The Plan in Accordance with The Plan

Well...the plan didn't go according to plan. What's new in poker/with me?

I got off to a hot start, buying into the Token Frenzy then promptly winning back my buyin and then some at a .10/.25 table while waiting for my pizza to get done. I played a $10 6-max, got 2nd, and hit my high point of $239. Then it got ugly. The Token Frenzy was a joke. I don't know how people think turbos are easy. People jam their chips into the middle with anything, and while at first glimpse that may seem good, it generally has the opposite desired effect on me in that I'm afraid I'm gonna call off w/KJ/KQ/A9/etc (a better than average holding for a donkey all-in in a turbo) and manage to find myself dominated when some donkey that has been pushing any A or K he can find actually wakes up with a hand. As a tight player, it is very hard for me to call off my chips if I'm not certain I'm in good shape to win. So I guess I gotta work on that. Anyway, I got 72nd out of 178...30 spots from the money.

In the meantime I continued to run SNGs and was just getting throttled. Early in one, I raised in LP w/99 and the big blind pushed. Normally I fold here, but I decided to have a go at it and called off my stack against his JJ. I don't hate his play one bit, but I stepped out of my comfort zone and found myself in 5th place out of 6. No surprise. I played another SNG with a buddy and bubbled that one. And I took 2nd in two others, both of which found me getting sucked out on as no less than a 70% favorite when the money got in. Heads up in one, I flopped the nuts w/89 on a 7 10 J flop, bet, got re-raised for all my opponents chips, I instacalled, and his J8 rivered a 9 to split. He went on to eventually beat me when my A7 was no match for his Q7. In another, I got it in A8 vs A5 and would've doubled to a commanding heads up lead, but by the time the river fell, he had a straight. I also remember having my KJ get beat by 54o at some point to double a guy up. You know...the usual. In the end I played 7 SNGs and got 2nd place cash in 3 of them. Pathetic.

After that nice cash early in .10/.25, I lost a buy-in later when my KK got rivered by a garbage flush my opponent didn't have odds to chase. I also had a turned set of aces get beat by a turned flush. That was my own fault, because my raise to .65 wasn't enough to push out his K9d in the blinds. Once he flopped two diamonds, it was all up to the cards. I pretty much knew I was beat here and probably could've folded just the two aces against any other diamond on the turn, but that damn set on the turn compelled me to call incase I was against some maniac w/top pair or two pair. After getting brutalized at the cash game table some more, I finally won a buy-in when my pocket Q managed to hold up against an all-undercard board. This hand was scary as shit, too, though, and I called off my stack for all the wrong reasons.

After no less than 4 limpers, I raise my QQ in the SB to 1.25. BB folds, all the other limpers call. The flop comes 264, 2 suited. I fire $3 at the $5 pot. It folds around to MP who raises me to $7.50. I studied the board for a while and could only conclude that he had flopped a set. No two pair could have called my 5xBB raise here, nor could have 35. And if they did, I guess I'm gonna pay them off. With 5:1, I called and decided to reassess on the turn. The turn was a 9, adding a third suit to the board. I checked here, and my opponent bet $10. That would leave me $7.50 behind. If he had flopped a set, which is really what it felt like, I'm killed. He could have 78, maybe even 78 of the 2-suit on the board. But I'm at least ahead against that hand. Just as I had all but decided to fold, I realized that I hadn't even considered 88-JJ. If someone with one of those hands saw this flop and put me on AK/AQ, etc, they'd be trying to end this hand. They'd raise me to see where they were at on the flop, and an aggressive player (which this guy was) would fire hard at the turn to my weakness. So while I had done the hand analysis, in the end I pushed because I just had to know. He called and it turns out he had 88, and I picked up an unnecessary Q on the river and dragged the pot. I cashed out shortly after, and ended the night at $195.

While it was horribly disappointing to lose about $30 on the night and I still felt like I fell into that pit of overzealousness that comes when I haven't played in a while/get to dedicate 5-6 solid hours to poker, cashing out just short of $200 as opposed to about $170 felt like a win. After getting owned all night by the cards and the LAG players, I rested a little easier knowing that I managed to get a good hand home for once.

I have the day off tomorrow and will be playing all day. I swear on all that is good and holy that I am going to be careful, play well, and not get sucked into that damned pit of overzealousness. I'd like to say that I don't have goals other than to play my best, but I'm weak and petty...my goal is to hit the $300 mark. And I think that is ENTIRELY reasonable, if not aiming low. I can KILL the 6-max SNGs, and while I still feel like I have the right to be taking a shot at occasional MTTs, 90-max deep stacks, or token tourneys...I'm getting tired of having played this game for more than 2 years and never having made the least bit of a score...I should be sure to stick to what works and make that my bread and butter. And maybe if I can get in cruise control in that arena it will allow me to improve my MTT and cash games and continue to progress.

Anyway, wish me luck. Until then, I'll check you later.