Cowboys

Bankroll: $48.69

Man, KK is hard to get away from. Ususally not so bad, unless they meet AA.

H.A.L.T

Bankroll: $54.19

Hungy. Angry. Lonely. Tired. These are the four conditions you should never play under. Learned this yesterday after a long day. I definitely put the H and T in HALT and busted out very early in an SNG. I might as well have thrown that $5.50 away. At least I didn't tilt and keep thrying to win it back. I've just registered in an 18 person SNG and am feeling very focused.

Breaking Radio Silence

Bankroll: $59.69

It's been a while since I've posted. I have however, played a lot of poker. Went on a bit of a losing streak (3 sit and gos without cashing. one in which I busted out first hand. stupid quads beating my boat). I'm on a bit of a streak now with back to back sit and go wins, both of which coming back from severe short stacks. Hopefully I can keep it up. Once I hit $100.00 I'm going to try my hand at a couple $10.00 SNGs. It's all about the bankroll discipline.

Concentration

Starting Bankroll: $40.66
Buy-in: $5.50 + $5.50 + $5.50 + $5.50
Cash-out: $9.00 + $22.50
Session: $9.50 gain
Finishing Bankroll: $40.16

Entered a few sit and gos, three of which I didn't have my mind on the game (one 3rd place finish and 2 bust-outs) and one where I had my game face on (1st place). A conclusion has been reached: if you're not focused, don't play.

Sit and Go pt II

Starting Bankroll: $23.66
Buy-in: $5.50
Cash-out: $22.50
Session: $17.00 gain
Finishing Bankroll: $40.66

Man, sit and go's are where it's at. My second foray into the low level sit and go world has yielded not only another cash-out, but another win! At one point, I was even the shortest stack in four handed play (dangerously close to being the Bubble Boy).

Only two hands of note:

-heads up I went all in with AA and he called with Q7. Wouldn't you know it, two 7s on the flop.

-I saw the biggest donkey move tonight. The flop came AAA. Everyone was instantly scared. I had folded some trash preflop so I could watch the hand unfold with glee. Then the other A comes on the turn! More slow play. UTG bets enough to put the player to his left all-in and gets a call. Everyone else folds. I figure on a chopped pot with each player having a K or maybe one player with a K beating a Q. Nope. UTG has K4 and his caller has 8-6! The donkey's only hope was another K that never came on the river. Man, I hope I meet more people like that along the way.

Sit and Go

Starting Bankroll: $10.26
Buy-in: $1.20 + $1.20 + $1.20 + $5.50
Cash-out: $22.50
Session: $13.40 gain
Finishing Bankroll: $23.66

So as I said before, I'm switching over to the micro-limit tournaments. For a buck twenty buy-in and a potential gain of $14.00, this has more promise, or so I thought. After bubbling out three tournaments in a row each with a $1.20 and two hour investment, I found myself with about six bucks left over, enough for one $5.50 sit-and-go. Throwing caution to the wind, I used almost the balance of my bankroll to enter a 9 player $5.50 sit and go. I've been reading a lot of Brunson's Super System (I've since borrowed it from my local library. I'll soon add it to my poker library) and kicked my game up quite a bit aggression-wise. I couldn't really recount any masterful hands, hell, most of the pots I picked up were won on the flop or the turn:

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 131 hands and saw flop:
- 21 out of 37 times while in big blind (56%)
- 19 out of 38 times while in small blind (50%)
- 11 out of 56 times in other positions (19%)
- a total of 51 out of 131 (38%)
Pots won at showdown - 8 of 9 (88%)
Pots won without showdown - 37

And more impotantly:

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $22.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Nice.

Tournaments and Tilt

Starting Bankroll: $3.66
Buy-in: $3.40
Cash-out: $10.00
Session: $6.60 gain
Finishing Bankroll: $10.26

So after playing a few cash-game sessions, I've realized I'm not a cash-game player. I never know when to stop. I'll be on a huge rush and taking down lots of pots only to loose a huge one and be down from my starting buy-in.

Aside from some poker nights with friends, my poker experience has been all tournaments. I'm not sure why I'm better at tournaments than cash games. Maybe it's that tournaments have a tangible goal (keep playing until you have all the chips or have no chips).

Given my small bankroll, my tournament options are limited. No $10 sit-and-goes here. That's ok, I prefer multi-table tournaments anyway. Fortunately, the site I play on has $1.00 + 0.20 multi-table tournaments (45 players). I figured my bankroll could handle a buck and entered one. Things were going good and I was accumulating a lot of chips. After about an hour, I was sitting at about 8th or 9th with about 25 players left when I played "The Hand". You know the one. The one that's the turning point where it all goes bad. The one you remember days later and it still stings. So I limp into a pot with Ks9s in middle position. The flop comes K-9-6 suited. I make a pot size bet, get a caller and couple players fold. The button, who I have covered by about $250 raises all in. I call and everyone else folds. The button also limped into the pot pre-flop, so I don't put him on AK, KK, 99 or even 66. I've seen this player go in with a king or an ace with just about anything, so I'm guessing he's paired a king with who know's what kicker. I call and the cards are flipped: A2o. Are you kidding me? No flush draw, no straight draw? No pair. The turn comes A. Uh oh. No problem, I still have 2 pair over his aces. Let's rag on the river and get this jackass out. The river comes a 6. Great, the board has paired and he has an overpair. I can't believe it. Good on him for trying to steal with a naked ace, but come on. I wish he did have KK.

So you can imagine how the rest goes. I'm still in but with a crippled stack and in danger of being blinded out. I pick up a few small pots, but my night's over. Eventually the blinds drown me. That's all she wrote.

So I'm feeling a little dejected from losing a third of my bankroll on the tournament. Then I break the cardinal rule of poker: don't play on tilt. I buy in at a $0.01-$0.02 no-limit table and resolve to win back my tournament buy-in. Yeah, you can imagine how well that went. After losing some big pots with the nudicles* I'm busted. Great, now I've lost another $1.00. I walk away from the computer and contemplate my ineptitude at cash games.

A couple hours later, I stroll back to the computer. Hmm... I've got a buck 40 left. Enough for another tournament, why not? I resolve to play smart and think though every hand. I'm careful about which hands I get into, and when I do get into one, I push hard and apply pressure to my opponents. I paid attention to my stats and think I played a good game:

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 147 hands and saw flop:
- 25 out of 37 times while in big blind (67%)
- 13 out of 35 times while in small blind (37%)
- 19 out of 75 times in other positions (25%)
- a total of 57 out of 147 (38%)
Pots won at showdown - 20 of 31 (64%)
Pots won without showdown - 16

A large portion of the game was spent as chip leader and I wasn't afraid to throw some weight around. When it got down to me and one other player, we were pretty even, chipwise. I lost a few coin flips and came out in 2nd. Whoo hoo, 10 bucks!

So now my bank roll has a bit more padding and I've decided to stick to the micro buy-in tournaments.


* Nudicles are fake testicles they put into neutered dogs. Hence, nudicles = "second nuts"

No Fold'em Hold'em

Starting Bankroll: $3.75
Buy-in: $0.80
Cash-out: $0.79
Session: $0.09 loss
Finishing Bankroll: $3.66

Ugh. One of the pitfalls of limit hold'em (especially at low levels), people will ride any naked ace or king to the river. Oh well, a losing session had to happen eventually...

Super System

Starting Bankroll: $2.93
Buy-in: $1.00
Cash-out: $1.82
Session: $0.82 win
Finishing Bankroll: $3.75

So it's was Saturday afternoon (I'm posting this way after the fact). And I find myself at the mall with my finace. We have an upcoming wedding to attend so she wanted to pick up something to wear. I have an aversion to shopping so I headed to Chapters which I use as a public library.

I wandered over to the "Fun and Games" section which should be now more appropriately refered to as "The Poker and Sodoku" section and grabbed a copy of Doyle Brunson's "Super System." I've never read this book but have heard many times it was a must-read. So, with the poker bible in hand I headed for a quiet corner.

Although Brunson is the author of "Super System", some of the chapters were written by other players. Since I've been playing a lot of limit, I flipped to Bobby "The Owl" Baldwin's chapter on limit hold'em. The chapter was written in a very informal, almost conversational style. I was particularily interested in Baldwin's thoughts on starting hand selection. Not just in regards to position, but in regards to how many players were in the pot. Normally, I would have thrown away small-medium suited connectors in mid-late position if there was a lot of action before me, figuring someone's got a monster. However, this isn't neccesarily correct as having a lot of callers gives you the right pot-odds to see the flop. Should the flop hit you like a on of bricks, you know it's missed all the monsters.

I look forward to getting my hands on this book. It has a nice bibley feel to it and would be a nice addition to my poker reference library.

Fit or Fold

Starting Bankroll: $2.61
Buy-in: $0.61
Cash-out: $0.92
Session: $0.31 win
Finishing Bankroll: $2.93

Sorry folks, not much of a story to go with this one. Just another day of grinding for pennies. However, I did resolve to try an play tighter and see where it took me.

Incidentaly, I finished reading "One of the Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey "The Kid" Ungar, The World's Greatest Poker Player" by Nolan Dalla and Peter Alson. What a great read! If you're looking for a good non-technical, non-strategy poker read. Check it out.