Tuesday, January 31, 2006

40 minutes on 3 bad beat tables

This is how badly I'm running.

2 2/4 badbeat tables and 1 5/10 badbeat table since nothing else was open for 40 minutes. Wow!

Wow, do they ever hand out the bad beats at 5/10 lol. When you're running bad, you're running bad.

2/4 #1 Down $48
2/4 #2 Down $73
5/10 Lost $202

Played well at all 3 tables. My 2 pair go down to a set, monsters get outflopped, etc., etc. I seriously only won one decent sized pot.

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qh, Kd. CO posts a blind of $5.
3 folds, MP2 calls, 1 fold, CO (poster) raises, Hero calls, 2 folds, MP2 calls.

Flop: (7.40 SB) Ks, 5d, 4h (3 players)
MP2 checks, CO bets, Hero raises, MP2 calls, CO calls.

Turn: (6.70 BB) Qs (3 players)
MP2 checks, CO checks, Hero bets, MP2 folds, CO calls.

River: (8.70 BB) 4s (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets, CO raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 12.70 BB

Results below:
CO has Ts 9s (flush, king high).
Hero has Qh Kd (two pair, kings and queens).
Outcome: CO wins 12.70 BB.

Nice $127 pot. That would've helped. *sigh*

One of those nights

Couldn't hit a draw. Opponents seemed to hit theirs most of the time. Got up $30 early and then drifted down. The theme of the night was getting rivered in large pots. That's poker sometimes. I really only got frustrated a couple of times when it seemed to happen back to back to back in big pots. I was up early until my KK ran into AA and then I got 2 outered on the river at almost the same time on the other table. Stuff like hitting top set on the flop against a guys 2 pair BUT 3 clubs were there as well. The 4th club killed the action even though I won the pot. Crap like that. Just couldn't drag one of those $80 monster pots that kept going to others when I had the best hand preflop, flop and at least 1/3 of the time after the turn as well.

It happens. I'm kind of proud that I felt like I lost near the minimum. Bumped up against the 40BB stop loss ($160) a couple of times but always rebounded. Just drifted between 140 and 110 down for like 4 hours. It was insane.

I certainly didn't play perfectly or anything like that but I felt like I put in a good session - just didn't get the result I was looking for. Everytime I started on a run to get it down to a double digit loss the 2 and 3 outers would rear their ugly head.

My brother stopped by and watched one hand. I happened to get QQ and said 'let's see how this goes down in flames.' I raise and got 5 callers and knew it was doomed lol. An $80 pot that flopped all undercards was lost to a guy that flopped his set of jacks and didn't raise me until the river when the other 4 callers bowed out. Ah poker. How I love/hate thee.

1/30/2006
($113.84)
6 hours of 2 2/4 BB tables. Couldn't get anything going. One of those sessions. Looks like my first losing month is set in stone unless I'm able to put in a couple of hours tonight and get hot.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Much Better

A race to the end of January to see if I can get out of the hole. Now down $44.68 on the month after a very nice $300+ night.

1/26/2006
$10.30
3 2/4 bb tables 3 hours and 1 .25/.50 NL table with TexAgs folks for 45 minutes. Lost $40 on the NL table.

1/26/2006
($22.00)
2 $11 turbo 45 person sngs. 26th and 27th place. Lost to 3 outer on river on 2nd one or I would've had 3k in chips. Oh well.

1/26/2006
($8.50)
a 6.50 turbo and $2 somewhere - don’t' know where.

1/27/2006
($68.24)
3 2/4 BB. 1 1/2 hours of bad luck. Folded river on last pot when it would've been split 3 ways (3 king his lol). My part was $20. Oh well - that's the way it's been going. Played pretty well over all.

1/27/2006
($22.00)
180 person sng out in 34th. Played well just went from 5400 to 2900 when my steal attempts were reraised like 3 straight times. Very frustrating. Went out on KQ preflop to A10. was down to 1900 chips and had to make a move to at least double up.

1/27/2006
$10.00
$10 last longer bet with a friend. He went out in like 37th lol.

1/27/2006
$100.00 BONUS

1/27/2006
$234.37
3 hours of 3 2/4 BB tables. And 30 minutes of 3 .5/1 6 max to clear bonus. Bankroll back up to $4,476.37 . Feels very good to be almost out the other side of my $627 night. Steady as she goes. Played very well tonight and didn't let the suckouts get me down. Even made $30 on the 3 .5/1 while trying to clear the bonus. :)

I won't be able to play tomorrow so this is where the week ends: $356.83. Very nice. Bonuses always help.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Hating .5/1

lol. No real surprise there. It's just too low. The jackpot is back up near 150k so I went back to 1 table of 2/4 BB tonight along with two .5/1.


1/24/2006
$24.50
3/6 3 handed 8 hands then 1/2 6 handed 10 minutes
1/24/2006
$9.50
1 1/2 hours of 2 6 max tables. .5/1.
1/24/2006
($12.05)
10 minutes heads up on fcp. Terrible suckout to go from winning $8 to losing my $10 buyin. Also got hit and run for $3 or so. Oh well.
1/25/2006
$50.31
2 .5/1 6 max and 1 2/4 badbeat table. 1 hour.

Bankroll now $4,242.44. $122.90 for the week. May hit the 2/4 hard tomorrow if the jackpot hasn't been hit.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Bobbing along

Not much lately. I am mulling over the idea of playing 6 max limit on party with 600 big bets and moving up when I build enough for 600 big bets for the next level and moving down if I fall back to 450. I'm talking only about my party bankroll and right now I have $750 on there. I need to deposit $400 this week for their $100 bonus so I would start off at $1150 and at .5/1. Woo-hoo! LOL.

Oh yea, I'd just be playing 2 tables of 6 max and maybe a Stars tourney at the same time to help me concentrate on reads at the 6 max tables. I would take breaks from 6 max to play at the 2/4 bad beat tables whenever the jackpot got over 200k.

Meh, something different at least. My marathon session Saturday night got me thinking about 6 max (and Matt Maroon's blog got me really thinking). There were 3 guys at each table over 65% VIPIP and one at 95% over 200 hands!


1/20/2006
$27.24
5 1/2 hour marathon session of 6 max. Nice $4 an hour average going. Ugh.
1/20/2006
($34.92)
heads up cash games didn't go so well. Basically feels like a wasted night. I should've just gone to bed early. I think I’m ready for an extended break or something different.
1/22/2006
$58.80
$2.20 MTT out early then $11 18 person sit n go 1st place. The guy was amazingly passive heads up. Got a nice sized chip lead with 4 left and wasn't really in doubt after that.
1/22/2006
($8.16)
heads up .25.5 cash games again. Yuck. Favorite hand was the 1st again some guy. I have J4 and flop fullboat 44J. Capped flop capped turn capped river when an ace came. He, of course, had AA lol. Funny game. Heads up can take some serious swings.

Bankroll at $4,170.18.
January so far:
Week 1 -$417.74
Week 2 +$198.43
Week 3 -$182.20

Yuck.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Improvements

My recent craptastic play coupled with some bad luck has me careening towards my first losing month. These things cause a thinking person to try to improve. I have decided to upgrade my poker tracker (finally) and switch over to poker ace heads up display over gametime.

The reasons can be found in Matt Maroon's excellent blog (I highly recommend reading it from the beginning). http://www.thepokerchronicles.com/archives/000594.html

Thursday, January 19, 2006

I'll take the blame for last night but not tonight

In a funk on my full ring 2/4 tables. It'll turn around eventually. *sigh*

1/19/2006
($113.00)
1 1/2 hours. 3 2/4 tables then moved up to catch up. Way up. Worst beats I've taken in a long time. Played great. Kept on getting hit by miracle 2 outers in huge pots and missing draws when the odds compelled me to make the call. Like KJ on J44J board. Quads took it down. Oh well. Downswing city.

Snapped a little bit and jumped into a 5/10 6 max game along with a 3/6. 1st hand on the 5/10 and got 2 outered on the turn for a $90 pot lol. Nice. Worked it back to $70 up or so on the 6 max tables. Wow. I'll try not and do that again although the 3/6 table looked juicy lol. Feel 100% better than I did when I quit the full ring games. The bad beats had me whipped.

I did feel better about my play then I did last night though. I had bad luck and then didn't play too well yesterday. I was calling down too much with things like 2nd pair. Tonight I thought I played very well and just got crushed by the deck and people staying for their 2 outers. So I guess my 50BB stop loss worked because I quit my 2/4 tables lol. (nobody said I couldn't jump up to 5/10, right?) Wow, what a good way to go broke. It was FUN though! :)
1/19/2006
$9.48
5 minute heads up match at .25/.5 on FCP
1/19/2006
($11.00)
18 person sit n go that I totally donked up. I treated 66 like the magic pocket pair for some reason. Maybe it was because I was in hands on all 3 of my 2/4 tables at the same time lol. Or maybe I was using my chips to tilt instead of at the cash games, I dunno.
1/19/2006
$15.97
2 heads up matches on FCP .25/.5 that took about 30 minutes and $5.03 in rake! Wow!
Bankroll down to $4,127.22.... Still bumping along and feeling the effects of my $600 night last week I guess. I really did play well tonight. The only bad decision I made was jumping into a 5/10 6 max game but that worked out I guess. *Whew*.

For the record I made $48 at the 5/10 and $31 at the 3/6. I was down as much as $100 after a couple of rough beats and missed draw and then up as much as $90. I had visions of having a winning night there for a minute. Believe me, all it would've taken was one monster pot at 5/10. Glad I lived to tell the tale.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

27 person sit n go win and still a crappy night

1/18/2006
$83.44
1st place 27 person $11 sit n go. Built up a massive chip lead with 6 to go. I had 25k 2nd place had 3.5k lol. Dropped down to 17k after getting sucked out on a couple of times but then won a big hand to get down to 3 and up to 30k in chips lol. 2nd & 3rd had 8k combined. Played some .02/.04 heads up the night before along with a $5 sit n go and lost around $5.
1/18/2006
Bankroll now $4,225.77 down $75 on the week.
($150.21)
ugh what a frustrating session. 3 hours of crap and getting sucked out on when I had a hand. I hate poker. A lot.

Hand of the night. Yea so that would've been a nice $76 to have . Thaaaaat's poker.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 6s, As.
UTG calls, 1 fold, UTG+2 raises, 3 folds, CO calls, 2 folds, Whatever calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) Kc, 5s, Ts (4 players)
Whatever checks, UTG checks, UTG+2 bets, CO folds, Whatever calls, UTG calls.

Turn: (5.75 BB) Qs (3 players)
Whatever checks, UTG checks, UTG+2 bets, Whatever raises, UTG calls, UTG+2 3-bets, Whatever caps, UTG calls, UTG+2 calls.

River: (17.75 BB) 5d (3 players)
Whatever bets, UTG folds, UTG+2 calls.

Final Pot: 19.75 BB

Whatever has 6s As (flush, ace high).
UTG+2 has Kd Ks (full house, kings full of fives).
Outcome: UTG+2 wins 19.75 BB.

LOL, what was she afraid of? Quads? So strange.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Man shot dead at a bar hosting Pub Poker

Wow. Here's the text of my posts from another site. Sorry if they sound disjointed. The format is screwed up as well with the paste. Oh well.

Tonight we went to a new location. It was a little too far out of town but everything went well the 1st session. There were maybe 60 people in this place at the time, a little over half of them there to play poker.

When the 2nd session was just getting under way a fight broke out between some non poker playing thug types. Pushing, shoving for 3 or 4 minutes then a dude pulls out a knife and starts trying to slash. He sent his friend outside right before that and I got a very bad feeling. I didnt' think he was going for a bigger knife.

There was only one way out of the bar and I wasn't about to risk running out since the dude with the knife was backing towards the door and only about 4 or 5 feet away from it.

People were just cowering in the corners when the first shot rang out. I jumped behind a raised stage platform thing after I saw another guy do it. Very quickly 4 or 5 more people piled on me as the 2nd shot rang out.

1 or 2 minutes passed and people started to get up and a guy was on the floor bleeding. I left just as the cops arrived along with about 1/2 of the people there. Still freaking out. This happened about 10pm last night.

I got home and noticed a scrape on my shin that actually bled through a tiny bit to my pants. Also have a big scrape on my lip. I didn't even feel it till I got home. When people pile on you as shots ring out they're not very gentle. I started feeling better when about the 4th person jumped on.

The shooting happened maybe 20 feet from where I was at. The bar could maybe hold 80 or 90 people at most.

The dude who was trying to play chuck norris' role is the one that got shot. I don't think he was the one the shooter was after. They just started struggling for control of the gun and the 1st shot happened. For some idiotic reason I looked up and saw them still fighting for control of the gun. A few seconds later the 2nd shot put him down and the shooter ran out (I guess - I had my head between my legs at the time).

Q: did the guy die? I guess I'll find out on the news Tuesday. There were about 4 or 5 people attending to him - trying to stop the bleeding. Someone said he got shot in the mouth. I hope that means cheek. EDIT: He died and the cops have a person of interest that they want to talk to.

Q: why didn't you stay to be a witness for the cops?

around 30 people stayed - one guy even got a partial description of the license plate. You gotta understand that the place was packed and there were probably 15 people that interacted with him right before the shooting started. I was just cowering in a corner hoping more people would jump on me.

Like I said it was the 1st time for the club to play at this bar and I'm positive they won't be back. Duh. I'm sure the guy in charge will pick his places a little more carefully from now on. He's got a good rotation going on in McAllen and Mission and is now trying to expand it to the mid-valley while continuing the McAllen locations concurrently. If I'm ever in that situation again I'll be the first one out the door when the pushing/shoving/name calling begins.

EDIT: The police have put out a picture and the name of the guy wanted for the shooting. After talking to another guy who was there I think I was wrong. The dead guy WAS the one the dude was after from the start. He also said another guy DID bring him a bigger knife and then the shooter went out in the parking lot himself and came in with the gun. Somehow I missed those two things while trying to hide I guess.The dead guy was a friend of the bar owner.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

A little bit of poker

1/15/2006
$7.00
2 2/4 tables 1 1/2 hours. A couple of terrible bad beat on the river in big pots turned a good day into a waste of time . Fought back to finish basically even though.
1/15/2006
($5.29)
4 heads up matches lost 2 for $20 and made 15 on the other 2 or 3
1/15/2006
Bankroll $4,289.40
($14.05)
2 sit n gos and a bit of heads up. Absolutely no luck in the sngs. Bubbled twice.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Pub Poker and a little more 2/4

Tonight was the tourney for the top 64 players from December. 1st place was a trip to Vegas or a $500 gas card.

Won a nice pot early on with 8s when 3 spades fell and I check raised on the turn when an ace fell. Then I get AK and raise to 85 (blinds at 10/20) and get 4 callers (340 in the pot). AJX flop bet is 50 and I raise it to 250. One caller and 3 folds. Turn is a 4 and I bet out 600 and the caller goes all in for about 150 more. He turns over 44. OK. Wow. Didn't see him on 4s lol. Oh well.

Still had 200 left and went all in in SB with AQ. 2 callers turn over A7o and Q5o and I figured a 7 or 5 would come. Sure enough a 7 on the flop and I was dead. Pub poker at it's finest LOL. I'll get 'em back Wednesday. I'm due for a big run in those things. Like back to back top 2s or something. :)

Came home and played 50 minutes of 3 tables of 2/4. Made $90. My VPIP is down to 24% even though I have 87 hands of heads up and 3 handed play on there where my VPIP was at least 75% lol. Up to 1091 hands on my new screen name. Doing well so far at 4.6 BB/100. We'll see if I can sustain that. :) Might be tough at full ring I dunno. Gonna play 20k hands at 2/4 and see where I stand before possibly moving up to 3/6.

$198.43 for the week. Bankroll now at $4,301.74.

Changed my poker week to Sunday thru Saturday for statistical purposes. Makes more sense now. Still have some work to do on the month so that it's not my first loser.
April
$650.04
May
$711.58
June
$459.81
July
$233.10
August
$624.85
September
$0.00
October
$75.34
November
$795.81
December
$467.77
January
-$219.31

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Not much tonight

Maybe 30 minutes screwing around at lower limits shorthanded.


1/12/2006
$10.00
side bet with my friend on who would last longer in the $22 sng 2 nights ago
1/12/2006
($12.65)
trying to play 1 on 1 at ps but people sit in and it becomes 3 and 4 and 5 handed and it's not working. I'm gonna stop trying this at stars.
1/12/2006
$22.25
sat at a true 3 handed .25/.5 table (3 seats was the maximum) for 15 minutesat poker room and did well. Ran good but they folded way too much also.

Bankroll now $4,211.74 up $108.43 on the week. Meh. Need to hit the 2/4 hard as the badbeat jackpot is getting up there but too tired tonight. Need sleep.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Pub Poker and 2/4 again

Pub Poker is starting to piss me off.

Q10 on BB 2 limpers Q33 flop I bet out 30 in to a 70 chip pot and I get raised to 60 by the girl across from me. Limper calls so I think about it and decide to fold since it's a fairly small pot. I almost called but I only had 50 chips in there so i reluctantly folded. She hadn't raised all night and almost all of the players are ridiculously passive. They both check it down (ugh) and she shows 66 and he shows Q9. Oops. Stupid me.

I raise to 200 (blinds at 25/50) with 88 and she goes over the top for 300 more. I immediately call and she shows.....109 hearts. I knew I was dead. That's just the way I've been running over there lol. 10 on the river and I was down to 500 chips or so.

A5 spades I raise to 200 on the next hand. 2 callers. J spade spade on flop and I check. 1st caller goes all in and I call he shows KJo and I turn the ever elusive open ended straight flush draw but miss on the river. Let's count the outs.....9 for the flush. 6 more for the OESD and 3 more for the ace. Wow. 18? Hmmmm. That makes it even funnier.

Came home and played some 2/4 successfully and will watch the Aggies kick some OSU Cowboys hopefully on ESPN2 now. Will play the 2nd session in a couple of hours. 2nd session results below.

1/11/2006
$60.00
3 2/4 BB tables 30 minutes
Bankroll now $4,192.14
Still down $328 on the month. Gonna be a race to get out of the hole for January. I feel good about the way I'm playing though since implementing the talked about changes. I also decided on a 50 BB stop loss to get my mind right. $200 at 2/4 should be plenty of wiggle room.

75+ entrants for the 2nd session and I just played tight and watched the madness unfold around me. I didn't see a round fold to the SB until we were almost 2 hours in and there were only 16 people left. People just have no idea how to play. The girl at our table that had all of the chips didn't know if a flush beat a straight and where a fullboat fit into it all. She wanted to ask me to look at her hand since I had folded and give her advice lol. She ended up showing down a straight with 4 hearts on the board along with 2 5s out there. The other guy had a set of 9s for a fullhouse. She lost at least 2000 chips on that pot (start with 1100) but got them all back and then some not long after.

I won one decent pot with 22 when I rivered a straight. I really thought I might be good before the river lol. Only bet 250 on the end but really sold myself short as I was up against 2 pair that were also rivered. Besides that I only stole one pot with 89 on the button when an 8 came on the turn on a K10Q board and the limpers didn't seem too excited. Other than those 2 hands I won exactly zero chips lol. Worked my 1100 up to a high point of 1800 and that was it. Got blinded down after that with no cards to take a stand with. Got unlucky hitting the big blind just as it went up to 500/1000 and I had 1500 left. Oh well.

Played very well to get a 12th out of it and 600 points. Oh and the Aggies lost by 2 at OSU missing a 3 at the buzzer. Thank you Tivo.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Surviving 2/4

Well all in all a successful session. Made a little over $50 3 tabling 2/4 at party and donked away my shot at glory in a $22 180 person sit n go.

1/10/2006
$50.83 party poker
3 2/4 BB with new screen name. Played well just couldn't get above $50 for the session. Need to get VPIP down but was played some shorthanded and did pretty well.

($55.05) pokerstars
2/4 heads up got screwed on river and lost $40 then played in 180 person $22 sitngo and was 3rd in chips with 33 left and somehow blew up. Wow. Went out in 24th. Just stupid blind steals that I couldn't fold. AGAIN. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I could've easily cashed if I just would've waited for a hand. Played great up until that point. Oh well. Went 0 for 4 on my last 4 blind steals. Next time I get in that position I'll be more careful. I promise.

2/4 calls again

Not really but due to a schedule change I find myself back at Party tonight instead of Thursday night.

3rd hand in. No jopke:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Ah, Ac.
Hero raises, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 3 folds, CO calls, 2 folds, BB calls.

Flop: (10.50 SB) Jc, 4h, Qc (5 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, CO calls, BB folds.

Turn: (6.75 BB) 8s (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG+2 calls, CO folds.

River: (8.75 BB) Td (2 players)
Hero bets, UTG+2 calls.

Final Pot: 10.75 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has Ah Ac (one pair, aces).
UTG+2 has Ts Tc (three of a kind, tens).
Outcome: UTG+2 wins 10.75 BB.

Monday, January 09, 2006

$11 MTT

1st hand lol. Maybe I could've folded the river. I don't know. Also played a little heads up cash games on pokerstars. Will try and hit 2/4 on PartyPoker Thursday.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (8 handed) converter

Button (t1500)
SB (t1500)
BB (t1500)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
Hero (t1500)
MP2 (t1500)
CO (t1500)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Ah, 9h.
2 folds, Hero raises to t40, 3 folds, SB calls t30, BB calls t20.

Flop: (t120) 5h, Kd, Th (3 players)
SB bets t20, BB calls t20, Hero calls t20.

Turn: (t180) As (3 players)
SB bets t80, BB calls t80, Hero calls t80.

River: (t420) Ac (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets t680, Hero calls t680, SB folds.

Final Pot: t1780

Results in white below:
BB has Kh Kc (full house, kings full of aces).
Hero has Ah 9h (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: BB wins t1780.


Went out in 999th out of 1523 entries. Won exactly 1 hand on a blind steal. Nice.


1/8/2006
$15.45
let the healing begin. Low limit heads up games turned into a couple of .5/1 6 max games for 20 minutes.
1/9/2006
($11.00)
lol lost 720 on 1st hand with trip aces and flush draw to a set of kings turned into fullboat. Oops. Won 1 pot by stealing blinds went out in 999th out of 1563
1/9/2006
$28.60
1 hour heads up cash games & a little 6 max. $2 in .02/.04 and the rest .5/1 and .25/.50

Bankroll $4,136.36 up $33.05 since my meltdown playing micro limits mostly.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Reflections

Wow. I still lost $627 Friday night at 3 2/4 tables. Amazing. I ended up quitting at the low point of the night. I wouldn't have thought it was possible without being drunk or extreme tilt. I know I got on tilt after getting down $300 and played too many starting hands. I was at around 27% & 32% VP$IP which is a good 10 to 14% above where I want it. I know it wasn't all bad luck and tilt of course. I got outplayed in 2 pots that went to showdown where I had laid down winning hand. That always helps the tilt factor kick into overdrive. Who knows how many other hands I got outplayed in that didn't go to showdown.

I guess I'm only proud of the fact that I didn't move up in limits to try and change things. That is so freaking common and usually only speeds up the disaster. I still have plenty of money and time to get better and plug my massive leaks.

Things changed:

1. I will never again play after losing more than $350. This will of course go up when I move up to 3/6 but I don't see myself making that move for a long, long time lol. A person's mindset just changes after getting down almost 100 BBs in a full ring game. You just expect to get sucked out on on every flop you take.

2. I will not play past 4 hours when playing ring games. Lots of people play longer hours and do it well but I made more than 1 accidental cold call preflop on the blinds just because of lack of focus after playing so many hours. Cost me money every time. I'm just not used to playing online for that long.

3. I think I'm gonna change my user name on PP which will allow me to start from scratch on my pokertracker stats and try to keep them near optimal. After 20k hands and the last session it was gonna be a long road back to get my VP$IP down to where it should be. I'll still use the same database though which will allow me to have a read on a few players when I sit down to play.

4. Instead of sitting with $100 at 2/4 I think I'm gonna try $200 at each table and see. It might make a tiny difference in table image.

I'm actually excited about trying this out sometime soon. I am very motivated to change up my game now lol. Having a conservative bankroll at 2/4 allows me to have a disasterous night and be able to bounce right back. I don't even have to reload at Party. My account there went from 1400 to 800. Ugh. That kind of hurts to type.

I'll probably play in a MTT or 180 person SNG on stars tomorrow. No cash ring games for me for awhile.

Wow, I just looked at my stats and this downswing puts me back to 12/17/05. Not as bad as I thought.

-$417.07. Worst week ever.
Bankroll down to $4,103.31. I'm gonna have to work to make sure January is not my first losing month ever.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Back to the drawing board

I can't believe I couldnt' get things turned around tonight. Amazing night of bad beat after bad beat and missed draw after missed draw and opponents hitting an amazing % of draws against me.

Wow. 150BB downswing in 1 seven hour session. The horrible, horrible beats seemed to mostly happen in the 1st 2 hours and got me down $300 very quickly. I then slid down to the $400 range and hovered there for most of the night before slipping down to 500 and then bouncing back to 400 several times. I finally am calling it a night as I'm down $621.17 and it's 1:30 in the morning (again).

Wow, not the way I pictured spending my Friday night. I guess I'll take next week off and chill out. It shall be good to get away after having such a horrible session.

ah, last hand of the night JJ UTG. Let's see what happens... It can't be anything good. Uh huh, reraised. QQ4 flop I raise and he just calls me down. Ah, of course he has pocket aces. I guess I should've folded jacks there huh? Guess I cost myself $2 by raising the flop LOL. Amazing night. A session like this certainly makes you wonder if you know how to play poker. Wow. Out of the blue too. I have been beebopping along wonderfully at 2/4 for a few months now and then WHAM! Oh well.

I feel strangely ok about it though. I'm positive I could've saved myself a good $200 but I really think the cards set me up to take a huge hit tonight. I can't wait for payback from the poker gods.

1/6/2006
($621.17)
2/4 BadBeat horror show for 7 hours
Bankroll takes a hit $4,103.31

Friday, January 06, 2006

Horror Show at 2/4

Looks like I'll be here a while. Let's see....down $312 as I start this entry.

I've been rivered and drawn out on repeatedly. Ah, there's another one as I speak. KK8 I hold 44 turn K and river the lovely 8 to split the pot with A2 offsuit. LOL. In 5 minutes a $100 up tick. Nice. WOW I was about to type that the only thing that hasn't happened yet that always happens in these downswings is me flopping top 2 pair and going up against a set. It happened as I started typing lol. Oh well.

My HUGE HUGE HUGE mistake of the night and one that I tried to brush off quickly because I KNOW BETTER THAN TO DO THIS KIND OF CRAP was folding in a $72 pot. I had J10 and flopped top pair and it was capped on a draw heavy board. It looked like the draw got there on the turn so I check/called and then another overcard (King) came on the river and the original raiser led out and I stupidly folded. Fold behind me then a call and the 44 took it down. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I have to be right there 18 times to make up for that crap.

Oh well. Down about $230 right now. I'll update at the end of the session.

PokerStars yesterday

1/6/2006
($29.49)
3/6 heads up for minus 21 and 2 MTTs

Bankroll $4,724.48

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Pub Poker Stupidity 2/4 & a $2 MTT

Busted in 312th or something in the 1608 person MTT on Stars. Nothing special. Threw away 5000 chips on a flopped set slowplayed like a donk. Runner/runner straight took a chunk out of my stack and then I couldn't catch crap. Was playing it for fun as I 3 tabled 2/4 tables on party. Made $77 without thinking one time.

1 hour in to my pub poker session I get 99 in the cutoff and raise to 300 (3x the big blind). Mr go all in with anything on the big blind goes all in and I beat him into the pot. Our stacks are exactly matched so if I get this I'm up to 3400 or so (start with 1100) and the real fun will begin.

He flips over 97 offsuit. Flop 10 8 2 and I KNOW I'm dead. Turn J and that was that. Too funny. Made me $77 I guess though.

1/4/2006
($1.31)
some .02/.04 heads up limit and a $2 MTT
1/4/2006
$77.34
3 $2/4 BB tables 2 1/2 hours

Bankroll now $4,753.97

2/4 and a $11 MTT

Remind me not to start these MTTs after 8pm. I gotta get up in the morning.

18th out of 738 players. Not bad. I love busting one inside the bubble no matter what the prize structure is lol. So much better that way. Kept running up against AK when I had KQ and that prevented me from building my chipstack. Also called off chips twice or three times that I didn't have to on blind steals that were reraised. I CAN FOLD BLIND STEAL ATTEMPTS. I CAN FOLD BLIND STEAL ATTEMPTS. I CAN FOLD BLIND STEAL ATTEMPTS. There - that's better.

Oh well. Played well and had fun. Got lucky 3 times early on and that's what you usually need to survive in these things. 3 hours and 45 minutes and I feel a little empty that all I got out of it was $42 net though lol. Oh well. It could've been much more. Just needed a couple of more hands there late. Got pretty cold decked when it got below 60 left. This is probably the most I've ever used late position to steal - usually no matter what my hand was. I'm sure that had everything to do with going deep.

Earlier I did well on the 2/4 cash tables:

$85.92
3 2/4 BB 1 hour 15 minutes. Easy session. These are all too rare.

Total of $128.06 on the night for a bankroll of $4,677.94 now.

Time for bed. Ugh. 1:30 am now.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

End of '05

Welcome 2006.

1/1/2006
($7.42)
mostly .25/.50 NL but also some .01/.02 NL in there as well as a $3.30 MTT
1/1/2006
$6.75
FCP .5/1 heads up make like $26.75 and then lost $20 playing .15/.30 heads up
1/2/2006
Bankroll now $4,549.88
$29.50
3 2/4 BB 30 minutes

4/11/05 to 12/31/05 saw my roll increase from $502.75 to $4,521.05 - a healthy $4,018.30. I would like my roll to increase enough in '06 that I'm able to take a trip out to Vegas in July and play in a WSOP event. I figure I would need close to $10k to make that happen. We'll see. I have to conquer $2/4 first and I still have a ways to go lol.