Down and Up

I was in a slump for a couple of days. On Sunday and Tuesday I lost a lot. Maybe upwards of $400 during those two days. Tough to do at 2-6 spread limit and 4/8 with a kill while playing pretty tightly.

It was one of those weird experiences when no flushes or straights come through, no matter how many outs one has. Or I would flop a flush or straight, only to be outdrawn on the river when an opponent had stayed in with two pair.

I realized, during those losing sessions, that I had two major leaks in my LHE game that I needed to fix immediately. One is easy. I shouldn't play over eight hours. I shouldn't push myself. My memory goes into the toilet, my concentration is bad, and I'm tired. I CAN play longer than eight hours, I proved that to myself during those three O8 tournaments at Orleans. But I shouldn't. The games after midnight during the week aren't that good, anyway. The players, by default, are playing much more closely to correct.

My second leak, which is much worse, and tougher to fix, is not playing good draws strongly enough. I didn't realize just how much I was losing by winning small pots when my draw did come in, but losing many other pots when it didn't. Before, my wins had always covered this leak. I was repaid by my winning draws after losing on draws that didn't come through. Regardless of how I played those draws, I always had enough "left over" to repay the ones that fizzled out.

Well, when I'm not hitting at all, it's easier to see that I'm never quite getting paid back when I win a hand. If I played better post-flop, I would never let this happen. Sure, I'm going to have losing sessions, we all do. But I could definitely see that my wins were smaller by not playing monster draws stronger and building a big pot.

So yesterday I finally won again.

The freeroll was at 6:30, and I was out in the fifth hand. One cannot play this freeroll very tightly, or it's a losing proposition. We are given only 1k in chips, and the structure is 50/100, doubling every 15 minutes. Just trying to hold on means we get to the final two tables, maybe even the final, but have no chips and end up getting zippo (only top 5 get paid). That is time wasted when we could be playing cash games or be somewhere else. The promotions at RS are so good that it is a shame to waste two hours in some dumb freeroll where even if we make no deal, and stick it out to the very end, we can only win a max of $500.

Right after I busted out, I went to the $2-6 full kill game (it's been getting started more frequently, and it's sure better than no kill, when the 4/8 isn't running). Within about ten minutes, I was called for the "hot seat," which gets me into next week's freeroll, lol. Boy, it almost seems like I'm back at AOL, and experiencing the golden handcuffs. They keep stringing us along by throwing money at us every time we simply want to leave.

Anyway, I won some dough there. Eventually the 4/8 started back up, as tourney players busted out. I broke even there. Then that game broke up for a NLHE game. I broke even there (literally like $1 down, lol). Then that game broke and we went back to 2-6 kill. I lost about $20 there.

Altogether a better session. We got there early, didn't play after midnight, and both won a little dough. Glenn won more than me, and at one point had over $400 in front of him on a freaking 2-6 game!!! Go Glenn!

See you next time,

Felicia :)
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Last night:

-$10 (Net Tournament Winnings)
-$7 (4/8 kill HE)
-$0 (2/5 NLHE)
$49 (2-6 HE Kill)
=32 Net winnings for Wednesday, August 23, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $1900 [-$400 for Sun/Tues])

WPT Breast Cancer Charity

Very Cute!

Thanks guys,

Felicia :)

Mixed Game

Thanks, everyone, for the 4/8 HE feedback. The more I replay this hand, the more I hate the way I played it, and the way I have been playing the 4/8 on the weekends, in general.

I will have to revisit post-flop play more carefully in the future. It is a big leak of mine and since I'm starting to play HE again, I need to plug it immediately. 

Sunday night was kind of my live play breaking point. Oddly enough, it was due to playing a mixed game we started up at Riverside. One would think that I would be in my element. Making money and having a great time. And I was. But it takes much more concentration and energy to play mixed games than just coasting along playing donkey hold'em.

At about 9pm, three young guys walked into the RS. One of them was Bryan. He was visiting his father for the weekend in Laughlin, just planning on making the move to Vegas and going pro there (having been a pro for a while already in different venues). He was of the "I'm young and great" boasting type crowd, but pleasant about it, and definitely willing to listen and learn. He is friends with Boyd, which may account for some of that attitude ;)

He had two friends with him, a couple of "prodigies" which he would like to teach. I felt one had some potential, the other didn't. He said the other had more raw talent than the one I felt had a chance, but I didn't see it, although they had been drinking so much that their eyelids were floating and he might have just been one of those guys who loses all judgment after drinking. He was so weak at HE that I couldn't even believe that he was the same guy that Bryan thought had a huge chance.

Anyway, I made some overtures about turning it into a mixed game. Although the whole table was going for it, the dealers mumbled and grumbled and even Bryan said it probably wouldn't work. So I dropped it. Later, however, the guy I thought had a chance, Danny, brought it back up, and pushed for it. Another reason I knew I liked the guy ;)

We played dealer's choice for the next six hours or so. We had no trouble whatsoever keeping the game together and filled, although no one thought it would be possible. Sandra first told us we couldn't choose any Stud games (straight high or variants) or any Draw games at all. Later she conceded that nothing in the RS rules would prevent us from playing Stud games (I can't believe this was ever verboten to begin with), so we added Razz, Stud and Stud 8 to the mix.

I had a little bit of trouble with memory and concentration, but most of it was probably due to being out of practice and/or having been playing since 5pm. I simply played tight.

Over the course of the night, I got back most of my HE losses (yeah, another losing session for me, ugh), but I never got back to even. I did, however, have tons of fun. I also reached my breaking point, leaving at 4:30 absolutely exhausted and done with poker for at least a day.

Nice change of pace, though, and I hope Bryan makes it, and that he can find some good Stud games in Vegas (his favorite game is Stud, like me).

Felicia :)

4/8 Full Kill Hand

I was playing in a live 4/8 game yesterday at Riverside when the following hand came up.

I positioned myself to the left of a southern California thinking maniac. She was the small blind, I was the big blind. I had Q4s.

The flop came with two hearts (my suit), and a straight already possible. She bet out, I called, we got four overcalls.

The turn brought my flush, she bet. I felt that my best move was to smooth call her, hoping for the overcalls. I didn't raise because of the loose/passive opponents left in the hand. I also felt that given the odd chance that I was beat, I would lose less. If I won the hand, I was hoping to get many overcalls by our passive opponents who were basically playing defense against the maniac and would call down with any piece of the flop.

On the turn, two passive players called her bet. On the river just one.

My first instinct, which was to go for the overcalls, seemed like the best at the time. There were seven big bets to start the hand. After the flop, there were ten. After the turn, fourteen. After the river, seventeen.

She showed J2s for the jack high flush.

Had I played the hand harder on the turn and river, maybe I could have gotten up to 38. But of course I didn't know her hand was that strong. I was focusing more on overcalls by remaining, passive opponents than her, knowing she could have any part of that flop and keep betting out.

Of course, getting 38 bets would have been ideal, in my fantasy land, but had she had the king or ace high, I would have lost a lot more bets as well. Instead of losing only 3.5 big bets had I been beat, I would have lost 9.5.

I was so focused on Ed Miller's "going for overcalls" that I never once put her on that hand. It could have been pretty much anything. She only folded or checked when she had absolutely nothing (no pair, no gutshot, no runner draw, no ace).

Any thoughts on this? TIA,

Felicia :)
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Last night:

-$65 (Net Tournament Winnings)
-$110 (4/8 kill HE)
$50 (4/8 kill HE)
-$100 (2-6 O8)
-$15 (2-6 HE Kill)
=-240 Net winnings for Saturday, August 19, 2006

(Total saved for new car pre-August 15 $2500. Current total $2270)