I'll be the first to tell you that I haven't been the most successful poker player these last few months. Admitting there are serious leaks in your game is one of the hardest things a poker player can do. Up to a few months ago, I failed to believe that I could constantly work at my game and become leaps and bounds better. I watched my good friend take down tournament after tournament, racking up a substantial bankroll in the process. All the while, I toiled around with my meager funds and tried to grind my way at lower limits.
By the time October rolled around this year, I was completely at a loss for my poker game. I am spending this semester interning in Washington, DC and I just have not got the necessary cash flow to contemplate a serious effort to build a bankroll. However, the poker urge got a hold of me and I decided to put in just about as much as I could in PokerStars -- a whooping $50.
There isn't a lot one can do with $50. Microlimits just tend to anger me, especially since I'm used slightly (and I mean
slightly) better play. I decided to play some .25/.5 Stud Hi/Lo, low buy-in tournaments, and .5/1 shorthanded limit hold'em for the really bad times. Yeah, I didn't have the bankroll for that sort of game. But I'm too used to playing it and -- as they say -- old habits die hard. I quickly doubled up on my initial investment and then just as quickly, lost a vast majority of it back. That's the nature of shorthanded limit tables, however, so I decided to take a break from them.
This past Monday, I woke up feeling awful. I called into my internship and said that I was going to take the day off. It was the first such request I had made all semester, so they weren't too upset. Naturally, it was a time to play lots of poker. At 2:32 pm, I noticed a $2+.2 Omaha H/L tournament starting with about 350 people in it. I'm not an Omaha H/L expert in any sense, but I do have an understanding of the fundamentals. Plus, I was just bored. As the tournament started up, the regular array of donkeys were at my table. I'm pretty sure they had little to no experience in Omaha H/L. I didn't mind that fact. I was down to around 1.1k in chips [25/50/100 blinds/bets] when I first made a move. I got AdKdQh10h in the CO and there were two or three limpers, so I decided to splash around and see if I could get a friendly flop.
When the flop came K-high with only one low card, I was fairly certain I could take down the pot. Unfortunately, the maniacs at my table decided that one or two bets was not sufficient for the hand. By the time I knew it, there were 3-bets and I was in the middle of a four person pot. I just remember thinking, "Well, mind as well go out in a blaze of glory." I just bet away at the turn when it gave me a nut flush draw. By the time the river card fell with a Q, I was all-in. The pot dragged towards me and I had more than tripled up. My absolutely horrid play had been rewarded and I had sucked out on someone's flopped top two pair. Never, ever play like that. Ever. I won't try to justify it, as I'm prone to donkish play when I'm (1) tired, (2) sick, (3) in a small buy-in event.
Now I went to business. For the next three hours, I never left the top 20 in chips. Never at one time did I feel as though my game was out of control. When we got around the bubble, I was able to steal and win some big pots to put myself in the top 10. I loosened up slightly and it helped me win a lot of hands no one else wanted. The limits/blinds at that point were pretty ridiculous, so just winning one or two bets in a pot was huge. When we reached the final table, I was sitting 7th in chips. The chipleader had more than 3x the amount of the nearest competitor and he went to work immediately. The two stacks shorter than me went out incredibly quick. Then, the chipleader went to work on the rest. He raised nearly every pot and took control of the table. He knocked out, I would say, five out of the last seven players. I don't even remembering playing more than one or two hands by the time we were 3-handed.
The chipleader had an impressive 420k+, while I was left with about 75k and the other player with around 55k. I lost a hand to the chip leader and was down to about 40k when I went on the biggest tear of my life. I believe I got some variation of A-2-3-x /A-2-x-x/A-3-4-x double-suited about five hands in a row. The chipleader came into every pot with a raise preflop, I would re-raise, and eventually I would take down the pot. By the end of the run, I was dead even with the chip leader at around 245k. He started to bitch and moan in the chat box about how lucky I was getting and it was fun. The short-stacked was soon dispensed of, and we went heads-up for a first place prize of $185.
Heads-up actually only lasted about 10 hands. I had the slight chip lead, lost it, and then went on another run. I scooped three pots in a row to put myself in a commanding chip lead. The tournament ended when my 5-5-6-x flopped a set and he was all-in on a flush draw that never got there.
Two days after that win, I still feel good about it. I didn't do anything impressive. I sucked-out to get my momentum moving for crying out loud! But I did play solid poker (sans one hand) for an entire tournament. With that victory, and some more Stud H/L, I finally have a semi-respectable bankroll of $295. Now, I can actually play .5/1 correctly. I'm pretty okay with that.
Sorry for the unbelievable length of this post. This blog is going to document a lot of my poker experiences for you the reader, but also so that I can look back on it in the future. I look forward to any comments you may have. Tonight, I will be playing some .5/1. I'll let you know.
