rough day

I had another nice streak of 3 SnG moneys going, then crashed and burned. Poor starting hands, my draws not hitting, losing coinflips (got a nice streak of 5 in row against for those) and I'm probably not playing particularly well. Toss in that when I'm making stands I'm running into monsters (I believe pocket aces qualifies as a monster), and it's a delicious recipe for bubbles...

The Live Champeenship!

420. 75th-31st "paid" a lovely poker table. So money ($200) started at 30th. 1st = $25K. I'll ruin the suspense: I finished 37th.

The structure was the EXACT SAME as last week, only we started with 6K with one rebuy (which I got straight off). Twenty minute rounds. In other words... after an hour, poker was not the game. I got most of someone's original 6K real quick when I flopped a set of queens against his pocket kings.

I then foundered from that 18K down to 17K by taking cheap flops with good drawing hands or small pairs in position and not even brushing the resultant flop. This wasn't a concern for the fellow in the 2 seat at my table, who flopped 3 sets in the first hour and a half. Oh, and caught running tens for trips.

As I mentioned last week, the blinds after an hour twenty moved from 200/400 to 500/1000. At the end of the 200/400 level, I was fortunate to pick up some monsters. Queens UTG, Cowboys on the big behind 2 limpers, tens behind one limper. Each and every time I got folds to my raises. I did show the queens and the tens to encourage some more folding in the future.

As the blinds went up, though, I struggled to pick up hands. I stole a few times in good spots and got up to about 25K, but dropped to 16.5K after I had 85 on the big and led out/called a very small stack's reraise on 478 flop. Dude limped for about 30% of his chips with 77.

I then proceeded to do nothing but steal for the next hour. First to act in late position with a reasonable hand? All-in. One limper who has folded to raises in the past? All-in. I knew the game, and I was playing it. I was not going to play any post flop poker unless I limped behind limpers or was on the big and got a cheap flop. This game was all about preflop poker, and I was going to play it.

I got moved to my 3rd table, and was just lingering around 25-30K with blinds at 2000-4000, and did my steal from one off the CO with J9o. The button woke up with big slick, but on a 8TJ flop, I just had to dodge QKA, which I successfully did. You need to get lucky. I had to keep stealing, though, which was made difficult by a guy who had tons of chips two on my right coming in for minraises repeatedly.

I finally got a stack at the 5K/10K level when, behind a limper and a raiser, I woke up with aces on the small blind. Since I look at my cards one at a time (I feel it forces me to concentrate on the suits better,) I was intrigued when I saw the first black ace. However, in a live situation, I've yet to get pocket aces in such a situation, so I was fully expecting an offsuit six to follow. Needless to say, I was surprised (and pleased) as all hell to see the other black ace, and put my $42K in. The other player had KT and, after a moment's trepidation on the QT5 flop was quite well calmed down by the 5 on the turn, I was finally over $100K for the first time.

I called a couple of shortstack all ins blind on my BB getting 5-1 on my money, and finding J6o and 23o when I flipped my cards over. I still made four to the straight each time, but couldn't seal the deals. As the guy on my right slowly leaked his chips away, he wasn't coming in for raises as much, and I could steal again. I did so a couple times, and also found cowboys UTG, which I showed when everyone folded (hey, I've got HANDS when I do this, guys!)

Well, all that was for naught when my table broke up. At this point the blinds were 15k/30k with the next level being 25k/50k. Yikes. I thought it was a lottery before! I had 100k left and on about my 2nd hand at my new table had QJ of hearts in the CO and moved in. The SB woke up with aces, and although the flop of 78T (two hearts) gave me a great deal of hope, I couldn't hit the 9 or the flush, and was eliminated.

All in all, I was quite pleased with my play. The tournament was well run, but the blind structure made it a pure lottery. I recognized this early, and was able to last to 37th because I was willing to steal in late position with live cards like J9o, J8o, 57s, etc. There was one other player that I was with that recognized this same thing, and was willing to do the same. He was on my right at my second to last table and said, after one of his all ins "I have to beat you to it."

The fact of the matter is, in a format like this, the winner will be the luckiest player, not the best. I decided to play the right game, didn't fight it, and tried to get lucky. It nearly worked, I had J9 beat AK and nearly had my QJs crack aces. If that had happened, who knows? Clearly, there was much, much more poker to be played, and clearly I couldn't say "Well, I was the best player there" because, let's be honest, even if that was the case, it really didn't count for much in this tournament. However, I knew the situation and that gave me a distinct advantage over many other players.

Experiences like this do nothing but increase my preference for online poker. Live, to get a good structure, you're probably going to have to play a small tournament, becuase there's no way to have a 200 player tournament with a good structure all wrapped up in one day. So it's going to have to be a lottery. And that's fine, so long as you realize that's what it is. But if you want to play actual poker, you'll have to find it somewhere on the net or maybe go to a $10K buyin at the Bellagio. And since I'm trying to work up the bankroll for that, I'll be playing the majority of my poker seated on a computer chair.

Well, my chips won

Satellite for the Main Event on Bugsy's. 51 runners, 1st gets the seat, 2nd gets $200, 3-51 get the knowledge of a job (insert adverb here) done.

I finished in 4th. It's disappointing, I feel I was clearly the best player at the table, but I lost a coinflip at the end when the chipleader overplayed his pocket sixes. Again, I'm actually remarkably disappointed, but I know that in any tournament, even one of only 51 runners, I'm going to have to win a coinflip somewhere in the end game. I just could not do it when my life was on the line.

I did get lucky early on, when I caught one of my many outs against another player, but even that was compromised by a third player who was riding along with his flush draw that hit the river. I then used some good skill, timing and judgment to go from there, I became the chipleader shortly thereafter - and then my stack ballooned even more.

I had about an hour long card dead period, though, where I was mostly treading water. I actually was losing chips during this period, but I wasn't overplaying crap as I sometimes do in these situations; I made sure to keep myself calm and patient. I finally turned myself aroud with a big hand on an A67 board with AK against someone's A5. I called his 20K all in on the flop, with like one second left on the clock - there's no better feeling than being right in those spots.

The final table was shortly thereafter, and I just played solid, disciplined poker. I'd make a few moves when I felt the situation was appropriate, but I never showed down garbage, certainly. I kept a consistent image of a solid/aggressive player who should not be reckoned with. I think it was this image that led the other player to make the coinflip play at the end, partially because I think he felt he could get me to lay down (I had laid down before to reraises) and partially because he probably didn't think he'd be able to outplay me heads up.

Give him credit, then. He was something of a talisman with coinflips, winning them. While I don't like his play, and I would not have done it, maybe he recognized that with the circumstances of the table, it was his best move. If not, well, it was my chips that won.

Ending the SnG Streak

It took a spiked set on the river to end my SnG money streak. It was a sensational streak, best I've had. Now, to start another...

mixed results

Finally got another W in a Bugsy's Super sat, but got unlucky in a Stars tourney, then ventured back into the cash games at FT and dropped some.

While the table was full, I was doing well. I laid down big hands a few times, probably the winners, but what rewarded when someone tried to do it when I had the nuts. Oops. In the end, I ran into an overpair with top pair on the board at a shorthanded game, and the pot had gotten so big that I had to call the rest of my chips in a desperate attempt to chase it down.

Why yes, even shorthanded, KJ is the Spawn.

I feel I played well, but I wasn't really in the cash game mindframe, I don't think, and the game got shorthanded right quick. I still should have recognized that this player had me beat before I made the pot even bigger and had to send good money on a mission to recover the bad.

Oh well, this is why I tried to avoid the cash games. For whatever reason, my skill in them comes and goes, while I think I'm awfully consistent at SnGs and tournaments. I wonder how I can work on my consistency in cash games, and how I can work on my overall skill there. It's clearly a different game from tournaments and SnGs. I could just accept the fact that I'm not as good there, but a better idea is to try to make myself better.

Egads

Well, the good: I won another 30/3 SnG.

The bad: I kept trying to get the $220 for another Bugsy's WSOP Satellite entry. I fell short. I finished 4th in the deep money tourney, way back in a shallow money tourney, and two second places in shallow money SnG super satellites. In the one, I got all my money in with an overpair and lost to a rivered set. In the other one, the guy kept getting run over by the deck. Heads up, he flopped a set twice, flopped trips once, and turned trips twice. The turned trips happened on consecutive hands, and made our battle go from me leading to him having won.

Oh well, get all the bad luck out of the way now so that this weekend these really really annoying drawouts stop happening. I know it's tons of fun to get run over by the deck, I've had those SnGs/tournaments where even if you horribly misplay a hand you get bailed out by the deck, but man, does it suck to have the deck turn against you.

Hopefully in one of the tournaments this weekend I have it on my side.

Thinking more about this

I'm taking today off of poker, and will take tomorrow off, in all likelihood, as well.

However, that doesn't mean I haven't been THINKING about poker. I know, I know, how surprising. I was kind of thinking about how I knew what was happening last night. I worked very hard to get that slight chip lead, and then it just seemed that everything started to go against me.

I've been reading Aces and Kings by Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan, in which there's a chapter on women in poker. Cyndy Violette is one of the women featured, and there's a bit in there about how, when she got to heads up for a 7/8 bracelet at the 2004 WSOP, after she started losing some chips, there was a battle in her head. Part of her mind was battling an evil battle, telling her she wasn't good enough, and that she'd never win a bracelet. Her attempts to silence that part of her brain with positive thinking just wasn't working. However, she was able to go on a dinner break when her opponent agreed, and was able to take the necessary actions to silence the voices on the break.

That wasn't exactly what was happening to me last night. There was a battle going on in my mind, though. The happy part was saying "Dude, you've figured this opponent out. Weather this stretch when he's getting run over by the deck, and go back to doing what you did to take the lead." Then, the unhappy part was going insane, saying "Dude, you just had the lead like 5 hands ago, and now you've only got half his chips! Do something! Now!"

The trouble is, I was fifteen minutes from a break. I had to somehow stave off this battle going on in my mind, and play my normal solid game of poker the whole time. I let the unhappy part dominate for fifteen seconds and I paid a steep price.

How do I make sure that the right voice is always dominant? I'm powerless to request breaks online, and my clocks are always strict. I wish I knew. When I come up with something, I'll let you all know.

Gah!

I'm uspet at myself. I was at Bugsy's in another satellite for Saturday's tourney, hoping to win the cash. I got heads up with a player, and got a very good read on the player and yet... I still tried to do something I knew I couldn't get away with. I got frustrated as he was getting run over by the deck and I was going cold, but still, there's no excuse. I knew I couldn't blast him off the hand and yet, there I was trying.

The really annoying thing about it is I had worked my way from being 3-1 down to having taken a very very small lead for one hand. I did this through disciplined play, knowing when I could take a hand off of the player and when I should lay down my medium strength hand. And I threw it all away with one steamed out moment.

Oh well. I know that I'm prone to moments of frustration where I end up making a large mistake. It's probably one of the bigger things I need to work on - learning when that moment is coming and somehow either avoiding it's onset or dealing with it's arrival in a much more constructive manner.

Good Run Continues!

I LOVE it when the titles of my posts are happy and positive! That means I'm happy and positive, and it usually means I have had good results! Which I have! Exclamation points! They're happy and positive, too!

I forgot to mention that I asked if I could keep my one chip yesterday. They told me not at the moment due to their continued satellites, but if I asked them again next Sunday, they should be able to. If I have a very good finish (i.e. win), that will DEFINITELY be done. I'd pay a healthy ransom for that one chip - even if it's not THE same chip. Probably frame it or something. Wonder what Strauss did with his chip in 1982.

Anyway, I've continued my superb run at the SnGs, getting my 5th straight money (4 at Stars $30/3, one at FT), though 3 have been seconds, one first and one 2 way chop.) I'm up a little over $300 at Stars since I began doing the $30/3 SnGs exclusively. Not bad for a week and a half's worth of work.

Tonight I won my way into the Saturday WSOP tourney on Bugsy's. Only 11 ran, 2nd got $22, 1st got the seat. The eleven featured several more good players than these usually have. I went the first 30 hands without winning one, then turned the corner and got aggressive. I shifted gears far more often than usual - when we got to 4, the other 3 players had all already proven they were tough. So I tried to change up how I would play hands, almost from hand to hand. I didn't want anyone putting me on a range of cards. I wasn't being maniacal or anything, but I was trying to do the poker equivalent of shapeshifting.

I think what I was most pleased with about my play is that I never once had all my chips on the line. I moved in only a few times, and was not once called in those spots. That may be the first time in my poker career that I've been like that in an actual tourney. True - this was only 11 handed and the structure was incredibly deep, but anytime you're not ever actually facing a bustout, you've played a very good game of poker.

Playin' Live

So my brother and I ventured to the live tourney mentioned in the post a couple previous here. A fun experience, both of us were successful.

The format today was simple. Top 30 or 10% of all runners today advanced to the finals next Sunday, where everyone would start fresh. Today there were only about 80 runners, so a large number of us would move on (I calculated about 38%!) The blind structure, however, was unfortunate. We started with 3000 in chips, although we had 3 rebuys of 3000 apiece, which nearly everyone took before the end of the rebuy period, myself included. The blinds started at 25/50, then increased every 20 minutes to: 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 500/1000(!), 1000/2000, 1500/3000, 2000/4000. I imagine 3000/6000 followed, although we did not need to go any further. I quickly realized there would be no time for splashing about, and I only entered hands with legitimate cards. Fortunately for me, my temptations were removed, as I was dealt awful cards.

After limping from the button with KQo on the first deal, I went several orbits without playing again until I picked up AQ and raised to 1000 at 100/200. I then moved in on the A high flop, and got a fold from the only caller. I limped shortly after in the CO with 22 after a couple limpers - when no deuce fell, I was done. I bled away a few chips on the BB on the last hand before the break (after 200/400 level), with A5, calling a bet on the K52 flop, then betting the river after the other player checked the K turn. When he raised all in, I gave up the hand.

Entering break, I had 9500 in chips, which was essentially 2500 less than I started with. And we'd be going to 500/1000. It was clearly all in or fold. On the first hand after the break, I picked up ATo behind a limper who did NOT have the strictest requirements for getting involved. As I stacked my chips in front of me I said "I'm all in." The dealer said "that's a call - you have to say it before you put your chips out there." I was miffed, but accepted it. Everyone else folded, and on the ragged flop, I continued the charade of my monster hand and moved in, and they folded. Two hands later, again behind a limper, I picked up QQ, and announced with excessive emphasis that I was moving in. A shortstack called AI with AJ, and when the board only gave her a jack, I was up to 19000.

From that point on, I played one more hand. My table was your usual brand of poor players - call stations, limpers, etc. I was not dealt any reasonable cards, and I wasn't going to flail about with mediocre holdings with chips at such a premium.

The hand I played was at 2000/4000. I had 7500 in front of me, on the small, the big blind had 7000 in front of him. It was folded to me on the small, and I had A9o. I forced the BB in, who called with 99. I did not hit my ace, and I was down to 500- one yellow chip. I proceeded to think a bit about every move left I had. I wasn't blatant about it, but I took about as much time as I felt I could reasonably get away with consistently. It worked, the bubble burst as I was 2 off the big blind, and I get to come back next Sunday to try to win $25k with the chip and the chair I had left.

I can only hope the blinds are more favorable next Sunday, but I fear they won't be. At least I know the game we'll be playing if that's the case, and I can take full advantage.

My brother will also be there, as he qualified much more comfortably than I. He got up to about 27K with QQ v. JJ and took a pot or two after that, and folded to the entry. So way to go us.

I'll be back next Sunday with an update.

nice run

Well, after going out 2nd in a FT $100 tourney (KK v. AA) on Wednesday, I've had a nice run of results at the SnGs. A first, a couple of seconds and a 2 way chop have helped me feel really good.

I'm playing these SnGs I think quite properly. My strategy in them is to try to finish in the top 2. If it's clear that I have to play for 3rd - I will do so, but I prefer to play for at least 2nd. It works out best in the long run. Aside from that, my SnG strategy is really not very different from moderate depth money in a tournament which, let's face it, is exactly what it is. Use position wisely, try to get a read on your opponents in the short time available, and when you've got the ability to drop a hammer, do so. Bubble play is the same as a normal tournament bubble. If players are playing cautiously to ensure they money, accumulate chips. If the going is fast and furious, lay back, let them bust and get yourself some money and then open. If you have the chips, use them.

I've also had the benefit of some good luck. Yesterday I won a few coinflips, and when I was ahead I generally stayed ahead. The poor play wasn't being rewarded - in fact it was being actively punished from time to time. It's always nice when that happens.

As I mentioned last time, I'm really looking forward to playing Sunday. On the rare occasions I have gotten to play a live tournament, I have played really well. My concentration is always top of the line in these, and I have gotten some good results despite some mediocre cards. I haven't seen a blind structure, but I'm hoping that there's room for some play. I believe there will be. If/when I do well Sunday, the finals will be the following Sunday, with a guaranteed top prize of either $25K or a Main Event seat, $15K and airfare/lodging in Vegas. A couple months ago I'd be tempted by the former (and I think that's the option my brother would go for) but there's no doubt in my mind which I'd choose now...

It's been a while

I took a few days off from posting here. I've still been playing, but the luck's been rough. A lot of bad beats at the cash table, and a few in key points in tournaments. I've also had some cold cards in big tournaments, the Sunday at Stars sticking out memorably.

I've transitioned to play at SnGs for a while instead of cash games... Well, SnGs and tournaments. The upside is when I take a beat, I'm able to cool off quickly. I've taken a few too many lately, and it's really impacted how I'm playing, I'm sad to say.

Just as I was finishing writing this short one, I took two 2 out beats at one Sit and Go, and a three outer at the other to finish in sixth and the bubble, respectively. It's getting really agitating. Each of the two out players on the one SnG had already hit a two outer in the satellite, and at the other table - the player was Godawful and was just getting lucky. Getting it all in with AT against AK, an underpair, and got the good side of a coinflip. This player, whose stack had become reduced, called my AI with A3s with the other big stack still in the hand.

Ah, well, I was hoping this wouldn't degenerate into a bad beat story.

Back on track: I'm alive, I'm shifting to the 30/3 SnGs on Stars, planning on mixing in a few tournaments (particularly on weekends). The play at these SnGs is really borderline awful, so I'm banking on my skill eventually outweighing their shithouse luck. It's been a dead heat so far.

Oh! And I'm going to play live this weekend in Dayton. These guys seem to be really popular around here, so I'll give them a whirl. My brother and I are hitting them up on Sunday. Should be fun.

Whine alert

Really, can we not reward the dipshits?

AI with nothing but a 7 high flush draw? AI with KJ on the K88 board? Come on.

Don't reward these guys with the perfect card. Not after I worked so fucking hard to get almost all of my chips back. Don't take them ALL right away again with horrible drawouts.

I'm pretty upset right now. I usually do get awfully upset when pisspoor play gets massively rewarded.

Having said all that

It doesn't mean I still can't get really pissed off when someone hits a 3 outer for 150 of my money. That was a hell of an overplay of KJ he had. That was also one hell of a jack on the turn.

Good form

I started off this evening really cold. As I explained in a couple of IMs today, I ran into drawouts, monsters, and numbnuts who actually held hands. My play was certainly not up to par, I was playing a bit weakly and overplaying some pretty mediocre hands in a cold period. It cost me, big time.

But I think a bit of pride snapped my play back into line. I forced myself to really become more aggressive, lay claim to more pots, but be intelligent about it. I decided to stop calling so damn much. Sure, I picked my spots where a call was the right play, but by and large I decided to raise it or fold it. It really worked out well. I built my stacks back up so that I was only down a fraction of what I was at the nadir.

Again, though, this was a case of me not playing at my best. I know it's going to happen variously, but it's disappointing when it does. At least I was able to take some pride and salvage the evening, rather than getting desperate and really losing a lot of money, as I've done in the past. I would actually be up, but I got quite unlucky in a few spots. I was forced to fold aces in a big pot, and got drawn out on a couple times. That's just poker. If I hadn't taken a bit of pride in my hand, I'd probably not have laid down the aces and we wouldn't be posting this right now.

Examining hands

One of the things that I think has marked my development as a player is that I'm reconsidering my play even on hands that ended well. In the past, I'd kind of gloss over these hands and concentrate on the hands that didn't - the losing hands, the hands where I paid a player who chased and caught, the ones where I didn't extract as much as I think I could have. I still look at those extremely closely, but last night two hands came up that I decided warranted more examination, one of which I was a winner.

That can only be a good thing. While results are always a good thing, I cannot, with my newfound focus on the journey and, accordingly, the process, obsess over the results. I need to make sure I'm making an optimal play. I need to see more creative ways to play hands, to change how I play so that no one can put me on a hand. I'm improving that skill markedly, and the best way to work on it is repeated examination of particular hands from a game, both winners and losers.

cold deck sucks

I just wanted to say that. I'm done now.

I want them doing that, right?

So, one of the things I'm working on is finding the appreciation for the poor player making a poor play. It's great when they do it and don't get rewarded. It's horrible when they do it and get the miracle card, and, worse yet, I pay them off. I'm getting MUCH better about not paying the player off upon catching the miracle card, but it's still something I need to work on.

It's just one of those things. In the O8 game I was playing today, I lost to a Q77T hand that called two bets cold. I was sitting there at the end going "the only thing I can possibly imagine he has that can beat me is 77, but he wouldn't call two bets cold with 77, would he?" You know, I want him calling those two bets cold. I just don't want it to cost me about $30 in the hand.

It's the same deal, players chasing a flush on a paired board when clearly not given odds. Really, I want them to do that. I do. I just don't want that flush card to hit. Unless, of course, I already have the boat or it gives me the boat, and then I get every last chip they have.

I'm working on this. I have to remember, when they make these awful plays, it benefits me in the long run. Hell, it benefits me more often than not in the short run. And it really will benefit me if I don't pay them off (particularly in NL rather than limit). This is something I am continuing to address in my play. It's gotten much better, there's still room for improvement.

Yay

This just in: Gonna play Sunday at the Tilt satellite. So let's go me!

Back in the saddle

After the debacle last night, the best thing to do is to get back and play. I did tonight, I won a seat into the Bugsy's WSOP Satellite with a massive suckout. I'd been making quite a few laydowns against the player against whom I would ultimately go heads up - top pair a couple of times, low straight with a flush and a "perfect card" higher straight on board. Ultimately I decided to snap him off with a top pair hand, and he had a set. I caught runner runner for a straight, and took the seat.

Ah, good things happen to good people.

I did feel bad about it, surely he didn't have the hand all of the times I laid down, and I felt downright Hellmuthian. I may have gone for a nice whingy walk afterwards had I not drawn out. Of course, on the other hand, Annie DID have the hands, at least on all of the televised ones. So maybe I made correct laydown after correct laydown. Signs point to no, however. That just means that he played me like a damn fiddle and deserved the win. I got blatantly lucky. I'll take it.

Gonna have to win one of these. Because I've almost promised myself I'm gonna get there. If I'm not, the disappointment's gonna be a bitch.

Bump in the road

One of the unfortunate side effects of the long journey is that if I'm focussing on the process, there's gonna be a time I'm gonna do something really silly at the table. Today was one of those days.

The play isn't important, but it happened in the Satellite to the WSOP on Full Tilt this evening, and I can't help but feel it cost me a seat in the Main Event. It was a mistake I thought I'd gotten rid of - a combination of talking myself into making a poor call, a misread, poor math, and an overcalcuation of the size of my stones. The mistake then compounded when, later on, the same player made a poor call that worked out and busted me in 10th, 5 short of the money, 8 short of the seats.

This is going to happen though. I am upset with myself, and I accordingly shut down all poker playing operations for the evening. However, I've had a chance to look back. It was a horrible mistake, but it's one I can learn from. The main lesson, of course, is to not do really stupid shit. The secondary lesson - when you're chipleader, win the small pots, but if the pot shows signs of getting big, make sure you have the goods. I did not.

Tomorrow we go back to the journey. And this mis-step, that's all it was. A bump in the road. A lesson learned. It has been analyzed, is being mourned, and will be learned from. And that's all I can ask of myself once I've made the error.

Catharsis

Well, here's the post I made to the shades forum that encouraged me to create this blog. As is explained down below, I'm focusing on the journey, so here's my permanent record of the journey. We'll see how often this gets updated.


So, after going over some things after my recent bad run and some other recent (very good) performances that went fruitless, I’ve looked at a few things.

By and large, the results were due to simple cases of bad luck. There was some poor play on my part that cost me a significant amount of money, don’t get me wrong, but, on the whole, a reasonable break of the cards would have left me about even.

I did notice a problem in my game. I began to get too tentative at the cash table, as a result of a few of the beats I took. Once this leak was observed, it was fixed, and the results improved (until running into some of the other beats.) I wouldn’t bet my hands, worrying about monsters in the closet and, on one notable occasion, woke up when I finally fell behind.

I then looked at my play in 3 tournaments this weekend, the Saturday evening Rd 2 on Bugsy’s, the Bugsy’s Shootout on Sunday, and the WSOP satellite on Full Tilt on Sunday. I analyzed my play.

I played very well in the Rd 2. I went through a dead period, and got lucky in one spot when I had 5 BB left on the big. After an EP shortstack AI for about my total, holding A3s, I decided that the time was right to give one of us a chance. He had me kicked, but I was fortunate and flopped a 3. I then went on an extraordinary rush, going from 4K to 40K in about 10 minutes. I was able to keep adding to this stack by playing aggressive, intelligent poker, avoiding the other big stacks, until I went out with KK to AQs who called an overpot reraise and then my AI on the Qxx flop by catching runner runner for the flush.

In the shootout, I had another extended dry period. I was behind several limpy players, so my FTA opportunities were limited. I did let this impact me on one key hand when I did not take the opportunity to get a good value bet in, worried about the limpy players holding’s, when I should have realized by their betting patterns that they did not hold it. The impact of this failure to glean chips became manifest when my inability to pick up hands (and one move that did not work) hindered me, to the point that when I flopped 2nd pair in a battle of the blinds, I moved in behind a bet, only to find the player, who’d bluffed quite a bit, actually had the hand this time.

In the Satellite, I played extraordinary poker. I don’t think I can describe how I played any differently. It was simply top class. In the first 150 hands I played, I went to not a showdown (which is a mixed bag). In the first 150 hands I played, I put all of my chips at risk on zero of them. I took advantage of several weaker players who I had an excellent read on during the tournament, picking up chips at a consistent rate, and, throughout the tournament, increasing my chip stack both absolutely and in terms of rank in the tournament (that is, early on I was in the bottom third of chip stacks, but I steadily moved to above average). I played aggressive, but well considered poker. I made two key laydowns, choosing to not get involved in a sizable pot in which I did not have control. The hand on which I both put all of my chips at risk and got into a showdown was the last one, I had KK and called AI behind AJ and TT going to war, with a chance to become tournament chipleader. My hand ultimately was third best.

After examining my week as a whole, and particularly these three tournaments, I have come to some conclusions. My level of play depends upon my involvement in the game. This is undeniable and true for all players. I play poorly when I am disinterested in a game (most PSO tournaments, for example.) I play quite well when I am interested in a game (a $10 buyin tournament, perhaps.) I play simply exceptional poker when I become emotionally involved in an event (buyins of $100+, generally. I’ve gotten involved for less, though.)

The problem

I want to play my best at all times. I’m a very proud player, and playing at a top level is important to me. However, I have just identified that I don’t play my best unless I am emotionally involved. And the trouble is, when I get emotionally involved, and I lose, it hurts. Badly. As stated above, I’m very proud. And when I’m emotionally involved, I think I subconsciously put that pride on the line. Well, and I hate losing. Last night, after going out in the WSOP satellite, I was actively angry, as my brother or Dave could tell you as they were talking to me during the tournament.

There it is. To play my best, I must be emotionally involved. And I can’t be emotionally involved all the time, because the pain may outweigh the rewards.

Solutions?

1) Resign myself to this fact. I’m not keen on this.

2) Become emotionally involved regardless of the stakes. Not terribly keen on this, either

3) Raise the level of my “interested” play. This is difficult to do.

And yet, what I believe I will embark on, shortly, is a quest to combine the 3 solutions.

I am going to attempt a run whereby I force myself to become emotionally involved in every game I play – be it PSO, be it a satellite, be it a small stakes tournament or be it a large tournament. I want to see that if this happens, if I can reduce the pain to a level where it stings, but it doesn’t make me angry. I want to hurt after these, as I don’t ever want to be happy when I lose. But I want to make it so that it’s not significantly greater than the pain I feel when I lose when “interested.” And then having my play at an the top level be there the whole time.

We’ll see if it will work. Wish me luck in my quest. It won’t be easy but, if successful, will be the greatest thing I’ll have done to improve my poker play.