All work and no play

It's been over a week since I have played any poker. I suffered through a looooooong week at work, amassing over 70 hours due to the Memorial Day holiday (including one marathon 18 hour shift). Unfortunately, I am on salary so this did nothing for my paycheck! It didn't do much for my state of mind either, so it's a good thing I stayed away from the tables. I was so fried by the end of the week that I had trouble forming complete sentences.

On Saturday night, Jess and I attended the wedding of a couple of good friends of ours. I actually showed up late, just getting out of work in time to make dinner at the reception. It was a great time, the reception was actually in 30th Street Station.... which is similar to New York's Grand Central Station, with some amazing architecture, marble and granite everywhere, etc. Very interesting concept and a ton of fun. This was the same group that was at the poker tourney the week before, so of course everyone had their chance to share their bad beat stories after 10 gin and tonics. On the way home, we stopped at the Wawa right up the street from our apartment. For those of you who don't know what a Wawa is, it's probably the best convenience store on earth, next time you are in the northeast or midatlantic states search one out. Anyhow, as we are waiting for our made-to-order 2am sandwiches, this random guy comes up to us and asks "Hey, have you ever heard of the band My Morning Jacket?" I state that I have, then he points to a guy next to the fresh doughnut case. "Does he look familiar to you?" I admit that he doesn't, as I have never seen a picture of the guys in the band. Anyhow, turns out it really was the keyboard player for the band, they were opening for Pearljam in nearby Camden, NJ. He was a pretty down to earth guy, he seemed pretty psyched to be touring with Pearljam, understandably so. A pretty fun drunken quasi-celebrity sighting in a random Wawa at 2 in the morning.

On sunday I headed back into Philly with my wife to Penn's Landing, where the annual "Jam on the River" festival was taking place. Finally, a day off just to hang out and forget about work. Saw some fun bands, including the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Railroad Earth, and Ween. I really got my groove on to the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, as all the stress and tension of the week melted away in the hot Philly sun. Jess and I were contemplating heading over to the Electric Factory for the Disco Biscuits late night performance, but their show wasn't going to start until after 11PM, and I had to be back in work @ 10am on monday (yes, we even work on Memorial Day, which coincidentally was my 1 year wedding anniversary)

Looking ahead, I'll be able to get back in the poker groove this weekend. I'll be taking a few days off of work early next week, and Jess and I have a few days at the fabulous Jersey shore planned. We reserved a room at the Tropicana in Atlantic City for sunday night, where I should be able to quench my poker thirst as Jess hits the slot machines. Then monday we will head down to Cape May for a few days, where we have absolutely nothing planned. So another trip up the Parkway to AC isn't totally out of the question.... hahaha.

Results

I had to work saturday before the tournament, and all day I was stressing over if I would be able to get out in time to make the first hand. I don't have the kind of job where I can leave at a designated time, my work day ranges anywhere from 7 to 14 hours- you are done when you're done. I had called ahead and instructed my buddy Chuck, the host, to hold my spot and blind me away until I had arrived if I wasn't there in time. Luckily for me, we kicked some ass @ the warehouse, I got all my drivers loaded nice and early, and I walked out of work with enough time to go home and pick up Jess, who had decided she wanted to deal with the girls. We booked it up to Chuck's house with plenty of time to spare.

Ok, so we have the 30 entries at $105 each. 250 starting chips, blinds starting @ 1-2, and raising up every 20 minutes. Final table of 6 makes the money, with $1500 to the winner. Everybody in the money is required to tip out at least 10% for the house to cover the beer and food, and take care of the girls for dealing. We draw for table assignments, 5 tables of 6 to start. I end up with my friendly nemesis, Ralph, at my table. I lived with Ralph many years ago, he's a great guy, but he's always been my rival in things like poker, fantasy football, etc. Plus my wife has commented on quite a few occasions how she thinks he is "a total hottie" (her words, not mine) so there's a little extra animosity there. Anyhow, I like seeing him directly on my right, he's one of the few guys in the room I have played with before, so I am feeling comfortable.

Through the first couple of rounds I take a few small pots, when the first important hand of the tournament for me takes place. It's the last hand before the first break, which takes place between rounds 3 and 4. I get dealt pocket queens UTG, and raise 4 times the big blind. I get one caller, an extremely loose but aggressive player who has showed down some marginal hands up to this point. Flop comes Jh/7h/2c. I bet out 50, and the loose aggresive player counts up his chips, and pushes all in, a 130 chip raise. I call, and he flips over 6h/8h. Turn comes a blank and the river is the 5h, giving him his flush. I'm steaming, and on the short stack. Thankfully it was the last hand before break, because I needed to step away and collect myself.

Right after the break I get moved to a different table, where with my 60 remaining chips I need to get aggressive. My first 2 hands are AdKd and AcJc, and I pick up a few chips with those hands. A few minutes later in the big blind I push all in against a limper and the small blind with 2/7 offsuit. What the hell, I'm feeling reckless baby! Both parties fold. I'm picking up chips here and there, still below the starting stack of 250 but getting myself out of immediate danger, anyhow. Then I was involved in one of the oddest hands I have ever seen. I'm holding J7 offsuit in the small blind. 1 limper when it comes around to me, so I call and the big blind checks. Flop comes out 10s/9c/2c. I figure this flop might have missed everyone, so I put out a pot sized bet. Big blind folds, and the limper calls. He has slighly fewer chips than I do at this point. Turn comes out Kh. We both check. I have this guy on the flush draw after he decides to see the free card. 5th street pairs my 7's, no club. I push all in, hoping my read was correct, looking to take the pot right here in case he had either the 9 or the 10. It was an aggressive, and probably reckless play on my part. He goes in the tank for a minute, and finally says that he's gonna call, since he was planning on pushing all in anyway. My heart sinks when I hear this, figuring I am on my way to the garage to play in the cash game that has started up. Then he flips over 3c/8c. He was on the flush draw like I had thought, and called my all in with 8 high!!!! It took every ounce of self control not to bust out laughing right in front of him.

After I busted out 3/8 boy we were down to 12, so we consolidated tables again. I was still a below average stack, but I'm feeling good about my play to this point. I keep hanging around, looking to get aggressive but just not getting the cards to make a move. Before you know it, we are on the bubble and my M=7. We're playing 4 handed at my table, with the gentleman on my left being forced to play just about anything with just enough chips to pay the blinds maybe 3 more times around. On the button, I pick up pocket 5's. UTG folds, I push all in, small stack to my left calls, big blind folds. Heads up, and it's a race..... small stack flips over Q7 of spades. My 5's hold up, and we are in the money!!!

Coming into the final table I am 5th out of 6 in chips. Blinds are now 50/100. Just a few hands in, I pick up pocket 2's in the small blind. The small stack calls, folds around to me, where I just call, hoping to see a cheap flop. The big blind asks small stack to count up his remaining chips, an additional 300 or so. I'm thinking if he raises just enough to put the small stack I will call, but instead he decides to go way over the top, forcing me to go all in if I wanted to call. Smart move. Ralph (my arch nemesis, remember him?) has been sitting behind me for the last couple of rounds watching me work- thoroughly impressed with how I've played the short stack into the final table. Before I muck my 2's, I show them to Ralph and tell him that I know I should be playing them, because I am about to fold the winning hand. Small stack shows AJ, big blind shows AK. Flop comes........... 10/2/2. I woulda flopped fucking QUADS! Small stack doesn't improve and goes out in 6th. Two hands later, I pick up AK under the gun, push all in, folds around to the big blind who calls me with Ah9h. He pairs his 9 on the flop, I don't improve, and I collect $200 for my 5th place finish. I tip out $30 to the house and the dealers, and go find my wife who is absolutely thrilled that I cashed in her presence. Although, sticking to her superstitions, she didn't want to come anywhere near the room when the final table was going on- lol. But I think it is safe to say that we put the notion of "bad luck" to rest.

So I played the short stack all the way to the final table, for a profit of $65 on the evening. Not exactly the $1500 I was shooting for, but all things considered, I'll take it. Throw in the $50 Jess got for dealing, the plentiful beer supply, enough food to feed an army (including wings, hot roast beef, meatballs, a 6 foot sub, baked ziti, burgers, dogs, salads, etc) and I would have to say that it was a worthwhile evening.

Getting ready

Tomorrow night is the home tourney that I had mentioned a few blogs ago. $100 buy in, the exact number of people who will play is unknown, but there will be at least 30, so it will be a nice payday for someone. I'm looking forward to that "someone" being me! I've had a pretty steady week, slightly ahead in my cash games and playing well in the MTT's. I've been exclusively playing the MTT's the past couple of days to get in a tournament state of mind for saturday. Last night I placed 5th in a $50 buy in MTT for a tidy little profit. I was 2nd in chips @ the final table when I ran into the chip leader, after I rivered a flush while he rivered the full boat! Can't do much about that.

Earlier tonight I was playing in a 25K guaranteed 6 handed tourney on bodog (which had a RIDICULOUS overlay, by the way. 306 entrants @ $40+4) Anyhow, I was the chip leader for the first hour and a half when I tripled up on the third hand. I had pocket 7's, flop came Q 7 3 with no flush possibilities. I check on the flop, we have a raise and a reraise after me. I call, and the original raiser comes over the top. I couldn't get my money in fast enough. The raiser had AQ and the other player had KK. After taking that hand, I bullied the others at the table for a while, picking up the blinds and small pots here and there. Once the antes kicked in, I found myself at a table with 2 other huge stacks. I picked the wrong times to be aggressive, and next thing you know I am no longer among the big boys. I don't play shorthanded tourneys very often and at this point I am probably too conservative with my starting hands, so the blinds and antes caught up to me quickly. Something I definitely need to keep in mind moving forward. Anyhow, with my M around 10 it is time to make a move, and I pick up the "Hellmuth" (pair of black 9's) in late position and decide to make a stand. I got called by AK and my nines didn't hold up. I fell hard and fast. Definitely one to file under a learning experience though, particularly in regards to shorthanded play, and big stack strategy.

Check back late sunday for the results from the tourney on saturday night! I am sure I'll have a couple of good stories to tell.

Early Exit

I just got knocked out of the 100k sunday tourney on bodog. I don't like sharing bad beats usually, because nobody really likes hearing them, but this one has a point to it- so here goes. I am dealt AA in the big blind, UTG raises 4x the big blind, folds around the table to the small blind, where he pushes 3x the raise. All I can see is my stack getting bigger, but I want to isolate the small blind, so I bump approx 4x his re-raise. In the chat box, the small blind writes..."Wow- I guess I am beat. You must have the aces. Well, good luck all" and then pushes all in. I insta-call and he shows QQ, with a Q on the turn.

Why the hell do people do that?????????? It would have been one thing if he thought I was trying to steal the pot, or thought I was overplaying 10's or jacks, but this guy put the correct read on me. Shit, I may as well have typed in the comments that I had AA- he knew. What drives someone to put their life on the line as a 4-1 underdog? It's not like he was getting shortstacked and needed to make a move, the tourney was only 20 minutes old.

So I've been sitting here steaming for a little bit now, trying to get inside the head of this player. I've come up with a few things that might explain his play.....
* It could be his MTT strategy- take chances early with pairs and draws, either go broke or amass a big stack, and take your shot at a big payday. If that's what it was, then more power to him. It worked this time. Hopefully I'll be seated next to him with AA again when it doesn't work.
* Simply put, he's a Donk.
* Maybe he had somewhere to be, laundry to fold, soup on the stove, or his dog just ran out the front door and he needed to catch him.
* He's a donk.
* Maybe the $110 buy in means nothing to him. Maybe he's playing with a bankroll of $25,000. Maybe he's sitting at a juicy 30/60 game somewhere and he needs to focus his attention on that for a while.
* or, he could just be a donk.

I know I have made similarly stupid plays in the past, and thinking back on some of them has calmed me down a little bit. I guess what goes around, comes around. 4 out of 5 times I'll be well on my way to a nice stack in that situation. I've been playing very well lately, making good reads, some nice laydowns, and being aggressive when I have the goods. A few hands earlier in the 100k tourney I had KK (I've been catching great cards the past few days) raised heartily preflop with one caller, the dreaded ace came on the flop of course, and the caller who has been *very* aggressive so far in the tourney checks it to me. He had been contesting every pot so far, and something just didn't feel right. I checked it on the flop and the turn. He overbet the river and when I layed it down he showed AA in the hole for his set. A few months ago I probably would have gone broke on that hand because I wouldn't have been aware that this guy had put on the brakes. Of course, then I would never have had the honor of getting my Aces cracked by a donk.

Card Dead

I've seen enough 8-3 offsuit in the last six hours to last me a month. Tonight was one of those frustrating evenings that is a test to see if I really do have the patience to fold for hours at a time. I'm not sure if you could say that I passed with flying colors, but in the past I would have lost a lot more of my bankroll that I did tonight, so I suppose that's a positive. Although if one day turns into three days, which turns into a week, I am sure I am gonna lose my head eventually. Just another part of my game I need to work on, having enough patience and discipline to look at it as one long session. Looking at the big picture, I've had a damn good week, up $550 bringing the bankroll to just over $2000. And considering where I was just 3 weeks ago, I have nothing to complain about.

I think I need to plan a trip to AC soon to work on my live game. I have a home tourney ($100 buy in, expecting about 50 people or so) coming up next weekend, and can stand to sharpen my skills. At these tourneys, we usually convince a few of the wives & girlfriends to deal, and we require that the winners tip them out at the end of the night for their efforts. Jess has always enjoyed the experience and the extra couple of $$ in her pocket, and was planning on dealing next weekend. Today she told me that she wasn't sure if she wanted to do it this time around, given the recent circumstances. (See my previous entry if you haven't read that yet.) Of course I told her she was just being silly, and I wanted her to go- but she's not convinced. That really puts the pressure on me to do well if she does attend.... we need to put this behind us. Of course if she decides not to go, I may just have to throw the tournament- I couldn't imagine her reaction should I cash after she stayed away! Just the fact that she had asked me if I would prefer if she not deal has me *slightly* concerned that she is reading into this too much.

Meet my wife

Remember when the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii and found the "bad luck" tiki idol? When it comes to poker, I have my own version of the idol. It's my wife. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife dearly. We have a fantastic relationship. She's my rock, my motivation, my inspiration, so on and so forth. But she is bad news when it comes to my poker game. It's not that we have arguments or disagreements concerning poker, I am very lucky in that regard. She understands that I enjoy the game, as long as I am not losing the rent money. She doesn't mind that I make the occasional run to Atlantic City, or sit at the computer for a couple hours a night, or the fact that I've been to Vegas 4 times in the past year (once for a few days during our honeymoon, even). She's cool with it. But it's become very apparent the past few months that when she is nearby, I don't win. I can't win. It's bad. Whenever Jess would come home from work, or come in from watching TV in the other room, even if it's just for a few moments, I go bust. At first we made it into a big joke, and laughed it off. It's just a crazy coincidence. But it kept happening. Again and again. To the point where not only are we both aware of it, but it's starting to really bother her.

She knocked me out of 2 tourneys today. The first was the 100K sunday tourney on bodog. She left the apartment to go shopping in the early afternoon, so I jumped online and promptly won a satellite qualifier into the game. I amassed a quality stack early on, and was in very good shape heading into the first break, when she came back to drop off a few packages. On the last hand before the break, my KK gets crushed when my opponent hits a runner/runner flush. I throw out a few choice profanities, Jess realizes what just happened, and she decides it would be best if she just goes back out. An hour later she tempts fate, comes home, and within 10 minutes of her arrival, I'm heading to the showers when I push all in with Queens, and the big stack flops 2 pair against me. The second tourney was a WSOP qualifier, and I'll spare you the details since I am not a huge fan of bad beat stories. Let's just say that she came over to have a smoke on the balcony, which is located right next to the desk with the computer. Jess watched in horror over my shoulder as I was sent to the couch yet again. She came back in from the balcony with the saddest look that I have ever seen, where she admitted to feeling absolutely awful that she is my bad luck charm. She can pout with the best of them. I spent the better part of the next 30 minutes trying to cheer her up.

Can the woman I love really be a bad luck charm for me @ the table? Poker is a game of skill, probablity, courage, and in the short term, luck does play a big part. Personally, I don't believe in "bad luck" tiki idols. But for my bankroll's sake, the majority of my play will be after she has gone to bed for the night.

Know When To Walk Away, Know When To Run

I have a leak in my game. Well, I probably have more than one, but let's focus here. I've identified it, tried to eliminate it from my game, yet I always seem to talk myself back into the same old trap. It's not knowing when to get up from the table. As I am writing this, I am currently seated at a juicy 1/2 NL game. I'm up $250 on the night so far. I'm starting to get a bit weary, my mind is wandering (as evident by the fact that I am actually blogging while playing), but for the last hour I have convinced myself that this game is just to good to leave. Which may be the truth. But then again, I could just be fooling myself. I say the game is good, because there are a couple of loose passive players that I have picked on all night still seated, and there is a LOT of $$ on the table..... over $4000 to be exact. So there are definitely some things to consider. Then again, I also was just getting ready to leave the table 20 minutes ago, when O.A.R's "Crazy Game of Poker" came over the Sirius radio, which I considered an omen for me to stick around. So my judgements aren't always based in fact. Then again, neither is my poker game. I know the statistics, the percentage plays, but a good deal of my game is based on feel. Probably too much (another leak to discuss at another time).

A few weeks back I was at the Tropicana in Atlantic City. Within 2 hours of sitting down I triple my $200 buy in @ the 1/2 NL table (basically all I play these days, either online or B&M). It's getting late and the game I was seated at breaks up, so I move tables. Within 10 minutes in my new seat, it is apparent to me that this game is much tougher than the one I was in before. I contemplate leaving, but then the rationalizations begin. "Did you really drive 2 and a half hours roundtrip just to play three hours of poker?" "Playing against tougher competiton will only make you better" "You got a free pass from the wife for this, she doesn't expect you home till sunrise! Don't waste it!" Not very good reasons to stick it out in a bad situation. But I did. And you guessed it, I wouldn't be telling this story if I didn't lose it all back, plus the buy-in.

I am trying. I just left the table I was seated at with my profit intact. And I have at least identified one of the problems in my game, and as GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle.

Why?

Why a blog? Cause it seemed like a good idea at the time. Which is shortly after 5am on a Monday morning, after a 6 hour (and counting) session of online poker. For anyone who cares, I am up $65.25 for the night. Anyhow, I've been reading a lot of poker blogs lately, and I figured I'd throw mine out there and see if it floats. At the very least it will be a good way for me to record wins and losses along the way. I'll sprinkle in some thoughts on music, marriage, people I know, and whatever else comes into mind.

So yeah, it's 5am, and many of you (or not many as I really don't expect anyone to be reading this) may wonder what I am doing playing poker all night long. I work a lot of nights, and my internal clock is so screwed up I don't know when it's time to sleep. So I play a lot of poker... it beats late night television. I play on bodog.com. I've had a pretty good run of it so far online, though 2 weeks ago I did lose almost my entire bankroll in just a few short days. I was approaching the $2000 mark, playing above my bankroll at 1/2 NL. Then the inevitable streak of cold cards came.... not even cold cards, because I can handle that. It's the streak of second-best hands that do you in every time. And after a while, I tried to win it all back at once (aka tilting) and before you know it, I'm down to $500 in my account. Fun. I took a week off or so, got myself back in the right frame of mind, dusted off Super System, Harrington on Hold'Em, and went at it again. So far so good, I have the bankroll back close to $1200, and that's where we stand at the moment.

This past weekend Jazzfest kicked off in New Orleans, and I should be there. My wife and I had planned on going again this year before Katrina hit. For obvious reasons we decided to cancel our reservations, but I am regretting it. New Orleans needs us there now more than ever. The resiliency of that city and their citizens is amazing. I love that place.