Upbeat and Optomistic

Following on from the below post. Myself and Chris have played in the sickest cash game we've been in to date. After outlasting Chris (again) at the £10 Harbour Rebuy, aided by some rubbish (think it was 98s) v AK saved by a full house on the board, and then A3 hitting running 3s v AJ. 11th and 12th for us, a little money for the final table bubble for me, plus Chris' £10 for our ongoing last longer!

We decided to start a 50p/50p NLHE cash game with a few other runners and a certain rich gambler named Mo. My first buy in was cracked by a 3 outer, and then another £60 died by way of a 5 outer, both on the river. So I brought the £100 chip I had in my wallet to the table. About an hour later I'd chipped up to a respectable £215, as Mo was generally playing rather loose and aggressive to put it mildly, with massive over raises, and calling down with anything. We were distinctly moist at the thought of this cash game continuing.

It got to the point where myself and Chris (I'm usually psycho-aggressive, and Chris is rather LAGgy too) are playing weak, tight, passive poker pre-flop. On one occasion I limp for £2 pre-flop (there's been alot of straddling) with KQ. Mo raises to something like £10-20, it's pretty irrelevant, but I call, to see a beautiful QQJ board. I make a small bet, only to be reraised all-in by Mo. The immense relief when I see his AJ is drawing to running Aces or Jacks is overwhelming, and I rake in a £430 odd pot.

The game is sick, we're eventually 4 handed with over £2k on the table, for a 50p/50p game! I've never lost a £250 pot with K8, on an A high board - and not even blinked. I lose a few pots, before getting my chips all-in on the last hand with AK. I reraise Mo half his stack (about £60), he calls, and I push the flop dark, he calls for another £70 or so. He doesn't turn his cards over, so seeing a beautiful Ace of clubs on the turn is a massive relief, a J on the river is irrelevant as he shows QJ. My AK takes the last pot of the night, worth around £250.

Running good continues, a final table Harbour the following weekend for £250 and win the Grosvenor Sunday tournament the following night for £410. UNfortunately, since then, the wheels have come off a bit. Playing a Wednesday cash game in the wrong frame of mind has really killed me, a couple of bad Monday rebuy tournaments has cost me around £400, punctuated by a £160 cash game profit, where again I played pretty badly but got lucky in one key hand, then redeemed myself in monster pots against Seb and Tony.

Having said that, playing terribly, I've still gone deep in 3 recent tournaments I've played, it's taken bad luck to knock me out. AT v KQ, QJ v 96 on a Q65 board are two that come to mind.

I've generally had an awful week of running bad, I've been one outered 3 times this week, 225 board, A2 v K2 v T5, case 5 hits the river. J8 v QQ on JJ3 board, case Q hits the river. 77 v AJ on T74 board, turn and river K J.

One sick cash game, 0.25c/0.50c heads up. This guy hit everything. He was awful. In 90 odd hands out of 650 he showed down, he hit 4 trips, 9 straights, 1 flush and 4 full houses. To be fair, only the straights got me into trouble, but he hit everything.

And I mean everything. KK on a 952 rainbow baord, a pot bet sees his 78 hit the jackpot with a 6 on the turn. In his 9 straights, he flopped one of those v my top pair, and hit FIVE gutshots. What made it worse, is that EACH time he hit - so had I! It wouldn't be so bad if he'd limped his SB, hit the gutshot, and got a dollar or two out of me on the river. No, he'd win $20 each time against my top pair/two pair/monster draw/overpair. And the one time I hit a straight...he hits a runner runner flush. I run JJ into QQ and 99 into TT. I'm finding alot of that at the moment, the deck is pretty ice cold.

But I've read a poker mag, and am feeling optomistic, so am playing the £25 semi-freeze tonight - not had a result there for a while. But Chris' recent run is keeping my losses from being too bad - I'm getting a little bit back after my run! ;)

Reading is happening from Thursday to Sunday, then Vegas in mid March, and Dublin in April. Will be alot of serious poker going on!