The Nice Guy Approach to Poker - Don't Be a Prick!

It bothers me when somebody starts mouthing off at the tables.  The little faces on carbon can set me off.  Especially when you are knocked out of a sng or tourney and the guy talking crap types in bye after they raise, you raise all in, and they call your trip aces and catch runner runner straight to take you out of the tournament.  Like they're so good.

There's no call to act like that. 

Internet tough guys make their money by tilting the other players at the table and taking them off their game. 

I make notes of these players and whenever I play them again, I usually get even by taking some or all of their chips. 

The nice guy approach is a money maker too, and you don't have to portrait yourself as an arrogant prick.  People like a friendly player at the table.  It makes the game more fun, and that's why you started playing in the first place.

People are less likely to play back at you when you you are making a move.  They might even feel a little bad if they take some or all of your chips because they are enjoying themselves and don't want that part of the game to end so soon.  They also don't feel as bad when you take their chips.

The other players that are chatting with you will kind of form an unspoken alliance, and you will start playing together to take out the pricks, without playing at each other.

This kind of play promotes poker, it is profitable, and fun.  The other pushes new players right out of the game.  It's not fun to be critisized for something you are trying to learn.  We all started because the game was fun.  We need new players to keep trying to learn, so we need the game to be fun.

Poker Maximus III Event 1 Tragedy

Tonight I went to a Junior High basketball game to watch my nephew play.  They played awesome.  He was on fire.  He drained 2 - 3 pointers and several inside the paint.  He stole the ball a lot of times.  I'm going to start calling him Swiper.  I only saw him miss 2 shots.

At the end of the first half they were up 49 - 2.  The B team played the rest of the game.  The second half they left the clock running and it was over quickly.

When I got home I saw that the Poker Maximus III Event 1 had been playing for about 2 hours.  I thought about not buying in but thought I would give it a shot since I had a ticket.  I didn't last long as the blinds were high and I didn't get any takers when I had Aces on the button. I guess I should have saved my ticket for Sunday.  Maybe Saturday I can get another ticket.

I loaded up a couple tables of Omaha H/L and played for about an hour.  I profited a little bit from that.  I was kind of annoyed at the trash talkers at the table but I was taking their money so trash talk all you want.  It just lets me know how tilted you really are.

Tomorrow evening I will be going to high school basketball to watch another nephew and my niece play.  I will be watching a lot of basketball this year.  Should be fun.  It will also get me out of the house so when I do get chances to play I will be hungry for wins.

While I was playing I watched Sons of Anarchy.  I am on the 4th season getting close to the end of the season.  It is a lot better show than I was expecting.  It is packed with suspense and cliff hangers.  I'm glad I have netflix so I could watch it in order from the beginning.

Re-building

This week I've been working on my other games skills.  I have been playing quite a bit of Omaha Hi/Low8 and have been doing well until today.  I was down from 15.00 in cash as I played a little higher limit than I am rolled for. 

I gained a little of that back then switched to PL 7-2 lowball since there were no players on .02 .04 or .05 .10 omaha.  7-2 was good to me and I was able to make up my lost ground for today.  There are huge pots in 7-2 for a .05 .10 pl game.  I saw some 20.00+ hands.

I am thinking that I am going to not hold myself to any bankroll management rules until I hit 100.00 again.  I will play what I feel comfortable playing until I hit the 100.00 mark.  If I go busto I can reload another 20.00.  I'm going to try not to do that so I guess I am kinda limiting myself.

Right now I'm working through a reload bonus and building. 

Today I did a little revamp work on the blog.  It looks a little better and should be a little more useful for me to do some monthly tracking.

PL Omaha H/L8 Night

Patience, patience, patience.  How did I lose sight of that?  That's always been my strongest asset in poker. 

Tonight I played some nl for a little bit.  I did ok.  I was triple my buy in then came back down to slightly under break even by the time I got off the table. 

I started watching some high limit games.  Omaha Hi/Low8 games were the big money games being played.  I love some omaha so I got on a .02 .04 pot limit game.  I was card dead at first but then started catching a few good starting hands and before I knew it I had 3 times my buy in. 

We had family over so I got off the computer for a while and visited.  Then got back on later to play some more Omaha.  The second game was up and down, never below my original buy in thanks to the first hand quad 9's on the flop.

I ended up getting into a 3 way all in pre-flop and taking the pot down later and finished up the night being up more than 3 times my buy in.

My new bankroll is now at 28.47.  I am up for the night.  I loaded 20.00 today and had 2.70 in rakeback from last night so I'm up a little over 5.00.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are having family over so I may only play a little bit tomorrow night.

Friday, we are heading to my parents so I probably will not play much this weekend.

I need a cool off and re-focus period. 

@%$#^&^$

Holy crap!  What was I thinking?  Or better yet, why was I not thinking.

Last night I went on a bender.  A poker bender.  I broke all the rules, played super fishy and gave all my money away.  Why don't I run into players like me.

I'm a super fish, a donk, an idiot.  Other players are right about me.  I suck.

I took 107.00 and turned it into 0 last night. 

Part of it was frustration from not being able to do anything to make money.  I was moving backwards too many days and not forwards.

I snapped.  I broke and I went broke.

Now I have to start over and try to rebuild.

I feel stupid.

But something happened in that crazy downward spiral.  I feel better about my game.  I lost hands that I should have won.   By the end I discovered patience again.  I had lost my patience and became bitter and angry at the game.  The love had disappeared.  I wanted to play but for the wrong reasons.

I discovered that love again.  Now I'm stupid in love and broke.  Not really broke, but definitely a long ways from where I want to be.  I could load a few hundred on the site and play larger games but its apparent to me that I need to learn and build as my game grows.

I loaded 20.00 and will work on building again.

Pokerowned Win

I ended up taking down a pokerowned tournament after the 109.00 tournament.  I was doing well in some other tournaments too but couldn't finish out in any of them.  I was down a few dollars on tournaments and decided to try some fixed limit cash.  In .02 .04 cash there are a lot of options for play but in .05 .10 it is pretty limited.  I ended up getting 5 tables going between lock and carbon.  I faired like I have all week in cash games.  I lost.

I saw four of a kinds twice.  Neither were mine, and the river suckouts were horrible.  Also not mine.  I did ok on one table.  I sat down at an empty table and one person joined me.  First hand I had 88.  We raised back and forth until we were all in.  He had 44.  The table ran out and I won.  He reloaded and others joined us.

My bankroll is at 107.53. 

109.00 Bounty Elite

I started playing 15 minutes late as I had to complete some things at work today and got home a little late. 

First Hour 10328 chips

My first play was calling a raise on the button with A7o.  Flop brought a 7.  He checked I checked.  Turn came an Ace.  He bet I raised.  He called.  River came and I bet half pot, he called and I took it down to increase my stack by 1000. 

My next play I had an AQ.  I raised and got two callers.  Small stack at the table went all in for 2400 more chips.  He had just lost a hand the hand prior to this one for most of his chips with AQ.  He has been playing wreckless.  I called and he had 88.  The board held for him and I was down to 8000.

I took a couple blinds then had A10d.  I raised and was called by button and bb.  Flop came KJ6 rainbow.  I checked.  Button bet 400.  I figured I would see what the turn would bring and called after the bb called.  Turn and river were J J and it was checked down.  Button had Q10, bb mucked and my A10 took it down to get me back to 10000.

Second Hour 10852 chips

Have been getting some decent cards but no callers to my raises.

Just had a big hand with Pocket 7's on the button.  There was a raise, then an all in Re-raise before me.  I called the 3000 all in.  Another player went all in for slightly less.  The original raiser went all in for slightly more chips than I had. 

I thought for a minute and went over what he had done so far in the game.  He has played from that spot several times.  My original thought was aces or kings but with the way he has been playing an Ace face card could be in his range.

I called.  He had Aces.  Another player had 97.  I was hoping for a 1 outter for my tournament life.  The 7 came on the river and I now have 24000 chips.

Nobody realises the blinds are at 150 300.  Every hand is a multi thousand bet fest.  Everybody wants to go out.  I have a whole table full of aggressors.

I've tried getting in a bunch of hands with medium pairs Ax hands but keep getting raised the hell out of the pot.  I have good notes and if I get a good hand I will play again and they will pay for their wrecklessness.  I was playing their game.  I'm going back to my game.

Third Hour

Had a good KQ hand and A10 hand that both hit on the flop.  I was able to move up to 19000 chips.

Now in 45th place.  Nobody called down to blinds.  I was in small blind with A4 and called 250 more to see flop.  BB goes all in.  I had him covered by 2000 chips and called.  He had pocket 7's.  An ace hit on the flop and my hand held the rest of the way.  Now at 36000 chips. 

Made a call with KQs for double blind.  Player after me goes all in for 8000 more.  I called.  He had QQ and held.  Down to 29000.

Finished 426th.  Just moved tables.  Raised from mid position with AQ.  Everyone folded except for bb.  He re-raised.  I re-raised.  He went all in.  I figured I had a fighting hand with him being in the bb.  I called and he had AK.  The board ran clean and he won.

Late registration just ended.  108 players are getting paid.

Time to Hit the Books

OK, I suck.  I lost 40.00 last night and another 14.00 today.  I'm down to 110.00.  I do o.k. if I just play for a little while but if I put in a long session I'm almost always a loser at the end of the day.  I should stick to tournaments on my long grind days. 

I usually do o.k. on a couple of them.  I started out with tournaments this morning and won a 18 man sng and placed 5th in a pokerowned tournament.  I was breakeven for the day until I played cash.  Then I ran set into over set and flush into full house, two pair into 3 of a kind.  Every time I thought I had an edge I was behind.  Somebody was raising every hand and when I'd 3 bet my kings, I'd get 4 bet all in for them to catch their ace.

Last night I went on Super Tilt.  I played horribly

I'm really questioning my play now.

It's time to give cash games a break and hit the books again before I break myself.

Today I did qualify for Lock Poker's 109.00 tournament tomorrow.  I also won an 11.00 tournament ticket last night that I will use for the carbon 15000 guaranteed tomorrow.

One of these times I'm gonna pull of a decent score in one of the bigger tournaments.

How Long Have We Been Without PokerStars?

Are we ever going to get pokerstars back?  I miss multitabling 180 man's, 90 man's and 45 man sng's.  I was destroying the game until black Friday hit.  It has been a huge adjustment moving to the limited games I get now.  I am down quite a few hundred dollars since then, trying to find a new way to make money on a new site.

I had always considered myself a sng and tournament player but had not given cash a chance.  Now I think I have found a game I can win at.  Cash is different because you don't have the exciting big wins.  Instead you have more steady winning days and less losing days.  Rakeback is a huge helper.  Tournaments right now are still keeping me alive but the more I learn about cash the more money I should make.

I have become a little more rounded as a poker player with adding cash to the mix.  Now I'm starting to feel more comfortable playing cash games than tournaments.

Cash games are helpful with having a family.  I can jump on and off as I need to and play shorter sessions.

Still, on the weekends I would love to have 16 tables of sng's pulled up on the screen at once, with my headphones on, listining to 99.7 the blitz or watching football.

Right now I feel comfortable 4 tabling cash, sometimes 6 tabling.  I have tried 9 tabling but I am not catching enough of what the other players are doing. 

As I continue on I should get better.  I wasn't able to 24 table sng's at first either.

Steady Grind

The wheels keep on spinning.  I am up .24 after about an hour and a half of play.  I would keep playing to try to get some more hands in but I am tired. 

Tonight after work I picked up my 2 boys and 4 of my nieces and nephews to watch.  My wife and her sister were going to a Junior High basketball tournament, then out to watch Twilight.  I was volunteered to take on babysitter duty. 

I made enchilada's and spanish rice for the kids.  They got about every toy in the house out.  It was loud and crazy.  After supper I let them run wild for another half hour wondering if I was going to make it.  Chaos is hard for me to handle.  I like the quiet. 

Finally, I had them pick up all the toys and head to the bedrooms to watch some t.v. for about a half hour until it was time for them to get picked up.

I was able to play for a little bit but now I'm wiped out.  Maybe tomorrow night I will get a good session in.  Saturday we are going grocery shopping and Sunday I have to work.

I thought once winter got here I'd have more time to play poker.  I'm still busy all the time and can't play as much as I want to.  

My bankroll at the end of tonight is 132.74.

Didn't take a win

I played an hour of cash along with a 2.00 tournament and an 18 man sng. I did well in the cash games and finished first in the sng. The last hand of the game we were about even in chips I had 8c6s in the small blind.  I called, he raised another bb.  I called.  Flop came 2 7 6 all spades as seen above.  I checked and he went all in.  I thought about it for a second and came to the conclusion that this would be a great spot to bluff for him.  I had the pair and a chance at a flush so I called.  He had QJ hearts and I won the tournament.

I was on the cusp of going out on the bubble.  I went all in twice and won both times to stay alive.  The second time gave me a chip stack to battle with and I used it to make it to 1st and 2nd.

I am going to play another hour of cash games before I go to bed. 

I played cash and was doing well on 2 tables.  Then all went to crap.  I lost my 2.00 3 times to the same guy chasing and catching on the river.  I reloaded 3.00.  Same thing, the SOB calls a huge raise again with nothing and runner runners me.  I reload 4.00 and wait on a hand.  I wait and wait and wait and nothing.  32 Q4 62 over and over.  By the time I catch a hand he has lost all my money and had .25 left.  I TOOK IT!  Everybody else had hit and run so there was no money left on the table.

I got screwed 4 big hands in a row and now the table dynamics have drastically changed. 

Finally got the small stack to play and caught a full house against his flush all in for 2.00 back.  Just stacked another bluffer for 3.00 when my AK hit 2 pair.  I bet big then small.  He went all in on the river.  Lost 3 big hands in a row with AA KK and QQ.  Another buy in for 4.00

Getting tired of players hitting and running. Chasers hitting on the river when they are betting the whole way is fricking annoying me tonight.  And it has cost me like 14.00.  It'd be one thing if they had odds or outs but its going for gutshots with no overs and things like that and catching their 3 outer to beat me.  I cashed out of that game with my buy in.

I loaded up 6 more games with half buy in's for 45 minutes and did ok.  At least I got some hands in tonight so I should get some decent rakeback.  I could have quit when I was 7.00 ahead but I kept playing and now I'm 3.00 behind where I started.  With rakeback I should be 1 or 2 dollars behind. 

I shouldn't be mad about being 3.00 behind.  You have losing sessions, but I should have killed this one.  I want to build so bad but keep running into this.  I saw an opportunity to exploit a player.  He got lucky 4 times on me and I lost.  Next time I'll get him for 4 buy ins and be super happy!

My bankroll is at 131.66

Take a Win

I took a win tonight. I needed it. I was up 7.00 after about 45 minutes of cash games so I took my win. I was playing good and all of my hands were holding up. Instead of playing more cash I decided to play an 18 man sng. That way I would still have a chance of making more money without having to risk much. My good fortune did not continue in the sng and I eventually ran AK into QQ knocking me all but out of the tournament. I finished in 7th place. I still was ahead 6.00 for the night and have a bankroll of 134.28. Today I set up a plan on when to move up to the next level and play 10.00 nl cash games. It could be a while as I will need to reach 250.00. I will have a stop loss at 200.00. With rakeback, studying and good play, I don't see why I couldn't be playing 10.00 nl by the end of this year.

Not my Night

Down 6.00 tonight. I was outkicked and outrivered. I waited for my hands and played them well only to lose to seemingly impossible odds. I did win with a KQ to KQ when mine drew out a flush. I was repaid later with the same thing when another player drew out the flush. It just wasn't my night.

Back to Work

I played all day today. The end result was being down by 2.00 after playing quite a few sng's and tournaments. The cash games kept me alive and with the rakeback I might even be up a little after today. This was my best weekend day so far. Weekends have previously killed my bankroll. I think the difference was paying attention. I listened to music but did not watch any t.v. while multi-tabling cash. When I did watch t.v. later in the day I stepped down to 1 tabling. My results could have been a lot better if I had placed in one of the freerolls or cashed in any of the sng's or tournaments. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'm kinda dreading it after being off the last week. After what I saw this last week and with having to go back to work, I want to try harder to be successful at this game. I want more. I believe my time will come if I keep putting in the time to play and learn. My bankroll at the end of today is 130.17

Weekly Update

After the last 2 weeks of play my bankroll was down around 20.00. I had 2 big freerolls today and busted out of both of them. I was 5th with 180 left on the 5000.00 exclusive freeroll but kept running into better hands and busting out to the big stack. My bankroll starting this week is 134.00. I need to keep studying and paying attention when I am playing. My limits are still 4.00 nl and 1.00 sng's and tourneys. I will play mostly cash games with a few tourneys and sng's thrown in. That will keep me from getting bored with these limits. I think cash gives me the biggest opportunity to steadily grow my bankroll.

Back from Vegas

I got back from Vegas last night. I only got into 1 tournament and only played 1 3 hour session of 1 3 nl holdem. Man has poker taken a dive in Vegas. You used to be able to get into a game anywhere at any time. This time I had to wait on lists for hours for games that I could afford that often did not start. On top of that you could not find a tournament under 100.00. We went to many different places that claimed to have a daily tournament that nobody attempted to show up for. That was sad because I went to play poker. Instead I blew way to much money on slots. I was bored in the motel room and would go down and sit at a slot machine to pass the time. Next trip I will pay the extra to take my laptop. Then when I want to play poker I can play any time. We talked about not going back next year and going to a casino between us or to Oklahoma to do a tornado chase/poker week. You used to be able to find some good deals on food out there. Now it's hard to find the good deals. We walked through casino after casino on the strip one day looking for a low cost meal. We went by shop after shop with 10.00 to 15.00 hamburgers and sandwiches before we decided once again to eat fast food. It was still a great time as Vegas usually is. One of the more memorable experiences was when we were getting back to the Riviera one time. I saw a cockroach eating a fried jalapeno. He had his foot up on the jalapeno and was mowing down. This was not the average sized cockroach either. It was about the size of the bottom of a cigarette pack. I decided to take its picture and got close with my phone. In a flash it was at the edge of the bench about to jump me. I jumped back and ran away. It was seriously protecting its food. The highlight of the trip was checking out the Encore. It was by far my favorite casino I have been in. It was so clean and fresh looking as well as colorful with its reds and whites. Next time I go back to Vegas I may look into staying there. We ate the buffet at the Wynn. That is the best food I have ever eaten. No matter what I got it was better than I had gotten any where else. What a treat. My favorite dish was Mako Shark in coconut something. Now that I am back I ha e been catching up on some poker playing. I have a couple big freerolls tomorrow but should be about break even after playing last night and this afternoon.

VEGAS BOUND

Last night I played some more one table sessions. No matter how aggressive I got I could not get the other players to gamble. I ended up losing 6.00. Tonight I did not play. We had parent teachers conferences. Tomorrow I leave for vegas for a week. I may get into tthe venetion dse. I wanted to take my laptop for some poker in the room but the airline wants to charge 30.00 for that. I will take my tablet. This is my first post from it. Hopefully this works.