I went back to Niagara Friday morning with Steve and Aaron to hang out, sweat Steve, and play some poker. Steve ran pretty bad on Friday, getting sucked out on several times all-in with the best of it, but was still doing pretty well when he got all-in with AA vs QQ 3 players from the money for a 1.5x average stack and lost. I hung out with gobbo, AaronBeen, and Mike some more on Saturday then came home late last night. Today I played a bunch of tournaments and was doing fairly well, but fell short again. I lost a flip for ten times the starting stack on Stars in the million to bust before the money. UB I lost AK vs KQ for about 7 times starting stack and on Full Tilt I lost A4s vs JTo and then KQs vs A6o to bust 22/1700+. So close. On the plus side I'm still running incredibly good at 3/6 NL. I'm gonna keep this one short and get to bed. Night,
Mike
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Niagara Trip Report
I got a ride with Steve and Aaron up to Fallsview Casino Tuesday night. The plan was to play one last live satellite and try to qualify for the WPT, and if that didn't work then just hang and play cash games. We arrive around 8 and meet up with gobboboy (who won the UB 200K guarnateed on Sunday for 45K), AaronBeen, and Ansky near the poker room. After grabbing some food with those guys Steve, Aaron, and I got in a $1200 satellite for the WPT. I didn't really want both those guys at my table but Steve got moved to fill the last seat in another satellite, and got to play against fellow Team Pokerstars member Barry Greenstein.
My table basically consisted of a bunch of bad and/or weak-tight players, plus myself, and Aaron sitting on my right. We started with 2500 chips and I got off to a hot start flopping TPTK to win a decent pot, along with a few other small ones. Then I won a huge pot when I flopped a set of 9s out of the SB in a multiway limped pot on Q97 flop. I manged to get all-in on the flop against AQ and a shortstack with 86 to move to around 9K in chips. Once we reached the 100/200 a25 level Aaron was opening a ton of pots and I was opening almost every one that he folded, and occasionally reraising him. Unforunately things started to go wrong for me around here. I raised preflop and cont. bet an A-hi flop only to get raised and fold. Then I lost a flip in a 6K pot against one of the tighties when my blind steal with QT got pushed on by 66 and I called getting around 2:1. Another cont. bet into an A-hi flop getting pushed on later and I was down to around 3K, well in last place with only myself, tighty (who kept picking up monsters), and Aaron left. I shove K2o on the button at 200/400 a75 and get called by tighty in the SB who shows AT. He flops a bunch of tens and I'm out. Aaron ended up making a deal HU where the other guy got the seat but paid him a few grand. As usual, Steve was luckboxing along nicely (his 64 beat JJ AIPF) and made it heads up against Barry Greenstein a bit behind in chips. Unfortunately they both flopped top pair, but Barry had the better kicker to bust him.
The play was so bad in my satellite and I really wanted to play the WPT so I decided to get on the list for another. In the mean time I ran into gobbo and he talked me into playing 25/50 limit holdem wih him while I was waiting since the game looked good and it was the only thing with no waiting list. I got dealt aces a couple times and flopped top pair a couple more to end up leaving the game ahead 600. After about an hour though all the weak spots had left and the game consisted of like 6 2+2ers (including Josh. and his friend next to me who I talked to a bit) so I got up. Perfect timing as my satellite was starting so I got in.
In this one I got off to a bad start and never was dealt any hands but I hung in there and stole some pots to keep afolat. There was a lot more action in this satellite, in and between pots. On the very first hand, an older guy won a pretty big pot off a younger kid when older guy obviously had a premium pair and young guy lost half his chips before folding his overpair TT face up to the turn push. Older guy eventually told him he made a good fold and then Indian kid flipped out for no reason and started cussing the guy out right to his face. The old guy got right back in his face and security had to come by to pull them away from each other and tell them to stop yelling at each other. It was so retarded. I believe the kid's logic was that if the older guy was going to tell him he had him beat then he should have also showed his hand, and that telling him but not showing the hand was bad poker etiquette. Obviously this was completely absurd and only makes him look like more an idiot than trying to get in a fight with someone over a hand of poker already did. Fortunately the young kid busted quickly and civility was restored. Anyways nothing particularly interesting happened in hands I played and long story short I get dealt K2o on the button shortstacked again, go all-in, and lose to fairly solid young guy who had all the chips in the BB with 44. Stupid king-deuce.
At this point it was like 4am and I had decided I was not going to sleep and just play a lot of poker. The next ~14 hours were spent playing 5/10 NL. I was up as much as 1200 but was a bit unlucky to only finish up 100. There are three interesting hands I can recall.
There is a huge call station fish who was been hitting everything and is up quite a bit. He limps in late position as does the SB and I check my BB with K4o. The flop is T83 and gets checked around. The river is a 5, the SB checks, I figure no one has anything and bet 20 trying to win it right there, but call station quickly calls and the SB folds. The turn is an A and I check. Call station hesitates and thinks for a second, then bets 30. In general he had been playing pretty quickly. Something seemed not quite right here. If he had a pair on the flop I don't think he would have checked it through, and I don't think he'd be value betting a weak pair here (though it's possible because he obviously doesn't think about these things the same way a good player would and I'd seen him make some weird bets). Also, on the turn there are a lot of open-ended or gutshot straight draws and he would probably call my bet with any of these (definitely the open enders and maybe the gutshots). None of them can win a showdown so "the only way for him to win here is to bet", as Mike Sexton says 8 million times per WPT episode. The pot is offering over 3:1 on a call so I only need to be right 25% of the time to show a profit if I call. So, after all this analysis; the possible physical tell, the hand reading, and the pot odds, king high isn't looking so bad anymore so I go ahead and call. He flips over the 64 and I get to table my monster and rake in the pot. I heard some of the other players mutter "wow that's sick a read" or similar things, but really the physical tell is a very small part of it, the hand reading and pot odds are the most important aspects.
Hand 2: I have been raising a lot of pots and playing pretty aggressive because the table was 6 handed at the time and I wanted to get rid of my supertight image due to card deadness, and beause other people were playing pretty tight. This time I find AKs and raise to 40, and get called by a player on my left who seems to play pretty well (solid TAG style). The flop is 663 and I check because my hand has some showdown value and I figure he will play fairly predictably. He checks behind and the turn is a 9. Again we both check and the river is a T. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a pair either unless he just caught a pair of tens (and I don't think he calls my raise preflop with many hands containing a ten) so I likely have the best hand, and given that I've been playing pretty loose he might not give me credit for anything here and call with a worse hand thinking I'm just trying to steal it since he checked back twice. I bet 60 for value (or hoping he folds the same hand as me). He hums and haws wondering if i have AT and just caught a pair but eventually calls and mucks what was probably AQ. Value betting ace-high in a no-limit game is definitely a good feeling when it works, though there aren't many situations where it's a good idea to do it.
Hand 3: Random guy UTG doubles to 20. In this game these raises almost always seem to be pot builders with marginal hands so when I find AK in MP I go ahead and make it 80. The BB, who has been playing very tight, cold calls the 80 and UTG folds. Flop K82 rainbow UTG leads for 200, and has a bit over 300 left. I think and fold. I just couldn't figure out any reasonable hand he can have here that I beat. Given what I'd seen of his play I couldn't see him calling with KQ or KJ preflop and even if he did the flop bet doesn't make any sense. Maybe he has QQ or JJ but again the flop bet doesn't make sesne. When tight live players fire out huge bets I tend to believe them. So I figure his most likely hand is AK, but there's also a good chance he could have AA, since he may not reraise preflop because when he puts in the 4th bet preflop it's going to be obvious that he has a monster, so calling disguises his hand a bit. It's certainly also possible that he has 88 or 22 and called hoping to flop a set and bust me, though he didn't have that much money behind so they're less likely. Putting in another $500 hoping to chop and win half the $185 already in there preflop when I could easily be drawing to 2 outs or less didn't seem like a great idea so I just folded. Maybe I gave him too much credit here, but I think the fold is best.
So when my 24 hours of poker marathon ended I went to see how Steve and Aaron were doing in the WPT event. Steve had like 40K and Aaron 70K (starting stack 20K) but their fortunes quickly reversed. Aaron lost huge pot with QQ when someone flopped a flush on him and he didn't get away, and eventually was busted by Juanda when he restole preflop with K9 and ended up getting it in after a 985 flop against Juanda's marginal preflop call with 76s. Steve had AA vs KK to get to over 65K and then TT vs 88 on a T85 flop against the chipleader to get a huge stack and take the chiplead himself. Juanda continued on his rush and finished the day with around 173K though apparently, but Steve finished 3rd on the day with 144.6K. Today is the second day 1 and he plays again on Friday. We drove back this morning for school and stuff but I'm heading back out there with him tomorrow morning to sweat him a bit, play some more live poker, and hang out with whoever else we know that's still there. Live poker can be incredibly boring though (too slow, too few tables) so I'm not sure how much of that I'm going actually going to want to play after already putting in a 24hr session yesterday. Anyways wish Steve luck, he has his day 1 report posted on his blog now if you want to read about what a crazy luckbox he is.
Mike
My table basically consisted of a bunch of bad and/or weak-tight players, plus myself, and Aaron sitting on my right. We started with 2500 chips and I got off to a hot start flopping TPTK to win a decent pot, along with a few other small ones. Then I won a huge pot when I flopped a set of 9s out of the SB in a multiway limped pot on Q97 flop. I manged to get all-in on the flop against AQ and a shortstack with 86 to move to around 9K in chips. Once we reached the 100/200 a25 level Aaron was opening a ton of pots and I was opening almost every one that he folded, and occasionally reraising him. Unforunately things started to go wrong for me around here. I raised preflop and cont. bet an A-hi flop only to get raised and fold. Then I lost a flip in a 6K pot against one of the tighties when my blind steal with QT got pushed on by 66 and I called getting around 2:1. Another cont. bet into an A-hi flop getting pushed on later and I was down to around 3K, well in last place with only myself, tighty (who kept picking up monsters), and Aaron left. I shove K2o on the button at 200/400 a75 and get called by tighty in the SB who shows AT. He flops a bunch of tens and I'm out. Aaron ended up making a deal HU where the other guy got the seat but paid him a few grand. As usual, Steve was luckboxing along nicely (his 64 beat JJ AIPF) and made it heads up against Barry Greenstein a bit behind in chips. Unfortunately they both flopped top pair, but Barry had the better kicker to bust him.
The play was so bad in my satellite and I really wanted to play the WPT so I decided to get on the list for another. In the mean time I ran into gobbo and he talked me into playing 25/50 limit holdem wih him while I was waiting since the game looked good and it was the only thing with no waiting list. I got dealt aces a couple times and flopped top pair a couple more to end up leaving the game ahead 600. After about an hour though all the weak spots had left and the game consisted of like 6 2+2ers (including Josh. and his friend next to me who I talked to a bit) so I got up. Perfect timing as my satellite was starting so I got in.
In this one I got off to a bad start and never was dealt any hands but I hung in there and stole some pots to keep afolat. There was a lot more action in this satellite, in and between pots. On the very first hand, an older guy won a pretty big pot off a younger kid when older guy obviously had a premium pair and young guy lost half his chips before folding his overpair TT face up to the turn push. Older guy eventually told him he made a good fold and then Indian kid flipped out for no reason and started cussing the guy out right to his face. The old guy got right back in his face and security had to come by to pull them away from each other and tell them to stop yelling at each other. It was so retarded. I believe the kid's logic was that if the older guy was going to tell him he had him beat then he should have also showed his hand, and that telling him but not showing the hand was bad poker etiquette. Obviously this was completely absurd and only makes him look like more an idiot than trying to get in a fight with someone over a hand of poker already did. Fortunately the young kid busted quickly and civility was restored. Anyways nothing particularly interesting happened in hands I played and long story short I get dealt K2o on the button shortstacked again, go all-in, and lose to fairly solid young guy who had all the chips in the BB with 44. Stupid king-deuce.
At this point it was like 4am and I had decided I was not going to sleep and just play a lot of poker. The next ~14 hours were spent playing 5/10 NL. I was up as much as 1200 but was a bit unlucky to only finish up 100. There are three interesting hands I can recall.
There is a huge call station fish who was been hitting everything and is up quite a bit. He limps in late position as does the SB and I check my BB with K4o. The flop is T83 and gets checked around. The river is a 5, the SB checks, I figure no one has anything and bet 20 trying to win it right there, but call station quickly calls and the SB folds. The turn is an A and I check. Call station hesitates and thinks for a second, then bets 30. In general he had been playing pretty quickly. Something seemed not quite right here. If he had a pair on the flop I don't think he would have checked it through, and I don't think he'd be value betting a weak pair here (though it's possible because he obviously doesn't think about these things the same way a good player would and I'd seen him make some weird bets). Also, on the turn there are a lot of open-ended or gutshot straight draws and he would probably call my bet with any of these (definitely the open enders and maybe the gutshots). None of them can win a showdown so "the only way for him to win here is to bet", as Mike Sexton says 8 million times per WPT episode. The pot is offering over 3:1 on a call so I only need to be right 25% of the time to show a profit if I call. So, after all this analysis; the possible physical tell, the hand reading, and the pot odds, king high isn't looking so bad anymore so I go ahead and call. He flips over the 64 and I get to table my monster and rake in the pot. I heard some of the other players mutter "wow that's sick a read" or similar things, but really the physical tell is a very small part of it, the hand reading and pot odds are the most important aspects.
Hand 2: I have been raising a lot of pots and playing pretty aggressive because the table was 6 handed at the time and I wanted to get rid of my supertight image due to card deadness, and beause other people were playing pretty tight. This time I find AKs and raise to 40, and get called by a player on my left who seems to play pretty well (solid TAG style). The flop is 663 and I check because my hand has some showdown value and I figure he will play fairly predictably. He checks behind and the turn is a 9. Again we both check and the river is a T. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a pair either unless he just caught a pair of tens (and I don't think he calls my raise preflop with many hands containing a ten) so I likely have the best hand, and given that I've been playing pretty loose he might not give me credit for anything here and call with a worse hand thinking I'm just trying to steal it since he checked back twice. I bet 60 for value (or hoping he folds the same hand as me). He hums and haws wondering if i have AT and just caught a pair but eventually calls and mucks what was probably AQ. Value betting ace-high in a no-limit game is definitely a good feeling when it works, though there aren't many situations where it's a good idea to do it.
Hand 3: Random guy UTG doubles to 20. In this game these raises almost always seem to be pot builders with marginal hands so when I find AK in MP I go ahead and make it 80. The BB, who has been playing very tight, cold calls the 80 and UTG folds. Flop K82 rainbow UTG leads for 200, and has a bit over 300 left. I think and fold. I just couldn't figure out any reasonable hand he can have here that I beat. Given what I'd seen of his play I couldn't see him calling with KQ or KJ preflop and even if he did the flop bet doesn't make any sense. Maybe he has QQ or JJ but again the flop bet doesn't make sesne. When tight live players fire out huge bets I tend to believe them. So I figure his most likely hand is AK, but there's also a good chance he could have AA, since he may not reraise preflop because when he puts in the 4th bet preflop it's going to be obvious that he has a monster, so calling disguises his hand a bit. It's certainly also possible that he has 88 or 22 and called hoping to flop a set and bust me, though he didn't have that much money behind so they're less likely. Putting in another $500 hoping to chop and win half the $185 already in there preflop when I could easily be drawing to 2 outs or less didn't seem like a great idea so I just folded. Maybe I gave him too much credit here, but I think the fold is best.
So when my 24 hours of poker marathon ended I went to see how Steve and Aaron were doing in the WPT event. Steve had like 40K and Aaron 70K (starting stack 20K) but their fortunes quickly reversed. Aaron lost huge pot with QQ when someone flopped a flush on him and he didn't get away, and eventually was busted by Juanda when he restole preflop with K9 and ended up getting it in after a 985 flop against Juanda's marginal preflop call with 76s. Steve had AA vs KK to get to over 65K and then TT vs 88 on a T85 flop against the chipleader to get a huge stack and take the chiplead himself. Juanda continued on his rush and finished the day with around 173K though apparently, but Steve finished 3rd on the day with 144.6K. Today is the second day 1 and he plays again on Friday. We drove back this morning for school and stuff but I'm heading back out there with him tomorrow morning to sweat him a bit, play some more live poker, and hang out with whoever else we know that's still there. Live poker can be incredibly boring though (too slow, too few tables) so I'm not sure how much of that I'm going actually going to want to play after already putting in a 24hr session yesterday. Anyways wish Steve luck, he has his day 1 report posted on his blog now if you want to read about what a crazy luckbox he is.
Mike
Monday, October 23, 2006
Not quite luckbox enough
Hooray! Today was Sunday so I played lots of poker. It was a pretty good day but again I came a bit short from the big score. I cashed the 215 on on Full Tilt and the 100r on Stars. The 100r was my last tournament of the day and I was running a little bit insane: 56 beats A6, 53 beats A9, Q2 beats 55, AT beats AQ, A2 beats JJ. Yeah, I'm a luckbox. I didn't actually get dealt any real hands though so I was only average stack with 16 left. It was folded to a good aggressive player on the button who had 120K, and raised 3xBB to 24K. I'm in the SB with 155K holding A3 and reraise, then am committed to call his push. He has the QQ and somehow I fail to hit my guthot+overcard on the river (rigged). Seems like a pretty obvious resteal spot but I ran into a big hand, damn. I seriously need to stop busting with two tables left this is getting ridiculous. On the plus side I also made a grand at 3/6 NL 6-max. Woot.
I think I've learned to adapt to the 6-max game pretty well, but my main leak seems to be occasionally just having a brain cramp and refusing to fold hands that are fairly clearly beat. I make good laydowns usually but every now and then I just decide not to drop a hand like TPTK or an overpair when it's clear my opponent has one pair beat. There are times to make stands with these hands but I'm talking about situations where my instincts are saying I'm beat, as well as the action. I'll need to tighten this up a bit or it'll really start to show in my results when I stop running so hot. I'm going to Niagara on Tuesday. It turns out that UB invented this supersatellite and it doesn't actually exist (wtf?), so I'll take a shot at one of the 1200 single tables and if that doesn't work I'll probably just play a bunch of cash games. Last chance if anyone out there wants to volunteer to stake me!
Mike
I think I've learned to adapt to the 6-max game pretty well, but my main leak seems to be occasionally just having a brain cramp and refusing to fold hands that are fairly clearly beat. I make good laydowns usually but every now and then I just decide not to drop a hand like TPTK or an overpair when it's clear my opponent has one pair beat. There are times to make stands with these hands but I'm talking about situations where my instincts are saying I'm beat, as well as the action. I'll need to tighten this up a bit or it'll really start to show in my results when I stop running so hot. I'm going to Niagara on Tuesday. It turns out that UB invented this supersatellite and it doesn't actually exist (wtf?), so I'll take a shot at one of the 1200 single tables and if that doesn't work I'll probably just play a bunch of cash games. Last chance if anyone out there wants to volunteer to stake me!
Mike
Monday, October 16, 2006
Sunday just isn't the same
No Party Million and no Dise 150K were the major differences. Since Bush signed the bill into law on Friday the online poker world has changed. Party seems to be surviving at least, but they've moved around their entire tournament schedule to try to cater to European players more, so their big tournaments are at different times than everyone else. Dise looks to be almost dead, despite the fact that most Americans are still allowed to play there (but they can no longer deposit). As far as I can tell the only tournaments left worth playing are their flagship 30+rebuys at 3 and 9, but even those have had their guarantees cut in half. However, the other main sites I play tournaments on seem to be doing fine. UB had a small overlay in the 200K guaranteed and full tilt got over 1000 players for their monthly $530 Sunday tournament. Stars had record attendance for their Sunday Million (over 6100 players) and will surely gain the most from Party dropping out. Hopefully the Party cash game fish get over their soon though because despite the fact that I've been killing the 600 NL games lately they're not exactly soft (I've just been running good), usually with 4-5 regulars at every 6-max table.
Speaking of which, I posted a hand on 2+2 and my opponent happened to see the thread and posted the results from his perspective. Basically, he pulled a sick bluff and owned me as badly as I've ever been owned. Pleeease Party fish hurry and get on Pokerstars. The 600 NL 6-max games need you. I have KThh in this hand:
So owned
In the thread he said he thought I folded bottom set. Yes, he knowingly tried to bluff me off of bottom set. People aren't supposed to be doing this stuff at 600NL. Also, I didn't play the hand very well. I was trying to mix up my play by checkraising without a monster for once and yeah, it got me in to lots of trouble. Still, I need to find some way to mix up my play here. I can't have my good opponents folding one pair hands every time I show strength on the flop, or I need to exploit it if they do. NL cash games are so complicated against good players.
Oh yeah as for tournaments I cashed the UB 200K and Full Tilt 500K. I was 4/90 when we made the money on UBafter running the table over on the bubble but two unfortunate hands later I was on the rail with TT running into KK and AQ meeting QQ. ON Full Tilt I was pretty shortstacked in the money and got a resteal snapped off to bust. I might have to ease up on the restealing. I really want to play WPT Niagara, but I've done terribly in almost every satellite I've played. If I actually manage to win a seat now I'll have barely saved any money over just paying the buy-in directly. Apparently they're running a supersattellite next Tuesday so Steve and I are probably going to go up there to play it.That'll likely be my only other shot at this one. Anyways I'm off for now. Later,
Mike
Speaking of which, I posted a hand on 2+2 and my opponent happened to see the thread and posted the results from his perspective. Basically, he pulled a sick bluff and owned me as badly as I've ever been owned. Pleeease Party fish hurry and get on Pokerstars. The 600 NL 6-max games need you. I have KThh in this hand:
So owned
In the thread he said he thought I folded bottom set. Yes, he knowingly tried to bluff me off of bottom set. People aren't supposed to be doing this stuff at 600NL. Also, I didn't play the hand very well. I was trying to mix up my play by checkraising without a monster for once and yeah, it got me in to lots of trouble. Still, I need to find some way to mix up my play here. I can't have my good opponents folding one pair hands every time I show strength on the flop, or I need to exploit it if they do. NL cash games are so complicated against good players.
Oh yeah as for tournaments I cashed the UB 200K and Full Tilt 500K. I was 4/90 when we made the money on UBafter running the table over on the bubble but two unfortunate hands later I was on the rail with TT running into KK and AQ meeting QQ. ON Full Tilt I was pretty shortstacked in the money and got a resteal snapped off to bust. I might have to ease up on the restealing.
Mike
Friday, October 06, 2006
Closing the Gap
As a rule of thumb when I say I'm taking a break from poker on here I actually mean that I know I *should* take a break, but I rarely get away from the game completely. I've been sneaking in some poker at night and the results have been very positive. I played some turbo single table tournaments on Stars (a mix of the 60s, 114s, and 225s) and ran hot, then on Wednesday I played in the 20/180 challenge organized on 2+2. What ended up happening is 21 people (all people who post in the MTT forum on 2+2) each wagered $160 on who would have the best results over 5 consecutive $22 180-man SNGs on Stars based on a point system rewarding how long you last in each. I was chip leader with 25 left in 2 of them and mananged a 2nd place in one of those to vault me into 1st place in the sidebet. The tournament only paid $720 for 2nd but I won over $2600 (80% of the pot) on the sidebet.
I've also played about 3000 hands of $600 NL (6-max tables) cash games and am up over $4K, running extremely hot. There have been some really bad players at these tables and I've started flopping some monsters again, and I'm actually getting some action when I do. This combination was basically never happening on my cash game downswing. Moving down against worse players defnitely makes a difference since they give me more action with weaker hands but it's about time I started flopping more hands that I can play big pots with. I've also made a few good laydowns. I folded trips with a weak kicker once when I knew I had to be up against a full house (I didn't even have to think about this fold) and bottom set another time when I figured I had to be up against a bigger set or a straight (35J7 board). Both hands were 3-way pots which made the laydowns easier and I got to confirm that I was right since the other player called down both times. Understanding how/when to control pot size and recognizing when you need to be able to fold a strong hand are probably the 2 key skills in these mid-limit games.
Anyways I've grinded my way back up to only about 30K from my peak a few months ago. I won't be playing tournaments this weekend because I'm doing the family thing for Thanksgving but hopefully I can continue to chop away at my downswing if I have time to play next week.
Mike
I've also played about 3000 hands of $600 NL (6-max tables) cash games and am up over $4K, running extremely hot. There have been some really bad players at these tables and I've started flopping some monsters again, and I'm actually getting some action when I do. This combination was basically never happening on my cash game downswing. Moving down against worse players defnitely makes a difference since they give me more action with weaker hands but it's about time I started flopping more hands that I can play big pots with. I've also made a few good laydowns. I folded trips with a weak kicker once when I knew I had to be up against a full house (I didn't even have to think about this fold) and bottom set another time when I figured I had to be up against a bigger set or a straight (35J7 board). Both hands were 3-way pots which made the laydowns easier and I got to confirm that I was right since the other player called down both times. Understanding how/when to control pot size and recognizing when you need to be able to fold a strong hand are probably the 2 key skills in these mid-limit games.
Anyways I've grinded my way back up to only about 30K from my peak a few months ago. I won't be playing tournaments this weekend because I'm doing the family thing for Thanksgving but hopefully I can continue to chop away at my downswing if I have time to play next week.
Mike
Monday, October 02, 2006
WCOOP #18: $2600 NL Main Event
Over 2500 players played this thing for a prize pool over 6.25 million. First was more than 1.1 million. I got pwned. I had a great table draw, there were several very weak players at my table and no one I recognized. I went up and down between 10K and 15K (we started with 10K chips) for the first few hours and then I eventually won a few pots and stole some blinds to get over 25K. I continued going up and down for a bit until I was back down to 18K or so and raised 3xBB to 4500 with AA. The BB called. The flop came J33 and he checks to me and I check behind. The slowplay might be suspicious to some players but this guy was just pretty bad and I wanted to make sure to give him every chance to get his money in against me here. The turn was a blank and he shoved so I instacalled. He had the KJ so my slowplay didn't matter anyways, and he's drawing to 2 outs.
I didn't do much in the other tournaments I was playing either, busting just before the final table again in a 100r on Dise for my only cash. I've probably done that 3 times in the last few weeks and only made one final table in these (a 5th). I'm not sure what the plan will be to rebuild from here, but it will probably involve some sort of break from poker for a week or 2 at least. I hit the 40K mark today and I only have about 10K left in my online accounts now. I could reload some from what I've cashed out and won playing live but I'm really not happy it'd have come to that. Sadly, playing these big field tournaments the variance really is that sick. On the other hand I'm really not thrilled with the idea of moving way down in limits since it feels like I'd be giving away so much in EV when I still have more than enough money back to cover playing higher if I need it. I'll figure sometihng out. Oh well, I guess I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for this silly game for the rest of the year anyways.
Mike
I didn't do much in the other tournaments I was playing either, busting just before the final table again in a 100r on Dise for my only cash. I've probably done that 3 times in the last few weeks and only made one final table in these (a 5th). I'm not sure what the plan will be to rebuild from here, but it will probably involve some sort of break from poker for a week or 2 at least. I hit the 40K mark today and I only have about 10K left in my online accounts now. I could reload some from what I've cashed out and won playing live but I'm really not happy it'd have come to that. Sadly, playing these big field tournaments the variance really is that sick. On the other hand I'm really not thrilled with the idea of moving way down in limits since it feels like I'd be giving away so much in EV when I still have more than enough money back to cover playing higher if I need it. I'll figure sometihng out. Oh well, I guess I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for this silly game for the rest of the year anyways.
Mike
Saturday, September 30, 2006
WCOOP #17: $1050 Limit Holdem
Yeah I ended up playing this but I sold half my action so I'd only lose half as much when I didn't make the money. I had a big stack a few hours in but I missed a big draw and had an opponent get there vs my overpair to bring me back a bit. Then, as usual, I got outplayed in a huge pot: Pwned again
Yes, he did peel the flop with no pair no draw. This may seem like a bad thing, but in reality, by the dueness theory, this is the best thing that could have happened. Now I'm reeeeeally due for a big score in the main event tomorrow. Hooray!
Mike
Yes, he did peel the flop with no pair no draw. This may seem like a bad thing, but in reality, by the dueness theory, this is the best thing that could have happened. Now I'm reeeeeally due for a big score in the main event tomorrow. Hooray!
Mike
This is not good
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=law&Number=7482737&page=0&fpart=1
It remains to be seen how bad this will actually be for online poker, but it's certainly not good. It doesn't affect me directly in Canada, but it probably means less fish and therefore less money for me. I don't understand the exact effect this will have yet, but I'm definitely not happy about it.
Mike
It remains to be seen how bad this will actually be for online poker, but it's certainly not good. It doesn't affect me directly in Canada, but it probably means less fish and therefore less money for me. I don't understand the exact effect this will have yet, but I'm definitely not happy about it.
Mike
Friday, September 29, 2006
WCOOP #14: $530 Stud 8
Another bubble.... I never had a lot of chips at any point in this thing but I hung on and scooped a few pots when I had to to stay around. Several of the players at my table were awful but I didn't really get the cards to take advantage of them often enough. I made a couple mistakes that were a bit costly but I think I played pretty well overall. My bustout hand was when my 345 failed to get anywhere against my opponent's aces, and I finished 88th. 72 spots paid. The good news is that by the standard theory of dueness I figure to have a big Sunday.
Mike
Mike
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
WCOOP #13: $320 6-handed PL Holdem
Yet another poor showing for me today. I busted Isabelle Mercier early on to double up but after that I went almost completely card dead and anted back down to where I started over the next hour or 2. I busted out when I just called a raise from UTG with AA hoping to trap and the BB also called. The flop was checked to me and I bet, and the BB checkraised me all-in. I didn't have that many chips so it was an obvious call but I ran into a set of 4s. That's obviously one of the risks involved with slowplaying the hand preflop but on my stack it was worth taking some chances to try to win a big pot and get back in contention. Tomorrow is the $530 Stud Hi/Lo which I'm looking forward to and then the only other event I'm planning to play is the main event on Sunday. Hopefully I'll make a run in one of those, maybe I'm just saving all my luck for Sunday.
Mike
Mike
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
WCOOP #12: $320 PLO8
I busted out near the midpoint of the field but I was happy with my play. Three of my biggest hand involved pocket aces flopping top set. The first one I won a nice pot when no low draws got there and then 2nd I just folded on the flop because I was only playing for half the pot when 3 low cards flopped! The 3rd was my bustout hand which I'll talk about a bit.
Busto hand
I should say up front that I'm not a PLO8 expert but I think I play a little better than most people. So I start with AAQ9 with one suited ace. The first thing to notice is that my hand has no low potential. If the stacks were a little bit shallower I'd go ahead and pot it right here hoping that everyone folds or at least to get it heads up where I'm prboably 50/50 against a lot of hands. However, here I have enough chips that if I get called my hand is going to be really hard to play after the flop. Instead I opt to just limp along and hope to catch a big flop.
At first the flop looks really good for my hand, I have top set after all! However there are a few problems. First, there is a low draw and a flush draw out there, and also anyone with a 24/25/or 45 low draw has a gutshot as well. If they have 245 they have a little wrap straight draw since any 2,4, or 5 give them a wheel. So if we're up against some combination of these draws we may not actually been in that great shape after all. I decide to wait for a safe turn card before committing to the pot. Any thing that doesn't complete a low or the flush and I will jam the pot on the turn. If a heart comes on the turn I can fold and if the low draw is completed and he bets big I may also have to fold (especially if it's a 2,4, or 5).
So I get a safe turn card and he pots it. Now it looks like he either has a smaller set or a huge draw. With only one card to come I figure to be well ahead unless he has the biggest of drawing hands (if he happened to have both flush draws and the wrap wheel draw I'd still be an underdog!), but a smaller set seems far more likely, which would be a great matchup for me. So I go ahead and re-pot all-in and he calls. It turns out not only did he turn a smaller set, he also had a flush draw, low draw, and gutshot wheel draw. I was actually only a 60:40 favourite going to the river, a nice edge but not as big as I'd have liked. Of course he hits on the river and that's it for me. It's worth noting that on the flop he was a 51:49 favourite, so by waiting for the turn I was able to get all my money in when I had a real edge (and I could save some money if he outdrew me). In split pot games you need to be careful when you're only going for a high hand.
Mike
Busto hand
I should say up front that I'm not a PLO8 expert but I think I play a little better than most people. So I start with AAQ9 with one suited ace. The first thing to notice is that my hand has no low potential. If the stacks were a little bit shallower I'd go ahead and pot it right here hoping that everyone folds or at least to get it heads up where I'm prboably 50/50 against a lot of hands. However, here I have enough chips that if I get called my hand is going to be really hard to play after the flop. Instead I opt to just limp along and hope to catch a big flop.
At first the flop looks really good for my hand, I have top set after all! However there are a few problems. First, there is a low draw and a flush draw out there, and also anyone with a 24/25/or 45 low draw has a gutshot as well. If they have 245 they have a little wrap straight draw since any 2,4, or 5 give them a wheel. So if we're up against some combination of these draws we may not actually been in that great shape after all. I decide to wait for a safe turn card before committing to the pot. Any thing that doesn't complete a low or the flush and I will jam the pot on the turn. If a heart comes on the turn I can fold and if the low draw is completed and he bets big I may also have to fold (especially if it's a 2,4, or 5).
So I get a safe turn card and he pots it. Now it looks like he either has a smaller set or a huge draw. With only one card to come I figure to be well ahead unless he has the biggest of drawing hands (if he happened to have both flush draws and the wrap wheel draw I'd still be an underdog!), but a smaller set seems far more likely, which would be a great matchup for me. So I go ahead and re-pot all-in and he calls. It turns out not only did he turn a smaller set, he also had a flush draw, low draw, and gutshot wheel draw. I was actually only a 60:40 favourite going to the river, a nice edge but not as big as I'd have liked. Of course he hits on the river and that's it for me. It's worth noting that on the flop he was a 51:49 favourite, so by waiting for the turn I was able to get all my money in when I had a real edge (and I could save some money if he outdrew me). In split pot games you need to be careful when you're only going for a high hand.
Mike
Monday, September 25, 2006
This is Getting Kind of Stupid
Today the onslaught of terrible beats continued as I passed the 30K mark. I didn't cash in a single tournament, though at least I won at cash games for once. I lost a massive pot in the $1000 WCOOP event that would have given me a top 10 stack at least. Supposedly the guy who busted me was TJ Cloutier, or at least it's supposed to be his account. He was playing like a pretty big fish so I have no idea if it was actually him, but it very well could be. I'd reraised him a few hands earlier when he raised in late position and I guess he wasn't going to let me do it again, even though the situation is completely different when it happens in early position. Pwned
Similar stuff happened in most of the other tournaments. In particular I lost another really big pot on Full Tilt when my AA got all-in against QQ and he spiked a Q on the river. Anyways that's enough talk about bad beats they're really not very interesting. Amazingly I'm not overly upset about this. I guess it's proboably because even after losing the 30K I'm still way ahead of where I was 4 months ago. Like 6 months ago my bankroll was barely 5 figures and now I've lost 3 times that in a couple months and I'm ok. When I zoom out and look at the big picture this year is still going very well overall and I guess knowing that, along with the fact that I know I'm still playing well and it's just a matter of time before I start winning, are the things I focus on to know that this is going to be fine eventually. Though I still can't help but feel like it'd sure be nice if eventually happened sooner than later. Oh well, I'm going to get some sleep. Not playing tomorrow but I'm planning to play the WCOOP events on tues/wed/thurs. I'll probably buy into a couple with frequent player points just to help ease the swing a bit.
Mike
Similar stuff happened in most of the other tournaments. In particular I lost another really big pot on Full Tilt when my AA got all-in against QQ and he spiked a Q on the river. Anyways that's enough talk about bad beats they're really not very interesting. Amazingly I'm not overly upset about this. I guess it's proboably because even after losing the 30K I'm still way ahead of where I was 4 months ago. Like 6 months ago my bankroll was barely 5 figures and now I've lost 3 times that in a couple months and I'm ok. When I zoom out and look at the big picture this year is still going very well overall and I guess knowing that, along with the fact that I know I'm still playing well and it's just a matter of time before I start winning, are the things I focus on to know that this is going to be fine eventually. Though I still can't help but feel like it'd sure be nice if eventually happened sooner than later. Oh well, I'm going to get some sleep. Not playing tomorrow but I'm planning to play the WCOOP events on tues/wed/thurs. I'll probably buy into a couple with frequent player points just to help ease the swing a bit.
Mike
Sunday, September 24, 2006
WCOOP #7 & 8: 215 HORSE and 530 PL Holdem
I got off to a poor start in both events, but then rebounded a bit though I never got back to average stack in either. I had my stack just over 6000 in the pot limit tourney when I picked up AK and raised to 900 (150/300 blinds) for the 3rd consecutive hand. This time I got reraised to 2700 and given how active I'd been this didn't seem like a time to be folding AK. So that leaves calling or pushing. If I call I would probably push any flop hoping to get him to fold the same hand if I missed. The problem is if I do flop an A or K he might get away from a smaller pair. I decided instead to just go ahead and get it all-in preflop since I figured he could have AQ. Of course he actually had the aces and I went busto. In the horsament I fought up to 8K after a good 2nd round through all the games. Around now Steve was coming to pick me up to watch the UFC fight on PPV at Aaron's, so Aaron covered for me for a few minutes. He had my stack up to 12K by the end of limit holdem but I guess he busted me in the O8 before I got over there. Doh. Today is a $1000 NL tourney. It'd be a good time to make my first cash of the WCOOP. After Vegas my ROI in $1000 tournaments is around 800%, so I'm going in very confident for this one :P. Wish me luck!
Mike
Mike
Thursday, September 21, 2006
WCOOP #6: 215 rebuy
Again today looked promising for a while. I picked up a few chips in the rebuy period at a tight table and finished the rebuy period with around 9500 which was a slightly above average, in for the "minimum" ($615). I flopped a set in the 2nd hour to get to 15K and was able to gradually build my stack to a peak of around 28K. But then some guy decided to make a bunch of flushes against me and take all my chips. What a jerk. My play on hand 1 looks weird but I think it's better than most of the other more obvious options. (Edit: The replies to my post of that hand are so bad. The last one comparing it to having KK when an A flops is my favourite, since the comparison makes no sense to begin with and his advice for that situation is also wrong.)
Hand 0
Hand 1
Hand 2
I won't be playing the limit tournament tomorrow but I plan to play both events Saturday, and Sunday will be the usual deal.
Mike
Hand 0
Hand 1
Hand 2
I won't be playing the limit tournament tomorrow but I plan to play both events Saturday, and Sunday will be the usual deal.
Mike
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
WCOOP #4: $215 Heads-up Matches
Won my first 2 matches easily and got paired against the biggest donkey ever in the 3rd round. All I had to do was make a couple hands and let him call off all his chips. I was ahead the whole match and then when blinds got bigger I lost every pot and he had a bazillion overpairs so I cried and stuff. Poker sucks.
Mike
Mike
Monday, September 18, 2006
Bad day for all
Sunday was not kind to the boys from Waterloo as none of us made a run at anything substantial. I donked off a 60K stack before the money in the Party million trying to make some insane hero call and took 2 bad beats in my first WCOOP event on Stars to fall just short of the money there as well. I hung on for a few hours after the 1st and finally got it in with JJ vs 99 in a pot that would have given me a somehwat playable stack again, but I got outflopped. I also lost a fairly big pot on Full Tilt when my overpair lost all-in preflop to another set on the flop in their $150 tournament. I did cash in the 100 rebuy on Paradise but busted with 2 tables left again. That was my only holdem cash today, though I finished 2nd in a $100 PLO8 tournament on Stars. There were only 90 runners so it just paid $1800 though. Go figure. I also lost $2200 at 5/10 NL to finish down like 3K on the day.
I kind of don't like talking about big downswings on here while they're happening because I don't want any of you to get too worried about me or anything for no reason. They're just part of the game that I've learned to accept and deal with fairly well, but to "normal people" the thought of losing that much money probably seems more than a little crazy. I also know that enough of the data is out there anyways if people really want to find out they can, and in general I try to be honest about everything in here. I'm not trying to make it look like I always win or something ridiculous like that. Anyways, I'm on a $20K downswing and it kinda sucks.
A lot of that has been at the cash games recently now that my hot streak has turned around. I know I'm a solid winning player in my tournaments and I'm just running bad right now so that's no concern, but I don't have as much experience in the no-limit cash games so I'll have to keep an eye on that and make sure there's no major leaks in my game. I've definitely been running a little bad in those too but there's so many more tough decisions there that I'm less sure about whereas most of my play in tournaments is a lot more automatic. Anyways, the plan is still to play a lot of WCOOP events and then reevaluate how my bankroll stands after that. I was fairly overrolled to start though so I won't necessarily have to move down in limits, especially with the money I won in Vegas left to back me up if I need it.
Finally, I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone that played and/or helped run the Ryder Cup team tournament on Saturday. It was a lot of fun once again. Things really didn't go our way this time around as against all odds we actually failed to repeat, but we made a nice comeback in the final round to sneak into 3rd and make a little money that at least covered a few beers. My next WCOOP event will be the $215 heads-up on Tuesday. I'll try to post at least a brief report after each of my WCOOP events saying how they went, though there probably won't always be much interesting stuff to talk about. Night,
Mike
I kind of don't like talking about big downswings on here while they're happening because I don't want any of you to get too worried about me or anything for no reason. They're just part of the game that I've learned to accept and deal with fairly well, but to "normal people" the thought of losing that much money probably seems more than a little crazy. I also know that enough of the data is out there anyways if people really want to find out they can, and in general I try to be honest about everything in here. I'm not trying to make it look like I always win or something ridiculous like that. Anyways, I'm on a $20K downswing and it kinda sucks.
A lot of that has been at the cash games recently now that my hot streak has turned around. I know I'm a solid winning player in my tournaments and I'm just running bad right now so that's no concern, but I don't have as much experience in the no-limit cash games so I'll have to keep an eye on that and make sure there's no major leaks in my game. I've definitely been running a little bad in those too but there's so many more tough decisions there that I'm less sure about whereas most of my play in tournaments is a lot more automatic. Anyways, the plan is still to play a lot of WCOOP events and then reevaluate how my bankroll stands after that. I was fairly overrolled to start though so I won't necessarily have to move down in limits, especially with the money I won in Vegas left to back me up if I need it.
Finally, I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone that played and/or helped run the Ryder Cup team tournament on Saturday. It was a lot of fun once again. Things really didn't go our way this time around as against all odds we actually failed to repeat, but we made a nice comeback in the final round to sneak into 3rd and make a little money that at least covered a few beers. My next WCOOP event will be the $215 heads-up on Tuesday. I'll try to post at least a brief report after each of my WCOOP events saying how they went, though there probably won't always be much interesting stuff to talk about. Night,
Mike
Monday, September 11, 2006
Frustrating Weekend
I played a bit this weekend and made some money for a change, but it was a lot less than I was hoping for. On Saturday I played a few tournaments in the afternoon. I took a bad beat in the $300 tournament on Party to finish a disappointing 14th for like $900. Coming close to the big money but falling short became the story of the weekend. I did manage to win a $100 tournament on Ultimate Bet a couple hours later, but it only had 92 people so it paid only $2850. It was a win though so I was feeling confident coming into today. From the begining today things were just going right. I was hitting flops, and catching lucky cards all over the place. I don't think I've ever run as good as I did for a 2 hour period this afternoon. I hit a completely insane number of 2 outers coming back from 1500 chips to 40K in the $200 on Ultimate bet and 1000 chips to 16K in the $100 rebuy on Paradise. But once again, I went cold at the most important times.
I had big stacks deep in the $200 buy-ins on UB, Dise, and Full Tilt, but I just couldn't make a final table. First I busted 35/893 on UB, then 27/812 on Dise. I took a bad beat on FT when my AQ lost to A5 all-in preflop but battled back to a respectable stack before losing a coinflip, 22 losing to AK to bust 25/1217. Between the three I cashed for a total of $2600, which at least was enough to put me slightly ahead on the day. You really have to make final tables to win any real money at these things though.
Anyways, no more poker until next weekend when the WCOOP starts and I'm also playing in a friendly team tournament on Saturday with some good people from pokerforum.ca. I'm a member of the defending champs, Team Waterloo, and it's hard to imagine us not repeating :P. OK now that I got my trash talking in I'm heading to bed. Peace,
Mike
I had big stacks deep in the $200 buy-ins on UB, Dise, and Full Tilt, but I just couldn't make a final table. First I busted 35/893 on UB, then 27/812 on Dise. I took a bad beat on FT when my AQ lost to A5 all-in preflop but battled back to a respectable stack before losing a coinflip, 22
Anyways, no more poker until next weekend when the WCOOP starts and I'm also playing in a friendly team tournament on Saturday with some good people from pokerforum.ca. I'm a member of the defending champs, Team Waterloo, and it's hard to imagine us not repeating :P. OK now that I got my trash talking in I'm heading to bed. Peace,
Mike
Monday, September 04, 2006
Back after a short break
I didn't play much poker at all in the week I was home. I was only there for a week so I tried to spend as much of that time as I could with friends and family. Then when I got back I had to move into my new place for the fall. I played some this week though once I got settled in and the results have continued to be fairly poor. I haven't had any good scores in a while though my cash games results have still been very good to help balance things a little. Today I did the usual Sunday thing and it was looking very promising for a while before I took a few tough beats. My TPTK got outdrawn by a donkey with a flush draw fairly deep in the Stars million and I lost a fairly big pot when my 2 pair got outdrawn on the river in the 2nd chance. I was chipleader in the $200 tournament on Full Tilt early on but couldn't find hands to continue building my stack and ended up busting just short of the money. Steve and Mike both made final tables though in $200 buy-ins. Mike finished 6th on Paradise for $6K, and Steve finished 2nd on UB for a nice $26K.
The plan from here is to not play too much for the next couple weeks until the WCOOP where I'm planning to play all of the events that are in games I know how to play. Should that go poorly I will officially be on a nice downswing, but that's poker. I mentioned I had some poker goals in my last post and I guess I'll write them here. I don't know how many of these I'll actually be able to accomplish but you need something to aim for and keep you motivated.
1. Final table a WCOOP event.
2. Final table then make a big score in a "major" Sunday tournament (I have one final table in the $200 on Paradise, 7th for about 5K).
3. Satellite into WPT Niagara (the first ever WPT event in Canada).
4. Satellite into the Pokerstars WPT event in the Bahamas in January.
5. Sustain a good winrate at $1000 NL cash games.
Obviously all I can actually control is playing my best all the time and continuing to try to improve as a player, but with a little luck hopefully a few of the above will follow.
Mike
The plan from here is to not play too much for the next couple weeks until the WCOOP where I'm planning to play all of the events that are in games I know how to play. Should that go poorly I will officially be on a nice downswing, but that's poker. I mentioned I had some poker goals in my last post and I guess I'll write them here. I don't know how many of these I'll actually be able to accomplish but you need something to aim for and keep you motivated.
1. Final table a WCOOP event.
2. Final table then make a big score in a "major" Sunday tournament (I have one final table in the $200 on Paradise, 7th for about 5K).
3. Satellite into WPT Niagara (the first ever WPT event in Canada).
4. Satellite into the Pokerstars WPT event in the Bahamas in January.
5. Sustain a good winrate at $1000 NL cash games.
Obviously all I can actually control is playing my best all the time and continuing to try to improve as a player, but with a little luck hopefully a few of the above will follow.
Mike
Sunday, August 20, 2006
It was a bad day
I'm calling it an early night. I played a bunch of tournaments and lost like 3 grand or something when I failed to cash any. I didn't get much sleep last night due to partying too much and it caught up to me later in the evening. When I get tired I lose focus/patience and I make more mistakes. I also lost a key coinflip in the only tournament I was really doing well in. At least I realized there was no point to keep playing. I'm heading back home to Newfoundland tomorrow for a week so I probably won't be playing as much. I guess I'm going to have to get used to that because I need to spend a lot more time on school next term.
I know school still needs to be my first priority but when I see first hand the kind of money I've been able to make this summer and even moreso the money my friends like Steve/Aaron/hit21hit have cashed this year I sometimes feel like I'm just giving away a lot of money if I don't get in a lot of hours at the tables each week. It's hard to say how long poker will remain this profitable so it's tempting to try to capatalize as much as possible while the getting's good. Like I said I know what my priorities need to be and it's not like I'm going to do anything stupid, but it's easy to go through stretches where you get too caught up in the game. I don't think I've been too bad overall. I'll almost always hang out with friends over poker for example, but on the other hand I haven't gotten as much exercise lately (playing sports especially) as I should have. I'll keep an eye on things and try to make sure I keep a healthy balance. The fact is that other than the occasional night like tonight where my head just isn't into it I still really enjoy playing this game. Combine that with the money and it's natural that I'm going to want to spend a lot of time at it. However, it's important to remember that there are so many things in life that are more important than playing poker and making money. Like most things in life it's all about balance.
I'm not sure why I decided to bring all this up tonight but it's something I think about a lot. I could go on and on about it but I'm already pretty tired. I'd better go throw some things in a suitcase for tomorrow.
Mike
I know school still needs to be my first priority but when I see first hand the kind of money I've been able to make this summer and even moreso the money my friends like Steve/Aaron/hit21hit have cashed this year I sometimes feel like I'm just giving away a lot of money if I don't get in a lot of hours at the tables each week. It's hard to say how long poker will remain this profitable so it's tempting to try to capatalize as much as possible while the getting's good. Like I said I know what my priorities need to be and it's not like I'm going to do anything stupid, but it's easy to go through stretches where you get too caught up in the game. I don't think I've been too bad overall. I'll almost always hang out with friends over poker for example, but on the other hand I haven't gotten as much exercise lately (playing sports especially) as I should have. I'll keep an eye on things and try to make sure I keep a healthy balance. The fact is that other than the occasional night like tonight where my head just isn't into it I still really enjoy playing this game. Combine that with the money and it's natural that I'm going to want to spend a lot of time at it. However, it's important to remember that there are so many things in life that are more important than playing poker and making money. Like most things in life it's all about balance.
I'm not sure why I decided to bring all this up tonight but it's something I think about a lot. I could go on and on about it but I'm already pretty tired. I'd better go throw some things in a suitcase for tomorrow.
Mike
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)