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.
2.24.2009
2.11.2009
The Whole on Holes
I've been procrastinating for the most part and haven't sat down to write what I've been thinking about for the last couple weeks. Well I stated that I somewhat had a moment of clarity on what may have been my problem in tournament style poker that isn't just due to rust. To put things bluntly I've been playing like a bitch. Just over thinking and playing scared and not committing to a strategy. Ever since I've been playing I have had a style of play that made me comfortable at the table. From sitting around a kitchen table w/ friends for $20 buy-in sngs to playing in bar room tourneys and playing in $500+ buyin tourneys I've managed to find success for all. Well lately I can't seem to get out of the rut I put myself in b/c I don't take the approach I need to in order to win. I just couldn't figure out exactly what I was doing wrong but I knew I was doing a whole lot of it! It wasn't just strictly in tournament poker, it was also affecting my cash game play which is something that I've almost never had a problem with. Well while watching the 'dead money' final table and talking to Davey and Ruttley I told them that I've just been playing bad and making decisions that just don't make sense and I know I have been playing scared.
They're different ways of playing scared and it's not just playing tight or not making a move. The worst kind of playing scared is having a plan and attempting it and then vacating it once resistance is met. That was my problem, I couldn't stick to my game plan and my adjustments weren't exactly good ones. Throughout the time I've been playing this game I have altered my style of play and been successful, every time I have changed my style it has basically been due to my game and skills evolving and developing a comfort level with each style. From sitting around the kitchen table and just learning I was extremely tight and no originality in my game whatsoever, but the style worked b/c my friends were playing every freaking hand dealt to them and I quickly realized that was not the correct approach and it worked out for me. As I learned my weak tight style changed to more of a protective style where I over raised with big hands and made weak flop bets with monsters and most of my opponents were not seasoned players so it was successful. Naturally that evolved into playing those hands better and knowing pot size and how much I should bet relative to the pot which eventually got me interested in knowing the odds and percentages of hands. This allowed me to better know what the other guys cards might be. Sooner or later I was able to play more position and apply more pressure. So over the years I've been able to adjust my style to fit my comfort and skill level. Being able to play my way through these stages naturally gives me a way to classify people I play against and I'm pretty sure this is where that over used term "switching gears" comes from. In order to switch gears you first must have had these gears.
Well I found myself playing a style that allowed me to be aggressive by raising more and forcing action through me and playing a lot of hands. This can be dangerous but I was comfortable with it. I would occasionally change it up and play "Gus" style and limp all day and just try to take as many flops as possible and taking advantage of position and weak players. I've used the small ball approach and haven't been too great with that simply b/c most of the tournaments I play are not very deep stacked and that style is geared more towards deeper stacks and longer levels. Anyway, I've said all these styles of play and how I've progressed and where am I now. I'm clearly not on my best game but I do have one advantage over myself that I didn't have when I was playing my best and that's just simply time. With the risk of sounding like an old man, I'm older and every time I play it just adds to the amount of hands I've seen it should make me smarter and sharper but we know that's always the case for some (myself included......well prolly not myself included..haha).
Anyway, back to Davey and I's conversation. I told him I had a huge hole in my game he agreed and it clicked. We discussed what he was seeing and what I was thinking. The agreement came based on me playing scared. I was trying to do too many things and justifying my bad play. I was making lay downs b/c I felt I was a good enough player to hedge the chip loss by simply being a better player. The problem is that I was leaving myself short and not allowing myself to play the style that best fits my preferred style of play. There was a point where I felt like I as wide open at the table (tournaments) and raising a lot and trying to win every hand dealt and Davey and I talked about it and he helped calm me down on that..this time he was telling reassuring what I thought and that is that I'm a better off being loose than tight (of course within reason). Well I had a grasp of what slowing down meant and I was still winning. It wasn't exactly going to stop me from raising and stop me from being aggressive but just tone it down. I was at a point where I could raise enough to draw attention and give off the more aggressive than I really am look and that was my comfort zone. I didn't mind people plotting in their 'helmet protected' head of how they were gonna snap me off. I've also been able to bounce back and forth with the limp a lot method and manage to stay under the radar that way. Basically the conversation came down to me realizing that people have been exploiting my timid play lately. I have not had the opportunity to play a whole lately so when I have been playing I've been playing a little tighter than normal and not b/c the table is wide open and I need to lay back but b/c I'm just happy to be playing and don't wanna bust out early b/c my chances to play have been limited. This was causing me to limp call raises b/c I didn't wanna voluntarily risk my chips with a raise. This was making me bet the flop, get called, and then check fold on the turn b/c I was scared to play a big pot. I was only trying to win the small ones and stay low key at the table, but the problem is that the pots where I didn't take it down right away I was losing more than I should and not picking up enough small pots to justify my play. I was too willing to fold and save a few chips instead of making the aggressive play and putting the decision on my opponent. It's important to remember that I need chips to splash around with and play my most affective style of poker and when I back my own self down in a corner and basically take chips out of my own stack b/c I'm a pussy, it makes it really difficult and almost impossible to recover from that. I refuse to be blinded out of a tournament, been there done that and those days are long gone! If you blind out of a tournament then you should have won a bigger pot or lost a bigger pot somewhere else in the tournament.
I kept thinking to myself that I need to open up more and have action go through me more. I've been pretty good at becoming friends with the weak players and letting them know that I'm a better player than them and they need to chill out when playing hands against me. (as arrogant as that sounds I know I'm not the only one that knows exactly what I mean...so be careful when people are trying to make friends with you, they may just think you're a weak player). I've also been able to be the villain or make someone the villain. This isn't like a big plan I have when I'm at the table to do this, I'm not thinking about it but it just kinda happens.
Anyway, I'm glad I was able to figure out what my issues were and since this I was able to play two cash sessions in which I decided to be more of the aggressor and open pots instead of limp calling and it turned into two wins and has me feeling good about playing. I've also been messing around on pokerstars the last couple weeks and playing some multi-table sngs and some mtt...nothing with any big buy-ins are anything but just something to get me straight and knock some rust off. Also tried to do some fun things and force myself to play hands by playing in the micro level cash games and playing every single hand. Weather it was a raise or a limp, I had to put money in preflop every hand but I could fold to raises that were greater than 4x's. It was interesting and I actually was winner after playing about 6 sessions like that. I also played some 6 handed tourneys which I really enjoy b/c tight play just gets steam rolled in those things. Could be my favorite type of tourney to play. On the whole I'm glad I was able to shed some light on what I was doing wrong and now I've definitely got the itch to play some tournaments and I'm looking at making a trip out to Vegas in June.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.
They're different ways of playing scared and it's not just playing tight or not making a move. The worst kind of playing scared is having a plan and attempting it and then vacating it once resistance is met. That was my problem, I couldn't stick to my game plan and my adjustments weren't exactly good ones. Throughout the time I've been playing this game I have altered my style of play and been successful, every time I have changed my style it has basically been due to my game and skills evolving and developing a comfort level with each style. From sitting around the kitchen table and just learning I was extremely tight and no originality in my game whatsoever, but the style worked b/c my friends were playing every freaking hand dealt to them and I quickly realized that was not the correct approach and it worked out for me. As I learned my weak tight style changed to more of a protective style where I over raised with big hands and made weak flop bets with monsters and most of my opponents were not seasoned players so it was successful. Naturally that evolved into playing those hands better and knowing pot size and how much I should bet relative to the pot which eventually got me interested in knowing the odds and percentages of hands. This allowed me to better know what the other guys cards might be. Sooner or later I was able to play more position and apply more pressure. So over the years I've been able to adjust my style to fit my comfort and skill level. Being able to play my way through these stages naturally gives me a way to classify people I play against and I'm pretty sure this is where that over used term "switching gears" comes from. In order to switch gears you first must have had these gears.
Well I found myself playing a style that allowed me to be aggressive by raising more and forcing action through me and playing a lot of hands. This can be dangerous but I was comfortable with it. I would occasionally change it up and play "Gus" style and limp all day and just try to take as many flops as possible and taking advantage of position and weak players. I've used the small ball approach and haven't been too great with that simply b/c most of the tournaments I play are not very deep stacked and that style is geared more towards deeper stacks and longer levels. Anyway, I've said all these styles of play and how I've progressed and where am I now. I'm clearly not on my best game but I do have one advantage over myself that I didn't have when I was playing my best and that's just simply time. With the risk of sounding like an old man, I'm older and every time I play it just adds to the amount of hands I've seen it should make me smarter and sharper but we know that's always the case for some (myself included......well prolly not myself included..haha).
Anyway, back to Davey and I's conversation. I told him I had a huge hole in my game he agreed and it clicked. We discussed what he was seeing and what I was thinking. The agreement came based on me playing scared. I was trying to do too many things and justifying my bad play. I was making lay downs b/c I felt I was a good enough player to hedge the chip loss by simply being a better player. The problem is that I was leaving myself short and not allowing myself to play the style that best fits my preferred style of play. There was a point where I felt like I as wide open at the table (tournaments) and raising a lot and trying to win every hand dealt and Davey and I talked about it and he helped calm me down on that..this time he was telling reassuring what I thought and that is that I'm a better off being loose than tight (of course within reason). Well I had a grasp of what slowing down meant and I was still winning. It wasn't exactly going to stop me from raising and stop me from being aggressive but just tone it down. I was at a point where I could raise enough to draw attention and give off the more aggressive than I really am look and that was my comfort zone. I didn't mind people plotting in their 'helmet protected' head of how they were gonna snap me off. I've also been able to bounce back and forth with the limp a lot method and manage to stay under the radar that way. Basically the conversation came down to me realizing that people have been exploiting my timid play lately. I have not had the opportunity to play a whole lately so when I have been playing I've been playing a little tighter than normal and not b/c the table is wide open and I need to lay back but b/c I'm just happy to be playing and don't wanna bust out early b/c my chances to play have been limited. This was causing me to limp call raises b/c I didn't wanna voluntarily risk my chips with a raise. This was making me bet the flop, get called, and then check fold on the turn b/c I was scared to play a big pot. I was only trying to win the small ones and stay low key at the table, but the problem is that the pots where I didn't take it down right away I was losing more than I should and not picking up enough small pots to justify my play. I was too willing to fold and save a few chips instead of making the aggressive play and putting the decision on my opponent. It's important to remember that I need chips to splash around with and play my most affective style of poker and when I back my own self down in a corner and basically take chips out of my own stack b/c I'm a pussy, it makes it really difficult and almost impossible to recover from that. I refuse to be blinded out of a tournament, been there done that and those days are long gone! If you blind out of a tournament then you should have won a bigger pot or lost a bigger pot somewhere else in the tournament.
I kept thinking to myself that I need to open up more and have action go through me more. I've been pretty good at becoming friends with the weak players and letting them know that I'm a better player than them and they need to chill out when playing hands against me. (as arrogant as that sounds I know I'm not the only one that knows exactly what I mean...so be careful when people are trying to make friends with you, they may just think you're a weak player). I've also been able to be the villain or make someone the villain. This isn't like a big plan I have when I'm at the table to do this, I'm not thinking about it but it just kinda happens.
Anyway, I'm glad I was able to figure out what my issues were and since this I was able to play two cash sessions in which I decided to be more of the aggressor and open pots instead of limp calling and it turned into two wins and has me feeling good about playing. I've also been messing around on pokerstars the last couple weeks and playing some multi-table sngs and some mtt...nothing with any big buy-ins are anything but just something to get me straight and knock some rust off. Also tried to do some fun things and force myself to play hands by playing in the micro level cash games and playing every single hand. Weather it was a raise or a limp, I had to put money in preflop every hand but I could fold to raises that were greater than 4x's. It was interesting and I actually was winner after playing about 6 sessions like that. I also played some 6 handed tourneys which I really enjoy b/c tight play just gets steam rolled in those things. Could be my favorite type of tourney to play. On the whole I'm glad I was able to shed some light on what I was doing wrong and now I've definitely got the itch to play some tournaments and I'm looking at making a trip out to Vegas in June.
Till next time.
Keep It Real Homies.
1.19.2009
Last Chance...More Like NO Chance
So I attempted to play the last chance "dead money" table Friday night to win a seat in the WSOP main event. Well that plan didn't work out as I hoped it would. It was an all or none situation and I was all about the 'none' part of that. I only really played two hands and I played them TERRIBLE!!!!! They had 10 people and the structure was great with a lot of chips. We started off and everything was going as normal. I was card dead and people played terrible. There was some people from all over. A guy from Mass., a guy from Delaware, someone from Virginia, Texas. So needless to say I wasn't familiar with the other guys. They had one guy from Austin who was solid and for some reason people just wanted to give him a lot of chips for no apparent reason. Now aside from the fact that I played two hands really bad it just made me really flustered early on the way the first two guys busted. The guy from Austin..Rob, was forcing people out of their comfort zone and in return those people were losing big pots to him with bad calls....it didn't hurt that Rob was getting run over with the deck early on. There was one hand that just blew my mind.
The board was 10,J,7,8,J....I think that's what it was, I know Rob had Q,9 straight and the other guy made trips on the river. Rob moved all in on the turn in the dark (I think this is a bad play, but when you're playing against bad players I guess it doesn't matter). He moved in before the river card and he already had his straight, the board paired on the river and the guy went into the tank about if he should call or fold. How the hell do you make this call with out a full house blows my mind. Yes the guy has been playing a little open but if you've ever played the game then you realize who a good player is and who a bad one is, Rob was a good player. Well by going all in usually you would ONLY get called if you're beat, or if someone just doesn't want their chips anymore. He called after deliberating and showed his trips like he thought he was good. Another guy donated his chips but I don't remember the specifics on the hand other than it was bad. I think what really got me flustered was that these guys came from all over the place to play in this one table and completely wasted their time and money. I basically had chip envy and there was nothing I could do about it.
Well it didn't take long and I made an early departure. Leading up to this satellite I have been trying to figure out how exactly I need to play and been trying to go back and forth with limp and small ball or aggression and establishing action through me. Well in the midst of this dilemma I have played some really bad poker and basically developed a HUGH hole in my game that was never there. (at least not to this magnitude). Well my stupidity came when the blinds were 100/200/25. I was dealt As6s in the small blind and I thought it was folded to me in the blind with Rob (who eventually won) in the BB. I raised to $575 and Rob called and the cut off called, I didn't realize he had cards but it didn't really matter. I would have still raised anyway. Well the flop cam 9 high with two spades. I lead out for $1225 and get one caller. Now here is where I made my first mistake of the hand. The turn card paired the board and instead of moving all in on the turn for $4500, I bet $2200. Rob called and the river card was of course NOT a spade...it doubled paired the board with 99 and 44. I couldn't find the balls to fire out on the river and I checked and Rob set me in and I thought about it and eventually folded saving myself just over $2000 in chips. It woulda been a chopped pot. Now I know I played the hand horrible and I knew it as it was going on but I just couldn't pull the trigger on what I knew was the right play. I know a few things played into this.
One thing that was a factor was just the rust. I haven't been playing a lot, although I have put in two live sessions and two single table satellites in the past 19 days. A lot more playing than I did in the two months prior. The other thing that helped me make my decision wasn't exactly a good thing. Now with the blind levels being long and having a lot of chips I justified that lay down to myself by telling myself that although I should have put it all in, I can make this fold here and save some chips and even though I'm short stacked...I'm still a better player than almost everyone else. Well that logic got me short stacked and flustered and eventually lead to me beating myself up mentally and losing my chips without knowing what my cards were. It was actually kinda funny and I'm usually good for one of these a tournament.
Well after I lost the big pot b/c I played my flush draw so retarded I was dealt 33 and moved in and didn't get called. Then a little while I get dealt 9d,7d and it's limped around and I'm in the high jack. Well I limp and we take the flop 5 handed. Flop came King high two diamonds. It checked around to me and I shipped it with my flush draw. Well one guy folded and then I got a call and everyone else folded. The guy who called showed K,Q and I stated that I'm on a draw and turned over my 9d, 7 of HEARTS!....yep, misread my hand and thought I had a flush draw..I was just as shocked as everyone else when I saw my cards...hahaha, O well and I bet you can guess what happened. If I would have actually had a flush draw, I would have gotten there on the river. All I could do was laugh about it, o well...I was a dumb ass and fell right in line with the way the first 2 guys busted.
Saturday was the Final Table for the Dead Money satellite and my boy Derek a.k.a. Public (b/c he went to public school) was playing in it and I went down to Parc St. Charles to root him on and lend a helping hand if that was at all possible considering how well I had been playing recently. Well I hung out for a good while and watched him play very solid, he never did anything dumb and never really lost a hand while I was there. He's pretty "ABC poker" but as long as you don't get dumb or cold decked you can last a while with that style. Well eventually Davey and Ruttley showed up and we hung out for a while and watched some of the final table and then we headed over to Grandma Harrah's house. It was fun walking into Harrah's with those two, it had been a long time since we were at the casino together. It was pretty funny b/c when we walked in the door the lady asked me and Ruttley for our ID's and not Davey. I asked her if I looked under 21 and she said no but they have to ID up to 35 years old....haha, that's right, she thought Davey was 34 or 35. Ruttley and I called them out on it and we got a pretty good laugh at Davey's expense.
I sat down at a 1/2 game that had just opened and it happened to have two of the guys from out of town that traveled to NOLA to play in the satellite. Well the game was pretty tame, they had the two guys from out of town that were fairly weak, two guys from Texas on a bachelor party sporting brooks brother's shirts...nuff said. Two middle aged guys on business. A local older woman and another local. All in all it was definitely an easy table to maneuver and provided the chance to pick up some money. The only downside to the session was I knew I was not gonna be able to play for a very long time. I usually hate sitting down with a strict time limit but it was my birthday weekend and the girl and I were going eat some crawfish so I wasn't upset about the situation. I was able to with stand a few crappy hands and make a couple and pick up $100 in the hour and half that I played. Prior to going to Harrah's I was doing a lot of thinking about how I've been playing and right before going Harrah's I was speaking with Davey and he confirmed exactly what I was thinking and it definitely made me anxious to play. Well my intention was to talk about what Davey and I discussed and go into detail why we were thinking the same thing but this is getting long and I don't feel like writing anymore today considering it's my birthday. Guess I'll get to that later this week. I'm planning on playing sometime this week, till then.
Keep It Real Homies.
The board was 10,J,7,8,J....I think that's what it was, I know Rob had Q,9 straight and the other guy made trips on the river. Rob moved all in on the turn in the dark (I think this is a bad play, but when you're playing against bad players I guess it doesn't matter). He moved in before the river card and he already had his straight, the board paired on the river and the guy went into the tank about if he should call or fold. How the hell do you make this call with out a full house blows my mind. Yes the guy has been playing a little open but if you've ever played the game then you realize who a good player is and who a bad one is, Rob was a good player. Well by going all in usually you would ONLY get called if you're beat, or if someone just doesn't want their chips anymore. He called after deliberating and showed his trips like he thought he was good. Another guy donated his chips but I don't remember the specifics on the hand other than it was bad. I think what really got me flustered was that these guys came from all over the place to play in this one table and completely wasted their time and money. I basically had chip envy and there was nothing I could do about it.
Well it didn't take long and I made an early departure. Leading up to this satellite I have been trying to figure out how exactly I need to play and been trying to go back and forth with limp and small ball or aggression and establishing action through me. Well in the midst of this dilemma I have played some really bad poker and basically developed a HUGH hole in my game that was never there. (at least not to this magnitude). Well my stupidity came when the blinds were 100/200/25. I was dealt As6s in the small blind and I thought it was folded to me in the blind with Rob (who eventually won) in the BB. I raised to $575 and Rob called and the cut off called, I didn't realize he had cards but it didn't really matter. I would have still raised anyway. Well the flop cam 9 high with two spades. I lead out for $1225 and get one caller. Now here is where I made my first mistake of the hand. The turn card paired the board and instead of moving all in on the turn for $4500, I bet $2200. Rob called and the river card was of course NOT a spade...it doubled paired the board with 99 and 44. I couldn't find the balls to fire out on the river and I checked and Rob set me in and I thought about it and eventually folded saving myself just over $2000 in chips. It woulda been a chopped pot. Now I know I played the hand horrible and I knew it as it was going on but I just couldn't pull the trigger on what I knew was the right play. I know a few things played into this.
One thing that was a factor was just the rust. I haven't been playing a lot, although I have put in two live sessions and two single table satellites in the past 19 days. A lot more playing than I did in the two months prior. The other thing that helped me make my decision wasn't exactly a good thing. Now with the blind levels being long and having a lot of chips I justified that lay down to myself by telling myself that although I should have put it all in, I can make this fold here and save some chips and even though I'm short stacked...I'm still a better player than almost everyone else. Well that logic got me short stacked and flustered and eventually lead to me beating myself up mentally and losing my chips without knowing what my cards were. It was actually kinda funny and I'm usually good for one of these a tournament.
Well after I lost the big pot b/c I played my flush draw so retarded I was dealt 33 and moved in and didn't get called. Then a little while I get dealt 9d,7d and it's limped around and I'm in the high jack. Well I limp and we take the flop 5 handed. Flop came King high two diamonds. It checked around to me and I shipped it with my flush draw. Well one guy folded and then I got a call and everyone else folded. The guy who called showed K,Q and I stated that I'm on a draw and turned over my 9d, 7 of HEARTS!....yep, misread my hand and thought I had a flush draw..I was just as shocked as everyone else when I saw my cards...hahaha, O well and I bet you can guess what happened. If I would have actually had a flush draw, I would have gotten there on the river. All I could do was laugh about it, o well...I was a dumb ass and fell right in line with the way the first 2 guys busted.
Saturday was the Final Table for the Dead Money satellite and my boy Derek a.k.a. Public (b/c he went to public school) was playing in it and I went down to Parc St. Charles to root him on and lend a helping hand if that was at all possible considering how well I had been playing recently. Well I hung out for a good while and watched him play very solid, he never did anything dumb and never really lost a hand while I was there. He's pretty "ABC poker" but as long as you don't get dumb or cold decked you can last a while with that style. Well eventually Davey and Ruttley showed up and we hung out for a while and watched some of the final table and then we headed over to Grandma Harrah's house. It was fun walking into Harrah's with those two, it had been a long time since we were at the casino together. It was pretty funny b/c when we walked in the door the lady asked me and Ruttley for our ID's and not Davey. I asked her if I looked under 21 and she said no but they have to ID up to 35 years old....haha, that's right, she thought Davey was 34 or 35. Ruttley and I called them out on it and we got a pretty good laugh at Davey's expense.
I sat down at a 1/2 game that had just opened and it happened to have two of the guys from out of town that traveled to NOLA to play in the satellite. Well the game was pretty tame, they had the two guys from out of town that were fairly weak, two guys from Texas on a bachelor party sporting brooks brother's shirts...nuff said. Two middle aged guys on business. A local older woman and another local. All in all it was definitely an easy table to maneuver and provided the chance to pick up some money. The only downside to the session was I knew I was not gonna be able to play for a very long time. I usually hate sitting down with a strict time limit but it was my birthday weekend and the girl and I were going eat some crawfish so I wasn't upset about the situation. I was able to with stand a few crappy hands and make a couple and pick up $100 in the hour and half that I played. Prior to going to Harrah's I was doing a lot of thinking about how I've been playing and right before going Harrah's I was speaking with Davey and he confirmed exactly what I was thinking and it definitely made me anxious to play. Well my intention was to talk about what Davey and I discussed and go into detail why we were thinking the same thing but this is getting long and I don't feel like writing anymore today considering it's my birthday. Guess I'll get to that later this week. I'm planning on playing sometime this week, till then.
Keep It Real Homies.
1.09.2009
Get RollED Tide
Well apparently me being added to GCP happened on Friday. I was surprised to pull up the site and scroll down and see my "Honest Abe" poker chip on the page. Hopefully everyone will be entertained and learn something or hopefully I learn something...anyway, In case you don't know..I'm a smartass and dumb people annoy me and I'm not nearly as pissed off or angry as I may seem, it's just my sense of humor (a lot like the late George Carlin or Lewis Black)...hopefully I can bring a point of view that makes you think about the game of poker in a different way.
Well previously I stated that I enjoyed a quick session before going watch Bama get smoked (which was great!)...I hate bama, and dislike Saban even more. I'm NOT a die hard LSU fan and I didn't like him when he was in Baton Rouge. I've been to tons of LSU games and I know tiger fans can be complete asses but that was the first time I've ever been a part another teams home game with no real cheering interest. If Utah won then it would make it fun and if bama won then I'd get a win in my college bowl challenge. Well it took all of 2 minutes in the stands of being surrounded by crimson and hounds tooth (the gay Bear Bryant hat pattern) to realize that I was now a UTAH fan! I swear I heard "roll tide" once every 30 seconds leading up to kickoff. Well as soon as Utah put up the first points they were still cheering and then Utah scored again and they started to die off and by this point I decided to just randomly yell "roll tide" when bama had nothing to cheer about and people looked at me a little confused b/c they couldn't tell why I was cheering. The dome was about 75% bama and 15% Utah and the rest was dressed in Purple and Gold. And those people quickly became Utah fans. When it went to 21-0 I stood up and took a picture of the Bama fans and the look on their faces was freaking priceless!! I did get to see a fight between a redneck in overalls and a guy in a suit...both were bama fans, truly some classy people. The game was fun and it was dead quiet leaving the dome except for the noise of khaki pants and white shirted alabama frat boys repeatedly saying "i can't believe we lost to Utah, i can't believe we lost to fucking Utah"...followed by a "dude" and then repeated again...it was really weird to leave the dome in silence and be in a good mood, usually it's quiet and I'm pissed b/c Jason David found a way to get burned in the fourth quarter and give up the game winning touchdown. This was a much more preferred exit. I did however get to play some poker and that took place before the game.
My buddy Hunter game through with the tickets and I jetted out of work about 1:00 and met him at his house and then we ventured downtown. He's a med student so we bypassed paying $20 or $30 in a parking lot (Harrahs garages were full) and parked in the health and sciences lot. We hopped in a cab and got a "hometown discount"....just a little f.y.i. for everyone, if you ever take a cap in the downtown area during a heavy tourist weekend....be sure to let the cabby know where you're from and make friends...we got charged $2 a piece and tipped $10 and made our way to the poker room. Their was a short list for the 1/2 game and I got a chance to catch up with Gina...one of the few dealers that I really like over there, she's cool and usually gives you a heads up on what tables or live and which ones to stay away from...that's really cool to have dealers tip you off on that. Well I got seated at table 8 and it was horrible, no one wanted to talk and it was dead. I almost NEVER drink at the table but since I was about to go pay $9 for a jack and seven in the dome might as well take advantage of the cocktail service (that's the big event prices...kinda shitty how they do that, increase every price by $2 from what they normally are...once again got a home town discount, it was $12 for a double shot..but if you're able to give the bar tender a heads up that you're a local that double shot becomes regular price!). I got a table change to go sit at the same table with Hunter and didn't waste any time to start chatting with the table and ragging on the Bama fans. There was a guy sitting next to me that had and LSU shirt with an Alabama hat, I'm not a big LSU fan but I am a hugh college football fan doing that kinda shit is sacrilegious.
Well the table started to liven up and I got in there making a few raises and trying to get some action started as well working on my 4th jack&7. Well I had one significant hand that occurred when I had about $180ish in front of me (in for $200). I look down at 77 in the bb and it's limped around till the cut off thinks it's a good idea to make it $8 and we see the flop 5 ways for $8 (and I'm excited b/c no one repopped it and now we have an ok pot to work with). The flop is 5,7s,3s and I bet out $16 (thinking it was $20, it was prolly an affect of the j&7). I get called right behind me from a guy that definitely thought I was a lot more open than I was. Then I get raised by the one seat who is a good player (a local). He makes it's $60 total back to me. Now I'll have around $110 or so left, if i just call and the pot would be around $180. I know how I played the hand b/c I was there....out of curiosity, how would y'all have played the hand???
That was the most exciting hand I played. Other than that I was fairly card dead but it was ok b/c I was working on a nice buzz for game time and the table was friendly and talkative. There was a bama fan sitting to my left and he had his wife with him sitting behind, what the hell are these guys thinking?...what the hell are the women thinking, I mean seriously..you actually got to go to the Sugar Bowl and watch your team play and now you're gonna bring your wife in the casino and have her sit behind you while you play bad unoriginal poker!...these guys annoy the crap out of me. How much do you think that shit would cost a guy..."hey honey lets go to New Orleans and watch a football game, and while we're there I'm gonna go to Harrahs and have you sit behind me for 4 hours while I bitch about how these guys play 7,8 off for $10 and take all my money." I actually asked this guy why he's making his wife sit there while he plays instead of going enjoy the nice weather and the great bars before his teams' big game.....his response was, "she doesn't mind, she likes poker"...and she agreed...that's just retarded. If you like it so much grab $75 and go sit in a 3/6 game while your husband plays bad poker. If you're gonna have a girl sit behind you (which is completely lame) then at least make sure she's hot! If I EVER, I mean EVER attempted to do that with my girlfriend...I better make sure win an extra $400-$500 so I can buy her a new purse or some shit. Not worth it guys, I actually went to Vegas with my girlfriend last summer for HER birthday and I didn't play one session. Then one day she said she was going shopping and I decided to find a daily. Went play and won that bitch!..which was not like winning at all..considering I won a poker tournament on her birthday trip which meant she basically won a poker tournament. The moral of this story is play poker when you're on your time and don't be the douche who has his wife/girlfriend sit behind him.
Now I did play a few other hands. Raised a few times and CB to win a few. Was dealt 33 and a guy made it $10 and I called from out of position (b/c where else would I get a playable hand?). Flop came 10,9,2 and I checked and he bet $10. At this point I like his chances to get called down the whole way. Turn was a Q, and I was kinda nervous but I knew I was checking no matter what came out. He bet $15 and now I know I'm good and I'm praying the board pairs so it's an easy call. Well like clock work the 9 comes on the river and I check knowing that's the only way to get more money. He obliges and bets $30 and I call and save him the embarrassment by simply saying "I got a pocket pair and you don't have to show us your two big cards"...he folded with a confused smirk and I gave him a "roll tide"......hopefully his wife learned something from watching those few minutes of poker...haha
Well anyway, I put together a good little session and had a nice little buzz and a great time at the game. I can't wait to get back there and play some more. I'm really excited about Saturday, we have a little satellite at Davey's house and have a nice little cast of playas to battle this out with great blind structure and lots of chips. 10 people and it might take all of 7 hours to play this one. Should be fun, challenging, filled with solid play...I'm sure they'll have some memorable hands that I'll post about in the coming days....let me know how you would play the set of 7's and hopefully I'll find out if I messed it up or played perfectly.
Keep It Real Homies.
Well previously I stated that I enjoyed a quick session before going watch Bama get smoked (which was great!)...I hate bama, and dislike Saban even more. I'm NOT a die hard LSU fan and I didn't like him when he was in Baton Rouge. I've been to tons of LSU games and I know tiger fans can be complete asses but that was the first time I've ever been a part another teams home game with no real cheering interest. If Utah won then it would make it fun and if bama won then I'd get a win in my college bowl challenge. Well it took all of 2 minutes in the stands of being surrounded by crimson and hounds tooth (the gay Bear Bryant hat pattern) to realize that I was now a UTAH fan! I swear I heard "roll tide" once every 30 seconds leading up to kickoff. Well as soon as Utah put up the first points they were still cheering and then Utah scored again and they started to die off and by this point I decided to just randomly yell "roll tide" when bama had nothing to cheer about and people looked at me a little confused b/c they couldn't tell why I was cheering. The dome was about 75% bama and 15% Utah and the rest was dressed in Purple and Gold. And those people quickly became Utah fans. When it went to 21-0 I stood up and took a picture of the Bama fans and the look on their faces was freaking priceless!! I did get to see a fight between a redneck in overalls and a guy in a suit...both were bama fans, truly some classy people. The game was fun and it was dead quiet leaving the dome except for the noise of khaki pants and white shirted alabama frat boys repeatedly saying "i can't believe we lost to Utah, i can't believe we lost to fucking Utah"...followed by a "dude" and then repeated again...it was really weird to leave the dome in silence and be in a good mood, usually it's quiet and I'm pissed b/c Jason David found a way to get burned in the fourth quarter and give up the game winning touchdown. This was a much more preferred exit. I did however get to play some poker and that took place before the game.
My buddy Hunter game through with the tickets and I jetted out of work about 1:00 and met him at his house and then we ventured downtown. He's a med student so we bypassed paying $20 or $30 in a parking lot (Harrahs garages were full) and parked in the health and sciences lot. We hopped in a cab and got a "hometown discount"....just a little f.y.i. for everyone, if you ever take a cap in the downtown area during a heavy tourist weekend....be sure to let the cabby know where you're from and make friends...we got charged $2 a piece and tipped $10 and made our way to the poker room. Their was a short list for the 1/2 game and I got a chance to catch up with Gina...one of the few dealers that I really like over there, she's cool and usually gives you a heads up on what tables or live and which ones to stay away from...that's really cool to have dealers tip you off on that. Well I got seated at table 8 and it was horrible, no one wanted to talk and it was dead. I almost NEVER drink at the table but since I was about to go pay $9 for a jack and seven in the dome might as well take advantage of the cocktail service (that's the big event prices...kinda shitty how they do that, increase every price by $2 from what they normally are...once again got a home town discount, it was $12 for a double shot..but if you're able to give the bar tender a heads up that you're a local that double shot becomes regular price!). I got a table change to go sit at the same table with Hunter and didn't waste any time to start chatting with the table and ragging on the Bama fans. There was a guy sitting next to me that had and LSU shirt with an Alabama hat, I'm not a big LSU fan but I am a hugh college football fan doing that kinda shit is sacrilegious.
Well the table started to liven up and I got in there making a few raises and trying to get some action started as well working on my 4th jack&7. Well I had one significant hand that occurred when I had about $180ish in front of me (in for $200). I look down at 77 in the bb and it's limped around till the cut off thinks it's a good idea to make it $8 and we see the flop 5 ways for $8 (and I'm excited b/c no one repopped it and now we have an ok pot to work with). The flop is 5,7s,3s and I bet out $16 (thinking it was $20, it was prolly an affect of the j&7). I get called right behind me from a guy that definitely thought I was a lot more open than I was. Then I get raised by the one seat who is a good player (a local). He makes it's $60 total back to me. Now I'll have around $110 or so left, if i just call and the pot would be around $180. I know how I played the hand b/c I was there....out of curiosity, how would y'all have played the hand???
That was the most exciting hand I played. Other than that I was fairly card dead but it was ok b/c I was working on a nice buzz for game time and the table was friendly and talkative. There was a bama fan sitting to my left and he had his wife with him sitting behind, what the hell are these guys thinking?...what the hell are the women thinking, I mean seriously..you actually got to go to the Sugar Bowl and watch your team play and now you're gonna bring your wife in the casino and have her sit behind you while you play bad unoriginal poker!...these guys annoy the crap out of me. How much do you think that shit would cost a guy..."hey honey lets go to New Orleans and watch a football game, and while we're there I'm gonna go to Harrahs and have you sit behind me for 4 hours while I bitch about how these guys play 7,8 off for $10 and take all my money." I actually asked this guy why he's making his wife sit there while he plays instead of going enjoy the nice weather and the great bars before his teams' big game.....his response was, "she doesn't mind, she likes poker"...and she agreed...that's just retarded. If you like it so much grab $75 and go sit in a 3/6 game while your husband plays bad poker. If you're gonna have a girl sit behind you (which is completely lame) then at least make sure she's hot! If I EVER, I mean EVER attempted to do that with my girlfriend...I better make sure win an extra $400-$500 so I can buy her a new purse or some shit. Not worth it guys, I actually went to Vegas with my girlfriend last summer for HER birthday and I didn't play one session. Then one day she said she was going shopping and I decided to find a daily. Went play and won that bitch!..which was not like winning at all..considering I won a poker tournament on her birthday trip which meant she basically won a poker tournament. The moral of this story is play poker when you're on your time and don't be the douche who has his wife/girlfriend sit behind him.
Now I did play a few other hands. Raised a few times and CB to win a few. Was dealt 33 and a guy made it $10 and I called from out of position (b/c where else would I get a playable hand?). Flop came 10,9,2 and I checked and he bet $10. At this point I like his chances to get called down the whole way. Turn was a Q, and I was kinda nervous but I knew I was checking no matter what came out. He bet $15 and now I know I'm good and I'm praying the board pairs so it's an easy call. Well like clock work the 9 comes on the river and I check knowing that's the only way to get more money. He obliges and bets $30 and I call and save him the embarrassment by simply saying "I got a pocket pair and you don't have to show us your two big cards"...he folded with a confused smirk and I gave him a "roll tide"......hopefully his wife learned something from watching those few minutes of poker...haha
Well anyway, I put together a good little session and had a nice little buzz and a great time at the game. I can't wait to get back there and play some more. I'm really excited about Saturday, we have a little satellite at Davey's house and have a nice little cast of playas to battle this out with great blind structure and lots of chips. 10 people and it might take all of 7 hours to play this one. Should be fun, challenging, filled with solid play...I'm sure they'll have some memorable hands that I'll post about in the coming days....let me know how you would play the set of 7's and hopefully I'll find out if I messed it up or played perfectly.
Keep It Real Homies.
1.04.2009
Deader Money
Hello my friend(s)...it's been a while mainly due to not playing, matter of fact completely due to not playing. Didn't play for a few months and just been working and pretty much blew whatever little bank roll I was working on over the holidays. Christmas is nice but sure does run ya broke. I had a good one, was pretty busy but bought my last gift Christmas Eve around 2:00. The new years was rather uneventful. Started out with plans to stay in the city and maybe go meet my brother and sister and hang out with some friends in the area but they left town and the girl and I decided to venture to Houma and bring in the new year with some friends from there. Not a whole lot to brag about. Watched the guy jump at Paris, Las Vegas...is it wrong for me to have wished for something cooler to happen than the guy slice his hand open?? I wasn't hoping for any bodily harm or death or anything but if you were watching the ESPN coverage and saw all the computer graphics of if he hit the ramp to late or gased it too much and it showed him getting crushed by the bike or landing on his neck. Which I think is messed up more than me wishing for something interesting to happen. All in all that was the prolly the most excitement I had new years eve. Hopefully yours was better.
Well now on to some poker, kinda. Thanks to Gene and Bill for arranging a dead money satillite in Houma at Dinger's place. It wasn't too great for me and they only had 10 players which was nice b/c I only had to beat 9 people. Well it could've been some of the most boring poker I have ever played. I was obviously rusty and timid and hit NO groove whatsoever. Got caught up in one hand early and that pretty much ended any chance of doing anything b/c naturally I went card dead after losing a quarter of my chips chasing a flush. I played the hand pretty badly and I knew it as I was playing the hand but of course I couldn't control myself and momentarily justified the play. It was against Gene and I had 10c8c and flopped a flush draw in a $250 to go pot 4 ways at 50/100 and Gene bet out on an Ace high flop and I called $600 thinking that Gene had less left than what he did and we went heads up to the turn and I missed on the turn and he moved in for about $1300 which put $3500 and I called knowing that if I missed I would be 1k less than the starting stack but figured it was a good chance to be able to put pressure if I got lucky on the hand or I still had chips to play with if I missed. Well I shoulda folded on the flop and been done with it b/c of course I missed and never got anything going after that. Went into a shell and played HORRIBLE. I knew I was playing scared but it was almost as though I forgot how to get in there and make a play. The action wasn't out of control but I kept telling myself I was gonna open up after I won a good sized pot or caught a couple raising hands w/in a 15 minute span. Well neither happened and I was forced to nurse a short stack and pick spots to reraise certain players preflop and take down pots. It worked and kept me treading water but I was never comfortable.
I did however get to see Summerral and that's always interesting b/c he's fun to mess with and it's pretty easy to get into his head but always in good fun. I also got to witness Davey play a lot a hands and not win any of them. He had that night where you look down at your cards and say to yourself "do I really have to put in chips again?" Personally I wish I woulda had that problem b/c after not playing for a while I would have enjoyed being involved in a lot of pots. And I play better than Davey so I would have prolly won more of those pots...haha (it's been a while since I got to take a cheap shot on here)...but he really did run some big hands into some bigger hands and managed to survive and not get totally flustered by it. I on the other hand had very little opportunities to do that. I didn't have much to work with after the hand with Gene and a few people got knocked out and I think blinds were 200/400 when the next hand came up. I was in the BB and it was opened for 1k and one caller and I look down at JJ and I'm really not sure what to do here...my first thought when I it was to reraise no matter what but based on the person who raised and the person who called I had a feeling it would be really difficult to push one of them away and damn near impossible to make both of fold. I decide to reraise 2600 more and leave myself with about 2500. That was horrible raise and I have no idea why I did it...based on the other two people I think I should have called or moved in. I wasn't exactly splashing around a lot and "SHOULD" have had enough credit to only do that with a big hand but not all of these guys notice that stuff or even care. Well both call and the flop came A,K,x and I pretty much shut it down and check as well as both behind me. The turn was Q and just getting a bit retarded. I check and then it's bet call. River is another A and a bet and call and there was a straight for the winner and three aces for second place. That was maybe the only excitement I had. I continue to hang in there thinking that the cards have to eventually level out and it wouldn't be a bad time to start when we're 5 handed.
Well I moved in a couple times and picked up some uncontested pots but never got a good hand to get a double up or anything. I busted on a hand that I was somewhat slowrolled by the dealer. I was in the blind and it was limped all the way around and we take the flop 5 handed and I have 8c,6c and flop is K high two clubs. This is as good of a time as any. I move all in for not a whole lot but enough to push out marginal hands. Well Dinger calls, and if I had to put money on anyone calling it woulda been him. He had K,9 for top pair and he was also the dealer. He turns the card up and looks at it before he puts it on the table and gives a big sigh and an "awh man" and I'm thinking that there's no freaking way I got lucky. I don't run that good!....well he tables the card and it was a 6!..to give me a pair, he was flustered by the 5 outs that I picked up. Well I missed on the river and that was all she wrote. I know Dinger did not realize that what he did was kinda shitty for me, it was harmless and I was done. The guy Dave that won played pretty well, he was definitely catching some hands which will make anyone play with more confidence. He did however use his stack accordingly and make position raises and didn't get called down to often. He was a benefactor of Davey's second best hands. Weather he was actually picking up better hands or outflopping Davey it definitely seemed as though the board made it virtually impossible for Davey to play a hand down to the river.
This post is pretty delayed considering the table was played a few weeks back but I started it and never finished it b/c of lack of time with the holiday madness. Congrats to Matt for his 1st place finish last weekend and Davey for his 3rd place in the 70k gtd. the other night. Not sure if I'll be able to make a trip out to the Beau over the next couple weeks, I will have to just wait and see. I did however get to play the day of the Sugar Bowl. My friend Hunter and I went to the game and made a quick stop in at grandma's house and picked up a couple dollars before watching the Tide get rolled! (i'm not a die hard LSU but I do dislike Saban, even when he was in Baton Rouge). I know Bill was waiting for me to start posting again before he added me to GCP so I'm not sure when that will happen. I finally had something to write about and I also have my sugar bowl session and maybe some more poker next weekend. Good luck to anyone going to the Beau.
Till next time,
Keep it real homies.
Well now on to some poker, kinda. Thanks to Gene and Bill for arranging a dead money satillite in Houma at Dinger's place. It wasn't too great for me and they only had 10 players which was nice b/c I only had to beat 9 people. Well it could've been some of the most boring poker I have ever played. I was obviously rusty and timid and hit NO groove whatsoever. Got caught up in one hand early and that pretty much ended any chance of doing anything b/c naturally I went card dead after losing a quarter of my chips chasing a flush. I played the hand pretty badly and I knew it as I was playing the hand but of course I couldn't control myself and momentarily justified the play. It was against Gene and I had 10c8c and flopped a flush draw in a $250 to go pot 4 ways at 50/100 and Gene bet out on an Ace high flop and I called $600 thinking that Gene had less left than what he did and we went heads up to the turn and I missed on the turn and he moved in for about $1300 which put $3500 and I called knowing that if I missed I would be 1k less than the starting stack but figured it was a good chance to be able to put pressure if I got lucky on the hand or I still had chips to play with if I missed. Well I shoulda folded on the flop and been done with it b/c of course I missed and never got anything going after that. Went into a shell and played HORRIBLE. I knew I was playing scared but it was almost as though I forgot how to get in there and make a play. The action wasn't out of control but I kept telling myself I was gonna open up after I won a good sized pot or caught a couple raising hands w/in a 15 minute span. Well neither happened and I was forced to nurse a short stack and pick spots to reraise certain players preflop and take down pots. It worked and kept me treading water but I was never comfortable.
I did however get to see Summerral and that's always interesting b/c he's fun to mess with and it's pretty easy to get into his head but always in good fun. I also got to witness Davey play a lot a hands and not win any of them. He had that night where you look down at your cards and say to yourself "do I really have to put in chips again?" Personally I wish I woulda had that problem b/c after not playing for a while I would have enjoyed being involved in a lot of pots. And I play better than Davey so I would have prolly won more of those pots...haha (it's been a while since I got to take a cheap shot on here)...but he really did run some big hands into some bigger hands and managed to survive and not get totally flustered by it. I on the other hand had very little opportunities to do that. I didn't have much to work with after the hand with Gene and a few people got knocked out and I think blinds were 200/400 when the next hand came up. I was in the BB and it was opened for 1k and one caller and I look down at JJ and I'm really not sure what to do here...my first thought when I it was to reraise no matter what but based on the person who raised and the person who called I had a feeling it would be really difficult to push one of them away and damn near impossible to make both of fold. I decide to reraise 2600 more and leave myself with about 2500. That was horrible raise and I have no idea why I did it...based on the other two people I think I should have called or moved in. I wasn't exactly splashing around a lot and "SHOULD" have had enough credit to only do that with a big hand but not all of these guys notice that stuff or even care. Well both call and the flop came A,K,x and I pretty much shut it down and check as well as both behind me. The turn was Q and just getting a bit retarded. I check and then it's bet call. River is another A and a bet and call and there was a straight for the winner and three aces for second place. That was maybe the only excitement I had. I continue to hang in there thinking that the cards have to eventually level out and it wouldn't be a bad time to start when we're 5 handed.
Well I moved in a couple times and picked up some uncontested pots but never got a good hand to get a double up or anything. I busted on a hand that I was somewhat slowrolled by the dealer. I was in the blind and it was limped all the way around and we take the flop 5 handed and I have 8c,6c and flop is K high two clubs. This is as good of a time as any. I move all in for not a whole lot but enough to push out marginal hands. Well Dinger calls, and if I had to put money on anyone calling it woulda been him. He had K,9 for top pair and he was also the dealer. He turns the card up and looks at it before he puts it on the table and gives a big sigh and an "awh man" and I'm thinking that there's no freaking way I got lucky. I don't run that good!....well he tables the card and it was a 6!..to give me a pair, he was flustered by the 5 outs that I picked up. Well I missed on the river and that was all she wrote. I know Dinger did not realize that what he did was kinda shitty for me, it was harmless and I was done. The guy Dave that won played pretty well, he was definitely catching some hands which will make anyone play with more confidence. He did however use his stack accordingly and make position raises and didn't get called down to often. He was a benefactor of Davey's second best hands. Weather he was actually picking up better hands or outflopping Davey it definitely seemed as though the board made it virtually impossible for Davey to play a hand down to the river.
This post is pretty delayed considering the table was played a few weeks back but I started it and never finished it b/c of lack of time with the holiday madness. Congrats to Matt for his 1st place finish last weekend and Davey for his 3rd place in the 70k gtd. the other night. Not sure if I'll be able to make a trip out to the Beau over the next couple weeks, I will have to just wait and see. I did however get to play the day of the Sugar Bowl. My friend Hunter and I went to the game and made a quick stop in at grandma's house and picked up a couple dollars before watching the Tide get rolled! (i'm not a die hard LSU but I do dislike Saban, even when he was in Baton Rouge). I know Bill was waiting for me to start posting again before he added me to GCP so I'm not sure when that will happen. I finally had something to write about and I also have my sugar bowl session and maybe some more poker next weekend. Good luck to anyone going to the Beau.
Till next time,
Keep it real homies.
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