Countdown to Vegas! Leaving Thursday night, will update frequently.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
More Sat wins and HU losses
So after the last post I was planning to focus more on tournies online and stay away from the cash games for a while. That def. did not happen this weekend.
I decide to fire up FTP in bed at like midnight Friday night (bad idea), I register for two 90man knockout Sit n Gos ($12 and $24) and a $50+5 MTT with 265 runners. An hour later I'm doing well in all three with a couple knockouts in each of the smaller events and top 25 in the other one. Well at 2:30AM I lose all tilt control and after getting 2-outed with one card to come for 90% of my stack in the $24KO I start spewing chips. I'm quickly busted from the othe KO when I open shove (M=12) from the cutoff with KJos and get called by pocket 5s. I lose half my stack in the $50 before settling down and starting to fold a couple hands preflop. Now its past three and I'm barely keeping my eyes open; at one of the breaks I fell asleep and if I hadn't left the volume on I would have slept through the rest of the event.
I steal a few blinds and take out one short stack and move into the top 15 with 80 left. Here is where I make the fatal error; I stop playing and wait for good cards that never come. I guess I was afraid that because I was so tired I would probably misplay any marginal hand so I should wait for some premium hands. I really f-ed that one up; I steadily moved down the leaderboard lost a coinflip agains a small stack and I was 34/50. Now I have like 7800 chips, blinds are 400-800 with a 50 ante (i think, it was late) I'm in UTG+1 with 66. You would think I should push and pray or fold...nope, I raise to 1800, folds around to the BB who makes it 4800 and I FOLD!!??! WTF? Now I am UTG and am dealt AQsuited, I shove and get called by the SB who has KK. Note to self: Don't play tired, (I guarantee I break this soon). Cue monkey tilt.. straight to HU NL and lose two buyins at 50NL, move up and lose another $150 at 100NL. Think about moving up with the rest of my FTP account balance, make my only good decision of the night and go to sleep.
The very next night I found myself with some free time and decided to play again but strictly tourneys. Started in a $6.50 4-man HU shootout, and a $6.50 9man both prizes were $26 tokens. Busted the 9man early and took down the shootout pretty easily. My first opponent was super passive and folded to most of my 3-bets preflop, I took most of his chips when I flopped 2-pair, c-bet he called, check raised the turn and he folded. The next match was longer with more lead changes but the opponent folded too much IMO, can't remember any hands must have been a boring match.
Took the $26 token and parlayed that into a $75 token in another sit n go. I considered entering another MTT but after the last night I doubted my ability to stay focused long enough. Instead I played a 6man single table sat for entry to FTOPs event #1. Sitting across from me was Scott Fischman, no bounty for sit and gos but I thought it would be pretty cool to bust him anyway. Here are all the hands from the tourney; cliff notes: I took a bad beat and lost most of my chips, didn't tilt it away, ended up taking Scott out on my second try and won my seat.
Hands will be added when I get home.
I decide to fire up FTP in bed at like midnight Friday night (bad idea), I register for two 90man knockout Sit n Gos ($12 and $24) and a $50+5 MTT with 265 runners. An hour later I'm doing well in all three with a couple knockouts in each of the smaller events and top 25 in the other one. Well at 2:30AM I lose all tilt control and after getting 2-outed with one card to come for 90% of my stack in the $24KO I start spewing chips. I'm quickly busted from the othe KO when I open shove (M=12) from the cutoff with KJos and get called by pocket 5s. I lose half my stack in the $50 before settling down and starting to fold a couple hands preflop. Now its past three and I'm barely keeping my eyes open; at one of the breaks I fell asleep and if I hadn't left the volume on I would have slept through the rest of the event.
I steal a few blinds and take out one short stack and move into the top 15 with 80 left. Here is where I make the fatal error; I stop playing and wait for good cards that never come. I guess I was afraid that because I was so tired I would probably misplay any marginal hand so I should wait for some premium hands. I really f-ed that one up; I steadily moved down the leaderboard lost a coinflip agains a small stack and I was 34/50. Now I have like 7800 chips, blinds are 400-800 with a 50 ante (i think, it was late) I'm in UTG+1 with 66. You would think I should push and pray or fold...nope, I raise to 1800, folds around to the BB who makes it 4800 and I FOLD!!??! WTF? Now I am UTG and am dealt AQsuited, I shove and get called by the SB who has KK. Note to self: Don't play tired, (I guarantee I break this soon). Cue monkey tilt.. straight to HU NL and lose two buyins at 50NL, move up and lose another $150 at 100NL. Think about moving up with the rest of my FTP account balance, make my only good decision of the night and go to sleep.
The very next night I found myself with some free time and decided to play again but strictly tourneys. Started in a $6.50 4-man HU shootout, and a $6.50 9man both prizes were $26 tokens. Busted the 9man early and took down the shootout pretty easily. My first opponent was super passive and folded to most of my 3-bets preflop, I took most of his chips when I flopped 2-pair, c-bet he called, check raised the turn and he folded. The next match was longer with more lead changes but the opponent folded too much IMO, can't remember any hands must have been a boring match.
Took the $26 token and parlayed that into a $75 token in another sit n go. I considered entering another MTT but after the last night I doubted my ability to stay focused long enough. Instead I played a 6man single table sat for entry to FTOPs event #1. Sitting across from me was Scott Fischman, no bounty for sit and gos but I thought it would be pretty cool to bust him anyway. Here are all the hands from the tourney; cliff notes: I took a bad beat and lost most of my chips, didn't tilt it away, ended up taking Scott out on my second try and won my seat.
Hands will be added when I get home.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Online tourneys and heads-up cash
I played a bit on Full Tilt the other night and had a mix of success and utter failure. I played a couple tourneys and at the same time a couple tables of heads-up cash.
I got smoked in the cash games, losing 2-3 buyins pretty quickly, it seems to follow the same pattern with me and these games lately: I play solid for a while, get coolered once and get crazy-aggro. I was in a 3-bet pot with AQ, flop Q82 I bet he calls. Turn is a 6, we get stacks in, he has A6, river 6. I then get it in preflop with 99 vs KJ lose, AK vs AJ chop, A10 vs 22 lose. I don't have the tilt-control for heads-up cash.
On the tourney side things went a bit better, I registered for what I thought was a $100 turbo, but it was a super turbo where you start with 300chips, wtf? After that I got in a couple 4-man heads up shootouts, lost one $22 and won a $22 and an $11. Went deep in a $12 - 90man knockout didn't cash but won enough off knockouts to break even. I think I also took 2nd in an $11 single table before my big score of the evening. I've missed the 150 seat guarantee the last two years and this year I was making a point to play it. I played a $26 sat with 40ish people, payed $76, 100, 177, Seat. Ship it!
I chipped up early and sat around until we were down to two tables. People tightened up so much nearing the final table I started stealing like crazy. I had perfect position with the big stack on my right and two small stacks on my left. Anytime the big stack folded to me I pushed, the only time I got called was for 30% of my chips I had 52clubs vs A7, flopped a 2 and it held up. I was now nearing the chip lead as we got down to 9 players. When we got down to 6 I stole a bunch more with two short stacks trying to min-cash. With three left I had half the chips on the table, I went into heads up with a 3.5-1 chip lead, lost a big post to get close to even then ran away with it.
Felt pretty good especially after donating in the cash games. Not sure if online is my thing, I've had really mixed results. In college I did pretty well and cashed out a bunch, lately I've taken my account up to a couple thousand then blow it down to $200 or so, rebuild and repeat. I definitely don't have the same focus that I bring to live games. I probably won't put too many more hours into online play in the next month or so, I'm going to focus on my next trip to Vegas and a home game/league where I am sitting in 3rd where the top 3 get seats to a $1500 event at the world series. In a couple weeks I have to beat the 4th and 5th place players in a 12-14man tourney to lock it up.
PS I just got it in preflop with AA vs 77 near the bubble in a MTT and the flop came 774, FML.
I got smoked in the cash games, losing 2-3 buyins pretty quickly, it seems to follow the same pattern with me and these games lately: I play solid for a while, get coolered once and get crazy-aggro. I was in a 3-bet pot with AQ, flop Q82 I bet he calls. Turn is a 6, we get stacks in, he has A6, river 6. I then get it in preflop with 99 vs KJ lose, AK vs AJ chop, A10 vs 22 lose. I don't have the tilt-control for heads-up cash.
On the tourney side things went a bit better, I registered for what I thought was a $100 turbo, but it was a super turbo where you start with 300chips, wtf? After that I got in a couple 4-man heads up shootouts, lost one $22 and won a $22 and an $11. Went deep in a $12 - 90man knockout didn't cash but won enough off knockouts to break even. I think I also took 2nd in an $11 single table before my big score of the evening. I've missed the 150 seat guarantee the last two years and this year I was making a point to play it. I played a $26 sat with 40ish people, payed $76, 100, 177, Seat. Ship it!
I chipped up early and sat around until we were down to two tables. People tightened up so much nearing the final table I started stealing like crazy. I had perfect position with the big stack on my right and two small stacks on my left. Anytime the big stack folded to me I pushed, the only time I got called was for 30% of my chips I had 52clubs vs A7, flopped a 2 and it held up. I was now nearing the chip lead as we got down to 9 players. When we got down to 6 I stole a bunch more with two short stacks trying to min-cash. With three left I had half the chips on the table, I went into heads up with a 3.5-1 chip lead, lost a big post to get close to even then ran away with it.
Felt pretty good especially after donating in the cash games. Not sure if online is my thing, I've had really mixed results. In college I did pretty well and cashed out a bunch, lately I've taken my account up to a couple thousand then blow it down to $200 or so, rebuild and repeat. I definitely don't have the same focus that I bring to live games. I probably won't put too many more hours into online play in the next month or so, I'm going to focus on my next trip to Vegas and a home game/league where I am sitting in 3rd where the top 3 get seats to a $1500 event at the world series. In a couple weeks I have to beat the 4th and 5th place players in a 12-14man tourney to lock it up.
PS I just got it in preflop with AA vs 77 near the bubble in a MTT and the flop came 774, FML.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Intro and a little history
This blog is intended to chronicle and track my live poker exploits, give me some feedback on play and hopefully provide an interesting read for someone out there.
I'll start with my background in poker. Like many poker players in their 20's, I started playing poker in college (post Moneymaker) and quickly became hooked. I played small tourneys, dabbled online and eventually began taking trips to Vegas and LA. I loved the challenge and having some extra cash while in school wasn't bad either. I built a small bankroll, but mostly spent my winnings on car parts, booze and skiing. In my junior year one of my roommates (and the poker player I learned the most from) decided to quit school and move to Vegas; I wasn't stoked on school and considered joining him and taking a break for a while. I decided to stay at CU and figured I'd give poker a shot in the future, probably the best decision I made in college.
After I graduated (B.S. Mechanical Engineering) I planned a one month stay in Vegas with another poker buddy. We rented a room from craigslist and had one hell of a time. I have a bunch of crazy stories from this trip, but I'll save them for a future post when I'm low on material. To sum things up we played the night shift at the Wynn the majority of the time, with a few other poker rooms sprinkled in. I ran like fire for the first week then cooled off a bit near the end of the trip. It was all over too fast... I went back to finish up one more class, moved to Seattle to help out some family, competed on the US Freeskiing tour for a season, and moved to San Diego where I landed a sweet job. During that time I played occasionally but mostly for fun and never for very high stakes. My trips to Vegas and Commerce have started to pick up and my interest in poker has been growing.
That leads me to now. I want to define some poker goals (for the short- and long-term) and keep a detailed account of my pursuit of these goals. I have no aspiration to become a full-time poker player; I love engineering and find it much more fulfilling than spending all my time at the casino. That being said I am considering taking an extended "vacation" from work to go to Vegas for the WSOP. I plan to play mostly cash games (2-5NL, 5-10NL and occasionallly 10-20NL if the game looks good), single table sats at the Rio and possibly a WSOP event or two. Whether I get to stay the whole month or not will depend on work schedule and some other factors but so far things are looking good.
My goals for the summer:
1. Sat. in to a WSOP event, (pretty confident I can pull this off)
2. Take a shot at a ME sat. (either a super sat. or a single table)
3. Score a 5-figure day (in tourney or cash)
4. Stay away from table games (don't have a huge problem but ...)
5. Take better care of myself while playing (my last stint in Vegas I forgot to eat and sleep most of the time and ended up pretty strung out)
My next trip to Vegas is April 16-19th, I plan to play one $500 MTT (DSE at Venetian or WSOPC at Caesar's) and the rest of the time grind the 5-10NL at the Wynn. I'll update with a full TR and some pictures on the way home.
I'll start with my background in poker. Like many poker players in their 20's, I started playing poker in college (post Moneymaker) and quickly became hooked. I played small tourneys, dabbled online and eventually began taking trips to Vegas and LA. I loved the challenge and having some extra cash while in school wasn't bad either. I built a small bankroll, but mostly spent my winnings on car parts, booze and skiing. In my junior year one of my roommates (and the poker player I learned the most from) decided to quit school and move to Vegas; I wasn't stoked on school and considered joining him and taking a break for a while. I decided to stay at CU and figured I'd give poker a shot in the future, probably the best decision I made in college.
After I graduated (B.S. Mechanical Engineering) I planned a one month stay in Vegas with another poker buddy. We rented a room from craigslist and had one hell of a time. I have a bunch of crazy stories from this trip, but I'll save them for a future post when I'm low on material. To sum things up we played the night shift at the Wynn the majority of the time, with a few other poker rooms sprinkled in. I ran like fire for the first week then cooled off a bit near the end of the trip. It was all over too fast... I went back to finish up one more class, moved to Seattle to help out some family, competed on the US Freeskiing tour for a season, and moved to San Diego where I landed a sweet job. During that time I played occasionally but mostly for fun and never for very high stakes. My trips to Vegas and Commerce have started to pick up and my interest in poker has been growing.
That leads me to now. I want to define some poker goals (for the short- and long-term) and keep a detailed account of my pursuit of these goals. I have no aspiration to become a full-time poker player; I love engineering and find it much more fulfilling than spending all my time at the casino. That being said I am considering taking an extended "vacation" from work to go to Vegas for the WSOP. I plan to play mostly cash games (2-5NL, 5-10NL and occasionallly 10-20NL if the game looks good), single table sats at the Rio and possibly a WSOP event or two. Whether I get to stay the whole month or not will depend on work schedule and some other factors but so far things are looking good.
My goals for the summer:
1. Sat. in to a WSOP event, (pretty confident I can pull this off)
2. Take a shot at a ME sat. (either a super sat. or a single table)
3. Score a 5-figure day (in tourney or cash)
4. Stay away from table games (don't have a huge problem but ...)
5. Take better care of myself while playing (my last stint in Vegas I forgot to eat and sleep most of the time and ended up pretty strung out)
My next trip to Vegas is April 16-19th, I plan to play one $500 MTT (DSE at Venetian or WSOPC at Caesar's) and the rest of the time grind the 5-10NL at the Wynn. I'll update with a full TR and some pictures on the way home.
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