Tired

This is a hard blog post to write. I am so tired. Not really physically. But mentally. So much has happened in the past few days and most of it I cannot write about. Sadness, disappointment, confusion, exhaustion. I've had the rug pulled out from underneath me in one instance, and the wool pulled over my eyes in another. I have so many great things in my life and I expect times like these. Days that try your patience. Days that challenge you. Days that make you take stock of what it is that you are doing in this life. Take a look around and see what is important. I have had that type of day many times in my life. And today, when I took that look around, it was never clearer what was important to me. And I am thankful for that. Thank you.

PS: Yesterday I wrote about Royal Flush #6. Today I hit number 7. Things seem to come in bunches for me...

Royal Flush #6

Well the good news is I had a Royal Flush tonight. Really, the hand is just cool to see. It can occasionally payoff. In this case I won a $50 pot with it. The bad news is I had another losing session. To top it off I bubbled in a fpp satellite when I accidentally folded JJ which would have won the pot via a set and I most likely would have eliminated the bubble boy. I ended up blinding out as the table went very deep into the blinds in a 3 way battle for survival. Hugely disappointing and quite costly to boot.

Anyway, here is the Royal Flush.

Hmm, seems I have misplaced the hand history. LOL. Anyway, basically I had ATh and it came Kh 6 6 and the Qh and jh fell runner runner. Guy who had bet the turn led out again for $5 I raised him to $15 and was called by guy on the button and original bettor folded. I was a little disappointed neither guy repopped me. Definately a chance for a stacking there if either held a boat. Could have been a monster.

Anyway, as I mentioned another loss tonite, and I only went 1 for 3 in fpp Sunday sats which is shitty, and such a bad beat when I misclicked. A misclick is so rare and for it to happen at such a crucial juncture is bloody rediculous. Did not play any 45 man sit and gos and depleted my fpp stash a bit tonite in anticipation of not being able to play fpp sats at month end.

Not much else happened today. Cleaned house as we have family over tomorrow for Christmas brunch and gift exchange. I was a cleaning machine. Anyway, I feel like I am just spewing now. Later.

Deuces

Twice tonite I lost huge pots to guys hitting deuces for huge pots. The first time my AA ran into 22 when he flopped quads and I ivered an A on an 22KQA board and he of course got me allin for a big pot! The second time was in spot late in a fpp million sit and go where I somewhat foolishly pushed KT from the button with a good sized stack. This is a spot where I probably could have almost folded into the seat but I figured I could steal the blinds one more time and really solidify my spot.I was called by a guy in the bb for 10x the bb with 22. For crying out loud. This call is so bad it hurts and of course he rivers a deuce after I had taken the lead with a K on the turn. I was left with a couple chips (yeah he risked all his chips for no good reason with 22) and busted a couple hands later. So in the end it was a frustrating day. I saw it coming a mile away really. I was very due to have a weak session, but in the end I lost because the cards went against me more than the fell well for me.

I am officially done my Christmas shopping. Today was a madhouse and the rain put a damper on the fun. Plus I was having trouble finding a couple of specific things and then made a couple of impulse buys. Out of the blue I bought a thermostat for the house. WTF! I mean, yeah we need to install these but we need lots of shit and I did not do any research. Saw it, bought it! It was like going on tilt!

Anyway today's loss will delay my withdrawal for a few more days at least. I am now 20 days over my Dec1 deadline for my latest withdraw. Technically I had enough in my account today. But I really want a little more leeway than I gave myself last time when i went on a downturn right after I withdrew money from my account. It just made playing way too stressful. There is defianately a psychological barrier when making withdraws. I have played a lot on a fairly short bankroll so know my limits. And when I withdraw too early it puts a lot of pressure on my game. However, there is also a time pressure to reach an amount to withdraw within a reasonable amount of time. And I am quite overdue. And that puts pressure on the next due date. Sigh. Anyhow, hopefully tomorrow will not be too overly taxing and I can play some decent poker and get er done.

Shop til you drop

Christmas shopping is in full affect. Six hours in the malls with my son in tow! He was awesome except for one instant in ToysRUs but that was my fault anyhow. Note to self. Don't let him test the toys and then try to hide it! Anyway back at er tomorrow.

As for the poker I am officially rolling hot right now for the most part. Another 3 strong winning days since my last post. There have been a few hands where I have gotten sucked out on but was so committed that I was stacked when it happened. Not a big deal as I was able to make it back on the sit and go table. Still, the cash tables were a bit of a debacle as I had a lot of big hands go my way and still ended up down there.

There have been times where I have been frustrated by the lack of results in the sit and gos but I was able to pull out a 2nd in a 45 x $25. That was good for over $200. Very pleased with that result as I had to come from way back even to cash. I believe I came to the final table in 8th but was able to steal some blinds and eventually double up and then make some eliminations. LDO!

Anyway I am pretty tired. Time for sleep. Probably will have to spend some fpp's in the next couple of days on 5400fpp Sunday Million satellite tickets which I cash in for money I use for sit and gos. Tomorrows a day for shopping and probably a bit of poker in the evening.

Continued Good Results

I was unable to play on Thursday. I did play yesterday but it was pretty much a snoozer. Down a touch. Today I played quite a number of hands. Probably about 3500 or so. I cannot say I am happy with today even though I ended up ahead on my regular bankroll over $200. Basically I threw away a cash in the Supernova freeroll and I am not very happy with the way I busted. I could have easily folded into the money and played from there but I was worried that my stack was starting to get too low to make a comeback post bubble. To be honest this was nonsense and I chose a poor hand to push in terrible position. I picked up ATs under the gun and pushed. Called on the button by JJ and blanked and busted. That's it. Now if everyone folds around and I pick up the blinds I don't talk about this hand. It would simply just be another blind steal from an EP push but I believe I had about 2100 chips behind and the blinds were 200/400 with the bubble coming within 10 hands. The only hands calling are either dominating me or a flip. I am ahead of pretty much nothing. Anyway that was piss poor. I should have cashed and tried to go deep from there. It was a bad decision.

I made a few very thin calls today that cost me at least $150 today. To my credit though I thought I played most of my premium hands quite well and got quite a lot of action from the weekend warriors. I really noticed all day today how loose the tables were playing. It's amazing how the play opens up on Saturdays as opposed to the weekdays when the low limit fpp pros are filling up the tables. There are times when it is hard to find tables with any non regulars.

The good thing though is I have switched up the way raise preflop and so far it seems to be working well at thinning the field better. And it is also not based on my hand so it is somewhat deceptive. As long as I am consistent it should be tough to get a read on me.

As for the holidays I am off until Boxing Day. It should be a busy 10 days and hopefully a really good holiday! I have to admit I enjoy the decorations and food and shopping and all. Oh and all the family too! LOL.

I was given a pair of lighted reindeer for the yard and I have them on the front porch. Hopefully there will be lots more to come in the next few years. It's funny but I get a real kick out of them!

On an upswing!

Another very good session this afternoon. While I was unable to cash in two sit and gos, I was cruising on the cash tables and I was able to convert some fpp's into a Sunday $215 ticket in one try. There were not any super interesting hands today but this one was my big scoop of the day...

PokerStars Game #13818894741: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2007/12/12 - 17:30:54 (ET)Table 'Pikelner III' 9-max
Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: jamie4006 ($95.85 in chips)
Seat 2: Hgh_Ssociety ($100 in chips)
Seat 3: Usul81 ($64.50 in chips)
Seat 4: DonJ ($99.25 in chips)
Seat 5: xtioo ($29 in chips)
Seat 6: eNTiTy ($105.60 in chips)
Seat 7: Fredd20 ($23.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Romanichine ($104 in chips)
Seat 9: ffguitarguy ($107.90 in chips)
xtioo: posts small blind $0.50eNTiTy: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to DonJ [Td Th]
Fredd20: folds
Romanichine: folds
ffguitarguy: folds
jamie4006: raises $2 to $3
Hgh_Ssociety: calls $3
Usul81: folds
DonJ: calls $3
xtioo: folds
eNTiTy: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ah Ts 5s]
jamie4006: checks
Hgh_Ssociety: bets $7
DonJ: raises $7 to $14
jamie4006: calls $14
Hgh_Ssociety: folds
*** TURN *** [Ah Ts 5s] [8c]
jamie4006: bets $24
DonJ: raises $58.25 to $82.25 and is all-in
jamie4006: calls $54.85 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Ah Ts 5s 8c] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jamie4006: shows [Tc As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
DonJ: shows [Td Th] (three of a kind, Tens)
DonJ collected $200.20 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $203.20 Rake $3
Board [Ah Ts 5s 8c 3h]

This hand fell very nice for me. My play to stack the player came on the flop when I minimum raised his 7xbb. As you can see I am on the button in this hand with TT. I call a standard 3x raise with one caller in front. When I raise him on the flop of AT5 with two spades on board I am hoping he has an AK or AQ type of hand maybe even suited. His AT is probably as optimal as I could have hoped for. He just calls my raise on the flop. I can read him pretty well here as he is betting that I am on a flush draw. His big bet of $24 on the 8c turn card tells me everything I need to know. AA probably would have popped me back on the flop although you never know. He might have wanted to see that blank turn card first before this big lead out. Either way I feel he is defending a big A against flush draw. Ipush over him and he insta-called with AT. I push here to defend against the possibility he has AK of spades or something similar. The3h is a complete blank and I stack him for a $203 hand.

It's off to work tonite and I will be back at er tomorrow.

Finally a win!

Well I feel like I just got a monkey off my back tonight. The cards were falling right and I was able to win a 45 man $25 sit and go. Considering my results lately I am very pleased! $348 for that win. I was long overdue especially considering just before I had gone on this skid I had cashed in 6 straight without a top 2 finish. I was due....yooooooo--->>

Whoa hold the presses. LOL. Last hand of the night at the cash tables!! WOOT WOOT. As I'm writing. Here is a big cash game hand (well for me)to boot! A double stack job!

PokerStars Game #13808442139: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2007/12/12 - 03:09:38 (ET)Table 'Norma IV' 9-max
Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: rigo179 ($49.25 in chips)
Seat 2: bean327 ($347.45 in chips)
Seat 3: mufahula ($106 in chips)
Seat 4:DonJ ($97.05 in chips)
Seat 5: BombD23 ($96 in chips)
Seat 6: BigDru82 ($48.60 in chips)
Seat 7: finitofl ($100 in chips)
Seat 8: Pope, W ($62.15 in chips)
Seat 9: Maître Gamgi ($42.65 in chips)
bean327: posts small blind $0.50
mufahula: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to DonJ [Qd Qh]
DonJ: raises $2 to $3
BombD23: folds
BigDru82: folds
finitofl: calls $3
Pope, W: folds
Maître Gamgi: calls $3
rigo179: folds
bean327: folds
mufahula: folds
*** FLOP *** [4d 5s 2s]
DonJ: bets $3
finitofl: raises $7 to $10
Maître Gamgi: calls $10
DonJ: calls $7
*** TURN *** [4d 5s 2s] [Qc]
DonJ: checks
finitofl: checks
Maître Gamgi: bets $29.65 and is all-in
DonJ: raises $54.40 to $84.05 and is all-in
finitofl: calls $84.05
*** RIVER *** [4d 5s 2s Qc] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***DonJ: shows [Qd Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)
finitofl: mucks hand
DonJ collected $108.80 from side pot
Maître Gamgi: mucks hand
DonJ collected $126.45 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $238.25
Main pot $126.45. Side pot $108.80. Rake $3 Board [4d 5s 2s Qc 9h]
Seat 1: rigo179 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: bean327 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: mufahula (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: DonJ showed [Qd Qh] and won ($235.25) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 5: BombD23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: BigDru82 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: finitofl mucked [As Ks]
Seat 8: Pope, W folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Maître Gamgi mucked [5c 9d]

Analysis: Well this hand could not have played out any better. I raise preflop with QQ 3xbb from 1st position and get two callers. a guy with AKspades in middle position and a donk taking a total flyer from the cutoff with 5c9d. The flop came 4d5s2s. This gives buddy in mp top flush draw and donk who now has position in the cutoff has top pair on the board. I'm still ahead as far as I know and put out a continuation bet of $3. This bet is a total disguise and very hard for anyone to read at this point. Guy in mp with flush draw comes over the top of me for $7 more. Cutoff calls and I have to think that I might be beat here. But that flush draw board leads me to think a flush draw has raised me here. The cutoff call has me a bit worried but he was a pretty short stack to begin with. I call.
Now the turn is a Qclubs!! I check. I want to encourage the action we saw on that flop to continue. I do not want to slow down their betting. To my surprise the mp raiser just checks. This leads me to believe he is indeed on a flush draw. Luckily that guy in the cutoff with just a pair of 5's with his 59o is taken in be our weak play! He pushes allin for the rest of his stack. Perfect! Now I am pretty sure he does not have a straight and regardless I am feeling pretty damn good with my top set of Q's. I push the rest of my stack over the top. To my delight the mp big stack calls us down!! He must be thinking he has some kind of pot odds but to be honest I think its a terrible call. I can see him calling down that original allin bet from the small stack, but my push is for an additional 55bb's. I don't care though as the river is a harmless 9h! RACK EM!

Well folks tonite was a real pleasure for once this month. Hopefully this can kickstart my game a bit and become the norm again. +$507 for about an hour and a half. I needed that!

Expanding my blog content

Not much to report on today. Worked a dayshift. Canucks lost a snoozer to the Kings. Got in my 200vpps and played one sit and go. Busted when I called down with AQ vs another small stack who had just J4. Flop 4xx. Im out. Down $25 at the cash tables while playing very very rockish. Par for the course....



Might go to Forest Museum to ride the Christmas train Sunday night.



As you might have noticed I am including more day to day stuff in the blog. I am hoping to continue that as it will give me something other than poker to blog about. Generally I am pretty meh with poker right now, so this should meat out the blog. I am trying to get more regular with posting and really don't always feel like posting hand histories and giving my take on hands no one else really gives two shits about. Hopefully my take on other stuff will help entertain more than that crap. Plus I am publishing my blog address on my Facebook page so that might actually generate a few hits from family and friends and I know only a few of you have any real interest in my poker. Gnite for now.

More snow, more doh!

Well, not much to report on the PCA qualifier. I busted early when I pushed over a loose EP raiser from the button with AK. He flopped a Q to go with his AQ and that was that. I pushed on him because he was so loose and was looking to have him likely dominated and was correct. Again, the cold deck for me got me. I am losing a pile of key hands this way and many flips are not going my way either. Uggh. Cashed in two straight 45 man $25 sit and gos today but again was busted when I could not win a key flip in either after stealing several blinds and getting called loose. What can I do. Especially the second one it is frustrating because I was chip leader for a good portion of it only to lose key hands. What else is new lately. I am probably just feeling it more lately because I've been losing the past month. Very annoying and probably a form of tilt. Trying to work on that.

Got my hands in for the day which was good. It snowed a bit today too. So got outside and shovelled a little bit. Thru some snowballs at the house trying to get Lisa's attention but to no avail. But still, excellent snowball snow I must say! Christopher got out and checked it out too. Thought me throwing snow at the house was pretty funny. Oh, also set up a raindeer on the porch. Very cool. Back to work for now though before I take a week holiday leading up to Santa Day. Starting to feel the festive spirit! Merry Christmas!

Movie day

Well, I lied. I did not play much poker Saturday. Actually I played just one! I busted on the first hand of the 50k freeroll. Like a dummy I overplayed top two pair from the small blind when my flopped AJ two pair on a A J 2 rainbow board ran into the bbs turned wheel. He got me when I reraised him all in when his 3 fell. He had just called a small flop bet from me and I was ripe for the fall when his card came. Not such a gg me! So instead of playing all day I told Lisa I busted and we headed to the movies.

Watched the new Disney insta-classic Enchanted. A combo live action/animation flick. Gotta admit, I enjoyed it. After that we headed back and instead of playing I watched the Canuck-Penguin game. Terrific game that ended with a 6 man deep shootout. Linden scoring in the shootout was an absolute highlight. Love ol Trevor Linden man! He is and always will be Mr. Canuck for me.

Was going to play more poker after that but ended up watching No Country for Old Men instead via the internet. Terrific movie. At first I was a little put out by the ending but upon further review I see just how deep this movie went. If it does not win Best Picture then I hope that the winner is fucking fantastic. Same goes for Javier Bardem who should now be a star in Hollywood. He was absolutely spot on. Tommy Lee Jones was good too. Fuck, so was Josh Brolin and for that matter everyone else in the cast nailed it. This movie is going to age really well. Tremendous.

Oh, almost forgot. Dad played a satellite into a PCA qualifier for me today. Looks like about 253 starters will be vying for 2 packages tomorrow. I am hoping many of those will be no shows. Will be interesting to see how many end up playing. If it is under 150 I will be a statistical 75-1 shot for a package and about a 16-1 shot for the final table where there are some small cash prizes as well for the runners up. Ah well, I can dream right.

CAN NOT WIN A RACE

Wow. Sit and gos are killing me right now. I absolutely cannot win a flip at a crucial time late. It's punishing the beats and just not getting the benefit of variance at all. Looking forward to playing lots tomorrow. I have some freeroll tourneys to play and will be multi-tabling some more. With some more sit and gos thrown in. Please let the bleeding end!!!

Down Swing

Gone so c0ld this week. I'm very, very frustrated by the lack of hands holding up in the sit and gos. I'm getting deep and losing every flip and every dominant hand is getting sucked out on. Plus, because I am trying to play a lot of hands I don't want to stand up very often. Definately feeling terrible at the table today!! I feel sick at how I'm playing. It is feeling like every move is the wrong move. Even when I do it right and win a decent pot I am not feeling the satisfaction. It just isn't enough today. I am chasing a withdrawal date that has past and not only that but I am going backwards and quickly. Poker is an amazing psychological game and today I am losing that battle. So frustrating that just last week I felt so confident and absolutely in control of the tables I was at. And today it is the complete opposite.

The only way I can combat the downswing is to continue to play. Get my fpps and convert them. I know from experience the current feeling will pass. And I have to be ready to capitalize.. Could be the first time in my poker history where I have had 5 losing weeks in a row. AHHH man this shit is so brutal!

The weather has calmed down around here at least. I should post a picture of my yard though cause it is a complete disaster. OH and Canucks won again. Woohoo!

Huge Storm, snow and daily goals

Wow, 2 feet of snow followed by foot of 10 cm of rain and then 80KM/hr winds. Never seen that much snow disappear so quickly. Over the past week I shovelled my driveway like 5 times. Crazy drive home from work over uncleared back country roads. Probably the most dangerous drive I've ever had other than a few inebriated ones when I was younger. 2 foot ruts in the snow. One lane hangin on up and down big hills. Then having to back track when I got to downed trees and power lines! Unreal. I feel lucky I actually made it. I consider myself a good driver and I've logged many thousands of miles driving professionally but that was crazy stuff. If I had fucked up I was all alone out there.

As for poker I am feeling better about things but I am definately behind as far as earnings over the past month. But I am feeling bullish right now. I have lowered daily goals for vpp earnings. Psychologically I think this is better for me to make daily targets every day. Lately the targets have just seemed too far out there for me as I have been very time limited. And time is what I need to make those targets.

Also I am going to try to post after every day that I play a session. That one might be tougher but let's see what happens.