Changes

Well, in the last month several things have changed. Initially, I haven't hardly played. With the exception of the last week, I had only played a couple of sessions. I did pretty well in 3 person tourneys, winning 3/4 of them that I played and pushing my bankroll back up over $200. I've been playing more this week, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Matt had starting playing his Stars account again and ran it up to well over $100 so he asked me to stop playing it, and of course I'm still broke on Full Tilt as I haven't fired up that site in ages.

The biggest change has to be my game strategy. I'm not trying to inch toward $10,000 now, I'm just trying to make some money. I would love to hit $10,000, but with an impending wedding and towering debt facing us down if I run this up to $1000 I'm chopping out $200 and plugging away with the remaining $800. I've decided to chop 20% per thousand, so at $2000 I would take another $400, at $3000 I would take $600 and so on. I AM going to keep some of my new found discipline in that I'm going to keep my games as small as I can, but I'll be playing mostly cash games and HU matches. For now it will be $.10/$.25 NLHE ($20 max buyin) and $5 HU matches. In the cash games, if I dump a buyin I'm going to take a minimum of an hour break from that table or simply quit for the day. If I get up $10+, I'm just going to book the win and quit.

I had to quit last night when I just got pounded by awful luck. In two hands I dropped KK to AA AIPF and 99 to KJdd AIPF. I was the one that pushed with the KK because the guy was somebody that I had played before and he simply didn't play it like AA. At this level, it's probably not profitable to lay down KK preflop for anything that isn't incredibly obvious. The 99 was a decent call but I should've probably taken a flop and seen how it played out. Since that wasn't possible, I should've just pitched it. I did get nearly $10 back tonight, so I'm up overall but not quite where I was.

Bugsy's: $238.64

Bad Run

I played 2 $5 3-person SnGs tonight and things didn't go well. I busted out of the first match in 3rd when my AA got all in on the flop against QJ on a Jxx flop. The gross Q peeled on the river and I went home with my pockets turned out. In the next match one player busted right away so I was quickly at a big disadvantage. The first pot of HU play I got slapped down to 30k in chips vs the 150k of the other dude. I battled for another half an hour and finally got up big. I had doubled to over 60k with AA and then I was dealt KQ. The flop was a nifty JT9 and I checked it. The dude put out a small bet and I flat called it. The turn was an 8 so I checked again and he fired pot. I moved in and he beat me in with his 75 and I had the chip lead at 120k. The very next hand I had A6o and we got all in on the flop of Ac 9c xh and he showed the sick Q7cc. The river brought the sick 3rd club and I was down to 30k again with blinds at 2k/4k. I busted on the next hand with K5cc vs Ax when I never improved after my preflop all in. It's frustrating because in the last several matches that I've played I've gotten my money in with the lead and gotten just straight up booooooooooooooned, but all I can hope for is that it will turn around. I've been much more level headed about the beats than I typically am, which is encouraging. The flipside is that I'm almost expecting to lose every time I get my money in which is a horrible disease all its own. I just have to keep monitoring myself to make sure that none of these things start to become reoccurring leaks. That's all for tonight.

Quick Update

I've only played two sessions since my last post, and I'm in the middle of one right now. This won't be long since the National Championship is being decided right now between my fellow Big 12 brethren Oklahoma and Florida. It's not looking so good for Oklahoma because an interception literally just fell in some dude's hands in the beginning of the fourth quarter. In my other session I went 3/5 winning 3 person matches at Bugsy's for a decent little profit, along with a tiny little SnG profit, so I'm up a bit. I played really aggressively and was lucky in two key spots to get the juice boiling. I won a $10 but the rest were $5 matches so that helped out as well. Tonight I dumped both of the tourneys so far. In the $5 6-spot turbo in 5th. In consecutive hands I dropped K5hh to KJss AIPF in a battle of the blinds and then JJ to AA vs the same guy. It was one of those "Are you serious?" moments that happen in poker. In the $5 3-person match I had about a 10k lead over 2nd place when we got in with my KK vs JJ. The door car peeled a J but was all diamonds, giving me the flush draw, but of course I blanked. The next hand I shoved with A3o vs 89o and had the same story, flop 8 high with 3 clubs but I blanked on the flush draw and the over. Go skill! Hopefully I get in one more match tonight because I won't be able to play again until next week.

Bugsy's: $211.29
FTP: $.18
Stars: $33.06

Horrible Luck

I realize that the theme of the blog is typically negative, but so are my outcomes, so it makes sense. I've really busted my balls this past week or so and focused on games more. I've cut down my multi-table action to focus on individual tourneys because I was just playing bad poker. I've been rewarded with horrendous beats on a consistent basis. I'm very proud of my play, but I'm getting to the "come the fuck on" point. Tonight is a great example. I played a $5 rebuy on Bugsy's that had 55 starters. I was dealt tons of playable hands to start and picked my way up the chip lead ladder. By the first break, I was chip leader with just over $80k in chips and only in for the two buy-ins to start and the double add-on at break. My luck was overall a wash. I would hit a draw or a 3 outer and the next big pot I played I would be on the receiving end. 10 spots paid and I made it to the final table on a lucky hit with K5ss vs QQ and ATdd. The board ended Ts 8s 2x 3x Kx to scoop me the big pot and put us in the final table. I had shoved AIPF with the K5 because I had just been crushed a few hands earlier after raising with QJhh and getting a reraise that I had to call for odds but more than halved my stack. Despite flopping the flush draw against the A9o I never improved and he caught running A 9 to boat up. Awesome. The final table was a roller coaster. I had AK and AA back to back a few hands in. I took down AK preflop and AA dropped to KT AIPF to a running gutterball. Nifty. Crippled again I battled with 9 still left to get up to 3rd in chips. My only real flaw came with Q7o in the BB. It folded around to the SB whom I had just suuuuuuuuuuuucked out on with KJdd vs his QQ a few hands earlier. I have him noted as a pretty poor player to begin with and he raised me up. I didn't want to push back because he would call with pretty much anything and had me covered. We took the A74 flop together and I thought I was good. He bet and I made the mistake of not raising. The turn peeled a K, hitting what I figured him for (some sort of Kx). He bet again and I folded after dumping nearly half my stack. I folded another round and finally shoved with QJo. I was called by the second shortest stack (me being the shortest) with his Q8o. The flop brought JTx, and the sickening 9 hit the turn. No river justice T for me and I busted in 6th place for $54. That's only a $34 profit. The other sick part is that the guy that busted me was only in the tourney because his A9 chopped with AK preflop after a gross final board (in order) of AKJJJ. I don't know what the fuck to do anymore, so it's time to take a break. Two nights ago I played a $5 HU wherein I lost every all in (5 total) despite being ahead in all of them. The match lasted two hours and I finally succumbed with AT vs A2. This little scourge has rebooted my FTP experiment as I'm down to something like $.14, which I can't do anything with. So after the first I'm going to try and take at least a week off of poker. I usually can't stay away that long but it's causing me to lose my blessed mind right now.

Bugsy's: $196.69
FTP: $.18
Stars: $33.06

Quick Update

Virginia is out of town this week so I've been doing some serious playing. I did nothing but play MTTs on Sunday with poor results. I was playing very well, fighting out every pot as opposed to my previous raise-fold strategy that was killing me. The problem was that I was running colder than the friggin' weather right now (the wind chill has dipped as low as -27F in the last couple of days). I was crushing a $5 rebuy at Bugsy's with 38 left with 30 getting paid. I had over 400k in chips and was in the lead by about 50k. I had a 150k lead on anybody else at my table. I finished 38 after I dropped a monsterpotten with TT vs ATo on the runner runner gutterball. That left me with just 200k when I doubled up some other clown with my AJo vs 44. Now with around 110k I pushed over another raise with AKss, was called by the AQo and got killed by the 3 outer. I hate poker some times. I did end up winning a $2 MTT outright on Bugsy's for just over $50 to make my losses pretty tolerable, but I still took a hit. On Stars and FTP I was playing some small MTTs and airballed all of them. In total, I only cashed once out of the probably 10-12 MTTs that I played. I really need to improve my tourney game. I nearly felted myself on FTP and have been fighting it out in the $1 Matrix tourneys to stay afloat. I was as low as $2 but have been fighting tooth and nail to get back to where I'm at. On Stars I had run it down to just under $20 but I think either Matt or James ran it back up to just over $30. I've managed to push it back down again though. My play has improved, now I'm just waiting on the results.

Bugsy's: $224.44
FTP: $4.63
Stars: $25.76

Not Playing

I haven't played a hand since my last post. I'll probably get in some poker either briefly tonight or over the weekend for certain, so I probably won't have another post until Sunday unless I somehow manage to play 2 hands and win 1.4 million somehow. In other words, see you Sunday.

Airball

I logged serious hours today and I played like poop. It started last night, and I actually think it's been going on for awhile now that I think of it. I'm calling too many raises with too many hands and playing too weakly. I can call raises with a wide range of hands but I have to fire away if I think that the other person missed the flop as well. Instead, I'm just check-folding to their continuation bet like my own version of a credit line. If you need money, just raise a pot that Bret limped, he's good for a call or two before he folds.

In addition to my awful play I've taken a couple of stupid beats that just leave me absolutely baffled. An example; I have KTcc and am playing loosely because I want to go to bed (I'm drained right now). I repop a small raise up front and there's a call from the original raiser. I'm in position for the glorious Td 6c 3c flop. The dude led out and I WAY overshoved. He thought for a long time and finally called showing 4d 4s, leaving him either a running boat or the one red 4. So naturally the 4h rolls on the turn and I brick the river. Go skill. Anyway, at least I've identified a big leak that I can hopefully correct in the coming week.

I played mostly MTTs today and didn't have any significant cash. I think out of the roughly 15 total MTTs that I played I only monied twice, which is awful. At least I identified a big problem so I will fix it and my results should improve. Now I'm just rambling because my brain is mush. Good night.

Bugsy's: $264.54
FTP: $7.42
Stars: $15.16