Poker Journal

February 2007

February 22
I played in the $55 with 1 optional rebuy and add-on No Limit tournament on PokerStars last night and I ended up finishing in second place again. There were 216 entries in the event and I beat out most of them, but I am disappointed that I didn't get the best of that last person.

If I had played my best game, then I would be alright with my second place finish, but I made one really bad play at the end that cost me the tournament. My opponent was a solid player who was playing pretty straight forward. I had just taken the lead on him and I raised with A2. He moved all-in and I called. We were almost even in chips and I didn't need to get involved and let one hand decide the tournament for me especially with a hand as week as A2 (even if it was heads up). Looking back on it, if I put him on a range of hands, I was in trouble with most of them. If he had any pocket pair or ace, I was in a lot of trouble. He could only have a few hands that I was the favorite over beat and they weren't huge dogs to me.

So, I store this into memory and keep working on my game. Hopefully, my game will continue to improve and hopefully I won't make the same mistake again.

February 18
I have been playing in a lot of Sit n Go's this past week and have done well. Tonight I played in several, but there was one hand that stands out above all the others. This hand sums up why I have probably done well in these lately.

We were down to six players and the player in the cutoff limped for $100 (blinds were $50-100 with no antes) and the button folded. I was in the small blind and raised to $400 with pocket jacks. The big blind folded and the original limper called. The flop was J86. I checked, he bet $400 and I moved in for an additional $690. He called me with T4. That's right! T4!!

I'm thinking about playing in one more Commerce tourney and am planning on playing in a lot of the Winning of the Green tournaments at The Bike. My passion for tournament poker is coming back and am really ready to make something happen.

February 10
I played in the $55 NL tournament with one optional rebuy and add-on. I have been playing these tournaments over the past couple of weeks and have been getting close to the money, but never crossed the threshold. I decided that I was going to play today's tourney differently. I was going to play it like I would play the satellites for the seat to the WSOP. In those type of tournaments, it's all about first or second place, so you have to play for all of your chips on numerous occasions. You gotta go for first or go broke. My new strategy combined with a little luck helped me get second place in the tournament.

I made my first big hand during the second hour of the tournament. I was holding QT on a Qxx board. I led out and my opponent moved in. I thought about it for a second, saw there was still about 110 players in the tournament and decided that I couldn't fold my hand if I wanted to win the tournament. I called and he turned over 99. I built some chips up and then got involved in a hand that wasn't important to my stack, but was extremely lucky. On the bubble, all players folded to me in the small blind and I moved in with A6 because I had a lot of chips compared to the big blind's short stack. He called with AQ. He flopped a queen and I hit running sixes to win the hand.

After that lucky A6 hand, I got really lucky again when I held QQ. Normally that hand is the kiss of death for me, but in this case, I managed to win the hand and a HUGE pot. The blinds were 1k-2k and a $100 ante. The player in first position just flast called and the small blind raised to 10k. I flat called from the big blind because I wanted to play for all of my chips if an ace didn't fall. The original limper moved all in for an additional 9k and the two of us blinds ended up getting all of our chips in as well with a raise and reraise. The original limper showed AK, the small blind showed KK, and I held QQ. The flop was AQ5 and the turn and the river didn't bring any help to my opponents. The pot was almost 150k and after winning that, I was in first chip position by a huge margin.

I took that chip lead to the final table and worked my way down to three players fairly quickly. Once we got down to three, I was in second chip position and even when I eliminated the third place finisher, I was outchipped 3 to 1. My opponent was very aggressive with his big stack and my plan was to try and trap him. I folded two hands and on the third, I was dealt AJ. I made my standard raise and he called. The flop was J82. He checked and I checked behind him. The turn was a nine of diamonds putting two of them on board. He checked, I bet 32k, and he raised to 64k, and I pushed all-in for an addistion 128k. He instantly called with Q4 of diamonds. The river was the five of diamonds giving him the flush and eliminating me from the tournament. I cashed out for $4,725 which is a pretty good return on a $155 investment.

February 5
I spent the day playing online tournaments yesterday. I normally spend Sunday's with my family, but I decided that I would devote one day to the big tournaments while most of my family spent the day watching the Superbowl. I should have spent the day with the family.

Tonight, I decided to give another online tournament a try and I didn't do so hot in that one either. I am posting the hand history of my final hand. I am not posting because it was a horrible beat. I am posting it because I got a kick out of it. The blinds were $200-400 with a $25 ante. Goofball was in third position and I was in the cutoff. I changed the name to protect the innocent (ok - the "not so innocent") but if you want to see the history it is #8303951016

Dealt to Siren [Th Td]
TheGoofball: raises 677 to 1077
Siren: raises 3063 to 4140 and is all-in
TheGoofball: calls 3063
*** FLOP *** [Ad 6h 5d]
*** TURN *** [Ad 6h 5d] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 6h 5d 4s] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheGoofball: shows [3s 2s] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
Siren: shows [Th Td] (a pair of Tens)
TheGoofball collected 9105 from pot

February 3
The tournament I played on the 1st got me all pumped up to play more tournaments. Last night, I decided to try my hand at multi-tabling a few smaller limit tournaments and I ended up finishing in the money on one of them. I started out playing the $55 +1 rebuy and 1 add-on No Limit event and followed with a $30 HORSE and a $20 Omaha tournament.

I have a hard time focusing on one game, so focusing on three was a little too much to handle. I was better about not surfing the internet, but paying attention to three games at once is impossible. Once I was knocked out of the first two (I lasted quite awhile in the NL), I was able to play like I should play in the Omaha event. When we got down to four players, I thought to myself that winning the tournament was totally feasible. The cards didn't fall like I needed them to and I was knocked out in fourth place.

It was a fun experiment, but playing in three tournaments is not something that I plan on doing on a regular basis. I am probably going to spend the day playing tournaments tomorrow, but will most likely play two max. If I make it far enough in the $215 HORSE event, it always overlaps with the Omaha and I don't like to miss that one.

Take a look at some poker definitions written by Jesse Knight: picture cards, bellybuster,  family pot, marker, blocker, railbird, and rolled up.

February 1
I played in a $100 HORSE tournament tonight on PokerStars and ended up finishing in second place. I was eliminated in the usual fashion - Holdem got the best of me. I think I have the same complaint almost every time I make it into the money. Once you get down to shorthanded play, the Holdem round can make or break you. Unfortunately for me, it usually breaks me. Ten minutes can seem like forever when you are anxiously waiting for Omaha to come around and when there are only two people left in the tournament. I am not complaining too bad because I am very happy with my finish.

Last night, I spent a little time going through tournament schedules and made some decisions about the tournaments I am going to play during the next couple of months. It was so nice to be able to plan a little for the future. I spent too long saying "we will see how I feel" or "It depends on if I am up to it." So far I have decided that I will be playing many of the Winnin' O' the Green tournaments at the Bike. I am going to do my best to at least make it to the three Omaha tournaments and the HORSE tournament. After tonight, I know that I have to work on my Stud 8 O/B game over the next few weeks.