It Might Be Time for a Drunk Post

Ok, not so much drunk as "had a few beers, some muscle relaxers, Lortabs and am really tired" type of post. I made a bit of a SNG comeback starting the other night only to find that at UB they've eliminated the standard two maniacs previously required per table and filled those spots w/ "odd" players.

That's really the only way I can describe the play. It seems we have a table full of 10 players that seem passive. They'll call reasonable bets w/out odds but will fold to over bets. The MAJOR drawback here is that these same players choose the "slow-play" as their weapon of choice. Meaning they'll make weak calls w/out odds holding nothing but 2nd pair and NO kicker OR.... they'll make the same calls with top set or full.

However, and maybe I've just gotten unlucky, but it seems everytime I hit a HUGE hand I get NO action. Without looking you'd think that I must be doing something out of the ordinary to "warn" my opponent of impending danger. But going back over the HH I have played my big hands the same as my bluffs or any other hand for that matter. The difference being that the weaker hands are getting called down and sucked out on or my bluffs are getting called out.

Oh well, that's poker. Funny thing is that the bad beat really doesn't bug me at all anymore. It's the bad play and the bad calls BY ME that drive me nuts. I've just been card dead for the most part in a lot of the SNG's I've played the last few nights, except for one or two where I made ONE critical error each time causing my demise.

The problem is when you don't catch cards in these single table SNG's and you have players that are all VERY similar it's very hard to change up your strategy. Explain: when you have the typical set up with two maniacs, two calling stations, two weak-tight passive players, one wildcard and two solid players (then you obv.) you can manipulate your "image" w/ the other players simply by the pots you play w/ the players described. Since you'll play each player differently (focusing on the aggressor in multi pots) you can be "aware" of your table image to the "other" players. SINCE, you were playing your hand based on the player in the hand (or players) your style will be as different (or would be) as the number of different styles you encounter. THEREFORE, in a situation where you are facing 9 players w/ a TAG style you're ability to "mix up your play" is solely dependant on the situation and NOT the individual players. This creates a greater need for "luck". Luck doesn't come into play ONLY w/ YOUR cards but you must be lucky enough that your opponent catches a "good but not better than yours" hand when you enter a pot w/ them.

ANYWAY, this is my new focus. Working on mixing up my game when facing 9 "chairs" w/ similar styles. You know, it would be easy if they were more predictable, but these players I've encountered of late are.....wel, just odd. They seem to like to show their cards also, never understood that. Don't get me wrong "time and place" but they're showing hands for now reason. Altho' I did use one to my advantage tonight.

I had 8-10 of clubs from the SB and faced a small raise (may have been 3x unsure)from a player I deemed weak-tight. I called w/ the idea that 1) if I hit big and he had a hand I could bust him and 2) I knew I could out-play him post flop. on the flop I hit a flush draw. I checked to him, knowing he wasn't the type of person to allow me to steal the flop. He bets, so I call (small less than 1/2 pot) knowing I'll "float" the turn and semi-bluff him. Turn brings me a open-ended straight draw to add to my current flush. I have confidence that he has a weak-ish hand and would fold to a bluff here, but I also feel that if I can catch a cheap card and hit that I might be able to extract a few more chips on the river (I have him on an under pair at this point w/ 2 overs on the board). I check, he makes another weak-ish bet (same as pre so even smaller than 1/2 pot). river is a blank 6. Now I bet. He folds showing 77 (as I had him, med PP).

I then decide, since he'd been active in the chat, to tell him what a bad fold he made. He doesn't believe me and I offer to email the HH. He declines and calls me a "dikhead", ouch. He then proceeded to come after me after that, unfortunately I went so card dead I couldn't do anything, but his tilting got him busted after a short while. I pretty much blinded out after that as I couldn't find a spot to make a move nor did I catch anything to build chips with. Finally moved in w/ 9 BB left w/ J-10s. Got called by 99 only to see a flop of 7-8-9. Good right? beware the full on the turn. The mighty 8. Ball game. Could almost feel it coming, at least the guy that took my chips and had the advantage pre seemed pretty cool. So it goes.

I'll have some new blogs to P1MP in my next post, whenever that will be. And I'll be back grinding the Micros tomorrow.

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Almost forgot. There may be some life at CP yet. Some good posts w/ some nice debates lately. I may have been overly harsh on a newer poster complaining about the seer luck involved in the micros and the lack of skill. I apologized but it wasn't very sincere. He did seem to somewhat retract his statement and have an open mind regarding the ability to beat these games. I hope he sticks around, they need some new blood there. Anything to stimulate some good poker talk. A few posters I respect have made a brief return. Fritz has been posting like a whore there and over at ATE's site. He just got back from Europe and obviously is avoiding returning to "real" work at all costs. Can't say I blame him, drunken Eruo-trash (I really should put a smiley emoticon there but I don't do smiley's).

Back to Some Poker

Tonight I plan on playing some poker. SHOCK! I've played a little this week and had some success getting back into HU matches. Again, I'm STILL trying to get that $10 on Party into something worthwhile. Tonight, however, I am going to "take a break". I might take a stab at a few $11 HU matches on there but plan on finding a nice cash game on UB to try to take down that bonus.

I feel that I've gotten complacent over the last several months with my poker game and haven't really put much effort into truely improving my game. I think this is a mistake a lot of average players make. We reach "plateaus". We climb in experience and success in the game and then seem to "level" out. This is in turn followed by a drop or "cold cards" or "bad beats" etc. Whatever it is, it's generally something we are doing WRONG and not the "bad luck" we tend to attribute to the game. Variance as we call it.

While poker in general is going to have ups and downs, the 30 portion of 70/30 is bound to rear it's ugly head on occasion; it's how we "adjust" and "adapt" during these times that truly separate the men from the boys. We begin to think that some simple principles and "beginner's mistakes" don't and can't apply to us. We get complacent, there's that word again. Mario Andretti once said "The moment we stop getting better we stop being good." That always stuck with me, not that I practiced it, but it stuck.

I think that's where I might be at now. That and the frustration that you KNOW you are better than your opponent(s) but can't seem to capitalize. The "deck is hitting him in the face guy and he doesn't know it" is the most frustrating. I've talked about ego and the game before but as I've started posting a little more back at Card Player I see that thought process more. They might realize their true level of play but are unable to manage it.

Poker truly is a game of decisions and long-term investment. Although each individual session is of extreme importance the true measuring stick is the cummulative.

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Blog P1MP, I've added some links to the blogs and a few links to my sidebar. Check some of these guys out, they are pretty incredible poker players. PBA is a new member at +1 so a hearty welcome to him is in order. I believe he is one of those "limit HE" players that exist although I can't confirm this. I have played with him when I was playing (poorly) in the Card Player weekly tourney's over the summer and had a good time giving him a hard time.

Fighting Through the Haze

The back's still a recurring problem. I have enough pills to make the pain tolerable but they have dulled me. I played a home game a week ago and was having a difficult time computing simple math. Just adding my chips proved to be a chore (I required assistance on two occasions).

My decision making abilities have been affected almost as much as my ability to add. Case-in-point would be a little tourney w/ some friends over the weekend. We played for quite some time without anyone busting and I had somehow managed to build a modest stack having won only one real pot and a couple of little ones. A situation came up with T600 in the pot already another player pushed for his remaining stack of T800 (I'm sitting on approx. T2400). With T1400 in the pot and T800 to call my A-10 offsuit would normally be an auto-call as most players would push w/ virtually any 2 cards and I should be getting more than the right price against his "potential" range of hands. However, I was having a very difficult time calculating this. In addition, two things were taking place here that was clouding my decision even further.

The player making this move doesn't truly understand how to play a short stack, but is a rather solid player, and therefore w/ the blinds at T100/T200 would open up his range of "push" hands but not as much as he should. Therefore I needed to give him MORE credit than a "random" hand or a desperate play. ALSO, I had been VERY card dead going into this hand and had to lay-down some hands that I REALLY, REALLY wanted to play early on (correctly too I might add). So, I was going to have a real hard time laying down the hand if for that reason alone.

I call and he turns over QQ. He doubles up and I am left w/ T1600 (approx.) and lose the very next hand when another player pushes his last T300 w/ KJ vs. my 22 and wins. Then a few hands later I push AK vs. 88 and get crippled (as if I wasn't already close to being crippled anyway) then lose a 40/60 to bust.

The call that steams me is the call w/ the A10. The problem was that at the TIME I knew my opponent well enough to know that he won't push until it's too late, so w/ that bit of info I may still have been getting the right price on his range of hands but it was MUCH closer than I had first thought. Therefore, the correct move there would have been to fold and let the hand go. Without doing the calculations or getting the info off of Pokerstove.com to see my equity, I guess I need to do that just to check; but I put my opponent on a range of hands 77+, AK-A8 (altho' he seemed pretty confident and usually only has confidence in pocket-pairs and fears AX, the AK-A8 range is probably incorrect) KQ, KJ is unlikely but possible. SOOOOO, if he makes that play w/ 1010-AA (which he would) then I am in trouble.

Complicating matters was a "maniac" that really disrupts the table. He makes some crazy plays and will re-pop you w/ ANY two cards. He truly does NOT understand what he's doing, BUT he knows that. It's funny really, he KNOWS that he doesn't "understand" the game and actually utilizes this to dirupt the "others" games. This causes the rest of the table to play super cautiously and then over play hands when he's not involved in the pot. So because of this dynamic alone, folding A-10 was the right play.

To make matters worse, I wasn't really "in the mood" to play cards. A big "no-no". This continued throughout the weekend as I had no patience and was easily iritable. Bad combination at the tables, very bad. Fortunately, I only played on Party on Saturday night and didn't lose so much that I can't make it back. I opted NOT to play on Sunday as I had been and took the "free time" to head to bed early. Maybe I'll be fresh tonight. But if i'm not, I won't play.

One Word: "PAIN"

It's been a rather insane week. I threw my back out over labor day weekend and spent Sunday and Monday either laying on the floor, couch, or bed. How's this different from any ordinary weekend you ask? I was in pain this time, big-time pain.

Made an appointment Tuesday to see the Doc and spent the rest of the week hopped up on "goofballs". Add to that some big projects coming up for work and several soccer games for my daughter and you get: NO POKER.

Sucks too. last I left I had approximately $10 left on Party that on a whim I had decided to put into play, see if I could parlay it into a larger score or at least enough to cash out and combine with my UB bankroll. I sat at a 20 person $6 sng (man, PP really sticks it to you w/ the $1 at this level). Cashed 2nd (should've been first after I lost a 60/40 to lose the chip lead, oh well) and $40. That put me at $34 so I then played an $11 20 man SNG. That was good for 4th (just ITM) when my AA ran into the dreaded chip leaders J4s (I was 2nd in chips and the blinds were really up there compared to the stacks. I most likely would've pushed back here w/ maybe any Ace as he had been rather sill-aggressive. Everyone was pretty close in chips and he was NOT playing "big stack" poker.)

I believe that little win netted me $9 and I debated playing a $22 MTT that was getting ready to start or a $22 20-man SNG. I opted for the more rational and played another $11 20-man. Lady luck must caught up to me at this point, as well as a poor attention span in the wee hours. I busted out mid-way when I foolishly pushed a TAG back w/ AQ.

Anyway, I believe that $10 on PP is now in the $30 range and I should be able to put that in play at a $25NL table and get up to the $50 withdrawal minimun to consonlidate.

I haven't been keeping up over at CP's forum lately, but I understand that there has been some drama. A banning and some confusion as to who stole what from who. As I check that forum from time-to-time it truly astonishes me how the "general poker" public is truly un-intelligent. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh. The "general public poker forum" public is truly un-intelligent.

Too many of these "players" allow their ego's to get involved and want to prove to the world how "truly amazing" they are. Who cares? I want to get up from the table with more money than I sat and it is sometimes harder to do this when pegged as a "good player".

Hopefully, I can get my back straightened out and get back to the tables soon. Since my "rebuild" I've had a difficult time finding the "groove" I had prior and finding "my game." I see that changing for the better now.

Switching Games

Realize it's been a while since I updated this "thingy", so I apologize. I've been trying to think of some actual poker content to post but have been too lazy to put it in print. Someday....someday.

Anyway, happy Labor Day!! The end of summer is nei, sad. So sad. Got a weekend planned of beer, pork shoulder, beer, ribs, beer, mushroom-swiss burgers (my specialty), beer, and probably some poker. Okay, definitely some poker.

I started playing more Omaha eights or better lately. It made me realize where I went wrong on my "downslide" this year. I'll go into more depth on this at a later date. Knowing what "not to do" and actually NOT doing it are two different things.

Anyway, lately when I've been running cold in Hold'em I've been trying to fight through it. This has caused me to push hands that shouldn't be pushed and to fold hands that shouldn't be folded. Execution. Confidence. Very important.

Something Scott Fischman wrote a while back and advocates is switching games when you're having a dry run of cards. This allows you to refocus on a different game while taking a "break" from your "normal" game. So, I've been playing a little Omaha and some stud. In the past I would check out the tables of all the games to find the softest game availabe whether it be stud, omaha, or hold'em.

I'll try to post more. also, check out a new poker forum www.adamtheexpert.com. Adam was a normal (don't think he's ever been referred to w/ that word before) contributer over that the CARDPLAYER forums. He has a unique style, that's for sure. He tends to be right a lot. I would like to see some traffic on his site.

Speaking of Cardplayer, there has actually been some real discussions on their lately. Nothing groundbreaking, but better than the:

"you're an idiot"

"you suck"

posts that had taken over there recently. Most of the disussion is still pretty elementary and you have your handfull of morons that don't understand some of the more simple concepts, but it's not bad.