Life Shouldn't Be A Fuckin' Grind

I will never be a poker pro, but my lifetime poker ledger is positive and I think that's something to be proud of.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Long Overdue Trip Report Post

I've had a very busy weekend, so I haven't had a chance to get to this yet, but I believe the Grand Victoria jinx has finally been lifted.

After going deep in the FullTilt 17k on Thursday night, I talked to FCPer mb5322 who had railed me for a bit, and he mentioned that he's from Dayton, OH and he and a friend were going to Grand Victoria Friday night. I'd been considering taking a casino trip anyway, so I agreed to join them. I got there around 10 pm and got into a very good 10/20 game very quickly. This was the biggest game I'd ever played in, but mb5322 assured me that it was a very beatable game and I decided to take a shot. My very first hand I posted in the CO and was dealt AhKh. It was raised in front of me and I 3-bet and something like 5 players saw a flop of JTx with 2 hearts. I bet my strong draw on both the flop and the turn and hit my heart on the river and picked up another big bet from 2 players. I netted about $250 in that first pot. Then, when it got around to my big blind I picked up Jd5d in an unraised pot and managed to pick up a flop of 234 with 2 diamonds, that draw came in as well eventually giving me a flush and I was up over $400 on the night. The game was wild with a lot of pre-flop raising and I wasn't able to play many hands, but I still made it up over $1000 (doubling my buy-in), before I lost some of it back when I flopped top pair with KQ, but lost to K7 who hit 2 pair. I also lost with JJ and QQ, but still ended up +$275 when the game finally broke after I'd been playing for around 3 hours. I have to admit, I'd love to play in that 10/20 game more often.

After that, I moved down to 5/10, but it just wasn't the same. With the stakes lower and the game a bit less wild, I started to get bored and not play right. At one point I decied to defend my BB in the dark and I played the hand to the turn without looking at my cards. I then looked down to find that my 63 had made 2 pair on the turn, with a K and an A also on board. I then proceeded to re-raise and bet the river with my two pair, and one of the biggest donkeys at the table almost laid down K6 to me. He finally called and pwned my two pair with his better two pair, but he really had to think about it. After that I won a little back with QQ, but I was still stuck about $100 at the 5/10 game and just said fuck it and went to try my hand at some table games with mb5322. He introduced me to a new and addictive game. I'd never played 3-card poker, but I have a feeling that I have a new leak. I bought in for $80 and was up and down in small increments for a little bit, before getting down almost to the felt. Then, I hit a small rush hitting a couple of flushes and I think maybe a straight. But, none of them paid as well as when I caught trip 6's for a 30-1 payout on my $10 bet. The best part about it was that since correct strategy says that you stay with QTx or better, I'd basically starting looking at only 1 card at a time to keep suspense up, if I had an Ace or King I'd stay automatically and wait to find out my other 2 until the dealer flipped them up, but if I had anything else I'd look at 1 more to see if my hand could qualify on only 2 cards. So, I'd looked at only 2 and knew I had a pair of 6's, but didn't know what the 3rd card was. Imagine my excitement when the dealer turned over my hand and showed my trips, I couldn't believe it. At that point I'd reached a high of having around $500 on the table, but I gave some back before finally quitting with $400 on the table or up $320 from 3-card poker. I know the game is -EV, but it sure was fun.

All in all, I had a great time and ended the night up about $450. And I proved to myself that I'm capable of playing higher than the low stakes I currently frequent.

Friday, April 21, 2006

A Bridesmaid once again..

I played the 17k on FullTilt tonight with a 5k 1st prize and I played pretty well and ran pretty well, but couldn't win the hand that mattered the most. This is starting to become a recurring theme for me, going deep in a tourney only to miss the final table by a few spots. This is now the third big tournament with a solid prize pool that I've finished at the 2nd to last table of in the past couple months and now the 2nd in about a week.

I hung around for the longest time in this tournament, then I got lucky in the middle stages when I raised with KsQs and got min-raised by the button. I called and and the flop came KT4 with 2 spades. I check/raised all-in, he showed AA and I caught a spade to win the pot. From there I played pretty well, making some moves when it counted and getting kinda lucky in one key spot where I was shortstacked and pushed in with KTs, I got called by a big stack with JJ, but caught a K on the river to stay alive. I made it to the final 3 tables with a stack of around average and about the middle of the pack. Then, the key hand came up, I picked up QQ in the BB with blinds of 1.5k/3k with an ante of like 250. UTG limped, and it folded around to the SB who jammed for a about 13k less than I had. I pushed over the top, UTG folded and the SB showed TT. Long story short, she hit a straight on the river to beat me and I was down to 13k. I made some courageous moves from there, but I couldn't manage to rebuild my stack and ended up going out 14th when I got very shortstacked and had to push in for barely more than twice the BB with A2o and got called by AK.

I recognize that I get lucky sometimes in these tournaments myself, but it seems like the hands that I won didn't equal the one big one I lost. I got all my chips in the pot after the flop in the hand I was up against AA and I was only a 55/45 dog at that point. In the KTs vs JJ hand I was worse off when the money went in, 67/33 or so, but I had first in Vig and don't feel like I made a bad play. But, getting that deep, then losing to a smaller pair hurts bad. I feel like if there was any justice I'd be sitting at the final table right now. Instead, I get to take my measly $150 and hope that the big score is still around that corner somewhere.

Monday, April 17, 2006

FUCK

I need to learn how to pay attention. I wanted to play a couple of tournaments tonight, so I signed up for a $10+1 on FullTilt, and a $22 on Party. Well, my dumbass signed up for a LIMIT Tourny on Party. I HATE limit tournies and I suck at them...which is weird b/c I pwn limit cash games...but I digress. At any rate, I'm stuck in a limit tourney now, which I'm definitely not happy about. And, I just went out of the FTP tourney when I played a 4h5h and flopped a flush, only to run into AhKh. UGH.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Tourney Poker is sick, 3/6 and other stuff

I went deep in another tourney tonight, but once again couldn't seal the deal. This is the second time in the last couple months that I've made the final 2 tables of a tourney on Party and been unable to actually reach the Final Table. It was a $33 buy-in and 544 players started. I played pretty well and made some good moves to reach the money, but I was kinda shortstacked. I got lucky a couple of times doubling up when I was ahead and got very lucky once when I was kinda shortstacked in the BB and an EP player min-raised and I pushed with J8s hoping for a fold or two live cards. He actually had QQ, but I managed to suck out and move on and I managed to build up to an above average stack going into the final two tables. Then, the fateful sequence began.

First I had around 90k and was in the BB for 8k, when the button open pushed and it was 21k back to me and I was getting 2-1 with J8o. I called and he turned over T9o, putting me in the lead, unfortunately, I wasn't in the lead for very long as he flopped a straight and it held up. Then, about 2 hands later an EP player opened for about half his stack of around 55k and I jammed on the button with AJo (I think this may have been a mistake) and he flipped over KK, which held up and I was down to 4k. I should have been done right there, but I started to get some hope when I quadrupled up to 16k when my QJo sucked out on AK, then 2 hands later I picked up TT and doubled up thru 66, then the very next hand I picked up AQs and won the blinds and antes and I felt like I was back on my way. I was up to almost 60k, but still kinda short. Then, the hammer fell. I get dealt AA in the BB and I get really excited when MP open jams for 90k. Of course I call...and he has K4o??? Then Party Poker proceeds to bend me over as the flop comes K4x, I don't improve and I get to go home with a $100 profit and a measly 17th place finish. God, I hate going deep and not being able to cash big.

I also had a pretty bad night at the cash tables. I decided to play a little 3/6 full-ring while I was playing my tourney and I got absolutely slaughtered to the tune of 30 BB. About half of it was running bad, and the other half was definitely tilt. I should have realized it was an omen when I flopped a set on one of my first few hands and got run down by a flush. But, I stuck around and after getting pwned by bs hands a couple of times I started tilting and playing bad hands and getting beaten down. I don't think I've experienced tilt quite to that degree in the past. But, I was playing pretty poorly. At least I didn't rebuy and add on to the misery. I think I'm done with Full-Ring for quite a while anyway. I've been playing a lot of 6-max and starting to get into it and I think it's hurt my full-ring game. Playing the TAG style that I was successful with in ring games has become boring to me and the ring games on Party have become pretty Taggy anyway. I can make money at 6-max and I think I'm enjoying it more anyway. Of course, I'm sure that will change some when the inevitable big 6-max downswing comes.

Finally, I've now played almost 4k hands of 2/4 6 in about a month. I'm beating the game at a clip of well over 3 BB/100, which absolutely can't last, especially considering the sample size. Between 2/4 6, tourneys, SnGs and a little NL cash I've managed to build my Party roll up to a bit over $2400, but I haven't played enough hands of 2/4 6 to move up yet. I intend to move up to 3/6 6 when I've won at least 2 BB/100 over at least 10k hands of 2/4 6 and have a minimum 400 BB in my roll. The plan will stay pretty much the same for moving up to 5/10 as well, which I hope to do ultimately by the end of this summer. My goal is to get to 10/20 by the end of 2006, or the beginning of 2007. I guess that will mainly depend on how much time I can continue to devote to Poker though. I think I'd like to continue to get in at least 4k hands a month, and maybe a bit more. I'd been playing 2 tables at a time, but I experimented with 3-tabling a bit the other day and I was able to keep up ok, so I think I might move to 3-tabling 6-max most of the time.

Current Overall Bankroll - about $2650
 

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