Diary :: Topic - Sports

I've come to the conclusion that I don't respect $2/4 - the players or the money I wage in a pot. There, I said it.

Like many things in life that you get addicted to, after a while you need bigger hits to feed your hunger. $2/4 is not giving it to me.

Firstly, I don't respect the money I put into the pot as I used to. Sticking around $30 into a pot doesn't worry me at all. I think this is unhealthy. I don't worry about chucking another $4 to value bet even though I've got the feeling that I may well be beaten.

You can argue that not feeling worry about the money in the pot is a good thing because it doesn't hamper your game, but I need this tiny area of uncertainty and "worry". Thinking to myself "oh it's only another $2 to call" has become a major leak in my opinion and it's got to stop.

Secondly, I don't respect the players and what they do. To cut a long story short, I don't believe they have the best hand when they bet out. Every player at this limit is a monkey who doesn't know what they're doing. They think bluffing is what the game's all about. To be fair to a vast majority of Party players, there's only a small percentage of players that are complete maniacs and will try everything to bluff you off a pot.

Putting this alltogether I've been on a major leak for the last two months in the game. The way I've been playing recently has become somewhat of a mindset, and now I have to break out of it's shackles.

I've decided, somewhat conversially, to play on $3/6. My bankroll is around $400 away from being able to comfortably deal with the swings that $3/6 limit hold 'em dishes to a player. Last night I decided to play on $3/6 for half an hour, and lo and behold, I played my 'A' Game again on $3/6. Missed the flop with AK. Lone opponent bets out on flop, I fold. No fancy 'lets raise for a free card to see if I can hit my remaining six outs' stupidity. I was playing tight again.

After 45 minutes I finished up on two $3/6 tables being nearly $90 up. I didn't play any stupid hand, didn't limp in EP with KJ and didn't hang around until the turn with a crappy pocket pair when there's an overcard on the flop and some guy is betting into me...

I also won a huge ($102) pot where I was in the pot and I flopped the bottom end of the straight. I was pretty sure I had the best hand on the flop and I basically jammed the pot to the max and took home the loot.

It's psychology. I don't want to go to the turn and calling a $6 bet. The people who play $3/6 must know something about the game. Poker is about the mind as well as the cards, sometimes even more so...

Poker playing never ceases to amaze me. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights were just a rollercoaster of high's and low's. On Friday I was down $100 at one point, monkey's busting my pocket pairs left, right and centre.

I must have played five hours straight on Friday night - and it was only until a rally in the final hour where I made some serious money and ended up a nightly profit of $197! One hand that sticks out was the $121 pot I won with QJs. I was in the BB and and pre-flop it got seriously silly where the pot ended up being capped. To cut a long story short I hit my flush on the river and took down a huge pot.

Going to bed on Friday I was around $200 away from my weekly profit with two days of play left. I felt confident that I was going to reach this target quite easily.

It wasn't going to be. For the first time in a couple of months, I made a loss over the weekend period. For a Poker player, the weekend is the most profitable time of the week. All the "Sunday Driver's" come out to play who are just to put it nicely, terrible players.

Saturday I had no luck whatsoever. I think Party Poker had put a curse on me because I used one of their Bonus Codes that I probably had no right in using.

I can't remember many of the Saturday hands but I'm sure I played even worse than the luck that was dealt me. I tilted badly around mid-day and probably that's why I ended the day around $100 down. I decided to jack it in for the day then and went to see Napoleon Dynamite at the Cinema instead for a cheap laugh.

Sunday was set smashing night. I managed to hit three sets with my Queens, Jacks and ducks. A typical Party Poker loose-aggressive player 3-bets my raise with Queens. I naturally cap. Flop AQ3. Mr loose aggressive checks the flop and I bet out. Call. I bet out and he raises. The turn and river are capping affairs and I ended up losing a huge pot to a set of Aces. Ouch!! Oh well, I was a major underdog pre-flop, but if that Queen didn't show up on the flop I would have probably folded on the turn with that ace on board.

A bit later on I have a pair of ducks in the Big Blind. Four way action on the flop of 235. Ok I've hit my set. Let's push. I bet out from the BB to get raised by another loose aggressive player. I 3-bet he caps! Ok, is he on a flush draw? Not with him capping... Turn is a King. I lead out again only to be raised once more!! Uh oh, has he got a higher set? Maybe pocket 5's. I'm in trouble. I call down hoping to be lucky with him showing two pair but I'm in dispair when he turns over 46s for a flopped straight! Urgh! These flops are conspiring against me!

A few hands before I decide to turn in for the night I get Pocket Jacks in LP. I raise and get four callers.

The flop is JT9 with two cards the same suit. Another scary flop! It gets checked round to me and I bet. Three callers. The turn is a six making the flush draw now complete.

One of these players is a monkey who I have a good read on. If he bets out on the turn when there's a scary board he's trying to represent a straight or flush. This is the same monkey who beat my set of two's earlier. So if he has hit something good, he'd be much more aggressive and re-raise on the flop or turn with a made hand.

All of a sudden Mr Monkey bets out - there's something fishy here... I don't think he has the flush. So I raise. I get the other opponent out of the hand and now it's me vs the monkey heads up. He calls. Aha! Vital information - I don't think he has anything... He probably just have a straight draw. The river is a seven, but now there's four cards of the same suit on the table - and I'm not holding any of that suit! The monkey checks and I check behind. He shows Q3o and picks up the pot with the flush! What really stung was the fact that the flush card was the three! So funny yet painful at the same time...

It's a new week and I'm sure that the Poker Gods will give me the edge that will give me the ability to beat up these terrible monkeys... they can't get lucky for ever.

I sat down at my Computer screen at 7pm last night and was hoping for a feast of Poker where I would make around $150 and finish for the night a happy man... instead I went to bed $120 down...

I played a few hours ring games and two freerolls and got no-where with both Hold 'em games. I just got sucked out at the $2/4 ring games I was playing at. I ended up getting raped by the maniacs on the table who would play aggressive to push me off hands. I know things will turn out for the better - with the weekend looming it would be great if I can win some cracking hands this weekend and get near to my weekly winnings target.

Regarding the two tournaments I played, the first was the $5,000 Rookie Freeroll. I was playing great, moving my chipstack over double to 4,000 with great play and winning pots at the right time. Everything looked sexy until my pocket Kings ran into Poket Aces!! Arrghhh!!! When I re-raised the guy and he went all-in quickly I should have known that he had too a monster. Sucked. Around 20 minutes later I was out. Boo hoo.

The other $1,000 Freeroll I did ok in, but I didn't get that many hands and busted out early. Oh well.

Checking my Pokertracker stats for all the hands I played under the Prima Network over the last few days showed what I expected - that I've just been unlucky with my premium hands post-flop. I'm in the red with tons of my hands. I've barely won and hands with the big non-pairs like AK, AQ and AJ - and that truly sucks. But at least I'm not misplaying them. The biggest worry I had when you go play on tighter tables at a different network is that you cannot compete, everyone plays tighter and better than you post-flop. I'm glad to say this isn't the case.

I've played on the tightest tables of $3/6 at Ultimabet and I can compete - I know that for sure. I think a lot of the problems I'm having in Poker at the moment is that in the short term things aren't evening out winnings wise. My draws aren't hitting, and I'm not getting enough return from my premium hands. I'm currently running at 1.22BB/100 at $2/4 and I'm sure that's going to raise to around 2.6BB/100 before the end of Febuary. I don't think I'm in a major rut. I've just gotta play a little bit tougher.

Yesterday I lost around $60 on the tables, which is nothing really at $2/4. I decided that I was too tired and therefore not that interested so I turned in for the night.

PartyPoker have once again released a peppering of bonus codes for us Poker maniacs. There's five bonus codes in all, and there's up to $335 free if I can manage to use them all.

Tonight should be a feast of Poker playing - I should manage to get around six hours of playing in one session so I should at least be able to play a few ring games and one tournament. Fingers crossed I do well tonight!

After a non-eventful session playing $2/4 ring games I decided to plonk myself down at the Ultimatebet lobby and enter their $10+1 NLHE tourney, starting at 9pm GMT.

My No-Limit play has improved leaps and bounds over the last month or so... I'm not some weak pussy at these tables anymore - I use my chips aggressively sixty percent of the time all the time. (shameless Anchorman plug).

Throughout the tourney I probably played two hands incorrectly.

Around the 5th level I found myself with pocket 8's in mid position and I raised the standard three times the big blind. Two people who had already called before me called my raise. I had over double the average amount of chips at this point and I wasn't in any danger of being knocked out on this hand.

Flop came out 57Q rainbow.

This was an ok flop for me - only one overcard. It got checked round to me and I bet the pot. First player folds and then the second player thinks for a while and then check-raises me all in.

What could he have?

1) Well if he was on the draw he would have called and probably seen the turn. Couldn't be that.
2) If he had the queen he probably would have bet out to see how I would react.
3) Now, if he has a set or two pair, I'm far behind.

I call...

My opponent flips over pocket seven's for the set. Ouch!

This was a bad call by me and I knew it. When you have a mountain of chips in front of you sometimes your head isn't tuned in correctly and you end up making stupid plays. I should have folded. I called for around 1200 more chips and this brought me down to 2000 odd chips, that was just under average - which truly sucked. All that good play building up your stack brought tumbling down in one hand.

Luckily for me I shrugged off the effects of being steamed for about a minute and managed to play great Poker for around one and a half hours, knocking two people out along the way.

I was playing great, continuously building my stack - I could see the table I was at were playing scared. There was one person with a massive chip lead. He had around 40000 chips compared to many others on my table who had around 8000 chips. At this point I decided to play more aggressively to pad up my own chip count for the long road that laid ahead. I managed to steal from many players in the span of ten hands before our table got broken up and everyone was moved.

At this point I had 12000 chips and was playing great until this hand...

In the third hand at this new table I was in Late Position one off the button with 98s and I decide to raise first in to try and steal the blinds. Immedietly to my left is a player who I don't know much about who re-raises me! It was only the standard re-raise, so I'm up in air about what he has now. I call, the pot is me versus him.

The flop comes 973 - an excellent flop for me. I decide to bet out here to see if I can just win the pot outright. I'm putting my opponent on AQ or AK or a low pocket pair at this point, so I around 65% certain than I'm ahead.

To my suprise I get raised once again! I'm scared now... If I'm putting my opponent on what I just said then I should re-raise him all in because I'm either the favourite or the big favourite.

Sadly for me I take too much time to deliberate and I time out, meaning that I automatically fold my hand! DAMN!

If I had won that pot I would have doubled up to 25000 chips or so and I would have been in a prime position to try and win the whole tournament. Instead I'm now down to 7000 chips or so.

In EP I manage to find pocket 6's and go all in. I get called by KQo where he flops a Queen and knocks me out. 14th place, meaning I won a crummy $22.50. To make any respectable money in a Poker tournament you must get into the top six positions. Winning this tournament last night would have netted me $1100 - but it wasn't to be.

It's interesting when you get down to the last 16 players or so how tight the game becomes in regard of being first and being last. If I had doubled up to 16000 instead of being knocked out I would have moved up to 9th place or so and I would have had a shot of getting to the final table where then anything could have been possible.

I was very pleased with my play last night - I don't think those two bad plays I did last night cost me that much in terms of where I busted out. When I got to around 16th place, I really needed to find some great hole cards but they never showed up. The ante's are the silent killer - you can play so that you can watch out for the blinds, but you can't escape the ante's...

I'm going to play another tournament soon this week, I'll let you know how it goes :)

After a disasterous December where I made absolutely no money from playing Poker, things had better turn round in January... The Steve Griff Bandwagon needs to keep on rolling!

Luckily for me, last week saw me get back into winning ways, netting just under the weekly earnings target I set for myself.

Everyday was a winning day for me except Thursday, where I netted a loss of $205.00. In half an hour I went from $50 down to $200 and that sucked. I suffered beat after beat - every monkey on the table managing to hit their miracle card on the river.

This almighty battering didn't faze me however, and I managed to win over $300 in the next two days, almost hitting my weekly target. A little cheesed that without that $205 loss, I would have smashed my weekly target, but if I was meant to lose those hands, then there's nothing I could have done.

Poker's one long session.

Been chasing the Gaming Club Poker bonus the last few days. The tables are tighter than Partypoker, as tight as Ultimatebet it seems! But there's monkey's everywhere you look in the Poker world, and this site's no different.

Currently, The Gaming Club Poker are offering a $300 bonus for new members. This bonus is handed out to you in $20 increments everytime you play so many raked hands. The bonus is not that tough to work off, but to work off the whole bonus I'd have to play on that site for about 40 hours this week - and there's not enough time in the week for that kind of commitment.

My game has once again improved - my late position play has blossomed into something beautiful, both loose, aggressive, and large in pots. Nothing special - I was apprehensive in playing hands like 86s and 56s because I felt there was no real value in them... but with the right flop - oh boy!

Back to more Poker playing tonight, and hopefully I can log down another winning session.

Read on...

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed)



Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Kd, Kc.

UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls, Hero raises, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB 3-bets, BB folds, UTG calls, MP1 calls, Hero caps, SB calls, UTG calls, MP1 calls.



Flop: (17 SB) 7d, Ks, Td (4 players)

SB bets, UTG calls, MP1 raises, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, UTG calls, MP1 caps, Hero calls, SB calls $1.50 (All-In), UTG calls.



Turn: (16.37 BB) As (4 players, 1 all-in)

UTG checks, MP1 bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, MP1 caps, Hero calls, UTG calls.



River: (28.37 BB) 8d (4 players, 1 all-in)

UTG bets, MP1 calls, Hero calls.



Final Pot: 31.37 BB



Results in white below:

SB has Ad Ah (three of a kind, aces).

UTG has Js Qs (straight, ace high).

MP1 has Kh Th (two pair, kings and tens).

Hero has Kd Kc (three of a kind, kings).

Outcome: UTG wins 31.37 BB.

Read on...

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed)



Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Kd, Kc.

UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls, Hero raises, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB 3-bets, BB folds, UTG calls, MP1 calls, Hero caps, SB calls, UTG calls, MP1 calls.



Flop: (17 SB) 7d, Ks, Td (4 players)

SB bets, UTG calls, MP1 raises, Hero 3-bets, SB calls, UTG calls, MP1 caps, Hero calls, SB calls $1.50 (All-In), UTG calls.



Turn: (16.37 BB) As (4 players, 1 all-in)

UTG checks, MP1 bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, MP1 caps, Hero calls, UTG calls.



River: (28.37 BB) 8d (4 players, 1 all-in)

UTG bets, MP1 calls, Hero calls.



Final Pot: 31.37 BB



Results in white below:

SB has Ad Ah (three of a kind, aces).

UTG has Js Qs (straight, ace high).

MP1 has Kh Th (two pair, kings and tens).

Hero has Kd Kc (three of a kind, kings).

Outcome: UTG wins 31.37 BB.

I came into last weekend with a lot of hope that I can make around 300 dollars in around 6 hours of play. After 2 hours of playing Sunday night I came out of weekend making a miserable seventy bucks :(

Saturday was one of those days where I couldn't win any big hands meaning I was walking forward a step and getting knocked back three quaters. Frustrating.

Sunday started off well. One player was absolutely terrible and I managed to win sixty dollars off her alone. Within two hours I was up $135 and flying. Deciding that I should aim for $200 dollars for the day, I had an hour break and decided to play again for two hours.

Talk about hitting a bad run! For over an hour I couldn't seem to get any big winning hands, and to top that off I lost some monster hands too. Down to $30 dollars for day!

Hopefully this week can be a bit better...

I managed to get my "cleanest" Royal Flush this morning - yay!



It's been an interesting week due to the winning and losing patterns that have occured. Due to the losing days I've had on Tuesday and Wednesday I've decided that on these two days I will be playing Tournaments and Sit and Go's only. Ring games seem either too tight or too crazy for my liking.

My winnings for this week are around $250, which is about right coming into the weekend, where most are the fish our out playing. Wheee!