Tuesday Tournaments and July Results

I managed to get time to play two tournaments on Tuesday afternoon (since I don't typically play more than two tables at a time). I ran pretty bad pre flop and as a result was playing hyper-tight in each. Through the first hundred hands in each I think I was 7/3 and 8/5, respectively. The 7/3 is an anomoly of completing the SB with marginal hands on occasion, I was running bad enough to be playing 3/3 if people at this level would open instead of limping all time.

In the end though, I made a mistake in the $5.5 tourney that cost me my stack. And in the $4.4 at 150/300/25 I shoved over a limper with A9o and 11 BB's (after losing a flip against a shorty) and he called with QJo and flopped a jack. The end result of the Tuesday escapades was -$10.

I'm getting a bit tired of this year. After having 5 winning months last year, with June and July a combined +1200, this year has been a disappointment so far. Only two profitable months, and only then with ~50 ROIs each. I simply don't get enough volume in to have consistent results. Not to mention the fact that I've been making tons of mistakes lately due to not thinking most of the time. I'm starting to work on that of late. Hopefully my results begin to see a marked improvement because of it.

July this year was pretty bad. I played 29 tournaments for a total buyin of $166. With prizes of only 96, it was a -$70 month for tournaments. I also played 481 hands of $10 NL cash games (blinds of $0.05/$0.10) and was down 4 buyins. -43 PTBB/100. Brutal. Oh well, I made some mistakes and ran below expectation, and since 481 hands is nowhere close to an adequate sample size, I can't really draw any conclusions from it.

My goals for August: Play 30+ tournaments and 1K+ hands of $10 NL, and stay focused while doing both. As long as I'm playing well, the results will eventually come, but playing well hasn't been a hobby of mine lately. Here's to hoping.

Bloody Sunday

Sunday wasn't much better than Saturday, other than the fact that I didn't get stacked twice in cash games. However, I did make one horrendous turn call followed by a poor bluff attempt on a four-flush board that got called by a straight for a total pot of $14 (-$7 for me). That put me -$5.60 in cash games on the day.

Tournaments didn't fare much better, but I didn't make any mistakes nearly as disastrous as the above. I played three total tournaments and cashed one for a net loss of around $7. For the weekend total I was down right around $45. Feels good.

I'm thinking that it might get me in trouble stating the BR status on given sites, so from now on I think I'll just give profit/loss info. This will make it less likely for hackers to try and take anything from me since they won't know when my last deposit/removal from a given site was and/or how much I have in any one place.

Thats all for now.

LOL, Whoops

So I decided to play some more cash games, and that turned out to be a fantastic decision.

The first table I sit down at has a random guy with a full stack open shoving 80% of hands. So I find 55 and call.

Poker Stars, $0.05/$0.10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $9.85
SB: $9.85
BB: $9.85
UTG: $9.75
Pre-Flop: 5 5 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero calls $0.10, SB raises to $9.85 and is All-In, BB folds, Hero calls $9.75 and is All-In

Flop: ($19.80) 3 7 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($19.80) J (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($19.80) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $19.80 Pot ($0.95 Rake)
Hero mucked 5 5 and LOST (-$9.85 NET)
SB showed K 9 (a flush, King high) and WON $18.85 (+$9 NET)

Pretty easy call IMO, unfortunate result. Then, seven hands later, against the same villain who has continued to open shove on ~75 percent of hands.


Poker Stars, $0.05/$0.10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $9.75
BB: $9.80
UTG: $19.50
CO: $9.90
BTN: $1.50
Pre-Flop: A 6 dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG raises to $19.50 and is All-In, 2 folds, Hero calls $9.70 and is All-In, BB folds

Flop: ($19.60) Q J 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($19.60) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($19.60) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $19.60 Pot ($0.95 Rake)
Hero showed A 6 (high card Ace) and LOST (-$9.75 NET)
UTG showed 8 9 (two pair, Nines and Eights) and WON $18.65 (+$8.90 NET)

I have no doubt whatsoever that both calls are +$EV, but it turns out they are also high variance. So after this, the guy stacks someone else when his KQo flushes diamonds against a black AA and then he leaves. So I'm stuck $20 and no one at the table has more than $10 anymore. I decide to try and grind my way out, and play about a hundred hands between this table and the other I have open. Then the following happens at the other table.


Poker Stars, $0.05/$0.10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $9.80
Hero (SB): $10.65
BB: $3.25
UTG: $9.35
CO: $9.90
Pre-Flop: 7 8 dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.40, BB calls $0.30

Flop: ($0.80) 6 4 T (2 Players)
Hero bets $0.60, BB calls $0.60

Turn: ($2) J (2 Players)
Hero bets $2.25, BB calls $2.25 and is All-In

River: ($6.50) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $6.50 Pot ($0.30 Rake)
Hero showed 7 8 (high card King) and LOST (-$3.25 NET)
BB showed J 8 (a pair of Jacks) and WON $6.20 (+$2.95 NET)

Now, I'm ok with his top pair call on the turn, but how in the fuck did he call the flop with a bare jack high?! I hate to say it, but I am consistently outplayed by these guys postflop, as you see here. He read me well enough to call with jack high and no flush draw and have it be good. I of course miss my double gutshot on both the turn and river (It will only hit ~35% of the time on the combined streets). I need to stop semi-bluffing, ever, since I obviously suck at it.

BR Status Update: $2375 on Stars, $195 on UB. -$30 today.

Not My Day...

Very quick Saturday. Played one tourney and some hands of cash, and nothing was going my way, as emphasized by my bustout hand in the tourney. I can't fault the CO's play here, because UTG was an absolutely terrible player and seeing a flop with that kind of hand is probably very profitable in this spot. I will usually get out of the way when he hits, but he caught the perfect storm. But I decided to call it a day after this, because when I run bad, I start tilting, and that's never good...

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


BB: 3,495
UTG: 7,875
UTG+1: 3,150
UTG+2: 4,700
MP1: 2,400
MP2: 5,425
CO: 3,490
BTN: 2,965
Hero (SB): 2,950

Pre-Flop: (75) K A dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG calls 50, 4 folds, CO raises to 150, BTN folds, Hero raises to 550, BB folds, UTG calls 500, CO calls 400

Flop: (1,700) K A 3 (3 Players) Hero bets 1,050, UTG calls 1,050, CO calls 1,050

Turn: (4,850) 7 (3 Players) Hero bets 1,350 and is All-In, UTG calls 1,350, CO raises to 1,890 and is All-In, UTG calls 540

River: (9,980) 6 (3 Players - 1 is All-In)
Results: 9,980 Pot
UTG showed A 8 (a pair of Aces) and LOST (-3,490 NET)
CO showed 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes) and WON 9,980 (+6,490 NET)
Hero showed K A (two pair, Aces and Kings) and LOST (-2,950 NET)



The turn was a pretty awful card for me, but I had more than half my stack already in, and UTG was an atrocious calling station who could still be beaten. CO was my main worry after he called flop, with good reason. As you can see though, both my and CO's play were completely directed at getting the most out of UTG.

Slow Week

This week has been very slow for me. I only played one tournament, and was working pretty much the rest of the time. The tournament I played was an $11.70 double shoot-out satellite to the Stars Sunday Million. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, double shoot-out basically that there are ten starting tables, and the winner of each table advances to the final table. Anyway, I suck at these and it didn't really pan out.

Here are a few hands.

Poker Stars, $10.70 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


BB: 780
UTG: 2,100
Hero (CO): 1,425
BTN: 1,475
SB: 4,720

Pre-Flop: (75) A Q dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 150, BTN calls 150, 2 folds

Flop: (375) 3 T 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets 250, BTN raises to 650, Hero raises to 1,275 and is All-In, BTN folds

Results: 1,675 Pot
Hero mucked A Q and WON 1,675 (+875 NET)


At this point I had developed a pretty weak tight image. I won a big pot off the BB earlier with a set to his TPGK, but since then have dropped back to a starting stack. Some of my drifting involved opening pre and then folding to a three bet, or opening and then check/folding a missed flop or two.

As a result of my image, I think I can safely assume he's making a move here fairly often, since he probably assumes I'll fold all but the very top of my range. I've been thinking about this hand for a bit, and I think its ok if he folds a decent percentage of his range, or calls with a hand worse than mine some percentage of the time.

Then, about six hands later, we get down to heads up when the button with 4k opens, I three bet A6o from the SB with 2250, the BB flats with 3.8k behind, and the buttons shoves. I insta-fold, BB tanks and calls with AJs. I think his call is meh here at best, his ideal situation is a 52/48 dog against an underpair, and I'm not sure that happens often enough with the buttons range for the call to be ok. Anyway, button had AKo, but a jack on the turn got us to heads up play.

Two hands later, the following comes up.

Poker Stars, $10.70 + $1 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter


Hero (BB): 1,800
SB: 8,700

Pre-Flop: (75) K 9 dealt to Hero (BB)
SB calls 25, Hero checks

Flop: (100) K 8 3 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 50, Hero calls 50

Turn: (200) 5 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets 100, Hero raises to 350, SB raises to 600, Hero raises to 1,700 and is All-In, SB calls 1,100

River: (3,600) 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 3,600 Pot
Hero showed K 9 (a pair of Kings) and LOST (-1,800 NET)
SB showed 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes) and WON 3,600 (+1,800 NET)



I think I need to be raising preflop here since I'll be out of position for the rest of the hand. I could raise flop since top pair is usually good here. I decide to raise turn, but when he min-3-bets I'm a bit lost. I shove pretty quickly, and he calls pretty quickly and then reveals why. I think now that I don't give enough credit to min-3-bets, especially when heads up. Because this situation tends to happen to me a lot where I bet/raise, get raised, and shove thinking its best only to find out I've been behind all along. Oh well, I guess, more to learn.