tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44440711675597565302011-04-21T13:58:14.778-07:00bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-62156518939088433392009-02-26T21:36:00.001-08:002009-02-26T22:03:32.254-08:00

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

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-15950239671689692672009-01-10T22:52:00.000-08:002009-01-10T23:07:16.072-08:00

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

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-87061961119303754012009-01-08T20:21:00.000-08:002009-01-08T20:41:06.578-08:00

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/

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-22405827025954313562008-12-24T17:08:00.000-08:002008-12-24T17:25:34.770-08:00

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

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-57013441266204134822008-12-16T22:01:00.001-08:002008-12-16T22:11:05.975-08:00

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).

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-3470401651143274232008-12-10T16:46:00.000-08:002008-12-10T16:47:33.574-08:00

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.

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-43884213402088798612008-12-06T22:58:00.000-08:002008-12-06T23:19:45.717-08:00

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

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-59888734806832472602008-12-03T21:28:00.000-08:002008-12-03T22:44:39.694-08:00

So I've run like an amputee the past couple of days. I lost to 5 straight 3 outers a few nights ago. It felt awesome. I've been getting in with great odds on draws and such but just blanking. It's going to happen, but I wish it didn't pile up like it seems to. Either you hit everything or miss everything, nothing in moderation. Despite the horribleness I'm minimizing my losses which is

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-66863834866795008332008-11-27T22:16:00.000-08:002008-11-27T22:26:53.121-08:00

I ended up winning that $10 HU last night, but I dumped a $1 SnG tonight to step back a tiny bit. I also crushed another Matrix going 1st, 1st, 2nd, and 7th. When I say crushed, I mean crushed. I don't know my exact point total because I closed out of the windows before I thought to check it, but I think I finished at 63. I had something like 15 knockouts of the possible 32 knockouts

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-76651089744951663552008-11-25T22:01:00.000-08:002008-11-25T22:16:44.602-08:00

I'm pretty tired so this post won't be the best, but here goes. The last few days have been mostly "meh" with a couple of just flat out awful spots. The biggest thing going against me is that I can't come from behind at all. It started at FTP when I just got crushed at the $.05/$.10 games. I'd get in with big draws for the right odds and airball all of them. The low point is when I dropped

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-47364106319993337102008-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:002008-11-23T08:53:25.780-08:00

Yesterday started out pretty well. I was up $5 on FTP and about even on Bugsy's when I took a break from my morning session. About 10pm, I logged another 2.5 hour session where I was down nearly $12 at FTP and $10 at Bugsy's. Nothing was going my way on either site. I made what was probably a bad call in a $10 HU at Bugsy's. I had Ac3d. The flop was 345 with 2 clubs. I bet and was called.

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-15366472515065553902008-11-22T07:12:00.000-08:002008-11-22T07:25:49.063-08:00

Greed has been burning me hardcore lately. I haven't stuck to my bankroll plans on FTP and now I see why they're so effective. A few nights ago I was playing a 6-handed $.05/$.10 NLHE ring game and the table started to dissolve. After 3 hands, it was down to myself and one other guy. I was stuck about $1.5 with $4.5 on the table and he had nearly $20. These smaller games are cap games

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-19980437391048327932008-11-17T21:52:00.000-08:002008-11-17T22:05:24.750-08:00

So I lost an HU today in poor fashion. I was playing a guy that I've played several times before who mistakes retarded aggression with skill. I got down quickly because I just have to take flops and pick off big pots when I can. I was down to 4k because I got overly aggressive with 3rd pair and ended up folding. Then I doubled when I flopped trips and got him to shove into me with no pair, no

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-52887417757741667572008-11-16T22:19:00.000-08:002008-11-16T22:45:58.788-08:00

I apologize for the very large delay between posts. I've been working well over 50 hours a week and it has seriously cut into my motivation in all forms of my life. I've been playing quite a bit of poker, I just haven't felt like sitting down and writing about it after I'm finished. It has been tough deciding to play as I don't like playing tired, but you can't help it when you're in a

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-10181782927258278592008-11-01T21:45:00.000-07:002008-11-01T22:17:19.351-07:00

It has been a whirlwind these past couple of weeks. I've taken on my new position at work. And by take it on I mean I've been working 12 hour days. Further, Virginia has had family in town each of the last two weekends. This hasn't been a good recipe for poker but I've managed to play a decent amount of poker. I've been playing quite a few of the new Matrix tourneys at FTP. I've found that

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-6676971940716538802008-10-19T21:52:00.000-07:002008-10-19T22:00:47.359-07:00

Sorry for the delay since my last post. My girlfriend and I have been getting out house ready for some upcoming guests, so I haven't had a wealth of free time. I have been able to squeeze in some poker here and there. My luck has come back around. I'm actually able to win coin flips and hit draws from time to time again, which is very nice. I still haven't shaken off all of my gun-shyness

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-10338685672599661492008-10-08T18:44:00.000-07:002008-10-08T20:42:25.290-07:00

So I mentioned that I discovered a leak in my game. I was shedding off piles of chips in tournaments by getting half-assed aggressive with hands. I stopped shoving in with straight and flush draws and got gun shy with hands like top pair. Especially in HU matches I just can't get scared. I've taken some brutal beats in the past month and they're going to keep coming for awhile, but I can't

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-73652728697387348762008-10-06T20:24:00.000-07:002008-10-06T20:29:49.289-07:00

Fixed my game. I finally identified a leak $300 later and turned things around. I'm still not tackling ring games, but my HU game is set to bling right now. I'll post more about my leak tomorrow.Bugsy's: $303.53FTP: $22.17

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-20198691281327993392008-09-30T12:29:00.000-07:002008-09-30T16:02:03.562-07:00

I played a ton of poker over this past weekend. It went okay. My bankroll dwindled but I was playing more tournament poker so that was expected. On the luck front, things are starting to turn. It's not a flip. More like making a U-turn with a semi truck. I did a really good job of logging hands to share with you guys, so here they are.Bugsy's used to hold a $10k guaranteed, $50 buy-in

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-57154654557598057762008-09-27T00:18:00.000-07:002008-09-27T00:55:04.921-07:00

As you can tell by the numbers, things went pretty much like they have been. I started off very optimistic from yesterdays 2 for 2 session but that optimism went away when I dropped 3 $10 HU matches in roughly 15 minutes. I dropped the first two with top 2 vs a set and the third one with a straight vs a boat. I won the 4th match but then dropped the 5th and 6th in similarly stunning fashion

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-3116120743173631372008-09-26T16:44:00.000-07:002008-09-26T16:52:42.469-07:00

Still no action on FTP, but I played 2 HU matches at Bugsy's and won both of them. It felt good to log a winning session that was more than $1.50. The first match was pretty easy. The guy was overbetting anything better than top pair so I just waited for a flush and busted him with his 3 of a kind. 3 of a kind did in my second match two when his set made my boat. I'd try to make the matches

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-41361593250655076232008-09-24T20:52:00.000-07:002008-09-24T21:03:38.348-07:00

I played a $10 HU at Bugsy's tonight. It started out well. I took down a couple of big pots by leading out and quickly had the guy down to around 5k in chips. Then I doubled him with K4 vs his 78 on a K78 flop. Back to even, we battled back and forth for a bit when the sickness came up. I had QQ with blinds at 50/100. He min raised it to 200, which he had done before several times. I pot

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-76463733732904989282008-09-23T22:09:00.000-07:002008-09-23T22:44:34.741-07:00

I'm nearly to the point where I need a break from poker. I'm knee-deep in garbage play and there's nothing I can do to stop it, so it might just be time to peace out for a month. I've tried to shift my playing style to adapt to the type of inbred players that I'm up against lately and it has thrown me off of my game. Aggression doesn't work when the other person only comes loaded with new and

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-76657603793232540562008-09-22T17:59:00.000-07:002008-09-22T18:08:51.433-07:00

So my slide continues. Since my last post I've managed to stem the tide of dumping buyin after buyin, but I'm still consistently losing $10 a session at Bugsy's, which isn't going to get me anywhere I want to go. For the time being, I'm going to ditch the ring games in favor of some HU matches and MTTs. I'll probably sit at a few SnGs if I can because I've been holding my own in the few that

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-11492971995254052442008-09-16T10:37:00.000-07:002008-09-16T10:59:24.509-07:00

The downside to playing the way that I do is that variance crushes my soul. When you play very tightly and limit your starting hand selections, you never win a lot but you never lose a lot either. Your strategy involves getting paid off on big hands. The way that I play gets me into all sorts of messes that just aren't fun. Today, for instance, in a $2 HU I had 72o vs 99. The flop came 872.

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-75555500126621862552008-09-14T22:46:00.000-07:002008-09-14T23:07:09.026-07:00

I'm still on a terrible run. I'm playing solidly just getting mowed down by anything and everything around. Yesterday I had 33 vs Q7o in a $.10/$.25 NLHE ring game. The AQ3 flop made me happy in pants. I checkraised, the guy called. The turn was a 7 and we got all of the money in. The river was the awesome 7 making my $70 pot go bye bye. Miraculously, I've been scooping one or two very

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-85225437064376258372008-09-11T19:12:00.000-07:002008-09-11T20:07:50.056-07:00

I've never run so bad as I did last night. I played well. I played quite a few hands, but I was playing well. I was ditching draws when I didn't have the odds and I was making raises when it was likely that I was ahead. I was definitely playing on the aggressive side and pushing big draws. Hands like a pair and a flush draw were nearly automatic reraises. The problem was that I was blanking

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-43860082867572254172008-09-10T21:30:00.000-07:002008-09-10T22:08:25.821-07:00

I apologize for the gap in the posts. I had a nice little getaway to Lake Tahoe that I've been desperately needing. Work has had me pretty wrung out and it was affecting everything, including poker. The tilt session a couple of weeks ago was about a lot more than poker. I did get in one more session before I left. It was an overall negative, but I was happy with it. I plugged up my leaks

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-85508226796147536582008-09-01T20:43:00.000-07:002008-09-01T21:03:33.934-07:00

So I pulled a classic me two nights ago. For the uninitiated, a "me" is when you make one bad decision that rapidly avalanches into a series of horrible ones. The bad decision was playing angry. I've done a fantastic job of avoiding playing angry for quite some time now. It has taken a lot of patience, but I've been able to step back and tell myself that I shouldn't play poker at the moment.

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-50085478521127330682008-08-28T21:55:00.000-07:002008-08-28T22:05:49.564-07:00

I said I was playing yesterday no matter what and I did. One match. I won it though, which was nice. I played a guy who just couldn't hang. I came out of the gate super-aggro as usual, raising every hand on the button regardless. I was also continuing on every flop, so he was having a hard time adjusting. After a couple of rounds of this, he started calling my flop bets. I'd check it down

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-71672067864053426042008-08-26T22:26:00.000-07:002008-08-26T22:29:12.432-07:00

I still haven't gotten any matches in. I really want to play one right now but I'm absolutely smoked. A weekend of too little sleep and too much moving has my batteries drained right now, and all I'd do is piss away a couple of HU matches if I attempted any right now, so I'll show some self control and keep the poker programs closed until tomorrow. I'm playing tomorrow no matter what. Jesus

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-37003814880091161212008-08-24T22:25:00.000-07:002008-08-24T22:28:05.341-07:00

Thanks for those of you who have checked out my site so far. Please tell friends.I'm still on hiatus for a couple of more days as we just finished moving everything into our new house but we still have a ton of unpacking to do. Virginia's on call tomorrow, so I may squeeze a little poker in, but any decent playing time will be reserved for Wednesday as I have that day off. Just wanted to let

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-91090719539246276922008-08-22T00:39:00.000-07:002008-08-22T00:45:32.267-07:00

It's super late here and I have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow for the move, so this will be quick. I'll elaborate later.I logged on for what I thought would be a quick session before Virginia got home and ended up getting wrecked at both sites. I quit for a bit when she got home, but then she got paged back to the hospital so I logged back on. It's a good thing because I went on some nice runs

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-91579343023934534422008-08-19T21:24:00.000-07:002008-08-20T16:44:58.422-07:00

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

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-11789857972718703702008-08-18T21:31:00.000-07:002008-08-18T22:05:57.771-07:00

I played 1 $2 HU last night and won it pretty quickly. Virginia is on call tonight so I am logging some more hours. It's not going well. I lost 1 $2 HU match at FTP when a dude went 4 for 4 in all-ins against me during the match. I had him down to 180 chips pretty quickly and we shoved in. He took down the first hand with the 60/40 edge that held. The next hand was the same story, he got in

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-72582560937658024882008-08-15T23:38:00.000-07:002008-08-15T23:54:28.261-07:00

If you frequent my other blog, you'll know that today wasn't the best day for me to start with, but things just sort of fell apart at the poker table. Virginia wasn't going to be home until late, so I logged on to a $.10/$.25 NLHE table at Bugsy's and opened up a $2 HU at FTP. For the first little bit, I wasn't even going to blog about the play because it was pretty vanilla. I won probably $3

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-61814981624778722792008-08-14T20:58:00.000-07:002008-08-14T21:28:06.483-07:00

I played a guy named anasazi63 in a $2 HU and rolled. I raised every hand on the button, and at first he toyed around, but then he started folding. And he kept folding. And kept folding. It was almost unbelievable. He would overraise when he had a hand, so I just pitched. We only got mixed up in 2 actual pots, both of which I won as I flopped bottom pair and turned 2 pair. We didn't show

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-37743230498313850842008-08-13T12:42:00.000-07:002008-08-13T13:15:20.038-07:00

So today has gone pretty well so far. I hit up some $.10/$.25 NLHE full ring at Bugsy's because I still can't find any HU matches higher than $10 and wiped out my loss from last night. I also chunked an extra $9ish onto the old roll to bring it to $462.94. No real noteworthy hands other than a flopped top two which doubled me up to just under $40 from my original $20. I took down a few more

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-47075089549077516142008-08-12T22:25:00.000-07:002008-08-12T22:58:57.693-07:00

So my session was mixed tonight. Virginia (my girlfriend) had a late surgery, so I decided that I could get some quality playing in before she got home. I pulled up a $.10/.$25 NLHE game at Bugsy's and several $2 HU matches at FTP. The HU matches went well, the NLHE did not. First, the gory details from the ring game. I bought in for the table max of $20 and promptly dumped half of it in my

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444071167559756530.post-51417386211069535052008-08-12T18:35:00.000-07:002008-08-12T18:43:08.544-07:00

The Plecostomus. Bottom feeder. A fish that survives on the nasty bits that sink to the bottom of the tank. Or the ones that form on the sides. That pretty well summarizes my poker game. I've been sucking up the goo from the bottom for a couple of years now. Every time I get too big for the bottom of the tank I break for the surface, but I always get sent back down. I'm hoping to change

bretlonderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09791030264139435582noreply@blogger.com0