Ouchie

Been dealing with a case of the gout for the past week. No Poker. No Computer. Sorry if anyone missed me. For those of you who do not know, the Gout is not a disease you get from a Thai hooker. Actually it is an arthritis type deposit of Uric acid in your toe. It hurts. At least with the hooker I could get some enjoyment first. So I am starting to be able to walk again and should be hitting the tables soon. Until then. Good Luck!

Hanging

Well.. Hanging in there. Paid Veneno back $25 when I hit $125. She gets her profit when I hit 200. Played with Chief in the 5K. The one who lasted the longest got to be the King of Poker. Guess who won? ME! Chief Sucks at Poker! Heh. He is actually good. Has some tilt issues like me I think. Good guy though!

Played a match with Joos, Geek, Veneno and I. Damn I miss the 25/NL Blogger games! Come back!!!! I will say wicked aggressive people put me on tilt. I forget how to fold in the best of situations, and when an aggro is playing all folding goes out the door. Bad! Bad! Bad! I had fun though. I ended up losing like $12, and then won most of that back on a 25/NL. So not much going on.

Almost Busted

Welllll... I tilted yet again. It seems like I can handle single day loses but when I start losing 4-5 days in a row I tend to go crazy. Oh well. It was fun going down at least. I played a 200+15 SNG for the first time ever. I do not think the opponents are that good to tell you the truth. Aggressive. Strong. Not really good though. At least at the table I was at.

I busted out of the 1250 freeroll on one of my first hands. KK vs QT. Flop Qxx. QT goes all in. Cause he has a good kicker and all. Also my pre-flop raise of 200 was not too scary. SO I call knowing he has a Q and getting ready to scoup MY chips. Until the turn is a T.. oh yeah, the river is a T too just to mock me a little more.

I did well in the 2/0. Busted out 278th. I MAY have overplayed AK a little, but I do not think so. I am against AT diamonds who raised his whole stack pre-flop, and JT off who called 50% of his stack, and then called with an OESD when I pushed. So he got rivered by AT diamonds who hit his flush, after he made his straight. So the AK was the 3rd best hand. Ummmm. Not fun. I think I took it well. Of course having 10K in chips with 278 left and not making the 3.00 money is really dissapointing. I am trying to figure out where I could have gotten out of this. I raised 1600 pre-flop, and I go re-raised to 3600. Like a dummy I just cold called. I should have pushed pre-flop and made sure it was HU. Oh well. The flop gives me a ten with the OESD on the board and a couple of diamonds. So I push. I get called by someone I have covered. He mades his OESD and the flush boy makes his hand. Neither of those hands warrant calling 1600 much less calling an all in push. However it is Party Poker.

So anyway. I did manage to get a backer. Veneno gets bored when I am not there to sweat her, so she gave me 25 from her stack. I am under orders to play 4 5/1 SNGs and the 1/0 (or 2/0 possibly) and then report back for more orders. Once I get to 200 I pay her back 50 and am free of her oppressive yoke.. just kidding! If I lose the 25 I will probably take a little time off.

I took 2nd in two of the 5/1 SNGs, and bubbled in the third. I could have made first twice, however I went all in with a nut straight against QT, and she rivered a Q, and I went all in with TPTK and he rivered a straight. Oh well. Second is ok.

Thanks for the words DiBoss. So true. Someday. Someday. I do actually feel like I am getting better at accepting the bad beats. Still not there though.

Down again..

Well back down to 460 or so. A little tilt. Not as much as usual. I did play a 100/NL. Just one. I got a little too aggressive and busted out. Ahh well. The moron I was against caught his 2-outer on the turn. Yeah, lets bet off fourty bucks with an Ace on the board when we have QQ. Of course Party Poker rewards the idiot and he catches a Queen on the turn. Not that I should have been playing top pair that aggressively, but come on! The rest of the $300 or so in loses in the past 3-4 days have all been normal play. Just not catching hands.

A few of the high points:

** I busted out of my 5/1 R&A on the first hand. I have Pocket Kings. I bet 300. Get a caller. The board is all small cards, the biggest being a ten. I have already bet out a third of my stack. So I push. He had hit his set with tens. Heeeelloooooo. I am not against playing Pocket Tens but calling that much pre-flop with them is just a losing proposition. Now this is a rebuy tourney, you might ask, why did you not rebuy? Umm.. Because.. I was running "That Bad" and did not want to waste another fiver.

** I busted out of my 2/0 on the second hand. This was even better. I guess I should have learned my lesson. However. I have Pocket Ladies. Bitches. The flop is all low cards. I push. The guy with A9 clubs and no flush draw calls. Of course he spikes his A on the turn.

** I busted out of my 20/2 SNG. I limp in the BB. I have two pair. Q6 to be exact. I bet three hundred on the flop. Now this is an SNG so it is half the guys stack. He calls. With what you might ask? King five. Ha! Loser! I have two pair! A king on the turn. He pushes. I call. Ha! Loser! I have two pair! A five on the river. Ummm.. Ha.. loser.. you have two pair.. umm.. ok.

Just a few of the painful moments. With the exception of last nights 100/NL I have been keeping a pretty even keel. I am looking forward to getting in a few hands tonight and starting to rebuild. Wish me luck!

Blah

Cash game was up and down tonight. Lost a buyin at 50 and 25. Cash game has not been going well. I made a buyin at 25 too. I lost the 2/0 tonight. I was not really into it. Too sleepy from last night. I did have a psychic friends network moment when I called a third of my stack off on two all in's with 9T clubs. It was the 2/0 MTT. I hit my flush of course. I just had a feeling. It paid off. Although I did not survive too much longer.

I also won two 20/2's back to back. That was nice. I am really becoming a good SNG player. Overall up a little to just shy of 800. Not bad considering two days ago I was at 390ish.

The 25/NL cash game bustout was just the normal fish at Party catching. I have AA and the board turns a second spade so I push in for EIGHTEEN bucks. OF COURSE the K high nothing flush calls. Why? Because he was getting odds. LMAO. What kind of odds are those? Risking eighteen bucks to make seven. Ummm.. fish ones? I dunno. IDIOT. What the hell are you even doing calling my pre-flop raise with K2 spades. I then next hand flop two pair. A guy has JT and catches a third ten on the turn. What can ya do?
I put my final six bucks in on that flop.

BTW: The fish who called my eighteen taught me something new. That Party Poker always gives a flush on the river, and I should play Party Poker Odds instead of real poker odds. Hmmmm. I wonder why that genius is playing 25/NL.

So Tired

4th Place. 2/0. So tired. 3:30AM. Two Hundred Seventy clams. Thanks to all for sweating me. Not Guiness Iggy, Chief, Joos, Veneno, Poker Geek for a few hands too. My finish was just bad timing. I had 400K in chips. Found AK. Raised 120K, someone pushed all in, reacted, called. Not a bad call. Sorry to see I was up against AA. Oh well. I am happy with my play. Especially since I was down to 12K at one point when the blinds were like 2K. So tired. Bankroll up to 730 ish or something. Getting there. Night Night loyal readers.

Chin Up

I was reading Iggys blog where he writes about Poker not really satisfying his life very much. He quotes Dr. Al who says “We need to relate to people with affection and to the world with meaningful work.”. What is meaningful work? I tried to think about why I enjoy my work most of the time. It is very simple. We need the affirmation that we are good at something. Some people like me get this from peers who “ooh” and “ahh” at my programmatic genius. Other people are not fulfilled by work and get there praise from other sources, like the family, charity work, etc.. Digging deeper into this it is very easy to see why Poker as job could be unfulfilling.

Start off by looking at your co-workers. The people you are “working” with are your mortal enemies. Your purpose in your job is to rob them naked and make them homeless hoboes on the streets of Vegas. You want to utterly and completely destroy them, leaving just enough hope in there shriveled up souls so that they will come back for some more. Are you going to be praised by these guys? Hell, would you respect that praise if you just took someone’s entire stack and they said “Wow, you’re a great player”, hell no! You would say “Of course I am to a filthy fish like you”. So you get no affirmation from your these people.

So in a feeble attempt to give you a little purpose I say look around you Iggy. You are very highly respected in your field. People who have sat at your tables, other bloggers, those who are truly your peers all think you’re great at your job. I am totally out of your league, but I truly appreciate how you play the game and aspire to that level. So cheer up a little. If that does not work go save some kittens or something.

In my own Poker life I have had several points where it seemed like a great idea to play poker professionally. I actually have a great personality for doing so once I stop getting so mad at stupid people getting lucky. I already sit at a computer screen for hours on end. If the screen contains C# programming or cards it would not make much difference. I have the ability to focus for hours on end sitting still and letting the time fly by. I have no problem being alone although I think it would be a good idea to go somewhere at least once a week so as to not forget the human language. I however have no aspirations to play poker professionally. It is a nasty, hard, game, and until I learn to accept the good with the bad I would fail miserably. Until I learn to be a loser and thus become a winner, I will never be able to handle the game. For the moment it will stay as a side job. Bringing in some income and passing the time away. Someday I might revisit it when I believe in the game again but for now I am fine with the place it has in my life.

Fourth of July

I had an excellent break from Poker this weekend. No Poker from Friday until tonight. Friday was a down day. I lost like $75. It was relaxing taking a break. Swimming with the son, two fireworks shows, some barb-e-que. Very sweet. I should do it more often. So I hit the tables and I am unstopable. I made $31 in the cash games. Basically did "The Move", bluff betting a NUT flush draw, then checking when I make the flush. The other guy of course pushes with a weaker flush thinking he has me, and I double up. The other table was up and down. I finally ended up six ahead and decided to call it a night.

The SNGs continue to be the best thing for me. I played three tonight. two 20/2's and a 5/1. I basically played very well. Won first place in the 20/2 and 5/1, and then went out fifth in the second 20/2. I had pocket 7's, short stacked, against AQ. Do they always spike the ace? Do I always miss the ace? You better beleive it. No complaints though. I got really lucky in the first place 20/2. I had <1K chips HU vs the chip leader. Push with some crappy T7 and hit a straight. I then push again with pocket 2's and river a set. So I go from being the chip dog to the point where I call his all in with T5 and hit my 5 to win. It was exxxxcelent.

The stack is back up to the mid 500's. So basically I erased Friday. Hope to make some progress this week though. Wish me luck!

Quad-idilly-do

I forgot to tell you all. I have absolute proof party poker is rigged. I got 4 sets of Quads last night. Flopped quad 3's, got quad 8's and 9's back to back, and hit quad 4's. Got paid off real nice too.

Also, people constantly ask if it is ok to post there blog addresses in my comments section. Go ahead. If it is Poker related I welcome it. I will also link you up on my extended list as soon as I stop being so lazy.

Inconsistant but good

Well the good steak continues on. It is nice to be playing SNGs and cash as my main sources of income. One night my SNG skills suck, and my cash games make me a ton, the next night my cash game sucks and my SNGs are rocking.

Last night I was all over the place. No, this is not a sob story. First table I am at I have eleven bucks left. No terrible plays. A little calling down. Too much calling when I KNEW the guy hit his flush EVEN THOUGH I made it cost him twelve bucks to get there. So I have this eleven bucks and I limp in as the BB with 24o. The flop is a nice A3. Cool. So the betting is minimal and the river is my AEWSOME 6 to make my straight! So I go all in. I get called. Wait. I have the nut straight? Where is the money going. Oops. A2346 does not make a straight does it? One buyin down.

I go to the next table and my very first hand there are two spades on the flop. I have high pockets. I push. The guy thinks. Some more. Calls me. Flips over an OESD and does not improve. SWEET! Even! The table folds soon after.

I finally hit my third and last table. In a combination of bad calling station plays and getting sucked out on I get beaten down to $4. So screw it. All in. I get a caller. I double. I work my stack back to $31. Sweeet! I get sucked out on a little. Make a few bad calls. Back to $4. By this time the table has switched over to a new group of people. All in. Three times. I chip back to $9. I then cool down a little and get pocket K’s. Since I have been doing it so often I push. I get called by the same guy who has called me three times before. He doubles me again! Sweet! Back to $18. I play solid after that and eek out some small wins. Veneno sits down. She has Pocket Js. Overs on the board. She pushes. Hits a J on the river to suckout on a lower boat. Fish! Although she had here solid times, she sucked out A LOT of hands. She could not be beat. I am glad I only went up against her once. I had a set of Kings and they held up. I think she drove the table to madness, or perhaps it was the beer, but I ended up taking $60+ away and she sucked $130 from the table. OMG! She is an awesome SNG player, and lucky fishy cash gamer. She is the reason I yell and scream at my monitor when people ignore pot odds and try and catch their two outers. Ok. I think maybe I am picking on her too much. She is not that bad. Dammmnnn though. Nice night girl!

So while I was in the midst of these major battles at the cash game I fired up a few 5/1 SNG games. No luck. So I try one 20/2 and take first. Sweet! I was unstoppable. Sometimes in these things you just get all the cards and all the breaks. I entered a second one and came in fourth. So far I have 2-3 fourths and 2 firsts. Not too bad.

So the bankroll climbs to $570+ and steadily grows. No major tilt. No meltdowns. The 25/NL table loses are containable when they happen. Solid play abounds some nights. Overall things are going well on the Poker front. I am going to start mixing in a 50/NL table every night and ease into that. I also will play at least one 20/2 SNG a night as long as they stay profitable. I have passed on the 2/0 MTT lately. It was just getting boring. I will give it another shot soon though.