Big Day, 5%, Kevin's Blog

I came home from work and Virginia was stuck at the hospital for the long haul so I got in what will be my last quality time at the tables for this week. It started out pretty rough. I kicked it off with a $5 HU at Bugsy's which I won pretty easily in under 5 minutes. I like Bugsy's HU format, but sometimes it takes ages to beat people because of the 10k starting stacks. I'll take it over FTP and the paltry 1500 any day though. Then I decided to grind a little short-handed $.10/$.25 NLHE at Bugsy's. I got cold-decked on my very first hand. I came in as BB and was dealt 53dd. There were several limpers and we took a beautiful 532 rainbow flop. The SB checked, I bet out the pot for about $1 and it folded to the SB who min raised me. I was afraid of maybe a suited A4 or, from the SB especially, a hand like 64 suited so I decided to pop it again to see where I was at. I threw in a pot raise to make it $7 to go and he insta-shoved over top of me. I thought for about 10 seconds, typed "top 2" into the chat window and pitched it. He showed 22 for bottom set. Thank you poker gods for trying to bust me on my first hand. 1 hand and I was stuck $7, neat start. At least I got away from it and didn't go bust. After a few more orbits and a few limps and raises that didn't pan out, I was down to $9 from my $20 buy-in. I took an open seat at the 10 handed $.10/$.25 table and signed up for a $20 HU match. The full table treated me well for a change. Usually I'm better against fewer opponents because I like to be involved in lots of pots and you just have to show down too many hands at a full table. To boot, you have to have a lot better than bottom or middle pair when you do show down, something I don't find myself with often. Anyway, on my 2nd orbit I found AKss in the SB and watched the table fold to the button. He hesitate and popped it the pot and I liked it. I figured he had an A and possibly even a decent hand like AT or AJ for him to pause before raising, so I repopped it hoping for a shove. He just called my raise leaving himself about $8 behind. The flop was a decent 679 with 2 clubs and I thought for a moment before betting pot. I was a little worried that maybe he had the A and a card 6-9, all of which had me in bad shape, but I decided it was something closer to AT or AJ and bet the pot, leaving him only $3 and change over my bet. He shoved over me instantly and I had to call. The turn peeled a 4 and the river another 9 and I scooped the pot when he showed me the AQo. Go me. The win put me around $33, bringing me back up when I combined my rolls from the 2 tables, but I played a few more rounds and scooped a few more pots to cash out of the full table right around $42. I battled back on the short-handed table and ended up leaving there for about $13 for a decent little profit on the day. Just as I was about to take a break to get some dinner up popped the $20 HU that I had forgotten about signing up for. I sat back down and quickly got myself slapped around down to just over 5k from the 10k starting stack. My problem was a severe post flop aversion to betting. I don't know if I thought the guy was trying to trap me or not, but I just wouldn't bet after the flop, he kept betting after the flop, and I kept losing decent sized pots without a fight. At 5k I decided to start going to war when I was sure I was ahead and things turned around. I started reraising more and following up my preflop raises and quickly ran it back to almost 8k. Then I took down a big pot with JT on a final board of Q9787 to shift the chip lead my way with a stack of 12k. 2 hands later I was dealt K8dd on the button and raised it. I got reraised and called. The flop was a nifty KT8, he bet, I raised and he called. The turn was a J, he checked, I bet, he moved in and I called. He showed QQ and blanked his 10 outs on the river to give me another $20 to my day's tally.

I then shifted my focus to FTP. I took down my first $2 HU in 4 hands when we got AIPF with my KK vs his 44. The board came up empty for him and I was up a quick $2. My next match sucked as I was playing a guy who was erratically aggressive. The type of player who just chunks in the sporadic 5x pot overbet and you don't quite know what it means because you can't pay it off for information. I took a decent lead with about 1900 chips to his 1100 when I was dealt AcQs. I raised it on the button, he min raised me and I pushed back with a pot raise. He insta-shoved and I beat him in the pot to see a nice looking A6. Nice until the flop came down 6T4ccc. I blanked my 12 outs twice and was in a bad spot. I battled all the way back up to 1100 from as low as 450 when he did me in with 66 vs AQ AIPF. He flopped a 6 on an 8 high board and I was donesky. The river was a sweet little Q just to rub it in. Of course he refused a rematch and I was off to find another chump. Fortunately, it's FTP so I only had to wait about 15 seconds for another guy who dumped 2 matches to me in about 4 minutes and I was back up for the day.

At work today I was quite bored and started messing with an Excel spreadsheet. I wondered what would happen if I could average a modest 5% increase in my bankrolls each week through the rest of the year. I was very surprised by the results. If I can manage a 5% increase every week, I'll finish out the year at Bugsy's just shy of $1300 and I'll be somewhere in the neighborhood of $112 at FTP. I make a quick calendar with the weekly goals on it and spaces for my actual totals to see how I'm doing. Hopefully I increase my roll much quicker than 5%, especially at FTP, otherwise it will take between 2 and 3 years to hit the $10k that Ferguson hit in 18 months. I still wouldn't complain, but I think I can get up there just as fast as he did despite my decreased poker playing schedule. After all I'm right around a month in and I'm already at $46, where it took him 9 months to hit $100. I'll probably end up eating those words. I hope they taste good.

If you've read to the end of this novel, I'd appreciate you checking out KevinPoker's blog either through this link or from the one on the side. It's a pretty good blog that I discovered a few days ago with a unique perspective on poker. Check it out.

Bugsy's: $530.19
FTP: $45.60