changing gears

i played a little last night for the first time in a while. i've been too busy to get a session in but managed to sneek in a couple tournies.

i started with the 7pm $75.

as the title of the blog mentions, i've decided that i haven't been changing gears enough (or at all) and it has really been costing me. actually, when thinking back on my play for the past month or two i've basically been playing tight aggressive early and then falling into a weak tight style during the mid to late stages. this is not a winning style and i've been hungry to set out and change my game for the better.

so in the 7pm i came out and wanted to convey a somewhat loose image so that i would hopefully get paid off if i picked up a hand. early on i made a few late position raises and either picked up the blinds or won the pot w/ a cont-bet on the flop.

here's an interesting hand where i went w/ my read and it was right.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290175

for some reason, when he donked the turn i just put him on a flush draw. i just didn't see what else he would be doing it with. i think the majority of the made hands that are beating me would probably c/r the flop so when he led the turn i decided to just call. i only called because although i was pretty confident in my read i wanted him to bluff me on the river as well and i don't think im getting him off his flush draw by raising. also by just calling i keep the pot relatively small so i can't get blown out by a pot sized river bet. the big river bet actually made me even more confident in my original read. i just had to hope he wasn't semi-bluffing KQ of hearts and rivered me. i made the call and berated me for the next 10 min. explaining to the table how horrible of a call it was. i liked it.

after that hand i was feeling great about the tournament, i had a great image to get paid off on now. (and added to it showing down 54s from middle position to take down another pot)

the good vibe wouldn't last, a laggy player raised from mp and a short stack shoved over the top for 800, i re-shipped w/ AKo and got heads-up w/ the shorty. he had KQo and i was in great shape until he turned a Q.

it was a bit disheartening but i kept up my play and managed to chip back up to 4k. i was splashing around quite a bit crafting my image until i got moved just after the 1st break. my new table was crazy aggressive and almost every pot was opened by the time the action got to me so i was forced to play tight. 20 min. in i decided to use my tight image to fire a rare 3 barrel bluff which didn't work out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290179 - obv it didn't work out but i was actually quite happy w/ the play. usually when i make a play like this im so pissed off with myself but here i actually thought there was a good chance he would lay his weak looking hand down on all streets.

i survived as a short stack for quite a while moving my 12bb's around and picking up uncontested pots.

since the 3 barrel bluff hand, the villain had continued to limp the sb into my bb. every time i checked and i was pretty sure that he was looking to trap me into shipping some garbage all-in. so when this hand came up i was praying he was trapping, he was but it wasn't my night.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290184

during this i was also playing a couple other tournies.

the 7:15pm limit holdem ended badly. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290186

i also played a super satellite to the ftops omaha hi/lo event. i came in 3rd out of 24 players so im in another satellite the day of the event that pays 30 seats. it was good practice and although i got max value out of an early hand and played well at the end i think my play overall was fairly poor. i'll look to improve before the actual event.

the ftops is coming up again as it seems full tilt is gonna run one every 2 months. it kinda sucks because i don't have the br to buy directly in and im also going to be away for the final weekend of it so i for sure won't have a shot at playing the main event.

in the past i've really blown a lot of bankroll trying to satellite into these big buy-in events. at one point i blew over $600 trying to satellite into a $500 sunday event. the only time i ever seem to show a bit of degeneracy is when trying to satellite into big events. im not going to let it happen again. (basically cuz i can't afford it)

so my plan as of now is to try and satellite my way into the following events:

event 1 - $200 nlh
event 2 - $200 horse
event 6 - $300 nlh
event 8 - $200 o8

i might also take a shot at event 3 - $200 plh but since i've never really played pot limit im not sure.

all other events i either have no interest in the game, the buy-in is too steep or im just not able to play on that day.

i played a horse sng w/ the winner getting an entry but busted 7th out of 8th.

i also picked up the full tilt tourament strategy book and it's actually pretty good. i wasn't originally gonna get it since i figured it would have a lot of abc kind of stuff (which it does) but it also has some great stuff in there as well. im only partially through it but it's worth the money already.

not sure when i'll play again this week but hopefully soon.

tg