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Hello from Niagara: GroovyT's Poker Babble

GroovyT's Poker Babble

October 08, 2008

Hey guys. It's been awhile. Not sure why I haven't been writing in here lately, but nevertheless, I'll try to make it more frequent. It hasn't really been lack of things to write about, just mostly laziness in all honesty. I just arrived in Niagara Falls earlier today. I've been sleeping most of the day because I didn't sleep at all last night as I was in an intense battle with some glitchy software (stupid Windows Vista) trying to get a DVD slideshow and music CD prepared for my brother-in-law's wedding in a couple weeks. What a pain in the ass that was but I got it finished before having to leave. Of course, I continued my streak of losing sessions in the Winnipeg airport before boarding the plane.

I've decided I am no longer going to regularly discuss dollar amounts in relation to my play. I have a variety of reasons, but basically I don't see it as being crucial in maintaining an interesting blog. I think at this point I've proven to myself and others that I'm a relatively successful player and publicly detailing the amounts I'm making just isn't necessary.

With that said, and after all this time has passed and my last post only eluded to some big wins, it's a little anti-climatic to just say September was my best month since 2006, maybe ever, without mentioning any amounts. But regardless, it was good. One session I more than doubled my previous best result. Especially after having such a frustrating and swingy August, it's been great to rebound so strongly. I sort of feel like this previous paragraph was much lamer without results, but whatever.

In the past month, I've also had one of my more....hmmmm, awkward....experiences in a live poker game. It was a local game so I'm not going to mention any names out of respect to those involved. However, it involved me being invited to this gentleman's house to play just a fun big tourney qualifier (where everyone gets a piece of the winner who goes on to the WPT event here in Niagara). The night ended with myself, two other guys, and the host playing an intense $2/5 NLH session. Don't be fooled by the $2/5 blinds, the standard preflop cost was randomly distributed between $50-$400 with tons of post flop action. The host was drinking rather heavily and spewing chips all over the place.

For the first time, I actually felt some pangs of....I don't know if guilt is the right word, but something along those lines....for being invited into this home and taking advantage of the situation and leaving with a pretty good chunk of money. Don't get me wrong, this guy can afford it a million times over and we're all big boys risking our own money. One or two unfortunate cards and I could have walked out with my pockets empty (and I showed up with plenty of firepower). Regardless, I felt like the host simply did not realize how deep he was getting into the game after multiple $5k reloads. The night ultimately ended in an awkward family incident, and myself and another guy walked out with a rather large debt owed to us. I don't believe I crossed any sort of morality line, but lets just say it was closer than I'm normally comfortable with as I like to think I'm usually a relatively "good" person in general. Anyway, that's the nature of the beast I guess. But, I must admit, at times I tire of the realization that I spend all my working hours taking from others. As glamorous as some think a professional poker player lifestyle must be (though there are others who think the exact opposite I know), it really isn't sometimes. You see some ugly stuff sometimes and have to deal with staying focused on how to take advantage.

Anyway, that was one of 4 live sessions I've organized locally. We've played at three different homes and have plans to move it around even more. We have a fun group of guys, however at times the game can get rather challenging. I've definitely been pretty stumped in a number of tough spots. We've been playing the 2-7 game regularly and that rocks because I run awesome at 2-7. It's nice winning the $200-$300 bonus from everyone, but it's even better taking down the pots (which tend to grow fast when you're bluffing 2-7). No one ever seems to pick up anything all that great against me which makes it easier to bluff. One hand I even managed to 90% stack Rosie while playing board with 2-7 by pulling off a river bluff raise when he only had 10% of his stack left. But, he folded his K high missed draw.

In another session I lost $13k or so pot to Joe Williams by running KK into his AA in a pretty aggressive game. I 3-bet Rosie preflop that hand, and Joe 4-bet, then pounded the flop where I ultimately jammed and he snapcalled. I should have let it go. I almost folded preflop to shove it in his face that I got away so cheap and instead I doubled him up. Not great poker. When a hand plays out in a way that allows you to get away from a cooler, you gotta take advantage...

A good chunk of my September profits came from Pinnacle which has seemed to dry up a bit already in the past couple weeks. I honestly haven't been playing much online since my last update, so we'll see. I just setup two new 30" Dell Ultrasharps monitors which I love. I had to unexpectedly spend $800 on a new video card and video cables, but it's worth it. My plans are to start 8-10 tabling primarily Party and Titan to start. One of my highest hourly rates is on PokerStars which is odd because I always figured the play was much stronger there, however it's a pretty small sample and I was probably running well. Regardless, I might go back to Stars and Tilt and see what's up on those sites too.

I was disappointed to here from Joe that Niagara Fallsview poker room only had one 10/20 game running at midnight with TONS of players on the list. However, the room was filled with capped 2/5 and a few capped 5/10 games so no tables are available. I hope the action is at good this year as I've heard it has been in the past. But considering Joe opted to come back to the room and play online is not a good sign. Supposedly they had a $25/50 going last night which I may consider if there are at least a couple fish playing.

I'm really getting the itch to play the main event out here, we'll see how the next couple days go first though. $10k sure is a lot to slap down on a tourney.

I have more to blab about, but I'll save it for another entry. Think I'll go check out Niagara Falls up close (we have a great view of it out our Marriott hotel window). It's my first time here. Then down to the casino to start the grind.

Peace!

Oh yah, check this out, best poker commercial ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9X3h-avdFE

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