High On Poker

Heyo peoples. It’s another lovely day in the land of HoP. As the last post said, things had started off pretty slow in my world, but lately they’ve kicked into gear with my first live poker session of the new year, my entry into a blogger bankroll challenge, and some relatively big life-decisions made by wifey Kim and me that has already changed plans for 2010, and likely beyond.

Let’s start with the big life decision. Wifey Kim and I are staying in Manhattan! We had originally planned to buy a condo or coop in Queens this year when our lease ran out. That plan was formulated 2 yrs ago, when we were renewing our lease. Well, 2 years have passed and I think wifey Kim and I were both silently questioning whether we should continue with the plan that sounded so good only 2 years ago.  Finally, we sat down and realized that we both didn’t want to leave the city. Ownership be damned! So, as of now, it looks like we’ll remain Manhattanites, which incidentally is closer to AC than Queens is.

I suppose we can now move on to my first live poker session of the year. I actually saved the major hands. It was the $130 weekly Tuesday tournament at the Tuna Club. There were a full two tables and even some spillover, which resulted in 11-handed tables for a very brief period of time. I may’ve tried too hard to make stuff happen. Then again, as you are about to see, I took some gambles early, when I could weather any losses, recovered to a dominant position, and then blew up. So, it wasn’t all bad…

In the first relevant hand of the tournament, I limped for 50 with 22. There were a lot of players to the flop. The flop came down all clubs and it checked around.  The turn seemed harmless, so when it checked to me again (I was in the cutoff, with Patrick on the button), I decided to bet 350, which in hindsight was 50 more than the pot. Patrick, a solid player who I am friendly with at the game, raised to 700. Everyone folded to me and I folded as well. So much for stealing an orphaned pot.

On the very next hand, I was dealt QQ and decided to use the losing 22 hand to appear like I was tilted. I raised preflop to 200, which was slightly more than my standard 3x preflop raise. I got two callers, including one of the blinds and a doushey looking guy who pre-tourney was hoping to get the cash game going instead. He usually played higher and he had been bullying people already in the tournament with a couple of re-raises.

The flop came down an annoying A98 with two clubs. It checked to me and I bet 500. It folded to High Stakes Bully who raised to 1500. I thought for a moment and decided to call to see if it would slow him down. I could see him raising me merely because he thought I was on a continuation bet. The turn was a blank. I heard him say, “check,” and I checked. The dealer started to deal the next card when HSB protested, “I didn’t check!” The dealer looked confused. I chimed in, “That’s what I heard.” The dealer agreed. “No, I said, ‘Did he check?’” Whatever, guy. All anyone heard was “check.” Now, granted, he was stuffing his face at the time, but a verbal declaration is a verbal declaration. The dealer held to his guns and we saw the river. HSB bet 1,500 again and I had to fold, leaving me with only 2k or so. Just ugly.

After chopping a pot with HSB, I raised preflop with AKo. An early position caller (there were probably four callers) bet 900. It folded to me and I pushed all-in for 1900 total. That was a mere 1k more into a pot that had to have at least 3500. And amazingly, my opponent folded. I took down the pot without showdown. Go figure. Lord knows why he’d bet 900 if he couldn’t call my last 1k. My guess is that he wasn’t paying attention to stack sizes when he bluffed the flop.

I catapulted myself into a strong chip position with JJ. An EP player, Ali, raised to 1500. I think blinds were 200/400 if not 300/600. It folded to me, and I pushed all-in for 6500. I had played with Ali enough to know that he was making his preflop raise with a wide range that included a lot of dominated hands and/or hands he would fold to a raise. It folded back to Ali, who called with AQc. A classic horse-race. He flopped the nut flush draw but failed to catch up with my JJ by the river. That put me into chipleader position, but I would squander it shortly.

This hand is almost embarassing. Billy (I think that’s his name) is a guy who looks like he hates me. I can’t explain it better than that. A long time ago, I owned him in a tournament. It seemed as though he thought I was just lucky at the time, and I think that has stuck with him ever since. In the subject hand, he limped in from MP. There was another limper before it folded to me in the BB with 66. I had about 15k and Billy had about 11k. Everyone else had in the 6k or less range, I think. Maybe was an 8k stack out there. I decided to raise from the button to pick up the blinds, which were up to 300/600. I think I bet 2k on top of the 600 BB. Billy pushed all-in over the top. I thought for a while before calling. I figured that he limped preflop and likely had a drawing hand like AQ or AK. I was wrong. Even then, calling is probably stupid, since we were the two big stacks. But all I could think of is the fact that if I took out Billy and nearly doubled up, I’d have a hammer-lock on teh tournament. He showed AA. I prayed for a suckout, but it didn’t come. I ended up down to less than 4k. Lovely.

The next hand, I flopped an OESD and pushed into TP2ndK. That’s when I busted.

Oh well. I think I needed to be a bit more patient when I accumulated chips. Perhaps I just failed to change gears, since you have to play a bit fast and loose in this tournament early, since the blinds go up every 15 mins. It was a tad disappointing, but you can’t win them all. Hopefully, I’ll be able to give it another go some time next week.

Final topic for discussion. I’ve joined the Summer Bankroll Challenge, which incidentally started in the middle of the winter and has no relationship at all with the summer. Actually, the first version took place in the Summer and the site was already set up, so SBC it is! The rules are simple. Post your online bankroll at the beginning. Post your bankroll at the end. Bets paid out appropriately.

My starting bankroll was a touch over $172. That was 3 or so days ago. Over the last two nights, I’ve been playing some $17 PLO SNGs on Stars and have already turned my 172 into $312+. Its still very early, but the challenge is reinvigorating my online game. I just hope I can keep the trend alive.

This got me thinking about the Heads Up Challenge. I haven’t ran one in a while, but once the SBC is over, I may do one again.

Thanks for everyone’s patience. I have AC in several weeks for a LO8 tournament as part of the Borgata Winter Open (Jan 23rd weekend). If anyone is going or wants to go, hit me up with a comment or email.

Until next time, make mine poker!