I owe you all a summary from the night of hell a week ago. I played an afternoon session while the kids were asleep, and then the evening session. Here it is:
afternoon:
$33+1.5 HU: 1/3 ($72)
evening/early morning:
$35+3 FT: 0/0/0/1 ($38)
$55+5 FT: 0/0/1/6 ($321)
$30+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($31.50)
$33+1.5 HU: 1/2 ($37.50)
$50+2.5 HU: 0/1 ($105)
$55+2.5 HU: 3/3 ($15)
bonus: $120
Total loss that day ($500)
I took a break until Thursday. Before I started, I resolved one thing: Limit my sessions. 4 games max per night except if I cash in the 4. In that case, I may continue playing until I do not cash. I'm on the fence with regards to HU re-matches, which I didn't consider until game 4 was a rematch (I lost the first), then won the second. I accepted the third game (second rematch) for a total of 5 games played. I probably should not allow it in the future, and am trying to convince myself about that right now. There's no reason for me to be playing more than that on any given night unless things are rolling very well.
I booked a small loss Thursday of ($52), but felt much more in control.
$55+2.5 HU: 0/1 ($57.50)
$22+1 HU: 0/1 ($23)
$33+1.5 HU : 2/1 $28.50
Friday I came back, played a single $55+5 FT and won for a $187.50 win.
Saturday night I was supposed to play some live with friends, after a corn roast, but the weather here was crap, the corn roast was canceled and the poker game fell through. So I played online instead:
$22+1 HU: 1/0 $21
$25+2 FT: 0/0/1/0 $18
$35+3 FT: 1/0/0/0 $119.50
$55+2.5 HU: 0/1 ($57.50)
I played those in that sequence as well. Had I won the fourth, I would've played another. So I recovered from my week of hell, with an above average week by my standards of a profit of $236.50.
I'm taking tonight off, mainly to release this post. Gonna play some video games, and get to bed early.
Good night all.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Abandonning the race
After last night's session, I am officially pulling myself out of the race to 10k, because last night, I lost control.
Poker is a volatile game, there will be good nights amd there will be bad nights. Last night was really bad, and rather than book a small loss and move on, I got stuck and continued to play and play and play losing $448. That gave me a $933 loss on the week. The whole point of playing the SNGs was that it was supposed to help me eliminate those sessions from my game. In a cash game, if a bad river hits, you can get stuck rebuying over and over again. If the cards continue to go against you, you can drop a lot. Apparently, I can still let that happen for SNGs too. I played 20 games, over 4 to 5 hours, either FT or HU and placed only 5 times. I came in 4th or 5th 5 times in FT games, usually bubbling out because of a bad card. I'd be in the lead, or about to split and the river would hit and either save my opponent or cripple me. It got to me and I kept forcing.
And to put in perspective how bad it was, I was able to play 7 of those matched HU against opponents I wanted in vendo and talisain51, and went 2/5 against them. It was sick how bad the cards went against me. After losing on a variety of suck outs, I then let my game degrade to the point I was pushing with randomness even in positions I knew I was probably beat.
I'll post the full summary of the matches another day. For now, I needed to clear my mind, get it out, and get ready for the week. I'll break from poker of a few days and re-group. When I come back, it'll be for the love of the game, no longer to achieve some specific monetary target.
Poker is a volatile game, there will be good nights amd there will be bad nights. Last night was really bad, and rather than book a small loss and move on, I got stuck and continued to play and play and play losing $448. That gave me a $933 loss on the week. The whole point of playing the SNGs was that it was supposed to help me eliminate those sessions from my game. In a cash game, if a bad river hits, you can get stuck rebuying over and over again. If the cards continue to go against you, you can drop a lot. Apparently, I can still let that happen for SNGs too. I played 20 games, over 4 to 5 hours, either FT or HU and placed only 5 times. I came in 4th or 5th 5 times in FT games, usually bubbling out because of a bad card. I'd be in the lead, or about to split and the river would hit and either save my opponent or cripple me. It got to me and I kept forcing.
And to put in perspective how bad it was, I was able to play 7 of those matched HU against opponents I wanted in vendo and talisain51, and went 2/5 against them. It was sick how bad the cards went against me. After losing on a variety of suck outs, I then let my game degrade to the point I was pushing with randomness even in positions I knew I was probably beat.
I'll post the full summary of the matches another day. For now, I needed to clear my mind, get it out, and get ready for the week. I'll break from poker of a few days and re-group. When I come back, it'll be for the love of the game, no longer to achieve some specific monetary target.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Stuck to the plan, but...
Still lost $167. I'm only posting now since I played for 3 hours on Thursday night, was too tired to post, then had to work late on Friday. The summary is: I tried too hard to beat tatta.
I think he's beatable, but I think I call too many re-raises loose in the hopes of trapping him with a big hand. It will work, but my range might be too wide, so I'm folding the flop too often cause I haven't hit. Tighten up that range a little, and I think I can get from -EV to +EV, or maybe I'm just deluding myself. Maybe he's that good of a player. We aren't too far off. I've played him HU 28 times and I think I'm 13/15 . I really need to focus on people I can beat consistently. The problem is, I haven't seen vendo in weeks, and talisain51 is there less often and got crazy lucky the last 2 times I played him (not that that should matter, but it makes me bitter). That leaves me to play random players by sitting at the HU table first. I'm 3/5 in the last 3 sessions with that approach. What I fear with doing that is if I find someone I can beat, they ain't going to sit at my table anymore.
Ok, here's the official summary of Thursday:
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 3/4 ($72.50)
$55+5 FT: 0/0/0/1 ($60)
Total: ($167)
Tonight, things were less bad luck, but I couldn't string together any wins. L/W/L/W/L.
$33+1.5 HU: 1/0 $31.50
$55+2.5 HU: 3/4 ($62.50)
$35+3 FT: 0/0/0/1 ($38)
Total: ($69)
One thing I find weird about Saturday nights is that it seems like the tables are more dead. I'm always surprised how few tables are running.
Oh well... Time for bed. If I sleep well tonight, I'll play again tomorrow.
I think he's beatable, but I think I call too many re-raises loose in the hopes of trapping him with a big hand. It will work, but my range might be too wide, so I'm folding the flop too often cause I haven't hit. Tighten up that range a little, and I think I can get from -EV to +EV, or maybe I'm just deluding myself. Maybe he's that good of a player. We aren't too far off. I've played him HU 28 times and I think I'm 13/15 . I really need to focus on people I can beat consistently. The problem is, I haven't seen vendo in weeks, and talisain51 is there less often and got crazy lucky the last 2 times I played him (not that that should matter, but it makes me bitter). That leaves me to play random players by sitting at the HU table first. I'm 3/5 in the last 3 sessions with that approach. What I fear with doing that is if I find someone I can beat, they ain't going to sit at my table anymore.
Ok, here's the official summary of Thursday:
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 3/4 ($72.50)
$55+5 FT: 0/0/0/1 ($60)
Total: ($167)
Tonight, things were less bad luck, but I couldn't string together any wins. L/W/L/W/L.
$33+1.5 HU: 1/0 $31.50
$55+2.5 HU: 3/4 ($62.50)
$35+3 FT: 0/0/0/1 ($38)
Total: ($69)
One thing I find weird about Saturday nights is that it seems like the tables are more dead. I'm always surprised how few tables are running.
Oh well... Time for bed. If I sleep well tonight, I'll play again tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The curse of the gloat
I lost $335.50 tonight after my nice gloat post last night. I worry about losing when I'm winning, but I sure don't worry about losing when I'm already losing. Fuck!
The worst is that I lost 2 $55+2.5 sessions to talisain51 on sick rivers that stole the pots from me. Damn I'm pissed. 2 4th place finishes in the $55+5FT tournies too. ARGH!! The first one of those, I had a good chance to place, the second one I really shouldn't have gotten that far, but after getting lucky a few times, I had another river kill me on the bubble.
$33+3 FT: 0/1/0/0 $56.50
$55+5FT: 0/0/0/3 ($180)
$33+1.5: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5: 1/4 ($177.50)
Regroup tomorrow, and play on Thursday. That's the plan, let's see if I can stick to it.
The worst is that I lost 2 $55+2.5 sessions to talisain51 on sick rivers that stole the pots from me. Damn I'm pissed. 2 4th place finishes in the $55+5FT tournies too. ARGH!! The first one of those, I had a good chance to place, the second one I really shouldn't have gotten that far, but after getting lucky a few times, I had another river kill me on the bubble.
$33+3 FT: 0/1/0/0 $56.50
$55+5FT: 0/0/0/3 ($180)
$33+1.5: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5: 1/4 ($177.50)
Regroup tomorrow, and play on Thursday. That's the plan, let's see if I can stick to it.
Monday, August 17, 2009
3 for 3
3 $55+2.5 HU matches, 3/0 for $157.50. I've had a few 2 for 2 sessions, but no 3 for 3 before, so that feels good.
The problem I have is, once I start getting on a streak like that, I get distracted and wonder when I should quit rather than focus on playing well and allowing my play to dictate when to quit. It's that feeling of "Just book the win" that I need to suppress.
Last week kicked ass. Booked a $382 win in 4 sessions (Really 3 1/2 since the last session was only 1 HU match that I won). What was neat is that every day I booked a win. I now have a 7 session +ve streak going.
Summary of last week:
$33+5 FT: 1/0/1/0 $144.50
$55+5 FT: 2/0/0/1 $315.00
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 2/4 ($125.00)
Remember at the end of July when I was contemplating reducing my FT games to focus on HU if my FT results didn't improve, well I think it's clear I have been able to improve the results, and they are starting to average back to where I thought they would be. I just need to keep playing well and avoiding large downswing sessions. One will come if I'm not careful.
The problem I have is, once I start getting on a streak like that, I get distracted and wonder when I should quit rather than focus on playing well and allowing my play to dictate when to quit. It's that feeling of "Just book the win" that I need to suppress.
Last week kicked ass. Booked a $382 win in 4 sessions (Really 3 1/2 since the last session was only 1 HU match that I won). What was neat is that every day I booked a win. I now have a 7 session +ve streak going.
Summary of last week:
$33+5 FT: 1/0/1/0 $144.50
$55+5 FT: 2/0/0/1 $315.00
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 2/4 ($125.00)
Remember at the end of July when I was contemplating reducing my FT games to focus on HU if my FT results didn't improve, well I think it's clear I have been able to improve the results, and they are starting to average back to where I thought they would be. I just need to keep playing well and avoiding large downswing sessions. One will come if I'm not careful.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Sabotage
I think I sabotaged myself tonight. $20 home game SNG, 15 players, got knocked out in 13th place. Tomorrow, I have a shit load of things to do, and to be honest, was not looking forward to doing them on 2 hours of sleep.
I had a ton of playable hands, suited connectors and suited 1 gappers, with a bunch of passive players, thereby giving me the right odds to limp and see flops. But I misplayed my flops being too passive or too aggressive depending on my opponent. Then, my only good hand of the night was KK, re-raised PF to isolate, but the flop was AJJ, check/check, turn 7, and I bet and was check-raised, I'm pretty sure I'm beat. I may not have been as my opponent has been known to overplay hands, but I can't call there as I'm sure my EV is -ve.
Good luck to the eventual winner. On a side note, I played another $55+2.5 last night and beat tatta. We are even over 22 games, but I've beat him 2/1 on the $33+1.5 and 9/10 on the $55+2.5, so I'm down against him, but I think he's also down against me, since the fees are eating us up as we play so close. At least I can rationalize those fees are going towards the bonus.
Now it's time for 5.5 hours of sleep. GN all.
I had a ton of playable hands, suited connectors and suited 1 gappers, with a bunch of passive players, thereby giving me the right odds to limp and see flops. But I misplayed my flops being too passive or too aggressive depending on my opponent. Then, my only good hand of the night was KK, re-raised PF to isolate, but the flop was AJJ, check/check, turn 7, and I bet and was check-raised, I'm pretty sure I'm beat. I may not have been as my opponent has been known to overplay hands, but I can't call there as I'm sure my EV is -ve.
Good luck to the eventual winner. On a side note, I played another $55+2.5 last night and beat tatta. We are even over 22 games, but I've beat him 2/1 on the $33+1.5 and 9/10 on the $55+2.5, so I'm down against him, but I think he's also down against me, since the fees are eating us up as we play so close. At least I can rationalize those fees are going towards the bonus.
Now it's time for 5.5 hours of sleep. GN all.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
So much for waiting until Friday
So I played tonight after baseball. We lost the game 6-4, and I went 0/2, with a walk. IOW, a pretty shitty game. After doing some chores, I played some poker.
Started out on the $55+2.5 tables, and lost 2 games to tatta. A very decent player, with whom I'm break even with in general, but am now down 2 games too, after an 0/2 session against him. Since there were no others waiting for HU matches, I saw a $55+5 FT almost full, so I signed up and decided to sign up for the next $35+3 tourney as well, hoping it would start 10 minutes after the first. Turns out, it started something like 2 minutes after the first.
Most of the time, I'd prefer not to have 2 FT tables running simultaneously around the same blind levels. The rationale being that when it gets shorthanded (SH), I like/need to focus on whether the players can be run over or not. That's the critical time, as you can accumulate a ton of chips by raising incessantly to someone who won't call without a solid quality hand. If you can have 2 of those opponents to your left, you are in SNG heaven.
As it was, I played pretty good, except for a backfired bluff early in the $55+5 game. I recovered quickly with a double up to return to my starting stack. It was odd today in that both games had 7+ people in the late blind rounds. This made for a lot of short stack (SS) pushing as many chips into the middle pre-flop. I had managed to get some chips on both tables early in the rounds so I didn't have to get involved unless necessary.
I caught some cards at the end, which is a must HU with the blinds excessively high, and won both tourney's. That's the first double 1st I've made thus far. Came close a week ago when I went 1st and 3rd.
We'll see about tomorrow, since it's pretty late and I'm bound to be exhausted. However, the pull of the game is always strong, so hopefully I have enough control to say no if I'm too tired.
$55+2.5 HU: 0/2 ($115.00)
$35+3 FT: 1/0/0/0
$55+5 FT: 1/0/0/0
Started out on the $55+2.5 tables, and lost 2 games to tatta. A very decent player, with whom I'm break even with in general, but am now down 2 games too, after an 0/2 session against him. Since there were no others waiting for HU matches, I saw a $55+5 FT almost full, so I signed up and decided to sign up for the next $35+3 tourney as well, hoping it would start 10 minutes after the first. Turns out, it started something like 2 minutes after the first.
Most of the time, I'd prefer not to have 2 FT tables running simultaneously around the same blind levels. The rationale being that when it gets shorthanded (SH), I like/need to focus on whether the players can be run over or not. That's the critical time, as you can accumulate a ton of chips by raising incessantly to someone who won't call without a solid quality hand. If you can have 2 of those opponents to your left, you are in SNG heaven.
As it was, I played pretty good, except for a backfired bluff early in the $55+5 game. I recovered quickly with a double up to return to my starting stack. It was odd today in that both games had 7+ people in the late blind rounds. This made for a lot of short stack (SS) pushing as many chips into the middle pre-flop. I had managed to get some chips on both tables early in the rounds so I didn't have to get involved unless necessary.
I caught some cards at the end, which is a must HU with the blinds excessively high, and won both tourney's. That's the first double 1st I've made thus far. Came close a week ago when I went 1st and 3rd.
We'll see about tomorrow, since it's pretty late and I'm bound to be exhausted. However, the pull of the game is always strong, so hopefully I have enough control to say no if I'm too tired.
$55+2.5 HU: 0/2 ($115.00)
$35+3 FT: 1/0/0/0
$55+5 FT: 1/0/0/0
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I'm pushing it
Was quite tired from last night's session, yet I pushed tonight and played anyway. I'm toeing the line between confidence in my abilities vs going against common sense and playing in a weakened mental state.
Started out like crap tonight, but finished with a bang to book a nice win.
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 2/2 ($10.00)
$35+3 FT: 0/0/1/0 $25.00
$55+5 FT: 1/0/0/1 $127.50
Total: $108.00
If I feel good tomorrow, I'll play, otherwise, looks like I'm off until Friday night, as I have baseball on Thursday night.
Started out like crap tonight, but finished with a bang to book a nice win.
$33+1.5 HU: 0/1 ($34.50)
$55+2.5 HU: 2/2 ($10.00)
$35+3 FT: 0/0/1/0 $25.00
$55+5 FT: 1/0/0/1 $127.50
Total: $108.00
If I feel good tomorrow, I'll play, otherwise, looks like I'm off until Friday night, as I have baseball on Thursday night.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Short night
I seem to have a problem with the $22+1 HU game. The players are idiots, but yet they beat me. I think I'm also affected because they actually chat, and complain about my play (donkey, moron, idiot, etc). I don't know what else it could be. I'll play the same way in a $22+1 HU as I do in the $55+2.5, like tonight, and I lose the low stakes one, and win the high stakes one.
Maybe I get too emotional, maybe I'm not considering the fact that they are more liberal with their calling, and thus I should bluff raise less. Whatever it is, I do need to improve there or plain stop playing.
So for tonight,
$22+1 HU: 0/1 ($23.00)
$55+2.5 HU: 1/0 $52.50
Total: $29.50.
Maybe I get too emotional, maybe I'm not considering the fact that they are more liberal with their calling, and thus I should bluff raise less. Whatever it is, I do need to improve there or plain stop playing.
So for tonight,
$22+1 HU: 0/1 ($23.00)
$55+2.5 HU: 1/0 $52.50
Total: $29.50.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
August Week 1 summary
Not bad! I've continued my streak from last week over to this week though tonight's session after driving 5 hours from my sister's wasn't the greatest, I found people I could beat and kept playing until I was up (can you say stuck!). Anyway, tonight I was 2/1 in the $33+1.5 HU, and 2/2 in the $55+2.5 HU for a total of +$18.50. For the week:
$35+1.5 HU: 2/1 $28.50
$55+2.5 HU: 4/7 $37.50
$35+5 FT: 1/0/0/0 $119.50
$55+5 FT: 0/0/1/1 ($21.00)
Total: $164.50
Not quite the $200/wk of my initial goal, but better than the first 3 weeks. Must continue solid play and slowly bring that number up.
$35+1.5 HU: 2/1 $28.50
$55+2.5 HU: 4/7 $37.50
$35+5 FT: 1/0/0/0 $119.50
$55+5 FT: 0/0/1/1 ($21.00)
Total: $164.50
Not quite the $200/wk of my initial goal, but better than the first 3 weeks. Must continue solid play and slowly bring that number up.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sweet!!
Went 4 for 4 at baseball tonight with 2 doubles, and 2 singles. Came home, did my chores, and rather than shower and get a good night's sleep before heading on a 5 hour drive with the family tomorrow, I played 2 SNG full-table tourney's instead. I placed in both. 3rd in the $55+5 and 1st in the $35+3. Now that's what I call getting prepared for the week-end! Probably won't play while I'm there, but I'm considering bringing my laptop, so we'll see.
As I came to post this blog I saw that I was supposed to look into the WCOOP blind levels. Fuck me. 20 minute blinds with a 5 minute break every hour, and a 15 minute break every 6 hours. That's a lot of poker. I'm hesitant now. I'll revisit in a month, and decide then. It might be moot, if I don't do too well at the tables, so that's probably the safest course of action.
As I came to post this blog I saw that I was supposed to look into the WCOOP blind levels. Fuck me. 20 minute blinds with a 5 minute break every hour, and a 15 minute break every 6 hours. That's a lot of poker. I'm hesitant now. I'll revisit in a month, and decide then. It might be moot, if I don't do too well at the tables, so that's probably the safest course of action.
WCOOP
So I got the newsletter from Poker Stars regarding their WCOOP series of tournaments. WCOOP = World Championship Of Online Poker. They will be running a $300+20 PLO8 tourney and my interest was immediately piqued! Then I went and looked at the date/time and last year's running time, and things don't look so good anymore.
First, Wednesday September 16th at 4:30PM EST is when I'm actually supposed to be working. While I have no problem playing poker during the day instead of working, my wife would. She would worry that I'd like to make a habit out of it, and wouldn't like the fact I'd force her to have to feed the kids supper and bathe them by herself (which is completely understandable).
Secondly, we could be in baseball playoffs at that time, so there may be a game scheduled that night. Even if I could get around those two issues (wife ok's the playing, no game that night), the third is a pretty big obstacle: Last year's tourney played for 18 hours! Holy fuck...
It started at 2:30 PM and ran until almost 8 AM the next morning. I have serious doubts that I'll be able to play online poker, starting at 4:30 in the afternoon and playing straight until the next day. I've had sessions where I played from 10PM through to 4AM. Unfortunately, those are usually some really bad sessions, where the only reason I'm playing is because I've tilted and can't leave. That's still only 1/3 of the amount of time I'd be playing poker for. Now, I could work around some of those issues, like going over to a friend's house to play, so that I have someone to talk with and keep me focused, but even still...
So right now, I'm on the fence. I'm not even going to broach the subject with my wife until I feel comfortable playing it. Tonight, after baseball, I'll look at the registration for the tourney and see what the blind levels are, and the general schedule, and let it sink in this week-end while I'm at my sister's place, and re-visit the idea next week.
First, Wednesday September 16th at 4:30PM EST is when I'm actually supposed to be working. While I have no problem playing poker during the day instead of working, my wife would. She would worry that I'd like to make a habit out of it, and wouldn't like the fact I'd force her to have to feed the kids supper and bathe them by herself (which is completely understandable).
Secondly, we could be in baseball playoffs at that time, so there may be a game scheduled that night. Even if I could get around those two issues (wife ok's the playing, no game that night), the third is a pretty big obstacle: Last year's tourney played for 18 hours! Holy fuck...
It started at 2:30 PM and ran until almost 8 AM the next morning. I have serious doubts that I'll be able to play online poker, starting at 4:30 in the afternoon and playing straight until the next day. I've had sessions where I played from 10PM through to 4AM. Unfortunately, those are usually some really bad sessions, where the only reason I'm playing is because I've tilted and can't leave. That's still only 1/3 of the amount of time I'd be playing poker for. Now, I could work around some of those issues, like going over to a friend's house to play, so that I have someone to talk with and keep me focused, but even still...
So right now, I'm on the fence. I'm not even going to broach the subject with my wife until I feel comfortable playing it. Tonight, after baseball, I'll look at the registration for the tourney and see what the blind levels are, and the general schedule, and let it sink in this week-end while I'm at my sister's place, and re-visit the idea next week.
Monday, August 3, 2009
4 weeks in
Ok, so it has been 4 weeks since I've started this, it's time to see where I'm at. I'll normally try do this on Sunday nights, to line up with my spreadsheet, but as it is, I'll do it today and include today's session.
Another failure (8/9) at my "bread-and-butter" $35+3 game. This time, I ran into a calling station who took 90% of my chips, though to his credit, I played the last hand against him poorly, and he deserved those chips because of my stupidity. However, I ran into talisain51 at the $55+2.5 and beat him again. By far, he has been my most profitable mark. So I made $14.50 tonight, glad I booked a win in a little less than 1/2 hour of play.
As for the monthly totals:
$11+0.5 HU: 0/1 ($11.50)
$22+1 HU: 2/6 ($96.00)
$33+1.5 HU: 7/4 $42.00
$55+2.5 HU: 13/8 $275
$110+5 HU: 1/0 $105
$35+3: 2/2/2/21 ($396)
$55+5: 1/0/0/3 $7.50
cash: $41.07
Total: $7.57
LMFAO! So much for thinking I could average $833/month to make 10k in a year! To my credit, had I actually played the $35+3 the way I had been playing, and averaged a $10 win/game (I had actually been averaging $20), then I wouldn't be too far off, since it would change the numbers by roughly +$675. Problem is, I'm, *clearly* not playing that game properly anymore.
Do I regroup and focus on the HU games, which I'm clearly getting better, and have found opponents I can beat consistently, or do I trudge through more full table games? I think I am going to give the full tables another full month. If I don't post a profit in those games for the month of August, then so be it, they will not get much of my attention anymore.
Another failure (8/9) at my "bread-and-butter" $35+3 game. This time, I ran into a calling station who took 90% of my chips, though to his credit, I played the last hand against him poorly, and he deserved those chips because of my stupidity. However, I ran into talisain51 at the $55+2.5 and beat him again. By far, he has been my most profitable mark. So I made $14.50 tonight, glad I booked a win in a little less than 1/2 hour of play.
As for the monthly totals:
$11+0.5 HU: 0/1 ($11.50)
$22+1 HU: 2/6 ($96.00)
$33+1.5 HU: 7/4 $42.00
$55+2.5 HU: 13/8 $275
$110+5 HU: 1/0 $105
$35+3: 2/2/2/21 ($396)
$55+5: 1/0/0/3 $7.50
cash: $41.07
Total: $7.57
LMFAO! So much for thinking I could average $833/month to make 10k in a year! To my credit, had I actually played the $35+3 the way I had been playing, and averaged a $10 win/game (I had actually been averaging $20), then I wouldn't be too far off, since it would change the numbers by roughly +$675. Problem is, I'm, *clearly* not playing that game properly anymore.
Do I regroup and focus on the HU games, which I'm clearly getting better, and have found opponents I can beat consistently, or do I trudge through more full table games? I think I am going to give the full tables another full month. If I don't post a profit in those games for the month of August, then so be it, they will not get much of my attention anymore.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Slow live game
So I played live with some friends last night. $20 NLHE SNG. 2 of the 8 haven't really played with us before, so we didn't know what to expect. Overall, it was really tight with a couple of walks in the first couple of blinds rounds, which is really weird. Normally, there's at least 1 caller or raiser, and even with 1 raiser there is usually a caller. It's not uncommon to have 4-5 or 8 in a pot when we play that size. Wasn't the case last night.
The major problem with last night was that they were calling for smoke breaks every 2 blind levels, which was ridiculous. Half the table smoked and the other half didn't , and most of the time smoke breaks are accommodated, but they were too frequent and then each one was too long. Our blind levels are 15 minutes and yet after 2 hours, I think we'd only played like 6 blind levels.
One of the guys who doesn't smoke, Eric a.k.a Mon Oncle, had a rough night. First, it took him 2 hours to get there since there was construction traffic on the highway, then everything he did at the table backfired, and finally, he had to endure all the wasted smoke break time. When he got knocked out, I've never seen him so upset. He launched his chips at Mark, who had knocked him out, and then he left for his trek back home. Hopefuly he gets over it. We've got another game in a couple of weeks.
As for the game, the blind levels jumped faster than our usual schedule, and I didn't change my game accordingly. Put that in with the general tightness of the table, and I should've bet more often with less. I had position on the two unknowns, so I didn't have to worry about them. I just felt like my cards were not quite strong enough. I'll open with 97o late, but not with 75o. I'll open with QXs, but not JXs,(where X doen't spread to a str8) and so my cards didn't give me enough to pull the trigger. Then when I did, with a mediocre Ah7h, unknown 1, who had limped PF, calls with JJ. Turns out, that was their M.O: Never raise PF, only limp or re-raise. I saw him pull the limp/re-raise play with AA. Oh yeah, he won the tourney, but it helps that he either doubled up or knocked a decent stack out with the aforementionned AA, and JJ, as well as knocking Kenny out with KK.
So, it wasn't as fun as it could've been, and a little sour with the way Eric went out. I'm exhausted today. Was supposed to take the kids our to our towns' "Family Day" with inflatables and the like, but it's raining and sapping my energy by the second.
The major problem with last night was that they were calling for smoke breaks every 2 blind levels, which was ridiculous. Half the table smoked and the other half didn't , and most of the time smoke breaks are accommodated, but they were too frequent and then each one was too long. Our blind levels are 15 minutes and yet after 2 hours, I think we'd only played like 6 blind levels.
One of the guys who doesn't smoke, Eric a.k.a Mon Oncle, had a rough night. First, it took him 2 hours to get there since there was construction traffic on the highway, then everything he did at the table backfired, and finally, he had to endure all the wasted smoke break time. When he got knocked out, I've never seen him so upset. He launched his chips at Mark, who had knocked him out, and then he left for his trek back home. Hopefuly he gets over it. We've got another game in a couple of weeks.
As for the game, the blind levels jumped faster than our usual schedule, and I didn't change my game accordingly. Put that in with the general tightness of the table, and I should've bet more often with less. I had position on the two unknowns, so I didn't have to worry about them. I just felt like my cards were not quite strong enough. I'll open with 97o late, but not with 75o. I'll open with QXs, but not JXs,(where X doen't spread to a str8) and so my cards didn't give me enough to pull the trigger. Then when I did, with a mediocre Ah7h, unknown 1, who had limped PF, calls with JJ. Turns out, that was their M.O: Never raise PF, only limp or re-raise. I saw him pull the limp/re-raise play with AA. Oh yeah, he won the tourney, but it helps that he either doubled up or knocked a decent stack out with the aforementionned AA, and JJ, as well as knocking Kenny out with KK.
So, it wasn't as fun as it could've been, and a little sour with the way Eric went out. I'm exhausted today. Was supposed to take the kids our to our towns' "Family Day" with inflatables and the like, but it's raining and sapping my energy by the second.
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