Finally: Live 10/20

I finally got to the casino for some live 10/20. We (me and SidekickBoy) rocked up around 10 to 8 and found two tables of 5/5 NL, one of 10/20 Limit, and surprisingly a table of 10/20 limit Omaha. I signed up for limit, and had to wait nearly 45 minutes for a second table to open. Sidekick jumped onto the (very fishy looking) Omaha table.

My table was a real mixed bag. There were probably four or five pretty decent players, and three or four loose passive who would see nearly every flop. Fortunately, I found a good seat with the loose players all on my right and tight players on my left (though there was never ever an opportunity to blind steal).

I only played about two hours and twenty minutes, and within that time found myself down $150, up $150 and ended up going home with a grand profit of... $10. Well, at least I beat the rake! In fact, it could have been so much better than that as I was up about $200 until the river card of the fourth last hand.

It panned out like this: I had A9o in middle position (second hand in a row). As usual, there were a couple of limpers ahead of me so I limped as well. Player to my right (good player) limps, and the blinds come along. Flop comes down J92 with two diamonds. Checks around to me, I check, bet, blinds fold, two calls and I call. Turn is a beautiful 9 of clubs. Checks around to the raiser, who bets, fold, call, checkraise, and he calls reluctantly. River is 8 of diamonds. Checks to me, and I make an idiotic bet into the river card which has hit about 75% of drawing hands. Inevitable raise, call and I make a crying call to see his QT for a rivered straight. I played it ok except for the idiotic bet on the river. Big pot to lose when you're getting ready to go home!

I had a couple of other nasty beats. One was to the table moron who called UTG and I raised w QQ. Three saw the flop of T66: check, check, bet, call, call. Turn J, check, check, bet, UTG checkraises (uh oh - maybe he has a Jack but I'm very unhappy). I call him down (foolishly probably) and he shows 96o, and he starts going on about the "good feeling" he had about nine six frigging offsuit. I saw this same guy donk off about four bets on the river with the bottom straight to a guy that obviously help the nuts (guy with the nuts thought he saw splitting and didn't keep raising!)

Another river beat was with me playing A6s in the SB, hitting an ace on the flop and a 6 on the turn. Got a checkraise in on the turn, only for a nine on the river to pair the board to counterfeit my sixes and turn AK into the winner.

I don't think I made too many mistakes, although one was on a hand where I played Q7s in the SB. I made a flush draw on the flop, and it checked around. Turn gave me a gutshot, and I bet out as a semibluff. MP checkraised and I called (with one other). River lands my gutshot with the board showing 6543J. I foolishly fail to bet and it checks around. It's obviously stupid to attempt to checkraise on a scary board like that.

Other nice hands were AQ hitting an ace on the flop, and holding up despite a fairly scary board and an aggressive player betting into me; and 77 hitting top set on a rainbow board - I called the flop, then bet and three bet the Q turn (when the other player folded his two small pairs).

I'm going to have to learn to play Limit Omaha, because that table was just ridiculously bad. Here is how bad it was: I watched one pot where the flop was A24 rainbow. Eight players (I am not exaggerating) paid capped betting on the flop. As I watched it unfold, I though that it was obvious after about the second raise that at least one player had a wheel, and probably redraws to a higher straight. It played out to the river where only one player out of those eight had the wheel, one had a set of aces (also pretty obviously), so Lord only knows what the rest could have had - there wasn't even the possibility of a massive wrap straight draw the way the cards lay. The final pot was something close to $800. It's fishy, but the variance will be huge.

Anyway, I beat the rake which is not a bad achievement for the first 10/20 game, and the first live cash. Sidekick meanwhile made a very handy $250 profit at the ridiculous Omaha table.