Backsliding Two Days

I just spent the last two days backsliding from my win on Tuesday. What a frustrating two days it was. I played at the Muck for just for a little on Weds night as I got a late start from work. Should have stayed home. I went back to the trend of the last few months of just running like crap. Not one pair of AA the whole night and all the other decent hands never held. I also played a few bad hands, but felt ok about my play. Yesterday at the Muck was even more frustrating. It was probably the best $30/60 game I had seen in 6 months. Three player just gambling like fish with a ton of money and I could not get a hand. I played a nice long session and tried to get some of their money but it was just not to be. I continued to run like crap. Never picked up AA, when I did have KK's I just got the blinds, and other hands could not hold up. This will not be a long post but here are the last two hands from the last two night which epitomize the days.

Weds night last hand: I get AK UTG and raise, I get a call directly to my left, and then the BB three bets it. I call, and my left calls. Flop comes 7,7,10, two spades. I bet, get called, BB raises, I call, left calls. Turn A, perfect. I check, left checks, BB bets, I raise, left three bets, BB mucks, I call. River J spades. I bet, left raises, I call he shows AQ spades for flush. He three bet me with an A and flush draw. Perfectly huge pot and I have the lead and can't win. I do not fault him for the three bet, he pushes out the other player, and he did hit the A with a flush draw on the turn. BUT it does not have to come every time. It did today.

Thursday night last hand: I get QQ UTG I raise, I get 4 callers with the action players in the hand. Flop comes 10,8,3 two hearts. I bet, I get called by one guy, two players dump, button. Turn 5 I bet, now the second to act raises to $120, button cold calls(heart draw obvious), I three bet to $180, both guys call. River an A. I check now, second to act bets, button missed draw, I make the crying call into a fucking huge ass pot around $1200 and he shows me AK no hearts. He was calling and raising with 4 outs(hearts eliminated), I love that, Does IT HAVE TO GET THERE. I pack up and go home after 10 hours of crap.

I lose -$1,901 on Tuesday, and -$1,514 last night to put me up only $147 for three days of play. What a shame. O well one more night to make some money. Hope the dry run of cards does not continue tonight. On the side not of yesterdays game the guy to my direct left made $7,000 just to tell you how juicy the game was. Talk to you soon SJ.

Kind of Big Win

Went down to the Muck last night for my regular Tuesday night play. I got down there mid afternoon and they started a new $50/100 game short handed at 3:00pm. I have not seen this game go all year when I have been down there, so I was excited to see it go, and short handed to boot, my favorite. It was a good line up of about 5 people with two softer spots in it. Three of us were what I would consider good players. I got off to a horrible start, not many good starting cards and not much holding up when I did get them. I went straight down $3000 out of the gate. Ouch. I continued to play my game however and managed to get back to even and then up a little. Every time I did pick up a big hand it got cracked or outflopped. I had one hand with AQ hearts on the button and raised, both the blinds called me. The flop came 999. I thought that was a good flop for my hand. It was checked to me and I bet. I got called by the BB. Turn an 8, check to me, I bet and now I got raised. Crap I call. River an A, perfect. He bets I raise, he three bets I make the crying call. He shows me 6,9 clubs for quads. I am not going to put him on that 4 handed. You just loose that hand. I guess I could have saved $100 on the river or maybe even $200 by just calling but I am not going to put him on a 9 there so you just loose. I have to stay aggressive and if that means losing a few extra bets once in a while then so be it. Damn, back down I go. One bad player wins a few thousand and then quits. Crap that money was in play and gone if he stayed.

Then one of the good players went on a huge rush, the same guy that made quads with 6,9. He proceeds to tear up the game and me with it for about two hours. Finally, the luck box leaves at about 11:00pm, and now we are down to 4 handed, with two bad players. One Russian who was really passive. He just kept calling with second pair, bluffing at pots with Q high, and playing downright horrible for this limit. I knew he would eventually go bust and I wanted to be the one to bust him. I just kept picking on him until he did, and low and behold he did about midnight and I put most of his $3,000 in my stack. We picked up one more player to take his spot, Sean a very solid tight player who finished about 350th in this years WSOP main event, and an overall good guy to boot. I just when on a roll from there. I never really had big hands. I just picked my spots well and timed well with bluffs. I did win one really big pot with 6,8 suited in the BB. It was raised in early position, and there was one caller before me to price me into the pot. Now you might say 6,8 priced into the pot, WHAT? This is a four handed game, the first guy could be bluffing with a garbage hand trying to steal the pot, and Sean did not three bet which means he has a hand that he could see a flop with but not a pair or big A. If you hit this hand short handed you can win a big pot, so your implied odds go up, and if you miss, it is an easy lay down as you only have another $50 invested into the pot. I saw a flop of 6,6,J. GIN. I check early raiser bets, Sean raises, I smooth call, first raiser three bets and Sean caps. I call, a 4 comes off on the turn, I check again. First guy bets, Sean now dumps as he now puts me on a 6, and I now raise. Get called, and the river comes a 9, I bet and get called. He shows me pocket AA, and I crack them with my 6,8. He goes on tilt for while and puts another $1,000 in my stack trying to beat me with stupid hands.

I end up winning $3,562 for 35 BB, not a 50 BB night but a decent win nonetheless. I won 3.5 BB an hour which I am happy with. I am happy with my play right now. I wish I could run a little better but I am not going to complain as long as I win. I only saw AA once in the ten hour session and never saw KK. I am going to play again tonight as I have some free evenings for the next few days. Hope to keep the run going. Talk to you soon....SJ

Friday Night at the Muck

Went to the Muck on Friday night late after dinner. Got there at about 9:00pm and the place was jammed. I could not get into a game. They only had two big games going and a long list for the $20/40. They would not start a new game because they were worried that they would break one of their 8 $4/8 games. WHAT?? They had 8 of them, what do they care if they break one. I can not stand how they run that place. They just don't care. I hope one of these days they get some competition but not today, so they will run it how they see fit. I sat around for about 30 minutes before getting a 10/20 seat. I have not played down at that limit in about two months, and I had forgotten how bad the play is in that game. The players were just horrible. Lots of limpers with weak hands hoping to hit. It was even better for me as this game was full of weak tight players. If they missed the flop they would go away. I bluffed with 5 high and 3 high out of the blind twice when an A hit the board and everyone went away. What a great game. Then one of the bigger game players came and sat in the game as he also was waiting for a seat. I had him to my direct left, which was not perfect but at least I had him close. He is a young kid who is developing his game, and plays a little too aggressive out of position sometimes. I was in the BB with A,4 off, and he raises UTG and gets called in four spots behind him. I figured I was getting the odds to call one bet and see the flop. Flopped the straight with 2,3,5 rainbow. I checked hoping to check raise, he bet, two other callers, I raise, he three bets, everyone else drops, and now I just call. He had a big overpair, at least he was going to play it that way and I knew I could get a raise on the next card as well. A Queen came off on the turn. I checked, he bet, I raised, he three bet, I capped. He must have made a set on the turn, as I know he has played with me before and he would not have given me that much action without that hand. DO NOT PAIR THE BOARD. Blank on river. I bet he calls and asked me if I flopped the straight, Yea I said and show my A4, and he mucked without showing. I wish that would have been $30/60 but of course the play would not have gone down that way in that game anyway. I would have probably not even been in the hand to start with.

I took my $200 profit and went to the $20/40 game when finally called at about 10:00pm. That game play was almost as bad. Lots of bad players, who were weak tight as well. Unfortunately I did not get any cards to play. I lost my profit within a few rounds with nothing and then bluffed from the button with 3,5 clubs into a field of 5 people who limped before the flop. I raised with the button, and bet on K high flop when checked into me. I go one call and then he dumped it on the turn. Got back to just about even and then moved to the $30/60 game.

I was hopping for a good Friday night gamble game. There was only one $30/60 game going, and it was full of rocks. All of them rocks. Not one gamble spot in the game. My game plan now was to play hands in position and bluff at pots when nothing hit, or try to make funky hands against premium hands I knew would only be played. This kind of worked except that we had a string of pots where all high cards came out on he flop and I had to dump all the hands I played. I got stuck $800 in that game, and then it got short. I am amazed that at this level there is still not much experience playing short handed. I just ran over the remaining 5 then 4 then 3 players, until I was up $300. I think I busted all the remaining players and the last two quit me. Crap, it is Friday night and there was not enough people to keep the 30 game going past 1:30am. Wow. That sucked. I ended up winning a total of $299, not what I had in mind but I guess better than being stuck. I will hopefully play more than twice this week and see how much progress we can make. Talk to you soon..SJ

Bleak to Sunny

I went down to the Muck last night and got into the $30/60 game after a short wait. I started playing around 3:00pm. The game was good. Full of the day regulars, unfortunately most of the day guys are good. You need to wait until the evening shift starts to show for the more recreational and losing players to show up. I started out like I said yesterday vowing to play good poker. I did, but right out of the gate I had nothing to play. I won a few small pots making some moves in position but nothing to write home about. I just started to get blinded away in the game, I was not going to press. I stayed focused, I did not play Q,10 off in middle position this time when it was the best hand I had seen in three orbits. The night shift started to roll in and the game got really good. I had not seen one of the players in maybe two years, but he is ACTION all the way. Of course after being stuck only a few hundred in blinds I finally wake up with a hand on the button. Pocket KK's. There are five people in this pot already and two in for a raise, I three bet and everyone calls including Smiley(Mr. Action). We take off a 6 way pot for three bets($540 in pot). Flop came down 8,Q,6, no suits. Smiley bet right out, there are two calls and I raise. Four of us see the turn for two bets each($780 in pot). Pretty good flop for my hand, some draws to straights but I have to be good right now. Q comes off on turn, Smiley bets right out and two of us make crying calls to the river. Smiley could have had Q, the other guy I put on A high or a 10 which came off on river. Too much in the pot to get away from with these two players. Smiley turns over Q,2 off for the win. BAM, stuck $600. Next orbit around I get pocket QQ's in the BB. Not a great spot, but hey a good hand, there are four of us in for a raise, which I did not make as I am not going to three bet into 3 people out of position as all it does it make the pot larger to draw at and no one would fold anyway for one more bet. Plus I get some added deception if I hit or flop overpair. Flop comes A,K,Q, two diamonds. I check, that was probably my fatal mistake. I know better then to check a pot like that with draws. I wanted deception but not really going to get it with that flop. Of course there is a bet and I check raise, Smiley call two bets cold and the other player dumps his hand. A Jack comes off one the turn, I bet out, Smiley calls. A meaningless card comes on the river and I bet and get called, Smiley shows me 10,7 off for the gutshot straight on the turn that hit. Crap I am now down over almost $900. Smiley then takes all the money from those two pots and continues to play like shit for two more hours and dumps all the money back into the table. I go card dead again and never get any of it back. He goes broke, as I knew he would, and I am stuck $1200 at the low point. There is the Bleak.

I stayed focused and kept on playing the game the way I know I can, the cards have to turn sometime. Maybe not today but sometime. Then it happens. I see pocket AA's on the Button. I have not seen them in a month and maybe 1800 hands. I raise and just get the blinds. Hey I finally saw them and they held up, a moral victory, not a money victory. I then proceed to get pocket KK's three times in about 4 orbits and they all hold up, not for large pots, but for wins. I get back within about $200 and then this hand happens. A little set up is necessary. There were some gamblers at the table, and some tricky good players as well. One of the problems with being tricky good, which I classify as playing lots of starting cards and playing really well after the flop, knowing when to raise with second pairs, when to draw and when to dump to not get hurt too badly is that you may not get the credit you want when you really have a premium hand. I would classify myself as a somewhat tricky player, which can be good but also can be bad when you are running bad and can not get good hands to hold up, or you start to play a little weaker post flop and start to pay off too much with second best hand. I pick up A,J diamonds in early position, I raise, as this is a hand that you do not want to take off in a muti-way pot, and in some instance I will just dump it in early position but I decided to play it here and if you do you MUST raise. I get three bet by a good tricky player. I call. At this point I put him on a number of hands, most likely pocket pair, not likely high because he did not want action, maybe AK but not necessarily, and a random suited connecter like J,10, K,Q or 8,9. I make this play sometimes to isolate a big hand, and this guy was fully capable of making that play or to represent a high pair. A solid tight player you can put on three to four hands maybe AA, KK, QQ and AK. I had A so I ruled out AA. Sometimes the perfect storm happens when you have A and run up against AA when an A flops but if you play scared of that situation you will miss a lot of value bets during a session. The flop came A,8,6 rainbow. I bet right out into him as I wanted to see where I was and how he would react. This is not a spot to check raise. The pot is big enough to win right there, you do not want to price in draws, and if you get three bet you still don't really know where you are if he is still just wanting to be the aggressor. I call still thinking I might be good. A good looking 2 comes off on the turn. I check he bets again. OK, now I am probably in trouble, He may have flopped a set(not super likely) or he has AK, or AQ which I can not beat, and he still may have an underpair to the A. This is where being a tricky aggressive player can get you in trouble. If I can put him only on hands that beat me I most likely dump the turn, but because there are still so many hands that I can put him on that I can beat I have to call. There is $315 in the pot and I am getting 5.25 to one to call. I think it may be 50/50 that I am either beat or good. So I either have 3 outs 50% of the time an 11 to one shot or I am good right now and he is drawing to two outs. I felt 5.25 to one was a good enough price to keep going. I ruled out the set because he still bet the turn and there were not any real draws to protect and there was a chance I would dump my hand to a bet. If I had the set in position I would check to see if I could induce a bluff on the river and still get two bets while not risking the chance I get no more money. We played similar styles so I gave him credit for similar type play to rule out the set. I hit my J on the river and I checked, he bet, and I thought about it for a bit and decided that I had to be good, he had AK, AQ, so I raised. He called and I showed top two which was good. He showed AK, and pissed and moaned about my shitty play. I raked a $615 pot. Back to positive area and off to the races. I held pocket AA two more times, winning small pots, I now know what they look like again. I also continued to play aggressive poker and ran my chips up to a total win of $1,730 for the night. Felt great to book a decent win. Now I just need to follow it up with some more. Hopefully the bad run is over and I will get back to normal for a while. God forbid I actually run lucky for a session. Have not had one of those 50 BB nights in a while. Would like to feel that again.

I would also like to point out that the picture in my Blog of Jason came from Wickedchops Poker. This is killer blog that I found a few weeks ago and have linked up to the left. Go check out this site. It is full of great news and pictures like this one. If you guys are reading this thanks for the picture, and let me know if you want me to let you know in the future if I would like to borrow one again. I would be happy to do that, and I did not mean to piss any one off by posting it in my blog. I just thought it was a great picture of Jason. Talk to you soon...SJ

Frustrated

I did not post from last week but I did play last Tuesday which is my only confirmed day that I get to play right now. I went down to the Muck and jumped into the $30/60 game at about 6:00pm. I continue to just run like garbage. It has been over a month since I have seen a good run of cards. Nothing seems to hold up and I am not getting my fair share of high cards or pairs to start. I played this entire session again without seeing AA. I have now gone over a month and played probably 1800 hands live and not seen them. This just unreal. I suppose it is better than getting big hands and getting destroyed with them, which has happened during this run as well. I did pick up KK's twice and went 1 for 2 with them.

The problem this time was me. I became the donkey at the game. I was officially playing like shit. I have been running poorly and I compounded the problem by getting frustrated and pressing with marginal hands. I did not lose much but it was the way in which it was lost that really pisses me off. I played like the donkey I love to beat up on in the game. This was the worst session I have played this year by far. I am going back tonight with a vow to at least play good poker. I will not have another session like the last. I may not get to play any hands tonight if I keep running like I have, but I will play good poker. Total loss for last Tues was -$754. Talk to you soon. SJ

Jason Picture

I found this picture on the web of my buddy Jason at the WSOP, He was actually busted by Clonnie. Better luck next year.

WSOP Payout

I just looked at the payout structure. What a shitty deal you get for winning. Only $7.5 million which equates to only %14.2 of the prize pool. I was at least hoping for $10,000,000. First should be at least 20% which would have been just north of 10m, but $7.5 is a bad beat. I know they wanted to pay more people, but come on, you should get paid for finishing 560th place. Stupid. I don't care if it is top 10% that is just stupid. I am not in the tournament so I guess my opinion does not count, but I wanted to share my opinion anyway. Most tournaments pay more like 25% to the winner, so I can see taking some off the top as $7.5 is still a big number, but taking it all the way to %14.2 is not a good deal for the winner. It is about percentages, not the money. SJ

Phone Check

I wanted to see if I could post from my phone. Pretty cool if this works. I could then post while out of town playing.

Bummer for Friends at WSOP

Both of my friends played on day 1 at the WSOP, both did not make it out of day one. Aaron went out at about 3:30pm. He had his chip count up to 23,000 and just happened to play a pot with a guy who had him covered which at 3:30 is rare that someone else at your table is going to have more than 23,000. Aaron had 99, the other guy had JJ. Flop came 9 high. Aaron checked the guy bet, Aaron raised it to 3,000, the guy then raised Aaron 7,000, Aaron moved in and the guy called. Aaron had the guy down to two outs and a shitty J came off on the turn. OUT.

Jason, my other friend did not have his stack over 17,000 all day. He played to 12:30am but got knocked out by Clonie Gowen when his AK ran into her QQ. OUT.

O well I guess there is next year. Talk to you soon. SJ

Weathering the Storm

So for my first trip back to playing live in Seattle after my short 24 hour trip to Vegas last week I went to the Muck last night for the $30/60 game. I actually went at lunch so I could get in a good 12-14 session. BIG MISTAKE. I am in the midst of one of the worst dead card runs I have ever had. I played 14 hours yesterday and still did not see AA, or KK once. I had QQ once and they actually won. I jumped right into the $30/60 game and proceeded to just get suck out after suck out dumped on my head. I went through the eye of the storm after about 4 hours and just got demolished for $2,700. I won a total of 3 pots in those 4 hours, and lost countless others on the river for big pots that I had put a ton of money in to lose on the river. If you just get beat on the flop you can get away from the hand for not a large investment, but I was having one of those days that you just lose every hand you have the lead in and got stuck huge. The tournament time comes at 7:00pm and the $30/60 game breaks and we have to go to $20/40.

The worst possible scenario, I am stuck $3,000 in a little over 5 hours, and now we have to play for lesser stakes. I have to win 50% more BB's just to get back to even. There is almost no way I am getting out of this hole today. I try and try, and I get back within $1,200, but then the beats start coming again, I get tired and frustrated and push a few stupid hands to put myself back in the hole. Just one of those days. Could have saved a few hundred without getting stubborn, but all in all one of those days. I am getting tired of having to work so hard at winning right now. It would be nice to have an auto pilot day, and have some fun winning. Just need to weather this strom and it will be good to feel what getting decent starting cards feels like again. Shitty night for a total loss of $2,590. Crap between Vegas and last night that put a nice dent in my year.