Even more poker

What's this world coming to, some consecutive posts on topic.

On a mini run the last couple of days, mainly on AP but some on Tilt and even a few bucks playing ring on UB. Mostly they have been small cashes, $15 -20 with a few bounties added in but there has been a couple of wins for some bigger bucks also. The Shark game mentioned a few posts ago and the screen shot in the post below this. The Sniper was actually chopped so the payout was a tad less than the $300 shown. We got to heads up around 2 in the am and while I had him out chipped by better than 5-3 and think I was the better player (don’t we all) and could have taken him it wasn’t going to be easy or quick barring some ungodly big hand over big hand situation. Since I had to get up at 7, and had been up late the night before also when he suggested some sort of chop I was agreeable. Can only go so long on these 4 hour nights. Not as young as I used to be and my teeth are already weak enough.

The $4 Sniper on AP has been very good to me lately. In addition to the win I have another 4-5 middlin cashes in the last 4-5 days. Don’t sound like much and in real terms actually not a great amount but considering that it’s a $4 buy in and I have been making that back on the bounties, I’m getting a 400-500% return on my money. If I could get that on my Roth and 401K I’d be happy as a pig in shit. So while it ain’t a whole lot of bucks and the bankroll could probably handle a bit of a rise in level I’m going to stay where I am at for awhile, for various reasons. First, I want to see if I can keep consistently navigating these tourneys before making any changes. Second, I play online to have something to do, not to make money. While making money is all well and good and I’m trying my damndest to do it I am not going to pressure myself with it by playing bigger tourneys. I’m in my comfort zone right now and why make myself uncomfortable if the object is to enjoy myself. I much prefer the live game to online so I’ll save my money for the time I can start traveling to AC again and for those visits to the Manor. My run on the Cerus network has been so hot that I even went over to UB and picked up $25 playing a .05/.10 ring NLHE table. It’s been a bitch since the officially combined AP and UB. I used to like to play ring games on Ultimate while playing SnGs on Absolute. They kept me patient with each other so that I wasn’t making donkey plays out of boredom on one table or the other. Not to say I’m not still being a donkey, just that I wasn’t doing it out of boredom. Since they combined however you can only open up one site at a time which has left me reaching for other ways to multi. While I have been doing it somewhat with Tilt I don’t feel as comfortable with it, not to mention Tilt’s variety of low level ring isn’t as extensive as UB’s.

Speaking of multi tabling AP and Tilt I wound up doing a bit of that last night during the Skillz game. I am happy to say I got cashes in both the Sniper on AP and the Stud 8 Skillz. While I can’t multi table plain stud, need to pay total attention to the board, I find it really helps me with the hi/lo version. I have a tight range of hands I play in Stud 8 until I reach a certain point in the tourney and I try to be as robotic about them as possible. For this reason, while I think it is my best game, at least in tourney, I also find it to be the most boring. By playing another table I find I don’t keep justifying why I should play certain hands that might come along that I don’t feel I should not be playing. If I don’t see a potential playable hand right from the start I check the fold box and return to the other game. If I see something playable the other game is usually a low enough buy in that I can relegate it to the back burner for the moment without worrying I might miss something. If I do, no biggee.

I have to say that my play last night was distracted and not by the Sniper. While I was playing that I did fairly well in the Skillz but once I got knocked out I made some horrendous mistakes. The worst was at the final table when I failed to recognize the lovely CK. My vision was a bit blurry from the long hours, I was up early yesterday also, and the time spent staring at the screen and I saw her name as dk, not ck and the distractedness never put it together. Ooooopppps, sorry about that ducks. Almost as bad was a hand where I dropped about 5K into the pot and folded to a 191 bet on the river. Holding a pair of 9s from the get go and catching a couple of draws I did a bit of chasing against what I presumed was a pair of aces. When I saw I had missed my draws and heard the click of the bet I folded without even really looking and after I hit it I saw it was for her final 191. Now I still think I was beat but at that point another 191 didn’t matter, especially since I didn’t KNOW I was beat. Chalk one up to bone headedness. Considering how stupid I played I’m surprised I got so far.

I didn’t get to sit at the final table long. I grabbed split As on my final hand with a deuce to accompany them. So I complete the bet. And 125 Will was my only caller. I grab a Q on 4th street while Will has suited connectors showing. I bet out and he calls. On 5th I grab another 2 to Will’s 5 and I bet. Will doesn’t seem to believe my A is representative of anything but its self and decides to try and run me off with a raise which I promptly reraised and he caps. I’m thinking that there may be a 6-7 in the hole but by this time I’m too far gone to worry about it with only 2-3 bets left. He pops my 2 on 6th and thinking he might have the lo and we are chopping I check, he bets and I call. (Another boneheaded play. I should have bet out since I was already going to the wall with the hand. Don’t think it would have made a difference at that point since I only had a bet and a half left, not enough to force him off but I have to get out of the habit of checking down when I have the high and only think someone has the lo. There is always the chance it ain’t there.) 7th street brings me a Q for a higher two pair but will catches the card he needs, a 6 which completes both his straight and lo draws and I’m gone on the first or second hand of the final table. Well I’ll take the cash and the BBT points, I hope I got some there, and will be at the Mookie tonight to see if I can keep this streak alive.

Well the boredom hour is over for now and you can allow your eyeballs to breath again. Thanks for the attention.