DirtyStylee Poker

FINALLY!!!

2009-01-10T21:08:00.001-08:00

After making consistant final table appearances and deep runs in the 180 man sit-n-gos, and always finishing 3rd at best, I finally took one down. I was a big chip leader for most of the stretch which obviously helped, but no blow up, no stupid moves, just solid play and it worked beautifully.

Once it got to heads up my opponent, who seemed quite solid prior, got very loose/passive, calling me down with a ton of very light hands, which threw me off at first. I handed him a couple bets in the first few rounds adjusting to his tendency to "not believe" my bets. I picked up a few hands heads up, but didn't get a ton of action until the hand that locked it up for me. I made a Jack-high flush on the river and got him to call off almost all of his stack with two pair. After that, he only had about 11k to my over 200k, and it was academic after that, my J-6 beat his K-5 to put it in the books for me.

I definately needed to book a win to prove to myself that I can win these things. I had shown myself that I could make consistant deep runs, but was starting to get frustrated always coming 5th, or 3rd, etc. Finally, I got my first win under my belt, and the rest should come a lot easier now ;o)

2009-01-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

Time for a night out!

2009-01-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

After a pretty long week of work and really not doing anything with myself, I'm finally getting a night out with a group of friends. The plan is to head over to my friend's new apartment and hang for a bit before heading out to a bar near her. Should be a good time.

I definately need nights like this at the end of a long week, but I have to work on not over doing it. I tend to spend a ton of money when I'm drunk, and wind up kicking myself for it the next day. So my plan for the night is to bring about $60 with me and see how long it lasts me. Unfortunately, if the night goes really well I'll probably wind up going to the ATM, but I really shouldn't.

Oh well.

Playing 180-man SNGs 'til I collapse!

2009-01-07T22:21:00.000-08:00

Since my last post, I've made a few deep runs in these things, and have been playing with a lot of confidence and getting good results. I'm generally making it through the first hour with precisely the amount of chips I want, and gradually developing my stack through out the second hour. I bubbled the final table a few night ago, finishing 10th, and last night finished 5th. I haven't been playing as many as I did when I started playing these, which I think has helped me concentrate a bit more. There is one big key to keeping myself in check and not getting bored: I almost always have been watching a movie, or doing something else to occupy myself so that I'm not only looking at the tournament window for 4 straight hours.

I played two more tonight, made it through the first hour with decent stacks in both, and caught some bad cards to bust out early of one of them. The second I managed to get in some good spots and get my money in good into some big pots, as well as a mini-tear of super-aggression that wound up picking me up some valuable blinds and antes. I finished the second hour right around 20k, and in good shape for my second final table run in 2 days.

I made it to the final on a bit of a short stack, but wound up getting back up around 30k and holding my own for a while. There were 2 big stacks, one of which was a complete donk and was running the table over. I was down around 26k in chips when the following hand came up.

With 9 players still in, and blinds at 800/1600 with a 150 ante, I limp in UTG with 88. I had my finger on the raise button, but I didn't want to get shut out of the hand if I got re-raised, so I decided to limp and see what developed. Action folds around to the big stack, who also limps, the rest of the table folds to the BB who checks.

We see a 3 handed flop of A-T-6, and the BB checks. At this point, I'm pretty confident that no one has an ace. The way the big stack was playing, he would have raised with any ace preflop, and most likely any two cards 10 or higher, as well as most, if not every pair. I bet 3200, and the big stack raises to 8k. He had already done this about 6 or 7 times at this FT, and a few of those times he had done it to me. I had folded everytime.

The BB folds, and at this point the only hands I'm worried about are hands like 9-10, 8-10, or something to that effect, with this guy's stack and the way he was playing, I was almost sure he would've raised preflop with JT, QT, KT, and definately any ace. I'm feeling pretty good about my hand at this point and make the call.

Now, I had already resigned myself to the fact that all my money was going in on the turn unless a really sick card hit. The worst card for me probably would've been a 9 or possibly a jack, since a lot of the hands I put in his range would either contain a 9 or jack or give him some sort of straight draw, in which case he would call my shove. The turn comes a 7, and I've already made my decision. I know that if I check he's going to bet, at which point I'm comfortable enough with my hand to feel secure moving in. Sure enough, I check, and he bets about 4k or so less than I have. I shove the rest pretty much instantly, and he folds. That's right...

He folds.

For those of you who don't understand why that's such a big deal, I'll run through it.

He bet 11k into a pot that had about 35k in it. When I moved in, I only had 5 or 6k more than his bet, which laid him more than 7 to 1 on a call. Basically, if there's a 1 in 7 chance he has me beat, he has to call here. The fact that he folded means that there was no way he could beat any hand that would move in here, which probably meant that he had absolutely nothing and did not connect to the board in anyway. Why risk that much of your stack on complete air?

That hand wound up being the key hand of the tournament for me, and what gave me the ammo to get to third place. Unfortunately, I had some more swings by the time 3 handed play came down and was forced to shove with Q high preflop in hopes of stealing the blinds from the button. Big stack BB wakes up with AQ, and it's goodnight for me.

I'm still happy with the way I played, and I think the play with the 8s shows a higher level of confidence that I'm playing with lately. I probably don't make that call there a few weeks ago before I started playing these regularly, and I'm happy with the way I'm playing.

Of course I realize that 2 final tables in 2 days isn't common , especially because I've only played maybe 5 of these in those 2 days, however this tournament specifically was pretty encouraging because during the majority of the tournament I don't think I sucked out in a big all in pot. When my money went in, at least in the key developmental stages of the tourney, I had the best of it. There was one big bluff I pulled off during the second hour, but that's for another blog entry....

Sit N Go Frenzy!!

2009-01-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

I'm finally having some success in the Pokerstars 180man sit n gos. I finally cracked my streak and placed third in one the other night, and are making it much deeper with much better stacks thanks to a great strategy post over on the FCP forums. I had skimmed the post before, but wasn't playing online at the time, so it sort of went to waste. Now I'm playing a lot more so it's become very profitable.

The $4.40 sit n gos are extremely profitable if one has a bankroll that will support going a while without a big cash. The main reason is because one needs to play a style that will either bust out in the first hour or go deep. I do have a big enough bank roll to play these effectively, which I have been doing.

I'm playing one right now, along with a single table and a 90 man, so i'll update later.

Profitable cash session, card dead in SNGs

2008-12-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-27T17:10:00.000-08:00

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.