Spent the last week muddling around and visitng my uncle at the hospital. Things were very touch and go for awhile, and this week we are still at the same impass as the last. My aunt signed off on a non-rececitation agreement, so now we are sitting back waiting for him to either pass, or come out of the coma. A few nights ago, they called everyone in to say their goodbyes when it looked like he was having brain swelling, but it subsided, and now we are back to square one. Sigh. It is an impossible decision as to what should be done at this point, and I can't help but feel completely helpless and useless as far as this goes. There is no peaceful decision that can resolve this, so we are reduced to this anticipatory, reactive state of waiting for the next big situation and hoping things will resolve one way or the other.
I signed up on Blue Fire Poker last night after getting back from the hospital. Ashley read Harrington on Hold'em while I watched training videos, so it made for a pretty laid back Sunday. There was alot of decent content on BFP, but with everything going on, I found it hard to concentrate on getting the most out of each video. I probably will have to go on again in the next day or so, and re-watch to try to get some of the finer points that I might have missed. But so far I am pretty happy with my purchase.
I played a bit online too. I broke even, or was slightly ahead in the SNGs that I played, but got burned in the $55 rebuy, and after winning about 2 buy ins at 100NL, I got murdered by flips in $50NL. AK vs 55, QQ vs AK, AQ vs JJ. It was pretty annoying, and I probably tilted off a bit more then I normally would. Again, at the moment its hard to keep everything in check as nicely and neatly as I normally do.
This week is the Super Bowl of Poker at Sycuan. All week they are running, tournys of varying sizes, so I will be grinding those this week, and probably hoping into the side action whenever I should have an early exit, which hopefully will be never! But its always best to prepare. With any luck, I will get my head on straight, and get back into the swing of things. The bankroll is hurting a bit because of the last few weeks of inactivity, and break-even sessions. I need to make a bit of cash, because I think crunch time is coming at work, and I need to come up with some cash to keep myself going.
Just gotta take one step at a time. One foot in front of the other. One hand, before the next.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
My Uncle
Ok so this is a bit of a difficult post for me to write but I am going to give this a shot.
The last few nights, I have been up and down playing live, basically breaking even over the last week or so, and being a slight loser online. Burn out is becoming a factor in playing poker for me, and I am taking the rest of the week off to rest and recouperate. Next week is a series of tournaments that I plan on playing in, so I figure it is best to take a bit of time off before. Following that I probably will go back on break, playing once a week in one of the very soft home games around at most, until I go to Vegas in the middle of February. So until then, things might be a bit slow for me.
Now for the harder part of this entry. I just found out that my uncle suffered some type of heart failure while riding his bike the other day, and is probably going to be unable to recover. As I type this, I believe he is being evaluated by a second neurologist but at the moment, things are looking pretty bleak. Im not sure how to feel about this. My experience with death isnt overly extensive, and the people I know who have died are usually not overly close to me, or are older, so in a way I am somewhat more prepared for it.
My uncle had his birthday on Friday, and this all happened on Saturday. Apparently when his heart failed, CPR wasnt adequate to get oxygen to his brain, so as a result, things have turned grim. I cant really articulate how I feel at the moment, partly because I think I am still in shock at all of this, and partly because I simply dont know how I feel.
I tend to be a pretty emotionless person. My highs are never really that high, and my lows are never that low. It takes a lot to move me, and as I go through my mind trying to catagorize where this falls, I simply have no clue. It is a weird and awkward feeling for me to be so in limbo about this. I intelectually understand how sad this is, and how difficult this must be for my aunt and cousin, but emotionally I am just...blank. I know I am sad, cause I feel that much. Do I feel like crying? No...and I feel like I should feel like that.
My uncle was a really healthy guy. He took care of himself, exercised, and such. One of my earliest memories is wrestling with him in my grandpa's house, and to escape some hold he had me in I bit him. He of course got kind of pissed, but he did let go and I had won the day! A lot of my family memories I recall talking to him about how school was going, and partying in college and despite never being super close with him, I can always remember seeing him in the background of my thoughts when my mind drifts to those times. I remember, I was watching an old kung fu movie, and I thought one of the characters looked like him, and when I told him that, he laughed and said it was him. I went through the next 7 years watching and re-watching this movie on my parents' VCR and telling them all the time "That's Uncle Paul!" That movie is a firmly entrenched part of my childhood, making him a large part of it by transference. And it is so weird that this is now happening. I always thought I would have more time to drink beers with him and talk about school, or work, or whatever...
This whole thing has shown me that we never will stay a longer then we are supposed. Its like a switch was flicked and his heart just turned off. What was he thinking? What is it like in those moments as he loses consciousness perhaps thinking he isnt going to see his son go to high school, or graduate college? Even more simple things like seeing a full moon seem so endless, so unlimited, and yet in a single moment they are all taken away. Its just so crazy to me.
I take a lot of my life for granted. I dont take care of myself, and I have a propensity to damage myself. This is just so jarring to me, I wonder if I can continue to live my life as it is. And to change, Im just not sure I know how.
The last few nights, I have been up and down playing live, basically breaking even over the last week or so, and being a slight loser online. Burn out is becoming a factor in playing poker for me, and I am taking the rest of the week off to rest and recouperate. Next week is a series of tournaments that I plan on playing in, so I figure it is best to take a bit of time off before. Following that I probably will go back on break, playing once a week in one of the very soft home games around at most, until I go to Vegas in the middle of February. So until then, things might be a bit slow for me.
Now for the harder part of this entry. I just found out that my uncle suffered some type of heart failure while riding his bike the other day, and is probably going to be unable to recover. As I type this, I believe he is being evaluated by a second neurologist but at the moment, things are looking pretty bleak. Im not sure how to feel about this. My experience with death isnt overly extensive, and the people I know who have died are usually not overly close to me, or are older, so in a way I am somewhat more prepared for it.
My uncle had his birthday on Friday, and this all happened on Saturday. Apparently when his heart failed, CPR wasnt adequate to get oxygen to his brain, so as a result, things have turned grim. I cant really articulate how I feel at the moment, partly because I think I am still in shock at all of this, and partly because I simply dont know how I feel.
I tend to be a pretty emotionless person. My highs are never really that high, and my lows are never that low. It takes a lot to move me, and as I go through my mind trying to catagorize where this falls, I simply have no clue. It is a weird and awkward feeling for me to be so in limbo about this. I intelectually understand how sad this is, and how difficult this must be for my aunt and cousin, but emotionally I am just...blank. I know I am sad, cause I feel that much. Do I feel like crying? No...and I feel like I should feel like that.
My uncle was a really healthy guy. He took care of himself, exercised, and such. One of my earliest memories is wrestling with him in my grandpa's house, and to escape some hold he had me in I bit him. He of course got kind of pissed, but he did let go and I had won the day! A lot of my family memories I recall talking to him about how school was going, and partying in college and despite never being super close with him, I can always remember seeing him in the background of my thoughts when my mind drifts to those times. I remember, I was watching an old kung fu movie, and I thought one of the characters looked like him, and when I told him that, he laughed and said it was him. I went through the next 7 years watching and re-watching this movie on my parents' VCR and telling them all the time "That's Uncle Paul!" That movie is a firmly entrenched part of my childhood, making him a large part of it by transference. And it is so weird that this is now happening. I always thought I would have more time to drink beers with him and talk about school, or work, or whatever...
This whole thing has shown me that we never will stay a longer then we are supposed. Its like a switch was flicked and his heart just turned off. What was he thinking? What is it like in those moments as he loses consciousness perhaps thinking he isnt going to see his son go to high school, or graduate college? Even more simple things like seeing a full moon seem so endless, so unlimited, and yet in a single moment they are all taken away. Its just so crazy to me.
I take a lot of my life for granted. I dont take care of myself, and I have a propensity to damage myself. This is just so jarring to me, I wonder if I can continue to live my life as it is. And to change, Im just not sure I know how.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Not So Nice
A frustrating night but not a whole lot that could be done about it.
Ashley met me at work and we headed up to the super satalite. We arrived late and I was alternate 20 and they had yet to seat any of the alternates. With blind limits of 15 minutes, and starting with somewhat short stacks as it were, I was not super happy. I got in with 5 minutes left in the 50-100 limit and was out after 1 full orbit when I was in the BB, 5 players limp at the 100-200 blind level. I look down at KK, and make it 1200. The first limper folds, the second shoves, and eveyone else folds. I call, and dude turns up QQ. Qxx on the flop and bye bye for me.
I get into a 2-5 game relatively quickly and on the first hand get cooled off. The hand is talked about on the PokerRoad forums a bit so check it out here: http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3850. Cliff notes are that I flop middle set and get bumped off by a gutter ball. I stole one pot post flop and Ashley busted so I cashed out and we left. A $380 hit isnt bad, but its just frustrating when things like this happen so quickly back to back.
Anyways, I am probably taking tonight off, but will hopefully be at it again this weekend. No rest for the wicked right?
Ashley met me at work and we headed up to the super satalite. We arrived late and I was alternate 20 and they had yet to seat any of the alternates. With blind limits of 15 minutes, and starting with somewhat short stacks as it were, I was not super happy. I got in with 5 minutes left in the 50-100 limit and was out after 1 full orbit when I was in the BB, 5 players limp at the 100-200 blind level. I look down at KK, and make it 1200. The first limper folds, the second shoves, and eveyone else folds. I call, and dude turns up QQ. Qxx on the flop and bye bye for me.
I get into a 2-5 game relatively quickly and on the first hand get cooled off. The hand is talked about on the PokerRoad forums a bit so check it out here: http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3850. Cliff notes are that I flop middle set and get bumped off by a gutter ball. I stole one pot post flop and Ashley busted so I cashed out and we left. A $380 hit isnt bad, but its just frustrating when things like this happen so quickly back to back.
Anyways, I am probably taking tonight off, but will hopefully be at it again this weekend. No rest for the wicked right?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Bad Reads and Aggressive Play
Played a little bit last night at a home game and it was a bit of a roller coaster. I stayed pretty steady most of the night until the following hand. I limp in mid-ish position with KQ, the player to my left, a fairly novice player opened for $12. One call behind and I call. Flop comes out Q94 with 2 hearts. I check, preflop raiser bets 25, the limper folds and I call. Turn is a T. I check, and am met with a $50 bet. River is a K, I check and raiser bets $75. At this point in the hand, feel like I have repped either a monster or a flush draw. In either case, I expected my check to be met with a check back. Unfortunately, the river bet now looks to me like the guy either had QJ and got there (which I didnt think because he wasnt the type to raise those types of hands pre-flop) or a bluff, like AK of hearts which missed but backed into top pair, or AQ trying to just take the pot away. I made the crying call, and was surprised when the raiser tabled 99. I tilted a bit, mainly because I know that he wasnt betting the river for thin value, but had actually just looked at his hand and decided that since he had a set he had to bet. So that was pretty blah.
Shortly after that, I played a 4 way all in pot with AK on an AT9 board with 2 hearts. Amazingly my pair held against a worse ace and 2 flush draws. With that pot, I was up a little from what I started with at about $310.
At this point my table broke and I changed to the table where Tyler was dealing. At this point I opened up my game a bit more since I was much more familiar with my competition at this table. After raising 3 pots in a row, and taking them all down either pre flop or on the flop, I picked up AQ. I made my standard raise, and my friend Will called on the button, one of the blinds called and an early limper called. Flop was K35 with a suit. The 2 early players check, I bet 3/4 pot, and Will calls, while the blind snap calls. The turn was a K pairing the board, and the early position player checked, and I paused a moment to think. From what I knew of the players, Will plays pretty straight forward, and if something on the board had hit him I would have heard from him on the flop for sure. Looking at him, he didnt look overly interested in the pot either so I didnt rule him as a big threat. The early limper was another story however. His snap call on the flop and check on the turn when top pair paired made me believe that he either was on a big flush draw, or some type of middle pocket pair. I mean, if he had turned trips he probably would need to bet to stop flush draws from getting there. I decided given this information, I would check behind, because I didnt want to play a huge pot at this point with just ace high. Will checked behind and we went to the river. An off suited ace rolls off, and the player out of the blinds bet $30. It was a pretty small bet in propotion to the pot, and I was pretty skeptical of the bet. I thought that it was somewhat likely that our blind player had a hand like Ax on the flush draw and backed into top pair and was now block betting to get to the river. Figuring I could get some value, I pop him back $100. Will groans about how unfair it is and folds, then the blind tanks. He starts asking me questions like "Do you have AK here buddy?" Now Im scared becuase I realize I just made a pretty big mis-read and this guy actually did get cute with a K here. I banter back with him saying "Do I need AK? I think KQ is probably good enough right?" Dude keeps tanking for another 30 seconds and finally shows a K and mucks it face up. I breath a huge sigh of relief that my spew didnt turn into something really bad and scoop the pot. Hurrah for bad reads and aggressive play.
From then on the night played pretty standard, and I left making over $200.
Ashley, Tyler and I will be going up to play at Viejas tonight. There is a satelite to their $100K first place tourny, and since I dont want to fork over the buy in I got to try to satelite in or simply not play, which just doesnt sound like a fun option. So hopefully I will have good news by the end of tonight.
Shortly after that, I played a 4 way all in pot with AK on an AT9 board with 2 hearts. Amazingly my pair held against a worse ace and 2 flush draws. With that pot, I was up a little from what I started with at about $310.
At this point my table broke and I changed to the table where Tyler was dealing. At this point I opened up my game a bit more since I was much more familiar with my competition at this table. After raising 3 pots in a row, and taking them all down either pre flop or on the flop, I picked up AQ. I made my standard raise, and my friend Will called on the button, one of the blinds called and an early limper called. Flop was K35 with a suit. The 2 early players check, I bet 3/4 pot, and Will calls, while the blind snap calls. The turn was a K pairing the board, and the early position player checked, and I paused a moment to think. From what I knew of the players, Will plays pretty straight forward, and if something on the board had hit him I would have heard from him on the flop for sure. Looking at him, he didnt look overly interested in the pot either so I didnt rule him as a big threat. The early limper was another story however. His snap call on the flop and check on the turn when top pair paired made me believe that he either was on a big flush draw, or some type of middle pocket pair. I mean, if he had turned trips he probably would need to bet to stop flush draws from getting there. I decided given this information, I would check behind, because I didnt want to play a huge pot at this point with just ace high. Will checked behind and we went to the river. An off suited ace rolls off, and the player out of the blinds bet $30. It was a pretty small bet in propotion to the pot, and I was pretty skeptical of the bet. I thought that it was somewhat likely that our blind player had a hand like Ax on the flush draw and backed into top pair and was now block betting to get to the river. Figuring I could get some value, I pop him back $100. Will groans about how unfair it is and folds, then the blind tanks. He starts asking me questions like "Do you have AK here buddy?" Now Im scared becuase I realize I just made a pretty big mis-read and this guy actually did get cute with a K here. I banter back with him saying "Do I need AK? I think KQ is probably good enough right?" Dude keeps tanking for another 30 seconds and finally shows a K and mucks it face up. I breath a huge sigh of relief that my spew didnt turn into something really bad and scoop the pot. Hurrah for bad reads and aggressive play.
From then on the night played pretty standard, and I left making over $200.
Ashley, Tyler and I will be going up to play at Viejas tonight. There is a satelite to their $100K first place tourny, and since I dont want to fork over the buy in I got to try to satelite in or simply not play, which just doesnt sound like a fun option. So hopefully I will have good news by the end of tonight.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Drinking and Poker
Saturday night Ashley and I had sushi with Will and his wife Tracy. I hadn't intended to drink that night, but somewhere over the course of the night, I stared doing a few shots of sake, and that is where my night started to spiral.
After dinner we all went to The Brig to grab some drinks and Anthony met up with us. I started on the scotch and I found myself in that happy place where you are pretty intoxicated but can still hold it together well enough to function without creating a scene.
After dropping off Tracy at their home, we ventured out to Sycuan to mess around for a bit. Despite my state, I played decent, despite the fact that nobody seemed willing to fold hands to me. Example being, I raise 2 limpers from the button with Q9o, and both call. Flop comes 832 and I lead for 3/4 pot, and both call. Turn is a 5 and we all check. River is an off suited ace, and it checks to me and I bet $25. One calls the other raises to $50. I fold, the other guy calls, and one rolls 24s, the other turns over 34. My head nearly exploded.
I picked off Anthony one time, which was fun because I got to hold it over his head for the rest of the night. In the end, when we left I was stuck about $125 or $150, so not exactly a great night, but not exactly terrible either.
When I got home I was feeling sick so I passed out right away, but sleep was elusive, and it was a pretty restless night.
The next morning, I woke up pumped for the Charger game. Ashley was cool and went out to pick up breakfast which made my day start off that much better. I caught the last half of the Giants/Eagles game, and as the afternoon passed, suffered through the Chargers agonizing defeat at the hands of the Steelers. I think it was more frustrating for me because we looked so good through the first half, and the second half we were completely dominated. It was like watching 2 different games. The fact that we were making lots of mental mistakes didnt help, but nobody can really be blamed but our own team. We could have won that game, and after this Cinderella season, I thought that we could. Sigh...
After the game, Ashley and I got ready and headed out to Sycuan to play in a qualifier for their Super Bowl of Poker tournament series. Basically it is a $54 tourny where first place wins entries into the weeks worth of tournaments. In a weird coincidence we were seated at the same table, and both made it down to the final 2 tables. I had alot of trouble finding spots throughout the tournament to get my money in. I kept having spots where I couldnt pick up a hand to jam with, or when I would pick up a marginal hand to open, someone would beat me to it, and I wouldnt have enough chips to shake them off.
It came down to me picking up 88 in the BB and getting it in against Ashley and another player who had woken up with KK. Ashley had TT, and that was all she wrote for both of us. We went and grabbed some dinner at Chili's and talked about the hands we had played and what we thought we did well and things we could be working on. Im probably going to be taking most of this week off, with the exception of the Wed night game (assuming my friend Tyler is dealing it). With the tourny series coming up and playing 7 nights that week, Im going to want to rest up for it.
I plan on studying a bit more poker too. I have been really lax on hitting the books, posting on forums and watching training videos in the last few months. I need to get on that because I feel like when I really live and breath poker, that is when I am going to be playing my best. Given that I am on a skid right now, it is hard to motivate myself to surround myself with poker, but I just need to force myself and the results will come.
After dinner we all went to The Brig to grab some drinks and Anthony met up with us. I started on the scotch and I found myself in that happy place where you are pretty intoxicated but can still hold it together well enough to function without creating a scene.
After dropping off Tracy at their home, we ventured out to Sycuan to mess around for a bit. Despite my state, I played decent, despite the fact that nobody seemed willing to fold hands to me. Example being, I raise 2 limpers from the button with Q9o, and both call. Flop comes 832 and I lead for 3/4 pot, and both call. Turn is a 5 and we all check. River is an off suited ace, and it checks to me and I bet $25. One calls the other raises to $50. I fold, the other guy calls, and one rolls 24s, the other turns over 34. My head nearly exploded.
I picked off Anthony one time, which was fun because I got to hold it over his head for the rest of the night. In the end, when we left I was stuck about $125 or $150, so not exactly a great night, but not exactly terrible either.
When I got home I was feeling sick so I passed out right away, but sleep was elusive, and it was a pretty restless night.
The next morning, I woke up pumped for the Charger game. Ashley was cool and went out to pick up breakfast which made my day start off that much better. I caught the last half of the Giants/Eagles game, and as the afternoon passed, suffered through the Chargers agonizing defeat at the hands of the Steelers. I think it was more frustrating for me because we looked so good through the first half, and the second half we were completely dominated. It was like watching 2 different games. The fact that we were making lots of mental mistakes didnt help, but nobody can really be blamed but our own team. We could have won that game, and after this Cinderella season, I thought that we could. Sigh...
After the game, Ashley and I got ready and headed out to Sycuan to play in a qualifier for their Super Bowl of Poker tournament series. Basically it is a $54 tourny where first place wins entries into the weeks worth of tournaments. In a weird coincidence we were seated at the same table, and both made it down to the final 2 tables. I had alot of trouble finding spots throughout the tournament to get my money in. I kept having spots where I couldnt pick up a hand to jam with, or when I would pick up a marginal hand to open, someone would beat me to it, and I wouldnt have enough chips to shake them off.
It came down to me picking up 88 in the BB and getting it in against Ashley and another player who had woken up with KK. Ashley had TT, and that was all she wrote for both of us. We went and grabbed some dinner at Chili's and talked about the hands we had played and what we thought we did well and things we could be working on. Im probably going to be taking most of this week off, with the exception of the Wed night game (assuming my friend Tyler is dealing it). With the tourny series coming up and playing 7 nights that week, Im going to want to rest up for it.
I plan on studying a bit more poker too. I have been really lax on hitting the books, posting on forums and watching training videos in the last few months. I need to get on that because I feel like when I really live and breath poker, that is when I am going to be playing my best. Given that I am on a skid right now, it is hard to motivate myself to surround myself with poker, but I just need to force myself and the results will come.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
With the Assist
I got a phone call from Will in the afternoon while at work and we talked about we had played against one another the previous night. Will had gotten in against me with a straight, and I was free rolling him with the same straight, a gutshot to the higher straight, and a flush draw. The bigger end came through, and Will had left in a huff. I talked to him for awhile, and discussed some things about his game I think he could work on, and gave him a little bit of advice about hand reading and discipline. He left the conversation feeling much more confident and armed with some new tools to work with.
Nothing feels better to me then helping out a friend, and trying to assist them in improving their game. It was really pretty gratifying.
After what felt like a pretty long day at work, I went home last night and played a little online 6 max while waiting for Ashley to get ready to go to dinner. I defeated the .25-.50 for a whopping $8.50. Hurrah for me!
We grabbed a bite to eat at Mediteraneo, a semi-fine dining place that serves great food for a pretty reasonable price. We got out of the restaurant at 9, and rolled up to Viejas Casino. Anthony and Will were both sitting in the 2-5 each with pretty big stacks. Ashley got into a game quickly, but I was stuck waiting for a seat to open for over an hour. I killed some time talking to Anthony about the upcoming $100K first place tourny that is in about 2 weeks. My status on it is unsure but doubtful and I told Anthony such. In a very cool gesture he offered to take a big chunk of my action to get me in, which I am considering.
Will, who was sitting at the same table as Anthony was tearing the game up. Apparently he had sat the 1-3 with $150, ran it up to $800, took it over to the 2-5 and when he left cashed for about $1500. Not a bad night at all. He thanked me a few different times for the help I gave him earlier in the day and offered to take Ashley and I to dinner. I told him I would rather have a peice of his action, but would accept dinner all the same.
I sat in a 1-3 with some crazy drunken guy for a few hours, and slowly grinded up. For some reason I could never find a spot against the guy, but did a pretty decent job of squeezing when people were starting to get a bit too out of line against him. I snapped off an over pair with T8 on the good old T84 flop, and later got some value by checking top pair into a guy who tried to take the pot away from me on the turn and river. I cashed for $250, and Ashley made about $150.
Waking up for work today was a bitch, but I made it on time, and have used a bit of my day to plan my upcoming weekend. After 13 days working, Im going to get 1 day off and then start over again the next week. My life is good!
Nothing feels better to me then helping out a friend, and trying to assist them in improving their game. It was really pretty gratifying.
After what felt like a pretty long day at work, I went home last night and played a little online 6 max while waiting for Ashley to get ready to go to dinner. I defeated the .25-.50 for a whopping $8.50. Hurrah for me!
We grabbed a bite to eat at Mediteraneo, a semi-fine dining place that serves great food for a pretty reasonable price. We got out of the restaurant at 9, and rolled up to Viejas Casino. Anthony and Will were both sitting in the 2-5 each with pretty big stacks. Ashley got into a game quickly, but I was stuck waiting for a seat to open for over an hour. I killed some time talking to Anthony about the upcoming $100K first place tourny that is in about 2 weeks. My status on it is unsure but doubtful and I told Anthony such. In a very cool gesture he offered to take a big chunk of my action to get me in, which I am considering.
Will, who was sitting at the same table as Anthony was tearing the game up. Apparently he had sat the 1-3 with $150, ran it up to $800, took it over to the 2-5 and when he left cashed for about $1500. Not a bad night at all. He thanked me a few different times for the help I gave him earlier in the day and offered to take Ashley and I to dinner. I told him I would rather have a peice of his action, but would accept dinner all the same.
I sat in a 1-3 with some crazy drunken guy for a few hours, and slowly grinded up. For some reason I could never find a spot against the guy, but did a pretty decent job of squeezing when people were starting to get a bit too out of line against him. I snapped off an over pair with T8 on the good old T84 flop, and later got some value by checking top pair into a guy who tried to take the pot away from me on the turn and river. I cashed for $250, and Ashley made about $150.
Waking up for work today was a bitch, but I made it on time, and have used a bit of my day to plan my upcoming weekend. After 13 days working, Im going to get 1 day off and then start over again the next week. My life is good!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Swings
The last few months have been very up and down for me. I have had relatively decent success online, but have been pretty inconsistent live. This last week, I was able to beat up .50-1 HU online for a few buy-ins and even had a decent night at a 1-3 homegame, beating it for almost $400.
Last night, after getting home from work, I fired up a HU table and quickly got stuck for a buy in when I 3 bet preflop with KQs flopped a flush draw and barreled into the river where I hit top pair and paid off a check shove. Anyways, I spent a little time getting my money back before the guy quit me when I was still stuck a few dollars. He doesnt owe me anything, but I find it annoying when people do that. It would make the poker world so much better if people were a little more courteous to each other. Just a simple, "Hey, Im done playing after this hand," would be better then suddenly sitting out and disappearing. That minor gripe aside, the guy played pretty decent and I tried a few new things while playing against his aggressive style that worked with varying degrees of success.
Ashley and I went to grab pizza with my friend Joe for his birthday, and we arranged to meet up with him later in the week for board games, probably Risk since we are both kinda strategy nerds and I haven't got a chance to play a game like that in years.
Afterwards, Ashley and I headed to Sycuan Casino to put in a session. I played in their 1-3 game where most of the players knew me and I had a decent start. A weird hand came up where I turned a gutshot straight after the flop was checked around and my villian called a healthy bet with a pair/flush draw and got there and took me to value town. Sigh.
A few hands later I picked up QQ on the button, made a standard raise, and had Randy, one of the loose aggressive regular players, ship his $300+ stack on me. Normally I wouldn't think about folding, butI know that Randy is capable of making silly moves against me because he knows my range is wide, and he is willing to gamble, so I stuck it in, and he rolled AA on my foolish ass.
That ended my night, and I was on the wrong side of the happy with my life spectrum. Ashley on the other hand, was very happy with defeating her opponents for $3. I guess she had a few awkward spots where she was happy to escape the casino with a break even night.
I'm not really sure what my plans are for the weekend. My best friend is back in town after traveling for the New Year, so I might try to hang out with him, while squeezing in a session or two before the weekend is out. Guess we will just have to play it by ear.
Last night, after getting home from work, I fired up a HU table and quickly got stuck for a buy in when I 3 bet preflop with KQs flopped a flush draw and barreled into the river where I hit top pair and paid off a check shove. Anyways, I spent a little time getting my money back before the guy quit me when I was still stuck a few dollars. He doesnt owe me anything, but I find it annoying when people do that. It would make the poker world so much better if people were a little more courteous to each other. Just a simple, "Hey, Im done playing after this hand," would be better then suddenly sitting out and disappearing. That minor gripe aside, the guy played pretty decent and I tried a few new things while playing against his aggressive style that worked with varying degrees of success.
Ashley and I went to grab pizza with my friend Joe for his birthday, and we arranged to meet up with him later in the week for board games, probably Risk since we are both kinda strategy nerds and I haven't got a chance to play a game like that in years.
Afterwards, Ashley and I headed to Sycuan Casino to put in a session. I played in their 1-3 game where most of the players knew me and I had a decent start. A weird hand came up where I turned a gutshot straight after the flop was checked around and my villian called a healthy bet with a pair/flush draw and got there and took me to value town. Sigh.
A few hands later I picked up QQ on the button, made a standard raise, and had Randy, one of the loose aggressive regular players, ship his $300+ stack on me. Normally I wouldn't think about folding, butI know that Randy is capable of making silly moves against me because he knows my range is wide, and he is willing to gamble, so I stuck it in, and he rolled AA on my foolish ass.
That ended my night, and I was on the wrong side of the happy with my life spectrum. Ashley on the other hand, was very happy with defeating her opponents for $3. I guess she had a few awkward spots where she was happy to escape the casino with a break even night.
I'm not really sure what my plans are for the weekend. My best friend is back in town after traveling for the New Year, so I might try to hang out with him, while squeezing in a session or two before the weekend is out. Guess we will just have to play it by ear.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
It All Begins Here
The begining of a new year sounds like a fitting time to start a poker blog. Of course, being in a pretty bad downswing at the moment is somewhat of a discouraging point of contention for me, but lets overlook that for a moment and allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Steven, and I am a San Diego boy, born and raised. I started playing poker with family when I was pretty young. In fact, one of my earliest memories is sitting with my dad, and having him explain poker hands to me at our dinner table. Throughout high school I played card games, like big 2 and killer, during lunch breaks (and occassionally during class). At the time, the $20 or so that I won seemed huge to me, and I knew that there was something so alluring about playing a game and having people, essentially, pay you to play with them. It was an idea I fell in love with.
In San Diego there is a pretty healthy community of card rooms and casinos, and as soon as I could, I started playing in them. It started with black jack, and after that bored me, I moved to poker. The depth of the game intrigued me, and I dove into it with way more exuberance then...well anything. Fortunately, I had a girlfriend who lived close to one of the casinos so I became a pretty regular player.
When Moneymaker hit, roughly a year or so after I started playing more seriously, it was crazy. Tournament poker blew up and I got swept up with the bug. Everyone and their brother played cards, and I did my best to adapt to the no limit climate. I took a shine to the game, and found out that although I was a mark in the game early on, I picked up the concepts quickly. Being in college at the time, it was perfect for me to skip class to play cards. What harm could that ever do?
Over the last few years I have played with varying degrees of seriousness, ranging from casually playing once or twice a week, to playing for portions of my income. I have recently been playing a bit more online, as the accessability just can't be overlooked (especially because I'm pretty lazy, and if I can avoid driving I can and will).
With the start of 2009, I am coming off a pretty bad downswing, and am aiming at putting a decent roll together for the WSOP in the summer. Im not sure exactly where I am going to go with this blog, as in snap shots of my life, or hand histories, or somewhere in between. Most importantly I hope that this provides a place for me to write about my thoughts on poker and chronicle my journey to the WSOP and beyond. So lets hope for some laughs, and some good stories as the year goes by.
The cast of characters in my life are as follows:
Ashley: My girlfriend, best friend, and running mate in poker. We have been together for a few years and she has started playing tournaments with quite a bit of success in the last 6 months or so. She still works on her cash game, but her love is the tourny scene.
Pops: He taught me how to play when I was young, and now I return the favor. He really enjoys playing but because he owns his own business he doesnt get to play as much as he would like. A pretty solid player that claims to always have an edge on me if we play pots heads up.
Manny: My current/former student. He has went busto a few times, and is in the process of rebuilding his roll with his regular nine to five. I have known the kid since elemntary school, and he has the right notions about the game but somehow can't put it all together and make it work.
Sean: My long time friend, and partner in crime. He doesnt play too much anymore but still makes random appearences at the table. One of the big influences on me when I was coming up, and someone I will still talk poker with when I find myself in interesting spots.
Johnnee Persian: A friend from college who is currently grinding out SnGs fulltime. I like his game even though it can be pretty different then mine in many ways. I usually talk to him through the power of the interwebs but he provides some interesting comments about hands and gives me a very different perspective.
Tyler and Anthony: Poker friends of mine who I play with pretty frequently and whose games I respect. Probably some of the only people I personally know that I talk poker with, and actually am interested in what their responses are.
Will: A newer player who is still learning the ropes. I talk to him about strategy and general poker concepts. He is possibly one of the nicest guys you could meet at or away from the table.
My name is Steven, and I am a San Diego boy, born and raised. I started playing poker with family when I was pretty young. In fact, one of my earliest memories is sitting with my dad, and having him explain poker hands to me at our dinner table. Throughout high school I played card games, like big 2 and killer, during lunch breaks (and occassionally during class). At the time, the $20 or so that I won seemed huge to me, and I knew that there was something so alluring about playing a game and having people, essentially, pay you to play with them. It was an idea I fell in love with.
In San Diego there is a pretty healthy community of card rooms and casinos, and as soon as I could, I started playing in them. It started with black jack, and after that bored me, I moved to poker. The depth of the game intrigued me, and I dove into it with way more exuberance then...well anything. Fortunately, I had a girlfriend who lived close to one of the casinos so I became a pretty regular player.
When Moneymaker hit, roughly a year or so after I started playing more seriously, it was crazy. Tournament poker blew up and I got swept up with the bug. Everyone and their brother played cards, and I did my best to adapt to the no limit climate. I took a shine to the game, and found out that although I was a mark in the game early on, I picked up the concepts quickly. Being in college at the time, it was perfect for me to skip class to play cards. What harm could that ever do?
Over the last few years I have played with varying degrees of seriousness, ranging from casually playing once or twice a week, to playing for portions of my income. I have recently been playing a bit more online, as the accessability just can't be overlooked (especially because I'm pretty lazy, and if I can avoid driving I can and will).
With the start of 2009, I am coming off a pretty bad downswing, and am aiming at putting a decent roll together for the WSOP in the summer. Im not sure exactly where I am going to go with this blog, as in snap shots of my life, or hand histories, or somewhere in between. Most importantly I hope that this provides a place for me to write about my thoughts on poker and chronicle my journey to the WSOP and beyond. So lets hope for some laughs, and some good stories as the year goes by.
The cast of characters in my life are as follows:
Ashley: My girlfriend, best friend, and running mate in poker. We have been together for a few years and she has started playing tournaments with quite a bit of success in the last 6 months or so. She still works on her cash game, but her love is the tourny scene.
Pops: He taught me how to play when I was young, and now I return the favor. He really enjoys playing but because he owns his own business he doesnt get to play as much as he would like. A pretty solid player that claims to always have an edge on me if we play pots heads up.
Manny: My current/former student. He has went busto a few times, and is in the process of rebuilding his roll with his regular nine to five. I have known the kid since elemntary school, and he has the right notions about the game but somehow can't put it all together and make it work.
Sean: My long time friend, and partner in crime. He doesnt play too much anymore but still makes random appearences at the table. One of the big influences on me when I was coming up, and someone I will still talk poker with when I find myself in interesting spots.
Johnnee Persian: A friend from college who is currently grinding out SnGs fulltime. I like his game even though it can be pretty different then mine in many ways. I usually talk to him through the power of the interwebs but he provides some interesting comments about hands and gives me a very different perspective.
Tyler and Anthony: Poker friends of mine who I play with pretty frequently and whose games I respect. Probably some of the only people I personally know that I talk poker with, and actually am interested in what their responses are.
Will: A newer player who is still learning the ropes. I talk to him about strategy and general poker concepts. He is possibly one of the nicest guys you could meet at or away from the table.
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