Channelling my inner Matesow

I am known amongst my friends for my Mike Matesow style blowups. In live games I often am able to build a big stack of chips in cash games only to lose it all in a couple hands, sometimes to beats, often to silly decisions, which are no fault of my own. Online, I have literally turned 50 into 150 to 300 20 times, only to lose it in a tilt fest 8 hour session. Last night was almost one of these famous blowups.

I started yesterday at 80 dollars. This will probably be the last post where I discuss bankroll levels, only because I am seriously starting to get very superstitious about even mentioning it, cause every time I get excited to tell one of the boys hey I turned x into 3x I freaking implode over beats and chase money.

I slowly worked my way up from 80 to 120 yesteday playing 50/1. Then the stinking 1-2 limit game started whispering in my ear “Come on, play a few hands if you drop to 100, you can shut me down” Of the 150,000-200,000 hands I have logged the last two years, I would wager a good amount that 60-70 percent have been 1-2 limit. So once again, I jumped on the horse and gave it a try. Last week, last Saturday I think it was I had run 75 up to 170, and was having a sick run. However it turned bad and I ended the weekend under 20 dollars. I was so mad at myself for jumping off plan, and once again allowing myself to not walk away after some legit horrible beats (which you are going to get playing limit, accept this or don’t play—-this is me talking to me, haha). I had nuked my roll.

So thru the week I scraped and clawed back to 80, which is where I started yesterday. I got as high as 127 and then the famous Leighton blowup started. This same piece of work, just called and called with any two, at one point seeing 58 straight freaking flops! I went on mega tilt for a few minutes and actually ran the 127 down under 20 bucks! It was happening again, right back to my old habits. Instead of leaving the table tho, I felt you know what I am playing well, make this money back. So I sat out an orbit and a bit, and then decided to play as close to perfect as I can, and either bust, or make my money back.

So over the next few hours I scraped and clawed and got all the way back to 120! I had brought er back all the way, but unfortunately this is not where the strory ends, of course! Haha. From that 120, I had two back to back nightmare hands that were so silly they were laughable, long story short, back down to 70, are you kidding me? Why didn’t I just quit after being at 120, 40 dollar winner for the day.? Cause, I still wanted to play that’s why.

So I refocused and tightened up a little preflop and managed to get very lucky in one pivotal hand and rivered in a huge pot, and then took down a couple more medium pot and managed to get to 140 where I shut down for the day. Now, as I said, every time I mention bankroll amounts I manage to tilt off the whole thing or most of it, so I will not be mentioning money amounts as much here going forward, if for no other reason that I am growing superstitious! I have a decent amount to continue with the 3 dollar sng’s, and to take shots at 1-2 limit, under bankrolled yes but the game I most like at this point.

I have a post I am working on regarding my poker goals for the immediate future but mentioning it quickly I have a couple that are my focus at this time, which are

1. Get back to even in my Sharkscope search for stars (down 300 ish over 190 tournies)
2. Get my miniscule role to 300.

So there it is, I will have my mid year goals post up by the end of the week.

Channelling my inner Matesow

I am known amongst my friends for my Mike Matesow style blowups. In live games I often am able to build a big stack of chips in cash games only to lose it all in a couple hands, sometimes to beats, often to silly decisions, which are no fault of my own. Online, I have literally turned 50 into 150 to 300 20 times, only to lose it in a tilt fest 8 hour session. Last night was almost one of these famous blowups.

I started yesterday at 80 dollars. This will probably be the last post where I discuss bankroll levels, only because I am seriously starting to get very superstitious about even mentioning it, cause every time I get excited to tell one of the boys hey I turned x into 3x I freaking implode over beats and chase money.

I slowly worked my way up from 80 to 120 yesteday playing 50/1. Then the stinking 1-2 limit game started whispering in my ear “Come on, play a few hands if you drop to 100, you can shut me down” Of the 150,000-200,000 hands I have logged the last two years, I would wager a good amount that 60-70 percent have been 1-2 limit. So once again, I jumped on the horse and gave it a try. Last week, last Saturday I think it was I had run 75 up to 170, and was having a sick run. However it turned bad and I ended the weekend under 20 dollars. I was so mad at myself for jumping off plan, and once again allowing myself to not walk away after some legit horrible beats (which you are going to get playing limit, accept this or don’t play—-this is me talking to me, haha). I had nuked my roll.

So thru the week I scraped and clawed back to 80, which is where I started yesterday. I got as high as 127 and then the famous Leighton blowup started. This same piece of work, just called and called with any two, at one point seeing 58 straight freaking flops! I went on mega tilt for a few minutes and actually ran the 127 down under 20 bucks! It was happening again, right back to my old habits. Instead of leaving the table tho, I felt you know what I am playing well, make this money back. So I sat out an orbit and a bit, and then decided to play as close to perfect as I can, and either bust, or make my money back.

So over the next few hours I scraped and clawed and got all the way back to 120! I had brought er back all the way, but unfortunately this is not where the strory ends, of course! Haha. From that 120, I had two back to back nightmare hands that were so silly they were laughable, long story short, back down to 70, are you kidding me? Why didn’t I just quit after being at 120, 40 dollar winner for the day.? Cause, I still wanted to play that’s why.

So I refocused and tightened up a little preflop and managed to get very lucky in one pivotal hand and rivered in a huge pot, and then took down a couple more medium pot and managed to get to 140 where I shut down for the day. Now, as I said, every time I mention bankroll amounts I manage to tilt off the whole thing or most of it, so I will not be mentioning money amounts as much here going forward, if for no other reason that I am growing superstitious! I have a decent amount to continue with the 3 dollar sng’s, and to take shots at 1-2 limit, under bankrolled yes but the game I most like at this point.

I have a post I am working on regarding my poker goals for the immediate future but mentioning it quickly I have a couple that are my focus at this time, which are

1. Get back to even in my Sharkscope search for stars (down 300 ish over 190 tournies)
2. Get my miniscule role to 300.

So there it is, I will have my mid year goals post up by the end of the week.

Session 4

Had a short session tonight little over an hour. I started off with a 3 dollar sng and donked my chips off. No bad beat story here, I played awful.

I decided to play some cash game and ended up up 13 dollars in 50/1 limit. I was one last river away from being up 27, but thats ok.

I bought in for 5.00 at each of the 50/1 tables and cashed out at 15. As I have been saying this buy in is about instilling good habits, discipline and proper bankroll management habits. I am not going to risk more than 5 dollars on any game until I hit 200. Slow but steady. I know 50/1 may not be the right limit to play with 90 bucks, but i am more going by the buy in to the table.

So for the week I am up 30 dollars thru 22 3 dollar sng’s and 225 cash game hands. so far so good.

Session 4

Had a short session tonight little over an hour. I started off with a 3 dollar sng and donked my chips off. No bad beat story here, I played awful.

I decided to play some cash game and ended up up 13 dollars in 50/1 limit. I was one last river away from being up 27, but thats ok.

I bought in for 5.00 at each of the 50/1 tables and cashed out at 15. As I have been saying this buy in is about instilling good habits, discipline and proper bankroll management habits. I am not going to risk more than 5 dollars on any game until I hit 200. Slow but steady. I know 50/1 may not be the right limit to play with 90 bucks, but i am more going by the buy in to the table.

So for the week I am up 30 dollars thru 22 3 dollar sng’s and 225 cash game hands. so far so good.

Session 3

Short post, but posted three days in a row…..wooo getting back in the swing.

Today I listened to pocket five podcasts at work today and made some notes about some things I would like to try, some sites i would like to look at and maybe some software to look into. Ready to start working on my game again.

Tonight’s session, was after a 12 hour day at work, and then an hour of helping put together a trampoline for the kids. So I was tired, but wanted to play a little bit.

Played two sng’s (3 dollars)

1st – 6/10 Played tight the whole way, then stupidly made a bluff at bb (sitting in sb, made continuation bet on flop, gave up on turn to overs), then pushed the next hand with KJ suited (tilt?) was called by KQ
2nd 2/10 Played patient and solid

played a short 35 hand session of 25/50 limit and was up 10.50 when I cashed out.

Short but profitable session. So after 3 sessions, I am up 24 dollars (60 to 84)

Would like to stay up to see if Negreneau pulls out the bracelet but I am too tired. I will check in the morning. I am really into the WSOP this year, and it has really re-energized me as a poker fan. I have been waiting every day for Pauly’s post, the best damn poker writer out there.

That’s all for tonight, bed time

Session 3

Short post, but posted three days in a row…..wooo getting back in the swing.

Today I listened to pocket five podcasts at work today and made some notes about some things I would like to try, some sites i would like to look at and maybe some software to look into. Ready to start working on my game again.

Tonight’s session, was after a 12 hour day at work, and then an hour of helping put together a trampoline for the kids. So I was tired, but wanted to play a little bit.

Played two sng’s (3 dollars)

1st – 6/10 Played tight the whole way, then stupidly made a bluff at bb (sitting in sb, made continuation bet on flop, gave up on turn to overs), then pushed the next hand with KJ suited (tilt?) was called by KQ
2nd 2/10 Played patient and solid

played a short 35 hand session of 25/50 limit and was up 10.50 when I cashed out.

Short but profitable session. So after 3 sessions, I am up 24 dollars (60 to 84)

Would like to stay up to see if Negreneau pulls out the bracelet but I am too tired. I will check in the morning. I am really into the WSOP this year, and it has really re-energized me as a poker fan. I have been waiting every day for Pauly’s post, the best damn poker writer out there.

That’s all for tonight, bed time

Sesssion 2

Day 2 of rebuilding my online roll ended with me just under even for the day, down about 2 dollars and change. I played 6 3 dollar sng’s, one 5 dollar headup sng (was crippled AQ suited into AA, one of 4 times I did this yesterday) and I played about 140 hands of low limit cash game.

During the sng’s I made a good realization, or maybe reinforced something I already knew. My big stack play is a weak part of my game. A lot of my success in sng’s live or online are come from behind wins. With a small stack I am more aggressive look to double up, and I am not too tight. With a big stack I often play to protect my chips and turn into a passive, Weak Tight player. This is no good, and something I need to be conscience of.

Another mistake I have been making is overplaying medium pocket pairs. Albeit yesterday, I couldn’t win a race to save my life, many times getting my money in with a pair, only to lose to Ax. Have to be more careful early, overplaying 77-JJ to raises in front of me when blinds are still low.

With a couple of the TNT crew (4 of us thus far ) trying to make a run from a small buy in (50 bucks) playing mostly 3 dollar sng’s I think that this will be a good exercise to build our games as a team and individually. We are all pretty good players, but for the most part online, all fall into trap of playing over bankroll and not under optimal conditions (tired, bored, on tilt etc) . I think this little exercise will help improve our SNG game a lot, by learning together, sharing, and friendly competion.

Sesssion 2

Day 2 of rebuilding my online roll ended with me just under even for the day, down about 2 dollars and change. I played 6 3 dollar sng’s, one 5 dollar headup sng (was crippled AQ suited into AA, one of 4 times I did this yesterday) and I played about 140 hands of low limit cash game.

During the sng’s I made a good realization, or maybe reinforced something I already knew. My big stack play is a weak part of my game. A lot of my success in sng’s live or online are come from behind wins. With a small stack I am more aggressive look to double up, and I am not too tight. With a big stack I often play to protect my chips and turn into a passive, Weak Tight player. This is no good, and something I need to be conscience of.

Another mistake I have been making is overplaying medium pocket pairs. Albeit yesterday, I couldn’t win a race to save my life, many times getting my money in with a pair, only to lose to Ax. Have to be more careful early, overplaying 77-JJ to raises in front of me when blinds are still low.

With a couple of the TNT crew (4 of us thus far ) trying to make a run from a small buy in (50 bucks) playing mostly 3 dollar sng’s I think that this will be a good exercise to build our games as a team and individually. We are all pretty good players, but for the most part online, all fall into trap of playing over bankroll and not under optimal conditions (tired, bored, on tilt etc) . I think this little exercise will help improve our SNG game a lot, by learning together, sharing, and friendly competion.

HU vs Donnie July 22nd

July 22nd HU vs Donnie

Session 5-0

This session took place on Saturday afternoon the night after my monthly tournament. I played two games against Donnie the night before while waiting for people to show up for my tourney’s. In that short heads up session, I frankly got my ass handed to me. The first game was over in 4 hands, as an unlucky river in a big first hand, and then a flopped straight in the 4th hand took me out. The second game was back to hold em and this one went back and forth a little bit with both of us down to around 25 chips (out of starting 60 as usual) but in the end Donnie took me out 2 games in a row. Giving him a 2-0 session as well as an 8-2 lead in the current race to ten.

Saturday thankfully was a different story. I played with confidence, and just wanted to get myself back in this race to ten and make it respectable. Donnie when running well is a very aggressive player and plays almost entirely on instinct. His strongest trait at the table, in my eyes is his ability to read people, and know where he is in the hand. I have stated before, he has never read a book on poker, and to my knowledge has never been to a poker forum or whatever. He even told me while we were surfing channels and I stopped at a strategy show on the Casino network that he has no interest in watching or reading about poker strategy. He learns entirely by watching all he can on tv, and playing as much as he can live. He had a good result in my tournament the night before and was chip leader when an unlucky river took him out, when he got beat by a miracle draw, losing two thirds of his stack.

I was having a few beer, was relaxed, but determined to get back into this Race. My games with Donnie are quite different than my games with Jeff, and we play more of a “friendly game” as the raises are usually not as big in my games with Jeff. I am just as competitive with both, and hate to lose to anyone, especially these two. Two of my closest friends, and I hate to lose at anything to either of them.

The games were pretty close, and there were a couple big swings and both of us were down to under 25 chips in game 2. I definitely got lucky a couple times and I also played way too tight in a couple positions. I had one spot where I folded with a gut shot straight and a flush draw and folded for 16 more. Of course I went rabbit hunting and I hit the one card that gave me both the flush and straight draw.

After the third game Donnie started talking a little bit saying I should be out by now and that I was making it respectable. Even when I got it to 8-5 I still thought maybe I could get this even closer and while I wanted to continue playing tight aggressive, I didn’t want to get careless, but yet wanted to keep up the pressure. SO i put the peddle down, kept raising in position and kept pushing.

One thing about playing with Donnie, as I said he is very good at knowing where he is in a hand. It’s hard to get free cards with Donnie, thus you need to be aggressive back at him. He will bluff, and he showed me a couple of them. We both show quite a few hands when we play, which is very different than when you play with Jeff. Jeff does not give off a whole lot of unwanted info. He will not show hands if he doesn’t need to unless he’s showing you a bluff to get a desired result. I on the other hand may show too many hands. A lot of times I do show a hand to get a desired result, other times I am drinking, and I don’t care and just show, haha.

Didn’t talk about the hands much in this session recap, just tried to show some differences between my matches with Jeff and Donnie. Both very aggressive, but different players. Jeff puts alot of poker thought into nearly every street of every hand. He reads and studies poker alot. Donnie plays by instinct. Both are aggressive, but my games with Donnie for the most part are not as aggressive as the games I play with Donnie. I love heads up, it just may be my favorite way to play. Phil Ivey calls it the most pure form of poker. I am not sure if thats true but it is sure alot of fun. I have played hundreds of games vs my two buddies and I try and take away as much as I can from my games with both. The sheer amount of heads up poker has helped me tremendously in my live tourney’s, having reached heads up of the last 4 MTT games I have played.

HU vs Donnie July 22nd

July 22nd HU vs Donnie

Session 5-0

This session took place on Saturday afternoon the night after my monthly tournament. I played two games against Donnie the night before while waiting for people to show up for my tourney’s. In that short heads up session, I frankly got my ass handed to me. The first game was over in 4 hands, as an unlucky river in a big first hand, and then a flopped straight in the 4th hand took me out. The second game was back to hold em and this one went back and forth a little bit with both of us down to around 25 chips (out of starting 60 as usual) but in the end Donnie took me out 2 games in a row. Giving him a 2-0 session as well as an 8-2 lead in the current race to ten.

Saturday thankfully was a different story. I played with confidence, and just wanted to get myself back in this race to ten and make it respectable. Donnie when running well is a very aggressive player and plays almost entirely on instinct. His strongest trait at the table, in my eyes is his ability to read people, and know where he is in the hand. I have stated before, he has never read a book on poker, and to my knowledge has never been to a poker forum or whatever. He even told me while we were surfing channels and I stopped at a strategy show on the Casino network that he has no interest in watching or reading about poker strategy. He learns entirely by watching all he can on tv, and playing as much as he can live. He had a good result in my tournament the night before and was chip leader when an unlucky river took him out, when he got beat by a miracle draw, losing two thirds of his stack.

I was having a few beer, was relaxed, but determined to get back into this Race. My games with Donnie are quite different than my games with Jeff, and we play more of a “friendly game” as the raises are usually not as big in my games with Jeff. I am just as competitive with both, and hate to lose to anyone, especially these two. Two of my closest friends, and I hate to lose at anything to either of them.

The games were pretty close, and there were a couple big swings and both of us were down to under 25 chips in game 2. I definitely got lucky a couple times and I also played way too tight in a couple positions. I had one spot where I folded with a gut shot straight and a flush draw and folded for 16 more. Of course I went rabbit hunting and I hit the one card that gave me both the flush and straight draw.

After the third game Donnie started talking a little bit saying I should be out by now and that I was making it respectable. Even when I got it to 8-5 I still thought maybe I could get this even closer and while I wanted to continue playing tight aggressive, I didn’t want to get careless, but yet wanted to keep up the pressure. SO i put the peddle down, kept raising in position and kept pushing.

One thing about playing with Donnie, as I said he is very good at knowing where he is in a hand. It’s hard to get free cards with Donnie, thus you need to be aggressive back at him. He will bluff, and he showed me a couple of them. We both show quite a few hands when we play, which is very different than when you play with Jeff. Jeff does not give off a whole lot of unwanted info. He will not show hands if he doesn’t need to unless he’s showing you a bluff to get a desired result. I on the other hand may show too many hands. A lot of times I do show a hand to get a desired result, other times I am drinking, and I don’t care and just show, haha.

Didn’t talk about the hands much in this session recap, just tried to show some differences between my matches with Jeff and Donnie. Both very aggressive, but different players. Jeff puts alot of poker thought into nearly every street of every hand. He reads and studies poker alot. Donnie plays by instinct. Both are aggressive, but my games with Donnie for the most part are not as aggressive as the games I play with Donnie. I love heads up, it just may be my favorite way to play. Phil Ivey calls it the most pure form of poker. I am not sure if thats true but it is sure alot of fun. I have played hundreds of games vs my two buddies and I try and take away as much as I can from my games with both. The sheer amount of heads up poker has helped me tremendously in my live tourney’s, having reached heads up of the last 4 MTT games I have played.