Swimming in the tank can be fun....

Just got back from a wonderful night of monsoon rain, poker tournaments, and cash games. I went to Steves house to play in his 100+10 tournament. Cannot remember any momorable hands for the evening because I never really got all in until the very last hand. Most of the night saw me raising, or folding to either take down a decent pot, or folding to a better hand with good reads. I played solid poker, picked my spots, took down good pots, and generally kept myself above the chip average most of the night. The one hand I do remember, that became the only bad beat I gave anyone was when I reraised my BB with the blinds at 600/1200 to put the SB guy all in, he decided to call with what I believe was K/10, I had A/7. We both flopped a pair, him 10's, myself 7's. I thought I had doubled him up until I caught another 7 on the river to take him out and put myself into the money. Ended up cashing for 4th place after my A/K all in preflop lost to the big stack calling my 11K raise with 9/10 suited, flopping a 10, and seeing it hold up. Not happy about the call after he told me repeatedly while thinking about calling that he knew he was behind. But he did have over 70K behind him, and he would still remained chip leader even if he had lost. Still sucks though, he was playing tight up until that point, when he just all of a sudden decided to gamble. Oh well.

Jumped into the cash game with my "profit" money. Doubled up early, but saw my stack dwindle down during the night, and eventually lost to a really crappy hand that ended up flopping. Oh well, thats poker. Gonna have to do Steves as much as possible.

Just a thing....

What the hell am I thinking? I cant leave on a suckout! I have to come back harder, and stronger, and make Pops regret ever thinking he could win against me!

Retirement over! Float like a butterfly! Sting like a Bee! Im gonna shock the world!....

Well, Im gonna shock Pops with a monster suckout atleast.

Im a bad man!

What a sick fucking game....

So, I had a good night, and a bad night last night at E's place. The only thing I can say is after the last hand I played for the night, I told myself I was done with poker. But I decided to give myself a good sleep on it, and then decide whether my feelings were true, or was I just shellshocked from the horrible suckout that happened that sent me to the felt.

Ive been running over alot of the hands that I won, or could have won last night, but just didnt have the balls to pull the trigger when I had good outs, and lots of money behind them. The first hand of the night saw me flop my Aces over Pops Queens for set over set. But since I have such big hands, and people like to chit chat during the hands sometimes, Pops flipped over his pocket Queens because he thought I was all in, the only two people who knew I wasnt all in was Kenny and I. But, to everyone elses defense, after I saw Pops hand, I flipped mine over too, because I thought I couldnt possibly get more money out of him(I had about 81 dollars left, that after further conversation, might have been called), and it got checked down, saving Pops 81 bucks.

Another hand occured when I flopped a set, and rivered a higher boat over River Ed, I minimum raised him, hoping he would come back over the top with a straight, or the flush that was out there, but instead of banging his stack like he usually does, he just called me. My mind on that hand was screaming to go all in, because he would have probably called that too, but I was hoping on Ed's aggresiveness that didnt come, and I got alot less money out of that then I should have.

I had two other hands where I could have gotten doubled up by somebody occured with me not going all in with a King high flush, because Steve(table captain most of the night) was just hitting some insane draws with the nut flush, so I decided to just call his raise. I also folded to a 60 dollar raise with my K/Q suited, where I would have turned the nut flush, over another lower flush, and was told I could have doubled myself up.

...........................................................

After thinking on it for the little part of the morning. I have decided that I am going to retire from playing poker. I am no pro, but I just cant get over that last hand of the night that took my entire stack, when it shouldnt have.

To all of yall that I have played with, way too many to list on here. All of you are good people, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with you all, joking around, and the good times had by all. I hope all of you go on to become some of the best players in the world. I thought I could, but Im going to give up my dream. Godspeed, and a save journey to all of you. Get one good suckout for me the next time you play.


p.s. Good hand Aaron.

OK, the Aquarium isnt so bad after all....

Last night I followed E and River Ed to Steves house to play in a 40+0 buy in tourny, with a cash game to follow. I solely went with the intention to play the tourny to get my game back on track, get comfortable again, play some ABC poker, and to get myself off this slump ive been having. Even if I didnt win, I just wanted to play better than I have been during these past couple of months.

We start out in the tourny at a table with Keenan, and Travis, Bert, with a few other guys mixed in whom I have never had the privelege of playing with. So I immediately know where my caution people are at the table, and Im going to have to try and get some info on these new guys.

It doesnt take long for me to build up my stack some. I raised with good starting hands that didnt flop, but the bets were low enough for me to call and either turn or river top pair with a good kicker. I remember one specific hand where Bert had a K with a good kicker, I flopped a set of 3's, no draws were out on the board that I was worried about, and slowplayed Bert, letting him be aggresive, and getting a good amount of chips off of him. Another hand involved Steve at the final table where he went all in with K/10 suited, I call with A/8o, Steve flops a 10, I turn the A, and knock him out of the tourny.

The tournament eventually got down to 5 of us. I was probably third in chips out of the 5, with the one guy Slavi being chip leader. One person gets knocked out, and its down to 4 now. Im now either 2nd of 3rd in chips give or take a hand. Im just waiting for someone to make a mistake and either get crippled or taken down. A new guy Joe, ends up getting mixed up with the chip leader, who proceeds to suck out the nut flush on the river to make it 3. Im last in chips at this point, and know I need to make a move to have a chance of finishing better than third in this thing.

About 5 hands into the final 3, I raise the small blind with Q/4 suited to 1500, with the blinds at 300/600. BB calls me, with the flop coming Q/9/3 rainbow. I check it to the BB/chip leader, who proceeds to bet 2000, I reraise all in, he smooth calls me with his set of 9's, and bam, im out of the tourny. Oh well, good showing for me, definetely played with comfort, and confidence, which is something I really needed at this point. Keenan ending up taking the tournament down after he offered Slavi a chop, and with the Slavi having Keenan around 3 to 1 in chips, he decided to play it out. They played heads up good tactical poker for about 40 minutes, and in the span of two hands Keenan took down first place. He then proceeded to go outside to talk on the phone and smoke, and fall off Steves deck while smacking against Steves house and scrapping up his leg. Hes alive and well, and realising he can play this game of poker. Good show sir.

I decided to stick around since it was a little early and take me freshly won third place money and jump into the cash game. Needless to say this was going to be one of those seatbelt games with River Ed and Alex maning the one and ten seats. Very scary indeed, I immediately decided to walk softly and carry my big stick when it was dealt to me. I went up and down for awhile, getting down to 35 at one point, and up to 460 early in the evening as well. I was around 200 or so when I get mixed up with River Ed, I believe he was UTG, he decided to raise it to 15, I reraised it to 40, it folds back to him, and he immediately goes all in for around 400 dollars, or somewhere around that figure. I think about it for about 20 seconds, and decide to call him with my Kings, hoping he doesnt have A/K or something like that. He flips over K/Q off, I turn a set to seal the deal, and take down the hand. That was the most memorable hand of the night for myself.

Another good hand of the night was between Travis and River Ed. Ed is UTG and decides to straddle for 20 dollars(which is allowed in Steves game). It folds around to Trav, in the small blind I believe. Im sure Trav will post the actual hand account later in my comments section. But here goes. Trav raises to 40 I believe, Ed pushes the rest of his stack, somewhere around 200 or so, Trav smooth calls and Ed immediately flips over pocket Aces. Trav looks distraught that Ed wakes up with Aces on a 20 dollar stradle. Flop comes 3/4/Q, or something along those lines, turn brings another 3 pairing the board, and the river was something that I cant remember. Travis proceeds to flip over his pocket 4's to show his 4 fulls, and sends River Ed packing. That had to have been the best hand of the night.

All in all, I played my kind of game last night. I stuck to ABC poker for the most part per E's advice, mixed it up correctly when I felt the time was right, and got some good flops to show a 205 dollar profit for the night. We actually ended up playing until 3 in the morning, with me having to be at work at 7, or 8 at the latest. I slept through my alarm clock this morning, or it didnt go off, because my wife didnt wake me up. Either way, I ended up at work around 9:30, but didnt miss anything. Rest of the day is going to be interesting though, cuz im tired as shit.

Im cursed at the S.H.O.P.

The more that I think about it, maybe thats the wrong title for this post. I cant say Im seriously cursed at Pops, I did have one good cashout about 6-7 months ago, along with a decent cash playing some different variations of limit games just to pass the time on a weeknight awhile back.

But lately I have run extremely bad. That last two times, I have played a loose-tight game, picking my spots to be aggresive, laying back slow playing certain hands trying to trap. Each time I find myself on the losing end using whatever way I decide to play it. I either get outflopped, sucked out on, or just plain outplayed. The entire night im on a semi-tilt, in a state of confusion the whole night, and just plain losing. I hemorrhage chips every time I get involved in a hand.

At one point I lose my two pair to a four to the board flush. I lose my top pair, open ended, good kicker to a turned straight, and then rivered straight flush. I lose my A/K to A/5 again. I lose my pocket 10's to a turned A/J.

I think I might be cursed playing NLHE at Pops place, maybe if they get a dealers choice game going I might win something, but who knows. Im in a state of confusion at the moment. I was told a little while back that I was actually becoming a good player, and to me own account, I was. Ever since that run of good cards I was getting, Ive been getting cold decked, played like crap, or just was plain unlucky.'

Im starting to think all those big wins Ive made were simple luck. Maybe Im just lucky. I dont know how to play. I cant put anyone on a damn hand at any point lately. And when I do, I get looked at like the complete tool that I am. This game sucks, it really, really, sucks.

Online Poker and the ability to give and take money...

I recently took part of a promotional giveaway that MD-Poker is doing with an online poker room named CDPoker. I recieved the money yesterday, 55 dollars to be exact, needless to say to some of you, but this transaction literally took less than a minute.

I decide to jump into a .50/1. game. I end up losing my initial buy-in of 20 dollars, I rebuy for my last 35, and proceed to take that up to about 90.

I then decided to jump into a 1/2 game, I buy in shorthanded(40 dollars), because the largest stack in the room was 69 and some change. Within about 7 rounds Im sitting on about 370 and some change. I decide to quit for the night, and withdraw some money to pay off some debts. Well, wouldnt you know it, I have to wait 24/48 hours for the withdrawal from CDpoker to reach my middle man account, hopefully I recieve that by tomorrow night, it will then take me up to 3 business days for my transaction to go from my middleman account to my bank account.

It is so pathetically sad that they hassle you to take the money out, but its never any trouble getting the money in.

As you can see, didnt really want to talk about the good play I did online, that is mostly because when I win online, all I can think about is why am I not this good at reads in live play. I mainly wanted to complain that online poker companies suck bad at getting "YOUR OWN MONEY" back to you when you need it.