The Rollercoaster

I don't have much time so I'll keep it short. The last couple days have been a rollercoaster of swings. Overall, I am around even but I have played a lot of big pots. Online I am down about 5k and live I am up about the same.

The play at Commerce has become progressively worse. At times, I feel like I'm playing with 5-6 pros all attempting to isolate the 1-2 weak players at the table. Last night was a little different however. Something must have been in the air as everyone was in the gambling mode. I switched from Holdem to PLO back to Holdem back to PLO and finallly back to Holdem again.

The Holdem games started out rather dry and over the course of 5 hours I made about a grand. I then decided to play a little 10-20 PLO. My omaha game is getting better, but I would hardly call myself a seasoned pro. Luckily, most of the other players are not very strong either with exception for 2 young guys who seemed to know exactly what they were doing. I played the day before and made a few thousand so I thought I'd try again. This time I was totally card dead and was faced with several difficult decisions. Overall, I lost about 3k in the game, which is like even in that game. After I left the game got absolutely crazy as I was playing Holdem at a neighboring table. This guy sat down that automatically potted to see the flop. As well, there was a straddle on so the game was playing more like a 40-80 PLO and every pot was 10k plus.

The late night Holdem game was not too different as there was one kid who was shooting it up like crazy causing a frenzy at our table. In the end, the kid got lucky on a hand, against me of course, and quickly cashed out after giving the beat. I don't have time to talk about many hands so I'll focus on just a couple and will update tomorrow when fly to Vegas.

Hand #1:

Sickest PLO hand which I was not involved with. Straddle to $40, bunch of callers, maniac repopps to $340. Flop comes down K87 two diamonds. The maniac leads out for pot. This kid who was a tough player repots and the maniac repots and the kid declares allin. The kid has A1096 two diamonds so wrap and nut flush draw. The maniac has the worst hand I ever saw - QJ43 two diamonds. I had never seen anything like that before, there was a 40k pot a guy through it in with no pair and third nut diamond draw. Anyway turn is Q river is 2 no diamond and the maniac issues the worst beat I ever saw in PLO.

Hand #2:

I have AK off. Its late, the game is crazy, I am stuck and have been opening a ton of pots with a huge range of hands. There is a straddle of $40 with one caller so I make it $160. I loose aggressive player, who is pretty solid, reraises from the small blind to $575 and action is folded to me. He is 5k deep and I have more so with position and knowing he could reraise with a fairly wide range of hands, I decide to call. The flop is Q94 all diamond. He checks. Now normally I would probably take a free one, but I am on semi-tilt and my read was that he didn't like the flop perhaps a pair under the Q with no diamond? Anyway, I decide to bet 1k with AK A of diamonds to shake him knowing that this was a rather bad play, but I too came to the game to gamble. He instantly check-raises allin. At this point I'm really mad I didn't check. I know now he has one of two hands to be able to check raise such as scary flop. He has KK with the diamond backup or he has a set of Qs. With $1,500 invested and with him having $3,500 left I decide to make what is a borderline money call to draw out. If he has KK with the diamond it is a good call, if he has QQ then it is not. The turn is the 8 of diamonds and the river is the 2 of diamonds. He has KK with the diamond as it turns out and I win my first big pot of the trip getting lucky.

Hand #3:

Fresh off of losing a hand with 1010 in the big blind against JJ on the button heads up on an AAA board, I get QQ on the button. There are a couple limpers and I raise to $130. The big blind calls and the maniac kid under the gun reraises to $600. The kid has a hair under 4k total so I decide to smooth call what I think is a nonsense raise as he has done the back raise on several occassions and previously told people he wants to gamble to double up to get even or go home broke. Anyway, we get heads up and the flop is 865 two diamonds, the kid leads out $600. I know he is nervous and hated that I called him preflop. I decide this board is more than good enough to get the chips in against him so I declare allin. The kid hesitates and chooses to call off an additional $2600 with 53 off. Turn 2 river 3, two pair. So sick, just like the old party poker days.

Hand #4:

Not even five minutes after being issued the beat I pick up KK. Guy raises to $70 and I reraise to $300 he calls. Flop is 986 two clubs. He checks I bet $550 he calls. Turn pairs the 9 and he has $1500 left. I am almost positive he has 1010 to QQ as with aces or a set he would check raise me all in, note I have K of clubs so I know he doesn't have AK clubs. The guy has $1700 left in chips and I decide to push him in hoping to get a call as he may be thinking I'm steaming from the QQ and am trying to buy the pot. He calls the river pairs the 8 I show he mucks and I get back alot most of what I lost a couple hands previous.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but my luck continues to suck. The AK was a very lucky hand no doubt, but I have had so many other hands play out poorly its making me sick. And, I can never hit a draw, i'll talk about a couple huge draws gone bad in my next post.

Leaving for Vegas tomorrow and will hopefully have some better luck. At the very least, I get to have some fun and see my girl.

I'll update tomorrow, peace out!