Friday, November 12, 2004
It's amazing what a little focus and skill can do in the freeroll world that is online poker. To make it past the first hour it takes a lot of patience and some luck. Once you hit a certain point than your skill has to drive you the rest of the way. Tonight I played 3 freerolls on 3 seperate clients and I placed in the top 10% in each one. One of my freerolls I really couldn't do much and starved to death but I had played well. The other 2 freerolls are a different matter. In any tournament you can pick out 1 or 2 key hands that make or break you in a tournament. The frustrating part is that in both the other freerolls I was 3-handed and by far the best only to come up broke busted and disgusted. In stars my set of 4's lost to a river straight to not just 1 but two people. I never had the cards or chips to really make a dent after that. The hand that knocked me out was my KK vs QQ vs AJ and the river brought a queen. Very frustrating because I again had the best hand by a mile. The most frustrating result was on UB.
I had about 11k in chips and was in the big blind. The chip average at the time was just over 20k and I sat just below the middle of the pack. I pick up QQ and I am ready to rumble. Four limpers attempt to get into the pot and I quickly put my chips in. Many people question this move but when your late in a tournament you have 2 moves .. raise or fold. To my delight or so I thought I got 2 callers. Flop comes 842 and the first caller quickly goes all in. I know right then I just got brutally outdrawn and I know the guy called most of his chips with 88 and I am all but gone. Sure enough the cards flip over and he shows his 88. I am not mad in how I played this hand because more often than not I will come out a head making this play. The frustrating thing is that the pot would have put me in the top 15 in chips and make me a serious contender for the top prize. I said it before and I will say it again all you can do is put your money in when your best. The bad beats late in tournaments always hurt the most and it is a small consilation prize that I played the hands well and trapped my opponents correctly and made the +EV play. Just once I tonight I would have loved to see the best hand win. Ah well still a good night overall but I just can't stop thinking how much better it would have been if luck were on my side.
I had about 11k in chips and was in the big blind. The chip average at the time was just over 20k and I sat just below the middle of the pack. I pick up QQ and I am ready to rumble. Four limpers attempt to get into the pot and I quickly put my chips in. Many people question this move but when your late in a tournament you have 2 moves .. raise or fold. To my delight or so I thought I got 2 callers. Flop comes 842 and the first caller quickly goes all in. I know right then I just got brutally outdrawn and I know the guy called most of his chips with 88 and I am all but gone. Sure enough the cards flip over and he shows his 88. I am not mad in how I played this hand because more often than not I will come out a head making this play. The frustrating thing is that the pot would have put me in the top 15 in chips and make me a serious contender for the top prize. I said it before and I will say it again all you can do is put your money in when your best. The bad beats late in tournaments always hurt the most and it is a small consilation prize that I played the hands well and trapped my opponents correctly and made the +EV play. Just once I tonight I would have loved to see the best hand win. Ah well still a good night overall but I just can't stop thinking how much better it would have been if luck were on my side.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Just when I thought the rebellion had hope. It finally happened to me today ... I lost to a 1080:1 longshot (this is the worst bad beat in poker). I had 101078 with a flop of 1074. Runner runner 4's and I was broke, busted and disgusted. What can ya do.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
These were dark days for the rebellion. Pin skywalker (yes I get to be luke cause its my fucking story) over the past few weeks has been having trouble earning and placing well in tournaments. Shane kanobi threw his mouse in disgust after losing to guys who couldn't stop calling in 7stud8b. Don Calrissian is ready to throw his cards away for good after the last home game and Rich2D2 was hating o8b because it has screwed him over for the last time. Jaybacca had all but given up hope with poker after trips on the flop lost to a runner runner full house and general Troy Solo has all but accepted poker as a luck game and has plans to leave the rebellion. To top things off the Evil Chris Vader won $10 pots at the home game with 83 and 710. The rebellion was in bad shape.
Pin skywalker had a tough delemma on his hands. He was asked again and again to try to explain his jedi training because faith in the force has been lost. Skywalker and Solo sat down to again discuss this issue. Solo consistantly gets fucked in the ass by the cards but continues to play despite thinking that he has no chance to win. In classic jedi fashion Skywalker replied "search your feeling for your know poker is a skill game, you will know this is true. This is why you still play".
With a glimpse of hope left, the rebellion slowly started to fight back against Darth Chris and the goon empire (All in good fun Chris :). For the first time in months Troy Solo had come ahead money at the poker tables and Rich2D2 had placed top 10 in a very tough tournament. The rebellion is finally gaining some confidence which is like obtaining plans to destroy the death star. Our rebellion will never fully topple the evil empire because there are as many goons as storm troopers who still believe that suited cards are worth a raise because "hey the cards were suited".
What the rebellion can do is plan for the future and create methods for standing up to and cracking the empire respectively. We now have methods to track tournaments on a point system which I would advise all of you to sign up for to make yourself better players based on studying histories and posting public results to create positive reinforcers. The most important part is to keep the faith long term. It is so easy to focus on short term results in thinking that a losing month is the end of the world and you doubt your poker skills. Long term gains are what counts and even when playing each hand you are even. You are not up or down because it has no effect on how you should play this hand. In closing I call on the rebellion to stand up and fight and enjoy it ... and may the force(luck?) be with you.
Pin skywalker had a tough delemma on his hands. He was asked again and again to try to explain his jedi training because faith in the force has been lost. Skywalker and Solo sat down to again discuss this issue. Solo consistantly gets fucked in the ass by the cards but continues to play despite thinking that he has no chance to win. In classic jedi fashion Skywalker replied "search your feeling for your know poker is a skill game, you will know this is true. This is why you still play".
With a glimpse of hope left, the rebellion slowly started to fight back against Darth Chris and the goon empire (All in good fun Chris :). For the first time in months Troy Solo had come ahead money at the poker tables and Rich2D2 had placed top 10 in a very tough tournament. The rebellion is finally gaining some confidence which is like obtaining plans to destroy the death star. Our rebellion will never fully topple the evil empire because there are as many goons as storm troopers who still believe that suited cards are worth a raise because "hey the cards were suited".
What the rebellion can do is plan for the future and create methods for standing up to and cracking the empire respectively. We now have methods to track tournaments on a point system which I would advise all of you to sign up for to make yourself better players based on studying histories and posting public results to create positive reinforcers. The most important part is to keep the faith long term. It is so easy to focus on short term results in thinking that a losing month is the end of the world and you doubt your poker skills. Long term gains are what counts and even when playing each hand you are even. You are not up or down because it has no effect on how you should play this hand. In closing I call on the rebellion to stand up and fight and enjoy it ... and may the force(luck?) be with you.
