The renaissance continues...

When things start to go your way, my advice is to try and mine as much out of that vein of good luck as humanly possible. Work is still crazy, but even though the recent changes there weren't entirely to my liking, things are calming down and I'm getting some projects that I can sink my teeth into. Soccer was going so badly at one point that I was about ready to quit in frustration of my complete incompetence. But, I had three good efforts in a losing cause before this Friday, where I got a shutout and two very creditable 2-2 draws. Tonight, I went to my friend's house in Chelsea and won a tournament against six players...all of whom are strong except for one (but Conn knows this, though!).

I've talked here in this space before about how the first couple of hands will usually serve as a barometer for how my night is going to go (it works that way for me in soccer, too...if I don't stop the first couple of shots in the warm-up before we start, I usually get frustrated and play poorly). The reason I keep mentioning soccer is because it isn't all that different for me than poker, especially with the mental aspect of it. Last night at the soccer field, I just kind of let my instincts take over and the effects were amazing. My body did everything I asked it to...shit, I saved one shot that I didn't even consciously know was coming. My brain just basically told my left leg to shoot out, and sure enough a shot deflected off it harmlessly wide. I never saw it, but I let my muscle memory do its thing. Tonight, I pretty much just played my normal game, but I made some strong laydowns and stuck to my guns with my continuation bets. Everything fell into place tonight.

Right from the first hand, I picked up 10-10. A bunch of people all limped, but I raised it on up and the rest went right into the muck. From there, I was off and running. I don't remember most of the hands, but I was definitely the early chip leader. Conn went out first, and I was content to sit on my lead. I wasn't getting tons of good hands, and I was never so far ahead where I could start really swinging the Bully Stick. Between the blinds and some speculative limps with suited connectors and Ace or King-high flush draws, I found myself down towards the middle of the pack again. I kept at that level though pretty much on nothing but continuation bets...I made sure not to do it so much where people would start figuring me out, but it was enough to maintain the health of my chip stack.

Finally, our gracious host Morgan was blinded down, and had to go all-in. Greg (I think) called her, and with J-5 in my hand and my blind already in, I figured I'd speculate and call as well. I don't remember what she had (it was a legit hand though...maybe A-10 or something?), and I think Greg had K-Q or something like that. Anyway, a Jack came off on the river, and I fairly sheepishly took down the pot and sent Morgan to the rail.

From there, I kind of sat out again for a while...most of the entertainment at that stage was some fierce battles between Greg and his wife Tami. Tami eventually had to go all-in and Greg was the one to bust her, so now we were one away from the money. Greg had built up a huge chip lead at this time, and I believe it was Heath who was way down. My biggest laydown of the night came here, with Greg re-raising big. I had A-10 and the flop was 10-high, but I put Greg on a big hand (he played fairly tight all evening) and with Jon still to act, it was a pretty easy fold.

I don't remember the exact order, but Heath and Jon were both on life support at one time or another, but they kept doubling up against each other - then Heath rivered me on what I think was a 5-outer. After that, Heath was in great shape, and then doubled up again when Greg went all-in and his hand didn't get there. As for me, I still was winning pretty much on continuation bets, though I did make a set once with 5-5 (actually, I think that's why Tami was on life support), and I rivered a flush somewhere in there. That put Greg in the red zone, and Heath was the one to finish him off.

Long story short, we're in the money...yay! Heath then busted Jon, so he must have had a 7-to-1 or 8-to-1 chip lead on me going into heads-up play. By now, the blinds were 50/100, and there were only something like 2500 chips in play. In the past, I have been very passive in heads-up situations and have had an abysmal track record because of it. However, my good friend Action Al was dead-on when he pointed me in the direction of Harrington on Hold 'Em, and it really did the trick here. Any time I had paint in my hand, even just one card, I went all-in. Heath caught a run of abysmal cards (8-2, 9-4, etc) and couldn't really call me. Soon enough, I doubled up when I think it was K-10 that held up (King-high won, we both whiffed), and took the chip lead.

Maybe 8-10 hands later, I woke up with Q-Q in the BB. Heath called, and I checked. The flop was 7-x-x with two diamonds, so he went all-in. I called, and he showed 7-2, both diamonds (not sure of the exact suit, he had a pair and a flush draw). My hand held-up, and thus A WINNAR IS ME! I know this was just a friendly home game where my opponents were playing for fun and I was playing to win, but it was nice to actually play well and win the thing. I'll take any win where I can get it right now, and to beat a pretty good field to do it was satisfying.

Again, I don't know if I could have done this online. I had time to think, and I was able to exploit a tell to win a bunch of hands off of Jon (he's a friend, so I did tell him what he was doing afterwards - staring hard at a missed flop as if willing the cards to change denominations, suits or both). I'm almost at a point where I want to say "fuck you" to online poker until I can afford to play at higher limits...especially because what I do depends so much on having opponents who are actually willing to fold. We'll see. Anyway, a win is in the bank, $30 profit for 3 hours' worth, and now I'm off to hit up my DVR...Canadiens-Ducks, baby!

I'm not dead yet...

As mentioned in the last post, life has been fairly crazy in the short term. I still haven't really been playing - there was just the one time, where my $4 buy-in was vaporized in about 10 minutes. One bad beat, one bad call, that was it. I got spooked and haven't played again since.

The live games have dried up too, as the usual sources have not been hosting games (the usual sources including the guy typing this drivel, of course). However, I got invited to two games on the same day! I committed to playing with my friends in Manhattan first, then heard about a tournament my friend was hosting a day or two later. No action for like two months, then two in the same day...of fucking course.

I won't be keeping notes or anything, it's mainly just going to be fun with friends and seeing just how rusty I am in a live environment (against opponents that know what they're doing, but aren't as good as, say, Action Al or Robbie KGB).

We'll see how it goes. I'm envisioning going out on the first hand with kings against aces, but then again I always fear the worst going into anything.

It's been a while...

...I know it's been a spell since I updated last, but the truth is that I haven't been playing at all. Work has gotten RIDICULOUS. A major new client has come on board with my company, so I'm having to work late since I'm one of the project managers involved with it. Between that and things going pear-shaped on the soccer field (two undefeated teams losing horribly in the semifinals of the playoffs on the same night, a 6-0 beating last night), I am stressed out of my mind right now. On top of that, I've been busy too with social obligations and whatnot, so I'm tired AND busy.

Obviously, this is NOT the time to try and play winning poker...so, I haven't been logging on.

I've about had it with these SNGs

$5+$0.40 Double-up SNGs: Record: 1-2, Loss: $6.20

Stupid cunting fucking things. Like I said the other day, I was a total luck box in the second one and made it to the money going away. In the other two, I was so fucking unlucky, I wanted to punch something. And so it goes...between this and soccer, NOTHING is going well right now.

Here's the particulars (I only played 10% of hands in all three, so this won't be long):

1st one:

- I folded everything until Hand 7, where I had A-K. I raised to $210, got one caller, and bluffed them out after a 9-7-4 flop.
- I didn't play another one until Hand 32 (folded 8-8 to a raise, A-10 suited, and A-10 unsuited twice). I was down to $1250 with 100/200 blinds, so I went all-in with A-J suited. No one called, so I picked up the blinds.
- On Hand 40 (100/200/25, down to $1150), I was all-in again with J-J, and again met no resistance.
- Hand 49 (200/400/25, on the bubble with $700) was where I went out. I had A-10, a big stack called with 7-4. Q-9-8 on the flop, so far so good...the turn was a 7 and no help came on the river. Fuck's fucking sake.


2nd one:

This one was the slowest fucking one ever for some reason...like 1 hand every 3 minutes for the first level or two. It did speed up though, and laugh along with me as I get ALL MY FUCKING LUCK AT ONCE.

- Hand 9: J-9 suited in the BB, and the flop came 9-9-7. It was only the 15/30 level, and despite my slow-play, I couldn't extract much money out of it.
- In Hand 19 (50/100), I got Q-Q in the BB. Someone raised up to $200, another guy went all-in for $645, and I went all-in to isolate him. The other guy folded, so I was heads-up against a guy with Q-2. The ladies held up, and I take down a nice one.
- Picked up the blinds in Hand 22 with A-J, but then folded it in Hand 31 because at that point, I was cruising. Hand 32, I got A-Q and no one wanted to play.
- Hand 35 was just fucking rad, but why did this have to come when I didn't need it? I saw Q-3 in the BB, and someone went all-in for $20 more. I call it of course, and the other guy shows K-10. Too bad the flop came Q-3-3, and another Queen came off on the river, huh?
- I was a total luck box on Hand 42. Again in the BB, I had J-5. The SB called, and I checked. The flop came J-8-5, and the other guy went all-in! If he had a set, I still had $1,800 left at 100/200/25, so it was an easy call. Turns out he had 10-5, and that was that. I was now at $5,050!!!
- Just for shits and giggles, I did the same A-K bluff a few hands later similar to the one in the first SNG. I sat out for the next 10-12 hands until the bubble boy busted.


3rd one:

This one wasn't nearly as shitty as the first one...just had the second-best hand at the worst times.

- Hand 1, I folded Q-J and the flop came Q-J-4. I knew where this one was heading right there. The next hand I folded K-10, and the flop was 10-high. *sigh*
- Hand 9 (15/30) was one where I could have won way more chips, but I overplayed the best hand badly. I had A-Q, and raised to $120. Two guys called and saw a flop of A-10-6 rainbow. Everyone checked, and the turn was a 2. One guy bet $195, and I went all-in. The other two guys peaced out...the bettor there showed A-3. I should have let him donk off more chips on the river and maybe raise him there.
- Hand 20 (50/100), I got K-Q and since I had been so rocky, I raised to $400. I was stoked to see everyone fold, but then the blinds BOTH went all-in. Well, cunting fucking hell. Turns out it was A-Q vs. 8-8, and an Ace came off. Picked the wrong time to steal there.
- On Hand 29 ($1,220 left, 75/150), got J-J and went all-in. No one called.
- After Hand 37 (100/200), things were looking pretty good. I had Q-7 in the BB, and someone went all-in for another $290 or so. I call, and he had Q-9. The turn gave me a 7, and it held up. Awful. At that point, I had $2,187 and was 3rd out of 7th.
- Hand 38, I flopped a set, went all-in, and no one called. That was just fucking stupid...I should have checked it and then perhaps check-raised them all-in.
- I lost some chips on Hand 44 ($2,587 left,100/200), but I think I had to make the call. I was in the BB with K-10 and someone went all-in for $365 more. I called, and they showed A-J. The turn, of course, was an Ace.
- Conversely, I was too tight on Hand 50 ($1,747 left, 100/200/25). I got K-Q and folded it...at that point, it's probably good enough to go all-in with since I was just barely in 5th place out of 7.
- I went out on Hand 57 (200/400/25) - was blinded down to $1,272. Someone raised to $800, and I figured I had to push here. At that point, I'd take a race against The Usual Suspects. Well, turns out the prick had 10-10. Dammit, dammit, son of a fucking bitch.


So yeah, that's that. Whee.
-

A few days off

Sorry for the lack of posts, I was away from the virtual felt for a bit due to soccer playoffs (which I will never speak of again, both my undefeated teams turned into the Bad News Bears at the worst time) and my brother's weekend-long bachelor party.

I have a soccer game tonight, but I'll blog about last night's SNGs when I get home. I went 1-2, bringing me to 8-6 overall. Reader's Digest - I went super-tight, only playing about 10% of hands in all three of them...I got horrendously unlucky in the two I lost, and ridiculously lucky in the one I won. In fact, I got so many good beats in the second one that I ended up with almost $6000 in chips. If I could have taken just two of them and sprinkled one of each in the other two, I would have went 3-0.

Anyway, I'm disgusted with how it went, and I think I'll need to go at least 4-1 the next time I play in order to justify continuing to play these.

What is it about the 5th SNG?

5 $5+$0.40 Double-Up SNGs - 3 wins, 1 8th place, 1 7th place - Profit: $3.00

UGH. UGH UGH FUCKING UGH. I started out with three cashes in a row, and then the bottom really fell out in the last two. Once again, I didn't get a whole ton of very good hands...though the ironic thing is that when I did, that's usually where I ended up losing. Admittedly, the horror show that was the 5th SNG was partially deserved karma-wise with the Poker Stars level of river suckouts I amassed in the first three. I also had quite the undeserved win early in the 5th, but come on Poker Gods, how much penance do I have to fucking do here?

Klopzi commented on the earlier posts on this subject advocating a super-tight game plan. I don't know if I can bring myself to follow it to the hilt (AA or KK only until you're at < 10 BB, then push with pocket pairs or high aces), but I did slow down quite a bit...especially in the first one. Speaking of which:

1st one:

This one took fooooooorever - 64 hands, in fact. As it turns out, I played in just eight of them. I think I'm starting to adjust my game to the proper way to handle these tournaments (so far, overall, I'm 7-4 for +$10.60), but I can't help but wonder about what happens once I get my bankroll back to where I can play actual NLHE. Am I going to remember what to do? Klopzi is right - this shit may be cards, but it ain't poker.

On hand 7, my raise with J-J went uncalled...that basically just about paid for a bad play on hand 15 (25/50), where I had 9h-7h and limped with two others. The flop was 8h-5h-4s. One guy bet the pot, and I called. I was only getting 2:1 on my money, and had 12 outs (9 hearts, 3 non-heart sixes) or 2.83:1. If he was drawing to a higher flush (a possibility since he limped in), it was only 3. Terrible. The turn was another 8, and after he checked, I checked too. The river was the 3s, and he fired out $450. To me, in retrospect, it looks like once there was no flush out there, his 6-6 or 7-7 or whatever was probably good. I folded, naturally.

By hand 22 (50/100), I was down to $1140. I got 6d-3d in the BB, and was happy to check my option with two limpers. The flop came 9c-8d-7d. One guy bet $100 into a $300 pot, which seemed like a steal attempt to me. With my various draws, I called it (and I'd defend this as a better call than hand 15 since I don't think they had much of that flop). The turn was a beautiful 9d, and I checked along with the other guy. I know I was giving a free card to someone with one higher diamond, but I was hoping my river move would work if it looked like I didn't have a flush. Also, if they made a large bet at it, I could at least have the possibility of dodging a larger flush. The river is a Ks. I was praying that the guy had Ad-K(not-d), and went all-in. He mucked, unfortunately.

Three hands later, I had Q-J and stupidly limped with it (raise or fold, you moron). The flop was 5-4-4 rainbow, and my $300 steal attempt was looked up by one. The turn was a 5d, and I checked it (I interpreted his flop call as him either having a pocket pair or a 4). The river was a 6c, and I went away to his $562 bet (I never ever trust it when someone hits the 1/2 pot button...they should just put "Value Bet" on it). I was down some now, and maybe this is tight, but on hand 29 I folded 4-4 when no one had yet opened ($940 left, 75/150). A middle position person raised, so it was a coin flip at best, I'm sure.

I got a walk in hand 31 with 4-3 (LOL), and another one in hand 40 with Q-3. That kept me afloat, and I re-raised a $600 bet all-in on hand 41 ($940 left, 100/200) with Ks-10d. I was up against 4-4, and rivered a diamond flush to stay alive. It was undeserved but well-appreciated! That got me up to $2480, so I could relax a little. The only downer was that it was still 9-handed heading to the first ante level. That is, I could relax a little if I weren't a total idiot. With K-J (I learned my lesson with this fucking hand) I raised up to $800. Someone else went all-in for $968 on top, and at least I recovered enough brain cells to get out of the way. It ended up 9-9 vs. Q-10, and a queen came on the flop.

I folded Q-10 on hand 44, two went all-in on a flop with a 7 in it. It ended up being K-7 vs. J-7, but a 10 came on the turn. I wouldn't have called the all-in bets, but man, that's just a cock-tease. On hand 48, I got Kd-Qd and called a short stack's all-in bet (1530 vs. 825, 200/400/25). He showed Q-10. I flopped a flush draw, and it got there cruelly (for the other guy) when the 10d came off. I was back up to $2705 after that, and resolved to not get too cute with shit like K-J unless I had to.

We were on the bubble after that, and I didn't play a hand for 9-10 hands. I got Q-J, and since I was blinded down to $1655 (300/600/50), I went-all in. Everyone folded, and I more than doubled-up just through the blinds and antes. Yes kids, this structure is bonkers. Oddly enough, I got Q-J the very next hand, but now I was in a much safer position. So, I just mucked the fucking thing. Annoyingly, a few hands later, the short stack doubled up when his 10-2 flopped trips against 5-4. However, the other short stack was snipered away by your dashing protagonist - I called his all-in (just $194) with 7-7, and it held up against 10-3. So, one for one at this point, though I didn't deserve it.


2nd One:

This one was a little different from the first in that there was not nearly as much pre-flop raising. I couldn't even play my blinds in the first one (hence 8-64 hands), but this one was more my speed at 10-46. That said, it only took three hands to make me start to give more thought to Klopzi's point. I had 3s-2s in the SB, and since it was just $10 more I decided to see it with five others. The flop came As-Js-6c, and I was more than happy to see it check around. The turn was a 7s, and I checked it for some reason (thinking back, I don't know what was going through my mind). The next-to-last person to act bet $140, a little more than the pot. I didn't take long to fold...it seemed like a higher flush to me. Maybe I'm giving the dude too much credit, but a paired Ace or Jack didn't seem plausible with two spades out there. A steal with one spade might have been the case, and honestly I should have bet out to see where I was at. But, what happens with a baby flush or the sucker end of the straight when someone else is showing strength? Sure, it's probably just a pair or less likely two pair or a set, but what if it's a flush-over-flush or straight-over-straight? It could very well cripple you with a fucking 3 in your hand or whatever. Not good. I'll have to reconsider Klopzi's point...

My 9-9 got re-raised out on hand 5, and the blinds/one or two limps had me down to $1155 on hand 17 (50/100). I got A-10 in UTG+1, and raised to $300. One person called, another went all-in for over $3000. With just $895 left and an Ace in my hand, I felt I had to call. Well, of course, the person had A-K. Shit. The board came J-J-9-8-7, so I donked out on him on the river. At this point, I was thinking of putting a hundred or so (of money I just don't have right now) into Poker Stars. Heh. I got A-10 again on hand 20, and limped this time with four others. The flop came A-8-7, and I bet $400. One guy called. The turn was another 8, and my $800 bet was called. Now, I was worried...what the fuck is he calling me down with? Did he just spike trips? The river was a King, and in my confusion, I checked. Thankfully, he did too...so I was privy to the unusual setting of A-10 chopping with A-4. Should have raised him out pre-flop.

On hand 25 (75/150), it may be risky, but I called a $525 bet from a big stack with A-Q. The flop came A-9-9, and if he had me beat, so be it. I went all-in, and he peaced out in nanoseconds. I wonder if it was K-K or Q-Q that I was up against? Anyway, in hands 30 and 34, I folded K-Q and K-Q suited (I have gotten that, K-J and 7-7 a crapload of times in the last two sessions, but I've gone over 650 hands without A-A). No need to mess around with it as the in 2nd chip position with 8 people left. In fact, I sat on my big stack, and didn't play another hand until I made the money when the bubble boy went busto on hand 46. Two for two, and I was feeling good...


3rd One:

This was almost a doppelganger of the second one, as I played 11-45 hands and rivered a bunch of stuff. :)

On hand 6, I got Ad-10d, and limped along with 5 others. The flop came Kd-Jd-7s, so I had a gutshot to go with the nut flush draw. I bet $50, one customer stayed. The turn was a 5s, and I checked. The other guy's $100 shell felt like a steal, so I called (in retrospect, maybe a re-raise would have been better since I had have 12 outs to win it...maybe more if a paired Ace would be good). The river was the 5d, but sadly my $400 river bet didn't get paid off. Still, $400 in the stack early isn't a bad thing! What is a bad thing though is my flop re-raise on hand 7 with 7-7 on a Q-Q-2 board was called, and I had to fold on the turn. Dammit! He must have had a queen or a pocket pair to call that...chastened, I folded A-10 in the BB on the next hand.

On hand 11, my A-Q and another A-Q both called an all-in bet for $115. The guy had 3-3, and we chopped him up with a Broadway straight. Of course the other prick had to have the same hand, though. *sigh* Hand 17 (50/100), on the other hand, was just me donking off chips. With J-3 in the BB, I got a free play against just the SB (note that in a cash game, this is an insta-raise with any two cards from me 9 times out of 10). The flop was Q-6-3 with two spades, and my $100 steal attempt was called. I checked it down the rest of the way (5 and 8), and he showed 7-7 to win. I'm undecided here - would another shell on the turn convince him I had a Queen, or would he stubbornly call until the the end of time?

Hand 26 (75/150) worked out better - I re-raised a $300 bet all-in for $1330, and took down $675 without a fight. Two hands later, I was all-in again after limping in with Qd-Jd and saw a Q-10-8 flop. Again, no takers, and $600 more came my way. I seriously tightened up after that, and folded just about everything (including Q-10 on Hand 37 to a $700 raise). I was down to $1280 on Hand 40 (100/200/25, 7 players left). I pushed all-in with 10-10, and took down the blinds and antes. The next hand gave me Q-9 in the BB, just the SB came along. The flop came Q-9-7, and my $575 bet took it down. I was back up to $2080 and looking in decent shape. Three hands later, some guy's Q-Q held up against some other prick's A-K, and I was in the money for the third straight time. At this point, I was thinking about nothing other than 5-for-5.

As Marsellus Wallace would say: "That's pride, fucking with you...FUCK PRIDE." Well, the Poker Gods would fuck me pretty good in the next two of these...


4th One:

This one lasted just 18 hands for me...my shortest outing of the evening.

I got one small win early with 7-7 (yes, AGAIN). Other than that, I tried to keep it tight - even folding K-J to just a 2X BB raise on Hand 12 (good thing, too: K-K beat A-9 in an all-in showdown). I got it again on Hand 17 though (50/100), and my 3X BB raise was called. The flop was all rags, and I uncharacteristically didn't make a continuation bet, and perhaps my fold was a little weak to a $350 bet. Then again, I was probably beat anyway.

Down to $1085, I get K-J fucking AGAIN on the next hand. I go all-in, and some fucking bitchfuck has A-K. Of course he does. Both of us whiff, but his kicker of course plays. I'm still 3-1 though, and confident heading into the last one of the evening. Yeah, and I bet most horror-movie teens are confident of surviving the day too when the movie starts. *Sigh*


5th One - Horror Show Special:

I lasted a little longer in this one...24 hands to be exact. I was the beneficiary of one ridiculous suck-out, but then paid for it over and over again. Note how many times rockets appear in this one, never for me. Like I said, 650 hands and counting. Suck my left one until the right one gets jealous, Sportsbook.

- Hand 2, I get 10-10 and raise it 3X BB. I get one caller, and see a flop of Q-8-5 with two clubs. The caller bets $105, and I peace out.

- Hand 6, I get A-10 and raise to $120. Two people call, and the flop is A-J-3. One guy bets $60, he gets called, and I raise to $180. The first guy goes all-in. Why, dummy? You could have extracted a lot more by getting one of us to bet at the turn...he shows A-J.

- Hand 7, I'm down to $1080, and get Q-Q. Well shit, an almost-premium hand! It's only been about TWO WHOLE SESSIONS since I've seen one of those! I go all-in, and get called by A-A. I repress the urge to punch something. That urge is lessened when a Queen hits on the flop, and holds up. What a sick beat for the other guy, though.

- Hand 9, I get K-K. I raise to $120, and a guy goes all-in for $1505. I still have $700 left with 15/30 blinds if I lose, so I call even though A-A is a possibility. Did I say "possibility?" OF FUCKING COURSE, HE HAD FUCKING A-A. FUCK YOU, SPORTSBOOK! Two motherfucking hands in a cunting row...ARGH! Needless to say, the rockets hold up. In fact, another Ace came on the river. Sure it did, why fucking wouldn't it? On the next hand, I wasn't in it, but some dude ended up getting trip Aces, then quads on the river. Is this taunting really necessary?

- Hand 19, with Q-Q, I go all-in and get no customers. My urge to kill is rising.

- On Hand 24, I go all-in with A-J. A dude calls with A-9, and a fucking 9 comes right in the door. No help was forthcoming, and I was out in 7th. All I can say is that if a Sportsbook representative was within 100 feet of me at that moment, I'd be in jail right now for assault, battery and any other kind of grievous bodily harm that you can imagine.


I guess going 3-2 again isn't bad, and 7-4 overall is OK under the conditions. If I keep up a 7-4 ratio, my bankroll will soon be back over triple digits, and if I can get it to $200 or so, I can quit playing this nonsense and go to .5/.10 NLHE. I think I'm getting pretty decent at these SNGs, but man oh man am I starting to hate them. Playing them for me right now is a necessity because I'm doing well at them to a greater extent than my cash game play had been.

More $5 Double-Up SNGs

5 $5 Double-Up SNGs - 3 money finishes, 1 bubble finish, 1 last-place finish. Profit: $3.00

Well, that wasn't quite the world-beating profit that I was expecting. I went out in the bubble on the first one in a horrendously frustrating run of cold cards, moneyed in the next three, then came back to play one more (after watching Raw) that I probably shouldn't have played in. However, I was just as cold-carded in that one as I was in the first. So, a decent profit became a barely-passable one just like that. I know I have to play with the long view in mind, but with just having to finish in 5th as the target, 3 cashes out of 5 seems to me like it's just not fucking good enough.

Here's the deal with these things - the tournament fee is a fairly lenient .40 for a $5 buy-in, considering that the $1 SNGs come with a .20 fee attached (AND you have to finish in the top three...AND you only profit .80 if you go busto in third). I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, based on the truths that a loss nets you a loss of $5.40, while a win profits you $4.60. Of course, you have to win more than you lose - going one-for-one will have you 80 cents in the red for each round of two that you trade wins and losses. So, how much more do you have to win than lose to make a profit? It turns out that winning 6 for every 5 losses (55% winning percentage) will net you a whopping $.60 for each round of 11. Making that just one more each - 7 wins for every 6 losses (54%) will cause you to lose $.20 for every round of thirteen. Of course, I figure a player of my caliber (such as it is) should win 6 out of 10 minimum (If I have another 3-2 day when I do this again, I'd be at this mark), maybe more like 7 out of 10. The former is a $6 profit per round, the latter is $16 per round. So, my fellow micro-grinders, you may feel like the difference between one win and one loss is splitting hairs, but as you can see, the profits rise and fall very quickly among such small margins.

Anyway, some highlights from the five (I'll keep it short):

1st One:

- Got A-K in the first hand, My raise was called by two. Flop is J-high, my continuation bet is re-raised, and I muck quietly. The guy shows A-J. Well, shit.

- With 8-7 and a 9d-8s-5d board, my pot-sized bet is called. The turn is 10s, I make a bigger bet, and am check-raised all-in. If he did that with nothing (or even semi-bluffed with a flush draw), that's a hell of a play. I figure at best I'm up against a made straight, and even if I'm up against a flush draw, I don't have as many outs as I'd like because some of two of those 10s and two of those 6s would fill a potential flush. Fuck all that.

- I re-raise with K-J (and just $860 left, blinds still 15/30) to $120, and get tiny re-raised to $180. I have to call it, but the flop is total rags, and I'm just not bluffing at someone who re-re-raised before the flop. I check-fold. Good thing too, cause he showed A-A (which I haven't seen in a million billion years by now...400 hands or so and counting).

- I'm down to $535 (50/100) with A-J, and go all-in. The table can't muck fast enough. Of fucking course. I win some and get blinded down some, now it's 75/150 and I get Kh-Qs. I go all-in for my last $660, and get called by A-J. I end up rivering a spade flush to stay alive. We're on the bubble now, and I'm STOKED. I'm not even the short stack anymore.

- Finally, I go busto by probably overplaying 7-7. I was honestly hoping to just catch the blinds since we were up to 100/200, and I had the short stack at $1095. Some guy calls with A-Q, and FLOPS A FUCKING STRAIGHT. Gross. Then again, this is the same guy I rivered 8-10 hands ago, so I probably deserve it. Still, to be one away from the money...UGH. I should have went 4-1 AT MINIMUM tonight.


Second One:

- I did just enough over 21 hands to stay at around the starting $1500 mark. Hand 22 ended up unjustly rewarding my passive play where I had A-5 in the BB, bet $200 at the flop of A-K-2, then it was checked the rest of the way by my opponent and me to a 10 and a 8. All he had was a J-3 with one diamond, and three on the board. I gave him free cards like an idiot, but didn't pay for it.

- I did much better on Hand 32 (75/150) though, but probably should have profited more. With A-K and my pre-flop raise of $450, the flop came Ah-Ad-3s rainbow. First guy bet $150, call, I just click-raise. One fold, one call. The turn gave a 2h, so I answer his check with an all-in bet. I probably overplayed that one, too. Still, That pot got me to $3205, which is juuuuuuuuuuuuust about Easy Street in this scenario.

- I didn't seriously play another one until Hand 50 (100/200/25). I pick up K-K, 3X BB raise, and a short stack went all-in for about $400 more. Easy call, easy win against A-K. That got us to the bubble, and I had $4618. I wish they all could be like this!

- Then again, I doubled someone up when my A-Q lost to his A-5 when he rivered a four-on-the-board flush. Fuck's fucking sake. It was all over by Hand 56 though, and I had moneyed. Yay me.


Third One:

- Three go all-in on the first hand, and we're down to 8 right away. You can't ask much more than that in this setup.

- Brendan thought this was an overly-tight fold, but tell me what you think. It's Hand 10 (15/30), and I find Ad-Qc. I raise to $120, two more see the flop of Qs-8s-7s. First guy checks, I bet $180, and am immediately click-raised. Honestly, that feels like a value bet to me, and I peace out in relatively short order. It just seems to me like a great way to get busted out of the tournament very early. If I call that, I'm down to around $1000 chips, with the turn still to come. What happens if another Queen or an Ace come off? What the fuck do I do then? What if a fourth spade comes on the board? Brendan reckoned the guy likely had one spade in his hand and was stealing...my point was I don't want to find out when hopefully I can find a better spot later on.

BUT...now that I think about it, wouldn't a donk at this level just smooth-call if he had a made flush? I don't know. I think the four-flush was possible, but now my brain is telling me that he probably had something like 6s-5s, and didn't want another spade to come off in case I had one higher spade.

- We were on the bubble already by Hand 15-16 or so, and I just folded the waves and waves of shitty cards I got until I coasted into the money. Whoo...go me.


Fourth One:

- Once again, my cards were ice-cold to begin with. For much of the night (not just this tournament), I found myself limping in with unsuited connectors under the gun just so I didn't look like a total Rock of Gibraltar. I found myself down to $1000 or so when I couldn't call a huge post-flop raise with A-10 against a board of Q-Q-7.

- On Hand 20 (50/100), I gambled my tournament on firing a second continuation-bet shell at a scary board. Thankfully, the other bloke blinked first. I had A-4 in the BB, and saw the flop with 3 others. It came 7-5-4. I thankfully at least recognized that I didn't have a straight, and after one check, I fired $200 to try and take it down. One caller stuck around for the turn, which was a 6. They checked, and I went all-in for my last $720. It was right about the size of the pot, and if I was facing the usual check-call routine, I was probably dead. However, they mucked, and my stack was looking a lot better at $1520 after that.

- I traded one or two wins with some blind-downs until Hand 31 (75/150) when I picked up A-K. Well, fucking FINALLY. My pre-flop raise of $450 got one caller, and they mucked to a continuation bet on a 10-high board. Thank you for your donation.

- On the next hand, I picked up 9-9 and limped with it. The thing is, if I'm in a decent chip position, I don't want to get too crazy with these things. Remember, I'd already gone busto with 7-7 in my first tourney of the evening. The flop came A-K-6 with two diamonds, and everyone checked. The turn was the As, and now there were two draws out there. I figured that if no one else wanted the pot, I guess I'd go ahead and take it...and that's exactly what happened. I should have done it on the flop, though.

- By these standards, this thing was lasting FOREVER. One or two continuation bets and one or two timely walks kept my stack at around the high 2000s, but Hand 54 (200/400/25) sent me to La Rue de Facile. I got Ah-Jh, and flopped the nut flush! Score! Two had come along to the flop, and imagine my delight when the other guy bet into me! As Vince Van Patten would say on the World Poker Tour: "Showtunes are going off in his head, Mike! He can't believe his luck!". I gave it the Hollywood routine, even going so far as to dip into my Extra Time. I finally called. He checked the turn (a 5), and I did as well. The river was a Q, and he bet $400. I thought about it some more, and I figured with a bet that small, he didn't have much. I didn't think I could extract too much more out of him unless I looked weak as well, so I figured the weakest I could look was a click-raise. I was hoping he'd re-raise me all-in, but he just called. He probably didn't do so based on the fact that he had 8-7 with one heart. Holy donkey show, Batman!

- One hand later, someone went busto, and I was in the money for the third time in a row.


Fifth One:

- And then this fucking horror show happened. I was out in 10th, and I defy any other micro-grinder to do better. Since nothing of note for me really happened, I'm just going to list the starting hands I got:

Blinds 10/20: 10-4, 3-2, 9-3, 7-2, Q-8

Blinds 15/30: J-10 (limped, tried a continuation bet on a board of all hearts, was re-raised out), J-3 suited, 10-7, A-5, 3-2 suited, 9-4 suited

Blinds 25/50: 7-6, Q-4, Q-9, 7-7 (limped, flop was Jd-9-6d, folded to a bet and raise)

Blinds 50/100: J-9, Q-3, K-5, 10-5, K-5, 8-5

I still had $850 when it got to 75/150. I got A-K, went all-in, and 3-3 held up. Fuck you, Sportsbook.


Overall I guess I did all right with what I got. I don't really have the bankroll to play my normal aggressive game, and besides...the format does favor somewhat cagey play. You kind of need to get a decent hand somewhere (as Joe commented in the post below), but I think it's more about adjusting to the table. The loose, wild ones are rough for me because I depend so heavily on continuation bets. I probably won't do well at those until I get better at recognizing when someone is bluffing. The tighter tables though, the ones where I can continuation bet someone out every now and then (especially with a well-timed all-in bet on a scary board), those are the ones I'll do well at though. Will I get more of the latter (plus the odd one where I actually get some fucking cards to play with) outweigh the former enough for me to hit that 6-4 margin (or even better, the 7-3 split)? We'll find out as I do this more...5 tourneys is a shit sample size, but let's see where it's at when I'm up to 50 or so.

Double-up tournament

Some good news and bad news this evening...

First, the bad news: I thought my bankroll was in the $80 range or so, but it looks like it's actually in the $65 range. I don't know how that happened, as I have no major losses recently that I can recall. However, the good news is that I have been alerted to what should be a consistent moneymaker barring the occasional bad beat, lost race or mental fuck-up (foreshadowing!). Sportsbook has these SNGs where you put in $5, and you double up if you finish 5th out of 10 or higher. That's it. It's a neat concept, but I wish they'd just end the tournament when the 5th person busts out...instead, everyone left has to go through the formality of going all-in every hand until everyone's done.

I played one today, and my god was that 61 of the most stressful hands I've played in a long time. Knowing that my bankroll was lower than I thought, my sphincter really shriveled for some reason, which is very uncharacteristic of me. There were several times I came back from the dead to stay in the tournament, and honestly I didn't deserve that luck. I made one major fuck-up mentally where I honestly deserved to have had Kings vs. someone else's Aces on the very next hand. I'll get to that.

So yeah, Brendan had reported that there were a lot of loose idiots attracted to these things, and it's usually a simple matter of waiting for 3-4 of them to donk away their chips, cling to life until one or two more go busto, and voila...$5 turns to $10, presto chango. Well, that wasn't my experience at ALL - this table was so fucking tight, it was squeaking. We're talking virgin cheerleader tight, kids. Now, I was able to take advantage in the early levels with some continuation bets (including one time I whiffed with A-10, but bluffed someone off of 5-5, which he was dumb enough to show), and that kept me alive despite my brain fart later on.

Then again, outside of those few hands where I showed aggression, I was waaaay more timid than I usually am. I suppose I have to find the balance between "just stay alive, you moron!" and "everyone else wants to stay alive too...attack!". Keep in mind, the blinds go up EVERY FIVE MINUTES in these things - good thing too, or else I'd have had to call in sick from work tomorrow to finish this fucking thing.

My first dose of ridiculous luck happened on Hand 25, 50/100 blinds, 1570 in my stack. I find 9s-8s in the SB, and limp along with two others. The flop comes Ah-Js-5c, and it's checked around. The turn is 8c, and so I fired out $200 at it. One person called - the biggest donk at the table, actually. The river was a 7c, and ONCE THE FUCK AGAIN, I just assumed that the other person had a made flush cause the third one came out. If this were a better player, I could feel better about that read. But, this nimrod could have been calling with 5-3 and I wouldn't have been that surprised in retrospect. I should be charged with illegally possessing two testicles for my check on the river. Luckily, the donk show had computer problems or something, the timer expired, and they were force-checked (I highly doubt that they were in the tank so long that they didn't make a move). My eights actually held up, as she had Qc-10d.

Hand 30 was the one where apparently nothing above the brain stem was functioning. 75/150 blinds, 1970 in my stack (2nd place). I find 4s-3s, and fuck it, I'll splash around and see a flop with this. It won't kill me if it doesn't hit...I can outplay these guys if something marginal hits and I sense danger, right? Five others limp along with me, so there's $800 in the pot to start. Nice implied odds! The flop comes A-4-2, no spades. Immediately, my eyes light up: "Woot! I can has straight!" NO, YOU IDIOT, YOU CAN NOT HAS STRAIGHT, YOU HAS SECOND FUCKING PAIR AND IT'S FOURS AT THAT, YOU FUCKING RETARD! One guy bets $150, and I bump it up to $750. The good news is the original raised folded (mid-range pocket pair, probably), but the bad news is that *two* others call. I then realized what happened, and my heart sunk down to my toes. The turn was a 7, and it checked around. The river was a 10, and I of course check. One of the others goes all-in for $675, the second calls with their last $315, and I of course peace out. The one with 315 had A-6, and lost out to A-Q. So, you had someone stick around with that shitty of a kicker, get busted out with it, and they were only the SECOND-dumbest person in the hand thanks to me. I was still alive, but I think the Poker Gods were sleeping when they let me cash in this one.

It was at that point where I knew I wasn't playing a second one. Duh, right? Tomorrow, Brendan and I are going to play in shitloads of these things to get the bankrolls to a healthier state. Anyway...

More ridiculous luck on Hand 34 - with just $1070 left and the blinds at 100/200, I got a walk with 9d-7d in my hand. That basically paid for the SB, which I folded immediately. Two hands later, I'm into triple digits when I limp with 7s-6s, and have to fold after a flop of As-8d-4c. Sorry, but I'm not risking my tournament life on a gutshot or runner-runner for a flush.

At this point, the blinds were still 100/200, but now with a 25 ante. Uh-oh.

On Hand 42, more undeserved luck in the BB when I found Kd-Jd, and someone bet $900 before me. I knew I was probably behind, but hoped I had two live cards. The other guy rightly called with Ah-3h. A King came right in the door, but so did a flush draw for him. Just for fucking once, it didn't get there, and neither did an Ace...it actually held up. Isn't that something?

So, up to $1890 and I get K-J again a few hands later. I limp, but then quickly muck when someone goes all-in for $1000. At that point, I'll wait for a better spot. We're still 8-handed at this point, FYI.

Hand 45 looked to have that better spot, as I found A-Q one off the button. One guy goes all-in for $1124, and he got a call for the guy's last $637. In this situation, I wonder if my call was the right play or not. I don't normally entirely like A-Q vs. an all-in and a call (with both coming from moderately-solid players), but I also figured that if I won it, I could sit on Easy Street and fold everything that wasn't A-A or K-K on my way to the money. I call, and find myself up against 1124's A-10, and the other guy's 6-6. The board showed 7-5-3-9-K with three clubs. A fourth club would have given me a Q-high straight and won it for me, but instead, the sixes held up. Luckily, the guy with the pair was the short stack, and the other guy was dominated instead of me being up against A-K, something which hit the board at all, or even chopping it with A-Q. But, I was down to an M of 2 or so with just $1065....not good.

The antes chomped away at my useless hands, and the blinds went up to 200/400 just in time for me to get 8-4 off-suit in the BB, which I had to muck to a raise. I was now facing a SB of $200 + $25 ante with just $540 left. I had to play whatever hand came up, and I was gambling that it was better than 8-4. As it turns out, it was 9d-7d. There were three folds, one gutless prick was sitting out (I'll rant about that in a second), and one to go. I would have gladly taken the walk, but instead they went all-in. Well, in that case at least I'm sure to have two live cards...so I made the mandatory call. The other player turned over 4-4...could be a lot worse! The flop came 10-10-7, leaving them dead to two outs. They didn't come, and I was back up to $1605 and 4th chip position! Again, I had a horseshoe rammed up my ass tonight, apparently.

Now, I know that there is some strategy behind sitting out and risking getting blinded down when you're in a safe chip position. But, how fucking much of a worthless pussy do you have to be to actually do it and not play? I know that folding everything you get isn't too much different, but here's the difference - if you're still actually playing, you may get K-K, A-K, A-A or something else irresistible. And, you could either really go out to a big lead, or maybe you get drawn out on. Or, perhaps you show some fucking skill and muck it if you're sure you're beat. But no...they go fucking hide because they don't feel they're good enough to trust themselves to actually play the game...and so they desperately cling on in hopes of making the money. I know there's not much the rooms can do about it, but god I want to fight these fucksticks in the Octagon. That said, on to the denouement.

Hand 53 showed me K-Q, and my all-in move took down the blinds and antes, along with one caller...up to $2730 now, and that may have been the only legitimately skillful play I made the whole time. The next hand was frustrating for a new and different reason - the micro-stack went all in for less than the BB, but won with K-4 when the caller only had 7-3. They were crippled on the next hand when a mid-stack's 7-6 beat his A-9, and he went busto the hand after when the same girl's 3-2 (the same hand I folded, incidentally) caught trips and beat his A-3.

So, on the bubble, and this is how it looked (200/400/25):

Seat 2: $3500
Seat 5: $522 (one of the gutless sit-out pussies)
Seat 7: $2676
Seat 8: $3020
Seat 9: $2627 (the other gutless sit-out pussy)
Seat 10: $2655 (your charming, dashing hero)

While Seat 9 was one of them, at least he played well when he did deign to grace us with his presence at the table. The nimrod in 5 was the short stack, and he deserved at least to lose his money. Of COURSE he was the one to go, right? No, he goes all-in with Qs-6s, I call with 7-6, another guy calls with K-9. Sure enough, a Queen comes right in the door, and he triples up. Ugh. This game is such a bitch sometimes. Incidentally, I was now the second-short stack...Prick Boy was still on the bottom of the pile.

It's now 300/600/50...real nut-cutting time now. My A-6 isn't good enough to play on Hand 59, and good thing too because Prick Boy won again and doubled up with J-4 against Q-2 when he rivered his four. Oh...my...fucking...god...please...die...you...fucking...piece...of...shit...shaking...with...rage...

Hand 60 gives me 7-4, which I have to fold. I'm actually now the short stack.

Hand 61 gives me 8-3, as I'm planning to go all-in as soon as I get a decent hand. Luck is on my side once more though, as Prick Boy goes busto (YAY!) to get the rest of us into the money. Ironically, it was the other Sit-Out Sam who raised to $1200. Prick Boy goes all-in, and SOS calls him. Either we were in the money, or SOS was down to $300 or so. Prick Boy had A-K, SOS had A-Q. A Queen came on the flop, and no help was forthcoming for PB...on that ridiculous suck-out, I lucked my way into doubling my buy-in. Unreal.

So yeah...tomorrow's plan is to hit the gym when I get done with work, as I usually am revitalized by doing 30 minutes or so on the bike. Then, hopefully with the capability of recognizing 5 numbers in sequential order, I will go back to these things and really hopefully make a solid positive impact on my bankroll. Watch this space...I'll let you know how it goes.

Home Game Fun with 7-2

Last night was another fun home game session...it wasn't at the normal one in Queens - sometimes we host one here in the BKNY, too. It was a bit short-handed at 5 people, but to tell the truth, that fits my style a lot better. The four other guys are among the tighter players in our group, so I turned on the aggression big-time and turned $5 into $14.

First, at my roommate's suggestion, we played a few hours of Omaha to kick things off. Not that I'm the world's leading expert or anything, but I have at least played it a bit and read the chapter in Super System...meaning I had more experience with it than most of the rest of the group. I gave them a short tutorial about what kinds of starting hands they should be looking for and some basic concepts to know. With that, we spent about 3 hours or so at it. Oddly, it was a fairly tame Omaha session in terms of winning hands. What I mean is that there weren't any gross instances that I can remember of boat over boat or boat over flush, shit like that. I wasn't writing things down this time because honestly, it's a huge distraction to my play. I made much more of an effort last night to watch the other players at the table and try and pick up minor tells to help me out. Sorry guys, but I'm not saying shit about what I did or didn't see. I'll just say that I won one or two pots that I wouldn't have won had I not been paying attention, and I mucked one or two probable second-best hands that I may have lost more with.

After a dinner break, the guys wanted to move back to Hold 'Em. However, my roommate had another fun idea, which was to play out a tournament using our current chip stacks to make paying out a lot easier (we had two $10s and a $5, and breaking that up would have been a bitch). Joe (who you may remember from my last home game post as being quite the survivor) decided to try a new tack, which was to Hoover up any chips he could find. You ever play Hungry Hungry Hippos as a kid? You know how sometimes, for whatever reason, all the little marble things ended up with one kid for whatever reason, like the board was tilting that way or something? That's what playing against Joe was like last night!

Still, your dashing protagonist doubled up the $5 buy-in by finishing second. Joe had a monster chip lead, while Al (the other survivorman) uncharacteristically busted out first (we're taking advantage of his Omaha inexperience while we still can!). Brendan and I were on horrifically short stacks, so it became a battle of who can cling on the longest. Brendan ended up getting a hand that he was pretty much contractually obligated to go all-in with. I ended up using that time to take a leak, and by the time I came back, I found that I had made the money. Isn't that rad? It's like taking a piss at a restaurant and coming back to find that your food has arrived. Anyway, the heads-up battle ended up lasting all of one hand - I too got something had to go in with, and Joe I think had a better hand and it held up. Still, it was fun for a change to play some Omaha in a setting where I was comfortable and not up against much-more experienced players. I think I may try that against online competition later on, if Sportsbook has some micro tables.

Oh...now I remember a weird one from the Omaha portion. I had K-K-4-4, and raised it up. Only Joe called. I fired at every street, and Joe called every time. The board on the turn was 5-6-7-8, so I had the ignorant end of the straight. I figured it was good for some reason though, so I kept going (I had Joe on a set or two pair, with a small chance of him on a flush draw where my Kings would still be good - this was only five-handed after all). The river was a 9, and the board played. Incidentally, he had Q-Q-5-5.

Once it turned to hold 'em, I had a hot streak for quite a while. I turned into a total card rack...and while I didn't win any super-mega-monster pot that I can remember, the combination of winning with solid hands and a constant stream of continuation bets had me up at around $22 for a while ($10 buy-in). Unfortunately, I got a little too loosey-goosey at that point and ended up losing $8 of it. Of course, one has to be a little more relaxed with starting requirements five-handed, but it got to the point where my continuation bets were being called 100% of the time, and I wasn't catching anything where I could actually win the hands.

All in all, I'm happy with my play in both disciplines. One last thing - we always play the 7-2 game, and as it turned out, 7-2 cracked K-Q THREE TIMES, and I think it beat K-J once as well. I was the beneficiary once when I caught trip 2s against Rob KGB. But, it was only fair - he called a raise with 10-2, and caught two pair to beat my high pair (I forget what I had). So there.

Tuesday night's session

.02/.04 NL Hold 'Em - SB Played: 12-18 (67%) - BB Played 16-19 (84%) - Other Played 21-124 (17%) - Total Played 49-162 (30%) - Showdowns Won 5-8 (62%) - Other Wins 18 - Profit +$1.90

While I unfortunately have been too busy to play since then (including watching last night's never-in-danger win by the New York Football Giants), I logged a fairly long session on Tuesday, playing more than twice the hands I normally do in a single session. It had its ups and downs, but I finished with a decent profit in a situation where I very easily could have gone on tilt and donked off all my chips.

The thing is, it's a rookie mistake to correctly fold a hand, but then get upset when the junk you had would have ended up with two pair or trips. I like to think that for the most part, I can detach myself from that and remind myself that while it may have worked in the short term, it's definitely not a habit that one would want to get into. And, the worst thing that can happen when one plays poorly is to have temporary positive reinforcement accompany it. However, it's almost more than any sane person can take when this very thing happens, with no exaggeration, about 25-30 times in the span of 260 hands. That's just LUDICROUS. There was one hand, which I'll talk about in a bit, that was even worse. I had to fold a strong hand on the turn, and the river...well...you'll see.

Anyway, I had a strong start when I picked up A-K on the very first hand. I turned that into a .53 profit, which was good because I didn't see much for a while after that. I took a few shots with connecting cards, but whiffed on them all. Still, in the beginning (and for most of the session, actually), I did well enough on continuation bets to keep me afloat until the strong hands came. More accurately, I should say that in the beginning it was working a lot more than not. But, towards the middle of the session, I got my wrists slapped on more than one occasion. It got to the point where I had to close my eyes and keep firing off continuation bets even though each one was a bigger proportion of my stack than it was before. That's the thing...I feel like you have to do it even when you're down, or you just won't get the strong hands paid off well enough to put you at a profit for the overall session.

After a frustrating chop with A-10 (the other guy had the same hand), I picked up .91 with some very aggressive betting on a hand where I was almost surely beaten:

I picked up K-10 off-suit in the SB. With one limper, I raised up to 4X BB. Two called, the limper went away. Flop was Q-10-5 rainbow. I bet .56, right about pot-size. One customer stuck around to the turn, which was an Ace. With no flush possibilities (all four suits were on the board), I fired out another .60. I tried to make that bet big enough to have some heft to it, but still have that "please call me allure". I wanted that allure not because I actually wanted to get called (I think the guy probably had A-x or Q-x or something), but because I wanted to represent my straight getting there on the turn. The guy mucked pretty much instantly, and I took it down.

The next hand, however, was the frustrating one I alluded to before:

With 8-8 in late position, I limp along with four others. The flop was 10-8-6, two spades. It's a little straighty for my tastes, but I do like my set so far. One guy bets .24, another calls, so I raise it up to $1. Both guys call. Well, shit. The turn is a horrific 7. One guy checks, the other bets $1.62. At this point, anyone with a 9 in their hand has a made straight, so my set is looking fairly awful. I fold, the other guy calls. The river, of course, was the case fucking 8. The turn-raiser goes all-in for his last $1.34, the other guy folds. So, I lost $1.04 on a hand where I would have had fucking quads...if I had stuck around, I'd have profited around $6.78. That's a swing of $7.82, which would have put me at $13.26 for the session at the time. Awful, awful, awful. The worst part is that looking at this now, I wonder if this is as much of an automatic fold as I thought. I assumed that someone had a made straight, but what if the guy called my $1 raise with 8-7? He'd have second pair and a gutshot at the time, which these donks would certainly chase with. On the turn he'd have two pair and a gutshot, and on the river he'd have a full house. It's certainly possible, isn't it? He was in the BB, so he could have had 10-8, 10-6 or 8-6 as well. In a live game, with time to think about it, I may have called and had his whole stack. Sigh.

It got worse 9 hands later. A new player had sat down and had already gone all-in pre-flop once. He did it again when I had A-K in the BB, and I went into the tank for just about the whole allotted time. I feared A-A or K-K, but then again, he had done this once already. I've seen people do it with nonsense hands, and Gus Hansen's words in Every Hand Revealed about over-bets came into my mind: "The first time, I give them credit. If they do it again, that's when I start asking questions." So, I called, and the other guy showed Q-Q. Two live cards at least, but the board showed 6-5-3-5-2. Well fuck you too, Sportsbook.

At this point, I was tilting a bit, but I kept it under control somewhat. My roommate was railbirding for most of the session, and I think that helped me focus and get back into it. A lot of my problem with online poker is staying focused on the job at hand, but analyzing my play in real time by answering my roommate's questions and whatnot goes a long way towards getting around the tilt factor and keeping things on track. Still, with A-K again a few hands later, I probably overplayed it by going all-in for $1.75 when a King came on the turn. Better that than someone outdrawing me on the river, I suppose.

Lost a tough one with 6-5 (splashing around a bit there) when the flop came 10-10-6. I figured the other guy had two high cards like A-Q or something, so I fired a shell there, and again when the turn was a 2. After both were called, I checked the Jack river, and so did he...he showed 10-8. Of fucking course...but why not bet the river and get me out of there, so I don't get to see your hand? Maybe he had me on A-10 or something?

I started on the road to recovery when I won a decent pot with A-J, but I could and should have won more. I raised it up to 3X BB, and got three customers. Flop was A-10-3 rainbow. I bet .36, two stuck around for the turn, which was a 4. I checked, which was terrible. I don't know what out there was scary enough to do so...I think it was just dejection about how some of the previous hands went. One guy post-oak bluffed for just .04, both of us called (why didn't I raise?). The river was a 7, and I checked again - this time with the intention of check-raising if the other guy showed weakness. Again, he made that stupid .04 bet, but I only raised it up to .16. He called, and showed A-6 off-suit. I profited $1.26 on the hand, but it should have been much more...that was unusually timid on my part, and I don't even have a good explanation for it. At the very least, J-J on the next hand got me back up over $4.

I dipped back into the red for the next few hands, but I played my Ah-5s in the BB pretty well and banked a bit. I checked my option with 4 customers, and was stoked to see a flop of 8-5-3, all hearts. I bet .24, one opponent came along. The turn was a glorious 10h, and I checked it. This time, it wasn't out of timidity, it was to disguise the fact that I had a flush to win more on the river. The river was 8s, and the other guy felt safe enough to bet .34. I raised to $1 (probably should have been more to make it look like I was over-betting to steal), and he calls. He showed Ac-Qh, for a Queen-high flush. Looks like he was trying to trap too, but man oh man, this is why I never draw to a flush unless I have at minimum a King. I only wish I knew he was that strong though!

I was only in one other "TV hand". The rest of the time, the pattern was I didn't play many hands...looking at the hand history, I only seemed to be involved when I was in the blinds. That went for long stretches...at least 5-6 orbits. When I did, it was usually with connectors or medium-high cards, and I whiffed on most of them. That was made up for a weirdly-high number of wins from the blinds when I bluffed with nothing and fired shells on the flop, and made people go away. In one of the last hands I played, I had 4d-3d in the BB, and limped along with 5 others. The flop was 6d-4h-3h. One person bet .12, everyone called. The turn was a 9d, and I figured now was the time to turn it on, to make it look like I only had a flush draw. I bet .60, and surprisingly only got one customer. The river was a 10h, and I stupidly checked it. If the other person had bet, I may have fallen victim to my old nemesis of assuming that someone has it whenever a flush draw is completed on the board. They checked too, and showed Qd-Qc. I profited $1.18, but I very well might have folded and lost .72. It may not look like a big difference, but it's a $1.90 swing. One or two of those decisions, if made incorrectly, can turn a profitable session into a disaster...and vice versa. I think that's a concept that many of us at micro-limits haven't really grasped yet, in terms of understanding how big of an impact it is. No one is going to get 100% of these key decisions correct, but you MUST get the majority correct in order to win at this game. That's the fucking secret.

VIRUS'D!

Hi all:

Don't give up on me yet...my comp got a nasty virus, and I'm back on the old war-horse. I had to re-install Sportsbook, then I forgot my username. After a frustrating call with their India call center, I finally got back on.

Had a long session on Tuesday night, should be able to blog about it tonight.

The first annual KGB Millions...

...well, maybe not millions, but there was a bracelet.

Sadly, the author did not take that particular piece of jewelry home. There were 10 players, and I ended up finishing in 7th. Believe me, I was NOT happy about how I played in the slightest. While I do think that taking down all the info to blog about it hurt my concentration a little, I don't want to use that as an excuse. I got felted because I was only half-focused, and I once again ignored my read and what I believed to be a tell. Ugh.

Anyway, since my cash-game homies wanted to be famous, here you go, guys. Let me introduce you to the principals:

Seat 1: Mike - Part of Team Ballin'. I first met him in AC back in May, but I had never had the chance to play against him before. He had lost a few bucks at the tables there...and that was all I had to go on other than a pre-game scouting report of "he's aggressive". I hate to admit this now, but Brendan (my roommate) and I had a side bet as to who would go out first, and I guessed Mike due to his aggressive nature.

Seat 2: Brian - Solid player, but a guy who craves action...sometimes to his detriment. He knows the right plays and in general is pretty good at changing gears and mixing up his play. But, where he gets into trouble is his "inklings"...which usually translate into fairly loose calls with, oh, how do I say this charitably? Umm..."less-than-premium hands". Yeah, that's it. I'm going to regret giving this advice I'm sure, but dude...less calls, less hands, more re-raises. That's all you're missing.

Seat 3: Matt - Just met him that night. Drank nine beers during the course of play.

Seat 4: Other Rob - He's the "other" Rob because a) I also just met him that night, and b) He wasn't hosting. He turned out to be a solid, quality player.

Seat 5: Joe - One of the two tournament specialists at the table. Remember my post from a while back where me and my two friends finished 1-2-3 in a $1 SNG? He was the zombie dude who just wouldn't die.

Seat 6: Rob - Our gracious host. Rob KGB is, by my estimation, the best overall player at the table. His knowledge of odds and the proper play to match them is unmatched by any of the rest of us there, and he has the courage to go along with it. I'm not going to regret giving this advice because I've already done it, but he rarely loses because of outright mistakes...when he does lose, it's due to going on tilt and/or talking himself out of hands he'd probably win otherwise.

Seat 7: Me - You know about this guy by now. Crap tournament player, overplays medium-high holdings, has a super-aggressive reputation even though I really don't play that many hands, etc and so on. The "maniac" of the home game.

Seat 8: Al - The other tournament specialist. To an even greater extent than Joe, he will go into what we call the "beserker rage" when he's down some in chips...before you know it, he's doubled up twice and right back in the hunt. He used to sarcastically be called "Action Al" due to being a tight player - especially by this game's standards. Honestly, he plays just enough hands, and plays them well. He has an amazing talent of folding when the other guy has a monster, and often extracts the maximum when he has one. Like Rob, when he loses, it's because he's probably beaten himself. Is WAY too hard on himself, and has to learn to recognize sometimes that losing doesn't mean you played incorrectly.

Seat 9: Brendan - My roommate, as mentioned. Considering he has only intermittently played for a few short months, he's astonishingly good. No joke, he's made me look like a rookie more than once in our home games. Great actor (in terms of portraying false tells), great at spotting tells...just a little too tight-passive at times.

Seat 10: Niko - Another good, solid player. He has a reputation of ALWAYS hitting his straights and flushes, but that's because he has the stones to play the drawing hands in the first place. If you really watch him, you'll notice that he's good about only drawing when he has the correct odds (or close to them) to do so. He does an excellent job of taking advantage of his reputation, too.

So, without further ado, I'll get into the notable "TV" hands. I know this is going to be long and probably tedious reading if you aren't a) my friend or b) someone who played in this game, so I'll try and be as brief as I can.

Hand 1: Robbie KGB takes down a big pot right away, at Joe's expense (and Brian's somewhat, but he bailed on the turn). The board was 8-5-5-5-J, and Rob showed 4-5. Yep...quads on the first fucking hand.

Hand 5: Rob loses this one, but not a lot considering the board was K-K-K-Q-6, and Brendan had A-K. That's right...that's the SECOND time quads were hit within five hands.

Oh, by the way, this game was sloth-like for the first few hours. By the time we were three hours in or so, we had only played like 25 hands. With the usual home-game stuff (rabbit-hunting, people not realizing it's their turn, etc), I suppose that was inevitable. It made it a little weird in that the blinds had gone up and up and up, and we were playing maybe 3-4 hands per level. This was the first time we've done a home-game tournament though, so we'll figure it out for the next time. Anyway...

Hand 7: The good guy takes down his first pot, catching two pair with 7-6 off-suit.

Hand 8: Had middle pair with Q-10, but couldn't stand the heat of Mike's $80 bet with three flush cards out there.

Hand 10: Rob KGB loses to Other Rob. Other Rob calls 4X BB raise pre-flop, and then calls Rob's flop and river bets. The board was J-10-2 (all spades) - 4-2. Rob shows A-8 off-suit, Other Rob had Q-10.

Hand 11: I accidentally exposed a 4 when I folded the State Patrol hand. That helped out Rob quite a bit, as he ended up having 4-4! Matt and Mike play a fairly big pot, which is taken down by Matt's king-high flush.

Hand 12: Rob isn't so lucky this time - his A-Q is beaten by Matt's 4-3. His call of Rob's pre-flop raise is likely partially due to the fact that he was 2 beers in at that point. Rob is now steaming.

Hand 13: Mike takes control with this one. I call with 10s-7s, a couple of other limpers are driven out along with me by Joe's raise up to $200. Rob goes in the tank forever, but goes away (he showed me 9-9). Niko then enters the tank, and eventually comes to the same conclusion. Mike goes all-in for $315 more, which Joe calls. Joe shows Ad-Ks, Mike shows 9s-8d (see what I mean about the aggression?). The flop comes 7-6-5, the King on the river is obviously no help to Joe. Joe is below $500 in chips, so he is the first to utilize the one re-buy.

Hand 15: I build up my stack at Niko's expense. I call with 6-5 in the SB, Niko and Matt are along for the ride. The flop is a gorgeous 6-5-2, to which I immediately fire out $80. Niko calls, Matt bails. I get another $200 when a 7 hits on the turn, and the river was a 9. We both checked it down, and he showed A-7.

Hand 16: I get A-K on the button, and call Rob's raise along with Al and Brendan. The flop is 10-4-3 rainbow, and my continuation bet takes it down.

Hand 19: Rob, still steaming, goes all-in with 9-9. Brian makes what I think is an excellent fold with A-Q. If he had lost, his stack would have been crippled.

Hand 20: Rob wins again with 8-8, Brian had made a "very bad call", but didn't stick around to the river. Matt did with 6-4, having paired the latter on the flop.

Hand 23: Mike takes it down when Brendan calls his $250 raise with Ah-Q, only to see it lose to Mike's J-9. The flop came out all-hearts, so Brendan would have taken it if one more came out.

First Break - Going up to 50-100. This was the leaderboard at the time:

Mike - 2560
Other Rob - 2535
Me - 2285
Matt - 1975
Brendan - 1630
Al - 1600
Brian - 1480
Niko - 1390
Rob - 1375
Joe - 705

Hand 25: Other Rob takes over the chip lead as Mike's $200 raise is called, but he folds on the flop of 8-4-2 to Rob's $400 raise. It ended up being a great fold, as OR showed K-K.

Hand 29: Mike takes it back by calling Joe's $300 raise, then taking it on the flop with a continuation bet.

I win hands 30 and 34, and all of a sudden it's looking real good for your boy.

Hand 35: For the second time today, someone with a pocket pair lucks out as the third of that denomination is accidentally exposed. Joe goes all-in for his last $760, Matt calls. Having seen the third Jack go bye-bye, Brian wisely folds J-J. Joe's A-Q beats out Matt's 4-4 when a Queen comes on the flop. Unfortunately for Brian, if that Jack hadn't been shown, he'd have won as the board was K-9-10-Q-9.

Hand 39: Fucking Niko. I call with Ks-8s, and Niko immediately goes all-in for his last $815. Matt goes all-in for $700, and Mike calls. Niko has A-8, Matt 8-7, and Mike A-J. Mike's Ace plays on a board of 10-5-5-K-6. Dammit, dammit, sonofabitch. Matt and Niko are felted in 10th and 9th.

Hand 40: I get A-K, and raise to $300. Mike and the Other Rob call. The flop was Q-10-8, two diamonds. I raise to $500, Rob re-raises to $1250. Well, shit. With only one diamond and a gutshot straight draw, I'm not risking my tournament life here.

Hand 41: Joe heads to the rail in 8th. I wasn't expecting that one, that's for sure. I'm splashing around with 3h-2h, Mike calls. Joe bets $400, Mike calls. The flop is 8-8-7, two diamonds. It's checked around, turn is the King of diamonds. It's checked again, and the river is the 4c. Joe goes all-in, and Mike calls. It was a gutsy call on Mike's part with 5-5, but he had the best hand - Joe shows A-Q. If Joe had went all-in on the turn, there's no way Mike could have reasonably called him, I think.

Hand 42: Rob puts his name in for the Laydown of the Night competition that seems to be going on. Brendan goes all-in for $1,010. Rob counts his chips and thinks hard about making a stand, but elects to fold his 7-7. Brendan is courteous enough to show his J-J.

Hand 43: Brendan doubles up through Mike - Brendan held A-Q and paired on the flop. Unfortunately for Mike, he had to call with Q-Q, and was a bit unlucky. Still, he could afford it, dammit.

Hand 46: Three hands later, Brendan's stack is crippled. This hand DEFINITELY was a television hand. Rob limps in...Al goes all-in for $725, Brendan goes all-in for $2090. Everyone else bounces, as you'd imagine. Rob shows The Weapons of Mass Destruction...Brendan shows Q-Q, Al shows 7-7. Immediately, Al starts berating himself (dude, it's getting late in the tourney, you're short-stacked, you had to make a move. He could have been limping with 3-2, for fuck's sake). Flop is 10-9-6, no help to anyone. Wouldn't you know it, but the turn is a 7. The river is a Jack, sending Brendan out. Al is STILL berating himself despite tripling up, and now Rob is absolutely spitting fire that his bullets didn't hold up. He told me afterwards that he would have won the tournament if he had won that hand, and honestly, he's right. I'd be pissed, too.

Hand 47: Yep - your hero crashed out of the tournament in 6th place. You will be shocked and amazed to know that it was from overplaying a medium-high holding. I wake up with 10-10, and bump it up to $600. Mike can't get his chips into the pot fast enough. The flop is 5-4-4, and I'm only thinking of that rather than what Mike is possibly holding. He bets $500, and like an idiot, I call. He's leading into the pre-flop raiser on a nothing board...what could he have that I was ahead of? I know he's aggressive and all, but I had barely played a hand all night...out of 47, I think I was seriously involved in the 5-8 range. The turn is a Queen, and I go all-in. He insta-calls, and of course shows A-A. I couldn't believe that they showed up in two consecutive hands, but I should have known I was beaten. I head to the rail, and deservedly so.

Hand 48: We're dropping like flies - Brendan is out in 6th. He goes all-in with 9-9, Other Rob calls with K-J. Sure enough, a King comes right in the door.

Hand 51: Brian doubles up through Mike. They had limped in, and saw a Qs-7c-5h flop. It's checked around through the turn and river, which are Ac and 5d. Mike tries to steal it for $500, Brian goes all-in for his last $930. Mike is pretty much pot-committed and had to call. Mike shows A-7, Brian shows 8-5 to the shock and laughter of the whole table. Long story short, Brian had his A-A cracked in Atlantic City by some douche-rocket that called a huge pre-flop raise with 8-5 off-suit.

Hand 52: Other Rob loses a decent amount of chips to his namesake when the Polish/Russian dynamo hit trips with his A-5.

Hand 55: Three hands later, the aforementioned dynamo is WAMBOOZLED and out in 5th (incidentally, Al does an amazing solo Chad Ford and Lon McEachern act). Brian opens for $500, Rob goes all-in. Brian calls with A-Q, which has A-J dominated. A Queen on the flop ends the tournament hopes of our host.

Hand 58: A further three hands later, the tournament all of a sudden finds itself Rob-free. Mike opens for $1000, Al and Other Rob call. The flop is Js-10d-7d. Mike bumps it to $2000, Other Rob is all-in for $1450 more. Mike calls and shows Kh-Jh. Other Rob showed Qs-Jc. The turn and river were no help, and Other Rob became the bubble boy in 4th.

Mike was pretty much a lock to at least make the money, but Al really caught fire after catching lightning in a bottle with that third 7. As for Brian, he wasn't in a ton of the "TV hands", but he kept his gambling tendencies in check and really picked his spots beautifully. He earned his spot in the money, that's for sure. At this point, the stacks looked like this:

Mike: 11,515
Brian: 3,510
Al: 2,475

Hand 62: Brian doubles up to make a contest out of it. Mike raised Brian's BB to $800, Brian goes all-in. Brian's Q-10 is comfortably ahead of Mike's 10-7, and as a big middle finger to the poor chip leader, Brian gets top two on the flop of Q-10-9. The turn was a 6, making it interesting...but a King fell on the river.

Hand 67: Al's tournament ends with a solid 3rd-place finish. His all-in is called by Mike, who must have been stoked to finally be dominating a hand after the last 3-4 times when he was on the other end of it. A-Q vs. A-10, and the Queen ended up playing.

Sadly, there was no Shana Hiatt or other gorgeous women to bring out the money and the bracelet (yes, Rob bought a bracelet online for the occasion). That said, luckily (as it was late and I was exhausted), the heads-up match didn't last long. Brian made it more interesting on Hand 70 when his K-6 held up for another $1000 in chips, but it was all over two hands later:

Final Hand - Hand 72: Mike goes all-in, Brian calls. Again, Mike is dominated, K-Q to Q-J. The flop is Q-10-9, and the turn is an Ace. The river is a King, winning the bracelet for the proud member of Team Ballin'.

All in all, it was a fun time and some good poker was played. Sooner or later, I want to get one of those bracelets as well and host the Pot-Limit Omaha event. THAT should make some interesting reading, anyway!

This is a placeholder entry...

Hi all:

For those that played in the tournament last night, I'll be blogging it tonight after my soccer games. In the meantime, I saw this quote over at Klopzi's Mediocre Poker (link over there on the right), and for the home game crew, you'll get a great laugh out of this...

Maniac's bet says - "I see three cards on the table and I happen to have two cards in my hand."

Thursday's session - back on the winning track

.02/.04 NL Hold'Em - 103 Hands - SB Played: 9-12 (75%) - BB Played: 9-13(69%) - Other Played: 20-77 (26%) - Total Played: 38-103 (37%) - Showdowns Won: 4-9 (49%) - Other Wins: 17 - Profit: + $2.40

I have a mini-tournament to play at a friend's house later tonight, so I'll keep this brief.

After that A-A vs. 8-7s debacle of the other night, it was good to get back onto the horse and get a winning session under my belt. I was up a lot more than $2.40 at one point, but I think all in all it could have been a lot worse. This was a table where, especially in the beginning, continuation bets were not respected at all. I had to adjust to that and slow down a bit, until things loosened up when some new players came to the table. I think I did a pretty good job of switching gears during the session, which is something I've actively been trying to work on. With that said, some hand highlights:

Hand 20: With J-6 in the small blind, I call along with a bunch of limpers. I flop trips, and of course, no one wants to play when I fire a bet out. I had been playing fairly loose to start, and there were loose players at the table. The flop was 6-6-2 rainbow so it wouldn't have killed me to give a free card. But, given the situation, I was sure that I would have gotten a few callers. Oh well. I'm not totally unhappy with that play.

Hand 30: Got 9c-6s in the SB, and the flop came Qd-Qh-9d. I bet .12 into a .16 pot, got one caller. The turn was 4h - I bet .24, and was re-raised for the guy's last .73. I know it was only .49 more into a pot of 1.37 (2.79:1), but I was 100% sure the guy had a Queen. I don't know why, it was just a feeling. I've seen players do this before with flush draws, but more often than not it's with a made hand at this level. On the off-chance he bluffed me out with a draw, fair play to him...but I have a feeling I was dead to two outs. Shit, even if he had just paired his 9, then I was still just about dead anyway.

Hand 35: Anna Kournikova strikes again. At this point, I was starting to get frustrated as I was missing flops left, right and center with fairly decent hands.

Hand 37: Two hands later, I wasn't in it...but the flop came A-K-6. Eat a dick, Sportsbook.

Hand 41: Wasn't in this one either, but some donk-show called a 5X BB raise with Q-7 off. Flop was J-9-8 rainbow, raiser bet .35, Donkey calls. Turn was a Queen, .55 bet is called. The call with the gutshot was awful, and the pair + gutshot wasn't much better considering what he was probably up against. But, the worst was when a 9 came on the river, he called another bet for $1.11! Wow! Basically, the only hands he was beating were A-J, K-J or J-10...none of which are obvious candidates for a raise that big (I do it rarely as a variation play, but that's it). Unsurprisingly, the raiser showed A-A. HAHAHAHAHA....whoopsy-daisy.

Hand 46: My biggest one-hand loss of the session came here. With Kh-Qh, I raised 3X BB in early position and got two customers. The flop was 10h-3d-2h, so I bet .20 at it. The SB folded, but the other guy popped it up to .50. I was getting 3.66:1 to call on a 4.1:1 shot, so I really should have folded right there. I didn't, however. The turn was a 5d, so I checked...no sense throwing good money after bad, and I wasn't bluffing anyone out with that card. He bet .70, and I went away. At the time, I thought it was a good fold on the turn at least, since I didn't have anything close to the correct odds to draw for the flush. Now that I look at it again though, this looks to me like he either had A-10/K-10/Q-10/J-10, or 10-10. If it were the latter, then only the flush would have been good. But, what if it were the former? I'd have 6 more outs, and all of a sudden the post-flop call was 2.06:1. Even with the .70 bet on the turn, it was a 2:1 call for 2:1 odds. In retrospect, I think this might have been an overly-tight fold.

Hand 48: This was just annoying more than anything else. I had 7-7 in the BB, and called a 2X BB raise. The flop was checked around, and I bailed on the turn when someone bet big into a board of Q-10-6-5. As it turns out, the guy who won the hand had 6-6, and you want to know why I didn't have a chance to hit a set? Because the prick who saw it down to the river had the other two!!! Are you KIDDING me?!

Hand 49: This was less annoying, and more grounds to commit justifiable homicide in a fair world. With Q-J in the SB, I raise to 4X BB...the BB calls. The flop was 9-6-4 with two clubs. I bet .20, he calls. The turn was the 7c, and it went check-check. In retrospect, a bet here probably would have won me the hand as I'd be representing a flush. The river was a 3 - I bet .36, and the guy calls. He shows A-6 and wins the hand. Unreal. The post-flop call wasn't the worst ever, and I guess me checking the river in some respect justifies his river call. But, how the fuck do you call that big of a raise with A-6?

Hand 52: Had to fold K-J pre-flop to a .32 raise from a tight player. Said tight player immediately checked to a K-8-2 flop, and then folded on the turn (10) to a .32 raise. Ugh.

Hand 54: Had As-3s and was forced to fold to a .18 raise (I mention this and the last hand because other than these, there was more limping going on than at a sports rehab clinic). Of cunting course, the third spade came out on the turn...and the guy who won the hand had A-A.

Hand 70: Had 3-2 in late position, and limped in with it. Flopped two pair, and re-raised the first guy 3X. Both guys call. A third club came out on the turn, and it was checked down the rest of the way. I do this ALL THE TIME...when a third flush card comes out, I immediately assume someone has it. Instead, some fuckstick with J-4 off-suit rivered his gut-shot straight.

Hand 76: I made up for a lot of these hands though where I had 9-2 in the BB, caught the 9 on the flop, and the 2 on the turn. I probably over-bet here though...a smaller bet than .36 may have kept someone in for the river. Oh well...still a .32 win, though.

Hand 77: Caught two pair with Kh-10h, and won an even bigger pot...around .80 this time.

Hand 79: I have Q-Q, and no one wants to play. Awwww...

Hands 81-84: I love these rushes where you win 3, 4 or 5 hands in a row. There are few other things in life that make you feel as much of a Golden God...perhaps the only thing that beats it is sleeping with a girl that is WAAAAAAAAY out of your league (and I've only managed that once, so this is usually more attainable). The biggest win of the lot was a .99 profit when I caught a set with 7-7. After I took down the next hand, I was at my high-water mark for the session at $6.96.

Hand 95: I lost a decent amount with A-Q when I fired off two continuation bets at the biggest calling station at the table. Man, I know better than that, too...but I get so ingrained into the "must...always...continuation...bet..." mode sometimes that I can't stop myself.

Hand 102: As usual, I lose a decent amount (.30 or so) right at the end of my session. I always do the honorable thing and play around through my blinds one last time instead of doing the cunty thing that most of these assholes do, and bounce right before the BB comes their way. I got 6c-4c in the SB, paired the 6, and lost .24 continuation-betting at it.

Sorry for the bare-bones post this time, but I had to get this out or there wouldn't have been a post. There'll be a better one next time...

80s cop movie cliche...

Hands Played: 152 - SB Played: 13-17 (76%) - BB Played: 13-18 (72%) - Other Played: 16-117 (14%) - Total Played: 42-152 (28%) - Showdowns Won: 4-7 (52%) - Other Wins: 22

You may be wondering, what do 80s cop movies have to do with poker? Well, remember how one of the most glaring cliches in those flicks was how the senior guy in the department was always right about to retire, and then contrives to get himself killed in some horrible fashion on their last day? That's what happened to me. The worst thing is, it's all my fault...I played excellent poker for one hour and 26 minutes, only for it all to be undone in one mad minute of stupidity and lack of focus. I don't even feel mad. I mean, how could I? A good player noticed my tendencies and exploited them, and worse than that, I allowed it to happen. I don't feel mad...I feel sick to my stomach. I know it's just $4, but it's the principle of it...and it's the competitive nature in me.

What's funny is that towards the end, I was already composing the blog post in my head, where I wanted to talk about a concept that I had utilized throughout the session. For just about the whole time, there were two players there who had much bigger stacks than everyone else, there was me (who was soon at at the second one's level...she was all right, not great...the first guy - the one that pole-axed me right at the end, and who was an excellent player apparently slumming it at this level - had $15 already when I first sat down), and then a revolving door of fish. Those fish were enough to feed the three of us, and that was my point. I was going to make a nice little post about how it's usually in your best interests to avoid getting into showdowns with bigger or similar-sized stacks unless you're really sure about your hand. I built mine up by muscling the fish around with continuation bets and with letting them donk off their chips when I had monsters. As it turns out, I DIDN'T FOLLOW MY OWN CUNTING FUCKING ADVICE, and ended up going busto myself. Well done, Sean...well fucking done.

I suppose I'll get the ending hand off my chest first, then I'll go into some of the hands from the previous action. I'm sitting with exactly $9.80 in chips in the SB, and pick up Ac-As (you knew it was fucking rockets, didn't you?). Mr. Stacks was in the BB, and a new player to his right posted another BB. There were two more callers, so I immediately pop it up to 5X BB. Stacks calls, the other BB folds as does one of the other limpers, but the second limper calls. Keep in mind that Stacks called another .16 in a pot of .40...that's just 2.5:1, for the record. The flop comes Jh-7d-2h. Other than the hearts, that's about as harmless as it gets, right? I bet $1.04, Stacks calls, the other guy folds. The turn is the 7s. I bet $2.48, as I was mainly worried about him hitting his flush (he had forced me out of a pot on the river earlier when the flush card hit, and I was 80-90% sure he had it). The turn also surely removed the 7-7 from the range of holdings, so right now, I figured I was only behind if he had J-J. The flush was the only thing I was super-worried about, and I was making him call the $2.48 into a pot of $2.76, so there was no way he'd be dumb enough to draw to his 9 outs there...not at 1.11:1.

Instead, he goes all-in for $15.96, which more than has my remaining $6.08 covered. Again, my thought process was only thinking about the flush, so I figured he was trying to make a play on me. So, I called. However, with the benefit of hindsight, let's analyze this a bit. J-J was DEFINITELY in his range of possible holdings, and this was someone who I knew was savvy enough to know that if he had a monster, I'd very likely fall into a trap with my aggression. However, this wasn't even aggression on my part, he was the one who went all-in! I could have easily gotten away from a check-raise, because then I'd be 85-90% sure I was beaten with J-J. Well, imagine my surprise when he turns over the fucking 8h-7h.

Oh. My. Fucking. God. Really? FUCKING REALLY?!?!?!?

Yes, he called 5X BB pre-flop with a suited connector...and he knew I was playing pretty much premium or marginal high hands, and that's about it (another thing I was going to get into was talking about how you can't go to a table and decide "I'm going to see 40% of hands today like I did last time"...every table is different and you have to adjust to it. However, I can't fucking think straight right now, so that's one for another time). Remember, his call was 2.5:1. Against any overpair he was a 4:1 dog, but then again, against two overcards he was around 3:2. I suppose it depends what he put me on. Anyway, the river didn't help, and away all my chips went. I guess my question is, even if I'm 50% sure he's making a play on me (if it was a normal donk, I'd have been out of there in nanoseconds since they NEVER make plays like that), is it worth it to call? This is one of those intermediate concepts that I'm afraid completely eludes me at the moment.

Oh, and just to complete the picture of idiocy on my part, I had started to lose focus towards the end, and I did have a Facebook window open during those last few hands. Really, Sean? I had even put up a status update of "Sean is pwning n00bs at the tables...hope this doesn't anger the poker gods." Seriously, why am I allowed to play without adult supervision?

Ugh. Anyway, I did play some pretty good hands before I decided that I was invincible and already counting my profit. Briefly, here they are, along with some other notable ones:

- This was a weird session for Big Slick. There were two hands (including me vs. Stacks) where A-K chopped with A-K, and another hand I wasn't in where A-A held up against A-K and A-K. Strange.

- I had rockets earlier in the session, and won a nice pot with them. In middle position, I raised them 3X BB with one limper behind me. Stacks and the BB called, everyone else went away. The flop was A-10-8 rainbow. I figured this was a rare slow-playing opportunity, so it checked around. The turn was another 10, so of course I checked it again. Stacks fired out .21, and was raised by the BB to .42. I call, and so does he. The river was a 7, not that it mattered. The BB bet $1.68, and I went all-in for my last $2.96. Stacks went away, and claimed that he knew then what I had. The BB called, and showed 10-2. Yep, he called 3X BB with 10-2 off-suit. All righty, then. Stacks claimed to have Q-Q, for what it's worth.

- A little later, one of the fishies at the table wrote the book on How Not to Get Paid Off When You Have Aces. He just smooth-calls pre-flop, along with some other people. On a board of Q-J-7-6-2, it was checked around by all parties the entire times! The guy with A-A didn't even make ONE bet at it! Even at this level, I can literally say that I've never seen someone check it all the way down and then show the Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yep, that's a first.

- On one hand, I was about to limp in with A-2 off-suit as a variation play. Luckily someone raised it up to .14 pre-flop, as the flop ended up coming A-K-2, all hearts. That would have been an interesting decision to make once the pre-flop raiser went all-in for their last $1.32.

- Here's another hand where Stacks pretty much had his way with the moron writing this. I get K-7 off in the BB, and I'm always going to call the extra .02 with almost any two cards. The flop comes 10h-7c-2s rainbow, so I bet .16 (the pot) at it. Stacks calls, everyone else is smart enough to bounce. The turn is the 7s, so I obviously feel like I have the best hand here. I bet .44, and he calls. The river is a 9s, and immediately I put him on a flush. What else was he calling me with? I guess it could have been A-10 or something, but since he was the BB in an unraised pot, it could be any old thing. I bet $1.04 because I still felt like there was a chance that my hand was good. He raised it to $2.08, so knowing what happened later, I would imagine he probably caught his flush. I went away, but I also can't help but feel like he was representing a hand rather than value-betting. I guess it's because I'm kind of shook right now, but I have a feeling he stole this one from me.

- I at least got it back and more 12 hands later. We were down to 7-handed briefly, so I liked my Q-J off in middle position. I raised to 3X BB, and two customers came along. The flop came Ks-9d-3c. One guy checked, so I raised to .32...one call, one fold. The turn was the 10d. I semi-bluffed .68 with my open-ender, because I'm pretty sure I had this guy (a loose, mediocre player) on 9-x. My customer stayed with me though to see a 8c river. He goes all-in for his last $1.12, and I of course call with my straight. He showed Kd-8d. Whoops.

- Later on, I ended up getting a boat with A-Q, but no one wanted to play. Shit, where was that douche-rocket Stacks on THAT hand?!

- Amusingly, in a hand I wasn't in, some guy went all-in for $7.57 pre-flop with two people in, after Stacks had raised to .16. Wow, really? The best player at the table is going to pay off your Aces with that bet? Good thinking, Sherlock.

- Anyway, those were the "TV hands". For the most part, I had just done a good job mixing up my pre-flop raises and firing off continuation bets at the right time. I suppose the very harsh lesson here is that your session is over once your focus starts waning...NOT at a preset arbitrary time.