Amazing Sunday

Well I never thought I would get to write a blog entry such as this.
I had an incredible run this past Sunday morning, one that probably will not be duplicated again.
Now I did not win thousands or just play blindly but I ran incredibly well.
I now know how it feels to run that way and it is a very very satisfying.

I played live on Saturday. Had a decent day but I was very card cold. I had a young friend watching my play and cards after he got knocked out of the tournament and he was laughing at my hands. They were that bad. I would get a red 4 as the first cards more time than I can count. This was a very strange day. I think I documented once before when I was playing 10/20 limit holdem that I received a 4 as my first card dealt 16 hands in a row!! After the first 6 or 7 first 4s I started just turning my first card face up. After the 16th time I sat out until that dealer was off of his shift. LOL Never happened again after that day.

So Saturday I ended up 15th out of 62 players which wasn't terrible except that my last hand I actually flopped and oesfd against two overs. I had 20 outs! We were 8 handed at the time. I was in the small blind with blinds being 1400/700 + 200 ante. I only had 2100 behind and the bigstack at the table counted me down and bet that amount. I chose to call and was fairly pleasantly surprised to find he only held KQo without a diamond against my Jd9d. The flop was 10d,8d,4h. Now any diamond (9 outs), any 8 (3 outs), any Q (2 outs), any J (3 outs) and any 9 (3 outs). Unfortunately he hits a red K on turn though not the diamond obviously, reducing my outs by 6. And the river was a 2h. You know how you see the red of the card... and for a moment... just a moment... you think you have hit. LOL Such cruelness the poker gods can exhibit. No matter I had enjoyed myself as many of the players in this tournament I had not seen for awhile.

After the tournament we drove back to our home city and went to a small home game I enjoy on Saturday evenings ( and many times early Sunday mornings ). This game is only 1/2 NL but sometimes the players are out of control. Unfortunately for my friend (and somewhat myself) this was one of those times. My friend did not fair well for his first visit but I think he will be back in the future. The place can be rowdy bettingwise or one where you simply get called down on everything. But it is a fun social evening with poker the main course. I faired better than my friend but only walked away with a $10 win. LOL A win is a win, right?!?! LOL

So I get up Sunday morning, somewhat expecting more of the previous days slight of cards. I am fairly used to it but one can always hope for a better day. And Sunday proved to be much better. I entered several tournaments on several sites (PS, UB FT and Walker). Yeah yeah... I know... spreading myself around, would be better to concentrate on one site at a time.... but this way I don't wipe out any one account quckly. Don't try to figure it out... it is my own screwy logic. LOL
I ended up playing in twelve tournaments but none of them over a $5.00 buy in. Two were freerolls of which I didn't make if far in either. Another was the lone tournament on Walker I entered..... for .25. LOL another failed attempt. Of the remaining 9 tournaments I cashed in 6 of them. I can not recall if two of the 6 cashes were in SNGs but I believe they were. The other 7 tournaments were all MTTs or 180man SNGs. My friend even talked me into playing in a TurboHeadsUpShootout MTT on FT. I am not a good headsup player nor short handed player. My game is improving but I am truely weak in these areas. The field was 98 players and I went out in 11th place.... good enough for a cash. Was happy to have cashed at least in it as I really didn't think I would do well at all.

The other 3 cashes were in a $5.00 MTT (202 players), a $3.00 MTT (210 players) and a $2.00 SNG (180man). I finished 3, 2, and 1st respectively. It was one of the more incredible runs of my life in poker. No it was the most incredible. I stopped playing. After I finished the final tournament which was the first place finish I just felt I shouldn't push my luck any more. LOL Actually I was more in shock than anything that I had run that hot. I guess I was just satisfied with my day and chose to do other things and get out of the house. Course it helped that it was a very nice day out. I would elaborate more on the games but I don't remember them all that well. Of course many many spots I got lucky but I also played pretty well. But more than anything I was just lucky either to have the best hand to start or to hit.

Now if I could only duplicate a run like that in larger than $5.00 buy ins! LOL

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Well it has been awhile since I posted.
Poker is just kinda trudging along.
Haven't been doing very well but not losing.... just not gaining any ground.

I have found myself sitting in games I do not really want to be in just to help keep the game going or even start it. There is a new club on the west side of town. But I fear it will not make it.
Everyone thinks they are too good to start games. They will only go once a game is already started. Hell if half the people that called to see if a game was going showed up we would have two tables and a waiting list.

Have decided to mix it up a little and just play in some games I haven't been to in a long time.
Going to the little $20 tournament tonight with the horrible blind structure. They will get over 140 players and it still will be over with in 4 hours. And that is with a 10,000 starting stack!

I think I will also not stay in any game I am not comfortable with. I can't help it if a game doesn't start or breaks because I don't want to play. I am down almost 3 buyins in 3 weeks and that includes a double buyin win in the middle of those 3 weeks along with a few other small wins.

Since it has been so long since I posted I have played in my monthly tournament twice since I bubbled the final table in 10th. I followed it up with a 7th place but then was the 3rd person out in the last tourney. I gambled and took one off for the nut flush draw on a paired board. I should have known I got lucky for a reason, one of the other players flopped quads. LOL

February rolling along.....

Well unfortunately haven't been playing much in the way of ring games since my bad weekend. I think I have played twice and managed small wins. They were wins, but trust me very small. Only won back maybe 10% of what I lost that one weekend. Haven't really had the opportunity or maybe I should say drive to play ring games since then. Once I get home I relax and don't feel like going back out.

I have played in some tournaments. One of them I just had a good time playing, played crazy bad... but still had fun. :) Nice to just cut loose a little bit like that. Didn't play wacko just looser than normal chasing flushes and inside str8s! Was also helping to run the tournament so wasn't bothered by much.

Played in one of the best live tournaments I have ever had the chance to play in. The structure of the tournament was great. The players were probably the toughest field as a whole I have ever played against. Very few players at this tournament could have been considered dead money. Made it to 15th out of 60. Met a lot of really good guys and gals and good players. Check out http://www.badbeatspoker.net/ for future tournies. Have to be a member of the forum though.

Also did pretty well in my monthly $100 buy in tournament. But I bubbled final table in 10th place. Was still pretty happy with my play. Maybe misplayed two hands the whole night.

Online has been a back and forth thing. Still hovering in the same place for the most part but finding success in many MTTs. What is keeping me in somewhat neutral is I started playing $10 and $20 SNGs and that eats up alot of the profits I am pulling out of the MTTs.

I think I need to start trying to play cash games online but I fear I could take a major swing down like I did last time when I had a pretty good sum on UB and tried playing limit ring games. Wiped most of the $800 out in like 3 weeks. Just couldn't get any traction. I think I will try to stick to MTTs and stop playing the $10 and $20 SNGs. That should help the online roll a bit.

(edit note: You would think I could spell my own birth month correctly)

New Year.......

Well the new year in poker has started out well for me.... or at least continued rolling in the same direction as I ended last year.

Online I am finding that I continue to be fairly successful. I think I have made 11 final tables since Nov when the tournaments had more than 100 players in them. Some tourneys as many as 2202. Got 2nd in that one. Mainly NL MTTs but a few HORSE and RAZZ tournaments. Just got a 4th place last night in HORSE on UB. Just hoping to continue progressing my bankroll online. Currently is over $500. Has been a long time since I have over $500 online. Struggled all through 2008 with under $200 on all 3 sites I play. Not counting Walker Poker as I have maybe $23 on there... just mess around once in awhile there.

Live ring games have continued to be good .... well up until this week that is. LOL Have lost about 70% of my live bankroll in just 3 sessions. Course that is because I have no true bankroll to speak of. Took a pretty hard beat for all of my money on Monday night (Tuesday morning 6AM!). Got upset but didn't say anything to the player that called $260 ai on the flop into a $108.00 pot (!) but then another player at the table justified the caller's 30% hand call with the statement "He's stuck that's why he called". I kinda snapped off at that statement that that is the way to get unstuck.... call 50% of your stack on a 30% hand when you are getting 1.4 on your money. The more I think about it the more I need to leave it alone. I know I want the player making that call (for a Q high flush draw) 70% of the time ( I even had the K high flush redraw after he hit on the turn). Hell his hand might not even have been a 30% hand due to my redraw. I didn't give the player any crap about it... but the other lucksack chiming in pissed me off. Fortunately the club was closing and I just left.

One positive note in my play is I am not devastated like I used to be when I lose a buy in or two in an evening. This used to majorly depress me and make me pretty hostile for a week or two. Getting better at taking the beats. I just need to work on making more money when I am winning so that when I lose it won't take two or even three sessions to get that money back. That is one of the big holes in my game. I risk $200-$300 to win $100-$200 and am happy. Problem is when I lose I tend to lose the full buy in. I am getting there... just have to keep working on it.

Live tournaments have not been good to me so far this year. Some of it has been horrible play on my part and much of it just card dead. No cashes yet or bubbles.... close but no bubbles. Just need a good cash in Feb to get the tournaments rolling.

Not Tilting........ but still tilt......

Well been a month again since I posted.... but at least I am hitting it once a month minimum.

Still not playing too much but I did manage to stop by Wheeling for two different sessions.
Managed to prove to myself that I did learn my lesson from the previous trip there. Got there on a Tuesday night about 11:30pm and played till noon the next day. Was a card dead night, no suckouts. But I didn't let it tilt me this time. No pushing of hands I didn't need to push. Lost but only a small amount this time instead of the previous lengthy sessions where I pushed too hard the last hour or so of each session and lost much more than I should have.
Went back the Sunday after Thanksgiving and had a better but shorter session. The badbeat jackpot but up to $58k. Wanted to play more but was up a decent amount and decided not to risk it. Had I been up less I would have played more than the 4 hours I did play as I had planned on making it at least a 12 hour session.

Been doing ok playing small sessions of 1/2NL. Did have a bad session just the other night though. Took what I felt was a bad beat.... well not so much a bad beat as a surprising one based on the player and their knowledge of me. AK beat by Q5os on the river. With the Q5os raising on my flop bet...K106... all spades. And no I didn't have a spade in my hand. The other player knows me well and I had a good read on them they they did not have a hand yet. That they were on a draw. Unfortunately I was not deep stacked enough to make a play that I thought could push them off their draw. I bet-called the flop (was a min raise) and check-called the turn (6c). Checked the river (6s) as did the other player. Only to have their hand turned over to see the 5s that they were betting all the way. Started to tilt..... just kept saying "Wow" outloud but not loudly. I stewed for a little while but managed not to tilt aggressively in any hands after that. Didn't spew chips. I was happy with myself for not tilting... or so I thought.

I previously mainly thought of tilt as angry chip spewing or trying to be too aggressive. I found my other form of tilt that night....... being too scared. Playing hands too passively or totally incorrectly because I fear getting snapped. And of coure this caused me to misplay one hand horribly wrong and get felted. I limped with QQ noting a raise was coming to my left. Planned on just smooth calling to make sure no A (or K) came on the flop. It was raised to $18 with 5 callers before me and I was the last to call the raise. I knew if anyone else that was involved in the hand would have had a better hand or even AK they would have raised. The raiser was a very aggressive player who can raise almost any two and then play fairly well after the flop. I felt their hand wasn't that strong based on the reaction to all of the callers. I should have ended the hand right there and shoved aipf which most likely would have worked. Instead I sheepishly smoothed called. Flop was J43... I think the 43 were clubs. Checked to me with only the original raiser behind me and he looked like he was gonna bet. But I didn't want anyone else in the hand besides myself and the original raiser so I decided to shove my last $120. The pot was already just over $100 I believe. Everyone folded but one player.... the one with 44! He easily would have laid down preflop to a $120 reraise...... but I was tilting.........another lesson learned.

Also played in my monthly big tourney. Big for me is $100. Managed to get a respectable 5th finish out of it. Paid top 8. Ran QQ utg into KK in bb. Not much I could do there as I was in 4th in chips anyways. with blinds being 3/6k+500 ante. My stack was 33k. Made some good laydowns to get to that point. Had a couple of players move aipf in front of me. Woke up with AK, 99, 88 and 55. I think the only hand that would have held up was the 99 but didn't want to flip for half of my stack. Rather keep the shortstacks that way until I felt had them dominated. Ak would have lost to AQ or AJ. The flop was rabbitted and both Q and J was on flop. Might have caught the lucky 10 but we will never know.

So now I have had one tournament cash in each of the past 3 months for $300 or more and I have only played maybe a total of 10 tourneys. I am going to start playing tournaments again like I was doing in the first half of 2007 which was pretty frequent. Had a decent amount of success that year in tournaments but then things cooled off and I cut back my tournament play drastically.

Hopefully 2009 proves to be a good year for me cardwise. Trying to approach it much the way I have in 2008 but with a more consistent schedule of play.

The Weekend that wasn't.....

Well originally was supposed to go to the WV casinos.... but alas.... plans fell through. I was disappointed but probably was for the best considering my previous visit and tilt sessions there. LOL

Ended up just continuing my latest run at the ring live games. I am still doing well. Keeping the sessions to under 2 hours. Hit and run I suppose but not hitting for big money... just consistent money. I am determined to build a bankroll through slow but steady acquisitions. And so far it is working. I did have one session this past weekend where I played a ring game (after playing in a tournament for 2 hours after going card dead and not cashing) for 7.5 hours! LOL I ended up winning only $47 after tips and fee. But had a good time. I actually enjoyed playing till 4:30 in the morning. Had been a very long time since I had done that. Was easy to enjoy I guess as I didn't play many hands and was never stuck too much and never up much either.

I have been having some success online... nothing great... just different. I have been playing non holdem tournaments and doing ok. Bubbled a Stud8 tournament (50/380+ paid top 48), final tabled a Razz tourney and cashed in a PLO8 tourney. They were all small buyins but was a nice change from the NLH jamfest I tend to get in. I also bubbled a final table in one of the Stars $5 buyins. Was happy but took a so so beat with under 15 left to cripple me. (AK vs Q10o he jammed I called). I think there were over 800 players in that tourney so I faired well. Haven't been doing very good in STT SNGs lately but I think I have gotten away from my usual game in them and have been gambling too often.

Also got 2nd in a live tournament (only 20 players). Was actually very disappointed in 2nd but the woman I played headsup with just outplayed me I guess. Or at least played a style I could not counter. She jammed ai 10out of 25 hands. I never once had an Ace or even two face cards when she did it. I couldn't play against her unless I just wanted to gamble. She had 80-85% of my stack and I wasn't willing to gamble. She finally did it (went ai) after the flop on the last hand and I had made middle pair so I called her. But she of course had the top pair and I failed to improve. I ended up winning the next 3 hands all aipf. But I couldn't keep up the string and went down in defeat. I hope to get her headsup again sometime soon....... I will gamble next time.

Hello Again......

Well I am getting just as bad as every other blogger who never posts. I spend more time reading others' posts than worrying about my own.

Haven't really been doing much in the way of live poker. Play a few small buy in tournies with less than 50 players. Still not doing well. Go deep, but no cash. Still chugging along in the ring games when I do play them. Play $1/3 and $1/2 for usually 1-2 hours. Cash out $100-$150 and done. Hit and run. Wish it meant I was building up my bankroll but just can't seem to get there. Always something taking the extra cash.

Actually had a decent week last week online. We going deep and made 4 final tables in tournaments with at least 180 players. None of the big ones but was still very happy to make 4 final tables out of like 13 tournaments that size in 6 days.

But then after those nice cashes they "flipped the switch" on me online. LOL Not that I can't win races, I can't win the 80/20s (QQvsJJ) and the 70/30s (AKvsKQ).... much less the AA vs K10os aipf. Just running bad now. Have lost most of what I won from those 4 fts. I am sure there were some hands I pulled out of my $%^ but really been running bad in critical situations. Guess I need to step back to the $1 & $2 SNGs and give up the $5 SNGs and $4 bounty MTTs on UB.