garro

I realize that I have not posted in quite some time. Nothing special really to talk about. I have been focusing all my extra energy on Condo hunting and I have not been spending all that much time online these days, or playing poker. Just so much time in the day.

That said I always have to go to the $40 monthly tournament which was this Sunday. So what do I have to report on that.

Well I made my best showing ever. Unfortunately you will have to read to the end of the post to find out how I did.

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Begin Part 2.

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Well I went into the local $40 dollar tournament again this week, placed 5th out of 19 people 2 spots out of the money (damn so close yet so far). My buddy Alec placed 4th (1 spot out of the money) and was a key feature in knocking me out. I hate it when short stacks tangle nobody wins (at least not me this weekend). Heres the high points of my tournament.
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Oops added Edit.

Just a note to follow up the last post. The really loose player came to this tournment and busted out in 12th place and bought in twice ($80 total spent). He was flabergasted he didn't get anywhere, I figure he saw about 75% of all the flops. He was basically blinded/bet out of the game, becasue he saw every flop with anything connected, suited, or if one of his cards had a face. Then couldn't believe it when High card or higher kicker won the hands he was in. I think he won about 5 hands all night long.

Well I ran my first tournament last night. Boy was it fun. The actual tournament took about 4 hours to run.I placed 5 out of 10, not bad considering I really had about 10 playable hands all night long (we will get to that in a second).

We started at limit then went into no limit after about 2 hours. Everybody had a great time, some people of course were better players than others. There was one surprising finisher (my buddy matt) who came on very strong very late in the tournament. He really caught some good cards and tripled up very very quickly in the No-Limit rounds. And went on to win the whole thing.

My play was adequate, not great but good. It is interesting playing at a table where 1/2 the players are always staying for every flop no matter what they have in their starting hand. I think I should have played a bit looser than I did, however I only dropped two hands that would have actually been the winner. A A5os where the table ended up 4 flushing on the river in which my A was the nut, and QQ which I folded after the board hit AK9 on the flop and I was last to act facing 4 people ahead of and a 3 raise. The next two cards were TJ so I would have had the nut straight (which someone else finished with he stuck in with Q4os the whole time just hoping to catch his straight).

My one bad play was once I got AdAh which I 3 raised before the flop. The flop was 3c5h7d, I bet and was called buy the 2 big stacks. across from me, I figure them for fishing for a card to pair up with their high card. Turn is Tc I bet and I am raised by one of the big stacks. I put him on a T(some high card) and the other big stack calls (possibly a flush draw). I call here. Final Card an Ac, Hell I got a set but someone might have a flush draw. I decide to check the bet comes I call. The big stack flips over 4c6c he had a straight the whole time and was slow playing me. Man I forgot that 4c6c looks pretty good to a very loose oppenent when he had money. And I curse myself for such a bad misread, the other guy has a JQos, just fishing for something because he can afford it. I show my AA and say good hand. I just forgot that some of these guys will play anything, anything.

Ahh well such is life. the big tournament is this weekend and the really loose player is coming. I want to see how well he does against a field of 30-40 players instead of just 10.

Well I went back to the ring tables for the first time in a loooooonnnnnnng time. I did fine. Went from $10-$25 after about 2 hours and then after a break I went from $25-$50 after about another 3. So I increased my starting stake by a factor of 4.

So what did I do with this new found money, I blew it all in sit and go's and one $30 tournament where I made the biggest bone head move I have made in ages.

In sit and go and tournament my whole goal is to make it to the money rounds period. I don't care if I go in short stacked or not, if I have made it to the money I have accomplished my goal. In the sit and go's last night I suffered bad beat after bad beat. For example at on point I had Pockets Tens (TdTh)and flopped a set (Qh Tc 2s). I was short stacked and decide to go all in with only 2 players to be eliminated before the money starts, its a risk but hell its a set. I get called by a guy who has maybe $500 more than me basically the guy in the #5 position. He calls me with Ah2c. the next 2 cards are 2h 2d. I mean what a bad beat. The guy had no reason to call the flop, I had been playing tight aggressive all game, he knew I had the cards, and was beating him after the flop, he said afterwards he called because he just felt lucky. The big stack at the table offered to send me $5 for my loss because he was sure that he was going to win against players like that, and that anybody deserves a little recompense after a beat like that. I thanked him for the offer and just said thats poker and moved on. After that I was on a bit of a tilt you might say.

Anyhow back to the bone head move. So I am in a $30 Hold-em PL tournament. I am the big blind and have Ac5c and everyone has folded before me. It comes to the little blind and he limps in for the minimum bet (about 100 at this point still early). He has been a very loose player all night chasing and getting lucky with Gut-Shot straights and flush draws. Still he is not stacked much higher than I. The flop comes KcJc3h, I bet $200 just to see what he does, he goes pot. I know I should fold at this point, I don't have a pair (he probably does) but I do have a nut flush draw (about 32% or so chance of hitting it), I could just call and see the next card and fold, but instead I go all in (the pot is big enough at this point for me to do this). He call of course with a KhJd, and just like that I am out of the tournament. Not even to the half-way point. It was a stupid call, I was tilting from earlier. Oh well its the only way you learn.

Still I hoped I was past all that stupid newbie chasing shit when I don't have pot odds in my favour.

First all I can say is WOW. What a F'ing great Superbowl, and to make the excitement even sweeter, I also (at the same time) made the final Table in a $3 pokerstars Tournament, yes you heard right, I beat out over 800 players and made $40 on my $3 investment.

I really believe that my online ability has turned a corner (where tournament play is concerned), I am constantly making higher and higher finishes (my best being 6th in a $1 tournament with over 1500 players). I don't really like my final table play yet, I keep knocking myself out on stupid bets (I am just so relieved to have made final table that I forget myself and do something stupid like going all in on a week pocket pair). And my 18 player Sit and Go's I am placing 4th or higher practically every game. So my bank roll is growing (slowly but surely).

My home game hasn't changed that much, but I mostly play that for fun (disregarding the last post). I finished the last one (Thursday night) about $60 up on the evening, and actually drew a royal flush in a Hold-em round (my highest real hand ever AKA no wilds).

The thing I really need to work on now is my limit poker playing ability. If I have any really weak area (besides 7 card Stud H/L). It is my ability to play Limit Hold-em/Omaha well. I think its time to open the wallet and purchase a good book on the subject. I cannot seem to hit the right style (for me) to really make headway when playing limit.

Time to troll the web and see what is really recommended for learning to playing good limit poker.

Well it took me some time to right this column, I have a had a really mixed week poker wise.

First the Joy.

I took 6th (out of about 1500) in an online poker tournament (my best finish to date) at PokerStars, True it was only a $1 tournament but I did it and played quite well. There was a few times I had to go all-in and trust the Draw. One time with KK vs AA (I caught a K in the draw) that was heart stopping, I thought for sure that I had lost, and another time with Pocket 7s verse AKos. Still I played through and won myself a spot at the final table. Once there 3 people busted out before me and then I tilted a bit. I got pocket 99 and when over the top (all in) to a raise that was in front of me, he had pocket QQ (and was the big stack at the table) so of course he called. I honestly should have called him and seen the flop, it would have been easy to fold.

Also I have started to consistently place in the Sit and Go's (about 3 out of every 5), so my online stack has started to really grow. Not much but enough that I am making about $20 a night when I play. This has raised my confidence to a new level


Now the Woe

Matts game again. I played last Sunday and for what I can remember is the first time I ever lost my cool at the table. I never lose my cool playing cards, or at least I never had until that day. I guess I was just frustrated.

I had bad beat after bad beat that night, and then finally I got a lock on a split pot game near the end of the night. It was 7-27 (and if you know from my last post I hate this game) anyhow I had hit 27 early and wasn't really pumping the pot but I was certainly betting it every round. One guy was climbing at this point, and needed an 8 to hit 27 and there was only 1 of them left in the deck (about 35 cards left in the deck at this point), and what does he do but hit it one the button, so there we are both with 27 but he has more cards than me. So he wins. Man I lost it, and that was it I decided I was done for the night. I had lost $60 and I just wasn't going to lose any more. I said my good byes and walked out of the house.

Man I felt awful the next day. At this table there are people who shall we say always lose more than their fair share, and they come back week after week and blow their money without a care. So why should I care so much about that night. I don't really know the answer other than to feel that I was playing well that night and just kept getting beat by lucky draws all night. I think that I might be taking the game a little to seriously and perhaps I should take a break from that table for a bit. Who knows.

Played Matt's home game again last night, and man did I have a great night, simply put entered with 70 in cash walked out with 160+ in my pocket. Won almost $100 in a 6 hour session. Bluffing, betting, catching cards, I caught a 82882 in that order in 5 card stud hi lo with a buy (basically you have the option of trading one of your cards for the price of the Maximum bet based on what's on top), and raked in a huge pot because someone else caught a flush.

I realize that last night had a lot to do with just having a good night catching good cards, but man I did play them well.

I have start to work on my tells (i.e. just figuring out what I do), and really try and learn other peoples tells.

Matt for instance usually has something quite good when he talks a lot, when he clams up its time to up the bet and hope he doesn't catch the river. The hardest player to read is Derrick, he plays every single hand exactly the same way, you never know if he has something or nothing until he folds at the end. He also rarely chases, but has a very good mind to figure his pot odds thus when he does chase he can win quite a lot.

I am getting a little tired of the 2/22 7/27 non-poker gambling games. They can have in excess of 10 betting rounds with someone who locked low early pumping the pot. I lose more money in those games than in anything else.

Got very little sleep this weekend so as a consequence turned down a game on Sunday because i felt that I just wouldn't be playing at the top of my game, but then that night had a massive case of insomnia so what did I do. I got up and played poker online from 1 - 4 am

I did OK, made $15 over all, by taking someone's advice and trying the limit ring tables (0.25/0.50), Made a few good bets some bad ones. In the end just ultra tightened my game and only called with 7 or higher Pocket pairs and AKQ with a card 10 or higher. It made it easier to get away from the people who just love to chase everything. However it wasn't as much fun (especially when you toss pocket 22 and 255 flops on the board and another person at the table wins with a A5 in hand at the end.

Oh and can I just say that in Omaha8 Tournaments how much I hate the Compulsive Raiser who always seems to be sitting directly on my right. Don't get me wrong I can certainly see raising in Omaha8 if you have something to raise with but he was raising with 5689 rainbow and the like every single hand, before and after the flop (fortunately he only stayed lucky so long). Eventually was removed from the game (by me of all things) with a AAAAK (I had As2s3hKd and the flop was AhKh5s with AdAc on the turn and river, he chased a flush) finale but still it was very annoying for the first hour and half of the tournament. He even said at the end he couldn't figure out why he did so bad at the end considering how well he did at the beginning. I guess he didn't figure out that everyone else at the table eventually tightened up and stopped chasing anything that wasn't worth the risk. I will say this for him he did pick up a lot of the blinds.

For some reason the url of the site I play on didn't post so here it is

pokerstars.com

The primary purpose of this journal is to better educate myself about my poker ability and just how well and how good I am doing in the grand poker scheme of things.

First the background...

I started playing poker about 6 years ago. A few simple home games back in my home town of Edmonton, I wasn't bad for my first time out. I had a good instinctual ability to count cards and understand the relative odds of getting the cards I needed to win.

Then I moved to Toronto, not knowing many people I suggest to the few people that I knew that perhaps we play a little poker to get to know each other better, (as well as introduce me to new people who I could get to know better), that was 4 years ago.

Now I play a home game of poker at least once a week. I have found a regular Low by-in ($40 with 2 re-buys of $20) once a month hold-em tournament. Plus I am now playing money games online at , which I play on at least 3-4 times a week, (particularly on Saturday). Needless to say I feel I am playing a lot more poker these days.

So starting Yesterday with a Balance of $0 (I have to start yesterday as you shall see below) I am going to track my winnings over the next few months, and see if I am really up (as I feel that over all I am, but I could be fooling myself) of if I am down (as I fear I am). As well as assess my general poker ability by talking about what I did and why and what I should have done.

So lets start with the big one, last nights home game at Matt D's place.

I took $100 into the game, with-in the first 2 and a half hours I have lost $60 and have bought in for a 4th time (we do $20 by-ins at $1=$1 ratio). I have not had a night this bad in so long. I realize at this point that I am tilting really bad and have been making bad decisions on 2nd best and gasp 3rd best cards. We play a dealer calls the game scenario, but luckily not a lot of wild cards games get called (Mostly Hold-em, Straight 7, Anaconda, and a lot of split pot gambling games like 7/27 and 2/22, the big wild card game we play is 3,5,7 a legged guts/wild card game). So I tighten up my play and start slowly bleeding my 4th $20 by-in away. We then play 3,5,7 where I proceed to pay out the final $20 in cash out of my pocket. At this point we are 4 hours into play with about 2-3 hour left in the night. 1 player has left thus leaving us with 6 players at the table and me with about $15 in chips. over the next 2 hours I then slowly climb back to about $35 in chips but I am still down $65 on the night. Another player leaves and we are down to 5 players with about an hour left to play. With 5 players we end any split pot games and move back to basic poker games, In hold-em with 5 players I catch Pocket pairs (88 and TT) and make back another $10 over all, then on a last hand of the night I am dealt K4 suited in spades and the flop comes QsJd8s with a big bet from the lead better on the table since it's the last hand I call (I am down anyway $4 will not make much difference now) and a 2s comes on 4th street (I have made my flush) I then proceed to win my hand and finished the night cashing out $60 in chips. So over all I am down $40 right now

Total winnings to date -$40 in the home game.

I should also mention that I played online yesterday as well in a $5+.5 and $10+1 sit and go tournament I came in 3rd on the $5 tournament and got $9 for my efforts and lost the $10 tournament thus am...

-5.50 - 11 + 9 = -$7.50 online right now

So basically I am down about $50 right now. Not a good start to this journal but hey if you can't be honest with yourself (and hundreds of other people) who can you be honest with.

Garro out.