Well here we are again and I've gone over a month...almost two...without a post. I've had quite a bit of playing, a lot of working of course, a vacation to Dominican Republic, but mostly a lot of reading up on the WSOP that I've been doing. Its been fascinating reading the really compelling 2008 WSOP stories from Pauly, Pokerati, WCP, and all the other numerous blogs and outlets who, as usual, have done an outstanding job covering the WSOP and all that goes along with it. Sadly, I predicted last year to be the year the pros took back the WSOP to any friends that would listen, but turns out I was a year premature on that prediction.
Anyway, personally speaking, things are about the same as usual. Break even at best. I finally received another bonus offer from Full Tilt, so I put $60 in there, and after working off like $27 of my $30 bonus (which is a pretty big accomplishment for me), in addition to some rakeback, I'm sitting at something like $43-45. In 3 significant sessions I ran pretty decent in the first and ran it up a little over $90, but then played tiltier than I'd have liked and couldn't buy cards in the 2nd two sessions and subtracting bonuses and rakeback, ended up down a good $50 overall at the .05/.10 NL tables. I also worked in one brief session of .25/.50 Limit that was basically break even. Anyway, thank goodness for the bonus and rakeback or I would've damn near gone broke. I ran pretty bad in those last couple of sessions, but I also played equally as badly, so I'm not gonna whine about my results. Looking back, I was more focused on clearing the bonus than I was actually making money playing poker, which is pretty f'n sick, but I'll live to see another day. It would've been nice to show some winnings in addition to the free money, but if I had to use the free money to not go broke, so be it. In the end, I end up with a fair amount of money on Tilt to play with, and with my rakeback there and their Happy Hour promotion, I think I'm gonna focus on it as my cash game site to try and not only try to play more cash games, but get optimum value for my play.
That said, I kind of burned myself out on cash games working to clear that bonus, so for the time being I've gone back to PokerStars and the SNGs I know and love. I'm not comfortable with what had happened to my bankroll on that site, and I'm determined to build a respectable bankroll, and I think I want it to be at Stars. It also doesn't hurt that they're running this 2x promotion during the month of July, and even though my FPP "bankroll" is piss poor at the moment, I would someday like to move up in their VIP program and have some FPPs to mess around with for satellites and whatnot. Also, given that I am a self-proclaimed "SNG Specialist", I would like to at some point get some sort of value out of their Battle of the Planets promo. This may be the week as I have currently gone 3, 1, 7, 2, 1, 2, 7 in my 7 SNGs. Its hard enough for me to play 20 SNGs in a week (I've yet to ever even do it), so I have to focus and make sure my first 20 SNGs are my best 20. So for now, I'm content at the 1.20s and trying to get ITM, but more preferrably 1st and 2nd place finishes for the Battle of the Planets points. With any luck, everything will unfold naturally and maybe next week I can move back to the 5.50s and try the same thing.
I also broke a disgusting run of non-cashes in MTTs on Sunday. As of that point it had been almost 4 months and 18 MTTs (7 of which were the WSOP turbo freerolls which only sorta count) since my last cash. I had forgotten what its like to get past the first 90 mins of a tourney. In the end it was a microcash where I basically doubled my $5.50 buyin, but for me its always more of a pride thing and I feel like I made a good run. Recently, MTTs have been too big of a hit to the bankroll to play too many, so again, I'm hoping to get back to the point where I can play more MTTs, specifically the $20k Guarantee a couple of nights a week, and maybe finally make a real run at some money after playing this game for 4 years. But for now, I'm pretty damn thrilled to cash after 4 months and 11 MTTs.
Incidentally, I did manage to work in a 1/2 NL live session back at the end of May, but there really isn't much to say about it. I posted a $5 loss that felt like a $195 win, considering there was a point where I was $200 deep and had the last of it in the middle. I then made a steady run to recover and walked out of there with what I came in with minus $5 and experience.
I also need to plan in a couple more 1/2 NL sessions between now and August 21st, because we have booked our annual patronage to Vegas, and it is 8/21-8/25. While my good buddy who lives out there unfortunately will be gone for most of it, we are going w/my bro-in-law, so he and I plan on working in plenty of poker, and then it sounds like Jorgen will be back in town on the 24th for one good session before we leave bright and early Monday. So once again I'll be doing my best to work to put together a bankroll and counting down the days to that nice little midday flight out of Des Moines and 4 nights in my favorite place on the planet.
So I guess I am capable of blogging in a positive, or at least even keel manner. Right now, things are looking up. Of course with me, that could all change tonight. But I'm trying to just persevere, focus, and take it one hand at a time. If I could run decent between now and the end of August, I'd be the happiest poker player on the planet. But I'm not gonna get greedy, and I'm not gonna count my chickens before they're hatched. I'm just gonna play 4-5 more SNGs tonight and hope for the best each time the cards are dealt, then do the same thing tomorrow.
Thanks for tuning in, and I'll do my best to keep you posted.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Quickie Update
Hey. Just wanted to check in to keep up to date on how things have been going.
After my epic rant, I played 5 SNGs on Friday and it was the same ol' story. Here's my notes from my SNG spreadsheet (today's comments in italic)...
6th out of 9 after 26 hands - Raised on the button like 4 times in a row then finally pick up AQ and raise again. BB re-raise, I jam, he calls w/KK.
Uncharacteristic play for me, but I felt like I set the BB (who was the big stack) up to make a play at me. If I took my own advice from the previous post, I would know that a PF re-raise in a $5 SNG indicates a monster. Any insight on this one? Good TAG play or donkariffic?
6th out of 9 after 57 hands - Flopped top 2 on 10 4 Q board vs. unraised KK, got it in ready to punish, turn 6, river 4, and the 8-outer gets there
This is just the same ol' ish. Dude should be punished for limping w/KK and instead sucks out w/the money in the middle.
7th out of 9 after 31 hands - I manage to make top pair w/A7 on turn and check it then dude rivers broadway gutshot. I run so good.
I played this whole SNG terribly to even be all-in w/top pair w/7 left. Then to just rub it in I try and get tricky and check the turn and he rivers his gutshot. My own fault. I prolly win the hand and live to see another day if I jam on the turn.
5th out of 9 after 88 hands - Had huge lead w/6 left, then lost w/AJ vs KQ, then call a button jam w/10s in the BB & he had JJ, then couldn't outrun AQ w/JK
This was irritating as shit because the dude who should've gone broke w/KQ vs. my AJ started giving me shit for making "loose calls" w/10s vs JJ in a button short stack vs. BB confrontation and another shorty all-in call I made w/44 vs. 77. Then of course he's the one to bust me.
8th out of 9 after 17 hands - I limp w/AA UTG to C-R after like 5 raised pots in a row, BB checks and flops 2 pair w/49o
4-5 raised pots in a row and I find AA UTG, poised to limp, re-raise, and of course there's no raise, and even more obviously the BB flops 2 pair w/49o. I put him on A9/K9, but I'm not that lucky
So, forced to drop a level I end up playing one more and naturally I pretty much dominate it with the deck hitting me upside the head.
Friday night was our monthly poker game, and I cleaned up there, too...in poker, as well as in the bottle of gin I brought. Incidentally, Friday night I was catching cards, too. Forced to get my money in bad in several spots and hitting miracles. I remember at least two 70/30s all-in preflop, as well as a runner-runner flush to my 5 in my eventual win in our final tourney/rebuy. I ended up making $35 on the night in 2 out of 3 tourney cashes, which is a nice haul and nice boost to the cash roll. The bottle of gin was dead broke by the time I was done with it.
Played a couple of chicken scratch SNGs on Sunday night where I made bottom money in both. Got 3rd out of 9 in one, then did a pretty good job coming from 12th out of 12 to get 4th in a 2 table SNG. For the record, I got it in as a 70% fav to go broke. ;-)
Tonight I touched base w/my brother-in-law and we played one of the turbo freerolls on Stars toward the Main Event. Only noteable hands there were my K10 hitting a straight against AK, only to turn around and get it all-in in the end w/A3 vs. 77 vs. KJ. Board came 10 A 8 and I'm set to triple up, turn 7 and I'm still making money off the big stack, river Q and I'm out. Is anyone surprised??
Ok, well I think that's good for now. Hopefully its not too boring. I'm trying to grab hold of the wheel and set this ship back on course, but the seas are rough and the icebergs are plentiful. Hope everything is going well for everyone else!
After my epic rant, I played 5 SNGs on Friday and it was the same ol' story. Here's my notes from my SNG spreadsheet (today's comments in italic)...
6th out of 9 after 26 hands - Raised on the button like 4 times in a row then finally pick up AQ and raise again. BB re-raise, I jam, he calls w/KK.
Uncharacteristic play for me, but I felt like I set the BB (who was the big stack) up to make a play at me. If I took my own advice from the previous post, I would know that a PF re-raise in a $5 SNG indicates a monster. Any insight on this one? Good TAG play or donkariffic?
6th out of 9 after 57 hands - Flopped top 2 on 10 4 Q board vs. unraised KK, got it in ready to punish, turn 6, river 4, and the 8-outer gets there
This is just the same ol' ish. Dude should be punished for limping w/KK and instead sucks out w/the money in the middle.
7th out of 9 after 31 hands - I manage to make top pair w/A7 on turn and check it then dude rivers broadway gutshot. I run so good.
I played this whole SNG terribly to even be all-in w/top pair w/7 left. Then to just rub it in I try and get tricky and check the turn and he rivers his gutshot. My own fault. I prolly win the hand and live to see another day if I jam on the turn.
5th out of 9 after 88 hands - Had huge lead w/6 left, then lost w/AJ vs KQ, then call a button jam w/10s in the BB & he had JJ, then couldn't outrun AQ w/JK
This was irritating as shit because the dude who should've gone broke w/KQ vs. my AJ started giving me shit for making "loose calls" w/10s vs JJ in a button short stack vs. BB confrontation and another shorty all-in call I made w/44 vs. 77. Then of course he's the one to bust me.
8th out of 9 after 17 hands - I limp w/AA UTG to C-R after like 5 raised pots in a row, BB checks and flops 2 pair w/49o
4-5 raised pots in a row and I find AA UTG, poised to limp, re-raise, and of course there's no raise, and even more obviously the BB flops 2 pair w/49o. I put him on A9/K9, but I'm not that lucky
So, forced to drop a level I end up playing one more and naturally I pretty much dominate it with the deck hitting me upside the head.
Friday night was our monthly poker game, and I cleaned up there, too...in poker, as well as in the bottle of gin I brought. Incidentally, Friday night I was catching cards, too. Forced to get my money in bad in several spots and hitting miracles. I remember at least two 70/30s all-in preflop, as well as a runner-runner flush to my 5 in my eventual win in our final tourney/rebuy. I ended up making $35 on the night in 2 out of 3 tourney cashes, which is a nice haul and nice boost to the cash roll. The bottle of gin was dead broke by the time I was done with it.
Played a couple of chicken scratch SNGs on Sunday night where I made bottom money in both. Got 3rd out of 9 in one, then did a pretty good job coming from 12th out of 12 to get 4th in a 2 table SNG. For the record, I got it in as a 70% fav to go broke. ;-)
Tonight I touched base w/my brother-in-law and we played one of the turbo freerolls on Stars toward the Main Event. Only noteable hands there were my K10 hitting a straight against AK, only to turn around and get it all-in in the end w/A3 vs. 77 vs. KJ. Board came 10 A 8 and I'm set to triple up, turn 7 and I'm still making money off the big stack, river Q and I'm out. Is anyone surprised??
Ok, well I think that's good for now. Hopefully its not too boring. I'm trying to grab hold of the wheel and set this ship back on course, but the seas are rough and the icebergs are plentiful. Hope everything is going well for everyone else!
Thursday, May 08, 2008
This Post Brought to you by Sofa King
I am Sofa King tired of losing and running bad. As of about today (it was exactly a year ago I got my Macbook Pro, and ever since my portable poker playing has experienced rare moments of joy), its been A YEAR of running Sofa King terrible, save for 3-4 strings of 3-4 days where I'd run "normal", and then I think there was one string of 3-4 days a couple months back where I actually ran "good" and ran my online bankroll up over $250, only to find my way back to the basement the next day.
After not having played since before I left for San Antonio on 4/27, I was Sofa King refreshed, rejuvinated, and ready to hit the felt and play well. I'd been reading a decent little pre-release book that someone asked me to take a look at, I'd been reading blogs and picking up on strategy and reading about other people's good fortune, and my love of the game was rejuvinated. I was aware of mistakes I'd been making while trying to experiment with more LAG play, and wanted to get back to basics and play the way I've been successful in the past, and hone in a strong TAG game. Make good decisions, make good plays, and just let it all flow nice and naturally. I played a SNG on Tuesday and after struggling early, played really well to end up taking it down. So far, so good.
Then last night I had plans to get in and go deep in the $20k Guarantee at 6 Central on Stars. Before I know it I'm deep...into my stack...w/AK where the board comes QQKxA, on a 3-flush board. After raising preflop and betting every street and getting called to the tune of about 1/3 of my stack, I get jammed on on the river and see no way around folding. He either has the Q or made the flush on the river. Here we go again. I eventually double back above the starting stack, only to move tables and find AK again. I raise preflop and get a caller in the BB. Flop comes QQx. I c-bet, thinking I'm probably in pretty good shape still, and get slow called. I hesitantly bet bigger on the 10 turn, thinking I can get a fishing mid-PP to fold, and get called even slower. The river comes, and I quickly make the same bet as the turn making it look like I don't want to lose him, and I'm quickly called again. BB shows down AQ. Nice play, me. It doesn't matter what my bets make me look like...there was no way I was getting this guy to fold. But seriously, how unlucky is that?! Sofa King unlucky. So I've got this guy dominated PF, he calls my raise for a discount in the BB, then flops trips. He could have SOFA KING MANY hands that don't have a Q in them that would make him call my Flop and Turn bets, but no...he's got one of the other two Qs. From this point, I actually did chip up to an almost average stack by my AK actually holding up against 67o, and then my 88 holding up against 77h on a 5h6h2h board, but found myself back in the basement releatively quickly when I made a couple of pretty damn decent hands, bet them, and got raised or showed down losers. Of course a pretty damn decent hand for me doesn't stand a chance against 8 other hands at a poker table. I really should fold with anything less than a set. I eventually go broke when I've got K7o in the SB and its folded to me, I open jam 7 big blinds, and get called in the BB w/K10s. Lemme spell this out for you. I've got K-high and one hand to beat, and not only can I *not* beat it, but I'm dominated, *and* I find a guy who's willing to call off 7 big blinds and more than half his stack w/K10s. I don't know if that's an excellent call or a terrible call, but one thing's for certain, its an enfuriating call. GG me. Sofa King screwed. Oh, and BTW, its my 10th straight MTT non-cash.
I went on to play 4 SNGs, and the beating continued. Tons of pocket pairs but not one set. If I have KQ, an Ace flops, if I have AK, a Q flops, if I have AQ, a K flops, if I have 10s or Js overs flop, or better yet someone has QQ, and my suited connectors whiffed or flopped monster draws that never got home. Almost without fail. Every time I *did* make some semblance of a hand, I'd bet 2/3 of the pot and get raised. And when you bet 2/3 of the pot in a 5.50 SNG and get raised...you're beat. Every time I gave someone 2:1 on the turn with their flush draw instead of the 4:1 they needed and they called, the flush came on the river. And naturally, every time I managed to make a monster, everyone folded. I ended up with my money in the middle once w/top pair vs. middle pair, and obviously his trips came on the turn. In another, with A9s vs. KJ by the turn I had the lead, plus a flush draw and gutshot, but obviously his 4-6 outer came. In another, I raise from M/LP w/9c9, get three callers, flop comes J-high all clubs. I move in for size of the pot, button rejams, and shows QcJ, for top pair and the blocker club. I admittedly got my money in bad...but come on! Does it have to be *that bad* 6-handed?! And in another, 4-handed, the shortstack calls on the button w/97o and I end up doubling him w/95 on a 794-8 rainbow board. Probably a tilty call of his all-in raise by me, but after getting raised w/decent hands all night, I struggled to see how I was beat 4-handed in this spot and was Sofa King tired of getting pushed around. I then open jammed my 4xBB stack w/76o from the SB, and duh...the BB has A6o. See above.
I left in shambles no less than three goals I had set for myself when I started. Namely, don't run plays/spew chips when I'm beat (see: AK vs. AQ on QQx board hand), don't get sucked into other players' traps (see: AK vs. XX on QQKxA 3-flush board), and don't, under any circumstances, make that "gutsy" or "heroic" call when my gut is telling me I'm beat (see: 59 vs 79 hand). And while, yes, I broke these rules on my own, its simply because I never get the chance to run that good bluff, when I make big hands I'm beat, and when I should be safe I never am. Honorable mention for broken rules were don't get run over/be the aggressor, always play your position, and quit limping so much. I thought I made some pretty good preflop decisions in spots where I'd normally be spewy, and I thought I made some pretty good plays that I just ended up unlucky in. But, see, that's the key. I'm Sofa King unlucky!
I'm also tired of the level I'm playing at. I feel like a lot of the time I'm setting up the right table image and making the right plays, and have a very systematic approach to the whole thing, and then some idiot who either isn't paying attention or is doing a bad impersonation of a LAG throws all that out the window and pops up and screws me. Like when I open jammed K7 in the SB into K10s in the BB. After showing down nothing but winners and folding all the live long day, I jammed 7 BBs and over half of the BBs stack, and this guy is willing to call w/K10. Where is he when I have a *real* hand?! Of course then when I open jam something like A9 in the cutoff or button, looking to actually double, the SB wakes up with AJ. Sofa King sick. I can't remember, but I think I blogged about recently when I open jammed on the button or SB w/AK and the BB wakes up w/AA. Anyway, I just feel like at my level there are some players who don't know jack and/or don't care and are doing horrible impersonations of a LAG player, and some, like myself, who are really trying to better themselves and that make really strong TAG plays. And then somewhere in between, there is actually the LAG who is making a strong go of it. The problem is, no matter who they are, I'm the guinea pig. I'm the guy w/AA that the LAG flops the nuts against after I raise and he calls me w/56o after I've seen his incapability to keep his hands out of the cookie jar, and I'm also the guy who open raises/jams in position/resteals against the strong TAG who is capable of folding, only this time he's actually got a monster.
Yes, it happens to all of us. But I guaran-damn-tee you it doesn't happen to you as much as it happens to me. I generally try and take the high road and keep the bitching to a minimum (no, seriously...I do), but now I'm officially whining. I'm Sofa King tired of it. I'm the Mike Matusow of bloggers. There...I said it.
Now I know some of you are reading this and seeing leaks galore and percieving this as me thinking my game has no room for improvement and that my big hands will never be beat. But that's not the case at all. I've got a long ways to go, and I know that. I even am fully aware of several of the mistakes in hands I pointed out above, and several of my "conceptual" mistakes such as needing to make plays WITHOUT actual hands and it doesn't matter how many people are left, anything short of the nuts can still be beat. Problem is, I'm so busy fighting tangible uphill battles, I never have a comfortable enough stack/bankroll to even get to a conceptual level. I'm perpetually recovering from the last bad beat and don't get to put it on cruise control to work on sniffing out bluffs, running plays, accumulating chips. I'm always in disaster recovery mode. I'm just so sick of it. I study and I practice and I study and I practice, and I get my money in good, and I make my opponents make mistakes, but my poker life is a perpetual bout with negative variance. Its almost as if instead of there being variance from hand to hand in the cards that are dealt, there's variance from player to player in ones ability to run normally, and I'm the 30% and under. The sick part is that I know there's just as much mathematical backbone to that theory as there is to card variance. Maybe for me it doesn't "always even out", and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's a guy that sucks out equally as disproportionate as I am able to hold up with the best hand. I just don't want to come to terms with that...I love the game too much.
So now, as you may be able to tell, I'm Sofa King pissed off and depressed and down on the game again. My 9 days off and good attitude about finally making a go of this hobby was completely ruined over the course of 4 hours, 1 MTT, and 4 SNGs. So now, with my sub-$50 bankroll AGAIN...I'll have to pick myself up by the bootstraps and give it another go...AGAIN.
Sorry for the vent. A guy can only take so much.
Thnanks to Sofa King for their sponsorship of this post. I'm out.
After not having played since before I left for San Antonio on 4/27, I was Sofa King refreshed, rejuvinated, and ready to hit the felt and play well. I'd been reading a decent little pre-release book that someone asked me to take a look at, I'd been reading blogs and picking up on strategy and reading about other people's good fortune, and my love of the game was rejuvinated. I was aware of mistakes I'd been making while trying to experiment with more LAG play, and wanted to get back to basics and play the way I've been successful in the past, and hone in a strong TAG game. Make good decisions, make good plays, and just let it all flow nice and naturally. I played a SNG on Tuesday and after struggling early, played really well to end up taking it down. So far, so good.
Then last night I had plans to get in and go deep in the $20k Guarantee at 6 Central on Stars. Before I know it I'm deep...into my stack...w/AK where the board comes QQKxA, on a 3-flush board. After raising preflop and betting every street and getting called to the tune of about 1/3 of my stack, I get jammed on on the river and see no way around folding. He either has the Q or made the flush on the river. Here we go again. I eventually double back above the starting stack, only to move tables and find AK again. I raise preflop and get a caller in the BB. Flop comes QQx. I c-bet, thinking I'm probably in pretty good shape still, and get slow called. I hesitantly bet bigger on the 10 turn, thinking I can get a fishing mid-PP to fold, and get called even slower. The river comes, and I quickly make the same bet as the turn making it look like I don't want to lose him, and I'm quickly called again. BB shows down AQ. Nice play, me. It doesn't matter what my bets make me look like...there was no way I was getting this guy to fold. But seriously, how unlucky is that?! Sofa King unlucky. So I've got this guy dominated PF, he calls my raise for a discount in the BB, then flops trips. He could have SOFA KING MANY hands that don't have a Q in them that would make him call my Flop and Turn bets, but no...he's got one of the other two Qs. From this point, I actually did chip up to an almost average stack by my AK actually holding up against 67o, and then my 88 holding up against 77h on a 5h6h2h board, but found myself back in the basement releatively quickly when I made a couple of pretty damn decent hands, bet them, and got raised or showed down losers. Of course a pretty damn decent hand for me doesn't stand a chance against 8 other hands at a poker table. I really should fold with anything less than a set. I eventually go broke when I've got K7o in the SB and its folded to me, I open jam 7 big blinds, and get called in the BB w/K10s. Lemme spell this out for you. I've got K-high and one hand to beat, and not only can I *not* beat it, but I'm dominated, *and* I find a guy who's willing to call off 7 big blinds and more than half his stack w/K10s. I don't know if that's an excellent call or a terrible call, but one thing's for certain, its an enfuriating call. GG me. Sofa King screwed. Oh, and BTW, its my 10th straight MTT non-cash.
I went on to play 4 SNGs, and the beating continued. Tons of pocket pairs but not one set. If I have KQ, an Ace flops, if I have AK, a Q flops, if I have AQ, a K flops, if I have 10s or Js overs flop, or better yet someone has QQ, and my suited connectors whiffed or flopped monster draws that never got home. Almost without fail. Every time I *did* make some semblance of a hand, I'd bet 2/3 of the pot and get raised. And when you bet 2/3 of the pot in a 5.50 SNG and get raised...you're beat. Every time I gave someone 2:1 on the turn with their flush draw instead of the 4:1 they needed and they called, the flush came on the river. And naturally, every time I managed to make a monster, everyone folded. I ended up with my money in the middle once w/top pair vs. middle pair, and obviously his trips came on the turn. In another, with A9s vs. KJ by the turn I had the lead, plus a flush draw and gutshot, but obviously his 4-6 outer came. In another, I raise from M/LP w/9c9, get three callers, flop comes J-high all clubs. I move in for size of the pot, button rejams, and shows QcJ, for top pair and the blocker club. I admittedly got my money in bad...but come on! Does it have to be *that bad* 6-handed?! And in another, 4-handed, the shortstack calls on the button w/97o and I end up doubling him w/95 on a 794-8 rainbow board. Probably a tilty call of his all-in raise by me, but after getting raised w/decent hands all night, I struggled to see how I was beat 4-handed in this spot and was Sofa King tired of getting pushed around. I then open jammed my 4xBB stack w/76o from the SB, and duh...the BB has A6o. See above.
I left in shambles no less than three goals I had set for myself when I started. Namely, don't run plays/spew chips when I'm beat (see: AK vs. AQ on QQx board hand), don't get sucked into other players' traps (see: AK vs. XX on QQKxA 3-flush board), and don't, under any circumstances, make that "gutsy" or "heroic" call when my gut is telling me I'm beat (see: 59 vs 79 hand). And while, yes, I broke these rules on my own, its simply because I never get the chance to run that good bluff, when I make big hands I'm beat, and when I should be safe I never am. Honorable mention for broken rules were don't get run over/be the aggressor, always play your position, and quit limping so much. I thought I made some pretty good preflop decisions in spots where I'd normally be spewy, and I thought I made some pretty good plays that I just ended up unlucky in. But, see, that's the key. I'm Sofa King unlucky!
I'm also tired of the level I'm playing at. I feel like a lot of the time I'm setting up the right table image and making the right plays, and have a very systematic approach to the whole thing, and then some idiot who either isn't paying attention or is doing a bad impersonation of a LAG throws all that out the window and pops up and screws me. Like when I open jammed K7 in the SB into K10s in the BB. After showing down nothing but winners and folding all the live long day, I jammed 7 BBs and over half of the BBs stack, and this guy is willing to call w/K10. Where is he when I have a *real* hand?! Of course then when I open jam something like A9 in the cutoff or button, looking to actually double, the SB wakes up with AJ. Sofa King sick. I can't remember, but I think I blogged about recently when I open jammed on the button or SB w/AK and the BB wakes up w/AA. Anyway, I just feel like at my level there are some players who don't know jack and/or don't care and are doing horrible impersonations of a LAG player, and some, like myself, who are really trying to better themselves and that make really strong TAG plays. And then somewhere in between, there is actually the LAG who is making a strong go of it. The problem is, no matter who they are, I'm the guinea pig. I'm the guy w/AA that the LAG flops the nuts against after I raise and he calls me w/56o after I've seen his incapability to keep his hands out of the cookie jar, and I'm also the guy who open raises/jams in position/resteals against the strong TAG who is capable of folding, only this time he's actually got a monster.
Yes, it happens to all of us. But I guaran-damn-tee you it doesn't happen to you as much as it happens to me. I generally try and take the high road and keep the bitching to a minimum (no, seriously...I do), but now I'm officially whining. I'm Sofa King tired of it. I'm the Mike Matusow of bloggers. There...I said it.
Now I know some of you are reading this and seeing leaks galore and percieving this as me thinking my game has no room for improvement and that my big hands will never be beat. But that's not the case at all. I've got a long ways to go, and I know that. I even am fully aware of several of the mistakes in hands I pointed out above, and several of my "conceptual" mistakes such as needing to make plays WITHOUT actual hands and it doesn't matter how many people are left, anything short of the nuts can still be beat. Problem is, I'm so busy fighting tangible uphill battles, I never have a comfortable enough stack/bankroll to even get to a conceptual level. I'm perpetually recovering from the last bad beat and don't get to put it on cruise control to work on sniffing out bluffs, running plays, accumulating chips. I'm always in disaster recovery mode. I'm just so sick of it. I study and I practice and I study and I practice, and I get my money in good, and I make my opponents make mistakes, but my poker life is a perpetual bout with negative variance. Its almost as if instead of there being variance from hand to hand in the cards that are dealt, there's variance from player to player in ones ability to run normally, and I'm the 30% and under. The sick part is that I know there's just as much mathematical backbone to that theory as there is to card variance. Maybe for me it doesn't "always even out", and on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's a guy that sucks out equally as disproportionate as I am able to hold up with the best hand. I just don't want to come to terms with that...I love the game too much.
So now, as you may be able to tell, I'm Sofa King pissed off and depressed and down on the game again. My 9 days off and good attitude about finally making a go of this hobby was completely ruined over the course of 4 hours, 1 MTT, and 4 SNGs. So now, with my sub-$50 bankroll AGAIN...I'll have to pick myself up by the bootstraps and give it another go...AGAIN.
Sorry for the vent. A guy can only take so much.
Thnanks to Sofa King for their sponsorship of this post. I'm out.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
WSOP ME Final Table Delay
So as usual, I'm a few days behind, and since my last post a little bit ago I've been catching up and reading posts on the delay for the WSOP Main Event Final Table.
This is all well and good, it has its pros and cons, and I'm not about to dive deep into it as many others have already done much better than I could, but I did have one thought/question that I wonder if it has been broached anywhere.
What if someone offers the final 9 x amount of dollars to play a 9 man SNG and shortcut the Main Event final table and/or give the players a "practice" opportunity/exhibition. Surely some sponsor(s) could benefit from such an activity, and is there really any way that Harrah's can prevent this legally?
I'm sure there is some simple legal work that Harrah's could do to prevent this, but I think it would be interesting to see if such a situation arises. There may be something explicit that Harrah's can draw up and make each player agree to not participating in, but what happens if all the players just happen to play in the same tournament and end up at the final table together? Sure, we all know the chances of that happening...but its an interesting "what if" question, and surely in that specific situation there's nothing Harrah's could do. They're surely not going to prevent these players from entering tournaments, but I'm sure they could make them sign something to agree to not playing out a mockup of the final table explicitly. But whatever they draw up, I'm sure there's somebody out there who will be digging and digging hard for a loophole to steal Harrah's thunder if at all possible. Could be interesting.
As usual, I'm sure I'm either way behind on this thought or way out of left field, but I thought I might throw my discussion point hat into the ring on this nonetheless.
This is all well and good, it has its pros and cons, and I'm not about to dive deep into it as many others have already done much better than I could, but I did have one thought/question that I wonder if it has been broached anywhere.
What if someone offers the final 9 x amount of dollars to play a 9 man SNG and shortcut the Main Event final table and/or give the players a "practice" opportunity/exhibition. Surely some sponsor(s) could benefit from such an activity, and is there really any way that Harrah's can prevent this legally?
I'm sure there is some simple legal work that Harrah's could do to prevent this, but I think it would be interesting to see if such a situation arises. There may be something explicit that Harrah's can draw up and make each player agree to not participating in, but what happens if all the players just happen to play in the same tournament and end up at the final table together? Sure, we all know the chances of that happening...but its an interesting "what if" question, and surely in that specific situation there's nothing Harrah's could do. They're surely not going to prevent these players from entering tournaments, but I'm sure they could make them sign something to agree to not playing out a mockup of the final table explicitly. But whatever they draw up, I'm sure there's somebody out there who will be digging and digging hard for a loophole to steal Harrah's thunder if at all possible. Could be interesting.
As usual, I'm sure I'm either way behind on this thought or way out of left field, but I thought I might throw my discussion point hat into the ring on this nonetheless.
Ok, So That Didn't Work Out Like I Hoped
Well, I know in my last post I said that I'd that I hoped to get rocking and rolling on the playing and blogging, but my week in San Antonio didn't turn out exactly like I expected. In the conferences I've been to in the past, you have your session stuff during the day and then you're pretty much on your own in the evenings. I was looking forward to free time and free internet...instead it wasn't until Wednesday night that I even got my personal laptop out, and then of course as I got to thinking about using the internet that I had already paid for for my work laptop, my assumption was realized in that the charge ($10/day) was by computer/MAC address, and not by room. I don't see how they could do it any other way. So in the end, I couldn't see paying $10 to play an hour or two of poker, even if I turned a profit.
But the week in San Antonio was great. Ate and drank on the company hosting the conference on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and of course the rest of it was on my company, so its really here nor there. Then spent a lot of what little free time we really ended up having working out and doing the tourism thing.
Anyway, I'm here to talk about poker, and at this point I don't really have any poker to talk about except for the atrocious suckout my sister-in-law laid on me at the couples game we played last Saturday. She got all her money in against me as a 95% dog with one to come and of course got there. In a sequence of three hands I got QQ and beat 66 to double, KK and LOST to 66 to lose more than half my stack, and then jammed what I had left w/JJ and lost to AK to go broke. I should've had about 7k and taken two people out VERY early in an 8 person tourney, but instead I found three top 5 hands in a row and the rail. Love this game.
Anyway, I'll be back when I have some more to talk about!
But the week in San Antonio was great. Ate and drank on the company hosting the conference on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and of course the rest of it was on my company, so its really here nor there. Then spent a lot of what little free time we really ended up having working out and doing the tourism thing.
Anyway, I'm here to talk about poker, and at this point I don't really have any poker to talk about except for the atrocious suckout my sister-in-law laid on me at the couples game we played last Saturday. She got all her money in against me as a 95% dog with one to come and of course got there. In a sequence of three hands I got QQ and beat 66 to double, KK and LOST to 66 to lose more than half my stack, and then jammed what I had left w/JJ and lost to AK to go broke. I should've had about 7k and taken two people out VERY early in an 8 person tourney, but instead I found three top 5 hands in a row and the rail. Love this game.
Anyway, I'll be back when I have some more to talk about!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Geez...Has it Been a Month Again?
I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things this week. I will be traveling for work to San Antonio, and I hope to have quite a lot of opportunity to play, and similar opportunity to blog.
I've been hanging in there, but bad luck keeps jumping up to grab me at the least opportune times. KK losing to AK. Pairing my over on the flop, only to have the underpair set on the turn. You know the story.
I've also tried to loosen my game up and get involved in more pots and make moves, etc, etc, but I really think I'm at WAY too low of a level to be able to play a LAG style. In the $5 and $10 SNGs, it seems nobody can find the Fold button, no matter how much pressure you put on them.
All that said, I am currently up in every single facet of play for 2008. I'm tracking Live, Online Cash, Online SNGs, Online MTTs, and Online Misc (Shootouts, etc). Actually, I may have lied. I think I'm down in shootouts. But still, after being significantly down in SNGs for a long time, its nice to be showing a little bit of profit. Unfortunately my MTT stats have suffered because I can't catch a break, so even though I'm playing all facets profitably, the bankroll is still right about where it always is.
Incidentally, I'm off to a friends house tonight w/the wife for a couples game we like to have from time to time, so I'm looking forward to tossing around some real chips and cards and having some fun with friends. But I got my weekly website stats email and saw that my hits were in the single digits for the first time in quite some time, so I wanted to check in and let you know I'm not giving up or anything...just trying to get priorities in order a little bit. I intend on being around for some time to come.
Hope the felt is treating everyone well. Be back soon!
I've been hanging in there, but bad luck keeps jumping up to grab me at the least opportune times. KK losing to AK. Pairing my over on the flop, only to have the underpair set on the turn. You know the story.
I've also tried to loosen my game up and get involved in more pots and make moves, etc, etc, but I really think I'm at WAY too low of a level to be able to play a LAG style. In the $5 and $10 SNGs, it seems nobody can find the Fold button, no matter how much pressure you put on them.
All that said, I am currently up in every single facet of play for 2008. I'm tracking Live, Online Cash, Online SNGs, Online MTTs, and Online Misc (Shootouts, etc). Actually, I may have lied. I think I'm down in shootouts. But still, after being significantly down in SNGs for a long time, its nice to be showing a little bit of profit. Unfortunately my MTT stats have suffered because I can't catch a break, so even though I'm playing all facets profitably, the bankroll is still right about where it always is.
Incidentally, I'm off to a friends house tonight w/the wife for a couples game we like to have from time to time, so I'm looking forward to tossing around some real chips and cards and having some fun with friends. But I got my weekly website stats email and saw that my hits were in the single digits for the first time in quite some time, so I wanted to check in and let you know I'm not giving up or anything...just trying to get priorities in order a little bit. I intend on being around for some time to come.
Hope the felt is treating everyone well. Be back soon!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Popping In
Hey all. Sorry I haven't blogged in forever. Real life/the day job recently threw me a curveball which has cut back on my internetting overall. I promise at some point I'll get to crawl back out of my shell and rejoin life on the surface.
Results since my last post have been the definition of mixed, as I've scored a couple of top 5% finishes in 3k+ tourney fields, which has been fun and exciting, but of course the ROI even at that point isn't really anything to write home about. Its nice to be there on the cusp of that big cash I've been after for 3 1/2 years, but I still have one more big corner to turn.
Live has been OK, with a pretty decent poker night score of 7 tourney buyins. I have some semblance of a starter cash bankroll, which I will hopefully continue to build steadily at the homegames, and get out to the local cardroom for some serious work when the time is right.
As SNGs go, I've just been getting murdered. After a 9 day break for no real reason other than I didn't have the opportunity to play, I played 6 SNGs tonight, ranging from $1.20 to $11, and didn't cash in one. The comments section on my tracking spreadsheet for my SNGs in the month of March is just littered with stories of brutal suckouts and the inability to win a coin flip. In 36 SNGs in March, I've cashed 13 times, which overall *could* not be the end of the world if I'm winning, but with only 2 wins it makes for no chance at being anywhere close to profitable. I feel like I should probably be cashing in at least half of my SNGs, if not like 60-75%, and winning probably 1 out of 4 or 5. Is that pretty reasonable expectations? High? Low? Anyway, I'm getting my chips in in great shape a LOT and taking sick beats, and getting into flip situations when I should be getting into flip situations, and it feels like 85/15 villian.
Its certainly not fun, especially tonight when I haven't played for a while, I was excited to play and play well, did so and got brutalized, and at this point I'm completely brow beaten and despising the game and have to go to bed pissed off.
I'd sure love to be taking some shots at like Sunday Million satellites to pad the T$, and maybe even have a go at some WSOP sats, but I'm running so bad right now I wouldn't stand a chance, plus I'm in the neighborhood of bankroll challenged and just trying to keep my head above water. Wish I could run good for more than a couple hours or days at a time, because I sure can run bad for weeks without any effort whatsoever.
Live is currently my biggest earner (which is no surprise considering my micro stakes online), followed by MTTs thanks to that $150 sat score in February and my deepish runs in those big field tourneys. I'm also showing a small profit in online cash, which I haven't played in quite a while because its a real pain in the ass to track. :-) Bringing up the rear, I'm a loser in SNGs thanks to a current skid and a nasty run back in mid-Feb. And I'm also down a fair amount for the Double Shootouts I've played. Profitable in 3 out of 5 ain't bad...right?? :-\
Ok, I think that's plenty of all that. Just wanted to check in and let everyone know I'm not dead. As they say, may all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Results since my last post have been the definition of mixed, as I've scored a couple of top 5% finishes in 3k+ tourney fields, which has been fun and exciting, but of course the ROI even at that point isn't really anything to write home about. Its nice to be there on the cusp of that big cash I've been after for 3 1/2 years, but I still have one more big corner to turn.
Live has been OK, with a pretty decent poker night score of 7 tourney buyins. I have some semblance of a starter cash bankroll, which I will hopefully continue to build steadily at the homegames, and get out to the local cardroom for some serious work when the time is right.
As SNGs go, I've just been getting murdered. After a 9 day break for no real reason other than I didn't have the opportunity to play, I played 6 SNGs tonight, ranging from $1.20 to $11, and didn't cash in one. The comments section on my tracking spreadsheet for my SNGs in the month of March is just littered with stories of brutal suckouts and the inability to win a coin flip. In 36 SNGs in March, I've cashed 13 times, which overall *could* not be the end of the world if I'm winning, but with only 2 wins it makes for no chance at being anywhere close to profitable. I feel like I should probably be cashing in at least half of my SNGs, if not like 60-75%, and winning probably 1 out of 4 or 5. Is that pretty reasonable expectations? High? Low? Anyway, I'm getting my chips in in great shape a LOT and taking sick beats, and getting into flip situations when I should be getting into flip situations, and it feels like 85/15 villian.
Its certainly not fun, especially tonight when I haven't played for a while, I was excited to play and play well, did so and got brutalized, and at this point I'm completely brow beaten and despising the game and have to go to bed pissed off.
I'd sure love to be taking some shots at like Sunday Million satellites to pad the T$, and maybe even have a go at some WSOP sats, but I'm running so bad right now I wouldn't stand a chance, plus I'm in the neighborhood of bankroll challenged and just trying to keep my head above water. Wish I could run good for more than a couple hours or days at a time, because I sure can run bad for weeks without any effort whatsoever.
Live is currently my biggest earner (which is no surprise considering my micro stakes online), followed by MTTs thanks to that $150 sat score in February and my deepish runs in those big field tourneys. I'm also showing a small profit in online cash, which I haven't played in quite a while because its a real pain in the ass to track. :-) Bringing up the rear, I'm a loser in SNGs thanks to a current skid and a nasty run back in mid-Feb. And I'm also down a fair amount for the Double Shootouts I've played. Profitable in 3 out of 5 ain't bad...right?? :-\
Ok, I think that's plenty of all that. Just wanted to check in and let everyone know I'm not dead. As they say, may all your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Steady Improvement
Sorry its been a while since I posted, but I was pretty damn busy at work last week, and I played a lot of poker otherwise.
Incidentally, I was supposed to make the trip over to the WSOP-C event at Council Bluffs today with my brother-in-law, but due to some dicey weather forecasted we decided seeing a handfull of pros and the buffet probably wasn't worth the possibility of doubling our time on the road. So I guess we'll hope it comes back next year and maybe we can go out then. In the mean time we'll use the day of vacation for something like the first nice day (if it ever comes), or another pokery related activity.
So let me start with last weekend (2/16-17).
As is much of anything with me, this was a rollercoaster. We had no plans for the weekend, so I wanted to work in as much poker as I could. After a nice first place score in an $11 SNG Saturday morning, I started to look toward some sort of nice guarantee tourney for later Saturday night. First of all, I'm surprised that Stars doesn't have better lower stakes guarantee tourneys about every hour after 8:00, but I guess I don't run a poker room, so I'm sure they have some sort of good reason. After seeing that there wasn't much in my range past the $11 20k guarantee at 6:00, I found the daily 50k I think it was, with a $162 buyin, and went after that. I made some decent progress in a $3+R+A turbo sat, making it through the hour with my initial buyin and then taking advantage of the addon. Yeah, I'm that donk in the rebuys who sits and waits for a big hand to bust the serial rebuyers. So sue me. I despise rebuys, and nothing gives me more pleasure than playing tight and making it through with no rebuys. At any rate, I bombed out at some point in the 2nd hour. Well not too long after that I got into the $11+R+A turbo sat, this time with my bankroll challenges prohibiting me from any rebuying or addding on no matter what. And I'll be damned if I didn't get myself a seat. But then I got to thinking...geez...I just spent $17 to win $162 for a shot at one tourney that I may or may not cash in...would it really be wise to spend it, or would it be better spent for 29 $5 tourneys or 15 $11 tourneys? Not to mention the kick in the pants it gave my measly bankroll. Its a different story if you can't use the T$ for SNGs, but since I could, it was a pretty easy choice to unregister instead of taking the shot in the 50k. So it was back to some grinding away at SNGs, not to mentioned quite a piqued interest in the value of satellites.
So...lets have a go at this $10 Double Shootout to the Sunday Million, shall we? A SNG with 15 minute blinds?! Count me in! It didn't fill, so I think we ended up with like 8 at our table. And I didn't have a whole lot of trouble winning it. Half the players played like they were in a turbo, let alone a winner take all SNG w/15 minute blinds. I steadily chipped up, and another guy was kind of running over the table but wasn't showing any real prowess as a player, and we ended up heads up with big stacks and moderate blinds, and my confidence and comfort level VERY high. The heads up match didn't actually last as long as I expected, as I rather quickly got a spot to double, then made pretty quick work of him. He cursed me in the chatbox before he left. It was all surprisingly easy considering there were $215 prizes on the line.
Moving on to the final table, we were paying 4 spots, with three seats and some chopped liver to spare. I was VERY confident in my ability to make top 3. Sparing the details, I got 4th. We went into the money with me as the short stack, struggling the whole way, but confident that my chance would come. And boy did it. I found AKo and open jammed more than 10x from the button, because I knew the BB was just as likely to call as he was to fold. And call he did...w/10 7 off, and caught a card. $18 for me...$215 for everyone else. So wrong.
It was at that point that I should've stopped playing. My balance stood around the $220 mark, more than 3x where it started at that morning, I'd had an amazing day, and had a whole other day ahead of me. But how could I stop on that AK vs 10 7 atrocity?! It must be avenged! So I donked off $60, getting unlucky, and moreso, probably playing some of the worst poker I'd played in a while. Passive when I shouldn't have been passive, aggressive when I shouldn't have been aggressive, expecting to win...just about every way you could play badly. But I also got REALLY unlucky on more than one occasion. Anyway, before calling it quits I played 1 $22 SNG (bubbled), and 5 more $11 SNGs, getting 8th and 9th in two of them, cashing once in third place in total. Spewing.
Sunday I looked to get things back on track, and also went after a Sunday Million seat in two different formats at the worst time to try and sat in...the day of (some may say the best time...I disagree). Not only had the AK vs 10 7 hand tilted me, but it was also the doom switch for me @ Stars. Sunday I cashed in 2 out of 9 ($11) SNGs, and didn't even come close in an $8 Turbo DS and $11+R Turbo to the Sunday Million. In the midst of a streak where I'd cashed in 7 of my last 28 SNGs, I shut 'er down with $114 and didn't play the whole week.
Ok, so I sorta lied. I played live on Wednesday night for a couple hours and took $40 off a 1/2 table. It was one of those tables where you wish you could sit for 6-8 hours and just let all the chips come your way because the players were so eager to get them out of their stacks, but I had a co-worker in from Portland that I was there to hang out with plus work the next day...so looking for an opportunity to leave, I let some guy chuck chips at a pot as I called him down w/AA the whole way, and took my $40 and left.
This past weekend also saw plenty of opportunity for me to play, a moderate recovery, and some encouraging results. After refocusing and getting back on track, I cashed in 4 out of 8 SNGs, coming out moderately ahead, but perhaps moreso important in my journey towards bankroll management and growing as a player, I dropped down a level prematurely just incase I was still running bad. But my crowning achievement for this weekend was getting 127th out of 3767 in yesterday's $5k guarantee at noon. The tourney was very well rounded in that I stuck to my style, tried not to get discouraged, and just kept persevering.
In the early going I was completely card dead, not seriously playing a hand in the first hour. As the lack of any playable cards continued, I managed to find hands and double to the average two different times when I got to push & pray mode. Then after another double up to survive, I got my money in bad w/TP,TK against an overpair. I needed an A or 9 to survive, got my 9 on the river, and doubled through the newly seated big stack at our table, and suddenly I found myself to be table captain with twice the average stack, and in 60th or so as we approached the bubble. The next hour and a half or so was spent looking to pick up pots, and I did so successfully, scooping several times to keep my stack steady against the high blinds, but also having to fold to some re-raises. Then, as the average again approached and started to pass my stack (although I still had 20-25 big blinds), I went on a rush which right now I can't even recall, and suddenly saw my stack skyrocket to 100k and around 20th place out of about 250 remaining. Still a lot of work to be done, of course.
A while after I had amassed this stack, I was moved to a different table for the first time, which proved to be trouble for me. I was at a table where I was fortunate enough to get a lot of chips, but overall it was a very tight/passive table with a lot of average stacks, where the average/big stacks pretty much stayed away from each other, a good raise would generally pick up pots or get you all-in against a shorty, and we all just kinda took turns going at pots. There wasn't a lot of chips moving onto or off of the table, and it was all just very systematic. I was also the significant chip leader and could be content to sit and pick off pots as I saw fit. The new table I was moved to had a couple of other big stacks, a lot more active players, and fewer real short stacks.
I'd been there a while, but I wasn't fully adjusted to the table yet when I went after a pot from middle position w/A10. Someone behind me jammed another 30k or so on top, and I made a relatively easy call and lost to AK. Looking back, it was actually a pretty easy fold based on a timing tell with his raise, and aside from a pretty terrible play overall, the catalyst for my impending downfall. So with a stack of 60-some thousand now, just below average, and blinds at 2k/4k/200, as I do, I started to get antsy. And I made another mistake. Facing a pretty standard LP raise and a call in the SB, I called w/Q9s getting around 3:1 in the big blind. Flop comes 9-high. SB jams his 36k or so, I instantly re-jam, and the original raiser thinks forever and tosses his 24k into the pot as well. In a little bit of a setup hand, SB shows 99, I show my monster TP, decent kicker, and original raiser shows KK. I'm not sure how I get away from that hand, though, without chucking it preflop. And I'm not sure if my preflop call was right or not... So at this point I'm down to like 15k and on life support. I did manage to take someone out and essentially double on the next hand with two live cards against at least one over, and then I jammed on the button again w/56h. I actually flopped a monster open-ender w/a flush draw, plus the fives and sixes were still good. The turn was a 10, which left me needing a heart, 4, or 9. River bricked, and I'm done in 127th.
So for the first time in a cash MTT, I sniffed real money for a while. If I can fold A10 to the 30k re-raise, maintain my patience, continue to feel out the table before getting involved, and wait for my spots with a strong stack, this story may have a different ending. I just started to get nervous when I was switched to a table with stacks as big or bigger than mine and would be forced to refocus and start playing poker again, and hadn't adjusted to the table yet when I tried to get in the mix. Another lesson learned for next time. The top 4% finish paid a disappointing $24.49, but when I'm eventually making final table and top 3 money, I'm gonna be happy that everyone else is getting scraps, right? ;-)
After that I wanted to have another go at a DS to the Sunday Million, and after I struggled early, I finally found some opportunities to get in the mix, and got down to three at my first table. I had a feel for the players, and looking them up on Sharkscope confirmed my read on both. One was a strong, 4 figure winning player, who had gotten to the big stack with strong, assertive play and big hands, and the other, a total lucksack donk who was all over the place and had sucked out on just me twice already. In the end, the donk called my 9x push from the button w/A5o in the big blind. I actually held A4 and flopped 2 pair on a 10 4 A flop, but the turn was a 10. With a zillion outs to chop, the river was a freaking THREE, and I'm busted. All I'd shown down was strong hands, and this guy calls me w/A5o. Unbelievable. With that DS full, the whole final table would've made at least $35, with the top 4 getting seats. I will be mixing these tourneys in quite frequently, because it seems like a nice way to pick up $215 on an $11.70 investment.
While Stars may not have a satelliting format like Full Tilt is famous for with the $26 and $75 tokens and your ability to pretty much get to whatever you're after with those tokens, their T$ setup really gives you a lot more versatility, because you can satellite for x amount of T$ and use them for any of Stars' varying tournament buyins...or even SNGs, to more readily turn them into cash. Brilliant.
Ok, well this has been another doozie, so its time for me to quit. Thanks to anyone who stopped by to read. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Incidentally, I was supposed to make the trip over to the WSOP-C event at Council Bluffs today with my brother-in-law, but due to some dicey weather forecasted we decided seeing a handfull of pros and the buffet probably wasn't worth the possibility of doubling our time on the road. So I guess we'll hope it comes back next year and maybe we can go out then. In the mean time we'll use the day of vacation for something like the first nice day (if it ever comes), or another pokery related activity.
So let me start with last weekend (2/16-17).
As is much of anything with me, this was a rollercoaster. We had no plans for the weekend, so I wanted to work in as much poker as I could. After a nice first place score in an $11 SNG Saturday morning, I started to look toward some sort of nice guarantee tourney for later Saturday night. First of all, I'm surprised that Stars doesn't have better lower stakes guarantee tourneys about every hour after 8:00, but I guess I don't run a poker room, so I'm sure they have some sort of good reason. After seeing that there wasn't much in my range past the $11 20k guarantee at 6:00, I found the daily 50k I think it was, with a $162 buyin, and went after that. I made some decent progress in a $3+R+A turbo sat, making it through the hour with my initial buyin and then taking advantage of the addon. Yeah, I'm that donk in the rebuys who sits and waits for a big hand to bust the serial rebuyers. So sue me. I despise rebuys, and nothing gives me more pleasure than playing tight and making it through with no rebuys. At any rate, I bombed out at some point in the 2nd hour. Well not too long after that I got into the $11+R+A turbo sat, this time with my bankroll challenges prohibiting me from any rebuying or addding on no matter what. And I'll be damned if I didn't get myself a seat. But then I got to thinking...geez...I just spent $17 to win $162 for a shot at one tourney that I may or may not cash in...would it really be wise to spend it, or would it be better spent for 29 $5 tourneys or 15 $11 tourneys? Not to mention the kick in the pants it gave my measly bankroll. Its a different story if you can't use the T$ for SNGs, but since I could, it was a pretty easy choice to unregister instead of taking the shot in the 50k. So it was back to some grinding away at SNGs, not to mentioned quite a piqued interest in the value of satellites.
So...lets have a go at this $10 Double Shootout to the Sunday Million, shall we? A SNG with 15 minute blinds?! Count me in! It didn't fill, so I think we ended up with like 8 at our table. And I didn't have a whole lot of trouble winning it. Half the players played like they were in a turbo, let alone a winner take all SNG w/15 minute blinds. I steadily chipped up, and another guy was kind of running over the table but wasn't showing any real prowess as a player, and we ended up heads up with big stacks and moderate blinds, and my confidence and comfort level VERY high. The heads up match didn't actually last as long as I expected, as I rather quickly got a spot to double, then made pretty quick work of him. He cursed me in the chatbox before he left. It was all surprisingly easy considering there were $215 prizes on the line.
Moving on to the final table, we were paying 4 spots, with three seats and some chopped liver to spare. I was VERY confident in my ability to make top 3. Sparing the details, I got 4th. We went into the money with me as the short stack, struggling the whole way, but confident that my chance would come. And boy did it. I found AKo and open jammed more than 10x from the button, because I knew the BB was just as likely to call as he was to fold. And call he did...w/10 7 off, and caught a card. $18 for me...$215 for everyone else. So wrong.
It was at that point that I should've stopped playing. My balance stood around the $220 mark, more than 3x where it started at that morning, I'd had an amazing day, and had a whole other day ahead of me. But how could I stop on that AK vs 10 7 atrocity?! It must be avenged! So I donked off $60, getting unlucky, and moreso, probably playing some of the worst poker I'd played in a while. Passive when I shouldn't have been passive, aggressive when I shouldn't have been aggressive, expecting to win...just about every way you could play badly. But I also got REALLY unlucky on more than one occasion. Anyway, before calling it quits I played 1 $22 SNG (bubbled), and 5 more $11 SNGs, getting 8th and 9th in two of them, cashing once in third place in total. Spewing.
Sunday I looked to get things back on track, and also went after a Sunday Million seat in two different formats at the worst time to try and sat in...the day of (some may say the best time...I disagree). Not only had the AK vs 10 7 hand tilted me, but it was also the doom switch for me @ Stars. Sunday I cashed in 2 out of 9 ($11) SNGs, and didn't even come close in an $8 Turbo DS and $11+R Turbo to the Sunday Million. In the midst of a streak where I'd cashed in 7 of my last 28 SNGs, I shut 'er down with $114 and didn't play the whole week.
Ok, so I sorta lied. I played live on Wednesday night for a couple hours and took $40 off a 1/2 table. It was one of those tables where you wish you could sit for 6-8 hours and just let all the chips come your way because the players were so eager to get them out of their stacks, but I had a co-worker in from Portland that I was there to hang out with plus work the next day...so looking for an opportunity to leave, I let some guy chuck chips at a pot as I called him down w/AA the whole way, and took my $40 and left.
This past weekend also saw plenty of opportunity for me to play, a moderate recovery, and some encouraging results. After refocusing and getting back on track, I cashed in 4 out of 8 SNGs, coming out moderately ahead, but perhaps moreso important in my journey towards bankroll management and growing as a player, I dropped down a level prematurely just incase I was still running bad. But my crowning achievement for this weekend was getting 127th out of 3767 in yesterday's $5k guarantee at noon. The tourney was very well rounded in that I stuck to my style, tried not to get discouraged, and just kept persevering.
In the early going I was completely card dead, not seriously playing a hand in the first hour. As the lack of any playable cards continued, I managed to find hands and double to the average two different times when I got to push & pray mode. Then after another double up to survive, I got my money in bad w/TP,TK against an overpair. I needed an A or 9 to survive, got my 9 on the river, and doubled through the newly seated big stack at our table, and suddenly I found myself to be table captain with twice the average stack, and in 60th or so as we approached the bubble. The next hour and a half or so was spent looking to pick up pots, and I did so successfully, scooping several times to keep my stack steady against the high blinds, but also having to fold to some re-raises. Then, as the average again approached and started to pass my stack (although I still had 20-25 big blinds), I went on a rush which right now I can't even recall, and suddenly saw my stack skyrocket to 100k and around 20th place out of about 250 remaining. Still a lot of work to be done, of course.
A while after I had amassed this stack, I was moved to a different table for the first time, which proved to be trouble for me. I was at a table where I was fortunate enough to get a lot of chips, but overall it was a very tight/passive table with a lot of average stacks, where the average/big stacks pretty much stayed away from each other, a good raise would generally pick up pots or get you all-in against a shorty, and we all just kinda took turns going at pots. There wasn't a lot of chips moving onto or off of the table, and it was all just very systematic. I was also the significant chip leader and could be content to sit and pick off pots as I saw fit. The new table I was moved to had a couple of other big stacks, a lot more active players, and fewer real short stacks.
I'd been there a while, but I wasn't fully adjusted to the table yet when I went after a pot from middle position w/A10. Someone behind me jammed another 30k or so on top, and I made a relatively easy call and lost to AK. Looking back, it was actually a pretty easy fold based on a timing tell with his raise, and aside from a pretty terrible play overall, the catalyst for my impending downfall. So with a stack of 60-some thousand now, just below average, and blinds at 2k/4k/200, as I do, I started to get antsy. And I made another mistake. Facing a pretty standard LP raise and a call in the SB, I called w/Q9s getting around 3:1 in the big blind. Flop comes 9-high. SB jams his 36k or so, I instantly re-jam, and the original raiser thinks forever and tosses his 24k into the pot as well. In a little bit of a setup hand, SB shows 99, I show my monster TP, decent kicker, and original raiser shows KK. I'm not sure how I get away from that hand, though, without chucking it preflop. And I'm not sure if my preflop call was right or not... So at this point I'm down to like 15k and on life support. I did manage to take someone out and essentially double on the next hand with two live cards against at least one over, and then I jammed on the button again w/56h. I actually flopped a monster open-ender w/a flush draw, plus the fives and sixes were still good. The turn was a 10, which left me needing a heart, 4, or 9. River bricked, and I'm done in 127th.
So for the first time in a cash MTT, I sniffed real money for a while. If I can fold A10 to the 30k re-raise, maintain my patience, continue to feel out the table before getting involved, and wait for my spots with a strong stack, this story may have a different ending. I just started to get nervous when I was switched to a table with stacks as big or bigger than mine and would be forced to refocus and start playing poker again, and hadn't adjusted to the table yet when I tried to get in the mix. Another lesson learned for next time. The top 4% finish paid a disappointing $24.49, but when I'm eventually making final table and top 3 money, I'm gonna be happy that everyone else is getting scraps, right? ;-)
After that I wanted to have another go at a DS to the Sunday Million, and after I struggled early, I finally found some opportunities to get in the mix, and got down to three at my first table. I had a feel for the players, and looking them up on Sharkscope confirmed my read on both. One was a strong, 4 figure winning player, who had gotten to the big stack with strong, assertive play and big hands, and the other, a total lucksack donk who was all over the place and had sucked out on just me twice already. In the end, the donk called my 9x push from the button w/A5o in the big blind. I actually held A4 and flopped 2 pair on a 10 4 A flop, but the turn was a 10. With a zillion outs to chop, the river was a freaking THREE, and I'm busted. All I'd shown down was strong hands, and this guy calls me w/A5o. Unbelievable. With that DS full, the whole final table would've made at least $35, with the top 4 getting seats. I will be mixing these tourneys in quite frequently, because it seems like a nice way to pick up $215 on an $11.70 investment.
While Stars may not have a satelliting format like Full Tilt is famous for with the $26 and $75 tokens and your ability to pretty much get to whatever you're after with those tokens, their T$ setup really gives you a lot more versatility, because you can satellite for x amount of T$ and use them for any of Stars' varying tournament buyins...or even SNGs, to more readily turn them into cash. Brilliant.
Ok, well this has been another doozie, so its time for me to quit. Thanks to anyone who stopped by to read. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Premium Hands on the Bubble, on a Short Stack
In response to my last post, AnguilA left me some great feedback on my live final table run on Sunday. Specifically related to the topic in the title, he says the following:
"...getting a premium hand like AK near the bubble you have to go for the double up for sure. The money in every tournament is at the top, and that's what you have to aim for every time you sit down to play. If you bust in the bubble, well that's poker, but you would have had a chance to win instead of bleeding away..."
I have certainly read this sentiment over and over and over, and do have an understanding that this is an imperative mentality to have to be a successful poker player. Given the size of my stack, I'm sure he's right, but I swear I've also read in at least a handfull of places that you're folding about anything but AA on the bubble. Again, that probably doesn't go for a stack the size of mine.
I understand that I need to be shooting for the top and that busting on the bubble has to happen from time to time, and I also know that you can't be a successful player if the money means something to you. But when I'm trying to restart my live roll, the difference between walking out of there with $120 and walking out of there even is vast. In an online $5 or $10 tourney I'm going to the felt w/AK & AQ because the ROI for top money is ridiculous, but bottom money was very meaningful here, so I was willing to make some mistakes if it meant getting there.
Incidentally, the AK hand already saw 2 players all-in, with a big stack covering them. I folded it on the button to the three way action in front of me. And I would've lost to A7. The AQ hand I would have gotten a call from a priced in big stack who raised PF, and gotten in as a 70% fav.
I dunno...let me know if I absolutely have to get away from that mentality to be successful. Given the understanding that you *know* you're deviating from optimum strategy to reach a specific goal, can't these things be quantified from time to time, specifically in the case of attempting to build a bankroll and seeing an opportunity for profit?
I know its kind of a silly little topic, but I at least wanted to get feedback from anyone who felt like chiming in. Could be very valuable information to those of us who are bankroll challenged.
"...getting a premium hand like AK near the bubble you have to go for the double up for sure. The money in every tournament is at the top, and that's what you have to aim for every time you sit down to play. If you bust in the bubble, well that's poker, but you would have had a chance to win instead of bleeding away..."
I have certainly read this sentiment over and over and over, and do have an understanding that this is an imperative mentality to have to be a successful poker player. Given the size of my stack, I'm sure he's right, but I swear I've also read in at least a handfull of places that you're folding about anything but AA on the bubble. Again, that probably doesn't go for a stack the size of mine.
I understand that I need to be shooting for the top and that busting on the bubble has to happen from time to time, and I also know that you can't be a successful player if the money means something to you. But when I'm trying to restart my live roll, the difference between walking out of there with $120 and walking out of there even is vast. In an online $5 or $10 tourney I'm going to the felt w/AK & AQ because the ROI for top money is ridiculous, but bottom money was very meaningful here, so I was willing to make some mistakes if it meant getting there.
Incidentally, the AK hand already saw 2 players all-in, with a big stack covering them. I folded it on the button to the three way action in front of me. And I would've lost to A7. The AQ hand I would have gotten a call from a priced in big stack who raised PF, and gotten in as a 70% fav.
I dunno...let me know if I absolutely have to get away from that mentality to be successful. Given the understanding that you *know* you're deviating from optimum strategy to reach a specific goal, can't these things be quantified from time to time, specifically in the case of attempting to build a bankroll and seeing an opportunity for profit?
I know its kind of a silly little topic, but I at least wanted to get feedback from anyone who felt like chiming in. Could be very valuable information to those of us who are bankroll challenged.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Live Poker is The Nuts
Greetings loyal readers. I come to you with tales of my poker weekend. Every once in a while the wife is kind enough to let me cut loose and let poker take a priority. This weekend was one of those occurences.
The live action started out Thursday, at a home game, which, quite frankly, I hate. Its not even worth talking about because there was only 4 players (I can't stand tourney structures w/less than 6), and I wasn't in a good mental state because I busted the air dam on my truck turning into the driveway and hitting a pile of snow, plus the players are just plain donkeys. I know I'm supposed to salivate at this fact, but WTF am I supposed to do when a dude calls w/62s UTG and flops a boat against my pocket 8s? I led the action on the first two streets then managed to fold when he fired a big bet on the river. The buddy who brought me thought he hit the K or Q on the turn and river, but I said "Nah, he's had the 6 the whole time and been bleeding me", and then he shows me the flopped boat. I would've respected A6 a lot more, but 26? Gimme a break. Anyway, I had a decent stack for a while, but played too many suited aces and connectors when the blinds were too big, and ended up going out when I had J10 on a board of 8 9 10 7 x and same 62o dude had flopped the joint w/QJ. So I'm now stuck $80 in three visits to that game, and I'm not sure if I'll be making a return, although it will always bug me if I'm a loser in that soft game, so I'm sure I'll keep trying to get better and eventually make another appearance. The guys are good enough, they're just the most annoying poker players I've ever played live poker against.
Friday night was our standard poker night, and after going straight down in the first tourney and getting sucked out on in the 2nd, I persevered in the rebuy and turned a little profit for the night. Good times as usual, but I'm pretty sure I came off as a bit of a whiner. I was already in a bad mood because I had played 4 SNGs on the day and lost on horrendous suckouts in the first two and had less than stellar performance in the other two and took about a $30 hit to the online bankroll, but I'll have to apologize to those guys if I get a chance because even though I was bitchin' and moanin' mostly as a Hellmuthian/Matusowesque joke, I could definitely see where I came off as whiney. In the end the three tight guys cashed in the rebuy, so something was right in the poker world. :-)
Anyway, the real culmination in all of this was the trip to the casino on Sunday. They run a $60 tourney at noon on Sundays, and every once in a while a good buddy and I like to head over there and give it a run. We usually like to get there around 9 and play some cash action as a warmup and to get our line passes for the tourney (waiting in line is ghey), then hit the buffet when they close down the room to get ready for the tourney. So yesterday we made the pilgrimage, along with my brother-in-law, and another good friend from the regular monthly game.
I was on the fence as to whether to play 1/2 NL or 3/6 Limit. Rich said 1/2 or nothing, and I tended to err toward 1/2 myself because I haven't played any Limit since about June. But remember, my last two trips out there saw me losing my buyins to 2-outers, so you could understand why the thought of NL cash would make me nervous. After all, all I really wanted was to sit there long enough to get my line pass.
In the end we settled on 1/2, and they opened up a table where 4 of the 10 were those of us that came together. Initally I had a pretty big beef with this because obviously it limits the stacks you *really* want to put a dent in. At no point did we ever soft play each other, but you certainly want to avoid firing away at a friend's stack if you can. As it turns out, Chris (brother-in-law) doubled when he made aces full against a Q on a board of Q 10 10 A x. Rich took away almost two extra buyins taking people out with AA and KK, and showing down AA uncalled 3 more times. I won my tourney buyin and half a buffet when my AK made trip kings against K10, and I made trip 6s for a little pot. Unfortunately the fourth in the clan went broke not by the hand of any of us, but to have 4 of us sit down at an action packed table and not have to clash, but take about 3 buyins off the table is pretty fortunate. And I got a little 1/2 NL confidence back and was freerolling the tourney, which is a nice feeling.
As for the tourney, it breaks down into a story of three different hours.
Hour 1 - Settle In & See What You Can Do
During the first hour I played about 5 hands and won three of them. I hovered right around the 2k starting mark for most of the hour, and then managed to go to the break with 3200. Most of the hour I spent watching the other players and their tendencies, hands they were showing down (which were hard to come by for a while), and by the end of the hour I had an amazing feel for the table, and a realization that it was pretty weak, and with a few cards I could do some damage. I scooped a pot that was limped in 4 places when I turned a flush, and then also had a heads up pot where I raised PF w/AK and my continuation bet took it down. That kept me around the starting stack until near the end of the hour when I limped in early-mid position w/A10 suited. The flop came something like 5 10 8 rainbow, and the guy next to me bets 200 at it. I called the flop to see what developed in all the other called spots, and everyone else folded. The turn came 6, and this time he bet 600. I had probably 3 times that left, so I needed to stop here and decide just how much I liked my hand, because I needed to fold or play for my stack. He limped just like I did. Now he could have limped with a big pair, but would he? Probably not. He could've limped with a pocket pair and hit a set, but would he bet at it? So basically I've got him beat unless he has a straight or two pair. Which would mean he limped with 7 9, 7 4, 5 8, 8 10, 5 10, 5 6 (somewhat likely), 6 8, 6 10. So given the idea that realistically, unless he played bad preflop (with a big pair) or postflop (with a set), I'm really only afraid of 5 6, and if I'm giving him credit for anything, its K 10/Q 10/J 10, which I'm crushing and could get a call from. So I raised all-in and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't instacall. In fact, he folded, I showed him my A 10, he claimed AQ and flipped me the bird in good fun. Why all this over such a marginal hand? Because I did it. Normally that's a spot where I would rush to judgement and put him on crap with no real analysis and jam into a monster, or give him credit for a monster and fold the best hand. But I knew this was potentially a HUGE spot for me in this tourney and I broke it all down right there at the table. This is yet another step in my philosophical "growing as a poker player" journey, and as minor as it may seem, its significant to me.
Before the hour ended I did give away a double-up, though. With blinds at 75/150 I was sitting in the SB. 5th position makes a raise to 450, and I look down and find JJ. For most this is an automatic call, if not a raise, but for me, all I pictured was a marginal flop and me with no clue what to do. The raiser was a solid TAG and one of two at the table that I had noted to tread lightly around, and I didn't feel like tangoing, so I straight up folded. Flop comes J-high and he c-bets 700. So at the very least I'm making 1300 on that hand. I just struggle so bad with 1010/JJ and whether to raise in x position, how much to raise in x position, whether to call or raise a PF raise, and where I stand after a flop with overs, its definitely a couple of hands I need to focus on improving my play with. In the case of a rare live casino tournament, however, I'm happy to fold that JJ in that spot no matter what the flop...as long as it doesn't have a J. So that left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth going into the break, but overall I was pleased to be a little above average.
All four of us made it to the break. Rich and I hovering around 3k, and the other two down to 700. They both pushed and prayed in the first 20 mins and went broke, and Richard saw his way out of the room during the 2nd hour as well.
Hour 2 - The Rollercoaster Ride
Like I said, after the first hour I had a pretty good read on my entire table, and in hour two I was ready to take whatever the situations would give me. As it turns out, I didn't have to wait long to redeem myself from the JJ debacle, as less than one orbit into hour two I limped with 10s, flopped a set, got it all in, and managed to survive and stack a flush draw. I had him covered by 300, so that saw me to the 6k mark. After a little rush, including another bustout, I suppose I worked my way up somewhere around 9k. Right or wrong, I was trying not to focus too hard on the exact size of my stack. I feel like I am constantly aware of my chipstack and that I focus too much on what a specific play will do to it when it comes to making decisions, so I tried to stick with approximates, only counting exactly how much I had intermittantly, and when a decision hinged specifically on the number of chips I had. You could obviously argue that its a good idea to know exactly how many chips you have at all times, but I really think I take it to an unhealthy level and it negatively impacts my play, so I tried this philosophy. At any rate, at the peak of my chipstack I'm not 100% sure exactly where I stood, but it was at least 8k, maybe closer to 9, with the average around 3-4. So for the first time in my 4 shots at this tourney I really got to play for a while. And play I did. But then I got my hand slapped. I limped K10 in a blind, and on a flop of KKx, I checked. Mid-position fired at it, I put him all in, and his flush draw got home. I don't remember what he had, but it was two raggy suited cards. That was irritating. I think I had to put in about $2500 on top of his $800 or so original bet, so that was a pretty big blow to my stack. Then not too long after that I get someone all-in w/AJ vs A10 and he gets there, too. He had a pretty small stack, but it was significant enough to sting. Then after that in the 200/400 level I look down and find AK on the button and pump it 3x, and the guy next to me re-raises. This guy was a solid TAG who had been winning big pots with big hands, and I had to fold the AK. So, suddenly, 2/3 of the way through the 2nd hour the blinds and average were going up and my stack was down. And then, to add insult to injury, a table that I was very comfortable at broke, and I moved to the next table with about 4k in chips and blinds at 300/600. I couldn't find a spot to jam, and at the end of the 2nd hour I found myself at 2500 with blinds about to go to 500/1k, and 34 players left. I went and found Rich at the blackjack table and told him the news.
Hour 3 - From Last to Last
So with 2.5 big blinds and 34 players left, I pretty much needed a miracle. If not several. This is probably the hour that I should remember most, but unfortunately I can't tell you a lot about what happened because it was a whirlwind of looking for good cards, pushing & praying, watching the players remaining creep down, then jump down, then not move, then creep down, being down to 14 and hand-for-hand, folding AQs, folding AKo, and all of the sudden there was an all-in AA vs AQ, AQ doesn't improve, AA has him covered, and we're at the final table/in the money. I know I doubled up at least once, because I sucked out A7 vs. A9 (remember, you have to have at least one huge suckout to survive), and I'm pretty sure I doubled up at some other point in the hour, but I can't remember that hand if there was one. But the bottom line is my stack never crawled above 9k with blinds at 500/1k, 1k/2k, 1.5k/3k. A combination of HORRIBLE play by several opponents of varying stack size, a lot of luck, a few chances to scoop, a lot of luck, committed bubble play, and whole lotta luck saw me through to the money. Call it what you will, but I went from probably last or very close to it with 34 left to sliding into the final table, and that is a bonafide achievement.
In the end I played two hands at the final table. Got it in when I was in the big and only had another 500 behind w/J2 against J9 or something and we ended up splitting with two pair on the board. Oops. :-) Then I jammed w/A5 and a guy overjammed and smoked me w/A9. Was hoping to split there, too. I actually wasn't the first to bust, so I was hoping to stay alive one more player and make 2nd money level, but it was not to be.
So, if I get my stack up to 12k or so at a very weak table in the 2nd hour its a completely different tournament, but when I sat down w/2.5 big blinds and 34 players left and managed to survive and stumble onto the final table, I may not have given myself a chance to win, but I'm OK with that. If I pick up the AQ and AK that I folded with 15-20 players left I'm jamming them, but I like my folds when we're on the bubble and in hand-for-hand mode. It was obvious at that point that not a lot of these players understood final stages play, and with a little luck I could survive 4 more players. Last time I played I went out in 14th when I had enough chips to get to the final table and pushed w/K10 and ran into AK, and that plagued me for quite some time, so I was happy to have an opportunity to redeem myself on the bubble and come through successfully. Quite honestly, I was freerolling, and $120 addition to my live bankroll...well...GIVES ME A LIVE BANKROLL, so I'm thrilled with the way things turned out.
Incidentally, my record in that tourney is also pretty impressive. Out of an average of 120 players or so depending on how many alternates they get in, I've gotten 18th, 5th, 14th, and 9th. And the structure is pretty atrocious. At the 1.5k/3k level there was about 83 big blinds at the final table. Anyway, these consistent results make me feel good about my opportunity to get into a good, solid live tournament and perform. And someday that opportunity will come.
So I think that's probably plenty of words for this here entry. I'm gonna publish this thing and move on. Yesterday I started spreadsheets for my live play, online cash, online MTT, and online SNG, and I'm committing myself in 2008 to keeping records, blogging, analyzing myself (probably not to the degree that some do, but blogging period will help me), and getting even and becoming a lifetime winning player and staying that way. While I would've loved to have conquered that home game on Thursday, in the end I turned a profit in all the other live facets, so I can chalk this poker weekend up as successful, and look forward to continuing opportunity to keep headed in the right direction.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully things went your way over the weekend, too. I'll check back soon.
The live action started out Thursday, at a home game, which, quite frankly, I hate. Its not even worth talking about because there was only 4 players (I can't stand tourney structures w/less than 6), and I wasn't in a good mental state because I busted the air dam on my truck turning into the driveway and hitting a pile of snow, plus the players are just plain donkeys. I know I'm supposed to salivate at this fact, but WTF am I supposed to do when a dude calls w/62s UTG and flops a boat against my pocket 8s? I led the action on the first two streets then managed to fold when he fired a big bet on the river. The buddy who brought me thought he hit the K or Q on the turn and river, but I said "Nah, he's had the 6 the whole time and been bleeding me", and then he shows me the flopped boat. I would've respected A6 a lot more, but 26? Gimme a break. Anyway, I had a decent stack for a while, but played too many suited aces and connectors when the blinds were too big, and ended up going out when I had J10 on a board of 8 9 10 7 x and same 62o dude had flopped the joint w/QJ. So I'm now stuck $80 in three visits to that game, and I'm not sure if I'll be making a return, although it will always bug me if I'm a loser in that soft game, so I'm sure I'll keep trying to get better and eventually make another appearance. The guys are good enough, they're just the most annoying poker players I've ever played live poker against.
Friday night was our standard poker night, and after going straight down in the first tourney and getting sucked out on in the 2nd, I persevered in the rebuy and turned a little profit for the night. Good times as usual, but I'm pretty sure I came off as a bit of a whiner. I was already in a bad mood because I had played 4 SNGs on the day and lost on horrendous suckouts in the first two and had less than stellar performance in the other two and took about a $30 hit to the online bankroll, but I'll have to apologize to those guys if I get a chance because even though I was bitchin' and moanin' mostly as a Hellmuthian/Matusowesque joke, I could definitely see where I came off as whiney. In the end the three tight guys cashed in the rebuy, so something was right in the poker world. :-)
Anyway, the real culmination in all of this was the trip to the casino on Sunday. They run a $60 tourney at noon on Sundays, and every once in a while a good buddy and I like to head over there and give it a run. We usually like to get there around 9 and play some cash action as a warmup and to get our line passes for the tourney (waiting in line is ghey), then hit the buffet when they close down the room to get ready for the tourney. So yesterday we made the pilgrimage, along with my brother-in-law, and another good friend from the regular monthly game.
I was on the fence as to whether to play 1/2 NL or 3/6 Limit. Rich said 1/2 or nothing, and I tended to err toward 1/2 myself because I haven't played any Limit since about June. But remember, my last two trips out there saw me losing my buyins to 2-outers, so you could understand why the thought of NL cash would make me nervous. After all, all I really wanted was to sit there long enough to get my line pass.
In the end we settled on 1/2, and they opened up a table where 4 of the 10 were those of us that came together. Initally I had a pretty big beef with this because obviously it limits the stacks you *really* want to put a dent in. At no point did we ever soft play each other, but you certainly want to avoid firing away at a friend's stack if you can. As it turns out, Chris (brother-in-law) doubled when he made aces full against a Q on a board of Q 10 10 A x. Rich took away almost two extra buyins taking people out with AA and KK, and showing down AA uncalled 3 more times. I won my tourney buyin and half a buffet when my AK made trip kings against K10, and I made trip 6s for a little pot. Unfortunately the fourth in the clan went broke not by the hand of any of us, but to have 4 of us sit down at an action packed table and not have to clash, but take about 3 buyins off the table is pretty fortunate. And I got a little 1/2 NL confidence back and was freerolling the tourney, which is a nice feeling.
As for the tourney, it breaks down into a story of three different hours.
Hour 1 - Settle In & See What You Can Do
During the first hour I played about 5 hands and won three of them. I hovered right around the 2k starting mark for most of the hour, and then managed to go to the break with 3200. Most of the hour I spent watching the other players and their tendencies, hands they were showing down (which were hard to come by for a while), and by the end of the hour I had an amazing feel for the table, and a realization that it was pretty weak, and with a few cards I could do some damage. I scooped a pot that was limped in 4 places when I turned a flush, and then also had a heads up pot where I raised PF w/AK and my continuation bet took it down. That kept me around the starting stack until near the end of the hour when I limped in early-mid position w/A10 suited. The flop came something like 5 10 8 rainbow, and the guy next to me bets 200 at it. I called the flop to see what developed in all the other called spots, and everyone else folded. The turn came 6, and this time he bet 600. I had probably 3 times that left, so I needed to stop here and decide just how much I liked my hand, because I needed to fold or play for my stack. He limped just like I did. Now he could have limped with a big pair, but would he? Probably not. He could've limped with a pocket pair and hit a set, but would he bet at it? So basically I've got him beat unless he has a straight or two pair. Which would mean he limped with 7 9, 7 4, 5 8, 8 10, 5 10, 5 6 (somewhat likely), 6 8, 6 10. So given the idea that realistically, unless he played bad preflop (with a big pair) or postflop (with a set), I'm really only afraid of 5 6, and if I'm giving him credit for anything, its K 10/Q 10/J 10, which I'm crushing and could get a call from. So I raised all-in and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't instacall. In fact, he folded, I showed him my A 10, he claimed AQ and flipped me the bird in good fun. Why all this over such a marginal hand? Because I did it. Normally that's a spot where I would rush to judgement and put him on crap with no real analysis and jam into a monster, or give him credit for a monster and fold the best hand. But I knew this was potentially a HUGE spot for me in this tourney and I broke it all down right there at the table. This is yet another step in my philosophical "growing as a poker player" journey, and as minor as it may seem, its significant to me.
Before the hour ended I did give away a double-up, though. With blinds at 75/150 I was sitting in the SB. 5th position makes a raise to 450, and I look down and find JJ. For most this is an automatic call, if not a raise, but for me, all I pictured was a marginal flop and me with no clue what to do. The raiser was a solid TAG and one of two at the table that I had noted to tread lightly around, and I didn't feel like tangoing, so I straight up folded. Flop comes J-high and he c-bets 700. So at the very least I'm making 1300 on that hand. I just struggle so bad with 1010/JJ and whether to raise in x position, how much to raise in x position, whether to call or raise a PF raise, and where I stand after a flop with overs, its definitely a couple of hands I need to focus on improving my play with. In the case of a rare live casino tournament, however, I'm happy to fold that JJ in that spot no matter what the flop...as long as it doesn't have a J. So that left a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth going into the break, but overall I was pleased to be a little above average.
All four of us made it to the break. Rich and I hovering around 3k, and the other two down to 700. They both pushed and prayed in the first 20 mins and went broke, and Richard saw his way out of the room during the 2nd hour as well.
Hour 2 - The Rollercoaster Ride
Like I said, after the first hour I had a pretty good read on my entire table, and in hour two I was ready to take whatever the situations would give me. As it turns out, I didn't have to wait long to redeem myself from the JJ debacle, as less than one orbit into hour two I limped with 10s, flopped a set, got it all in, and managed to survive and stack a flush draw. I had him covered by 300, so that saw me to the 6k mark. After a little rush, including another bustout, I suppose I worked my way up somewhere around 9k. Right or wrong, I was trying not to focus too hard on the exact size of my stack. I feel like I am constantly aware of my chipstack and that I focus too much on what a specific play will do to it when it comes to making decisions, so I tried to stick with approximates, only counting exactly how much I had intermittantly, and when a decision hinged specifically on the number of chips I had. You could obviously argue that its a good idea to know exactly how many chips you have at all times, but I really think I take it to an unhealthy level and it negatively impacts my play, so I tried this philosophy. At any rate, at the peak of my chipstack I'm not 100% sure exactly where I stood, but it was at least 8k, maybe closer to 9, with the average around 3-4. So for the first time in my 4 shots at this tourney I really got to play for a while. And play I did. But then I got my hand slapped. I limped K10 in a blind, and on a flop of KKx, I checked. Mid-position fired at it, I put him all in, and his flush draw got home. I don't remember what he had, but it was two raggy suited cards. That was irritating. I think I had to put in about $2500 on top of his $800 or so original bet, so that was a pretty big blow to my stack. Then not too long after that I get someone all-in w/AJ vs A10 and he gets there, too. He had a pretty small stack, but it was significant enough to sting. Then after that in the 200/400 level I look down and find AK on the button and pump it 3x, and the guy next to me re-raises. This guy was a solid TAG who had been winning big pots with big hands, and I had to fold the AK. So, suddenly, 2/3 of the way through the 2nd hour the blinds and average were going up and my stack was down. And then, to add insult to injury, a table that I was very comfortable at broke, and I moved to the next table with about 4k in chips and blinds at 300/600. I couldn't find a spot to jam, and at the end of the 2nd hour I found myself at 2500 with blinds about to go to 500/1k, and 34 players left. I went and found Rich at the blackjack table and told him the news.
Hour 3 - From Last to Last
So with 2.5 big blinds and 34 players left, I pretty much needed a miracle. If not several. This is probably the hour that I should remember most, but unfortunately I can't tell you a lot about what happened because it was a whirlwind of looking for good cards, pushing & praying, watching the players remaining creep down, then jump down, then not move, then creep down, being down to 14 and hand-for-hand, folding AQs, folding AKo, and all of the sudden there was an all-in AA vs AQ, AQ doesn't improve, AA has him covered, and we're at the final table/in the money. I know I doubled up at least once, because I sucked out A7 vs. A9 (remember, you have to have at least one huge suckout to survive), and I'm pretty sure I doubled up at some other point in the hour, but I can't remember that hand if there was one. But the bottom line is my stack never crawled above 9k with blinds at 500/1k, 1k/2k, 1.5k/3k. A combination of HORRIBLE play by several opponents of varying stack size, a lot of luck, a few chances to scoop, a lot of luck, committed bubble play, and whole lotta luck saw me through to the money. Call it what you will, but I went from probably last or very close to it with 34 left to sliding into the final table, and that is a bonafide achievement.
In the end I played two hands at the final table. Got it in when I was in the big and only had another 500 behind w/J2 against J9 or something and we ended up splitting with two pair on the board. Oops. :-) Then I jammed w/A5 and a guy overjammed and smoked me w/A9. Was hoping to split there, too. I actually wasn't the first to bust, so I was hoping to stay alive one more player and make 2nd money level, but it was not to be.
So, if I get my stack up to 12k or so at a very weak table in the 2nd hour its a completely different tournament, but when I sat down w/2.5 big blinds and 34 players left and managed to survive and stumble onto the final table, I may not have given myself a chance to win, but I'm OK with that. If I pick up the AQ and AK that I folded with 15-20 players left I'm jamming them, but I like my folds when we're on the bubble and in hand-for-hand mode. It was obvious at that point that not a lot of these players understood final stages play, and with a little luck I could survive 4 more players. Last time I played I went out in 14th when I had enough chips to get to the final table and pushed w/K10 and ran into AK, and that plagued me for quite some time, so I was happy to have an opportunity to redeem myself on the bubble and come through successfully. Quite honestly, I was freerolling, and $120 addition to my live bankroll...well...GIVES ME A LIVE BANKROLL, so I'm thrilled with the way things turned out.
Incidentally, my record in that tourney is also pretty impressive. Out of an average of 120 players or so depending on how many alternates they get in, I've gotten 18th, 5th, 14th, and 9th. And the structure is pretty atrocious. At the 1.5k/3k level there was about 83 big blinds at the final table. Anyway, these consistent results make me feel good about my opportunity to get into a good, solid live tournament and perform. And someday that opportunity will come.
So I think that's probably plenty of words for this here entry. I'm gonna publish this thing and move on. Yesterday I started spreadsheets for my live play, online cash, online MTT, and online SNG, and I'm committing myself in 2008 to keeping records, blogging, analyzing myself (probably not to the degree that some do, but blogging period will help me), and getting even and becoming a lifetime winning player and staying that way. While I would've loved to have conquered that home game on Thursday, in the end I turned a profit in all the other live facets, so I can chalk this poker weekend up as successful, and look forward to continuing opportunity to keep headed in the right direction.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully things went your way over the weekend, too. I'll check back soon.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Super Hot
A picture says a thousand words. Which is good, because then I don't have to type them and you don't have to read them...
That Recent Results list doesn't even show the full extent. I'm *at least* 9 of my last 10, if not better.
Life is good. Poker is fun. I never thought I'd see the day again.
Here's to hoping it continues. I've got a big poker week coming up this week, with a return appearance to a soft rebuy tourney home game (where I'm actually stuck 3 buy-ins in 2 visits) on Thursday, the monthly game Friday, and then a live MTT at the local casino on Sunday. Maybe...*just maybe*...I'm on a bonafide rush, or at least running statistically normal...*gasp*...and will be able to make something out of some great opportunities to play cards.
Not sure how much I'll play online this week since the wife is letting me out of the house three times in four days for cards, but I'll try and report in with anything noteable. Full Tilt sent me a $75 bonus, but I'm broke on the site, have to claim it by 11:59 tonight, and only have 10 days to clear it. Talk about horrible timing. So I'm sure I'll claim it and see what I can make of it somehow. Seriously, if anyone would accept a PayPal transfer for a Full Tilt transfer (I'm thinking like $55), I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for the read. Hope all is well for everyone with eyes on these words!
That Recent Results list doesn't even show the full extent. I'm *at least* 9 of my last 10, if not better.
Life is good. Poker is fun. I never thought I'd see the day again.
Here's to hoping it continues. I've got a big poker week coming up this week, with a return appearance to a soft rebuy tourney home game (where I'm actually stuck 3 buy-ins in 2 visits) on Thursday, the monthly game Friday, and then a live MTT at the local casino on Sunday. Maybe...*just maybe*...I'm on a bonafide rush, or at least running statistically normal...*gasp*...and will be able to make something out of some great opportunities to play cards.
Not sure how much I'll play online this week since the wife is letting me out of the house three times in four days for cards, but I'll try and report in with anything noteable. Full Tilt sent me a $75 bonus, but I'm broke on the site, have to claim it by 11:59 tonight, and only have 10 days to clear it. Talk about horrible timing. So I'm sure I'll claim it and see what I can make of it somehow. Seriously, if anyone would accept a PayPal transfer for a Full Tilt transfer (I'm thinking like $55), I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks for the read. Hope all is well for everyone with eyes on these words!
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Reflection
So, looking back on last night's debacle, I have allowed myself some forgiveness.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still disgusted and realize I played some of the worst poker the world's ever seen.
BUT...uncharted territory breeds mistakes.
I'd NEVER had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game, and instead of playing like that wasn't true, I played just like I'd never had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game. Last I knew I was on a rush, so of course I'm going to put someone all-in w/AK for 6k. Cuz I had that luxury. Next time I may think a little longer about it. By no means should I stop playing on a big stack, but in that spot *I'm* not the one who needs to make a move, so I need to think about if I want to potentially flip coins to the benefit of my opponent, or look at a flop and get it in the middle when I know I've got 'em.
My single biggest mistake was the resteal w/A5o. Some would argue that that's a perfect spot for the resteal, with a big stack and a VERY stealy looking situation, but for starters, the resteal is not a move I have spent a lot of time on, so in that spot I should let him have my 100 chips and pick a better time. Plus, all I was thinking about was picking off this guy's steal and how awesome I'd be and had NO plan for if he called or raised and how I'd be in deep shit.
I've never been in that kind of a dominating position, so of course I didn't know how to react. Every hand in this game provides an opportunity to learn, and sometimes its gonna be learning the hard way. Now next time I find myself fortunate enough to amass a big stack, I'll think about this disaster, and hopefully won't make the same mistakes.
Busting on the bubble was also a pretty bone-headed move that really irritates me. Not so much because after all that I could've gotten a refund and an opportunity to move past this and try again, but moreso because I could've made it 6 straight MTT cashes, which is a bonafide accomplishment. But at that point I'd already screwed up so bad, 1) who's surprised, and 2) what's one more huge mistake? To my credit, though, here I found myself in the SB again with the pot folded around to the button, who made a 3x raise, and I'm holding KJ. If I wanted to cash, its a relatively easy fold, but if I wanted to win, that's too good a situation not to get it all in the middle. He could have any 2 there. I miss my cashing streak, though.
So I still can't stop thinking about this, and won't be able to until I've avenged it, but I am allowing myself some forgiveness, because nobody can be expected to do something right the first time, and looking back I found myself in stunned disbelief when I saw the size of my stack and the fact that I was in 10th place out of 1k. In my mind, I'd already reached the pinnacle, and all I saw was the final table and a three to four figure payday. I checked out. Because I'd never been there, and even this point was an accomplishishment unlike any other I'd ever had. In reality, I still had about three hours of hard work left and over 900 people gunning for my chips, and my rush was over. I was really just getting started.
So this time I can forgive myself and learn a lesson. Next time, though...there are expectations that I intend to meet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still disgusted and realize I played some of the worst poker the world's ever seen.
BUT...uncharted territory breeds mistakes.
I'd NEVER had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game, and instead of playing like that wasn't true, I played just like I'd never had a 119 big blind tournament stack since I started this game. Last I knew I was on a rush, so of course I'm going to put someone all-in w/AK for 6k. Cuz I had that luxury. Next time I may think a little longer about it. By no means should I stop playing on a big stack, but in that spot *I'm* not the one who needs to make a move, so I need to think about if I want to potentially flip coins to the benefit of my opponent, or look at a flop and get it in the middle when I know I've got 'em.
My single biggest mistake was the resteal w/A5o. Some would argue that that's a perfect spot for the resteal, with a big stack and a VERY stealy looking situation, but for starters, the resteal is not a move I have spent a lot of time on, so in that spot I should let him have my 100 chips and pick a better time. Plus, all I was thinking about was picking off this guy's steal and how awesome I'd be and had NO plan for if he called or raised and how I'd be in deep shit.
I've never been in that kind of a dominating position, so of course I didn't know how to react. Every hand in this game provides an opportunity to learn, and sometimes its gonna be learning the hard way. Now next time I find myself fortunate enough to amass a big stack, I'll think about this disaster, and hopefully won't make the same mistakes.
Busting on the bubble was also a pretty bone-headed move that really irritates me. Not so much because after all that I could've gotten a refund and an opportunity to move past this and try again, but moreso because I could've made it 6 straight MTT cashes, which is a bonafide accomplishment. But at that point I'd already screwed up so bad, 1) who's surprised, and 2) what's one more huge mistake? To my credit, though, here I found myself in the SB again with the pot folded around to the button, who made a 3x raise, and I'm holding KJ. If I wanted to cash, its a relatively easy fold, but if I wanted to win, that's too good a situation not to get it all in the middle. He could have any 2 there. I miss my cashing streak, though.
So I still can't stop thinking about this, and won't be able to until I've avenged it, but I am allowing myself some forgiveness, because nobody can be expected to do something right the first time, and looking back I found myself in stunned disbelief when I saw the size of my stack and the fact that I was in 10th place out of 1k. In my mind, I'd already reached the pinnacle, and all I saw was the final table and a three to four figure payday. I checked out. Because I'd never been there, and even this point was an accomplishishment unlike any other I'd ever had. In reality, I still had about three hours of hard work left and over 900 people gunning for my chips, and my rush was over. I was really just getting started.
So this time I can forgive myself and learn a lesson. Next time, though...there are expectations that I intend to meet.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I am a Big, Fat, Stinkin' Donkey
The title pretty much sums it up. Tonight was my chance, and I flat out blew in about as donkeriffic fashion as you can blow it.
So I got into the 20k at 6 Central like I had hoped. Things were going along decently...just picking up a few little pots and looking for a real hand. And then it came. I limped UTG with KQo, and then called a late position raise. I flopped open-ended and the third nut flush draw, and bet at it. I was raised, and took one off. I then turned broadway. Here I jammed, and villian used almost all of his time bank before he finally called w/QQ, drawing to 2 outs for a split. The K on the river made his gutshot, but made my flush, and here I found myself more than healthy with over 9k. From that point I catapulted unlike I've ever catapulted before, hitting probably the biggest rush of my life, and before I knew it, I was sitting on a 24k stack w/blinds at 100/200. Yes, 119 big blinds! And I was sitting in 10th out of 1k players left. My best position that early in an MTT ever, by far. And I thought, an opportunity nearly impossible for me to give away, given my tight tendencies.
Then just as quickly as I got there, the bottom dropped out.
There was a hand where UTG min-raised, and I had AK in the big blind, so I re-raised him all-in and his pocket pair held up. Down to 18k. But I'll make that play pretty much every time there. A short time later I was in the small blind and it folded around to the button, who made a stealy looking raise, like he had appared to be doing in position quite often. With A5o, I decided to put him to the test, and popped it 3x his raise on a pure resteal. He then jammed, and I was facing a call of 4k into a 12k pot. I didn't see how I could fold, but I'm pretty sure this is a 3:1 call you have to get away from. He showed 9s, flopped a set, and now I'm down to 10k. A while after that I was sitting on QQ in the small blind. Someone min-raises to 800 from EP. Queens have been brutal to me lately, so proceeding cautiously, I just call in the small blind. Big blind then jams his 2500, EP calls, then I don't see any options other than to rejam in my spot and try to get heads up. I know that I'm usually behind someone here, but with QQ on a pathetic stack with about 6k already in the pot, I don't see myself folding there a lot. Maybe I need to. Thankfully, EP folded, but BB has KK, and now I am at just over 10x BBs. From 119. To 10.
So a bit after this we go into the 2nd break and are approaching the bubble. I make a couple of post-break jams that aren't called, and as we rapidly approach the bubble I am actually finding myself in comfortable position to cash. Who would have thought...after all this, I'm gonna make $4 and keep my cashing streak in tact. Oh, but wait. I had more horrible poker to play. With blinds having just changed to 400/800/75, I find myself in the small blind w/KJo. And yet again, I'm faced with a folded pot to the button, who raises. Instead of just folding to the money, I still have dillusional thoughts of winning, and I jam my KJo. Button calls with A5o (Ironically, the hand I donked off half my stack to him earlier with) and proceeds to end up with queens full of aces.
I go home in 527th out of 3k, a mere 14 spots short of the money. And to further illustrate just how deplorable my fall from grace was, the average stack was still not yet at 24k. If I'd have just locked it down, I'd have still been living large.
Tell me that is not THE MOST pathetic display of poker you have ever had the gut wrenching torture of hearing about. I've been sick to my stomach ever since I called an all-in w/A5o and knew that something in my poker playing psyche had short-circuted.
In the end I broke even on the night with a couple of SNG cashes so I may be able to get to sleep tonight, but to think of the missed opportunity and what might have been is going to haunt me for some time to come. This was the chance I've been playing 3+ years for, and I gave it all away.
This is my attempt to cleanse, though. Its all out here in the open, nothing about it can be changed now, and I just have to get back in the tourney and try again and do better next time. Because there is a next time. I just may have to persevere a while to get back there.
G'night.
So I got into the 20k at 6 Central like I had hoped. Things were going along decently...just picking up a few little pots and looking for a real hand. And then it came. I limped UTG with KQo, and then called a late position raise. I flopped open-ended and the third nut flush draw, and bet at it. I was raised, and took one off. I then turned broadway. Here I jammed, and villian used almost all of his time bank before he finally called w/QQ, drawing to 2 outs for a split. The K on the river made his gutshot, but made my flush, and here I found myself more than healthy with over 9k. From that point I catapulted unlike I've ever catapulted before, hitting probably the biggest rush of my life, and before I knew it, I was sitting on a 24k stack w/blinds at 100/200. Yes, 119 big blinds! And I was sitting in 10th out of 1k players left. My best position that early in an MTT ever, by far. And I thought, an opportunity nearly impossible for me to give away, given my tight tendencies.
Then just as quickly as I got there, the bottom dropped out.
There was a hand where UTG min-raised, and I had AK in the big blind, so I re-raised him all-in and his pocket pair held up. Down to 18k. But I'll make that play pretty much every time there. A short time later I was in the small blind and it folded around to the button, who made a stealy looking raise, like he had appared to be doing in position quite often. With A5o, I decided to put him to the test, and popped it 3x his raise on a pure resteal. He then jammed, and I was facing a call of 4k into a 12k pot. I didn't see how I could fold, but I'm pretty sure this is a 3:1 call you have to get away from. He showed 9s, flopped a set, and now I'm down to 10k. A while after that I was sitting on QQ in the small blind. Someone min-raises to 800 from EP. Queens have been brutal to me lately, so proceeding cautiously, I just call in the small blind. Big blind then jams his 2500, EP calls, then I don't see any options other than to rejam in my spot and try to get heads up. I know that I'm usually behind someone here, but with QQ on a pathetic stack with about 6k already in the pot, I don't see myself folding there a lot. Maybe I need to. Thankfully, EP folded, but BB has KK, and now I am at just over 10x BBs. From 119. To 10.
So a bit after this we go into the 2nd break and are approaching the bubble. I make a couple of post-break jams that aren't called, and as we rapidly approach the bubble I am actually finding myself in comfortable position to cash. Who would have thought...after all this, I'm gonna make $4 and keep my cashing streak in tact. Oh, but wait. I had more horrible poker to play. With blinds having just changed to 400/800/75, I find myself in the small blind w/KJo. And yet again, I'm faced with a folded pot to the button, who raises. Instead of just folding to the money, I still have dillusional thoughts of winning, and I jam my KJo. Button calls with A5o (Ironically, the hand I donked off half my stack to him earlier with) and proceeds to end up with queens full of aces.
I go home in 527th out of 3k, a mere 14 spots short of the money. And to further illustrate just how deplorable my fall from grace was, the average stack was still not yet at 24k. If I'd have just locked it down, I'd have still been living large.
Tell me that is not THE MOST pathetic display of poker you have ever had the gut wrenching torture of hearing about. I've been sick to my stomach ever since I called an all-in w/A5o and knew that something in my poker playing psyche had short-circuted.
In the end I broke even on the night with a couple of SNG cashes so I may be able to get to sleep tonight, but to think of the missed opportunity and what might have been is going to haunt me for some time to come. This was the chance I've been playing 3+ years for, and I gave it all away.
This is my attempt to cleanse, though. Its all out here in the open, nothing about it can be changed now, and I just have to get back in the tourney and try again and do better next time. Because there is a next time. I just may have to persevere a while to get back there.
G'night.
(Poker)Stars Aligning??
Greetings, fellow degenerates. I am back yet again to test the blogging waters and tempt fate by reporting on just how the virtual felt is treating me.
But first, I have to welcome my very first official sponsor. The unbelievably kind folks at FlopTurnRiver.com have put their faith in my little blog to help grow their business, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to see to it that that happens. The site has a RIDICULOUS amount of poker content that is valuable whether you've been playing for 10 years or 10 minutes. They've got poker news, forums, strategy, blogs, reviews, bonus codes, a chat room, and info on tools, supplies, books, and a billion other things. Literally I have got to believe anything, or at the very least links to anything you could ever need as a poker player. Yeah, maybe I'm a sellout shill now, but for a blogger who needs a kick in the pants in multiple ways, its nice to get an email from a reputable site such as FlopTurnRiver who wants to make an investment in you as a blogger, and inherently as a player. Thanks to Tyson and the whole crew over there. I'll do my best.
Now, how about some poker?
I feel like I've gotten a fresh start at PokerStars, and I feel like I've gotten a fresh start with my blog, which means I'm going to step out on the edge, throw caution to the wind, and just...f*cking...blog.
Things continue to go well for me at Stars. I was a little scared for a while because yet again I had a whole day off to play poker on 1/21, and yet again, I played break even/losing poker. I think I go into poker overload when I have those kinds of opportunities, though. I get this mentality like "well you've got all day to win, lets mix things up and play some all or nothing poker", then all of the sudden its into the afternoon and you're chasing the losses you've accumulated. And I realize, when it comes to SNGs, there's absolutely no reason to play any differently at any time. All you can do is win or lose a little faster, but there's really no good argument for playing faster if you have a strategy that works. So I swear, next time I have this opportunity, I'm gonna stick to what works and hope for the best.
It was kinda funny, though. My plan for the day was to get up with my wife, who didn't have the day off, and make and eat a good breakfast, get a roast in the crock pot for supper, work out, and then poker it up. Well, the french toast wasn't really sitting right, so I decided I'd work out later. And then by the time the 5k started up @ noon and I had intentions of running deep, I was of the mindset "well, I can get away with not working out today". Turns out PokerStars is an advocate of my health, because at about 3:00 I got a 5 minute cold-decking that busted my 13 or so big blind stack out of the 5k in 2 hands holding KJ vs KQ and K9 vs KJ, and busted me on the bubble of the SNG I was playing w/AK vs A4. He hit trip 4s. So that was PokerStars way of telling me to get my ass on the ellyptical machine. And I did.
So after that day, I had to refocus, and have had some outstanding results. I played three SNGs last Thursday. The first was a 5.50 single table where I saw my QQ get beat by AJ early, and then as I was about to double into good shape approaching the bubble my AA fell to QQ when he rivered his set. Not a good start. But I saddled up to another 5.50 single table and won it, and as I played those two I played a 1.20 two table SNG and took 2nd there. So overall very positive results for that night and I was back in business.
Only other opportunity I've had to play since then was on Sunday morning, where I came from a 450 stack @ 50/100 blinds to win a 5.50 single table SNG. This was probably my proudest poker accomplisment in recent history, although it kinda took care of itself. I actually got to the short stack by making a pretty marginal play losing to AJ w/KJ on a J-high board. Villian raised on the short stack UTG, and I was in the SB. I didn't have him on a high pocket pair and wanted to give him enough credit to expect a raise from AK/AQ/KQs and mid-high pocket pairs. Obviously at this level AJ is a possibility, but I feel like it was more of a cold deck than anything. Anyway, that put me on the short stack and within a few minutes/orbits I'd be looking for a spot to jam. I eventually did jam with a 70/30 advantage, but lost to a guy who had gotten shorter than me, thus I found myself on the 450 stack. I promptly picked up KK and doubled, then I got my suckout revenge when A4 outran AJ, and all of the sudden I was relatively healthy. I bullied the bubble as best I could, and before long we found ourselves in the money @ about 5k to 5k to 3.5k. Not too long into the money battle, with blinds at 200/400/25, I called a 3x raise in the big blind from the short stack/SB w/KQc. Flop came all clubs and he jammed into my 2nd nuts w/TP, 2nd kicker. That won't cut it. So with more than 30 big blinds still in play I was ready for a relatively extensive heads up match. Except that <10 hands in I flopped 7s full holding 76o and he bet 1200, 1600, and all-in on each of the streets. So twice I flop the 2nd nuts, and twice they're betting into me. I haven't had luck like that in MONTHS. Its nice to be having fun playing poker again.
One final note, I've cashed in the last 5 MTTs I've played! I played the 5k guarantee on 1/13 and 1/21 and doubled my money in both (hey, a cash is a cash), and of course I wouldn't even have a bankroll on Stars if it weren't for cashing in those two Negreanu freerolls back in December. This, although the actual winnings is nothing to write home about, is a REMARKABLE accomplishment for me. My biggest hurdle is that I still struggle through the middle stages of MTTs. I've been fortunate to be able to amass some chips early in most cases which generally is enough to have me limping through the bubble, but then once the bubble bursts I'm pretty much always in push or fold mode. I need to work through figuring out spots in the middle stages of tourneys to pick up chips without having hands. I seem to run into a lot of big stacks that will risk a lot of chips to float and try to grow their stacks even more. I don't know if I need to find 2nd and 3rd bullets when I have a hand and miss or am in position or just be more focused on sniffing out spots to steal and maintain or grow my stack that way. Regardless, I've had a real MTT itch lately, so its been nice to get into MTTs and have some success. I'm thinking about playing my first $11k Guarantee tonight @ 6 Central, but that's technically still just outside my bankroll, so we'll see what I decide.
So, overall, Stars is treating me well. I am adequately bankrolled for $5.50 SNGs, and just shy of breaking back through to the $11 level. I feel like I'm playing really well. I'm distinctly noticing spots where in a past poker playing life I would've gone broke but now I'm getting away, or in the past I'd have left chips in the middle where now I get them in my stack, and in my opinion these are the two fundamental mountains to climb to move from weak/tight to tight/aggressive. Its about giving up a good hand when its not the best hand and not getting married to it, and firing at pots when you don't always have the best hand and picking up orphaned chips. So I'm feeling good. I'll continue to work hard on fine tuning these two skills, and I'm also going to look to play more deep stack MTTs and go after that big score that I'm missing, continue to work on cash (I'm a pretty decent winner over the past few weeks at .01/.02 NL :-) ), and figure out a way to get some money back on Full Tilt. Would anybody be willing to accept a PayPal transfer in exchange for a transfer on Full Tilt? I know I *can* get money on the site, but I'd prefer to not actually break the law if I don't have to.
I think that's plenty for today. Again, welcome and thank you to FlopTurnRiver.com, and hope the cards are treating everyone reading this well!
But first, I have to welcome my very first official sponsor. The unbelievably kind folks at FlopTurnRiver.com have put their faith in my little blog to help grow their business, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to see to it that that happens. The site has a RIDICULOUS amount of poker content that is valuable whether you've been playing for 10 years or 10 minutes. They've got poker news, forums, strategy, blogs, reviews, bonus codes, a chat room, and info on tools, supplies, books, and a billion other things. Literally I have got to believe anything, or at the very least links to anything you could ever need as a poker player. Yeah, maybe I'm a sellout shill now, but for a blogger who needs a kick in the pants in multiple ways, its nice to get an email from a reputable site such as FlopTurnRiver who wants to make an investment in you as a blogger, and inherently as a player. Thanks to Tyson and the whole crew over there. I'll do my best.
Now, how about some poker?
I feel like I've gotten a fresh start at PokerStars, and I feel like I've gotten a fresh start with my blog, which means I'm going to step out on the edge, throw caution to the wind, and just...f*cking...blog.
Things continue to go well for me at Stars. I was a little scared for a while because yet again I had a whole day off to play poker on 1/21, and yet again, I played break even/losing poker. I think I go into poker overload when I have those kinds of opportunities, though. I get this mentality like "well you've got all day to win, lets mix things up and play some all or nothing poker", then all of the sudden its into the afternoon and you're chasing the losses you've accumulated. And I realize, when it comes to SNGs, there's absolutely no reason to play any differently at any time. All you can do is win or lose a little faster, but there's really no good argument for playing faster if you have a strategy that works. So I swear, next time I have this opportunity, I'm gonna stick to what works and hope for the best.
It was kinda funny, though. My plan for the day was to get up with my wife, who didn't have the day off, and make and eat a good breakfast, get a roast in the crock pot for supper, work out, and then poker it up. Well, the french toast wasn't really sitting right, so I decided I'd work out later. And then by the time the 5k started up @ noon and I had intentions of running deep, I was of the mindset "well, I can get away with not working out today". Turns out PokerStars is an advocate of my health, because at about 3:00 I got a 5 minute cold-decking that busted my 13 or so big blind stack out of the 5k in 2 hands holding KJ vs KQ and K9 vs KJ, and busted me on the bubble of the SNG I was playing w/AK vs A4. He hit trip 4s. So that was PokerStars way of telling me to get my ass on the ellyptical machine. And I did.
So after that day, I had to refocus, and have had some outstanding results. I played three SNGs last Thursday. The first was a 5.50 single table where I saw my QQ get beat by AJ early, and then as I was about to double into good shape approaching the bubble my AA fell to QQ when he rivered his set. Not a good start. But I saddled up to another 5.50 single table and won it, and as I played those two I played a 1.20 two table SNG and took 2nd there. So overall very positive results for that night and I was back in business.
Only other opportunity I've had to play since then was on Sunday morning, where I came from a 450 stack @ 50/100 blinds to win a 5.50 single table SNG. This was probably my proudest poker accomplisment in recent history, although it kinda took care of itself. I actually got to the short stack by making a pretty marginal play losing to AJ w/KJ on a J-high board. Villian raised on the short stack UTG, and I was in the SB. I didn't have him on a high pocket pair and wanted to give him enough credit to expect a raise from AK/AQ/KQs and mid-high pocket pairs. Obviously at this level AJ is a possibility, but I feel like it was more of a cold deck than anything. Anyway, that put me on the short stack and within a few minutes/orbits I'd be looking for a spot to jam. I eventually did jam with a 70/30 advantage, but lost to a guy who had gotten shorter than me, thus I found myself on the 450 stack. I promptly picked up KK and doubled, then I got my suckout revenge when A4 outran AJ, and all of the sudden I was relatively healthy. I bullied the bubble as best I could, and before long we found ourselves in the money @ about 5k to 5k to 3.5k. Not too long into the money battle, with blinds at 200/400/25, I called a 3x raise in the big blind from the short stack/SB w/KQc. Flop came all clubs and he jammed into my 2nd nuts w/TP, 2nd kicker. That won't cut it. So with more than 30 big blinds still in play I was ready for a relatively extensive heads up match. Except that <10 hands in I flopped 7s full holding 76o and he bet 1200, 1600, and all-in on each of the streets. So twice I flop the 2nd nuts, and twice they're betting into me. I haven't had luck like that in MONTHS. Its nice to be having fun playing poker again.
One final note, I've cashed in the last 5 MTTs I've played! I played the 5k guarantee on 1/13 and 1/21 and doubled my money in both (hey, a cash is a cash), and of course I wouldn't even have a bankroll on Stars if it weren't for cashing in those two Negreanu freerolls back in December. This, although the actual winnings is nothing to write home about, is a REMARKABLE accomplishment for me. My biggest hurdle is that I still struggle through the middle stages of MTTs. I've been fortunate to be able to amass some chips early in most cases which generally is enough to have me limping through the bubble, but then once the bubble bursts I'm pretty much always in push or fold mode. I need to work through figuring out spots in the middle stages of tourneys to pick up chips without having hands. I seem to run into a lot of big stacks that will risk a lot of chips to float and try to grow their stacks even more. I don't know if I need to find 2nd and 3rd bullets when I have a hand and miss or am in position or just be more focused on sniffing out spots to steal and maintain or grow my stack that way. Regardless, I've had a real MTT itch lately, so its been nice to get into MTTs and have some success. I'm thinking about playing my first $11k Guarantee tonight @ 6 Central, but that's technically still just outside my bankroll, so we'll see what I decide.
So, overall, Stars is treating me well. I am adequately bankrolled for $5.50 SNGs, and just shy of breaking back through to the $11 level. I feel like I'm playing really well. I'm distinctly noticing spots where in a past poker playing life I would've gone broke but now I'm getting away, or in the past I'd have left chips in the middle where now I get them in my stack, and in my opinion these are the two fundamental mountains to climb to move from weak/tight to tight/aggressive. Its about giving up a good hand when its not the best hand and not getting married to it, and firing at pots when you don't always have the best hand and picking up orphaned chips. So I'm feeling good. I'll continue to work hard on fine tuning these two skills, and I'm also going to look to play more deep stack MTTs and go after that big score that I'm missing, continue to work on cash (I'm a pretty decent winner over the past few weeks at .01/.02 NL :-) ), and figure out a way to get some money back on Full Tilt. Would anybody be willing to accept a PayPal transfer in exchange for a transfer on Full Tilt? I know I *can* get money on the site, but I'd prefer to not actually break the law if I don't have to.
I think that's plenty for today. Again, welcome and thank you to FlopTurnRiver.com, and hope the cards are treating everyone reading this well!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Here's the Scoop
Heyo. I apologize to my (three) loyal blog readers for lack of posts.
In this post I come clean. I have a dirty little secret. Ok, that sounds kinda perverted. I have a little bit of a shameful secret.
I am superstitious. Or however you spell it.
At any rate, my lack of posting isn't due to lack of hands, lack of time, or even necessarily lack of success. It has to do with the fact that it seems like every time I post about running good, some sort of funked up poker karma whoops my ass at the tables. If you'll notice, I tread very lightly when I talk about success because I don't want to sound like I'm bragging. I try and be humble as I can be, as if to hide from this blogwatching gremlin who works for the RNGs at the poker sites that will skew them out of my favor at the very hint of good fortune, confidence, or pride. And yet any time I speak even a little about success, things turn upside down for me. And I guess I am just superstitious (crazy) enough to think that somehow this has an impact on my results, and therefore I'm in this blogging vicious circle where I don't feel like posting when I'm running bad, and I don't wanna post when I'm running good for fear of ruining it. Its fun living in my head, folks.
So for the time being, I wanted to notify you all that I am officially on hiatus until this little poker hobby of mine decides to get off the rollercoaster and go one way or the other. I guess one thing's for sure, I won't be getting off the blogger Z-list for quite some time. Oh, well...
Here's the short answer. I'm all but broke at Full Tilt. I have no useable amount of cash (like .92 or something), and I have like 300-some Full Tilt points that I will probably try and parlay into something at some point, but I mean come on...how likely is it that I'll do anything with them? So, simply because I would like to play at Full Tilt and be earning rakeback if I can, I have a deal with my brother-in-law to transfer me the difference between what I have and a $2.25 SNG out of his measly bankroll, and in exchange, I'll send him enough on PokerStars, where *he* doesn't have any money, for a $1.20 SNG or two. But he plays about once a month, so who knows when this little deal will actually come to fruition. At any rate, I'm not horribly optimistic about success at Full Tilt anytime soon, because as you know I haven't been able to do one thing right at that site since May.
As far as PokerStars, I love playing at PokerStars on my Mac, and that is where I'm doing my playing these days. Turns out I love the site. I always liked Full Tilt because it was more visually appealing to me from the interface to the logo to the gear worn on TV, and all the big name pros they had in their stable. So from a marketing standpoint, they had me hook, line, and sinker. Damn you, marketing gurus!! Turns out PokerStars seems to be more focused on game quality and is much more of a poker player's poker site. Their SNG structure absolutely thumps that of Full Tilt (and of course you know I'd like to think SNGs are where I'm known to be cutting my teeth), and even the .01/.02 NL cash games seem to play astoundingly straight up, and doesn't consist of 7 all-ins every hand like you'd expect. Turns out the game choice, structure, and opponent quality at PokerStars suit me way better. Lets just not think about how if I were *really* a good player I'd be able to adjust my strategy to win at Full Tilt. We'll save that for when I have a bankroll with some wiggle room in it.
At any rate, about the only thing I think Full Tilt has on PokerStars is their top notch tourney satelliting setup. In the little research I'm done, Stars only seems to have satellites to the Sunday Million and their other big tournaments, whereas Full Tilt has a killer thing going with basing a lot of what they do around the ability to earn and use the $26 and $75 token to do almost anything you could ever want. Of course, the ideal setup would be to have money on both, but I'll worry about crossing that bridge when...well...when I have the materials to build it.
So, for now I am playing on my $3.50 in freeroll winnings at PokerStars and working on my own little Chris Ferguson challenge, and I'll just say this...I have more than $3.50, and less than Chris Ferguson. And I feel like I'm playing really, really well.
Now there goes the little gremlin off to report me to the PokerStars RNG. *sigh*
So thank you to those of you that have checked in on me to make sure I was still alive. I am. I'm still playing, I'm still working hard, and I'm still enjoying the turn of every card. Its just that whether I'm winning or losing, I'm currently not posting. I'll do my best to keep checking in, but until I feel like I can't pop open PokerStars and lose my bankroll in a day or less, expect my posting to be sparse. Because I'm just that looney.
Best of luck to all of you, and thanks again for your thoughts and patronage!
In this post I come clean. I have a dirty little secret. Ok, that sounds kinda perverted. I have a little bit of a shameful secret.
I am superstitious. Or however you spell it.
At any rate, my lack of posting isn't due to lack of hands, lack of time, or even necessarily lack of success. It has to do with the fact that it seems like every time I post about running good, some sort of funked up poker karma whoops my ass at the tables. If you'll notice, I tread very lightly when I talk about success because I don't want to sound like I'm bragging. I try and be humble as I can be, as if to hide from this blogwatching gremlin who works for the RNGs at the poker sites that will skew them out of my favor at the very hint of good fortune, confidence, or pride. And yet any time I speak even a little about success, things turn upside down for me. And I guess I am just superstitious (crazy) enough to think that somehow this has an impact on my results, and therefore I'm in this blogging vicious circle where I don't feel like posting when I'm running bad, and I don't wanna post when I'm running good for fear of ruining it. Its fun living in my head, folks.
So for the time being, I wanted to notify you all that I am officially on hiatus until this little poker hobby of mine decides to get off the rollercoaster and go one way or the other. I guess one thing's for sure, I won't be getting off the blogger Z-list for quite some time. Oh, well...
Here's the short answer. I'm all but broke at Full Tilt. I have no useable amount of cash (like .92 or something), and I have like 300-some Full Tilt points that I will probably try and parlay into something at some point, but I mean come on...how likely is it that I'll do anything with them? So, simply because I would like to play at Full Tilt and be earning rakeback if I can, I have a deal with my brother-in-law to transfer me the difference between what I have and a $2.25 SNG out of his measly bankroll, and in exchange, I'll send him enough on PokerStars, where *he* doesn't have any money, for a $1.20 SNG or two. But he plays about once a month, so who knows when this little deal will actually come to fruition. At any rate, I'm not horribly optimistic about success at Full Tilt anytime soon, because as you know I haven't been able to do one thing right at that site since May.
As far as PokerStars, I love playing at PokerStars on my Mac, and that is where I'm doing my playing these days. Turns out I love the site. I always liked Full Tilt because it was more visually appealing to me from the interface to the logo to the gear worn on TV, and all the big name pros they had in their stable. So from a marketing standpoint, they had me hook, line, and sinker. Damn you, marketing gurus!! Turns out PokerStars seems to be more focused on game quality and is much more of a poker player's poker site. Their SNG structure absolutely thumps that of Full Tilt (and of course you know I'd like to think SNGs are where I'm known to be cutting my teeth), and even the .01/.02 NL cash games seem to play astoundingly straight up, and doesn't consist of 7 all-ins every hand like you'd expect. Turns out the game choice, structure, and opponent quality at PokerStars suit me way better. Lets just not think about how if I were *really* a good player I'd be able to adjust my strategy to win at Full Tilt. We'll save that for when I have a bankroll with some wiggle room in it.
At any rate, about the only thing I think Full Tilt has on PokerStars is their top notch tourney satelliting setup. In the little research I'm done, Stars only seems to have satellites to the Sunday Million and their other big tournaments, whereas Full Tilt has a killer thing going with basing a lot of what they do around the ability to earn and use the $26 and $75 token to do almost anything you could ever want. Of course, the ideal setup would be to have money on both, but I'll worry about crossing that bridge when...well...when I have the materials to build it.
So, for now I am playing on my $3.50 in freeroll winnings at PokerStars and working on my own little Chris Ferguson challenge, and I'll just say this...I have more than $3.50, and less than Chris Ferguson. And I feel like I'm playing really, really well.
Now there goes the little gremlin off to report me to the PokerStars RNG. *sigh*
So thank you to those of you that have checked in on me to make sure I was still alive. I am. I'm still playing, I'm still working hard, and I'm still enjoying the turn of every card. Its just that whether I'm winning or losing, I'm currently not posting. I'll do my best to keep checking in, but until I feel like I can't pop open PokerStars and lose my bankroll in a day or less, expect my posting to be sparse. Because I'm just that looney.
Best of luck to all of you, and thanks again for your thoughts and patronage!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
PokerStars for Mac!
For anyone not aware, PokerStars now has a native client for the Mac.
The timing on this couldn't be more perfect for me, considering...
A) I'm a Mac diehard.
B) I just went broke on Full Tilt yesterday until my next rakeback payment, and wasn't looking forward to booting my MacBook Pro into XP to play PokerStars on my Mac.
So thanks, PokerStars, you've really been there for me lately.
Oh...I'm still running horrible.
Happy Holidays!
The timing on this couldn't be more perfect for me, considering...
A) I'm a Mac diehard.
B) I just went broke on Full Tilt yesterday until my next rakeback payment, and wasn't looking forward to booting my MacBook Pro into XP to play PokerStars on my Mac.
So thanks, PokerStars, you've really been there for me lately.
Oh...I'm still running horrible.
Happy Holidays!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Winning Week: The Third
Yep, you read that right. I posted my third straight winning week, and although it wasn't huge, when your bankroll is as small as mine, even a small win is a huge percentage bankroll improvement.
Not a whole lot to report details-wise. I think I mostly just played on Wednesday and Thursday, and by the time I was done w/my SNGs I found my bankroll having improved $5 to $29.
I also cashed in that Negreanu Bahamas PokerStars freeroll for the third straight week, coming in 942nd/10k for another $1. I actually had aspirations in this one of going deep and earning the bid to round 2 by making the top 200, spending most of the tourney in 200-400th range after some early good fortune. I was sitting just outside of the top 200 and was settling in to really make a push when I got my money in with a flopped bottom 2 pair against top pair, only to have the board pair on the river and send me packing a lot earlier than I expected. But I had cashed, and I was tired, so this was probably the best I've taken a bad beat in months. I find my PokerStars bankroll at $3.50 now and have 2 more weeks of this freeroll to continue to try and improve upon that and maybe even make round 2 one of these times.
As a sidenote, I'm not sure when freerolls got easy. I mean I used to dread the minefield that is a freeroll, but now its very systematic to me. I know the kind of player I'm up against, I know what kind of cards they're looking to play, and I can generally figure out where I'm at based on the basics like board texture and betting patterns. Really all there is to a freeroll is dictating the action and not doing a lot of calling, getting in cheap and looking to hit big, or getting a lot of chips in with a good holding and hoping you hold up. The major difference from a (decent) buyin tournament being that there isn't going to be a lot of play after the flop, so you pretty much need to decide if you're going the distance by the flop. I presume in my previous freeroll experience I was one of those players that I now have a good feel for, and I think generally I would find myself in too many pots with too many chips, and not dictating the action like I try and do now. So I guess it speaks to my study and practice, which its great to be able to reflect on the improvements I've made. If someone ever would've asked me if I thought I could get in the top 10% three massive freerolls in a row, I surely would've chuckled at the prospect. But it looks like I've done just that!
I know my usual weekly report has been Thursday to Thursday, but since its Monday, I have lots more poker to talk about since Thursday. Friday, with $29 in my account and officially above my 10x buyin range for SNGs (I know, I know, I should really wait until I actually get to $55 to move up), I hopped into a $5 SNG for the first time in a long time. But despite making it to $27 and $29 a handfull of times since my May/June bankroll collapse, I hadn't ever cashed at the next level. Yeah, we're talking 6 months here. But I'm happy to report that I took 2nd and suddenly my bankroll had cracked the $30 mark! I believe after another SNG loss and a 3rd place, I ended up Friday afternoon at $34. Holy sh*t!
Friday night was poker night at my buddy's place, and it was a blast as usual. In the first tourney I got out to a quick start, but was in a bit of a mood and played way too many hands, finding myself on the outside looking in when all was said and done. I also had to take a little bathroom break, and with our blind structure at this particular game, you can't afford to be missing hands. Turns out they kept track of my hands in my absence, and I would've doubled up with a flush against top 2 or something like that. Oh, well. When you gotta go, you gotta go. In the 2nd tourney I took 3rd/11 and won 3 buyins, so assuming I didn't rebuy in the third tourney I had officially broken even. Our third and final tourney of the night we do rebuys for the first 3 blind levels, and I found myself back in a feisty mood, as do most people in a rebuy. Anyway, I had chipped up pretty well early with a couple of big hands, but then lost probably 1/3 of my stack dicking around in a hand I didn't belong. So I was a little tilted because I would've been set to go with the stack I had, but I was still above the original starting stack. I found myself in the big blind with blinds at 100/200 and about 2500 chips. UTG+1, who is kind of a weak/tight, but smart, solid player makes it 600 to go. It folds around to me, and I look down and find 72o. Now I'm not big into the whole hammer thing, but I just got an inkling that getting this particular hand at this particular time was a bit of a sign. If I doubled up here, I could likely cruise to the money, and if I went broke, I could rebuy and grind it out. Long story short, I thought about it for a couple of minutes, really felt like I could get him to fold, or worst case scenario I had 2 live cards, and I pushed all-in. My opponent insta-called, which scared the crap outta me, but I showed him my holding, he showed me a King, I asked if he had another, he said no, and indeed I had 2 live cards. The door card was a 7, he didn't improve, and I had stacked him. You know, I pride myself on playing a strong TAG game, doing all the right things, and being rewarded for it. But I have to admit, it felt kinda good to let my hair down, make an idiotic play, and be rewarded for it in the end. I NEVER would do it if the stakes were higher or if it was legitimately for my tournament life, but in a $5 rebuy, why the hell not take a shot when you think you've got 2 live cards and the chance to show down 72o for stacks?? But if you're reading this, I'm really sorry Josh. It was nothing personal (except for the awesome read I got on you), and you have all right to come after me and get me back. ;-) Anyway, I went on to cash in the last money spot, turned a $10 profit on the night, and had a blast, so there ain't nothing wrong with that. Oh, and I hit quads (3 on the board), and a straight flush! So that was cool...
I played a handfull of SNGs yesterday, and sparing the drama, I shut down Full Tilt with a bankroll over $54. That's about a 133% bankroll improvement since my starting point on Wednesday. Hands are holding up, draws are getting there, plays are working, and I'll be damned if I'm not even running a little hot. Life is...much better. But I'm not gonna claim to be out of the woods yet.
In an interesting occurence yesterday, it was getting to be a little after 6:30 and I needed to leave by 7:40 or so go to play basketball, so I needed to play a SNG that I could finish in under and hour and wouldn't kill me if I had to bow out. Most would think turbo, but I'm still not that huge of a fan. So $2.25 6-max, here I come. Seven minutes and 10 hands after we started this SNG, I was in the money/heads up. It was remarkable. I had taken someone out with a set of 10s vs K10 on a 10-high flop, and the rest of the table had been cleaned up by my opponent. I don't know how all of them played out, but I saw him flop a set vs 2 pair, and get it all in w/AK vs KQ on a K-high flop. I'll have to look up the other one and post it. Anyway, we were heads up with 20/40 blinds, and proceeded to grind it out. Honestly I got bored pretty quickly and was just happy to cash, so after being worn down to $1800 or so, I was looking for a spot to get my money in decent. Then I made a flush and doubled. Then I picked up KK and limped on the button. Dude JAMS the big stack, and I insta-call. He shows KxQd and I am 5 cards from doubling to the chip lead. Flop comes Q-high, all diamonds. I dodge his 1.2 million outs on the turn, but the river wasn't as kind, bringing him a third Q. I suppose I deserved it for being indifferent about the outcome. If I was really into the poker I would've loved to have grinded it out from 20/40 on, but honestly I just wanted to see some more hands and see if I could grind out another little cash, and wasn't interested in playing in a $2.25 SNG with 225 big blinds in play. Regardless, to have the first 4 go out in 10 hands and 7 minutes was certainly unlike anything I'd seen before, nor will likely ever see again.
Ok, well that's more than enough for today. Hopefully I didn't bore you too badly. Everyone have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving if I don't make it back here.
Not a whole lot to report details-wise. I think I mostly just played on Wednesday and Thursday, and by the time I was done w/my SNGs I found my bankroll having improved $5 to $29.
I also cashed in that Negreanu Bahamas PokerStars freeroll for the third straight week, coming in 942nd/10k for another $1. I actually had aspirations in this one of going deep and earning the bid to round 2 by making the top 200, spending most of the tourney in 200-400th range after some early good fortune. I was sitting just outside of the top 200 and was settling in to really make a push when I got my money in with a flopped bottom 2 pair against top pair, only to have the board pair on the river and send me packing a lot earlier than I expected. But I had cashed, and I was tired, so this was probably the best I've taken a bad beat in months. I find my PokerStars bankroll at $3.50 now and have 2 more weeks of this freeroll to continue to try and improve upon that and maybe even make round 2 one of these times.
As a sidenote, I'm not sure when freerolls got easy. I mean I used to dread the minefield that is a freeroll, but now its very systematic to me. I know the kind of player I'm up against, I know what kind of cards they're looking to play, and I can generally figure out where I'm at based on the basics like board texture and betting patterns. Really all there is to a freeroll is dictating the action and not doing a lot of calling, getting in cheap and looking to hit big, or getting a lot of chips in with a good holding and hoping you hold up. The major difference from a (decent) buyin tournament being that there isn't going to be a lot of play after the flop, so you pretty much need to decide if you're going the distance by the flop. I presume in my previous freeroll experience I was one of those players that I now have a good feel for, and I think generally I would find myself in too many pots with too many chips, and not dictating the action like I try and do now. So I guess it speaks to my study and practice, which its great to be able to reflect on the improvements I've made. If someone ever would've asked me if I thought I could get in the top 10% three massive freerolls in a row, I surely would've chuckled at the prospect. But it looks like I've done just that!
I know my usual weekly report has been Thursday to Thursday, but since its Monday, I have lots more poker to talk about since Thursday. Friday, with $29 in my account and officially above my 10x buyin range for SNGs (I know, I know, I should really wait until I actually get to $55 to move up), I hopped into a $5 SNG for the first time in a long time. But despite making it to $27 and $29 a handfull of times since my May/June bankroll collapse, I hadn't ever cashed at the next level. Yeah, we're talking 6 months here. But I'm happy to report that I took 2nd and suddenly my bankroll had cracked the $30 mark! I believe after another SNG loss and a 3rd place, I ended up Friday afternoon at $34. Holy sh*t!
Friday night was poker night at my buddy's place, and it was a blast as usual. In the first tourney I got out to a quick start, but was in a bit of a mood and played way too many hands, finding myself on the outside looking in when all was said and done. I also had to take a little bathroom break, and with our blind structure at this particular game, you can't afford to be missing hands. Turns out they kept track of my hands in my absence, and I would've doubled up with a flush against top 2 or something like that. Oh, well. When you gotta go, you gotta go. In the 2nd tourney I took 3rd/11 and won 3 buyins, so assuming I didn't rebuy in the third tourney I had officially broken even. Our third and final tourney of the night we do rebuys for the first 3 blind levels, and I found myself back in a feisty mood, as do most people in a rebuy. Anyway, I had chipped up pretty well early with a couple of big hands, but then lost probably 1/3 of my stack dicking around in a hand I didn't belong. So I was a little tilted because I would've been set to go with the stack I had, but I was still above the original starting stack. I found myself in the big blind with blinds at 100/200 and about 2500 chips. UTG+1, who is kind of a weak/tight, but smart, solid player makes it 600 to go. It folds around to me, and I look down and find 72o. Now I'm not big into the whole hammer thing, but I just got an inkling that getting this particular hand at this particular time was a bit of a sign. If I doubled up here, I could likely cruise to the money, and if I went broke, I could rebuy and grind it out. Long story short, I thought about it for a couple of minutes, really felt like I could get him to fold, or worst case scenario I had 2 live cards, and I pushed all-in. My opponent insta-called, which scared the crap outta me, but I showed him my holding, he showed me a King, I asked if he had another, he said no, and indeed I had 2 live cards. The door card was a 7, he didn't improve, and I had stacked him. You know, I pride myself on playing a strong TAG game, doing all the right things, and being rewarded for it. But I have to admit, it felt kinda good to let my hair down, make an idiotic play, and be rewarded for it in the end. I NEVER would do it if the stakes were higher or if it was legitimately for my tournament life, but in a $5 rebuy, why the hell not take a shot when you think you've got 2 live cards and the chance to show down 72o for stacks?? But if you're reading this, I'm really sorry Josh. It was nothing personal (except for the awesome read I got on you), and you have all right to come after me and get me back. ;-) Anyway, I went on to cash in the last money spot, turned a $10 profit on the night, and had a blast, so there ain't nothing wrong with that. Oh, and I hit quads (3 on the board), and a straight flush! So that was cool...
I played a handfull of SNGs yesterday, and sparing the drama, I shut down Full Tilt with a bankroll over $54. That's about a 133% bankroll improvement since my starting point on Wednesday. Hands are holding up, draws are getting there, plays are working, and I'll be damned if I'm not even running a little hot. Life is...much better. But I'm not gonna claim to be out of the woods yet.
In an interesting occurence yesterday, it was getting to be a little after 6:30 and I needed to leave by 7:40 or so go to play basketball, so I needed to play a SNG that I could finish in under and hour and wouldn't kill me if I had to bow out. Most would think turbo, but I'm still not that huge of a fan. So $2.25 6-max, here I come. Seven minutes and 10 hands after we started this SNG, I was in the money/heads up. It was remarkable. I had taken someone out with a set of 10s vs K10 on a 10-high flop, and the rest of the table had been cleaned up by my opponent. I don't know how all of them played out, but I saw him flop a set vs 2 pair, and get it all in w/AK vs KQ on a K-high flop. I'll have to look up the other one and post it. Anyway, we were heads up with 20/40 blinds, and proceeded to grind it out. Honestly I got bored pretty quickly and was just happy to cash, so after being worn down to $1800 or so, I was looking for a spot to get my money in decent. Then I made a flush and doubled. Then I picked up KK and limped on the button. Dude JAMS the big stack, and I insta-call. He shows KxQd and I am 5 cards from doubling to the chip lead. Flop comes Q-high, all diamonds. I dodge his 1.2 million outs on the turn, but the river wasn't as kind, bringing him a third Q. I suppose I deserved it for being indifferent about the outcome. If I was really into the poker I would've loved to have grinded it out from 20/40 on, but honestly I just wanted to see some more hands and see if I could grind out another little cash, and wasn't interested in playing in a $2.25 SNG with 225 big blinds in play. Regardless, to have the first 4 go out in 10 hands and 7 minutes was certainly unlike anything I'd seen before, nor will likely ever see again.
Ok, well that's more than enough for today. Hopefully I didn't bore you too badly. Everyone have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving if I don't make it back here.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Slow & Steady
Well I'm back again for my weekly update. Still didn't get too many chances to play this week, but I had positive results when I did, so that's of course ridiculously encouraging.
I played a handfull of SNGs on Sunday and started out in true nose dive form, but by the end of my session had turned things around and finished ahead a buck or two from where I started. I then got to play a couple of SNGs on Tuesday and took 2nd in both. The interesting phenominon that I faced in these two sessions was my ability to get to heads up, outplay my opponent, but just get destroyed by the deck. Some of the stuff I saw was pretty gut wrenching, but I'm not about to complain. Second place = profit, and profit = good. By the end of Tuesday I saw my Full Tilt account claw its way above $20. With a little rakeback deposit today, I'm sitting on what feels like a fortune at over $24. Now I just need to keep things headed in that direction.
Then tonight I decided to take this week's shot at that PokerStars Play in the Bahamas with Daniel Negreanu freeroll like I talked about in my last post. Having finished 730th out of 10,000 last week, my expectations for dodging this freeroll mine field two weeks in a row were not high. But amazingly, like clockwork, after a little over an hour and a half of some decent poker, the bubble burst, and my PokerStars account was on its way toward being another dollar richer. Incidentally, I busted from the tourney just now as I was working on this post. I was on a short stack (6k w/blinds at 750/1500/150) and jammed w/44 UTG, got called in two spots, and lost. And while I thought I made a major mistake busting when on the next hand I could've found myself in the next payout level (wasn't being vigilant enough of tourney situation), turns out the gods smiled down on me and I was just one of at least 13 bubble hand busters, managed to sneak in under the bubble, and earned myself an additional $.50 in 598th/10,000 (603 was the cutoff). So geez...two profitable weeks in a row, *and* something goes my way despite a major mistake? Pretty humbling.
So...the ol' PokerStars account has gone from $0 to $2.50 thanks to a couple of deep freeroll runs, and whether I continue to have this success in the next 3 weeks or not, its been fun to go deep and plant the seed for my own personal Ferguson-esque accomplishment. Even if I had made the top 200 and advanced to the next level these past couple of weeks, I wouldn't have been able to play the 2nd level tourney on Saturday, but in the coming three weeks I should have the Saturdays available, so while I'll certainly be focusing on continuing to cash, I'll be putting a little extra effort toward gearing for that top 200 and trying to do something *really* remarkable. Regardless, despite having a little more wiggle room in the PS bankroll now, I'm gonna leave it alone until these freerolls are over at the end of November, then figure out my best chance to try and build on it.
Anyway, its past my bedtime, so I'm gonna get outta here. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope everything is going well for everyone on the felt!
I played a handfull of SNGs on Sunday and started out in true nose dive form, but by the end of my session had turned things around and finished ahead a buck or two from where I started. I then got to play a couple of SNGs on Tuesday and took 2nd in both. The interesting phenominon that I faced in these two sessions was my ability to get to heads up, outplay my opponent, but just get destroyed by the deck. Some of the stuff I saw was pretty gut wrenching, but I'm not about to complain. Second place = profit, and profit = good. By the end of Tuesday I saw my Full Tilt account claw its way above $20. With a little rakeback deposit today, I'm sitting on what feels like a fortune at over $24. Now I just need to keep things headed in that direction.
Then tonight I decided to take this week's shot at that PokerStars Play in the Bahamas with Daniel Negreanu freeroll like I talked about in my last post. Having finished 730th out of 10,000 last week, my expectations for dodging this freeroll mine field two weeks in a row were not high. But amazingly, like clockwork, after a little over an hour and a half of some decent poker, the bubble burst, and my PokerStars account was on its way toward being another dollar richer. Incidentally, I busted from the tourney just now as I was working on this post. I was on a short stack (6k w/blinds at 750/1500/150) and jammed w/44 UTG, got called in two spots, and lost. And while I thought I made a major mistake busting when on the next hand I could've found myself in the next payout level (wasn't being vigilant enough of tourney situation), turns out the gods smiled down on me and I was just one of at least 13 bubble hand busters, managed to sneak in under the bubble, and earned myself an additional $.50 in 598th/10,000 (603 was the cutoff). So geez...two profitable weeks in a row, *and* something goes my way despite a major mistake? Pretty humbling.
So...the ol' PokerStars account has gone from $0 to $2.50 thanks to a couple of deep freeroll runs, and whether I continue to have this success in the next 3 weeks or not, its been fun to go deep and plant the seed for my own personal Ferguson-esque accomplishment. Even if I had made the top 200 and advanced to the next level these past couple of weeks, I wouldn't have been able to play the 2nd level tourney on Saturday, but in the coming three weeks I should have the Saturdays available, so while I'll certainly be focusing on continuing to cash, I'll be putting a little extra effort toward gearing for that top 200 and trying to do something *really* remarkable. Regardless, despite having a little more wiggle room in the PS bankroll now, I'm gonna leave it alone until these freerolls are over at the end of November, then figure out my best chance to try and build on it.
Anyway, its past my bedtime, so I'm gonna get outta here. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope everything is going well for everyone on the felt!
Friday, November 02, 2007
The Coach's Game, A SNG Win, and a Bankroll on Stars?!
Hey all. I'm back again for what has become a weekly update. I swear at some point things will slow down, but as of right now I'm *maybe* getting any poker in 3 days a week. Ideally I'd get a few SNGs each night, but right now the ol' lady and I are living life to the fullest before the weather shuts us down.
Anyway...on to the poker. I mentioned in my last post that I got an invite to a 1/2 NL ($50 max buyin) homegame and I was planning on playing it. Well, me and two other buddies got there shortly after 2 and needed to leave by 5:30 to get back home to get ready for my Halloween party. I also mentioned last time that this game is SOFT. I lost a little money last time we played, but that may have actually been the first time I played cash, and I really didn't know how to take money out of a loose game. My buddy, though, won upwards of $300. So needless to say, we were expecting big things. And I'd have to say, the way things have been going for me, I was thrilled to walk out of there $35 richer.
Things started off about normal for me. Just craptastic cards. Nothing I could play. And I was *nervous*. Fact is, I didn't really have $100 to lose at the moment, so I didn't wanna blow my first $50 and sit nervously on money I couldn't afford to lose. I know this goes against several rules of playing good poker, but I wanted to play, damn it, so don't kill me over it. Anyway, I literally folded for the first hour. Nothing playable to the point where I could even complete the SB. Now, I know I should be in pots mixing it up with a loose game (and the game picked up right where it left off 2 years ago when we played), but I was playing scared. I needed something good to happen before I could really settle in. I even folded QJ a couple of times, which is a good fold in a tough game, but a marginal one in a loose game. One time I'd have made two pair and lost to higher two pair, and the other turned into a *huge* pot where I could've lost plenty of money drawing to at least the turn. So I was content with my folds and keeping my chips in my tray. Because even though they were playing loose, they were showing down big hands in the end. So after an hour we filled up to 9 and split into 2 tables. I had been blinded down to $38. If you do the math, that's literally 4 Big Blinds, and 4 small. I had played NOTHING. Weak/tight at its finest. Hell, the whole session can be summed up in 3 hands, so here goes nothing.
With $38 in my stack, I find AK in the big blind. It folds around to the button, he makes a raise to $6, SB folds, I pop it to $18, he looks at me and goes "I haven't seen you play a hand yet", and folds. SCOOP, and I'm back to $45. Not too long later I'm sitting in MP and a new guy next to me raises to $15. I look down...one ace...and another. I raise all-in to $45, it folds around to the original raiser, and he insta-calls. I show my aces and he shows a Q. Board comes Q-high, scaring the bejesus out of me, but then he peels up his other card, which is an Ace. Regardless, I've got 2 outs to dodge, and I have NOT been surviving 2-outers, so I was by no means feeling relieved. This time I hold up and the $90 pot is mine. Halfway through the session I'm up, and I finally settle down a little. I play a few pots here and there when I can get in cheap, and really just hover around the $90-100 mark. With $97 in my stack and 5:24 on the clock, the BB is coming my way, and I decide its my last hand. It folds around to the button (a different player than the button before), and he sticks in his last $11. So I'm not seeing a free flop. SB folds, and I look down at AK and call. He shows J10, flops a J, and the suckout strikes again. So with $86 and in the SB, I have another last hand, its garbage, I chuck it, and cash out for $85. But perhaps more meaningful than the money this time is some confidence. I sat down at that game scared out of my mind, but after doubling up I got to play a little poker, and while I didn't do anything remarkable, I actually got to have fun.
One of my buddies ended up down over $50 and the other ended up cashing out up around $170. They need to have this game more often.
Moving on, I got to play a little bit on Monday online. I played 2 SNGs, and I actually won one of them. I'll be damned if the deck wasn't hitting me in the face a little bit! It was pretty fun. I don't really recall the other one, but I think it was a fairly routine card-dead loss. Anyway, I've got $12.XX in my FT account at the moment, so I will live to see at least 5 more SNGs!
Then last night I decided to play in one of the "Join Daniel Negreanu in the Bahamas" freerolls at PokerStars. Of course its a satellite to a satellite to play in a SNG where the winner gets a trip to the PCA, but what's cool about the first and second levels is that they actually pay cash to the top 12.5 and 15%, too. For a guy with some free time and never having had a bankroll on PokerStars, its worth signing up for. I played one of these a couple weeks ago and got off to a good start, more than doubling early, only to get smacked by a 6-outer when all the money went in with me as a favorite on the flop. Cest la vie. Anyway, after starting with 10,000 players, we were down almost 6900 after the first hour, paying 1250. Insane. I built up some chips early, and then lost a few away, then doubled up when I had a 70% preflop all-in hold up. By the first break I was sitting just outside of the cashing window, but a double-up away from easy money. And when I quadrupled up when my KK held against 22, 66, and a couple of unders about halfway through the 2nd hour, I was as good as gold to cash. I *almost* gave it away when I thought about pushing my 66 in the BB against an MP raise, but I stopped myself and said "This is one of those times where you get your money in dominated and go broke and hate yourself afterwards" and just called the min-raise and check-folded the flop. PF min-raiser had QQ, which held, and I felt good about avoiding that disaster. A short time later we made it into the $1 cash level, and now we needed to play down to 603 to get me another buck. I couldn't find a spot to get my money in for the next 20 mins or so, and I finally pushed w/KJo UTG with barely 3xBB, was called in two spots, and lost to AJ when an A fell on the river (not that he needed it). I was out in 730th, outlasting 9270 players before the 2nd break. That's nucking futs. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I was sitting at a table with 4-5 dead stacks for the first hour and a half, so that went a long way toward making this 730th out of 10,000 finish seem "easy". We were playing 4-5 handed with blinds up for grabs 50% of the time, so it was pretty simple poker. Nonetheless, a deepish run is a deepish run!
So I have one whopping dollar on PokerStars, my first real money ever on the site, and it seems I'm well on my way to pulling a Chris Ferguson. ;-) I'm not gonna dip into my real cash until these freerolls are over at the end of November (I can take my one shot a week), and I'm going to see if I can build up a little more and expand my options. The cool thing is that at sites where I've had cash (PokerRoom, Poker.com, Mansion, Full Tilt), $1 isn't worth jack, but PokerStars has .02/.04 limit tables and .01/.02 NL tables, and $1.20 9 player SNGs. So if a few things go my way, building my PokerStars bankroll from $1 isn't the most daunting task by any means.
So by no means do I have enough results to say I'm out of the woods on what is approaching a 6th full month of running bad, but the last three times I've played poker I've had positive results, but almost more importantly, some opportunity to have a little fun. If nothing else, I can be thankful for that!
Oh, and one more thing, being 20ish days and 850 posts behind in my reading, I just saw today that Fuel55 was kind enough to toss me a link documenting my bustout from the WBCOOP or whatever that big blogger tourney on PokerStars was that I sucked ass in. He's one of my top 3 favorite bloggers, so I was quite humbled that he even knows who I am. If you don't read his blog religiously, start now. I'm looking at you, PokerWeblogs.com patrons. Fuel is a genius poker player at all levels of NL cash games, and he knows his way around a tourney, too. He's equally as good of a teacher, teaching unbelievably valuable, complex lessons in simple, conscise methods. And he fills in the gaps with his amusing "series" (ie "Presto is Gold", "Flopped Straights Always Lose"). We won't even fault him for being Canadian.
Happy Weekend, everybody. Have a good one.
Anyway...on to the poker. I mentioned in my last post that I got an invite to a 1/2 NL ($50 max buyin) homegame and I was planning on playing it. Well, me and two other buddies got there shortly after 2 and needed to leave by 5:30 to get back home to get ready for my Halloween party. I also mentioned last time that this game is SOFT. I lost a little money last time we played, but that may have actually been the first time I played cash, and I really didn't know how to take money out of a loose game. My buddy, though, won upwards of $300. So needless to say, we were expecting big things. And I'd have to say, the way things have been going for me, I was thrilled to walk out of there $35 richer.
Things started off about normal for me. Just craptastic cards. Nothing I could play. And I was *nervous*. Fact is, I didn't really have $100 to lose at the moment, so I didn't wanna blow my first $50 and sit nervously on money I couldn't afford to lose. I know this goes against several rules of playing good poker, but I wanted to play, damn it, so don't kill me over it. Anyway, I literally folded for the first hour. Nothing playable to the point where I could even complete the SB. Now, I know I should be in pots mixing it up with a loose game (and the game picked up right where it left off 2 years ago when we played), but I was playing scared. I needed something good to happen before I could really settle in. I even folded QJ a couple of times, which is a good fold in a tough game, but a marginal one in a loose game. One time I'd have made two pair and lost to higher two pair, and the other turned into a *huge* pot where I could've lost plenty of money drawing to at least the turn. So I was content with my folds and keeping my chips in my tray. Because even though they were playing loose, they were showing down big hands in the end. So after an hour we filled up to 9 and split into 2 tables. I had been blinded down to $38. If you do the math, that's literally 4 Big Blinds, and 4 small. I had played NOTHING. Weak/tight at its finest. Hell, the whole session can be summed up in 3 hands, so here goes nothing.
With $38 in my stack, I find AK in the big blind. It folds around to the button, he makes a raise to $6, SB folds, I pop it to $18, he looks at me and goes "I haven't seen you play a hand yet", and folds. SCOOP, and I'm back to $45. Not too long later I'm sitting in MP and a new guy next to me raises to $15. I look down...one ace...and another. I raise all-in to $45, it folds around to the original raiser, and he insta-calls. I show my aces and he shows a Q. Board comes Q-high, scaring the bejesus out of me, but then he peels up his other card, which is an Ace. Regardless, I've got 2 outs to dodge, and I have NOT been surviving 2-outers, so I was by no means feeling relieved. This time I hold up and the $90 pot is mine. Halfway through the session I'm up, and I finally settle down a little. I play a few pots here and there when I can get in cheap, and really just hover around the $90-100 mark. With $97 in my stack and 5:24 on the clock, the BB is coming my way, and I decide its my last hand. It folds around to the button (a different player than the button before), and he sticks in his last $11. So I'm not seeing a free flop. SB folds, and I look down at AK and call. He shows J10, flops a J, and the suckout strikes again. So with $86 and in the SB, I have another last hand, its garbage, I chuck it, and cash out for $85. But perhaps more meaningful than the money this time is some confidence. I sat down at that game scared out of my mind, but after doubling up I got to play a little poker, and while I didn't do anything remarkable, I actually got to have fun.
One of my buddies ended up down over $50 and the other ended up cashing out up around $170. They need to have this game more often.
Moving on, I got to play a little bit on Monday online. I played 2 SNGs, and I actually won one of them. I'll be damned if the deck wasn't hitting me in the face a little bit! It was pretty fun. I don't really recall the other one, but I think it was a fairly routine card-dead loss. Anyway, I've got $12.XX in my FT account at the moment, so I will live to see at least 5 more SNGs!
Then last night I decided to play in one of the "Join Daniel Negreanu in the Bahamas" freerolls at PokerStars. Of course its a satellite to a satellite to play in a SNG where the winner gets a trip to the PCA, but what's cool about the first and second levels is that they actually pay cash to the top 12.5 and 15%, too. For a guy with some free time and never having had a bankroll on PokerStars, its worth signing up for. I played one of these a couple weeks ago and got off to a good start, more than doubling early, only to get smacked by a 6-outer when all the money went in with me as a favorite on the flop. Cest la vie. Anyway, after starting with 10,000 players, we were down almost 6900 after the first hour, paying 1250. Insane. I built up some chips early, and then lost a few away, then doubled up when I had a 70% preflop all-in hold up. By the first break I was sitting just outside of the cashing window, but a double-up away from easy money. And when I quadrupled up when my KK held against 22, 66, and a couple of unders about halfway through the 2nd hour, I was as good as gold to cash. I *almost* gave it away when I thought about pushing my 66 in the BB against an MP raise, but I stopped myself and said "This is one of those times where you get your money in dominated and go broke and hate yourself afterwards" and just called the min-raise and check-folded the flop. PF min-raiser had QQ, which held, and I felt good about avoiding that disaster. A short time later we made it into the $1 cash level, and now we needed to play down to 603 to get me another buck. I couldn't find a spot to get my money in for the next 20 mins or so, and I finally pushed w/KJo UTG with barely 3xBB, was called in two spots, and lost to AJ when an A fell on the river (not that he needed it). I was out in 730th, outlasting 9270 players before the 2nd break. That's nucking futs. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I was sitting at a table with 4-5 dead stacks for the first hour and a half, so that went a long way toward making this 730th out of 10,000 finish seem "easy". We were playing 4-5 handed with blinds up for grabs 50% of the time, so it was pretty simple poker. Nonetheless, a deepish run is a deepish run!
So I have one whopping dollar on PokerStars, my first real money ever on the site, and it seems I'm well on my way to pulling a Chris Ferguson. ;-) I'm not gonna dip into my real cash until these freerolls are over at the end of November (I can take my one shot a week), and I'm going to see if I can build up a little more and expand my options. The cool thing is that at sites where I've had cash (PokerRoom, Poker.com, Mansion, Full Tilt), $1 isn't worth jack, but PokerStars has .02/.04 limit tables and .01/.02 NL tables, and $1.20 9 player SNGs. So if a few things go my way, building my PokerStars bankroll from $1 isn't the most daunting task by any means.
So by no means do I have enough results to say I'm out of the woods on what is approaching a 6th full month of running bad, but the last three times I've played poker I've had positive results, but almost more importantly, some opportunity to have a little fun. If nothing else, I can be thankful for that!
Oh, and one more thing, being 20ish days and 850 posts behind in my reading, I just saw today that Fuel55 was kind enough to toss me a link documenting my bustout from the WBCOOP or whatever that big blogger tourney on PokerStars was that I sucked ass in. He's one of my top 3 favorite bloggers, so I was quite humbled that he even knows who I am. If you don't read his blog religiously, start now. I'm looking at you, PokerWeblogs.com patrons. Fuel is a genius poker player at all levels of NL cash games, and he knows his way around a tourney, too. He's equally as good of a teacher, teaching unbelievably valuable, complex lessons in simple, conscise methods. And he fills in the gaps with his amusing "series" (ie "Presto is Gold", "Flopped Straights Always Lose"). We won't even fault him for being Canadian.
Happy Weekend, everybody. Have a good one.
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