Funny Story, Bad Beats & from Bad to Good

All in a nights work. Was a weird night last night. Decided to go to the SE €75+5 dc game. The standard at my table for the most part amazed me by being decidedly bad. There were at least 3 bad players at my table, but of course by the time I had figured this out, one of them had got knocked out and I was a dc reload to the bad. This was only 10 mins in. To be honest though i didn't see any action with hands all night.

Pocket 99 in the sb the first hand, decided to limp, missed folded. Third hand got AA, 2 limpers at 25-50, I make it 275, everyone folds which as it turns out is most unlike this table. I played a couple of drawing hands weakly then as seems to be the norm lately, but I always seem to get these type of hands in the blinds so always oop. KK when shortstacked wasn't my saviour as noone looked me up, and J8s a few hands later definitely wasn't when I got 2 callers this time. Ah well.

It was 11.30 at this stage and in my head it made sense to go the Fitz for a cash game (no Omaha going on in SE). Outside the Fitz I seen a really strange and quite frankly baffling incident. I was chatting to someone when Red (Charlie McCreevy type character, regular in Fitz) comes outside and a guy who seemed to be well known but not for me, seems fit to tell him that Red (50 odd, hardly clad by Calvin Klein) has the nicest top that he has ever seen. Red then offers to sell it to him for a tenner and the other guy practically snaps his arm off in accepting. The exchange is done, both parties express their pleasure with the transaction, and just as I am going in I hear Red say 'If I freeze on the way home I'll sue you'. Mad.

Anyways onto the poker. I mentioned bad beats in the title and these come from the tournament. I wasn't involved in any of these. They all happened before the break.

KK beaten by KJ all in preflop
AA beaten by AQ all in preflop
JJ beaten by 99 all in preflop
KJ beaten by AK all in on a J high flop

I sat in the round of each game and seen one on the most horrible beats happening, and again I wasn't involved. 3 players to a flop, €75 in the pot. Flop is AsQh3h. Bet, allin, allin, call goes the action, about €1k between centre and sidepots.

Player 1 shows AhAxx (top set)
Player 2 shows Kh5hxx (nut flush draw with lone A out)
Player 3 shows AQxx (top two pair)

Turn Q, River Q. Sick for the AA.

Not much happened for me when I sat in the newly started round of each game. I sat down with 200, and rebought for 100 more when downto about 60. Up to about 250 when called to the Omaha only 50 game. There was no 100 game on last night so it was a curious mix of 100 game players and 50 games players. I was definitely at the lower end of the range stack wise at this stage but said I would see what the game was like. To be honest it wasn't the maddest game I have ever been at, I expected worse, especially when Andy Black came to the table and started raising and reraising every hand for a while preflop. There were about 4/5 100 game players there and stack sizes up to about 3k so plently of money and opportunities to get it in the pot.

An early hand I was dealt at this table seen me play 3345 from the BB for a modest raise to €5. Flop comes a lovely 36Jr. I bet the pot (€35), one caller. Turn is Q to complete the rainbow and I can't see how that would have helped and am fairly sure I am ahead as this player would have raised me in an instant if I was behind to a bigger set. I bet pot again (€100 for ease) and it is called instantly. River is A, and if she hit backdoor broadway then so be it, my last money was going in the pot. I had her covered by €30 so got change. What did she show down when I threw over my set of 3's?

A bloody A and crap crap. No draws, nothing, just the losy overpair which hit on the river. €500 pot gone south. Cheers. The look on Snowy's face (he was playing), and Daisy's shake of the head said it all. I was tempted at this stage to go but since I have been on a good run lately decided to just throw 100 more at the problem, making it a total of 400 for the night. Not ideal, but not too upsetting if I lost it.

Anyways, I know such a small stack at that table is not what I want to be doing, but I decide to play on for a while anyhow. I go for a drink of water etc to calm down, and not get tilty.

Get back to the table, win a couple of middling pots, one with a turned poker of 8's and I get my stack up to around 350. I hover between 3-400 for a while and 2 crucial hands happen. Well ok, the first one is not crucial to me but it annoyed my a wee bit. I decide to call a raise to €3 from the button with AdQd3c4c (terrible hand but there you go). Flop comes Ac8d6d. Early position bets pot (€15), Andy Black repots it for 60, and only me to act before original raiser. I was definitely calling the first raise, and when it is potted again I was tempted to. The thing that made me not call was that first raiser had only 125 total including his bet so I fully expect him to go allin. The problem with this was that it was a valid raise and Andy would have pushed lots more into it driving me out. Upshot, I folded. Original riaser elects only to call however (may have done differently if I played maybe??). Turn is Kc. If I had managed to still be in this hand I would have pushed with 2 flush draws, albeit only 4 high for one of them. More betting all in on this card, and river is 2c, and my backdoor flush draw would have been good. I know that I had no right to be there really with only a bare flush draw on the flop, but still annoyed me as I would have won €800 pot if original raiser had 115 instead of 125. Ah well.

Next crucial hand I call a raise to €45 preflop from LP with QQJ9 with hearts. Flop comes QJ7, 2 spades. Andy Black pots it (€225) and I push for €335 total. Turn is irrelevant as is river and I win a near €900 pot. Sweet. Andy leaves after this hand (not enough action I guess for him) and Scott Gray goes busto a few hands later as does another guy so the game is dying and I decide to leave with €875 in hand at 4.30am. €80 for tournament and €400 buy in still leaves me with a healthy €395 profit for the night. Considering where I was after herself caught the A on the river I will gladly take that.

Cash games are good to me lately. Last 8 I have played have been profitable for a total of €2820 in 25 days. I know this can't last but it doesn't stop me hoping that it last a while longer at least.

If I could translate that into tournament play as well then that would be brilliant, but I am not sure if it is a coincidence that my tournament play is dipping when my cash play is on the up? Maybe it is irrelevant since Omaha and Hold'em are very different in styles required. Maybe it is relevant since I am playing draws in Hold'em weakly which is my normal approach now (unless no one has an interest) in PLO, especially oop. It is something I will hopefully figure out soon.

Also, I believe Rumit Somaiya was at the Omaha cash game last night too. I will check against a picture of him later, as I can't check 'gambling' sites from work. It was definitely some English/Asian guy called Rumit and in the week of the Irish Open it seems like more than a coincidence. I may be wrong though.

For now adieu.