Would Have Had my First Royal Flush

I was playing in a SNG today.  I was delt 10c2s in the SB.  I of course folded it to me but take a look at how it would have played out:

I know pay attention to that at all is being results oriented, but trust me I'm not about to play 102o any time soon.  Hopefully some day I'll be able to see one of those that I'm actually in.  The closest I've got so far has been a straight flush.  It was pretty great.  I got no action on it though so it wasn't that great, but was still pretty crazy seeing that.

A Few Good Hands, a Few Bad Hands

Well over the last few days I've had some bad down swings, and just today I had a great up swing.  For the most part my down swings were bad beats or where hands that I was ahead of their range and they just happened to have the very top of it.  A perfect example of the hands is this one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (8 handed) - Poker-StarsConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($3.31)
UTG+1 ($4.70)
Hero (MP1) ($5)
MP2 ($9.73)
CO ($1.17)
Button ($4.89)
SB ($5.23)
BB ($5.81)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with J, J
UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, Hero bets $0.10, MP2 calls $0.10, 4 folds, UTG calls $0.08

Flop: ($0.33) J, A, 8 (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $0.25, MP2 calls $0.25, 1 fold

Turn: ($0.83) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $1, MP2 calls $1

River: ($2.83) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $3, MP2 raises to $6, Hero calls $0.65 (All-In)

Stratman1308: shows [4 7] (a flush, Jack high)

distrex: mucks [J, J]

Stratman1308 collected $9.63 from pot

Total pot: $10.13 | Rake: $0.50

I figured him for a weak Ace.  By the river I figured maybe two pair but still thought he just had a weak ace.  He had played this way with much worse in the hands that I'd seen him play.  But that's how things go sometimes.

I had some great hands today.  Here's one of the craziest I've seen in a while:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) - Poker-StarsConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($2.03)
UTG+1 ($0.98)
MP1 ($4.89)
MP2 ($0.88)
MP3 ($0.95)
CO ($5.17)
Button ($1.23)
Hero (SB) ($5.88)
BB ($1.43)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
UTG calls $0.02, 2 folds, MP2 bets $0.04, 1 fold, CO raises to $0.18, Button calls $0.18, Hero raises to $0.50, BB calls $0.48, 2 folds, CO raises to $5.17 (All-In), Button calls $1.05 (All-In), Hero raises to $5.88 (All-In), BB calls $0.93 (All-In)

Flop: ($13.06) 4, Q, 8 (4 players, 4 all-in)

Turn: ($13.06) 2 (4 players, 4 all-in)

River: ($13.06) 7 (4 players, 4 all-in)

Total pot: $13.06 | Rake: $0.65

Results:
Button mucked J, 10 (high card, Queen).
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
BB mucked Q, A (one pair, Queens).
CO mucked K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $12.41

In this four way pot, I had an equity of 61.7%.  That is just crazy.  I'm so glad I won.  I definitly would have been pissed off if I would have lost.

Aside from all of that, I hit 5000 hands!!  My winrate dropped down below 10, but It's up back where it was before so I'm gunna go ahead and count that as a win for my May goals.  I'll go back over my goals once the month is officially over, but here is my graph so far.

Well that's all for today.  Good luck and play smart!

Last Night Was Fun, Today Was Not!

Last night was a blast.  I signed up for one of the step specials for 3 FPP, and ended up coming in third place.  It was a CRAZY tournament though.  You start with I think 500 chips, which I didn't realize at the time, and was hyper-turbo.  The blind inceased every three minutes, so it wasn't really poker at all just the lotto.  I got exreamly lucky, and caught some pretty good cards.  I only sucked out once and caught one of my three outs on the river to make my gut shot straight.  I was the chipleader or there abouts for well over half the tournament, which was totally I think less than 45 mins.  When I got down to the last three (top two get a ticket to step 1, and 3 gets a dollar).  I took a bad beat where my Aces lost to kings to the guy in second so he took a huge chiplead.  The third person was shorter than I was, and if I would have been smart I would have just kicked back and waited.  But as luck would have it my next hand was kings again.  I raised huge and got called by the leader.  I figured he was just pushing his stack around and didn't have much, so I was pretty much going to push whatever the flop was.  Two queens and a 4 come on the flop, and I pushed.  He turns over Q2o and I'm out, getting a dollar.  If you are ever in the mood for some lotto style fun, these can be pretty fun.

That however was last night.  I think I used all my luck in that little tournament.  Today I had three coolers pretty much one right after another.  The first one I was on the button with 44 just limped in after a couple people with pretty decent stacks.  I ended up hitting my set on a 4Q8 board,  BB went all in and I called.  He turned over two queens and I didn't get lucky on the turn or the river.  Next was just about as crappy.  UTG+1 raised about 4xBB, I was in the cutoff with KK and raised to about 15xBB.  He calls and the flop was KT6 two hearts.  I though awesome, can't get much better than that.  He raised the pot and I pushed all in.  Turn was an Ace and river was a blank.  He turns over AA for the win.  

Just to show you my luck here was a hand I folded (obviously I should have but it just shows my luck for today.)

Well that's all for now.  Off to cleaning and finishing up on my CC article.  

My first MTT

I signed up and played a freeroll MTT last night.  It was 10 FPP for a buy in with a $500 prize pool.  The action was extreamly fast all the way up to the bubble, being a Turbo MTT I figured the action would go that way but it was even more so than I figured.  I picked my spots and just waited for good cards to come.  I maintained my self far above the average chip stack most of the way through.  The spots that I picked to double up worked out very well, I even tripled up at one point.  However, I was a few spots off he bubble an caught KK.  Here's the history for that hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 500/1000 Blinds 100 Ante (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t14900)
UTG (t13220)
UTG+1 (t16044)
MP1 (t20860)
MP2 (t7045)
CO (t2465)
Button (t34260)

Hero's M: 6.77

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K
UTG+1 calls t1000, 4 folds, Hero bets t3000, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls t2000

Flop: (t7700) A, J, 4 (2 players)
Hero bets t11800 (All-In), UTG+1 calls t11800

Turn: (t31300) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t31300) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t31300

I don't know why I played that as bad as I did, I just "knew" he didn't have an ace.  That definitly came back to bit me in the ass, but I'll do better next time.  

I don't think I'll be able to make my goal of 600 FPP's, that's why I used up some of them on this MTT.   If I  can't make the FPP's up I figure I can get my bankroll up a bit more and hopefully hit my $100 mark.  I'll try another one of these tonight and hopefully I'll be a bit less unlucky, but we shall see.

Poker Can Sure Piss You Off!

I got off work early today so I figured I would put in a couple hours playing.  I did ok in the cash games.  I think I came out pretty close to even.  But the SNG's really kicked my ass.  I played a four of the $3 SNG's at stars.  One was a Turbo SNG with 10 people, and the other three were regular 9 man SNG's.  In the turbo, people were just going crazy and were super aggresive.  I made move at the wrong time and got sucked out on by someone with bottom pair who caught a set.  The others were similiar; Runner, runner kicked my ass.  The last one I played I was far ahead the chip leader and about the rest of the people pretty much had M's around 10.  People kept goin all in frequently, but no one else would call.  I caught a couple good hands in a row and called.  Within 5 hands I was knocked out.  A couple of them I called All in's preflop with pocket pairs around 10's and lost all of them.  I caught two pair on the flop with one and someone flopped a set.  I know alot of what happened was my fault, but getting beat when I'm far and away ahead of my opponent, both in chips and equity, pisses me off.

My bankroll took a bit of a hit today but I'm gunna make sure that I shrug it off and get back on to my A game.  I may play a bit more tonight, but right now I'm just gunna finish this beer and watch some HSP (High Stakes Poker).  Sometimes that's just the best thing you can do for your game, step away from the table and calm down a bit.  

Back from That Break

Well that was a good couple days off.  I had those days off of work too, so I had plenty of time to get some house cleaning done (something I don't to near enough).  I did a good bit of reading, hand reviewing, and posting.  I finished "Small Stakes Hold 'em:  Winning Big With Expert Play", while it was a limit book I found a lot of it helpful.  Here in the next few days, I'll write a review about the book and go over a bit about what I learned.  

I played a few SNG's today and didn't do very good at all.  I just couldn't get into the money at all.  Hopefully my luck will turn around in the next couple days.  I know mixing SNG's and cash games isn't really the best way to learn, but I really like playing both.  I feel that it mixes it up a bit for me and keeps it more interesting.  I don't do to bad in either one, so I don't think it is hurting my game to much.  It's just not letting me get as good at one as I could.  

Within some of my coming posts, I plan on writting a couple articles that get into poker a bit more than what I've had so far.  The posts will be both on here and on a thread at CC.

Well it's Time for My Scheduled Break

Every two weeks or so I am going to take a day or two off from playing poker.  Doing this will allow me to take a step back and evaluate my game.  During these days off I will do alot of hand reviews, forum posting, reading, watching videos, and just taking a break.  I've noticed that every time I've taken a break from playing, that I come back a better player then before.  I do alot of reading and studying anyway, but doing so when I'm not playing I think helps me alot.  Playing at the lowest level I can, influences my game in a bad way.  Seeing people get paid off with the horrible hands they do, gets me doing things I shouldn't.  Not even noticing I do it, I'll slowly open up more then I should and it hurts my game.  The suckouts I'm sure affect me a bit to and stepping back will put help me put them back in perspective.  

My May goals shouldn't be affected to much by the day or so of playing that I'll miss.  Infact it should help me with one.  I'll probably finish the book I'm reading right now.  I'll also use this time to finish my article for CC.

My First CardsChat Freeroll

Well I played in my first CC freeroll today.  It was going pretty good up untill about ten minutes before the first break.  I was setting pretty good with a little over 5000 chips.  I was around 3rd or forth overall.  I picked up A7d in the big blind and it folded around to the SB.  He completed and I checked.  The flop came and Ace and two other broad way cards.  I bet about 4/5 the pot and the SB pushed all in. I figured he had an a king and was making a move.  I was way wrong.  He floped the nut straight and nocked me down to around two thousand chips.  After the break I caught pocket Queens.  The same guy that was in the SB earlier raised (his VPIP at the time was around 45), I reraised to 1500 I believe.  The flop came an ace and two under cards.  He went all in.  I knew he hit his ace but just didn't listen to my self and convinced myself he was just making a move again.  I called and he showed AcTc, no queen came and I got knocked out.  

Hopefully I'll get to play in a lot more of these in the coming weeks and months, and do better.  I made some bad plays in the wrong spots and got knocked out of this one.  One thing I really need to work on, both in tournaments and cash games, is listening to my first instinct.  There are plenty of times that I'll put someone on a hand and just talk myself out of it.  I'll get better at that the more hands I play.  I should be doing it already but a few more times of it getting knocked into my head, should do me good.

I'll try and get a bit more poker in tonight.  I still have a few more of my May goals that I have to hit.  I still have quit a bit more days left in the month, and should be able to make all my goals.  I don't know if I'll make it to 6o0 fpp though.  It's pretty hard to earn them at 2nl, but I'll give it a shot.

Wow! Just wow!

Tonight was ridiculous.  I was at a table that was on par with the one that I had the other night.  Just some extremely loose players who were just trying to give there chips away.  I just could not get the better of them by the river.  I ended up dropping a little over 3 Buy in on this table.  Nearly every time I was in I was far an away ahead of the people I was against, but just could not get it done.  Twice I had my set rivered or turned by a higher set.  A nut flush that I flopped was beaten by runner runner to make a full house.  You gotta love players like that, but when they suck out on you it definitely pisses you off a good bit.  I'll probably jump on again later tonight, but if I’m still pissed off I'll just not play. 

 

Within the next week or so I plan on doing a book review on the book I'm finishing up right now and just going to go over some of the main points that it gets across.  I also need to finish up my article for the CC (cardschat) monthly article contest.  I only have the intro paragraph done so far so I have a good bit of work to do still.  I'd love to win for the month; it would finally give me some money to play on Full Tilt.

Update:  Well I ended up jumping back on for a about another hundred hands.  I lost a few more crazy hands where I was ahead by a good bit, but still lost.  I did end up breaking even though.  One of the last few hands I played was pocket aces.  I tripled up with those and got back up o where  I started before all the coolers I caught earlier in the night.  Now that I've had a few beers and relaxed a bit I'm ready to head off to bed.

 

Great Poker Resources

This is just a small list of some of the more important sites, programs, forums, etc that I think are pretty important to all poker players:

• Cardschat: One of the best and friendliest poker forums around.
• flopturnriver: Has a great forum as well as tons of great articles.
• twoplustwo: By far one of the most popular and busy forums.
• stoxpoker: Supposedly one of the best learning sites around. I haven't used this yet but hear great things. You do have to pay for it.
• grinderschool: A learning site. I haven't actually used it yet but heard great things about it. You do have to pay.
• pokertracker: Both a HUD and a tracker. A great way to keep track of everything about your game as well as your opponents. It comes with a great free trial. This is the tracker I use.
• holdem manager: Another great HUD and tracker. I can't say a lot about it as I use PokerTracker. But I have heard great things about his one as well.
• deucescracked: Another great learning site. This one does have a paid membership but has a lot of free items as well.
• pokertube: Has plenty of poker videos.
• youtube: Also has plenty of great poker videos.
• cardplayer: Has tons of news, articles, blogs, tool, and much more.
• amazon: A great resource for finding tons of poker books far cheaper then the original price.
• google: If you need to find anything about anything this is the place to start.

That is just a few of some of the things that will help you along your poker learning.  I highly recommend starting with a trial of PokerTracker or HEM, posting/reading a couple of the forums, buy a book or two from amazon, and watch some videos on either pokertube or youtube.  Once you have spent some time doing this you'll start to get a better understanding of what you may need after that.

My May Goals

The following are my goals for the month of May.  Some of them may be a bit to high, but this is the first time I've had any specific goals so we'll just have to see how it goes.

• Hit 5000 hands
• Make it to 600 FPP for the PS hat
• Play in atleast 1 CC freeroll
• Maintain my winrate above 10 bb/100
• Make it to $100
• Make it to 150 SNG's played
• Maintain +winrate
• Finish my two books

Well that should do it for this month.  If I can hit all those goals for the month,  I should be doing pretty good.  With this deposit on PS I have been playing pretty good and making alot more of the right moves.  I think the biggest thing that has been helping me out, is not tilting my money off.  That has been THE largest leak I have fixed so far.  I'm gunna head off to go take care of some of those goals.  Good luck and see you at the tables.

What a Great Night!

Last night was one of the easiest times I've had at a poker table.  There were three extremely bad players sitting at the table.  I don't mean the usual bad players at 2nl, these guys were horrible. They all had VPIP's over 65 and PFR below 3.  I walked away with about 7 buyins just from this table.   One of the very first hands I played was AA; I ended up losing about $1.75 on that hand losing to a back door flush draw.  I bought back in for the table max ($5) and just waited for some decent hands.  They were pushing all in with second and third pair, so I just waited for them to hang themselves, and they did over and over again.  

I didn't get much of a chance to play today, just one SNG ($1, 45 man) and came in third.  I've been coming in the money pretty consistently with those lately and can see my game improving.

My graphs so far

I don't have enough hands to start saying to much about my game yet, but I figured I'd show my graphs anyway.  They are my graphs for 2nl and the SNG's that I play.  I have quit a few more hands in SNG's then I do in the cash games so that one show a bit more acuratly.

I have been doing pretty good lately.  Most of those down swings are due to a few hands, then me getting tilted and just pissing the rest of it away.  I'm starting to do better with that and just walk away when I loose to some of those two outers.  But I'm sure those will always get me frustrated.  Well that's all for now. 

Lets try this again

Well I tried to start my poker blog last night, but something went crazy and I can't figure out how to get back to it.  So i'm just gunna go ahead and start all over.  In this first post I'm just gunna go ahead and go over my experience thus far with poker.  It all started about 6 or 7 months ago.  I was up late on night and nothing was on t.v. so I just figured I'd watch poker.  I thought that would have to be one of the most boring things ever, right up there with watching paint dry, or golf.  But three hours later, I was hooked.  I went online the next day and started looking up whatever I could find about poker.  Not to far into my search, I stumbled across cardschat.com, which is one of the best poker sites/forums out there.  A few days after reading a bit online I decided to make my first deposite to poker stars.  I deposited the min. that they would allow and started playing 2NL, and the 1.20 dollar SNG's.  I held my own for a few thousand hands, but in the end I tilted off the entire bankroll.  I took a bit of a break after that and went out and bought a couple books.  I spent a good while reading these books and kept reading online.  I found a couple more great sites and forums;  Flopturnriver and twoplustwo.  Again i decided to deposite and try my luck.  This time I went with sportsbook.  Again, I held my own for a few thousand hands and then just pissed it all away when I got tilted.  With just a few hands I would dump off buy-in after buy-in.  I took another break and got some more books.  A couple months ago I deposited to pokerstars again.  I am still playing on that bankroll and I'm up about $30.  I have been playing 2NL again, aswell as some $1.20 45 man SNG's, as well as a couple $3 9 man SNG's.  So far I'm doing pretty good.  I have noticed a few holes in my game so far.  The two biggest that I have noticed are; I play to many hands still and I double barrel far to often with not much.  I need to just tighten up and play more when i have hands.  Easier said then done sometimes, but I'm working on it.  Well that about sums it up so far.  In the coming posts I will post my progress, goals, etc.  Hopefully It will help me keep track of everything, help me learn a bit, and maybe you'll get  a chuckle or two out of it.