January 25th

Played some PLO on the night of the 25th, about 4 hours spent online multitabling at GCP and Stars. I usually play 4/5 tables at once and find that this suits me pretty well. My only issue with this is the short time limit at GCP to make decisions, which has once or twice meant I either timed out preflop without seeing my hand, or folded when I intended to call (which occurred once in this session when I had a strong hand preflop and would've flopped the nut straight against a preflop raiser).

Tonight I fitted in 3 games from GCP together with 1 or 2 from Stars, depending on how the tables were playing. The action was a bit below average with average pots (APs) not getting above 40BBs on any PLO table. I played about 20 minutes of 100PLO8 at GCP as well and picked up about 10 bucks in that time.

Overall, I feel I played fairly well and didn't make a significant number of mistakes; a few of my bluffs got caught and on a better night would've held up, and I lost a couple of big hands on races at the start of the evening which put me about $150 down early, so it was satisfying to have clawed back to nearly $40 up at the end. I am only playing $100 and $50 buyins at GCP for the moment until I deposit some more money and move into the $200 game; at Stars tonight I stayed down in the $100 games simply because the action in the bigger games looked fairly lacking.

My first big hand of the night came in the $100PLO at GCP and I've changed my mind a couple of times here as to whether I played it poorly or not; I made a good read and acted on it, but I guess the best that could be said about my play is that I made a marginal, high-variance decision on the flop, and an easy one on the turn.

Dealt A[h] A[c] T[h] Q[s] UTG+1. I have a couple of blinds shy of a full stack. UTG raises min (to $2) and I don't like to reraise here out of position so i call. A late MP player calls and so does the BB, so we're 4-handed.

Flop brings 9[h] J[s] 4[c]. Checked to me so I bet the pot of about $8 with my open ender; I like to play my draw fast here with no-one else showing strength so far, my AA is an additional helper in that it gives me two more cards to the nuts on the turn and an overpair in case someone calls a hand like TJQK. Late MP player who had about $90-odd at the start of the hand raises the max, about another $24 or so. So, I put him on a set of jacks, or maybe tens. That gives me 8 straight outs and two ace outs; I figure he'll pay off any hand I hit here with a big pot building and in a quick estimate I reckoned that this (plus my backdoor flush draw) meant I was winning this by the river a little short of 40% of the time (the actual figure against a dry JJ hand was about 37%, there's always intangibles though, such as him holding some of my drawing cards, or re-raising aggressively on two pair or top pair with a big wrap, which would increase my equity slightly). I decided to call.

Now this was a real close one; I knew I would get him all in on the turn if I caught my hand (especially if I hit an ace) but I had to assume I might only catch on the turn a bit better than one time in 5, so I was putting in $25 to potentially have a shot at the money in the pot plus the last $55 or so that was to go in on the turn. The problem here is that, because of the shallow stacks, I don't have great implied odds to chase and even though my hand MIGHT hold up about 35% or whatever by the river, I KNOW he'll put me all in on the turn so it'll cost my full stack to see two cards.

In retrospect, this is how I would break it down - I have ten outs to hit on the turn, and if I hit one I will get his stack in here as a big favourite or a total dominating hand (if I catch one of the two aces). The pot will be about $80 and there's about $54 left to bet after the flop call. Thus, if I hit I'll put in $24 for a maybe a 20-25% shot at getting all the chips in as a 75% favourite (if I make a straight to his set) or as a lock (with an ace). If I miss completely, I will have $54 left to bet and the pot will be $80. He will put me all in on the turn, the total pot size will be about $130 and I will be charged $50-odd to hit my ten outs on the river (i.e. not offering good pot odds, i need to be putting in less than 25% of the chips, this is about 30% of them), so I will be able to fold. So I'm risking the $24 for a shot at his stack, and I will be able to make a correct lay down on the turn if I miss. So it's really pretty marginal, if I catch my turn I'll have paid $24 to have a shot at $170 on the table, and i'll make my hand once in 5 (ALTHOUGH I will also lose 25% of the time I make my hand!!!!) so it's not the worst call in the world, although it is a high variance one!

Anyways, back to the hand. I called the raise and put him solidly on the top set, as he didnt seem especially crazy. Re-raises from solid players in PLO are almost always the nuts. However, the turn brought the 6[h] giving me the flush draw as well. I now had a flush draw (7 outs), a straight draw (6 outs) and a set draw (2 outs) all to the nuts, meaning I win not far off 40% of the time when the river card comes if he has the set of jacks, so when he put in his last $54 to the $85-odd pot it's a no-brainer for me and I call. River paired the 6 and he beat me with his boat made, as I suspected, with JJxx.

I lost another hand as my re-raise on the flop with a nut straight got run down on the river by a flush chaser, so I was a bit down for the session.

Made some back on the $50 table as I doubled through with a big wrap catching on the turn (opponent had a crappy two pair!), and then the following two hands came up:

55xx on the BB, I get a free look on the $100 table. flop comes a lovely 558, giving me quads! The pot had about 7 players in it so I had the worry of trying to get the maximum out of the hand. I decided not to bet it, even though I want the pot to escalate - if someone catches the top boat with an overpair (and there are PLENTY of overpairs to the 8) on turn or river I'm guaranteed a stack, so I check. It's checked around, and the turn brings an 8. Well, if someone had 88, I guess I lose now. I check again because I want someone to play an A8 or find a boat with an overpair. That 8 will kill my action if anyone bets, I guess. EP player bets a weedy $3 into the pot, it's folded back round to me and I decide to pot raise him, he calls. The river brings a Q, and I hope to god he has 8Q! I pot bet again and it's folded. That one coulda been huge.

I get a nice flop with a wrap and a J-high flush draw first to act on a 4-handed flop. Although I only have 8 nut outs to the straight, my flush would be good against, say, two pair or a set and I prefer to go aggressive here so I bet the pot (also, this will clear the decks of Q and K-high flush draws, which is a major promotion of the hand)... I got one caller, hit my straight on the turn and bet pot again. Opponent folded.

Another useful aggressive play - Stars $100 PLO, I get A[h] T[h] Q[d] T[c] on the SB. It's min raised by a player in EP, and the flop comes 6-handed. Flop is Q[h] 6[h] 4[s] and I decide to check. It's checked round to the button, who bets a weak $5 into the pot. Now, this is a pretty uncoordinated board, and I have the only significant draw (flush draw) so I decide to semi-bluff re-raise pot. There's no way this player is betting so weakly with a strong set, so maybe he has something like two pair, AA, or a wrap straight draw. The background was that the table was pretty tight and passing was common. I figured the only hand that would play back at me now was a slowplayed set of queens, and that seems less likely given that I hold a queen. I risked $25 to win $20, but I think it's better than just calling along. I won't get paid off if I hit my flush and I can likely remove better hands, such as top two pair or even bottom set, with this move. The table seems very likely to fold to my play here; usually when I check-raise the maximum in this way, watch out because I'm holding QQ . Again, this is situation-specific and shouldn't be used at your typical Party 25PLO table. Anyways, everyone folded and my draw won a nice little pot. Another dull one, but it all pays the bills.

Another 100PLO at stars. I have A456 double-suited on the SB. I have occasionally mixed up my play (and tried to stir up some action) by making raises on hands like this; although they don't hit perfect flops very often, when they do you can confuse your opponents with low straights and get big pay-offs. On this occasion, due to my bad position, I merely called, as an opponent had raised the pot in EP by a couple of bucks. The flop came a pretty dreamy 44A. Now, the temptation is to check here but that's very wrong; there might be 2 or 3 overpairs to the 4's out in the field, that will not call off any money whilst they're behind but you're giving them a free card to hit a bigger boat and bust you. I'll only get paid if there's a 4 with a lower kicker than an ace; this is unlikely but possible. If someone calls a small bet (I bet small-ish to remove KK, QQ etc but let someone with 4567 in to draw dead at me) I'm routing for another low card which might make a boat for a hand like 4567. Anyways, I bet $3 into the flop and an aggressive but decent player who was slightly tilting (though I didn't know) on the button raised the maximum. I decide to just call; this accomplishes two aims:

1) I let him draw to a possible boat which he'll think is winning if he has a bare 4
2) I keep the pot small if he has AA and may just get away without losing my stack

It also might just let in someone who decided fishily that AK or a flush draw might just be playable. Nothing like a bit of dead money in omaha!

Turn brings a 3, and I check. He checks in turn. River is a 6, no flush present. I bet the pot of about $35 and he calls, and I drag the $100 pot. My unwillingness to raise on the flop and turn probably netted me an extra big bet at the end here, as he had 4 with a weak Q as kicker and no boat. I have no doubt I'd have got his stack if he caught a boat, but if I'd raised the flop or lead the turn I think he might just have folded. It could be argued I missed a trick by checking the turn, though, but I didnt want to lose out if he had AA or give him an excuse to fold 4K etc.

Last hand I won on stars:

Stars $100PLO tonight, I am dealt A[c] 8[c] 8[d] 5[h] and decide to call on the button. Flop brings 68T with two clubs. A player in MP bets out.

What do I do? Welll, I raised. I knew he wasn't getting away from a straight here and would you believe my set/flush draw combo is a 2-1 favourite over his likely straight hand on the flop, providing all my draws are live (which is very likely)! He calls me down. The turn brings a 3c, completing my flush, and to my glee he puts me all in for his last 50 bucks whilst i'm holding the nuts. It turns out he had 9JQK for the big top-end wrap (rather than the made straight) but assumed (not unreasonably) that I re-raised him with a straight and that I would fold to the scare card on the turn. Just calling the flop is fine on a very loose table where you might get 2 or 3 other players fishing in, but I knew that here no-one would call a weak flush draw, top set was unlikely, and the only other callable hand is a straight which will call a re-raise anyway, so I want to get my money in WHILST they're holding the nuts BUT whilst I'M the favourite - if I wait for my flush to hit I could miss out on a big pot and have lost an opportunity to double through, as no-one will call a straight here on a flush board. Just calling would've been an error on my part which would've cost me most of a big pot. My re-raise made him believe I had a made straight and thus would fold to the scare card on the turn, when in fact it was me who held the premium draw .

Of course, my opponent wasn't to know I held something very much better than the nuts on the flop and his stack duly became property of Monkman Holdings Ltd.

ANYWAYS, other than these hands it was a quiet night. After a bad start I was glad to finish up, and get some valuable bonus and rake time on GCP. $40-odd is not good for me out of four hours real time play, but considering the tightness of the tables and my lack of major holdings in this period, I think I did fine. I'm on top of my PLO game at the moment, and the only area I feel I need to focus on is getting a bit more aggressive preflop to build pots on these passive tables where I often take it down on the flop with aggression, and to work on folding more often when i'm out of position, which has been a tiny leak of mine (or so I intuitively feel) of late.

More to come! Comments welcome!

Sorry about the randomness and stratchy nature of this post, but this journal is liable to increasingly be a stream-of-consciousness thing for me when I throw down whatever seems to be of interest to me on the written page. So if there's something going through my head, or a hand comes to mind, it'll tend to get spued into here without the erudition and literary care of some of my other more lucid writings!

Toodle-pip!

Monk
xxxxx

That is (I think) in this instance, limping. I do not recall a raise in this hand. However, in the correct situation I would consider calling a raise with this hand on the button. A tighter player than I would probably fold this to any action, although dumping it outright would probably be a little too tight for most games in an unraised pot. Make the 5[h] into a 7[d] to go with the A[c] 8[c] 8[d] and the hand is even more worthy of calling a raise in position. I would never raise this sort of hand and can't imagine a game situation where it might be correct to do so.

Monk
xxxxx

Sat 29th January

Well, another solid night's play, I've been away last few nights (Weds I was at the Manchester United vc Chelsea football/soccer game, Thurs I went to the dentist and then took a nap, I was actually supposed to go for a drink with a friend, and Friday night I went for a curry with a group of friends, a girl we know is going on a round the world trip so it was kind of a seeing-her-off session) but back on the tables tonight.

Gaming Club had NO action in the $100 PLO games today so, other than a few minutes at the $200 PLO and $100 PLO8 tables, I played two tables of $50 PLO for about two hours. Meanwhile, on Stars, I joined a variety of $100 PLO tables (Action started bad, got better, and eventually resolved into 3 tables). Overall in the two hours I made about $130 which is a reasonable enough session. Still I feel my game is right up there, and although I had a bit of a struggle early on getting all the tables up and getting into it (the problem of playing 4 or 5 at once!), I feel I didnt make any errors and put some very nice moves on people.

I didn't transcribe a lot of hands from this session but here's a couple:

One of my worst ones, I have KKxx (dont remember the sidecards) at Stars $100PLO. Flop brings KQJ. Normally I'd obviously let this one check down, but 3 of the 5 remaining players check to me, so i decide to bet pot. The guy on the button calls, everyone else folds. Now, I figure he doesn't have the straight or he'd have popped me back. Turn brings a T. Now, I'm thinking he has a lower set than me. But does he have an ace to go with it? I decide I'll risk that he doesn't and make an ill-advised value bet. Well, he did have the straight (or so he claimed on the A river when I check-folded) with a lower two pair in hand, though he played it badly, giving me free cards all the way and failing to take advantage of his redraw (if he thought I had the same straight), but I should've definitely saved the bet on the turn. A case of outthinking myself, of course.

Later on at Stars, I pick up QQxx and find 448 on the flop. Everyone checks, and my dream Q comes on the turn. A small bet, I elect NOT to raise as there's so few scare cards and I want to give people a chance to catch up. A J hits the river and I take the shortstack of a guy who had a 4, slowplayed it, then hit his J kicker on the river.

This one really troubled me... I'm guessing my opponent had nothing but I REALLY felt this loose aggressive player would cough up his stack. Both have $150 or so on the $100 table, flop brings 228 whilst I hold 889J. Sweet. It's checked to me, 4-handed, I can't give a free card here and I won't get paid if there's no 2 so I make my usual half pot bet here. The guy to act before me CHECK-RAISES the max! Now, I know I'm ahead but it's a case of do I let a turn hit and let him think A2 is winning, or will I kill my action if I let a turn/river hit, he doesn't make a boat, and I come out betting? Well, suffice to say I plumped on the idea of re-raising half the pot, knowing this guy was loose. Unfortunately, he folded. I now feel that I should've given another card, at least he'd put in one more pot sized bet before I raised and knocked him out of the hand. I feel this was a bit of an error.

I flopped flushes three times tonight... Usually it's not a hand that makes a lot of money, but I played them a little different to what I'd usually recommend and got paid beautifully on this one by doing so (and less well on another where I still got a few bets out of a guy by check-raising the turn after leading the flop). This one was a nice balance of risk vs reward, appearing weak by making classic "weak player" moves when in fact I had the goods.

My fear on the river was that all along I had this opponent on a set or a K-high flush and I thought that he'd check the flush and lose, or bet the set and win. A non-pair card on the river would've been a killer, because I think I could've got this guy's stack:

PokerStars Game #1143037662: Omaha Pot Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2005/01/29 - 16:59:31 (ET)
Table 'Ontake' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: machinre ($7 in chips)
Seat 2: FelonusMonk ($110.60 in chips)
Seat 4: tdctttt4 ($63.45 in chips)
Seat 5: London ($43.05 in chips)
Seat 6: Jboy7183 ($52.10 in chips)
Seat 7: sipoon_kim ($152.10 in chips)
Seat 8: ramhead ($46.70 in chips)
Seat 9: gino2003 ($50.55 in chips)
ramhead: posts small blind $0.50
gino2003: posts big blind $1
Jboy7183: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FelonusMonk [Kd Ah Qs 9h]
machinre: folds
FelonusMonk: raises $3.50 to $4.50
tdctttt4: folds
London: folds
Jboy7183: folds
sipoon_kim: calls $4.50
ramhead: folds
gino2003: calls $3.50
*** FLOP *** [3h Jh 5h]
gino2003: checks
relyk has returned
FelonusMonk: bets $6
sipoon_kim: calls $6
gino2003: folds
*** TURN *** [3h Jh 5h]
FelonusMonk: checks
sipoon_kim: bets $2
FelonusMonk: raises $29.70 to $31.70
London is disconnected
sipoon_kim: calls $29.70
*** RIVER *** [3h Jh 5h 8c]
FelonusMonk: checks
London is connected
sipoon_kim: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FelonusMonk: shows [Kd Ah Qs 9h] (a flush, Ace high)
sipoon_kim: mucks hand
FelonusMonk collected $87.40 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $90.40 | Rake $3
Board [3h Jh 5h 8c 5c]

Seat 2: FelonusMonk showed [Kd Ah Qs 9h] and won ($87.40) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: sipoon_kim (button) mucked [As Kh Qd 2h]

The key to getting a raise out of my opponent on the turn was weak-leading the flop - a classic move suggesting a playable (but weak) flush, like a Q-high. That river was unfortunate, but I'm happy with how I played this. If I get called and the board pairs I lose a small one, but I gave myself the chance to win a huge one with a hand that normally wouldn't get paid.

I did something similar later with another flopped nut, this time winning a $40-odd pot.

Anyhow, mostly my session was solid. I bet when I had the goods, semi-bluffed a couple of hands as I tend to, and did fine. My one concern was that I played a short-handed $50 NLO table at Gaming Club and couldn't seem to get anywhere (I won once when I got all in on AAxxds preflop and busted two short stacks, but then leaked away my chips to finish slightly down). One player was making small raises before EVERY flop, and I feel it threw me off my game a little. In mitigation, I didn't really catch a hand.

Questions, comments?

Monk
xxxxx

Awww. Bad luck Monk.

He he well yep I was a bit pissed about that so the last three days of january got eaten. Suffice to say, I played some poker and won some money. My January target was $2000 to get me back on track after my bad December, I finished with somewhere in the region of $2150 so mission accomplished on that score.

As for February, I haven't really played much, what with a few other things going on and a general lack of motivation. However, I will start filling in some shorter journal entries as February goes on... to fill you in, I've played about three sessions and was about $250 up on the first two, before dropping $150 last night (some of that is included in my "$200PLO Hand" post.

I'm going to unsticky this and start a new post for this month I think....

FM

I'm not taking over anything - though I am planning on keeping a journal for a little while (where and when to post I'm not sure). I used to do this every day I played from September through December, but fell out of habit. I felt my game was suffering because I didn't have the time to reflect upon it - so that's why I've started again.

Don't bother looking for the original journal - it was never posted anywhere. I have kept a monthly bankroll report on UPF for about a year now though - so if you want to see some of that - please feel free to look.

I hope Monk does continue with his journal, though I can understand the frustrations of losing something long and well written - this is why I rarely type directly onto the website (I usually start with a simple text editor...).

/d