Don't Bogart me...

I had a terrible night at the tables on Monday night losing $130 over nearly 30 games of gross suckouts and lost races.I was so caught up in it all I forgot all about Hoyazo's "Monday at the Hoy" 6 max nl blogger tourney which I had intended playing in.I do seem to have slipped into the habit of 4/5am bedtimes during this time off work, and if I'm up and there's a blogger game on, then count me in!

Yesterday I took my boy a long walk and after watching a cardrunners video,I hit the tables myself and although I certainly wasn't running well,I did manage to pull back Monday nights deficit and have now boosted my turbo sng profits to just over the $5k mark according to Sharkscope.( Zagga on Stars)

I also took some reassurance from a couple of regulars getting steamed in the chatbox after bad beats.I don't ever go mad in the chatbox but turbo variance could drive a person insane at times and it was nice to see some of the big winners are only human and it gets to them at times aswell.

One of my mental tricks when running really badly is to ask myself how a multi-tabling solid winner ( at my stakes) like Powelljam or The Big Ern would deal with it.The answer is that they keep playing good solid poker and don't to let it drag their game into the land of tilt.I seem to be handling playing 3-4 tables at a time better than previously, although I'm always wary of letting a few bad beats knock me off my stride and into that horrible runaway train tilt mode that can affect us all at the tables.

Overall I think my tilt control is reasonably good for the simple reason that it has to be or I make a tough game even tougher for myself.I won't deny it can creep in a little at times and cause me to make the odd loose call or dodgy decision, but I'm usually self aware enough to recognise it's happening and pull back.

The turbs also seem to have toughened me up mentally for cash games.After missing out on Bodogs blogger game I messed around with a little $25 nl cash play before bed and laughed at the guys moaning about losing to 4-5 bad beats in a row as if it was the end of the world.Try losing 10-20 in a row!

I had also planned on playing in smboatdrinks game on Full Tilt last night, but I missed the registration because I was on the phone to Bodog trying to find out why I couldn't access their Tuesday blogger game on my newly set up account.

I will be playing in Mookies game at 2am UK time assuming I'm not deep in the depths of poker turbo hell!

Tournament: The Mookie
Where/when: Full Tilt, Wednesday 22:00et ( 2am gmt)
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

On Thursday night much later after the Rangers game I plan to play in this one..

Riverchasers Online Tour
No-Limit Hold ‘em, Double Stack
$10+1 NL Full Tilt
Every Thursday at 21:00 ET ( 1am gmt)
Password: riverchasers

Ok,here's the last $15 turbo hand of the night I played and I wondered if anyone has any thoughts on my shove.I've written before that although I don't know ICM ( Independent Chip Modelling) inside out I think I have a decent feel for how to play according to stack sizes and the shoving/calling ranges of my opponents.

PokerStars Game #15918115293: Tournament #80580612, $15+$1 Hold'em No
Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2008/03/11 - 23:59:25 (ET)
Table '80580612 2' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 4: zagga (10120 in chips)
Seat 7: ginbo10006 (11875 in chips)
Seat 8: Ratostrikes (5005 in chips)
zagga: posts the ante 50
ginbo10006: posts the ante 50
Ratostrikes: posts the ante 50
zagga: posts small blind 400
ginbo10006: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to zagga [5d 5s]
Ratostrikes: folds
zagga: raises 9270 to 10070 and is all-in
ginbo10006: calls 9270
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ac 9h]
*** TURN *** [Jd Ac 9h] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ac 9h Qc] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
zagga: shows [5d 5s] (a pair of Fives)
ginbo10006: shows [Ah Qs] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
ginbo10006 collected 20290 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 20290 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ac 9h Qc 2d]
Seat 4: zagga (small blind) showed [5d 5s] and lost with a pair of
Fives
Seat 7: ginbo10006 (big blind) showed [Ah Qs] and won (20290) with two
pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 8: Ratostrikes (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


In this hand the bigger stack than me was a slight winning player over a tiny sample size( $150 profit over 142 games) and I felt that with us both having aprox $10k to the shortstacks $5k,that he wouldn't be able to call my 55 shove with anything less than QQ-AA and maybe AK.I had certainly opened out my game as I do at the late stages of any turbo,however I had only shown down good hands and was not obviously shoving any two cards there.It's probably my mistake for not assigning him a wider calling range although even if I included AQ/AJ/A10 I think my push may still have had a postive expectation.( Expected Value + in poker terms).

I'm not long up! Time to walk Nacho,head over to pick up a meal and Step A from the ex's work and perhaps try to get a game of poker on the ex's pc which runs more badly than me in the turbos!

I have had one good beat over the last week.I live in a flat and the downstairs neighbour moved out just before Xmas.The place has been empty until last Monday and I've been enjoying the peace and quiet so much I was dreading being unlucky enough to be stuck with a new noisy person, but thankfully ( not met them yet) they've been very very quiet so far and the noise levels are nowhere near as bad as they were with the previous occupant.( she was big and I could hear her snoring!)

Ok here are a couple of youtube clips.The first one is for Al Eleven,the S-man,Uncle Chuck + friends and anyone who enjoys da herb and the second is my favourite song by The Cure...

ps I can't believe my next post is my 800th post after nearly three years of blogging.I don't half spout a load of guff!