A weekend of variance

I never did make it to Fallsview on Friday – hopefully Kat and I will be able to arrange another Vegas North meet before the summer (and my half-day Fridays) come to an end.

Nevertheless, much poker was played this weekend.

I started my weekend early with a win at the Thursday night league. Holy hell it’s been a long time since I won a game there. The first three seasons I was the top of the leaderboard, but this was only my third cash since November – and my first win since even earlier.

The best part of the win was that I was extremely short-stacked before the break – I had 275 chips and the blinds were 30/60. I battled back and had built an average stack with some good steals and a nice double up from the SB when I had Jacks and the BB had Nines. (Normally, the flop would bring a 9 here, and I would go home. I was shocked when my hand held up). But my stack was now in contention, but it was another hand that gave me the win.

The blinds were 75/150 and I was in the BB with 8s9s. UTG limped in, everyone else folded to the SB who completed. I checked after briefly considering pushing. The flop was Qs 2s 5x. SB checked and I pushed – hoping just to take the pot. UTG called, and SB called. Oooops.

Now UTG had been drinking heavily, so I put him on a flush draw…but SB isn’t dumb enough to call an all-in and a call with nothing…so he had to have at least 2 pair.

The turn was a Ks, making my flush. UTG goes all-in for the remainder of his chips, and SB calls with less. The cards get flipped and UTG has KxQx for two pair, SB has trip deuces and my flush is leading. No pair on the board means my flush holds up, and I scoop a pot worth over 3500 chips and after that, nothing was going to hold me back.

Once it got to heads-up, I had a 7:1 chip lead, and got AA on the second hand. I completed the SB, knowing that if the other player had any face he’d push, and if not, if he hit any part of the flop he’d push. True to form, he had 8 10, hit an 8 on the flop and pushed. I called and my Aces held up.

It felt so bizarre to have my hands hold up. I’ve been so accustomed to losing as the favourite.

The only downside to my win…it was a small game, so my top prize didn’t make much of a dent in my current deficit. As my mother would say "Beggars can't be choosers". She'd also tell me to wear a skirt to work, but that's another topic altogether.

Friday afternoon I decided to use the $100 I got from FullTilt on a refer-a-friend bonus to play some 5/10 OHL – which I killed. I built it up to almost $400, then lost a bunch, then built some back and cashed out +$200. That was fun – but my love affair with online poker has definitely cooled. I’m going to cash out my little profit and play with the remainder…I’m just not a good enough online player to keep donating. It still kills me when I look at my results this year and see what a gaping hole has been left by my attempts to play online.

Friday night was the Georgetown game again – and that was a lot of fun. I didn’t cash – didn’t even get close this time. But I busted out just in time to see Banky scoop a monster pot in the cash game when he went all-in against two players on the river when the board was 4,5,6,7,8. Only one player called, and Banky tabled the 9,10 for the nuts. It was killer.

Another gaping hole was ripped on Saturday when Banky and I went to Rama. I got completely brutalized in the 5/10 LHE game when every draw got made against me, and every draw I had failed to materialize. It just wasn’t my day. All the profit I made on FullTilt was gone. The worst part was, the game was a bore. No one was there to have a good time. I left and played Pai Gow for an hour. Total Pai Gow profit: $5

It’s 4 sleeps ‘till Vegas. Yehaw.