Saturday, March 15, 2008

No Fucking Way

Ugh. If these sats were beyond a joke before then I really don't know what they are now. I made another FT of a Double Shootout tonight, making it 4 in the last 6 tournies. I'd trade any of those for a win on the second table of course, but it just doesn't want to happen. I got HU in this one and got my money in with 2 pair vrs a higher 2 pair.

I then made the FT of an $11 rebuy for the same $650 seat. I was only in for $33 and happy to make the FT, even if I was short. This was a regular speed tournie so we were quite deep by the time we got 4 handed. There was 2 seats up for grabs. I played pretty aggressively and was CL with and M of over 40 for quite a while. The shortish stack kept shoving quite deep over my SB raises and I was looking for a good spot to call. I finally picked up AQ, raised, he shoved and I call. He flips A8 and promptly flops an 8 and leaves me 4/4 and desperate to get back in it. I finally bust after shoving 44 into 77. If win the hand we're 3 handed with 2 seats and I'm a decent chip leader.

These are really starting to piss me off now. I have come so close so many times and like I said in my earlier post I'm giving up value in other games I could be playing instead of trying to build a roll for the WSOP sats. I'm actually up about $150 from playing all these sats from all the $80's and $60's that I have won from bubbling, which is pretty funny.

I didn't play the direct WSOP sat as I played live tonight. Got nothing going there but it was just fun tournie I play with a few friends who don't play too seriously.

Off on holiday for a week now so no poker until I return. Let's hope I can pick up some momentum when I get back. One thing is for sure though, I have already worked harder to win a WSOP seat this year than I did to win either of the two I won last year.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Double Shootout Sickness

The $16 Double Shootouts to he $650 WSOP sat are getting beyond a joke now. I made another FT today (3rd in a row) and was shoving light a lot with 6 left and a stack around 1200 to 1800. I pick up the blinds twice in an orbit and get dealt KK in the BB. UTG opens for 600 and I shove for 1700.

UTG calls with 99 and the board runs out T2JQK. So sick. With how bad I'm running in these can I at least win an 80/20? That pot wold have seen me in great shape and this one paid 2 seats as it was nealry full.

I'm free tomorrow night so I might just buy in direct to the WSOP sat. I don't really want to waste too much time playing these to increase my value when I'm missing out on games where my hourly is much higher. Plus they are now tilting the shit outta me.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

FU DS

So I seem to be running pretty much normal in everything now except the bloody $16 turbo Double Shootouts to the $650 WSOP sat. I think I have made FT's in about 8 or 9 of them now to no avail. I have been playing/running well on the first tables but just never seem to be able to get anything going on the second.

Even though I promised myself I wouldn't waste too much time with the steps tournies I have managed to run up a couple of entries to the $215 level from the $27's. There are a few decent players going through them, but on the whole the play is pretty soft, even in the $82's.

I'm going to Egypt for a week in a few days, so hopefully I can turn things around when I get back. Having this trip coming up has calmed me down a bit this week. I have booked a five star all inclusive break for myself and my girlfriend courtesy of some of my poker winnings from last year. Knowing that I could pay for that holiday without putting too much of a dent in my bankroll helps keep me focused on playing well and getting back to the other side of the variance I'm experiencing at the moment.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Running Worse Than Judas

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So yeah, I'm running bad. I can't remember ever running as bad as this. I'm just going through one of those stages where I can't seem to win an 80/20, let alone a flip.

I have now made 4 final tables in $650 satellites since my last post, and managed to come 4th in one that paid 3 seats, 9th on one that paid 6 seats, and I came 8th in two of the double shootouts that paid just the one seat.

Last night at $400 NL I had AA < KK then the very next hand I lost with KK on a K29 rainbow board against AA.

I'm repeatedly shoving hands like AQ or TT into AA/KK and repeatedly getting sucked out on when people shove junk into my monsters.

This has never really happened when I have been running bad before, but I think it's starting to effect my play. It's early Friday night and I was about to settle in for a poker filled weekend. Instead I'm going to take a break until at least Sunday night and go party for the weekend.

Edit: Someone told me not to forget that I MINIMUM CASHED the $55 on Stars last night. Fucking great.

Monday, March 03, 2008

WSOP Sat Time!

At last Stars have started their WSOP sats. I don't have as much time as I would like over the next couple of months, but I'm going to do my best to qualify playing from the lower buy-in super sats upwards.

I got off to an awful start tonight - I played 10 of the $27 Step 2's and only advanced in one. Luckily I managed to run that up to a $215 ticket for a step 4 which I'll probably play tomorrow. In this set of 10 I lost to runner runner quads and 3 other hands where my opponent had less than 4 outs, all in spots which would have seen me either in great shape, or busting someone to win the seat.

My luck improved a little in a $16 DS to the $650 I played later. I made the FT but busted after an AQ shove OTT of a LP raiser was called by JT and the obvious T on the flop followed by blanks saw me down to 300 chips.

So a slightly frustrating start, but all the sats I played tonight were pretty soft. The $82 step was reallly tight, even late on, possibly as a result of a few players working their way up.

I think I'm going to try mainly to qualify for the weekly $650 on Stars and try not to waste too much time on the Steps tournies. The $27 rebuys were pretty good for building a W$ roll last year, so I'll be playing those again alongside the $16 DS's and maybe some of the direct qualifier $215's if I manage to win a few seats to the $650's

The sats on Party also look pretty soft. I bubbled one of the $65 sats to thier weekly direct qualifier, but the play was crazy bad on the bubble, and those certainly very exploitable even if they don't run too often.

I also might look into the bracelet race tournies on FTP if they do those again, but I'd prefer not to use too much of my BR to get over to Vegas from the UK, which makes the Stars $2.5k in expenses look like great value.