Warning, hard core plo8 speak ahead

Every night this guy named patek37 comes on to PokerStars and sits in at least one PLO8 game. This guy is close to as bad as possible. If you could design the perfect opponent he would be very close. I'll try to sum up his game. He likes to raise pot about 75% of his hands preflop. If he has big starting hands he tends to raise smaller. He makes a continuation bet on the flop about 80% of the time and this is probably closer to 100% of the time if you are heads up in the pot with him. However, if he flops a monster he may check it trying to trap you. He will shut down on the turn if you call him on the flop and he has nothing so you can take down uncontested pots either in position on the turn or on the river. He likes to make huge bluffs when scare cards come on either the turn or river. About the only thing he has going for him is that he does have the ability to fold some hands once he gets involved in a pot.

Ok, so this guy is ACTION. The table dynamics completely change when he is in the game. It basically becomes a situation of people sitting and waiting and trying to pick him off. Myself, on the other hand, I like to mix it up with him. He gives implied odds to almost any 4 cards. A guy this aggressive likes the action and has the ability to just fold if the only time you play with him you have the nuts. Over the last while he has cost me money directly and indirectly. He has been hitting against my big flops and taking my money and spreading it around to other players before eventually busting. Also, because when he is at the table I open my hand selection as wide as possible I am vulnerable to being trapped by other players at the table if I am not careful. I always try to get on his immediate left so he has to act first and there aren't other people in between us cutting off my direct action.

Last night he shows up and sure enough he hits me in a few hands. My buddy Travis landed in Vegas and wanted to head down to Noodle Asia so I just left the game and headed out. When I got back to the room patek37 was still playing, or playing again. I promptly got a seat to his left and was ready to let the fireworks begin. Ok, so not only was this guy playing like himself but he already had a few other guys at the table on crazy tilt and shooting like maniacs as well. I proceed to get involved in a large 4 way pot. I am dealt AKK7 which is barely a playable hand in full ring PLO8. Short stack maniac #1 raises, bad player calls, patek calls, and I decide I want to get this action heads up with patek as my KK will be a fav over his trash and I have position to figure out where I am at in the hand. So, I jack it to about $70 preflop. Well, all 3 clowns decide to come along for the ride. Flop comes KT3 with two hearts. Hellooooo, I flop top set and everyone checks to me. I bet pot for over $300, the shortstack tosses the rest in, bad player decides to be an ultimate loser and pulls the disconnect trick. What this means is that they forceably killed their internet connection so that they would be deemed all-in for what they have committed and don't have to spend anymore. I generally play at tables that do not enable this "all-in" protection but with patek on board that is all I needed to sit. And, patek of course goes all in too. The turn brings in hearts and the river brings in a non pairing high card so I get nothing. patek and shortstack both make a flush. The only player I could have made money on disconnected. The short stack 4xed up to over $500 and quickly leaves the table. And, patek doesn't have many chips left so everything that could have went wrong did.

I reload my stack and patek goes on a bit of a run against other players at the table. I get involved in a hand where we get almost all of it on the turn where I have a set. The river brings in a gutshot straight for him and boom there goes another $300 to patek. Blah, this really really sucks. I am determined to play as long as this clown is at the table. When I have about $600 in front of me I get forced out of a hand by one of the solid players rereraising preflop on a hand that I would have definitely scooped patek on and made a nice $1300 pot. Lovely, my timing is absolutely brutal. I stay with it and start picking him off for $50 here, $100 there until we eventually get involved in a big 3 way pot. The flop brings me bottom pair and the 2nd nut flush draw. Short stack pushes all-in, patek calls, and I call. The turn brings in my flush but pairs the board. patek shoves for $200 and against almost anyone this would be the easiest fold in the world but I snap over the top all in and he instacalls. I really am not sure if I am winning or if he just caught me, the river is a high card and all that our buddy patek had was a low draw with zero cards in the deck for him to take the whole pot. Ship it, a nice $1300 pot and patek is done for the night. So, a wild action filled hour that ends up making me close to $600.

Hope to keep seeing you around buddy. Anywho, I am off to Caesars for the $340 Megastack. I actually have a good feeling about this one today, no idea why.