Sunshiiiine

Summertime is boat time and that's mostly what I've been up to the last few days. I couldn't live anywhere that didn't have the sea nearby, its one of the greatest pleasures in my life and getting out there for just an hour is like having a holiday from the confines of this small rock and office cubicle life.

With that in mind I took Friday afternoon off work to pick up some metalwork which was then used to create a mounting for the new floorboard on the boat. Carpeted that and it's a perfect fit. Did some rewiring, replaced some nuts and bolts and tightened others. On Saturday the boys came down with me to give it a dust-busting and wash and now it's hopefully seaworthy ! Tonight will be the test as we're going to try and use it after work for a first of season run.

I would have played poker yesterday were it not for a hangover from hell. I had a great night on Saturday though with some schoolfriends I haven't seen for ten years and we had a lot of laughs. Ok, off now to put the boat in the water and enjoy a summers evening at speed !

Multi

Having decimated half my bankroll with a slew of tournament buyins and no big score I've been 12-tabling NL10 for the last two nights. I've never 12 tabled before but poker tracker 3 makes it so easy with the amount of new information available on the built in HUD.

Cash is definitely less interesting to write about and play than tourneys (at least at the moment) so I'll keep the stats short.

Played around 5,000 hands and am up $102

It's only a matter of time before my opponents figure me out though

Good luck at the tables

Terrible

I bubbled in a $10 90 man tournament on FTP last night. Then blew the rest of my balance there screwing around at the PLO tables. I aint that bothered, FTP pwns me lately and I don't like their software or blind structures as much as other sites. I guess I'll donk around in their freerolls until I get something back. Right now my balance there is exactly 1 cent LOL !

Stars went ok last night but not great either, I was playing for volume over quality, which is a trap I've been in many times before. Giving your full attention to one tournament is far more +EV than splitting it over 4 or 5 games. Cash games it doesn't matter so much but you can't win tourneys from just playing your cards straight up.

To make the night as punishing as possible so that I don't forget it I watched the famous Gigli, I didn't think it was really going to be that bad. After what I've been through I may never be the same again !

Breathe deeply

Hard to review a weekend where I played a ton of big and little tournaments and basically ended down by the rake and that’s it. That sounds as though I might be downhearted and really I'm not. I am just about playing as good as I ever have, while this is no stellar achievement it gives me great confidence to be back up to the stage I was at around 2 years ago when the playing time dropped significantly. I've been trusting my reads and making some really good calls but then losing to runner runners or 2 outers. Some really sick stuff, but it has to turn around soon.

This thing about "committing to the move" does mean that my whole stack is going into the middle more often. Even though I am mostly a favourite when this is happening the idea in massive tournaments is to eliminate luck as much as possible by not getting allin so often and leaving yourself vulnerable to a bad beat. Hard to avoid when every other monkey wants to get all there chips in the middle as fast as possible though.

My worst mistake of the weekend was deep in one tournament (itm at this stage) and I pick up pocket 3's on the Button. 1 limper before me and the SB and BB complete. Flop comes Qs 9s 2d and it's checked to me. The way the action has been going I don't figure anyone for having a piece of the flop and bet just under the pot. 2 blinds fold and then the last guy uses up all his timebank and shoves.

I've got him covered and I'm sure he hasn't paired the board, he's shoving a flush draw. So me thinking "nice read Tan, you genius", goes ahead and calls.

And he turns over KsTs

Someone types "nice call" in the chat

Then a ten hits hit the turn and he scoops the pot and about ten minutes later (yeah that’s how long it takes for the penny to drop) I suddenly think was that actually a good call ?

Of course it isn't ! With two overcards, flush draw and gutshot he's a 2-1 favourite to win the hand.

"nice read Tan, but your math was terrible."

Well, by the time he shoved I was getting odds to call even as that big a dog. I could you use that as an excuse, but lets be honest here. I actually thought I was ahead when that money went in.

Here endeth the lesson.

Hard times

My luck at Stars and Fulltilt is testing my ability to be reasonable about anything. I may as well start TanO's roulette blog right now.

Tomorrow I'll be fine but right now poker is a real crap-hole. Maybe its just needing too much luck battling the weekend warriors in tournaments. I definitely need to be allin fewer times during weekday games because players know how to fold and its easier to chip up winning small pots.

Maybe I'm just down on my luck

Whatevs, there are far more important things to worry about than poker suckouts.

As DB says you just gotta play through it

** UPDATE ** I sucked out and busted a short stack with AJ vs AQ, me and stars have kissed and made up

Blogger tourneys today !

Lets play






Hope to see you there

Couple of hands

For these hands they are all at full tables but I've just cut out the players we dont care about to make em quicker to read

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 7: AverageJoe ($9490)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus ($10695) -


PRE-FLOP:

Small Blind Player Sitting Out
BIG Blind Player Sitting Out
Dealt To: TanOrpheus


CALL AverageJoe ($200)
RAISE TanOrpheus ($600) ** Easy button raise with medium strength cards like these
CALL AverageJoe ($400)


FLOP:

Pot: $1200


CHECK AverageJoe
BET TanOrpheus ($800) ** Obv I am betting out my TP but not so hard that it looks like I'm scared of the flush
RAISE AverageJoe ($2400) ** Standard play from him, find out if I have a flush or if that was just a C-bet. He prob is not expecting me to bet out with a decent flush here
RAISE TanOrpheus ($4600) ** This bet went in quickly, I wanted it to look more like I wanted action now because I'm 95% sure he hasn't got a flush there if he does shove at this point then I have to drop it
FOLD AverageJoe ** Easy money

TanOrpheus collected $6300 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $6300 Rake: $0


Example of a Stop N Go


Seat 2: BlindStealer ($6428)
Seat 5: TanOrpheus ($3030) -

PRE-FLOP:

Small Blind Player Sitting Out
TanOrpheus posts BIG blind $250
Dealt To: TanOrpheus


ANTE TanOrpheus ($25)
RAISE BlindStealer ($750)
CALL TanOrpheus ($500) ** Decided this once that QJ has more chance of winning a pot like this than by shoving preflop and getting called as a 40/60 dog by A-9 or something

FLOP:

Pot: $1525


BET TanOrpheus ($2255) ** Insta-push, try not to look at the flop
FOLD BlindStealer

TanOrpheus collected $1800 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $1800 Rake: $0



Finally I eventually made a good read on this hand but should have moved on an earlier street

Seat 3: LooseBB ($12990) -
Seat 4: UTG WeakTight ($20570)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus ($10990)


PRE-FLOP:

LooseBB posts BIG blind $300
Dealt To: TanOrpheus


ANTE LooseBB ($25)
ANTE UTG WeakTight ($25)
ANTE TanOrpheus ($25)
RAISE UTG WeakTight ($900)
CALL TanOrpheus ($900) ** Suited connectors are an ok hand to see a flop with vs a weak-tight player raising UTG whos easy to read
CALL LooseBB ($600)

FLOP:

Pot: $2775


BET LooseBB ($600) ** weak bet, probably flush draw ?
FOLD UTG WeakTight ** smart UTG raise then !
CALL TanOrpheus ($600) ** this is a weak call I think, if I really thought he was on the flush draw I could raise here but my own draw made me just call

TURN:

Pot: $3975


BET LooseBB ($600)
CALL TanOrpheus ($600) ** another weak bet and weak call from me, not really thinking about the hand just my cards and draw at this point

RIVER:

Pot: $5175


The diamond hits and I am thinking "Oh he got there" but then :

BET LooseBB ($600) ** He bets the minimum again. There's no way he hit the flush and underbet for value on the river. If he was chasing and got there his bet is going to be aroud 2-3k on that river
RAISE TanOrpheus ($3000) ** If I thought he was chasing and would bet 2-3k on the river wouldn't it make sense that I could have been chasing and got there on the river so put in the 3k bet
FOLD LooseBB ** Yeah that makes sense to him

TanOrpheus collected $6675 from main pot

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

What can I surmise from this and yesterdays bottler hand ? I'm trusting my reads more but not willing to follow through on them 100% if all my chips are at risk unless I'm getting in the 15BB range and having to do something soon anyway. Should it really make a difference ? If I'm 90% sure on a read then I should follow it through whether I have 15BB's or 100BB's. Otherwise it's just costing me chips.

I don't rock climb, but there is a saying in rock climbing "Commit to the Move"

Once you have decided to do the move / sequence, then cast off and do it without any doubts - no second guessing yourself - mentally and/or physically. The second you start thinking about failure is usually when you blow the move and fall.

Same thing here. Except I won't fall and hurt myself, the worst that can happen is 8 other donkeys see me do something stupid and "lol" at me. Even more reason to go for it 100%.
I'm really focussed on playing as good as I can at the moment and really want to keep that momentum going. Hopefully other people will realise why I'm burning them off a bit right now. It might sound a bit gamblerific to say it, but the last time I cared about poker this much good things started to happen, in and outside the game.

The dream lives on….

Gotta have faith

The hand below is why I'm still frustrated about poker. Not bad beats, just not following through when every instinct I have is screaming call. I tanked for nearly all my time on the river here. Nothing about his allin bet makes sense, and I go ahead and fold like a pussy a let him show off his bluff. Weak. Ghey. I guess the best thing about it is its +1 for trusting myself next time. Got a couple more hands saved from tonight which I'll try and go over tomorrow as I think they may be worth posting.

Results summary :
243/1808 in the MSOP, 189 paid
147/2062 in the $5k, ITM but not really (AK doesnt beat KK very often)
4th in a $4 180, good for $57
busto in 5 multi table SNGs around about the bubble


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: Argois ($31447)
Seat 2: vincentkeize ($25648)
Seat 3: elblindo123 ($8333)
Seat 4: cusegop ($6345)
Seat 5: Børm ($23417)
Seat 6: ArtfulRodger ($6072) -
Seat 7: verenicecard ($11991) -
Seat 8: 1*CROCS*1 ($15770) -
Seat 9: TanOrpheus ($23067)


PRE-FLOP:

verenicecard posts small blind $200
1*CROCS*1 posts BIG blind $400
Dealt To: TanOrpheus


ANTE Argois ($50)
ANTE vincentkeize ($50)
ANTE elblindo123 ($50)
ANTE cusegop ($50)
ANTE Børm ($50)
ANTE ArtfulRodger ($50)
ANTE verenicecard ($50)
ANTE 1*CROCS*1 ($50)
ANTE TanOrpheus ($50)
RAISE TanOrpheus ($1200)
CALL Argois ($1200)
FOLD vincentkeize
FOLD elblindo123
FOLD cusegop
FOLD Børm
FOLD ArtfulRodger
FOLD verenicecard
FOLD 1*CROCS*1


FLOP:

Pot: $3450
   

BET TanOrpheus ($2800)
CALL Argois ($2800)


TURN:

Pot: $9050
     

BET TanOrpheus ($4000)
CALL Argois ($4000)


RIVER:

Pot: $17050
      

CHECK TanOrpheus
BET Argois ($23397)
FOLD TanOrpheus
Argois:


Argois collected $17050 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $17050 Rake: $0

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: Argois collected 17050 - Net Gain/Loss: ($9000)
  
Seat 2: vincentkeize folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 3: elblindo123 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 4: cusegop folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 5: Børm folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 6: ArtfulRodger button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 7: verenicecard small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-250)
Seat 8: 1*CROCS*1 big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-450)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-8050)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners