Another winning session today. About $55 in Omaha, $20 or so in Stud, and a whopping $5 in Triple Draw (the game broke early). Still, not a bad day, and my Stars account is now at a more robust $580. I haven't decided when to move up to 25/50 Omaha (that's cents, not dollars), but I think setting a goal of winning a net 20 buy-ins in PLO before moving up is probably decent, as I'm already over half way there.

In Stud, I took some nasty beats today: lost twice with Jacks full on the river (one I did play badly), once made a flush when someone rivered a full house, and had the particularly evil rolled up Jacks versus rolled up Queens. That's actually the first time I've ever seen that, and it had to be me. Oh well, it happens. Yes, despite all that, I still won money. I'm pretty comfortable with my Stud game, and the 1/2 players are just so terrible.

Triple Draw there obviously isn't much to report, but I did make a decent value bet with 8-6 low on the river against a guy who stood pat twice. I made the 8-6 after the first draw, my opponent bet, and I raised. Then he did something I didn't expect. He stood pat. I was really thinking about breaking my hand at this point or folding on the next draw. However, I didn't have much to draw to, and I knew he would obviously bet if I broke my hand, and without making a 7, I couldn't really call. So I rapped pat behind, seriously thinking I might toss it to a bet after the draw. However, he then checked his hand after the draw. Now I was thinking that he probably didn't have me beat, but it was possible he might have been trying to check raise a wheel, thinking I might bet a lesser pat hand. So I just checked behind and decided to save a bet. He rapped pat on the third draw, and I did the same. But then he checked the river again. Now I knew that he must have exactly 8-7 low or potentially a very rough 8-6, such as 86543, both of which I could beat, so I bet the river, and sure enough he called me with his 87542. It's always scary when an opponent stands pat so early, but he didn't reraise me on the first draw, and he checked two successive rounds. A 7 just doesn't play that line, and neither does an 8-5. Really, after I stayed pat on the second draw, he would have been better off drawing one on 7-5-4-2, hoping to catch a 6 or a 3, because I probably would not stay pat with an 8-7 after he did.

Another accolade for me today: I made my second ever royal flush. I had -JT in PLO, and the board ran Ax Xx . Thankfully, everyone let me draw to it by checking every street.

I posted a few hands where my opponents made major errors against me when I held the nut straight. That made me a bunch of money. Only one other really interesting hand came up.

I checked the big blind with . The flop came , giving me the nut straight. However, out of position and with a flush draw on board, I decided to check and see the action. It was checked to the CO, who bet pot, and it was folded to me. I elected to call, in part to disguise my hand, and to avoid a disaster like getting in against the same straight plus a redraw. The turn came the . No change to my hand. I now elected to bet to deny him the chance to draw at a flush or a full house if he bet without a straight on the flop. When he raised pot, I was dead sure he had the same straight. Now, here is where I made my mistake. If I'm right, we are tied at best, and he has a complete freeroll at worst. I really should have folded the nut straight here. Yes, that's correct. It may be the nuts, but all evidence indicates my equity is squarely at zero. Rather than play a huge pot with no wins and potentially a lot of losses in the deck, I should have chucked it. However, in a brain fart moment, I called. Here is where it got interesting. The river was the . Now, remember I have the , so he cannot have the nut flush. In fact, he doesn't have to have a flush at all. I put him on 75xx, and this particular opponent didn't necessarily need to have a redraw to raise me on the turn. In fact, from how I played the hand, there was a reasonable chance he put ME on a club draw. I immediately bet the pot, thinking he won't call without a flush, and that we probably split anyway most of the time he does decide to call. Basically, it was a last ditch effort to win the pot, and he would have to call his own stack when he definitely didn't have the nuts. He thought for a long time, ran his time bank down, and finally made a crying call with his 9-7-5-x for his rivered bigger straight, and he doubled up. Maybe I picked the wrong guy to try this bluff on, but the fact that he thought so long meant he at least thought about folding.

I obviously should have got out on the turn, but I still think my attempted river steal had merit. He happened to have one hand I really didn't want to see, but that's what I get for misplaying my hand. It's all good... the hand was a valuable learning experience for me, and hopefully for you, too!