Better Late Than Never
Monday, August 01, 2005
You've got to be kidding me....Blogger ate my post, twice. Its very hard to re-write a post and keep it fresh. Its near impossible for me to do it twice. So, lets start from scratch.
I took off from work on Monday and today to get settled into my new apartment. Its going well, and the last pieces (phone and some new furniture) should be done by the end of the day. In the meanwhile, I've been playing my fair share of poker. Maybe I'll take off some more days later in the month and see what it would be like to play online poker likes it my job. In a perfect world, this would be my job. But after yesterday, I've come to realize that the solitary existence and the repetitive nature of poker and sometimes backward progress (read: losing), could take a severe toll on my psyche.
I've been playing a lot of MTTs, to no good end. Sunday night, I played a $15 rebuy on Noble. Lost $30 before I gave up. On Monday, I played a $5 rebuy and a $2 rebuy Omaha on Noble. Lost $20 and $8, respectively. I also played a freeroll on Bodog and one on Golden Palace. I promptly lost both. I wasn't winning any coin tosses, which is generally a pre-requisite to winning a large MTT. Sooner or later, you are going to be faced with a coin toss situation, no matter how much you avoid it. If you win, you are golden. If you lose, you are me.
BUT, and this is a big but, I have been running HOT on SNGs! Better late than never. I couldn't win one to save my life near the end of the SNG Challenge. Yet, I have won three in a row recently. The first one was Sunday night after losing the $30 in the MTT. I placed 1st out of 6, in a $10 SNG, winning $42, thereby recovering my losses. I won another $10, 6-person SNG after losing the $5 and $2 MTTs on Monday, recovering those losses.
With all of this in mind, I bumped into GCox and DNasty online last night. We agreed to play in the 11pm $20 freezeout MTT on Noble. It was my idea. So I apologize to both for backing out eventually. At that point, my Internet connection was inconsistent, and I was feeling a little pokered out.
All that said, while waiting for the MTT to start, I convinced GCox to play in a $20, 6-person SNG with me. We both agreed that it was higher stakes than we are used to....but we cool with playing the $20 MTT. The math doesn't add up. It must be poker player logic. Thankfully, GCox was also willing to play a 6-person SNG. His specialty is 10-person SNGs, but I'm pretty convincing.
The SNG didn't start out especially well. I lost my Internet connection a couple of times. I was getting no cards, and GCox and I were just folding, folding, folding. GCox made a bluff early and showed it down. How very un-GCox-like. (Later in the night he dropped the hammer in the MTT. Good to see he's keeping it fresh). I finally hit a hand, when the flop was AAA and I was in the small blind with K6. I bet, and the BB calls. Uh oh. Maybe he had a baby pocket pair. Next card is a 9. I bet, he calls. Uh oh x2. Next card is a K. BINGO! I bet, he calls, and I take down the hand. Back to fold'em for a while.
So, I'm folding away when I had what I can only describe as an anxiety attack. I don't know why or how it started. I just knew that I suddenly felt simultaneously anxious and depressed. Maybe it was a day of no human contact, or something entirely out of my grasp. Fiance Kim was asleep and I don't like waking her. (She's so pretty when she sleeps). Instead, I called brother Keith and ran down to his apartment, mid-SNG, to get a glass of scotch. I don't drink scotch, but it was the only booze available. Harsh. But I want to 'acquire' a taste for it. Not acquired yet though.
Where was I? Ah. GCox was nice enough to stall for me. I was back in about 5 minutes. The blinds were up to 50/100 with five players left. They were mostly playing loose. Once the blinds went to 100/200, GCox has 1500 and I had 900 or less. It was time for the All-In/Fold game. I won some blinds, probably because of my earlier folding and resultant tight image. I doubled up with a marginal hand and KK. Suddenly, I'm doing pretty well. 5th place lost to some other schmo. GCox was on the ropes with less than 1000, but he was still hanging in there. I took out 4th place with an Ace high hand when he pushed with a K high hand. I then focused on taking out GCox or the other dude. Either one would've been fine. Fortunately, it was the other guy. One of the big hands had me in the SB and him in the BB. I had Q6 and called. The flop was rags. I bet, and he called. (Not again!) The turn was a Q! So, I hit my card after the fact. I bet again. He called. I bet on the river, and he pushed. I called and took down the hand. It was G and me.
GCox has about 1000. I had about 5000. GCox got me going a bit. He was almost even when I finished it. Knowing how he plays (thanks to his recent post) helped. I knew that he would be random, and the only way to combat that would be to play just as random...and even MORE aggressive, given my chipstack. When we were even, I called with A-high, hoping to bait him. He had no problem pushing. Sure enough, he pushed. I called, and won. WOOHOO!! That was a $84 win ($64, profit). For the day, I went from $90 to $170+. Go me.
Thanks for the good time GCox. We both got paid on an SNG we were nervous about. We both played well too, even if I unintenionally carried him to 2nd. Heads-up was fun too, and a bit of a preview to the Heads-Up Challenge, in which I WILL be victorious.
Have a good one, people. I'll be here, playing poker.
posted by Jordan @ 5:41 PM,
2 Comments:
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At 10:55 AM,
GaryC said...
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As always, J, golden, absolutely golden.
G -
At 2:51 PM,
TripJax said...
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I'm up for the Heads Up Challenge...hook me up with some details. Only issue for me is I'll be out of town on vacation late august so I want to make sure it will work for me. Let me know yo!
Good post...I heard about the 6 max game, but didn't realize it was a $20 spot game. Impressive boys...
