7/4/05

This is where I’ll share all my high points, low points, best hands, bad beats, suck outs, etc. Then you, too, can track how much I am winning. I don’t plan on playing too much poker for a while (it’s the summer, man) so I’ll start with historical suckouts.

7/6/05

The 4 Day Tilt

This put me on tilt for 4 days.  It was the first time I was knocked out of a tournament in 30 minutes.

I hadn't won a pot yet this night. So I'm down to 8000 something (out of the starting 10,000).

I'm one seat to the right of the dealer with a full 10 person table. I look down and see pocket rockets, AcAs.

The player under the gun (first to act) raises to 2x the big blind.  That's fine, I'll be re-raising.  Another early position (EP) player calls and a mid-position (MP) player calls. I re-raise.  All 3 call. All 3?

The flop comes 10h6h3h.  One thing pocket aces doesn't want to see is a flushed flop.  I do my best to read the players and see if anyone already has their flush. (In the end, at least my read was right.)  I'm last to act and I don't even remember how the others bet because I knew I was going to go all in.  UTG folds, but both the other EP player and the MP player call. They have all the rest of the hearts?  After the turn the EP player puts the MP all in.  After much pondering, he calls.  It's time to flip the cards.  I look around to see where the hearts are.  There isn't a freakin' heart on the table?!   What were these guys calling on? EP has QsQc. Him I kind of understand.  MP has 10c6c? He called a 4xBB bet before the flop with 10c6c? (and of course flops 2 pair)  He says the only reason he called was because "they were suited".

I realized at this moment that not every guy who was gunned down in the old west while playing cards was gunned down for cheating. If this was the old west, I would have shot this guy.

Up next - the second time I was knocked out of a tournament in 30 minutes. (Good thing these were all free rolls.)

July 9,2005

I broke down.  After reading updates form the WSOP I was stoked and fired up Pokerroom and hopped on a $5 sit and go.  I had my first 1st place finish in quite a while.  It seemed for the first time in a while the clarity was there for me.  I thought that recently I may have been outthinking myself, but today everything was very clear. My ability to read others accurately and keep them dumbfounded was back.

There was some typical wild play at the start so I laid low and let them knock each other out.  That allows at least one of them to build up a nice stack of chips but that’s OK. That’s more for me to win later. : )  The key hand for me was when we were down to 6-8 players and I guess someone thought I was bluffing.  I raised before the flop with AQo.  I had one caller. The flop came Qxx.  I bet the size of the pot.  The other player raised. ??? There’s no way he has AA, KK, or QQ.  So unless he hit a set with a mid-low pocket pair he doesn’t have me. And if he did have a set I’m pretty sure he would only have called.  So I put him all in (I would have had about $700 if he called and I lost). He called. We flip over and he didn’t have a Q or any pocket pair!?  Being online things move pretty quick at this point so I may have missed something because I never did figure what he was basing his betting or his call on. He may have paired one of the lower cards but I missed it if that was the case.  The cards were being dealt as I was trying to look for any straight possibilities for him but they declared me the winner and put up the next hand before I could figure it out. I’m not that stupid, so I’m kind of thinking he was.

While I had only been breaking even for the last few months, I realized that a main reason for that was that I had been finishing in the money in some tournaments, but not taking any firsts.  So when we got down to 3 players (in the money in a sit-and-go), I decided I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than 1st.  It’s easy to have that attitude when you’re the chip leader.  : )

When it was down to 2 players there was a lot of ebb and flow. It started with me having a 2 to 1 chip advantage. And he started playing with a consistent aggressive pre-flop attack. But I let him know I wasn’t going to have any of that.  I had confidence in my post flop play and wasn’t going to let the whim of how the cards fall determine this title. He grabbed a bunch of blinds with this attack and pretty much pulled even. But then I got some cards, came over the top,  he followed a while, but lost, and I was back to a 2 to 1 chip lead. When he saw he wasn’t getting anywhere with the pre-flop aggression tactic, he slowed down and let some flops happen. We still had these swings where I am 2 to 1, then he’s 4 to 1 (he sucked out on an all-in call I put him in by hitting a straight on the river), then I’m 4 to 1, etc. I think my win was a combination of the right cards at the right time and him being tired/frustrated. His early heads-up aggression was an indicator that he wanted to end things quickly, win or lose. I was in one of my 4 to 1 chip leads when I got my unfair (for him) timing of another good hand.  Using a tennis analogy, it’s like breaking serve. He went ahead and called my all-in bet. 1st was all mine.  : )

July 12, 2005

I played in the new season of Badger Poker’s “kick off” last night. How could I pass that up?  The main event didn’t go real well. I won my only pot 35 minutes in.  I could have been knocked out earlier.  I made a real good lay down.  I had KcJc. The guy to my right raised 4xBB, I called, and 2 guys in positions behind us call.  This is Badger Poker. The flop comes Kxx.  The guy to my right bets half the pot. Between his raise before the flop and the 2 callers, I don’t think my KJ is good enough. I fold.  He had big slick (AK).  Saved myself quite a few chips there.  It didn’t help.

The positive - I was knocked out early enough to get into the second chance tourney. Now, of course, I start seeing some aces in my hole cards. I make my plays and things progressed as I would expect.  After some discussion about the wild play at Badger a guy calls my re-raise while chasing a straight. He of course hits on the river.  It didn’t cripple me too much, but the gent took exception when I commented to one of my discussion mates “just like we were talking about.”  I did go on to finish second, ahead of him, so I guess I proved my point.

When we were knocked down to the final table, I was able to build up my chip stack because everyone kept trying to bluff me and I wasn’t falling for it, and calling my bluffs when I wasn’t bluffing.  Only once did I semi-bluff, and everyone folded on that hand.  ??? I guess I gained a reputation as an aggressive raiser. The eventual winner lamented on one hand when I didn’t raise after he folded. He wanted to play his hand but assumed I was going to raise, so he was disheartened when I didn’t. And another guy made a bet of 5000, so when I raised to 10,000 he says “I knew you were going to do that, I should have just bet 10,000.”  I like it when I frustrate the other players. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. : )  Anyway, I got 2 points and a key chain for my efforts.  : ) I’ll add more to this later when I have some more time.