Over one year of rambling... so make this one long!

Hard to believe that I have made 140 posts over the last year about poker and other crap... mostly poker anyways.

Overall not a bad year but it could have been so much better.... going to take a good look at many aspects of my life over the next couple weeks to come up with some solid goals for next year.

That being said I decided yesterday to humble myself to the poker gods and not demand that I win every pot. With that small adjustment to my game and a couple coin flips going my way I am working to turn around an 8 buyin setback. Have to like some of the situations that have been thrown my way over the last week.

Here is the one where I knew I was due to turn things around.

First hand at the table and JsTx in the CO (post from late position a la Doubleas suggestion). Just called a 2.5x bb raise from MP and both blinds call as well. Flop is AxKsQs so nut straight but a flush draw is out there. SB checks, BB leads out with 1/2 pot bet, MP folds, I reraise to new pot amount but willing to let it go if board pairs or flush lands on turn. SB and BB both call. Question is what do they have? I put one on the flush draw and the other on two pair as that is the only reasonable thing they could hold that called the raise preflop. AA, KK and QQ all should have reraised preflop so discounting the fact that anyone has those hands.

Turn is a 3x so good no flush. SB checks, BB bets 1/4 pot, Hero reraises by more than pot and almost enough to put BB all in. SB folds and the river brings a 3x. SB pushes last $5 in the pot and I call.

What does the SB hold? Take a look at where all of us stood on the turn. The bugger had the A3s which is interesting that 3 handed it is even with the set due to the flush draw.


Board: Qs Ah Ks 3c
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 19.0589 % 19.06% 00.00% { As3s }
Hand 2: 61.8988 % 61.91% 00.00% { JsTh }
Hand 3: 19.0423 % 19.05% 00.00% { AcAd }

Once the BB folds I am a solid 3:1 favorite to win....


Board: Qs Ah Ks 3c
Dead: Ac Ad
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 23.8215 % 23.85% 00.00% { As3s }
Hand 2: 76.1785 % 76.26% 00.00% { JsTh }

At least one of the two villians could figure out that my big bets meant that I had the straight. I bet slb would have about 5 pictures of a donkey with this post... for me it is just the start of an evening of poker. Reload put in a note that buddy will chase a draw for his stack and overbet pots against him to get my cash back!

Amazing how another year of getting kicked in the junk is starting to make me somewhat immune to other players bad decisions. Sometimes I throw out a bit of a jab at them for the bad play to piss them off but I am able to keep playing well. None of this of course applys to those situations against a super LAG who is hitting every hand against me. A big part of my downswing was a 3x buyin at one table where AA < KK (all in preflop), KK < AA (all in preflop), KK < AA (all in on a 6 high flop)... all in a matter of minutes. The only thought that goes through a simple minded brain like mine at a moment like that is "Shit that guy has my number!"

Last night I was clearing a bunch of hands for a big bonus I am working on with the Poker Savvy guys when slb mentioned that bloggers were playing NL200. Wow the stakes are getting bigger over time... bigger buyin tournaments and now bigger cash tables. Tried to join the table but had to wait 30 mins to get a seat. ScottMc had one interesting hand against me where I think he put me on AK or AQ and thought I just cbet a whiffed flop. He of course called my preflop raise with position with a one gapper and the post flop situation was like this:


Board: Td 6h 4h
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 44.6763 % 44.72% 00.00% { 9c9d }
Hand 2: 55.3237 % 55.38% 00.00% { 7h5h }

Now some might say I was weak/tight by cbetting $15 at a $19 pot and then folding when raised to $45. Now I actually bet to get info and got enough of an answer that I was probably behind (good read this time). Now I could have called and then pushed if no flush hits on the turn but the $260 I had in front of me was a good chunk of my FT balance that I removed due to the shitshow with DuggleBogey. Now if we assume that it doesn't give him a hidden straight that is the only way I regain the lead in this hand. He just has too many outs and being a penguin I don't dodge well on land... something about the center of gravity being too low!


Board: Td 6h 4h 2c
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 65.9091 % 65.91% 00.00% { 9c9d }
Hand 2: 34.0909 % 34.09% 00.00% { 7h5h }

Made about $45 at the blogger table and another $50 at a non blogger NL100 to run my month's cash winnings at FT to approx. $750. Gotta love that but I really have to play another 2,500 raked hands (0.31+ euros) on the B2B network to get a $400 US bonus plus $200 Euros. The players are bad but I have to play mostly 6 max tables which I am not used to yet. If you want to see weak/tight you should play against europeans as they love to see flops and fold to cbets. I think if I did just that I could end up with a positive win rate of 2 bb / 100 over time.

Well if I don't get the chance to post again this year, I hope everyone has a happy new year, close to the people they care about the most. Some of you might find me online mashing buttons and trying to win some cash or at least clearing that bonus.