PLOtastic

I rocked up for a $100 PLO donkament at Burswood on Tuesday with a pretty solid understanding that I suck at PLO. I was joined by none other than TiocfaidhArLa from "Poker Career Downunder", who flew in - scheduled to arrive at the airport at 6:35, made it to the casino by about 6:55 (tourney started at 6:30) and got to his stack only 150 down. It was a pleasure to finally catch up, and we managed to have a good chat over a beer as well as playing a bit of (lol)limitaments afterwards. He busted out of the PLO shortly before me.

Played pretty tight for quite a while and found no playable hands. My first raggy AA hand I limped in EP intending to RR if the opportunity arose. Alas, it was called in about 5 places and I had to release it on the flop. The second AA hand I raised in MP, called from the button. Flop top set, but don't get paid. Maybe I could have checked it since the board was raggy but NM.

First really big hand was AKQ9, maybe double suited, maybe button. I Raised, flop goes 3 way. Flop KK9. Checked to me, I bet out nearly pot. One caller on my left (has me covered). Turn A (oh yes), I bet, he calls, river rags out and we get it all in. MHIG: he says he had K9. A couple more small pots and I am up to nearly 11k in chips with average still at 3.5k.

Then I lose a bit to a short stack, my KK53hhcc against his KQQxss when he makes a spade flush on the river. Move to a new table and the next big hand (cooler): I have AKJJss, pot it, flop goes 3 ways. Flop is JT6dd. I pot, call, guy on my right with Tourettes (but seemed like a really good bloke) raises AI, I call, other player folds. He has TT with the diamond draw. Diamond comes on the turn, river does not fill my boat. After that, I wasn't quite crippled but pretty badly damaged. I lost another AIPF against a dominated short stack with something like AKKJ to his KQTx with him making some stupid straight or something. My really bad hand (getting a bit short) was to raise KJT9cc, flop comes ATxhh, and I pot in an attempt to take it down. He RR me all-in, and I fold (he showed AQTx no hearts). I probably had the odds to call for the gutshot, but elected to limp on with my remaining pittance. It didn't last too long - I got it in good heads up once again but got drawn out on the turn.

Not too unhappy with how I played. If my top set of jacks had held up, I would have been in pretty good position to final table and maybe cash. And of course it was about 100 times better than the last rebuy PLO where i didn't win a single pot.

After that, I played 90 minutes or so of limit. Had pretty good position on two truly awful players. One middle aged lady (regular) who limp calls almost any cards preflop and cold calls most raises, and plays cards virtually face up postflop. The other was a chubby guy from Victoria who sounded like he plays a lot but just played so bad, calling down bottom pair to bets and raises multi-way etc. Anyway I started by losing nearly 100 when I raise JJ in MP, and get called by the usual suspects. I bet all the way on a board of tiny cards, and get raised on the end with the board reading something like 23459. I can probably fold easily here, but the pot was huge so I called to see not one but two players catching 6 high gutshots on the end (to be fair, one of them had a small pair to go with it, but still).

After that I won a decent pot with 77ui on a K25Tx board. I Cbet the flop (3 way), and the turn went check-check, so I value bet the river. I got raised and nearly folded since chubby was AI and the sidepot was tiny, but I call and he can't beat chubby's pair of 2s so MHIG. After that I won another decent hand and left exactly even to the dollar. But wow, the standard of play on that table was terrible. There were a couple of regs at the other end of the table who were decent, everyone else (except for TFAL sitting in the Jesus seat on my right) was either a passive calling station or a rock.

footnote:

Playing poker with Tourettes must be a particular challenge. The guy in the tournament was twitching constantly, occasionally shaking his head dramatically, and sometimes letting out an unintentional expletive. I didn't really try too hard to get a read on his tics, but I'm sure they must be readable.