Heads Up!

You know, something I overlooked while I was posting yesterday was that there was a span of a couple days where 2 or 3 of my favorite bloggers really raved about HU SNGs and how profitable they were, so back around the beginning of August I decided to check out the scene, and ended up pretty happy with the results.

The thing about these is that I really feel like I should win every one, so when I lose it really bugs me. Some might argue that heads up isn't necessarily so much about beating the player, but moreso about the point at which you both make a hand worthy of getting it in the middle, and seeing who comes out with the best of it, and who ends up feeling cold-decked. And I think that's fair.

But, of course, some of us would like to think there is a lot more to it. Its about building your stack so you can put pressure on your opponent and withstand an all-in if you have to. Or its about building a table image and then when you know they're onto you, switching it up. Or its about relentless aggression. Or its about playing so passively you let your opponent run over you, only to trap them so hard they never saw it coming. Or some combination of all of these.

So even though a fair share of these will end up being a lottery, the ones that start to go a few hands certainly get a little more interesting as things progress.

Anyway, I played 5 of them on 8/4 and 8/5, and managed to cash in three. When I won my first one in 14 hands, I was like "wow, these really are *that* easy". Only to get into my 2nd one and end up defeated in 81 grueling hands. But then there was the third, which I won in exactly 3 hands. So day 1 of this experiment was from one extreme to the other. The next day I split another pair of them in what I suspect is a relatively average...maybe a *little* high...45 and 66 hands, and then I haven't been back since. But I definitely see sprinkling some of these when I'm short on time and/or don't necessarily feel like exerting enough poker prowess to take on 9 or more opponents.

As far as the value, I guess you can't really argue with it. You essentially double your money, which is just a little better than finishing 3rd place in a 9 player SNG. The number of hands is around the same as finishing 3rd in a SNG, but of course a majority of the hands are significantly faster, so if you could be successful as a heads up SNG player, I would think the value is pretty high. Might be a decent little bankroll builder for some "back to basics" poker if you're running bad or something.

Anyway, I thought that was worth mentioning. Just incase there's anyone out there like me who hasn't been to that arena and was looking for a little insight.

As far as my heads up game in general, I go back and forth on it. Sometimes I feel like I'm a heads up donkey, and sometimes I feel like I've assembled a nice little strategy. So at this point I guess I'll just say "I'm working on it".

Two posts in two days? I'm on fire!

Update-O-Rama

Hey all. Time for my much overdue check-in yet again. I'll try and keep things brief.

Looks like my last "real" post was 7/25, so let me check my logs and see what significant has happened since then...

Looks like things have been pretty standard as far as SNGs go. I've played about 40 since 7/25, and my overall win rate (for the year) is a relatively pathetic, but very much black, $60. I've been playing more of the multitable SNGs, but haven't had a lot of success in much of anything other than 18 players. It seems I can only dodge so many bullets, and the 27 and 45 player games just fire too many at me to survive. Random notes from the 27 and 45 player SNGs see me getting in w/2 pair vs. set, 60/40 & 70/30 and lose, KK < 66 (4-flushed), and AA < K10 (villian boated). As a matter of fact, that's all my 27 and 45 man SNGs since my last post, so I've been cold-decked or bad beat out of every single one. But I've had a handfull of 1st and 2nds in 18 players, so that always helps pull in a little more SNG value. The 9-max have been pretty standard. I'm managing to stay a little ahead, but just have some really sick shit happening in pretty disgusting spots. In the last one I played I bubbled when I got all my money in for a significant chip lead w/top 2, aces and 9s, vs A10, turn comes A, river 10. Dead to runner runner and he hits. Either something like that happens, or I storm to a strong finish. Cest la vie.

As far as MTTs, I had hit the skids again for a while and was approaching heading into the red on them, and then on 8/18 I made a fairly decent run in a Stars tourney. Instead of trying to detail it again, I'll just copy and paste the email I sent a couple buddies the next morning.

Man, I thought last night was gonna be the one. I got into the $3.30+rebuys ($40k Guaranteed) last night on Stars at 7:00. 3700 runners, and I proceeded to run like God for about 2 1/2 hours and led the thing during the 3rd hour w/5x the average and almost 200 big blinds, then cooled off late and grinded my way to a 66th place finish at about 1 AM. I rebought once stacking off w/88 vs 99 on a 7-high flop and did the add-on at the end of the first hour and cashed for about $60 profit. First place paid $5600. But I doubled my Stars bankroll, so I can't complain about that.

I got to learn a lot about late stage tourney play, which I haven't had much opportunity to do up to this point, and with any luck I'll get to use more often.

During my sick run of cards which lasted about the first 2 1/2 hours, I had AA about 5 times and held, including in a 3-way all-in right after I rebought, KK and QQ about 3 each, and JJ probably 5 also, I *think* winning all, flopped a couple of boats, flopped two or three sets, flopped trips I think twice in a row (in the BB and SB) at one point, three outering and stacking the guy on the 1st one w/K7 vs K10 with the board coming KxKx7 (we got it in on the flop), flopped quad 8s against some guy all-in w/A10 vs. my 88, got QQ and took a decent pot then got KK on the next hand and got some guy to stack off w/33, hit a couple of nut flushes and a couple of straights, 2 pair, etc, etc. Almost every hand I played I just got smacked upside the head w/the deck. Even limping/checking my blinds. And if I didn't stack someone entirely, I got paid off a decent amount pretty much every time. I had 150k while the average was 22k-35k. Man it was fun after perpetually running bad.

So like I mentioned, it was nice to get into that tourney and just run good and have a blast, but part of me wonders if I should have made more out of it and/or if I didn't play the cards so much as they played themselves. Its not often you run that good and get that much action, so I'm wondering if I could have done a little better in the middle/late stages to propel me to a final table. Makes me wonder if Lucko or Hoy or smokkee could have done better given the situation, or if its just that running good late is much more important than running good early. Sure, I had 150k when the average was 30k, but when I busted, $150k was chicken scratch. You have to keep building. But my cards went DEAD. Anyway, I got some later stage MTT experience, so hopefully next time I can learn from it and do better. Fact of the matter is its my deepest MTT run and biggest cash (aside from a turbo sat to a 100k guarantee...but that doesn't really count) of the year. And maybe my deepest non-freeroll run ever.

My next MTT after that was the noon 5.50 tourney that I played on Labor Day, and I microcashed in that in 355th out of 4800 for $12.60. Only ever really had a stack twice in the tourney, and just kinda held on the whole way. But now I'm back to a $75 winner on the year in MTTs, which will buy me into several more of the tourneys in my price range to keep going after that bigger score.

In other tournament news, I decided to venture into the Steps sats for the WCOOP on Monday and things have gone well so far. I immediately moved to Step 2 in my first attempt, only to enter myself into a Limit Step 2 tourney like an idiot and get 7th. So I licked my (self-inflicted for being a moron) wounds and jumped into another Step 1 and advanced, and it'll be on to Step 2 again. My initial hope is to get to a Step 4 and win an entry to one of the $215(?) tourneys, and just cash that out for the W$ and sell it. At this point a tourney like that would be nothing more than "taking a shot", and even the % of cash I could get for the W$ would be immesurably more valuable. Bankroll management, baby. *Maybe* if I can somehow manage to win 2 entries I'd use one. But chances are if I can get to a Step 4 and sell my $215 W$, I'd take my next chance to go for Step 6 and try and get the >$1k W$. THEN maybe try and win an entry to use. But that's all quite wishful thinking from Step 2 at this point. I'm just happy to be 2 for 2 at Step 1. I think I may finally have a little better grasp on these turbos.

As for the last facet of my online game, I've still been working in a session of .05/.10 NL over at Full Tilt from time to time. I'll find its Happy Hour on some weekend day, or I'll go to a wireless hotspot between work and flag football on Wednesdays and get an hour or two in, and my last 4 sessions have been fairly significantly profitable. Throw in rakeback, and I'm making a nice, steady bankroll climb on Tilt.

All of the success I've been having I think has come because of a renewed approach to a well balanced strategy. A mixture of feel, numbers, and less paying off, I've been trying to keep emotion out of it, and looking at plays from a strictly EV perspective. You're all like "duh...that's how you win at poker", but when you tend to run as bad as I do, you fall into this really deep, dark place where you feel like every time you get raised or re-raised they've got what has you beat no matter how unlikely, or you're "only" 60%, or you know you're flipping but you wonder if you'll lose again just like the last 4, and you fold, more and more disgustedly every time, or you payoff when your big hand gets cracked, "just to see it". But lately I've been more apt to play back at aggression when it really just doesn't seem likely they have it, and a LOT more often put pressure on people for *their* stacks and for *them* to have to make a decision. As it turns out, there really are a ton of bad players who will either stack off with garbage or call bets or fire all the way to the river only to fold. And I find myself in a lot more coin flips and 60/40s w/all the money in the middle, hoping the odds shake out the way they're supposed to. When they don't, I bust and move on, and when they do, I find myself in good position to move forward and apply even more pressure to people.

Or, you know, maybe I'm just playing the same and running a little better. Either way, I *feel* better, and the better you feel, the clearer you see and the more naturally your play unfolds at the table. Of course it also helps to have a few more buyins in reserve so the money means less and less.

So that'll be it for now. I've got some Vegas play to report on, but it was pretty typical, so I'll save that for its own quick post somewhere down the line.

I've Been Neglectful Again

Well, I'm sitting in the airport right now and ponied up $8 to pay for wireless to play some SNGs because my flight to Vegas, of all places, is delayed 2 hours.

I have quite a bit to report since my last post, although nothing terribly earth shattering.

So I promise I'll get something up shortly after I get back, including some cash game table exploits from mecca.

Hope all is well. Back atcha soon.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race?

Well, I'm back for another quick update, even though I don't have a whole lot to report.

I'll start w/MTTs. Played 3 since my last post and didn't cash. I made a run *to* the bubble in one, but instead of limping through the bubble like I very well could have done yet again, I was playing this one to win, and fizzled about 75 spots short of the money. This tourney was a blast, where I was mixing it up and keeping my stack above the average stack and playing table captain and all of that, right up until I got my money in 70/30 and got crushed. Then I ended up jamming my short stack A8o into an already raised AQ and that was that. This tourney seriously tilted me because I was playing the exact kind of poker I wanted to be playing and I envision solid online MTT players to be playing, and just like that it was all out the window. In the second tourney I played I was out before the end of the first hour. Had a really active table and was trying to get mixed in and make the best of it before I got moved, and ended up getting in with a draw and not getting there. Had it gone the other way, who knows what happens, but again, I am trying to play the kind of MTT style that will get me deep, and word on the street is that sometimes that involves getting your money in in somewhat uncomfortable spots and leaving the rest up to the cards. I think any good MTT player would tell you that. And admittedly, the last tourney I played was a tilty $3.30 RB that I played after I busted the 2nd tourney. See, it was the first 2008 WSOP broadcast, and I envisioned going deep in an MTT that night, so after I busted the first before the broadcast even started, I had to find another to play in. Honestly, I wasn't in too bad of shape after the rebuy/addon period, but then I had my JJ (preflop raised, naturally) busted by 54 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTED when he flopped 2 pair and obviously called my flop jam. Fantestical. So I will mount up again this week and give it another go.

I did discover I don't hate rebuys *quite* as much as I thought I did, because a $3.30 rebuy not only has a higher guarantee than an $11 $20k Guarantee, but after the rebuy/addon period, there is a LOT of play. I had 4000 in chips after my addon, and sure, the average was like 8600, but I still had 26 big blinds as a "short stack". Hell, you could go broke in the last hand of the hour and for another $9, rebuy for 30 big blinds. The tourney doesn't even really start until the 2nd hour (yes...I'm aware that that is a "duh" statement). Whereas in a regular 3k starting stack tourney your average is gonna be at about 4600 at the first break, and a 4k stack means that you made relatively significant progress during the first hour. I just still don't love rebuys, though, in that they're 1500 starting stacks (sort of), the playing field doesn't start level (What's the deal w/the double rebuy? I'd be much more ok w/the concept if there was no double rebuy.), and the first hour is a freaking mine field. I know its not the right way to approach a rebuy, but personally I buyin for the minimum, play my normal game (albeit 25-30% looser) and see what happens. I know others go into a rebuy guns a'blazin' and will get their money in the middle of huge pots as often as possible and double rebuy at will if things don't go their way. I look to fly under the radar and pick those guys off. Its just my style. But, when all is said and done, I see myself giving that $3.30 rebuy at 7 Central a few more shots. For less than the $11 buyin of the $20k guarantee at 6, I can buyin, rebuy once if needed, and get an add-on, have a $30k guarantee, and if I make it through the hour in good shape, have a lot of play.

SNGs were basically break even, although adventureous. Also on Tuesday night after I'd busted both MTTs I sat down in a $5.50 18 player SNG and busted a few minutes in when my turned nut boat lost to flopped quads. We both slow played each other to the river when he put out a feeler bet, I jammed (overbet for value?), and that was that. There was a couple of other SNGs I played on Tuesday night where I started strong and then didn't play as well as I'd have liked to late. One 9 player where I had a decent chiplead and was pushing the table around, but then didn't back off when people started pushing back and my cards were no longer there (bubbled in 4th), and one 18 player where I came into the FT in 2nd with almost 3x the average stack, and managed to go out in 6th. Again, I had a big stack and was catching cards and splashing pots, and then the well dried up but I failed to tighten up in time. So I'm not terribly proud of this week's SNG results, but I'm livin'.

And as for online cash...drumroll please...I broke about even. I played for about 4 hours on 5 tables of .05/.10 NL, and I believe my balance lay within the same dollar it started at when I finished. This was another case of poor discipline, as I was running well early and up about $20-25, but then as the cards dried up instead of quitting or tightening up, I actually started to play more hands, and before I know it I was chasing a loss. So I was happy to end up even, and with my rakeback hitting my account today, up $3 or so. :-)

So I think we see where I have an obvious leak. It lies in a combination of boredom and denial. When my cards dry up, I don't want to quit playing a lot of pots and catching a lot of cards, and I don't want to believe that my run is over and its time to tighten up and play it safe (SNG/MTT) or quit (cash). I realize I have this flaw, and I think this week's events will really hammer it home for me. I want to be a profitable player, but I never will if I continue to perpetuate this behavior. See, the problem is that I only get to play so often, so when I play, I want to PLAY. I want to play a lot of hands, and I want to play until my time to play is over. Because who knows when I'll get to play again. So I don't like the idea of my cards going dry in a tourney and not getting to splash around in pots at will, and I don't like the idea of being up 250 BBs in a cash game and seeing the tide turn but with 2 hours more to play. That means the fun is over. And when the fun is over is when you become a profitable player (great post, and SO TRUE!). So I need to get out of that frame of mind and get into the *winning* frame of mind. I have the instinct to know when the jig is up and its really a simple adjustment...I just need to make it.

So, folks, for me, the fun is over. Its time to play profitable poker.

And it starts tonight. Heading out to the local casino with the brother-in-law tonight to get a 1/2 NL practice/hopefully bankroll building session in as we count down the days to Vegas. I'm not concerned about playing profitable poker live, though. Live poker really gets the blood flowing for me and I'd like to think I'm exponentially better live than online. If only I had the time to grind it out more often.

Anyway, that's the latest from this neck of the tubes. Poker tonight, probably a little tomorrow, and then of course on Tuesday, and otherwise who knows when. But I'm gonna try my best to make every hand count, and form my session based on results and not a schedule.

The Latest

In the interest of being a good blogger, I wanted to check in and report on how things have been going lately. To sum it up, not too shabby!

Since my last post reporting a little bankroll stimulation, I've ventured back to the $5.50 SNGs and made $13.50 cashing in 4 out of 8. Not a whole lot to report, as I only felt motivated enough to leave comments in 2 of those. I'm cool with the profit.

I've also played in 4 MTTs, turning a hum-drum $2 or so profit. But profit's profit. I feel like I played really quite well in all of them, but I still just can't get things to break my way and send me on a deep run in an MTT. But lemme tell you...I've got the market cornered on limping through the bubble and microcashing. Ain't nobody better. Last night I felt like I played a REALLY strong tournament and felt like it might be the one. I came out firing, making a well disguised nut flush right out of the gate, and keeping with the aggression as best I could. Then, as usual, I got mixed up in a hand I didn't belong and found myself in push or fold mode. After doubling up, I had a legitimately healthy, above average stack again, and vowed not to fall victim to my own pitfalls. I then proceed to pick up QQ and am ready to take down another big pot. I raised 3-4x UTG and got a call from a completely reckless LAG who played the role pretty well, but also benefitted from some obscene lucksackery. But it was the right person to call with my strong holding. Flop comes down extremely raggy with two hearts, and I bet about 85% of the pot, and after a brief hesitation, get min-raised. I wasn't worried about a set here at all and probably should have just jammed right here, but I just called. The turn was an offsuit Jack and like a pansy, I check and give up control...and he checks behind. The river is another low heart, and I thought about checking, but then decided that there was about a 95% chance he'd put me all-in if I did that, so I put 2k into about a 5k pot to bet my queens for value, but also tell the story of a value bet on a flush, and like clockwork I got raised to 5700. I couldn't see any way not to let it go, and did so. He very easily told the story of a flush himself, so I made the decision to keep my 14 big blinds or so and live to see another day. He claims to have had the other two queens, but the way the convo played out, I don't buy it. So once again I'm on a short stack thanks to another pretty poorly played hand. I feel like I should have jammed the flop or the turn for maximum value, but even if he has the QQ, all I end up doing is splitting. And if he has the flush, I'm out unless he finds a fold. Opinions?? After that I doubled up once to skate through the bubble, and then fizzled in 388th out of 3100 or so when my AJ couldn't outlast KJ. BUT, I can't be mad about that one because I had AQ hold up against AK and Q7 (4-flushed it) and AQ hold up against AK to get to where I was. So hell...maybe I just played the whole tourney badly with my money in bad twice. Although, I'll play the AK/AQ/Q7 hand the same every time. Shortstack jammed his Q7, I rejammed my AQ, and just got unlucky to have AK behind me. I would have had the shorty crushed. But I got lucky and more than doubled myself. Perhaps some reward for a strong play?? :-) Anyway, its nice to be cashing in MTTs again, and hopefully someday soon my time will come.

Also played a little cash on Full Tilt on Saturday night while left at home alone with my NASCAR in HD. I won $16.50 playing .05/.10 for a little over 2.5 hours. Mainly just one table as I played a SNG on Stars at first, then mixed in another cash game for the last hour. I was just completely card dead for the first hour and a half or so, getting $20 deep into that first cash game table when I got giddy over an overpair and ran it into a set, but then caught fire about the time I opened the second table, and could finally put my reads to use on the table captain and used him as my personal ATM, eventually cashing out with a $29 stack for $9 profit. At the second table I made a nice, steady $7 profit, and called it good when the wife got home. So my FT balance is back up above my original deposit from last month and I'm not quite so mad at myself for how I played like a moron trying to clear that bonus.

Live poker has also treated me well, as we had our monthly game last Friday, and I posted what either ties or sets a personal record $60 profit. Not bad for $5 tourneys and .25/.50 cash on the side. You'd never guess things would go that way after I busted on the first hand of the first tourney when I flopped broadway holding J10. I was in the cutoff and when it folded to me I raised 3x to 150 chips. SB and BB both called. Flop comes AQK and both blinds check, and I fire 300 at it and SB calls and BB folds. I'm saying to myself "please don't pair the board, please don't pair the board...", and what comes off but a King. The SB bets 500, I min-raise to 1k, and he jams. I put him on AK even before the turn came, and I could read into his jam that he had the goods, so even though I know I'm beat, I decided I'm not gonna find a fold w/broadway in a $5 tourney and call. I considered it $5 to the prize pool for the bad beat story value. As it turns out, it was the best worst call I could make, because once the cash game fired up I won a huge pot on the second best hand I'd ever had unfold for me. The first being when I had three all-ins in front of me and I look down at aces and held up. In this case I had pocket 9s in late position and raised to $2. The big blind, a notorious donator, called. The flop came 8-high, 2 hearts, and I fired $4 into the $4 pot, and got the call. The turn paired 4s on the board and I bet $4 again this time and got min-raised. For the first time I considered the thought of being beat, but I had to call with almost 5:1 and the possibility of him holding a 4 or a full house. The turn was a glorious 9h, filling me up and completing the flush. My opponent bets $5, and I play it up real good and raise my last $6 or so and eventually get the call. He showed a J-high flush. While if any non-heart comes I win the hand, I got the single perfect card in the deck to get doubled up, which is always fun. After that I donated a little back to the group and then cashed out up $20 for 45 mins to an hour of "work". I then went on to come from my last 900 chips to flop two sets in a row and double both times on my way to chopping first place in the second tourney for $30 profit, then hung around in the rebuy tourney and took 4th for $20 and a $10 profit. Nice to have things turn around for me after the first tourney, and fun to sling around real chips with buddies as usual.

So there you have it. Read that to your kids and they'll be asleep in no time. If you don't fall asleep first. Thanks for checking in, and hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later to report more!

Among the Best in the World...

...between 6/30 & 7/5...among those who played at least 20 $1-2.99 SNGs...on PokerStars. But still, for this one shining moment, I'm among the best in the world at something poker.

Hello Windbreak247,

Congratulations on your performance in last week's Sit & Go Leader Boards. A cash prize of $20.00 has been credited to your account.



So I've reached another goal...another milestone in this poker journey I'm on, and at the moment I'm pretty proud. I started with a bankroll of just under $20, and in the span of 20 SNGs, plus the bonus, ran it up just shy of $65. That's not bad for SNGs that payout at a profit of 3.30, 2.50, and .60. I cashed in 15 out of 20, which is pretty remarkable. This run also got me back in the black in 2008 SNG play, which is always nice as well. I just wish I would've had a little more time and I could've played in some 18 or 27 player SNGs and really made a run at the top spot. Sadly, its difficult enough for me to play 20 SNGs in a week, so once I realized I had 9 under my belt and had cashed in 8 and this could be the week for me to make the leaderboard, I really only had the option of finishing it off w/9 player SNGs. I did it right under the gun, too, having to play 5 SNGs at once on Saturday afternoon to get it squeezed in. That is something I'd never done before, and I even managed to cash in 4 out of 5. Its nice to really accomplish something with SNGs after I've really specialized in them for the 3 1/2 years I've been playing online. Anyway...it was fun, and hopefully I can do it again and make the top 10 and the monthly Battle of the Planets triple shootout sometime.

This week with PokerStars 2x promotion its 2x the guarantees in the daily guaranteed tourneys, so I'm gonna look to play at least one of the nightly 6 PM Central 20k guarantees, and then maybe on Saturday I can play the Noon Central 10k guarantee. Both of those being their pre-2x guarantee amounts. I haven't checked yet, but I'm guessing pretty much all of these double guarantees are going off with overlays, because even with the guarantees being doubled, I just don't see these daily tourneys doubling their entries...but who knows.

The other obvious fact at this point is that I managed to run well for 20 straight SNGs, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that will continue. Sadly, it felt very, VERY strange to run normal/well, but at least I took full advantage of it, and just have to hope that maybe...just maybe...it can last at least through the end of August, during which I have a couple of "practice" live sessions planned for the local poker room, then a trip to Vegas next month, with plenty of online play mixed in inbetween. But its all in the hands of the cards at this point. I've given up all superstitious tactics to try and make it better, because not once has anything ever worked. I'll just be getting my money in the middle and hoping for the best.

That's about all I have to report. I'll check back in when I have more.

Shame On Me

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

(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!