Don't play when not in the mood...

I did some drafting, then felt like I should play some as I wanted to keep playing continuously so I stayed in the right mode. But my head wasn't into it and so I played badly. And then I ran badly... and then the game got shorthanded and I thought "well, I'm horrible at short handed, so this is a chance to practice, and this entire session is a wash anyways."

Yeah that was smart.

Short version, down roughly $100 last night. A good lesson learned to not play when I am not in the right mindset to play. I never "have to" play, and I should not act like I do.

Poker tracker what?

I'll be honest, I played very little the past two days. Magic Online has a new beta up for Magic2010 which I am invited to, so I am drafting like mad to try to break the thing and have some fun. I did play some last night though, putting $100 down on a $2/$4 table, and playing, honestly, boring tight poker (15% VP$IP!) and ending up $11.

However poker tracker says I am down $7.75 for that session. I have no idea why. I even downloaded the hand histories from UB again and re-imported them. Same thing. Wish I knew what was wrong there.

Entertainingly, I show myself as currently up $153 and.. I just traded $150 to a forum friend to get them started up here so.. I'm back to even. :P

I only had one hand that was annoying in the session, so I'm posting it to 2+2, and will link it here. I think that might be a better way to make my blog more educational as well.

Just an update.

Monday was boringly simple play. Not a lot though. So instead I shall post my two favorite hands from my BJJ play:

Hand one: Thank you for folding for 18 more cents in a $30 pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4497188

Hand two: Worst tarp evar!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4493930

Weekend Play

Over the course of the weekend, the Bad Beat Jackpot hit over $200,000 so I braved the jackpot tables to see if I could get a piece of the jackpot. Even if I got the split for being at the same level, it was probably going to be worth the amount I would lose in EV by playing those tables.

Turns out I didn't need to worry much as I destroyed the tables for a couple of buy ins while I played. I also saw some hilariously bad playing, specifically related to people playing short. I saw a guy at a .5/1 table fold a $3.50 pot for 5 cents more. I also saw a guy fold a $40 pot for 18 cents more. I'm pretty sure I may call both of those with any two cards.

No bad beat jackpot for me though, it's still running today. I did make Contender though, which is something in the UB player rewards program, no idea what it is. I'll have to look at it later..

Last night I had a horrible night, so am staying home sick. I loaded up one table to nut peddle while lay here half dead and am getting crushed, down one buy in. I guess at least I have some buffer space from yesterday. :P

Make up!

So after my horrendous run on Wednesday, I did end up playing some more at lower stakes to blow off steam, and making back some money. I then did an honest review of every hand I played to see objectively if I played bad, or if I ran bad.

I do a lot of hand by hand analysis, which may bore some people to tears, but I think it's really the best way to learn how to improve your play if you have the objectivity to look back at a hand and go "Wow, that was a donk move, what was I thinking?" I also post threads on 2+2 like this one to try to get opinions from people on where I am making mistakes or if I am lost in a hand.

Honestly, it was a little of both. I definitely ran bad, but I could have had a significantly less impacted loss if I also had not screwed up some other hands were I tried to run over the table with lesser holdings. In general, there's a lot of calling stations in $2/$4, so I need to be less bluffy and play tighter. Right now my VP$IP is 21.94. I'd like to knock it down to 19% or so, and basically just stop getting tricky. Very boring solid TAG play looks like it has a just fine shot at $2/$4 and I need to remember that.

But to objectively look at things, I am currently running .9bb/100 over 556 hands at $2/$4, and overall at all limits running 2.03bb/100. However, due to rake and a horrible session when I jumped up to $3/$6, I am currently down $62. At the end of the month I'll be able to better see how things look when I get my first rakeback payment.

I'm going to try to play a lot this weekend to hit Contender is UB's RAI$E system. The regular benefits don't matter much, I just thought it would be a fun goal. And maybe if I don't care about the points I'll cash them out. Contender looks easily doable every month even with as little as I play, so maybe this will be a good way to get some extra value out of the site.

Last night I played in the Small Stakes Limit Shenanigans 8 game event. Its HORSE + some, and is fun because it switches up so much. I felt pretty good in it, with Stud H/L and Limit Hold'em being my weakest games, Limit Hold'Em because it was shorthanded, and I suck at shorthanded. Nonetheless I think I did fine until blinds got up and I got caught bluffing on a Limit Hold'em Hand, than ran horrible in Razz, a good example being raising with A25, and then seeing the next two cards be King, King. By the time Stud H/L hit, I needed to find a way to double up, but it didn't happen and down I went. Oh well, was great fun anyways. :) Then I played some normal 2/4 for a while.

Yesterday was "break even poker" land so I don't have any real exciting hands. I'll leave you with this one because I have no idea why I was never raised in this hand. Villain.. pretty passive. It wasn't even a bad beat really, and I have no call to complain, as in the BB I ended up with A4 again and flopped trips, so this was.. pre-karmic? :)

Absolute/UB Cereus Hold'em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) - Absolute/UB Cereus Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, 4
5 folds, CO calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, BB checks

Flop: ($6) 2, A, 3 (3 players)
Hero bets $2, 1 fold, CO calls $2

Turn: ($10) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $4, CO calls $4

River: ($18) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $4, CO calls $4

Total pot: $26 | Rake: $1.25

Results:
Hero had A, 4 (two pair, Aces and fours).
CO had 2, 2 (three of a kind, twos).
Outcome: CO won $49.50

One comment on my night..

IT'S NOT FUCKING MUBS IF THEY SOMEHOW HAVE THE GOODS EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME!

*ahem*

I may perhaps have "run bad" tonight. I'll post more when I'm less... sensitive.

Killing my "leeway"

Twas a bad night, with me dropping a buy in almost immediately to remove that leeway I had bragged about just yesterday. In general I loved my table, it had a 40% Saw Flop, so, undaunted, I fastened my seat belt and got ready for the ride. This was the final result:

Table 1 - -40.8bb/100
Table 2 - 8.89bb/100
Table 3 - 23.39bb/100

I still dropped $51, or essentially half a buy in, but considering the roller coaster ride that was going on, it could have been a lot worse or a lot better. I would have kept playing at that table a lot longer, but was getting tired.

I shall leave you with this hand, which I was lost in so badly. :(

Absolute/UB Cereus Hold'em, $4.00 BB (9 handed) - Absolute/UB Cereus Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Preflop: Hero is Button with 5, 5
1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, 2 folds, MP3 calls $2, 1 fold, Hero calls $2, SB calls $1, BB bets $4, UTG+1 calls $2, MP3 calls $2, Hero calls $2, SB calls $2

Flop: ($20) 3, 4, 8 (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP3 bets $2, Hero raises to $4, 1 fold, BB calls $4, 1 fold, MP3 calls $2

Turn: ($32) 3 (3 players)
BB checks, MP3 bets $4, Hero calls $4, BB calls $4

River: ($44) A (3 players)
BB checks, MP3 bets $4, Hero folds, 1 fold

Total pot: $44 | Rake: $2

Results:
MP3 didn't show
Outcome: MP3 won $42