Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
So this is going to be my official poker blog. I intend to use it to discuss general poker strategy, hand analyzation, news of my results, maybe blow off some steam, whatever. It's funny I went pretty deep in the first round of a 25k bankroll booster on carbon today, only the 2nd one I played. Went out around 110th out of about 2500 runners or so. Got called a "noob", I think maybe because I raised in position from the button, as a chip leader at the table, playing short handed( I think we were 6 handed(MTT just before a table break) with a suited king rag, and made a low straight with my 5. I'm sure what he didn't notice is the fact that I had stacked 4 players in one hand with a real hand (QQ I believe) to put me into position to put pressure on the blinds, and two before that with AK, or that I got a player to put all his money in with J5 for top pair against my Aces(unfortunately the Aces didn't hold, damn 5 on the turn.) Alas I actually smiled when he called me a "noob" and began chatting about how he couldn't wait to get "hoods chips", the name is Hoodi with an I, and I think he went out somewhere around 8 or 900th place. Ha the joke's on him. I continued my to have a good evening when I entered the local casino's thursday night tournament, a 30$ buy in. It only drew 35 player's, and dismal prize pool, but!!!! I finally was able to snap my losing streak. I'd say the only big difference is that I was winning key races. First of all we only started with 3500 chips with the blinds @ 100-100, 20 min level's. The first key hand I looked down @ AQ utg, I had noticed the table was playing pretty fast & loose, so I limped hoping to set a trap, and possibly take down a small pot pre-flop. The button raised to 500 and not to my surprise got 2 loose calls in between. By this point there was already 2k in the middle, I'm not sure if any re-raise besides all-in makes sense as you are inviting multiple callers. I suppose I could've flatted, and been all-in on the flop.... Anyhow, the button snap calls with two jacks, I flop a queen and river an ace. One race won. The next pivotal hand, utg+1, 7 handed, i open with 88, and get called by 2 other players( if you haven't noticed,there was never any lack of action.) The flop comes: As8cJc Because it was such a wet board, and the pot was over 2K(raised to 800 pre flop) i shoved. The poor soul who called me on the button had AJ & had flopped top two. Luckily for me he didn't improve to a full house & my set held up. I ran pretty well early on and amassed a healthy stack of about 30K which I held on to until deep into the final table(There was only 122K in play) unfortunately my luck ran out somewhere around fifth place as the shortest stack at the table(2 one thousand chips) went on an incredible run flopping straights with 89off, flopping trip queens with AQ. I mean this guy ran 2K up to over 30K in about 8-10 back to back hands. I hit the rail in 4th, and as the blinds got astronomical in proportion to the stacks( I went out in the 2000-4000 round). I think the other 3 final came to a chop agreement . It stung as I held the chip lead for a majority of the tournament, and some other guy I've never even seen at the casino went backdoor flush to take out two players(6th & 7th) and put himself at about 50K. It ruined any chance of a chop as he wanted more money & couldn't agree to a deal with 2nd place who had about a 30K stack(this was around 5 handed). The important thing though is I played really well to make it as far as I did, won some coin flips(finally!), and snapped a 8 session losing streak. Thanks goodness February got here, January sucked! Until next time Mobsters, hope you enjoy the read.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Yeah Hoodi, I played pretty deep in the 25K at Carbon (17:30 game) and got beat out losing my entire stack to trip 8's on the turn, but that's how it goes. Enjoyed reading your blog and like to hear about your live play also. Maybe we'll get the op to oplay eachother at Carbon. Mainly play the lower end SnG's. My BR goes up and down controllably that way. Good Luck to All!
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
No roll online yet Green, just free roll it up for fun @ the moment. Maybe that will change soon though.
------------ So it's kind of hard to keep up with this blog, or at least update it after every session. I play a lot of live poker, so a lot of time is spent commuting to games, not too mention sometimes I run the cash games we have at my house. Its just not as easy as running through a hand history or keeping up with my online results. I'm still gonna try and update this as often as possible, I'm up to the challenge. So here we go. I've played several sessions since my last update let's see if I can remember them all( without checking my records, & yes I do keep records on pen & paper the old fashioned way!) So I know I've had two cash games at my place, .25-.50 NLH, I profited about 180$ between the two, I've played 3 live tournaments $115 NLH no re-buy or add ons(played this one really terrible, I will have to blog about it later), I played another w. s. o. p. qualifier(also played absolutely horrible, we will definitely have to talk.), and a 135$ deep-stack re-buy last night(actually played well. surprised?) So I'm 2-0 in the cash games & 1-3 in the tournaments over the last 5 sessions. I will definitely blogging later about my terrible play, so you Mobsters can tell me where you think I went wrong, though I'm pretty confident I know what mistakes I made. You Mobsters always seem to bring up something I didn't think about though, BRM I've found is an invaluable tool. Until next time Mobsters good luck on the felt real or virtual.
------------ Bubble Boy!!!!!!!!!! BBBBBAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I played a 65$ Deep-stack tonight. 51/2 hours in I'm in the BB of 10,000 with Js10s when a pretty aggressive older gentleman raises 2.5x the blinds or 25k from utg=1, I flat call & flop middle pair on a board of Qd 4s 10d, I shove putting him all-in, though if he called & won I would be crippled. A short stack called time, he flips over Ad9d contemplating a call, he keeps going on & on about how he can't lay his hand down(almost gets in trouble for exposing his hand) IMO he didn't "have" to call with several a short stack or two left Idk if I (1) raise from utg+1 w Ad9d & (2) if I can call all of the money on the bubble like that. Anyhow he did call & hit his diamond on the river essentially sending me to the rail. It only takes 1 mistake. Oh well time to win some money at the cash game I'm starting @ my place. Gl on the felt Mobsters.
------------ * on the bubble like that with just a draw.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Profited about 20$ in the late night cash game, not great money for a total of a 10 1/2 hour grind. The difference was busting on the bubble in the Deep-stack tournament. There were 98 total entrants for a total prize pool of 4980$, so even if we chopped 10 handed in would have been almost 500$. That was a 498$ river card. Ouch. I cashed in this deep-stack back to back weeks, in either December or January. We always take 10$ out of our pockets when it gets down to 11 handed so the actual bubble boy gets paid. Busting in 12th made me the bubble-bubble boy. If you add up 10$x11 that's 110$, which means 11th profits as well(65$ buy-in). Still have a small live roll intact so I will live to fight another day. Gonna play some online freerolls roday. Until next time Mobsters. GL on the felt.
------------ Played a 60$ tournament with 50$ re-buys & a 50$ add-on live tonight. 5 tables. Was only in in for 110$(one buy in, one add-on), plus 10$ out of pocket we agreed to pay to the bubble(11th place). Finished 5th place for 568$ Been playing jam up live lately. January was rough, but I kept up with record keeping, journaling, & started blogging again. 5-9 so far in February, which is over 500, but I still have plenty of work to do. Until next time Mobsters. GL on the felt.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Well I have been a busy bee in Feb. Got a couple of new players coming to my house game, I crushed it for over 700$ the other night. I'm 4-4 or 5-5 in my house games lately. I know the competition isn't as tough as the Casino... Profit is profit though. I've also made two final tables thus far this week. Including one of the WSOP qualifying tournament which added to my starting stack for the semi final on June the 5th. I've really been playing jam up so far this month. I attribute my successes to improved record keeping as well as poker blogging again. I read an article in card player this month about Chris Moorman(online player of the year) & he said something in his interview that made a lot of sense. He talked about how he didn't want to be one of these internet guys that couldn't make the transition to B&M(brick and mortar) poker & back again. Basically he was saying that he does his best to play a lot of live & online poker, in order to keep up both the trends in both facets of the game. As they are both a part of the game, and its important to keep yourself informed of the latest trends @ the tables. Alright until next time Mobsters. GL on the felt.
