Pobody's Nerfect

I Run GOOOOOD

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:29:00 +0000

*********** # 9 **************
PokerStars Game #35063072883: Tournament #209010926, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2009/11/07 21:12:41 CT [2009/11/07 22:12:41 ET]
Table '209010926 145' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: thag (10005 in chips)
Seat 2: traktor1960 (17070 in chips)
Seat 3: gladiator557 (11730 in chips)
Seat 4: 123BadBeatMe (41430 in chips)
Seat 5: $$JADBANEZ$$ (13575 in chips)
Seat 6: larrygibbs (35150 in chips)
Seat 7: Peanut NZ (10410 in chips)
Seat 8: BDMizzle (27537 in chips)
Seat 9: MattJBryant (21205 in chips)
thag: posts the ante 100
traktor1960: posts the ante 100
gladiator557: posts the ante 100
123BadBeatMe: posts the ante 100
$$JADBANEZ$$: posts the ante 100
larrygibbs: posts the ante 100
Peanut NZ: posts the ante 100
BDMizzle: posts the ante 100
MattJBryant: posts the ante 100
MattJBryant: posts small blind 500
thag: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MattJBryant [Ac 4s]
traktor1960: folds
gladiator557: folds
123BadBeatMe: folds
$$JADBANEZ$$: calls 1000
larrygibbs: folds
Peanut NZ: folds
BDMizzle: folds
MattJBryant: calls 500
thag: checks
*** FLOP *** [As 8d 9h]
MattJBryant: checks
thag: checks
$$JADBANEZ$$: checks
*** TURN *** [As 8d 9h] [4d]
MattJBryant: bets 5000
thag: raises 3905 to 8905 and is all-in
$$JADBANEZ$$: folds
MattJBryant: calls 3905
*** RIVER *** [As 8d 9h 4d] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MattJBryant: shows [Ac 4s] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
thag: shows [4c 9d] (a full house, Nines full of Fours)
thag collected 21710 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21710 | Rake 0
Board [As 8d 9h 4d 9s]
Seat 1: thag (big blind) showed [4c 9d] and won (21710) with a full house, Nines full of Fours
Seat 2: traktor1960 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: gladiator557 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: 123BadBeatMe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: $$JADBANEZ$$ folded on the Turn
Seat 6: larrygibbs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Peanut NZ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: BDMizzle (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: MattJBryant (small blind) showed [Ac 4s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines

Sticking With Your Read

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Is poker all about math? Is poker all about feel? Position? Your cards? Your opponent?

I could go on and on.....

I wanted to talk a little about feel. I think I'm more of a feel player than a math player(I'm not saying this is the better way to be). I will review a hand from the Full Tilt 50-50 tournament I managed to squeak my way through. I'll try to set-up this hand just a little:

At the moment, I have never used PokerTracker. I'm not apposed to it. Actually, I plan to use it in the future when I plan to give online poker a legitimate run. But I have no stats on the "villain" in this hand. What I can tell you, is that this hand is played early at the final table. I don't have much prior history with him/her. I start this hand 4th in chips.

A EP/MP player min-raises. I'm in the small blind. First off, with the antes and blinds in there.. when I'm in the BB, I'm calling a min-raise with almost everything. But this hand I'm in the SB, so it makes it a little tougher. I'm not saying this is a proper call or not out of position. I am getting 3-1 to call. Can't imagine letting this guy get away with this lol. My Jc9c is more than good enough for me. I call.

Flop comes down 2c Th Qs.

I could choose to bet here. I flopped an open-ended straight draw. He only has 127k left. I don't feel like leading out and get reraised all-in. But if I check-shove here, he pretty much has to call with anything with the odds he'd be getting. I decide to check. He checks behind. With the check behind, it seems very weak or very strong. You have to take into account that we're at a final table with some nice paydays for a $55 buy-in. If this were the beginning or middle of the tournament, he could easily fire a c-bet here. But a c-bet would be committing a lot of chips into this pot with nothing. I'm not saying a c-bet would be totally bad, but it takes a lot to pull that trigger at this stage of the tournament. At this point I'm putting him on AK/AJ.. or maybe 77, 88, or 99.

Turn is the 9s. Not a bad card at all. Unless of course he had that 99 I was talking about. I think he c-bets KJ on the flop and don't think he raises preflop with J8 or 78. So a straight is out of the question. I decide to fire a smallish bet here. 40k into a 73,500 pot. And he decides to call. Now I'm almost banking on AK-AJ. If he had a set, 2 pair, etc. I think he pushes here. The board is getting pretty draw heavy.

The river is the 3c. A basic air ball. I elect to check. I think I have him here. But I'm also not too crazy about my 1 pair of 9's. Then.. he ships it! 85,900! Whoaa WTF?! I basically instacalled.

Let's try to make sense of anything other than a bluff? Does he really have the balls to shove the river for value with A-10, A-9? Unlikely. With the stacks in this hand, it just seemed to me that he would push any hand on the turn that he wanted to make money with. And I basically made up my mind on this when he called the turn bet. I could have still folded here and have 170k. I could have called and been wrong and have 84,872. Or.. I could called and been right and have over 400k and be the chipleader of the tourney with 8 players left. When I analyze the hand out loud, the call seems a little easier, but when you're sitting at the final table of a 950+ player tourney, and you have to call a large bet on the river with 3rd pair, decent kicker.. it's not a spot I like to be in. Well I STUCK WITH MY READ, and called. He showed A-J for Ace high. Nice.

Not only am I the current chipleader, but I'm filled with confidence. Which is another positive side to making a good call. A few players wrote things in the chat box, like "Wow, good call." & things of that sort. Which blew my head up even more.

Long story short, I went on to win the tournament. A few times in short-handed play, I raised with small/mid pairs and then folded to a shove because I didn't want a flip(this may have not have mathmatically been the correct play). I just wanted a better spot. I ended up getting fortunate to be on the good side of some great flops/boards. And took down 1st place. As your teacher used to tell you in class, stick with your first instinct(usually).

Till next time, good luck!!

******************** # 444 ***********************

FullTiltPoker Game #9725386425: The Fifty-Fifty (72907090), Table 71 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:33:27 ET - 2008/12/28

Seat 1: spide11 (354,015)
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (234,772)
Seat 3: MONGOJONGO (155,663)
Seat 4: Root9 (178,195)
Seat 5: kidrael (134,149)
Seat 6: DeuceCourt (151,400)
Seat 7: martand (183,763)
Seat 8: netao (247,928)
Seat 9: 1whoLiesBest (268,115)
spide11 antes 1,500
Matt J Bryant antes 1,500
MONGOJONGO antes 1,500
Root9 antes 1,500
kidrael antes 1,500
DeuceCourt antes 1,500
martand antes 1,500
netao antes 1,500
1whoLiesBest antes 1,500
Matt J Bryant posts the small blind of 6,000
MONGOJONGO posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Matt J Bryant [9c Jc]
Root9 folds
kidrael folds
DeuceCourt has 15 seconds left to act
DeuceCourt raises to 24,000
martand folds
netao folds
1whoLiesBest folds
spide11 folds
Matt J Bryant calls 18,000
MONGOJONGO folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Th Qs]
Matt J Bryant checks
DeuceCourt checks
*** TURN *** [2c Th Qs] [9s]
Matt J Bryant bets 40,000
DeuceCourt calls 40,000
*** RIVER *** [2c Th Qs 9s] [3c]
Matt J Bryant checks
DeuceCourt bets 85,900, and is all in
Matt J Bryant calls 85,900
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DeuceCourt shows [Ac Js] Ace Queen high
Matt J Bryant shows [9c Jc] a pair of Nines
Matt J Bryant wins the pot (325,300) with a pair of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 57s
Total pot 325,300 Rake 0
Board: [2c Th Qs 9s 3c]
Seat 1: spide11 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Matt J Bryant (small blind) showed [9c Jc] and won (325,300) with a pair of Nines
Seat 3: MONGOJONGO (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Root9 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: kidrael folded before the Flop
Seat 6: DeuceCourt showed [Ac Js] and lost with Ace Queen high
Seat 7: martand folded before the Flop
Seat 8: netao folded before the Flop
Seat 9: 1whoLiesBest folded before the Flop

NFL Week 1 Picks reviewed.. & Week 2 picks!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:06:00 +0000

Hello all. I went 2-1 on the picks I posted last week. I was about 3 yards from going 3-0. Hines Ward is about to score at the end of regulation, but instead gets stripped and loses the fumble at about the 3 or 4 yard line. Steelers kick a FG on first down in OT to win by 3. So they didn't cover.

My other two picks covered nicely. Falcons were a 4.5 point favorite and won by 12. And the Vikings were a 4.5 favorite and won by 14. BTW I try to bet at the beginning of the week so those lines may have moved before game time on Sunday.

So now.. HERE ARE MY WEEK 2 NFL PICKS!!

First, New England Patriots(-4) @ New York Jets

I won my "pick of the week" last week. And here is my pick of the week this week. I understand that the Pats barely SQUEAKED by the terrible Bills last week. And I'm also aware that the Jets put a beating on the Texans. But I think both of those performances were not true to how good/bad these teams are. What did impress me, was Randy Moss and Wes Welker each caught 12 balls. That's only been done once before in NFL history(Keyshawn and Dunn). I don't think they'll do it again. But Tom Brady is Tom Brady. The last 10 games that the Patriots have played the Jets in New York, The Pats are 10-0 Against the Spread. The Patriots offensive line was iffy last week and it took Brady a while to get back into the groove of things after missing almost all of 2008. But he still ended up with 378 yards passing? The Jets held Schaub in check, but can the 2008's 4th worse pass defense hold Brady in check? I'm betting not.
I'm taking the Pat's -4.

Game 2. The Indianapolis Colts(-4) @ Dolphins

On a side note, I was looking at this game Monday night.. And I really liked it at Colts(-3). I keep the internet explorer up, go take a 10-minute shit.. I get back.. and the line is at -4. Unbelievable lol. What a difference a point can make?!
Anyway, The Colts are another team that sneaked by an opponent in week 1, beating Jacksonville by only 1. This next game has more to do about how I feel about Miami. As I said in my last post when I bet against Miami, I feel like Miami over achieved last year going 11-5. This year they will struggle. And Peyton Manning is a pretty strong guy to try to make a statement against. Anthony Gonzales is banged up, and I don't care for that. But I think Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and the boys should get it done. Peyton can make anyone good enough. The Colts looked ugly but still got it done, especially on defense. They held Jacksonville to 122 yards passing, and held Maurice Jones-Drew under 100 yards rushing. While Manning managed to throw for over 300 yards. Wayne being the main beneficiary. Like I said, Miami is a 2009 bust in my prediction, and the Colts are still... well... the Colts.
I'm taking the Colts(-4).

Last but not least the Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans(-7)

First, I should apologize to the Titans for what I said about them last week. I watched(in disgust) the Titans/Steelers game from the Beau Rivage Poker Room. The Titans impressed me. Kerry Collins looked pretty stable. And Chris Johnson only ran for 57 yards, but only had 15 carries(3.9ypc). But he impressed me some. He looked good. And I think he and L.White can give the Texans some trouble. Thomas(former Bear) Jones gave they trouble last week rushing for 107 yards on only 20 carries and 2 TD's. The Texans defense was 27th in 2008, and showed nothing in week 1 to prove different. In week 1, the Texans only mustered 183 TOTAL NET YARDS, while letting the Rookie Sanchez and the Jets come up with 462. And the Texans offense face a tough Titans D this week. Tennessee is 12-3 Against the spread in their last 15 games within the AFC South. Add up the Titans average offense and great defense v.s. the Texans just overall struggle.... and I've got the Titans covering.

Well there's my picks. Let's see what we can do!
Last week: 2-1
Overall: 2-1

ScReWeD uP pOstS!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:22:00 +0000

Ok. Sorry to anyone who reads my blog. Apparently you can't send a long post via text message to your blog. I tried to text one long entry to blogger.com. I realize now that it posted it in 14 different small messages, and left out some content all together. So here, I will piece together everything and also talk about my 2/5NLHE session after my tourney.

I came to Biloxi with Joe & Davey to play Event #10.. $340 NLHE. Bad Idea. I went bust in the 5th level. Seems like it may have been impossible to win today for me. Anytime I caught anything that resembled a hand(or bet without a hand), I got played back at big time.

In one of the first 5 hands of the tournament, 3 people limp to my BB. I look at AcQc. I raise to 250.. Everyone calls.. Flop comes down A-J-9, two spades. I bet out 400.. Mitch from Shortys(who is pretty straight-forward in my opinion) raises. Another player behind calls. Uggh I see what kind of day this is gonna be.. I would usually take a different route, but I can't think of a hand that Mitch can have that doesn't have me beat.. Except for possibly a straight & flush draw hand.. I mucked.. the turn was a 9 and the river was a spade.. No showdown but don't think I could win.

My table was nuts! 25-50 blinds and everyone is raising to like 600 preflop.. It was stupid.. When everyone else in the tourney was playing 50-100, we were basically playing 1000-2000. Which wouldn't be a problem if I caught a few monsters. But Not likely.

I lost a nice amount on one hand when I raised PF with KdQd and got a couple of callers.. I got one caller on the turn on a K-J-10-3 board. River 10.. And he value bets. I pay him off.. He shows Q-10.. F*+^ing 2-outed.

Then I lay down QQ on a 9-high flop. A tight player raises from EP/MP(this is one of the only guys with his head screwed on straight). I have QQ. I elect to just call.. The Maniac in the SB calls also. The flop comes down 9-high and harmless.. The maniac decides to lead out a nice overbet.. His patent move.. I'm praying the PFR folds and I'll pop it. No.. PRF raises to 6k.. Mind you we are at like 100-200. The PFR raised to 6k.. leaving himself not much left. I only have a little over 7k. Shit. Only hands I can beat are 10-10 & J-J. I "tank" for a while.. Then finally decide to wait for a better spot and muck. Really think the PFR had KK or AA.. Who knows.. In my mind he can only have 5 hands. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, or 99(and the odd chance he has QQ also). I think he limps with any other pair. And doesn't play it that strong post flop. I can beat 2 of those 5 hands.. Gross, but I muck

At the 25/50 or 50/100 level, I saw a 19k pot. Set of queens v.s. a pair of kings, 9 kicker. REALLY?! Basically, a standard guy raises preflop, guy behind him calls.. Flop KQ2.. they end up getting it all in?? No real draw for K9.. just top pair.. Wow.. It wasn't an "I'll try to get you off your hand" play by the pair if kings.. It was a "I have top pair, and I'm not folding" play.

Ok don't want to waste too much of my phone battery writing this, as I am writing this on my iPhone while waiting on a cash game seat... But I want to quickly share this one hand I wasn't envolved in on our mentally challenged table.. Blinds are 25-50..
Guy raises to 600(that's correct, 600).
Gets one caller out of the BB. The Maniac...
Flop comes down 8-6-3.
Maniac checks,
PFR bets 2k!
Maniac calls..
Turn is a 7..
Maniac checks
PFR bets 4k!
Maniac calls..
River is a 9.
Maniac shoves in.
PFR calls..
Maniac shows 56o for a backdoor straight.
PFR shows JJ for a pair of jacks.
These morons are fearless.. Firing a ton of chip.. at 25-50?!? While every other table was playing skillful deepstack poker.. We were playing kamikaze BS. Now I'm pulling for Davey and Joe.. Till next time.. GL

Ok. Now for a recap of my 2/5NLHE session at the Beau after I busted from the tourney. A pretty good session overall. I won $630 playing cash. Winning $290 on the day. For a while, I didn't get too involved. But players could tell that I wasn't exactly a nit. I raised to $30 preflop with 56o and ended up flopping a pair and backdooring a straight. I won that pot to get me to about even(I bought in for $800 btw. The table was pretty deep. As it usually is at the Beau. Especially during WPT time).

Not long after that hand, I hit the monster. It folds around to the button(who I pegged as one of the worse players at the table). He raises to $15. I'm in the SB with J-9o. I usually fold here and let him have it. But I'm looking to "mix it up" with this guy. Also, the BB is a bit of a station, and I wouldn't mind if he joined it. In which he did. Flop comes down Q-10-4. I check.. BB decides to bet $50 The button looks like he might raise. I'm hoping not. I'm open-ended and would love to see the turn for $50 against these two. The button then calls. Nice. I call.. turn.. the beautiful K. I would have preferred an 8.. but hey, I'll take it. I check. BB bets $120 or $150. The button mucks.. have to decide how to play this. I have $795 total in my stack. I decide to go with the min-raise. I raise to $300. Leaving myself $495 and he has me covered. He calls quickly. Ok.. COME ON BRICK.. I think there was a backdoor club draw here. But it doesn't get there 6 of spades on the river. Now what to do. I'm not checking.. but what do I bet? Do I go for value and bet $300 or so? Or do I shove my remaining $495? I like the latter. I shove in. He calls. I'm good. SWEET! Ship that $1,785 my way.

After that, I didn't catch too many hands to make money. Just gave a little back. I played the tourney on Sept. 4th for 12.5 hours.. Never caught aces. I played 5 levels of the tourney this day, never caught aces. Now I've been playing cash for a few hours, no pocket aces. FINALLY, I catch them.. flop a set.. and proceed to lose lol. A guy in EP raises preflop to $30 or so. It folds all the way to me in the SB. I have 2 red aces. Only the BB is left to act behind me. I just call. To my surprise, the BB calls. 3 way to the flop of A-K-10. Not bad.. I check... BB checks.. PFR checks.. damn... Turn is garbage.. I bet $60.. and both call.. River is a jack.. Great.. a queen now makes a straight. But that doesn't necessarily mean somebody has one. I decide to make the same bet, $60. The BB min-raises to $120. Great, there's your queen. Then the PFR moves all-in. You shitting me? There's your queenS. I muck.. BB calls. They chop it up with a queen. BB has Q-10o and PFR has QQ. When they called my turn bet, I was up against 2 opponents with 4 outs total. And they got there lol. Oh well.

Later, I caught AA and played it differently. I am not a big fan of the limp reraise with AA/KK from EP. But I also don't think you should play a hand the same way every single time. So I decide to limp with AA from EP.. A player 3 to my left(The guy who had QQ in the previously mentioned hand) grabs a few chips like he is going to raise(nice) and decides to limp. Then only the blinds tag along. Oh well. The flop comes 5-3-3. Long story short. I bet every street and the limper called and tabled 3h4h at the end for trips. The pot wasn't very large. I think I bet $15, $30, $50 on the streets. The board stayed pretty low. And after I saw him almost raise preflop, I put him on 77-JJ. All I can say is THANK GOD he didn't make it $30 to go. Because I think the blinds fold. Then I probably just call, disguising my hand. And he flops trips with those rags and I never see it coming. I would have lost a much bigger pot.

I lost a bit when the entire table folds and the button limps.. SB completes and I check my BB with QJ.. Flop comes down K-10-9. 2 diamonds. The Nuts. Check to me. I bet $15. Button calls.. SB folds. Turn pairs the board 9's. I bet $30. Button calls. The river double-pairs the board 9-9-10-10-K. I now check and the button bets $100. Good Lord. What a hand. The button was probably one of the most active players at the table, and definitely capable of a bluff here. He could have had 2 diamonds and missed. A straight draw and missed. I contemplated a hero call here for a second. But decided against it. It cost me $100 to win $205.. Not exactly odds I like when I have to call with a straight on a double-paired board. On to the next hand.

The only hand left worth mentioning was again QJ. The table became kind of tight. So when I catch QcJc in MP I make a "small" raise to $20. I get 2 callers(the guy from the 3h4h hand and guy from the previously mentioned hand). I am acting in the middle. The Flop comes down A-10-6. 1 club, 2 spades. Check to me and I bet $60. Both call. Great.. Come on.. KING ONE TIME.. BAM!! King. Wow. Check to me. Now I bet $120(half the pot). The player behind me thinks for a while, then finally mucks. The other player does the same. UNREAL. Hit the miracle.. muck muck.. Oh well..

ALL in ALL.. I won $630 in the cash game and had a good time. Till next time.. GL ALL

Tourney & NFL Week 1 picks!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Hello all. Well as you may have seen on the GCP main site, I played Event #1 at the Beau Friday and managed to sneak into the money. This post with talk a little about that, my overall weekend, and about the NFL Week 1 games I'm betting. Here we go:

I took my girlfriend and kids to the Saints game Thursday night. Figures they go 3-1 during preseason, and we watch the only game they lose. Not only that but the game was overall just dreadful(as far as plays go). No big plays to speak of. I did enjoy bringing the kids to their first Saints game. They enjoyed it. We took off in the 4th quarter to the Beau.

We arrived at about midnight. I went talk and sweat Joe Beuche and Tex for a while. But didn't want to get into a game, knowing I had to be up for the 12pm tournament the next day. I got a little sleep, and woke up for 8AM to sign up for the tournament. This turned out to be a good idea because the line later was ridiculous. Then I caught breakfast with Davey(Southpaw Rounder). Afterwards, I realized I needed a room for today. Lisa and the kids had to be out of the room for 11AM. So here is where my day started getting shitty. I'm on the phone half the morning trying to find a good room at a decent rate. I call and leave a message for Donna at the Beau, trying to get a poker room rate for Friday, because the $319 normal rate is a little absurd. I leave her a message. No contact from her so I call around. Best Western across the street from the Beau, $159... IP.. $199... and a few others with about the same price. Then I call the Isle of Capri. I can get a Jacuzzi Suite there for $139. Sweet. I book a room there. Then it happens. The last word out of the receptionist's mouth was, "Just so you know, this is a Non-Refundable reservation." O.K. No Problem, I don't plan on canceling anyway. I swear to you, not 3 minutes later I get a phone call. It's Gene D. I tell him I just booked a room at the Isle. And to that he says, "Oh man. Davey told me about your situation. And I'm leaving now and I have the room booked for tonight at the Poker room rate. I was going to let you stay there for the $99 or so rate." S.O.B.!!

It ended up not being too bad.. Because the kids got to see a new hotel. There was a little TV in the bathroom that PUMPED them up. There was also a TV in an awkward spot. 3 TVs. Not too bad. A nice size jacuzzi(That Lisa and I took full advantage of). The room is not as elegant as the rooms at the Beau. But they probably enjoyed it more. I personally wished we stayed at the Beau but it worked out OK.

Now onto the tourney.. this gets worse. I get to the Beau a little late after the hotel switch fiasco. When getting out of the truck, I drop my iPhone on the ground. No Problem, I have a hell of a case(Learned my lesson after destroying my original iPhone by dropping it in the Venetian). Problem is, the tiny hole I had near the crotch of my pants.... spits into a nice size hole.. UGGHH! At least I have a jacket that pretty much covers it. But every time I moved around throughout the day, that hole spit bigger and bigger. It got to where my jacket wouldn't fully cover it. That was just a huge pain in the ass all day, putting my hands in my jacket pocket to cover my hole with the bottom of the jacket.

I finally get in and have a seat at my table, Seat 5. I really like sitting in the 1,2,9 or 10. I'm squished in the middle this time. O.K. time to put on my headphones to drown out some idiot talking about why he didn't bet the river with a set because a club hit. I put them on for about 15 seconds before they die. I check the headphones, not charged and dead!! Unbelievable. My stupidity. So now I have to cover a hole in my jeans, and lug around a Bose headphone case with non-working headphones all f*%^ing day. Ok Sorry.... onto poker.

My tourney started out very slow. I raised a fair bit preflop early and took down some blinds to stay around. I raised with 10-8 from the button to take down the blinds. Then the very next hand, from the cutoff.. I have KK. Sweet. They can't let me take two blinds in a row huh? Yes they can. For the record, I played the tournament for 12.5 hours.. I never caught AA. I caught KK once, and QQ twice. Winning all three preflop.. Yuck. I made one set, no nut straights or flushes. And the set I made was on the river when my pair was ahead on the flop when I called a short-stack all-in.

I was pretty dead on with my reads pretty much all day. Except for a couple of hands I'll get to later. One hand that I won a very nice pot with at the time was 3d5d. Blinds are 100/200/25. I raise from MP to 600. I get called in 4 spots! Flop comes down Q-5-4. Two spades. Check, Check ,check to me. I should have bet here, but I didn't. I check and player behind me checks. The turn is a 2. Which actually gives an open-ended straight draw to go with my pair of 5's. Again, check check check to me. This time I bet.. 2k. I get 3 calls. Jesus. When I bet the turn I thought there was a good chance I had the best hand, now I'm not so sure. The river is an offsuit 8. Spades never get there. Check, Check to me. I check. And the tight player left to act behind me, makes a face like, "WTF?!" I'm thinking he may bet. In which case I'm probably calling. He checks. And my 5 holds. Nice. With the blinds at 100/200/25, I win a 11k+ pot with a pair of 5's, 3-kicker.

I don't like to sound like I'm gloating, but I do feel like I played very well the entire tournament. Probably my B+ game(like I have any idea). Here's a hand that I didn't necessarily have a bad read. I just got tired of his guy and was ready to make a play at him.. And got SUPER lucky. This one guy at our table 2 spots to my right, was raising every hand he was in the cutoff or button. He would raise his button(my BB) and we would fold, he'd pick-up the pot. Standard shit. Well I was getting tired of it. The table folds around to him and he raises his button. The SB folds. And I finally decide to defend with 5-6off. The flop comes down K-9-7. I check and he bets out strong. He continuation bet all f*&^ing day. I thought, Ok I'm calling this bet, then betting or check shoving the turn(probably just betting). So I call. Then the miracle 8 hits the turn. Nice. No need for the bluff now. I check. He shoves(another overbet) and I call. He shows K-9 for top two. He doesn't fill up and I bust him. And I come off looking like a complete idiot, calling a big bet on the flop with a gutterball. Which I'm ok with, just ship me the chips. But if I don't hit the 8, I'm betting.. then probably having to call an all-in(because of the amount of the stacks). And he actually had a real hand this time. Shows you the difference a card can make.

I know what you're thinking, "It's easy to play well when you can hit miracles." True. But that's the only hand I got really lucky on. I felt good. I was reraising when I was supposed to. C-betting in success. I called a river bet with Top pair that was a tough call. I was doing the right things. I never made many hands. Couldn't connect with Broadway cards much. I was above average in chips for most of the tournament. I didn't get moved from my original table for hours and hours. People came and went.

Finally I got moved to another table with about 100-200 people left. I caught a couple of decent hands early. Then it happened. I went COMPLETELY card dead at absolute worse time. But I couldn't catch a cold. With 100 players left, I bet our table had 40% of the chips. I mean it was ridiculous. Chips were flying, and I was mainly watching. With about 85k in chips.. A player raised from MP/LP to 10k. I made it 30k with A5off. I took down the blinds, antes, and his raise. If I don't steal that pot, I don't make the money. I did manage to catch 1010 and lost a decent pot to JJ. It was sick. Believe me, I'm not the guy who waits and sits out and tries to make the money. But I didn't feel like shoving with 9-4, 10-3, 8-3, 8-2, J-4, etc. So basically, I waited for an absolute monster, or I was waiting for the money. I didn't have enough chips to splash with. I was getting low.

Then the money bubble bursts. 589 players entered. 54 spots paid. You're listening to Mr. 54th place lol. The bubble burst. Next hand I'm UTG and muck my garbage. Next hand I'm in the BB. Blinds are 2k/4k/500. I have 34k left. The entire table folds to the button, who raises to 15k. The SB thinks, then just calls. I look down at AK. I'm happy and pissed. I'm happy because I finally have a hand, and pissed because where was this shit 2 hours ago? Well I shove or course. 19k on top.. They both call. They check it down until the button bets the river. Shit I must be done. Sure enough, he has 10h8h and rivered a straight. Unbelievable. The SB shows AJ. I could have won this hand a few different ways. First, the SB.. an aggressive player could have(and I think usually would) 3bet preflop. If he pops the button's raise a healthy amount, I still shove.. The button folds, and I beat AJ heads up. He also had the opportunity to do that after I shoved and the button called. I could have won that way too. And last but certainly not least, if the button doesn't river a straight. My AK was ahead going to the river. He rivers a gutterball. I actually only need to dodge 13 outs on the river.. and I'm right about average in chips. Can't do it... I'm out.

12.5 hours played, barely make enough money for the extra hotel night... An absolute grind! Ah well.. better luck next time.

ONTO NFL FOOTBALL!!

Week 1 starts this week. I'm pumped. I'm a Chicago Bears fan. They play Green Bay on Sunday Night Football. I'm excited. Anybody who watches football know that Bears/Packers is like the biggest rivalry in football. Go Bears!

Well, I enjoy betting pro football. I am no sports handicapper(not yet anyway lol). But I thought I'd give you my picks and let you see how well/bad I do. I'll also give a little reasoning behind my picks. Here we go:

Tennesse Titans @ Pittsburgh Steelers(-5)

I'm taking the Steelers here(I know you like it Ray). Tennesse went 13-3 last year. But I don't think they'll even make the playoffs this year. The Titans had a great defense last year. But they lost two keys from that D. The Monster that is Albert Haynesworth(Washington Redskins), and their defensive coordinator Jeff Schwartz, who is now coaching the Lions. I simply think the Titans are not the team they were last year. Kerry Collins is their QB for now. He does scare me a bit because he is inconsistent in my eyes and can possibly have a great game. But I don't think it will happen. He doesn't have a whole lot to through to. Pittsburgh is 5-1 against the spread in their past 6 opening week games. Baltimore gets all of the hype when it comes to defense but Pittsburgh is TOUGH. The best defense last year yardage wise. Ranking 1st in pass D, and second in rush D. And in overall yardage D, they lead by a ton, not by 3 yards or so... but by 23.9 yards per game. Overall I think the Superbowl champs will take this one at -5.

Vikings(-4.5)Browns.

As it pains me to say it, because I'm a Bears fan and hate the Vikes.. I like them here -4. How can you not? Adrian Peterson speaks for himself. Brett Favre should do a good enough job of getting the ball to Berrian, etc. And Minnesota has GREAT D. There isn't a whole lot they have to stop in Cleveland either. Kellen Winslow and Donte Stallworth aren't there anymore. Cleveland is 1-8-1 against the spread in past 10 opening week games. As much as I'd like to see the Vikes lose for my personal gain, I don't see it happening.. I'm taking Vikings -4.

Miami Dolpins @ Atlanta Falcons(-4.5)

I like the Falcons here. I hate that they got rid of Keith Brooking in the offseason. He was a force on that defense. But that doesn't mean I don't like this game. I think this is my favorite pick of the week. I think Miami was the most over achieved team in the league last year(by far). Miami went 11-5 last year. But I don't see them coming close to that this year. I've always been a Chad Pennington fan, but I don't see them repeating their performance. 9 of Miami's 11 wins last year came against teams with records of .500 or worse. They went 11-5 by sneaking by bad teams. They had 7 wins by 7 points or less. The AP NFL Rookie of the Year last year, Matt Ryan lead the Falcons to 11-5 season also in 2008. The Falcons finished 6th in overall offense last year.. I think Ryan will only get better in his second year. The Falcons added veteran TE Tony Gonzales to make sure of it. And if not, just hand the ball to Michael "The Burner" Turner. Like Adrian Peterson, Turner speaks for himself.. leading the Falcons to the 2nd best rush offense in 2008. As long as Atlanta's defense doesn't let Chad Pennington do anything crazy, Atlanta should cover here easily.

Ok that's my 3 picks for the week. Don't go bet the house on them. Just throwing them out there!! Ok 4AM.. time to lay down and watch some TV. Later.

I'm stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:53:00 +0000

I don't know why I play these tournies. I'm never nearly patient enough.. and just throw my money away. Which was precisely what happened again.. I'm out before the extended registration is over.. Rebuy?? lol Till next time.. GL all

Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:20:00 +0000

Tonight I'm going to play the 70k Guarantee on Stars. I'll try to post along. Hopefully I'll have a lot to post about!! Wish me Luck

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Ok.. Lost $250 and calling it a night. Was up $900 at one point.. Then lost a big pot with a billion outs.. Lost another big one when I tried to semi bluff Super Donk when he held the nuts. Usually not a good idea.. First half of the night went well.. Second half went equally as bad.. I'll try and post a lil more about it soon.. GL all

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Just lost about $350 on one hand.. 15 outs on the flop, 21 outs on the turn.. Brick, brick.. He wins with King high.. Fucking Brutal! Still winning a little though.. Gotta keep your head up!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:58:00 +0000

Up somewhere around a grand now.. Nice pot with KK.. Scarey flop though..
Nice pot with 6-7.. Top two.. Luckily the big check raise worked.. Didn't really want to commit that much with that hand..
Decent pot with AK with King on the river..
It hasn't been exactly easy, but making some hands and a little money

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Up $225 right now.. Mostly on one hand.. Bottom set.. Which I almost mucked on the flop

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:22:00 +0000

On my way to Harrahs New Orleans.. I'll try to update

I'm done

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:09:00 +0000

PokerStars Game #30770800845: Tournament #180530769, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2009/07/22 22:07:16 CT [2009/07/22 23:07:16 ET]
Table '180530769 72' 9-max Seat
#1 is the button
Seat 1: gaming711 (6585 in chips)
Seat 2: dbl_up_mojo (6253 in chips)
Seat 3: mcnallyville (5823 in chips)
Seat 4: soggy dogg (2204 in chips)
Seat 5: WhatArunAA (6697 in chips)
Seat 6: ryanbluf (5352 in chips)
Seat 7: Ben86 (13949 in chips)
Seat 8: MattJBryant (4146 in chips)
Seat 9: Stev0L_ (9176 in chips)
dbl_up_mojo: posts small blind 100
mcnallyville: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MattJBryant [8s 8c]
soggy dogg: folds
WhatArunAA: folds
ryanbluf: raises 255 to 455
Ben86: folds MattJBryant: calls 455
Stev0L_: folds
gaming711: folds
dbl_up_mojo: folds
mcnallyville: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 9c Ah]
ryanbluf: checks
MattJBryant: bets 800
ryanbluf: raises 1600 to 2400
MattJBryant: calls 1600
*** TURN *** [8d 9c Ah] [Td]
ryanbluf: bets 1600
MattJBryant: calls 1291 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (309) returned to ryanbluf
*** RIVER *** [8d 9c Ah Td] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ryanbluf: shows [Qh Ad] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
MattJBryant: shows [8s 8c] (three of a kind, Eights)
ryanbluf collected 8592 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8592 Rake 0 Board [8d 9c Ah Td Js]
Seat 1: gaming711 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dbl_up_mojo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: mcnallyville (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: soggy dogg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: WhatArunAA folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ryanbluf showed [Qh Ad] and won (8592) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 7: Ben86 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: MattJBryant showed [8s 8c] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 9: Stev0L_ folded before Flop (didn't bet)

And that's it. That's about as shitty as they come... 96% favorite on the flop.. 90% on the turn... 0% on the river. I just called his check-raise on the flop to make sure that he put the last 1200 in the the turn. Incase he was totally bluffing. But I can't dodge the dreaded 4-outer with 1 card to come. Oh well, better luck next time.. Till then.. later

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:32:00 +0000

Just caught AA. Everyone folds to me on the button.. I 3x and blinds muck.. Unreal.. Where's the 3bet from K-10 in the SB?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:20:00 +0000

Won a nice one on first hand back from break.. Blinds 50/100.. In MP with 66.. EP raises to 250.. I call.. Folds around.. Flop Kh7c10d. He checks, I check.. Turn Kd he checks, I bet 300. He shoves for 1250.. I call.. He shows AQ.. River brick

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:10:00 +0000

At first hour break.. Chip stack- 2950.. average is 3700.. Having caught anything.. AJo once

wednesday 250K

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 01:14:00 +0000

Folds around to button.. button raises 3x.. SB folds.. I call out of the BB with 3c7c..
Flop 3d7d5c.. I check.. PFR bets 80. I check-raise to 240, he calls.
Turn Js.. I bet 400.. he calls
River 10.. I check, he ponders.... then checks

I win.. A large river bet from him would have been tough.. I really didn't like the turn or river.. as i thought he may have an over-pair when he called my flop check-raise...

was up to 3,640.. but just gave most back on a hand I could have mucked preflop.. at 3,270.. only a few minutes into the tournament

Hello Poker World

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Hey guys. I haven't written a post in ages! Mainly because I haven't played much poker lately. My girlfriend and I are in the middle of buying a house right now. We've been at it for a while now. So I took all my cash and deposited it in the bank. Banks/Government are not exactly giving away money at the moment. I played at Shorty's about a month ago. I lost $420. I don't think I played a hand.. I just spewed away money for a while. I played at Harrah's Friday. I lost $123. I was stuck about $1400 though, so consider that a win. I lost a race that night that woulda put me winning a bunch, but I'm too fat to win races. I decided to play a little online tonight for the first time in months. I don't play many tournaments. And when I do score in one, I always say, "I need to try more tournaments." That usually leads me to play 1 or 2 tournaments immediately, and then stop. So tonight I'm gonna try a bigger online tourney. I'm gonna play the $300+$30 Wednesday Quarter Million on Stars. I'll post on here as I go along. Not as much for anyone's satisfaction, but to keep me from being bored.. it starts in 33 minutes.. Wish me Luck

Nightly Hundred Grand 15th Place

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:47:00 +0000

It sounds nice, and a $1000 win is nice, but it's extremely extremely frustrating. I played the 70k guarantee on Stars Wednesday night. It paid the top 180. I came out 205th when I had J-J and tried to beat 10-10 after getting it in preflop. 10 on the river and I'm outta there. But what it did do is motivate me to play some more tourneys. After winning the 50k guarantee on Tilt in December, I don't know if I've played 15 tourneys since. And I've done pretty good in live tourneys also but don't play hardly any. Well anyway, I'm a little motivated to try and play more now. So tonight I sat and played the Nightly Hundred Grand on Stars. You start with 3k in chips.. about 15 minutes into it, I was down to 800. I caught A-K and lost with trips to A-Q who had trips and a pair of queens. A couple of hands later, I rivered a gutterball to more than double-up. The very next hand I catch KK and double up again. I went from 800 to over 4k in an instant. And never really looked back. I never caught AA(even though I prayed like a SOB for them). Or a set or any monster hand. I just kept chipping away and making some small winners.

Not long after we got into the money, I played one hand where I coulda busted. I called a min-raise from my BB with 10-7o. The flop came 8-5-2.. I checked... PFR checked.. the turn was an 8. I checked, PFR bet. I raised. He called.. River 2.. I shove.. he thinks and mucks. That hand was one of my only real bluffs. I was so confused of what to do on the river.. because the pot was big and he only had 10k left. The turn bet was 6k. So I knew he had to call with a lot of hands. But if I didn't shove, I knew I was beat and I'd be below average. Luckily he mucked.

I laid down 99 late after I 3-bet preflop. The original raiser shoved. I thought forever and mucked. He showed AcKc. I'm still not sure what I should have done there.

And my last hand was questionable. We're playing 7-handed and the cut-off raised. I was on the button with K-Q0. I shoved. Blinds fold. He calls and shows A-Q. And he wins. I didn't have to shove there. But I was one of the shorter stacks. This guy's range is pretty open with a raise from the cut-off 7-handed. And even if he calls with A-J.. 10-10.. J-J.. or any smaller ace.. I'm not in terrible shape. He happened to have me dominated. I actually flopped open-ended, but failed to spike a 9, A, or K. I'm ok with the play. Mainly because I was getting short. But it sucks either way. To make it down to 15 out of 702 players is quite an accomplishment.. But it always feels like such a waste.

Oh well. On a side note.. They're down to 5 players now and this guy paulsl is still in it. This guy chopped the Sunday Million this past Sunday. I know this final table won't be as nice of a payday, but he seems to be on quite a heater. And as I'm typing this he got it all-in with 7-7 v.s. QQ and spiked a 7 for a monster pot. Then 4 hands later he gets AA v.s KQ.. King high flop and they get it all-in. I'd say he's running good. Ha. Anyway, down to 4 and he's the chip leader. Ok now he's chopping the damn thing.. Two (wins) in a week. Nicely done.

Oh well. I did well and think I played ok. I'm looking forward to the absolute grind that is tournament poker. See ya on the felt!

Running Like a CHAMP

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sat, 09 May 2009 01:45:00 +0000

I haven't posted lately about any of my cash sessions. I have been running like God recently. I have been playing at Shorty's about twice a week. I have won in 6 of my last 7 sessions. My last 4 sessions have been..

+475
+890
+1385
+945

I always preferred playing at Harrahs over Shorty's. But since Shorty's lifted their ridiculous 300-max buy-in... and the fact that it's much closer to my house... I have been playing there lately. And I have been running and playing well. I don't remember all my hands from all those sessions so I will just type about my last session. Though I can say that 90% of my winnings on my +1385 session came from Asian Tom. I would call his raise preflop, flop top-pair, check-call the whole way and he'd muck.

Onto my latest session. I played at Shorty's Saturday and picked up $945. I started off down $150 or so on my second hand. I raised from MP with J-J and got 2 callers. The flop was 8-9-9. First player checks, I bet. Next guy mucks. First player check-raises 3x's my bet. I decide to call. I've played with this guy before and I know he can raise with nothing here to get me off of AK, AQ, etc.. Well the turn is an Ace and he fires strong.. I decide to give him some credit and muck.

I bought in for $500 and already I'm down to about $350. Then I pick up 10c7c in MP. I limp along with several others. Then the BB decides to raise, $20 more. Anyone that plays live $5-$5 or $2-$5 knows that everyone and their momma is calling that extra $20. I do as well as everyone else. The flop comes down Kc-4h-Qc. Giving me the 3rd nut-flush draw. The BB(preflop raiser) decides to bet $25. $25 into a $120 pot. Weak? I think so. One player to my right calls. Then I decide to make a play at this pot. I bump it to $100 total. Everyone folds to the preflop raiser. I am fully expecting him to fold. But he contemplates for the longest time and calls. The other player folds and we're heads-up to the turn. The turn is about the best card in the deck, the Ac. I make the 2nd nuts. He checks to me. I have about $250 left and I'm wondering how much to bet here. I think about betting $100 or $150 and keep him in it. But that bet has it's pros and cons. If he does have the Jc(unlikely), I want him to pay for the river. And if he doesn't have a club and a club hits the river, that'll kill my action. If a broadway card hits the board and puts a 4 card straight out there, that may screw my chances of getting paid off too. Anyway.. I am hoping that ace made him 2-pair and I shove my remaining $250 in there. And he calls. The river pairs the board 4's. I cringe for a minute and pray he doesn't show AA, KK, or QQ. But he doesn't and I'm back in the black baby. I win about $470 there.

Later Phil is at our table and raises $25 to go. I look down at AhKh in the BB and I call. We're heads-up. The flop comes down A-x-x. Two hearts. Not too shabby huh? I check and Phil bets $30. I just call. The turn is garbage but the board is straightening out. I check, Phil bets $50. I decide to begin to build this pot and raise to $150. Without much deliberation, he calls. I'm thinking we may have the same hand and I'm freerolling. Or I have him slightly outkicked. The river puts a 4 card straight on board. But he raised preflop and I'm putting him on a big ace. I decide to value-bet $100. He calls and shows A-Q and I drag a nice $300 there.

Later I raise preflop from EP/MP with AhJh. I get 2 callers. The flop comes down Kh- 9c-3h. Giving me an over and the nut-flush draw. The SB leads out $20. Once again, a $20 bet into a $80 pot. Well this time I decide to just call. Asian Tom is behind me but he decides to muck. The turn is the 10h. BINGO.. the nuts. Then the SB checks. I'm thinking, " Shit.. I'm going to bet here and lose him." But I proceed to bet $100. He thinks about it for a while then calls. It genuinely seemed like he didn't want to call. Well the river the 4th heart. Yikes. You never know if that card helped or hurt you in this situation. Then he bets $100 at me. Sweet! Now it's just a matter of how much to raise. It doesn't happen very often, but it's so nice to have the nuts on the river and have someone betting into you. Well he has about $450 behind that $100 bet. I decide to go for $300 total... $200 more to him. He states, "Well there's only one card that beats me." Yes. I know I'm getting paid. He pays off the $200 more. I won $470 there too.

I lose and win some here and there. I'm up about $800 when I catch the following hand. I played this hand badly. I am in the BB with 2-4o and the flop comes down 3-5-6, two diamonds. I flop the 2nd nuts. I decide to bet out $25. I get one caller, then a raise to $100 from Asian Tom. It folds around to me. Tom could have anything here... a pair and flush draw, a pair and straight draw, straight flush draw, two pair, a set, etc.. I decide to just call and see what the guy behind me does. I really should have raised here. It wouldn't have mattered as you will see in the end result. The other player folded and Tom and I are heads up to the turn. The turn is a stupid 4. Now my 2 makes up the low end and any 7 makes the high. Tom has about $250 left. I'm praying now that he has a flush draw, two pair, or set. I know Tom won't slow down with the 4 card straight as Tom NEVER slows down. I check, he bets $110. I decide to just put him in for his last $140. He calls and shows the Jd7d. He hit his gutterball on the turn. He takes about $350 from me there. It doesn't matter how I play the flop. I could have bet my bankroll and Tom wasn't folding a gutshot and flush draw. I'm just upset about the way I played this. Especially the turn. I could have possibly folded the turn to the $110 bet. But coming from this particular source, it was so hard to. I was just hoping he had two-pair, set, or flush draw and I checked the turn so he would bet and commit himself. If the diamond hits the turn I may get away.. But he hit his gut and I lost.. chalk it up... -$350.

Not long after.. I limp with 7-7. It's a limp fest. Then the button makes it $30. I'm in there with everyone else. The flop comes down A-x-x. It checks around to the button who bets $50. I decide to call. I'm tilting just a little. I'm not exactly convinced he has an ace. And my 7-7 is 3rd pair. I call. Everyone folds. The turn is a King. I check, and interestingly... he checks behind.. Hmmm? The river is a 3. I check and he bets $100 pretty forcefully. This isn't quite adding up. Why did he check the turn? Maybe he had A-K or KK and decided he was far ahead. But I didn't think so. This guy was pretty straight-forward and bet often. Then if you do have the monster on the river, why would someone quickly grab a stack, slam it on the table and declare, "One-hundred." I thought it was.. AK, KK, 33 or nothing. I usually don't take much time to make a decision but I took my time here. After all, I can't beat anything but a bluff. I finally called and he said, "good call." Nice. I won about $270 there.

My last eventful hand came when I limped with 4d5d. A couple of limpers to Michael, a co-worker of mine. He raises to $25 or $30. There are a few callers and I call too. The flop comes beautifully... Ad-3d-4s. I flop a pair, and a straight-flush draw. It checks around to Michael who bets $65. Mike M. calls in front of me. Then I decide to check out everyone's stack. Michael only has about $175 left. Mike M has about $350 left and another play who hasn't acted yet has about $300. I was sitting in the 10 seat and last player was in the 2 seat. When I tried to see how much he had left, the dealer did the same. And then he looked at the dealer and said geniunely, "Oh it's on me, I fold." So I know he's out. All I can lose is less than $200 to Michael. And about $350 to Mike M. I decide to shove. I'm pretty sure Michael has an ace. I'm not sure about Mike M. I am just scared Mike M. may have a bigger flush draw. That would suck. That's really why I wanted Michael to fold. I don't care if we have to race. If he has an ace(which he later said he had AQ) I'm almost 60/40. But if he calls, that kinda will price Mike M. in if he has a big flush draw. Well both players fold and I win $240 there.

I picked up shortly after.. a $945 winner. I saw some very badly played hands that remind me why I play this game.

I am going to Harrahs tomorrow to play the $500+$50 event. I'll keep you posted.

Two Shorty's Sessions

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:19:00 +0000

I decided to post about my two previous Shorty's sessions. First let's start with my Saturday session. It was a pretty short session. I got there about 8PM or so and left at about 10:15PM. My girlfriend got off work early and wanted to go out. I was up $475 so pulled a little "Hit & Run" and went out with her. We had a great time. So here's a little recap:

Shorty's runs a 5-5 game. I sat down with $500 and didn't play too many hands until I hit the gorgeous set over set. I limped UTG with 99. There's a few limpers until the BB decides to make it $30. He was raising preflop quite often and I was hoping to smoke him. Well he got 3 or 4 callers. Flop.. 9-4-K. nice. The BB leads out $50. I decide to just call as the board is pretty harmless. Then the shortest stack at the table decides to shove for $150 total. The table folds, including the preflop raiser. I call. The board runs out. I show my 99 and he shows 44. It's so rare to flop set over set, and I happen to do it to the guy with $150 left. Oh well, let's not be too greedy.

The guy to my left was the most active at the table. He was making some bets/raises that seemed like air to me but never had to show down his hand. A couple of times he was called down and his opponent showed, and he mucked. Well he lost a decent size pot right before the following hand:

I raise $25 to go with KK. He calls to my left. I think there were about 2 callers. The flop comes down Q-4-7. I bet $40. The guy behind me makes it $100. Folds to me. I can definitely be behind here, but this is the type of play the guy has been making. And I'm pretty sure I'm in the lead. I just call. The turn is a 9. I check, he bets $100. And he's got $200 behind that. I really thought he had a queen(A-Q, K-Q, Q-J). But I just called again. The river pairs the board 4s. I decide to bet his last $200. He folds. He said he didn't have a queen, which I now believe. If I check the river, he probably fires again. But I thought he had a good queen and I didn't want the river to go check, check. Oh well. I won about $250 there.

Then I try my one real "play" of the night. A few players call the $10 straddle, including me with Ac8c on the button. The SB and BB complete and the straddle pops it to $30. Not really much of a pop. Well everyone calls. I'm in there. And we see a flop about 6 ways. The flop comes down 4-4-9 two spades. SB and BB check, straddle bets $40(into a $180 pot). A couple of folds to me and I raise to $140. As long as the SB or BB didn't flop a 4, I should be good. The SB folds. Asian Tom is the BB. I'll write a lot more about Tom in my next session. Tom is in all pots and is pretty aggressive. He calls the $140. Shit. The straddle mucks. The turn is garbage. And Tom leads out $125. Huh? Plenty of times this is the bet someone makes after missing their draw. And Tom calling $140 on a flush draw on a paired board is more than possible. This was actually a very good bet by Tom in my opinion. Although, if he would have checked, I would have probably fired again... but he doesn't know that. And this bet really throws me off. I thought he might be on a spade draw and thought about putting him all-in. As he only had a few hundred more. Anyway, I eventually fold. And this guy turns over 9-4 off suit for a flopped boat. LoL. When you put in $30 preflop with 9-4o, I guess you gotta get it some time. Lost $170 there.

I get moved to the main game shortly after. I sat there for a while without playing a hand. There was a big pot won with top pair, top kicker. Bryan raised to about $50 preflop and got a few callers. The flop came down A-x-x. It checked to Bryan and he bets $150. It folds to Joey, and Joey shoves. About $700 or $800 or so. The table folds to Bryan. He has about the same amount in front of him.. about $650 over the $150 he just bet. He thinks about it forever, and then finally calls... with A-K.. and it's good! Joey shows A-9. And the board bricks out. Unbelievable. Joey would have gotten my $150. That being said. He did bet $800 to win about $300. Well I told that story to tell the next 2 hands.

A few hands later, I limp with 5d6d. There's a couple of limpers to Bryan in the BB who raises to $50. 9 of 10 times I fold here. But I haven't played a hand at this table yet so I should get some kind of respect. And Joey is one of the limpers and I'm pretty sure he's calling to get a shot at Bryan. I call. Joey calls. And we see a flop 3 handed. Flop is A-A-4. Bryan checks, I check, Joey checks. The turn is a queen. Bryan checks. I decide to throw out $50. Both fold. Bryan flips over 7-7. I show my 5-6. Hoping to get a little action if I ever do make a hand. Won $100 there

A few hands later, Joey raises to $30 UTG+1 or +2. And the whole table actually folds to me in the BB. I look down at AhKh. I call. Heads-up to a flop of A-6-3. I check and he bets. $40. I decide to just call. The turn is a 7. I check again. And he bets $60. I call again. I usually play this hand a little stronger, but I take an alternate route. The river is a 4. Now a 5 makes a straight. I check again. He picks up his cards, almost as to show his hand. Then puts it down, thinks about it, and fires $100. I call. I'm good. I won about $230 there.

I told my girlfriend I'd meet her at home at 11PM and it was already 10:15 and the weather was bad. So I racked up. Of course I got some "hit & run" comments. Blah Blah Blah.. Check Change $475 on the night. Well actually in a couple of hours.

Well I'll write about yesterday's session soon...

"Wow! (First) the economy, now this!"- Tex's quote when I told him yesterday's Shorty's table was slow and low in money.

Online Donk

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:41:00 +0000

Hi all. Not that anyone is waiting on the edge of his or her seat to read my next blog, but I promise to start blogging more often. I have been playing live a fair bit lately, and some online. I have ran pretty good live.. And terribly online.

Sadly, the title of this post refers to myself. I play tournaments/SNG's ok online.. But I must be the biggest fish in the cash games. I just get involved in too many hands. It's ridiculous. I play pretty solid for a while, then go ape-shit. I can't explain it. I played a 6-max 2/4 game the other night. I played ok for a while.. Got down $100 or so.. then up $100 or so.. and then I blow it. I call a raise with Qd8d. Something I'll do occasionally in live games, but something I do way more often online. The flop comes down Q-9-10. Preflop raiser bets, I call. The turn is a Q. He bets I call. The river is garbage, he shoves... I start saying out loud, "This is ridiculous", "I can't win", "This has to be 9s full or tens full". I'm repeating all of these things aloud. And still click call. Just for him to show 9-9 and I'm bust. I mean WTF? I would almost never call here live. My opponent was solid.... you know what, I won't even go into it. I know I shouldn't call.. I know I'm destroyed. And I still ship him my money.

I was sickened by it. I only lost $350 on the session but I was more disgusted that night, than on nights where I lost 5x's that. It's because I knew I played bad and continue to do it. I sent a text to some of my friends saying, "If you ever see me playing cash online, stop me." And I mean it. It's not like I've lost a big amount or that I can't control myself. I just know if I sit down and play, I'm dead money. I play way too erratic and never give people credit for a hand. I came close to telling Bill to post something on GCP stating... "If anyone catches Matt playing cash online, contact Matt and he'll give you $500." That's how mad I was at myself.

Only because I know I'm better than that. It's like a decent pitcher going out and throwing nothing but hanging curveballs. He knows better, but throws bad anyway.

Bottom line, I'm going to limit myself to online tourneys and SNG's. I have been doing ok live.. Booking mostly small winners. I won $300 at Shorty's the other night. I took $200 from Joe Bueche on one hand (AA-KK). It was nice to finally have a hand hold up against him. I gave all that money to Ms. Lorna soon after when I flopped open-ended and turn a flush draw.. I paid to see the f***ing blank on the river and she won, showing KK. GGEEEEZZ! One time!! I nail the flush or straight and check change.. her stack. Talk about implied-odds. But I doubled up through her later when I flopped two pair, 5s and 4s against her AA and my hand held up.

I played a $340 Hold em' event at the Beau Rivage during the Spring Break Poker Classic. No good. I did last pretty long, but that's just a waste of time. It was the same tourney Bill exited early and Reid ran KK into AA. I did happen to outlast them, Davey, and Joe Beuche. But at least they all spent their day doing something else. Instead of placing somewhere in the 30-40 player spot, for a grand total of $0. I lost a sick hand early in the tourney that would have set me up nicely. I raised preflop with 66 and got 2 callers behind me. Flop 8-6-3. Nice. I decide to check. The guy behind me bets. Other player folds. And I elect to just call. The turn pairs the board 8's. Sweet. I check again. And he fires again. I almost got aggressive here(which I think would have cost me even more money), but I called again. I was planning to bet out on the river. That is until the insane 3rd 8 hit the board. How gross. I now have 66 on an 8-6-3-8-8 board. Yuck. I check and he checks. He shows 10-10.. drag your pot genius. I had this guy on the hook. He needs a 10 or running 8's. He got there. The dealer outplayed me.

I stole a pot or two and was doing ok. Then I got lucky. The worse player at our table was short and shoving every once in a while with not-so-great hands. Well he shoves short again UTG or UTG +1. It folds around to me and I call with A-10. His shove was not too large and my A-10 was well ahead of some of his earlier shoves. Then like clockwork, the player behind me shoves in. SOB! It folds back to me. Now I just called like 1500 or so from the original shove, now it cost me like 1700 or so to call this. I'm severely crippled if I lose this one. God I hate putting in this much with A-10 but I can't fold at this point(not in my opinion). And I have both players covered. I say "Oh well, time to get lucky" and call. The UTG player shows A-K.. yikes.. But the other player shows 55. Ok.. not too bad. At least if I spike an A or 10 I can win the side pot and actually make a little money. Well the flop comes A-x-K. Yes.. I flop an ace and I'm ahead for the sidepot. I'm just thinking.. no 5 no 5. And the board runs out.. queen.... Jack.... Giving me broadway to scoop the whole pot! NICE!

I don't have much to talk about after that.. I steal a couple here and there. Then I got involved in a hand with the chipleader. Bad move.. I got low on that hand. Then I shoved all-in preflop with A-K and got called by A-7 suited.. 7 on the turn and I'm outta there. If I win that "race", I'm average with the high blinds and antes in there. O Well.

I had a eventful night at the $2-$5 game later that night. I don't remember too many hands but I ended up losing $300 on the night. It was a roller coaster ride to say the least. I missed a gut-shot straight flush draw early to go down some. Then I rivered a flush with a gut-shot and flush draw a little later to get back up. Then I lost the following hand...

The 1 seat was the biggest fish at the table. I call the $10 straddle with 9c7c. The 1 seat who religiously pops his straddle 99% of the time, does so to $50. I'm not sure how many calls to me. I decide to call from the button. The flop comes down Q-10-6.. two clubs.. here we go again with these gutterball & flush draw hands. The 1 seat bets $75. Which I thought was small and weak. Folds to me and it's just me and him. I played the other monster draws conservatively. But I had other thoughts on this one. I ask how much he has behind. I can't remember the exact amount but I think it was $260 or so. I say, "I'm all-in." And he snap calls. Oops! bad read.. or so I thought.. The boards comes brick, brick and I'm left with 9 high. He tables A-J for ace high. This f***ker snap calls $260 with ace high. I guess he was tired of getting outplayed by everyone and decided to try and get lucky. Kudos to him.

I ended up running KK into AA.. Then won a lot back when I raised with KK preflop and check called the whole way down against a maniac and won. But then in a raised pot, I flopped 2 pair with 9-7 suited on a 9-7-6 board. I bet the flop hard.. call... call...... I bet the turn... call, call... the river is a 5..... I lose to 9-8.. I don't think there's an amount I could have bet to win that hand.. should have just folded top two earlier.. or played it like a chump and hope it holds... It was definitely a fun session. But a loser overall.

I will start blogging more often so I can recall these hands in more detail. Until then.. good luck!!

"If there wasn't luck in this game, I'd be a millionaire"
-Jerry Bergeron.. Local 3-6-12 player

Couple cash sessions

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 03:26:00 +0000

Hello all. It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy lately and haven't been playing too much. I did play the last 2 Fridays at Harrahs. Last Friday I went there and played mostly 2-5PLO. I showed up and played a little 2-5NLHE and decided to put my name on a very short interest list for a 2-5NLHE/PLO split game. To my surprise the game kicked off about an hour later. I lost a couple hundred playing hold em' before the split game started... Getting priced in for one flush draw and not getting there... then making an 8-high flush and losing to a 9-high flush. I wasn't too thrilled about the lineup for the split game. It was pretty tough. I don't have much to talk about as far as the game goes either. About an hour into it, everyone agreed to make it straight PLO. I didn't make many hands. I actually won a 1K pot with A-A-x-x when the board paired 6's and my two-pair held up on a ridiculous board. It included an all-in player. The betting totals were just right. I got lucky and won a nice one there.

I was lucky on another hand that the player to my left folded preflop. I called the (nearly mandatory)$10 straddle from the button with Ac-7c-7d-4h. The SB folded, the BB completed and the straddle checked his option. The flop came 7-2-2. It checked to me, I bet and took it down. The guy to my left says, "I sure hope you were just bluffing at that and didn't flop 7's full or something. Because I folded two dueces preflop." I showed him 7-7 and he was sick. Had he called the extra $8 preflop, I would have been in bad shape.

Overall I won a little bit playing PLO and ended up losing $69 on the night. What a thrill?!

And now onto my session at Harrahs last night. I went there last night hoping there would be a split game again. I got there at about 8:30 and was surprised to see that there was no list at all for it. I was able to get a seat at a 2-5NLHE game and told Bruce to start an interest list for the split game. Then he tells me the game just broke 30 minutes ago. Unreal? That didn't last long. So I played Hold em' all night. I started off bad early.. bleeding down to $300 from my starting of $500. Then I called a $50 raise preflop with 9d-7d. I know.. not a good idea. But the game was kinda wild and I was dying to stick this $300 in there. Three players to the flop and I'm in position. Flop 10d-10c-6d. Not too bad. Gut-shot straight flush draw. Check, check to me. I almost bet but decide to check. Turn is a black 8. Giving me my gutterball. Nice. The original raiser decides to bet $30 into a $150 pot. The next player raises to $75. I thought the original raiser was weak and the other player picked up on that and is trying to steal it. Screw it... I'm all-in.. now the original raiser calls. Geez! Now I'm dead. At least I was right about the other player, as he folds. Original raiser shows 66 and I can't catch my 8d for a straight-flush. Rebuy!

I bleed down to $200 on my next buy-in. I'm frickin' stuck $800 and aggravated cause I can't catch anything. I reraise a flop bet and shove my last $200 or so in there with the nut-flush draw and 2 overs but get no call.

I hate being short stacked in a cash game. Something that I should probably work on. But I was very very patient last night. I bought several nice pots last night with good reads. Mainly just picking on the weaker players. I got picked off once but overall had a good record. Then I hit a nice flop. I was in the blinds with 10-9o. Flop came J-9-9. I check and it checks to the weakest player at the table and he bets $30 or so. I call. The turn is complete garbage and I check again. Now he bets $40. I thought this bet probably represented a jack. I call. Now the river is garbage again. Here I decide to bet $75. I'm pretty sure I have the best of it. And best of all, this guy will not punish me only a 9. It looks like I missed my straight draw. This guy isn't good enough to make a big play at me here. He ends up calling. I show trips and he mucks. My first decent pot of the night really. I build a nice little amount just stealing pots.

I made my nicest pot on the following hand. I limp from MP/LP with Ks-10s. I had a little more of an aggressive image than I usually have. The flop comes down Q-J-6.. one spade. The weakest player at the table bets $20.. as he does often(he usually gets reraised and mucks). 1 player calls and I raise to $60. Ken(a very solid player and friend) cold calls behind me. It folds to the original raiser who folds and then the guy who called his $20.. raises. Oh shit, time to run. That is until he only raises $100 more. Action is back to me and I'm getting 3-1 basically. He has about $230 behind and I barely have him covered. I still have Ken behind me. Ughh not a situation I enjoy being in. I decide to just call. After some deliberation, Ken folds. Finally(and I do mean finally) I make my hand. 9 on the turn and he puts the rest of it in. I call. The river pairs the board jacks. Yuck. But he flips over Q-6 for 3 pair and I win a nice pot.

All in all I won $20 on the night. But was stuck $800+ so it felt great. I am starting to notice some of the leaks in my game. And I look forward to working on them. Till next time.... Good Luck

Bad Beat, Bad dining, Bad players....

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Hello all. I've played a fair bit of poker since my last post. Including last night. I picked up $300. But I was up about $1100 at one point so it felt like a loss. I'll touch more on the session soon. But first, I wanted to mention that I was finally on a Bad Beat Jackpot table last Friday. I received a player's share of $469. I was on the must-move $2-$5NLHE game when I got called to the main game. I went straight there and was dealt in. On my first hand, Jackpot! lol. Two players flopped a set. They got it all in on the flop.. Running Quad, Quad. Sweet! The thing that really blew was the fact that the jackpot hadn't been hit in a while and was built up to $60k+. Then it got hit.... about 3 hours before we hit it. Shit! That would have been a sweet player's share. Oh well, can't be too greedy. Moose held the losing hand and Ray(not GCP Ray) held the winning hand. Moose tipped $700(About 10%), and Ray tipped about $300 or so. I was glad to see the two big winners tip well. And most of the player's share guy tipped also. So Darlene did pretty well. She made more on a $15K jackpot than we did on a $65k jackpot in Amelia.

Now onto bad dining. Lisa and I went eat at Stella! in New Orleans. A rather expensive, upscale restaurant. I was disappointed. Mainly at the menu. There was a wide variety. But nothing I was thrilled about. Our starter was some meat, I had no clue what it was but I decided to gamble. Turns out it was duck or goose liver. Oh well, can't fault Stella! for my decision. I tried it but didn't care for it. And it was a tiny portion. I won't go onto too much detail about the entrees and crap. They were probably prepared excellently, but I just didn't care for either. I'm just too much of a simple guy to enjoy this over the top shit. Service was good and the setting was romantic. I'll just head over to Ruth's Chris next time.

Now onto bad players. It's so much easier to play online. As far as setting. You can sit in your underwear and play $200-$400 if you want. If I want to go play at Harrah's, I have to shower up, get dressed, etc... drive 1.5 hours.... get on the list... etc. But I'm convinced now more than ever......... the live players are so much worse. There are definitely great live players. But there's almost always a couple of big fish at the table. My last 4 sessions have went -350, -1100, +2215 & +300 win last night. The $350 loss was annoying because I knew I couldn't play long and donked off $350. The $1100 loss was brutal. I loss with a set to a flush draw 3 times. It started to become funny. I can't think of too many big hands that I won during the big win. I won a bunch of nice medium-sized pots. I think my biggest win came from a call that I didn't want to make. I limp UTG with AdKd. I'm hoping someone raises. But nobody does. Great, now I have to play very cautiously. That is until the flop came 3 diamonds. It checks around. I think. The turn pairs the board 6's. I bet and someone moves all-in for $300+. Yuck. The bet is a huge one relative to the pot size. But here's why I called. The player moving all-in is a guy in his 20s who showed up at about 5AM, glassy eyed, with a drink in his hand and Mardi Gras beads around his neck. He has only been playing for 20 minutes. And has already shown down garbage. Oh well, I call.. he has 6-2. The board doesn't pair I won a nice pot.

Onto last night. A $300 "win". I was up $150 or so on the 1-2 game while waiting to play 2-5. While the dealer is dealing, I get a call to move to 2-5. Cool, this is my last hand. I look down at two black queens. I raise preflop to $15 and get min-raised to $30 by the SB. I call. The flop comes down 10 high. Now the SB leads up $15? I never have any idea what the hell this means. If you're ever in a game with me and want to make my head spin. Bet $10 into a $400 pot. Anyway, I decide to see where I'm at and raise to $50. Then he moves all-in for $75 more. Damn I hate the way this turned out. I called, praying he had jacks. No, aces and I fail to improve. I didn't like this hand at all. I should have folded to the shove I guess. It just wasn't for a lot more money. I wish he had $150 more or something.

Well I move to the 2-5 game virtually even from the 1-2 game. I won a ton early when I flopped a boat. I straddled for $10. A couple callers to Wayne H. who makes it $30. I'm assuming he's just trying to build a pot cause nobody is folding for $20. Including me from the straddle with 4h7h. We see a multi-way flop of 7-7-4. Two clubs. Nice. I check and it checks around. the turn is a red ace. I bet $65. The loose player behind me calls and Yee makes it $200. The table folds to me and I have a decision. I'm surely not folding. If you have A-7 or AA. Merry X-mas. I'm deciding whether to raise or call. I decide to call, hoping the loose player behind me joins the party, and he does. Three players to the river for $200. The river is the 6c. Completing straight and flush. I'm first to act. I stall for a little while before moving in for $405. The loose player folds and Yee eventually calls. I show my boat. He shows a 7 and mucks. Luckily Yee isn't tight and paid me off. I almost cost myself $400 by not shoving the turn. That 6c was a terrible card for Yee. But he still paid.

I ended up giving a lot back. I played AA a little different than I usually do by checking the flop behind. But the donkey I was in the pot with heads-up would have called with the gutter that he nailed on the turn. He held Q-J and the flop came K-9-8. Check check. The turn is a 10. He bets and I call. Take a guess at the river. That's right, ace. Now I have the 3rd nuts behind Q-J and J-7. He bets $260 all-in on river. Uhhhhhhhh. I call... you win.

Then later I reraised a small raise preflop with JJ and Yee shoves all-in. Lol. He's got several hundred. I fold. A little later Yee raises preflop to $25. I make it $100 with Q-Q. Gets back to him and he shoves again. lol. I'm thinking about it(not really) and he shows me AA. I guess I fold.

I went 0-4 on open-ended straight draws late in the night that cost me. Luckily I rivered a boat with Q-10 on one of my last hands. I over bet the pot on the river. And Yee paid me off with the straight he made on turn.

This post was not to talk much in detail about my hands. But just to touch on the skill level of live players. I have seen so much bad play in my last 4 or 5 sessions. I made a $200 bet with A-10 on a 10-10-7-7-4 board and got paid off by JJ. I only bet $50 on the turn. And then decided to go for $200 on the river. Because I knew the guy was bad enough to pay me off with a seven. Little did I know he'd pay me with JJ lol. I am just a little more inspired right now to play because of some of the bad play I have seen.

I work early the next week so I may go play soon. Good luck to all.

Disappointed

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Bryant) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:23:00 +0000

I have been playing a fair bit of $3-$6 NLHE 6-max on Full Tilt. As well as some $100 heads-up matches. I've done very well with the heads-up matches. But average at best at the cash game. That's due to my play. As written on the title of this post, I am disappointed in myself. In my cash game play that is. Over the past couple of weeks I have lost way too much money in marginal situations. I could spell it out to you like this...

*I raised preflop with AA and got called by the maniac. Flop is J-9-5. The Maniac has 9-5.
*I had A-K and went broke on a A-8-5-J-A board to a set, turn boat.
*I went broke with QQ to 10-7.. Flop 9-8-x. Turn garbage. River 6.
*I raise with KK.. Get one caller.. flop 8-8-9.. I bet.. he raises.. I reraise.. he shoves..... ahhh I fold.
*Worst of all, I basically decide to coin flip for 1K. After a series of raises. One guy who just called a small raise decides to reraise.. I thought from the way he played it he probably held JJ or QQ.. and not AA or KK. I shove all-in with A-K.. in a big pot with 4 way action preflop. Get called by QQ and board bricks out. This hand I was SO upset with. I mean what the hell am I doing flipping for a grand?? It's not a tournament, I should have waited for a better spot.
*And finally today. Guy limps.. next guy raises to $27. I reraise to $70 with AA. I get cold called by the limper?? Who happens to have 67o.. And Bingo, flop is 5-8-9.

A lot of people would just call this cold-decked and write it off. Well I mean the boards were "cold-decked" but I could have saved a lot more money on these hands. Well I'm not sure about the QQ hand.. I didn't go broke there or double him up. And I was ahead until the river there. And the KK hand I probably play that close to the same. But the first AA hand, both AK hands, and the most recent AA hand... I could have folded earlier in the hand and saved myself a lot of money. Both aces hands I was in the pot with the maniac at the table. So it makes those hands even harder to lay down. But I know I should have gotten away at some point. I know better than to over-value big pairs. It's something about this Internet thing that just makes it so much easier to put it in. I'm playing those big hands way too hard. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not a tournament. The blinds aren't going up. And I know this, I know better... that's what's eating me up. 95% of my poker playing is in cash games. I hardly play any tournaments(comparatively). I know I have to pick better spots. I've folded KK preflop a few times before, and have always been correct. I don't overplay this crap. That is until recently.

I've made nice money with sets, flushes, straights, etc. recently and pissed it away with big pairs. But I know.. the first tier is your money makers. And I have to keep that in mind. I'm just writing this to vent. I'm upset with myself. A little self evaluation should do a little good for my game at least.