Ugly

Just ran 4 SNG’s and boy was it ugly.

Managed to cash in two of them, but I took some tough beats. I managed to get all in pre flop with AA, AA, and KK and all three lost knocking me out in all three. Twice I lost to 666, maybe I need to go to church?

Good story from some more $50 NL tables. I’m the BB with AA and three people limp and some guy puts in a $10 raise and I push. He turns over 33 and goes off on me, asking how I could call a $10 raise. I have a rule about not talking at tables, but man I wanted to say something to him. Look at what I had you knob! He could have bet a million dollars and I was pushing. Some people.

Some of the talk at the tables cracks me up. Today we had a guy telling us how he just took a $900 pot down about an hour ago, but now he is playing $50 NL and he bought in for $8, yeah OK. Last night it was a guy at $2/$4 Limit telling us how he usually plays $10/$20 and buys in for $10k.

Listen up if any of you morons read this site. If you are going to lie about your poker exploits, make it reasonable at least. Kind of reminds me of this guy I use to know, a friend of a friend type deal. He would lie about everything. He told us he bought a brand new Mustang and that is all he would talk about for days. Then we would go over to his house to see it and oddly enough, he totaled it last night! Or he would brag about this hot girl he was dating who was a model. We were at his house one night and he said we had to go cause she was on her way over. We left, sat outside of his for two hours, nobody showed up. We then call to ask how things are going and he said great, they were watching a movie and off to bed soon. I’m not sure what is worse, the fact that he lied or we had nothing better to do for two hours other then catch him in the lie.

Again

OK, guess I was wrong in my last post. I just hit quad 10’s again. 3 of them were on the board though, so I didn’t get much value from them.

Quads Everywhere

Quads seem to be flying around me lately. I hit two quads in the MTT I won the other night and then last night playing some limit 6-max I flopped quad 3’s and made a bundle. I got 3 quads in 24 hours, that means I probably wont see them again for 6 months.

My quest starts on Monday to make $1500 in a month. I probably set it pretty low to be honest, I have made that in a week a few times. The way I have been playing lately, maybe I set it to high.

I played a few hundred more hands of 6-max last night and lost $17. That is just over 4 BB’s so no big deal I guess. I don’t seem to be grasping that game very good yet. I do think I am getting some bad cards right now. I had AK three times last night and missed the flop with all three and had to give them up. I see other morons cap it pre flop with 44 and hit their set on the flop and it just frustrates me. Maybe I should start playing like a donkey, then maybe I could win. I know long term I will destroy those types, but its frustrating when you are losing.

I made contact with the guy I want to hire to coach me. Found him on 2+2 and he offers reasonable rates. Just waiting to hear back from on on what time he would like to do it, then we should be set. I am hoping that having him watch me play and discussing the hands will be very helpful to me.

I sat down and played some $50 NL 6-max just now. Made about $60 in an hour worth of play. It was all made on one hand basically. I had AA and raised, one caller. Flop came Q high and I bet out and he raised me. I came over the top and he came back over the top, but for only $4 more then I had raised. I thought that was odd, and of course called it. If he had made a bigger raise I would have laid it down probably. I didn’t think he had QQ because he had just called pre flop and he didn’t seem like the type to slowplay. So I figured he hit 2 pair. The turn paired the board and now if he had 2 pair, they were counterfeited. He made a bet and I pushed all in and he called. All he had was a pair of Q’s and I took it down. He had a pretty big stack but I only had $52 at the start of the hand, so I couldn’t take it all. But I gladly took the $52.

MTT Success

I know a lot of people that play in the Stars 700k tournament on Sunday’s. I always listen to them talk about it and how much they won and what not. I admit it, I was always jealous because my tournament game didn’t match up to that kind of competition. Not anymore baby!

Tonight, totally out of the blue, I sat down and played a $5 satellite to qualify for the 700k, and I won. It was the very first MTT I have ever bought into in my life. It was a rebuy and add on tournament, but I didn’t need any rebuy’s cause I tripled up pretty fast. I did purchase a $5 add on at the first break. So for $10 I got a $500+30 entry into a pretty big tournament.

I hit quads 2 different times in the tournament. The first time I wasn’t able to extract much value for them, but the second one was a dandy. It was the hand that really vaulted me to the top of the leader board and got things rolling. Here it is:

Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t100/t200
(Ante: t25)
9 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Hero: t11365
UTG+1: t31735
MP1: t5285
MP2: t21625
MP3: t4643
CO: t28410
Button: t4965
SB: t6885
BB: t25195

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is UTG with 7♥ 7♦
Hero calls t200, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t200, MP2 raises to t1000, 4 folds, BB calls t800, Hero calls t800, MP1 folds.

Flop: 7♠ 4♥ 7♣ (t3525, 3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP2 bets t3000, BB calls t3000, Hero calls t3000.

Turn: 9♣ (t12525, 3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, MP2 is all-in t17600, BB folds, Hero calls all-in t7340.
Uncalled bets: t10260 returned to MP2.

River: 8♣ (t27205, 0 player + 2 all-in – Main pot: t27205)

Results:
Final pot: t27205
Hero showed 7h 7d
MP2 showed Ah 2h

I know the call was pretty weak UTG and probably a mistake, but I had just read the part in HoH where Harrington talks about not compounding one mistake by making another. Normally I fold to that raise, but with the odds I was getting that would have been a mistake, so I called. Good thing I did huh?

I’m pretty tired right now, but on Saturday I am going to run tournaments all day in preparation for the one on Sunday. Wish me luck.

Test Run

I decided to take a little test run 4 tabling SNG’s tonight. Most I had ever done was 2 at a time, so I gave 4 a shot. I took a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and a 5th. Not bad I guess. I’m just running the $5.50’s on Stars, so nothing big.

One the 2nd and 3rd place finishes, I was short stacked when it got to the money, by quite a bit. The one I took 2nd in, the second big stack tangled with the big stack on a pretty questionable hand if you ask me. He had me outchipped by 3x and could have picked a better spot to push. After that, I had about $1500 left and the blinds were 200/400 with a 25 ante. He min raised from the button and I had QJ and pushed. I was just hoping I had live cards and I did, he flipped over T8s and I felt good. Too bad he spiked an 8 and took it down. I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to tournament play.

Another bad day at 6-max. Looking over my last 2,000 hands, I’m not sure I am playing that bad to be honest. I think it might be more bad cards then anything. Right now, AA, QQ, AKs, AKo are all losers in the past 2,000 hands. I had AA twice in the BB today and it was folded to me both times, ugh.

I made an inquiry about a coach on 2+2 and am waiting to hear back from him. If I’m going to get serious I don’t mind spending the money, and he is much cheaper then other coaches I checked out. I did some searches and read some of his posts on 2+2 and liked what I read, so I decided to set something up. Hopefully I will hear back tomorrow.

Not A Good Day At The Tables

Pretty crappy day today. I think I lost about $100, maybe less because I think I cleared $40 in bonus money. Just when I think I have a handle on 6-max play, it jumps up and reminds me I’m still its bitch.

Today was a lesson in not adjusting properly to my opponents. I was sitting at two tables and both were very aggressive with PFR percentages in the high teens for the entire table. One guy was playing 60% of his hands and raising about 25% of the time, and I had over 300 hands on him. He wasn’t playing good after the flop either, he was jamming the pot with second pair and bottom pair. He was getting some good cards on the turn and river that helped him out.

I wasn’t able to get in a spot to take him on that often though. Finally on my last orbit I found myself in a spot I could. He raised UTG and I 3 bet with KQo and he caps. Flop comes Kxx and I bet, raised and capped every round and took it down with my kings. PAHUD showed me he raised UTG and capped with J9s. He told me I was insane to play a hand that fast and strong. Normally I would never do that, but after seeing the crap he played I was pretty comfortable with how I played it. He then bashed me for 3 betting KQo. I thought for a minute and said, someone who raises from UTG and then caps it with J9s should not be bashing anyone about their raising standards.

After getting my butt handed to me at the 6-max tables I figured I would feed my new obsession and play some SNG’s. I ran two and stunk the joint up. I made stupid play after stupid play. I don’t mind losing if I play well and things just don’t go my way, but I cant stand it when I play like a total donkey and lose. Oh well, tomorrow is another day baby.

My February Goal

Goals are good things to set in life, so I can’t imagine them being bad in poker. Other then to learn and get better, I have never really had a financial goal in poker. I think now would be a good time for me to set one, the only problem is I am not real sure what to do.

I think for the month of February, I will try to increase my bankroll by 50%. Depending on how I do during the day, my current bankroll can be on either side of $3k, so lets just call it an even $3k and say I need to win $1500 in the month of February.

I will play any and all games to achieve this goal. I will count any and all winnings as well. This includes bonus whoring, rakeback, tournament wins, freeroll wins, etc.

I just looked at the calender and realized February is a short month, so I will start the quest on January 30th. That will give me 30 days to complete it and the 30th is a Monday, a good day to start. I will keep track of everything right here on my blog so you can all come around and point and laugh if I fail.

Update

I finally deposited over at Full Tilt this past week. I got the standard 27% rakeback deal and a $600 deposit bonus, so I will be working that off in the next week or so.

I really like the site so far. The graphics are nice and it runs pretty smooth. Considering it has no skins, the traffic isn’t all that bad either. It does seem to have more NL games then limit, but that is OK.

I am not a 6-max player. I haven’t played a full ring game in about a week, just too boring now. I was playing 3 or 4 tables and it was just such a grind. I now play 1 6-max table and it holds my interest more then those 3-4 tables do. I am playing at $2/$4 which is a level higher then I would like to play, but Full Tilt doesnt offer any short hand games at $1/$2.

I started off at Full Tilt pretty bad, losing about half of my deposit the first few days. Not shocking really, I suck at 6-max. Turned it around the past few days and I am heading in the right direction again. I really think I am starting to get a good grasp on it now and hopefully I can string together some winning sessions to show that. About 30% of my downturn was due to bad cards and about 70% was due to me sucking. Oh yeah, “me sucking” is now an official poker phrase I have coined.

I really want to start getting into tournaments as well and I played about 10 SNG’s this weekend. Finished 1st in 2, 2nd in 2 more and nothing in the rest, so not all that bad. I also played in a free MTT over at checknraise, about 72 entered and I finished 13th, 3 spots out of the money. I was pleased with my play though for the most part.

I finally got off my butt and bought the full version of PAHUD. Great program and worth every penny. Matter of fact, I would pay the $25 just for the ability to see peoples mucked cards. Not because it helps me get a better read on them – it does do that – but just so I could get a good laugh at what some of these donkeys are going to the river with. Just amazing what some people call down with. I almost fall out of my chair laughing sometimes.

So tomorrow I will continue on with the 6-max adventure and start to hammer out that Full Tilt bonus. I think I will add a second table tomorrow if I feel comfortable. Hopefully I will play in 2 or 3 SNG’s a day from now on as well. I also might dedicate one whole day to them once a week and see what I can do. Wish me luck.

The 6-max saga continues

Don’t look away for too long, I am slowly turning into a 6-max player right before your very eyes. The 6-max quest lumbers on slowly, but it is going well. I don’t get in as many hands as I would like during the day, but the ones I do are productive and I am learning something.

In the few thousand hands I have played since this began, I am winning 2.5BB/100. Now I know what you are going to say, Max! How can you be happy with that win rate over such a small sample size! Thats just it, never before while playing 6-max have I been a winner with this many hands played. I am always negative BB’s and hating the game. I know this doesnt mean I am a winning player yet, but it does mean I am learning and on my way to being a winning player. How did I make the transformation you ask? What? You didn’t ask? Oh well, I am going to tell you anyway.

When I first gave 6-max a shot months ago, I heard all types of advice. Be aggressive, always be in there raising, loosen way up, etc etc. I would get way too loose and raise far too much, and I would basically just be spewing chips all over the table. I would bet bottom pair on the flop, get raised, and call down with it. What a joke. I never did that crap in full ring games, so why was I in 6-max? Who knows really, maybe that is what I thought you did in these loose games. I just know it never worked.

Now, I am picking my spots to be aggressive and its working out much better. Sometimes I still do call down with middle or bottom pair, based on my reads of the other players. My post flop play has improved big time over the past 6 months. Remember, I have only been playing just under a year and only have about 75,000 hands experience, so I am just a baby and still learning on the job so to speak.

It has come to the point where I hate to even fire up a 10 handed table, its just too boring. The only reason I still play full ring is because I need to so I can clear some bonus money. At the PR skins you need to play at least $2/$4 and above for the bonuses to make sense, due to their high rake structure. I am just not comfortable playing at those limits short handed yet.

I have really been fucking the dog when it comes to that Eurobet bonus. I would probably let it go if I didn’t need that $600 to cover my losses the past 3 weeks or so. OK, I don’t need it that bad, but being so close to clearing it, it would be dumb to let it go now. 1,000 more points and its mine. That is about 5 hours of 3 tabling 3/6 tomorrow. God help me, its going to be boring.

Stop it

I generally play 3 tables of $3/$6 full ring, two sessions each day. Lately, I have been winning in my first session and then I get the bright idea to give $5/$10 a shot in my second session. Bad idea.

I have been losing all of my profits and then some when trying this. It’s a stupid mistake and one I should know not to make, yet I still do like some idiot that has no clue. My bankroll is ready for $5/$10, my game is not.

At 3/6 I am one aggressive player, at 5/10 I am so weak tight its not even funny. It has nothing to do with the cards I am getting or anything like that. I am simply playing bad poker when I take a shot, yet I keep trying and losing. So for a while, I am banning myself from the 5/10 tables. If you see me sitting at one, come to my home and beat me with a sack of oranges please.

Poker Room Blues

I am in the process of finishing up my last PR skin bonus chase at Eurobet. It can’t end fast enough. I have about 2400 more points to clear and I will be done, should have it done by this Friday with any luck.

It’s easy to see why the PR skins give such huge amounts of bonuses. The software is not that great, and game selection is horrid. Generally between 2 and 5 tables at the levels I play, all tight as can be. But, in the last two months I bet I have cleared close to $2500 in bonus money from them, so hard to argue with that.

I have just signed up at Full Tilt with a rakeback deal and am looking forward to playing over there for a while and see how those games are. I have heard they are pretty fishy so that excites me. Plus, the rakeback deal won’t hurt either. Hopefully I will finish up a couple of odd bonuses over the weekend and get started at FT come Monday.