So I decided to take a break this week because I was getting burnt out on playing. I have been playing every day pretty much for the past 6 months and experienced Profitable results each month. And this last month has been a different story and I noticed it started to effect my play. I was really starting to play crazy a week ago just trying to desperately attempt to win alot of money fast. Of course that’s never a winning strategy in the long run, actually I wouldn’t even consider my play stupid. I was just trying to win every big pot I was in and then convincing myself I can call cause i could beat a bluff. Anyways I was frustrated so I decided to hop on the 101 N to Santa Barbara and hang out with a good buddy of mine from SB. I just need to get out of my place, away from a computer for a few days. Any ways I enjoyed my afternoon out on a boat in the Santa Barbara Marina, where I sipped on some vodka tonics into the evening.

After Santa Barbara I saw my self stuck in my apartment again not wanting to play poker. So I hopped on the 405 south to San Diego to go the the beach and party for the weekend.  Although I did have one bad beat on the way down hitting some bumper to bumper traffic for a half hour, I once again find a city where 90% of the women are hotter then the girls where I live.  Anyways San Diego is a beautiful city, and I hope to live there someday.  Until then, I will continue to live in the dirty San Fernando Valley.

Anyways it is now the 19th of February and after completion of my first week away from poker, after going strong for 6 months  So I decided to get back into it just playing 4 tables of 1/2.  Early into my session I got off to a quick start.  So I re-raise on the button to 20 with kq spades, and I get a call.  The flop comes 246 with 2 spades, the callers bets out 26 bucks, I then raise him to 100 and he shoves all in for a 400 dollar pot.  This is one of the best feelings in poker when when the player flips over a 710 for a lower flush draw (i held on this one :)). Anyways, I know it wasn’t a huge pot but I needed it for some confidence going into my week back.  A few hands later at the same table I call a 5 dollar raise from the big blind with 66, the flop comes 268, and I bet out half the pot.  I get one caller then the turn came a 4, I led out for 24 and he min raises me to 48).  When I get this raise I pot my opponent on a very good hand its a strong play to just call the flop then raise the turn so I decided to just call his min raise to hide the strength of my hand.  So the river came my 4th 6 and I checked it to my opponent(for two reasons, he had me covered and I was siting with 315 and the pot was at 160, and I thought he was strong and I would be able to maybe get away with check raising him all in).  He fortunately made it easy for me instantly going all in on the river with a q9 high flush draw, which he turned (note: his all in made no sense he could have gotten the same information by betting half the pot or more, so don’t make that mistake when bluffing). I really wish I convinced myself to just call it a day and book a win because I ended up burning through the rest of it not winning a hand in the next few hours.

Anyways it’s good to be back in front on this monitor, which continues to burn holes in my retinas.

So the other day I made my first visit to the Commerce Casino.  After going there I question why I have never been there.  This is a poker players paradise with hundreds of tables any game any limit, and also some of the worst players in the world.  The game I played was 5/10 with a $400 dollar buy-in, which is very small and you would think wouldn’t be a very good game.  But wow was I wrong, I played for 6 hours and not once did someone fold to my raise or re-raise preflop.  After a couple hours I ran my stack up to about 1400 and could pretty much read everyones hands buy there mannerisms.  I’m not saying im a fantastic reader or anything, its just the players literally tell you their hands with their betting techniques or facial expressions.  So I have chosen a few hands to share with you that made my day.

So after 2 hours into play a kid about my age its at the table and tell the whole table how drunk he is about 20 times in the next 10 hands.  At first i was hesitant to make any presumptions about him because he could just trying to be doing some gay act to try to hustle these rich old folk.  Anyways he raises or re-raises 4 of his first 8 hands and takes down every pot to stretch his stack to 800.  The kid then began to yell across the casino to his friend who was also wearing headphones for the next 5 minutes.  No-one said anything to him because we liked the action at the table and didn’t want to piss him off (if you knew me you couldn’t imagine how hard it was for me not to just punch this guy in the back of the head but I tried to relax and get through it).  After this charade by him the next hand is dealt.  Under the gun limps in for 10, and then drunk kid raises it to 60, I am two people to act after him and I re-raise him to 200 with ak and it folds down to the blinds.  Under the gun then gets this really confused look on his face like he has a really good hand and he really didn’t want to fold, eventually he went all in which was 200 dollars for him.  The drunk kid then ponders his hand and of course calls with $600 left in his stack.  The flop comes 236 and he instantly goes all in for 600 and I fold.  He flips over 99 and under the gun flips over 10q.  I personally think it was a horrible play by both of them.  First of all the short British man under the gun limp called all in with q10, which I don’t recommend to both players.  And the drunk kid went all in for 600 dollars into a dry side pot.  His only hope there was that I had AK, and there was no chance that he would get a call by a worse hand.  So there really was no hope for him there.. he was drunk and got lucky that his nines were good and none of us had a better hand.

Anyways I  began to target this kid knowing that I can win some money off of him.  A few hands later 3 people limped before me and I limped 1 hand off the button with j9.  The flop came 10qk.  The short British man bets 40 and the drunk kid raises it to 120  I was in a situation here because I had position but there are so many cards to come that can hurt my hand any card over 10 any of the flush draws.  Also I’m at table with a bunch of idiots that keep calling everything.  So I came over the top of them hoping someone would make a bad play with 2 pair and that noon limped with aj.  British man folds and the drunk kid flips over 10q and folds.  Here I was a little disappointed with my play because I took a card off here and turned a  blank I definitely would have won atleast 400 more if not the rest of his money.  The main significance of this hand is that after the hand was over the drunk kid says, “nice hand” and I said “thanks brother” and he went absolutely  nuts.  He started screaming at me for this comment (keep in mind this kid is as pale as my ass), at this point I couldn’t compose myself and we got into this verbal war where just about the whole casino could hear.  Quickly security came over and the kid ended up moving to another table.  So that was a bummer because I knew I was about to snap this kid off but it did make the mood a lot better at the table, which was still pretty good.

Anyways I ended up winning $500, which I wasn’t very happy with considering the skill level of my table, but it is a win.  So my advice of the day…. PLAY AT COMMERCE!

Wow, what a horrible few weeks this has been.  From the sound of my blog lately your probably getting the impression that I suck.  Its just the past few weeks everytime I get something goin it just gets stolen away from me on one hand.  I used to be able to compose myself through these moments and continue to play well but lately I have been noticing that it has drastically affected my play.  Today situation…

I was playing heads up 2/4 and my opponent had $600 and I had him covered.  When we started off playing it was rather slow mostly with the small blind raising every hand and ending with 30-80$ pots.  All the sudden I noticed that my opponent began to reraise me a few times preflop to get an idea of my range.  I folded the first 2 times and the third time I came over the top of his re-raise to 40 to 120 with pocket 3’s to get an idea of what he was reraising me with, he folded the hand and we continued to play.  A few hands later I get raised to 12 and I had aces on the big blind.  I reraised to 36, and he reraises me to 140.  This is exactly what I was asking for.  I really didn’t put him on a good hand here, in fact I figured he could have any two cards, thus I waited a few seconds and just smooth called because I believe coming over the top of him here would reveal my strength.  Before the flop came out I had plans to check it to him hoping he would make a healthy bet/bluff to try to take down the pot. The flop came 77k and I checked it to the raiser.  He made a bet of 160 and I decided if he had the k he would push his last 300 in, and if i tried to slow play it I may not get everything out of the hand.  I pushed him all in and of course I was right, except his kicker was a little better then I thought.  He flips over k7 and I lose a 1.2k pot and of course my mind.  Its just really annoying to me that im playing 8 tables, 7 - 1/2’s and 1 2/4 and I lately have had  these situation only on my big games.  I rebuy and he leaves… AWESOME.. So this eliminates any chance for me to get back to even quickly and sends me on TILT (note I play as a prop player on a small site so this limits the amount of higher stakes games).  This is one thing I used to not have a problem with but lately it has been killing me.  I haven’t been able to put these hands behind me and continue to play solid poker so I pissed away a few hundred more and quit out of frustration.

This is something I really don’t recommend to player when they are playing a long session.  When I sat down I was planning on playing for 4-5 hours as I usually will to help lower the variance and give me a better chance to win and generate alot of rakeback.  But instead I waited till I was in the deepest hole of the day and then quit after two hours, just because I couldn’t stop thinking about how unlucky I am.  But I’m not unlucky, this shit happens, this is fucking poker get over it.  Unfortunately I understand this concept but lately I have not been able to follow through and listen to it.  This is something that happens to every non-recreational poker player.  You are going to have streaks like this and they are not going to be fun.  I now understand what makes one a poker professional, the ability to deal with these situations and move on.  If you asked me a few months ago, I would have never thought that I would be a victim of this.  But I fully admit the past few weeks I have been a prime example.

So I just realized that I once again forgot to vote.  Well atleast I registered this year.. thats a start… maybe next time.  Anyways I had more important things to settle such as planning my spring break for the year which I ended up settling with Cancun which should be pretty awesome.  Now im just hopin for a good internet connection.

Anyways pokerwise I had a pretty good day today so well see if I can manage to carry my momentum into the ftops thats coming up this week.  Never had too much luck in this tournament in the past so my hopes are high for the upcoming weeks.  All I ask is that I dont fall victim to any 5 hour bubbles… if its not my time end it quick.. I have a history of goin out very close to the money… Anyways good luck to me..

So i woke up this morning (afternoons more like it) and I decided to get right into playing.  I started off playing 6 games of 1/2 and 2/4.  My curiousity got me and I looked to see if there was a 5/10 game running.  Ofcourse there was with some of the worst players on the site.  Naturally I sat down at the table.  My fourth hand in i get all in on the flop with aces vs. kings and the river spikes a king for a 2k pot.  In the next hour managed to lose another thousand and put a hole in my door, then I stopped before I did something stupid.  I really am starting to feel some deja vu here.  Three weeks in a row  i have put together a big winning week then move up to to 5/10 and get fcked.  This games really starting to frustrate me because I know I can beat it.  Anyways im over it… go Hoosiers.