Bluff, Bluff, oh why do I make these stupid Bluffs...

It never fails me that I make 1 stupid bluff in a tourney that costs me a nice stack of chips. Now theres nothing wrong with a big bluff, its just when I bluff when it doesn't make sense to. Either bluffing when theres absolutely no fold equity for my opponent, or bluffing on a board that wouldn't make sense. Did one of each last night, one cost me headsup in a double shootout 1st round, then 2nd I bubbled out of the final table in a 2tabler.

You'll never win! - STFU biatch

Funny end of the night RIO sng I played last night. Down to 3 players left, and I was down to like 2M after the blind change. So I proceeded to do a lot of allins. Some chick then says "You'll never win if you play like that" What? She just put a target on her back. I let her have it, nobody tells me I can't win! I continued to steal her blinds, going allin. Now this chick was a complete useless lucky player. Her stack was completely built up by calling premium hands with Axs and hitting the flush or 2 pairs. If she didnt' have an A, she wouldn't call anything though. One had I had a 44 in the BB. Both limped, I went allin, and she thought and thought, even asked the other guy if she should call with TT. She ended up folding it. I told her there's no way you had TT. She said she swears to god she did. So I continued to berate her some more, what kinda of tard (sorry just watched The Ringer last night) lays down a TT. She then claims shes been playing proffessional for 3 years now. I told her, her husband must be broke now. "Oh he's a doctor" Yes he must be broke now. Eventually the other guy knocked her out, 2 pair vs A high, and then I disposed of him quite handily.

Played 4 sitngos in total yesterday, won 3. Rio, Full Tilt 2table to get a $75 tourney token (which I will use on a wsop 100seat qualifier), and Full Contact Poker Classic qualifier. Donked my way out of a Party WSOP step sng. Couldn't find any mtts I wanted to play so I just stuck to those.

Finally a 1st!! - "In order to live, you must be willing to die"

and this is what I won (never mind the $, it was a $1 buyin cause they couldn't get it as a freeroll)



More importantly is what I learned from my MTT play.

I played this one completely without fear of busting. No prizes that I really wanted to win, and just played it just cause I felt like playing some poker. Though I never had to suckout either. My only close call was a rivered K, AK vs QQ.
Headsup, was probably the best headsup I have seen myself play. Down approx 6:1 I took a Phil Ivey approach. Everytime I was on the button, I raised. My call and fold was about the same, 3 times each at most. Many times I would get the blinds, many times it was call, check, bet, fold. I was reraising him like crazy if he tried to steal my blinds. I'm pretty sure I got him so frustrated that in the end, I never put him allin, always got him to go allin when I felt I had the best hand.

Compare that with my Doyle's room Bounty tournament which I was playing at the same time. Not sure why I played it, just did. I had an ok stack, doubled up once, but still made a questionable laydown which I think turned it around. Now if it was a deep stack tourney, this laydown might not be so bad, but at the quick blind structure of the Tribeca tables, I think I screwed up.

Holding AQ I raised preflop in MP, might have been a limper but he's out of the picture. Bigger stack blind calls. Flop of 9TJ, 2 clubs. Blind puts in a bet that would lead to me being pot committed. A fold puts me at average. I ended up laying it down with the reasoning that the field is so weak, I'll get my chances to win pots later. What I failed to realize was that the blind structure would not let me play too much poker later. If I had doubled up there I would have had a nice stack and the opportunity to dominate the rest of the way.

Lesson learned, and I'm ready tonight for whatever mtt I play. Nothing going on this weekend, have a saturday wedding and a sunday baptism.

"... In order to live, you must be willing to die ..." - Amir Vahedi

I vow not to mix cash games with tournament play!

Mixing cash games and tournaments are hazardous to your poker play. I shouldn't be doing it, but I do it anyways. When I do I start mixing in cash game plays into my tournies and vice versa, and its just -EV. This past weekend was pretty good in terms of cash games, +$500 or so via Ladbrokes & Pokershare short handed 6max games. Either 2/4 or 3/6 limit games and $100nl $200nl. Too bad I could only bust the short stack guys in my nl tables, I guess thats why they were short stacked. I love the Euro centric poker rooms. These two and the B2B network are great for cash games. They bluff for no reason, and its the best feeling when you catch them. My tourney play was non existant, and my sng results were just as bad. Kinda sick of tourney play right now.

Did I skip a chapter?

Good news, I found a leak in my mtt game. Bad news, another waste of time. Once again I final tabled the PokerShare $1500 wsop seat. Once again I blow it, this time in 5th. And once again on a questionable/frustration/impatient call on my part. Final tables, I usually steal a fair number of blinds. Sometimes people fight back, and last night they fought back. And not with baby min raises, they were coming with their whole stack. After two straight unsucessful blind steals with decent holdings, I try it once more UTG with A9s. Another push back, and I decide to call it this time hoping they had a baby A. Turned over 88, and I couldn't hit and was out. I dunno whats wrong with me. I'm extremely confident I can outplay most of my opponents post flop, so why the hell am I risking it to luck preflop?

I got to pickup my HOH vol 2 and reread it again, this time carefully. No point playing these tournies if I'm going to be a donk during the final table. I did get the new HOH vol 3 and the skylansky book in the mail yesterday. One day I'll get reading those. I think I still have about 5 unread books on my shelf.

Have my Lavalife Party Poker final today. Winner gets a trip to Turks & Caicos. Most likely will play for 2nd instead, plasma tv. Trip is cool, but not exactly high on my list of places to visit. Not worth taking vacation time against. Theres also the pocketfives FullTilt tourney. 25 added $200+15 seats for sundays $200k guaranteed. $20 tourney, pass is pocket5s. 8pm est. Will see how many people play before I decide if I want to play or not. Wanted to take Sunday off and read.

I must be a Toronto Maple Leaf fan

The more tournies I play, the more I believe I am the Toronto Maple Leafs of online poker tournaments. I can qualify for any tournament, but when it comes down to the big game, I choke. All that time and $ spent on the subsatellites and the main events gone to waste. Much like watching a season of Sopranos and viewing such a dreadful finale (?) as last night, but thats a different story.

My first tourney was a Poker Share $500 WSOP ME qualifier. Top 2 get seats to the main event, 3rd place gets $5k. Couldn't get into the game, widdled down to low levels, and got frustrated by some luck players who always hit his draw. JJ vs QQ, AKJ flop, this guy kept calling and calling and hit his river T. Ended up in 12th as a result of an impatient call of mine. 6 handed on 2 tables, I was 4th in chips but one of the lower stacks. We just kept firing allins. I held AT in the BB when one of the lower stacks fired another away. Its a call I don't usually make unless I'm a big stack. He turned over 77 and it was good enough. Went out next hand. So no more ME tournies on pokershare, that was the last of the added seats.

My 2nd tourney was the Titan $100k guaranteed. Like the pokershare tourney had no problems satelliting into this one with a $20 sng. Turbo like structures made it hard to play. After the first break the blinds were bigger here than my pokershare tourney which started an hr earlier! No real regrets other than a couple of failed bluffs. Went out with 88 vs KK vs QQ when I was down to 5M or so. Play was pretty weak in this tourney, I dunno if skill factors too much in it though. After the first break, any pot you get involved in pretty much results you in risking 20% of your stack.

With all these tournies my bankroll has remained pretty constant for the past few months now. I think after Feb I was on pace for double my target. Now I'll be happy to just reach it. I haven't played too many cash games lately. Oh well, after July I can forget about the wsop qualifiers and concentrate on making $ again. Taking Monday off from poker again. I think Monday will be permanant day off from Poker. Sometimes Thursday and Saturday as well.