My wife went out of town to visit friends and I took the opportunity to visit the casino for a little live poker. I dropped her off at the airport and headed over to Harrah's in North Kansas City and settled in for a day of fun.
I bought in for $160 and took a seat at one of the 3/6 No Foldem tables. Live poker is slow ... thank god for automatic shufflers. I had one big hand that was capped preflop 4 ways. I had AA and the flop came TTT, which isn't a bad flop at all ... unless someone has a T. I capped the flop with 2 players, one of whom was an idiot ... the other was fairly tight, so I had to put him on a T, or possibly KK. I check called the turn as did the idiot. Then the worst thing happened ... the idiot check raises the guy with the Quads ... throwing his last bit of cash in the pot. I know that I have the idiot beat, but this is going to allow the other guy to 3 bet me. I called and sure enough, the guy 3 bets and flips over ATs. I wanted to reach across the table and smack the idiot. I would have laid it down, but I thought there was still a chance I was ahead, or possibly tied with another AA.
A few hands later, I am dealt rockets again and a guy flops a straight on me with 78o. Well, it's not looking too good for me at this point. I end up having to rebuy and scuffled back up to get about half of my original $160 back (down $80).
My problem is that I can't do the casino in moderation ... I spent from 10 am on Saturday morning to 7:30 am on Sunday morning sitting at the poker table. I had a blast, but it ruined my weekend, and I ended up sick ... not sure if I caught this bug there or not, but it seems likely. Fortunately, I only go about every 3 months or so.
My online game has been better of late, I've even ventured back up to 5/10 and done fairly well. The MTT game is not so good ... I keep getting sucked out on. My last tournament, I had TT in mid position and I make a 4x raise and get 3 callers. The flop is a good one ... all babies ... I make a pot sized bet and a guy re-raises me, I push in, he calls and flips over A2s ... he has bottom pair, of course he runner runner's a wheel to send me packing.
I am splitting my play at Noble Poker and Absolute Poker right now. Noble is beautiful, the players there are terrible. I have doubled my initial deposit already. They have a few interface features that I don't particularly like, but the games are really good there.
Until next time ...
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Back to Bonus Whoring
Since I was on such a bad run, I decided to go back to basics, which basically means hammering away on bonuses at predominately lower limits (2/4 and 3/6).
I cleared $120 bonus at Stars with a reasonable playing profit, mopped up a $90 bonus at Interpoker with another solid profit to boot, deposited $500 at a new site (Noble Poker) and am working on clearing the $400 bonus, took advantage of the Party March reload ($200 bonus). I have only cleared $40 of the Noble bonus, but am up about $100 at the tables; and am almost done with the Party bonus and am up another $100.
I've decided that my game doesn't need fixing after all. I have been playing seriously for well over a year and have made consistent profits for almost that entire time. This poor stretch was (I believe) an anomaly, although poor stretches are inevitable. I just hope my next one is not as bad as the last one was. That said, there were definitely some instances of tilting, which is highly unusual for me.
There remains the possibility that I am more than capable of beating the lower limits, and struggle at 5/10; however, I don't believe this to be the case. The play is definitely better at 5/10, but I don't feel I am out of my league. In fact, prior to this terrible stretch, I was consistently beating 5/10 as well.
Perhaps in early April, I will jump back into 5/10 and not worry so much about bonuses.
Definitely happy that my game is back on track.
I cleared $120 bonus at Stars with a reasonable playing profit, mopped up a $90 bonus at Interpoker with another solid profit to boot, deposited $500 at a new site (Noble Poker) and am working on clearing the $400 bonus, took advantage of the Party March reload ($200 bonus). I have only cleared $40 of the Noble bonus, but am up about $100 at the tables; and am almost done with the Party bonus and am up another $100.
I've decided that my game doesn't need fixing after all. I have been playing seriously for well over a year and have made consistent profits for almost that entire time. This poor stretch was (I believe) an anomaly, although poor stretches are inevitable. I just hope my next one is not as bad as the last one was. That said, there were definitely some instances of tilting, which is highly unusual for me.
There remains the possibility that I am more than capable of beating the lower limits, and struggle at 5/10; however, I don't believe this to be the case. The play is definitely better at 5/10, but I don't feel I am out of my league. In fact, prior to this terrible stretch, I was consistently beating 5/10 as well.
Perhaps in early April, I will jump back into 5/10 and not worry so much about bonuses.
Definitely happy that my game is back on track.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
My first really bad run
I am in the midst of my first run of cards that is truly terrible, and it has caused me to seriously question whether I have been playing too aggressively.
Fortunately, I have been smart and haven't moved up in limits too fast for my bankroll, otherwise this could have crushed me.
My downswing can be explained by variance, but this is at the outter edges of negative variance from what I have been told. I did catch myself paying off a few hands I had no business calling the river with, but other than that I don't think my play was overly poor. I also was playing quite a bit shorthanded, and the variance shorthanded can be extreme. For now, I am swearing off shorthanded until I get my feet back underneath me.
I like to play extremely aggressively whenever I make a preflop raise, and it has been a recipe for disaster during this run. I do know that losing begets losing. If you showdown some second best hands, people are going to be a lot more apt to chase a few draws on you, and to call you down when they catch a small piece of the flop if it appears overcards would have missed.
I also was attempting to play 3 tables (usually 2 5/10 and 1 3/6), and I have decided that if I am going to continue at 5/10, I will need to cut back to two. I played a short session tonight and turned a decent profit, so I am hoping that my run has ended.
Honestly, I knew this would come ... I've had an incredible amount of luck this last year at the tables (combined with what I think is some degree of skill). Lady luck can't always smile on you ... here's hoping she doesn't decide to continue crapping on me!
I also played a 30+3 multi ... down to 91 players and I had a relatively short stack in the BB with AKo, a very short stack goes all in from midposition (about 2.5x the blind). The SB calls (big stack). I check my options, an all in would put only about 1.5x the blind more into the pot, and the big stack would be almost sure to call. I decide that I have a better chance at getting him to fold with an all in on the flop if he doesn't connect with it and I will be pot committed regardless, so I just call.
The flop comes Axx with 2 clubs, SB checks, and I push all in. SB immediately calls with 89 of clubs. Needless to say, he caught his flush on the river. I'm not sure that considering my stack size that I could have done anything differently, just bad luck. I suppose I could have checked the flop and pushed in on the turn ... but giving a free card is just not good poker there.
I would have nearly tripled up there and would probably have made the money, although I would have a lot of work to do to make a serious run for some good cash.
My big MTT pay out is coming, I just have to be patient.
Fortunately, I have been smart and haven't moved up in limits too fast for my bankroll, otherwise this could have crushed me.
My downswing can be explained by variance, but this is at the outter edges of negative variance from what I have been told. I did catch myself paying off a few hands I had no business calling the river with, but other than that I don't think my play was overly poor. I also was playing quite a bit shorthanded, and the variance shorthanded can be extreme. For now, I am swearing off shorthanded until I get my feet back underneath me.
I like to play extremely aggressively whenever I make a preflop raise, and it has been a recipe for disaster during this run. I do know that losing begets losing. If you showdown some second best hands, people are going to be a lot more apt to chase a few draws on you, and to call you down when they catch a small piece of the flop if it appears overcards would have missed.
I also was attempting to play 3 tables (usually 2 5/10 and 1 3/6), and I have decided that if I am going to continue at 5/10, I will need to cut back to two. I played a short session tonight and turned a decent profit, so I am hoping that my run has ended.
Honestly, I knew this would come ... I've had an incredible amount of luck this last year at the tables (combined with what I think is some degree of skill). Lady luck can't always smile on you ... here's hoping she doesn't decide to continue crapping on me!
I also played a 30+3 multi ... down to 91 players and I had a relatively short stack in the BB with AKo, a very short stack goes all in from midposition (about 2.5x the blind). The SB calls (big stack). I check my options, an all in would put only about 1.5x the blind more into the pot, and the big stack would be almost sure to call. I decide that I have a better chance at getting him to fold with an all in on the flop if he doesn't connect with it and I will be pot committed regardless, so I just call.
The flop comes Axx with 2 clubs, SB checks, and I push all in. SB immediately calls with 89 of clubs. Needless to say, he caught his flush on the river. I'm not sure that considering my stack size that I could have done anything differently, just bad luck. I suppose I could have checked the flop and pushed in on the turn ... but giving a free card is just not good poker there.
I would have nearly tripled up there and would probably have made the money, although I would have a lot of work to do to make a serious run for some good cash.
My big MTT pay out is coming, I just have to be patient.
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