Friday, July 31, 2009

Chan's people made this


No wonder he will not play me heads-up.

Thursday at Nautica

Seemed a little slow there last night. Not many CPMG'ers either. Hip left early with what looked like a decent stack. My bottom line: up $462 after 6.5 hours.

I tried something last night that I haven't been doing in a while...bluffing! It worked beautifully after I had shown a couple of good hands. After a couple hours I found myself up about $220, but my little man wasn't screaming for me to leave, so I stuck around. A few hands later, disaster struck. I flopped top-2 with AJ or AQ, after making it $12 to go preflop. There were 5-6 in the hand, and I bet big on the flop to narrow the field. I get one caller. Flop was AJ (or AQ)-6. Turn is a 7. I ship it and get called. My opponent had proven earlier to be a complete donk, so I was pretty confident. River is a 4 and he shows 8-5 for the straight. Ouch!!! Stacked me for my first buy-in plus a couple hundo in profit. Nice call on the flop donko.

The calling stations were in full effect last night. I made it $15 with QQ at one point and got 7 callers! I think I took that hand down with a big bet on the flop if I remember right.

So anyway, I start to rebuild. I managed to stay completely off tilt last night. Somehow I knew that this table was going to provide for me. I get my 2nd buy-in back to about $300, and check my BB with a 2-5 of hearts. Flop is 2-2-5!! (I had actually hit trips 5's with the very same hand earlier) I am first to act and check of course. Guy next to me had just sat down, and this was his first hand. He was piss drunk. He was loud as hell and talking about how he just got back from Vegas...blah blah blah. He was still pulling chips from his rack, and shoves $198 into a $12-14 pot. Folds around to me. I dont think I can lay this one down, lol. CALL!! He says nice hand and flips A-4 off for nothing but a gutshot. Turn is an ACE, river is an ACE. Unfuckingreal!!! NH fuckstick. I add-on a hundo, so now I am in for $500.

Even after the monster beat, I didn't blow up. I played patiently and kept focus. In fact, this was one of my best sessions in a while where I really played well and considered every move I made. I did see as many cheap flops as possible (as always down there), and did a good job of picking my spots. I got a guy to fold 99 to my 77 on a 6-high board, I made stabs at pots that no one seemed to want, etc. I even folded AQ on a board of AQKK7. Another guy called with AQ, and the winning donkey showed K7. It may seem like an easy lay down, but really wasn't the way it all played out, which I don't exactly remember.

I was back to around a $400 stack and called a small raise ($10-12) with a Q-10 during the last hour, and flopped the joint. Rainbow board of K-J-9. This was already a big pot because there were 6-7 callers preflop. 2nd to act bets $30, 2 other people call, and I flat call. Turn is a blank, like a 4. Bettor makes it only $35 this time, and everyone folds but me. I make it $85 to go. He calls. River is another brick and there's no flush out there. He checks to me and I get him to throw in his last $92-or-so. Ship it. He showed 2-pair. That's where I think my game really excels...getting max value for my good hands. Inducing the bet/call/raise is a fine art. :)

So now I am back on top, I think I was up almost a hundo again, and was thinking about leaving, (just happy to be even) when a guy sits down that I know is hyper-aggressive. He raises every other hand, and continues to bet no matter what. He did this a few times, and then made it $45 to go after someone else made it $15. There were already about 4 callers in for the $15, and most of them had called the $30 raise, so I came along with my J9 suited. Flop is JJx. It checks to me (aggressive guy hasn't acted yet) and I make it $25, throwing some bait out there. Aggressive guy makes it $75, everyone else folds. I call. Turn's a brick (7), and I shove. He has a bit less than $200 and calls, saying my jack is good. River is another 7, and I boat up. He shows AA...oops! How do you put a guy like that on AA? Especially when he does stuff like that with pocket 4's. So I caught a lucky flop and cracked AA, and cashed $962 at 11:30.

A bit of a roller coaster ride, but I think I minimized some of the mistakes I often make and worked on focusing on each hand, and adjusting to the style of each opponent. With the money I won last night, I was able to pay for a class my wife is taking to become an STNA. TY Nautica donks!! I have also nearly recovered the money I lost during that bad run a couple of weeks ago.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Comedian Mike Birbiglia

Funny guy. Not entirely stomach-pain funny, but he's got some great stories. Check out his "What I should have said was nothing" DVD if you have Netflix.

He also has a website http://www.birbigs.com/spj/

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Cash Plays Podcast

I've been listening to this podcast for almost a year now, and it's pretty good. A few good interviews. Check out the 2-part Greenstein interview.

http://www.pokerroad.com/cash_plays/rss.xml

Also, check out the 2-part series on value. Some great tips.

I forget now who it was, but I thought it was great advice, and I've had the same idea, but I don't actually adhere to it. He said when running bad, you need to play more. My thoughts on this were that generally a bad run lasts a certain number of hands, so you need to get the hands out of the way ASAP. This is exactly what he said. Unfortunately, I think you can also go broke or crazy faster as well. I think getting your head screwed back on correctly is also a good idea. Take some time off, put some balance back into your life.

Through this podcast, I have come to realize that me and Paul Wasicka have very similar styles when it comes to cash game play. I thought I was the only donkey that bets runner-runner draws, but he apparently does as well. I'm gonna have to check this guy out. I've never seen him play, but we have a very similar mindset and approach to the game. He plays $5-10 NL regularly because he likes to play "stress-free", which is really why I haven't stepped up to $2-5 at Nautica. So if you really want a read on me, check out the podcast with his interview.

Speaking of Nautica and 2-5, I have been considering jumping in. I love 2-5 and have done very well at it at various casinos.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Wild weekend

Lost $199 at Nautica on Friday. Posted some stuff I saw on the CPMG board (see The Chronicles of Nautica thread). Was up $150 at one point and didn't listen to my little man. I thought, "surely I can win more than $150 tonight"...WRONG!!! LOl...it was a dream table too.

Sunday, heads-up vs Jen. WOW...just WOW. I had 10's full of 5's vs her 9-5 (trip 5's), and didnt have her covered by 150. She won like the next 5-6 hands that we showed down to re-take the lead. I get her back down to 1000 chips, and still cant finish her off. She ended up winning the first match by crazy-stupid luck. Here's a couple examples...I had AK, Flop AKx, turn K, I get her all-in, river A, she has A-8...chop. I have AK again, get her all-in preflop, she has A-8 again, hits trip 8's. EVERY hand was like that. I think she won about 75% of the total hands. Slow-play my 2-pr and she drew flushes a couple times. Flop a set of A's, she folds. All my good hands were just timed badly.

2nd match, she outplayed me and hit some hands as well, although I did make a pretty good game of it. She just seemed to make all the right calls/folds. She won all the big pots and I only hit a few small ones. Nothing I could do. While I am not unhappy with my play, I am certainly disappointed with the outcome. It should have gone to 3 matches. What can I do. We played almost exactly 5 hours. That puts me at 2-1 in heads-up challenges. I'm looking forward to the next one. Either way, they are a lot of fun to play, and is always a learning experience. I switched gears a few times throughout each match, and each strategy worked well for me.

Luckily, as always, there was a cash game going. Gibran showed for a while while me and Jen were still playing, and ended up busting pretty quick. Uncle Bob was gone by 7pm as well.

Short story...up $1111 after 2.5 hours. Not bad. I got a little bit of everyone, and a whole bunch of Nick, Adam's roommate. On the first hand, I bet my top pair pretty hard all the way, and it was good. Got about $150 from him there. Later, I raise preflop with QJ suited, flop and open-ender, bet $20, and Nick min-raises. I call and hit the nuts on the turn. He bets out $50, and knowing he is incapable of folding even a pair, especially after he has bet, I make it $200 to go. "I guess I am all-in", he says. I guess I CALL! He had 2-pr (better hand than I put him on) and missed the boat. Stacked him for almost $400 on that one.

Made a couple of other great pick-off river calls against Adam and this guy Dave. Dominic was also there and I got him pretty good a couple times as well. Bought in for $300 total, cashed $1411. Certainly made up for losing the heads-up.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A couple pics and iPhone game review



Check out the carnival ride name. It'll apparently make you shit your pants. FAIL!!!

I have the popular Hold 'Em game for my iPhone that is actually made by Apple. It looks great and the game play is smooth, but the AI is completely awful, and it seems the random card generator sucks as well. Check out the pic. I went all-in after hitting the flop, and I get called by 8-2. Runner-runner. This happens 80-90% of the time once you reach the money or the final table. Amazing what you get called with.

A couple of other complaints:

* From the very beginning of the tourney (only tourneys are available, no cash), every bet seems to be at least half your stack. I've never played so tight in all my life.

* With all the crazy betting you can often make the money without even playing a hand.

* Heads-up play is a joke. Your opponent does nothing but bet HUGE amounts. I have discovered that if they bet less than half their stack, it's usually a bluff and they will fold to a raise that puts them all-in most of the time.

* Straight and flush draws hit much less often than they should

That being said, I have made $11.1 million over the last few days and make the money 38% of the time. Too bad I cant do that in real life, I'd be trotting the globe playing cards.

Over all, this game was worth the few bucks I paid for it, but I am going to look into another poker game that also has a cash game option. The last one I had for my Treo was pretty cool. I built a stack of over $3 million playing 5-10 NL.

666 to the rescue

Dug myself out of a huge hole at Nautica last night. Was down about $500, and managed a $250 win.

Was up early, then got QQ cracked by a donk with 10-8. He hit top pair with his 10, called when I put him all-in, and hit his kicker. NH. Another guy called my $210+ all-in with his flush draw in a $100 pot to crack my JJ (over pair to the board) Nailed it! NH sir.

Anyway, I was on my third+ buy-in and had managed to get myself back to within a hundo of even, and I get pocket 6's. I was in the BB and just checked. There were about 4-5 people to the flop. Flop was 7-4-3 rainbow, and I lead out with a 3/4-pot-sized bet, and the old Crazian with the John Deere hat calls. Turn is another 7, and I bet again. He just calls. I have him on A-3 or A-4, or possibly even a gutshot with a 5 or 6 in his hand. The river boats me up with a 6. I stare blankly at the board, and meekly check. I am certain he's gonna bet no matter what. He's the type that will either try to steal after he missed, and will certainly bet if he hit something. He bets $100, and has about $80 left. I put him all-in, he calls, game over. I guess he claimed to have had a straight. I rack them up and run for the cage with $904.

Jeremy was at my table (so was Slacks, who got shafted by a guy chasing his 9-high flush) and sends me this txt while I was on my way home: So they were talking about how lucky u are. And one guy said "he loses all the time. Last time I played with him he lost $3500". Made me laugh.

Made me laugh too. I wish I could afford to bring $3500 to a 1-2 game. I think the most I ever lost there was about $700. I am WAY up down there, as are most CPMG members. I may be lucky, but I will take mad luck over mediocre skills every time.

That's 2 sessions in a row I've profited with pocket 6's.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Weekend

Up $380 in an hour at Nautica over the weekend. No love at Dave's tourney of course. Lost a decent stack over 3 consecutive hands. My 77 vs K-10 lost, bottom 2-pr vs top 2pr, and then middle pr vs AA. Same old story tourney-wise. No more $100+ tourneys for me for a while, I'll stick to the donkaments. Cash is the way to go.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I feel your pain

Text from Hiphop last night... K9 flop K96. Gross bets 15. Call. I call guy who raised to 7 pre check raises to 100. I ship in for 219. He calls with k6. River 6

Perfect example of "running bad". I feel for ya bro...I'm getting the same thing right now.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Weekend update

No love at Ken's this weekend. Lost 2/3 of my stack with 2-pr vs the nut straight. All over after that. Played almost 4 hours and was doing well up to that point.

That was all the poker I played this weekend. I recently bought a 24" monitor for my PC and have been playing a couple of games. Call of Duty 4 and Half Life 2. Half Life is like 6-7 years old and still looks better that COD, and plays perfectly smooth at full 1920x1080 resolution. Put a new Sound Blaster card into my machine also, so the sound really kicks. I haven't upgraded my desktop PC in like 6-7 years, so it's pretty exciting. A computer geek is supposed to have all the latest gear, and I have been lacking in that department, although my laptop is pimped out pretty nicely.

Got my new TV late last week as well, which also looks great connected to my laptop. Surfing Craigslist on a 42" screen rocks!! Thank you Nautica donks!!!

Hopefully, I can make it down there this week and turn this little losing streak around.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Running bad

Dropped a couple buy-ins at Nautica last night. I can count 2 hands I hit...flopped the nut straight with a 6-8 to win a decent pot and chased a set of 9's (hit on the turn) as well. Neither of my river bets were called.

Unlike previous times, I realize now that I am starting to run bad, and it hasn't tormented me like it has in the past. It's just part of the cycle of the game. No one runs great forever. Problem is, running bad can lead to playing bad, which I did last week. Fortunately, I have recognized it and I'm trying to adjust. I played just fine last night, but had LONG stretches with shit cards and none of my good hands hit the flop or held up at show down. I had a dream table the last couple hours last night, and could have cashed big if I had just hit a hand. No one was folding, and I could have been paid well. Last hand of the night, I pushed my last hundo into the pot with 2 pr, got like 5 callers, and ended up being 3rd. I got beat by 2 other 2-pr hands, but I got my $$ in good.

One thing I have noticed during a bad run...EVERYTHING seems to go wrong. No cards, missed flops, set-over-sets, awful "hero" calls, poor reads, getting re-raised by the nuts (when you have the 2nd nuts), etc. You know the deal. Every hand I played beside the 2 I mentioned pretty much missed big. No flush draws, no decent straight draws, no sets. No big pairs. AK, AQ, and J-A bricked all night.

I am taking a bit more of a Zen approach this time around (aside from spending some bankroll $$ on a sweet TV) and I am "witnessing" the bad run almost like a spectator. It helps to kind of sit back and watch it unfold. It doesn't seem to bother me. I refuse to beat myself up over a bad run.

Friday, July 3, 2009

...and so it begins

I've now lost almost 25% of my roll over the past week and a half. Nothing is holding up (got 3-4 straights busted last night), my timing is off, and my aggression has withered. So...I'll be taking some profit and buying a new big screen TV and a few other luxury items so I don't give it all back, lol.

Thanks for the stuff!