Those Damn Rockets

Corporal Dean Portman : You know, Kid, it's funny. A couple of days I asked Sarge for a little pussy. The next day he brought you onto the team.
John Grimm: Don't give me an excuse, Portman. No one here will miss you.

"Doom"

What a weekend of poker I had, finally finishing a raked hand bonus in the most up and down session of my life. Thankfully, it was slightly more up than down, though it didn't feel like it was going to be for most of it.

Like most bad beat stories, this one starts with Pocket Aces. There was the one table bully with a massive chip stack who was playing it accordingly, and he made a pre-flop raise that was standard, with which was met by a not-standard pre-flop re-raise. I see this as an opportunity to catch someone out with a pocket pair they can't get away from, and before long all three of us are all-in before the flop. The other player I have covered has JJ and the bully, well he has my other two Aces. Naturally, there is a jack on the flop and I am drawing dead.

An hour or so later, I got caught out again with AA vs 88. Hitting an ace was not help enough, as the river gave the 88 a straight. It was a shame too, because the 88 was a real jackass but was on a lucky streak hitting a few lean draws before this one.

But as poker is want to do, things swung back. I cracked aces with K9, another reason why you shouldn't limp with aces. From the big blind I hit two pair on an all-diamond flop. The turn made no help but the river was another nine so I had no reason to be scared of the flush anymore. I decided I couldn't check raise here for my final $14 into a $26 pot, because he would only do that if he had the flush (or a pocket pair that also hit), and if he had either of those hands then he would call the $14 bet anyway. If he has less than that, he'll probably just check if I check and fold no matter how much I bet. I thought my reasoning was correct, so I put the rest of my chips into the middle. He called with two pair, aces and nines, and I was happy.

Later against the same player, they raised in late position with me again on the big blind. I had Ad5d and decided to see a flop. The flop was A high, and he put out a little bet, I call. This happens all the way to the river and he shows the un-improved QQ for another nice little pot.

The final major pot for the weekend was with an ace on a board of AAKQQ. I had a real fear of AK, but put out my final bet on the river anyway. The opponent calls with TT, which of course meant he was playing the board. I wish I found this guy earlier…

My recent follies with AA have led me to think that I am playing them wrong, so I changed my mindset. I seem to be loosing with them all the time, and big pots too. When I do win with them, it is blinds only stuff. When I looked back at it, it's probably because I am playing very tight and a raise from me is usually noticed. The last couple have been bad beats, so there is not much I could do about that I guess. What would a post be without a bit of a bad beat whinge – readable, I hear some of you say. Smart ass.

After a nice win in a two table SNG, I managed to complete this length promo with a modest profit. I have found my feet in the small NL games again, which was very welcomed. The limit side of it was still puzzling to me, and fruitless. If it doesn't sound too stupid, I think I play too tight to take advantage of limit games. In one session, I had won 2 hands out of the 84 played at one table, and this was 6-max. Small sample size, but you get the picture.

So the list of freebies thanks to PSO grows significantly, thanks to them adding new rooms which I had not completed promos for before. I think I was almost to the point where I was running out of DVD's that I wanted to get. Such a shame that most of the suppliers on the Amazon website don't deliver to Australia. I found one such company that does, and therefore I channel all non-amazon purchases through them even if their prices are slightly higher. There's a little business promo for you, Amazon retailers!

Currently, I have $4 sitting in online poker rooms, so I will be having a few days break from the tables at least. More of a chance to catch up on my video game habit I guess. I'm nearly half way through Heroes of Might and Magic V, and I'm finding it to be exactly as I had expected, maybe a little harder which is great. I've always been a big fan of the series and it is good to see the latest instalment hasn't disappointed.