Back in Action

Well for awhile during football season Poker took a backseat. I have started playing more regularly again. I had my account up to a little over $180 but last around $6 last night playing various tournaments.

I have recently discovered a new bankroll builder. Pokerstars has added "recently" some double or nothing sit and gos. The structure is pretty simple, if you finish in the first 5 you double your money if not you lose. I have a very high cash rate in these tournaments. It seems for the most part people don't really know how they are supposed to play them. In this type of tournament, there is very small incentive to accumulate chips. Survival is paramount. I generally play very few hands especially early on because the risk of losing chips far outweighs my chance of winning a lot of chips. As the tournament gets closer to the bubble anyone below 5th place has to try to steal some blinds to stay alive. I play at pretty low stakes $5.00 right now and at that level people simply play too loose go crazy and knock themselves out. Patience is a big key at this level.

My wife and I recently played a live Jack and Jill tournament at Cherokee Casino here in Tulsa. This tournament is part of their Oklahoma State Poker Championship series. This was only her 2nd time to play in a live tournament but she did very well. In fact, she played far better than I did. The biggest issue that I had is I failed to adjust for all the weaker players that were in this event. The players on a whole were the weakest bunch that I have ever seen. A ton of call stations. Note to self: Do not try to bluff call stations! I eventually busted us when I pushed AKo on a Queen high flop and got called by KQ. I should have pushed pre-flop, but in this particular instance it wouldn't have mattered. I would have been called anyways.

On a happy note, my co-worker has a son that plays poker pretty seriously. The player's name is Noah Nodine. Congrats to him on winning the $340 NLH event and getting close to a $20k payday!

NCAA 09

Well I'll be honest I haven't been playing much the last couple weeks. I blame college football and NCAA 09 for the Xbox 360. I've been participating in an online dynasty with some family members. The game isn't perfect, but the online dynasty feature sure is great.

I did play a couple minor .50 tournaments last week. They both pretty much went the same. I made the money in both tournaments, but I pretty much rode the short stack the whole way and just never could catch up with the chip average. I hope to pick it back up again soon.

Last Week

Well after a really heavy poker week the week before I took it pretty easy last week. I played a few tournaments on Friday. It didn't go all that well and I came out a little behind.

We did have our almost weekly home game at my parent's house though. I won which makes it 8 out of the last 9 times for me! :)

Saturday (too much poker)

I started off the day by playing a little tournament at a local Indian casino. I was playing pretty well until the following hand came up. Blinds were at 200-400. UTG min raised too 800, I was sitting in UTG+1 with AA. I popped it up to 2500. A lady in the CO called for 2500 and UTG pushed both me and the lady called. I can't remember the actual flop but the lady pushed All-in when it came up I insta-called. The guy turned over AK, but the lady turned over K-10s of diamonds!? Of course, the flop gave her a flush draw that she hit and pretty much crippled me.

I played a lot online Saturday also, I played really really bad for a majority of the day. At one point I was like $25 down which at the stakes I play is a lot of losing. I sort of think I was on tilt from the live tournament earlier in the day. It didn't help that the first online tourney I played also say me get knocked out by having aces cracked again.

I did manage to finish the night off on a high note. I played an Omaha 8 limit tournament that had 486 players in it. I managed to get to the final table and finished 4th place for a $37.91 cash. So even after my terrible day I managed to finish ahead. The only negative to that tournament was that it ran until almost 4am. I have taken the last couple days off to avoid burnout and to rest.

Not Great

Just seemed to run pretty bad in about everything I did last night. Lost in 2-7 triple draw cash game, lost in a 2-7 triple draw cash game, failed to get anything going again in the HORSE tournament.

I even lost a heads-up no limit hold'em match against my wife. She tends to be kind of a calling station at times and doesn't really understand pot odd concepts, but she plays very aggressive which compensates for her weak areas and can make her pretty tough to play against. She does tend to overplay pairs at times, so I can usually just wait to make a big hand and let her bluff off her chips to me, but I just didn't get any big hands. It also hurt that she got AA twice on me. :)
She plays a pretty unconventional game (Not raising quality hands, lots of min raises) so it can be tricky at times and I pay her off sometimes when she has an actual hand.

I started off poorly in the nightly 2-7 Triple Draw MTT only to gain a huge chip lead that I once again blew off as the money bubble approached. Finished 19th, the tournament paid 12 spots. I was leader with about 3o left.

Things to work on:
Late tournament play
Playing against maniacs
Containing my anger
Staying patient but still aggressive.

Wednesday Night

Well, I had mixed results last night. I once again failed to get anything going in the HORSE tournament. I started off strong in the 2-7 triple draw tourney but ran number 3 into the wheel and was crippled.

I did have a decent night playing cash games and one 8-game SNG. 3 dollar profit in all last night which isn't too bad considering I spent a little more than that to play my 2 tournaments.

Treading Water

Definitely tired and not at the top of my game tonight. Played several 8-game sit-and-go's. Wound up right about even for the night. Due to fatigue, I didn't play in either of my 2 favorite tournaments tonight. (HORSE and 2-7 Triple Draw)