A Comeback at FCP, HORSE, and a Bad Beat

I'm going to write this blog entry in reverse order of the title.

A Bad Beat

I know that bad beat stories are a dime a dozen, but I like to include hand histories in my blog. Also, I think this bad beat is rather impressive, given how far ahead I was of DONKEY on the flop.

$50 NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, June 19, 13:37:40 ET 2006
Table Table 108010 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: fec222 ( $126.22 )
Seat 2: Thrak42 ( $54.92 )
Seat 3: DONKEY ( $14.13 )
Seat 4: JTEEX ( $51.11 )
Seat 5: LuckyTran ( $28.10 )
Seat 6: frazwood ( $24.95 )
fec222 posts small blind [$0.25].
Thrak42 posts big blind [$0.50].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to frazwood [ 7s 8s ]
DONKEY calls [$0.50].
JTEEX calls [$0.50].
LuckyTran folds.
frazwood calls [$0.50].
fec222 calls [$0.25].
Thrak42 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 6d, 5s ]
fec222 bets [$2.49].
Thrak42 raises [$5.98].
DONKEY calls [$5.98].
JTEEX folds.
frazwood is all-In [$24.45]
fec222 folds.
Thrak42 folds.
DONKEY is all-In [$7.65]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
DONKEY shows [ 4s, 3s ] a full house, Fives full of fours.
frazwood shows [ 7s, 8s ] a straight, four to eight.
frazwood wins $10.82 from side pot #1 with a straight, four to eight.
DONKEY wins $36.33 from the main pot with a full house, Fives full of fours.

HORSE

As I said in my previous blog, I am really enjoying playing $5 + 0.50 HORSE SNGs at Full Tilt Poker. I have played only one of these since my last blog. It was last night and I won it rather easily.

I initially donked off some chips calling down a DONKEY with ace high. This actually was worth the chip value that I lost, because the DONKEY was a loud-mouth, and pointed out to the entire table that I was a "horrible poker player". I played tight-aggressive from then on, and I got it to five-handed with about 1500 chips (starting chip amount = 1500).

The blinds/antes were rather large at this point, so I needed to make a move quickly or I was going to be out. In hold'em, I was dealt KQs on the button, so I raised it up and got called in two spots. The flop was K K 9 and I raised an early bettor, who called. The turn was my gin card (queen) and I merely called a bet, because I had position and I was almost all-in (I wanted to get all-in on the river). When my opponent bet out on the river, he was almost forced to call my raise because of the pot-odds. He probably would have called anyway, as he held JT. There's nothing like chasing an inside-straight draw, catching it, and losing anyway!

After that, I had plenty of chips to do damage and I simply outplayed my opponents to win. The heads-up match was particularly easy because my opponent had little clue how to play Omaha 8/b. The first hand (we started about even in chips), I flopped the nut high (ace-high spade flush) and low and he called me to the end with some crappy high hand (top pair?) and no low. After that, I simply played tight-aggressive, pushing when he was weak and folding when he wasn't.

Full Contact Poker

After struggling for awhile, I think that I have finally found my rhythm at Full Contact Poker. I am now +$100 for the site, even though I have yet to clear any bonus money. I have been playing a little $100 NL, which is great for clearing bonus points, but it's a little above my comfort level as far as what I am capable of losing. I certainly feel like I can beat the $100 NL game, but I am more comfortable playing $50 NL, so I have decided (for now at least) to stick to that game.

I have been slowly grinding my stack upwards, mostly by avoiding big pots without a really strong hand. It seems almost too simple to be true.