The Good News, and the Bad News

The Good News: I won $112 playing poker from Friday night to this morning.
The Bad News: At one point over the weekend, I was up $959!

Yep, figure that one out. I was able to play quite a bit on Friday night, and won close to $400. Saturday started off great, and I found a few fish, and grew my profit up to close to $1000! But then everything went sour. I was up big on a 200NL table, and the table started to break. I don't play heads up often, but when the table started losing players, the only two left were me and this other guy who I didn't think was very good. Well, it doesn't matter how good you are if you hit top pair or better about 70% of the time.

I couldn't believe it. This guy hit everything. After losing another pot to him when I had top pair plus a flush draw, I ended up leaving (He had an overpair). I definitely played really bad against him, and I should have never playing heads up to begin with.

Then the beats came. And there were plenty of them from late Sat until this morning.

KK vs QQ all-in PF: Queen on Turn
AQ vs AJ all-in PF with a half stack. Two jacks on the flop
AK vs 98 all-in PF with another half stack. He wins.
AQ vs A2s. He flops nut flush to my TPTK, and I almost lose my whole stack.
AA vs JT. Dude hits open-ended straight on river to take most of my stack.

AK has been killing me lately. The chance of hitting an Ace or a King on the flop is 35%.

The last 9 times I've had AKo or AKs, I hit an Ace or King on the flop once (villain also had AK, so we chopped)
The last 24 time I've had AKo or AKs, I hit an Ace or King on the flop only THREE times! (with one of those being the tie)

It's hard to win money when you don't hit a flop.

Yikes, I haven't updated in a while

Poker has been going ok this past week. I think I am up, plus I cleared the BETUS poker bonus, which netted me a cool $500. I played quite a few hands on Wednesday, totaling close to 1000 hands. That is the most I have done in a long time. I ended up winning about $250, so it was a good day. It would have been a lot higher, if it wasn't for some river suckouts by my donkish opponents. There were a total of three big hands that I lost, and if my opponent doesn't river me, I am $650 richer.

The worst one was at 200NL with me seeing a free flop with 86o, and the flop K86 rainbow. Idiot bets pot, I triple it. Turn is an Ace. He leads out for 1/3 pot, and I put him all in. He shows K9!! River is a nine, and I lose a $290 pot.

Next one was with me hitting top set with Kings on a KQT rainbow board. We get it all in and he has QJ. River is an Ace for a $160 pot.

And finally, getting it all-in on the turn against another super-agro donk, and he has a open ended st draw. Two of his outs give me the flush, so he only has 6 outs, but of course hits. $200 pot.

It's amazing how often terrible play is rewarded over at Tribeca. 5 outs, 8 outs, 6 outs. Hit, Hit, Hit. Am I surprised? Not really.

I'm Liking the Full Tilt 25K guaranteed Tournament!

If scroll down few posts, you will see that I played in this thing a week and a half ago. I ended up busting out in 15th place, for a nice ~ $350 profit.

Last night, I played in this again, and finished in......... 15th place!

This time it was only for $277 (A lot less people on a Wednesday than a Friday), but still, a nice finish.

I think I played some really good poker. I can't think of any big mistakes that I made. The only one I can think of is where I had a huge stack (Top 5 with 80 or so left), and I called in the blinds with AK when there was a Bet, call, and a re-raise before me. They were all short stacks, and it didn't cost me too much more to call and win a really big pot. I was up against 4's, 8's, and Aces. Aces held up.

I won a lot of chips defending my blinds to 2-2.5x BB PF bets. I doubled up early on when a late position player raised it up only 2x BB, and I called with 54o. Flop contained a 4. Dude checked. Turn was a 5 giving me two pair, and we get it all-in, and he has Aces.

I hung around, playing good tight poker when the money bubble was nearing. I had a below average stack, but was able to push all-in and steal a bunch of blinds. There was a stretch there were I never got called. Then I hit a run of cards and built my chip stack to top 5 with around 100 or so left. I tripled up with Aces. Won a couple huge pots where I defended my blinds, including busting two guys with 98o and flopping two pair on an all heart board. I got it all-in to someone's over pair and another TP hand with a heart draw. Turn was another 9 giving me a boat.

I stayed in the top 10 for quite a while, stealing many blinds. The guy to my left never defended, so whenever it folded to me in the SB (And it did a lot), I would raise, and he'd fold.

Once it got down to three tables, I took my first real big hit when I ran Kings into Aces. And in fact, we both flopped sets. Argggg. That knocked me back towards the bottom, but I stayed alive until the final two tables.

My bustout hand was brutal. UTG, who had about 9 BBs total limps in. I find Pocket 9's in LP and go all-in. I had about 6-7 BB's. Folded to UTG, and he calls...... with pocket 3's. How someone can call most of their chips away knowing that at best they are flipping a coin, and at worst a 20/80. Of course, his play is rewarded with a bright and shiny 3 on the flop, and I Go Home Now.

This finish was a very nice way to end the day, because I am getting brutalized on the cash games as of late. Set over set, flush over flush, you name it. It has happened the last two days. If it weren't for bad luck on the cash games, I'd have no luck at all.

Broke the Losing Streak, but...

Holy Cow! Massive swings! Tribeca is Crazy I tell you! CRAZY!

I've been playing a little bit more at 200NL. I decided that I would play mainly at 200NL and set a stop loss of 5 buy-ins. With the amount I am up so far this month, and with the Big Bonus I am due at BetUS Poker, that if I do happen to lose 5 buy-ins, I'll have broken even for the month, and I can move back to 100NL.

Here is the graph of me 3 tabling 200NL yesterday.



Hand 1: I'm seated between two total donks. The one I have position on, and the villain of this hand will raise with bottom pair or nothing. I think he folds only when he has no draw, no pair and not backdoor draws. Anyways, I lose ~$50 with AJ when I raise big PF, I make a 3/4 + pot cont bet, and he calls. He immediately went all-in on the turn. I folded.

Hand 2: After getting crap cards (J8 three times, and Q9 twice) in about 3 orbits, I finally pick up a good hand. Aces on the button. Donk#1 min-raises PF. I re-raise PF to $15. Donk #2 who sits behind me in the SB min-raises me. Donk #1 folds. I make the mistake of only calling, hoping to get it in after the flop. Flop is Q, T, 3 with two hearts. Donk #2 Checks. I bet, he min-raises, and I go all-in. He calls with his QTo. I lose ~ $184. I should have re-re-re-raised PF, but I doubt he would have folded.

Hand 3: After taking a little break, I find another juicy table. I'm in the BB with AQo. EVERYONE at the table limps. I raise it up to $15 PF. I get two callers. They both have VP$IP greater than 70%. (One as a short stack, the other has a full stack). Flop is A, Q, 6 with two hearts. Pot is around ~$48. I lead out for $32. Shortie folds. Other dude calls. Turn is a blank. Pot is at $112. I bet $85. He calls. River is . He only has like $40 left, and I put the rest of it in. He has K5 of hearts. I lose ~ $200. Nice Chase there dude.

Hand 4: I get involved in a hand with the other donk, who is a short stack and only has $25. All-in PF. I have . She has . Flop is . Turn and River are both Clubs.

I'm now down $455 in 45 hands. But do I quit against these fools? Hell no.

Hand 5: I get Aces and raise it up and 2 people call. I flop a set, but no one wants to play with me after the flop. + $22

Hand 6: UTG shortie raises small PF. I re-raise with pocket 8's. He re-raises all-in, and I have to call. He has Kings. I flop a set and win. + $45.

Hand 7: A 50/10 guy min-raises UTG. I call in the BB with Pocket 7's. Flop is T, 4, 4. I check, he bets 2/3 pot, and I check-raise. He calls. Turn is a 6. I lead out for $40, and he calls. River is a 9. I check, intending to give up, but he checks behind, and I win the pot. Musta had AK, but what the heck is he doing calling that turn bet? + $75.

Hand 8: Same table as above. I get Jacks UTG. I raise it up, and get one caller. Flop is Q, 7, 6 with two diamonds. I bet 2/3 pot and he calls. Turn is 9h. I check, and he bets really small, like 1/4 pot. I decide to call here and evaluate River. Probably a mistake. River is 5s. I don't think he has an 8 for the straight, or a Queen. I'm thinking a diamond draw. So I make a half pot blocking type bet. He calls. But I drag the pot. What the heck did he call with? He shows T9 of spades. So he called my flop bet with a gutshot. Nice. + $75.

Hand 9: The person I lost the KK vs KT hand above now has a stack of $47. I get Kings again on the button and raise. A limper and This idiot call. Flop is Q, 3, 2 with two hearts. Idiot goes all-in, which is just over the size of the pot. The limper calls! I go all-in, and the limper folds. Idiot has QT, and no suckout this time. + $85.

Hand 10: And then the big hand. Same table as above. This time, I get Aces again. UTG bets 4xBB. I re-raise to triple his bet. BB donk flat calls (The limper from the above hand), as does UTG. They both have $240, and I cover. Flop is J, 7, 6 rainbow. They both check, and I bet close to the size of the pot. The flat caller dude folds. UTG thinks for a long time and calls. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have Jacks. I'm thinking Kings or Queens. Jacks would have raised here I think. Turn is another 7. UTG checks, and I bet enough to put him all-in, which is about 3/4 size of the pot. He thinks a really really long time and finally calls with his pocket Kings. No two outer on the river for him, and I drag one of my biggest pots ever, $510. + $275.

So, the net of my hour at 200NL? 159 hands. + $92. And + lots of excitement. Whew.

Blah, 4 day losing streak

I'm on a small losing streak right now. I haven't lost too much money in those 4 days, but it still sucks to lose. I've been throwing in a few more SNGs lately too, but haven't won one since my nice $200+ day. On Saturday, KK couldn't beat AJ, and AK couldn't beat A9 all-in PF on both. On the cash game front, I've probably lost a buy-in or so. The big hand was me losing to a "buddy" of mine when he flopped Quads. I had AJ and the flop was J, 2, 2. Turn was an Ace, giving me top two pair. There is no way I'm getting away from that hand against this guy. Oh well. I'm thinking of playing a little more 200NL this week. My results the last couple months are better at that higher limit than at 100NL. Figure that one out. More proof that Tribeca is crazy. I actually played some cash games at PokerStars for a little while and won. Amazing!

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Season Premier of 24 was on last night. I enjoyed it, and I think that this is going to be a good season to watch. I'm not really buying the whole "Jack Bauer" isn't himself story. One minute he's yelling at people to drop their weapon, and then the next minute he's being a wuss. Hey writers, try and make it a little consistent please.

One thing that I hope for this season is to go easy on all of the spies and double agents in the government/CTU. It kind of gets a little too unbelievable when everyone turns out to be a bad guy. Doesn't the government in "24" do background checks? They average a spy every month it seams. Give me a break. I wonder who in President Palmer's "Inner Circle" is really going to be working for the bad guys?

Oh, and all of the torture is getting a little old. Can we please limit the torturing to one person per episode please?
How about "tricking" the bad guy into telling you what you want? Or maybe the good ole "piece of paper in his pocket with the bad guy's plans" scenario. Or maybe the plans are in that R2 unit over there. Anything is better than the torture. Oh look, Jack is stabbing another guy in the knee. Yahoo.

We also watched Desperate Housewives last night. I usually get a few chuckles from this show. Most of the story lines that are going on now are pretty good. One thing that I didn't like was the Zach wooing Gabrielle thing. After last season, when Zach inherited all that money, I figured they'd bring that character back some how. But bringing him back and chasing Gabrielle? Come on, that's just plan dumb. Shouldn't he be in High School still? It will also be interesting to see how they wrap up the Bree/Orsen/Alma story line. My guess is that it was really Alma who killed Monique. One thing that I am confused about last nights episode, is that they showed Bree putting the Teeth back where she found them, and then they show her holding them later. WTF?

Cheers!

Still Winning a Little

I had a couple of good sessions again yesterday and this morning. I played another set of SNGs (a $50, and two $25), but only cashed in one of them for a small loss, but my cash game went very well, as I won a few buy-ins. Here are a couple interesting hands from the last day or so, all at Tribeca 100NL 6 max:

Tribeca No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (5 handed)

HERO ($96.50)
MP ($111.25)
Button ($107.50)
SB ($129.75)
BB ($88.20)

Preflop: HERO is UTG with Ad, 9d.
HERO calls $1, 2 folds, SB calls $0.50, BB checks.

Flop: ($3.00) 8c, 7d, Td(3 players)
SB bets $3, BB calls $3, HERO raises to $9, SB calls $6, BB calls $6.

Turn: ($30.00) 5d (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, HERO bets $15, SB calls $15, BB Calls $15.

River: ($75.00) 9c (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, HERO bets $71.50 and is All-in, SB calls $71.50, BB Folds.

Final Pot: $218.00

HERO shows Ad, 9d (Flush, Ace High)
SB Mucks
Outcome: HERO wins $218.00

- I usually don't limp in UTG, but there hadn't been much raising PF here, and the BB was from Ireland, and a total fish. The flop is a dream flop, giving me the nut flush draw to go along with a open ended straight draw. I raised to 3x the amount of the SB raise so I could start to build a pot. The turn was obviously a great card, and they both called my half pot bet. The river was another great card, giving a straight to anyone holding a six or a Jack. I pushed all-in, which was just under pot because I knew at least one of them would call. Too bad Tribeca doesn't show mucked hands in the hand history, because I would love to see what the SB had.

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Tribeca No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (6 handed)

UTG ($100.00)
MP ($178.16)
HERO ($99.50)
Button ($51.50)
SB ($132.13)
BB ($80.98)

Preflop: HERO is CO with As, Kd.
2 folds, HERO Bets $5, 1 fold, SB calls $4.50, 1 fold.

Flop: ($11.00) Js, 9s, 8s(2 players)
SB bets $127.13 and is All-in, HERO calls $94.50 and is All-in.

HERO shows As, Kd
SB shows Qd, Td

Turn: ($200.00) Ks (2 players)

River: ($200.00) 5d (2 players)

Final Pot: $200.00

HERO shows As, Kd (Flush, Ace High)
SB shows Qd, Td (Straight)
Outcome: HERO wins $200.00

- I usually just raise to 4x BB, but I decided to go 5x because the SB had been calling everything. They had a VP$IP of over 80% in the 20 or so hands on them. I wanted to start building a pot right away for when I hit. SB was a total fish.

I really like that flop obviously. I was surprised though that the SB pushed all-in. I figured they had at least a straight draw, to go along with either a high spade or a pair.

A few hands earlier this player pushed me off of pocket Jacks. I raised PF with Jacks and the flop was all unders with two hearts. I bet 3/4 pot, and two people called along with this fish. The turn was an offsuit Ace, and they pushed all-in and I folded. I figured they had Ace-rag of hearts for a flush draw on the flop and hit their ace on the turn. The other person called with a straight draw and this fish showed 73o for middle pair and took it down with a pair of 7's.

So I called with my nut flush draw and over cards, figuring I was already ahead, or had quite a few outs. I was surprised to see they turned over the nut straight. I hit my flush and dragged a nice pot. A suckout? Sure, but I had a minimum of 9 outs twice.

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- Here is a fun hand where the villain got really pissed at me and started swearing in the chat afterwards.

Tribeca No-Limit Hold'em, $1 BB (5 handed)

UTG ($63.15)
CO ($23.67)
HERO ($94.50)
SB ($119.81)
BB ($48.00)

Preflop: HERO is Button with 9d, 7c.
2 folds, HERO raises to $4, SB calls $3.50, 1 fold.

Flop: ($9.00) 9c, 7h, Ac(2 players)
SB checks, HERO bets $6, SB calls $6.

Turn: ($21.00) 6d (2 players)
SB checks, HERO bets $14, SB calls $14.

River: ($49.00) 4s (2 players)
SB checks, HERO bets $30, SB calls $30.

Final Pot: $106.00

HERO shows 9d, 7c (Two Pair, Nines and Sevens)
SB Mucks
Outcome: HERO wins $106.00

- This guy got pissed. He was like "How can you play 97o, etc....". Well duh, it's folded to me on the button, I steal the blinds whenever I can, and that flop was perfect. Maybe try raising once in while dude. He probably had AQ or AJ. I would think AK would for sure re-raise somewhere. He played it pretty bad. If he re-raised PF I fold. If he re-raises on the flop or turn, I will probably push, so it makes it easier for him to get away from his hand.

That's it for now on the poker front. I am having a lot more fun playing poker the last couple days. I suppose that happens when you are winning.

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Last nights House episode was really good. Are you watching this show? If not, then you better start watching!! (Too bad the next episode isn't for another 3 weeks because of some show called American Singer Person or something like that). I really liked how they wrapped up the Tritter story line. And he had some really good, funny lines last night. Check it out if you can.

I don't think there is anything on tonight that we watch. Lost doesn't start up for another month or so. I have the movie Munich recorded on DVR from HBO, so I might watch that. I heard it was pretty good, but it is quite long, clocking in at just under 3 hours. Ooof, that's pretty long for a non-Lord of the Rings movie.

On another TV note, aren't the People's Choice Awards a joke? Come on! Robin Williams as funniest Male Star? "Click" as funniest movie!?!?! Where the hell is Borat and Sacha Baron Cohen? Female Star and Leading Man for movies was Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn for "The Breakup"?!?!? Did anyone see this movie? It was horrible. Cameron Diaz as Leading Lady? Has she been in any movies lately? Who gets to choose the nominees for this turdfest?

Hurray for SNG's! (And House is back on Fox tonight!)

When I was on my hot streak back in April/May, I mixed in quite a few SNGs with my cash game play. I think I need to start doing this again. I played a set of four SNGs yesterday with positive results. I played a $50, $25, $25 Speed, and a $20 Speed all at the same time over at Tribeca. I got 1st place in the $50, 2nd in the $25, and 3rd in the $25 Speed for a nice profit of just over $200. I played nice, patient poker, and it paid off. The Speed SNGs at Tribeca are crazy, as the blinds go up every 3 minutes, which translates to every 4 or 5 hands! Ouch!

There were quite a few fun hands for me during this run. I limped with pocket 7's along with about half the table. The flop was J77. I slowplayed and called a small bet on the flop. The turn was another J. Too bad the other player obviously didn't have a Jack, cause he folded to my turn raise. I won another big pot with AA when I raised PF and got three callers. Flop was A, J, 5 rainbow. Got all-in against two others and one showed A8 and the other showed QT. Lots of fun!

The strategy that I have been using at the Tribeca SNGs is a little bit different that what I would normally play. You can't really get people to fold, especially PF at Tribeca, so I have been doing more limping and seeing some cheap flops. The post-flop play is especially brutal, so I know that I can outplay them after the flop. Gutshots and middle pair are gold to most of the people.

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For Christmas, the one present that I asked for was a record player. I want to start collecting some old classic rock albums and listen to them in their original format. Ya, I know, pretty geeky, but I can't deny the inner nerd in me. My wife got me a pretty nice record player that has a built in amplifier and plugs straight into my receiver. I didn't have an existing record collection, so the only record I could try out on my new toy was a few cheap records she found at the salvation army. The only one that I was familiar with was a Blood, Sweat, and Tears album, with one song that I recognized from the radio.

Yesterday though, I picked up a couple old Beatles albums. Specifically the Red and Blue Albums, which are some Greatest Hits Double Albums. And WOW! They sound great! I'm really looking forward to scrounging around some garage sales and auctions this summer looking for classic rock LPs. Should be fun!

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We get our Cable service through Charter, and we have their DVR system plus all the HD channels. I love DVR. I can't believe we went this long without it. And it records in HD too, so you gotta love it. It makes watching TV so much easier.

The first shows to come back from the holiday break that we watch were My Name is Earl and The Office. We don't watch these two all of the time, just when there is nothing else to watch. So we watched last Thursday's episodes last night. Earl was pretty funny, but I think I am starting to get burnt out on it. It has its funny moments, but not as often as when the show first started. I'd have to give that episode a solid C.

I really enjoy The Office. Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight, is frickin hilarious. And of course Steve Carrell is really funny. I always get a lot of laughs from this show. My wife doesn't care much for it though.

One thing that I think needs to change with the show are all the inter-office romances. I mean come on! Pretty soon, every one there will be dating or seeing someone in the office. Dwight/Angela, Michael/Jan, Pam/Jim/Roy, Ryan/Kelly! Enough already! If Stanley and Phyllis hook up, I'm not watching this show any more. Oh, and the Andy character is kind of annoying.

Tonight House is back on! I'm looking forward to this episode, as I hear that they finally wrap up the Police story line. Both my wife and I really enjoy House. I even got her season 2 on DVD for Christmas as we didn't really start watching House until this season. With so many shows these days having a very continuous plot line, it is nice to have a few shows like this that you can watch and don't need to know what happened the week before. Of course, we do watch House every week, but other shows like this that we enjoy are the Law & Order shows, and the two lesser CSI's (Though we both hate Horatio Cane. Uggg, get rid of Caruso already!).

Cheers!

I Almost Quit Poker Last Friday

With the fun of poker fading away for me the last couple months, I haven't really been playing much. Lately, it has been only two or three sessions a week. And with the bad results I have been having, the time spent is getting smaller and smaller. Last week started off all too familiar. I played a total of 34 hands on New Years Day. I lost 3 buy-ins. Two were hands in which I flopped two pair after seeing a free flop from the blinds, then my donkish opponent calling my big bets all the way down to hit a flush in one hand, and a Open ended straight on the other. The third buy-in was with me holding Aces against a 80% VP$IP donk, and getting it all-in PF with him holding KJ. Flop was QJJ.

I didn't play again until Friday morning, and lost another buy-in in about 150 hands. That is when I decided that I would play that night one last time, too see if I could find any more fun in poker. I decided to go out with a poker filled night full of SNGs, Tournies and cash games. I hadn't played any SNGs or MTTs for a while, so maybe this would be fun.

The night started off good with my playing some of my regular cash games at 100NL Tribeca. I quickly made 2.5 buy-ins turning the day into a positive day. Then at 9PM, I joined a couple of the bigger tournaments going on. I joined the Nightly $25,000 guaranteed $24+2 at Full Tilt, a $15 MTT at Poker Stars with over 1000 people in it, and a 180 person $20 SNG at Stars.

The 180 person SNG didn't fair too well, and I busted out halfway through. But the other two went quite well, as I cashed in both. I went out in 88th place in the stars for a small profit of $15.

The Full Tilt MTT ended even better, with me finishing in 15th place for a nice profit of $320! By far my best MTT finish in a long time! It was actually a lot of fun. I was pretty happy with my play, though I did have quite a few suckouts on my way to 15th place. My AQ beat KK with 4 tables left. Earlier, when I was s short stack, I tripled up with KQ against JJ and AQ when a King hit the river. It was nice being on the giving end of some bad beats for once. I think the poker gods must have known I was thinking of quitting, so they gave me a few bones too keep me dragging along :)

I'm not too proud with the hand I went out on though. I had been getting played back at a few times with 3 tables left. I had folded AQ to an all-in Re-raise, and easily folded two other steal attempts to all-in re-raises. So with 15 left, I found KQ, and I hadn't played a hand in a while. I was in Early position, so I should have just mucked it, but I tried to steal the blinds, and again, someone came over the top putting me all-in. I should of folded, but I was getting 2-1 on my money. I called and they flipped up AQ. Ouch, Dominated! Wouldn't you know it, but a King came on the flop! But my joy only lasted two seconds, as the turn was an Ace, sealing my fate.

Another poker blogger ended up taking 2nd place in this thing. CrackinAces over at The SNG Machine. Though, he wins a tournament every week, so isn't a surprise to see him up there ;)

So I don't think I am going to quit poker at this time. I think I'll actually start playing some SNGs. The SNGs at Tribeca are full of crappy players. You'd think I could turn a profit playing those.

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I know I haven't been posting too much lately, mainly because I don't think I have too much to say about poker these days. So maybe I'll start talking about other things. I think I'll start talking about some of the TV shows I watch, among other things like music, movies, and sports. Turn this thing into a Poker & Entertainment blog.

Some of my favorite Shows are starting again real soon. 24, The Shield, Sopranos, etc... Should be fun.

Cheers!