Poker: Winning, Losing, Winning, Losing AND Focus

Well, I haven't written in a while. It's because I just get more depressed when I lose and then write a blog about losing. Ugh. But since I feel the need to be honest with myself (and possibly whoever else might be reading), I'll go ahead and note my failures and successes so far.

Since my last writing, I went to Memphis for a funeral. Of course, being poker players, we stopped in Tunica for a couple days on the way back. I BLEW through $600 in 3 days. Now, I know many people BLOW through much more money in a much shorter time frame. And maybe I didn't do all THAT bad since I only lost $600 in 3 days, but I sure did FEEL like a big fat L O S E R.  So here's what happened. I started with some good old fashioned $1-$5 7 Card Stud. I used to LOVE that game. But I never remember it being such small stakes. I did "ok" in the Stud, but I kept getting antsy. I'm just not used to a game with $10 pots.

So I switched to $1-$3 No Limit Holdem for a little and couldn't do any good. Well, I was doing pretty good. I had a nut straight on the turn and managed to get my opponent all in. He had pocket QQ's and managed to spike a 3-outer on the river to suck all the life out of my stack with his K high straight.  The next day I played in a $70 tournament at 11a.  We got to the final table. With 6 of us left and 4 players getting paid, my mom moved all in. I looked down at AK.  Ugh.  Now what? Well, if another player had moved all-in here, I might fold. I'd already folded an AQ preflop to a super tight player. And Mom is pretty tight - much tighter than me. The thing is that my stack is "decent". It aint great. But no one has a "great" stack because of the tournament structure. First place pays only $450.  2nd = $250, 3rd =$200, 4th=$100.  If someone else behind me calls and knocks her out, I'll be upset that I laid down the AK.  I figure that if I go all in over the top of her no one else will call and at the very least, one of us will be a MONSTER chip leader in a tournament where everyone is short stacked. The truth is that I do want one of us to win. It's not really collusion, but I would lay down the AK here and pick a better spot to chip up rather than risking 95% of my stack if it's anyone else. I push. All else fold. She turns over AQ and is instantly crushed. Then a Q hits on the turn.  Two hands later, Mom knocks me and another player out in one hand to take the tournament down to 4 players. They chop and Mom takes $400 away from that tournament.

Later in the day, we play in another $75 Tournament. I become a monster stack early on when I flop a flush and get a guy with pocket AA's all in and drawing dead against me. But a dumb donkey gets drunk at my table and starts playing any two cards. It's weird. When she felt like playing a flop she did no matter what the cost.  Which wouldn't be so bad except that she was smack ass LUCKY too!  There were no opportunities to take down blinds and antes. My stack started to dwindle down. I made the final table, but again only 6 places were paid and my stack was super short. Mom made the money again and they all agreed to a chop of $300 a peice when they got 4 handed. The dummy was a monster chip leader and I figure too dumb to know that she could have gotten herself a better deal. And the rest of the players were smart enough to recognize that dumb and lucky were a hard combination to beat so they all readily agreed to the chop.

But that's two T's I walked away from with nothing. I played a little more stud and won about $20 or $40 bucks.  Then went into a wild and crazy $4-$8 game. I played my first hand blind and won a huge pot with 72. I guess I should have played all my hands blind because all of the rest of my hands I could see and all of them lost.. pocket pairs, AKs, AJ, AQ, ugh ugh ugh... again I went to bed a loser.

So, I didn't want to blog about that weekend. I've been playing on PokerStars since I got home. I play mostly small tournaments. Nothing bigger than $11 buyins.  I've been winning a little. Won a Pot Limit Badugi Tournament for about $30 and some change. Won a pot limit 5 card draw tournament to gain an entry into one of the SCOOP tournaments.  Cashed in a $11 deep stacks tournament.  And that's after losing most of my stack and getting below $300 in chips EARLY in the tournament. I had to go show a house in the middle of the tournament. I built my $300 stack up to $20,000+ then lost down to $9000 and called Mom to play for my while I showed. She go the stack back up to $22,000+. Then I got tired and accidentally clicked "raise" when I meant to "click" fold.  So anyway, I went out in the money and cashed about $21.

And as I write this I'm in a $2.20 NL $4k Guarantee and doing fairly well. Ever since I started playing under the assumption that all of my opponents are complete and total donkeys, I've been doing much better.  I now know to fold my hand when they make some stupid raise or stupid all-in on the river and hit their miracle card. I have set my level of expectations from my PokerStars opponents very low and it's made it much easier for me to fold a hand. I've learned that the big bet they make on the river isn't usually a bluff. It usually meant they were a HUGE dog the whole way and went card card to hit some stupid miracle hand.

Yes, I know I'm cynical, but it's working for me so I'm gonna hold on to my cynicism.  See ya'll later.

Oh, one more thing. I know that Annette Oberestad wants to be known as the best female player in the world. Frankly, that's my goal too. So, here I am putting it out into the universe. In a perfect world, I'll win a seat into the 2010 WSOP main event.  And in the end it'll be me and Annette playing for the bracelet.  And, of course, I'll wipe the table clean with her!  No offense, Annette! You're a great player. I just want to be better than you and some proof of it too!