more bloggage

tuedsday nite i played the 11k guarantee nl @ 6pm, 22k guarantee nl @ 7pm and the 3k lhe @ 7:15.

11k i lasted about 45 mins when i lost a flip w/ 88 vs. AK.

22k i lasted about 2.5 hrs before busting. i think it had over 550 runners and i got knocked out somewhere in the 150-180 range i believe. i was super short the whole time after losing a big pot early w/ AQ vs AT and another w/ TT to a slowplayed KK. i was stuck between 8-11bb's most of the last 2hrs and managed to hang in there. i had a chronic limper on my right that i kept pushing overtop of that helped keep me alive. this is something that i've been doing lately and it seems to work quite well. the limper shuts out the bigger stacks behind from taking shots at you w/ mediocre pairs and hands like AJ and if the limper is playing too many hands there will be no way they'll be able to call profitably. (this particual limper was playing over 40% of her hands but was raising the good ones and limping the trash so it was pretty easy pickings)

here's the hand of the tournament.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1173916

this wasn't the chronic limper but i liked the spot and i had been fairly inactive for a while so i took a shot. T7o, not a problem.

my bustout hand came w/ about 8bb's and i open pushed the button w/ T9o and was called by the sb who had 44. flop was 567 giving me another 4 outs, turn was a 3 giving me a total of 4 outs and the river bricked out to send me packing. another pxfer, rex55 ended up taking this down for a big score so congratulations to her!

the lhe tournament went fairly slowly and i ended up busting about 80th and once again the play was horrendous. my bustout hand came when i was fairly short, utg (very short) raised, i 3-bet AQo from lp and the bb cold called 2-bets w/ the mighty 54o and end up taking it down once we got AI on the flop w/ bottom pair. (utg had QTo so i was in good shape)

cash games were a bit of a rollercoaster and i made one big mistake pre-flop that cost me a $300 pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1173847

villain had 3-bet me from the blinds a couple of times already this session and i make a bad call pre. if i think he's 3-betting my lp steals light i should just 4-bet pre and force him to a decision while repping a big hand. instead i make the worst play in poker (calling) and im pretty sure i have to felt top pair, a gut shot and the 2nd nut fd there. bad hand but lesson learned.

here's a hand where i had a pretty strong read on both players and got away fairly inexpensively.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1173855

sb is extremely lag but not stupid, ep limper is bad. the flop is decent for my hand and when the limper calls i put him on something pretty mediocre (weak king or some sort of pair) but i was fairly suprised when the sb called. the turn is pretty miserable but im committed to calling off the limpers last $20 and im 90% sure he'll push his remaining stack in with any kind of pair so i check figuring that i'll get to see what the sb does. when the sb calls i think he's either got a naked 8, 7's full or T9 for an open ender. i decide to call the fairly small bet and see what happens on the river. the river is another horrible card and i figure there's nothing left that im beating so i muck and it turns out im right.

i put in 1k hands of cash and ended up making 3/4 of a buy-in which is a win but i wasn't very happy about it. i started off playing well but i think i played very sloppy near the end and bled away a good chunk of money.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yesterday i was thinking of taking the day off. i've been playing a lot more than im used to and i felt the grind of the cash games starting to wear on me. so i was humming and hawing when i logged onto opr, saw that rex55 crushed the 7pm the nite before and was suddenly inspired to do the same.

so i played my usual, 6pm nl, 7pm nl and 7:15pm lhe. i stuck to just these tournaments and left the cash games for another day. my goal was to put 100% into these 3 tournaments.

the 6pm (over 600 entrants) started out awful, about 15 mins in i raise up KQo from mp and get one lp caller and both blinds come along. the flop comes KJx rainbow, both blinds check, i bet about 1/2 the pot, lp folds, sb min-raises and bb folds. i should probably dump the hand right here but sb happened to showdown Ato in the last pot which was also raised and called so i didn't hold his play in high regard. i called and the turn came a T which now gave me and open ended straight draw to go along w/ my top pair. he now leads out fairly small into the pot but the bet is half his stack (bet 400 w/ another 440 behind, i believe the pot was approaching 900) so i call hoping to hit and make my river decision easy. the river is a brick, he bets his last 440 into like 1700 chip pot and i determine i can't fold getting layed like 5-1 so i call and he shows me KJo.

so im down to 380 after going through the blinds and the level is 15/30. my initial reaction lately is to ship it in and get ready for the 7pm but instead i buckled down and decided to play it out. in reality i still had close to 13bb's so i wasn't in that bad of shape.

so for the next few levels i managed to pick up a small pot here and there to stay on pace w/the structure until 30/60. w/ 580 chips behind, i open pushed from early to mid position w/ KTo (prob not a good push) and was immediatly called by a mp player. he flips up AKo and im toast until i flop a T and turn a flush to double through. not a problem!

i chip away and by the time we hit the 1st break i have 1900. i continue to chip up a little in the 2nd hour when i get an uber donk moved to my left w/ a about 8k. i c/r him in a couple pots because he auto pots the flop when checked to. i get it up to over 2.8k doing this until i double through him AI pre w/ 88 vs his AcKc. (action went 1 limper, i raised and he 3-bet pushed pretty fast which didn't look too strong so i called off my stack) once again howard (lederer) has a little chuckle and gives me the old 8cXcX flop but cuts me a break and bricks the turn and river shipping me the pot.

now im sitting at 5.8k or so. i cruise along winning pots here and there but don't really remember anything too special happening. we get into the money (top 63 pay) and i im sitting around 11k at 400/800 w/ ante. a lp player opens for the 2nd straight time, i have A7o in the bb and re-ship, he surprisingly thinks for a bit before calling w/ AQo. i type nh, gg, gl everyone until i roll a 7 on the turn to suckout for the 2nd time in the tourny.

i now have 25k @ 500/1k w/ 125 antes and get moved tables. w/ 27 left howard now decides ok, i let you suck out twice, now its time to punish you. my table has 3 of the top 4 chip leaders including 1 and 2 who are hyper aggressive. i pick my spots and let them run the table. @ 800/1600 i had about 32k and was punishing the guy on my left by just moving AI when it folded to me in the sb. (he had about 15k) with about 25 left and blinds @ 600/1.2k w/ antes i pick up JTs and decide to raise w/an 8k stack in the bb. he had been playing very tight and had the aggresive chip leaders on either side of him. also, he can't play back at me without a hand because he has zero fold equity. (this is also the guy i had sucked on w/ A7o) he jams and i make an obv call, he has 88 and i fail to improve so i get knocked down to about 24k. the blinds go up to 1k/2k 250a and finally pick up a beautiful KK and make it 5.5k out of my 22k stack. w/ 20k the same bb calls again. the flop comes down Q73 rainbow, he checks, i bet 5k into a 15kish pot, he moves AI, i call and he shows 33. he told me after the hand that he was pulling a stop n go as long as he didn't flop a set so i guess his play isn't that bad. i bow out 2 hands later in the bb and took 19th for a whopping $69.

7pm was another roller coaster. i never seem to start off good in this tournament as i dipped down to about 2.3k early from the 3k starting stack. i then had a big hand where i doubled up (can't remember what it was) and had some decent chips.

@ 50/100 and a 4.6k stack, i raise to 300 utg w/ AKo, scott fischman calls, mp shorty pushes for 360 total, donkish player in lp calls the 360, bb calls, and fischman and i both call the extra 60. the flop comes K high w/ 2 spades, bb checks, i lead for 1400 into the 1800ish chip pot, fischman folds, donkish player flat calls 1/3 of his stack and bb folds. the turn is a third spade and i tank. donkish player could very well call on a fd. i check to see what he would do and he insta-shoves. i tank again and figure i can't beat much so i fold saving my remaining chips. the hands get flipped up because of the AI player and donkish player has KQo w/ no spades and drags the massive pot. i throw up all over my desk and we go to break.

so as if i'm not steamed already, this girl at the table (who had been calling scott fischman a donk and a calling station for most of the first hour) starts giving me shit for betting a dry side pot when a player is AI ????????????????????????

this woman wanted me to check it down w/ 308 people left in the tourament?????????????????????????????????

i asked her if she was fucking nuts!

she says no, and asked me why would i bluff on the flop and give the AI person a chance at getting back into the tournament?????????????????????????????????

so i kindly told her that i had AK and thought i was outdrawn on the turn or already beat on the flop.

then she says "why did you only call pre-flop w/ AK"

i puke all over my desk again before i politely tell her that i was the one that raised.

finally she lets me off the hook by berating the donkish player for a bit so i can regain my thoughts.

after that, blinds are 60/120, lag mp raises to 360, i re-raise to 1200 out of my 2200 chip stack committing myself to the hand, the player right behind me pushes, initial raiser folds and i call it off.
he has JJ and im gonzo.

the lhe went great in the 1st hour. i had about 4k entering the 2nd hour and couldn't make a hand. i eventually busted w/ AQ vs AK on an Ace high board and bowed out around 80th out of about 160 runners.

all-in-all a bit of frustrating nite. i thought i played very well and i think my mtt game is back to where i want it to be. just a bit frustrated about getting deep and not getting the big payday in a while.

i guess it'll come eventually.

tg

a good nite

put in a good session last nite even though it started off on the wrong foot.

i got in around 6:30 and logged on to ftp to register for the 22k guarantee nl $75 mtt. i was in a hurry because i still had some stuff to do so i quikly went to the tournaments tab, saw the $75 buy-in and registered. i stroll back to my computer @ 7pm and notice that the tourny is in full swing and im down to 1260 chips! like an idiot, i registered for a turbo satellite to the big monday 1k.

i was pretty pissed because a) i hate satellites and seem to suck at them and b) i looooooove the 7pm multi and was jacked to play it. (it was too late to register)

i gave the sat my best shot, there were 34 players and top 2 got seats and 3rd got $224. i was extreme short stack after losing a race w/ around 18 people left but amazingly lasted until i got knocked out in 8th. (i had between 2-5bb's around this whole time)

since i missed the 7pm nl mtt i decided to quench my tourny thirst by hopping into the 7:15pm 3k guarantee lhe that i wrote about earlier. the tournament only drew 107 players which resulted in a nice $432 overlay provided by ftp. (thanks howard)

as i wrote previously, the play was pretty poor and i managed to get the chip lead w/ about 70 players left and stayed top 3 in chips till i got to the final table. the final table was an absolute roller coaster and im not sure i played optimally but i still think i held my own. i eventually bounced out in 5th for $225. 1st payed $810 and i was definitly eyeing that but im fairly happy finishing 5th since i've probably played less than 400 hands of limit in the last year. it was kinda funny how all the subtleties came back to me after so long.

so during the tournament i logged 900+ hands of nl cash and came out of it up a buy-in. i thought i played very well and was very focused throughout instead of making knee jerk reaction plays and going through the motions. i was finally on the giving end of a cooler as someone ran their KK into my AA. i also made some nice laydowns (i think i did at least, i guess you never know) and played my players well. i made a couple nice reads and calls that were unfortunately not rewarded as i got sucked out on both times but that's pokah!

anyways, playing again tonite so prob update again tomorrow.

i think im actually going to hit iron man status on ftp as i've played everyday except one so far this month. most months i prob only get to play an avg of 3 or 4 times a week so i sometimes creep into silver at best.

one other thing, im doing more reading lately so i hope to give opinions of books i've read. i just finished Ace on the river by Barry Greenstein and it was a good book. mostly geared towards players who are venturing out to become pro and the pitfalls to avoid but a good read for anyone that plays and follows poker.

i just started reading Read em and Weap by Joe Navarro. it's a book about reading people and tells and i heard it's pretty good. it's also endorsed by 11-time WSOP champion Phil Helmuth so before long i'll be looking into peoples souls and dodging bullets baby!

gl @ the tables.

tg

slight move in the right direction

well i put in a few more hands last nite of cash and decided to play the 8pm $24 mtt.

the small session did not start well. about 8 hands in to the mtt i had chipped up to 1.7k when i ran KK into AA for the gazillionth time. that left me w/ about 185 chips and although i battled proudly my 44 for was no match for QsTs on a all spade flop.

from there i concentrated on my 4 tables of cash.

immediately i dropped half a buy-in to a shorter stack when i was c/r AI on a Jx7d2d5x board holding AdKd and villains TT held up.

simultaneously i lost another half buy-in on a different table when i 3-bet an ep short stack w/ JJ in the sb. the flop came Kxx and i led out pretty much putting him AI and he called w/ AK.

thinking back on this hand i think i might be able to make a smaller bet (this player was not very good) and get away from it when he pushes. the pot on the flop was about $27 and if i just put out a smaller probe bet like $10 or $12 i think it would acheive the same result against this type of player.

so stuck a buy-in quick i was little worried. then i dropped another one.

i raised pre from the hijak w/ KQs and got one caller on the button. he had solid aggressive stats and didn't appear to get out of line. the flop came Q63 rainbow, i led out my standard 3/4 pot and he called. the river was a beautiful K (im not sure if it made 4 different suits or if it put a backdoor flush draw on the board, i don't have the hh w/ me) i led out on the turn again for another 3/4 pot size bet and now the button min-raised me, i shoved and he called and showed me 33 and i bricked the river.

thinking back on this hand this morning i really think i should be able to fold this. i guess its dependant on whether the turn put a backdoor flush draw up but even then i think he would shove w/ a pair and a fd. (something like 67s that he floated the flop with) a very large portion of the time that i get min-raised on the turn after getting smooth called on the flop, im shown a monster. villains hand range pre-flop argues more for a fold as well. he's 3-betting AQ+ and JJ+ and the only real hands i see him cold calling with are small to med pairs (22-99) and maybe a smaller suited broadway hand to a lesser degree. Basically in this hand my thinking went, "i have top 2 and im just not folding it" which i now think is wrong. he is never showing up with a hand im beating here. i think he either has to have a set or KQ and i'm playing for a chop. so not to be results orientated but i'd say its a fold.

so after 15 mins im down 2 buy-ins and knocked out of my tournament. i was about to smash my mouse when i decided to buckle down like a champ and play my ass off. i concentrated harder, i focused more, i put thought into every decision and i hit a few hands :)

88 on a T8T board when villain held JTo and a couple other beauties i can't seem to remember and i ended up getting unstuck for the session and made a little over a buy-in. this puts my total loss in cash games for the day at about 1/2 a buy-in.

a small success but i'll take it.

the blog is actually helping me to review some key hands and im picking up on plays im making that are not quite optimal. im going to start paying more attention to my bet sizing on the turn as i think this may be where im leaking a little bit.

looking forward to another session tonite.

bubble boy and cash game bleeder

i ended up playing another session fri nite which if i recall was about another 700 hands of cash and the 6pm $24 mtt.

busted near the end of the 1st hour when i ran AKo into a bad players KK. the cash game was a slow loss again and i think i dropped about 3/4 of a buy-in.

went out and played in my regular home game w/ 6 other friends. we usually play $20 buy-in sng basically w/ 50 chips and 1/2 blinds to start. we then bump up the blinds everytime someone gets knocked out and usually the final two get paid. (its an atrocious luck fest but its something fun to do once in a while and breaks up the grind of online poker)

i ended up donking out 1st in the 1st game after raising utg blind and what not and then came 2nd in the 2nd one we played to break even for the nite.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i played a very short session yesterday as i had some other stuff i wanted to do. i contemplated just dedicating the whole day to online and putting in as many hours as my body and mind could take but thought better of it. i've had some poor results so i thought it might be best to take a night off.

my results were ok, i think i played about 550 hands and ended up stuck about 3/4 of a buy-in due to a pretty big pot i lost w/ K7 on K6854 board. villain had 97 and i think i got what i deserved playing past the flop w/ trash.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

today i got up and played the $24 10am mtt on ftp. call me bublble boy cuz there i was out in 37th again when the top 36 pay. (ran 66 into AA and put my 2bb's in the next hand w/ 44 and had the whole table call and check me down)

im actually very happy with how i played this tournament. (except for the 66 hand, hindsight tells me i should of prob folded) i decided to deviate from my usual tight play early and play it more like i would a cash game. that meant raising up limpers in lp, opening up a lot more from lp and generally playing a lot more aggressive. the result was i had about 5.2k at the first break and had a great image for getting paid off. about mid way through the 2nd hour i had dwindled to about 4.7k when i opened the button w/ KK and got re-popped AI by the bb w/ A6s; he flopped an Ace and rivered a 6 just for good measure to put me down to 2.2k w/ 100/200 blinds.

instead of mailing it in from here i hunkered down and played the short stack that im used to. i was down to about 1.8k when i shoved KTo from the hijak @ 120/240 25a and picked up the blinds. i now had 2.3k and then next hand utg and utg+1 both limp, i shove w/ QQ and utg insta-calls. i moan figuring he's limp/re-raising w/ AA but no, he flips over the mighty A7o and i bust him to go up to around 6k.

played mostly small pots after that bouncing between 8.5k and 6k until the 6's hand.

during the mtt i had my usual 4 tables of $100 nl going. played 921 hands and ended up down $160. its been pretty sick this week in cash. while i started off playing poorly i think i've buckled down and have played pretty well the last couple days.

this morning i was at great tables w/ great live ones in the game and just kinda got held over. it seems when i flop poorly im facing tons of pressure and when i flop gin i get no action. im sure it'll even itself out over the long term but it can be frustrating in the short term.

here's the big pot of the morning that definitly hurt since this guy was all over the place and i was just waiting to get his stack.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1162396

anyways, im hoping to play again tonite, prob just cash games. im looking forward to booking a win since i believe my last like 6 sessions have been losers. ugh.

here are my cash stats so far for the month:

not good............