Weekend Ramblings

With the Mrs. out visiting relatives with the minis, I spent quite a few hours playing some poker. As mentioned below, I'd been in the midst of a pretty serious downswing. After placing 4th in a $50 MTT at Full Tilt, my online status grew to over $2k. Then it began to drop. Not too drastically, but very steadily. I basically withstood a $900 downswing without going on serious tilt. I was playing seriously bad poker though.

Last year, my live game play made a pretty significant breakthrough, and I looked to solve my online woes with some more live action. While I was in Vienna hanging with the man, I managed to win some Euros with some solid live play. Nothing spectacular, but 3/6 limit didn't require the skills of these guys.

But since I was away, I missed my regular bi-weekly Thursday night game with the G-Vegas regulars: Debaggio, Rocket, Teddy Ballgame, Easy E, Richie Rich, Matty C. and The Rankster. I filled the off-week with a HORSE game and had a small winning session. This past week, I got to regroup with them and post a modest win. The following night, with absolutely nothing on the schedule, I arranged a $50 NL ring game with blinds of .25/.50 - just like the online version.

Fortunately, the people who showed up brought their A-game. Results not withstanding, there was some pretty decent poker being played as the participants took things pretty seriously. I was able to post a nice win, but the truth of the matter was that this game was extremely enjoyable in a purity of poker sense. If you're a hard core player, I think you'd have liked to be there.

With the possible exception of when this guy calls to play dial-a-shot.

The following hand was played where had it occurred online, I'd have probably gone broke. I'm dealt A,K of diamonds in MP. A co-worker of mine, DoubleR, had raised pre-flop UTG to $3 and I called. Everyone else folded. The flop came K-high with no diamonds, but 2 spades. DoubleR fired out $4 into the $7.50 pot and I raised to $12 figuring I was good. Well DoubleR comes back and re-raises all-in. In the online version of this hand, if I only look at the betting patterns, I'd probably wrongly assume the player was bluffing and I'd call - obviously I still have work to do. I truly did consider calling, but took a mental step back and thought about it some more. DoubleR is a tight player who's only recently began playing these cash games. I looked down at him and saw a very quiet confidence about him that told me he wasn't bluffing. That told me he had either A,A or K,K - so I reluctantly folded my hand face up and said "I respect that re-raise." He did show his pocket K's and I felt good about the lay down. I can't quite describe what would have erroneously compelled me to call that hand online. But live, I can garner some more information and make those type of laydowns.

Note to fellow bloggers: I have taken the sage advice of a wise player and turned chat off completely while playing ring games. It is just too damn distracting to read the drivel that's thrown about back and forth. I don't have the mental discipline to ignore it. So if you see me and fire off a "Hello" please understand I'm not ignoring you. You can still IM me whenever you'd like - badblood44 on YahooIM.

With my Party bonus whoring complete, the online bankroll has taken a surge back in the positive direction, nearly recouping 2/3 of my downswing. I feel that I have somewhat mirrored the play of a certain blogger by regrouping and refocusing. Too bad he's in Vegas at stripclubs without me. I'd much prefer to mirror that activity.