No time for food

Decent little win in just over an hour at Party/Eurobet last night, not bad considering I was very drunk indeed. I didn't drink all that much really, but going to play snooker straight from work, then meeting my Dad immediately afterwards, left no time for food. I did have a big bag of crisps in the pub though.

The evening wasn't entirely successful, since I remain terrible at snooker (I think I need to start from scratch - stance, action, everything) and Dad and I spent the first half-hour of our scheduled drinks evening sitting in different pubs about a mile apart. It seems my father got a bit intoxicated after we made our arrangements the previous evening, and promptly forgot the finer details.

Anyway, we had a pleasant enough couple of hours talking about diet, booze, music and the state of his marriage. These were good, good, good and bad respectively.

Finally, did I ever mention how good this rake back site is? They have offers at lots of the cardrooms.

Hit stats dropping

I've been keeping abreast of World Series of Poker results. A couple of British players have been close to bracelets - Devilfish was third or something, and Harry Demetriou took second in the 6-max NLHE yesterday.

What interested me was the dramatically smaller turnout for the 6-max tournament than for the other No Limit events. It seems that it doesn't matter what level of the game you look at, a lot of people are still scared of a short-handed game. Me, I don't even consider six seats to be short-handed, really. You can still more or less play poker, you don't have to play every hand, you just get the chance to be a bit more creative with the nuts out against you less often.

Indeed, it drives me nuts at Party when a full table drops just a couple players, and suddenly everyone runs for the hills. A good game turns into a collection of empty seats faster than you can say 'come back you pathetic cowards, its more fun this way and if we keep playing then others will sit down'.

I had a fairly good night last night, lost a tiny bit at 6-max on the old site, playing well but not quite catching a big pot. I was 30% dog in the one promising pot as it turned out, and I couldn't catch that break. I then won a reasonable amount at Party for once, though there were no games at the level I really wanted to play.

I flicked through the PLO section of Super System 2' afterwards, and was reminded how truly little good information on Pot Limit Omaha high or high-low there is in books. I don't think there is a single thing in any book so far that a good player wouldn't have worked out for themselves over time. You will find more 'advanced' thoughts in Big Dave D's blog or occasionally in Rolf Slotboom's articles than in any book published so far. Having said that, it never hurts to re-acquaint oneself with the fundamentals, and I certainly got a head start once I read Ciaffone's book (having been cleaned out in my early forays into the game).

Having said all that, I don't really mind. It is nice to formulate one's own strategies and style, and learn from experience.

AN ASIDE

The headline on the online Cardplayer magazine version of their Paul Darden feature is 'Paul Darden Is Back'. Initially I mis-read it and thought it said 'Paul Darden Is BLACK'. Wow, that's a pretty blunt headline, I mused until I realised my mistake.

ANOTHER ASIDE

My hit stats are dropping gradually at the moment. Maybe people are reading via 'bloglines' or some such service. Or have I gotten really boring lately? Comments welcome.

Shrunken and shrivelled

I have been unusually lax in updating recently. Running bad may have something to do with it. It's been a really trying few weeks...

Want to win with AQ v A7 at the crucial stage of a sit and go? No chance. Headsup in a PLO8 game in a pre-flop raising war that ends all-in, holding A23J doublesuited, versus a bag of spanners? You must be kidding if you expect to get a cent out of that pot. Flopped broadway versus one pair? A split! A2 versus 24 on a 226T board? Forget it mate...

Sometimes I think I need to have a 499-1 favourite to win a pot. Oh hang on...

However, I have certainly made mistakes. Failing to steal for myself a split pot through fear of betting. Getting into trouble out of position. Failing to raise certain hands pr-flop when I should have.

The bad run creates its own errors, as it pushes you into your shell no matter how much you try to resist that effect. The most upsetting example of that came at the weekend, when I check-folded on the turn in a large PLO8 pot to action from two opponents. In the worst-case scenario I would have had some chances in what became a really big pot. The best-case scenario was that I was still ahead and would have scooped it - and that turned out to be the case. Much gnashing of teeth. That one hurt.

Still, I think I am emerging from my cramped, painful shell, my eyes blinking in the blinding light. I decided to have a heavy poker weekend, focussed on playing lots of hours rather than on results. It went okay, despite missing out on that pot. The highlight was probably a session of PLO 6-max which began when I lost a pre-flop all-in with Aces versus someone else's Aces, which was doubly (though irrelevantly) painful because he had only three outs on the river. From there, I put the pedal to the metal and played with guts, desire, focus and skill to turn it into a reasonable win.

Suddenly I found myself playing like my old self again; I hadn't realised just how shrunken and shrivelled I had become at the table until I stood up tall again.

Anyway, I had a reasonable weekend and Monday evening. Nothing special, but back on track somewhat. I defintely fare better at 6-max than a full table, and I need to make the requisite adjustments on the Party/Eurobet ring tables to cope with that. The rakeback just makes it too good an opportunity to pass up. I've also finally managed to deposit a good portion of my mystery backer's funds into that account...

The next few weeks will see me chasing two goals; lots of hours, and taking a step or two up in size of games.

Besides all that, life tickles along just fine. Weather improving, snooker deteriorating, proposed European constitution in tatters after referenda results in France and Netherlands. Happy days, and I am on the up...

Heads up, heads down

I had won 6 out of 7 heads-up matches (no limit freezeouts) without ever being all-in with the worst of it, when I sat down versus an Aussie this morning.

In match one I had him nicely outchipped as the blinds got big, and got him all-in with me a 60/40 favourite. That went down and put him ahead from where he won.

Second match, I had him all-on a flop of AJQ, me holding TK for broadway and him with Q7 for one pair. Turn and river completed broadway on the board to split it. I was a mere 25-1 shot to win it. Only a few hands later I had A2 on a board of 226T. Both all-in, he has 2-4 and the river is a 4 for his 14-1 winner. It sort of hurts to lose a match, no matter how low the stakes, on a cumulative 390-1 shot.

I took a worse beat yesterday actually - the place where I wanted to deposit cash into Party (well, Eurobet) via Quickpay had - gnash! - run out of forms! When might you get forms? Oh, I don't know (thought bubble over his head said 'I don't care'). So now I will have to do it via fucking bank transfer, suposed to take five working days, though my withdrawal by the same method took over a fortnight. Had I known I wouldn't be able to 'Quickpay' the money, I would have done the bank transfer on Wednesday.

Fuck me, poker is frustrating. I don't know how I keep my head sometimes. If I didn't bore you fucking rigid with bad beat stories in here then I probably would have exploded by now.