Sweet Valley High I've Done It Again!
Monday, April 11, 2005
If you have someone within grabbing distance, grab'em and kiss'em. If that person is repugnant at least give them a high five (and maybe think twice about who you hang out with). If you're alone, kiss the sky for me please. Why all the good cheer? Well folks, I had back-to-back-to-back winning sessions. That's right, Cry Me A River TripJax hoisted the royal middle finger to the poker demons and pulled off some good damn play.
Again, I have to throw a little thank you out to ScurvyDog over at Sound Of A Suckout for giving me just the right change of scenery I needed at just the right time (see previous post). In brief, I deposited a little bit of cash over at Noble Poker to play in Scurvy's weekly Omaha8 tourney on Fridays. After finishing up in 5th for his tourney I was able to win some dough both Friday night and Saturday. On the heels of those wins I decided to try and keep the streak going by playing some on Sunday.
So, to start the day off I played in a $10,000 freeroll offered by Empire Poker. I had high hopes since 1st place shelled out $2100. Unfortunately time was not my friend as the tourney started at 4pm and I had somewhere to be at 5pm. Before I knew about the tourney, I had offered to help my friend by playing "pit boss" at his weekly cash game while he was away on vacation. I didn't have to do much - change out chips and pick up some food - but it definitely made trying to play well in the freeroll difficult.
My plan was to play the tourney at my house up until around 4:45pm, then click the sit out button and bust ass over to my buddies house. Then I would have my wife disconnect me at my house so I could reconnect at my buddies house. Far fetched as it sounded, I figured it would work. In an effort to either put myself in good position or not have to worry with the rushed commute, I decided to play super aggressive. With it being a freeroll, that's the style of many of the players anyway. So about 15 minutes in I pick up pocket 10's and push figuring I'll get a call with anyone who has an A or a decent hand. I do get the call, unfortunately by a guy with Rockets, but fortunately he had less chips than me. On the next hand - quite short stacked - I pick up 6 7 hearts and decide to push figuring if I get called I've got some decent draws. Unfortunately, I get called by the same guy and he again has Rockets. No help and I'm out...but it cost me zilch to play so it was o.k. Plus I no longer had to worry about rushing to my buddies house to play.
So where does the continued winning session begin you ask? Patience dear readers, I'm now getting to that part. After playing pit boss for a while I did some grocery shopping and then headed home. I decided to fire up the computer and listen to some music while wifey watched the new installment of Law & Order. I just don't have anymore room in my life for another Law & Order (or any other crime drama for that matter). Not long into my music session I decided to give Noble Poker another try. I played another Turbo 6 max NL Hold'em SNG and won the damn thing. On a streak I played another and came in 2nd place. At that point it was getting late and I didn't want to commit to another SNG so I decided to give their cash games a try.
Now before I tell you all the limit I played, I have to give a little background. I don't fancy myself a very good limit player. I have not put in the leg work to know the game inside and out. I've read Abdul, Hank, plenty of online articles, and even a few books by the pros, but I just have not given that game enough of my time to feel comfortable. For the most part, my game has been based around tournaments, so when I've played limit in the past I've had my ass handed to me. All that being said, I decided to check out the Hold'em tables to see what Noble offered. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to work with. Where Party Poker has 50,000+ at any given time, Noble probably didn't have more than 20 tables in all the limit and NL Hold'em games.
Having built my measly bankroll up a good bit over the last 2 days, I wasn't ready to risk a good chunk of it playing a high limit or even a relatively high NL game. So, after searching the tables, I settled in at the - don't laugh - .10/.20 NL table where the max buy-in was $5.00. This felt great cause I could practice my ring game action - albeit not the set limit style - without risking much of my bankroll. So I plopped 5 bones on the felt and gave it a try. I ended up getting down to about $2.00 when I picked up 10's in the hole. There was a guy to my left who was consistantly re-raising my raises, so I felt comfortable about putting out a decent raise with the expectation of being re-raised. As planned I dropped a raise to $.70 and he re-raised me to $1.50. Another guy called his re-raise and I pushed the rest of my little stack to the middle. They both called and the door card was a 10 and I took down the pot. It all happened so fast I don't even know what they had. So just like that I was back up to around $7. I could tell the guy to my left was pissed cause he started raising every pot and showing down shitty hands.
So, when I picked up K 10 in the big blind and he didn't raise it enough to get me out, I made the easy call. The flop came 9 J 3 giving me a few outs to catch a straight. When he dropped what felt like a post-oak bluff, betting the minimum into a pretty decent sized pot, I knew it was time to keep calling and try to break him. And that's exactly what I was able to do when my sweet Q came on the turn. Fortunately this Q filled the guys 2 pair (J's & Q's) and - probably still steaming from my previous win - he pushed his remaining $10 to the middle. With no made flush or full house potential on the board at that point, I smiled as I pushed the All-In button. Nothing came on the river and just like that I had turned my $5 into almost $20.
Not having enough left to throw a big pissed off over sized bet, he pushed what he had left and, when it was folded to me, I called with 6 7 suited. He had played 7 3 offsuit and caught no help so in the end, I took every last chip from that poor guy, save for a few blinds that other players picked up. A few minutes later I lost a couple of duckets and decided it was high time to hit the dusty trail towards zzzzzzville. Know this, however, my head hit the pillow with a huge smile, no doubt.
That's it for me now, but I've got more in me gulliver to think about so I'll probably post again soon. Having more than doubled my Noble bankroll in 3 days, I may have some more play in me early and often this week.
posted by TripJax @ 8:41 PM,
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