Archive for February, 2008
I Tilted
Hey all, It has been a little bit since my last post. I have been working my way back from the worst poker week in my life. In about three or four days of play I lost about 200 big bets ($400), which is almost 30% of my online roll. It started off with a bad run of luck which I then chose to compound with bad play. I think I won four of fourteen hands with Aces and Kings, and people were constantly calling my flop bets with overcards and spiking a six-outer on the turn or river. It seemed like I could not win a pot.
In the groove…
I’ve been settling in nicely playing poker. My bankroll keeps growing slowly, but surely online. I play about 200-300 hands every day, which isn’t much, but, hey with a toddler and work, it’s all I can mange right now. I feel I’m getting the right reads of people and suddenly can shake off the bad beats easily. I mean, I scream at the monitor, but the next hand I’m in the groove again. I just gotta be careful to not get too complacent. So not much going on regarding “teh poker”. I still gotta make it to Commerce again, but life is too busy right now… 
Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
Slipping into the Dark Side:
I have written a lot about my desire to play more cash games; I should say play cash games at a profit. I have tried many times and usually became an ATM for all my opponents. I can almost her them say “Here comes loser64, let’s get him at out table”. I was always assured to play until I went broke, usually more then one time at a table.
I have been pretty successful playing Sit n Go’s and have had my moments in MTT’s. Cash games were another story. So what has changed?
There are two things:
Sweat me baby Sweat me
Okay, so here is the big step up in levels. Moving up from 3$ rebuy’s to 10$ MTT.
The game is a foot and we shall see how I fare. I’ll be posting the key hands here…
On the road to the SuperNova
So where to begin. Poker has treated me pretty well lately. I devoted a great deal of time recently relearning the game - I’ve donated a lot over the years and think I am ready to shed the donkey/fish in me and start to be known as a bit of a predator - at least at the penny games…lol. The Bankroll is definitely on the rise…and I hope my last is deposit behind me.
I played What? Razz what the hell is Razz?
It was an interesting weekend. Took some brutal hits, and dang near bubbled every Sit-N-GO I played. The cash games started off rough, On Friday I was playing on 43 tables. With in 2 minutes I was dealt QQ and lost to AA then to a Set J’s. (the Jacks felted me).
Overcoming bad beats (part I)
We all know about bad beats. But why exactly are they so difficult for us to deal with? Perhaps the answer lies in our “expectation.”
Why do you bet?
What do you expect to accomplish by betting? Just one of three things: (1) you can get a better hand to fold; (2) you can get a worse hand to call; or (3) you can protect the best hand. If you can’t accomplish any of these things, you should not be betting.
- Chris Ferguson, Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide, p. 118
This may seem like a self-evident question, but why do you bet in a cash game? Usually the answer is pretty vague: “to take down the pot” or “to push my draw hard.” I like Ferguson’s typology of why to bet, because it points out a few situations where you should not be betting no matter what. He mentions this particular one in his chapter:
Where are you LEAST likely to be cheated in poker?
Like many people, I started playing poker with the goal of playing big MTTs. The drama and prize money of the World Series. I wanted to come from nowhere and make a deep run in the big-money tournaments, a la Moneymaker, Raymer and McManus. (Here’s a long post from my previous blog about my captivation with Jim McManus’ experience - I’m sure AmarilloSB can relate to that…)
However, after a year of playing poker, I’ve switched almost exclusively to cash game play. I may play a Sit and Go now and then but it’s just for fun, I don’t consider them a part of my bankroll building strategy at all.
Whatcha Listenin’ To Over There?
Had a post over on Hard-Boiled Poker today where I wrote a bit about musical tastes perhaps reflecting personality in some fashion. There are some poker pros who are semi-known for their musical preferences. Barbara Enright, the first woman ever elected to the Poker Hall of Fame (last July), is a huge fan of fifties doo-wop. Doyle Brunson likes country (big surprise). Annie Duke likes the White Stripes.
Then there’s Phil Hellmuth, who likes to drop references to Eminem into his CardPlayer articles. We know better than that, though. I mean look at the last lines of Play Poker Like the Pros, where the Greatest Hold ’em Player on the Planet tells us he really likes to jam out to Hootie and the Blowfish.
