Update on Poker and Life
I feel like I should update this thing since I haven't in a while.
I started a job last week, so I've been playing a lot less poker lately. I'm in training right now to work the phones for Delta Airlines in the reservations department. It's not a great job, nor does it pay great, but it should pay my bills for the time being while I figure out what it is I actually want to do with my life.
I had to take a fairly good-sized withdrawal from my Party roll to pay my bills at the end of January, but with my latest $100 bonus I'm back up to a little over $1600, which is 400 BB for the game I play right now, so I'm in decent shape bankroll-wise. I also have some money on FullTilt and Full Contact for Tournament play. I'm kinda hoping that I won't have to take any money out of Party for a little while and I can take a shot at 3/6 when I get to 1800. I may try to figure out how to play 6-max successfully first though. For some reason I've never been able to play shorthanded limit well, and I think a big part of it is that the key really is controlled aggression and knowing when to back off and when to calldown with 2nd or even 3rd pair. These are things I've yet to master. I've learned how to beat up on donkeys and value-bet the hell out of my strong hands and even some of the more marginal ones. But I've yet to figure out how to play shorthanded and I think I'm probably going to need to in order to take my game to the next level. I really ought to take some time to finish reading HPFAP and SS2's limit section, but I don't know if I'll have the discipline to do that.
In actual playing news, today I won a $10+1 SnG on FullTilt and won a $5.50 HORSE SnG. I found the HORSE SnG to be remarkably donkified and I may play a few more of them in an effort to work on my play in those other games. I also played a $5.50 NL MTT and was cruising with a decent chipstack of around 4k right before the break, when things went to hell. First I raised in EP with TT and got called by the player directly to my left. I hadn't seen her do anything so far, so I really had no idea what she was capable of. We saw a flop of 8xJ HU and I bet out 350 and she insta raised to 700. At this point I really had no idea where I was in the hand, but decided to peel anyway. The turn card was an Ace, about as bad a card as I could think of and I felt completely lost. I finally decided to bet out 1k and she again immediately raised to 2k. I couldn't put her on a hand, but I couldn't think of anything she was logically playing that I could beat and figured it was going to eventually cost me all my chips to find out whether or not she was bluffing. I finally decided to fold and she showed the bluff KcQc. I'm still not sure what I could have done differently in the hand, a read would have been nice, but without one, it's a tough hand not to laydown. In fact, I probably only could have lost less by maybe not peeling the flop even or check/folding the turn.
At any rate, at that point I was down to 2k, but not out as the blinds were still only 50/100. A couple of hands later I picked up 99 and made it 350 to go. I got called by a shorter stack who'd been gambling a bit and was possibly on tilt a little. The flop came T2T and he pushed his last 700 or so in. I insta-called and he showed A2. Of course, the turn was an Ace and I was down to my last 1k. I went broke on the last hand before the break when an MP player made it 250 to go and I was in the BB, I found A3 and decided I didn't want to sit through the break only to be ultra-short when I came back, so I jammed. He called with AT and that was the end of my Tourney. Such is the nature of tournament poker. I played well for a while, but after that one big hand, things just went south. Of course, if I win that pot against the shortstack I'm back up to 3k and probably go much deeper, but bad beats happen and I accept that as a part of poker.
I started a job last week, so I've been playing a lot less poker lately. I'm in training right now to work the phones for Delta Airlines in the reservations department. It's not a great job, nor does it pay great, but it should pay my bills for the time being while I figure out what it is I actually want to do with my life.
I had to take a fairly good-sized withdrawal from my Party roll to pay my bills at the end of January, but with my latest $100 bonus I'm back up to a little over $1600, which is 400 BB for the game I play right now, so I'm in decent shape bankroll-wise. I also have some money on FullTilt and Full Contact for Tournament play. I'm kinda hoping that I won't have to take any money out of Party for a little while and I can take a shot at 3/6 when I get to 1800. I may try to figure out how to play 6-max successfully first though. For some reason I've never been able to play shorthanded limit well, and I think a big part of it is that the key really is controlled aggression and knowing when to back off and when to calldown with 2nd or even 3rd pair. These are things I've yet to master. I've learned how to beat up on donkeys and value-bet the hell out of my strong hands and even some of the more marginal ones. But I've yet to figure out how to play shorthanded and I think I'm probably going to need to in order to take my game to the next level. I really ought to take some time to finish reading HPFAP and SS2's limit section, but I don't know if I'll have the discipline to do that.
In actual playing news, today I won a $10+1 SnG on FullTilt and won a $5.50 HORSE SnG. I found the HORSE SnG to be remarkably donkified and I may play a few more of them in an effort to work on my play in those other games. I also played a $5.50 NL MTT and was cruising with a decent chipstack of around 4k right before the break, when things went to hell. First I raised in EP with TT and got called by the player directly to my left. I hadn't seen her do anything so far, so I really had no idea what she was capable of. We saw a flop of 8xJ HU and I bet out 350 and she insta raised to 700. At this point I really had no idea where I was in the hand, but decided to peel anyway. The turn card was an Ace, about as bad a card as I could think of and I felt completely lost. I finally decided to bet out 1k and she again immediately raised to 2k. I couldn't put her on a hand, but I couldn't think of anything she was logically playing that I could beat and figured it was going to eventually cost me all my chips to find out whether or not she was bluffing. I finally decided to fold and she showed the bluff KcQc. I'm still not sure what I could have done differently in the hand, a read would have been nice, but without one, it's a tough hand not to laydown. In fact, I probably only could have lost less by maybe not peeling the flop even or check/folding the turn.
At any rate, at that point I was down to 2k, but not out as the blinds were still only 50/100. A couple of hands later I picked up 99 and made it 350 to go. I got called by a shorter stack who'd been gambling a bit and was possibly on tilt a little. The flop came T2T and he pushed his last 700 or so in. I insta-called and he showed A2. Of course, the turn was an Ace and I was down to my last 1k. I went broke on the last hand before the break when an MP player made it 250 to go and I was in the BB, I found A3 and decided I didn't want to sit through the break only to be ultra-short when I came back, so I jammed. He called with AT and that was the end of my Tourney. Such is the nature of tournament poker. I played well for a while, but after that one big hand, things just went south. Of course, if I win that pot against the shortstack I'm back up to 3k and probably go much deeper, but bad beats happen and I accept that as a part of poker.
posted by TheCinciKid @ 9:21 PM
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