Poker Journal Day 14
Day 14, March 8th: Today will be my last day playing before I had off to New Zealand on Wednesday. I'll be taking tomorrow off to get some things done and follow through on some earlier made plans. The session is still technically going, but I've only got three tables left in late, smaller tournaments and I'm pretty short on all three tables. It was a fairly frustrating day as I just got brutalized over and over and lost my two major flips in the only substantial deep run, the Tilt $109 rebuys turbo where I got 19th. Ah well.
I've got mixed feelings about going down to New Zealand to write this book for ELKY. I think it's an awesome opportunity and I'm very gracious that he and Lee offered it to me and that they have such faith in my abilities. However, I think it's pretty obvious from the questions that I've been posting lately that I'm simply not the poker player I used to be. I think in a few months of constant playing and posting I'll be up to speed again, and I certainly haven't turned into a total donk, but I'd hardly call myself a highly competitive pro at the moment. The consequences of taking the majority of 2009 off to travel, get drunk, and chase girls has caught up with me; not that I regret a second of any of it.
Popular 2+2 poster Todd Terry recently made his 10,000th post in MTTC. Congrats to him for having made it that far, especially considering the constant verbal thrashing he took in his early posting career. He wrote a paragraph in his post that I think is right on the money when it comes to getting and staying good at poker:
"Get better every day. That should be your goal. There are intelligent, motivated people who are doing that and if you don't keep pace they're going to pass you by. No matter how good you are right now (which it seems for most people isn't 1/10th as good as they think they are). So post on the forums, read a book, spend some time with PokerStove or SNGPT, watch some videos, memorize some charts, talk to friends, hire a coach, coach someone who asks intelligent questions, play some tournaments below your normal stakes and try out some new plays, play more live (live I learn a lot every time I play, whether it be tells, how randoms think about hands, how specific known opponents against whom I'll play again think about certain situations), whatever you think you need to do."
He's absolutely right. Spend enough time away from both playing and thinking about poker and the game will pass you by. If it does, you'd better be pretty fucking self aware and realistic about making the effort to get good again. There's a long list of guys who smashed tournaments through 2005-2007 that we basically never hear from anymore because they stopped making a genuine effort to improve. I don't intend on letting that happen to me. Twenty-five is a bit too young to be washed up, particularly when a simple google search of my name will disqualify me from having the majority of most real jobs. Besides, I already love the one I have and I'd like to hang around a while. Writing this log and looking at my interesting spots every day certainly helps. I've also been watching videos from other tournaments players and occasionally even studying a dry hand history from a player I respect. There's a few very sick players who are friends and are happy to help me out with some coaching, so I'll probably get on Skype with them in the near future and review some hand histories.
There were a number of interesting hands from today. I'm going to aim to post them with my thought process thoroughly explained in the future so that I can not only have my lines corrected, but my thinking as well.
Tilt nightly $150:
Fairly early with no particular history and I'm gajillion tabling at this stage on a Monday (Sunday for you kids) so no direct reads available. Villain is an unknown. Questions:
1. Thoughts on the C bet? All pairs will peel, a fair bit of his flatting range will call (JTs, QTs, QJs, T8s, etc), and occasionally big aces will call too.
2. Considering he checked turn and numerous draws missed, plus mid pairs under the 8 got counterfeited, thoughts on river?
Full Tilt Poker $75,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20/t40 Blinds - 9 players
SB: t3360 M = 56
BB: t1645 M = 27.42
Hero (UTG): t2645 M = 44.08
UTG+1: t1915 M = 31.92
UTG+2: t4655 M = 77.58
MP1: t4005 M = 66.75
MP2: t2730 M = 45.50
CO: t2910 M = 48.50
BTN: t2925 M = 48.75
Pre Flop: (t60) Hero is UTG with J A
Hero raises to t120, 5 folds, BTN calls t120, 2 folds
Flop: (t300) 8 9 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t200, BTN calls t200
Turn: (t700) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks
River: (t700) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets t480, Hero calls t480
Stars $100 rebuys:
Stars 100r. Villain is a guy I've seen around and I'm fairly sure is a reg but no highly substantial history with him. Thoughts on the whole line? I'd guess he mostly gives me credit for higher flushes than I have by the river and he'll have mostly big cards for his opening UTG range, so even though we're getting 3 to 1 I figured the fold was likely correct, especially as his bet looks value seeking sized.
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds - 9 players
UTG+1: t8250 M = 55
UTG+2: t4049 M = 26.99
MP1: t3415 M = 22.77
MP2: t2450 M = 16.33
CO: t2850 M = 19
BTN: t3891 M = 25.94
SB: t6385 M = 42.57
Hero (BB): t3220 M = 21.47
UTG: t3000 M = 20
Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is BB with 8 8
UTG raises to t250, 7 folds, Hero calls t150
Flop: (t550) 7 T 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t300, Hero calls t300
Turn: (t1150) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t600, Hero calls t600
River: (t2350) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets t1150, Hero folds
UB $120 20k gaurantee:
Gajillion tabling at this stage of the day, so no good reads or particular history with the villain. All I know is that by the turn when he nominal raises me on this texture I feel like I'm crushed, even though not a ton of holdings make sense for him. I guess he could limp AK/AA/KK UTG, but that's gotta be pretty slim, and otherwise we're folding to 55. However, how many hands actually raise like this that don't crush us. Thoughts?
Stage #84036331 Tourney ID 5116891 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 60 - 2010-03-08 14:08:36 (ET)
Table: 23 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 1 - JILL339 (2,665 in chips)
Seat 2 - FURION3 (2,905 in chips)
Seat 3 - POLETRAIN (5,480 in chips)
Seat 4 - MUCKTHENUTS (2,840 in chips)
Seat 5 - BETOOO (5,020 in chips)
Seat 6 - NICKC1313 (5,710 in chips)
Seat 7 - PLAYER_1113 (5,025 in chips)
Seat 8 - MPLIZZY2288 (4,030 in chips)
Seat 9 - HB_HITMAN (2,480 in chips)
MUCKTHENUTS - Posts small blind 30
BETOOO - Posts big blind 60
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to MUCKTHENUTS [5d Kd]
NICKC1313 - Calls 60
PLAYER_1113 - Folds
MPLIZZY2288 - Calls 60
HB_HITMAN - Folds
JILL339 - Folds
FURION3 - Folds
POLETRAIN - Folds
MUCKTHENUTS - Calls 30
BETOOO - Checks
*** FLOP *** [As Kc 5c]
MUCKTHENUTS - Bets 180
BETOOO - Folds
NICKC1313 - Calls 180
MPLIZZY2288 - Folds
*** TURN *** [As Kc 5c] [3s]
MUCKTHENUTS - Bets 440
NICKC1313 - Raises 1,000 to 1,000
MUCKTHENUTS - Folds
Tilt $100 single rebuy add on:
Been very inactive lately and hadn't 3 bet anyone. No particular history with villain, and I haven't seen him around before to my knowledge. Questions:
1. Thoughts on mixing occasional 3 bets like this in during early stages? I know with my recent postings it likely looks like I'm doing it all day, but it's a pretty rare thing really.
2. Am I correct in thinking that given the flop the best plan is to check back and go for one street of value on the turn unless my hand improves?
Full Tilt Poker $33,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
MP: t4415 M = 98.11
CO: t4145 M = 92.11
Hero (BTN): t3720 M = 82.67
SB: t8415 M = 187
BB: t3395 M = 75.44
UTG: t1910 M = 42.44
Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is BTN with 7 J
1 fold, MP raises to t90, CO calls t90, Hero raises to t340, 3 folds, CO calls t250
Flop: (t815) 8 Q J (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks
Turn: (t815) 5 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets t525, CO calls t525
River: (t1865) A (2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks