Hughesers.com

Sorry to the imagionary people that read my blog.  I haven’t posted in awhile.  Poker has been kind of slow lately.  I’ve been doing really well when I do play but it’s not as frequent as before.  Fortunately I have finished a bunch of projects I’ve been working on.  That should free up some time to spend more time online.  I have however got more involved in woodworking so that could keep me away.  If I only made more money online, I could then justify spending all that extra time in front of my computer.

LasVegasVegas has a good ranting article about the new online gambling legislation.  Take a look.

I’ve begun playing online cash games instead of Sit ‘N Go’s for awhile.  I started out really well but then got crushed by a donkey chasing a gut shot and hit a backdoor flush on my top two pair.  I’m still up but that one hand cost a lot. I needed a change from the SnGs.  I think I could potentially make more money in the single table tournaments but they don’t really require you to play good poker.  There is a very basic strategy.  As long as you follow that, you can make money.  SnG strategy does not equal good poker strategy.  That’s why I switched to cash ring games.  I tend to not do as well but I really want to become a better poker player and not just a better SnG player.  Plus during live play, I’m more likely to make money in a cash game than a tournament.

Right now I’m playing $.50/$1 no limit.  I still prefer NL to limit but I may switch it up some.  My bankroll would allow me to play at higher stakes but I want to keep it lower until I feel comfortable at cash games.  Plus I can play more than one table still without a significant hit to my bankroll.  We will see how it goes.  If I bust, I’ll just switch back to SnGs.  I just really want to broaden my skill base more though.

Well I managed to get over the hump and nearly doubled it in fact. Then the twilight zone came. I’ll need to go back into my database and see how many times that I was all-in and ahead and still lost. I know it’s more than 70%. And a lot of those times I was dominating the other hand. KK vs. KJ is not supposed to lose! Well my bankroll took a major hit. I’m going to try and play through it but I can’t go back down in levels. I probably should but I really can’t bring myself to. I would rather bust to be honest with you. I’m definitely below my confort zone for this buy-in but we’ll see what happens. It’s just amazing how quick things can turn around when the cards decide to kill you.

I could stand loosing all the SNGs by being grinded down or out played. I’m perfectly fine with the time I busted against a loose player when my KK ran into his AA. This was late in a tournament where the guy had been seeing 60%+ of the flops. I can handle it since I was behind from the beginning and I know it happens. But to be dominating so many times to have them draw out on you really hurts. I go back and replay tables and there really isn’t much I can see that I can change. I don’t see mistakes that I can correct. Maybe I’m overbetting my strong hands… I really don’t see how that’s possible though. I’m tight agressive. If I have it, I bet it.

Hopefully I can turn it around while I still have some of my bankroll.

Online I’m doing ok but I’m having trouble getting over this hump in my bankroll. I know at the limits I play, I’m not going to see huge gains but I’ve been pretty stagnant lately. I’m winning just enough to break even although I’m still way ahead over all.

My live games are running about the same. I play in two weekly games. A tournament and a cash game. I am running really well in the tournament. I’ve had a couple consecutive wins and don’t remember the last time I didn’t cash. This is very good since I then give up all my money in the cash game. I don’t if I’m just playing poorly or if I’m getting cold decked. I know this past weekend, it was definitely a cold deck. It was a death sentence every time I had a high pocket pair. KK would lose to someone pairing their weak ace. Queens would lose to an A or K on the flop. 10s were especially deadly. I was able to limp in from the SB with K9. Flop was K9 and I think a 7. I’m first to act and I bet out. It’s called and raised in front of me. I set there studying for awhile and then correctly laid the top two pair down. The other two players went at it and the original raiser had a set of sevens. It was a great lay down but unfortunately I couldn’t do that enough that day. I was consistently out drawn after being way ahead preflop or even on the flop.

My cash game is getting better I think but I still think I need to make some changes. Instead of trying to maxamize the pots when I’m ahead, I need to work on grinding. In a tournament, I don’t mind taking blinds but in a cash game, I seem to rather get callers. I’ll try to be a bit more agressive with my bets and see if that helps. Since the game is so loose, I think this may be my best shot. Tight and super agressive.

I’m still playing really well.  My sample size isn’t high enough for me to know for sure whether or not I can win at this level but it’s going really well so far.  A 50% ROI is pretty nice.  I know it will go down eventually but hopefully I can ride it a bit longer.  My goal is to get to the point that I can play this level well enough to pocket some nice extra cash.  Right now I’m more interested in building my bankroll.  I’m over half way to where I want to be.  I need to work on consistency more.  Although I can’t complain, I’m either not cashing or winning the whole SnG.  I want to turn a few of those non cashes into cashes.  That’s more important than winning it all and should make it easier to sustain at this level.

I’ve been cleaning up in home games as well.  I’m winning 3 to 4 times my buyin each time I play.  At least I have been over the last few weeks.  My cash game has gotten a lot better.  I had to rebuy this last Saturday but I ended up a 3x.
I played in a charity tournament last weekend.  It was a real money buy-in but due to the laws in Indiana, they could only pay out in prizes.  I finished somewhere between 13-16.  The tournament wasn’t well run so I wasn’t able to tell for sure.  I could have went to the other table to see how many they had but I was steaming a bit at that point.  I was in a coin flip until the flop.  I nail a King high flush.  The other guy hits a full house!  ON THE FLOP!  That really hurt since I would have then sailed to the final table.  But that happens.  What can you do?  I’m happy with my decisions.

Back to the tables…

I decided not to live blog this because I’ve been playing some great poker lately.  I wanted to focus on the game and not worry about writing something few will read,  Even though Wil asked for Bloggers, I wanted to play well.  Well it paid off.  If not for me having pocket QQ twice, I may have done even better.  I finished 18th in the largest field yet.  I cashed.  It’s not much but I’m proud of how I played.  Especially since the cards were after me.  Through the first 75 hands, my highest hand was A6o.  I had a couple small pairs actually but I won’t count them.  I managed to stay out of trouble and pick up a few pots here and there.  At one time I was down to about $600 but managed to double up a few times and ended up as high as 4th in chips at one point later in the game.

Evidently the poker gods realized their plans weren’t working.  So that’s when they really started messing with me.  I got pocket QQ twice.  I played them aggressive yet I always got a caller.  And what’s on the flop?  Either an A, K or both.  I go ahead and bet out and then get reraised.  I have only one option and that is to fold.  Those two hands cost me a ton.

I managed to pick up some blinds here and there and took down a small pot with AK on a K high flop.  My last hand I’m dealt K4s in diamonds on the SB.  It’s folded to me and I call.  I could have raised but why push it at this point.  Flop is 9d As 6d.  I bet about the pot and the other guy raises enough to get me all-in.  He’s either bluffing or paired his Ace.  My stack was a bit below average and I had already committed a lot of it to the pot.  At worst, I wasn’t a huge dog and he still may be trying to bluff.  I call and he shows A6 for 2 pair.  All I need is a diamond and I’m back in the game.  Unfortunately there are 2 blanks and I’m out 1 in the money.  At least it wasn’t one out.  I’m very happy with how I played.  It’s not easy to stick with it when the cards are after you like that.

Aside from the tournament, I’ve been playing pretty good poker here lately.  I managed to get my bankroll back up to where it was before the nearly 20 consecutive SnG losses.  I’ve changed my SnG philosophy some lately.  I read something by Lederer that opened my eyes to one of my biggest flaws.  I never had a problem getting to the bubble in SnGs.  But I kept busting.  I always had the philosophy to play aggressive on the bubble to pick up chips.  That’s great in a large MTT but not the best for trying to grind it out in SnGs.  My first goal needs to be to cash.  If that means laying down AK or a medium pair when others are all-in, then so be it.  Once I cash, then I can work on finishing first.  Since I started doing this, I’ve been on a bit of a tear.  I’m playing really well.  Not only online but live as well.

Well this blog is plenty long so I’m out of here.

Apparently people are actually working on a “hyperspace” engine. Unfortunately the article doesn’t go into a lot of detail but a google search will bring up quite a bit on it as well as Heim’s quantum theory.

Well last night didn’t go well but I think it was my fault this time. I didn’t make good decisions and committed too much without a lot to gain. I put in too much money even though I knew I didn’t have the best hand. My style of play has probably changed for the worse since I hit this dry spell so my goal is to get back on track. I don’t have much of a bankroll to make a comeback but I’ll try my best.

Well I stopped playing even and had by far the worst run of cards ever. This included 5 consecutive losses with Pocket Kings. I was all-in a couple of times. I folded them once with an Ace on the flop. According to PokerOffice, overall, I’m about 30% to win if I have pocket kings. Pretty pathetic. I’m not misplaying them. I raise preflop to get rid of drawing hands or weak aces. I had a couple of flopped or turned straights lose to rivered full houses. I don’t mean to make this a post about bad beats but it is really pathetic. I almost lost my entire online bankroll but luckily I pulled out a win and another cash the last two SNGs. Typically I will cash in 35%-40% of the SNGs I play. My last streak included 2 cashes out of 20 SNGs. More than half of the ones I lost I finished in 4th which is one out of the money.

I think I am making good decisions. I have spent hours upon hours examining my play to find any holes but it just seems to be bad luck. If I have to pick a fault it would be possibly be playing too agressively on the bubble. Typically this is where I shine. Everyone is worried about cashing so it’s easy to pick up blinds or bust someone if you actually have a hand. Maybe I need to back off and not take as many risks. If I’m going to grind it out, I need to get past the bubble more consistently.

Tomorrow night I’ll be playing in a Full Contact Poker tournament for a chance to have a Superbowl party at Negreanu’s. It’s a freeroll specifically for charter members. It starts pretty late so if I don’t get ahead early, I may quit so I can get some sleep. There are also a couple protege tournaments coming up I’ll play in. These are also on FCP. The winner gets to spend the year as Negreanu’s protege. You get $40,000 worth of tournament buy-ins, plus full access to Negreanu. You get his personal e-mail address and you can talk to him about strategy or anything. You become his protege, hince the name… That would be pretty cool but the tournament road is pretty long to win the final seat in the contest.