Saturday, August 01, 2009
Friday, March 21, 2008
Long time no post
I missed a couple of my usual games due to some finacial issues I was having at the time and last week I decided to give a poker game in the casino a go.
I took a very small amount of money to play in the stakes I was in, I basically only had a maximum of 2 rebuys so I was very tight at the table. But I was also very agressive and soon got a nice reputation that I would only play an Ace. In reality I was completely card dead and the best hand I had ALL night was pocket Tens. Luckily with my "only ace reputation" I managed to bluff some good pots and slowly but surely increase my chip stack to a comfortable amount by the interval.
So I got to the interval without a single rebuy and was about 3rd in chips on the table after I purchased the addon.
Sadly, 20 minutes after break I was moved to another table and on the second hand in, I lost an all-in with a set of kings. Villian had a set of kings with ace kicker.
I am glad I lost against the better hand, because there was nothing I could do and would probably play it like I did everytime I play, I was just gutted I left so early.
I had set myself up to be up all night but in actuality I was finished by midnight.
Its not very often I go to a casino because its so easy to spend too much money there, but one day I will do some overtime at work and I am willing to spend all my overtimes money at a different casino that will allow me to have around 15x the buyin. This will give me a chance to go all 'maniac' and see if I can aquire a large amount of chips before break.
Well thats the plan.
This Easter Monday I have an all day poker match with my regular poker buddies. It will start at 1pm and finish sometime the following morning.
Last time I did this, I left the day with alot of money. I wonder if I can repeat!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
It was a good two years
My online poker life has come to an end.
Two years ago, I came first in a 180 man tournament. Since then I have slowly lost money over a period of 24 months by playing poker online.
Today I had only $20 in my account left and decided to join a NL25 table and see what I could do with it, only to lose every hand I played then eventually betting all my money with a AJ two pair and getting beaten by pockets 5's, who hit a 5 on the flop, and just reeled me into the pot.
He checked raise me and I instantly knew he had a set, but I'm just not good enough and couldn't fold an Ace high two pair.
I only had $1.65 after that and was dealt QQ, and just went all in, only to be called by pocket aces that hit another Ace on the flop.
I was so sure I could have made $20 last longer than 31 hands, but as I now know for certain. Im not good enough to play poker online.
Aces all round
I did pretty well overall even though I never win a game, the best game was the first where I was heads up with even in chip stack.
I was button and villian calls the small blind, I pushed with 62s, I was having some fun and was fully expecting him to fold, until he calls and flips over Pocket Aces!
Silly mistake from me there.
Speaking of Pocket Aces... it was the night of aces. I counted 9 times pocket aces where dealt throughout the night which is very unusual (its usually just 1 or 2 times they appear), and I heard someone hit quad aces when I wasn't paying attention to the game becuase I was knocked out.
I have had to resort to play some weaker hands than I normally do, and hopefully I have put the idea into the other payers heads that I have become loose, im a well known TAG player. These guys I play against are big time gamblers, they its very hard to make people fold, so 80% of the players are LAG or just loose.
Its actually turning out quite well for me, but still am adjusting my poker play slightly each weak to try and take advantage of weaknesses of the other players.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Results from previous Friday
Did quite poorly to start off with and felt myself going on a little bit of tilt, I also was drinking some beer which definately didn't help.
A new guy turned up. I usually don't like playing against the new people because I don't know how they play, and it became even more apparent when I ended up heads up against him.
In the one hand I hit bottom pair with just a 3, and I was ready to push all in at this point but he did it before me. I had him dominated in chip stack so I decided to call and see what info I could get off him. Turned out he had a 3 too but with a higher kicker. So at least I knew he would be willing to gamble with bottom pair.
He eventually took most my chip stack with a lucky river, and although he had me dominated in chips he offered to split the cash prize which I accepted. I think he done that because It had ran out of money on the night and needed some more to play the next big game.
The big game I had 100% focus, I stopped drinking (like it actually matters now), and we all start with more chips than usual. This is my prime game, I like starting with many chips and I like the payout at the end.
I think I played my best on that game, and although I went very low on chips (around 2.5x BB), I climbed my way back up until I was just heads up with .... the big time gambler.
This guy caused me problems. On the previous hands, I could NOT make him fold regardless on what I did. And to make things worse, he had played around 90% of his hands. And what made it even more worse was that he kept on hitting his cards, and was playing very very agressive.
Only once I made him fold and that when I had Pocket 2's on a 3 handed pot.
Well eventually it was just me and him, and unbeknown to me we had exactly equal chip count (because I would have initiated 50/50 split pot) and I was dealt 22 again. He calls the small blind and I push in, he shrugs his shoulders and says call.
I had won pockets 2's threes time in a row and I just knew I wouldn't win again, so I got up ready to leave.
I didn't look at the table and decided to watch the audience reactions.
I heard them gasp and say "he hit is 9" when the turned came over and I just shook his hand and said good game.
I was gutted but I wasn't going to be angry, I was in the lead when I pushed and I was unfortunate that he called with 9 something and hit it on 4th street.
Thats Poker.
Friday, December 28, 2007
14 Hour session
Yesterday I went to a all day live poker game with some work colleagues. It started at 13:00 and we finished at 03:00 the next morning, it was a long but enjoyable day.
We got through 7 regular games plus 1 'big' game at the end. The big game at the end consisted of a larger buyin, plus small addons that was accrued throughout the 7 previous games, which resulted in a whopping 18xbuyin winner takes all pot.
My results were very good indeed, much better than any other nights for the past few months.
We only play winner takes all, so second place is no good. We also allow just a single rebuy so the final pot varies.
I won the second game which resulted in me winning 6x my buyin.
On the 6th game there were only 3 of us, and I went all in and both the other players called and I knocked them out (can't remember what I had). Just as I was picking up my money they stated they both had a rebuy left. Ours rules say that you can have your rebuy whenever you want, even if your are heads up and get knocked out, if you havn't used your rebuy you can still at this point.
Just so happens that both the players had a rebuy left, so it was back to 3 of us. Obviously I had a very big chip lead over them so I just went all in blind. They both called and I yet again knocked them out.
I won 7x my buyin on this game.
On the big game, I did really really well and got very very very lucky on way more than my fair share. There's 8 of us playing and I busted at least 5 players.
A pivotal hand for me was when I was dealt AT hearts, I was going to make a raise but a guy to my right raises instead so I called him. Someone after me called too and there were three of us in the hand.
Flop comes 5h 5d 9h, guy on my right pauses and my read was that he missed the flop but was holding a pocket pair. He decides to go all in, which was a good 90% of my stack.
So I'm just sitting there knowing that I am behind if I call, on the other hand if I could hit a heart I would bust him out and get a major chip lead to everyone else.
I decided to gamble and I called him, and then the guy after me was in the same situation as I was, and after a lengthy pause he folds.
I flipped over my AT hearts and he flips pocket 8's.
Turn is a black 9 (guy on my left slaps his head, because he folded K9), river is a 4.... of hearts.
I won my self a huge pot.
The rest of the game kinda followed suit, all my big pots I won because I hit the river
The finally when I was heads up to a LAG player, I offered him 5x the buyin and call it quits and he declines.
Next hand I had pockets 5's and he goes all in before me, and I insta-called. He shows KT and hits a T on the turn, right before I hit another 5 on the river.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
All day'er coming
A few months back me and my regular live buddies got together and played an all night of poker, from 6PM to 6AM. It was a fun and challenging night, as much as I like live poker - playing it for 12 hours straight can become very boring, especially when you get knocked out early in a match.
Well we are attempting it again but on the other side of the day, either from 9 AM to 9 PM or 1 PM to 1 AM, it will be 12 hours regardless.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Cheap fun.... maybe not
For a test of something I joined a very low buyin SNG, and $1+0.20 SNG to be precise.
It turned out the opposite to what I expected!
We were 40 mins into the match and there were still 9 players remaining, it was the tightest table I ever been at, which I completely didn't expect for a $1 game. We were only playing for $4 top prize!
I went down to a whole 350 chips and clawed my way back with a lucky all in with QJ, and eventually making 3rd place winning a massive $0.60 profit! wooo
It was the most boring game I have played for a long time.