Ornate Push

 
 

 

 

Monday, June 02, 2008

Local boy bubbles SwDrP, wins BritBlogger

Interesting weekend for me, played Kats donkament which started at 2am on Friday night, I was pretty drunk by then though and went out in the second hour but I don't even remember what my hole cards were or who busted me ! The following day I played a lot of cash Omaha games, I'm basically a noob at this and I'm definitely making some mistakes but I rode them out and ended my cash session up about $120, 4 buyins. There's a lot of craziness in Omaha but the short term variance of Saturday fell on my side so that was a nice little score.
I just about remembered to register for Saturdays with Dr Pauly (thank goodness for late registration) and continued to play Omaha reasonably well. I doubled early with straight over straight and then lost the advantage two hands later to set over set. Is bottom set on the flop any good in Omaha ? Facing a lot of action from a known tight player I guess not. My heart said fold but my ego said call.
I rode out some good hands and others missed their draws, and at the break was chipleader with over 4k and 11 players remaining. When we got down to the bubble I was in a decent position but one hand before the second break I called off most of my chips with a flush draw against the same player who I'd doubled up at the beginning with the set-over-set hand. In the last chance saloon after the break, I got my remaining chips in with the best of it against the new chipleader, holdin-ragz. Having the best of it before the flop doesn't mean a lot in Omaha and I was out-flopped and busted on the bubble. I'll grab the hand history when I get home and add it here.

*here it is, I was the short stack and at least I went out to an oma-hammer hand !

PokerStars Game #17826147073: Tournament #90195579, $10+$1 Omaha Pot Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/05/31 - 18:35:22 (ET)
Table '90195579 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: TanOrpheus (1280 in chips)
Seat 7: HermWarfare (8610 in chips)
Seat 8: bayne_s (3315 in chips)
Seat 9: holdin-ragz! (19795 in chips)
holdin-ragz!: posts small blind 300
TanOrpheus: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Qh Ah Ts 7s]
HermWarfare: folds
bayne_s: folds
holdin-ragz!: raises 1200 to 1800
TanOrpheus: calls 680 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (520) returned to holdin-ragz!
*** FLOP *** [Kc Js 3d]
*** TURN *** [Kc Js 3d] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Kc Js 3d Qd] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
holdin-ragz!: shows [Ad 3s 2d 7c] (a flush, Ace high)
TanOrpheus: shows [Qh Ah Ts 7s] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
holdin-ragz! said, "ouch"
holdin-ragz! collected 2560 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2560 | Rake 0
Board [Kc Js 3d Qd 5d]
Seat 3: TanOrpheus (big blind) showed [Qh Ah Ts 7s] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 7: HermWarfare folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: bayne_s (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: holdin-ragz! (small blind) showed [Ad 3s 2d 7c] and won (2560) with a flush, Ace high

On Sunday I rose early, determined to prove what a brilliant poker player I am. This was probably the biggest mistake of the whole weekend, firstly because I am not a brilliant poker player and secondly because my ego was on the line. I busted from tournament after tournament. I typed "idiot" and "fyi" in the chat-box. My ego was trying to win battles a-la the special olympics analogy. It was dumb and I was in a weird place. Like when you try to sleep at night and the more you think about it the worse it gets, I wanted to concentrate on playing good poker and the more I thought about it the harder it got.
Eventually I switched the laptop off. Went out and saw my folks and checked up on the boat. By the time I got home and fed the cats and myself it was nearly time for the Britblogger tourney, which I thought may not run but I'm glad it did and there were no chat shennanigans.

Unfortunately my ego logged in with me again. When you think you know everyone's game it's easy to think than no-one knows your game and get on an ego-trip. Early on I missed a few flops and ran a Hammer-bluff into Acorn. Barely 20 minutes in I was 10th of 10 entrants with 350 chips and the blinds at 15/30.

And that's when it happened. My ego died. In a moment I was free of the all the limitations that wanting to do well and prove myself had suffocated me with all day. The saying goes "In order to live we must be willing to die", short stacked and with nothing to prove I was finally free of the shackles. To cut a long story short I started playing free and went on to win the tournament. With the "self" dead I was able to focus on everyone else and just make the right move regardless of cards and results. Yes I got lucky when AQ beat AK. Yes I was lucky that Matty slow-played his AA allowing me to hit a straight in my Big Blind. But mostly, I was lucky that my ego died.

I hope this becomes a new marker of enlightenment. I have no right to have any poker ego whatsoever. I'm just another shmuck spending some of his paycheck playing a game on the internet. The less ego there is involved when I'm playing poker the better all my decision will be. If I ever win the WSOP and the ego returns refer me here accompanied with a swift slap to the chops !

That’s all for now, until next time I will be kicking my ego while it's down to make sure it stays there.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Contact Details

Yahoo IM : TanOrpheus

Links

Description

Ornate - adj. 1. Elaborately, heavily, and often excessively ornamented. 2. Flashy, showy, or florid in style or manner;

Push - 1. To exert outward pressure or force against something. 2. To advance despite difficulty or opposition; press forward. 3. To expend great or vigorous effort.

Ornate Push - The messy ramblings of a troubled poker player and tilted mind.

Archives

July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 October 2010 November 2010 March 2011 July 2011

Powered By