I suck at blogging, Part II

Since I don't have this linked in any of my sigs, I'm pretty sure nobody reads this. That's ok. I'll hammer out a post as I was challenged to do so by our fearless e-leader.

Here's an update:

Life

I guess I might get engaged this year. Either that or I'll be alone soon. I'm still torn. Pretty scary shit. It's not the being married part I've got an issue with, it's the wedding. I don't want to have a wedding. I'm more afraid of that than I am of needles, and I'm pretty damn afraid of needles.

Work

It's pretty great. Really busy, but I'm going to double this businesses #'s from '07, and likely increase by 50% in '09. Not bad considering I live in a depressed city and the economy is pretty fucking lousy.

Gas

Seriously, $4/gallon? Damn it all to hell. I paid over $4 for the first time last night, and it's really bothering me. Damn it.

Poker

I really don't play much online these days. The games I enjoyed are hard now, and I can't get behind NL online. I fart around with HORSE and some PLO. It's pretty pathetic. My live game is doing well. I'm on pace to make more than I did in '06. I'm pretty excited. I'm also at a bit of a crossroads. I play 1/2 $200 max which is the larger of the two 1/2 games spread locally. I think I'm really close to maxing out what I can make in my average session. I really want to take a shot at 2/5, but I'm totally intimidated by it.

Forum Life

I've been neglecting my posting duties to work. I feel really poorly about this. In other news I should be green. I'm focusing my anger about this on lucko. He's a popular target for hate so I'll hop on that bandwagon.

That's all.

Oh, and I suck at diets. Fucking fritz.

Man I suck at blogging.

So here's another post. Yay. I've been playing regularly since the end of last year, but with my work schedule haven't been around much.

I'm currently playing mostly Limit. Mostly .5/1 & 1/2, but there's some 2/4 mixed in there because I have no respect for bankroll requirements. I think they're for fags. I'm also playing some 50NL. I really don't like online NL, but there's money to be made there. I'm also playing HORSE tourneys. People really don't play HORSE well and I want to get better at omaha. This is a cost effective way to do it. I think.

My live game is going well this year. I'm thinking about a trip to Turning Stone for good friday, but I'll most likely stick to my usual place because I'm lazy.

I just sent two new guys off to do a job. I'm really freaking nervous about it.

I hate August.

I’d say sorry for the lack of updates, but I’m really not. So I won’t.

I worked almost 70 hours this past week. One day off in over 2 weeks. Not fun at all. I always worry after times like this that when I do have a day off I won’t be able to leave again. I left a good job 6 months before I wanted to by doing that a few years back. Actually almost 7 years back. Time flies I guess.

If all goes well, there are some interesting developments on the horizon for me. We’ll see how things go. Sometimes change is a good thing I suppose.

Somehow even with all of the work, I’ve managed to have my best month online this year. I’ve won 2 seats into the Sunday Million (as well as splitting one to the expensive one last month) and had a couple of tournament cashes. My cash game still isn’t close to what it should be unfortunately. I’m wildly inconsistent. Certain tables I beat regardless of the cards, and others I can’t win without making every hand. I’m not adjusting my play properly and I’m calling too much. It’s odd as I think my solid tourney/SnG/satellite results are because of my ability to lay a hand down to a raise/re-raise pre-flop and not calling in situations where the price isn’t right. Limit Hold-em can be frustrating.

I’m going to continue to play satellites, as well as a couple of tournament a week. I really like the $10 1-rebuy / 1-addon format. It’s a nice prize pool. In addition to that I’ve got to buckle down and play better in cash games. For the rest of the month I’m going to try and get in double the hands I’ve played month-to-date. We’ll see how that goes.

I haven’t played live in quite a while. I get burnt out being around the people. I really don’t know when I’ll go again. I’ll most likely warm back up to the idea as the weather changes. Perhaps I’ll make a trip to Turning Stone. Nobody knows me there.

In forum news, I had a good couple of weeks, even though I was absent for one of them. I had a solid showing on the “Top 5 +1’ers you wouldn’t want to be”, and a surprise appearance on someone’s “Top 5 +1’ers you’d want over for Thanksgiving”. Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t celebrate holidays.

I look forward to a normal schedule, and I may take some vacation time in September to play cards. Who knows.

Out of the darkness, back into the light...

The NL game has always been my dark mistress. I don’t know what it is about the game. I’ve had some limited success in the live game, but online I really struggle with it. I play well for a session and find a way to blow up in a hand or two. Too much grinding to endure a 2 or 3 buyin loss in one or two hands. It’s frustrating.

So, I played some limit over the weekend. Short handed of course. While not as sexy as the NL game, there’s certainly money to be made in this game, and I can misplay more hands and still turn a handy profit. It's similar to my live NL game. I'm not always the best player at the table, but there's nothing like a table with 3 or 4 bad players and 2 good ones. Groovy man. An example, from a 1/2 6-max session.

Dealt 4:c: 4:s: in the BB.

2 calls, button raise, fold, I call, 2 calls

Flop: Q :h: 4 :h: 4 :d:

I check, check, bet, folds around, I raise (should have just called), fold, call.

Turn: T :h:

I check, bet, I raise, call.

River: 9 (black)

I bet, call. He mucked A :h: 9 :d: :)

I really wanted to go for the third C/R, but I didn’t think I’d get the bet. I think I misplayed that hand on the flop, and still got 3 more big bets in there.

I’ve moved up 3 levels and playing fairly well. I’m missing bets on the river. I played a few hundred hands this morning and on the river alone I missed 4 or 5 bets. It’s quite fun to know I’m getting odds to play the majority of my draws profitably. It’s one of the things that bothered me most in NL. I really don’t like feeling that I’m not proficient at a game and moving on, but I like money. I’ll still play NL live as they don’t spread a big enough limit game, but for now I’m going back to limit online with a few tourneys mixed in.

I missed a great opportunity last weekend to play in a card game. It was a stag. Entertainment was very good (I’ve seen these two young ladies at stags in the past), and there was a SnG followed by a cash game. Bummer.

On a personal note, it’s really freaking hot. I’m not a big fan of that. When does fall get here again?

Two steps forward, two steps back

Things I should do this weekend:

• Go to Casino on Friday
• Go to stag w/ really juicy card game on Saturday
  
  

Things I will likely do this weekend:

• Neither
  

I just don’t feel like it. Fuck.

Cash Game Madness & New Online Strategy

Live Stuff: I played a cash game this weekend. It's not often I get to play these as I don't really talk to many people. It was the third time I played this game. It's a $1/$1 blind structure and ante games are played w/ $1 ante. I'm the only "poor" one in the game and every time I've been in the game someone had a piece of me. I'm really not comfortable with that, but I do love to play cards and it's a pretty soft game. I did well and I'm pleased.

After a good session I like to do something nice for the GF. We went to a movie on Sunday and had a nice steak dinner at home. Man I love steak. BTW, when did movies get so expensive? $7 for a MATINEE show? WTF is up with that! It's $9 for an evening show. Wow. I remember in college seeing movies for $1.50 and in my post college years I had friends that worked at a theatre. I guess I'm making up for not paying for those years. Geez that's expensive.

Oniline Stuff: I play exclusively at stars right now, and I've got a new strategy to stop me from bleeding chips when I'm drinking. I've got a bunch of FPP points, so when drinking I've been playing "free" satellites and I've been playing cash/SnG. So far it's good for an entry into the guaranteed 100k (1/4? on those), and a chop of an entry into the Sunday Million (1/1). I also finished 7th in a TD tourney (first time playing it online - 1 through 4 got something I recall) and I'm looking for a satellite to play tonight. Something I'm noticing is that good players are quite a bit easier to read than the bad ones. It's not even close. In the 70fpp sat's (winner gets $11), they are crap shoots. 3-4 people get knocked out very early and the rest try to coin-flip their way to victory. Not much post flop play until it's down to 2 to 4 people. In the Sunday Million sat (winner gets T$530), there was a TON of post-flop play, and it was good play. These people are better than I am by a long shot. I may watch some of these satellites just to see the play. The cutoff for good play/bad play seems to be ~1500fpp. Anything below that has pretty poor play, and the ones 1500 and up have much more solid play.

My cash game results at 10NL & 25NL have been pretty bad, but I'm quite pleased with my play. I did really well in 10NL sessions and got stacked twice in 25nl (once full once short). Once w/ flopped straight (lost to runner-runner quads - lol), and once w/ turned boat losing to larger river boat. Bummer man. Overall I think I'm playing well in the cash games. The one big leak I'm seeing is my pre-flop play in reraised pots. I've made some really bad calls. I'm taking it slow and not playing too many hands this month. These stakes frustrate me a bit.

Overall I'm fairly comfortable with my game right now. I wish I was rolled better for live play. I really wanted to be playing 2/5 by years end. Moving up is easier with online play as the money is out of reach. It seems that every time I make a nice score live I use the money for something else (stupid living expenses) and end up w/ the same meager roll. It's frustrating.

Vacation Ends & Some Live Micro Fun

After my week of fun camping and the week of crap that was work, I went back last weekend for more punishment. Also the camper needed to come home. That always helps. I tried to get out of going but it wasn't happening.

I was exhausted Friday night, but stayed up and played cards anyway. Saturday some new people came to visit. An older couple that love hold'em. What's that you say? I kept quiet and they got a game going. I joined a short time after the first person broke. I won't post hands as they really weren't entertaining, but I came out of the game up 400bb ($20). The next biggest winner made $8, and the know-it-all made $4. Fun stuff. Normally I can't play cards and enjoy it unless there is some significant action, but this was really refreshing for me. Perhaps because my last two live sessions have been disasters.

I read most of Phil Gordons Little Green Book over vacation and it's quite good. I came out of my reading with the following lessons (notice I didn't say I've learned them:

Position: Regardless of the table, I need to pay more attention to it. I've been opening up more from EP/MP, and sizing raises differently. I still need to work on my raise sizing by position, but not by playing more weak hands OOP.

Post Flop Play: Just because I feel I'm a better player post-flop doesn't mean I need to play more hands further post flop. I'm comfortable with the % of the time I'm c-betting, but I think I need to give up more on the flop, and slow down with one-pair hands & two-pair hands on the river in multi-way pots. I'm torn on this, but looking back at my play in July, I lost a ton in the last two sessions w/ TP or two pair. I'm not sure if it's just a bad run or if I'm overplaying my hands (see hand in last post for example).

I'm coming into the busiest time of the year for me, which kind of sucks. I want to play live once more this month and twice in August. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it. I may have to play more online, although I don't feel comfortable after my last blowup.