plugging away

Well I am still plugging away playing poker. I only played in one Blogger tourney and it was the main event today. Half of the table was sitting out and I missed EVERY SINGLE draw I had. I never got any cards and several times when I paired up I ended up outkicked. It was frustrating and I ended up busting out after the first hour. I just hate days like that when you ALWAYS have the 2nd best hand. Luckily I finished up all my other tourneys while that played out and for the last 20 minutes or so I was only playing the blogger tourney. I am pissed right now and I am glad I am not playing. I might play a little later tonight but most likely not. I played several hours last night and for about an hour before the Blogger tourney so I got in some table time and played pretty well. Went like 10 out of 11 in my double or nothings last night and earlier today so that was nice. I also tried a $2.20 MTT tourney last night with 4,000 runners. I went deep and busted out in 99th after making a boneheaded play. I was sitting in 24th in chips at the time and an early position raised 3x blind. The guy next to me popped it to like 10X blind. I had pocket Queens and should have folded them.. most likely he had Kings or Aces at that stage. Well I pushed all in ( I blame the late hour!! LOL ) and was insta called by him with his aces. Well he had me slightly outchipped so I was out and he was tourney leader. I still made a few bucks but with the final table guaranteed $100-$1300 and my chip stack at the time I donked it. I rarely play MTT's, but once my bankroll gets into the triple digits I will keep one or two low buy-in's running while I play my DON's and see if I can maybe get a nice score. Well at least I got over that $40 hump I was stuck at for a few weeks and my BR is still slowly climbing.
C-ya..
BR $58

it's been a while

I know I haven't posted in a while. I don't want to get too caught up in results and trying to hit a certain goal. Nothing worse than trying to attain a goal in poker according to a timeframe. I have been playing maybe 10 hours a week with usually one good night on either Friday or Saturday night. I have been hung up for 2 weeks now in the mid $30's on my bankroll. I was moving right along and was up to $40 and I went on a bad run and dropped to around $35.00. Then I started a cycle where I repeated that for 2 weeks now! I would get it up to $40 pretty quick and then it would trickle down to $35 again. Well last night when I got to $40 I finally stopped...LOL.. Maybe that will break that cycle. I am still just doing my $1.10 DON's and mixing in a few small buy-in MTT's too. I haven't really cashed in any of the MTT's and that is keeping my roll from growing right now. I'm having fun though and am playing pretty well so it's all good. As long as I keep doing that it will eventually keep climbing. I am signed up for the blogger tourneys but since that start pretty early I probably won't get to play any until the weekend.
Current BR $40

New Attitude

Poker is just a hobby for me and it’s how I relax after a day at work. I don’t expect to really make any kind of money out of this and I don’t have grand expectations for results. “goals” are out the window now and they only caused me trouble before. I just want to have some fun playing and maybe earn a couple of bucks along the way. As long as I play within my bankroll that should help keep the tilt monkey from ruining my fun. I realize to make any amount of real money it takes too much time and effort and that sounds like another job to me!!! I won’t be blogging as much about the specifics of what happened and it will be more about unusual hands or things I see. For example I have noticed a few silver stars lately and that is something I NEVER saw before. I checked a few of them and it looks like some just went busto but a few are just high grinding guys. Then last night I saw a gold star at my table. This guy has played over 6,000 $1.10 DON’s in under 2 months!!! I was like WTF that’s a lot!!!! And his total profit was just under $300..a whopping $.05 return on each one LOL. Now I don’t know how many tables he’s playing at a time (he was hidden from search) but it has to be a lot plus he has to be playing a lot of hours!! Even if he is 20-tabling that is still probably 5 hours a day EVERY single day. All of that for $150/month?? He’s not making enough FPP points to really do much with either. Sounds like an awful lot of work for a very small return. I made the same amount last year in less time with only 1/10th of the tourneys. Something else I have noticed this past year ( I still watched people playing online even if I didn’t play myself) is that people are much more aggressive now. I am seeing fewer all in showdowns with good hands. It’s a bunch of garbage now. Seems like tight is right even more than ever now at the low levels where nobody pays attention to how many hands you play.
Well until next time.

BR $25

I'm Back!!!

Well I know I vanished for a full year. But I am back now…what happened to me? Well I was going to spew a long story of BS and then say I was just kidding..but meh…how about the truth instead? After my last post I had a pretty decent night and got my bankroll up to over $300. I had never cashed out before and I had been spending a lot of time sitting on the computer instead of being with my wife so I cashed out $200 so I could at least show her I was winning and could actually get my money back. I used it to get a nice hotel suite for a night out of town and had a little “getaway weekend” with just the two of us. It was worth it and I am glad I did it. That still left me with $100 and enough to play the $5.20 DON’s which was where I was comfortable at anyways. I figured I would just grind it back up again. I knew I was blowing my “time table” for my goals, but I didn’t care at that point. Well when I started playing again I had a wonderful little run of 0 for 5 on my $5.20 DON’s!!! whew!!! Bam!! In about 90 minutes I was already at my threshold for dropping back down to the $1.10 DON’s. Well after a month of playing $5.20 or larger buy-ins I didn’t want to go back to the $1.10’s so I made a typical “loser’s” executive decision. I signed up for a $52.00 DON instead and figured I would double up or be toast. Well I was burned and ended up toast. Then I burned off the last of it on a cash game. Poof….$100 gone really quick. Needless to say I was pretty upset that I tilted so bad. I know $100 is nothing…I have a decent paying job and support a family so it’s not the money…it’s the lack of control that bothers me. I DON’T like to lose when I am the favorite!!! It freaking drives me nuts when I am a 70% or higher and am all in against someone and lose. I know it happens and it happens a lot with all the hands we see online, but it doesn’t make it any easier. That is the one reason I won’t deposit any real amount of money to play poker. If I put $1000 in there and then went on tilt I would be sick about what else I could have used it for instead. Losing my winnings doesn’t hurt as bad!! LOL… So I took some time off..I was too wrapped up in playing anyways..I was playing too much and watching the numbers too closely to stay on track with my “goals”. I didn’t sign on for like 3 months..not one hand of poker. Then after that I played a few freerolls from time to time. I actually won a few tickets for the weekend finals, but weekend days are for my family and I rarely have time to play then so I still have them. It’s a new year so I made a new deposit..my usual whopping $25!!! LOL.. Same plan as before basically..starting with $1.10 DON’s and less than $1.00 MTT’s and will grind those until I hit $75 and then I will start to move up in both. I played a few already and it didn’t start well. I went like 0-7 right out of the gun..and only on one of those losses was I behind when all the chips went in..sheesh!! what a welcome back that was!! Oh well..it happens.. but then I kept at it the next day and I am back to even again.
Until next time…

Current BR $25

Stagnant

Well it’s been a stagnant week. I have hardly played this week. I am signed up for the Blogger tourneys but haven’t been able to play either one the first 2 days. I am hoping that today I can play one of them. So far the fields look like they have been around 400-500 runners and with 72 getting a shot in the finals that’s not a bad payoff for a freeroll! I am used to 10,000 runners with top 100 getting a ticket to the next round. I did put in 4 hours last night. Felt like I was spinning my wheels again, but at least I finished up for the night. I played a little of everything..Badugi & NLH ring games, MTT tourneys and a bunch of 5.20 & 10.40 DON’s. I didn’t cash in any of my MTT tourney’s and managed to get sucked out on in several of them too. All in all a frustrating night in MTT tourneys. I lost several 80-20 favorites and worse! I lost a bit in Badugi and won a bit in my NLH ring game so most of my win came from DON’s. Basically I came ahead two $10.40 DON’s for the night. I broke even on my $5.20 DON’s meaning I lost the rake. I kept running two at a time and I would win one and lose the other…this happened four times in a row! I did four $10.40 DON’s and I won three of them. Not cashing in any of my MTT was kind of a bummer considering I played four of them and I didn’t run very deep in any of them. Breaking even on the $5.20 DON’s sucked too. It was just one of those nights when you lose all your races and then get sucked out on too a few times. I felt I was playing pretty good and just didn’t run very well. Oh well..at least I did finish up for the evening..C-ya
Dave
Starting BR: $235
Ending BR: $245

Up & Down

I need to learn to quit when I am ahead! LOL. There are too many times that I start off on a good night and keep playing an playing and end up finishing with a losing night. Everyone says to keep playing when you are winning, but I think I either get tired or since I am ahead lose some focus. Last night I signed up for a $10.40 DON and a $5.20 DON. I cashed in both and while they were winding down I signed up for a $2.20 Badugi tourney and a 60FPP satellite to the steps tourneys. I got up to 5,000 chips in badugi and then gave 1/2 of them back on the next hand! I hovered at around 2,500 chips and picked up a 9 high starting hand and pushed. I got sucked out on and was out in 37th with 16 getting paid. Still not too bad though. The FPP satellite paid the top 10 with tickets into the steps tourneys. I ended up getting a “Step 1” ticket. I went ahead and signed up for it right away and we were down to 4 and I got too aggressive with my A-K and was killed by a J-J. So I ended up playing almost 2 hours to win $1.50! Well at least it was FPP points. I was starting to get tired and should have gone to bed, but I knew I wouldn’t probably get to play anymore this weekend so I was going to make it a late night. Big mistake of course.. I signed up for another $10.40 DON and we were down to 6 and I was sitting on around 2,000 chips and there was a small stack around 1,000. I get As-8s and the big stack bully raises to 450 (blinds are at 75-150). I should have folded but he had been raising every hand for a full orbit now. I went ahead and called hoping for a bunch of spades. They threw out a K-10-6 flop with 2 spades. Bully puts out another 300 and I called. Turn gives me my nut flush with a 9 spades. Bully raises 450 and I push in and he quickly calls with his set of Kings. River brings a nice 10 to fill him up and put me out. I really do some dumb crap sometimes! Well this put me on tilt and I signed up for a $20.80 DON. I know..I really do know better and regretted it as soon as I hit the register button…I get A-K first hand and raise to 100 and get a caller..Flop is all low rainbow and he raises to 200 and I call. Turn is another low and he pushes and I fold. Lost 20% of stack on 1st hand..nice.. I lost another 100 when I called 100 more from the big blind with a pair of 6’s and the flop came all big cards and he bet out. Then I get A-K again in late position and an early position raises to 250. Blinds are up to 25-50 and this was a larger raise than I had seen anyone do up to this point. I thought he might be on a small to medium pair so I pushed all in hoping he wouldn’t risk most of his stack as a 20-80 if I had an over pair. Well he had J-J and called me after thinking about it some. No help for me and I was out in 9th. When will I learn to control my tilt better and not play up limits when I am losing!!! Well I was pretty pissed at myself for tilting another $20 away. I should have just signed off, but I didn’t want to just yet. I signed up for 2 tables of .25/.50 limit Badugi. I was up $7.50 pretty quickly, but I slowly bled it all back and stepped out when I was back to even. Then I opened up a table of .15/.25 NLH and bought in for $15 only. I haven’t played a ring game of NLH in quite some time and never at this buy-in. It was always at the .01/.02 level or .05/.10 a few times. I just sat at the first table I came across (I know..I know). After one orbit I could tell that not much was happening here and when I looked up my table I was like “WTF..why did I sit here??” I found a juicy table that was running almost 50% to the flop with avg pots of $5.00..now there’s my table!! I quickly sat there for another $15 and was going to jump off the earlier table when the blinds got to me. Before they came around though I picked up Ac-Jc and called a raise of $.75. 2 clubs came on the flop and I wasn’t going anywhere and called another $1.00 raise. Nut flush hit on the turn (doesn’t this sound familiar!! It cost me $10 at the Don earlier tonight). He raised to $2 and I reraised him to $4 and he called me. River was another club so at least I knew I had the nuts (no straight flush draws showing). He raised again and I reraised all in and he quickly called with the 2nd nuts King high flush. Well that was a nice double up I wasn’t expecting at this nitty table. I went ahead and said one more round after that one, but I didn’t connect much and lost another $2.00 before I left the table. The other table really had the chips flying… I was just waiting to get some cards so I could make some money. I finally got K-K and made a few bucks. By this time though a few of the wildcats had gone busto and the table calmed down.. It was getting late so I went ahead and signed off before I could talk myself into signing up for something else. After a huge yo-yo night I ended $7.00 down total. So did manage to recoup a big portion of my tilted $20.80 DON loss. Some day I might learn..but probably not.
Dave
Starting BR: $142
Ending BR: $135

Spinning Wheels

Well I managed to play some last night and ended up playing for 2 hours and finished about where I started. So other than a couple of FPP I just spun my wheels. I started off with a table of .25/.50 limit Badugi and set a personal record for losing a buy-in..LOL.. Wow was it ugly. I missed every single draw..and I do mean EVERY SINGLE draw. I had several A-2-3-X, A-3-4-X starting hands that I never improved on. The only Badugi I actually had was a dealt crappy Jack high and it wasn’t good enough to win by the end. So that put me down $10 in about 30 minutes so I opened up a $3.40 9 seat SNG for a change. Did o.k. and we were down to 6 and I had 2,200 chips and one of the shorter stacks pushed in early position. I re-raised w/ A-K “trying to isolate” him since he had pushed several hands in a row I figured I was ahead. Big Blind called w/ A-A and killed me deader than a dinosaur. P.S. I was ahead of the shorter stack as he had K-Q so at least my read was correct. I then opened up two $5.20 DON tables and also signed up for a $2.20 Pot limit Badugi tourney and the $2.20 NLH $1500 guaranteed 6-hand tourney that was about to start. Well 2nd hand of the Badugi I get a Jack high starting hand and Pot it. Some yahoo re-pots it back to me. I was worried I was already behind so I just called to see if he stood pat or drew on the first draw. If he drew I was going all in and if he stood pat I was folding to a raise. Well he drew 1 card so I pushed and he called. He also drew and 2nd and 3rd draw and finally showed a Jack high Badugi with a better kicker. Well crapola doesn’t that suck. The way I was running last night though I wasn’t surprised. Funny thing was that I was not tilting at all over this. The $1500 guaranteed was my 1st 6 handed tourney. That was different! We had one sitting out so it was really only playing 5 handed and we started with double stacks and had 15 minute blinds so it gives you a ton of room to work. I slowly chipped up to over 5,000 chips with just small pots and then lost it all in one hand. I raised pre-flop w/ A-9 and had 1 caller. Flop was A-9-3 W/ 2 hearts and I don’t have any hearts. The other guy raises a decent amount and I pushed all–in with my 2 pair hoping he had a crappy Ace. Well he had a crappy A-6, but it was suited hearts and he got his heart on the river. He had me out chipped so I was out. Sheesh…0 for 4 tonight!!! But I still wasn’t tilting for some reason..not sure why. By this time my two DON’s were winding down. I had a decent stack in one and wasn’t worried about that one, but I was one of the short stacks in the other with 7 left with 900 chips. Blinds were up to 125-250 and both of the other small stacks pushed and the big stack called and took them both out. Just after that the other table finishes so at least I have a few positive results for the evening. I signed up for two more $5.20 DON’s right away. I doubled up in one of them pretty quick and was on easy street the rest of that one. The 2nd one I just stayed around 1,500 chips until we were down to 7. I doubled up then and was looking at another easy finish since we had 2 other stacks under 600 chips and the blinds were at 125-250. Then came a hand that pissed me off! I am in the big blind and pick up 6-6. Yahoo in early position calls and one of the small stacks pushes all in. I went ahead and called as did the Yahoo. Flop comes K-10-6 all spades so I get my set. I am hoping to check it down and hope the short stack doesn’t have spades. The dang Yahoo in early position raises 750! I’m like WTF you idiot!! I figured he had his flush so I go ahead and fold. He flips up K-Q with no spades!! And the short stack has A-Q with ace spades. The turn brings the 2-spades and the river is 10-hearts. I would have made a full house but instead the short stack gets his flush and triples up to almost 1,700 chips! Freaking donkeys!!! I know I am glad they are playing otherwise I wouldn’t be winning but dang they really piss you off sometimes. Well guess what??? The donkey didn’t cash because of his dumb play. About 3 hands later the other short stack pushes and he calls and the big stack puts him all in. The big stack had A-A and takes them both out. So after starting 0-4 in my other tables I end up going 4-0 in my DON’s. I actually finish up $2.00 for the night but had to sign off at that point.
C-ya at the tables
Dave

Starting BR: $240
Ending BR: $242