Well I have to get this "on paper" before I forget the whole thing. I've already regrettably forgotten some crucial hands, chip counts, etc. But I've been reluctant to blog because my results have been so positive.
When all was said and done, even though I'd depleted the height of my bankroll by about 66% and was down to $500, I managed to score a co-worker's hide-a-bed to sleep on for zero cost, so I went out to Council Bluffs and gave the WSOP Circuit Event a run.
It was a decision I didn't make until probably about 2 days before I planned to be out there, but I went on the website and reviewed the satellite structure and decided I could spend up to $150 and call it a valiant effort.
I left town Sunday at about 1:30, which put me in Council Bluffs at about 3. First thing I wanted to do was get to the hotel room and get settled and change into some comfy poker clothes. Well, I couldn't get a hold of or find my roommate, so I figured I'd better not waste time. I was extremely nervous and in a strange place, and I decided I'd better hit the cash table to work out some nerves and maybe even pad the bankroll a little. Well I eventually got a call from Tim who had been in a super satellite to the main event, and he came to the poker room and brought me a key. I hadn't been sitting for long and was down about $25 or so (mostly blinds), so decided to stick it out at the table for a little longer. I was about to cut bait down about $50, but managed to have my QQ hold up against JJ on a board with a couple overs, and cashed out up $2 after 2 1/2 hours or so.
At this point I called Tim and we met at the room, I changed, then we went to snag some dinner. The buffet was amazing. They have Italian, Chinese, Barbecue, Home Cooking, a Salad Bar, and Mexican all around the outside of the room, with a dessert island in the middle. Mine was on the house as you got a freebie for signing up for the player's club and playing for 1/2 hour. I even made $5 at the 3 Card Poker table! But I paid for Tim's for letting me shack up. But no matter what, it was f'n tasty. I paced myself and took small portions, and I think I got the most bang for my buck.
At this point it was 9:30 or so, and I figured I'd better get to work. The plan was to play the $35+10 single table satellites to try to get into Monday's $300 event. These sats paid $350 to just the winner, but most of you probably already know that.
Things were looking up as I made it to 2nd with very little effort in my first try. I won a pretty big pot w/KK about 1/3 of the way in, but despite the fact that the blinds did work me back to the short stack, I hit a run of cards late and found myself with about a 3 to 2 chip lead going into heads up. And I loved my opponent. This guy was hitting mad cards early and took out about 3 people. With 4 of us left he was on the shortie looking for the door, but then managed to find some more cards and made it to heads up. He immediately wanted to talk chop, but I liked my chances. I politely told him "I really need to play my way into tomorrow's tourney", and off we went. First hand of heads up found me in the big blind, and he completed the small and I checked my 97o in the big. The flop comes down x 7 10, where x is smaller than a 7. I think it was a 5. I can't remember if I checked or bet here, but when it got to his action, he declared all-in. I can't remember the blinds at this point either, but we had skipped a level, so they were high. With my big blind in the pot and 2nd pair against this guy who could really be holding any two, I decided a call was the way to go, and he showed me pocket K and doubled up easy. I was destroyed. I was embarassed. And I sure as hell wasn't gonna talk about chopping now after I had this mud all over my face and a 4 to 1 chip disadvantage. But the dealer bailed me out. "You guys wanna chop?" he says. And surprisingly my opponent goes "What's your offer now?". "I'll take $100 if you'll give it to me" I say, and he agrees with very little thought. So I lucked out BIG TIME here and came away up $45 after a much earned $10 dealer tip.
I got into the next available $45 sat and abided by much the same strategy. I basically sat there and limped and folded while action junkies took themselves out. The interesting thing was that the structure for these $45 actually wasn't bad. Blinds were 15 mins, a 300 chip starting stack, and went 5/15, 10/25, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400, etc. Most people didn't understand that you really could fold for at least 2 1/2 levels and be in pretty good shape. So while everyone else was getting in with any ace or pocket pair they could find, I was biding my time, and by the time it was time to double up, I usually would because I'd have a damn decent hand and people were calling with a WIDE range. In this case I had no business being in the top 3, but I got there. I was the shortie, with a stack a little bigger than mine on my right, and the big stack on my left. For a while we just dicked around stealing each other's blinds. I was pushing with as little as Q-high, and don't really even remember picking up a great hand. But I never had to show. Of course I never doubled up, but I was hanging in there and waiting. Anyway, at a point I find K6o in the small blind and push with it. After some hemming and hawing, the chip lead/big blind decided to look me up. I figured the jig was up, and as I said "am I even live?" he rolled Q7o! My previous constant pushing had paid off, which was nice, but after some positive luck thus far, I didn't really like it. And I was right, as a 7 came off on the turn and I was done. But hey...I can say I was sucked out on, right? I would've been in great shape to get to heads up if I double up there, as the big stack had nabbed a few chips from the 2nd place stack, who was not an impressive player at all.
It was getting a little late and the players were dwindling, but there was a few guys hanging around that wanted to play a $65. I didn't really want to play that high, but that was the action to be had, and since I was basically even and this would probably be my last shot of the night, I took a seat. Again in this one I just hung around while others just couldn't help but play, got callers when I decided to play my good hands, and I found myself in a pretty positive 3-handed situation. I had managed my way into 2nd out of 4 for a while, but the blinds had managed to nip that situation with a couple of revolutions. When it culminated, I was in the big blind with $500, UTG had $575, and the SB held the other $3925. This kid couldn't miss. But I was OK with it, cuz that means if I can just get to heads up with him, first of all I've got a shot at chopping a $550 prize pool instead of $350, and other than that, what's the worst that can happen? I go into heads up with 5x BB and a 4 to 1 disadvantage and lose. At any rate, it wasn't meant to be. I had $200 of my $500 on the line in the big blind. UTG pushes his last $575, the SB forfeits his $100, and I look down and am *thrilled* to see A6d. I honestly thought I would be a dominate position here, but UTG rolled A9o, and I didn't improve. Real bummer. The interesting thing about these $65 satellites was that the structure was actually worse, and I feel like I barely played. With a 500 chip starting stack, blinds started at 25/50, and we skipped the 75/150 level. It was insane. In the blink of an eye I had $300 and was looking to double up. Of course, 6 other players were already out so I was really in decent shape. But its ironic how you pay more and get less play.
Anyway, at this point I called it a night down $65, and with satellites starting at 9 in the morning. I was willing to play in at least 2 more to try and get into the tourney that started at noon. I was on top of the world and felt like not only was I playing extremely well, but I had a better insight than most other players on the strategies you need to employ to win one of these. Now I just needed things to go my way a little and I was there.
I rolled in about 9:20, and they were seating a $45 table. Perfect. This tourney turned out to really exemplify all of them. After finally trying and missing on a few hands I found myself on a short stack with 6 left. I look down and find A10 in early position. UTG raises, and I push what I've got left, which isn't a whole lot more than his raise. I get a caller either on the button or in the SB, and the original raiser also calls. When the flop comes down x 10 A, I'm pretty exstatic, but of course a Q comes on the turn to make it interesting. It felt like someone was gonna show me KJ and I'd be the victim of a 4-outer. Turns out I had been called by two different pocket pairs that didn't improve, and I had more than tripled up. This was way more than I could've hoped for, and plenty to sit on until I could think about the money. Sit on it I did, and before long I found myself in 3rd out of 3, with about 500 chips to their combined 2500. Blinds are at 25/50 I believe, at least for a short while. Here again, ideal strategy for the structure comes into play, and instead of coming after me, these two numb nuts are playing with each other. I manage to double up off one of them w/KQ vs JQ, and a few hands after that he gets taken out. When we ventured into heads up territory it was about 700 to 2300 and I had some work to do. This guy was even worse than the other guy I got heads up with, so I knew if I was just patient I could do this. As an added bonus, the dealer forgot to make us raise the blinds when the timer went off at one point, so we got a half hour at 50/100. This gave me some extra 50/100 and 75/150 to try and small ball this guy's chips away without him really realizing. I got lucky a couple times when my pocket pairs held up to his overs, and combining that with chipping away and stealing, and taking every little chip I could, I finally pulled to about 1300 to 1700. I know it doesn't seem like that big of a swing, especially with two double-ups, but I'd have to risk 30/40% of my stack a lot of the time to try and take down the blinds, and in the few cases that I missed, it just meant that much more work to get it back. At any rate, I was executing my plan perfectly and I had him right where I wanted him and had a stack that could finally do some damage...then I screwed up. In the big blind I find 78o. He calls the blind, and I check my option. The flop comes 5 7 9 rainbow. There's no reason to believe my 7 isn't good here and I've got a few redraws, so I push all-in. He calls quickly and shows the K9o. I don't improve and that's that. I know I had 2nd pair plus the redraws, but I really didn't want a call there at all. I didn't even fathom that he could possibly have a 9. I was pretty devistated, but the way I was playing, the guy was bound to catch me one of these times. I just hoped it wasn't until I had weasled away the chip lead. You may be asking why I wasn't thinking chop in this tourney, well by the time my stack was worth anything, it was about 10:40, and registration for the tournament closed at 11:30, so I couldn't be thinking "just make money" anymore, I had to win.
So that was my WSOP experience. So far, overwhelmingly positive. I was playing on point, I felt like I had a significant advantage over almost everyone at my tables, and I just needed a couple cards to fall differently. I felt like I was cashing for sure if I make it into the tournament, because my tournament game was on point.
Aside from that, almost everyone I played with was extremely pleasant. I met a guy named Jimmy who traveled the Circuit, and at first I was wary that he was talking to me to get information and was an angle shooter, but as time went on, we really bonded and I knew he wasn't just being friendly to get my chips. Incidentally, I outlasted him, and he kept looking over from his next SNG to see how I was doing, and also kept checking in on me in the last one I played Monday morning. We shared a few conversations away from the tables, too. Great guy. And I had conversations with the other guys that I played with 3-handed and less, and everyone was just playing friendly, being friendly, pulling for each other, and enjoying themselves. It really added to the experience.
The rest of the day is a different story, as I hit the cash games expecting to play shark, and was the fish. Most of the people at the cash game tables seemed to be locals, and were much better than the locals in DM. It was probably the most humbling experience I've had thus far. It didn't help that I couldn't make a hand, but aside from that I was playing like a wet noodle and had a bullseye right on my forehead. People were shooting for my blinds and betting me out of any pot where I got a piece of a flop. It wasn't pretty.
From the "hindsight is 20/20" department, I realize now what I should've been doing is just playing more SNGs and trying to get to 2nd or 1st and chopping and/or selling any chips I won. I had a much more significant advantage in the SNG arena, but just didn't wanna put $45 on the line at a time. When I end up losing $300 on the cash game tables, though, in hindsight, I like my chances at positive outcome with my money invested in 6 SNGs.
Anyway, the WSOP part was exciting and I really could've only expected slightly better (obviously actually MAKING the tournament). I've never had that consistent of SNG results. In a regular SNG, I'm making about 4x my money with finishes like that. It just so happens I was in a situation where I had to get to 1st. I'm still thrilled about the positivity and consistency of my results.
And now I've got a year to build a real bankroll to try it again. I'm basically back to zero, but I'm not worried. There's no pressure now. I was pushing myself so hard to scrape together money to get out there that the best of me wasn't shining through. I had a ton of fun putting in real hours and I had some success, but inevitably I didn't reach my full potential because I was pushing myself too hard and taking -EV risks. Do I understand that? Yes. Did I at the time? Not really, but I wasn't thinking about it. Do I regret it? No. Everything in poker is a learning experience, and in the end I *did* get to go and had a positive outcome, so the whole thing ends on a positive note. And to top it all off, now I can just play at a steady pace and give my best every single hand with no pressure and no deadlines.
And you know what that's produced?
3rd, 1st, 1st, 3rd, 3rd in the 5 SNGs I've played since I got back from Council Bluffs. Add those to the results from CB and do the math.
That's all I'm gonna say, because inevitably whenever I report good results on this blog, I am sent reeling into a pit of variance. I'm very superstitious, and I believe this fact wholeheartedly. And it is EXTREMELY annoying. Hence why I've been reluctant to post.
My one regret is that I only left myself $100 behind in cash for live play, but I'm hoping I can grind it out at 3/6 limit and get that to a playable NL bankroll. I'm actually really looking forward to playing limit, because I think my advantage at a limit table is greater than NL, but I felt like I *had* to be playing NL to maximize my win possibilities. Hell, right now I have no plans to even go to a casino anytime soon, so maybe I can pad the cash roll with a couple months worth of homegame winnings and have a little to fall back on. But that all depends on how easy the beer is going down and to what extent that affects my play.
But I'm gonna need some cash eventually because I hope to put in some real hours in Vegas when we go out to visit Jorgen and his lovely lady.
Otherwise, I'll just be playing at my pace online hoping to work my roll in a positive direction for either an eventual cashout or maybe someday free and legal right to play.
Geez, I'm just rambling now.
I'm gonna end by saying I drove out with my brother-in-law back to Council Bluffs on Monday for the beginning of the main event, and it was pretty cool to see Cloutier, Gordon, and Ferguson. Cloutier actually busted out in the first level and was gone by the time we had left and come back for lunch (I got a couple pictures of him in action before we went to lunch), but I got a great picture taken with Gordon and Ferguson that will be displayed prominetly in the basement at the ol' homestead. We were on the rail for about 4 hours watching Gordon but mostly saw him fold. It seems like every time we left and came back he had more chips, but when we were there he was just folding. So no great expertise was acquired, but I got a great picture and had a great time.
The plan is to be sitting to Gordon's right next year, stealing his blinds.
If you made it through this post, you're a champ.
Until next time...
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
...and ever since then...
This post again excerpted from an email to Jorgen, as I've been too lazy/indifferent lately to be into the poker blog.
Remember that thing I said at the end of my last post about paying a penance of 5 or 10% of your bankroll for reporting on a win?? Well, I've dicked off about 1/3 of my bankroll in the last week, dropping $300 at the casino on the 6th, and going broke at Poker.com and Full Tilt for about $100 on Monday. I haven't played since then, as I'm waiting for the last $230 of my online bankroll from Mansion to hit my bank account. But not playing has been good, as I was starting to really burn from all the BS cards as of late. I watched some Poker After Dark on Tuesday, then yesterday spent some time working w/MP3s and cleaning them up for the new iPod. I also found my stop loss point for live 1/2 NL, as I *hated* losing $300 at the casino on Saturday, and hated myself for letting it happen. $200 I would have been fine with, but $300 was too much. So I've found my limit...at least for now.
Saturday was sick. I lost $80 in a 3/6 game in about a half hour, while I was waiting for my 1/2 NL seat. It was some of the ugliest limit I've seen, as there were draw-outs on almost every single hand. So I sat down at the 1/2 table with my 2nd hundred and got all in w/top 2 on the flop right into a flopped flush. I was hoping to push out flush draws, but not much I could do about a flopped flush. So I was into my THIRD hundred within an hour. I eventually doubled through the same guy when my three jacks with an ace was better than his three jacks. I was deathly afraid that he had J 10 and had turned a full house in the limped pot, but I had to call with top trips, top kicker when he put me all-in. But I figured if it wasn't good, then maybe I shouldn't be there anyway.
So from there with a little more than $200 in front of me I got up as high as $365 or so three or four different times, and I should've known when I couldn't get any higher than that that I should cut bait and run, but I was too stubborn. I ended up losing all of it within an hour in about 4 hands when my flopped two pair got turned by a better two pair for about $75, my pocket pair of 10s on the button got beat by QJ for about another $75 when I thought the SB was making a stand with a $50 river bet as his blinds had been getting stolen and he was vocally upset about it. He told me I was good because of the K on the turn, but his flopped pair of Qs was good. Then I raised $15 or $20 preflop w/AQ and got a couple callers. I flopped an ace, and bet $20 when it was checked to me. This asian guy (same guy in the SB that beat my 10s w/JQ), raises me to $75. I went into the tank for a LONG time, and eventually put him all-in for another $75 because of the ridiculous size of the raise and because I figured he had me pegged as a weak player that would give up anything but a supreme hand. But he beat me into the pot and showed a flopped set of 5s. Sick. I could rant and rant about the style of play of asian players, the way they play with reckless abandon and are impossible to read, but it won't do any good. And I know its a stereotype, but its not negative. I just struggle against them as they can throw out $75 with nothing or with the nuts and you never know which it is. I just can't believe you can call a $15 raise w/55 on a regular basis and be a profitable player. So that left me with about $40, and after missing some flops I eventually got it all-in with my last $18 w/AJo. Ironically enough, asian guy and the same other guy from the AQ hand called, I flopped an ace, and when asian guy bet the other dude out of the hand he showed that he had flopped a set of 3s. Did it to me again. Just blows my mind. He basically got the last $275 of my stack, which self-tilts me so much I can't even talk about it.
So, that was easily the worst session I've ever had, monetarily, and in regards to self reflection. It showed some promise when I worked my way back from down $280 to up about $65, but I just played those three hands against that asian dude like I'd never played the game before. Monday online was just ugly. It was pure variance, as I wasn't getting cards and missing flops when I did, but when I'd actually make a hand that should've been good it just couldn't hold up. I'd flop the other card on a paired flop and come up against a bigger pocket pair, or once I flopped three kings w/K 10 limped on the button, it was bet and called all around, and then someone with pocket 2s turns a 2 and fills up to throttle me for most of my stack in a .25/.50 game. Of course when you're not seeing cards the not great hands start to look better and you overplay them, but I file that all under variance. But I won't deny there started to be a little bit of indifference, hence me taking a break here for a few days.
So I'm kind of in rebuilding mode again. The closer it gets to the Circuit Event, the less I wanna play in it, as I'd rather build an unbreakable bankroll before I take a shot like that. Plus, I don't know that I'm even playing very good poker right now, as I'm not shout it to the rooftops proud of anything I've done recently. Anyway, I'll get some money back in Full Tilt and Poker.com when I my Mansion money gets back to me and see if I can get things turned around. Plus, we've got Monday off for MLK day, so I will be getting up with the little lady when she goes to work and putting in at least 8 hours or $200 at the casino. No matter what, I will be much more careful, because it seems like whenever I'm taking a shot in a big pot, following my read, or making a hand that should win lately, I'm losing in a big, big way. I will be *extremely* focused on Monday. Anyway, if I can turn things around, get the bankroll deep enough, and get to feeling better about my game in the next couple weeks, I may still drive a couple hours down the road and take a shot at some of the $60 sats, but probably won't peel off $300 and front for a real tourney.
That's about all as of late. I'm still hanging in there with around $900, but a $475 loss in the last couple weeks certainly isn't a step in the right direction.
I've got a little bit of game theory to discuss if I become a little less indifferent about blogging anytime soon, but we'll just have to see!
Remember that thing I said at the end of my last post about paying a penance of 5 or 10% of your bankroll for reporting on a win?? Well, I've dicked off about 1/3 of my bankroll in the last week, dropping $300 at the casino on the 6th, and going broke at Poker.com and Full Tilt for about $100 on Monday. I haven't played since then, as I'm waiting for the last $230 of my online bankroll from Mansion to hit my bank account. But not playing has been good, as I was starting to really burn from all the BS cards as of late. I watched some Poker After Dark on Tuesday, then yesterday spent some time working w/MP3s and cleaning them up for the new iPod. I also found my stop loss point for live 1/2 NL, as I *hated* losing $300 at the casino on Saturday, and hated myself for letting it happen. $200 I would have been fine with, but $300 was too much. So I've found my limit...at least for now.
Saturday was sick. I lost $80 in a 3/6 game in about a half hour, while I was waiting for my 1/2 NL seat. It was some of the ugliest limit I've seen, as there were draw-outs on almost every single hand. So I sat down at the 1/2 table with my 2nd hundred and got all in w/top 2 on the flop right into a flopped flush. I was hoping to push out flush draws, but not much I could do about a flopped flush. So I was into my THIRD hundred within an hour. I eventually doubled through the same guy when my three jacks with an ace was better than his three jacks. I was deathly afraid that he had J 10 and had turned a full house in the limped pot, but I had to call with top trips, top kicker when he put me all-in. But I figured if it wasn't good, then maybe I shouldn't be there anyway.
So from there with a little more than $200 in front of me I got up as high as $365 or so three or four different times, and I should've known when I couldn't get any higher than that that I should cut bait and run, but I was too stubborn. I ended up losing all of it within an hour in about 4 hands when my flopped two pair got turned by a better two pair for about $75, my pocket pair of 10s on the button got beat by QJ for about another $75 when I thought the SB was making a stand with a $50 river bet as his blinds had been getting stolen and he was vocally upset about it. He told me I was good because of the K on the turn, but his flopped pair of Qs was good. Then I raised $15 or $20 preflop w/AQ and got a couple callers. I flopped an ace, and bet $20 when it was checked to me. This asian guy (same guy in the SB that beat my 10s w/JQ), raises me to $75. I went into the tank for a LONG time, and eventually put him all-in for another $75 because of the ridiculous size of the raise and because I figured he had me pegged as a weak player that would give up anything but a supreme hand. But he beat me into the pot and showed a flopped set of 5s. Sick. I could rant and rant about the style of play of asian players, the way they play with reckless abandon and are impossible to read, but it won't do any good. And I know its a stereotype, but its not negative. I just struggle against them as they can throw out $75 with nothing or with the nuts and you never know which it is. I just can't believe you can call a $15 raise w/55 on a regular basis and be a profitable player. So that left me with about $40, and after missing some flops I eventually got it all-in with my last $18 w/AJo. Ironically enough, asian guy and the same other guy from the AQ hand called, I flopped an ace, and when asian guy bet the other dude out of the hand he showed that he had flopped a set of 3s. Did it to me again. Just blows my mind. He basically got the last $275 of my stack, which self-tilts me so much I can't even talk about it.
So, that was easily the worst session I've ever had, monetarily, and in regards to self reflection. It showed some promise when I worked my way back from down $280 to up about $65, but I just played those three hands against that asian dude like I'd never played the game before. Monday online was just ugly. It was pure variance, as I wasn't getting cards and missing flops when I did, but when I'd actually make a hand that should've been good it just couldn't hold up. I'd flop the other card on a paired flop and come up against a bigger pocket pair, or once I flopped three kings w/K 10 limped on the button, it was bet and called all around, and then someone with pocket 2s turns a 2 and fills up to throttle me for most of my stack in a .25/.50 game. Of course when you're not seeing cards the not great hands start to look better and you overplay them, but I file that all under variance. But I won't deny there started to be a little bit of indifference, hence me taking a break here for a few days.
So I'm kind of in rebuilding mode again. The closer it gets to the Circuit Event, the less I wanna play in it, as I'd rather build an unbreakable bankroll before I take a shot like that. Plus, I don't know that I'm even playing very good poker right now, as I'm not shout it to the rooftops proud of anything I've done recently. Anyway, I'll get some money back in Full Tilt and Poker.com when I my Mansion money gets back to me and see if I can get things turned around. Plus, we've got Monday off for MLK day, so I will be getting up with the little lady when she goes to work and putting in at least 8 hours or $200 at the casino. No matter what, I will be much more careful, because it seems like whenever I'm taking a shot in a big pot, following my read, or making a hand that should win lately, I'm losing in a big, big way. I will be *extremely* focused on Monday. Anyway, if I can turn things around, get the bankroll deep enough, and get to feeling better about my game in the next couple weeks, I may still drive a couple hours down the road and take a shot at some of the $60 sats, but probably won't peel off $300 and front for a real tourney.
That's about all as of late. I'm still hanging in there with around $900, but a $475 loss in the last couple weeks certainly isn't a step in the right direction.
I've got a little bit of game theory to discuss if I become a little less indifferent about blogging anytime soon, but we'll just have to see!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
My Week as a Poker Pro
Go ahead and laugh. Its OK. The title of this post is definitely in jest.
Like I said in my last post, I had 11 days off over the holidays, and was going to be playing a LOT of poker, and probably not doing a lot of posting. But I do want to sum it up so that I can kind of remember it.
I got significant time in on 6 days. If I was at home I was playing online, and then I also made a few trips out to the casino where where I played for about 4 hours last Tuesday, 5 on Friday, and then capped it off with a 10 1/2 hour session yesterday (a new record!). It started off with the cards absolutely torturing me early last week, but I persevered and managed to eek out a solid 3 figure win for the whole chunk of time. The hourly rate was probably not pretty, but hey...a win is a win.
Tuesday the 26th I went out to the local casino for their Tuesday morning tourney at 10. As expected for the day after Christmas, it was filled to the brim. I got there around 8:30 and I was lucky to get one of the last few seats in the room at a 3/6 table in order to get my line pass for the tourney. Little did I know how abysmal the day would be. I won one decent pot in the limit game when my AK flopped an ace and I got one bet from pocket queens on every street. After that I eventually got a seat at a 1/2 table where the action was loose and wild and I didn't have any cards worth getting mixed up in that with. The tourney started, and not too long I pick up QQ, which I raised up around 4xBB preflop in EP. I got a caller in the big blind, and we saw a junky flop with two spades. I went all-in here as my opponent was on a short stack and I figured if he had a hand worthy of calling preflop, it may be just as worthy of calling now, plus he had committed around half of his chips to the pot already. Well, the big blind had been in my 1/2 game and claimed he was there all night and just decided to play the tourney but was ready to leave. Well, I believe him, but that doesn't mean I was happy. He called and showed 10 3 of spades, having paired his 3 and with the flush draw. I think it was a 3 on the river that doubled him up. I managed to exact revenge on him by doubling up off him later when I had him dominated and held up, but then shortly after the first break I was ousted when a dude who had me barely covered pushed with A8o, I called w/AKs, and I couldn't survive. Somewhere around 66th out of 114. On to a 1/2 NL table where I believe it was partway through the 2nd or 3rd orbit when I flopped top two pair w/AJ, raised a $15 bet and call to $45, only to be re-raised all-in by a gutshot straight and flush draw. I called, and he hit his gutshot on the river. Now shortly after 12:00, I had planned on staying until about 3, but I decided that it was not my day to win and cut bait $165 down to go exchange and play with the iPod my wife had given me for Christmas. It was more of the same when I got home that afternoon as I lost about $30 online. So, day one of my personal pokerpalooza was in the books with some gnarly variance and a significant loss.
As I recall, Wednesday I basically spun my wheels and broke pretty much even. The cards continued to chuckle in my face, but I saw glimmers of breaking the variance, just enough to keep me even.
Thursday was a good day...then a bad day. I placed 7th out of 55 in a $10 MTT on Mansion, which is a nice enough accomplishment, but I invested 2 1/2 hours in an MTT when I could've won the same amount of money getting 2nd in a SNG. Oh well, the takeaway of making a MTT FT and getting 7th is actually a good enough accomplishment for me to overlook the monetary circumstances. I also discovered the beauty of Full Tilt SNGs on Thursday. I may be completely wrong on this, but I swear since I last played there in August or September, the structure has changed. It seems that there is actually -gasp- PLAY IN A SNG?? The blinds go up every 5 minutes, which is fast, but there's so many levels in them its ridiculous. Its the most beautifully structured SNG I've ever seen. And I'd like to think that as a result, I'm torching them. People aren't realizing that there's plenty of play in them and they don't need to get it all in within 3 levels like on some sites. As a result, they get in with junky hands, and I'm taking their chips. I played I think three $5 ones on Thursday morning, getting 1st or 2nd in 2 of them. By Thursday afternoon, I had given a shot to the $10 ones, finding no difference in my abilities to cash in 3 of those. Anyway, by 2:00 on Thursday I had made about $100 for my first winning day of my time off. But then I made the mistake of killing about a half hour at a Mansion .25/.50 table while waiting to meet my wife and friend for dinner and lost a buy-in when I tried to snap off this dude on mega-tilt. Turns out he had KK, the other guy in the hand had picked up trips, and my pocket pair of 9s came in dead last. So that pissed me off that I couldn't just not play stupid for 30 f'ing minutes. It was still a winning day, but it didn't feel like it.
Friday found me up with the wife early with intentions to go to the casino, but dinking around at Mansion until about 11. I can't remember how I did, but I don't remember being pissed, so I must've either won or broke even. Maybe I lost like $15. I don't know. Anyway, I finally ventured out to the casino around noon, and needed to be out of there by 5. I was probably as high as $160 on my $100 buy-in, and I was as low as $25 or so, but in the end I won $20, for a whopping $4/hr win rate. The most noteworthy hand of the day was when I decided I was going all the way with my pocket 8s. I still have a hard time playing pocket pairs in a cash game and am trying to refine my strategy on them, but all I know I was irritated when I would call small raises w/them sometimes and miss and fold to raises sometimes and hit. Today I had folded and hit twice, one of which would've been an extremely healthy pot headed my way. So in this particular hand a raise to $10 had been made in early position. It got to me 5 seats later, and I made it $25 to go with my 8s, which would leave the initial raiser with about another $30 behind and pot committed if he called. He put on a great show being pissed about it, with a "well, I've got 30 more since you're probably going to get me all in anyways" and when I called the routine broke as he says, straight-faced, "Well I've got the best you can have" and I was a slight dog to his AA. That statement heavily coated with sarcasm, of course. Only this time, the good guys win with an 8 on the flop...and an 8 on the turn. DQB! That was it for this guy as he had previously bet his QQ all the way through a hand, only to have it cracked by a guy with A2 hitting a 2 on the turn and an A on the river. Sick. So I'd have liked to win more than $20, but as is the running theme...a win is a win.
Saturday I was up early with a hangover, after celebrating my recent promotion on Friday night, but I got to feeling better with a $10 SNG win. I took a break for some time with the wifey, but found myself back at the grind later that afternoon. This is where it got good. After a bubble performance in a FT SNG, I nabbed another 2nd and kept myself ahead for the sitting. I was robbed HUGE, twice, by the same guy in that cash, but that's the way it goes, and it showed some resolve in me to still have a good performance. I just have to mention them, though, because I can't imagine more pivotal suckouts in a SNG. With about 6 left and me with 4k of the 13,500 I have KK and pump it up preflop. The flop comes Q-high, not dangerous, and he, in 2nd place, pushes his last 2k. I call and am WAY ahead of his Q 10. He spikes a 10 on the river and doubles up to chip lead. Now instead of me having over 6k in chips, a man down, and rolling the field, we end up 4 and 3 handed for over 20 minutes with equal chip stacks and all-ins surviving. Finally me and this guy get heads-up and I methodically work the chiplead away from him just waiting to end it. He goes all in, and I call w/KQ. He's got JQ, spikes a J, and leaves me with 600-some in chips, which doesn't last long. Ridiculous, but hey...that's how it goes. Anyway, the real damage on Saturday was done at Mansion, where I ran my $50 .25/.50 buy-in to $175 before cashing out. The big hand here was when I called a raise w/66 and flopped a set, busting aces for his $75 stack. I have to mention, I did pick up quads again for an extra kick in the junk. The difference between this hand and the live hand was that this guy's raises weren't credible since he was raising in position like clockwork and it was just a matter of time before he got snapped off (boy who cried wolf), and we didn't get all the money in until after the flop when I had hit my set and he was drawing to 2 outs. So Saturday was a good online day, and I was now headed in the right direction on tha intraweb.
Sunday I didn't play as the wife and I were running around town getting ready for our new year's party that we had volunteered to host the previous day, but I moved some money around and bought into Poker.com, taking advantage of their 75% reload bonus. I was $41 short of the max due to some confusion on cashing out of Mansion, but I'll be able to earn just north of $75 of bonus, so that works.
Monday was spent cleaning up after the party and taking down Christmas decorations and additional cleaning, but I managed to work in a $10 SNG at Poker.com, where I took 2nd for a $30 win (should have gotten 1st again but made a mistake), and also unlocked another $10 of my initial deposit bonus. The same initial deposit bonus that I thought had expired after 30 days. But no...I'm working off the last of that bonus (like $20) AND the reload bonus. Merry Christmas to me. In the end I just netted $15, as I wasted $13 in a cash game winning 1 hand out of 60, and for a whopping $1.50. So that's not great, but...say it with me...a win is a win.
So that brings us to yesterday. I hadn't decided whether or not to take this extra day off (I planned to carry over at least 5, but ended up with a scraggler), but when things went so poorly at the casino on the 26th, that sealed the deal. I had to try again. Back out to the casino yesterday morning at 8, where it was slightly less busy than the week before. I got in a new 1/2 game very quickly and immediately started losing. Overpair to a flush, straight to a flush, straight to a flush again. An orbit in I was digging into my pocket and had another $70 into the game. But I eventually picked up a couple decent hands and cashed out of the game down just $25, plus another $30 for the tourney. The tourney, yet again, was merely a blip on the radar. I had a pretty decent first hour which saw me slightly more than double my 1500 starting stack, but I got a little too big for my britches on a couple hands and leaked away some chips, ending the hour with 2300, and blinds to be at 100/200. I then proceeded to not see a hand worth playing until I picked up 66 and with blinds at 150/300, put in my last 900 to an obvious AK raise. There were no aces or kings on the board, but I got counterfeited by a higher two pair. Thanks for that, tubby annoying dealer. After a short wait, I found myself at a 1/2 table grinding away again. I picked up a nice hand early when I called a medium sized raise w/JJ, called a c-bet on the 9-high, paired flop, and got a 3rd Jack on the turn for a full house. We checked the turn, and he fired out $20 on the river. I stewed for a while, and raised him to $40, making it look like a feeler, and he eventually called and mucked to my full house. I remained some form of up, although never as much as a whole buy-in, until our table got broken in favor of a different game, and I got put at another 1/2 table. Here, the guy in the 10 seat was dragging a big pot over to the $300 in chips already in front of him, and the guy to my right in the 7 seat also had $300-400 in his stack. Couple that with a couple of fellows with that clueless look in their eye at the other end of the table, and I was happy to be where I was. I got to winning in fairly short order thanks to some play and some cards, and at about 3:00 I played the biggest pot of my life...and lost. I had managed to work my buy-in to a bit South of $250 when I picked up JJ. I just called, as I like to do if I can with a pocket pair, be it right or wrong. The 10 seat and his now $700 in chips raises it to like $15. It folds around to me and I call. The flop comes x K 10. I check, and the 10 seat bets $25. Based on his betting, I'm putting him on AK, KK, or a low pocket pair. The preflop bet is about right for AK, but very big for KK. The flop bet is a bit big for either hand if this guy wants action, but he's seen me call $15, so maybe he thinks I'm good for $25. Mostly it feels like he wants me out. The turn comes down Q, I check again, and this guy fires $100 into the pot. I know if I call here, all my money is very very likely getting in no matter what. I have now decided this guy either has KK and I'm about to get brow-beaten, is on a complete bluff, or is on a low PP and REALLY wants me out of this hand. I put in the 20 reds and the river is another Q. I check yet again and he puts me all-in. Its a little under $100 left. I don't have another buy-in. I'm thinking about folding and having chips to play with, but if I've come this far a fold is downright retarded. And then the guy stares at me. I know this guy has a ton of chips in front of him, but I've also seen him stumble his way into most of them. On the one hand, he's a luckbox. On the other...he's a luckbox. But what he is *not* is a good poker player. At this point I added the overbetting and the stare to equal weakness, and I called. KK, for the nut full house. BUSTO. But after a quick self examination, I determined I wasn't tilted. I went with my read. I thought it was a good read. It wasn't. NH, sir. That's gonna happen sometimes. The story has some merit from here, but the short version is that I knew there was money to be won at that table, so high on determination, not tilt, I tapped into my checking account for another buy-in. Three hours later, I walked out with $525. A hundred back to my checking account, the two hundred that I brought, and $225 in profit. I'd love to say I got my $250 back from that guy, but I didn't. He was good at protecting his stack...and he was a luckbox all the way to the bank. He cashed out for around $1k about 1/2 hour before I left. But I was barely paying attention as I was taking someone's stack at the time. Nice guy though. I didn't hate him...just his cards. After taking the wife out to dinner, my B&M profits for 20 hours of play over the last 11 days came to a whopping $55. But...now say it with me...a win is a win.
So, in the end, my main goals were accomplished. I was in the black for my time off, and it was enough to get me up around the $1400 mark and rounding my losses up and taking into account the withdrawls from my bankroll, I can safely declare myself a winning player. For some that's not a big deal, but for a guy who was stuck more than he should have ever allowed himself to be stuck for 2 years, its a huge monkey off my back. I can now focus on what the game can do for me, as opposed to what it has taken from me, and that allows in a giant change to the mental standpoint from which you approach the game.
Of course now that I dare speak of my good fortune, I will be struck down by the poker gods and required to pay a penance of no less than 5% of my bankroll. But its worth it for the story, right?
Yeah...I don't think so either.
Like I said in my last post, I had 11 days off over the holidays, and was going to be playing a LOT of poker, and probably not doing a lot of posting. But I do want to sum it up so that I can kind of remember it.
I got significant time in on 6 days. If I was at home I was playing online, and then I also made a few trips out to the casino where where I played for about 4 hours last Tuesday, 5 on Friday, and then capped it off with a 10 1/2 hour session yesterday (a new record!). It started off with the cards absolutely torturing me early last week, but I persevered and managed to eek out a solid 3 figure win for the whole chunk of time. The hourly rate was probably not pretty, but hey...a win is a win.
Tuesday the 26th I went out to the local casino for their Tuesday morning tourney at 10. As expected for the day after Christmas, it was filled to the brim. I got there around 8:30 and I was lucky to get one of the last few seats in the room at a 3/6 table in order to get my line pass for the tourney. Little did I know how abysmal the day would be. I won one decent pot in the limit game when my AK flopped an ace and I got one bet from pocket queens on every street. After that I eventually got a seat at a 1/2 table where the action was loose and wild and I didn't have any cards worth getting mixed up in that with. The tourney started, and not too long I pick up QQ, which I raised up around 4xBB preflop in EP. I got a caller in the big blind, and we saw a junky flop with two spades. I went all-in here as my opponent was on a short stack and I figured if he had a hand worthy of calling preflop, it may be just as worthy of calling now, plus he had committed around half of his chips to the pot already. Well, the big blind had been in my 1/2 game and claimed he was there all night and just decided to play the tourney but was ready to leave. Well, I believe him, but that doesn't mean I was happy. He called and showed 10 3 of spades, having paired his 3 and with the flush draw. I think it was a 3 on the river that doubled him up. I managed to exact revenge on him by doubling up off him later when I had him dominated and held up, but then shortly after the first break I was ousted when a dude who had me barely covered pushed with A8o, I called w/AKs, and I couldn't survive. Somewhere around 66th out of 114. On to a 1/2 NL table where I believe it was partway through the 2nd or 3rd orbit when I flopped top two pair w/AJ, raised a $15 bet and call to $45, only to be re-raised all-in by a gutshot straight and flush draw. I called, and he hit his gutshot on the river. Now shortly after 12:00, I had planned on staying until about 3, but I decided that it was not my day to win and cut bait $165 down to go exchange and play with the iPod my wife had given me for Christmas. It was more of the same when I got home that afternoon as I lost about $30 online. So, day one of my personal pokerpalooza was in the books with some gnarly variance and a significant loss.
As I recall, Wednesday I basically spun my wheels and broke pretty much even. The cards continued to chuckle in my face, but I saw glimmers of breaking the variance, just enough to keep me even.
Thursday was a good day...then a bad day. I placed 7th out of 55 in a $10 MTT on Mansion, which is a nice enough accomplishment, but I invested 2 1/2 hours in an MTT when I could've won the same amount of money getting 2nd in a SNG. Oh well, the takeaway of making a MTT FT and getting 7th is actually a good enough accomplishment for me to overlook the monetary circumstances. I also discovered the beauty of Full Tilt SNGs on Thursday. I may be completely wrong on this, but I swear since I last played there in August or September, the structure has changed. It seems that there is actually -gasp- PLAY IN A SNG?? The blinds go up every 5 minutes, which is fast, but there's so many levels in them its ridiculous. Its the most beautifully structured SNG I've ever seen. And I'd like to think that as a result, I'm torching them. People aren't realizing that there's plenty of play in them and they don't need to get it all in within 3 levels like on some sites. As a result, they get in with junky hands, and I'm taking their chips. I played I think three $5 ones on Thursday morning, getting 1st or 2nd in 2 of them. By Thursday afternoon, I had given a shot to the $10 ones, finding no difference in my abilities to cash in 3 of those. Anyway, by 2:00 on Thursday I had made about $100 for my first winning day of my time off. But then I made the mistake of killing about a half hour at a Mansion .25/.50 table while waiting to meet my wife and friend for dinner and lost a buy-in when I tried to snap off this dude on mega-tilt. Turns out he had KK, the other guy in the hand had picked up trips, and my pocket pair of 9s came in dead last. So that pissed me off that I couldn't just not play stupid for 30 f'ing minutes. It was still a winning day, but it didn't feel like it.
Friday found me up with the wife early with intentions to go to the casino, but dinking around at Mansion until about 11. I can't remember how I did, but I don't remember being pissed, so I must've either won or broke even. Maybe I lost like $15. I don't know. Anyway, I finally ventured out to the casino around noon, and needed to be out of there by 5. I was probably as high as $160 on my $100 buy-in, and I was as low as $25 or so, but in the end I won $20, for a whopping $4/hr win rate. The most noteworthy hand of the day was when I decided I was going all the way with my pocket 8s. I still have a hard time playing pocket pairs in a cash game and am trying to refine my strategy on them, but all I know I was irritated when I would call small raises w/them sometimes and miss and fold to raises sometimes and hit. Today I had folded and hit twice, one of which would've been an extremely healthy pot headed my way. So in this particular hand a raise to $10 had been made in early position. It got to me 5 seats later, and I made it $25 to go with my 8s, which would leave the initial raiser with about another $30 behind and pot committed if he called. He put on a great show being pissed about it, with a "well, I've got 30 more since you're probably going to get me all in anyways" and when I called the routine broke as he says, straight-faced, "Well I've got the best you can have" and I was a slight dog to his AA. That statement heavily coated with sarcasm, of course. Only this time, the good guys win with an 8 on the flop...and an 8 on the turn. DQB! That was it for this guy as he had previously bet his QQ all the way through a hand, only to have it cracked by a guy with A2 hitting a 2 on the turn and an A on the river. Sick. So I'd have liked to win more than $20, but as is the running theme...a win is a win.
Saturday I was up early with a hangover, after celebrating my recent promotion on Friday night, but I got to feeling better with a $10 SNG win. I took a break for some time with the wifey, but found myself back at the grind later that afternoon. This is where it got good. After a bubble performance in a FT SNG, I nabbed another 2nd and kept myself ahead for the sitting. I was robbed HUGE, twice, by the same guy in that cash, but that's the way it goes, and it showed some resolve in me to still have a good performance. I just have to mention them, though, because I can't imagine more pivotal suckouts in a SNG. With about 6 left and me with 4k of the 13,500 I have KK and pump it up preflop. The flop comes Q-high, not dangerous, and he, in 2nd place, pushes his last 2k. I call and am WAY ahead of his Q 10. He spikes a 10 on the river and doubles up to chip lead. Now instead of me having over 6k in chips, a man down, and rolling the field, we end up 4 and 3 handed for over 20 minutes with equal chip stacks and all-ins surviving. Finally me and this guy get heads-up and I methodically work the chiplead away from him just waiting to end it. He goes all in, and I call w/KQ. He's got JQ, spikes a J, and leaves me with 600-some in chips, which doesn't last long. Ridiculous, but hey...that's how it goes. Anyway, the real damage on Saturday was done at Mansion, where I ran my $50 .25/.50 buy-in to $175 before cashing out. The big hand here was when I called a raise w/66 and flopped a set, busting aces for his $75 stack. I have to mention, I did pick up quads again for an extra kick in the junk. The difference between this hand and the live hand was that this guy's raises weren't credible since he was raising in position like clockwork and it was just a matter of time before he got snapped off (boy who cried wolf), and we didn't get all the money in until after the flop when I had hit my set and he was drawing to 2 outs. So Saturday was a good online day, and I was now headed in the right direction on tha intraweb.
Sunday I didn't play as the wife and I were running around town getting ready for our new year's party that we had volunteered to host the previous day, but I moved some money around and bought into Poker.com, taking advantage of their 75% reload bonus. I was $41 short of the max due to some confusion on cashing out of Mansion, but I'll be able to earn just north of $75 of bonus, so that works.
Monday was spent cleaning up after the party and taking down Christmas decorations and additional cleaning, but I managed to work in a $10 SNG at Poker.com, where I took 2nd for a $30 win (should have gotten 1st again but made a mistake), and also unlocked another $10 of my initial deposit bonus. The same initial deposit bonus that I thought had expired after 30 days. But no...I'm working off the last of that bonus (like $20) AND the reload bonus. Merry Christmas to me. In the end I just netted $15, as I wasted $13 in a cash game winning 1 hand out of 60, and for a whopping $1.50. So that's not great, but...say it with me...a win is a win.
So that brings us to yesterday. I hadn't decided whether or not to take this extra day off (I planned to carry over at least 5, but ended up with a scraggler), but when things went so poorly at the casino on the 26th, that sealed the deal. I had to try again. Back out to the casino yesterday morning at 8, where it was slightly less busy than the week before. I got in a new 1/2 game very quickly and immediately started losing. Overpair to a flush, straight to a flush, straight to a flush again. An orbit in I was digging into my pocket and had another $70 into the game. But I eventually picked up a couple decent hands and cashed out of the game down just $25, plus another $30 for the tourney. The tourney, yet again, was merely a blip on the radar. I had a pretty decent first hour which saw me slightly more than double my 1500 starting stack, but I got a little too big for my britches on a couple hands and leaked away some chips, ending the hour with 2300, and blinds to be at 100/200. I then proceeded to not see a hand worth playing until I picked up 66 and with blinds at 150/300, put in my last 900 to an obvious AK raise. There were no aces or kings on the board, but I got counterfeited by a higher two pair. Thanks for that, tubby annoying dealer. After a short wait, I found myself at a 1/2 table grinding away again. I picked up a nice hand early when I called a medium sized raise w/JJ, called a c-bet on the 9-high, paired flop, and got a 3rd Jack on the turn for a full house. We checked the turn, and he fired out $20 on the river. I stewed for a while, and raised him to $40, making it look like a feeler, and he eventually called and mucked to my full house. I remained some form of up, although never as much as a whole buy-in, until our table got broken in favor of a different game, and I got put at another 1/2 table. Here, the guy in the 10 seat was dragging a big pot over to the $300 in chips already in front of him, and the guy to my right in the 7 seat also had $300-400 in his stack. Couple that with a couple of fellows with that clueless look in their eye at the other end of the table, and I was happy to be where I was. I got to winning in fairly short order thanks to some play and some cards, and at about 3:00 I played the biggest pot of my life...and lost. I had managed to work my buy-in to a bit South of $250 when I picked up JJ. I just called, as I like to do if I can with a pocket pair, be it right or wrong. The 10 seat and his now $700 in chips raises it to like $15. It folds around to me and I call. The flop comes x K 10. I check, and the 10 seat bets $25. Based on his betting, I'm putting him on AK, KK, or a low pocket pair. The preflop bet is about right for AK, but very big for KK. The flop bet is a bit big for either hand if this guy wants action, but he's seen me call $15, so maybe he thinks I'm good for $25. Mostly it feels like he wants me out. The turn comes down Q, I check again, and this guy fires $100 into the pot. I know if I call here, all my money is very very likely getting in no matter what. I have now decided this guy either has KK and I'm about to get brow-beaten, is on a complete bluff, or is on a low PP and REALLY wants me out of this hand. I put in the 20 reds and the river is another Q. I check yet again and he puts me all-in. Its a little under $100 left. I don't have another buy-in. I'm thinking about folding and having chips to play with, but if I've come this far a fold is downright retarded. And then the guy stares at me. I know this guy has a ton of chips in front of him, but I've also seen him stumble his way into most of them. On the one hand, he's a luckbox. On the other...he's a luckbox. But what he is *not* is a good poker player. At this point I added the overbetting and the stare to equal weakness, and I called. KK, for the nut full house. BUSTO. But after a quick self examination, I determined I wasn't tilted. I went with my read. I thought it was a good read. It wasn't. NH, sir. That's gonna happen sometimes. The story has some merit from here, but the short version is that I knew there was money to be won at that table, so high on determination, not tilt, I tapped into my checking account for another buy-in. Three hours later, I walked out with $525. A hundred back to my checking account, the two hundred that I brought, and $225 in profit. I'd love to say I got my $250 back from that guy, but I didn't. He was good at protecting his stack...and he was a luckbox all the way to the bank. He cashed out for around $1k about 1/2 hour before I left. But I was barely paying attention as I was taking someone's stack at the time. Nice guy though. I didn't hate him...just his cards. After taking the wife out to dinner, my B&M profits for 20 hours of play over the last 11 days came to a whopping $55. But...now say it with me...a win is a win.
So, in the end, my main goals were accomplished. I was in the black for my time off, and it was enough to get me up around the $1400 mark and rounding my losses up and taking into account the withdrawls from my bankroll, I can safely declare myself a winning player. For some that's not a big deal, but for a guy who was stuck more than he should have ever allowed himself to be stuck for 2 years, its a huge monkey off my back. I can now focus on what the game can do for me, as opposed to what it has taken from me, and that allows in a giant change to the mental standpoint from which you approach the game.
Of course now that I dare speak of my good fortune, I will be struck down by the poker gods and required to pay a penance of no less than 5% of my bankroll. But its worth it for the story, right?
Yeah...I don't think so either.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
How to Double Your Bankroll in 3 Hours AKA Live Poker is my Bitch
Damn the real job. I've been working fairly dilligently, as I'm outta here at noon Friday and am not coming back until Jan 2nd or 3rd (haven't decided yet), and I don't really want to come back to a bunch of junk, so I'm trying to knock it out and walk outta there with a clear conscience. So I haven't felt like blogging when I got home.
Anyway, its really cramping my blog reading and blogging style. So you get an excerpt from my email to Jorgen, slightly enhanced, reporting on my unbelievable cash game session from Saturday.
I'll be damned if this poker experience didn't actually live up to expectations and was actually everything it was cracked up to be. I was starting to get antsy when I was about 4-5 hours through the session and I was basically spinning my wheels, but boy did things change.
I ended up heading out a little earlier than I was planning because I was bored sitting at home with the little lady already having left to go out w/the girls. But in the end it didn't matter because I stayed later than I had planned (thank you, Red Bull at 1:30 AM). So, after some Empress Chicken and a Red Bull on the way to the casino at about 8:30 I got a seat at 1/2 NL at 9:07. The first 5 hours are literally not worth talking about. Three things happened. An hour or two in, I made a great call all the way through a board with decent draws with an overpair of 10s. I was up about $60. FOREVER. Then I bet an AQo $20 preflop, $20 on a JQ-high flop, and then $40 on the 9 turn, where I got raised all-in. I had invested $80 to this point, and he had me covered. It was this old greek codger with a bad attitude who was relatively new to the table, and I had missed the one hand he played when I was in the pisser so I had NO idea what to put him on. I had to lay it down figuring he had JJ or the straight. He told me he had KQ, and I have no reason not to believe him. So the money I lost and the equity I had in the hand burned me for about an hour, but he did have outs, so I very well could've gone broke, too. Then finally in about the 5th hour I pick up and bet AKo preflop in the BB against this guy who was drunk and could have been playing any two, on a junk flop, and on the turn. When the river still didn't hit I gave up and checked. We'd been betting $15 the whole way and on the river he puts on this show looking me up and down going "So you didn't hit your AK. What can you call? You've gotta be able to call $10, right? You have to call $10. ...Right?" So he bets $10. I hem and haw for a while and eventually call because he's drunk, because I wanna see what he has, because its $10 into a $100 pot, and because I very well could have him beat. He shows AQ, and commends me on my call. I commend him on his clever river ploy. He was a cool guy, and we were all having a great time. So anyway, we played 7-handed for quite a while, and at this point we were playing 5-handed and had been for...well...for longer than you'd really care to play 5-handed live poker. I was just biding my time until I could take money from the two drunk guys at the table, but I'd have really liked to have been playing at a full table. But I figured full table = more chips, but as long as we're playing 5-handed I might as well be playing against two drunk guys with 200-300 in their stacks. Anyway, finally the AQ drunk guy calls the floor over and says he doesn't wanna play 5-handed anymore, and he's only playing one more orbit. I pipe up and agree, and at about 2:30 our table breaks and fill the other two 1/2 NL tables. This whole time I hadn't got cards worth talking about (Ace-rag, 6-4, 10-6, unsuited connectors), or hadn't cashed big on the hands I did make, but I knew I could stay there as long as I needed to to hit my rush, so it was really easy to be patient, pick my spots, and just watch the play. I scooped pots here and there to plateau whether I was up or down or at my buy-in, but my biggest moves were up to $160, down as low as $60, and back up to about $110. So, after 5 1/2 hours, I was looking forward to a change of scenery and 9 other stacks to go after.
Well, it didn't take long. By 2:45 I was winning. I won a moderate sized pot, but I'll be damned if I can't remember anything about the hand. It might have been AA holding up. The very next hand I find 88 in LP, limp, and see a beautiful 8AJ action flop. There's an early bet, I raise, and then the other drunk guy from my former table moves all-in for his last $80. He was involved in the previous pot I was in and seemed to be making a stand. Other player folds, of course I call and he shows an ace with like a 6 kicker, and after the turn he's drawing dead. Mission accomplished on busting a drunk guy. The very next hand I find JQ suited. There's a pretty small PF raise from another guy at my former table and I go ahead and call with position (I fold if its not suited). The flop comes Q-high and I call another bet. The turn is a J and I call again. The river is a 5 and he moves all-in for like another $40 or something and I call. He's got Q5 and hit 2 pair on the river. My two pair is better. Three winning hands in a row, and about a $200-300 profit to show for it. A little further down the line I've got AQ and smooth call a raise with it in the small blind. The flop comes QQx. We check the flop. The turn is a K. The PF raiser bets, and I raise. UTG calls, PF raiser folds, UTG calls. The river is meaningless. I bet, UTG moves all-in for prolly like $80. I stew over it for a couple minutes because I'm afraid he's got KQ, but finally decide I can't lay it down. He's got Q 10 and I'm raking the pot. I won more hands I don't remember, but from 2:45-3:45 I took my stack from ~$110 to $550ish. Then between 3:45 and 5:10 I won another $200, with a couple more sets and other hands I just can't remember. I know there were a couple of AKs in there, somewhere (either before or in this period) there was an AA that held up, a set of 6s I flopped and had to actually double check to make sure I had because I couldn't believe it. On top of all that, I was trying to mix up my play sometimes (limped w/AK a time or two) to keep chips headed my way. But the table just would not believe me when I was in a hand for some reason. It was a perfect table for my playing style and they were paying me off better than I could've ever imagined. There was one guy who had about $800 in play when I sat at that table, and when I left that had been cut in about half, and most of 'em came my way. In the middle of it all I sat at $650 for a handfull of orbits and wanted to make 50 more dollars to get to $700 and get outta there, and then I'll be damned if I didn't nail trip queens again and made over $50 on that hand. I played for a few more orbits and scooped a pot or two, but when the replay of the ISU vs. Bradley game from Saturday afternoon on ESPNU got over, it was 5 AM, I was starting to crash from my 1:30 Red Bull boost, and I had $749 in chips, I decided the stars were pretty aligned for my leaving and the only way I'm going from here is down, so much to the dismay of the table, I racked em up and called it a night.
$650 profit, which more than doubled my entire bankroll. So that's an OK win. ;-) I've got $950 in my B&M roll, and about $300 in my online roll, so I'm starting to get deep. Of course, if I'm gonna take a shot at the Circuit Event and be able to come back and maintain my monitary level of play, I'd still like to keep building. But at this point I'm actually starting to feel like it would be really hard to go broke, which I've NEVER had the pleasure of feeling before. And of course, I'm laughing in the face of the poker gods by reporting this publically, so I'm sure I'll now go straight broke in very short order.
Live poker just comes so naturally to me. When I'm playing live I feel like I can't lose. As long as I maintain my patience and play my game, all I have to do is let everyone else make their mistakes. I can't believe how you can go 20-30 hands w/o playing and then when you come in raising you still get people calling you with bad hands. I can see it online because its harder to pay that much attention, but I would sit out 2 or 3 orbits on Saturday night right in front of 7-10 people and then when I come in raising and show down nothing but good hands, people would still play with me. Of course this wouldn't fly at higher levels, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Plus, I know I sound like a broken record talking about this, but the people reading just comes naturally to me. I'd never be able to write a book on poker tells, but I have a natural instinct that I can't explain of being able to tell when someone's weak and when someone's strong. I felt like a real poker player Saturday night. I sat at a poker table for 8 hours patient, disciplined, and vigilant, and came away with 6 1/2 more buy-ins than I started with. Sometimes I stop and wonder if I just hit a lucky rush and I can't take credit for the big win. Well, I did hit a lucky rush, but at the same time, in order to get to that rush, I had to fold for FIVE HOURS, and I think I can be proud of myself for having that discipline, because a lot of players wouldn't have that patience to even get to the point where they were seeing the cards. Hell, I saw several players come in, try and force wins out of bad cards, complain about their luck, and leave $200-300 on the table. I could've done that just as easily, but I came to grind it out, I grinded it out, and I was rewarded with a run of cards. It feels like that's what its all about, but any more experienced players out there can enlighten me on their feelings on this subject if they'd like.
Anyway, its all fun and games until I experience some live variance and have to invest 3 or 4 buy-ins before I finally decide its a losing session, but for now I'm just gonna live large and be proud of the win.
So, now that my big live objective is in the books with a mission accomplished, I now focus on 5-6 days off next week where my main objective will be poker. I'll probably play mostly online, but it would probably be in my best interest to get out and put in a couple of live sessions as well. I should probably play the Tuesday tourney at the casino and then hopefully there will be some fruitful cash games when that's over. My big goal is to hit the $1300-$1400 mark and actually move into the black on life (which will be a very proud accomplishment for me considering how much I hate myself for what I did in 2005 and early 2006), but of course I'd like to very much surpass that and concrete my ability to head to Council Bluffs and give the Circuit Event a run. Before all is said and done, that will probably also mean another big Friday or Saturday night session like this one sometime in January, so hopefully with about 30 days to go I can get plenty deep to take some shots at the WSOP and not feel too much of a sting to the bankroll, and get back to the grind after taking a shot.
But as I've been doing since I started to really focus on becoming a winning player, I'm going to continue taking it one step at a time, and the next steps are to hit that illustrious "winner for life" mark two years after I started playing for real money, and to be sure to stay disciplined in many hours of poker between Christmas and New Year's and keep things trending upward.
That's probably it for me between now and Christmas, so anyone who reads this be sure to have a happy holiday, and a nice break from work, safe travels, and good luck on the felt as hopefully the donkeys are out in full force blowing their Christmas bonuses.
Check ya.
Anyway, its really cramping my blog reading and blogging style. So you get an excerpt from my email to Jorgen, slightly enhanced, reporting on my unbelievable cash game session from Saturday.
I'll be damned if this poker experience didn't actually live up to expectations and was actually everything it was cracked up to be. I was starting to get antsy when I was about 4-5 hours through the session and I was basically spinning my wheels, but boy did things change.
I ended up heading out a little earlier than I was planning because I was bored sitting at home with the little lady already having left to go out w/the girls. But in the end it didn't matter because I stayed later than I had planned (thank you, Red Bull at 1:30 AM). So, after some Empress Chicken and a Red Bull on the way to the casino at about 8:30 I got a seat at 1/2 NL at 9:07. The first 5 hours are literally not worth talking about. Three things happened. An hour or two in, I made a great call all the way through a board with decent draws with an overpair of 10s. I was up about $60. FOREVER. Then I bet an AQo $20 preflop, $20 on a JQ-high flop, and then $40 on the 9 turn, where I got raised all-in. I had invested $80 to this point, and he had me covered. It was this old greek codger with a bad attitude who was relatively new to the table, and I had missed the one hand he played when I was in the pisser so I had NO idea what to put him on. I had to lay it down figuring he had JJ or the straight. He told me he had KQ, and I have no reason not to believe him. So the money I lost and the equity I had in the hand burned me for about an hour, but he did have outs, so I very well could've gone broke, too. Then finally in about the 5th hour I pick up and bet AKo preflop in the BB against this guy who was drunk and could have been playing any two, on a junk flop, and on the turn. When the river still didn't hit I gave up and checked. We'd been betting $15 the whole way and on the river he puts on this show looking me up and down going "So you didn't hit your AK. What can you call? You've gotta be able to call $10, right? You have to call $10. ...Right?" So he bets $10. I hem and haw for a while and eventually call because he's drunk, because I wanna see what he has, because its $10 into a $100 pot, and because I very well could have him beat. He shows AQ, and commends me on my call. I commend him on his clever river ploy. He was a cool guy, and we were all having a great time. So anyway, we played 7-handed for quite a while, and at this point we were playing 5-handed and had been for...well...for longer than you'd really care to play 5-handed live poker. I was just biding my time until I could take money from the two drunk guys at the table, but I'd have really liked to have been playing at a full table. But I figured full table = more chips, but as long as we're playing 5-handed I might as well be playing against two drunk guys with 200-300 in their stacks. Anyway, finally the AQ drunk guy calls the floor over and says he doesn't wanna play 5-handed anymore, and he's only playing one more orbit. I pipe up and agree, and at about 2:30 our table breaks and fill the other two 1/2 NL tables. This whole time I hadn't got cards worth talking about (Ace-rag, 6-4, 10-6, unsuited connectors), or hadn't cashed big on the hands I did make, but I knew I could stay there as long as I needed to to hit my rush, so it was really easy to be patient, pick my spots, and just watch the play. I scooped pots here and there to plateau whether I was up or down or at my buy-in, but my biggest moves were up to $160, down as low as $60, and back up to about $110. So, after 5 1/2 hours, I was looking forward to a change of scenery and 9 other stacks to go after.
Well, it didn't take long. By 2:45 I was winning. I won a moderate sized pot, but I'll be damned if I can't remember anything about the hand. It might have been AA holding up. The very next hand I find 88 in LP, limp, and see a beautiful 8AJ action flop. There's an early bet, I raise, and then the other drunk guy from my former table moves all-in for his last $80. He was involved in the previous pot I was in and seemed to be making a stand. Other player folds, of course I call and he shows an ace with like a 6 kicker, and after the turn he's drawing dead. Mission accomplished on busting a drunk guy. The very next hand I find JQ suited. There's a pretty small PF raise from another guy at my former table and I go ahead and call with position (I fold if its not suited). The flop comes Q-high and I call another bet. The turn is a J and I call again. The river is a 5 and he moves all-in for like another $40 or something and I call. He's got Q5 and hit 2 pair on the river. My two pair is better. Three winning hands in a row, and about a $200-300 profit to show for it. A little further down the line I've got AQ and smooth call a raise with it in the small blind. The flop comes QQx. We check the flop. The turn is a K. The PF raiser bets, and I raise. UTG calls, PF raiser folds, UTG calls. The river is meaningless. I bet, UTG moves all-in for prolly like $80. I stew over it for a couple minutes because I'm afraid he's got KQ, but finally decide I can't lay it down. He's got Q 10 and I'm raking the pot. I won more hands I don't remember, but from 2:45-3:45 I took my stack from ~$110 to $550ish. Then between 3:45 and 5:10 I won another $200, with a couple more sets and other hands I just can't remember. I know there were a couple of AKs in there, somewhere (either before or in this period) there was an AA that held up, a set of 6s I flopped and had to actually double check to make sure I had because I couldn't believe it. On top of all that, I was trying to mix up my play sometimes (limped w/AK a time or two) to keep chips headed my way. But the table just would not believe me when I was in a hand for some reason. It was a perfect table for my playing style and they were paying me off better than I could've ever imagined. There was one guy who had about $800 in play when I sat at that table, and when I left that had been cut in about half, and most of 'em came my way. In the middle of it all I sat at $650 for a handfull of orbits and wanted to make 50 more dollars to get to $700 and get outta there, and then I'll be damned if I didn't nail trip queens again and made over $50 on that hand. I played for a few more orbits and scooped a pot or two, but when the replay of the ISU vs. Bradley game from Saturday afternoon on ESPNU got over, it was 5 AM, I was starting to crash from my 1:30 Red Bull boost, and I had $749 in chips, I decided the stars were pretty aligned for my leaving and the only way I'm going from here is down, so much to the dismay of the table, I racked em up and called it a night.
$650 profit, which more than doubled my entire bankroll. So that's an OK win. ;-) I've got $950 in my B&M roll, and about $300 in my online roll, so I'm starting to get deep. Of course, if I'm gonna take a shot at the Circuit Event and be able to come back and maintain my monitary level of play, I'd still like to keep building. But at this point I'm actually starting to feel like it would be really hard to go broke, which I've NEVER had the pleasure of feeling before. And of course, I'm laughing in the face of the poker gods by reporting this publically, so I'm sure I'll now go straight broke in very short order.
Live poker just comes so naturally to me. When I'm playing live I feel like I can't lose. As long as I maintain my patience and play my game, all I have to do is let everyone else make their mistakes. I can't believe how you can go 20-30 hands w/o playing and then when you come in raising you still get people calling you with bad hands. I can see it online because its harder to pay that much attention, but I would sit out 2 or 3 orbits on Saturday night right in front of 7-10 people and then when I come in raising and show down nothing but good hands, people would still play with me. Of course this wouldn't fly at higher levels, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Plus, I know I sound like a broken record talking about this, but the people reading just comes naturally to me. I'd never be able to write a book on poker tells, but I have a natural instinct that I can't explain of being able to tell when someone's weak and when someone's strong. I felt like a real poker player Saturday night. I sat at a poker table for 8 hours patient, disciplined, and vigilant, and came away with 6 1/2 more buy-ins than I started with. Sometimes I stop and wonder if I just hit a lucky rush and I can't take credit for the big win. Well, I did hit a lucky rush, but at the same time, in order to get to that rush, I had to fold for FIVE HOURS, and I think I can be proud of myself for having that discipline, because a lot of players wouldn't have that patience to even get to the point where they were seeing the cards. Hell, I saw several players come in, try and force wins out of bad cards, complain about their luck, and leave $200-300 on the table. I could've done that just as easily, but I came to grind it out, I grinded it out, and I was rewarded with a run of cards. It feels like that's what its all about, but any more experienced players out there can enlighten me on their feelings on this subject if they'd like.
Anyway, its all fun and games until I experience some live variance and have to invest 3 or 4 buy-ins before I finally decide its a losing session, but for now I'm just gonna live large and be proud of the win.
So, now that my big live objective is in the books with a mission accomplished, I now focus on 5-6 days off next week where my main objective will be poker. I'll probably play mostly online, but it would probably be in my best interest to get out and put in a couple of live sessions as well. I should probably play the Tuesday tourney at the casino and then hopefully there will be some fruitful cash games when that's over. My big goal is to hit the $1300-$1400 mark and actually move into the black on life (which will be a very proud accomplishment for me considering how much I hate myself for what I did in 2005 and early 2006), but of course I'd like to very much surpass that and concrete my ability to head to Council Bluffs and give the Circuit Event a run. Before all is said and done, that will probably also mean another big Friday or Saturday night session like this one sometime in January, so hopefully with about 30 days to go I can get plenty deep to take some shots at the WSOP and not feel too much of a sting to the bankroll, and get back to the grind after taking a shot.
But as I've been doing since I started to really focus on becoming a winning player, I'm going to continue taking it one step at a time, and the next steps are to hit that illustrious "winner for life" mark two years after I started playing for real money, and to be sure to stay disciplined in many hours of poker between Christmas and New Year's and keep things trending upward.
That's probably it for me between now and Christmas, so anyone who reads this be sure to have a happy holiday, and a nice break from work, safe travels, and good luck on the felt as hopefully the donkeys are out in full force blowing their Christmas bonuses.
Check ya.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Trending Upward
Well I'm WAY behind on reading and have yet to even get to WPBT trip reports yet, but I just have to blog before I forget everything that's happened.
Since Dec. 1, when I deposited $50 at Mansion, I have made $420. $280 of it was made online in $5 and $10 SNGs and $.25/.50 NL cash. Not only am I VERY comfortable at this level, and are players giving me buy-ins with reckless abandon, but I'm actually *very* close to being appropriately bankrolled for this level! I made about $40 at our poker night on Friday, attributed to 2 baby cashes in tournaments and some cash game winnings. And then Sunday I ventured out to the casino for a little $1/2 NL, where I managed to double my $100 buy-in.
So...all is good. Poker gods, you just simmer down. I'm not getting cocky, I'm just simply reporting on what's been going on.
Last Friday I was home for the day. I played a couple of different sessions, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the first time I believe I've won on a day off. In the morning I managed to take my $220 and turn it into $270. This win can all be attributed to cash games, as players just couldn't help but dump buy-ins to me. I played one $10 MTT that I was really excited to play well in and win (the 67 person field was quite ripe for the taking), but my hopes were dashed early when I flopped a set of 2s on an all heart board, and when I pushed, I was called by the ace of hearts, and his flush fell on the turn. That was dirty, but at least it was early. I also played in a $10 SNG, which I don't recall making much of a splash in. But I had doubled my buy-in in one cash game, and the $20 win at another cash table covered my tourney losses. I then took a break for lunch, and went back at it again. I popped open another cash game and another $10 SNG. This time in the SNG I went out the very first hand when my 10 10 got all in against QQ. I was hoping for AK or AQ, but obviously missed on my read there. At this point I got mad at myself for donking off $33 in buy-ins at the $10 level when I was killing the $5 level. But I wasn't *that* mad, because yet again, I was killing the cash game. With about 2 hours until I was due to leave for poker night, I decided to give one more SNG a try to try and get the monkey off my back. I came from 6th out of 6 left to win that one, and the $45 cash gave me a $1 profit at the $10 level, and enough to take me off ten dollar tilt. Meanwhile, I had cashed about $20 in cash games, to bring my 2nd session profit total to $50 again. So that's a $100 online Friday, and had me in a good mood headed off to poker night.
I don't need to get too deep into the details of poker night, although I made a couple of solid critical plays for some cash, the structure is too disgusting for anything to really matter. After a poor start in the first tourney which amounted to winning one single hand and then blinding out around the middle of the pack, I had some decent hands hold up for a nice cash game win, then took 3rd and 2nd in the last two tourneys. Second would've paid decent earlier in the night, but we only had 9 players for the last tourney. Regardless, its always nice to win a little pocket change at poker night.
Sunday the wife headed out home for some baking, and I decided I'd head out and have a go at the Sunday noon tournament bustees at the local casino. My buddy and I got seats at the $1/2 NL table that was just kicking up at about 12:45, and it was off to the races.
Down
I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 on the very first hand when my KJ in the SB paired a 10 X J flop, then rivered a K-high straight, only to lose to an unraised preflop AK that had turned the nuts. I bet the pot when I hit top pair second kicker on the flop, but it wasn't enough to chase out the drawer two seats to my left. We checked the turn (Q), and then he raised my $15 bet on the river 9 and I paid him off, knowing I was only beat by AK, and with no preflop raise, I couldn't put him on it. I was disappointed, but I think I probably lost the least amount possible in the hand, and he got ridiculously lucky to have me on a hand I couldn't get away from. That's poker. Time to get to work.
Up
Thankfully I didn't have to wait but a couple of revolutions until I picked up AA in the big. I raised to $7 preflop and got at least 6 callers, which I wasn't thrilled about. With a small raise like that you know you're gonna get some callers, but that is a LOT of hands that could crack my aces. The flop came XQK rainbow, and I immediately moved my short stack in. I believe it was only a little bit more than the pot. Immediately after I moved in I realized that it would have been simple for someone to have called preflop w/QK, and I felt like I had just done myself in. But the story ends well, as your hero doubles through one player who didn't show down, and picks up all the preflop action as well, which put me up over my $100 buy-in.
Down
The next big hand happened a few more times around the table later when I picked up 68c UTG. I have really been experimenting with suited gappers lately, and a recent article I read said its a good hand to raise UTG if you feel like getting tricky. Well, I felt like getting tricky, but was too much of a wimp to raise, so really what happened was I was playing a terrible hand out of position. And I paid the price when the flop came 6 4 8, I bet, was raised all-in by UTG+1, was happy to call, only to see his pocket 8s. A 7 of clubs gave me some hope on the turn, then a river 6 gave me the third nuts. Which, of course, lost to the nuts. And I'm down to about $30. This hand is irritating because I had no business in it, but chances are even if I had raised it like I was "supposed to", the 8s would've stayed with me and the result would've been the same. Of course the obvious answer is to fold the hand, but I didn't do that this time, so cest la vie.
Up
By the time I played my next hand, I was hovering around the $25 mark, and was looking for a hand to push with. Of course, I could've chipped up to $100, but that's just not how I roll. I wanted to either win my way back or bust and rebuy. Here I picked up AKc in the big blind, and pushed my last $25 or so. I got 3 callers, the flop brought an ace, and my hand held up. And I'm back in the game. At this point I never looked back.
Up, Up, Up
I eventually picked up KK again in the BB, which saw a raise from the table's resident LAG. I re-raised her, and she called. The flop actually came Ace-high, which I hated, but knew I was up against the one opponent who could easily not have an ace. Regardless, after going into the tank for a while, I checked, and she checked behind. I think she thought she was catching me trying to slow play here, so I really had her right where I wanted her. The turn was a blank, I checked again (I know...weak), and she checked behind. The river was another blank, and here I made a weak bet (something like $20) at the decent sized pot. She thought for a while and min-raised me, and I had to pay it off. I was just looking to get out of the hand and with any luck take it down. I think she said she had a lower pocket pair. I know I couldn't have played this hand much worse, but I was just happy to take it down. After that I won another pot that turned out to be a decent size when I called a J-high, uncoordinated board down with nothing more than AK. I liked my play here as I limped my AK preflop UTG, and a donkey who was down about $175 made it 5 to go from MP. I think a couple more, including the crazy loose chick (poker loose, you perverts) called the $5, and we saw a J-high, uncoordinated flop. We checked around. On the turn 3, the MP donkey put his last $15 all-in reeking of weakness, LAG called, and I called. The turn was another blank, we checked down, and I took the pot w/AK high.
I'm only gonna pain you with one more hand, as it was a little bit interesting, and a little bit creepy. For about three table revolutions I had been hovering around the $190-195 mark. My buddy had gotten his ass handed to him for to the tune of 2 buy-ins (poor guy couldn't catch a break, it was pretty sick) and was gone, so I was looking to get to $200 and call it quits. But at the same time, I had a couple more hours I could've played and the action was pretty good if I could just get in a pot w/the right people, so I wasn't opposed to staying. Anyway, it comes to a point where I pick up A 10o on the button. I *always* take my two chips and toss them out, but for some reason this time I grabbed a stack to drop chips off the bottom of. Of course, in doing this, the chips were sticky and I manage to drop 3 instead of two. I pull back the other chip and let the action move on. I'd seen it happen a million times to other people, no big deal. Maybe it was because I didn't say call or something (even though I'm sure I probably did), but this time the dealer had issue with it and said that because I had dropped more than 2 chips, I had to raise. With a decent holding like A 10 on the button, being up, and not wanting to give away any information about my hand, I didn't much mind, so I tossed in the extra two chips. As did the other 4-5 people in the hand. I'm surprised nobody re-raised at this point, but that's a whole other line of thought. The flop came all low, and we miraculously checked around. Which had happened probably 2 times previously with more than 3 people in a pot. The turn is a 10. It checks around again, I fire a pot-sized bet and take it down. Upon counting my chips, I find $201. A dollar to the dealer, and I've hit my mark. Creepy, no? I, of course, stick around for my last 9 hands, during which I find nothing interesting, and walk away with my doubled buy-in. Just a weird turn of events that really seemed like it was trying to tell me that my work there was done.
So all-in-all a damn decent 3 1/2 hour session. I made one glaring mistake w/the 68c UTG limp hand, but luckily some big hands held up for me and I was able to pull out a win. Did I play well enough to deserve a winning session? I'd like to think so, as I definitely made some plays and reads here and there. But I certainly thank the poker gods for plenty of good fortune as well. As I've said before, I really feel like I'm in my element playing live. I couldn't bullet point specifics, but I have a much better feel for the table than playing online. I have *always* had a natural talent at reading people in a general sense, and I find it simple to apply at a live table. Take, for instance, the hand where I called the small turn all-in w/just AK. Online I'd have never done that, giving the player credit for the J or any other pair. But live it was a pretty easy call based on the my general feel for how he got his money in, which resulted in about a $40 win. There are dozens of little things like that that I couldn't explain but I'm able to exploit when I'm playing live, so I really really like it.
That said, I'm finally taking an opportunity next Saturday night to test my "cherry picking the drunks" theory. I'm gonna take a nice long nap Saturday sometime, and then head out to the casino about 10 or 11 PM and play until I'm blue in the face. The idea is that hopefully by going out at that time I'll get into it with the more casual crowd that is out for a fun Saturday night, having some drinks, and spewing chips in the process. Meanwhile, I'll be there with my A game with my sights set directly on their stacks. Basically, its the same as going and playing in Vegas against tourists *anytime*, only my best opportunity is probably Friday or Saturday night here in the heart of the midwest.
So I'm REALLY looking forward to that. Until then, a little bit of online action this week, and hopefully things will continue to go well.
Since Dec. 1, when I deposited $50 at Mansion, I have made $420. $280 of it was made online in $5 and $10 SNGs and $.25/.50 NL cash. Not only am I VERY comfortable at this level, and are players giving me buy-ins with reckless abandon, but I'm actually *very* close to being appropriately bankrolled for this level! I made about $40 at our poker night on Friday, attributed to 2 baby cashes in tournaments and some cash game winnings. And then Sunday I ventured out to the casino for a little $1/2 NL, where I managed to double my $100 buy-in.
So...all is good. Poker gods, you just simmer down. I'm not getting cocky, I'm just simply reporting on what's been going on.
Last Friday I was home for the day. I played a couple of different sessions, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the first time I believe I've won on a day off. In the morning I managed to take my $220 and turn it into $270. This win can all be attributed to cash games, as players just couldn't help but dump buy-ins to me. I played one $10 MTT that I was really excited to play well in and win (the 67 person field was quite ripe for the taking), but my hopes were dashed early when I flopped a set of 2s on an all heart board, and when I pushed, I was called by the ace of hearts, and his flush fell on the turn. That was dirty, but at least it was early. I also played in a $10 SNG, which I don't recall making much of a splash in. But I had doubled my buy-in in one cash game, and the $20 win at another cash table covered my tourney losses. I then took a break for lunch, and went back at it again. I popped open another cash game and another $10 SNG. This time in the SNG I went out the very first hand when my 10 10 got all in against QQ. I was hoping for AK or AQ, but obviously missed on my read there. At this point I got mad at myself for donking off $33 in buy-ins at the $10 level when I was killing the $5 level. But I wasn't *that* mad, because yet again, I was killing the cash game. With about 2 hours until I was due to leave for poker night, I decided to give one more SNG a try to try and get the monkey off my back. I came from 6th out of 6 left to win that one, and the $45 cash gave me a $1 profit at the $10 level, and enough to take me off ten dollar tilt. Meanwhile, I had cashed about $20 in cash games, to bring my 2nd session profit total to $50 again. So that's a $100 online Friday, and had me in a good mood headed off to poker night.
I don't need to get too deep into the details of poker night, although I made a couple of solid critical plays for some cash, the structure is too disgusting for anything to really matter. After a poor start in the first tourney which amounted to winning one single hand and then blinding out around the middle of the pack, I had some decent hands hold up for a nice cash game win, then took 3rd and 2nd in the last two tourneys. Second would've paid decent earlier in the night, but we only had 9 players for the last tourney. Regardless, its always nice to win a little pocket change at poker night.
Sunday the wife headed out home for some baking, and I decided I'd head out and have a go at the Sunday noon tournament bustees at the local casino. My buddy and I got seats at the $1/2 NL table that was just kicking up at about 12:45, and it was off to the races.
Down
I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 on the very first hand when my KJ in the SB paired a 10 X J flop, then rivered a K-high straight, only to lose to an unraised preflop AK that had turned the nuts. I bet the pot when I hit top pair second kicker on the flop, but it wasn't enough to chase out the drawer two seats to my left. We checked the turn (Q), and then he raised my $15 bet on the river 9 and I paid him off, knowing I was only beat by AK, and with no preflop raise, I couldn't put him on it. I was disappointed, but I think I probably lost the least amount possible in the hand, and he got ridiculously lucky to have me on a hand I couldn't get away from. That's poker. Time to get to work.
Up
Thankfully I didn't have to wait but a couple of revolutions until I picked up AA in the big. I raised to $7 preflop and got at least 6 callers, which I wasn't thrilled about. With a small raise like that you know you're gonna get some callers, but that is a LOT of hands that could crack my aces. The flop came XQK rainbow, and I immediately moved my short stack in. I believe it was only a little bit more than the pot. Immediately after I moved in I realized that it would have been simple for someone to have called preflop w/QK, and I felt like I had just done myself in. But the story ends well, as your hero doubles through one player who didn't show down, and picks up all the preflop action as well, which put me up over my $100 buy-in.
Down
The next big hand happened a few more times around the table later when I picked up 68c UTG. I have really been experimenting with suited gappers lately, and a recent article I read said its a good hand to raise UTG if you feel like getting tricky. Well, I felt like getting tricky, but was too much of a wimp to raise, so really what happened was I was playing a terrible hand out of position. And I paid the price when the flop came 6 4 8, I bet, was raised all-in by UTG+1, was happy to call, only to see his pocket 8s. A 7 of clubs gave me some hope on the turn, then a river 6 gave me the third nuts. Which, of course, lost to the nuts. And I'm down to about $30. This hand is irritating because I had no business in it, but chances are even if I had raised it like I was "supposed to", the 8s would've stayed with me and the result would've been the same. Of course the obvious answer is to fold the hand, but I didn't do that this time, so cest la vie.
Up
By the time I played my next hand, I was hovering around the $25 mark, and was looking for a hand to push with. Of course, I could've chipped up to $100, but that's just not how I roll. I wanted to either win my way back or bust and rebuy. Here I picked up AKc in the big blind, and pushed my last $25 or so. I got 3 callers, the flop brought an ace, and my hand held up. And I'm back in the game. At this point I never looked back.
Up, Up, Up
I eventually picked up KK again in the BB, which saw a raise from the table's resident LAG. I re-raised her, and she called. The flop actually came Ace-high, which I hated, but knew I was up against the one opponent who could easily not have an ace. Regardless, after going into the tank for a while, I checked, and she checked behind. I think she thought she was catching me trying to slow play here, so I really had her right where I wanted her. The turn was a blank, I checked again (I know...weak), and she checked behind. The river was another blank, and here I made a weak bet (something like $20) at the decent sized pot. She thought for a while and min-raised me, and I had to pay it off. I was just looking to get out of the hand and with any luck take it down. I think she said she had a lower pocket pair. I know I couldn't have played this hand much worse, but I was just happy to take it down. After that I won another pot that turned out to be a decent size when I called a J-high, uncoordinated board down with nothing more than AK. I liked my play here as I limped my AK preflop UTG, and a donkey who was down about $175 made it 5 to go from MP. I think a couple more, including the crazy loose chick (poker loose, you perverts) called the $5, and we saw a J-high, uncoordinated flop. We checked around. On the turn 3, the MP donkey put his last $15 all-in reeking of weakness, LAG called, and I called. The turn was another blank, we checked down, and I took the pot w/AK high.
I'm only gonna pain you with one more hand, as it was a little bit interesting, and a little bit creepy. For about three table revolutions I had been hovering around the $190-195 mark. My buddy had gotten his ass handed to him for to the tune of 2 buy-ins (poor guy couldn't catch a break, it was pretty sick) and was gone, so I was looking to get to $200 and call it quits. But at the same time, I had a couple more hours I could've played and the action was pretty good if I could just get in a pot w/the right people, so I wasn't opposed to staying. Anyway, it comes to a point where I pick up A 10o on the button. I *always* take my two chips and toss them out, but for some reason this time I grabbed a stack to drop chips off the bottom of. Of course, in doing this, the chips were sticky and I manage to drop 3 instead of two. I pull back the other chip and let the action move on. I'd seen it happen a million times to other people, no big deal. Maybe it was because I didn't say call or something (even though I'm sure I probably did), but this time the dealer had issue with it and said that because I had dropped more than 2 chips, I had to raise. With a decent holding like A 10 on the button, being up, and not wanting to give away any information about my hand, I didn't much mind, so I tossed in the extra two chips. As did the other 4-5 people in the hand. I'm surprised nobody re-raised at this point, but that's a whole other line of thought. The flop came all low, and we miraculously checked around. Which had happened probably 2 times previously with more than 3 people in a pot. The turn is a 10. It checks around again, I fire a pot-sized bet and take it down. Upon counting my chips, I find $201. A dollar to the dealer, and I've hit my mark. Creepy, no? I, of course, stick around for my last 9 hands, during which I find nothing interesting, and walk away with my doubled buy-in. Just a weird turn of events that really seemed like it was trying to tell me that my work there was done.
So all-in-all a damn decent 3 1/2 hour session. I made one glaring mistake w/the 68c UTG limp hand, but luckily some big hands held up for me and I was able to pull out a win. Did I play well enough to deserve a winning session? I'd like to think so, as I definitely made some plays and reads here and there. But I certainly thank the poker gods for plenty of good fortune as well. As I've said before, I really feel like I'm in my element playing live. I couldn't bullet point specifics, but I have a much better feel for the table than playing online. I have *always* had a natural talent at reading people in a general sense, and I find it simple to apply at a live table. Take, for instance, the hand where I called the small turn all-in w/just AK. Online I'd have never done that, giving the player credit for the J or any other pair. But live it was a pretty easy call based on the my general feel for how he got his money in, which resulted in about a $40 win. There are dozens of little things like that that I couldn't explain but I'm able to exploit when I'm playing live, so I really really like it.
That said, I'm finally taking an opportunity next Saturday night to test my "cherry picking the drunks" theory. I'm gonna take a nice long nap Saturday sometime, and then head out to the casino about 10 or 11 PM and play until I'm blue in the face. The idea is that hopefully by going out at that time I'll get into it with the more casual crowd that is out for a fun Saturday night, having some drinks, and spewing chips in the process. Meanwhile, I'll be there with my A game with my sights set directly on their stacks. Basically, its the same as going and playing in Vegas against tourists *anytime*, only my best opportunity is probably Friday or Saturday night here in the heart of the midwest.
So I'm REALLY looking forward to that. Until then, a little bit of online action this week, and hopefully things will continue to go well.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Much Better...
You know those "big scores" I was talking about yesterday that I couldn't quite bring home?
Yeah...well...put a big checkmark next to those.
Last night I bought into a .25/.50 NL game on Mansion, and in the blink of an eye was down $30. But I made sure to keep myself no lower than $45 at the table, and just tried to persevere. I eventually picked up A10 in LP and limped. The flop came A 10 Q w/2 spades, and I raised an MP bettor big to try and take it down. Both left in the hand stayed with me, so I was on alert. I honestly don't remember the rest of the hand, but the bottom line is that miraculously one had a pair and the other missed their draw and I won a $35 pot. Eventually I pick up pocket aces on the button. I preflop RE-raise from $2 to $6, and the original raiser calls along with a player that I pegged immediately two days ago as a bluffer/donkey. And yet somehow I hadn't seen him with less than $80 at a .25/.50 table, generally over $100.
That was about to change.
The flop comes a "couldn't be any more beautiful" Ace-high rainbow. It was almost *too* nice, and I was afraid I couldn't get paid off. But the original raiser goes ahead and fires a continuation bet of about $6, which gets called by bluffer and by me. The turn is another harmless card. First guy checks, bluffer checks, and I bet about 1/2 the pot. I lose the original raiser, but bluffer calls. The river is a 5, and with no flush possibilities and I don't think any straight possibilities, I may actually have the nuts. Bluffer bets, I raise, he re-raises, and I re-raise all-in. He eventually calls and shows J5o. JACK. FIVE. OFF. I didn't review the hand, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have trips, and I'm positive there wasn't a jack on the board.
That's right, folks, he pulled the ever so illustrious "bluff call" on me.
So here I am...$180. But I didn't stack him. His remaining $.71 went in on the next hand but didn't hold up.
A couple hands later the poker gods have the nerve to deal me pocket kings. I make a preflop raise and its called in a few places. I flopped a set again, and when all was said and done I had $211.
I ended my session at $213, bringing my bankroll to $220.
So, no more complaining for me for the immediate future. But I have to be sure now that I'm a little deep again that I stay disciplined. I'm going to stay at the .25/.50 level for now because its quite lucrative and fits *better* within my bankroll, even though its still technically above where I should be playing. But I think I could win just as much here as I can at .50/1 because the play is just SO bad. I just have to pick my spots and hope I don't get drawn out on when I pick up my hands.
I also played in a SNG last night. It wasn't a $10 because that would've taken too long to fill with the limited time frame I had. It was a good thing, as I bubbled in 4th. I never got a whole lot of early momentum, but with the good structure I eventually hit a run of cards in 6th out of 6 that propelled me to 3rd and some shoutin' chips. We got down to 4, and were just passing chips around the table. I spent time as the leader, then time as the dog, and then back to the leader, and obviously eventually out. Its the second SNG in a row where the bubble took FOREVER. Four players for probably 35 minutes. That does not suit me well, as bubble play is probably my biggest SNG weakness. But I'm not complaining, I love the play. I didn't really play badly to bubble, its just that I couldn't win a couple of coin flips to take players out, and when I should have been good with some decent A-high hands to take out short stacks, they were waking up w/pocket pairs or a 40% hand like JK. And for that matter, nobody else could whack a short stack either. So its always disappointing to bubble, but that's just the way they fell this time. I probably could've done better, but I'm not gonna dwell on it. I was busy winning $130 playing cash.
I have tomorrow off which hopefully means some serious hours, and then our monthly home game tomorrow night which I ALWAYS look forward to.
But for now, off to drink!
Yeah...well...put a big checkmark next to those.
Last night I bought into a .25/.50 NL game on Mansion, and in the blink of an eye was down $30. But I made sure to keep myself no lower than $45 at the table, and just tried to persevere. I eventually picked up A10 in LP and limped. The flop came A 10 Q w/2 spades, and I raised an MP bettor big to try and take it down. Both left in the hand stayed with me, so I was on alert. I honestly don't remember the rest of the hand, but the bottom line is that miraculously one had a pair and the other missed their draw and I won a $35 pot. Eventually I pick up pocket aces on the button. I preflop RE-raise from $2 to $6, and the original raiser calls along with a player that I pegged immediately two days ago as a bluffer/donkey. And yet somehow I hadn't seen him with less than $80 at a .25/.50 table, generally over $100.
That was about to change.
The flop comes a "couldn't be any more beautiful" Ace-high rainbow. It was almost *too* nice, and I was afraid I couldn't get paid off. But the original raiser goes ahead and fires a continuation bet of about $6, which gets called by bluffer and by me. The turn is another harmless card. First guy checks, bluffer checks, and I bet about 1/2 the pot. I lose the original raiser, but bluffer calls. The river is a 5, and with no flush possibilities and I don't think any straight possibilities, I may actually have the nuts. Bluffer bets, I raise, he re-raises, and I re-raise all-in. He eventually calls and shows J5o. JACK. FIVE. OFF. I didn't review the hand, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have trips, and I'm positive there wasn't a jack on the board.
That's right, folks, he pulled the ever so illustrious "bluff call" on me.
So here I am...$180. But I didn't stack him. His remaining $.71 went in on the next hand but didn't hold up.
A couple hands later the poker gods have the nerve to deal me pocket kings. I make a preflop raise and its called in a few places. I flopped a set again, and when all was said and done I had $211.
I ended my session at $213, bringing my bankroll to $220.
So, no more complaining for me for the immediate future. But I have to be sure now that I'm a little deep again that I stay disciplined. I'm going to stay at the .25/.50 level for now because its quite lucrative and fits *better* within my bankroll, even though its still technically above where I should be playing. But I think I could win just as much here as I can at .50/1 because the play is just SO bad. I just have to pick my spots and hope I don't get drawn out on when I pick up my hands.
I also played in a SNG last night. It wasn't a $10 because that would've taken too long to fill with the limited time frame I had. It was a good thing, as I bubbled in 4th. I never got a whole lot of early momentum, but with the good structure I eventually hit a run of cards in 6th out of 6 that propelled me to 3rd and some shoutin' chips. We got down to 4, and were just passing chips around the table. I spent time as the leader, then time as the dog, and then back to the leader, and obviously eventually out. Its the second SNG in a row where the bubble took FOREVER. Four players for probably 35 minutes. That does not suit me well, as bubble play is probably my biggest SNG weakness. But I'm not complaining, I love the play. I didn't really play badly to bubble, its just that I couldn't win a couple of coin flips to take players out, and when I should have been good with some decent A-high hands to take out short stacks, they were waking up w/pocket pairs or a 40% hand like JK. And for that matter, nobody else could whack a short stack either. So its always disappointing to bubble, but that's just the way they fell this time. I probably could've done better, but I'm not gonna dwell on it. I was busy winning $130 playing cash.
I have tomorrow off which hopefully means some serious hours, and then our monthly home game tomorrow night which I ALWAYS look forward to.
But for now, off to drink!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Big Blind Special...Like, "Helmet" Special
This might be the sickest river card I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
Mansion Poker - .25/.50 NL
Seat 1: MP2(53.18)
Seat 2: Cutoff(84.13)
Seat 3: Button(3.97)
Seat 5: SB(25.50)
Seat 6: WindBreak247(36.05)
Seat 7: UTG(102.53)
Seat 8: UTG+1(14.55)
Seat 9: Villian(61.90)
SB posts small blind (0.25)
WindBreak247 posts big blind (0.50)
WindBreak247 is dealt down [Ts Kd]
Villian calls (0.50)
Cutoff calls (0.50)
Button calls (0.50)
SB calls (0.50)
WindBreak247 checks - I'm not in love with this hand preflop and happy to check.
flop: [3s 5d Th]
SB checks
WindBreak247 bets (2.40) - Pretty damn nice board for this hand, so I'll bet the pot and see what develops. I'm happy to keep playing or take it down.
Villian calls (2.40) - This guy has shown some moxxy, so I'll be wary, but I *really* like where I'm at.
Everyone Else Folds
turn: [Tc]
WindBreak247 checks - Obviously I'm pretty sure I've got the best hand (I'm only scared of 33, 55, 10s, and A10), but I'd like to see where Villian is at.
Villian checks - Now I'm positive I've got the best hand.
river: [5h]
WindBreak247 bets (3.15) - I'm now only losing to pocket fives. I bet about half the pot, because first and foremost I want a call. But I think he's got a 5 here and I'm about to double through him.
Villian raises to (59) and is all-in - This came disturbingly fast
WindBreak247 says: "pocket 5s?"
WindBreak247 says: "that'd be sick"
WindBreak247 calls (33.15) and is all-in - I absolutely cannot fold the nut full house, can I???
Villian is refunded (25.85)
Villian shows [5s 5c] for four of a kind, fives
WindBreak247 shows [Ts Kd] for a full house, tens full of fives
Turns out this guy was ahead of me the entire way. Could I have played it in a manner where I'd have been able to get away from it, or is this just one of those disgusting hands that you have to deal with every few thousand hands?
Anyway, in spite of that hand, I took a very minor loss last night. I lost about $43 in cash, but I played two SNGs, taking 1st and 2nd (have I told you I love the Mansion SNGs?), and cleared a piece of my bonus (which I know shouldn't technically count), which left me about $7 down for the night.
Cash was (obviously) a struggle, as I took my lumps and waited patiently to make a big score but never quite did. I lost another sick $20-25 hand involving a flush on the river that villian had NO odds to chase after the flop and I didn't put him on at ALL, and also had my flopped set of 9s outrun by an obvious flush on the turn (I got away), and had flopped trips w/a K in my hand get outrun by a 4-flush on the river (I couldn't have played this hand worse, and just paid a small bet on the river to prove it). But in general I feel very comfortable at the table, have a pretty good feel for where I'm at any given hand, and if I'm patient, I can get them right where I want them.
The 2nd SNG I played in was unreal. Even I hated myself as I luckboxed my way out of the jaws of death FOUR times. I sucked out as a 60% dog for my tourney life when the board made a 4-flush with my K against Ax. I sucked out for my tourney life w/88 against 99 when the board came K 10 K 10 J. I sucked out for my tourney life w/A4 vs. QQ when the board came 356-7-Q. And finally, I sucked out as a 60% dog again when my Q10 paired a 10 against Ax. I'm not gonna apologize for the suckouts, though. Just the poker universe attempting to level itself out, and a little karma cashout. I should've won it, as my heads up opponent was nobody to write home about, but when a river card made me 2 pair and my opponent a straight, that was all she wrote.
I have a definite advantage in these SNGs, as most other players seem to not have the patience allowed by a SNG that actually has some play in it. This is especially apparent in the early stages, and then again in heads up. I feel like giving a $10 one a shot, simply because I think it'd be a +EV move, plus the things take 80-90 mins, so you can't play as many. But we shall see. So far I've invested $33 and cashed $58.50, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Thats plenty for today. I'm completely jealous of all you bloggers leaving over the next 2-3 days to head out to Vegas. Hope you all have a blast, and can't wait to hear of the debauchery.
Mansion Poker - .25/.50 NL
Seat 1: MP2(53.18)
Seat 2: Cutoff(84.13)
Seat 3: Button(3.97)
Seat 5: SB(25.50)
Seat 6: WindBreak247(36.05)
Seat 7: UTG(102.53)
Seat 8: UTG+1(14.55)
Seat 9: Villian(61.90)
SB posts small blind (0.25)
WindBreak247 posts big blind (0.50)
WindBreak247 is dealt down [Ts Kd]
Villian calls (0.50)
Cutoff calls (0.50)
Button calls (0.50)
SB calls (0.50)
WindBreak247 checks - I'm not in love with this hand preflop and happy to check.
flop: [3s 5d Th]
SB checks
WindBreak247 bets (2.40) - Pretty damn nice board for this hand, so I'll bet the pot and see what develops. I'm happy to keep playing or take it down.
Villian calls (2.40) - This guy has shown some moxxy, so I'll be wary, but I *really* like where I'm at.
Everyone Else Folds
turn: [Tc]
WindBreak247 checks - Obviously I'm pretty sure I've got the best hand (I'm only scared of 33, 55, 10s, and A10), but I'd like to see where Villian is at.
Villian checks - Now I'm positive I've got the best hand.
river: [5h]
WindBreak247 bets (3.15) - I'm now only losing to pocket fives. I bet about half the pot, because first and foremost I want a call. But I think he's got a 5 here and I'm about to double through him.
Villian raises to (59) and is all-in - This came disturbingly fast
WindBreak247 says: "pocket 5s?"
WindBreak247 says: "that'd be sick"
WindBreak247 calls (33.15) and is all-in - I absolutely cannot fold the nut full house, can I???
Villian is refunded (25.85)
Villian shows [5s 5c] for four of a kind, fives
WindBreak247 shows [Ts Kd] for a full house, tens full of fives
Turns out this guy was ahead of me the entire way. Could I have played it in a manner where I'd have been able to get away from it, or is this just one of those disgusting hands that you have to deal with every few thousand hands?
Anyway, in spite of that hand, I took a very minor loss last night. I lost about $43 in cash, but I played two SNGs, taking 1st and 2nd (have I told you I love the Mansion SNGs?), and cleared a piece of my bonus (which I know shouldn't technically count), which left me about $7 down for the night.
Cash was (obviously) a struggle, as I took my lumps and waited patiently to make a big score but never quite did. I lost another sick $20-25 hand involving a flush on the river that villian had NO odds to chase after the flop and I didn't put him on at ALL, and also had my flopped set of 9s outrun by an obvious flush on the turn (I got away), and had flopped trips w/a K in my hand get outrun by a 4-flush on the river (I couldn't have played this hand worse, and just paid a small bet on the river to prove it). But in general I feel very comfortable at the table, have a pretty good feel for where I'm at any given hand, and if I'm patient, I can get them right where I want them.
The 2nd SNG I played in was unreal. Even I hated myself as I luckboxed my way out of the jaws of death FOUR times. I sucked out as a 60% dog for my tourney life when the board made a 4-flush with my K against Ax. I sucked out for my tourney life w/88 against 99 when the board came K 10 K 10 J. I sucked out for my tourney life w/A4 vs. QQ when the board came 356-7-Q. And finally, I sucked out as a 60% dog again when my Q10 paired a 10 against Ax. I'm not gonna apologize for the suckouts, though. Just the poker universe attempting to level itself out, and a little karma cashout. I should've won it, as my heads up opponent was nobody to write home about, but when a river card made me 2 pair and my opponent a straight, that was all she wrote.
I have a definite advantage in these SNGs, as most other players seem to not have the patience allowed by a SNG that actually has some play in it. This is especially apparent in the early stages, and then again in heads up. I feel like giving a $10 one a shot, simply because I think it'd be a +EV move, plus the things take 80-90 mins, so you can't play as many. But we shall see. So far I've invested $33 and cashed $58.50, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Thats plenty for today. I'm completely jealous of all you bloggers leaving over the next 2-3 days to head out to Vegas. Hope you all have a blast, and can't wait to hear of the debauchery.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Heartbreaker
Well, I just busted out of my first blogger tourney in 31st out of 132 after a stellar performance.
"Stellar?" you say?
"But you got 31st. That's not great."
Well, I spent most of the tournament in the top 10, and of that time in the top 10, at least half of it in the top 5. At this point we're about an hour and 35 mins in, and I had spent the first hour and 15 mins or so in the top 10.
I went into a card-dead spell, but was hanging around the middle of the field, below the average, but w/more than 10 big blinds in my stack. I was perfectly fine with this situation.
And then THIS happened.
I'm dealt K7o in the big, and miraculously only the chip leader calls on the button. I happily check. The flop comes QK5. I check, to see what the button thinks about the flop. The button min-bets, and I call. The turn is another 5, counterfeiting my kicker. At this point I have less in my stack than what is in the pot, so I push it, happy to split, but hoping the button is on a Q. The button was NOT on a Q as she insta-calls and rolls the nuts on me. Just sick. Looking at it, there's pretty much no possible way I could've gotten her off her hand or not gotten all my chips in, so I guess that's about the only piece of mind I can take away. I suppose I *maybe* could've collected the blinds by pushing, but there's pretty much no way I'm ever doing that in this situation.
I was excited to get the field down to 30 as our table would've broken and I was hoping a change of scenery would help me out. Ironically, the table broke when I busted.
With 18 to go and 10 paying, our boy Lightning36 is still hanging around the bubble. I'm sure he won't have a problem working his way into the money. HERE is the tourney results page, so be sure to check on him.
Man, I felt like this tourney was poised to bail me out of my Poker.com busto, but I'm done in, yet again, by a sick turn of events.
Oh well...on to the rest of the weekend in the real world!
"Stellar?" you say?
"But you got 31st. That's not great."
Well, I spent most of the tournament in the top 10, and of that time in the top 10, at least half of it in the top 5. At this point we're about an hour and 35 mins in, and I had spent the first hour and 15 mins or so in the top 10.
I went into a card-dead spell, but was hanging around the middle of the field, below the average, but w/more than 10 big blinds in my stack. I was perfectly fine with this situation.
And then THIS happened.
I'm dealt K7o in the big, and miraculously only the chip leader calls on the button. I happily check. The flop comes QK5. I check, to see what the button thinks about the flop. The button min-bets, and I call. The turn is another 5, counterfeiting my kicker. At this point I have less in my stack than what is in the pot, so I push it, happy to split, but hoping the button is on a Q. The button was NOT on a Q as she insta-calls and rolls the nuts on me. Just sick. Looking at it, there's pretty much no possible way I could've gotten her off her hand or not gotten all my chips in, so I guess that's about the only piece of mind I can take away. I suppose I *maybe* could've collected the blinds by pushing, but there's pretty much no way I'm ever doing that in this situation.
I was excited to get the field down to 30 as our table would've broken and I was hoping a change of scenery would help me out. Ironically, the table broke when I busted.
With 18 to go and 10 paying, our boy Lightning36 is still hanging around the bubble. I'm sure he won't have a problem working his way into the money. HERE is the tourney results page, so be sure to check on him.
Man, I felt like this tourney was poised to bail me out of my Poker.com busto, but I'm done in, yet again, by a sick turn of events.
Oh well...on to the rest of the weekend in the real world!
Quickie Update & BPT Freeroll Today!
I'm gonna do this bullet style so hopefully I won't get too long-winded.
-Wanna get this out of the way first for those who can't make it through one of my miserable posts. Blogger Poker Tour freeroll in an hour and a half at Poker.com. You probably can still play if you start the signup process now. This will be my first blogger tourney, and the money is very important now, so I'm extremely excited to make my blogger tourney debut!! Come join us!!
-Went broke yesterday afternoon at Poker.com. Was a little anxious about it, but more-or-less was tired of the absolutely shitty play in the $2 SNGs anyway.
-I'm a fucking idiot and left what turned out to be my last $11 at Poker.com on the table when I signed up for the $11 6-handed SNG where the winner gets a $60 ticket, forgot about it, and no-showed. REALLY pissed at myself about this.
-Signed up w/Poker Savvy at TripJax advice and downloaded Mansion through them.
-Went to work on Mansion w/just a $50 deposit from my B&M bankroll. I'm working off the 100% deposit bonus, and trying to clear $10 (says Jax) or $20 (says Savvy) rake to get my $90 from Poker Savvy. Ridiculously awesome bonuses.
-I like their SNGs. There is a LOT of play in them, and I find myself with a big advantage. Bubbled the first cuz I'm an idiot, won the 2nd because I was playing idiots, had my AA cracked by Q3 in the third (more on that later), and couldn't get anything going in the fourth.
-Lost $25 winning 0 out of 64 hands in .25/.50 NL, then won $16 in .10/.20. With the SNG win, ended up 90 cents up at Mansion yesterday.
-Today I made over $60 in .25/.50 and have my Mansion bankroll over the century mark. I'm quite happy.
-Had my AA cracked in a SNG in a chip lead vs 2nd in chips confrontation. With blinds at 75/150, I raised to 500 in the BB. Chip lead stays with me. Flop comes 8-high, two diamonds. I bet the pot, chip lead calls. Turn is an offsuit Q. I push my last 1k and chip lead calls and rolls Q3 w/the flush draw...not that he needed it. Aint nothing you can do about that.
-I sat down at the juciest .25/.50 game and bought in for $50. A couple hands in I pick up a red AK suited in the BB. I pump it 5xBB, get a caller UTG+1 and a caller in the CO. The flop comes all low spades. I hate it and make a continuation bet. UTG+1 calls, CO folds. Turn is another low black card. I make about the same sized bet again (yes, I know this is hella weak), and f'n UTG+1 pumps it up. I fold, $10 down already. The next hand I pick up AQo and make the same raise. Same guy two seats to my left calls. F'ing flop comes AKQ, all clubs. I make another continuation bet, and this guy raises me again. Now I'm pissed. I go into the tank, and finally decide this guy is pushing me around. He could've easily made a call here w/AK, 2 clubs, or even J10, but I finally decide that he decided I'm a pushover and wants to take it down right now. I come over the top for my stack of $37. He doesn't instacall, but he doesn't hesitate. The last two cards come out blank, and he shows down Q9o, both red. I am crazy extatic with my poker prowess, and eventually cash out of the table with more than $85.
I still have another story from an MTT yesterday, but I'll refrain for now...maybe forever.
Obviously bullets don't help my long-windedness. Oh well, I tried.
Come play the BPT blogger freeroll!
-Wanna get this out of the way first for those who can't make it through one of my miserable posts. Blogger Poker Tour freeroll in an hour and a half at Poker.com. You probably can still play if you start the signup process now. This will be my first blogger tourney, and the money is very important now, so I'm extremely excited to make my blogger tourney debut!! Come join us!!
-Went broke yesterday afternoon at Poker.com. Was a little anxious about it, but more-or-less was tired of the absolutely shitty play in the $2 SNGs anyway.
-I'm a fucking idiot and left what turned out to be my last $11 at Poker.com on the table when I signed up for the $11 6-handed SNG where the winner gets a $60 ticket, forgot about it, and no-showed. REALLY pissed at myself about this.
-Signed up w/Poker Savvy at TripJax advice and downloaded Mansion through them.
-Went to work on Mansion w/just a $50 deposit from my B&M bankroll. I'm working off the 100% deposit bonus, and trying to clear $10 (says Jax) or $20 (says Savvy) rake to get my $90 from Poker Savvy. Ridiculously awesome bonuses.
-I like their SNGs. There is a LOT of play in them, and I find myself with a big advantage. Bubbled the first cuz I'm an idiot, won the 2nd because I was playing idiots, had my AA cracked by Q3 in the third (more on that later), and couldn't get anything going in the fourth.
-Lost $25 winning 0 out of 64 hands in .25/.50 NL, then won $16 in .10/.20. With the SNG win, ended up 90 cents up at Mansion yesterday.
-Today I made over $60 in .25/.50 and have my Mansion bankroll over the century mark. I'm quite happy.
-Had my AA cracked in a SNG in a chip lead vs 2nd in chips confrontation. With blinds at 75/150, I raised to 500 in the BB. Chip lead stays with me. Flop comes 8-high, two diamonds. I bet the pot, chip lead calls. Turn is an offsuit Q. I push my last 1k and chip lead calls and rolls Q3 w/the flush draw...not that he needed it. Aint nothing you can do about that.
-I sat down at the juciest .25/.50 game and bought in for $50. A couple hands in I pick up a red AK suited in the BB. I pump it 5xBB, get a caller UTG+1 and a caller in the CO. The flop comes all low spades. I hate it and make a continuation bet. UTG+1 calls, CO folds. Turn is another low black card. I make about the same sized bet again (yes, I know this is hella weak), and f'n UTG+1 pumps it up. I fold, $10 down already. The next hand I pick up AQo and make the same raise. Same guy two seats to my left calls. F'ing flop comes AKQ, all clubs. I make another continuation bet, and this guy raises me again. Now I'm pissed. I go into the tank, and finally decide this guy is pushing me around. He could've easily made a call here w/AK, 2 clubs, or even J10, but I finally decide that he decided I'm a pushover and wants to take it down right now. I come over the top for my stack of $37. He doesn't instacall, but he doesn't hesitate. The last two cards come out blank, and he shows down Q9o, both red. I am crazy extatic with my poker prowess, and eventually cash out of the table with more than $85.
I still have another story from an MTT yesterday, but I'll refrain for now...maybe forever.
Obviously bullets don't help my long-windedness. Oh well, I tried.
Come play the BPT blogger freeroll!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Renewed Spirit
I almost posted yesterday about Tuesday night. It would not have been a very happy post. Well, it would've ended somewhat happy, but it would've been much too much complaining.
The bottom line is that on Tuesday night I was ready and willing to bust. After having zero cards, missing every flop, and losing w/my chips in as a favorite in my first two SNGs, and losing another big pot for all but the last $2.20 of my bankroll in .10/.20 limit when my opponent drew his gutshot on the river while we capped all the way, I sat in my last SNG w/the last $2.20 in my account. In the SNG I had 750 chips out of my 1k starting stack, and the blinds were at 50/100. I was on the ropes, and had come to terms with busting, looking forward to moving on, and putting some of my B&M bankroll toward TripJax's advice for Mansion via Poker Savvy as promised. Then, miraculously, my KJ vs A7 push saw a flop of 9 10 Q and held. A few hands later it took EVERYTHING I had to push w/33 in the big against a SB raise. I was positive I was racing, but didn't think I could win it. Well I did the right thing, held up, found myself at the top of the heap, and guided my stack to victory. Ten bucks in my bankroll, and a fresh start looking very similar to this day. I still was very upset with poker, upset with missing flops, upset with losing races, upset with losing with the best of it, and flat farking tired of seeing Face/X off. But for some reason I walked away with a very positive feeling of a new beginning.
Then, as if they were written especially for me, yesterday I read blogs about frustration, variance, ego, and tilt, and a winning attitude, and it only further reinforced this feeling of a fresh start and renewed spirit. I realized that I was expecting the game to come to me and the slump to break itself, especially at the $2.20 level which I used to kill routinely with a couple of big hands per SNG and weak competition, but when you're dealing with a bout of variance, you're not only playing against the players, you're playing against the game, and it takes everything you have to exploit your edge over both. Perhaps even more importantly, it can easily reach a point where you're playing against yourself. Like Pauly said, when you start to experience some bad breaks, you can't help but question the very foundation of how you play. You start to wonder if any success you ever had was just luck, and if you even have anywhere near enough of the pieces of this giant puzzle put together to be a real winner, or if you even have the right pieces. That certainly was the case for me as I had my last $2.20 on the line and expected to lose it, because no matter what I did, I could not come out ahead, and I had a terrible attitude about my game and about the game in general.
Luckily, the cards bailed me out.
So, with my renewed spirit and new beginning, I was excited to sit down and test my will last night. With some strict concentration and way more effort than should be required at this level, I managed to cash in the two SNGs I played. The cards were still very much on the bottom side of average, but I used reads, position, table image, and a handfull of the other subtle neuances of the game to exploit advantage when I had it. It would have been nice to win one, but I got cold-decked heads-up in the first when it seemed like no matter what I had I was dominated, and in the second I got in racing w/AK vs QQ and couldn't catch. They were both heroic performances, though, and I was proud of myself.
So that's where I'm at. I've got 7 SNGs in my online bankroll, and I'm not looking back this time. I've come to terms with the fact that until the variance dies down, the game is going to take more effort than it maybe should. But the real takeaway from this whole episode is that I'll hopefully find that I'm a good enough player to persevere. A lot of people say that the best poker players don't need cards to win, and while that concept certainly contains a lot of validity, when it really comes into play is when you're not getting cards. The best poker players are the ones who you'd never know were dealing with variance, and I'm currently out to prove myself as one of those players.
Then once I get my feet back under me, I'd like to take the next step and start working some more aggression into my game. But for now, I'll take "Cashing Without Cards" for $2.20, Alex.
The bottom line is that on Tuesday night I was ready and willing to bust. After having zero cards, missing every flop, and losing w/my chips in as a favorite in my first two SNGs, and losing another big pot for all but the last $2.20 of my bankroll in .10/.20 limit when my opponent drew his gutshot on the river while we capped all the way, I sat in my last SNG w/the last $2.20 in my account. In the SNG I had 750 chips out of my 1k starting stack, and the blinds were at 50/100. I was on the ropes, and had come to terms with busting, looking forward to moving on, and putting some of my B&M bankroll toward TripJax's advice for Mansion via Poker Savvy as promised. Then, miraculously, my KJ vs A7 push saw a flop of 9 10 Q and held. A few hands later it took EVERYTHING I had to push w/33 in the big against a SB raise. I was positive I was racing, but didn't think I could win it. Well I did the right thing, held up, found myself at the top of the heap, and guided my stack to victory. Ten bucks in my bankroll, and a fresh start looking very similar to this day. I still was very upset with poker, upset with missing flops, upset with losing races, upset with losing with the best of it, and flat farking tired of seeing Face/X off. But for some reason I walked away with a very positive feeling of a new beginning.
Then, as if they were written especially for me, yesterday I read blogs about frustration, variance, ego, and tilt, and a winning attitude, and it only further reinforced this feeling of a fresh start and renewed spirit. I realized that I was expecting the game to come to me and the slump to break itself, especially at the $2.20 level which I used to kill routinely with a couple of big hands per SNG and weak competition, but when you're dealing with a bout of variance, you're not only playing against the players, you're playing against the game, and it takes everything you have to exploit your edge over both. Perhaps even more importantly, it can easily reach a point where you're playing against yourself. Like Pauly said, when you start to experience some bad breaks, you can't help but question the very foundation of how you play. You start to wonder if any success you ever had was just luck, and if you even have anywhere near enough of the pieces of this giant puzzle put together to be a real winner, or if you even have the right pieces. That certainly was the case for me as I had my last $2.20 on the line and expected to lose it, because no matter what I did, I could not come out ahead, and I had a terrible attitude about my game and about the game in general.
Luckily, the cards bailed me out.
So, with my renewed spirit and new beginning, I was excited to sit down and test my will last night. With some strict concentration and way more effort than should be required at this level, I managed to cash in the two SNGs I played. The cards were still very much on the bottom side of average, but I used reads, position, table image, and a handfull of the other subtle neuances of the game to exploit advantage when I had it. It would have been nice to win one, but I got cold-decked heads-up in the first when it seemed like no matter what I had I was dominated, and in the second I got in racing w/AK vs QQ and couldn't catch. They were both heroic performances, though, and I was proud of myself.
So that's where I'm at. I've got 7 SNGs in my online bankroll, and I'm not looking back this time. I've come to terms with the fact that until the variance dies down, the game is going to take more effort than it maybe should. But the real takeaway from this whole episode is that I'll hopefully find that I'm a good enough player to persevere. A lot of people say that the best poker players don't need cards to win, and while that concept certainly contains a lot of validity, when it really comes into play is when you're not getting cards. The best poker players are the ones who you'd never know were dealing with variance, and I'm currently out to prove myself as one of those players.
Then once I get my feet back under me, I'd like to take the next step and start working some more aggression into my game. But for now, I'll take "Cashing Without Cards" for $2.20, Alex.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Poker.com Making Huge Strides
The following is NOT a paid advertisement. Its just me being really excited about some new changes to Poker.com, my favorite site to play at, and IMO the best and most overlooked.
With the UIGEA shutting down so many online poker rooms to US citizens, Poker.com seems to be making a serious attempt at snagging some of the abandoned players. Some may say its a little too late, but I think all anyone needs to do is go give this room a try and they won't turn back.
Fellow blogger Kipper is reporting the following additions in games and enhancements to Poker.com's interface.
# 7 Card Stud
# 7 Card Stud hi/lo
# Omaha hi/lo
# Razz
# 5 Card Stud
# 5 Card Draw
# Badugi
# 2-7 Lowball (Triple Draw)
# A-5 Lowball (Triple Draw)
# Hand Histories Stored Locally on Hard Drive
# New Lobby Interface
This hopefully means that soon, Poker.com players will be able to use Poker Tracker, but even for those of us that do play there now, even being able to go back and look at your personal hand histories will be a huge change, as previously we only had the past 15 hands at your current table and then they were history...so to speak.
Also, it may take away from my "street cred", but I love the features like percentages, show one card, rabbit hunt, player tagging capabilities, visible player accolades, personal avatars, table resizing, and the chat bubbles and smilies, including "donkey" and "fish" icons that show up when you type the words. Priceless. Plus, its hella fast.
While everyone is talking about all the money they're making in omaha hi/lo, RAZZ, and triple draw, and I'm getting killed by every idiot on the planet in hold 'em, I've really been itching to play these games where I will actually have a *real* advantage, and soon I'll be able to.
So this is great news, and I'm begging ANY of you that play, if you've never tried Poker.com, DO IT. Not just because there are shamelessly placed referral links all over this page and I need the $50 like you lucky WPBT participants need December 8th to be here, but because you really will like the site, and they take damn good care of their players.
With the UIGEA shutting down so many online poker rooms to US citizens, Poker.com seems to be making a serious attempt at snagging some of the abandoned players. Some may say its a little too late, but I think all anyone needs to do is go give this room a try and they won't turn back.
Fellow blogger Kipper is reporting the following additions in games and enhancements to Poker.com's interface.
# 7 Card Stud
# 7 Card Stud hi/lo
# Omaha hi/lo
# Razz
# 5 Card Stud
# 5 Card Draw
# Badugi
# 2-7 Lowball (Triple Draw)
# A-5 Lowball (Triple Draw)
# Hand Histories Stored Locally on Hard Drive
# New Lobby Interface
This hopefully means that soon, Poker.com players will be able to use Poker Tracker, but even for those of us that do play there now, even being able to go back and look at your personal hand histories will be a huge change, as previously we only had the past 15 hands at your current table and then they were history...so to speak.
Also, it may take away from my "street cred", but I love the features like percentages, show one card, rabbit hunt, player tagging capabilities, visible player accolades, personal avatars, table resizing, and the chat bubbles and smilies, including "donkey" and "fish" icons that show up when you type the words. Priceless. Plus, its hella fast.
While everyone is talking about all the money they're making in omaha hi/lo, RAZZ, and triple draw, and I'm getting killed by every idiot on the planet in hold 'em, I've really been itching to play these games where I will actually have a *real* advantage, and soon I'll be able to.
So this is great news, and I'm begging ANY of you that play, if you've never tried Poker.com, DO IT. Not just because there are shamelessly placed referral links all over this page and I need the $50 like you lucky WPBT participants need December 8th to be here, but because you really will like the site, and they take damn good care of their players.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Breaking Even Sucks
Well, I had the opportunity to play some on Friday and yesterday, and while the results are encouraging overall, I'm still taking some very pivotal beats that are keeping me from making progress from my current bankroll predicament.
The big news is that yesterday was my inagural run at the Poker.com monthly 50k freeroll for those getting 5k points for the month. I really had a blast running this tourney, as it actually had a damn decent structure (2k stack, blinds every 15 mins) which I felt rewarded strong players. With about 1850 starting, my first hour was phenominal, as I ran my starting stack up to over 8k. I doubled up fairly early when I turned a flush and Johnny Action at our table was firing bets at me with his suited ace all the way to the end. I had a lot of hands hit and hold up, and this saw me spend some time in the top 20. I knew that this inevitably meant things would go dry, and they promptly did, as I don't think I won a hand in the 2nd hour. But I also protected my chips, and only lost about 3k to blinds and a few paid for and missed flops. Needless to say, with the bubble approaching, I was looking forward to the tide turning in the 3rd hour. When my KQ flopped a flush on the first hand of the 3rd hour, I was liking the way things were headed, until it folded to the big blind who folded to my lone min-bet on the river. I kinda felt like that was gonna be the story, and it was. I was on the outside looking in with about 25 players to the bubble, but managed to double up w/AJs under the gun. That got me ITM, and I eventually busted in 281st when 95 turned a 9 to beat my J7. It was only $5, but its always nice at least somewhat of a moral victory to cash. My tournament life was only at stake twice, and when I did bust I managed to get in with the best of it as the SB bluff-raised my short stack in the big. I had what it takes to win the tournament, but no cards to do it with. Now I just hope I can turn things around and qualify for this thing next month, too.
After I busted, I thought I'd look for a fellow blogger and see if he gave it a go. Ironically, he busted in 279th, two spots ahead of me. This guy seems to not have played.
Incidentally, I kept tabs on the luckbox donkey who I immediately tabbed with the "fish" icon 3 hands into the tournament, of whom graced me with my first double up. I was with this guy until well into the 2nd hour and HATED to have our table broken, as I had an eye on his chips and was just waiting for the hand. This guy sucked out for his tournament life no less than 4 times, and managed to make significant forward progress by a strategy of sticking all his chips in the middle like it was his job. I was the only player at the table who he showed any respect for, and who got any chips off of him. This guy was vastly afraid of non-push monkey action, and was such an easy read it was sick. Well, he ended up spending a lot of time in the top 10, and finished in the top 15 for a $500 payday. It makes me wonder what I could've done if things went a little bit differently and he doubled me up just one more time. But that's neither here nor there. I just took quite an interest in this guy as his skill level was obviously low, but whatever he was doing it was working for him...at least from 2-6 PM yesterday.
Moving on, I also ventured into a new arena over the weekend. I ran about four $2 satellites. These are 5 person SNGs where the winner gets $11. It took me about 3 of these satellites to get the hang of them. At first I played them very loose due to it being a 5-handed SNG. Well, I failed to recognize the differences between this and a normal SNG, in that the blinds are timed as opposed to every 10 hands (like the normal SNGs at Poker.com), and also, of course, you have to play to win. The timed blinds at the shorthanded table allowed for a lot more play as the chips moved around, and I found myself playing a lot of hands, missing a lot of flops, and making an overall pathetic showing. So eventually the winning formula was my typical game, to play tight and just play the big hands as they come. Heads up was also a new experience, as, again, due to the amount of play in the structure, heads up took almost as long as x-handed play. I'm not used to this much heads up play, but in my first opportunity to get heads up in one of these, I managed to come from behind to take it down.
Now, initially my plan was to use these for $11 SNGs, but I'm kind of a dumbass and didn't do my research on them. I guess they can only be used for the $11 satellites and it says MTT buy-ins, which is also fine. But the pickle I'm in is whether to use it for some $11 guaranteed MTT and take a good shot at a 2 figure cash (usually less than 100 runners), or run the $11 satellite and try to turn it into a $60 ticket that will get me into Poker.com's Sunday 20k Guarantee. With my current bankroll predicament, I can't really waste a lot of money trying to win 2 straight SNGs to satellite into a MTT with about 300 runners. But at the same time, I like my odds in a 300 person tourney w/a decent structure and first prize of about 5k. So I'll have to keep thinking on that. I should probably sit on the thing for at least a few days and see if I can build at least a little backbone into my bankroll and see just how "wasteful" I can be w/the $11 value in my back pocket.
Other than that, SNGs were -EV for me for the weekend. As is the trend lately, I tended to run my big hands into the unlikely nuts holdings, or managed to get outrun when I do something right. Yesterday I had a real stinger as I made a clutch call on a flop all-in from a preflop over-raiser when I had an overpair to a raggy board and it felt like this guy was on Ace-Face. I made the call, he showed AK, and spiked a K on the river. You don't often get opportunities to make great plays like that, and it hurts that much worse to make the clutch play and get robbed. Of course, I'm also not afraid to admit that I also made a lot of mistakes as I was trying to push the envelope and win some SNGs. However, at this point if I'm really gonna turn my bankroll around and try to do this Circuit Event thing at the end of January, I really need to hunker down and quit screwing around. While taking some chances for 1st or 2nd place SNG money is an admirable ploy, its not my game. So I need to settle down and play my game, and make it work for me.
Luckily some .10/.20 limit action bailed me out yesterday, and my bankroll currently contains about $22 of value, which is technically a win for the weekend, but still just chump change in the grand scheme of things.
So wish me luck, because I'm gonna try and really dig in and get to work.
Check ya.
The big news is that yesterday was my inagural run at the Poker.com monthly 50k freeroll for those getting 5k points for the month. I really had a blast running this tourney, as it actually had a damn decent structure (2k stack, blinds every 15 mins) which I felt rewarded strong players. With about 1850 starting, my first hour was phenominal, as I ran my starting stack up to over 8k. I doubled up fairly early when I turned a flush and Johnny Action at our table was firing bets at me with his suited ace all the way to the end. I had a lot of hands hit and hold up, and this saw me spend some time in the top 20. I knew that this inevitably meant things would go dry, and they promptly did, as I don't think I won a hand in the 2nd hour. But I also protected my chips, and only lost about 3k to blinds and a few paid for and missed flops. Needless to say, with the bubble approaching, I was looking forward to the tide turning in the 3rd hour. When my KQ flopped a flush on the first hand of the 3rd hour, I was liking the way things were headed, until it folded to the big blind who folded to my lone min-bet on the river. I kinda felt like that was gonna be the story, and it was. I was on the outside looking in with about 25 players to the bubble, but managed to double up w/AJs under the gun. That got me ITM, and I eventually busted in 281st when 95 turned a 9 to beat my J7. It was only $5, but its always nice at least somewhat of a moral victory to cash. My tournament life was only at stake twice, and when I did bust I managed to get in with the best of it as the SB bluff-raised my short stack in the big. I had what it takes to win the tournament, but no cards to do it with. Now I just hope I can turn things around and qualify for this thing next month, too.
After I busted, I thought I'd look for a fellow blogger and see if he gave it a go. Ironically, he busted in 279th, two spots ahead of me. This guy seems to not have played.
Incidentally, I kept tabs on the luckbox donkey who I immediately tabbed with the "fish" icon 3 hands into the tournament, of whom graced me with my first double up. I was with this guy until well into the 2nd hour and HATED to have our table broken, as I had an eye on his chips and was just waiting for the hand. This guy sucked out for his tournament life no less than 4 times, and managed to make significant forward progress by a strategy of sticking all his chips in the middle like it was his job. I was the only player at the table who he showed any respect for, and who got any chips off of him. This guy was vastly afraid of non-push monkey action, and was such an easy read it was sick. Well, he ended up spending a lot of time in the top 10, and finished in the top 15 for a $500 payday. It makes me wonder what I could've done if things went a little bit differently and he doubled me up just one more time. But that's neither here nor there. I just took quite an interest in this guy as his skill level was obviously low, but whatever he was doing it was working for him...at least from 2-6 PM yesterday.
Moving on, I also ventured into a new arena over the weekend. I ran about four $2 satellites. These are 5 person SNGs where the winner gets $11. It took me about 3 of these satellites to get the hang of them. At first I played them very loose due to it being a 5-handed SNG. Well, I failed to recognize the differences between this and a normal SNG, in that the blinds are timed as opposed to every 10 hands (like the normal SNGs at Poker.com), and also, of course, you have to play to win. The timed blinds at the shorthanded table allowed for a lot more play as the chips moved around, and I found myself playing a lot of hands, missing a lot of flops, and making an overall pathetic showing. So eventually the winning formula was my typical game, to play tight and just play the big hands as they come. Heads up was also a new experience, as, again, due to the amount of play in the structure, heads up took almost as long as x-handed play. I'm not used to this much heads up play, but in my first opportunity to get heads up in one of these, I managed to come from behind to take it down.
Now, initially my plan was to use these for $11 SNGs, but I'm kind of a dumbass and didn't do my research on them. I guess they can only be used for the $11 satellites and it says MTT buy-ins, which is also fine. But the pickle I'm in is whether to use it for some $11 guaranteed MTT and take a good shot at a 2 figure cash (usually less than 100 runners), or run the $11 satellite and try to turn it into a $60 ticket that will get me into Poker.com's Sunday 20k Guarantee. With my current bankroll predicament, I can't really waste a lot of money trying to win 2 straight SNGs to satellite into a MTT with about 300 runners. But at the same time, I like my odds in a 300 person tourney w/a decent structure and first prize of about 5k. So I'll have to keep thinking on that. I should probably sit on the thing for at least a few days and see if I can build at least a little backbone into my bankroll and see just how "wasteful" I can be w/the $11 value in my back pocket.
Other than that, SNGs were -EV for me for the weekend. As is the trend lately, I tended to run my big hands into the unlikely nuts holdings, or managed to get outrun when I do something right. Yesterday I had a real stinger as I made a clutch call on a flop all-in from a preflop over-raiser when I had an overpair to a raggy board and it felt like this guy was on Ace-Face. I made the call, he showed AK, and spiked a K on the river. You don't often get opportunities to make great plays like that, and it hurts that much worse to make the clutch play and get robbed. Of course, I'm also not afraid to admit that I also made a lot of mistakes as I was trying to push the envelope and win some SNGs. However, at this point if I'm really gonna turn my bankroll around and try to do this Circuit Event thing at the end of January, I really need to hunker down and quit screwing around. While taking some chances for 1st or 2nd place SNG money is an admirable ploy, its not my game. So I need to settle down and play my game, and make it work for me.
Luckily some .10/.20 limit action bailed me out yesterday, and my bankroll currently contains about $22 of value, which is technically a win for the weekend, but still just chump change in the grand scheme of things.
So wish me luck, because I'm gonna try and really dig in and get to work.
Check ya.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Breathing a Sigh of Relief for the Holiday
Well, I got in a handfull of SNGs yesterday, and things remained pretty precarious in the beginning. In fact, I was in my "last" SNG, w/the remaining bankroll under $2.20. But the drama pretty much ends there, as I sat down at a .10/.20 limit table and turned my $1.70 into $2.30, not dooming me quite yet. I also won the SNG. It took a big suckout to do it, but for some reason I knew I was beat after the flop and just couldn't let the hand go. I then proceeded to make a bigger 2 pair on the turn and triple up, cruising to the win after that. Which was a huge monkey off my back, because even when I was managing to cash, I could not freegging WIN. After getting that bankroll back to back over $12, I took a break to work out, and when the wife said she still wouldn't be home for a while, I cracked a couple beers and had another go at it. I played 3 more SNGs, made a HUGE misread in one for all my chips, and cashed in both the others (3rd & 2nd). By the 2nd one I was getting buzzed, having a good time, and cracking up the table. It was a blast. The thing ended up possibly being the longest SNG I've played on the site, as we played several hands at 500/1000.
Final result, a bankroll over $17 (at least 8 more SNG's worth), and the REAL good news is that the cards started to circle back to normal a little bit. I was making some hands and having them hold up, so it was very encouraging, and good to have fun playing poker again.
I couldn't ask for much more going into the holiday.
And speaking of that, I'm probably already too late, but hope everyone has a great one. We're headed for my folks (only a half hour away) for the day, and expecting gorgeous 60 degree temps, which is ridiculous for November in Iowa. So we'll mix a little HD football in with some real football and other fun and games I'm sure.
For all you traveling, travel safe, and as always, good luck on the felt!
Final result, a bankroll over $17 (at least 8 more SNG's worth), and the REAL good news is that the cards started to circle back to normal a little bit. I was making some hands and having them hold up, so it was very encouraging, and good to have fun playing poker again.
I couldn't ask for much more going into the holiday.
And speaking of that, I'm probably already too late, but hope everyone has a great one. We're headed for my folks (only a half hour away) for the day, and expecting gorgeous 60 degree temps, which is ridiculous for November in Iowa. So we'll mix a little HD football in with some real football and other fun and games I'm sure.
For all you traveling, travel safe, and as always, good luck on the felt!
Friday, November 17, 2006
You know, its funny...
This post that I am now editing I had started last Friday, and it started out "I did have about an hour to play last night, and I got back to my roots and grinded out a $30 win."
Boy, has it gotten ugly since then. That win on Thursday put me at $177. Currently, my bankroll is at $9. Yes...NINE DOLLARS.
Variance is here. I knew that I was due some, but I never really realized exactly how disgustingly brutal it is. For the most part, the starting two cards are about the same. However, the position I get them in and the raises I face with them due to said position and everything else after that is NOT. I'm dealt most of my flop-worthy cards in EP, and am forced to limp, only to face that inevitable raise that's way more than you can call with your holding and/or risk missing the flop. If I do get a raising hand in EP, I'll go ahead and make that raise, only to get called by the big blind w/KJo, who makes his gutshot straight by the turn and dethrone a hand I actually hit. So thats the starting two cards. I'm dealing with it. What makes me want to eat a bullet is the flops that couldn't be missing me any more, and the action that I'm getting when I do hit a rare big hand.
If I actually get to see a flop, I miss it. Very rarely can I even make top pair these days, let alone anything better than that. If I do happen to hit a hand, its either beat, or gets outrun in the worst way to get beat. I'm still doing a pretty decent job of getting in with the best of it. But generally all it takes is a flop to change that, or if I get it in on the flop with the lead, a runner or two. When I make top pair, my kicker isn't good enough or my opponent has an ugly two pair. When I have someone dominated, we manage to split. What this all adds up to in a SNG is chips leaving the stack trying to see flops and calling when I've got odds to straights or flushes, pushing when its time to push, and either being behind or getting outflopped if I'm ahead. If I hit a big hand, I can't get any action. If I try and play it pretty standard, I scare everyone away. And when I slow play it, I get rocked. I lost with AA shorthanded twice in the past two sessions by slow playing it. I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't. And a coin flip?? Forget it.
Variance is not kind.
If I'm taking anything away from this, its the fact that I finally understand variance. I have never really played consistently enough to know the difference between a few rough beats, playing badly, and variance. This, I know is variance, because it just won't stop, and its some of the most ridiculous shit I've ever seen. I'm playing my game, and getting cold decked HARD. I am back to the $2 SNGs, a level that I used to kill in my sleep, and busting in 5th, 6th, and 7th, never even having been in it, sometimes never winning a pot.
I have examined my play. Initially, when my bankroll went from $425 down to sub-$100, there were several bad decisions involved in calling off buy-ins at the .50/1 NL tables. Granted, they were unlikely beats on opponents terribly played hands in several cases, but I was also tilting, and blind to the possibility of the better hands that my opponents ended up holding. Sadly, that was child's play variance. Now? I am playing every SNG like its my last (because it damn near is), and can do absolutely nothing to combat this streak of luck like I've never seen before.
So...when I think about poker right now, it makes me angry and nervous. But when I'm playing, I'm extremely focused. This *has* to end, and I'd like to think that despite what I'm facing while playing these days, there's no way I can go busto at the $2 SNG level.
*knocks furiously on wood*
Things are NOT looking up right now in the least bit, but I'm finding some peace of mind in the fact that all of this started with a $10 freeroll win, so if I did it once, I can do it again. I've still got about two months until the Circuit Event, including some significant time off from work, open weekends, and more time at the B&M casino. So the quest is not over, and I'm learning every step of the way.
That said, its noon and the office is a ghost town. Time to head home and get this train back on the tracks.
Boy, has it gotten ugly since then. That win on Thursday put me at $177. Currently, my bankroll is at $9. Yes...NINE DOLLARS.
Variance is here. I knew that I was due some, but I never really realized exactly how disgustingly brutal it is. For the most part, the starting two cards are about the same. However, the position I get them in and the raises I face with them due to said position and everything else after that is NOT. I'm dealt most of my flop-worthy cards in EP, and am forced to limp, only to face that inevitable raise that's way more than you can call with your holding and/or risk missing the flop. If I do get a raising hand in EP, I'll go ahead and make that raise, only to get called by the big blind w/KJo, who makes his gutshot straight by the turn and dethrone a hand I actually hit. So thats the starting two cards. I'm dealing with it. What makes me want to eat a bullet is the flops that couldn't be missing me any more, and the action that I'm getting when I do hit a rare big hand.
If I actually get to see a flop, I miss it. Very rarely can I even make top pair these days, let alone anything better than that. If I do happen to hit a hand, its either beat, or gets outrun in the worst way to get beat. I'm still doing a pretty decent job of getting in with the best of it. But generally all it takes is a flop to change that, or if I get it in on the flop with the lead, a runner or two. When I make top pair, my kicker isn't good enough or my opponent has an ugly two pair. When I have someone dominated, we manage to split. What this all adds up to in a SNG is chips leaving the stack trying to see flops and calling when I've got odds to straights or flushes, pushing when its time to push, and either being behind or getting outflopped if I'm ahead. If I hit a big hand, I can't get any action. If I try and play it pretty standard, I scare everyone away. And when I slow play it, I get rocked. I lost with AA shorthanded twice in the past two sessions by slow playing it. I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't. And a coin flip?? Forget it.
Variance is not kind.
If I'm taking anything away from this, its the fact that I finally understand variance. I have never really played consistently enough to know the difference between a few rough beats, playing badly, and variance. This, I know is variance, because it just won't stop, and its some of the most ridiculous shit I've ever seen. I'm playing my game, and getting cold decked HARD. I am back to the $2 SNGs, a level that I used to kill in my sleep, and busting in 5th, 6th, and 7th, never even having been in it, sometimes never winning a pot.
I have examined my play. Initially, when my bankroll went from $425 down to sub-$100, there were several bad decisions involved in calling off buy-ins at the .50/1 NL tables. Granted, they were unlikely beats on opponents terribly played hands in several cases, but I was also tilting, and blind to the possibility of the better hands that my opponents ended up holding. Sadly, that was child's play variance. Now? I am playing every SNG like its my last (because it damn near is), and can do absolutely nothing to combat this streak of luck like I've never seen before.
So...when I think about poker right now, it makes me angry and nervous. But when I'm playing, I'm extremely focused. This *has* to end, and I'd like to think that despite what I'm facing while playing these days, there's no way I can go busto at the $2 SNG level.
*knocks furiously on wood*
Things are NOT looking up right now in the least bit, but I'm finding some peace of mind in the fact that all of this started with a $10 freeroll win, so if I did it once, I can do it again. I've still got about two months until the Circuit Event, including some significant time off from work, open weekends, and more time at the B&M casino. So the quest is not over, and I'm learning every step of the way.
That said, its noon and the office is a ghost town. Time to head home and get this train back on the tracks.
Iowa Poker Players Claim Their Hand in Ousting Leach
A co-worker pointed this out to me in this morning's paper, so naturally I figured bloggers would have a great interest. I submitted it to PokerBlog so hopefully they will publish it and it will get some more exposure than it would in my humble blog.
A story in this morning's Des Moines Register (Iowa) has poker players and the PPA claiming their role in dethroning Jim Leach, the author of the UIGEA, from his 15 term incumbency in the Iowa legislature.
"Following the election the poker group commissioned an automated poll of 1,033 voters in the 2nd District, asking how the poker issue influenced their decisions.
Among those who knew about the law, 15 percent said it influenced them to support Loebsack. Another 10 percent said that it influenced them to support Leach.
Online poker advocates contend that was enough to doom Leach in a race lost by just 5,711 votes."
Read this article in its entirety at The Des Moines Register's website.
A story in this morning's Des Moines Register (Iowa) has poker players and the PPA claiming their role in dethroning Jim Leach, the author of the UIGEA, from his 15 term incumbency in the Iowa legislature.
"Following the election the poker group commissioned an automated poll of 1,033 voters in the 2nd District, asking how the poker issue influenced their decisions.
Among those who knew about the law, 15 percent said it influenced them to support Loebsack. Another 10 percent said that it influenced them to support Leach.
Online poker advocates contend that was enough to doom Leach in a race lost by just 5,711 votes."
Read this article in its entirety at The Des Moines Register's website.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Upon Further Review...
After some thought...ok, screw it, I can't STOP thinking about it...I want it to be known that I accept a majority of the blame for last night's debacle.
After reading Drizz's post that mentioned admitting your mistakes, I just wanted to clear up that although my last post mentioned several variations of beats, I have also come to terms with the fact that a lot of poor play was involved as well.
Don't get me wrong, I lost a lot of hands that would and should generally hold up, but I also lost a lot of hands where I shouldn't even have been in the pot, called a lot of preflop raises that I shouldn't have, and pissed away about $120 with overplayed pocket pairs that I normally am very good at treading carefully with.
So I will grow from this. I will get back at it, and I will get back to my roots and do a little reconstruction on a game that I thought was coming into its own, but more likely was just running pretty lucky.
Three weeks ago I would've been thrilled to have what I have now. Of course, since I've seen the promised land it really blows to be where I am, but this is FAR from over. I did it once, and I can do it again. And next time I hit a high mark, having learned this valuable lesson, things will be different.
That's what its all about, right??
After reading Drizz's post that mentioned admitting your mistakes, I just wanted to clear up that although my last post mentioned several variations of beats, I have also come to terms with the fact that a lot of poor play was involved as well.
Don't get me wrong, I lost a lot of hands that would and should generally hold up, but I also lost a lot of hands where I shouldn't even have been in the pot, called a lot of preflop raises that I shouldn't have, and pissed away about $120 with overplayed pocket pairs that I normally am very good at treading carefully with.
So I will grow from this. I will get back at it, and I will get back to my roots and do a little reconstruction on a game that I thought was coming into its own, but more likely was just running pretty lucky.
Three weeks ago I would've been thrilled to have what I have now. Of course, since I've seen the promised land it really blows to be where I am, but this is FAR from over. I did it once, and I can do it again. And next time I hit a high mark, having learned this valuable lesson, things will be different.
That's what its all about, right??
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Just as I Expected
Well, the bottom finally dropped out. I started w/$426 tonight, and I will likely cash out under the $200 mark.
It all started w/the $20 SNG. Everything was just going swimmingly until the blinds were 50/100, and I find JJ in MP. I hate this hand, so figuring it to be as good of a time as any, in 5th out of 7, I push my 1k stack with it. I get called by a bigger stack who has AK, and the flop brings a K. And just like that, the train was off the tracks.
And it only got worse from there. I am just getting embarassed in the cash games. My few made hands either get no action or get beat. Straight over set, flush over straight, and even the illustrious boat over boat. I even tried to scoop w/QQ at one table, maybe get a call and double up, and ran it into AA for a $30 or so dollar gone broke hand. ...And now I just ran 10s into KK. I think that's enough.
I got a little bit reckless a handfull of times, but nothing out of the ordinary. Its just that this time things never turned around.
Yeah...the bottom dropped out. I knew it was coming, but of course, it stings. Its a lot easier to lose $300 in this game than it is to make it, and now I go back to the grind.
It all started w/the $20 SNG. Everything was just going swimmingly until the blinds were 50/100, and I find JJ in MP. I hate this hand, so figuring it to be as good of a time as any, in 5th out of 7, I push my 1k stack with it. I get called by a bigger stack who has AK, and the flop brings a K. And just like that, the train was off the tracks.
And it only got worse from there. I am just getting embarassed in the cash games. My few made hands either get no action or get beat. Straight over set, flush over straight, and even the illustrious boat over boat. I even tried to scoop w/QQ at one table, maybe get a call and double up, and ran it into AA for a $30 or so dollar gone broke hand. ...And now I just ran 10s into KK. I think that's enough.
I got a little bit reckless a handfull of times, but nothing out of the ordinary. Its just that this time things never turned around.
Yeah...the bottom dropped out. I knew it was coming, but of course, it stings. Its a lot easier to lose $300 in this game than it is to make it, and now I go back to the grind.
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 histerrible 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.
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
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.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
V for Variance
Well, after taking the night off Tuesday, I did get an hour of cash games in last night. And I tanked...hard.
Ok, well not *that* hard. I started w/$364, and lost $64. I always lose on Wednesdays. Why? Because playing is not an option on Thursday nights, and so it eats away at me for 2 days until I can (usually) play again on Friday.
Last night was sick. I played my standard .50/1 full and shorthanded tables. I was just getting beat up at the shorthanded table. Missing flops, getting reraised off hands, playing too much, raising too much, and hitting too little. I had the worst possible table image imagineable, and they were killing me for it. But I was maintaining at around $30 down after I had to double up twice already. As its getting to be quitting time, I pick up AA. I raise to just $3 and get one caller. The flop comes like 356, with two hearts. I make a continuation bet, and my opponent calls. The turn is a 5. I bet the pot this time, sure to stick the dagger in any straight or flush draws, and I get raised by my opponent for all my chips, and make a pretty simple call. I should've known. Just to really get me square in the jewels, the dude had 55, and had turned quads. So quitting time it was. At the full table, I won 2 hands out of the 90ish I played. One was fun because I made quad kings out of big slick and got doubled up by ace-high. But the other, incidentally, I picked up aces at the exact same time on this table as at the shorthander. I managed to win the hand, but only for a small profit. But I cashed out even at this table. Two pairs of aces at the same time at each table, stacked at one, and no payday at the other definitely meant it was time to call it quits. So that was last night. Just atrocious. But I was due.
Tomorrow I have the day off, and after I sleep in a little I have no plans to leave the house. So I'm hoping for at least *average* cards. With average cards, I think I can play well enough to beat the level.
But we shall see. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
EDIT: Oh yeah...congrats to Drizz for getting published on the Full Tilt Poker Blog, joining the long list of accomplished bloggers to do so.
Ok, well not *that* hard. I started w/$364, and lost $64. I always lose on Wednesdays. Why? Because playing is not an option on Thursday nights, and so it eats away at me for 2 days until I can (usually) play again on Friday.
Last night was sick. I played my standard .50/1 full and shorthanded tables. I was just getting beat up at the shorthanded table. Missing flops, getting reraised off hands, playing too much, raising too much, and hitting too little. I had the worst possible table image imagineable, and they were killing me for it. But I was maintaining at around $30 down after I had to double up twice already. As its getting to be quitting time, I pick up AA. I raise to just $3 and get one caller. The flop comes like 356, with two hearts. I make a continuation bet, and my opponent calls. The turn is a 5. I bet the pot this time, sure to stick the dagger in any straight or flush draws, and I get raised by my opponent for all my chips, and make a pretty simple call. I should've known. Just to really get me square in the jewels, the dude had 55, and had turned quads. So quitting time it was. At the full table, I won 2 hands out of the 90ish I played. One was fun because I made quad kings out of big slick and got doubled up by ace-high. But the other, incidentally, I picked up aces at the exact same time on this table as at the shorthander. I managed to win the hand, but only for a small profit. But I cashed out even at this table. Two pairs of aces at the same time at each table, stacked at one, and no payday at the other definitely meant it was time to call it quits. So that was last night. Just atrocious. But I was due.
Tomorrow I have the day off, and after I sleep in a little I have no plans to leave the house. So I'm hoping for at least *average* cards. With average cards, I think I can play well enough to beat the level.
But we shall see. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
EDIT: Oh yeah...congrats to Drizz for getting published on the Full Tilt Poker Blog, joining the long list of accomplished bloggers to do so.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Score One For the Good Guys
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Fun With Sh*t Talkers
Recent posts by NewinNov and Waffles reminded me about a fun exchange with a hot tempered New Yorker in the chat box last night.
Playing at the .50/1 shorthanded table, in the midst of 4-tabling (remember, I'm a rookie) I accidentally called a $4 raise in the SB w/34c. I ended up hitting my flush on the turn and taking a nice sized pot when it became obvious that it was the best hand. My opponent says "NH Donkey", to which I replied "Yeah, I didn't mean to call that raise there. Sucks to be you.", at which point he replied "F**k you" and something about my mother.
Gotta love it. After this, he was coming at me hard every pot I was in, and as such, I had to take a couple more pots off him. Unfortunately, I busted at the table, but since it wasn't at his hands, I'd like to think I got the last laugh.
Playing at the .50/1 shorthanded table, in the midst of 4-tabling (remember, I'm a rookie) I accidentally called a $4 raise in the SB w/34c. I ended up hitting my flush on the turn and taking a nice sized pot when it became obvious that it was the best hand. My opponent says "NH Donkey", to which I replied "Yeah, I didn't mean to call that raise there. Sucks to be you.", at which point he replied "F**k you" and something about my mother.
Gotta love it. After this, he was coming at me hard every pot I was in, and as such, I had to take a couple more pots off him. Unfortunately, I busted at the table, but since it wasn't at his hands, I'd like to think I got the last laugh.
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