A Half Century

This is apparently my 50th post, hard to believe when you look back at my first post and the reasons for creating the blog. It has also been running for over 2 years as well. Hope you have enjoyed reading it, tried not to make it too much of a bad beat listing. So, for a bit of a change, here is a hand history.

Here's a playing to win mistake I made last night. On reflection, my 35% for the hand on the flop when the money went in, would have paid 2:1 in chips but only have doubled my payout (assuming that I can play a big stack effectively). Maxemus must have thought it was his lucky day, though based on his play throughout this table, pooh could have had anything. 3rd paid about $600, 1st about $1200. Live and learn.

Game #8143681553: $2,500 KO Guarantee (61186768), Table 23 - 4000/8000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 20:48:05 ET - 2008/09/19
Seat 2: MAXEMUS126 (192,314)
Seat 6: whoflungpooh (359,338)
Seat 8: electric chair (189,348)
electric chair posts the small blind of 4,000
MAXEMUS126 posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Qh Ks As 6s]
whoflungpooh calls 8,000
electric chair raises to 20,000
MAXEMUS126 folds
whoflungpooh calls 12,000
*** FLOP *** [3s 2s Ah]
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 36,000
whoflungpooh has 15 seconds left to act
whoflungpooh raises to 156,000
electric chair raises to 169,348, and is all in
whoflungpooh calls 13,348
electric chair shows [Qh Ks As 6s]
whoflungpooh shows [Th 5s 4h 6h]
*** TURN *** [3s 2s Ah] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [3s 2s Ah Jc] [9c]
electric chair shows a pair of Aces
whoflungpooh shows a straight, Five high
whoflungpooh wins the pot (386,696) with a straight, Five high
electric chair stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 386,696 | Rake 0
Board: [3s 2s Ah Jc 9c]
Seat 2: MAXEMUS126 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: whoflungpooh (button) showed [Th 5s 4h 6h] and won (386,696) with a straight, Five high
Seat 8: electric chair (small blind) showed [Qh Ks As 6s] and lost with a pair of Aces

This was actually on the final table of a $24 knockout plo tournament on Full Tilt. With 247 runners I was paid out just over $650 including 8 bounties. I only entered it because late registration was open when I logged in.

On other fronts, my Full Tilt account is looking nice and healthy. Earlier this week I went past the $1k mark and after last night, I was up to $1.6k. Have withdrawn $600 today, which obviously means I played like a donk tonight and went 0/4. Mostly playing hilo STTs at the moment. Having built my bank up with a selection of $6 and $11 STTs I decided to try out a few $22 games as well. Initial results have been very good, though I have had too many 2nd places from a lead to be happy.

On Betfair, the balance is now up to £180, a result entirely driven by Omaha, including one profitable cash session when I was earning points for the merchandise mountain promotion. Managed 3 back to back $10 STT wins yesterday, followed by a 2nd, making it my best overall profit day since I won a trip to NY 2 years ago.

My Sharkscope graphs are still looking good, on both the Betfair and Full Tilt accounts, the upward tendency is still there, but August ROI took a bit of a battering due to low volume. I was quite pleased with myself until I checked markwales on Stars. He has been killing the 180 runner SNGs recently and his profit line has turned vertical, just so sick. Not played much on Blue Square or Everest lately, not really worth learning another couple of sites when I can make money at 20-40% ROI on the ones I focus on already.

Lastly, have invested in Poker Tracker Omaha version. I can't say I fully understand it, nor that it works 100% accurately, but it has verified a couple of things I guessed about my game before. Typically, I see 38% of the flops in Omaha in tournaments. Somewhat surprisingly, I VPIP 60%+ from the small blind, with only a very small negative ROI. I guess this is related to the number of tables I get HU at the end, often running 20-30 hands before a conclusion is reached.

My last game of the day is running now, a $33 18-man hilo SNG on Full Tilt. Currently 3rd of 7 left and the action is about to start getting interesting, so I must go and focus on that.