Live Donkeying

I played poker last night after a full week off. I am still "offline" from online poker because I don't have a computer I can use in order to play, and I'm not desperate enough to find an internet cafe/university library... although I'm getting pretty desperate.

I was supposed to be getting a computer from my aunt, but apparently it's crashing every 5 minutes and is basically worthless, so yeah I'm still without a CPU at the moment, which totally sucks. I'm not sure when I'll even be able to get myself back up an running, it looks like it could be another couple of weeks before I even have access to a shitty computer that I can load Poker Stars on to, and I will not be able to multi-table whatsoever because it's such a shitty machine.

I would just go ahead and buy a computer, but most of my savings are going towards a vacation in June with my girlfriend so I wont really be able to afford one until late in the summer probably... so yeah that sucks.

Last night was pretty rough, I was very card dead over the 5 hour session. I was dealt TWO pocket pairs, 77 and 44, I folded the 77 to a PF raise and re-raise. I paid $4 PF to see a flop in position with the 4s and didn't catch a set. I was dealt AQo once and I folded PF to raise, call, all-in (i was OTB and all that action was in front of me). No AKs, no AA-88s not even AJ or suited broadway cards.

It's a $40 max buy-in, I topped up for $10 once and $20 later on, so I was stuck for $70

I was dealt 10-7s a couple of times, I think I took down a small pot with top pair, and I double-barreled 10h-7h with a flush draw successfully and took it down on the turn.

The only pot I ever got all-in with - my stack was around $37, I had 8-6o OTB and limped into a 5-way pot. The flop was 6-7-8 rainbow, MP bet $6 and I pushed all-in for another $30, he called with Q-9. The turn was a 5 giving him the straight, but I luck-boxed an 8 on the river for a full-house.

Many rounds later I didn't do anything interesting, I made a couple bad folds with middle-pair out of position when I had the best hand. I folded a K-high flush draw to a raise and re-raise, I would have hit the flush, but I didn't want to put in $70 with no fold equity as a 35% fav at best.

At the end of the night I cashed out for exactly $70, so it was +/- 0, dead break-even. I wasn't very happy with my play, although when you are playing <20 hands an hour of 11-handed Nl40, you don't really get a big enough sample size to figure out what's going on and I was pretty card dead. I wasn't playing too sharp though, it wasn't the regular crowd and I was kinda annoyed at how little poker was being played and how much pointless banter and TV watching/beer drinking was going on. Plus I wasn't high at all.

It was a very so-so night, but I'm glad I got to sling some chips and get out of the house.

There was in total 1 interesting hand that I'm gonna share.

Hero is in the CO with Ks Qd and a $95 stack a couple hands after I more-than doubled-up with 8-6

EP calls $1, MP calls $1, Hero calls $1, SB folds BB checks

Flop: Qs-Js-2s, pot is $4.50

Everyone checks to me, I bet $3.50, BB calls, MP calls.

Turn: Qs-Js-2s, Jh, pot is $15

BB bets $10, MP raises to $30, Hero folds

I probably should have raised preflop, but I usually don't mind seeing a multi-way pot with broadway cards, so thats why I just limped. Obviously that was a pretty good flop for me, if someone bet into me I had an obvious big-reraise, but sadly I just got 2 callers.

When the J fell on the turn I didn't like my hand so much, I'm not drawing to the nuts, my top-pair is trumped by the JJ sitting on the board and there was lots of action in front of me, so I folded.

BB went all-in and MP called
BB- 8s-3s for the flopped flush
MP- Jc 9s for trips+FD

The river was another 2 giving MP a 1-card full-house.
I am not too upset with how I played this, although maybe I'm too results-based.

Disaster Strikes

... not at the poker tables, but away from the poker tables.

My computer died! Yikes!

Okay, so I'm starting to realise that I have literally no readership at this blog, which doesn't bother me so much, and I do get good readership at my www.thpblog.com blog (exit music, BTW). However I like having 2 blogs because I get to post the more self-indulgent BS here and more poker-theory stuff on the other blog.

Right now I'm typing on a MAC, which wont allow me to install Poker Stars b/c I'm running MACOS2.0, it's my mom/brothers computer, I'm over it. My aunt it giving me a new computer (6 years old=new, right??), so hopefully by next week I'll be up and running for some marathon sessions, I really want to finish Silver Star and I really want to finish 100 $11 SNGs, I think that if I get into a good groove for a couple of days next week I'll be able to accomplish these goals.

Wow I just realised how much easier it is to type on a actual keyboard compared to a laptop computer. It's probably a lot easier to multi-table on a screen bigger than 14" too.

I might post more later, since the half-month in review I finished my $6.50 turbos! 100 done, and I am not even in the negatives! Although all of my PT stats are kaput so keeping good track of my monthly goals is basically impossible.

I'm gonna be buying a DELL computer in about 6 months.

Anthalon x2 5000+ dual core processor
250 GB HD
4GB RAM
3 year ext. warranty
22" widescreen monitor
Vista Premium

Cost: <$1500 Canadian

Maybe later
a secondary monitor, dell 22" widescreen
$350

Those are the prices now, I'm thinking everything will be cheaper by the time I'm ready to buy. Or at least I'll be able to get more stuff for the same price. I'm super excited b/c I know this machine will be crazy fast and soooo good.

Can't wait to put Poker Tracker on the new machine
In 6 months I will be a happy boy :D

Half-month in review

The month is half done, it's been pretty terrible so far regarding any success online, although if you count live + online I'm up for the month.

$6.50 turbos, 86/100 completed, -$56.00, -10.14 ROI%
$11 STTs, 43/100 completed, -$68, -14.38 ROI%
$4.40 180SNGS, 7 complted, -$30.80, -100 ROI%

3.5K hands of NL cash games, -$43
2.1K of FRNL25, -$83
250 of 6MAXNL25, +$20.65
1K of 6MAXNL10, +$23.00

10 hours of live NL40, +260

I have a lot of work to do, but I don't really feel to bad about how things have been going. I haven't played any SNGs online in about a week. I don't have many turbos left to play, I doubt I'll be able to turn profit if I only play 100, that's okay though. Hopefully I'll be able to turn things around with the $11s.

I'm only gonna play 6-max for the rest of the month, primarily NL25 6-max. If I can play 3K hands of NL25 6-max by the end of the month I'll be happy. I'm going to play less tables because my focus just gets scattered when I play 8+ tables. I'll be cutting back to 4 tables at a time probably, maybe 4 cash, 1 MTT or something.

Okay I ran bad, now it's time to go crazy. Starting tomorrow.

Liveaments

I didn't play at all online today which is fine with me, but I went to the weekly live game with my friends. It was a particularily crazy night, I won some sick pots.
.50c/$1 as usual, max buyin of $40. We started out 5 handed.

Preflop, 99 on the button folds to me, I raised to $3, SB calls BB calls
Flop: 4-4-4, pot $9
SB checks, BB checks, I bet $5, SB calls BB calls
Turn: Q
SB checks, BB checks, I check
River: 9
SB checks, BB bets $10, I raise to $25, SB goes all-in, BB folds, I call.
Final pot: $105
SB shows AA
I scoop

That was sick way to start the night, I can't believe how terribly SB played that hand, he couldn't have played it worse. BB had AJ, I have no clue why he'd lead out on the river.

This hand happened later in the night, we were up to a 8 handed game. I had about $120 in my stack, SB has about $100 in his stack

Preflop: K9o in the CO, EP limps, I raise to $3, SB calls, BB calls EP folds
Flop: 10-9-2 $10 in the pot
SB checks, BB checks I bet $5, SB calls, BB folds
Turn: 10
SB bets $10, I think and call
River: 7
SB bets $30, I call
Final Pot: ~$100
SB shows A2o
I scoop

I'm not really sure why I played this hand the way I did, basically I just wasn't convinced that he had a 10, and I wasn't convinced that he had me beat so I looked him up on both streets.

After this hand I didn't win any hands for a while, I donkeyd off some chips with a couple draws, lost a midsized pot when I turned 2 pair with K9, called a $10 bet, but folded on the river to a shorter stack's all-in of about $30 more. I showed the fold and told him I thought he had a straight. Later in the night after he went busto I asked again what he had, he was like "ugh you had me beat" but he was definitely lying so I felt okay about how I played it. I had about $150 in my stack when this hand came up.

Preflop: AcKc on the Button. EP limps, MP limps, I raise to $5, SB calls, BB calls, EP calls MP calls!!! Pot: $25 5-way
Flop: 5c-6c-4c
SB, BB, EP check, MP bets $8, I call, SB folds, BB raises to $48 , EP folds, MP folds, I raise all-in, BB calls
BB shows Jc-7c
Turn: Qc
River: 8h
Final pot $250
I scoop

This hand was crazy, I made a bigish preflop raise with my AKs and got 4 callers!! I was scared to see so many callers... until I flop the nut flush. I decided to smooth-call the bet on the flop to not discourage any action behind me, thankfull the BB also flopped a flush w/ the Straight flush draw and I got paid off his whole $100 stack. Ship it :D

I cashed out for about $240, it feels good to make a big win, especially after all the beating I've been taking online lately. I'm feeling a lot more confident in my game after tonight. Online is a lot more discouraging although you can play soooo many more hands per session. Tonight's 4 hour session, we probably barely played 100 hands, when I easily could have played 1.5K hands online, althouh I probably would have been down three dollars online because I suck at online poker.

Anyways that is all for now, I wish I lived really close to a casino so I could play 1/2 NL for 8 hours a day, that would be much more fun than playing online 8 hours a day. Lately I have kind of forgotten why I like playing poker so much. Playing with poker chips is a big reason, I also like to joke and needle other players.

I am gonna try my hardest to play some more online, but I honestly feel like grinding out $10 NL is a joke and a waste of time. I might just chill for a bit and not play much online then just deposit another $300 or so later this month so I can work on NL25. That probably makes the most sence, I just need to not suck at poker for once.

Peace out :D

Broked

Today turned out to be rather unsucessful pokerwise, I was break even for about 900 hands of NL10 6-max, which is frusturating enough of an accomplishment. I also played 1 4.40-180 MTT, I busted out in aout 165th with my signature bust hand, AA. I wasn't skilled enough to get away from it, although I don't feel bad. My opponent didn't raise until the turn on a completely unthreatening board (Q-9-6-3 offsuit), so I can't really put him on too many hands that beat me (a set or Q9), especially since I made a big raise PF. I figured that KQ/AQ was a lot more likely, but he had QQ so there's not much I can do but lose my stack.

The only other poker I played today was a couple of 45 person $5.50 SNGs. The first tournament I was completely card dead , I stole some small pots and folded, I had about 1.8K in chips and had 8-7o in the BB. There was 2 limpers, SB folded and I checked. The flop was Q-8-2 with 3 hearts, I decided to stick in a bet to see what's up, so I bet 300 into the 350 pot and got one caller. The turn was an offsuited 7, giving me 2 pair. I decided he either had a queen or a flush draw and I may as well stick it in while my hand felt good, he called and had flopped the nut flush with A-6 hearts. Oooooh well.

The second tournament I had my stack around 2K with 18 people left, avg stack around 3.3K, so I was one of the shorter stacks. I picked up 99 on the button, one of the midstacks limped in MP and it folded around to me. I wasn't sure if I had the best hand or not but I decided to push anyways and force him to call if he had 77 or 88 and there was a chance he'd fold a hand like Ax. He called with AQ, flop was K-10-2, turn 5, river J, I lose to teh nuts.

So I was even in Nl cash and -$15 in tournaments today. Poker is annoying. PS bankroll = $190

DOHHHHHHHHH

The Return

I had a good weekend with the g/f, we smoothed everything over and all is good again. I hadn't played poker for about 5 days so that was a good break after my -$250 downswing, I'm chilling around $225 right now in my pokerstars bankroll. Yeah it's fuckin pathetic, now's the time for me to drop back to NL10 and grind back up to 500 so I can take another shot at Nl25. Although I honestly doubt that I will have enough of a bankroll to play NL25 for the rest of this month.

Basically my new goal for the month is to have a bankroll for NL25 by the end of the month. I need to make $280 in a little less than 3 weeks. If I play well and play dedicated, I should be able to handle it. As long as I actually run good for once.

I was playing a $4.40x180 MTT on PS today, I busted out around 40th with AA. I pushed all-in on the turn with a 4K stack, got called by 2nd pair - K9 - and he rivered a King to send me packing. I haven't cashed in a single 4.40 out of about 15 attempts. That is fucking pathetic.

I played 500 hands of 6-max NL10 today, made about $25 and I ran okay, i didn't get outdrawn for that many big pots, just a couple. And I actually scooped a couple pots! When my hand actually held up!! Yeah it felt so strange to not run bad. Although I didn't run great. Anyways, I am through with Full-ring. It feels a hell of a lot more natural to play LAGgy at 6 max and I like playing loose aggressive so it just feels right. I either suck at full-ring, or I just run bad. But I am definitely a lot better at 6-max, and you can play mor ehands per hour.

Okay okay that's all for now.

gg me, why can't I just run good at MTTs for once and have a little money again :(
Oh well.

Tilt

Yeah the day after that last -90 day I had another even worse day, PS bankroll sitting around $250 right now. Basically it was just terrible play, I can't really blame anything else other than myself, I am shit at poker.

So yeah I'm taking a small break, probably not gonna play tomorrow either. I'm going to toronto on saturday to chill with my g/f. Things are getting weird though. We live in different cities and have completely different lives. Not sure how interested in eachother we are actually. I guess I'll just have to play my cards as they are dealt. Feels like my g/f is a gutshot str8 draw and I already called a big bet on the turn, facing another big bet on the river. I just got myself into a shitty situation and it looks like the only way I'm gonna make it out okay is if I hit a crazy card on the river. Or I could cut my losses and fold on the turn.

Poker/life analogy FTW :D