Nothing new here

Wow, I have not posted for over a week. Not that it matters, nobody reads this blog anyway. I have played 1-2 NL on Full Tilt every day this month, with no forward progress. My account balance is in constant flux, up $500, down $600, down $1000, and back up to even. Variance is an ugly whore, and she keeps hitting me in the jimmies. I suppose that I really should not complain, most of the big pots I drag are sets vs over pairs, and the big pots I lose are over pairs vs sets and drawn out flushes. Like many players, I find it damn difficult to throw away my premium hands on what appears to be a safe board. Someone teach me the secret to not going broke with AA please.

Yesterday I went to Foxwoods with wwonka and his brother who was home from California. He plays quite a bit of 3-6 Omaha HL in the LA card rooms. We arrived in the early afternoon, and put our names in for the 4-8 Omaha HL with half kill game. I was planning on spending some time with my friends until the 6pm tourney started. Well the list filled up and we sat at what was supposed to be "must move" new feeder table. Unfortunately half the list did not show up, and the table broke before it got going. I decided to just play 1-2 NL since there were more than 20 1-2 NL tables with open seating. I manage to sit near the Omaha table to keep an eye on my friends, just in case I want to switch.

The 1-2 NL game at Foxwoods has changed since I went to Iraq. It used to be $100 max buy in with a $5 time every 30 minutes. How can you beat this game losing 10% of your stack every hour? The new game has a much more appropriate $300 max buy in, and plays much looser than the online games I am used to at Full Tilt. A standard 3-4 times the blind preflop raise entices a family pot instead of raking the blinds. Unless someone opens for $20, half the table is going to come along. Even a $15 pre flop raise would often have 5 players see the flop.

The first table was filled with tourists who should have been playing 2-4 Limit. They like to buy in for the minimum $60, play every hand to the river and reload. There was one big stack bully, who was constantly asking the question "How much do you have left?", which was soon followed up by "I put you all in". He seemed to be playing quite a few pots with opportunistic drawing hands. Suited connectors, suited Ace-poop, and was getting paid by the tourists. I did manage to suck out one pot on him. I raised enough preflop to get him heads up with QQ. The flop was Ace-high, but I bet out anyway and he called. The turn was another Ace which was checked to the river. A beautiful Q came, and I nearly doubled up with my rivered boat. Needless to say he was unhappy to see his A2s trips losing a $200 pot.

The table broke, and I moved to the next table over with about $600. Tourist to my left complained that I was bringing too much money to the table, and asked why I did not have to post the blind or pay the time. He did not understand that I was coming from a broken table.

At the second table, I became a card rack. I think I had Aces full twice and got paid off by AK and trip 10s. I had KK hold up 2 times, and a few small sets good for stacking the minimum buy-in tourists. I did get AA cracked by a set of 4s, but that was only for $60. Two hands later my pocket sixes stacked the same player on a 446 board, he was holding A4s.

Eight hours of play at the tables cost me $80 in time paid to the casino. I cashed out $1300 for a smooth grand in profit. I am planning to head back to Foxwoods tomorrow with one of my buddies from Iraq. If I do well, you can read about it on Thursday or Friday; if not I will pretend it never happened and probably not post for another week.