Sunday, September 6th, 2009

Saturday:

Another evening where I didn’t make it down to the casino until a bit later than normal. I had to catch some of Mizzou/Illinois and watch Georgia lose, a very fun first Saturday of the college football season.

PLO was going when I arrived around 8pm and was still going strong when I left around 1am. It was 1/2 last night, a legit 1/2 (as opposed to a 1/2 with a $5 bring in to keep the math a bit simpler). So you could limp for $2 or raise to $8 preflop. For the first 2 hours I played decent small pot poker, stealing a couple pots in position, but without making any big hands it just takes one bad move. I’m down a little thanks to trying to take a pot away from a lady who flopped middle set and called the turn and river as I tried to push her off her hand.

Around 10pm crazy player #1 sits down 3 seats to my left. A boistrous young guy who bugs me a little early on, his initial impression striking me as that of a douchebag 1/2 NL player, but after the first impression he settles down and chats a bunch and turns out to be a perfectly nice guy who just happens to be willing to gamble all in with any 4 cards. And shortly after he sits down a guy sits two to my right who is an even bigger gambler. I’ve played with this guy before, I know he’s good post flop, hard to push off a hand, bets a lot, is willing to gamble super light at times, and he likes to play bigger pots… he open raises every single hand for the next 3 hours. He makes it $10 if anyone has limped. If someone has raised to $7 or $8 before him, he’ll make it $15 about half the time. The game all of a sudden gets a lot bigger, and a lot wilder, as very often we go 7 way to the flop for $10 in a game with a $500 max buyin.

Similar to Friday night I get down $200 seeing probably too many flops without contesting them postflop, and buy back up to $500.

Big hand of the night:

I get one of the few hands worth getting truly excited about preflop… AAJT double suited. I’m UTG and raise to $7. Crazy gambler #1 raises to $20, and two people call, a new player and crazy gambler #2. I’ve got a $500 stack and all 3 have the same or more. I hate the thought of putting 20% of my stack in with AA out of position, but this game has just been insane. there is a higher than normal chance of someone deciding to go all in. So I re-pot and stick in $105′ish. Crazy Gambler #1 counts out his stack and thinks awhile, asking how much I have behind, but just calls. Damn! The other two players very quickly call. We go 4-ways to the flop, I’ve got $400 left, pot is $400. I’m shoving any flop at this point I think.

Flop: 7d 6s 6c — I have spades and diamonds, two backdoor draws. Ugh. Not ideal. But I’m not check/folding against the two crazy gamblers here. I shove for $400. Crazy gambler #1 folds. New guy thinks for some time and calls, crazy gambler #2 insta-calls. New guy has about $35 more, so they are not all in. I don’t notice this in the insanity and tell everyone on my side of the table what I have. I show my hand to a neighbor while I wait for the cards to run out, and the dealer mentions to me that they are not all in and there is still action to go. I apologize profusely and feel like an asshole. Everyone says its no big deal, and there’s only $35 behind in a $1600 pot, so its not, but I say to the table that I know its terrible form and apologize again.

Turn 3d, so if I’m not drawing dead to a boat I’ve got some flush outs now. Both players check. The river is an offsuit 4. crazy gambler #2 sets new guy all in, who calls for his last $35 but says “I can’t beat AA but I can’t fold now I guess.” CANT BEAT AA!?!? JT98? T98? I have no idea how many outs I was fading for that guy, he never said what he had but from his reaction I got the feeling he might not even have had a wrap. I dunno. Crazy gambler #2 shows…. wait for it… 8852. Once I turned the diamond draw he had 8 outs to win the pot on the river, 6 OESD outs and two 8’s. My mouth drops open, I would have bet my life on him having a 6.

He scoops a $1600 pot and I’m down $700. I rebuy for $500 more and am in retrospect very pleased with how I handled it. Its PLO, people are gonna gamble. If I hadn’t won so big yesterday maybe I take it badly, I dunno, but I know that shoving AA unimproved is always a dangerous play. I fold my blinds and am feeling ready to go again by the time my button arrives.

I lose $175ish more with the 3rd nut flush later on. I see a flop in position with a double suited hand, something like AQ76 A7 spades/Q6 clubs, this is one of those 8 people to the flop for $10 hands. The flop has a 6 and two clubs, and checks around. I make my flush on the turn but 8 handed or whatever I’m not looking for two streets of value here. The turn fully checks around. The river is a 4th club, and it does make a straight flush possible. Everyone checks to me again and I make a $60 valuebet, thinking that a worse flush might call by now, or maybe even a straight. The preflop raiser thinks for awhile and raises $100 more. He seems like a solid, thinking player and I think its very very possible that he’s got me on a middling flush and thinks I’ll fold. So I debate a little but never seroiusly consider a fold. i call, opponent shows AK clubs. I’m very confused as to why he didn’t put out a bet at any point in the hand, but he probably won as much as he could have playing it the way he did.

I never really make any back up after this, and cash out about $300 at 1am and come home. I hated leaving before the game broke but didn’t want to drop another stack and/or stay way too long while stuck and risk not playing my best.

Day 3: -$1000
Trip Total: +$300

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2009 at 3:47 pm by Posted By Radii and is filed under Ring Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.