Bourbonators Recap And Online Update

Sorry about not posting a recap since Friday night, my other hobby was consuming a fair bit of my time this weekend. You can check that out at my photo blog.

I love Bourbonators. The poker has come a long way since I first joined them. We are a group of guys that get together once a month, try a new Whiskey, Scotch or Bourbon and then sit down to some cards, laughs and BBQ'ed covered something with chips. (Veggie trays usually decay on tray)

This month was no different. The usual cast of characters were there; Lowell, Marshall, Darrin, John (Chief Bourbonator), Jon (our gracious host), Old John (he's older than me!), and Colin. Even Marshall has made great strides in his game, he's still a blank page when you try to read him, but at least there are far few 23o hidden in front of him when he pushes.

The first game, I decided to play differently than in the past. I'm been working hard to get more aggressive and just take more pots that no one wants. This was paying off nicely for me. My reads all night were pretty dead on. As I noted in a previous post, I bubbled. Card dead just doesn't always work when you've been very agressive most of the night. I did make a stupid call against Jon, the eventual winner, that really cost me some chips. I had a draw, and pretty sure Jon knew it. He got me off the hand and left me with a short stack. I was drawing the flush and the straight draw, but wasn't willing to pay the all-in to see the river. I think a reraise early would have slowed him down enough for me to see it.

The second game, I pretty much stayed on the same track. I made good reads and never really saw a big hand. I avoided a lot of opportunities to lose chips and took as many pots as I could that no one wanted. I knocked Jon out at bubble time with middle pair(me) vs. his over cards. Since this wasn't FTP, my middle pair held up. I ended up Heads Up against Darrin. Darrin has never been the winner of any night. He played well and got cards just slightly better than the ones I had. I had played him pretty aggressive and loose for most of the night. He started getting a much better sense of when I was weak (which was often).

I was happy with the way I played. Poker is getting to be fun again. Even online poker...

I've been on hiatis lately from playing anything bigger than $2. NO RING GAMES! My bankroll at taking a serious beating and I was playing my money again. I definitely needed to make some adjustments. I dropped down to the $1 45 Person NLH sngs. The long string of bad beats were over. At this level, I can wait for a bigger hand and then turn on the gas when we get to the money. I've been running just sick lately too there. While Saturday night was definitely just weird, I had AA 5 times in one tournament, I've been cashing about 50% of the time. My ROI is something sick too, 238%. I'll hang out here for a while, experiment and work the leaks out. My bankroll is just about back to par and with a little padding, I hope to step it up again.

The MTTs are still my best game, I need to play more of these. I've been trying to fit in a 180 person $2 game every now and then. I've cashed a few times, but they take more than 3 hours to get to the beginnings of the cash...Dad's just don't have that kind of time.

Tomorrow night is the Brother's League again. I cashed the first week, now it's time to get back there. Hopefully...no more sick suckouts. Bodie25 needs the competition at the top.