Redemption

7/19/08

Redemption…

Well, this title sounds like the title to some Bruce Willis movie where he is a cold blooded killer who finds the meaning of life protecting the child, of whom he is originally hired to kill. Maybe I should write the script. I could be the next Pinoy Shylaman. Oscar baby and @#$%&* “pokuh doo”….hehe.

Anyway, some folks from the Bay have came into town last Thursday (no permission to use their names yet). I partied with them at the “ZOO”, my new nickname for the Spearamint Rhino, where the wildlife runs free and “charges” (my rhino pun) you to the max for lap therapy. But it’s nice, lol. Who thought getting “blueballs” would be this fun. Talent pool was good as always, I was actually tempted to go to the VIP room, but I didn’t want to further donate to the debauchery at hand. Lap dances in the main room are fine with me. Oh yeah, short term happiness can also be found with a lap dance performed by Lorena, the ”biracial” Cuban/Mexican goddess from Pomona. She apparently had no other part time jobs during the week and solely subsisted on working at gentlemen’s clubs scattered throughout the SoCal area, with the occasional trip to Sin City. Yo, you don’t need to diversify, if the money’s right.
Saturday, my family came into town. It always feels good to see family, especially being this far away from the Bay. I mean, I’m not completely cut off from any friends or family in this godforsaken town, but it’s always great to see me mum, pop, bro and “sis” (me bro’s wife). We also met up with some of their friends from San Jose as well. We decided to make Treasure Island are base of operations for that night. Cool, if I needed to eat, I had about a $10.00 food comp banked at the poker room. Need to save money, times is hard kids, hehe. What ensued, appeared to be a drinking contest at Mist Lounge in TI. Vegas just makes you a different animal sometimes. No concept of time or limits. But yo’ they all on vacay, who cares unless somebody get hurt. I just can’t go to the extremes, if I plan on having success in surviving in this town. I just did not feel like drinking any further and decided to get my poker room food comp for use later on that night.

As I made it to the sign up desk, I noticed that a $1/$1 Pot Limit Omaha game was being dealt that night. The blinds were low and I could fold out until I felt comfortable playing the game. They say the PLO is the wave of the future. I could tell why…It’s an action game. The game ran only 5 handed, but there were significant pots each time. The table makeup was made up of one loose aggressive Aussie, one weak English player, one loose player from the States, a tight player from the States and I (usually tight aggressive, but I can make some gambling plays too). Sounds like the World Cup, but the States are never in it, hehe. The Aussie player looked like the chip captain to me, he had about $600.00 in chips in front of him, while the rest of the players had $200.00 to $300.00 in front of them. I decided to buy in for $100.00, I haven’t really played any Omaha, let alone PLO.

Lately I have been doing some reading about basic strategy in the game, so I have been always curious to play it. It’s hard to find a low stakes game of this nature, so I told myself why not give it a go. If you do not know what Omaha poker is, I will explain it very briefly. The action is very similar to Texas Holdem, but instead of starting with 2 cards in the hole, you get 4 cards. Preflop there is a betting round, where you are allowed to call the big blind, fold, raise (to the pot amount, hence pot limit, as opposed to no-limit where you can bet any amount). The flop and betting rounds are the same as in Texas Holdem. The rule with using your 4 cards, is that you must exactly use 2 from the hole and 3 on the flop. If you had one Heart suit in your hand and four Heart suits flop out, that is not counted as a flush. It’s the same thing with straights, say you have the Ace of Clubs and 10 to King flop out, it is not counted as a straight (unless you have any other matching straight cards in the 4 that you hold in your hand). If you are just used to playing Texas Holdem, it can be confusing at times (and expensive to your bankroll).
Well, back to the game at hand. As I stated before I bought in for $100.00, not a big risk if I happen to lose it. It was for good use, the education of a poker player. I folded quite a bit during the first 30 minutes, as I didn’t seem to obtain any premium hands. That is a good strategy for beginning players in any poker game, as it also allows you to observe the action of the other players during their hands. The Aussie player seemed to be getting all the big pots, as he busted the loose English and loose American player, once each. Then this hand came up when I had a pair of Kings Spade/Club, Jack of Clubs and Queen of Spades. This was a fairly good wrap around (straight possibilities), 2nd nut flush and big pair combo hand. The Aussie player raised it to $7.00 under the gun. The loose player from the States (like it’s a foreign country to me, hehe) called, the tight States player called, I called from the small blind and the English player called. There was $35.00 in the pot at that time. The flop came up rainbow, Queen of Clubs, 2/3 of spades. That is a pretty good flop for my hand. I had top pair with King kicker and the 2nd nut flush draw. I had some good potential, to be the best hand or potentially best hand at this point. I was in the small blind and decided to check. I was not in a really good position to bet the pot, as I would be the first to act on every street. I didn’t want to bet, then get reraised and be put on a decision to basically call off the rest of my chips. I also thought about reraising anybody who bet the flop, to try to isolate the raiser. Anyway, the English player checked, the Aussie player checked, loose States player bet $20.00 and the tight States player folded. The bet then came to me. I thought for a minute and called the $20.00 to see what would develop on the turn. The English player folded and the Aussie called. There was now $95.00 on the pot, with 3 of us left in play. The dealer dealt a 7 of clubs on the turn. Wow, now I had a 2 way 2nd nut flush draw, an overpair with the Kings in my hand and top pair with King kicker. I believe I would be even money with anybody with 3 of kind (which would be the best possible hand at that time – no potential straights nor flushes could be possible at this time). I thought again for a minute and decided to check again, to see what the other 2 players would do. The Aussie checked and the loose States player bet out the pot of $95.00. Now the pot contained $190.00. I had $73.00 bucks left and the pot odds were offering me about 2.5 to 1. That should be an even call for me for a 2 way 2nd nut flush draw, top pair and an overpair. If somebody held the potential best hand of 3 of a kind, I could still win on the river with a club flush, spade flush, or another King for top set (i.e. 3 of a kind). I decided to call for the rest of my chips. The Aussie player also called the $95.00 the loose States player bet. This created a side pot for those two players of $44.00 bucks. The pot I could only win would be in the amount of $314.00. The river was dealt a Jack of Hearts. I can’t beat a set now, but I got top two pair, the pair of Kings in my hand would not count, as the best two cards in my hand would have to be used to create the best possible hand for me, two pair Queens and Jacks. I flipped my cards up first and the Aussie folded. I was sure that I was beat by the loose States player. He showed Queen/Seven for two pair as well. Wow, I won the main pot of $314.00. This is a cool game, hehe.

Another interesting hand that I held, was when I held a pair of Tens Heart/Spade and Nine/Eight of Diamonds. This time I was on the dealer button. To make it simple, all 5 of us made a call of the cutoff player’s (this time it was the tight States player) raise of $6.00 bucks. There was $30.00 bucks preflop. The dealer then dealt out Six of Diamonds, Six of Hearts and Seven of Diamonds. Nice flop for me, even though it may have hit someone with a full house or at least trip Sixes. I had a draw to a straight flush with the Five and Ten of Diamonds. Man if the Ten of Diamond hits, I would get a full house and a straight flush, wheeee!!! My chances of that are pretty low, that’s 2 cards out of 31 to hit, a 7% chance at best. It went check, check, check, check to me. I bet out $15.00 bucks into the pot. The Aussie player folded, the English player called, loose States player folded and the tight States player folded. The dealer then turned a Ten of Diamonds. Wow, that’s nice – got me straight flush with a full house to back it up – the stone cold nuts. The English player led out with a bet of $30.00 bucks. I did an acting job of looking back at my cards and thinking about what to do, when I know all along that I will just call his bet and punish him on the river. After my act of contemplation, I made the “crying call” of $30.00 bucks. The river is dealt, which is a Jack of Diamonds. Now I have my super straight flush. Man, I wish everybody was in this pot. The English player quickly checks. I look at the board intently and bet $40.00 bucks, into a pot of $120.00. I should have really bet more like $60.00 to $70.00 bucks. I wanted him to reraise me if he hit a full house or maybe even 4 of a kind (with the Sixes, for the 2nd nuts). Anyway, he made the crying call of $40.00 – I guess he kinda knew that he lost the hand, but called with 4 to 1 on his money at that point (I was thinking he probably hit a flush too). I flipped up my cards and showed him that I hit a straight flush and full house. He showed us that he hit a King high flush. Thanks for that Ten of Diamonds baby. The dealer pushed the pot to me, nice…

I decided to call it quits after only a couple of hours, as the Aussie had been pounding on the English and loose States player for their chips. I felt that the action was about to dry up. I just about quadrupled my stack within that time, so it was definitely not a bad day. Some people think that to be successful in poker, you have to stack up monster wins (which is probably right, hehe). When you are starting out, I think you will still need to grind out these small wins. If you play your best at all times, in for the long haul, your results should tell in time. It was about 3 am at that point and was hungry. I cashed out my poker comp, which got built back to $15.00 bucks. Nice – I was fiending for pancakes and bacon, yum yum…