Turning the Ship Around?

So I stepped into the Casino San Pablo with $100, hoping to kill a coupla hours and maybe double up. Or at least not go bust and head to the ATM for seconds. Things worked out a bit better than expected, and I walked away with $400. It was one of those sessions where you turn 2 pair and river a full boat. And everytime you fill a boat, your opponent is jamming the pot with an ace-high flush. Maybe I should play $3-6 more often.

Goin' Broke at the Oaks

On Sunday, I played for the first time in nearly a month (?!?). Hit the Oaks Club in Emeryville for the $125 + $100 rebuy No Limit Holdem tourney. Got off to a rough start when I bluffed a few chips away. Ended up going broke and rebuying in the 3rd round, then managed to turn things around.

Within an hour I took my stack from $1,500 to about $7,000 with a few aggro bluffs, which put me at 2nd place at my table. I found myself playing way out of character, and bluffing a lot more than I usually do. This 3-week break really gave me fresh eyes for the game.

But then things went horribly wrong. Holding J-2 in the big blind against 2 opponents, one solid and one ultra-aggro, I flop two pair on a Jack-9-2 board and check in early position. The rock checks and Mr. Aggro bets out $600 as planned. I bump it to $1500 at which point Mr. Rock starts thinking. This actually makes me happy. I want one caller with this hand. And who better than Mr. Rock, who would have bet out already if he had a great hand on the flop. Amazingly, he decides to put his life at risk and moves all-in for his last $1,200. Mr. Aggro folds, and so we flip our cards over. I show my two pair and Mr. Rock turns over KQ unsuited! He's got no hand, and basically needs to hit a 10 to fill his inside straight. Mr. Rock is a maniac. The turn is a blank, but cruelly and predictably, a 10 of clubs arrives on the river, leaving me with just enough to cover the small blind and ante on the next hand.

On that hand, I get one of the best starting hands I've seen - AQ. Unfortunately, I go down to 7-10 unsuited there. Bah. Poker.

I'm pretty sure I suck.

Yet another night at Lucky Chances ends in ugliness. Sat down to the $6-12 cash game and quickly got my chips in good shape. Turned $200 into $300 right off the bat. Then things went sour. A hour-long run of bad cards coupled with 2 bad beats, and I'm on full tilt. Steamin' like a clambake. Anyway, I donk off all my chips and leave in a huff after about 2.5 hours. I'm really, really playing badly.

The Slide Continues

Still not able to end this slump o' mine. Hit Lucky Chances a coupla nights ago for a NL cash game. Bought in for the max $200, and in 3 hours was down to $120. Not horrible, but man. Just want to end a session on the plus side for a change. Even ten bucks! Whatever. Anyway, I was card dead the entire night. Picked up QQ once, but got no action. I did miss a couple of key opportunities to make a move, but I would have had to put lots of chips at risk. I didn't do it. And I paid. Still learning.

The Bankroll - July 25, 2007

This blog is about full disclosure. I had a rough weekend at the poker table. Here's the ugly truth about my bankroll - It's back to where it was before the WSOP. About $1,500. Still up for the year, but lordy. Time to grind out a few wins.

Bellagio Bust

Unlike June's wsop weekend, this month's poker experiment went horribly wrong. First off, our flight into Vegas was delayed, so I wasn't able to play the Friday Bellagio tourney. No sweat, that just meant more time to get to know my new friends Drew and Suzie. Of course I'd enter the Saturday tourney. Still a $1,000 buyin, still filled with strong players.

After 2 hours of light sleep, I got into the Bellagio around 11:30 on Saturday. Just in time to sign up for a sit-and-go single table satellite tourney. All for the low low price of $240, I could win one of two entries into the $1,000 event, awarded to the 2 finalists. If I can outlast nearly 2,800 World Series of Poker players, I could certainly beat 8 or 9 guys, right? Nope. I sucked, and busted out in 7th place. Pfffffft. I'd be paying full price for the big tournament.

So 2pm comes around and I sit down for the main event. About 50 entrants total. Once again I didn't stick to my "tight is right" strategy for the first 2 rounds, and things went badly. Within the first 10 hands, I picked up AQ in early position and raised it up. One callers, an overly-aggressive postflop player. Flop comes Queen high and I get excited. Here's the plan: I check, he bets and I come over the top just enough to squeeze a reluctant call out of him. Then of course I bring down the hammer on the turn, unless it's a King.

I check, and as planned, Mr. Aggro bets about half the pot. There's now about $700 in the middle of the table, and instead of sticking a callable raise into the pot (a $400 bet for instance), my hand inexplicably throws in $600 in chips. It's now obvious that I'm holding AA, KK, AQ or QQ. Mr. Aggro thinks for 10 seconds and mucks. I shoulda made more with this hand, but maybe panicked at the last second. Uncool.

Anyway, that was the only notable hand of the tourney, except for my final hand. After mucking 1/2 hour's worth of crap hands preflop, I found QQ from early position. I raise 4 times the big blind and a big stack reraises from the button. Bad news. He knows I'm playing tight and raising out of position. He can only have AA, KK, QQ (highly unlikely) or maybe AK suited (also unlikely). But I'm feeling unloved by the poker gods and convince myself that I need this pot to be a contender. Besides, this guy has played about 12 hands in a row. He can't always have good cards, right? Anyway, I push all-in, he insta-calls, and flips over KK. Bam. My first Bellagio event and I'm out within an hour. Someday I'll be good enough to fold the QQ preflop. But not on this day.

More on the big weekend to come...

Bellagio, Here I Come

Just booked my flight back to Vegas. Leaving on the morning of Friday, July 20. Might catch the 2pm tourney at the Bellagio. It's a weekly $1,000 buyin event. They also have one on Saturday, so who knows. Anyway, hoping to have good news to report from Sin City in a coupla weeks.