Ignore, Ignore

Firstly thanks to those brave few that read and post encouraging comments. Yes I know I probably should take a complete break for a couple of weeks, take deep breaths etc but even when things are running poorly I still enjoy it all in a perverted sense.

Since I last posted here I have played 3 nights on the trot. Thursday in the SE saw me doing ok for the first while. The main decent pot I won I kinda plumbed a bit for. I limped from MP with 9Th. Flop comes 7TA, 2 diamonds and 1 heart, 5 players 50-100. SB bets 200, BB calls, I think and call leaving 900 behind. 1 more caller so pot on the turn is 1300. My thinking here is that if the turn comes 9,T,8 or a heart I am going to push, if not I will get away from the pot. Turn comes 6h. Checked to me and I push. CO calls instantly and SB calls (all in for less than me) too. Oh oh I think. I would have been happy to take the pot ther. CO shows A5 for 2 pair (no flop raise???) and SB has J5d for the other flush draw. River come a nice Qh so I take the flush.

Maybe it was just me though but I thought the standard seemed better than normal for a Thursday in the SE. Not great still, but better, so I was hopeful of a decent run. I got moved table and the cards duly obliged my optimism by drying up completely. I barely played a hand before the table broke about an hour later and after the break which I had around 5k at, so ok.

At my new table I think I raised the first 2 hands with not much and took the blinds. Then I got involved in another pot when I hit top 2 on the flop with KJs so won that with a flop bet. I lost a significant pot when I was trying to semi-steal from the button with KQo with 2 limpers. BB went all in for about 40% of my stack, and almost twice my raise. I called anyways and wasn't too disappointed to see ATo. I hit my Q on the flop but an A on the river did for me. Next time in the BB I checked to see a battle of the blind flops with Q6o (I should prob have raised here irrespective of my holding tbh). Flop comes 999 and it is checked which I am happy to agree to. Turn is a Q giving me the house. SB bets out for 600 (blinds 200-400). I call. River is J, and SB bets 1100. To be honest I don't know why but I went all in, he called instantly with his 9 surprisingly. I don't know why I went all in there really, as the likelhood was that I would be splitting it at best as he showed interest only when the Q came and still bet the river. He had to have either a Q or a 9, but then again this being Thursday in the SE who knows. Ah well.

Scalps on Friday started off brilliantly and got up to over 6k early with TT vs 88 all in preflop and QQ vs J9 on the J high flop. After this though every time I made a bet or raise (even a reraise once) I got played back at strongly. I always had some of it but never enough to justify playing with this action. I was at less than starting stack at the break and the topup brought me to around 5k so a bit if work to do. Things restarted slowly but got better with me dogging people twice in quick succession when I had to make a move once with KQ vs AK and once when I misread the situation but got lucky. A reraise from the BB of a SB bet (loose, bad player) with K2 on a board of KQ64r won me another pot to take me to 25k with blinds at 400/800 so I was in good shape. I missed a couple of flops after raises preflop and had to lay down to action and this shortstacked me soon. I lasted a while longer but exited in 15th. Better but not good enough.

Onto the round of each game on Saturday night. For a while this was my non serious favourite game, but then I got pissed off with the standard of play in the Omaha and stopped going. Recently I have started playing it again and it has paid off with this being my only recent successes with a 1st and a 3rd in recent weeks. Not great money but a start. Tonight there was a massive 36 runners, and I played it properly from start to finish as opposed to my usualy manic style before then break. There were the usual dodgy players among the decent ones.

I got off to a quiet start but by the break had over 6k including topup with only 1 rebuy so in for €50. After the break I was moved table immediately and got blinded down to 2500 (with 1 played and lost raised pot too). With the blinds at 300-600 and Omaha starting I got my chips in with a fairly crap hand but flopped a flush in a 3 way pot so I tripled up (and a bit for the BB). Next hand I had KK88 and flopped another flush in a 4 way pot to nearly quadruple up, so from 2500 to 30k in 2 hands!!! Omaha is great. Things kept going ok and I made it to the FT with 40k, 4 places paid. 900, 480, 270 and 130 were the prizes. Things were still going ok when I raised with KKJJds and got reraised by Austin for around 33k (his whole stack). I called and he hit a heart flush even though his AA were good anyhow. This put me back to 14k and there were 8 left.

A couple of blind steals and one double up put me back to over 30k. I yoyoed between this and about 18k for a while until I got doubled up again. I was playing good, pressure poker, and really enjoying the game. When 4 handed we were going to freeze the blinds at 2k-4k with myself, Dave Whelan, Austin and Paul Fox left in it, but Austin objected (I would love to know why really, it turned into a crap shoot then). Paul got taken out by Dave and my aggressive play, sometimes with cards, sometimes not, got me into a decent position again. After a while of tooing and froing the stacks were fairly even with me on 61k, Austin on 67k and Dave on 70k. The blinds at this stage were 400-8000 and a raise committed nearly half a stack so crap shoot city it was. Due to this a deal was agreed and we took over 500 each with a few shekels for the dealers.

This is a welcome boost to the coffers but doesn't change my recent stance on cash games. I would need a bigger win than that for it.

I must say though that I did enjoy that game, and thinking back, about 80% of the pots I won were at Omaha, mostly just bets taking it down uncontested. I enjoy the feeling that I know I am one of the better Omaha players that play the game, although with Dave Whelan, Oscar, Austin, Paul Fox and Mark (kinaldo from boards) on the FT it was never going to be a cakewalk. I am not saying that I am a great Omaha player as I know I have loads to learn about at game, as at NL holdem, but considering most of the other players in the game I am always confident about my play in it in this tournament.

Anyways, post over, and hopefully I can get back to better results in general. I will need to if I am to make a 5th consecutive league final appearance at the Fitz as I am currently in 12th and even the legend that is Bob Battersby is ahead of me in it.

Plans for the week ahead? Who knows. Probably play Sunday night and either Monday or Tuesday. Next weekend I will be on a different mission when I jet to Hamburg for a workmates stag. Considering the World Cup is starting that weekend and Argentina play Ivory Coast (with their reverse Irish flag) on the Saturday in Hamburg it should be a good weekend.

Auf Weidersehn (I didn't check spelling, so apologies if it is incorrect) for now.