Cash games rule!

Another Sunday another story. So the week was a success and a very encouraging step in the right direction. I think I played roughly 15 tournaments and didn't cash in a single one! I had a few go pretty deep but I just feel like this week was the week to run into aces. Three tourneys ended in that fashion and the only other respectable showing was in the $3 rebuy last night where I bubbled the cash bubble. I had a top 15 stack the entire tourney and then ran into an unfortunate SB vs. BB confrontation where I was out kicked by one card to bust in an unavoidable manner. But enough about all that jazz, let's get to the good stuff!

On Friday night before I went out I fired up Full Tilt to get in a little HU session while I was waiting on some buddies. I luckily found a player who liked to move all in preflop with 100bb's and in the midst of 10 or so hands I picked up KK and 10 10 and busted him twice! He then left so I did the same thing! There is nothing like finding an ATM without having to leave your couch!

So after that fun little session my BR was in good shape and the week was looking to be a success! BTW, I was playing .5/$1 HU versus the all in pre-flop guy so a quick $200 is most definitely a nice boost to me. So Sunday comes around and like I was saying above, the tournament scene was very lackluster. I did though get into a marathon HU match with this player who I instantly pegged as a fish playing .5/$1. I'd love to show you some hands to give you a better idea of the progression of the match but I don't have the HH's on this computer. I'll give you a quick cliff notes on how the match went.

1) It lasted close to 4 hours.
2) We played roughly 1500 hands.
3) I had him in the hole 2 buy-ins.
4) He rivers a open ender to get us back to even in chips.
5) I three bet him w/ AK and we get it all in on a flop of A 10 3 (He had A3 :( )
6) He now has $400 in front of him and I'm steaming.
7) I fight back to about $140 when we get it all in AA vs. 10 10 and he rivers a 10!
8) He now has $500+ in front of him and I know he's going to leave...he doesn't!
9) Now the match becomes a drag and we do a lot of back and forth 3 betting.
10) I double up after hitting trip queens when he had top pair.
11) I double up after turning a flush when he had top pair.
12) I double up after making a huge push with with top set and getting called by his top pair.
13) I stack him after getting it all in QQ vs. 9 10 off.
14) I stack him after getting it all in JJ vs. A8 off.
15) When all was said and done my BR saw a $600 swing in the right direction and I was left sitting w/ 7 buy-ins!

It was a long a grueling match but I knew I was better than this player and honestly I feel I just worked him down and made him make bad...very bad decisions.

So in my next post I want to talk about my new goals for the upcoming months. I'm excited with where things are going and hope to continue to see things move in the right direction.

Ups and Downs...but overall a good weekend!

So the week started off not all that well and I dug myself a pretty big hole losing $700 playing HU .5/$1. I won't get into many hands but I will say that I took some horrid beats which tilted the hell out of me causing me to lose some money in a fit of frustration. Tilting off a ton of money like this is something that I've been trying hard to prevent and for the most part had done a good job with. It just one of those feelings you don't like having and if I weren't use to the swings I would have probably gone on a bender and lost a lot more. But I quit when I knew enough was enough and just didn't play again for the rest of the week. Taking time off when the cards aren't running in your favor is always a good idea. It helps you to clear your head and not have poker on the mind 24/7.

So come Friday night I was out of town with my girlfriend house sitting for some friends of hers and decided I'd fire up and give a session a shot. I started out mixing things up a bit and played some .25/.5 6 Max NL. I was 4 tabling and the session was a major roller coaster ride. I would be up a few buy-ins and then lose a monster to bring me back down then grind it back up and then fall again. It really wasn't all that great of a 1st session back and the 2 set over sets didn't really help much. I want to say it was around midnight when I decided to check the tourneys that were about to start and saw that there was a 4K guaranteed about to start. It was PL hold'em (not my best) but the field was small, it was a double stack, and first place was still going to be over 1K. I figured I give it a shot and see what happens. 3 hands in I pick up AKoff and a guy who has made it apparent that he wants to go to sleep has just re-potted from early position. I knew I had his range crushed so I potted on top for pretty much an all in. It folds back around to the initial raiser and he folds and the donk puts it all in w/ J9 sooted. I flop my A and was the chip leader 4 or so hands in.

So I'm thinking things are looking up and this might end up being a pretty good tourney until the next hand made me want to cry. I won't give you the play by play but rather give you the unfortunate outcome. 4 limpers, I flop middle set, guy flops top set, and another guy flops the nut flush draw. Top set holds and 6 or so hands in I'm back down to my initial starting stack :(. I rebound from that debacle of a hand and manage to build a nice stack carrying me deep into the 3rd hour of play. I want to say the key hands for me were back to back at the 200/400 level. I was sitting with roughly 5500 chips and I picked up AQ from early position. I raise and get min re-raised from the very next player. At this point I made up my mind that I was going with the hand not matter what so I called and flopped top pair and a gut shot. I push on the pot for about the pot size and get insta-called by AK who flopped top 2 pair. I figured I was behind with the texture of the flop but had to go with it. Well I needed to run well after all that bad luck in the cash game and rivered a jack for broadway! That catapulted me up to a nice sized stack of roughly 11K and I was in prime position with about 50 people left.

The very next hand I pick up 99 again in early position so I limp them and get about 5 other limpers. We see a flop of 9 10 J and I begin to salivate! The action though was a little scary in front of me and forced me to make a quick decision again for all my chips! A short stack pushed and the next limper just called his push!?!?!?! The all in by the short stack was enough to make me worry when the player behind him just called but I wasn't folding my set so I repotted on top. Sure enough when it folded back around to him he insta called with KQ for the nut straight! But again luck was on my side and I turned a 10 for the boat! Now I had a monster stack and was in first with about 45+ people left.

I played a great tourney from there on out and like before, if I had chips late in the tourney I definitely knew how to use them. I made the final table and used aggression and mixed with a little luck from picking up KK when another decent sized stack had JJ to get me a second place finish! I pocketed a cool $800 and covered my losses from earlier in the week.


Then just last night I won about 6 buy-ins at a .25/.50 HU table and secured my bankroll well over 2K! I'm very happy with my play of lately and my tournament showings have been outstanding for the volume I've been putting in. My next goal is to continue to grind out the HU game and lower stakes tourneys and work the roll back to around 5K. Rakeback has been key, bringing in about $100 a month and that figure will only rise with the more I play and the higher I get stakes wise.

Nothing new to report

It's been a while since I last posted an entry here and for good reason. I think over the past 3 weeks I've fluctuated between $1200 and $1800 in my BR, never toping the 2K mark! I've played some tourneys and bubbled two nice sized final tables :(. One was the Full Tilt 13K guaranteed tourney that was a six max game. I played aggressive and fast and outlasted 600 entrants to finish in 7th. That was a major bummer seeing as the top 3 spots were taking home well over a grand :(.

I've also been playing A LOT of .25/.50 and .50/$1 HU cash games in my spear time as well. I've been playing really well and winning at a nice rate...I want to say something like 10bb/100 over a sample size of 5K hands. I'm really getting the knack for this HU thing and I like the fast pace back and forth aggressive style. Another thing that's great is that rakeback I'm accumulating while playing. I think last month I racked up $120 and that's pretty substantial considering my BR. So yeah things are good and for the first time in a while I'm beginning to feel like I am above the competition.

So as it stands now I'm sitting with a BR of roughly 1.5K, $200 on Bodog and the remaining on Tilt. I'd like to see the this number rise to 5K in the next 3 months so I can begin to up the ante again and really try to make some money! I also want to begin to try and satellite into a WSOP event. In my eyes there is now way I miss the WSOP this year and I'm crossing my fingers that this is the whole hearted truth. If it's at least a 1K or 2K event I would be happy. More than anything I want to experience the ultimate tournament scene and give myself a shot to make some life changing money.

I don't know if I've posted this either, but I'm heading out to Vegas for a buddies bachelor party here in 3 months. Actually it's right before the WSOP so I might get to play some satellites while I'm out there :). I plan on taking a pretty nice BR and hope to get a lot of live poker in while I'm there.