Consolation Prize

Limped to 15th in the Saturday’s with Pauly PLO tourney. Found myself playing against the likes of AlCantHang, Iggy, Stewman, and Change100 this week. Kind of a bummer not to break through into the cabbage, but again, had a fun time.

Had a big hand with Change during the first level, actually. (She mentions it over on Pot Committed.) She was on my left, having arrived there right after doubling up to 2,990 at her previous table. Meanwhile, I was still hovering right around where I started with 1,480. I picked up in the SB -- a decent PLO hand, but lousy position -- and watched as a couple of players limped. I completed, and Change checked from the BB. Pot 80. Flop came , giving me the Broadway wrap. I checked, Change bet 80, the others folded, and I called. The turn was the , giving me the nut flush draw as well. I bet out 120, and Change quickly raised 480 to 600.

The pot was now 960, so I was facing exactly 2-to-1 to call. With my two draws, I surmised it was just about 2-to-1 against me hitting -- I figured I had the eight hearts, plus the remaining aces, queens, jacks, and nines (11 more outs, I think). So I called. The turn was the , giving me my straight, and I pushed my remaining 780. Change thought a bit and looked me up with her two pair, and now I had 3,000.

Within a couple of hands of that the two of us got it all in again when we both were dealt A-A-x-x, but we chopped. Then a couple of orbits later I gave back a chunk to Change in an ill-conceived flush chase. Eventually I was moved from that table, but never could get things going again, finally getting unceremoniously bounced late in Level 6. Meanwhile, I was glad to see Change made it all of the way to the money, finishing in fourth.

After getting knocked out, I decided I wasn’t ready to quit and so jumped onto a PLO25 table. Often joining a ring game moments after being eliminated from a tourney is a recipe for failure, but things worked out for me Saturday. Why? Because I had the good fortune to play with one of the worst PLO players I have ever encountered.

He arrived a few hands after I did, buying in for $15 (the default buy-in on Stars for PLO25). On his third hand, he was felted after a turn card that gave him two pair also gave his opponent a flush. A pretty obvious misstep, but when I checked his hand I noticed he had made a pot-sized reraise on the flop with nothing but top pair. Hmm, I thought. Better pay attention to this guy.

He rebought for another $15, and within 10 hands or so had bled down to $3 after a bunch of passive calls of raises. He added $10 to his stack, then started raising pot preflop every hand. He made a couple of bucks this way, then came this hand: Someone raised pot preflop to $1.10, and three players called, including our hero. Flop came , the preflop raiser bet pot ($5.25), our hero raised the rest of his stack ($14.15), and got a call. Turns out preflop raiser had a set of kings (which improved to a boat by the end). What did our hero have?

. That’s right. He’d flopped top pair (with no draws whatsoever). He’d played about 20 hands, and was already down 40 clams. And look! He’s rebuying for $15 more.

I sat up in my chair. I wanted to play a hand with this guy.

This time he wasn’t so aggressive, but sure enough, about a dozen hands later he was felted once more. Two pair versus a flush again. And again, all the money was going in after the flush had hit. He rebought again for $15 more.

Within two hands I finally get to play a pot with the wild man. I have , and the flop comes , giving me the monster wrap plus a flush draw. I bet a buck on that flop, which he called. Then the turn brought a most cooperative 7, giving me my straight. We got it all in (total pot just under $30), and my hand held up. He mucked . Once again, he’d made two pair on the turn, then got his money in bad. He was down $70 at this point.

And, answering the silent prayers of everyone at the table, he rebought yet again.

He took about five hands to lose the next $15. Then he rebought for $20, lost about $10 of that, and finally left the table, having dropped nearly a hundy in about 50-55 hands. I left the very next hand.

Such a phenomenon doesn’t happen that often. When it does, my read is that these guys are probably Hold ’em players dropping down limits to experiment a bit with PLO.

Wherever they come from, it’d be nice to have one waiting as a consolation prize every time we get bounced from a tourney. Wouldn’t you say?