Punishment!

On Friday afternoon I went to Aspers after work with about £100 in my pocket. I spun this up to about £400 within a few hours, hit and running somebody that tried to run a huge bluff against me and legging it to the G for their £20/£20 game. I make a decent bit of progress in the first couple of levels and double up before the break. I ordered possibly the toughest steak in the world and I almost strained my wrist trying to cut it - note to self: don't buy steak in the G again.

After the break, I lose a 5k pot to Tom (former Aspers dealer). I call out of the blinds with KQs, and check an AQx flop, Tom checks behind. I take a really passive line and check the turn, Tom bets and I call. Same again on the river and Tom wins with AJ. I think his check on the flop was really good because I'd probably call him down on the turn/river with literally any pair as we have a bit of history.

A few hands later I'm out. With two limpers ahead of me, I make it 900 to go in CO at 100/200 with AKss. The SB calls and Tom squeezes for about 17k in the BB. The limpers get out of the way and I call pretty much instantly as I know I'm destroying his range for making that play (he never has AA/KK there imo) and there's over 1000 in dead money in the middle. Bizarrely, the SB decides to call off 6k or so with T8s and Tom has 55. Obv I brick and head down to the cash table.

There was a lot of familiar faces, notably Craig and Owen McDowell, Nemo, Julian and Wendy Rowe. I get into a bit of banter with Nemo who was straddling my BB and we both agree to play blind if nobody raises. I check the flop blind and so does everyone else. On the turn, the board was read T682cc. I announce that I'm looking at one card on the turn... It was Tc. I pussy out of playing the hand like a true hero and declare that I have to see my other card - it was the 7c. Wow, suited Parsley Azbo, top pair, gutterball, flush draw. Why did I play this blind?? I pot it, Nemo looks and calls. There was a 9 on the river, I overbet river and Nemo snaps with two pair. FML, would have 100% stacked him I wasn't playing blind, I would have raised pre and prob got it all in on the flop :(

I then butchered QQ BTN vs Craig Mac in the BB. I 4bet pre, Mac calls. Flop was Axx, Mac checks and as I'm thinking about what I want to do, the dealer reveals the turn which happened to be another ace. This totally fucked over the dynamic of the hand and I asked the dealer to shuffle the card back into the deck as I hadn't acted. FWIW, I would do this even if I had an ace, but I'm not sure if Craig saw that as a sign of weakness or not. Anyway, it gets checked to me and I make a small bet OTT, Craig ships and I decide to just cut my losses. Not sure if this was a bad fold or not, but I was distracted by the dealers error...

Not long after that I get coolered by Julian. I raised it pre UTG (which in fairness meant very little as I'd got to showdown with hands like K5 after raising pre earlier in the evening) and I got about 5 callers. I had AKcc and the flop was perfect for me, AJ8cc. I bet £8, Craig Mac raises to £22, Julian makes it £45 and I make the easiest ship ever for about £150. Julian calls with A8 and I fade the world.

George "Corporate" Lawson informs me about a PLO table that was about to open. Adham Harker and myself scour the casino looking for people that might be interested and we manage to tempt Craig McDowell, Neil Jackson and Chris Woods to the table. I've never been so card dead in my life, but as it's live PLO it's hard to fold! Every time I get a hand I seem to get coolered. I honestly can't think of a big hand that I won all night.

Despite possibly running bad, I think I played very poorly, far too passive and paid off people in too many spots where I knew it was unlikely that I was good. So, as per the title of the blog post, I decided that I was going to punish myself for playing like such a tard. I usually play PLO25 and I have a winrate of around 8bb/100 across ~40k hands this year, but as punishment, I set myself a challenge of turning the only red line on my HEM Cash Game Report tab into a green line. I usually only play PLO10 when I come home drunk and want to donate to the online poker community, but on Saturday and Sunday I wanted to take this seriously for a little while and it worked rather well:

I actually ran quite a bit under EV, but I don't think all-in EV actually means anything in PLO, it's more about situational luck imo. I'd like my redline to look like the above in my PLO25 adventures too, at the moment it's slightly pointing downwards and my showdown winnings account for my profits at that level. Something to work on perhaps.

Anyway, I'm happy to be back to winning ways at PLO after my shocking performance on Friday night. It might only be $200, but winning 20bi in a couple of days has given me a confidence boost. Who fancies some live PLO??

Updateaments

This blog has kinda been a bit neglected for a while, partly because I haven't actually played that much poker recently and partly because I am very lazy. I'm gonna try and remember a few big/interesting hands from the past few weeks to keep things moving on the blog front.

A few weeks ago, I chopped the G's Friday night game. I never really got out of first gear until I won a flip for 35bb against Foggo with 88 vs AQ, but from then on I just got smashed in the face with the deck. I remember owning Big Stumpy in a couple of big pots and all of a sudden I was moving tables with close to 80k when the average was about 20k. As I was walking to the new table, Glen "The Geek" Whitehead thought it would be amusing to knock over my mountain of chips and my coat got stuck under some deaf persons chair... Needless to say it took me a fair bit of time to get sorted, but thankfully Jack (G Dealer) held the game up for me to take my seat and I walked back to a UTG 3k raise with the blinds at 600/1200. I look down at KK (weeee!) and make it 10k to go, UTG tank calls. Flop: K35r, kid checks looking a bit suspicious, I bet 7k and he ships on me for 50kish. Obv I snap and he misses the 1outer. Easy tourney from then out, I just had to battle against sleep deprivation.

The next night was the birthday of one of my best friends. She told me ages ago that she always wanted to go to a strip club, so after getting a bit drunk we went to Blue Velvet and we shared a private dance with another two of my friends - slightly bizarre experience! Anyway, after all my mates went home, I stumbled into Circus and found that the renovations have finished. Circus now looks very pretty, if a little dark. I sat down at the 25/50p table with Bendystash to my left. JimmyB announces a jackpot pot on my button so I tell Ben that I'm winning this or going all in trying! I had some random suited garbage and decide to call a preflop raise to outplay these fools postflop. The flop was acehigh but I flop a flush draw, I call a bet on the flop and see a 3way turn. Obv bricked, initial raiser fires again and gets called, I jam for about £100 more and get called in both spots. Oops. Or so I thought, I was running rather well and rivered a flush to take down a nice £10 slots voucher. I tried spinning this up, but I was so drunk that I actually had to request assistance from a random slot degen to show me how to operate the machine. Clearly I won nothing from that.

I went back to the same table and got involved in another fun pot. I raise it up on the button with 55, BB makes it £12. I call and flop comes 5xxcc. BB bets £16, I call. Kc on turn and it's checked to me. I bet £37 and was a bit surprised when I get snap shipped on for about £115. I ask for a count for some random reason, probably because I knew that the kid almost always had to have something nutty to get it in there, but I decided that I had 5c for backdoor flush and some house outs for when he actually has a flush and call anyway. Probs not the best call in the world as he had KK (why not AAc, one time?). I miss flush draw and play a few more hands, one in particular was nice. I call down Roscopiko's triple barrel with a pair of 4s and was good. Note to Rosco: never bluff a drunk station ;)

At this point, I noticed that there was a £1/1 PLO game going with Latif, Borat and a couple of Teeside regs. I was mortal, but they were all awful and I had a good game with decent banter. It kinda helped that I won a £700 pot with KKT8 on a K96dd flop vs 3 other all-ins. I managed to turn straight and river house just for good measure - it's nice to hold like that for once in PLO. This pretty much broke the game as the remaining players left soon after. However, because I am a bit of a degen, I went to the G to donate a bit of money to the 50nl players there before I called it a night.

A few weeks ago, I experienced my first encounter with millionaire Paul in the Aspers £1/2 game. It was really strange table dynamic with most people limping in waiting to trap when Paul inevitably raised (it was v. close to 100%). In the first limped pot for over two hours, I have A6 in the small blind, I complete and we have a family pot. Flop was AQ4cc, I check and Paul slightly overbets to £25. Everybody else folds and I call. Turn was Qx, I check and Paul bets £200. At this point, I try to assign a range to one of the laggyest players I've ever seen. I decide he can't ever have an ace because he would raise pre and I thought it's unlikely he wants to scare me away if he has a queen. I ship for about £350 or so and he snaps with K4cc and binks a 4 on the river. Sigh.

Last weekend I travelled down to Nottingham for another birthday party. I once again got very drunk (starting to sound like an alcoholic?) and had a cracking time in Rock City amongst very good company. When it got to about 3am, I decided it was time to play some poker and I made my way to Nottingham Gala. I sit down at their 50p/£1 table with £100 and get it in 3ways on a flop of 245r holding deuces. I hold against QQ and 77 to scoop a nice pot in my first hand at the table. Easy life. I then play almost every hand for the next five hours and generated a mental image for myself. I made one hero play where I think I bluffed two people off a rivered straight. I raise it up to £6 OTB with K9o, both blinds call. I bet £16 when checked to on a a 976dd flop, I bet £38 on a offsuit king turn. Ten of diamonds on the river, both check to me. I had a little think and decided that although I have some showdown value, I think at least one of them made a straight. I felt if somebody made a flush they would bet and I turned my two pair into a bluff by betting £145 on the river. The small blind tanked for over five minutes before getting the clock called on him by Jimmy (a reg who was playing last time I was there, looks like a member of the Corleone) family. This allowed me to engage in a bit of speech play which I think eventually made him fold his 8.

This set me up to take a big chunk out of Jimmy. Some random EP person makes it £4 to play, gets called by a few others including Jimmy on the button. I call with 95o in the BB, just because I have two cards. Flop was 763ss giving me a double gutter. Cos I was in lagmode, I lead into about 5 people for £15, everyone folds and Jimmy makes it £40. Based on his earlier play, I was convinced that he had a set at this point. I call and bink a straight when the 8s hits the flop. I was completely unconcerned by the flush draw getting there, other than it might kill my action. I plan to c/r and Jimmy kindly allows me to execute this plan when he bets £50. I bet £165 and he calls. Brick on the river and I slam in about £300 effective and get snapped. I insta turn over my hand, fairly certain that I was good and he shakes his head tabling KK. WP retard, thanks for the money! Afterwards some other retard asked how I could call his bet on the flop with "just a gutshot". Lol.

Anyway, I think that's everything vaguely interesting that I can remember. I think I need to play less drunken poker.