February 15, 2008

I hit a huge hand and lost top pair (AQ on a Queen high board), to 2 pair. that was for almost a buy in, but i called a preflop raise which turned into 5 total people on a 6 handed table calling a preflop raise of $34! I had AJc and the flop came queen hi and 2 clubs. I was in the SB and I pushed for about 100 more and got 1 caller that had me covered and another shorty that had like $8 left. I hit a club on the river and took down a $350+ pot. Up about $100 on the night...After losing that hand with AQ i was up about 80 and ground it out to up about 105 and quit to play in a tourney. I am playing the $55 buy in $50k guarantee. I have been itching to play a tourney and had some tourney $$ on poker stars and decided to give it a go. I shut down the cash tables cuz i was up over $100 and wanted to concentrate on the tourney. Looking for a deep cash tonight.

So far, i am up to about 3500 (starting stack is 3000) about 30 mins in...table seems loose and exploitable. Updates to come.

Sitting below average at the first break. had about 4500, but lost 800 on the last hand. I had JJ and bumped it from 100 to 350 and the button raised to 800. I called and the flop came King hi. I check and he bet out 900. I had a feeling he had AK and let it go. need to make some progress this hour. otherwise i just need to get aggressive late for a push to the money.

2nd hand after break i limp the button with 78. flop comes 456. i check and there is one bet. turn comes 8, i check and dude pushes...has me covered by a ton. i call and river comes 7 and we split. would have put me over 7k. now, i sit around 3000 after a missed flop on the next hand. oh well.

finished a cash session up 265. would have been 365, but i lost KK to A3 against a short stack. very close to gold vip on stars...one more session and I am there...so I will be playing in the 100k free roll next weekend, which i am looking forward to.

Final Recap:

Poker is such a weird game. It is really just a psychological battle that you play with yourself. Always a balance between confidence and arrogance. My confidence was totally shattered the other night. I dropped about 600 and I documented some of the hands. I got in great and just got unlucky. That is part of the game. My sessions following were very good and made up for most of the losses. I just need to learn to take it in stride and not lose my confidence. I play a tighter brand of poker than most on the cash tables, but when I get in, I have the best of it usually.

It is funny because I hit a nice hand and was shutting down my tables. I had the sit out next blind check box checked and the last hand occurred on both of my tables at the same time. I had AA on one and KK on the other. I won a few bucks with my AA, but ended up dropping about 30 with my KK when I got into a 3way pot and lost to A3. Oh well.

Regarding my tourney play. I had a few nice hands, one of which would have been huge, but it got counterfeited when the board matched my 8 high straight. I made a few moves, chipped up and then ended up pushing A6o in MP and ran into AA. I think I made my move far, far too early. I was pushing things too hard and need to be more patient. When the blinds creep up things can change in a hurry and there is no need to push too hard. I need to remember that.

Anyway, my poker confidence is returning and I hope I can put together a sustained run of positive results and make a push to 2k+ on my bankroll.