November recap

Aside from my regular PLO8 playing, I spent some time this month trying to win some special event tourneys at PokerStars and Party Poker.

First, was PokerStars' dream job Canada. First place won a poker contract worth $5000/mth + $40k in live even buy-ins, for a total package worth $100k. It was a $100+9 buy-in tourney which I won my entry in a $10+1 satellite. I lasted a grand total of 35 minutes before getting knocked out. I played not correctly. It wasn't quite poorly, but I didn't follow the correct strategy of playing cheap in early blind levels. I was raising too much, and since my good hands didn't actually pan out (AK but don't pair the flop, JJ and Q or K flops), and my opponents showed strength, it hurt my chip stack too much too soon. So, when I raised, first in, from the cut-off with A9 on my fatal hand, I didn't have much wiggle room. The button called as did the BB. Flop came 963 two clubs. BB leads out with a pot bet. I have to move all-in or fold, calling is not a good option. Given the way BB has played, I put him on the flush draw. The button had been pretty tight the whole time, so I did worry about him, but any pair greater than 9's, I thought he would have re-raised me PF, so I think I'm good and I pushed all in. The button calls :( and so does the BB. The turn is the 3c. BB moves all-in and Button calls. BB tables AcTc for the flush, but button tables 99 for the full house. I'm drawing dead. Of course the case 9 had to hit that flop to get me into trouble. Oh well, so goes NLHE tourneys...

The second tourney at Party Poker was a freeroll for Canadian's only with 1st place winning a $15k package including buy-in to the Aussie Millions tournament. 851 entrys, and I was doing pretty well throughout most of the tournament. I spend a good part in the top20 reaching as high as second place 1.5 hours in. The biggest problem was that the blinds were raising pretty fast. Even though I had a lot of chips, my ratio of chips to blinds (also known as M) was around 10. Worse is that my opponents' M values were much smaller, and they were reduced to all-in or fold. So, with 45 people left, I got aggressive to try and prey on the shorter stacks and distance myself, but a couple of untimely moves culminated in my KTc running into AA and losing my stack.

It was fun though. I'm going to try and play a few NLHE tourneys every so often simply because they are so much fun.

Also this month, I've been playing more live with friends, though that hasn't been going too well either. I won $30 the first session I played in a NLHE cash game. Then lost $60 playing a $20SNG followed by a cash game. I tilted pretty badly that night. In the 2 hours of the tournament, I didn't get a single pair. Then, in the cash game, when I got my first pair of the night, 44, I flop a set on a K94 board, only to run into KK losing my first $20 buy-in. The wheels subsequently fell off my game and I pissed away another $20 after rebuying. Finally, I played a 3rd cash game, where I ended up losing $20, but I was up to $35 when I lost it with A7 running into QT to a ATT board.

As for my online escapades, a pretty weak break even month:
$11+0.5 HU SNG: 1/0 $10.50
$22+1 HU SNG: 3/3 ($6.00)
$30+1.5 HU SNG: 1/1 ($3.00)
$33+1.5 HU SNG: 9/14 ($199.50)
$55+2.5 HU SNG: 9/6 $127.50
$35+3 FT SNG: 0/0/0/4 ($152.00)
$50+5 FT SNG: 0/0/1/0 $35.00
$55+5 FT SNG: 0/0/0/2 ($120.00)
$105+9 FT SNG: 0/1/0/0 $169.50
25PLO8: 8 sessions $136.55
50PLO8: 1 sessions $41.40
$10+1 Dream Job NLHE qualifier: ($11.00)
Total: $28.95

Most of those results came at the beginning of the month. Since the middle of the month, my wife has been staying up later and her and I have been spending more time together. I used play after she'd go to sleep, but now we're often going to bed together, so my table time is dropping.

I'm sitting just under 8k lifetime winnings. I'd love to get this above 8.4k before the end of the year, but unless I get better results from my play, it looks like I'll have my first ever losing year, though, being at break even now is good compared to the 1.7k hole I dug myself in the early part of the year.