It was all Mr. Toad last week at the poker tables. I started with $179 after a nice calm $60 week previous.
Monday and Tuesday was spent busting out of party to the tune of about -$50. I am definitely done there for a while. I know its where the fish congregate in the greatest numbers, but I have yet to figure out how to benefit from it. I guess I’m simply not good enough yet to take advantage. Instead, it was suck out after suck out, which made me very gunshy by the end of it. After a while, every time I’d hit a hand I knew someone had made trips or flopped some nutball low straight with two cards they should have folded pre-flop, every time 3 of a suit showed up, someone had the flush. Etc. Etc. Etc. It was a perverse relief to close the Party app with $1 to my name, happy to be done with that particular brand of insanity.
Wednesday on Paradise saw me get that $50 back plus a little, +$57, my biggest day ever (but keep reading). I’ve found the $1/$2 5-max tables, and they are pretty good. less players means less suckouts. Hands tend to hold up a little better, which is better for me right now, as I tend to shy from the drawing hands and push the made ones. Thursday was open house for the boy, so I played very few hands and was about even, +$1.
On Friday, the white water started with a -$31 performance. Location, location, location. Table selection is very important in theses 5-max games, as one super aggressive maniac can run over the table very easily. And I got caught in a couple of these situations. Part 5 of Holdem for Advanced Players is about shorthanded play and I’ve already started studying it closely.
Saturday was just nuts. I did better with table selection, careful to study a table before sitting and, for the most part, I avoided the aggro maniacs. I then had my biggest single day so far, +$147, shattering Wednesday’s +$57 effort. Lots of good cards, obviously. Lots of chasers, calling my made hands. It felt good to have over $120 at a $1/$2 table and know that I didn’t sit down with it.
I promptly followed up my biggest winning day ever with . . . my biggest losing day ever, of course! -$86. Again it was table selection and a lack of cards. Saturday’s big win made me feel like I could take on anyone, raising maniac or not. After realizing I’d misjudged the first table, I cowered away to table 2, hoping for better. more of the same and I was down $30 very quickly. I was stuck, I’ll admit, and needed to get even. Two tables later, I was down $100. I fought back to -$50, but couldn’t hold it and finished at -$85 when Facty persuaded me that it was time for bed.
So officially the week ended with my bankroll at $220 for a +$41 result, though a disappointing one considering the saturday heights ($330 at one point).
But I will cheat just a bit and include a quick Monday morning session – just 65 hands – for a +$53 against a maniac that insisted that every one else’s pots were due to luck, while his were not. Typical maniac, he raised 50%+ of the hands, and would bet draws and 2nd pairs like they were the nuts. When one of us would call,call,call,call and show him top pair or a rivered straight, it was”omg” and “you are so lucky”. After an earlier flush (4 on the board) beat his wheel straight, here was the decisive pot:
paradise poker 1/2 hold’em (5 handed)
preflop: hero tc, ac.
utg maniac calls, hero calls, button calls, sb completes, bb
checks.flop: (5 sb) 5c, 2s, 2c (5 players)
sb checks, bb checks, maniac bets, hero calls, button calls,
sb folds, bb folds.turn: (4 bb) kc (3 players)
maniac bets, hero calls, button calls.river: (7 bb) 6h (3 players)
maniac bets, hero raises, button calls, maniac 3-bets, hero
caps, button calls, maniac calls.final pot: 19 bb
main pot: 19 bb, between maniac, hero and button. pot won by
hero (19 bb).maniac shows 9c 3c (flush, king high).
hero shows tc ac (flush, ace high).
button shows 2d 9d (three of a kind, twos).
outcome: hero wins 19 bb.
That was $37.50. In retrospect, this hand was not the best example of the manaic’s maniacal maniacity, but it was the culmination of the session. I was waiting for the whining, but it never came. Nevertheless, I could feel the seething coming over the wire. I could see the heat of the egg frying on his forehead. I folded a couple of hands and left when the blinds came around again. Up to the minute bankroll: $273.
