Played a Ton Today at $100nl

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 15, 2009 in 100nl | 0 comments

Well I played a ton of hands today at 100nl on stars and the tables were okay to me. LOL if ONLY I had shut down the last session right when I took down a stack. Instead I do what I normally do and take the free cards and hit the "Sit Out Next Blind" button. Anyways let me get this crappy ending out in the open and then move on.

Here's Hand 1 ... The villain is an idiotic 88/35/3.

Great right? Pretty standard stuff against that fish. Unfortunately ... 5 hands later ...

You're kidding me right? And this douche bag wrote after the hand "Payback at you" which of course tilted the living hell out of me. I just sat out, I realized I was BOILING pissed off. Went from calling it a night with a nice buy-in up to being smacked with a $56 loss for the session. Ahhhhh the swings of poker. So yeah, screw him and what a bitter way to end what was a productive day.

I played about 1,700 hands total, and was in the positive for the day, so there's really no complaining I can really do. I played well, ran okay and didn't run into any sick coolers so that was good. It's good to be able to sit down and play a session without thinking "omg what is gonna happen next to me" which might have been part of the problem.

Anyways, did some dicking around with a $5 MTT and an $11 MTT which of course ended with me shoving shortstacked as a favorite and losing. As usual, but that's MTTs and I was having fun with Curtis, so no big whoop.

Tomorrow will see more time devoted at the tables and grinding it out. I hope for a good mental state and a centered/balanced attitude.

Resuming 100nl Full Ring

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 14, 2009 in 100nl | 1 comment

Today I returned back to the $0.50-$1 full ring tables on PokerStars after what had to be a week away. I haven't been doing too much poker-wise outside of my usual slew of poker stories and editorials which has been a real blessing while my job and poker playing has been extremely slow. I put in two long sessions during the hours of 9:30pm PST to around 12:30am and hopped around 8-9 tables constantly and amassed about 1,300 hands. It was a big of good news and bad news so let me sum things up.

Good News
- I played a wonderfully patient game
- I made fantastic reads. Really happy about that. Made some gorgeous bluffs against TAGs.
- I played some hands perfectly, such as a flopped set that lost to a turned flush and I really was able to masterfully minimize the loss.
- Cleared the very modest goal of SilverStar already

Bad News
- Card dead. Double checked what I suspected with my HEM stats, and saw the premiums didn't come as they should have during the small sample size.
- Didn't get paid when I hit. I didn't slow play anything, which was fine.
- Ended up -$23 or so over the 1,300 hands but that's really not a big deal

So, that sums up my day. I did the smart thing and quit at the time time when the tables were just unplayably nitty. Instead of doing my work and freelance writing from 8am - 5pm like I usually do tomorrow I spent the rest of the night doing half of tomorrow's work so that it frees me up from (hopefully) noon for the rest of the night to play cash game poker during peak hours instead of against the nightly nitty SNE regs. Hopefully tomorrow goes well and I can take the very positive momentum and upbeat feeling I have about my game into my next sessions!

It’s Just Bad Luck

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 10, 2009 in General | 0 comments

Today I had a sweat session with pal BW who is one of 100nl's ($0.50-$1 blinds) biggest winners. It's really cool of him to help me out when things get tough and we had a session today where after losing the umpteenth hand and I said "I'm sorry I just really can't continue this" and he responded (not exactly) of "I understand, it's just bad luck" which he's right. I just don't know how to deal with it ... because it just won't end. Let's get to the hands. Mainly with this session I got into some crappy situations and made the wrong move. I guess that happens ... sigh.

Doomed

The villain here is an 11/7/2 over 700+ hands and I flop TPTK. The min-raise to my cbet is really bizarre and there's no way I fold to that so I flat and catch another Q on the turn. Check-calling to that bet pretty much commits me at the river anyways, so the check-raise is an okay move here but it's still a crappy spot, what does a nit like this do this with? KK hopefully but it just might be a set. Sure enough he flopped the set, turn the boat, and I hit the river Ace high flush which was meaningless.

Sucky Sucky

Again, not a great hand but a tough/bad spot to be in. The villain is a 60/0/3 over 44 hands and folds like never after checking his street stats. I flop top and bottom and he leads into me so I raise it up ... probably not enough but it was a pot sized raise. He flats. The 9 on the turn doesn't fill the flush. He leads into me again. Another set?! I give it a raise, he stacks, I tank. I make a case for both folding and calling and BW agrees that I have to call this against this guy. He shows 8To (WTF?!?!!) for the hit gutshot on the turn. So, he led into me and then called a pot sized raise with a double gutshot ... and hit. Bleh.

Standard

Pretty standard stuff, unlucky to have AK suited and run into AA.

Bring on the Shaman (100nl 6max & SCOOP HU)

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 7, 2009 in 100nl | 3 comments

The title of this post probably won't get many SEO hits but you'll find this post interesting. Yesterday was another excruciating experience furthering my funk/slump/downswing to yet unexplored depths. But this post ends in a funny story, so you'll want to keep reading.

The $15+1.50 SCOOP Heads Up Event
This might have been the most painful tournament I've ever played in. I played a bronze star who ended up being a 92/58 who folded exactly NEVER and ended up sucking out 4 different hands. The first one was an AK vs 58 on a Axx board where he called my cbet, 8 on the turn, called my bet again, and then hit an 8 at the river. Finally I fought my way back and pinned the SOB to 6 outs on the river with all the money in ... and yes he hit a 6 outer to gain an chip lead on me.

Finally, for my life, I stack off with AK suited ... and I get called...

I'm a 75-25% favorite at preflop and a 92-8% favorite at the flop. I lose and am done. Suckage factor = 90/100%.

Moved on to some 100nl 6max
I ran into a guy named "holtay" who played a 91/32/2 style over a bunch of hands at 100nl 6max. The guy was straight up an idiot and called down with Ace high and was paying everyone off left and right. I saw him raise the turn multiple times into an opponent holding bottom pair no kicker.

Holy crap. WHOOPS. So the other 50+ hands where he's paying people off calling this bet with bottom pair (or WORSE) and with me he hits two pair. UGH.

After that I had this beauty:

Preflop here is pretty standard, you get it in at 6max with KK every time, and get called by AK suited, so no problem there we both did what we had to do. I think the flop is okay but the odds don't change much since he has an over card (A), a gutshot (K), and the flush draw. In the end my 65-35% advantage through the entire hand doesn't hold up. Yet another $150-below-EV session in the books.

So where's this funny part you promised me?
I was on the phone with a very nice lady who represents the Ladies Poker Alliance, a group I'm hoping to do some work with in the future. I had briefly gone over how I have been going through a really rough stretch, so she told me the story of her friend (name excluded you might know him!) and how he got out of a 4 month slump.

What he did was hire a Voodoo Shaman who met him at the beach. After a "Curse Removal Ceremony" the Shaman cast his spells and then rubbed special secret oils on the guy's head while chanting a song. Finally he "cast" him into the ocean for cleansing and afterwards gave him "magic leaves" for him to carry with him everywhere he went for 1 week for the spell to take effect. In the end, she said the whole thing actually worked and he went on to recover from his 4 month slump and continues to play to this day.

Obviously, there's no way I could have made up that story and laughed at it when she told me. But the absolutely *sick* thing about it is that I'm actually wondering in the back of my mind if it really worked on some level, whether it be "mojo" or simply as a placebo. I say this as I head off to the Red Cross where I am going to donate platelettes for Cancer victims ... I have a rare blood type and try to get in as often as I can. And just try to guess when the last time I went in was for a donation? Yup, you guessed it, about 2 weeks before this huge swong started.

Here's to saving lives and gaining karma points!

April’s First 1500 Hands at 100nl on Stars – Hand Self Analysis

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 5, 2009 in 100nl | 2 comments

I've started out this month and decided to look at my results and review hands and post them to the blog as a way of self analysis. So far the results suck, down three buyins. Hanging in there though! So I am going to take the 4 biggest losing hands and the 3 biggest winning hands and analyze them. I would absolutely *love* your opinions on the hands. Let's go!

Hand 1: 66 Makes a Set

By the way you might notice the 4 color deck in the replayer - that was my idea Anyways, I open with 66 UTG which I've been told to do and not to do. So I do it. The big blind is a 16/10/1 who folds to 100% of flop cbets (I had 190 hands on him). So given that 100% fold figure I waited 1 street, yes a dangerous move but with the flopped set not a huge sin. He leads out with the 8 and the board's a rainbow so I raise and his thin 3bet was a little scary. I get it in, and sure enough he has KK out of NOWHERE.
Final Assessment: Cooler

Hand 2: QK Makes Two Pair

The villain here is a midstacked 37/3/1 fish, but I only have 30 hands on the guy. I don't really like my raise to $4.50 here and would have preferred an even $5 or $6 ideally. Anyways I flop 2nd pair and cbet and he flats. His fold to cbet figure was 0%, but again I don't have much of a read on the guy. I hit two pair on the turn and he check raises all in and its $29 more into $87. I can't really put him on a range but now that I think about it what is he doing this with that I beat? AJ? A7? KJ? Diamond Draw w/Pair? Maybe that was enough to justify a call ... this might be a good hand to poast. I call and he shows a set and I lose.
Final Assessment: Small Cooler w/ Lack of Warning Bell Awareness @ Turn

Hand 3: Top Pair Okay Kicker vs Idiot

The villain here is a loose unknown player (only 9 hands on the guy). He'd pretty much been in every pot so far. He shoves over by cbet but I went with my gut that said draw or bluff and he turned over top pair, worse kicker and I'm an 88-12% favorite. I lose.
Final Assessment: Pure Cooler

Hand 4: AA All In Against Fish

No assessment needed, I got it all in preflop with AA against a 39/1/2 Fish (178 hands).
Final Assessment: Pure Cooler

Hand 5: QQ Flops Boat

Villain is a 24/12/1 with a 5% 3bet. I have position so I decide to flat the 3bet with QQ worried that we're just in a pure flip situation. In full ring it's hard to ship it in but if this was 6max the money would have gone in. Anyways I flop a boat, and just get it in.
Final Assessment: Pure Heater

Hand 6: AK suited in Position

Weird hand. I raise (i've been stealing a lot) and the small blind 3bets and the big blind, an 11/11/inf with 6% 3bet over 190 hands, shoves it in. Calling here seemed dubious since the SB could just go over the top so sticking it in here with AK suited seems smart. SB folds, I hit the A on a flip and win.
Final Assessment: I won a flip

Hand 7: TT on the Button

The big blind villain is a 44/3/2 with a 1% 3bet over 168 hands. However, he 3bets 8% when in the big blind, so against this shorty I don't mind getting it in with TT and I hold up (and even hit a set).
Final Assessment: Good job recognizing he 3bets much lighter than usual out of the BB and winning when ahead.