Takin down the Hoy

Got back from a mini-vacation this weekend to the Wisconsin Dells, and decided to play a little poker Monday night. If I happen to be playing tournaments, and there is a blogger tourney going on, I will usually play it. I haven't played in Hoyazo's "Monday's at the Hoy" very often, but it is my favorite blogger tourney, mainly due to the higher buy-in.

27 people entered, and I took home first place



I think this may be my first MTT win ever. Though, I guess I have won some smaller 45 person SNGs when I was a Sit-n-go player over a year ago. But that doesn't really count. I did have a 4-way chop in a $20 180 person Stars MTT last year. Other than that, this is my first outright win. Amazing, huh? Of course, I am more of a cash game player, and maybe get in 5-10 tournaments a month.

----------------------------------

August is winding down, and I am headed for another $2,000 month, thanks to my nice run at 100NL the last week or so. I've only slightly won the past couple days though. It would have been more, but there were a couple good two outers against me for stacks on the weekend. On my birthday no less! Hey, my hands are supposed to hold up on my birthday!! Didn't Full Tilt get the memo?

And for total money made in my online poker career, I am about to break the 23 G's mark.


----------------------------------

I started watching The Wire the past couple weeks. I purchased Season 1 last Christmas, and I am just not getting around to watching it. I'm only through the first three episodes, but I am already hooked. Awesome show. It tanks right up there with The Shield for best TV series ever. Check it out if you haven't yet.

Cheers!

Heater

Nothing like going on a 19 buy-in winning streak to dig myself out of the red, right?

Last Friday, I decided to move back down to 100NL for a little while (with maybe one or two 200NL tables open if there were any juicy tables). I did this because I feel a lot more comfortable and a needed a confidence booster. Plus, I think I can play more tables down here at the same time.

To say things are going well at 100NL is an understatement.

Here are the stats and graphs from Last Friday until today.



52 Big Blinds per 100 sustainable?

I read a post a couple days ago over at cmitch's blog about three betting and 4-bet bluffing

He had a link to a blog post by CTS from almost a year ago where he says, "Whenever I was 3-bet by someone who I perceived to be a competent player capable of 3-betting me light I would go ahead and shove all-in with aces, kings, and ace-rag (suited or unsuited) assuming we had around 100BB stacks."

I've been playing a lot looser lately (around 24.5/17.5) and thus have been 3-bet a lot more by the competent players, so I decided to give this 4-bet shoving a try.

The past 3 days I've done this 8 times. I got called once, and they folded the other 7 times!

The one where I got called was kinda strange I guess. It was Blind on Blind and he just completed his blind (His stats were 32/3). I raised with A9o, and he 3-bet, and then I pushed. He called and had KK. I flopped an ace and won the pot.

The other 7:
- I bet AJo UTG. 3-bet by a 22/19. He folds to my push
- I bet A7s OTB. 3-bet by a 19/15. He folds to my push
- I bet AQo UTG. 3-bet by a 19/11. He folds to my push
- I bet AKo OTB. 3-bet by a 37/18. He folds to my push
- I bet A9o UTG. 3-bet by a 20/17. He folds to my push

Other 4 bet pushes with non Ax hands
- I bet TT in MP. 3-bet by a 24/20. He folds to my push
- I bet QJs in MP. 3-bet by a 20/15. He folds to my push (He had been 3-betting me very light, so I loosened up, heh)

Not too shabby if you ask me

-----------------------------

The wife and I and some friends booked a trip to Vegas for September. This will be our first time in Vegas. I'm pretty excited. I probably won't be able to get in too much poker, but I do plan on taking a decent amount of cash and try my luck at the 1/2 NL games there.

I'm a newb when it comes to live games. I've played a decent amount of home games, but the only other time I've played live at a casino was one of Canterbury Downs NL events last October ($200 buy-in).

It should be interesting.

Cheers!

It's bad Beat Thursday!

[Begin Rant/Bad Beats]

I played a bunch of poker last night. Got in quite a few tournaments along with regular cash games. I wish I wouldn't have played.

I played 7 MTTs and didn't cash in any. I played 1 SNG and got 3rd after having 60% of the chips when it got down to 3. And the half stack donks at the cash games consistently bad beated me to death.

--------- The awesome cash game hands ---------

5 outer on river after all the money gets in on the turn
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1376981

2 outer on the river
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1376984

5 outer on turn after calling PSB with 2nd pair 2nd kicker
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1376987

2 outer on river after getting all the money in
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1376989

--------- Hands from MTTs ----------------

PS $15+15.50: I'm down to 10 big blinds. Two limpers and I push K9s from the button. 2nd limper calls with QTo and I lose.

PS $20+2.00 180 Person MTT: I have only 7 BBs left, so I am short. I flop a set with JJ, but I lose to a two outer. Would have tripled up (Ya, I was behind Pre-flop)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377018

PS $50+5: I'm getting kinda short. QQ vs 88 all-in PF against someone with just a little bit less chips than me. 8 on the turn. I win that and I'm back above average

FT $24+2 26k guar: Villain calls basically all-in on flop with a gutshot (Actually had his pair outs, but no way he could have counted on those). River fills his gutshot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377041

FT $10 Rebuy 15k guar: I sucked during the rebuy period, and was just around average after the rebuy period. Then I went on a rush and made it into the top 10 in chips. Biggest hand being me flopping a straight and someone with 50 BBs or so not being able to let go of his aces.

Then I ran into Aces again where he flopped a set and I had two pair. I called a raise in position with a suited connector. Flopped a flush draw and a pair. Called a bet. Turned two pair. We got it all-in and I saw his top set. River was a blank.

Then I ran KK into AA later on. He flopped a set and rivered quads. lol

Times I got AA in that MTT: 0. Times I got KK: 1

$30 SNG: And then finally, I decided to play a SNG. I haven't played a single table SNG for a long time. Made it into the money and then this hand happens. blah.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377067



So there you have. A night truly devoid of any luck. None whatsoever.




[End Rant/Bad Beats]

Wacky Weekend

Got in a good number of hands this weekend but didn't win much money though. I'm still ahead for the month, but not much.

Down! Up! Down! Up! Down! Up!

Since I haven't posted any bad beat stories in a while, here are my favorite from the weekend:

I suck at flopping flushes

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1366486

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1366493


Nice call with A7 there bud

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1366500


And lets end it on a good note. My biggest hand of the weekend

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1366521


Here is the graph for the month so far. lol



Cheers!

July Results

July was a pretty average in terms of BB/100. I'm really happy with the end dollar amount, since it is right up there with my best months. But I think I could have done a lot better. I actually think I ran kind of cold. I was dealt AA only 43 times all month (13,782/221 = 63). That is a huge difference. Next lowest pocket pair was JJ, and got dealt that 53 times. Highest was pocket deuces at 75 times. Yipee.

557 pocket pairs saw a flop, and I flopped sets 68 times. That is right at average.

KK vs AA all-in PF 4 times, and obviously lost all 4. Yuck.


NL Cash Games: +1833.68

• 100NL 6 max: $872.13 -- 7,839 hands
• 200NL 6 max: $961.55 -- 5,943 hands

Tournaments: -$163.00

June Rakeback: +313.oo

Grand Total: +1983.68


(Note: Stats listed in BB/100, not ptbb/100)

Pokertracker says I played 43 hours, so that equates to around $48 an hour.

I am now completely comfortable at 200NL, and plan on playing the majority of my hands at this level. There are still a ton of donks at this level, so no worries there.

Cheers!