boing boing boing

up and then down. up and then down. such is my bankroll. in the past week my stake has gone from a high in the mid 80s, down to the 20s, up again near 60, down to the mid teens and then finally when all the dust had settled on sunday, just a hair over $50.

the .25/.50 tables were teaming with fish last night. i actually sat down on one table where over %60 percent of the table was seeing the flop. unfortunately that table broke up shortly after i got there, but never fear, there were still a couple of tables where %50 of the table was seeing the flop.

hand one: and this is why you don't raise with medium pairs in early position
Uniontown ($.25/$.50 Hold'em) Powered by UltimateBet
     TankSJ is at seat 8 with $23.60.
     TankSJ posts the small blind of $.10.
     9s posts the big blind of $.25.
     TankSJ: Q Q

Pre-flop:
     0s raises to $.50. 1s re-raises to $.75. 2s re-raises to $1. 3s folds. 5s folds. 6s calls. 7s folds. TankSJ calls. 9s folds. 0s calls. 1s calls.
» um, ok i'll pay another .75 to get 4.8:1 odds. maybe there are rockets or kowboys out there.

Flop (board: 8 Q 6: $5.25
     TankSJ checks. 0s bets $.25. 1s calls. 2s calls. 6s calls. TankSJ raises to $.50. 0s calls. 1s calls. 2s calls. 6s folds.
» bu-ya. hmmm... should i have just called here? no flush on the board, but if someone is holding a higher pair or open ended straight i need to make them pay to catch.

Turn (board: 8 Q 6 J): $7.50
     TankSJ bets $.50. 0s calls. 1s calls. 2s goes all-in for $.25.
» did someone stay in with 9T? well if they did they are going to get paid off by me.

River (board: 8 Q 6 J 2): $9.25
     TankSJ bets $.50. 0s raises to $1. 1s calls. TankSJ re-raises to $1.50. 0s re-raises to $2. 1s calls. TankSJ calls.

Showdown:
     0s shows 8 8: three eights.
     1s mucks cards ( K Q ).
     2s shows K 9 : king high.
     TankSJ shows Q Q : three queens.
» thank you all for contributing to the TankSJ fund.

hand two: let's gamb00l a little...
Uniontown ($.25/$.50 Hold'em) Powered by UltimateBet
     TankSJ is at seat 8 with $34.80.
     The button is at seat 4.
     TankSJ: K 9

Pre-flop:
     7s folds. TankSJ calls. 9s calls. 0s calls. 1s folds. 2s folds. 4s folds. 5s calls. 6s checks.

Flop (board: T J 5): $1.25
     5s checks. 6s checks. TankSJ checks. 9s bets $.25. 0s folds. 5s folds. 6s calls. TankSJ calls.
» ok. gut-shot straight, back door flush and one over card. 7:1 odds, let's see the turn.

Turn (board: T J 5 Q): $2.00
     6s checks. TankSJ bets $.50. 9s raises to $1. 6s calls. TankSJ re-raises to $1.50. 9s calls. 6s calls.
» hello baby. of the four queens, this is the most bea-utiful for me to see. was the 9s slow playing AK?. an Ac or Tc on the river would be nice here.

River (board: T J 5 Q 2): $6.50
     6s checks. TankSJ bets $.50. 9s calls. 6s calls.

Showdown:
TankSJ shows K 9: straight, king high.
9s mucks cards ( Q A ).
6s mucks cards ( 5 2 ).
» thank you mr. 6s for staying in with the bottom pair.

i think i'll just keep grinding away at .25/.50. playing with these guys helps to re-inforce what i'm reading in the books. whenever i'm tempted to raise in early position with a mid-pair i'll just think of mr. 0s.

just six days until vegas.

from the balcony

don't waste your time seeing "bulletproof monk". it's pretty bad. it's a shame too, because i like chow yun fat. i have to admit i didn't have very high expectations, but it was even worse than i had braced myself for.

tnp

after a one week hiatus, we had another session of tuesday night poker (tnp). last night EP made a guest appearance at tnp. EP used to be a regular to the game back when we used nickels, dimes, and quarter and played games like anaconda, chicago and with more wild cards than i ever cared to imagine. long story short, EP stopped coming around when he moved and then stories that we had switched our game exclusively to nlhe had kept him away, but inannounced he dropped in last night and decided to play a little while.

something about EP's presence had a very calming effect on us because we had been playing for almost three hours before our first rebuy. sadly i think the whole nlhe experience was a little overwhelming and EP finally lost the last of his $20. after he left RL said that was probably the last time he'd ever set foot in the house.

there's a palpable excitement as we get closer to our vegas pilgrimage. RL, MN and CB have never played poker in a casino before so we've been talking about general questions. with arguably the most poker room experience of the group i've been trying to point out little things that will save them trouble when we get there: "if you do that at the table they'll say you're checking."; "that would have been a string bet."; "that would have been a verbal commit." etc.

tnp was the usual roller coaster. EP's calming effect quickly went away once he left. i was actually able to bluff a handful of good-sized pots. my best hand of the night was getting the red 9s utg+1. i limp in to see the flop. flop comes K9x. i check, RL bets, I call. rag on the turn. i check, RL bets, i call. case 9 on the river. i bet out, RL calls. RL said he was lucky another king didn't show on the board.

overall it was a pretty sedate night; the biggest loser was $30 (usually someone gets stuck $50+). just one more tnp until vegas.

sng, sng, nlhe

after a weekend of scrabble (T took 2 out of 3, meting a particularly brutal beating on the third game) i went back to ub.

<sidebar>
many of the bloggers out there say that if you're not playing on partypoker, you aren't playing with a full deck. otis over at up for poker talks about playing at another site almost like infidelity. i guess i'm a little like that too. maybe it's because ultimate bet took my on-line poker virginity, but i just feel like we have a relationship. sure, i experimented with paradise poker, mostly so i could test out some poker tracking software, but i went back (after i lost all my money). even though ub has its flaws (hello, why can't i get a hand history from my whole session?!) but i just like the site (when it's not under a denial of service attack). i don't need avatars and drinks at my table.

it seems like one of the biggest factors people cite is whether one is playing for money or recreation. apparently playing on party is like going to the atm: there are so many wpt inspired moneymaker-wanna-bes that think that they need to be in every hand (just like on tv) that the money is just there to be scooped up. i play mostly to unwind after work. sure, it sucks to lose money, but i multi-task plenty at the office, so i just want play one table at a time and improve my game. also, if i were to sign up at party and started winning a lot i would just play more and more when i'm really trying to wean myself off too much poker.
</sidebar>

so i jumped on ub and tried to jump into a multi table tournament. unfortunately with 2 minutes before the end of registration my computer decided to crash and by the time i had restarted i had missed the start. instead i played a $10, 10-person sit-n-go. again i played tight and managed to get heads up and again i lost. of course i didn't remember to grab my hand history before i left so i don't have any hands to report.

after a walk to the library and grocery store and a few house cleaning chores i decided to see if i could parlay my $20 winnings from the first sit-n-go into another sng placing. unfortunately my hands weren't quite as good this time and in the end i had to take a stand with ATo against the chip leader's K9 only to see a K on the river. c'est la vie.

on another tangent, from my earlier post about the fish i had found a few nights ago. i had added this guy to my buddy group in a hope i would be able to find him again. when i first jumped on last night he was playing .01/.02 no limit hold'em. later that night he was playing with play chips. i wonder if i'll see a post from him today on rec.gambling.poker lamenting on how he can't win or how online poker is rigged.

to finish off the night i went to play a little .25/.50 no-limit. up, down, up, down and finally i walk away with a few guilders.

hand 1: be careful what you wish for
Cuzco (No Limit Hold'em) Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 16/Mar/04
     TankSJ is at seat 2 with $24.40.
     The button is at seat 4.
     5s posts the small blind of $.25.
     6s posts the big blind of $.50.

     TankSJ: 3 3

Pre-flop:
     7s folds. 8s folds.9s folds. 0s folds. 1s folds. TankSJ calls. 3s calls. 4s folds. 5s calls. 6s checks.

Flop (board: 6 8 3): $2
     5s checks. 6s checks. TankSJ bets $2. 3s folds. 5s calls. 6s folds.

Turn (board: 6 8 3 K ): $6
     5s checks. TankSJ bets $2. 5s calls.

River (board: 6 8 3 K K): $10
     5s bets $4.50. TankSJ raises to $9. 5s calls.

Showdown:
     TankSJ shows 3 3 : full house, threes full of kings.
     5s mucks cards. (2 J)
5s catches his flush, but unfortunately for him, K also makes my baby boat. after a few orbits with frigid cards i left the table up a few buck.

what goes up ...

ever find yourself in a pissing match with a buddy on who's had the worse bad beat? well now there's help. the bad-beat-o-meter will quantify your bad beat. just to give it a spin, i input my hand from the previous post (tt beats ak) and got a bad beat in the 300s.

so i jumped on ub again last night. i found just the fish i was looking for. i mean this guy was an atm, raising with anything. one hand i saw him call a river bet with J3o when he didn't even have a pair. he must have rebought half a dozen times while i was there. unfortunately i wasn't getting very good hands. i did get aces once, only to lose to a pair of sixes that caught on the flop. i knew if i could only isolate the fish i would be rolling in it. on one hand i had AQc and popped his raise in an effort to drive out everyone else. i was totally dead on in believing i had the fish beat (he showed two middle diamond, no face at the end) but unfortunately someone else had AKo and caught a king on the flop. i'll definitely be watching for him in the future.

unfortunately i was so focused on the fish i started playing hands that i knew would be good against him, but unfortunately weren't as good against the other 8 people at the table. slowly i managed to bleed off about half my bankroll and then the table decided to break. sooooo frustrating. oh well, chalk it up as another "learning experience." i wonder if i could get an education tax credit for these lessons?