new update coming later tonight, but first a HH...

Rocket42tc didn't believe me when I told him that I folded QQ pf against him yesterday. I told him I would post up the HH, so here it is:

FullTiltPoker Game #4206004206: Table Michael (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:36:25 ET - 2007/11/17
Seat 1: MORONESSA ($409.60)
Seat 2: CheckZilla ($26.95)
Seat 3: Tjuus_Tjolk ($0), is sitting out
Seat 4: Rocket42tc ($317.30)
Seat 5: gawyn ($197)
Seat 6: themightyjim ($290.25)
Rocket42tc posts the small blind of $1
gawyn posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to themightyjim [Qs Qh]
Tjuus_Tjolk stands up
themightyjim raises to $7
mytibt sits down
mytibt adds $80
MORONESSA has 15 seconds left to act
MORONESSA folds
CheckZilla folds
Rocket42tc raises to $28
gawyn folds
themightyjim has 15 seconds left to act
themightyjim raises to $75
Rocket42tc raises to $122
themightyjim has 15 seconds left to act
themightyjim has requested TIME
themightyjim folds
Uncalled bet of $47 returned to Rocket42tc
Rocket42tc shows [Kh Kc] a pair of Kings
Rocket42tc wins the pot ($152)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $152 Rake $0
Seat 1: MORONESSA didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: CheckZilla didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Tjuus_Tjolk (button) is sitting out
Seat 4: Rocket42tc (small blind) collected ($152)
Seat 5: gawyn (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: themightyjim folded before the Flop

it is nice to know that I was right, but it would have been nicer if I didn't have to lose the $75 ;)

new post coming tonight. recap of grind week (I know I know I was going to update more) including what went well, and what I screwed up. Hopefully some interesting hands to post up as well.

WPT final table and F-me-oxwoods

WPT final table was fun. It was more interesting than I thought it would be, and I watched about 75% of the whole thing. I'm going to wait a write a more detailed post about this later, but it is really interesting how much crap is happening around the table all the time, and I have to believe that it is really tough for the players to focus the whole time.

I should get a decent amount of TV time, as in you can see me behind Nick Schulman's shoulder in the audience. However I left right after it got down to 3-handed to go play some poker myself.

Set is a pretty crappy 10/20 limit game. Not crappy because the play was good, but crappy because there wasn't much action. I got no cards, but KK was sucked out on once on the river, and I had top pair beat by a full house, who's cards I called on the end. I actually called out peoples hands totally dead on 3 times which kind of impressed the old folks.

I did finally make one nice play when I bluffed out 4 players with 7-high on a 65252 board. The last guy in the pot didn't appreciate it too much when I flipped up the nut low while raking the $220 pot in.

However that is where the good news ended. The table quickly broke except for a couple of folks who really stunk, so I gladly took the chance to play shorthanded with really bad players. It then got HU between me and a nice guy who I had bluffed out with the 74. Karma is a bitch they say, and it was certainly true. This guy proceeded to run white hot for almost an hour against me. He rivered a boat when I had the nut straight on the turn. He flopped trips and played them so passively he only made one bet on the big streets. He coolered me with top pair against two pair, and checked it down on the river (OMGZ). He rivered a gutter (he had a flush draw as well) to beat my two pair and just called my bet....with the nuts!. He didn't raise QQ pf, and then called on an AKxxx three spade board with the Qs and hit his flush (he was getting 2-1 on his call so he didn't quite have the odds lol). He also flopped a flush when I had the nut flush draw and called 1sb on the flop, 1BB on the turn, and then just checked the river. He could have c/r'd the flop and gotten at least 1SB more, he could have c/r the turn and gotten at least 1BB more, or he could have donked the river and gotten a bet if I had any piece of the board (which was very very likely based on the play of the hand). Instead he basically flopped the nuts, gave me a super cheap look at coolering him, and then made nothing on the big streets. Now that is what I call great POKAH! He also consistently referred to it as 1 on 1 poker, and proceeded to give me a few good pieces of advice. I didn't tilt in the slightest since he was a nice guy and I didn't want to be a jerk just because he was running good. I complimented him on his good hands, while silently thanking myself that he saved me at least 10BB or so with all of his horribly passive play. If this guy had started really playing aggressive, and maximizing his value I think I could have easily lost 50BB as badly as I was running. But he played so bad that it was really easy to get away from my crap, and never lose much in the cooler hands because the guy refused put in a lot of action (I guess he figured he was trapping LOL).

It was a little frustrating because if the cards break even I could have stacked this guy in a couple of hours. Instead I go down 35BB and some drunk joins the game and starts acting like an ass so we break it up.

$700 loss is no big deal, but it is a little frustrating when you lose it like that. It really makes me want to drive back down soon and play some more and make it back, but the 1.75 hour drive is a little much to be making it too often.

grind week is back on tomorrow morning. In order to catch up to my goal I'm going to need to play at least 2.5k hands tomorrow. That is a lot of poker, so obviously we shall see how it turns out.

I'll try to post with some more thoughts on the WPT event, and include some of my pics from the final table.

Grind Week: Update #2 and heading to Foxwoods!

Had a great day at the tables today. Played a little bit of everything. A lot of 5/10 limit, a lot of 1/2 NL, as well as some 10/20 and 8/16 limit, and a little 3/6 HU limit.

Grind week totals so far after 28 hours:

• 2,034 hands
• +$1,264
• 364 hands NL and 1670 hands limit

here is a NL hands where I played it much much better than I did last week:

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
Hand Converter Tool from www.DeucesCracked.com

SB: $70.75
BB: $178.95
UTG: $340.15
CO: $258.55
Button: $275.65

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qd, Qs
UTG calls $2, CO folds, Hero raises to $10, SB folds, BB raises to $18, UTG folds, Hero calls $8.

Flop: ($39.00) Qc, 3d, 6h (2 players)
BB bets $39, Hero calls $39.

Turn: ($117.00) 8h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $35, BB calls $35.

River: ($187.00) Jh (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $65, BB calls $65.

Final Pot: $317.00

Results:
BB shows As, Ac (a pair of Aces).
Hero shows Qd, Qs (three of a kind, Queens).
Outcome: Hero wins $314.00.
($3.00 Rake)

the hand isn't a brag, since anyone can win money when the cooler AA with top set. But I avoided making a really big mistake of 4-betting a guy with a hand that is at best 50/50 against his range pf.

similar situation as last week. reraiser is extremely tight, and I think his range is JJ+ and AKs. I just called pf because I wanted to see the flop and how he played it. Obviously when I flop the set it just becomes a case of extracting max value. I thought for sure he would have just stuck the rest in on the turn and river, and I was trying to make really weak bets to get him to come over the top with KK or AA and maybe get some value out of a suspicious AK. I was trying to look as weak as possible, but obviously if he thinks I am on a total bluff then it isn't worth raising. I guess I made a huge mistake of not getting his stack on the river (last $20) but the fact that I didn't screw up pf (and 4-bet a super tight player with QQ) made me feel really good.

couldn't find any super interesting limit hands. I think I tend to see nearly every limit hand as standard since I've seen just about everything. Did river a royal though:

Absolute Poker $5/$10 Limit Hold'em - 5 players
Hand Converter Tool from www.DeucesCracked.com

Preflop: Hero is SB with Jd, Kd
UTG folds, CO raises, Button folds, Hero calls, BB folds.

Flop: (5.00 SB) Qs, 2c, Ad (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (3.50 BB) Qd (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets, Hero calls.

River: (5.50 BB) Td (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets, Hero raises, CO calls.

Final Pot: 9.50 BB

Results:
Hero shows Jd, Kd (Royal flush).
CO mucks Tc, 8c.
Outcome: Hero wins 9.20 BB.
($3.00 Rake)

villains play in this hand is absolutely hilarious.

in other news a friend who occasionally writes for All-In magazine is heading to the WPT final table at Foxwoods tomorrow to cover the event. He invited me to ride along, so I gladly accepted. I'm hoping to play for a few hours while I'm down there. I would love to play the 10/20 limit game, but my friend doesn't play quite as high so we might have to go for the 1/2 NL game.

should be a fun road trip. I'll try to take some pics and write up a trip report to post on here.

later folks

Grind Week: update #1

played 966 hands. +$172.50. Felt like I ran so-so, and played pretty well. Thought I spewed in a couple of spots, and maybe peeled light a few too many times. Overall I was very pleased with both my play and the results.

It has been a pretty crappy month so far, and while that is to be expected from time to time, it is always frustrating when the first third of a month has gone by and I have little to show for it.

I'll look for some hands to post tomorrow, maybe something that will make me think and improve my game. Feel free to add comments.

later

Grind Week

Brutal day today. I busted out of a big tourney on AP with a bad suckout (two pair got beat when a calling station called my all-in with a naked flush draw and hit on the river...he wasn't getting the right price either).

Also got bluffed out of a big pot with the best hand (argggh) and ran bad at 10/20 while running good at 5/10 (arrrgggh). So overall not a great day.

But after I busted out of the tourney and got really pissed, I went and worked out for awhile. Cleared my head, and then hung out with my gf some. We watched some Scrubs, and now I'm feeling much better.

In fact so good that I've decided to declare this "Grind Week"! My goal is to play 15,000 hands this week. That is an average of 90 hands/ hour for 7 days. Assuming that I spend 30% of that time sleeping that means I need to average 127 hands an hour for the week. Attainable? Probably not. But it is a good goal to shoot for anyway. I want no more than 5k of those hands to be NL (since it is easier to multitable) since I really want to work hard at the limit tables.

so let the grind begin. update to come in 12 hours or so....

poker and life update

Poker is going fairly well so far this month. Although I’m no pleased with how many hands I’ve played. I’m right at about 6k, and I should be to 8k by now. Planning on trying to get in 6 hours tomorrow to get caught up. I guess other things just easily distract me (TV, girlfriend, working out, laundry, video games, etc), and also I don’t like playing in bad games. Typically if the bad players get up or go broke I get up to. I just don’t see any reason in fighting over pots with good regulars, and just paying the rake.

Here is a recent NL hand that I thought I played horribly:

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

Hand Converter Tool from www.DeucesCracked.com

BB: $435.50

UTG: $200.00

MP: $181.85

CO: $446.80

Button: $189.00

SB: $186.00

Preflop: Hero is BB with Qs, Qd

UTG raises to $8, MP folds, CO folds, Button calls $8, SB folds, Hero raises to $35, UTG raises to $75, Button folds, Hero calls $40.

Flop: ($159.00) 5h, 2c, Jd (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $125 (all in), Hero calls $125.

Turn: ($409.00) Th (2 players)

River: ($409.00) 7h (2 players)

Final Pot: $409.00

Results:

Hero shows Qs, Qd (a pair of Queens).

UTG shows As, Ac (a pair of Aces).

Outcome: UTG wins $406.00.

($3.00 Rake)

The villain in question was basically unknown, though seemed weak tight through 20 hands or so (only played 1 hand and raised pf). When he 4-bets me pf I can narrow his range down to JJ-AA and AKs. The problem is that I just couldn’t bring myself to fold QQ pf getting 3-1. I have 43% against this range pf, so the call isn’t horrible. Especially because I know if I spike a set I will get the rest of his stack 100% of the time (almost giving me correct implied odds). The problem is that on the flop I only have 22% equity against his range, and his bet is screaming I have KK or AA. I think the flop was an easy fold, and in retrospect pf was probably a fold as well. This player is probably not very likely to 4-bet pf with less than QQ, so I am probably totally crushed. I thought I played this hand horribly, and it cost me a buy-in.

Overall though I feel as though I’m playing NL very well. My winrate is very solid, and I’m quite comfortable 4-tabling and still playing a 32/22 type style (after 2k hands this month). It is providing me a nice break from when I don’t feel like grinding limit. The money is also much much easier in NL, since you can really just pick on the poor players and punish them for all of their mistakes. In limit you can only maximize your advantage to a certain extent, since you have to have the best hand at SD most of the time. But in NL I can win a ton of pots without having the best hand, and better yet I can easily isolate poor players so that I can make the maximum for the least amount of risk.

Pitching is also going pretty well. The last time I was throwing I felt like I had good command with my fastball, and my splitter was really falling off the table. I’m still struggling with my slider, but I think I might have found something by dropping my arm to a 2/3rd arm slot to throw it. It isn’t hat much different than normal since I have had a pretty low arm slot ever since I tore my rotator cuff (story for another time). I really need to get with the owner of the facility that I work out at and have him take a look at my stuff. He is a former minor leaguer who gives great advice and instruction. He has also said that he thinks he can likely find me some tryouts for next spring.

I’m also excited because two weeks from today is Thanksgiving, which is one of my favorite holidays. I’ll be back in WV for the week, and probably spending most of my nights two tabling on my parents crappy old computer. Probably won’t have pokertracker or a HUD, so it is going to be interesting. I’ve considered taking my computer home, but since I’m flying that is just too much hassle. I’ll need to get in about 5k hands or so while I’m home to keep my monthly goals on track. That could be tough, but I’ll do my best.

Feel free to add comments and tell me about anything interesting or something you think is worth talking about.

WOW

just finished the fight. If you like boxing at all and didn't catch it you should really find it in reruns or on the internet or something. Fantastic fight. Tons of action. A real battle. I won't tell you who won as not to spoil it, but wow....just wow.

pokering update coming later or tomorrow afternoon.

contender finale (I swear important updates coming soon)

getting read to watch the contender finale that I DVR'd earlier. I'm rooting for Bika because I think he has been one of the more watchable personalities on the show, as well as the fact that he is like a tank in the ring. The guy is ridiculously strong.

I think Coddrington probably has the edge though because he is certainly quicker and has a definite advantage in reach. For Bika to win he'll probably need to wear Coddrington down and try to score big or get a knock out in the later rounds. He didn't show outstanding stamina in the preliminary fights, but he also didn't seem too tired late in those matches.

should be exciting. I'm going to be playing for about 4 hours or so after the fight, so I'll probably update the blog again before or after that.

new post coming tomorrow

played about 1k hands today. ran really well in NL, not so great in limit. pretty much split the hands 50-50.

also ran, worked out, threw, and watched The Office (awesome episode). going to update tomorrow with the wrap up for my first 2/3 of a month playing pro, november goals, and maybe a hand to discuss.

if anyone has anything they'd like to discuss or see me talk about please feel free to post in the comments.

if anyone is going to foxwoods this weekend let me know because I'm thinking about going.

later