Online Update

I've been playing a little online. I'm getting a bit more serious, and it wouldn't surprise me if I put my nose to the grindstone and seriously worked on building up a bankroll rather than the tinkering I've been doing for months now.

LAST NIGHT:
This was early in the game. The limp was questionable. Normally I'd fold that, but in the short time I'd been there people were getting away with limps so I tried it.
Beautiful flop... that went from bad to terrible.

Not much I could do there.

The villain here was on two of my tables. He had seen me making a lot of moves. I had infinite aggression on one table he was on, and I chased him off a hand a few minutes earlier. Then he chased me off a hand almost immediately after that. So he thought he was trying to chase me me off a bluff with something like a K/x or A/x.

It was the right play, bad river.

I made a similar play on another table with 6/6, betting 2/3 pot ($10) when an Ace hit the river and was called by someone with pocket T/T. It was a good call on his part.

Things did turn around for me though. My online poker buddy started railing this game just in time to see this:


I was down a little less than $22 when I hit the quad 5's. This is the table... and I think the same guy who took my $10 Ace-on-the-river bluff. I guess that investment in image paid off.

Final miracle hand of the night:

It's hard to get paid off on hand like these. Oh well.

I played a couple games since I posted my last PT stats. The top three stats are from last night, the bottom two are earlier.


Here's a hand that cost me ($20.65) on the $14.70 game.


That Wildrider guy was a target. I was afraid of Bonds, because he was good, and only showed down because of the open ended draw and the fact that Bonds was probably calling down light as well, because he'd have known that Wildrider could be doing this with all sorts of draws, or even middle pair.
Anyway, if it was just Bonds and I in the hand I'd have lost less.

Live charity tournament

For the first time in a long time I hit that charity game.
I wanted to get out of the house awhile and the game was on that night so I figured it'd be a good escape. I emailed a friend, who was unavailable, and texted another, who was able to go (the "driver" from this post)

I drove us out there and we waited for the tournament to begin.

There ended up being 42 players, so they made 5 tables, putting 9 on tables #1 & #2.

I like having table #1 or #2 because they break the higher # tables first, so you're less likely to move and get to keep your reads/reputation/position. When they do get to the final table they redraw for position, so there's not much difference (advantage-wise) between getting table #1 or #2.

Anyway, my friend drew table #1 and I drew table #2.
At first break I had $1,100 (or $1,200?) in chips while my buddy had $1,800.

When it was down to two tables I shoved with 4/4 and my friend (who got moved to my table) called with Q/J. He made two pair, and I was really low (and M of 3 I think). Somehow I managed to recover and make the final table.

At the final table I had fewer than average chips. Blinds were huge so most people were in shove-or-fold position.... but they didn't know it. Just about everybody was mismanaging their chip stacks. I even did it... but that's because I could see that I'd get away with it.

While I didn't have many good hands during the game, my luck sure changed at the final table.
I had A/Ks, shoved, and had no callers.
Next hand I had A/Qo shoved, was called by A/K, and made the Q to more than double-up.
Next hand I had A/Ks again, shoved, and took the pot.
That gave me enough chips that I was no longer desperate.

My friend did really well, devastating the chip leader when he had Q/Q on a Jack-high flop. The chip leader eyed my friend's chips, and my buddy picked up on that, so he let the guy hand himself with his pair of Jacks.
Very nice move.

There was talk of making a deal when there were 6 of us, but my (chip leader) friend wouldn't agree because there were to micro stacks at the table. He wisely waited for them to bust.

A bit later I had some sort of loss, I don't remember it, but I had $5,000 left and the blinds were $2,000/$4,000. When the big blind hit me I put my stack in with 7/3. The SB who called had T/3. We ended up splitting the pot when the board two-paired and we both played the board. Whew!

The very next hand, my friend in the BB with me in the SB, I put it all-in again. I don't remember the cards but my hand was terrible and again, we both played the board and split the pot. WHEW!

I folded around again (remember, I had $5k with the blinds $2k/$4k) and pushed when the BB hit. I had two callers.

I looked at my cards... 2/3 off!

Someone paired the their Q on the flop. I paired my 3.

I turned my trips! Woot!

Tripled up!

When we were down to 4 I had $11k, the guy across from me had $12k, and by buddy had $13k. I don't remember what the other guy had, but it was right in that range. He might have had $10k.

Anyway, they talked about a 4-way split but, as per my suggestion, we put $ aside for first place. So we all took $200 and the remaining $216 was put aside for the winner.

Stuff happened. Good stuff for me, bad stuff for my friend. Really, I don't remember any hands at that point.

Head's up it was between me and a guy who I had seen make the worst fold of the tournament a few minutes earlier:
2k/4k blinds, the SB shoves for a total of 5k, and he folds his BB. Wha-wha-what??? It would have cost the dude (who had a decent number of chips) $1k to win the $9k in the pot.
I'm glad the hand went down that way as it was instrumental in getting all 4 of us with near-equal chip stacks, which made negotiating a deal really easy. But man... how could he *not* make that call?

As I was saying... I got head's up with the old guy who had made some questionable plays. He seemed nice enough.

He had a 2:1 chip lead over me and the guy running the tournament asked if we wanted to split the $216 first-place money. I said I'd agree but it was the old guy's decision. The old guy said it was my decision.

I could have had us split in in half $108 each, right there, but I offered him $116 so I'd take $100 and he agreed.

Just for fun we both shoved at that point, my 8/4 lost to his Q/x, but I was really happy with the results.

In the bleh's right now.

Just got back from a week long vacation in L.A., my old stomping grounds. When I got there I had a "Whoah! There are a lot of thin people here!" moment that I remember having when moved East. Only, when I moved East it was more of a "Whoah! There are a lot of overweight people here!" moment.

I don't think the comparison was exactly fair because there's a big difference between the people you see on vacation (hiking, at the beach, etc.) and people you see about town and at Wal-Mart and such.

I played poker once during my trip. Well, one night, two S&G's. I played with a good player named Effexor pretty much just wanted to do better than him.

In the first 18 player game we both finished before the bubble.

In the second, at the break I got disconnected. Another guy I know at CC was disconnected as well. I was in L.A and he was in the San Francisco area but we both had the same connection issues. Comparing notes, there were a bunch of other sites we couldn't access as well, so it was some sort of West Coast DNS issue. Or maybe we had the same ISP and they had issues.

Anway, I was in 2nd place when I was disconnected and never got reconnected. Fortunately I *barely* made it past the bubble before being blinded out so I did cash. And unfortunately my friend was the bubble boy. Oh well.

I want to play in the local live charity game but I don't know when I can get a posse together.

Tonight... I think I'll play something online. I don't know what. My heart just isn't into playing.

Oh... last night I *did* play a $5NL FR game with some CardsChat.com folks. We added the 2/7 rule, meaning that if any of us won a pot with 2/7 (bluffing it down or winning it right out) all the other CC'ers at the table would give him $.15.
I made an early shove with A/A to represent the 7/2 and was called by A/2. I had $5.90 I think, and doubled up. :)

I finished the game down about $.50. I didn't take the game to seriously and pretty much donked off the winnings.

It was a fun game and I'd like to play it again. You just don't know when someone has A/A or 7/2. It's amazing.

My last games at $50NL:


It's nice not to be losing money. I think I'm starting to get a better feel for it, and the more I play (though I'm still not playing much) the more I think I was just having some bad luck early on.

The top two games I played last night. I'm on vacation right now, but watched Effexor from CardsChat play some games and it made me want to play something.
So I played.
And I did OK.

Played a litte ring

Felt like playing, but didn't feel like playing a tournament.

I know I said I wouldn't play rings, but I moved back down to $25NL and was pretty confident that I wouldn't steam/tilt/donk.

I don't think I made any obscure moves and finished up $7.




I made an extra $1.50 right at the end, when I had A/K suited and the flop was A/A/T. He checked the turn and so did I. The river was an 8. He checked, I bet $1, and he folded.
Could have been better, could have been *much* worse.

I do think I missed an opportunity.
I had A/A and the flop was 2/8/T rainbow. I made a c-bet on the totally harmless flop, hoping to be called because it obviously couldn't help me.
He folded.
Phooey. No value for my hand. Maybe I should have let him draw to his K/Q or whatever it was he had.

Banning myself?

I almost did the "Restrict myself from playing" thing on PokerStars as I'm mentally, well, devastated right now.

My wife has pretty much checked out of our relationship for quite awhile now and the Tuesday night she officially said that she doesn't want to try anymore and she's leaving. I can't say I didn't see this coming, but I hoped that her psychiatrist and medications would help, but they haven't.

For quite awhile now my routine as been to wake up, get our daughter (she's 5 now) up, and dressed and fed and groomed, and then take her to school or to work. My wife is usually out of the house before we get up Monday-Saturday.
After work I take our daughter home, make us dinner, play with her, tend the garden with her, bathe her, then watch TV with her. Right about when she goes to sleep my wife will get home from her art or meeting or whatever.
The two fall asleep together on the sofa. I want my daughter to go to bed at a set time in her own bed, but it's really the only way she gets to spend consistent time with her mother.

When the three of us go places with friends, my wife always sits away from me. She purposely isolates herself. It hurts.

I still love her and wish there was some way to make this work. But if she's completely given up, there's nothing I can do.

So, in poker terms, I've hit an incredible downswing and it's put me on life-tilt.
That's why I considered restricting myself from play.

What's stopped me is that I know I won't go crazy at the tables, despite this. I'm too meticulous/responsible to jeopardized the bankroll that I've spent so long building up. Also, I think that putting a few bucks down towards a mental escape is well worth the price.

I will not play a ring game because I'm apt to tilt and lose too much. It's just too easy to do in rings. But I do plan on playing in a $5 tournament tonight with friends from CardsChat. That should be about 1.5 -2 hours of play. If I lose... well... the $5 was worth the investment and it goes to friends. So no big deal. Arcade games, even pinball, costs $.50 per game now, so the rate is comparable. But at least poker is a bit more challenging and a a lot more social. The potential payout doesn't even concern me right now. The competition is actually better than average in this game. That's what I'm seeking, a tougher field so I have to dig down deep to do well.

'Nother short session

I played a short, three-table session of $25NL. The tables seemed tighter than usual, and I assume this was so because we were in the final hours of Pokerstars' 2x FPP promotion. I think that promotion brought a lot of good people out of the woodwork to build up their points.

On a side note, instead of arranging the games by average pot, then going down the list and moving down the list and selecting the highest see-the-flop percentage, I tried arranging the tables by the see-the-flop percentages. I pretty much ignored the average pot size and just got the loosest table I could. In a $100NL video, ChuckTs did that, stating that he used to pick tables with my method but does it this way now because he figures he can bring the average post size up when he needs to. That made sense to me so I'll try that for awhile.

I decided it was quitting time and left 2/3 of my tables. I lost $.70 on one and won $5.70 on the other. I was all set to sit out the next hand on the third table when I got 8/8 UTG (under the gun). The table was tight and it was a good set mining hand so I made the standard raise.
the Big Blind called.
I put the guy on a pocket pair J/J-A/A so I decided to try to steal.
On the river, when I did the "I flopped a set so I shoved because I can no longer contain myself" move he let his time dwindle, then asked for more time. He let all but 2 seconds of his time bank count down before...

I chanted "Fold! Fold! Fold!" repeatedly until he finally did so.
I guess he believed that I flopped a set (rivering a full house) or flushed the river and he was able to make the laydown. WHEW!

So anyway, the final results of the night where:

I ended up playing one more round after I won that. Somehow it seemed rude to hit and run. I know I didn't owe anybody another round, but I still like to do that. Plus I think it made that one particular player twice as likely to call my shove in the near future. So if I happened to get mixed up with him, I'd have an advantage. But it never happened. I folded every hand after that. Oh well.

Very little poker for me

Even though PokerStars had their 2x FPP thing this week, I didn't get to participate much. I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the in-laws.




We had a lot more fireworks than are shown in that last photo. I took it because the fireworks caught the old/used fireworks on fire. I thought that was pretty neat.

I did hit PokerTime with my last $.14 and lost $.11 playing a S&G. So I'm basically unable to play anything there. It was all free-money they gave me, so no biggie.

W-evar

For my 1,000th post on CardsChat I held a late night (9:00 Easten) tournament on PokerStars.

I offered a buy-in but the guy I was going to award it to never responded. His loss.

There end up being a total of 10 players in the tournament, and I took third place.

I was chip leader through much of the tournament. With about 4-5 of us left, had my post-flop shove with TPTK held against someone who's middle pair hit trips on the river, I'd have had a massive chip lead. Oh well, I've been beat by much much worse.

The worst part about that loss was that the guy who beat me lost many of those chips to the guy directly on my left, who went on to win the entire thing.

I ended up taking third, for $10. With the $5.50 buy-in and the $5.50 bounty I lost $1 for my endeavor... but it was fun and well worth the $1. (I'd have been stoked to win it though)

After that I played a $2NL game. I lost $.09 and then lost another $4 trying to win it back.
There were a couple CardsChat players in the game, so we were playing pretty wild, making a lot of moves on each other. Well... one of them played pretty seriously (the only guy who left a winner).

Three times times I had terrible hands (7/2, 6/3, and 2/4 I think) with a bunch of limpers. On the button I'd raise to 15 bb's so I could steal and show the bluff. Then the guy UTG would raise to 50bb's. Whaa????

Oh... and one hand. I was up against this donk:


I had K/8 I think on a K/8/x flop. He raised, I called.
X on the turn. He raised, I called.
Q on the river. He raised, I called. He has K/Q. Doh!
He's one of the CardsChat guys and we were making moves on each other so I was just going to let him do the betting for me. I think he figured I was on a weak King or maybe A/8 or something like that.
Anyway, that hand was my biggest loss.

That reminds me. I played for a few minutes this morning. I was on a bunch of lists but only played on two tables.



One time I was in the BB and it was folded to the SB, who just called. I had 9/3. We checked the flop and turn. With a Q/K/K/X/X board, which I had no piece of and $1 pot, he shoves is $18 stack.
I type a "Whaaa?" and then fold.
He showed K/K.

Anyway, it was a short session but I finished with a profit. I was able to bluff at one pot to make $8. That could have gone very wrong. But it worked out.
I'm not sure if it was a +EV move in the long run as my bluffs never seem to work at $50NL.

Neither do my C-bets.

Oh... that reminds me. Someone advised me to look at a c-bet video on Stox. I'm going to go do that now.