Tournament poker...

For some reason I keep writing blogs and then never posting them. Maybe it is a sign I shouldn't even try and blog. Well here is one I wrote a few months ago.

I got third in the Cpmg fall classic. Not happy about it at all. Early on I lost a race to Joe (the donkey who won). I had 88 and I raised and he shoved with Aj. He flopped trips. Whatever. One race down. No big deal. Get to the final table and i am up and down. At this point i have a major headache and i just want to be done. These headaches are out of control lately. When we get on the bubble it is me, Joe, Jason, Colin, Randy and Tina. I refuse to chop, but because of my headache I just really want it to be over. Tina shoves about 8 big blinds from the button. I am small blind and have A8. I think for a minute and decide her range includes any two broadway cards so I call. She has a10. Oh well... I like Tina I am glad she is still....oh wait there is an 8. Sorry Tina. Bad suckout. I think I have to call in that spot. It was 51,000 and I had over 220,000. Woohoo we are in the money.

When we are five handed, Jason, who started the day 2nd in chips and started the final table with a really big stack, was bleeding chips. He almost called off his stack with a gutter ball and one over. He eventually laid it down after calling the clock on himself. I could see that Jason was not handling losing some chips very well and he was in desperate mode. Although he still had plenty of chips to play. I raised from small blind with A6 c. He shoved from the big blind. The was he did it just screamed, I am weak please fold. I decided to call. He had 67 o. Sweet. Flop is 89q with 2 diamonds. Ugh. It is never easy. Turn brings another diamond. Of course he has a diamond. Now he wins with any 5, 10 7 or diamond. The river was a blank. As Colin pointed out, he had too many outs. Jason is gone in 5th place. I am glad I got his chips.

I lost a good chunk of chips to Randy in a hand that made my head throb even more than it already was. Randy angle shot me by checking out of position and then shoving after I bet. Data gave him a one round penalty. I appreciated that, but what a db to make that move. He says he limped the button and then just called my raise with QQ. The flop was q66. I had pocket 99. If he really had QQ he may have gotten more chips from me by playing it straight. Whatever.

Colin and I got into a big pot where he limped the small blind and I raised from the big blind. I knew that he was going to ship it on me. I felt it as soon as he limped. He shoved. I snap called with kk. He had 22. Sweet. Domination. Flop 23A. Fuck me. I was pissed. (not at Colin but at the situation..for people who don't understand all of the work that goes into this game they don't understand me so don't judge me- more on that later). Anyway I resuck out with a chop. The board runs out 45. I am saved there.

I used a move on Joe when we were three handed that worked perfectly until Colin got in the way and Joe sucked out. Joe and I were playing a cash game together a few weeks ago and I picked up a betting tell on this guy and I told Joe about. Everytime he did it after that we pointed it out to each other. So I bet that way from the button. Joe ships a lot of chips in the middle. I am itching to call and I only have a9. Colin then shoves from the big blind. I have to fold now. Joe flips over kj o and Colin has a10 (don't remember suited or not). Of course Joe flops a jack and takes a decent sized pot.

Two hands later I am out of the tourney. Small blind I have 1010. I raise and Joe calls from the big blind. Joe has not folded many hands at all. He called a raise earlier from the big blind with 34 o when we were 5 handed. He does not like to fold. Anyway flop is 853. I bet 60,000. Joe goes all in for over 340,000. I know I am good here and I call. He shows a8. No way he is ever folding top pair to me. He couldn't believe that he was beat. Of course the river comes an ace and he has me. I was really upset. I had him exactly where I wanted him. I knew he would shove light and I would pick him off. I was very upset at the cards. If I win that pot I think I win the whole tournament again. Oh well that is poker.

Its been a while...

I have not posted in a while and it is not from lack of playing. I have actually gotten the opportunity to play quite a bit recently. I wish I could say that I have been playing or running well. I went through about a ten tourney strectch where I did not cash. That is the longest that I have gone without cashing in the last 2 years. Luckily I broke that streak came in third in the last 2 tourneys that I played in. Hopefully my luck will hold out through day 2 of the CPMG classic. I will have a whole post about that after the tourney.

I am playing a lot of cash games. I AM RUNNING AND PLAYING HORRIBLY. I am not really sure why. I seem to get a decent stack and then lose. I have tried to evaluate each session and I do not think that I have been playing too many hands or overplaying my hands. I played at Hip Hop's game on Wednesday. I lost. Again. The first big hand I lost I was really stupid. I just changed tables and Brian was on my left. I really dont like him very much and I think that it played into my horrible play. I raised with AJ s. I am going to fold that hand from now on. Really. Anyway, he makes a smallish three bet. I did not really believe him, but I still need to fold that hand. It does not play well against a three bet and out of position. Of course I called because I am an idiot. Flop is qq10. I have a gutter and a backdoor flush draw. I check raise all in. Why? Because I am an idiot. No other explanation. He has KK. No suckout for me. Rebuy.

I change tables and go back to my original table. The reason I went back was two-fold. I am not a big fan of Brian so I did not want to sit with him and Doug was dealing the other table and I like the way he controls the table. He is a really good dealer and he does not pontificate about hands like Meat does.

I am cruising along chipping up nicely when I run into a cooler hand. Grayday was hammered and raising a bunch. Colin calls his bets to $16. Matt G. is in the small blind and he makes it $55. I really thought that Matt was squeezing, but I am always cautious when he puts chips into the pot. I looked at his stack and miscounted it. I thought he had about $150 total. He had over $200 behind his raise. I raised to $110. I had qq. He shipped it. After I saw how much he had I really wanted to fold, but I could not fold after making it $110. I wish I would have really looked at his stack better. I do not like getting it in preflop in a cash game with qq, especially with a decent stack. Big mistake. He had AA and flopped top set. If I just call his raise I check fold the flop and lose $55 in the hand. Really upset at myself for that.

A little bit later I go broke in a hand that makes my head explode. I raised preflop with AK o. Flop is A67 with 2 diamonds. I had the ace or king of diamonds I do not remember which. I bet 15 on the flop, Pete calls, Mike T raises. I ship for $165. I just wanted to take the pot down there. Pete goes into the tank. (He had a ton of chips and this $165 was nothing to his stack) He tells me he has a tweener hand and goes all in to put Mike T all in. Mike folds. Pete shows 53 of diamonds. Wow. I just got called with the 5 high flush draw. I really could not believe he called. The reason I was so surprised is because of the action it was very possible that Mike or I had the nut flush draw and he is drawing thin. It was his night as he binked the flush on the river. I flung my cards across the table and left. I don't mind the call from Pete, I am just really sick of everyone getting there against me lately. Oh well. That too will pass.

Hopefully I will only have good luck tomorrow night for day 2 of the classic.