SUNDAY RECAP

I haven't posted in awhile. In a nutshell, I ran horribly in August. I kept trying to squeeze in a tournament here and there, but I never did well. In fact, more than once, I would find myself on the rail within ten hands. I was pressing, trying to turn around and increasingly bad month, but I just kept throwing good money after bad. It was a horrible month. I'll post the numbers soon.

I was already 0-8 and down a grand in September before Labor Day, but things did turn around for me once I got the kids off to school and got my head on straight. My first three events, I finished 2nd, 12th, and 6th. On Friday, I watched SCARFACE then played $2/4 NL for about an hour and won $500. So, the first week of school, I managed to win five grand and regained my confidence.

Today, I played my three favorite majors - PokerRoom, Poker Stars, and Full Tilt - and although I played well, my $751 was spent in vain.

PokerRoom $320: I got great cards in level one but kept getting my hat handed to me. The worst defeat was when I flopped the nut straight in a multiway pot holding T8d. The flop came Jh9d7h. There was a some action in front of me and I put in a healthy raise from late position. There were enough players active in the pot that I figured there must be a heart draw out there. I made a bet to make chasing it prohibitively expensive, but still found two callers.

The turn brought the 4d offering me a diamond draw to go with my made straight. The first guy checked and the second guy made a minimal bet of $60, hoping to see a cheap river. I made it $600 and he made the call. I could have gone all in at that point I suppose, but I had already made one and now I was making a second huge bet to discourage any heart draw. The sandwiched guy folded. He later said that he had QJh and laid it down to the venerable DudeSeeg. When the $60 guy called, I figured he must have a set because it was the only thing that made sense. The river brought a baby heart and when he checked to me, I made a value bet of $500 so that he would call with his set. He called and showed 54h to steal the huge pot. Not very well played by him but always nice when it works out.

Soon after, I flopped Kxx holding AK and folded on the river once there were four clubs on board. I just couldn't buy a break. I bowed out in level four with my short stack when I pushed into two limpers from the big blind holding AQ while limper number one was trapping with aces.

Stars $216: My $2500 became $2100 before the good stuff started happening. I built up to just under $6k when I got busted by a bigger stack and his 12% longshot. I had raised the last two pots and won both uncontested, then I woke up with aces in second position. I raised again and hoped that somebody was going to look me up this time. Third position bumped my $450 to $1250 and it folded around to me. I considered my options and decided to push my entire stack in, figuring he might want to play sheriff. I was right - he instacalled with AKh. Too bad for me, he made his flush and made off with the $12k pot. That was a bummer, but the bright side is that at least I was busting out on a bad beat like the good old days rather than donking out like so often in August.

Tilt $215: I got seated at table one with my old pal, Andy Bloch. We reminisced about the AJs v AJo hand in which he doubled thru me with his 2% shot. There were two early hands in which I raised a family pot from the small blind holding JJ. The first time I got no callers, then the second time I got one caller who folded on the flop. Then in level two, a similar situation came up when Bloch raised from late position and was called by the button. I raised again from the small blind, this time with KK. Both opponents called the $600. The flop was K93 rainbow which pretty much guaranteed me no action unless somebody had an underset or was getting tricky with aces. I could have easily given a free card but I figured it would too suspicious to check in that spot so I made a weak bet of $750 into a $2k pot. I was hoping Andy had either 99, AA, or AK, but no luck - both players folded and I had to content myself with a nice haul without a bounty attached.

Bloch wound up getting stacked by Peter Nordberg who showed up with a healthy stack. Bloch called all in with AKs and couldn't draw out on Nordberg's queens. About twenty minutes later, I took a monster chunk out of Nordberg's stack. he rasied from early position and there was a caller and I called from the small blind with 77. The big blind also called. The flop came QJ7 favoring diamonds. I loved the flop because I could make a play at the pot and it would look as if I was on any of numerous draws. I checked and the BB checked and Nordberg tossed in $800 to take it down. I figured him for KK or AA. When it got back to me, I shoved in my entire $5k stack, a massive overbet which I hoped he would assume is a straight or flush draw. He made the call and showed KK, drawing slim. This gave me a $10k stack and I went into lockdown for the next half hour.

After a slew of folding, on the next hand I played, I lost a race which knocked me down to $6k. I went back to folding until I picked up AA in early position. I raised to $600 and found a caller in late middle position, another caller in late position and the big blind came in for good measure. The flop came 766 favoring clubs. I knew at least one of these jokers had an overpair, so I checked and let the next guy make a $2500 pot-sized bet with his 88. The TT in late position called, then the big blind guy went all in with his $2700. I came over the top all-in and the eights called although the tens folded. Too bad for me the blind squirrel was sitting on A6 and made off with the bulk of the pot. I made a little bit from the guy with eights and basically broke even on the hand. I would much have preferred a triple up. The only way A6 wins that hand is if two sixes flop. I probably would have just folded preflop if I had been in his spot.

After that, things just spiralled downward. I couldn't win a pot and my chips eroded to the point where I got short-stacked and had to keep pushing in until I finally ran into a pair of kings which took me out. One of these Sundays, all the breaks are going to go my way and I'm going to have a five or six digit payday.