I don't remember mentioning it but I lost my entire $9 bankroll (all earned without making a deposit) in a ring game on Full Tilt.
I played a big freeroll a few hours later, losing most of my stack to the eventual winner. I had Q/Q, he has A/Q. He shoved, I called, the flop was a blank, but the turn Aced him and I failed to one-outer the river. That crippled me, and made him a massive chip leader. He ended up winning something like $125.
I transferred $55 to a guy I know in PokerStars in exchange for $55 in Full Tilt. I've played a few low limit S&G's there. I'd normally start at the lowers limit S&G, but $1 + $.25 in rake feels like rape. The $2 games only have $.20 in rake, so I played those.
I think I played three S&G's the first night, cashing in the third, but finishing down for the day.
Last night I played two, finishing 2nd in a 9-player, and outright winning the 18-player game. So my bankroll is up a bit.
After cashing in that first game last night, I figured I'd quit ahead. My buddy said he was playing an 18-player game so I decided to join him to be sociable. I guess it was a good thing I did because I came in 1st. That game has given me some of my confidence back.
I think I'm going to take a break from playing on PokerStars for awhile. There are a few CardsChat Poker Forum events that I want to hit, but otherwise I'll play around with my tiny bankroll on Full Tilt.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Massive downswing
Wow. Blew $150 yesterday.
I can't seem to catch a break in tournaments. If I'm all in with the best hand I lose. But if I'm in as a dog I win.
I was short stacked in that hand, shoved, and tripled up. I ended up going on to cash in that satellite. One of three cashes I've had in my last 25 or so tournaments.
Ok, here's a little poker quiz. Look at the picture below. I have $2,155 with blinds at $1,000/$2,000 and the antes are at $100. That means that if I win the pot, an extra $3,700 is added to my stack, more than doubling me up. My hand is J/J. What do I do?
I tried to be a bit misleading with that question. This has very little to do with my stack and everything to do with the UTG guy being dead meat. He's all-in next hand, and the big stack is pot committed to call him with anything. Hopefully some of the table will call as well.
At this point, the next person out gets $6 and the remaining 6 people get an $11 ticket to the Sunday $200k, so everybody should be gunning for the short stacks.
In this case, I folded, and it was folded to the BB (who would have called *anybody* with any two cards).
The next hand the BB was all-in with less than a BB, so I called with A/Q. Thankfully the BB didn't put me all in with his 3/3 and we checked it down. (I made Queens up to knock the shorty out.) I'd have had 155 left had I lost, which would let me see two more hands... where Jammy would be all in as well.
Anyway, it worked out, I got my ticket, and I immediately cashed it out for the $11T.
Then I hit the $50 NL tables are got pummeled. I had K/K twice, taking the blinds once and winning a $2 call the second time when he folded to my c-bet.
Every time I c-bet with air I was called.
I rarely hit the flop, and when I did I think I was only called down once. Every other time they'd fold.
Tilting, I made a shove on a flop with an Ace/face/X on the board, with a second nut flush draw. The guy calls with A/2. A/2??? I fail to hit my diamond and lose $50 to his pair of Aces with no kicker and no draw.
So anyway, I lost over two buy-ins at $50NL to knock me way back into the red at that level. And with my losing streak I'm no longer rolled for $50NL.
Suxxorz.
Ont he plus side, I have a big freeroll on the CardsChat poker forum that I'm a part of. It's on Full Tilt, and I hope to build a bankroll there. I've never deposited, but I have $9 there.
Oh... and I should have $2.40. I played some, trying to build my roll. I made a shove with an open ended straight draw and was called by second pair. I sucked out and hit my card for the straight. Again, it seems like I've only been getting paid when I'm a dog going in.
I can't seem to catch a break in tournaments. If I'm all in with the best hand I lose. But if I'm in as a dog I win.
I was short stacked in that hand, shoved, and tripled up. I ended up going on to cash in that satellite. One of three cashes I've had in my last 25 or so tournaments.
Ok, here's a little poker quiz. Look at the picture below. I have $2,155 with blinds at $1,000/$2,000 and the antes are at $100. That means that if I win the pot, an extra $3,700 is added to my stack, more than doubling me up. My hand is J/J. What do I do?
I tried to be a bit misleading with that question. This has very little to do with my stack and everything to do with the UTG guy being dead meat. He's all-in next hand, and the big stack is pot committed to call him with anything. Hopefully some of the table will call as well.
At this point, the next person out gets $6 and the remaining 6 people get an $11 ticket to the Sunday $200k, so everybody should be gunning for the short stacks.
In this case, I folded, and it was folded to the BB (who would have called *anybody* with any two cards).
The next hand the BB was all-in with less than a BB, so I called with A/Q. Thankfully the BB didn't put me all in with his 3/3 and we checked it down. (I made Queens up to knock the shorty out.) I'd have had 155 left had I lost, which would let me see two more hands... where Jammy would be all in as well.
Anyway, it worked out, I got my ticket, and I immediately cashed it out for the $11T.
Then I hit the $50 NL tables are got pummeled. I had K/K twice, taking the blinds once and winning a $2 call the second time when he folded to my c-bet.
Every time I c-bet with air I was called.
I rarely hit the flop, and when I did I think I was only called down once. Every other time they'd fold.
Tilting, I made a shove on a flop with an Ace/face/X on the board, with a second nut flush draw. The guy calls with A/2. A/2??? I fail to hit my diamond and lose $50 to his pair of Aces with no kicker and no draw.
So anyway, I lost over two buy-ins at $50NL to knock me way back into the red at that level. And with my losing streak I'm no longer rolled for $50NL.
Suxxorz.
Ont he plus side, I have a big freeroll on the CardsChat poker forum that I'm a part of. It's on Full Tilt, and I hope to build a bankroll there. I've never deposited, but I have $9 there.
Oh... and I should have $2.40. I played some, trying to build my roll. I made a shove with an open ended straight draw and was called by second pair. I sucked out and hit my card for the straight. Again, it seems like I've only been getting paid when I'm a dog going in.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Another quick update
I played several more S&G's. WHY AM I DOING THAT TO MYSELF?
It's a mixture of over-aggressive play and bad beats.
People play terribly. Yeah playing K/Jo is questionable but they kept limping and I figured that if I hit...
Well... look at how this guy played:
I have been running stupid-well in $50NL. Looking at my last 10 sessions, I've only finished down at just *one* table, losing a whopping $.75.
My BB/100 is 29 for those sessions. Yipes!
Now, my overall BB/100 at $50NL is 1.06. Yeah, I've been running well, but the more I play the more I realize how unlucky I was early on in my $50NL career.
I think I need to quit playing S&G's and just concentrate on what I know. Well... that's just the practical me talking. I have fun... and I'm playing way way below my bankroll in those things, so the losses don't hurt. But man, the losses have been frustrating.
It's a mixture of over-aggressive play and bad beats.
People play terribly. Yeah playing K/Jo is questionable but they kept limping and I figured that if I hit...
Well... look at how this guy played:
I have been running stupid-well in $50NL. Looking at my last 10 sessions, I've only finished down at just *one* table, losing a whopping $.75.
My BB/100 is 29 for those sessions. Yipes!
Now, my overall BB/100 at $50NL is 1.06. Yeah, I've been running well, but the more I play the more I realize how unlucky I was early on in my $50NL career.
I think I need to quit playing S&G's and just concentrate on what I know. Well... that's just the practical me talking. I have fun... and I'm playing way way below my bankroll in those things, so the losses don't hurt. But man, the losses have been frustrating.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Quickie
I keep joining S&G's and not playing well.
Yeah, some bad spells, but a lot of bad play.
I hit a ring game, made about $7 very early on, then hit a cold spell and was down nearly $10.
I played for 1 hour.
In my last hand of the game this happened. The villain had a 50% VP$IP:
So, I finished ahead.
Yeah, some bad spells, but a lot of bad play.
I hit a ring game, made about $7 very early on, then hit a cold spell and was down nearly $10.
I played for 1 hour.
In my last hand of the game this happened. The villain had a 50% VP$IP:
So, I finished ahead.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Green in $50NL!
Well, this morning I officially became a winning player at $50NL. I've been doing well, and had a good run while two-tabling this morning, finishing my session in the green.
Not bad, considering that I was down over 4/5 of a buy-in before I started today.
I was *not* happy with this play, my 2nd hand of the game:
This is normally an easy call, but I watched several hands before I posted the BB and Player 2 was pretty tight/scared from what I saw. I figured he had K/K, A/A, or A/K but I made the call anyway. I guess J/J was in the picture, but really I had no business being in the hand with him out of position. I was chasing a flush or a hard-to-hit straight (because the Ace is a dead end and because he probably held some of those outs) or two pair when he probably wouldn't have called me down had I hit.
Here's another play I screwed up:
It was an observant player. I put him on something like A/T, maybe A/Q. When the J hit I stepped away from smaller bets I was making and I think he noticed. He went into the tank and folded after a long pause. I think he had me on two pair. I was hoping that he had two pair.
Betting a little less would have got me paid off. But making a bigger bet after the J hit scared him. I think he'd have called $5.
Once again I play it bad:
I attempted a steal against two limpers, flopped sex, and made some piss-poor value bets.
Plus the river scared him off.
I soooo didn't deserve to win that.
I like this one:
I had no idea I was beat, but I'd have check/folded if he bet me on the river.... you know... if I didn't hit the straight.
I've been doing well lately. Here are my last 22 games. The stats at the bottom are the averages. The reason why I'm only showing 22 games instead of 25 should be obvious (I had some ugly stats).
Oh man... I just noticed that there are some $25NL stats in there. I thought I was just looking at $50NL.
OK, here's my last 17 (not as nice as 22) $50NL games:
So anyway, with my big losses early, and this run, I am up just over $14 in $50NL.
I think I have the game figured out now and while it's harder than $25NL I think it'll be more profitable on a per hand basis. I'm still not comfortable 4 tableing $50NL, but when I'm pretty sure I'll start to make more hourly than at $25NL as well. (Yes, I'm handicapping myself for hot streak I'm on)
And since I'm in a stats spew mode, here's something I created for my online poker buddy yesterday:
The asterisks mean you should ignore those stats as I have less than 1,000 hands at that level. In the lower micros I pretty much only played 6-max until I got to $0.25 NL, so many of the full ring games are games I played to be sociable, with friends and CardsChat.com acquaintances. I don't play to win in those games, and make a lot of fancy plays.
For example, I have exactly *one* session at $0.10 NL and 200 hands at $0.05 NL.
The $0.25 6-max stats surprise me. I was murdering that level at first. But then I had a cold spell for the better part of a month, followed by a barely-break even spell. It started out as terrible cards, then it was burn-out. I just wasn't mentally ready to play.
Oddly enough, despite some personal crap, I think I'm starting to get my head back in the game for the first time in two months. Due to said personal crap, I know this can change at any time, but right now I'm dangerous. Dangerous in a good way.
Not bad, considering that I was down over 4/5 of a buy-in before I started today.
I was *not* happy with this play, my 2nd hand of the game:
This is normally an easy call, but I watched several hands before I posted the BB and Player 2 was pretty tight/scared from what I saw. I figured he had K/K, A/A, or A/K but I made the call anyway. I guess J/J was in the picture, but really I had no business being in the hand with him out of position. I was chasing a flush or a hard-to-hit straight (because the Ace is a dead end and because he probably held some of those outs) or two pair when he probably wouldn't have called me down had I hit.
Here's another play I screwed up:
It was an observant player. I put him on something like A/T, maybe A/Q. When the J hit I stepped away from smaller bets I was making and I think he noticed. He went into the tank and folded after a long pause. I think he had me on two pair. I was hoping that he had two pair.
Betting a little less would have got me paid off. But making a bigger bet after the J hit scared him. I think he'd have called $5.
Once again I play it bad:
I attempted a steal against two limpers, flopped sex, and made some piss-poor value bets.
Plus the river scared him off.
I soooo didn't deserve to win that.
I like this one:
I had no idea I was beat, but I'd have check/folded if he bet me on the river.... you know... if I didn't hit the straight.
I've been doing well lately. Here are my last 22 games. The stats at the bottom are the averages. The reason why I'm only showing 22 games instead of 25 should be obvious (I had some ugly stats).
Oh man... I just noticed that there are some $25NL stats in there. I thought I was just looking at $50NL.
OK, here's my last 17 (not as nice as 22) $50NL games:
So anyway, with my big losses early, and this run, I am up just over $14 in $50NL.
I think I have the game figured out now and while it's harder than $25NL I think it'll be more profitable on a per hand basis. I'm still not comfortable 4 tableing $50NL, but when I'm pretty sure I'll start to make more hourly than at $25NL as well. (Yes, I'm handicapping myself for hot streak I'm on)
And since I'm in a stats spew mode, here's something I created for my online poker buddy yesterday:
The asterisks mean you should ignore those stats as I have less than 1,000 hands at that level. In the lower micros I pretty much only played 6-max until I got to $0.25 NL, so many of the full ring games are games I played to be sociable, with friends and CardsChat.com acquaintances. I don't play to win in those games, and make a lot of fancy plays.
For example, I have exactly *one* session at $0.10 NL and 200 hands at $0.05 NL.
The $0.25 6-max stats surprise me. I was murdering that level at first. But then I had a cold spell for the better part of a month, followed by a barely-break even spell. It started out as terrible cards, then it was burn-out. I just wasn't mentally ready to play.
Oddly enough, despite some personal crap, I think I'm starting to get my head back in the game for the first time in two months. Due to said personal crap, I know this can change at any time, but right now I'm dangerous. Dangerous in a good way.
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