A 'Little' Grind

I haven't be able to get to Grandma Harrah's house lately or any other casino for that matter, but I have had the itch to play a lot. Well there's really only one option and that's online. I haven't been the biggest fan of online mainly b/c I just can't seem to take it serious and find myself playing on the internet or watching tv or killing a bug that got in the house, just some type of distraction that doesn't allow me to pay attention like I should. Well I finally decided to do something about that to help me stay focused b/c if I am gonna start buying into online tournaments then I have to give myself a real shot. Well two Saturday's ago I was in Houma with nothing to do during the day. The girl and I went to Houma to enjoy some Mardi Gras parties and hang out with friends. Got there Friday night and went to the Hercules parade where I was one of the only one of my friends that didn't ride this year...that sucked. Well Saturday all my friends were hung over during the day and didn't feel like doing anything, the girl ended up going to the jewelry show in NOLA with her mom. My parents were out and about and I had nothing to do except watch college basketball on a rainy day. Well aside from the fact that I've never really had any success playing online I wasn't going to start buying into $50+ tourneys. So I signed up for a like $2 tourney and tried to get prepared to take it serious. I was chillin in the living room with the tv on and decided to put my headphones on and listen to the iPod and put the tv on mute with just the basketball game on in the background like in the casino where you only pay attention when you look up and not when you hear the commentators or crowd.

For right about 3 hours I played solid. Dictated the action on the table, got called down on almost every big hand I had. Didn't catch great cards but I wasn't card dead by any means. I was able to create my own luck in a few instances. I know the poker played can't be all that great at the micro level but the level of play isn't really great in 1k buy in tourneys either (at least live). Everything was going according to planned and I was not being distracted. Then all of a sudden I knew I was about to lose all my chips. My phone for some reason does not work worth a crap in Houma. I didn't get a phone call or a text message for about 4 hours and then all of a sudden I got 3 voicemails and a dozen texts all at the same time. Apparently at&t was helping me not be distracted or something. Well once all the phone calls and texts were taken care of I was in the money and double the average chip stack. Well friends were trying to get in touch with me to make plans for the night and the girl was almost back at my dad's house from NOLA and then all of a sudden my dad and them walk in the door and I knew it was all over right there! Everyone was back at the house and it was getting late early and we were going to the parade. I pretty much tried to win the tourney with 200 players left....that's actually a pretty difficult thing to do.

I was happy with the way I played and bummed that I kinda "had to" lose my chips. After all I wasn't in town to sit in front the computer and play a micro tournament. I was just happy that the game plan seemed to work. The next step was to test the limited distraction theory as soon as possible. Got home Sunday evening and was instant messaging Davey and Ruttley and they were playing the $11 5k gtd. Davey transferred me the money for a 60%-40% split and we all 3 joined the tourney. I was playing well and chipped up to a good stack relative to the blinds and rest of my table. There was two guys on my table who had absolutely NO respect for my raises and it became somewhat of their mission to bust me or just catch me speeding. Well that never happened, I busted one of them and the other got extremely lucky against me and I double him up when he called me down with bottom pair and then made a 4 card straight on the river to smoke my set of kings. After that I started to give him shit about calling me down and the very next hand I flop a set with 99 and double right back up and erase that set of kings hand. Then the guy who got lucky really wanted to be my friend which doesn't really bother me when ppl want friendly conversation, I then proceeded to abuse his blinds for the remainder of the time we were at the same table. I eventually busted when I misplayed a hand and got really short and didn't really have a chance to recover from that....here's the situation. I raise with 8,9 and get called from a limper. Heads up to the flop and I have position. Flop is 10,9,3 and it gets checked to me and I bet (I think blinds were somewhere around 200/400 ante?) It was a standard raise and I had about 10k. CB about 1000 and get called. I wasn't exactly trying to play a huge pot here but I did have second pair and there was a good chance I was good. He calls and the turn is a 7 and this is where I really messed up! He checks and I bet 1600 and he minraises me..SHIT!...I have to call b/c the pot is just to much to fold that there. I brick on the river and he bets and I fold. I was so annoyed b/c I SHOULD have checked the turn. I bet the flop with second pair and picked up a draw on the turn. If I just check and take the free card with my new draw I do a couple things. I'm not over extending myself with second pair and it's not like I HAVE TO win that hand, and it also lets me control pot size. It wasn't a crucial point, it was just me playing and being a little open with raises and doing what I had been doing the whole tournament. On top of that, if I check the turn and miss on the river and I would be completely willing to call a normal sized bet with my second pair. I just don't see the benefit in my betting the turn, especially when I'm not that strong. I don't have to win every hand I play. Anyway, that hand pretty much did me in and I busted not that long after about 50 away from the money. Davey and Ruttley on the other hand both cashed.

I played 180 player sng during the week and made the final table on that with the limited distraction theory proving to work fairly well. Sunday night I was hanging out and made plans to play a couple tourneys on the micro level. the 2k gtd, the 2500gtd. and 3k gtd. Well I played whichever one started first and Davey decided to play as well. We both ran pretty deep and Davey was in the top 5 chips for quite a while with about 200 left. He ran into some monsters and I'm not sure where he busted. I was cruising and got around avg. and then above and took a really crappy beat when I flopped a set after I raised and bet the flop. Guy called and picked up a flush draw on the turn and hit it on the river to put me on life support. I then went on a sick run and won about 7 out of the next 10 pots and was back over a 100k with the average at 80k. I then ran my A,Q on a queen high flop into AA from the guy who was 3rd chips overall. I didn't go broke but wasn't able to really recover from that...I think I finished 55th or right around there. Not a whole lot of money for as long as I played but none the less it's always fun to run deep in tournaments.

I plan to continue to play tournaments online and prolly keep battling on the micro and eventually win a few hundred bucks and start playing in the low level tourneys. I've been able to maintain my little online bank roll with the few cashes in mtt and winning some buy in money in some sngs. It's been fun and has me really wanting to play tournaments more and more. I'm pretty pumped too b/c I'm headed to Vegas in June and the WSOP and the Venetian Deep Stacks will be going on. I plan on pretty much just playing tournaments when I head out there.
Till Next Time.
Keep It Real Homies.