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1. Tilt Control
Good job last night. Donked twice into a newbie with 3rd pair, he called down with top pair/bad kicker. Lesson learned on his play, not upset, would win it back later. Got a river bluff called - by ace-high! Congratulated villain on the call and meant it. Lost $18 when another villain checked top pair on K high flop then value bet twice vs. me holding queens. I paid it off, and once again complimented villain on the flop check. Meant it again. I don't begrudge players who play well, so I guess my opportunity for tilt wasn't very great. (I tend to tilt more when I lose to someone who played a hand poorly).
2. Look for opportunities.
Not many last night, but I made the most of them. Played my big pairs hard and got paid off. Punished limpers light (but not too light). Checkraised bottom pair + flush draw and got a fold. I didn't 3bet one time last night - I would like work one in for every session. I had one AK I could have 3bet, as it turns out flatting was the more overall +EV play vs. his exact holding (though I lost the hand, d'oh). We'll call this a B.
3. No big mistakes.
Grade A- here. All losses were acceptable. Lost the minimum with two pair from the blinds. No draws to chase unprofitably. I don't consider bluffing against ace-high and getting a hero call a mistake, or putting a new player to the test with a double barrel bet. Some mistakes made, but not big ones.
Overall, a fine session, and half-a-buyin to show for it.
Trying out these "Double Up" tourneys - 10 players, top 5 get double their buy-in. Strategy is to play uber-tight early, and then there's a bubble with 6 left. My push-fold-fu is weak right now, but this was an easy one.
Game #34839524-67: $3 NL Holdem Double Up - 10 Handed - 200.00/400.00
Seat #3: Fifthstbum, $2860.00
Seat #4: cherrybomb5, $765.00
Seat #5: Shr3dd3rRr (D), $3275.00
Seat #6: 777deuced (SB), $1665.00
Seat #8: taglius (BB), $2248.00
Seat #9: CaseyBRaisen, $3497.00
One player left until we're in the money, and he's got less than 2 big blinds left.
*** Blinds ***
777deuced posts the small blind of 200.00
taglius posts the big blind of 400.00
*** Pre-Flop ***
taglius got hole cards [ Jd 6c ]
CaseyBRaisen folds
Fifthstbum folds
cherrybomb5 folds
Shr3dd3rRr raises with 945.00
777deuced folds
taglius goes all-in with 2248.00
Shr3dd3rRr folds
taglius mucks [ Jd 6c ]
taglius wins 3883.00
The button has been stealing the past 2 orbits or so, but there's no way he can call here without a major premium hand. Jack-six takes the money. The shorty busts out one hand later.
I've played 4 of these so far, winning 2 and losing 2, so I'm not beating the rake yet. They're pretty boring, but I suppose I could go on auto-pilot and play like 8 of them at once.
The silliness of poker shows itself in full force during the 1 table sit-n-go. Last night, every time I made a raise, a short stack shoved over me, but giving me odds to call. 3 times, I was in big trouble on the flop and sucked out to win twice. I also flopped hard while heads up and took the tourney down.
Tonight, I got heads up with a bad player who always flopped something. He folded exactly one time in the heads up match - the time I was holding pocket kings. He was a nonbeliever when I had nothing and folded lightning quick when I had a hand I was ready to go with. He guessed right every time including the last time, so I took second in that one.
I'm back above even in my Lock Poker bankroll, by a couple bucks.
I'm experimenting with different types of games on Lock Poker, since the low-stakes cash games seem to be so nitty and boring.
Tonight I tried "Double Up" tournaments, where 10 players start at a table, and the top 5 finishers double their buy-in.
What a snooze-fest. The correct strategy in these tourneys are to play super tight and wait for a hand (TT+/AQ, pretty much), and then start the push/fold game when the blinds get correctly high.
I played 2 Double Up tourneys tonight, losing one and winning another. They were dreadfully boring.
No luck yet. I did finally win a big pot tonight (60BB), but I lost a ton of 20-30s - including at least 3 where I was 3-5-outted on the turn or river. In fact, my three biggest losing pots of the night were suckouts of this nature.
So I'm playing fine, just the poker gods having some fun with me. They can kiss my butt.
I don't think I had 3 losing sessions in a row in the past three months. Maybe Lock's doomswitch is on by default for new players. Not a good marketing ploy, guys.
No spew tonight. Still a losing session, but a minor one. I don't think I had top pair all night.
499 hands so far on my new site. My numbers look to be ok overall. Preflop raise is a little low, gotta watch that. My went to showdown is REALLY low - indicative of just not having any cards, but when I get there, I'm winning 56% of the time.
Today I was able to successfully make a deposit on one of the smaller online poker sites. My hobby is restored, and I'm pretty happy about it.
In my first night back, I donked off 145 big blinds - 100 of it on a single foolish hand. I will attribute it to a combination of unfamiliar surroundings, rust, and a tiny bit of tilt vs. a bad player. I'm playing a ridiculously low buy-ins right now, so my buy-in basically covered the cost of a Starbucks latte (that might have been part of the reason for the poor play as well). I'm not concerned.
In other news, something odd has happened recently on the poker writing side of my little hobby. In short, I have lost my motivation to write about the game, but I'm not sure why. I just came back from a 2 day poker trip full of the usual crazy stories of hands and opponents, but I have no motivation to tell the tales right now.
Perhaps it's a temporary thing. Perhaps all the Black Friday stuff disheartened me and removed my motivation. Or, perhaps I've played enough hours of this game that the "uniqueness" of wiping out a fish or mentally working through a downswing or outplaying a solid player are no longer "newsworthy" in my eyes.
It remains to be seen. I'm certainly not ready to sign off forever - I'm sure there will be some occasional topics I'll want to share. But at the moment, I don't think I'll be sharing on a daily basis. My more recent posts are crappy and uninspired, and I don't think it's worth the effort for me, and certainly not for the few of you reading.
Ta ta for now.
Tony and I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Rivers casino in Pittsburgh, PA this weekend.
I like the casino and poker room in general. It seems well-run. Food was good. My tables were friendly.
My poker experience was nothing to write home about. My table for most of Saturday night was too talented overall to win any money. A few bad players hopped in and out for a couple hours and left. My biggest mistake of the trip was not leaving this table - Tony was sitting elsewhere with drunks and calling stations and having a grand old time. My night was a marathon grind that left my head pounding and my mental faculties drained.
And I ended up with very few hands. I had pocket aces 4 times on the trip - only one time did I get a call preflop, and that player folded on a uber-dry ten-high flop. I made a nice squeeze with pocket kings to take down $50 preflop. I flopped zero sets. Pocket kings get two callers and they both outflop me (AT and 22, 22 hits a set, AT hits an ace). I am disciplined enough to keep folding, folding, folding - I lose the minimum on these hands, but didn't have too many chances to win it back.
My biggest hand of the trip was a little four-five suited that hit two pair on the flop, a flush draw on the turn, and a baby-boat on the river. Even then, an aggressive player bombed the river and put me all in - I thought for sure I was going to see a bigger full house, but I think my opponent just decided to represent the hand I was holding. A lucky double-up kept me close to even.
Because I was up against a better overall class of players, I felt like I had to make some moves, and almost none of these worked out for me. I knew I was in trouble when I stabbed and an innocuous-looking 8-2-2 flop with ace-high, and got raised and then reraised. One player had pocket eights, then other had king-deuce. So much for innocuous! I raised one button against limpers with a weak hand - 86s, then had to show it down to a player who called anyway with king-six and flopped two pair. After showing that hand down, nobody believed a thing I did anymore, and I never hit the real hand to make them pay.
My stacked bobbed between down $150 and up $25, and we called it a night after 11 hours of poker with me up a stunning ten dollars. With my cards, I was ecstatic to be in the green by even 1 big blind.
