I Try

Chon Wang: Why don't I pretend I'm sick, and then you can attack them when they come in?
Roy O'Bannon: Oh, does the sick prisoner routine still work in China? 'Cause here, it's been done to death.

”Shanghai Noon”

My bankroll has been in steady decline since I made my last withdrawal. Nothing drastic, but I session in the black would be great.

I had the pleasure to play in the first Omaha tournament at Noble Poker organised by Scurvy Dog, and congrats to him for taking the prize in it too. I was unlucky and finished just outside the paying top 15 in 50th. Here is the major piece of advice I have to give about the tournament:

Aggression:
1 - The act of initiating hostilities or invasion
2 - The practice or habit of launching attacks.
3 - Hostile or destructive behaviour or actions.

In poker, aggression translates to betting hard when you have a hand and making others pay for their draws.

Fuck-wadism:
1 – The act of being a fuck wad, displaying general fuck wad behaviour.
2 – Seeing 100% of flops, capping pre-flop, post flop, turn and river betting with or without hitting.

See the difference kiddies? Yep, we had one or two people at the table I was at who belonged to the second group. I was getting marginal hands and if I wanted to see a flop I knew it would take four bets to do it, which meant I had to wait for a very good hand. When that came along, I would miss the flop totally and be forced to drop it. We had one guy at our table whom displayed premier type 2 behaviours as stated above. He went from first at the table to busted in 3 hands of Limit Omaha. Having a suited King and a triple gut buster straight draw is NOT a good hand. At least I outlasted him. Problem was though, by the time he and the other type 2 personalities exited, the blinds had risen to an uncomfortable level. At one stage Scurvy Dog visited my table and noted “good comeback”, as I had climbed from 60th to 8th. Thing was, I did so by winning one hand. It was the only hand I won for the entire tournament – hi or lo. I won without a showdown on the river when a Queen hit – putting out a flush and a straight, of which I had neither. I did however have a pair of queens in my pocket and was well pot committed by now so I bet, and it was folded around to me. Very interesting. Before long, with two Kings on the flop I had one in my hand plus a flush draw. I had about 3 BB left and was all in before long. I lost to the other King out there when I got out-kicked by his Ace. 50th – which was disappointing but I can put it down to cold cards and tilt after the earlier episode.

I was annoyed that the tournament ended the way it did and also that I let the tournament end the way it did. I was in no mood for more poker on the day and didn’t even hang around for the post-tourny ring games that I was so looking forward to. I did chat with a few bloggers at the tables, but for a supposed “Blogger Tourny” it was very quiet. I think the free roll aspect of it attracted a lot of outsiders, which wasn’t all bad I guess. These leagues are a top idea, and no doubt they will improve as more and more are run.

Besides this, I have had a terrible time at SNG’s lately, busting out on the very first hand in one. Shocking play, with QQ I raised it pre-flop 5BB, and got two callers. Flop comes all under cards, 789. The small blind makes a min raise, so I make a bigger one and he re-raises me. Of course warning bells should have sounded, but in my mind I wanted him to have TPTK. I pushed, he called and showed T6 for the flopped straight. Yeah, that was shit. Out on the first hand and with my head hanging low, I shut down for the night.

The distraction was in full force too, so I guess I can blame that. Yeah, I’ll blame that.

Good news is I am having a crack at building a poker table this weekend. I have read heaps of the plans online and have adapted them to what I want. Since I work in the plywood industry, that part of the table will be super cheap. Also, by coincidence a local fabric shop was having a massive sale on Monday and I got the vinyl and “Zara Suede” at discounted prices. I’m using a black suede for the table top as I couldn’t find decent felt and some other online plans had excellent results with suede. The rail will be bright red – I would have preferred other colours but the selection was rather limited. So far the most expensive part has been the foam for the rail – as I selected some high density foam at 100mm thick (about 4 inches). A bit of over kill perhaps, but it should be worth it in the end. I will make a post about the table next week provided the construction this weekend goes ahead as planned.