High On Poker

Hey folks. I’m a bit late to pimp it, but it looks like LJ has started a new weekly tournament(s). She did a good job of offering some variety.

The first tourney runs every Thursday Tuesday (thanks Dawn!) at 9pm, and is a deepstack $11 tournament.  Last night, I played and was moving along decently when I made a play that cost me my entire stack. The table was a mix of familiar bloggers and people I don’t know from the CardRunners forum, where LJ works. There was some friendly chat at the table, which for my money is a great thing. If you want online poker to feel like live poker, chatting is key, since you can actually get a feel from a person beyond their screenname, chosen avatar and questionable info like delays in betting (which could be due to a tough decision or multitabling distractions). That said, it only works if it is a chatty group; otherwise, you are the only one giving off info. But I digress.

I found myself playing a bit looser in the Spewday tournament than I otherwise would. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that I had already “warmed up” by playing (and losing) a $11 Rush 135-person SNG. Incidentally, I have yet to really figure out how to adjust to these Rush structures. I was also simultaneously in a $26 Turbo Frenzy (which I won). So, by the time the blogger tourney kicked off, I was ready for some action.

I got the sense that the table was being more aggressive than a usual blogger tournament, which was either complete BS or due to the fact that CR people are perhaps more aggressive in general than your average blogger. Whatever the case, I called down light on a couple of players and was able to win some pots, but it all came crashing down on one silly hand.

I was in MP/LP with KTc when I limped in, with one limper ahead of me.  It folded around to one of the blinds (giving me position), when the blind raised. I think the blinds were 80/160 or 60/120. The raise was something like 600 total or so. It folded back to me, and HU with an above-average aggressive table, I figured I’d call the raise and see what happens.

The flop was AJ8 with a club. The preflop raiser bet out and I floated, thinking that if he didn’t have an Ace, he’d slow down on the turn. The turn was a 7 of clubs. I almost wished it wasn’t that card. With it, I had pretty much no hand, but a great draw. Any club gave me the second-nut flush. Any Queen gave me the nut Broadway straight. Any 9 gave me the Jack-high straight. Hell, if he didn’t have an Ace, I’d also have an overcard (King). Because of this, when my opponent pushed all-in for slightly more than I had (around 1,600, so still a decent amount of chips), I figured I had to call. I had essentially floated my way into the deep end of the pool and here I was without a paddle (mix metaphor powers ACTIVATE!).

I busted and closed the window. I had a feeling anyone watching would’ve missed my outs, making my play look very donkolicious. That kinda sucked because bloggers are my peers, but what can you do. Besides, I admit that I put myself in that position by calling with the KTc preflop and postflop.

On a related note, I’ve been reading up a lot online re: poker and in the last year, the focus has changed significantly. It seems like aggression is the name of the game and small ball is old news. Is anyone else seeing the same thing? It’s nothing amazing; things change. But it is remarkable that now approximately 6 years+ into seriously thinking about poker, the game continues to develop. It’s like watching waves in the ocean and changing tides. I can’t help but think that there is probably a push-pull going on. People play like nits, so aggression becomes the name of the game. Then people play too aggressive, so playing tight is the way to play. Then players are playing nitty again, so, blah blah blah.

Prior to busting out of the Spewday deepstack tournament, I spewed my way out of the 9:15 Super Turbo $6 Spewday tournament. Kudos to LJ for adding this game. It allows participation in a blogger event without the huge time-suck that most blogger tournaments become. How’d I spew? I pushed all-in in MP with QTc in an awfukkit maneuver fairly early. I was in no rush; I simply made a play, probably unnecessarily, and ran into JJ.

Oh, and the password for both LJ tourneys is spewday.

Live poker in AC on Saturday with bro-in-law Marc and golf on Sunday with Roose and Hole. I’m a lucky guy.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Howdy folks! We are now one week into live poker in Pennsylvania, and a little more than one week from my originally scheduled trip to the Bethlehem Sands poker room and things are already coming to light.

I’ve been reading up about the Bethlehem Sands poker room, excited for the new venue, which officially opened this weekend. When I first learned of the room, I was super excited, but my good buddy Ruff tipped me off on the fact that the room would only have 12 poker tables and consequently, the closest poker room to NYC was expected to be overrun by players, resulting in long waits for a table.

For a guy with no car, reliant on public transportation, the idea of traveling by bus to PA and waiting around for 4 hours to play was less than appealing. I looked into whether I could find a hotel in the area in walking distance and didn’t find anything too promising. That ruled out showing up and crashing until 3am for a lighter wait at the tables (buses don’t run at those overnight hours). So, I decided to wait and see what the reviews had to say. Thank god for poker trip reports.

According to the only decent trip report I could find, on opening day at 4:15pm, there were already sizeable waiting lists. For 3/6 limit, there were 36 names on the list, for 1/2 NL there were 132 names and for 2/5 NL there were 84. Sheesh! But this isn’t really as bad as it sounds.

First, let’s be clear, this was opening day, so there should be more people there than usual. I doubt things will significantly die down by July 31, but in a couple of months, things should be more manageable.

Second, the wait times are the key issue. For 3/6 the trip reporter only had to wait 70 minutes. While that is not ideal, it is workable, especially if I plan ahead. He played 3/6 while he waited to be called for the other tables. It took 3.5 hours before he sat down at 1/2, though, and that I cannot abide. Still, first week, though, so let’s see how things develop.

With this the only decent man-on-the-streets account out there, I am reconsidering my July 31 trip. I have to admit, even before all of this news, I began to consider whether my day would be better spent on a golf course than a poker room. Alas, as it now stands, I am actually looking into a third possibility. I may be going back to my standard. Good, old Atlantic City!

Go figure! The PA poker scenes has actually wet my chops for AC again. I want to play and if PA is going to be a pain, I should just stick to my old standby. I can be on a bus in the morning and be back at night very easily. I’d be able to play without the pain that is long waits or the hassle of learning a new room in a remote location.

And it looks like I’m not the only one refocusing on AC now that PA poker is here. According to an article I found via Poker News Bulletin, New Jersey may step in to help clean up AC, both literally and figuratively.

NJ’s plan includes the end of the state-owned Meadowlands Racetrack (home of harness racing) and a NJ takeover of the AC gambling and entertainment district, including police and garbage pickup. NJ will be essentially creating a city within a city, as the casino section of AC will be under NJ state control and the rest of AC, literally the trash of the area, will be left to the local government. I cannot see this as a good thing for the surrounding areas, but then again, its not like those areas are really much to visit now anyway.

This is all from a report from a commission that was designed to determine how to help NJ’s casino industry. Amazingly, they came to many of the same conclusions I did. Most notably, they thought that for AC to succeed in the face of expanded nearby gambling venues, AC would have to become a destination spot. This means more focus on investing in entertainment, like an amusement park or NASCAR track. It also means courting more conventions to the area. Hell, there is even a proposal to redo the gaming laws to mimic those of Vegas. I can only hope that Vegas-priced rooms are coming next.

At the very least, the new competition is forcing AC to reevaluate what it has become. I still find it to be my second home town and I love it for everything that it is, but it has, sadly, become, in many ways, outdated and, in other ways, at risk given its poor reputation and lack of new developers. That’s a good thing too, because if PA casinos don’t die down a bit, it looks like it’ll have to remain AC for me.

Until next time, make mine poker!

In the World of Television, there exists One Man willing to go where other poker players dare not tread. This is the land where poker and television meet, not at the Rio or on ESPN, but some place much darker. The Blind Spot of television poker.

We are going deep, way deep into the annals of television to bring you this report. Poker has made itself known in a variety of scripted programs and it has even made its appearance on some reality programs, with Survivor being the standout. But what happens when poker meets foodie reality television?

The Next Food Network Star is a reality show competition much in the same vein as every other creative competition out there. Think Top Chef or for that matter, Top Chef’s precursor Project Runway, or while you are at it, the Apprentice or any other program where people compete to be the best at something according to a panel of judges. The prize on the Next Food Network Star is a cooking show on the Food Network, so the competitions focus mainly on cooking and presentation to an audience.

This week, in the mini-challenge, what Top Chef would call the Quickfire Challenge, the competitors were tasked with cooking a party bite based on a particular theme and three mandatory ingredients. The themes included New Years Eve, Bachelorette Party, and 5-Year Old Birthday Party, but the one that obviously stood out to me was Poker Game.

The person who was tasked with the Poker Game party bite was a little Italian chick by the name of Serena Palumbo, who in fact is also a NYC attorney. Kudos to the NFNS on giving the poker basket to one of the more attractive contestants. Once the basket was opened containing her ingredients, though, I was especially impressed.

The Poker basket included whiskey, peanuts, and BACON!!! It took me a while to process the amazing connection that has developed between poker and god’s big middle finger to Kosher living, bacon. Sure, I know that a ton of poker bloggers probably consider bacon their #1 food. I’m thinking Pauly, AlCantHang, and Bacini Mary, to name a few. But how the hell did the Food Network know?!

Serena was kind enough to prepare a Scotch-marinated skirt steak with bacon-peanut crunch served on a crostini.  The dish itself did not look particularly special, but from the panel’s comments, the dish tasted great.

If you want to learn more about this poker-inspired dish, the full recipe is available at the Food Network’s website.

I, for one, am fairly impressed with the use of Poker on the Next Food Network Star. There wasn’t any actual poker played, but clearly someone in the staff can appreciate the combination of sitting on your ass for hours playing a card game and eating high fat, high cholesterol foods. That’s a winning combination in my book.

Now I have to go get my breakfast egg, cheese and bacon sandwich.

Until next time, make mine poker and bacon!

There really isn’t much going on in Jordan’s poker world.

I had my first “losing” set of 4 $5.50 SNGs recently. Since I started the 4-table experiment, I have usually been able to eke out a $10 profit per $22 set (4 tables x 5.50 buy-in = $22).

I almost had two losing sessions. In the first one, I busted from two of the four SNGs fairly early. That put me in a shitty mood, which frankly is just absurd. It’s amazing how one can know of tilt, prepare for it, and still fail to control it. I suppose that’s not exactly what happened in that go-round, since I noticed that I was feeling all doom-and-gloom and decided to tighten up a bit at my two remaining tables lest I just donk off those stacks. In the end, I took first place in both of my remaining SNG (good for an overall profit of about $20 for the $22 set), even though I was one of the shorter stacks in each tournament when I busted from the two earlier ones. If anything, that scenario just reassured me that my 4-game set routine was working well. But that was the near-loss. The actual loss is obviously a less-jovial tale.

I accepted early that it was only a matter of time before I went 0 for 4 in a set. There are just too many opportunities for bad luck or bad play. Eventually, I was going to lose, so I suppose in a way, the 0-4 loss really didn’t surprise me. Hell, I guess I can kinda enjoy the fact that its out of the way (until next time).

I really can’t recall details. I remember I busted from one relatively early, and the other three when I was down to 5 players or less in each. In fact, I think I went out on one bubble and two games with 5 remaining. I may’ve been opening my play too wide, which is something I’ll have to look at tonight hopefully. But whatever the case, losses happen.

Once I was done with that set, I decided to call it a night. No need to chase the demons.

I finally took a step toward installing Holdem Manager, replacing my now defunct PokerTracker2 with AceHUD. I didn’t want to spend the money on a HUD program, but if I’m going to actually play, I might as well have all of the tools. Thanks to PokerMeister for putting me back on course.  As of now, I have the demo version ready to be installed and if I like it, I may spend the $90 on the program. I can’t help but feel like it takes something away from the purity of the game, but that’s the live poker player in me talking. The online poker player knows that online poker is not live poker, and I would be a fool if I didn’t use the tools available to my competition.

I suppose in a way, I am having a crisis of conscious about this blog. This happens from time to time. Now, it’s basically related to the fact that I am back to playing online at stakes I left behind years ago. I’m doing it for a reason, well, reasons, those being to work on my discipline, build my roll the old fashioned way, and give myself a poker outlet when no live games are available. Then I think about this space and I wonder if anyone cares to hear about my $5.50 SNGs or other gibberish. I mean, I’ve been doing this for 5 years. At some point, does it reach its conclusion?

Well, the conclusion is not here yet. I’ll continue to play poker, so I may as well continue to write about it here. Besides, when I see others quit blogging, I always think that quitting makes little sense unless you are 100% sure that you are done. After all, I can leave this corner of the web here for my prattle whenever I feel the need for some literary masturbation.

How’s that for a pretty mental image?

Until next time, make mine poker!

I recently wrote about how I had resigned myself to playing more online poker because live poker was largely unavailable to me. This remains to true, but there are some positives coming out of it.

Years ago, I was into online poker in a big way. I would grind limit tables with Woffles or SNGs with GCox and TripJax. The stakes didn’t matter, as long as the bankroll was moving in the right direction. I have always been a self-made poker player, so my bankroll was literally the product of working my way up the ranks. Admittedly, I never got that far, but I was always moving in the right direction.

I would play .25/.50 limit and eke out a small $1.25 profit and feel like a winner. I would play a $5 SNG and be glad to make $3.50 for third place. It was a simpler time. A more enjoyable time.

Of course, once you get the bug for higher stakes, its hard to go back to nickels and dimes. I began playing higher limit non-hold’em games, peaking at $8/16 Razz. I began playing higher tournaments, peaking at $75 buy-ins (using Full Tilt tokens, usually). And then, all the work that was built up from micro stakes came crashing down.

To be fair, I cut the legs out of my own stilted house. I have always been a proponent of actually using my poker money on real-life expenses in moderation. I accept and support the notion that one needs a separate bankroll, but I also accept the notion that if wifey Kim and I are not getting any actual benefit from my poker wins, then the wins lack meaning in our lives. So, I withdrew some money to pay for a new mattress. Then I’d hit a big score and withdraw some more. Then I’d donk off more than I should at $8/16 Razz and withdraw some more to stop myself from playing that game. Then I’d just lose, trying to chase the action.

So, I found myself in a pattern. I worked with a small bankroll, hit a big score, and then withdraw at least 75%, partially for wifey Kim’s benefit and partially because I had no faith in my longterm profitability at higher stakes online. Admittedly, I play online very distracted. But even with my depleted roll, it was hard to go down in stakes. Hard, that is, until this most recent reload.

Online poker is still not live poker for me, but it is its own worthwhile entity.  I have been almost exclusively playing $5.50 single table sit-n-gos, four at a time. I literally start one and keep joining new ones until four are open and running. Then I play until I am out of them all and take a break. I may not come back later for another set of four SNGs, but I never follow-up with a second set right away and I don’t add new SNGs as I bust out.

So far, the results have been amazingly steady. In about six sets, I have consistently won money in every set. It is usually around 50% of the total buy-ins, or around $10 or $11 profit for $22 spent ($5.50 x 4), so I am far from getting rich, but I do have a renewed confidence in my online game, I am having fun again, and I am once again moving in the right direction.

I can only hope that things continue to move so steadily. As long as I stick with my system, I should be fine. I may even start checking some stats, like the % of hands played in tournaments where I cash vs. don’t cash. In that vein, perhaps these SNGs will also provide me more hands for analysis here. In any event, I’ll keep you all up to date on this online experiment in bankroll building.

Until next time, make mine poker!

HighOnPoker recommends Tao of Pokerati.

I had first heard of Tao of Pokerati, the very brief, randomly scheduled podcast by Dr. Pauly of Tao of Poker and Dan Michalski of Pokerati years ago, but since I wasn’t in the market for any new podcasts and I wasn’t at home when I’d read their posts announcing new episodes, I never got around to listening to the podcast in its earlier days. Once the 2010 WSOP started, though, I was looking for as much on-the-ground coverage as possible, so I checked out the podcast.

I had no idea what I was missing.

The mix between Pauly, Dan and Benjo is fantastic, and the acerbic wit is dead on.

So, rather than expound upon the subject, let me just recommend that you go to iTunes or to either Pokerati or Tao of Poker and check out the most original poker podcast out there.

This is not a paid advertisement. It’s just that good.

Until next time, make mine poker!

In the World of Television, there exists One Man willing to go where other poker players dare not tread. This is the land where poker and television meet, not at the Rio or on ESPN, but some place much darker. The Blind Spot of television poker.

This time around, we have two mainstream poker references, both of which lack the depth of play or content to make micro-analysis worthwhile, but they do offer the mainstream audience a glimpse of our silly little game, while offering us a glimpse into what non-poker players think about, well, poker.

Treme is a series on HBO by the creators of the HBO masterpiece series, The Wire. The first season, which recently ended, followed the lives of probably a dozen or more New Orleans citizens in the weeks leading up to the first post-Katrina Mardis Gras.

I had traveled to New Orleans in the past year and had my own experience with the local poker scene, sharing some strong words with a local who insisted that I did not know with whom I was messing. The poker room was part of a Harrah’s casino in the middle of the city, and there was action hopping at a variety of limits in the relatively large room during the afternoon and early evening hours.

At the time Treme takes place, the N.O. Harrah’s was still not in existence (from what I know; EDIT: Thanks to Edgie who pointed out that Harrah’s was, in fact, up and running when Katrina hit. Whoops!). Instead, the poker is merely a backdrop in a couple of scenes in which a struggling musician with a baby and a baby’s momma to feed, blows most of his night’s pay playing poker with the other musicians and a random female proprietor of the establishment where they played. The poker in and of itself is minimal, but the mere exposure of the game to the general public is a good thing.

Poker, in Treme, was really a backdrop to show the character’s irresponsibility. While this is not exactly the ideal way for poker to be portrayed, there are some silver linings.  The female proprietor turns out to be an experienced player and wins the majority of our musicians’ funds. So, poker may be irresponsible if you lack money management (musician), but if you are skilled, it can be a consistent money maker (proprietor).  Not incidentally, when the proprietor sits down to join the game, one of the other players note how she always wins.

The Wire actually had a theme in one season where poker was prominently featured. In that show, poker was played by various groups of different socio-economic classes, suggesting that it is a game for everyone. In Treme, poker is not so much used as a universal connector of mankind as it is simply a backdrop for seediness and irresponsibility, so it is a definite downgrade from the Wire to Treme. But it isn’t as bad as the next one.

True Blood is another HBO series. It is based on romance novels about a world where Vampires are “out of the closet” once a Japanese company invents True Blood, a blood substitute.  One character, Sam, is a shape shifter who was adopted as a child. In a recent episode, he finds his biological family, from which he hopes to learn more about his past and his abilities. Unfortunately, the family are white trash. How do we know this? Because the father likes to drink cans of beer while watching TV and sitting on the couch in his tighty-not-so-whities. And what is he watching? The shorthand for low class, apparently: the WPT.

This one kinda annoyed me. Poker was on the screen for maybe 2 seconds at most, but it was shorthand for “low class.” Well, my grandmother likes to watch poker on TV, and she’s not low class (and if you say otherwise, she’ll likely stab you with a broken bottle).

Unfortunately, it is all too easy for poker to be used to show seediness or a lack of class. I suppose watching poker looks even worse. Playing poker can be shorthand for irresponsible. Watching poker is shorthand for irresponsible and broke.

I swear, if it weren’t for Anna Paquin’s naked breasts, I might even reconsider watching True Blood in the future. But love (of breasts) conquers all.

There you go, folks. Two more mainstream uses of poker, neither particularly in depth or positive for poker.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Here’s a quick synopsis of the hand featured in You Decide #75: I held 33 in MP and raised preflop 3x the BB to 90 (15/30 blinds, 1265 stack). The big blind, Itak, raises 120 on top, and I call. The flop is 366. It checks to me and I bet 240, Itak raises to 660 and I flat call leaving me less than 400 behind. The turn is a third 6 and he puts me all-in with a bet. I fold.

Most people questions the play preflop, and in hindsight, I can see how that may be the largest mistake of the hand. Stealing is unnecessary for the 45 chip pot and raises 3x the BB with 33 in MP is asking for trouble in a lot of ways. Obviously, superior hands will have me dominated, and with (let’s say) 6 players left to act behind me, rough math dictates that there was a 33% chance that a player had a better pocket pair and had yet to act. The general rule is take the amount of players left to act and the amount of superior pairs, multiply them and divide by 2. So, 6 players left to act and 11 better pairs (44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, TT, JJ, QQ, KK, AA) = 66 / 2 = 33%. (thanks for the math, Phil Gordon).

So, really, there was no reason to raise there. Once I am re-raised 120 on top, some players noted that it was a poor call. On this account, I am not so sure. The pot is now 315 and my opponent had me covered, so I could still win another 1055 total (not including my 120 call). I usually like to get 10:1 on my set farming, so actually, this is a bit short, but since I am in position, I may be able to pick up the pot without hitting my set. For instance, I could potentially pick up a pot with an Ace-high or AKx flop if my opponent has a pocket pair that doesn’t hit a set. So, while this is not maybe the best call, I feel it is somewhat justified because of implied pot odds, position, and the possibility that I can win without the best hand.  It doesn’t hurt that I have enough chips and the blinds are low enough that I could call preflop and fold postflop if I miss.

On the flop, no one seems to mind my initial bet, but some people questioned why I didn’t re-shove after my opponent re-raised. To be frank, I didn’t see the difference at the time. I figured that we were getting all of the money into the pot, no matter what the next card was (boy was I wrong). But, assuming that to be true (which is logical, since the pot was now 1600+ and I had less than 400 behind), I figured a re-raise would obviously indicate strength on the flop, whereas a call would induce a push on the turn no matter what, and in the end, I’d get all-in without the risk of scaring away my opponent. Ok, maybe this was a bit of the ole fancy play, but I just figured no reason to push it when it was going to end up in an all-in anyway.

In hindsight, I really like my call here, but not for the reasons I used at the time. I like it because of what actually happened. I think it is a safe assumption that we were both ready to call all-in on the flop if either of us had pushed. I also think it is safe to assume that my call really was going to induce a push in most scenarios from the out of position player on the turn. So, by flat calling, I left myself with options while leaving my opponent with none. Granted, it was very unlikely that another 6 was going come, and any other card would’ve ended up with me all-in. But at least I got to see that info before I had to act. I avoided a bustout-by-suckout by simply calling, seeing the obvious suckout and running.

Finally, some people thought that even with all of the precursor, I still should have called the all-in on the turn because $5 SNG players are terrible. Other people noted the lack of skill of my opponents as a reason to push on the turn, although I don’t think that holds much water, since their lack of skill also argues for my call, since a bad player is going to get all the money in on the turn no matter what.

Well, last night, I played one more round of 4 SNGs (2 bustouts, one 1st, one 2nd, for a $13 profit or so on $22 invested). And you know what? The players did suck. They were making all kinds of ridiculous plays and calls. So, whereas first I was going to disagree with the commentors who noted the poor level of play, I now actually agree. I may be giving some of these opponents too much credit.

Even so, I still think that the fold on the turn was warranted. Even the worst player is not raising out of position preflop and then check-raising the flop with AK or an unpaired hand. At least that’s how I see it.

Thanks for all of the comments.

Until next time, make mine poker!

Hey yo, folks. Hopefully, you’ve had your coffee or other beverage and are now ready to discuss some poker! No? Oh. Well, this is embarrassing. I didn’t really prepare for anything else. What? Ok. I guess we’ll just do the hand thing anyway.

This was a hand in one of the $5+.50 NLHE single table SNGs I was playing on Stars. I was playing four such tables simultaneously at the time.

Blinds on the subject table were 15/30 and I had 1265 in MP when I was dealt 3 3. I had been mostly passive with some bursts of raises and opted to raise this hand to 90 after it folded to me. It folded to the BB, Itak, who raised to 210, or 120 more. I opted to call in position, hoping to hit a set.

The flop was a beautiful 3 6 6. I flopped a full house! BOOM! I think. Or, CHOO CHOO, as the case may be.

Itak was first to act and checked. I decided to be 240 into the 420 pot. I was c-betting fairly regularly and thought that a check would be suspicious. To my joy, he raised 420 on top, or 660 total. I decided to just flat call, even though that only left me with less than 400 chips. At the time, I figured that we were going to get the chips all-in on the turn no matter what, so I may as well continue to look like I was hesitant and maybe he’d do the work for me.

The turn was a 6. Itak bet 420, to put me all-in. I folded.

The way I saw it, Itak likely had a pocket pair, and any pocket pair better than 22 had me beat. The 6 was a terrible turn, but once it happened, I had to accept it. There was a slim chance, I suppose, that my opponent had AK, but assuming that to be true, why raise on the flop and lead with a bet on the turn. Now, I suppose, he could have put me on two high-cards, but based on the action, I just thought it much more likely that he had a pocket pair.

So, opinions on the hand? Was my fold too weak? Should I have got it in on the flop or was that just a red herring (i.e., it didn’t matter either way, until that turn came and everything changed).

Your thoughts?

Until next time, make mine poker!

Okay, guys. It’s time to level with you. We are ore than 6 mmonths into 2010 and nothing is going according to plan. I’m not playing nearly as often as I need to to reach my 2010 goal and what little time I’ve played, I’ve been mostly treading water. I’m only up about $2k for 2010 when I was hoping to be up around $5k or more by now.

What’s a man to do?

The first thing I have to do is remember that the yearly goal does not mean anything. Poker does not abide by calendars. If I catch my goal on Jan. 2, 2011 instead of Dec. 31, 2010, does it really matter? Not to my bank account. Not to me. Not to poker.

The second thing I have to do is play more poker. I figured I could do this by playing online. Then I stumbled onto the third thing I have to do.

The third thing is to not push the action. I need to get my sea legs back and I also have to avoid leaking chips because I’m over eager and overplaying my cards. In that vein, I dusted off about 1/2 of my reload on Stars, which is not really that big a deal financially, but I don’t want to reload anytime soon. So, bankroll management online will be the stop gap and warm up, and hopefully, some live sessions in Pennsylvania or AC will help me put some more sessions in for worthwhile money.

In that vein, I four-tabled two sets of lower-buy-in SNGs last night, and won about 50% of my buyins across the two sets of SNGs. I think this may be my bread and butter for now. Chasing the large MTTs is just not a smart move on a handicapped budget and the four-at-once play forces me to pay more attention since there is always something happening. The compacted variance is nice, too. If I bust from one, its no big deal because I have several more going, and I look at them as though they were part of one large Matrix SNG, albeit without some of the incentives of Matrix play (for those who don’t know, Matrix SNGs at FT award a separate prize pool based on points earned for outlasting and busting your opponents.)

Now, this was going to be a You Decide post about a hand I played in a single-table SNG, but this preamble is a bit unwieldy, so why don’t you go take a break, maybe have a beverage and then come back to discuss a hand. I’ll be here when you’re ready.

Until next time, make mine poker!