More Pink Talk and Strategy

I bought into the pink game last night for a rack and a stack last night and managed to work my way up to two racks and a stack before I self-destructed a bit. What I am saying is I left the game down 119 bones for 8 hours of play after being up. So what happened is the normal for me and that is I take a bad beat and fly open a little too much and give money back on hands that I should fold. I really try to stay away from tilting because it is such a horrible thing for me to do. I expect bad beats in the pink game and should not get overly frustrated when it happens. It is limit poker and that is the way it goes. Get your money in there wiht the best of it and protect when you don't have anything going. But, I got a little shaky after that hand and played a few stupid hands and dumped all my winnings and a few dollars back. I guess I should be glad I did not dump it all, but I realized what I was doing and tightened up. Also, it never fails after taking a bad beat, the cold deck hits me right in the face for the rest of the night. I know I would have liked to stay longer because limit is such a fuckin' grind you have to sit there for 20 hours to make a nice profit. I still love it though but just wish I did not make the few mistakes that cost me a winning night. I need to stop playing hands that can't turn a win in limit. Let's face it, in Omaha 8, 789 are killers, as is hands that don't have all 4 cards working together. Yet, I play them anyway when I get frustrated. and I watch my money get scattered around the table. So next week, i will try to stay away from falling off the cliff after a bad beat or even a bad call and then see what happens.

QQTT vs QQT2

What is the difference between QQTT and QQT2? The latter got me knocked out of the Pot-Limit Omaha Tourney at "The Shop". The tourney was a 70 bone buy-in deal that ended up with 17 players that played for 1st 600 bones, 2nd 390 bones, and 3rd 200 bones. Of course, I ended up in third. In any case, the QQTT was a huge pot early in the tournament that ended up with the whole table calling a 350 TC raise. I flopped top set and there was a club draw and some type of gut shot possiblility out there. Anyway, Pop's bet pot and I repotted, and planted some tomato vines, quickly. Pops thought about it and decideed his fluuuuusheeeee draw and gut shot were possible money against my obvious set of ladies. So all the money was in and the turn card paired 6's giving me the pot. That gave me a ton of chips and the possibilty to coast right through the tourney. as the game went on I did not catch many hands but did get into a big pot with Lance somewhere mid tourney. The board had J9X on it . I was first to act and the initial man who raised was next to me. I put him on Aces and I had flopped top two. So I bet pot and it folded to Lance and he called. The next card was a blank so I had to push all in with what was possibly the best hand or to buy the pot with a second best hand and hope that he had nothing or a hand that he could fold. Thank God, he folded because I was sweating bullets there. I am alwayse sweating in Omaha. So to my last hand. The game was three handed and I was UTG with QQT2, and short handed, short stacked this is a raising hand. In fact, I would raise with it with a gallon and a half of chips in front of me. I don't like the dangler, but I know this is a very good hand three handed. I bet pot 10,500 as the blinds were 1500, 3000 and I had like 5000 left after the bet. Lance thought and called and I smoked in the last 5000 or so and he called before the flop. He had a nice rundown hand of T887 I believe. Again, a playable hand, to knock someone off and if you are big stack, why not go for it. Well, the 8 came off for the set and I was a cooked goose. I felt good to know I did get my money in with the best of it though. Just the way Omaha is and no hand a real favorite. In fact no hand is ever 4-1 pre-flop. I played as well as I could and the only fault I think I may have had was laying down a hand or two I should have not. But, I would rather save a bet in a tourney when I am not 90-100 % sure of what the other player has. So third place felt good in the sense that I have not done well in a tournament in a while. And I have to get that program Pop's uses, that is sweet.

Old School Pink Twisted

I opened up a bottle of wine and started to think about poker. Usually I drink beer and don't think, but wine makes me think. Anyway, I was thinking about 5 card draw and 5 card stud. Now there are two games you just don't hear about anymore and I want to bring them back. And since I ordered pink chips, I am thinking about doing what I am going to title, "Old School Pink Twisted." Now that just sounds cool. But I am going ot add a twist to "Old School Pink Twisted." Ahhh, there is that Tim thinking of crazy things to do with games. So here it is: this is a 5-10 limit pink game, with the 2.50 pink chips and ran with these 2 games with a variation thrown in. Here it is, 1 round of 5 card stud, 1 round of 5 card draw, then the twist....1 round of 5 card stud hi/lo 8, and one round of 5 card triple draw, hi only. I think this would be a great game. I don't know if I can find the players for it, but it would be damn fun. Just the thought of 5 card stud hi/lo sounds silly, but why not......So this is what I think of during the day and night; mixed games and variations of them. This is the poker that I love and love to play. I think anyone that knows me probably knows that by now....Actually, I thought even harder today about the 5 Stud and came up with a new version for the hi/lo....It would be 5 stud but the best 4 card hand wins. There for all the hand rankings would be 4 of a kind, Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Trips, Flush, Straight, 2 Pair, Pair, High Card. And for the low, instead of it being a regular low, it would have to be the best 4 card Badugi low, but still 8 or lower to qualify. So pairs and suits are killers. I call this game 5 CARD STUDUGI HI/LO.

My O.E. Pink Game and Other Thoughts of Poker

I am excited about the Omaha 8, Stud 8 game I am going to have on Thursdays. I like the idea of the three rounds of Omaha and then three rounds of stud and so forth. I want to have each game go in half hour shifts, but I like the three rounds of each idea better. I am glad to see mixed games are starting to play more in the area too. Sure is nice to get a mixed of NL Hold Em' and limit games. I think that it makes poker more interesting and stimulates the mind more. Sure, a 5-10 limit game can be hell on your chip stack due to the draw out possibilites of Omaha 8, but it is so much fun. As for the Stud 8, I love to watch people play and try to understand they play the hands they do. I like thinking about the thought processes of the other players and why they think it is okay to gamble with certain types of hands. The truth is, I just have many ideas of games that I would like to run and and hopefully I can get people to try them out. I have this idea of runiing a mixed game that alternates with 1/3 NL Hold Em' with a $300.00 cap per player per pot, 5-10 limit omaha 8, NL 2-7 Single Draw with a 300.00 cap, and 5-10 Stud Hi with a .50 ante and a 1.00 bring-in. To me this adds a little bit of all the games and different strategies and skills to play them all are involved. To alternate between limit and NL can really test someone's skills. Also, the cap allows for someone not to lose everything on one hand.

Nut Flush vs. Stu and his set of 8's

The game is Omaha 8, or Omaha Hi/Lo, or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, last night at The Pink Game, a 5-10 limit game that rotates Omaha 8, Stud 8, and Crazy Pineapple 8 was supposed to be the highlight of my day. Not a chance this week. The fact is, I have been cold-decked there the last two weeks and when that happens you can forget about making any kind of money there. Sometime early in the evening we are playing my favorite game, Omaha 8, and I am dealt A9 of diamonds, with a 3 of hearts and I think a Queen of spades or clubs. Whatever, it was black. Before the flop the action is capped at 20.00 with 3 or 4 players in. One being Andy who raised and I suspect had A2 something.....My A3, with the suited 9 looked fairly good and I knew what I needed to win a big pot. Well the flop is all diamonds with a low draw. So I have the nut flush with second low draw. Andy bet, I raise and it is capped. Next card off is a J. I bet and it is called around. I pray that the board don't pair. Next card............A $%$# JACK!!!!! I knew automatically I was beat. Stu got me and a healty pot. And that set the tone for my night. I never saw a great hand after that and lost the last 80 dollars I had. The thing is with me raising and such Stu had to know I had the nut flush. I could not give off free cards for the low or boat. Anyway, I guess that is low limit poker and calling down with second best hand hoping to hit the 3rd cherry is the way to play. I mean, why play poker? I guess that is the only way to win a large pot off of me and that is to draw out. I don't mind the action, but I still think he should have folded the turn....And worst, in limit poker it can be so hard to recover after you take a beat like that. You just have to catch some cards and that never happened. So I will go back to it next week and hopefully if I get lucky enough to get a great hand, it will hold up. And for the record, I like playing with Stu and I am sure he would have ripped out his hair if the same happened to him. It was such a big pot................AND PLAYING MIDDLE CARDS IN OMAHA 8 IS SUICIDE!!!!

Attack of the Snowmen

I made a rare move with pocket eights. Forgive me, I have a horrible time remembering how hands actually played out but it went something like this. I limped with 88 and someone the pot was raised and then Seth re-raised to 45. I put him on AK, and decided that it was the right time to take a pot down with my tight image. I immediatly re-raised to 100. Now I would not do this against any player, but I think Seth is a good player and will lay a hand down. So he thought about it for a moment and folded to my imaginary pocket Aces or Kings. I am just glad my little snowmen did not melt away, because if he re-raised me I would have lost a hundo on the spot and been wishing I never made that move. It does feel good to play poker and not to always have to sit back and wait on the best hand as you do so often when playing pure home grown donklets. I enjoyed the game last night not only because I won, but the players there were playing poker and not joker poker.

Pops' Torture

I was at The Shop last night playing in the 4/8 dealers choice. This is a game that consist of some good and some silly games. The silliest being double flop Omaha. Anyway, we were playing Crazy Pineapple High and Pops raised from early posistion, so I figured he had some big hand like KKX or QQX. So when the action gets around to me I look down to see the sweet 75 of diamonds with the 5 of hearts as an added bonus. Ahhh, the good ole' 755 hand. I called, knowing all I had to do was out flop Pop's and I would be paid off. Well wouldn't you know it, the 5 came up and I had to go right to bettin', and Pops called all the way. Of course, his complaint was I drew out on him with a two outer.....Now that is the craziest thing I have heard, since a few weeks ago he called to the river to hit a one out straight flush. At least I only had to out flop him. In any case, it felt good to get a little redemtion. In any case, I had a great time playing there but had to bring up this hand since I hit a TWO-OUTER to beat Pops. I can't wait until the next HORSE tourney there to get a chance to play in.