Friday Night Results

I took 12th in 5+.50 MTT Noble last night. I made big mistakes that hindered furthure advancement.

My first mistake was calling a re raise of my blind steal. I raised 3x from middle position and a late position player went all-in over the top. I held AJ and thought he was pushing to by the blinds but I was wrong. His JJ was good. That knocked me down from 10,000 to 6,000.

A little later with the blinds at 500/1000 I was on the BB and called an all-in for 1250 more with 84 off suit. I was getting an OK prive for the call but new I was behind.

so now sitting at around 3500 chips I get doubled up by a bigger stack. If I fold the last hand I have around9500 chips instead of 7000 plus I knock a player out. This play came back to knock me out later in the event.

So I was 2 spots from the bigger money so I continue to have some success with these tourneys but I still need that big finish.

Have a good weekend.

My Hits Went Through the Roof

Thanks to Tripjax my hit count went through the roof yesterday after he linked Fish Are Friends, Not Food to his blog. Of course the roof to my domain is three inches high and of no use to anyone except my daughters mice. I did hit an all time high of 26 so maybe my readership will reflect this. I do have three or four loyal readers and do not want them to feel left out if I don’t give them my full attention.

In the past I’ve talked about my old boss and his playing style. Well yesterday I gave him a call to see if he’s back playing at Party Poker or not. You see he had stopped playing about a year and a half ago because of some business venture he started and couldn't commit the time to the game. Low and behold he fired it up for a couple of SNGs the other night. I’m glad he started playing again because I want to take his money. Anyway, we talked about poker and our families when I screwed up. This blog had been semi-secret as in a semi would have to run me over before I told someone about it. My blog is more about personal reflect than anything else so I haven’t really advertised it to my friends and family. So the cat is out of the bag in some ways and my burden has been lifted. And I have acquired a 5th loyal reader.

This brings me to another point. High On Poker had a post yesterday that I made mention of. I thought it was thought provoking and caused me to personally reflect on the thought processes of other bloggers. That was the big bang you heard last night. Me thinking. Anyway, Gambling Blues has posted a response to High’s post from yesterday that will also give some insight to our brethren in this blogging community of ours. Check it out.

So with all of this blogging material in the air I guess I want to make a point. It’s nice to be linked up with the upper class of poker bloggers. It gives the upstarts like me a feeling of fellowship even if we may not really belong. I can’t put my self in a class with the veterans of the blogesphere but I do want to carve out my own little niche. Additionally, I admire the friendships that have been created through a common platform and would relish becoming a part of the society. But that’s not why I started this. It’s only a documentation of a quest. My quest to transform $5 into $3000 on Noble Poker! Will I gain cyber friendships along the way? More then likely because this is a community and communities like this must have dialog or it will cease to exist.

So what was this all about you ask? I’m not sure it was anything more then affirmation. Affirmation of my blogging journey. I’m not trying to skyrocket to the top of the blogging food chain. I’m just trying to enjoy my minuscule part of it.

Moving on to poker….

No poker last night as I had to many commitments to see to. With luck I’ll be able to hit the tables late tonight in some cheap buy-in events in my never ending quest for Noble Poker stardom. I’ll also hit the NL tables at some point If I’m not on family tilt.

Walking the Talk

I need to walk the talk.

When I started this quest I was relentless in tracking my results. I might not have tracked every thing I needed to but the things I traced were done diligently.

I’ve gotten away from this for some reason that I can’t explain. I have a vague idea of my successes and failures but no concrete proof.

One of the things I need to do a better job of tracking is on players. I know that this is hindering my growth but without tracking player tendencies I playing with a disadvantage. I know they are tracking me.

On other things….

I read a great post at High on Poker today about the different classes of bloggers in the blogesphere. If you have time check out how the pecking order of poker blogs relates to endorsements, site hits, and other relative information for our realm.

I was having trouble sleeping last night so I fired up Poker stars at around midnight central. I was playing two at a time but had limited success doing so. In all I played around ten and saw a small profit over all. What was discouraging was that I bubbled in 4 of the ten. In one I was a short stack and pushed with a pocket pair only to see the other shorty call with 83. His full house knocked me out. The other three were just a bad luck or bad timing in that if I had an advantage it was small and didn’t hold up. I can live with this because I did return the favor in one of my cashes.

I was sitting with 230 UTG and push. Is it a push when you can’t put up a full bet? Anyway, two others are in the hand and check it down. My 56 is gold. Next hand on the BB I push with KT and get called by the SB and survive. Two hands later I get KK and knock out the small stack. I end up winning this within 8 hands.

One other interesting hand saw me with an M of 1.5 so I go all-in with 64 suited and quadruple up. One player questioned my raise with this hand but I felt that two live suited cards were better then waiting for the BB next hand. I shouldn’t have been in this position except for over playing my top pair the hand before. Was this a bad move?

By the time I finished playing this morning it was 4:30. That makes for a long day and I have a council meeting a church tonight, practice with M’s team and any other fatherly duties that come along the way. I think I’ve already said I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe I’m just a tool.

I also want thank Bloody P as well as High on Poker for their comments. At least I know that I’m not alone in the world of family tilt.

Check out Bloody P if you are looking for some tracking programs and spreadsheets. He hooked me up with a spreadsheet and will do the same for you.

Family Tilt?

We've all been on tilt at some time or other but what about family induced tilt?

I start every weekday morning by making sure the girls are up and getting ready for school. This doesn’t seem to be a huge obstacle in the daily routine but you may be surprised. L, being the oldest child and 12 years old is beginning to desire extra sleep. You know, like sleep until 10:00 extra. Now I understand this yearning for supplementary slumber because I was filled with this same longing when I was her age. So my request for her awakening is invariably met with disdain as she pleads for additional snooze time. For the most part I know I could give her an extra 10 minutes but it’s fun watching her mope around as she lazily wipes the sleep from her eyes.

M, almost 10, is a different person all together. She will get up right away and is often already moving around when I make my morning request. Her issue is that she wants to play or watch cartoons. That would be OK if she got ready first but she likes to procrastinate her obligations for the pleasures of animated thought consuming morning TV. So as I prepare my self for the daily grind I have to reminder her to put on her sock, shoes, brush her hair, and so on just so we can leave a couple of minutes late. I have to admit that she has gotten better the last few weeks so in reality it only took 27 weeks of the school year for her to conform to my expectations.

I’m sure I could find a correlation to the poker world some place in the paragraph above but I’m not going to try. Well maybe I’ll try a little. It does show how outside influences can distract us from optimum performance. L is often distracted by coveting additional sleep. In this case it is a mere inconvenience and is over come without any effect on desired results. M’s situation is different. Her personal desires actually hinder the result process causing distraction for other people in the household. As this continues on, she now becomes diverted from the original goal and is afflicted with morning ritual tilt. This self-perpetuating slide continues into an avalanche of further delays and interruptions as she scrambles to regain focus. The detrimental affect from all of this is that it also inhibits the correct processes for others around her.

I’m sure many of you have had situation similar to this at some point in your lives and in many cases it can be a regular occurrence. I’m wondering if these instances of distraction have a longer lasting impact then the immediate moment. Can a morning disruption influence your results later in the day? The severity of the said occurrence is absolutely a factor in determining the answer to this question. A bombshell revelation or other major distraction would more then likely cause us to perform at less then optimum skill but would minor incidents, many hour prior, be a detriment to your performance? I would like to think that it wouldn’t hamper me but it may. How would this influence your poker game?

Tell me what you think?

Fish Are Friends, Not Food

You know that sinking feeling you get when you make a call even though you know you’re behind. It’s the same feeling as when you push all-in with pocket 7’s only to see you opponent hit one of his two over cards on the river. That decision is the difference between making a run for the final table and getting eliminated early. The angst we experience when we lose that final battle rips at our being, especially when we are playing our A game. But we come back for more

We come back for more because we know that the lemmings, donkeys, fish, and any other derogatory name we can think of will be back playing in the same tournament tomorrow. But is there a chance that we are fulfilling a role in the grand scheme of things?

I don’t profess to be a great poker player. I think it would be a stretch to say I’m an average player but I play the game because I enjoy the challenge and want to get better. I think we all have forgotten that though we want to feed off of the fish we also need to remember we were also, at one time, that same little guppy in the lake of poker. Even the best players are fish food at times not because of skill but because of variance and dumb luck.

So our role as a player is to win money from other players. End of story? I’m not sure it is. You see as we play we have losing sessions. These losing sessions encourage the less skilled by letting them borrow from our bankroll and spread that wealth among the other players in our realm. This money will eventually find its way back into our accounts, with interest, if we continue to play our advantages over the long haul. It’s really an investment in our future in that if they don’t get paid off once in a while they will quit. If they quit the talent pool becomes harder to beat.

Encourage thy enemy when he hits his 2 outer. Praise her for the fabulous call when the gut shot hits on the river. Type” nice hand” to the idiot who calls your re-raise with 54 off suit and turns a strait, because they are your friend. Invite them to play with you in future events because they will pay you back.

Rethinking My Game

What is it that is so appealing about tournament play? The suck outs and other donkey play kick you in the junk repeatedly until you are numb from the waste down. How can players continue to be successful calling with 54 off suit to open raises? This is the quandary I’m suffering from.

I guess I should be happy that people are willing to go to battle with inferior holdings but my frustration boils over. Can you say tilt?

The $20,000 guaranteed on Poker Stars was the first to kill me. After the break I was above average and had a good feel for my table. As we moved closer to the money I continued to chip up and felt I had a good chance to make a run. I had a few marks and when the opportunity presented its self I was ready. I get pocket queens on the button. It’s fold to the cutoff who raise 3x. This player is loose and more then willing to give his chips away I have him out chipped 2500 so I raise it to half his stack. This act would pot commit him if he makes the call so I figured push or fold on his part. I was wrong because he called. The flop is T73 rainbow so I know I’m gold. I push over his min bet and he makes the call. He has QJ of clubs. I won’t go into the boring details of the incredulous result but suffice to say I didn’t cash.

My SNGs didn’t fair any better. Tournament tilt will do this sometimes. I should have been aware of my situation and gotten away.

The cash games were a different mater all together. I was hot on the NL tables and had made back everything I had given away earlier in the evening. That is until I tilted again.

It started off slow with a fear of giving back my winnings and cascaded into an avalanche of stupid calls and passive play. At least I didn’t go past my stop loss but I was willing to continue. I think the guy hitting trip 2’s with two 2’s on the board knocked me over the edge. He called me to the river with bottom pair and hit his 2 outer to win an $85 pot. That’s $85 playing .10/. 25 NL. Maybe I am a fish! I can hold my breath for a long time but have trouble breathing under water.

After this point I was the mark as I gave away pot after pot trying to make gold out of lead. I even re-re-raised a tight player with my TPTK. I called his all-in like an idiot and saw his trips take the money.

I need to make an adjustment to my game. There is no reason that I should have dropped the money I did last night. Some hands are un avoidable but I made mistakes that I haven’t made for a long time. I need to be more willing to give up on a hand regardless of how strong it is. I need to pay more attention to the players and not the cards.

Pride

No poker.

The girls each had their first softball tournaments this weekend but didn’t come out of it completely unscathed. The only real incident was with L who had an injury.

With L it all really started at practice on Saturday. She slid into second base and received a nice strawberry on her backside for her effort. Fast forward to our second game Sunday when she was thrown out trying to advance on a pass ball. She had to slide again and created a brand new strawberry just below here knee. Now we had talked about getting her a sliding pad but she felt she didn’t need it. That was my mistake in that I should have made her get it. Anyway, she went out to pitch the next inning, limping all the way to the pitching rubber, and started to warm up. She was grimacing with every throw so I went out to check on her. I could feel the pain in her eyes as she tried to battle through what was obviously an agonizing injury. She insisted on continuing but after two more warm-ups she came off the field.

As I prepared for her replacement she hobbled to the bench in excruciating pain with help from another coach. I felt honored by her misery as she apologized for being unable to continue. How can she feel that she let me and the team down while she thrashed painfully on the bench? I am proud of her and her commitment. As I inspect the softball sized abrasion induced by hustle and determination I explained that we needed to clean it out and that it will hurt, and hurt bad. Her face contorted as we poured the ice-cold water over her throbbing and mutilated skin. Tears welled into my parental eyes as her discomfort reached my heart. It wasn’t fair that this happened when she was doing my bidding. The counsel I give to her should not afflict her with pain.

So we get her all cleaned up and elevate her leg when she informs me that she thinks she can play. What? Did I hear that correct? ”It’s feeling better so I’d like to go pitch.” She said to my astonishment. I made her do some flexing and some running and then asked her this question. “Do you think that you will hurt your self further or hurt the team if you go out and play?” She answered, “No, I’m ready to go”. So with a bandage on her leg and a determination of three people she finished the game playing third base. Her father’s daughter.

Our last game of the day saw her back on the mound throwing the ball like she was ment to do it. I could see that it still hurt but her pride and determination would not allow her to give into something that was only a flesh wound.

By the time we got home that night and the adrenaline had worn off she could hardly walk. In all of my years I don’t think I’ve had a strawberry as bad as the one she has now. She soaked it in the tub moaning as the water seeped into the earth-ravaged skin on her body.

Today she had the joy of getting braces on her teeth.

Braces had to be easy compared to yesterday.

Every thing else went well yesterday. Both L and M had the privilege of playing against elite teams and having there lunch taken from them by the bully. As first year teams we weren’t sure how far their teams had to go to become competitive. We now know that the need a lot of improvement. All in all, I think all of the players from both of their teams were improved by the weekend. For the most part they were caught off guard by the speed of the game but that by the time they started the last game, they were making adjustments. As long as they are having fun and improving I'm happy.

Stupidity Comes in Many Forms

I do some stupid things but this was really bad.

I had practice with L’s team Wednesday night and we were doing a drill on base running. So I decide to show the team the correct technique for hitting the inside corner of the bag as you head to second base. Well as I hit the bag at full speed my foot slides across the bag and I fly head-over-heals in the air and fall onto the base path. I get up and continue with the lecture on the pitfalls of incorrect habits. As we continued with practice I noticed a stiffness developing in my back. I’m sure we’ve all had this at different times in our lives but this one didn’t want to loosen up. By the time I get home I can’t move without discomfort. Another fine example of an over-weight want to be kid getting hurt doing something he used to without thinking about it. Americas Funniest Videos would have had a field with my ballet like performance. The real problem is that my weight has been raised as well as being redistributed to unfamiliar part of my body. I think my center of gravity has changed from my mid-section to my neck. I’m now the opposite of a Webble wobble. Yesterday was terrible as in that I could almost dress my self.

Poker was good. I did well in some cash games, which increased my bankroll. I gave most of it back playing MTT’s looking for a big payday.

I was looking at my results for Poker Stars SNGs and see that I’m ROI is at about 10% on the $5 tables. My same size is only 17 so I’m not worried. These tables seem to be beatable with patience and aggression but I seem to be getting beat by myself at time.

I bubbled out yesterday second in chips when I flopped a strait. I check called the chip leader. The turn x and I check re-raised with him calling. The river was a 4 of diamonds and bet, he goes all-in and I call. I did notice the third diamond and lose to his flush. This was stupid play on my part. I could have folded pre flop and still would have been in great shape. The other two players were in dire straits and one would have been eliminate within a round or two. Next time I’ll just transfer $1.50 to three random players and log off.

One other interesting SNG had a LAG to my right who would see almost every flop. The deck was hitting him in the face. This gave him big stack power and he used it well. Anyway, when we got to the final 4, I was the short stack and looking to double through him at any opportunity. I raised all-in on his big blind 3 or for strait time and pushed over his min-raises when I was on the BB. This returned me to a workable chip count when he finally got tired of me beating him up. He called from the SB and I raised 3x. He comes over the top all-in and I call with my AQ to his Q9. I’m now the chip leader and his has around 700. A few hands later he sucks out all-in when his 69 beats KQ. Next hand he knocks a guy out with his T7. The short stack who would have been all-in the next hand lucks into third. When we get down to him and I he continues with his luck-box ways and cripples me out with when my pocket 4s lose to his 23 soooted.

All in all I’ve had a good week. My total bankroll has increased by about $55 and I continue to enjoy the game. One thing that I might start to employee is more hit and run action. I’ve read that many players will use this to increase the bankroll without giving money back to the table over a long session. Any opinions?

The girls have their first tourney this weekend and with luck I’ll have some good things to write about next week.

A fun Night

Well I beat exactly half of the people who entered the WWnd change100 tournament last night by taking 49th place out of 98 entries. Not the best result but it was great to play against some very good players. My staring table had Mean Gene, Boobie Lover, and Hermwarfair as well as a few others that I’m failing to recall. In one the first hands I re-raised a bet by Hermwarfair and folded to his all-in. I had to see where I was and he answered the question. My top pair was probably no good. I tried to keep my head above water and got back to starting chips after I re-raised what felt like a continuation bet. I moved up to higher levels and tried to steal some blinds but it was hard to grow my stack with some of the aggressive play in front of me. I saw mean gene get sucked out on two times only to have a reversal of fortune later on to become the table chip leader. When the blind were at 100/200 + ante I was dealt pocket 33 from the big blind. The button raise to 600 in what felt like a steal so I push with my 1300 chips and lose to his K9. I played a little tight but got respect from my raises for the most part. I could have won my last hand if I would have had fold equity but alas I had none.

After this I played a few SNGs, winning one and taking third in another. The one that I won was a marathon session that saw the Blinds reach 1000/2000. As we approached the end I was chastised by one of my opponents for calling an all-in bet from the BB for 153 more chips. I already had 2000 chips into the pot at this point. He expected me to fold? Any I called with 42 and lost. Later on I was in the same situation with the bitchy player and called 257 more with 53 and hit the 5 to knock him out. I am a donkey. With a 4/1chip lead I made short work of the final player to take the win.

I had read an article some place about pushing with specific hand when heads up and used this strategy to my advantage. The other two players were passively waiting for the other to be busted and thus let me steal blind after blind until they had to call. Good times.

After this was over I played some $25 NL and doubled up very early in the session. I was dealt pocket queens UTG and raised to .75. UTG+2 re-raised me to $1.75. It was folded to me and I re-re-raised it to $6 and he called. I don’t have a read on this player but my assumption is that he has a large pocket pair. I may be behind but he could be over playing any other possible holdings. The flop is Q55 and I check, he bets $5 and I cold call. The turn is the case Queen and I check again and call his all-in bet. He had pocket kings. Great flop for me. I played a little while long without much action.

At this point I go back to Noble Poker to work on my quest and sit at a $10 NL table. I busted one guy for about $2 dollars with a set of tens over pocket fours and immediately get involved with him on the next hand. He re-bought for $10. I look down at QT in late position and call with about five limpers. The flop hits me square in the face as a J98 come out. He bet I called. Turn x and he bets, I min raise, he comes over the top and I call. He had jack high.

I was a good night until I gave away some of my winnings on a donkey move a little later. I didn’t raise it before the flop and let the BB see one for free. I lose to his full boat of 5s over 7s with my two pair, Aces and jacks. Heehaw, heehaw.

I think that my game as a whole is better then when I started this quest but the bankroll constraints are killing me. I know that I can play at higher level but I’m not willing increase my risk of failure. At this point I have 3 buy-ins for the $10 NL tables. These tables have the ability to increase my bankroll by leaps and bounds but can also kill me at any time. The .01/.02 limit tables are the place I should be playing by the tedious grind of river runners and slow increases drive me crazy. I know that I preached staying within my means but it is frustrating work. And this shouldn’t be work.

What I rally need is one big tourney win to give me some breathing room. 3 place in a .50 tourney doesn’t do it. I need a bigger break.

Some Bitch'en, Some Poker

Last night was a bitch. After M’s practice last night I had a few things I had to straiten out before I could go home so she got a ride home with a teammate. It wasn’t a big deal because her teammate’s family was going to eat over anyway so I didn’t feel I did anything wrong. That was until I got home 20 minutes before a meeting I had to attend. My wife lit into me about being home in time for dinner and anything else she could think of. No big deal. A quick bite and I’m out the door for my meeting.

So I get home and she asks if Mike can stay at our house for the next few days until his spot is open at rehab. Now Mike has been married to Jackie for 14 years and are involved in a love hate relationship. She loves to bitch and he hates to hear it. It’s really no surprise that he has addiction problems with the crap he puts up with but I regress. He is bipolar but doesn’t like to take his meds. One of the problems associated with being bipolar is being susceptible to addiction. Along with his drug addiction, Mike also has a gambling problem that has interrupted his marriage to Jackie. He doesn’t see the problem with snorting and/or gambling away his paycheck. Well after understanding the whole situation I agreed to let him stay until he can start to get his life back together.

It’s funny comparing Mike and my buddy Bob who both suffer being bipolar. I can see the stages that Mike is going through by remembering the battles that Bob undertook. My wife and I also helped Bob with similar issues around 8 years ago and with support he has achieved guarded success. During a recent conversation with Bob he told me that there are still times when he wants to go back to his old lifestyle. The alternative has been to by him self a toy and put his energy into the thing he bought. It is an expensive game that he plays either way but it gives him focus.

On to better things like poker.

I played a few SNGs this morning with limited success. My first was an example of a trap and a donkey play all in one. Early on with the blinds small I’m dealt AT on the BB and raise it 4x. UTG calls and everyone else folds. The flop is 569 and I continue with a bet of 120 and get called. The turn gives me my T and I push just trying to take the pot down and get called by the 56suited of UTG. This is a great example of over playing TPTK and trapping the idiot who pushes with TPTK. I think I played 8 hands.

In my second game we got down to two players when my opponent became a push monster. If I min bet he went all-in and if I raised he folded or called depending on his cards. No big deal other then his stack was bigger then mine so I had to catch a trapping hand quick. I did and took the chip lead only to see him gain it back with my passive play. I finally got back to almost even when I was dealt A2 off-suit. I called his push and he flips over K3. I’m in great shape until he hits 2 pair on the flop.

In my final game, I cam back from near death to take a second. With 5 players left I have 2800, villain 1 has 2100 and villain 2 has 2200. I’m UTG with pocket jacks and raise it to 600. V1 goes all-in as does V2. I’m getting around 3-1 so I call. I figure that they are taking some of their outs away from each other unless one is holding a higher pocket pair so I think this a good call. V1 shows QT, V2 shows AQ. I figure I’m in good shape as only 5 cards put me behind unless there is a running flop. An Ace on the flop kills my hand. Is this a good call on my part?

I’m down to 600 on the next hand and get 86 OS and raise all-in to the SB who calls with K9. A 6 on the flop is golden. I steal the next three hands and get back to 2000. Blind stealing becomes the mantra of the game for the next three rounds until a player is knocked out and we get down to three and in the money. From this point I chipped up to around 6000 before V2 knocks out the other player and gets us heads-up. I really don’t remember what happened after this as we battled back and forth until blinds were at 400/800 with a 50 ante. I think I pushed with QT and lost to his King high. Anyway, I’m going to try and play the wwnd tonight. If not I try and hit the SNGs again.