I Almost Forgot – I Have Played Live a Few Times Lately.

The night before I left on my trip C called me and said that there a local game that was short and was looking for players. I of course I couldn’t turn it down even though I was leaving the Fam for a week. They were playing tourney style with rebuys before the start of the fourth round and no add-ons. They only wanted to buy-in for $10. Cheap game. That is why I like playing cash games. The rounds were overly slowly raised. We all started with like 2500 to 3000 in chips and blinds went like 10/20, 20/40, 30/60, 40/80, 50/100, 60, 120 etc. At least at those humble stake changes I was able to sit&swoop, sit&swoop. By the 4th round I was up nicely. I had hit a few nice hands and got some loose calls to showdown. The chip leader was a dude I’d never seen. He didn’t look up often and wore a chook (nit cap) although it was hot as shit in the house. He had accumulated all those chips and I noticed that he had never even went to showdown. He was aggressive at the right times. I was impressed because he had double the next largest stack. Finally at like level 7 we lost a player or 2. Numb-nuts finally had to showdown a hand. He had raised with 65o and kept betting it to the end. The chick beside me had called his bets the whole time with a paired king. Both had hit there pr on the flop. K’s vs 5’s to the river and he hit his 6 for 2 pr. She called and we got our first glimpse of his play. Within the next 2 or 3 rounds he had lost most of his stake and was one of the shorties. He then made a hell of a comeback. The shortie at the table doubles-up like 3 times in quick secession. He then bets hard PF. I push figuring that he will call. He does and my KK hold up and I am one of the biggies. Chook dude works his way back to top stack. Only 3 places pay. $75, $25, $10. Chook guy and I make it to HU with me having 2/3rds his stack. I go hyper-agro. He folds a bit and then fights back nicely. WE play forever. Then one hand gets ugly. I have 2pr and raise his flop bet and take control on the turn. He keeps calling. There’s a straight draw on the board. The river puts 4 cards to a straight on the board. He checks. I bet. He raises me hard. God don’t tell me this fag hit this crap straight. I won’t have much left if I fold. I call. He didn’t even have a pr. He was totally playing the player there. Maybe not, but he was playing that hand with the sole purpose of bluffing me off of it if he missed his flop. I have a nice chip lead but slowly lose way do to him pushing non-stop. I finally get KT and check hoping for the push. He bets hard instead. I push. He sits there forever. We had started at 8:30pm and it was 12:30am. He finally says that he would normally fold here but it was little. He turns over KJ and has a stranglehold on the hand. I make $15 bucks for my effort. I played well and put some moves on a few people. I think I already have these guys’ respect. Hopefully I get a callback. $10 tourneys suck, but at least it’s a change-up from my normal mundane cash games. Now that’s a freakin’ paragraph.

I played two mini cash games. 1st one I made $18. There were 4 of us all with $20. $18 ain’t bad. 2nd time at the mini cash game we play with a total of $80 and I win $3. not too bad considering that I was down to $5.50 once midway. 3rd game I lost $12.

Trip Stress is Over Because I Passed

Trip is over. I passed my tests. Man am I glad to be home. Living out of a hotel really sucks.

I played a little on Sat and Sun. I did alright. I just sat and waited to hit hard and start jamming. There are so very loose callers on Px, which helps my bottom-line.

Very first time I sat and played I got the KK vs AA smackdown. Nothing like seeing 2 raises before you at a 6-max table when you’re in the BB. I raised big and the guy pushed. And bang there goes a buyin I really couldn’t afford.

After that hand I sat and pounced. I made a little money. Now that they paid my Mon rake and I now sit at $125. 2 months of playing and I am up $25. God I suck.

Whine Time: Deal With It

I just can’t believe the fucking beats I am taking. Once again if it wasn’t for no-rake I ‘d broke. I raked in over $50 this week, which I will get back on Monday. These beats are bad, but we all see them from time to time. Well, these 3 all can in the same session. I be up big time if not for this shit. Come on I deserve some breaks soon.

1 – KK and I raise PF. He calls my raise with 86o. Flop 8-high. I bet flop and he pushes. Maybe this is a bad call on my part? I don’t even know anymore. Should I think set every time some jerk-off pushes my flop and I only sit with an OP. (over-pair) What do you think, do you fold here and what for a better time to get your money in? I call and he shows his 86 and I laugh aloud. Got caught with your pants down aye punk I’m thinking to myself, when the river brings a 6. I am devastated.

2 – AA hero. He raises $1 PF with Q9s. I make it $3. He calls. The flop comes Q82. He checks. I bet the pot. He pushes. Once again do you fold thinking 2pr or set? I call and he shows TPFD. (top pr – flush draw) River 9 and I’m livid. I scream out loud and tell my wife who has just been interrupted for watching some gay sitcom that the world is against me.

3 – To top this BS session off, I get a guy to go all-in PF with his QQ vs AA. Q right on the flop. I scream like a little girl and logout for the evening.

I haven’t played much in the last 2 days because I have been playing a RPG game called Fate. It came installed on my new Dell that came in this week. My 6 year old computer in now living in a box in the back room where it’s slow ass belongs.

Today’s my birthday. I’m 32 today. That’s cool I guess.

This will be the last update for a week or so. I have a company trip to go on.

Later, Donkass out.

Donkass Strikes Back

The last 2 mornings after work, I played at World at the $25NL 6-max tables. I played 3 hrs each day. I took a few beats and only ended up about $15 the first morn. I played a decent game both days overall. I am getting pretty good at position moves on the 6-max tables.

This morning I ended down like $10. I played a decent game both days overall. I got slapped by an all-in with my set of K’s vs the nut flush draw. I bet, he raised, and I pushed. At the point of the push he did have the odds to call, but it still hurt to get stacked when you go in with the nuts. I also miss-played a hand I call a $1.50 PF raise with AKo and end up isolated against him on the flop. K-high, small, small rainbow flop. He bets ½ pot. I more than double his raise, slightly less than what pot would’ve been with his bet added in with the current pot. He pushes and had me covered. I have Like $20 left in front of me at that point. I can’t make this call right? Oh yes I can. That is the kinda shit we are talking about. This was an atrocious call. It screamed set, but I just couldn’t let it go. So I’m looking at $20 in that 1 hand that absolutely shouldn’t have touched that pot. So a few big hands; one a rivered flush and then a bad play on my part. I am down for the session and I can only think about the what if’s. One variance and one straight-up donkified goodness. I can only improve on the donkey shit.

I can’t stand my game this year. I didn’t really make any money; I played pretty much even poker. This shit is getting old. I’m up maybe $150 for the year as of yet. It is really frustrating the shit out of me. I know winning $5000 last year at the small stakes that I played at wasn’t just luck. I do have skills. I am just in a horrible slump or I changed something very dramatic in my game. I don’t see it though. Same old me, far as I can guess. Something is wrong though because this is over tons of hands so variance should really be out of the equation at this point this year, unless you can really hit a 3 month slump. If not for rake in the last few weeks, if I would have stayed at my current stakes, I’d likely sit at $10 or $15 dollars right now. I am currently up $10 or $15 on World. The big thing that I have noticed this year so far in regards to my slump. I have beaten the rake as of yet and actually make decent money at $25NL. But every time I climb to the $50 so far I have lost big in the very first session that I decide to give it a try. Once I was drunk and the other set-backs were do to bad beats and bad plays. So I think I will try to stay away from the 50’s for now.

Later, Donkass out.

Not Good...AKA... Bitch (Lady Variance) is That All You Got

Poker didn’t go good this week. I played mostly at World. I took 3 huge beats. 2 5-outers and 1 2 outer. I also lose to the flush-draw that called my KK allin on the turn. Ok done whining I think. I played enough to make $50 in rake, that I’ll recoup on Monday. With the rake I will be slightly above the hundred I started with a few weeks ago. So really not too bad with variance slapping me around. So if I keep up this pace, once variance turns, I’ll be making rake money. I can deal with that.

Last night I played at Px until all the tables fizzled away. I was pretty drunk by that time on some Chabis. I was playing a few tables at a time while reading blogs. When Px died I took my ass to UB. I got on 2 $50 tables. In the first 30 min I was down $125 due to some bad play on my part. I guess that’s what I get for playing drunk. I just can’t seem to go forward this year. It’s the old cliché: 1 step for 2 steps back. I need to break the cycle.

I really must have some leaks going. The only real difference I see is that I’m now playing 6-max. I don’t know if I won’t to go back to full ring though. I have to figure this thing out. I know I make some bad plays. Like putting it all on the line with the flush draw. I really need to stop the chasing; it is killing me.

I do think if I spend most of my time on Px I will make some cash in the long run. I need to make enough though to move back up stakes, so I can get back on the $50 and $100 tables. It is actually pretty soft there. There are a lot of Swedish players there that are super loose and will go all the way with shit. All-ins PF with AJo, QJs. They often don’t worry about kickers. The one thing that you really have to watch out for is them calling your PF raises with junk and hitting hard. They try the crap often. It is so well hidden that it is hard to get off your PF monster, especially knowing that they fight with crap. There are also a lot of push-monkeys that buy in cheap and play hard and loose.

It will come to me, I have to keep trying. I am still up for the year, yet barely. Good luck at the tables.

Not About Poker But Damn Funny

Connors you sly dog you!

Little Update

I didn’t play a lot these days off. I played a little on UB, Px, and Stars. I won a little on UB and currently sit at $430. On Px I played dead even poker, but raked in $20 in rakeback, so I sit at $120. Stars. I won around $15 and am at $150. I am slowly working my way to that bonus. I still have a ways to go. I didn’t play at FT, but I have $55 there.

I took $100 off in Jan. or early Feb to start my cash roll. I just put $100 back on out of my cash roll, so that evens out.

So far this year I have netted $255. I’m not happy with that. I really need to get going if I’m going to replay last years $5,000, not to mention my lofty goal of 10,000.

The big problem is starting with such a small BR. I need to maybe take a few chances and hopefully score a few nice cashes, so I can move up stakes farther. You’re only going to make so much playing $10 and $25 tables. The problem is that the 2 times so far that I tried to risk the $50 tables I’ve taken a setback, thus diminishing the roll enough that I had to move back down to recoup.

Home Game

We had a home game again these days off. This was 1 of the 3 times that I left the house. Only 5 of us showed. It was a good time. We played from 6pm to 1:30am. Crazy play tonight. I lost 2 hands that would have made me a big winner if life was aligned with the planets. I played well. No big prs for me all night long. AK a few times.

2 big hands of the night. Sad play in both of these hands.

Hand 1 – I have A7s. AJ has Q7o. PS has 65o. All limp. 779. PS checks, AJ bets, I raise, and PS calls. Turn a 2. PS checks. AJ checks. I make a bet. PS raises me. AJ calls, as do I. River is the miracle 8. PS goes all-in for $16 more. AJ thinks awhile and also calls. I look at the board. There is a straight-draw on the board. There is also a flush-draw. The board is paired, so the boat could be lurking out in the water. With 2 already willing to put their money in, I decide to fold. I lose like $15 on the hand. But I saved the other $16 by not calling. AJ was devastated with PS’s play on the hand. He whined for a good 1/2 hr. I thought both of them played it poorly. PS playing crap. AJ calling the river with that board and me having showed aggression on the last street and still yet to act behind his call.

Hand 2 – AJ and CS. AJ raises PF with AA. CS calls with J8o. Flop comes something like T92 all hearts. AJ raises to $7 in a $4 pot because he doesn’t have a heart and wants to take it down right there. CS thinks about it and calls. His J was a heart, plus his straight-draw. Turn comes an unsuited Q. AJ bets $15. CS raises all-in for $5 or so more with his draw. AJ calls. River is a blank and CS goes home mad at his luck. I sat with him at work and explained to him how badly he played the hand and why. He still doesn’t quite understand. He has that Dealer’s Choice with wild cards mentality and likes to leave it up to luck too often. I try to help him, but he usually says that he knows what he did wrong, even though he only realizes about half of why he misplayed a hand. It is truly hard for a know-it-all to learn. I think that he is so competitive that learning is even competitive for him. It is up to him.

CS lost again - $25.

DS lost close to $40.

PS won $2.

I won $7.

AJ won close to $50.

Sleep of the Dead

I was depressed this week. I slept for 16 hrs a day on my 4 days off. I would get on to play and be done within an hr and go right back to the bedroom. Last week I ran out of my anti-depressants and I actually was energized and happy while off. Now that I renewed my script, I have zero ambition. I think I will get off of those pills and see if was mere coincidence or not. I only went outside 3 times these 4 days off and 2 of those were commitment that I couldn’t shirk. I slept right up until I had to go.

I took a hundred of my live bankroll and added to my online BR. I put it on WPEX. I have played a little there this week when I actually played. I made a little bit plus $20 in rake coming back on Monday. I also played at UB with my Bro for a few hrs. I sat 3 $50 tables. I doubled-up once, so I made $50 on UB this week.

Hopefully I get on next week and actually feel like playing.

Later depressedass out.

Mini Home Game

I played a mini-home game with just 3 others for 2 hrs or so. We had stuff to do so we didn't play long. It went fairly well. good game. I didn't win a hand for 30 min or so. No cards. I played quite a few flops, with it being short-handed, but still didn't hit any. I then turned it all around and took over the big stack. we decide to give about 20 mor in when my big hand comes. It doesn't turn out good for me though. I hit the nut flush-draw on the flop. I call a bet and hit air on the turn. I call a bigger bet. River brings my straight, but it also pairs the board. D bets, I raise, and he reraises. It wasn't much more to call, plus D over-values often. Not this time; his 2 pr becomes a boat. I lose a lot of my stack. We quit soon aften so I run out of time to try to get it back. Not a lot of money was spent because of the short time frame. Rundown below.

DS - +$13

Me - +$7

CS - -$4

PV - -$15