Taking a Look at My Game

Looking at my result as of late I see a weird thing. Over the last month, I have a negative return on my $10 sngs but a 48% return on my $20s. My sample size for both is small because I haven’t been playing as many sngs but it shows how variance can influence short term results. Now I knew that I was unlucky playing the $10 games but I didn’t realize the extent of the junk kicking I was taking. Overall, my historical return is around 40% for sngs but what a mess that run of bad luck was. I dropped over $100 in a span of 15 sngs playing the $10 level.

Last night was a a nice night in that I cashed in 3 of 4 $20 sngs and won a $75 token for the Blogger Big Game. The importance of the evening was not the results but a minor revelation I had after a suck-out I put on another player. I held AK on a board showing AJ10 and made a ¾ pot bet. My opponent pushes and I’m screwed. I know that I’m behind and prepare to fold when I did the stupidest thing. I called and my opponent shows AJ. The revelation I got after a Queen hit the board is that I was giving up on the game because of my misfortune. I knew I had a superior starting hand and got unlucky so instead of folding I gave it up only to get lucky. I had lost some focus and the ability to throw away a big hand. I eventually cash in that game and used this new found skill to finish the night without a loss during the rest of my play.

What I don’t understand is why I can play good poker for a long time and then fall back into donkey play. What do I have to do to maintain the level of focus needed to take my game to the next level? Winning the Mookie a few weeks ago charged me up and let me know that I can compete at a high level of play. But I think that in my own way I let the victory sway my thinking and feel that I will always make the right play, even if it is the wrong play.

The token race was nice and the triple up early was nice to. Pocket queens hit trips with an ace on the flop and two players paid me off. From that point on I stayed un involved unless I had a monster and made it easily into the top 5. I did have an interesting situation that saw me get pocket queens in consecutive hands and then get pocket aces on consecutive. What are the odds of this?

I’ve been playing at FT for about a month and a half. In that time I’ve never put the time in to qualify for any of the free rolls that they offer for loyal customers. Now at this point I can’t qualify for the November free rolls but I’m going to go for the Bronze level next month. The only problem is that my trip to Japan is going to get in the way. So basically, I will have to earn 50 points a day 20 of the 22 days I’ll be able to play. That comes to 4 $20 sngs a day if my math is correct. That is a commitment but doable.

Another Weekend of Futility

Another weekend of futility as I dropped a chunk of theoretical money. It was theoretical because I played with tokens for the most part.

I had built up my token count and decided to play some token tourneys. It started with the satellite for the 250,000 on FT. The events to come were a premonition of things to come for the night. As I approached the bubble and the ticket for the quarter million guarantee, my big pocket pairs in consecutive hands were called by AK or AQ and saw ace high flops. Of course I had queens when the other guy had AK and kings when he had AQ. Thank you for playing and have a nice day.

The 30,000 went well until I got kings again. As I sat with a better then average stack I made a standard 3x raise and get one caller from the SB. The flop is KQ6 and the SB checks. I make a continuation bet trying to build the pot and he pushes all in. I call and he shows KJ. Running cards end my happiness. Two hands later I flop top two pair and get all my money in to lose to runner, runner again.

Time for a token race and my only win for the night. I got short stacked early and held on with some good luck to win. Nothing all that great just a moral victory.

I also played a $75 token race and got knocked out when my Queens lost to AK when my opponent called my river push and hit his ace.

I drop another token playing Omaha H/L just short of the money when my second nut flush lost to the nut. In my defense, there were 5 clubs on the board and three in my hand. I really didn’t think that one player would be holding 2 out of the last 5 clubs let alone Ax of that suit.

So that was my Friday night. In retrospect, I made solid decisions so I’m not really complaining. I know that I will be ahead in the long run.

Saturday was an SNG night and it continued to go bad. Unlucky would be a term that I could use to describe the night. I won’t go into the details but it was frustrating.

I finally turned it around a little while playing some cash games on Sunday morning. Nothing spectacular but positive numbers are always good. I also cashed in my only SNG so good things happen to those who wait I guess.

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Later on I’m going to show some of the results that I track. I don’t know how significant they are but I would be interested in knowing what you think.

Have a great day.

I Hate When This Happens

Frustration and aggravation are a couple of words that would describe my feelings as I lost my connection last night. I was playing a Razz tournament with JJ last night when all of a sudden nothing. I give a call to my ISP and they confirm the outage and inform me not to expect it to be fixed for 4-6 hours. Thank you and have a nice day. I did have a brief period that it came back on but only for about 2 minutes. When I woke up this morning I found out I ended in 12th place.

I played a token race with worldpoker05 and won another one. That’s 4 for my last 5 in this donkey laden affair. It is truly incredible the way some of these players play these things. Weak aces pushing all-in and KQ calling big raises. Fuel55 made a comment about this the other night and I totally agree. But I guess I want these people to play this way because it is +ev for me in the long run.

Anyway, on the bubble, I was sitting ok when I see pocket 5s in late position so I pushed figuring for the steal. The small blind called with aces but a 5 on the flop saved the day. It wasn’t the smartest move but I took it. Is guess I should have looked at the stacks and made my decision based off that but I only wanted the blinds. And at this point in these tourneys I should have expected to get called by a strong hand.

It’s Friday so I will be playing tonight. I’m looking at the 20,000 and the $26 qualifier for the 250,000. Both of these should be fun and can turn a small investment into a nice cash making enterprise. Right now my average cost per token is around $15 so it is a nice way to play the higher level tourneys at someone else’s expense. I’ll probably play a token race for a $75 token for the next big game, so if you want to contact me for one of these on the chat box, feel free to do so. In the end I plan on spending 7 or 8 hours playing tonight.

That’s all for now so have a nice day.

Hammer Suckout?

Well, I got knocked out in 11th in The Mookie last night. It was truly a good game for me in that I chipped up throughout the event until I got the opportunity to double up. I was in late position at got dealt pocket kings so I can over the top of a bigger stacks raise. I win and I near the top of the leader board. But that was the beginning of my demise. I went completely card dead and found myself sitting on the BB with a raise in front of me. Blinds were 300/600 with an ante and my M was less then three. The suited hammer hit my hand so I raised all-in and got sucked out on by pocket 10s.

I really didn’t have much for cards. I made a few steals and came over the top when I felt weakness. Threw away a nice pocket pair after a raise and a re-raise in front of me. In the end I let the hammer make my decision for me. I would have made the final table even with the short stack but making the money would have been hard.

The Mookie token race was terrible for me. I didn’t play any hands for about 4 orbits when I get dealt AQ in late position. I raise and the BB comes over the top. I think about the hands he must have and fold. He shows pocket kings. The next time around I stole his blind with 7,4. Anyway, I stayed tight until I see pocket 7’s in the BB. It’s checked around to the cutoff who raises 4x. I see this as a semi steal with a weak ace so I push and get called by A6. I’m good as gold…not. His three outer hit on the river end sent me home.

Later on I played 2 token races and had my KK busted again. Good day for that hand. I eventually one a token on the other one to put me on two of these. So far I’ve been running OK in these but I need to increase my rate a little. I’ve grabbed a token in just under half of these so far but I think I should do a little better.

Have a Great Day.

Time Moves by Slowly

It is amazing how tired you get when you have to sit through a day of training. As the instructor described menu options and other such non-essential crap, I found myself wandering into sleepy mode. I had to fight and claw my way back into consensus on more then one occasion. When we finally got to learning how to program this new wonder machine I woke up and like I had missed nothing. Additionally, I get to continue this wonderful time today and tomorrow as I walk down the path of greater knowledge.

After the training, I got home in time to hold soccer practice for M’s team and continued on to a meeting that didn’t get over until almost 10:00. Other then soccer, it was a long tedious day that will continue today and tomorrow. My saving grace will be playing The Mookie.

Have a great day.

Pimping

If you do anything on Wednesday do this.















It’s a great time for all and you can also get into the 2nd chance tourney 1 ½ hours after this one starts.

Nothing else today. I have training all day and a meeting tonight. Have a great day.

A Weekend of Pokery Fun

A weekend of pokery fun is absolutely the truth. Friday night was a blast hanging out and donking chips around. I doubled up Ski when he hit trip 4’s after I raised with a pocket pair and he called with 4,2. I have to say I didn’t see that coming. Overall the poker was good for me. I tripled up in the 25 nl game and did well in my sngs to see a nice return on the weekend.

Tournament play was bad. I didn’t get very deep in any of them and dropped about $80 playing them. My game was Ok but the well time coin flip was very good for my opponent. It seemed that when I had the pocket pair that the over-cards hit and when I had over-cards the pairs held up.

Token play went well except when I tried for a $75 token. My A10 was now good for 10,7 when my opponent called my push for 30% of his stack. I looked him up on shark scope afterwards and saw his negative ROI and understand why he made the decision he made. It was the only chance I had for a $75 token so no big game for me.

The $26 tokens were good to me for the most part. I just couldn’t win anything with them. I’m thinking that I’ll build these up a little and take a few shots at some razz and horse events. I like the games and I also think they help your game overall.

I’ve finally made the conversion to $20 +2 sngs. I had been to conservative and not willing to move up to this level over the last month or so. I don’t have very many of these yet but I’m doing well so far. Kat railed me while I won one on Friday night. The guy was a complete donk and let me erase a 3-1 chip lead before I gave it back. I then repeated my come back 2 more times before I put him away. I tilted him when I showed to bluffs in a row and then caught a hand. Weak passive is not the way to play me that’s for sure.

I also won one of these same events after being knocked down to 200 chips with 7 players left. I stayed a afloat and got lucky one time when I pushed my short stack hoping for a double up. My A7 beat pocket 6s and it was go time. The chip leader became a passive folder waiting on second place and let me and the other casher run over him. We knocked him out and It was long before heads-up play saw me win the game. That was probably the biggest comeback I’ve ever had thanks to the tight bubble play.

I’ve noticed that the play at this level isn’t all that good. Sure there are some good players but the game doesn’t get interesting until the final 5 players. Then the game becomes tight, making selective aggression a necessity. The ability to raise with any two cards seems to make the difference between success and failure.

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Last Friday I asked a couple of questions that I would like to comment on. I’ll start with the first.

Does the significance of a person bankroll mean anything at all?


The only significance I see is that I want to play people playing above their bankroll. A person playing within their bankroll will play more relaxed as well as play there normal game. A person playing up will tend to play weaker and more passively, allowing me to take advantage. Now frequent re-loaders don’t fall into this category but they must be re-loading for a reason.

Does the level of play that someone enjoys accurately reflect their ability?

This is a tougher question in that many players play higher then they should. I think that time should be spent at a given level regardless of the success one has there. I think that many a player has moved up to quickly because of a short term run without being sure they are a winning player at that level. I don’t know what the magic number is but a pre determined amount of time should be played before advancing to ensure that you are a winning player at a given level. While this discussion is fine and dandy, what about perceptible skill.

I think we can make assumptions as to the ability of our opponent based on the level of play but it isn’t all encompassing. Conservative players may have tighter bankroll restrictions then the average player. I try to maintain 30 but-ins for a given level but some one else may maintain 50. I guess I’m saying that making an assumption based on the level of play may come back and bit you in the butt. In general, the lower the level the worse the play but not in all cases. And then there is the fact that we were playing at that level at one time. Most players are trying to learn the game and get better and will get better just like most of us did.

I don’t know what the reasoning was for all of this is other then it might help me maintain focus. I’m not sure.

Questions I Have for You

I have a question or two for anyone who wishes to respond.

Does the significance of a person bankroll mean anything at all?

Does the level of play that someone enjoys accurately reflect their ability?

I have a response for this but since I have a meeting to run in an hour and thus have no time right now, I will wait until later today or Monday to post.

It's Friday which means a night of fun at the tables. I have to make a decision to grind some SNGs to replenish the bankroll a bit or play some tourneys. I figure I can spend one more Friday on a tournament run before I will have to spend time grinding. If only I could hit a final table on a bigger tourney then I would feel better.

Have a good one.

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update

Thank you Ski for pointing out my strength, spelling. They were not spelling errors. They were gramatical errors.

The Density of Lead

Last night was an attempt at futility. With the effort we put forth playing this game we love, frustration and aggravation often jumps to the forefront of your game and thus causes a drop in focus. This happen last night in the Mookies.

I chipped up early by taking some small pots with random hands that are of no consequence for the most part. Not because they were unimportant but because I didn’t get paid off for the good ones. I had High pocket pairs numerous times in the first hour and only got paid when I came over the top of dnasty after he tried a position steal. My tight image was respected so I should have become more involved to disguise my big hands. Anyway, one of my bigger hands early was calling Jordan’s UTG raise with pocket 4s. I had a good stack and knew he could be raising with any combination of hands. The flop came 9 high and I checked knowing he would make a continuation bet. When it came, I made the decision that I needed to find his hand so I raised 3 times his bet. He eventually folded and my chip stack grew some more. A short time later I raised from middle position with 6s and the BB pushed. He had a short stack and I was getting about 2.5 -1 to call so I did. My hand held up and I move into the top ten, maybe the top 5.

At the first break I’m sitting in a great spot and ready to continue. This is about the spot where the wheels start to come off. I don’t play a hand for about 4 orbits when I get KJ in middle position. I’m at around 3400 chips and I make it 360 to go. A late position player goes all-in over the top and I have to lay it down. I little late the button raises my blind and I call just to show I will call steal attempts. My thinking was that I have a chip stack and I felt I could out play my opponent after the flop. Stupid idea and I give away more chips. A few hands later I get pocket 4s in the SB and call an early position raise. The flop is 10 high and my opponent bets the pot. I know he hasn’t hit the flop so I re-raise with my fours. I was right, he didn’t the flop. He had pocket jacks and I’m going home.

I wasn’t that upset with the play except that I could have easily thrown the hand away. I felt he was making a continuation bet with AK or AQ. His bet didn’t allow me the opportunity to find information without committing my self to the pot. Well played. The real problem was the chips I leaked earlier in the tournament. If I don’t drop 1000 chips or so during the last couple of orbits, then I can make the raise and dump my hand when the pressure comes. I would have been a short stack but still could have made a move. I didn’t look at chip conservation. I was only looking at accumulation.

The 2nd chance event was a lot of fun and saw me get knocked out on the bubble. I got very lucky with a short stack and then got lucky on the next hand to knock out two players. I was also unlucky when my AQ lost to Sur’s QJ but that really doesn’t matter. My big mistake here was the same as the previous game. I came over the top of Surf. And he pushed. This time I laid it down but I was in big trouble. I stole a blind but never recovered and got knocked out with an unremarkable hand. I did have some goodness in that I repeatedly punished the SB to my right who kept trying to limp into the pot. I think I pushed him 4 or 5 times in a row, for the limp.

Overall it was a fun night at the Mookie and I really enjoyed playing with my blogging brethren.

Random Tilt

Wow, did I go on tilt last night.

The only good part is that I made money.

I’ve written in the past about my oldest daughter and tat she was trying out for the 14U travel team as a 12 year old. Lets just say that she didn’t make the team because she was 12. The coach, a friend of mine said he made the decision to cut her because she would have knocked off a player that wouldn’t have a team to play for. But isn’t it the idea to have the best players you can have? Well, it is true that she would be moving up an age group so after a night of reflection and a little pick-me-up from 23skidoo, I realize that it is probably for the best. She can stay at her age group and gain confidence instead of moving up and being an average player.

I started to play some NL 6-max but shortly realized that I was going to give away the house if I continued to play. I played one more orbit and bluffed a guy of his hand when he made a week river bet and I come over the top with a large raise. It was purely a tilt bet so I quickly got off the table up about a dollar.

Later last night I played a freeroll just to play and burn off some steam. I was lucky enough to get sucked out on after flopping two pair and losing to a rivered straight. I bet the guy $5 that I would last longer but he wouldn’t take the bet. I was painful as he slowly leaked his chips to every other player on the table. It was a freeroll so who cares.

Tonight is the Mookie and I should be there. Worldpoker05 is on his way to Vegas as I write so he won’t be defending hid title.

Have a great day.