So I Played Some Poker...

Lots to report from the weekend, but I will do it in a quick fashion.

I played more hands this weekend than I have ever played. Possibly literally, in all of the 2 years I've played poker, but at the very least, the most I've ever played in such a short time span. I cleared about 1800 hands on Friday and Saturday. I even was FOUR TABLING at times. Shut up. Its a big accomplishment for a guy who got flustered playing 2 SNGs at a time. I have come to discover the beauty of multitabling, which is, of course, that this game is really boring when you're not playing, so the more you can see hands, the more you can play.

Welcome me from the stone age.

It was, as poker is, a rollercoaster of activity. I played about 4 hours of .50/1 NL Friday morning and ended up a whopping $8. I then played an afternoon session of about another 4 hours, including 3 non-cashing $10 SNGs, and ended up down about $45, although it felt a whole lot more frustrating than that. In fact, as I recall, it *was* a lot more frustrating than that (read: bankroll severely depleated) until I finally hit about a 1/2 hour run late in the session to recover. The coup de grace was a crying call I made with 10 10 on a 6-high board. Someone pushed at me for about $30 and I called thinking TPTK, time to get back to even and breathe a sigh of relief. Nope, a set of 3s, and me realizing I wasn't playing cards anymore. I was playing tilt. So I walked away...and headed for poker night. I was running late anyway.

I might have had my best played poker night ever. Best played. Remember, this is our monthly game which is as much about drinking as it is about the $5 horribly structured tourneys, so in the grand scheme of things it doesn't mean damn much of anything. But I was playing lights out after having 8 hours of warmup. We had 9 guys. I didn't cash. In the first tourney, as chip lead I doubled up the 2nd stack. This hand was beautiful. I looked down at QQ and raised it up about 4x, my buddy who doesn't play a lot called. The flop came J-high, I bet the same amount as before, and he raised me all-in. He might as well have screamed AJ as I knew I had him right where I wanted him. I called, he rolled the AJ, and I had to sweat 4 outs. My brother-in-law (he always seem to be involved when the worst of it happens to me) deals an A on the river, and I'm crippled. The next hand the very same buddy took me out w/K7 when I was fortunate enough to find AQ on my decimated stack. All of this, after said buddy who doesn't play much spiked a 3 outer to take two people out a few hands previous. It was his night, and you can't mess with someone when its their night. In the 2nd tournament we were down to the bubble and I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I got K2 in the big blind, and after a KJx flop, a surging stack known for his terrible questionable play moves all-in on me, and I call after some kicker-related deliberation. I was thrilled to see his J 10, and he was thrilled to see the 10 on the turn. Cya. The final tournament we played was a FIVE person tournament, and the only thing more pathetic than the fact that there were only 5 guys left, was my play. But I had given up by that point.

So yeah...poker night was poker night. With a badly structured tournament, you're either on the good side of things or the bad side of things, and I just ran into a couple of guys on tears.

Saturday brought me back to the virtual felt where I got in another 4 or so hour session. Things were clicking on Saturday, and I ended up cashing out to the tune of $160 up. The fun part about Saturday was the end. I swear I had $152.xx and $148.xx at the two tables I was playing at (yeah, I bought in for $50 at each!), so I cashed out with those two tables plus my $100 behind putting me at a nice, round $400.xx figure. Except I cashed out and it was $399.05. My OCD kicked in and I had a couple of ticks before I shook it off. I called the wife over to revel in my greatness, and she goes "Don't you want that last 95 cents?" Damn it. Yes I do! So I sat down at a .50/1 shorthanded table to make 95 cents. Five hands later, having won 3, I cash out $26 richer. Now we're talking.

So, when all was said and done, over the course of 12 hours and 1800 hands I improved my starting point by 33%, and I also set a new high point for the online bankroll at $425, which is a 15% improvement over my previous high point. So, naturally, I'm feeling pretty strong. I also got myself eligible for the monthly $50k freeroll on Poker.com, so I will be looking to make a serious run in that.

I was burnt out and busy so haven't played in a couple of days, but will hit it again tonight. I'm thinking about giving a $20 SNG a run as I'm missing the SNG scene a little bit and want to see how the $20s play. I'll probably play that with a 10-handed cash game table, but really want to focus on the SNG and see how my skills match up. After that, I'll probably supplement the full table (played tight and position-oriented looking to pick up big pots here and there) with 2-3 6-max tables (played loosely, looking for small or big scores) to keep the hands and points coming.

So that's my story. Things are still looking good for the Circuit Event run in Jan/Feb, and with the last ISU game being this weekend, I'll probably look to get some more live play in on weekends, including cherry pick some drunks on misc. Friday and Saturday nights to pad the bankroll, along with some more skill testing play sprinkled in as well. Of course, I'll continue with online and regardless of what I'm playing, try to keep all my skills sharp in preparation to conquer my current poker Everest. When I get to The Horseshoe, I'll need SNG skills to satellite into the events, MTT skills to make noise in said events, and may have to turn to the cash games if I find myself needing to build my bankroll.

Does anyone know if Negreanu's blog has a feed? Or do I just have to keep going to it seperately? Also, Dutch Boyd's feed doesn't work, so that's annoying too.

I'm still working on catching up on blogs from over the weekend and the past couple of days. Lots of activity as usual. Congrats to those of you making some serious noise (Drizz, smokkee, HOY, lucko, Wes, and countless others I haven't even gotten to yet), welcome home Mook, thanks for the great Vegas content, and RIP Iggy, the father of all bloggers. Sadly, I hardly knew ye.

Ok, I'm leaving. Seriously.