Finally figuring this stuff out....until next time I'm sure

I finally broke my tournament drought. It was only a ten player tournament, but it was in my WSOP League so the win was very important. The points I received for 1st guaranteed me a spot in the finals. 1st and 2nd place in the finals each get $2,000. That would be a nice bankroll booster right before Vegas. Good Luck me.

I have been playing a decent amount of cash games lately. I have been running and playing a little better. I love to gamble and play a lot of hands but that was getting me in a lot of trouble lately. I am very happy to say that I corrected that leak (for now) and I am playing much better. I have been watching players that I know are winning players and trying to learn as much as possible. We shall see how it goes.

I played a cash game at my office last night. We were supposed to start at 7, but everyone had stuff to do, so we did not start until about 9:30 or so. That was fine with me as I met a few friends at the bar attached to my office building. I was feeling pretty good when the game started. I did not play very well for the first hour or so. I had decent hands and decent draws but I was not playing the hands very well. I started with 300 and had to reload a 100. Good thing I did for when this hand came up. Grayday was in the small blind, Megan was in the big blind. I was in earlyish position and look down at AA. I raise to 15. It was kind of a big raise but I hate playing out of position and I was pretty hopeful that the small blind and big blind would call. I had been raising Megan's big blind a lot and she pointed it out so I was hopeful I could get a call. Grayday loves to play ATC so I was hopeful about him as well. It folds to Grayday in the small blind and he raises to 45. Everyone folds to me. I want to four bet, but I figure I can play the pot heads up and in position so I just call. Flop is 24x with 2 hearts. For the life of me, I cannot remember the third card. Grayday bets 75. I decide he has a big pair and will not lay it down on this board so I shove all in. I think I have about 150 or so more. (Normally I remember all this shit, but it was early in the night and it is kind of a blur.) Grayday gathers the chips necessary to call and is about to make the call when he realizes that 24 is on the board. He knows that is my favorite hand. Now he starts talking out loud. Do you really have 24. I know it is your favorite hand, I don't know if I can lay down KK. I was really hoping that my favorite hand being on the board would not cost me the call. He eventually decides his KK is good and calls. I announce I have AA with the A of hearts. Any guess what the turn card is? The King of Hearts. I wanted to puke a little. Luckily for me the 9of hearts hits the river and I double up. These kind of roller coaster hands are why I love to hate this game.

When I posted the game, I said we would play until the game broke. At about 4:30 I was exhausted, but we were having so much fun I did not want to quit. I thought about calling last orbit, but I am DeJen so I did not. We had 4-5 people at that point so the game was still good. When we were 4 handed, Data and Mike T. continued to play pretty tight (i.e. smart poker and folding junk hands even though we were 4 handed). I mixed it up with Grayday quite a bit. One hand we played I had 83 off. I button straddled. I think he raised, but not positive. You know I like to defend my straddles. I flopped a 3 and called his flop and turn bet. I got 2 pair on the river. He checked. Now I was sure he had nothing but I bet pretty big trying to make it look like I missed the club draw. He called. I announced 2 pair. He berated me of course. I kind of deserved that one. I really thought he had nothing until he called the river bet. I really wish I knew what he had.

The final hand of the night was an interesting one. (This was not called as the last hand, it just ended up being the last hand). I was in the small blind. Grayday button straddled. I called the 5 as did Data. I think Mike did also, but not postive. Grayday raised to 20 all day. I called with qj. Flop is k107. It was checked to Grayday who bet. I think he bet 35. (again normally I remember amounts but I was really tired.) I was the only caller. Turn was an A. I checked. Grayday did his stand up look at the board and he checked behind. Shit. I wanted to check raise. River is a 7. I don't love that card as I no longer have the nuts. I bet 50. Grayday shipped it for 252 more. Can you say vomit in your mouth. I actually tanked. I kept thinking did he really fill up here. I started talking to see if I could get any info from him. His check behind on the turn is what confused the hell out of me. He was being very aggressive 4 handed why check the turn after I have shown weakness and checked. Is he trapping with a set or two pair? I could not figure that part out. Finally, when I studied the board I determined that no way he would have checked the turn with 2 pair or a set so I made the fuck it call. He had j7 and river trips. Whew. It may seem like an easy call with the nut straight but I seem to get burned so many times when the board pairs that I just KNEW he was going to turn over k7 or 107 for a boat. The other part of the scenario that should not factor in but did was that if I called and was wrong I turned a night of grinding out a profit to a loss. But then I figured we would continue playing as noone seemed ready to stop playing.

I actually felt bad. I know Grayday got blinded by the fact that he hit what he thought was his miracle card to get me back for the 83 hand. I am not sure he ever saw the straight on board. The game broke just as the sun was coming up over Lake Erie. I love this stupid game.

I really do hate this game

Julie asked me for the link to my blog so I thought, I may as well post a blog. I would really rather be day drinking, but my two regular choices are currently unavailable. Why the title of this post. I hate poker. It is such a cruel game. In January and February I was running really well and playing well. The wheels have come off. I cannot seem to win a race and my draws are not getting there. This in turn is leading to horrid play by me. I have been working really hard on fixing that and I have been marginally successful at correcting my bad play.

I made a deal with myself that if I do not win a certain amount by a certain date, I will take a break. I know, it is one long session and you cannot look at short term variance blah blah blah. To me it is the only motivation that is working. The thought of taking a month off of poker does not sit well with me at all, so I have been much more focused and have worked really hard on correcting my bad play.

I have been playing at Nautica fairly regularly lately. If that doesn't turn things around nothing will. The people are horrid. (Even worse than me on my worst day) I was playing there on Tuesday and had the following situations occur: I had about 275 in front of me. I was in the small blind. A guy limped for $2 from middle position. A very tight guy in late position raised to $12. (Note this is the first hand he raised in the 2 hours I was there. I look down at KK. I am a little worried that tight guys has AA, but I need to three bet to get heads up with this guy. I make is $32. ( I had been playing very snug) The big blind folds but the limper cold calls $30 more. I guess if it is good for $2, it is good for $32. Tight player just smooth calls the extra $20. I was hoping he would 4 bet as he only had $115. Flop is K104 rainbow. Normally I would always c-bet here, but these guys don't were not paying enough attention so I was not worried about them and I checked. Lets pretend we are afraid of the K. Limper bets $35. Tight guy calls. I call. Turn is the 8 of spades, putting two spades on board. I check. Limper bets $75, tight guy folds. I think for a minute and I go all in. I had another $125. He gets a sick look on his face and says... I have two pair I have to call you. He moves a stack of chips forward to call. I re-look and the board and say, if you have two pair you are drawing dead and I flip over my hand. I did not embarrass the guy and ask to see his cards, but WHAT HAND MAKES TWO PAIR ON THAT BOARD THAT YOU CALL A RAISE AND A RERAISE WITH???? K10? K8? 810? Really? Thank you very much for the donation. It is very much appreciated. As he is leaving the table with his late $20 or so he says to his buddy "That is the way things have been going for me lately," I want to respond, of course it is, you called $30 cold with junk against 2 tight players. Of course I said nothing other than bad luck there. The second hand I lost about $100 on, but I could have gone broke and I didn't so I was happy about it. Tight guy from prior hand limps along with several other limpers. I make it $16 from the button with QQ. 5 people call the $16. Flop is J94 with two diamonds. I had the Q of diamonds Tight guy bets out $35. I really wanted to raise here, but something stopped me. Not sure what, just a gut reaction. After I just called, I whispered to Ang, I really think I should have raised here. Something told me not to. Two or three people called the $35 behind me. Turn is the A of diamonds. Now I am concerned about the A and the diamond. Tight guy bets $50. I don't feel I can fold here. I cannot raise, but I cannot fold. I call as do two people behind me. River is blank card. It gets checked to me. For about one second I thought about betting, but I was positive I was beat and 60% sure that I would get called in at least one spot. I checked. Tight guy turns over aj for top two pair and takes down the nice sized pot. After watching him for the rest of the night I am POSITIVE that he would not have folded top pair and top kicker if I raised him on the flop. He is never folding the turn. So the hand could have cost me a lot more than it did. I would like some opinions on if I made the right move just calling the flop and did I make the right move calling the turn. I will explain my reasoning another day.

Playing Julie's tournament tonight and I really need to get off the snide. I have not cashed in the last eight tournaments that I have played in. That is not acceptable to me because the reason I am not cashing is not bad luck it is HORRID play. Also, I am letting one or two people and their bs tilt me and making me play even worse. Going to try and play smart tonight, focus and not let stupid things bother me. Good Luck Me.

What a January

I had an awesome month. I have been playing well and running well. An awesome combo. I cashed in a several bigger buy in tournaments and really played well throughout. I have a few thoughts for my poker game for 2012.

I am going to stop getting so upset at the horrible suckouts that occur where you have your opponent owned and they get lucky. Really. I am. Honest. Ok. I am going to try. It is my number 1 goal for the rest of the year. I am allowed to get upset for one second, drop an f-bomb or two, but I WILL NOT BERATE ANOTHER PLAYER OR ACT LIKE AN IDIOT. I hope. If you see me act like an idiot or berate someone, PLEASE CALL ME AN ASS AND TELL ME TO STOP. Pretty please. I do not want to be one of those people.

I am also going to play more big buy in tournaments. It is going to hurt the bankroll, but I really think that I am going to bink one of these tournaments for a big score. In an effort to save the bankroll, I am going to play a few more of the 40-60 buy in tourneys and try and play them well. For the last 5 months or so I have only cashed in 6 out of 20 tournaments that have a buy in of under $50. While that is not horrid, it is not great. Many of the tournaments that I did not cash in are because I played HORRIBLE. I cannot seem to stay focused and I play like a donkey. I am better than that. I am going to refocus and play those tournaments like first place is $1,000. Maybe that will help me play better. I have a HUGE leak in my game in that I cannot play well when the stakes are low. I will fix this leak. If I do not fix this leak, I can never say I am getting better at this game.

I am going to try and talk strategy more with players. Julie and I used to talk strategy a lot and we barely do it anymore. I want to correct that. So, be ready Diver. I think it is very important to discuss hands and how they were played and why we played them that way.

I have the debate with myself a lot about whether I should stick to cash games or tournaments or keep playing both. I have determined that I like playing cash a lot better than tourneys, but I am a much better tournament player than cash. HMMMM. What to do about that? Knowing me I will do nothing about it and keep making money at tournaments to support my cash game addiction. Since I started keeping track of my stats back in July of 2007, I have played 269 cash games. I have 135 winning sessions, 133 losing sessions and i broke dead even one time. My hourly rate is a WHOPPING..$2.55. WEEEEEEE. LOL. That makes me chuckle. I have had fun during my HOURS of playing poker for peanuts. Good thing I do not try and do this for a living. New goal for 2012....increase my hourly rate to minimum wage. I can do it.

Does anyone know what a good ROI is for tourneys? What is a good % to cash in? I am trying to analyze my stats and cannot tell if the numbers are good, great, horrid or mediocre.