Not a good night

Well, it was bound to happen. I've been running well at the 2/4 limit tables lately. Last night that came to an end. I lost about $70. A combination of poor hands, an extremely loose table and most importantly, me playing poorly all combined to take my money last night. I really wasn't playing well last night at limit and should have recognized this sooner and not played. I got down a little early and figured I could grind it out for a positive evening like I have in the past. That didn't happen. It's the nature of things but if I had been playing better I would have lost less.

Then I played the Full Tilt 16K event last night. I was card dead the entire evening stealing a few pots here and there to stay alive until I got to around the dreaded 10x BB. I pushed with pp8 needing to double and got called by KQo. Flop is KQ4, sigh, Turn 8! Yes!, River, K, wtf?!? Nice roller coaster hand. Then I played a SnG. I doubled up early when KK > 99.

Edit: Bah! blogger.com screwed up the resst of my post thinking my "greater than" signs were html tags. Short story, lost the SnG when I lost three coinflips. bah

Wild!

My wife got tickets through her work to last nights Minnesota Wild game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Wild have never beaton the Leafs, well until last night when Minnesota won 5-3 in regulation. Hockey is such a fun sport to watch. It's fun on TV but the live action is much better. Hockey while fun on TV doesn't convey the speed of the game well or all the action that is always taking place. I thought it was going to be another Maple Leaf win last night when Minnesota gave up an early goal to the shorthanded Leafs. Minnesota stayed aggressive and played well though. With about 1:30 left in the game, Toronto scored a goal to come within one at 4-3. 30 seconds later they called Andrei Zyuzin with holding putting Tornoto on the power play. They of course pulled their goalie and were skating 6 on 4! Marc Chouinard came through when he stole the puck and hit an open net goal, his second of the night! A fun time as always! The seats that Thrivent has are great. Right at the blue line and 14 rows up. The seats are so good, the Governor, Tim Pawlenty, has his season tickets two rows in front of us. I knew this from a few years ago when we had the same seats but it's cool walking into the stadium and seeing the Governor. Unlike last time though, T-Paw actually watched the entire game. I think he was working on his org chart the first time as it was right before he took office.

So no poker last night but regularly scheduled poker will resume this evening.

Closed circuit to my sister-in-law if she reads this, what does St. Paul Travelers logo mean or supposed to be?

Patience

I played last night in the PSO $1800 added event last night to see how I was doing when not doing a lesson. Well, I played horribly. I was trying to do too much stuff early on. The reason for this is not that I have loosened up because of the lessons but because I was just way to impatient. I wasn't paying attention and not picking good spots. I don't know if it's because the event is for fake PSO money or what. I do know that my play was about as donktastic as it's been in a while. I refocused some and started picking better spots and rebuilt my stack somewhat. I ended up busting out with AQ losing to ATo when my foe hit his ten on the river. Oh well, that happens.

The key here is I need to figure out why I was unable to focus last night and why I was being impatient. It's not because I'm burnt out. At least I don't think I am. I still am enjoying playing and not really frustrated with bad beats, loose calls, suckouts etc. I really think part of it has to do with the fake money thing. I'm not a real patient guy to begin with so if I play one of these things in the wrong state of mind it can really affect my play. I didn't feel distracted when I signed up but five minutes into the event I could easily tell that I didn't really care what happened. I'm thinking there are two things that might help me focus. One is to try and win a banner and be concerned about my PSO ranking. This is difficult since doing lessons will usually prevent me from getting a banner and I don't play enough on PSO to qualify for most of the higher leagues. The second and probably key is pride. I have to take pride in my game and not do anything that will make me look like a donkey. Yeah there are going to be plays that some newer players won't understand but I also know that if I play my game, I can play very well. I also think the impatience had to do with my early bust at my home event. There's a lot more to this game than the mechanical side of it and I really need to work on my patience and attention. It's important that I try to stay focused and patient in these PSO events so that I don't develop any bad habits for real money games or special events on PSO. I'll be keeping an eye on this and hopefully come up with some exercise or ritual that will help me to start out focused or regain focus when it's lost.

Tuesday

Not much poker over the weekend. I had the joy of busting out first in my own home event. I had the completely wrong read on a guy and I played the hand terribly. Oh well, that gave me a chance to drink some beer.

I haven't played a lot of SnGs on PSO in a while. I figure the time was better spent playing for real money. However the other night I needed a little ego boost and to blow off some steam so I played on in which I took first. I think I may try to play ten of these each month on PSO just to get my round 2 qualification if I'm not running well in the MTTs or if I'm doing a lesson and my % suffers because of it. The bad part of these is they don't translate well into a real money SnG, imo. The structure is too deep and slow in comparison to a real money SnG. I can sit back, wait for hands and some fish will pay me off. I've found that I need to be more aggressive in a real money one then I would be at PSO. I just don't want my game to change so my real money SnGs are affected.

Early Bust and Limit HE

I played a 6000 starting chip tournament last night on PSO. I busted out first which hasn't happened in a long time. Still doing lessons so I'll use that as my excuse. While trying to do the lesson I was making moves on 3 of the first 4 hands. Oh well, I definitly would not have played this hands the same way back to back had I not been doing the lesson. While making moves on weak players/bets is a good thing at the beginning of a tournament I don't think I should do as many until I get a little bit of a read on the table. By begininng I'm really referring to the first 5 hands as in this tournament! :) There are a lot of new players on PSO and a lot more that I don't know or have never played with. This is a good thing since it requires me to read them better and faster. While playing on sites like FT and Party Poker, I may run into some of the same people the number of players there and in the tournaments are too large to have an ongoing intimate knowledge of all.

After the early bust I decided to go make a little cash on FT playing 2/4 LHE. I got onto a table pretty quick and started making money. I got up about $90 before I lost a good chunk of it when my flopped full house with pp9s was rivered by a bigger full house when she hit one of her two queens. Not too long later I lost some more when my ppJ lost to ppQs. I was beginning to dislike the ladies! I ground it out though to end the evening +82 so all is not lost!

Tidbits

Congratulations for www.dakotapokerleague.com and www.mnpokerleague.com founder, Brook Lyter, for taking second in Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure for a payday of $681,500. Sharla Lehrmann from www.pokerpages.com details the action very nicely over on her blog.

Mike Tomlin was officially named defensive coordinator for your Minnesota Vikings. Details and interview here.

Yeah, not much to say today....

No More Free Poker

Well, I stopped by the bar I used to play poker in. They have supposedly stopped their association with mnpokerleague.com so I probably won't be playing in anymore bar tournaments except on a rare occasion. The good thing about the mnpokerleague was the possibility of winning a seat to the WSOP. Without that, there's not much reason to spend time playing bar poker in Minnesota. I'll keep an eye on things and if somewhere in the Cities accociates themself with mnpokerleague I will start back up again. The next closes locations are over 50 miles from home and that ain't worth it.

No poker last night as I went to the bar and enjoyed 2 for 1 happy hour specials. Then I went to another bar and shot some pool with some coworkers. For not shooting pool in about 3 months I shot pretty good! It will be back to lesson learning tonight though!

Random Thoughts

Congrats to PanRains on winning the Winners Choice event on FT. His brother, TheOSU and him are making quite the poker family! WTG!

In a class move new Vikings head coach Brad Childress fired most of the current coaching staff by phone over the weekend. While he had said that he would talk to them all on Wednesday I guess he didn't have the balls to talk to them in person to let them know they no longer had a job. I suppose it is easier to fire someone when you don't have to look at them. I'm glad the Vikes are changing their ways....

It looks like Tampa Buccaneers Defensive Backs coach, Mike Tomlin may be our new Defensive Coordinator. This seems like a good move. Tampa's defense is always good and the secondary has performed well under him. It's quite a promotion for him and I think the young man should be up to it.

The poker lesson I'm working on this week is going well. Funny, I seem to be losing chips in areas other than the lesson. I think I'm actually making money on my lesson hands. I'm also seeing between 35-50% of flops depending on the stage of the tournament which needless to say is slightly more than what I have seen in the past.

I Win!!

So since I needed some practice at 1500 TC tournies and work on my mid stack play I decided to play a $10+1 at FT today since I couldnt find anything on PSO to play. Well, 4.5 hours later I win it!! First out of 252 for $655!

I didn't play great but I played good today. I'll admit I got lucky a few times too. I saw a lot more hands early on. I hit a full house that got paid off when I limped with J9 in the cutoff with one other limper already in. I hit two pair on the flop and my caller hit a gutshot with his AQ. I bet all the way and my bank bluffed all-in on the river when I hit my boat which I was more than happy to call with. This was at the 15/30 level and allowed me to see more flops since I had a stack to play with. I later hit a gutshot with AQ when the other person min bet into me giving me odds to call. I hit the straight on the turn and she goes all-in. I'm scared of the full house possibility but figure that if I'm going to learn and win this thing I thought I should call with the straight. I won the hand and busted her when she showed she had paired the K. Her own fault for calling my rais with K5 soooted.... A standard raise in mid position with Queens got no callers later on which was irrititation but better than be sucked out on with Arag. I stole a few pots raising fta in position but couldn't hit anything substantial for a long time. It was either steal the blinds or nothing.

Now the blinds are up to 150/300 and throug blinds, no cards and donking off some chips I am down to 2960 in the SB. A player in early/mid position makes a little less than his standard raise, making it 700 to go. I have AcKh in the SB. It gets folded around to the blinds and I figure I am at worst a coin-flip or I have him dominated with a better ace. I really only have one decision with my stack anyway, so I push, the bb folds and he calls. And of course he shows one of the two hands I really don't want to see, ppK. I must have been playing Papiw because the board came 9d6cTc, 9c and then the river of 2c for my flush and I cracked his Kings. Not a terrible beat but I didn't have much choice with my stack. Don't get me wrong, I was definitly the dog going in! The guy was a good player though and still had a decent stack. I later doubled off him again when my AQo beat his KJs. Blinds now are up to 400/800/100 ante and I have about 14,000 when I complet from the SB with QdTc when there are 3 limpers and one guy all-in for his last 55. I got lucky here, since I rivered a flush again. I didn't have any piece of the flop but everyone checked it down to the river where two of us hit the flush, me with the Q and him with the J. I hit some more hands and generally got paid off on my big hands and got lucky a few more times.

The hand that really helped near the end was when I raised 2.5x BB which had been my standard raise at this point from early position. Blinds are 1200/2400/300 Ante and I have 27615 in my stack. I raise UTG+1 with AQo thinking I was first to act and get two callers. I didn't realize that UTG had limped into the pot, the blinds fold and UTG goes all-in for 17020 total. I decide my best chance at winning is isolating this guy, who is loose so I reraise all-in. The other two people fold and my AQ holds up against his AT. One of the originall callers said he folded ppT. Loose? Yeah probably but I figured that was my best shot at winning the pot and possibly winning the tourney. I get a big stack at the final table and for a while there had everyone at least 2:1. I start playing a little big stack poker and donk off some of it. I bust out a guy that had been stealing my blinds. He was playing well. Wish I would've hit something against him earlier though. One time he raise my bb and a flat call him. I bet out on the Ace high flop with only 64s. He reraises me so I lay it down. He shows some crap cards but they were better than mine. When I bust him I have 87k and he only has 27k. I raise in EP with KQh and he comes over the top all-in from the SB. I got him on a wide range of hands here since he had been sort of picking on me for a while and if I call I still have 50k with the blinds only at 1500/3000/400 ante. So I call and of course he has AQo and I'm dominated. I hit the flush on the turn though and he is done. Later I bust AK with my pp8 when I flop a set. I have 117k and the other player has 41k with blinds at 2k/4k/500 antes. I make it 10k to go and the button pushes in. I'm getting 2:1 or so and if I loose I still have over 75k at this point so I call, flop a set and bust another player. I misplay a couple of reads that I have here and there and donk off some more chips then before I know it we are 3 handed! The stacks go back and forth. I go from 3rd to first and back to third again, riding the roller coaster that is my game. I double up when I'm in third when I flop a set of Queens and the other player called with mid-pair/flush draw when I check raise him on the turn. The other two get all-in when the short stack has AQ and the huge stack has ppA. His aces hold up and we are heads up but I outchipped 4.5:1 (72k vs 305k with blinds 4k/8k/1k ante).

I fold the first hand HU and push on the second hand with QTo. He doesnt call. Next hand, push with A9o, no call. Third hand I push again with QTo, he calls this time with K3o. I hit a gutshot draw on the flop, my Q on the turn and complete my straight on the river to get our stacks to 163k (me) to 214k. We go back and forth for a bit and I get the chip lead, then loose it again when I get overagrressive. The final two hands are below. I know it sounds like I got lucky a lot with my post and I did at times but these are the hands that stuck out to me and were easy to find in the hand history! I made some moves when I had to and feel I played a solid game. No, it wasn't perfect but it was good!

Full Tilt Poker Game #373257836: $10 + $1 Tournament (2347245), Table 26 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:41:50 ET - 2006/01/07
Seat 2: Rowebote (162,496)
Seat 3: psjc (215,504)
Rowebote antes 1,000
psjc antes 1,000
psjc posts the small blind of 5,000
Rowebote posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rowebote [3c 8s]
psjc calls 5,000
Rowebote checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 8h 2d]
Rowebote bets 151,496, and is all in
psjc calls 151,496
Rowebote shows [3c 8s]
psjc shows [Tc 7c]
*** TURN *** [9d 8h 2d] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8h 2d Th] [3h]
Rowebote shows two pair, Eights and Threes
psjc shows a pair of Tens
Rowebote wins the pot (324,992) with two pair, Eights and Threes
psjc: lol
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 324,992 Rake 0
Board: [9d 8h 2d Th 3h]
Seat 2: Rowebote (big blind) showed [3c 8s] and won (324,992) with two pair, Eights and Threes
Seat 3: psjc (small blind) showed [Tc 7c] and lost with a pair of Tens



Full Tilt Poker Game #373258661: $10 + $1 Tournament (2347245), Table 26 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:42:22 ET - 2006/01/07
Seat 2: Rowebote (324,992)
Seat 3: psjc (53,008)
Rowebote antes 1,000
psjc antes 1,000
Rowebote posts the small blind of 5,000
psjc posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rowebote [Qd 4c]
Rowebote raises to 323,992, and is all in
psjc calls 42,008, and is all in
Rowebote shows [Qd 4c]
psjc shows [Jc 7s]
Uncalled bet of 271,984 returned to Rowebote
*** FLOP *** [Ac 5c Qc]
*** TURN *** [Ac 5c Qc] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 5c Qc Ts] [Qh]
Rowebote shows three of a kind, Queens
psjc shows a pair of Queens
Rowebote: vgg
psjc: gg
Rowebote wins the pot (106,016) with three of a kind, Queens
psjc stands up
Rowebote stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 106,016 Rake 0
Board: [Ac 5c Qc Ts Qh]
Seat 2: Rowebote (small blind) showed [Qd 4c] and won (106,016) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 3: psjc (big blind) showed [Jc 7s] and lost with a pair of Queens

Your new head coach is...

Brad Childress. Following in the foot steps of Norm Van Broklin, Bud Grant, Les Steckel, Jerry Burns, Denny Green and Mike Tice. Hopefully Brad bwill be more like Bud and nothing like Les. I really don't know a lot about Coach Childress so I'm not sure how I feel about it. He's coming from Andy Reid's organization which is a good thing. He didn't make the play calls as OC in Philly which is a bad thing. I guess I'll know next year around this time how I feel about him. A lot will depend on if the money I send the Vikings for playoff tickets will really be for playoff tickets or just turn into a payment on my season tickets.

Well, my poker lessons started last night. What I have learned so far is, well I suck. Ok, it's not that bad but I do need a lot of work on my mid/short stack play. This is of extreme importance in tournaments with only 1500 TC where you are not in real deep money for long. I can play a short stack fine (10x BB or less) since you really only have one decision at that point anyway. My problem comes with not wanting to "gamble" a large percentage of my stack without a decent hand. Anyway, the bal is rolling now and hopefully I will be a force to be dealt with!

Its' a new year

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you celebrate something else I hope that was good for you too.

I found out that in order for the mobile blog to work, you need some signal strength on your cell phone. In the middle of the woods I wasn't getting one so no mobile updates during the season. If I went and stood in the middle of this one field, then I got a signal but I wasn't going to stand in the middle of a field and try to type something!


My wife and I just closed on our first investment property. Check out http://www.nbfun.com . We bought a unit that is on the golf course. Our realty company didn't have anymore available on the water. There are some for sale but our company wasn't able to provide the same type of deal on them. Basically with no money down we got into this unit and already have 10% equity. Our unit is an upgraded 3rd floor unit overlooking hole 1. The first hole is a replica and/or designed after Pinehusrt Resort & Contry Club #2 course, hole 3. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that but there ya are. Half the holes on the golf course are replicas of different holes that some of you golf fanatics might enjoy. There is a lovley island green that is very similar to TPC Sawgrass as an example. We closed on the 23rd of December so that's one heck of a Christmas present! Hopefully this one works out well and all our future real estate investments!

Poker has been about the same. nothing spectacular to report. I've been making money lately playint 2/4 limit on Full Tilt. I usually take some of my winnings to play in the 16k gauranteed event they have instead of playing a satellite. The 16ks so far haven't gone great but I have a feeling these will pay off nicely. I've barely monied in a couple (made my buy-in +$12) but that's the extent of my success in those so far. Since I've only played a few so far I'm unconcerned.

I am starting up one on one lessons soon here for poker. Hopefully this can help me out and have some weaknesses poitned out. I know there is a lot of room for improvement. I'll never be a numbers guy in poker so I will have to be able to pay better attention to make the plays I need to.

Oh yeah, Vince Young looked awesome last night. No, I'm not a Texas fan, in fact I was rooting for USC but Young was unstoppable.

Congratulations to TheOSU for taking 2nd in the Full Tilt 60K!!