Should Have Kept My Mouth Shut

Of course as soon as I thank Party Poker for closing its doors to US players and saying how well I was doing on FT it comes and kicks me in the ass. I had my worst one day drop online ever last Saturday after I posted about FT. Should have just kept my mouth shut. O well, back to the grind.

With the blast of winter weather here in Seattle I will not get to play today. Too much risk in getting stuck in the snow. Might play later this week however. Hope you are all winning. Talk to you soon....SJ

Random Poker

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope this day finds you doing well and that you all have much to be thankful for in your lives. Even with all the government intrusion into our game this game of ours is even bigger and better than last year. I think 2007 will be just fine for all of us. I am looking forward to next year and hope that I get a chance to make it to more tournaments than 2006, and even possibly play in the main event of the WSOP for the first time.

I have not posted much in the last week or so but that does not mean I have not been playing poker, just random poker unfortunately. I have been playing at Full Tilt and UB, mostly FT. The games there continue to be great, and I have made more money in the last month on that site than I have the whole year. Thank you Party for closing your doors to US players. I did play one live session since my last post, this last Tuesday at the MUCK. I got down there late and was unable to get into the $50/100 game. It looked good, but did not turnover much so I did not get a seat. I ended up playing $10/20 for a bit, then went to the $5/10 blind NL game, and finally played in their Tuesday night $65 buyin tournament. This was the first and probably last time I will play this tournament for a long time. I remembered why I did not play it in the first place. The structure just sucks. The blinds go up way too fast to give you any play. It turns into an all in fest after the first two rounds. We started with around 100 players, I won my first two all ins with underdogs pre-flop and got a little lucky with those. Then with about 25 players left, I had pocket QQ's and we were playing $500/1000 blinds and I had about 12,000 in chips. There was a limp from early position and I made it $4000 to go. She called the $3,000 raise and we saw a flop of 2,3,5 rainbow. She checked to me and I just moved in for 9,000. She thought for a long while and I thought she was going to muck but then called for the rest of her chips which was about $7,000. She turned up pocket JJ's and I was in great shape to have a pile of chips. 10 on the turn, and I had her down to two outs. BAM, J on the river. Damn. The very next hand I had pocket 10's and pushed my last 2,000 and got called by A,Q who hit a Q on the flop and I was done.

I then still could not get into the $50/100 game and just called it a night early and went home. I did end up close to a dime, so all was not lost. Have a great Thanksgiving and I hope you are all winning. Talk to you soon....SJ

Hey there's a game??

I was not planning on going down to the Muck on Friday, I was already at home and then got the green light to go late. I had the stench of my Tuesday session hanging in my nose so I wanted to go erase that memory and maybe recover a little bit of the money. I achieved one of those goals.

When I walked into the room it was the usual Friday night jammed. I walked over to the board and as usual for Friday night there was a nine mile long list for $10/20 games and up. I put my name on the list and was resolved that I was probably only going to walk around talk to a few people and leave as I was not going to get into a game for at least and hour or two. Then to my surprise I walked by a table that was short and saw that there were some regular high limit players at the table. This table was not on the board, what is this?? To my delight it was a short handed $100/200 game with a very good lineup. I took my seat to the left of Chris, perfect seat by the way, and he proceeds to quit 3 hands in. He claimed he was tired and did not want to play a full ring game. Dude, we are still 5 handed, that is not full. It did not matter, he quit anyway. That is ok, he was the best player at the table so not a big loss. He did take quit a few chips out of play when he left however.

I proceed to get nothing to play for the first hour, miss a few preflop calls, and get stuck a pretty good amount right out of the gate. Now this is not what I was hoping for to help ease the pain of Tuesday. I only had to worry about the game breaking because I knew if I played well I would get it back and then some with this lineup. Then an Asian player comes and takes a seat to my direct left. He plays the bigger games sometimes and so I thought he would be good to keep the game going, plus he is an action player so I may get my money back faster. Well, my run of bad cards continues, I stay disciplined and do not play, and he proceeds to take some deep swipes out of the other players stacks. Then he QUITS. HOLY CRAP!!

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. On the internet you can hit and run no problem, there is always a game going on. While I don't really like it that much, online I can live with it, hell even I do it sometimes when I don't have a long time to play. Live is a completely different story. #1)Our game was short to begin with, which means there is no list #2)This game was bigger than most we have been playing down at the MUCK so the players were not fully bankrolled. Even I did not have as much as I would have liked to play this game, but I had no clue this game was going when I left my house. #3)If he quits he takes a lot of chips out of play and he knows this, I think he knew all three. I was super pissed. I will never play with him short handed again. I will just quit if he sits down. It is just plain rude to sit in a short game if you do not have the time to play. If you get busted that is one thing, but to win a rack or so and quit is just RUDE.

So back to the game. I finally start to get a few cards, the other players are starting to break even on their draws and pre-flop bad play, so the good play starts to pay off. I finally get up a few dimes, and we get down to three handed. My plan was to bust the short stack and quit as I did not want to play heads up with the other player. So what happens. I get AA's in the SB, Button raises(the player I want to bust) I three bet, BB mucks, Button calls. Fop came 5,7,Q. I had already bet out dark. He called. I bet dark again, turn 10, he calls. I bet dark, river a 9, and he calls all in and says I got lucky I think. NO SHIT, he showed me 9,5 off for a rivered two pair. WOW. NH Sir, well played. Next hand I get pocket 10's on the Button. I raise and get called in two spots. Flop came 9 high I bet out and got raised. I just called to the river when nothing higher than the 9 came out and he showed me AA's, same guy who just beat my AA's with 9,5. NH sir, well played. Then very next hand I get JJ's in the BB, I three bet out of the BB from a button raise and the BB calls the three bet cold. He says I hope you have AA's as I have an AA cracking hand. Short story he flopped a straight with a 5,8 of clubs, and I went to the river with it. I then said that is it I quit. The player we wanted to bust went with us on the last hand with a flush draw and missed so he only had $400 left. I was not going to risk anymore chips to get his $400. I quit almost dead even. I actually made $29 but who cares in this limit. I went home satisfied with my play but pissed at the results in the last few hands. I should have won at least one of those to win a few dimes. O well I guess I will get them next time.

Hope you are all winning and talk to you soon. I will not be playing tomorrow night as I have to work....SJ

Lessons in How to Lose

Well as I mentioned in my last post I was playing enough to be happy about my time at the tables, and then I hit the wall at work and have not played almost a lick of live cards. I did manage to go down this last Tuesday to the Muck and I should have just stayed at work. Let me give you some lessons on how to lose.

#1) Go to the card room distracted and thinking about work or something else. When your head is not fully in the game you are not going to be at your best. I was clearly distracted. I knew it when I walked into the room but I chose to play anyway. Bad idea.

#2) Don't play a disciplined game. For some reason I was not being patient. I was calling raises with weak hands I would not normally call with, and I was protecting waaaay too many blinds with marginal hands out of position. LEAK.........THUD.

#3) As a result of playing way too many hands, I was catching way too many draws. I would flop four to a flush, OESD, Overcards, etc. I was playing them because I was getting the odds or sometimes marginal odds to call so I did anyway, see note on patience, and then I was missing. The worst is when you actually catch your flush and then make second best hand. I did this twice and it was painful.

#4) Flop monster hands with those marginal cards and get outdrawn. One of the reasons you don't play marginal hands is because they have a tendency to get outdrawn even when you flop the nuts. For example, I had 8,9 clubs on the button. A late position raise came in from a player who I knew was capable of playing some marginal hands himself for a raise. I just cold called the raise and we took the flop off heads up. Flop came 6,7,10. I flopped a straight, he bet into me on the flop and I just raised right there. He called. 8 on the turn, he checked I bet, he called. River a 9, he bet right into me, I just mucked face up and said nice J,10. He showed me to boot. When you flop bottom sets, or weak flushes, you can be beat. Tuesday was one of those days where I got beat. It was my own damn fault as I should have not been in most of those hands anyway.

#5) Don't play aggressive enough. If you do decide to play some of those weaker hands, three bet before the flop. That way you can take control of the hand, and may be able to bluff at a weaker flop or even a big flop that may scare the other player. Try to give yourself two ways to win not just one. I was only giving myself one way to win most of the night. BAD PLAY=STUCK.

All in all it was a bad night of poker for me. I deserved to lose, and I did. Some nights you deserve to lose and you actually win. This was not one of those nights. I ended up dumping two buyins. I should have only lost one, but because of bad play I gave an extra one away. I also think the curse of Dr. Chako showed up. Everytime I see that guy at the cardroom I lose. Coincidence, I think not...

One last note, there was actually a $200/400 game going four handed. I am proud of the fact that I chose not to play in that game. I was a little short for a buyin, but I could have borrowed it if I really wanted to play. I recognized that I was not in the best frame of mind and frankly it was not that great of a game. Three good players and one poor one. The poor one ended up dumping $19,000, ouch, by the grace of God that could have been me. By the way I was playing $50/100. Hope you are all winning and talk to you soon...SJ