Royal Flush Poker

This week I made an unremarkable start to my plans for a run at the CelebPoker  ‘Battle of the Planets’ leaderboard.

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I was ready to press on and put together another block of 20 if needs be, but then Wednesday nights Poker event entirely took the wind out of my sails. From this point, I do not really have time to complete this challenge before it closes, so I shall have to postpone it until next week.

This week has given me a most painful exit from a tournament, having played so well and decimated the table, until we got to the final table that is. Two very unfortunate hands sandwiched one which I misplayed, to form the basis for my collapse. I went from chip leader with 9 players left, to going out in 7th place, and the final hand was one of those particularly nasty, seemingly safe until the runner runner hits, ones.
With this, I have felt a little too bruised to engage in my usual daily schedule full of poker, and in truth I am still picking through the smouldering wreckage of Wednesday night in my head.

I must forgive my beloved poker pro game for the ways in which it wronged me earlier in the week though, and press on with some online play. I am very close to picking up my bonus cash on PKR, but I have 2 weeks to do that so there is no hurry. Nevertheless I shall get involved in some cash Omaha online today, and maybe play a small stakes live cash game this evening. The following week should involve me refocussing my attention on the leaderboard challenge after coming so close on two ocassions, and of course awaiting this Wednesday and the opportunity for redemption it brings.

PacificPoker.co.uk – I make no secret of the fact that I do not carefully stick to what the poker books tell me I should, and whilst they certainly provide a useful insight into the game, there are some aspects of poker you have to learn the hard way.

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I would never say that I frown upon players who play this type of careful poker on a constant basis, indeed, those who carefully do what the maths dictates they should, will likely turn a good profit playing the game. Regardless of this, I do think there is a great deal of benefit to be had from playing the occasional weaker drawing hand. Personally of course, I am not unpredictable to the point of making wild bets on a constant basis, I simply like to nurture the illusion of recklessness.

I might for instance, call a raise preflop with (8,9) off suit, just so that I can hopefully show it. I also openly say how much I like suited connectors, and for good reason. I am anywhere near as happy playing suited connectors as I make out, but I know if that poker players have that in their mind, they can never look at any flop and feel truly confident that I have missed. Crucially, when you get players thinking that you are capable of anything, almost every flop begins to look dangerous to them, despite the fact that you have only played about three weak hands. The foundations to reading anyones hand lie in their betting, or reaction to your preflop raise. If you create the illusion that you are capable of calling a preflop raise with any two connected cards, you will always keep your poker opponents guessing.

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This was one of the key hands in the early stages of my live event on Wednesday night at SkyPoker.co.uk. I had about 7,000 in chips and picked up (Ah,3h) in the small blind. Four players went to the flop which fell (Kc,Kh,4h). The action was checked around to me, and I put in a small raise of 200.

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One opponent reraised to 600 and the other two folded.

At this point, I felt the only realistic poker hand I could put the reraiser on was three kings. Whilst you may not feel that the odds were right for me to chase the Flush on the face of it, we must look closer at implied pot odds. The potential winnings if I make the Flush against three kings, makes chasing the Flush a more reasonable prospect. What happened next at Sky Poker seems innocuous enough, but it changed the shape of the hand slightly in my mind. My opponent then raised 600 on the turn card (7s).

Putting myself in my opponents position, I thought that if I had three kings, and was even a slightly worried of the heart Flush draw, I would bet considerably more on the turn to make it unreasonable for my opponent to draw to the Flush on the river. The fact that he did not raise heavily led me to feel that he wasn’t putting me on a Flush draw.
The (Qh) then hit on the river, and due to the lack of a stronger bet on the turn, I checked, feeling that my opponent would bet out again, blinded by the apparent strength of his three kings. He checked behind me though, showing his three kings.

I should have probably bet out on the river to make my previous call due to implied pot odds justified, but my rationale and reading of the hand in general were excellent. I will technically consider it a misplayed hand on my part, but I think my reasoning was good and the danger of the heart Flush was only seen at the last minute by my opponent as the Queen of hearts hit.

This week at PartyPoker.com I was subjected to quite a tournament rollercoaster, one which saw me in the chiplead for a considerable length of time before it’s spetacular derailment.

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Everything started out as well as I could hope, as I caught a few flops and played my cards pretty well. One hand in which I made a nut Flush I could have extracted more from had I not checked on the river (knowing my opponent had trip Kings), but generally I was reading very well.

My Party Poker starting stack of 6,000 gradually grew to 11,000 by the break at the end of the first hour. After that I had some key hands which I played beautifully, including a check raise all in with a semi bluff, and I eventually held the chip lead with 30,000.

What followed, happened quickly, as I doubled one player up after getting involved from the big blind with (Ac,Jc). The flop fell (Qc,As,10c) but I got no help against a player who pushed the rest in with his (A,K). It was that same player who came back to haunt me after I had slid back to 16,000. he just about had me covered in chips and made a big preflop move with (9,9). I wasn’t going anywhere preflop with my (A,K) and was relieved to see a King come off on the first card. The often cruel nature of poker was demonstrated as a clear chance to get back to 30,000 in chips was decimated by the fact that the following four cards were (10,8,6,7) to give my opponent a very unlikely Straight and eliminate me in 7th place.

It was an awful way to bust out considering the circumstances, and also the fact I had played well and had so much success early on at PartyPoker.com. With a heavy heart I headed to the bar wondering what might have been, but that’s poker for you, and there is always next week.

PKR is my favoured site and I cannot see that changing anytime soon. the only real fault I could find with PKR is that they do not offer all that many game varieties, but with the recent introduction of Omaha hi/lo to their game list, this is sometihng they appear to be working on.

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My particular game of choice at PKR.com recently has been 5 Card Draw and so I have spent some time playing elsewhere, but most of my time goes into PKR for a number of reasons. One of which is that I am building up points for cash play and PKR have a great array of merchandise in their online store.

I am considering saving up more for an item of clothing or two, but I’m currently tempted to spend some of my points on a high quality deck of PKR playing cards. There is something for everyone in this online store, but that is not the only aspect of this poker room that keeps me returning.

I could not talk about PKR without mentioning the stunning visual aspects. Moving, talking avatars, players being able to see when others check their cards and all manner of other realistic additions to the online game make PKR the forerunner of advancement in online poker.

Help and Support at PKR.com are very knowledgable, tournament schedules are good too, and player traffic is strong enough in most areas. Traffic on the Omaha hi/lo tables might take some time to pick up as it is a new game, but this is to be expected. Whether Guarnteed tournaments, cash games, or satellites are your usual game, you should find what you are looking for at PKR. I would love to see 5 Card Draw introduced at some point, but the hi/lo tables need to fill out first of course. Generally speaking, PKR is an excellent site to play poker on, providing a real feel of enjoyment when you play.