Tournament #14

Notes:


Place: 5th or 6th

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)

Tournament #13

Notes: End of a long afternoon. Just takin a break

etimray, lunamargot, and vitamina x all short stacked b4 big blinds reached 40...

bochtu is playing calling station from the lead

Had to leave so all in w/A 7 and out

Place: 6th

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)

Tournament #12

Notes: Do not tilt. Chained off of #11. I think the takeaway is: the best smartest player in poker can and will lose on any hand, any bet. IT IS GAMBLING.

(Duh.)

Not that I'm the best smartest player but those were the optimal plays I lost on. Or at least not "blunders"

Oh my pechuma calls all in w/pocket 5's after flop -- no trips, over cards on the board...kayten takes her stack

cashew3 calls through 4th w/ace high, w/2 q's on the board

skycanvas calls all in after hitting his 10, falls to kayten who pushed w/ flush draw

watch for flush draws -- these people will not fold them, it seems.

playing so as to induce the other player to fold is death in these games. it presumes rational behavior on their part.

called kayten's bullying push on 4th after she hit A on flop -- I hit A Q on 4th. She had A 5 no flush draw. I did not see the flush draw on the board but i was pot committed even if i had

Possible strategy: stay super tight until 5th or 4th place is open. Then there might be more rational players remaining.

In the money after cashew goes all in after hitting a 9

Think I got pot committed too soon -- kayten slow plays trip 3's and takes most of my stack

kayten is a calling station

kayten finally shows me some respect -- folds after i reraise

10 bb's in 3rd place -- if I can watch these two kill each other I could live to 2nd

Was ready to go all in blind but pushed from bb after hitting my 9. kayten had held off after hitting flush.

kayten is an upside down player.






Place: 3rd

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)

Tournament #11

Notes:
Wow, I'm having a reality check. I must not have been doing as well as I thought before.

Or maybe I'm misusing some advice I got (Phil Gordon, I'm looking at you.)

Anyway, I'm waiting for Tasha to get her hair done and listening to B98.5. I'm sitting in Cafe Aroma and itching to get a win under my belt.

Luxedo all in after hitting ace. Sheva takes it with slow played flush (I folded flopped str8 after sheva raised me)

First 3 hands I phantom flopped str8, str8, and set of 3's -- 2 of them would have won

Allisson with slow play of pocket rockets wipes out kathybarrett

I need to stop mucking around pre flop is the thing

flop 2pr, rivered again, this time by pokerjoker who calls all in w/pocket k's tripped on the river

I hate to think like this, but I wonder if this is partly the donk effect of $1 tournaments. Pokerjoker should not have been there for that river. I'm not gonna play the hellmuth game and lecture him or get all bent out of shape but I need to recognize that this shit will happen playing at this level. I read an article about good players adjusting their play due to the presence of lucky maniacs, but I'm not good enough to know what to adjust.

Unbelievable. All in from 150 chip stack w/k 10. Flop k's; 10 on 4th. 4th club on the river and I'm out in 7th.

I know I'm playing right.

That was sort of inevitable -- with a 150 chip stack all in, nobody really had any strong reason to fold.

Place: 7th

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)

All in pre

So I notice my last few losses all came from going all in pre flop. It's obviously a flawed strategy / leak. What's the leak?

KK
KA
QQ

All wound up dominated

It seems I need to understand more about all in pre flop before I try to keep doing it.

Tournament #10

Notes: Just playing for fun. 44 oz of IPA later.

I have a strong sense that I will probably never play the same person twice in these 100 tourneys. So these notes have a shelf life of only one tournament each. Unless I gain some insight into my own play.

Folks seem to be playing tight. Nobody messing with anybody. Dojbop went all in w/trip 6's first hand, fell to white jackal's 4 flush

I'm playing in a style I played prior to this blog -- watching only my hands and reading blogs when not playing.

I'm also abandoning the strategy of cultivating a bs table image in order to rake in when I have a hand.



Jackal is playing ten foot tall and bullet proof from behind the big stack, raising or betting every hand

Basically just watching everybody fall to Jackal's steals and hoping I last longer than they



White Jackal is a maniac. He just pushes every hand he's in.

And he finally falls after everybody including me doubles up on him

kuberman seems willing to call pre flop if it's just you & him but doesn't mess around after that

 I don't seem to have any table image at all that I can figure

5th place all in pre flop w/kk

dominated by drstevil ka on river









Place: 5th

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)

Tournament #9

Notes: Almost didn't open this window but thought the notes might help. It's what I'm here for, after all.




Everybody's playing really loose -- means I play tight, right?

sens6527 calls (small) push from ivan with k 8 off and ivan finishes 8th

sens plays hard

I'm getting used to the "not limping in" concept. I do follow limpers when I have something. I'm going to stay out of the habit of "raising in" with no cards. That's no way to play marginal cards.


all in pre vs. the sens -- his qq's held up to my k a

Poker is such a fucked up game. Observe: I push w/qq in tournament #8 and lose to caller w/k a. In tournament #9 I push w/k a and lose to caller w/...qq.

I'm not sure that either of those plays were true blunders. Well -- one of them probably was.

Or both. Maybe the blunder is pushing. Obviously, I need to reconsider pushing so early in the game. I knew sens would call, so I was putting myself at the mercy of fate. Not a good place to be, apparently, for me.

Place: 7

(1st = $4.50; 2nd = $2.70; 3rd = $1.80)