A Rocky Month

So it’s been one heck of a month.  I haven’t actually played very much during the past month, which in part is why I haven’t written very much.  I miss my routine.  We’ve been working a lot of overtime (unfortunately being salary I’m not actually paid for the overtime).  Unfortunately, work pays more, and more consistently than does poker, so I have to have priorities.

In addition to long hours at work, I think I mentioned that I started a diet about a month ago.  The good news about that, is that I am losing weight.  I weigh-in every Tuesday afternoon, and as of last Tuesday I’ve managed to lose 18.2 pounds.  It feels great, especially since my new PokerStars leather jacket actually fits!  :)

The bad news about a reduced calorie diet and long hours at work is that I’m more tired during the evenings than I used to be.  Maybe that has to do with age also.  Anyway, I just haven’t been as awake as I need to be in order to play poker.  I also hired a trainer to kick my butt at the gym and help with the weight loss.  (I’m now spending a LOT of money, and effort, to lose this weight – it had better freaking work!)

Anyway it’s been like the “perfect storm” for me.  Last week in two long, very tiring sessions, I had the biggest loss I’ve ever had at poker.  It’s almost difficult to type, but in two sessions I lost $1000.  It hurt my pride more than it hurt my bankroll.  I still have more than $5000, and truth be known, I keep that much so that a loss like that won’t hurt me.

Still, it really sucked.  And it kind of got me down.  I had to take a step back and think about what I’m doing, and a few things became clear:

• I really need to refrain from playing when I’m tired.  There are actually a few signs, or red flags, that I know mean I’m too tired to be playing.
• Related to the first item, I need to keep my session short, and take breaks during my sessions.
• I need to slow down and take time to think before I act – especially when/if I’m tired.
• I need to remember that I am a good player.  A friend of mine, who is one of the best poker players I know, says that I’m in the top 10% of poker players in the state – I need to remember that, especially when I’m running bad.  Streaks of bad luck happen to everyone – even the very best poker players.

I feel like I tilted – HARD, and for about 2 weeks.  Being tired, as I’ve mentioned, is one of the big factors.

The really funny thing is that last week I made my 2nd Royal Flush – something I thought I *might* get once in my lifetime.  Even funnier is that I didn’t realize I actually HAD a Royal Flush until the dealer announced it.  I was SO tired that I knew I had a flush, but didn’t even realize it was a Royal.

I’m so embarrased to even type that.

So like I said, I took a step back and did some soul searching, and decided to get back into things.  On Tuesday & Wednesday this week I played at The Caribbean and it reminded me just how bad the players are at $3/$6 limit poker.  I only managed to make a little bit of money – less than $100, but it was a good experience because it reminded me how far I have come.

Last night as I was cashing out one of the players came to me and said “Hey, you’re the only person at the table who I don’t want to get tangled up with in a hand.  You’re the best player here.”  I said, “Thanks!” and shook his hand – he replied, “I’m not sure how much of a compliment that is; these players are really bad.”

He’s right.  My friend and I call The Caribbean “The Kirkland Aquarium.”  The players there are very loose, very aggressive, and they can hurt themselves and other players with their wild play.  As a result, you can really win big when/if you come out ahead – but, you can also lose big too when you invest a bunch of money into a great starting hand only to find that somebody makes some crazy two pair to beat you.  Still, it’s a good place to start.  Heck, that’s where I built most of my bankroll.  And over the long run, if you play smart you’ll do well.  On losing nights, you learn to take the good nights with the bad, and that statistically, smart play wins.  There’s a LOT that can be learned playing there.

So it’s been a tough month, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Work is going better; it looks like evening and weekend hours have come to an end.  Well, that’s not entirely true; I’m supposed to work this weekend, but the project is pretty much complete and if I do work at all, I don’t expect to spend a lot of time there.

Besides, Sunday I can’t work.  I’m going to be at Tulalip playing in the “Women’s Northwest Championship” poker tournament.  I played last year and had a great time.  This year I feel like my game has improved significantly.  In addition to cash, 1st place gets a buy-in to the WSOP Main Event, a travel voucher, and a gold bracelet.  2nd through 8th places win buy-ins to the Ladies event at the WSOP – the one I intend to play in no matter what.

I have a chance – I can do this!  My friend Dana (AKA Heidi Spanksalot) is going to come with me and play also.  Between the two of us, I hope one of us makes it!

So tonight I went back to Diamond Lil’s and played some $8/$16 limit poker.  I did well; I timeboxed my session to 3 hours (8-11) and came out $121 ahead.  Not a big win, but considering that comes to an hourly rate of just over $40, it’s not too bad, either.  This was the way I built up my bankroll to begin with, so I’m going to take this as a win and move forward and upward.

Good luck at the tables!

Work, Play, & Practice

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything; not for lack of want, I just haven’t played much lately.  Poor planning and bad decisions at work have forced us to put in a lot of overtime over the past couple of weeks.  I’ve always said that work has cut into my poker time; lately I have had absolutely no time for poker.  After working 14+ hours in a day, I just haven’t felt awake enough to play well.

Saturday was, I believe (hope) our last day of overtime; and I decided to go to Snoqualmie and play a little no-limit poker after work.  I ended up playing for a grueling 8 hour session!  I don’t normally play that long, but it was an interesting session.

It started pretty well; within the first couple of hours I was up $400 and feeling pretty good.  One of my first hands put one person on tilt; I had pocket 9s and flopped a set.  Like an inexperienced no-limit player, I slow-played my hand and smooth-called the flop bet (there were 3 of us in the pot).  The turn brought a 3rd club, making somebody a possible flush and suddenly my very powerful trip 9s became vulnerable – possibly inferior to a flush.  I watch as the person in early position checks, middle position bets $45.  The pot had about $200 in it at this time, and against a really good player I would think that such a small bet would practically be begging me to call; however, against this player it had a completely different meaning.  This was someone I had played with before, and a bet like this meant he had something like top pair, but his hand was vulnerable – he might have a flush draw at this point, with something like top pair, but not something powerful enough that he wanted to invest a lot of money.

I was certain I had him beat, and I didn’t want to let him draw to another club without paying dearly.  I moved all-in for about another $250.  Early position player gives me the “hairy eyeball” look, and complains loudly.  He’s pretty upset, and doesn’t want to call, but really wants to see the river.  (This makes it pretty obvious he has a club draw, so I’m feeling pretty good about putting him to such a difficult decision.)  In truth, he was only getting about 2.5-1 on his money, not quite enough to draw to another club, so my all-in was mathematically a great bet.  He folds.

Middle position flashes a King, and folds.  There was a King on the board – and, as it turns out my analysis was correct – he had top pair, and he also had a flush draw, or at least that’s what he said.  He made the correct, mathematical decision to fold, and I took down a pretty large pot.

After that hand I got up to get some coffee and come back; early position guy makes the comment “You bluffed us off a pot and then left us!”  He was joking, but the truth is, my play was clearly good – I had the best hand at the time, and needed to protect it against a draw that both of my opponents were on.  It looked like I had the flush, but in truth, neither of them had anything better than a pair and a flush draw, so I was ahead.

After that, the early position guy kept talking about it, and I kept pushing him, putting him to difficult decisions.  I loved that I made him really uncomfortable; it let me get away with a few true bluffs later in the night, against him.

Towards midnight, I started to get tired, and I probably should have gone home but decided to stay.  I was up about $400, which would have been a great night.  Instead, I lost all of my profit when I had strong draws myself, which didn’t materialize into winning hands.  I was kind of surprised when I looked down and I had less than my original $300 buy-in in front of me.

I then had a pretty bad hand, that cost me my entire stack.  I was dealt pocket Queens:  Queen of Spades, Queen of hearts.  I raised to $45 preflop, and had two callers.  The flop came small cards – all Spades.  So now I have a pair on the board, with a Queen-high flush draw.  I make a healthy, pot-sized bet on the flop and get one caller.  He has been very quiet, and I haven’t really seen him make any big mistakes so far, so it does concern me.  At this time I’m almost all-in, so when the turn brings another Spade, I go all-in hoping my opponent does not have the King or Ace of Spades.  I remember he took a long time to think about calling, and I felt pretty good about that – until he turned over the Ace of Spades.

Wow.  I went from $400 ahead to $300 behind in about an hour.  That sucked; I might have been a little more cautious with pocket Queens, but I’m not sure I played that poorly.  The table had plenty of loose players, so I decide to buy-in again for another $300 and keep playing.  It’s now about 1:00am.

After grinding cautiously, but aggressively for another hour I’m back to $600, and even for the night.  I’m feeling pretty good, but now we’re down to a 5-handed table, and the players are weak.  I decide that the short-handed experience is both interesting and good for me to learn from.  I push pretty hard with some great hands, and build my stack up to $800.

We then combine tables; we’re the last 9 poker players, and the last table of the night.  I realized that other than the 4 remaining short-handed players, who aren’t very good, the remaining players seem to be a lot better than average.  These, I believe, are the grinders, who probably make a living doing this.  Suddenly the 4 remaining players from my table tighten up, and the table hardly ever sees a flop.  For about two hours I play against these people – but never really made any more money.  When I did have a great hand, most of the table was smart enough to fold, and I wouldn’t get paid off.  There just wasn’t as much dead money in the pot, and it was a lot more difficult to make plays and bluff.  At 5:00am I decide to rack up and go home.  I cash out for $839 (up $239 for the night).

What a crazy night!  I drove home thinking about the night, and reminded myself that I really don’t have the bankroll for $2/$5 no-limit.  Here’s the thing – the maximum buy-in for $2/$5 no-limit at the Snoqualmie Casino is $300.  I figure I’m willing to bring $600, for 3 buy-ins to an $8/$16 game, so if I limit myself to 2 buy-ins at no-limit it’s okay to try.

In truth, I’m kidding myself.  It’s a lot easier to bust out in no-limit than in limit poker.  Having $600 to play $8/$16 is a LOT different from having $600 to play $2/$5 no-limit.  It’s entirey possible to lose $600 in 20 minutes of play at no-limit poker.  I’ve seen it happen.

Still, I need the practice.  I’ve been reading these no-limit tournament books, and trying to put what I learn into practice, but without solid experience in no-limit, it’s difficult to put the lessons into context.  So I have a ways to go before I can play no-limit on a regular basis, but until then giving it a try every now and then is basically paying for experience.

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