Must have jinxed myself with that stupid post last night. Today I lost 5 game in a row, the first of which was to someone who did not know the rules of Omaha/8. They understood the 2 cards from the hand part but had no concept of how the low works. Another game, I had a guy all in and he ended up hitting perfect runner runner to scoop the pot when he was on his way to getting nothing on the flop. Basically I had him dominated on the high and low and it came 3 and then 5 to make his 24 good for the wheel. Of course he then came back and won the tournament.
Right now I'm in that frame of mind that I was in while in San Diego where I am expecting horrible things to happen when I play. I finally managed to salvage my last game, so I'm going to stop on a positive note and play again later. It seems like whenever I am almost within reaching distance of a goal, I go on a nosedive. A couple of wins today would have put me at $4000 on Full Tilt, so I immediately lose 5 in a row and now I'm a long ways away from 4k again.
UPDATE: Just lost two more, both to people who were rated as "fish" on Sharkscope. On the last one the flop comes JJ3 giving me a boat. We get it all in, and I know he has the jack and will suckout with a higher boat. He shows JK4x and ends up hitting a king on the turn, and I'm finished. In the previous game the guy was raising the pot on 100% of hands pre flop, then betting the pot on the flop. I can never beat these maniacs. Finally after folding most my hands I got into a situation where I flopped top pair with a flush draw and decent low draw. He pots it, I re-pot it, and of course he re-pots it and I know he has absolutely nothing. He turns over a higher flush draw and a couple of overcards, with no low draw. He hits one of his over's on the turn and I don't make my low. End of story. So so bad!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Turnaround
Amazing what a difference a week makes. Ever since I've gotten back to SF I've been running super hot on FTP and have racked up over $400. I almost have my account up to $4000, which I've set as my next goal.
The heads up Omaha/8 tournaments have treated me really well as I've won something like 24 of my last 31. The competition seems really soft and I'm not taking sick beats every game like I was when I was in San Diego. I think my game has also improved since I was on that losing streak. I'm being more aggressive and not living in fear of getting sucked out on or check raised. It's amazing how you can run bad for a while and that totally changes elements of your game. For a while there I was afraid to bet with anything but the nuts because I was so sure I was beat or would get beat by the river.
I've also stopped playing late at night as for some reason it seems like the games are tougher at 1 AM in the morning than at other times. Afternoon and evening are good times to play, or least it seems that way lately.
Tonight I played a $24+$2 Stud/8 tournament and finished 10th out of 101 players for a pay out of $48.48. I've only played a couple of $10 stud/8 mtt's before so I was happy finishing in tenth. Very happy with how I played and just got really card dead at the end.
The heads up Omaha/8 tournaments have treated me really well as I've won something like 24 of my last 31. The competition seems really soft and I'm not taking sick beats every game like I was when I was in San Diego. I think my game has also improved since I was on that losing streak. I'm being more aggressive and not living in fear of getting sucked out on or check raised. It's amazing how you can run bad for a while and that totally changes elements of your game. For a while there I was afraid to bet with anything but the nuts because I was so sure I was beat or would get beat by the river.
I've also stopped playing late at night as for some reason it seems like the games are tougher at 1 AM in the morning than at other times. Afternoon and evening are good times to play, or least it seems that way lately.
Tonight I played a $24+$2 Stud/8 tournament and finished 10th out of 101 players for a pay out of $48.48. I've only played a couple of $10 stud/8 mtt's before so I was happy finishing in tenth. Very happy with how I played and just got really card dead at the end.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
The tournament...
Well I have to say that the pot limit Omaha 8 or better tournament last Sunday was a huge success. This was the one tournament I was really looking forward to the most on my trip, not only because I think it is my strongest game but also because I've never played one of these live before. It's very hard to find live tournaments that are anything but hold 'em nowadays. Anyway, the field was much bigger than I thought it was going to be. There were 389 total entrants and I managed to finish in 20th place. The tourny started at 4:00 PM and I think I was finally knocked out around midnight. The buy-in was $150 and my 20th place finish gave me $270. The $120 profit is hardly anything to get excited about but I was very happy to outlast 369 other people. When it finally got down to heads up the two remaining players ended up chopping it and took home about $10,000 each. Of course I would have loved to have made it that far, but I really can't complain.
As far as how I played, it's kinda funny in that I was so short stacked during most of the tournament that I hardly played at all. By the time the dinner break rolled around I was officially in "push mode," which I reach when I am at 10 large blinds or less. From then until I got knocked out about 4 hours later, my only decision was whether or not to pot it before the flop. From then on it was all pretty much up to luck as my hand either held up or it didn't. Fortunately, just about every time it ended up holding up and I didn't really take any bad beats. I don't think I ever pushed without a strong hand, something like A2xx or A3xx with a suited ace or a couple of big cards to go with it. On the hand I got knocked out on, I pushed with that kind of hand for all my chips and the guy had me dominated with a stronger hand, so I can't complain about how I got knocked out. It was gonna happen eventually, and I'm just amazed that I was able to stay alive for so long.
Looking back I can't really think of more than a few hands where I actually had to make post-flop decisions. That's pretty amazing for a tournament that I lasted about 8 hours in, but I was teetering on the edge for so much of the time that it just worked out that way. There was one point when we were down to about 30 that I took a huge pot and got my stacked up to about 30 big blinds, but before too long I was back down to short stacked again. I guess my only regret is that I was not more aggressive when I had those chips because that might have put me in a better position to go deeper, but at the same time I feel like my strategy of being patient and just waiting for strong hands paid off.
As far as how I played, it's kinda funny in that I was so short stacked during most of the tournament that I hardly played at all. By the time the dinner break rolled around I was officially in "push mode," which I reach when I am at 10 large blinds or less. From then until I got knocked out about 4 hours later, my only decision was whether or not to pot it before the flop. From then on it was all pretty much up to luck as my hand either held up or it didn't. Fortunately, just about every time it ended up holding up and I didn't really take any bad beats. I don't think I ever pushed without a strong hand, something like A2xx or A3xx with a suited ace or a couple of big cards to go with it. On the hand I got knocked out on, I pushed with that kind of hand for all my chips and the guy had me dominated with a stronger hand, so I can't complain about how I got knocked out. It was gonna happen eventually, and I'm just amazed that I was able to stay alive for so long.
Looking back I can't really think of more than a few hands where I actually had to make post-flop decisions. That's pretty amazing for a tournament that I lasted about 8 hours in, but I was teetering on the edge for so much of the time that it just worked out that way. There was one point when we were down to about 30 that I took a huge pot and got my stacked up to about 30 big blinds, but before too long I was back down to short stacked again. I guess my only regret is that I was not more aggressive when I had those chips because that might have put me in a better position to go deeper, but at the same time I feel like my strategy of being patient and just waiting for strong hands paid off.
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