Saturday, September 23, 2006

Long time, no post ...

I found myself taking a break from poker early last week (week of the 11th). Then, I as I was preparing to take a trip, I got quite sick. I did not take the trip and did not play much poker either from Thursday night-Tuesday. I finally felt a bit better Wednesday.

I played a bit recently. I had a small cash in a PLO tourney but screwed up when I thought I could get a guy off of his AAxx on a missed flop. More doable in cash games, but not in tourneys. I felt I played well and want to play more PLO tourneys - I have one first even in a paradise PL omaha tourney. Part of me wants first places in a limit holdem tourney, as well as an O8 tourney just to do it, lol.

I played a big limit tourney Friday but only made it about half way through. I never got AA-JJ, and got TT only to run into KK, so I am happy about my overall play given the cards.

The past couple days I have been playing PL omaha cash games and have been on a roll. Reads are just working right for me, making the right plays, and playing appropriately tight. I think I have a bit of luck on my side too, as I have had my hands hold up and I won one time when me and another player each went all in w top 2 pair (J7) but I had QJ87 and he had JTT7 and I hit an 8 on the river to win the entire pot. PL Omaha is such a fun game, because it is a game where the nuts are needed more often. But, because of that, there is some bluffing where you can represent a draw that hits. It can't be done too often, but it is deep with strategy. Like all games, the strategies that work are very opponent dependant. In the past I have found that I could crush the $0.50/$1.00 PLO games ($100 buy in) but not the $1/$2 blind games. I am itching to try the higher games again, however, after this recent success.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Not much poker the past few days.

I am down in SH limit, though, over the past several days. I think I have a bigger leak than I thought, but I am not certain what it is. Perhaps it is just variance, but I am breaking from it for a few days. I am looking forward to more coaching - but that likely won't happen for a couple weeks given my schedule.

I am up in PL Omaha and Sit n Gos, which essentially makes me even for the past 4-5 days or so.

The nice part of the way I approached the game is there are many games I can play relatively well when I am not doing great in one type of game. The bad news is I am not a star in any area. For example, nside is an amazing limit player. His proficiency probably results from the fact that his skill set makes him more likely to successful in limit (that is according to him, although he is quite good in other games), but in large part because his main focus for most of the time he has been playing has been limit. Another example is Tall Paul - who has focused on tournaments with amazing results. Part of me wonders what my game would be like if I focused only on one game ...

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Random comments

I have been really busy recently, so I apologize for not posting more frequently.

Tall Paul from ITH is amazing. When a few breaks hit an incredible player, the results are amazing, as he has cashed for about $50,000 in the past 2 weeks.

SH limit has incredible variance. I am enjoying it (for the most part), although I still think my game has "holes".

I took 9th in the party $33 tourney on Sunday (only a modest cash, unfortunately). I was doing great and was playing my A-game. As the 2nd chip-leader with 2 tables left, I ran JJ into the chip leaders AA. I actually think I played the hand pretty well to only lose half my stack, but that hit hurt. I think without that loss I probably get to the final 4 or better. Overall, I was thrilled with how my game adjusted to various situations.

I have been working on my tourney game - mainly on when to be tight and when to be loose. I think the results are starting to pay off, but MTTs have such a high-variance it is tough to know for sure.

School is back in and I am teaching again - I am really lucky to have a job I love, a family I love, and a hobby that I love and that is lucrative.