$750k Guaranteed tournament

Entered a $750k Guaranteed Tournament on PartyPoker this afternoon (paid $378 for the buy-in). First place gets $150,000. I was doing ok until I tried to pull a semi-bluff (on a K high flush draw) on the flop by going all-in (heads up). The opponent immediately called. I hit my flush on the turn, but the river put out another diamond. My opponent’s holding AA. Ace of diamonds. Finished 682 place out of 1891.

While it’s disappointing to loseWeight Exercise in that fashion, I take comfort knowing that I’m improving as a player (can make good reads) , knowing when to chase (implied odds), knowing when you’re beat.

There’s a saying in tournament poker, “In order to live (win), you must be willing to die (lose).”

Chin up.

P.S. Merry Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, etc, everyone.

rollercoastin’

I’ve experienced some crazy swings in the last 10 days or so in Poker. Two Sunday’s ago, while multi-tabling $400 NL, I won over $2,600 chip and last Saturday, made another $1,800 chips. Then I lost $2,500 or so the last 4 days due to overly aggressive play (at least i’m still up overall for the past 2 weeks though). About $900 chips was the result of unfortunate events (the nut full house losing to quads) and set-over-set all-in situations. But the rest was due to inexcusable play.

One trend I’ve noticed is that it seems like every time I go to a home game (every month or so, about 10 of us meet up at a friend’s house to play poker for 6-10 hours), I play like crap afterwards. It’s probably because a lot of the players I play against there have unconventional styles which you don’t really see too often in online poker. So because I adjust my play to the table (home game)…and that carries over to online. Just have to remind myself to play extra tight after a home game.

I better hit the Lotto jackpot tonight…

my money’s on 21

***** Hand History for Game (?) *****
$400 NL Texas Hold’em – Tuesday, November 08, 06:04:42 EDT 2005
Table Table 64719 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 9

Seat 3: redmann39 ( $200.10 )

Seat 4: IAmShawshank ( $495.80 )

Seat 1: Hero ( $856.40 )

Seat 8: CaptnCanary ( $495 )

Seat 7: big_red10 ( $420.90 )

Seat 6: kiddrock ( $36.50 )

Seat 2: Cypressman ( $411.50 )

Seat 9: Suited_5_2 ( $377.30 )

Seat 5: gsg2005 ( $420.60 )

Suited_5_2 posts small blind [ $2 ].
Hero posts big blind [ $4 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
FOLD Cypressman
FOLD redmann39
FOLD IAmShawshank
FOLD gsg2005

CALL kiddrock, $4
CALL big_red10, $4
FOLD CaptnCanary
CALL Suited_5_2, $2
RAISE Hero , $21
FOLD kiddrock
CALL big_red10, $21

FOLD Suited_5_2

Flop:
[ ]
CHECK Hero
CHECK big_red10

Turn:
[ ]

CHECK Hero
CHECK big_red10

River:
[ ]
BET Hero , $45

RAISE big_red10, $150
RAISE Hero , $480
ALL-IN big_red10 [ $245.90 ]
Hero shows [ ] four of a kind aces .

big_red10 doesn’t show [ ] four of a kind, fives.
Hero wins $129.10 from side pot #1 with four of a kind aces .
Hero wins $846.80 from the main pot with four of a kind aces .

Operation $2,000 NL update

Lost a battalion of chips today (set over set, overplayed my top two pair, etc). Need to come up with a more sensible strategy on how to achieve my goal. I think I’ll first have my troops join forces (i.e., move my bankroll from the other sites over to the main one) and play multi-table $400 NL, $600 NL for first two weeks. Some $400 NL, $600 NL, and 1 $1,000 NL the next three weeks. I’m at least one month away from playing comfortably at $2,000 NL. Realistically, I probably should wait until January 1, 2006 to start playing $2,000 NL. The idea is that by then, I’ll have the bankroll to play at those stakes comfortably.

Part of becoming a good poker player is knowing when you’re beat. It’ll take some time, but I’ll get there.

Operation $2,000 No-Limit

After a hot streak of cards this week at mostly $400 NL (and some spatterings of $600 NL, $1,000 NL), I decided to take a stab at $2,000 NL (this entry should be in my pokerography.com blog, but that site’s not up yet). But what an adrenaline rush! Just the thought of potentially winning or losing $2000 on one hand (or more if you have > $2,000 and so does your opponent(s)) gets my blood pumpin’. After observing the play at the $2000 NL tables with those at the $400 NL, I feel that while the games are a bit tougher at the $2000 NL tables, I should fare well since I like my edge against the types of players. I hope that with the bigger chip ‘balance’, and the wider range of betting, this can help me more closely gauge what cards my opponents are holding.

I need to approach this with caution (as I’m reminded of my playing out of my bankroll back in Feb–jumped from $200 NL to $600 NL–that cost me $3,000 in one weekend! of course, back then, i didn’t really know what the hell I was doing). First on my list of things to do is to consolidate my bankroll at the other poker sites so that I’ll have the bankroll to play at these stakes, and of course, play my A game. Will probably start off single tabling $2000 NL or maybe multi-table $400, $600, and/or $1,000 for a week or so until I can increase my bankroll to give me more of a cushion. So far so good. After one session, I’m up $1,200 (would’ve been over $2,200 had I not lost to quads with Aces full of 3’s).