Saturday Night Live

...well, not really live: the same "whatever" that pushed me to head to the Tulalip last weekend decidedly kept me at home tonight. At 8pm I had my jacket on, CDs in my pack, Flexcar reservation set up - just had to click "reserve." I got my cash from its 'spot,' and all the sudden had the same feeling that prompted me to leave the game last week: I can't call it 'nervous,' but... just something that told me I wasn't going to be playing at 100%. No matter, the Tulalip will be there next weekend too. I work on Saturday, so perhaps after work I'll head up there.... heck, I'm going to the symphony tomorrow afternoon, so better to be in bed early and well-rested so I don't doze off during one of the Rachmaninoff's.

Instead I dove into a $10+1 STT. I used to wile away many-an-hour at the $10+1 tables last spring and summer.... for some reason since moving out here, I've been playing teeny stakes instead. The odd thing is my bankroll is fatter now than it was a year ago when I was working retail, yet I still find myself playing $2.25 STT's.

Anyway, the results were good:


I played super-squeaky tight for most of it, changing gears to steal some blinds. Got more aggressive as we got shorter -- you know, the usual.

Two hands stick out for me: first one I just earned the damn pot. 3 handed, the button folds, and I have 43o. Powerhouse, I know. But this was the first time 3-handed the button folded, so my first "test" of how the dude plays in the BB. I raise 3x's bb, he calls. FLOP: Qd8d6s. I fired about 2/3 pot bet, he folds. Standard, I know, but it's nice to remind myself sometimes that I do know how to play aggressively while holding squadoosh.

2nd hand that stands out: I have AA in the SB. Button limps, I pop it to 4x's; BB folds, button calls. FLOP: A66 rainbow. Now, I flopped the nuts (well, 2nd nuts), and I wished I were in position on this one. The dude on the button LOVES to check-raise... LOVES it...matter of fact, I even got him to slow down on his check-raising by talking about it when I burned him on a hand. But I'm first to act, so I figure - if he likes to check-raise, I'll put in a small bet and hope he can raise me. I bet 1/4 pot. He folds. I was caught here -- I was trying to use his aggression against him by making a pitiful looking stab at the pot. Maybe therein lies my problem: maybe the pitifully small bet sounded alarm bells to him. Still, though, I guess I could've checked and hoped he caught up a bit on the turn. There are no cards that would scare me off on the turn or the river, so perhaps I should have slowed down.

There's another part of my game I need to work on: I rarely ever slow-play. Rarely. So rare in fact that when I do in a live game it's probably obvious due to physical manerisms. Not being used to slow-playing I'm sure I move and hold myself a little differently than normal. But online, too - I just don't have much practice trapping. I rarely ever do. And I think because of that I'm not as effective as I could be. It's a tool I just don't readily have at my disposal. I always think if I've got the strongest hand that I should get chips in there. Or maybe that's just my style. But in the hand I mentioned above, if he had caught up even a little on the turn, I know I could have gotten him to commit some chips.

Part of my decision to play the $10+1 tonight was inspired by this post by Katitude. Specifically, the part where she writes "stop treating it like a video game." I'm good at this poker-thing. Not great yet, but I'm pretty darn good most of the time; yet it's so easy for me to treat it like - well, like a video game I dumped a couple quarters into. I mean - the bigger tournaments I can focus in on well; however my sit n go playing is often unfocused and undisciplined. Tonight, I cleared off my desktop of all stray icons, turned off the music, closed the browsers, and focused. And it's amazing the little tendencies I noticed that I've been missing out on playing online.

Focus is good. Focus is +EV. +EV=better play; better play=$$; $$=$$$$.

I've read at least a couple blogs lately (including Katitude's, mentioned above) of people trying the Chris Ferguson challenge; and while I'm not formally following that particular challenge, I decided to mostly follow Chris's bankroll management suggestions. I'll be sticking to $10+1's until I can either "afford" $20+2 or unless I have to drop down to $5.50 again. Here's the gist of the bankroll management stuff:
- can buy into a cash game or sit n go for up to 5% of my bankroll (exception: can buy into any game $2.50 or less)
- if at any time during NL or PL cash game, the money on the table is more than 10% of my bankroll I have to leave when the blinds reach me
- can't buy into a MTT for more than 2% of my bankroll

My own tweak to this:
- I can buy into a MTT of any size by either earning the buy-in at a cash game or by a satellite. Satellite buy-in rules will follow the same rules as sit n go. At most, I will only attempt one $24+2 MTT per week, and will only give myself one shot to earn a token
- I can buy into a "special" MTT (blogger event, Riverchaser's event) by earning my buy-in through either a sit n go or cash game (my own "satellite" system)

Mookie 6-handed tonight!

6-handed this week...

Check out Mookie's website for further details about bounty, bdr, etc...

Live games rule

If you read my post about my first Tulalip trip, you know what happened when I made the worst call of my life. Scariest thing about that hand was that I had pocket aces, under the gun, and got like 5 callers when I made a standard 3x's blind raise.

SO in a very spur-of-the-moment decision, last night I decided to head to Tulalip (was going to go Sunday afternoon, but that indeterminable "something" pushed me into action last night). Long wait for 1/2; short wait (2nd on list) for 3/5. So within 5 minutes I'm sitting at the 3/5 table; max buy in is $300, I started with $200. (side note: maybe I'm becoming an action-junkie, but I'd much rather play 3/5 than 1/2 - something a year and a half ago I didn't think I'd hear myself say)

I sit down UTG, and I look at my cards - one red ace, one black ace. I immediately have flashbacks to what happened last week. I'm sitting in the same seat (seat 7), though different table. I don't know a thing about this table yet - don't know what "standard raise" is, don't know how loose/tight/good/bad they were. I decided on the higher-end of the probable raise-spectrum: I raised to $20. Wouldn't you know it, I get 5 callers!!

In my head I'm preparing myself to be able to let go of these aces if the flop or turn is scary. Unlike last week when I was married to my aces, this time I was scared of them. It's kinda like the first time I held a gun - it felt good to hold it, but also made me nervous. Aces are powerful.

$120 in the pot; flop comes AsKc3s. BINGO!! Big blind checks. I look at the pot, look at my stack, and mutter something about not having enough ammo for the turn if I pot bet the flop, so I just shove all-in. Folds to the big blind, who asks for a count (that was easy - $180), and then calls. I turn to him and say, "flush draw?" Shakes his head yes. He's got Ks7s. All I have to do is dodge the 35 spades left in the deck, and I've more than doubled on my first hand. Turn is red, river is black - but a club. *phew* Doubled+ with pot A.

The table was really weird - quite passive; so much limping. Very abc players, too: bet if they had it, mucked if they didn't. When I was in position with even a moderately OK hand and there were several limpers, I'd often put a raise in (3x's bb + however many limpers there were), and that would usually be enough to take down a $20 or $25 pot preflop without a confrontation. You had to be careful, though, of EP raises: they would often times build into a monster pot as after one or two callers, people were I guess thinking they were getting odds with ATC.

Best play of the night: I'm in the cutoff with J10. A couple limpers, so I join in the fun and limp too. BB checks his option, and 5 of us see the flop. FLOP: 89x. Checks to me, I bet $15 (OESD to the nuts!). BB calls (he's been in most every hand and chases), all others fold. Turn a blank. BB checks; I bet out $35, he calls.

Here's where live poker rules over online... River is an ace. If I wasn't watching the guy, I would have thought this was an awful card for me: I've seen him call down one hand with bottom pair + an ace. Online I'd have no idea what to do here: if checked to, I would probably check behind, playing it safe. But I wasn't playing online: as the ace falls off, this guy visibly slouches and looks super disappointed; it was obvious to anyone who watched is body and his face that he certainly did not like that ace out there (I wouldn't be surprised if he'd been on the same draw I was actually). He checks, I fire like $75 or something out there, and he mucks. He was such an abc player that when he didn't bet the ace I knew he didn't have it. His physical mannerisms just drove the point home. I earned that pot damnit!!! With J10o. :)

...incidentally, I had aces one other time, in MP. After one limper I raised to $25 ($5 more than my standard raise would've been if I were in position), and got no callers. I was surprised, guess that was too much. The table had possibly noticed, though, that most times I raised preflop I ended up dragging in chips. Or they all just had rags. :)

After a little see-sawing back and forth, I ended up cashing out $550. Short session, about 4 hours. I'm happy with $350 in 4 hours! I left even though the game was really good - I had a good line on all but 2 players (the 2 new players that just sat down). The game was SO soft. I opened up my game a lot more than usual from position because the table was so passive I knew most any significant bet on the flop, if the action before me was right, would take down the pot. I knew who to stay away from at the table (Mr. TightNit in seat 2); I knew who would be willing to double me up with middle pair (Mr. Overbettor in seat 9, who was about $800 deep)...

And yet I walked away. Why? Because for whatever reason, I started to get nervous about putting chips into the pot. Maybe it was results-oriented thinking.... I had a nice profit, and I didn't want to blow it? I dunno... I never had that type of thinking in Vegas; maybe because I was stuck so bad from last week? Whatever reason, something in me decided I wouldn't be playing great poker at that point, and I made the best decision possible: when the blinds came around to me I cashed out.

3,600 runners; 105th place

3hrs 45 minutes of work, and I barely profit. Cheap entertainment, I guess I can call it :)

This was the $0.10 guaranteed $1,000 rebuy tourny on tilt. $0 + $0.10 to get in; 1,000 chips, rebuys are $0.50 at 1,000 chips or less, one 1,500 chip add-on for $0.50.

I played it pretty aggressive in early rounds, and only had to do one full rebuy (well, I did the initial one from the get-go to start with 2k), and did the add-on, so it cost me $2.10 to play. I had to get to 135th place to break even, and I went out in 105th place. Out of 3600 runners, I'm happy! Deepest I've ever gone in this big a field. I didn't think I'd like the rebuy deal, but I used it to my advantage, taking some extra chances early on (especially when I was just under 2K about 5 minutes before the rebuy period was over, I re-raise shoved with J10 soooted, figuring if I get called & beat then I rebuy and have as many chips as I had. I performed a nice suckout and doubled through :)

Besides that hand, which didn't have my tourny life on the line, I sucked out only once: I limped UTG with 66; one limper, small blind raises in what I think is a squeeze play, I shove when bb folds, limper folds and sb calls:


"Thank you, RNG," I said after the hand.

...unfortunately 66 is the hand that did me in at the end. No, my decision on how to play the hand is what did me in at the end. I limped in late, bb checks, bb checks a Qc10cx flop, I fire 1/2 pot, calls. Turn 4h, bb checks... what do I do? STOOOPID me shoves. Was hoping a flush draw, but nope - just Q2. Top pair / no kicker, called 3/4 of his stack against my shove - and I'd been playing SUPER-DUPER tight. Oh, well. Should be more careful there -- small pre-flop raise and that pot was mine at the beginning; if he still called and called my c-bet, I'd re-evaluate on the turn, but I should probably fold to any action, as it is I have 66.

All-in all, though, I was very happy with my play. I made some positional steals; I made some steal re-raises when the flop c-bets seemed weak... happy. As it was when I won like $1.50 in the Ferguson, I'm now unsure whether I'll play this one again. It's good practice, though, for bigger games - and for me, good to see how I feel about rebuy tournaments (which I like really - I played this last weekend, and while I didn't cash, I really like the flexibility the rebuy-period can give you. Plus it's often obvious who's trying to not do any rebuys and cash from the bear minimum, so you can use that time to take advantage of those tight-nits.).

As I've been rather disinterested in playing online this whole past week, it was a good way to get back into the swing.

Maybe I'll try one of the rebuy sit and go's to the $750K tomorrow... I was planning on hitting the Tulalip tomorrow afternoon, but I'd bag that if I get into the Sunday Major. I'm going to re-evaluate the Tulalip-thing tomorrow and see how I feel about it.

One and done

Riverchaser's online tournament; FIRST hand:



Picture says it all. Preflop raise from EP to 90; 1 caller. 225 in the pot. Flop; I bet 175; raised to 500. I'm figuring flush draw, and don't want them drawing so I shove all in. INSTACALL with 2 overs / nut flush draw. 15 outs made them actually a 55-45 favorite to win.

First hand.

I hate this game sometimes.

2 done, 2 won

Played so horribly yesterday (except the 2 HU games, which I won) - 2 sit n go's, both played horribly (though one I busted on one of those "bad beat" things). I played the 2 HU games at the same stake as my 2 stt's (2 & 5), so I won my buy-ins back (less a few cents of course), but I was supremely disappointed in my tourny play. I'm becoming MUCH more comfortable heads up, that's for sure -- I need to track my HU stats, but I'm pretty sure I'm around 70% or so.

Tonight, I thought I'd play a quick $2.25 turbo before bed. And, of course, as soon as one started I figured "what the hell, I'll just start another one too." And yea, I took 'em both down :) Both completely differently, though.

The first, I dominated from early on: wasn't superior play, I was a major-league card rack! Q5 in the bb, only sb calls; flop 55x, sb bets, I call; turn a 5 (I'm ready to slow play here); sb shoves with...A9. No pair, no draw. Thnx, gg. Aces twice (though cracked once); queens flopping a set; AKs, AQs, 99, JJ... I was chip leader until 3-way when my AA got cracked by a rivered set of 6's. I battled back to 2nd in chips, and found AKs in the BB; sb raises (was super-aggressive, raising most hands); I shoved.... hesitate, then....calls with presto. Rivered an ace, thnx gg. HU I had a major chip lead, lost it to a suck out, battled back to about even, stole a bunch of pots to get a nice lead again, then finished him off with a suckout: Ad5d, raised from the sb, he re-raised, I called. Flop: 8s 8d Qd. I shoved. INSTACALL by... AcQc. Turned a 9d for the win.

The other one, I looked at the hand history at around 20 hands, and I had only won one. About 10 hands later, I had won one more... was super-duper-patience on this one. Then I noticed that, while the other game was 3-way, this one was still 7-WAY! Way too tight, so I started raising from position with middle connectors, middle gappers, K2 - anything... and just stole a bunch of pots. Enough raising and eventually someone's gonna look you up... which is nice when you have aces when they happen to look you up! Catapulted to the chip lead with now 6 to go. Took out a couple more players; down to 3-way took out #3 with AQ v QJ (AQ held); HU lasted about 4 hands as I had 12,300 vs 1,200 chips. Last hand was 10 3 s vs A 4 s (hey! I couldn't fold for 400 chips!), hit a 10 on the flop.

Played well; in the uber-tight one I waited 'till the pots were large enough preflop to matter and started attacking them. Hard to say the first one was much skill (I mean, I did nothing fancy - even when I planned on slow playing my opponents led out for me!).

OH, just for kicks - in the last one, when 3-way I was shortstack for a bit. I needed chips desperately (and had just won the other one so was already happy!), and I shoved with:

...no callers :)

Feel a little better after 2 wins in a row, though I'm honestly still hung-up on that horrible, awful, horrendous call I made Saturday night at Tulalip. At least I learned; and an after-analysis made me realize I just got blinded and didn't perform well under pressure. Must focus more next time.

Live poker is so rigged

note to self: if a good opponent whom you've witnessed really only raising or folding is smooth calling your very large bets, there's a VERY GOOD CHANCE you're already beat.

played at the Tulalip this evening -- they had 1/2 with a max $100 buy in. That didn't sound like enough - only 50 BB's, so I opted for the 3/5 max 300 buy in. Yes, yes, yes I know - 60 big blinds, but I wanted the bigger action. My experience in Vegas playing $1/3 at Ceasar's which played more like a 2/5 game vs the 1/2 at the Venetian that played like a...well... a 1/2 game, I enjoyed the bigger action. I've got the money these days, so I might as well play for bigger stakes, and make it easier to beat the rake.

I'd been there a bout 2 hours; played very VERY tight; had c-bets picked off by 2 uber-aggressive players whom I was hoping at some point to use their aggression against them. My $300 buy in was whittled down slowly to just about $175, when this hand happened:

UTG, a VERY loosey-goosey player, upped it to one of the two "standard raises" for the table: $20 ($15 was the other standard). I find 88 in MP, and figure if no A, K, or Q hits the flop I'll take it down with a shove-raise, because I know he's going to c-bet. We get two more callers tagging along, one 2 to my right and one on the button (who is a very good, thinking, tricky player).

FLOP: 389 rainbow.

I immediately start trying to decide how to extract the most out of this hand, when UTG announces all-in. WOOOOOO!!!!!! Thanks for doin' my work for me, buddy! I didn't think the other guy would be calling anyway, but in case he did I wanted him to get all his chips in there, so I shoved as well. Amazingly enough, the next guy calls (I've got him and UTG covered)!!! Button-boy lays it down. Nice thing about Tulalip is they make you turn your cards over before they deal the rest of the cards in all-in situations, so we flipped our cards over. UTG had AJo (drawing dead); other dude has 34!!! He's looking for runner-runner something. That doesn't happen, and I take down a big pot, pushing my chip count to over $400. (at this point I immediately have the thought I should just take my profit and go home, OR go to the 1/2 game - this particular game is a tough game... )

SO a few hands later I'm UTG, and find AA. WOOOOO! I want to raise, but I don't want to call attention to my strength (plus I want some action!). I'd been raising 3x's the bb in ep/mp; and 4x's in lp (unless there were limpers in which case I'd raise it 3+(number of limpers)xbb, so I make it $15 to go. I get 4 callers. No exactly thrilled about going into a 5-way pot with aces.

Flop seems harmless -
K37 rainbow. BB checks; I bet out $50 (2/3 pot); then something peculiar happens: the toughest guy at the table, the guy who I have tried desperately to stay out of his way, makes the call from the button. I'm thinking possibly AK or KQ. Oddly still, is that the BB then calls. I have NO idea what he has, but I'm pretty sure I have him beat. I'm putting the button on a delayed-steal attempt.

Turn: blank. BB checks; I fire $100, and button-boy calls after the briefest hesitation. Then the BB calls! Last card: 7. There are now 3 clubs on the board, and 2 7's. Anyone playing 2 clubs or one or more 7's has me beat. BB goes all-in for his remaining $42. I smooth-call, in the hopes that button-boy is not too confident about his hand and mucks or at least doesn't raise.... no such luck. He shoved. I took a good 5 minutes to figure out what to do here, AND I MADE THE WORST CALL OF MY LIFE!!! I got married to my aces. The alarm bells just didn't go off loud enough or soon enough - why is a good, very aggressive player smooth calling my large bets (especially in light of how I played other hands). I should have figured that one of them has GOT to have me beat.... but instead, I'm married to my aces and call.

Button boy shows 33, for a flopped set and a rivered boat. Other dude had a Kx clubs, and rivered the flush, so my aces ended up being in last place.


I rebuy, and start playing well. I push my initial stack from $200 up to just under $300 with a few bets/raises/steals (I've become a little more aggressive now), when on the button I find AA. There have been 4 limpers, so I raise to $40. Blinds fold; MP dude (who just sat down fairly recently, has a fairly short stack - not even 150 - and didn't witness my cracked aces and should think I'm super-tight as I've been folding away for the past 20 minutes) makes the call. It's so hard for me to understand how you limp for $5 then call $35 more, but hey - more power to ya. Others fold, we're heads-up.

Flop: 4 10 4 all red. MP dude checks, I bet $75 (just under pot); he check/raises all-in! I've got to call $74 more. As I'm making the call, I announce to the table, "If this happens again, I'm leaving." Dude flips over 108o!! I can hear fuel55 now: "top pair is gold!" Turn is: an 8. And the river is.... yep - another 8. Runner-runner for a boat to crack the aces, holding complete rags and check/raise/shoving into an opponent who's really been playing super-tight. "Nice hand sir," I say, "very well played." I smile, wish the table good luck, and rack my chips and get the hell outta dodge! I swear if I avoided the one dude at the table, the rest of them were begging to give their chips away! But after the 2nd aces cracked, I was feeling very very tilty, and knew my image would be that of a punching bag, so I figured my best bet would be to high-tail it out of there. I don't believe I was on an unlucky streak, but I wasn't terribly fond of the table image I probably had at that point.

I'm tellin' ya - with patience, and some brains, that game would not be that tough to beat. I know two major leaks I have:
- getting married to a powerhouse hand and being unable to get rid of it, despite all the evidence that it's now beat
- tilting after taking beats.

I will be out there next weekend, and I will try the 1/2 tables and see how those games are -- there's a definite style difference between the PNW, AC, and Vegas, and I need to acclimate to the PNW style, so I should start smaller next time. Hell, maybe I'll go back tomorrow. Eh, I'll probably stay home and try some tilt tournaments.

We'll be right back after this short break....

...well, actually I took a short break from playing; I've been so freakin' stressed at work that I had no interest whatsoever in playing pretty much all week. I had made plans (in my head) to hit the local Indian Reservation casino to play some no limit cash this weekend (well, technically it's a 2-500 spread), but I'm not sure if I'll be going. Will decide that tomorrow and/or Sunday; got my Flexcar stuff all setup, so all I have to do if I wanna go is reserve the car, and hop in and drive.

Onto the "bad beat of the night." My first sit n go all week, I'm playing super-tight as I usually do for the first 4 rounds (except for one hand that I just stole from a guy by firing 3 bullets - he was a chaser and no draw he may have been on would have gotten there), mostly because I'm completely card dead. The best hand I got - pocket 6's in the SB, I laid down to a raise and re-raise preflop; I wish I'd have closed my eyes for the flop because I'd have flopped a set and raked in a HUGE pot. BUT that's not the bad beat....

SO here I am, I've seen 5 flops: 3 from the bb, 1 from the sb, and 1 from ep when I stole the pot from the guy. I have yet to make a pre flop raise, and then we're 25 minutes into this sit n go, when a very aggressive player in mp makes it 3x's the pot; a guy who's been steal-raising a number of times doubles, and I have QQ. I can call, or re-raise. Since I'm OOP, I'm leaning more towards re-raising; pot-sized raise would leave me with like 200 chips, so I shove. MP folds, button calls with......KJ. Yep, you gotta figure the guy who puts in his first preflop raise, and his tourny life on the line, must be just on a steal.

The picture does a better job explaining...


I love players who will call an all-in by an uber-tight player, for 2/3 of their chips, with KJs. I do - I get there chips most of the time! And then the other times I gotta take a beat and vent on my blog about it.

*sigh* I guess it's no worse than calling an all-in with A10s.

It's after midnight, I want to play more, but I'm just feeling SO not into it. Maybe I'll try a token sit n go, try to get a buy-in for a weekend guarantee tourny. Or maybe I'll just go read some more Kurt Vonnegut.

I forgot about the $1 rebuy donkament tonight; was even here in time to catch it. Also spaced Wednesday on the Mookie; actually I remembered the tourny, but forgot the time - I was logged into work from home until 6:15, and thought I missed it, forgetting it's a 7pm start for me. Oh, well, next week. Or maybe not. I just kinda lost the "zest." Maybe a weekend poker outing is what I need.

interesting graphics

This is what my ROI% graph looked like on Sharkscope about two months ago. Looking at this told me that I should steer clear of the $5 games, as those were my weakest. I hadn't been playing many $10 games at that point, so those results really reflected last summer/fall when I was concentrating mostly on $10 games.

A few months ago, I was playing the $2 18-person games, and cashing in those regularly. I didn't like all that work for such little reward, so I moved to the $5 18-person games, about a month or so ago. Here's what my ROI% graph looks like today:


...see any difference? ;)

I'd attribute that to playing better, and playing the 18-seaters, where there's a bigger prize pool (and, thus, better ROI when cashing). IMHO they seem easier than the 9-seaters (I've become unfond of the 6-seaters), and typically only take a little bit longer than a 9-seater. I've stepped up to the $10 ones a couple times, but just got smacked around (I don't attribute that to better players, I was just very card dead the 3 I've tried).

I've run kinda bad lately. Well, runnin' bad, and playing poorly. Thankfully my roll hasn't suffered much, as the past 3 nights I've made up most of what I've lost in sit and go / tourny buy-ins by playing .25/.50 limit HU / 3-way. I don't have a huge online roll by any means (though my riverchaser's win from a few weeks back has been super-cool cushion); I'm down $30 from after my RPT win, which isn't great, but the way I've been playing in tournys the past few days it could be a lot worse. Thank god for the fish playing HU limit! Wonder if I should move to .50/1... I think after my next STT win or decent MTT cash I'll give it a whirl.

...the more I think about it, the more excited I get about hitting the Tulalip Casino next weekend!

icky session

18-person, $10+1. Somewhere in the first 20 minutes... I've been playing super-duper tight, and noticed the table was pretty squeaky-tight as well. Folds to me on the button, I have K9o. FAR from a powerhouse, but I'm thinking a raise could easily take down the blinds, and if we go to a flop a c-bet would probably take down the pot. Surprisingly, both the sb and the bb called (was a standard, 3x's raise, and they both had been fairly passive, so it worried me a bit).

FLOP: Kd 9d 10s

"I love it when a plan comes together," I say to myself. After a raise and a re-raise, all the money is in, and this is what we get:


I guess I should have been able to get away from this: the BB could easily have had QJ there too, a hand I could see calling a raise from (especially after the SB called and gave him a good price). Both players flopping 2 pair has got to be fairly rare, I'd think. SO - #1. I played a junk hand and got junk results; #2. I pushed a marginal hand into a board that could have me beat (if he's got a set or QJ I'm drawing super-slim; if he's got Ad10d he's also got a huge draw (9 diamonds, 3 aces, 1 10 (the 10d counted in the 9 diamonds) = 13 outs ~ 52% to win). I didn't need to put my tournament life on the line, but I saw 2 pair and saw a double-up coming my way!

Next, I went to a single-table game, where after floating around even for a while, I performed this masterful suckout:


This was the 2nd time today where I tried a steal-re-raise and rain head-on into aces (lost the other one)... super-lucked out on this hand.

One other suck-out, but I'm thinking this one was a good play actually; not sold on it yet. 4-handed, 3rd chip position. Dealt Ad 10d in the BB. Button min raises to 400, sb folds, I call.

FLOP: 6d Kc Qd

Here, I'm thinking any diamond (flush), any ace (top pair), or any J(straight) gives me the hand. To be safe, I leave out the ace in case he's on AK, so any diamond (9) plus any J (3) gives me 12 outs, and a roughly 50% shot. It' s bubble-time, and I need chips to win this, so I figure I'll take the coin flip.

I bet out 400, other dude bumps it to 1600, I shove - INSTAcall by... KdKs. Great, he's got a set and one of my diamonds. An ace won't do any good, so I need a diamond or a J = 11 outs, about a 45-55 dog. Spiked a 5d on the river.

He was the chip leader and playing bully-poker, so I just didn't put him on such a big hand. Got lucky. I'm happy with my reasoning, though -- in 3rd chip position, I want to get the chips -- I shove hoping to win the hand there, but if I get called then I'm (I think) about a coin flip. Turned out I was in worse shape, though, but I'm happy with my reasoning. I was playing for the win, and sometimes you gotta take a coin flip.

One of my leaks I think is that I play too safe. I imagine the worst way too often, and chicken-out of pushing marginal hands or draws. I'm trying to turn that around; honestly playing in those donkorama bingo-poker Aussie freerolls on tilt has made me a tad more ready to take risks when needed. I'll need to bring that same mentality to games like the $28k's and Midnight Madness (well, not the exact same mentality, but at least some of it!). That's what crackinaces talks about in a lot of his MTT strategy posts, how you've got to accumalate chips early to be able to coast through rough-waters. And that means pushing small edges. I've now been to the final table in 6 of these Aussie freeroll things, I've made the top 20 about 8 times, the top 40 another 5 or so times.... I'm able to get deep in them (well, except the ones that I bust on hand #5 when my AA calling a push all-in gets beat by 52o or a 94 or some other crap!) often enough, by playing a non-small-ball brand of poker. Big risk in that, I know... life's about risk anyway.

I want to play more fearlessly.

Oh, in case you're wondering: I ended up 3rd in that last sit n go: same dude I sucked out on with the set of kings raised, I re-raised with AQs, he shoved, I called - his pocket 10's held up.

One more funny hand:

Both QQ. Either of us shoved, the other is folding for sure on that board!

Tomorrow may be a day at the beach; the tail-end of summer weather is here and I need to soak in as much sun as I can before the gray sets in, so probably no poker 'till the evening.

I signed up with flexcar, so there's a very good chance next Saturday will find me at Tulalip for the first time! I love live games so much; my play in Vegas was really top-notch, and my play since then has been much better and more deliberate. I'm looking forward to getting into a live NL game again. I'll play low-stake limit online, but I can't stand 3/6 limit live. Until I have a roll big enough to sit to a 30/60 game, I'm probably staying away from limit.

Lunacy

Wanna see what a bad call looks like?



I raised preflop, jl555 (whom I played HU in the last Riverchaser's tourny) pushed. I'm thinkin' it could be a resteal with air or suited connectors or something... so... *sigh* I called. Ace-freakin-10 sooooted.

2 hands later, I get A10o UTG, SO low in chips I need to get it in there with pretty much ATC, so I shoved... 44 beat me.

I played well -- very well, after the first 20 minutes where I was pretty weak. Granted I was pretty much card-dead for most of the game, and I really think of all the pots I won I was only certain I had the best hand once; every other hand I won by exploiting my (hopefully) tight image, and making re-raises of smallish bets on scary boards.

Ace-freakin'-10. What was I thinking?! AK - OK, fine - at that point with my chips getting a bit low anyway, I'd have to call. AQ - probably there too. But A10?!!

Sometimes I just overthink, and implode. And since I'm still very much a beginner at this game, overthinking is bad: most often, the most obvious play is the right play. Here, the most obvious play was to fold and wait for a better opportunity. I made a poor decision that busted me.

Oh, well - live and learn.

Heads UP!

1. After reading this post from fuel55, I decided to test out the small-ball HU deal. Longest HU sng I've played: 76 hands. I played carefully, selectively, and well. I'm happy with it. Not my typical "let's get this over right now" deal (one I played last week was over the first hand, but that happens when you flopp a boat and your opponent gets married to their KK :) )

2. I had been running really awful at limit lately, and took a break. For the hell of it the other night I decided to open a speed table and try to play HU (which at times turned to 3 handed), and did amazingly well. Again, careful but strong play here can yield big results. At .25/.50 I banked $22 in about 30 minutes. Last night, played for about 20 minutes and banked about $10. Tonight I played 20 minutes and ended down $2. I dig the HU & 3-way limit games big time. When the tables filled to more than 3, I'd sit out, open a new table and hope for some more HU. I wish tilt would allow HU tables at all levels, not just mid-upper.

Thursday is the Riverchaser's tournament on Fulltilt; 9pm easetern, $10+1. These things are soft enough that even I can win one :)

Timing is off

I think every stop and go I tried today had poor timing. Conversely, those who happened to employ the stop and go against me, had impeccable timing.

I love poker :)

Aussie Trek

So round 2 didn't go so well: busted in the first 15 minutes in hand where we were both destined to get it all in on the flop. Short version: in mp I find 77, standard raise; button (played a lot of pots) re-raised (min), I called. Flop: 7AK. I'm prayin' he's got AK here, I bet 3/4 pot, he shoves, I instacall. He turns over AK, trailing my set with only 6 outs. Spikes a K on the river, thnx gg.

Since then, I've final-tabled 2 more of these bingo-tournaments, taking 6th in one and either 7th or 8th in the other, as well as getting to the final 2 twice and making the top 20 about 5 times (I play 2-4 at a time; two last night that started minutes apart I was in the top 15 in both for much of the tournament, until the final 3 where one I busted, and the other was my 6th place finish).

Maybe it's a sick waste of time to try to get into these, but I want to get into next Saturday's Round 2 tourny. If I bust in that I may call it quits, and try some real-money super-satellites for the Aussie prize package ($10,500 buy-in plus air-fare from LA plus 10-days stay at the Crown Casino plus $4500 travel money (if you travel alone, which I would be)). Never been to Australia, might as well give it a go. And hey - if I can do it for free, all the better.

You just have to remember that it's not "real poker" until about the final 2 tables, and you have to take chances - but also minimize the damage you could take. It's a fine-line, but I've been getting deep into a bunch of them so I must've figured something out.