Yawn

So I'm up here in the great white north with nothing to do this particular evening.... so what do I do? Play poker of course.. but after an hour... I've had enough... I didn't play particularly bad or good making about $106; but I just didn't feel like playing. Mrs Wonka thought I must be sick... maybe so.. but just in the head. It is amazing what a bad run will do to your enthusiasm. I have done OK over the last 5 days netting around $600.

So what do I do... I turn on the tube and flip for a while and I keep end up on UFC fighting. Part of me says to keep flipping; but I keep going back. Having not watched much UFC, it is pretty amazing in both a good way and a bad way. I've always been a boxing fan so I like the fight aspect of the game... give me a good knock out punch and I'm impressed... but the part that gets me is that go in for the kill after the knock out punch... The guy is laying on the ground and the other guy pounces on him and gives him a few more punches before it is typically stopped by the official. I don't know if I could ever be a real fan with the kneeing, kicking and all the other stuff.. but i just kept drawing me in.

I played in my monthly home game last weekend. The normal players were there (Wonka, Fluff, Mick, Kip, The Force and IceMan).... notably missing was Bud as he said that he forgot about the game... lame... Also notably missing was the professor as he had the nerver to move away. We all commented that the game just wasn't the same without him. The game started off pretty slowing with most raises being respected. Mick was the early leader and he took many early pots... Fluff and Wonka made comebacks toward the middle portion and eventually it ended up with the three of us.. I was way short stacked but made a pretty good comeback but then overplayed middle pair and didn't have the cajonas to push on the river.. I went out later when I pushed with the powerful T6s.. Mick who had been folding to all raises had an easy call with AJo and he put me out. Heads up went back and forth and the final two hands were pretty interesting. The next to last hand had them both going all in. Fluff with A9 and Mick with something like A6.. The board cards came and Fluff started celebrating a victory... but the dealer (yours truly) had to break the news that the had was a push... Doh!!!! Anyway, the next hand the chips got all in with Mick holding AK and Fluff with A9 (I think).... Nobody improved... uh, well at least until the river (again I think) when the 9 came and Fluff took down the victory.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I will remain busy with work.

Walking STRAIGHT down to victory lane

Well, last night was the eagerly anticipated HU3 championship match between myself and FishyMcDonk. Well, at leat eagerly anticipated by FishyMcDonk and myself. Anyway, the agreed upon time was 8PM Central and guess who was a no show... Yep, you guessed it... Mr Wonka. For some reason, time schedules mean nothing to a 2 year old.... and of course, she always gets her way... OK, almost always. Anyway, I was a couple of minutes late and the first set up tourney was already cancelled.... but their was a blogger tourney going on in the lounge. McDonk was already playing so I joined in as well. Things actually went pretty well as I moved up to the top after the break; but I went from first to out in just a few hands...I was in the SB with KQs and open raised the BB (Smokkee) and he went all in... I called and he showed K9s... Everything was looking OK until the 9 on the river... dang... the rest was a blur... Smokkee, at last check, made it to the final 3.. I hope he put my chips to good work.

Back to HU3.. Finally, at 8:30, the match was on. As my usual track history of HU matches, this one ended pretty quickly. I don't remember the all the details; but a Q on the turn gave me a straight and gave him top pair.. He called my all in and game 1 was in the books.

Game 2 was a completely different story. First off, I was behind from the get go. I didn't have the best of cards; but that is no excuse when playing HU. You start with 1500 chips and I found myself under 750 a few times; but kept battling back to even... then I find myself down to a little under 400.. and still made it back... Fishy kept the pressure on as any good HU player does. Finally, the blinds are getting up there as we have been playing at least 30 minutes.. I flop middle pair T.. and raised him (I think)... he put all in and I knew I was behind; but I was down under 400 again so all I could do was hope that I could suck out... so I called.. sure enough he had top pair. The turn and river did bring improvement... but not to me so Fishy gets round 2. Very well played Fishy..

Meanwhile, the other bloggers are having a grand ole time in the lounge.. something about dial a shots with Al Can't Hang and Iggy and Tripjax... a variable whos who was in the lounge... I broke in to ask 3 Jacks to set us up a new private Tourney... and of course he did... but he failed to give us the password... I finally got it out of him and Game 3 was on...

This was back to the typical quick game.... Fishy flopped trips with his 62o. He slow played (as almost anybody would... including myself); but I was lucky enough to get my straight on the river and he called my all in... Whoop, there it is... we have a winner.

First off, I would like to thank the academy, my mother and father... (insert record scratching sound)... wait.. this is not the Academy Awards... However, I do owe thanks to all the bloggers (32 of them) that made this challenge a great success.. I would also like to thank the Poison for organizing everything.. Great Job!!!

It was certainly nice to get something positive in the midst of a brutal downswing. I haven't played a ring game all week... I've played some SNGs with some success.. It's good for me to switch things around every once in a while. I won't be playing much over the next week as I have a home game tonight and I am off to the Great White North (Toronto) next week on business.

Cheers!!!

O-fer and HU3

I don't know what it is; but I am 0 for 3 in taking shots at the higher limits. I fell on my face again last night. Again, just a brutal run of good cards with bad flops or bad cards with good flops; but bad rivers... etc...etc...etc... I will not bore you with any more details.

The real meaning of this post is say that it looks like we have a date for the final match in the HU3 challenge. It will be against FishyMcDonk. I think we are shooting for This Thursday at 8PM Central. I'm not totally sure on the site. I'm going to push for Stars. We'll see. I hope to do the original HU challengers proud.

When are Pocket Pairs Bad?

My brutal run continues... I played just 65 hands yesterday and lost $745 playing 10/20. so I ask... when are Pocket Pairs Bad? Let's take a look at few of the hands from yesterday:

-25 on first 6 hands... no big deal... just blinds
next hand Q3s in SB... I call and get flush draw that doesn't hit...-70
lose next BB -10
AJ in SB with J on board... -50... lose to AA and KK... I got out fairly early on this one as it became obvious.
QJ on button... +38
63s in BB... call raise and fold to bet.-20
lose sb.. -5
98s in cutoff.. flop a 9.... lose to JJ -90
AJ in bb.. board is all low cards... lose to QQ -68
AQs in sb.. give up after turn as there is monster betting and raising-70
lose sb.. -5
A2 in bb.. all small cards including 2.. since he raised preflop I was hoping that he just had 2 big cards so I pushed a bit... well he did have 2 big cards... unfortunately, they were the same big cards... QQ -110
lose sb... -5.... are we noticing a trend yet.
lose nex bb... -10
KTo in sb... call raise and flop... -30
lose next bb... -10
win blinds... with A9 +18
lose next bb -10
win blinds.. A3... +19
lose blinds... -15
win blinds from bb.. +9
lose with A3s.. -30
Headsup now... lose with 76o... -20
misc hu play.. +62
3 handed.. lose with 22 on river.. -30
win with 72o.. how about that... +29
lose sb... -5
lose blinds... -15
This one hurt the most... playing aginst 60%er... lose with ATo on 222T6 board... to A2... -130
lost with A6o to same 60% with 6 on board... to 88

So to answer you... when are pocket pairs bad.... When YOU don't have them. So the bankroll has suffered over the past few weeks... I'm probably moving back down again...

There is good news, I guess..

I did play my semi final round of the HU3.. against the Suckout Artiste. Just as an aside... My HU matches typically don't last very long... mostly due to my aggressiveness.. and that was the case with the first match... the bad news was I drew the small straw on that one... I don't remember the particulars... Next match was also fairly quick.. I don't remember much although the last hand was my AK against his A9... 2 Kings on flop sealed the deal.. The third match, however, was not short.... Last hand number I remember was around 140... It was a very up and down match... but fortunately, I came out on top... the final hand, I had ATs... hit my flush on Turn and he hit his straight on river... I put a huge overbet out there and he called and that was that... It was a very good match and I can see why he made it to the semis.... Very good playing.. At the end, I was just more lucky.

So there you have it and there you are....

Have a good week!!!!

Not Dead... Taking a Break

Since I'm down over 2K since March 20th (most of it coming on Monday when I dropped 1,200)... I'm taking a little break... This feels too much like last year when I dropped a whole lot more... so I'm not dead.. just taking a break... As with a lot of people... when you are running bad, you don't get motivated to blog very much.

Work is still kicking my butt so when I get home, I do the family thing and then I am usually ready to hit the sack... or at least the couch...

I should, however, been lurking around later tonight to play my semi-final HU3 match.

A Fine Line

Boy, it is surely a fine line between winning and losing... especially playing limit poker. My March stats were not too impressive so I decided to take one last shot to get it back to something reasonable. I knew going into this that including my rakeback from ThisIsTheNuts, I was going to barely be positive for the month... but my ring game stats were way down. So I decided to head to the Party 10/20 tables. The plan was to lay low and not play crazy... Well, one thing lead to another and I had another terrible night... down $884.... so netted with the rakeback it was a $279 loss for the day which isn't terrible; but indeed left me negative for the month.. stats posted over on the right.

It just takes your Aces holding up instead of seeing a 2 for a rivered set against 22. It just takes some of your draws to hit.. And the one that really hurts is when you hit your money card only to find it is a bigger money card for your opponent.

So what do I do last night... yep.. head back to the 10/20 tables and yep, I get stuck early again... This time flopping K high flush only to lose to Ace when the board has 4 of my suit. I was down around $500 and made it back to plus $71 and just quit after 239 hands. The original plan was to play 200 hands anyway. As we all know, the play is just as bad as that level but the swings are way more noticeable. Like somebody said recently and I don't remember who it was; but when asked what the difference between the lower levels and the higher levels.. the answer was the color of the chips. For the most part, that is very true.

I have more on my mind; but will have to cut it short... the new job is keeping me plenty busy these days..