Poker Tales

[I’m breaking this part out since most people won’t know what I’m talking about.]
I won $475 in a $25 rebuy tournament this weekend. I usually don’t play for these type of stakes, but I had 88 W$ (pokerstars dollars) and I figured I’d use them to take a shot. The way it works is that you pay $25 for 1500 chips and then can add on 1500 more for $25. That put me at $50 invested from the start. (there was a 2 dollar fee to play). There were 70 people entered and top 9 paid. Top 8 paid $475 and 9 gets $300. This is different than a normal rebuy tournament where more of the money is vested in the top 3 positions. The first hour you can go all and if you lose, you can rebuy 1500 chips for $25. I made it through the first hour and added about 2000 chips through my poker play. At the end of the hour, you can add-on 2000 chips for $25 more. I did so and now I’m $75 invested in this tournament (and I’m in for relatively cheap.) After that first hour, you can’t rebuy anymore and you play a normal tournament. I played two more hours of tight, boring slow poker and watched the field thin to about 27. I need top 9, so the final table and as more and more people are getting knocked out, I need to increase my chips so that I can stay at least average size. After 3 hours of play, (still not in the money), we are down to the last two tables this is when strategy plays a big role. It’s almost like blind stealing and all in poker at that point. I play well and get down to the final 9. (luck does play a role I do admit.) I felt very relieved. Now I want the $475 not the $300 and I guess everyone else felt that way too, so it took a long time for a person to get knocked out and then it happens and bam I won $475 (they are W$, but they are worth at least $400 cash). It felt great. What really felt great was that I knew I had it in me to get there, I am getting better and my patience is paying off. I am far from being a good player, far from being a profitable player, but I’m still getting better and that is all that matters. I’ve played 5 of these type of tournaments and cashed in 3. That isn’t too shabby, but when you play for over 2 hours and leave with nothing, it is hard.

The next day, I play 2 $5.00 9 person sit and gos (tournaments) the next day and win one ($22.50) and lose the other. For some reason, I either go out early or win the whole thing, at least recently. I just wanted to keep my mind thinking poker while not risking a lot of money.

Then today I decide to play a $15.00 9 person turbo tournament (top 3 pay) and a $12.00 6 person turbo tournament (top 2 play). Well in short, I lose quickly in the 6 person (I should of folded my set to the possible straight, but I was being impatient). I quickly sign up for a 2nd 6 person $12 turbo because I like having two tables going at one time. I win the 9 person turbo and make $67.50. (Great play, but I was dominating the whole time and there was no real drama.) Then I’m just doing terrible in the 2nd 6 person turbo. I hang around to the final 4 and my goal was to get to final 3 and then loosen up and try to make a move. Well the big stack takes out another guy and now we have 3 players left. Big, medium and small- me. Well I end up going all in on a flush draw, I was low on chips and hoping to take down the pot and end up getting called by the big stack’s top pair. Well I suck out, hit my flush, which happens, and I double up. The Big stack is now about the same size of the medium stack and I’m still the smallest even though I doubled up. Well big stack goes on tilt I guess and the medium stack takes him out a few hands later. So now I’m in the money, but I’m down at least 3 to 1 on chips heads up. Now to this guy I was just a lucky player who snuck in to 4th, then 3rd and now 2nd. Well I get hyper aggressive and he folds my offers to call my all ins and take me out even if he doesn’t have the best hand. If he doubles me he will still have chip lead so I think its worth a call if he had anything decent. I figure, instead, he wants to play post flop poker with me. I used to hate that, but now I don’t mind it as much. So I play him post flop and I was more aggressive than him. He would not raise pre-flop enough, he would fold too much to my bets, let me stay in too many pots cheap. When he bet I would just fold, but he didn’t catch on and just bet more. Then I hit 2 pair with my 23 I limped with and I check it to him. I slow play him and then go for a play that looked like a bluff on the river to him, so he called. I increase my chips substantially. He was still up. He calls me lucky, but doesn’t understand that all the times he hit good hands, I folded (you could tell by his bets). Then much later (I was patient) I hit my set with a small pocket pair and once again slow played him. I don’t slow play in poker often, but heads up I find it’s a great way to double up when you are small. So I double up again when he goes all in and this time I’m a few hundred larger than him. He starts complaining about how very lucky I was and how unfair this was to him. I just reply with “ok” and praise him for his good hands. Jim was watching me and he kept telling me that I was the one not getting hands, but never the less I bet like I had them. I had gone all in about 4 times during our heads up session and he folded each time. I now knew I had him on tilt, so when I get pocket jacks two hands later, I go all in and he calls with A7. He doesn’t hit his ace and I win the tournament and get paid $46.80. He complains later how he was ripped off, etc. I knew that he lost because I played better than him, I offered to go all in early and hope to get lucky, but he wanted to play the cards and I had no problem reading a guy that bet when he had it and folded when he didn’t. He had the mindset that he was much bigger so the money was his and didn’t even think he would be in for a battle.

So those two games helped me clear about $100, which wasn’t too bad for an hour and a half of play. I know I was lucky to suck out on one hand in my 3 sessions, but its part of the game and I too get sucked out on. I don’t know why I always feel like I have to apologize for that. Doyle once said you can’t win a tournament without sucking out a least once. Watching Mark play over time and talking to him about strategy has helped me a lot. I haven’t really invested a lot of time or money playing, but I’m starting to loosen up and really work on my game. I’m scared I’ll jump into waters I’m not ready for and lose a lot of money quickly, so I’m going to try to keep my stakes low.

Last week on our poker night, I won $80. It was a $20 buy in cash game and things got a little expensive. We had about 5 players. I lost $20 off the bat to Bob on an all-in where I had pocket Qs. I rebought for $20 more. I ended the night with $120, probably most of it from 3 or 4 big hands. I was an underdog in one to Andrew and one to Mark. It seems Andrew and I get in an allin hand where he has the best of it and 40% or 2% I suck out. I got into an allin with Mark for a pot that was over $100. When we flipped we were at a 54% 46% situation where I had the 46% and my card hit on the river. Nevertheless, I don’t feel like I don’t deserve my winnings because overall, I played well that night and in the situations where I won a lot of money, I was in a good position worth risking money with. I like working on my live play, so these nights really help out.

Note: All this money I’m talking about went to my light bill which was over $500.