Lucky Fish

Obviously posting because I had a win, but can honestly say I had a dreadful October. After the last post I decided I needed to change games again and went back to the cash tables. This culminated in dropping about $150 in 2 days towards the end of the month and basically decimating my Betfair balance, it went under £100 for the first time in ages. Pokerchamps account was also sub-$100 as well.

So, went back to basics again and started back on the $2.5/$5 STT trail again. Managed to spin back up to about £150 again before last weekend. Played the 20:35 PLO $10 on BF Friday and came 3rd for $38. Only about 20 runners, but I seem to do well in this tourney.

Then on Sunday I was online "early" and decided to go for the $350 gtd PLO rebuy. $10 buyin was enough to see me through to the first break, with about 4x starting stack and in the top 5. The addon at this point is 3000 chips, which made the decision a bit of a no-brainer as most other folks seemed to be adding on too. 19 runners managed to produce a total of 45 buy-ins for a $450 pot, with top 3 paid only.

Into the 2nd hour, most players seemed happy to bet their big stacks against everyone else, which meant quite a few started to drop. Down to 8 it slowed down and I managed two big double-ups betting a flopped set that held against a straight draw and 2 pair. Down to final 3 and I start in 3rd, get to roughly evens, down a bit, then double on the 2nd with another set and took him out with a river when he was short a few hands later.

Heads up, playing against eggo, managed to get ahead, although fell back a bit a little. Final hand was where I made my biggest mistake of the whole tournament and got totally lucky, by rights I should have ended up 2nd with $135, instead of first with $225. But, I only played the hand the way I did based on eggo's previous hands, where he came from behind to beat 3 or 4 players for big pots. Here are the cards and some percentages:

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 271441629 *****
PL Omaha $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee, Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante) - Sunday, November 04, 22:25:38 GMT 2007
$350 GTD $11+Rebuy PLO #109339
Table 1 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of active players : 2

Seat 1: harayir ( 44,390 )
Seat 6: eggo ( 35,110 )

Tourney Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante)
harayir posts ante [75]
eggo posts ante [75]
harayir posts small blind [600]
eggo posts big blind [1,200]

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to harayir [ 4s, 3d, 8s, Td ] woohoo - double suited - 51.5% to win here
harayir calls [600]
eggo checks

** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, Qc, 3c ] I hit the flop so pot raise - 6.5% to win now
eggo checks
harayir bets [2,550]
eggo raises to [10,200] not unusual, could have anything based on previous play
harayir calls [7,650]

** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ] ooh, flush, gutshot straight and FH draws - 27.5% to win - doh!
eggo bets [22,950]
harayir goes all-in
harayir raises to [32,915]
eggo calls [685]
eggo goes all-in
Returning uncalled bet [9,280] to harayir

** Showdown **
harayir shows [ 4s, 3d, 8s, Td ]
eggo shows [ 4h, 7h, 4c, 9s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]

** Hand Conclusion **
harayir wins 70,220 from main pot with a Flush
************ Game 271441629 ends ************

At no point did I put him on a set once the flop came down. Still, would have been a reasonable result to come 2nd for a total $20 buyin and it was kind of karma that he was beat when he went in a head for once.

Betfair balance now back up to £280, with the harayir account scoring positive points on 3 leaderboards out of 3. Not sure about Pokerchamps as have only cashed in 1 of 3 STTs tonight, so it might be back down to $2.5 grinding on that account for a while. Partpoker dollas all gone again, so will wait until they send me another freebie before I play there again.

Deposited on Ladbrokes again to test out their double your money tables. Seduced by the thought that I could easily manage to finish in top 3 of 6 or 5 of 10. In fact it's not so difficult, but the games are soooo boring as everyone rocks up straight away. The one time I decided to loosen up, I was runner, runnered by the table fish and knocked out. What I have found is the hilo games where top 3 of 6 get paid, but it is not even payout, might be the way forwards on there.

Also managed to find the maddest STT in the world: 6-seater no limit hi lo. 4th of 6 I will only go back to that format when my bankroll is bigger than $45.

Good luck at the tables