It's been awhile....

It's been awhile but, It seems like a good time for a post. I have a few things to rant about that I'm sure you'll all enjoy.

Online poker is a bitch. Seriously. If you ever feel like you want to deposit some money online just donate it to charity. It will go to a better use and will make you feel way better. Anyway, I went bust online. I wish I was surprised but I'm really not. I can't manage my money online.(nor in person really) I always jump limits when it's not correct to. It's way more fun to play 50-1 then it is 25-50. And it's more fun to play 1-2 then 50-1.I took some bad beats along the way but there were many times I could have minimized my loses better. Oh and if I ever find out who NYGANGSTA420 is I'm seriously going to kick there ass.

Anyway I'd like to discuss this hand I played in a 20+2 deep stack event on poker stars. We were about 2 and half hours into the tournaments and I'm about 50 times the big blind. (I originally had the whole had typed out but it was kind of wordy so I thought I would just give the basics of it.) I basically got myself in a coin flip with a pair and a flush draw. There was a critical point in the hand where I put about a 5^th of my stack into the pot with the pair and flush draw when I should have moved in or folded. I called and was raised all in. I could either call and hope it's a coin flip (which I could be up against a set though I thought this was unlikely) or fold and have 40x left. I called and didn't hit. The real problem with this hand was when I put a 5^th of my stack into the pot. I should have decided then if I wanted to push in and coin flip for my tournament or fold and pick a better spot. If I move in I get all the fold equity and if I'm called I'm prolly a coin flip. I think looking back I should have folded. The table was real weak and I still had around 50 big blinds left and could easily wait for a much better spot.

A good friend of mine staked me in two tournaments today and I'd like to go over how I busted out of both of them. In the first one this hand happened within the first blind level. The player under the gun double raises. I knew the guy prolly had a monster cause it is very common for weak online players to double raise with monsters. I smooth call with pocket 8. I think there was one other caller. The flop comes down K86 with 2 clubs on the flop. He bets I call and the other player folds. You can make a case for raising here but if he pocket aces then It doesn't matter if I raise or not the money is going in on the turn. If he has ace king or pocket queens or jacks he'll prolly take a stab at it on the turn. So I'll get more value out of my hand when he has those hands. The turn brings a 6. I'm real happy about this card it gives me a full house. He bets small and I smooth call again. The river is a blank. He bets fairly small and I raise him. He double raises me. I like an idiot move in. Now If I sat there and thought about the likely hands I might not have went bust. The possible hands are pocket aces or pocket kings ace king, queens and Thats about it. Now Pocket kings have me beat, Pocket aces are possible but I think they would have just smooth called on the river there. Queens wouldn't have double raise me on the river. So basically it was obvious what he had. When I moved in he instantly called with pocket kings. Though I can see someone might make a case for moving in there cause gathering chips early is essential to winning this big online tournament I think it was clearly a mistake on my part.

The other bust out I was cruising along doing fine the blinds were 100-200 (no ante) and I had a little over 6 k in chips. I really hadn't played to many big pots but I had accumulated a lot of chips. I can't remember the specifics of the hand but I lost half of my stack when the board was 4 carded to the flush and I had the king high flush and my opponent had the ace high flush. Once I lost that I was at 3k and was kind of desperate and didn't catch any real big hands. It seems one of my biggest problem with online tournaments is my quest to play small ball and keep the pots small and gathering enough chips early to have a chance to win. I could have made case for just calling on the river with the king high flush and not lose half my stack and I could have smoothed called on the river with my full house and not risked going broke.

Now I'd like to go over my live sessions for January. (I didn't do so well) My first session (or well it's hard to say I can't remember if it was in January or December so I thought I might as well say it was from January) I played at ted's house a 5 dollar tournament which was a poop shoot and I just didn't get lucky. (I mentioned it a little in my first post) Also that night we played a small cash game. I played like shit during it. I really did. I couldn't focus on playing a 20 dollar buy in cash game when I could go home and play online for double or even triple that. I was bored and played like shit. So For the cash game I lose 40 (I think i'm not completely sure.) and 5 from the tourney. So -45. Then my next session I played in a cash game and lose 140. (the start of January wasn't so good) So at that point I was down -195. Then my next session I won a hundo on top of my buy in. so at that point I was down -95. My next session was a cash game and I cashed out 66 ahead of my buy in. so I was at -29. My next session is kind of a blur. I played for 12 hours. I think I lost 70. I'm not real positive though. If that's correct then I lost 99 dollars for the month. Plus I lost 9 dollars in late night Chinese poker. So that puts me at -108 for the month. I'm really disappointed with this last month of play. I I took some really bad beats for that 140 lost early in January I flopped a Full house. The board was AA6 I had pocket 6's. I was called all in by 2 ppl. They both had the ace turn came a 9 river came another 9 giving them a higher full house. Though I must say besides getting unlucky this month (which happened a lot) I steamed more then I normally do and this led to me having a few big number loses. I didn't know when to quit a lot of the time. Well this has been my first negative month in awhile and lets hope it is the last.

One last thing I would like to address before I go. I was going to discuss it in detail but I'm not going to (cause this post is already huge) but believe me mike isn't that big of a donkey for what he did with his 2 pair. I also read 2 books this month. The biggest game in town. And Ace on the river. Both were great and I'd recommend them to any poker players. Well folks I think that is enough randomness for one blog. I'm out

-The Degenerate Gambler-

A Quick Post.

I just got knocked out of the 1 dollar re buy tournament. I know I shouldn't be mad cause it was only a few bucks. I'm just pissed. I got 37 first place got 450ish. I think partly why I am mad is because Tim was annoying the shit out of me while I was playing. I should have just blocked him and concentrated. I found another hole in my online game. When I raise I nearly always cont. bet. I get myself trapped too often because of that. I need to know when to just realize that the flop had to have helped the other person. Oh well. For the most part I think I played well.

Right now I'm pissing my money away in a 5 card draw game on stars. Well I just busted from there. I'm done with playing draw till I read the mike Caro draw section in ss. I ordered a ton of poker books last night. Ace on the river, Read em an reap by Phil Hellmuth, book of bluffs, inside the poker mind, and the mathematics of poker. I need to start reading some more. When I first started out that's all I did was read poker books now I rarely read. I'm going to start trying to read a little more.

So, I really need to get lucky in cards within the next couple days. My roll is really low. And I think I'm just going to stay away from cash games for now till I get a deep cash in another tournament. I'm registered for a 4.40 180 sit and go so I have to go.

-The Degenerate-

Online Poker

Second post for the say. Wow I really am a degenerate. Online poker just hasn't went very well today. I lost a boatload. I just played this bounty tournament. I think one of my major problems is I make loose calls with like a queen 8 suited or something to try and collect chips when it wont hurt me too much but the risk reward factor just isn't that great enough. I just need to wait for a better spot sometimes. I get impatient trying to collect a big stack.

There was this one point where I had 8 9 clubs on the button and it was folded around to me and I made a bad play. I was fairly short stacked. I needed to just move in or folded. So I limped. Then someone raised and I just folded. When it was folded around to me on the button I should have just moved in. Most of the time they will fold and I will pick up the blinds and antes. If I am called I have two live cards(most of the time). If they have a small pair I'm a slight favorite. As Joe sebok would says I made the compromise play. Oh well.

Another tournament I had kings and it was like raise re re re raise and I had kings and I really wanted to fold. It was basically impossible though. At the limits I play people are just morons. Last time I was in a situation like this the person had ace jack suited. I moved in. And the person had aces. I can't imagine my hand ever being good there. But it just seems impossible to fold. oh well.

There was another interesting hand I raised in early position with aces. I didn't raise enough though I think only 2.5x the big blind. Though it was my normally raise. So it might have been correct. Everyone folds around to the big blind he calls. Flop is like K93. 2 spades on flop. He checks. I bet a little more then half the pot, He calls. Turn is another spade. and He just moves in.

I sit there and he moved in instantly so I really think he has it. I think it possible he has Ak. Though it's just as likely he has some strange 2 pair like 93, King 3 or possibly a set. But I really put him on the flush. I have the ace of clubs though so he can't have the nut flush but he could easily have the flush. Though even if he has the flush I could suck out. Also if he has 2 pair I could suck out and if he has a set I could suck out. I really thought he had a flush though. So I folded. I'm not really sure that was the correct move. If anybody starts reading this though I would really like there impute on it.

I'm done playing for today. I need to clean my room. After that I might read some of Killer Online Poker 2 so I can stop sucking ass at poker. later folks

-The Degenerate-

Starting Things Off

This blog will hopefully track my poker results for my live and maybe some online sessions. Also I'm sure there will be some bad beat rants and some hands I discuss that I may or may not have played badly. My current Ratio for cash Games wins is 6 out 10. Which isn't that bad but I'd liked to improved it. This ratio is only for my past 10 sessions That is when I started my tracking of wins and loses. My current tournament ratio is 0 out 1. The only tournament I played though was a poop shoot. I did misplay the hand I went out with. (I tried bluffing someone with a set). Which he actual though about folding. To start the new year off I'm down 2 sessions in a row. (the tourney and 1 cash game) One of my major problems is focus. I've been playing online a lot lately and you see so many more hands per hour that in a live game it feels like the game is in slow motion.


Right now I'm playing 2 tables online. The first is a cash game. I'm basically just throwing my money away. If I get to even I'm just going to quit out of it. Wow Just pot pocket queens doubled up and now I'm out of that cash game. I still down like 65 for the day in cash games though. My other table is a re buy tournament. I'm 15 deep into it. And once add ons come around I'll be 25 deep. It's like I love re buy tournaments cause you get so many chips and a lot more play but it's tough to play them on a short bankroll. If I don't cash in this one I'm prolly going to have to go down limits to make sure I don't go bust. I guess that's just how it goes sometime. Well I'm out of here.


-The Degenerate-