I ended up playing one more and got three handed and then lost with 77 to K4 when the board counterfeited me at the end. Strange how you can play so well and then just get unlucky at the crucial hand and that's the big money difference.
Speaking of big money difference, I just finished third in a $1 tourney for $93 dollars. Nice to get to a final table again because it's been a while. I got to the final table in third, and people started dropping like flies - even people who jumped ahead of me. Ultimately, I crippled myself with pocket 3's, overplayed some good hands, and then shipped A5 three handed only to get called by A7 and that was it.
I was gonna do the $5 experiment and end it whenever I either won or lost $100 from my original starting point. I'm past that now. As these things go, I also played a $2 HU PLO game and lost to a guy who just started playing FTP today and misclicked into PLO. Go figure.
I will probably keep with the $5 thing and just add a hundred to my previous stop loss. Just fired up an SNG, so will update later. Also doing a razz freeroll for no good reason.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Back to Even
So I'm back to zero in the experiment. Played two SNGs this morning. The first, I lost with AJ vs. A7 AIPF in blind on blind action. Flop came 7 high. I'm still in the second game as I write this blog. crippled myself with KK on the BB. UTG +1 called, I raised to 350 - blinds were 50/100. I had about 3k, and he had about 2k. He raised to 600 and I moved all in. I guess at that point, he's indicating to me that he at least has a big hand. I think it's very possible I'm getting my money in good, but alas, I was getting my money in as a huge dog. He had AA, flop hit the A (even though the river was a K). I went down to about 900
Anyways, I ended up more than doubling up when I flopped a straight with 7-4 os in the BB. We're 4 handed now, so I'm going to try and eek this one out. And the bubble boy just got Greensteined and I'm ITM! I'm the low stack by a long way, but will continue to battle. Won a flip - my 33 vs. KJos, hitting hands and now back up to respectability. Baby's crying. Bob on Twin Peaks. My 77 got counterfeited on the river but I pulled off a decent bluff - he was betting and showed no strength and checked the river on a JJ88 board.
I cannot limp into any pots vs the guy on my left (Mr. AA from earlier). Wow crippled bigtime with A3cc on a AJ8 board with 2 clubs. He bet, I raised, he called, turn 9 - he had T7. You play well sir - knew I should have pushed all in. Back in business after doubling with AT vs. A3.
Ace rag all in in BOB, and he folded. Binds 200/400 - limped into BB with QT (did not have enough to justify raise, and I figured he'd RR for me. We got it in pre, and he had 88 and I won the flip. AQ RR all in pre up against AQ, split. Huge hand between other 2 guys - KQ vs. AQ. I'm out in third with AQ vs. KK. Shit. I could have waited and tried to finish second, but I chose to go for the win and was a huge dog. I suck.
Anyways, I ended up more than doubling up when I flopped a straight with 7-4 os in the BB. We're 4 handed now, so I'm going to try and eek this one out. And the bubble boy just got Greensteined and I'm ITM! I'm the low stack by a long way, but will continue to battle. Won a flip - my 33 vs. KJos, hitting hands and now back up to respectability. Baby's crying. Bob on Twin Peaks. My 77 got counterfeited on the river but I pulled off a decent bluff - he was betting and showed no strength and checked the river on a JJ88 board.
I cannot limp into any pots vs the guy on my left (Mr. AA from earlier). Wow crippled bigtime with A3cc on a AJ8 board with 2 clubs. He bet, I raised, he called, turn 9 - he had T7. You play well sir - knew I should have pushed all in. Back in business after doubling with AT vs. A3.
Ace rag all in in BOB, and he folded. Binds 200/400 - limped into BB with QT (did not have enough to justify raise, and I figured he'd RR for me. We got it in pre, and he had 88 and I won the flip. AQ RR all in pre up against AQ, split. Huge hand between other 2 guys - KQ vs. AQ. I'm out in third with AQ vs. KK. Shit. I could have waited and tried to finish second, but I chose to go for the win and was a huge dog. I suck.
Friday, December 5, 2008
And I lost
Full Tilt Poker Game #9331791796: $2 + $0.15 Heads Up Sit & Go (71317461), Table 1 - 10/20 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 7:11:29 ET - 2008/12/05Seat 1: alwaysbusto (1,520)Seat 2: actzeng (1,480)alwaysbusto posts the small blind of 10actzeng posts the big blind of 20The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to actzeng [2h Ac Jc 7h]
alwaysbusto raises to 60actzeng calls 40
*** FLOP *** [As 7d 6d]
actzeng bets 60alwaysbusto raises to 300actzeng raises to 1,020alwaysbusto raises to 1,460, and is all inactzeng calls 400, and is all in
alwaysbusto shows [3s 5d 7c Qd]
actzeng shows [2h Ac Jc 7h]Uncalled bet of 40 returned to alwaysbusto
*** TURN *** [As 7d 6d] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [As 7d 6d 9s] [Kd]
alwaysbusto shows a flush, King highactzeng shows two pair, Aces and Sevensalwaysbusto wins the pot (2,960) with a flush, King high
actzeng stands upalwaysbusto stands up*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 2,960 Rake 0Board: [As 7d 6d 9s Kd]Seat 1: alwaysbusto (small blind) showed [3s 5d 7c Qd] and won (2,960) with a flush, King highSeat 2: actzeng (big blind) showed [2h Ac Jc 7h] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sevens
I guess I could have done the same thing on the turn and worked for pot control. Probably what I should have done, although I'm not sure how he figures he's ahead here.
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to actzeng [2h Ac Jc 7h]
alwaysbusto raises to 60actzeng calls 40
*** FLOP *** [As 7d 6d]
actzeng bets 60alwaysbusto raises to 300actzeng raises to 1,020alwaysbusto raises to 1,460, and is all inactzeng calls 400, and is all in
alwaysbusto shows [3s 5d 7c Qd]
actzeng shows [2h Ac Jc 7h]Uncalled bet of 40 returned to alwaysbusto
*** TURN *** [As 7d 6d] [9s]
*** RIVER *** [As 7d 6d 9s] [Kd]
alwaysbusto shows a flush, King highactzeng shows two pair, Aces and Sevensalwaysbusto wins the pot (2,960) with a flush, King high
actzeng stands upalwaysbusto stands up*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 2,960 Rake 0Board: [As 7d 6d 9s Kd]Seat 1: alwaysbusto (small blind) showed [3s 5d 7c Qd] and won (2,960) with a flush, King highSeat 2: actzeng (big blind) showed [2h Ac Jc 7h] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sevens
I guess I could have done the same thing on the turn and worked for pot control. Probably what I should have done, although I'm not sure how he figures he's ahead here.
Going ok
So I guess the experiment unofficially started last night and it's going alright. I took third and first in SNGs. Would have gone better if I had not just tilted off $5 in a HU PLO game against some trash Italian player. I know he's trash because he had all kinds of negative numbers on official poker rankings. Got me tilted when I had JJ and flop came with 2 fours. He played it a little tricky, but he had a 4 in his hand. Next hand, I flopped the nut straight, but it was all diamonds. The betting should have told me everything I needed to know about where I was in the hand, but my brain went on "fuck it" mode, and I shoved it in, and he had 7d4d, gg me. He wanted to rematch, which is annoying and I declined.
As I write this, I have dropped back down to the $2 SNGs. I will file this under the divided attention exemption, although hopefully I don't go out of my way to find excuses to play lower, although I'm sure I will. As I write this, I won one hu plo sng, and just got crippled in another. Flop came TT9 and I had AT - we shipped it on the flop, he had a T also, but was a dog to me, untl he binked the J on the turn, which filled him up. He had straight draws, so whatever. I made a mini comeback, but just lost and we're rematching now. Not a good day so far I guess.
At least NLHE is going ok tho, and I'll jump back on for a couple games tonight. It's finally friday.
As I write this, I have dropped back down to the $2 SNGs. I will file this under the divided attention exemption, although hopefully I don't go out of my way to find excuses to play lower, although I'm sure I will. As I write this, I won one hu plo sng, and just got crippled in another. Flop came TT9 and I had AT - we shipped it on the flop, he had a T also, but was a dog to me, untl he binked the J on the turn, which filled him up. He had straight draws, so whatever. I made a mini comeback, but just lost and we're rematching now. Not a good day so far I guess.
At least NLHE is going ok tho, and I'll jump back on for a couple games tonight. It's finally friday.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Suicidal Thoughts
Not in real life, but just poker BR-wise. I was checking the leaderboard on sharkscope, and saw that another player who is in the top 20 for Omaha and O H/L games under $2 also plays much higher. With an 11% ROI and average stake at about $12 or so, he has played something ridiculous like 18,000 games. BUT, he has made about 24k playing. Interesting. He plays almost exclusively H/L. His graph is almost a steady incline - no real dips or rises.
Do I have the guts to do this? Just ramp it up to $5 every game or $10 every game? It's amazing how much of a nit I am and I start going crazy about losing $6 and dipping below the $1k threshold. I put these imiginary barriers in front of me and end up convincing myself that - if I can just eek out a little more, then I'll play higher. What ends up happening is that if I do go on a great streak, it's followed by a downswing, then I convince myself to cash out some of it. But for what? $100. To this day, I can't single out one thing in particular that I have purchased with my oline poker winnings, which to date is about $600 or so (at least the amount I have withdrawn) - maybe more, but I forget how much I pumped into it and all that, and also the stuff on Party.
Before FTP put in the $2 games, I was playing $5 SNGs regularly, and had less than 1/3 the bankroll I have now. What's changed?
The only real and true barrier for me is losing the entire online BR. I have no way of getting money back onto the site, and the prospect of losing it all makes me such a nit. The biggest issue is not the prospect of never playing again. I feel comfortable about the fact that I could walk away forever at any time and never go back. The biggest issue is not having the ability to play if I wanted to. There's a distinct difference, the latter much more frustrating, mentally. It will mean that I have lost my online roll, and failed. I like having options, even if my option of choice is not to play at all.
But, there's a happy medium, I think. I think I can probably safely set aside $100 of BR, and play strictly $5 games (aside from MTTs). If I lose $100, the experiment is over, and I go back to grinding $2 games. In fact, if I lose $100 from the point I am right now, I will not be too far off from my previous low point - in other words, I have recently grinded the $2 games into a $70 profit in the last 3 months or so, and am somewhat confident in my ability to be able to do it again, although it is a long and arguous process.
A couple disclaimers - now that my daughter is here, I will allow myself to play $2 games when my attention is divided among various things. this is one of the things I love about the $2 games - they are relatively inconsequential in the end. Nice to win, but if I lose, whatever. Even if I lose 4 in a row, sucks, but has almost no effect on my total bankroll. $20 may have that effect, but I'm hoping that I can eek out the same results at the $5 level as the $2 level.
I don't know when I'm going to start this, which is the problem. I keep thinking about how much it would suck to lose $100.
Does anyone read this blog? If so, please post a comment.
Do I have the guts to do this? Just ramp it up to $5 every game or $10 every game? It's amazing how much of a nit I am and I start going crazy about losing $6 and dipping below the $1k threshold. I put these imiginary barriers in front of me and end up convincing myself that - if I can just eek out a little more, then I'll play higher. What ends up happening is that if I do go on a great streak, it's followed by a downswing, then I convince myself to cash out some of it. But for what? $100. To this day, I can't single out one thing in particular that I have purchased with my oline poker winnings, which to date is about $600 or so (at least the amount I have withdrawn) - maybe more, but I forget how much I pumped into it and all that, and also the stuff on Party.
Before FTP put in the $2 games, I was playing $5 SNGs regularly, and had less than 1/3 the bankroll I have now. What's changed?
The only real and true barrier for me is losing the entire online BR. I have no way of getting money back onto the site, and the prospect of losing it all makes me such a nit. The biggest issue is not the prospect of never playing again. I feel comfortable about the fact that I could walk away forever at any time and never go back. The biggest issue is not having the ability to play if I wanted to. There's a distinct difference, the latter much more frustrating, mentally. It will mean that I have lost my online roll, and failed. I like having options, even if my option of choice is not to play at all.
But, there's a happy medium, I think. I think I can probably safely set aside $100 of BR, and play strictly $5 games (aside from MTTs). If I lose $100, the experiment is over, and I go back to grinding $2 games. In fact, if I lose $100 from the point I am right now, I will not be too far off from my previous low point - in other words, I have recently grinded the $2 games into a $70 profit in the last 3 months or so, and am somewhat confident in my ability to be able to do it again, although it is a long and arguous process.
A couple disclaimers - now that my daughter is here, I will allow myself to play $2 games when my attention is divided among various things. this is one of the things I love about the $2 games - they are relatively inconsequential in the end. Nice to win, but if I lose, whatever. Even if I lose 4 in a row, sucks, but has almost no effect on my total bankroll. $20 may have that effect, but I'm hoping that I can eek out the same results at the $5 level as the $2 level.
I don't know when I'm going to start this, which is the problem. I keep thinking about how much it would suck to lose $100.
Does anyone read this blog? If so, please post a comment.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Lucky/Unlucky
I did pass the $1k threshold, but I won't be there for too long. In fact, I think I'm already under it. Thanks to hands like this.
Full Tilt Poker Game #9309750309: $2 + $0.25 Sit & Go (71159653), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:15:21 ET - 2008/12/03
Seat 2: caseycat2 (2,840)
Seat 3: actzeng (1,195)
Seat 4: Zulu94598 (3,045)
Seat 5: darqblue42 (2,195)
Seat 8: resler101 (2,435)
Seat 9: XPhillyRobX (1,790)
caseycat2 posts the small blind of 40
actzeng posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to actzeng [9d 2d]
Zulu94598 calls 80
darqblue42 folds
resler101 folds
XPhillyRobX folds
caseycat2 folds
actzeng checks
*** FLOP *** [Kh 3d Qd]
actzeng checks
Zulu94598 bets 160
actzeng raises to 1,115, and is all in
Zulu94598 calls 955
actzeng shows [9d 2d]
Zulu94598 shows [Ah Ac]
*** TURN *** [Kh 3d Qd] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 3d Qd Ad] [As]
actzeng shows a flush, Ace high
Zulu94598 shows four of a kind, Aces
Zulu94598 wins the pot (2,430) with four of a kind, Aces
actzeng stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,430 | Rake 0
Board: [Kh 3d Qd Ad As]
Seat 2: caseycat2 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: actzeng (big blind) showed [9d 2d] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: Zulu94598 showed [Ah Ac] and won (2,430) with four of a kind, Aces
Seat 5: darqblue42 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: resler101 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: XPhillyRobX (button) didn't bet (folded)
Full Tilt Poker Game #9309750309: $2 + $0.25 Sit & Go (71159653), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:15:21 ET - 2008/12/03
Seat 2: caseycat2 (2,840)
Seat 3: actzeng (1,195)
Seat 4: Zulu94598 (3,045)
Seat 5: darqblue42 (2,195)
Seat 8: resler101 (2,435)
Seat 9: XPhillyRobX (1,790)
caseycat2 posts the small blind of 40
actzeng posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to actzeng [9d 2d]
Zulu94598 calls 80
darqblue42 folds
resler101 folds
XPhillyRobX folds
caseycat2 folds
actzeng checks
*** FLOP *** [Kh 3d Qd]
actzeng checks
Zulu94598 bets 160
actzeng raises to 1,115, and is all in
Zulu94598 calls 955
actzeng shows [9d 2d]
Zulu94598 shows [Ah Ac]
*** TURN *** [Kh 3d Qd] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 3d Qd Ad] [As]
actzeng shows a flush, Ace high
Zulu94598 shows four of a kind, Aces
Zulu94598 wins the pot (2,430) with four of a kind, Aces
actzeng stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,430 | Rake 0
Board: [Kh 3d Qd Ad As]
Seat 2: caseycat2 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: actzeng (big blind) showed [9d 2d] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: Zulu94598 showed [Ah Ac] and won (2,430) with four of a kind, Aces
Seat 5: darqblue42 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: resler101 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: XPhillyRobX (button) didn't bet (folded)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Keeping on
I'm posting again, knowing full well that this is probably going to lead to another downturn in luck, but it is what it is.
November wrapped up ok. I ended up losing the star on sharkscope, and I think it's half bad play on my part and half just getting unlucky. Despite the fact that I'm up on the month, I feel like I suffered some pretty horrific beats. There was one 9 person SNG where I had KK four times, AA once, and QQ once and busted out in like 15 hands. the beats were sick. remind me to send you the HH. I should still have it.
The good thing is that even with the downturn in HU PLO, the SNGs have been running much better and I feel a lot more in control, and more patient. I'm not raising low pairs in EP, and getting away from AJ and AQ early on.
It is weird to think that it was about 7 months ago or so that I was excited about crossing the $1000 mark on sharkscope and $700 in my BR, and to date, I have done neither. I predicted then that my play would suffer, and it did. I am now $10 away from the $1k mark on sharkscope, so we'll see how it goes this time around.
If I do end up crossing either threshold, I may step back into the $5 SNGs. In actuality, I should play all $5 games, even the HU PLO. Over the course of time, I will pay less to FTP, and will take a bigger prizepool. I just don't want to go on that downswing where I lose 8 in a row and am suddenly down $40. You have to play a ton of $2 games to make that money. I know - that's basically what I've scrounged together in the last 3 months.
November wrapped up ok. I ended up losing the star on sharkscope, and I think it's half bad play on my part and half just getting unlucky. Despite the fact that I'm up on the month, I feel like I suffered some pretty horrific beats. There was one 9 person SNG where I had KK four times, AA once, and QQ once and busted out in like 15 hands. the beats were sick. remind me to send you the HH. I should still have it.
The good thing is that even with the downturn in HU PLO, the SNGs have been running much better and I feel a lot more in control, and more patient. I'm not raising low pairs in EP, and getting away from AJ and AQ early on.
It is weird to think that it was about 7 months ago or so that I was excited about crossing the $1000 mark on sharkscope and $700 in my BR, and to date, I have done neither. I predicted then that my play would suffer, and it did. I am now $10 away from the $1k mark on sharkscope, so we'll see how it goes this time around.
If I do end up crossing either threshold, I may step back into the $5 SNGs. In actuality, I should play all $5 games, even the HU PLO. Over the course of time, I will pay less to FTP, and will take a bigger prizepool. I just don't want to go on that downswing where I lose 8 in a row and am suddenly down $40. You have to play a ton of $2 games to make that money. I know - that's basically what I've scrounged together in the last 3 months.
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