Monday, August 24, 2009

Online poker update

After waiting a week or so, I finally got my ADSL wireless turned on last week. Hopefully, that'll mean I'll be blogging a bit more often as its easier to do than when I was using the plug-in modem between my two laptops.

Since my update last week, I've played 4 poker sessions on PokerStars. After my back to back tournament wins I was hoping the momentum would continue. The next session was a short one but profitable with 4 cashes out of 14 games but the next day did not go so well. It started fine, me playing well, going deep ... I then grabbed some dinner and got back in to it. Other than an early cash, I could do nothing right and ended up failing to cash in my last 14 tournaments of the night. I was blown away by this stretch and looking back at the results, I wasn't really close to getting in the money. The best I could do was two 12th placed finishes in the 45 man games where you need to finish top 7 to get paid.

After a dinner party on Friday night, I was back playing again on Saturday. I had a big night on Friday and didn't sleep well so was pretty tired. That didn't hurt me tho as I played well and the results came. I played 17 tournaments and cashed 7 of them, no wins but I finished the afternoon with 2 second placed finishes in a row. One was a $3.25 45 man for $30 and the other was a $2 180 man for $72. The first one annoyed me because the stacks were fairly even going in to heads up. The villain had pushed all-in for the first few hands and I had nothing so folded. He limped in from the small blind and I raised strongly with pocket 7's. I expected him to fold but he took a while and eventually called. Flop came down 9, 8, 5 and by this stage there was so much money in the pot (as the blinds were high already) I pushed it all-in. He again went in to the tank and then called turning over 6 8 off. I was surprised to say the least that he limped and then called pre-flop with that. His 8 was good and a 7 on the river rubbed salt in the wound giving me a set and him a straight. The 180 man was different as the villain had a large chip lead going to heads up as he'd just knocked out the other big stack. He raised from the sb and I had pocket 4's. I knew he wasn't folding if I shoved so the plan was to call and then push on the flop and hoped he hadn't hit. The flop came down queen, 7, 3 so I push and he calls turning over ace 3 off. I'm in good shape until the ace comes on the river and I finish second.

With the two second placed finishes to end the night my bankroll broke through US$600 for the first time which was nice. I played yesterday evening as well, doing really well early until I got an emergency text from a friend saying she was in trouble and needed me to get her out of there. I was in the middle of 3 tournaments at the time so was a little torn, wondering how much trouble she was in and how desperately she needed saving. I was deep in one and finished 3rd, deep in another one before running queens in a to kings when I was flat-called from the button by a big stack. I was in the middle of a 180 man and doing well but realised I had to just walk away. After driving for 30 mins picking up my friend (in tears) and then driving home, I walked back in to find that I had finished 25th in the 180 just 7 places out of getting paid despite sitting out the final 1/3 of the tournament. I frustratingly bubbled a couple of $3.25 45 mans later in the night but thankfully got a 2nd to pretty much break even for the session.


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