My sister got married this past weekend, and when I was out of town I played some poker at my Brother's house on my laptop to pass the dead time. Well that probably wasn't the best idea. Because I have learned a very important fact about me and poker, I can't play poker and do anything else if I want to win. I played 5 - 10 Sit and Go's on Party Poker, and I lost about 80 - 90% of them and I put a serious dent in my bankroll, for the first time in 4 months or so I had to re-deposit into my account so I can continue to play at decent sized buy-in tables.
So last night I played a few games when I got back in town, and I came in 3rd 3 times which is ok but not really the type of finishes I am looking for. So I finally decied to use my account on Ultimatebet.com and I deposited some cash in there, I played very low stakes to get used to the interface, and I lost the first 3 tables I played at, but once I got used to it I have placed 2nd at the last 3 tables I played it. I am liking Ultimate Bet so far you don't seem to get as many bad beats as you do on Party Poker. We will see how it goes.
One thing I need to remember is when I play Poker I need to only play poker and nothing else, otherwise I will make a big mistake and probably won't win. I usually pick up on how the other players play, and that enables me to make better plays.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
It's been a rough past few days
I took some time of from poker to partake in enjoying Star Wars Episode III and all the hoopla that comes along with it. I was playing ok before I took a break, but when I came off of the break and started back playing Sit and Go's I discovered something. Either I severely diminished in skills, or everyone on Party Poker $10.00 tables got 1000 times better.
What I started to discover is my strategy of relying on 2 or 3 people going out fairly early would not work anymore, everyone is playing tight there were a lot of tables where we went 4 or 5 levels deep into the blinds and all 10 players were still at the table. I don't really have a problem with this, but it only worsens the problem of "coin flip" hell by the time you get deep into the blind levels. I end up getting every hand raised because of all ins and you can't fold forever, even with a good hand you are bound to get a bad beat.
These latest developments saw my bankroll drop by about 70%, one day I lost about 40% of my bankroll, and I went into a $2/$4 limit hold em cash game and won 120% of it back. I then worked on modifying my strategy in the sit and go's I raised the aggresiveness of my game, and I was seeing some success. But then the bad luck bug hit I was playing on 2 sit and go tables at once and my ISP decided to conduct "maintanence" and they took my line down for 6 hours, so that was money I couldn't get back. So I was highly pissed then, at my job I have 1 day out of the week where I sit in a room and monitor equipment all day, so I usually play poker during that time, but unfortunately while I was currently in 4th place with a decent amount of chips at 2 sit and go tables something decided to break, and I had to abandon the game and hope my avatar could survive till the money well he didn't, that was more money I was out of. So I am a bit pissed but I didn't finish first place in 2 sit and gos yesterday, so maybe things are looking up.
What I started to discover is my strategy of relying on 2 or 3 people going out fairly early would not work anymore, everyone is playing tight there were a lot of tables where we went 4 or 5 levels deep into the blinds and all 10 players were still at the table. I don't really have a problem with this, but it only worsens the problem of "coin flip" hell by the time you get deep into the blind levels. I end up getting every hand raised because of all ins and you can't fold forever, even with a good hand you are bound to get a bad beat.
These latest developments saw my bankroll drop by about 70%, one day I lost about 40% of my bankroll, and I went into a $2/$4 limit hold em cash game and won 120% of it back. I then worked on modifying my strategy in the sit and go's I raised the aggresiveness of my game, and I was seeing some success. But then the bad luck bug hit I was playing on 2 sit and go tables at once and my ISP decided to conduct "maintanence" and they took my line down for 6 hours, so that was money I couldn't get back. So I was highly pissed then, at my job I have 1 day out of the week where I sit in a room and monitor equipment all day, so I usually play poker during that time, but unfortunately while I was currently in 4th place with a decent amount of chips at 2 sit and go tables something decided to break, and I had to abandon the game and hope my avatar could survive till the money well he didn't, that was more money I was out of. So I am a bit pissed but I didn't finish first place in 2 sit and gos yesterday, so maybe things are looking up.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Poker Activity 5/17 - SNG's, Party Poker.com $50 + $5 No Limit Hold 'em Tournament
Yesterday was a wierd day for poker, I played in about 8 $10 sit and go tournaments on Party Poker, I placed 1st & 2nd in the first 2 that I played, but then I went on an 8 game losing streak what made it worse was that I finished 1 spot out of the money in 5 of those tournaments, very frustrating.
I played in one of party poker.com's daily $50 + $5 NL Hold 'em tournaments last night, my first time playing in one of these was about 2 weeks ago. There were 1780 people playing last time, and I placed 47th, this time I like the field much better because there were only 690 players this time. Well last time the problem I had was I could never get ove 6000 in chips, and I was hoping to change that fortune in this tournament. I wanted to play kind of loose early to build up a stack, and I almost sabatoged everything before the tournament really got started. A player raised all in before me and I had AK sitting in my hand, I really think a lot of people over play AK thinking it's going to hit everytime or something. Well I decided to call which mean that if I didn't win the hand I would have only had 70 chips left. He had pocket 5's and I hit my K on the river to eliminate him, after that I buckled down and played disciplened. I made solid plays throughout the tournament, I slow played, bet aggressively, and bluffed one or twice to amass almost 17,000 in chips. Here is a picture below of me playing, the top 70 got paid in this tourney BTW at the time I took this screenshot I was 7 from the money at the time.
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I was really looking forward to cashing big in this tournament, but I made a bonehead mistake I called with a marginal hand 10 9, and a spade flush came on the flop. I didn't have a spade flush but I had an open ended staight draw, and top pair I bet the size of the big blind as a feeler bet and everyone went away exept one person who just called my bet with no raise. The turn came with no help and I bet he called, so I figured he was chasing the same straight I was, so on the river I bet and he re-raised me I decided to call because I had made my straight, but I figured he had the same one. Well he had a flush since the flop and was slow playing me, I lost 70% of my chips in that hand. Then 5 hands later I was out becaue the blinds were 1k - 2k. I ended up finishing in 37th place getting about a $200.00 payout which isn't bad even though I felt I was destined for more. That just proves you have to stay disciplined and pay attention to each hand I was watching Star Wars Episode I at the time which was a big mistake on my part, here is a fee tip while you are playing poker only focus on poker, pay attention to the people in the hand how much they bet, what hands they won/lost with etc...
I am probably going to start playing in those on a weekly basis.
I played in one of party poker.com's daily $50 + $5 NL Hold 'em tournaments last night, my first time playing in one of these was about 2 weeks ago. There were 1780 people playing last time, and I placed 47th, this time I like the field much better because there were only 690 players this time. Well last time the problem I had was I could never get ove 6000 in chips, and I was hoping to change that fortune in this tournament. I wanted to play kind of loose early to build up a stack, and I almost sabatoged everything before the tournament really got started. A player raised all in before me and I had AK sitting in my hand, I really think a lot of people over play AK thinking it's going to hit everytime or something. Well I decided to call which mean that if I didn't win the hand I would have only had 70 chips left. He had pocket 5's and I hit my K on the river to eliminate him, after that I buckled down and played disciplened. I made solid plays throughout the tournament, I slow played, bet aggressively, and bluffed one or twice to amass almost 17,000 in chips. Here is a picture below of me playing, the top 70 got paid in this tourney BTW at the time I took this screenshot I was 7 from the money at the time.
.I was really looking forward to cashing big in this tournament, but I made a bonehead mistake I called with a marginal hand 10 9, and a spade flush came on the flop. I didn't have a spade flush but I had an open ended staight draw, and top pair I bet the size of the big blind as a feeler bet and everyone went away exept one person who just called my bet with no raise. The turn came with no help and I bet he called, so I figured he was chasing the same straight I was, so on the river I bet and he re-raised me I decided to call because I had made my straight, but I figured he had the same one. Well he had a flush since the flop and was slow playing me, I lost 70% of my chips in that hand. Then 5 hands later I was out becaue the blinds were 1k - 2k. I ended up finishing in 37th place getting about a $200.00 payout which isn't bad even though I felt I was destined for more. That just proves you have to stay disciplined and pay attention to each hand I was watching Star Wars Episode I at the time which was a big mistake on my part, here is a fee tip while you are playing poker only focus on poker, pay attention to the people in the hand how much they bet, what hands they won/lost with etc...
I am probably going to start playing in those on a weekly basis.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Recap of the Banea Invitational 5/14/2005
I played in the Banea Invitational Saturday, if you continue to read this blog you will hear a lot about the Banea's. They are the people who have helped my poker game the most the past few years, and I am really good friends with them. I play a house game there with them several times a week, we keep a running points system for the player of the year race. Going into this tournament I was the top ranked non-family member point wise. The person right behind me was fairly close I had recently passed him in points and he was playing in the tournament so I wanted to make sure I put on my "A" game.
I started out well, couldn't accumulate chips the table was tough everyone who had any type of hand raised 5 - 8 times the big blind and you can't call those type of raises with garbage. I was hanging in there, and 2 entire tables went out, so I felt good. The rest of the tables were condensed to fill them up, and a new guy who was a bit drunk came to our table. Very first hand I am small blind he is big blind everyone folds I call, he raises 3 times the big blind. I have K 10 in my hand and I decided to call, the flop comes 3C KH 2C. I decide to teach this fool a lesson and I go all in he calls and flips over 5C 5H. He gets two running clubs to eliminate me and make a one card flush, then he proceeds to apologize for the rest of the night. Bad Beats happen, but the funny thing is he put a bad beat on another player and he just folded the rest of the night and he won the tournament with another bad beat. The worse part about it is, he got upset with the tournament director for racing off his chips he was yelling, "what are you doing with my chips?". Then he didn't understand the blinds and antes in heads up play, this proves you can get lucky and win a tournament.
Well after the main tournament was over they had a turbo tournament, which I won I felt kind of bad because I put a bad beat on a guy he was short stacked and I was chip leader he went all in for $925, I was big blind at $800.00 so I called the $125 he flips over A8 and I flip over my K9 the flop comes 9 K 9 to make my full house and eliminate him. But at the end like most tournaments its a coin flip, I won and regained the non-Banea point lead.
I started out well, couldn't accumulate chips the table was tough everyone who had any type of hand raised 5 - 8 times the big blind and you can't call those type of raises with garbage. I was hanging in there, and 2 entire tables went out, so I felt good. The rest of the tables were condensed to fill them up, and a new guy who was a bit drunk came to our table. Very first hand I am small blind he is big blind everyone folds I call, he raises 3 times the big blind. I have K 10 in my hand and I decided to call, the flop comes 3C KH 2C. I decide to teach this fool a lesson and I go all in he calls and flips over 5C 5H. He gets two running clubs to eliminate me and make a one card flush, then he proceeds to apologize for the rest of the night. Bad Beats happen, but the funny thing is he put a bad beat on another player and he just folded the rest of the night and he won the tournament with another bad beat. The worse part about it is, he got upset with the tournament director for racing off his chips he was yelling, "what are you doing with my chips?". Then he didn't understand the blinds and antes in heads up play, this proves you can get lucky and win a tournament.
Well after the main tournament was over they had a turbo tournament, which I won I felt kind of bad because I put a bad beat on a guy he was short stacked and I was chip leader he went all in for $925, I was big blind at $800.00 so I called the $125 he flips over A8 and I flip over my K9 the flop comes 9 K 9 to make my full house and eliminate him. But at the end like most tournaments its a coin flip, I won and regained the non-Banea point lead.
Monday, May 16, 2005
The start of my Poker Blog
I decided to start a poker blog to chronicle my play and hopefully my rise to my goal of reaching the WPT final table someday. Right now I am playing low limit trying to build my bankroll, so that I can increase the amount of payoffs I have when I win. Hopefully I will develop a decent side following of people interested in my site and we will see what happens.
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