Just to remind me (should I ever need reminding).
Myself and Chris have a 10% agreement in any tournament we both play in. Let's just say to date he's done a bit better from this deal than I have so far...
Of course, Mr Webber delivers his best ever casino result the day before an exam, when I'm not there.
You bastard.
But congrats!
Friday, 30 May 2008
Shame, Vegas and Procrastination
Shame: I spelt Optimistic wrong, and the blog was shit. It really was, so am shunting it down with this long overdue effort.
Procrastination: I should be revising, got a freaking exam at 9:30am tomorrow (that's a Saturday) - and I still need to learn the course, but just can't concentrate at the moment.
But Vegas, baby, has been over two months since I've returned. I finished a tidy $2.5k up, but was very disappointed that it wasn't more.
It started so well, after driving down with two friends from San Franciso, I decided to take a walk down the strip to check out the poker rooms and get some info. I stumbled into Planet Hollywood at 6:58pm with their $60 freeze starting in two minutes. I got the second-last ticket, and outlasted the other 98 runners to take down a $1400 payday before the poker was even supposed to start!
It meant I didn't have to make a single withdrawal from my account for the rest of my time there. Helped by winning two of my next three tournaments and FTing the other (won $65 Caesars Palace for $800, 4th in PH $60 - about $140 for that - and then 1st at PH for about $450).
I'm sure the eagle-eyed have noticed that would make my winnings $2.8k already, or about $2.5k profit after buy-ins. It didn't go too well after that. I'm not a cash game player, but I was card dead. The deck hit me in the face in tournaments (in an hour period I hit quads twice and flopped two straights, one with a nut flush redraw, getting paid off each time), and in cash games I could go 8 hours whilst seeing just 4 top 10% hands and having to lay down the best, QQ, to a pre-flop limp re-raise. I tried to play tight, but I just didn't hit a thing. I had a couple of good sessions, but broke-even at best over the trip.
One highlight was FTing the $10k guarantee (they took >15k) at Binions on my first ever trip there, until my chip leading dominance was derailed by a complete monkey:
I've already cold-decked someone else in the extreme to give me the chip lead with around 30 players left of the 156 that started. With blinds at 100/200, UTG (~8k) raises to 600, folded to me in the BB with 33 (I have around 11k). I call and check the flop dark. I don't look at the flop and just stare at him, he looks at me and checks behind. I glance back.
The flop's AA3 - with his check I have him!
Turn.....3
So naturally I bet 1600 into the 1300 pot with quads. He flat calls. I am now 1000% certain he has an A.
River J
I bet 3k, he grabs a large stack of his chips and just sticks them over the line. I move all-in for his last k or so. He calls and flips AJ. Hehehe!
Anyway, back to the situation in the last 30. Blinds are 600/1200. BB has been quiet, and is moaning with his last 3400 chips, and says to me he's going in no matter what. I don't think anyone else was paying attention. I'm UTG with AJ and raise to 3600 (my stack is approx 35k). It's folded round to the SB, who calls (he's an absolute donkey, with 25k or so he's jammed off me, with A8s v A8s. I've also had people shove into me, giving me 3:1 odds, with Q7o and A9o, needless to say I didn't win either of those, anyway, the standard is poor).
BB keeps his word and moves all-in. The pot is 10,200 with 400 more on the side.
Flop JJ4 two diamonds. I'm happy to take it down here and bet 4k into the dry side pot. This should be a massive warning sign! SB calls.
Turn 2d. Great, flush draw down, he checks, I check behind.
River Td. 4 diamonds now, he grabs 10k and sticks it in, I insta-pass in disgust and he shows AK with just the Kd. Well done, idiot. He's chip leader now but doesn't even make the money (top 18).
I drift along to the final, no able to pick anything big up, and go out in 7th despite sucking out on AQ with T3. I can't repeat the trick with J7. They chop 5 way as well, so my $400 could've been $2k. Argh.
Got very bored of poker after a week, which didn't help me play my best game. Sitting down at the Mirage with $200, only to lose it all first hand with set over set doesn't help. But on one notable occasion the deck ran my way.
Planet Hollywood $1/$2, 9 handed.
I'm BB, and it has been straddled to $4. UTG +1 calls (he seems tight, relatively weak, but not going to be playing trash). Someone in MP calls, as does the Button (no info) and me with 7h5h.
Flop 6d 8c 8h
There is a tendancy to overbet in Vegas, and I fancy seeing a cheap turn, so chuck out $5. EP player and Button both flat call.
Turn 9h
Woo, I turn the straight, and am immediately putting EP on an 8, and he's also shown no tendancy to play suited connectors, he's a high card guy. Not sure about the button, but I think I'm likely to have the best hand here.
Then chaos. I bet $20. EP min-raises to $40. Button raises to $105. Now I'm flummoxed, but don't believe either player would be raising with a full house on this kind of board, so I flat call hoping to bring EP and his A8-type hand along too, believe the button has a similar hand.
EP reraises to $210. Button moves all in for $170 total and the decision is back on me. EP has about $80 behind. I decide to talk to them, saying neither would raise with the boat, so I think my hand is good. Neither of them look comfortable, and when I push all in, the disappointment on EPs face is apparent as he pushes his final $80 in, feeling he's pot committed. Button turns to me and says 'Have you got a full house?' and tables T7 - ouch, didn't put him on that. My read on EP is spot on as he shows A8.
River 2h
Ship it!
Other than that, I am pottering along nicely both live and online. I've stopped the cash for a while, as I'm not playing well in it. The tournaments are going well, I feel like I'm outplaying people at will and only continued bad beats and cold-deckings are preventing me from more frequent and bigger scores. Despite this, I am slightly up over the last month live.
Online, I have discovered the 45 man Full Tilt $26 SNGs. They're juicy! 18 tournaments, 2 wins, 2 seconds, 2 thirds and a fourth. Again, various suckouts are crippling me even in these, KK v TT three times for example! The luck is well in the negative column, but with my ROI at 152% and my online ranking up to 21,000 or so, I can live with it.
It's just a bit frustrating when you know there's so much more on offer. I can't win a race to save my life, but I can't even win one in two when I've built a dominant chip position.
Consecutive hands, short stack shove with AKs, I call with QQ, he flops the nuts, I turn the set, miss the boat. Next hand, he shoves again with QQ, I reshove with AKs, obviously the QQ hold up this time! It costs me half my stack!
FT on Grosvenor Wed tournie. I lose a race with AK v 77 3 handed for 90% of the chips in play, then about 10 mins later, another race with AK v 88 for 70% of the chips.
16 people left in the £150 Freeze in Southampton, after being card dead and winning 5 pots all night, I shove 9k in with QQ, get two callers, the blinds. I win the pot I am up to 3rd and one of the favourites for a £3.5k payday. They both flip AK, so I'm a 3:1 fave. Obviously the A flops.
Moaning over. I'm still winning. And if the luck goes my way too, I'll be disappointing a lot of people at final tables!
Procrastination: I should be revising, got a freaking exam at 9:30am tomorrow (that's a Saturday) - and I still need to learn the course, but just can't concentrate at the moment.
But Vegas, baby, has been over two months since I've returned. I finished a tidy $2.5k up, but was very disappointed that it wasn't more.
It started so well, after driving down with two friends from San Franciso, I decided to take a walk down the strip to check out the poker rooms and get some info. I stumbled into Planet Hollywood at 6:58pm with their $60 freeze starting in two minutes. I got the second-last ticket, and outlasted the other 98 runners to take down a $1400 payday before the poker was even supposed to start!
It meant I didn't have to make a single withdrawal from my account for the rest of my time there. Helped by winning two of my next three tournaments and FTing the other (won $65 Caesars Palace for $800, 4th in PH $60 - about $140 for that - and then 1st at PH for about $450).
I'm sure the eagle-eyed have noticed that would make my winnings $2.8k already, or about $2.5k profit after buy-ins. It didn't go too well after that. I'm not a cash game player, but I was card dead. The deck hit me in the face in tournaments (in an hour period I hit quads twice and flopped two straights, one with a nut flush redraw, getting paid off each time), and in cash games I could go 8 hours whilst seeing just 4 top 10% hands and having to lay down the best, QQ, to a pre-flop limp re-raise. I tried to play tight, but I just didn't hit a thing. I had a couple of good sessions, but broke-even at best over the trip.
One highlight was FTing the $10k guarantee (they took >15k) at Binions on my first ever trip there, until my chip leading dominance was derailed by a complete monkey:
I've already cold-decked someone else in the extreme to give me the chip lead with around 30 players left of the 156 that started. With blinds at 100/200, UTG (~8k) raises to 600, folded to me in the BB with 33 (I have around 11k). I call and check the flop dark. I don't look at the flop and just stare at him, he looks at me and checks behind. I glance back.
The flop's AA3 - with his check I have him!
Turn.....3
So naturally I bet 1600 into the 1300 pot with quads. He flat calls. I am now 1000% certain he has an A.
River J
I bet 3k, he grabs a large stack of his chips and just sticks them over the line. I move all-in for his last k or so. He calls and flips AJ. Hehehe!
Anyway, back to the situation in the last 30. Blinds are 600/1200. BB has been quiet, and is moaning with his last 3400 chips, and says to me he's going in no matter what. I don't think anyone else was paying attention. I'm UTG with AJ and raise to 3600 (my stack is approx 35k). It's folded round to the SB, who calls (he's an absolute donkey, with 25k or so he's jammed off me, with A8s v A8s. I've also had people shove into me, giving me 3:1 odds, with Q7o and A9o, needless to say I didn't win either of those, anyway, the standard is poor).
BB keeps his word and moves all-in. The pot is 10,200 with 400 more on the side.
Flop JJ4 two diamonds. I'm happy to take it down here and bet 4k into the dry side pot. This should be a massive warning sign! SB calls.
Turn 2d. Great, flush draw down, he checks, I check behind.
River Td. 4 diamonds now, he grabs 10k and sticks it in, I insta-pass in disgust and he shows AK with just the Kd. Well done, idiot. He's chip leader now but doesn't even make the money (top 18).
I drift along to the final, no able to pick anything big up, and go out in 7th despite sucking out on AQ with T3. I can't repeat the trick with J7. They chop 5 way as well, so my $400 could've been $2k. Argh.
Got very bored of poker after a week, which didn't help me play my best game. Sitting down at the Mirage with $200, only to lose it all first hand with set over set doesn't help. But on one notable occasion the deck ran my way.
Planet Hollywood $1/$2, 9 handed.
I'm BB, and it has been straddled to $4. UTG +1 calls (he seems tight, relatively weak, but not going to be playing trash). Someone in MP calls, as does the Button (no info) and me with 7h5h.
Flop 6d 8c 8h
There is a tendancy to overbet in Vegas, and I fancy seeing a cheap turn, so chuck out $5. EP player and Button both flat call.
Turn 9h
Woo, I turn the straight, and am immediately putting EP on an 8, and he's also shown no tendancy to play suited connectors, he's a high card guy. Not sure about the button, but I think I'm likely to have the best hand here.
Then chaos. I bet $20. EP min-raises to $40. Button raises to $105. Now I'm flummoxed, but don't believe either player would be raising with a full house on this kind of board, so I flat call hoping to bring EP and his A8-type hand along too, believe the button has a similar hand.
EP reraises to $210. Button moves all in for $170 total and the decision is back on me. EP has about $80 behind. I decide to talk to them, saying neither would raise with the boat, so I think my hand is good. Neither of them look comfortable, and when I push all in, the disappointment on EPs face is apparent as he pushes his final $80 in, feeling he's pot committed. Button turns to me and says 'Have you got a full house?' and tables T7 - ouch, didn't put him on that. My read on EP is spot on as he shows A8.
River 2h
Ship it!
Other than that, I am pottering along nicely both live and online. I've stopped the cash for a while, as I'm not playing well in it. The tournaments are going well, I feel like I'm outplaying people at will and only continued bad beats and cold-deckings are preventing me from more frequent and bigger scores. Despite this, I am slightly up over the last month live.
Online, I have discovered the 45 man Full Tilt $26 SNGs. They're juicy! 18 tournaments, 2 wins, 2 seconds, 2 thirds and a fourth. Again, various suckouts are crippling me even in these, KK v TT three times for example! The luck is well in the negative column, but with my ROI at 152% and my online ranking up to 21,000 or so, I can live with it.
It's just a bit frustrating when you know there's so much more on offer. I can't win a race to save my life, but I can't even win one in two when I've built a dominant chip position.
Consecutive hands, short stack shove with AKs, I call with QQ, he flops the nuts, I turn the set, miss the boat. Next hand, he shoves again with QQ, I reshove with AKs, obviously the QQ hold up this time! It costs me half my stack!
FT on Grosvenor Wed tournie. I lose a race with AK v 77 3 handed for 90% of the chips in play, then about 10 mins later, another race with AK v 88 for 70% of the chips.
16 people left in the £150 Freeze in Southampton, after being card dead and winning 5 pots all night, I shove 9k in with QQ, get two callers, the blinds. I win the pot I am up to 3rd and one of the favourites for a £3.5k payday. They both flip AK, so I'm a 3:1 fave. Obviously the A flops.
Moaning over. I'm still winning. And if the luck goes my way too, I'll be disappointing a lot of people at final tables!
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Upbeat and Optomistic
Following on from the below post. Myself and Chris have played in the sickest cash game we've been in to date. After outlasting Chris (again) at the £10 Harbour Rebuy, aided by some rubbish (think it was 98s) v AK saved by a full house on the board, and then A3 hitting running 3s v AJ. 11th and 12th for us, a little money for the final table bubble for me, plus Chris' £10 for our ongoing last longer!
We decided to start a 50p/50p NLHE cash game with a few other runners and a certain rich gambler named Mo. My first buy in was cracked by a 3 outer, and then another £60 died by way of a 5 outer, both on the river. So I brought the £100 chip I had in my wallet to the table. About an hour later I'd chipped up to a respectable £215, as Mo was generally playing rather loose and aggressive to put it mildly, with massive over raises, and calling down with anything. We were distinctly moist at the thought of this cash game continuing.
It got to the point where myself and Chris (I'm usually psycho-aggressive, and Chris is rather LAGgy too) are playing weak, tight, passive poker pre-flop. On one occasion I limp for £2 pre-flop (there's been alot of straddling) with KQ. Mo raises to something like £10-20, it's pretty irrelevant, but I call, to see a beautiful QQJ board. I make a small bet, only to be reraised all-in by Mo. The immense relief when I see his AJ is drawing to running Aces or Jacks is overwhelming, and I rake in a £430 odd pot.
The game is sick, we're eventually 4 handed with over £2k on the table, for a 50p/50p game! I've never lost a £250 pot with K8, on an A high board - and not even blinked. I lose a few pots, before getting my chips all-in on the last hand with AK. I reraise Mo half his stack (about £60), he calls, and I push the flop dark, he calls for another £70 or so. He doesn't turn his cards over, so seeing a beautiful Ace of clubs on the turn is a massive relief, a J on the river is irrelevant as he shows QJ. My AK takes the last pot of the night, worth around £250.
Running good continues, a final table Harbour the following weekend for £250 and win the Grosvenor Sunday tournament the following night for £410. UNfortunately, since then, the wheels have come off a bit. Playing a Wednesday cash game in the wrong frame of mind has really killed me, a couple of bad Monday rebuy tournaments has cost me around £400, punctuated by a £160 cash game profit, where again I played pretty badly but got lucky in one key hand, then redeemed myself in monster pots against Seb and Tony.
Having said that, playing terribly, I've still gone deep in 3 recent tournaments I've played, it's taken bad luck to knock me out. AT v KQ, QJ v 96 on a Q65 board are two that come to mind.
I've generally had an awful week of running bad, I've been one outered 3 times this week, 225 board, A2 v K2 v T5, case 5 hits the river. J8 v QQ on JJ3 board, case Q hits the river. 77 v AJ on T74 board, turn and river K J.
One sick cash game, 0.25c/0.50c heads up. This guy hit everything. He was awful. In 90 odd hands out of 650 he showed down, he hit 4 trips, 9 straights, 1 flush and 4 full houses. To be fair, only the straights got me into trouble, but he hit everything.
And I mean everything. KK on a 952 rainbow baord, a pot bet sees his 78 hit the jackpot with a 6 on the turn. In his 9 straights, he flopped one of those v my top pair, and hit FIVE gutshots. What made it worse, is that EACH time he hit - so had I! It wouldn't be so bad if he'd limped his SB, hit the gutshot, and got a dollar or two out of me on the river. No, he'd win $20 each time against my top pair/two pair/monster draw/overpair. And the one time I hit a straight...he hits a runner runner flush. I run JJ into QQ and 99 into TT. I'm finding alot of that at the moment, the deck is pretty ice cold.
But I've read a poker mag, and am feeling optomistic, so am playing the £25 semi-freeze tonight - not had a result there for a while. But Chris' recent run is keeping my losses from being too bad - I'm getting a little bit back after my run! ;)
Reading is happening from Thursday to Sunday, then Vegas in mid March, and Dublin in April. Will be alot of serious poker going on!
We decided to start a 50p/50p NLHE cash game with a few other runners and a certain rich gambler named Mo. My first buy in was cracked by a 3 outer, and then another £60 died by way of a 5 outer, both on the river. So I brought the £100 chip I had in my wallet to the table. About an hour later I'd chipped up to a respectable £215, as Mo was generally playing rather loose and aggressive to put it mildly, with massive over raises, and calling down with anything. We were distinctly moist at the thought of this cash game continuing.
It got to the point where myself and Chris (I'm usually psycho-aggressive, and Chris is rather LAGgy too) are playing weak, tight, passive poker pre-flop. On one occasion I limp for £2 pre-flop (there's been alot of straddling) with KQ. Mo raises to something like £10-20, it's pretty irrelevant, but I call, to see a beautiful QQJ board. I make a small bet, only to be reraised all-in by Mo. The immense relief when I see his AJ is drawing to running Aces or Jacks is overwhelming, and I rake in a £430 odd pot.
The game is sick, we're eventually 4 handed with over £2k on the table, for a 50p/50p game! I've never lost a £250 pot with K8, on an A high board - and not even blinked. I lose a few pots, before getting my chips all-in on the last hand with AK. I reraise Mo half his stack (about £60), he calls, and I push the flop dark, he calls for another £70 or so. He doesn't turn his cards over, so seeing a beautiful Ace of clubs on the turn is a massive relief, a J on the river is irrelevant as he shows QJ. My AK takes the last pot of the night, worth around £250.
Running good continues, a final table Harbour the following weekend for £250 and win the Grosvenor Sunday tournament the following night for £410. UNfortunately, since then, the wheels have come off a bit. Playing a Wednesday cash game in the wrong frame of mind has really killed me, a couple of bad Monday rebuy tournaments has cost me around £400, punctuated by a £160 cash game profit, where again I played pretty badly but got lucky in one key hand, then redeemed myself in monster pots against Seb and Tony.
Having said that, playing terribly, I've still gone deep in 3 recent tournaments I've played, it's taken bad luck to knock me out. AT v KQ, QJ v 96 on a Q65 board are two that come to mind.
I've generally had an awful week of running bad, I've been one outered 3 times this week, 225 board, A2 v K2 v T5, case 5 hits the river. J8 v QQ on JJ3 board, case Q hits the river. 77 v AJ on T74 board, turn and river K J.
One sick cash game, 0.25c/0.50c heads up. This guy hit everything. He was awful. In 90 odd hands out of 650 he showed down, he hit 4 trips, 9 straights, 1 flush and 4 full houses. To be fair, only the straights got me into trouble, but he hit everything.
And I mean everything. KK on a 952 rainbow baord, a pot bet sees his 78 hit the jackpot with a 6 on the turn. In his 9 straights, he flopped one of those v my top pair, and hit FIVE gutshots. What made it worse, is that EACH time he hit - so had I! It wouldn't be so bad if he'd limped his SB, hit the gutshot, and got a dollar or two out of me on the river. No, he'd win $20 each time against my top pair/two pair/monster draw/overpair. And the one time I hit a straight...he hits a runner runner flush. I run JJ into QQ and 99 into TT. I'm finding alot of that at the moment, the deck is pretty ice cold.
But I've read a poker mag, and am feeling optomistic, so am playing the £25 semi-freeze tonight - not had a result there for a while. But Chris' recent run is keeping my losses from being too bad - I'm getting a little bit back after my run! ;)
Reading is happening from Thursday to Sunday, then Vegas in mid March, and Dublin in April. Will be alot of serious poker going on!
Friday, 1 February 2008
Whining is good
Should whinge more often. Shortly after posting the below blog, myself, Chris, Tony, Vicky and Andy all headed to Cardiff for the weekend to play the £75 APAT Welsh Amateur Championship. It was a generally successful week, with me first out in around 68th of the 200 odd runners. Kudos for Andy for going so deep, and to Tony for making day 2 and the money spots.
Anyway, like true poker addicts, we packed up around 3:30, and headed back to Southampton...to head straight to the casino's £30 treble chance freeze. Well, not Tony and Andy, because they're lame. Myself and Chris are duly rewarded for turning up 15 minutes late, Hellmuth style, by taking a 1-2, worth £440 to myself for the win. Chris will insist my A7 v his A6 on a KJ9 flop runner runner badbeated him, when it comes 5 4, good luck with that mincing dinosaur man. This is followed by a 2-3 the following evening - the luckiest person in the world dodges multiple bullets to take the win, but my coffers are swelled by another £450. Wednesday is a damp squib, as I run into an awful player who happens to be the card rack for the night.
Sunday stays good though, another 2nd for £200, though I needlessly gave away the chiplead and a £500+ payday 4 handed. Chris makes another final table and takes 6th. I got too aggressive, and ran into the eventual winners AQ after an ill-advised shove from the button. Monday's £10 rebuy made up for that, Chris taking 3rd and another win for myself, for £450.
He's rather narked, that after 5 tournaments, he's taken 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 3rd, and lost our £10 last longer bet each time, including the Wednesday tournament, where neither of us make an impact.
Online cash has been a different matter, no-one seems to be donating to me, not getting into any good spots, combined with a couple of suckouts and a little bit of tilt, I'm running a good $300 down at 25c/50c over the last couple of days. I've played pretty well, but some horrendous suckouts have not helped the cause.
PLHE, 25c/50c
I've chipped up slightly to $65. Pick up QQ UTG and pot raise to $1.75
CO calls.
BUT reraises pot to $7.75
SB folds, BB (monster stack of $160+) flat calls.
I use up my entire time bank, and repot to $33, leaving $18 behind.
Passed to the BB, who uses his timebank, and flatcalls.
Flop T 8 3 rainbow. He puts me all-in, I obviously call, he has 88.
Gimp.
Anyway, all is well following a live cash game - hence the late post. Blinds 10p/20p, a tiddy £110 profit, including "My new favourite Ten-Six play", as said by Mike Perry. Chris blind raises to £1.20, Willis reraises to £5.20, I flat call with T6o on the button. Chris reraises another £18, Willis passes and I shove my £60 stack in. After a good 3 minutes, where I'm absolutely bricking it, and Chris tells me he has an Ace, and he knows I don't have one. After long deliberation (I'm know I'm not in terrible shape) he passes A3, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief!
Anyway, a couple of hands, a few good plays, and it's been a good session. Chris was rather despondent about his cash performance, but you have no need to be mate. We all have bad sessions. You know you're easily good enough, discipline can be improved on. Your words of encouragement helped me over my dry spell, so I'm sure your self-belief will shortly return, as will the results.
If it's any consolation I haven't got a tell on you!
Anyway, like true poker addicts, we packed up around 3:30, and headed back to Southampton...to head straight to the casino's £30 treble chance freeze. Well, not Tony and Andy, because they're lame. Myself and Chris are duly rewarded for turning up 15 minutes late, Hellmuth style, by taking a 1-2, worth £440 to myself for the win. Chris will insist my A7 v his A6 on a KJ9 flop runner runner badbeated him, when it comes 5 4, good luck with that mincing dinosaur man. This is followed by a 2-3 the following evening - the luckiest person in the world dodges multiple bullets to take the win, but my coffers are swelled by another £450. Wednesday is a damp squib, as I run into an awful player who happens to be the card rack for the night.
Sunday stays good though, another 2nd for £200, though I needlessly gave away the chiplead and a £500+ payday 4 handed. Chris makes another final table and takes 6th. I got too aggressive, and ran into the eventual winners AQ after an ill-advised shove from the button. Monday's £10 rebuy made up for that, Chris taking 3rd and another win for myself, for £450.
He's rather narked, that after 5 tournaments, he's taken 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 3rd, and lost our £10 last longer bet each time, including the Wednesday tournament, where neither of us make an impact.
Online cash has been a different matter, no-one seems to be donating to me, not getting into any good spots, combined with a couple of suckouts and a little bit of tilt, I'm running a good $300 down at 25c/50c over the last couple of days. I've played pretty well, but some horrendous suckouts have not helped the cause.
PLHE, 25c/50c
I've chipped up slightly to $65. Pick up QQ UTG and pot raise to $1.75
CO calls.
BUT reraises pot to $7.75
SB folds, BB (monster stack of $160+) flat calls.
I use up my entire time bank, and repot to $33, leaving $18 behind.
Passed to the BB, who uses his timebank, and flatcalls.
Flop T 8 3 rainbow. He puts me all-in, I obviously call, he has 88.
Gimp.
Anyway, all is well following a live cash game - hence the late post. Blinds 10p/20p, a tiddy £110 profit, including "My new favourite Ten-Six play", as said by Mike Perry. Chris blind raises to £1.20, Willis reraises to £5.20, I flat call with T6o on the button. Chris reraises another £18, Willis passes and I shove my £60 stack in. After a good 3 minutes, where I'm absolutely bricking it, and Chris tells me he has an Ace, and he knows I don't have one. After long deliberation (I'm know I'm not in terrible shape) he passes A3, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief!
Anyway, a couple of hands, a few good plays, and it's been a good session. Chris was rather despondent about his cash performance, but you have no need to be mate. We all have bad sessions. You know you're easily good enough, discipline can be improved on. Your words of encouragement helped me over my dry spell, so I'm sure your self-belief will shortly return, as will the results.
If it's any consolation I haven't got a tell on you!
Saturday, 5 January 2008
You only sing when you're winning
It's true.
I hate poker, I can't take much more. The last 4 months has been terrible. I'm probably running at nearing £1,500 down. I just seem to be the best player in the world at finding the fish at my table. They just get lucky. I haven't hit a big hand in god knows how long. I've not won more than £160 since September 1st.
I've tried a return to cash games, sticking $550 on Full Tilt. I've employed sensible table selection, using Poker Tracker, and making sure I've got position on any stacks bigger than me if possible. It's done bugger all.
Some hands over just the last 3 weeks - mine in bold:
5h6h(UTG+1) v 55 (BB) on 24K3 board. 56s min raises pre-flop and minimum bets 5 player flop - calls a too small reraise on the flop and hits the gutshot.
KQo (UTG) v 98s (Button) on A56T9 board. My UTG raise and bets are called pre-flop, flop and river.
77 (BB) v 6d2d (HJ) v Kd9c (CO) on Td8d4d board. HJ and CO limp. I overraise from BB, am called by both - it is 1/3 of K9's stack.
Qc3s (BB) v As8s (SB) on Kc Qs Js Ad 8c board. Two aggressive late limpers, SB completes. I overraise from BB, limpers pass, SB calls. He then check calls a 3/4 pot bet on the flop and turn - by this time it's 2/3 of his stack to call. This was a £150 comp!
AsJc (BB) v 3c5c (CO) on Ac Kc 2s board. Blinds 25c/50c HJ raises to $1.75. CO and button call. I reraise to $10, leaving $41 behind. Get called by the CO. I check raise his pot flop bet all-in, his 3c 5c hits the Qc on the turn and I miss the redraw.
In 2 nights of cash game play. I've hit one straight with KJ on a 69TQ board...to split it with KJ. In 200+ hands on Full Tilt, I have just seen this one straight, no flushes, only two trips (neither with pocket pairs, have had 15 of those and not hit one set - add to that 150+ hands on PKR without hitting a single set). I have lost with AK v A4 all-in pre. Hit top two pair, only to run into bottom set. Had JT on 3J4T board only to run into 33, A3 and KK, with a K rivering. Have had AA, QQ and 88 uncalled in a session where around 80-90% of my raises were being called.
I have had KK twice and seen an A high flop both times. The only walk in a 170 hand session saw me holding QQ on the BB. I've bet out with an 8 on 9c 9s 8s 7c board, to be called by 7h 2h which rivers a 7. I've run JJ into AA in heads up play, and a misclick caused me to run A8 into QQ on a blind v blind confrontation, not withstanding he insta-called an all-in on a 3 spade board, holding no spades. I have had a check raise on a 34K flop met with a reshove from A4.
T6 hitting an 865 board, T on the turn, to run into T8 - held by a muppet who'd been the final caller in a 3 way all-in holding Qh6h.
I've raised a single limper from the BB holding JdTd, the flop comes 248 with one diamond. I c-bet flop and turn 8. I am called all streets by the limper. The river is a 7, I check, he checks behind...with Qd5d.
I've overbet the flop with AdJc on 2d6dJs flop, received one check-caller, who pot bets the turn 3d, forcing me to pass. I've held a pair + flush draw, a gutshot + flush draw (twice) and a pair, gutshot + flush draw, and have missed the lot.
Most of the above in just 24 hours. I hate poker so much. APAT next weekend though, am due enough cards to win the tournament!
I hate poker, I can't take much more. The last 4 months has been terrible. I'm probably running at nearing £1,500 down. I just seem to be the best player in the world at finding the fish at my table. They just get lucky. I haven't hit a big hand in god knows how long. I've not won more than £160 since September 1st.
I've tried a return to cash games, sticking $550 on Full Tilt. I've employed sensible table selection, using Poker Tracker, and making sure I've got position on any stacks bigger than me if possible. It's done bugger all.
Some hands over just the last 3 weeks - mine in bold:
5h6h(UTG+1) v 55 (BB) on 24K3 board. 56s min raises pre-flop and minimum bets 5 player flop - calls a too small reraise on the flop and hits the gutshot.
KQo (UTG) v 98s (Button) on A56T9 board. My UTG raise and bets are called pre-flop, flop and river.
77 (BB) v 6d2d (HJ) v Kd9c (CO) on Td8d4d board. HJ and CO limp. I overraise from BB, am called by both - it is 1/3 of K9's stack.
Qc3s (BB) v As8s (SB) on Kc Qs Js Ad 8c board. Two aggressive late limpers, SB completes. I overraise from BB, limpers pass, SB calls. He then check calls a 3/4 pot bet on the flop and turn - by this time it's 2/3 of his stack to call. This was a £150 comp!
AsJc (BB) v 3c5c (CO) on Ac Kc 2s board. Blinds 25c/50c HJ raises to $1.75. CO and button call. I reraise to $10, leaving $41 behind. Get called by the CO. I check raise his pot flop bet all-in, his 3c 5c hits the Qc on the turn and I miss the redraw.
In 2 nights of cash game play. I've hit one straight with KJ on a 69TQ board...to split it with KJ. In 200+ hands on Full Tilt, I have just seen this one straight, no flushes, only two trips (neither with pocket pairs, have had 15 of those and not hit one set - add to that 150+ hands on PKR without hitting a single set). I have lost with AK v A4 all-in pre. Hit top two pair, only to run into bottom set. Had JT on 3J4T board only to run into 33, A3 and KK, with a K rivering. Have had AA, QQ and 88 uncalled in a session where around 80-90% of my raises were being called.
I have had KK twice and seen an A high flop both times. The only walk in a 170 hand session saw me holding QQ on the BB. I've bet out with an 8 on 9c 9s 8s 7c board, to be called by 7h 2h which rivers a 7. I've run JJ into AA in heads up play, and a misclick caused me to run A8 into QQ on a blind v blind confrontation, not withstanding he insta-called an all-in on a 3 spade board, holding no spades. I have had a check raise on a 34K flop met with a reshove from A4.
T6 hitting an 865 board, T on the turn, to run into T8 - held by a muppet who'd been the final caller in a 3 way all-in holding Qh6h.
I've raised a single limper from the BB holding JdTd, the flop comes 248 with one diamond. I c-bet flop and turn 8. I am called all streets by the limper. The river is a 7, I check, he checks behind...with Qd5d.
I've overbet the flop with AdJc on 2d6dJs flop, received one check-caller, who pot bets the turn 3d, forcing me to pass. I've held a pair + flush draw, a gutshot + flush draw (twice) and a pair, gutshot + flush draw, and have missed the lot.
Most of the above in just 24 hours. I hate poker so much. APAT next weekend though, am due enough cards to win the tournament!
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