First off, thanks to those that stopped by to toss in their two cents on the hand. I have a couple loyal readers and had to go plant a couple of seeds to draw in some extra help, but the good information that came out of it is priceless, no matter what.
Now, instead of commenting I thought I'd wrap this up with a post addressing my feedback.
Matt's feedback was very helpful because he indicates that he plays at the same level. This is immesurably important. I very much value *any* opinion, Matt, so thanks so much for taking the initiative to stop by after reading my plea for help in Hoy's comments. In regards to the min-raise with an uber-premium hand (AA or KK), it is true that it doesn't make sense here, but again this is where the level at which I'm playing is important. They LOVE to min-raise monsters at this level so that they can say they raised but still whine when they get sucked out on. That is a crucial part of the donkey bad beat story. They don't understand that a min-raise means nothing and that these hands do not hold up in multi-way pots. They get a monster and in their minds the hand is won. So although I'd love to, unfortunately I can't rule out AA or KK here. I do very much like your suggestion of a smaller bet, thus less committing me to this pot. I took into brief consideration that this wasn't a big drawing flop, but I hated betting even half the pot, let alone less than that. However, if I'm getting raised, its likely A) for all my chips, B) by a hand that beats mine, or both. Like you say, a smaller bet gets me all the information I need, and gives me all the more reason to fold when I'm check-raised. I did not consider just how weak of a drawing hand this was, and how little I could've bet to find out what I needed. Your third point is poignant and important. I've thought about it a lot over the past couple of days. I'm an odds guy, so the answer to your question comes down to odds. In the spot I put myself in, getting 4 to 1 on my money with TPTK and the range I'm up against, I can't fold. But if I put out a smaller probe bet like you suggest, thus decreasing my odds when it comes time to call off all my chips, I could have laid this hand down. Anyway, thanks for stopping by Matt, and I'll have to get you added to my Google Reader!
Next was Michael. The key thing I take away from his comment is AK wants to be in a small pot (preferably heads up with position) preflop, or all in preflop. That takes this giant pain of an ass hand and pretty well sums it up. While there's obviously a little more to the hand based on suit, position, players in the pot, etc, this statement at least lays a foundation for playing the hand. Beyond that he pretty much thought through the hand like I did. You can't fold it to the PF min-raise (of my initial raise), and you can't check it on the flop, which leads to his short answer. And, of course, he set me straight on the term "Fold Equity". I know when I first flagged down this term it was in the context that he describes, but I still think it makes at least a little sense in reference to leaving yourself fold equity. But I guess I won't go out on a limb and try to give a new definition to the term. I'll just try not to embarass myself using shit wrong again.
And finally, Hoy. I really love the first thing he discusses in regards to limping UTG or in very early position w/AK. I have already started doing this w/AQ. Fact of the matter is, AK is the best possible DRAWING hand, and the cheapest you can get to the flop with it, the better. Now, you want to push out other unpaired hands, but as the first to act, raising it can get you into trouble if there are better hands behind you. The other problem with my game and this strategy is that I am not a PF RE-raiser with AK. I've seen this a lot on TV and in blog posts recently, so maybe I need to start testing out this strategy. I just hate the idea of re-raising w/AK and either running into another re-raise, or whiffing the flop. But I will definitely experiment with the limp-reraise AK strategy going forward. And Hoy...easy with the "just" $5.50 buyin, there, buddy. Keep in mind we're dealing with a $60 bankroll, so I'm technically playing out of my roll by indulging in a $5.50. ;-)
The common theme in all three of these comments is the PF push, and I agree that this might have been my best move. I think Hoy said it best when he said "you're preserving your chance to see all 5 cards on the board (thus maximizing the value of your AK)". It would've been interesting to see if this guy would've gone to battle with his AJ, or if I go ahead and take down an already ripe 20 BB chip pot. Regardless, I will certainly stop and think about how to best play my AK just a few seconds longer from here on out. Thanks again to all the commenters who took the time.
Moving on...poker gods be damned, I am on FIRE. My roll increased from $29 to $60 on Monday, $60 to $120 Tuesday, and then another $21 to $141 yesterday. I'm running good, and the $5 and $10 6-MAX on Full Tilt are a freaking joke. They play just like a turbo. These people seem to think that fewer players equals finding any decent hand and getting as many chips in the middle as possible. So I sit back and drag the orphaned pots and try and pick people off in big spots as best I can. There is ZERO patience. Tuesday night I played in one where we were heads up with blinds at 25/50. Yes folks, that's level two. I came from a 2500 to 6500 chip deficit to win when my opponent got impatient by 80/160. I'd say the average level you get to heads up is 60/120 or 80/160, which leaves an average stack 28-38 big blinds. Patience is absolutely the number one key in these things. If you let these players suck you into their LAG & jam game, you are unnecessarily putting too much at risk. Its so easy to sit back, be patient, and pick your spots. I don't know why they play so much different than the full table SNGs, but they're a night and day difference.
So for now I'm riding the wave, and hopefully I can ride it all the way to the $20 level and beyond. But I'll be on the look out around every corner for that next bout with variance.
Check ya later I guess.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
My First Hand Analysis
I just had this post damn near done and I went to save it so I could go to lunch and it took me to an error page, telling me my HTML tag wasn't closed and when I clicked Back...POOF!
PISSED OFF. Thanks for that, Blogger. So here goes attempt number two...
I have my first real hand analysis I'd like to get some feedback on. This hand just really bugs me for several reasons and I'd be interested in knowing if I played it like total trash or just got unlucky, cuz I keep going back and forth.
This is the SECOND HAND of a $5.50 6-max SNG. I am UTG and have AK suited. With blinds at 15/30, I make it 125 to go. There are three MP callers, SB folds, and then the BB min re-raises to 220. I'm not fond of my spot here with a premium, albeit drawing, hand, a min-raise, 3 left to act, and no position. I can't fold, and I feel like a real re-raise would commit me (with "nothing"), so I just call and see how interested the other MP players are. One folds, and unfortunately two others call.
Flop: A 6 J rainbow.
This is about as good of a flop as I could hope for, but at the $5.50 level there could easily be someone in this pot with a hand that is killing me. The BB (the aggressor) checks, putting me in yet another precarious spot. This guy either whiffed or flopped a monster (and boy do they love the check-raise at this level, so I'm already expecting it), but which could it be? And with people yet to act after me, I don't want to give up the lead on this hand or a free card after showing strength and flopping a damn good hand. I bet 500, leaving me 700 behind forfold equity(I had a feeling I was using that wrong...thanks Michael) a little to live on if I get check-raised. Miraculously, the MP players both fold, so I had no other choice than to put them on mid-pocket pairs or good folds w/a weak A or J. The BB wastes little time in check-raising me all in. Now I kept my 700 for fold equity something to live on, but to call off 700 into a 2750 chip pot, I start to think about this...
His most obvious holdings are AA, KK, or AK. Unfortunately at this level a PF re-raise could also mean AQ, AJ, A10, and QQ-1010 or so. I have to logically rule out AA with the presence of the case two aces. As sick as that would be, and we've all seen it before, I can't play scared of AA. I'm now slaughtering KK, and I'm tied w/AK. That leaves JJ, AJ, or 66 that has me in bad shape. Again, it would take some major cojones (or a complete lack of poker skill) to PF re-raise 66 with four people in the pot for a 4xBB raise from UTG, so I have to logically rule that out. JJ is a likely holding, and I should probably go broke against it. AJ would just really make me sick given the PF re-raise in a 4 way pot and odds against my hand preflop, but I know its a fully valid possibility. They love AJ at this level. In the end, I'm only scared of two hands that would be no beter than 30% to have just outflopped me, and I'm tied with another likely holding, so I don't think I can lay it down. Plus, my gut read felt like a busted KK making a play at the pot. I made the call, and don't improve against AJo.
Now first, this is everything I hate about low limits online. This guy makes an absolutely horrific play by "normal" poker standards and gets paid off for it in a HUGE way. I know that I love for people to make plays like this and blah blah blah, but why can't they pull this shit against other donkeys instead of me? If I were at that table and I would've seen that hand, my sights would've been locked and loaded on that stack, cuz you know he's just gonna spew 'em off in much the same manner. But I digress...
So what could I have done and had chips after this hand? Lets look...
A. Folded UTG
Pros - I still have chips.
Cons - Fold AK suited to no raise? Come on...
Verdict - No f'n way.
B. Three-bet PF
Pros - With 3 people to act behind me, I give myself a shot at isolating my hand against the aggressor, who either has a monster or is making a terrible play. Or if the BB happens to fold I scoop a nice pot.
Cons - A reasonable re-raise would probably have me putting out a 750 or so chip bet, or just pushing. If the BB calls less than a push, my money is likely going in anyway w/TPTK and ridiculous pot odds. If the BB 4-bets me all-in (if he even can?), I have to give him credit for AA or KK and could either fold w/500 chips left, or just get it in good and kill myself after the flop. If the BB calls my push, see above. All this, and I'm still worried about the 3 left to act.
Verdict - There is a slight chance I get away from this hand w/500 chips or so, but I'm going broke if it all goes in PF, or still going broke if I flop TPTK. I don't like the outcome.
C. Fold to the re-raise.
Pros - I get away from a draw and impending doom early in this SNG with over 1250 chips and live to take the donkey out.
Cons - With so many people in the pot I'm bound to either be dominating or a flop away from the best hand. With 125 invested and another 750 in the pot its hard to not at least see a flop for 95 chips with the biggest drawing hand there is.
Verdict - While this probably would've been the easiest spot to get away from impending doom, I can't justify a fold with AK suited with 7 to 1 on my money.
D. Check the flop.
Pros - It either checks around and I get an opportunity to reassess on the turn, or one of the MP players bets and gets check-raised, giving me a nice spot to get away from the hand with a clear conscience.
Cons - This is a horribly weak play. Assuming I have the best hand, I have to bet out for value and to get draws out of the hand. The other 7 times out of 10 that I've flopped a dominatingly good hand, I cannot give 3 other players a free card.
Verdict - While its weak as hell to check this flop and my number one focus is getting away from weak/tight, someone besides myself getting check-raised is my easiest ticket out of this hand. This is easily my most intriguing option.
E. Bet the flop bigger or push all-in.
Verdict - We don't even need pros and cons here. Given the hand, this option is basically irrelevant. By betting the flop bigger I reduce the pot odds of drawers, but in the case of this hand the MP players still fold, I still get check-raised all-in, and with lessfold equity left to play with my decision to call becomes that much easier.
So I think that about covers it. By talking through it here, it seems like the best way for me to get out of the hand would've been check-folding the flop, but it only would've been made an easy decision if one of the MP players bet, which they likely wouldn't have if they folded to my 1/2 pot bet. It seems to me that any reasonably aggressive play in this hand pretty much gets all my chips in the middle. I think I just got fairly horribly unlucky.
Please take some time to share your opinion if you have one.
Things have been starting to trend back up, but still when I lose, I LOSE. Which isn't a bad thing, because getting sucked out on just means you're getting your money in good. So I'll just keep doing that as best I can!
I'm not abiding strictly to the standard "SNG Challenge" structure in that if I get above $22.50, I'm playing the $5.50s, and if I get to $66, I'm gonna move up to the $11s. But at that point I'll wait until $220 to move up to the $22s, since that's uncharted territory. I've also switched to 6-max because they play a lot looser and dumber, plus they're quicker. I've found they play a lot like a turbo, and an ABC TAG game will get you to the final three, at which point the blind to stack ratio is pretty large and there's definitely some play. I've had a couple of marathon HU matches in these 6-max, both of which I came out on the losing end of, and both of which REALLY irritated me the way my opponents played and won. But thanks to a nice chunk of rakeback and 3 wins out of 5 tables last night I'm up to $60, so if I can cash in another $5.50, I'll get at least one shot at the $11s again. My focus for the next couple weeks will just be trying to generate rake and get as much of my $50 FT bonus cleared as I can, so I'd like to get settled in at at least the $11 level.
BTW, if you didn't get an email or haven't heard about it, you should be able to go to the "Requests" menu in your Full Tilt client and select the "Check my bonus offer..." option and have a no deposit required bonus from them. This is the first no-deposit bonus I've been offered, so mad props from me to Full Tilt!
So I guess I'll check ya later!
PISSED OFF. Thanks for that, Blogger. So here goes attempt number two...
I have my first real hand analysis I'd like to get some feedback on. This hand just really bugs me for several reasons and I'd be interested in knowing if I played it like total trash or just got unlucky, cuz I keep going back and forth.
This is the SECOND HAND of a $5.50 6-max SNG. I am UTG and have AK suited. With blinds at 15/30, I make it 125 to go. There are three MP callers, SB folds, and then the BB min re-raises to 220. I'm not fond of my spot here with a premium, albeit drawing, hand, a min-raise, 3 left to act, and no position. I can't fold, and I feel like a real re-raise would commit me (with "nothing"), so I just call and see how interested the other MP players are. One folds, and unfortunately two others call.
Flop: A 6 J rainbow.
This is about as good of a flop as I could hope for, but at the $5.50 level there could easily be someone in this pot with a hand that is killing me. The BB (the aggressor) checks, putting me in yet another precarious spot. This guy either whiffed or flopped a monster (and boy do they love the check-raise at this level, so I'm already expecting it), but which could it be? And with people yet to act after me, I don't want to give up the lead on this hand or a free card after showing strength and flopping a damn good hand. I bet 500, leaving me 700 behind for
His most obvious holdings are AA, KK, or AK. Unfortunately at this level a PF re-raise could also mean AQ, AJ, A10, and QQ-1010 or so. I have to logically rule out AA with the presence of the case two aces. As sick as that would be, and we've all seen it before, I can't play scared of AA. I'm now slaughtering KK, and I'm tied w/AK. That leaves JJ, AJ, or 66 that has me in bad shape. Again, it would take some major cojones (or a complete lack of poker skill) to PF re-raise 66 with four people in the pot for a 4xBB raise from UTG, so I have to logically rule that out. JJ is a likely holding, and I should probably go broke against it. AJ would just really make me sick given the PF re-raise in a 4 way pot and odds against my hand preflop, but I know its a fully valid possibility. They love AJ at this level. In the end, I'm only scared of two hands that would be no beter than 30% to have just outflopped me, and I'm tied with another likely holding, so I don't think I can lay it down. Plus, my gut read felt like a busted KK making a play at the pot. I made the call, and don't improve against AJo.
Now first, this is everything I hate about low limits online. This guy makes an absolutely horrific play by "normal" poker standards and gets paid off for it in a HUGE way. I know that I love for people to make plays like this and blah blah blah, but why can't they pull this shit against other donkeys instead of me? If I were at that table and I would've seen that hand, my sights would've been locked and loaded on that stack, cuz you know he's just gonna spew 'em off in much the same manner. But I digress...
So what could I have done and had chips after this hand? Lets look...
A. Folded UTG
Pros - I still have chips.
Cons - Fold AK suited to no raise? Come on...
Verdict - No f'n way.
B. Three-bet PF
Pros - With 3 people to act behind me, I give myself a shot at isolating my hand against the aggressor, who either has a monster or is making a terrible play. Or if the BB happens to fold I scoop a nice pot.
Cons - A reasonable re-raise would probably have me putting out a 750 or so chip bet, or just pushing. If the BB calls less than a push, my money is likely going in anyway w/TPTK and ridiculous pot odds. If the BB 4-bets me all-in (if he even can?), I have to give him credit for AA or KK and could either fold w/500 chips left, or just get it in good and kill myself after the flop. If the BB calls my push, see above. All this, and I'm still worried about the 3 left to act.
Verdict - There is a slight chance I get away from this hand w/500 chips or so, but I'm going broke if it all goes in PF, or still going broke if I flop TPTK. I don't like the outcome.
C. Fold to the re-raise.
Pros - I get away from a draw and impending doom early in this SNG with over 1250 chips and live to take the donkey out.
Cons - With so many people in the pot I'm bound to either be dominating or a flop away from the best hand. With 125 invested and another 750 in the pot its hard to not at least see a flop for 95 chips with the biggest drawing hand there is.
Verdict - While this probably would've been the easiest spot to get away from impending doom, I can't justify a fold with AK suited with 7 to 1 on my money.
D. Check the flop.
Pros - It either checks around and I get an opportunity to reassess on the turn, or one of the MP players bets and gets check-raised, giving me a nice spot to get away from the hand with a clear conscience.
Cons - This is a horribly weak play. Assuming I have the best hand, I have to bet out for value and to get draws out of the hand. The other 7 times out of 10 that I've flopped a dominatingly good hand, I cannot give 3 other players a free card.
Verdict - While its weak as hell to check this flop and my number one focus is getting away from weak/tight, someone besides myself getting check-raised is my easiest ticket out of this hand. This is easily my most intriguing option.
E. Bet the flop bigger or push all-in.
Verdict - We don't even need pros and cons here. Given the hand, this option is basically irrelevant. By betting the flop bigger I reduce the pot odds of drawers, but in the case of this hand the MP players still fold, I still get check-raised all-in, and with less
So I think that about covers it. By talking through it here, it seems like the best way for me to get out of the hand would've been check-folding the flop, but it only would've been made an easy decision if one of the MP players bet, which they likely wouldn't have if they folded to my 1/2 pot bet. It seems to me that any reasonably aggressive play in this hand pretty much gets all my chips in the middle. I think I just got fairly horribly unlucky.
Please take some time to share your opinion if you have one.
Things have been starting to trend back up, but still when I lose, I LOSE. Which isn't a bad thing, because getting sucked out on just means you're getting your money in good. So I'll just keep doing that as best I can!
I'm not abiding strictly to the standard "SNG Challenge" structure in that if I get above $22.50, I'm playing the $5.50s, and if I get to $66, I'm gonna move up to the $11s. But at that point I'll wait until $220 to move up to the $22s, since that's uncharted territory. I've also switched to 6-max because they play a lot looser and dumber, plus they're quicker. I've found they play a lot like a turbo, and an ABC TAG game will get you to the final three, at which point the blind to stack ratio is pretty large and there's definitely some play. I've had a couple of marathon HU matches in these 6-max, both of which I came out on the losing end of, and both of which REALLY irritated me the way my opponents played and won. But thanks to a nice chunk of rakeback and 3 wins out of 5 tables last night I'm up to $60, so if I can cash in another $5.50, I'll get at least one shot at the $11s again. My focus for the next couple weeks will just be trying to generate rake and get as much of my $50 FT bonus cleared as I can, so I'd like to get settled in at at least the $11 level.
BTW, if you didn't get an email or haven't heard about it, you should be able to go to the "Requests" menu in your Full Tilt client and select the "Check my bonus offer..." option and have a no deposit required bonus from them. This is the first no-deposit bonus I've been offered, so mad props from me to Full Tilt!
So I guess I'll check ya later!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Dump & Run
Not a whole lot to report for this weekend, other than some displeasure with Full Tilt for causing me to prevent my blogger tourney cherry from being popped yet again.
When the BloggerPods didn't go off last weekend as planned, I signed on either Sunday night or Monday morning when Full Tilt was again available and signed up for the rescheduled tourney for this Sunday. I know this for a fact because I got bothered at least once this week by a freeroll whore who would've seen me on the list and wanted the password. But lo and behold I wander upstairs no more than a minute before 6:00 (I may or may not have been dozing in front of the NASCAR race and my wife had to yell at me), fire up Full Tilt, and I was puzzled when a table didn't open. With SNGs you have to go the SNG tab for your tables to open, so I went to the tournaments tab. When a table didn't open this time, my heart sunk. Sure enough, I flagged down the BloggerPods tourney, it was f'ing SEATING, and there was no seat for me. If I just would've planned to be up there a couple mins early just incase I'd have been fine, but the poker gods gave me just one more big ol' fisting.
Other than that, I killed my home game on Friday, so that was nice. I broke the same guy early in both of the first two tourneys (combination of good luck and his terrible LAG style) and managed to cruise to nice little wins in them, then in the third, while I never did anything huge I played a strong tourney and hung in for 3rd and a little profit. I won $55, which isn't too damn shabby for $5 tourneys and only 12, 12, and 10 players. That brings my cash bankroll up to $190 again, and makes me feel at least a little bit better about my roll with plans to head to Council Bluffs on the 23rd and play some 3/6 with a buddy. We planned to go play a session at the local casino, then I remembered I've got an $80 voucher from my trip to CB for the WSOP, plus they sent me a free buffet, so I figured another $80 (that I actually didn't lose but they thought I did, so it is truly free money) to the roll and the buffet is totally worth the 3 hours of drive time and $20 or so in gas. So I'm excited to get back to a live session for the first time since late Jan, but I will definitely be steering clear of 1/2 NL for a while, and am looking forward to being able to play some straight up math poker at the 3/6 table.
Played 2 SNGs on Saturday that I was pretty indifferent about. In the first one I made steady forward progress and then doubled up through the LAG chip leader when I flopped a set and he flopped TPTK and I got it all in on the turn. I should've taken the thing down easily, heading into heads up with an 8k to 5k advantage, but I doubled up my opponent when I knew I was beat w/A-rag. He had AK. I struggled back up to about 8 to 5 a couple times, but ended up getting all-in PF in the BB w/QK vs a limped AA. Not much I can do there. He picked a perfect time to limp rockets, but my money probably would've gone in preflop no matter what. It just never felt like I was gonna win after I got my money in bad and knew it against that AK. The 2nd one was actually a really nice test of game as I went up early, then had what I felt was a very well excecuted bluff with unimproved suited gappers in a raised pot called down by an unimpoved AJo after I called PF, bet the medium rainbow flop, checked the face card turn, and then bet 3/4 pot on the river. I thought it was a pretty good bluff for a flopped set, but my opponent didn't buy it. So after that and a bunch of unimproved preflop limps I found myself nearing the 10xBB mark w/9 left. I started hitting a few hands and scooping pots with pushes and managed to work my way back up into as high as 2nd with 7 left. After a couple more dropped there were 5 of us, all with stacks in the 2k range and the blinds relatively low. We passed some chips around for a while and it looked like a couple might drop, but they'd always manage to get back in it. Eventually the blinds got to be significant so I got to the point where I was less waiting for another couple to drop and more looking for my own spot to get it in. I found that spot w/KQo on the button and even though there was a PF push in front of me, I really felt like I'd be in good shape. This guy was a pretty competent player, so I figured if he had a real hand, he'd want value, so I figured I was 40-60% and made the call. He showed 9s, and when I flopped two pair I just didn't feel like I was out of the woods. A 9 on the river confirmed my suspicions and I was out in 5th. I won a whopping $.90 on the session, but it was my first winning session in over a week, so I walked away feeling good about the fact that I was even making hands and in a position to cash. At the same time, I managed my heads up match terribly and am not happy about it.
Probably won't be playing a whole lot this week for various reasons (anniversaries and 69 degree weather keeps a guy away from the computer pretty easily) throughout the week plus the fact that we're headed to Kansas City to party with my brother for St. Patty's Day. My shirt should come in the mail today. On the front it has a leprechaun with a beer and says "Official Irish Drinking Team" and on the back it has "Windbreaker" and the number 53, my old basketball number (and the hand I've been considering to be my bluffing hand). So it should be nice to take a little road trip this weekend and party in a unique place for St. Patty's Day.
When the BloggerPods didn't go off last weekend as planned, I signed on either Sunday night or Monday morning when Full Tilt was again available and signed up for the rescheduled tourney for this Sunday. I know this for a fact because I got bothered at least once this week by a freeroll whore who would've seen me on the list and wanted the password. But lo and behold I wander upstairs no more than a minute before 6:00 (I may or may not have been dozing in front of the NASCAR race and my wife had to yell at me), fire up Full Tilt, and I was puzzled when a table didn't open. With SNGs you have to go the SNG tab for your tables to open, so I went to the tournaments tab. When a table didn't open this time, my heart sunk. Sure enough, I flagged down the BloggerPods tourney, it was f'ing SEATING, and there was no seat for me. If I just would've planned to be up there a couple mins early just incase I'd have been fine, but the poker gods gave me just one more big ol' fisting.
Other than that, I killed my home game on Friday, so that was nice. I broke the same guy early in both of the first two tourneys (combination of good luck and his terrible LAG style) and managed to cruise to nice little wins in them, then in the third, while I never did anything huge I played a strong tourney and hung in for 3rd and a little profit. I won $55, which isn't too damn shabby for $5 tourneys and only 12, 12, and 10 players. That brings my cash bankroll up to $190 again, and makes me feel at least a little bit better about my roll with plans to head to Council Bluffs on the 23rd and play some 3/6 with a buddy. We planned to go play a session at the local casino, then I remembered I've got an $80 voucher from my trip to CB for the WSOP, plus they sent me a free buffet, so I figured another $80 (that I actually didn't lose but they thought I did, so it is truly free money) to the roll and the buffet is totally worth the 3 hours of drive time and $20 or so in gas. So I'm excited to get back to a live session for the first time since late Jan, but I will definitely be steering clear of 1/2 NL for a while, and am looking forward to being able to play some straight up math poker at the 3/6 table.
Played 2 SNGs on Saturday that I was pretty indifferent about. In the first one I made steady forward progress and then doubled up through the LAG chip leader when I flopped a set and he flopped TPTK and I got it all in on the turn. I should've taken the thing down easily, heading into heads up with an 8k to 5k advantage, but I doubled up my opponent when I knew I was beat w/A-rag. He had AK. I struggled back up to about 8 to 5 a couple times, but ended up getting all-in PF in the BB w/QK vs a limped AA. Not much I can do there. He picked a perfect time to limp rockets, but my money probably would've gone in preflop no matter what. It just never felt like I was gonna win after I got my money in bad and knew it against that AK. The 2nd one was actually a really nice test of game as I went up early, then had what I felt was a very well excecuted bluff with unimproved suited gappers in a raised pot called down by an unimpoved AJo after I called PF, bet the medium rainbow flop, checked the face card turn, and then bet 3/4 pot on the river. I thought it was a pretty good bluff for a flopped set, but my opponent didn't buy it. So after that and a bunch of unimproved preflop limps I found myself nearing the 10xBB mark w/9 left. I started hitting a few hands and scooping pots with pushes and managed to work my way back up into as high as 2nd with 7 left. After a couple more dropped there were 5 of us, all with stacks in the 2k range and the blinds relatively low. We passed some chips around for a while and it looked like a couple might drop, but they'd always manage to get back in it. Eventually the blinds got to be significant so I got to the point where I was less waiting for another couple to drop and more looking for my own spot to get it in. I found that spot w/KQo on the button and even though there was a PF push in front of me, I really felt like I'd be in good shape. This guy was a pretty competent player, so I figured if he had a real hand, he'd want value, so I figured I was 40-60% and made the call. He showed 9s, and when I flopped two pair I just didn't feel like I was out of the woods. A 9 on the river confirmed my suspicions and I was out in 5th. I won a whopping $.90 on the session, but it was my first winning session in over a week, so I walked away feeling good about the fact that I was even making hands and in a position to cash. At the same time, I managed my heads up match terribly and am not happy about it.
Probably won't be playing a whole lot this week for various reasons (anniversaries and 69 degree weather keeps a guy away from the computer pretty easily) throughout the week plus the fact that we're headed to Kansas City to party with my brother for St. Patty's Day. My shirt should come in the mail today. On the front it has a leprechaun with a beer and says "Official Irish Drinking Team" and on the back it has "Windbreaker" and the number 53, my old basketball number (and the hand I've been considering to be my bluffing hand). So it should be nice to take a little road trip this weekend and party in a unique place for St. Patty's Day.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Warning: Bad Beat Story Ahead
Well, I haven't played in a couple days, but I have a couple more hands I want to share from my Monday session.
I'm at a .05/.10 table in LP. Folds around to MP, who limps. I make it .50 to go w/AJo. This is generally a PREMIUM hand at this level, so I'll take callers or blinds, whatever. BB calls my .50, as does MP, and away we go! Flop comes XAJ. It checks to me, and I bet .50 again. Called in 2 places. Turn is a Q. BB checks, MP bets .50, I call, BB calls. Now I'm worried about AQ and K10. The river is a blank, BB checks, MP bets like $1.20, I call (cuz I gotta see it so I can tell this story), and BB calls. I know I'm dead, but I did not expect BB AND MP to flip over...AQ...and split the pot. I flop 2 pair and these guys are drawing to 2 outs or runner-runner...and hit.
The other isn't so exciting and relatively routine, except for the whole "kicking him while he's down" factor involved here. I buy into a new, fresh, 50% PPF, .05/.10 table and pick up KK in my 2nd hand. I reraise a PF raiser, and it folds back around to him, who pumps me again. Now in a bigger game I honestly would've considered folding here, but at .05/.10 players could be pushing anything from K10 suited to any pocket pair. So I get the rest of it in the middle and lose to his AA.
Am I too jaded if I start calling KK vs AA all-in preflop "routine"??
Anyway, just wanted to get these hands on the record for posterity. Imagine the chuckle I'll get when I have a 7 figure bankroll and look back on these old blog posts.
*removes tongue from cheek*
I'm at a .05/.10 table in LP. Folds around to MP, who limps. I make it .50 to go w/AJo. This is generally a PREMIUM hand at this level, so I'll take callers or blinds, whatever. BB calls my .50, as does MP, and away we go! Flop comes XAJ. It checks to me, and I bet .50 again. Called in 2 places. Turn is a Q. BB checks, MP bets .50, I call, BB calls. Now I'm worried about AQ and K10. The river is a blank, BB checks, MP bets like $1.20, I call (cuz I gotta see it so I can tell this story), and BB calls. I know I'm dead, but I did not expect BB AND MP to flip over...AQ...and split the pot. I flop 2 pair and these guys are drawing to 2 outs or runner-runner...and hit.
The other isn't so exciting and relatively routine, except for the whole "kicking him while he's down" factor involved here. I buy into a new, fresh, 50% PPF, .05/.10 table and pick up KK in my 2nd hand. I reraise a PF raiser, and it folds back around to him, who pumps me again. Now in a bigger game I honestly would've considered folding here, but at .05/.10 players could be pushing anything from K10 suited to any pocket pair. So I get the rest of it in the middle and lose to his AA.
Am I too jaded if I start calling KK vs AA all-in preflop "routine"??
Anyway, just wanted to get these hands on the record for posterity. Imagine the chuckle I'll get when I have a 7 figure bankroll and look back on these old blog posts.
*removes tongue from cheek*
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The Unbreakable Streak
Well, it continues...
With 42ish left in a $5, 90 person SNG, I was at the back of the field with my 2500ish. Average stack was at about 6500, but blinds were at 80/160, so I wasn't yet even close to worried, but I was certainly nearing push or fold poker. I find JQd in mid-late position and limp. Flop comes K 6 10 rainbow. A flop I'm quite fond of. Miraculously, it checks 5 spots around. Turn is Ac, a card I'm even more fond of. Two clubs on the board, but I hold the current nuts with one card to come. Then the dream scenario unfolds. SB pushes his last 1200 or so. I slow call, hoping that maybe the LP player w/6k will push over the top. He pushes over the top. I instacall and reveal the bad news. A7 in the SB is dead, and the big stack's two pair isn't looking so hot. Then the poker gods reveal a piece of bad news of their own, spiking one of the 3 outs left in the deck.
I'd pay you all a dollar, but I only have 22 left.
$2.25 SNGs, here I come! Four days and counting, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll really be able to play through this.
With 42ish left in a $5, 90 person SNG, I was at the back of the field with my 2500ish. Average stack was at about 6500, but blinds were at 80/160, so I wasn't yet even close to worried, but I was certainly nearing push or fold poker. I find JQd in mid-late position and limp. Flop comes K 6 10 rainbow. A flop I'm quite fond of. Miraculously, it checks 5 spots around. Turn is Ac, a card I'm even more fond of. Two clubs on the board, but I hold the current nuts with one card to come. Then the dream scenario unfolds. SB pushes his last 1200 or so. I slow call, hoping that maybe the LP player w/6k will push over the top. He pushes over the top. I instacall and reveal the bad news. A7 in the SB is dead, and the big stack's two pair isn't looking so hot. Then the poker gods reveal a piece of bad news of their own, spiking one of the 3 outs left in the deck.
I'd pay you all a dollar, but I only have 22 left.
$2.25 SNGs, here I come! Four days and counting, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll really be able to play through this.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Ummmm...Ouch?
I am running SO badly.
Just as I was about to hit my stride and had even caught a glimpse of moving up to the $20 SNGs, I have hit a mad rush of card-deadedness and vicious suckouts unlike anything I've seen before.
Before I go on, however, I must admit that I was due. So I'm coping well. I had been running ridiculously hot, getting cards, hitting flops, and sucking out. But it doesn't matter how high the highs were, the lows always feel like a vicious blow to the gut.
So I've gone from I think a high of $178 down to $44. And much like normal, this bad run happened when I had dedicated time to play. We were out of the office Thursday afternoon and Friday due to weather. Luckily I've learned my lesson from many times before and this time I didn't make it all worse by playing stupid. Hell, I'd have probably gone broke by now in the past. Once I hit like $65 I switched from $10s to $5s, and I only had one SNG open at a time to allow for optimum focus. But I just couldn't win. Just could not! I am literally uneasy as anything worse than an 80% favorite, and even as 80% and above by no means am I out of the water
The epitome of this whole thing took place in a $5 SNG about 8 hours or so into this variance-filled rampage. I happened to be in pretty good shape in this one, in the rare occurance of finding myself with a hand early and up a few hundred chips. I've got 93o in the big, and after two limpers and a SB complete, I checked my option. The flop comes a fairly pleasing A93 rainbow. SB checks to me, and hoping to get action from an ace, but happy to take down this 240 chip pot early on with my 2 pair (especially the way I'm running), I go ahead and bet the pot. It folds around to the SB, who calls my bet. The turn is another offsuit 4, and this time the SB bets at me. There's that ace. I raise him, and he re-raises me all-in. I really didn't put too much thought into the whole thing here. I suppose I could easily lose to a set or a higher two pair, but I was willing to lose if that was the case. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, either, the way I was running, but I feel like I'm ahead of the small blind a LOT here. So with 700 chips behind and blinds at 40/80, I go ahead and call his all-in rather quickly. He rolls 52o, and I've got four outs against his made gutshot straight, which, of course, I brick. This dude calls w/52o in the small. Not the worst move in the world with 7 to 1. If he flops a monster, he can get a lot of chips. He flops nothing but a gutshot. Three outs or runners to beat any hand other than a pair of 3s. And he calls a pot-sized bet. The poker gods take over at this point and forsake the shit out of me, and the rest is history. I ended up fizzling out in like 6th or 7th, probably losing when I push my A-rag into a bigger A-rag.
Its been ridiculous. Almost funny. I'm not getting hole cards. When I do, I'm missing the flop. If I get a hand worthy of raising, I do so, and miss the flop and fold. In an effort to make up for a lack of cards, I'll take stabs at pots with position on stealable boards, but I get callers and end up with nothing but an even more depleted stack. If I manage to make it to the bubble in 2nd or 3rd, we start playing "pass the chips", I get no hands, my steals don't work, and the bubble eventually bursts in my face when I push my A-rag or pocket pair into a bigger A-rag, pocket pair, or losing coin flip. Of course they're all losing coin flips, so I could just say "coin flip" and we would have an understanding that I'm not winning it. I'm missing draws and losing chips drawing. My KKs and QQs are no good, my AAs don't get paid. A set? What's a set?? The BB is flopping trips with their rags like its routine. And the list goes on and on. You all know our good friend variance.
Luckily I've made $11 in .05/.10 cash games, so that's a couple more buy-ins to help get me played through this thing. But man is it depressing.
Anyway, I'll keep plugging away. If I get down to $22.50 I'll start playing the $2.25s. I'm not gonna let this thing break me, but its just disappointing to be comfortable at the $10s and on the threshold of moving up, only to get cold-decked for 2 days straight and moving down.
Things seem to have steadied a little bit so with any luck they'll grind back forward. The good news is there's always my rakeback, and I made a record amount (a whopping $13) in February and plenty in the first couple days of March, so hopefully I'll get things turned around and then get a nice little kickback on my way back up.
I'm proud of my sanity and level-headedness, but I just had to vent.
I'm actually slightly thankful that the BloggerPods tourney got cancelled, because the way I've been running I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at an iPod. But maybe by next week things will be cycled back around in my favor.
Anyway, gotta run. May all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Just as I was about to hit my stride and had even caught a glimpse of moving up to the $20 SNGs, I have hit a mad rush of card-deadedness and vicious suckouts unlike anything I've seen before.
Before I go on, however, I must admit that I was due. So I'm coping well. I had been running ridiculously hot, getting cards, hitting flops, and sucking out. But it doesn't matter how high the highs were, the lows always feel like a vicious blow to the gut.
So I've gone from I think a high of $178 down to $44. And much like normal, this bad run happened when I had dedicated time to play. We were out of the office Thursday afternoon and Friday due to weather. Luckily I've learned my lesson from many times before and this time I didn't make it all worse by playing stupid. Hell, I'd have probably gone broke by now in the past. Once I hit like $65 I switched from $10s to $5s, and I only had one SNG open at a time to allow for optimum focus. But I just couldn't win. Just could not! I am literally uneasy as anything worse than an 80% favorite, and even as 80% and above by no means am I out of the water
The epitome of this whole thing took place in a $5 SNG about 8 hours or so into this variance-filled rampage. I happened to be in pretty good shape in this one, in the rare occurance of finding myself with a hand early and up a few hundred chips. I've got 93o in the big, and after two limpers and a SB complete, I checked my option. The flop comes a fairly pleasing A93 rainbow. SB checks to me, and hoping to get action from an ace, but happy to take down this 240 chip pot early on with my 2 pair (especially the way I'm running), I go ahead and bet the pot. It folds around to the SB, who calls my bet. The turn is another offsuit 4, and this time the SB bets at me. There's that ace. I raise him, and he re-raises me all-in. I really didn't put too much thought into the whole thing here. I suppose I could easily lose to a set or a higher two pair, but I was willing to lose if that was the case. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, either, the way I was running, but I feel like I'm ahead of the small blind a LOT here. So with 700 chips behind and blinds at 40/80, I go ahead and call his all-in rather quickly. He rolls 52o, and I've got four outs against his made gutshot straight, which, of course, I brick. This dude calls w/52o in the small. Not the worst move in the world with 7 to 1. If he flops a monster, he can get a lot of chips. He flops nothing but a gutshot. Three outs or runners to beat any hand other than a pair of 3s. And he calls a pot-sized bet. The poker gods take over at this point and forsake the shit out of me, and the rest is history. I ended up fizzling out in like 6th or 7th, probably losing when I push my A-rag into a bigger A-rag.
Its been ridiculous. Almost funny. I'm not getting hole cards. When I do, I'm missing the flop. If I get a hand worthy of raising, I do so, and miss the flop and fold. In an effort to make up for a lack of cards, I'll take stabs at pots with position on stealable boards, but I get callers and end up with nothing but an even more depleted stack. If I manage to make it to the bubble in 2nd or 3rd, we start playing "pass the chips", I get no hands, my steals don't work, and the bubble eventually bursts in my face when I push my A-rag or pocket pair into a bigger A-rag, pocket pair, or losing coin flip. Of course they're all losing coin flips, so I could just say "coin flip" and we would have an understanding that I'm not winning it. I'm missing draws and losing chips drawing. My KKs and QQs are no good, my AAs don't get paid. A set? What's a set?? The BB is flopping trips with their rags like its routine. And the list goes on and on. You all know our good friend variance.
Luckily I've made $11 in .05/.10 cash games, so that's a couple more buy-ins to help get me played through this thing. But man is it depressing.
Anyway, I'll keep plugging away. If I get down to $22.50 I'll start playing the $2.25s. I'm not gonna let this thing break me, but its just disappointing to be comfortable at the $10s and on the threshold of moving up, only to get cold-decked for 2 days straight and moving down.
Things seem to have steadied a little bit so with any luck they'll grind back forward. The good news is there's always my rakeback, and I made a record amount (a whopping $13) in February and plenty in the first couple days of March, so hopefully I'll get things turned around and then get a nice little kickback on my way back up.
I'm proud of my sanity and level-headedness, but I just had to vent.
I'm actually slightly thankful that the BloggerPods tourney got cancelled, because the way I've been running I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at an iPod. But maybe by next week things will be cycled back around in my favor.
Anyway, gotta run. May all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Yeah, so...
As is usually the case when I have a nice chunk of time dedicated to poker, I got overzealous and basically wasted it. However, as an exception to the norm, at least this time I actually came away with a tiny win.
I started out with the precious $8.70 Tier 1. It was going along decent enough, as with 11 players left I was bouncing from 4th to 6th depending on where the button was. But the blinds were just too big and there were too many players left, so by no means could I just sit and wait. I managed to get myself busted by pushing my A 10 on the button into the big blind's Qs, and found myself on the outside looking in yet again. I think based on the blinds and the way the game was being played, I'd make that move every time. But c'mon, could I have a little bit of decent luck??
I then proceeded to play a couple where I got 17th and 14th. In the 17th one I decided to take a little different approach, trying to play it fast and loose. Very early, to an MP raise, I pushed my KJo, and didn't hate it when I saw his A9d, but I couldn't improve. In the 14th one I pushed my LP or button KQo right into big blind Aces. Are you kidding?? And then I played one more where we were again down to 10-11 players left. Since I'd gotten Q10 in these tourneys a million frickin' times I decided to go with it once. Again, I made a position play and came up against KJ, which I didn't hate again. I flopped two pair, but the turn didn't hesitate to fill up his straight. I had a few chips left and promptly pushed my A9 into A10.
My luck in these Tier 1s has been ATROCIOUS. I've played 6 of 'em and here's a compilation of the luck, which is mostly bust hands, 44 vs. AJ doesn't hold, 10s vs AK doesn't hold (river 10 completes his straight), push A10 on button into QQ don't improve, KJ vs. A9 doesn't improve, position push KQ into BB AA, and Q 10 flops 2 pair vs KJ, which turns a straight, and finally with chicken feed I push A9 into A10.
So the Tier 1s are kind of a sore subject right now. If I could just find a *little* luck, it'd be a whole different story.
So since I didn't win my $26 ticket, like a moron I just went ahead and bought into the $26 tourney anyway. 760-some runners and I busted in 74xth. I had two early hands where I made marginal calls where if I hit I get paid off BIG TIME. In the first one I flopped a straight flush draw holding 86h and didn't hit the straight or flush, and in the 2nd I flopped a flush draw and didn't complete it either. So I was down to 1k very early on. I find JJ in EP and limp with it, and it folds around to the blinds who both limp. The board comes something like 998, and we check it around. The turn is another low card, and it checks around to me. I make a small probe bet, and the SB folds and BB calls. The river is another low card. BB checks, I make a 2/3 pot bet, BB raises me, and with 1/3 of my chips in already and an overpair, I push. He shows A9 and IGHN.
Another interesting story had to do with a .05/.10 table. There came a point where I was looking to play one in tandem with one of the Tier 1s so I could concentrate on the Tier 1 with no real objective on the cash game table other than look for good hands and play them. There was a particularly juicy table with an average pot of over $7 and a PPF rate of 52%. With only a couple on the waiting list, I went ahead and added myself, and eventually took my seat. The table seemed full of guys who knew each other for whatever reason or another, had to have been playing well below their bankroll, and not a hand would go by when someone didn't get all-in, and with ANYTHING. A majority of the time, preflop. They would just keep passing it around the table and rebuying and rebuying. So I was basically folding looking for good hands or an opportunity to get in cheap. Most pots would be raised, but I'd generally bail if I couldn't get in for a buck or less. I managed to double my $10 buyin twice, once when I made a straight and called an all-in of a guy drawing completely dead with top pair, and another time when I had an overpair to the board (9s), and someone w/57o had pushed with just a gutshot. Easy money. So I'm sitting there with $38 on a .05/.10 table. Next hand I took a shot at was a limp in EP w/AJo. I hate to do this, but this is a premium hand at this table. I ended up getting to see a flop for about .30, and it was a decent looking 33J flop. I was pretty sure I was crushing my 4 opponents, but I honestly had to be scared of the 3. The middle of the story doesn't matter because no matter what was held, all the chips were going in. The last two cards came lower than a J, all the money went in on the river, and the SB won the hand with 73o. At that point, I thought to myself "I took my shot and came up blank" and gave up my seat. Say 20-30 mins later I got to thinking about how juicy the table was and how if I just stayed patient it could be a GOLD MINE for me. The beauty of it is that I can get in a hand for as little as 10 to 50 cents, but end up winning $30 pots or more. The cost was at the .05/.10 level, but the payout was at the .25/.50 level or higher! I was a moron to give up my seat! Well, by the time I got back there the average pot was about $30, the PPF rate was 42%, and the waiting list was 24 deep. I went back to the table a couple hours later at 9:00, and while I thought it was pretty remarkable that someone was there with as much as $68 while I had my seat at the table, at 9:00, there was a stack over $300! THREE THOUSAND times the big blind. Incidentally, it was the guy that busted me w/his 73o. The biggest mistake I made all last night was giving up my seat at that table, and I'm gonna be looking for those guys again going forward.
So that's, what? $70 of my $120 bankroll gone with nothing to show for it?
Luckily I had some good showings in the other SNGs I played and ended up cranking out a $10 profit for the night. I won another $11 SNG for a profit of $34, I went 2-for-2 in $6.50 turbos to the tune of $41, and took 3rd in another $11 SNG for a profit of $9.
One of the $6.50 turbos was the best SNG of my life, by far. I took out all 8 of the other players, which is a first for me, and I know a pretty remarkable accomplishment. I couldn't have done it without a little luck, but I also couldn't have done it without a little LUCKO. Thanks for all the great SNG posts as of late, man! It all started on the first hand when I took out 2 players when I flopped TPTK on a 10-high board. I was in the BB, and the small blind bet, I raised all-in (pretty sure I have the best hand here, and want to get it in accordingly, especially in a turbo), UTG called, a MP limper folded, and SB called. SB had a flush draw and didn't get there and UTG had 2nd pair. MP said he folded AA! From then on I just put pressure on every chance I got with my big stack. I had another hand where I took out 2 players when I flopped middle set and beat an overpair and top pair, and the rest of the time it was just me pushing almost any 2 and them picking hands. I had a PP of 4s hold and a PP of 2s hold, and I had a big suckout when I pushed 86 preflop on the button and beat the BBs KQ when the flop came JJ8. Heads up it was 12.5k to 1k and he was a stubborn little guy, but I eventually took care of business fairly routinely, never letting him even get to 2k. What a blast!
So overall it was a positive, but I wasted SO MUCH money in the Tier 1 SNGs and in that $26 MTT. If I would've just played some SNGs and kept my seat at that .05/.10 table, the sky's the limit, but I'm not gonna complain about a profit, especially when my bankroll dipped as low as $76.
Next time I have an opportunity to put in a decent session I need to form a plan going in and not stray from it, because whenever this happens its like I haven't eaten for a week and you drop me into a chinese buffet. I know what my objective is, but I just grab whatever I can think of next, and when the dust settles I'm satisfied, but I'm also a little sick and could've gone about it in a much better way.
Maybe no poker for me until the weekend, so good luck to everyone else, and I'll see you next time.
I started out with the precious $8.70 Tier 1. It was going along decent enough, as with 11 players left I was bouncing from 4th to 6th depending on where the button was. But the blinds were just too big and there were too many players left, so by no means could I just sit and wait. I managed to get myself busted by pushing my A 10 on the button into the big blind's Qs, and found myself on the outside looking in yet again. I think based on the blinds and the way the game was being played, I'd make that move every time. But c'mon, could I have a little bit of decent luck??
I then proceeded to play a couple where I got 17th and 14th. In the 17th one I decided to take a little different approach, trying to play it fast and loose. Very early, to an MP raise, I pushed my KJo, and didn't hate it when I saw his A9d, but I couldn't improve. In the 14th one I pushed my LP or button KQo right into big blind Aces. Are you kidding?? And then I played one more where we were again down to 10-11 players left. Since I'd gotten Q10 in these tourneys a million frickin' times I decided to go with it once. Again, I made a position play and came up against KJ, which I didn't hate again. I flopped two pair, but the turn didn't hesitate to fill up his straight. I had a few chips left and promptly pushed my A9 into A10.
My luck in these Tier 1s has been ATROCIOUS. I've played 6 of 'em and here's a compilation of the luck, which is mostly bust hands, 44 vs. AJ doesn't hold, 10s vs AK doesn't hold (river 10 completes his straight), push A10 on button into QQ don't improve, KJ vs. A9 doesn't improve, position push KQ into BB AA, and Q 10 flops 2 pair vs KJ, which turns a straight, and finally with chicken feed I push A9 into A10.
So the Tier 1s are kind of a sore subject right now. If I could just find a *little* luck, it'd be a whole different story.
So since I didn't win my $26 ticket, like a moron I just went ahead and bought into the $26 tourney anyway. 760-some runners and I busted in 74xth. I had two early hands where I made marginal calls where if I hit I get paid off BIG TIME. In the first one I flopped a straight flush draw holding 86h and didn't hit the straight or flush, and in the 2nd I flopped a flush draw and didn't complete it either. So I was down to 1k very early on. I find JJ in EP and limp with it, and it folds around to the blinds who both limp. The board comes something like 998, and we check it around. The turn is another low card, and it checks around to me. I make a small probe bet, and the SB folds and BB calls. The river is another low card. BB checks, I make a 2/3 pot bet, BB raises me, and with 1/3 of my chips in already and an overpair, I push. He shows A9 and IGHN.
Another interesting story had to do with a .05/.10 table. There came a point where I was looking to play one in tandem with one of the Tier 1s so I could concentrate on the Tier 1 with no real objective on the cash game table other than look for good hands and play them. There was a particularly juicy table with an average pot of over $7 and a PPF rate of 52%. With only a couple on the waiting list, I went ahead and added myself, and eventually took my seat. The table seemed full of guys who knew each other for whatever reason or another, had to have been playing well below their bankroll, and not a hand would go by when someone didn't get all-in, and with ANYTHING. A majority of the time, preflop. They would just keep passing it around the table and rebuying and rebuying. So I was basically folding looking for good hands or an opportunity to get in cheap. Most pots would be raised, but I'd generally bail if I couldn't get in for a buck or less. I managed to double my $10 buyin twice, once when I made a straight and called an all-in of a guy drawing completely dead with top pair, and another time when I had an overpair to the board (9s), and someone w/57o had pushed with just a gutshot. Easy money. So I'm sitting there with $38 on a .05/.10 table. Next hand I took a shot at was a limp in EP w/AJo. I hate to do this, but this is a premium hand at this table. I ended up getting to see a flop for about .30, and it was a decent looking 33J flop. I was pretty sure I was crushing my 4 opponents, but I honestly had to be scared of the 3. The middle of the story doesn't matter because no matter what was held, all the chips were going in. The last two cards came lower than a J, all the money went in on the river, and the SB won the hand with 73o. At that point, I thought to myself "I took my shot and came up blank" and gave up my seat. Say 20-30 mins later I got to thinking about how juicy the table was and how if I just stayed patient it could be a GOLD MINE for me. The beauty of it is that I can get in a hand for as little as 10 to 50 cents, but end up winning $30 pots or more. The cost was at the .05/.10 level, but the payout was at the .25/.50 level or higher! I was a moron to give up my seat! Well, by the time I got back there the average pot was about $30, the PPF rate was 42%, and the waiting list was 24 deep. I went back to the table a couple hours later at 9:00, and while I thought it was pretty remarkable that someone was there with as much as $68 while I had my seat at the table, at 9:00, there was a stack over $300! THREE THOUSAND times the big blind. Incidentally, it was the guy that busted me w/his 73o. The biggest mistake I made all last night was giving up my seat at that table, and I'm gonna be looking for those guys again going forward.
So that's, what? $70 of my $120 bankroll gone with nothing to show for it?
Luckily I had some good showings in the other SNGs I played and ended up cranking out a $10 profit for the night. I won another $11 SNG for a profit of $34, I went 2-for-2 in $6.50 turbos to the tune of $41, and took 3rd in another $11 SNG for a profit of $9.
One of the $6.50 turbos was the best SNG of my life, by far. I took out all 8 of the other players, which is a first for me, and I know a pretty remarkable accomplishment. I couldn't have done it without a little luck, but I also couldn't have done it without a little LUCKO. Thanks for all the great SNG posts as of late, man! It all started on the first hand when I took out 2 players when I flopped TPTK on a 10-high board. I was in the BB, and the small blind bet, I raised all-in (pretty sure I have the best hand here, and want to get it in accordingly, especially in a turbo), UTG called, a MP limper folded, and SB called. SB had a flush draw and didn't get there and UTG had 2nd pair. MP said he folded AA! From then on I just put pressure on every chance I got with my big stack. I had another hand where I took out 2 players when I flopped middle set and beat an overpair and top pair, and the rest of the time it was just me pushing almost any 2 and them picking hands. I had a PP of 4s hold and a PP of 2s hold, and I had a big suckout when I pushed 86 preflop on the button and beat the BBs KQ when the flop came JJ8. Heads up it was 12.5k to 1k and he was a stubborn little guy, but I eventually took care of business fairly routinely, never letting him even get to 2k. What a blast!
So overall it was a positive, but I wasted SO MUCH money in the Tier 1 SNGs and in that $26 MTT. If I would've just played some SNGs and kept my seat at that .05/.10 table, the sky's the limit, but I'm not gonna complain about a profit, especially when my bankroll dipped as low as $76.
Next time I have an opportunity to put in a decent session I need to form a plan going in and not stray from it, because whenever this happens its like I haven't eaten for a week and you drop me into a chinese buffet. I know what my objective is, but I just grab whatever I can think of next, and when the dust settles I'm satisfied, but I'm also a little sick and could've gone about it in a much better way.
Maybe no poker for me until the weekend, so good luck to everyone else, and I'll see you next time.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Super Mega Tilt
Well, the rule applied once again. The rule being, of course, that I post positive results on my blog, and go home and shit the bed on the virtual felt.
My one major mistake was completely my fault, but it doesn't make me any less pissed off about the call my opponent made and got rewarded for. But the following disgusting beat was all at the hands of the poker gods.
This particular beat happened in one of the $8.80 satellites for a $26 token, where I am officially 2 for 2 on bubbling. Last night I actually built a stack to up over 2800 (which would've been more than sufficient to cash in my previous attempt), but when we got down to 7 and my stack was still around 2800, I was the shorty. After getting Q 10 about 42 times in 3 orbits, I ended up getting it all-in in the BB w/about 1900 with a pair of 10s, and got a caller w/AK. Good enough. Flop xxJ. So far, so good. Turn Q. NICE. Just 8 outs to dodge. And could the river really be a 10?? That'd be sick. Oh, hey, look at that. IT CAN BE. Ohhhhhh the poker gods had it out for me, boys and girls!
Hi. My name is Chad, and I am addicted to bubbling.
Hiiii, Chaaaad...
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Moving on, my only other go at this beautiful game last night was a $5.50 SNG w/my buddy. Everything was moving along swimmingly with my >2k stack being good enough for bouncing between 2nd and 3rd with 5 left. In short, I'd have to *really* screw up to not cash. (That is what we call foreshadowing.) There was this jackass who happened to be on the button on my BB. He was running over the table hitting anything and everything, and waking up w/AK and an all-in raise and show at least once a rotation. He couldn't play worth a damn, but his "luckbox" switch was set to "On" for the span of this SNG. At one point I find AQo in my BB, and with the button and SB having limped, I pump it up to 6xBB. When the button called, I lost it. I just snapped. From here on out, all logical poker thought poured out of my brain and into a mushy substance on my shoulders. The flop came 987 rainbow. Absolutely positive I had the better hand preflop and eager to prove it, I pushed what I had left, which was more than the pot by a few hundred. I nailed my read of preflop strength, but his A9o had outflopped the shit out of my hand. I don't improve, I'm sent to the rail, and I proceed to talk shit in the chat box like a donkeyfish.
I broke all the rules starting with my overbet push on a coordinated flop that I couldn't have missed worse but gave a million hands a million outs, and ending with not only talking shit in the chat box, but sticking around to watch the remainder of the tournament, cheering for the remaining players to bust the villian in the chat box, and talking more shit when he went out 3rd. It was nothing short of pathetic, and I'm not proud. But hopefully its out of my system for another few months, right? Sometimes you just lose it.
My buddy ended up coming from 5th out of 5 to finish 2nd, so good for him.
Pokerly speaking, my postflop play was just as pathetic, if not moreso, than his 6xBB call w/A9o, but that call just still annoys the piss out of me.
Oh, also its worth mentioning that I lost a handfull of dollars pushing too hard w/2nd pair playing about an orbit of .05/.10 NL before my buddy got on looking for a game, so I was a big, fat 0-fer on the night.
But that's fine, because my wife came home last night to inform me that she's getting together with a friend after work for this, that, and the other thing, and won't be home until about 9. That means about 4-5 hours of pokery goodness for this addict. My hope is to get home, win a $26 token, and play in some MTT with it whenever I can find one. Of course on the side I'll have SNGs or a .05/.10 game going and hopefully recover from the shot across the bow I received last night.
I was gonna play The Mookie for my first time ever, but I realized the damn thing doesn't start until 9 PM CST! The wife will be home around 9, so I'll have to quit at a reasonable time after that if I wanna have any shot at gettin'...well, anyway, I can't play The Mookie.
Check ya later.
My one major mistake was completely my fault, but it doesn't make me any less pissed off about the call my opponent made and got rewarded for. But the following disgusting beat was all at the hands of the poker gods.
This particular beat happened in one of the $8.80 satellites for a $26 token, where I am officially 2 for 2 on bubbling. Last night I actually built a stack to up over 2800 (which would've been more than sufficient to cash in my previous attempt), but when we got down to 7 and my stack was still around 2800, I was the shorty. After getting Q 10 about 42 times in 3 orbits, I ended up getting it all-in in the BB w/about 1900 with a pair of 10s, and got a caller w/AK. Good enough. Flop xxJ. So far, so good. Turn Q. NICE. Just 8 outs to dodge. And could the river really be a 10?? That'd be sick. Oh, hey, look at that. IT CAN BE. Ohhhhhh the poker gods had it out for me, boys and girls!
Hi. My name is Chad, and I am addicted to bubbling.
Hiiii, Chaaaad...
The first step is admitting you have a problem.
Moving on, my only other go at this beautiful game last night was a $5.50 SNG w/my buddy. Everything was moving along swimmingly with my >2k stack being good enough for bouncing between 2nd and 3rd with 5 left. In short, I'd have to *really* screw up to not cash. (That is what we call foreshadowing.) There was this jackass who happened to be on the button on my BB. He was running over the table hitting anything and everything, and waking up w/AK and an all-in raise and show at least once a rotation. He couldn't play worth a damn, but his "luckbox" switch was set to "On" for the span of this SNG. At one point I find AQo in my BB, and with the button and SB having limped, I pump it up to 6xBB. When the button called, I lost it. I just snapped. From here on out, all logical poker thought poured out of my brain and into a mushy substance on my shoulders. The flop came 987 rainbow. Absolutely positive I had the better hand preflop and eager to prove it, I pushed what I had left, which was more than the pot by a few hundred. I nailed my read of preflop strength, but his A9o had outflopped the shit out of my hand. I don't improve, I'm sent to the rail, and I proceed to talk shit in the chat box like a donkeyfish.
I broke all the rules starting with my overbet push on a coordinated flop that I couldn't have missed worse but gave a million hands a million outs, and ending with not only talking shit in the chat box, but sticking around to watch the remainder of the tournament, cheering for the remaining players to bust the villian in the chat box, and talking more shit when he went out 3rd. It was nothing short of pathetic, and I'm not proud. But hopefully its out of my system for another few months, right? Sometimes you just lose it.
My buddy ended up coming from 5th out of 5 to finish 2nd, so good for him.
Pokerly speaking, my postflop play was just as pathetic, if not moreso, than his 6xBB call w/A9o, but that call just still annoys the piss out of me.
Oh, also its worth mentioning that I lost a handfull of dollars pushing too hard w/2nd pair playing about an orbit of .05/.10 NL before my buddy got on looking for a game, so I was a big, fat 0-fer on the night.
But that's fine, because my wife came home last night to inform me that she's getting together with a friend after work for this, that, and the other thing, and won't be home until about 9. That means about 4-5 hours of pokery goodness for this addict. My hope is to get home, win a $26 token, and play in some MTT with it whenever I can find one. Of course on the side I'll have SNGs or a .05/.10 game going and hopefully recover from the shot across the bow I received last night.
I was gonna play The Mookie for my first time ever, but I realized the damn thing doesn't start until 9 PM CST! The wife will be home around 9, so I'll have to quit at a reasonable time after that if I wanna have any shot at gettin'...well, anyway, I can't play The Mookie.
Check ya later.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Non-Hammer Hammer Day?
So things continue to just go steadily well for me, which is honestly sorta weird. My poker equilibrium is much too balanced right now, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it. I'm getting sucked out on, but I'm sucking out. I'll bust early and not cash, but then I'll win. I'll lose a couple of tourney and SNG buy-ins, and make 'em back in .05/.10 NL.
Its just...freaky. And very very nice.
Not a whole lot of specifics to report, but I did make yet another deep non-cashing run in an MTT on Sunday. I played the same 7:00 $5.50 tourney and got 76th out of 403. I'm content with that for now. As is usually the case with such a finish, I was just a card or two away from making a serious run, and one of these times they're gonna fall my way. Until then I can be content with spending a majority of the tourney over the chip average and outlasting over 80% of the field with little to no effort. But my middle stages game definitely needs some work, so any general middle stages advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm able to mix it up and get chips early, but I have a tough time doing much more than maintaining while the big stacks are getting bigger and the small stacks are busting out. My over average stack all of the sudden turns into a below average stack, and just as quickly a all-in or fold stack, and I end up pushing some average ace into a bigger ace or a big pair and that's all she wrote. I feel like it really comes down to the cards (at least in the low levels), as about anything you limp with you have to be willing to call a push with in these middle stages because there's someone all-in almost every hand, but if there's something I'm missing, by all means let me know.
My hope for this weekend is to satellite into a $26 or possibly higher tourney. I know its still considered "low limit", but hopefully you can at least pull off a decent bluff here and there. You can't get anybody of of anything at $5 and $10.
After turning a small profit Sunday thanks to a super suckout w/KJ vs AA in a .05/.10 game and a couple of $2.25 SNG cashes, I decided I needed a little more of a fix and skipped my workout in favor of poker yesterday afternoon.
One thing I did was decided to see what all the hub-hub was about with the $8.80(?) 18 person token turbos. You people are right. These things are RIPE. With little to no effort I found myself at the final table in 6th with a stack of about $1875 having won one pot. Of course, a short time later I found myself on the bubble when my 44 didn't hold against AJ when I sat 7th out of 7. I dunno if its standard procedure, but we went from 18 down to 7 in just short of 30 mins. Then when I busted it was still probably just under 30 mins. That is an average of a player busting every 2 1/2 minutes! People were getting their chips in the middle with anything and everything, just to get them in. All you gotta do it pick an appropriate spot or two and you're cruising to the prize pool. I liked it a LOT, and will probably try at least one a day for the $26 token and a shot at a nice MTT instead of the $5 & $10s or, if I can snag more than one, the $26 token satellites of the same structure for a $75 token. GCox and everyone else aren't lying about getting a piece of these. There's really no reason not to!
In the interest of seeing if all turbos played like this, I entered a single table $6.60, which played a whole lot tighter and I think I went out like 6th. So I presume my token satellite was at least somewhat of an exception to the norm, but I'll stick in a turbo every now and then just to see if its something I feel like I can beat.
At this point, thanks to a couple of other $5.50 SNGs I played and didn't cash in, I was down a relatively ugly $30, and had one table remaining that I had started just after the $6.60 turbo to bail me out of being stuck. A $10 SNG. But it wasn't looking too promising either, as I was just hovering around my starting stack and 5th/6th place with 6-7 left. I managed to last to 5 players left, where I was a pretty significant dog, but I kept sticking in my chips and picking up blinds and before I knew it I was up in 3rd with 4 left, then when I took out 4th place I was 2nd with 3 left. Then when I took out 3rd place I was about dead even with my heads up opponenet. We stayed that way for quite a while passing blinds back and forth until I lost a few chips semi-bluffing/overbetting my 2nd pair. But a few blinds later we were back to even. This is when my big blind special 10 4 flopped two pair and filled up on the river. I feel like this is one of my most well played hands in a LONG time. I feel like I played it in such a way that he couldn't even put me on the 10, let alone the boat. I checked my 2 pair on the two-suited flop and called a 400 bet. The turn was an offsuit K, which I decided to bet to make it look like I had the K, in hopes that he had a better K. So I bet 400 here, and he called. So far, so good. The river was another 10, and I checked trying to look like I had a weak K and hoping like hell that he'd bet again. He fired out 400 again, and I raised him to 1200, giving him an attractive 4 to 1 price and he called. He says "I should have checked" and "I had a K" in the chat box. So now I have a chip advantage that gives me some comfort in getting a little aggressive. I haven't mastered the art of dropping the hammer as my blogger tourney experience is slim and none, but a short time later I had the blogosphere in mind when I called a min-raise in the BB w/72o. My dream flop of 877 fell, which I promptly checked, and he fired $400 at and I called. The turn was something like a Q. I checked again, he bet $400, and I raised to $1200 just to see where we were at. He called. The river was something like a 9, which filled up a straight possibility but I wasn't the least bit worried. I didn't wanna miss a bet here, so I went into the tank for a little bit to figure out how to get the best value. He had about 3k left, but I didn't know if he had a hand worthy of all of it. I knew he was at least good enough for $1200 on the turn, so I stayed with $1200 and he called. That was pretty much it as I called his push on the next hand w/something like J6o and 3 to 1, and sucked out on his QK to take it down.
This guy was no champion, but I was EXTREMELY proud of my heads up play, as with blinds starting at 150/300 and each of us w/6500ish stacks I was prepared to grind it out with this guy for as long as it took, and it turned out I made a couple hands and got damn good value out of them, so it didn't take a whole lot. I was also extremely proud of my play overall, as I came from about t850 w/5 players left to win the damn thing. I feel like my SNG bubble play has improved about 1000% in the past 3-6 months and that's *really* where the difference is in SNGs. Anybody can play *to* the bubble in a SNG. Hell, I lost a LOT of money in 2005 playing *to* the bubble. Bubbling is even named after me at our monthly game. Its working yourself from 4th or 5th to the money that I think makes a successful SNG player.
Anyway, just like that I went from $30 down to $15 up for the session, which really changes your outlook when you walk away.
In other news my brother-in-law has deposited his $25 FT gift certificate that we gave him for Christmas, and I've been playing some $2.25s with him and trying to help him fine tune his SNG game. Its strange how I see a lot of the same tendencies in him that lost me a lot of money pre-4/06. But hopefully I can break him of those habits and he can be profitable a little quicker than me. And in these UIGEA bankroll moving challenged days, I also transferred a buddy $11 on Friday for him to turn into a bankroll so we can play some together as well. He's already cranked it up over $50, so we're well on our way to $5.50 and beyond. No collusion, of course, but its fun to be at a table with someone you know.
So when I'm not playing $2.25s and $5.50s with them, I'm still plugging away at the $10s and .05/.10 NL tables and having pretty good success, and as I talked about before, taking shots w/the token races and an MTT or two a week. No more than 2 tables open at a time for now. Slow and steady is winning the race so far, and hopefully will produce big results before all is said and done.
That is all for now. Happy 2/20/07. The semi-sorta hammer day.
Its just...freaky. And very very nice.
Not a whole lot of specifics to report, but I did make yet another deep non-cashing run in an MTT on Sunday. I played the same 7:00 $5.50 tourney and got 76th out of 403. I'm content with that for now. As is usually the case with such a finish, I was just a card or two away from making a serious run, and one of these times they're gonna fall my way. Until then I can be content with spending a majority of the tourney over the chip average and outlasting over 80% of the field with little to no effort. But my middle stages game definitely needs some work, so any general middle stages advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm able to mix it up and get chips early, but I have a tough time doing much more than maintaining while the big stacks are getting bigger and the small stacks are busting out. My over average stack all of the sudden turns into a below average stack, and just as quickly a all-in or fold stack, and I end up pushing some average ace into a bigger ace or a big pair and that's all she wrote. I feel like it really comes down to the cards (at least in the low levels), as about anything you limp with you have to be willing to call a push with in these middle stages because there's someone all-in almost every hand, but if there's something I'm missing, by all means let me know.
My hope for this weekend is to satellite into a $26 or possibly higher tourney. I know its still considered "low limit", but hopefully you can at least pull off a decent bluff here and there. You can't get anybody of of anything at $5 and $10.
After turning a small profit Sunday thanks to a super suckout w/KJ vs AA in a .05/.10 game and a couple of $2.25 SNG cashes, I decided I needed a little more of a fix and skipped my workout in favor of poker yesterday afternoon.
One thing I did was decided to see what all the hub-hub was about with the $8.80(?) 18 person token turbos. You people are right. These things are RIPE. With little to no effort I found myself at the final table in 6th with a stack of about $1875 having won one pot. Of course, a short time later I found myself on the bubble when my 44 didn't hold against AJ when I sat 7th out of 7. I dunno if its standard procedure, but we went from 18 down to 7 in just short of 30 mins. Then when I busted it was still probably just under 30 mins. That is an average of a player busting every 2 1/2 minutes! People were getting their chips in the middle with anything and everything, just to get them in. All you gotta do it pick an appropriate spot or two and you're cruising to the prize pool. I liked it a LOT, and will probably try at least one a day for the $26 token and a shot at a nice MTT instead of the $5 & $10s or, if I can snag more than one, the $26 token satellites of the same structure for a $75 token. GCox and everyone else aren't lying about getting a piece of these. There's really no reason not to!
In the interest of seeing if all turbos played like this, I entered a single table $6.60, which played a whole lot tighter and I think I went out like 6th. So I presume my token satellite was at least somewhat of an exception to the norm, but I'll stick in a turbo every now and then just to see if its something I feel like I can beat.
At this point, thanks to a couple of other $5.50 SNGs I played and didn't cash in, I was down a relatively ugly $30, and had one table remaining that I had started just after the $6.60 turbo to bail me out of being stuck. A $10 SNG. But it wasn't looking too promising either, as I was just hovering around my starting stack and 5th/6th place with 6-7 left. I managed to last to 5 players left, where I was a pretty significant dog, but I kept sticking in my chips and picking up blinds and before I knew it I was up in 3rd with 4 left, then when I took out 4th place I was 2nd with 3 left. Then when I took out 3rd place I was about dead even with my heads up opponenet. We stayed that way for quite a while passing blinds back and forth until I lost a few chips semi-bluffing/overbetting my 2nd pair. But a few blinds later we were back to even. This is when my big blind special 10 4 flopped two pair and filled up on the river. I feel like this is one of my most well played hands in a LONG time. I feel like I played it in such a way that he couldn't even put me on the 10, let alone the boat. I checked my 2 pair on the two-suited flop and called a 400 bet. The turn was an offsuit K, which I decided to bet to make it look like I had the K, in hopes that he had a better K. So I bet 400 here, and he called. So far, so good. The river was another 10, and I checked trying to look like I had a weak K and hoping like hell that he'd bet again. He fired out 400 again, and I raised him to 1200, giving him an attractive 4 to 1 price and he called. He says "I should have checked" and "I had a K" in the chat box. So now I have a chip advantage that gives me some comfort in getting a little aggressive. I haven't mastered the art of dropping the hammer as my blogger tourney experience is slim and none, but a short time later I had the blogosphere in mind when I called a min-raise in the BB w/72o. My dream flop of 877 fell, which I promptly checked, and he fired $400 at and I called. The turn was something like a Q. I checked again, he bet $400, and I raised to $1200 just to see where we were at. He called. The river was something like a 9, which filled up a straight possibility but I wasn't the least bit worried. I didn't wanna miss a bet here, so I went into the tank for a little bit to figure out how to get the best value. He had about 3k left, but I didn't know if he had a hand worthy of all of it. I knew he was at least good enough for $1200 on the turn, so I stayed with $1200 and he called. That was pretty much it as I called his push on the next hand w/something like J6o and 3 to 1, and sucked out on his QK to take it down.
This guy was no champion, but I was EXTREMELY proud of my heads up play, as with blinds starting at 150/300 and each of us w/6500ish stacks I was prepared to grind it out with this guy for as long as it took, and it turned out I made a couple hands and got damn good value out of them, so it didn't take a whole lot. I was also extremely proud of my play overall, as I came from about t850 w/5 players left to win the damn thing. I feel like my SNG bubble play has improved about 1000% in the past 3-6 months and that's *really* where the difference is in SNGs. Anybody can play *to* the bubble in a SNG. Hell, I lost a LOT of money in 2005 playing *to* the bubble. Bubbling is even named after me at our monthly game. Its working yourself from 4th or 5th to the money that I think makes a successful SNG player.
Anyway, just like that I went from $30 down to $15 up for the session, which really changes your outlook when you walk away.
In other news my brother-in-law has deposited his $25 FT gift certificate that we gave him for Christmas, and I've been playing some $2.25s with him and trying to help him fine tune his SNG game. Its strange how I see a lot of the same tendencies in him that lost me a lot of money pre-4/06. But hopefully I can break him of those habits and he can be profitable a little quicker than me. And in these UIGEA bankroll moving challenged days, I also transferred a buddy $11 on Friday for him to turn into a bankroll so we can play some together as well. He's already cranked it up over $50, so we're well on our way to $5.50 and beyond. No collusion, of course, but its fun to be at a table with someone you know.
So when I'm not playing $2.25s and $5.50s with them, I'm still plugging away at the $10s and .05/.10 NL tables and having pretty good success, and as I talked about before, taking shots w/the token races and an MTT or two a week. No more than 2 tables open at a time for now. Slow and steady is winning the race so far, and hopefully will produce big results before all is said and done.
That is all for now. Happy 2/20/07. The semi-sorta hammer day.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Somewhere in Middle America
So I finally played a little Omaha last night. And by a little, I mean, seriously, like 10 minutes.
I was playing .05/.10 NL Omaha Hi/Lo at 2 tables. Since I had a very limited amount of time, I was seeing a lot of cards just to see if I could hit and see how it plays, etc. I lost like $2.50, which is quite the hemmhoraging for 10 minutes at that level, but I didn't much care.
I really really want to learn to play the Hi/Lo version because I love the idea of having to figure out what hands to play and how good you still are on every street while you're trying to make a high AND a low. I *love* the amount of thought it requires. But I must admit I was struggling, and was almost timed out several times trying to cover everything.
My question is, before I jump with two feet into Omaha Hi/Lo, should I get some experience in Omaha Hi and get a feel for that first, or should I just dig in and go for Hi/Lo? I could see advantages and disadvantages of both routes.
Anyway, I figured while I'm having so much fun with poker right now there's no better time to finally get into some Omaha like I've been wanting to for so long. However, I may have to have one Hold 'Em table open for every Omaha table I have open, because I think there may be some losing going on at least for a little bit while I am figuring out what starting hands I can play and how far to go with a hand until I know if its a winner or not.
Great game, though. I'd really love to become proficient in it. All in good time...
I was playing .05/.10 NL Omaha Hi/Lo at 2 tables. Since I had a very limited amount of time, I was seeing a lot of cards just to see if I could hit and see how it plays, etc. I lost like $2.50, which is quite the hemmhoraging for 10 minutes at that level, but I didn't much care.
I really really want to learn to play the Hi/Lo version because I love the idea of having to figure out what hands to play and how good you still are on every street while you're trying to make a high AND a low. I *love* the amount of thought it requires. But I must admit I was struggling, and was almost timed out several times trying to cover everything.
My question is, before I jump with two feet into Omaha Hi/Lo, should I get some experience in Omaha Hi and get a feel for that first, or should I just dig in and go for Hi/Lo? I could see advantages and disadvantages of both routes.
Anyway, I figured while I'm having so much fun with poker right now there's no better time to finally get into some Omaha like I've been wanting to for so long. However, I may have to have one Hold 'Em table open for every Omaha table I have open, because I think there may be some losing going on at least for a little bit while I am figuring out what starting hands I can play and how far to go with a hand until I know if its a winner or not.
Great game, though. I'd really love to become proficient in it. All in good time...
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BloggerPods Freeroll
I ran across this information at TripJax's blog and just had to throw my hat in the ring.
1. I love Apple
2. I love Poker
3. I love Freerolls for free iPods
I first heard about Poker on a Mac when I started blogging back in July or August or whatever it was. I loved the fact that there was someone fighting for the Macintosh cause out there, and I immediately linked the site on my blog.
I'm not sure when the first BloggerPods freeroll was, but all that matters now is that they're having another one coming up on March 4th. It seems all I needed to do to participate was sell out a little bit, so I was all for that. My wife blew my f'n mind and got me a video iPod for Christmas, and I told her one of my top poker playing goals for this year would be to reciprocate. Since I'll be retired by the time I earn 61k points at Full Tilt playing $10 SNGs, I figured I'd jump at the chance at this BloggerPods freeroll. Plus...hell...anything for Poker on a Mac.
See you all on March 4th!
1. I love Apple
2. I love Poker
3. I love Freerolls for free iPods
I first heard about Poker on a Mac when I started blogging back in July or August or whatever it was. I loved the fact that there was someone fighting for the Macintosh cause out there, and I immediately linked the site on my blog.
I'm not sure when the first BloggerPods freeroll was, but all that matters now is that they're having another one coming up on March 4th. It seems all I needed to do to participate was sell out a little bit, so I was all for that. My wife blew my f'n mind and got me a video iPod for Christmas, and I told her one of my top poker playing goals for this year would be to reciprocate. Since I'll be retired by the time I earn 61k points at Full Tilt playing $10 SNGs, I figured I'd jump at the chance at this BloggerPods freeroll. Plus...hell...anything for Poker on a Mac.
See you all on March 4th!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Weekend Review
I got quite a bit of poker in this weekend, and I'd like to talk a little bit about it.
Friday was our Monthly game, which I always look forward to, and was just coming off HUGE success from with my 2nd, 1st, 1st finishes last month. In the first tourney I was in trouble until my A4o sucked out on A10 with a river 4. The very next hand I took the rest of the same guy's chips when my A4o this time had his A2 dominated. That got me enough chips to last to the money, where I got my money back for 4th. In the 2nd tourney I made another FT appearance, only to get all-in w/an A vs. 99. The flop brought an Ace, but the turn was a disgusting 9 so no money for that go around. I then sat down at the cash game table where my luck remained pretty poor, but I managed to work my 80% decimated buy-in back to a buy-in and cashed out even. The third tourney was interesting as I didn't feel like a contender most of the way. I stayed about even, which, with blinds doubling every 15 mins, is NOT adequate. I managed to find myself in the last 8 again, where I found myself with odds to call a couple of baby all-ins with 82o and 74o, one which doubled me up and the other that I took someone out. All the sudden I was a contender, hit a rush of cards, and went into heads up with a huge advantage, taking about 5 hands to end it. Incidentally, it was the biggest prize pool of the night, as we allowed a rebuy period since we didn't expect to play again, so I took down a nice 8x buyin 1st prize. So I got a decent score to add to the cash bankroll, which is nice after what I did to it in Council Bluffs.
On Saturday I decided to play a little .05/.10 NL while my wife was getting ready and found that I really don't mind this game. Obviously I'm not gonna make money hand over fist, but in terms of buyins, I was up damn near a whole one in about 20 minutes. So I played more .05/.10 intermittently yesterday and actually never left a table down. If you're getting sucked out on by the crap people play its easy to hate the level, but if your hands are holding out its a nice way to make up buyins to tournaments, as I did yesterday.
Since my results had been encouraging lately in SNGs, live and online, I decided I needed to venture into the MTT arena again and see how those skills were stacking up with my SNG success. So I decided to run a couple of MTTs at Full Tilt yesterday evening. I first played a $10 tourney, where I won a little pot early, then was pretty much even about 45 mins into the tourney. At this point I pick up JJ in MP, limped with it behind another EP limper, and then we both called a raise from the button. The flop came something like 9JQ, 2 clubs, EP bet about 1/3 or 1/4 the pot, I pushed all-in with my set, and both players called. At this point I knew I wasn't winning the hand. EP had Q10c and was open-ended w/the flush draw. The button was on AQ and was drawing pretty slim. Right on time, a club on the turn sealed my fate. So that was a disappointing outing, but I feel like there's nothing more I could've done.
Since it wasn't even the end of the first hour, I looked for another MTT and found a $5 starting on the hour. This one went significantly better, as I doubled up within the first 5 hands w/QQ vs JJ. It was a tough call on a preflop all-in re-raise to my 4-5x raise, but it was so early I could be content either way, plus if the guy has AA or KK and makes that play, he's an idiot, so I was hoping for the AK or under pair, and he didn't disappoint. A ways down the road I pick up AA and make a standard 3x BB raise. I get one caller, who, on a previous hand had gotten it all-in on the turn with a gutshot and hit to even still BE in the tournament, so I was wary but not scared. The flop came KQ-high, 2 suited. I bet a little over 1/2 the pot and this guy calls again. The turn is a 10, and we check it down. I'm ready to let this guy hang himself or get away from my rockets. The river is possibly the single worst card in the deck. Its a K that pairs the high card on the board and fills the flush. I check, he bets about what I bet on the flop, and I muck. He claims he flopped 2 pair, so I'm pretty content with the fact that I lost about as little as possible. I ended up taking a nice pot from this guy later which made me feel better. Then a little bit further I take out another guy w/AA vs 88, and all of the sudden I've got about 2x average stack. I ride my big stack through bad cards until about 35 minutes after the break where its now just under an average stack and about 10xBB. I made a mistake and pushed my AJs into AQo and don't improve, but I've still got over 2500. The next hand or two I pick up 22 and push with it and hold against something like KQ to double up to over 5k. Then very few hands later I pick up 10 10, push with it and hold again against overs. Now I've got over 11k and am in 14th out of the remaining 67. I'm feeling GOOD now about making the final table. I didn't wanna micro cash this time. I want to WIN an MTT. So imagine the thrill I get when I find AA in MP. It folds around to me, and with blinds at 200/400/50, I make it 1500 to go. The big blind hesitates for a while and calls. The flop comes down Q-high, all clubs. I do not have a club. BB checks it to me, and I put the rest of it in, wanting to take this down now. Except he calls and shows K 10c, and I'm dead to runner-runner A if I'm not mistaken. That cripples me, and I eventually get it all-in in the BB w/5 10 vs AQ. 58th place out of 362. All-in-all I'm extremely happy with the result. I had a great first 45 minutes, taking advantage of my good hands and even laying down AA. Then I rode out the bad stretch, hit another run, and was ready to cruise to the FT, only to have my AA cracked for the 2nd time IN THE SAME TOURNAMENT. The worst part is that I think its my fault. With him being in the big blind, plus the antes, I gave him basically 2 to 1 (1100 to win 2500) to call, and from the big blind he can call there just to see if he picks up a 2nd nut flush draw. I probably would've made the same call for 1/10 of my stack. My raise was OK, but if I had it to do over again, I'd raise to 2k and just be happy with the blinds if that's what I got. No matter what, though, that's a sick, sick flop.
Anyway, in the midst of all that I was playing a couple of $2 SNGs and/or had a .05/.10 table open, and when all was said and done I made about $10 for the session, plus I was earning rakeback. So I'm more than happy about that.
Its really too bad that online poker is in the state it is right now, cuz I'm more comfortable with poker than I ever have been. I feel like I'm playing well, I'm falling into a rythm, and although it may not be fancy, its a winning rythm. If I can perfect a system of basic winning poker, then I can work on tweaking it to maximize wins and minimize losses. I'm playing for fun, at my pace, and with no pressure, and everything is coming together really well. But at the same time I am *completely* paranoid about the crack down on online gambling, and even though I am about as low a limit player as you can find, I'm afraid the feds are gonna come knocking any minute and destroy my nice little life I've carved out, or something with taxes will happen (I didn't report my 2k5 losses, but I will report my small 2k6 wins), I won't ever be able to get my money if I *do* manage to make some, or any other number of subjects of paranoia I can come up with. Sometimes its not great living in my head.
After a horrible year and a small winning year with some major milestones met, I feel like this is the "breakthrough year" where I can find some consistency and maybe even do a couple of extraordinary things. I have the time/opportunity, bankroll, and game selection fully adequate enough to do it online, but not so much live, so if I lose the opportunity online, things could grind to a complete halt. So who knows what will happen.
Anyway, for now I'll keep plugging away. But as soon as people actually start getting busted for playing poker online, and not just the sites themselves or the third party money sites or people affiliated with them, I'll pretty much be gone without any hesitation. I'm 26 with a beautiful wife, a great job making enough money to have a nice life and nice things, and I will not jeopardize any of that for $5.50 SNGs and "the dream".
You wonder just how many of the 15 million online poker players the feds can *really* come after, but if it gets to the point where that becomes a valid question, I'll be cutting bait and waiting for smoother waters.
Friday was our Monthly game, which I always look forward to, and was just coming off HUGE success from with my 2nd, 1st, 1st finishes last month. In the first tourney I was in trouble until my A4o sucked out on A10 with a river 4. The very next hand I took the rest of the same guy's chips when my A4o this time had his A2 dominated. That got me enough chips to last to the money, where I got my money back for 4th. In the 2nd tourney I made another FT appearance, only to get all-in w/an A vs. 99. The flop brought an Ace, but the turn was a disgusting 9 so no money for that go around. I then sat down at the cash game table where my luck remained pretty poor, but I managed to work my 80% decimated buy-in back to a buy-in and cashed out even. The third tourney was interesting as I didn't feel like a contender most of the way. I stayed about even, which, with blinds doubling every 15 mins, is NOT adequate. I managed to find myself in the last 8 again, where I found myself with odds to call a couple of baby all-ins with 82o and 74o, one which doubled me up and the other that I took someone out. All the sudden I was a contender, hit a rush of cards, and went into heads up with a huge advantage, taking about 5 hands to end it. Incidentally, it was the biggest prize pool of the night, as we allowed a rebuy period since we didn't expect to play again, so I took down a nice 8x buyin 1st prize. So I got a decent score to add to the cash bankroll, which is nice after what I did to it in Council Bluffs.
On Saturday I decided to play a little .05/.10 NL while my wife was getting ready and found that I really don't mind this game. Obviously I'm not gonna make money hand over fist, but in terms of buyins, I was up damn near a whole one in about 20 minutes. So I played more .05/.10 intermittently yesterday and actually never left a table down. If you're getting sucked out on by the crap people play its easy to hate the level, but if your hands are holding out its a nice way to make up buyins to tournaments, as I did yesterday.
Since my results had been encouraging lately in SNGs, live and online, I decided I needed to venture into the MTT arena again and see how those skills were stacking up with my SNG success. So I decided to run a couple of MTTs at Full Tilt yesterday evening. I first played a $10 tourney, where I won a little pot early, then was pretty much even about 45 mins into the tourney. At this point I pick up JJ in MP, limped with it behind another EP limper, and then we both called a raise from the button. The flop came something like 9JQ, 2 clubs, EP bet about 1/3 or 1/4 the pot, I pushed all-in with my set, and both players called. At this point I knew I wasn't winning the hand. EP had Q10c and was open-ended w/the flush draw. The button was on AQ and was drawing pretty slim. Right on time, a club on the turn sealed my fate. So that was a disappointing outing, but I feel like there's nothing more I could've done.
Since it wasn't even the end of the first hour, I looked for another MTT and found a $5 starting on the hour. This one went significantly better, as I doubled up within the first 5 hands w/QQ vs JJ. It was a tough call on a preflop all-in re-raise to my 4-5x raise, but it was so early I could be content either way, plus if the guy has AA or KK and makes that play, he's an idiot, so I was hoping for the AK or under pair, and he didn't disappoint. A ways down the road I pick up AA and make a standard 3x BB raise. I get one caller, who, on a previous hand had gotten it all-in on the turn with a gutshot and hit to even still BE in the tournament, so I was wary but not scared. The flop came KQ-high, 2 suited. I bet a little over 1/2 the pot and this guy calls again. The turn is a 10, and we check it down. I'm ready to let this guy hang himself or get away from my rockets. The river is possibly the single worst card in the deck. Its a K that pairs the high card on the board and fills the flush. I check, he bets about what I bet on the flop, and I muck. He claims he flopped 2 pair, so I'm pretty content with the fact that I lost about as little as possible. I ended up taking a nice pot from this guy later which made me feel better. Then a little bit further I take out another guy w/AA vs 88, and all of the sudden I've got about 2x average stack. I ride my big stack through bad cards until about 35 minutes after the break where its now just under an average stack and about 10xBB. I made a mistake and pushed my AJs into AQo and don't improve, but I've still got over 2500. The next hand or two I pick up 22 and push with it and hold against something like KQ to double up to over 5k. Then very few hands later I pick up 10 10, push with it and hold again against overs. Now I've got over 11k and am in 14th out of the remaining 67. I'm feeling GOOD now about making the final table. I didn't wanna micro cash this time. I want to WIN an MTT. So imagine the thrill I get when I find AA in MP. It folds around to me, and with blinds at 200/400/50, I make it 1500 to go. The big blind hesitates for a while and calls. The flop comes down Q-high, all clubs. I do not have a club. BB checks it to me, and I put the rest of it in, wanting to take this down now. Except he calls and shows K 10c, and I'm dead to runner-runner A if I'm not mistaken. That cripples me, and I eventually get it all-in in the BB w/5 10 vs AQ. 58th place out of 362. All-in-all I'm extremely happy with the result. I had a great first 45 minutes, taking advantage of my good hands and even laying down AA. Then I rode out the bad stretch, hit another run, and was ready to cruise to the FT, only to have my AA cracked for the 2nd time IN THE SAME TOURNAMENT. The worst part is that I think its my fault. With him being in the big blind, plus the antes, I gave him basically 2 to 1 (1100 to win 2500) to call, and from the big blind he can call there just to see if he picks up a 2nd nut flush draw. I probably would've made the same call for 1/10 of my stack. My raise was OK, but if I had it to do over again, I'd raise to 2k and just be happy with the blinds if that's what I got. No matter what, though, that's a sick, sick flop.
Anyway, in the midst of all that I was playing a couple of $2 SNGs and/or had a .05/.10 table open, and when all was said and done I made about $10 for the session, plus I was earning rakeback. So I'm more than happy about that.
Its really too bad that online poker is in the state it is right now, cuz I'm more comfortable with poker than I ever have been. I feel like I'm playing well, I'm falling into a rythm, and although it may not be fancy, its a winning rythm. If I can perfect a system of basic winning poker, then I can work on tweaking it to maximize wins and minimize losses. I'm playing for fun, at my pace, and with no pressure, and everything is coming together really well. But at the same time I am *completely* paranoid about the crack down on online gambling, and even though I am about as low a limit player as you can find, I'm afraid the feds are gonna come knocking any minute and destroy my nice little life I've carved out, or something with taxes will happen (I didn't report my 2k5 losses, but I will report my small 2k6 wins), I won't ever be able to get my money if I *do* manage to make some, or any other number of subjects of paranoia I can come up with. Sometimes its not great living in my head.
After a horrible year and a small winning year with some major milestones met, I feel like this is the "breakthrough year" where I can find some consistency and maybe even do a couple of extraordinary things. I have the time/opportunity, bankroll, and game selection fully adequate enough to do it online, but not so much live, so if I lose the opportunity online, things could grind to a complete halt. So who knows what will happen.
Anyway, for now I'll keep plugging away. But as soon as people actually start getting busted for playing poker online, and not just the sites themselves or the third party money sites or people affiliated with them, I'll pretty much be gone without any hesitation. I'm 26 with a beautiful wife, a great job making enough money to have a nice life and nice things, and I will not jeopardize any of that for $5.50 SNGs and "the dream".
You wonder just how many of the 15 million online poker players the feds can *really* come after, but if it gets to the point where that becomes a valid question, I'll be cutting bait and waiting for smoother waters.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
I told you...
So after I posted about my recent encouraging results and how I hate to post about them because I always take a turn for the worst immediately after, I went home last night, played a SNG, and finished 6th.
I don't necessarily hate the way I played it. I just got more money invested in draws than I usually like. And then I found myself in EP w/8xBB and pocket 9s, moved in, got two callers, had the board come AJ high, only to lose to pocket 10s one seat to my left.
F this blog, and F reporting on good results.
I don't necessarily hate the way I played it. I just got more money invested in draws than I usually like. And then I found myself in EP w/8xBB and pocket 9s, moved in, got two callers, had the board come AJ high, only to lose to pocket 10s one seat to my left.
F this blog, and F reporting on good results.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The WSOP Experience: Chapter 1
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...
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...
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.
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