Anatomy of Bad Discipline

So this is how you lose money FAST in poker. You can't lay down a measly pair of aces on that board with a raise, and reraise in front of you. I don't think any further commentary is necessary.

FTF Forum Table Part 2 - Incredible

So this is my best night of poker ever on the FTF. The whole gang was there. Even Will who actually told me "nh" from the railbird seat. Sly was running some mad game which he blames on me. He bluffed me out of my pocket T's with unpaired 5 2 0. Now that's some work right there. Of course, he just had to show that.

Hands of Note:

• 9 9: Ok, this is a dream scenario. I spot Pyrophoric with aces preflop... it's the one thing I seem to have a gift for. So I gladly, gladly, call with my pp9. And what do I get on the flop? That's right a gorgeous 9. But, I wimped out and didn't put him all in on any street. I got scared of the K on the flop and thought maybe he had trip K's. On the turn I was scared of the flush. I ended up betting on the river and calling his reraise, but I wimped out on putting him all in.
• TT v. 520: Pwned by SlySelea. Nuff said.
• JJ: Flop comes KQJ. CT goes all in. Thought about it, but it wasn't that tough of a call. He has pocket KQ. Catches a queen on the turn for top boat. Horrible beat. How bad you say? Well there were only 4 cards left in that deck that helped him. The 2 queens and the 2 kings. Anything else pops up and I win. What are my odds? 81.9%. They don't get much better than that. Damage. 50% of my then large stack.
• AA: Flop comes T J K. One raise (dekker) in front of me, then a reraise (fish). What did I do? You're right, I freaking pushed. Of course, they both had AQ. No extra q's sucked me out. Virge is not good enough to lay down AA in the most obvious situation. Damage: My stack.
• 5 7: Most interesting and well thought out play of the night. TTx on the flop. I had CT on big PP preflop, but I didn't know which one. This was so interesting that I posted it on the forum.

Players:

• BuckyMetro: Good to see him again.
• Pyrophonic: Back for more money it seems.
• SlySelea: Stepping up his game.
• CTharris: Mixing up his game. Very good to see him varying his preflop raises. .85 with TT I believe followed by $1.10 UTG with KQ.
• Dekker: Good solid game. Slowly working his way out of the tight aggressive category. As long as he keeps the aggressive I'm delighted to see it.
• Steeler: Still a dancing queen.
• @Ray: Not very happy tonight. Seems to be having trouble with winning it seems. Details.

Damage:

• At least two buys ins so far, but my favorite player, BoSox, is back for more.
• I'll update.

FTF Forum Table - 12/30

Hands of interest:

• K Q o: Made nut straight on the turn, bet pot, guy calls and gets his suckout flush on the river and I still called. Damage: 1 buy in.
• T 6 o: Put the guy a guy on an ace when he called my flop bet with a pair of 6's. 3 flush flop. Hit trip 6's on the turn. Bet pot, he calls. Blank on the turn and I put him all in. He calls with a pair of aces -queen kicker. Profit: His buy in.
• T 7 o: DB announced he was going all in since it was his last hand. He had rockets, I failed to suck out my 8 on the river to make the straight. I need to practice. Damage: 1 buy in

Interesting people:

• BoSoXfan71: Had quite a profitable night at the table. Played 65 hands to showdown. Most profitable: 98s, 43s, J2s, KTs... He was SOOOOOTTTED, and therefore unbeatable. In contrast his least profitable hands were, in order: Q7o, 86s, K7o, A7o, 96o, ATo, 98o. Mostly unsoooted, completely worthless. Everyone should take note.
• Pyrophonic: Has had a nice run at the FTF table and is profitable thanks to me, Cat, and Scabs. Cat had a bad beat, his rockets were cracked by trips, on the forum table, tell me it's not so. I posted a welcome message for him at the forum.
• FrankWu: Frank pwned me at the final table of the Winner's Choice Satellite on Saturday night, and won the token at the end. He ended up 29th in the $200 buy in Winner's Choice WSOP/WPT Tournament. He says he choked. How much does it take to choke a gecko anyway?

Forumers Present:

• IlliniFan: He really needs to update his blog.
• SlySelea: Incredible as always. He promised to come see my blog. I won't believe he actually did unless he posts a comment.
• Scabby: What can you say? I guess he needed to donate more to Pyrophonic.
• DLOOO: DLOOO saw my awful play when I failed to believe the suckout flush on the river. Embarrassing. I pm'd him about it.
• Steeler247: He did his best D-LUXE and Scabs on tilt impression by bouncing his queen self around the table while I was pwning someone heads up. Nice.

Summary:

• Buy-ins: 2
• Take: $51.05
• Profit: $1.05

Nice. I am well on my way.

Target Acquisition: Tournaments

I've learned to just trust my reads and be prepared to go all the way with them. If I'm wrong then I can analyze the heck out of myself later, but if you second guess yourself with 10 seconds to act and $1800 on the line with one click you're just going to hate yourself later.

This was one of those moments. I thought I could pwn this guy with any two cards. I really thought I was gone when I put him all in on the river, but my initial read amazingly turned out to be right. I really shouldn't have shown my beautiful 7 2 of spades afterwards, but I couldn't resist.

#352633408: Satellite to WC Tuesday (2181257), Table 1 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:57:56 ET - 2005/12/25
Seat 1: RoCo (1,485)
Seat 2: frankwu (2,325)
Seat 3: TNT MAN (1,770)
Seat 5: golfn27 (1,715)
Seat 7: renroh123 (1,915)
Seat 8: Virge (2,665)
Seat 9: troyteague (7,000)
troyteague posts the small blind of 25
RoCo posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Virge [7s 2s] [Monster hand]
frankwu folds
TNT MAN calls 50 [bingo]
golfn27 folds
renroh123 folds
Virge raises to 100
troyteague folds
RoCo calls 50
TNT MAN calls 50
*** FLOP *** [8c Kd Ad] [ain't that a beauty?]
RoCo checks
TNT MAN checks
Virge bets 200
RoCo foldsTNT MAN calls 200
*** TURN *** [8c Kd Ad] [9d] [heck yes, I have the flush now, and it's bigger than his flush I bet]
TNT MAN checks
Virge bets 500
TNT MAN calls 500
*** RIVER *** [8c Kd Ad 9d] [4c]
TNT MAN checks
Virge has 15 seconds left to act
Virge bets 1,350 [at this point I thought I was on my way out of the tournament]
TNT MAN folds [good lay down]
Uncalled bet of 1,350 returned to Virge
Virge shows [7s 2s] (Ace King high) [this was really, really unnecessary]
Virge wins the pot (1,725)

Guilty Pleasures

Ok, this is really hard for me to admit. I let poker get personal. I shouldn't have been playing tonight, but my nemesis Will was in the FTF room. He berates me every time I play. I should ignore it, but he either is really bothered by me or he's just playing good poker by knocking me off my game. So, I see him playing and I add just enough money so that I can take all of his. The night was pretty boring except for the silent presence of @ray for a little while. Then this little hand happened along...


Full Tilt Poker Game #359763583: Table FullTiltForum.com - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:15:43 ET - 2005/12/30

Seat 4: willw9 ($21.55) <--- will's stack
Seat 5: Virge ($23.65) (see that amount, it's just enough to take Will's stack)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Virge [Ac Tc] (blah hand, but I'll play it because I'm loose like that)

willw9 calls $0.25 (he's not really happy with this hand, but he'll play it, probably on the hope that I'll play too)

Virge raises to $0.75 (why do I raise with my blah hand? because that's my job)

willw9 calls $0.50 (will calls because it's me, and I could be raising with pp 2 or 7 2 o, he knows that)
*** FLOP *** [Td 6h 5c] (nice, no flush draw, I'm probably good with TPTK here, but i'm not positive)
willw9 checks
Virge bets $0.75
willw9 calls $0.75
*** TURN *** [Td 6h 5c] [Ts] (very nice)
willw9 checks
Virge has 15 seconds left to act
Virge bets $0.85 (ok, I bet because why? it's my job, but I don't wanna drive him out either just yet, maybe he'll take this as weakness and come after me)
willw9 raises to $4.85
Virge raises to $22.15, and is all in (y? because I'm gonna. And he's seen me pull this crap with 5 2 on a QJT board into the teeth of a made top set)
willw9 calls $15.20, and is all in (very nice)
Virge shows [Ac Tc]
willw9 shows [Th Qd] (outkicked, imagine that)
*** RIVER *** [Td 6h 5c Ts] [Ks]
Virge shows three of a kind, Tens
willw9 shows three of a kind, Tens
Virge wins the pot ($41.30) with three of a kind, Tens
willw9 is sitting out

Now the commentary afterwards...

Virge: ouch
1968dartgts: ouch
willw9: nh
Virge: ty
SlySelea: n1 virge
willw9: good night
willw9 stands up
SlySelea: night will
---- one non-interesting hand here ----
Virge: night will
Virge: did that just happen sly?
SlySelea: yes sir
---several non-interesting hands ensue---
Virge: i'm giddy
SlySelea: you can quicher snickering now (I love this guy)
SlySelea: lol
SlySelea is feeling happy
Virge: ok sly, I can't help it
Virge: i love playing with you and all
Virge: but you know that hand is the only reason I showed up
SlySelea: lol
SlySelea: i know
Virge: later sly
SlySelea: night virge

Poker Mail

Ok, I've received some really flattering emails in the last few days, and I don't know quite what to make of them. Apparently my style is a bit scary, but it's also scary for me. When I'm on, I'm just sick, but it's fragile. Cyclist call it being on the razor when they get their bodies in shape for a race, stay out on the razor too long and you're going get hurt. And I get hurt a lot, especially in cash games where I have no clue what I'm doing most of the time.

Ok, on to the mail (digest version):

Kevin Blackwood:
(after I came in 2nd in the 12/25/2005 Bodog 17.5K GTD)

Steven

Yes, that was me. I have recently been switching to poker from my primary field of expertise (blackjack) as I am going to be doing some writing in that subject.

You are a very solid player and was the main person I feared down the stretch. How did you end up?

I believe you said you were new to Bodog. They have some great overlays, particularly their 100K every Sunday.

KB

A fellow FTFer:

Hey man good to hear from you!I really enjoyed last night's tourney, it was a lotta fun. About my play, I like to play aggressive poker, and I like my bets to ask questions if you know what i mean. I enjoyed playing you too, it was great fun man, and you were def the person who gave me the most of a headache, and the person I wanted to tangle with least.

Alright, what am I to make of that?