Still at Deaths Door...

I had intended on going back to work today but after waking up sweating,with the bed soaking, ( dreams of Amatays woman,Kathy Liebert maybe?!) and after endless spluttering with a beast of a cough,I decided man flu had got the better of me and phoned in sick.

I've been sick all weekend and as a result haven't played too much poker.The games I have played have gone reasonably well and I'm quite pleased with the start I've made to the month.After my 5 in a row streak at Party,I was reluctant to play there as my warped logic said the chances of winning the 6th were unlikely.I did manage to come back from a 350 shortstack when my 84sooooted cracked Aces, but it wasn't to be.I did at least manage 2nd in the only other game I've played there since Thursday.

I'm finding the HUD on Pokertracker 3 really helps a ton with my decision making.In sngs it's quite possible to get an idea of how a villain is playing from quite a small sample size.For example,even with only 10 hands played,if the villain has played most of the them it's almost certain he's a donkey.

On one occasion a loose ( 46% vpip /26% PFR**) button player made a 3 bb raise when folded to him.I had 1010 in the small blind,shoved all in and he folded.Obviously anyone opening from the button when folded to them has to be on a wider range, but the HUD stats which showed the villain had played nearly half of his hands and raised a large % of them,meant I was pretty sure I was ahead.He folded that time although I would have been glad if he'd called with a weaker hand.

The hand below is a spot where 99/100 I raise and would be happy to get it in preflop.On this occasion I had over 100 hands on Player 3 ( initial raiser),it's very early on and he raises over a limper from early position.He had put money in the pot voluntarily 6% of the time over those 100 hands and raised 6% preflop too.He was playing many tables and his raise just screamed KK/AA/Monster hand to me.The result of course doesn't matter....grrrrrrrrrrrrr!



Here's one that's certainly not standard and may even have been a poor shove by me.Hmm for some reason the hand replayer as used above didn't split the pot or allocate the sidepot.Here's a link to the hand to make it easier to view.I've provided the raw hand history for anyone reading at work or without access to pokerhand.org.

***** Hand History for Game 7697101360 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $22 USD Buy-in Trny: 43831824 Level: 6 Blinds(300/600) - Sunday, January 11, 20:12:11 ET 2009
Table Speed #1330290 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: Hero ( 1,640 )
Seat 9: KaraDani ( 2,495 )
Seat 8: PartyLovesMe ( 7,500 )
Seat 5: gharibo89 ( 6,835 )
Seat 3: golf147111 ( 230 )
Seat 7: Tight Multi-tabler ( 1,300 )
Trny: 43831824 Level: 6
Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 5h Jc ]
PartyLovesMe folds
KaraDani folds
golf147111 is all-In [230]
gharibo89 folds
Hero is all-In [1,340]
Tight Multi-tabler folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, Ks, Ah ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
Hero shows [ 5h, Jc ]a pair of Kings.
golf147111 shows [ 8c, Jd ]a pair of Kings.
Hero wins 1,780 chips from the side pot 1 with a pair of Kings.
golf147111 wins 345 chips from the main pot with a pair of Kings.
Hero wins 345 chips from the main pot with a pair of Kings.


In this hand I'm in the small blind with 1640 chips.( 1340 after paying the 300 small blind).The blinds have reached 300/600 and there are still 6 of us left,including a very shortstack who had just lost the last hand on a suckout.The shorty stuck in his last 230 chips preflop,the bigstack button folded and the action was on me with J5.Now the big blind was the same tighty ( 6% vpip/6%pfr)multi-tabler I laid down AK to in the hand above.He had not played a hand at all in this game and was probably also aware of my tight stats.I reckoned there was a good chance he would fold leaving me headsup in the hand against the shorty who I guessed would be shoving whatever hand he had been dealt.The pot was so big ( and I was on just over 2bb) that I felt it was a reasonable move at the time.

We split the pot,I gained about 700 chips and went on to come 2nd.Good move or lucky donkery?Hmmmmm!

Ok,time to go and see if I can force myself to eat anything.It's not easy having man flu....( not that I make a fuss!)

5 in a row...

Today is my last day off work and I've been struck down by man flu.Grrrr!

To the poker and for the first time all week I really got stuck into it last night and played a total of 30 $22 turbs on Party.( 3 tabling) When I was last off work I pushed too hard at the felt,played too many tables and ran like crap.I suppose fear of failure and being a lazy git have meant that I've had a far more relaxed attitude to the grind this week.

The fear of failing may also simply be down to a slightly weak ,wimpish attitude.Even if I'm running well at the $16's ( 18 player turbs)I still only cash just over 1/4 times aprox.This means dealing with the pain of soul sucking beats 3/4 of the time.( and even cashing 1/4 doesn't always mean a win!)For all I hope I come across as quite laidback about my poker,I detest losing with a passion and hate the mental pain and anguish I feel when I don't take a turb down due to a suckout.

I can usually gee myself up when I'm down and that's why when I've run poorly at Stars over a long session, I push on and play more, because if my game is good, I'm going to profit in the end.I've realised now that although that is the case,the end isn't going to be that night and that when running very very badly sometimes ,it's ok to accept a losing night and go to bed!( I usually realise this around 6.30am!) The nature of poker means sadly it's not possible to will yourself to victory.You can only focus on staying on your best game.

Anyways here's how it went down last night to give you a flavour of a night at the turbs and obviously to brag about how it finished!

Game 1 : Shoved A10 (sb into bb) into KK at 200/400.Out.
Game 2 : Shoved QJ ( sb into bb again!) into AK at 200/400.Out. ( v same player both times!)
Game 3 : 1010 AIPF ( All in preflop) v Ak.lost race.Out
Game 4 : Shoved A5 into KK at 200/400.Out
Game 5: Took it down baby!First.
Game 6: Shoved K5sooted ,three handed into 77 at 400/800.Lost.Came 3rd.
Game 7: Shoved A3,three handed,called by KJ.Lost.Came 3rd.
Game 8: Called a shove with A6sooted.Six handed with blinds at 300/600.Lost to raisers QK.Out.
Game 9: Shoved A10 into Aces ,Five handed at 300/600.Out.
Game 10: Still eight left at 300/600.Called shorty shove for 600 with A7 and lost to Q10.Next hand AIPF with A9 v 66 and K6.Out.
Game 11:Raised with KQs.Flat called by one player.Flop Kd 6s 10s.Money in,he shows KK,I don't improve.Out.
Game 12:AK v QK AIPF.King on flop,Queen on turn.Out.
Game 13: Stacks: Me 1170,fishy idiot 2500,bigstack 10k,medstack 5.4k.bb is 200/400.Idiot min raises and I shove over with A9.He calls with K10 and hits King.Out on bubble.
Game 14: AK loses to 1010 AIPF.Fair enough!
Game 15:QQ V 77 and A10 AIPF.7 on river.Out.
Game 16: KK V 77 AIPF.7 on flop this time.Out.
Game 17:KK V AA.Ace and King on flop.Out.
Game 18:99 v 88 AIPF.Money in on 679 flop.10 on turn.Out and fuckin' ouch again!
Game 19:Shove A9h and lose to KJs AIPF.
Game 20: Took 2nd place.Yeeeeha!
Game 21:Shoved 88 into QQ on bubble against other shortstack.Out.
Game 22: Free flop with K2 in bb.Flop 2s 10h 2c.check/called flop.Turn Ace clubs.Checked out of position hoping he had hit Ace.He checked behind.River 9c.Money in.I let him hit a runner runner flush with K10c.Grrrrr!
Game 23:Shoved A4 into A10 ,three handed.3rd place.
Game 24:Took it down baby! First.
Game 25:Three left.I shove 1010,both call.K10 for bigstack and JQ for other fish.Flop A 4 6.Looking good...Turn King.Took 2nd though as I had more chips than JQ fish at start of hand.
Game 26:A5 shoved HU.Called by K8c.Two Kings on flop.2nd place.
Game 27:Took it down baby!Revenge v the same player HU.My K5s beat his J7 in last hand.First!
Game 28:Took it down baby!My A6 gets lucky v JJ HU and I win.First.
Game 29:Took it down baby! My J10s beats 99 HU v same player as game 28.First.
Game 30:Took it down baby! A2 beats K19 HU.First.
Game 31:Took it down baby! AQ beats A5.First.

I've never, ever taken down 5 in a row before!I actually thought it was only 3 but filtering the finish times to be consecutive gives me five and I'll take that!

At my lowest point I was down $560 on where I ended up by 4am.Crazy old game.I was helped greatly by running hot over those last few games,by the HUD which makes playing 3 tables so much easier and by this excellent 2+2 sng link that Snake_eyes posted on the Raisetheriver forum.Reading the part about roi's gave me a real confidence boost and they way I was running ,I needed it!

Ok,I'm off to sneeze my way into the weekend.Gl at the tables..

Man flu....

Stop the world,Acornman has man flu again.I suppose at least this gets it out the way and I should be fighting fit for next Tuesdays 4 day trip to the ‘Dam.I’ve been playing poker long enough to realise my game is shot when I don’t feel well so I’ve been sensible enough to stick to a couple of sng’s and a few FT freerolls.

I did play in Laddys late night crapshoot and although I donked out when my 88 was called by Mr A5 who flopped a straight I made back the entry fee at a $50 nl cash table.Despite feeling like I’m at deaths door ( it is man flu afterall) I was quite enjoying my cash table last night and only reluctantly switched off because it was getting too late.

Rangers play Osasuna tonight in Spain and take 1 -1 draw into the 2nd leg.I’m not overly confident because the Spaniards have a fine home record and our best player ( Ferguson) is suspended.Mrs A is working so I may hit the tables after the game if I feel I can focus on the table properly.

I enjoyed watching Mark from Plan3tgongs poker vid of some of his bubble play even if I couldn’t make out the names/stack sizes.Mark explained things well and I’m looking forward to more.His reassuring Airline pilot voice helped although I kept expecting him to tell me what altitude we were cruising at and how the weather was looking at our destination!

Ok I'm off,the fitba has kicked off....