Fun Day @ Pechanga (for my sister!)

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 30, 2008 in General | 0 comments

So the night before we did our poker trip to Pechanga here in San Diego (I am visiting my sister, nephew, and mom) I put my sister through the ringer on NLHE so that she would at least last a little bit and have some fun at the $25 poker tournament.

We ended up getting to the casino about 1 hour early, so I sat down at the $40 NL 1/2 table to show her how its done and so she can watch and see proper table manners, as she had never played poker in a casino before. The game was, as usual, full of ridiculous gamblers and morons. There was two other decent players at the table but for the most part it was a flush-draw fest. And we're talking the PREFLOP variety with people gunning for flushes with crap like J9s.

I pick my spot and pick up AA UTG. I raise it to $6 which was the going rate. UGH - I get 3 callers. Flop comes JT3 with two clubs. Now if you know my history you know I hate any flop with JT in it. Pot is about $20 and I have $25 in my stack and I'm first to act so I just go all in. The lady next to me insta-calls as if she has a set. CRAP. The second guy takes about 5 minutes and calls too. CRAP. Third guy folds. Lady turns over 74c and the other guy turns over 93o. WTF. You can guess that (OF COURSE) the lady hits her flush on the river for a huge pot and I'm out $40. That sucked.

In the tournament I was basically card dead the entire time. I doubled through with the short stack with 88 and later hit a miracle 3-outer with A9 against AQ. With three tables left I'm finally given some chips and use my agression and All Ins to steal blinds to get to a point where I am about 3rd at the table in chips. Final table pays ... AND MY SISTER IS STILL playing! Wow! Apparently she had picked up AA three times and KK twice. I hadn't seen anything above those 88 yet.

Finally we were down to two tables playing down to the final table and the money. We had about 4 more to go, and I pick up TT UTG and everyone has been consistanly folding. I raise 3x the BB for about 35% of my stack (which is retrospect was a huge mistake). The SB calls and BB folds. Flop comes 369 with two spades. Other guy goes all in, and I had seen him do this before and show crap. I insta-call and he shows K2 two spades. Two of diamonds on the turn, and the J of SPADES on the river. Turns out he had my exact same stack and I'm out to my VERY LOUD cursing.

I check in on my sister (this is at the 3 hour mark now) and she's got enough to fold her way to the final table. Two people get knocked out, so the final table is down to NINE, and they all chop. My sister, in her first "real" tournament EVER and first time playing in a casino not only gets to the final table but chops the entire prize pool and walks out with $228. She paid me back for her buyin, and also bought me lunch.

At the time I was so super pissed about how the day had gone for me, but looking back I was extremely happy that my sister had such a great time and at least one of us came away a big winner.

Is a "Cooler / Heater" Possible?

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 28, 2008 in General | 1 comment

So I played for about an hour last night ... 2 tables on FullTilt and 2 tables on Stars. Both $25nl ... the games at stars are looser and softer in my opinion, but I just keep walking into a firing squad on stars, and I just keep making money on FullTilt.

Last night on Stars, I flop trip 7s on a AJ7 board. Villain bets, I raise, he reraises, I stack, he calls. He turns (wtf?) 99. Hits a 9 on the river for my $25.50 stack. That SUCKED.

On FullTilt I get QKs and raise it from the button with two callers. Flop comes AJT. SB bets the pot, BB raises. Oh baby. I stack and the SB calls with AJ. No boat and I win a $26 pot.

So after all that I'm technically even, although my Stars account is much too thin for my liking (I really didn't deposit much anyways and I am waiting for my UB check to come in to make another deposit there).

So tomorrow I'm taking my sister to Pechanga (San Diego, fantastic poker room) and she is playing in a casino for the first time. It's basically a $25 movie, since she has no chance, and I probably don't either given the combination of horrible players + terrible blind structure. But it's a day out for the two of us, and afterwards we're going to catch lunch and a movie. That should make for a fun day and an interesting post in the blog tomorrow.

Tournament Day

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 27, 2008 in General | 0 comments

I worked a half day so I didn't spend the day planning out all things poker. What I did do is play a few tournaments.

I tried the $2 quad-shootout where you play a 4-person table and if you win 2 in a row you are in the money. I finished 3rd at my first table, so that was a bust.

I search and there was a special memorial day $5k guarantee and I saw that there was $1.75 satellites which seemed slightly ridiculous. I can definitely afford $5 as an entry, but I'm confident enough to win a sat to get in even at these stakes to save me a buck or two. Sure enough, I won the satellite and the seat to the special tournament (on FullTilt).

This tournament turned out to have 3,800+ entrants, easily the biggest field I have ever seen in an online tournament. In addition, there was a $1 bounty on each player, which made it a lot of fun. After 2.5 hours of playing I did end up in the money (+$7.80) and knocked out four players (+$4). Once I made the money my stack was dwindling so I tried to make some steals and double up, but failed both times and finished a modest 362nd place. Not bad for a $1.75 entry!

I'm trying to think why I am enjoying the tournaments so much. I guess there is less grinding involved, there's a definitive start and ending to the poker session, and then there's the possibility of the big score (that tournament winner got $2800!). I can definitely tell my cash game skills have tremendously helped me in the STT and MTT arena, so the increased success is also an allure. A nice change of pace after 5,000+ cash hands this month is probably what I needed. Since I play poker for fun, I'll go where I am both profitable and entertained ... and for now that's probably STT or STT sats into larger MTTs.

A Very Frustrating Day

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 26, 2008 in General | 0 comments

To say today was frustrating would be an understatement. I honestly feel I should have made about +$100 today. Instead it was a whole lot worse than that.

It all started when I was playing the 180-person $4.40 on Stars. I'm on the bubble with a shortstack (but not horrible) and go AIPF against 1 raiser on the BB with AKs. He calls with KQs. Yes, he hits his Q, and I'm out. if I had won I would have catapulted to 5th in chips.

Then I played in 2 other tournaments ... and this exact scenario happens twice ... but I'll only make you watch it once:

Just brutal. Unreal. KingCurtis was playing with me and seeing similar results. Some weird mood thing, or maybe I was on to something in my last post.

So after hours of that (I should note that I did rebound and win a STT $5 SNG for $22.50 and then won 2 $2 HU matches for +$4), I decided it was time for some cash games.

Well ... it started brutally when THIS happened:

Just horrible. But in the end my system WORKS and I stuck by it. Set mining paid off big time with this hand where I took down an entire stack to make a positive of the night:

In the end for Today (Sunday):

STT / MTT = +$4.10

Cash Game = +$30.50

Poker Menstrual Cycle?

Posted by icemonkey9 on May 25, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Of course, as soon as my wife leaves town ... I come down with a horrible cold. Just brutal, sneezing, coughing, congested, and a 99.9 degree fever. I still wanted to play some poker, which in retrospect was stupid ... but I got plenty of rest and am feeling a lot better today, and I figure by tomorrow I will be feeling good.

So yesterday at the cash tables wasn't a lot of fun. My KK gets cracked for a stack against A9 when we both hit our flushes ... and hands like QQ and AK were just getting me killed. I fought back a bit but ended the day down -$19.60 which is definitely out of the norm.

I regularly read a few blogs around the net - ChuckTs, ZachVac, and KingCurtis being the main ones. Everyone posted similar Saturday results of "variance" meaning a bad day when sets were getting nailed by bigger sets, etc etc. If it happened to me, and to those four guys all at the same time, maybe this "variance" thing works like a woman's menstrual cycle. It's documented that women who live together eventually have the same "cycle" ... and trust me we knew when that was when I lived in the dorms (it was co-ed). Maybe it's the same thing for poker and us guys.

The good news is that I played my first five-table session after "graduating" from four. I handled it just fine and had absolutely no problems. I want to work my way to 6-tabling, especially when the bonuses for "refer a friend" kick in at FullTilt (I have 3 friends signing up so $300 to unlock). I ended the one hour 5-table session +$17.60 so I was pleased. There's much more to come today so stay tuned ...