Poker Blogs - Texas Holdem Poker

Monday, March 19th, 2007

good day!

Posted 5:23 am in Categories: Poker

Played Friday night and did poorly at 4.40 180 man sng's. Probably 6 or 7 busts in a row and not paying attention enough to have a real shot. So, what does anyone do when they're on a bad streak and underrolled? CASH GAMES!!!

Ok bad idea, but .25/.50 is pretty much a joke so not too too worried about busting more than a buyin or 2.
Hit up two tables and started running well. Went up 100 or so and then cooled down via 3-bet experimentation with AK a couple times. Ended up breaking even for the night.

St. Patrick's day I didn't play but I'm sure the games were quite "loose."

Tonight I decided to jump into .25/50 again and this huge fish kept betting and calling me when I hit monster hands. Took about $70 from him alone and ended up even on other table. Have about 3000 or so hands at this level logged on PokerOffice and am running at like $5.30 an hour or something. To be honest, I'm not sure if that is good or bad (or if this is enough hands to determine anything), but am happy it is above min. wage nonetheless.

Best part of the night however was this $4.40 180 man SnG. I really enjoy these tournies because they are A. cheap B. filled with fish and C. give you MTT/final table experience.

Anyways, 2nd hand of the tourney I botched up a mid pocket pair and lost all but 220 chips. Reverse implied odds are a bitch 3 handed.
Two hands later, I get it all in with A9 and double up. I then proceed to catch pocket aces 3/7 hands and got paid off big on all of them (are you kidding me?), taking me from 450 chips up to 4115. No joke, last place to top 10 in first 20 or so hands. Nice.

AK puts me up to
~7500
KK ---> 14,500 (Can't believe ppl still paying me off at this point)

Gets better. Hit a set with 77 for a pot of 16,000
nice!

Four hands later I'm in BB. Folded to SB and he raises 3x. I (bigstack now) reraise up to 10x or so and hit a miracle A52 flop. Villain has AK, I take down 30,000.

Can't even tell if I'm playing well or not at this point and it didn't matter a bit.

We hit the money, blah blah down to 10 and 2 players get knocked out so guaranteed 8th.

I really enjoy final tables. Getting better at playing for 1st and not just for a decent cash.

Mostly just making key steals/resteals to build slowly and watching ppl drop. I end up taking out the 4th place guy when my A2s hits 2 pair against his AJ. 2 villains left and one has been sitting out the whole final table and ends up finishing 3rd place haha.

Heads up!

DISWAY (119654 in chips)
13mclean (150346 in chips)

Hand 1

Dealt to 13mclean Eight of Clubs Two of Diamonds
13mclean: calls 1000
DISWAY: raises 4000 to 6000
13mclean: folds

Hand 2
Dealt to 13mclean Two of Spades Eight of Hearts
DISWAY: raises 6000 to 8000
13mclean: folds

Hand 3
Dealt to 13mclean Seven of Diamonds Two of Clubs
DISWAY: calls 1000
13mclean: checks
* FLOP * Six of Clubs King of Hearts Jack of Diamonds
13mclean: checks
DISWAY: bets 6000
13mclean: raises 12000 to 18000
DISWAY: folds

Hand 4
Seat 4: DISWAY (115754 in chips)
Seat 7: 13mclean (154246 in chips)
DISWAY: posts the ante 100
13mclean: posts the ante 100
13mclean: posts small blind 1000
DISWAY: posts big blind 2000
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to 13mclean Ten of Diamonds Queen of Clubs
13mclean: raises 2000 to 4000
DISWAY: calls 2000
* FLOP * Queen of Hearts Jack of Clubs Seven of Clubs
DISWAY: bets 2000
13mclean: raises 10000 to 12000
DISWAY: raises 99654 to 111654 and is all-in
13mclean: calls 99654
* TURN * Five of Spades
* RIVER * Eight of Hearts
* SHOW DOWN *
DISWAY: shows Ten of Clubs Three of Clubs (high card Queen)
13mclean: shows Ten of Diamonds Queen of Clubs (a pair of Queens)
13mclean collected 231508 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot 231508 | Rake 0
Board Queen of Hearts Jack of Clubs Seven of Clubs Five of Spades Eight of Hearts
Seat 4: DISWAY (big blind) showed Ten of Clubs Three of Clubs and lost with high card Queen
Seat 7: 13mclean (button) (small blind) showed Ten of Diamonds Queen of Clubs and won (231508) with a pair of Queens

This guy was way over aggro whole tourny so tried to adapt my style a bit. If for some reason anyone is still reading this, I would enjoy some comments about the last hand. I felt this was a good shot at taking the tourney down right here with TPGK heads up and felt my hand was good against his range (bluffs quite often). $216 - gimme them monies!

Anyways, I'll take 220 chips --> win any day, but am ready for the bad half of variance which I'm sure will occur very shortly.

past week's 180 man $4.40 SnG status finishes:
4 FT's, 2 wins, ~12ish bustos

Starting BR (3/2): $125
Current BR (3/19): $865.85

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Friday, March 16th, 2007

1st blog entry

Posted 2:53 am in Categories: Poker

Hello all.
I've been meaning to start one of these for a little while now. This forum has helped me out quite a bit, so I thought I'd try to contribute some content of my own.

Some personal background: I have been playing poker on and off for a few years now, but have recently been really trying to improve my game. I mostly stick to small stakes NL cash games and SnG's, and have never really had a bankroll over 1k (usually just cash out a few hundred every now and again). I am focusing on letting my bankroll grow and eventually moving up in stakes.

On March 2nd, I deposited $125 on Pokerstars with plans to grind $5 SnG's (9 handed) and $4, 180 man MTT's. I generally play 3 or 4 tables at a time.

Today, I was 5 tabling for a while and realized how much less I could keep track of the games. Was running on 2 hours of sleep or so and making poor decisions. Long story short, I burnt roughtly $100 which should really never happen at this level.
After a nap I got back on and started up a couple 180 man SnG's. In the first tourny, I ended up taking 6th after my AQ lost to QJ. Got it in preflop so no complaints.
In the second tourny, I was accumulating chips very rapidly and became chip leader with about 40 or so left. I thought I was playing well, but I also caught the sickest run of cards I've ever seen. When we hit the money, I had 2x the stack of 2nd place. I never lost the lead and took down 1st place for $216. A nice boost to the bankroll, and put me ahead for the day.

Here is the final hand:

PokerStars Game #8925593387: Tournament #45380091, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (800/1600) - 2007/03/16 - 02:46:50 (ET)
Table '45380091 17' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 2: MATTHB (74245 in chips)
Seat 7: 13mclean (195755 in chips)
MATTHB: posts the ante 75
13mclean: posts the ante 75
13mclean: posts small blind 800
MATTHB: posts big blind 1600
* HOLE CARDS *
Dealt to 13mclean Ace of Spades Nine of Spades
13mclean: calls 800
MATTHB: raises 3200 to 4800
13mclean: calls 3200
* FLOP * Nine of Diamonds Eight of Hearts Ace of Clubs
MATTHB: bets 6400
13mclean: raises 8000 to 14400
MATTHB: raises 15600 to 30000
13mclean: raises 160880 to 190880 and is all-in
MATTHB said, "i'm tired"
MATTHB: calls 39370 and is all-in
* TURN * Jack of Clubs
MATTHB said, "gg"
* RIVER * Two of Diamonds
* SHOW DOWN *
MATTHB: shows Five of Hearts Ace of Diamonds (a pair of Aces)
13mclean: shows Ace of Spades Nine of Spades (two pair, Aces and Nines)
13mclean said, "good game"
13mclean collected 148490 from pot
* SUMMARY *
Total pot 148490 | Rake 0
Board Nine of Diamonds Eight of Hearts Ace of Clubs Jack of Clubs Two of Diamonds
Seat 2: MATTHB (big blind) showed Five of Hearts Ace of Diamonds and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 7: 13mclean (button) (small blind) showed Ace of Spades Nine of Spades and won (148490) with two pair, Aces and Nines

I usually raise this PF, but he had been raising out of position quite a bit so I thought I'd take a flop with a decent hand on the button. Also, stacks were quite large compared to blinds, so no need to go balls out preflop here. I'm still not sure how I feel about my raise on the flop. It may have been a little too strong as he folds non-ace hands, but thought I might stack him if he has any A. Worked out this time anyways.

I am starting to get a better feel on how to aquire chips in MTT's without hurting my table image. Postflop is where its at.

Ok, thats all for tonight.

Starting Bankroll (March 2nd): $125.00
Current Bankroll (March 16th): $600.25

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