Tuesday, April 25, 2006

D.O.A at the D.A.D.I

The tournament, for me, was a grind from the get-go. With the blinds really low, I picked up some really nice hands but my raises folded everybody. Chips were pretty hard to come by, I never managed to get my starting stack over 3500. It was that bad.

What finished me off was the arrival of Tournament Chip leader Drizz at our table sitting to my left. Really hard to make some steal attempts when this beast re-raises your entire stack on a whim. To make matters worst, I picked up some really decent holdings while he was in his blinds and he still wouldn’t hesitate to re-raise me for all my chips. Arghhhhh…

As Drizz kept crushing and eliminating everything in sight, we were moved to another table. Drizz followed me there but he was away from me at this point. This table though was filled with stacks around my size, if not smaller, all waiting for prime opportunities to push. In other words, to make a move, you needed a hand. I pushed with KQs only to be called by some short stack that had me barely covered, with pocket 9’s. He flopped a set and rivered quads to banish me to the rail and that was that. Frustrating but fun. I’ll get ‘em next time.

I’ll try to put in some time at the limit tables tonight. My exile has lasted long enough and I’m ready to make some money again. I’ve decided to play at the Party Network for a little bit; I just like the freedom of finding tables at whatever stakes you wanna play.Let’s see how it goes.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Feeling better, playing better?

Still not feeling 100%, but definitely getting there. The cough is pretty much gone. My nose is still stuffed a little bit but compared to where I was two days ago, I’ll take it.

For some crazy reason, I didn’t really feel the urge to play poker lately. I sat down for something like 45 minutes yesterday, but I was pretty much going through the motions and not playing anywhere near my best. I guess I’m in some sort of Poker funk, I’ll get out, of that I’m not too worried, I just need to find something to aim for. A goal maybe?

Tonight is the DADI, which should be nice. If there’s one thing I can be proud of lately, it has to be my tournament play. I think the biggest mistake most people make in tournaments is going broke early trying to accumulate chips. For one, there’s a lot of luck AND skill involved in pulling that off, and two, few people know how to really play the big stack. There’s nothing sadder than watching a player who quadrupled his stack in the first level be blinded down to average-size by not getting involved enough.

I still say the patient solid strategy is better at these small stakes tournaments. Don’t risk your stack making stupid moves in the first two level for no apparent reasons. Wait for your prime hands and let the ‘wanna be pros’ knock themselves out making moves at the pot by open-raising from MP with 3-4o when the blinds are 25-50. As the blinds rise, your aggression and your boldness level have to follow suit. Be observant of the table. If a player is always raising when all fold to him, re-raise his ass when it comes up to you with any semi-decent holding. He’ll throw his hand away, trust me. You just need the courage to pull that trigger. It’s these little things that end up making a big difference in the end.

I hope I can get a good vibe going early in the tournament. Success in tournaments is often related to circumstances as much as your play. Ever get that feeling that you’re gonna do well right from the start? That’s what I’m hoping for tonight when I sit down in front of the laptop. Besides, I really think I’m due.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Sick again!

Unreal, after fighting a cold for 2 weeks, I managed to pick it up again! I’ve been coughing like a Mofo for the past two days and I generally feel like complete shit. Yay me!

I didn’t play any Poker yesterday, playing sick has to rank up there as a definite –EV experience so I took the night off. It kinda sucks that I missed the WWDN but there will be other nights. I will signup for the Mookie tonight though. Wednesdays is usually the day I watch America’s Next Top Model with my Girlfriend (UGH) but she’s gone for the week so that frees me of that burden.

Don’t really know what I’m gonna do as far as Poker concern. I know I’ll be dropping down limits while I’m fighting through the downswing but I don’t really know where I want to play. I’m really tempted to go back to the Party Network. They have a reload bonus going on right now and I kinda miss the shitty graphics, the buggy software and the god awful customer service. It sucks that I’m not getting rakeback there but their gift store is really nice and I’ve received both of my Items in perfect condition. We’ll see I guess.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Losing

Well folks, the past few days were rough. They say it’s through adversity that we learn the most about ourselves, to this I would like to add that it’s through losing your ass off that we learn the most about Poker.

What did I learn? Nothing that I didn’t really know before.

YOU. WILL. LOSE.

On some days it’s just inevitable. It doesn’t matter how many books you have read on the subject, no matter how many fishes are sitting at your table and no matter how many BB/100 you’re crushing the game at your current limit; those days will eventually happen. The days were nothing ever goes right. The days were the fishes who usually donate their money to you will river their 22-1 dog or catch that 4 outer every single time you hold a big pocket pair. THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN AND IT’S ALL ABOUT HOW YOU REACT TO THEM WHEN THEY DO.

I’ve just gone through four straight days of losing and it sucks. Big pocket pairs not holding up and getting rivered by gutshot straight draws that manage to hit? Check. Huge draws missing? Check. Tilting chips away like a dumbarse calling all the way down to the river with bottom pair? Check.

150 BB down was the end result (That's 1500$ in 4 days). Nothing too drastic, it basically sets me back to where I was at the start of April. But what it does tell me is that I have a LOT to learn about this game, especially the psychological aspect of it. It seems I’ve yet to acquire that level of maturity in Poker where you can solely focus on making the right decision and not on the results. Not an easy thing to do, especially when most of your losses occur with the best starting hands in Hold’em. Yes in the long run I’ll end up with the chips and yes, these idiots chasing me with their gutshot straight while getting nowhere near the right odds will go broke before long but damn...

So what’s the plan now?

#1 - Drop back down to 3/6 and reacquire my confidence which is all but shot right now

#2 - Focus on what’s working for me lately. I’ve cashed in my last three MTT’s including a 4th place finish at a 400 person 10$ tournament on Pokerroom for a 250$ payout. The other two were in 180 SNG where I stupidly got all my money in way ahead only to lose twice to rivered flushes.

I’m not mad or bitter. A wee bit frustrated, that’s it. I won’t quit the game obviously, I’m still having the time of my life. But Poker has thrown me the gauntlet and it’s now up to me to stand up and meet the challenge.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Poker’s being mean to me…

Ugh, what a brutal run. I’m currently stuck into a nasty funk. It’s simply sick how the fish manage to hit their two outers against me on suck a consistent basis.

The losses are not that bad, I pulled the plug before mayhem, but it still boggles the mind at how quickly EVERYTHING can go down in a hurry when playing poker.

I have few days off at work so I’ll do the same regarding LHE cash games. I refuse to play through a downswing since it nearly cost me my sanity as well as my bankroll earlier this year. I’ll be focusing my energies on playing some tournaments in the hopes of hitting a big score. At the very least, it’ll be good to have my focus in another direction. Earlier today, I bubbled the final table of a 180 SNG on Pokerstars when my flopped top two pair got rivered by flush. What else is new, really?

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Bunch of stuff

Two nights ago, I was dealt pocket aces 5 times throughout a two hour LHE 5-10 6 max session. Yup, 1-2-3-4-5 times. I only won once with them. 20% sucess rate with aces. 20 freaking percent with the preflop nuts, the odds-on 4.5 to 1 favourite. Pocket aces is the starting hand with the greatest expected value of them all. The key word here is “expected”. Never confuse expectation with guarantee or you’ll be banging your head on your desk a lot if you have a night similar to this one.

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Played the WWDN last night. Never really got anything going. My chipstack was pretty much average throughout the night. Most of my money came for stealing blinds and such. I went out when I got all the money in with AK diamonds against a AK hearts and the flop came up all hearts. What are the freaking odds of that happening, 15 to 1?

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Finally got to play a HU match against Veneno. Man alive is she ever aggressive. No limping in with this gal, it’s all bet-bet-bet-raise-raise-raise. There’s basically two ways to beat those aggressive players: You either check-call them all the way down if you have a medium strength hand or make ‘em pay through the nose with traps if you have a monster.

I was pretty lucky to win this one. I rivered a flush with the same card that gave her a straight. Again this is the exact scenario where Will Wonka finished me off in the HUC#3 only I ended up on the winning side. I’m looking forward to playing her again.

********************************

I just finished Phil Gordon's Little Green Book : Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em and it is quite the fine read, I must say. I ordered it through PSO so it was pretty much free. Gordon’s writing style is clear and simple. He doesn’t go crazy in-depth like Sklansky, which makes it way easier to digest. His chapter on Pot odds is the best one on that topic that I've seen yet. I wouldn’t recommend this book as an introduction to NLHE, Harrington on Hold’em will forever hold that spot IMO, but Gordon’s book should be the next one on the list.

Monday, April 10, 2006

My Date with Willy

Had my HUC#3 semifinal date with Will Wonka last night and I came back with quite the sore junk. The first two matches were short little affairs. I hardly remember the details, but I think the first one ended when I flopped a pair of tens to take out his pocket pair of nine’s. The second match was also a quick little thing. Ironically, the final hand of that match was a replica of the final hand of my last match against Aussie Dave when I got all the money in with A9 against AK. No suckout for me this time though and it’s off to the rubber match.

Man alive, was this one ever long. I had him down early but he grinded his way back up. Now I was way down, but I grinded my way back up. The damn thing went 140 hands, just to give ya’ll an idea. The final hand was rough. I flopped a pair and an OESD where I called down to the river to catch the perfect card to hang myself, my straight card. He pushed all-in. The board had three spades on it. Did he have it? It was a tough spot to be in, my stack was way short and I just couldn’t see myself folding that straight. I called and he flips over the turned nut flush. I was drawing dead from the get go. That was a really tough match. Now I don’t really know much about Fishy McDonk but Will Wonka will be tough to beat.

I was a bit disappointed about the lost, I really started believing that I could win this damn thing. Can you imagine the traffic for my blog if did win? Plus a chance to go one-on-one with Iggy? *Drool* I would’ve become a superstar!

While clearing my last few hundred hands at The Gaming Club, I realized that I love shorthanded poker. I stepped up to my usual limits for a few hours and I proceeded to pound the living crap out of the table . +60BB playing 5-10$ poker? That’s unheard of and obviously won’t last, but I can see why these games are so profitable. You make your money in LHE by cashing in on your opponent’s mistakes. All players see more flops in shorthanded poker, therefore, they make more mistakes. And the bad players at these games make so many freakin’ terrible mistakes that they’re basically tripping over themselves to hand you over their money. Case in point:

I pick up Jd-10d in the big blind when the biggest whale at the table raises preflop (No big surprise here, he’s been raising every hand he’s seen so far) The second biggest whale at the table calls from the small blind and I obviously call from the big blind. Flop comes 4-J-J. Nice. Now I just sit back and enjoy the ride. SB bets, I call, other whale raises, sb 3bets, I call, whale caps, all call. Turn is a 10, I now have the nuts. SB bets, I call, Whale raises, SB 3bets, I call, whale caps, etc. The river comes a blank. And just like that, all the action dies. The small blind checks, I bet, they both call and I pick up the monstrous pot (It was over 30BB) . What did they have? SB J-6, which kinda sucks for him. The other whale had AK. This is a 5/10 $ table people. 5 FUCKING 10!?!!

I can also see the other side of coin though. On a bad day, the brutal beats by these godawful players add up REAL quick at these short tables and the losses can become quite astronomical. I’ll keep playing them for a while to see where that takes me.

With all bonuses and gifts out the way, I can now focus on playing my regular games. Tonight, I will start piling up the Full Tilt tokens. I wanna go to the WSOP dammit!

Friday, April 07, 2006

The Champ was here...

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If you still want to hate, I've got a big blue veiner you can gag on.
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The Poker Champ


Why Champ? Why leave us after getting us hooked on your brilliant, brilliant stuff? *snif*

I’m pretty much the new kid on the block so I didn’t know one thing about the Champ. It was only this past Tuesday, when every known Poker blogger on the planet came out of the champ closet, that I got the opportunity to find his blog. Folks, if you haven’t done so yet, go read the whole thing. It’s really, REALLY worth it. I haven’t laughed this much in years. Wether he’s agonizing over the bad play of donkeys (whom he calls tourists) or bashing other bloggers (“No worries, I know his game sucks shit”) the whole thing had me on the floor laughing from beginning to end. The reason why he probably had so many people fooled though, and I would have been one of them btw, is that he was really gamer. The man could play some cards. Witness him crushing the 45 SNG challenge or his final table showing at the WPBT WSOP satellite. Kudos to those responsible.

Here’s a brief summary of how Poker has been for me in the past two days:
AA: 1 for 4
KK: 2 for 6
QQ: 0 for 8

How the fuck I am suppose to win money if I keep losing with the three best starting hands in Hold’Em? Ironically, I’m actually up 1.73 BB for those two days so I guess it could be worst.

I’m almost done clearing those 750 raked hands for my last PSO gift. You really burn through these things quick when you’re 4 tabling 0.50/1$ 6-max. I’m also up on the site so far which is also a +. I’m really starting to get the hang of 6-max. Once I’m done with this bonus, I’m gonna move up to 3-6$ 6-max and see if I can get something going at that level.

Full Tilt LHE games are on temporary hiatus for me. For one, they are absolute rock gardens and the suckouts are getting to me something harsh. I’ll dabble in NL for a while and I’m also gonna start stockpiling a shitload of 26$ tokens. I’m due for a big tourney score, I just need to put myself in those situations more (meaning actually playing a tournament instead of talking non stop about playing more tournaments)

Now you fucking tourists can all gag on my big blue veiner.

Why champ? *snif *

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

WWDN, HUC#3 and more

Dear ArtofSuckout,
You finished the tournament in 9th place.
A $24.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.
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I was tournament chip leader, or in the top five, from the start of that thing all the way to the bubble. Unfortunately, I got tangled in a pot with a bigstack with pocket 10's only to lose and that knocked my ass down to shortstack status (He, of course, went on to win the tournament)

The final table was your typical internet 12 minutes blind level two card poker all-in fest where whoever was the first to enter a pot would usually be doing so with a push. I pushed UTG with J-10o only to run into AK and that was the end of that.

I also managed to win my HUC3 match against AussieDave. It went the distance. The first match lasted about 10 minutes. I was grinding him down until he pushed with A high on a connected board where I gambled with my OESD that I hit on the turn. I had him down big time in the second match but he caught some good hands and slow played them to perfection to take over the chiplead. He finished that one off when I pushed with Ax into his pocket queens. The last match, again, started off the same way with me grinding him down and him attempting a comeback. The final hand was quite simply a ridiculous suckout on my part. I moved him all-in with A9 only for him to flip over AKs. I flopped a 9 and that was it. I felt really bad about that one.

I think I’m playing WillWonka next so I’ll E-mail him to set that one up. The final 4 baby, that’s what it’s all about!

I probably won’t be able to play any poker tonight, which sucks since I really wanted try my hand at the Mookie invitational, so I’ll probably be back at the tables on Thursday.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to Vegas for the WPBT in July (Stupid work), but man, a Hooters Hotel and Casino?

Tempting isn’t it?

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

WPBT WSOP Satellite Recap

First off I just want to thank Iggy for putting this whole thing together, it really was quite the experience. And an incredibly classy move of him to reach into his own pocket and find the money to send an extra blogger to the WSOP. Thank you Iggy!

The tournament was awesome. It was my first deep stack tournament ever and man was I stoked. I love it when you can actually wait and play a tight solid game early and switch gears at ease when the format allows it. I was pretty much card dead for the first 90 minutes combined with the fact that I was at a table full of maniacs meant that no chips were going my way. My stack was pretty much going one way, down, while my cards kept missing flops and my bluffs kept getting busted. I was down to 1800 chips at the two hour mark.

That’s when I started getting cards and playing smarter. I doubled up with pocket 10's against Gcox’s pocket 8's. I then won a huge pot when I limped KK UTG and got it all in the middle against the big blind’s 6-5 offsuit (don’t know what the hell he was thinking). I picked up some nice pots here and there and suddenly found myself as tournament chip leader with about 30 people left.

Again, all this is possible thanks to the structure. In a regular 12 minute blind level tourney, all my chips would have ended up in the middle at the beginning of level 4 with K-10o or some other marginal holding since I couldn’t catch any cards to save my life in the earlier levels.

The turning point of the tourney, at least for me, happened at the 100/200 level with a 25 ante while holding KK in the big blind. It folds all around to Garth on the button who makes it 500 to go, the small blind calls and I pop it to 1500. Garth folds and the small blind calls. Flop comes 10-J-6. The small blinds immediately goes all-in. What could he have here? Pocket jacks or pocket 10 would not have gone all-in, J-10 would not be involved in this pot. A-J? Perhaps but that should also have been folded preflop. I put him on Queens, it’s the only hand that made sense in this situation. What does he have? Pocket 3's. I shit you not. He claimed he was tired and wanted to go to bed. Guess what happens next? He rivers a 3. That one pretty much took the wind out of my sails and made me play like a steaming idiot. If I win that hand, I’m way ahead of the field with a 40 000 stack instead of middle of the pack with 25 000 chips. It also infuriates me that someone who has pretty much quit sticks in the game and messes it up for people who actually want to compete. Why don’t you just turn off the computer and check/fold for the rest of the tournament?

The rest was pretty much uneventful. I was trying to steal raise my stack back and was pretty much spewing chips all over the place. I doubled up a shortstack Gcox by putting him all-in with top pair top kicker on a one suit board (while holding no card of that suit mind you) when he was clearly representing pocket aces (What can I say? I was steaming ) He went on to ride that momentum all the way to third place and I was later bounced by going all-in prematurely with pocket 7's only to run into pocket 9's.

I’ve learned a LOT about my game during this thing. I really need to tamper my aggression and not just do it for the sake of doing it. When I raise it up preflop, don’t automatically go into Harrington on Hold’em mode and blindly throw a continuation bet out there. It’s ok to be weak-tight sometimes, you just need to know when to shed that image, etc.

There’s another one of these things in a few weeks and I’ll be there for sure. I’ll be ready and focussed to take it to the next level then.

On tap for tonight, WWDN and my HUC3 match so that should keep me fairly busy.

Later

Blogger WSOP Satellite

Out in 18th when I got all the money in preflop with pocket sevens against pocket nines. I was the tournament short stack at that point and getting desperate. 1:35 in the AM here on the East Coast so time for me to hit the sheets. More on the tourney later.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Testing...Testing...1-2-3

And we’re back! The end of last week was pretty hectic, with me being exhausted, busy, at the dentist and just enjoying the fine weather leaving little time for blogging activities. But the show must go on as they say so, without further adieu...

Poker was okay this weekend. I want free stuff so I dropped down a few limits to rake in some hands to get ‘em. If I had some doubts before, they’ve been all removed now. Bonus chasing is -EV all the way for me. Dropped 100 BB playing 0.50/1$ limit poker at Poker Rewards this weekend. That’s crazy, I never remember losing that much at these levels before. True, there were some side splitting brutal suckouts here and there but seriously, 100$ ?!? Anyway, 200 more hands and I’m done with that. I will then sign on to the Gaming Club for a final hurrah and I’ll put gift chasing away for good. The fact of the matter is that I'm in this to make money, not to get free chipsets. It's a cute diversion once in a while, but above and beyond, the point of all this is to make money. Period.

Tonight is the WSOP Blogger Satellite on PokerStars so I’ll definitely be signing up for that. I haven’t played a tournament in so many centuries that I forgot the way I’m supposed to play. I know the basics, tight early, loosen up a bit in the middle, become a maniac aggressive nut on the bubble and chill at the end, etc.... We’ll see how it goes. If I don’t win, I’m more than happy to know that the money will be helping a deserving blogger to get there so It’s all good.

We finally agreed on a date for my second HUC match. By all accounts it will be held Tomorrow on Full Tilt somewhere between 8:30 and 9 PM. Hope to see a bunch of you guys there, it should be fun.