November in review - a toot of the horn

I've never really recapped a month before, but for reasons I hope you will soon understand, I think this time it deserves a little attention.

I had planned to do this last night, but I found out when OhFamily got home from movies (we see Enchanted), our Internet connection was dead. Seems Charter Communications thinks we were attacking their servers with a virus and shut it down.

Well, after all the scanning was done, I remember what the downside is to the beautiful snowy winters here in Minnesota. We got 5 inches of snow followed by freezing rain. We still haven't completely dug out yet...but we've got a good start. More pictures and stories of the rest of this fun filled day on my other blog later.

On to the recap!

Minnesota Poker League: 3 out of 4 final tables this month. One 1st, 4th and 6th place finish and I moved from 12th to 2nd.

Bourbonators: A 1st place finish, a nice cash payment to the live poker bankroll.

Home game: 2nd place finish and an even nicer addition to the live poker bankroll.

All in all - live poker was pretty successful. There was even a trip to a couple of new locations that turned out to be positive. One night at a different free bar poker location and a final table. The only real downside to the month live was a reaffirmation that I suck at Pot Limit Omaha.

Online poker seems to be on track again as well.

Poker Tracker Totals (November):

• 69 Tournaments (Hmm...no wonder nothing else got done)
• $144.70 Buy-ins + Fees
• $200 Amount won
• $55.30 Net amount won
• 38.22% ROI
• 46.38% Finish In the Money

That's a definite improvement from a couple of months ago when I couldn't cash to save my life. The real surprise comes from the $2.25 9 person SNG. 37 tournaments, Net Amount Won - $46.35, 55.68% ROI, 51.35% Finish in the money, Avg Finish - 3.73. Wow...I almost averaged finishing in the money.

Now that I got my confidence back, I think I need to look ahead. Continuing my better bankroll management, I hope to move up a pay grade soon. The online bankroll should allow for a larger buy-in again. I'd also really like to play more of the larger tournaments online. Time is the biggest hurdle to this, but it should be something I can do. I think I'll be giving the Mookie a try real soon and AIPS II Main Event...I'll keep trying for the token, but if that doesn't pan out, I'll have some really thinking to do. But at this win rate, it's hard to justify a $26 buy-in.

Moving up the comfort zone - live play

Last night I ventured up to the road to a home game in Pine Island. 6 guys showed up for a sng type tournament. The structure and buy-in were a big different than I was used to. First, the buy-in was $40. The previous largest buy-in live for me was $20. My bankroll is sitting pretty well, so this only consituted a little more than 5% of the bankroll I have been contributing to. So I tried to just forget about the money. I need to remind myself that I am, in fact, a good player and I stand a good chance of not losing...that's harder than it sounds.

The next big change was the method they used for changing the blinds. They play 10 hands and then raise'm up. This allowed guys to take their time before playing. This is good and bad. It was a late night, and it took a while before we lost someone. Then once you are really short handed, the blinds really climb. Just an observation.

For the most part, the guys are pretty solid players. 2 of the guys played at Brother's, one stopped going recently, the other, Paul, I have played many times. 2 of the guys were at this house the last time I played. There style and ranges haven't changed. 1 new guy. He was on my left. Most of these guys play in bigger buy in tournaments in the area. They mostly started the night playing tight, but that seemed to change after the first blind level. Betting increased and a lot of raising was going on. I chose to stay tight and feel my way out of this.

These guys also seemed inclined to respect my raises since I was playing so tight. I saved most of this equity for the later stages of the tournament. I was also not really seeing much for cards...a reoccuring theme. 3 guys each did a rebuy before the rebuy period ended (25 hands). Making the final prize pool $360. I really never played that many big hands. My tight table image translated into a lot of small pots with a lot of respectful folds. I took great advantage of this later on in the tournament.

I spent my time at the table studying each player. For the most part, I could really tell when guys were missing the flop. The only problems I had were judging just how strong they were when they were strong. One guy, Bill, showed the definite tell of looking at his chips when he was strong after the flop, but other than that, the strong means weak and weak means strong was pretty much the norm. But how strong is the question.

With more experience live, I hope to be able to hon this skill and really get better at figuring out just how strong people are. It was easy to steal the dead pots, but nowing when I was beat was another problem. Any thoughts?

The other thing I noticed last night...when I'm tired, I seem to love the check call when I'm drawing. Holy Crap! If can spot my own tell, how bad is that? This is a very serious leak in my game. Do any of you have this same leak? How do you deal with it?

Co-ed Invitational IV

Sorry for the delay in writing this post. I gotta tell you, I was tired on Suday. That was one late night but some really fun poker! 14 people arrived at our house for a night of laughs and cards. We started the night with 2 tables of 7 and played some short-handed poker until we whittled it down to 10. At ten people, we can all fit at the 'TV Table.' We usually have a wide range of experience at the table with us, and tonight was no exception.

For some reason, I got my usual spot at 'TV Table' and Aaron's Dad to my left and Paul on my right. Aaron's Dad was kind of a wild card since this was his first night. I've played with Paul on many occassions and he's a solid player.

I continued my streak of being completely card dead. The a compulsive caller on my left, it was difficult to justify getting into too many pots since I was likely to be betting into the wind and showing down every hand. I took a couple of small pots along the way by using my extremely tight table image to keep a healthy M. I even got Bodie25 to lay down a better hand. Bodie25...this just means I respect your game and now you will notice! I wouldn't never to try to push a donkey of a hand...

The most significant pot of the night came shortly after the first table busted and Aaron sat right next to me on my left. I was UTG+1 and had decided before the cards were dealt that this hand would be an expirement in just playing the players. I raised it up with 8♠9♠ to see what we could do. At best, no one would suspect I would play this hand. I got one caller...Aaron. At this stage I know he could be playing any ace, king, queen or jack, pocket pair or suited cards...just about anything.

The flop comes 7♣8♦8♣. That look real nice, the only thing left to do was real him in. With as much disappointment as I could must, I check. He raises 3BB, I raise to 6BB and he instantly goes all in. I think he might have a straight draw or have paired his 7. He could have a better kicker, but I really doubt it. In the past, I've watch him to this move at numerous time. He wants me out...so I call. He turns over A 10. I've just a little bit more than doubled up!

Well this bought me a huge pile of chips. I stole some blinds and found myself in 3rd place! I went the Dr. Neau...I am the most consistent finisher of anyone that plays. Finishing deep every time. Thankfully...this one paid...bubbling still sucks.

The tournament was won by Jon. Here's OhCountess presenting him with the trophey and the cash!

He couldn't have been more excited to get it over...the cash game was heating up and calling his name!

In second place was Paul. You can just see the disappointment in his face! So close, but no cigar.
The biggest winner of the night, however was Bodie25. You've never seen someone not be able to miss like this. He was on fire and on a fantastic rush and in the end...


the stack of cash and chips in front of him was impressive.
In the end, Danny shows off the look of most of the people leaving the cash game as Bodie25 makes away with most of the bootie. Thank goodness yours truly stayed away...I moved on to FTP where I gave a lesson to some poor schmucks online on how you play micro-buy-in 45 person sit-n-gos. I made enough money to cover what OhCountess had put into the night.

For those of you interested, we are currently looking at the weekend after Halloween for the next home game...this time...with COSTUMES! Let me know if that weekend works or doesn't work for you. We hope to see everyone there!

Sorry Jon! Jon gives lessons in the fundamentals of the ring game

I'm sorry Jon. I missed that! Thanks for pointing it out. Yes, that is Jon with almost one whole box of my chips in front of him. Way to rule the side game! Too bad the tourney didn't go better...but wait...you did better than Prof Jens at this night, didn't you...hehe

Congrats!

Co-ed Invitational III

Here it is the morning after our Co-ed Invitation III. We had 14 people join us for a 2 table tournament. We even had a new couple join us, Todd and Kathy.

A really big thanks goes to Jon for bringing the extra table. Dick and Bonnie brought the nummy bbqed weinners and Eloise, the girl from the deep, deep, deep south (think other end of the world) for creating our new travelling trophy!

I gotta believe, it was the craziest start to one of our events in recent memory. Bodie25 started off the evening by putting Kathy to the test. Kathy raised from the button on the first hand. Bodie25 defended the BB with a raise. I witnessing this hand immediately to left the of Bodie25 UTG....I got front row seats! I can tell by the betting that I'm quite sure both have a pocket pair...or Bodie25 is trying to be fancy. I did mention it was the first hand...right? Well, Bodie25 realizes he's got 2/3 of his chips in by the river and pushes the rest. Kathy goes in the tank and comes out to say call. She's got KK. Bodie25's got TT. I'm quite sure there will be a more detailed description of this hand at Bodie25's website. But needless to say...we now had a dealer at our table.

I patiently played very tight poker through all of this. What can I say, I was repeatedly dealt 8 2 o. I tried to play a little small pot poker, but lets be honest here. It's tough to win much money at all when the best hand you see for an hour is 10 7 of clubs.

I perfected my folding technique and even worked on some new ways to fold and we pretty quickly collapsed to the one table. Darrin even made the final table...did you here that Rian...Darrin made the final table! With the collapse of the extra table, a cash game formed, but I was intent on getting better at folding...so I just needed to concetrate.

I successfully navigated my way to the bubble. A few nice pots and some timely double ups kept me in business. The order of finishing up to the bubble goes something like this...

14. Bodie25
13. Trolkin
12. Bonnie
11. Jon Blixt
10. Darrin
9. Todd
8. Eloise
7. Chief Bourbonator
6. Dick
5. OhCountess

OhCountess put up a valiant effort to hang on, doubling up a few times, but ran into the buzz saw that was Prof. Jens.

We got to the bubble. Kathy and I were fighting over short stack. Each taking the opportunity to double through Mrs. Bodie25 and Prof. Jens. No real memorable poker played here. I was trying to mix up my betting patterns, but basically sitting pat for a hand that had some legs. It appeared that Kathy was doing the same thing.

On one ill fated button All-In, my A-10 ran into Prof. Jens holding K J. The price was right, he called and hit more jacks than were necessary to oust the host. I joined the cash game, wishing the we were playing razz...the decks were cold as ice for me.

Kathy battled admirably, but Prof. Jens and Mrs. Bodie25 had probably 90% of the chips in play between them. And the poker gods were gracing them each with cards.

The 2 monster chipleaders (let's just call them a cartel of chips), finally got heads up with Prof. Jens in the chip lead with the hand on the right.


Prof. Jens' pair of aces bested bested the pair of nines. We have our new champion! Congrats Professor! Don't forget to bring the trophy back next time. I'll need to display it prominently in the basement!

His championship was not really a suprise to any of us. With the elimination of Mrs. Bodie25, he ended the night for 8 of the 14 participants. The most ever at one of our events for a single person.

Congrats!

Co-ed Invitational II

Our second poker invitational was another fantastic evening! We had 13 people in our little basement tournament. Bodie25 and Mrs. Bodie25 were here. So be sure to check out his perspective.
My results weren't as good as I hoped, I bubbled. The night started kind of hectic. I realized just after we started the Dr. Neau wasn't set up just right and I needed to reload everything. The funny thing is, I figured this out because I took the first person out of the tournament, not more than 5 hands in.

I was dealt AA and did a standard 3xBB raise from MP. One caller, the BB, a guy know for playing draing hands and going for the suck out. I catch another ace on the flop and there doesn't seem to be much for draws. The turn comes with another spade. Now, if he tries to run with me, I'm pretty sure he's on a flush draw, I decide to put him to the test and push him all in. To my suprise, he calls and I was right, he's on a flush draw. We were almost even in chips, so I would have been left with a chip had I lost the hand. I survived to live again. Aaron was on the rail in 13th place.

I played like a donkey for the next few minutes. Just mixing it up and being aggressive. Turns out, everyone else was getting cards. I dropped back to par. Bodie25 made a nice play with aces when I was on a straight draw and top pair. I had put him on a big ace and thought he would fold to the extreme pressure. His aces was the biggest and he didn't fold.

I didn't really play a lot of hands after this. The deck went cold for me, but everyone else was getting playable hands.

When my stack cut to the 10xBB zone, all the short stacks were moving in and getting picked off. At this time, I kept looking down to find 2 3, 9 2, J 3, Q 4. Not exactly the hands you want to call an all-in with.

I plodded along to the bubble, and kept getting marginal hands you can either fold or push with. I tried to be patient and wait for a good spot, but I never found one. With less than 2 BB left, I found A J of hearts, and had 2 callers (suprise!) It was over, my first loss at my own house.

OhCountess (Mrs. OhCaptain), had a pretty amazing ride. She enter the final table a very short stack, and out lasted a couple of people! Well done!

Mrs. Bodie 25 didn't retain her crown as reigning champion, but Bodie25 had a very nice showing. He was in on the hand that took out our here (me), and parlayed that into a 4th place finish. But he lasted much longer after I finished.

Dick and Bonnie made a very impressive first time in our tournament. This young couple were celebrating their' 50th Wedding Anniversary with us and finished 3rd and 2nd to Eloise!

Nice job everyone! More details about the Co-ed Invitational III very soon!