Wednesday, July 19, 2006


Xaston defeated/ Back to the winning ways.
Current mood: calm

After a +$2000 session on my 5/10 tables I decided to see how Xaston was doing. I didn't know it at the time... but my goal was to beat him at his own game. Like the bastard I am, I sat behind him HU on the 2/4 NL game at pokerstars. I don't have most of the hand histories, but it all started off with a bang.

We were 3 handed and I was dealt AJo. Xaston made his standard raise, and I popped him up to $40. He repopped to $140 and I pushed. (Can't last good 'ol Xas push me around afterall.)

He shows KK. Obviously I was happy with that since AJ has 4 outs and KK has 2 outs. Simple mathmatics.

Anyway the flop came down AJ rag and I took it down.

After much reraising and retarded suckouts with 79 and 46 and the like... another big hand was about to brew. I have the hand history for this puppy:

Button ($404.10)
SB (Xaston) ($575.35)
BB (Kenny) ($1215.60)
UTG ($721)
MP ($350.70)
Hero (Shobute) ($74.85)

Preflop: Hero is CO with [Th].
2 folds, Hero raises to $14, 1 fold, Xaston calls $12, Kenny calls $10.

Flop: ($42) ,[7h],[Qh] (3 players)
Xaston bets $32, Kenny calls $32, Hero raises to $60.85, Xaston calls $28.85, Kenny calls $28.85.

Turn: ($224.55) (3 players)
Xaston bets $175, Kenny raises to $1140.75, Xaston calls $325.50 (All-In).

River: ($1865.80) (3 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1865.80

Results in white below:
Xaston has (high card, ace).
Kenny has (three of a kind, fives).
Hero has (one pair, tens).
Outcome: Kenny wins $1865.80.


Ouchie!!!
I made a total of $1159.35 off of poor Xaston. I felt really bad for him so I gave a little bit back. Still.......

Bragging rights forever and ever!!!!!!!!

PWNED.

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I'm not at rock-bottom anymore poker-wise. The 3 day break really helped me collect my thoughts and focus. As I stated earlier I won around $2000 on 5/10. I also placed 2nd in a $100 sitngo (for fun) and I did well at that 2/4 NL game.

Today was a much tougher match. I was up and down all over the radar. I put in a 4 hour session with crazy swings. I started up a $1000, then down $1500, then only down $300, then down $2200.. to finish down only $200.

I made some mistakes. I donked off almost 3/4s of a stack on this hand:

Poker Room skin
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
5 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $929.50
CO: $1052.50
HERO: $1065.50
SB: $418.50
BB: $3812.20

Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is Button with [Qs]
UTG calls, CO folds, HERO raises to $40, SB folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: [5h][4h] ($125, 3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $10, HERO raises to $90, BB folds, UTG calls.

Turn: ($305, 2 players)
UTG bets $10, HERO raises to $200, UTG calls.

River: ($705, 2 players)
UTG checks, HERO bets $300, UTG calls.

Results:
Final pot: $1305
HERO shows
UTG shows


I decided to close a table after that and focus on a guy on tilt. I was calling a lot of his preflop raises with position. He noticed and it was getting to him I'm sure. I finally had him give me his stack by letting him bluff all streets. I probably won close to $2k off him for the session.

I'm happy with the way I calmed down and took ahold of myself. When I was down $2k I almost lost it. That's when I opted to close the 3rd table, walk around for a minute and collect myself. It worked in my favor and I took advatange of the situation.

That is not as easy to do as it sounds. I'm sure many other pros struggle with it; I know I do. I conquered it this time though and I think it says a lot about my character and my game.

You gonna be at TS in august?

Monday, July 31, 2006


Tournaments suck / Acting sucks
Current mood: blank

Tournaments suck. I decided to play (as I did last week) 4 tournies at one time: The $530 at stars, the $215 at party, the $215 at UB, and the $200 at paradise. I didn't cash in any of them. Same as last week.

The $215 on Party was amazing. They start you off with 5000 chips and blinds at 10/20. The first hand I raised I was reraised allin. The second hand I raised I was reraised allin. I saw small pots of a few hundred getting fought over with entire stacks. I witnessed a guy push his entire stack in a 300 pot w/ AA on a board of TJQQ only to get called by KK and win. I lost pretty quickly. I reraised with AK and got raised off the flop. Then I pushed with AT and got reraised by QJ and cold called by A3o. The QJ held .

The Pokerstars was significantly more weak/tight. I didn't get any cards but I still was in around 2 hours later. Finally I just pushed with AKo UTG to try and look weak. (The blinds were 150/75 and I had about T1500 chips.) The BB who had 3000 and was a median stack.. thinks and thinks.... calls with pocket 7s and takes me down. Horrible call, but whatever.

UB improved me to a broadway straight when I was drawing dead to a flopped full house. I got it back to T1000 with virtually nothing, but then lost my coinflip. He decided to reraise my EP raise with AT. I had to push at that point and my 99 didn't hold.

Paradise treated me well in the begining. About 2 hours in I had 4500 in chips. I lost about 2500 with QQ to AK. Then I just kinda blew it; tried to bluff when I reraised with A7 and pushed the flop. He called me with AK unimproved and took it down.

The good news for all you people out there is that the play was atrocious on every site except Stars. Stars wasn't great either, but at least it wasn't downright horrible. I keep hearing that poker is on a downswing. Less people are playing and the fish are all busting etc etc. However, After playing these tournies it's hard to believe. Seems to me the play has become worse for these big online tournaments as opposed to better.

Tournaments really chop into my winrate and I'm wondering if they are worth my time. I'm talking about $50 an hour decrease when included with my cash game stats. That is insane. I can say that my luck has not been good in tournies this year. Hell, these last two Sundays I'm 1/7 in coinflip situations. I've found that I final table tournies when my dominating hands hold up; since my hands have not held this year I haven't been to any final tables. It's just a downswing and I'm not worried about it. I'm just curious if my time (and money) is better spent on cash games.

Speaking of cash games, I'm now positive for the month. After my last post I was back to even. But then I lost again and was down $3k going into the home stretch. Probabilty has seen fit to bless me at the moment though, and I'm on a $7k winning streak in cash games. With tournaments I'm now up a little over $2k. Compared to my other months that is complete crap but I will take it! This month included the shittiest run of cards I have ever witnessed and I would have been happy to be a small loser, let alone a small winner. I view the month as a success.

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I auditioned for that 24hr thingy. The jist of is they give some local writers a quote and/or an idea and the writers must write a 10 minute script in 12 hours. Then the directors cast the show at 9am that morning. The show goes on at 8pm that night. It sounded pretty exciting to me so I thought I'd give it a shot. (I had to change my entire sleeping pattern just to audition)

Anyway my audition sucked. They audition was a group thing and went very quick. I had to pass this other guy on the middle of the stage and say two things. "Damn you" and something else I can't remember. In an Italian accent if possible. I couldn't even remember what an Italian accent sounded like at that point. Anyway, it went around 3 times. The guy I performed it with upstaged me every god damn time. Which, of course, I didn't realize till later. (Lack of experience.) I can't tell you how difficult it is to do this while being upstaged. You're supposed to be angled to face the audience AND the character you're spouting lines too.. but because he was completely behind me I either had to turn to completely face the audience or turn around backwards on stage. Obviously you don't want your back to the audience (casting people) while saying the lines. So I was stuck delivering lines outward without playing off the other character.

That wasn't my only problem though. I was nervous, couldn't think of what an Italian accent was, and I actually forgot my line the first time I went through. I have no regrets about the whole thing, but I knew I wasn't getting cast.

The cool thing was my friend Darren was also there and he did get cast. So I was very happy about that. At least one of us got there.

I think I may audition for a musical next time.

so much for a winning month! lol. more details later.