Ouch, that hurt.

I think I just experienced the worst weekend of my life... poker-wise that is (otherwise it was pretty good). Things got ugly on Friday and failed to improve and it really hurt, especially since the month was going pretty well so far. Still, I was reading a post on Pokerology and ended up replying to it with the following. I really liked what I wrote and my mindset about this subject, so I thought I'd cross-post it here:

I don't know the exact numbers, but this weekend I think I played around 60 games and was ITM just twice, and one of those was for a 0% ROI since it was a satty SNG. That other cash was only $40 or something. Considering I probably spent about $1k in buy-ins, I wasn't too happy about it all.

So what do I do? I bitched, I moaned, I complained, I yelled various curses. I considered sacrificing one of my cats to avoid any further dismay. I did these things each time my KK got run over by A3o or my set was chased down by a straight or flush. I then got over it and moved on to the next hand... what else should I do?

I reviewed my play and found nothing unusual. Maybe I could have taken a better line in this hand to save me a bet here or something, but I made no vulgar mistakes, especially at push/fold moments. I even caught a few guys restealing/bluffing on me, but unfortunately they sucked out. Poker sucks when it happens that way, huh?

Based on the decisions I made I had a pretty good weekend actually. My game selection was excellent. I felt confident in my decisions, in fact I would say most of my hands were fairly straightforward, which is always welcome when playing 4-6 tables at once. As I sit here now... I really can't complain.

Times like these are when I really appreciate the fact that I have a bankroll management and cashout plan in place. I still "made" money due to the decent amount of volume I put in, and while my bankroll took a vicious slashing I know I have enough protection in place that I don't have to worry about moving down. If I were doing this for a living, I'd be able to handle stretches like this in stride... and look forward to the next session.

Who knows... the next session I just might run like the gods. You better hope its not against you.

Whoops

Seems I forgot about my blog again. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened since I was last here on the online felts though things have been going OK. I've been playing a number of the 54-man super-turbo SNGs on FTP lately and I have to admit I really like them. They are mostly push-fold games, they don't time a lot of time and most of the players suck at them. Pretty good combination.

The only exciting news I have is that I've been persuaded to do a couple of articles for Pokerology (meaning I'll actually be paid). Tim (who runs the site) really wanted to revamp his content and wanted me to contribute. I won't be doing anything about strategy, I'll tackle stuff like bankroll management, the cashout system I use, and maybe a tutorial on how to use Pokerstove.

We have talked about doing videos both for the two articles and also of me playing. I've done a few videos now and I have to admit its fun to do. Yeah, I curse a bit and I realize I'm no pro, but I think I make enough comments and I'm not afraid to say that I might not be doing the absolute right thing every time. I think doing that is a different approach and even trying to take time to actually go back and try to find the answers to my own questions might be something nobody else really does. I don't know... we'll play with the idea I guess.

Anyway, I hope to play some this weekend and continue plugging forward with my own game. We'll see!

Labor Day Weekend

I was able to sit down for an extra-long session of poker since it was a 3-day weekend due to Labor Day. As I usually do I played all of the Sunday mini-Majors like the Double Deuce on FTP and such. Cashed a couple of those and min-cashed a number of others throughtout the day but it wasn't until Monday morning that I didn't hit anything big.

I started on Friday night by playing for a few hours like I would do on a typical Tuesday/Thursday night gig. The night was successful since I was able to win a $21 super-turbo 54-man SNG for $388. Throw in a few other cashes and the night was a good one with a profit of $366 over 21 games.

Saturday I kept fairly tame, I got some games in but nothing heavy. Had a few cashes but nothing worthy of note though I did profit for the session (about $75 over 17 games).

Sunday was when the volume was coming. I started earlier than normal, around noon, so I could get in the $11 turno on Stars and a couple other things. I played well but ran worse for the next 12 hours or so and ended up down about $500 over the 51 games that started on Sunday proper. I scared a few things and had some chances but nothing really big came out of them.

As we rolled in Monday morning I guess things started going more my way. I took third in a $12 180-man SNG on Stars that I played almost on a whim (Stu talked me into it and he wasn't even talking to me, LOL). But the big score was on Ultimate Bet, where I was able to win the nightly (morningly?) $44 turbo MTT. That score was $1335 and some change. This thing doesn't even start until 2:30am so you can imagine how I was starting to feel when I won it at about 4:40am. Nice way to start your day, so to speak! With that, after playing a little more here and there on Monday I was $1250 to the good over 21 games on Labor Day.

Add it all up and the weekend tally was pretty solid... no complaints here. Since I didn't sleep at all on Monday you can imagine that I took Tuesday night off to try and catch up. I certainly had fun, like always, but its also much more fun when you managed to win.

This weekend, well, really starting tonight, I'm going to try to play a few of the mFTOPS events starting tonight with the 5x turbo 6-max shootout. I don't think I've ever cashed in on of these mFTOPS events before but I haven't played all that many of them either. Maybe this time I take a ride in one and find something big. I'll be sure to let you know in here if I do (or don't).

Yes, I know...

... that I suck at updating my blog.

Not much really happened after that nice win I had, in fact it all went to hell for the most part. I probably dropped about $500 or more in the last couple of weeks in fact. Got close a few times but just never quite winning the key hands. Sure, it happens, but when it comes in big bunches it can really test a guy.

In fact, I almost quit this past Saturday. I got in enough to earn my Iron Man points on FTP and about had enough of the beats. The sequence of events that caused these thoughts happened in about five minutes. First, I lost AA to K2h on the true bubble of the $44 turbo on Stars. I then took a viscious beat of some kind in another hand, and all the while I lost three hands as a favorite in a 90-man knockout SNG I was plaing to go from 2nd with 16 left to out 13th. I'm not ashamed to tell you that it hurt. Coupled with how things had gone the previous couple weeks and I was ready to hit the XBox.

As it turns out I collected my thoughts and continued my schedule, which was to play thru the 5pm slot of games I normally try. Among those was a $26 90-man turbo knockout that I had entered. As it ends up I chopped it for a win with a guy that was having a some internet issues (yeah, I'm a nice guy) and took about $536 from it. That reallllllly helped.

After dinner and a walk I played some more in the evening. I had a few decent games and made the money in a few, a couple on Cake and a couple others here and there. Around 1am I only had a single game left (the $22 turbo MTT on UB, which I min-cashed) so I elected to sign up for a $26 turbo Rush MTT to play along side of it. Rush is fast-paced so I liked the idea of keeping active while playing the other game. I ended up winning it for a slick $923.40! Not a bad cash for a game I joined at the spur-of-the-moment. See, you just never know.

The best thing about it was I decided to record my screen using Camtasia just before it started so I caught the entire MTT in a video. I'm going to let Tim at Pokerology cut it up to post on the site just for shits and giggles (and to learn from, I'm sure there is a few spots I can get something out of). It was more intended to follow the play in the $22 game but as it ends up its the $26 afterthought that made it a show. I'm looking forward to seeing it (and hearing it, probably rated 'R' for language).

Got one more play night tomorrow then we'll wrap up August. As of now I'm up a little over $600 for the month (thanks to this weekend) and here is hoping I might add to that total tonight at the home game and/or on FTP tomorrow. Go me.

Found A Big Win, Yay!

This weekend I played a bunch and Sunday afternoon I finally hit a big score by chopping a $44 Rush Turbo MTT. I really like these Rush tournaments but because of how fast they can be I don't like to have more than one going at a time. Still, I ended up chopping as the chip leader for a shade over $1157.

Here is the final hand that was played in that game. I just wanted to bring this up for a little discussion:

FullTiltPoker Game #22933094581: $40 + $4 Rush Tournament (176978857), Table 9 - 5,000/10,000 Ante 1,000 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:32:44 ET - 2010/08/08

Seat 2: gohockey12 (192,738)
Seat 5: Timitriff (69,164)
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (83,098)
gohockey12 antes 1,000
Timitriff antes 1,000
Rycky4Poker antes 1,000
Timitriff posts the small blind of 5,000
Rycky4Poker posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rycky4Poker [As Qd]
Rycky4Poker: anyones game
gohockey12 raises to 40,000
Timitriff raises to 68,164, and is all in
Rycky4Poker has 15 seconds left to act
Rycky4Poker raises to 82,098, and is all in
gohockey12 folds
Rycky4Poker shows [As Qd]
Timitriff shows [Ac Ts]
Uncalled bet of 13,934 returned to Rycky4Poker
*** FLOP *** [5s 8d Jc]
*** TURN *** [5s 8d Jc] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5s 8d Jc Kh] [Th]
Rycky4Poker shows a straight, Ace high
Timitriff shows a pair of Tens
Rycky4Poker wins the pot (179,328) with a straight, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 37s
Total pot 179,328 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 8d Jc Kh Th]
Seat 2: gohockey12 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Timitriff (small blind) showed [Ac Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (big blind) showed [As Qd] and won (179,328) with a straight, Ace high

========================

I cross-posted this at www.pokerology.com as well.

1. The chip-leader had been fairly active throughout the final table as he has had a considerable edge for some time. He was raising often but only shown reasonable hands when called, including A9 that fell to my AJ reshove earlier. Usually he went 3x but notice here he made it 4x.

2. Considering stack sizes I considered the 4x bet a shove. When the SB elected to shove in as well I had a bit of a problem. At first glance AQo seems plenty strong enough but I wasn't quite sure ICM-wise. Two factors that made me call were these. First, the fact that I did have the SB covered did help, plus while he had been fairly tight I felt I did have his range beat. Second, since the CL had been opening often I figured his range was pretty wide... maybe not as wide as it should be but still enough that AQo is ahead enough to go.

3. The fact that the chip leader actually folded here tells us a couple things: Some people just don't understand odds/are bad at math and that you ALWAYS have fold equity. Even in a spot like this, where all indications were telling me that this guy had an idea of what he was doing, you just NEVER know.

Sure, he likely would have lost the hand but if he was gonna play he should have shoved. With effective stacks at 9BBs I see no reason to 4x/fold 3-handed with over half the chips in play. As it ends up he likely did save himself some cash since we chopped, but if I had knocked him down under 10BBs I might have been much less inclined to do it, despite my headache and general lack of sleep. I was still in the moment and playing sharp so there is argument that I should have taken my chances after seeing this.... but something told me to take the safe route when the deal page came up, LOL.

I checked the hand at holdemresources and if this guy was playing "perfectly" we would be shoving 60% of his hands. Considering that I could have overcalled decently wide myself (66+ A9s+ ATo+ KJs+). Even thinking he was wide I know its likely not 60%... but still enough that AQo easily plays here. I'd have folded 66-88, A9s, ATo, and the KX hands though... maybe even ATs and AJo.

I wish he had called though. :)

Let's Play A Hand

I haven't done this in a while, so lets play! I'll cross post this on Pokerology also and use the replayer for the hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #22520112225: $24 + $2 Rush Tournament (173904071), Table 21 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:10:48 ET - 2010/07/22
Seat 1: Michael Craig (8,380)
Seat 2: Hero (3,010)
Seat 3: Junior Augusto (5,200)
Seat 4: TourneRunr (5,750)
Seat 5: ballajr (3,680)
Seat 6: muligatani (1,560)
Seat 7: fengschu (4,990)
Seat 8: jba1986 (3,370)
Seat 9: pokerehdingys (2,420)
Hero posts the small blind of 30
Junior Augusto posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9d 9c]
TourneRunr folds
ballajr folds
muligatani has 8 seconds left to act
muligatani folds
fengschu folds
jba1986 raises to 210
pokerehdingys folds
Michael Craig folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 600
Junior Augusto folds
jba1986 has 15 seconds left to act
jba1986 raises to 3,370, and is all in
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero folds
Uncalled bet of 2,770 returned to jba1986
jba1986 mucks
jba1986 wins the pot (1,260)

OK, as you see I ended up making a very rare 3-bet/fold move in this Rush MTT. This is how I feel about how it went down.

First, the villain pot-raises from the hijack to 210. Since its a Rush game, I have no read on the raise size. Often its a strong hand but not an absolute monster like AA. Sometimes players just hit the pot button every time they raise. We don't know.

I have 99 in the SB and elect to reraise to 600. To be honest, I'm just now noticing that I actually bet a little less than I usually would OOP... I would have thought I'd go 650-700 here normally. Regardless, I'm always reraising 99 against a hijack raise as a standard move and 600 is likely enough to get the message across.

Ah, but now he shoves all-in! Ooops. Now what? As you saw, I elected to fold since I felt 99 wouldn't win often enough against a 4-bet/shove range. I would need to win about 40% of the time here given the pot odds presented (pot was 3670, 2410 to call if I see it right) and unless this guy has 88 or AJ in his shove range, I don't have it. I don't think he does often enough at all, so I fold.

What's the problem you ask? I'm wondering if I just turned my hand into a bluff. If I'm going to be 3-bet folding in this spot do my cards really matter that much? I don't think so. I could have taken a hand outside of my reraising/calling range with a little flexability like T9o and done the same thing.

So what could I have done better here? Well, it seems I didn't plan ahead enough. Granted, its a Rush MTT and it wasn't the only game I was playing at the time, but I do look at stacks sizes. I should have seen that by reraising here I was leaving him a great spot to reshove on me as a re-resteal. Now this guy might not be able to pull that off but the spot is still going to give me fits (obviously).

This leaves me to believe that due to the stack sizes involved here, reraise/fold is just not smart here. That leaves 4 other options: fold, shove, call, or 3-bet/call a shove. We are just too strong to fold, that's out. Shove, while perhaps Nash-friendly and/or coupled with fold equity a potentially viable play, seems really spewy this deep... you tell me. So that leaves call and 3-bet/call.

Calling is reasonable to me. Generally I'll be playing fit or fold with my 99 like I would have with 33, either I hit a set or I'm done with the hand. The odds are there to set-mine so that's not an issue. I think this is the best option unless I decide that 99 is too strong to fold to that 3-bet, which leads us to that last option. Is 99 strong enough to go all the way here?

I'm thinking a stock 4-bet/shove range might be something like TT+/AK, but I gotta wonder if other hands just don't show up enough here to make 99 a call. Are guys really coming over the top of me with 66? AJ? KQs? Are they actually tighter (JJ+) or a combination of this? How wide does he think I am here? That would change his range also. I could be going 77+/AJ+ here... what would he go with against that type of range? Is 99 or AQ in there? If so, I still think I'm behind... but is bullshit in his range enough to change that?

If we had 1500 here I'd shove easily and just take my chances. Being this deep changes things. What do you think?

Bye July

I see I've been doing real well updating the blog.

The past two weeks haven't been the best but I feel I'm still playing well. Every time I check a spot in hindsight I can very rarely find anything I could have done differently. I'm happy to see that I still don't let all the coolers and the bad beats affect the way I go about my business.

I've been close to a few things lately. I've made the final of the $22 turbo on Full Tilt twice in the last couple days. I almost won a small turbo MTT on UB yesterday and I've been picking up some other deeper runs along the way. I just haven't won that key hand to get into the big money in a few weeks. I'll keep trying.

Outside of that, not much happened. Oh, I did pick up a 7-9 split bowling on Friday... that was very cool. :)