Session #28

Dissappointing, and yet satisfying all at the same time.

I've decided I'm going to not play the $3/$6 game for the time being as it doesn't suit my style of play and I seem to have a hard time adapting to it of late. If I get the chance, I might pop in for some $4/$8 action in the evening, with particular attention paid to the ½ Kill game on Friday evenings. But for now, my real focus will be on the $1/$2 no-limit game on Thursday evenings and all day Saturday.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have a few hours to play and I played it to good effect. My game was spot on for the first couple hours and I managed to take my starting buy-in of $60 to an impressive $630 stack. By the time I stood up I only cashed out $240 however as I got caught in a couple of big pot hands in which I was forced to pay off on the river. I'm happy with the plus side of my win, but I truly am torn as to what I should have done when I had the big stack in front of me. Should I have gotten up and left the table like my friend who was sitting to my right advised me to do? Or should I have stayed and pressed my advantage like I did since I was way in front of anyone at the table and the max buy-in was $100 so I had a serious advantage over everyone.

In the end, even though I lost a fair chunk, I stand by my decision to stay at the table and press my adantage. My reasoning being is that this is poker, and I'm at the table to make money, not have fun. Fun is the by-product of the game, making money is the focus. With a darn near $400 chip lead over everyone else, the advantage was mine. So I got fubared on a couple of big hands. That's poker.

Now one hand I'll write about, is one I won, but one who's outcome slightly disappointed me, because my read was bang on and I didn't value bet the river. I was on the button with Q-K offsuit and I had been playing aggressively up to this point and had shown big hands so I kept it up and made it $10 to go. Small blind and mid-position call. Mid-position is one of the old timers in the club and I had recognized that he was a bit on tilt on this point and had reverted to an even stronger calling station than he normally is. The flop comes K-rag-rag and small blind checks and mid-position bets $10. I make it $20 and small blind folds and the old timer calls. The turn brings an overcard and mid-position checks to me. At this point I correctly put him on a king with a weak kicker and I bet $50 and he calls. The river puts a flush on board and he checks to me. This is where I'm disappointed in myself. Even though I had correctly put him on a weak kicker to go with his king I didn't value bet the river because of the flush. I should have trusted my read and bet around $30 and I know he would have called. A small thing but it bugged me.

Session Total = +$180.

Live MTD earnings are -$210 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$597 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #27

My game has just gone to shit this year. I ended last year on a damn near four month winning streak and about $3k in the plus. Now I'm reduced to one crappy night after another it seems. I think I might take a break for awhile, read some books and re-evaluate my game.

Session Total = -$180.

Live MTD earnings are -$390 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$777 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Sessions #25 and #26

Up, down and all around. That seems to be my poker game this year. Session #25 saw me playing a few hours of $3/$6 and an hour or so of $4/$8 ½Kill. I was up initially to the tune of around $80 but then I dropped it all and then some during the 4/8 session.

Session Total = -$130.

Live MTD earnings are +$30 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$357 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Sessions #26 was the clubhouse's first Saturday of all-day $1/$2 no-limit but not enough no limit players showed up at 11:30 so they started the game with $3/$6 limit and I got frustrated about ten hands in after getting run down by flush and straight chasers who would have been nowhere near my pot if this had been the no-limit game. So I stood up and told the houseman that I'll sit out and wait for the no-limit game which started about 15 minutes after that.

In poker, it really is funny how the cards will turn cold on you. I don't think I could count the number of 6/10, 7/8, 2/6 and likewise hands that I received. I also had big slick five times, all of which I played slightly different, but none of which hit and all that I had to lay down. I had pocket aces once and laid them down on the turn when I correctly read a guy for the flush that cost me $50 of mine in the pot. I also laid down A-K with another $50 of mine in the pot when I correctly read a supertight player for A-K prompting the fellows next to me to comment "nice laydown" after seeing his cards while going "why are you laying that down?" before they saw his cards.

My final hand of the day was in the big blind with Q-J and the flop comes J-Q-x with two diamonds. I fire $16 (more than half my stack at that point) in the pot and get called by mid-position and small blind. The turn brings another diamond, small blind checks and I push my last $12 in and mid-position calls, small blind pushes all-in, mid-position folds and small blind shows J-7 of diamonds for the made flush. I've got a few outs but he has one of them just to cut my odds down that much more and the river is a rag.

Session Total = -$240.

Live MTD earnings are -$210 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$597 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #24

Now this was a fun session. It started off by playing some crib for $5/$10 and I lost three in a row with two skunks so I immediately lost $25. I can't remember the last time I suffered two skunks in a row! Then I played some $1/$2 Russian and dropped another $20 before mercifully a seat at the hold 'em table opened up for me. There was only about a half hour of $3/$6 limit before the $1/$2 no limit game started and nothing really exciting happened.

As soon as the no limit game started though, something exciting did happen. I hit one awesome starting hand after another! I mean I had Q-Q twice, A-A once. A-J, A-Q, K-Q, T-T... it was unreal! And I flowed into the no limit style of play perfectly.

An example of a play I was happy with was one of the Q-Q hands where I was UTG+2 and UTG made it six to go and I made it $16. The small blind called as did the initial raiser. The flop comes down 5-5-9 and it's checked to me and I bet $30 and they fold and I rake the pot. The reason this was a good play was that a) the guy next to me moaned about having to fold his A-5 suited preflop because of my raise so I successfully chased out the marginal hand that could have busted me and b) there was two suits on board and I didn't want to make it cheap for the remaining two to stay in and chase the flush or catch an overcard. I played it right and added $34 to my stack (two $16 calls and the $2 big blind).

Another hand that I played well was making it $10 to go in mid-position with A-A and getting no less than five callers. The flop brought rag-rag-rag but two of a suit so I made it $40 to go and all folded. I was happy with this play also because I didn't want to give anyone the chance to catch their flush or make two pair on me. So I rake a nice $50 pot and it's on to the next hand.

So in the end, I made back what I had lost in crib and Russian and then some. I wanted to stay longer than I did but I had prior commitments I couldn't escape so I got while the gettin' was good.

Session Total = +$150.

Live MTD earnings are +$160 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$227 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #23

Well, yesterday was an up and down see-saw battle. At one point I had pumped off about $140 but managed to turn that around and finished the day in the plus side. A marginal plus it was, but much better than $140 down.

The only true notable hand was one in which I feel I made a good laydown, albeit an obvious one, in a huge pot. The pot was a typical coconut clubhouse hand where it was capped pre-flop with seven in the hand. I'm hold A-K suited and the flop comes down 4-5-K. I'm third in line and second position bets out and I raise, it comes around to first position with everyone calling and first position makes it three bets. I cap it and five hands call all four bets, one hand folded and one folded with two bets in. So now we're in a pot on the turn with five hands in and 50 small bets in the pot! The turn brings another 4 and small blind now bets out (he made it three to go on the flop) and big blind raises. I turtle for about 30 seconds and I decide small blind has aces and big blind has a four and I lay down my big slick on that huge pot. I forget the river, but it was meaningless. It turned out that big blind had aces and small blind had pocket fives for the flopped set and turned boat and he raked in a huge pot. I like my laydown though. Top pair with top kicker and I was able to get away from it and save what turned out to be four big bets.

Session Total = +$20.

Live MTD earnings are +$10 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$377 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #22

Blech.

Just when I begin to make some headway in my YTD live total, a day like today comes along. Firstly, I run up against the typical "Greek" strategy (and for those of you who play at the club, you'll get what I'm talking about) of playing crappy cards and running them to the end no matter what betting strategy I employ.... and hitting.

And then it's pocket aces being laid down on the check-raised turn to the made flush.

And then just not hitting anything. I have absolutely no noteworthy hands to talk about so instead I'll talk about how I felt my emotions varied through today's losing session and how I can increase the quality of my play in future similar circumstances.

After I had cooled down from the loss somewhat, I took a good look at how I played and didn't like what I saw. Especially after getting my aces crapped on (which was the first decent hand I had looked at in over an hour) I tilted just a wee bit. So now, in future circumstances, I really need to hold true to my bad beat scenario by playing top ten hands only and I think I need to extend that even further and play extremely tight until I get a few pots back under my belt and the steam has rolled off me.

Positionally semi-tight early on, positionally tight when a stack has been built, supertight when on tilt.

Session Total = -$200.

Live MTD earnings are -$10 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$397 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #21

Well, I took my advice to heart and was rewarded for it today. I played a semi-tight yet aggressive game early on, and was rewarded by several nice pots and then reverted to a tighter mode and managed to hang on to my stack. Here are a couple of notable hands.

An interesting story to the first hand. The player in position three is actually reading Phil Helmuth's book "Play Poker Like A Pro" and I make a comment as to how I don't really like Phil's book as his recommended play is too tight for the low limit games we play. The player to my immediate right is a loose player who I've noticed in the past tilts easy and folds readily when his hand doesn't finish strong. He bets out from UTG plus one and I make a comment of how Phil's book told me I should make this hand two bets to go and then I raise. Everyone folds to the button who calls and he loosy-goosy calls as well. I'm hold K-7 offsuit by-the-way. ;-) The flop comes down 9-8-A. He bets out to me and I've already made up my mind to be aggressive all the way to the river as I figure he's playing crap like 4-5, 10-6 and such. I make it two bets while making another comment about how Phil says I should play this hand this way and the button folds and he calls. The turn brings a 10 and he checks and I bet and he calls. The river brings a J and I bet out again and the loosy-goosy says that he figures he can't beat my ace and folds showing me his pair of 9's. I rub it in a bit and show him the bluff and he lets out a loud sigh and mumbles something about how he should have called. I think this hand put him a bit on tilt for the rest of the afternoon as I watched him pump off around $200.

The second hand is one that I lost but that I deliberately played for information. I came in with K-J suited and it was heads up for me against one of the older fellas in the club. The flop produced an ace and a jack so I made second pair with a big kicker and I bet out to him. He raised me so I figured I needed to know right now whether he had an ace or not so I immediately re-raised and he thought for no more than a second before raising me back. He's a tight enough player that I gave him credit for the ace. He didn't show but I caught the underside of his cards as he folded and saw the ace. This was a good play that only cost me four small bets (two preflop, two flop).

The very next hand I'm in the big blind with two black deuces and the same old fella plus a mid-position player and a loose-aggressive in the small blind come in. The flop comes down A-A-2! What a beautiful flop! I start the trap by checking and the old fella does it right for me and bets out, the other two call and I call as well. The turn is a jack and I again trap-check and the old fella beautifully bets out for me and the other two call. I make it two to go and get three calls. The river brings a scary card in producing another overcard for possible bigger tights so I check as do the other three and I rake the pot with deuces full of aces bringing a few "wow"s from the players and the old fella turns over A-5. I didn't see the other two hands but I raked a nice pot.

Session Total = +$174.

Live MTD earnings are +$190 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$197 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Another addition

I've added a Xorply.com Poker Dictionary in the useful links section to the right that contains a pretty complete list of poker terms free for you to use, download, whatever.

An interesting tidbit

I was doing some surfing today and I've found a page that lists the Top 50 search terms on Lycos for the current week.

What was the number one search term for this week?

"Poker"

lol

I've now included this page in my "Fun & Current Web Links" in the right hand column.

Session #20

I think I need to have my head examined.

Tuesday night I went and played some $4/$8 Omaha hi/low at the clubhouse and I did really well. Initially. By playing a nice, tight, conservative yet aggressive game I got my stack up to +$350, and then I do what I seem to consistently do, I pumped it all off and then some. I know what I did and I just need to adjust my personal discipline at the table and I will have this problem resolved but it really is much easier said then and done.

What happens is when I get a comfortably sized stack in front of me I start playing hands I shouldn't thinking I can play a little looser and a little more aggressive and get away with it. Unfortunately, the cards have a way of smacking such aggression with a loud smack.

What I have to do is tighten up even more and clutch those chips like they're a fragile egg not to be let out of my grasp. Positional semi-tight play early on, build the stack, positional tight to very tight play once the stack is built.

Session Total = -$18.

Live MTD earnings are +$16 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$371 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #19

Well, after waiting around today for an hour and a half I was able to play cards for about 45 minutes and what a blah session. I got up to $100 in the plus and managed to pump it off just as quickly. If anything was accomplished today, I think I got it across to one of the old timers that I wasn't afraid to call his bets down on the river (which I did twice) plus I bluffed him off a pot when he hit top pair on the flop but an ace spiked the turn and I bet out with just pocket fives and he folded to my bet thinking I had the ace. I showed him the 55 bluff.

I left the table dead even in chips.

Session Total = $0.

Live MTD earnings are +$34 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$353 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #18

This was last night. I had about an hour to kill and played two Omaha hi/low sit-n-go's. I had a terrible run of cards on both tables and never got my chip count above my starting level on either table, eventually getting short stacked and blinded out. What a lousy run! One was a $30 + $3 and the other was a $10 + $1.

Session Total = -$44 US.

Live MTD earnings are +$34 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$353 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$55 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$365 US.

Session #17

Well, not long after declaring my do's and don'ts I break one of my own don'ts! I guess it qualifies as easier said then done and sometimes it takes a little personal discipline. I went to a hockey game here in town and after watching the hometeam lose and coming back home slightly inebriated, I decided to play some cards when everyone went to bed.

I stuck with Omaha hi-low and although I'm a tad fuzzy on the details, I do remember being up $100 at one point but ended the session $125 down.

Play sober, that's all I can say.

Session Total = -$125US.

Live MTD earnings are +$34 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$353 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are -$11 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$409 US.

Another quick note

Just a quick note to say that I've gone through all my posts and more clearly defined my earnings, dividing them up into online/live and canadian funds/us funds. Hopefully to bring a more clearer picture all around.

Session #16

Online play only today.

First game was a $30 SNG Omaha hi/low split. I played a very tight conservative first few rounds. I was doing very well (which is staying stable at my chip count. Fine by me in an Omaha hi/low) until one hand knocked me down to slightly less than 250 chips. But then the dragon was unleashed. I switched gears around the $50/$100 blind level and after doubling up my first all-in it was like a buffet for Xorply! I capped out at around 4800 chips (almost 4x my next opponent's chip stack) and then the unthinkable happened.... our power went out!! Holy shit I jumped up and screamed at my computer. I think I just about damn near gave my wife a heart attack. The power blipped on again after about five seconds but I had to reboot my computer as well as my cable modem and it took around five minutes for that to happen. By the time I fired Party Poker back up again I had lost almost 2000 chips to being blinded out! I lost my decisive advantage but at least I got back in on time to finish in the money.... second for $90.

At the moment that I'm typing this I'm playing a $2/$4 Omaha hi/low split ring game and I'm about $15 up after dropping down $25 but I got two to go all-in against me when I flopped the dream Omaha flop of a straight flush to the king (I held a jack, so no chance of a better hand) with no low possible. Yeah baby! $60 scoop in a $2/$4 game!

I just made another nice hand (and a bit of a semi-bluff I think) when I check-raised two pair on the small blind with a straight showing and no low possible. Pot size = $36.50.

Here's the hand history for a great hand that I played but that I think I missed a bet on:

***** Hand History for Game 3495471557 *****
$2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo - Saturday, February 04, 19:05:14 EDT 2006
Table Table 71293 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: steverino_78 ( $74.63 )
Seat 4: crippler420 ( $98.75 )
Seat 5: igotskillz ( $49 )
Seat 6: LuckyBarrel ( $188.68 )
Seat 9: Baseya ( $20.12 )
Seat 7: Xorply ( $134.75 )
Seat 8: golfnutty ( $37.62 )
Seat 2: kurtizus ( $12.19 )
Seat 10: minisavage ( $79.38 )
Seat 3: harke016 ( $85 )
Baseya posts small blind [$1].
minisavage posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Xorply [ 4c Kc Ks Ac ]
steverino_78 raises [$4].
kurtizus calls [$4].
harke016 folds.
crippler420 folds.
igotskillz folds.
LuckyBarrel folds.
Xorply raises [$6].
golfnutty folds.
Baseya folds.
minisavage folds.
steverino_78 calls [$2].
kurtizus calls [$2].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2h, 6c, 9c ]
steverino_78 checks.
kurtizus checks.
Xorply bets [$2].
steverino_78 calls [$2].
kurtizus folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
steverino_78 checks.
Xorply checks.
** Dealing River ** [ Kh ]
steverino_78 checks.
Xorply bets [$4].
steverino_78 calls [$4].
Xorply shows [ 4c, Kc, Ks, Ac ] a flush, ace high.
steverino_78 doesn't show [ Qs, 2c, As, Jh ] two pairs, jacks and twos.
Xorply wins $31.50 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.
There was no qualifying low hand.
harke016 has left the table.

So I make it three bets to go before the flop as I do have a great hand. Flop comes down with two low cards and two flush cards. I can make a pretty good low and I'm drawing to the nut high. I only get one caller on the flop though, and I figure my only chance to get one more bet (and possibly two if he bets out) is to check my nut flush on the turn and hope he catches something. He checks the river, however, but still pays me off for one more big bet. Did I miss a bet on the turn? Who knows? If I bet the turn, maybe he folds and I don't get anything more.

Here's a hand where I hung in when I shouldn't have and it ended up costing me as I raked in a measely quarter share:

***** Hand History for Game 3495498057 *****
$2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo - Saturday, February 04, 19:09:49 EDT 2006
Table Table 71293 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: steverino_78 ( $57.63 )
Seat 4: crippler420 ( $120.32 )
Seat 5: igotskillz ( $49 )
Seat 6: LuckyBarrel ( $188.68 )
Seat 9: Baseya ( $10.93 )
Seat 7: Xorply ( $154.25 )
Seat 8: golfnutty ( $37.62 )
Seat 2: kurtizus ( $0 )
Seat 10: minisavage ( $76.38 )
Seat 3: jwardo ( $97.81 )
crippler420 posts small blind [$1].
igotskillz posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Xorply [ 4c 7s Ac 2h ]
LuckyBarrel folds.
Xorply raises [$4].
Baseya folds.
minisavage folds.
steverino_78 folds.
jwardo folds.
crippler420 raises [$5].
igotskillz folds.
Xorply calls [$2].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, Jh, 8h ]
kurtizus has left the table.
crippler420 checks.
Xorply checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ As ]
crippler420 bets [$4].
Xorply calls [$4].
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
crippler420 checks.
Xorply bets [$4].
justericason has joined the table.
crippler420 calls [$4].
Xorply shows [ 4c, 7s, Ac, 2h ] a pair of aces.
Xorply shows 8,4,3,2,A for low.
crippler420 shows [ Ah, Ts, 2s, 4d ] two pairs, aces and tens.
crippler420 shows 8,4,3,2,A for low.
crippler420 wins $14.25 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and tens.
crippler420 wins Lo ($7.13) from the main pot with 8,4,3,2,A.
Xorply wins Lo ($7.12) from the main pot with 8,4,3,2,A.
LuckyBarrel has left the table.

I shouldn't have chased the low hand and it ended up costing me for sure. So with these two examples you can see what benefits you when playing Omaha. Spank with the nuts, turtle with the rag chasers.

Session Total = +$114 US.

Live MTD earnings are +$34 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$353 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are +$114 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$534 US.

Session #15

One thing I will say about poker, is it can catapult you to unbelievable heights and then bury you so fast you'd be hard pressed to figure out what the hell happened. Such is what happened to me today.

I was playing an average $3/$6 game and got up maybe $80 or so when the table decided to take a vote and go no limit two hours early. You see, Thursdays are $1/$2 no-limit at the clubhouse so we decided to get the ball going early. And what do you know, everyone agreed. And man did I go on an immediate tear. I started hitting cards like crazy. Top pair, top kicker here. Two pair there. Hit my gutshot straight here. Rivered my nut flush there. Next thing I know I'm looking down at a $500 stack.

And then this hand.

I'm in mid-position and it's folded around to me. I hold A-Q diamonds and I make it $14 to go. Button calls as does small and big blind. The flop comes down 5-8-8 with two diamonds. Blinds both check. Now before I tell you my move, let's look at stack sizes and my reasonings. The button has about $150. Small blind has me covered and big blind has around $200. I put both the blinds on drawing hands like Q-K or T-J and the button on A-x. Because the blinds both checked to me, I figured them weak. The small blind especially as he's a very loose/aggressive player.

So I move all-in.

The button thinks for a second and folds. The small blind makes my heart skip a beat by faking a call and then laughing and folding (the bastard!). Big blind immediately calls. He turns over pocket 6's. He made an excellent call as he put me on a draw, but it was still a ballsy call as I had a tonne of outs. Any diamond makes me the nut flush (he's holding the 6 of diamonds so no fear of tightening up with that card), plus any queen or ace gives me the better two pair. That's a total of 14 outs!!

Alas, the turn and river brought garbage and cleaned damn near $200 off my stack. I ended up losing a couple more and decided to cut and run before I went on tilt and burned off what little remained of my profits plus my buy-in.

In hindsight, I should have bet around $80 or so instead of all-in as that would have given me the information I needed and might have confused the BB a little more to think I had a pocket pair or a set of eights, and if he did come over-the-top of me I could have escaped without as much damage.

Session Total = +$76 CAN.

Live MTD earnings are +$34 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$353 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are +$420 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$420 US.

Session #14

Very, very brief time to play poker today and I continued my losing ways. Damn, this will make it three losing sessions in a row! That hasn't happened in quite some time. There was nothing noteworthy to write about as I literally had 45 minutes to play and I lost a slim $42. I was all-in with one hand near the end with pocket 7's and I hit my set on the flop (which was all clubs, but I survived the flush suckouts) and pretty much quintupled up on one hand.

I might not be able to play again until next week so stay tuned.

Session Total = -$42 CAN.

Live MTD earnings are -$42 CAN.
Live YTD earnings are -$429 CAN.

Online MTD earnings are +$420 US.
Online YTD earnings are +$420 US.