The fish that got away - The classic big fish story with a twist

Last night I was lounging with the wife and catching up on the back episodes of House. I don't see a lot of bloggers watching that show, but you may have noticed I have a sarcastic streak. I know a master when I see one.

Lately, I've been playing the $1 45 person sngs. I do have some kind of ridiculous ROI on these and when the bankroll needs a little life blown in, I hit these. Normally, an expected card distribution will give you a winning periodically. These tournaments are easy to cash once you realize that most people are for some reason trying to get tricky and are looking for coin flips. I play these pretty straight. No one is gonna notice you check raised them or 3 bet. They just see their cards. If you don't get cards, it can be a long night.

The first one of these last night saw me fold to an M of > 10. Ho hum. They are cheap. Fired up the second one. This time I saw Surf in the chat window. Hey! He signed up for one. Cool. It was nice of him to stop by and slum it with the common man. He doubles up early, taking big slick deep and then gives that all back a few hands later. I continue to fold 93o for the 296th time of the night. I did a little razzle dazzle when I found a couple of people scared to lose, but in the end, JJ with ~800 chips is just no match for the various AK, A? combos out there. I don't even remember what everyone had...Ho hum. Surf goes on double up winning with AK again. I think he got bored. These games can do that to you. That's why I was watching House.

I puttered around for a while in the trial version of Poker Tracker 3. Tuned into watch some of the MATH and finally turned on BDR after getting caught up on my favorite poker playing, drug popping ego maniac (man, that sounds like a few bloggers - any of you guys doctors?). BDR reminded me of the blogger cash game. Sometimes you guys just play too deep for me, but last night it was a deep .05/.10 NLHE. A lot of deep stacks but super crazy play. Surf was over here doing what Surf does best, splash it around.

Heck, I can fold in a cash game too and proceeded to continue folding. Sure, I joined a couple of flops, but when the board comes 789 all clubs and you hold KQd...4 people raising before you makes you think...hey....my hand might be no good.

So this leads me to my hand of the night. You see, I perfected folding last night. I found zen and was dodging bullets. This hand pretty well shows this. You might disagree with me, you might even have played this differently, but that's why we blog...to learn from each other.

FullTiltPoker Game #6488889523: Table Edam (deep) - $0.05/$0.10 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:08:58 ET - 2008/05/20
BuddyDank has returned
Seat 1: Rake Feeder ($25.25)
Seat 2: DommyDooDimes ($19.90)
Seat 3: OhCaptain ($7.75) <--I bought in short. Crazy play and I didn't feel like going broke...so there
Seat 4: Donkette ($37.70) {Donkette is writing some fantastic stuff her site - I strongly recommend you check it out.}
Seat 5: BuddyDank ($77.55), is sitting out <--Made a living off catching Surf making moves. Well done sir!
Seat 6: Joanne1111 ($19.55)
Seat 7: KronX ($4.90)
Seat 8: ScottMc ($19.90)
Seat 9: bdidde ($20.20), is sitting out
Joanne1111 posts the small blind of $0.05
KronX posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [Ks Qs] <--love this hand, hate this hand. Let's just see where it goes. I've been playing weak this whole time, so if I flop big I could easily trap for huge.
bdidde has returned
ScottMc folds
DommyDooDimes has reconnected
Rake Feeder raises to $0.35 <--So far, he hasn't seen a hand that he didn't open raise. I believe PT had him at around 60% V$IP. This means nothing and he could be on any two cards.
DommyDooDimes folds
OhCaptain calls $0.35 <--I'll call check out the flop, see pre-flop plan and expectation
Donkette calls $0.35 <--Joanada hasn't been re-raising, this will be a cheap flop for her.
Joanne1111 folds
KronX folds
*** FLOP *** [5h 4h 5c] <--Swing and a miss. Again, I'm not even drawing.
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder checks <--This looks really weird. What? No continuation bet? Donkette has been a bit aggressive, but not in a 3 way. Hmm.
OhCaptain checks <--I got shiat. I'm ready to walk away.
Donkette checks <--Look! Free card!
*** TURN *** [5h 4h 5c] [Qc] <--Now I have top pair with two potential flush draws to dodge.
Rake Feeder checks
OhCaptain bets $0.70 <--Rake Feeder could be trapping here. That's his kind of flop and still he does nothing. My guess is this. I'll bet a little less then half the pot. A Q or< flush draw pushes here and a 5 calls. Too many ways to lose here with just top pair. I get two callers, I'm almost positive that one of them has the 5.
Donkette calls $0.70
Rake Feeder calls $0.70
*** RIVER *** [5h 4h 5c Qc] [5s] <--Conventional wisdow would say that its unlikely either of them has the 5 now. Pocket 4s just got counterfeited. Pocket Qs would be neat.
Rake Feeder bets $24.20, and is all in <--Is it just me, or is this a shove for value? Sure, I maybe laying down a split here, but I really don't think I am.
OhCaptain folds
Donkette folds
Uncalled bet of $24.20 returned to Rake Feeder
Rake Feeder shows [5d 4s] four of a kind, Fives <---Can I get a BOOOOM for laying down the full house to quads? Come on! He had QUADS!
Rake Feeder wins the pot ($3) <--I believe this is the minimum we could lose to him. Nice job Donkette! Dodging bullets.

Somehow, I think I was the fish that got away, sorry Rake Feeder. I had fun and surprisingly walked away from the cash game with some more blogger money. I am actually up a buy in $10NL for the month of May. The cash game was fun, I'm pretty sure you will see me back there. Thanks to Surf and PE for stopping by and watching me in the low rent district!