Monday, November 26, 2007

Mission Accomplished

Goals are a good thing. My wife is always telling me about goals. As is my father. Without goals, you can't measure your success. You can't measure when you are compared to where you were. I have never really had goals. I just go through like and see where it takes me, and so far, it has taken me to some good places.

I made a goal to hit $1k in my bankroll before the end of the month. After 6 weeks of grinding at $0.25/0.50, I hit my target. Was really nice to see that bankroll go into the 4 digits. I know $1k is not much to some people, but from $100 and grinding up, $1,000 seems like a nice number. I don't plan on cashing out any time soon, I would like to attempt at running the bankroll up to $2k or $3k, but for now, I am thrilled with my success up until now.

The hand that took me over hump was your classic TPTK vs. a set, me obviously having the set. Gotta say, it is amazing how many online micro-limit players are willing to go broke with 1 pair, even if it is top pair.

I had a a few other interesting hands in the session, one where I was all-in on the flop on a 994 board with my J9 vs. K9 vs. 44. Somehow, a K came on the river to bail out the other guy, but I was left with $40 less on that hand.

Another interesting hand that I got berated for was one in the BB when I had 63sooooted. UTG raises to $2, and right away I said that I would fold, unless there was at least 1 other caller. The button ended up calling, and even after he did, I considered folding, but opted not to. Both stacks had me covered, and I thought that was reason enough, just in case I hit the flop well. The flop comes a beautiful K63 rainbow. I lead out for $4, and the UTG player insta-all-ins for $50. The button folds, and I mumbled to myself that if I am going to play $hit like this, I better bet out and be aggressive if I hit it. I called all-in with the UTG player showing AA. My hand held up, and that gave me a nice boost. (Obviously not after the UTG player gave me shit about playing 63.

Now that I hit my first goal, here is my new one:

Since I will probably not be playing much poker in the next 3 weeks (Daughter's birthday this weekend, company kid's party as well, company adult party and our own Christmas party the next weekend, and a trip to Vegas on the 13th through 17th of December) I am going to not make a goal until after Christmas. I will be playing some but not much. When I wake up on January 1st, we will see where my roll is, and make a goal at that time. I am going to play a few more MTTs if I can get some time, which has been hard to come by, but probably more 25c/50c for me at this time. Hopefully, we can continue this run of fortune and get to $2k in the near future. Currently, the roll is $1,042.54 and counting. GL me.

Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving, and hope to see you all at the tables.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Terrific!

Wow is all I can say. It was a great weekend for me. Was a long weekend here in Mexico, and I had some things to do over the weekend, but I got to play a lot of poker on Monday. A lot of my play was from 4:30am to 7:00am (Mountain time), as my wife was busy with work, and I had to help (she works out of the house) and tend to the kids as well.

During the course of the day, my bankroll has skyrocketed to a level I have never had before, over $850. I started the weekend around $525-550, and on Saturday morning, I sat down and played 4 tables on FT. Within 20 minutes, I was down $100 for the session. After a horrible beat with AA vs JT, I started to tilt a little bit and donked off another $60.

I got up, made a pot of coffee, walked outside, took a couple of deep breaths, and regrouped. Now at $440 in my bankroll, I started playing some good poker.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1724135
What I didn't realise here until the end was that I hit a 1-outer on the turn to take the pot. Lucky for me, he had top 2, and paid me off nicely on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1724144
The whole rule about going broke in an unraised pot holds true on this hand. I flop the nuts with the hidden strength of my hand and get paid off nicely when the other 2 guys have decent hands. I know some will say limping under the gun with 99 is probably not too wise, but I can definately say that my under the gun play is not incredibly good. Any comments on this one?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1724156
This guy had been raising, re-raising everyone at this particular table, and taking down pots with huge bets on the flop, and had been mildly successful. He had the exact hand I wanted him to have, and my big bet was not enough to push him off the hand. Cha-ching!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1724217
In this particular hand, I had raised 3 times in a row previously. The 3 previous hands were KK, then I raised with QJ and took down the pot with a flop bet, and then hand right before this one, I re-raised with AK after a raise and a call. I don't know what this guy put me on, but I figured my image was kind of maniacal, so I thought an all-in was a decent play from the cutoff. I got a loose call, and took down a decent pot.

I through in a couple of 9-person sit-n-gos and a $24 MTT into the mix this weekend with no good results. When I first started playing online, all I did was $5 and $10 sit-n-gos, but it has been so long, I can't remember how to play them. I guess in a cash game, since the blinds never change, each hand is a new game. The patience required for the sit-n-gos is just not there anymore. One day, when I have more time, I will get back into it. For now, cash is doing me just fine.

Thanks for reading, hope to see you at the tables..

Ryan

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Going through the motions

Last couple of days have been pretty boring, nothing much to speak of as far as profit on the poker tables. I find it interesting sometimes that you sit down for a session online, and for some reason, you just don't feel like you are going to win.

This morning was a perfect example. I just really felt that when I sat down to 3 tables, it didn't feel right, or something, and I felt I was going to play poorly. And I did. I got 2 or 3 premium hands and played them like shit. Overpushed on two of them preflop and my opponent folded both times after his re-raise. And the other, I had KK, and cursed the computer when the A came on the flop and chicken-shitted my way to checking down to river until my opponent hit his set of jacks and called his overbet like a donk.

Ended up down about $35 for the session to erase the $30 or so that I had won late the night before. The roll is not exactly comfortable for $0.25/0.50 at $530, as the variance could kill me soon, I just can't bring myself to play lower stakes. I have seen Tony Eusebio playing the $0.15/0.30 deepstack 6-man tables, but I can't play 6-man, as evidenced by my 2 previous bankrolls flushing down the toilet. I thought I liked the action of 6-man, but I am just no good at it. I guess I am just a tight nit.

Anyways, hopefully we can get something going in the next few days and push me back over the $600 mark. Still hoping for the $1k mark by the end of the month.

See you at the tables.

Ryan

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Workin' my way back up...

The bankroll got another boost last night, after a very good session. Ironically, my two best pots were ones that I was behind going to the river, and proceded to got lucky.

#1: I get dealt KdQd in middle position, I raise to $1.50 (3xBB) and get 3 callers, including the button and the BB. Flop comes Q22, 1 diamond. I think I have the best hand at this point, so after the BB checks, I lead for $2, a smallish feeler bet. Next guy calls, and the button raises to $4. Damn min-raise. What does it mean? Pocket aces? A 2? He can't have a 2 calling from the button. BB folds, I call, other guy calls.

Turn is a 5d. Decent card for me, now gives me a flush draw. I check, next guy checks, button bets $13 of the $22 he has left. I don't know what I was thinking, but because that second diamond came on the turn, I decided to raise to $30, took the other guy out of the pot, and the button calls with A2. Dammit! Lucky for me, the river was a 3rd diamond, and the $60ish pot gets shipped over my way. Sorry for the bad beat there....

#2 I get dealt AA in middle position, I raise to $2, get 2 callers, the cutoff and the BB. Flop comes Q94 rainbow. Seems like a tame enough board for AA, so after the BB checks, I bet $4, the cutoff thinks for about 15 seconds, and raises to $10. Now, this could mean JT, AQ, KQ, KK, so I am not too worried. But when the BB shoves for the $19 he has left, I have got to think that I am behind. The cutoff has about $18 left after his raise, and I have them both covered substantially, so I figure if I am behind the BB, I can break even or so with the cutoff. So, I push my stack into the pot, and the cutoff calls.

Cutoff: QQ (top set)
BB: 99 (middle set)

Crap, very bad. That is, until an A comes on the turn to give me top set, and the river is a blank, and I scoop quite a large pot.

After a week of losing those hands, along with many others, I finally got lucky a couple of times, and have now run my FT bankroll back up the $525. +$220 in the last 2-3 days. So that is a positive sign.

I am still on track to hit $1k by the end of the month. We will see you all at the tables, and thanks for reading.

Ryan

Monday, November 12, 2007

Wow, what a down-swing...

An incredible run of KK into AA and King-high flushes into Ace-high flushes has taken its toll. And the hand that changed my luck was and all-in on the flop of 762 with me holding 77 and my opponent with AA. Runner-runner flush for him sent me packing on that hand, and my luck has been bad ever since.

Some examples:

AQ < 88 on a Q42 board all-in post flop
KK < TT all-in pre-flop
QcTc < AcKs on a Jc9c8s board all-in post-flop

The list goes on and on and on. It seemed like everytime I had a hand to push with, it was second best. Had I won that hand I talked about in the beginning, my FT account would have been $650+. After this run, I was down to about $300, an incredible swing that had me contemplating a cash-out. But, I really don't want to cash out, I want to re-start and gain some momentum, see if we can right to ship.

Things definately turned around this morning, as I logged in to see my account at $304.13. Depressing. So I was up early enough this morning to play about 45 minutes, 3-tabling, I should be able to get in quite a few hands. I get onto to 3 tables pretty quickly, and the very first hand I get on the first table is KcQc. Not a bad starting hand, I'm in middle position after posting the BB, and raise it up to $1.75 (playing 0.25/0.50). Guy beside me calls, so does the button, the SB and the BB. Fine, 5 players to the flop. Let's hope for something good...

Flop comes out AcJcTc. LOL!! I flop a Royal Flush. SB checks, BB bets $2, I call, guy beside me raises to $6, SB folds, BB calls. I call. At this point, I am hoping someone flopped a set or a straight.

Turn is Td. I am hoping someone filled up, did something, BB checks, I bet $4, other guy calls, BB calls.

River is a 5h. BB now bets $8, I raise to $20, other guy folds, BB calls the additional $12 and shows A5 for 2 pair. Obviously, I take the pot. Over the course of the next 30 minutes, I flop 2 sets, a straight, and then the following hand capped the session:

Hero: Kh8h in middle position. I call, 2 more callers, SB completes, BB checks. Flop: K52 two diamonds. It is checked around to the last guy who bets $1.50. Normally, I fold in this situation, because with any king, I am definately outkicked. 2 other people call, so I decide to call and see what comes of it.
Turn: 8d This completes the flush. This time, the SB bets out $3. I told myself that I was going to fold unless someone else called to build the pot and see what happens. I have 2 pair, but it is definately not good enough. BB calls, so I decide to call, as does the other guy.
River: Ks Wow! I went from looking not very good to rivering the nuts! SB bets out again, $7, the BB calls, I raise to $20, and both the SB and BB call. Amazingly enough, the BB had K5 for a fullhouse, 2nd nuts, and did not re-raise. The SB had T9d for the flush. So that pot was huge, another good one for me.

And the end of it all, I was up almost $130 for the session, to bring my account back up to a respectable $430ish, and well back on my way to getting to $1000 by the end of the month.

Thanks for reading, and good luck at the tables!

Ryan

Monday, November 5, 2007

Funny, this game of poker

I got in about 10 hours of poker this weekend, mostly cash, played a couple of sit-n-gos, all my play on FT. Early Saturday morning, I played about 4 hours, and stunk it up playing cash games. Lost 2 big all-in pots for about $40 each, and was up about $10 on everything else cash. I will say that each time, when the money got in, I was behind, so it is not surprising that I lost the 2 hands.

While all of that was going on, I decided to play an 18-man $10+1 sit-n-go. It went very well, and with not too much effort, I managed to get down to the final 4 as the 2nd stack. Once the money burst, the table was crazy, all-ins with middle pair, low flush draws. I ended up getting my money in with QQ vs. AK vs. AJ and luckily it held, and I had a massive chip lead which I held until the final 2. I actually ended up losing to chip lead to 2 coolers, and I was 3-1 down in chips. But a PF all-in with AA vs KQs and then the very next hand all-in with AJ vs A9 and that was that. $72 bucks, and I was back to even for the session.

The rest of the weekend, I was never up or down more than about $15 total at any time, none of my cash tables were very active, had some nice hands, and would raise 3 times the big blind, and everyone folds. No big pots to speak of at all.

Then, last night, about 10pm, I was just about to pack it in for the night and head to bed, I said that I would play 1 more round on each of the 4 tables I was playing. In a matter of 5 minutes, I got aces 3 times, kings twice, AK about 4 times and hit 3 sets with small pocket pairs. With all of those hands, I won all but one hand (folded 88 with a AQ9 board). Was all-in with my KK vs. AK and it held, slowplayed a set of aces to get paid of decently on the river. Hit a straight with AK, top 2 pair with AK, and took blinds with most of the rest. All in all, I was up about $65 in 5 minutes. It was crazy. All that work all weekend, and variance finally hit me in the right spot. Was refreshing.

At the end of it all, my PS balance is still $20.05, and my FT balance is up to $553.20, so I have always worked myself back to my peak online roll of $600+. I am almost there, and looking to hit $1k on Full Tilt by the end of the month.

Thanks for reading, and will see you all at the tables.

Ryan

Friday, November 2, 2007

Quickie update

FT Balance: $495.66
PS Balance: $20.05

Nothing exciting to report really... Had some time so I played the $5+R on PS yesterday, just got killed. Played conservatively, and waiting for a hand, because there were 2-3 guys pushing on every hand at my first table. Picked up KK about 20 minutes in, pushed, got called by KQos and T5os. KQ hits runner-runner for a four-flush to beat me. Whatever... Rebought, same shit. Rebought, same shit, rebought again, and.... Same shit. Gave that up.

Played a couple of MTTs on FT, was out in 4 hands after raises and re-raises PF, got in with my TT on a 9-high board against Q9 and he hits another 9 on the river. GG me. Then played another where I got all in 3-way AA vs. AK vs. 44. No good, GG me.

Played a little cash, couldn't seem to win a hand. Figured I'd just stop for the day and cut my losses. Come back tomorrow and see if things turn around.

Ryan

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Up, Down, Up, Down...

Things haven't changed much since last time, still grinding out $0.25/0.50 NL on FT post of my online playing time. Shot my roll on FT up to about $580 before experiencing a couple of coolers that cost me about $35 a piece. So I am back to basically where I was in the last post.

I wondered what other people felt about this, but do you find a difference in the play at this level on FT and Pokerstars? It seems as though the play of FT is much more, um, normal? I mean, there's no crazy play like open-pushing with any two cards, even open-pushing on flops, or anything crazy like that. Whether they are more knowledgeable players, I am not sure, but I definately would rate the play as less crazy. That being said, as I tight player like I am, crazy play sometimes work when I have a monster, not so much when I have second pair and continuously fold...

Sorry for the short post, but gotta get back to bed. I am sick right now and have been sleeping 13 hours a night and still am fatigued in the middle of the day. Talk to you all soon.

Good luck at the tables.

Ryan