Got into Reno a little later then I wanted to. Didnt get a chance to play the 7 o'clock tourny, but the cash game seemed decent so I jumped in and quickly proceeded to dump a buy in. Nothing really remarkable to speak of except that I had a lot of trouble getting the other players to fold a hand. Sucked, but whatever.
Got up early the following day for the noon tourny. Got a little time to do some prep, and mentally prepare for the long day. And fortunately it was a long day.
From jump street, I was running pretty decent. Within the first 5 minutes, called a pre-flop raise with 55, against 9x. Flop was 952 with a 2 daimonds. In the end I got 80% of my villian's stack, which made for a pretty decent start. Other hands of note included, 66 vs AA on the Q62 flop, AA vs JJ, 33 vs KT on the QJ3 flop. Unfortunately, I went pretty card dead late in the tourny, but was able to steal a lot of pots, and scored a final table chop for a over $6K.
I was really happy with my play throughout the tourny, and didn't make too many mistakes throughout. In fact, I was actually able to avoid a few cold decks that should have sent me to the rail. It was pretty amazing to feel like I was playing my best game for nearly 12 hours. Atleast I made a decent cash early, so from here on out, I should have a ton of less pressure on me. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment, so hopefully I can write a more detailed blog in the next couple days. A few more big cashes and this is going to be a pretty epic trip. Let's hope I keep running good!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Bankroll Reading
So I just spent an hour or so going through some old Pokerroad.com threads dealing with bankroll considerations for playing full time. Reading threads in forums like this always makes me feel a bit bad about playing full time. I read things about needing 50 buy ins and it being impossible to grind games like 1-2 and 2-5, which are primarily the games I play.
It just seems really odd to me. It makes me think I'm doing it wrong because I dont have a huge roll, and I don't play super huge. However, I have provided for myself pretty well, never have been super short on cash, and have not had any real problems making my bills. It makes me wonder if I these guys know something I don't. Granted I have not really built my bankroll to the point where I move up, but aside from that I am pretty happy with how I have done.
Well, whatever, just food for a thought I suppose.
It just seems really odd to me. It makes me think I'm doing it wrong because I dont have a huge roll, and I don't play super huge. However, I have provided for myself pretty well, never have been super short on cash, and have not had any real problems making my bills. It makes me wonder if I these guys know something I don't. Granted I have not really built my bankroll to the point where I move up, but aside from that I am pretty happy with how I have done.
Well, whatever, just food for a thought I suppose.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Back To It
Booked a winner of significance last night. Who would have thought it would take me such a long time to put the losers behind me? I didn't, but atleast I am feeling more confident and have stopped losing flips...for now!
Last nights session was duality in practice. I started by playing the smaller game, and played a pretty aggressive game. I went with my reads and was rewarded for it, instead of punished as it has been of late. One of the more interesting spots I got into was actually one of the spots that everything played out perfectly.
1-2 NL: UTG+2 opens for 9. This was not an unusual thing for him as he was opening almost his entire range regardless of position. I happened to be directly on his left, which aside from his offensive habit of coughing/sneezing into his hands and then touching cards for me to plainly see, was a good thing. I look down at 10 10, and elect to flat him because he has shown a propensity to basically shove or just barrel his face off on almost any board. A younger, solid player 3-bets to $30 and UTG+2 and I both call.
The flop is Jh 6h 7s. UTG+2 open shoves for about $50, and I have a decision to make. I think my hand might be a bit too strong to fold in this spot for a half pot bet, but the alternative of calling isn't exactly appealing to me either, mainly because it allows the preflop 3-bettor to play nearly perfectly against my hand. I elect to raise for 2 reasons. First, it stops the preflop 3-bettor from making a play at me with a hand I have beat, like 99, 88, or AK. Second, I believe that the raise makes my hand look HUGE. Popping the original raiser before action has a chance to get back to the 3-bettor screams strength in my opinion and I was banking on the fact that the kid was a good enough hand reader to see it the same way that I did and muck an overpair if he did in fact have one. I raised to $175, and the kid tanked for a long time, then finally mucked his hand. When I turned my hand over the kid looked absolutely sick, and his friend later told me that the kid had kings. UTG+2 shows rags and I scooped the pot. It was a pretty interesting spot I think, and it somewhat shows how easily some of the players, even the better ones, can be exploited.
The 2-4 game went last night, and that game was purely about discipline. There was a maniac at the table in the classic sense of the word. He opened 90% of pots and was always coming in for HUGE raises. 3 limps to him, he opens for $50. EVERYTIME!!!! It was a total cream dream, but I had a lot of difficulty trying to find spots to get in against him. I played pretty lockdown tight, but eventually was rewarded by bushwacking a few people who were too focused on the action player and not taking the other people at the table into account.
As it were the night ended pretty profitably so I can't really complain about anything. Heading back out to play tonight, and Reno is on Thursday. Time to buckle up and get this thing in gear.
Last nights session was duality in practice. I started by playing the smaller game, and played a pretty aggressive game. I went with my reads and was rewarded for it, instead of punished as it has been of late. One of the more interesting spots I got into was actually one of the spots that everything played out perfectly.
1-2 NL: UTG+2 opens for 9. This was not an unusual thing for him as he was opening almost his entire range regardless of position. I happened to be directly on his left, which aside from his offensive habit of coughing/sneezing into his hands and then touching cards for me to plainly see, was a good thing. I look down at 10 10, and elect to flat him because he has shown a propensity to basically shove or just barrel his face off on almost any board. A younger, solid player 3-bets to $30 and UTG+2 and I both call.
The flop is Jh 6h 7s. UTG+2 open shoves for about $50, and I have a decision to make. I think my hand might be a bit too strong to fold in this spot for a half pot bet, but the alternative of calling isn't exactly appealing to me either, mainly because it allows the preflop 3-bettor to play nearly perfectly against my hand. I elect to raise for 2 reasons. First, it stops the preflop 3-bettor from making a play at me with a hand I have beat, like 99, 88, or AK. Second, I believe that the raise makes my hand look HUGE. Popping the original raiser before action has a chance to get back to the 3-bettor screams strength in my opinion and I was banking on the fact that the kid was a good enough hand reader to see it the same way that I did and muck an overpair if he did in fact have one. I raised to $175, and the kid tanked for a long time, then finally mucked his hand. When I turned my hand over the kid looked absolutely sick, and his friend later told me that the kid had kings. UTG+2 shows rags and I scooped the pot. It was a pretty interesting spot I think, and it somewhat shows how easily some of the players, even the better ones, can be exploited.
The 2-4 game went last night, and that game was purely about discipline. There was a maniac at the table in the classic sense of the word. He opened 90% of pots and was always coming in for HUGE raises. 3 limps to him, he opens for $50. EVERYTIME!!!! It was a total cream dream, but I had a lot of difficulty trying to find spots to get in against him. I played pretty lockdown tight, but eventually was rewarded by bushwacking a few people who were too focused on the action player and not taking the other people at the table into account.
As it were the night ended pretty profitably so I can't really complain about anything. Heading back out to play tonight, and Reno is on Thursday. Time to buckle up and get this thing in gear.
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