Switcheroo

When I started playing online I figured I'd be a tournament player but quickly discovered that I hated the variance. I started playing rings, had a nice win rate, and only rarely played tournaments (mostly freerolls).

A couple months ago I played hard for several weeks to unlock a bonus and since then I just haven't had the drive to play. Plus I cashed out. I haven't hit a cold spell, but I've pretty much been in limbo, not winning or losing. Not driven to give it my all ever game, so I make dumb decisions.

I've been playing more tournaments since then and have been doing pretty well. The S&G's haven't been doing well, but I've had a few decent scores in bigger tournaments that more than make up for it.

Moving up to $50NL at this point was a mistake I think. Here's how I did last time:

Live tournament:
Like I said, I've been very please with my tournament games. I've gone to a friend's family's game up in Louisville three times. Three of us would drive up, with about three tables worth of people.
The first time the driver (the guy's who's family it was) got first place. I finished in the middle, and my other friend who carpooled with us was out fairly early.
The second time the driver was out fairly early, I was out just before the final table, and our other friend/carpooler got first place.
Last night was the third trip. Everyone told me it was my turn to win.

I played my A-game. I also had a couple beers during play which loosened me up a bit. I honestly think it helps.
I was the best I've ever been at reading tells. I had a guy on Kings with my 9/9 when I made my set which made me table captain. I picked up on my friend's "sewing machine leg," I picked up on his uncle's sigh when he bet, I picked up on another guy's stare down, I picked up on a lady's glance at her chips... all the classics. I got out of a lot of dangerous situations like folding my KJ in the BB on a K/T/T flop ( I guessed he had A/K but later he told me he had the T. Maybe K/T.)

At the final table I wasn't doing well in chips, but people were playing weak and I was able t make some steals when I saw they were weak.

Actually, fairly early in the BB m M was so low and I was priced in to call a shove when I had Q/8 suited) and he had A/x. I ended up hitting my 8 to double up.

That gave me an OK amount of chips so I could make some bluffs without committing myself is someone shoved back.

With three of us left I had A/K on an Ace high flop and the woman on my right shoved. I called, and she showed a pair of twos. Blah blah blah... the river came up a 2. Doh! She's the new chip leader.

I end up knocking the other guy at the table, so I recover, but HU she still has a lot more chips. Blinds are big enough that I probably had an M of 10 and her was maybe 15. But I was a *much* better Heads Up player than her and figured the game was mine to lose.

And I didn't lose it. I just kept taking her chips as it was pretty obvious when she was weak. A few times she just surrendered the small blinds.

The final hand was my A/K against her 7/7. She shoved, I called. The board ended up being something like 2/J/Q/9/T. I make Broadway on the river and pocket a nice payout.

The money is nice but really, I'm just glad I won it. I didn't want to be the one guy out of three of us who hadn't won it yet.

Not so bad today

Didn't do so well yesterday. Lost on all three tables.
Check me out trying to steal me some blinds, c-betting, then turning the gut shot straight:

I was really disappointed with this hand. I thought, "Oh crud he has a full house!" as soon as I put all my chips in. But a guy I respect (ChuckTs) who's spent a lot of time at this level said it was a cooler... so that makes me feel a lot better.

Tonight...
I hit the tables with a better demeanor. I was prepared to sit out and just blind off, or lose legitimately. I wasn't fighting for chips or trying to steal when I lacked information on players.

I played three tables. Lost $4.20 on one, won $14.35 & $15.85 on the other.
Played a total of 133 hands over 41 minutes.

Earlier I hit a $6.30, 36 player (I think) turbo S&G. It paid 5 places. I went out in 8th.

I like my tournament game lately. I'm starting to consider myself a tournament player, as my ring game life has sort of stalled and I'm having some success at tournaments.

I think I've been less patient recently, so tournaments are fitting me better.

Anyway, I've been staying up too late recently. I *wanted* to be in bed early tonight (which is midnight for me), but it didn't work out that way.

Boast Post

I planned on hitting a small tournament, maybe a satellite to the Sunday Hundred Grand.
It got later and later and before I knew it, it was 11:30 and I still hadn't played.

Those things take 90+ minutes to complete, and I've been staying up too late lately so I decided to single table for a short bit.

I sat at a $50NL table and won the second hand. The BB tried to steal and I stole back for a $6 profit. (I have hands on him, so he has hands on me, so he knows I fold to steals probably more than I should and I know he steals 50% of the time)

Anyway, I lost some of that profit and it was getting close to bed time when I hit some pretty young ladies:


My first $100+ pot! Woot!

26 hands, 20 minutes, $57.80 profit, $3.70 in rake.

Hand recap

There was one hand that gave me second thoughts yesterday. The button calls and I check from the BB with 8/3o. The flop is 8 high (two hearts) and I make a half pot bet which is called. The turn is a ten of hearts (3 hearts). I check, and he shoves 2,200 into the pot.

Now, all along I think I have the best hand. I expected an average raise, to which I was going shove back. His shove at this point just didn't make sense to me. I'm a limper who made a continuation bet but then gave up. I seem weak. If he had a hand, would he shove like that against weakness? I'm not pot committed at this point, and he could easily make a bet that would pot commit me if he had a hand.

Besides, I'd seen this guy make some good plays earlier. He knew how to get people's money in the pot when he had the best hand.

No... I figured he had a flush draw, a straight draw, or two over cards. Maybe a combination of draws. So I called.



I was right.
He was pissed, and criticized my call. I tried to see exactly what he said in my hand history but I guess the comments of railbirds aren't recorded. (Tee-hee!)

Anyway, a bad call there would have in no way crippled me (I think I was chip leader), and my read was right. Maybe I came to the right conclusion for the wrong reasons, but it worked.

I also want to note that I made two similar all-in shoves with middle pairs against the chip leader when we were close to the final table. He folded both times, which gave me the chip lead when we reached the final table. Of course, if he'd lost to me it would have stung a lot more. (He ended up finishing in 4th while I finished in 3rd.)

Doing OK in tournaments

There was a CardsChat money-added game on PokerStars today. I didn't know if I'd play. I thought it was $10+$1 (the normal Sunday stake) and don't like playing tournaments that high, so I decided to play a $2.20 satellite to the Sunday $100k. If I won I'd cash out and use the $11T to play.

I won the $11T without really thinking about it. The only memorable hand was the last one, when a micro stack was all-in. I had Q/Q and planned on checking every hand so the other players could help me take him out. There were to callers with three T's on the board when one of the bigger stacks shoved.
Ugh.
That took some thought. I had plenty of chips if I made the call and lost, and people make *stupid* moves at the end, so I called in case he was trying to bluff me with his missed A/K.
Thankfully he had the T and knocked out the micro stack, putting us all in the money and ending the game.

Then I noticed that the CC game was only $5.50. Sweet!

During the tournament I knocked out the guy who had a $5 bounty on his head. Sweet!

Then I got 3rd place which pays $29.60. Sweet! (I was chip leader when I hit the final table, but was very low on chips and almost went out in 6th before rallying.)

The money added was $20.

So in all, my $2.20 investment got me $49.60, with $5.50T left over. $55.10 in playable monies!

I find that ROI acceptable.

I didn't play anything else the rest of the day. I guess I didn't want to ruin my good streak. I did rail a few CC'ers while watching TV to pass the time.

4 more tables at $25NL

I came out ahead on 3/4 of my tables. I just couldn't catch a break on the one table.
I was up against a donk and told myself that he was going to shove and I had to call (villain was 73/18/4.5 and was making stupid moves):




Here's one I enjoyed at a different table. The guy was 43/31/3 (42) and would join every hand that I was in, and would steal the pot from me. He had me marked as a target or something. I could tell he was specifically aiming for me.
After folding to shoves twice seeing Q/Q I was hoping he'd try something again:


I done got all my monies back!

After that I played in two $.01/$.02 games with CardsChar people. I made $2.25'ish on one and lost $4.40'ish on another. Much of the loss was due to fancy-pants play, as I was playing for fun rather than profit.

Anyway, I'm up for the night. Still a bit to go before I recover from my attempt at $50NL.

Oh... my setless streak has ended. I only had one, but it was a dream flop. I had 7/7 and the flop was A/7/K.

Unfortunately the guy bailed on the turn though. But it was nice to break the streak.

Later, at a $.01/$.02 I hit a set as well (3's), Vs A/A, but the flop was too scary for him and he was smart enough to bail. That's what I get for playing CC members. Oh well, good for him.

$25NL again

Well I moved back to $25NL. I played 4 tables and made a profit on all four.
It seems so much softer than $50NL. I feel like I can control the table at $25NL.

On one table... this guy:
I get my only big pocket pair at that table (Q/Q) and he had A/A so we were all-in pre-flop and he flopped a set.

He was consistently bad, but kept winning enough to stay positive.

A little bit later he doubled up against me again when he had A/A.

A bit later I took some back when he slow played A/A and I made a flush.

After awhile his aggression dropped: ...but he was still bad.

In hand #146 I think him get his third K/K of the night as well.

Meanwhile, I was a small pocket-pair machine. I got them left and right on all four tables, never once flopping a set. Not once.

There was another donk with 50/x/x stats that had a habit of taking my money. I got him all in on the turn and he rivered his 6 outer. Oh well.

But I won me some chippies despite not catching a lot of breaks (did make a couple flushes... only because that donk priced me in to the river) and it felt good to get back in familiar waters.

I'm not sure what limit I'll play next. I'm tempted to hit $25NL until I win back my losses from $50NL.

PT trouble

I finally had some PokerTracker 3 trouble the other day so today I installed PokerTracker 2.

There are a lot of goofs with the stuff I imported. Two of the $10,000 play money tournaments I've played have shown up as real money games. Also, it shows that I've only won $ in two tournaments. In one of those tournaments, one with a $10 buy in, it says I won a prize of $1.10 or something like that, for more than a $9 loss. HUH???

The ring game winnings are short about $150 as well. But maybe I just missed some hands? I don't know.

Anyway... I'm starting to hope that PT3 starts working the way it should so I can go back to it.

Blah blah blog

The urge to win has left me quite awhile now. I pretty much just play for fun, which is pretty much break even poker.

It's sort of, I know I can win if I want to, so I donk off $ and then grind a bit to make it back.

I lost about $20 yesterday. $5.50 in a tournament with a bunch of CC'ers and $15 or so at at $50NL ring game.

$15 of that loss was due to going up against a short stack very early in the game. He had $15 and min-raised from early position. There were three callers and I was on the button with T/T.
I made it $5 and he shoved. I figured he has an A/Q type hand, so I made the call. Ends up he had A/A.

Also, PokerTracker 3 died on me for the first time. All the stats just disappeared. It was terrible. I rebooted my computer and they worked for a little bit, then they disappeared again.

The only thing different was that I had Microsoft Messenger open. I was birding Effexor as well, but I quit after I rebooter just in case that was part of the problem. I guess it wasn't.

Anyway, that freaked me out enough that I've decided to gather my backup data and use PokerTracker 2 for awhile.

Well... unless I get frustrated with it or change my mind. Yeah.. real decisive of me, huh?

New multi-tool

I've had a multi-tool at my side pretty much since the day my mom bought me on, oh, maybe a dozen years ago.

Up until about a year ago I carried a Leatherman with me. My first one broke and was replaced for free by the factory. My second one disappeared. I have no idea where it went to.

For about a year now I've been using a cheap/generic mult-tool that my cousin got me for Christmas. It hurts my hands a little, the blades are hard to pull out, and the needle nose pliers aren't aligned exactly right.

Well, earlier this week I was stuck out of town for an hour and a half, waiting for my next appointment to come off their lunch break so I could work on their computers. I went to Lowe's to get my wife some light bulbs, and ended up *finally* getting a multi-tool.

Despite my plan of getting another Leatherman I ended up getting a SOG PowerLock.

I like it so far. It's a little bigger than the Leatherman, but has a good feel to it. I like the locking blades. I also like how the blades can be removed and replaced by removing a hex screw. So if I ruin a blade due to abuse I pay $7 and they ship me a replacement.

Oh yeah, and it can be whipped open with one hand. My Leatheman could do that but the cheap-o one I had been using would not. Being able to flip it open is a big bonus.

Another stab at it

Another stab. Lost some small ($10) ones with "had to call hands" and *finally* had a "had to call" hand come down in my favor. I flopped a set which turned into a full house on the turn, and the other guy made the nut flush on the river. Sweet.

Unfortunately he wasn't fully rolled.

But I played 4 tables, and only lost $ on one table... and that was less than on BB.

Earlier tonight I played a $6.50 S&G and was the first one out when someone pot committed himself with middle pair and a guy-shot to my TPTK (A/K on K high flop). He hit the river. Oh well.

$50NL kicking my booty

I think I need to move back down to $25NL, as I'm not having a good run at $50NL, and I'm uncomfortable with my losses.

It's a mix of bad luck (nobody calling when I have A/A or K/K, never flopping a set, etc.), cold decks (A/K against a small stack on an K/Q/2 flop when he had Q/Q), and tilt.

I'm bluffing too much and am way too aggressive, which is suicide. Basically, I'm playing my 6-max game at FR and am getting punished for my stupidity.

Anyway, I want to make up my losses, plus interest, before moving back to $50NL.

I find concentrating to be difficult lately. I'm concentrating more in the tournament games. So maybe I should play more of them? I just hate the variance. I won my last satellite, but the one before that I was a few away from the money, with a short stack, all-in good, and the guy hit his two outer to knock me out. It was the right play on his par, but that win would have locked a payout for me.

Then in last Thursday's CardsChat event I was knocked out in 7th, when it paid to 5th place. Had I won that hand, I'd have had an enormous chip lead:


That loss cost me at least $33, and probably more.

I should note that a K/K vs A/A suckout (in my favor) doubled me up early in the game.
I actually almost folded the K/K, as I had him on A/A. I don't think he'd act that way with Q/Q. So I made a bad call, but it turned out right.

pwned at the $50NL

Oh man I just got reamed at $50NL. I lost three buy-ins. Two were all-in pots that were questionable. The other buy in, hands like me getting the nut flush and the other guy rivereing his 4 outer for a full house. Unavoidable stuff I'm not fretting.

I posted the two questionable hands on CC. I think I made the right decision on one, but cost myself on the other. I don't know. I'm new to $50NL.

I think maybe I'll lick my wounds and go back and play the $25NL for the next little bit.