Weekend review

Saturday night played pretty much my whole shift on Full Tilt while I was at the station. I had 3 tokens that I was wanting to put to use so I entered 3 of the DS Knockout Turbo SNGs, since 1st is around $650. Lord knows I could use a good bankroll boost like that right now. Could never really get anything going in any of them, and come to think of it I'm not sure I ever took anyone out either. Each one I made it to like 30-45 players left before busting.

Then Sunday we had a our regular cash game over at Bruce's. I had a great seat with all the tight players on my left and all the psycho's on my right. Mean Patrick returned for the first time in probably 1-2 months, and quickly dusted off $60 in about 2 hours. He was directly on my right but I was never able to capitalize on it big time. Just the first hand I raised A9s utg and got like four callers. Flop was like J 8 x or something. Everyone checked and the turn was a 9. Patrick leads out for .60 into a $2 pot. I raise him up to $2.10 and he's the only caller. River's a blank, he checks and I check. He tables 94o?? This is why he can never berate anyone's play ever, because of hands like this.

Anyways him and Herby got into a small tiff after an Omaha hand where Patrick had middle set 777 and herby thought he just had two pair but then realized he actually had a straight. So Patrick got all pissy and ran his mouth again like always and said something like "you shouldn't be allowed to win if you don't know what your hand is". To which Herby replied "you don't like Omaha? well I'm gonna deal it every time it comes to me then". :) Herby had never played with him before, but he's a confident/cocky guy and he's not going to take that kind of shit from a guy like Patrick. Patrick made some kind of other idle threat under his breat after that, and then proceeded to lose another buyin. I can tell you this clash tilted him more than any of the hands he played. He HATES it when people talk shit back to him or don't give him what he wants. We played mixed games at Craig's one time and Dave got knocked out in the sb, but then dealt Omaha the next hand after he wasn't in the game anymore. So MP got all pissy and said you don't have a say in what we play, and Dave says "I got the cards so the game is Omaha". After MP folded his hand he practically threw his cards at David. Just typical MP behavior.

As far as my other notable hands. I was down a bit and then made K high straight and value bet the river to get back up to my initial buyin. Busted Nick in Omaha after flopping top set with QQ in my hand and dodging the flush on the river. That hand was from utg.

Not two hands later in the sb I pick up JJ playing holdem. I think Bruce straddled, Herby raises to 1.20, Craig calls, Pat (nice) reraises to $3. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to repop it b/c of my bad position or just call and see a flop. I opted for the latter and everyone else calls the $3. Flop is Q J x rainbow. I check, and everyone else does to Pat who bets $3 into a $15 pot. I check raise to $9 and everyone folds, Pat calls after some thought. Turn is a Td, putting two diamonds on the board. I bet $13, about half my stack and Pat calls. Before the river is dealt I push all in considering myself already committed to the hand regardless. Well, the river was a K and Pat calls showing AQd for a runner runner straight (with a flush draw on the turn). He was big stack too and that was a huge pot that would've put me up to $100 most likely. It's too bad because I could've easily check/folded the river had I waited to see what it was, but I gurantee I wouldn't have felt good about it. My biggest problem is failing to count the pot on the turn because a shove for 20 something wouldn't have been an overbet at all. It might have gotten him to fold too, you never know.

Anyways, online is still up and down. Had a good session last night where I made $35 on cash game, and then place 4/45 in a $5 for another $17.50 profit. Coupled with the $15 I made in 15 minutes earlier that night it was a good showing. Roll's at just about $700 now so I still have work to do before I can get back to .50/$1 heads up again. But that's ok I can be patient. :)

Fuck poker

I have had the absolute worst weekend on Full Tilt. It's pretty disgusting the beats I took last night alone in the cash game. Just donks getting lucky, rivers , runners you name it, it happened.

I thought turned quad aces after flopping a set with AA against the douche who limp/called 79s and flopped a flush would make me feel better at the time. And I thought certainly after getting up to 4K in chips in the $22 SNG would be a lock to cash and even out the night. But no the beats reared their ugly head and took me out in 2 hands, including the same douche who flopped a flush on me. He was short stack and limp/called Q6o in the sb against my 88. Flop is 552, he shoves and I call and hits runner runner straight.

Then I have 44 and I raise 3xbb from the sb, and the bb minimum raises me. I almost threw my hand away but the price was too good and he had a decent stack and I knew from his raise he had a big pair like KK or AA that I had good implied odds to crack. Well the flop came a 4 and we got all the money in and then he turns a K on me. Fucker.

And every session of heads up cash game I played I didn't win a single one.

I'm so pissed right now, I really don't even want to be at work. I just want to go home and start going apeshit online even more. Ack. Fuck poker.

Temper Temper

I've noticed my temper starting to flare lately, especially in our live cash games. I think I'm just being hard on myself for making bad plays, which I need to learn to just let go. Yes I want to make the best play every single time but trying to hold myself to that standard constantly can't be a good thing. I have to realize I'm still human and that it's a game of imperfect information so I can't get it right all the time.

I remember one instance two weekends ago where I lost a $15 pot to Jason when I check raised my four card straight on the river on a fairly dangerous board. He called and showed a higher straight. Or this last weekend in an Omaha hand where I donated $15+ to Craig with trip sevens, which was actually just a terrible play overall. I really need to practice more PLO online so I can plug holes like that.

This last weekend wasn't very good online, it seemed like I was getting coolered a lot. I know in one instance I flopped a K high flush with KQd and someone else had AJd. Stuff like that. I know it's just variance and it will eventually turn around. I just make sure I don't tilt and play too high for my roll. I just took out some more $ to pay off the PS2 I bought for Christmas. I just opened an Epassporte account this month to see if I can get my $ out faster than a check in the mail. We shall see, so far it hasn't been that fast.

Poker Goals 2008

There's a massive thread on www.pocketfives.com about poker goals for the new year, so I thought I post mine on here. I never expected to have as good a year as I did in 2007. I used to dream about just qualifying into Sunday major tournaments, and then I manged to qualify for 4 of them and cash in 2!

This year I hope to continue the trend. I will continue to keep up my CardRunners subscription and try to really dedicate more time to watching videos and improving my game.

Moneywise I'd like to make another couple of 4 figure cashes to aid in getting a new car and paying a good chunk of it off right away. My ideal means to accomplish this goal would be to final table a Sunday major. In the meantime I'm just going to continue to practice good bankroll management and try to make a steady profit in heads up and 6 max cash games.