All-in in the Dark

Live Poker is Where It's At

2011-07-13T08:23:00.003-05:00

Well I wanted to stop in for a quick update because I have been playing some poker and I do have some things to report, but I haven't had time to settle in behind the computer & do just that. I've got a session at the local casino from a few months back, and was actually just out this past Friday as well, and I've got a few stories to tell.

So bear with me and I'll look to get those posted as soon as I can. Hope all is well with everyone out there!

Update-o-rama

2011-04-26T20:44:00.002-05:00

Well I think I'm well overdue for an update at this point. 2011 has been a kind poker year to me thus far. Save a couple of facets, I have sat down, and I have won.

It all started right away on Jan. 1, where I booked a $450 win at the local casino. Overall, it was a pretty routine session. You know, if routine is losing with aces and winning w/53s. Things started relatively slow, but I did get a pretty easy double a ways into the session when I flopped a set of deuces and doubled through. A little later I flopped another set and won another decent pot. So you know it's an above average session when you not only flop two sets, but get paid on both. I then went into a fairly long dry spell, not playing a lot of hands and kind of bleeding, but I rode it out. At one point I picked up rockets and had the opportunity to cash in on a poker "bucket list" item, if you will. The "stacking someone before their chips get to the table". A guy who looked & talked a whole lot like Seth Rogan had just gone broke, and as he was waiting on his chips, he raised in EP. Next player called that raise, and I re-raised. The details are cloudy as to whether I re-raise jammed right there or if he 3-bet & I 4-bet shoved, but regardless, I put him to a decision before his chips got to the table, he thought for a long time & eventually called with queens. And the asian between us came along the whole way, too, for his $70 stack and ended up having something ridiculous like 85 or J8 or something. Anyway, the queen spiked on the turn and I was out $170 profit in that hand and the illustrious stacking of no stack. The weirdest part was that I didn't let it bother me, kept my head in the game, and kept fighting.

At one point a pretty laggy, strong, obvious regular came and sat to my left. At this point this table was a bonafide action table, and part of that included this guy consistently straddling my big blind, and to make matters worse usually raising the straddle if it hadn't been done already. So with my nitty play, I was losing a lot of dead money. It was getting pretty irritating, but I knew I'd get my opportunity eventually. I kept an eye on his play, and noticed he was all about getting chips in the middle, but rarely had a truly big hand. Pretty typical LAG player. Well, my opportunity came, and it came with a most unlikely hand, the 53...but it was suited. Granted, I'm not trying to say I made a good play here, but I just happened to pick this hand to take a shot with, and things ended up working out. I limped the straddle from my big blind, knowing full well he'd pop it. He popped it, and I called. The flop was decent, with a 4 and a 6 of my suit, giving me an open-ended straight-flush right away. I checked, he bet, and I called after a little hollywooding. The turn brought my flush, but being a baby flush, I still wanted to tread carefully. He bet, and I called again. If I recall correctly, the board actually paired on the river, which scared me a little, but I decided that I had the best hand, so this time when he bet, I jammed, and after a lot of thinking, he called and I doubled through. This was one of the bigger pots of my poker life from a self-confidence perspective because I set him up & knocked him down just like I wanted to, and I really got into his head and earned his respect. He completely changed the way he played against me, and grilled me on the hand 3 or 4 times before all was said & done. Granted, it was a marginal situation to get involved in in the first place, but sometimes that's how these things have to start, and the up front risk was worth the reward in the end. One for the good guys, if you will. :-)

So I think that doubled me up to a very healthy stack, and I think I managed to make a little more money, and eventually call it quits around the 5 or 6 hour mark with my 2nd biggest win ever.

I actually had a "higher stakes" home game the next day where we did a $20 buyin (compared to our usual $5) with a smoother structure, and my rungood continued. I was in a really bad spot, all but broke and past the reasonable point of rebuying, but then stuck it in w/A3, doubled, and made my way to 2nd and an $80 profit that day.

I booked a couple of decent home game wins in March with our regular monthly game and a couples game we hosted, but gave a little back at the April game, and at this point I'm to the good close to $600, so not a bad quarter.

As far as online, I was also running good in SNGs on PokerStars before Black Friday and had my PokerStars roll up to a very comfortable level (for me, anyway...) around $250. As for Tilt, where I stick...excuse me...stuck...to cash games because of the rakeback, after having run my bankroll up to a few hundred bucks, I tanked it again trying to clear a bonus a few weeks ago. The Rush Poker gods were NOT kind to me. I made a little recovery when all was said and done, and after transferring $20 to a friend, I think I ended up somewhere around $120.

So...Black Friday. That news hit me, like most online poker players, and likely most a LOT more than even me, hit me like a ton of bricks. Based on others' expert analysis of the UIGEA in '06, my understanding of things was that it wasn't actually illegal to *play* real money poker online, but it was illegal to move money in and out of sites. I built my Stars bankroll from freerolling, which I'm still proud of, and did make a small deposit on Tilt years ago, but otherwise have never moved money on or off sites and had always considered that money "not real" because I didn't want to break the law. I always figured that if I was fortunate enough to run it up I would either transfer to someone who could make the money real for me, or I would cash out once online poker was regulated. Well, now the sky has fallen, so I'm going to have to decide whether that money is real or not. As of right now the DoJ has said that they never intended to freeze player funds and they have agreements with Stars & Tilt to allow the transferring of funds, but what's confusing to me is they came down on the sites for their bank fraud, money laundering, and all these heinous financial crimes, so why/how all the sudden is it OK for players to withdraw and these sites to facilitate that? The conspiracy theorist and weak/tight poker player in me wonders if it is all just a ploy to take things a step further and go after players, and the amount of money I'd be cashing out isn't really worth criminal charges or scrutiny from the IRS. So for now I'm standing pat. If that money can someday be real to me, that's just gravy, but since I've never let myself consider it real money, there isn't a huge mental hurdle to conquer.

As for my general feelings on the matter, it's just really sad. There's plenty to be said about those who played for a living, or who's livings rely on online poker in the US, but for me it was a nice hobby/safety net/means to mentally stimulate myself/way to blow off some steam. I played a few hours a month, but they were a very fulfilling few hours a month, and it's definitely proven to be a lifestyle change for me just to know that's not there anymore. I'll try to get to the casino more, but with a wife and a 20 month old, that's just a pretty disrupting undertaking. I like to play and the best time to play is 8 PM - ?? AM, and that means not only consuming a weekend night, but also needing to sleep in that morning to recover from it. My wife is a saint, and will embrace me, but I still just won't get to play as much as I did when I could sit down during nap and play some cash or sit down after my little one goes to bed and multitable some SNGs, or take a shot at 4 figures in a MTT. So...like I said...it's just sad. I'm confident that eventually online poker will be fully legal & regulated in the US, but by my estimation we're looking at *at least* 3 years, and based on the latest speculation as of this moment, there's a plenty good chance it could be more.

Anyway...I've gotta split. Been nice to get out here on the interwebs and provide an update and do a little spitballing. Ironically, I'm wondering if I'll actually blog a little bit more as an outlet where before I would sit down and play, now maybe I'll sit down & blog. I guess we'll see. I'm hoping to get out to Prairie Meadows as early as this Friday, as it's been 3+ months since getting in some of that real, meaningful poker, and having been watching a lot of Poker After Dark & High Stakes Poker lately, I really need to get my fix.

All the best to everyone on the physical felt, and I'll be in touch.

Other People's Money...I Haz It

2011-01-03T22:28:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm still alive. And I even still play poker.

My latest results have been good from a profitability standpoint. With some time off, my wife being so gracious, and my little one settling into a routine conducive to such, I did get some more opportunity to play throughout the end of the year and am closing the year on a 3 month (9 session) Rush Poker winning streak, during which I have more than quintupled my Full Tilt bankroll (which isn't saying much, but is always a marked accomplishment), SNGs continue to be my breadwinner on Stars, and live has been very consistent. My big leak this year was MTTs online, where I still couldn't ever close the deal, and this year struggled cash like I used to (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but I still came out in the black overall when all was said and done.

All that said, I got out to the local casino for the first time since August '09 (sick!) on Jan 1, put in a healthy session (felt great!), and booked a win twice the size of all of my 2010 take, and played some good poker to boot. I then turned around and nabbed another nice little score in a home game on the 2nd, making for my 2nd most profitable 24 hours yet.

I'll need to get these details documented soon as I want to remember it, and have also obviously tallied up my 2010 results & need to do a year in review, but can't do it right now.

Happy New Year to everyone, and I'll be back soon w/all the dirty details. Thanks for stopping by!

It's WBCOOP Time Again!

2010-10-14T09:21:00.003-05:00

I think this is so cool that PokerStars does this for the bloggers. I can barely call myself a blogger anymore, but I am still out here playing intermittent poker and being marginally successful, and someday when I have a little more time on my hands I will even get back to blogging regularly about it. But you can be sure I am going to make some time to partake in the WBCOOP whenever it comes around.

Sign me up!

Seriously...

2010-08-02T16:36:00.003-05:00

I know I said that I needed to get caught up and I was going to start posting more, but I seriously have played an hour of poker since then and my ass handed to me in a Full Tilt Rush session. Things just aren't breaking my way when it comes to work and family and free time in general. Of course, poker is fairly low on the priority food chain at the moment, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But I just wanted to report back and say that I wasn't lying about posting more. I'm hoping things settle down in the next few weeks and I can get back to being a good little poker player & blogger.

Plus, incidentally, I'm hoping to experiment tonight w/being able to play real money poker on my iPhone, so more on that to come as well.

Play the Hot Progressives of Caribbean Stud Poker

2010-07-15T21:51:00.002-05:00

If you are tired of players getting grumpy with you at the poker tables, why not play against the house for a change? Caribbean stud poker is a five card poker game played against the dealer rather than against other players.

Caribbean stud poker uses one deck of cards which is shuffled after every game and before the next one begins. To begin the game, the player places the ante and then receives five cards face down. The dealer also deals himself five cards, but with his last card facing up. In online casinos, the remaining four cards for the dealer are dealt face up after the players have decided if they will play or not.

The player looks at the dealer’s up card to decide whether to continue playing the hand. For example, if the dealer is showing an Ace or King and the player only has Queen high, he should surrender his hand rather than play with the certain knowledge he will lose. If the player wants to continue playing he must bet by doubling his ante on the play box above the ante box. Optimal strategy says players should always play with A-K-J or better and A-K plus the dealer’s up card, and fold everything else.

In order to qualify, the dealer’s hand must be higher than or equal to Ace/King. So if you play with only Queen high you may still be paid 1 to 1 on your ante as long as the dealer does not qualify. The payoff in Caribbean Stud Poker is determined by the rank of your hand.

Typical payouts are: One pair is paid even money; two pair 2-1; three of a kind 3-1; straight 4-1; flush 5-1; full house 7-1; four of a kind 20-1; straight flush 50-1 and royal flush 100-1. These odds can vary depending on where you play.

Whether you are playing in a land-based casino or an online casino, there is usually a progressive jackpot that can be played alongside the main game as a side bet. This progressive jackpot pays greater odds on the higher scoring hands and most importantly gives players the chance to win a massive jackpot.

Progressive jackpots are constantly-increasing jackpots. The more players that enter the progressive jackpot, the bigger it gets. And the larger the jackpot is the more players are attracted to play it. This is why these jackpots can grow so enormous and have always proven so popular with players. Eventually, somebody has to win it and by the time they do, the jackpot can have grown to millions of pounds.

The progressive jackpot on Caribbean stud poker is played by placing (usually) £1 onto the progressive jackpot button directly above or sometimes below the player’s boxes on the table. The player must decide if he is going to play the progressive jackpot side bet before the cards are dealt. Make certain to place this bet if you want to play it, because if you forget to do this and you hit the jackpot, you won’t get paid.

The house edge on Caribbean stud poker is high at 5.2%, but if you do hit a monster hand and have played the progressive jackpot you will almost certainly win a massive sum.

Catching Up

2010-07-07T09:12:00.004-05:00

I've been neglectful again. But what I can tell you is that my passion for poker is burning red hot right about now, and I have a plan for a huge update very soon and a recommitment to the game and the blog as well. So please stay tuned. In the words of Monty Python, "I'm not quite dead yet."

First Big Sunday Tourney

2010-03-07T14:33:00.003-06:00

So today I finally find myself with an opportunity to play in one of the "Big Sunday" tournaments. Usually I'm either busy enough, planning to play basketball in the evening, or not willing to stay up late enough, but today's the day to win 5 figures.

I registered late after playing the 30k Guarantee earlier today. After having an above average stack early, I took a couple of bad beats on my way out the door. Set under set to make my stack less than playable, then ironically the same guy called my >10BB open jam w/AQ at the 75/150 level w/A4, and I couldn't recover from the K4J flop.

So, saying I'd play the 1/4 Million if I busted from that tourney within the late registration, in the 1/4 Million I am. A whole minute late. :-)

2:31 CST - Win my first hand sitting down, raising w/35o & scooping the blinds. Up 30 chips! ;-) Now to settle in & hopefully find my groove.

2:48 - Up to 3445 after calling a 3x raise from button w/89s, flop As9Xs, calling a flop bet, then betting the turn & drawing a fold. Avg @ 3318

2:55 - First break. 3345 w/avg @ 3476. 10151 out of more than 32k & growing. Gonna crack a Boulevard Wheat.

3:10 - Baby's awake. Gonna make it a little tougher to play & blog.

3:14 - Down to 2800 after losing some betting an open-ender & getting jammed on, then open-raising w/KJo on the button & whiffing the A-high flop.

3:23 - Blinds getting worth scoping @ 75/150. I'm doing just that. 3125

3:30 - Hour in the books. 35898 in the tourney. 12797/22698 w/3537. Avg 4793.

3:42 - Nothing happening. Down to 2587 w/blinds @ 125/250/25. Jam or fold mode & blinds approaching. Folded JJ earlier to an UTG raise. Wondering if that was a mistake.

3:48 - Managed a double-up. Open jammed 1987 w/A5s in MP and got called by AK clubs. Board comes 764s6s5 TYVM! Just lost a little back raising w/KQ and not having the chips to back it up when I missed the board. 3575 avg 6869, blinds @ 150/300/25.

3:55 - Break time. Through the blinds w/3075. 14408 left.

4:10 - That's it. Jammed my stack UTG w/QhK and got called by BB w/A5c and board comes Ah9h6JhQ. Had flush & straight outs by turn but don't get there. Sometimes I just don't get the winning plays in these tourneys. How does a guy call there w/A5 for 1/3 of his stack?

So that was a very underwhelming first go-around in a big Sunday tourney. Pretty standard for me. Can't say I'd play it a whole lot different, except to play that JJ, given it was the best hand I got the whole time. Awesome. Hopefully I can play one of these again sometime in the next 5 years.

WBCOOP Event #3

2010-01-27T20:37:00.012-06:00

Well, I just busted from WBCOOP Event #3, event #1 for me, in 116th/1826 (as it turns out, I won't get this posted until sometime around the beginning of Event #4). I'm the proud owner of a bright & shiny $11 buyin to the SCOOP, which I'm plenty pleased with, as it will be the first time I'll ever take the opportunity to play in any sort of online tournament series.

Not a whole lot to my finish. I made some hay early when we were playing 3-5 handed w/4-6 sit-outs, playing some pretty good shorthanded poker and taking advantage of some spewy LAGs. That got me through the bustouts of all the sit-outs, and through the middle stages to the bubble I just kinda maintained w/some stealing. The key hand of the tournament came on the bubble, w/literally like 4 to the money, I was on the button w/A10s, and a bigger stack two to my right who was raising my button almost every time made his standard 2x raise, to which I responded by jamming, hoping to scoop or be ahead. In a past life I'd fold to the money here, but I'm trying to get away from that practice. At any rate, ahead I was not, but I managed to beat his pocket aces w/one flush card on the flop, and two subsequent on the turn & river. Whew...one time for this guy! So that doubled my stack to just short of 20 BBs, and all the sudden I was in business w/the bubble bursting @ 153. With a little more scooping & a decent non-showdown pot w/KK on the button, I managed to build my stack to just short of the average, but alas, almost as quick as I was in business, I was out of business.

With blinds at 1400/700/175, I was dealt AQo in the SB and faced a raise from CO-1 to 4200. He had a decent stack, and with no profound read on him, it just felt like a steal, and not really wanting to call or fold, I felt my best move was to go ahead and overjam my 23450, really OK with a call, but expecting a fold. To throw a wrench into the whole scenario, the BB calls for less, and then with >2:1 on his money, the original raiser also calls. I thought for sure one of them would have me dominated w/AK or at least flipping coins, but was pleased to see I was 2:1 against each of them, or 50% to win against BBs KQo & LPs A10s. Just had to sweat 10s, Ks, & straights. Board J10xx9, BB doubles, LP takes the rest, and I'm sent to the rail disappointed, but if it weren't for my A10>AA, I wouldn't have been there to start with, so I *guess* I don't have a lot to complain about. But a 60+k stack and swiftly dwindling tourney field would've been nice. I tried to find these guys' blogs to link to to give them credit for their profound sucking out skills, but couldn't. ;-)

I liked the structure. Its a little quick, but I also think its flatter than Stars' everyday tournies. Its interesting how you have to approach it strategy-wise, with all the sit-outs at the beginning and how the average is deceiving. Not to mention if you're playing short-handed how much dead money is in each pot when the antes start and how there's some incentive to go after it. But once you get to just past the end of the first hour and the sit-outs are busting out and the average skyrockets, you'd better hope you got in on some of that dead money or you're in for a rude awakening. I'm eager to play in tonight's Event #4, then both events this weekend. Tomorrow night I'll be playing in a homegame w/my wife & a couple other couples. So I may hop in @ 5 & donate my stack quick before heading out to have some fun playing live.

The tournament did provide for a new experience for me, however, in that I played with my first sponsored pro. I'm sure I've played with dozens of grinder pros, and I've played with some Supernovas, etc, but my final table saw me 3 seats to the right of Marcin "Goral" Horecki, a Team PokerStars Pro from Poland, with $734k in winnings. So that was pretty neat, but I managed to play myself out of the tournament before I got to see him work...or before I got to bust him.

Anyway, Event #4 is officially underway @ this point, and 20 minutes in I'm stacked @ 5500, so hopefully I'll have a similar report to this one (or better?) come later tonight or tomorrow. Good luck everyone!

EDIT: Not so much. After making it through the sit-outs w/a slightly less than average stack, a hand folds around to me and I make a standard 3x steal raise raise w/58c on the button. SB & BB both call, flop comes 959, SB checks, BB bets, I figure if he's got a pocket pair bigger than 5s, so be it, I jam, he instacalls, & busts me w/97o. Uhhhhh...good call? I guess I shoulda raised 4x or more... Anyway, spend my chips well, RUPoker.

Pic Dump

2010-01-16T09:42:00.005-06:00

Just wanted to post some screenshots I've taken over the months.

This first one is probably nothing terribly special. I'm sure its happened to others, and maybe even on more tables. But nonetheless, I thought it was pretty nifty.

Sadly, I didn't win a big pot in either instance. But I did win both hands.

This next one was a complete luckbox fluke. I was playing cash on FT & a tourney on Stars, and went to raise to 1300 in the tourney, but with the focus on the cash game table, instead vastly over-raised to $13.00 on this .05/.10 or .10/.25 table, out of position w/this gem (hey, it could be worse). It was of course re-popped by the KK, then QQ jammed. I was already priced in, and the rest, as they say, is history...

One time for this guy! :-)

I like to call this last one "drawing slim". UTG raised 4x to $1, an MP player called, I called, then AK jammed w/$4.28, UTG jammed his $5, MP folded, and with nothing behind for any opponents & better than 3:1 to call, it seemed a relative no-brainer for me. As you can see, I was drawing pretty much as slim as it gets.

Thanks to FT for not making me wait. :-)

So yeah...its true. From time to time I run good. But there isn't enough hard drive space on the planet for me to post screenshots of the times I'm on the other end.

Man, that's like 3 posts in a week!

2009 Results - Breakthrough Year

2010-01-13T18:43:00.003-06:00

So another year ends, which means another results post. 2009 saw me playing quite a bit less online poker, what with a move and things that come with being a homeowner of a brand new home, not to mention the preparations for and arrival of my firstborn in August.

The overall theme of 2009 was poor results online, but strong results live.

Online Misc - ($42.50) - 765 Hands
While in 2008 this category included satellites, shootouts, steps, my Battle of the Planets payout, and the Stars "Double or Nothings", in 2009 it only included 15 steps SNGs, with obviously marginal results. I paid out (but lost $$) in 3, broke even in 2, and moved on to the next step in only 2. That said, I have a few step 2s and at least one step 3 banked in my Stars account for my eventual run at Sunday Million Entries, WSOP ME, PCA, or whatever suits me. You know...when I have time.

Online Cash - ($16.61) - 58 sessions - Avg. ($.29)/session - 6320 Hands
2009 was an interesting year in online cash. I feel like I played a lot better and had a lot better results than the bottom line shows. I played primarily .05/.10 NL on Full Tilt, dabbling in .10/.25, which I liked a lot better, but just couldn't hang @ the level. My sessions would go such that I would run up a huge win on one or two and just be getting rolled on the remaining tables. I don't think I played enough to sweat the variance, because my Comments field reads like a bad beat handbook. If I'm going to be profitable online, I need to figure out a way to be profitable in cash games, but I just didn't play consistently enough to be too concerned about losing $17.

Online MTT - ($25.79) - 21 Tourneys - Avg. Buyin $12.94 - Avg. Finish 1196/3291 - 3307 Hands
I played 30 less MTTs in 2009 than I did in 2008, but my results, aside from profit, were very similar, with an average finish in the top 36% compared to the top 35%. What's most important about my 2009 MTT results is an obvious "win or go home" approach. My results show that I was looking to build a stack to run deep, or go home trying, and it produced some of my best online MTT finishes to date. 77th/1329, 13th/4635, 97th/1498, 32nd/1985. Each of these tournies I thought might be the breakthrough 4 figure cash of my online career, but ended in true Windbreaker fashion in most cases. Regardless, I feel like I played really well in a lot of cases, with an emphasis on aggression this year that helped me get to the verge of the "real" cashes that I'm after. I had a lot better concentration and decision making, and did a pretty good job controlling tilt. I still believe I've got serious MTT opportunity in me, I just still am better live than online.

Online SNG - $257.35 - 216 SNGs - Avg. Buyin $10.85 - Avg. Finish 7.24/15.46 - 16845 Hands
My SNG results in 2009 compared to 2008 are pretty consistent, finish wise, w/an avg. finish in the top 44% in 2008 vs 46% in 2009. But what allowed me to make the same amount of money in about half as many SNGs was my opportunity to play at the $11 or above level a good majority of the year, and playing and cashing in more 18 and 27 player SNGs (avg. players 12.07 to 15.46). My avg. buyin went from $6.52 to $10.85, and the $10.85 is skewed even worse by some $1.20 & $3.30 SNGs I mixed in to play with my brother-in-law. With regard to my "real" SNG results, it looks like after a hot start to the year, I did have to drop down to $5.50s for 28 SNGs in March, but aside from that it was primarily $11. I won't even begin to say I truly played at a $22 SNG level, because while I did play in 15, I can tell you my results at that level are poor w/o having to look. I got pretty much killed at that level, but I haven't been able to play there enough to determine whether it is a skill differential or variance. At any rate, SNGs are by far my best opportunity to make money online and my primary play. I am very comfortable at the $11 level and hope to continue to move up, but if I'm outmatched at the $22 level and above, so be it. I can just learn to multitable the $11 level to increase my profitability. But I truly believe I can be profitable at higher levels, and will continue to work toward that goal.

Live - $748 - 21 various sessions
For 2009 this category included 11 monthly games ($5-10 tourneys w/ or w/o rebuy, low stakes cash), 3 sessions of $1/2 NL (2 casino, 1 homegame), another low-stakes homegame, a $60 buyin tourney, and the first couple sessions of the Poker League I joined. The obvious, jump off the page stat for 2009 live play is that it was my bread and butter, and honestly it comes down to two key profits. The first being the 4th place out of 120 or so in the live tourney at the local casino. I banked $505 profit for that win, and reported in-depth on this great experience in a previous post. The second was a nice little under the gun, brink of the new year $200 win on 12/30 at a $1/2 NL homegame. This is a bittersweet win, as I was up over $300 at a point but couldn't bring myself to walk away given the dead money in the game, and obviously suffered for it. But I ran good when I needed to run good, stand by my decision to stay in the game against poorly skilled opponents, and banked an impressive & much needed big win and seed money for my June trip to Vegas, not to mention a little bankroll booster to cap off 2009. As for the league I joined, I dumped $100 into it with no results after the first couple sessions taking place in 2009, but turned it around with a profitable finish in the first session of 2010, and hopefully when all is said and done a nice three figure win in the final standings. Sometime I should probably dedicate a blog post to the league. Especially if when I win it. But that loss was balanced out and then some by my profitability in my monthly game.

So, despite less play and overall poor online results, 2009 was a key year in my poker journey, as I am officially calling myself a lifetime winner. I've probably talked before about 2005 when I first got a taste of online poker and it took me down a deep, dark path of degeneracy coupled with unskilled play, so I set what I thought was a reasonable bottom line that I lost that year (given I wasn't tracking), and 2009 saw me break free of that burden.

It also reinforced what I have known and continue to preach since I started playing poker seriously...that I am a much better live player than online. I have strong basic people observation skills, and while I consistenly try to improve my player reading capabilities online and build a table image I can use to my advantage, both come much more natually to me in person.

As far as 2010 goals, its pretty much the same ol' story for me. I want to continue to be successful and build on my success in SNGs, I want to continue to try & find opportunities to play live and hope that I can maintain consistent results there, and I want to try and improve my Online Cash & MTT results to where I'm a consistent cash winner and snatch that ellusive MTT big score.

Aside from trying to win the league I joined for what will likely be close to a 4-figure score, my big poker promised land for 2010 will be my 30th birthday trip to Vegas in June. I have already laid the groundwork that I will have an emphasis on getting to play more cards, possibly/hopefully at least once a day, so hopefully when it comes time to put the rubber to the road that can be accomplished, and if it isn't, its because I'm doing much more fun things with the friends and family that I'll be traveling out there with.

Now, all this talk about poker has me jonesing to play. I'm up a whopping $5 in SNGs so far in 2010 after 2 SNGs, but shoot, if I can maintain that profitability, I'd sign for it right now!

All the best.

One of my Favorite Things of the Year

2010-01-13T06:57:00.000-06:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! PokerStars.com is the home of Free Online Poker Games, bloggers can play for free in the exclusive WBCOOP tournament, register here to play: WBCOOP

Registration code: 673776

Something Worth Sharing

2009-11-23T13:54:00.012-06:00

So I saw this post from Poker Grump today and ever since I started following @phPokerMgr a couple weeks ago, I have been really impressed with how he is using Twitter to tune in to his player/customer base, not to mention build a reputation for himself and Planet Hollywood. To summarize, since there's a lot to catch up on if you didn't read the original post, Grump and others saw some inconsistency in the logic around table changes and what chips you take with you according to the PH poker room rules, and Mr. Viator, instead of chalking it up to players bitching about rules and @ mentioning him to rub it in, took the time to dive into the issue, and actually discovered that the rule was, in fact, errant according to his own philosophy/stance/perception as well.

To me, this is a great example of using Twitter to your advantage and the advantage of your followers and patrons. Customers had feedback, Mr. Viator was in tune with the feedback, and in the end a wrong was righted by someone in agreement and with the power to do so, everyone involved was happier, and Planet Hollywood & phPokerMgr gained some pretty solid credibility. Note the players promising to play there in light of the conversation and the positive PR that will come of being exposed on a very popular poker blog. Using a Twitter account as a mix of business and personal is quite a tightrope, but so far Mr. Viator seems to be doing a *great* job, and it stands to revolutionize the image of the PH poker room if he can continue to expand his footprint.

Personally, I know that the PH Poker Room has always pretty much been an afterthought as far as desireable rooms to play in go, but as I prepare to celebrate my 30th in Vegas in June and am likely looking to actually stay *at* PH, I'm now quite a bit less likely to take my poker business to MGM, Venetian, or Caesars, knowing that the PH poker room is being managed by a caring, engaging personality concerned with its patrons' experience. Not to mention the name-dropping he does of the people who show up to play! ;-) Of course, I'll have to go where the action is, surely Mr. Viator understands that. ;-)

Incidentally, I have one poker playing experience @ PH (Aladdin at the time, to be fair) on my second trip to Vegas in '05. I played a SNG there, possibly my first live casino poker experience, definitely my first live casino poker experience in Vegas. So just nervous as hell and already on edge, action moved 2-3 players past me as I had yet to act, and as this creepy/crazy guy (thick, old style glasses, headphones, stocking cap, and disheveled demeanor) at the end of the table was cautioned about playing out of turn, he proceeded to go off on me about hiding my cards, to the extent of calling over the floor and having me reprimanded. Of course I wasn't angle shooting, I'm just 6'5" and my hands are a wee bit bigger than the size of a playing card, and while I'll admit to having my cards hidden, having just started playing I figured I could treat my cards like I wanted, it was up to the other players at the table to track the action appropriately, and I couldn't even begin to consider the angle shooting ramifications at the time of having them covered. It was at that point that I became very vigilant of following proper rules and ettiquite...not that I was being previously ignorant, I just didn't really wanna get reamed again by the table whackjob. Anyway, the story and the building will always hold a special place in my heart, and the joke to not cover my cards gets busted out on a regular basis at our monthly game.

So there's your personal poker content from me for this post.

BTW, I just have to say again that Poker Grump is just one of the best reads on the web. Its a perfect mix of strategy, hand analysis, poker industry insight, and the intriguing idiosyncrasies of being a Vegas grinder, all polished off with Poker Grump's own brand of charm. He gets a little grumpy, stodgy, & crotchedy from time to time, but he wouldn't be The Grump if he didn't!

As for me, I come to my blog and see its been 3 months again since I last posted. Pretty disgusting. But again I have to state that the lack of posting is in direct correlation with the lack of playing and the arrival of my first born. I have actually managed some decent duration cash sessions and a handfull of SNGs, but not enough worth blogging about. I have a couple of screen shots I need to share, but alas, I never even have time/never think about doing that.

As each day passess my little one gets a little more self-sustaining for longer periods of time, of which I'd love to fill with poker, but until that opportunity arrives this spot will remain neglected. For certain, though, I can tell you that I'll be taking my annual "poker pro for a week" week off between Christmas & New Year's, which I dedicate to as much poker as I can possibly stomach between the laptop and the local casino. Its tended to be a losing endeavour, but admittedly its because I'm like a junkie on a binge, playing as many hands as I can and chasing after big scores, than playing good, smart, focused poker. Naturally I always hope for the opposite, and this year I really feel like I'm understanding the game and how to win a lot more, so as long as I play with some discipline, I could make a nice little profit to bask in going into 2010. I'll need all the bankroll I can get looking forward to my Vegas trip in June.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race?

2009-08-25T10:14:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I assure you it is in direct correlation to a lack of playing.

However, before it got away from me I did want to post about my best live tournament performance to date. On 8/9 I went out to the local casino and played their weekly $60 Sunday tournament. In the past I've had lots of success in this tournament, and this outing was no different.

There really isn't a whole lot to the story. The structure isn't great, but you do get play for the first 90-120 minutes. Of course, during that time period I saw nary a hand and was essentially even due to blinding off, one small pot won, and a couple of scoops. At that point I went into push or fold mode and stayed there for the remainder of the tournament, all the way to a 4th place finish out of about 120 players.

The details are already getting blurry, so I think my best summary is the one I sent to my brother-in-law, recapping things the Monday morning after:

Yesterday felt like I would imagine it was supposed to feel to navigate your way through a tournament. I never got nervous, just knew what I had to do and played it as smart and deliberately as I could. It didn't hurt that I played push or fold basically from 2:00 to when I busted (5ish). On the one hand its an easy 50/50 decision, but on the other you're putting your tourney life @ risk so you'd better damn sure be right about it. I even made some plays that I wouldn't typically make, but I thought every one of them through, made what I felt like was the right decision, and was right every time. I won coin flips, too, so obviously if that hadn't happened it'd be a different story. I got a lot of compliments on how I played when I busted, from final table people I played with early, middle, and (obviously) late, so that felt good. I mean, to me, I didn't do anything terribly earth shattering, but to know that my perceived table image was that of a strong, respectable player, means what I was doing, I did right. They didn't see me as a pushmonkey, they saw me as a player making strong moves and good decisions, and a force to be reconed with. Or, maybe everybody was making $800 at a minimum so there was no reason to be disrespectful at that point. :-)

When I busted, the blinds were 10k/20k/2k with like 375k in play, so needless to say nobody had a lot of big blinds in their stack. Although in general the structure wasn't terrible. I feel like its missing a couple of levels, but I think it was also fair for $60 and in the casino's interest of getting it over reasonably quickly. If you were fortunate to have a big stack you could play some poker, if not you just needed to get 'em in the middle and hope to survive. And survive I did.

I wish I could play that tourney every weekend. Its ridiculously soft. I can't believe how many people are putting significant portions of their stacks at risk with non-all-in raises when the blinds get big. The structure is *decent*. You basically get play the first hour and 40 mins or so, and if you manage to accumulate a stack you can play for longer. But if you haven't managed to accumulate chips by then, you need to be shipping your stack and putting people to a decision. But people are putting out pathetic raises that big stacks can call easy, then if you miss the flop you have to check-fold or fold to a bet because the big stacks can bet any flop. If you can manage to keep 5-10 big blinds in your stack, the big stacks are WAY less apt to call light, and that's how I skated through from 60+ people left down to 4. Push or fold w/less than 10 BBs may be the most valuable piece of tournament advice I've ever read. Every now and then you'll push a little light in late position and run into a monster, but that's just unlucky. If you're careful about what hands you're pushing in what position, more often than not it gives you control, gives off no information other than you're willing to put your tourney life at stake, puts your opponents to a decision, and even if you don't get called, at that stage there's enough out there in blinds and antes that if you can scoop 1-3 times an orbit its enough to grow your stack w/o even getting to a flop. One can improve their chances to win a tournament probably 50, if not 75% just by sticking to that basic philosophy, but usually people are so afraid of going broke, they blind themselves off hoping to catch a monster, and then wonder what someone's doing calling their 2.5xBB all-in with 89 and beating their AK. I should know. I remember being that guy, and I'm kicking myself for all the money I lost being that guy.

Anyway, I'll climb down off my soap box. Needless to say it was fun and I'm really happy w/the way things went.

So, in the end I actually got my money in good w/AJvK10, but I had won an earlier 60/40 on my biggest mistake of the tournament (I didn't realize a guy had committed himself to the pot when I shoved, but managed to win, thankfully), I had chopped a 70/30 (AJvAx) earlier at the final table, and I had won a lot of flips, so losing a 60/40 to bust is certainly not the end of the world. And I feel like I got the first of the good payouts, making about 10x my buyin, whereas 5th & 6th made about 5-6x, although the 3rd-1st payouts were something to write home about! But I'm really happy with the way things went, and this makes for my 3rd cash out of either 5 or 6 tries in this particular tournament, which as anyone who knows tournament poker knows is pretty remarkable. Its just so damn soft.

I haven't run the numbers yet, but this win *may* have officially made me a winning player on life. I dumped an ugly amount of money in 2005 (the dark days) and have been determined to recover from that ever since, and I know I'm either really really close, or now officially a winning player, which is a giant accomplishment, and as I continue to make progress, I continue to hope for better things to come.

In other news, PokerStars recently ran a promotion where you could take a quiz on their VIP program and get an automatic bump to GoldStar VIP status if you pass. So I've been a GoldStar on Stars since the middle of July and get to keep the status through the end of August. Committed to taking advantage of this and maintaining the status I have played a whopping 2 SNGs during this time. *rolls eyes* I also have the Full Tilt bonus currently active and have yet to play one hand to try and clear it. But I've been busy, and poker hasn't been a focus.

Speaking of being busy, I've gotta split for now. My wife and I had our first baby last Monday, and I've been wasting the morning away at the computer, so I'd better go hang out w/the little fella, because I hear before you know it they're all grown up. :-)

Thanks for checking in, and all the best to everyone on the felt!

Moving Down

2009-06-07T23:04:00.002-05:00

Welp, so much for .10/.25 NL. Played another 500 hands tonight and just got it handed to me. More brutal beats, couldn't flop a thing when I stepped out with a marginal hand, and no action when I really wanted/needed it (hey, look @ that...just got a walk w/AA). Even though they'd probably suck out if they tried. So back to .05/.10 it is for me. Maybe I'll get a halfway decent rakeback payment though. *rolls eyes*

I also played a couple of the PokerStars Steps toward a WSOP seat. No hands in the first one, forced to fold AK preflop after a re-raise. Then in the 2nd one I played, I had KK beat by 10s after being up early, managed to survive to final 5, then jammed 10J and called by A8. Had an open-ender & flush draw by turn but bricked the river. Then, to finish me off, I pick up QQ all-in in the big blind and get beat by Q10, when he makes a straight. ALL IN ONE SNG.

So I continue to be the butt of online poker site's jokes. You'd think I'd get used to it, but when the object of the game is to get your money in good and win other people's chips, for some reason I just have a hard time shrugging it off.

Later.

Recockulous

2009-06-04T23:24:00.001-05:00

Hey all. Sorry I haven't been posting much. Just been busy, haven't played a lot, and when I have, its not much to post about. I'll have SHORT stretches where I feel like I'm playing well and thank the lord I'm running well, but overall I continue to run like...well...me.

Tonight I played a couple of 18-max SNGs and about 460 hands of .10/.25 NL. In my first SNG I was cruising along really well in about 5th or 6th of 10 when I picked up AK in mid-late position. I raised about 3.75x and get called by one of the bigger stacks in the SB. I don't remember the exact details of the hand, but when all was said and done the board read 3K2K4 and I was broke to his 33. Any way the action goes in that hand I don't think I'm getting away from going broke, and I can't imagine there are many players on this planet who are either. Such a sick cooler. In my other SNG I caught a nice hidden draw right off in the first level and had a nice stack going already. I messed around and got caught stealing in a pot and immediately pick up KK, and with my credibility shot in the eyes of my tablemates, I'm seeing dollar signs. I limp in UTG+1 and it gets raised 3x two seats behind me and called in a couple other places. I pop it 3x more and get a call from the original raiser and UTG. Sparing the details, the original raiser and I got it all-in on the flop and my KK had run straight into AA, and I found myself down around 1/2 a starting stack. I managed to survive to 7th when I jammed about 5BBs w/8 10s on the button and got called by 99 in the BB. Flop came 9JK, giving me life, the 9 on the turn shut me down hard. Yeah I got my money in pretty bad, do I have to pick up KK against AA when I'm rolling early, and can I at least have live cards when I jam the button w/8 10 and at least get my sweat all the way through the river? Its just so brutal.

The cash session was something else. I sat down at a regular NL table and a deep NL table, and it was 3x points Happy Hour, so the action was pretty good all around. I managed to run my stack up 100 BBs at the deep table pretty early with one gutsy play and some decent cards, but was getting brutalized at the other table. Lost w/66v55 on a 577 flop (villian was a short stack all-in for $5 on flop, thankfully), then lost w/AKvAJs on an A-high board when he rivered a flush after I priced him out with a turn raise. I raised PF, bet the flop, the A came on the turn and I check-raised. Anyway, I ended up getting stacked and had to reload on that table when I made a river two pair that made villian a straight, meanwhile steadily giving away all my profit and then some at the deep stack table.

Toward the end of the session I admit to playing very tilty, taking big risks to try and win big pots. I wouldn't even so much call it tilty as much as experimental as a result of frustration. :-) I've been watching a lot of Tom Dwan lately and really love the way he plays. I don't so much want to be as all-out reckless as him, but I'd love to figure out how to mix it up, be unpredictable, and win huge pots when I make big hands like he does. The problem I was running into last night was whenever I would try and represent big hands while actually holding garbage, it was like they could see my cards or actually had the hands I was representing and they were popping me every time. Meanwhile, every time I would think about mixing it up with an off-color hand but give it up because of position or some such extranneous factor, of course I'd flop the joint and miss out on a big pot. One hand in particular saw me hesitate over a 57s in EP in an already 5x raised and called pot, only to give it up and proceed to have made a full house in a pot that went all the way to the river with two big pocket pairs.

Anyway, in the end I was down as much as probably $30, if not maybe more, but cashed out about $7 down after finally making some hands late. I probably shouldn't have quit as I may have finally been teetering on the brink of "heater" status, but it was getting late-ish, and I had told my wife one more orbit but it had been more like three (and yet here I am blogging). So it was an interesting session. On the one hand I wish I'd have made a few more hands, but on the other, while it felt reckless and tilty at times I feel like I did make a handfull of good plays, as well as a handfull of mistakes, and learned a lot about getting involved and mixing it up. I also liked .10/.25 a lot more than .05/.10 so hopefully I can make this level work. Its one of those levels where you're still not playing for a lot of money from pot to pot, but it can start to add up a lot faster than .05/.10. I know I probably shouldn't have jumped a level AND changed my style of play, but hey, I don't get to play much, so I gotta do what I can to advance.

So I'm still not running great, but I do have my moments where the sites are throwing me a bone. I'm still working on trying to secure a Main Event package through PokerStars steps, but I've been trying to maintain a bankroll at the same time, and as little as I play (and as much as I lose :-) ) it doesn't leave a lot of opportunity to focus on that. I have been mixing in Step 1s as often as I can, and at the moment have about seven Step 2 tickets. I'm thinking at this point I'll quit trying to supplement w/SNGs and losing, play another 10 or so Step 1s, and then start to move on. Mathematically it doesn't put me anywhere near in a position for a ME package to be a solid bet, but if I can catch a few breaks and maybe run good for a day or two, its certainly not impossible. Worst case scenario I can get some Step 4 tix, which are good for Sunday Million entry, and hopefully some last chance ME sats which usually end up with quite a few seats up for grabs.

If anyone reads this, do you know if you have to use your first ME package you win @ Stars? Obviously I would likely opt to keep the money if I actually won one, but if you were required to play it, it certainly would make for a helluva experience.

So that's my story. I still feel good about 2009. I don't forsee getting to play any more than I typically do for the next few weeks with summer in full swing, but I think I'm gonna take a couple weeks off when my wee one arrives in August, which hopefully means a few hours a day. I also will be finding a time sooner rather than later for some cash and probably a tourney or two @ the local casino. I've been putting that off since January. I still love and feel like I am better at live poker, it just takes more time, dedicated focus (ie I can't do it in my kitchen while cooking dinner) and bankroll. So I really get amped to play live. When I'm not able to play, I'm doing my best to study. Continuing to watch High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark, reading blogs, and I need to crack Negreanu's book which I got for Christmas. But I feel good about 2009. I'm gonna have a breakthrough, damn it! All the pieces are there, I just need that magical moment that everything comes together. But until then, I continue to grow as a player, and enjoy playing whether I'm winning or losing, because I know if I just continue to do my best, my time will come.

It Couldn't be Going Worse

2009-04-03T22:21:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to check in quick and update that I am back to running bad. Or for me, about normal.

My log of my last 20 or so SNGs reads like a bad beat manual, with me getting sucked out on or getting cold-decked so hard its like its...normal. AA and KK are garbage, and I barely get a draw, let alone get there when I have one.

I was hoping to bankroll myself for a little SCOOP on PokerStars. Instead, I'm bankrolling myself for $1.20 SNGs. Well, not quite yet.

But close.

Right now I'm breaking my bankroll rules for the first time in a couple years. I should've moved down to the $5.50 level for certain by now, but I've got 2 $11 tables up and running as I type this.

The way 2009 started it, I thought things might be different. I honestly believe I'm playing about as well as I ever have, pushing my edges and putting pressure on my opponents. I've even worked on plugging a leak that started to become very obvious. I posted on Twitter the other day (@WindBreak247) that I may be the best in the world at getting my money in good, but I can't sweat an out to save my life. Usually, literally, my tournament life. 2-4 outs and you're in good shape...6+ and you may as well be a favorite.

Its really depressing. I try so hard to be disciplined and play good poker, and I got no luck when there's nothing left but cards to be laid on the table.

Anyway, that's probably enough whining. I just hoped that maybe if I posted, a little good vibes might be sent my way.

Speaking of posting, I'd love to be posting more, but unfortunately it'd be all like this. Its no fun to talk about or read about playing well and losing. So I'm sparing you the pity parties.

Please keep your eyes on this space, as I'm not giving up. Someday, somehow, I will make this a profitable, meaningful hobby, but right now I need some sort of spiritual intervention or something, because I have been plagued since the day I started this game.

Thanks for checkin' in.

Doom Switch Activated

2009-03-01T17:44:00.002-06:00

After starting the year pretty hot, the online sites have flipped the doom switch on me something fierce. I can't do anything right. I raise & miss. I call & miss. I got something, they got more. I get in ahead, they catch up. I can't flop a set, I can't flop a draw, and if happen to, you'd better believe it won't fill. I can't remember the last time I had anything better than 2 pair, and usually my 2 pair are getting beat by someone making a better two pair on the turn or river.

I have cashed in 8 of my last 40 SNGs, ranging anywhere from 9-45 players. Luckily 5 of those cashes have been 9-man wins so my bankroll isn't yet swirling the drain, but it sure as shiznit isn't any fun. Especially when I'm playing my heart out and just getting snapped off at every turn.

It needs to stop soon. I'm about to go looney.

Still Here

2009-02-06T12:51:00.005-06:00

Just wanted to stop by real quick and let everyone know that I'm still alive and kicking, and still love poker, I just have been overwhelmed the past 3-4 weeks with my recent move. Its not a lack of posting for once, its a lack of playing. I have played about 4 SNGs (0 cashes...I'm rusty) and 20 minutes of .05/.10 NL since my last post, and/or since we moved on 1/23. I'm starting to get back to some semblance of normal life again, which means hopefully getting back into things, including playing and posting.

Please don't forget about me. I'm looking for a big 2009!

Take care. Talk soon.

2008 Results

2009-01-06T18:31:00.004-06:00

Well, up until now, I have not ever been able to put up a results post because A) I didn't track my play, and B) I had nothing to be proud of. That all changes for 2008.

While I won't be playing pro for a living in 2009 by any stretch of the imagination, I am 95% sure I had my first profitable year. The breakdown is as follows:

Online Misc - ($72.03) - 3033 Hands
This category is the only one in 2008 that saw me in the red and includes satellites, shootouts, steps, my Battle of the Planets payout, and the Stars "Double or Nothings". Obviously there's room for improvement in this category. I really got rocked when I experimented with about 16 of the Turbo Double or Nothings one day, otherwise it looks as if this category would've been profitable, too. So I'm not too concerned about what I lost here.

Online Cash - $70.83 - 124 sessions - Avg. $.57/session - 9905 Hands
While I played anywhere from $.01/.02 NL on Stars to a couple of quick sessions of $.10/.25 NL, I primarily played $.05/.10 NL on Full Tilt. Obviously I didn't play a lot, and that's not because I don't like cash or anything. In fact, I really enjoy it and think I could play it profitably online. I would just prefer to play a little more meaningful stakes if I'm going to be playing cash and earning rakeback. Therefore I continue to cut my teeth primarily in SNGs and MTTs, trying to snag some sort of a bankroll breakthrough. But its nice to mix in a weekend of cash on Full Tilt maybe a weekend every month or two and earn some rakeback. If I can ever get rolled for even $.25/.50 or $.50/$1, I think I would be significantly more inclined to play cash more often.

Online MTT - $86.84 - 51 Tourneys - Avg. Buyin $7.60 - Avg. Finish 940/2638 - 5606 Hands
I'm proud to have turned a profit, albeit a small one, in MTTs. While the big cash I'm after continues to elude me, I am proud of consistently finishing in the top 35% or so of the MTTs I play. I am happy with the occasional micro to medium cash to remain profitable and keep myself bankrolled for MTTs, and think the breakthrough is coming. But the end of the year and a couple glimpses at missed final table opportunities definitely has me starting to understand why the successful MTT players live by a hard and fast motto of "go big or go home", because there is nothing exciting about being a consistent micro to medium casher, and the hunger for more is burning pretty hard for me right now. And I think the nourishment I'm after lies in the 6:15 PM CST $11 1R1A. Bottom line, I am thrilled to have been profitable for MTTs in 2008, but for 2009 I would almost rather see a big negative or a big positive.

Live - $213 - 25 various sessions
For 2008 this category included 12 monthly homegames ($5 tourneys, one rebuy @ the end of the night, $.25/$.50 NL side games), 6 $1/2 NL sessions & one $3/6 Limit session, one casino tourney that I FTed, & another small collection of various homegames with similar low stakes to the regular game. It was nice to make a small live profit this year, including an 11 months & counting profitability streak at the monthly game. I didn't play nearly as much in a casino as I did in 2007, which I despise, but also don't regret. Try and figure that one out. But with any luck, 2009 will provide more opportunity to do so, because I think my game is in much better shape to be profitable. But for this year, I was happy to nickle and dime a little money in the homegames and keep the big money in my pocket. The key for 2008 was bankroll management and focusing on fundamentals online.

Online SNG - $254.80 - 401 SNGs - Avg. Buyin $6.52 - Avg. Finish 5.37/12.07 - 30281 Hands
Its no secret that I consider this my bread and butter. While I may not pull huge numbers, this is what I do and have played the most of, and know the strategy best for. In a horrendous skid eventually ending in going broke on Full Tilt at the end of 2007, I only played one SNG on there for my last $1.25. The other 400 were at Stars, where I took money I made from a couple of freerolls and bounced around from $1.20 to $5.50 to $11 and back down between January & July, then finally made a pretty quick progression through $5.50 to $11 by September, finally dipping into $22s at the end of September but running horribly. So I eventually found my home at $11 throughout the end of the year. What's fun is I saw marked improvement over the course of the 2nd half of the year and think my SNG game is on point. I'm finding it a lot easier to know when to apply pressure to my opponents in the interest of getting them to fold, when to get away from marginal hands that will only get me in trouble, and playing very fearlessly, but in a profitable way. Now if I could find a way to port this confidence to the MTT arena, I think that would be the key to the breakthrough cash I'm after. Anyway, being comfortably in the $11 range, bankroll wise, allows me to excersize the whole "the money should be meaningless" concept and play the players, the cards, and the situations, and if I bust, on to the next one, but with the peace of mind that I played it right. I am very "zen" when it comes to SNGs these days. Its kinda nice.

So, 2008 was a big year, producing just over $550 in profits in around 50,000 hands. So its around a penny a hand, but hey...its profit.

Incidentally, I have come out ON FIRE in SNGs in 2009 and have for all intents and purposes already matched my entire 2008 profitability in 12 SNGs, including one 2nd place in a 45-max, and two wins in 27-max. So I'm on the verge of dipping into the $22s again, but will tread lightly because I don't want to throw a very fortunate start to 2009 out the window.

As for 2009 goals, in general they're pretty "duh", but I think for me they are legitimately achievable. Basically, improve upon my profitability and continue to move up in levels if bankroll permits and as I see fit, lock up that damn big score in MTTs that I've been saying I'm "on the verge of" for 2-3 years now, and continue to plug away at cash and move up in levels there as well. In general, if I continue to focus on improving upon my game, the rest will fall into place.

I think that's more than enough for now. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll check ya later!

Live Blog of 18:15 CST Stars $11 1R1A

2008-12-28T19:24:00.014-06:00

Well, since I haven't blogged in a while I thought I might pick up here on hour two of what has become one of my favorite tournaments, even though I've only played it twice. I still never blogged about the first time I played it, when I took 23rd out of 837, and would like to sometime, but I figured I'll move forward with this blog for some prosperity.

Beginning of hour 2, approx. 7:20 CST. Made it through the first hour with 9590 + the 4k addon. I'm into it for the original $11 buyin + $10 addon.

7:20: Average is around my pre-addon stack, so I'm above average with my 13590. Lost almost 2k on first hand of hour 2. W/K7o in the BB, blind is min-raised in the SB to $300. I figure everyone else will call, so I call for the discount. Flop comes 5c 8 6c and I flop about as good as I can expect. SB bets 500, I call, folds around to LP, who bumps to 1.5k, SB calls and I call. Turn is non-club 10. Check, check, 5k bet, all-in, and I fold. LP shows a set of 5s and SB goes home.

7:32: Blinds 75/150 still, I raise to 450 UTG w/JJ. With a monster or no respect of the UTG raise, player two seats later makes it 1250, and it folds around to me and I fold. I hate Jacks. My stack and chip average @ 11k.

7:41: QQ UTG. Raise 3x to 600, folds around.

7:42: Very next hand UTG again, I pick up KK and have an opportunity to get it all-in and end up with a helluva sweat. This guy was table captain and on a SERIOUS heater and I managed to snap it off. 38th out of 634 remaining.

7:53: 55 in the big blind. One caller and I check. Flop comes 3 8 10. I fire 725 into the 850 pot and get called. Turn J. I check to see where he's at. Checks behind, and I put him on a draw or a hand he doesn't love. River blank and I fire 1300 into 2300 pot. He calls and shows K8o. Ick. Not sure how he can make that call, but I'm sure I played it bad.

7:57: Try to make a position play w/Q2c. Raise to 800 in the cutoff and button and BB call. Flop comes A-high, all diamonds. BB checks, I fire 1500 into 2k pot, button calls again. I check-fold the river.

8:00: Call in mid-position w/AJo. Flop comes K-high rainbow. I fire 900 into 1200 pot, button calls. Turn 6. I fire 1300 into 2300 pot, button calls. Have to check the river again, button checks and takes down the pot w/AQo. What am I doing wrong here?? Down to 16k, w/average @ 14k.

8:05: Limp into 6-way pot w/88 from the button. Flop 694. UTG bets 500. Folds around to me and I pop to 1500. UTG calls. Turn 9. Check to me and I bet 3500. UTG folds for once. For the record, UTG is the one that doubled me up earlier and the one that just made 2 hero calls in the last hand. He is officially my nemesis. Up to 18950.

8:11: AKo UTG+1. Raise to 1k w/blinds @ 150/300/25. Nemesis calls. A-high flop. I bet, nemesis min-raise, I jam...quick. WindBreaker 3 - Nemesis 1. And the Stars setup hand goes my way! Currently 38k & 14th/483.

8:25: Second Break. Currently 36,450, 25th/447, & big stack @ my table by ~10k. Avg. 16,921. Blinds going to 200/400/50, with me in the small.

8:35: Limp w/55 UTG. UTG+1 pops to 1200. SB call so I call. Flop 7 10 4. SB check, I bet 4250 into 4450 pot. 2 folds and I drag the pot. Then scoop blinds on next hand.

8:45: Nemesis eliminated when his A9 can't beat AK on an A-high flop. Too bad I didn't get him.

8:51: Up to 41,400 after a little scoopage. THIS HAND is my favorite.

8:53: AKo in 600 chip BB. Blinds @ 300/600/50, I call a raise to 1600 from a player who has shown loose tendencies. Flop comes 10 J 4. He bets 3k into 3950 pot. I make the CR to 9650. He tanks for a while & folds. Who is this masked marauder playing my screenname check-raising with air?! Up to 46,100 & 31/309 w/avg. @ 25k.

9:01: I have been and currently am @ Table 77. A little luck from my brother's old football number??

9:12: Mini-blowup. Find 22 in MP and limp w/it and see a 10 Q Q flop 4-ways. Three checks, and I fire 2850 into the 3875 pot. SB & BB fold, and EP calls. Turn 7 and EP checks to me. I fire 6k and he calls again. River 6, he bets somewhere North of 7k and I have to fold. He probably had a 10 the whole way or just as easily could have been slow-playing a Q. But I had to get caught one of these times. 35k left. Blinds headed to 500/1000/100 and I'm due a trip through the blinds.

9:16: Unfortunately, my table is very well stacked. Shortest stack is 14k and biggest is 54k, so no shortys to pick off and nobody desperate to get chips in the middle. What are the chances table is due to break? Anyway, gonna lock it up a little and hope for some good hands and see what happens as we approach the bubble.

9:19: So much for locking it up. Folds to me in Cutoff-1 and I open for 3775. Cutoff jams 16k and I have to let it go. 28,900 w/avg @ 33k.

9:22: I lied about bubble approaching. I guess we pay 117. I thought it was 171. Still got a LONG ways to go.

9:24: Woo PokerStars glitch! Got to skip my small blind when guy on my right busted!

9:28: Pick up 88 in UTG+2 & make it 4400 to go after 1 limper. Table big stack jams. I call and he shows QQ. I'm not sure why I called. He hadn't shown any play too far out of line, but I just thought the jam was a funny play and he was trying to scoop with a big ace, and I was willing to flip coins for the table chip lead. Horrible call in hindsight, obv, but I still would've had 25 BBs behind and approaching the 3rd break if I can fold, so its an EASY fold. This is why I don't win tournaments. All that promising play and I end up pissing it down my leg with one terrible play. I get this mindset that I'm being attacked and/or I'm due, and logic just completely escapes me.

To add insult to injury, table immediately breaks. Final verdict...208th out of 1035. I do love this tournament, though, and feel like it gives me the best opportunity to get that breakthrough win. I just wish I could avoid that bombshell mistake that always directly or indirectly shows me to the rail.

Well, here I am on the brink of my week off to spend at home and toil away the days in front of the laptop, and my bankroll is crap and I haven't been running too terribly hot. Guess I'd better hit the SNGs and see if I can get things turned around.

How to Bust a Blogger Freeroll in 29 Hands

2008-12-16T18:33:00.008-06:00

I'm steaming so bad right now its freakin' ridiculous.

Hand 3
I probably could've played this better, but its early. Considering he was on a draw, I thought I played it pretty well. God forbid Stars let me live on the river.

Hand 5
I win some back, yay!

Hand 6
I get a little feisty protecting my blind/trying to scoop the sit out big blind, but this guy has to have a hand here. Why do they have a hand every damn time I make a move?!

Hand 8
Flop a flush draw and position myself to win a big pot...but can't get there. I admit, I made a terrible call on the turn, but it was early and I was OK with it.

Hand 10
I'm already steaming a little and decide to call a cheap all-in with suited gappers, hoping nobody raises to isolate. This guy had just lost most of his stack on the previous hand, and what are the chances that he wakes up with JJ-AA, so at worst I'm 70/30, and most likely I'm 40%. So everybody cooperates, I out turn him, and of course he doubles on the river.

Hand 13, I move to another table.

Hand 18, I limp UTG w/ATd, flop comes QQ6, three checks, turn 9, BB checks, I bet 60 into 90 pot, BB calls, river 8, we check, BB shows 9J for the win.

Hand 20
I felt like I made a really good play here preflop, reraising the button raiser to see where he's at. I then proceed to butcher my chance at a flop play, and he turns the 2-outer. Admittedly I'll probably make that weak play on the flop every time, but I feel like more often than not it saves me money. Of course the 2-outer on the turn is a kick in the stones.

Now...drumroll please. Hand 29
I get a potentially cheap look at a flop and don't hate the king. I want to make sure I know where I'm at, so I bet the flop so I can get away ASAP if need be. I'm good with the big blind's call here. Now to see if I'm *really* winning the hand I make sure to bet the turn, too, and he jams. Now NOT FOR A SECOND did I think I was beat here. I don't know if it was timing or the way he played the hand up to this point, but I was positive the 5 sealed the deal for me on the turn. So I called pretty quickly and he's dead to six outs.

...and proceeds to hit it. GG me. 458th/559. Honestly, I can't believe I outlasted 100 people. Incidentally, Twitter tells me Pauly was one of those people, going out in 545th with a set of 7s vs. a Q6 flush draw. Quite ugly in its own right.

Anyway...*that*, my friends, is a conscise lesson on how to bust a blogger freeroll before dinnertime.

After taking 2-3 weeks off because of holiday and focusing on selling/buying a house, I have been running like this ever since I picked the laptop up on Saturday. It feels like summer 2006 to summer 2007 all over again. Bankroll is getting scarce again, so I'm in lockdown mode to try and recover. I was really excited to play this tourney tonight, but obviously Stars had other plans for me. Don't think I'll probably get to play in any of the others, so this is probably the abrupt beginning and end of my WBCOOP 2008.

Hope things are treating everyone else better!

WBCOOP - Count Me In!

2008-12-02T18:46:00.000-06:00

Its that time of year again. This is AWESOME that PokerStars does this for bloggers. Just really really cool.

I was actually a little bit scared that it wasn't going to happen this year, because as I recall last year it was a lot closer to, if not affiliated with, the WCOOP. Now weather my pea brain just doesn't remember that right or its just different this year, it doesn't really matter, cuz its on.

It does look a little different this year in that instead of just one big tourney there's a series of freerolls and a Final. Pretty sweet.

So join the club!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 510155

I Haven't Given Up Blogging

2008-11-30T20:53:00.001-06:00

It may look like I'm no longer a blogger, but I assure you that is far from true. I'm doing a decent job *reading* blogs these days, but I have not found a lot of time for playing or blogging of my own.

While this past month's vice has been my new iPhone, the new TV season, and keeping busy with various whatnots, this next month's vice will most certainly be finding a home. The little lady and I have accepted an offer on our townhome, and while we're upside down on it, we have to get out from under it and try to start heading in the right direction with a home where all 4 walls are our own, so between now and 1/23, we will be looking for a home and moving into it.

You may think this means less playing and less blogging, but quite the contrary, I'm going to be trying to satellite like mad for the PCA, because the size of that package just so happens to be quite a significant amount in the grand scheme of our whole moving process. Lets just say if I were able to win a $13.5k prize package for PCA, that would get us right side up on the whole deal, with a little extra for a washer and dryer.

See you in the PCA Steps! Here's to running good! :-\

Stay Tuned

2008-11-02T18:22:00.001-06:00

I have a post coming soon, I promise. Unfortunately, lately I have gotten *to* my "post a poker blog" to do item quite a few times in the last few days/weeks, but then something always jumps up and trumps it.

Lots of pretty good news to report, including a deepish run in a new MTT I hadn't ever played, and increasingly consistent solid play.

Of course I've also been busy in work and life, including getting an iPhone *insert girly glee noises here*, so actually laying out a post unfortunately finds itself sliding all too often.

Back soon!

Heads Up!

2008-09-04T14:32:00.003-05:00

You know, something I overlooked while I was posting yesterday was that there was a span of a couple days where 2 or 3 of my favorite bloggers really raved about HU SNGs and how profitable they were, so back around the beginning of August I decided to check out the scene, and ended up pretty happy with the results.

The thing about these is that I really feel like I should win every one, so when I lose it really bugs me. Some might argue that heads up isn't necessarily so much about beating the player, but moreso about the point at which you both make a hand worthy of getting it in the middle, and seeing who comes out with the best of it, and who ends up feeling cold-decked. And I think that's fair.

But, of course, some of us would like to think there is a lot more to it. Its about building your stack so you can put pressure on your opponent and withstand an all-in if you have to. Or its about building a table image and then when you know they're onto you, switching it up. Or its about relentless aggression. Or its about playing so passively you let your opponent run over you, only to trap them so hard they never saw it coming. Or some combination of all of these.

So even though a fair share of these will end up being a lottery, the ones that start to go a few hands certainly get a little more interesting as things progress.

Anyway, I played 5 of them on 8/4 and 8/5, and managed to cash in three. When I won my first one in 14 hands, I was like "wow, these really are *that* easy". Only to get into my 2nd one and end up defeated in 81 grueling hands. But then there was the third, which I won in exactly 3 hands. So day 1 of this experiment was from one extreme to the other. The next day I split another pair of them in what I suspect is a relatively average...maybe a *little* high...45 and 66 hands, and then I haven't been back since. But I definitely see sprinkling some of these when I'm short on time and/or don't necessarily feel like exerting enough poker prowess to take on 9 or more opponents.

As far as the value, I guess you can't really argue with it. You essentially double your money, which is just a little better than finishing 3rd place in a 9 player SNG. The number of hands is around the same as finishing 3rd in a SNG, but of course a majority of the hands are significantly faster, so if you could be successful as a heads up SNG player, I would think the value is pretty high. Might be a decent little bankroll builder for some "back to basics" poker if you're running bad or something.

Anyway, I thought that was worth mentioning. Just incase there's anyone out there like me who hasn't been to that arena and was looking for a little insight.

As far as my heads up game in general, I go back and forth on it. Sometimes I feel like I'm a heads up donkey, and sometimes I feel like I've assembled a nice little strategy. So at this point I guess I'll just say "I'm working on it".

Two posts in two days? I'm on fire!

Update-O-Rama

2008-09-02T20:44:00.000-05:00

Hey all. Time for my much overdue check-in yet again. I'll try and keep things brief.

Looks like my last "real" post was 7/25, so let me check my logs and see what significant has happened since then...

Looks like things have been pretty standard as far as SNGs go. I've played about 40 since 7/25, and my overall win rate (for the year) is a relatively pathetic, but very much black, $60. I've been playing more of the multitable SNGs, but haven't had a lot of success in much of anything other than 18 players. It seems I can only dodge so many bullets, and the 27 and 45 player games just fire too many at me to survive. Random notes from the 27 and 45 player SNGs see me getting in w/2 pair vs. set, 60/40 & 70/30 and lose, KK < 66 (4-flushed), and AA < K10 (villian boated). As a matter of fact, that's all my 27 and 45 man SNGs since my last post, so I've been cold-decked or bad beat out of every single one. But I've had a handfull of 1st and 2nds in 18 players, so that always helps pull in a little more SNG value. The 9-max have been pretty standard. I'm managing to stay a little ahead, but just have some really sick shit happening in pretty disgusting spots. In the last one I played I bubbled when I got all my money in for a significant chip lead w/top 2, aces and 9s, vs A10, turn comes A, river 10. Dead to runner runner and he hits. Either something like that happens, or I storm to a strong finish. Cest la vie.

As far as MTTs, I had hit the skids again for a while and was approaching heading into the red on them, and then on 8/18 I made a fairly decent run in a Stars tourney. Instead of trying to detail it again, I'll just copy and paste the email I sent a couple buddies the next morning.

Man, I thought last night was gonna be the one. I got into the $3.30+rebuys ($40k Guaranteed) last night on Stars at 7:00. 3700 runners, and I proceeded to run like God for about 2 1/2 hours and led the thing during the 3rd hour w/5x the average and almost 200 big blinds, then cooled off late and grinded my way to a 66th place finish at about 1 AM. I rebought once stacking off w/88 vs 99 on a 7-high flop and did the add-on at the end of the first hour and cashed for about $60 profit. First place paid $5600. But I doubled my Stars bankroll, so I can't complain about that.

I got to learn a lot about late stage tourney play, which I haven't had much opportunity to do up to this point, and with any luck I'll get to use more often.

During my sick run of cards which lasted about the first 2 1/2 hours, I had AA about 5 times and held, including in a 3-way all-in right after I rebought, KK and QQ about 3 each, and JJ probably 5 also, I *think* winning all, flopped a couple of boats, flopped two or three sets, flopped trips I think twice in a row (in the BB and SB) at one point, three outering and stacking the guy on the 1st one w/K7 vs K10 with the board coming KxKx7 (we got it in on the flop), flopped quad 8s against some guy all-in w/A10 vs. my 88, got QQ and took a decent pot then got KK on the next hand and got some guy to stack off w/33, hit a couple of nut flushes and a couple of straights, 2 pair, etc, etc. Almost every hand I played I just got smacked upside the head w/the deck. Even limping/checking my blinds. And if I didn't stack someone entirely, I got paid off a decent amount pretty much every time. I had 150k while the average was 22k-35k. Man it was fun after perpetually running bad.

So like I mentioned, it was nice to get into that tourney and just run good and have a blast, but part of me wonders if I should have made more out of it and/or if I didn't play the cards so much as they played themselves. Its not often you run that good and get that much action, so I'm wondering if I could have done a little better in the middle/late stages to propel me to a final table. Makes me wonder if Lucko or Hoy or smokkee could have done better given the situation, or if its just that running good late is much more important than running good early. Sure, I had 150k when the average was 30k, but when I busted, $150k was chicken scratch. You have to keep building. But my cards went DEAD. Anyway, I got some later stage MTT experience, so hopefully next time I can learn from it and do better. Fact of the matter is its my deepest MTT run and biggest cash (aside from a turbo sat to a 100k guarantee...but that doesn't really count) of the year. And maybe my deepest non-freeroll run ever.

My next MTT after that was the noon 5.50 tourney that I played on Labor Day, and I microcashed in that in 355th out of 4800 for $12.60. Only ever really had a stack twice in the tourney, and just kinda held on the whole way. But now I'm back to a $75 winner on the year in MTTs, which will buy me into several more of the tourneys in my price range to keep going after that bigger score.

In other tournament news, I decided to venture into the Steps sats for the WCOOP on Monday and things have gone well so far. I immediately moved to Step 2 in my first attempt, only to enter myself into a Limit Step 2 tourney like an idiot and get 7th. So I licked my (self-inflicted for being a moron) wounds and jumped into another Step 1 and advanced, and it'll be on to Step 2 again. My initial hope is to get to a Step 4 and win an entry to one of the $215(?) tourneys, and just cash that out for the W$ and sell it. At this point a tourney like that would be nothing more than "taking a shot", and even the % of cash I could get for the W$ would be immesurably more valuable. Bankroll management, baby. *Maybe* if I can somehow manage to win 2 entries I'd use one. But chances are if I can get to a Step 4 and sell my $215 W$, I'd take my next chance to go for Step 6 and try and get the >$1k W$. THEN maybe try and win an entry to use. But that's all quite wishful thinking from Step 2 at this point. I'm just happy to be 2 for 2 at Step 1. I think I may finally have a little better grasp on these turbos.

As for the last facet of my online game, I've still been working in a session of .05/.10 NL over at Full Tilt from time to time. I'll find its Happy Hour on some weekend day, or I'll go to a wireless hotspot between work and flag football on Wednesdays and get an hour or two in, and my last 4 sessions have been fairly significantly profitable. Throw in rakeback, and I'm making a nice, steady bankroll climb on Tilt.

All of the success I've been having I think has come because of a renewed approach to a well balanced strategy. A mixture of feel, numbers, and less paying off, I've been trying to keep emotion out of it, and looking at plays from a strictly EV perspective. You're all like "duh...that's how you win at poker", but when you tend to run as bad as I do, you fall into this really deep, dark place where you feel like every time you get raised or re-raised they've got what has you beat no matter how unlikely, or you're "only" 60%, or you know you're flipping but you wonder if you'll lose again just like the last 4, and you fold, more and more disgustedly every time, or you payoff when your big hand gets cracked, "just to see it". But lately I've been more apt to play back at aggression when it really just doesn't seem likely they have it, and a LOT more often put pressure on people for *their* stacks and for *them* to have to make a decision. As it turns out, there really are a ton of bad players who will either stack off with garbage or call bets or fire all the way to the river only to fold. And I find myself in a lot more coin flips and 60/40s w/all the money in the middle, hoping the odds shake out the way they're supposed to. When they don't, I bust and move on, and when they do, I find myself in good position to move forward and apply even more pressure to people.

Or, you know, maybe I'm just playing the same and running a little better. Either way, I *feel* better, and the better you feel, the clearer you see and the more naturally your play unfolds at the table. Of course it also helps to have a few more buyins in reserve so the money means less and less.

So that'll be it for now. I've got some Vegas play to report on, but it was pretty typical, so I'll save that for its own quick post somewhere down the line.

I've Been Neglectful Again

2008-08-21T14:31:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm sitting in the airport right now and ponied up $8 to pay for wireless to play some SNGs because my flight to Vegas, of all places, is delayed 2 hours.

I have quite a bit to report since my last post, although nothing terribly earth shattering.

So I promise I'll get something up shortly after I get back, including some cash game table exploits from mecca.

Hope all is well. Back atcha soon.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race?

2008-07-25T18:43:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back for another quick update, even though I don't have a whole lot to report.

I'll start w/MTTs. Played 3 since my last post and didn't cash. I made a run *to* the bubble in one, but instead of limping through the bubble like I very well could have done yet again, I was playing this one to win, and fizzled about 75 spots short of the money. This tourney was a blast, where I was mixing it up and keeping my stack above the average stack and playing table captain and all of that, right up until I got my money in 70/30 and got crushed. Then I ended up jamming my short stack A8o into an already raised AQ and that was that. This tourney seriously tilted me because I was playing the exact kind of poker I wanted to be playing and I envision solid online MTT players to be playing, and just like that it was all out the window. In the second tourney I played I was out before the end of the first hour. Had a really active table and was trying to get mixed in and make the best of it before I got moved, and ended up getting in with a draw and not getting there. Had it gone the other way, who knows what happens, but again, I am trying to play the kind of MTT style that will get me deep, and word on the street is that sometimes that involves getting your money in in somewhat uncomfortable spots and leaving the rest up to the cards. I think any good MTT player would tell you that. And admittedly, the last tourney I played was a tilty $3.30 RB that I played after I busted the 2nd tourney. See, it was the first 2008 WSOP broadcast, and I envisioned going deep in an MTT that night, so after I busted the first before the broadcast even started, I had to find another to play in. Honestly, I wasn't in too bad of shape after the rebuy/addon period, but then I had my JJ (preflop raised, naturally) busted by 54 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTED when he flopped 2 pair and obviously called my flop jam. Fantestical. So I will mount up again this week and give it another go.

I did discover I don't hate rebuys *quite* as much as I thought I did, because a $3.30 rebuy not only has a higher guarantee than an $11 $20k Guarantee, but after the rebuy/addon period, there is a LOT of play. I had 4000 in chips after my addon, and sure, the average was like 8600, but I still had 26 big blinds as a "short stack". Hell, you could go broke in the last hand of the hour and for another $9, rebuy for 30 big blinds. The tourney doesn't even really start until the 2nd hour (yes...I'm aware that that is a "duh" statement). Whereas in a regular 3k starting stack tourney your average is gonna be at about 4600 at the first break, and a 4k stack means that you made relatively significant progress during the first hour. I just still don't love rebuys, though, in that they're 1500 starting stacks (sort of), the playing field doesn't start level (What's the deal w/the double rebuy? I'd be much more ok w/the concept if there was no double rebuy.), and the first hour is a freaking mine field. I know its not the right way to approach a rebuy, but personally I buyin for the minimum, play my normal game (albeit 25-30% looser) and see what happens. I know others go into a rebuy guns a'blazin' and will get their money in the middle of huge pots as often as possible and double rebuy at will if things don't go their way. I look to fly under the radar and pick those guys off. Its just my style. But, when all is said and done, I see myself giving that $3.30 rebuy at 7 Central a few more shots. For less than the $11 buyin of the $20k guarantee at 6, I can buyin, rebuy once if needed, and get an add-on, have a $30k guarantee, and if I make it through the hour in good shape, have a lot of play.

SNGs were basically break even, although adventureous. Also on Tuesday night after I'd busted both MTTs I sat down in a $5.50 18 player SNG and busted a few minutes in when my turned nut boat lost to flopped quads. We both slow played each other to the river when he put out a feeler bet, I jammed (overbet for value?), and that was that. There was a couple of other SNGs I played on Tuesday night where I started strong and then didn't play as well as I'd have liked to late. One 9 player where I had a decent chiplead and was pushing the table around, but then didn't back off when people started pushing back and my cards were no longer there (bubbled in 4th), and one 18 player where I came into the FT in 2nd with almost 3x the average stack, and managed to go out in 6th. Again, I had a big stack and was catching cards and splashing pots, and then the well dried up but I failed to tighten up in time. So I'm not terribly proud of this week's SNG results, but I'm livin'.

And as for online cash...drumroll please...I broke about even. I played for about 4 hours on 5 tables of .05/.10 NL, and I believe my balance lay within the same dollar it started at when I finished. This was another case of poor discipline, as I was running well early and up about $20-25, but then as the cards dried up instead of quitting or tightening up, I actually started to play more hands, and before I know it I was chasing a loss. So I was happy to end up even, and with my rakeback hitting my account today, up $3 or so. :-)

So I think we see where I have an obvious leak. It lies in a combination of boredom and denial. When my cards dry up, I don't want to quit playing a lot of pots and catching a lot of cards, and I don't want to believe that my run is over and its time to tighten up and play it safe (SNG/MTT) or quit (cash). I realize I have this flaw, and I think this week's events will really hammer it home for me. I want to be a profitable player, but I never will if I continue to perpetuate this behavior. See, the problem is that I only get to play so often, so when I play, I want to PLAY. I want to play a lot of hands, and I want to play until my time to play is over. Because who knows when I'll get to play again. So I don't like the idea of my cards going dry in a tourney and not getting to splash around in pots at will, and I don't like the idea of being up 250 BBs in a cash game and seeing the tide turn but with 2 hours more to play. That means the fun is over. And when the fun is over is when you become a profitable player (great post, and SO TRUE!). So I need to get out of that frame of mind and get into the *winning* frame of mind. I have the instinct to know when the jig is up and its really a simple adjustment...I just need to make it.

So, folks, for me, the fun is over. Its time to play profitable poker.

And it starts tonight. Heading out to the local casino with the brother-in-law tonight to get a 1/2 NL practice/hopefully bankroll building session in as we count down the days to Vegas. I'm not concerned about playing profitable poker live, though. Live poker really gets the blood flowing for me and I'd like to think I'm exponentially better live than online. If only I had the time to grind it out more often.

Anyway, that's the latest from this neck of the tubes. Poker tonight, probably a little tomorrow, and then of course on Tuesday, and otherwise who knows when. But I'm gonna try my best to make every hand count, and form my session based on results and not a schedule.

The Latest

2008-07-17T19:47:00.002-05:00

In the interest of being a good blogger, I wanted to check in and report on how things have been going lately. To sum it up, not too shabby!

Since my last post reporting a little bankroll stimulation, I've ventured back to the $5.50 SNGs and made $13.50 cashing in 4 out of 8. Not a whole lot to report, as I only felt motivated enough to leave comments in 2 of those. I'm cool with the profit.

I've also played in 4 MTTs, turning a hum-drum $2 or so profit. But profit's profit. I feel like I played really quite well in all of them, but I still just can't get things to break my way and send me on a deep run in an MTT. But lemme tell you...I've got the market cornered on limping through the bubble and microcashing. Ain't nobody better. Last night I felt like I played a REALLY strong tournament and felt like it might be the one. I came out firing, making a well disguised nut flush right out of the gate, and keeping with the aggression as best I could. Then, as usual, I got mixed up in a hand I didn't belong and found myself in push or fold mode. After doubling up, I had a legitimately healthy, above average stack again, and vowed not to fall victim to my own pitfalls. I then proceed to pick up QQ and am ready to take down another big pot. I raised 3-4x UTG and got a call from a completely reckless LAG who played the role pretty well, but also benefitted from some obscene lucksackery. But it was the right person to call with my strong holding. Flop comes down extremely raggy with two hearts, and I bet about 85% of the pot, and after a brief hesitation, get min-raised. I wasn't worried about a set here at all and probably should have just jammed right here, but I just called. The turn was an offsuit Jack and like a pansy, I check and give up control...and he checks behind. The river is another low heart, and I thought about checking, but then decided that there was about a 95% chance he'd put me all-in if I did that, so I put 2k into about a 5k pot to bet my queens for value, but also tell the story of a value bet on a flush, and like clockwork I got raised to 5700. I couldn't see any way not to let it go, and did so. He very easily told the story of a flush himself, so I made the decision to keep my 14 big blinds or so and live to see another day. He claims to have had the other two queens, but the way the convo played out, I don't buy it. So once again I'm on a short stack thanks to another pretty poorly played hand. I feel like I should have jammed the flop or the turn for maximum value, but even if he has the QQ, all I end up doing is splitting. And if he has the flush, I'm out unless he finds a fold. Opinions?? After that I doubled up once to skate through the bubble, and then fizzled in 388th out of 3100 or so when my AJ couldn't outlast KJ. BUT, I can't be mad about that one because I had AQ hold up against AK and Q7 (4-flushed it) and AQ hold up against AK to get to where I was. So hell...maybe I just played the whole tourney badly with my money in bad twice. Although, I'll play the AK/AQ/Q7 hand the same every time. Shortstack jammed his Q7, I rejammed my AQ, and just got unlucky to have AK behind me. I would have had the shorty crushed. But I got lucky and more than doubled myself. Perhaps some reward for a strong play?? :-) Anyway, its nice to be cashing in MTTs again, and hopefully someday soon my time will come.

Also played a little cash on Full Tilt on Saturday night while left at home alone with my NASCAR in HD. I won $16.50 playing .05/.10 for a little over 2.5 hours. Mainly just one table as I played a SNG on Stars at first, then mixed in another cash game for the last hour. I was just completely card dead for the first hour and a half or so, getting $20 deep into that first cash game table when I got giddy over an overpair and ran it into a set, but then caught fire about the time I opened the second table, and could finally put my reads to use on the table captain and used him as my personal ATM, eventually cashing out with a $29 stack for $9 profit. At the second table I made a nice, steady $7 profit, and called it good when the wife got home. So my FT balance is back up above my original deposit from last month and I'm not quite so mad at myself for how I played like a moron trying to clear that bonus.

Live poker has also treated me well, as we had our monthly game last Friday, and I posted what either ties or sets a personal record $60 profit. Not bad for $5 tourneys and .25/.50 cash on the side. You'd never guess things would go that way after I busted on the first hand of the first tourney when I flopped broadway holding J10. I was in the cutoff and when it folded to me I raised 3x to 150 chips. SB and BB both called. Flop comes AQK and both blinds check, and I fire 300 at it and SB calls and BB folds. I'm saying to myself "please don't pair the board, please don't pair the board...", and what comes off but a King. The SB bets 500, I min-raise to 1k, and he jams. I put him on AK even before the turn came, and I could read into his jam that he had the goods, so even though I know I'm beat, I decided I'm not gonna find a fold w/broadway in a $5 tourney and call. I considered it $5 to the prize pool for the bad beat story value. As it turns out, it was the best worst call I could make, because once the cash game fired up I won a huge pot on the second best hand I'd ever had unfold for me. The first being when I had three all-ins in front of me and I look down at aces and held up. In this case I had pocket 9s in late position and raised to $2. The big blind, a notorious donator, called. The flop came 8-high, 2 hearts, and I fired $4 into the $4 pot, and got the call. The turn paired 4s on the board and I bet $4 again this time and got min-raised. For the first time I considered the thought of being beat, but I had to call with almost 5:1 and the possibility of him holding a 4 or a full house. The turn was a glorious 9h, filling me up and completing the flush. My opponent bets $5, and I play it up real good and raise my last $6 or so and eventually get the call. He showed a J-high flush. While if any non-heart comes I win the hand, I got the single perfect card in the deck to get doubled up, which is always fun. After that I donated a little back to the group and then cashed out up $20 for 45 mins to an hour of "work". I then went on to come from my last 900 chips to flop two sets in a row and double both times on my way to chopping first place in the second tourney for $30 profit, then hung around in the rebuy tourney and took 4th for $20 and a $10 profit. Nice to have things turn around for me after the first tourney, and fun to sling around real chips with buddies as usual.

So there you have it. Read that to your kids and they'll be asleep in no time. If you don't fall asleep first. Thanks for checking in, and hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later to report more!

Among the Best in the World...

2008-07-07T20:10:00.004-05:00

...between 6/30 & 7/5...among those who played at least 20 $1-2.99 SNGs...on PokerStars. But still, for this one shining moment, I'm among the best in the world at something poker.

Hello Windbreak247,

Congratulations on your performance in last week's Sit & Go Leader Boards. A cash prize of $20.00 has been credited to your account.

So I've reached another goal...another milestone in this poker journey I'm on, and at the moment I'm pretty proud. I started with a bankroll of just under $20, and in the span of 20 SNGs, plus the bonus, ran it up just shy of $65. That's not bad for SNGs that payout at a profit of 3.30, 2.50, and .60. I cashed in 15 out of 20, which is pretty remarkable. This run also got me back in the black in 2008 SNG play, which is always nice as well. I just wish I would've had a little more time and I could've played in some 18 or 27 player SNGs and really made a run at the top spot. Sadly, its difficult enough for me to play 20 SNGs in a week, so once I realized I had 9 under my belt and had cashed in 8 and this could be the week for me to make the leaderboard, I really only had the option of finishing it off w/9 player SNGs. I did it right under the gun, too, having to play 5 SNGs at once on Saturday afternoon to get it squeezed in. That is something I'd never done before, and I even managed to cash in 4 out of 5. Its nice to really accomplish something with SNGs after I've really specialized in them for the 3 1/2 years I've been playing online. Anyway...it was fun, and hopefully I can do it again and make the top 10 and the monthly Battle of the Planets triple shootout sometime.

This week with PokerStars 2x promotion its 2x the guarantees in the daily guaranteed tourneys, so I'm gonna look to play at least one of the nightly 6 PM Central 20k guarantees, and then maybe on Saturday I can play the Noon Central 10k guarantee. Both of those being their pre-2x guarantee amounts. I haven't checked yet, but I'm guessing pretty much all of these double guarantees are going off with overlays, because even with the guarantees being doubled, I just don't see these daily tourneys doubling their entries...but who knows.

The other obvious fact at this point is that I managed to run well for 20 straight SNGs, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that will continue. Sadly, it felt very, VERY strange to run normal/well, but at least I took full advantage of it, and just have to hope that maybe...just maybe...it can last at least through the end of August, during which I have a couple of "practice" live sessions planned for the local poker room, then a trip to Vegas next month, with plenty of online play mixed in inbetween. But its all in the hands of the cards at this point. I've given up all superstitious tactics to try and make it better, because not once has anything ever worked. I'll just be getting my money in the middle and hoping for the best.

That's about all I have to report. I'll check back in when I have more.

Shame On Me

2008-07-01T20:24:00.005-05:00

Well here we are again and I've gone over a month...almost two...without a post. I've had quite a bit of playing, a lot of working of course, a vacation to Dominican Republic, but mostly a lot of reading up on the WSOP that I've been doing. Its been fascinating reading the really compelling 2008 WSOP stories from Pauly, Pokerati, WCP, and all the other numerous blogs and outlets who, as usual, have done an outstanding job covering the WSOP and all that goes along with it. Sadly, I predicted last year to be the year the pros took back the WSOP to any friends that would listen, but turns out I was a year premature on that prediction.

Anyway, personally speaking, things are about the same as usual. Break even at best. I finally received another bonus offer from Full Tilt, so I put $60 in there, and after working off like $27 of my $30 bonus (which is a pretty big accomplishment for me), in addition to some rakeback, I'm sitting at something like $43-45. In 3 significant sessions I ran pretty decent in the first and ran it up a little over $90, but then played tiltier than I'd have liked and couldn't buy cards in the 2nd two sessions and subtracting bonuses and rakeback, ended up down a good $50 overall at the .05/.10 NL tables. I also worked in one brief session of .25/.50 Limit that was basically break even. Anyway, thank goodness for the bonus and rakeback or I would've damn near gone broke. I ran pretty bad in those last couple of sessions, but I also played equally as badly, so I'm not gonna whine about my results. Looking back, I was more focused on clearing the bonus than I was actually making money playing poker, which is pretty f'n sick, but I'll live to see another day. It would've been nice to show some winnings in addition to the free money, but if I had to use the free money to not go broke, so be it. In the end, I end up with a fair amount of money on Tilt to play with, and with my rakeback there and their Happy Hour promotion, I think I'm gonna focus on it as my cash game site to try and not only try to play more cash games, but get optimum value for my play.

That said, I kind of burned myself out on cash games working to clear that bonus, so for the time being I've gone back to PokerStars and the SNGs I know and love. I'm not comfortable with what had happened to my bankroll on that site, and I'm determined to build a respectable bankroll, and I think I want it to be at Stars. It also doesn't hurt that they're running this 2x promotion during the month of July, and even though my FPP "bankroll" is piss poor at the moment, I would someday like to move up in their VIP program and have some FPPs to mess around with for satellites and whatnot. Also, given that I am a self-proclaimed "SNG Specialist", I would like to at some point get some sort of value out of their Battle of the Planets promo. This may be the week as I have currently gone 3, 1, 7, 2, 1, 2, 7 in my 7 SNGs. Its hard enough for me to play 20 SNGs in a week (I've yet to ever even do it), so I have to focus and make sure my first 20 SNGs are my best 20. So for now, I'm content at the 1.20s and trying to get ITM, but more preferrably 1st and 2nd place finishes for the Battle of the Planets points. With any luck, everything will unfold naturally and maybe next week I can move back to the 5.50s and try the same thing.

I also broke a disgusting run of non-cashes in MTTs on Sunday. As of that point it had been almost 4 months and 18 MTTs (7 of which were the WSOP turbo freerolls which only sorta count) since my last cash. I had forgotten what its like to get past the first 90 mins of a tourney. In the end it was a microcash where I basically doubled my $5.50 buyin, but for me its always more of a pride thing and I feel like I made a good run. Recently, MTTs have been too big of a hit to the bankroll to play too many, so again, I'm hoping to get back to the point where I can play more MTTs, specifically the $20k Guarantee a couple of nights a week, and maybe finally make a real run at some money after playing this game for 4 years. But for now, I'm pretty damn thrilled to cash after 4 months and 11 MTTs.

Incidentally, I did manage to work in a 1/2 NL live session back at the end of May, but there really isn't much to say about it. I posted a $5 loss that felt like a $195 win, considering there was a point where I was $200 deep and had the last of it in the middle. I then made a steady run to recover and walked out of there with what I came in with minus $5 and experience.

I also need to plan in a couple more 1/2 NL sessions between now and August 21st, because we have booked our annual patronage to Vegas, and it is 8/21-8/25. While my good buddy who lives out there unfortunately will be gone for most of it, we are going w/my bro-in-law, so he and I plan on working in plenty of poker, and then it sounds like Jorgen will be back in town on the 24th for one good session before we leave bright and early Monday. So once again I'll be doing my best to work to put together a bankroll and counting down the days to that nice little midday flight out of Des Moines and 4 nights in my favorite place on the planet.

So I guess I am capable of blogging in a positive, or at least even keel manner. Right now, things are looking up. Of course with me, that could all change tonight. But I'm trying to just persevere, focus, and take it one hand at a time. If I could run decent between now and the end of August, I'd be the happiest poker player on the planet. But I'm not gonna get greedy, and I'm not gonna count my chickens before they're hatched. I'm just gonna play 4-5 more SNGs tonight and hope for the best each time the cards are dealt, then do the same thing tomorrow.

Thanks for tuning in, and I'll do my best to keep you posted.

Quickie Update

2008-05-13T19:50:00.002-05:00

Hey. Just wanted to check in to keep up to date on how things have been going.

After my epic rant, I played 5 SNGs on Friday and it was the same ol' story. Here's my notes from my SNG spreadsheet (today's comments in italic)...

6th out of 9 after 26 hands - Raised on the button like 4 times in a row then finally pick up AQ and raise again. BB re-raise, I jam, he calls w/KK.
Uncharacteristic play for me, but I felt like I set the BB (who was the big stack) up to make a play at me. If I took my own advice from the previous post, I would know that a PF re-raise in a $5 SNG indicates a monster. Any insight on this one? Good TAG play or donkariffic?

6th out of 9 after 57 hands - Flopped top 2 on 10 4 Q board vs. unraised KK, got it in ready to punish, turn 6, river 4, and the 8-outer gets there
This is just the same ol' ish. Dude should be punished for limping w/KK and instead sucks out w/the money in the middle.

7th out of 9 after 31 hands - I manage to make top pair w/A7 on turn and check it then dude rivers broadway gutshot. I run so good.
I played this whole SNG terribly to even be all-in w/top pair w/7 left. Then to just rub it in I try and get tricky and check the turn and he rivers his gutshot. My own fault. I prolly win the hand and live to see another day if I jam on the turn.

5th out of 9 after 88 hands - Had huge lead w/6 left, then lost w/AJ vs KQ, then call a button jam w/10s in the BB & he had JJ, then couldn't outrun AQ w/JK
This was irritating as shit because the dude who should've gone broke w/KQ vs. my AJ started giving me shit for making "loose calls" w/10s vs JJ in a button short stack vs. BB confrontation and another shorty all-in call I made w/44 vs. 77. Then of course he's the one to bust me.

8th out of 9 after 17 hands - I limp w/AA UTG to C-R after like 5 raised pots in a row, BB checks and flops 2 pair w/49o
4-5 raised pots in a row and I find AA UTG, poised to limp, re-raise, and of course there's no raise, and even more obviously the BB flops 2 pair w/49o. I put him on A9/K9, but I'm not that lucky

So, forced to drop a level I end up playing one more and naturally I pretty much dominate it with the deck hitting me upside the head.

Friday night was our monthly poker game, and I cleaned up there, too...in poker, as well as in the bottle of gin I brought. Incidentally, Friday night I was catching cards, too. Forced to get my money in bad in several spots and hitting miracles. I remember at least two 70/30s all-in preflop, as well as a runner-runner flush to my 5 in my eventual win in our final tourney/rebuy. I ended up making $35 on the night in 2 out of 3 tourney cashes, which is a nice haul and nice boost to the cash roll. The bottle of gin was dead broke by the time I was done with it.

Played a couple of chicken scratch SNGs on Sunday night where I made bottom money in both. Got 3rd out of 9 in one, then did a pretty good job coming from 12th out of 12 to get 4th in a 2 table SNG. For the record, I got it in as a 70% fav to go broke. ;-)

Tonight I touched base w/my brother-in-law and we played one of the turbo freerolls on Stars toward the Main Event. Only noteable hands there were my K10 hitting a straight against AK, only to turn around and get it all-in in the end w/A3 vs. 77 vs. KJ. Board came 10 A 8 and I'm set to triple up, turn 7 and I'm still making money off the big stack, river Q and I'm out. Is anyone surprised??

Ok, well I think that's good for now. Hopefully its not too boring. I'm trying to grab hold of the wheel and set this ship back on course, but the seas are rough and the icebergs are plentiful. Hope everything is going well for everyone else!

This Post Brought to you by Sofa King

2008-05-08T17:21:00.002-05:00

I am Sofa King tired of losing and running bad. As of about today (it was exactly a year ago I got my Macbook Pro, and ever since my portable poker playing has experienced rare moments of joy), its been A YEAR of running Sofa King terrible, save for 3-4 strings of 3-4 days where I'd run "normal", and then I think there was one string of 3-4 days a couple months back where I actually ran "good" and ran my online bankroll up over $250, only to find my way back to the basement the next day.

After not having played since before I left for San Antonio on 4/27, I was Sofa King refreshed, rejuvinated, and ready to hit the felt and play well. I'd been reading a decent little pre-release book that someone asked me to take a look at, I'd been reading blogs and picking up on strategy and reading about other people's good fortune, and my love of the game was rejuvinated. I was aware of mistakes I'd been making while trying to experiment with more LAG play, and wanted to get back to basics and play the way I've been successful in the past, and hone in a strong TAG game. Make good decisions, make good plays, and just let it all flow nice and naturally. I played a SNG on Tuesday and after struggling early, played really well to end up taking it down. So far, so good.

Then last night I had plans to get in and go deep in the $20k Guarantee at 6 Central on Stars. Before I know it I'm deep...into my stack...w/AK where the board comes QQKxA, on a 3-flush board. After raising preflop and betting every street and getting called to the tune of about 1/3 of my stack, I get jammed on on the river and see no way around folding. He either has the Q or made the flush on the river. Here we go again. I eventually double back above the starting stack, only to move tables and find AK again. I raise preflop and get a caller in the BB. Flop comes QQx. I c-bet, thinking I'm probably in pretty good shape still, and get slow called. I hesitantly bet bigger on the 10 turn, thinking I can get a fishing mid-PP to fold, and get called even slower. The river comes, and I quickly make the same bet as the turn making it look like I don't want to lose him, and I'm quickly called again. BB shows down AQ. Nice play, me. It doesn't matter what my bets make me look like...there was no way I was getting this guy to fold. But seriously, how unlucky is that?! Sofa King unlucky. So I've got this guy dominated PF, he calls my raise for a discount in the BB, then flops trips. He could have SOFA KING MANY hands that don't have a Q in them that would make him call my Flop and Turn bets, but no...he's got one of the other two Qs. From this point, I actually did chip up to an almost average stack by my AK actually holding up against 67o, and then my 88 holding up against 77h on a 5h6h2h board, but found myself back in the basement releatively quickly when I made a couple of pretty damn decent hands, bet them, and got raised or showed down losers. Of course a pretty damn decent hand for me doesn't stand a chance against 8 other hands at a poker table. I really should fold with anything less than a set. I eventually go broke when I've got K7o in the SB and its folded to me, I open jam 7 big blinds, and get called in the BB w/K10s. Lemme spell this out for you. I've got K-high and one hand to beat, and not only can I *not* beat it, but I'm dominated, *and* I find a guy who's willing to call off 7 big blinds and more than half his stack w/K10s. I don't know if that's an excellent call or a terrible call, but one thing's for certain, its an enfuriating call. GG me. Sofa King screwed. Oh, and BTW, its my 10th straight MTT non-cash.

I went on to play 4 SNGs, and the beating continued. Tons of pocket pairs but not one set. If I have KQ, an Ace flops, if I have AK, a Q flops, if I have AQ, a K flops, if I have 10s or Js overs flop, or better yet someone has QQ, and my suited connectors whiffed or flopped monster draws that never got home. Almost without fail. Every time I *did* make some semblance of a hand, I'd bet 2/3 of the pot and get raised. And when you bet 2/3 of the pot in a 5.50 SNG and get raised...you're beat. Every time I gave someone 2:1 on the turn with their flush draw instead of the 4:1 they needed and they called, the flush came on the river. And naturally, every time I managed to make a monster, everyone folded. I ended up with my money in the middle once w/top pair vs. middle pair, and obviously his trips came on the turn. In another, with A9s vs. KJ by the turn I had the lead, plus a flush draw and gutshot, but obviously his 4-6 outer came. In another, I raise from M/LP w/9c9, get three callers, flop comes J-high all clubs. I move in for size of the pot, button rejams, and shows QcJ, for top pair and the blocker club. I admittedly got my money in bad...but come on! Does it have to be *that bad* 6-handed?! And in another, 4-handed, the shortstack calls on the button w/97o and I end up doubling him w/95 on a 794-8 rainbow board. Probably a tilty call of his all-in raise by me, but after getting raised w/decent hands all night, I struggled to see how I was beat 4-handed in this spot and was Sofa King tired of getting pushed around. I then open jammed my 4xBB stack w/76o from the SB, and duh...the BB has A6o. See above.

I left in shambles no less than three goals I had set for myself when I started. Namely, don't run plays/spew chips when I'm beat (see: AK vs. AQ on QQx board hand), don't get sucked into other players' traps (see: AK vs. XX on QQKxA 3-flush board), and don't, under any circumstances, make that "gutsy" or "heroic" call when my gut is telling me I'm beat (see: 59 vs 79 hand). And while, yes, I broke these rules on my own, its simply because I never get the chance to run that good bluff, when I make big hands I'm beat, and when I should be safe I never am. Honorable mention for broken rules were don't get run over/be the aggressor, always play your position, and quit limping so much. I thought I made some pretty good preflop decisions in spots where I'd normally be spewy, and I thought I made some pretty good plays that I just ended up unlucky in. But, see, that's the key. I'm Sofa King unlucky!

I'm also tired of the level I'm playing at. I feel like a lot of the time I'm setting up the right table image and making the right plays, and have a very systematic approach to the whole thing, and then some idiot who either isn't paying attention or is doing a bad impersonation of a LAG throws all that out the window and pops up and screws me. Like when I open jammed K7 in the SB into K10s in the BB. After showing down nothing but winners and folding all the live long day, I jammed 7 BBs and over half of the BBs stack, and this guy is willing to call w/K10. Where is he when I have a *real* hand?! Of course then when I open jam something like A9 in the cutoff or button, looking to actually double, the SB wakes up with AJ. Sofa King sick. I can't remember, but I think I blogged about recently when I open jammed on the button or SB w/AK and the BB wakes up w/AA. Anyway, I just feel like at my level there are some players who don't know jack and/or don't care and are doing horrible impersonations of a LAG player, and some, like myself, who are really trying to better themselves and that make really strong TAG plays. And then somewhere in between, there is actually the LAG who is making a strong go of it. The problem is, no matter who they are, I'm the guinea pig. I'm the guy w/AA that the LAG flops the nuts against after I raise and he calls me w/56o after I've seen his incapability to keep his hands out of the cookie jar, and I'm also the guy who open raises/jams in position/resteals against the strong TAG who is capable of folding, only this time he's actually got a monster.

Yes, it happens to all of us. But I guaran-damn-tee you it doesn't happen to you as much as it happens to me. I generally try and take the high road and keep the bitching to a minimum (no, seriously...I do), but now I'm officially whining. I'm Sofa King tired of it. I'm the Mike Matusow of bloggers. There...I said it.

Now I know some of you are reading this and seeing leaks galore and percieving this as me thinking my game has no room for improvement and that my big hands will never be beat. But that's not the case at all. I've got a long ways to go, and I know that. I even am fully aware of several of the mistakes in hands I pointed out above, and several of my "conceptual" mistakes such as needing to make plays WITHOUT actual hands and it doesn't matter how many people are left, anything short of the nuts can still be beat. Problem is, I'm so busy fighting tangible uphill battles, I never have a comfortable enough stack/bankroll to even get to a conceptual level. I'm perpetually recovering from the last bad beat and don't get to put it on cruise control to work on sniffing out bluffs, running plays, accumulating chips. I'm always in disaster recovery mode. I'm just so sick of it. I study and I practice and I study and I practice, and I get my money in good, and I make my opponents make mistakes, but my poker life is a perpetual bout with negative variance. Its almost as if instead of there being variance from hand to hand in the cards that are dealt, there's variance from player to player in ones ability to run normally, and I'm the 30% and under. The sick part is that I know there's just as much mathematical backbone to that theory as there is to card variance. Maybe for me it doesn't "always even out", and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's a guy that sucks out equally as disproportionate as I am able to hold up with the best hand. I just don't want to come to terms with that...I love the game too much.

So now, as you may be able to tell, I'm Sofa King pissed off and depressed and down on the game again. My 9 days off and good attitude about finally making a go of this hobby was completely ruined over the course of 4 hours, 1 MTT, and 4 SNGs. So now, with my sub-$50 bankroll AGAIN...I'll have to pick myself up by the bootstraps and give it another go...AGAIN.

Sorry for the vent. A guy can only take so much.

Thnanks to Sofa King for their sponsorship of this post. I'm out.

WSOP ME Final Table Delay

2008-05-04T18:50:00.002-05:00

So as usual, I'm a few days behind, and since my last post a little bit ago I've been catching up and reading posts on the delay for the WSOP Main Event Final Table.

This is all well and good, it has its pros and cons, and I'm not about to dive deep into it as many others have already done much better than I could, but I did have one thought/question that I wonder if it has been broached anywhere.

What if someone offers the final 9 x amount of dollars to play a 9 man SNG and shortcut the Main Event final table and/or give the players a "practice" opportunity/exhibition. Surely some sponsor(s) could benefit from such an activity, and is there really any way that Harrah's can prevent this legally?

I'm sure there is some simple legal work that Harrah's could do to prevent this, but I think it would be interesting to see if such a situation arises. There may be something explicit that Harrah's can draw up and make each player agree to not participating in, but what happens if all the players just happen to play in the same tournament and end up at the final table together? Sure, we all know the chances of that happening...but its an interesting "what if" question, and surely in that specific situation there's nothing Harrah's could do. They're surely not going to prevent these players from entering tournaments, but I'm sure they could make them sign something to agree to not playing out a mockup of the final table explicitly. But whatever they draw up, I'm sure there's somebody out there who will be digging and digging hard for a loophole to steal Harrah's thunder if at all possible. Could be interesting.

As usual, I'm sure I'm either way behind on this thought or way out of left field, but I thought I might throw my discussion point hat into the ring on this nonetheless.

Ok, So That Didn't Work Out Like I Hoped

2008-05-04T17:26:00.002-05:00

Well, I know in my last post I said that I'd that I hoped to get rocking and rolling on the playing and blogging, but my week in San Antonio didn't turn out exactly like I expected. In the conferences I've been to in the past, you have your session stuff during the day and then you're pretty much on your own in the evenings. I was looking forward to free time and free internet...instead it wasn't until Wednesday night that I even got my personal laptop out, and then of course as I got to thinking about using the internet that I had already paid for for my work laptop, my assumption was realized in that the charge ($10/day) was by computer/MAC address, and not by room. I don't see how they could do it any other way. So in the end, I couldn't see paying $10 to play an hour or two of poker, even if I turned a profit.

But the week in San Antonio was great. Ate and drank on the company hosting the conference on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and of course the rest of it was on my company, so its really here nor there. Then spent a lot of what little free time we really ended up having working out and doing the tourism thing.

Anyway, I'm here to talk about poker, and at this point I don't really have any poker to talk about except for the atrocious suckout my sister-in-law laid on me at the couples game we played last Saturday. She got all her money in against me as a 95% dog with one to come and of course got there. In a sequence of three hands I got QQ and beat 66 to double, KK and LOST to 66 to lose more than half my stack, and then jammed what I had left w/JJ and lost to AK to go broke. I should've had about 7k and taken two people out VERY early in an 8 person tourney, but instead I found three top 5 hands in a row and the rail. Love this game.

Anyway, I'll be back when I have some more to talk about!

Geez...Has it Been a Month Again?

2008-04-26T18:36:00.002-05:00

I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things this week. I will be traveling for work to San Antonio, and I hope to have quite a lot of opportunity to play, and similar opportunity to blog.

I've been hanging in there, but bad luck keeps jumping up to grab me at the least opportune times. KK losing to AK. Pairing my over on the flop, only to have the underpair set on the turn. You know the story.

I've also tried to loosen my game up and get involved in more pots and make moves, etc, etc, but I really think I'm at WAY too low of a level to be able to play a LAG style. In the $5 and $10 SNGs, it seems nobody can find the Fold button, no matter how much pressure you put on them.

All that said, I am currently up in every single facet of play for 2008. I'm tracking Live, Online Cash, Online SNGs, Online MTTs, and Online Misc (Shootouts, etc). Actually, I may have lied. I think I'm down in shootouts. But still, after being significantly down in SNGs for a long time, its nice to be showing a little bit of profit. Unfortunately my MTT stats have suffered because I can't catch a break, so even though I'm playing all facets profitably, the bankroll is still right about where it always is.

Incidentally, I'm off to a friends house tonight w/the wife for a couples game we like to have from time to time, so I'm looking forward to tossing around some real chips and cards and having some fun with friends. But I got my weekly website stats email and saw that my hits were in the single digits for the first time in quite some time, so I wanted to check in and let you know I'm not giving up or anything...just trying to get priorities in order a little bit. I intend on being around for some time to come.

Hope the felt is treating everyone well. Be back soon!

Popping In

2008-03-27T22:46:00.004-05:00

Hey all. Sorry I haven't blogged in forever. Real life/the day job recently threw me a curveball which has cut back on my internetting overall. I promise at some point I'll get to crawl back out of my shell and rejoin life on the surface.

Results since my last post have been the definition of mixed, as I've scored a couple of top 5% finishes in 3k+ tourney fields, which has been fun and exciting, but of course the ROI even at that point isn't really anything to write home about. Its nice to be there on the cusp of that big cash I've been after for 3 1/2 years, but I still have one more big corner to turn.

Live has been OK, with a pretty decent poker night score of 7 tourney buyins. I have some semblance of a starter cash bankroll, which I will hopefully continue to build steadily at the homegames, and get out to the local cardroom for some serious work when the time is right.

As SNGs go, I've just been getting murdered. After a 9 day break for no real reason other than I didn't have the opportunity to play, I played 6 SNGs tonight, ranging from $1.20 to $11, and didn't cash in one. The comments section on my tracking spreadsheet for my SNGs in the month of March is just littered with stories of brutal suckouts and the inability to win a coin flip. In 36 SNGs in March, I've cashed 13 times, which overall *could* not be the end of the world if I'm winning, but with only 2 wins it makes for no chance at being anywhere close to profitable. I feel like I should probably be cashing in at least half of my SNGs, if not like 60-75%, and winning probably 1 out of 4 or 5. Is that pretty reasonable expectations? High? Low? Anyway, I'm getting my chips in in great shape a LOT and taking sick beats, and getting into flip situations when I should be getting into flip situations, and it feels like 85/15 villian.

Its certainly not fun, especially tonight when I haven't played for a while, I was excited to play and play well, did so and got brutalized, and at this point I'm completely brow beaten and despising the game and have to go to bed pissed off.

I'd sure love to be taking some shots at like Sunday Million satellites to pad the T$, and maybe even have a go at some WSOP sats, but I'm running so bad right now I wouldn't stand a chance, plus I'm in the neighborhood of bankroll challenged and just trying to keep my head above water. Wish I could run good for more than a couple hours or days at a time, because I sure can run bad for weeks without any effort whatsoever.

Live is currently my biggest earner (which is no surprise considering my micro stakes online), followed by MTTs thanks to that $150 sat score in February and my deepish runs in those big field tourneys. I'm also showing a small profit in online cash, which I haven't played in quite a while because its a real pain in the ass to track. :-) Bringing up the rear, I'm a loser in SNGs thanks to a current skid and a nasty run back in mid-Feb. And I'm also down a fair amount for the Double Shootouts I've played. Profitable in 3 out of 5 ain't bad...right?? :-\

Ok, I think that's plenty of all that. Just wanted to check in and let everyone know I'm not dead. As they say, may all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.

Steady Improvement

2008-02-25T10:47:00.004-06:00

Sorry its been a while since I posted, but I was pretty damn busy at work last week, and I played a lot of poker otherwise.

Incidentally, I was supposed to make the trip over to the WSOP-C event at Council Bluffs today with my brother-in-law, but due to some dicey weather forecasted we decided seeing a handfull of pros and the buffet probably wasn't worth the possibility of doubling our time on the road. So I guess we'll hope it comes back next year and maybe we can go out then. In the mean time we'll use the day of vacation for something like the first nice day (if it ever comes), or another pokery related activity.

So let me start with last weekend (2/16-17).

As is much of anything with me, this was a rollercoaster. We had no plans for the weekend, so I wanted to work in as much poker as I could. After a nice first place score in an $11 SNG Saturday morning, I started to look toward some sort of nice guarantee tourney for later Saturday night. First of all, I'm surprised that Stars doesn't have better lower stakes guarantee tourneys about every hour after 8:00, but I guess I don't run a poker room, so I'm sure they have some sort of good reason. After seeing that there wasn't much in my range past the $11 20k guarantee at 6:00, I found the daily 50k I think it was, with a $162 buyin, and went after that. I made some decent progress in a $3+R+A turbo sat, making it through the hour with my initial buyin and then taking advantage of the addon. Yeah, I'm that donk in the rebuys who sits and waits for a big hand to bust the serial rebuyers. So sue me. I despise rebuys, and nothing gives me more pleasure than playing tight and making it through with no rebuys. At any rate, I bombed out at some point in the 2nd hour. Well not too long after that I got into the $11+R+A turbo sat, this time with my bankroll challenges prohibiting me from any rebuying or addding on no matter what. And I'll be damned if I didn't get myself a seat. But then I got to thinking...geez...I just spent $17 to win $162 for a shot at one tourney that I may or may not cash in...would it really be wise to spend it, or would it be better spent for 29 $5 tourneys or 15 $11 tourneys? Not to mention the kick in the pants it gave my measly bankroll. Its a different story if you can't use the T$ for SNGs, but since I could, it was a pretty easy choice to unregister instead of taking the shot in the 50k. So it was back to some grinding away at SNGs, not to mentioned quite a piqued interest in the value of satellites.

So...lets have a go at this $10 Double Shootout to the Sunday Million, shall we? A SNG with 15 minute blinds?! Count me in! It didn't fill, so I think we ended up with like 8 at our table. And I didn't have a whole lot of trouble winning it. Half the players played like they were in a turbo, let alone a winner take all SNG w/15 minute blinds. I steadily chipped up, and another guy was kind of running over the table but wasn't showing any real prowess as a player, and we ended up heads up with big stacks and moderate blinds, and my confidence and comfort level VERY high. The heads up match didn't actually last as long as I expected, as I rather quickly got a spot to double, then made pretty quick work of him. He cursed me in the chatbox before he left. It was all surprisingly easy considering there were $215 prizes on the line.

Moving on to the final table, we were paying 4 spots, with three seats and some chopped liver to spare. I was VERY confident in my ability to make top 3. Sparing the details, I got 4th. We went into the money with me as the short stack, struggling the whole way, but confident that my chance would come. And boy did it. I found AKo and open jammed more than 10x from the button, because I knew the BB was just as likely to call as he was to fold. And call he did...w/10 7 off, and caught a card. $18 for me...$215 for everyone else. So wrong.

It was at that point that I should've stopped playing. My balance stood around the $220 mark, more than 3x where it started at that morning, I'd had an amazing day, and had a whole other day ahead of me. But how could I stop on that AK vs 10 7 atrocity?! It must be avenged! So I donked off $60, getting unlucky, and moreso, probably playing some of the worst poker I'd played in a while. Passive when I shouldn't have been passive, aggressive when I shouldn't have been aggressive, expecting to win...just about every way you could play badly. But I also got REALLY unlucky on more than one occasion. Anyway, before calling it quits I played 1 $22 SNG (bubbled), and 5 more $11 SNGs, getting 8th and 9th in two of them, cashing once in third place in total. Spewing.

Sunday I looked to get things back on track, and also went after a Sunday Million seat in two different formats at the worst time to try and sat in...the day of (some may say the best time...I disagree). Not only had the AK vs 10 7 hand tilted me, but it was also the doom switch for me @ Stars. Sunday I cashed in 2 out of 9 ($11) SNGs, and didn't even come close in an $8 Turbo DS and $11+R Turbo to the Sunday Million. In the midst of a streak where I'd cashed in 7 of my last 28 SNGs, I shut 'er down with $114 and didn't play the whole week.

Ok, so I sorta lied. I played live on Wednesday night for a couple hours and took $40 off a 1/2 table. It was one of those tables where you wish you could sit for 6-8 hours and just let all the chips come your way because the players were so eager to get them out of their stacks, but I had a co-worker in from Portland that I was there to hang out with plus work the next day...so looking for an opportunity to leave, I let some guy chuck chips at a pot as I called him down w/AA the whole way, and took my $40 and left.

This past weekend also saw plenty of opportunity for me to play, a moderate recovery, and some encouraging results. After refocusing and getting back on track, I cashed in 4 out of 8 SNGs, coming out moderately ahead, but perhaps moreso important in my journey towards bankroll management and growing as a player, I dropped down a level prematurely just incase I was still running bad. But my crowning achievement for this weekend was getting 127th out of 3767 in yesterday's $5k guarantee at noon. The tourney was very well rounded in that I stuck to my style, tried not to get discouraged, and just kept persevering.

In the early going I was completely card dead, not seriously playing a hand in the first hour. As the lack of any playable cards continued, I managed to find hands and double to the average two different times when I got to push & pray mode. Then after another double up to survive, I got my money in bad w/TP,TK against an overpair. I needed an A or 9 to survive, got my 9 on the river, and doubled through the newly seated big stack at our table, and suddenly I found myself to be table captain with twice the average stack, and in 60th or so as we approached the bubble. The next hour and a half or so was spent looking to pick up pots, and I did so successfully, scooping several times to keep my stack steady against the high blinds, but also having to fold to some re-raises. Then, as the average again approached and started to pass my stack (although I still had 20-25 big blinds), I went on a rush which right now I can't even recall, and suddenly saw my stack skyrocket to 100k and around 20th place out of about 250 remaining. Still a lot of work to be done, of course.

A while after I had amassed this stack, I was moved to a different table for the first time, which proved to be trouble for me. I was at a table where I was fortunate enough to get a lot of chips, but overall it was a very tight/passive table with a lot of average stacks, where the average/big stacks pretty much stayed away from each other, a good raise would generally pick up pots or get you all-in against a shorty, and we all just kinda took turns going at pots. There wasn't a lot of chips moving onto or off of the table, and it was all just very systematic. I was also the significant chip leader and could be content to sit and pick off pots as I saw fit. The new table I was moved to had a couple of other big stacks, a lot more active players, and fewer real short stacks.

I'd been there a while, but I wasn't fully adjusted to the table yet when I went after a pot from middle position w/A10. Someone behind me jammed another 30k or so on top, and I made a relatively easy call and lost to AK. Looking back, it was actually a pretty easy fold based on a timing tell with his raise, and aside from a pretty terrible play overall, the catalyst for my impending downfall. So with a stack of 60-some thousand now, just below average, and blinds at 2k/4k/200, as I do, I started to get antsy. And I made another mistake. Facing a pretty standard LP raise and a call in the SB, I called w/Q9s getting around 3:1 in the big blind. Flop comes 9-high. SB jams his 36k or so, I instantly re-jam, and the original raiser thinks forever and tosses his 24k into the pot as well. In a little bit of a setup hand, SB shows 99, I show my monster TP, decent kicker, and original raiser shows KK. I'm not sure how I get away from that hand, though, without chucking it preflop. And I'm not sure if my preflop call was right or not... So at this point I'm down to like 15k and on life support. I did manage to take someone out and essentially double on the next hand with two live cards against at least one over, and then I jammed on the button again w/56h. I actually flopped a monster open-ender w/a flush draw, plus the fives and sixes were still good. The turn was a 10, which left me needing a heart, 4, or 9. River bricked, and I'm done in 127th.

So for the first time in a cash MTT, I sniffed real money for a while. If I can fold A10 to the 30k re-raise, maintain my patience, continue to feel out the table before getting involved, and wait for my spots with a strong stack, this story may have a different ending. I just started to get nervous when I was switched to a table with stacks as big or bigger than mine and would be forced to refocus and start playing poker again, and hadn't adjusted to the table yet when I tried to get in the mix. Another lesson learned for next time. The top 4% finish paid a disappointing $24.49, but when I'm eventually making final table and top 3 money, I'm gonna be happy that everyone else is getting scraps, right? ;-)

After that I wanted to have another go at a DS to the Sunday Million, and after I struggled early, I finally found some opportunities to get in the mix, and got down to three at my first table. I had a feel for the players, and looking them up on Sharkscope confirmed my read on both. One was a strong, 4 figure winning player, who had gotten to the big stack with strong, assertive play and big hands, and the other, a total lucksack donk who was all over the place and had sucked out on just me twice already. In the end, the donk called my 9x push from the button w/A5o in the big blind. I actually held A4 and flopped 2 pair on a 10 4 A flop, but the turn was a 10. With a zillion outs to chop, the river was a freaking THREE, and I'm busted. All I'd shown down was strong hands, and this guy calls me w/A5o. Unbelievable. With that DS full, the whole final table would've made at least $35, with the top 4 getting seats. I will be mixing these tourneys in quite frequently, because it seems like a nice way to pick up $215 on an $11.70 investment.

While Stars may not have a satelliting format like Full Tilt is famous for with the $26 and $75 tokens and your ability to pretty much get to whatever you're after with those tokens, their T$ setup really gives you a lot more versatility, because you can satellite for x amount of T$ and use them for any of Stars' varying tournament buyins...or even SNGs, to more readily turn them into cash. Brilliant.

Ok, well this has been another doozie, so its time for me to quit. Thanks to anyone who stopped by to read. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Premium Hands on the Bubble, on a Short Stack

2008-02-13T08:31:00.006-06:00

In response to my last post, AnguilA left me some great feedback on my live final table run on Sunday. Specifically related to the topic in the title, he says the following:

"...getting a premium hand like AK near the bubble you have to go for the double up for sure. The money in every tournament is at the top, and that's what you have to aim for every time you sit down to play. If you bust in the bubble, well that's poker, but you would have had a chance to win instead of bleeding away..."

I have certainly read this sentiment over and over and over, and do have an understanding that this is an imperative mentality to have to be a successful poker player. Given the size of my stack, I'm sure he's right, but I swear I've also read in at least a handfull of places that you're folding about anything but AA on the bubble. Again, that probably doesn't go for a stack the size of mine.

I understand that I need to be shooting for the top and that busting on the bubble has to happen from time to time, and I also know that you can't be a successful player if the money means something to you. But when I'm trying to restart my live roll, the difference between walking out of there with $120 and walking out of there even is vast. In an online $5 or $10 tourney I'm going to the felt w/AK & AQ because the ROI for top money is ridiculous, but bottom money was very meaningful here, so I was willing to make some mistakes if it meant getting there.

Incidentally, the AK hand already saw 2 players all-in, with a big stack covering them. I folded it on the button to the three way action in front of me. And I would've lost to A7. The AQ hand I would have gotten a call from a priced in big stack who raised PF, and gotten in as a 70% fav.

I dunno...let me know if I absolutely have to get away from that mentality to be successful. Given the understanding that you *know* you're deviating from optimum strategy to reach a specific goal, can't these things be quantified from time to time, specifically in the case of attempting to build a bankroll and seeing an opportunity for profit?

I know its kind of a silly little topic, but I at least wanted to get feedback from anyone who felt like chiming in. Could be very valuable information to those of us who are bankroll challenged.

Live Poker is The Nuts

2008-02-11T08:40:00.000-06:00

Greetings loyal readers. I come to you with tales of my poker weekend. Every once in a while the wife is kind enough to let me cut loose and let poker take a priority. This weekend was one of those occurences.

The live action started out Thursday, at a home game, which, quite frankly, I hate. Its not even worth talking about because there was only 4 players (I can't stand tourney structures w/less than 6), and I wasn't in a good mental state because I busted the air dam on my truck turning into the driveway and hitting a pile of snow, plus the players are just plain donkeys. I know I'm supposed to salivate at this fact, but WTF am I supposed to do when a dude calls w/62s UTG and flops a boat against my pocket 8s? I led the action on the first two streets then managed to fold when he fired a big bet on the river. The buddy who brought me thought he hit the K or Q on the turn and river, but I said "Nah, he's had the 6 the whole time and been bleeding me", and then he shows me the flopped boat. I would've respected A6 a lot more, but 26? Gimme a break. Anyway, I had a decent stack for a while, but played too many suited aces and connectors when the blinds were too big, and ended up going out when I had J10 on a board of 8 9 10 7 x and same 62o dude had flopped the joint w/QJ. So I'm now stuck $80 in three visits to that game, and I'm not sure if I'll be making a return, although it will always bug me if I'm a loser in that soft game, so I'm sure I'll keep trying to get better and eventually make another appearance. The guys are good enough, they're just the most annoying poker players I've ever played live poker against.

Friday night was our standard poker night, and after going straight down in the first tourney and getting sucked out on in the 2nd, I persevered in the rebuy and turned a little profit for the night. Good times as usual, but I'm pretty sure I came off as a bit of a whiner. I was already in a bad mood because I had played 4 SNGs on the day and lost on horrendous suckouts in the first two and had less than stellar performance in the other two and took about a $30 hit to the online bankroll, but I'll have to apologize to those guys if I get a chance because even though I was bitchin' and moanin' mostly as a Hellmuthian/Matusowesque joke, I could definitely see where I came off as whiney. In the end the three tight guys cashed in the rebuy, so something was right in the poker world. :-)

Anyway, the real culmination in all of this was the trip to the casino on Sunday. They run a $60 tourney at noon on Sundays, and every once in a while a good buddy and I like to head over there and give it a run. We usually like to get there around 9 and play some cash action as a warmup and to get our line passes for the tourney (waiting in line is ghey), then hit the buffet when they close down the room to get ready for the tourney. So yesterday we made the pilgrimage, along with my brother-in-law, and another good friend from the regular monthly game.

I was on the fence as to whether to play 1/2 NL or 3/6 Limit. Rich said 1/2 or nothing, and I tended to err toward 1/2 myself because I haven't played any Limit since about June. But remember, my last two trips out there saw me losing my buyins to 2-outers, so you could understand why the thought of NL cash would make me nervous. After all, all I really wanted was to sit there long enough to get my line pass.

In the end we settled on 1/2, and they opened up a table where 4 of the 10 were those of us that came together. Initally I had a pretty big beef with this because obviously it limits the stacks you *really* want to put a dent in. At no point did we ever soft play each other, but you certainly want to avoid firing away at a friend's stack if you can. As it turns out, Chris (brother-in-law) doubled when he made aces full against a Q on a board of Q 10 10 A x. Rich took away almost two extra buyins taking people out with AA and KK, and showing down AA uncalled 3 more times. I won my tourney buyin and half a buffet when my AK made trip kings against K10, and I made trip 6s for a little pot. Unfortunately the fourth in the clan went broke not by the hand of any of us, but to have 4 of us sit down at an action packed table and not have to clash, but take about 3 buyins off the table is pretty fortunate. And I got a little 1/2 NL confidence back and was freerolling the tourney, which is a nice feeling.

As for the tourney, it breaks down into a story of three different hours.

Hour 1 - Settle In & See What You Can Do
During the first hour I played about 5 hands and won three of them. I hovered right around the 2k starting mark for most of the hour, and then managed to go to the break with 3200. Most of the hour I spent watching the other players and their tendencies, hands they were showing down (which were hard to come by for a while), and by the end of the hour I had an amazing feel for the table, and a realization that it was pretty weak, and with a few cards I could do some damage. I scooped a pot that was limped in 4 places when I turned a flush, and then also had a heads up pot where I raised PF w/AK and my continuation bet took it down. That kept me around the starting stack until near the end of the hour when I limped in early-mid position w/A10 suited. The flop came something like 5 10 8 rainbow, and the guy next to me bets 200 at it. I called the flop to see what developed in all the other called spots, and everyone else folded. The turn came 6, and this time he bet 600. I had probably 3 times that left, so I needed to stop here and decide just how much I liked my hand, because I needed to fold or play for my stack. He limped just like I did. Now he could have limped with a big pair, but would he? Probably not. He could've limped with a pocket pair and hit a set, but would he bet at it? So basically I've got him beat unless he has a straight or two pair. Which would mean he limped with 7 9, 7 4, 5 8, 8 10, 5 10, 5 6 (somewhat likely), 6 8, 6 10. So given the idea that realistically, unless he played bad preflop (with a big pair) or postflop (with a set), I'm really only afraid of 5 6, and if I'm giving him credit for anything, its K 10/Q 10/J 10, which I'm crushing and could get a call from. So I raised all-in and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't instacall. In fact, he folded, I showed him my A 10, he claimed AQ and flipped me the bird in good fun. Why all this over such a marginal hand? Because I did it. Normally that's a spot where I would rush to judgement and put him on crap with no real analysis and jam into a monster, or give him credit for a monster and fold the best hand. But I knew this was potentially a HUGE spot for me in this tourney and I broke it all down right there at the table. This is yet another step in my philosophical "growing as a poker player" journey, and as minor as it may seem, its significant to me.

Before the hour ended I did give away a double-up, though. With blinds at 75/150 I was sitting in the SB. 5th position makes a raise to 450, and I look down and find JJ. For most this is an automatic call, if not a raise, but for me, all I pictured was a marginal flop and me with no clue what to do. The raiser was a solid TAG and one of two at the table that I had noted to tread lightly around, and I didn't feel like tangoing, so I straight up folded. Flop comes J-high and he c-bets 700. So at the very least I'm making 1300 on that hand. I just struggle so bad with 1010/JJ and whether to raise in x position, how much to raise in x position, whether to call or raise a PF raise, and where I stand after a flop with overs, its definitely a couple of hands I need to focus on improving my play with. In the case of a rare live casino tournament, however, I'm happy to fold that JJ in that spot no matter what the flop...as long as it doesn't have a J. So that left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth going into the break, but overall I was pleased to be a little above average.

All four of us made it to the break. Rich and I hovering around 3k, and the other two down to 700. They both pushed and prayed in the first 20 mins and went broke, and Richard saw his way out of the room during the 2nd hour as well.

Hour 2 - The Rollercoaster Ride
Like I said, after the first hour I had a pretty good read on my entire table, and in hour two I was ready to take whatever the situations would give me. As it turns out, I didn't have to wait long to redeem myself from the JJ debacle, as less than one orbit into hour two I limped with 10s, flopped a set, got it all in, and managed to survive and stack a flush draw. I had him covered by 300, so that saw me to the 6k mark. After a little rush, including another bustout, I suppose I worked my way up somewhere around 9k. Right or wrong, I was trying not to focus too hard on the exact size of my stack. I feel like I am constantly aware of my chipstack and that I focus too much on what a specific play will do to it when it comes to making decisions, so I tried to stick with approximates, only counting exactly how much I had intermittantly, and when a decision hinged specifically on the number of chips I had. You could obviously argue that its a good idea to know exactly how many chips you have at all times, but I really think I take it to an unhealthy level and it negatively impacts my play, so I tried this philosophy. At any rate, at the peak of my chipstack I'm not 100% sure exactly where I stood, but it was at least 8k, maybe closer to 9, with the average around 3-4. So for the first time in my 4 shots at this tourney I really got to play for a while. And play I did. But then I got my hand slapped. I limped K10 in a blind, and on a flop of KKx, I checked. Mid-position fired at it, I put him all in, and his flush draw got home. I don't remember what he had, but it was two raggy suited cards. That was irritating. I think I had to put in about $2500 on top of his $800 or so original bet, so that was a pretty big blow to my stack. Then not too long after that I get someone all-in w/AJ vs A10 and he gets there, too. He had a pretty small stack, but it was significant enough to sting. Then after that in the 200/400 level I look down and find AK on the button and pump it 3x, and the guy next to me re-raises. This guy was a solid TAG who had been winning big pots with big hands, and I had to fold the AK. So, suddenly, 2/3 of the way through the 2nd hour the blinds and average were going up and my stack was down. And then, to add insult to injury, a table that I was very comfortable at broke, and I moved to the next table with about 4k in chips and blinds at 300/600. I couldn't find a spot to jam, and at the end of the 2nd hour I found myself at 2500 with blinds about to go to 500/1k, and 34 players left. I went and found Rich at the blackjack table and told him the news.

Hour 3 - From Last to Last
So with 2.5 big blinds and 34 players left, I pretty much needed a miracle. If not several. This is probably the hour that I should remember most, but unfortunately I can't tell you a lot about what happened because it was a whirlwind of looking for good cards, pushing & praying, watching the players remaining creep down, then jump down, then not move, then creep down, being down to 14 and hand-for-hand, folding AQs, folding AKo, and all of the sudden there was an all-in AA vs AQ, AQ doesn't improve, AA has him covered, and we're at the final table/in the money. I know I doubled up at least once, because I sucked out A7 vs. A9 (remember, you have to have at least one huge suckout to survive), and I'm pretty sure I doubled up at some other point in the hour, but I can't remember that hand if there was one. But the bottom line is my stack never crawled above 9k with blinds at 500/1k, 1k/2k, 1.5k/3k. A combination of HORRIBLE play by several opponents of varying stack size, a lot of luck, a few chances to scoop, a lot of luck, committed bubble play, and whole lotta luck saw me through to the money. Call it what you will, but I went from probably last or very close to it with 34 left to sliding into the final table, and that is a bonafide achievement.

In the end I played two hands at the final table. Got it in when I was in the big and only had another 500 behind w/J2 against J9 or something and we ended up splitting with two pair on the board. Oops. :-) Then I jammed w/A5 and a guy overjammed and smoked me w/A9. Was hoping to split there, too. I actually wasn't the first to bust, so I was hoping to stay alive one more player and make 2nd money level, but it was not to be.

So, if I get my stack up to 12k or so at a very weak table in the 2nd hour its a completely different tournament, but when I sat down w/2.5 big blinds and 34 players left and managed to survive and stumble onto the final table, I may not have given myself a chance to win, but I'm OK with that. If I pick up the AQ and AK that I folded with 15-20 players left I'm jamming them, but I like my folds when we're on the bubble and in hand-for-hand mode. It was obvious at that point that not a lot of these players understood final stages play, and with a little luck I could survive 4 more players. Last time I played I went out in 14th when I had enough chips to get to the final table and pushed w/K10 and ran into AK, and that plagued me for quite some time, so I was happy to have an opportunity to redeem myself on the bubble and come through successfully. Quite honestly, I was freerolling, and $120 addition to my live bankroll...well...GIVES ME A LIVE BANKROLL, so I'm thrilled with the way things turned out.

Incidentally, my record in that tourney is also pretty impressive. Out of an average of 120 players or so depending on how many alternates they get in, I've gotten 18th, 5th, 14th, and 9th. And the structure is pretty atrocious. At the 1.5k/3k level there was about 83 big blinds at the final table. Anyway, these consistent results make me feel good about my opportunity to get into a good, solid live tournament and perform. And someday that opportunity will come.

So I think that's probably plenty of words for this here entry. I'm gonna publish this thing and move on. Yesterday I started spreadsheets for my live play, online cash, online MTT, and online SNG, and I'm committing myself in 2008 to keeping records, blogging, analyzing myself (probably not to the degree that some do, but blogging period will help me), and getting even and becoming a lifetime winning player and staying that way. While I would've loved to have conquered that home game on Thursday, in the end I turned a profit in all the other live facets, so I can chalk this poker weekend up as successful, and look forward to continuing opportunity to keep headed in the right direction.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully things went your way over the weekend, too. I'll check back soon.

Super Hot

2008-02-04T15:21:00.000-06:00

A picture says a thousand words. Which is good, because then I don't have to type them and you don't have to read them...

That Recent Results list doesn't even show the full extent. I'm *at least* 9 of my last 10, if not better.

Life is good. Poker is fun. I never thought I'd see the day again.

Here's to hoping it continues. I've got a big poker week coming up this week, with a return appearance to a soft rebuy tourney home game (where I'm actually stuck 3 buy-ins in 2 visits) on Thursday, the monthly game Friday, and then a live MTT at the local casino on Sunday. Maybe...*just maybe*...I'm on a bonafide rush, or at least running statistically normal...*gasp*...and will be able to make something out of some great opportunities to play cards.

Not sure how much I'll play online this week since the wife is letting me out of the house three times in four days for cards, but I'll try and report in with anything noteable. Full Tilt sent me a $75 bonus, but I'm broke on the site, have to claim it by 11:59 tonight, and only have 10 days to clear it. Talk about horrible timing. So I'm sure I'll claim it and see what I can make of it somehow. Seriously, if anyone would accept a PayPal transfer for a Full Tilt transfer (I'm thinking like $55), I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks for the read. Hope all is well for everyone with eyes on these words!

Reflection

2008-01-30T09:30:00.000-06:00

So, looking back on last night's debacle, I have allowed myself some forgiveness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still disgusted and realize I played some of the worst poker the world's ever seen.

BUT...uncharted territory breeds mistakes.

I'd NEVER had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game, and instead of playing like that wasn't true, I played just like I'd never had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game. Last I knew I was on a rush, so of course I'm going to put someone all-in w/AK for 6k. Cuz I had that luxury. Next time I may think a little longer about it. By no means should I stop playing on a big stack, but in that spot *I'm* not the one who needs to make a move, so I need to think about if I want to potentially flip coins to the benefit of my opponent, or look at a flop and get it in the middle when I know I've got 'em.

My single biggest mistake was the resteal w/A5o. Some would argue that that's a perfect spot for the resteal, with a big stack and a VERY stealy looking situation, but for starters, the resteal is not a move I have spent a lot of time on, so in that spot I should let him have my 100 chips and pick a better time. Plus, all I was thinking about was picking off this guy's steal and how awesome I'd be and had NO plan for if he called or raised and how I'd be in deep shit.

I've never been in that kind of a dominating position, so of course I didn't know how to react. Every hand in this game provides an opportunity to learn, and sometimes its gonna be learning the hard way. Now next time I find myself fortunate enough to amass a big stack, I'll think about this disaster, and hopefully won't make the same mistakes.

Busting on the bubble was also a pretty bone-headed move that really irritates me. Not so much because after all that I could've gotten a refund and an opportunity to move past this and try again, but moreso because I could've made it 6 straight MTT cashes, which is a bonafide accomplishment. But at that point I'd already screwed up so bad, 1) who's surprised, and 2) what's one more huge mistake? To my credit, though, here I found myself in the SB again with the pot folded around to the button, who made a 3x raise, and I'm holding KJ. If I wanted to cash, its a relatively easy fold, but if I wanted to win, that's too good a situation not to get it all in the middle. He could have any 2 there. I miss my cashing streak, though.

So I still can't stop thinking about this, and won't be able to until I've avenged it, but I am allowing myself some forgiveness, because nobody can be expected to do something right the first time, and looking back I found myself in stunned disbelief when I saw the size of my stack and the fact that I was in 10th place out of 1k. In my mind, I'd already reached the pinnacle, and all I saw was the final table and a three to four figure payday. I checked out. Because I'd never been there, and even this point was an accomplishishment unlike any other I'd ever had. In reality, I still had about three hours of hard work left and over 900 people gunning for my chips, and my rush was over. I was really just getting started.

So this time I can forgive myself and learn a lesson. Next time, though...there are expectations that I intend to meet.

I am a Big, Fat, Stinkin' Donkey

2008-01-29T21:39:00.000-06:00

The title pretty much sums it up. Tonight was my chance, and I flat out blew in about as donkeriffic fashion as you can blow it.

So I got into the 20k at 6 Central like I had hoped. Things were going along decently...just picking up a few little pots and looking for a real hand. And then it came. I limped UTG with KQo, and then called a late position raise. I flopped open-ended and the third nut flush draw, and bet at it. I was raised, and took one off. I then turned broadway. Here I jammed, and villian used almost all of his time bank before he finally called w/QQ, drawing to 2 outs for a split. The K on the river made his gutshot, but made my flush, and here I found myself more than healthy with over 9k. From that point I catapulted unlike I've ever catapulted before, hitting probably the biggest rush of my life, and before I knew it, I was sitting on a 24k stack w/blinds at 100/200. Yes, 119 big blinds! And I was sitting in 10th out of 1k players left. My best position that early in an MTT ever, by far. And I thought, an opportunity nearly impossible for me to give away, given my tight tendencies.

Then just as quickly as I got there, the bottom dropped out.

There was a hand where UTG min-raised, and I had AK in the big blind, so I re-raised him all-in and his pocket pair held up. Down to 18k. But I'll make that play pretty much every time there. A short time later I was in the small blind and it folded around to the button, who made a stealy looking raise, like he had appared to be doing in position quite often. With A5o, I decided to put him to the test, and popped it 3x his raise on a pure resteal. He then jammed, and I was facing a call of 4k into a 12k pot. I didn't see how I could fold, but I'm pretty sure this is a 3:1 call you have to get away from. He showed 9s, flopped a set, and now I'm down to 10k. A while after that I was sitting on QQ in the small blind. Someone min-raises to 800 from EP. Queens have been brutal to me lately, so proceeding cautiously, I just call in the small blind. Big blind then jams his 2500, EP calls, then I don't see any options other than to rejam in my spot and try to get heads up. I know that I'm usually behind someone here, but with QQ on a pathetic stack with about 6k already in the pot, I don't see myself folding there a lot. Maybe I need to. Thankfully, EP folded, but BB has KK, and now I am at just over 10x BBs. From 119. To 10.

So a bit after this we go into the 2nd break and are approaching the bubble. I make a couple of post-break jams that aren't called, and as we rapidly approach the bubble I am actually finding myself in comfortable position to cash. Who would have thought...after all this, I'm gonna make $4 and keep my cashing streak in tact. Oh, but wait. I had more horrible poker to play. With blinds having just changed to 400/800/75, I find myself in the small blind w/KJo. And yet again, I'm faced with a folded pot to the button, who raises. Instead of just folding to the money, I still have dillusional thoughts of winning, and I jam my KJo. Button calls with A5o (Ironically, the hand I donked off half my stack to him earlier with) and proceeds to end up with queens full of aces.

I go home in 527th out of 3k, a mere 14 spots short of the money. And to further illustrate just how deplorable my fall from grace was, the average stack was still not yet at 24k. If I'd have just locked it down, I'd have still been living large.

Tell me that is not THE MOST pathetic display of poker you have ever had the gut wrenching torture of hearing about. I've been sick to my stomach ever since I called an all-in w/A5o and knew that something in my poker playing psyche had short-circuted.

In the end I broke even on the night with a couple of SNG cashes so I may be able to get to sleep tonight, but to think of the missed opportunity and what might have been is going to haunt me for some time to come. This was the chance I've been playing 3+ years for, and I gave it all away.

This is my attempt to cleanse, though. Its all out here in the open, nothing about it can be changed now, and I just have to get back in the tourney and try again and do better next time. Because there is a next time. I just may have to persevere a while to get back there.

G'night.

(Poker)Stars Aligning??

2008-01-29T09:50:00.000-06:00

Greetings, fellow degenerates. I am back yet again to test the blogging waters and tempt fate by reporting on just how the virtual felt is treating me.

But first, I have to welcome my very first official sponsor. The unbelievably kind folks at FlopTurnRiver.com have put their faith in my little blog to help grow their business, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to see to it that that happens. The site has a RIDICULOUS amount of poker content that is valuable whether you've been playing for 10 years or 10 minutes. They've got poker news, forums, strategy, blogs, reviews, bonus codes, a chat room, and info on tools, supplies, books, and a billion other things. Literally I have got to believe anything, or at the very least links to anything you could ever need as a poker player. Yeah, maybe I'm a sellout shill now, but for a blogger who needs a kick in the pants in multiple ways, its nice to get an email from a reputable site such as FlopTurnRiver who wants to make an investment in you as a blogger, and inherently as a player. Thanks to Tyson and the whole crew over there. I'll do my best.

Now, how about some poker?

I feel like I've gotten a fresh start at PokerStars, and I feel like I've gotten a fresh start with my blog, which means I'm going to step out on the edge, throw caution to the wind, and just...f*cking...blog.

Things continue to go well for me at Stars. I was a little scared for a while because yet again I had a whole day off to play poker on 1/21, and yet again, I played break even/losing poker. I think I go into poker overload when I have those kinds of opportunities, though. I get this mentality like "well you've got all day to win, lets mix things up and play some all or nothing poker", then all of the sudden its into the afternoon and you're chasing the losses you've accumulated. And I realize, when it comes to SNGs, there's absolutely no reason to play any differently at any time. All you can do is win or lose a little faster, but there's really no good argument for playing faster if you have a strategy that works. So I swear, next time I have this opportunity, I'm gonna stick to what works and hope for the best.

It was kinda funny, though. My plan for the day was to get up with my wife, who didn't have the day off, and make and eat a good breakfast, get a roast in the crock pot for supper, work out, and then poker it up. Well, the french toast wasn't really sitting right, so I decided I'd work out later. And then by the time the 5k started up @ noon and I had intentions of running deep, I was of the mindset "well, I can get away with not working out today". Turns out PokerStars is an advocate of my health, because at about 3:00 I got a 5 minute cold-decking that busted my 13 or so big blind stack out of the 5k in 2 hands holding KJ vs KQ and K9 vs KJ, and busted me on the bubble of the SNG I was playing w/AK vs A4. He hit trip 4s. So that was PokerStars way of telling me to get my ass on the ellyptical machine. And I did.

So after that day, I had to refocus, and have had some outstanding results. I played three SNGs last Thursday. The first was a 5.50 single table where I saw my QQ get beat by AJ early, and then as I was about to double into good shape approaching the bubble my AA fell to QQ when he rivered his set. Not a good start. But I saddled up to another 5.50 single table and won it, and as I played those two I played a 1.20 two table SNG and took 2nd there. So overall very positive results for that night and I was back in business.

Only other opportunity I've had to play since then was on Sunday morning, where I came from a 450 stack @ 50/100 blinds to win a 5.50 single table SNG. This was probably my proudest poker accomplisment in recent history, although it kinda took care of itself. I actually got to the short stack by making a pretty marginal play losing to AJ w/KJ on a J-high board. Villian raised on the short stack UTG, and I was in the SB. I didn't have him on a high pocket pair and wanted to give him enough credit to expect a raise from AK/AQ/KQs and mid-high pocket pairs. Obviously at this level AJ is a possibility, but I feel like it was more of a cold deck than anything. Anyway, that put me on the short stack and within a few minutes/orbits I'd be looking for a spot to jam. I eventually did jam with a 70/30 advantage, but lost to a guy who had gotten shorter than me, thus I found myself on the 450 stack. I promptly picked up KK and doubled, then I got my suckout revenge when A4 outran AJ, and all of the sudden I was relatively healthy. I bullied the bubble as best I could, and before long we found ourselves in the money @ about 5k to 5k to 3.5k. Not too long into the money battle, with blinds at 200/400/25, I called a 3x raise in the big blind from the short stack/SB w/KQc. Flop came all clubs and he jammed into my 2nd nuts w/TP, 2nd kicker. That won't cut it. So with more than 30 big blinds still in play I was ready for a relatively extensive heads up match. Except that <10 hands in I flopped 7s full holding 76o and he bet 1200, 1600, and all-in on each of the streets. So twice I flop the 2nd nuts, and twice they're betting into me. I haven't had luck like that in MONTHS. Its nice to be having fun playing poker again.

One final note, I've cashed in the last 5 MTTs I've played! I played the 5k guarantee on 1/13 and 1/21 and doubled my money in both (hey, a cash is a cash), and of course I wouldn't even have a bankroll on Stars if it weren't for cashing in those two Negreanu freerolls back in December. This, although the actual winnings is nothing to write home about, is a REMARKABLE accomplishment for me. My biggest hurdle is that I still struggle through the middle stages of MTTs. I've been fortunate to be able to amass some chips early in most cases which generally is enough to have me limping through the bubble, but then once the bubble bursts I'm pretty much always in push or fold mode. I need to work through figuring out spots in the middle stages of tourneys to pick up chips without having hands. I seem to run into a lot of big stacks that will risk a lot of chips to float and try to grow their stacks even more. I don't know if I need to find 2nd and 3rd bullets when I have a hand and miss or am in position or just be more focused on sniffing out spots to steal and maintain or grow my stack that way. Regardless, I've had a real MTT itch lately, so its been nice to get into MTTs and have some success. I'm thinking about playing my first $11k Guarantee tonight @ 6 Central, but that's technically still just outside my bankroll, so we'll see what I decide.

So, overall, Stars is treating me well. I am adequately bankrolled for $5.50 SNGs, and just shy of breaking back through to the $11 level. I feel like I'm playing really well. I'm distinctly noticing spots where in a past poker playing life I would've gone broke but now I'm getting away, or in the past I'd have left chips in the middle where now I get them in my stack, and in my opinion these are the two fundamental mountains to climb to move from weak/tight to tight/aggressive. Its about giving up a good hand when its not the best hand and not getting married to it, and firing at pots when you don't always have the best hand and picking up orphaned chips. So I'm feeling good. I'll continue to work hard on fine tuning these two skills, and I'm also going to look to play more deep stack MTTs and go after that big score that I'm missing, continue to work on cash (I'm a pretty decent winner over the past few weeks at .01/.02 NL :-) ), and figure out a way to get some money back on Full Tilt. Would anybody be willing to accept a PayPal transfer in exchange for a transfer on Full Tilt? I know I *can* get money on the site, but I'd prefer to not actually break the law if I don't have to.

I think that's plenty for today. Again, welcome and thank you to FlopTurnRiver.com, and hope the cards are treating everyone reading this well!

Here's the Scoop

2008-01-15T15:34:00.000-06:00

Heyo. I apologize to my (three) loyal blog readers for lack of posts.

In this post I come clean. I have a dirty little secret. Ok, that sounds kinda perverted. I have a little bit of a shameful secret.

I am superstitious. Or however you spell it.

At any rate, my lack of posting isn't due to lack of hands, lack of time, or even necessarily lack of success. It has to do with the fact that it seems like every time I post about running good, some sort of funked up poker karma whoops my ass at the tables. If you'll notice, I tread very lightly when I talk about success because I don't want to sound like I'm bragging. I try and be humble as I can be, as if to hide from this blogwatching gremlin who works for the RNGs at the poker sites that will skew them out of my favor at the very hint of good fortune, confidence, or pride. And yet any time I speak even a little about success, things turn upside down for me. And I guess I am just superstitious (crazy) enough to think that somehow this has an impact on my results, and therefore I'm in this blogging vicious circle where I don't feel like posting when I'm running bad, and I don't wanna post when I'm running good for fear of ruining it. Its fun living in my head, folks.

So for the time being, I wanted to notify you all that I am officially on hiatus until this little poker hobby of mine decides to get off the rollercoaster and go one way or the other. I guess one thing's for sure, I won't be getting off the blogger Z-list for quite some time. Oh, well...

Here's the short answer. I'm all but broke at Full Tilt. I have no useable amount of cash (like .92 or something), and I have like 300-some Full Tilt points that I will probably try and parlay into something at some point, but I mean come on...how likely is it that I'll do anything with them? So, simply because I would like to play at Full Tilt and be earning rakeback if I can, I have a deal with my brother-in-law to transfer me the difference between what I have and a $2.25 SNG out of his measly bankroll, and in exchange, I'll send him enough on PokerStars, where *he* doesn't have any money, for a $1.20 SNG or two. But he plays about once a month, so who knows when this little deal will actually come to fruition. At any rate, I'm not horribly optimistic about success at Full Tilt anytime soon, because as you know I haven't been able to do one thing right at that site since May.

As far as PokerStars, I love playing at PokerStars on my Mac, and that is where I'm doing my playing these days. Turns out I love the site. I always liked Full Tilt because it was more visually appealing to me from the interface to the logo to the gear worn on TV, and all the big name pros they had in their stable. So from a marketing standpoint, they had me hook, line, and sinker. Damn you, marketing gurus!! Turns out PokerStars seems to be more focused on game quality and is much more of a poker player's poker site. Their SNG structure absolutely thumps that of Full Tilt (and of course you know I'd like to think SNGs are where I'm known to be cutting my teeth), and even the .01/.02 NL cash games seem to play astoundingly straight up, and doesn't consist of 7 all-ins every hand like you'd expect. Turns out the game choice, structure, and opponent quality at PokerStars suit me way better. Lets just not think about how if I were *really* a good player I'd be able to adjust my strategy to win at Full Tilt. We'll save that for when I have a bankroll with some wiggle room in it.

At any rate, about the only thing I think Full Tilt has on PokerStars is their top notch tourney satelliting setup. In the little research I'm done, Stars only seems to have satellites to the Sunday Million and their other big tournaments, whereas Full Tilt has a killer thing going with basing a lot of what they do around the ability to earn and use the $26 and $75 token to do almost anything you could ever want. Of course, the ideal setup would be to have money on both, but I'll worry about crossing that bridge when...well...when I have the materials to build it.

So, for now I am playing on my $3.50 in freeroll winnings at PokerStars and working on my own little Chris Ferguson challenge, and I'll just say this...I have more than $3.50, and less than Chris Ferguson. And I feel like I'm playing really, really well.

Now there goes the little gremlin off to report me to the PokerStars RNG. *sigh*

So thank you to those of you that have checked in on me to make sure I was still alive. I am. I'm still playing, I'm still working hard, and I'm still enjoying the turn of every card. Its just that whether I'm winning or losing, I'm currently not posting. I'll do my best to keep checking in, but until I feel like I can't pop open PokerStars and lose my bankroll in a day or less, expect my posting to be sparse. Because I'm just that looney.

Best of luck to all of you, and thanks again for your thoughts and patronage!

PokerStars for Mac!

2007-12-29T17:25:00.001-06:00

For anyone not aware, PokerStars now has a native client for the Mac.

The timing on this couldn't be more perfect for me, considering...
A) I'm a Mac diehard.
B) I just went broke on Full Tilt yesterday until my next rakeback payment, and wasn't looking forward to booting my MacBook Pro into XP to play PokerStars on my Mac.

So thanks, PokerStars, you've really been there for me lately.

Oh...I'm still running horrible.

Happy Holidays!

Winning Week: The Third

2007-11-19T14:16:00.000-06:00

Yep, you read that right. I posted my third straight winning week, and although it wasn't huge, when your bankroll is as small as mine, even a small win is a huge percentage bankroll improvement.

Not a whole lot to report details-wise. I think I mostly just played on Wednesday and Thursday, and by the time I was done w/my SNGs I found my bankroll having improved $5 to $29.

I also cashed in that Negreanu Bahamas PokerStars freeroll for the third straight week, coming in 942nd/10k for another $1. I actually had aspirations in this one of going deep and earning the bid to round 2 by making the top 200, spending most of the tourney in 200-400th range after some early good fortune. I was sitting just outside of the top 200 and was settling in to really make a push when I got my money in with a flopped bottom 2 pair against top pair, only to have the board pair on the river and send me packing a lot earlier than I expected. But I had cashed, and I was tired, so this was probably the best I've taken a bad beat in months. I find my PokerStars bankroll at $3.50 now and have 2 more weeks of this freeroll to continue to try and improve upon that and maybe even make round 2 one of these times.

As a sidenote, I'm not sure when freerolls got easy. I mean I used to dread the minefield that is a freeroll, but now its very systematic to me. I know the kind of player I'm up against, I know what kind of cards they're looking to play, and I can generally figure out where I'm at based on the basics like board texture and betting patterns. Really all there is to a freeroll is dictating the action and not doing a lot of calling, getting in cheap and looking to hit big, or getting a lot of chips in with a good holding and hoping you hold up. The major difference from a (decent) buyin tournament being that there isn't going to be a lot of play after the flop, so you pretty much need to decide if you're going the distance by the flop. I presume in my previous freeroll experience I was one of those players that I now have a good feel for, and I think generally I would find myself in too many pots with too many chips, and not dictating the action like I try and do now. So I guess it speaks to my study and practice, which its great to be able to reflect on the improvements I've made. If someone ever would've asked me if I thought I could get in the top 10% three massive freerolls in a row, I surely would've chuckled at the prospect. But it looks like I've done just that!

I know my usual weekly report has been Thursday to Thursday, but since its Monday, I have lots more poker to talk about since Thursday. Friday, with $29 in my account and officially above my 10x buyin range for SNGs (I know, I know, I should really wait until I actually get to $55 to move up), I hopped into a $5 SNG for the first time in a long time. But despite making it to $27 and $29 a handfull of times since my May/June bankroll collapse, I hadn't ever cashed at the next level. Yeah, we're talking 6 months here. But I'm happy to report that I took 2nd and suddenly my bankroll had cracked the $30 mark! I believe after another SNG loss and a 3rd place, I ended up Friday afternoon at $34. Holy sh*t!

Friday night was poker night at my buddy's place, and it was a blast as usual. In the first tourney I got out to a quick start, but was in a bit of a mood and played way too many hands, finding myself on the outside looking in when all was said and done. I also had to take a little bathroom break, and with our blind structure at this particular game, you can't afford to be missing hands. Turns out they kept track of my hands in my absence, and I would've doubled up with a flush against top 2 or something like that. Oh, well. When you gotta go, you gotta go. In the 2nd tourney I took 3rd/11 and won 3 buyins, so assuming I didn't rebuy in the third tourney I had officially broken even. Our third and final tourney of the night we do rebuys for the first 3 blind levels, and I found myself back in a feisty mood, as do most people in a rebuy. Anyway, I had chipped up pretty well early with a couple of big hands, but then lost probably 1/3 of my stack dicking around in a hand I didn't belong. So I was a little tilted because I would've been set to go with the stack I had, but I was still above the original starting stack. I found myself in the big blind with blinds at 100/200 and about 2500 chips. UTG+1, who is kind of a weak/tight, but smart, solid player makes it 600 to go. It folds around to me, and I look down and find 72o. Now I'm not big into the whole hammer thing, but I just got an inkling that getting this particular hand at this particular time was a bit of a sign. If I doubled up here, I could likely cruise to the money, and if I went broke, I could rebuy and grind it out. Long story short, I thought about it for a couple of minutes, really felt like I could get him to fold, or worst case scenario I had 2 live cards, and I pushed all-in. My opponent insta-called, which scared the crap outta me, but I showed him my holding, he showed me a King, I asked if he had another, he said no, and indeed I had 2 live cards. The door card was a 7, he didn't improve, and I had stacked him. You know, I pride myself on playing a strong TAG game, doing all the right things, and being rewarded for it. But I have to admit, it felt kinda good to let my hair down, make an idiotic play, and be rewarded for it in the end. I NEVER would do it if the stakes were higher or if it was legitimately for my tournament life, but in a $5 rebuy, why the hell not take a shot when you think you've got 2 live cards and the chance to show down 72o for stacks?? But if you're reading this, I'm really sorry Josh. It was nothing personal (except for the awesome read I got on you), and you have all right to come after me and get me back. ;-) Anyway, I went on to cash in the last money spot, turned a $10 profit on the night, and had a blast, so there ain't nothing wrong with that. Oh, and I hit quads (3 on the board), and a straight flush! So that was cool...

I played a handfull of SNGs yesterday, and sparing the drama, I shut down Full Tilt with a bankroll over $54. That's about a 133% bankroll improvement since my starting point on Wednesday. Hands are holding up, draws are getting there, plays are working, and I'll be damned if I'm not even running a little hot. Life is...much better. But I'm not gonna claim to be out of the woods yet.

In an interesting occurence yesterday, it was getting to be a little after 6:30 and I needed to leave by 7:40 or so go to play basketball, so I needed to play a SNG that I could finish in under and hour and wouldn't kill me if I had to bow out. Most would think turbo, but I'm still not that huge of a fan. So $2.25 6-max, here I come. Seven minutes and 10 hands after we started this SNG, I was in the money/heads up. It was remarkable. I had taken someone out with a set of 10s vs K10 on a 10-high flop, and the rest of the table had been cleaned up by my opponent. I don't know how all of them played out, but I saw him flop a set vs 2 pair, and get it all in w/AK vs KQ on a K-high flop. I'll have to look up the other one and post it. Anyway, we were heads up with 20/40 blinds, and proceeded to grind it out. Honestly I got bored pretty quickly and was just happy to cash, so after being worn down to $1800 or so, I was looking for a spot to get my money in decent. Then I made a flush and doubled. Then I picked up KK and limped on the button. Dude JAMS the big stack, and I insta-call. He shows KxQd and I am 5 cards from doubling to the chip lead. Flop comes Q-high, all diamonds. I dodge his 1.2 million outs on the turn, but the river wasn't as kind, bringing him a third Q. I suppose I deserved it for being indifferent about the outcome. If I was really into the poker I would've loved to have grinded it out from 20/40 on, but honestly I just wanted to see some more hands and see if I could grind out another little cash, and wasn't interested in playing in a $2.25 SNG with 225 big blinds in play. Regardless, to have the first 4 go out in 10 hands and 7 minutes was certainly unlike anything I'd seen before, nor will likely ever see again.

Ok, well that's more than enough for today. Hopefully I didn't bore you too badly. Everyone have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving if I don't make it back here.

Slow & Steady

2007-11-08T22:39:00.001-06:00

Well I'm back again for my weekly update. Still didn't get too many chances to play this week, but I had positive results when I did, so that's of course ridiculously encouraging.

I played a handfull of SNGs on Sunday and started out in true nose dive form, but by the end of my session had turned things around and finished ahead a buck or two from where I started. I then got to play a couple of SNGs on Tuesday and took 2nd in both. The interesting phenominon that I faced in these two sessions was my ability to get to heads up, outplay my opponent, but just get destroyed by the deck. Some of the stuff I saw was pretty gut wrenching, but I'm not about to complain. Second place = profit, and profit = good. By the end of Tuesday I saw my Full Tilt account claw its way above $20. With a little rakeback deposit today, I'm sitting on what feels like a fortune at over $24. Now I just need to keep things headed in that direction.

Then tonight I decided to take this week's shot at that PokerStars Play in the Bahamas with Daniel Negreanu freeroll like I talked about in my last post. Having finished 730th out of 10,000 last week, my expectations for dodging this freeroll mine field two weeks in a row were not high. But amazingly, like clockwork, after a little over an hour and a half of some decent poker, the bubble burst, and my PokerStars account was on its way toward being another dollar richer. Incidentally, I busted from the tourney just now as I was working on this post. I was on a short stack (6k w/blinds at 750/1500/150) and jammed w/44 UTG, got called in two spots, and lost. And while I thought I made a major mistake busting when on the next hand I could've found myself in the next payout level (wasn't being vigilant enough of tourney situation), turns out the gods smiled down on me and I was just one of at least 13 bubble hand busters, managed to sneak in under the bubble, and earned myself an additional $.50 in 598th/10,000 (603 was the cutoff). So geez...two profitable weeks in a row, *and* something goes my way despite a major mistake? Pretty humbling.

So...the ol' PokerStars account has gone from $0 to $2.50 thanks to a couple of deep freeroll runs, and whether I continue to have this success in the next 3 weeks or not, its been fun to go deep and plant the seed for my own personal Ferguson-esque accomplishment. Even if I had made the top 200 and advanced to the next level these past couple of weeks, I wouldn't have been able to play the 2nd level tourney on Saturday, but in the coming three weeks I should have the Saturdays available, so while I'll certainly be focusing on continuing to cash, I'll be putting a little extra effort toward gearing for that top 200 and trying to do something *really* remarkable. Regardless, despite having a little more wiggle room in the PS bankroll now, I'm gonna leave it alone until these freerolls are over at the end of November, then figure out my best chance to try and build on it.

Anyway, its past my bedtime, so I'm gonna get outta here. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope everything is going well for everyone on the felt!

The Coach's Game, A SNG Win, and a Bankroll on Stars?!

2007-11-02T13:24:00.000-05:00

Hey all. I'm back again for what has become a weekly update. I swear at some point things will slow down, but as of right now I'm *maybe* getting any poker in 3 days a week. Ideally I'd get a few SNGs each night, but right now the ol' lady and I are living life to the fullest before the weather shuts us down.

Anyway...on to the poker. I mentioned in my last post that I got an invite to a 1/2 NL ($50 max buyin) homegame and I was planning on playing it. Well, me and two other buddies got there shortly after 2 and needed to leave by 5:30 to get back home to get ready for my Halloween party. I also mentioned last time that this game is SOFT. I lost a little money last time we played, but that may have actually been the first time I played cash, and I really didn't know how to take money out of a loose game. My buddy, though, won upwards of $300. So needless to say, we were expecting big things. And I'd have to say, the way things have been going for me, I was thrilled to walk out of there $35 richer.

Things started off about normal for me. Just craptastic cards. Nothing I could play. And I was *nervous*. Fact is, I didn't really have $100 to lose at the moment, so I didn't wanna blow my first $50 and sit nervously on money I couldn't afford to lose. I know this goes against several rules of playing good poker, but I wanted to play, damn it, so don't kill me over it. Anyway, I literally folded for the first hour. Nothing playable to the point where I could even complete the SB. Now, I know I should be in pots mixing it up with a loose game (and the game picked up right where it left off 2 years ago when we played), but I was playing scared. I needed something good to happen before I could really settle in. I even folded QJ a couple of times, which is a good fold in a tough game, but a marginal one in a loose game. One time I'd have made two pair and lost to higher two pair, and the other turned into a *huge* pot where I could've lost plenty of money drawing to at least the turn. So I was content with my folds and keeping my chips in my tray. Because even though they were playing loose, they were showing down big hands in the end. So after an hour we filled up to 9 and split into 2 tables. I had been blinded down to $38. If you do the math, that's literally 4 Big Blinds, and 4 small. I had played NOTHING. Weak/tight at its finest. Hell, the whole session can be summed up in 3 hands, so here goes nothing.

With $38 in my stack, I find AK in the big blind. It folds around to the button, he makes a raise to $6, SB folds, I pop it to $18, he looks at me and goes "I haven't seen you play a hand yet", and folds. SCOOP, and I'm back to $45. Not too long later I'm sitting in MP and a new guy next to me raises to $15. I look down...one ace...and another. I raise all-in to $45, it folds around to the original raiser, and he insta-calls. I show my aces and he shows a Q. Board comes Q-high, scaring the bejesus out of me, but then he peels up his other card, which is an Ace. Regardless, I've got 2 outs to dodge, and I have NOT been surviving 2-outers, so I was by no means feeling relieved. This time I hold up and the $90 pot is mine. Halfway through the session I'm up, and I finally settle down a little. I play a few pots here and there when I can get in cheap, and really just hover around the $90-100 mark. With $97 in my stack and 5:24 on the clock, the BB is coming my way, and I decide its my last hand. It folds around to the button (a different player than the button before), and he sticks in his last $11. So I'm not seeing a free flop. SB folds, and I look down at AK and call. He shows J10, flops a J, and the suckout strikes again. So with $86 and in the SB, I have another last hand, its garbage, I chuck it, and cash out for $85. But perhaps more meaningful than the money this time is some confidence. I sat down at that game scared out of my mind, but after doubling up I got to play a little poker, and while I didn't do anything remarkable, I actually got to have fun.

One of my buddies ended up down over $50 and the other ended up cashing out up around $170. They need to have this game more often.

Moving on, I got to play a little bit on Monday online. I played 2 SNGs, and I actually won one of them. I'll be damned if the deck wasn't hitting me in the face a little bit! It was pretty fun. I don't really recall the other one, but I think it was a fairly routine card-dead loss. Anyway, I've got $12.XX in my FT account at the moment, so I will live to see at least 5 more SNGs!

Then last night I decided to play in one of the "Join Daniel Negreanu in the Bahamas" freerolls at PokerStars. Of course its a satellite to a satellite to play in a SNG where the winner gets a trip to the PCA, but what's cool about the first and second levels is that they actually pay cash to the top 12.5 and 15%, too. For a guy with some free time and never having had a bankroll on PokerStars, its worth signing up for. I played one of these a couple weeks ago and got off to a good start, more than doubling early, only to get smacked by a 6-outer when all the money went in with me as a favorite on the flop. Cest la vie. Anyway, after starting with 10,000 players, we were down almost 6900 after the first hour, paying 1250. Insane. I built up some chips early, and then lost a few away, then doubled up when I had a 70% preflop all-in hold up. By the first break I was sitting just outside of the cashing window, but a double-up away from easy money. And when I quadrupled up when my KK held against 22, 66, and a couple of unders about halfway through the 2nd hour, I was as good as gold to cash. I *almost* gave it away when I thought about pushing my 66 in the BB against an MP raise, but I stopped myself and said "This is one of those times where you get your money in dominated and go broke and hate yourself afterwards" and just called the min-raise and check-folded the flop. PF min-raiser had QQ, which held, and I felt good about avoiding that disaster. A short time later we made it into the $1 cash level, and now we needed to play down to 603 to get me another buck. I couldn't find a spot to get my money in for the next 20 mins or so, and I finally pushed w/KJo UTG with barely 3xBB, was called in two spots, and lost to AJ when an A fell on the river (not that he needed it). I was out in 730th, outlasting 9270 players before the 2nd break. That's nucking futs. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I was sitting at a table with 4-5 dead stacks for the first hour and a half, so that went a long way toward making this 730th out of 10,000 finish seem "easy". We were playing 4-5 handed with blinds up for grabs 50% of the time, so it was pretty simple poker. Nonetheless, a deepish run is a deepish run!

So I have one whopping dollar on PokerStars, my first real money ever on the site, and it seems I'm well on my way to pulling a Chris Ferguson. ;-) I'm not gonna dip into my real cash until these freerolls are over at the end of November (I can take my one shot a week), and I'm going to see if I can build up a little more and expand my options. The cool thing is that at sites where I've had cash (PokerRoom, Poker.com, Mansion, Full Tilt), $1 isn't worth jack, but PokerStars has .02/.04 limit tables and .01/.02 NL tables, and $1.20 9 player SNGs. So if a few things go my way, building my PokerStars bankroll from $1 isn't the most daunting task by any means.

So by no means do I have enough results to say I'm out of the woods on what is approaching a 6th full month of running bad, but the last three times I've played poker I've had positive results, but almost more importantly, some opportunity to have a little fun. If nothing else, I can be thankful for that!

Oh, and one more thing, being 20ish days and 850 posts behind in my reading, I just saw today that Fuel55 was kind enough to toss me a link documenting my bustout from the WBCOOP or whatever that big blogger tourney on PokerStars was that I sucked ass in. He's one of my top 3 favorite bloggers, so I was quite humbled that he even knows who I am. If you don't read his blog religiously, start now. I'm looking at you, PokerWeblogs.com patrons. Fuel is a genius poker player at all levels of NL cash games, and he knows his way around a tourney, too. He's equally as good of a teacher, teaching unbelievably valuable, complex lessons in simple, conscise methods. And he fills in the gaps with his amusing "series" (ie "Presto is Gold", "Flopped Straights Always Lose"). We won't even fault him for being Canadian.

Happy Weekend, everybody. Have a good one.

Super Quick Update

2007-10-25T11:16:00.001-05:00

Ok, since I promised I'd try and be a good blogger, here I am!

There isn't much to say other than I'm essentially running in place from a poker standpoint. I tried to go broke the last two nights, only to cash in my "last" SNG and end up right about where I started.

I'm still getting sucked out on as a big fav. Very very early in a SNG I played on Monday night (like <5 hands in) we had a three way all-in by the turn where I held the nuts (a straight), and the other two fairly obviously held TP (dead), and the flush draw (of course). I was pretty happy to get all the money in with these two as an 80% favorite, then the spade fell on the river. In another SNG I flopped top pair and bet the pot on the flop and turn against an obvious flush draw, only for my opponent's flush to fall again on the river. I feel like this is a circumstance of the level at which I'm playing. Some $5 and moreso in $10 and up players will correctly fold that flush draw to the turn bet, not getting their 4:1. But not at the $2 level. Flushes and open-enders are gold. I also experienced the inevitable PF 70/30 beat when I got all my money in as a shorty w/A4s, got called by A3s, only for him to flop one spade and runner another couple.

I also can't win a coin flip. My favorites are the ones that have to get ridiculously dramatic. One time I got all-in w/A10s as a shorty and got called by 9s. Flop came Xd 9 5d, so he flopped a set (ridiculous enough), but I was still in the hunt with my flush draw. One time, right?? Board pairs the 5 on the turn filling him up, and my flush comes home on the river, just for a stern kick to the junk. Can't we just have me pair up or not pair up? Why all the drama??

The thing I'm really starting to hate the most about all this is the level at which I'm playing. If me and the other 9 players at my tables sat down and took a "poker test" of some sort, I'd wipe the floor with these fuckers. But yet when we sit down at a table to play some cards, their horrific play is being rewarded left and right like *I'm* the bad player for making the right plays. Not even necessarily always against me, but when they mix it up its like in middle school when the guys at the end of the bench played basketball at halftime while the A teamers were in the locker room. Sure, it was basketball, but it was a bastardized version of basketball. And for the record, I was one of those guys, so there's nothing wrong with it. ;-) Bets mean nothing, so you just have to hope they call you down on their draws and don't hit. Kickers mean nothing, so that takes a majority of your bluffing opportunity away because they'll often call down or even raise with TP, any kicker, and sometimes even worse (Last night my flop bet got raised OOP by K10o on an AKx rainbow board. I folded my A9, and the dude w/K10 won the hand. Now you tell me...in a $2.25 SNG, is that 2nd level thinking, or me giving too much respect to a completely idiotic play?). Check-raising is GOLD, and they'll wait for as long as it takes, so you have to watch your ass when trying to pick up a seemingly orphaned pot on any street. And pot odds?...what are pot odds?? Essentially, if a $2 SNG donk is in a hand preflop and flops a pair or draw, they're going to the end with you. So you just have to hope you can get a read and extract value, but moreso you have to hope that the deck is kind, which for me, it is not, so I am toiling in complete and utter misery.

I never knew how well I had it when I was sitting in $10 SNGs and playing some real poker. There was 3 or 4 of us who knew what we were doing that were picking off the donks. Now I'm toiling in a virtual poker gene pool where I show up at a table with some skills and a little bag of tricks, and just get brow-beaten by the ESPN age of preflop and flop tournament players. Under normal circumstances I make adjustments and let the deck do the rest. But the deck isn't doing the rest, so I just have to play as well as I can and hope for the best.

So yeah...not a lot has changed. Hopefully I'll work in a couple of SNGs tonight, and then Saturday I've got a RIPE 1/2 homegame to play in that I'm almost dreading, because if I show up at this thing and get destroyed like I have been for 5 1/2 months now, I'll be dumping money in a place where I definitely should be walking away with 4-5 times my buyin...and that's just plain depressing.

Hope the rest of you are living large. I'll check ya later.

Quickie Update

2007-10-17T17:18:00.001-05:00

First off, hello to all my new readers from Pokerweblogs.com. I didn't really buy into it when I first saw the comment I got yesterday...thought it was another blog listing website that wouldn't do much. Nonetheless, I signed up cuz exposure is exposure, and have come to discover these folks are *serious* about poker blogging. I've already gotten 14 hits (about 7x my normal daily rate ;-) ), rated (6.7 out of 10, baby!), and gotten a couple of comments on their site, and I've only been listed on there for about 4 hours. As you can see, I linked them up at right, so if you're looking for more exposure to people that are serious about poker blogging, I'd advise you sign up with them. BTW, their blogger of the month is Carmen, so they definitely know what they're doing over there, and I look forward to being affiliated with the site.

It also means I have to step up my game, because I'm actually being read and rated now, which is just plain weird for me. ;-)

Anyway, I wanted to update quickly that I'm not broke yet. I played a couple of SNGs last night. The first one was atrocious. I honestly don't remember much of it, but I don't think it was worth remembering either. I've been reading the Full Tilt Tournament Strategy Guide, so I was trying out some advice from Gavin Smith's chapter in spots, and it didn't pan out. I'm sure its sound advice, but for my "last" (with 2.24 left in the account my only option would've been a 1.25 90 player SNG or wait until my $1 in rakeback gets paid to me next month :-) ) SNG I went back to the ol' WindBreaker special style of play and took that bad boy down! I'm not gonna mince words and say that the deck wasn't hitting me in the face a little bit, but I made a couple of pretty strong plays to improve my chances (extracted maximum value by busting two players with a set, and making a clutch call to an all-in push w/5 left...behind, but w/2 live suited cards) and saw my way to being the last man standing. So I'm alive again with 11.24, which gives me a little breathing room with 4.999999999 SNGs until I'm on the verge of going broke again. Does someone want to transfer me a penny? Cuz that one penny I'm short is KILLING me. :-)

The other part of the reason that last night's first SNG didn't make much of an impact on me is because I was watching the first hour of the 2007 WSOP on ESPN (50k horse w/Reese, Elezra, Seed, Lindgren feature table) and was keeping an eye on the crowd at all times because I WAS THERE. I believe I made my ESPN debut (although I might have been on there back in the days when I was sitting on the floor at ISU basketball as a student) when they showed my giant frame in the "No Limit Lounge" in a handfull of backgrounds, not to mention prominently featuring my very own feet behind Negreanu in one long shot. For autographs, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope. ;-)

Ok, I've gotta get outta here and go get a workout in. Just wanted to let everyone know I survived almost going broke for about the 5th time since May, and I will live to see at least 4 more SNGs. Also, I'm thinking tonight and for the remaining weeks they're available I might have a go at the PokerStars freerolls for the freerolls for the exclusive 9 person table for a shot at the PCA. Looks like they hold 10,000 max (and of course fill up every time), but top 1500 get cash, and top 200 get entry to the next round, so I'm gonna see about working my way through a couple of those mine fields. Check 'em out if you're broke like me and interested.

With that, I'm out.

Rock Bottom...Please?

2007-10-15T10:39:00.000-05:00

Poker has not irritated me more in the past 5+ months of this bad run as it did yesterday.

I played in PokerStars World Blogger Championship thingie first yesterday afternoon, and after what I felt like was a mostly solid first hour, I made probably the most donkalicious play I've ever made since I've *really* been taking pride in my game, and exited in 8XX/1200ish. In the first hour I was getting hit upside the head with the deck, and about the only thing I could do wrong was extract the most value out of my hands, which I feel like I *didn't* excel at when I had a couple of BIG hands. But I'm just so afraid of getting sucked out on I'm just trying to end pots with the lead as much as I can. There was one hand in particular where I flopped a set of aces and probably could've stacked a guy who claimed to have flopped bottom set, but I was so afraid of the flush draw on board I bet him out on the flop. And had I stopped and thought about it, I could be pretty sure he wasn't on a flush draw. So that was irritating.

Anyway, so after being as high as 17k, I end the hour with around 15k (10k starting stack), and as we head into the 2nd hour I win another pretty big hand and am moved to a new table with my 17k stack. First "real" hand I play at this table and I go broke. UTG limps, which I dully note to respect, but after it folds around to me, I made a 4x raise w/A10o just to see where we were really at. Blinds fold, UTG calls, and we're heads up. Flop comes AJx, 2-suited. UTG checks, and I bet at it about 3/4 pot. UTG pushes. After not enough thought, I call, and go broke against AJ. Just an absolutely terrible play. Limp-call UTG screams AK, AQ, AJ, pocket pair, suited connectors at the VERY least. Which means I'm either dominated, he flopped a set, or he has a flush or straight draw. Best I could hope to be is 70% if this guy is actually a complete donk and happens to have gotten in dominated against me, but otherwise I'm 60% at best against even any draw he likely has. But for some reason when he pushed after my 3/4 pot bet, I thought about every single wrong thought possible.

The quick conclusion I came to was essentially "this donk is on a flush draw and this is a huge spot for me to pick up a lot of chips and go deep". Lets break this down. "This donk"...this is a blogger tournament, and although not all bloggers are by any means good poker players (present company included), most are not going to make this all-in push on a flush draw like I see every day in the $2.25 SNGs I play. "is on a flush draw"...I'm lying a little bit here in that I put him on AJ or a flush draw when I made my call, and if I was beat, oh well its just a freeroll. Well I had *instant* regret upon busting because this wasn't "just a freeroll". This was a legit tournament w/a 10k starting stack (I've only played in one other tournament w/a 10k starting stack) with a pretty amazing $40,000 prize pool, that PokerStars just happened to be putting on for free for bloggers. "Just a freeroll" couldn't be further from the truth. "and this is a huge spot for me to pick up a lot of chips and go deep"...Again, a laughable statement. Fact of the matter is, I was sitting in about 185th out of over 850 left, had an above average stack, and still would have had an above average stack if I folded to his push. We all know there's "those spots" in a tournament where you have to make a ballsy call to really pick up chips and make a deep run. I thought this was that spot (and obviously I wanted this to be that spot), but it absolutely was not. The deck had been hitting me pretty hard, I had enough chips to splash around in pots and pick up the orphans, and then I manage to go broke OOP w/A10o. Just really fucking pathetic.

So that depresses me to no end. I go from playing for a $10k prize package to the PCA, back to my $22 bankroll on Full Tilt. But I figured I'd try and ease the pain a little with some SNGs.

3 hours, 7 SNGs, and 0 cashes later, I closed Full Tilt with a bankroll of $6.74. Yep, I'm back to my "last" 2 SNGs again. Same ol' story. Couldn't hit a flop, couldn't complete a draw, couldn't win a coin flip, and got sucked out on if I got my money in good. Just mind blowing.

So like I've talked about, I feel like I've weathered this storm pretty well so far, but yesterday was just plain depressing. I put myself in a good position in the PokerStars tourney, only to piss it right away with some of the worst thought processing one could ever imagine. Then I try a little SNG therapy only to get run over by the deck.

The really ironic part in all of it is how I play these SNGs as flawlessly as I can imagine day in and day out and get destroyed by horrible players and cold decks, but can at least come away with moral victories and hope that someday things will start to work out in my favor. Then I get this one time shot at this really nice tournament with strong opponents who actually know what they're doing and can play some actual poker with, shoot out of the gates with good cards and strong play, then manage to bust on quite possibly the most donkalicious thought process and play of my "career".

What's the least encouraging about whether I'm playing good in "unimportant" spots, or playing bad in huge spots is that the end result is always the same...failure.

Until next time...

Bankroll on PokerStars...Please??

2007-10-11T17:58:00.001-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 1940552

Puck Foker

2007-08-22T13:44:00.000-05:00

This post was originally started on August 22nd, and I just never got around to finishing it. Well its now October 10th, and I'm finally gonna finish it, but just be aware that although things haven't improved vastly, this post is outdated. But there's still some good stuff for posterity. Then I'll try and post soon and get things updated. Although its pretty much more of the same...

So according to Blogger, I haven't posted in just a day short of a month. And, you guys remember what I said recently about not being able to blog when I'm running bad, right? Well do a little simple math there, and you'll be able to deduce the reasoning for my lack of posts.

I run SOOOOOOOOO bad.

I'm just gonna hit some hilights and then get outta here. Really, I just want some of this documented for posterity.

A few weeks ago I actually happened into an "extra" token, so for a few days I looked to get into the 7 PM central deepstack token tourney. 24k guarantee I think.

Anyway, one random Wednesday night I got into the tourney with over 1000 of my closest friends and things were going just swimmingly. After an early hit on some bad play on my part, I quickly found myself back ahead of the average, and just kept playing as aggressively as I could to stay there. I managed to stay ahead of the average with a nice stack all the way toward the end of the 2nd hour. I was bouncing around between 80th and 100th place and playing well. With a 10.5k stack and blinds at 100/200 or something, I have AJ in the BB. The button shorty (like 2400) makes like a 3x stealy raise, SB folds, and I decide AJ is probably ahead of his range and if he's gonna see his flop he's going to have to commit his chips. I jam, he calls, and rolls A5. Five on the river, and that's that. Fair enough. About an orbit later I pick up AA UTG+2. I make a standard 3x raise to 1200, and another 2400 shorty jams immediately behind me. It folds back around to me, and I make the easy call. He shows KQo and makes a straight by the turn. An ace on the river twists the knife. Ok, so now I'm sitting on a 5k stack and quite irritated. Five hands later I was out. I'm sitting on the button and it folds around to me. I make a relatively easy jam w/K6 vs. the blinds, the SB re-jams (this is the guy that sucked out on my AA w/KQ), and the BB folds. SB has KK, and I'm cold-decked again and out in something like 483rd.

So I really had a feeling that that was going to be the tourney that helped me turn the corner there for a while. I was making really strong plays to keep and grow my stack and stay in the ITM spots and while I showed down some winners, a lot of it was keeping ahead of the average by stabbing at pots to pick up blinds. Then I just got beat to shit by the deck and all of the sudden it was over in <15 hands and I wasn't exactly sure what hit me.

One of my favorite beats as of recent was in a $5 SNG when this crazy LAG raised UTG+1, and sitting on a short stack, I jammed without much thought w/AKs in the big blind. LAG didn't even think before calling and showing his AJs, the obvious nuts. The flop naturally comes J88, but there's two diamonds. Turn is another J giving him a full house, which, of course has me drawing dead, but in my mind I'm still calling for a diamond cuz its so fast I don't really realize it. Diamond on the river gives me the nut flush and I feel vindicated...until the chips slide his way and realize what just happened. So sick.

I also had a fun one at our monthly game where I found AKs in late position (cutoff or button), and raised it up to 3 or 4x, and got a caller from my buddy's boss, a complete donk, in the big blind. Flop comes 5,7,9, two spades. Ok, so I'm probably still ahead and I'm drawing huge. He checks, I make a reasonable, enticing bet. He raises all-in, and even though I know I'm beat...somehow...I make the call for all my chips. He rolls 86o and I'm drawing thinner than I expected, but I've got my trusty spades. Turn A, River A, and the deck gets the last laugh again.

I have felt a little better lately because I've played some with my brother-in-law and he's seen what's happening to me, and with my buddy and he's seen what's happening to me, and over at another buddy's place as he watched over my shoulder and watched this stuff happen to me. So I'm not crazy. I am just running so bad and there's nothing I can do about it but keep trying to play and not go broke.

So after all the online torture as of late, in a perhaps ill-advised move, I decided to mix it up a little bit and throw $100 down to play some 1/2 NL live at the local casino last Friday. And that...was an experience.

I got sat at a table that consisted of several familiar faces from when I've been out there before. So while I was hoping for some frat boys drinking it up and donking it off, I was set to deal with regulars, which is fine because although they may not give away their money in true donkey form, just because they're regulars doesn't mean they're good. I soon settled into the table and had pinpointed some targets, some seats to avoid tangoing with, and seeing who would show up next in the seats that would fill and empty. Eventually I was feeling pretty comfortable and happy to be tossing chips and squeezing two cards up off the felt as opposed to clicking buttons.

Prolly 45 mins or so in I pick up AA under the gun. Not being fully adjusted to my surroundings yet, I bump it to $8, and get, like, 6 callers. I forgot that any raise under $10 seems to actually *encourage* callers. So much for thinning the field. So I'm thinking to myself "flop an ace...flop an ace...flop an ace" or I may have to get away from it. Flop? QAx, two diamonds. I bet right out at it for $15, got one caller to my left, and it folded around to this old codger regular who I've seen play plenty of times and definitely has some solid game, but can be conquered. Codger raises to $35, and I put him on AQ, QQ, Ax or a flush draw, with flush draw being the likliest. I'm going all-in for my last $15 or something on top of the $35, but I play it up a little bit, hoping to get the other caller, a true donk with a stack that had steadily decreased since he sat down, to come along. When I finally push, the dude mucks, and codger obviously calls and rolls...52 of diamonds. Awesome. Thanks for that, puney little $8 raise. Diamond on the turn. Even more awesome. Q on the river. Awesomest of awesome. Suck/Resucks are probably one of my favorite things in poker. Whether I'm just watching or am actually involved, I just really get a kick out of them. I was halfway out of my chair after the diamond on the turn thinking "standard", so needless to say it was nice to see the board pair on the river and I drag a pot that will allow me to play a little.

So I almost busted about 45 mins into my session after flopping a set of aces in a $160 pot. After the beat that actually did send me packing, though, I'd have taken the 37%er any day of the week just for peace of mind's sake.

Its a little under 2 hours into my session and my $160 stack had been bled down to about $130 after blinds and losing $15 on a hand where I made middle pair on the flop and bet the whole way against an obvious flush draw, only for Flushy McFlusherson to hit an overpair on the river. Standard. Otherwise, I was just contributing blinds as I swear when I looked down 7 times out of 10 my first card was a 4. The other three times, the 2nd card was a 4. But I digress...

I look down and find KK either UTG or UTG+1. Hoping to thin the field at least a little more than last time, but being willing to let it go if I don't love the flop, I bump to $10. I get a caller over in the corner of the table, and this suckbox idiot in the SB bumps to $25. This guy couldn't keep himself out of a pot if he tried, and I have watched him dip into pots all night, and he was about as bad as it gets. He'd have a big hand in small pots and a small hand in big pots, but was still managing to keep his head above water by sucking out with shitty two pair and 4-straights like it was his job. He should've been busted about 4 times, and I was just *waiting* for a chance to take his chips. If we were heads up already I'd probably have flat-called the $25 and assuming a harmless enough board, chipped away at him street by street because I was almost positive he didn't have AA, but I couldn't have this other tagalong in the hand and for that reason and some insurance against the probability of his rockets, I bump it to $50. Tagalong folds and moron, looking all constipated, hems and haws for a while before he calls. Flop comes J-high, two hearts. He checks with zero strength whatsoever, and I jam my last $82, ready to take it down here or make him commit his stack to try and win (he actually only had $2 more than me, as we'll find out shortly). He goes into the tank for probably 3-4 minutes, and finally says, "I think I'm beat...I think I'm beat REALLY bad.", thinks for another 15-20 seconds or so and says "I call". Great decision, buddy. He flips two queens and I flip my kings. He has the Q of hearts, but I have the K of hearts, so runner runner flush is not an option. He's dead to 2 outs twice. A 10% shot. I'm in the 10 seat to the right of the dealer, so I can *sorta* see the cards before everyone else. The queenish looking paint card that comes off on the turn makes me feel a little sick, but the reaction from the table when the card hits the felt wasn't horrible, and c'mon...it can't be a Queen, right?? But the dealer pulls his hand away, and there lies a Queen. I take a quick look at suckbox and he's just looking at the queen with this stupid looking ecstatic but shameful look on his face, and I can just tell everyone else at the table is looking at me like I just saw my dog get hit by a car. I sweat the last card also hoping for the miracle of all suck/resucks, but I see the two hearts on the face of that card, and I swear I was out of the room before that deuce even hit the felt.

I probably could've rebought and made money at that table. Most of them were in pots where they had no business being, and a tight guy like me could just wait for my monster and get paid off. But, you know? After running bad for 3 2/3 months now, if I can't sweat 2 outs in the deck, I might've exposed myself as an even bigger putting another $100 on the table than the suckbox moron was for calling with those queens. So $100 was my stop-loss. Its one thing to lose to a <5 outer in a $2.25 or $5.50 SNG online, but I can't really afford to be losing a hundred bones getting my money in as a 90% favorite.

So, I had an absolute f-bombing blast playing some live poker while it lasted, but I walked out of there having taken not only my worst live beat, but very likely my most expensive bad beat ever, and there's nothing worse than walking out of a casino with a couple of milestones like that hanging over your head.

The next day I played 3 SNGs and bombed out of those with boat under boat, cold-deck, and cold-deck. I haven't had the desire to play since. Granted, its only been 3 days, but the whole thing is just really starting to wear on me. I've been reading again trying to get my mind straight, and like I said before, have an attitude of perseverance as opposed to "woe is me". I wanna beat this thing. But at this point even if I can pull out of the slump, I've still got a long ways to go to get myself back to even from my 2005 losses that I'm still trying to make up for, and I don't know if I have time to put together the sort of bankroll I'd like to have for February's Circuit Event in Council Bluffs. But at this point I've gotta take it one step at a time and just start trying to win as a favorite.

Good times.

Latest Update

2007-07-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

For my latest update, please click here, and skip to the bottom where I spoke in general terms about how my game is going. Only take out the parts about any glimmer of hope.

This weekend saw me go from $73 to as low as $.80. I spent about $30 trying to win tokens so I could play in a $26 tourney Saturday night, and after bombing on my 1st two $8.70 or whatever turbos and getting severely tilted, not only did I score a toke on my next SNG, but I also picked one up in a Token Frenzy, so after a rough start, that was a real bright spot for $52 on my $30 investment.

The rest was piss poor. I got into like a $24k Guarantee on Saturday night and when it started and I realized it wasn't a deep stack I was upset (push monkeys love to spew chips in deep stack tourneys and I've always had pretty good luck in steadily building a stack), but was still prepared to go deep. And by go deep, I obviously mean bust on the 3rd hand when I flopped 2 pair w/A3 (in the BB), got all my chips in the middle by the turn against what I absolutely knew was a big ace, but what I was not expecting was the flush draw. With one card to come, of course, he got home.

That may be one of those situations where maybe I shouldn't be 100% eager to get all my chips in with 2 pair that early in a tournament, and possibly could've avoided busting. But I was absolutely certain he had a strong ace, I just did not anticipate a flush draw. So who knows, maybe thats a spot where I can get away from it in an effort to minimize my exposure to variance. But at the same time, I got in as at least a 70% favorite, and if I'm chucking a hand as a 70% favorite, something's gotta be wrong with me, right?? Any input would be welcome.

Aside from that, after what was a non-cashing streak of at least 10 SNGs, yesterday afternoon I bought into a $2.25 SNG that left me a worthless $.80 behind, so needless to say, I was nervous. I managed to win that SNG, fortunately, and then took 2nd in two more after that. After a couple more suckouts and cold decks, currently my bankroll stands somewhere north of $9, which leaves me with four more shots. I also have that other $26 token, which I kinda wish right now was actually $26, because although a deep stack token tourney will be fun, lets face it, I've never had a performance in one that makes me a sure fire bet to cash. And the way I'm running just makes it worse.

Some noteworthy beats yesterday were AA vs JJ all-in preflop and QQ vs 1010 all-in preflop. Other than that I saw several 70/30 suckouts, an inability to win 60/40s and 50/50s, big hands not being able to get paid off, and cold-decks that just make you wanna cry.

And its all that much worse in $2.25 SNGs where any two cards bigger than 9 are worthy of calling off a stack with.

In the interest of not sounding like the ultimate whiner (although that ship has probably sailed at this point), I also find myself playing really weakly from time-to-time (but also made a handfull of really strong plays), and sometimes I wonder if I'm getting big money into 60/40s and 50/50s at inappropriate times. All I know is it feels like I'm getting my money in flipping coins in big spots (and losing), but that makes me wonder if they're almost *too* big. It feels right when I jam w/99 on a shorty who obviously wants to take a pot down uncontested preflop, but then when my pair doesn't hold up and I'm 1/3 of a stack lighter I wonder if it was the right play.

So the battle continues...

The Only Thing I Can Say at a Poker Table

2007-07-17T20:32:00.000-05:00

In reference to the title, the only thing it seems I can say at a poker table these days is "UNREAL". Generally the syllables are split with one world famous "f word", but the idea is the same.

Here are four occurances where all I could think was "unreal" in one single 90 player SNG.

After nearly doubling up early when my QQ held against AK when we got all-in after a 545 flop, I played some big stack poker, made a few hands, and had worked my stack up to 7-8k. Then these hands happen.

1. Small Potatoes. I might have played this hand a little passively on the flop, but with his raise I like the potential of getting paid off at the end of this hand if the river is anything else. Of course the river *isn't* anything else, and I can't see any way my kings full are any good there.

2. Come on Now. This hand was pretty early on, but I thought I played it about as well as I could. What a ridiculous suckout. After the flop he needs one of the two kings left or a runner runner pair to win, or a runner runner straight to split. Of course that's *way* too many outs for me to dodge. The donkey proceeds to go damn near broke on the next hand and then donk off the rest of his chips the hand after. Way to use that double-up.

After these hands I was still sitting in good shape, but I got involved in a 3-way pot where I was committed to the end w/2nd pair 10s, top kicker with 2 Jacks on the board. One player had a J and I was back down to 4k.

I didn't have to wait too long before I doubled through a total LAG when I actually won ANOTHER coin flip w/my JJ vs. his AK. I don't think I'd have doubled me up there for over 1/3 of my stack, but I'm certainly happy he did.

3. And Then There Was This. I actually thought I was getting my money in relatively far behind here but had some very live draws to big hands and felt like it was a good spot to go big or go home. I was open-ended with the 2nd nut flush draw and possibly a live king, and this guy was flinging chips like he was protecting a 9 or an overpair. I was getting a little less than 2:1 and had to be a coin flip if not a favorite, so I called his all-in, and it turns out he was bluffing out his ass and I had him crushed and for once there were some outs I *didn't* want to hit because we shared them. Of course that's when the open-ender comes right on home for both and we split the pot... This is a spot where you could make an argument that I should've never been in the hand w/K10o to a preflop raise, but it was a pretty paltry price to pay in the big blind with a big stack and in the end I found myself in good shape and got hideously unlucky...again.

Then not too long after this I managed to find myself on an even bigger stack when I flopped the nut flush and stacked someone who liked his QQ.

I sat on this 14-15k stack as it bounced between 4th place and 9th place as we played down from 27 to 21. I think I was in about 7th when this hand went down.

4. The Ultimate Dagger. Preflop, this hand couldn't have gone more perfectly. I smooth called the initial short stack raise in hopes of other calls or a re-raise to isolate, and I got everything I could've ever hoped for. Of course, given our holdings its only natural. Of course the shorty is gonna get all his chips in w/QQ, and of course the donkey w/KK can't see my obvious aces and let it go. I really think right there I could have laid my KK down to the third re-raise. We were on the bubble and he had *plenty* of chips to get to the money. But instead he puts his tourney life on the line with 2 outs, hits his way to the chip lead, and I'm sent packing one off the bubble in 20th less than an orbit after this hand. Incidentally, I got it in against Mr. KK w/my 3s vs his AK and he turned an Ace. Of course he did. Even if the QQ guy flops a set there I still net 10k on the hand. But no, its gotta be the kings.

So. FCKING. Sick. I really felt good about finally winning one of these 10 table SNGs. I actually won in a couple of big spots, only to lose when I *really* shouldn't have to worry about losing.

And just to note, this isn't the first time this has happened to me. Way back when I got involved in a cash game hand w/AA vs. KK vs. QQ vs. JJ and the jacks come out ahead w/a set on the flop. I know that the more pocket pairs you have in a hand, the more likely it is that someone flops a set, but come on...where's the donks w/AK or AQ here every now and then??

Despite all this, I can't really complain. I probably had my best monthly homegame ever on Friday, taking 2nd, 1st, and 1st and profiting $60 on these $5 tourneys. I have to admit I had a couple of crucial 70/30 or worse suckouts in crucial spots, but you know what? I'm OK with that. And despite the utter fcking heartbreak in this 90 player SNG I did win a regular old 9 player SNG so tonights session will show a profit. Otherwise, the only online playing I've been doing is at PokerCS.com trying to put together a bankroll from their play money step SNGs where if you win a 6, 6, and 10 player SNG, you get $1. It was some nice, no pressure poker over the past 3-4 days. I've collected some step 2 tickets and will continue down that path over the next few days.

I did play in a $500 freeroll over there that I got a ticket to for my shilling in my last post, and it went about as I could expect from the last 2 months results. AK no good against QJ w/TPTK vs 2 pair, AK no good against A8 w/a 4-flush to the 8, and JJ no good against 99 flopping a set. A good opportunity to make some money with only 45 players and a nice 2500 chip starting stack, but I went out in 42nd I believe. C'est la vie.

So signs of turning this around are persisting, and while I actually won a couple of coin flips tonight in big spots, little could I expect to lose w/AA all-in preflop in the biggest possible spot. Guess I've still got a little ways to go...

Coming out of my Hole to Shill and B*tch

2007-07-11T08:27:00.000-05:00

I just got a welcome email from PokerCS.com (aka CarbonPoker), probably still my favorite poker room on the web even though I'm broke there, talking about their Summer Champs series. They politely asked me to post on my blog about the series to spread the word, and since I love the site so much I'm happy to oblige.

If you've never played at this site, I suggest you do. Their software is fast and absolutely loaded with cool features like fold & show, rabbit hunting, all-in percentages, player accolades (to show off your poker prowess), great graphical player notes features, hide your cards (if you like an added challenge), chat bubbles from each player, smilies the ability to have multiple windows or your games tiled in a single window, and I know there's more that I just can't remember. Their software is absolutely top notch.

So anyway, to oblige the good people at PokerCS.com, I just wanted to get that in there.

Now...what can I say about the last month and change since I've posted? More of the same...

Playing the local casino's live tourney on 6/10 actually went pretty well. I never had an above average stack, but managed to make it down to the final 2 tables just picking up big hands to double up with when I needed to. I was seeing visions of an under the radar miraculous win/cash when I went against my gut and pushed my 4xBB in EP with K10 (which had been the bain of my existance over this run I've been experiencing), only to run into the BBs AK. I'd already used my 70/30 suckout earlier in the tourney w/A5 vs AJ, so this hand sealed the deal and I bust in 14th out of 116 or so, w/the top 10 paying. It was a HUGE disappointment, but I think I've gotta make that push there every time and hope for the best. I won $50 at the 3/6 table after busting out of the tourney, so the final tally for the day was a mere -$10.

That day would be the exception, however, and NOT the norm. Some bloggers can bring themselves to post when they're running bad, but I am not one of them. The bad beats just kept coming, including at the homegame I last talked about where I had to rebuy after the very first hand after flopping the nuts (I held KJ on a flop of 9 Q 10) against my buddy's set of Qs and him filling up on the river. I took another >70% beat a few levels later but was left with chips, and then finally got something going when disaster struck again. We were on the bubble with 5 left, and I was 3rd in chips, but only with about 4-5xBB due to the structure, I open pushed UTG w/QQ and the SB who had me covered by <10% hemmed and hawed and eventually called w/A10s. The BB thought about it briefly before folding an Ace face up. So I've only got 2 aces to dodge at least. Not only did he flop his flush draw, but the turn was an Ace, and I was sent packing. So sick.

But when I say packing, I mean I was literally packing my bags, to head to Las Vegas on 6/22. I couldn't mention it in the blog because I'm not sure if my brother in law reads this consistently or not, but it was a secret to him. He thought we were going to Florida, and *he* was getting surprised with a trip to Vegas on 6/23, and then we were going to surprise him by being out there when he arrived on 6/25. All that went off without a hitch, and it was a blast. I spent only about 6 hours at 3/6 tables at Caesars while in town, but that was about enough. The first night my buddy and I were seated at the fishiest 3/6 table I've ever had the pleasure of being seated at. And I shot straight out of the gate running my stack up +$80 within the first hour. When I exchanged some texts with my wife seeing what her and our friends were up to, and she asked me how I was doing, instead of writing back "killing this table of donkeys", I modestly replied "playing successful poker". But that still must have angered the gods and I went on a 2 hour drought not winning a hand and having my AA, KK, QQ, and a host of other solid hands not hold up. The AA was the most noteable as this total donk local went with me the whole way w/KK, and caught a K on the river to scoop the huge pot. Just sick. I mean, I guess in limit poker when you have an overpair to the board you've gotta plan on dedicating $45 to the hand, but like an a-hole donk at the end of the hand he goes "I know you have aces de whole time." Well if that's really true, then save yourself some money! But no...he spikes the 2-outer instead. I saw my stack down to as low as $20 from my $100 starting stack, so over the course of the next 2 hours I just struggled to get back to even. Eventually the donkey table broke and I was moved to another table that was a little more solid, so I just tried to bide my time and look for good hands. It was basically torture. This drunk moron to my left didn't fold for about an hour and couldn't lose and eventually cashed out for over $400. He got me once with 2 pair w/his Q2 against my TPTK w/AK, but I kept that pot small and didn't lose much. I kept folding to stay out of his way, and I think I eventually did take a decent pot or two off him just before he left. Finally it got to be about 3 AM on Monday morning, my new table was 6-handed and a new card rack had sat down to my left. After playing as many hands as I could short-handed, I finally won a couple of pots, my stack was at $97, and I got outta there. What a nightmare.

I played one more time before leaving town. 6/26 was my brother-in-law's actual 30th bithday, so we got together with our friend who lives out there again and hit the Caesar's poker room one more time. In the end I might have actually waited longer for my seat than I actually sat in it. It was really just a blip on the radar for me. There was nothing to the session. Plain and simple, I wasn't winning. I saw a lot of average hands...middle pairs, KQ, suited connectors. The kind of hands you just like to try and limp with or raise in position. But it seems like every time I got one of those hands there would be a raise and/or a re-raise in front of me, so maybe I should've been chucking them, but instead I was playing them for too much money. And whiffing flops like it was my job. I got involved in one hand where I flopped an open-ender with a K-high flush draw, and couldn't get it home. Lost a lot of chips on that hand. But mostly I just bled paying $6 to see flops with hands that needed help and never got it. My bustout hand came at the hands of my brother-in-law who was a total card rack the whole session. With only like $15 in front of me I limped w/J10s on the button. BIL completed in the small and my other buddy checked the big. I can't recall if anyone else was in the hand or not. Anyway, the flop came 8 J Q, BIL bet, and it folded around to me. I threw in a raise hoping to just scoop at this point, but BIL called. So I've confirmed he's got the queen, and I'm pretty much done with this hand. The turn was a pleasantly unexpected 9. BIL bet, I threw in the last of my chips, and made the mistake of feeling very comfortable w/my straight against his Q9. The thought of living to see another day quickly vanished when another 9 hit the river and the pot was shipped one seat to my left. When my brother-in-law busted me by spiking his 4-outer on the river a calm came over me and I knew that was my sign to go sleep for 3 hours before we got up to leave town. The last of my chips went to a worthy enough cause, and any more money on the table would be a waste. If anyone else had busted me I probably would've reloaded and played until it was time to go to the airport, but getting busted by BIL with a pretty major suckout kinda put me at peace, so that was...interesting. As a side note, BIL continued to be a card rack after I left for a while longer, and walked away with about $140 profit. I was really really happy for him. It was his birthday, and he was playing live poker in a casino for the first time ever...in Vegas. Its a dream scenario to walk away a big winner, and I'm glad the dream unfolded for him.

Vegas saw the drying up of my measly cash roll and then some, so I'm officially cash broke and have to start the cash roll over. I'm still running pretty piss poor in general (7/5 marked 2 months of this garbage...easily the longest streak of negative variance since I started playing in 2004), and could wear the keyboard out with bad beat stories just from the past 4 sessions online. Friday offered a glimmer of hope with the bankroll approaching $70, but then Sunday I was ready to chuck my computer against the wall as I saw my roll depleated to as low as $12. Signs of stabilization are showing as intermixed with some of the sick, sick beats are me crushing every 3rd or 4th SNG, and my FT balance currently stands at $61. *knocks furiously on wood* So I'm seeing signs of things turning around, but just when I start to feel like I'm standing on solid ground, the floor drops out from under me again. While I feel like in general I'm playing strong, but careful, I have realized myself playing weak/scared a couple times and have done my best to keep the aggression high even though it seems like whenever I get my money in way good preflop or on the flop, it all falls apart when the rest of the cards come. I simply cannot outlast remaining cards to come.

But I'm having fun. Its very challenging to fight negative variance, but since your running so badly it helps you focus on getting your money in as good as possible, and I'm getting a LOT of practice doing that. So assuming I can start getting my big hands to hold up, hitting a consistent number of draws, and winning my fair share of coin flips, that will start paying off and then bigger chip stacks will allow me to take more chances. For now I've switched back to the 9-max SNGs, sticking in some 18s, 45s, and 90s here and there because I get more hands for my money and it gives me a little more wiggle room to get to the cash. While the percentage of players that cash is the same, I feel like the 9 and up SNGs have more pure dead money in them than a 6-max, where generally players are playing the 6-max for a reason. But maybe I'm just making that up...

If and when I ever can get any sort of consistency back in my game, I really would like to start honing in my online MTT game. I've been dabbling in some of the $26 token deep stack tourneys and the 90-max deep stack SNGs and have really been having fun and some success trying to go deep. Inevitably I always end up running KK into QQ flopping a set, KK running into 33 flopping a set, JJ running into 88 making a straight, or 10s vs 9s that make a straight (all of these are real hands from my last 4 sessions) and busting, but I feel like after 3 years of toiling my big score is out there somewhere. So we'll see. First I have to put together a bankroll that gives me a little wiggle room...

So that's about that. There's some real sick beats and serious cold decks to talk about, but they all kind of run together at this point. I'm trying to focus on looking ahead, and taking solice in the facts that I'm getting my money in WAY good more often than not, and that bankroll management has prevented me from going broke.

Sorry for the huge post, but if you made it this far you're a champ. Maybe the next post will be sooner and bring some better news.

Oh and PS, while I was in Vegas I visited Day 2 and Day 4 of the 50k HORSE event. I'm a total celebrity dork, so seeing all the pros I've watched for hours on end on TV (not to mention Dr. Pauly) was an unbelievable experience. I have some pretty good pictures from Day 2 where you can just go around the tables and play "Name the Pros", so if anyone is interested in seeing them, shoot me an email. I was around for the 2004 Final Table when they played the last full WSOP at Binion's and saw the ushering out of that legacy, but this was my first visit to The Rio for the WSOP. Man, what a spectacle.

More of the Same...

2007-06-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I took 6 days off from playing. Partly because I could take the variance anymore, partly to stave off the tilt, and partly because, quite frankly, I was scared. Every time I got into a showdown situation I envisioned the worst, and it just plain wasn't fun.

So I got the itch to play again tonight, and I started out real strong, making just some really great plays on both tables and building stacks that I could be aggressive with. A lot of it I did without a hand and with coordinated betting strategy, but I also showed down big when I needed to. Anyway, we get down to the bubble in both SNGs. In the first one sitting on the 2nd place stack I flopped open-ended with a gapper hand in the BB and made my straight on the river. Alas, my opponent on the button had turned a full house holding A7o and showed no strength at any point in the hand until he shoved over the top of me on the river. My first instinct was to fold due to the way I'd been running but I thought to myself "is a straight *really* no good here?", and decided I had to make the call 3-handed and couldn't let my variance dictate my play. Just sick. Can anyone get away from that hand there on a paired board w/an A on it? I feel like I should've been able to, but I just couldn't find a fold with a very well disguised straight 3-handed. On the 2nd table I was the short stack and flopped top pair 7s in the BB, and the SB min-bet the flop and the turn, and I shoved over the top on the turn. He called with 9s...unraised PF. My read was total weakness with the big stack trying to push the shorty off his BB hand w/overs or something. With top pair still on the turn, I felt like I had to get my money in and make him pay to draw to a hand that beats me. I don't know how I get away from that under any circumstances.

So...this f'n blows. I'm pretty much completely hopeless. I feel like I'm doing a whole lot right not only play wise, but also in order to subdue the tilt, but I'm just getting NO help from the cards.

I probably won't blog until sometime next week unless I happen to stumble upon some free time, in what has been and will continue to be the busiest week in recent memory. I'm playing live tomorrow night at a home game that is supposed to be pretty soft, and I'm playing live again on Sunday at the local casino's tourney. I'm *really* looking forward to both opportunities to play live, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I don't know how I feel about putting "real" money up to play poker right now the way I'm running. Its one thing to get brow-beaten in $2 and $5 SNGs, but it'll be a little harder to take in a $20 rebuy game and a $60 tourney. I'm just gonna play my best and hope the cards don't continue to spit in my face. I'm grasping at the concept that Saturday is my birthday and *maybe* I'll be within the window of some "birthday luck" starting tomorrow. So we'll see how that works out.

BTW, I owe TripJax a plug because he actually tagged me for that 7 things meme, which I didn't see until after I had actually posted it. That makes 5 whole bloggers who know I exist. I'm getting pretty big time, but I promise I'll try and remain humble.

Check ya later.

Wearing Me Down

2007-06-01T10:00:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Not only have I been trying to catch up on my reading (and have pretty much done so), but I have been running so pee poor its gut wrenching. We all know how it goes when someone's running badly. I don't wanna talk about it, and you don't wanna hear it. But lemme tell you...the hand histories...oh, the hand histories that I could post...! Incidentally, for an insight into some of the beats I've been taking, you could go read some of smokkee's most recent posts. Our fates seem to be nearly identical lately, although the beats he's taking are certainly at a much more significant level than my micro limit piddling.

Its been almost a month at this point. Ever since I got back from my long weekend in TX on May 6th I have just been getting my ass kicked at the tables. Plenty of one-outers and two-outers, a lot of 5 & 6-outers, and enough 70/30 and 80/20 losses to make a mathemetician rethink the philosopies of probability. Forget 60/40s and coin flips. My typical 60/40 ends in my opponent flopping two pair, whether they're 60 or 40, and then filling up on the river. And in the 50/50s they either flop a set against my overs and drawing dead on the flop, or flop an ace against my pocket pair. I can also just go ahead and forget about flopping sets or filling up flushes. The cold-decks have been relentless. I've had one KK vs. AA encounter, not to mention several short-handed occurances where someone behind me has no business waking up with a better hand. But man, they sure have been. And of course there's the donkeys. Calling my big raises with rags and outflopping me. Outflopping me is the easy part, though. I am *maybe* hitting 10% of the flops I'm seeing (and by "hitting", I mean "usually 2nd pair or worse")...nowhere near the 35% Dan Harrington tells me I should be hitting. In the end, it all is coming together to really test my resiliance, and its getting very tiring.

I really feel like I'm playing well. There have been a couple times where I have caught myself reaching and trying to create something that wasn't there, but I've been quick to whip myself right back into shape when I see it occuring. I'm making strong plays when I should be and just not getting there. And I'm making great folds when I need to. If there's one thing that gets better about your game when you're running badly, its getting a real sense of when you're beat. It often comes when you know you shouldn't be beat, but you are. And you learn to get away from it and hope to find another spot. So maybe I can bring that back with me if and when things turn around. Anyway, in the end, no matter how well I'm playing, I just can't seem to show down a winner when it really counts.

If there's one positive thing out of all of it, its that I haven't gone broke. I guarantee you two years ago at this time I'd have been broke and reloaded 3-5 times by now. I'd have moved up in stakes to chase my losses and "get it back quicker". I'd have moved away from my winning style and been chasing any glimmer of a potential big hand, and I'd have been tilting out of my mind. At this point I'm actually prematurely moving *down* in limits to weather the storm. I feel like I'm sticking to my game and making plays I need to make to be successful. And aside from one Saturday afternoon where I wanted to chuck my laptop across the basement, I have managed to keep my tilt level at a minimum, and am trying to take solice in the fact that I'm making the right plays and/or getting my money in good and just getting wrecked as a 50-80% favorite.

All that said, the cards can go ahead and turn anytime, because its really wearing me down.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let my 6 faithful readers know that I'm not dead, but my game certainly seems to be. Sorry for all the whining. Hopefully the next post will allow me the opportunity for a little different tone.

Until then, I'll check ya later.

Ok, so maybe not...

2007-05-27T16:34:00.000-05:00

I guess I didn't realize the 400k started at 5:00 CST. I figured it was more like 8:00. So being gone from 12:30-4 probably was pretty poor planning if I really wanted to try and get in.

I'm still running horribly. Such sick stuff I've been seeing. So....so sick.

All or Nothing

2007-05-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

Despite of (or perhaps because of) the fact that I am running *absolutely* piss poor (seriously...you wouldn't believe it), I woke up this morning and decided to try and play my first 400k.

My satelliting restrictions are pretty strict, so its ~~rather likely~~ almost certain I won't get there. But regardless, I'm gonna try, so look for me when the time comes.

Checkin' In & my 7 Facts

2007-05-23T08:14:00.000-05:00

Man, I can't believe I haven't posted at all this month. I can't say a whole lot terribly interesting has happened, although there have been some post-worthy hands here and there. That said, they won't be posted because they've come and gone.

I managed to work my way up to $330 or so before we went to TX the first weekend in May. (BTW, any of you TX bloggers familiar with Wimberley? That's where my cousin's wedding was.) I also placed an order for my latest and greatest poker tool before we left for Texas, and had received it by May 8th. That's right, I'm no longer chained to my desk while playing, but I have some mixed emotions about it. When I'd play at the desk, tucked away in the corner, it would require me to turn all the way around to look at a TV, which I didn't often do. So at worst, I was generally just listening to a TV, if not paying no attention to it at all. Now that I can play and watch TV at the same time, I don't feel like I'm getting as immersed in a table as I used to and I think I'm suffering because of that. I've had a LOT of bubble finishes over the past couple weeks, and I think the difference between that bubble finish and a cash is probably a crucial read here or there. So I'm trying to work the kinks out of mobile poker playing. But regardless, my MacBook RULES. Full Tilt has fully functional software on the Mac OS, but if I feel the need to play at another site, I just boot natively into XP.

You all should go get a Mac like me and this guy.

As far as the poker goes, my BR currently stands at $172, down from that recent high point of $330. I just brought it up last night from the low point of $154 to where it currently stands. Its fair, I guess, as I had been running pretty hot there for a while, and definitely have had a downswing over the past couple weeks. Not only am I running cold and getting cold decked like crazy, but like I said, the adjustment to playing poker on the laptop in front of the TV is also causing a downswing in results. But I'm confident I'll find a happy medium in short order. I've been losing a lot of 70/30s and 80/20s lately, not to mention coin flips, and when I suckout its usually generally not in a very big spot, ie all-in on a short stack or calling a raise with odds. Pretty typical negative variance that my game is prone to. I get my money in as a big favorite in big spots, and get my money in as a dog either with odds or in a push or fold situation where doubling up is just the first step to recovery. I'm finally seeing some signs of this most recent streak turning around, however, as I've had some luck go my way the past couple of nights. I did lose a buyin at .10/.25 Monday in an KK vs. AA cold deck, but I also won and placed in two SNGs, then last night managed to squeeze a couple buyins out of .05/.10, although I made a huge laydown that cost me another couple buyins on top. You guys have gotta hear this, then I'll move on to the real reason I'm here.

I pick up 66 in LP and limp, along with 3 others. Flop comes Q67 rainbow, and we either check the flop or all call a small bet from EP. The turn is a 4, and things just get out of hand. SB bets out, BB raises, and MP re-raises all-in. I mull over it for a while, and eventually come to the decision that I'm scared to death that the BB has 35 or 58 and has stumbled onto the mother of all BB specials. I'm also beat by 77, which is a possibility, and QQ, which seems much less likely. There were no PF raises, so it'd be hard to see AQ or KQ, so the whole thing just smelled fishy to me, and with the way I'd been running, I decided to make the laydown. When the SB called the all-in, along w/the BB I felt pretty good about my great play here...until the cards were rolled. Q9 in the SB, Q6 in the big, and Q9 in MP. I would've had them drawing dead to the last two 9s. I guess when I was mulling my play over I forgot to take into account the single most important factor...that this was .05/.10 NL Hold Em. Fack.

Anyway, the real reason I'm here today is because I was tagged in four spots for this "7 Things" meme that went around. I said I'd be here to do it when I got caught up on my reading, but I'm still only to 5/17 and probably with 200 or more posts to go, so who knows if I'll ever get caught up. Either I subscribe to too many blogs or you people post too much. Anyway, I was humbled by the pure fact that four people even knew who I was, so before they give up on me I want to get this thing in. So away we go. I give you, 7 Things You Didn't Know About Me:

1. I used to be legitimately smart. My birthday is in early June, which is an awkward time to decide when to put your kid in school. Well, my parents held me back a year, but early in my kindergarten year I was reading like a badass and it was obvious kindergarten was child's play for me, so they transitioned me to 1st grade by the middle of the year.

2. The mountain climber on The Price is Right used to make me cry. Its true, when I was a wee one spending my days at home with mom and watching TPIR, I would run screaming from the TV whenever the mountain climber game came on. The music scared me and I didn't want the poor little fella to fall off the cliff.

3. My wife and I went to HS and were aware of each other, but didn't meet until college. I went to a relatively small high school (around 100 per class) where I knew the names of pretty much everyone three years in front of me and three years behind me. I even played b-ball before gym class with my future wife's older brother when I was a freshman and he was a senior. My wife was only a year behind me and was a flutist in the band and we even had some common friends, but our paths just never crossed in HS. Then finally her freshman and my sophomore year at Iowa State our circles of friends overlapped, and the rest is history. It may not sound like that big of a deal, but I had some sort of interaction with *almost* everyone 3 years above and 3 years below me, especially the ones in band, but Linz and I never spoke a word to each other.

4. I'm 6'6". This one's kinda lame because if I actually would man up and go to a blogger event you guys would see this, but for now you pretty much don't know anything about me, so I'm gonna have some softballs here. I'm 6'6" and have very little natural athletic ability. My dad played college BB at a small college in Iowa, and my little brother (6'5", 315 in his prime) got a scholarship to play college FB at ISU. I always rode the pine in basketball with some decent ability but a lack of basketball instinct. As for football, I was a pretty badass tight end in middle school, but they wanted to move me to lineman in HS, so I didn't play. And I'm an average to slightly less than average golfer. I tried little league for a couple of years, too, but it wasn't until like middle school age, and I think I just started too late and...wasn't all that good. I'm not uncoordinated or clumsy or anything like that, but I ended up pretty much just average at any sport I took up.

5. I'm in IT management. I have a computer science degree and was a programmer (Lotus Notes database developer) as an intern and for the first 4 years, and took a promotion to "Lead" at the beginning of this year. Early in 2005 I decided that I didn't wanna bang code all my life, so I got on a development track toward management, and hope to keep moving on up from here.

6. I've only ever driven pickup trucks. The same one, really. My first vehicle was a 1988 Chevy S-10 Sport 4x4, then I upgraded to a 1994 S-10 4x4, and in 2004 I bought my first new vehicle, a Chevy Colorado Z71 4x4. They were all extended cabs, should I have the absolute necessity to carry and extra person or two around. I'm not sure when I became a truck guy, but it has suited me very well. Being as tall as I am, getting in and out of cars, especially behind the wheel, is a nightmare. Midsize trucks are cheaper than SUVs, are fun enough to drive, get decent enough gas mileage, and have that cargo space, so I guess I've just stuck to what works. And I'm not a "gets me from point A to point B guy", either. I take a lot of pride in the vehicle I drive and look at it as an extension/representation of my personality, so all three of them have had some character. I've gotten to the point where I'd like to have a passenger vehicle/have to start thinking about family, so I'm hoping to look at H3s next spring. It will be WIERD not having a pickup.

7. I built and sold poker tables for 2 years. While playing what amounted to play money poker at a local establishment on a regular basis a couple times a week in 2004, a buddy and I saw a custom built table, and being a man's man, my buddy tried to duplicate the effort. Well, he did, and before he knew it, he was taking requests to have some built and making a deal to have them sold at the establishment, and thinking about other potential. So he brought on me and another guy to build, had one of his buddies put together a website, we got my buddy in PR involved, and before we knew it we had a feature story in the Des Moines Register, color photos and all, an article in a national Better Homes & Gardens publication, as well as some other media appearances, and orders were flying in. We were even scheduled to shoot features for the three local TV stations that all fell through. At any rate, we built steadily throughout the year, and during the 2005 Christmas season we built 6 a week for 3-4 weeks. We sent tables as far as Michigan, Washington, Texas, and Canada. In spring 2006 my buddy took a new job that changed his schedule pretty drastically, then shortly after built a new house that saw him with basement projects and stuff, and the business kind of faded away. We'll still build for friends and family and ourselves, but I think other than that we're pretty much done for. But it was a blast while it lasted. Check out our website.

Since I was a slacker and didn't get to this, I'll throw in a couple of bonus facts. One for each week I put off doing this.

Bonus Fact 1. I know Corey Taylor of Slipknot/Stone Sour fame. I live in Des Moines, where both bands are from, and back in 2002/2003 when Corey brought together his old band, Stone Sour, as a "side project" from Slipknot, I hooked up with a guy from Amsterdam and we put together StoneSourNews.com and StoneSourBoard.com and got ourselves out there as the first source for Stone Sour information. He had the capabilities to build the site, and I had the local connections. Before long we had friends and family of the previous incarnation of the band as well as the new incarnation, as well as the band members themselves participating on the messageboard. Then all of the sudden I'm invited over to Corey's house to hang out, and continued to remain in that circle throughout the first album cycle, including VIP and photo passes to shows, etc. The site and board got huge, with over 10,000 members, and the whole thing was a wild ride. I talked to him sparadically throughout Slipknot's album cycle and missed an opportunity to get together with him when Stone Sour started up again to hear the album, and its actually been almost exactly a year since we were last in contact, but I heard from a mutual friend that he mentioned getting in touch with me sometime soon. He is an amazing human being. Just incredibly kind, intelligent, and resilient. Its an honor to call him a friend.

Bonus Fact 2. I proposed to my wife in Vegas, at the Bellagio. Yeah, how many thousands of people has this probably happened to, but for a couple of simpletons from Iowa, it was a pretty big deal. In 2004, my company sent me to Vegas for a conference. We made arrangements for my girlfriend at the time to come along, and to stay through the next weekend after the conference. I had gotten the idea to propose a couple months previous, picked out a ring, and had my co-worker bring it out to Vegas for me so that nothing suspicious would happen. I had plans to do it at The Bellagio (it was pretty much all we knew of Vegas, being our first time in town and loving the movie Ocean's Eleven), but didn't really know how it was all going to come together, and like an idiot, didn't call until the morning of to get dinner reservations. We ended up at Jasmine, the chinese restaurant, which was the only place we could get into. Strike one, I thought, cuz Linz doesn't like chinese. We showed up for our reservation and they made us wait momentarily while they got us a table by the windows (they knew of my intentions, but Linz just thought they were being nice). We had a nice dinner that she actually ended up loving (and has since discovered that chinese food is, in fact, awesome), including the cheapest bottle of wine on the list ($30 at Bellagio, $12 at the grocery store), and just as I'm waiting for the fountains to start in order to propose, the waiter comes with a dessert that we hadn't ordered. He leaves it with us and says "compliments of the house" and at this point Linz knows something is up but can't quite figure out what, so I bust ass down to my knee and propose. She accepts through tears, and the table of asian guys next to us goes wild. I kid you not, one of him introduces himself to me as "Charlie", and insists we have a glass of his wine. Mission accomplished, and Linz and I have vowed to return to Vegas at least once a year from here on out.

Well I've managed to work my post to one of epic proportions yet again, so I will bid you adieu. Thanks to the four of you who tagged me for this, but I will not be tagging because I think pretty much everyone I read has done it. Such is the way it goes when you're a week behind in your reading.

I still hope to catch up on my reading, and then I can get back to blogging with a little more regularity as well.

Check ya later.

Blogger Bracelet Busto

2007-04-30T07:18:00.001-05:00

Well, the Blogger Bracelet Race actually went about how I expected. I made it through the first hour basically losing my blinds. Saw a few flops, but never hit anything hard. As a result of all my folding, my preflop raises were respected, which was fine with me. I even raised on the cutoff and folded to a button resteal by BobRespert (who is apparently Bobby Bracelet? I'm new here). I was setting up my table image as tight, and was about to start putting that to use and mixing it up a little. The first step was when I showed down my very first blogger HAMMER with a 4xBB raise, showing people that I was willing to mix it up. Well, a combination of a cold deck and a little overzealousness by me didn't give me a chance to carry out my plan, as the very first flop I hit was hit much harder by columbo.

I was burned so many times by two pair as I learned this game, I finally learned that its by no means a monster and I need to be aggressive with them on the flop...esepecially on a 2-suit flop. We managed to limp around with myself, columbo, and the blinds in the hand. When this flop fell, I knew I was going to try my best to get all my chips in before the turn (which was certainly my biggest mistake...checking out right here) because I figured I had to have the best hand. I knew it wouldn't check around after everyone limped preflop, so I checked my option when it came to me. Sure enough, columbo bet out, the blinds fold, I min-raised him, he jams, and I quickly call. I couldn't put him on AA or 88, because I would expect a raise. I couldn't put him on 66, because c'mon...the other 2 are out there. The only hand I was really afraid of was A8, and if he had that, so be it. What I really thought was that he was just putting pressure on me because he had seen that I was a tight player and willing to fold under pressure. Regardless, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I saw the two sixes. No miracle ace for me, and 45th it is!

Anyway, like I said, it went about how I expected, because I couldn't buy any luck yesterday. I played two $20 SNGs and won one hand in each. I couldn't even steal the blinds because I had LAG-donks at both tables that would play about any two, so there was no value in steal attempts. I also played two $10 SNGs, bubbling one in a mediocre attempt, and managing a win in the other after an epic heads up battle that saw the chips swing 7k to 2k back and forth 4 times before I finally managed to strike the dagger.

It was over 80 degrees in my house as my wife and I had ignorantly decided to "tough it out", so my nuts were stuck to the desk chair and I wasn't even having much fun playing. So with that win under my belt and the bankroll back over $200, I decided to call it quits and hit the couch for some TV.

I should have some good opportunities to play this week as our TV shows are winding down, plus I think I'll be at home Thursday morning before we fly to Texas for the weekend, so hopefully I'll run better than I did yesterday and can make some progress.

100th Post

2007-04-27T09:50:00.000-05:00

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!

Bloggers Rule, I'm a Fool, Time for School

2007-04-25T08:26:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to another boring edition of Windbreaker's Blog.

I have to start things off today by thanking the shit out of Hoy and Lucko, two of my favorite bloggers, who at my humble (and likely annoying) personal request, both devoted several paragraphs in their blogs to note taking. Each post on their own are an immense help, but combined they are downright profound and exactly what I was looking for. It says a whole lot about them and their devotion to blogging and the blogging community for them to take this request, take an interest, and post about it within a week. As a result, the note taking thing clicked right away for me, and I was a note taking fiend last night at the tables. You guys rule.

Also, thanks to oossuuu754 for his tidbits on turbo token SNG strategy yesterday. It wasn't a lot, but it answered some of the very sad basic questions I need answered. Plus, how cool is it to have a 2007 Main Event participant posting comments to your blog??

Thus concludes the "Bloggers Rule" portion of our post.

Moving on to "I'm a Fool", while tooling around the lobby of Full Tilt on Monday night I came to realize that the $8.80 18-person turbos are by no means the only way to win a token. I also had seen talk of the heads up matches, but I wasn't interested in investing $13 when I'm not terribly thrilled about my heads up game as of late. But when I spied the 9 player and even a 6-max non-turbo SNG, alarms started going off in my head. For the low, low price of $6.60, I could sit at one of my precious 6-max SNGs and have my shot at a token, or at the very worst, a small profit for 2nd place. Which works for me. The cost is less, the payout odds are the same, and when all is said and done they're both gonna take about the same amount of time. Its a no-brainer for this 6-max afficianado. So I ran one Monday. Grow a big stack, suckout, cold deck, rail. That'll happen. But I ran one last night, and with the typical little to no effort, I had my (virtual) grasp on my first ever token. I don't think they have a 6-max option for the $75 tokens, but I think they have a 9-max. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. But the good news is that it doesn't look like I'll have to stress over the turbos and can settle in where I find myself a little more comfortable. I still want to improve my turbo game, but its one of those things I can put on the back burner until I have a little more wiggle room in my bankroll.

So this brings us to "Time for School". With my shiny token, I bought into the Blogger Bracelet Race.

That's right, folks. Barring the end of the world before 6 PM CST on Sunday, I will be playing my first mainstream blogger event. Look at the company I'm already in in that image. Pretty daunting. It will be a schooling, but at least I'll have finally played a big blogger tournament, AND had a shot at the WSOP within my grasp. My only chance is the fact that I was the 12th player to sign up. That's a lucky number of mine. So look out, cuz I could luckbox my way to the top of the heap with the support of trusty number 12. See you on Sunday.

I did play last night, but we're not gonna talk about it. I went on a strange, unprovoked tilt and donked away 1/3 of my bankroll, but I'm not letting it bother me. Sure, I hate myself a little bit, but I'll get it back. I'd been playing so well and concentrating so hard, it was fun to gamble a little and take some chances in a short 4 table cash game session. Now its back to grinding it out at SNGs and back to new heights before long, I have no doubt.

Happy To Report a Good Weekend

2007-04-23T09:16:00.000-05:00

By weekend, I pretty much mean Sunday. I didn't get a chance to play Friday or Saturday, but I saddled up for about 5 hours yesterday and racked up $105. IMO, that's not a horrible hourly rate for $10 and $20 SNGs. This also means quite a bit in general as it sees me breaking the $300 threshold online ($338) for the first time since January, and also bringing the overall bankroll back up above $500 for the first time since January. This is encouraging, but I'd like to find a way to get to $1k by mid-June or so.

I pretty much mixed $10s and $20s yesterday, but I did end the session playing two $20 SNGs instead of the mix, and felt comfortable. Truth be told, sometimes I wonder if the $20s are softer than the $10s. I see some absolutely horrific play in the $20s, while the $10s tends to just be your average, run of the mill bad play. You'll see 1 or 2 guys stack-off early w/TP and some junk kicker in the $20s, while in the $10s people will just make a lot of average -EV play and find themselves on the outside looking in when the cash is dealt. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm more than OK with it. I may continue to mix the $10s and $20s for the time being until I can start to see what kind of results I'm getting in the $20s and really feel comfortable putting that much on the line at a time, but I can't be messing around for too long and hopefully will be solidly in the $20s and maximizing my profit potential sooner rather than later.

I was pretty happy with how I played throughout the course of the session. Aggression is starting to come more naturally to me, and I find that my feel for when I can take down a pot with the right bet vs. when it I've been pushing too much and someone might look me up is getting stronger. I also saw myself getting all my chips in the middle earlier than usual when a big bet would reek of "please don't call me" and I'd shove in with a decent sized pocket pair as a 70% favorite. Finally, I took notice of a lot more of the marginal situations like the one I blogged about Friday and tended to err on the side of aggression and generally was rewarded for it. I can't really explain it beyond that, but I do know for a fact that its all the hand histories, tournament recaps, and strategy posts I read on blogs that have single-handedly gotten me from experimenting with aggression to actually employing an at least semi-aggressive strategy within the span of about 8 weeks. So thanks to all of YOU for that.

One thing that is *really* plaguing me at the moment is the ability to get a token. I played 3 of the $8.70 token races yesterday, and have continued to go 0-fer. If you do the simple math here, you'll find that I spent just short of the $26 I was trying to win, which is just enough to REALLY piss a guy off. I'm now 0-fer somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 of these, plus one of the token frenzies. Meanwhile everyone else is out there talking about how soft these are, so I'm pretty much feeling like a total donkey.

Could someone point me in the direction of some good turbo satellite strategy at all? One thing that is obvious to me is that I'm playing WAY too tight. That said, I'm not sure just how loose I need to be. I find myself in situations where someone has jammed and I'm sitting here in MP, 2-4 players left to act behind me w/KJ, A7, 66, etc. These hands are COMPLETELY average and if I'm in a "real" tournament or SNG, there's no way in hell I wanna be calling an all-in with a hand like that with people left to act behind me. The next problem is even when I do manage to double up during one of these things, its nowhere near enough chips to sit on. Generally, I'm used to being able to sit on a double up for a while. Here, I've still gotta be finding spots to try and stack people to make sure I remain ITM. Its tough for me. A third major problem I have is WHEN to get my money in. Its almost as if you need to try and get all your chips in early to put together a stack that you can be aggressive with. But I've found that people aren't apt to mix it up *too* early in these things, and then by 100/200 there's an all-in every hand. I've found that I'll be sitting around waiting for a hand, when I finally get one to push with someone pushes in front of me and its not an all-in calling hand, and the blinds just keep going up. Before you know it there's at least one all-in every hand, and I don't know what I'm looking for, but I guess I'm never finding it.

These things have me more mixed up at a poker table than any other format I've played. I need help. Even just some guidelines. I need some VERY basic questions answered. Questions like what ranges can I be playing and trying to get my money in with, and what ranges can I be calling all-ins with? Do I want to get my money in ASAP, or wait and find a spot to get it in when the thing is just an all-in free for all? Is there any room for any kind of play within a hand, or do I need to just be trying to get all my chips in with the best of it? I'm doing something MAJORLY wrong, and I'm just pissing money down my leg. I truly am one of the donkeys that successful turbo satellite players prey on to get their tokens. I don't want to have to just buy in to $26 events, but right now I've pissed away at least 2-3 $26 buyins just trying to satellite, and that, my friends, makes zero fiscal sense.

Besides my...ahem...skill gap in these things, I get so cold-decked its sickening. Yesterday I ran QQ into KK, 99 into JJ, and lost as an 80% favorite twice in the span of 3 hands. And I've reported on other cold-decks in these sats in the past. So the absolutely shitty cards certainly doesn't help at all when I'm already "strategically challenged".

Anyway, I don't really know what to do at this point. I suppose after going 0-3 satelliting yesterday I'm "back to even" as far as trying to get a token for Sunday's Blogger Bracelet Race, so I'll be trying to win my token again this week. But maybe I'll hold off a couple days and see if I get any feedback before I jump back in the bull ring. Don't forget, I'm also looking for feedback on the few remaining payment processors for US players. Its likely I'll need to liquefy some of my online funds sometime this summer, so I'm hoping I can find a way to do that relatively quickly and painlessly.

So that's it for me. I'll get to play a little extra tonight as the wife won't be home until 8:30 and then we'll watch Heroes, finally back after a several week abscence, on a tape delay. Poker and I are in a really good place right now, so with my head on straighter than its ever been, hopefully I can continue to build momentum and finally find myself solidly in the black as a player. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back with more updates as necessary!

A SNG End Game Big Stack Faceoff Hand

2007-04-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

A post by Mookie and my subsequent comment (please note that I had it wrong in his comment until I came home and reviewed the hand history) made me decide to post about a hand that happened to me Wednesday night. I knew at the time that this was an intriguing hand, but as I stepped through it in my comment to Mookie, it compelled me to post about it here and see if anyone had any thoughts.

We're in the end game stages of a 6-max, blinds at 120/240. There's 4 players left, but two of them are holding on for dear life. With stacks of <2BBs and just over 6BB, their fate is at the hands of the poker gods. Push and pray, baby. We all know that anything can happen, but for all intents and purposes, the money is decided and its just a matter of busting some shorties. At least...that's what I thought.

I was a small chip lead (with 3.7k) and had JQo on the button. 3rd place folds UTG, I raise to 750, hoping to entice the SB to commit his stack (500ish) and tell the 2nd place big blind (3.4k) "I got this". But my plan backfired. Small blind folds, and the 2nd place stack calls in the big.

I'm not thrilled about the call for a couple reasons...
1) I have the kind of hand that I would like with the opportunity to bust a shorty, but not the type of hand I would like to have against a 2nd place chip stack that apparently feels compelled to butt heads.
2) Dude...c'mon...fold! In 10 hands or less we'll probably be heads up.

Flop comes J-high rainbow, which immediately, I don't hate...until he bets out 960 into the 1620 pot. IMO, its a damn decent bet. It could be a value bet or a stab at the pot on a disgustingly raggy flop. You could easily argue both ways. It also basically commits him to the pot, at this point having put more in than he has remaining in his stack. That's a scary prospect that indicates he's ready to go to battle right here, right now. Furthermore, if its a bluff, it couldn't be a worse bluff, because its hard to find a way for him to fold at this point. While I admittedly didn't take all of this into consideration in the moment, I really think for a while about if he could really be ahead here and finally, based on pre and post-flop feel/timing reads, plus my general feeling for his play at this table to this point, I just can't put him on a set (ridiculous cold deck) or JK/AJ (more likely holdings, IMO), and I push. After a little bit of thought, he calls, shows AQ, I dodge his 3-outer, and he's sent packing. After the new 2nd place stack takes out the micro stack, I take the thing down after a short heads up battle.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but this guy had no business going broke here, right? I understand its hard to lay down AQ there, and its probably not right to lay down AQ there. He was getting about 2 to 1 on his call (I don't have PokerStove right in front of me, but AQ has to be 2 to 1 against a random hand), so you have two choices...call and see a flop, prepared to get away from it if you miss, or push (which I'm certain is the favorite choice among bloggers). At this point in the evolution of my game, I would also call and get to a flop, but this close to the money I wouldn't be dicking around betting this flop if I've missed. I'd check-fold and still be sitting solidy in 2nd place. I also wouldn't push my AQ preflop because I see no reason to get all my chips in the middle here unless I'm in a dominating position. On the off chance that I'm against AA, KK, QQ, AK, or any coin flip situation, I just can't find a reason for putting my chips at risk when I'm virtually guaranteed money. A fold would be REALLY hard, but maybe a damn decent argument as well. In fact, I really do think I could fold AQo here. But I digress...the question here is, is there any way to justify the way he played his hand, given my range of hands here, and the fact that he's all but guaranteed money? Because I certainly can't find one. The only hand he beats is A10! He's behind AK, AJ, any other J, and also any pocket pair. He certainly couldn't have been betting or calling for value. The only thing he could've done different is take a stab at the pot with a smaller bet that wouldn't commit him, and fold to my raise. But I really think, if he felt compelled to call preflop, he needed to check-fold to me.

Now...my play. I still like my button raise to get all of the SB's chips all day, every day. I don't think I need to explain that. I feel like my flop play was marginal. Usually I avoid big stack bubble confrontations like this at all costs, and that was my first instinct here as well. But the more I thought about it, I just couldn't see a way he's got KJ, AJ, a set, or an overpair. While I could give reasoning against each hand, I have to admit, my decision was predominately based on a timing read. The way the hand unfolded, it just didn't *feel* like he was ahead. So I saw no reason to give him any more cheap cards, got it all in the middle, and the rest is history. I must note, however, that if I have the same hand and the flop comes down Q-high rainbow, I'm folding. Because I could much more easily see him having KQ or AQ. I think that's worth noting, and would welcome any input on that fact as well.

A couple other things to consider...First, if I put him all in there and he wakes up w/a hand that beats me, am *I* the idiot that shouldn't have been playing back at the other big stack? Did I just get lucky to not be wearing the idiot badge here? I guess I had a read and I went with it, and everything that happens after that is out of my hands, so maybe that's a question not even worth discussing. Secondly, is my attitude in general, to be keeping it pretty close to the vest against the other big stacks when we're virtually guaranteed money, the right attitude to have? I know most pros and/or bloggers are of the "wins, not cashes" attitude, but I find that trying to develop myself as a strong tight-aggressive player, I tend to default to more of a "get to the money and go from there" attitude. However, I don't know if this is a product of the player I'm trying to develop myself as, or if its the circumstance of trying to build a bankroll, and thus theoretically playing outside of my roll every day for the time being to try and get there.

Anyway, it was an interesting hand that saw me step outside of my comfort zone and manage to benefit, and will certainly stick with me. I went from hoping that everything fell into place on the bubble and getting to heads up probably close to 50/50, to getting there in less than 3 hands with a 3.5 to 1 advantage and forcing my way to a pretty easy victory. It was a HUGE swing hand, and I'm happy it went my way.

Everyone have a great weekend, and good luck on the felt!

All's Well that Ends Well

2007-04-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

With the happenings of that last post eating away at me, after a nice dinner and walk with the lady Windbreaker, I just had to go back at it and see what kind of legs this whole variance streak had.

Well, turns out it was just little midget legs. I got back to some pretty strong play, pretty normal cards, and some really terrible players finding themselves on the rail where they belong instead of throwing down suckouts like that's how you play poker. I capped off the night with a couple of wins in a couple of $10 SNGs, and found myself a paltry $22 down and firmly back above the $200 mark, which felt like a win after that ugly 0-5 streak.

So if you wanna read about *real* variance, pay a visit to Fuel or Dragonystic, because my little run is like one bad river compared to what they're going through. Hope that gets turned around for them ASAP.

So I know in this day and age it is not easy, nor necessarily recommended, to be moving money in and out of poker sites, but lets just say I may end up with a need for some of my online bankroll to be liquefied at a certain point this summer, and incase I'm not able to turn my cash roll into something useable (although I'll be trying), I'm wondering what my best method of moving money at this point is going to be. I haven't moved any money since January, which is pre-Neteller desertion, and since then I've only heard random non-specific rumblings about the remaining processors. Could anyone give me some good advice on who they might recommend, or a place I can go to read reviews and/or experiences with who's left? Obviously I'd like it to be as painless and fee-free as possible, but it doesn't sound like there's any real standout remaining.

Also I've really been thinking a lot lately on a blog topic I would LOVE to see. I look at some of your more prominent, hardcore poker bloggers and players like Hoy or LUCKO, and whenever I see a screenshot, they've always got player notes on most of the table. From time to time when a player makes the occasional horrendous or outstanding play that I notice, I'll make note of it. Or when a player is making the same type of play over and over, its obvious that it would be good to note that. But in the end, I usually only end up with notes on 2 or maybe 3 players max in any given SNG I play, but usually not any, and even more rarely in a cash game. Just because nothing ever jumps out at me enough to note. And I haven't even begun to start using the various colors to my advantage. But I'm sure I'm either 1) not looking closely enough, or 2) looking to make too general of a note when I could be just noting individual plays and letting those add up to come together for a good read. Maybe this has been done before, and if so point me in the right direction, but I would LOVE to see a post on player notes and what some of your more prominent bloggers (ie the ones that play and post a lot) note on their opponents. I would love it if I could sit down at a $10 or $20 SNG and have a note on a player I've played with before because every time I play a SNG I get notes on all 5 or 8 of my opponents. Also, the more I'm noting, the more it means I'm paying attention to the players at the table, which also never hurts. Anyway, I know that I could probably start taking down little things here and there and form my own style of note taking, but I am also extremely interested in what others are looking for to note. I'll probably send emails to a couple of bloggers and see if they're at all interested, but if you, my 4 readers, had any particular passion to write about this and maybe we could start some sort of ripple effect on posting on noting strategy, I think it would be one of those things that could really have a strong impact on the blogging community. Its one of those things that I think a lot of people use, but they don't really think or talk about because its just inherent in their game, and for someone like me who is continually looking to improve not only my abilities as a player, but also my reading abilities, and looking for that advantage at a table before a hand is even dealt, a good post or 5 on note-taking would mean worlds to my game.

Anyway, I'm gonna chase down a couple of bloggers and see if they're interested. Hopefully they are, because while I'm thinking about this for my own benefit, I also think it would be a massive benefit to all of us.

Look at that. I did it again. Took a little blog post and turned it into a novel. I guess its just who I am.

I'm outta here. Check ya later.

Blindsided by the Variance Express

2007-04-18T17:25:00.000-05:00

Much like Fuel and Dragonystic, I am currently getting THROTTLED at the tables.

$20 SNG #1 - First hand busto. I wasn't about to let AK go in the big blind to a PF raise, but I am *not* an AK re-raiser. I prefer to get to a flop with it. The flop was pretty dreamy and I can't put anybody on an 8, so I call off all my chips fairly quickly hoping to be in a dominating position or against a flush draw. In a dominating position I was, and proceed to get bitch-slapped on the turn. Turns out the flush draw would've gotten home, too, so I was probably destined to lose this hand.

$20 SNG #2 - Sixth hand I try and push my 2 pair hard, I'm pretty certain I flopped the best hand, but I can't find any way I'm ahead on the river, let alone the turn. After a couple orbits and some failed blind steals we find ourselves on hand 21. I check my option in the big blind, turn an ugly little 2 pair that is undoubtedly the best hand at the time, get my money in good, and his draw gets home. I didn't realize until just now that he was open-ended w/the pair, so its not *as* brutal as it originally felt, but it still stings plenty.

At this point, I realize that luck is NOT on my side and make a smart decision to drop down.

$10 SNG #1 - Here's a fun one. Admittedly, I probably played this terribly, but hey...I'm a pocket pair limper. This could've happened either way, and the fact remains that I'm an 80% favorite preflop against his hand. UTG w/10s, I limp, as do 4 others. Flop comes 9-high. SB bets out, I raise it up, player goes all-in behind me, and I make a relatively easy call, expecting to see A9. No such luck. I go home on hand number 9, when a standard coin flip turns into me getting backdoored. Turns the straight, and twists the knife with the river flush.

$10 SNG #2 - After systematically dorking away a few chips raising and missing and calling a bet w/2nd pair, we find ourselves at hand 18, where I can't get a monster draw home. At this point I tread water through bad cards and increasing blinds, until push monkey time, where after some thought, I decide to push all-in, in a spot where I really felt like I was going to be a 40% dog and/or didn't have much of a choice. I was exactly right, and my heart flip-flopped a little when I flopped my Q, but then the poker gods returned us to our regularly scheduled programming when he turned another 9 to end the suspense. Fantastic.

$10 SNG #3 - This game was actually pretty average...assuming by "average" you mean "never getting above your starting stack". I showed a little bit of promise in some spots, actually making a hand or two, but like I said, nothing is too terribly impressive if you never get above your starting stack. In the end I proved I couldn't win as a favorite, a slight dog, or dead even, and this saga is complete.

Now I know I didn't play some of these hands top notch, and others are pretty average beats, but it just goes to show that when variance hits, variance hits hard.

I'm actually not terribly disheartened with the whole matter. I'd been running pretty damn decent, and I didn't stick to the $20s like a moron. I'm at $177, down about $80 in an hour and 45 mins or so, which is just an atrocious amount of time to burn through 5 SNGs. Next time I play, be that tonight, tomorrow, or whenever, I'm gonna try 2 more $10s, and if I'm still getting b-slapped, I'll drop down to the fivers. I'm not about to let this skid break me, that much I know.

Anyway, just a rare little afternoon/quickie post for me because I felt like I just had to share. Especially the 1st hand 3-outer massacre.

Off to real life for me. Enough of this crap.

100% + 33% = 133%

2007-04-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

Well, while I didn't technically hit my goal of reaching $300 online on Friday, by the time my poker weekend was over, I had improved my bankroll 33% to bring it back up over $400 for the first time since the WSOP Circuit Event in January.

I don't have many specifics to report from my day off on Friday. It was just a whirlwind of SNGs. That's one thing I can be majorly proud of is that I didn't play outside my roll, I stuck to the SNGs (my bread and butter), and didn't take shots messing around in MTTs, token races, or anything like that. How many times have I harped on this in the past?? Friday was purely about strong play and strong discipline. FINALLY. Unfortunately, Friday was also about losing coin flips like it was my job. For the first part of the day I'd play my sets of 2 SNGs, blank in one, and take 2nd in the other, netting $-1. I couldn't win heads up to save my life, either losing a coin flip for all my chips, or pushing my little ace into a bigger ace. Finally later in the day I managed to put together some profitability, and when all was said and done I was a $40 winner. The hourly rate was by no means impressive, but it got me to the highest point in my online bankroll since January, and I felt like I did it with less than average luck.

The real interesting part Friday was that I was looking around in the MTTs seeing if there were any cheap 6-max to play and there happened to be a freeroll kicking off. Without even seeing what it was, I went ahead and registered, because a little freeroll action never hurt anyone. I managed to figure out it was a Main Event qualifier of some sort, but wasn't too concerned beyond that. Until after the first hand. In the BB I find A3h, and it checks around to me with 5 limpers. The flop comes down with 2 hearts. SB checks, I go ahead and bet, I get re-raised all-in, and it calls all the way around to the SB who folds. I make the obvious call, miss the turn, but spike the nuts on the river and all of the sudden I've got 7500 chips and am in 7th out of 300. I manage to continue to hit cards early and run my stack up another 1500 or so, and I'm playing probably the 2nd deepest I ever have in any MTT (I seem to recall chipping up to about 10k early in a Poker.com tourney once). I'm gonna be honest, I continued to concentrate on my SNGs and don't know what the hell even happened, but I put in my best ABC poker effort on the thing and managed to hang around and hang around and hang around. I never really dropped out of the top 20 until we got in the neighborhood of 3-4 tables, then it was 27th out of 35, 13th out of 27, 8th out of 15, and then I found myself at the final table on the short stack, still waiting for my exit. Only 1st place paid a seat to the 2nd Round freeroll, so it was all or nothing. While I was waiting for a hand to push with 9th place fell, then 8th, then 7th, and even 6th. I managed to steal a couple blinds, but was still nursing a 10BB stack. But with only 5 left now I'm thinking if I find a way to double up I've got as good of a shot as anyone. I finally do manage to find A10, but someone has me dominated w/AJ, and I go home in 5th out of 315. It really was a blip on the radar, but even in a turbo freeroll 5th out of 315 is a confidence booster. That freeroll paid one seat to Level 2, which paid 9 seats to Level 3, which had a guaranteed 2 seats to the Main Event. Well, someone's gonna win those seats, so I figured why not me? Anyway, it was a fun little run, and whenever I've told any of my friends I start it off with "Man I got so close to winning a seat in the Main Event"...haha...

Friday was also my monthly home game, which saw our biggest turnout ever. First tourney had 20 runners, the 2nd had 24, and the third had 14 players and a prize pool of 17 after rebuys. I managed to work my way to 4th place and a micro cash in the first. I was a short stack before we even got to the final table and I managed to flop trip queens in the BB on an attractive board. We checked the flop and the turn brought a 9, which promped one of our LAGs to bet. It was called in a couple places, as well as by me. The river was another gorgeous 9, UTG bet again, another caller or two, I got it all in, and tripled or quadrupled up w/Qs full vs. 9s full vs junk. That got me to the final table with a decent stack, but the blinds eventually got so big it was a crap shoot and I couldn't find any cards. That paid for my buyin and my beer money to the house. So I was even. The 2nd tournament, which I *really* wanted to score in due to the 11x buyin 1st place prize, was a HUGE disappointment. Early on in the big blind I flopped a medium flush draw on a paired board. I wanted to get to the turn cheaply and it checked around. The turn brought my flush, but I still checked it since it was just a baby. A player in MP bets 100 (25/50 blinds, 1500 starting stacks, 15 minute levels, blinds double every level), so to see where I'm at I raise it to 400. He labors over it for a while and smooth calls. The river falls blank, I check to him again, he bets 500 this time, and even though it looks like an ugly situation I feel compelled to call. I flip my baby flush and he rolls two fours for flopped quads. I wanted to be sick. Shortly after that I got my last 600ish in with 22 on a 10 10 7 board. Two callers, one with a 10, and I'm done in 21st place. I was SO tilted by that quads hand, called the wife, went and ate some food, licked my wounds, and waited for the cash game. We play a little .25/.50 on the side until the tourneys are over, and finally the tourney combined to two tables and we fired up a cash game. I bought in for $10, and for a couple of orbits I didn't see any cards, while chips were all headed to one guy and I was afraid the action would dry up. I finally won like a $4 pot and got up above my buyin, but then gave it back relatively quickly trying to bluff at pots. Back down below my original buy-in, the tournament finally wraps up. I declare it will be our last hand, and I look down to find QQ in the SB. I couldn't have loved it more. At the 7-handed table, there are 3 callers around to me. I make it $2.50 to go for a couple of reasons. First, if I take down this pot right now, I'm about even and I'm just fine with that. Second, there is one major LAG at a table and I don't think he'd folded to a raise the entire time, so I do NOT want to slow play and not at least make him pay to suckout on me. It also didn't hurt that the BB was a shorty and $2.50 would definitely commit him. Well I got calls in 3 spots and down came the flop. The only thing I loved more than the two queens was the flop...a 9-high rainbow. I bet $3, the BB called off the rest of his chips, whatever they were, the LAG raised all-in, and the next seat called him. The last two callers were basically playing because it was the last hand. I may not have gotten this action any other time. Anyway, I declared all-in, and the late position player called that. We see some cards. BB has junk, LAG has A9, and I don't even remember what the other LP player had. J8 or something. I manage to hold up and scoop a big pot somewhere north of $30, more than tripling my buyin, and taking me from the megaist of tilt to the highest of highs. We played one more tourney with rebuys and I just dicked around for at least the first 30 mins with rebuys in effect. After my brother-in-law snapped me off when I was betting a hand blind and forced me to fold on the turn forfeiting about 600 chips, I found myself on a short stack with less than 15 mins to the end of the rebuy period. Needing a rebuy, I didn't raise with AJ and got it all-in against a flopped pair of Qs, and with about 5 mins left until rebuys were over I had mine and it was time to get down to business. I managed to make the final table as the short stack and again found that while I maybe should have gone out these other stacks kept dropping. On the bubble, I managed to double up off another short stack when I flopped top pair in the BB and he flopped 2nd in the small. Then after that I eventually found a real hand, and before I knew it, I was a contender. I managed to work my way to heads up against my brother-in-law at a massive disadvantage, and after trying to fight for a few hands I finally gave up and pushed w/J9 when I knew I was beat as it was late and people were looking to get home. I'd be more than happy with $30 profit on the night considering some good luck I had in the 1st and 3rd tourneys and the cash game, and the bad luck I had in the 2nd tourney. So that makes me a pretty decent winner for several months in a row now, and capped off another fun as hell poker night.

Its getting out of hand here, so I'll try and be quick with my Saturday update. My wife was crazy hungover, so while she rested I hit the tables. With $237 in the account and feeling pretty strong, I went ahead and played a $22 SNG. This thing was a major roller coaster and was dominated by one very strong player getting very strong cards, but I managed to back my way into 2nd and felt good about cashing for the first time ever in a $20 SNG (I'd taken some other shots back in the day while employing poor bankroll management and pretty much gotten throttled). I say I backed my way into the money because with 3 left I was the shorty, but then 2nd place went AFK and the big stack and I pretty well cleaned him out before he got back and ended up pushing into a dominated situation with the leader. But that'll happen, and I still feel like I was strong enough to outlast that player anyway...but we'll never know. I'm just happy to cash, regardless. The bad news is that while I was playing 1 $22 SNG, I also played 2 $11 SNG and went 0-fer in those. I remember them as being ridiculous and irritating the shit out of me. I think maybe in one I might have majorly screwed up and in the other I got majorly screwed, but I dunno. So at that point I was down $2. I didn't have time for any more SNGs as it was about time to go see Lewis Black, so I decided to fire up some .10/.25 NL and give it a go. I think I found my happy place with cash games. IMO, the key to being successful at cash games online is to find the perfect balance for your skills at a certain level, coupled with the number of tables that allows you to both not get bored and play good poker. While I normally suck at multitabling and hate having more than 2 tourneys open at a time, I was on cruise control with 4 tables open. It was just the right amount of action to keep hands coming so that I wasn't dicking around chasing marginal hands and trying to make plays because I'm bored, but I was also able to play strong ABC poker and maximize my profitability against these donkeys. So I think I've got it figured out...tourneys + multitabling = bad...cash + multitabling = good. You just have to find the right balance of number of tables to play based on the level you're playing at. The lower the level and the greater advantage you have over the table, the more tables you can play because its pretty much ABC poker and reads don't mean a lot. But I can certainly see as you move up in levels and your advantage over the competition gets lesser and reads become more important, you don't wanna get too out of hand with multitabling. I know, I know...welcome to 2004...but hey...I've proven that the basics in profitable poker have a way of evading my grasp. Anyway, four seemed to be the magic number for me at .10/.25 as I felt like I was keeping busy, in a zone, and playing profitable poker. It got a little dicey when I'd make hands at 3 or even 4 tables at the same time, but I find it hard to complain if something like that is gonna be happening. I think I had a nice run of above average luck and hands, but winning is winning, and I won about $20 in 40 mins or so. I even let $20 slip through my fingers when I folded 99 to a raise and a re-raise and would've flopped quads and stacked a guy, but that'll happen from time to time. It was a good fold. I was gonna pay $1.10 to see a flop, but not $3. That got me to $255, and I'll be playing at least 2 more $20 SNGs without any fear of severe bankroll depletion.

So that about sums it up. Great weekend for me, and hopefully I can continue the slow and steady approach and keep this thing headed in the right direction.

Its coming up on my 100th post and a year since I started blogging, and as I become more engrained in this community, it amazes me how close-knit it is. While I've yet to play one of the regular weekly blogger tournaments, I hope to soon, but something I definitely want to get involved in is the Blogger Bracelet Races that Al has put together. There's one strictly for bloggers where you have to email for the password, and then he's put together another with a non-secret password under his Riverchasers moniker. Click on the link above to get the details on both. Plus, there's the Blogger Poker Challenge that Al, Mook, and I believe Hoy all were involved in conceiving. Plus, its sponsored by Poker On A Mac, which is run by an awesome guy and is a cause close to my Apple loving heart. Anyway, I know all of this is old news, but I feel like I should pimp because with any luck, as the TV schedule begins to wind down and I start spending more of my nights playing poker and less of them watching TV, and, (poker) god(s) willing, my bankroll continues to grow, maybe I can get my foot in the door among some of these big name bloggers. I'll never have as good of a blog as any of them, but what the community has done for my game in the last 9 months is immesurable.

Anyway, this post has gotten ridiculously long at this point, so I'm gonna let it go. I'll be back when the time is right.

The Plan in Accordance with The Plan

2007-04-12T15:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Update Time

2007-04-11T15:05:00.000-05:00

Well its been...a while...since I posted, so I'd say its high time for an update. Shouldn't be a lot to it. Pretty much...still doing well...still feeling positive.

I actually haven't played since last Monday, the 2nd, because I could tell my wife was getting a little irritated with me delaying dinners and such, and also because I had started to run a little badly and just decided a break wouldn't hurt me.

Now...tonight I should get a good 5 or so hours in, so hopefully I can hit the ground running. I've always played through variance and never tried to sit it out, so I'm hoping the 9 day abscence will see the previously lurking variance just deciding to pass me by.

At any rate, I stand at about $226 right now thanks to this morning's rakeback payment, and although I was previously excited about moving up to the $22s, I don't have any immediate plans to do so. Tonight's plan is to ease myself back in with a couple of $10 6-max SNGs, then depending on how that goes I'll also be looking for the $24 token frenzies and maybe even the $75. If anyone knows off the top of their head when those are, please leave me a comment. Otherwise I'll just try and find them. Assuming I haven't straight up lost every attempt, I will turn my focus to the 90 player deep stack SNGs and have a run there. I *really* like these tournaments (the deep stack part, mainly), and feel like I have a strong chance if I get any semblance of cards. I've played a couple and piddled out in the middle of the pack, but I was never dedicating the level of focus that I'd like to. This is where, bankroll permitting, I may invest in a $22 one just incase I can make a deep run and give myself a shot at a big(ger) score. Regardless, with the deep stacks, I will get a good bang for my 22 bucks. I can keep a 6-max or a .10/.25 table going in the background just to try and pick up a little extra dough along the way as well.

It will be important that I don't get overzealous. Not having played in a week and getting an entire night dedicated to poker could add up to bad news for me. I tend to get a little crazy trying to play and win as MUCH as I can as FAST as I can in these rare opportunities and don't play at the top of my game. Also, the superstition in me looks at the fact that I have NEVER done well when I have had a dedicated chunk of time to online poker. Its always a combination of getting wild/overzealous like I referred to above and just running like shit. So hopefully I can buck that trend tonight and make some significant forward progress as opposed to just treading water or worse.

I'm very happy with where I'm at and how things are going. I still feel confident and strong at the $10 6-max level, but I'm starting to get that itch again to take some chances and make that big score. That said, I'll stick to satellites within my bankroll and hope for the best. I'd like to get back to trying a few of the token turbos/frenzies each week and using those for MTT shots, meanwhile continuing to work my way up with the 6-max SNGs and very low stakes NL HE cash. I have vowed to myself that I will stick strictly to my bankroll, and I will not let variance beat my ass again. If I'm still running bad tonight I will promptly jump down to the $5 SNGs and play through it, or even the $2s if I need to. My goal is to not drop below $200, and I will retain that goal as I progress forward through each successive $100 increment. Maybe its a silly way to go about it, but it will also be just one more step to discipline myself for good bankroll management.

Anyway, at this point I'm just rambling about crap none of you 4 loyal readers give two strokes about.

Bottom line is that I will be on all night tonight, starting at 4:30 CST or 5-5:30 CST depending on whether or not I'm ambitious enough to work out. Hell, IM me! My AOL IM screenname is in my profile. Or if someone wants to clue me in on the legendary "girlie chat" you all talk about, I can show up there. I may even play The Mookie if I'm feeling up to it. Starting an MTT at 9 CST is pretty late for me, but I went to bed early last night so maybe I can push the envelope tonight. ;-)

I also had a live 3/6 session a couple weeks back that I'll have to report on sometime. It was f'n ridiculous. But I must be growing as a poker player because I can actually laugh about just how ridiculous it was, instead of whining about the $100 it cost me.

I'll check ya later.

Hand Analysis Wrap-Up

2007-03-22T13:46:00.000-05:00

First off, thanks to those that stopped by to toss in their two cents on the hand. I have a couple loyal readers and had to go plant a couple of seeds to draw in some extra help, but the good information that came out of it is priceless, no matter what.

Now, instead of commenting I thought I'd wrap this up with a post addressing my feedback.

Matt's feedback was very helpful because he indicates that he plays at the same level. This is immesurably important. I very much value *any* opinion, Matt, so thanks so much for taking the initiative to stop by after reading my plea for help in Hoy's comments. In regards to the min-raise with an uber-premium hand (AA or KK), it is true that it doesn't make sense here, but again this is where the level at which I'm playing is important. They LOVE to min-raise monsters at this level so that they can say they raised but still whine when they get sucked out on. That is a crucial part of the donkey bad beat story. They don't understand that a min-raise means nothing and that these hands do not hold up in multi-way pots. They get a monster and in their minds the hand is won. So although I'd love to, unfortunately I can't rule out AA or KK here. I do very much like your suggestion of a smaller bet, thus less committing me to this pot. I took into brief consideration that this wasn't a big drawing flop, but I hated betting even half the pot, let alone less than that. However, if I'm getting raised, its likely A) for all my chips, B) by a hand that beats mine, or both. Like you say, a smaller bet gets me all the information I need, and gives me all the more reason to fold when I'm check-raised. I did not consider just how weak of a drawing hand this was, and how little I could've bet to find out what I needed. Your third point is poignant and important. I've thought about it a lot over the past couple of days. I'm an odds guy, so the answer to your question comes down to odds. In the spot I put myself in, getting 4 to 1 on my money with TPTK and the range I'm up against, I can't fold. But if I put out a smaller probe bet like you suggest, thus decreasing my odds when it comes time to call off all my chips, I could have laid this hand down. Anyway, thanks for stopping by Matt, and I'll have to get you added to my Google Reader!

Next was Michael. The key thing I take away from his comment is AK wants to be in a small pot (preferably heads up with position) preflop, or all in preflop. That takes this giant pain of an ass hand and pretty well sums it up. While there's obviously a little more to the hand based on suit, position, players in the pot, etc, this statement at least lays a foundation for playing the hand. Beyond that he pretty much thought through the hand like I did. You can't fold it to the PF min-raise (of my initial raise), and you can't check it on the flop, which leads to his short answer. And, of course, he set me straight on the term "Fold Equity". I know when I first flagged down this term it was in the context that he describes, but I still think it makes at least a little sense in reference to leaving yourself fold equity. But I guess I won't go out on a limb and try to give a new definition to the term. I'll just try not to embarass myself using shit wrong again.

And finally, Hoy. I really love the first thing he discusses in regards to limping UTG or in very early position w/AK. I have already started doing this w/AQ. Fact of the matter is, AK is the best possible DRAWING hand, and the cheapest you can get to the flop with it, the better. Now, you want to push out other unpaired hands, but as the first to act, raising it can get you into trouble if there are better hands behind you. The other problem with my game and this strategy is that I am not a PF RE-raiser with AK. I've seen this a lot on TV and in blog posts recently, so maybe I need to start testing out this strategy. I just hate the idea of re-raising w/AK and either running into another re-raise, or whiffing the flop. But I will definitely experiment with the limp-reraise AK strategy going forward. And Hoy...easy with the "just" $5.50 buyin, there, buddy. Keep in mind we're dealing with a $60 bankroll, so I'm technically playing out of my roll by indulging in a $5.50. ;-)

The common theme in all three of these comments is the PF push, and I agree that this might have been my best move. I think Hoy said it best when he said "you're preserving your chance to see all 5 cards on the board (thus maximizing the value of your AK)". It would've been interesting to see if this guy would've gone to battle with his AJ, or if I go ahead and take down an already ripe 20 BB chip pot. Regardless, I will certainly stop and think about how to best play my AK just a few seconds longer from here on out. Thanks again to all the commenters who took the time.

Moving on...poker gods be damned, I am on FIRE. My roll increased from $29 to $60 on Monday, $60 to $120 Tuesday, and then another $21 to $141 yesterday. I'm running good, and the $5 and $10 6-MAX on Full Tilt are a freaking joke. They play just like a turbo. These people seem to think that fewer players equals finding any decent hand and getting as many chips in the middle as possible. So I sit back and drag the orphaned pots and try and pick people off in big spots as best I can. There is ZERO patience. Tuesday night I played in one where we were heads up with blinds at 25/50. Yes folks, that's level two. I came from a 2500 to 6500 chip deficit to win when my opponent got impatient by 80/160. I'd say the average level you get to heads up is 60/120 or 80/160, which leaves an average stack 28-38 big blinds. Patience is absolutely the number one key in these things. If you let these players suck you into their LAG & jam game, you are unnecessarily putting too much at risk. Its so easy to sit back, be patient, and pick your spots. I don't know why they play so much different than the full table SNGs, but they're a night and day difference.

So for now I'm riding the wave, and hopefully I can ride it all the way to the $20 level and beyond. But I'll be on the look out around every corner for that next bout with variance.

Check ya later I guess.

My First Hand Analysis

2007-03-20T12:55:00.000-05:00

I just had this post damn near done and I went to save it so I could go to lunch and it took me to an error page, telling me my HTML tag wasn't closed and when I clicked Back...POOF!

PISSED OFF. Thanks for that, Blogger. So here goes attempt number two...

I have my first real hand analysis I'd like to get some feedback on. This hand just really bugs me for several reasons and I'd be interested in knowing if I played it like total trash or just got unlucky, cuz I keep going back and forth.

This is the SECOND HAND of a $5.50 6-max SNG. I am UTG and have AK suited. With blinds at 15/30, I make it 125 to go. There are three MP callers, SB folds, and then the BB min re-raises to 220. I'm not fond of my spot here with a premium, albeit drawing, hand, a min-raise, 3 left to act, and no position. I can't fold, and I feel like a real re-raise would commit me (with "nothing"), so I just call and see how interested the other MP players are. One folds, and unfortunately two others call.

Flop: A 6 J rainbow.

This is about as good of a flop as I could hope for, but at the $5.50 level there could easily be someone in this pot with a hand that is killing me. The BB (the aggressor) checks, putting me in yet another precarious spot. This guy either whiffed or flopped a monster (and boy do they love the check-raise at this level, so I'm already expecting it), but which could it be? And with people yet to act after me, I don't want to give up the lead on this hand or a free card after showing strength and flopping a damn good hand. I bet 500, leaving me 700 behind for ~~fold equity~~(I had a feeling I was using that wrong...thanks Michael) a little to live on if I get check-raised. Miraculously, the MP players both fold, so I had no other choice than to put them on mid-pocket pairs or good folds w/a weak A or J. The BB wastes little time in check-raising me all in. Now I kept my 700 for ~~fold equity~~ something to live on, but to call off 700 into a 2750 chip pot, I start to think about this...

His most obvious holdings are AA, KK, or AK. Unfortunately at this level a PF re-raise could also mean AQ, AJ, A10, and QQ-1010 or so. I have to logically rule out AA with the presence of the case two aces. As sick as that would be, and we've all seen it before, I can't play scared of AA. I'm now slaughtering KK, and I'm tied w/AK. That leaves JJ, AJ, or 66 that has me in bad shape. Again, it would take some major cojones (or a complete lack of poker skill) to PF re-raise 66 with four people in the pot for a 4xBB raise from UTG, so I have to logically rule that out. JJ is a likely holding, and I should probably go broke against it. AJ would just really make me sick given the PF re-raise in a 4 way pot and odds against my hand preflop, but I know its a fully valid possibility. They love AJ at this level. In the end, I'm only scared of two hands that would be no beter than 30% to have just outflopped me, and I'm tied with another likely holding, so I don't think I can lay it down. Plus, my gut read felt like a busted KK making a play at the pot. I made the call, and don't improve against AJo.

Now first, this is everything I hate about low limits online. This guy makes an absolutely horrific play by "normal" poker standards and gets paid off for it in a HUGE way. I know that I love for people to make plays like this and blah blah blah, but why can't they pull this shit against other donkeys instead of me? If I were at that table and I would've seen that hand, my sights would've been locked and loaded on that stack, cuz you know he's just gonna spew 'em off in much the same manner. But I digress...

So what could I have done and had chips after this hand? Lets look...
A. Folded UTG
Pros - I still have chips.
Cons - Fold AK suited to no raise? Come on...
Verdict - No f'n way.

B. Three-bet PF
Pros - With 3 people to act behind me, I give myself a shot at isolating my hand against the aggressor, who either has a monster or is making a terrible play. Or if the BB happens to fold I scoop a nice pot.
Cons - A reasonable re-raise would probably have me putting out a 750 or so chip bet, or just pushing. If the BB calls less than a push, my money is likely going in anyway w/TPTK and ridiculous pot odds. If the BB 4-bets me all-in (if he even can?), I have to give him credit for AA or KK and could either fold w/500 chips left, or just get it in good and kill myself after the flop. If the BB calls my push, see above. All this, and I'm still worried about the 3 left to act.
Verdict - There is a slight chance I get away from this hand w/500 chips or so, but I'm going broke if it all goes in PF, or still going broke if I flop TPTK. I don't like the outcome.

C. Fold to the re-raise.
Pros - I get away from a draw and impending doom early in this SNG with over 1250 chips and live to take the donkey out.
Cons - With so many people in the pot I'm bound to either be dominating or a flop away from the best hand. With 125 invested and another 750 in the pot its hard to not at least see a flop for 95 chips with the biggest drawing hand there is.
Verdict - While this probably would've been the easiest spot to get away from impending doom, I can't justify a fold with AK suited with 7 to 1 on my money.

D. Check the flop.
Pros - It either checks around and I get an opportunity to reassess on the turn, or one of the MP players bets and gets check-raised, giving me a nice spot to get away from the hand with a clear conscience.
Cons - This is a horribly weak play. Assuming I have the best hand, I have to bet out for value and to get draws out of the hand. The other 7 times out of 10 that I've flopped a dominatingly good hand, I cannot give 3 other players a free card.
Verdict - While its weak as hell to check this flop and my number one focus is getting away from weak/tight, someone besides myself getting check-raised is my easiest ticket out of this hand. This is easily my most intriguing option.

E. Bet the flop bigger or push all-in.
Verdict - We don't even need pros and cons here. Given the hand, this option is basically irrelevant. By betting the flop bigger I reduce the pot odds of drawers, but in the case of this hand the MP players still fold, I still get check-raised all-in, and with less ~~fold equity~~ left to play with my decision to call becomes that much easier.

So I think that about covers it. By talking through it here, it seems like the best way for me to get out of the hand would've been check-folding the flop, but it only would've been made an easy decision if one of the MP players bet, which they likely wouldn't have if they folded to my 1/2 pot bet. It seems to me that any reasonably aggressive play in this hand pretty much gets all my chips in the middle. I think I just got fairly horribly unlucky.

Please take some time to share your opinion if you have one.

Things have been starting to trend back up, but still when I lose, I LOSE. Which isn't a bad thing, because getting sucked out on just means you're getting your money in good. So I'll just keep doing that as best I can!

I'm not abiding strictly to the standard "SNG Challenge" structure in that if I get above $22.50, I'm playing the $5.50s, and if I get to $66, I'm gonna move up to the $11s. But at that point I'll wait until $220 to move up to the $22s, since that's uncharted territory. I've also switched to 6-max because they play a lot looser and dumber, plus they're quicker. I've found they play a lot like a turbo, and an ABC TAG game will get you to the final three, at which point the blind to stack ratio is pretty large and there's definitely some play. I've had a couple of marathon HU matches in these 6-max, both of which I came out on the losing end of, and both of which REALLY irritated me the way my opponents played and won. But thanks to a nice chunk of rakeback and 3 wins out of 5 tables last night I'm up to $60, so if I can cash in another $5.50, I'll get at least one shot at the $11s again. My focus for the next couple weeks will just be trying to generate rake and get as much of my $50 FT bonus cleared as I can, so I'd like to get settled in at at least the $11 level.

BTW, if you didn't get an email or haven't heard about it, you should be able to go to the "Requests" menu in your Full Tilt client and select the "Check my bonus offer..." option and have a no deposit required bonus from them. This is the first no-deposit bonus I've been offered, so mad props from me to Full Tilt!

So I guess I'll check ya later!

Dump & Run

2007-03-12T12:02:00.000-05:00

Not a whole lot to report for this weekend, other than some displeasure with Full Tilt for causing me to prevent my blogger tourney cherry from being popped yet again.

When the BloggerPods didn't go off last weekend as planned, I signed on either Sunday night or Monday morning when Full Tilt was again available and signed up for the rescheduled tourney for this Sunday. I know this for a fact because I got bothered at least once this week by a freeroll whore who would've seen me on the list and wanted the password. But lo and behold I wander upstairs no more than a minute before 6:00 (I may or may not have been dozing in front of the NASCAR race and my wife had to yell at me), fire up Full Tilt, and I was puzzled when a table didn't open. With SNGs you have to go the SNG tab for your tables to open, so I went to the tournaments tab. When a table didn't open this time, my heart sunk. Sure enough, I flagged down the BloggerPods tourney, it was f'ing SEATING, and there was no seat for me. If I just would've planned to be up there a couple mins early just incase I'd have been fine, but the poker gods gave me just one more big ol' fisting.

Other than that, I killed my home game on Friday, so that was nice. I broke the same guy early in both of the first two tourneys (combination of good luck and his terrible LAG style) and managed to cruise to nice little wins in them, then in the third, while I never did anything huge I played a strong tourney and hung in for 3rd and a little profit. I won $55, which isn't too damn shabby for $5 tourneys and only 12, 12, and 10 players. That brings my cash bankroll up to $190 again, and makes me feel at least a little bit better about my roll with plans to head to Council Bluffs on the 23rd and play some 3/6 with a buddy. We planned to go play a session at the local casino, then I remembered I've got an $80 voucher from my trip to CB for the WSOP, plus they sent me a free buffet, so I figured another $80 (that I actually didn't lose but they thought I did, so it is truly free money) to the roll and the buffet is totally worth the 3 hours of drive time and $20 or so in gas. So I'm excited to get back to a live session for the first time since late Jan, but I will definitely be steering clear of 1/2 NL for a while, and am looking forward to being able to play some straight up math poker at the 3/6 table.

Played 2 SNGs on Saturday that I was pretty indifferent about. In the first one I made steady forward progress and then doubled up through the LAG chip leader when I flopped a set and he flopped TPTK and I got it all in on the turn. I should've taken the thing down easily, heading into heads up with an 8k to 5k advantage, but I doubled up my opponent when I knew I was beat w/A-rag. He had AK. I struggled back up to about 8 to 5 a couple times, but ended up getting all-in PF in the BB w/QK vs a limped AA. Not much I can do there. He picked a perfect time to limp rockets, but my money probably would've gone in preflop no matter what. It just never felt like I was gonna win after I got my money in bad and knew it against that AK. The 2nd one was actually a really nice test of game as I went up early, then had what I felt was a very well excecuted bluff with unimproved suited gappers in a raised pot called down by an unimpoved AJo after I called PF, bet the medium rainbow flop, checked the face card turn, and then bet 3/4 pot on the river. I thought it was a pretty good bluff for a flopped set, but my opponent didn't buy it. So after that and a bunch of unimproved preflop limps I found myself nearing the 10xBB mark w/9 left. I started hitting a few hands and scooping pots with pushes and managed to work my way back up into as high as 2nd with 7 left. After a couple more dropped there were 5 of us, all with stacks in the 2k range and the blinds relatively low. We passed some chips around for a while and it looked like a couple might drop, but they'd always manage to get back in it. Eventually the blinds got to be significant so I got to the point where I was less waiting for another couple to drop and more looking for my own spot to get it in. I found that spot w/KQo on the button and even though there was a PF push in front of me, I really felt like I'd be in good shape. This guy was a pretty competent player, so I figured if he had a real hand, he'd want value, so I figured I was 40-60% and made the call. He showed 9s, and when I flopped two pair I just didn't feel like I was out of the woods. A 9 on the river confirmed my suspicions and I was out in 5th. I won a whopping $.90 on the session, but it was my first winning session in over a week, so I walked away feeling good about the fact that I was even making hands and in a position to cash. At the same time, I managed my heads up match terribly and am not happy about it.

Probably won't be playing a whole lot this week for various reasons (anniversaries and 69 degree weather keeps a guy away from the computer pretty easily) throughout the week plus the fact that we're headed to Kansas City to party with my brother for St. Patty's Day. My shirt should come in the mail today. On the front it has a leprechaun with a beer and says "Official Irish Drinking Team" and on the back it has "Windbreaker" and the number 53, my old basketball number (and the hand I've been considering to be my bluffing hand). So it should be nice to take a little road trip this weekend and party in a unique place for St. Patty's Day.

Warning: Bad Beat Story Ahead

2007-03-08T11:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't played in a couple days, but I have a couple more hands I want to share from my Monday session.

I'm at a .05/.10 table in LP. Folds around to MP, who limps. I make it .50 to go w/AJo. This is generally a PREMIUM hand at this level, so I'll take callers or blinds, whatever. BB calls my .50, as does MP, and away we go! Flop comes XAJ. It checks to me, and I bet .50 again. Called in 2 places. Turn is a Q. BB checks, MP bets .50, I call, BB calls. Now I'm worried about AQ and K10. The river is a blank, BB checks, MP bets like $1.20, I call (cuz I gotta see it so I can tell this story), and BB calls. I know I'm dead, but I did not expect BB AND MP to flip over...AQ...and split the pot. I flop 2 pair and these guys are drawing to 2 outs or runner-runner...and hit.

The other isn't so exciting and relatively routine, except for the whole "kicking him while he's down" factor involved here. I buy into a new, fresh, 50% PPF, .05/.10 table and pick up KK in my 2nd hand. I reraise a PF raiser, and it folds back around to him, who pumps me again. Now in a bigger game I honestly would've considered folding here, but at .05/.10 players could be pushing anything from K10 suited to any pocket pair. So I get the rest of it in the middle and lose to his AA.

Am I too jaded if I start calling KK vs AA all-in preflop "routine"??

Anyway, just wanted to get these hands on the record for posterity. Imagine the chuckle I'll get when I have a 7 figure bankroll and look back on these old blog posts.

*removes tongue from cheek*

The Unbreakable Streak

2007-03-06T18:46:00.000-06:00

Well, it continues...

With 42ish left in a $5, 90 person SNG, I was at the back of the field with my 2500ish. Average stack was at about 6500, but blinds were at 80/160, so I wasn't yet even close to worried, but I was certainly nearing push or fold poker. I find JQd in mid-late position and limp. Flop comes K 6 10 rainbow. A flop I'm quite fond of. Miraculously, it checks 5 spots around. Turn is Ac, a card I'm even more fond of. Two clubs on the board, but I hold the current nuts with one card to come. Then the dream scenario unfolds. SB pushes his last 1200 or so. I slow call, hoping that maybe the LP player w/6k will push over the top. He pushes over the top. I instacall and reveal the bad news. A7 in the SB is dead, and the big stack's two pair isn't looking so hot. Then the poker gods reveal a piece of bad news of their own, spiking one of the 3 outs left in the deck.

I'd pay you all a dollar, but I only have 22 left.

$2.25 SNGs, here I come! Four days and counting, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll really be able to play through this.

Ummmm...Ouch?

2007-03-05T13:32:00.000-06:00

I am running SO badly.

Just as I was about to hit my stride and had even caught a glimpse of moving up to the $20 SNGs, I have hit a mad rush of card-deadedness and vicious suckouts unlike anything I've seen before.

Before I go on, however, I must admit that I was due. So I'm coping well. I had been running ridiculously hot, getting cards, hitting flops, and sucking out. But it doesn't matter how high the highs were, the lows always feel like a vicious blow to the gut.

So I've gone from I think a high of $178 down to $44. And much like normal, this bad run happened when I had dedicated time to play. We were out of the office Thursday afternoon and Friday due to weather. Luckily I've learned my lesson from many times before and this time I didn't make it all worse by playing stupid. Hell, I'd have probably gone broke by now in the past. Once I hit like $65 I switched from $10s to $5s, and I only had one SNG open at a time to allow for optimum focus. But I just couldn't win. Just could not! I am literally uneasy as anything worse than an 80% favorite, and even as 80% and above by no means am I out of the water

The epitome of this whole thing took place in a $5 SNG about 8 hours or so into this variance-filled rampage. I happened to be in pretty good shape in this one, in the rare occurance of finding myself with a hand early and up a few hundred chips. I've got 93o in the big, and after two limpers and a SB complete, I checked my option. The flop comes a fairly pleasing A93 rainbow. SB checks to me, and hoping to get action from an ace, but happy to take down this 240 chip pot early on with my 2 pair (especially the way I'm running), I go ahead and bet the pot. It folds around to the SB, who calls my bet. The turn is another offsuit 4, and this time the SB bets at me. There's that ace. I raise him, and he re-raises me all-in. I really didn't put too much thought into the whole thing here. I suppose I could easily lose to a set or a higher two pair, but I was willing to lose if that was the case. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, either, the way I was running, but I feel like I'm ahead of the small blind a LOT here. So with 700 chips behind and blinds at 40/80, I go ahead and call his all-in rather quickly. He rolls 52o, and I've got four outs against his made gutshot straight, which, of course, I brick. This dude calls w/52o in the small. Not the worst move in the world with 7 to 1. If he flops a monster, he can get a lot of chips. He flops nothing but a gutshot. Three outs or runners to beat any hand other than a pair of 3s. And he calls a pot-sized bet. The poker gods take over at this point and forsake the shit out of me, and the rest is history. I ended up fizzling out in like 6th or 7th, probably losing when I push my A-rag into a bigger A-rag.

Its been ridiculous. Almost funny. I'm not getting hole cards. When I do, I'm missing the flop. If I get a hand worthy of raising, I do so, and miss the flop and fold. In an effort to make up for a lack of cards, I'll take stabs at pots with position on stealable boards, but I get callers and end up with nothing but an even more depleted stack. If I manage to make it to the bubble in 2nd or 3rd, we start playing "pass the chips", I get no hands, my steals don't work, and the bubble eventually bursts in my face when I push my A-rag or pocket pair into a bigger A-rag, pocket pair, or losing coin flip. Of course they're all losing coin flips, so I could just say "coin flip" and we would have an understanding that I'm not winning it. I'm missing draws and losing chips drawing. My KKs and QQs are no good, my AAs don't get paid. A set? What's a set?? The BB is flopping trips with their rags like its routine. And the list goes on and on. You all know our good friend variance.

Luckily I've made $11 in .05/.10 cash games, so that's a couple more buy-ins to help get me played through this thing. But man is it depressing.

Anyway, I'll keep plugging away. If I get down to $22.50 I'll start playing the $2.25s. I'm not gonna let this thing break me, but its just disappointing to be comfortable at the $10s and on the threshold of moving up, only to get cold-decked for 2 days straight and moving down.

Things seem to have steadied a little bit so with any luck they'll grind back forward. The good news is there's always my rakeback, and I made a record amount (a whopping $13) in February and plenty in the first couple days of March, so hopefully I'll get things turned around and then get a nice little kickback on my way back up.

I'm proud of my sanity and level-headedness, but I just had to vent.

I'm actually slightly thankful that the BloggerPods tourney got cancelled, because the way I've been running I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at an iPod. But maybe by next week things will be cycled back around in my favor.

Anyway, gotta run. May all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.