

Baseball season ended the day the Rockies gave up a five run lead against the damned Dodgers and tanked to losing 13 of their last 14....at this point, I don't even care. As long as the Gints and Yankees fail.

Time to start focusing on writing a few CD reviews, once again.

Parties with friends equals reduction in weekend opportunities for pokery goodness.

And, oh yeah, it's now been 90 days since my last cigarette, yo.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.