High On Poker

“I’m in trouble on the Bubble,” I joked as I sat around a table with two fellow bloggers and a couple of other players. I was the short stack out of 5 players left in a 14 person tournament. I did not know how prophetic my remark was. For tonight, I was Bubblicious. Two tournaments, both out on the bubble.

The night was not an entire loss. For at the tournament was none other than my Blogger role model (okay, maybe more like my blogger inspiration) Dr. Pauly himself. And along with Pauly, was a couple of other bloggers, including F-Train, Mas, and Joaquin. How did I end up in a mid-town apartment Saturday afternoon and evening with a bunch of strangers and an assortment of bloggers? I guess that goes back to Pauly, too. See, when I started this website, it was because I found Pauly’s and some other bloggers’ sites. I was more than entertained. Here was a way for an individual to share his or her (poker) experiences and reflect. So, I jumped on the bandwagon, and started my ongoing effort to build my blog by contacting some of my favorite bloggers. Pauly, a fellow NYer, is the closest thing to an Internet poker celebrity that there is. His site is widely read, and the content is top-notch. So I contacted him first and foremost. He gave me some solid tips on how to start my blog, and over time invited me to the tournament at his friend’s apartment. I was flattered, for sure. But I also knew I had to take the opportunity to meet Pauly and play some poker.

I am not a shy person, but I am also not necessarily outgoing either. I mean, I can be sociable, but my crass, sarcastic humor has put off more than a few people…and that’s when things are going smoothly. Entering Toni’s apartment (the host of the tourney) I didn’t know what to expect. Small talk is not my specialty. However, after entering the slightly ajar door (no one responded to my knock or doorbell), Pauly sighted me and called me over. He was talking to F-Train, a fellow blogger whose site I had only perused (for SurfControl reasons). Soon, Joaquin and “Poker Genius” Mas, two other bloggers, joined the group. I must say, everything was really cool. All three of the guys I mentioned, as well as Pauly’s bro Derek, and Ugarte, were good people. What I mean by that is, some people are assholes. Or they put on airs. Or they have a host of other serious social defects. But not this crowd. This was a fun time crowd. Good people all around. We got along well, had some drinks, smoked a bit, and played some poker.

Now for the poker. I played fairly well. Not great, but not terribly either. I was hoping for a big win in front of my poker peers, but left down a sad $115. Let me suggest that you check out Pauly or F-Train’s blogs for more details. These two players were sighted taking notes that will far surpass my drunken recall. So, I will just give a broad idea of how the games went, until I can copy and paste some better details. Hahaha! Of course, I’m joking. No copy-and-pasting for me…it’s not the plagiarism that burns me. I’m just lazy.

The first $50 tournament started with 14 people. I sat to the left of Kathy, a newer player who apparently had a decent poker streak going for her. I ended up sitting behind in at EVERY table that night. Lucky for me, she was good company. Pauly was on my right. More good company. I took down the first two or three hands due to some aggressive play and lucky flops. I thereafter grinded my way into the top 9, when the tables combined. I was placed, by random, to the left of Kathy again. But this time, to my right was F-Train with so many chips the table was ready to buckle on him. Through some selective hands and aggressive play, I coasted into the top 5. Four spots paid. One player, Ken, was way short on chips. But an unfortunate (for me) double up off of F-Train got him healthy again. The other short-stack, Kathy, went all-in two times in a row, stealing Pauly’s small and big blinds. I expected Pauly to call and take her out, but he must not have gotten the telepathic signals I was sending.

Suddenly I look down, and I am the short stack. I had enough for two blinds, and I was in the big blind. My cards were atrocious (I can’t remember what) and faced with a large raise and a caller, I folded it down. In the small blind, I knew it was now or never. Fortunately, it was only me and the big blind, F-Train. I looked down for 56o. Yipee! I raised all-in, which was the same as calling F’s big blind. Without a decision, F-Train flipped his AJo. I triumphantly announced, “I’ve got you dominated,” and showed my 56o. After a chuckle from the table and five undesirable cards, I was out of the tourney, on the bubble.

I mulled about for a bit, trying to regain my mental composure. I sat with $20 in a cash game, dealer’s choice, and gave out another $15 in donations. Omaha hi/lo, my pick, went horribly wrong, after I overvalued my low. Other games faired just as bad. When the second tournament was announced, I had $53 in cash and chips, just enough for the $50 buy-in.

I really was proud of my play mid-way through the second tournament. I called a decent pre-flop raise from Mas in the BB with 34o and missed the flop by a mile. When Mas checked to me, I made a raise that was just short of the pot. He laid down his cards, and I showed my 34o. More accurately, I threw them on the table face up, and when I realized that a couple of beer bottles blocked his view, I pushed the cards right in front of him in an act of involuntary gloating. I really just wanted to make sure he saw those damn cards. A little while later, I was faced with AA with a shorter stack. A player in front of me raised to 200 (we start with 1000), and I went all-in with 600. A player after me, Steve, called all-in with his 550, and the original bettor called as well. I had my AA, Bettor had KK, Steve had QQ. After five uneventful cards, I tripled up. Two hands later, I raised pre-flop with 27o, the hammer. Mas had limped in already. He and the blinds laid it down to my monster hand. I showed it again and announced, “The Hammer!” Grubby would’ve been proud. I showed another bluff to Mas (he was getting the brunt of my bluffing attacks), and loosened up my play a bit. When it was down to 5 (4 paid) I was in decent shape. I was in the top 2 or 3, but I got into some situations in which I had to call someone else’s all-in after my pre-flop raise. In one instance, I had KJ, bet 600 pre-flop (higher blinds), and was raised another 250. I called to see AJ in my opponent’s hand. I hit my K (two in fact), but the AJ hit the Broadway straight. I finally went out when I faced Toni. I was in the BB, with about T800, and short-stacked. The BB was 200. I had 9 10o, and all players folded to Toni, the SB, who raised to 400. I could either fold and lose 1/4 of my chips, call and likely fold anyway losing 1/2 of my chips, or go all-in. I looked at Toni for a while. If she is reading this, I’m giving away some info, but she was such a gracious host that I consider it a gift. She was bobbing her head left and right humming to the song playing on the stereo. She was doing it in such a way that it could not be missed. She wanted me to think that she had no cares in the world. But I saw through it. I saw her faking her strength. Ask Mike Caro, and he’ll tell you, Weak means Strong, and Strong means Weak. She was acting Strong, so I knew she was Weak. I went all-in. She stated that she thought she had 2 overcards (she thought I had a small pocket pair), and called. She held JQ, definitely a weaker hand. But not as weak as mine. I was out in 5th place.

Some of the players were already playing a cash game, but I had only $3 on me, and I knew that any playing would be on tilt anyway. I took it as a cue to leave, and I did just that. It was a great experience. Bloggers are good people, and their friends are the same. I hope to be invited again in the future. Pauly is off to Vegas soon, but when he gets back, we are definitely going to meet up. Thank you to all at the game. Ugarte, sorry I didn’t post your link, but as soon as I get your website URL, consider it done. I’m out!

Last night, my Internet connect at home finally gave up. I’ve been having problems with my Time Warner cable service anyway, but this is totally new. The cable modem is just not working. I’m no engineer, but I’m sure it has nothing to do with the cable connection. Rather, it is a hardware problem. Since Time Warner won’t come to my home until next Friday night, and my laptop with wireless modem is not recognizing the wireless card anymore (nothing is working in my home lately), I am without Internet. It’s like being in the stone ages. I actually had to look outside to see the weather! (I was too lazy to wait for the Local Weather on the 8s on the Weather Channel.)

Because of my lack of Internet, I was unable to play online poker last night. So, my goal of giving away the rest of my Full Tilt $7.50 bankroll will be postponed. That said, I think this may have been a blessing in disguise. I’ve been playing daily. Even when I intended on taking a day off, I played one quick heads-up game. Forced to not play poker, I had a decent night of watching poker. I’ve had several games DVR’ed, so I sat down to watch the Poker Stars II game between Carlos Mortensen, Chris Moneymaker, Kathy Liebert, Todd Brunson (son of Doyle), some guy named Gray, and the magician Espendiari (I’m definitely spelling that wrong). What a pleasure to watch top players without being distracted. I was able to really focus and see how each player played.

Let me start by saying that I never saw Poker Stars before. Its on Fox Sports, by the way. The setup is great. There is a roster of 20 or 30 some odd professional players that play in six qualifying matches each. Each qualifier has 6 players, with points awarded on a sliding scale for the first five places (6th place gets nada). Then after all qualifying rounds, the sixteen players with the most points move to the 16 player playoffs. Then there are the quarter finals, semi-finals and the finals (the last two are heads up matches). You receive $10,000 for each 1st place in a qualifying round, and more money for winning later playoff rounds. The winner of the whole shebang gets $400,000, on top of whatever else they’ve earned on the way there. Sounds complicated? It is. But that is good. The structure is made to find the top player, and I think it gives enough opportunities for players so that getting lucky is not enough.

In the game I watched, Moneymaker was pretty pathetic. In his first two qualifiers, he placed 5th and 6th, leaving him with 1 pt only. In this game, he came in fourth, but only because he played scared. I root for the guy, because I feel that everyone considered him lucky to win the 2003 WSOP. Its hard to shake that reputation of being lucky. Without respect at the table, it is even harder to play forcefully. But you have to make things happen in poker, and Moneymaker was playing like me after Vegas, a scared kitten. Never good at the table.

Mortensen is a mad man. I have some respect for his game. He came in 6th and 1st in his first two qualifiers, and took down the win in this one. He was aggressive, maybe overly so, but it got the job done. He was heads up with Liebert at the end of the game. Liebert already won her first two qualifiers, and spent much of her time at the table yapping away. I was watching from the comfort of my bed and even I wanted to strangle her. Heads up, and Liebert has maybe T200,000 to Mortensen’s T1,000,000. After doubling up, Mortensen was ahead by less than T100,000. It didn’t look good when Mortensen was first to act and went all in with 56o. Kathy, naturally, called with AJ. Mortensen made a straight on the river, to win the tournament. Some may say that he was lucky, but I’d disagree wholeheartedly. Before that fateful hand, Mortensen called Kathy’s all-in bets (and many earlier all-in bets by other players) and lost more often than not. But the law of chance demand that he win eventually. People may think that Mortensen gave up a lot of his chips by making stupid calls, and then won the game by getting lucky. I propose that he lost a lot of chips by being unlucky a bunch of times, and he won the tournament by getting lucky once. However, by his style, he had the cushion to be unlucky, and only had to be lucky once to win it all. A bit convoluted? Sorry, its the best I can do.

I have to get some meaningful work done now. But let me just say that Full Tilt sent me an email with a reload bonus offer. Are they mocking me?

My Full Tilt bankroll is now at a turkey sandwich and a Snapple iced tea. In other words, I’m down to $7.50. Quite pathetic. I’m looking forward to sitting in a NLHE table later and either giving it away to the highest bidder or playing for a come back. Either way, I’m happy. I think it’s time for me to up and move to greener pastures. Party Poker anyone? Maybe Ultimate Bet, the site of choice for fellow bloggers DNasty and Steeler Josh. This may even be an opportunity to try the limit challenge I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Part of me is sad about losing money. But it is part of the game. My near $400 total bankroll will be exposed in the next few weeks too, so this brings pause.

On Saturday, I am playing in a $50 14-person max tournament in NYC. I got invited thanks to Dr. Pauly. I’m actually looking forward to meeting the Internet poker celebrity. Hopefully it’ll go better than my last celebrity encounter, in which the WWF’s Raven essentially told me to fuck off. My fingers are crossed.

Now, as for that tournament, I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I really can’t stand to lose right now. I’m very vulnerable. Okay, well, maybe not vulnerable. But in the past, losing a game did not phase me, but right now I am definitely questioning my game. This is never good. I MUST get over this before the tourney. Maybe some poker reading will help. I might need to review Sklansky’s “Theory” and Caro’s “Book of Tells”, and check Brunson’s “SuperSystem 2″ to see if there are any good tournament nuggets in there.

On the other hand, I play best at home games against strangers. My record for large home games against strangers is 2 for 2. I placed 3rd out of 22, and 2nd out of 13, so I’m no slouch. Of course, those were just two occassions, but I felt the difference playing in those environments. I’m not distracted by all of the people around me as much. Plus, I can gauge them on who they are at that very moment, rather than how I think of them in general. For instance, when playing against Mikey Aps, I’m inclined to think that he is an aggressive bully because I’ve known him since we were children and the aggressive bully (in poker, and not elsewhere) would fit my mental image of how Aps would play poker. Unfortunately, Aps is clever, so he can use this to his advantage. Or, he can change his game for other reasons, but I’m still stuck on my initial opinion. But when I’m playing against Stranger X, I don’t have an initial opinion. I meet the person in the game, and I get to know them through their game. So, maybe I’ll be padding, instead of stripping, my bankroll on Saturday. Time will tell.

Aside from Saturday, I’m hitting AC on June 5th, and plan on putting some money into whichever site has the best bonuses. So, I’m a poker-playing fool.

During my lunch hour, I went home (a short 5 min walk) to save some money. After enjoying my PB&J while finishing the last 15 minutes of Deadwood (highly recommended), I sat down for a quick $5 NLHE heads-up tournament.

While playing, I realized that the flow of the game is key to heads-up play. During the game, you start by getting a feel for your opponent. Hopefully, you can call him down on a few hands, so that you can see what he is willing to play. In this specific game, my opponent was raising doubling the blinds on a slew of hands including KTo, and even J4o. So, I knew to call his minor raises more often than not. By doing this, I was able to interrupt his flow of a small raise followed by my fold, repeated over and over.

In addition, I spent the time feeling out my opponent’s willingness to call raises. Pre-flop, I generally made a pot-sized raise (ex. from 20 to 60; from 30 to 90) with any decent hand from Ax, to KQ, and even 89s. He folded a lot. But when he didn’t fold, I’d raise the pot again after the flop regardless of whether or not I hit it. I did this because I realized, more often than not, that he would fold when he called my pre-flop bet and did not hit anything on the flop.

So, I was starting to feel the flow. All the while, I was up and down. Starting with 1500 chips each, I was at 1800 or so at my highest, and 800 or so at my lowest. But I was not concerned one bit. I knew that all I needed to do was hit that one hand.

During the game, amongst all of this, there is a flow. He wins a bunch of hands in a row, and then we start going back and forth, and then I am winning a bunch of hands. He’s aggressive for a while, then I’m aggressive. Its this ebb and flow that I really started noticing. Its not something as clear-cut as I just described. Its sort of like a feeling.

I decided to use the flow to my advantage. I began making pot-sized raises on a series of hands. It may’ve started with A3s. If I’m not mistaken, then came KQ, QT, TT, and finally 66. All the while, if my opponent called the pre-flop bet, I bet out on the flop. My opponent folded to the A3s. On the KQ, I didn’t hit the flop, but I did bet out and my opponent folded. With my QT, the flop came out QKK, so I bet the pot. My opponent folded again. Now he must’ve been frustrated, which is the point. When I saw TT, I knew what to do. I didn’t want to slow-play. That would mess up the flow. I bet pot-sized, pre-flop. He called. The flop was A33. Uh oh. If he hit the A, I was in trouble. I bet anyway. Feel the flow. He folded. My next hand was the 66. I raised pot-sized and got a call. I could feel that the flow was built up to the point where something was going to happen big. The flop was 6JQ. I made a pot-sized bet…and he…raised. He raised the minimum back at me, but at this point, that was a decent chunk of change. I had him covered by about 100 chips. I re-raised the minimum back at him. If he called he would have about 600 left. I was hoping he’d make a move. He did, and went all in. My trips 6s crushed his pair of J4, for a pair of Js…the middle pair. He did not go all in because he had the nuts. He went all in because the flow was on my side. He was frustrated by my constant raising. He was probably thinking that he was getting pushed around by someone who had nothing over and over again. He had a small piece of the board. There was no stopping the flow. He was going to give me his money.

Ka Ching!

My Full Tilt bankroll is now at $23.50. Slow and steady wins the race.

Excuse my bummer of a post yesterday. Come to think of it, I’m sure a couple of my recent posts were real downers. Well, this will change, I assure you. Yesterday, I played in a slew of heads-up tournaments, winning only one more than I lost. However, in heads-up, that means that I won a couple of bucks overall. So, my bankroll made a modest climb from $15, to just under $19. Not great, but it is in the right direction.

After playing a couple of the heads-ups, I decided to give it a rest for the night. While lying in bed, I had a thought. Earlier this month, I was down to $15 (or maybe even less) in my Full Tilt account. That occurred after going on a two or three day tilt-fest. But I rebounded and made it back to $90. Now, I am in the same spot. I spend two days on tilt and lost most of my bankroll. Through heads-up SNGs, I hope to make some breathing room. When they get old, I will move onto some cash games or maybe single table SNGs.

Then I thought somemore. Earlier this year, I was up about $500 overall. I then went on a several-day tilt-fest in Vegas, and lost about $460. My bankroll was down to a lowly $40. It took me several days to recover mentally, but when I did, I started making strides. My overall bankroll currently sits at just short of $400 (I account any money in an online account as lost until it is withdrawn). I would like to be at $550 ($100 per month, 5 1/2 months), but I am not that far off.

My point is, there is a pattern, a cycle. I do well, build up a bankroll, tilt for a few days, lose most of it, take some time to find my footing, and climb back up. This cycle is not catastrophic. In fact, if I can control my tilt, it will more or less be nullified.

Lessons Learned:
1) When on Tilt, STOP PLAYING! It seems obvious, but it is hard to NOT play when I feel like I NEED TO WIN. See the problem?
2) When I lose a session or even a few sessions, don’t let it effect me mentally. The game is cyclical. I’m not always going to get the best cards, I’m not always going to be lucky, and I’m not always going to play my best game, but I do not have to allow these things to effect me.

I wish there was a third, but I haven’t found it yet. Things are going to turn around. That is the key. Until then, keep poking.

My third or fourth home game in a row was cancelled. Regardless of the several people asking me to host a game, and the twenty or so people I invited, I could not fill a table of six. Utterly pathetic.

My Full Tilt bankroll is now $15, AFTER recieving my third $10 bonus.

I was invited to a poker game via Dr. Pauly, but I may have to miss it due to a cousin’s 40th birthday and (much deserved) loyalty to fiance Kim. As stupid as it sounds, I cannot think of leaving her on a Saturday night to play poker with virtual strangers. That said, I am really sore about this situation, since Pauly was nice enough to get me invited, and this would likely be one of my few (if not only) chance to meet the man that got me into blogging before he moves to Vegas.

What’s the point? I don’t plan on arranging any future games, but then again, I am willing to host them. My FT bankroll is so pathetic that I am tempted to just put it all at one NLHE table. My prospects to play poker in the future have dwindled away to nothing.

I guess that kind of sucks. But I have to keep things in perspective. I have my health, even though I haven’t gone to the gym in two to three weeks (which will change, starting….now). The weather is beautiful. I’ve got a wonderful fiance and a great job.

“Stop bitching,” I tell myself. “Stop bitching and man up.” That is all there is to it. Boohoohoo! No poker! I think I’m over it.

Rouss always jokes that I am moderate to high on the poker addiction scale (after originally being securely low-moderate). Well, I do feel a bit closer to high, as I am aching for some action. But perception is everything. I think my FT losses are due to my rush for action, so a breather is probably very necessary. So, good pokering to all you out there. I’m going to sit back, relax, and kick into low-moderate.

Wow! I sucked yesterday. Sucked royally. My Full Tilt bankroll is now at $15! Ridiculous, I know. I can’t blame anyone else. I played in two SNGs and made some bad decisions leading to suckouts. One case involved calling an all-in re-raise pre-flop. I had JJ. The two other players in the hand had 66 and AK. So, in fact, I was in with the best of it. Only, I shouldn’t have exposed my entire stack to a suckout, which occurred when the AK hit his A AND the 66 hit a third 6, both on the flop. In the other SNG, I made a similar mistake, although the specific elude me.

Meanwhile, I got my ass handed to me in a couple of ring games. I felt myself playing poorly, but I didn’t stop. That failure to stop is the real problem in this story.

As for my home game tonight, I might have to regrettably cancel, due to one of the players getting sick. My fear is that if I cancel, no one will ever want to play at my games anymore, due to inconsistency. But if I hold the game and it tops out at five, well, it isn’t a tragedy, but it isn’t a full game either. I think I’ll send an email to the players who RSVP’ed yes, and let them decide. What a pain in the ass. Although, truth be told, part of me wouldn’t mind cancelling and spending the night with fiance Kim. What’s a man to do?

Last night, I took a savage beating at the hands of Full Tilt. My bankroll is now at about $45. I had a tough night dealing with further Time Warner Cable issues and wholey unrelated computer issues, as well. Generally, these things drive me nuts, and last night was no exception. After giving up, I sat at a couple of NL and Limit tables on Full Tilt and gave away my money. I hit fold on at least one occassion when I mean to hit call.

I made some horrible calls as well, including calling a $20-30 all-in with two pair. I held 58o in one of the blinds. Two other players were in the hand. The flop was T52. I called a small bet of .50-1. The turn was a 5. I believe I raised. One guy called. The next guy (who I think was the original better) went all in. I thought I was good with my two pair, assuming he had a straight top pair, top kicker (A 10). So, I called the major re-raise. The guy after me called as well. What a pot! I, of course, had two pair, 5s and 8s. The guy after me had two pair, 2s and 8s. The bettor had two pair, 10s and 8s.

It reminded me of a hand at Ruff’s game a while ago in which I made a straight on the flop with 84 in my hand and 567 on the flop. Hole went all in for a small $2-5. I reraised all in with abut $20 total. Ruff called. Hole had the small straight (34/567). I had the mid straight (4/567/8). Ruff had…the nut straight (567/89). At least on that occassion, I felt it. But this time, I had no idea. Lately, I’ve found it tough to fold to a large raise when I have a decent hand. I still do it, but part of me usually believes there is a good chance that the bettor does not have as strong of a hand as he/she wanted. Otherwise, they’d bet small and hope to get more callers.

I have a home game scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully, we can fill a table, since as of writing this, we only have 5 definites. Go figure, D-Root and Slacker, the two guys who suggested I throw a game, cannot make it. What a kick in the sack!

Hey WPBT! Can we get a tournament that isn’t for the WSOP? I understand why they’ve been for the WSOP, but I am damn anxious to play in one of their tournaments, but I can’t go to the WSOP.

Shout out to Dr. Pauly. Gentleman Pauly was kind enough to get me invited to a game Saturday. I’d love to go, and will do whatever I can to get there and meet the Doctor himself. But unfortunately, one of my 821 cousins are having a surprise 40th birthday party on Long Island, and my ma wasn’t too happy when I suggested that the surprise should be me not showing up. To make it worse, I should spend that evening with fiance Kim. I just can’t see myself realistically making her go to one of my family functions and then telling her to piss off while I play poker with my blogger buddies. Well, actually I did tell her, but in such a way that it is not definite. On top of all of this, on Sunday fiance Kim and I are going to her godfather’s tombstone unveiling, so ideally we’d like to be in the same place Sunday morning.

Felicity Huffman’s character on Desperate Housewives once said, “Half of life is obligations.” More like 3/4 lately. And, yes, I watch Desperate Housewives. If you haven’t caught on yet, I watch a lot of crappy television.

Final thought: Should I get Poker Tracker. It is software that keeps track of your and your opponents’ plays and stats. I hear it is useful, but part of me feels as though it is almost un-poker-ish to use technology in that way. Part of me also does not want to deal with the hassle of using new software. I guess I should get it though, because my abacus is not too handy when faced with tough decisions. Poker a day, keeps Gam Anon away.

As an update, my Full Tilt bankroll is now $90. I was down to $69, but some 1/2 limit brought me back. I don’t really know what my goal is. I was planning on cashing out and moving to a new site with easier bonuses, but now that I am playing higher stakes, it looks like my FT bonus might be easier to earn. I’ve already earned $20 out of the $100 bonus, so I may as well stay put for a while.

Last night, fiance Kim and I went out for a late dinner at Uptown Lounge (highly recommended) with my long time pal DP and his girlfriend Maia. It was a good time, as we all get along great. It seems like most of my friends have paired off with a chick, which is a relatively rare thing for my group of social misfits. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but overall it never seemed like we were all in committed relationships. After dinner, the four of us went to Copper Door, a bar in the Gramercy area. While there, we met up with DP’s pals (and originally through DP, my pals), D-Root and Slacker. It was great seeing them. It was made even better when Slacker asked me what happened to the poker games I used to have. Later that night, entirely independent, D-Root said the same. I was surprised, and explained to them that the games just dried up. I stopped calling them because I didn’t want to appear like I was just calling them because I personally wanted to gamble. I had no idea they were so into it.

As a result, I am thinking about hosting a game at my apartment on Tuesday. Hopefully, I can make it happen. Poker, anyone?

Here is an experiment in writing a blog while a tournament is in progress. I hope it doesn’t suck:

The tourney started with 194 people. The first hand I played was AQ. Eventually, me and two other players were all in, very early in the game. The board was Q34Q, so I thought I was good, until one player showed 44 (the other fool had 56). I was behind until the river came down with a 3. I made a better full house on the river. And I was tripled up.

A little while later, I got AQ again. Not my favorite hand, but in the BB and a small raise before me, why the fuck not. Plus they already paid out. This time, the A hits, I bet and some guy calls me down until he is all in. His A2 lost.

20 minutes into the game and I’m at 7800, 6th place out of 124 players.

OOH! I’m in M/LP with QQ. Someone raises behind me. I go all-in, as the big stack. Two callers after me, but not the original raiser, who was just a few chips shy of me. I had to match about 1800. The other guys have JJ and A7. Hahaha. Until A7 hits a miracle straight with 689T on the board. Doh! As it turned out though, he only could get half of the pot. So I take about 2000 back, and in the end, won about 200. Better than nothing.

I lose with Trip 6s to a flush that he hits on the river, after I put him all in on the turn. Guy had top pair, flush kicker. Took about 1000 or so from me. Whoops!

34 minutes into the game, and I’m at 7000, 11th out of 98.

AJ in mid position. What to do? Call. No betters before me. Only me, BB and SB. Flop is KQx. Both check to me. I raise 400 into a 600 pot, and take it down. Standard move, really.

In two hands in EP, I force myself to fold Ax hands. Hey, they are just Ax, but damn do they look good. Patience…its more than just a Guns & Roses song. Nowatamean?

66 on the button. Time to steal some blinds. Raise so one guy has no choice but fold or all in. He chooses all in, with JT suited. He then hits a full house, Js over Ts. Why hath you forsaken me?

Showed a successful bluff to the table. Started chatting a bit. Time to set them up. And then it happens. A-10 UTG. Limp. Flop is AA4. Wha? The SB goes all in. WHA? I call. He has 33, and gift wraps his 1700 chips for me.

AA on the button. 2000 raise before me. Call. 396 rainbow. He’s all in which puts me all in. He has 55. And I DOUBLE UP.

15,500 chips, after 48 min. 2nd out of 67.

Going to relax and slow it down for a bit. This waiting stuff is tough…Sure is quiet. Its easy to fold all the T6 hands I’m getting…or 37. Whoop-dee-doo! Patience.

Damn. Lost some chips, thanks to some stupid calls. Now they moved my table. Lare (short form of his name, for anonymity of course), is the chip leader by far with 48000. Two other players have me slightly covered. The game just changed.

12800 after 60 min. 10 out of 41. Break in progress.

And I took myself out of the game. Went against the chip leader. Flopped the nut flush and straight draw and chased them over the edge. 32 doesn’t pay, so I get NOTHING. Whoops!

That may’ve been an error on my part at the end. But I knew that if I hit, I would be in position to take it all. As it turns out, I didn’t hit. But, for a free tourney, I got my fill. Woulda been nice to have taken it though…

To make matters worse, I lost a $20 Multitable tournament on Full Tilt that same night. I usually don’t play these MTTs because the cost is high for my bankroll and the chance of winning is low. But I was in a MTT mood. My FT bankroll is now $113, which means that on my initial deposit, I’m up $13, but in reality, with $20 received as a bonus, I’m down $7. Don’t matter to me though. The 1/2 Limit game may be my new hangout, since it has paid well recently. I’ve also noticed that changing my game every few weeks helps my luck out. I have no idea why, but I do better when playing games I haven’t played recently. Maybe it’s because it perks me up and I pay more attention. Tomorrow (Saturday), I plan on playing a lot in the afternoon from my parents’ home on LI. I’m heading home tonight to hang with fiance Kim who has to have a dress fitted and then visit her fresh-from-the-hospital mother-in-law. I think a little change of scenery will be good too.

Thanks for reading. Poker on!