Res Ipsa Poker

Still floating along after yesterday's win. Thanks to all for the kind comments and rather generous assessments (*cough*Pauly*cough*) of my game.

Here's all the proof you need to show that the end result was largely a matter of luck:

Pots won at showdown - 12 out of 13 (92%)
Pots won without showdown - 37

That's right, I lost one time at showdown. Joe Speaker outdrew my A9o with QJo, but I had him covered 3-2 at the time and he called my push. An aggressive decision - I'm way too weak/tight to make that call, but it worked. I have a ton of respect for Joe's game. Same for the Big Pirate and quite a few others.

Moral of the story: It helps to have the Random Number Generator on your side.

****

Unlike Stars, the Titan RNG hasn't been my friend lately. I played two tournaments there last night, a $10 rebuy and a $20 freezeout, and bombed out of both short of the money when I (a) went completely card dead for three or four orbits in the face of rapidly rising blinds, and (b) when I did finally get a hand, someone woke up behind me with a better hand. Oh, well. That's poker. It wasn't as bad as the other night, where I went 38 minutes in the first hour (of a rebuy!) without having a single marginally playable hand, but things were still pretty chilly.

{Warning: Hand History}

At least I did have one of those moments in the freezeout -- the kind that give you a huge adrenaline rush. I have 33 in LP and limp. Blinds are 10/20 at this point, I have about 2,000 chips from a good early run. One limper before me, the SB folds, the BB checks.

Flop is AK3 rainbow. Jackpot. BB checks, other limper bets, I raise, BB checkraises, limper calls, I push, and *both* call. Yes! First limper has AJo (huh?), BB had K3o. I pick up better than 2,000 chips for a 20 chip investment, and am actually the chipleader for a while.

What a great feeling.

{/end Hand History}

****

Omatard Challenge Update, Day 10

Current Level: $25 PLO ($0.10/$0.25 blinds)
214 hands, minus $32.90, bankroll balance $76.47

Running total: 2131 hands, plus $61.47

Ugh. Gave back yesterday's gains. Much of it on one hand where I made an overly tight laydown.

{Warning: Hand History}

I have QxQh6hX in MP. Flop is AhXhXh. 2nd nut flush. It was raised preflop with multiple callers (I called given the size of the pot and because I was closing the action, otherwise this is a pretty weak hand), so there's a fair amount of money in there. It checks around on the flop. Mistake by me, no question. Kc on the turn. Checked to me, I pot it. Villain checkraises all in. I fold.

I think this was a bad decision.

For one thing, I already had more than half my stack in the pot. Getting something along the line of 4-1 or 5-1 on my remaining $11, I should probably take the chance. I'm behind only one hand - someone holding Kh with another heart. That K on the turn may have given courage to someone holding a naked KK without the nut flush, or someone holding a straight draw. Or he could be pushing a non-nut flush (J or T high, perhaps), maybe in combination with a set. Some people are even aggro enough to do this with a naked AAxx. I would strongly consider this move myself if I had the Kh without another heart - to see if I could get my non-nut holding opponent to fold. I was way too cautious.

Also, I didn't have a read on my opponent. He hadn't been there long, and for the time he had been, I'd been focusing on the tourney. He proved later that he was entirely willing to push edges with non-nut hands.

A very questionable decision on my part.

{/end Hand History}

Anyway, I shut it down not long afterward when it was clear I was on Omatard Tilt. I have just enough to take another crack at the $25 level, probably today.

On a related note, I'd like to welcome the latest blogger to take the Omatard Challenge -- Mourn has signed on to take a shot. Good luck!

That's enough drivel for this morning -- I should spend some time working on adding some more people to the blogroll -- a lot of interesting new poker blogs out there.