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.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Premium Hands on the Bubble, on a Short Stack
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.
"...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.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Live Poker is The Nuts
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.
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.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Super Hot
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!
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!
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