I knew it was going to be my night within minutes of taking my seats at Party Poker. I hit the nut straight on the turn and was getting bet into. I of course raised back and the pot was capped. In addition to myself and the other raiser in the pot, 3 other people called down! It was the type of hand we all dream about. The river paired the board, but I wasn’t worried and bet from last position, getting 3 callers. It ended up being a 29 BB pot. Everyone else had also made their straight on the turn, but none beat or tied mine so I took the whole pot.
Tag: Cash Games
Some Bad Plays
After hitting two royal flushes last night I was on a poker high so I decided to wait until today to review my play from the session. My biggest losing hand was so horribly played that I can’t believe it myself. I raised in late position with
Royal Flush #5
You’re never going to believe this…hell, I can’t even believe it. Before I was even done writing that last post, I hit another royal flush! Less than 30 minutes after #4 came #5. I heard back from Party Poker already about the first royal flush and I get a free hat. I emailed them again for the 2nd one and they said I get a hat, so I replied asking for a t-shirt or something different if possible.
Royal Flush #4
I hit the 4th royal flush of my life tonight while playing at Party Poker. This time I sent them an email asking about if they have an special bonus. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a hat out of the deal or something. Doesn’t hurt to ask right?
So Much For Not Playing
Yesterday I made a deposit to Empire Poker to take advantage for the 15% reload bonus up to $100 (bonus code GET15). I played in between games and after they were over, clearing the required 500 raked hands in the process. After I was done, I withdrew my money right away and I just deposited over at Party Poker for the March reload bonus of 20% up to $200 (bonus code BONUSMAR). I have to play 1400 raked hands to clear it, so it’ll take a little longer. In addition, I have bonus funds waiting to be earned at Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt, and Poker Stars as well. I’m starting to sound like Mr. Bonus Whore himself. 😉
A Little Time
I found a little time to play poker tonight in between the early and late sessions of college basketball. I 4-tabled $0.50/1 and managed to get in 125 hands with a profit of $1. Woohoo!
Not bad considering my rockets lost to 99 that ended up with a straight, my AQ flopped trip aces and lost to a flush (which cold-called my pre-flop raise with
When looking at hands I lost the most big bets on, there were only 3 hands where I lost more than 2 BB. How did I only win a $1 if I didn’t have any big losing hands? Well, I only money on 6 hands. One of those was a split pot and another I had second best but won money because the winner was all-in.
As they have over the last two sessions, my stats look solid. My VP$IP was 14.4% for the short session, but I played my big hands hard. Besides the loss with AA, I won the other two times I had them for nice profits of 8 and 12 BB. Since I moved back down to Party’s lowest limit I’m up 32 BB for an average of 3.62 BB/100 hands. I’d say that’s pretty damn good considering that my VP$IP over that period is only 15.22%. It should be somewhere between 17 and 20 if I was getting some playable hands.
My discipline has improved dramatically over this time from what it had been during my stay at $2/4 for the past few months. I’m not getting married to my good hands and it feels good to be able to lay something down when I know I’m beat.
Feeling Good
When I got home from work I saddled up for some online play. With three tables of $0.50/1 going I played pretty well. I managed to get in just over 460 hands and take down almost $40. What’s more important than the win is the fact that I’ve played good poker for my last two sessions, dating back to last week.
Early on I was flopping sets left and right. Of course I lost 3 of them to 2 flushes and a gut-shot straight. I didn’t waste extra bets though, which is a good sign. I saw it coming and just called the river bet. I got sucked out on a few times, but I make a few suckouts myself when I originally thought I was ahead, only to spike my long-shot on the river for the winning hand. Some days it just all evens out. This was one of those days and I took advantage of it.
I’m getting better at laying down a hand when it’s clear I’m behind. A few weeks ago I was playing all of my monsters to showdown and it was costing me precious bets. I still caught myself doing it a few times, but I’ve improved 200% in this area already.
I can’t say enough good things about the Poker Tracker Guide though. Before purchasing the book I had no clue what to look at when evaluating my play. Now I simply spend a few minutes after a session reviewing some key hands. It’s really helping my game. Today I only cold-called a raise twice pre-flop, with 44 once and 99 the other time when several players had already called the raise. I ended up flopping a set of 4s, which paid off nicely. It’s simply amazing how well the concept of odds works in limit poker. Let keep it our secret though…don’t tell the fish!
A Fresh Start
I hadn’t played poker since the 28th and my sister is coming to visit for a few days so I figured tonight was my best chance to play some poker. I’m glad I played. After a few hours of play at the Party Poker .50/1 tables I got in 300 hands and lost 8.5 BB. It was the greatest poker I’ve played in quite some time.
You might be wondering how I can you lose and say I played my best. My VP$IP was less than 12.5% and my W$WSF was less than 17%! That’s just the cards I was getting; not many premium hands and not many flops hit my hand. I only cold called a raise pre-flop once in 300 hands. I had
I just wasn’t getting any quality hands or hitting any kind of flops. A week ago I would have been frustrated, giving away bets. Today I was patient. I was aggressive when I hit and my big hands paid off for the most part. There were only two hands where I lost more than 2 BB and one of them was only 2.5 BB. The other hand cost me 5.5 BB, which is about 3 more than I should have. I found
I reviewed my 10 biggest losing hands (most were in the 1-2 BB range) and I only made that one mistake I just went over. After looking over my 10 biggest winning hands I couldn’t see any place where I could have extracted another bet out of my opponent. I’d say that’s a pretty good day at the tables, even if it was a losing day.
How do I know all of this? Well, when you combine the information gathered by Poker Tracker with the great advice in the Poker Tracker Guide, you have an easy and effective way to review your online poker play. I wish I had this a few months ago when my game went down the shitter.
I know I’m only 300 hands in to my new start, but with the new auto rate rules from the guide book, Poker Tracker has me tagged as a Good Player (Tight Aggressive Solid). That must mean I’m doing something right so far. Let’s hope it continues and the cards improve. If so, my bankroll will quickly build back up and I’ll be sitting at the $1/2 tables again in no time.
Feeling Comfortable Again
I’m starting to feel comfortable again at the tables. Earlier today I played for a few hours on Party again, but with much better results. I’m feeling good playing 4 tables of $1/2 6-max, so I think I’m going to stick to it for awhile.
I eliminated the tilt factor completely today. Sure, I took my share of bad beats, but I didn’t let it affect my game. Guess what? I came out ahead! Imagine that. For most of the session I was up a little at a table or two and down at the other tables. For the most part, I was down 25-30 BB for the majority of the time I played. Near the end of my session I was able to get some hands to hold up and ended up winning back what I had lost yesterday and a little more. I finished up about 33 BB to the good.
-EV stopped by my table for a bit and was getting better cards than I was at the time. After winning about 10 BB (I think), he took off for what he said was juicy $5/10 table. It was nice to chat it up for a bit with a fellow blogger.
I don’t think I’ll be playing anymore today, so it’s nice to finally have a winning day.
Back at Party
With Party‘s redeposit bonus I couldn’t resist switching back over from UB. After making my deposit the bonus didn’t show up in my account, so I had to contact customer support this morning. I’m happy to say they fixed the problem in a few minutes. I’m going back to the $1/2 6-max tables at Party, with 4 up at a time. The pace of play is slower than at UB, so it’s much easier to keep up with multiple short-handed tables.
After getting the bonus funds I played for a few hours this morning and broke even at the tables. During that time, I cleared almost 1/3 of the 1400 raked hands that I needed. My main focus was to play a solid game and not let any bad beats get to me. I let a couple of bets slip away, but overall I did pretty well.
I ran some errands during the day and jumped back on for a few hours tonight. Again, my play was solid for the most part. I had a some bluffs at the wrong time, but not too many. I was 4-tabling again and one thing I’ve noticed is that the rate at which I would get beat by a backdoor draw or a runner runner seems so much higher because I’m playing to many tables at once. The beats did get to me a couple of times, but for the most part I kept it under control. I finished down about $50 for the day, but cleared the entire $200 bonus, so overall it was a +$150 day.
Looking through my spreadsheet and Poker Tracker, I noticed that I haven’t had a winning day at the ring games since the 11th. That’s not really a good indicator of anything because I took an entire week off from poker. I felt pretty good about my play today. It was much better than it had been over the past couple of weeks. Slowly but surely I’ll get my game back and build the bankroll up too. Another thing I noticed in Poker Tracker was that I’m only $1.14 ahead for online ring games! How does that happen when I have a bankroll of over $2100? One big tournament win and bonus funds, that’s how.
Nick Momrik 