An All-in Win

I finally won an all-in when I was a big favourite...WOO!

2/4 NL SH

MP limps as does the button and I raise from the BB to $20 w/AA and only the button calls. Flop comes 4c Th Jc and I bet out pot fast for a couple of reasons. 1.) to try and rep a hand like AK, 77-99 trying to take down the pot right there and 2.) its a draw heavy board. Button calls me instantly so I immediately think he probably has a pair of tens, jacks or a draw. Turn is the 6h, a safe card for me and I decide to check to see what he does. Button pots it straight away and I decide I am most likely ahead and if he has JT or 44 I will pay him off so I push all-in and he calls w/KhJh. I had to dodge 9 hearts, 3 kings and 2 jacks and I did! YEAH BABY! FINALLY!!

This week I was hoping would be my comeback week and additionally have less stress associated with the amounts gambled. I had a preset goal I wanted to reach for the week and I am $550 away from it. I have confidence I will reach it. Its nice to be confident again :-)

The "ALL-IN" Curse

The curse continues...

Was all-in once on Monday. I raised w/AK got called by two. Flop K94 I bet 3/4 and was pushed over by a 1/2 full stack which I called and he had KT, runners Q and J made sure the curse stayed alive.

On Tuesday I was all-in just once again. UTG raised and it was folded to me in the SB and I pot raised him back w/AA and he called. I squarely put him on TT-KK, AK and had a plan in mind on a good flop. I got my good flop of 345 and I insta potted it. I see AK hands make this cont. bet all the time and usually AA-KK is more likely to value bet that safe flop. Thus I hoped he had a big pair and at least called but more likely pushed. He pushed w/QQ and I called. Unfortunately the turn was a Q and no 2 or Ace came on the river.

So am I cursed? Thats approx. 12 all-ins now where I am a slight to huge favourite and I havent won a single one of them.

I have changed my mentality to stay sane and make a wry chuckle and shrug it off. Of course if this curse continues I dont know if that shrug will continue to work for me.

The first time I win an all-in I will post it here. Maybe today?

River Madness

I have just had my worst 10 days of poker ever and I dont know if it will continue to 11 or more yet. Did I play bad? No. Run into bigger hands? No. What does that leave?

I lost count but there was AT LEAST 10 times I got all my money on turn or sooner and lost to the river card. Of all those all-ins I was every single time the favourite in the hand.

Where I was least fav. was 51% vs 49%
After that I believe the next worst was 2 to 1, then 4 to 1. Most times I was a 4-6 to 1 favourite over my opponent and I LOST EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! After about four of these all-ins you start cursing and it gets worse until around the ninth or tenth where you simply expect to get outdrawn.

It is furstratingly amazing. How does one get it in as a huge favourite and lose every single time?????????? A very cold run for me and considering this is occurring at the 5/10 tables you can imagine I lost a lot of money.

Next Step: I played as well as I could but I just cannot afford to play at 5/10 for now. Thus I am dropping back to 2/4 and will do my best to grind away at that for a couple of months. If I can win a decent amount over those 2 months I will then give 5/10 another shot. I know I can beat 5/10 unfortunately the negative variance had hit my BR (bankroll) too much to continue.

Meh, such is life. I will be back. Stronger. Faster. Richer.

Internally I am still baffled at losing all those hands to river cards. It just seems so improbable and a cruel joke. I can tell you I have said the "F" word a lot in the last week.

Anyway, I have to regroup now and forget what I lost and just try to continue to grind away. There will be time enough to take another shot.

Weekend screw-over

Had a great week last week then the weekend sucked it all away. Evry fucking time I got it in with the best hand someone hit the card they needed. And when I got it in with the worst hand I lost. Lost two big pots my QQ vs KK and JJ vs QQ and lost my AA vs JJ to a rivered J. I lost so so many pots to someone hitting either on the turn or river. One of the most frustrating weekends I have had in a long time. It was fucking brutal!!!

Thus last week I ended up breaking even. Thank god for rake as that was the only plus I had. Rake allowed me to walk away with $1255. I'll take it.

Its a fresh week and although I ran QQ into KK again last night I managed to comeback and walk away with a decent profit. Lets see how the rest of the week holds up.

First month of rakeback

Got my first full month of rakeback and it came to exactly $1255. This month is looking like it will return about 1/2 that amount as I just havent been playing as much. That is of course not a problem because I have been winning nicely. This week has started nicely though certainly not of last weeks calibre. Nevertheless I am happy. Spent last night at my g/f's so only got to play a little but did bring in a reasonable amount of money. I have been playing a bit of HU this week and I really need to be careful about that. HU is a volatile game and your swings are huge. Fortunately for me this week they have been positive. I find when I take a few beats and lose a buy-in or two I want to play HU. Why? Quite simply because I am mad (tilt?) and HU play is all about aggression. You still need to play smart but a lot of it is flat out aggression.

I have a goal in mind for the end of this month and I would love to reach it. Would be nice to call my parents at the end of July and say this "$xx,xxx" is how much I have won now!

There is a rumour going around work some of us may receive our 60 day notice this Friday. I hope its true and I hope I am one of them.

Traci is trying to get out of her lease so she can move in with me. She wont get to speak to the Manager until Tuesday. I hope they allow it. We expect her to lose her deposit but that would be AOK by us.

Will play some 5/10 tonight. My plan is to tighten it up a wee bit. There is a lot of playback and raising at 5/10 and I want to be able to hang in there. Let you know how that goes tomorrow.

New Record Week!!!

WOO! Smashed my old record...in fact I doubled my old record! Played 5/10 with some 2/4 NL mixed in for the week and pretty much had most things go my way in both arenas. It wasnt untill the weekend that 5/10 really gave me trouble. There were 2 times on the weekend that I lost $2k but both times I managed to win it back. I was very stubborn and didnt want to leave the tables a loser so I stayed for extra long sessions (at least for me) until I had recouped it.

An amazing amount of money and something I dont expect to repeat anytime soon. It was just one of those weeks where for the most part your hand held up and your timing was right. I will be absolutely happy to make a 1/3 of what I did last week anytime.

Realistically I want to average (average being the KEY word) around $2-$3k per week. If that happens I certainly cannot complain. Dude, anytime you can say "I make a 6 figure income" you are doing pretty good. Time will tell how that plan works out but it is certainly what I am aiming for.

On Sunday after a couple of river losses I was around $2k down and pretty mad so I went for the HU 5/10 tables and won it all back there. It reminded me how good HU tables can be; if you run well you will win a lot of money and quickly.

Anyway, its a new week and it will be very hard to compare versus last week but I will aim for that average and see what happens. Right now I am going to mix it up about 50/50 at 2/4 and 5/10 NL SH.

5/10 Heaven

So I put aside $1500 to give myself a shot at 5/10 NL and I have had the dream start to it over the last 3 days. I have only been 1 tabling it and for the first time I felt comfortable enough to 2 table it tonight. I have of course now broken my biggest pot ever won with a new record set of approx $3100 and bugger me if I cant recall what I had!! With my awesome start to 5/10 I have enough room to continue 2 tabling it until it becomes a permanent fixture or I bust out. WOW an absolute dream start! Dude if I can be even remotely successful at 5/10 NL my money problems are over...although they do say the more money you make the more you spend...

Anyway life is good right now and I have a girlfriend I like a lot and who will probably move in with me in a month or two barring some huge relationship blunder. My teeth look great, I am happy and healthy - what bloody more could I ask for?

If the rest of the week is even 1/2 as good as the start of this week I will demolish my current best week...wish me luck!!

Right now, life is good.

Didnt play a hell of a lot last week but did manage to make $2k so who can complain about that? Also I now have a girlfriend and we saw each other everyday Thursday through Tuesday. We seem to be compatible in many ways so it will be a lot of fun to see how we progress. Believe it or not we have already begun talking about her moving in with me. Will give it a month or two before we make it happen though. My teeth are all finished and look great and I won a bunch of money at poker on Monday and Tuesday in about 5 hrs play. I have nothing to complain about at the moment as eevrything is going my way.

One thing that having a g/f brings is spending! I have been going out a lot and of course covering all the costs and boy does it add up when you do that and eat out everyday. We are going to have to start eating at home. On Monday night we both ordered salads and it cost me $35 just for that!

On a 2/4 table one guy was betting and raising very aggressively and I didnt have any type of loose or maniac notes on him. He was bullying me out of a lot of flops and I was getting sick of it. He was doing well and making money and then he got out of control while I am looking for a hand to showdown him with. We are 4 handed and he bets $37 UTG (gross overbet) and I flat call w/KK in the blind. Flop is KQx (eureka!) and he bets pot and I decide to not slowplay (we both have about $500) and min raise him back hoping he has AK, QQ or a draw and he pushes in...obviously an easy call with the current nuts. Turn is a nothing and river flushes the board which is a possible hand for him. He turns over 78o! and I take down a $1k pot. WOW, THANKS!

This week is shaping up very nicely and I feel a big one coming...BRING IT!