CARDRUNNERS

Ok here it is. This is the return of the poker blog. I have blogged about a hand or too at times over the past 6 months, but I haven't really gotten into poker strategy. Part of that was because I felt pretty shitty about the state of my game. I feel like my game is pretty good right now (at least for 2/4nl) so I'm gonna post a bunch of hands from my session on a regular basis. Please feel free to post your comments on the hands.

I played a 2 hour session last night before I got into a Wii marathon w/ Excitetruck. I only won about $200, but I was stuck over $1k at one point, so I was happy.

This hand happened early on in my session. The villian was an awful player so there was no way I was folding my hand here. I just wasn't sure if I should go with it on the flop or wait for the turn. I opted to see what came on the turn and therefore also give the guy a chance to hang himself with a bluff. The turn was pretty much a perfect card.

Weird hand here. The guys line was so strange. The thing was it could have easily been a monster. However, the way it played out combined with his timing really made it look strange. It was mostly his timing on the flop combined with the push that made me think he didn't hit the flop. I was thinking he might have a hand like AK or AQ or maybe even total air. I was lucky that it was air and that my hand held.

AA hand here. It's always tempting to try to get it all in preflop with AA. I def considered it here, but I think more times that not you are better waiting to see the action on the flop. That way you can at least get a c-bet if the guy has a garbage hand like he did here. Also, you can sometimes get a flop where the person will hang themselves with a weak holding. That also happened here. I feel like people don't bet out enough. The good thing here is that by betting out I got him to commit himself (any raise would with his hand). It may have not played out as well if I went for a c/r.

Omaha hand here. Honestly, the swings of PLO tend to get to me lately. The thing is that I know the game is so profitable that I should def be playing it. It's hands like this that remind me that.

I'm going to my friends house to watch the Champions League game today. I don't really care for AC Milan or Liverpool. I just want to see a good game. I guess I'll be rooting for AC over Liverpool. Kaka is pretty sick.

I'm up at my cabin in michigan. It's in the beautiful city of Hillman, MI. It's really a huge hick town, but I love it up here. It's so nice to get away from the busy city. People around here move slow, don't have internet, walmarts, etc. There are a few shops in the closest town - hardware store, 2 bars, grocery store, pizza place, and that's about it. The internet I'm on now is a dial up 33kbs speed. It's god awful slow. I never remember how slow it is until I use it again. It's pretty brutal.

My dad just bought 2 ATVs. My brother has been on him to get those for a long time and he finally caved. They are a blast to drive. We have a few motorcycles up here as well. It's awesome just barreling through the woods in these vehicles.

I'm going to go on a canoe trip tomorrow, go golfing on monday and then go fly fishing on tuesday. Fly fishing is tough, but I really enjoy it. Fishing in general is great. I should organize a fishing trip up to Canada. I'd like to go with some guys my age, just get hammered and catch some fish.

I'm enjoying the break from poker. I'm honestly getting kind of burned out on poker lately. I think I'm going to take a bit of a break when I get home. The other thing is that I haven't been workign out as much as I'd like to lately and my diet hasn't been great. I want to get a good grasp on working out and eating well again and then when I get into a groove with that I can start putting in some hands again.

Gambler and I decided to make a deal and call the bet done. He wanted to get on a stake and I didn't think that was fair since part of the deal was my believing that he would blow up. I knew he'd play 10s of thousands of hands more than me so I needed that on my side. I let him buyout of the deal for $200 of booze and he is now on a stake. He plays much better on a stake so it's good for him and I was fine ending the bet with a decent profit because I wanted to take a break.

I'll be up here until Tuesday night.

I seem to be finding a rhythm with HU play, but the 6max play just isn't there yet. I've been grinding out some solid money HU only to give it back when I jump into the 6max games. Even still, I've made a little progress and I'm not stuck as much as I once was.

Hands: 14,533

Profit: -6,309.80

Days remaining: 47

And I wonder why I'm losing at 6max.

I was pretty lost here. I think betting here is bad. I think I should probably check call. Once I bet and small stack shoves, I don't know if I should call or not, but once I call that, I think I have to call the other shove. Any help here is appreciated. At least I got lucky.

I def butchered this one.

Should I just be folding the flop here? I had the guy pegged as a weak player so I thought two pair, lower set were in his range. I figured he made a smaller boat on the river when he bet out. Does anyone not raise there? Pretty sick hand in the end. Def hurt my momentum today.

I immediately regreted raising the flop here. I'd much rather seen a turn for cheap and make sure it comes down ok. It just seems like a bad board to stack on the flop with when I didn't have any redraws. I was right. I was well behind with the nuts.

I'm ahead of my pace on hands played. That's important though because I have a busy few weeks coming up where I won't be able to play as much.

The important thing is that I am making progress. Props to Stinger for his really solid 3 part PLO series. I just got done watching that.

I played a little 200/400 last night. My head was much more clear this time, and I thought the game was good so I played for an hour or so. I made 11k on the session but overall didn't run so hot. Here are the notable hands:

I don't really know who John Hennigan is or if this is the real guy, but he plays pretty crazy. I have him at about 60/43 over a very small sample (100ish hands). I figured he could have just about anything and at the turn I figured he was drawing dead so I gave him a chance to fire. It was fortunate for me that he hit "gin" on the turn.

Hand 1

This guy is a short stacker who plays 23/19. He is capable of having a ton of hands here and with David cold calling (and more than likely folding) he has a lot of value in shoving. I figured i'd see a lot of small pairs and worse here and some AJ's to make up for the times I would see AK. Bad result, though.

hand 2

I'm trying to vary my play when I flop big hands. I don't want people thinking a check means they can just take the pot. Obviously, he had a very strong hand too, but I think i get a lot of random straight draws or one pair hands to make shoves here. I lost the flip, oh well.

hand 3

Those were the three significant pots that went to showdown. I basically just picked up some blinds here and there the rest of the way.

tc