A bad run and how to stop it! January 29, 2008

Yesterday and today I continued with my $6 turbo stts which is what I always play and have always turned a fairly nice profit at.  These past 24 hours have been BRUTAL.  I’ve gotten sucked out on, beat up, and tromped on with any hand I’ve tried to play.  I’ve been bubble girl numerous times and I’m frustrated.  I’ve played in 8 $6 nl holdem stts and 8 $6 pl omaha hi stts and have only come in 3rd once and bubbled 6 other times.  Not sure where to turn at this point.  I’ve been excited to get back into the swing of poker but this is just tough to swallow.

I have the bankroll to sustain these losses as I usually make around $100 a month playing in $6 turbo stts but it’s still very frustrating.  No one likes to watch their bankroll go down.  Someone asked me if I’ve changed my play since I started running bad and looking over my hand histories and thinking back, no I haven’t.   Not sure where to go from here, just need to mull over how to switch things up.

Foxwoods ladies tournament January 29, 2008

I received a flyer in the mail today for the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic coming up in March/April.  I’ve played in 3 of the ladie’s events there in the last couple of years and 2 out of the 3 times came very close to cashing and just missed.  I had planned on skipping this next one as I’ve not been playing much poker lately. 

Hubby saw me tossing aside the flyer and asked me if I was going to play.  I told him no and that if I played in any of them I might consider playing in either the $300 shootout or the $600 stud tournament.  He asked me why and I said because I thought I might fare better in one of those.  He told me he thinks I should play in the ladies event.  He said I’ve come so close to cashing twice and do so well in them that he thinks I’ll eventually get there.

This is a tough decision for me.  I’ve come so close to repeatedly cashing in Foxwoods tournaments and just can’t seem to close the deal there.  In their regular weekday tournaments, in the last 5 I’ve played in, each time I’ve finished exactly 2 out of the money…frustrating statistics.  If I do decide to play I’m probably going to drive down the morning of the tournament (instead of staying there the whole weekend) and if I make it to day 2 find somewhere to crash and if not drive home.

Working on my game January 24, 2008

After my blog the other day about patience and talking about stepping down to $2 stts, I went to work on it…kinda lol.  I logged on the next day full of $2 stt hope and signed up for a $6 stt (insert duh face here?!) and promptly lost.  I then decided to stick to my $2 stt plan and hopped in a series of them and didn’t do much of anything.  It’s hard to travel back to lower limits when you’ve moved up (before my break from poker I was playing in $11 turbo stts on ft) a bit.  I was finding myself bored at the $2 level and alarmed at the bad play as well (okay, well there is bad play at every level but still).

Today I chucked the $2 idea and went back to $6 stts.  I hopped in a $6 turbo nl stt and a $6 pl omaha hi stt (can you say oops) at the same time.  I found it hard to get back into my mixed game swing that I can normally pull off and found myself going out in 3rd in the nl stt (still cashed!) and I ended up winning the omaha hi stt (woohoo!).  I then did the same thing (figured it might work again) and hopped in one of each.  I promptly got knocked out of the omaha hi first when my fullhouse ran into trips that equated into a bigger river fullhouse (grrrr).  I then promptly hopped in to another omaha hi stt and didn’t catch any cards and went out 6th.  I did end up coming in 3rd in the other nl stt so I played 5 $6 stts (2 nl and 3 omaha hi) and had one win (omaha) and two thirds (nl) so I can’t complain with my small profit of the day (until I play more tonight!).

I had an easier time of keeping my patience today although I did find myself slipping a bit and playing some hands I normally wouldn’t.  I’m also still letting how others play affect my game in a negative way at times.  Practice Patience Practice Patience Practice Patience…my new mantra.

Patience January 23, 2008

I used to have oodles and oodles of patience when it came to poker.  Actually, almost too much patience at times.  Coming back in to poker I’m realizing I need to re-learn poker patience as I’ve lost it and notice my attention drifting and my frustration rising.

I was on ft tonight and noticed a turbo nl holdem freeroll starting that had 2409 players…I joined knowing that we were playing for first only.  It didn’t matter to me as I was just there to practice patience.  I did pretty well in that one and although I didn’t win I made it pretty far…out of 2410 players, I went out 120th on a bad beat.

I played in a limit holdem railbird freeroll tonight hoping to add some freeroll ranking points to my year.  My patience was definitely off during this.  There were 1554 players and it was a hard fought battle…225 were getting ranked and 153 were getting paid.  After 2 hours I was still hanging in but barely, had 9x the bb.  There were about 280 left and a break had just ended and I was getting frustrated.  I saw pocket 8’s and first one in I try to limp (what was I thinking???) and of course it was raised by a big stack and I called.  The flop came T, 3, 2 and he insta-bet and I raised him and he hesitated for a while and then called…turn was a 3, he checked I bet and he raised me all in and I called…he had A3.   There went my patience…out in 273rd place, bleh.

 I played in a few $6 turbo nl holdem stt while in the freerolls (one at a time) and kept losing my patience and just missing the money.  I’ve been formulating a plan which will have me step down from $6 and up stts and move down to the $2 nl holdem stts until I get my patience worked out and a bit of confidence back.

Railbird tournament – 1/21/08 January 22, 2008

Last night I played in a $5 railbird real money ranking tournament on pokerstars.  There were 146 players which meant that 21 players would be ranked and 18 players would make the money.  I feel I played very well  for not catching any big preflop starting hands.  I was making great reads and even better decisions.

It took a while to get down to 21 players…there are some very tough players in the real money ranking tournaments.  My first goal in a ranked tournament is to make it to ranking and then worry about making it into the money.  I was getting short by the time we hit 21 players and needed to make a move to make the money with any kind of chips left.  I delivered my first bad beat of the night when my Ace rag hand outdrew pocket kings on the river.  This enabled me to make the money but unfortunately I didn’t make it much further than that.

 I went out in 17th place thoroughly happy with how I played in my first nl holdem mtt in 2 months.  I wish I could be as happy with my finish in today’s $3 ranking tournament but I’m not.  I made a few key mistakes and although I battled I went out in 54th place out of 148 players.

Hello world! January 22, 2008

A brand new year with brand new poker goals.  I’ve pretty much taken the last two months off from playing any poker, no live poker at all and minimal online poker.   I’m missing it now and ready to get back in the swing of things.

I belong to a few different online poker forums/communities that have private tournaments.  I belong to lady poker sharks who have a weekly $5 mtt that I’m keen to start playing again and I also belong to railbirds who hold twice daily tournaments (both freerolls and cash buy-in) and plan on starting to play in as many of those as I can.  I almost made the railbirds real money ranking top 100 list for 2007 and probably would have if I’d continued playing the tournaments throughout the year but I chose to take a break instead. 

My poker goals for this year are numerous but I think attainable.  I would like to make it to one or both (freeroll and real money) of the top 100 ranking lists on railbirds.  I want to continue to improve my play by reading poker books and articles and by participating in poker-related discussions on poker forums.  I want to end the year with a plus sign in my online poker journal.  Finally, I want to ease  back into live poker play with positive expectations.

My plan is to document my poker ups and downs and my progress on this blog so I can receive feedback from my poker shark friends.