Benjamin Franklin is, I suppose, responsible for $100 notes being known colloquially as "Benjamins".
His original claim to fame, however, was surely...
Nothing is certain except death and taxes & variance.It had not slipped the minds of the Gods of variance that I've run rather well so far, & in the last few days they seem to have got round to levelling things up. They always do, nothing is more certain.
After Wednesday's expensive loss in the Venetian $1,600 Bounty (loss $1,100 as I managed to win a $500 Bounty) there was another big ticket jobbie yesterday, the Venetian $1,100 PLO.
I was utterly amazed at how PLO has changed. It's been a while since I played any (High Only) but it used to be a game of high cards & rundowns. Not any more, folks were calling or getting it in with all manner of stuff, almost literally any 4 random cards. It was almost as if it were a £5 Rebuy at Gutshot, nobody seemed bothered about the $1,100 ticket cost. In my world, as it is for most of us, $1,100 will always be a lot of money.
I wonder how much of this is down to bitcoin, trading today at an eye-boggling $105,000? Or maybe some nocturnal & nefarious activity? Guess they could be big poker winners, but let's be honest, there are not many of those.
It was truly eye-watering.
Anyway, I was in it so after sitting there in stunned disbelief for a few levels, I eventually realised I'd have to get my hands dirty & go to the party.
I'll be honest, it was tremendous fun. I missed a huge draw then a few hands later hit a similar draw & got paid, & that gave me a $200 Bounty & propelled me to over 70,000.
So I was sitting there quietly, happily preening my 70,000 stack of chips & trying to work out my strategy going forward, when along came the Aces. It used to be the case that in PLO we could bin "bad" Aces, but from what I was witnessing yesterday, that's unthinkable these days.
I was in the SB so I was hoping there may be some action in front of me to give me more raising leverage, but for the first time all day it was walked to me in the SB.
Anyway, my hand was
Not great, anything but, but from what I witnessed, we have to play them.
So, after some pre-flop 3 & 4 betting, we see this flop.
Goodness me. Do flops get any better than that?
Anyway, my next bet was virtually all-in, Matey Boy shoved & I accommodated him with alacrity. And I was somewhat alarmed to see his hand was...
Note there had been considerable pre-flop action. He was BB & 3 Bet my open, then called my re-raise. Yikes. I certainly never expected to see the old 2-gapper. I was not so much surprised at his holding, as to how beautifully it hit that Flop. 8-9-Q-K wrapped right round J-10. A thing of beauty. And I thought I'd hit that flop hard...
Anyway, no matter, we just need to catch our flush or pair-up & we are flying with around 140,000. It was not to be though. Variance was at last on my case, & let's face it, I can't complain after the run I've had.
