The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.-----Jean Paul Sartre
I was busy with work this week and so didn't play much poker, but the poker I did play was mostly profitable. I did well in a couple of SnGs and had good sessions both at the $25 NL and $1/2 limit tables. I have to laugh at myself every time I go from NL to Limit - I move the mouse to fill in a pot sized bet and the little box isn't there...I then have to get over the initial moments of frustration in Limit with not being able to wield monster bets and bluff my way to a pot. It can take me a few hands to switch gears and strategy.
I want to mention briefly another hand from last Monday. It's what I think is an example of 'brain freeze' at the table - a sure sign you either need to wake up or take a break. I was at at $25 NL table in the Small Blind. Under the Gun limped in and the rest of the table folded. I had KTs and made it $1.00 to go. Both the Big Blind and UTG called. We saw a flop of Q-6-J rainbow - a nice strait draw for me. I lead out with $1 into a $3 pot, figuring I'd get the calls I needed to make the odds. BB raised to $2 and UTG folded. I decided to call because BB had been a bit loose and cocky. The turn was a blank and I checked - here's where I think I had just tuned out of the hand. BB bet $2 and I called, purely on pot odds I thought. With his $2 the pot I was getting 4.5:1 to draw and I don't know why I thought that was good enough to call.
The river was a 9, giving me the nut strait and I mechanically checked. Of course he did too, and then derided me for checking the nuts "Number 1 rule of NL - don't check the nuts!" He said he would have called whatever I'd bet. He might have said something about that being a moronic play and I started to defend myself, but someone else did by saying "Dude, (an overused eponym) it was a trap." I wish I could say he was right. The fact of the matter is, the other guy was right. It was a moronic play. He was leading the hand all the way, I really didn't have pot odds to even stay in the hand and then when I spiked the strait I checked it like the wimp I was - up 'til that point. I shook it off and got my mind back in the game. I needled this "expert" by bluffing a guy off a pot on the turn with a suited hammer - I showed the cards. I then went on to have a profitable session after that.
Party Poker dinged me yesterday. I entered a $10 SnG and in the first couple of hands I got frozen out of the game. After several reboots and re-logs on and a call to support (which was no help - I won't even go into that tale...) I got back on and had T-60 left. I threw it into the pot and went 'to the rails' in 5th place I earned the entry fee back and then some at the cash tables.
I got thoroughly stomped at 2 $50 NL tables, one yesterday and one today. This is a whole different animal. I had no business in attempting that level with the size bankroll I have, but I wanted to stretch my wings and give it a try. I quickly found that my strategy from the $25 table wasn't going to fly here. People were more willing to gamble and were near impossible to shake off hands. At yesterday's table, there was one sadistic fellah who took immense pleasure in taking me down hard. Today there was a fellah with a damn horseshoe up his rear end. He was in nearly every hand, he busted me to $0 once. But after I reloaded, I tightened up and once I figured out he was a clear lucky bluffer, I started to play back at him. I thought I had him dead to rights when I flopped the nut flush. I checked and he bet, I called whatever he bet all the way to the river - when he bet a token couple of bucks, and so I pushed in knowing he would call. He did. With a full house. Sigh. Consider that $100 lesson learned.
I also attempted a $30 multi. Left it at #650 out of 837. I squandered a good chip lead at my table with some terrible calls. I will leave you, however, with the final hand of a $10 SNG I won. It's the kind of hand we all dream about getting at the final table at the Big One.
BB (Short Stack) (t1805)
Maudie (t3955)
SB (Middle Stack) (t2240)
Preflop: Maudie is Button with Ad, As.
On the button Maudie limps with t400 (I did this because I wanted to encourage an all-in), Middle Stack moves All-In, Short Stack calls and is All-In, Maudie doesn't even wait a New York minute and calls.
Flop: Jh, Qh, 5c | Turn: 6s | River: 5h
Short Stack had 4d 4c and 5c 5h
Middle Stack had Ah 7s and 5c 5h
Maudie had Ad As and 5c 5h and Maudie wins!!!!
