Returning the Favor and other Slices of Life

Returning the Favor
Returning the Favor
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Sunday, May 04, 2008

Thin edges and vomitous roller coasters.

So my run of profitable sessions continues for one more week, thanks again to a big hand in Omaha Hi/Lo. I repeat - I am not good at this game. I'm not even significantly better than most of the other players in my home game.

I'm just enough better than a couple to take a couple of big hands each week to keep my head above water. And that, Mr. Frost, has made all the difference.

Last night's game was one of the most volatile I've ever been in, with me being into the game for $400 at one point. Not much money in the grand scheme of things, but remember, it's a $.25/.50 game!

Buy-in #1 - $50 - got nothing going, pretty sure I gave it to Jimmy over the course of a couple of stupid plays.

Buy-in #2 - $100 - see above

Buy-in #3 - $100 - Shortly after the beginning of the O8 portion of the evening, I'm in late position in a pot where we called a small raise. There's a bet in front of my from BG, who knows what's going on in O8 as much as any of us do, and DB calls. DB calls. That's what he does. And he hit enough monsters in O8 to keep him around. So I flopped the but straight on a board of 5-7-9 with two diamonds. This is another one of those instances when you flop the nuts in O8 but you're still not a favorite to win the hand. I thought that a jam of $120 ish into a $40ish pot would be enough of a stupid overbet that no one would call, but I got called by DB who had a flush draw and a low draw. The 2d on the turn gave him the whole pot and put me reaching into my pocket for -

Buy-in #4 - $140 - I actually managed to get something going on my fourth buyin with not a ton of time left in the evening, doubling through DB when he again called my overbet of $100+ into a $50ish pot. I had AAK3 double suited on a flop with a couple of low cards and a Jack and when it checked to me I jammed.

I said I wasn't a good O8 player. Leave me alone. DB called, had deuces with no diamonds or anything else good, and running Jacks gave me a boat and doubled me up.

My next double up came when I flopped the nut low draw on a flushy board, got it all in on the turn when I made my wheel thinking no one would bother calling because of the obvious chop unless he also held A2, got called by DB with A3 and rivered Broadway to scoop the high with Broadway and the low with the wheel.

It's not really as cool as it sounds, because he misread his hand and thought he was better off than he was, making two sessions at my house in a row where my profits for the night have come from someone else misreading their hand. That feels so much better than when I fire off huge river bluffs after misreading my hand.

So I rode the vomit comet all night, watching my chips ebb and flow at ridiculous rates, and paying off bad players and good players alike. I got stupid lucky to make a profit at all, but since I lose as often as not when I play well, I'll settle for lucky. I hope everyone views it as a loan, because I'm sure that's what it really is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad you've stopped saying things like "and I laid this really bad suck-out on BG"..

<of course I've probably just tempted the fates>

bruce said...

Has anyone tried any of the poker tournaments over at Littlewoods? I'm on the hunt for a new site after having a terrible run at the place I currently play. I've lost with pocket aces 3... yes THREE times in a row now and it's getting beyond a joke.

I mostly play texas holdem poker online, but offline I enjoy Omaha more so I guess the new site I play at it would be good if it had Omaha too.

Any suggestions?