Quick update

Boy am i glad i played these.

So far im regged for 5 $5 tournies. Two of them have fired, a doublestack and a turbo. The doublestack started with ~580 ppl and i am currently 2/480 at the first break due primarily to 3 hands.

I played the first level pretty solid, getting value out of my good hands but being tight overall. Then i made a pretty good (imo) call.

After getting to 4k this hand happened. On the flop i was saying "Please check around and turn the 8d please. Then with the action on the turn i was kind of nervous. I flatted the original better because i was honestly worried about the possibility of a better straight/boat. The big squeeze kind of felt weak to me, i didnt think a boat would do that. I have a ton of equity vs a hand like 75 or a better straight so i jam.

Then this hand happened like seconds later. I think it was actually the next hand.

I could have simply flatted pre and evaluated on the flop but this guy as a 40/6 over like 25 hands (not a big sample) but i felt comfortable enough that he could have an ace rag hand which i wouldnt mind folding here. He obv could have AA/KK/AK but i dont want to have to fold to any overcard. and AAKK are getting it in on the flop regardless.

God does it feel good to resuck every once in a while. (2 outers are so standard)

Well anyways, breaks over and im at 2k in the turbo and now 4/400 in the doublestack. Theres a TON of poker to be played but i really hope i can parlay this stack into a ncie run.

Im going to be trying to play pretty agressive, opening pretty light, 3betting light in good spots, but i am going to try to avoid putting large portions of my stack at risk.

Wish me luck yall!

Back at it

I was going to say that im sorry for ranting last night but im not. I was pretty pissed off at the end of that tournament and im glad that i got it out of me. Anyways, I dont really hate mtts, i love them. Nothing compares to going dee in an mtt and having the chance to play for a ton of cash. Navigating the final couple tables of a large tournament is the best feeling in poker to me.

After a good nights sleep and a nice long breakfast i think i have my head back on straight. I am going to win a tourny one of these days. It will happen. I know how to play well and eventually i will run well and take one down. Perhaps today will be the day.

I have the whole day to myself today and i think that i am going to try my luck with a nice heavy volume day. I am excited to play the Early Double in a couple hours and maybe ill be able to make something happen.

Hopefully ill have something good to report on later on today.

Good luck everyone

Tournament poker is so sick

Ok, Start this off......

I was going to post a trip report of my seabrook adventure but toots did such a good job i didnt want to just copy him.

Ive kind of dissapeared for the last week or so but thats becuse i havent played a ton of online poker for a couple of reasons....first was i had a couple bad sessions in a row which left a sour taste in my mouth. Secondly my good friend Jeff came home from FL and almost every day was spent chilling with him and my other friends.

Well tonight i came back to worcester and had the apartment to myself so i decided to play some online mtts. i settle in for a long night with a 3 dollar double stack and a 3 dollar ko turbo. I ended the turbo getting 3 outed about 20/40 spots from the money. standard.

In the double stack, which first place got 400 bucks btw, i started off great and got up to 6k. I bled down to 2k and fought back to starting stack by the first break. The rest of the tourny was me playing with 1/2 avj stack and trying to grind it and wait for a good spot to double up.

I was really proud with the way i played the entire tournament. I was doing a great job stealing and getting value whcih is key in a 6max tournament. Twice i got dealt AA and twice i got a player to put all their chips in with 99. Twice i held. Thats the highlight.

In the mid stages of the tourny i had a 20k stack which was 2/3avj and lost a big pot to go to 10k. I the turned on the aggression and fought back to 30k.

Anyways, with ~20 ppl left i have a 100k stack which is above average. I had just won a couple key pots. Then this hand happens.

Obviously i sucked out on him first but imo i played this hand near perfectly. My call preflop is standard i think with A8 and then when i flop gin im happy. When he bets out i put him on a good ace. I think i just 3 outed him. I really think he had AK,AJ,AT. I had seen him play for ~70 hands and i had a good feeling. When he calls my big raise i think, ive got this guy killed.

The turned kingmakes me put the breaks on becuase i was pretty sure thats what he had. And then when the river falls i basically cant beat anything. Luckily i was left with a workable stack which i promptly built back to 100k.

Well a little while later i was fortunate to ko the 14th player in one of the AA vs99 hands i mentioned above. Unfortunately this put my table at 4handed with two mainiac aggro players. They were 3betting often and making life difficult. I really wanted to tighten up and wait for a good spot but the shortys on the other tables kept doubling and i was bleeding chips with 2k/4k blinds. Anyways i was playing back at the aggros and eventually began openjamming to avoid getting 3bet.

Well my last hadn was 105o. i jam the button and the big blind calls with A9dd, Flop is 1057. The turn is the 8 of diamonds and go ahead and guess what the river was. If i had won that pot and doubled i would have been somewhere in the range of 5/14 with a 170k stack. But anyways i finish a heartbreaking 13th for 16 dollars.

Tournament poker is so sick. Not only do you have to play well and run well but if you lose one goddamn flip or cooler or bad beat towards the end your just screwed. A 3 and a half our marathon of playing really good poker is just wasted.

So goddamn sick. I used to be able to say, its ok b ecuase im just going to win the next one i play. But ive had enough of these near misses. I want to fucking win one of these tournaments. Its about time.

/end rant.

I was going to try and post a tourny report kinda deal but im def not in the mood now. Maybe later tomorrow. Anyways...im probly going to play some tomorrow i really hope it goes well.

Good luck everyone

Excited

What do you do when your feeling tilted and annoyed at poker?

Go play live poker in New Hampshire thats what!

Unreal

I started playing a little bit of plo cash. Ive been sitting at the micro stakes tables for a couple days and have seen some modest success. I managed to win back all of my losses and then some for all of the other games ive been playing.

When i first told Jake that i was playing omaha he said "I anticipate a lot of suckouts in your future" I assume referring both to the amount of donkeys infesting these tables (which is much more than in nlhe cash imo and the fact that we get 4 cards preflop and there are no clear favorite hands preflop. Obviously AAxx is ahead of most hands but its lead will never be 70/30 or 80/20 like in nlhe.) Well I told jake that the key to my strategy, and i assume a solid strategy for plo in general, is to not get overly frisky preflop and wait until you can establish a solid stranglehold of the donkeys before you push your chips in. There should, in fact, be very few suckouts and even fewer coolers becuase we should not be playing hands that are not draws to or are the nuts themselves.

Well my first couple hundred hands were an experiment into Plo. I was getting used to the game. I found myself stacking off with AAxx on paired flops...flops that would be safe in nlhe but in omaha the villain probably does hae the random deuce that paired on the flop. I also played hands like QQxx and JJxx way to fast preflop. When i lost large amounts of chips, or even stacks, with these hands i did not get tilted. I did not curse my opponents. They were my fault. They were playmistakes. In these hands i was a donkey. But its ok, I payed 5 dollars to learn that I should not be stacking off with AAxx on a 229hh flop. A valuable lesson.

The problem comes when the bad beats actually do fall. Ive been working on controlling my tilting for as long as ive played online poker. I thought i finally beat it. For the past few weeks ive been just getting crushed in ridiculous spots and im able to brush it off. Its almost as if i expect to run ridiculously bad so that makes the act of actually running bad more bearable. Unfortunately today and last night were the boiling point.

Last night I played a superturbo with toots and my roomate. I know these things are all luck and i know that of all tournaments i should not complain about them but i was making a goddamn run. This hand was for a 1k stack good for like 30/300

I know its a race preflop but give me a fucking break. I flop a set vs one pair. What the fuck. He hits the miracle 8h on the turn and everyone knows whats coming.

I dick around for a little while and fight up to 400 chips:

Oh lets go all in for a 800 chip stack which will basically secure a cash and open the potential for a deep run. Oh look hes dominated down to 3 outs. Thats great. Who gives a fuck. But hey its not like i can win my 80/20s so why the fuck should i expect to win my 70/30s. Especially for my tounament life. Who the fuck am i kidding?

Well, that brings us to PLO today!

I felt so good about how it went last night(payed for that superturbo and then some) so why not open up a couple tables of 10plo as well as 2 5plo. Give the higher stakes a shot. That was a mistake.

Im not going to bore you with a ton of hands here but i need to share these. I dont have a proper omaha hand reader yet so im going to have to do these by hand. First this jem of a hand that happened yesterday:

Ferocious Kitty: AdQcKd6h

Villain: QhJdJsTc

Flop: Qd8c3d

Villain decides to get 100bbs in here w/ a grand total of 2 live ten, 1 jack, and 3 nines. 6 outs twice while i have a redraw if he hits any of them. I missed the memo but apparently thats more than enough outs.

This morning i had already taken a few pretty bad beats: 9 card wrap vs my set all in on the flop (im a 70/30 favorite) when this hand happened to tilt the shit out of me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12983535560: Table Rex (6 max, deep) - $0.05/$0.10 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 10:10:47 ET - 2009/06/23

Seat 1: B-Shefer ($10.52)

Seat 2: Ferocious Kitty ($10.42)

Seat 3: ($32.61)

Seat 4:($10.20)

Seat 5: ($12.83)

Seat 6: Bruingras ($21.63)

Bruingras posts the small blind of $0.05

B-Shefer posts the big blind of $0.10

The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [Qh As Ah 6d]

Ferocious Kitty raises to $0.35

raginb_m folds

AlexTrebekIsGod folds

Johanne87 folds

Bruingras raises to $1.15

B-Shefer calls $1.05

Ferocious Kitty raises to $4.60 I am more than ok getting it in here. I have AA, the preflop nuts, and I have a suited Q to go with it so i am not drawing dead vs other AA hands. Squeezing pot here commits me to the hand.

Bruingras folds

B-Shefer has 15 seconds left to act

B-Shefer: nice reraise morron

B-Shefer calls $3.45 i think hes preparing to stop and go me. Maybe its a leak but im not getting away here.

*** FLOP *** [6c Ks 2h]

B-Shefer bets $5.92, and is all in

Ferocious Kitty calls $5.82, and is all in I guess this could be a fold...but i thought he was stop and going and I do have the backdoor flush draw, and if he has 2pair im drawing live....its unlikely he has set of 6s becuase i would have the case 6. Is he really chasing me down w/ a pair of 2s? AA22 what hand calls the 3bet. I also think if he has KKxx he either puts me on aces and should fold preflop or he jams. I dont think flatting the 3bet pre is right there. Its so big. This board is very dry....so i think his range is somewhat polarized to sets and bluffs. I really wouldnt put it past him to bluff here (complete the sotp and go) i had been very tight in the 10plo table.

B-Shefer shows [9h 6h 6s 8s] I guess i shouldt have ruled out a set of 6s. Yay for the 1 fucking outers (not really but pretty close)

Ferocious Kitty shows [Qh As Ah 6d]

Uncalled bet of $0.10 returned to B-Shefer

*** TURN *** [6c Ks 2h] [7c]

*** RIVER *** [6c Ks 2h 7c] [4c]

B-Shefer shows three of a kind, Sixes

Ferocious Kitty shows a pair of Aces

B-Shefer wins the pot ($20.53) with three of a kind, Sixes



I guess i was moronic for betting so large pre but isnt the idea to get rtarded hands like that to put money in the pot? who the fuck thinks 9668ds is good?

This hand came a little bit later after i was already tilting. And knowing that i was tilting.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12983541311: Table Calabria (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - $4 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 10:11:21 ET - 2009/06/23

Seat 2: tilt-johan ($23.35)

Seat 3: Ferocious Kitty ($2.54)I was not outplayed to fall to 2.5. Ill tell you that much

Seat 4: Let Us GoGoGo ($199.45)

Seat 5: samm52 ($10.22)

Seat 6: JJosie ($8)

Let Us GoGoGo posts the small blind of $0.05

samm52 posts the big blind of $0.10

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [7d 7s 8c Ac]

tilt-johan raises to $0.35

Ferocious Kitty has 15 seconds left to act

Ferocious Kitty calls $0.35

Let Us GoGoGo folds

samm52 calls $0.25

*** FLOP *** [8s 5c 3c] Tptk, set draw, nfd

samm52 checks

tilt-johan bets $0.55

Ferocious Kitty raises to $2.19, and is all in "Fuck this shit lets get all in"

Decano_adr sits down

samm52 calls $2.19

tilt-johan folds

Ferocious Kitty shows [7d 7s 8c Ac]

Decano_adr stands up

samm52 shows [9c Th 5h 7h] did not expect to be ahead here. What does he have, middle pair no draw? What the fuck?

*** TURN *** [8s 5c 3c] [6h] ohhhhh he had a gutshot, well in that case fuck it he has to call.

*** RIVER *** [8s 5c 3c 6h] [6s]

Ferocious Kitty shows two pair, Eights and Sixes

samm52 shows a straight, Nine high

samm52 wins the pot ($5.63) with a straight, Nine high

Ferocious Kitty is sitting out



Last time toots was at my house and we were playing cards he commented that he could not believe that i ran as bad as i did. I mentioned on this blog that it felt great to here him say that because it meant that i was not imagining what was going on. I actually do run really fucking bad. Well now i dont give a fuck if people see it or not anymore. i dont need people to believe me. You can think im lying. I know that i do run fucking atrocious. If i had holdemmanager, or omaha manager i bet my red line and blue line would be at opposite 45 degree angles.

The thing that i cant believe about thisis that getting sucked out on to come in 5th in my mtt the other day...(KJ hand) cost me a minimum of 40 dollars, and likely cost me over 100 bucks. All of the goddamn suckouts ive taken to finish 12th or 7th late in a mtt have cost me huge stacks and potential top 3 payouts in mtts. These suckouts cost me a total of like 30 bucks. My roll is still at 366. It was at 391 earlier today. Do the math, its not that bad. But for some reason this is it. This was the boiling point.

Im sorry for the rant, but really im not. writing this post ha done an excellent job of calming me down and allowing me to refocus on poker. Im probably not going to play any more at work today, unless i get the itch but i think that i am going to be able to handle the variance when i do play again. I just really hope i can start accumulating wins.

thanks for listening to me be emo for a morning and good luck at the tables

Getting Somewhere

So finally, after a week of deep runs and frustrating cashes I managed to final table a 2 dollar cubed. I busted in 5th which was very unfortunate and disappointing but it did provide a very nice boost to my bankroll.

116 is very nice but i freakin wish i could have snagged that 430 for first. Now I was getting all prepared to do a nice little recap today. Toots even showed my how to use the hand replayer so i was going to go crazy and do that. But when i went to import my hands this morning it obv decided to be difficult and not let me. So i guess we'll have to go at this the old fashioned way. Sorry :(

I did not realize that this was a 2c until very close to the add on break. I was under the impression that it was a 2r. Had i known that this was not an unlimited rebuy tournament i probably would not have played this hand the same way pre flop. I may have though. Luckily, ignorance is bliss and it worked out.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12895981123: $2 + $0.25 Rebuy (1r+1a) (95691757), Table 3 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:49:13 ET - 2009/06/18

Seat 1: Ferocious Kitty (2,904)

Seat 2: lady_luck04 (2,040)

Seat 3: Iceman_1215 (1,220)

Seat 4: Nidas1 (1,500), is sitting out

Seat 5: HoldingBullets7 (420)

Seat 6: Krazy Gringo (1,520)

Seat 7: dragao_31 (3,170)

Seat 8: tom121079 (3,975)

Seat 9: IV GOT DA NUTS (6,096)

lady_luck04 posts the small blind of 20

Iceman_1215 posts the big blind of 40

The button is in seat #1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [7h 7d]

HoldingBullets7 folds

Krazy Gringo folds

dragao_31 raises to 120

tom121079 folds

IV GOT DA NUTS folds

Ferocious Kitty raises to 375

lady_luck04 has 15 seconds left to act

lady_luck04 folds

Iceman_1215 folds

dragao_31 raises to 3,170, and is all in

Ferocious Kitty calls 2,529, and is all in

dragao_31 shows [Kc Ah]

Ferocious Kitty shows [7h 7d]

Uncalled bet of 266 returned to dragao_31

*** FLOP *** [5s Jh Qc]

*** TURN *** [5s Jh Qc] [2s]

*** RIVER *** [5s Jh Qc 2s] [5c]

dragao_31 shows a pair of Fives

Ferocious Kitty shows two pair, Sevens and Fives

Ferocious Kitty wins the pot (5,868) with two pair, Sevens and Fives

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 5,868 | Rake 0

Board: [5s Jh Qc 2s 5c]

Seat 1: Ferocious Kitty (button) showed [7h 7d] and won (5,868) with two pair, Sevens and Fives

Right before this hand i got someone all in for 200 chips and lost a race with him. then seconds later I win a race for 6k. That just shows how important timing is in these tournaments. If i had won the first race and lost the second i am out of the tournamanet.

For the rest of the rebuy period i hovered between 9k and 5k never really dropping below 4.5k. I added on when my stack was around 6.5k so entering the second hour of play i had almost 9k to work with.

OK i just figured out that if i import one hand at a time i can get the replayer to work! Huzzah!

This Hand



That hand is what catapulted me to a nice size stack. I run good to catch the ten on the flop and even better to catch the 3 on the turn. Feels great to be on this side of a cooler for once.

No more really interesting hands happened for a while. I did a good job of stealing chips and playing tight/i was sort of carddead so i wasnt really tempted to play a ton of pots. Unfortunately due to the card deadness and increasing blind sizes my stack began to dwindle.

The next hand i want to show you is from the 300/600 blind level. At this point i really needed to accumulate chips. This situation looked like a great time to 3bet bluff. The villains statts and position led me to believe that he didnt need a strong hand and he very well might fold to my jam. Unfortunately he did now but i did manage to snag one of my 6 outs on the river. YAY suckoutaments!

After hovering in the low 20ks for a little while i turned a really strong hand and managed to get a villain to commit his stack with no pair/no draw.

That hand and the 4ok stack that came with it really gave me the chance to go deep into the money. As the field was narrowed from the 45 who cashed to 20 and below i was playing relatively tight. I really wanted to avoid another 10-15 dollar frustrating cash after running deep in a tournament. This actually got to the point where i was letting myself get to short for my own good. Luckily the blinds were getting so large that if i could just steal one or two pots per orbit i could keep myself afloat. I was fortunate in two ways durring this stage of the tournament. The player on my right was extremely passive and would love to limp the small blind and fold on the flop. Between his pretending to be an ATM and other steals I Kept myself in the game until i was able to cooler someone for a nice stack which gave me the lift i needed to reach the final table.

Eventually as my stack hovered around 70k the blinds continued to rise and i had less than 12bbs, I needed to steal as often as possible to stay afloat. Then on one of my steals I had a classic "oops" moment:

this hand put me up to 140k which was about 13 bbs at the time. a couple hands later i woke up with the fishhooks and put my stack in the middle to try and make something happen.

Unfortunately Blogger does not like these large full tilt pictures. In this hand the Villain called my preflop shove with KJo. The river was no help.

This was for a 250k stack which would have left dali anne at 10k. Had i won this hand i would still be in last place out of 4 (assuming dali anna couldnt miracle his last bb) but with the low ms and fast moving chips i would have been in position to go even deeper in this tournament. Obviously getting 3 outed in the final 5 people of an mtt sucks but i rally cant complain. I ran great in this tournament. I had a ton of moments where I just didnt get sucked out on which was awesome. My AJs were holding vs K10. I hit my fair share of sets...and lets not forget that i just cracked aces with 75 to be put in this position. Nope. I cant complain about how this tournament ended, but it would have been soooo much moe fun to get heads up and pwn.

Before i sign off id like to thank Joppy and Tootsy for the rail. Having buddies watching makes poker that much more fun, not to mention that the sounding board for hands which they provide makes it easier to not fuck up late in a tourny.

I told you a big score was coming, well, i still feel great and i can not wait until i get to actually win one of these ole mtts again. Soon. Very soon.

Good luck at the tables.

Profitable but dissapointing

Last night i had another winning session of online poker. It sure seems as if things are coming together now. Its nice to be able to string together some wins and try to keep increasing the ole bankroll. So last night me and my buddy get stoned and play some cards. I played a 2cubed, a 3drr shootout to a 55 dollar msop event, a 3 dollar knockout tournament, a 3 dollar turbo 6max tournament, and a sattellite to the double deuce.

I was simultaneously making very deep runs in both the knockout and 2c and really thought i was going to final table one or both of them. I finally busted from the 2c in 38th place with 45 cashing by jamming A4 and getting called by KJ who managed to river a straight. I did slightly better in the 3drr ko, a tourmanent that i was freerolling in due to 6+ kos. In this tournament i kept accumulating a big stack and then getting some guy all in and getting sucked out on, It happened when i was at 3k 8k 16k. Kept freakin happening. eventually i shoved my shortstack into QQ with A8 and busted.

I did manage to secure a seat to the double deuce for a cool $T22, and on the night i finished ahead, by something like 15 bucks. It was just hella dissapointing to go soo deep in two mtts and not get a big score. Both of these tournies had 300+ scores for first place and 100+ for top 4/5. I know my next big score (big to me is 300+ LOL) is right around the corner. I can feel it. It will be coming. You just wait cuz soon enough it will be here.

Good luck at the tables!