Whitewash!

I’ve not had time to post a few updates, there’s been too much happening in the last month, I’m amazed I managed to find time to play poker, never mind learn and play Mythical!

‘Mythical?!’I can hear your puzzled voices already before this post has been written! You can blame Trisha Stephens for this one...

We’ve all seen that group of 2-4 players playing with two decks of cards at the breaks and after a tournament in the Jackpot, Voodoo and other places. After throwing their money into a pot, the players are dealt 10 cards to make 2, 3 or 4 sets – a straight flush run, 3 or 4 of a kind, etc and complete it before the other players. It is similar to Kalooki, except you keep your sets in your hand and you can’t add to other sets. Mythical allows you to an imaginary ‘mythical’ card to complete the sets. The other players can then dump their sets, but are penalised with points for the game as well as any leftover cards in their hands. If the player makes his sets without the mythical card it is a ‘Bonus’ which means the game penalty point is doubled for that round. As each player hits the maximum penalty points, they are out, with the last man standing taking the pot. If the sole surviving player wins the game without getting one penalty points it’s a ‘whitewash’ which means the other players have to pay double the entry to the luckbox. After standing around watching others play Mythical for so long, I was dying to have a go but didn’t have the nerve to ask them to include me.

On the 5th January I played my first poker game of the year €20+5 Tuesday night game in the Voodoo but no joy. Trish who was out earlier along with Joe the Show and one other player had been playing Mythical in the corner. Joe went for food, and the other player went for a smoke, I sat down to chat with Trish, gave her the lowdown on my game. Asking how she was doing in Mythical, she moaned that Joe was cleaning them up... “Do you play Mythical?” She asked me. “No, never tried it. But I think I have an idea how it’s played...” I replied

“Wanna try play a game with me? No money, just have a go for 100 points?” Trish offered, I didn’t need to be told twice!

Trish won the practice game, only by a few points but it was a close one, she suggested playing another game for a fiver, yeah okay... when the other players came back 20 minutes later, I was already €5 richer, and agree to join the game for €10. Coming a close second to Joe the Show, I was down €5... Joe had us all agreeing to play another game, which I took down for €40, Trish took the 3rd game then I had another glory potting the 4th game for a sweet €60 (Joe the Show talked us into upping the buy-in to €15!) We played a final game, can’t remember who won it but heading home that night I was €50-60 richer and hooked!

I wasn’t as lucky the next night I played; I got hammered for €60 wiping out my new mini-mythical-bankroll! Meh! I think would have stopped there and then but the Voodoo decided to host a Mythical tournament the following week and it looked really good – for €30 I wanted to give it a go. Playing a few more games I managed to run up a small enough profit on the 3rd night, just enough to cover my buy-in for the Mythical Tournament at least!

Most players know that Mythical can be pure luck, while there is an element of skill in watching and determining what to keep, knowing what to throw away. It is still down to luck...

The Mythical Tournament started with 16 players; 4 players on each table, only 2 will get through to the next round, they will face 2 more players. Only the two players still in will reach the final 4. First round points was played to 100, in the second round we played to 150 with the final 4 playing to 200 points. I barely made it through the 1st round, I was 3rd in points and next to exit when I got a lovely bonus hand to eliminate the 2nd place player and advance myself and Eamon Connolly into the next round. In the second round I got several wins in a row to guarantee my place in the final round against Trish Stephens, Big John and another girl. I got an early Mythical within one orbit leading to a spectacular 70+ points for poor Trisha! As Trisha and the other girl later exited I went into heads up with Big John who is considered the ‘Granddaddy of Mythical’, I was on 80 points to his 176 and feeling very positive but it wasn’t to be. Big John won three grand slams in a row to elbow me out into 2nd place for €180. LOL!

But the most memorable game has to be last week – Tuesday 26th to be exact, playing the regular Tuesday game in the Voodoo. I played a €10 Mythical game with Joe the Show at the break and got my first Whitewash! LOLOLOL! Joe had been egging me on to play for more than €10, but I insisted €10 was enough... handing me the extra €10, ever the gracious loser, Joe rubbed it in: “And to think you could have gotten more off me had you agreed to play for €20! Ha!”

I played a few more mythical games but for every night I leave with a profit the next night I lose it all again! The Voodoo has agreed to make the Mythical tournament a regular monthly event, looking forward to the next one on 18th February...

Don’t worry folks, I haven’t given up on poker... while I’ve not won any games outright, apart from splitting a local €40 pub game heads up for €240 each, I’ve managed a few decent runner-up cashes. Overall, since the 4th January to date, I am up just over €400 (yes I’m keeping tabs!) after buy-ins, which is not a bad start to 2010 considering how busto I was at the end of 2009! I’m sticking to good bankroll management and staying with the low buy-in games up to €40 max until I put that figure over €1000.

But the icing on the cake has to be gaining my entry ticket to the Poker in the Pub grand final on 5th February. With a €65,000 guaranteed prize fund including a WSOP entry and trip to Vegas to play for – this is the biggest game I’ve ever played and as the entry was covered during 2009... I’m practically freerolling it!

I’ll be re-reading my Harrington books, especially End Game, checking out all the pro-articles online, to polish up my game. I'll be formatting a serious game plan in my head before I sit down to play on Friday night... Expect a detailed write up on the game in my next blog post.

Woo! Hoo! Bring it on!