From Way Down Early…

…to way up late! It sure beats the hell out of the alternative. For me, it was very strange night. I almost doubled up right away when I re-raised Dave all-in preflop with 10-10, he calls with 9-9, and my hand holds up.

It went straight downhill from there.

In Omaha 8, it seemed like every low hand I had either got counterfeited on the river, or ended up quartering me. Every straight of flush I had, someone boated up on the turn or river. I even had to lay down two boats when it became obvious they were no good. I had so many good starting hands. I had A-A-2-4, two suits, A-A-J-10, two suits, and A-A-2-7 one suit in the space of about 10 minutes. It’s a funny game, one night those three hands can make you $2,500 or so, another night (um, last night, for example) they just make you poorer and more frustrated.

The killer hand for me came against, who else, The Jizz. I was in position with K-J-J-10, and the flop comes J-5-4 with two hearts. I’m really not that excited about the flop, since there’s obviously a straight, flush and low draw, but I’m not scared either. I’d prefer to see a cheap turn and go from there, but Dave leads out with a huge bet. Of course, I put him on the big low and nut flush draws. We both have fairly big stacks ($800+), and since I know I can get all his chips if my hand holds up, I call, fully ready to ditch my hand if an ugly turn card comes.

The turn brings the Kd, a nice card for me. Dave pushes all-in for $600+. Now it’s a pretty easy call. I’m getting a great price, and I’m pretty sure I scoop if the river brings a 5, 4, or anything higher than a 9. I could also be good for half the pot if many other low cards come. At any rate, you know what’s coming…the 6h, giving Dave the double-nut scooper and the rest of my chips.

As much as I hate losing, it doesn’t bother me so much to lose to The Jizz. For one, I’m a big picture kind of guy. Dave is the first to admit he’s an action junkie, who lives and dies by the sword. Most of the time, the sword is in my hands. I figure I’m up about $213 million lifetime against him, so I can handle the occasional flesh wound. The way I see it, him taking my chips is basically a very short-term loan with an extremely high interest rate. I will get them back, and then I’ll take some more for my trouble.

After more bad luck (and another rebuy), I resisted the temptation to pack it in, book the loss and call it a night. There were a lot of chips on the table (many of them formerly mine), and I got stubborn and decided that I was going to get them back. I started sloooooowly rebuilding my stack, and got a decent portion of them back when several players got scared (you wussies know who you are!) and decided to cash out, leaving just Phil, Dave and myself. I must say that I’m very comfortable playing 2-3 handed, and this looked like a great scenario for me. It wasn’t long before they both started shoving chips my way. I really liked all the pretty colors, especially the greens and chocolates! I broke Davey Boy once, he rebought and I broke him again, then I broke Phil.

After a very long night (and morning), where it looked like I was going to go home a loser, I fought my way back to actually win over $2K - almost as much as Tuesday night. When I left, Dave was sobbing uncontrollably. He was a shell of a man, his spirit having been broken.

Dave, you need to buck up, soldier! I’m counting on you to buy me a new car, even if it means pimping out your wife and getting your daughter into a sweatshop making Nikes™. No excuses! Since I’ll be in AC next week (and not there to take your chips from you), I expect you’ll do very well at the tables. And I expect you to have a nice pile of chips to give to me on my return.

Don’t disappoint me.

See ya at the tables…
Rick