TexasHoldem-Poker.com Forum

As I gently ease myself back in to playing poker, much like slowing lowering myself in to a scalding hot tub; I decided to head out to my favorite 1/2 NL Texas-1/2 PL Omaha (dealer’s choice between those two) game last night.

For the most part I was happy with my performance. It started out with a relatively small $80 buy-in around 9:00pm. The place is now doing a high hand pot I learned. If a pot exceeds $10, $1 of it goes in to a pot. The pot is paid every hour to the person who during the last 60 minutes had the highest hand with a full house or better. I’ve seen this at casinos so it didn’t bother me. But it brought out more Omaha games than Texas. This was especially true as the minutes ticked down and the hour deadline approached.

After about four hours I my stack was sitting at about $220 or a $140 net. Not bad since I hadn’t been to a live game in a long time. I didn’t notice as much ADD as I experienced playing on-line the other day. However, at a live game you have a lot less distractions. I still wasn’t focused but I wasn’t making a lot of errors.

Two hands early on that I crushed on were to the ATM. He’s the guy who makes a lot of money and just plays “for fun”. He routinely buys-in for $500-$800 in $100 increments and rarely if every walks away with any net profit. The problem is, he is my kryptonite. He always hits his river against me. I lost $600 in one hand on him three years ago when he fished for a inside straight draw in Texas. This is a 1/2 game… I have pictures…

At any rate, my kryptonite hit two hands against my as he normally does. The first was a runner-runner flush draw. The second was a runner-runner straight draw. It stings when I lose like that only for a hot second. Mainly because I know I will win my money back from him a few hands later. He always calls and plays most hands pre-flop. So I know it will be returned to me.

Besides those two hands, I had a Texas hand with another regular where he had AKs pre and I had A7s pre in the BB. It folds around and I called the additional $3 putting me heads up with him. Flop was something like A87. I try to set a trap and check. He bets $15. I call. River is J. I bet $15 trying to rep two pair and thinking he has AK or AQ. He flat calls.

Having played against him I know how he bets. It would later turn out I was right… BUT… the river comes and pairs the 8 on the board. Dejected and still rusty I lead out with $15 again… a weak bet but he flat calls which threw me for a loop. He turns over his cards and I didn’t have to look at what he had because he starts to apologize. A87J8. I have Aces and Eights with a J. He now has Aces and Eights with a King…

My really, really, really big super stupid, hey I’m still rusty, move though cost me about $160. I have AKs and the other guy, actually a friend of mine I have played with for about five years has 66. Flop comes AK6. I bet $10, he raises to $30, I raise to $60 he goes all-in. To be honest I was thinking I he had AK or AQ. For lack of not playing poker for a loooong time broke one of my cardinal rules. Take your time. Had I taken my time even my geriatric brain would have eventually kicked over the sign of the beast as his hand. I should have seen that. I know this guy. I should have seen that coming a mile a way. It was soooo obvious he had trips. Some trips. Any trips. But not simply two pair or a lonely pair. Ughhh I hated myself for a good hour after that hand.

But what it did caused me to focus. I was down to about $28 in chips and came back in the next two hours to cash out with $146, net $66. What made me especially proud about the come back was the table at the time was down to 7 then 5 players after an hour. Ah well, life goes on.

I wouldn’t rate my foray back in to live games as a whopping success. But I held my own. I made mistakes. I rolled with it. I still walked away up so it was a good night. Not a great night. But a good night.