Profitable cash session, card dead in SNGs

Played two SNGs and got really no hands in either. Made it to 4th in a single-table, but really had no chips and had to move in preflop with a weak ace. Pretty much the same story in the 45 player SNG I played, made it to about 18th or so and lost a preflop race.

I started a 25NL session while playing the 45 player SNG, and wound up making about a quick $10. Game broke so I left and rebought into another game for $10. I had worked my way up a bit when this hand came down:

I'm in the cutoff seat with a J 10 of clubs, two limpers up front, and I make it $1 to go. One caller, and the BB raises to 1.75, the absolute minimum raise. One limper calls, I call, and the caller in between calls. Flop comes down 7c 6c 8h, giving me a gutshot straight draw, and a flush draw. I figure with the money I have left, and the amount in the pot already, I really have no choice if action gets heavy, and I would have to move in. It checks to me, and I bet about the size of the pot. Caller in the middle which puts him all in, BB raises .60 and is all in, and the big stack limper moves in for like $27 and change. I only have about $9 left, so I move it in, and hit the nut straight on the turn. By the river there were running hearts, but the other hands were 2 sets of top pair, one with a weaker straight draw, and the big blind showed AQ, lol.

That's pretty much the type of gamble I like making in these micro NL games, since the play is bad enough where you can make a lot more money off of big draws than normal. In a higher game with better players, there's no way I stack 3 people on that hand, and may not even get paid off on the river if the player is very cautious, but in 25NL, players will go with an AQ all the way to the river regardless of the board, and players with top pair no kicker think they are infallable.

Would I have been thrilled with the play if I didn't hit my draw? I may have been disappointed that my outs didn't make it, but I would have rebought in a heartbeat once I saw the hands that got shown down.

These micro cash games are nice to keep me occupied while waiting on hands in tournaments, and also can be pretty profitable.

I'm still debating playing another sit n go, but instead I think I'm just going to relax in bed and screw around on the web for a bit before bed. I don't have to go in to work tomorrow until 11am, which is a pleasant switch from the usual 8 am. I'm looking to catch up on some sleep before my big New Years party at the Hilton Hotel in Mellville.

Bored at work

Just sittin' around on the laptop at the day job. There's nothing going on here today but I have to put in my half day, so I'm here for a few more hours.

Probably going to be playing some sit n go's and maybe a cash session later on tonight. I'm going to dinner with my parents for my father's birthday, but I doubt I'll be doing anything afterward with friends or anything. Everyone works tomorrow so no one does too much on Sundays.

I want to try starting up a regular home game again, either a tournament or cash game. I'd love to do both, but some people that we play with only really play tournaments. Eric, for example, is by his own admission, a terrible cash player. And because of this he refuses to play anything but tournaments. Even if it's a weekly tournament, it's something. I miss playing homegames because it's really the only live poker I get to play on a regular basis.

I managed to transfer the remainder of my money from FullTilt over to Pokerstars, so I now have my full bankroll of a whopping $200 available. Although not a lot of money by any means, it affords me a decent bankroll to play the low buy-in sit n gos. I am going to be playing a lot of single table to start, and then eventually move to the multi table sit n gos. My goal is to be able to put up a decent win rate in the 180-person SNGs, since those yeild the highest prizes of any of them. I've managed to cash in a good percentage of these, but really didnt get into the good money. I know a lot of the mistakes and holes in my game, so I want to work them out on the single table SNGs before working my way up.

Eventually I'd like to start playing more big MTTs once I have the bankroll, but for now I'm actually pretty satisfied with where I'm playing. I know in the past I've gotten bored and started playing too high for my 'roll, but this time I'm really looking to correct that. Eventually, once my roll hits around $550-600 I'll move to the $10 SNGs, so on and so forth until I'm rich lol.

Realistically, I'm enjoying the fact that I'm playing more for recreation at the moment. That doesn't mean I don't take it seriously, because I take it very seriously. I truly want to improve my game and be able to win consistantly in online tournaments and cash games. However, I have a job, I have other things to occupy myself with. The last time around I did not, and I got sucked in to trying too hard and playing bad because of it. It helps that I have other business in my life, and that it doesn't resolve around poker. I am serious about poker, but it's not the #1 priority in my life right now.

My ultimate goal is to be able to significantly supplement my income through poker. Not quit my job, move to Vegas and play in the Big Game. I would like to build a bankroll to play some medium limit cash games, and the larger buy in tournaments and sit n gos. Who knows, if I do really well, maybe take a vacation to Vegas and play in a few big tournaments. That is really my ultimate goal. I don't want to be a professional poker player, but I wouldn't mind being a semi-pro ;)

Mixing old with new...

I played a few sit n go's earlier with the "Big Bet" style I described earlier, and found both positives and negatives to the style. The biggest plus was that I took down a lot more pots preflop, or with one bet on the flop, the biggest negative being that when I get played back at, I have to sacrifice a lot more chips than I would if I was playing small bet poker.


However, I do see how an adapted form of this game would do very well in internet tournament poker. With the relatively short stacks, and the quick-rising blinds, it is nearly impossible to play a small bet style profitably. Add in the fact that there isn't as much "feel" to an online game as there is to a live setting, it makes small ball all the more difficult.

I think there are some adaptations to big bet poker that can be made, a few of which I've gotten from Daniel Negreanu's PokerVT program. Yes, call me a sucker or a fanboy, but I signed up for PokerVT, and so far am pretty happy with my purchase. There's a ton of content, I haven't gotten even half way through it yet.

I did just play a little session of NL25, bought in short ($10) and wound up doubling it, which helped me recoup the couple sit n goes i didn't cash in.

Heading out for the night, so I won't be playing later tonight. More to come tomorrow.

A Fresh Start...

I'm starting a blog again to go along with my whole "starting over" approach to poker. I've refreshed myself from the game after a long break, added some new tricks and styles to my arsenal, and even started over completely with a new online account so I can start back at square one in all aspects of my game.


I've done a lot of things wrong in poker, played really bad for a long time, and was an overall losing player thus far. I feel as if I have the tools now to play winning poker, and am starting with a whole new approach. I'm going to be on a mission to build a bankroll, and I'm going about it a lot differently than I did in the past.

I've realized that I've had the most success recently in Sit n Gos, specifically one table, low buy ins. I'm starting my bankroll mission by playing $5 sit n gos, and working my way up in the ranks.

I entered three earlier, won one, busted out of the second and am now chip leader with 6 left in the third. I will update more later.