winnnnner!

Well I broke the streak yesterday...I won a few thousand online and broke even at canterbury. It feels good to get back on the right track...

Speaking of canterbury...they have really good eggrolls if you are not asian and dip them in ranch dressing... ;)

Is it friday yet? I'm ready for baseball and a few days off from poker. Maybe a week. I might have to go to san diego soon to do some golfing to get ready for the good weather here...just like jumpstart my spring...it's been so gross lately in minnesota.

4 straight losing days

I haven't been playing that much in the last few days but anytime I do, I lose. 4 straight losing days at heads up limit holdem is tough to do. I don't think I've ever done it before. I've lost 4 times in a row a million times, but not at my goto 'get out of a downswing' game haha. I'm not sweating it at all I'm just pretty tired of it. The downswing is up to like 400 bets which is the most for heads up limit holdem for me I think. My biggest was 1k bets but that was ring game... I think it helps that I'm still having a mediocre positive month still...

Gonna sit a few hours this afternoon and then head up to canterbury with jay and wilmes for a little live poker...should be real fun.

I also picked up a gamepad which I'm going to try to get working for when I want to 1 table heads up and lean back. If anyone has any recommendations on how to do this (I know there is good software out there I just haven't done my research yet)

quick downer, avoiding burnout

I've been playing a lot online the last week and it's been going great...until the last 1300 hands which I'm down like 230 bets. Mostly low stakes so not much money but very frustrating nonetheless. I never have anything and they always do.

I have a buddy in town and another one on spring break and we're going to play lots of online poker I'm sure so this afternoon I've just putzed around without tables open. I tried playing civilization 5 but the new graphics card i got (geforce 570) has been having stability issues so that didn't happen as I didn't have the patience to deal with it.

I finally moved my postgresql hand history database to the terabyte drive so now i finally have the space to make a massive database. I'm exited and eagerly awaiting the import.

a little ring game break, etc etc

I got tilted last week playing ring games so I decided unless there is a world class fish playing at 100/200 or 200/400 I'm going to skip the ring game grinding. No more 30/60 50/100 etc. I just feel like chilling and heads up is good for me like that. So instead to make sure I get hands I'm playing $5/10 and 6/12 lhe hu and 1/2 NL also. It's pretty relaxing and far less irritating. Hopefully the pros don't bust 8sup while i'm gone... ;)

This snow is actually the only snow all year that has bothered me. Usually I like snow and winter weather, but I'm fully in spring mode and it's time to go and not come back.

My bracket is doing ok...top of the middle of the pack...and I am still in the hunt but probably somewhat of a longshot. I have ohio state winning it all..

I started playing civ 5 again and while I've been a lifelong fan of the civilization series (esp civ 2) I just can't get hooked on it. This is like my 3rd run at it and it's the same as every other time. I just can't get engrossed.

heads up 30/60 battle, heads up as a game

That was pretty tiring. I just got done 'battling' a guy 3 tables of 30/60 lhe heads up for 1500 hands. It was a very peculiar match for me. I usually don't bluff too much (obv other than continuation betting/barreling) and this guy said he usually played 14 tables of no limit..so he was ultra foldy, perhaps more than anyone I've ever seen.

He would constantly check back the flop and fold the turn. He raised my turn bets no more than like 8 times in those 1500 hands. He never adjusted. I just kept bluffing and bluffing and bluffing some more. He won at showdown over 75% of the time. It's just we only went 28% and most of the rest of the hands I won by bluffing. It's not too often you get to play a guy like that so I had to be a little more conscious of what optimal strategy vs this type of player. My friends and I haven't talked many times about how this is the easiest player type to play against...so think of that next time you play heads up and aren't used to it. call call call call etc

I went to canter the other night and had a good time, although I don't find omaha 8/b fun. Luckily I only had to play like an hour of it. A buddy is in town and another has spring break next week so I'll probably go up there next week a handful of times...which is rare for me lately. I had a big stretch where I played a ton, but not lately.

I hadn't even thought of this when I started writing this blog, but there is a thread on 2+2 that is generating a bit of interest. Bryce claimed he thinks sites should get rid of hu tables and instead institute a game where you can like enter a player pool to play a random person who is in the pool for 200 hands.

This is ridiculous.

My response to that I wrote in the thread is as follows:

"There is no shot the sites get rid of heads up tables.

Suggesting it should be removed is pretty lol. Either table selecting your opponents and playing them or not being able to play heads up with somebody if you both want to play heads up for a certain stake is ludicrous.

It doesn't even make that big of a deal with this 'lobby' busyness. I agree it is slightly less inviting but it's definitely not an important enough of a factor in trying to convince somebody it should be removed. It's just so avoidable (by filtering) and maybe the fish are a hair uninvited by it (but truly I bet most don't notice/think about it/care) but it sure doesn't seem to be affecting most of them - there are tons of guys who keep losing tons and tons of money. People want to gamble and they will put up with some bs to do so. This is light bs and is insignificant in the case for removing heads up.

This is coming from somebody who also sits heads up $500/$1000 sit and goes so I definitely feel comfortable playing anyone and am willing to play more than most...It's just not right to take away the heads up game from people who want to play that way."

End of October

Well the main event didn't quite go as I had hoped or planned. I was the chip leader at the dinner break but then was ridiculously card dead for the next 3-4 hours and got chipped down. It wasn't as if I could have made many moves with how active the other players were. I got a guy to check raise all in on a QJ9 board with 88 vs my KQ and bang an 8. That hurt. As we got close to the bubble I lost a flip and then won a flip before getting KK allin vs AK preflop for top couple places in chips. It came JJTQ3 and I was out on the bubble. I played the best tournament poker I've ever played so while I was dissapointed, it didn't sting as much as if I had done something dumb.

I finished october with a lot of poker. Looking at my HEM It had me playing 175 hours online (43) per week which is even a little strong for me. I played another 50 hours at canterbury so October was a masher month. Up there for most poker probably ever. I ran bad overall at the end but hot at the bigger games and worse at the smaller games so I'm on a nice little upswing at the moment. I'll probably play a good amount the rest of the year too, but not likely as much as october. I'm having a decent enough year. At the beginning of the year if you told me i was going to be wehre I am I would have been satisfied, but I haven't made any progress dollar wise since May (bets wise yes, doing well there, but opposite situation than the end of october..win at small games lose at big ones). I really would like to finish the year strong so I think I'm gonna cut out some of the bigger gambling and focus more on the more consistant games.

I think I found the snow tires for my truck. I'm pretty pumped to not be sliding around ridiculously like my acura tl. It's given me an unnatural fear of driving in the winter. I'm not going to be one of those assholes in a truck driving 70 in the snow BECAUSE I HAVE A TRUCK I'M INVINCIBLE, I'm just not going to be a bitch about not wanting to drive in the winter because of the snow.

canterbury survival

I went to canterbury on wednesday night with the intention of leaving by 2 for sure because I needed to wake up the next day to play the tournament...This was looking very possible as the 30/60 game was down to me and another guy and he is a regular worker who probably wasn't hanging around too much longer.. when a business man/poker player approached our table looking to play anyone in the building heads up survival. Survival poker is canterbury's way of getting around the max bet of $60 in minnesota. Basically you play for 2 hours and then at you cash in your 'tournament chips' for their equivalent value in dollars. You can also 'rebuy' when you have half a stack or less.

I had played in a couple $200 and $500 survivals and had quite a blast. Just the change of pace of NL and playing with more recreational/social players led to a very fun poker game. The biggest Canterbury had ever had up to this point was $1000 survivals so when we told them we wanted a $2500 survival it created a little buzz in the room. We had actually agreed on 3k but so far their only approved for 2500. One of the other rules for the gaming commission is you need to have escalating blinds, so we agreed on 5/10 for the first hour and 10/20 for the second hour. Long story short I coolered him twice and won a few other pots so had stacked him twice in 35 minutes. I was pumped, I hadn't played heads up nl person to person in a long while and playing it for meaningful stakes got my adrenaline going. Almost all of my NL heads up online is $1/2 with some 2/4-5/10 but I've decided not to play 10/20nl+ because of a couple bad sessions that threw off all my hard work I just don't feel like dealing with.

The first had I had JJ vs 98 on the 994J4 board. I would have gone broke with his hand too. The 2nd one was my 8h6h vs his Kc9c on the 9h6s4h3hKd I probably would have lost the same amount in his spot so again, nothing but luck on my side. He finally went bust when he 3 bet and called my 4bet with J8s vs my TT. I had lost a bit at 30/60 so I didn't end up as much but it ended the night well and early and I got to go home and get some sleep.

The next day I played the tourney I didn't really ever get anything going. I did flop the first set I can remember in a tournament and win a nice pot only to lose an equal one the next hand buffing off some chips. I busted by making 3 7's vs a flush. Nothing I could have done so out I was. I played some 30/60 for awhile during rush hour before going home.

I'm gonna wake up early tomorrow to play the main event...wish me luck!