Robbed Again

After the way last weekends tournament went, after winning the Rays tix on Friday, I felt sure my luck had changed.  So I was looking forward to the 1pm tourney the PQ and I were going to play today. 

The tourney started out pretty well.  I picked off one guy bluffing his unpaired A10 and took down a decent pot with my pair of 9s.  I had a pretty good read on most of the players though I'm pretty sure I let one guy bluff me off a hand when I had middle pair.  But I digress.  After the first blind level, I got kinda card dead and missed a couple of really good draws as well so that by the time the blinds got up to 100-200 I was down from my 12000 starting stack to 8500 but I felt pretty good and was waiting to pick the right spot to start chipping up again. 

It came pretty suddenly.  I was in late position when a guy in early position pushed all in preflop for a bit over 7K.  I'd seen him do this once before and put him on something like 10s or Jacks.  I wasn't overly impressed by his play so far so when I looked at my cards and saw KK.  It was folded to me and I pushed in over the top.  Everyone folds and my opponent flips over 99.  Oops, sucks to be him as I flip over my cowboys.  Flop is garbarge, he gets up to leave and the turn is a 9.  Oops sucks to be me.  I turn to the guy next to me and say "I got Robbed again"  Two weeks in a row now I have someone buried and get 2 outed.   I was quite unhappy.  Especially when I pushed in with A6 on an AJA3 board and the same idiot calls with A8.  Can't get a 6 or a card bigger than 8 for a split on the river (of course) and I'm out while idiot boy who has no problem raising 35 big blinds preflop with a mid pair has all my chips. 

I was unhappy but there was a pretty juicy 4-8 omaha hi/lo game going and I wanted to get in on that.  Figured after the way my luck went last time I played, I was due for a turnaround at some point.  Of course I thought that way about the holdem tourney and look how that went.  But in this case I was right.  OMG the fish were schooling.  Now generally this game is populated by nitty old men and there were 3 of them there this time but the rest of the players were soft.  Of course a number of them usually are but that doesn't mean they won't take me down too.  This time was a different story.  There was one guy who was obviously new to Omaha and used to Holdem.  He kept pushing 2 pair and losing his ass.  He had bad luck to boot as a number of times the river killed him.  I sympathized, I was in the same boat a couple of weeks ago.  But I took his chips none the less.

Things went pretty well.  I kept it pretty tight and tried to pick the right spots.  I made sure I played tighter than last time for the most part but I also hit some hands this time.  My first hit was a king high flush.  I stayed in a raised pot without the nut flush where sometimes I might fold it.  But most of the people in the hand I knew stayed in with less.  If I was unlucky enough to run into the ace so be it.  But I didn't and even though it was a split pot, it was a big pot and half of that pot was almost $100 and a profit of over $60 for me. I was pretty reluctant to call with the king high flush but knowing who was in the hand I felt I was probably ahead and I was right.  After that I stayed patient and made a few hands stand up.  It would run in spurts where I'd hit a few hands then go through long stretches where I got nothing.  As long as I didn't try to push anything then, I was fine.  I would go throough 1 or 2 dealer changes and maybe play one hand outside of my blinds then a new dealer would come in and I would be in 3 of the next 4 hands and cash in most of them.  I had 2 really good hands during that time.  Both of them were kill pots.

This game plays a half kill where if someone scoops a pot (wins the whole pot, not a split pot) for over $60 the next hand would be played at $6-$12 rather than $4-8 and the winner is required to post $6 for the next hand.  I played one hand with A334 with the A3 of diamonds.  Flop is J 10 3 with the J-10 of diamonds.  Well I like that.  No one bets when it comes to me so I lead out for $6.  And get 6 callers.  Turn is a spade K which I don't like but since no one bets at it I decide to bet again.  4 people call my $12 bet.  River is another J and when no one bets I lead out again for $12.  Two people call me for some reason but can't beat my 3s full of Jacks which is a very nice $150 pot.   There were 2 women and one guy who had to play almost every hand.  One took a  bit from me last time when she hit some incredibly ugly hands that stood up.  This time I got a bit back from her and a lot more from the Holdem guy and the other woman.  My best hand was against the holdem guy.  Sitting with A2QQ with the A2 in clubs I saw a flop of 345 with the 34 of clubs.  Bingo, nut low hand plus the straight flush draw.  Holdem guy bets and I just call to keep as many people in as possible.  Turn is perfect, the Q of clubs.  Now I have the nut flush, nut low and I have no fears if the board pairs.  He bets again and this time I raise.  Unfortunately he is the only one to come along.  River is another 5 giving me the full house.  When we showed down he had A467 so he flopped the straight to the 7 but he couldn't get away from it and it cost him dearly when the clubs hit then the board paired.

I ran my original $100 up to about $410 before I hit a cold streak but when the PQ came by after bubbling out the final table I cashed out for $330.  Definitely a good night's work.  So perhaps getting busted out of the tourney was a benefit and not a curse.  I'm gonna believe that.  

Well Neo needs a nap.  Hope everyone is having a great weekend and that it's dryer where you are than it is here.  It is coming down here, outer portions of a tropical storm apparently.  Stay lucky peeps.