Memorial Weekend Live

With my sister and brother in-law in town I was able to visit the Ameristar Poker Room under the guise of taking them out to the casino. Saturday nights trip was uneventful and I managed to lose my $100 buy in at 3/6. The casino was nearly empty and I found seats with no wait in the card room. I don't know where everyone went but the entire city seemed short in the population department for the entire weekend.

The first table I sat at had to be the tightest live table I've ever seen. This was in stark contrast to my previous visits and no one at the table was having any fun. No conversation, No family pots, and No winning for me. After losing a buy in and taking a short walk I headed back and found myself finally seated at a fun table. It was obvious at least two of the players knew what they were doing but I felt I could exploit them and win back some of my earlier losses. I was able to enjoy this thought for about 15 minutes when my brother in-law announced he was ready to leave. I didn't get my chance but I knew we'd be back the next night and I'd have it then.

Fast forward 24 hours and the card room still doesn't have a waiting list. I sit down and everyone is having a good time. Conversation is flowing almost as fast as the chips and I'm up $50 in half an hour. Then the sky abruptly falls in around me as a few players get up and our table is shut down. There are three other tables hosting 3/6 in the room and I pick the one with three empty seats. I had a 1 in 3 chance of picking the right table to play at and I'll give you three guesses to figure out if I picked the right one. Not only that but with a seat at each end available, I can sit on the fun side, or the dark side. Staying true to form I mistakenly take the dark side. Before I even get my first cards the player two to my right is bitching about the suckouts he's taking and how bad the players are. His mouth never stops spewing forth a bitter barage of negativity. I so want to reach out and put my fist down his throat. He doesn't have the temperament for the game and is sucking my emotional stability down with him.

The player to my immediate left is a super LAG. Never saw a pot he didn't want to raise preflop and never saw a river that didn't seem to make his hand. Between the two of them I was mired in a tar pit of seething darkness from which I could not escape. Before too long the table was comprised of half regular full time players and half recreational players looking to have fun. The regulars kept berating the recreational players and criticized every mistake to poker protocol being performed. Even the dealers weren't immune to the lashing being dealt out by these guys. It turns out that the original whiner was a regular along with the LAG and they had no love for each other. I can say with great sarcasm that it was a joy to be seated between them. Looking back I should have asked to be moved to another table. I'm still new to this live thing and I just wanted to keep my head down and my mouth shut.

About 4 hours into play I finally get a new regular to my right. He's a young guy but he knows the game and we immediately start a decent conversation. As my eternal luck holds true though my sister and husband are now ready to leave and I've had all but $25 sucked out of me. The LAG was catching (but only against me it seemed) and with the lack of playable hands at this table it's just been a small grind.all night. Since I want to have some action before leaving I announce to the dealer I'm going to straddle the blinds. I don't care what I get for cards and I'm getting all of my remaining money into this pot. The LAG calls and it's folded around to the BB who calls. As I'm reaching out to raise the dealer scoops all the chips off into the pot and then realizes he didn't give me the option to raise. Everyone now knows I wanted to but I tell the dealer to go ahead and give a flop. The recreational side of the table then utters their confusion as to how I can raise and one of the regulars begins to school them on the principles of the straddle bet.

Anyway the flop comes rags and I bet out. Both players call. Turn, another rag and I bet out. LAG calls, BB folds. The river pairs the board, I bet out again. The LAG raises and I put the rest of my chips all-in. I announce that I haven't looked at my cards yet and ask the LAG if he wants to see them with me. I flip the cards up on the table revealing a KJ suited and I have King high. The LAG shows pocket A's and he's managed to beat me again. As I get up everyone gives me the nod and the recreationals are aghast that I never looked at my cards. As I reach the exit and swipe my card I hear the table laughing and finally having a good time. Your welcome regulars.

Damn, I should have done that earlier.

You Know The Romance Is Gone When...

Not poker related but the wife and I had this conversation tonight.

hmmmm....you smell good.
Well, I've been farting a lot tonight.
Yeah.....probably not the smell I was refering to.


nuff said.

Wrong Time, Wrong Place

It will be interesting to see if I still have a job over the next few days. I managed to get into an argument with one of our customers today and I told him to stop being a dick. I work in a unique industry where my office is located on site with our contract customers. I've done the job for 15 years and have never lost my cool like this before. The contracts are more important than the employees so I could be out if the situation escalates.

If I was jobless could I supplement my income playing poker? I don't think so. I'm still to impatient at times and that costs me. Everytime I want to win I usually end up losing because of the pressure I put on myself. If I don't care, I win. Since my bankroll could support my family for a month I would have to look real hard at just cashing out. I suppose I might give it a shot for a week or two but if I didn't have instant results I'd have to do the sensible thing.

My impatience is helping though in my new endeavor to learn short handed play. I have $1600 in bonuses spread out among 4 sites that still needs to be cleared. I'll end up losing most of that if I don't start clearing it quickly. In an effort to do so I've taken up the 1/2 6 max tables. The bonus money is clearing at a quick rate everywhere. That is everywhere but Full Tilt. The only 6 max tables they have are at 2/4 and higher, I'm just not comfortable enough to play that level yet shorthanded. The $540 still pending at that site disappears the first week of June. It's all but hopeless to work on it since it clears so slowly compared to the other sites.

Anyway I may have to shut down operations if the worst occurs. Wish me luck.

The Last Hoorah?

In what was probably the last WPBT WSOP event I have proven that again I was just dead money. My AK with a short stack ran into PokerNation's AA. I finished in an unimpressive 28th out of 81 entrants.


On the lighter side of things I got a hit from this search term:
girls forced to take close off over losing poker

If only. :)

Tournament Progress

First off if you saw me in the LasVegaVegas Noble Poker freeroll last night, that wasn't me. I wasn't able to get home in time so my wife played for me and busted out in the first half hour. I didn't check the hand histories but I know she called an all-in on the turn with only A high. She's still learning.

Thought I'd throw an update out as to how the increased volume of multi-table tournament play is going. Since posting about taking a renewed interest in these I've played it 24 events. In an effort to make my tournament play self sustainable I have split off a small portion of my bankroll and made it an exclusive tournament bankroll. The higher it builds the higher the buy-ins I will consider playing. If it drops to zero then I will still play just not with the regularity I do now.

My buy ins have been:
Freerolls = 4 no money finishes
$5.50 = 8 w/ 2 money + 1 final table - I'm liking the UltimateBet $3,000 guarantee that they run nightly
$11 = 2 w/ 1 money finish
$11 w/ rebuys = 1 no money finish
$22 = 4 w/ 1 money finish
$33 = 4 w/ 1 final table
$44 = 1 no money finish

That's $381 invested in buy ins and winnings of $706.78. A nice little profit of $325.78 and so far so good. I went a little crazy on the rebuy tournament and that cut into the profits. I also included the WPBT WSOP tourneys and they were not of the normal payout structure.

I might try a $100 buy in event here soon and see if the competition is any different. With the Online Series of Poker getting ready to start up, I'd like to take my shot. I'm stuck working nights all this week so I don't know if I'll get any play in. Tonight is the WPBT event an I'll be playing from work so I'm sure I won't do too well. I just want to get off the bottom of the rankings.

Chat Attack

Normally I ignore the chat window but there was no avoiding this player. He had me literally laughing outloud sometimes and was doing a decent job of putting players on tilt. He even managed to goad me into two pots I shouldn't have played. I present to you some of the highlights of his verbal assault. I't's a little long and I had to edit out quite a bit of it.

Here I catch my flush on the river and it begins
AtrossMark: i am getting rivered to death the last 3 hands
AtrossMark: nice hand loser
lifeagrind: way to call K3o preflop loser
AtrossMark: you hit the str8 on the river
lifeagrind: flush moron
AtrossMark: go XXXX yourself lol
AtrossMark: 3 river rats in a row
AtrossMark: lifeagrind

Someone else beats him on the river
AtrossMark: i don't respect players who suck out on the river
AtrossMark: like you
AtrossMark: or lifeagrind
AtrossMark: esp after calling 3 raises
AtrossMark: lol
AtrossMark: that's called LUCK
AtrossMark: blind luck
AtrossMark: but it'll come back to bite ya in the ass
AtrossMark: hey capt pug
AtrossMark: u suck
AtrossMark: don't forget that, k

Here I take one down and goad him a little
lifeagrind: str8 didn't hit huh
AtrossMark: wasn't looking for a straight
AtrossMark: or anything else for that matter
AtrossMark: i wanted to see what you had
lifeagrind: satisfied
AtrossMark: very much so yes
lifeagrind: glad I could help
AtrossMark: just help yourself you need it
AtrossMark: just like don and capt pug
AtrossMark: 3 losers

He wins one
AtrossMark: that's what i thought beatches
AtrossMark: that's what I thought
AtrossMark: eat XXXX
AtrossMark: you pussies
AtrossMark: i thought you caught a flush mike
AtrossMark: but guess not sucker
AtrossMark: you caught nothin!
AtrossMark: i know you had Kings too epuss
AtrossMark: read you like a BOOK!
AtrossMark: LIKE A BOOK!
#1950099122: AtrossMark wins $37 from the main pot with a straight, eight to queen.
AtrossMark: yeah that's right PUNK BEATCH
AtrossMark: that's right
AtrossMark: eat it!
AtrossMark: eat it!
AtrossMark: all day
AtrossMark: all day you punks

Now he gets on a roll. Manages to win a few pots.
AtrossMark: don't make me beatch slap u like i did with the punks to your right
AtrossMark: pug wash is washin my balls
AtrossMark: and mick is dead broke on tilt
AtrossMark: broke as a joke
AtrossMark: broke as a JOKE!
AtrossMark: LOL!!!!!!
AtrossMark: OHHHHHH
AtrossMark: doesn't that suck
AtrossMark: doesn't that suck to be on tilt
AtrossMark: he's on tilt
AtrossMark: broke as a joke
AtrossMark: did u think u won those hands mick?
AtrossMark: i mean seriously
AtrossMark: did u think u had them?
AtrossMark: did u?
AtrossMark: honestly
AtrossMark: be straight
AtrossMark: u did, didn't u
AtrossMark: that's the beauty of that
AtrossMark: the way u and pug ball washer were betting into me
AtrossMark: it was like Christmas
AtrossMark: really
AtrossMark: it was
AtrossMark: i had to ask myself
AtrossMark: "is this Christmas"?
AtrossMark: it feels like April
AtrossMark: maybe Christmas has come early
AtrossMark: I have the nuts and these two morons are betting into me
AtrossMark: how could this be
AtrossMark: there are planters nuts in my hand
AtrossMark: yet
AtrossMark: these ball washers
AtrossMark: are betting into me
AtrossMark: and reraising me
AtrossMark: 2 and 3 times
AtrossMark: wowwwww

AtrossMark: here's a $1
AtrossMark: go buy youself a book on poker
AtrossMark: k bud
AtrossMark: "how not to reraise into the NUTS"
AtrossMark: you might learn something from it
AtrossMark: i was thinking u guys were hitting the wrong button
AtrossMark: for a secon
AtrossMark: d
AtrossMark: i was like "damn, is this a computer malfunction"
AtrossMark: what's going on
AtrossMark: must be another computer malfunction

Here I manage to not put him on the nuts and he takes it down
AtrossMark: ohhhhhhhh
AtrossMark: another CHUMP
AtrossMark: steps to the table
AtrossMark: lifeagrind
AtrossMark: been waiting for that one
AtrossMark: YOU CHUMP!!!!!
AtrossMark: been waiting awhile for that one!!!!!!!!
lifeagrind: u da ma mark
AtrossMark: OHHHHHHHHH
AtrossMark: lifeagrind
AtrossMark: how did that feel
AtrossMark: to take it up the ass
AtrossMark: seriously
AtrossMark: be honest
AtrossMark: how did it feel
AtrossMark: cmon,
AtrossMark: be honest
AtrossMark: it felt kindof good
lifeagrind: refreshing, wouldn't want it any other way, you da man
AtrossMark: to reraise into the king
AtrossMark: lol!!!!

Now I'm his verbal whipping boy
AtrossMark: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
AtrossMark: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
AtrossMark: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
AtrossMark: all day and nightall DAY AND NIGHT
AtrossMark: pug will be washing my balls next
AtrossMark: the pug wash
AtrossMark: washing my balls
AtrossMark: mick about to go broke
AtrossMark: lifeagrind
AtrossMark: paying me off
AtrossMark: with interest
AtrossMark: all day
AtrossMark: now who's talkin
AtrossMark: hey punks?
AtrossMark: now who's geting their asses kik'd
AtrossMark: all you all
AtrossMark: lifeagrind with his foot in his mouth
AtrossMark: GOD you suck, lifeagrind
AtrossMark: wow
AtrossMark: was waiting for that hand for an hour
AtrossMark: u jumped right in
AtrossMark: 2x in a row
AtrossMark: 2x in a row
AtrossMark: i read u and mick like books
lifeagrind: at least you have a plan
AtrossMark: then dumped your ass on queer street
AtrossMark: poor mick
AtrossMark: he has to fight back
AtrossMark: from getting his stack butchered by the master
AtrossMark: poooor guy

AtrossMark: u just lost to a retard dude
AtrossMark: how can u live with yourself
AtrossMark: seriously
AtrossMark: the guy played you like a beatch
AtrossMark: and u lost
AtrossMark: wow
AtrossMark: that's got to be tough to take
AtrossMark: that's like losing to lifeagrind
AtrossMark: the king CHUMP
AtrossMark: coco the monkey
AtrossMark: hey coco the monkey

WPBT - WSOP

I'm not going to Vegas yet. Last nights tournament was a hell of a good time. The play was top notch and the raibirds were providing some much needed levity. It was the first time I stuck around to watch the final table and I have to say I'll make a habit of it in the blogger events from now on. 78 players signed up and I made it all the way to 22. I was eliminated by Phill who took down second place. If your going to be eliminated at least be eliminated by a contender.

I played a pretty good game but in the spirit of things I tried to steal blinds with the hammer and got played back at. I saw others push back all-in and get lucky on the flop with those cards last night, but I didn't want to take the chance and had to lay it down. I went out when with AJ against 77. I was commited enough that I had to call his all-in which put me all-in. I hit my A but he hit his 7 and that was that.

Congratulation to Bob for winning it all. Make us proud.

Television Poker

I've always dabbled but never really put myself full force into the arena of Television Poker. It looked exciting. The suspense, the all-ins, the never knowing if your opponent was bluffing or if you were dominated. Seeing the pros push each other around and then eventually taking in the lovely girl on the floor as she perform their exit interviews. It looked glamorous but was tournament play really that cool?

The thought of forking over hard earned money for the chance of coming away empty handed didn't appeal to me in the slightest. When I first started playing poker I was of the firm belief that real poker was of the limit variety. Grinding out an acceptable win rate to sustain and improve ones bankroll. Having a 300 big bet cushion to survive the inevitable swings but always knowing that in the end I'd come out on top. Sure the occasional freeroll or $5 tournament was a fun distraction but there were just too many variables to contend with. Making these a steady staple of my poker diet just didn't make much sense.

Then I went and won what was at the time my biggest poker victory. I won the PokerSourceOnline.com freeroll tournament for a CardPlayer Cruise. It was very exciting and things went my way but I still didn't take tournament play all that seriously. I thought I had, but really I wasn't putting much time into it. I played Sit-n-Go's every now and then, took in a few more tournaments but still, nothing hard core.

Then we fast forward to March of 2005. I posted a very nice win in an Absolute Poker $6,000 guarantee tourney. Then I tried another tournament and things began to click. The puzzle pieces were sliding into place and my play had improved. I'm even considering getting Harrington's book on Hold'em. This would be a big leap for me since I don't like reading poker books that much.

My improved play still hasn't helped me that much when it comes to the tournaments where I feel I must perform well. When I'm in a WPBT event or a PSO league tournament I always seem to end up middle of the pack. I don't know if this is due to trying to get fancy or just trying too hard. At any rate I hope I'm over that when the WSOP event tournament rolls around this Sunday.

I'm going to start making the effort to play one tournament a night while I multi-table 2 or 3 $1/$2 limit tables to clear my various bonuses. This should allow me to play ABC on the limit tables and concentrate on the multi-table tourney. Since March 5th I've played in 19 multi-table tournaments, with 7 money finishes, 4 final tables, and 2 wins. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

The Power Play

I’m sure there is a stamped and authorized name for this play but I don’t know it. I’ve decided to call it the Power Play and it seems to be appropriate.

To set this up I’m playing in a Multi-table Tournament last night at Ultimatebet when the following scenario unfolds. We started with 832 players and were down to 159. I have around 6800 in chips with the average being in the 5,000 chip range. I’m dealt AQo in early middle position and the current chip leader who has about 25,000 in chips limps in on my immediate right. I bet the pot, which represents around 1/5 of my stack. It folds around to the Chip Leader who reraises to 5,200.

The Chip Leader has just executed what I like to call the Power Play. She has feigned weakness, then come over the top when I chased off the other players with my raise. Although this play can be executed with any two cards, I believe only a fool would do so without a very large pocket pair. I’m talking K’s or A’s, possibly Q’s if the table conditions are right. You also want to be one of the large stacks at the table. If you are short stacked it is better to just get your chips in up front.

This is a risky play. If you get a raiser to isolate you from the rest of the field, it’s quite possible they also have a hand, and are willing to call your raise. The thing is, you want them to call. This is why it is best to have a large stack, and in optimum conditions have your opponent covered. I play a relatively tight tournament style. If I’m at a table where the other players are paying attention to that, and folding to my raises, this becomes a nice way to add to my chip count. When reraising you want to force your opponent to make a decision for all their chips. Performing a minimum raise only allows them to see a flop without mortal risk. This gives your opponent a chance to improve on the flop, or get away from their hand. You do not want this. If played correctly you should have the best hand preflop and you want your opponent to join you when you have that advantage.

The play is similar in style to a Stop-N-Go, but in reverse. The Stop-N-Go is used as a bluffing tool to force your opponent to fold. Here we are not bluffing but want it to appear that perhaps we are, thus enticing the call. Since we are only making this play in optimum conditions it becomes a nice way to mix things up without having to consciously make a decision to do so. The caveat is that it won’t always work. You can never foresee someone raising behind you. As such is the case it is best to be UTG or UTG +1 so there are plenty of players left to act. If you get a few limpers and then someone in late position raises, that’s all the better. The early limpers are likely to fold and the late position may have been on a steal all along. It’s possible to take this pot down without having to worry about being drawn out on. In the process you have also added enough chips to nicely enhance your stack.

When does this not work. Well, when no one raises. You are more than likely still best post flop and you should try to take it down at that time. Keep in mind that if you get a lot of callers you need to watch for the flush and straight draws. The discipline needs to be in place to even get away from A’s if your likely beat in this situation. This play can run the risk of wasting a good pocket pair. Remember your supposed to be in a good position before making the play so the short term loss of one hand shouldn’t affect you.

Now back to my situation. The chip leader had not been using her stack to push people around. She had also been playing a tight game. As soon as she made her move I knew I was behind in the hand. My options were to lay the hand down and pick a better spot, or push all in for the remainder of my chips. A call was going to leave me pot committed anyway and when this occurs, it’s best to push. I would spout off all the percentages and statistics that reflected my hands chance of winning against what I thought my opponent had, but I don’t have these things memorized and I didn’t consider them when I made my decision. If I was looking to play a good sensible game I should fold in this situation. By not folding I am giving my opponent everything she is looking for.

I knew I was against a pair of Q’s or better and at best I was less than a coin flip, and at worst a huge dog. I let external influences guide my decision. If I wasn’t going to make the top 8 in this tournament it wasn’t worth my time to continue playing in it. The real money didn’t come till this point and I didn’t want to spend 5 hours only to make $20 or $30. I was also tired and looking for an out. If I could double up through the chip leader it would hurt her and put me within the top 20 in chip stacks. I could then be in a decent enough position to make my run for the final table.

With the decision made I pushed all in and she called. Sure enough she had pocket K’s and I called for an A on the flop. My request was granted and I figured I had the shot I wanted. As fate intervened a K came on the turn so I was drawing dead. She gave me the obligatory “gg” but I knew she was secretly thinking, “sucker”.

The computer was shutdown and off to dreamland I went. At least I got a post out of it.

Happy Anniversary!

This blog is one year old today!

It's been a little neglected over the last few months with posts coming few and far between but I'm going to work on improving that. I also haven't been good at updating my blogroll but I'll get that cleaned up over the next day or two. Other bloggers try to list everyone so I only link the blogs I'm currently reading.

When I started the blog I was gung ho and ready to write about every little item involving my poker adventures. The first blog I ever came across was Felicia's. I found her blog through her Yahoo! Group and quickly began adding others to my daily reading. Iggy, Pauly, Chris, Liquid Sword, and Poker Nerd were my firsts. I became inspired to start my own blog not because I wanted to write about my play so much as I wanted in this blogger community. I remember reading one of Felicia's posts about a blogger tournament she set up. I thought this was so cool that a group of people had gotten together to have a private tournament and share their poker thoughts with each other. I wanted to be part of all that so I began this blog. I didn't want to admit my "aw shucks" feeling about the tight blogger community so I never really revealed that before. I always quoted the patent answer about wanting to improve my play. That was certainly part of it, and it has helped my game beyond explanation, but it was only part of the full reason.

I never became the integral part of the community I had hoped to. I'm an introvert at heart and I never felt qualified to comment on others posts so I never garnered much exposure. I hadn't asked Iggy to link me up, but back when only a few of us were starting up new blogs he found my little corner of geekspace and gave me a few lines in an uber-post. I thought this was nice of him and I know every new blogger today hopes to make it into one of his posts. He has helped propel our community into the big time along with other notables such as Hank, and Otis. It's been amazing to see the growth that has occurred over the last year. I remember playing in my first blogger tournament and I think we only had about 30 players. My how things have grown. I've been fortunate to money in one but that was long before the WPBT ever came around or Maudie designed our own chip logo. Of course I will win my entry for the $1500 WSOP through the next blogger tournament and who would have ever thought a setup like that was possible. It's nice to realize that as a collective group we have a voice that can reach deep into the poker world.

I still don't feel as though I've found a set pattern for this blog. Most of the time I'm considered a diarist type blogger but I try to throw in some strategy posts when I feel qualified to do so. When I was recently browsing through the searches that have brought people to my blog, I found that an old post of mine was generating some hits. I remember being very proud of it when I wrote it. Going back and rereading it, it could use some perspective changes but I still think it's an interesting post.


As the year has worn on and my experience increased I found it sometimes tedious to sit down and do a full analysis with write up. I've also found it easier to write when I'm winning and much more difficult when I'm losing. Even with it being more difficult it is certainly therapeutic to write when losing. The contemplation involved in working through the sessions often yield the knowledge and drive necessary to turn things around. Ego also has a lot to do with this. If your writing about how your losing all the time your self confidence takes a big hit. Your ego drives you to improve so that others will read about how good you are, not how bad. I've prided myself on being honest in this regard. I've documented the downswings but probably not with the zeal that I've documented the upswings. I'll try to continue to be honest and if others can learn from my mistakes, it's all that much better.

I'm still in awe of how much growth we've experienced and will continue to experience. I'm sure there is an end in sight, I just don't believe we'll see it for a while yet.

This blog has helped me to have a great year of poker. My hope is that it will continue for years to come. I'm sure we can all prosper through our little community in cyberspace and if any of you think I can help you, please let me know.

Regards,
LifesAGrind

Can You Hear Me Now?

I left off with a post on Sunday resolving to pay attention to my play that night and not chase when I was beat. I didn't get a chance to test that out. When I logged onto Absolute to check the tables out I found that one of their 10,000 Player Point buyin tournaments was getting ready to start. I had points to spare and with a guarantee prize pool of 5K a money finish was well worth my time.

I wanted to concentrate on just the tournament so I didn't play any limit games that night. We had 193 entrants and only the top 18 paid. I finished a respectable 14th making it to the final two tables. The payout was decent and since I didn't have anything to spend my points on, it was like a freeroll from a bankroll perspective. Even though it wasn't a cash buy-in none of the players played it like a freeroll. It was nice to have a tournament that wasn't an all-in fest from the beginning.

On Monday I decided to play at UltimateBet because the tables at Absolute are becoming rock gardens. It's difficult to have a nice win rate when you all shuffle the chips back and forth. With so few players on the site, we are all getting to know each others play and that makes things slow. With my bad run as of late I don't want to spend the -EV trying to loosen things up so it's better to just move on. I still have almost $400 in bonus to clear so I'll have to spend time there eventually. I may take a week or two off and then go back.

Anyway I have bonus to clear at UltimatBet as well so it's all good. I fired up two tables and happened to notice a $5 multi was getting ready to start. One of the nice things about UltimateBet's tourneys is that you can use player points to buy into any of it's cash tournaments. I had the points so I figured what the heck, it'll be like another freeroll. Unlike the Absolute tourney of the previous night this was an "all-in fest". It became obvious early that it wouldn't take much of a hand for these guys to push with. I really felt I could take advantage of the situation and in order to concentrate on the tournament I closed down my cash games with a single BB profit.

My diligence was paying off and by the second break I had firmly planted myself in the top ten in chip stacks. Out of the 620 entrants most were without skill. It was nice to come to the realization of just how much my knowledge of the game has grown. Being able to see the mistakes unfold and knowing who were the weaker players had me at a nice advantage.

With 77 to go I had taken the chip lead. It was short lived since the top few were very close in chips and the blinds had risen to the point where just stealing them and the ante's would net you 10,000 in chips. I stayed in the top ten until we were down to 18. I played a pocket pair of 10's to hard post flop with an overcard showing. I passed off a majority of my chips to someone else and I finally went out in 12th. Again I made it to the final two tables. I really had a guaranteed spot in the final table for this tournament. I was getting tired and things had tightened up so much that time seemed to be moving in reverse. Another one in the cash column though so I won't complain.

Last night I finally made it in earnest to the limit tables. The cards finally made a nice shift as my hands were holding up. I also made a concerted effort not to chase. This resulted in a nice 10BB profit in an hour.

I'll hit it again tonight and see if I can make it two in a row.

As a side note, while I was playing in the tournament I noticed another blogger was playing at the NL tables. I decided to crash her table and sat down. My username at UltimateBet is my real name so she would have had no idea who I was. About the time I was going to say something, she left. I'll have to catch her next time.

Why Oh Why

Since doing, and posting, about my review of first quarter play I haven't had a positive session. A down turn is still occurring and on the first session I quit with a -4BB loss. On the second session I finished down with a -2BB loss. Considering the recent past I wasn't upset about these results at all. I looked at them as break even sessions and I was happy to be showing some progress. Then last night all hell broke lose. I finished down 40BB's playing 447 hands.

Why did this happen?

Let's take a look.

The hand I lost the most money with last night was 99. I saw this hand 3 times and lost 7BB without a single win. On two of these hands I folded when it was obvious I was beat and minimized my loss. On the other hand I dropped 4.5BB. I raised this particular hand under the gun which I'm thinking may have been a mistake, I'm still not sure on this though. The only caller I got was the player to my immediate left and he rated out as a slightly loose neutral player. The flop came down Q 5 3 rainbow. Since I represented big preflop I felt I had to bet out at this or loose control of the hand. He called and another Q hit the turn. I strongly felt that if my opponent had a queen on the flop he would have raised me. This was the read I had so I bet out again. At this point he raised and I called. The river brought a 10 and I check called to see him show pocket 3's for the full house.

My initial read was correct about him not having a Q but I refused to lay down when he represented a strong hand on the turn. I was convinced he didn't have a Q and I didn't consider his hitting trips on the flop. My only thought was that he held an A5 suited and was trying to push me off my hand. Even with my feelings about his holdings, when he bet at the river I should have finally conceded. He can't expect me to fold the Q I was representing, so his proper play would have been to check the river with me. By his final bet he was telling me I was beat, I just wasn't listening.

Next up is KT suited. Out of 4 times I had this I lost 5BB. Again I didn't connect for a win with any of these either. The two hands I took past the flop were both big blind hands. One was checked down past the flop and the other was when I tried to push around a fish. I had a flush draw so I was betting into him and it never materialized. I had to let this go on the river so I don't know what he held.

KQo represented another 5BB. Held this twice and 4BB was invested in one hand. I lost when I flopped top pair with the K and my opponent hit two pair on the river. I called his turn raise and his bet on the river.

I'm seeing a pattern here.

As I continue through the hands they all appear to be valid preflop plays, I just got married to them and couldn't let go to the turn raises. Sadly even if I had folded them I still would have ended up down for the night. Certainly I would have saved myself about 15-20BB.

I'm running cold and getting married to hands on occasion. I'm sure this is the result of some type of tilting on my part so I'll watch out for this tonight. I'm hoping to post a few wins in a row soon because this is getting a little discouraging. My limit play used to support my tournament play. Now it's the other way around. This just doesn't feel normal to me.

Ever Fold AA Preflop?

I actually considered this last night.

Let me set it up for you. I was playing the $12K guarantee at Absolute Poker and we were down to 47 players. Payout started at 45th place so it was crunch time and I had been playing for a little over four hours. The blinds are at 500/1000 with a 75 ante and I sit in the small blind. At this point I'm in no danger of busting out of this tournament. I have 15,831 in chips. This is a little short but their are plenty of players that will be out before I have to even worry about it.

I get dealt the beautiful hand of AA and suddenly my feelings of great joy are replaced by apprehension and self doubt. As the hand gets underway a middle position short stack calls. It folds around until the small blind who raises it up to 3,000. The predicament involves the fact that the small blind is a very tight player. I haven't seen him play anything that wasn't of premium quality. Since this means he's holding big cards, he's also not likely to just let them go. He also has me outchipped by about 8,000 making his call feasible.

I have a tough decision. I know I'm favored preflop against any hand save another AA. If I push all in at this stage I believe that it send the signal, "hey, I don't want any callers." I believe he will call an all-in and my mind drifts to a hand earlier in the tournament. Four players manage to raise each other all-in pre-flop. The hands were QQ, KK, AK, and AA. A king hit the turn and the player raked a monster pot while sucking out on the A's. The voice of Howard Lederer then invades my consciousness and even though I can't remember the exact quote, I recall him saying how he has laid down the rockets when at the bubble to guarantee a money finish.

I'm so close and throwing away four hours of work because I got sucked out on just wasn't appealing. After weighing my options I decided there was just no way I could sacrifice this hand for the purpose of coasting into the money. Since I also thought an all-in was sending the wrong message I went for a reraise to 10,000. This represented 2/3 of my stack and I hoped he would read that as, "I have a big hand, I'm pot committing myself, but by not going all-in I'm inviting you to join me."

I have no idea if that's how he read it but he folded and I increased my chip stack. Wouldn't you know it the very next hand I get dealt AA again but this time I didn't even consider laying it down. I made a large raise and everyone folded preflop including an early position limper. I went on to play pretty well but became severely shortstacked and had to venture and all-in holding Ad7d. The button had AK and called me. I never caught my seven or any diamonds and was out in 14th position. It wasn't the big cash but I managed a little over $30/hour win rate for the tournament, and I'll take that anyday.

If It Weren't For Bad Luck, I'd Win Every One Of These

That's the way I've been feeling lately so I took the plunge and finally got around to purchasing the PokerTracker Guide a few days ago. After reading through it I've been inspired to perform a 1st quarter of 2005 evaluation of my play. Now this could be a rather broad topic since I've played Hold'em, Omaha, and Tournaments (both single and multi). Not only have I played different games but different levels so in order to really narrow things down I'm going to take a look at only my limit hold'em play, and only at the 2/4 and 3/6 levels. These are the levels I'm playing right now so they will be the most relevant. The data is somewhat incomplete as well since I also have play at Full Tilt, Bodog, and Golden Palace. Since PokerTracker does not support these sites the hands played there will not be used. I'm also only going to look at the 2005 statistics to date. No past performance stuff to get in the way, only current play. There will not be any bonus money used in the discussions of bankroll either. I actually have never considered bonus money when talking about whether I was winning or losing. Just actual table play results. I also want to preface this whole little analysis thing by telling you that as I do it, I'll write it. I haven't gone through anything yet so we'll be discovering my bad play together as we go on this journey.

Lets start off by auto-rating. For the year to date I have 11,315 hands combined for the two levels that PokerTracker supports. Up until this point I've been using Bison's auto-rate rules that I snagged off of the 2+2 forums. They have shown that for most of 2005 I had been a SL-A, or Slightly Loose Aggressive player. This changed a few weeks ago and I dropped to an SL-P, or a Slightly Loose Passive player. After loading the guides rules, I am shown as a Tight Neutral. If I had run these rate rules a few weeks ago I would have fit into the Good Player (Tight Aggressive Solid) category.

Why the change? As previously reported the months of January and February were particularly brutal for me. I dropped a lot of BB's during that time. As a result of the constant losing I became a bit weaker post flop to try and curb the losing. This resulted in the lowering of my post flop aggression factor to a 1.32. I haven't fallen too far off course and if we make the assumption that according to these rules you want to be rated as a "Good Player" statistically, then I should be a winning player for the year to date.

Unfortunately I am not. Well that's not entirely true. I am an overall winning player in 2005, just not at the levels we are looking at for this analysis. My tourney cashes and no limit play have given me enough to be even more profitable than all of last year combined at the present time. Were not looking at that though so why am I losing. For the year to date I am down $1,032.34 at these two levels. It works out to a -2.04BB/100 loss which is the exact opposite of what it should be. Statistically I should be profitable so lets go searching for some holes.

We'll skip over the individual session review, although I do do this on my own, and go straight to "Finding mistakes in your play". I don't want to give away everything that's in the book so I'm going to cover the points without going into detail about how I retrieved the information.

Trouble Hands
A9o - This is a hand that I used to play from any position. I was way overvaluing it based on the fact that so many players you go up against will play any A. I won with it a few times having the best kicker against these type of players. This led to being lulled into a false sense of security. I have already made adjustments to my game for this hand and now I will fold it just about every time unless I have position against known players. (There will undoubtedly be hands that I became aware of a month ago when I did my own analysis so I'll point out whether or not the hand is new to me. Sadly if it's still showing up even now so you know just how bad I played it previously.)
A6o - This is surprising to me. I fold this hand a huge majority of the time. After checking it out I have seen this hand 113 times. That makes it one of the most seen hands this year. Throw in the blind situations and the few times I've played it from late position and it accounts for the loses. I really don't see where I'm playing this one badly it's just a combination of not hitting when I do, and the frequency with which I see it.
I run into the same thing with A5o and A3o. For some reason these are among my most seen hands. In my style of play if it's folded around to me and I sit in the cutoff or button with an A, i'll go for the blind steal. Since I've seen each of these hands over 100 times that is where the money is going. It's obviously not working often enough to be a profitable play so I'm going to have to be more subjective about this in the future.
A4s - This is the only suited A that shows up. I've seen the hand 35 times and taken it to a flop 33 of those times. I've either had to abandon it on the flop or I'll catch enough of the flush to hang around and end up not hitting it. I'm only profitable with this hand from the small blind and that also happens to be the position that I've rec. It the most in with 8. I've also caught it 6 times in the BB so I feel this is more of an anomaly than a trouble hand.
JTo - Now we look at my biggest losing hand. I've always had trouble letting this hand go preflop. I just see so much potential in it. That potential rarely materializes but when it does its often for a big score. So I keep playing it, waiting for the next big one. Looking at it in more detail I see that other than the blinds I'm only losing with this hand from the later positions. One, Two, and Three off the button. These are also the positions that I've seen the hand the most in. My top four losses were to 3 flushes and a full house. Each of those times I had either the straight, a flush, or two pair. I was second best on each of these hands and one player even caught runner, runner, on me. If I eliminate the cold calling raises in late position with this hand I think I'll be OK judging by the data so far.
KJo - Another hand I've had problems with in the past. The good Dr. Pauly pointed this hand out as one of his trouble hands about a year ago and that's when I first took a look at it. When I made an adjustment to my play for this hand I was again lulled into a false sense of security. I found I could be effective raising from early position with it. It paid off at first and when it no longer did, I didn't change my MO. This hand has had a history of being my worst but I made further adjustments to how I play it recently and now it's only my 3rd biggest loser. I'm no longer playing this hand from early position at all. I've had to cut myself off completely at these positions to keep from getting in trouble with it. The button is actually my worst position this year. I'm holding it for to long postflop but it's hard to let top pair or that straight draw go sometimes.
QJo - Another of the offsuit face cards. With this particular holding It looks like I'm just not hitting with it as often as I should. These cards should be about a marginal winner. I'm just not getting that margin right now. I'm only calling raises from late position with it. I'm going to cut that out and see if I can save myself some BB's.
98s - The numbers put this as a borderline trouble hand. It looks like I'm playing it alright, just not catching when I should be. I don't consider this a trouble hand but since it was borderline for the criteria I'm listing it.

Leak Finding
Looks like I need to quit cold calling with KTo from the button. I thought position was giving me the right to make the call but it looks like when I even make my hand, I'm losing to a bigger hand.
Aside from the above mentioned KJo, and the QJo, it looks like I'm playing ATo to the river too often. I'm chasing that pair of tens to far. I've lost to a bigger pair numerous times. Upon further review I believe I have found the cause. I have a tendency to raise this hand preflop if I'm first in. I'll then lead at it if I hit my 10. Players behind me with bigger pocket pair are content to let me have the lead till the river, where I feel obligated to call that extra bet. I think if I quit raising with this from anywhere but the button it will help eliminate this. These players will likely tip off their holding before I get involved so I'll have more information.

Position Statistics
I was amazed when I looked at this data. Now we are getting some where. I've filtered the data for full tables (I don't play 6 handed tables) and had 10,973 hands left over. The positional plays looks exactly like it should as far a VP$IP goes. On the button I'm at 28.24 and it decreases at every position until I reach 15.3 7th off the button. I am also profitable at every position up to the blinds except for 7th off the button. Here I have a $30 net loss or 0.02BB/hand.
The blinds are where I'm losing my money. Now I need to find out if it's because I'm playing them wrong, or I'm just on a bad run. Using the criteria in the guide my BB loss rate should not exceed 0.20. My loss rate is 0.28. In the small blind my loss rate is 0.21. Neither of these are good. If we look at "Diff w/ the Blind" I'm even losing money from the small blind. It looks like I'm running bad in the small blind. My biggest losers are AKo and 87o. Even when I've caught AA I've only won with it 60% of the time. My overall win % with that hand is 72.5%
In the big blind it looks like A9o is kicking my ass. You'll remember that it was listed as a top trouble hand. Half of my money losses with this hand are in the big blind. It is followed by JTo and KTo. Seems the trouble hands are really trouble in the big blind.

Conclusion
Based on the above data I would say it is a combination of just running bad and sum sub par blind play. I'm relieved and yet disturbed by this finding. I was really hoping to be able to have an "AH HA" moment to instantly turn things around. It looks like I'll be able to concentrate on my blind play and make in roads there, but overall I'm just going to have to ride out the storm. Well at least I'm learning, and after all, what more can you ask for.

Well, maybe a million dollar tournament win, TV time, endorsement deal, fan club .....

PartyPoker Makes Me Weak/Tight

The last week wasn't a stellar week of poker playing on my part. You'd have to be living under a rock to have not heard about the cancellation of the rake back program at PokerNow. I was unfortunately caught up in that and have missed the money. I realize it wasn't PokerNow's fault as Party was cracking down on its skins in anticipation of its IPO. It still sucked though so I haven't played there since.

I had signed up for the rake back program through PSO and they were kind enough to offer everyone that was caught up in the fiasco an opportunity to switch over to a PartyPoker rake back program. The only stipulation was that you couldn't have signed up for Party through PSO in the past. This wasn't a problem for me so I cancelled my Party account and three days later reopened it under a rake back program.

I'm showing an overall profit at Absolute, UltimateBet, and Full Tilt at 3/6. At Party I managed to lose enough that after my 1,050 raked hands to clear the bonus my account only had a $20 profit. I can't seem to find the right tables for my play right now. When I do find a good table I can't get anything going and the river beats were taking their toll on my playing ability. I finished the entire week down 45BB's. I was lucky to clear enough bonus money that my bankroll only suffered a 10BB drop.

As soon as the Party bonus cleared I moved on to Absolute and UltimateBet for last night. It took me a while to overcome my weakitus. Combine this with a 2 orbit tilt session that cost me 40BB and I thought for sure my night was just going to be another red line in PokerTracker.

I wouldn't call it meditation but I did say, "don't chase" several times out loud. This snapped me out of my funk and I fought my way back to only a 4BB loss on the night. I cleared that and about $10 more in bonus money so I did get to increase the bankroll a bit.

I kept wondering what I would have been able to accomplish if only I hadn't tilted for that 10-15 minutes. I had reason to be upset as my trip A's were cracked by a gutshot straight on the river but I've got to exhibit better control.

Part Trois

I should have known better than to mention the word variance in my last post. Right after posting I was visited by 3 down sessions. I have since recovered though and am looking a little better than break even for the week so far.

Your not here to read about that though, you want to hear about my Ameristar Casino adventure. So let’s get started.

I arrived at the casino at 4:30 pm on Tuesday the 15th. My only real live play experience to this point was the CardPlayer Cruise so I was a little nervous when I approached the card room. They run a Tuesday night Limit Tournament and I wanted to get signed up but the guy in line right in front of me got the last seat. The policy on alternates was changed apparently the week before so I couldn’t get on a waiting list. At any rate I purchased my chips and headed to my first casino table.

When I was on the cruise I found the games to be very much like the online games in terms of player types and betting so I was expecting the same. Was I in for a rude awakening. It is possible on PartyPoker to find tables were 6 to 7 players will see a flop every hand but they take some hunting. Here that was the rule and not the exception. I was amazed after the first few hands at how many people will stay till the river hoping to hit something. I was playing my normal online game and that was just not going to cut it here. I’m used to being able to raise not only for value, but also to somewhat thin the herd. Here a raise was an invitation for everyone to join in. I heard from players on numerous occasions, “Now I have the odds to call”. With so many players seeing the flop and sticking around after the flop almost any two cards were good preflop. After the flop they took on the mentality that since they were already in the hand the odds no longer applied. They had invested in the pot and they were seeing it to the end.

This is a great situation if your hands hold up. Mine didn’t. In the first 2 hours of being at the table I saw many flop worthy hands but nothing would materialize. I dropped $89 dollars and decided to check out the restaurants. We did have a mildly amusing player join our table about a ½ hour before I left for dinner. He sat at the table complete with hat and sunglasses and announced on his arrival that he had never played live poker but watched it a lot on TV. Of course no one believed him until he started playing. He saw every hand and when he was in a pot the shades would go on. It would have been a lot funnier if he hadn’t blown his bankroll in that ½ hour.

After enjoying a nice meal in what was a very cool sports bar & grill (complete with touch screen TV’s in the booths) I headed back into battle. I knew I had to change my game up if I was going to survive these tables and I did a fairly decent job of it. I removed most preflop raising from my game. If it wasn’t a big pocket pair or AK it just wasn’t worth the investment. I had to jam the pots postflop if I hit, not preflop. The new table I was seated at had a regular player of retired age. He sat with a chip stack of around $600 in front of him and he kept going on and on about how the cards were hitting him. He was correct and I saw him take down many a pot when I first arrived. I tried to stay out of everyone’s way for a while but with a kill pot (all the games were 3/6 with a kill) I found A6 suited on the button. I had to call the unraised five-way pot and made my set of sixes on the flop. The turn shown my full house and the river brought me my fourth six. Mister $600 called my raises all the way to the end. After the table cheered at my four of a kind Mr. $600 grumbled that I had taken a chunk out of his stack. I replied that I’d be happy when he had to break into his black chips. It was meant in fun but I don’t think he took it that way.

By the time midnight rolled around I had managed to take back my earlier $89 loss and put a $60 profit ontop of it. The table was full of fun people and I got to see one woman make a Queen high straight flush to win the high hand of the day. The table broke up and that’s when I should have gone home. But that would be a boring story so I decided to stay and was moved to another table. The new table had a very different make up of players including three young guns . Young gun one was weak/tight and easy to push off hands, Young gun two actually knew what he was doing and how to beat this game, Young gun three was misplaced aggression. The three knew each other and sat at one end of the table constantly talking about the other players and what they thought they had. It became very annoying, very quickly, especially when the aggressive one actually started hitting his crap hands. To take down quite a few pots. My play became uninspired as the hours began to wear on me. At 4:30 am they finally closed the place and I had to go. I gave back most of my earlier winnings and left with an overall loss of $72.

I paid 1BB an hour for the privilege of playing at the casino. I did get to see a drunk guy get escorted out by security after getting into a confrontation with another player and then the floor man. So at least I got some entertainment for my money.

I left without any real desire to go back since I can make money at home and I don’t have to deal with the personalities or the smoke. The card room was smoke free but all the players would go stand at the entrance and puff away. I of course was seated near the entrance for most of my play so I was able to add a headache to the money loss.

I was lured back on Saturday night as a friend of mine was coming up from Wichita and he wanted to hit the casino. I was originally scheduled to work but things changed and I joined him after my day shift. I only had four hours to play since the wife works on weekend nights and I have to be home with the kids. The place was packed and my 15 minute wait ended as they opened up a new table.

The new table was a smaller one that only sat nine players and the auto shuffler was broken so our hand/hour rate went down quite a bit. I tried to apply what I had learned form my previous outing and managed to leave with a $37 profit. Still down overall for my two visits but I’m confident I could make money in the long run.

My big hand of the night involved another kill pot like the visit before. I was again on the button and called one raise with my KQ of diamonds. The flop came QKQ and although I’ve never used the expression ever in my life I distinctly remember thinking “Oh Snap!” when the flop came up. It almost made me chuckle out loud but I managed to contain myself as two players called my flop raise and one stuck around through the river to pay me off.

The other big hand of the night involved a new casino player who played on the internet and an old lady regular. It was a kill pot and the new kid raised it preflop. I got out of the way but grandma called the additional $6 as she was on the kill button. The flop came down 22Q. They raised each other back and forth. The Turn was another Q. Again some raising back and forth. The river was a blank and it went down with only one bet each. At the conclusion the young guy showed his AA and the grandma showed her 72 offsuit. The table erupted and everyone in the room thought we had hit the bad beat jackpot. Grandma just kept saying “I already had $6 in the pot, I had to call!”

Had to call indeed.

Part Duex

First off I’d like to thank those of you that stopped by and left a comment on the last post. April mentioned my post in her blog and my readership improved by over 100% because of it, so a special thanks to her for sending some people my way.

Now back to poker goodness. I left off with my tournament win and the mention that my bankroll was bolstered enough to head back to the 3/6 tables. In fact, I was bankrolled for 5/10 but I want to get a few months of proven 3/6 under my belt before venturing upward. That and I withdrew some money for a down payment on a car and to hit the casino for some live play.

My online play since the win has been above and beyond what is normal. In the last few weeks my win rate at 3/6 has been 6.35/100. That’s pretty high so I’m expecting variance to move back in at some point. I’ve been spreading my play around between Absolute, Poker Stars, and Full Tilt. I’m clearing bonuses at each place so I’m moving to each site every few days. Unfortunately Full Tilt was very slow on cashouts this week and I didn’t get enough money together to take advantage of Ultimate Bets reload bonus. I started my play there and I’m eager to see what the action is like nowadays. I’ve found that for play during the day and weekends Poker Stars has the better tables. On weeknights I like Absolute unless there aren’t enough players, then I head over to Full Tilt. The bonus is slow to clear at Full Tilt even at 3/6 so I’m not concentrating on that site right now even though I like the interface.

I tried to make the blogger HORSE tourney but my family and I went to Omaha to visit the zoo and I didn’t get back to the hotel in time. I thought the tournament started at 8:30 when it actually started at 8:00. DOH! It was the first blogger tournament I’ve missed since starting this blog almost a year ago. Aside from the Vegas tournament that is. I was rather distraught about missing it and it prompted some concern from my wife about my poker playing. (Will have to save that for another post.)

This past Friday night I did encounter a hiccup at the tables as I couldn’t get anything going and finished my limit play down $69. I was playing at Absolute and I like their tournament structure so I checked out what was coming up. They have a few tournaments each week that you can buy into using your player points and one such event was getting ready to start. I look at these as freerolls since you don’t have to use actual cash and I have so many points with nothing to spend them on. The play that is encountered is not like a typical freeroll where you have all-in fests. The other players usually take these seriously, even though the prize pools are small. For this tournament it was $250.

We had 301 entrants and after 5 hours of play I found myself with my second tournament win in as many weeks. The first place share of the prize was $70 and I had turned my loss into a $6 win by the end of the night. My win rate was abysmal though as I spent about 6.5 hours total at the site to get that $6. It’s better than a kick in the head though and I’ll take it.

With my online play on fire I was able to head to a local casino twice this week. The players at The Ameristar welcomed me with some of the worst play I’ve ever seen. I’ve come to some conclusions about how I’m going to incorporate live play into my rotation and since the “hammer” is so “in” right now, I even have an amazing live play hammer story that the entire table couldn’t believe. (and no, it wasn’t my play) All that and more in the next edition.

My Name In Lights

No grind for me, only sweet profitable goodness. It's been two weeks since I last updated and I've had so much going on poker wise that I really should have been updating every few days. I'll start from the top and work my way down so you can feel all warm and fuzzy about sharing in my poker goodness.

Our little story begins on Saturday the 12th as I ponied up the $33 entry fee along with 239 of my closest friends for the $6,000 guarantee no-limit tournament at Absolute Poker. Tournament play has been difficult lately as I haven't managed a money finish in quite some time. Since reaching a recent breakthrough in limit play I figured I'd try to translate that into the tournament and see what transpired. Resolving to take it easy in the beginning I found a nice run of cards and kept my stack size above average all the way to the bubble.

It is at the bubble that I encountered what would be the most pivotal hand of the tournament. It seemed rather inconsequential at the time but it reaped rewards in so many other ways. At my table we had a rather eclectic group of players and the chip stack sizes varied greatly. Among this group was the lowest chip stack in the tourney. He proceeded to use his maximum time allowed for every hand for about 10 minutes before we reached the bubble. He was pissing me off because although I was in no danger of going out he was robbing me of the opportunity to build my stack up. While others were playing two hands we were playing one. Absolute never kicked in with a hand for hand format so his stall tactics were working for him.

When it happened everyone folded around to me. Looking at the cards I found the hammer staring back at me. Now I'm not one to normally play the often worshipped combination of 7 2 offsuit but I was on the button. The small blind was a medium stack who folded everything and the big blind was mister stall tactic. I was supremely confident that these two would fold so I made the minimum raise and waited. Small blind folded as expected and then the big blind went into his routine. He didn't have enough chips left to even call my raise so I was very surprised when just as his time was expiring he called. The Absolute interface flipped our cards and when his pocket Queens were revealed I figured I had just given him enough ammo to get in the money. The flop came with no help but the turn and river brought the miracle in the form of running two's.

Mister stall tactic went ballistic and berated me for what seemed like about five minutes. Unfortunately he stalled just long enough to make the last money position so not everything was roses in my world. The odd thing about the hand is that the other players, instead of looking at the hammer play as being valid in that position, because it was, they viewed it as me being a loose player who would play anything. I received a lot of play off that. Everyone called when I was in a pot for a while and this allowed me to be in second chip position when we made the final table.

The final table was a thing of beauty. We all jockeyed back and forth for the first 15 minutes or so but I managed to eliminate the first player. Then I eliminated the next, and the next, and the next. I was on a roll and with my chip stack continuing to rise the other players went into hiding whenever I was in a pot. I sent every player at the final table packing and when we were down to three my stack size was so overwhelmingly disproportionate to the other players that they never really had a chance. When heads up my opponent did manage to double up twice before being eliminated but the writing was on the wall well before we got there. The win gave me a much needed boost to the bankroll in the tune of $1980.

This win put to rest any bankroll issues I was having and with my recent success at the limit tables I was now more than ready to go back to the 3/6 waters. A nice side affect of the win was my username being mentioned in the Absolute newsletter. It wasn't quite my name in lights but I can now lay claim to being mentioned in a "publication read by people all over the world" :)

This post looks to be longer than expected so we'll dive into my continued limit play in the next one.

Loosey Goosey

I've been asked to expound on my trouble hands. I will get to that in the next post or so when I can write and have Poker Tracker up at the same time. Since I'm currently at work I want to write about some trouble I ran into last night that I believe needs some blog time.

I reacquainted myself with an old hole in my game last night that may be very easy for others to succumb to. As stated in the past I generally try to find the tables with the highest average pots and join them. This table makeup often times has the loosest players and can in turn lead to some nice profits. Since finding some problems with the way I've been handling my starting cards I've been doing very well at the 1/2 party tables. Using my table selection criteria the tables at this level generally have an overall VP$IP% of around the high twenties to the mid thirties. Since I've moved back up to 2/4 I've found the percentages increasing to the high 30's to the low 40's. The play is much looser and last night I ran into the maniac of maniacs.

This player was seated to my immediate left and to his left was a close cousin of his in the Tasmanian Devil family. The VP$IP% on this table was in the mid 40's. This particular player was an odd sort and his VP$IP% was 95. He never folded a single hand preflop that I could recall. His preflop style of play was if the table limped, he limped, if anyone raised he would re-raise automatically. His cards were of no consequence and he capped it once with 10,3 offsuit. He would also rarely release a hand before the river often calling down with no pair. His caveat was that when he lucked out and caught a hand or actually had a monster on the flop no one would relinquish the pot to him. He was always building pots and it was common to have about every third of fourth pot over 35BB's.

I had the best of this situation since he was on my immediate left. The proper way to play a player who could have anything is to do a lot of folding. Let them have the small pots early because you want the big pots when you know you have the best hand. My downfall came from my realization of his preflop strategy (or lack thereof). Since he was like an automatic reraise button. I was able to isolate him from the rest of the table by using his own play. If I was in a situation where I had good starting cards and it was folded or only one limper had come along when the action got to me, I would raise. Using his auto reraise this would drive everyone else out a majority of the time and leave me heads up. Now all I had to do was worry about being able to beat two random cards. Sometimes his cousin on the left would come along as well and this would just sweeten the deal. Within about 45 minutes I had managed to amass a 45BB profit on the table due to the large pot sizes.

This sounds all wine and roses but the problem in fact didn't come from this table, but my reaction to the table. To further realize the impact the maniac table had on my play we need to switch to the second table I was playing. This table was of the type I have been recently thriving on. The table preflop average was steady at the low thirties. Straight forward play was all that was required to win. My dealings with the maniac was delivering a cause and effect impact to me physically as well as mentally. The large size of the pots and the furious play was giving me an adrenaline boost. This led to quick snap decisions and since I was aware that often times I was against crap cards I was able to loosen up a little myself enjoying my big lead. The lead wasn't on both tables but the reaction to one had caused a change in play on the other. At this other table I quickly took upon myself the moniker of table maniac. It didn't help matters that it was the time when the true maniac decided to start catching big hands. As I saw my chip stack start to dwindle the catchup monster sat perched upon my shoulder egging me on. By the end of the night I had left the maniac table with only a 2BB profit. My true downfall though had been the effect of play on the other table where I left with a 33BB loss.

I've written before about how important discipline is. Others have touched upon this as well but when the action monkey comes for a visit it's very hard to send him packing. He's cute and cuddly at first but when he leaves behind broken items and walls covered in shit you really have to wonder why you keep letting him back in.

Going Through the Motions

It's odd how it happens. You can't pinpoint a defining moment. It may be a culmination of things or it could be as cliche as a light bulb blinking on inside your head. For me it was a combination of both.

My trial by fire began several weeks ago when I documented a massive slide down the food chain in one night. With a sigh of resignation I dropped back to the 1/2 level and began to seek out the best in bonuses. I really felt I didn't belong there. Playing at a level I had beaten soundly in the past wasn't where I deserved to be. To further pummel my already bloodied ego I still couldn't win. Sure I would post a winning session but it was always followed by three or four losing ones. I was spiraling downward and was in danger of not even having a bankroll to support playing at 1/2 anymore.

Why was it happening? I hadn't changed my play, had I? I still had the same starting requirements that I had developed when I came up through the ranks. These weren't exactly by the book starting hands but they had worked for me in the past and damnit, they should be now as well. Was it my post flop play? Naw couldn't be that either. I was being dealt bad beat after bad beat, that had to be it.

We have a new employee at work that joined our regular work home game about two months ago. He had never played before but was eager to learn and after we corrupted him on that first night he had the poker bug in a bad way. He downloaded a version to his phone, a laptop, and watched it on TV at every opportunity. Now two weeks ago we had our last poker night. The new guy showed up and I was impressed by how fast he had progressed. He displayed some selective aggression and was capable of making some advanced plays that I thought were beyond the people I played with. When the night was coming to a close the new guy was up and I was down. I began to see something in him that I didn't have. I had it at one time, but the realization that I no longer possessed it was troubling to me. I'm not sure when it happened but my passion for the game was gone. I played every night and went through the motions but that's what all I was doing. Going through the motions. I desperately wanted to rekindle this missing part of me and I invited him to stay after the night had come to a close for some heads up play. He accepted my invitation and we continued to play for another two hours. Being able to concentrate on the action I began to enjoy myself. With experience on my side I was able to out maneuver him and managed to reclaim some of my earlier losses. My heads up game vastly improved due to this exercise but I was still losing the ring games.

A few days later while perusing the PSO forum I came across a post on the hands that win or lose you the most money. I knew I hadn't checked that data in quite some time so I fired up Poker Tracker and had a look. I was shocked at what I was finding. I keep separate databases for each level I play and wanting to get the most data possible I loaded a combined database for 2004. I lost money on hands that I believed were the staple of my game. My complete disregard for the study techniques and data tracking that had started my poker journey were no longer part of my regimen. This was the 2004 data which I was profitable at. I shuddered to look at the 2005 data since I had been losing all year. I wasn't playing bad starting hands. I just wasn't playing them correctly. Whether it was position, calling raises, or not raising myself, I was playing them all wrong and often to far after the flop. My game had truly disintegrated. In fact it wasn't that good before.

It wasn't the light bulb moment. It was a combination of realization and revitalization. I'm calling it an increase in strength of character. I'm winning again. Comparing my current win rate to the win rate I had in 2004 at the 1/2 level. They are close to identical. The big difference is I'm winning differently than before. I have strung together nine winning sessions as of last night. I've never done that before. In the past I've gone 4 or 5 and then had a loser thrown in. My variance is also down by a large margin.

The one thing about this that is cliche is that you never stop learning. I thought I was on top of my game yet it took a slap in the face from reality to push me to that next level. My hope is that it doesn't take the rest of you this kind of gut check. It really is a miserable experience but I'm a better player for it.

Kansas Qualifier - World Poker Cup

"Hello and welcome everyone to this edition of the World Poker Cup Qualifiers. I'm Jack Hearts and as always I'm joined by professional analyst Chip Rack. Our lady on the floor Stacks O'Plenty will be bringing us player reactions and relaying what it's like to be in the trenches. Chip why don't you bring us up to speed on whats happened so far."

"Thank you Jack. We are witnessing a stunning display of poker today as our tournament format is a heads-up elimination event. With 67 entrants populating the field we began with only six players seeing action on three tables. Once the winners from these matches were determined we began a bracket style event with a field of 64. We are now down to the final two players in this heads up match and it's been pretty intense so far as the chip lead has floated back and forth with no one player being able to mount a distinct advantage."

"That's right Chip, we are in the presence of poker greatness and I wouldn't be surprised to see the winner of todays event go on to represent the USA in the World Poker Cup Tournament. Why don't you let us in on who these final two players are and give us an update as to the chip counts."

"Near as I can tell theres only one Chip and that's me. But seriously we have lifesagrind representing Overland Park, Kansas with a chip count of 72,960 and our chip leader at the moment is siznow who hails from Topeka. Siznow's chip count is 116,160 and we have blinds of 960/1920. Lets go right into a segment on this show we call "Play Along with an Amatuer". This time around were going to only reveal lifesagrind's hole cards and discuss the play as it's happening."

"Lifesagrind is on the button which means during a heads up match he is the small blind and first to act. I see he has pocket 10's and that's a monster heads up."

"That's right Jack. A pair of tens as your down cards can always be powerful but in this situation I wouldn't be surprised to see him try to take away some of the advantage siznow holds. He's reached into his stack and has raised it 5,760 which is a standard 3x the big blind raise. Lifesagrind has been pretty religious about using this raise no matter what he holds during most of the tournament so siznow is likely to call with lesser holdings. Sure enough siznow calls and says "Let's see a flop".

The flop comes Jack Seven Jack with two clubs and this is either going to be very good or very bad for lifesagrind. Siznow checks and lifesagrind wastes no time betting 7,680 into an 11,520 pot. I'm pretty sure lifesagrind does not want a call here and is just trying to end this with a nice profit. Siznow calls though and the dealer flips an A of spades onto the felt. This is a very bad card for the pair of tens especially since siznow was willing to call the large bet on the flop. Sure enough siznow appears to be reaching for some chips. Siznow is counting out a large stack and is pushing 11,520 in. This really is putting pressure on those 10's. I think I would fold up camp and take a loss here but it doesn't look like that's what lifesagrind is going to do."

"I just don't understand this play Chip. Siznow was willing to call a big bet on the flop with the board paired and now with an Ace on the turn the player comes alive with a big bet. Lifesagrind has to think he's beat here yet he's stacking up chips for a re-raise. Either he has a great read on his opponent or he's putting his whole tournament in jeopardy."

"It could also just be a stall tactic and he has no intention of playing this hand any further. Either way we'll get back to the action in a moment. First lets check in with Stacks and see how lifesagrind got this far."

"Thanks guys. Lifesagrind has been a machine throughout this tournament and has wasted little time in mowing down the competition. He was seated at his first table when the field was at 64 players and within 8 hands had eliminated his first opponent. The second match went much the same way as his opponent decided to bluff all in at a flop of J33. Little did he know lifesagrind held A3 and another player was sent to the rails. The next heads up match proved to be the most challenging as shortly after it began lifesagrind disappeared from the table. Upon his return quite some time later he told us that he was having "Technical Difficulties" but I'm not quite sure what that means. He was outchipped at this point by about 3 to 1 but managed to mount an incredible comeback. After almost 40 minutes of play lifesagrind had secured his spot in the round of 8 when his pocket K's held up against chef29's pocket J's.

The next two rounds seemed relatively easy and he managed to build a chip lead early in each match and never gave it up. This brings us to the finals and what has been a long four and a half hours of play. Lifesagrind had to be the favorite going into this final table but the cards always have there say."

"That was the every charming Stacks O'Plenty and Chip, lets see how this plays out."

"Well Jack, lifesagrind had decided to make a stand and has come over the top of siznow making it 23,040 to go. Wow Jack! Siznow wastes no time declaring "All In" and has pushed the remaining chips out onto the table. Since siznow has more chips than lifesagrind this will also put him all in if he decides to call. Lifesagrind has gone deep into the tank now. The clock is about to expire and it looks like... yes... he has decided to cave to the pressure and lay down his hand. The chip count now is horribly skewed as siznow has 154,560 to lifesagrind's 37,440."

"It looks like he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar Chip. I don't see how he can come back from such a loss but as they say, All it takes is a chip and a chair."

"The ladies say all it takes is a Chip and a Bed, Jack."

"I'm sure they do Chip, I'm sure they do. Why don't we head back to the table for some more action."

"Were three hands later Jack and lifeagrind has managed to take the last two pots. This has added about 10,000 to his stack but he has a long ways to go. Both players have been dealt their cards and the action is on siznow on the button. He has A9 off suit and calls the big blind. Lifesagrind looks down and see's a beautiful blackjack. With that AJ he has raised it up to 8,640 and he has siznow dominated at this point with a 76% chance to win the pot. Siznow doesn't know what he's stepped into and makes the call.

Oh! A disastrous flop for lifesagrind as it comes 393. This gives siznow a pair and since they both share an A siznow now has an 87% advantage. Lifesagrind takes no time declaring all in and I'm sure siznow will call. Yep, sure enough there both in this and lifesagrind appears devastated now that the hands have been turned over. He's going to need to catch a J to win this. The turn is a Q and lifesagrind is now up and pacing around. The river is a five and that's it! We have a winner! Siznow will represent Kansas in the US qualifiers. Stacks is with lifesagrind down at the table."

"Obviously you didn't see that coming. How do you feel?"

"You're right I didn't see that coming. And I feel like crap. I've worked so hard all day and it ends with a mental mistake as I overplayed those 10's a few hands ago. My hat's off to siznow because I wasn't really able to get a good read on him all match. The other matches throughout the day seemed easy, like I was in the zone, but this one was truly difficult. I might have put to much pressure on myself, I'm just not sure. I just hope siznow had that third Jack earlier, or else I'm going to look like a big idiot when this airs."

"There you go guys, is he a big idiot, we may never know."

Thanks Stacks, that does it for this edition. For Chip Rack and Stacks O'Plenty, I'm Jack Hearts, remember any two cards can win, and those cards might be the ones your holding right now."

Please Sir, May I Have Some More

We've all seen it. Four players see the flop in an unraised pot. The turn appears to help no one but it hasn't helped you either. Everyone checks around again and there you sit in late position. No one seems to want this pot but it's going to cost you a big bet just to win two. Is it worth it? Maybe someone is scared to bet that bottom pair and has you beat. Maybe someone is slowplaying a big pocket pair. Maybe a lot of things.

The orphan pot can be a nice way to win some money, or a sad way to lose some. The pots are so small that you will have to take them down 40% of the time to be profitable. That's a pretty high win percentage but these pots are a unique sort of beast. Win that 40% and you will make your 2BB/100. lose it and you'll slowly bleed your bankroll.

As with most plays the more you know about your opponents the better your odds of success. If it's to early to have a read on the players and your in late position when this situation arises. Take a stab at it. If you get a call be prepared to fold the river and if your raised just let it go. It may have cost you a big bet but you've gained some insight into that particular player.

The only time that it really doesn't make any sense to even try this play is when you have a player who almost infallibly slow plays his big pocket pair. This player usually waits for someone to bet into a pot and then check-raises. Just check it around against this type of player. If he/she still checks the river then you may want to try it. I emphasize may because just about any player with an A will call you in this situation. You should have an A with a big kicker before even considering this play on the river.

All this may seem elementary to you but just think back at all the times you've seen this come up and nobody bets till the river, if they bet it at all. The orphan pot is called that for a reason and often the first player willing to adopt it gets to take it home.

Sending Out An S.O.S.

Sadly, I did not win the trip to the WSOP on Saturday night. If I had I would have updated yesterday with an over abundance of enthusiasm. As it turns out I didn't make it past the first break. Recent tournament history has not been kind to me and I lost holding AK. An early position player raised and when it got to me in middle position I was going to be pot committed if I re-raised. The best thing to do in that situation is to go ahead and push it in if your going to play, so that's what I did.

My read on the player ahead of me was that he was holding a middle pair. We had similar chip stacks but he had me covered with about 200 chips left over. I really didn't believe that he would risk a coin flip this early in the tourney with so much at stake. When I pushed it all into the middle the rest of the field folded. With the decision back on my opponent he went into the tank. Having used up almost all his time before making the call I was shocked to see him flip over pocket 3's.

There is no logic to this move. I figured him for a middle pair but with this holding he had to figure he was dominated. Even if I was pushing with the hammer I'd have an overcard to him. He obviously knew more than me though and I never got the help I needed to double up.

With the tournament behind me I went ahead and made the plunge into Full Tilt Poker. The $600 bonus was to much of a lure and I eagerly took the bait. Having been hooked I realized too late that it was going to take an eon to be reeled in. I have never encountered a bonus that releases so slowly. After six hours of two tabling 1/2 I have only managed to clear about $11 in bonus.

I'm sending out an S.O.S. to anyone who has managed to clear the Full Tilt bonus. Any suggestions on what to play to clear the bonus most efficiently will be greatly appreciated. I know O8 is usually a good game for bonus clearing but the only game I've seen going is .10/.25 pot limit. I played it for a half hour and even though it was a profitable table the pots only averaged about $3. And that folks, isn't enough to help clear the bonus.

I'm going to keep at the Tilt bonus but Absolute is offering a 20% reload until midnight tonight. I'm going to hit that one before going back to Tilt. Absolute bonuses clear slowly as well but not at the excruciating pace I've been enduring the last two nights. I'll get Absolute knocked out over the next week and then with a little bankroll cushion I'll head back.

Here We Go Again

After sulking over my meltdown last week I've begun the arduous task of rebuiling the bankroll. If you read the post detailing the debacle you know I was left debating whether to play 1/2 or 2/4. The master plan I finally decided upon was to begin bonus whoring again and multi-table 1/2 so I could clear the hands quicker.
With Paradise offering the superbowl weekend 20% bonus I was in business. The sportsbook end of Pokerstars was also offering a free $50 to play with so I made bets on New England and Philadelphia so I could have the cash. A free $10 prop bet on the coin toss was also included in the deal. I unfortunately couldn't hit my 50/50 chance. I completely blame the 10 year old who did the toss as he flatly dropped the coin to the ground instead of actually flipping it in the air. They should never give a child that much responsibility.
Switching back to poker I've been a cumulative disaster. I cleared the Paradise bonus with a profit, but it was a smaller profit than the bonus. So in essence that was just a nice way of saying I lost. I started out witha big win, then a modest win, then a big loss followed by another big loss, ending with a modest win. Overall I ended down about $50 in five sessions but with the bonus cleared the bankroll still grew.
I'm going to have to search for where the next worthwhile bonus is at. I'm considering the 100% up to $600 bonus at full tilt if it's still available. I've heard it takes a long time to clear though. $600 is a lot of scratch at this point so that may be worth it.
Over the next few days I'll be playing at Absolute. I've got a $10 bonus that needs to be dusted off there and I've got two tournaments to play in. The Pokersourceonline poker league, USA vs. Canada will be in it's second round on Friday and on Saturday I will be playing for a seat at the WSOP. PokerSourceOnline.com is sponsoring that tournament as well so I encourage everyone to go check them out. They have the best signup deals on the net. If you sign up for one of their promos I'd appreciate you using referral code "lifesagrind". They will be giving away several seats to the WSOP this year.
If you want to stop in and offer some encouragement I play under the name "hotlead" at Absolute. The tourney is on Saturday at 8pm central.

Strategy Shmategy

Today I want to talk about something that's been swirling around the back of my cavernous cranium. (the preceding sentence was written in honor of the big human head who seems to be one of my regular seventeen readers) That is writing about strategy.

The problem with writing a strategy article, at least for me, is that everyone knows when talking poker, it always "depends". I can think of a concept, work it out and then come up with countless scenarios that would rebuff what I was just thinking.

I assigned a database project to one of my employees and she came to me today with plans that went way beyond the scope of the original vision. I threw out some corrections and to help her get back on track I told her "Don't overthink things." She looked at me sideways for a moment and then replied, "Yeah, that's probably what I'm doing."

Well, that's what I do too when it comes to writing. I've tossed countless ideas out because I overanalyzed to the point where the original thought had lost all meaning. No one can account for every eventuality. Trying to do so will only stall you in a quagmire of self doubt and disillusionment.

It's not easy to think of something to write about and when you place undo pressure on yourself it only helps lead to that dreaded blogger burnout. What I have decided to do for myself, and this may help others, is taking my thought process only to the point where I would in a game situation. With the online clock counting you down you can only run through so many probabilities before being folded. If you take this approach to writing about strategy you will avoid the pressure and the pain that comes from firing to many neural pathways.

Tackle a subject, narrow your scope, and go with it. Will you cover everything? No. Should you? Absolutely not. If you do you'll only lose your reader and any hopes of passing on your hard won knowledge. Obviously I haven't written a great tritest on strategy writing but maybe this tip will help those of you that struggle, just like me.

The Question

You hear it every day. Those you like, those you even dislike will throw it out there. They don't want an honest answer and you really don't want to give one. It's innocent and never means anything. But never is not the case this time. This time it means everything. You have to answer it honestly. It is more than just the answer. It is the questions that follow...the questions that must follow if you are ever to make sense of it.

Only two hours have passed. You knew it could happen and you've planned for it. Considered all the possibilities and installed safeguards. Others have planned as well. Hundreds, even thousands have succumed to the pressure but not you. Your infallible. Beyond reproach. When the realization washes over you no explanation is evident. What could have happened? What feasibility was not assessed? You are in control, nothing should have gone wrong. Perhaps nothing is wrong. Yeah, your on course. This ship will be righted and your the one to do it.

"How are you doing?"

There it is, the trigger. The one question that should mean so little, yet carries every implication.

"I'm down."
"You've been down that much before, right?"
"No, not this much."
"You should quit then."
"I'm just going to finish this table."
"OK, I'm going to bed."
"I'll be up in a few minutes."

"Liar! You lying rat bastard!"

That's what she should have said instead of walking up the stairs. Hell, somebody should have said it. You should have even said it to yourself. This wouldn't be the last table. Not even the one after that. It would be a third and several hours before shock would take hold. The realization that the one thing you never really had control of was yourself. The only eventuality you couldn't account for was the human condition. The ability for a human to self delude themselves in such a manner that they are unaware of what is transpiring. They say trauma can cause blackouts and this is one trauma you wish you could forget. But you can't forget. You musn't forget. To forget would be foolish and foolish you are not. You are not a God, you are a mortal and have succumb to mortal weakness.

Numbers don't lie. They aren't bound by emotional attachment and feel no regret. When you thought you were tightening up and only playing when you had the best of it the numbers wouldn't support you. You managed to push the tide back into that vast ocean of loss for a period of time. That was all you needed to conciously believe you were in control. Doing the right things. The reversal of fortune was welcoming you like the warm embrace of a lover. You were in control. When the table turned to a rock garden and they began stoning you from all sides it was just bad luck. When the table was finally shorthanded you were playing scared and the sharks could smell blood. You were folding when you should be pushing, and pushing when you should be folding. But to you they were getting lucky. You have control, and as they say, "control is an illusion".

You had a plan. It was a good plan. After playing for a year and a half you were now in position. It was now time for all those months and hours to pay off. Now that you've left the kiddie pool behind you could start using the money and skill to pay off some of that debt. The plan was to be rid of all revolving debt by the end of the year. That would make you free. Free to enjoy life just that little bit more. That plan was freedom, the plan was the catalyst. You wanted it so bad that defeat was no longer an option. You had finally reached the summit and nothing was pushing you off. Control, yeah it is an illusion. Some call it tilt. I call it stupidity.

It would be nice to say this whole tale was just an exercise in fiction. A little story to entertain the reader. It's not, It's the truth in the guise of a cautionary tale. A tale I lived through just last night. I managed to lose one third of my entire bankroll in five hours. It's left me with some hard decisions. Fortunately my bankroll is completely separate from my living expenses so I'll be able to continue playing but I'm at a crossroads. "The plan" is no longer an option at this point. Play at 3/6 is also no longer viable. In fact my bankroll now falls between the 1/2 and 2/4 levels. The conservative in me says to just drop back down to 1/2 and build back up slowly. The not so conservative says to drop to 2/4 for a few weeks, get the bankroll back up to the 3/6 level and resume the plan. Both are reasonable I'm just not sure which one is correct for me at this point. At any rate I'm taking a few days away from the tables. I'll still play Wednesday in the WPBT but that's just for fun anyway. Shakespeare was right, "To Thine Own Self Be True."