I usually try to keep my bankroll around $3,000 and if it gets much higher I pull some money out of Neteller for investments, bills, and whatever else. 300 big bets is the recommended bankroll for limit poker, so I’ve had the roll to play $5/10 for over a year. Scared? Most likely.
Tag: Cash Games
Super Bowl Weekend
I played a little poker over the weekend. I also played a little poker about as bad as I could.
Before the Super Bowl we ran a couple of mini $5 tournaments. In the first tournament I was the first one out of 4 people. It only took two hands. The second time around I was second to go out of 5 people. Never bluff a calling station.
Later after the game… By the way, that had to be one of the worst all-around Super Bowls I can remember. The national anthem sucked, the refs sucked for the millionth time in this year’s playoffs, the half-time show sucked, and the game was rather boring. So later that night I fired up Party Poker and saw the Bad Beat Jackpot was over $250,000. Might as well play for a couple of hours. I donked off somewhere between $100 and $200. The next morning I woke up and the BBJ still hadn’t hit so I said why not and played again. There went another $250 or so.
My poker game isn’t running well at all this year. It might be time to switch it up and learn Omaha 8/b for a change of pace.
Warming Up Slowly
I’ve actually played some poker since the last post. It was last weekend and felt good to be back at the online tables. I played for about 3 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday, both after waking up.
Recently Party Poker has sent me a message about my Party Points expiring. If I didn’t play by Sunday, I’d lose 17,000 points. Ouch! So I fired up the client and was happy to see they were running a deposit bonus. Another great surprise was that the Bad Beat Jackpot was over $250,000. Whenever it’s up over $200,000 I like playing the BBJ tables because there are so many people playing above their bankroll.
At first I fired up 4 tables of $2/4 but decided to try out a couple more, taking advantage of my dual monitor setup. I ran 6 tables almost the entire time and it was great. On Sunday I joined 6 games right away.
My game felt solid and it was a nice feeling to knock the dust off. I won about $160 on Saturday, $100 on Sunday, and also cleared the $100 bonus. Now if I can just stay away from the Xbox 360 more often I can keep making money. I still haven’t cracked the 2nd Harrington book or jumped into the Omaha book I bought. Those might be projects for the holiday vacation (11 days off…one of the perks of working at a University).
No Time for Poker
I still haven’t been playing any poker lately. In fact, I haven’t played at all since my Xbox 360 arrived. Yes, it’s that great of a video game console! I’m hoping this nice little break will renew my focus and I can get back to beating the limit games. I’ve had some recent success with the two big tournament finishes, but I think in the end I’m a better limit player. I just don’t have the balls to play a great game of no-limit. Hopefully I’ll be back to the tables this weekend.
Edit: I should have titled the post “Not Making Time for Poker” because it’s my choice.
Soaring
I also took a trip this weekend to the Soaring Eagle Casino so I could play some poker with my dear ol’ brother. I decided to take a different route, as I tried out the 6/12 game for the first time in my life. It is quite a bit different, as the players up there have more common sense, and your good plays actually stand up.
I bought in at around 11:30 a.m. or so and saw my Nick over at the 3/6 table and gave him a wave. I purchased 200 in chips because I figured I should get twice as many as I get at 3/6, and I was right. After about an hour or so, I was down to about 60, still getting used to the more experienced players. As the time passed, I had gotten my stack back up to about even, when my mom and my sister gave us their best, as they had to catch the bus back up North. This must have been around 3:00 p.m.
Live Again
I didn’t play much poker in the last week. Only one session on Party Poker for a few hours and a $1.50 loss.
Yesterday I headed over to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant for some live action. I walked into the poker room at about 11:15 and was seated at a $3/6 table in less than 15. I sat in the same seat for ten and a half hours and saw the table makeup change quite a bit. At first the table was extremely loose passive. When someone raised preflop everyone else kind of game them the look. After a few hours the table tightened up quite a bit as players came and went. As the night went on the table got a little looser, but overall it wasn’t a good table to be play at.
I ended up losing $124 on the night. There were some bets I should have saved, but I’ll account that to not playing in a live game in months. I’ll definitely never be a live tournament player. I must have tells up the ass that any real players would catch onto in a heartbeat. I just don’t understand how I can be down to the final table in an online tournament with thousands on the line and my heart doesn’t skip a beat. In a live cash game when I check-raise with the nuts get the shakes. What is wrong with me?
Poker Podcasts
On my rides to and from work each day I’ve been listening to poker podcasts. Listening to poker discussions keep my mind off the traffic. In the mornings the poker talk gets my mind thinking and after work it helps to relax me after a long day.
My favorite poker podcast without a doubt is Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio. Cincinnati Sean, Brent Stacks, and everyone else who contribute to the show to an excellent job. Congrats on your 1 year anniversary guys!
Another poker podcast I started listening to is Rounders. It’s actually a poker radio show that they turn into a podcast. The radio station is Team 1040 AM out of Vancouver, Canada. My favorite part of the show has been the interviews with some of the top names from the poker world.
What do you know…my two favorite poker podcasts are both from Canada…eh! As a lifetime Michiganer I’m glad to finally find something good to come from our friends across the lake. 😉
Another popular poker podcast is Poker Diagram by Henry and Zog. It comes all the way from London. Each week they play some kind of online poker and discuss their play and other things poker. I listened to a couple of episodes and it was put together well.
I’m sure there are many other podcasts out there related to poker. Do you have some I didn’t mention? Leave a comment because I’d love to check them out.
Taking a Break
Lately I have been taking a break from all types of poker, online, casino, everything. The only poker in my life as of now is the WSOP on ESPN. Even though I already know what happens and who makes it how far, I still need to watch and enjoy the plays being made. I’m sure poker will be coming back into my life very soon, but for now, there isn’t much going on.
A rebuilding night
Once again this weekend, I went to the casino for a few hours to play some poker and hang out with friends. Thursday night I drove over for about three hours and lost $160 very quickly, but won it all back and walked away $50 ahead, but not from poker. I played roulette for the very first time and walked away from the table with $250. Friday night I went back up and won $100 at poker and $20 at roulette. Saturday night I went with a couple of friends who only wanted to stay for about an hour, so I decided not to play poker because I knew the list would be too long and I’d never even get to play, so I played roulette. I couldn’t hit a damn thing, I was down $220. I knew I had to play poker for a little while on Sunday and try to win some of that $220 back, so I went and tried my luck, but blew around $150 before I even made it to the poker table.
Brutal
This morning I played for about 2 hours on Party Poker and it might have been the most brutal session of poker I’ve ever played. The Bad Beat Jackpot was over $200,000 and anytime it’s that high my table of choice is the $2/4. I had four tables open almost the entire time and I was never ahead. Not for a second.
In fact, I played 300 hands before I won my first hand at showdown. Stop and think about that for a second. 300 hands! I still can’t believe it now that I’m thinking about it again. I kept making second best hands or losing to 3-5 out draws. Over the entire session rockets were 1/4 and two of those losses were to gut shot straight draws. Cowboys lost to 47o on the river when the player called all the way with bottom pair and a 7 kicker. Ladies lost on the river to 96o who had called two raises pre-flop and another two bets on a 9-high flop. Another 9 came on the river.
Nothing went my way and I finally made a good choice to call it quits. At least the Lions kicked ass today.
Nick Momrik 