Mirror image

So, I started seeing The Girl I Was Seeing again at the weekend, and decided that was a firm decision and I would be strong at avoiding temptation elsewhere. Naturally, as soon as I reached this decision the hot older woman at work who had cooled off on me suddenly got interested again. I had a drink with her after work last eve, just friendly, but ended up snogging her after she spent the hour talking about sex and touching me as much as possible. Eesh, I’m not impressed with myself. However, I’m not going into paroxysms of guilt. I’ve done worse in my time, and at least I made no move to go further when I probably could have.

The rest of the evening saw me sandwich more drinks with a (male) friend in between two sessions online. And it snowed. Most unusual in these parts, especially in mid November.

The first session was horrible, like a mirror image of the good session on Monday night. Two tables, and I got battered on both for a total of $112 in an hour and a half. It’s a long while since I’ve found myself collecting hand numbers to check out my bad beats later on, feeling the bile and frustration rising in me. I also need to check out whether a big all-in call I made with a reasonable straight draw was as bad as I fear it was or as good as it may have been. That was a $140 pot. The hand that hurt most was a $62 pot in which I trapped a guy nicely with my top full house on a very low board of rags, only for him to hit his one out for quad deuces on the river.

It may have been a good thing that I had to depart at this point for beers. That was okay, but I really must learn that drinking on an empty stomach is foolish. I got more drunk than I would have liked whilst my friend confessed to his foot fetish…

Returning to my lair, I fired up three tables: two 6-max PLO affairs, and a 6-max $1/$2 limit O8 game. ($1/$2 doesn’t seem to attract players very often so I wanted to take it while it was there).

Within an hour I was down another hundred dollars and more - no outright terrible beats but a succession of bricks on turn or river. I suspect that three tables of 6-max (eg swift action) is too much for me, as I was repeatedly having to make tricky decisions very quickly and without really thinking. That is not a good situation in pot limit play.

Still, I kept my head strangely enough. The booze helped me to take a laid-back attitude to my losses and just keep (trying to) make good decisions. And perhaps the flipside of playing three fast-moving tables was that it kept me too busy to lament my misfortune.

Either way, I felt like I could turn it around and I did. The odd pot started to get pushed my way, the O8 moved into profit (despite what I would call a very unlucky run of cards overall in the game) and I won a really nice PLO pot to move me into the black for the session. I was up $22 when I finally succumbed to the alcoholic tiredness at about 1:40am. A small profit for sure, but having been three figures down an hour earlier it salvaged something from what could have been a disastreous day.

It hasn’t been a great November so far. I’m up just over $200 at only about $6.70 per hour. Yuk.

Also ‘yuk’ to Sklansky’s tournament book. I just don’t think it is that useful, personally. I’m a moderate tournament player at best, and I didn’t find anything in the book that set off a lightbulb in my head. Further, a lot of the book’s bulk is made up of material relating to limit tournaments, stud tournaments, razz tournaments, that the majority of people rarely play. On the plus side, it wasn’t quite as ‘dry’ as a lot of Sklansky’s stuff.

Bluffing sod

I had a lovely little session last night, made all the more so because my brother is away so I am staying in his place – blessed peace and quiet!

I played two tables of 6-max PLO for two and a half hours and won $143. I can’t lay claim to any great play; it was one of those nice sessions where I held a lot of cards, hit a lot of flops, and was up against mostly rather weak players.

An interesting thing was that one player called me (in a good-natured way) a ‘bluffing sod’, after he had failed to believe I had trips on a paired board and managed to hit his two-outer full house. When I mentioned that I was holding good cards (and in fact had yet to show down a losing hand at this point) he said his notes went back many months. It just goes to show how people’s perceptions of you can differ from reality. I am far from being a big bluffer in these games, nor am I even loose compared to most players; but I do raise many of my hands and follow up with a flop bet frequently, and this obviously creates a certain impression. However, my outright stone-cold big-bet bluffs are infrequent.

Anyways, I got a chance to exploit this comment only a few hands later when I raised pre-flop with 3478 in late position. The chap who had commented checked and called flop and turn where I had two pair. The river made me a full house on a board something like 357J3. He checked, I bet pretty big, he called as expected – well, I am a bluffing sod! – and I won a nice pot. Without his earlier comment I would have won a much smaller pot, because I would have bet smaller throughout; scared that either he would fold, or that his calls on flop and turn were more meaningful than they really were.

His comment after that hand was that he put me on something completely different because of my pre-flop raise. Well, that’s one important reason why I raise hands like 3478, although the main reason is that a 56x flop would give me a big wrap straight draw.

All in all, a highly satisfying way to wrap up the night after some reasonable snooker earlier. Life feels good when you’re winning.

I printed off my 6-month history of deposits and withdrawals from my poker account yesterday. I’m looking forward to adding it all up’ though at the moment I have no idea whether it will turn out better or worse than I imagine. I would love to be able to print out how much rake I’ve paid in that time. That’s not something I’ve ever thought about much in the past - and there’s nothing I can do about it – but it would be interesting to know my value as a customer…

Meanwhile, the Sklansky book continues to bore me rigid.

High and low

Thursday was nice. I drove up north, having finally managed to work a visit to one of our distributor companies into a suitable social timetable. I was meeting the distributor Friday morning, so driving up Thursday meant I could see my ex on the Thursday night. We had a few drinks with some other friends up there, then she and I stayed up for not long enough drinking wine and laughing. I found myself, as usual, quite overcome with emotion about her. I care about her with a deep passion, stronger than it was for the last few years of our relationship. I would do almost anything for her.

After she went to bed I stayed up a little longer, which meant I got to see a ‘World Poker Tour’ show for the first time on the satellite TV that I am still paying for. It was quite good, I thought – but I guess its easier presenting the climax with only a few players left, than conveying a good sense of the earlier stages with multiple tables.

The Friday was also good; after I had finished the meeting at about midday I took the chance to have a quick wander round the town centre. I miss the place. Also noted that the new Eminem album is out, so I will buy that and the new Kings of Leon one on payday next week.

I got some poker in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Profit all the way, but nothing big. The most noteworthy thing is that my site finally reintroduced Omaha High/Low (Eight or Better) – hallelujah! I used to play a bit of pot limit O8 back in the day, and a lot of limit even further back when I played at Planet, and I think I am ok at it.

I haven’t dipped into the pot limit game yet; there are some good players of it on my site and I am doing well and feeling comfortable in the high-only games for the time being. But I couldn’t resist running some $1/$2 limit as a second (and briefly third) table behind my usual 6-max PLO. Apart from the brain-strain involved in making sure I don’t start playing hi-lo hands at the high table and vice versa, it’s been sweet enough. About twelve big bets in a couple of hours, having frittered a fair few bets with some poor loose play due to being so pleased to have the game back.

I also played $3/$6 last night for a little while. Don’t laugh, but that is the highest I have ever played in limit poker – despite having played quite a lot of $1/$2 pot limit. It shouldn’t have troubled me too much, but I didn’t feel 100% comfortable. I don’t know whether the fact that we were six and then five-handed made that better or worse.

Anyway, I did okay; played well (tight, naturally), made an irritating but correct laydown on the river, and took a $48 pot when a low failed to come on the river and both opponents checked, forcing me to bet with absolutely nothing and smile as they folded. I suspect I’d have got called down at $1/$2, as this game was noticeably tighter.

I saw the new Bridget Jones movie at the weekend. This may tip you off to the fact that I met The Girl I Was Seeing again, and I’m now seeing her again. Yes, I folded in the face of pressure from my opponent Sexual Desire. A strong, aggressive opponent. With great breasts.

Book update: ‘King of a Small World’ is excellent. You should read it. I’m now onto the Sklansky tournament book, which is not wowing me so far. Much of the material seems to assume a limit tournament as the norm, which surely could not be further from the truth.