Sometimes, The Poker Gods kick you in the Nuts

So last night, a few scant hours ago, we played our monthly home game. It was Texas Holdem, 37 runners. I have played very little poker in comparison to recent years the last 6 months. When I have played I have had mixed results, and I have not been enjoying my time on the felt of late. A buddy of mine used a word that fits my feelings about poker of late in a recent blog post on our team blog, “disheartened.”

I was cruising along nicely in the tournament. I was switching up my game, raising a lot in and out of position, stealing a lot of blinds, and making sound poker decisions. I was chipping up pretty risk free, and was happy with how I was playing , when it was over in an instant.

I have a couple weight loss contests on the guy so I chose to forgo my usual poker game diet of a case of beer followed by some rye. I was drinking water and was pretty focused. I was remarking with my best friend and drinking buddy (who was also sober) how loud it was in the room, a noise factor that normally I am contributing to. I was the button when my buddy sitting UTG raised to 1500 (3-600) blinds. We had just moved to two tables, I pushed, 2725 over the top with my KK. The raiser thought about it for a few minutes and said he had to call, and I was happy when he said I don’t have a pair. I said as long as you don’t have and A , and I was happy to see KQ. Couldn’t ask for more I thought. Instead, first two cards off are Q’s and just like that I am out.

This beat hurt as much as any I have taken in some time. I have not been playing often or well of late, and I wanted to get off to a great start. The winner of the pot, my best friend, apologized a few times, and my buddies around the table all said “That was sick” and such and I just nodded, and said things like “It is what it is”. I ran it through poker stove and saw he was 7.91 percent. So sick.

I played in a 4 handed cash game after this that I had no business playing in. I was livid mad, and in full tilt mode. I played 3 hands like a donkey, and steamed off alot of money, berating one guy who took some time to call. The only positive I take from the night is I quit the cash game before I blew off 5 or 6 buyins. I dunno. I just feel lost at the tables these days, and I just don’t enjoy it like I have in the past.

Looking around

Been doing some surfing around, watching some poker video’s and reading some blogs as always.  One of my favorite blog reading subjects is the guys that undertake Ferguson like Bankroll challenges.  I have tried two or three times in the past to undertake these things and the bottom eventually falls out.  I "know" that these things make sense by design, and I know I should follow the process but I just always end up bailing on them.  Sigh.

 

I watched the last event of the 2008 WSOP that will be televised before the main event this morning.  They were following the Grinders table as well as Hellmuth at the smaller horse tourney.  Hellmuth was whining as usual and fell short of his bracelet as did the Grinder.  After Lindgren’s win, is he now "the best player without a bracelet".  Hard to say.

 

Still not playing a whole lot accept for a few tourney’s.  Been playing some sat’s lately and doing well in them.  I am starting to wonder should I start focusing more on tourney’s and SNG’s?  I know the variance is crazy.  It’s just that the cash games have not been working for me so I dunno what to do.  Haven’t been playing live, but the LPT is only 2 weeks from today away….wooooo.

Getting the Juices flowing again

Today I posted on my team blog some predictions about the pending season 4 of the league i help run with my poker crew.  It’s a once a month league, really only taking July off and we play year around.  My group of friends really look forward to playing this game and really get up for it.  And when you bust out, well there’s always the cash game.

 

I am working on a post that will be up soon with my plans for rebuilding my game from the ground up, and my goals going forward with my poker playing.  I am not going to call it a career, because well, its not a career.  I do think I will be playing all kinds of poker until they plant me in the ground, because I truly love the game but I do not think I will be making a "career" out of it anytime soon.  But that doesn’t mean I won’t bust my ass to improve! 

 

I am going to go work some more on that post, and also sprucing up the old blog.  I am playing with a couple templates right now, so there will be lots of changes in the days to come.

LPT season 3 game 3, and goals for new year

Last night was my monthly poker game. Unfortunately I did not have very good results in neither the tourney or the side games. I took not a one bad beat, I just made silly decision after silly decision after silly decision. Way she goes I guess.

In the tourney, I was taken out by my buddies sister, who is holding over me like you wouldn’t believe. I have run KK into her AA on the third hand of a cash game to get stacked, and been eliminated out of 3 tourneys by her. I had folded pockets to her twice on this night in the early going, and had been making a big deal about not being able to beat her in a pot. I had Q9, and was hoping to take a pot from her on the flop if I hit any piece of it. I had raised preflop, was reraised, and then a third person called, and I also called the raise. Flop comes QJ8. I bet out 350 preflop, and the my new nemesis raises 500, and Angie calls. I had 1750 left at this point (2500 starting stack). I should have just laid this hand down right here, but thinking that Tina is just to steal from me, I Push and Tina insta calls. Angie lays down 2nd set here JJJ, and then Tina shows her KK. I catch a flush draw on turn, but brick on the river and I am out. I totally thought she was making a move, turns out I was third best in this hand, and I shouldn’t have been in there to begin with. Why the fuck I continue to put my tourney life on the line with top pair is beyond me. Foolish play. I put her on a big steal, but both had me crushed.

I will be so glad to have 2007 over poker wise! I won a couple tourneys, had a deep run in a couple others online but all in all it was a bad year for me poker wise, live and online. I am not sure yet, but I am kicking around the idea of not playing online again til January. Not set instone of course, but I simply do not feel like playing right now. I think all the play in late October early November really burnt me out for online. I am not making good choices, and I just am tired of not getting anywhere.

I am the type of person that makes goals, likes to start things at the first of the month/first of the year. I am looking forward to being able to start with a clean slate, and say goodbye to an unsuccessful 2007.

At the beginning of the year, I had made a bunch of monetary goals, coming up way short on all of them. I am again setting goals for my poker 2008 and they are simple and realistic.

1. Have fun playing poker
2. Work to improve my game, by reading all the books on my shelf I have not read yet.
3. Become proficient with the available software (Pokertracker, Pokerstove etc) to help my online game
4. Take a more realistic approach to the game that allows me to have fun and improve but does not lead to burnout.

That is all!

LPT season 3 game 3, and goals for new year

Last night was my monthly poker game. Unfortunately I did not have very good results in neither the tourney or the side games. I took not a one bad beat, I just made silly decision after silly decision after silly decision. Way she goes I guess.

In the tourney, I was taken out by my buddies sister, who is holding over me like you wouldn’t believe. I have run KK into her AA on the third hand of a cash game to get stacked, and been eliminated out of 3 tourneys by her. I had folded pockets to her twice on this night in the early going, and had been making a big deal about not being able to beat her in a pot. I had Q9, and was hoping to take a pot from her on the flop if I hit any piece of it. I had raised preflop, was reraised, and then a third person called, and I also called the raise. Flop comes QJ8. I bet out 350 preflop, and the my new nemesis raises 500, and Angie calls. I had 1750 left at this point (2500 starting stack). I should have just laid this hand down right here, but thinking that Tina is just to steal from me, I Push and Tina insta calls. Angie lays down 2nd set here JJJ, and then Tina shows her KK. I catch a flush draw on turn, but brick on the river and I am out. I totally thought she was making a move, turns out I was third best in this hand, and I shouldn’t have been in there to begin with. Why the fuck I continue to put my tourney life on the line with top pair is beyond me. Foolish play. I put her on a big steal, but both had me crushed.

I will be so glad to have 2007 over poker wise! I won a couple tourneys, had a deep run in a couple others online but all in all it was a bad year for me poker wise, live and online. I am not sure yet, but I am kicking around the idea of not playing online again til January. Not set instone of course, but I simply do not feel like playing right now. I think all the play in late October early November really burnt me out for online. I am not making good choices, and I just am tired of not getting anywhere.

I am the type of person that makes goals, likes to start things at the first of the month/first of the year. I am looking forward to being able to start with a clean slate, and say goodbye to an unsuccessful 2007.

At the beginning of the year, I had made a bunch of monetary goals, coming up way short on all of them. I am again setting goals for my poker 2008 and they are simple and realistic.

1. Have fun playing poker
2. Work to improve my game, by reading all the books on my shelf I have not read yet.
3. Become proficient with the available software (Pokertracker, Pokerstove etc) to help my online game
4. Take a more realistic approach to the game that allows me to have fun and improve but does not lead to burnout.

That is all!

Missed signing in for the HOY by seconds…..

Was watching High Stakes Poker tonight and kinda forgot to sign up for the HOY and missed it by litterally seconds…….BLAST.

Tonight was the first episode of the 500,000 buy in on HSP and it was very intriguing to watch in my opinion. Huge pots, the richest guy at the table playing with no fear and catching cards (Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte) and some of the best cash game players in the world. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Played in a drunken fun home game this past friday night. A tonne of fun, and I don’t remember a whole lot of details. I know in the tourney I went from making a nice bluff to become chip leader to being out within an orbit in the tourney, and then splashed around chips in a dealers choice cash game. It was a lot of fun as always and will quench my live game jones’n for a couple weeks til the next LPT game.

Online I don’t feel like playing at all, and I have been running horribly, playing bad (chasing lost money) and getting just rediculous beat after ridiculous beat. Outside of playing in the blogger tourneys on FTP, I am taking a break. Maybe a couple days, a week, I dunno.

Next up the Mookie.

Missed signing in for the HOY by seconds…..

Was watching High Stakes Poker tonight and kinda forgot to sign up for the HOY and missed it by litterally seconds…….BLAST.

Tonight was the first episode of the 500,000 buy in on HSP and it was very intriguing to watch in my opinion. Huge pots, the richest guy at the table playing with no fear and catching cards (Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte) and some of the best cash game players in the world. Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Played in a drunken fun home game this past friday night. A tonne of fun, and I don’t remember a whole lot of details. I know in the tourney I went from making a nice bluff to become chip leader to being out within an orbit in the tourney, and then splashed around chips in a dealers choice cash game. It was a lot of fun as always and will quench my live game jones’n for a couple weeks til the next LPT game.

Online I don’t feel like playing at all, and I have been running horribly, playing bad (chasing lost money) and getting just rediculous beat after ridiculous beat. Outside of playing in the blogger tourneys on FTP, I am taking a break. Maybe a couple days, a week, I dunno.

Next up the Mookie.

LPT Season 3 Game 2

Originally posted on the TNT blog :

Friday night was game 2 of season 3 of the LPT. Being layed up with my bad back and having only had any contact with doctors, chiro’s, and xray technicians for the previous 10 days I was eager to get out and see somebody and toss around some chips.

I started out so card dead, it seems like I folded nearly every hand thru the first two hours. We had 30 runners in all, down in numbers from the 40 plus of the first leg, but still a great crowd. We had a new blind structure with this event, making it a little more aggressive and thru the first couple hours it was evident that it worked to speed up the tourney, while still allowing play. The breakdown from 3 tables to two didn’t even last a blind level I don’t think.

We start with 2500 in chips and I never reached 4000 til the final table. I don’t I think I saw 6 aces total the whole night, and that includes one hand where I had pockets. After a while anything that wasn’t j3, 72, Q4, I pushed. I was all in a dozen times through out the night, getting unlucky a couple times, and getting lucky a few times.

I don’t remember a lot of details, as I was pretty loopy from the medication I am on and having had a couple (this time litterally only a couple, as opposed to my usual dozen or so) , but I did manage to jot down a few notes when I got home that hit some of the highlites I saw or was involved in.

-first hand of tournement Donnie doubles up and eliminates Whitey with a rivered flush to beat Whitey’s rivered trips

-Dango crushing Ron’s flopped straight with rivered Quads

-Scott losing a prop bet with Annie when she eliminates him, meaning he has to go home early, forego the cash game, and get up early with the boy.

-two runner runner split pots against me, against flopped flush and flopped top two

-down to final table at 11 but final table lasted 4 hours, as play really tightened up

-big pot at final table with Josh’s QQ vs. JJ and 10 10

-Kim “I don’t like my blinds being bullied” with 73s against Josh “Oh you caught me trying to steal” with pocket KK. Soon as I saw Kim’s hand I said to Josh “You’re fucked”. she picks up straight flush draw on flop, turns a brick and BANG on the river 5 of spades for straight flush.

-I made a couple questionable laydowns in final 5 (too tight) that bothered me.

-after going over top of Mel’s raise with 55, with my own AQ and having her pair hold, I was down to less than small blind

-battled back from less than 2 bb’s twice.

-3 handed got AA, and failed to get paid off as I drove josh out with an all in with 6000 in pot, and me on button.

All in all it was a fun tourney, and even tho I didn’t feel particularly well, I enjoyed getting out, having a few laughs (some at my own expense as Jeff loves to bug me about looking like KGB when I have a scraggly beard) . I was more than happy with 2nd, losing heads up to Josh, who went on to tie Tim with his 4th LPT win. I am on top of my tourney game right now, and feeling confident. I look forward to the next tourney and at least being a factor this year.

LPT Season 3 Game 2

Originally posted on the TNT blog :

Friday night was game 2 of season 3 of the LPT. Being layed up with my bad back and having only had any contact with doctors, chiro’s, and xray technicians for the previous 10 days I was eager to get out and see somebody and toss around some chips.

I started out so card dead, it seems like I folded nearly every hand thru the first two hours. We had 30 runners in all, down in numbers from the 40 plus of the first leg, but still a great crowd. We had a new blind structure with this event, making it a little more aggressive and thru the first couple hours it was evident that it worked to speed up the tourney, while still allowing play. The breakdown from 3 tables to two didn’t even last a blind level I don’t think.

We start with 2500 in chips and I never reached 4000 til the final table. I don’t I think I saw 6 aces total the whole night, and that includes one hand where I had pockets. After a while anything that wasn’t j3, 72, Q4, I pushed. I was all in a dozen times through out the night, getting unlucky a couple times, and getting lucky a few times.

I don’t remember a lot of details, as I was pretty loopy from the medication I am on and having had a couple (this time litterally only a couple, as opposed to my usual dozen or so) , but I did manage to jot down a few notes when I got home that hit some of the highlites I saw or was involved in.

-first hand of tournement Donnie doubles up and eliminates Whitey with a rivered flush to beat Whitey’s rivered trips

-Dango crushing Ron’s flopped straight with rivered Quads

-Scott losing a prop bet with Annie when she eliminates him, meaning he has to go home early, forego the cash game, and get up early with the boy.

-two runner runner split pots against me, against flopped flush and flopped top two

-down to final table at 11 but final table lasted 4 hours, as play really tightened up

-big pot at final table with Josh’s QQ vs. JJ and 10 10

-Kim “I don’t like my blinds being bullied” with 73s against Josh “Oh you caught me trying to steal” with pocket KK. Soon as I saw Kim’s hand I said to Josh “You’re fucked”. she picks up straight flush draw on flop, turns a brick and BANG on the river 5 of spades for straight flush.

-I made a couple questionable laydowns in final 5 (too tight) that bothered me.

-after going over top of Mel’s raise with 55, with my own AQ and having her pair hold, I was down to less than small blind

-battled back from less than 2 bb’s twice.

-3 handed got AA, and failed to get paid off as I drove josh out with an all in with 6000 in pot, and me on button.

All in all it was a fun tourney, and even tho I didn’t feel particularly well, I enjoyed getting out, having a few laughs (some at my own expense as Jeff loves to bug me about looking like KGB when I have a scraggly beard) . I was more than happy with 2nd, losing heads up to Josh, who went on to tie Tim with his 4th LPT win. I am on top of my tourney game right now, and feeling confident. I look forward to the next tourney and at least being a factor this year.

Tourney's Eve

Well the start of Season 3 is almost here. Can’t wait for it to get started. It looks like we are going to be at the minimum 30, for our opening game and there’s talk we could get as high as 40+. That’s a lot of people for a home game, but I think amongst my crew, we can keep it running smoothly and have lots of fun.

My tourney is the poker I look forward to the most, yet at the same time I take it a little less “serious” than my other poker playing. Don’t get me wrong I want to win and I play to win every chip on the table. I have been known to go Helmuth style after a beat, and get worked up. When I say I take it a little less serious, is at these games I want to have fun. I drink, often a little too much and I splash around a bit. When I am playing tourney’s outside of our home game I rarely drink more than a beer or two, and I am more “there to win”.

For me the our league, the LPT is about friends, competition and laughter. Some great friendships have come out of this group, and some great rivalries have sprouted, and this adds to the fun. I desperately want to get back to the winners circle as I had a dreadful season 2 making only one Podium finish, a second in Season 2 game 2. I am looking to get back on the winning track, but most importantly I am looking forward to getting back to enjoying the third Friday of every month, to kick back have a few drinks and donk it up for a few hours.