Hitting and Running

BY: Ashley Adams
Contact at: (Asha34@aol.com)
Author of Winning 7-Card Stud

Not every poker experience is about tactically applying your superior skills to the poker grid iron in an effort to extract profit from the game. Not every foray in casino poker is about assessing whether you possess the requisite poker acumen to better those who face you from across the felt arena.

Sometimes, poker players just want to have fun. Here is the story of one of those times.

I was partaking in an annual get together of on line poker players who gather at Foxwoods once a year to have fun, play poker, eat, and have fun. It's known as FARGO (Foxwoods Annual Recreational Gambling Outing). Similar events are held all over the United States and are known by similar acronyms: BARGE, MARGE, SARGE, AT LARGE, and ESCARGOT are some examples.

I had played all day Friday, driven the two hours from Foxwoods home to Boston, and from Boston early on Saturday morning back to Foxwoods to meet with my fellow FARGOites for breakfast. I had arrived unduly early - at about 7:15 or so for the 8:30 breakfast. So I had a little time on my hands. What to do? What to do? I decided, not surprisingly, to play some live poker.

Unfortunately, the game I normally play, $20/40 Stud, was full. And, being 7:15 Saturday morning, there was only one game. There was no $10/20 nor even a $5/10 game. In fact, when I looked around, the only seat that was open immediately was at the $75/150 game - a game that was way, waaaay over my head.

But what the Hell. I wanted to play. I wanted to have fun.

So I went to my safety deposit box and did something I had never done before. I walked out with $6,500 worth of chips - a rack of green chips and two stacks of blacks. The fact that I was so sleep deprived and tired that I couldn't count that high didn't bother me at all. I was addled, well stacked, and loving it.

I walked over to the $75/150 game. I quickly discovered, to my surprise, that it wasn't the $75/150 Stud game that was always going in that corner of the room. Astute observer of poker that I was I noticed that it was, in fact, $75/150 Omaha8!

Well, naturally, mind addled, sleep deprived, and faced with a game that I had never played higher than $5/10, but really wanting to play at 7:15 in the morning, I sat down.

I waited one hand for the big blind to reach me. $50 small blind $75 big blind.

First hand was awful. Q973 - something like that. There were six of us. The guy three to my left raised to $150. One caller and then to me. I folded. Down $75. Boom - just like that!

I posted the $50 small blind. Ah2h5sKs. The same player who raised before raised this time. The button called as did I. One player after me called as well. Four of us saw the Flop. It was 4h7h9s. I checked. The player who raised preflop bet $75. We all called.

The Turn was a Ts. The same betting pattern as the flop. Four of us saw the River. A 6s turned on the River, for a board of 4h7h9sTs6s. It was checked to me. I bet. Two players called. I chopped the pot with one of them. I took a deep breath and stacked the massive mound of green chips passed my way.

I folded the next couple of hands with nothing. On the following hand, under the gun, I was dealt Ah3hKs9s. The guy who raised every hand raised this one as well. There was a call, I called and a player after me called. Four of us saw the flop once again. This was getting to be a pattern. I hoped for a 2.

The flop was KdKh3c. Experienced Omaha player that I was I gradually realized that I had the nut full house. I bet so fast that I almost knocked my chips over. I got THREE CALLERS! The Turn was inconsequential. I bet and got three callers again. There was no low on the River, I bet, and everyone folded. I raked in a huge pot once again.

It was now about 7:50. My breakfast was at 8:30 or so. I was up exactly $800. Did I want to post the blinds and play another round? Did I want to pay time at 8:00 ($10/half hour). I thought about it for a few seconds and decided that I had had my fun, had a great story to tell, and managed to play $75/150 without losing my stack. Why press my luck? So I left, $800 to the good, and enjoyed the sweetest breakfast I had had in a long while - knowing that all of my expenses for the trip were paid and there were a few more hundred to leave in my safety deposit box when I went home.

Did I learn any valuable poker lessons? Did I use any of my extensive skills at reading other players? Certainly not. But I did have an experience that will prepare me to play $75/150 in the future. I have it under my belt and will be less intimidated the next time I think about sitting down and taking advantage of a table that looks especially lucrative. But most of all, I had fun - which, as I've said before - is at least part of the reason we play this game.

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