Foxwoods

My friend and I took a trip to Foxwoods today to play in the $100 tournament and test our relative skill. While my results in the tournament and on the tables were not very good, I think I played pretty well.

The first hand I played in the tournament was pocket queens. I raised and was reraised and called it. Flop was all low cards and the raiser bet out heavy again. I folded. He later told me he had pocket aces.

A few hands later I caught pocket aces myself and had two raises in front of me. I raised again to put the stack in front of me all in. He called. After the flop the player to my right went all in and I called, and it had again come up all low cards. They had JJ and 10-10 respectively and my aces held up. From starting with $2000, I now was up to around $3800.

The next time I was in the big blind I caught rockets again. Again I had someone bet heavy in front of me so I raised him all in. He called with KK and cracked my aces on the turn. That knocked me down to about $1500 and began my long, slow descent.

From that point on I didn't get much in the way of premium hands. Those I did get were drawing hands and I only hit two of them. Not enough to make money in a four hour poker session.

What truly sucked is that there were some awful, awful poker players on the cash tables. One guy called a $40 raise with middle pair. As you might guess, he lost. Same guy also twice called someone who had made their straight when he had only a flush draw. He caught the flush both times.

I pushed all in after the flop with two pair and drew one call from someone on a flush draw. He hit it on the river.

I was very patient and did not play many non-premium hands except when I could see one cheap. After the betting was past one or two guys I could usually get in and see a flop.

I always tried to remember what my final hand would have resulted in and rarely if ever would I have won. It was just one of those days.

So while I lost some money, I took some heart in the fact that I believe the games are beatable. My friend Tim won about $185 on his table to prove this point beyond any doubt.

I look forward to heading down again when I get back from Asia.

Gotta know when to walk away....

I played a few SnGs today. One one-table and a two-table. 4th in first, 1st in the second so a net +$25.

I'm meeting some friends for dinner tonight so I decided to sit down at a $0.25/$0.50 NLHE table and play a few hands while I waited.

First hand I get dealt AKo and flop a king. I was in the big blind so I checked to the one other player in the hand. He bet and I called. Same on the turn. On the river I checked to him then raised him. He called with pocket 10s and I took the pot.

Second hand I get 8 8. Flop is 3 3 5. Check to the turn, which is an 8. I bet the pot, my opponent raises and I go all-in. He calls with KK. My boat holds up when a 3 hits the river.

Third hand. 9 9. Win a small pot because at this point no one will play with me. I've more than doubled my money on three hands, from $50 to over $100.

I logged off and went to dinner. When I got back home around 10pm I decided to play two more SNGs (one-table and a three table) and won both of them. So I netted (22+36-11) $47 for those two games.

Well over $100 for about three hours of play. If I can do half of that in Japan I'll just consider it a part-time job.

Up....and then a little down.

Played a few NLHE SnGs today while waiting to start a Pot Limit Omaha tourney with some online friends. Lost the first and won the second and then proceeded to win the PLO tourney as well.

I haven't played much Omaha, but I must say that I will be doing so going forward. It's a lot of fun and I didn't not have a lot of trouble figuring out where I stood in most hands. I might have administered a bad beat or two, and definitely took a few, but all told I made good calls and won from ahead.

There is no where near as much folding in Omaha so there is a lot more action which keeps you more involved in the game.

During the tourney we were talking about doing a HORSE tourney, so I guess I'm going to have to learn Razz as well :)

Lessons learned.

Too bad for me I didn't do a bit more studying about bankroll management. Chalk up an expensive lesson.

In getting up to $450, I played very well and got fairly lucky. A very good combination in poker. However, I think I attributed more of my success to the former and not enough to the latter, so I jumped up and started playing the more expensive SNGs.

Many stupid plays and bad beats later, I'm back down to around $100. The frustration of this losing streak (I've cashed a few times, but not consistently) led me to do a lot of research about the game, SnGs in general and bankroll management. I think I realize some of the mistakes I've made and am going to downsize to the $5 SnGs until I get my confidence back. I also think that the lower level of competition down there (and the willingness of people to chase draws) will make me play a solid, tight-aggressive style and get that style ingrained into my bones.

My basic strategy has been to play tight early and play in position unless I had a top hand. Later in the games I would begin to raise in position. Since I was very often the large stack I'd steal blinds and generally make sure my bankroll grew as the blinds increased.

On the latest downward spiral, it seems like every time I attempt to steal blinds I get reraised. You can only do that so often before you're under 10xBB and are in an all-in-or-fold position. I can play from behind and have had many successes doing so, but it certainly isn't the preferred option.

It also seems like I have had very few playable hands and when I do either I collect very small pots or someone has a better one.

I also feel that I'm going a lot of guesswork on tracking my game and am going to start using some stat-trackers so I really have a good idea as to what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to either address the weaknesses or play away from them.

For anyone who is interested in learning how to play better in SnGs, I'd strongly suggest DavSimon's excellent (and long) breakdown of how to master the Sit N' Go. I'm barely half way through it and it has given me a lot of food for though.

I'll report back in a bit to see if I've actually made any progress ;)

Jeff