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.

Keep Hittin' It, Not Quittin' It (PLO8 Edition)

The horse, she will not be broken. Well, maybe a bit dinged, but sweet that sweet little PLO pony, well, geez. I have to continue to stay away from NLHE, I guess. Played three events on Thursday...well, one was NLHE, but it's the $3.30 triple shootout I love so much (lost HU in the first round for the third straight time).



Two Omaha events. One cash. Not a mincash, but soooo close. This was the Stars $4.44 4-max PLO8 event, so going out 12th wasn't exactly quite bubbling the final table. Now, had my hand been able to improve (or even hold) on the river, who knows? But given my relative chip position once we got to 24 players or so, I really can't complain, and won't. Just continue to ride that pony, is all.

Today?

Lotsa fun for the Good Doctor Mondo and I at the Colorado Irish Festival. Of course, I don't have a lick of Celtic in me, and she's got a lot more Scot than Irish in her (we'll avoid the jokes about when she's got a little German in her...). But I loves me some Celtic music, Gaelic football, and yeah, even pipe bands. Should be tons of fun.

Part of me will still wish we were at Coors Field tonight. After all, not only have the Rockies won five in a row for the first time this year (to climb into the wild card lead and within two games of the division), all but one of those games has involved wild comebacks from several runs down, dramatic home runs, and three were walkoffs. Naturally, the only game I've been able to attend of this run was a rather pedestrian 4-2 victory over the Cards. But thank you Saint Ubaldo, just the same.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Avoiding NLHE, Part Deux....

...and the Fangraph from Heaven (below).

Last night, the Good Doctor Mondo and I were watching the Rockies fall to the Cardinals 9-3 in the bottom of the 8th inning (more on that later), when I cruised the 2+2 forums and found the magic words "Turbo Night". Wahoooo!!!

What is Turbo Night? Well, it's nothing official, but it represents a night where PokerStars (and probably FTP as well, for all I know) is getting ready to reset all their servers. In order to get things wound up, they replace a lot of their tourneys for a number of hours with turbo versions of the same (and replace turbos with super turbos). FAST FAST FAST action yeah.

Anyway, I'm hardly about to start increasing my overall volume, but as the beloved Rockies were on their way down (more on that later), I thought what the hell, sure, I'll jump into this $8.80 PLO8 tourney. Heck, it'll be over in like 90 minutes, right? At 1500 starting chips and five minute levels? Sure!

Well, I still don't know whether it's simply continued run hot, or choosing better spots than my opponents, or simply better play (considering I pulled off at least two successful semi-bluffs), but my streak of relative Omaha success continued, with a 3rd place finish in a field of 112:



No complaints there whatsoever. I came into the final table 7th in chips, and really didn't think I'd make it past 6th with my stack. Once we got down to 3-handed, things were desperate, with 4 big blinds and an M of 2, and I had no room to maneuver, needing a big hand and no time to wait for one:



I did manage to get as high as about 26k, but back down to 18k and with a halfway decent but hardly dominant combo draw (I believe it was something like ATT5 double suited), I potted preflop and lost out to MIXX. But as I suspected, my 3rd place exist was a mere 90 minutes after the tourney started, so I'll take that super-small-sample-size hourly rate, thanks to Turbo Night. And, I'll take my current ROI in Omaha-flavored tourneys, which I'm thinking must be around 280% over the last couple of weeks.

Yeah, now that's sustainable.

Of course, my deep tourney run did cause me to miss certain moments of only THE GREATEST 9TH INNING COMEBACK IN COLORADO ROCKIES HISTORY. As those who follow baseball probably know, we put up a 9-spot in the bottom of the 9th last night against the colossally overmanaging Tony LaRussa. This on a night when former Rockie Matt Holliday punished us with a three run bomb.

I saw the clock and knew it was time for Mr. Late Night (Seth Smith, whose nickname was well earned during many notable PH appearances over 2009 season). And he did not disappoint.

Really, better than all the highlights, all the ESPN-hyperventilation....oh, scratch that part, ESPN would run a LeBron James ass-picking story over a massive humongous 9th inning comeback even during Baseball Tonight....is this, the Fangraphs WPA graph of last night's game. Unbelievable:



Anyway, I probably won't play much (or at all) until this weekend, but yeah, I'mma gonna stick with this Omaha kick for a lil' while.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Bah, A Wee Bit Short

Bah.

Played a very small batch of tourneys last night, three in total. The FTP $5 LO8, the $4 4-max PLO8 on Stars, and the $4 1000-max NLHE at Stars. Came up empty. Bah.

$5 Limit O8 - finished 45th of 221 (27 paid). Twice I had to bail two massive combo draws in big pots after scary rivers. The one I remember saw me holding AA54 double suited clubs/spades and a flop that brought two clubs and a deuce and a trey. The red king on the turn didn't help (I check/called), and the non-club K on the river hurt worse. So the low never filled, and all I've got is a pair of aces. The river fold was correct, I am certain, pot odds be damned, but it left me crippled.

The upsetting part to me of this is that I did not raise from the SB with this hand. I got a bit gunshy raising PF in this tourney, because the field seemed so loose that every late position raise saw either five callers or TWO re-raises on top by players who limped in early. My hope, preflop, was to pick up exactly the kind of draws on the flop that...well...that I did pick up. But if villian's caught virtually any part of that board by the river, I lose that hand.

$4 4-max PLO8 - finished 74th of 599 (60 paid). This one hurt, to the extent that I managed to overcome losing 1/3 of my stack in the first couple of levels, and played pretty tight afterwards, but as the blinds caught up and I found myself short, I shoved from position to get called by a mixed-bag hand. The flop gave him top pair, but gave me bottom two pair. Of course, it's Omaha, so nothing's a sure thing, but the turn gave him trips.

$4 8-handed 1000-max NLHE - finished 196th of 1000. This one hurt real bad. At first, I thought it would be a really really short tourney for me. Third hand in, I see a couple of Jacks staring at me from one of the blinds. Nice. Early position raises, and about four players (besides myself) come along for the ride. Now, I considered re-raising to isolate, but at these buyins, with the quality of players at this level, I'm likely to still see the flop at least 4-handed, so I elect to call. The flop was all low cards, maybe 9-high. I didn't want A-rag to get there, so I bet out, and the original raiser shoves...it's early enough, I haven't invested time, so I call. He's got QQ. Bah. But the J on the turn saves my bacon and sets me up for a long run.

I'm not playing a lot of hands at all, but saw KK once and QQ three times, and picked up nice pots with all of them. Given my rate of reasonable cards, I didn't feel the need to get out of line by trying to steal too often, and that strategy seemed to be working.

I manage to spend the entire first hour in the top 10 in chips, eventually falling backwards a bit through card death. But with 200 players left, I'm still something like 60th-70th, with a just above average chipstack, when we get to the last hand before break. Then this happens....and where the Mondo learns a powerful lesson.

I'm in the SB holding KQs, blinds are either 150/300 or 200/400, I forget. The BB is in the top 5-10 in chips, with 3x my stack. Folds around to the hijack who calls. (I have about 15k chips, he has about 11k) I hate this spot. I like raising here, but for the massive stack on my left, who has been pushing around a bit. The hijack could have anything, medium to big ace, middle pair, who knows. So I elect to call (the BB checked). The flop was great for me. Q54 rainbow, yeah. I think I'm good here, because AQ in that spot most likely raises preflop. So given possible holdings, I look like I have a monster here.

So I check, hoping to CR any kind of continuation bet. The hijack spot bets 1100, essentially just short of pot. Doesn't tell me much. So I raise to 2700 to show strength. I suppose I could have shoved, but that would have shown weakness, and I do think I have a monster here. Until he smooth calls. Dammit, dammit, dammit, I tell myself as the inconsequential turn comes out. He's got to have a set of fives, he's just got to. Why didn't I raise preflop, I ask myself as I donkey shove the turn. Actually, he had pocket fours, for the flopped bottom set, and I'm crippled.

I misplayed this so many ways...when he called my flop CR, I *knew* he had a set (only error was which set). So why do I shove myself to certain death there? Why did I not raise KQs from my spot preflop? Even with the huge stack on my left, I have a lot of FE in that spot that possibly makes up for the loss of showdown value of my hand?

Any suggestions how to avoid this type of leak? I know, I know, sometimes, you've just gotta actually trust your reads. Shoving into what I know is a made set is probably a worse blunder than not raising PF in that spot, but I'm interested in your thoughts.

So instead of a healthy stack at break, I'm 195 of 200, with about 8.5 BB left. Bah.

Either first or 2nd hand after break, the even shorter stack on my right shoves. I see 99 and overshove -- he could have anything, but with 8 BB left and an M of about 4, I'm not folding here. Well, two to my left overshoves. Gross. The shortest stack had 77 (putting me well ahead), but the big stack had QQ. Can I beat the mighty QQ again with a smaller pair, like I did in the first orbit?

Ummmm....nope. The Q of hearts on the flop nearly sealed my fate. The heart turn on the two heart flop gave me hope for a backdoor flush (I held the only pocket heart), but the river smited me, and IGHN. This one hurt. Bah.

Three tournies, beat at least 80% of the field every time, but zero cashes. Bah.