Heads Up and Down

When you dance and you have to take the lead or you're lost.

I have been playing mostly Heads Up Tourneys and it has been great, meaning in lessons of how to play just ok in the profit range. I like concentrating on just one player and their tendencies and try to exploit it. Right now I am playing between $2 and $10 over on FullTilt and have a small profit to show for it. I start off good playing O/8 then hit a bad batch over the weekend but I earned it all back playing Hold'em. I have been mixing it up with No Limit and Pot Limit. I am kind of getting fond of pot limit for these heads up matches I like the fact that it takes time to build the pot and you just don't have to be a push monkey. The one thing that I have notice, and maybe it's because it low limit, but most of the players don't raise enough on the button and really play hands that are a bit to predictable. Pocket pairs, Ace anything and two paint suited or not just don't happen enough and you must open up your range of hands that you are willing to play. Looking over my PokerTracker stats I noticed that I haven't gotten to many playable hands but I have won more then I have lost and that means I am doing something right.

O/8 is a different story. I have found limping in and only raising with the best hands have worked well. The only reason I have not done any better over this weekend is that I second guessed my gut. I was almost always right with my first impression each time win or lose. I have to remember that the goal of O/8 is to scoop and if I can't be drawing to the nuts one way or the other then I have to give it up to pressure. I just have to go with my gut in this game and remember it's a Omaha High or split is a game of redraws and just because you flop the nuts doesn't always mean you are the favorite.

Another thing about these HU matches is that you can win or lose in one hand and I did just that on two occasions. The one I lost I was the clear favorite when the chips went in but I died at the river and the one I won I couldn't find any reason that he called other he really had to go to the bathroom and for got to buy the Depends so he could just soil himself. It's the yin and yang that is my reality.

If the Wall won't Fall Go around it...

Why can something work so well one place but seem to be such a challenge somewhere else? That is the question that I am asking myself these days.

I have been chronicling my exploits at rebuilding my bankroll over on PokerStars in a couple of entries here. I started with $100 and played .25/.50 O8 until I double up my bankroll. I have been successful even in the limited time that I have had to play. I have moved up a level and have only been able to play one night there because when I have time to play I seem to always get to the tables when there are already 4 people on the wait list. Who knew .50/1.00 was so popular. So I figure my FullTilt account could use a injection of cash so lets try this over there. Even though I have a bit more cash in that account I thought I would do the same thing and start with the .25/.50 and build it up till I made a hundred more. Sounds sane now doesn't it.

I have been doing this for a week now and I have made some initial progress and then I hit the most incredible wall. I would flop the nuts for the low only to get counterfeited on the river more times then I can count. I would hit the nuts for the high and a scoop and the board would pair and I would lose to the most improbable full house. I have a love hate relationship with FullTilt the ring games have never seemed kind to me but I have a a +EV at the sitn'gos there. I know we should do what we do best at and maybe it's just that I like the challenge of these games but for some reason, that I assume a psychologist could get to the bottom of, I still play because I do believe I can beat it . I feel that if I can beat these games at a certain level on one site I should be able to beat them on another. I was playing on Monday night and wasn't going anywhere so I sat down at some HU sit'ngos and totally ruled and recouped some of my losses from earlier. Then for some reason last night I didn't do that again, no I needed to grind it out at the O/8 table and the bad beats and never getting there continued. There just seems to be this immovable force for me at the ring games at this site that I can't seem to move. I have a way around it but something inside of me just wants the satisfaction of figuring out how to knock it down. I guess it's just my stubborn nature that has gotten me in this mess just like it has in other areas of my life. I just have to face up to it and admit that the time has come to try it a different way, in poker and in life.

More is Always Better

A win is a win is a win. No matter how you cut it, more is always better and I don't care how small it is. I finally had time to sit down at a O/8 table at the next level and my only gaol for the night was to post a win. I only won a $1.35 but it was worth it and I have step off in the right direction. I take whatever I can get. I hope to post much more on the positive side soon.

Till next time Goodnight and Good Luck!

Movin' on Up...

Movin' on up to the next level. My patience has paid off and I will be raising the stakes in my O/8 game. I started with a goal a while ago and half of it was to rebuild my bankroll on PokerStars and half of it was to see if I could stick to a plan. It was to basically to double up my roll and not to move up a level until I achieved that goal. Well I this mission has been completed and I am ready to set off on the next one. As soon as I have decide what the goal is for the next level I will post it here but more importantly if I start to run bad when will I drop back down a level? That is really the question and I throw it out there, should it be a percentage of my roll or a simple monetary level? I will sleep on it tonight and face the next level tomorrow night.

Not a Post

This is not a post because every time I have posted about how good I have been running I have taken a nose dive. I will not post about the fact that I am just a couple of dollars away from my O/8 goal on Pokerstars or that I have been very disciplined and not jump up a level yet. I also will not post about the fact that I have done some great hit and runs on FullTilt to rebuild that bankroll there or that I have been very happy with my play even when I have taken a hit. I repeat this is not a post, this is not a post, poker gods hear me now THIS IS NOT A POST!!!!

Hopeful Fool

I posted this in response to a post by Otis over on Up for Poker about his concern with the next generation and what that means to all of us in general and also what it means to the poker world:

"I work for a local YMCA and deal with kids of all ages and some days I worry. I worry because I also get to know the parents and I realize it is more than the next generation, it's every one. It's the level of entitlement that concerns me most.

I also get to meet some great kids that I actually enjoy their company and am happy to have made their acquaintance and seen them grow in to decent young adults. They are out there and it gives me hope, it keeps me coming back to work every day."

There are good and bad people in any field of work and you can become an angry old man and shake you fist at the young whippersnappers out there and dream of days gone past when everyone tip their hats and said good day to you as they past you on the street. Then again you can realize that there has been assholes in every generation that will do whatever they need to to further their cause good, bad or other. What does concern me is this sense that they deserve it just because they want it. I have kids come up to me at work and ask me for a dollar so the can get a snack from the vending machine. This isn't because they are poor, it's just because they want it and want it now and when I tell them to get over it I am the one in the wrong because I didn't just give them what they wanted. This is just one of the hundred of examples of what I encounter. Then I meet the parents of these kids and it all becomes very clear. I could get into the sociology and psychology of all this, I am sure there are others out there who can explain it better than me, but my theory has to do with the Boomer generation, infertility treatments, nannies and McMansions (but that is post for another day).

I also have met some amazing kids that I have had the honor of seeing growing into very nice young adults. It gives me hope and if I really think about it there are more of them out there. They go unnoticed because they don't need the attention, they're getting it elsewhere and in a positive way. We all do focus on the negative because it is usually the most obvious but we all should take the time and give the attention that the good deserves.

In poker you have to have a certain amount of arrogance to be successful at the tables. You have to, at some point, make people believe that you are better than them. There is a way to do that with respect and dignity that allows players you have felted retain some self respect and have them still want to play with you because you are a decent person not because they want to seek revenge. I tend to give respect to people at the table and away from the table that don't ask or demand but deserve. Every person deserves a certain level of respect until they prove otherwise. Even if someone doesn't deserve respect I tend to be the type that will give them more than they deserve and that is what being a decent human being,even when you are surrounded by a bunch of animals, is all about.

We can all feel that there is no hope for all of us because the next generation doesn't understand what it is all about. This has been going on as long as there has been more than one generation on this planet. What really disturbs me is seeing grow adults acting this way. I feel most of this "me" attitude goes away what with age but the ones that still persist into middle age scare me the most. We all went through fazes in life that we can look back at an say we were assholes and it's the fact that we can is a sign that we have grown and learned what was needed. I think most of these young guns that are at the table disrespecting the game and the people that play it will go away, go broke or give up. Some will learn and be complaining about the young guys coming up a decade after them. Then again some will be successful and become Phil Hellmuth and will be booed when after winning a record setting 11 bracelets at the WSOP. Just like there is only one Hellmuth out there and many other players that give and receive respect, there are more regular people out there that are give more than don't. So I guess I may be perceived as a hopeful fool but so be it I can live with it and it allows me to face each day instead of becoming a hermit living in a cave.

Still Waiting...

So close and yet so far still. That goal I have set for myself over on Pokerstars to rebuild my bankroll seems to have hit a plateau. I had a couple of bad runs in the last weeks and made up for it last night. I have been playing Omaha8 and I looked over an old spread sheet I had to track my play online before I purchased PokerTracker. It looks like I deposited about $250 in the account when I started and right now I am down about $60 which is great because a one point I was down more than half. I know that I am not talking about thousand even hundreds of dollars but it is all relative. I have been very careful not to deposit anymore than I'm able to afford to lose, but the fact of the matter is that I hate to lose. I don't care if I am playing .05/.10 or 2/4 I always want to walk away with more then I came to the table with. What does all of this have to do with waiting for anything, well I have been playing O/8 exclusively there, meaning that is the only game I will play on that sight. I have been playing at the .25/.50 level and I had been down to less than $100 and I have turn that around to about $190 as of last night. I am waiting to hit $200 before I move up to the next level, I am making that statement publicly and I will not go back on it. I will also go back down a level if my bankroll hits $150. There I have put it out there and I ask you all to keep me honest and and make sure that I stick to the plan. I have moved up too fast before and have suffered the consequences. Now my sitn'go challenge over on FullTilt that I started a while ago is still on track I just have been concentrating on other games and haven't really put in much time on that but I am still have a positive ROI on those. Further updates to follow.