Last night at Gala was practically the polar opposite of Tuesday's fiasco. Most notably, we did a win. Additionally, at some point during the evening I made a full house and was not rivered for the lot. Plus, sometimes pots were heads up or 3-way and not some 9-way suckout fest.
I started the night a little cautiously and played the following hand, probably quite badly, but I don't hate it. I know it's a bowl pot, but I want opinions plus I do like to remind those who have forgotten just how nitty I am. I raise
to £4 5-handed. The blinds call, flop is
. Check round. Turn is a
, check to me I make it £7 and the bb calls. River pairs to
and he does that thing fish do where they hastily cobble a value bet together and he comes out with a bet of £22 which is pretty much pot. He's playing around £80 behind so raise-folding isn't really viable, and at the same time he's one of those "I asked the question and got my answer" types so might fold an 8 here a fair bit of the time. I know that on its own is no reason not to raise, but he clearly has a value hand. Expecting a lot of "just shove and close your eyes," but is flatting really that terrible?
This game was a lot less crazy than the games Gala is renowned for, but everyone was doing a lot more folding, so we just picked up a ton of small pots and everything seemed to be going our way. I barreled
on
Ah and actually pinged the
on the river this time, as you know I have a nasty habit of missing those combos. All was well until a hand I played that will make its way onto the PHA board. I won't say what I did on the river, but I'm still not sure it was right. We got the Beltons against a tilty fishbowl, flopped top set and filled up on a turn that completed a flush but just couldn't get all of it on the river even after a 10 minute dwell. The very next hand I raised
and got heads up with this fairly nitty kid.
ought to crowbar some of those chips from my opposition. I bet, he raises, I jam, he calls quite quickly and turns over the
at the same time as the dealer peeled another ACE on the turn! Oh dear, the wheels are starting to come off!
Completed the small blind with
in a 6-way pot and flopped trips again. Some nights I am truly blessed; my lifetime EV curve must look like a crayon drawing by a young child. I bet £3 and everyone calls. Turn gave me quads. Perfect. I was just about to reach for a tiny £8 bet, when I hear everyone getting excited about the "quads bonus that Gala which I had somehow forgotten about. They're all looking over to the chart in the corner, "£180 for four sevens!" they're saying. My inside voice does a little grin, and everyone calls again. This pot is getting pretty juicy as it is. The flopped flush draw completes on the river, and I'm expecting some full houses out there, so I danced with the idea of a massive overbet but instead went for the check-minraise. Unfortunately everyone else went for the check-fold and I picked up no additional chips, but the free casino money was pretty sweet!
That was about the highlight of the session. We finished winning £280 or thereabouts, plus the £180 quads bonus,
just about got me out of Tuesday's hole. After that, though, I got two more tiny pieces of rungood.
1. When I was at the cash desk, the cashier had to peel the waxy 50's from one another. I knew what this meant: sequential money! I know it's not worth any more than a battered and bruised and crinkled old £50, but it's just one of those real-life easter eggs.
2. I wanted a special place for my sequential money when I got home, but found that what I thought was a new stash spot was not a new stash spot at all and found another dusty £500 hiding away. I'm calling this a £1k night
Back in the black for January. Morale: 82%
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