Walkabout meanderings

It's been a while and there has been a lot to report but I've just never seemed to have the time to get it down on paper. Blogging is probably a habit and I just got out of it for a while. As this will be a brief snapshot from memory I realise that a whole lot of memorable things will be lost. Luckily there are many more memorable moments ahead.

Last night's was definitely my first live Royal Flush, unfortunately I dug a deeper, deeper hole for myself and was on the wrong side of it. It was a home game at my place $.50/$$1 relatively deepstacked with about $350 facing $450, 1am. Villain who we call Double Barrels is the ultimate LAG. Flop came AsQs4h, 2 spades. I bet, he called. Js on Turn and the board looked mighty scary, rather than slow down this was my chance to fire a second barrel at a juicy pot with air - call, bugga. Ts to make the Royal Flush Draw. Now if he doesn't have the Ks he can't call a big bet and even if he has trips we tie with Top straight. Great theory - rest is history as the mobiles captured the smiling Geoff stacking almost all my chips.

As the poker Gods would have it, QQ very next hand. Flop AQ7. Long story short I was pegged as tilting and more than doubled up. Very next hand, Kh4h and flop came AhQh7. Checked around. A big stack hits trips on Turn and bets big, I call. River blanks, he goes AI, I call and all of a sudden I'm almost back to where I was before the Royal Flush. Happy Days!

This was our second early morning home game in a row. Wife is off to UK and I was home alone (with my poker buddies, of course.) Previous night was same format cash game and I posted a modest win there too. We get T$100 chips for $50 and you can re-buy top-up at any time. Every 2 hours we vote on raising the binds / buy-in. When majority say yes, we double the stakes, blinds and buy-in. Sometimes we get to T$4/8, Friday we ended at T$2/$4 and last night T$1/$2. No-one gets hurt but the stakes seem meaningful to us so the play has relevance. I'd highly recommend the format. Other tip is to have multiple buy-ins prepared in advance in zip-lock sandwich bags.

I've had a lot of live poker since posting past and am well up I still buy in to the minimum tables and the rake is a killer so I'm pleased to beat break-even. I'm better at reading people and certainly classifying their styles broadly within a few hands. Patience and aggression are winning.

Omaha is restricted to online and I'm going OK there too. Up and down but modestly up overall. Have moved up from the micros to PLO50 again with the odd shot at PLO100. Jeff Hwangs new book arrived in the post from Amazon and I'm about 12 pages into it. Just reading the intro on floating has turned a profit already. I am still so naive in that game, yet breaking even; so logic tells me that the games are incredibly soft.

Lost my iPod about 2 months ago and the kids have given me one of their earlier ones so I'm catching up on multiple podcasts. PokerRoad Cash Plays and 2+2 PokerCast with Mike and Adam are truly incredible resources and very enjoyable.

I'm enjoying TV poker too which I've never had access to before gettilg cable TV. It is a shovefest, I know, but does provide an opportunity to dream. I must say that the spots that Freddie Deeb and others can put you in would be very very uncomfortable on a televised table. One day ...

Work has picked up in more ways than one. One of our Partners is aquiring the other and that is creating opportunities. I've also been travelling a lot (hence the live poker) and enjoying the challenge again. We have more work than people again which means that I can relax a bit more in these recessionary times.

Family are all well and life is all around good (apart from the Swans)! I'm now going to catch up with all of the blogs that I follow on this drizzly Sunday afternoon. Hopefully life is treating you all well!