Poker: Love it or Hate it

Right now I'm hating it. Ugh, What a day! I started out the day ready to go get em. I played $1-$2 no limit for a while and started out great. I especially pissed this guy off when he threw out a $100 bluff on the river, and after deliberting it, I called with a mere pair of 8's. It felt like a bluff so I went with my gut and I was right. It was all downhill from there.

Later against the same guy I called a preflop raise from him with 67. The flop came AQ6. He started to check out of turn and I read him as missing the flop. I turned a 7 and led out $30. He min raised and I called. The river was a blank and I bet $50. Then all hell broke loose when he shoved all in. Just then I thought, did he slow play a big hand like AQ or AA? I really didn't give hime much credit after the earlier bluff, and quite frankly I thought he was kinda dumb. Add to that the fact that I read bhim as weak on the flop and you have a formula for disaster. I called with my 2 pair and he, the classless jackass that he was, said, "Well I guess you got me cuz all I have is three A's." I paid out the pot saying, "That's a good hand, but there's no need to be a smartass about it." A couple of other players commented on his being a jerk too. I brushed it off, rebought and moved further into poker hell.

Later I called $12 from position with 89. The flop came K89. The preflop raiser bet $60. I loved that bet and wanted him to pour more money into the pot so I called. The turn was a Qc putting 2 clubs on the board. He bet $90. Again, I knew I had the best hand so I called... and let him get there. Yep, the river was a club. He had AcKc for the nuts and I couldn't get away from the hand. Crap! The only thing I could have done differently was to push on the flop and take the hand down there, but I felt like I was far in the lead so I let him bet his way into a perfect turn, perfect river, winner.

Then I played a hand where I flopped open-ended, turned a straight, and my opponent rivered a full house. That's when I quit. So sick, my day at no limit. I feel like I suck. So I went on to play the $345 Mixed game event on the WSOP circuit in New Orleans. I found out that I'm pretty good at all the games except PLO. So for PLO, I tried to take a walk and miss most of the 8 hands. Anyway, I made it halfway through the field of 60+ players to about 30th place. I nursed a short stack after I crippled myself in the very first round of PLO. In the end, I was card dead for Razz, and finally picked a 456 in stud to stick my money in. I ended up missing the straight and catching 2 pair 6's & 4's which was not enough to hold on.

I've really tried to play my best (except for Pot Limit Omaha), but I'm feeling like a loser. All this losing really does that to you. Poker can be so cruel, and when you are runnign good and playing good you feel like a god. But when you go home with nothing to show for your efforts (good play or not) you feel like the scum that costes the inside of the gutter. I need one of grandma's tranquilizers so I can blow it all off.  Tomorrow, I'll need to get back to my real job before poker breaks my heart and my bank.

Hand Analysis in NOLA

So I played the NoLimit in New Orleans yesterday fro $555. Here's how a few of my hands played out.

57s SB. Limped pot. QdT7d. Lead out. BB raises, a player calls, I call.

Turn: 7. Check. BB bets. Other player calls. I raise, big. BB folds. Other player calls. 3d river. I bet 2200. Insta call from other player. He has AQ. I win. (BB had 73 and would have won) What's interesting to me is that I'm surprised the AQ called. When I made the check raise at the paired board from the blind I said to myself, "I shouldn't have done that. It's so obvious that I have a 7. What can they call with but a better hand or a diamond draw." It worked out though because the 7 with no kicker (who would've filled up on the river) folded and I was left with a donkey caller.

EP raise from a weak player. I call with ATs. I know he raises weak hands. Flop Q9d8d. He bet 600. I call. Turn blank. He bet 600. I call. J on the river. He bet 1100. I raise to 3k. He calls. I win. I knew that I was drawing to a gut shot, but there was the possibility that my A high was good enough to win and I figured if an A came I would win, so I counted on more outs than just the J. Of course when the hands went face up, the other guy had something like Q7 suited. I can't believe he donked off another 2k+ on the river when I raised him! And I can't beleive that this donkey made it to the final 20 players in the tournament! Ugh! Especially when I'm watching from the rail.

Ad3d SB. There's a smallish raise. 2 callers. I call. Flop is 873. I check. Preflop riaser bets. I call. Others fold. Turn 3. I check. He bets 3k. I call. River is a blank. I check. He has 3k left but checks. I win. This hand was most interesting because I sent this guy on tilt. I checked the river thinking that he'd fire a third barrell and I'd get him all in. He bet something like 2 or 3k on the turn and left himself with just 3k so I felt he was pot committed and willing to bet the river. Anyway, I missed a bet here.

The game changed a little and I started finding myself with good hands running into better hands. I had a spot where I could have called all-in as a 60% favorite but instead opted to fold. In a cash game I would have called in a heartbeat, but in a tournament my hand was a drawing hand. Me: TsJs. Board: 8c6s9s. Here are my 15 outs: 7h7d7s7cQdQhQsQc2s3s4s5s8sKsAs. I tbhought that I might be up against AK so I raised his flop bet instead of flat calling like I should have done. He then shoved all-in and I, after much debate, folded. I believe he had AA on that hand and I had to hit or go home.

Later I picked up AT. The player on my right raised and I kn ow he's been raising a lot. I sbhould have reraised him preflop, but I didn't. The flop came 57T. He lead out and, again, I should have raised him, but I didn't and I just smooth called. The turn was a 5 and he checked. I shoved all in and he snap called with 5d2d to eliminate me from the tournament.

That was my day in the tournament. There were other bands in the sitngos and in the cash game that are woth discussing, but my fingers are  tired. Suffice it to say that I won my buyin back before the day was out. See ya'll later!

WSOP in NOLA

This week is the final stop of the World Series of Poker Circuit events, and their final stop brings the WSOP close to home. It's been a while since my last big cash and I'm feeling a littlew down about my poker lately. Yesterday we went to scope out the action. The $1-$2 NL game was it's typical Donkey-laiden game and I dumped $300 into the hands of the donkeys there. I chose not to rebuy when my pocket QQ's were cracked by 83 off suit. Then I played a single table sit n go for $125. The final 3 of us chopped. I got $300. Player 2 got $300. And the chip leader took $500. I played another $125 sng and ran my AK into donekys twice and finally lost my chips. I'm not sure I understand some of these guys strategies with the sng's, but I think we'd all do better if they didn't push donkey hands too early.

I won the rest of my money for the night at a 3 card poker table game machine! Go figure. At first I didn't realize that 1=$5 so when I though I was betting $15 I was actually betting $75 per hand! Whoa! So without knowing what was going on I turned $120 into $270 in a snap. I played it 2 more times before leaving for the night. Both times I turned $100 into $300. So for the night I was $300 ahead.

I'm finally ready. I've spent the last 24 hours with visualizations, watching poker videos, and handling life maintenance. I feel like I'm ready for the $550 tomorrow. I'm ready to be on my game and to win that tournament!

Poker at the IP

Well, we've been at the IP in Biloxi for a few days. I'd need to look at a calendar to say how long. I'm dead tired and all my days are running together. Friday (I think) we left Baton Rouge at 4:45pm to drive to Biloxi (2 hrs 15 mins away) to make the last cash tourney in their week of events at 7pm. We arrived at 6:50 and made it into the T. Me? I ran bad. Mom? She ran great! At 2:30am (nearly 24 hours after she had woke up) she chopped to cash $1725 six ways in the T.  Off to bed.

Day 2: We hit the noon tourney which was a free entry with $20 rebuys and an optional single or double addon for $30 each to try to win a $10k seat into the WSOP. The rebuys & addons went to pay entries into a $100 tourney at 8pm. So I played on a super weak table that gave me a chance to see lots of cheap flops. After running into Aces twice I ended up pouring $80 in rebuys into this stupid tournament and then I hit a rush. I started flopping 2 pair and hitting underpairs for sets to knock out player after player. Then I went card dead and with the blinds and antes rapidly increasing in this turbo I ended up going out after the break after adding another $60 for my double addon.  I won the stupid seat into the 8pm T but no wsop seat.

The $100 tourney was another rebuy and I planned NO rebuys. It was to win a seat into the $2250 main event for the next day. I was out in 5 hands or less. All I can say is that I got it in good and lost.

At 8pm Mom bought into the $340 to win a seat into the $2250 tourney. 7 people won seats. Mom was one of them. Then they continued to play it out to win the one seat to the WSOP. At 4am Mom got knocked out in 3rd.

Next Day: Me? Still totally card dead. Mom? Played in the $2250 T and as I write this she is chip leader ir second chip leader with 5 people left. She'll cash somewhere in the range of $2000 - $37539.

Go Mom! At least I get see what it looks like to win!