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.