Less tournaments, More cash

I limited the amount of tournaments I played on Saturday so I would have enough time to put in a decent cash session as well. The tournaments went the same way they have all week, even though my brain isn’t fully back into tournament mode I have still been playing ok but getting some pretty rough luck. I started with the $300 on stars yesterday but never got going above my starting stack eventually re-raising a serial raiser all in with AT, he had TT then a T flopped and I was toast. As that was the only decent tournament at the time I fired up a $10/20 NL game on DTD at the same time, this went rather better. When I joined the table, we were 3 handed for a long time and nothing much happened really, I won $800 pretty quickly but then dwindled back down to my $2k buy in. Then I won a nice pot with AK, just flat calling a button raise from the blinds, check calling the A high flop the check raising when a K hit the turn, my opponent tanked it and then passed.

Shortly after 2 maniacs joined the table and things got very wild, with them playing huge pots with 2nd pair and bottom pair respectively. I had raised a few times with marginal hands and the player on my left had re-raised me each time and I had passed. Playing a $3.5k stack I raised with 89 spades and called the re-raise from the player on my left. The flop was 8 4 3 with 2 spades, an almost dream flop for my hand and was ready to play this for his remaining $2k. I lead at the pot and he instantly shoves all in, his range was so wide I don’t even considering folding and beat him in the pot. He tables AK off, and was drawing dead on the turn after a spade hits, $4.4k shipped.

I lay pretty low for a while and maniac 1 reloads and goes to war with maniac 2 again. I then play my biggest pot on a cash table, and had to sweat it out even after flopping the nuts:

Game #4220773303: Hold'em NL ($10/$20) - 2007/05/26 - 19:24:16 (UK)
Table "Sarangi" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: tolvhed ($4434.50 in chips)
Seat 2: jtman ($5284 in chips)
Seat 3: teddywong ($1990 in chips)
Seat 4: BobVance ($5521.94 in chips)
Seat 6: Lazarus1 ($4037.39 in chips)
Lazarus1: posts small blind $10
tolvhed: posts big blind $20
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to BobVance [Th 9h]
jtman: folds
teddywong: folds
BobVance: raises to $70
muuuuseee joins the table at seat #5
Lazarus1: calls $60
tolvhed: calls $50
----- FLOP ----- [7s 8d 6d]
Lazarus1: bets $175
tolvhed: calls $175
BobVance: raises to $675
Lazarus1: raises to $3967.39 and is all-in
tolvhed: folds
BobVance: calls $3292.39
----- TURN ----- [7s 8d 6d][8h]
----- RIVER ----- [7s 8d 6d 8h][9c]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Lazarus1: shows [9d 7d] (Two Pairs, Nines and Eights, Seven high)
BobVance: shows [Th 9h] (A Straight, Ten high)
BobVance collected $8316.78 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $8319.78 Main pot $8316.78 Rake $3
Board [7s 8d 6d 8h 9c]
Seat 1: tolvhed (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: jtman folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: teddywong folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: BobVance showed [Th 9h] and won ($8316.78) with A Straight, Ten high
Seat 6: Lazarus1 (small blind) showed [9d 7d] and lost with Two Pairs, Nines and Eights, Seven high
****HAND ENDS****

I played some 8pm start mtt’s but nothing materialised, only one really savage bad beat and that was early in my favourite online mtt, the full tilt $300 6 seater. BB is 40, I have 4.4k and my opponent in the big blind has me covered, I open for 120 on the button with 88 and the SB calls then the BB makes it 400 preflop, I call and the SB passes, The flop is Q 8 2, and the BB leads for 320 into a 1k pot, I raise to 960 and leave about 3k behind leaving him plenty of room to make a play if he wished. That’s exactly what he did, instantly shoving OTT, im not passing 2nd set here, if he has QQQ, so be it. He had, of course, AK hearts with 1 heart on the flop. I’m sure you have already guessed from the ‘1 heart on the flop’ comment as to what is to follow, he hits running hearts and i am out, with a 9k pot at 20/40 going to him :-( .

Today is of course the dreaded Sunday, and i am lined up to play all the major tournaments across the board, despite the fact of how bad i am running in multi’s the lure of a big score is just too tempting. Prepare for the blog entry early next week detailing another frustrating finale to a poker week.