Friday night poker

I may have mentioned this before, Friday night is a great night for staying at home. Back to back games of NRL and two consecutive hours of poker on OneHD. That's some quality TV time if you ask me.

Another very quiet day at work yesterday and while I was productive for most of it, I finished the day with two quick sit'n go games. I loaded up a $3.40 18 man turbo and despite playing well ended up a very frustrated bubble-boy. I was fairly card dead on the final table and ended up pushing all-in as short-stack from the button with ace 7 off-suit. The big blind thought for a moment and then called turning over king 2 suited. First card out ace, GREAT ... but it was the ace of clubs, another club on the flop and then one more on the turn and I was done. Top 4 get paid, I finished 5th.

The next sit'n go didn't go anywhere near as well and I was sent packing fairly early on. I planned on going to the gym last night but it was way too cold so that idea got vetoed and I ended up playing more poker.

The night didn't get any better from home as I failed to cash in the next 5 games. I was playing a mix of $1 90 man turbos, $2 90 man non-turbos and $2 180 man turbos. I was hoping I could overcome my recent poor form in the $2 games but that wasn't the best start. Suck-outs all over the shop and I wasn't getting close to the money at all.

Thankfully my luck turned half-way through and I managed to scrape in to the money of a 180 man tournament finishing in 16th. $2 drought over!! And from there, the floodgates opened ... somewhat. I final tabled the next 180 man finishing a frustrating 7th and got in to the money again on the next 180 man finishing in 10th (bubbling the final table).

The night ended with a strong performance in a $2 90 man game. I chipped up early and maintained and built my stack throughout the tournament. I was never in trouble and stayed in the top 10 stacks down to the final two tables. I took a beat inside the top 16 but quickly got back in to the top stacks heading to final table.

I played a really good final table and felt in control. I made one mistake when I raised with ace jack in early position, got called by the big blind and when first to act he shoved all-in on a low board. I felt it was a move but still folded ... he showed ace ten off ... groan. I recovered from this miss-step and sat in the top 3 stacks as players were getting knocked out. In the big blind I had ace king suited when the short-stack shoves from early position. I played on this guy's table for the last hour so I knew I would be in good shape. He turned over ace 5 off but the first card out was a 5 and while I hit an ace it of course did me no good. That hurt and I found myself in trouble for the first time but I managed to take down a few pots and fought back up to a reasonable level. The player to my right who had just taken a bad beat shoved from the button and I called all-in from the small blind with ace queen suited. He had me covered but I knew I was ahead and wanted to take a shot at the win and couldn't wait for a better situation than this (as the blinds were already high). He turned over king ten off which was what I expected ... unfortunately the first card out was a king and my hand didn't improve. Gone in 4th spot which was disappointing as I knew I was the best player at the table, things just didn't go my way.

So after a horrible start to the night with the $3.40 sit'n go's and then failing to cash in my first 5 MTT's, i finished the night cashing in 4 of my final 5 tournaments, final-tabling 2 of them. I didn't managed to get a win or a top 3 finish but the bankroll still improved to US$380. The best news tho was that my $2 drought was over!

I've mentioned it before but I tend to find the weekend games particularly ugly on PokerStars and my bankroll grows midweek and falls on the weekend. So with this in mind I'm likely not going to play this weekend ... plus I have work to do. We'll see how I go tho ...

An afternoon session

We're very quiet at work at the moment so for the last couple of hours I've been playing sit'n go's on PokerStars.

Over the last few days I've been playing a few of the $1.75 turbo 18 man games. They're fairly quick and easy to play a few at a time. I've been up and down as far as my results go and I don't think I've actually won one yet. Top 4 get paid and I'm usually 3rd or 4th which is a little frustrating because the top 2 get paid much better.

This afternoon I was running baaaad. Nothing was going right, I couldn't win hands. I was going in ahead but coming out behind almost every time. I mentioned it to Adam at the time, I must've played 6 or 7 games without getting in the money which is unusual for me because I should usually cash at least twice in that number.

In the second 90 man game that I played I was struggling with about 35 players left and would've been close to last place. With a few well timed pushes and wins I managed to chip and I was in 8th with about 20 to go. I stayed in that spot for a while and when the final table formed I had a lot of work to do. We lost a few players quite quickly but I made it in to the top 3 and that battle was very even for about 10 minutes or so with one player tending to have a bit of a lead for most of it. The big stack took out the other player when his pocket 5's held up against a flush draw and he had a 5 to 1 chip lead going in to heads up. I didn't think I had much chance but a few of my ace high pushes were called by his king high's and I soon had the chip lead. I then flopped top pair king on a king, five, five board and I pushed all-in, he called with ace high and didn't improve and I had won!!

Shortly after that I finished 3rd in an 18 man turbo so I finished with two cashes before I left the office. Hopefully that form continues in to tonight.

Poker online for money

Tonight for the first time ever ... I played for money online. I had been reading a blog (thanks Assassinato) for the last few days of a young poker pro and I felt inspired to give it a go. I won $5 on PokerStars a few months ago for placing in the second round of a tournament so I thought why not.

I had a look at PokerStar's list of games and obviously considering the "bankroll" I had, I went for the most micro of micro tournaments. So the first tournament I registered for was a 360 player 10c buy-in ... just so I could see how things work, style of play, etc. While waiting for that I also registered for a 45 player, $1 + 20c tournament. In the 360 player game I finished 63rd and in the 45 player game I made it to final table and finished 6th!

The final table I made, I actually went in placed 2nd in chips. Not surprisingly the action was very aggressive and people were pushing hard. I started bleeding chips and made the mistake of not pushing with ace-king suited from behind the button. Everyone called, I didn't hit but chased and after that hand my stack was crippled. First real sit-n-go and I cashed, only $3 but pretty happy with that.

I didn't have much to do tonight so I played another 2 x 360 tournaments and finished 160th and 74th respectively. Two more 45 player sit-n-go's, 11th in the first and then another 6th placed finish in the second. I again was chipped up near final table, called a push with pocket 9's and another player called behind me. The board came out all low but I checked with the intention of checking it down to knock the all-in player out. The guy behind me tho pushed all-in ... I eventually layed it down ... thankfully the player behind me had pocket jacks so that was a very good fold. His jacks held and we moved to the final table. Unfortunately I tried to bluff a guy out of a pot (which I rarely do) early on, blind vs blind ... but he called twice with middle pair and no kicker and I was busted. My stack was then hurting and I limped through to 6th again and another $3 cash.

So first ever night of online poker for money, two final tables out of three sit-no-go's (I'm not really counting the 3 x 360 player games for 10c each) ... pretty happy with that!

A quick poker introduction

I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this blog will be yet (poker obviously), but I've got a few ideas and I'm sure it'll figure itself out in the upcoming weeks.

How did I get in to poker? Well, one of my friends put together a cash game about 18 months ago. The buy-in was $50 and we would play once a month. I knew what texas hold-em poker was and the game had always intrigued me. I had watched it on TV and I knew what poker hands beat what, etc ... but didn't really know how to play. My brother had played a little pub league poker so he was the first person I turned to for the quick "teach me how to play in under 5 mins" version. The lesson basically was about strong started hands ... pockets and high cards.

I enjoyed playing and I did ok in the second of the cash games but I'm fairly competitive so I figured if I was going to put in $50 a month to play, I wanted to give myself the best possible chance of coming out ahead. So I asked one of my friends where he played/practiced and he mentioned PokerStars as a good place to play for free and learn how to play. I built up my free bank playing limit hold-em (so you weren't up against idiots/donkeys going all in with nothing) and then the small stakes no-limit. Now I just tend to play sit'n go's and freerolls.

After playing for a little while online I was chatting to another Aussie during a game and he mentioned the free local pub league games and said they were worth checking out. One night when our regular cash game got cancelled I decided to check out the Australian Poker League (APL) game down the road from my place at Bulimba Golf Club. I didn't really know what I was doing but I enjoyed the thrill of the competition. I now play in the APL at least twice a week, regularly Monday and Thursday nights sometimes on the weekend.