Sputtering start, but a start indeed

My week started off very well as I picked up a buyin at $50NL on Monday night. On Tuesday night I played 9 hands online for a $0.50 win. I felt that my eyes were heavy and that I wouldn’t be sharp, so I quickly got offline. After watching some T.V., I decided to try my hand at Omaha 8. I know very little about that game but have played plenty of Stud 8, so I thought, what the heck! I quickly dropped my $25 buyin and decided that I might want to learn a little something about that game before I try it again.

I played about 2 hours on Wednesday night, though I still didn’t feel that strong of a drive to crush the tables. Only intending on playing for a quick 30-minute session, I found myself a slight loser when the 30 minutes was up. Not having booked a losing session in my last 9 trials, I didn’t want to swallow that bitter pill. A couple of big hands cost me about $30 or so and all of a sudden I was down to a $40 loss at the hour and a half mark. I hit a big hand to the good to bring my loss back below $20 and decided that I had had enough for the night and I crawled into bed at 11:30.

”Tournament of Champions”

My intention had been to play a few quick hands then get off since I had a big tournament on Thursday night. We played 12 tourneys at a friend’s house and have held back $5 per head every week. In these tourney’s, you get points based on how well you finish. The top 6 point earners were allowed to play for the set aside prize pool with starting stacks in proportion to how many points they earned compared to the other 5 top players.

On Thursday morning I’m up at 6:30 and at work at 7:45am. I have a really busy and stressful day at work and know that this isn’t conducive to great poker playing. When I finally get off work, I was fortunate to have an empty house to come home to as my wife and kid were still at the school where she works. I got a few quick tasks done then found some classical music on Rhapsody to help calm my nerves. Lying down, listening to soothing music and focusing can do incredible things for your poker game prior to game time.

At 6:30pm, I’m seated at my friend’s poker table w/ him and 4 other “top point earners.” My stack is the smallest starting stack at the table at around 8,500 chips, the largest stack is on my left at around 12k. The blinds started at 25/50 and go up every 25 minutes, so I’m in no big hurry to start making moves. I win some small hands early to make up some ground on the other stacks, then a key hand happens in my BB to change the distribution of the chips. I’m dealt the AQ and the table folds around to the SB who just completes, he started out 3rd in chips. I knew that this guy might think that I was making a move, so I made a standard raise to get some money in the pot. He calls. The flop is Q high with some straight potential and the SB leads into me for 1k. I really feel that I am ahead here w/ my TPTK but I want to let him keep firing and I also want to see a safe turn card before I really make this a huge pot. The turn is a Jack, which completes some of the straight possibilities, and the SB leads into me for a 2nd time. I call his 2k bet but am starting to get a little worried about my one pair hand. The river is an off-suit King, and thankfully the SB just checks and I am happy to check behind him. He shows Q-6o for TPNK and I rake in the first big pot of the night. About 2 hours in, this same player was the first of us to get knocked down to the felt. The player who started the tourney w/ the largest stack was soon behind him due to being completely card dead.

How you act and react toward your hole cards matters!

The rest of the night consisted of me stealing the BB from my SB or stealing the blinds when the player to my right just completed his small blind. About every 3rd orbit I was able to steal one of these based on some key tells that the players to my immediate right and left were giving off. The player to my left always capped her cards when she wanted to play and did something else w/ them when she didn’t. The player on my right never bothered to conceal his opinion of his holdings and between his face and his handling of his cards, I could always make a reasonable estimate of whether he would call my raise after he completed his SB.

We’re down to 4 handed, I’ve got my quarter of the chips in play and I pick up pocket 6s on the button. I make my standard raise to 2.5x BB and get called by my friend in the BB. He defends w/ a lot and is a very tough player post flop. He also very rarely reraises preflop, so it’s very tough putting him on a hand. I guess you could say that he is a small ball type of player. The flop is 5-9-5r and he leads into me for 2k. I have played thousands of hands with this guy and he will make this bet both when he has it and when he doesn’t. My gut said that he didn’t have it and I went with it. I assume my subconscious mind realizes or sees something that my conscious mind does not, but I have an overwhelming feeling that I am ahead here, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why. I call, the turn is an off-suit 4 and he fires 4k into me. I don’t like my hand much anymore, but he’s capable of firing all 3 streets and my gut initially said that I was ahead, so I stick with it. The river pairs the 4 putting 2 pair on the board and my friend just goes irate and throws over pocket ducks like he just all of a sudden got caught up on. I rake in a nice pot to recapture the chip lead.

Queens don’t beat Kings!

The lady at the table is eventually knocked out when her pocket queens don’t hold up against the BB’s K-10 and we’re down to 3 handed. We play 3 handed for about 20 minutes and I lose the chip lead on a hand where I had a flush draw and an OESD on the turn. I picked up the str8 draw on the turn and the SB over-pushed to get me off my big draw. If I’m holding this combo draw on the flop and he makes this same play, I’m going to the felt w/ it, but w/ one card to come facing an over bet, by 15 outs didn’t seem like enough to call for my tournament life. This hand put him into the chip lead and left my friend and me w/ about 18k each. With 24k in chips, he agreed to an even split. So for the night I was +$230 and my best month ever just keeps getting better!!!

I also picked up a buyin at $50NL this morning when my flopped set crushed a Bodonk w/ top pair. I’m thinking of taking a shot at $100NL soon, word on the street is that NLHE on Bodog doesn’t get any tougher until $400NL. May this good run never end!!!!

A parting question: When you crush your goals for a given month, how do you keep yourself motivated to keep playing your best and actively trying to find new fishing grounds?

lakeoffire says

I would like to play in your home game, blind stealing is quite impossible in mine. Good luck in the tournament of Champions!

08/26/07

EdmondDantes says

I've found money to be a good motivator to keep playing well. And I have good news. Bodog $400NL and $600NL are softer than $100NL.

08/26/07

lakong says

Your tells on the PF opinion of a players cards is so true. I always wait to look at my cards until it is my turn to act for two reasons:

1) I don't want to give off any of the tells you mention, but more importantly
2) I like to look at how everyone reacts to their cards. When you have players giving off tells like you mention -- and it happens all the time -- it's golden. One great thing to do is to look at players to your left when you're a few off the button. Often it becomes very obvious when they don't like their cards and are not going to play. This effectively puts you on the button or closer to the button and hence your cards have more value.

09/04/07

Log in with your TwoRags.com account. Click here to register. Email: Password: Remember log-in information