Free Money!
It had been a rather long time since I logged on to an internet poker room and gave away took in money. The last time I did was over a month ago, and it was my last attempt at two-tabling (not good, not good at all). So, when Mike signed on to Pacific last night to try working the bonus he got from my referral, I felt I ought to work on my end of that bonus as well.
Let me just say that Pacific Poker has made me its bitch. I’ve tried their $.05/.10 NLHE tables, their $.25/.50 HE tables, their $.25/.50 O8 tables, their $.50/1.00 HE tables, their $8 SNGs, their $5 SNGs, their $2.50 SNGs, and once when desperate their $.05/.10 Stud tables. I have not had a single winning attempt. Not one! They say even a broken clock is right twice a day, but I’m just never right there!
Also of note, I make no claims to be any kind of card shark. I’m a slightly larger than average fish on a good day. I can identify good starting hands, I can calculate odds, and I’m learning how to put on pressure bets, but I’m really only better than the guppies. But of course, I really only started getting serious (and not really that serious, compared to real poker bloggers) about learning real-money poker (as opposed to valueless-chip wild card poker with my cousins) in the last six months or so, and I play with a bankroll of around a penny (okay, more than that, but basically not a bankroll so much as some money I use for playing with).
So last night, when I “sat down” to play Omaha Hi/Lo on Pacific, I had no expectations whatsoever. I was down, then up just a little, then back down. I eventually got frustrated and spewed money out to the table. I’m sure everyone else there was thrilled to see my bonus money go their way.
Wanting to prove myself, I went back to my preferred site Poker Room. [Side note: anyone else play poker on a Mac running OSX know of any other sites that work?] I didn’t just go running to the site, I went running to the Turbo SNGs – also known as Coins for Bowser where Bowser == me.
I suppose if I was in this poker thing just for money, I would never go anywhere else. I’ve won more than 40% of these tables, came in second (which also pays, though just a pittance) another 20%. Plus, they’re over quick, so you can do a few of them in an hour. First table – the $5 variety I usually go for. I got to heads up, and then got unlucky at the wrong moment and ended up in second. Then, for some reason, I decided I’d try something new.
A few weeks ago, Poker Room had a promotion where whoever won the most SNGs in a weekend would get some ridiculous sum of money. That same weekend, they added new Turbo tables at the $10 level, as well as $20, $50, and probably higher (I don’t scroll down that far). I was curious to see how the play was up one level, so I put my $10 in, and was pleased to find the same level of play (a.k.a. passive and occasionally stupid) as at the $5 variety.
Unfortunately, though, I got unlucky at the wrong moment, and went out in third. I got all my money in on the flop when I was best, and the turn and river did me in. Such is poker. But even with the bubble loss, I was confident that I could beat this table. So, I signed up for another.
Before I go on to talk about that, though, I’d like to mention one particular ass who was seated to my left during the first $10 table. He got royally pissed when my full house beat his straight (like they are prone to do…), and started gunning for me. But not in the “I’m going to be smarter than you and take all your money” kind of way – more like the “I’m going to make fun of you and call you ‘gay’ a lot” kind of way. I think he was trying to get me on tilt. I laughed at him and said “thanks” every time he said something rude about me. And I laughed even more when the guy who took me out unceremoniously took him down in one hand later.
Moving on. At the start of this second $10 table, I was getting crap for cards. But I decided to make myself the bully of the table, and for some reason it was working. Pre-flop raise, two callers, bet the flop, both fold. I did this probably six times in a row before someone got the nerve to call me. Then I calmed down a little, but by that point I was already a staggering chip leader. Aggression is awesome. Aggression won me the table.
There was one hand I played through to showdown that I am a little uncertain about. I flopped top pair and a baby flush draw, and was in with one person. I bet half the pot and he called. The turn brought my heart flush, but I was scared for a bigger flush. Apparently, though, I was not scared enough to fold. I checked, he bet half the pot, I called. The river came, it was not a heart, I checked, he bet half the pot, I called. I’m pretty sure that was wrong. If I thought I was beat, I should have folded. And if I thought I wasn’t, I should have raised. I’m also pretty sure the “check-call” is not a real popular poker “move.” It turned out okay, as the other guy just had two pair.
All in all, at the end of the day I was up $17 on Poker Room. (Let’s not discuss Pacific. That money is dead to me.) Also, and this is really the important part to me, I was excited about poker again. My heart was racing when I bet, and when I had a good hand, I was shaking. It was awesome. Not as awesome as playing at Foxwoods, but way more awesome than driving three hours round trip.