Testing my hand at H.O.R.S.E.

Played quite a few freerolls again. Started off by finishing in the top 30% in Pot Limit Omaha on saturday. Then on monday, being at home all day, I decided to participate in both HORSE freerolls, not too sure what to expect.

The first one went ok (except for the fact that it took me about 5 Omaha hands to remember that this was Hi/Lo and not simple Pot Limit Omaha Hi like I've been playing quite a bit lately). I ended up busting about 420th out of 870 players, so a little under the 50% mark. Not bad but not quite as good as I expected from myself.

Then I registered for the 21h00 one. It went pretty well and although I started off slow (don't I always?) well after the first game rotation I had about twice the average stack. From there I kept building up my stack, mostly from the stud games. For quite some time I was pretty close to the chip leader. In the end, I made a few bad calls that busted me in 77th position. Other than a few hands I'm really happy with the way I played in this tourney.

I find it kinda funny the number of people I see in the HORSE freerolls who say things like "I love HORSE but I hate Razz". If you don't like one of the 5 games involved in HORSE then you do not like HORSE! HORSE is by definition a rotation of these 5 games! It also amazes me how many people participate in it even though they don't like it just because "it's a freeroll". Guess these people have time to waste, if I don't like a particular event, I just won't participate in it even if it's free! I don't find myself participating in every Hold'Em freeroll I see even though I enjoy Hold'Em!

Guess I just don't understand why people do, by choice, something they don't like.

I've been having good tourney results lately. I'll keep trying to build up on that and then go back a bit to cash games, which I've neglected lately. This reminds me, last night was our weekly homegame and boy is that game a lot of fun! We play for ridiculously small stakes but I think overall, everyone is really enjoying it. We had a new player last night, showed good instinct overall and I think he'll be one to watch out in the future. As for me, well I ended up the night with a small profit, which is pretty much the norm for me lately in that homegame.

Dead tired but happy about it.

Well last night I came back home completly soaked from torential rain exactly 4 minutes before the start of the Railbirds freeroll on FullTilt. So I rushed, started my PC, grabed a towel to dry myself a bit and changed in dry clothes. I managed to sign up to the tourney with less than a minute to go before the start!

It all started out pretty slow for me and ended up shortstacked after a while, but I stuck to my gun and kept playing my game. I managed to get back to my starting stack just before the first break by winning small pots left and right. Then it all started to click. After the first break everything was seemingly falling into place. I was stealing just enough blinds to build up my stack slowly, my hands were holding up when I was at a showdown and I was pretty much in controle and I felt I was dictating the action at my table. I grew up my stack a little above the average stack size before the second break and it would stay above the average until I busted out.

It's still all a bit blurry to me so I can't post specifics right now (specific hands are slowly coming back to me but I want to sort it out a bit by browsing through the massive hand history files) but overall I felt good the whole way. Managed to build up my stack and stay one step ahead of the average, even grabbing the chip lead a few times. When we got to 2 tables left I was chip leader and I stayed in the top 2~3 in chips for the rest of the game.

In the end, at 2h30 in the morning, I busted out on a bad play from my part. I was pretty tired at that point so my focus was down. We were now heads up and had about same stack size. He was covering me but barely. I don't remember exactly how the action went, but basically I went all in with my straight and as he called I just realised that my tired brain had not seen the possible flush there. We bot flipped our cards and he had the nut flush and I was drawing dead.

So even though I went out on a bonehead play I'm still really happy about my result here. 2nd out of 1500+ people is what I'd call pretty good! Hopefully this is just a start! Particularly happy that it just started my bankroll on FullTilt!

First time doing a Fixed Limit tourney

Well doing a Fixed Limit Hold'Em freeroll tourney tonight so I will post my thoughts here. I am really a Fixed Limit noob so we'll see if I get a clue how to play this ;)

Ok 3rd hand I pick up KcQd in the Big Blind. It's folded around and the small blind calls and I raise it. He calls.

Flop comes A-5-9 with 2 spades. He check I bet he calls. Turn is 9d he bets I call. River is the 6c, he bets and I figure there's no way a raise will make him fold and I'm most liekly beat. I fold realising how much I am clueless at fixed limit lol. This might not last too long after all ;)

Ok now about 10~12 hands into the tourney, I've already lost about a third of my stack. Need to tighten up and change my style A LOT. Trying to adjust and change gears now.

Ok started adjusting now. Won a few pots and doing ok so far. Just had some problems picking my spots at first since the pot odds in limit make it so enticing to play most of the hands. Really weird feeling for me so far. Can't put as much pressure so it's tougher to bluff your way in hands too. Still I like it so far.

Wow! What a hand. I pick up Ac 8h UTG and decide to call and get one caller and the big blind in the pot. Flop comes Ad As 9h. Big blind and me both check and the player in late pos bets. BB folds and I raise and get called. Turn comes Ac !! I bet and he calls. River is a blank since I have the nuts. I bet again and he calls.

The very next hand I pick up 9d 8c in the Big Blind. There's one call and then a raise. The small blind, me and the original caller all call. Flop comes Qs Js 2d. Wel all check to the raiser who bets. The small blind and me both call. Flop comes Td and I figure it's time to see if someone has a flush. Small blind checks, I bet, late pos raises. Small blind and me both call. Turn comes Jc. Small Blind checks, I bet and everyone call and I rake in a nice pot with my straight.

Now sitting on more than 2500 chips and doing great.

Now up to 2800 chips. Posting hands while playing is a bit tough so I'll slow down. Plus I don't want that post to be 300 pages long. Guess I might edit it at the end before publishing it.

21h45Wow... spent some time with only me and another guy not sitting out at our table. Now we're 3. Been like that for almost 30 minutes.

21h50 Funny how my limit noobness gives me bigger stack swings in fixed limit than I usually have in no limit. Now down to about 1000 chips.

21h56 Just managed to triple up from my miserable 800 chips with pocket 8s who helpd up. Back in business! Gotta play more carefully now.

22h00 First break. Sitting on about 1600 chips, so not in great shape but not in critical condition either. I'm finally getting into the FL groove and have to admit I really enjoy it.

Well busted out a short while after the first break. Was a pretty fun tourney, definitly took me a while to get used to limit play though. Next time I'll do better!

Freerolls galore and a change of scenery

Ok first thing's first. No my PC is not fixed yet. I ended up bringing back my 6 years old piece of shit former PC to life just to allow me to play poker until I find replacement parts or just decide to buy a new one.

This week end I played in two railbirds freerolls. I don't have my notes with me right now so I can't post specific hands right now but I'll do so later on when I get home. The first freeroll was a Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. Now I'm nowhere near an expert at Omaha Hi/Lo, that said I still feel that I had a better understanding of the game that the majority of the field there. That's not to say that I didn't make some newbie mistakes because I sure did. Stuff like betting strong for the low in a three way pot while I had absolutly no shot at the Hi. The particular hand I'm thinking about I ended up splitting the low pot with another player, which means that even though I had a good low hand, I actually ended up with only 25% of the pot after having contributed roughly 33% of the money in it. Silly me, I should have realised that this contested pot would most likely end up like that. Guess that's part of the learning process! That said I had a ton of fun and I will most definitly participate in these Omaha Hi/Lo freerolls whenever they come up.

On Sunday I signed up for a NL Hold'Em freeroll on FullTilt poker. I had never really tried seriously FullTilt. It might sound silly, but I think that actually playing on a site helped me focus a bit more. It had been a while since I last felt that good while playing poker. I was really focused and everything seemed to click. I was getting good reads and acting accordingly. Stealing from opponents I felt weak, getting out of the way when I sensed strength etc. In the end I didn't make the money but I still finished in about the top 30% which I am definitly happy about. After the first break I was in the top 10% and stayed that way until a few hands ate a huge part of my stack. (I will post more about these hands later on). This good session put me back in the state of mind I was in when I had constant winning sessions, before the cold streak I was in hit me.

Watch out people! I'm back!

Ego check...

Lately I've had a few really bad sessions. Reasons are mostly playing by short burst and not as regularly and mostly, experimenting with small pot poker a lot. (with mixed results)

Anyway, bottom line is, that afer quite a few bad sessions I managed to blow most of my bankroll. Now what to do.

There's no way I can play comfortably at my usual stakes with the bankroll I now have. So I'n left with either :
a) Go down stakes and grind it out.
b) Reload.

I'm still not 100% sure what I will do. On the one hand I think reloading makes sense since poker is important to me and it's an investment. It would also allow me to play at my usual stakes comfortably. On the other hand, going down in stakes for a while and use proper bankroll management habits would be great for me I think. Would teach me a good lessons I guess lol.

Anyway, just thinking out loud. Think I'll try option A.

Still no PC :(

Well, still have not got to getting my PC fixed. Which mean SEVERE online poker withdrawal. Online poker withdrawal, in turn, means that I play like a fucking donkey whenever I use Mel's computer. I really need to get to buy that new motherboard, it just seems that I always end up having something better to do with my money and time and with my touch football season just around the corner I don't expect to have much more free time. Anyway, will try to do that stuff asap, most likely after my vacations.

On the plus side I've been twice to the CPR in the last two weeks. Results have been so-so (3rd to bust out once and finished about 25th the other time). The good thing though is that I am getting more and more comfortable playing live (hear that Alex?? you should be coming too! :P ).

Tonight everything started very well. I actually managed to play the style that I want to and it worked well for a while. Then for some reason I need to find out I just started playing poorly. I'm always pretty loose, but I turned into loose passive which ate away my stack. Then I got a streak of cards colder than Alaska and ended up being blinded away.

I have problems remembering particular hands I played, I really need to bring a notebook to take notes during breaks for further analysis. My game is a real roller coaster and I definitly need to find my leaks and work on fixing them. I'm really determined on being a winning player and moving up the stakes.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll post again from my own PC pretty soon!