Rollercoaster Ride

This cash No Limit Hold Em certainly demands a bit more attention than my usual limit game!

I managed to blow two $100 buy-ins on Full Tilt with play that was part idiocy on my part, part fishy luck from my foes. One buy-in disappeared when my set of tens went down to a gutshot straight. I should have folded to the all-in raise but didn't want to believe I'd been outdrawn. I managed to convince myself he had two pair or was bluffing.

The second went betting TPTK into an overpair, when I had the foe pegged as an optimistic calling station chasing two overcards.

When the cards were flipped for the second showdown, I was less than happy. Indeed, rather than my usual ranting and raving, I just sat and stared at the screen. Stunned. A sound not dissimilar to our cat expelling a furball, growing in my throat.

Time to regroup! Which I did. After revisiting Hank's article about playing small stakes NLHE, I returned to the fray.

A couple of hours later I was back to even - courtesy of two sets. Set over set, and set over two pair. Delicious! Now all I have to do is eliminate the idiocy and this could actually turn out to be quite profitable!

On the bricks and mortar front, I had a pretty grim session on Friday night. Our home game was a little short handed and I managed to finish second last in all three games we played.

The cards were really quite cruel. My best hand in six hours was JJ and I had to fold that to a big bet on an ace high flop! As we were setting up, I'd been talking about the horrible cards Isabelle Mercier kept getting in her British Poker Open qualifier, and I seemed to inherit her bad karma.

The one hand of note came when I raised with 88 from late position and found myself facing a reraise from the SB. The SB is quite an aggressive player and I had to put him on quite a large range of hands - any medium or large pair, or a big ace, and maybe even KQ.

Against most players I'd have reraised or folded, depending on my read of them. However, with this range, and with position, I decided to see a flop, so I called. The flop came ace high - and no glorious 8. Urgh. The SB bet out with a pot size bet. Double urgh.

I thought about it for quite a while - before folding. I couldn't see how I could be ahead now - much as it pained me - and I still had enough chips left to battle on.

I folded face up. Not something I often do. At which point the SB's jaw dropped, and he turned over....88!! Bloody hell. I did say the cards were being cruel.

Really, I had to applaud his bet on the flop, so I wasn't too distraught. Even if the pre flop raise seemed quite optimistic to me! It pretty much summed up my night.

Still, the banter was good, the booze plentiful, and it's always nice to catch up with friends. The modern world doesn't leave too much time for socialising so it's always good to get together.