Send It

I played in a couple 5.50 NL Hold'em tournaments on UB this morning- nothing to report, besides that fact that I'm still running bad in Hold'em. In the first tourney ( a six handed beauty) I worked my stack to over 2100, then called 140 in the 20/40 level with 55 on the button. The flop came ten high, the UTG+1 raiser bet the pot, and I re-raised it all in. He thought for a moment and called off his last 300 with 44. The turn came a 4, and gave him his two outer. Now, with my remaining 1k, I got it all in with 7d5d on a 7s-2d-3d flop. He has 2h3h, and I have a million outs. The turn is a 6, and the river a non-diamond queen, and so his bottom two fade 19 outs to bust me. In the second tourney I got it all-in with K7 on a K-7-T flop... he of course had 77. I had about 350 left, got it in with A6, and ran into AQ. It looked like the poker gods were going to send me some reprieve when the board ran out A-2-7-6, but the river came another 7 and counterfeited me out of another tournament. Oh well, things will turn around eventually.

I hit Warren .10/.25PLO to make back my tournament buy-ins, and soon found myself stuck 4 buy-ins, or 40.00. I didn't feel like quitting though, and I was running really bad. I seriously ran the second nuts into the case cooler like three times, and I couldn't win a damn coinflip to save my life. With 10.00 at the table, I mounted a comeback and assaulted all the assholes who had just sucked out and stacked me. I rallied like crazy and doubled up time and time again. I think my stack was at like 78.00 at some point. Then the beats started up again, when I caught my open-ender to the nuts and ran into a twice-checked Q's full. Oh, and lest not forget my flopped flush on a As-7s-5s board. I had an open-ended straight flush redraw too. I potted the flop, villian called, and the turn came another A. Doh. We go check-check and he pots the river. It's a really bad call, one I usually don't make, but since the river was another 5 I figured maybe he thought his set of Aces or 5s were good. Of course, he had 77 (WTF 7's have it out for me today.) I left the table with 70 gold dubloons. I'm pleased.

The sick thing is I played almost two hours, and played over 79% of my hands. I saw 99 out of 124 flops lol. But the even sicker thing is that I won 28% of those pots. That's a damn good winning percentage for playing that many hands. I think that LAG play in PLO is the right way to go. I keep it fairly simple- taking lots of flops, betting only my monster hands, and taking as many free cards as my opponents will give me otherwise. When you play 80% of your hands, you have to make sick laydowns a lot though, and I think I do that fairly well. Remember, when in doubt, ask yourself this simple question "If I were him, what could I POSSIBLY have that I can beat right now?" If you can't come up with a believable holding or two, muck your middle set. Throw away your low ended straight. Toss that mediocre flush. Sometimes you'll be wrong, but most of the time you will dodge an enormous train wreck.

Here are two fun hands from my PLO session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1440138

Like I said, I was playing a lot of modest hands lol. I'm a favorite preflop though, and I'm 47% to win against two opponents after the flop. That is really unbelievable, especially because one of my opponents has the nut straight. The turn is a killer though, and suddenly the nut straight guy surges to a 50% favorite, while I drop to 25%... and the guy with the set falls to 19%? Omaha is crazy man. Then of course my gin card comes on the river, and I bust both of them. Send it bitch.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1440141

In this one I'm a 55%/45% dog preflop, but I've got position and a loose image. The flop is good for me, but I have to worry about KK here. Hence, I just call. The turn makes me worry about a possible over-fullhouse too, but now I'm almost certain he has AA. Potting that flop and again on the turn doesn't make sense with KK, or JJ, or another 4... so it's either QQ or AA. I call it, and sure enough, he's got AA.


-The Gerk-