Steel Wheel? Monte Carlo bonus denied.

Playing in the Red Dragon 4/8 Omaha game this week, an old gent turned over the holy grail of Omaha, the "Steel wheel", A/2/3/4/5 of spades to evidently scoop the pot.  But wait, he is playing 5 cards!  The floor is called, rules a misdeal, all money is refunded to all players in the pot, which also requires the retrieval of the rake.  Took a few minutes to sort it out.  I have only seen a few steel wheels, and never had one, even in thousands of online games.  My royal flush results much better, usually one or 2 every year.  I don't really understand why, as normally any suited cards 5 and under are usually playable, with of course A/2 and A/3 nearly always played.

Had two high hands on the board which pay $75, but both knocked off with minutes to go.  It would have changed a slight loss to a break even or win day if they held up.  As it was, turned around a 3.5x buy in loss day to just a 3/4 buy in loss.  I can live with it.  Still adjusting to the new venue and players.  A reasonable game, sometimes wild but generally not.  

Catching Up

So, long time no posts.  What gives?  After my go-to casino closed it's poker room I quit playing until Pendleton.  It was a good trip for me, with a couple of winning cash sessions, a turbo win, and 25th out of 370 in the seniors.  Not super profitable but o.k. 

Back in the Omaha high low saddle trying Fortune poker room in Renton with one good win, one small loss and one medium loss,  overall a break even.  The drive is long, around 40 minutes each way down the dreaded 405, so may not be back soon.  Tried the Red Dragon, much closer and had a great day, about $300 profit in 4 hours.  Will probably call that home.

Wanted to reflect on yesterday's bad game for a moment.  A super loose and aggressive player raised every hand.  He caused a lot of variance and naturally left stuck $500 or so.  These players a.k.a. maniacs are tough.   They create giant protected pots in limit games (this one was 4/8 Full kill, so often it was 8/16).  If you call the initial raise with multiple players the pot becomes so huge you cannot fold draws or marginal made hands like 2nd nut low, 2 pair, weak flushes, sucker straights,etc.  Very expensive when you miss but big payoff when you hit.  I won a  big pot with ace high when we got heads up one time!!! Despite my reasonably tight play couldn't catch a break often even with super premium hands.  Some days are like that.  When faced with a maniac best to tighten up and ramp up your own aggression, re-raising to hopefully isolate.