Weekend Review

I got quite a bit of poker in this weekend, and I'd like to talk a little bit about it.

Friday was our Monthly game, which I always look forward to, and was just coming off HUGE success from with my 2nd, 1st, 1st finishes last month. In the first tourney I was in trouble until my A4o sucked out on A10 with a river 4. The very next hand I took the rest of the same guy's chips when my A4o this time had his A2 dominated. That got me enough chips to last to the money, where I got my money back for 4th. In the 2nd tourney I made another FT appearance, only to get all-in w/an A vs. 99. The flop brought an Ace, but the turn was a disgusting 9 so no money for that go around. I then sat down at the cash game table where my luck remained pretty poor, but I managed to work my 80% decimated buy-in back to a buy-in and cashed out even. The third tourney was interesting as I didn't feel like a contender most of the way. I stayed about even, which, with blinds doubling every 15 mins, is NOT adequate. I managed to find myself in the last 8 again, where I found myself with odds to call a couple of baby all-ins with 82o and 74o, one which doubled me up and the other that I took someone out. All the sudden I was a contender, hit a rush of cards, and went into heads up with a huge advantage, taking about 5 hands to end it. Incidentally, it was the biggest prize pool of the night, as we allowed a rebuy period since we didn't expect to play again, so I took down a nice 8x buyin 1st prize. So I got a decent score to add to the cash bankroll, which is nice after what I did to it in Council Bluffs.

On Saturday I decided to play a little .05/.10 NL while my wife was getting ready and found that I really don't mind this game. Obviously I'm not gonna make money hand over fist, but in terms of buyins, I was up damn near a whole one in about 20 minutes. So I played more .05/.10 intermittently yesterday and actually never left a table down. If you're getting sucked out on by the crap people play its easy to hate the level, but if your hands are holding out its a nice way to make up buyins to tournaments, as I did yesterday.

Since my results had been encouraging lately in SNGs, live and online, I decided I needed to venture into the MTT arena again and see how those skills were stacking up with my SNG success. So I decided to run a couple of MTTs at Full Tilt yesterday evening. I first played a $10 tourney, where I won a little pot early, then was pretty much even about 45 mins into the tourney. At this point I pick up JJ in MP, limped with it behind another EP limper, and then we both called a raise from the button. The flop came something like 9JQ, 2 clubs, EP bet about 1/3 or 1/4 the pot, I pushed all-in with my set, and both players called. At this point I knew I wasn't winning the hand. EP had Q10c and was open-ended w/the flush draw. The button was on AQ and was drawing pretty slim. Right on time, a club on the turn sealed my fate. So that was a disappointing outing, but I feel like there's nothing more I could've done.

Since it wasn't even the end of the first hour, I looked for another MTT and found a $5 starting on the hour. This one went significantly better, as I doubled up within the first 5 hands w/QQ vs JJ. It was a tough call on a preflop all-in re-raise to my 4-5x raise, but it was so early I could be content either way, plus if the guy has AA or KK and makes that play, he's an idiot, so I was hoping for the AK or under pair, and he didn't disappoint. A ways down the road I pick up AA and make a standard 3x BB raise. I get one caller, who, on a previous hand had gotten it all-in on the turn with a gutshot and hit to even still BE in the tournament, so I was wary but not scared. The flop came KQ-high, 2 suited. I bet a little over 1/2 the pot and this guy calls again. The turn is a 10, and we check it down. I'm ready to let this guy hang himself or get away from my rockets. The river is possibly the single worst card in the deck. Its a K that pairs the high card on the board and fills the flush. I check, he bets about what I bet on the flop, and I muck. He claims he flopped 2 pair, so I'm pretty content with the fact that I lost about as little as possible. I ended up taking a nice pot from this guy later which made me feel better. Then a little bit further I take out another guy w/AA vs 88, and all of the sudden I've got about 2x average stack. I ride my big stack through bad cards until about 35 minutes after the break where its now just under an average stack and about 10xBB. I made a mistake and pushed my AJs into AQo and don't improve, but I've still got over 2500. The next hand or two I pick up 22 and push with it and hold against something like KQ to double up to over 5k. Then very few hands later I pick up 10 10, push with it and hold again against overs. Now I've got over 11k and am in 14th out of the remaining 67. I'm feeling GOOD now about making the final table. I didn't wanna micro cash this time. I want to WIN an MTT. So imagine the thrill I get when I find AA in MP. It folds around to me, and with blinds at 200/400/50, I make it 1500 to go. The big blind hesitates for a while and calls. The flop comes down Q-high, all clubs. I do not have a club. BB checks it to me, and I put the rest of it in, wanting to take this down now. Except he calls and shows K 10c, and I'm dead to runner-runner A if I'm not mistaken. That cripples me, and I eventually get it all-in in the BB w/5 10 vs AQ. 58th place out of 362. All-in-all I'm extremely happy with the result. I had a great first 45 minutes, taking advantage of my good hands and even laying down AA. Then I rode out the bad stretch, hit another run, and was ready to cruise to the FT, only to have my AA cracked for the 2nd time IN THE SAME TOURNAMENT. The worst part is that I think its my fault. With him being in the big blind, plus the antes, I gave him basically 2 to 1 (1100 to win 2500) to call, and from the big blind he can call there just to see if he picks up a 2nd nut flush draw. I probably would've made the same call for 1/10 of my stack. My raise was OK, but if I had it to do over again, I'd raise to 2k and just be happy with the blinds if that's what I got. No matter what, though, that's a sick, sick flop.

Anyway, in the midst of all that I was playing a couple of $2 SNGs and/or had a .05/.10 table open, and when all was said and done I made about $10 for the session, plus I was earning rakeback. So I'm more than happy about that.

Its really too bad that online poker is in the state it is right now, cuz I'm more comfortable with poker than I ever have been. I feel like I'm playing well, I'm falling into a rythm, and although it may not be fancy, its a winning rythm. If I can perfect a system of basic winning poker, then I can work on tweaking it to maximize wins and minimize losses. I'm playing for fun, at my pace, and with no pressure, and everything is coming together really well. But at the same time I am *completely* paranoid about the crack down on online gambling, and even though I am about as low a limit player as you can find, I'm afraid the feds are gonna come knocking any minute and destroy my nice little life I've carved out, or something with taxes will happen (I didn't report my 2k5 losses, but I will report my small 2k6 wins), I won't ever be able to get my money if I *do* manage to make some, or any other number of subjects of paranoia I can come up with. Sometimes its not great living in my head.

After a horrible year and a small winning year with some major milestones met, I feel like this is the "breakthrough year" where I can find some consistency and maybe even do a couple of extraordinary things. I have the time/opportunity, bankroll, and game selection fully adequate enough to do it online, but not so much live, so if I lose the opportunity online, things could grind to a complete halt. So who knows what will happen.

Anyway, for now I'll keep plugging away. But as soon as people actually start getting busted for playing poker online, and not just the sites themselves or the third party money sites or people affiliated with them, I'll pretty much be gone without any hesitation. I'm 26 with a beautiful wife, a great job making enough money to have a nice life and nice things, and I will not jeopardize any of that for $5.50 SNGs and "the dream".

You wonder just how many of the 15 million online poker players the feds can *really* come after, but if it gets to the point where that becomes a valid question, I'll be cutting bait and waiting for smoother waters.