anomaly16

Its not been the best month results-wise, but a profit again matching last month's $400 in around 30k hands with a graph too ugly to post.

Full ring games have been terrible this month - down $825 from only 8k hands. For the rest of the hands I've been playing 6max and its gone really well gaining back the losses from FR, leaving rakeback & tournaments as my profit for the month. Its the first time I've enjoyed playing 6max and over the last few days I think it has really helped me acknowledge some leaks in my game that I'm now working on. Baz mentioned something the other day particularly that has really made me think how I play some hands.

I'm also going to be getting some FR coaching from a new coach late in April I hope. He's one of the biggest winners at 200NL across FT & Pokerstars so it should be awesome. This is absolutely no disrespect to Baz at all who has improved my game at both FR & 6max but the opportunity is too good to miss to get some help from such a solid player (especially while he is offering it cheaply too!). I'm glad I have a few weeks to get my FR game in a better state to make the most of the sessions.

The discipline I wanted to achieve last month has been much better, and I've not played a single hand of 400NL :) But, as with all aspects of poker there is much still to improve.

The plan next month is to play 100NL FR, 100NL & 50NL 6max, to study and keep working on leaks and discipline. I'll probably play some micro PLO & HA too as I've got the omaha bug again and HEM will be adding omaha support very soon.

The practice paid off and I finished 4th tonight from 35 entrants with a decent prizepool thanks to 100+ rebuys to win £190. We played 7-handed which seemed a little odd but due to the entrants I guess.

The rebuy period was as painful as last time costing me 3 rebuys and an addon to get to a reasonable 9k chips at the break. It was an interesting mix of players at the table, from clueless to competent that made it almost pointless to raise preflop for isolation during the cheap blind levels as EVERYONE called so most hands ended up being limped pots.

Things picked up after the break and I tripled up after having middle set, nut flush draw and nut str8 draw all on the flop - at the turn I hit the str8 and a fh on the river to take it away from another nut str8. I picked up some more chips using stack & position and made it to the final table with 29k chips. The other table dominated us for chip counts - the leader and 2nd had 131k & 61k to our table max of 50k.

I started the final table 5th in chips, with 1st and 2nd both to my right :( I ducked under the first volleys of aggression and got some decent hands to fire back at 2nd in chips twice to grow my stack up to around 80k. It was most satisfying as he'd knocked me out of both the last 2 events! 3 others fell by the wayside in the meantime and we were down to 4. I'd been very tight for a couple of orbits and picked up AAT3 on the BB. Everyone limped in and I raised pot to make the pot 32k. The chips leader called (as he had done to most other raises). The flop came J87 missing me completely and possibly hitting some of his range while he probably knew I was on a big-paired hand. I probably should have folded at this point but my T gave me some foolish hope that he didn't have the str8 and I had outs to win even if he had 2 pair or a set. The pot was was 48k and I had around 55k left, chip leader had dropped a bit and 48k would have made quite a dent so I shoved pot and he put me allin which I had to call. On the flop he had 2 pair, Js and 7s. The turn came J leaving me 2 outs but the river brought another 7 and I was out.

I hadn't been too far away from 2nd in chips and had 4th well outstacked so perhaps I should have check/folded the flop and hung in for a better spot, more money and league points. Anyway, I did better than the last omaha event, made a profit, gained 7 league points and had fun so can't complain :) (and it puts me 3pts clear of Jas!)

It was a very tiring 8+ hours, especially as I probably dealt for 5hrs as well as coping with 4 cards and potsize calculations. Amazing it took that long for 35 people, but I guess PL, slower dealing and a 2hr rebuy period with a lot of rebuys didn't help. It did save me from having to watch Scotland lose though.

Net gain : +£139 (£190 - £11 - £10*3 - £10)

With a PLO event coming up this weekend I've been reaquainting myself with Omaha Hi... and I'm starting to remember why its so much fun! This hand is from early in a $3 MTT. Before cards were shown I was pretty sure at least one would have had quads! Right now I'm running 2nd of the remaining 200 from 400 entrants :)

EDIT: 15th of remaining 45 at the bubble

EDIT: Just gone from 25/25 to 2/20 :) Horrible flush double, KKxx > AAxx, AAxx > KKxx then KKxx hitting quads to beat QQxx in 10-20 hands.

EDIT: Final table, 6th in chips (12BB)

EDIT: Chip leader after hitting 2-outer on river with AAxx :) (27BB)

EDIT: 4th from 423 to win $114.21 :)

Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
$3 + $0.30 Tournament
8 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

Hero (UTG)		(2455)
UTG+1		(1290)
MP1		(565)
MP2		(2490)
CO		(2260)
BTN		(4310)
SB		(2195)
BB		(2450)

Blinds: 20/40

Pre-flop: (60, 8 players) Hero is UTG

Hero calls 40, UTG+1 calls 40, MP1 calls 40, MP2 calls 40, 2 folds, SB calls 20, BB raises to 280, Hero calls 240, UTG+1 calls 240, MP1 calls 240, MP2 calls 240, SB folds

Flop: (1,440, 5 players)
BB bets 1,440, Hero calls 1,440, UTG+1 goes all-in 1,010, MP1 goes all-in 285, MP2 goes all-in 2,210, BB goes all-in 730, Hero goes all-in 735

Turn: (9,290, 5 players)

River: (9,290, 5 players)

Final Pot: 9,255
MP2 shows:
BB shows:
Hero shows:
UTG+1 shows:
MP1 shows:

MP2 wins 35 ( lost -2,455 )
Hero wins 9,255 ( won +6,800 )
SB lost -40
BB lost -2,450
UTG+1 lost -1,290
MP1 lost -565

Saturday's office poker event saw a small field of 35. I grew my starting stack from 7k to around 10k at the break but then lost a few chips after being re-raised a couple of times. As the blinds increased I shoved from CO with QTo and was called but hit on the TTx flop and secured the double-up with a T on the river with quads. As the bubble approached I was pretty much card dead so sneaked to the final table with 17k chips (7th). Jas also made it with around 5k more chips.

I started on the button and didn't get involved till my first BB (blinds 600/1200 ante 100) after being raised to 3600 from CO by the guy who knocked me out last time. I figured my 89h reasonable enough to call with and the flop came JT3. I checked and he put in a cbet of 4500. I took my time and decided to shove (an extra 12k) with my open-ender thinking he had just about enough chips to be able to put it down as well as me having some outs to win if behind. He called pretty quickly though and with AKo taking away 4 of my outs it wasn't looking good. An 8 on the turn gave me some hope before the river A ended it.

In hindsight I wished I'd either folded preflop or had open-shoved the flop to gain some more fold equity. Also, it meant I was out first scoring only 1 league point and not getting any cash (only 5 prizes with the small field) so don't feel too sensible to have gone out without even making a hand. Jas and I made a bet before it started that whoever finished lower in the league this year would buy the other in to the first event of 2010, but fortunately for me Jas was out 9th gaining only one more point. This makes Jas ahead by 4 points (We were 5th= (10) & 9th= (7) before this one began - league not updated yet).

Next event on 28th will be PLO which was a lot of fun last time although I hope to do better. I don't think Jas has played any omaha in a long time so hope I can narrow the margin!

There is no justice in poker.

In real life I like to think I have a strong sense of justice and in things being fair, but there is no place for it in poker. You might occasionaly get some justice but to go after it is a leak.

There are a few scenarios where I probably call down bets or push harder where I shouldn't when the board and betting patterns dictate otherwise. As an extreme example (I wouldn't do this one now) I might have decided to slow play a flush on the flop but when the turn pairs the board or another flush card comes and I didn't have the A I'd bet big, annoyed I didn't bet when I should have done and to try and push someone off the hand - all very flawed logic. Recently I called down and lost a stack with what in hindsight was a fairly weak hand after losing a stack to a suckout on another table a few seconds before. There was definitely an element of "justice" in my weak thinking.