It was a wild ride on the poker rollercoaster today. I played three sessions--one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one this evening--for a total of about 3 hours on the virtual felt. Six Flags Over Texas has nothing on the whoop-dee-doos I encountered today. Here’s how it all went:
The Rollercoaster Goes Up. I started out a smidge over eighty dollars in the bankroll (which is coincidently the target for this hot month of July) in the morning and decided to try my luck at a $3.40 SnG. I was incredibly patient, playing a tight-aggressive style, and getting off of losing hands with aplomb. Within thirty minutes we were at four players, but then it took an additional twenty to pop the bubble. There was one big stack dominating the action, and three others of us just trying to keep our noses above water at T2000 or so. We each took turns getting down to a handful of chips (yours truly was down to T800 at one point with the blinds at 100/200). Fortunately, I persevered and squeaked back into the money. Then a funny thing happened; the big stack (who was at something like T9500) clicked his “Sit Out” button and let me and the other player at the table duke it out for second place. My opp was coincidently from the nearby town of Sahuarita and was very chatty once he saw I was from Tucson. In fact, I think he was more excited about playing a fellow Arizonan than winning the game. Too bad for him, because in short order I picked up a couple of monster hands and eliminated my fellow desert dweller. The big stack didn’t realize we finished so quickly, however, and I attacked his dead hand relentlessly. Pretty soon I was nearly even with him… but then he woke up. And boy was he pissed. This was good news for me, as he basically went on tilt and I scored a quick $13 win when he pushed all in with 87s against my pair of tens. Woo hoo!
The Rollercoaster Goes Down. In the afternoon session I multi-tabled 2-3 games of $.25/.50 limit at the same time. Two hundred hands of poker in about one hour. I played tight-aggressive poker, had great patience, made good reads…. and got KILLED. Every top pair, top kicker hand I had got beat, every flush and straight draw went bust, and every small pair failed to turn into a set. The good news was that it could have been worse. I managed to get away from some truly horrendous beats and saved a few bucks in the process. The bad news is that those few bucks I saved didn’t even come close to making up for the rest of the bloodshed. All in all, I dropped over $25 in that one single hour! Ouch. A new record in downward variance. Man, did this one hurt. I found myself slipping from over ninety dollars in the morning to well under seventy in the afternoon. This really shook my confidence, too, and I could feel myself going on tilt. Fortunately, I managed to get up and walk away. Good thing I did, too, as I imagine it would have been an even bigger bloodbath, given my mental state. Not fun at all.
The Rollercoaster Goes Up Again. Around eight o’clock in the evening, I worked up the courage to try again. Arghgh. My evening session started out inauspiciously, with me losing a quick $3.40 in a SnG, busting out in fifth place after a long slugfest where I basically got zero cards and was lucky to last as long as I did. On the positive side of things, however, I concurrently played a $.25/.50 limit game and made a fairly tidy profit of ten bucks. The secret to this limit winning session were the two fish sitting to my left, who basically would call down to the river with just about any two cards. I just had to wait for moderately strong hands and then ride them to the river. One guy would chase with losers like King-high, hand after hand. The sharks at the table (including this bug) feasted merrily until the two fish swam away. I then plinked away at a couple of $.10/.20 games to wind down, posting a decent profit and ready to quit, down a couple of bucks from my original day’s starting ‘roll of $80. Fate had different plans for me, however, as the last hand of the day found me with a pair of black tens and--miracle of miracles--hitting my set on the flop. The scary news was there were two diamonds on board and four players heading into the turn. Fourth street was a blank, so I fired into the pot and got two callers. The river was a third diamond, but miraculously it also paired the board, giving me full house. I bet and got raised, I re-raised and the guy with the ace-high flush capped. The $4+ pot pushed me back up over the day’s starting bankroll amount, with my final tally coming in at $81.60.
Three hours work for a buck twenty. Wow. Who says poker ain’t profitable? Seriously, this was a heart-pounding day, and I have to admit my emotions were all over the map, ranging from “I’m the greatest” after my morning session, to “I hate poker” after the afternoon games, to “Okay, I don’t suck quite as bad as I thought” when I wrapped things up this evening. Up and down, down and up. Poker can be one friggin’ wild ride. But that’s why we like it, right? Right.
All-in for now…
-Bug
The Rollercoaster Goes Up. I started out a smidge over eighty dollars in the bankroll (which is coincidently the target for this hot month of July) in the morning and decided to try my luck at a $3.40 SnG. I was incredibly patient, playing a tight-aggressive style, and getting off of losing hands with aplomb. Within thirty minutes we were at four players, but then it took an additional twenty to pop the bubble. There was one big stack dominating the action, and three others of us just trying to keep our noses above water at T2000 or so. We each took turns getting down to a handful of chips (yours truly was down to T800 at one point with the blinds at 100/200). Fortunately, I persevered and squeaked back into the money. Then a funny thing happened; the big stack (who was at something like T9500) clicked his “Sit Out” button and let me and the other player at the table duke it out for second place. My opp was coincidently from the nearby town of Sahuarita and was very chatty once he saw I was from Tucson. In fact, I think he was more excited about playing a fellow Arizonan than winning the game. Too bad for him, because in short order I picked up a couple of monster hands and eliminated my fellow desert dweller. The big stack didn’t realize we finished so quickly, however, and I attacked his dead hand relentlessly. Pretty soon I was nearly even with him… but then he woke up. And boy was he pissed. This was good news for me, as he basically went on tilt and I scored a quick $13 win when he pushed all in with 87s against my pair of tens. Woo hoo!
The Rollercoaster Goes Down. In the afternoon session I multi-tabled 2-3 games of $.25/.50 limit at the same time. Two hundred hands of poker in about one hour. I played tight-aggressive poker, had great patience, made good reads…. and got KILLED. Every top pair, top kicker hand I had got beat, every flush and straight draw went bust, and every small pair failed to turn into a set. The good news was that it could have been worse. I managed to get away from some truly horrendous beats and saved a few bucks in the process. The bad news is that those few bucks I saved didn’t even come close to making up for the rest of the bloodshed. All in all, I dropped over $25 in that one single hour! Ouch. A new record in downward variance. Man, did this one hurt. I found myself slipping from over ninety dollars in the morning to well under seventy in the afternoon. This really shook my confidence, too, and I could feel myself going on tilt. Fortunately, I managed to get up and walk away. Good thing I did, too, as I imagine it would have been an even bigger bloodbath, given my mental state. Not fun at all.
The Rollercoaster Goes Up Again. Around eight o’clock in the evening, I worked up the courage to try again. Arghgh. My evening session started out inauspiciously, with me losing a quick $3.40 in a SnG, busting out in fifth place after a long slugfest where I basically got zero cards and was lucky to last as long as I did. On the positive side of things, however, I concurrently played a $.25/.50 limit game and made a fairly tidy profit of ten bucks. The secret to this limit winning session were the two fish sitting to my left, who basically would call down to the river with just about any two cards. I just had to wait for moderately strong hands and then ride them to the river. One guy would chase with losers like King-high, hand after hand. The sharks at the table (including this bug) feasted merrily until the two fish swam away. I then plinked away at a couple of $.10/.20 games to wind down, posting a decent profit and ready to quit, down a couple of bucks from my original day’s starting ‘roll of $80. Fate had different plans for me, however, as the last hand of the day found me with a pair of black tens and--miracle of miracles--hitting my set on the flop. The scary news was there were two diamonds on board and four players heading into the turn. Fourth street was a blank, so I fired into the pot and got two callers. The river was a third diamond, but miraculously it also paired the board, giving me full house. I bet and got raised, I re-raised and the guy with the ace-high flush capped. The $4+ pot pushed me back up over the day’s starting bankroll amount, with my final tally coming in at $81.60.
Three hours work for a buck twenty. Wow. Who says poker ain’t profitable? Seriously, this was a heart-pounding day, and I have to admit my emotions were all over the map, ranging from “I’m the greatest” after my morning session, to “I hate poker” after the afternoon games, to “Okay, I don’t suck quite as bad as I thought” when I wrapped things up this evening. Up and down, down and up. Poker can be one friggin’ wild ride. But that’s why we like it, right? Right.
All-in for now…
-Bug
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