Actually, I was Going to Post it as a Bad Beat but it's Really Rather Creepy

Decide to play a bit of live tonight. Off I went down the hill to the local tournament (literally there is a tournament every Saturday half a mile down the hill from my house).

Played pretty well considering my cards. Got AK once, threes once, tens once, and that was it for about the first hour and a half. Finally I am forced to push in LP when short with A8, and the guy with A2h who calls anything calls out of the BB. My hand is good and I am up to 14k with blinds of 400/800.

I get A9, two callers. Flop A 9 4, two spades. Button donkey call my flop pot be. Turn 4, I bet pot again, he calls. River 2s. I decide he caught and check. He pushes, I fold after tanking, he shows a 9 so he probably bluffed. That's life, but I am down to 8k.

I get short again, and end up pushing a ragged flop with middle pair and two hearts. The SB calls. With bottom pair and a 5 high flush draw. Of course that hits and IGHN. Should have pushed preflop, oh well. Out 11th for nothing, but I win the 50/50 amd I am free rollin', baby! Don't ask, 50/50 tickets are my leak.

Speaking of leaks, I decide to play a little cash. Sit down in 1/2, get it up to 2 buy-ins or so when my Aces hold up against K8 (he had top pair and a flush draw, not sure why he called 16 preflop but hey I dodge his outs). Then it limps around to me in the BB two hands later and I have a suited jack. 6 players, I rap.

Flop K5J, two hearts. Middle pair and a flush draw. Checked to MP who bets 15, I call with another person. Turn is a black J. I bet out 40, fold, reluctant call. River brings my flush, I push, he instacalls with his limped Kings. So that's twice in three days I lose most of my stack with limped premium pairs from middle position. Creepy. I know the possible hands of Axh and KJ should have had me checking or betting smaller on the river, so don't feel like I don't know I played it badly, but why do my limps with Aces or Kings never work out that way?

Next hand in the SB I complete (with 25 total in my hand) with suited 45. Flop comes A36, two clubs, I push (double up or go home at this point, open ended good enough). One caller. He has 25 clubs. Gutshot and a 5 high flush draw. Club on the turn.

How does one lose to two five high flush draws in one night? Creepy.

One thing I learned is that I am much better at paying attention to body language in a tournament. Now that I reflect, Mr. limped Kings was oozing weak is strong tells and I missed them. I should have seized on the bad acting and slowed down. Oh well, money poorly spent, but I had some fun and listened to 80s music.

What a crappy night

I play several DS's and bet my good hands strong only to lose each one on the turn or river.

I finally get HU in one, wrestle back the chiplead and get immediately disconnected for ten minutes, resulting in me getting short and deperate. I end up having to push with the Hammer which is way no good.

Then I get short in another sat (73+7) and of course the donkey's limped Aces work out great for him.

Just frustrating from start to finish. I did not play horribly, just aggressively, and every last donkey caught.

All Good

Sold some of my $W, and won some $T. I also have 3 FTP tokens that I hope to turn into $75 tokens ASAP.

Played some yesterday, spent too much to get $T215, but hey now I have it. I should be able to turn it into something positive. If I keep running good in double shootouts, I may just start selling $T and $W for extra BR.

Congrats to scottjf8, our latest DB 5 figure winner -- 3d in the PS Million yesterday. Awesome job.

OK

I feel better.

Not going to apologize or feel badly for the last post, because that's how I felt at the time.

However, I think the experience that was poker Monday night led me to a place where I know what I generally need to do to play better. I think because I play and post with a bunch of great players that I am better than I am sometimes, and fancy play and cockiness results. Therefore, even though I was hard on myself, I think it was important for me to recognize reality for a minute.

My mom called in tears last night and got me going emotionally, so the usual insomnia kicked in around 10:30. As a result I wound up in a WSOP double shootout. I won the sucker thanks to a combination of patience and some good cards at the precise moment they were needed. That was a good thing, obviously.

Now, after the tough weekend and paying some expenses with my Quad Shootout win (which apparently replayed last night and I totally missed it), I have a dilemma regarding what to do with these tournament dollars in my account.

1. I have wanted to go to the WSOP oh so much and would love to take a shot at it. These $W make that possible on my BR in a variety of ways.

2. My BR is low these days and even at 90% the money would come in handy for other things.

So should I sell? Play an sat or two and try to make more and then sell, while still keeping some for WSOP shots? DS? Blow it all on Sunday's tournament?

I'm still pondering. I think the answer is probably sell a few hundred and then take a few shots, but there may be an advantage in selling the whole thing and trying it again. I've shown some ability to win these things when I stay patient.

Maybe I should just quit

Seriously, I can only beat awful players (See 1c Poker, Mansion).

I can only play my cards and occasionally see what they might have. I have no other levels (See AJ, pushing into Aces and AK with).

What are gears (see Tourney, Any)?

I give away 90% of my big stacks within 90 minutes (see supra).

I have no reasonable sense of BR management (See Expenses, Atlantic City).

I try to push donkeys off of hands (See Games, Cash).

I can talk a good game but I have no means of following through on the felt (See Poker, DB).

I win tournaments that are pushfests but can't see my way through a deep stack tournament because I have no skill disadvantage in a pushfest (see Shootout, Quad).

I have so many holes in my game I am sure all my friends have notes on me a paragraph long (See Cheese, Swiss).

I lack patience, discipline, and proper motivation (See Blog, Every).



What is it about me right now that I can't get past this neverending level of mediocre play? This is not just me venting after making yet another series of boneheaded maneuvers. This is me realizing how poor a student of the game I am.

I just don't know what to say.

Ugggggggggh

Horrible poker day yesterday. Played in both the PS 215 and the FTP 216 and was in both for about two hours before getting dumped.

I did not play brilliantly, I will admit, but I also had nothing to work with. I never got above starting stack in the PS tourney, and also never got a playable pocket pair. I also never hit the flop.

FTP started off great after tripling up early. However, my stack never crested 9500 as I got sucked out on with Aces versus Q5 sooooted and then the card death continued.

In 4.5 hours of play, I got about 10 playable hands, including three big pocket pairs and a couple of high paint. My rudimentary math says I should have gotten at least three times that amount over the two tournaments. Simply put, I am not good enough yet to play well with no cards. Maybe that day is looming, but when even the steals don't work it's simply not my day.

Oh well, I'll take a break and hopefully it will go better next time.

Weird Night

Could not sleep again. So I played.

Qualified for the FTP $200K Sunday. Bubbled in a DS for the PS Million. And finished 6th again for $24 at the Mansion 1c tourney. It's like a license to print money.

Glad to see that FTP increased chipstacks for their big guarantees. Had not played them in a long while and that's an important improvement. Now all they need is $T and we're set.