Oops...played that hand terrible!

It has been tough these last few outings at the poker table. I’ve played in a few tournaments this week (two with 300-400 entries and one with 70 entries) and haven’t made a deep run or cashed in any of them. It has been kind of frustrating but I keep reminding myself that this is not going to be an overnight process and it takes time to improve my level of play at the poker table. Today I entered the $245 buy in WPT event at Derby and I was determined to build a good stack early by playing smarter hopefully aided by catching some decent hands. Lately I haven’t been able to build my stack early and had been forced into push or fold mode due to blinds and antes creeping up on me. We started with 15K in chips and I started out slow early due to not getting many playable hands in position. I maintained my patience and focused on developing my reads and learning the players around me.

A few hands before the first break I picked up KK in early position. I raised about 2.5 times the BB and got 3 callers which was not what I was hoping for. The flop came 334 which seemed to be a great flop for me as long as no one called with A3, 33, 44. Those were the only hands I was worried about at that point because I was pretty sure someone would have re-raised me with AA. So I bet the flop into the 3 callers. I think I bet about 1/3 the pot or so. One player calls then the next player to act raises to a little over 2K I think and gets called by the player to his right. I’m still pretty sure my hand is good and I want to isolate or win the hand now. I had about 13K behind and I thought a shove would only get called by hands that have me beat but a re-raise to about 6K should isolate one player or get both players to fold. Just in case one player was hanging around with one Ace in their hand hoping to hit it. The raiser folds but then the other player called. I have to say I was surprised by his call and decided that I had to shove no matter what card came next. Hmmmmm…a J pealed off on the turn and I shoved it all in. The guy thought for a few then called and tabled 88…WOW! He must have put me on top pair (a four) or a straight bluff. River was an Ace and I busted him. One player said he folded QQ (good fold by him). At the first break I was at about 36K which was a nice step up from the starting stack of 15K and comfortably above average. I caught a few more good hands by hitting some flops and build my stack up to somewhere in the 50K range. Now I am the chip leader at the table. This game is easy LOL. I wanted to avoid the other big stacks at the table. A lady was just seated to my left with about 70K, one guy had about 40-45K, and there was quite a few players with around 20K. The lady was playing a lot of hands and calling all ins with VERY marginal hands but she was getting lucky. She was the one player who could bust me at the table so I didn’t want to play a big hand with her unless it was a VERY good hand.

Then this hand happened…I’m in the small blind with K10 off and it limps around to me (3 or 4 limpers), so I limp also and the BB checks. Flop comes KJ10 rainbow. I check and the lady to my left bets 1600 and is re-raised by a guy to 3500. I think my 2 pair may be good here so re-raise to 8K. The lady (BB) folds and the raiser calls. Uh oh is what I am thinking at this point. Yet the siren in my head did not go off that he HAS to be calling me with an extremely good hand. I should have shut it down once he called my re-raise because not many players are calling that bet with less than 2 pair not to mention he had only about 40K starting the hand so he might have been saying to me that he was going all the way with this pot unless it blatantly got ugly from his perspective. I should have paused here and thought to myself about what hands a player would limp with in middle position. If I hand of done this I could have got away from the hand early or played it differently. The turn brings a 7 and I decide to bet again thinking that (or more hoping LOL) that he unlikely floated my bet and would fold here. He insta-called my bet. Needless to say all kinds of confused thoughts are going through my head and I know that I am in trouble, yet I don’t raise the red flag or turn on the siren in my head signaling me to give up. HE HAS A GOOD IF NOT GREAT HAND FREDDIE!!! The river brings another 7. Well this didn’t make my hand better, but I manage to convince myself to bet AGAIN SMH!!! I bet 12K and he shoves for 24K and change. Now the pot is huge, something I didn’t want to do with less than a great hand against another big stack, and I am in a very bad position. I tank for a few since we are now on break there is no rush for me to call and manage to dig the hole even deeper and call. Player shows 10 10 for a boat. What was I thinking!!! There were so many hints in this hand where I should have came to the conclusion that he had a monster. Many players limp with 10 10 in middle position instead of raising then potentially getting re-raised and facing a tough expensive call. His re-raise on the flop should have signal at least 2 pair if not a set, KJ, 10 10, or K10 (same as what I have) since I’m sure he would have raised originally with AQ so it was unlikely that he had a straight. I could have called his re-raised on the flop to see If I would improve, but I could have also folded and waiting for a better spot to play a pot against him. Even though laying down 2 pair sucks, I know that in some situations, when taking everything into account, it is the higher value play. I could have lost only 800 or 3500 that hand instead of almost 40K and waited for a better spot to chip up. Yet I decided to continue to dig a hole deeper and deeper for me to get out of and getting out of that hole would not be easy. Needless to say, we come back after break and I pick up AK on the cutoff and shove for 14K after a few limpers (blinds were 500/1K/100). I get called by 10 10 (again LOL) and whiff! Busto!

It is amazing how quickly I went from 2^nd in chips at the table to busted in a few hands. I wouldn’t feel as bad if it was a cooler or If I got sucked out on, but the situation could have been avoided by slowing down, rethinking the action in the hand, and making a better or well thought out decision as far as my course of action in the above hand. Sometimes I move to fast at the table, for whatever reason, and I need to learn to slow down and take my time thinking about my course of action or line I’m going to take. I’ve learned a lot while playing more consistently over the last 6-7 months. I’ve played more poker during this time period than I have played previously combined. My game has gotten better but as I know it isn’t anything that you ever perfect. It is a game that is ever changing and it requires non-stop learning and evolving with it. I’m in my toddler stages of learning, as far as I’m concerned, so I have a lot more work to put in at the table. But, I have shown myself flashes of good play that have motivated me to continue my learning process in this game. I know that I will continue to learn and play better by more consistently making better decisions and slowing down my actions during play. I understand that I will continue to make some mistakes, but as long as I keep those mistakes small or to a minimum, I know I will be on the winning side overall.

Poker is a tough game, but I’m determined to improve!

Fred

Reflecting On My First "Big" Tourney

Reflecting on my weekend of poker I can’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment and disappointment simultaneously. On one hand I feel disappointed by not making the final table of nine, finishing higher in the money, and maybe playing a little nitty on Sunday (that’s too tight for my non-poker readers). But on the other hand I feel encouraged because I outlasted 90% of the field in this tournament and was able to put myself in a position to have my biggest cash so far. That being said I guess I will lean towards being encouraged and having a sense of accomplishment for my play this weekend. Playing for about 12 hours on Saturday was harder than I thought it would be. I was definitely tired both physically and mentally by the end of the night. Yet I was still able to make solid decisions through the whole night. On Sunday, coming back for day 2, I was a little tired and less comfortable than I was on Saturday which I believe was a combination of nervousness, tiredness, and maybe a few other feelings.

While playing on Saturday I didn’t have expectations of making it to the money or winning. I was focused on playing the best poker I could play and making the best decisions in each hand taking into account all the circumstances involved. I didn’t even pay attention to the “players remaining” number until it broke 100 (started with 257 in day 1B). Once it did, I remember thinking to myself, “wow I’ve made it far and outlasted all but one other guy I play with”. I knew that I needed to be in the top 26 to advance to day 2, but my stack size was somewhere around average and I knew I would have to pick up more chips. I continued solid play and avoided bad spots and was able to pick up big hands in good spots to get an above average stack size. Although, I did ride the roller coaster up and down a few times in route to being 15^th in chips heading into day 2. SWEET!!! This includes being all-in on the bubble twice. That was not a good feeling but I know that I made the optimal play in those situations taking into account my stack size, position, opponents not wanting to give away chips before day 2, etc.

On Sunday I couldn’t help but have those thoughts of winning the tournament and making the final table, yet also being surprised that I was able to make the top 51 out of 505 in combination with being as high up on the leader board as I was. I was really hoping that I could pick up some big hands early and be able to coast to the final table, but that wasn’t the case. During the entire time I played, which was about 2 hours, I picked up two pocket pairs JJ and QQ, and an Ace two or three times but with WEAK kickers and only suited once. So I didn’t have many spots to chip up and it was difficult picking up when/when not too steal due to the small stacks pushing a good amount of the hands I was in. In hindsight I believe I played too tight and wasn’t focused enough on observing other players to pick up the best steal opportunities and stop the bleeding of my chips. For whatever reason, I feel as if I wanted the tournament to be handed to me and I wasn’t going to have to work for it or earn it. There were many spots where I could have made bets, raises, calls or even folds that were more optimal plays than what I did and this could have bought me more time to chip up when I did pick up a big hand. But, I wasn’t focused enough in these spots and I was unable to get lucky when I needed too on the hand that I was put out on.

I know now that I am better prepared for tournaments that I will play in the future and I have a better understanding of what to expect from myself as far as how I may feel physically and mentally during certain times during play. This was a great learning experience which has motivated me to continue to improve my game and my observation skills at the poker table. I started playing poker as a teenager with my family then a little during college. After college I played in homes games once every few months up until 5 months ago when I decided to really focus on improving my game and playing more often. Since May I have cashed in slightly over 30% of tournaments that I have played in with a good majority of those tournaments being MTT (multi-table tournaments). Some were home games with only two or three tables. My game has improved dramatically over the past 6 months and I am looking forward to improving my game even more over the next 6 months just in time for the 2012 WSOP!

Fred

Thoughts From Today

I’ve been really slacking on writing in my blog. But I’m not going to make any excuses though. As always there are many things that make an appearance in my mind that I would like to write about. Many of these things could be controversial and I tend to not to express those thoughts to many people. One of the reasons why I tend not to have those conversations with others or write them in my blog is because I know that a lot of people aren’t open minded enough to attempt to understand my perspective or understand an idea that is not the norm. As I have said many times, I am traditionally nontraditional and I work hard to understand others perspectives even if I disagree. Many people feel like they have to agree with someone/something in order to understand them/it, but I feel as though that is not true. Too me, this is a common problem amongst our culture. If we would practice a little more understanding and/or empathy for each other we wouldn’t have many of the problems that we have today. Our culture reminds me so much of crabs in a barrel…which is extremely sad and who knows if/when this will change.

Fred

29

Another year has gone by and I am a year older and wiser. At least I tell myself I’m wiser LOL. I’ve had some great experiences over this past year and I’m thankful for having the opportunity to experience those things. Although I am one year closer to being “the big 3-0”, as some people would say, it doesn’t bother me. I try my hardest to have a different perspective than most about life. Every year and every day that I am allowed to spend ten toes down is a great day. I’ve seen people lose their lives very young and very old and I know that any day could be my day. So I remind myself often to take advantage of my time on this Earth and try to experience as much as I am able to. It’s not always easy to push yourself to do those extra things because it’s easy to become complacent and comfortable in your everyday life. There is nothing wrong with becoming complacent and comfortable, but for me it is not ideal. There are too many people to meet, too many places to see, too many cultures and societies to learn about, etc. I will push myself to experience as many of them as I can. The next trip plans are in the works and hopefully will be ironed out soon but it will be a blast!!!

On that note…I’m off to enjoy the rest of the night with some great food and entertainment by the Blue Man Group. Should be a great time!!!

Fred

Another Fiscal Year In The Dust

Ahhhhh…fiscal year 2011 is in the books and for once I finished early. YES!!! It was nice to be able to relax for a week and not have to worry about getting any work done. I spent all week relaxing, working out, catching up on reading and playing just a little poker (OK maybe more than a little LOL). After grinding out work for 12 months a week off (at least) is needed in order to recover from the grind and mentally prepare for the next fiscal year.

On another note, I finished another book this week. The book was Read ‘Em and Reap by Joe Navarro. The book explains poker tells and observing people in poker and in life. I consider myself a keen observer of people and my observation skills were tested many times this week playing poker. I made great observations a few times and it felt GREAT! But I also lost focus a few times and missed information (tells) on people during a few hands and it cost me. But the lessons are learned and I do feel as if my observation skills in life and at the poker table have improved after reading this book.

This week it’s back to work and the day to day grind. But, definitely looking forward to next weekends get away to Orlando for my birthday. Should be a lot of fun!

Fred