Who's Your DADI

Played in the DADI Omalympics last night with the bloggers. It was great fun as usual for these events, and now that pokerstars is my friend again, I'm able to have much more fun at these things instead of embarrassing myself by going out first when my KK gets cracked by someone else's 99 or JQs. Anyways, the theme of the DADI event last night was definitely busted low draws in my view. I must have personally seen at least 15 of the 47 players go out when they had a strong low draw that just never got that 3rd low card on the board. In fact, I was a victim of this as my event almost ended very early, when on hand #3 I held A38J, and the flop came 247. Obviously I had the nuts, so I stuck around for a decent sized bet. When he turn came a Q, I bet out, got raised, and put in a max reraise since I knew I was the nuts for half the pot and there were only 2 of us left. Well, the river brought an Ace, counterfeiting my most valuable low card, and before I knew it I had lost 3/4 of the pot to a higher high AND a tied low with Jordan from HighonPoker. I was down from 1500 to around 650 chips, and in last place right from the get go, and feeling pretty pissed to be embarrassing myself once again in front of the other bloggers (despite my being the best dam poker player I know).

Despite my early bad luck, I managed to hold my own, winning several small pots and fighting my way back up from a low of 550 chips to around 1000. Then I had my biggest hand of the night. I limp-checked out of the big blind with 34QQ. The flop came 2-5-7. I held a strong low , plus the OESD and a hidden pair of queens for high. I put in a reasonably sized bet, which was called by one player across the table with a large stack, who gave out the distinct impression of holding the A-3 for the nut low. Then the river brought a great card for me, an Ace, counterfeiting what I thought was the Ace in my opponent's hand, and making me the new nut low with my 3-4. I checked, and my opponent ate the bait, betting large on his still solid low. I raised allin, and he thought and called my nut low. We flipped, and when the dream card, a third queen, came on the river, my nut low won the low half over his counterfeited Ace, and my trip queens took down the high half of the monster pot over his aces and 7s, the biggest pot to that point on our table.

I managed to get as high as 5th place briefly after this point with around 3600 chips, but eventually, shortly after the first break and with around 25 players remaining out of the starting group of 47, I dropped from 8th to 14th on a busted nut low draw that never filled, which as I mentioned was really the killer of almost everyone that I saw go out or get busted big during the tournament. Then, to add insult to injury, two hands later, I held A299, and the board came 34J, tempting me to call a bet I probably should not have (in retrospect anyways!) with the nut low draw. When the low card did not come on the turn, I knew my odds were poor, but given the blinds structure at that point in the tournament, most of my chips were already in the pot at that point, and I was too pot committed to fold it out. Needless to say, I lost the rest of my chips when the low also failed to complete on the river, and was out of the tournament in 23rd place. While I certainly had expected to do better, in all I was very pleased with my performance, in papticular with me keeping my composure and coming back from last place early to as high as 5th place shortly before the first break. Especially since Omaha is not really my #1 game.

While I left the DADI open to watch the continuing festivities, I decided to enter the $1 large tourney on ps, as I had finished in the top 85 or so in each of the last two nights in similar large tourneys on ps, each with more than 1200 entrants. The total number of players was I think 1161, and things got started off good early when I played AK for a small raise with 4 other players, and a flop of AK4 not only got me top two pairs but also got me two callers and raisers, one with AQ and one with a flush draw. Two more rags and some sneaky passive play from me got one opponent to move in on me, and while the other folded, I was able to pick up most of both of their chips with my hand. From there I was up from 1000 to around 2300 chips, which I rode for a good long while. Around 15 minutes before the first break, I managed to get over 3200 when I flopped trips on a flop of 10-10-4 rainbow (I held 10-K in my hand), and I checked around on the flop. The turn was a 2, and I checked it around again, hoping to induce a bet but getting none. Then when a King came on the river, completing my boat, I careflly paused, and then led out with a fairly low bet of 200. My ploy worked perfectly, as one opponent folded but then other pushed without hesitation, with what turned out to be AK for top two pairs and top kicker. I coasted through the second session, gradually increasing my chip stack until I crossed the 10,000 mark just before the second break when a fish called my bet that put him all in with my tptk, as compared to his top pair, jack kicker. Who DOES that for a big bet fiarly late in a tournament? Anyways, my tournament ended after 2 1/2 hours in 88th place when I moved in a stack of 12000 chips (38th place at the time) with 10-10 in late position, and just one limper to that point. The blinds folded, and the limper calls, flipping...you guessed it! A-A. Needless to say, I almost never suck out on people, especially on pokerstars, and not only did I not get the 10 I needed, but my opponent flopped another Ace to put me out of my misery early. Nonetheless, it was another positive night overall, as I made 88th out of 1160 players, my third top-100 finish in the last three days on pokerstars. And I still can't help but comment on how interesting it is that for two weeks, starting the very day after I went OFF on pokerstars in the chat about how obviously fixed their software is, I could not hit a THING. I got bad beat out of 15 consecutive tournaments on ps over an 11-day period, not advancing past the bottom 20th percentile of players in any case. And now, just a week later, I am making the money and the top 100 players in 3 straight large tournaments, outlasting 1000 or more players in each case. Something is up with ps, no?