Live tourney

No I am not talking about the WSOP!

I went to play at the Club de Poker Rosemont last night. Went pretty well, although I found myself short stacked. Still managed to make the final table and finished 10th out of 43.

A few interesting hands that affected my results.

Quite early on, blinds are something like 75/150 and I have an above average stack. An early position player pushes all in and is called by another player who is on an even shorter stack. Now I'm on the cutoff and action is folded to me and I look at pocket Jacks. Guess I was affected by the Phil Hellmuth mantra "it's just Jacks" cause I folded. Calling would have cost me bout 20 to 25% of my stack which would have been far from disastrous at that point and would have allowed me to pick up a really nice pot (yes my Jacks would have won. Turns out both players had really borderline hands and a Jack came on the flop). I think I just played that hand too tight. To be perfectly honest, this was still in the early stages of the tourney and I was a bit overwhelmed not being used to play live. I find there's so much more informations to take into account in live play. I have to get more live experience under my belt.

A bit later, blinds are at 100/200 if I remember correctly. Alex raises to 600 from middle position. Action is folded to me in the cutoff and I look at pocket aces. I re-raise to to 2000. The button folds but the SB pushes all in for about 1000 more. Alex folds and of course I call. I flip my ace and he then flips K-9 of clubs with a face like he's just bitten a rotten lemon. Board came K-9-T-8-4-9 breaking my aces. Now the good things about that hand is that I played it correctly and that I did not allow it to tilt me. I stayed focused and kept on playing. The bad point is that it moved me from being an above average stack to a below average stack. Still, things were going pretty well at that point, but then I hit a real shitty streak of cards and my stack got slowly whittled down.

With blinds at 400/800 I was left with around 5900 chips. Being a bit overwhelmed by live play at the start, I had been playing really tight from the get go. With less than 8 big blinds left I felt I needed to make something happen when I looked at Kh 6h under the gun. I fired 2400 in the pot right there figuring if I'm called I might be able to pick up the pot with a continuation bet. Everybody folds to the big blind who hesitates for a while and then calls. Flop comes J 9 3 with 2 clubs, no hearts. Big Blind checks. Now THIS was my chance to get out of my bluff. Why should I have done this? Well the BB was a really nice guy but I had a definite tell on him saying he was not in a gambling mood. I should have given him credit for a hand better than mine. Still, as I said I had been playing really tight sine the beginning and I guess I wanted to make a stand here and show the regulars of the club that I was a baller. I fired 2000 more into the pot. He went into the tank for quite some time, in fact another player called a clock on him, but in the end he called. That was it, I was left with too little to chase him out on the next card and at the same time I KNEW he had me beat. Turn came a 5. We both checked. River came an A and he said he was going all in. I just threw my hand away, crippled.

That last hand got people talking a lot and a few people were quite interested to know what I had. In fact some guy said he folded Queens to my original raise. Anyway, I promised the guy who got me to lay down my bluff I'd tell him what I had at the end and I did. As I said this crippled me, but at the same time it might be an investment for future tourneys.

A few hands later we got moved to the final table and I ended up in early position with less than 2 Big Blinds so it was shove or fold time. I picked up A-T for my first hand, pushed and picked up blinds and antes. Then the very next hand I pick up A5s under the gun. I push again but this time I get called by A-T and bust out.

Overall I'm pretty happy about this whole tourney. Made the final table and had lots of fun. Will try to go again next week.

So much for taking a break!

Well after taking some time reading tonight I decided to go and play a bit of hold'em. My mind was fresh and I was feeling pretty good.

Overall was not a bad session. Much better than the last few I've had. That said there were a few pretty bad players. Here's an example of a hand that I played that just boggles me.

The guy under the gun limps in and I raise it to 0.30 with AQ. He calls. The rest of the hand played up pretty straightforward and I ended up losing it. What baffles me is that he called my raise (pot offering him 2 to 1) with 10-7 sooted!

Here's another interesting hand. That time I'm just not too sure if I like how I played it so I guess I'll review it while typing it in here.

I'm in the small blind, 2 people complete the blind including a guy who's been playing a lot of hands. I look at Ad 5s and decide to complete the blind since I'm getting 7 to 1. The big blind checks and we're 4 to the flop. Flop comes Ah 10c 5c, I open up by putting 0.25 in a 0.40 pot. The big blind folds, a player I don't really have a read on calls, and the loose guy also calls. Pot is no 1.15. Turn comes 10h not only voiding my pair of 5 but also putting a potential heart flush out there. Still, I have top pair and figure out an A or a 5 will give me a winner, so I bet 0.75 to chase out any flush draws out there. Unknown dude calls and the loose player folds. Pot is now 2.65. River comes Jh. Right there I'm at a loss. I decide to fire another bet of 1.25$ and the guy raises me to 4.50. What can he have here? I guess he could have limped in pre-flop with A-T or A-J. J-T is also a possibility as is KQ. Anyway, I figure there's no way my ace is good there and I throw it away.

Was just a weird hand. Re reading it I think I played it correctly though.

Anyway time to go to bed now.

Playing horribly...

Playing horribly lately. Posting bad session after bad session after bad session. I have to admit that I'm pretty shaken by it.

I just finished another session where a super aggressive player started tossing me around and I never could recover. So instead of just leaving the game and taking a break I ended up losing my whole buy in.

Not too sure what the next step is. I guess I will focus more on sit & gos for a while, maybe take a few days off from online poker. At least I've had decent results in sit & gos lately.

Anyway... gotta find a way to clear my mind right now before going to bed.

May recap

May was a pretty big losing month for me in cash games. I had a few very good sessions but most of the time I've been playing really unfocused. I intend to correct that in June.

The goal for June is to get back on track with Hold' Em and to keep posting good results at Omaha too.

Not much else to say today, just thought I should start doing small recap posts. Might come back with more a bit later on.

Terrific home game!

Last night was a blast! We played lots of Omaha, a bit of Razz some 7 card stud and, of course, LOTS of Hold'Em. I was hit by the deck harder than I've ever been. Managed to triple up my buy in. Guess that's why I had so much fun! We also had a record 6 people. Hopefully this is sign of things to come.

I won a sit & go last Sunday which felt good. I've had mixed results in Sit & Gos and tourneys lately so I'm really glad about that one. Especially since I had to fight for it. Was a really fun game. (once again I guess winning it all has something to do with me enjoying it so much!)

Here's a hand I am still not too sure I like the way I played. We're 3 handed and I'm the big blind. Blinds are 50/100 and I'm the chip leader with about 5500 chips. The button folds and the small blind raises it to 300. Looking at 7d 7c I call.

Flop comes Kd 7h 3h. The small blind checks. There I was putting him on something like AK, KQ or just a weak K so I was pretty convinced I had the better hand. The flush draw did not bother me that much I guess so I wanted to give him a chance to improve his hand so I checked. That's actually the part of the hand I'm not too sure about. Sure, I most likely have the best hand at that point, but if he's on a flush draw a free card could be dangerous for me.

Anyway, I checked and the turn came Qd which I was pretty happy about since if he was on a heart flush he missed it and if he had KQ well then there's no way he's going to fold this. He bets 300 into the 600 pot, I raised it to 900 and he called.

River came Ac, he checked, I fired 1200 and he raised all it for about 400 more. I called and he turned over JT for a nut straight. How could I be stupid enough to not even think about that possible hand! Of course I did not give him the proper odds to call on the turn, but still, I hate the fact that I completely missed the fact that there was a possible straight draw on the board!
Anyway, I managed to get those chips back and win it but I hate the way I missed an obvious possible hand.

I went to play raquetball with Alex tonight. Looks like he'll need to give me good odds if he wants us to bet on this lol! Played 2 games against him and lost them 11-6 and 11-2 if I remember correctly. Give me a few weeks though and this will turn around!

Raquetball baby!

I have not played much poker this week end. Been playing a lot of raquetball. God I love that game! I am supposed to go play again with Alex on Wednesday, I smell some prop bets coming!

Played a bit of hold'em and a bit of pot limit Omaha this week end. As is usual lately I lose at HE and win at PLO. That said, I'm starting to itch to play a good Hold'Em session soon, so I expect I'll try to find some time this week to get a good, focused session.

For the next few week ends I won't have much time to play, believe it or not I have lobster parties on the next 3 week ends! I like lobster but can't say I like it THAT much!!

Alex and myself are playing with the idea of organizing a fund raiser poker tourney with the office, will most likely do our pitch this week. Doubt I'd play in that event, most likely I'd just deal and do floor.

I'm also hoping the home game takes off again this week. I want to introduce a bit more Omaha in there!

Hold'Em slump

I don't know if it's playing Omaha, but my Hold'Em game is way off right now. Funny thing is, I'm running really good at Omaha, making money constantly in the penny games. I know I'm just going through one of my slumps with hold'em where I have problems focusing, which I need to play my game well.

Anyway right now I'm having a lot of fun playing Omaha. I really enjoy discovering different types of poker. Right now I'm only playing Omaha high, but I will most likely give Hi/Lo a shot too at some point. I just need to read a bit on that game first.

My bankroll is doing ok, it's basically staying afloat right now. I make money at Omaha and then lose it at hold'em or buying in sit & gos.

Sit & Go, Home game & Omaha

Well I have not posted here in... well... way too long.

My cash game has been pretty good lately. I have way more winning sessions than losing which is pretty much a good sign that I'm back on track. When I put myself into it and focus on my game I usually have pretty good reads on my opponents. Been playing only 0.05/0.10 lately and I see no reasons to step down.

I've also started doing sit & gos again. Been having so-so results. Made money in a few of them. That said I tend to play a bit too loose at times. Again, when I play focused I do well, when I'm not putting my mind completely at it, I have mixed results. That said, I really enjoy single table SnG and will most likely do more of these.

The home game has been hit and miss lately. I've gone back to having 2 winning sessions in a row, but we are not really able to have the game every week. Hopefully we get it going on a regular basis but with summer coming I'm kinda sceptical.

I've started playing a bit more pot limit Omaha on pokerstars. Now, I'm far from being a pot limit Omaha expert, but for some reasons I seem to do really well in it so far. I plan on installing the Omaha version of pokertracker to keep track of my results and have a better idea of how I'm doing. I don't know if it's because the field is so weak in the penny games on pstars, but I find that just by playing really tight I end up making money everytime I play.

Anyway, that's all for tonight. I need to get back to posting more often in here.

Taking a break from tournaments

Just a quick entry before going to bed.

Tonight went well, made about 9$ of profits, then went and played a bit of 0.01/0.02 Pot Limit Omaha for fun.

Decided to focus on cash games for a while. At around 40$ I don't feel comfortable doing 5$ Sit & Gos so I decided to grind my bankroll up a bit. Might sneak a 1$ multi table SnG or 2 in there but I want to mostly play in cash games for the rest of the week. Anyway I figure I need about 250$ to climb up to the next cash game stake.

Grinding it out

Well I've been playing in cash games a bit tonight and I've got pretty good results. Out of 3 average length session I got 2 winning session and 1 losing one. The way the losing session was going I'm sure I could have brought it back to break even. So it seems that I've managed to refocus and get back on track.

Will leave that post at that since my sit & go is about to start. I will post again later tonight about our (lack of) home game tonight and other stuff.

Guess I talked too soon...

Well turns out about an hour after posting my last message, I am playing on a 0.02/0.05 table and loose almost all of my buy in.

At first look it seems like I suffered a few bad beats, will have to review that to see how well/bad I played. Talk about a downer though.

That said, the feeling of that bad session is not so bad, I feel I'm getting back on track and playing better than I was lately.

Now time to refocus and get ready for tomorrow's game!

Mixed results, weekly home game and tourneys

Well it's been a while since I posted here so I'm way overdue and have quite a bit of mixed feelings so not too sure how this entry will turn out.

Lately my cash game results have been horrible, either on pokerstars or in our weekly homegame (which has started to pick up and is going pretty well so far). Basically I suffer from Callingstationitisme. I play very undisciplined, don't pay much attention and make calls I know better than to make. THANK GOD tonight I had a pretty good session. Ended up making about 3$ profits in 0.05/0.10 (which I've pretty much permanently switched to now. I feel there's more poker and less random coin flipping in there so I just enjoy it more). Anyway, while I was playing everything was falling into place, I had a pretty good read on a few people at the table, was able to stay focused and act according to my instincts and reads. Once I started losing focus I went to do a multi-table sit & go which went, expectedly, pretty quick lol.

Anyway, that session is a big positive for me, showing me I can still play, I'm not completely fucked and that I just need to focus on it and take it more seriously when I am playing.

Last friday night I had my first money finish on a tourney on PokerStars. Finished 68th out of 1663 people. Pretty happy about it. It all went pretty well except at some point I ended up focusing way too much on the different money bracket and trying to move up in it. That got me to playing way too tight and just anteing myself out. I ended up with about 21,000 chips with the blinds at 1000/2000 with an 100 ante. I look up at Kh Jh from late position (one seat on the right of the cut off to be more accurate). Some guy from middle position makes it 16,000 to go. At that point in the tourney and with the chips I have relative to the blinds there's no way I'm folding KJ suited. Even though it's a hand that can easily be dominated I figure that I have to start taking chances pretty soon anyway since I basically lose 3900 chips per orbit and any standard raise I want to make pretty much commits me to the pot. So anyway, instead of just calling his raise and being left with a smallish 5,000 chips and being pot commited anyway I just push all in right there. He calls with pocket queens. Board doesn't help me in anyway and I hit the rail, still happy that I made some profit on that tourney.

So tomorrow is our home game. Last 2 weeks I went totally broke both times, I have to do better tomorrow. First step I'll take towards that is to have less beers lol.

I'll try posting again here more frequently in the next few weeks.

Oh, btw, next sunday I have my dealer's course and I'm thrilled about this! Will post more about this once it's done!

Weird Dreams

Wow did I have weird dreams last night! I spent all night turning around in bed dreaming about poker. Everyhand I was playing I was out of position with the second nuts and would always get called by the nuts lol. Not my definition of a good poker session to say the least!

We've had what I hope will be the first of our weekly home game. Played mostly hold'em but managed to have people try Omaha and even some 7 card stud and 5 card draw. Was pretty cool. We were 4 and I came out ahead so that's good. I need to start being a bit more observant at the table, whenever I take time to really look at what's happening I usually have a pretty good feel for where I'm at compared to other players and I even spotted a few tells during the session. That said, I easily get distracted and lose focus.

Lately my online results have been horrible. I basically blew out about half my bankroll in the last few weeks. I still have more then enough to keep playing but I'm considering pumping a bit more money in it. Why would I put more money right now? Cause as stupid as that sounds I want to start playing on higher stakes. I really feel that playing on micro-stakes I'm getting bad habits and my learning process is hampered by it. I've given 0.05/0.10 a shot and I think that already there I might find what I want.

I've started reading Harrington and it liberating when it made me realise that the problems I have right now are not that my game is fundamentally flawed, I'm just trying to play a style that is tough for someone with as little experience as I have. I will try a few different things in the next few days to see where I'm most comfortable and can get results at the same time.

First time moving up stakes

Playing at 0.02/0.05 has been an up and down thing so far. I think I'm pushing my bankroll a bit so when I start losing I tend to go on tilt a bit more easily. But at the same time I feel that I need to stick it out and keep playing there. Also, the good sessions I've had for formidable. Micro stakes can give you really bad habits and I want to push to get out of these ASAP.

Trying to organize a home cash game pretty soon. Hopefully that works and goes well. I miss playing live.

More later I guess... Did not have much to say tonight.

My first time...

Cash game, blinds are 0.01/0.02, I'm sitting in middle position. It's folded to me and I have Ks Qs, I raise it to 0.06 and everyone folds except one player.

Flop comes Jh 8d Ts, I check hoping to get a free card. The other player bets 0.10 into a 0.15 pot. Not exactly the right odds to pursue my draw, but the fact that he did not re-raise me pre flop makes me think he's on a draw himself and wouldn't mind taking the pot right now so I call. Pot is now at 0.35.

Turn card is the As, giving me a nut straight and even giving me a nut flush draw. I check it again knowing full well that no matter how much he bets I check-raise him. He bets 0.10 I raise him to 0.50 and he calls instantly.

Flush card comes... Js !! I've hit my first ever royal flush!! I fire a 1.50$ bet and he calls. Turns out he has AK and I win a pretty nice pot :)

First time ever I get a royal!

I'm a fucking donkey!

I am having serious problems with my game lately. Nothing major and I know what the problem is! I just call too much and try to bluff and buy pots too much.

It's really annoying having a problem, knowing what it is and yet for some reasons not being able to help myself! I guess knowing is the first part to fixing it.

To try and change that I think I need to play more disciplined. I think I have been taking this a bit more lightly lately and it shows. Starting today I will try to put myself into my old winning frame of mind I had on my good run. Need to exorcise that tilt demon too!

Roller coaster

Well so far the second half of march is not going as well as the first half. In cash games I am losing money right now. I know why too, I just try too much to buy pots off with crappy or borderline hands. That said tourneys and Sit & Gos keep me afloat.

I am up around to 80$ in my bankroll right now, goal is still 100$ by my birthday (mid april). That said I've now decided to give the mid level between 0.01/0.02 and 0.05/0.10 a try. (that level is 0.02/0.05). I know it sounds stupid moving up in stakes while you're losing but I want to give it a shot. If I start losing I'll just go back down.

I haven't had the time to go back to the Rosemont Poker Club. Hopefully I do that soon. Hopefully I also fix my game and get back on a good track!

What a week end!

Saturday morning I went to Gatineau to spend the week end there with my girlfriend and meet a couple of very good friends.

Melissa was thrilled to hear about my results from friday. She kept asking me how it went, details about specific hands etc. Was pretty cool.

Having a few hours to kill on saturday I just roamed around Hull for a while and stumbled upon a poker item store! There I finally found the Copag EPOC cards I was trying to buy! These cards just look great!


Last night when I came back home I decided to go for a Sit & Go on pokerstars. Well as usual for me I managed to be on the short stack for a while! That said I doubled up and got right back into it and in the end I won it all! Went heads up with 6 times the chips of my opponent. I still have not reviewed the log but I can't wait to do it. Will post more after I do.

First live tournament... w00t!

Wow! Where to start... I went to my first live tournament tonight.

I had not been playing for a while so at first I was pretty nervous and anxious. This almost cost me my tourney life and the shame of being the first to bust.

Early on I got dealth Ac 5c in the small blind. Everybody fold except the button who limped. I decided to test the water and I made a standard raise of 3 times the big blind. Everyone folded except the button who called. Flop came A-6-5 rainbow. I bet about the size of the pot, button calls. Turn is a 6, if I remember correctly I bet again and got called. River was a blank. Turns out the button had AK and took the pot crippling me. I hang in there, taking small pots left and right and losing some too.

When we merged the 2 tables to one final table I was severely short stacked
, with about 6 big blinds left. Once again I hang in there, managed to double up a few times. I don't remember any particular hands, but when we came close to the bubble I had a decent stack and managed to take control of the table, stealing pots left and right with raises. That brought me eventually to heads up play.

The hand that got me out, I had about a third of the chips and the guy goes all in pre flop. I check and I have KQs so I call. His treys held up and that was it.

Well, pretty extatic right now, going to celebrate a bit, have to wake up early tomorrow to go out of town. I'll come back to this blog later on if more comes back to my mind.

Work work work work...

HORRIBLE week at work. Didn't leave me much time to play at all.

That said things should be quieter this week and already this week end I'm back playing. So far so good. I really feel like I'm playing really well lately. I might just be a bit overconfident and too cocky right now, but my feeling is that I can own our home games, I can make money regularly on the stakes I'm playing on and I even broke my psychological of making money in a sit & go!

On the subject of my SnG money finish. I reviewed the hand history and I really did not play my best in there. There is no doubt in my mind that I could have won this thing, but a night of insomnia the night before left me tired and at the end when we got heads up I just wanted it to be over so I could go to bed. Next time I'll take it all.

New goals : by my birthday I want my bankroll to be big enough to allow me to move on to the next stake.