100th Post

This is my 100th post, and the irony of it is that I have no intention of posting anything significant. Of course, some might say they wonder if my previous 99 posts contained anything significant either. To those people I would say...you pose a great question.

I'm posting because I'm bored. Its Friday, just before 10 AM, and thanks to some due dilligence over the past couple of weeks I am CAUGHT UP on my reading, so I have nothing to do besides work...and I'm sure as hell not doing that. Seriously, though... I haven't been caught up in Google Reader since at least December. It may have been before that. But thanks to my day-to-day duties being somewhat in limbo for the past 2-3 weeks, I've managed to get through all the old posts and have ZERO items in my list left to read. I wondered if it would ever happen and if maybe I needed to cut down my subscription list if I ever hoped to be caught up. But I'm good for now, and I realized that I don't need to read every word of every post, and have the option of skipping and skimming if I want to, to stay caught up.

I played a little last night. Even though I had my little chip spewing session on Tuesday and my BR was at about $200 even, I hopped into a $20 SNG and proceeded to win it with little to no effort, and NO help from coin flips or 70% odds on the bubble. I finally got heads up and won after just a few hands when my smooth operating opponent slow played his aces and I flopped trips. I also played a $10 SNG with my buddy. We were on the bubble and my buddy had gone from shorty to chip lead, me in 2nd. The shorty raised from the button, and I raised him for all his chips w/QQ in the BB. He called w/7s, and rivered a flush on me. This sent me into a rage like I haven't experienced in months, and I proceeded to give up my chips a short time later with an open-ender. Obviously the gods had no intentions of letting my buddy and I get HU, so I just ended it and quit wasting my time. I hate to give up, but sometimes things happen that make me so enraged I just don't even care.

I got to thinking after that tourney of my luck as of late. I don't think I'm running hot. I think if I were running hot I'd at least be winning when I'm supposed to be winning, and winning at least...*gasp*...half of my coin flips. I think my ITM % would be higher. I think at this point I have a strategy that is at least 3x superior to my 5 opponents that I sit down with at every table, and even though I find myself often losing coin flips, and as a 70 and 80% favorite much too often, I am a more profitable SNG player than ever. I've preached patience over and over, and I cannot stress it enough. Most people lose 1/3-1/2 of their stack early and give up. Or on the bubble they'll keep calling and calling and calling until their stack is nothing and they can get called by almost ATC. But but if I fall below 1k early in a tournament, even though my chip stack is a 3 digit number and that can mess with you mentally, I've still got over 20xBB in a lot of cases, which is plenty of chips to shout with. And if my stack gets to about 10xBB I'm all-in or fold. And I almost always push with a hand that is >50% against a random hand. In addition, hardly any of these players have any bubble strategy. I was in one SNG the other day where we were pretty much even at 3k apiece and blinds were 120/240 and up, and I was playing for my whole stack if I was playing, meanwhile these other two were piddling around with calls and min-raises. In the end stages of a SNG you shouldn't be playing anything unless you're willing to call the shortest stack's all-in with it. It really irritates me when we're 3-4 handed and guys are limp-folding to a shorty's all-in, letting him pick up precious blinds. All of this is just basic strategy to me now. I think back about how I used to be one of those guys with a losing SNG strategy, and its the one place I can see significant growth. For christ sake, bubbling is named after me at our home game because I'd make it to the bubble and then piddle out. Now I'm the guy pushing around the short stacks, putting people to a decision (be it for all their chips or to double me up), and bouncing people on the bubble. When I lose, generally I lose knowing I made the right play, so losing isn't always a bad thing anymore. It ends up being more disappointment than tilt, at least.

Of course, yesterday's SNG w/Joe was both a good example and a bad example. X minutes in I found the blinds at 50/100, my stack at just over 1k, and the flip switched to "push or fold" mode. I had played and won 1 hand so far, and I don't think I had raised a single time because my cards were just plain ugly, and the table was loose. After finally seeing a couple push-worthy hands and picking up the blinds, I jammed, got called, and doubled up to the chip lead. After having showed down 1 hand and having the patience to get to a point where I could employ superior SNG strategy, I went from the outhouse straight to the penthouse, and if it weren't for a 20% suckout, I was headed directly to a cash. Of course, the rest is history as we found ourselves on the bubble, Joe and I holding down the top 2 spots, and all the shorty's chips in w/pair under pair. After he beat me, I went on complete tilt and gave up, eventually putting in my four figure stack w/an open-ender when I knew I was behind. This guy was a losing player and chances are with a little patience I could've gotten my money in better, but I was tired of fighting both the player and the cards and gave up. I was immediately pissed at myself...but sometimes you just get fed up. I had lost two coin flips and split as a 70% fav. on the bubble at the table I WON, now to get it in QQ vs 77 and lose, just pushed me over the edge.

But at least I won the $20 and bubbled the $10, and I'm now back to $245 and right back on my way to new heights.

Ok, so I guess I did have some poker related content.

To finish up, I think you should head over to TripJax blog and follow his 12 simple steps to signing up for the Blogger Bracelet Race. We're about 40-45 players short of getting the prize pool to the WSOP buy-in with 2 days to go, so get yourself signed up!

Everyone have a great weekend!