Thursday has become my traditional day off. I do need a day off and I figured what better day than Thursday? It's the day before the weekend starts and the day all my spamalot friends have off which means I end up going out on wednesday nights.
Lately i've had a real interest in learning a new game. Not just learning a new game but becoming good. I feel very comfortable in holdem, omaha hi and 8/b games. It's time to add some new weapons to the arsonal. The weapon of choice? Razz. I don't play HORSE games because I feel i'm dead money at both stud games.
I chose Razz simply because there are alot bigger games to be had online. Plus, it's alot of fun. I've been sitting here for the last hour or so playing 3/6 razz on ftp and listening to the final table of the 50k horse event on worldseriesofpoker.com.
I really feel like i'm getting a solid grasp of the game. I have a very natural agression in poker but this game calms me down a bit being a limit game. Bluffing based on your up cards on 4th or 5th street is easy and instinctive and i'm quickly becoming very comortable in the game. Hopefully over the next couple weeks I can become a regular at some of the bigger games. I need to show a consistant profit at the smaller levels before I allow myself to put a bigger part of my bankroll at risk. It's just smart...
Wednesday was one of those days I couldn't bear to drag my lazy ass to the tables. I somehow managed to do it for a few hours and was able to make enough to let myself feel like I actually accomplished something for the day. I decided to stick with pot limit omaha most the day. If there are full 5/10 PLO games I prefer to play in them over holdem. I'll sit in a full 10/20 game and i've even sat in a full 25/50 game a time or two. There's alot more action and -alot- of bit pots in pot limit omaha. It's an action junkies dream come true.
On a bit of a side note... I've said in past blogs that my motivation at times has been slipping. I've been fixing that lately and it's been showing in my results. This is directed at you BRAD since you're my biggest critic as far as being lazy goes. Over the winter when I didn't feel like playing....I didn't play. I've now adapted at least some form of forcing myself to play even when I don't "feel like it". I'm setting some pretty agressive goals for myself to finish off the year.. I'll need to keep this kind of attitude if i'm going to succeed. I'll have more on that in a week or two once I work out the details. For now it's just the focus of keeping my distractions small and my pots big.
Catch you all tomorrow..
Wednesday session results +1900
Friday, June 29, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
A day of pot limit omaha
I had to cut my session short tonight since it's softball night. I don't mind since softball is one of the things I really look forward to doing every week.
I've been trying to work a few kinks out of my game.. mostly i've been trying to not pay off people like a donkey on the river. I hate to say it like that since I believe one of my strongest skills in poker is picking off bluffs with semi-weak hands. I credit that skill alone to why I can consistantly turn a profit. It's just that lately i've been making some donkish calls on the river that could be added to the profit for my day instead of creating more work for me.
Example... 3/6 PLO. I call a raise to $21 preflop with Kc Ks 9s Jd in the cutoff with 3 other players in the pot.
Flop 9c 9d 8h
It checks around to me and I bet half the pot. I get called by one player and everyone else folds.
Turn 6c
My opponent leads out and fires a close to pot sized bet of $170. I call but this was my first mistake of the hand. This is where I need to let my hand go. The odds very much that my opponent has a full house. With all the possibilites in omaha it's very uncommon for someone to lead out the pot with anything less. Even if he made a bad call with 7 10 and turned a straight he's in the lead here bigtime. Still, I make the stubborn call most likely drawing at 5 outs.
River Qd
My opponant fires out $300 and I make the call. If I couldn't get away from my hand on the turn I should have been able to -easily- get away here. He turns over 9h 6s Ac 10h and yes.... he did infact have me totally crushed the entire hand. I don't know what my problem was to be honest with you. I consider pot limit omaha to be a game i'm very strong in yet I played this hand like a complete amateur with no clue. Let this be a lesson to you all.
The good news is that hand cleared my head pretty good and I ended up leaving the table with about $2300.
monday session results +1700
I've been trying to work a few kinks out of my game.. mostly i've been trying to not pay off people like a donkey on the river. I hate to say it like that since I believe one of my strongest skills in poker is picking off bluffs with semi-weak hands. I credit that skill alone to why I can consistantly turn a profit. It's just that lately i've been making some donkish calls on the river that could be added to the profit for my day instead of creating more work for me.
Example... 3/6 PLO. I call a raise to $21 preflop with Kc Ks 9s Jd in the cutoff with 3 other players in the pot.
Flop 9c 9d 8h
It checks around to me and I bet half the pot. I get called by one player and everyone else folds.
Turn 6c
My opponent leads out and fires a close to pot sized bet of $170. I call but this was my first mistake of the hand. This is where I need to let my hand go. The odds very much that my opponent has a full house. With all the possibilites in omaha it's very uncommon for someone to lead out the pot with anything less. Even if he made a bad call with 7 10 and turned a straight he's in the lead here bigtime. Still, I make the stubborn call most likely drawing at 5 outs.
River Qd
My opponant fires out $300 and I make the call. If I couldn't get away from my hand on the turn I should have been able to -easily- get away here. He turns over 9h 6s Ac 10h and yes.... he did infact have me totally crushed the entire hand. I don't know what my problem was to be honest with you. I consider pot limit omaha to be a game i'm very strong in yet I played this hand like a complete amateur with no clue. Let this be a lesson to you all.
The good news is that hand cleared my head pretty good and I ended up leaving the table with about $2300.
monday session results +1700
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Solid month so far
I've been pleased with my results so far this month. I am still very dissapointed with myself as far as the WSOP goes but i'm playing solid poker and that's what matters most.
My biggest problem with running well is I start to think that I can be lazy and not play as much. I should be playing -more- since running well generally means i'm playing well and making good decisions.
Not alot to report for saturday and sunday's sessions. I put in about 4 hours each day and finished +400 saturday and -500 sunday. I put in a good run at the 100k guaranteed on bodog but fell just short of the money and I busted out of the 500k guaranteed on full tilt when my kings ran into aces. oops...
My biggest problem with running well is I start to think that I can be lazy and not play as much. I should be playing -more- since running well generally means i'm playing well and making good decisions.
Not alot to report for saturday and sunday's sessions. I put in about 4 hours each day and finished +400 saturday and -500 sunday. I put in a good run at the 100k guaranteed on bodog but fell just short of the money and I busted out of the 500k guaranteed on full tilt when my kings ran into aces. oops...
I've been using pokertracking.com to keep track of my results. The graph doesn't fit on the page so you can check it out here.
Until next time...
Grinding away...
I didn't come out of my room until 10:30 tonight.. I woke up and started working right away. I put in a pretty good session and I only played one big pot. Everything else was just grinding away, picking up small pots and overall just playing solid poker. The one big hand I did play? It makes me wonder what goes through peoples heads sometimes.
I've been playing pretty agressive and I pick up Ac As under the gun. I decide to just limp. Seat 6 (from here on known as Joe) who has played a big pot 2 of the last 4 hands raises it up to $45. It folds back to me who makes it $150 to go. Joe calls.
Flop Ah 10s 4d
I can't really check here since the pot is so big. I fire out $180 and Joe calls quickly.
Turn 8d
I'm not threatened by anything on this board and my best bet here is to induce a bet from Joe. I'm willing to risk giving the free card in this spot. I check and Joe instantly moves it in for his last $700. I quickly call and Joe shows Ks 10s. Nice.... Overall about a 6 hour session.
Friday session results +2500
I've been playing pretty agressive and I pick up Ac As under the gun. I decide to just limp. Seat 6 (from here on known as Joe) who has played a big pot 2 of the last 4 hands raises it up to $45. It folds back to me who makes it $150 to go. Joe calls.
Flop Ah 10s 4d
I can't really check here since the pot is so big. I fire out $180 and Joe calls quickly.
Turn 8d
I'm not threatened by anything on this board and my best bet here is to induce a bet from Joe. I'm willing to risk giving the free card in this spot. I check and Joe instantly moves it in for his last $700. I quickly call and Joe shows Ks 10s. Nice.... Overall about a 6 hour session.
Friday session results +2500
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
feeling pretty good and on track
I've been putting in some good sessions lately. After 15 hours yesterday I put in a solid 6 today. I was cut short because I had bowling tonight and then I picked up where I left off when I got back. Right now i'm sitting on the lovesac with the laptop watching Mike and Mike on ESPN2 and playing a 5/10 table on FTP.
Played in the full tilt 40k guaranteed with Brad and busted out around 100/350. I played 2 cash tables and finished around +900 in my early session. I did have one strange hand that had me wondering what goes through peoples heads sometimes.
I'm holding Kc Ks on the button. The 5 seat (we'll call him Bob) raises to $45 and it folds to me. I smooth call hoping that the blinds will fold and I can go heads up. The plan here is to get an extra bet from this guy on anything other than an A high flop. If it comes A high I can get away cheap without anyone knowing I had a monster. I don't make this play often but it's good to keep people on their toes.
Flop 5s 6c Jh
Bob fires out $50 and I make it $140 to go. Bob calls and we goto the turn.
Turn 3s
Bob checks and I still feel pretty good about my hand. AA and JJ are on my mind yes but my plan here was to trap this guy and if I ended up trapping myself I think it's one of those spots I have to pay it off. I think a minute and fire out $220. Bob quickly moves it in for his last $550 and I make the call.
Bob shows 2s 3d??? alrighty then... The river comes a harmless Ad and I take down the pot. Moral of this story? I don't know... but it's an interesting one.
Monday session results +1500
Played in the full tilt 40k guaranteed with Brad and busted out around 100/350. I played 2 cash tables and finished around +900 in my early session. I did have one strange hand that had me wondering what goes through peoples heads sometimes.
I'm holding Kc Ks on the button. The 5 seat (we'll call him Bob) raises to $45 and it folds to me. I smooth call hoping that the blinds will fold and I can go heads up. The plan here is to get an extra bet from this guy on anything other than an A high flop. If it comes A high I can get away cheap without anyone knowing I had a monster. I don't make this play often but it's good to keep people on their toes.
Flop 5s 6c Jh
Bob fires out $50 and I make it $140 to go. Bob calls and we goto the turn.
Turn 3s
Bob checks and I still feel pretty good about my hand. AA and JJ are on my mind yes but my plan here was to trap this guy and if I ended up trapping myself I think it's one of those spots I have to pay it off. I think a minute and fire out $220. Bob quickly moves it in for his last $550 and I make the call.
Bob shows 2s 3d??? alrighty then... The river comes a harmless Ad and I take down the pot. Moral of this story? I don't know... but it's an interesting one.
Monday session results +1500
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Main event here I come!
I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I've been putting in a few decent sessions but nothing to be too proud of. Today was a good turn of the tides as far as my tournament game and results go. I bought into the 500+35 on full tilt with 100 main event seats guaranteed. 3338 players with top 139 getting a seat and I managed to finish 130th.
It was a huge grind the entire tournament. I was only above average stack once in the early rounds and I spent the rest of my time under the average. I was able to secure my seat with a few well timed moves and alot of folding to hold on long enough. I'm pretty psyched about playing in my first main event. $10,000 tournament entry and $2000 cash for expenses for my finish.
Thanks to Brad for railing me from about 350 on. It was nice to have someone to talk to while I folded over, over and over again.
As far as the cash games go its been up and down with nothing too amazing to report. I did have one day of +4800 earlier in the week and then two days finishing around -1200. I'll do a better job tracking my progress this week. I've been playing on my laptop lately because my computer chair upstairs is broken. Yes, my $300 chair I bought 8 months ago is dead. I went to get a new one yesterday and they were out of all the good ones at office depot. I'll go searching again tomorrow. At this point i'll take anything until I find a good one just because of all the money i'm losing by playing only 2 or 3 tables on the laptop.
Until next time...
It was a huge grind the entire tournament. I was only above average stack once in the early rounds and I spent the rest of my time under the average. I was able to secure my seat with a few well timed moves and alot of folding to hold on long enough. I'm pretty psyched about playing in my first main event. $10,000 tournament entry and $2000 cash for expenses for my finish.
Thanks to Brad for railing me from about 350 on. It was nice to have someone to talk to while I folded over, over and over again.
As far as the cash games go its been up and down with nothing too amazing to report. I did have one day of +4800 earlier in the week and then two days finishing around -1200. I'll do a better job tracking my progress this week. I've been playing on my laptop lately because my computer chair upstairs is broken. Yes, my $300 chair I bought 8 months ago is dead. I went to get a new one yesterday and they were out of all the good ones at office depot. I'll go searching again tomorrow. At this point i'll take anything until I find a good one just because of all the money i'm losing by playing only 2 or 3 tables on the laptop.
Until next time...
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Update coming soon...
I've been a little slack on the blog updates recently and I apologize. I've been playing just havn't been posting on here. I will put up a new post while i'm playing the sunday tournaments.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The $1200 misclick
Put in a quality session today. What is quality? I consider anything over four hours a good session. sad i know... but that's just the life I live. I'm really working on it... ok?!
After about a 4 1/2 hour winning session (+1100) i decided enough was enough and met up with my buddy Bruce at a local bar close to the house for a couple drinks and a relaxing rest of my night. As it turned out I was quite up for drinking and we spent almost 7 hours at this place and it turned out to be a great night. If anyone puts a shot of jeager in front of me in the next week i swear i'm going to puke.
Anyways moving right along... After I got back to the house I decided to make a quick post to the blog and head to bed. Of couse, I couldn't sit and write in my blog without a table of 5/10 up and running. As I pulled up blogspot I went to click on fold for my Qc 4c I was looking at and my mouse accidently hit call. This is what followed.
War_Crimes Fold $ 0.00
TaintViolater Fold $ 0.00
BigBadDevil Fold $ 0.00
peter500 Call $ 10.00
liquidghost Call $ 10.00 oops....
foxridge1 Fold $ 0.00
Currahee Fold $ 5.00
powerdog17 Check
Flop Qd 4s 7s
peter500 Bet $ 45.00
liquidghost Call $ 45.00 I decide to play this one a bit different and see the turn card before throwing in a raise
powerdog17 Fold $ 0.00
Turn Qh
peter500 Check
liquidghost Bet $ 80.00 can't check
peter500 Raise $ 160.00
liquidghost Raise $ 280.00 very unlikely he has Q7. A call here is unthinkable. There are so many hands that I can beat that can call a raise. I make this raise almost without hesitating
peter500 Call $ 200.00
River 2c
peter500 Check
liquidghost All-in $ 841.00 The two of clubs is almost the most beautiful card in the deck. It almost guarantees me having the best hand and doesn't scare away any hands that can pay me off. My decision to go all-in here is simply because i'm happy with the pot size now and I know alot of hands such as KQ and AQ can't fold in this pot. The check worries me about being paid off but i'm happy with this pot if he doesn't call. This bet can also come across as very suspect and possibly get a call from much weaker hand. The river all-in overbet can be a very strong move in my opinion. It keeps opponents on their toes.
peter500 Call $ 841.00
Betting round completed
Last active pot = $0.00 Side pot 7 = $2,524.00
liquidghost shows Qc 4c: full house
peter500 shows Qs 10s: three of a kind
I think the only reason this hand amuses me so much is the fact I was in it completely by accident.
moving along...
I want and need to goto bed yet i'm having a sick run at my one table while i'm writing this. In the 30 minutes or so it's taken me to write all of this i've gone from my $1000 buyin to almost $5000.
enough is enough... I can hardly keep myself awake. until next time...
Saturday session results +4900
After about a 4 1/2 hour winning session (+1100) i decided enough was enough and met up with my buddy Bruce at a local bar close to the house for a couple drinks and a relaxing rest of my night. As it turned out I was quite up for drinking and we spent almost 7 hours at this place and it turned out to be a great night. If anyone puts a shot of jeager in front of me in the next week i swear i'm going to puke.
Anyways moving right along... After I got back to the house I decided to make a quick post to the blog and head to bed. Of couse, I couldn't sit and write in my blog without a table of 5/10 up and running. As I pulled up blogspot I went to click on fold for my Qc 4c I was looking at and my mouse accidently hit call. This is what followed.
War_Crimes Fold $ 0.00
TaintViolater Fold $ 0.00
BigBadDevil Fold $ 0.00
peter500 Call $ 10.00
liquidghost Call $ 10.00 oops....
foxridge1 Fold $ 0.00
Currahee Fold $ 5.00
powerdog17 Check
Flop Qd 4s 7s
peter500 Bet $ 45.00
liquidghost Call $ 45.00 I decide to play this one a bit different and see the turn card before throwing in a raise
powerdog17 Fold $ 0.00
Turn Qh
peter500 Check
liquidghost Bet $ 80.00 can't check
peter500 Raise $ 160.00
liquidghost Raise $ 280.00 very unlikely he has Q7. A call here is unthinkable. There are so many hands that I can beat that can call a raise. I make this raise almost without hesitating
peter500 Call $ 200.00
River 2c
peter500 Check
liquidghost All-in $ 841.00 The two of clubs is almost the most beautiful card in the deck. It almost guarantees me having the best hand and doesn't scare away any hands that can pay me off. My decision to go all-in here is simply because i'm happy with the pot size now and I know alot of hands such as KQ and AQ can't fold in this pot. The check worries me about being paid off but i'm happy with this pot if he doesn't call. This bet can also come across as very suspect and possibly get a call from much weaker hand. The river all-in overbet can be a very strong move in my opinion. It keeps opponents on their toes.
peter500 Call $ 841.00
Betting round completed
Last active pot = $0.00 Side pot 7 = $2,524.00
liquidghost shows Qc 4c: full house
peter500 shows Qs 10s: three of a kind
I think the only reason this hand amuses me so much is the fact I was in it completely by accident.
moving along...
I want and need to goto bed yet i'm having a sick run at my one table while i'm writing this. In the 30 minutes or so it's taken me to write all of this i've gone from my $1000 buyin to almost $5000.
enough is enough... I can hardly keep myself awake. until next time...
Saturday session results +4900
Saturday, June 09, 2007
the worst 45 minutes of my career
Wednesday was one of the worst sessions i've ever had.. I played for 45 minutes and finished at -5100. Just sick. I usually won't let it get to that point but I was actually playing very well. I got my money in best 2 of the 3 times (the one I didn't was a flopped ace high flush against a flopped straight flush) and was outdrawn the other two. The two beats were at 10/20 which is why I had such a bad day. I think i'll just avoid 10/20 for awhile.
I decided maybe poker needed a rest so I went out with some friends for awhile. Was feeling pretty good when I got back so I sat for awhile and cut the days losses to only about -4000. It's okay.... all I can do is just shake it off and move on to the next day.
Thursday was an off day. I went to the Las Vegas 51's (AAA team for the Dodgers) game with some friends. We tailgated ahead of time and $1 beer night is always a good time. Overall, it was a very good day off.. especially after how brutal wednesday was.
Friday was a good day and welcomed healing to my bankroll. A few hands confused me but I was playing about as good as I feel I can. This one hand still has me scratching my head...
I'm in the cutoff with 9c 9s. It folds to the 5 seat who raises to $40. I call everyone else folds.
Flop 2h 9h 2s
5 seat bets $50. I just call. Not alot of danger here. I have position and will check raise the turn if he bets again.
Turn 10s
5 seat doesn't dissapoint and bets $100. I raise to $300 and the 5 seat makes a quick call.
River 10d
5 seat checks. The only real questions now are did he call me with a 10? and if he didn't... how much will he call on the river? I decided that $300 was a good bet. He quickly called and mucked to my full house and I eagerly checked the hand history to see what he could of called me with. I was pretty set on the JJ-KK range. I didn't really see anything else that could of played the hand like he did. You can imagine my suprise to see he called me with As 8d?? really? Either I made the perfect bet or I left money on the table because he had about $250 in front of him still when the hand was over. I'm still a little perplexed about the whole thing. Oh well.... next hand please.
Friday session results +2900
I decided maybe poker needed a rest so I went out with some friends for awhile. Was feeling pretty good when I got back so I sat for awhile and cut the days losses to only about -4000. It's okay.... all I can do is just shake it off and move on to the next day.
Thursday was an off day. I went to the Las Vegas 51's (AAA team for the Dodgers) game with some friends. We tailgated ahead of time and $1 beer night is always a good time. Overall, it was a very good day off.. especially after how brutal wednesday was.
Friday was a good day and welcomed healing to my bankroll. A few hands confused me but I was playing about as good as I feel I can. This one hand still has me scratching my head...
I'm in the cutoff with 9c 9s. It folds to the 5 seat who raises to $40. I call everyone else folds.
Flop 2h 9h 2s
5 seat bets $50. I just call. Not alot of danger here. I have position and will check raise the turn if he bets again.
Turn 10s
5 seat doesn't dissapoint and bets $100. I raise to $300 and the 5 seat makes a quick call.
River 10d
5 seat checks. The only real questions now are did he call me with a 10? and if he didn't... how much will he call on the river? I decided that $300 was a good bet. He quickly called and mucked to my full house and I eagerly checked the hand history to see what he could of called me with. I was pretty set on the JJ-KK range. I didn't really see anything else that could of played the hand like he did. You can imagine my suprise to see he called me with As 8d?? really? Either I made the perfect bet or I left money on the table because he had about $250 in front of him still when the hand was over. I'm still a little perplexed about the whole thing. Oh well.... next hand please.
Friday session results +2900
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
A question of motivation
I ended the month of May on a bit of a sour note and had to ride out a rough stretch at the end. I took a very large number of bad beats 3 sessions in a row. One thing that i've always done is pull myself away from a bad session when I start to feel my play is sloppy. It could be i've been playing bad or it could be I just can't hold on when I get it in with the best of it. Either way, when a session goes south and I can't turn it around, i stop. It's just good money management. I had to cut myself off 3 sessions in a row last week, which tends to make for bad results.
My overall results for the month of may are about +14000 after being able to recover my bad run to -2500 before the month ended.
These are the times when I play the least poker.. not only because i'm running bad but because it's hard to find the motivation necessary to sit and play for the hours that are required. Last week I went out twice during the week and spent most of thursday out on lake mead with some friends. I will do anything necessary to make sure when I sit down at the tables I am making clear and correct decisions. Even if it involves losing a day.
A good day today. I put in a few hours and felt great. I'm planning on putting in a longer day tomorrow. I have two checks coming and when they do I will go down to the Rio and see what I can do in satellites for the series. I'm still upset with myself for the situation I ended up in regarding the WSOP this year but I still have no doubt it's for the best. Until next time..
Tuesday session results +2400
My overall results for the month of may are about +14000 after being able to recover my bad run to -2500 before the month ended.
These are the times when I play the least poker.. not only because i'm running bad but because it's hard to find the motivation necessary to sit and play for the hours that are required. Last week I went out twice during the week and spent most of thursday out on lake mead with some friends. I will do anything necessary to make sure when I sit down at the tables I am making clear and correct decisions. Even if it involves losing a day.
A good day today. I put in a few hours and felt great. I'm planning on putting in a longer day tomorrow. I have two checks coming and when they do I will go down to the Rio and see what I can do in satellites for the series. I'm still upset with myself for the situation I ended up in regarding the WSOP this year but I still have no doubt it's for the best. Until next time..
Tuesday session results +2400
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