Full Tilt

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.