Another day, another profit...

... of 20 cents. When I titled this blog "small stakes", I wasn't kidding!

I fired up a PLO table, because I have heard from others and also found for myself that the play there is very soft, softer even than low-stakes Hold'em tables. Unfortunately I didn't really hit many flops, but despite losing some money early I ended up ahead 14 big blinds over a short ~100 hand session (sounds better to say it that way instead of "$3.50", doesn't it?). The hand that made the difference was a blind on blind battle (what, a PLO table had everyone fold to the blinds?!?) where I raised with Ad Qd 9d 7s and got called, and hit a monster combo-draw on a Kc 10d 8d flop... 8 diamonds, 3 jacks, 3 sixes are all draws to the nuts for me, so I decide to get all the chips in and my opponent obliges. They show down a flopped two pair, and I am actually about 45:55 underdog when I thought I was a slight favorite, but I rivered a Jack to take the pot; my opponent gets the Sklansky dollars, I get the actual dollars. That was the only hand of any note that I even took to showdown.

I then fired up a $3+.30 turbo donkament, and the play was the worst I have ever seen. Mind you, I think that every time I play donkstakes on the weekends... the shock and disbelief at how horrible most of the play is hits me afresh every time. How does a line of "limp/call a raise of 100 UTG with 4-6sooooted, check/call for half the pot after flopping the bottom end of a gutshot draw, check/call a quarter pot bet on the turn unimproved, and check/muck the river" look to you? Is there a game lurking amidst his/her leaks?!?

Anyway, obviously I bomb out early... have AQ and AK within the first 10 hands, but get too many donks seeing a flop for me to consider c-betting when I whiff both times. Then I get QQ all-in pre-flop against AJo and (wait for it) K7suited (pot committed after their min-raise was re-raised and shoved over, obv *eyeroll*), and I'm out and really quite glad to be away from it. I know I should be happy to play against players like this, but srsly... it's just no fun. It's just not "proper" poker. In a cash game, it's a wet dream and bring them on by the dozen, but in tournaments, which are my bread and butter, you can't reload and stack them after they luck out against you; moreover, while they are guaranteed to give their chips away fairly swiftly, they only have one stack to give away and the odds are it will go to someone else, which not only doesn't benefit you but actively hurts you. Shouldn't grumble though, I'd rather they logged on and donated, I mean played, than not.