Bad Night/Good Night

Well I had quite the night last night. I was the 9th one busted out in the tourney, think I lasted less than 30 min. Three times I flopped two pair and made significant bets, but people kept chasing and I lost to trips all three time! Oh well, the only bonus was that the first nine out get a spot at the ‘losers table’ for a chance to get back in.

I admit that this was my first time at the loser table, and it was quite aggressive. The guy across from me took three people out in a row and had quite the stack. He then naturally began to steal the blinds. Soon after Rafael took someone out so he ended up with a decent stack relative to the chip leader. I was playing quite tight as the other two short stacks were starting to throw their chips in. I took a small/medium pot or two before the chip leaders took out the other two.

Rafael had about 2.5x my stack and the chip leader had about twice his stack (about 5x mine). Fortunately, I have been working on my short handed table skills, and before too long I took about ½ of big stacks chips, which put us all roughly even. I was actually hoping to go heads-up with Rafael but it was not to be, as I took him out shortly thereafter.

The former big stack and I spent some time pushing chips back and forth across the table to each other before we both made our moves. I had Ac5c and he had Tens. I ended up with two pair, 5’s and J’s and 4 to my flush and he had his T’s and J’s. Oh well, that left me with about 2000 in chips and the break was almost done. If you get back in before the next round starts, you get back in the main game with 2000 chips, not just 1500. I just told him to take the game and go get his extra chips, after all, there was still the raffle to let eight people back in, which I did get. Did all right until I went all in with a flush and got called by a boat. That’s poker for ya!

As it turns out, I busted out just in time to join a side game. That was one of the best side games I had ever played. We were playing a rotation of Hold’em, Omaha, and Seven Card Stud. Since I have never actually played Omaha or Seven Card Stud before, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I had a blast and finished in 3rd place on that one. It was wonderful having to approach each hand differently, so your mind is always shifting between different strategies appropriate to the game being dealt. It was quite refreshing.