$3 Horse lesson

Wow.

Got a little tilty in my Horse session Saturday and that's a very, very bad idea in games that involve so many cards. You need to play TIGHT in those games. So after 4 hours I quit down $90. Ouch. Not a good feeling when my bankroll at Stars read $160. Later that night I logged back on and played another 4 hour session. I played correctly, didn't get those horrible bad beats at the wrong time and made $87 back and felt like a king.

Whew. Lesson learned. I hope.

BTW - 8.75 hours of poker Saturday. Wow, that's a ton for me. Got to sleep at 4am and then up at 8:45. Beautiful.

So last night I put those 8 hours to good use and played a 2.5 hour session of 1/2 Horse and 1/2 HOSE (Sometimes I accidentally sit down at a HOSE table because I'm not very smart). Made $81. Blew $8.80 on a Horse turbo satellite MTT and another $3.50 on two turbo sngs for the hell of it.

I felt great about my play and certainly the play of my opponents. Could've been better but I got rivered on some scoops. I'm not complaining. Mixed games are a lot of fun - especially when you're making money. It's been a nice break from the NL tables at Party.

So I'm up about $150 at the Horse cash tables since starting last week. Hopefully I have a real advantage there for now as the Stars players learn the h/l games.

My little bankroll is growing.


ps $320.29
pp $262.93
bodog $53.99
---------------------------------
A little trip down memory lane.

I was looking back through my spreadsheet at the crazy year I've had so far and it got me to looking at my best and worst days since keeping details of my play. Here's the top 3 and bottom 3:


1/6/2006
($621.17)
2/4 BadBeat horror show for 7 hours

1/31/2006
($323.00)
45 minutes 2 2/4 and 1 5/10. WOW!
1/31/2006
($215.96)
3 hours 3/6 and 2 5/10 tables. Horrible luck continues. Oh well. Time for an extended break.

4/1/2006
($456.96)
sigh. 6 hours. 2 hours 8 tabling .5/1 down $87 so I went to the 2/4 6 max. Huge mistake as I dropped another $350 there in 3.5 hours then I went to 3 $100 NL tables. I did great up about $160 when I got sucked out on in a $350 pot. If my 11 to 1 odds had held up for the river I would've quit down $100 for the night and been quite happy.


4/19/2005
$163.75
Tues 805p 835p 3 $2/4 bb caught a straight on turn with 44 after flopping OE. Table went crazy reraising won 76.5 net.

1/27/2006
$234.37
3 hours of 3 2/4 BB tables

12/27/2005
$339.17
3 2/4 BB 2 1/2 hours. Beautiful night of poker. No complaints here.

Wow, that's kinda interesting. My three best days are for a total of $737. My three worst days blow them away at $1,617. Ouch. Maybe I'm due for a monster $1000 day ala DNAPoker from FCP. Or a big MTT win. (I need to play in one first.)

What?

$5.60
45 minutes 2 (1/2) horse tables. Won my last stud hand with 55544 showing and they both called down after my bet on 7th street? No low. I have no idea why they both gave me $2.

No Poker last night

But I finally feel better. I've been down with a nasty virus this week. The beginning of school usually means I get whatever my kids bring home. Last year it was a cough that stayed with me for 3 months. That sucked. A lot.

Monday I failed to mention that I broke my low score on the Par 3 course last Sunday. As you can see it came out of nowhere. I had been playing like crap since taking a 12 day break. Golf is weird.

07/30/06 Even
Vacation break
08/11/06 +6
08/13/06 +7
08/13/06 +7
08/17/06 +9
08/18/06 +5
08/19/06 +7
08/20/06 +6
08/20/06 -2

I've had a crazy week and haven't been able to get back out there since. Quite a change from the 7 rounds a week I had been playing before my vacation. I'm interested to see how I do once the big boy course opens back up in October. All this work on my short game should shave a few strokes off my sucky game. I just wonder how many.

In a week I'll be making the 400 mile trek to watch my Aggies play football. I can't wait. Maybe they'll actually be decent this season.

A little Horse and a .10 MTT

$37.75
45 minutes of 2 HORSE tables (1/2). I LOVE razz. For now.

($1.78)
won a $1.75 2 table horse tourney. Lost a couple of $3.40 razz sngs on BULLCRAP. Wow, it really is a sick game. On both I lost because my opponent hit perfectly on the last 2 streets (after I was all-in) and I caught bad cards at the same time. The last guy called me with paired aces then caught a 2 and a 4 while I caught a queen and 10. Very nice.

Played in a $1.10 and .10 MTT for fun and cashed in the 10 center. More than doubled my buy-in! Blinds went up every 5 minutes so I finished in 281st out of 2700 in 55 minutes. Funny. I almost had a monster chipstack but couldn't pull the trigger with 3 6 hearts. It was a close decision and I would've ended up with 30k in chips near the end. Oh well. It was fun to push with crap and catch. I'm afraid I used up some luck though. Maybe.

The last couple of days

Wow, a really big missed opportunity for my little bankroll Monday night. I played 4 hours of 3 $25 NL tables on PP and got up to $101 on one table, $90 on another and ended up only $10 on the night. I had to reload 4 times on my 3rd table and lost a bit on the other 2 to finish off the night. I should've closed down that 3rd table after the 2nd reload. Sometimes the mojo just isn't with you.

I lost $20 to a maniac that played for about 15 minutes. I was so glad to see him go. He basically alternated having the nuts to making huge bluffs every other hand. I, of course, get caught with jacks versus his A4 on a xAAAx board. Fun times. I think he was a good player but it's hard to tell when the deck hits him in the face and he's throwing money around. I prefer my players weak-tight thank you very much.

I had some monster hands included a set of kings vs aces that I wish I would've pushed on the river to get another $20 with, a set of queens versus a set of jacks and another set of queens taking out kings. I should've easily made $60+. Probably more like $100. Oh well. Flopping bottom 2 versus aces and getting it all in for a $60 pot and then seeing queen, queen come as the turn and river didn't help any. Oh yea, or flopping 994 with my A9 versus a set of 4s. That was ugly too. Anyway, that was a pretty frustrating night considering what could've been. The PP players are really, really bad though. That was again confirmed.

Last night I played 45 minutes on a HOSE table and one razz table on Stars. That was my first time to play razz (1/2 on both tables) and I ended up making $28. I made $7 on the HOSE table. I saw some crazy things on the razz table including 10 high winning a $30 pot. Hilarious.

Omaha and Stud are great games to play to break the hold 'em trance most of us have been under. I've played just enough Omaha the past 3 years to be ahead of the average HOSE player. Stud is another story. I don't really know what to do there other than play tight and figure 2 pair is good most of the time. Whatever.

Up to $530.19 online now.

Another weekend

$32.98 to the good.

Lost 45 cents on Bodog Sunday morning watching a guy lose 5 buy-ins at a $25 6 max table. Everybody had over $50 except for me and Mr. Donkey. I just couldn't catch anything decent against him and when I did he folded instead of his insta-allin move he was so in love with.

Lost $25 on Stars playing tons of 18 person turbo sngs Friday night when I should've been sleeping. Playing 2 NL tourneys and 2 Horse tourneys (all turbo) at the same time is not advised. I guess. I got $10 of it back the next day winning a 18 person NL turbo sng. Most weak-tight players I've ever seen at that level. I play these things just to pass the time in the background while doing other things so I play pretty tight. I sat out and didn't really play a hand until we were down to 12. I then played like 6 straight hands and more than doubled up to 3500 in time to sit at the final table. I knocked out like 5 players and steamrolled to the title baby. Cause that's how I roll. Whatever.

Had another winning session - actually two - on PP's $25 NL tables. Would've had $34 more but I hit an ace hi flush on the turn against someone's top set (kings). When the board paired on the river and smelled something rotten and checked behind. Sometimes I'm a genius like that. Or weaktight. Whatever. I was actually pretty proud of that play.

The players are bad but especially so on the weekend. They really play any 2 cards and play them badly. I flopped another ace hi flush yesterday and built a huge pot against a set of 8s. I don't know what he thought I had but I was certain he had the 2nd nut flush. Moron. Sometimes sets don't win on a board filled with 3 hearts - especially when the other guy reraises you 4 times. I had to throw away 2 flopped sets on very scary boards. I really didn't even have to think that hard. I did throw away the nut straight once when 2 guys went crazy before me. I was certain one of them had the flush. Nope, one was on the ace hi flush draw on the turn and the other had 2 pair. The 4th flush card missed the river. Whoops.

$487.55 online now. Nice boost from the $50 I had in May.

BoDog

I haven't played there in months.

Bodog.

Logged on a couple of days ago thanks to a reminder email from them and found $12 there. I forgot I had it. The last entry on my spreadsheet said $30.92. I guess I leaked away $18.92 somewhere. Anyway worked it down to $5 playing on one $25 NL table and bad beat Kings with my A2 and was off and running. Finished the session at $22.

Sat down at lunch with $20 and worked it up to $52 without breaking a sweat. These guys are really, really bad and I hit some flops. They love to bet .25 into a $4 pot. Min-raising is all the rage. Stuff like that. I turned the nut straight with a flush draw with 67 of spades and only bet $2 into a $7 pot with 2 other guys in the hand. I guess I thought I was bulletproof. Have I mentioned that slowplaying sucks? $13 pot on the river now and the only hand that has me beat is 79. No idea why someone would stay with that but he did. So I bet out $4 with a caller and mr. 79o nuts raises $6 more and I call thinking we're gonna split. The other dude calls off the last of his $5 and wow, there went a $38 pot to a gutshot on the river. Oh well. My mistake on the turn.

The table broke and I got heads up with a dude that had $12 left. 1st hand he raises it up to .70 and I fold. Next hand he does the same thing and I have A8 so I push him all-in. He thinks about it and calls with 67sooooted. 234 on the flop and I'm nervous. He turns the flush draw and now I'm dodging like 16 outs on the river. But I do and I'm back up above $52 again. Did I mention the players there are bad?

I guess the next time I play there I'll sit on one $25 table and not do things like push with A8 heads up. The Bodog account is real again. It's aliiiive.

So all of that to say I'm back up to $196.17 on PS, $203.96 on PP and $54.44 on Bodog for a lovely $454 total. Tiny bankroll but not bad after being below $50 in May.

$46.43

Oh yea, and the straight flush down in my previous entry beat AsAd. He was not pleased. I think that might have been the first time my straight flush beat another deep stack when he had the ace hi flush. So often straight flushes take down the minimum.

$41.83 2 $25 NL tables 2.5 hours. Took some horrible beats early in huge pots and fought back very nicely. Never tilted and just ground away and then hit some big hands against morons.

$4.60 1 $1.75 18 person turbo tourney for kicks. 2nd place.

JJ and KK went down at the same time on my $25 tables. That was ugly. JJ on a 7 4 2 10 6 board to a set of 7s. At the same time my KK was going down in flames to 68 on a 66xxx board. I should not have lost a $20 pot there. I fired away guns blazing even with the paired board. The players have tended to be either weak-tight or just crazy bluffers. I'm proud of the way I stayed off of tilt tonight even though I took some crazy beats early in big pots. Like this one:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Whatever (4 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button ($14.10)
SB ($33.33)
Whatever ($35.29)
UTG ($12.85)

Preflop: Whatever is BB with 9s, Ad. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
1 fold, Button calls $0.25, SB (poster) raises to $0.65, Whatever calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50.

Flop: ($2.25) 8c, 9d, Kd (3 players)
SB bets $1, Whatever calls $1, Mr Moron calls $1.

Turn: ($5.25) Ac (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $2, Mr Moron calls $2.

River: ($9.25) Ts (3 players)
BB bets $2, Mr Moron 8.35 more, Whatever makes the crying call $8.35.

Final Pot: $28.50

So Mr. Moron catches runner, runner to take it down with QJo. Nice. I should've been more aggressive when I hit my 2nd pair on the turn. That was such a weak bet. But who knows, they sure do love their gutshots on the PP $25 tables.

Anyway, I played very well and kept my head and came back to finish with $97 on one table and $51 on the other. It's so much fun to build a pile of money on a table and use it to club people out of pots.

I'm still learning the NL game but am having a great time. For now.

Meager bankroll up to $395.38 split almost evenly between PP and PS.

BTW - another guy asked me what I had in a hand after I mucked a showdown. He didn't know how to use the hand history on PP. This happens almost once per session and always amazes me.

$91 pot at a $25 table

Wow.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP ($21.59)
Button ($8.55)
SB ($38.32)
BB ($38.16)
Whatever ($54.88)

Preflop: Whatever is UTG with Qd, Jd. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
Whatever calls $0.25, MP calls $0.25, 1 fold, SB (poster) raises to $0.9, BB calls $0.75, Whatever calls $0.75, MP folds.

Flop: ($3.25) 9d, 5d, Td (3 players)
SB bets $1, BB raises to $3, Whatever calls $3, SB calls $2.

Turn: ($12.25) 8d (3 players)
SB bets $5, BB folds, Whatever calls $5.

River: ($22.25) 9s (2 players)
SB bets $20, UTGA raises to $40, SB calls $9.32 (All-In).

Final Pot: $91.57

Ugly

I went back to the spreadsheet and checked my yearly stats. I really thought I had it down to only a 350 loss on the year. More like down $495. After making $4000 last year I really thought I'd make at least 10 in 2006. But then I hit a downswing and cashed out almost everything and decided to build a house. Here's the monthly blow by blow net amounts.

January -$697.48
Feb $234.20
March $370.46
April -$521.58
May -$113.78
June $106.91
July $62.38
August $64.40

I'm in a pretty precarious spot right now trying to grind up on PP with $124 on $25 tables. With a little luck and patience it can happen but I'm certainly not in control of the luck part. I'm gonna try and play some sngs to lower the variance a little.

Hehe, what a difference a year makes. I made my $500 deposit in April '05 and started tracking my bankroll playing mostly 2/4 limit. Wow, so consistent month over month with the profits. Those were the days. No negative months. Nice.

April $650.04
May $711.58
June $459.81
July $233.10
August $624.85

$54

Woo-hoo.

Finally didn't do anything stupid in a session at PP and ground up $54.40 in about an hour on 2 .10/.25 NL 6 max tables. The players were incredibly weak tight for playing 4 and 5 handed.

Another aces over kings all-in preflop accounted for $28 of that. My time is coming soon I'm sure. I really haven't been hurt that bad by the kings cooler - maybe because I usually don't mind seeing a flop with them. I don't know. Probably just good variance that will go bad soon.

Up to $309.92 online now. Nice to get over that hump.

I think PP is about to give me another $30 for getting 100 points in 10 days in August. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Now I'm dreaming about getting back in the black for the year.... Only about $350 to go or so. I need to check on that.

Vacation Over

And what a lovely time we had. 8 days at the beach is nice. And now football season is only 3 weeks away. I can almost smell the tailgating.

What a great time of year!

Played a couple of sessions of .05/.10 NL at Stars before leaving and got my account up to $185. Weekend players are sooo much worse it's hard to describe. They make some truly amazing plays.

Right before I left I cleared a $50 bonus on that Party Poker sent to me to try out their casino. I played blackjack for 15 minutes and finished up $10 so I had $60 waiting for me there when I got back. Worked that up to $83 playing .10/.25 NL and then the next day lost a bunch down to $18. I'm horrible and was taking some truly amazing beats besides. Ah, that's the way it goes when you're trying to build up on $25 tables with limited NL skills. You have to have some luck or your bankroll is gonna drown in variance at the start.

Got smart and played in a couple of sngs. Won a 6 person $6 and came in 3rd in a 20 person and was back in business. Oh yea, also won a 10 person Omaha H/L $6 sng. I guess my month long $300 lesson in the hi version of that game wasn't all in vain. I got $19 back from it anyway.

Sat back down at the cash tables with $55 and immediately hit this hand. 4th hand after sitting down....

cmalgee posts small blind [$0.10].
Whatever posts big blind [$0.25].

** Dealing down cards **Dealt to Whatever [ Qc Ac ]
2 folds
pecann2 calls [$0.25].
1 more fold
cmalgee calls [$0.15].
Whatever raises [$0.50].
pecann2 calls [$0.50].
cmalgee calls [$0.50].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ad, 5c, 2c ]
cmalgee bets [$1].
Whatever calls [$1]. <----- I figured I'd slowplay my monster.....Slowplaying is so stupid, I don't care how many times Phil Laak gets away with it on GSN Hi Stakes Poker.
pecann2 raises [$2].
cmalgee calls [$1].
Whatever calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
cmalgee checks.
Whatever checks.
pecann2 bets [$2].
cmalgee calls [$2].
Whatever calls [$2].
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
cmalgee checks.
Whatever checks.
pecann2 bets [$5].
cmalgee raises [$15].
Whatever folds. <--- I really didn't even have to think about it since I had absolutely zero read.
pecann2 calls [$10].
cmalgee shows [ 3c, 5h ] two pairs, fives and twos.
pecann2 shows [ 3h, As ] two pairs, aces and twos.
pecann2 wins $42.05 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and twos.

**vomit** Could've doubled my meager PP bankroll right there. Oh well. No guts no glory.

Next hand hit trip 8's with 86 only to lose to 87. Then hit 886 flop with my 99 and lost to A8. Got some back on tilt with AK calling down a KQ bluff on a ragged board. That snapped me out of it and I ended the session up $15. I basically doubled up from my low point of the session. Whew. I'll try again next session.

Because of the PP bonus I'll probably move up to the .10/.25 game on Stars. I certainly have the skill to kill that game. Not sure about the discipline. If I get below $75 I'll just drop back down to .05/.10.

So. $185 in PS and $70 in PP is where I stand right now. I'm gonna try and work that PP cash up and play in a $4.40 on PS the next chance I get.