The Haunt of Roulette Dares

If anyone has Comcast Digital, check out The Mars Volta under their music concerts On Demand section. They are one of the best live acts out there right now. There's also a music video from a band called The Cloud Room somewhere on there. Fuse, maybe? And M83's "Teen Angst". Those are all good listens.

Right now I'm in the first stage of a $10+1 SnG. I've folded my first 7 hands preflop. My best two cards were J-9 suited, but I had those UTG+1, so it was a clear fold. Actually, I rarely play J9. I'll complete a small blind, check it in the BB, but the only other time I'll play it is when there are multiple limpers and I'm on the button.

Which got me thinking ...

What is my favorite starting hand? Obviously AA should be the automatic reply, but I personally like 9-10 suited in late position when there are a lot of limpers. Call me crazy, but that always sounds like the possibility to be a huge monekmaker. Aside from AA, I mean. Heh.

End of level 3 and I've barely played. What'll probably happen is I'll push with decent cards in an effort to steal the blinds, and one of 'em will have a good pocket pair and bust me. Blah. Let's see.

It didn't go that way. I never got anything decent to work with, and ended up going all in with an open end straight draw, but lost to someone who called with Ace high.

Variance has been dogging me lately. I came out of the gate on fire when I got my internet back, but it's been up and down for the last week. I'm still +$100 since two Saturdays ago, so I won't complain much.

Agaetis Bjryun

Sigur Ros is the perfect relaxation music for me. I wouldn't exactly call them the new Pink Floyd, but they have an epic, dreamy sound to them. On the down side, they don't sing in English, and I'm curious what the lyrics are.

Right now I'm playing in a $10+1 SnG after winning $40 in ring games. We're only on level two and I'm at 880 chips. This one isn't as aggressive as most of the others I've played in recently. I've been mostly folding. I picked up two small pots in level one by check raising and getting the other guy to fold. Can't really call it dropping the hammer since once I was only on a couple of draws, but I'll take it.

Heh. I just raised on the button with K-10 and turned a straight. The other guy didn't have much, but I managed to drag about 350 chips. Now I'm taking advantage of the conservative nature of the table, raising to 4X the BB with hands like A-10 off and scooping the blinds. Seems like all the players are waiting for a premium hand to fall into their lap, but I won't go too far with this aggressive play. Time to back off now before they start standing up to my raises. Besides, two stacks are getting small, and they might push any time now. I'm third in chips and not about to double someone up and lose my edge.

AK out of the big blind now. All folded to the SB. He completed. I raised. He folded. I tried knocking out the short stack with my 7's, but he ad A-9 and caught an Ace. Bastard. Level 3 in a couple hands.

Just folded AQ after UTG opened with a raise. He's the big stack and a decent player. No thanks. Flop came Q high. Continuation bet of 1/3 the pot was called by both preflop callers. He bet the pot on a blank turn, and then showed AQ when they mucked. Blah. I just stole his SB, though.

Down to 735 chips after I missed my open ended straight draw + flush draw to a short stack who went all in on the flop.

Just lost when I went all win with AJ suited after the button mini-raised. He was lucky enough to have AA.

Inertiatic ESP

Last night I made a pretty big score for a $25 NL game, dragging a $62 pot.
I was on the button with 10-10. An EP player open raised for $1. I called, and so did the BB.
THe flop came 10 9 7 with two diamonds. BB led out with a $1 bet and our EP raiser made it $3 to go. At this point I was hoping and thinking that the EP raiser had an overpair so I could punish him. I re-raised to $6. The big blind called without hesitation, and so did EP.

At this point, I put EP on an overpair. The range of hands BB could have was pretty big, though. OPen ended straight draw, 4 to the flush, possibly two pair if he had the case 10 and decided to play 10-9. I wasn't sure. He was new to the table.

They both checked to me when a black King came on the turn, and I bet the pot. EP could have KK, but if he had AA or AK I could nail him here. Again, the BB just called, and so did EP. The river was a black 4. They both checked to me. I pushed for my last $6.50. BB folded (diamond draw, perhaps?) and EP called. My set was good, and he didn't show.

I mostly folded after that, never getting any action at that table, and the other three tables I was on were pretty weak-tight. I stole blinds and picked a few small pots, but called it a night and went to bed at 11. 6:30 comes faster than I'd like every morning.

Apocalypse Please

Last night I made another $50 in $25 NL, playing for about an hour and a half. That two week break really did me some good. I realize now that I was just going through the motions before, waiting for the nuts and not really thinking through most hands. These past two nights, I've been giving more thought to what my opponent is holding than what I am holding, and I've been betting what I think he will call, or raise. I know it sounds like common sense stuff that we should all be doing at all times, but for me it's easy to fall into a rut of bad habits like loose preflop calls or not thinking through river bets. It could also be that I've been having a good run of cards, but I'm not so sure. I've been folding most hands, and playing very aggressive on the flop when something hits my hand.

It's also been a nice stress release from all the work I've been doing lately. It feels good to get home, look at the clock, and realize I have a few hours to enjoy myself rather than pass out, wake up, and get back to the daily grind.

Back to work for now. I plan on picking up some CD-Rs so I can add to my work playlist. Autolux, Nine Black Alps, the new Franz, and The Editors are all on my short list. Anyone else have suggestions?

A Decade Under the Influence

A few weeks ago, I cashed out for $1300. I had managed to make $1100 playing $25 NL and $10 SnG's in a little under two months, which I thought was decent. The money is gone now, deposited into our savings to be used for new house stuff.

I deposited $100 into a Party skin two days ago, and managed to make $50 in about 90 minutes. I placed 2nd in a $10 SnG for $30, and made $20 playing ring games during the SnG.

I think I played some of the best poker I've played in a long time. I played tight-aggressive preflop, make some nice moves on the flop, and caught good cards at the same time.

I missed one draw in a large pot, and that cost me about $20. I had an open-ended straight draw plus the second nut flush draw. I was fairly sure one guy had trips and the other had two pair because it was a nicely coordinated board of J 10 5 with two clubs. Turns out they both had a set. It was 10-10 vs. 5-5. vs my KQ of clubs. When they both went all-in, I thought my call was rather automatic given the odds. Damnable bricks.

So, maybe some playing tonight. I need my fix, and caffeine isn't cutting it.

I'm Alive

Just a quick post in case anyone still checks this.

My internet was hooked up yesterday, and right now I'm playing two tables on Eurobet.

I had planned on writing poker theory posts while waiting to play again, but my new job has me working insane hours. Last week I worked 70 hours.

I work in finance, and my company just obtained a huge amount of business from Charles Schwab. My responsibility is to maintain the successful parallel running of 10 fixed income (bonds, etc.) mutual funds during the day, and then reconcile reports sent by the current custodian at night. So, I go into work around 8, and leave around 10 or 11 pm each night. At least I'm getting paid the overtime ...

Enough of that, though. I'll be playing and writing whenever I can. Hope you've all been running well.

High-Ate-Us

September 17th. That's when I can play poker again. My fiancee and I moved into our new place over the weekend, but Comcast can't get out there any sooner. You'd think that if a company is going to strap it on and ram it in, they'd at least let you pick the time. That's partially the sellers' fault, though. They didn't cancel their services until the night before closing, so I missed out on earlier dates.

My bankroll wasn't very big (A little under $1500) but I need to keep most of that money out for house stuff now, so I'll probably do a $200 deposit and do some serious bonus whoring to work it higher. I'll also be signing up for PSO (bonus code: HighOnPoker) at that time. I think Bodog will be my first stop. After that, I might hit the Crypto skins for their little $50 bonuses. Every little thing counts.

I'll still do a post here and there to talk about potential strategies, or to dig up old hands, but it'll be light in content for the next two weeks. Take it easy.