Saturday 1/28/2006

Looking back on the past few days, I have come up with a few thoughts. I am playing well early...I think I am pressing too much on the bubble. I am making good moves and making excellent calls, but when I call a push with a solid hand and have the guy dominated preflop, I end up losing and my good call nets me an early exit...I busted in 5th with a good stack I pushed 88 over the top of a guy I knew had a mediocre hand. He called with KQo, suicide if you ask me and hit 2 kings. My mistake for making a move. Still plugging away, gonna chill on bubble a bit and quit pressing the action.

It's about 20 mins after I posted this and just won a sng. I did exactly what I said, tightened up my play on the bubble and did well.

10 mins after the few lines I wrote I finished another sng in 1st. I think I have identified my problem...Bubble play. I was too loose!

Early in the month, I was busting a lot in 8th place. I mean, >20% were 8th place finishes. So, I thought I needed to play a little more intelligently and tighter early in the sngs and that really helped me get deeper. When I started to 3 and 4 table the sngs, I think I was pushing too hard on the bubble and couldn't figure out why I was not making any dough! Pretty much one of two things were happening in my sngs.

• Either I was playing too tight and when I choose my spot, I let myself get a bit too shortstacked and people would call and suck out. But, I did see some fuckin crazies calling with crap. On the last sng I won, I pushed K9s and was called by the big stack with K8o!! My hand held up and I went on to finish it up and take it down, but I just can't believe some of the stuff I see on the $55s.
• Or, I would play very well early, double up within the first 25 hands and then I would get too aggressive and bust.

Thing is, I think just poor luck in terms of the cards that hit the board were the biggest reason I ended up with a losing streak. I have to admit I could have played better, but I think I have made a few tweaks in the past 2 days and not only stopped my hemorrhaging of my bankroll, but had a winning night!

Just cashed in an $11 sng on empire to get my roll to $88 on there. I've cashed in 4 straight. Those players on the $11s are just plain terrible. If anyone mentioned their horrible play, they get very defensive. There was a conversation on the table and of course I had to join in. Anyway, they all thought they were playing well. I called a 7xbb raise, very reluctantly, but I realized I was playing against donks and thought I would just see the flop. I flopped the nut straight, but there were 2 hearts on board, so I raised about a quarter of the pot and got called, jack comes on turn to make the board 10 J Q K. I figure I am gonna split the pot and saw the guy called all the big pre-showdown raises with A8o. Peddle nuts on the $11s!!! The play is so bad and predictable that I am considering some 4-tabling challenges on the $11. Maybe play a few hundred in a week and see what I can do.

Quick update, playing in the Empire $200 freeroll. These are pretty fun...you push early and try to double up. I was able to hit a pretty fat hand early and got really lucky so far. Already itm and I have a fat stack. Blinds are 5000/10000 and I am on button after the break....so I should be in a great position to sit tight and wait for a hand to push on.