This Week In Poker

School is out and due to that I played a whole lot of poker this week. I didn't get the 40 hours I wanted because I ended up having more things to do than I had planned and lost one day to feeling a bit under the weather. I couldn't resist playing a little NL this week for the first time in ages and was pleasantly surprised that I think I'm playing better than I was before. It's completely due to the experience that I've gained playing post-flop from all the limit play.

Oh, I started back up online this week. I had to start my online bankroll all over again after I cashed it out back when it was unclear how online cardrooms were going to deal with the new law. I'm all the way down to 10/20 cents :( and I won't be moving up until I triple up my roll to $150. I follow Lederer's suggestion of having 300x the BB before moving up limits.

Also, I played a couple Fixed Limit SitnGos and a No Limit where I placed 2, 2, 1. On the two SitnGos, once I was at a big chip disadvantage heads up, but we were about even in the other. I'm not sure how to play Limit heads up in a tourney. I do pretty well without the increasing blinds, but they just throw me off in tourneys when you are down to the final two. They were so high I couldn't really let the blinds sit out there without trying to pick them up, but the bets were so large by that point that losing a few means I'm severly short stacked. Not sure, that's why I think I lost both.

In the NL SitnGo, at one point I was almost out on the bubble against two overwhelming chip leaders and 1 guy that had about 4 times my stack. I could tell they had tightened up because I was about to go out and no one wanted to get involved until then. I only had about 8 times the blinds so I couldn't afford to do much but move-in preflop. The game seemed to come to a halt for a while until I finally got some action and doubled-up, putting me just barely in 3rd place and opening up the game now that I wasn't on my last leg. The 2nd place huge stack got involved in a big pot with the chip leader (Doh!) and was put out on the bubble. Eventually the other guy went out and that left me heads up with something like 5-1 chip disadvantage. ThanxB. I figured I had no chance so I just got really aggressive and hoped to get lucky. On about the 3rd hand, I picked up KK and the guy thought I was just pushing with air. I ended up doubling up twice to take the lead and then took it down.

I can tell I'm going to love tourneys when I get to that point. I just want to do the cash game thing now and eventually move to NL as well for the experience, but tourneys are where I want to be after that. They are about 100x the fun.

I also played in Jasper last night and found a good table. I averaged about 8.5BBs/hr or about $17/hr minus $13 for expenses. Bingo must have been closed that night because the place was full of retirees. Every seat in the house was soft. Early on I did a good job of getting away from hands before they cost me too much. I folded like 3 hands that anyone else at that table probably would have been raising with on the flop. My reads were on and it saved me a few extra chips. I ended up giving them back at the end of the night when a couple new players sat down for the last 45 minutes who were extremely loose/aggressive (and one looked JUST like a young Mark Seif). I would have a big hand and raise or re-raise and they would put in a 3rd raise and then raise all the way through the hand. I thought I was beat on a couple hands and check-called all the way only for them to flip over middle pair (huh?) or a weaker two pair. I could have made another 5-7 BBs had I known how they played. Merry Christmas guys.

An older guy that's there regularly and I sat on one end of the table with huge stacks of chips for 1/2. He had moved up to nearly $200 and I was up to $190 so it was a bit awkward with the people commenting about how they were broke as they had to rebuy over and over. It reminded me of the gambler's lament:

"Dear Lord, help me to break even. I need the money."

Unfortunately, I noticed a huge decline in the older guy's play after 10 o'clock and he ended up dropping off about half his stack in a couple hours. It was pretty bad because before he was showing down monsters and by the end he was calling with A high and bottom pair. I felt kinda sorry for him because he plays really well but he just doesn't seem to have the endurance at his age.

Well, that's enough for now. I'll be logging a lot of hours this week and I mean it this time. I could be at work Mon-Fri but I choose not to in order get in the table time. I'll probably be blogging plenty as well. Peace Out.