I just played my round one match with Gibler in the May Heads-Up Championship, and took it down in two games.
Game one was pretty uneventful. My strategy was to sit back and play very quietly until I had an idea of his heads-up skill. I've never really sat with Gibler and don't know too much about him other than he's been pwning some of the same tourneys I used to love playing every night (3rs, 5rs, 18k gtd, etc.). I definitely was giving him credit as a good player coming in, so I figured I would see what kind of approach he takes.
He was pretty quiet also, it didn't seem like he was bullying me around or anything, and he had no problem checking a flop after raising preflop, and most times would also check the turn as well meaning he had missed and wasn't doing the standard c-betting. I didn't want to create a Laggy image, though, so I didn't even try to pick up the pots that he was giving up on. I decided to let him think that I am a totally honest and straightforward player, not getting too tricky or anything.
I checked down lots of pots and maybe stabbed a turn or river if and only if I hit. I don't think I ever raised pf and did lots of limping and checking flops.
I was a card rack once in the first match with the 6-4 of spades. I limped the button and he raised it 4x I think. He hadn't done that very much the entire match, as we had seen most flops for just limps. The flop came down AKx and it check checked. I turned the 4 and it check checked again, I believe. The river came down 6 and he paid off a decent sized bet with KQ.
Really nothing else big happened, and I took that one down.
Match 2 was fucking crazy. Hand one he pushed on the button and I folded a raggedy Jack, I believe. Hand two I limped KQs and he pushed the BB. I decided something wasn't right here, as he isn't a bad player and would have no reason to push here with a monster hoping to get called by a weaker hand. That and the fact that he is unlikely to wake up with a monster twice in a row if indeed that is his strat led me to call it.
He turned over A9o and I flopped a flush draw. The river came Q and I took it down. That put him with 40 chips to my 2960. The next hand was it when my 10-4 or something held up.
That was that and I moved on to round two of the May Heads-Up Championship.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Quick Update
Haven't been updating as much as I'd like, but I've been hella busy lately with baseball starting, school, and work.
A little update on me, I quit my job. No more folding fucking clothes and opening boxes at the mall, I'm planning on spending my summer partying with friends, playing baseball, and taking a serious shot and building a nice bankroll to make a living off of. My goal is to make the top 90% on PocketFives TLB, although I think I'm capable of higher I decided to set a reasonable goal. I want to do that and have at least 20k in my br by the time school starts again. Right now my active roll is chillin around 6 or 7k after I've taken a little out to save and obv. had the losses I've talked about here.
I have been playing the 105 and 55 Turbo SNGS on Tilt and Stars lately, and I'm running like absolute shit. Honestly, if my money goes in the middle, I am not winning. It's just variance and it's part of the life I've chosen so that's fine with me, but that doesn't make it suck any less when you're just at that spot where JJ is not fading A6 and KK runs into AA more than should be possible. Very unfortunate, and dealing with this swing is my main goal right now.
I think I'm doing ok with it, I'm not panicking or questioning my abilities at all, although I am considering stepping down one level since this downswing has taken a considerable chunk out of my roll. Most likely I'm going to go back to playing the tourneys I played before my recent successes. I'm rejoining the FCP Rebuy Micro Brewery crew that plays the 3r and 5r every night, as I haven't taken part in those tourneys in quite awhile. I'm also going to move down to the 30 and 33 Turbo SNGS just until I get my groove back. I should be able to fade my downswing much better there, as I think the considerably lower level of play will allow me more maneuvering room and my bankroll will not be hurt quite as much. I'm down a good 3k in the last 3 weeks and that's not fun for obvious reasons.
The FCP Heads-Up Championship for May is starting up tonight, and the guys and I have got it all ready. I drew the shittiest and toughest bracket in the tourney, facing off with Gibler in the first round. My bracket also has Fluffdog, MoneyInBag, Rurtis, KevinJA8, Doublemeup, and the Stein. That's shitty and whomever comes out of this bracket is going to deserve the win no matter what happens in the final four, in my opinion.
Ok, that's just a quick update, I'll hopefully be back soon for more. I'm off to play my match with Gibler and hopefully take down some cash tonight, back to the MTTS this week!!!
Whaddya hear, whaddya say!!???,
Jesse
A little update on me, I quit my job. No more folding fucking clothes and opening boxes at the mall, I'm planning on spending my summer partying with friends, playing baseball, and taking a serious shot and building a nice bankroll to make a living off of. My goal is to make the top 90% on PocketFives TLB, although I think I'm capable of higher I decided to set a reasonable goal. I want to do that and have at least 20k in my br by the time school starts again. Right now my active roll is chillin around 6 or 7k after I've taken a little out to save and obv. had the losses I've talked about here.
I have been playing the 105 and 55 Turbo SNGS on Tilt and Stars lately, and I'm running like absolute shit. Honestly, if my money goes in the middle, I am not winning. It's just variance and it's part of the life I've chosen so that's fine with me, but that doesn't make it suck any less when you're just at that spot where JJ is not fading A6 and KK runs into AA more than should be possible. Very unfortunate, and dealing with this swing is my main goal right now.
I think I'm doing ok with it, I'm not panicking or questioning my abilities at all, although I am considering stepping down one level since this downswing has taken a considerable chunk out of my roll. Most likely I'm going to go back to playing the tourneys I played before my recent successes. I'm rejoining the FCP Rebuy Micro Brewery crew that plays the 3r and 5r every night, as I haven't taken part in those tourneys in quite awhile. I'm also going to move down to the 30 and 33 Turbo SNGS just until I get my groove back. I should be able to fade my downswing much better there, as I think the considerably lower level of play will allow me more maneuvering room and my bankroll will not be hurt quite as much. I'm down a good 3k in the last 3 weeks and that's not fun for obvious reasons.
The FCP Heads-Up Championship for May is starting up tonight, and the guys and I have got it all ready. I drew the shittiest and toughest bracket in the tourney, facing off with Gibler in the first round. My bracket also has Fluffdog, MoneyInBag, Rurtis, KevinJA8, Doublemeup, and the Stein. That's shitty and whomever comes out of this bracket is going to deserve the win no matter what happens in the final four, in my opinion.
Ok, that's just a quick update, I'll hopefully be back soon for more. I'm off to play my match with Gibler and hopefully take down some cash tonight, back to the MTTS this week!!!
Whaddya hear, whaddya say!!???,
Jesse
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Born Under A Bad Sign
That was absolutely sick.
Imagine sitting in one of the juiciest games you have ever seen in your life, overrolled, running good, and feeling great about your session. Then imagine sitting in that session for the next 9 hours and 45 minutes, and not getting action on a made hand a single time, making the second best hand seemingly every time you do get action, and taking a cooler of epic proportions for a very large pot.
That's what yesterday was like.
Lol it was pretty disgusting. I sat in the 15/30 O8 on Stars again, as it had been absolutely appetizing the day before and was looking like it had the same stable of people sitting. I also sat in a 10/20 and 5/10. It started pretty tame, nothing big happened for awhile and I pretty much posted blinds for about two hours, which was enough to knock me down a hundred or so. I didn't pick up a single hand the entire hand, and hadn't stolen a pot or even chopped one up with someone.
The game was absolutely crazy, I don't think anyone got a free card post-flop the entire time I sat, and the guys on my right had been betting and raising almost every street for an average of 90% of the hands. I was UTG and this hand came up...
I was dealt
and called. Usually I would lay this down preflop, as it has no scoop ability and I was out of position, but the way this game had been playing, I knew there were lots of flops that could hit me hard (any combination of Boats, Sets, Straights, Wraps, and Flushes), and I knew if one came, that it would be unlikely that a low would go out on the hand, and I would have a great shot at scooping in a three- or four-handed pot. I called, as did five others. The BB, who was one of the maniacs, raised it up as he always did and I called, as did the five others.
The flop came
giving me the nut flush with a gut shot royal draw. This was exactly the flop I was looking for, no low cards meant no low would go out at the end of the hand, and I flopped a monster. The maniacs in the SB and BB checked, and I bet. I knew that while I had a monster, I was still vulnerable to a set filling up and I wasn't looking to slow-play anything. I had found that it definitely was correct to play all of your hands fast at this table, as people were going all the way to the river almost every hand regardless of the action and their own strength. I bet and got one called, then folds to the SB who raised. The BB folded and I three-bet it. Looking to block out the caller if he had a set of nines or something and would lay it down, which would make it easier for me to scoop. If the board paired I knew I would be in trouble, and the way the SB was playing he definitely could have had a smaller flush or a set, and blocking out the caller would just be one less person that I have to worry about. I raised and the called cold-called two more bets, the SB capped it and we both called.
At this point I was still sure I had the best hand, but the cap on the flop caught my attention. I couldn't really believe that the SB had the 10-8h and had flopped the straight flush, so I figured that if he had a smaller flush he probably wouldn't have capped and that meant that I was pretty sure they both had sets. It was obvious that the caller on my left had a set.
The turn came
which I loved, as it didn't pair the board, which is the only thing I was afraid of. The betting got capped again as the SB bet, I raised, other guy called two cold, SB three-bet, I capped, other guy cold-called again, and SB called. At this point I was a little confused. I still had to believe that they both had sets, I just couldn't give the SB credit for the straight flush, although I was a little more concerned now lol.
The river came down
which crushed me. The SB bet out and I decided to just call one bet even though I knew I was beat, I obviously should have laid that down but I guess it was a "crying" call kind of thing. I called and the other guy now raised. Now it's obvious that he had the set, and the SB now three-bet it, which to me confirmed that he had the QQ and the other guy had the JJ. I folded to this and the other guy capped it. I was blown away at this, figuring for sure that the SB had the nut boat, but it just confirmed my read that the players here were absolutely horrible, as it looked like the other guy was capping with the jacks full when they can't possibly be good. The SB called the cap and the showdown looked like this.
SB:
Other Guy:
The SB showed the 10-8 for the flopped straight flush, and the other guy showed the JJ for the Jacks full boat. I knew he sucked.
Obviously this hand set me back quite a few bucks, and it was even more sick that the SB coolered me like that. I guess it's good that the board paired on the end, because I would have capped the river again most likely if it didn't.
That hand sent me on absolute life-tilt. It was still early in the session, but that hand was a metaphor for my entire day. Every time I made a hand from then on, it was second best in every direction. The nut-lows were getting quartered and the highs were getting boated and flushed all day. I could not pick up a single hand for awhile and the ones I did didn't get action. Just one of those days, but still sick nonetheless.
I sat at that table for the entire session, as it was never any less juicy, even when it got three-handed and eventually heads-up. I never got anything going, though, and put up a hell of a losing session.
All-in-all, that game set me back $1500 in 9 hours and 45 mintutes. Add that to my other sessions and I played a total of a hell of a lot and lost a total of also a hell of a lot, for an hourly of around -$184. A pretty sick day has led me to re-evaluate some things...
I've decided, after seeing my reaction to the way I ran last night, that maybe I need to step down one level. The 15/30 is very hard to pass up, as you can see from the play above, and I know that running good I could retire on that shit, but running bad can get expensive and frustrating. It doesn't help that I have never played that high before, so I might be a little out of my comfort zone, if not out of my bankroll. I have plenty of cash to play the 15/30, as in O8 you really only need around 250 bets (the swings aren't as big), but it's possible that a losing session could put me back as much as 7 or $800 on a normal day (not a disgusting super-shit day like yesterday), and I don't know if I really want to do that right now.
I've decided to step down my game at all levels, and reduce my bankroll a little bit. I've gotten a little preoccupied with making bigger scores lately and forgotten how to grind out profit like I used to. I think I played the 15/30 out of more ego than I should have, and maybe the 10/20 is where I should set up shop for awhile, only occasionally sitting in the 15/30 when it looks especially juicy (which seems to be often, but I'll keep track to make sure).
That session, along with bubbling in the Nightly 100k guarantee after making a total donk play with A4 in the BB running into AQ in the SB, made for a pretty disappointing day. Hopefully today will go better, as I'm getting ready to sit right now (about noon) and play probably all day.
My momma always said I'd be the chosen one, she said I'm one in a million, I got to burn to shine, but I was born under a bad sign with a blue moon in my eyes,
Jesse
Imagine sitting in one of the juiciest games you have ever seen in your life, overrolled, running good, and feeling great about your session. Then imagine sitting in that session for the next 9 hours and 45 minutes, and not getting action on a made hand a single time, making the second best hand seemingly every time you do get action, and taking a cooler of epic proportions for a very large pot.
That's what yesterday was like.
Lol it was pretty disgusting. I sat in the 15/30 O8 on Stars again, as it had been absolutely appetizing the day before and was looking like it had the same stable of people sitting. I also sat in a 10/20 and 5/10. It started pretty tame, nothing big happened for awhile and I pretty much posted blinds for about two hours, which was enough to knock me down a hundred or so. I didn't pick up a single hand the entire hand, and hadn't stolen a pot or even chopped one up with someone.
The game was absolutely crazy, I don't think anyone got a free card post-flop the entire time I sat, and the guys on my right had been betting and raising almost every street for an average of 90% of the hands. I was UTG and this hand came up...
I was dealt
and called. Usually I would lay this down preflop, as it has no scoop ability and I was out of position, but the way this game had been playing, I knew there were lots of flops that could hit me hard (any combination of Boats, Sets, Straights, Wraps, and Flushes), and I knew if one came, that it would be unlikely that a low would go out on the hand, and I would have a great shot at scooping in a three- or four-handed pot. I called, as did five others. The BB, who was one of the maniacs, raised it up as he always did and I called, as did the five others.The flop came
giving me the nut flush with a gut shot royal draw. This was exactly the flop I was looking for, no low cards meant no low would go out at the end of the hand, and I flopped a monster. The maniacs in the SB and BB checked, and I bet. I knew that while I had a monster, I was still vulnerable to a set filling up and I wasn't looking to slow-play anything. I had found that it definitely was correct to play all of your hands fast at this table, as people were going all the way to the river almost every hand regardless of the action and their own strength. I bet and got one called, then folds to the SB who raised. The BB folded and I three-bet it. Looking to block out the caller if he had a set of nines or something and would lay it down, which would make it easier for me to scoop. If the board paired I knew I would be in trouble, and the way the SB was playing he definitely could have had a smaller flush or a set, and blocking out the caller would just be one less person that I have to worry about. I raised and the called cold-called two more bets, the SB capped it and we both called.At this point I was still sure I had the best hand, but the cap on the flop caught my attention. I couldn't really believe that the SB had the 10-8h and had flopped the straight flush, so I figured that if he had a smaller flush he probably wouldn't have capped and that meant that I was pretty sure they both had sets. It was obvious that the caller on my left had a set.
The turn came
which I loved, as it didn't pair the board, which is the only thing I was afraid of. The betting got capped again as the SB bet, I raised, other guy called two cold, SB three-bet, I capped, other guy cold-called again, and SB called. At this point I was a little confused. I still had to believe that they both had sets, I just couldn't give the SB credit for the straight flush, although I was a little more concerned now lol.The river came down
which crushed me. The SB bet out and I decided to just call one bet even though I knew I was beat, I obviously should have laid that down but I guess it was a "crying" call kind of thing. I called and the other guy now raised. Now it's obvious that he had the set, and the SB now three-bet it, which to me confirmed that he had the QQ and the other guy had the JJ. I folded to this and the other guy capped it. I was blown away at this, figuring for sure that the SB had the nut boat, but it just confirmed my read that the players here were absolutely horrible, as it looked like the other guy was capping with the jacks full when they can't possibly be good. The SB called the cap and the showdown looked like this.SB:
Other Guy:
The SB showed the 10-8 for the flopped straight flush, and the other guy showed the JJ for the Jacks full boat. I knew he sucked.
Obviously this hand set me back quite a few bucks, and it was even more sick that the SB coolered me like that. I guess it's good that the board paired on the end, because I would have capped the river again most likely if it didn't.
That hand sent me on absolute life-tilt. It was still early in the session, but that hand was a metaphor for my entire day. Every time I made a hand from then on, it was second best in every direction. The nut-lows were getting quartered and the highs were getting boated and flushed all day. I could not pick up a single hand for awhile and the ones I did didn't get action. Just one of those days, but still sick nonetheless.
I sat at that table for the entire session, as it was never any less juicy, even when it got three-handed and eventually heads-up. I never got anything going, though, and put up a hell of a losing session.
All-in-all, that game set me back $1500 in 9 hours and 45 mintutes. Add that to my other sessions and I played a total of a hell of a lot and lost a total of also a hell of a lot, for an hourly of around -$184. A pretty sick day has led me to re-evaluate some things...
I've decided, after seeing my reaction to the way I ran last night, that maybe I need to step down one level. The 15/30 is very hard to pass up, as you can see from the play above, and I know that running good I could retire on that shit, but running bad can get expensive and frustrating. It doesn't help that I have never played that high before, so I might be a little out of my comfort zone, if not out of my bankroll. I have plenty of cash to play the 15/30, as in O8 you really only need around 250 bets (the swings aren't as big), but it's possible that a losing session could put me back as much as 7 or $800 on a normal day (not a disgusting super-shit day like yesterday), and I don't know if I really want to do that right now.
I've decided to step down my game at all levels, and reduce my bankroll a little bit. I've gotten a little preoccupied with making bigger scores lately and forgotten how to grind out profit like I used to. I think I played the 15/30 out of more ego than I should have, and maybe the 10/20 is where I should set up shop for awhile, only occasionally sitting in the 15/30 when it looks especially juicy (which seems to be often, but I'll keep track to make sure).
That session, along with bubbling in the Nightly 100k guarantee after making a total donk play with A4 in the BB running into AQ in the SB, made for a pretty disappointing day. Hopefully today will go better, as I'm getting ready to sit right now (about noon) and play probably all day.
My momma always said I'd be the chosen one, she said I'm one in a million, I got to burn to shine, but I was born under a bad sign with a blue moon in my eyes,
Jesse
Monday, April 23, 2007
I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!
Haha I love that title.
I finally booked a winning session last night. It's been awhile, but it looks like I got "it" back. I started the day in a 109 on Stars, and while I played it I sat in a couple O8 games on Stars. One was a 10/20 full game, and the other was 15/30. I played for 2:45 in the 10/20 game, and for 1:35 in the 15/30 game. The 15/30 was very juicy, and I ended up winner $652. In the 10/20 I ended up with a small nugget, up $31.50, for an hourly of $157.70.
It felt excellent to finally put up a good winning session, and O8 is such a great game that I feel like I am going to play more of it during my sessions while I play tourneys.
Speaking of tourneys, I bubbled two final tables in tough tourneys last night, going fairly deep into the money in both.
The first was a 109 on Stars, where I came in 13th for $216. Once we got to two tables, my stack was in need of some Viagra, and the only player I recognized in the tourney was my boy The Stein, who was two or three seats to my right with an above average stack. He took a hit or two early in the game and got down to just below average, and then finally busted out when his overpair to a three-baby board got busted when the guy's TP tripped up on the turn. A tough beat for Steiner, and he was out. I was out soon after, in 13th, when I pushed A4 short stacked I believe and didn't improve. I don't even remember what called me, at that point I was pushing with about 90% of the hands I could have been dealt as I was desperately short.
It felt good, however, to finally give a good showing in a tourney. The feeling kept going as I also bubbled the final table of the 109 6max on Full Tilt when I busted in 11th for a cash of $450. I went deep in that one but once again found myself almost hilariously short stacked. I had less than 2BB at one point, and it got to the point where I decided to try a new little strategy for being desperately short stacked late in a tourney. I'll write about it later as I don't want to get into details now, but I think it's relatively good when it works out, but also is good when it doesn't, as it prevents you from going broke when someone wakes up somewhere else with a very big hand.
That cash, plus the other cash and the O8 session put me up $981.20 on the day once you subtract the other few tourneys I played in and didn't get anywhere. As I said earlier, it was a good day and hopefully I'll stay on this track tonight. Right now as I write this I'm sitting in three O8 games, a 5/10, a 10/20, and a 15/30, and I think it'll be a good night.
It's a simple question, would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs?,
Jesse
I finally booked a winning session last night. It's been awhile, but it looks like I got "it" back. I started the day in a 109 on Stars, and while I played it I sat in a couple O8 games on Stars. One was a 10/20 full game, and the other was 15/30. I played for 2:45 in the 10/20 game, and for 1:35 in the 15/30 game. The 15/30 was very juicy, and I ended up winner $652. In the 10/20 I ended up with a small nugget, up $31.50, for an hourly of $157.70.
It felt excellent to finally put up a good winning session, and O8 is such a great game that I feel like I am going to play more of it during my sessions while I play tourneys.
Speaking of tourneys, I bubbled two final tables in tough tourneys last night, going fairly deep into the money in both.
The first was a 109 on Stars, where I came in 13th for $216. Once we got to two tables, my stack was in need of some Viagra, and the only player I recognized in the tourney was my boy The Stein, who was two or three seats to my right with an above average stack. He took a hit or two early in the game and got down to just below average, and then finally busted out when his overpair to a three-baby board got busted when the guy's TP tripped up on the turn. A tough beat for Steiner, and he was out. I was out soon after, in 13th, when I pushed A4 short stacked I believe and didn't improve. I don't even remember what called me, at that point I was pushing with about 90% of the hands I could have been dealt as I was desperately short.
It felt good, however, to finally give a good showing in a tourney. The feeling kept going as I also bubbled the final table of the 109 6max on Full Tilt when I busted in 11th for a cash of $450. I went deep in that one but once again found myself almost hilariously short stacked. I had less than 2BB at one point, and it got to the point where I decided to try a new little strategy for being desperately short stacked late in a tourney. I'll write about it later as I don't want to get into details now, but I think it's relatively good when it works out, but also is good when it doesn't, as it prevents you from going broke when someone wakes up somewhere else with a very big hand.
That cash, plus the other cash and the O8 session put me up $981.20 on the day once you subtract the other few tourneys I played in and didn't get anywhere. As I said earlier, it was a good day and hopefully I'll stay on this track tonight. Right now as I write this I'm sitting in three O8 games, a 5/10, a 10/20, and a 15/30, and I think it'll be a good night.
It's a simple question, would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs?,
Jesse
Friday, April 20, 2007
Back In Cash Games!
I don't know if it's my play, my tournament selection, or just variance, but I'm leaking like untreated gonorrhea. It's disgusting.
Since the big win last week, I have entered 34 tournaments...I have cashed in one of them, a 100+9 on Stars where I squeaked into the money in 25th and got busted out when KK ran into AA. Other than that, and the one bounty I picked up in the 120+9 30k on UB, I've gotten stugots in the last 34. It's pretty sick.
I wrote in an earlier blog how I was not playing well, presumably because of a lack of patience after the big win and not wanting to wait around for six hours for a "measly" five or six thousand. At the time of that writing, I felt like I was cured, but I sat down the next day and the shit continued.
Finally, last night I decided I'd had enough. I'm much better than this and I was going to prove it to myself. I "locked myself up" as I like to put it. No more distractions while playing, I was going to sit and watch the game and play the way I know how to play. I opened all of my programs (spreadsheet, UB, Stars, Tilt, and iTunes) and sat down. I closed the door to my room, turned off the light, closed the shades, and put on the headphones.
I'm a huge Sopranos fan, and unfortunately I got to watch the first season when it first aired, and then had to suffer for years when my family canceled HBO and I was unaware of the wonders of torrents. Now, we have HBO just in time for me to catch the final episodes, only I've found myself horribly behind in the storylines. To cure this problem, enter the magnificent torrent system. I've got the entire series downloading now, one episode at a time, on my computer while I'm sleeping or otherwise not at my computer. I've set it up to download in order, so lately every few hours I spend away from my computer gets me one more episode. I'm loving every second of that fucking show, and I can't get the theme song out of my head.
I figured this would be the best thing to help me concentrate. No Dave (like usual), no High Stakes Poker or Poker After Dark episodes, no House, MD episodes, just the "Woke Up This Morning" Chosen One Mix on repeat. I put on the headphones and was officially locked in to this session, and I was going to play my best no matter what.
It worked, actually. I still ran like shit and never got anything going early in tourneys, but I didn't make any huge mistakes and didn't donk of any huge chipleads (as I had been doing regularly in the days prior). I was feeling good about my game, and I was feeling really good when I actually got to see the "Players are now on break" popup on my tables. It had been awhile since I made it that deep in a tournament lol.
While I still was pretty card dead, it felt good just to get that cash in the 100+9. My tournament ended pretty abruptly when the KK ran into AA, but that's poker and I shook it off. If that hand hits, or I don't run into the aces at all, I would have been looking good in the tourney. It happens though, and is pretty consistent with how I've been running lately.
Anyway, I was locked in and just sitting playing my heart out, I ended that day 1/13 in cashes, which still sucks, but I was seeing that my bust outs weren't because of bad play anymore, they were now solely because I was running like shit. It sucks to get to the break with 1400 in chips every fucking time because you didn't pick up a hand the entire hour and picked up blinds three times.
So I booked a good day, as far as I was concerned. I felt I still had some kinks to work out but generally had gotten my drive back to win, no matter what the first place prize was.
Today was another day along those lines. I played very well as far as I'm concerned. Obviously yes, 0/5 in cashes, but I was a lot happier with my play today. I would have been very deep in the 35+3 Bounty 6k Guarantee on UB, but of course I pick up QQ in the SB with about 15BB in my stack and run into AA in LP. Out in 35th when 30 paid. I'm not unhappy about that, though, as I think I was going broke no matter what. The entire board was babies, and the flop was extremely innocent. It was gg me no matter how I played that.
After the tough day at the tourneys, I decided to give it a rest. I haven't sat down in cash games in awhile, and thought maybe the change of scenery would be good for me. I sat down in three 5/10 short-handed limit hold'em games on Stars, and added a fourth soon after when I got my bearings. The session was extremely fun, which is something I can't say about my tournaments lately. I opened up Pokertracker for the first time in quite awhile (I don't PT my MTT'S, only cash games) and got GT+ running. I fell back into it pretty well, and was up about 250 pretty quickly.
I hung around at that number, had a big stack at a couple tables and no stack at a couple tables, and ended up about even for the session, I didn't keep track of exact numbers, but I think I was down maybe 100. That, plus the tourneys for the day, gave me a day total of about -450. Not bad compared to the other days recently, but definitely not where I want to be.
I think I'm gonna do some more cash games from now on, the money is nicer and I think it really helps my tournament game. I need a break from NLHE. I can only handle so much of that game before burn out, and I think I've reached burn out.
I'm still going to play in all of the 100+9's on Stars, though, as I have set a goal for myself to really be proud of my Pocket Fives numbers by the end of the Summer. They haven't updated their stats lately though, and my 25k win isn't even on there! I emailed their results guy and he told me that for some reason they are still missing all of the tourneys from that day, but that they are working on getting them up. That will suck if they don't get reported and I get gypped out of my surefire big points jump.
Lick 'er in the front, poke 'er in the back,
Jesse
Since the big win last week, I have entered 34 tournaments...I have cashed in one of them, a 100+9 on Stars where I squeaked into the money in 25th and got busted out when KK ran into AA. Other than that, and the one bounty I picked up in the 120+9 30k on UB, I've gotten stugots in the last 34. It's pretty sick.
I wrote in an earlier blog how I was not playing well, presumably because of a lack of patience after the big win and not wanting to wait around for six hours for a "measly" five or six thousand. At the time of that writing, I felt like I was cured, but I sat down the next day and the shit continued.
Finally, last night I decided I'd had enough. I'm much better than this and I was going to prove it to myself. I "locked myself up" as I like to put it. No more distractions while playing, I was going to sit and watch the game and play the way I know how to play. I opened all of my programs (spreadsheet, UB, Stars, Tilt, and iTunes) and sat down. I closed the door to my room, turned off the light, closed the shades, and put on the headphones.
I'm a huge Sopranos fan, and unfortunately I got to watch the first season when it first aired, and then had to suffer for years when my family canceled HBO and I was unaware of the wonders of torrents. Now, we have HBO just in time for me to catch the final episodes, only I've found myself horribly behind in the storylines. To cure this problem, enter the magnificent torrent system. I've got the entire series downloading now, one episode at a time, on my computer while I'm sleeping or otherwise not at my computer. I've set it up to download in order, so lately every few hours I spend away from my computer gets me one more episode. I'm loving every second of that fucking show, and I can't get the theme song out of my head.
I figured this would be the best thing to help me concentrate. No Dave (like usual), no High Stakes Poker or Poker After Dark episodes, no House, MD episodes, just the "Woke Up This Morning" Chosen One Mix on repeat. I put on the headphones and was officially locked in to this session, and I was going to play my best no matter what.
It worked, actually. I still ran like shit and never got anything going early in tourneys, but I didn't make any huge mistakes and didn't donk of any huge chipleads (as I had been doing regularly in the days prior). I was feeling good about my game, and I was feeling really good when I actually got to see the "Players are now on break" popup on my tables. It had been awhile since I made it that deep in a tournament lol.
While I still was pretty card dead, it felt good just to get that cash in the 100+9. My tournament ended pretty abruptly when the KK ran into AA, but that's poker and I shook it off. If that hand hits, or I don't run into the aces at all, I would have been looking good in the tourney. It happens though, and is pretty consistent with how I've been running lately.
Anyway, I was locked in and just sitting playing my heart out, I ended that day 1/13 in cashes, which still sucks, but I was seeing that my bust outs weren't because of bad play anymore, they were now solely because I was running like shit. It sucks to get to the break with 1400 in chips every fucking time because you didn't pick up a hand the entire hour and picked up blinds three times.
So I booked a good day, as far as I was concerned. I felt I still had some kinks to work out but generally had gotten my drive back to win, no matter what the first place prize was.
Today was another day along those lines. I played very well as far as I'm concerned. Obviously yes, 0/5 in cashes, but I was a lot happier with my play today. I would have been very deep in the 35+3 Bounty 6k Guarantee on UB, but of course I pick up QQ in the SB with about 15BB in my stack and run into AA in LP. Out in 35th when 30 paid. I'm not unhappy about that, though, as I think I was going broke no matter what. The entire board was babies, and the flop was extremely innocent. It was gg me no matter how I played that.
After the tough day at the tourneys, I decided to give it a rest. I haven't sat down in cash games in awhile, and thought maybe the change of scenery would be good for me. I sat down in three 5/10 short-handed limit hold'em games on Stars, and added a fourth soon after when I got my bearings. The session was extremely fun, which is something I can't say about my tournaments lately. I opened up Pokertracker for the first time in quite awhile (I don't PT my MTT'S, only cash games) and got GT+ running. I fell back into it pretty well, and was up about 250 pretty quickly.
I hung around at that number, had a big stack at a couple tables and no stack at a couple tables, and ended up about even for the session, I didn't keep track of exact numbers, but I think I was down maybe 100. That, plus the tourneys for the day, gave me a day total of about -450. Not bad compared to the other days recently, but definitely not where I want to be.
I think I'm gonna do some more cash games from now on, the money is nicer and I think it really helps my tournament game. I need a break from NLHE. I can only handle so much of that game before burn out, and I think I've reached burn out.
I'm still going to play in all of the 100+9's on Stars, though, as I have set a goal for myself to really be proud of my Pocket Fives numbers by the end of the Summer. They haven't updated their stats lately though, and my 25k win isn't even on there! I emailed their results guy and he told me that for some reason they are still missing all of the tourneys from that day, but that they are working on getting them up. That will suck if they don't get reported and I get gypped out of my surefire big points jump.
Lick 'er in the front, poke 'er in the back,
Jesse
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Improv Blog
Didn't plan on writing this, as I have a lot of other writing that I'm behind on, but I figured I'd give a quick update.
As most of you know, I won the 50+5 25k Guarantee on Stars yesterday for just under 11k. It was a nice win, and I've gotten nothing but props from the FCP crew and others and for that I thank you. I also final tabled the 5r 25k Guaranteed and came in 7th earlier this week.
I will be posting blogs on both of those tournaments soon, and there will be a special blog for the win in the 50+5. As a result of my new record-keeping system, I have recorded every hand I played in the tournament up until the final table. I think my record-keeping at the final table got a little spotty because I was focused on the table and the chat with all of my railbirds, plus I'm pretty sure a lot of the people who are reading this blog were railing anyway, so they saw how I played.
I will, however, give a detailed summary of the entire tournament here, so you can "play a tournament with me" and get an idea of what I was thinking throughout the entire thing. I will warn you, though, that I got insanely lucky a few times in this thing, including a spike of a ten on the first hand of the final table to double up against AK with A-10.
Back to the blog...
I found today that I played like shit. I believe that as a result of my big win yesterday, my desire and determination to win faded temporarily. I found myself playing impatiently and recklessly, looking to either build an insanely huge stack early in the tournament or go home. Looking at the tournament lobbies, I would see that there were 900 or so people left in a tourney, and that even if I came in first, I would "only" get 5 or 6k. I just didn't have the drive to sit for hours and work my ass of for that amount when I had just won 11k.
There's a reason they say "you can't win a tournament in the first hour", and today I was proof of that, despite my best efforts. Indeed, I failed to prove it wrong, as in fact I won NONE of those tournaments in the first hour! I know, I'm as surprised as you are.
I am sitting now fairly certain that I've got my game back. I thought about it pretty hard today as I slowly leaked away a shit load of money, and I think I'll be ok.
In all, I played 11 tourneys today, 3 of them being satellites to the Sunday Million. I'll explain the reasoning behind that...
I woke up today about 11am Central Time, ready to play today. I was excited as today was going to be the first day that I would get to play in the "Sunday Majors" as they're called. The Sunday Majors are a collection of usually $200+$15 tournaments at the major online sites (Pokerstars, Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt, and Bodog) with huge prize pools and lots of players. I've never played in a single major, with the exception of the Sunday Warm-Up on Pokerstars last week.
I definitely feel like I have the game for them, it's not that I feel I'm outclassed. I just know that before today, my bankroll didn't really deem it appropriate to play in them routinely, so I avoided them.
However, I was excited about being able to play in them today. I only have money on Full Tilt and Pokerstars, so I was going to focus on them today. Pokerstars has 3 majors on Sundays (The Sunday Warm-Up, The Sunday Million, and the Sunday Second Chance) and Tilt has a couple as well. However, laying in bed, I realized that if I wanted to play in just a few of those every week, it would cost me around $1,000 per Sunday. Yes, I can technically play in them, but after about 5 or 6 weeks, if you add in the buy-ins I would spend during the week, I would be getting short of money without any big cashes.
Considering this, I decided that while I could handle buying in directly for awhile, I would still need to win some satellites whenever possible to get into the tourneys. It would make the most sense for my bankroll to not risk 10% of it every week playing when it's possible I would go five or six more weeks before my next score.
So I jumped into a few sats...good idea right? Not today.
0/3 in the last three satellites of the day to the Sunday Million, and I found myself down almost $160 without anything to show for it.
Great, now I had to buy-in direct to the Sunday Million, and I had missed the Sunday Warm-Up because of the damn satellites. So I just spent $375 to get into a $215 tournament.
That's REALLY great math Jess, you idiot.
lol of course I'm just kidding, it DOES make more sense for me to satellite in every week, as I have a great chance of winning plenty of seats in sats each week, it just so happens that it sucked today.
Other than that, I played in a couple $75 big tourneys on Full Tilt, a $55 and a $109 on Stars, the Sunday Million, the 3r on Stars, and the two Daily Doubles on Full Tilt. Zero cashes for the reasons I discussed above (I suck, obviously), and I ended the day down $728.30 and decided to stop the leaking and think about what was happening.
I've decided to keep going with the satellites to the Sunday Majors, and I'm also going to get some money onto Ultimate Bet and maybe Bodog to play some tourneys there, too.
I am going to focus now on tourneys with buy-ins between $20 and $100. Before, my range was anywhere from the 3r's to 30+3's, but I feel now I am going to move up and include the Full Tilt $69+$6's, the Pokerstars $50+$5's and $100+$9's, and satellites to the Sunday Majors.
I'll keep everyone updated on how it's going, and expect the blogs on the two final tables from this week whenever I get around to writing them. I have a feeling at least the $50+$5 one is going to be VERY long, although I'll try to keep it readable for you guys.
Deuces never looooses,
Jess
and if anyone is reading this and has money on Ultimate Bet and is willing to transfer for Stars money, please instant message me on AIM at FullTiltPoker316 or send me a private message at Full Contact Poker. I'm looking for a good amount (like 1k), but I'll take whatever I can get really.
As most of you know, I won the 50+5 25k Guarantee on Stars yesterday for just under 11k. It was a nice win, and I've gotten nothing but props from the FCP crew and others and for that I thank you. I also final tabled the 5r 25k Guaranteed and came in 7th earlier this week.
I will be posting blogs on both of those tournaments soon, and there will be a special blog for the win in the 50+5. As a result of my new record-keeping system, I have recorded every hand I played in the tournament up until the final table. I think my record-keeping at the final table got a little spotty because I was focused on the table and the chat with all of my railbirds, plus I'm pretty sure a lot of the people who are reading this blog were railing anyway, so they saw how I played.
I will, however, give a detailed summary of the entire tournament here, so you can "play a tournament with me" and get an idea of what I was thinking throughout the entire thing. I will warn you, though, that I got insanely lucky a few times in this thing, including a spike of a ten on the first hand of the final table to double up against AK with A-10.
Back to the blog...
I found today that I played like shit. I believe that as a result of my big win yesterday, my desire and determination to win faded temporarily. I found myself playing impatiently and recklessly, looking to either build an insanely huge stack early in the tournament or go home. Looking at the tournament lobbies, I would see that there were 900 or so people left in a tourney, and that even if I came in first, I would "only" get 5 or 6k. I just didn't have the drive to sit for hours and work my ass of for that amount when I had just won 11k.
There's a reason they say "you can't win a tournament in the first hour", and today I was proof of that, despite my best efforts. Indeed, I failed to prove it wrong, as in fact I won NONE of those tournaments in the first hour! I know, I'm as surprised as you are.
I am sitting now fairly certain that I've got my game back. I thought about it pretty hard today as I slowly leaked away a shit load of money, and I think I'll be ok.
In all, I played 11 tourneys today, 3 of them being satellites to the Sunday Million. I'll explain the reasoning behind that...
I woke up today about 11am Central Time, ready to play today. I was excited as today was going to be the first day that I would get to play in the "Sunday Majors" as they're called. The Sunday Majors are a collection of usually $200+$15 tournaments at the major online sites (Pokerstars, Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt, and Bodog) with huge prize pools and lots of players. I've never played in a single major, with the exception of the Sunday Warm-Up on Pokerstars last week.
I definitely feel like I have the game for them, it's not that I feel I'm outclassed. I just know that before today, my bankroll didn't really deem it appropriate to play in them routinely, so I avoided them.
However, I was excited about being able to play in them today. I only have money on Full Tilt and Pokerstars, so I was going to focus on them today. Pokerstars has 3 majors on Sundays (The Sunday Warm-Up, The Sunday Million, and the Sunday Second Chance) and Tilt has a couple as well. However, laying in bed, I realized that if I wanted to play in just a few of those every week, it would cost me around $1,000 per Sunday. Yes, I can technically play in them, but after about 5 or 6 weeks, if you add in the buy-ins I would spend during the week, I would be getting short of money without any big cashes.
Considering this, I decided that while I could handle buying in directly for awhile, I would still need to win some satellites whenever possible to get into the tourneys. It would make the most sense for my bankroll to not risk 10% of it every week playing when it's possible I would go five or six more weeks before my next score.
So I jumped into a few sats...good idea right? Not today.
0/3 in the last three satellites of the day to the Sunday Million, and I found myself down almost $160 without anything to show for it.
Great, now I had to buy-in direct to the Sunday Million, and I had missed the Sunday Warm-Up because of the damn satellites. So I just spent $375 to get into a $215 tournament.
That's REALLY great math Jess, you idiot.
lol of course I'm just kidding, it DOES make more sense for me to satellite in every week, as I have a great chance of winning plenty of seats in sats each week, it just so happens that it sucked today.
Other than that, I played in a couple $75 big tourneys on Full Tilt, a $55 and a $109 on Stars, the Sunday Million, the 3r on Stars, and the two Daily Doubles on Full Tilt. Zero cashes for the reasons I discussed above (I suck, obviously), and I ended the day down $728.30 and decided to stop the leaking and think about what was happening.
I've decided to keep going with the satellites to the Sunday Majors, and I'm also going to get some money onto Ultimate Bet and maybe Bodog to play some tourneys there, too.
I am going to focus now on tourneys with buy-ins between $20 and $100. Before, my range was anywhere from the 3r's to 30+3's, but I feel now I am going to move up and include the Full Tilt $69+$6's, the Pokerstars $50+$5's and $100+$9's, and satellites to the Sunday Majors.
I'll keep everyone updated on how it's going, and expect the blogs on the two final tables from this week whenever I get around to writing them. I have a feeling at least the $50+$5 one is going to be VERY long, although I'll try to keep it readable for you guys.
Deuces never looooses,
Jess
and if anyone is reading this and has money on Ultimate Bet and is willing to transfer for Stars money, please instant message me on AIM at FullTiltPoker316 or send me a private message at Full Contact Poker. I'm looking for a good amount (like 1k), but I'll take whatever I can get really.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Disappointment
I've never been one to take losses hard. In this game, it's just a part of the territory that you are going to lose sometimes. It's inevitable, and it has been said many times that it is how a player takes his beats and how he handles the down times that decides the true worthiness of his character and decides his ability as a poker player.
However, losing in the first round of a tournament populated by my peers is hard to take. I spend a lot of time discussing the game with these people, and as a poker player, my ego prevents me from really thinking that I'm at the same level as them. We all have egos, and while we are happy for one another when one of us does well in a tournament, when we find ourselves at the same table, we want to bust each other more than is humanly decent.
In a tournament such as this, our structure made it so that skill would ultimately shine through and luck would play a minimum. Heads-up play involves a great deal of luck, but when the matches are decided in a best of 3 or best of 5 format, it's hard to have a total upset.
Losing in the first round hurt, plain and simple. I haven't felt like this after a loss in a long time, and it isn't a pleasant feeling. While I am happy for 84jr and I hope he does well the rest of the way, I can't help but feel responsible for my loss. Jesse at the top of his game would not have made the mistakes I made in the second match, and I feel I would have taken down the series easily. I feel that 84jr's biggest flaw was that his "strong hand=push-and-hope-for-call-to-win-big-pot" strategy would horribly minimize the amount he won on his big hands. He has to get lucky and end up in a spot where not only HE has a huge hand (not often heads-up), but I have a second best hand (extremely rare in heads-up), and I also have to be willing to call.
Me on my best, or even me on a decently good day, would never fall for that trap. And his strategy would fail almost every time. This just wasn't a good day for me, and I gave him a few presents with the JJ pre-flop and J9 top pair hand.
I'm disappointed in my play, and I'm looking forward to the next heads-up tournament, when I'll be sure to be on my best behavior.
Monkey see, monkey do,
Jesse
However, losing in the first round of a tournament populated by my peers is hard to take. I spend a lot of time discussing the game with these people, and as a poker player, my ego prevents me from really thinking that I'm at the same level as them. We all have egos, and while we are happy for one another when one of us does well in a tournament, when we find ourselves at the same table, we want to bust each other more than is humanly decent.
In a tournament such as this, our structure made it so that skill would ultimately shine through and luck would play a minimum. Heads-up play involves a great deal of luck, but when the matches are decided in a best of 3 or best of 5 format, it's hard to have a total upset.
Losing in the first round hurt, plain and simple. I haven't felt like this after a loss in a long time, and it isn't a pleasant feeling. While I am happy for 84jr and I hope he does well the rest of the way, I can't help but feel responsible for my loss. Jesse at the top of his game would not have made the mistakes I made in the second match, and I feel I would have taken down the series easily. I feel that 84jr's biggest flaw was that his "strong hand=push-and-hope-for-call-to-win-big-pot" strategy would horribly minimize the amount he won on his big hands. He has to get lucky and end up in a spot where not only HE has a huge hand (not often heads-up), but I have a second best hand (extremely rare in heads-up), and I also have to be willing to call.
Me on my best, or even me on a decently good day, would never fall for that trap. And his strategy would fail almost every time. This just wasn't a good day for me, and I gave him a few presents with the JJ pre-flop and J9 top pair hand.
I'm disappointed in my play, and I'm looking forward to the next heads-up tournament, when I'll be sure to be on my best behavior.
Monkey see, monkey do,
Jesse
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
FCP Heads Up Tournament Match Against 84jr-Matches 2 and 3
Match two against 84jr was a lot more eventful than match one, but not for good reasons. I played quite horribly I feel and instead of locking up a round one victory as I feel I should have, I let him back into the match and forced a decisive third bout.
I said earlier that I felt like I was favored in the long run against his play. The reasoning behind that was that he had a very exploitable weakness that allowed me to maneuver around him and battle him in small pots. It seemed after match one that he was surprisingly a very timid, almost weak player. He didn't battle back at me too much during the match, and more times than not a bet on the flop following a pre-flop raise would take down the pot. If the pot was limped pre-flop and he checked the flop, a bet was almost certain to take down the pot. This passive strategy on his part was balanced with a tendency to overbet pots at random times with all-ins.
No kidding, many times during the first match he would push for well over 30 or so BB preflop with no raise from me. This, along with the seemingly weak/tight play after the flop led me to believe that I could chop away at a pot occassionally and pick up the blinds maybe 60% of the time to stay in a small chiplead until he got out of hand at the wrong time and I got my money in good.
This strategy worked in match one, as I chipped away until the quad nines hand I analyzed and then had him so crippled he couldn't really recover as I kept pressure on him.
Heading into match two, I felt like I could easily exploit these weaknesses again as long as I waited for a strong hand to play a big pot. I did just that for quite awhile, until the following few hands.
I had JJ on the button and limped. Two or three times previous to this he had taken advantage of my limps and pushed for somewhere around 1100 if I remember correctly. I folded every time obviously but now he tried it and I had the JJ. I felt like this was what I was waiting for and called. He had QQ and nh Jess. I fought back for awhile and a hand came up where I had, I believe, J9. The flop came down J4x and he pushed again. I went with it again and he had J4. After these I learned quickly that his push strategy was probably very effective against low-stakes donks in heads up sngs where inexperienced players will put all of their money in with nothing more than middle pairs and draws, and he was probably treating this match as no differently.
Knowing this, I wanted to go back to my small pot approach, but following the above two hands, I was in desperation mode and wasn't able to recover from the two hands. He took down match two.
MATCH 3
I continued my prior strategy, and it worked very well as I expected. However, the hand that came up that I believe decided the match went down like this...
I was on the button with 
at 15/30 and limped. He had me outchipped 1530 to 1470 and checked.
The flop came down 
and he checked. I bet out 60 as I had been pretty routinely. He stopped responding to the half pot bets from the first match so I had stepped it up in round two. He raised it up to 180 and I decided just to call it. I wasn't interested in playing a big pot with this hand at this point, there were a couple hands that might have me and there were a few draws out there as well, and I decided to take off a nice turn card before continuing.
The turn came down
and he bet out 300 into the 420 pot. At this point I nearly folded, and looking back I think that would have been the safe play. I could have the best hand at this point, but he hadn't fought back at me with that much strength in awhile and it felt like he had a nice hand at this point. The 7 might have given him two pair and he might already have me in trouble with QJ.
I decided to pull a Daniel Negreanu, though, and call knowing I was beat and hoping it wasn't Q9, as I felt that was his most likely hand the way it went down. QJ I feel he would have raised pre-flop, as well as maybe 33. I called the bet knowing there weren't a lot of rivers I was happy with other than an 8.
The river came down
and he pushed for 1020 into the 1020 pot. I thought for awhile and decided to trust my read. I knew I was beaten and folded.
I think I played the hand well until the turn. I should have laid it down to the 300. I knew on the flop I definitely could have had the best hand, but he hadn't shown that much strength almost the entire match and I should have been able to lay it down. I feel like if I lay it down the match would end up differently. As it turned out that hand crippled me and I couldn't recover. He chipped away at me the way I did to him in the first match and although I almost got back to even, it didn't happen. I went on a cold rush and he took down the series 2-1.
Smoke my mind, makes me feel better for a small time,
Jesse
I said earlier that I felt like I was favored in the long run against his play. The reasoning behind that was that he had a very exploitable weakness that allowed me to maneuver around him and battle him in small pots. It seemed after match one that he was surprisingly a very timid, almost weak player. He didn't battle back at me too much during the match, and more times than not a bet on the flop following a pre-flop raise would take down the pot. If the pot was limped pre-flop and he checked the flop, a bet was almost certain to take down the pot. This passive strategy on his part was balanced with a tendency to overbet pots at random times with all-ins.
No kidding, many times during the first match he would push for well over 30 or so BB preflop with no raise from me. This, along with the seemingly weak/tight play after the flop led me to believe that I could chop away at a pot occassionally and pick up the blinds maybe 60% of the time to stay in a small chiplead until he got out of hand at the wrong time and I got my money in good.
This strategy worked in match one, as I chipped away until the quad nines hand I analyzed and then had him so crippled he couldn't really recover as I kept pressure on him.
Heading into match two, I felt like I could easily exploit these weaknesses again as long as I waited for a strong hand to play a big pot. I did just that for quite awhile, until the following few hands.
I had JJ on the button and limped. Two or three times previous to this he had taken advantage of my limps and pushed for somewhere around 1100 if I remember correctly. I folded every time obviously but now he tried it and I had the JJ. I felt like this was what I was waiting for and called. He had QQ and nh Jess. I fought back for awhile and a hand came up where I had, I believe, J9. The flop came down J4x and he pushed again. I went with it again and he had J4. After these I learned quickly that his push strategy was probably very effective against low-stakes donks in heads up sngs where inexperienced players will put all of their money in with nothing more than middle pairs and draws, and he was probably treating this match as no differently.
Knowing this, I wanted to go back to my small pot approach, but following the above two hands, I was in desperation mode and wasn't able to recover from the two hands. He took down match two.
MATCH 3
I continued my prior strategy, and it worked very well as I expected. However, the hand that came up that I believe decided the match went down like this...
I was on the button with
at 15/30 and limped. He had me outchipped 1530 to 1470 and checked.The flop came down
and he checked. I bet out 60 as I had been pretty routinely. He stopped responding to the half pot bets from the first match so I had stepped it up in round two. He raised it up to 180 and I decided just to call it. I wasn't interested in playing a big pot with this hand at this point, there were a couple hands that might have me and there were a few draws out there as well, and I decided to take off a nice turn card before continuing.The turn came down
and he bet out 300 into the 420 pot. At this point I nearly folded, and looking back I think that would have been the safe play. I could have the best hand at this point, but he hadn't fought back at me with that much strength in awhile and it felt like he had a nice hand at this point. The 7 might have given him two pair and he might already have me in trouble with QJ.I decided to pull a Daniel Negreanu, though, and call knowing I was beat and hoping it wasn't Q9, as I felt that was his most likely hand the way it went down. QJ I feel he would have raised pre-flop, as well as maybe 33. I called the bet knowing there weren't a lot of rivers I was happy with other than an 8.
The river came down
and he pushed for 1020 into the 1020 pot. I thought for awhile and decided to trust my read. I knew I was beaten and folded.I think I played the hand well until the turn. I should have laid it down to the 300. I knew on the flop I definitely could have had the best hand, but he hadn't shown that much strength almost the entire match and I should have been able to lay it down. I feel like if I lay it down the match would end up differently. As it turned out that hand crippled me and I couldn't recover. He chipped away at me the way I did to him in the first match and although I almost got back to even, it didn't happen. I went on a cold rush and he took down the series 2-1.
Smoke my mind, makes me feel better for a small time,
Jesse
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
FCP Heads Up Tournament Match Against 84jr-Match 1
For those who might not know, the guys and I at Full Contact Poker decided to put together a heads up tournament in the image of the NCAA March Madness bracket. We got 32 people together to put up $25 a piece, in addition to the mobneys made in the matches. The opening rounds were to be decided by a best 2/3 contest, and the finals would be a 3/5 match. Since this was the first tourney of it's kind for us, the seeds were drawn randomly and I drew a relative unknown to me by the name of 84jr.
All I knew about him going in was that he was also a veteran poster and while I didn't recognize him, he had joined the forum the same day I did and seemed to be fairly active. That told me that at least he cares about his game enough to hang out and try to improve through the strat forums, which means he's at least fairly competent heads up.
Early into match 1, I was fairly certain I was favored. I really felt like I would be able to take out his legs with small pots early and as long as I controlled the pots as the blinds rose he would eventually lose patience and I'd get his money in with him in bad shape.
There weren't a lot of significant hands in match one, as I had hoped there wouldn't be. I chipped away at him and we went back and forth until the following hand happened...
I'll get to match two a little later, it's not very interesting, but you will get to see me playing like absolute shit.
Ni hannnn sirrrrr,
Jesse
All I knew about him going in was that he was also a veteran poster and while I didn't recognize him, he had joined the forum the same day I did and seemed to be fairly active. That told me that at least he cares about his game enough to hang out and try to improve through the strat forums, which means he's at least fairly competent heads up.
Early into match 1, I was fairly certain I was favored. I really felt like I would be able to take out his legs with small pots early and as long as I controlled the pots as the blinds rose he would eventually lose patience and I'd get his money in with him in bad shape.
There weren't a lot of significant hands in match one, as I had hoped there wouldn't be. I chipped away at him and we went back and forth until the following hand happened...
Pre-flop, I had been concentrating on varying my play quite a bit. I felt as though I was up against someone who was probably at least acceptable as an opponent, so treating it as a regular heads-up sng (where I would raise almost every button and bet every flop, just running over the donk with aggression and outplaying them without worrying too much about the readability of my own play) was out of the question.
I tried to give an almost even distribution of raises (always 3x BB), calls, and even folds on the button. It was effective I feel, because I would limp with suited connectors but raise with the trash, limp with big hands, raise with suited connectors, fold with trash, raise with big hands, etc. It was all pretty random so I'm pretty sure he never got anything from my pre-flop button play.
I picked up the 
on the button, and I liked the raise for the obvious reasons. I made it 90 to go with blinds at 15/30. He called. His call was fairly standard, a lot of the time we went to flops, but rarely past that unless we checked down the entire hand.
The flop of 
was obviously yahtzee for me, and now I had to make sure to get the maximum value out of the hand. I figured, the way the match had been going, that a check on the flop would look more suspicious than betting out, and although I ran the major risk of him just releasing his hand, I felt that he would stick around with just about any piece of the flop, as he had seemed to be pretty solid. The flop was pretty draw heavy for him, with the clubs and possible gutshots and an open-ender, so I bet out half of the pot, as I had just about every time I raised pre-flop, or every time he checked the flop on an unraised pot. He called.
His call told me he had a piece, which was good for me. I prayed for a matching card on the turn and got one in the 
. I was about 80 percent positive that this card hit him, as it really hit just about any hand that he's got here. Whatever he was holding, there was a pretty good chance that he wasn't too scared of the 7, and there was a good possibility that it hit him hard.
He bet out 200 on the turn and I just about popped a hard-one thinking this match might be locked up already! I decided to just call it hoping that he had a hand like 78 or a pair and a flush draw, and that he would either make his hand on the river, or if he had already made it would decide to go with it on the river regardless of the card.
The river came down 
which I was very happy with. There was always the chance he only had something like a bare 7 or 6 and the 5 would scare him off, but the fact that I called the turn told him I was around the wheelhouse on that board so it was possible he was afraid of the flush and the offsuit 5 would give him some confidence.
He bet out 350, just under half the pot, which was very good for me. It screamed strength to me, and I felt like he really thought he had the best hand. I considered making a small raise, less than our whole stacks, thinking it would be easier for him to call, but I ended up deciding that the push would look more like I was trying to take it off of him with the busted flush draw and a pair or something to that affect, and I would get called by the straight or even the long shot of a boat. I paused before pushing, and it took him awhile before he finally laid it down. I figured he probably had a bare seven like 7-10, and I found out later he had 7-5, and had flopped the gut-shot and turned the pair with the 7, exactly the type of hand I figured was most likely, but was hoping he didn't have as it wouldn't be able to stand the heat from my re-raise on the river.
I'll get to match two a little later, it's not very interesting, but you will get to see me playing like absolute shit.
Ni hannnn sirrrrr,
Jesse
Introduction
Ok, I guess I better start this with an introduction...
My name is Jesse Weller, and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I am 18 years old and I am currently playing poker professionally online. At the moment, I play at www.pokerstars.com and www.fulltiltpoker.com, under the name JesseW316. Most likely if you are a reader of this blog you have heard of me through my ties at www.fullcontactpoker.com, where I am a veteran poster in the forums.
Right now, I am a college student at Maryville University in St. Louis, where I am studying psychology. Next year, however, it looks as though I will be transferring to the University of Missouri in Columbia (Mizzou), to continue my studies and broaden my horizons. Being around home is great sometimes, it allows me to live rent free and only have to worry about paying a minor number of bills to remain afloat. This allows me to strengthen my skills online at the lower to middle stakes without fear of going broke and not being able to live.
I think this is the most important part of what I do, the fact that I don't have to worry about going broke and can comfortably maneuver around the lower to middle stakes while I hone my skills to take shots at the upper levels allows me to really concentrate on every aspect of the game before moving up.
As I said, right now I'm playing at Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars exclusively, although I have probably played at every major site out there at one time or another.
At the moment, by active bankroll stands at around $3,000. I am currently switching constantly between large field MTT's with buy-ins from $3 to $50 and single table sit 'n' go tournaments from $10 to $30. I've never been much of a cash game player, but occasionally I'll sit down in a wide variety of them. You might find me at a no-limit hold'em or pot-limit omaha table with a $50 or $100 max buy-in, or more likely at anywhere from a 1/2 to a 3/6 HORSE table, where I will inevitably be frustrated by the doom switch during the Razz and Stud levels.
The purpose of this blog is to force me to think about my game in a different and more in-depth way. I feel that as it is now, I am going through the motions with my game and while that is successful against low-limit donks in online poker rooms, it does not allow me to really expand my abilities and gain a complete understanding of the game. My goal is to be able to compete with the best tournament players in the world online and not feel outclassed or out skilled.
I feel that writing this blog daily will force me to think and reason through every decision I make at the table while I'm playing. After all, if I don't think about all of my moves before I make them, and make mental notes of the players that I'm playing with on a consistent basis, I won't have anything to write and therefore won't be able to keep the blog going. So, I will make myself keep the blog going and therefore make myself think about my game in new ways.
Hopefully it will become a good read and I'll get some comments from everyone on my entries, constructive criticism is always welcome here and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on not only my playing and hand analysis, but on my writing style. Please drop a note with your thoughts, and thanks for reading!
Peace,
Jesse
and fuck Bill Frist
My name is Jesse Weller, and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I am 18 years old and I am currently playing poker professionally online. At the moment, I play at www.pokerstars.com and www.fulltiltpoker.com, under the name JesseW316. Most likely if you are a reader of this blog you have heard of me through my ties at www.fullcontactpoker.com, where I am a veteran poster in the forums.
Right now, I am a college student at Maryville University in St. Louis, where I am studying psychology. Next year, however, it looks as though I will be transferring to the University of Missouri in Columbia (Mizzou), to continue my studies and broaden my horizons. Being around home is great sometimes, it allows me to live rent free and only have to worry about paying a minor number of bills to remain afloat. This allows me to strengthen my skills online at the lower to middle stakes without fear of going broke and not being able to live.
I think this is the most important part of what I do, the fact that I don't have to worry about going broke and can comfortably maneuver around the lower to middle stakes while I hone my skills to take shots at the upper levels allows me to really concentrate on every aspect of the game before moving up.
As I said, right now I'm playing at Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars exclusively, although I have probably played at every major site out there at one time or another.
At the moment, by active bankroll stands at around $3,000. I am currently switching constantly between large field MTT's with buy-ins from $3 to $50 and single table sit 'n' go tournaments from $10 to $30. I've never been much of a cash game player, but occasionally I'll sit down in a wide variety of them. You might find me at a no-limit hold'em or pot-limit omaha table with a $50 or $100 max buy-in, or more likely at anywhere from a 1/2 to a 3/6 HORSE table, where I will inevitably be frustrated by the doom switch during the Razz and Stud levels.
The purpose of this blog is to force me to think about my game in a different and more in-depth way. I feel that as it is now, I am going through the motions with my game and while that is successful against low-limit donks in online poker rooms, it does not allow me to really expand my abilities and gain a complete understanding of the game. My goal is to be able to compete with the best tournament players in the world online and not feel outclassed or out skilled.
I feel that writing this blog daily will force me to think and reason through every decision I make at the table while I'm playing. After all, if I don't think about all of my moves before I make them, and make mental notes of the players that I'm playing with on a consistent basis, I won't have anything to write and therefore won't be able to keep the blog going. So, I will make myself keep the blog going and therefore make myself think about my game in new ways.
Hopefully it will become a good read and I'll get some comments from everyone on my entries, constructive criticism is always welcome here and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on not only my playing and hand analysis, but on my writing style. Please drop a note with your thoughts, and thanks for reading!
Peace,
Jesse
and fuck Bill Frist
Don't get your panties in a bunch
I'm currently working on this as I get used to the interface here and tweak my page the way I want it. Expect the first blog sometime tomorrow about my heads up matches with 84jr and an introduction to me.
Don't fear the reaper,
Jesse
Don't fear the reaper,
Jesse
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