Tuesday with Juice....

Another wild and crazy shoot-em-up night of No Limit Omaha 8 and No Limit Hold'em! I know, that still doesn't sound right. There were several big hands last night, but unfortunately in most of the really big hands, I got quartered. For those of you who may not know what that means, in Omaha 8 if there are 3 cards 8 or below un-paired on the board, a person(s) with the best -LOW- hand will win half the pot and the person(s) with the best -HIGH- hand will win half the pot. In a couple of big hands, I was tied for the best high or low and received half of.... half the pot. In one instance, the first time that I've seen this in a live game, the low was chopped between 4 people. Nice! Yep, I was one of them. So, for every dollar I put in the pot, I'm getting back about .625 ----- that math will mess you up!

Last night, Bill T played some of the best poker that I've seen him play -AND- he was catching cards. That is a tough combination to beat. And..... no one did! He definitely was the big winner and made some great moves that got him paid several times by me et al.

I did hit a couple of monsters that really helped me get back even after I made some donkey calls early. In one hand, I believe it was against Rick and the Juice, I held Qx, 10x, Kx, Jx and the flop was Qx, 10x, 6x. I was first to act and led out with a small bet of about $40 or so. Rick and Dave both called. The turn was a Qx.... Nice! I checked, Rick checked, Dave bet and Rick and I both smooth called. The river.... the fourth Qx! I bet about $250 and everyone folded.

In another hand, not to long after that one, I have 7s, 8s, Jx, Jx and the flop was Ks, Js, 9s. I know... the sucker end of the straight flush. Only at the Juice's would I worry about that costing me..... if it hits. The Juice leads out with a $70 bet and I call and Rick calls..... The turn is the 10s! Dang! The Juice bets $110 and I raise to $250 and they both fold. I know, I played them too hard. I should have slowed down a little. I actually did that in a couple of hands last night. But keep in mind, I've been away from this game for 2 months. It takes some time to get back into the swing of this one....

The other big news last night was our discussion of "chopping" pots. You don't see this happen a lot in most casinos, but it was kind of getting out of hand in this game. And in my personal opinion, which of course, means nothing at this game, it borders on collusion especially when sometimes it would appear that isolation bets were made to get heads up so that the pot could be chopped. I don't believe that anyone at this game would knowingly, intentionally do it, but I do believe that several of us have been the unwilling victim of isolation bets where we would lay down the second or third nut in both directions to huge over bets and then watch the money get chopped up amongst other players. The excellent news about that is that the group discussed it and decided "as a group" ---- NOT TO CHOP! Yea! Now we're back to real poker.

All-in-all, a very good night.... I came back after being down early and a major issue was resolved! Thanks to all involved for doing the right thing!