Its Not a Whirlpool

Poker seems to be warming back up to me. I have done a little dabbling at Lock Poker and it reminds me of my early days of playing online.

When I started out, I first played for real money after filling out a survey and having $5 put into my account at Noble Poker (This is when I started this blog). I went in with the idea that I would try and grind it out but not worry if I lost it all because it was free. I started with the >02/.04 limit tables and would grind out 37 cent sessions and had a stop win gap of $1. I bought in for 60 cents and had a stop loss of 40 cents. It was small time poker but I stayed focused and before long ground it up to $10. Then I was up to $17. In a couple of weeks, I had a bankroll of $25 and was living high on the hog. I played my first SNG when I hit the $30 level and moved into the $75 zone. Without to much trouble. I started taking random shots at this point, random meaning I started to play a $5 SNG now and again. Anyway, I found they had a jackpot SNG program where you received $300 if you could finish in the top 2 of 5 straight SNGs. I hit it on my first 5 and the rest is history.

Within a few months I had money on Stars, UB, Pacific, Full Tilt, Party and Sun Poker. In all I had a couple of grand sitting out there and started to take a random withdraw now and then. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with pure luck but I made my start without ever depositing a dime out of my pocket.

So here I am again. Sure, I have a little money on Full Tilt and will continue to increase my bankroll there, at a snails pace, even if I don’t play considering the few people who signed up through my affiliate program. Anyway, I will try to regain the old magic from days gone yore by playing at Lock Poker for a while. The biggest question in my mind is whether or not I can go back to grinding for a while…maybe for the next few months. I truly a tourney player at heart and even though I have yet to fail to cash in the double up SNGs, I know playing them to rebuild a workable bankroll will be a grind. If I stay within my bankroll management restrains.

Would I consider going back to Full Tilt full time?

Sure but with the rake on the low level SNGs, trying to work it back up might be more then I am willing to do right now. It will be better for me to slowly build my roll there, $5-$10 per month through my affiliate money then to play $1 SNGs with a 25 cent rake. So I think I’m done with Full Tilt for now. I will miss it and I will still rail some of the time…I may even buy into a random event here and there but I think it would be silly to leave the deal money at Lock Poker alone.

So what about my new found killer of family time? I played one hold’em tourney and didn’t cash or even make it very deep. I had a workable stack but blinds were at the 250/500 level and I look at AK suited in the BB. Early position player raises to 1900 and a middle position player calls. I have 5700 and see over 4K in the middle. The initial raiser has both of us covered and the other player has 2200 behind. I look at my price to call vs. what I have left and realize I will probably have 3-1 or better odds to call anything post flop so I go ahead and push. I figure I’m against a pocket pair and maybe a strong K and realize the big stack will not fold no matter what. He didn’t and the middle position guy called also. My chance to triple up is here and I see 77 and KJ. I question the KJ calling but the big stack had the 77 sow I have 5 outs to take the lead…but they don’t come.

I jumped into a double up SNGs and grind out a cash and also started a PLO tourney. I hit a big hand early and went dormant for a while. As we approached the final table I knocked out a few players and hit the final table as the chip leader. Dormancy struck again and missing a few raised flops left me in the middle of the pack with 4 players left. My run ended when I flopped two pair and was open ended but lost to a turned flush.

So not a huge score but the grinding has began.