Quads and champagne

Mammoth session yesterday evening. Five and a half hours, for a total of $63.

I would really anticipate making more than that over a long session of pretty focussed poker (with some interludes of simultaneous instant messaging plus a half-bottle of champagne, which had sat on the shelf failing to be licked off a girl’s breasts for far too long) but after a lovely start in the Omaha game I could never kick on to make a big stack.

I had a nice start when I raised a hand with a 4 in it and saw a 444 flop. A lovely opponent proceeded to bet all the way and call my river reraise. Hell, it’s a tough game sometimes! I also managed to bust the Swedish guy who vexed me the previous day. However, after that my stack just oscillated endlessly around that mark, with just one near-miss on really pumping it up.

That occurred when I made a $46 pot-size bet on the turn with the nut straight and top two pair Kings and Jacks.. I was surprised to get a call, and delighted when the river King made me the nut full house. Sadly, my opponent also had KJ and after the river action we split the $176 pot. He had called the turn with top two , a gutshot, and the third-nut flush draw. That might make his call sound good, but in fact he was drawing to 7 wins (the spades) and 4 ties and it was a Big Loser Call. (The turn action makes me over $50 every spin and loses him $11, in that virtual currency mentioned yesterday. At this rate I will soon be able to afford a nice virtual holiday).

His action started to make sense as he established himself in the game - he was the table maniac/bully. He did pretty well for a while; because the nuts is such a genuine threat in Omaha, it can be very hard to call such a player’s bets and raises without holding the mortal lock yourself.

Frankly, I struggle against opponents like him myself. I like raising pre-flop in PLO as I have mentioned before. But I dislike facing large reraises, whereupon half a stack goes in the pot pre-flop if you want to stay involved. Omaha hands run so close before the flop that I have a strong aversion to such situations. I ended up battening down the hatches and focussing on my second table (which I will mention later).

Still, such one-dimensional players often come unstuck in the end. After his stack swung violently for a while he ultimately busted out, leaving the table in the blink of an eye to avoid the jibes of the opponents he had made so uncomfortable during his stay. I wouldn’t mind adding a little of his game to mine, but it wouldn’t hurt him to turn down the aggression a touch either.

Anyways, I mentioned I was two-tabling a bit. Sadly, once again I could not find a game of five card stud, my new favourite. Instead I played a pot-limit Hold ‘Em headsup tourney, which I lost. I trapped the fella three times preflop but he flopped trips each time, finishing me off with A7 versus my KK when the flop came 77x.

After that I played my first PLO ‘sit and go’ in a while. Those are good fun and easy to place in, because so many people play them all wrong. I came third, and followed up by playing and winning another, before it was (past) time for bed