was over 200... doomswitched again

Ninja.

Just a couple of quick updates before we get back into it.

My last bank buy-in was for 100 and I quickly chopped it down to about 40. I played a 20+2 SNG9seat right away because I always wanted to try… lost… and then played a random mix of STT and MTT stuff generally doing… not well enough to be profitable. Then, I took a 3rd in a 180 and got up to 80-90ish and used it as the catalyst to get really focused. I ground my way up to about 160. It is worth noting I think that this was my SECOND 100 dollar buy-in since starting using PokerTracker and/but that I started using it while I was massively doomswitched and couldn’t hit ANYTHING EVER and whatever I did hit was counterfitted or cracked. So, 160 puts me nicely on my way to a recovery. I believe that I am “ready” to be a profitable player. It just hasn’t seemed to happen yet.

Then, another run of freaking hellish bad beats and disconnects. Not a massive six week bender like before- but three days. I chew that 160 down to about 98 or so. I am playing 5.5 SNG 9seats. I crack two second places in a row and decide that I need/want/cant resist playing another 20+2. Which I crush for first. Holy- 180 in the bank. I quickly cool my jets and move back to my 5.5 tables and wrap up a 5 game cash streak with two 3rds, two 2nds, and two 1sts. My bank is at 201.

The next day I go 3 for 5 cashes and am up to 218 or so. I think it was a 3rd and two 2nds. The 2nds happened at the same time and one was sort of interesting/fun/fucked up. We went heads up and I had him stacked by about 170 chips (15k in play) and we go all in first hand. I’ve got AJoff and he turns over QJoff. The board came KKTT9. uggg…

I run through another day with moderate results and am almost at 230.

Which brings us to tonight. I am in game 6 with no cashes yet. However, its not my goddamn fault. At a table with all starting stacks, and three missing bodies I’ve got two stacks of chips and table captain has three. We raise reraise preflop and the board comes blank blank A rainbow. I’ve got AKoff. He bets, I reraise all-in, he calls with AT… and the turn is a T. This assclown now has 7500 chips and four opponents with 1500. Then, next game, all-in preflop with AK (I reraised all-in) and I get called by FIVE FUCKING SEVEN. The board comes 5A7… I will let you figure out how it went. Oh and one was AK vs QQ. AK is not my hand tonight I guess.

Now, this may seem like a lot of hyper preflop action. Each time it was pretty early and each time I was in a position to shove. Also, each time I was a nice fat favorite except the QQ which was a coin flip. I’ve found that in the first couple of rounds of these 5.5 games a lot of fish are eager to get their chips in. They see bluffs on TV and think that is how it works or they think “lets gamble”. As you can see my equity on these moves was VERY STRONG and I believe that over time they are profitable. In terms of Sklansky Bucks I am coming out way ahead.

But man is it tough to get cracked so hard so many times in a row. Goddamn it.

And I am out again- poket pair lost to a big overpair- he had AA… oops. Honestly this was a bad call. I’d take a lot of chips of this guy earlier when he got involved with me with air and my pocket 22 and the set of 8s on the board crushed his 9 high. I called his shove to my raise because I had a good hand and figured him for “sick of my shit”.

I made a bad call at our home game the other night too. Top pair second kicker vs. the nut flush. The guy played loose and bluffy the other time he was here and went out first. I A) didn’t figure him for a massive hand and B) had bet strong enough that a flush drawing hand was a pretty shakey call. He did take a long time to make it… oh well. Just to finish the home game story- I bought our deadstack and then got caught AK against KK.

So, somewhere along the way I found the 2+2 forum and I generally believe it will be a powerful resource for transforming my game. If I were playing cash games I would swear it was the tool I needed. I am less impressed so far with the tournament sections/tutorials/faqs etc… There is a lot of “my guide to 180 seat MTT SNGs… flop a hidden straight early on to triple up, then use your large stack to bully the table through level 3. At this point you should be in the top 5 chip stacks- this is where it gets interesting….” And I am like… uh? Are you fucking dumb or insane or a fiction writer?

Anyway, there was a lot of talk about not drawing any conclusions- even soft ones- from PokerTracker until you had AT LEAST 10k hands of data. And really, you need 50k to know what is really going on with your game. Well, I should cross 10k tonight so I am pretty excited. It would, of course, be more exciting if I was doing well tonight. Sigh.

Oh man- I just went out AGAIN with AK vs a weaker hand- AJ this time. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON????

I am now two full and clean first place finishes down for the night and of those EIGHT loses- two were bad calls. Two. The rest are Sklansky Buck earners.

I just reread that sentence- what I meant was “even if I clear two firsts in a row- I will still be down”.

This game isn’t going well either. I had a decent stack with the big stack to my left. He was calling or reraising EVERYTHING I did and getting away with it. My SB came with one limper and I put raised it with AQ. He calls- of course. Flop came J high so I bet it- call, turn is a blank, I bet- call, river a blank, I bet- call… He flopped two pair with J8off. I am on the ropes. This was partially bad play on my part and partially unlucky. I think. Given my night and that that I am now looking for chances to shove and 99 in the BB earned my first walk I am going AND THEN I get quads and don’t get paid… I have to go with unlucky.

And bad play. But, you can’t let people walk all over you- I just picked a bad time to push.

God my money graph looks horrid. I’ve pealed off 20% of my bankroll in a steak with no cashes. At this point half of them there is SOMETHING I can feel bad about. But, seriously, the other HALF are all fucking redickulous bullshit loses? I still really have trouble with this stuff.

And out. Final shove with AJ gets called by AA and QQ.

5.5 SNG 9 seat

Man, tonight sucks so bad. AQs in the BB- a raise and a call in front so I only call- flop TT9 two flush cards not my suit- and raiser goes all in. Of course I fold- but I can’t even remember what fucking win looks like right now.

The demon is dead. Into the money. Let the healing begin.

First place. And a glorious battle it was too. I came in desperately short stacked. I went on a stealing rampage that made me- still short- but at least dangerous. The big stack was to my left so that hurt and the guy to my right would raise EVERY hand and bet EVERY flop. This is the WORST kind of player for me. I admit it was luck that did this tourney in for me. I got my money in BAD against aggressive guy. I’d reraised him all in and got the fold maybe 6 times- almost always with an ace or pair. Then I ran into a call A8 vs AJ. I hit my 8. However, given how much air he HAD TO have used to take small pots off me I didn’t feel bad. Also he was French. So that kept me in the game. Then I took a couple small wins that actually put me in the lead slightly- this was because blinds had hit 150/300 which is huge with only 15k chips. I was in the SB with KK- one of three big pairs I saw all night- others did not get paid at all… Aggressive guy bets, I reraise double that, former big stack (only a smidge under me) goes all in. This is scary because he had played really tight- but I’ve got cowboys so insta-call. He turns over 66. I won with quads. I hit quads twice tonight actually but the first time I couldn’t get paid. Anyway, heads up with Mr. Aggressive. I raised him first hand with KQ (note: I’ve got him stacked 5 to 1) and he goes all in. I snap call and he has 77. I hit two pair on the flop.

So, total stack hit tonight was: about 40 bucks. 8 full entries lost. Even with the first place finish I am down to 188 from almost 230.