Was playing in a short-handed 40/80 on Saturday night. Yeah I know I told myself I wasn't going to do this very much this year, but the 20/40 had already broken and I didn't feel like playing 8/16. Plus there was a major fish in the game who was making it good.
This is a two hand thought process, as the first hand sets up the second hand somewhat.
3-handed, I have A9o in the big blind. Button open raises, SB folds, I call. Flop comes A 4 2. check-bet-raise-call. I was hoping to take in down on the flop. I'm not super in love with my kicker, but I have a gutball wheel draw, plus the button may have a pocket pair, not convinced that I necessarily have the ace. Top-pair is almost always going to showdown in a short-handed game. I decide to check-call him down unless I improve. Turn and river are bricks, he shows A5 offsuit, I show my hand and take it down.
About twenty minutes later this hand comes up against the same player. I'm in the big-blind with A8 suited. Button open-raises, SB folds, I call. Flop comes AT4, one of my suit. check-bet-raise-call. Similar sequence as last time, and again I'm not super in love with kicker, but 3-handed top-pair is a good hand. Turn is an 8. I decide not to get tricky and lead out. I get raised by the button. Consistent with AK/AQ/AJ/AT. I 3-bet, button 4 bets. Now I absolutely hate my hand. Button has to have either pocket 4's for a set or pocket 10's for a set. Likely pocket 10's as he's not showing any fear, clearly and rightly so not putting me on pocket aces, since I didn't 3-bet preflop. My 3-bet on the turn announces my hand as at least two pair, likely aces-up. The only hand that I am possibly beating when he 4 bets is a A4, which I don't think he would 4 bet the turn with. Now here's the dilemma, I put him on pocket tens for a set, but given that it was short handed, and I still had some outs, plus I could be wrong and maybe he's grossly overplaying AK, I need to call him down. I call the turn, and check-call the river, and yep he shows me pocket tens for the flopped set. Not sure if I could/should have done anything differently. I knew I was beat, but had to make the crying call.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
4th Quarter Results and Year in Review
Man the holidays have been brutal on the bankroll. I was doing fine this quarter, until the month of December rolled around and then my results just tanked for the quarter.
Here's the quarter results:
8/16 3.75 303
20/40 62.5 495
40/80 159 -7378
75/150 10.5 4530
totals 235.75 -2050
Hourly Loss = -8.70
For the year (just the main games I play)
8/16 19.667 -460
20/40 198.584 -2490
40/80 501 16726
75/150 30.16 12148
totals 749.411 25924
Hourly Rate = 34.59
So all in all I didn't have a bad year. An extra 25k in my pocket for incidentals, Vegas, money for my wife, etc is okay by me. The first two quarters of the year were spectacular, while the final two were poor, with the third quarter being the worst. The final quarter of the year I was doing fine, but then I got ruptured in December all in the span of about 5 sessions.
Looking back on this last month, I have come to realize a couple of flaws in my game and mindset.
1) I am playing too long sessions. No more coming home at 4 or 5 am. I am going to set some pretty strict time limits on my sessions in 2008, unless the game is so good that I'd be insane to leave (like when Brenda or Jerry Buss are playing).
2) I am playing way too much short-handed 40/80. While I can beat the game, there's not a lot of upside potential there. Usually when the 40/80 gets short-handed it's the better players in the game, which means I need to play extra sharp where gaining or saving a bet here and there is crucial. I don't need the extra stress, when I can go play a full 20/40 or 8/16. True my hourly rate may go down, but so will my variance, which lately has been very high. I've been playing a lot of short handed and making some big scores and some big losses.
3) This is coupled with 2 and 3, when I play short-handed, particularly late at night, I am making too may mistakes which are costing me bets. Here's an example of a horrible play I made the other night. I'm in the BB with J2o. Button mucks, SB completes, I check and we see a flop of A K K. Check-check. Turn is a rag. Check-Check. River is a Jack. Check-Bet-Call. That's the worst bet in the world by me. I can't be called by any hand that I am beating, and hands that are beating me but don't have monsters are surely going to call. SB shows A2o and takes the pot.
So in all, I think I will take a bit of a break from poker for at least a couple of weeks. Especially with the NFL playoffs in gear and the San Diego Chargers who I think will win their first round game, but probably lose in the second round to either Jacksonville or Indy. I'm hoping that the Chargers do better, but I'm always the eternal optimist, while my wife is the realist in the family, at least when it comes to the sports teams I root for. My birthday is coming up in February, so I might get a free weekend to either go to Vegas or play some poker during the daylight hours.
I've noticed a slight up-tick in site traffic. So I'm guessing that someone out there is reading this other than myself. Even if nobody else is reading, that's ok, the blog is mostly for me anyways.
Happy New Year everyone!
Here's the quarter results:
8/16 3.75 303
20/40 62.5 495
40/80 159 -7378
75/150 10.5 4530
totals 235.75 -2050
Hourly Loss = -8.70
For the year (just the main games I play)
8/16 19.667 -460
20/40 198.584 -2490
40/80 501 16726
75/150 30.16 12148
totals 749.411 25924
Hourly Rate = 34.59
So all in all I didn't have a bad year. An extra 25k in my pocket for incidentals, Vegas, money for my wife, etc is okay by me. The first two quarters of the year were spectacular, while the final two were poor, with the third quarter being the worst. The final quarter of the year I was doing fine, but then I got ruptured in December all in the span of about 5 sessions.
Looking back on this last month, I have come to realize a couple of flaws in my game and mindset.
1) I am playing too long sessions. No more coming home at 4 or 5 am. I am going to set some pretty strict time limits on my sessions in 2008, unless the game is so good that I'd be insane to leave (like when Brenda or Jerry Buss are playing).
2) I am playing way too much short-handed 40/80. While I can beat the game, there's not a lot of upside potential there. Usually when the 40/80 gets short-handed it's the better players in the game, which means I need to play extra sharp where gaining or saving a bet here and there is crucial. I don't need the extra stress, when I can go play a full 20/40 or 8/16. True my hourly rate may go down, but so will my variance, which lately has been very high. I've been playing a lot of short handed and making some big scores and some big losses.
3) This is coupled with 2 and 3, when I play short-handed, particularly late at night, I am making too may mistakes which are costing me bets. Here's an example of a horrible play I made the other night. I'm in the BB with J2o. Button mucks, SB completes, I check and we see a flop of A K K. Check-check. Turn is a rag. Check-Check. River is a Jack. Check-Bet-Call. That's the worst bet in the world by me. I can't be called by any hand that I am beating, and hands that are beating me but don't have monsters are surely going to call. SB shows A2o and takes the pot.
So in all, I think I will take a bit of a break from poker for at least a couple of weeks. Especially with the NFL playoffs in gear and the San Diego Chargers who I think will win their first round game, but probably lose in the second round to either Jacksonville or Indy. I'm hoping that the Chargers do better, but I'm always the eternal optimist, while my wife is the realist in the family, at least when it comes to the sports teams I root for. My birthday is coming up in February, so I might get a free weekend to either go to Vegas or play some poker during the daylight hours.
I've noticed a slight up-tick in site traffic. So I'm guessing that someone out there is reading this other than myself. Even if nobody else is reading, that's ok, the blog is mostly for me anyways.
Happy New Year everyone!
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