Clean Up
Monday, December 12, 2005
So, let's go through our agenda for today:
* Review the two major lay downs during my cash game at Genoa on Friday.
* Discuss my Birthday Celebration.
* Explain my Online Strategy going forward.
Let's get started.
At Genoa, following my 2nd place win (which means that I've placed 3/5 times at a location where only 2 players are paid out regardless of the amount of players, and where on one of my losses, I bubbled in 3rd), I played some 1/2 NLHE. The table was deepstacked, so I sat down with my entire winnings + buy in from the tournament, $200. When I was down, I had only $68, meaning that for the night my overall profit was $18 and my cash game losses was $132. Let's see how I lost all that moola.
I was playing tight, knowing full well that this was a loose game. I laid down one hand with JJ after raising from 2 to 15 pre-flop, getting 5 callers, and seeing an Ace on the flop. I checked the flop and folded to a bet. He had an Ace.
I won a hand with A5h in the BB when I flopped the nut flush draw, bet out, made the flush on the turn, checked, and bet the river.
A little while later, I get JJ again. I'm UTG+1, and UTG, a slob who played fairly loose, pushes for $49. I flat call. All players fold to the Asian BB, who was aggressive in any pot he played. He pushed all-in for $500+, effectively putting me all-in for $150+ more if I called. I waited 30 seconds or so, but I knew right away that he had Aces. I flipped my Jacks face up and said, "I fold. Show me your Aces." He obliged. Slob had 88 and flopped his 8. The board hit a four-flush but no one had the spade. I didn't have one either, so I would've lost the hand.
After (and during) the hand, several players were talking around and to me about how I made a great laydown. One guy actually criticized me (he sucked, so criticize away), stating that the Asian could've made that move with a lot of cards. I looked at him and said matter of fact, "He could've done it with a different hand, but he didn't. He had Aces and I knew he had Aces. He did everything but text message me that he had Aces."
A while later, I was in the BB with A6d. I limped, along with 5 or 6 other players. The flop came down AK2. I bet 10 and was re-raised to 35 by a player who only played big hands. He had maybe played 1 hand since I sat down an hour before. I thought for a moment and called, hoping for high cards to counterfeit his kicker. The turn was a 9, and I knew my guy was a weak bitch so I bet out $50 or so. I had $68 left in front of me. He waited a long while. I thought he was going to fold, but he suddenly pushed all-in. He looked so damn scared. Weak means Strong, right Mr. Caro? I thought about it for a while. I needed more info, so I showed my Ace. He looked non-plussed. I asked, "What do you got? Two pair?" His response was a nervous, "I don't have to tell you." "Damn right you don't. Good for you." I chided him a bit. I thought about the board and came up with a couple of theories. He had AK and flopped 2-pair, he had A9 or some other weak kicker, which was enough to beat me. He had K9 and got lucky. What to do....what to do. I folded. I probably had pot odds to call, but I thought I was beat. He was kind enough to show his cards when he folded: A4. I had him outkicked. We probably would've split the pot anyway. When he asked what my other card was, I replied, "I don't have to show you." Someone at the table said, "He showed you, man." I replied, "well that's his problem."
I left shortly after. I promised myself I'd leave no matter what at 11pm. It was 10:55 when the BB got to me. I had had enough. I left with my meager profit.
Birthday Time! It was a great birthday. Wifey Kim made me cupcakes, a tradition. I love me some cupcakes. I went to dinner with a bunch of friends and did end up having that 21st Bday Bender I discussed. I mean, I'm not 21, but I use that term for the concept of going out on your Bday with the intention (yours and everyone elses') to get extremely drunk. The culprit was copious amounts of Sangria at dinner, followed by shots and a glass of Grey Goose straight at the bar. I'm glad I got home safe. I don't really remember getting home at all except for waking up in the cab next to Wifey Kim who had also nodded off. Happy Birthday indeed!
Online Poker has gone back to being the Abusive Mate she used to be. I withdrew $125 recently, and I'm glad for it. My bankroll is on life-support, so that withdrawal makes me feel a bit easier about it. I also have a bit of $$ coming in from Full Tilt (see the banner on the right) and hopefully VPP if all goes well. If you want to support High on Poker and/or want to get free stuff, go check VPP out. As a result of all of this, I have withdrew all of my money from EVERY site except for Gaming Club, on which I am completing a PSO promotion. Once all of the withdrawals clear to Neteller, I am dumping it all on Gaming Club and playing limit poker using the limit challenge guidelines. I hope this will control my variance and reassert some discipline into my game. I'm not sure what my bankroll is right now, but I have a sad suspicion that I may be in the .50/1 limit category. Yep, under $215. I'm crossing my fingers that this is not the case.
Funny thing at Genoa. I outed myself as a blogger to a couple of people when they were talking about online poker. One guy had read F-Train before. He asked me if I knew of him. "Knew of him? I met the guy." It's funny running into a reader in the real world. Even though he didn't know of my blog, just the experience was a weird one. Of course, I handed him my business card with this blog's address written on the back. I was shilling VPP. For shame. But hey, it's a really good service, so how can I not spread the word.
Cain, let's take this Heads Up match outside!
posted by Jordan @ 10:27 AM,
