Donk Till Dawn

I’d love to be posting a bad beat story about my very early exit from last night’s freeze out at Dusk Till Dawn, but the truth is I married pocket Queens a little too early and paid off Aces. Played the hand very badly and got all my money in when the only realistic hand I was beating was Ace-King and even then I only win it half the time. It did, however, leave me with plenty of time to sample the cash games at the mecca of UK poker.

The only game going was a £1/2 NLHE (as most of the players were still in the MTT) but thankfully another chap was sat waiting for the game to start. I sat to his left (standard) and it turned out to be a good choice as he was tilting worse than I was. It was a really fun, chatty table and it was quickly filling up with equally tilty players, moaning about bad beats and splashing their chips around.

I played very well when we were shorthanded, pretty much playing any hand I had position in and winning a lot of pots uncontested. When the table filled up that obviously wasn’t as easy, and it started getting boring. A full ring live cash game is pretty dull to someone who players 2, 3 or 4 six max games at once, and this brought out the gambler in me. I’d never even consider playing a hand like J-10 or K-7 sooted out of position in a raised pot normally, but I felt the need to go a little crazy after not getting dealt aces for at least 4 minutes.

‘This will liven things up’ as I raised 7-5 of hearts under the gun. It certainly did as I got four callers. The flop came a very sexy 6c8c9d giving me the second nuts in a pot that was unlikely to have included a 7-10 hand. I made a very amateurish check, and found the next guy betting pot, the next guy calling, followed by an all in and another all in. I never even worried about the 7-10 and got all my money in, only to be called by the rest of the remaining money.

And what a gin hand it was, I was up against a set of eights, a set of nines, a flush draw and king high who claims he was priced in. Second nuts held up and not only did I scoop the massive pot but I had wiped out the table. Nobody had enough or wanted to reload and they all stood up and left, leaving just three of us at the table. I’m not sure I ever won a 5 way all in online so this was a bit of a landmark for me in a live game.

No skill involved in that hand by the way, I gambled and got lucky. Just thought it was pretty sick.

Anyhoo, the very next hand I played my rush and lost a shedload of it, flopping a king high flush against an ace high flush and giving a chunk of it back. One of the vacant seats to my left was quickly filled by a funny little greek guy and I have no shame in admitting he completely outplayed me. I wouldn’t necessarily a better player than me, but he was very positionally aware and utilised it against me very effectively.

I left with only a marginal profit but having had plenty of fun. I certainly hope I have the foresight to not overplay queens like that again this month or it could prove very costly. (I also hope this doesn’t mean I start raising up 7-5 under the gun when I get on TV to try and make myself the new ‘Gus’ –I’d have to drop a few stone before I could make such a claim).