Bar Poker

Played in the freeroll again tonight. I swear, my first hand was KTo which I had to fold on the flop, then I went card dead for about 45 minutes. I wasn't getting cards higher than an 8, and even then they weren't connectors or suited. Ugly stuff. I was on a table with Al, BigMike, Lewey, JDub, and a few other friends, so I had a fighting chance to bluff, but the opportunity never presented itself. It kept me from losing money on hands since I wasn't playing much of anything, but the blinds did take me down a bit.

The best thing that happened to me was when I got shifted to another table. There was more dead money on that table than I could believe. Damn, I should've started there! They'd call down ANYTHING... I saw one hand where a guy went all-in for a decent size stack with Q8o when a K84 flop came, and was called by A7o. The A7 didn't improve and knocked her down quite a bit. She went all in the next hand (even though she had more than 100 in chips with 4/8 blinds) with garbage and was knocked out. Table chipleader to out in 2 hands. Ugly stuff. I doubled up plus some when my AJs met Q9s and ended up with two pair. It got me back a comfortable chipstack.

In a twist of fate, I got shifted back to the table that I'd come off of. By this time, blinds are 10/20. I get dealt pocket 10s and raise to 2.5x BB, but nobody wants to play. Next hand, pocket Qs. Yahoo! Again, raise to 2.5x BB, but I get a caller. Flop comes out ugly - AK6 rainbow. I act first, and fire out another 3x BB. Whatever the other guy had, he figured I had something better and folded. Unfortunately, my luck left me at that point and I was back to getting 74o. After getting blinded down, I find AJs UTG and go all in - which was unfortunately a little more than 2x BB. Lewey calls me and BB folds. He flops over AJo, and without a flush we split the pot. Nothing else comes and I go all in when the BB gets to me... and lose. I was out in 10th place, but I thought that was pretty good for the crap I was getting.

No online poker tonight. Fighting with my blog right now... and I think it's' winning. Note the new Full Tilt Poker banner... looks nice, huh? Yeah, but I'm having problems getting it to populate every where I want it. Ugh. I need a crash course in html...

Movin' on up!

I got to play a decent amount of poker this weekend. Of course, this meant that I didn't buy new couches for my living room or clean out half the number of boxes I wanted to. There has to be a tradeoff somewhere - work or sanity. I chose sanity.

After some tentative past forays into the next level (.25/.50 NL) on Full Tilt, I've moved up there permanently. I am an admittedly very low-limit player on the conservative side. I found that the playing style actually works better for me there, and I did pretty well this weekend. Even taking a hit with some horrible suckouts, I made $120+ in 8 hours or so. The suckouts were ugly - lost $40+ in two hands, one right after the other. AK vs. AJ, and he caught a runner-runner straight against my two pair. If that wasn't bad enough, on the other table I get my AK killed when A2o calls my all-in and catches a 2 on the river. I made all of that up and more over the course of the following couple hours.

The amusing part of the afternoon comes when Al pops onto my table from the Boathouse, where he's watching football with BigMike and some of the other guys. I'd made a semi-questionable play when I did a little chasing for a flush and caught. The individual I was in the hand with took more than a little offense that I stayed in against his naked A (which was EXTREMELY obvious) that had paired. He proceeded to berate me over and over... it wouldn't have been so pathetic if he'd had anything to say other that I was a dumb F U K and that I sucked. If the disparaging comments were original, I might have cared. Obviously, this guy was just an idiot so I let him go. Al didn't. He offered to play the dumb guy heads up and tried to goad the guy into rebuying so I could take his money again. When the guy finally left the table (after many more you and your wife suck comments), Al decided to keep him company on several of the tables. Al is tenacious as hell, especially after a few shots of SoCo.

All in all, a good weekend. If I can get the rest of my stuff unpacked soon, I hope to have many more just like this one....

Sitting in the Waiting Room...

I'm sitting here in the waiting room of the Nissan Dealership, where I'm waiting for an oil change and making them check for a few little things that should be covered under my warranty. I should be at work, but I told my boss that I'd bring my laptop and work on some documentation I need to get updated. When I got here, I threw in my wireless card on the off chance that some business or individual set up a wireless network and didn't bother to lock it down. Since my lucky streak seems to be holding (I even found a lucky penny, heads up, from my birthyear in the parking lot walking to my truck), I was able to find a network with an excellent signal. So what do I do... log into work? Hell no! I fire up the browser and start doing personal stuff. Like updating my blog.

My poker playing has been way down lately. I did play for a little bit the other night, but the results have been mixed. Sometimes I'll drop a buy-in (or even two), but I usually make it up plus by the end of the session. I know that the levels that I play at are not conducive to large wins, but they also keep me from taking huge losses too.

I'm wondering if I get too aggressive on hands where maybe I should hold back a little bit. I know that I have to be aggressive to keep people from making their draws, but sometimes it doesn't seem like it does any good. (I know that I want this to happen since I'll be ahead in the long run, but...) Other times, that same aggression gets me in trouble with things like a flopped set with a baby pocket pair... I know I can't help people who slow-play, but if I'm in mid-position with someone behind me, I find that I build the pot for them to take. If I don't bet it, they bet and I can't tell if it's a push-out move or if they really have something...

I did get a compliment the other day from one of the better players who always seems to be up pretty big when I see him playing (which is usually most times I'm playing). After I lost a buy-in, he complimented me on my play and told me that I'd made a great play but there was no way that I could have put him on the hand he had. I don't know if he was trying to placate the fish, but... it was a case of all limpers, big pre-flop raise in the big blind with big slick, and it went to heads-up. Flop comes K 6 4. I have TPTK, bet the pot. Other player raises me 2x my bet. It looked like a scare tactic to me - he had a king but lower kicker and he wanted me out. With that board, I was positive it wasn't two pair. I doubled his bet and he pushed me all-in. I was pot committed at this time and it was only a few more dollars to call. He had pocket 4s... didn't even enter my mind. With the pre-flop raise, I wouldn't have expected someone to call with such a low pair. Did I play this wrong?

So I know I won't ever be winning the World Series of Poker, but at least I'll look cool sitting at the table now... I got my new iPod set up last night. The other MP3 player I bought wasn't an iPod since I'd heard how much of a pain they were to use and set up... their new software fixes a whole lot of that! My pitiful little 2000 songs barely makes a dent in the 60 GB I have to work with. It's so damn cool too! I can put movies and videos on it and have that to watch on the way to Vegas... or at the tables when I'm losing. lol It's only got enough room for 150 hours of video, so if anyone has any cool movies that I can put on here...

Ok, ok... so I'm actually going to get some work done. I can't let my boss think I'm a complete screw-up. For my next post, I'll be working on trying to get the women together for some of our own "events". We're equal when it comes to the poker tables, but the women have a definite advantage at the bar... and we need to plan a "storming" of some of the hot spots/cool lounges.

As long as nobody takes pictures, we should be good. What happens in Vegas...

Quick Check-in

I have so much to catch up on! I have new people to link up and maybe some actual poker content.... but I'm moving offices today so no time yet.

I just had to share my happy little story this morning. I'd gone out this weekend and bought a pretty cool Creative ZenPhoto 8GB MP3 player... it's supposed to have great sound quality and easy to use. I got it home, all set to install the software when I find out it only works on XP, not 2000 like I have on my laptop. I don't really want XP, but I figured I'd either have to update my personal PC or wait until I got my new work laptop. I hadn't done anything about it yet...

Well, now I don't have to. :-) I got into work this morning and found out that I'd won a prize in a company drawing I'd been short-listed for. I am now the proud owner of a new 60 GB iPod, plus the universal dock and a $100 gift card for iTunes. I know what I'll be doing today while waiting to move.

What a nice way to start a slightly hung-over Thursday morning! Maybe Al will be getting a ZenPhoto for Christmas...

Poker? I don't even know her...

Haven't been able to play the poker I've wanted to play this week. I did get in a short session yesterday, but it was after I'd gone for a couple of drinks with Danielle. Not good, but for some reason, I feel the need to play poker after I've had a few beers. Maybe I'm just gearing up for Vegas...

I sit down and open up a table on Full Tilt. First hand in, I get pocket Ks. Make a few bucks there. Next hand, big slick - flop comes king high. I had a couple more hands like that, and even without going to showdown, I've doubled up. Sweet! I play for a little while longer, and a few small pocket pairs bring me down a few bucks when they don't hit. I still netted a few bucks.... always a bonus.

I should be at the Boathouse playing poker tonight. Instead, I did the responsible thing and went shopping for some of the million things that the new house needs. I now have 2.5 bathrooms instead of one, so I had to get wastebaskets, soap holders, towels, etc. I needed new trash cans, so I got really cool square ones with wheels so I won't have to carry them anymore. Then, there's always the normal household goods that we need after not shopping for a month and a half. I know I forgot a whole lot of stuff, but I was tired of shopping by that point and just wanted to get home and put stuff away.

Things are going slowly but steadily in the house. We've made dinner here several times, and even had a few guests. I feel bad about people having to sit on the living room floor, but I haven't gotten couches yet. Or a tv stand. Or the washing machine out of my living room. Yes, you're reading that correctly. Long story, but the guys who delivered it were whiners who didn't want to lift it upstairs because "it's too heavy". Wah, what am I paying you for? We're having a couple of friends stop by tomorrow to help us get it upstairs. I'm hoping the couches will be this weekend's purchase. Little by little...

And I'm doing my best not to ignore this little blog. I wish I had something a little more exciting to write about, but nope, just the whining about the house. Hopefully this gets done soon, and I can move on to better topics... like the wild parties that we're having in the new house!

Sick of boxes!

I couldn't take it any more! I'd had enough... it was a gorgeous day, the temperature was above 70 degrees, and I couldn't stand to be inside anymore. So what did I do? Grab the laptop and head out to the deck for some poker!

I had a great session. I seemed to be able to read most of the players on the table and very rarely was wrong. It didn't mean that I didn't lose a buyin or two, but I turned $10 into almost $50 on one table. I ended up about $30, after all was said and done.

I buckled down and got more work done around the house. After a couple of hours, I decided that it was time for another fresh air break. Back out to the deck with the laptop. I was only able to get onto one .10/.25 NL table, so I figured "what the heck" and scrolled down the list to the .25/.50 NL tables. There happened to be one open, so I bought in for $20. (I've learned that I do better when I don't buy in for the max amount for the table.)

Things were slow at first. Wasn't getting great cards, and those I did missed the flop completely. I dropped to about $13 and thought about just giving up, but if I'm going to try to move up levels, I have to start sometime. I ended up getting pocket 7s, and called a 2x bb raise preflop. The flop comes 733, and life is good. I end up doubling up when someone else has pocket Qs and doesn't catch. I have to wait a little bit for more playable cards and drop down to about $21, then I go back up again when I get some good cards. I wish I could remember the hand better, but I ended up taking out two people when by pocket 10s caught a set and the AK/pocket Qs my two opponents had went down in flames. When all was said and done, I was up $55 for the session on that table.

I felt really comfortable on the tables today. Maybe I just needed a little break from playing (like the time spent moving) to allow the fog to clear. If I have time, I want to try to get two or three more short sessions in this week to see if I'm getting better or today was just an upswing of variance. I'm hoping that I've finally gotten to the point in the learning cycle where I'm making progress again.

Languishing....

House moving is in full swing! It's been 5 years since we'd moved, and I'd forgotten just how bad it is. If nothing else, it's the chance I've needed to throw stuff away! I've actually gotten rid of more shoes than I've kept... it's so sad.

Only poker I've played is the freeroll at the Boathouse on Tuesday night. I went into it saying that I was going all in soon, so they'd better watch out. I had two good hands early - JTo that turned into a straight, and pocket Js that made a set on the flop. I went up a pretty good amount, then languished (just like this blog) for the next hour or so. Nothing above a J. Not even an A-little. I'd played some suited connectors, but they didn't pan out.

I'm starting to get low, and my friend Danielle calls - she wants to go out. I get my next hand - QJs. I go all in and take the blinds, which were 5/10 at the time. I laugh and say I'm going all in again on the next hand. I look down to find pocket rockets. PERFECT! I go all in, and just one guy calls me. Imagine the surprise on his face... he had KQo and was just about even with me. I knocked him out and figured I'd play for a little more.

Two hands later, I see pocket 10s. We're down to 5 or 6 people on the table, so I push all-in. Get one caller - BB with pocket Qs. I was ahead after the flop with a set, but the BB made a runner runner straight and I was gone.

It worked out ok though. Danielle and I headed up to a little private social club we just became members of, and drank for the rest of the night for free. Yup, you heard me right. The bartenders wouldn't even charge us for a drink. How could you not like that? I left a $15 tip to say thanks, but I paid for it the next day. As usual.

More moving tonight. More cleaning. More buying of stuff for the house that we need and I didn't think about. More aspirin. Just wake me when it's over....