Metro Donkathon

Help me out here.... should I not even bother playing LIVE ring?

I just played 25P/50P cash games in Metro and bought in for P5,000.

The table was full of full fledged MANIACS and I do mean MANIACS . A raise of 15 BB would get 2-3 callers. I didn't like the table but I felt that flopping the nuts would do the trick here.

So I limp in with 8-9o in a very rare unraised pot. Flop comes down 5-6-7 and I check. MP bets P500 and gets 3 callers. I raise all-in and surprise surprise every single caller CALLS me. 2 Flush draws and one holding a 4 for crying out loud. No one improves and I net a P15,000 pot. Not bad this is going to be easy....

Or so I thought. A few hands later I get dealt AK. I raise 8 BB and get 2 callers. Flop comes A-Q-8 rainbow and I bet the pot. I get one caller and turn comes 3 so I bet 3/4 pot and still a call. River is a 6 and I put the guy all-in. He instacalls and shows Q-6. Ok ok fluke but that hits my stack for 5K.

I also saw one hand with one raise to P300 and a limp reraise to P1,200 from UTG (obvious play right). Guy calls and flop comes A-10-4 with 2 spades. UTG doesnt slow down (he holds AA) and bets the pot of P2,000 (maybe scared of the draw but I'd slow down here and have LAG player hang himself). The initial caller throws his cards face up 8c-5c and says "no draw". What in heaven's name is going on??? How can I even put anyone on anything with everyone calling 3X reraises!?!

Last major hand I get dealt JJ. I limp UTG for P50 and MP raises P500 and 2 more callers. I decide I want to isolate... I raise all-in ON TOP for P10,000...

EVERYONE CALLS the freaking all-in and the hands show up AK, Q-J and A9s. The flop comes K-K-3 and the turn and river completes the flush for the A9s guy. I understand the call of the AK guy but everyone else????

My point.... how the hell can I even play poker when almost everything degenerates into a bingo game??? Playing deep stack BINGO like this has too much variance written all over it.

The Power of Coaching

October has been a pretty strong month for me. I have broken the $2,000 mark in my bankroll and slowly making my way to the $1/$2 limits.

My game has improved tremendously the past few weeks and I attribute it to 2 of my friends who I have introduced the game to! They both had started online poker (with me being the beneficiary of the referral bonus) and I am helping both of them in their game. Usually on the weekends they would troop over to my shop and all 3 of us would grind out for a few hours and discuss how we played.

I have also monitored and coached their actions at the lower limits and it was amazing that I was making a lot of correct moves.... all with THEIR money! Apparently if I wasn't blinded by tilt or pressure, the decisions were becoming easier.

They weren't the only people benefitting from my coaching as my own game has improved considerably as well. I also got a chance to study Ring from $.5/$1 down to the microstakes level which gives me perspective on the gameplay changes between levels.

Overall its a win-win-win situation for me with referral bonuses, friends to talk to about online poker and improving my own personal game.

Hmmmm maybe I should start a cult or something....

Miscalculation

Thanks to Atty Bubba for pointing out that I ws being way too aggressive with my strategy. I was calculating with only 40BB in mind and when I took a look at how much bankroll I would need with a full stack of 40 buy-ins I realized how seriously underfunded my bankroll was for this level.

It makes sense since the pressure was more then I was comfortable with and has caused my concentration and nerves to dip.

I have gone back down to the 50c/$1 tables and had suffered 2 devastating beats. AA vs opponents KK spiking it on the river and JJ vs 99 on a J-Q-A-10-8 board lol.

The beats hurt but it was reassuring to know that it was nowhere as painful as if it had happened at the $1/$2 limits.

Thanks for the comment bro! Grinding it out at least to maybe $2,400 before moving up. Sigh.... so far away....

$1/$2 Move

On September 29 I had reached $1,600 on my bankroll and given that it is now at 40 buy-ins of the $1/$2 tables (at 40BB per table) I have gone ahead and decided to move up. My move down rate would be 30 buy-ins which means I would move back down if I went down to $1,200.

It has started out pretty rocky across 3 sessions of 3 tables at a time. The results are:

Starting Bankroll - $1,510.9 (with a $50 bonus coming and close to $80 in rakeback)

Session 1 - $1,582.65 (+$71.75)
Session 2 - $1470.05 (-$112.6)
Session 3 - $1,310.00 (-$160.05)

Tilt has been a serious factor as I had started both losing sessions with either a bad decision or a bad move. I had called a short stack's all-in move with 9-9 where he showed Q-Q. Not exactly sure why I called as I am either in a race of completely dominated by short stack shoves since I know the range of the player who was pushing.

Another one was I had played for my entire stack with A-10 in an unraised pot. Board was 8-9-A-2-6 and I still played until the end. looking back, there was absolutely NO HAND I could beat except for a complete bluff given my opponent was calling on all streets. My opponent shows A-J and I lose my stack.

No beats but the pressure is there when you move up. All the stakes are higher and the mistakes are exponentially felt. Am going to stick to this though.... I am going to need to take some pain and become better or I am going to have to get contented winning peanuts at the lower levels.

Am Back!!!!!

Took a long break from poker and played some World of Warcraft for a few months.

Nothing beats earning an extra $1,000 a month though so am back to my old tricks! Started out with a $100 deposit and so far I have run it back up to $1,530 the last month with a few loans to some friends amounting to another $200.

Currently running at the 50c/$1 tables again and it seems to be my bread and butter as the game is pretty soft with a lot of weak maniacs who are easy to trap. I am seeing JackCadillac on the tables too and it's good to see a friendly avatar (except when he's taking my money).

Am trying to make my way up to at least $2,000 before I try and move up to $1/$2 again. I have been able to get to that level twice but have always moved down due to some truly horrendous runs so maybe the third time is indeed the charm.

I will try to update this ancient blog once a week so give me a shoutout in the comments section. It kinda helps to know that some of the bloggers are still online.

Go 11 Finger!

I just passed by the metro to check out who made the final table and lo behold, my first day tablemate and friend 11finger sits there with a monster stack!

heard some truly twisted and sick stories about the bubble time but I will let him tell it to you guys on his blog.

3 words bro..... BURGER! BURGER! BURGER!

Metro 2M Tournament Report

First Break

Here at the frog after the first break and thought to write how I am doing which would hopefully give me some clarity.

I had some pretty good hands for the early part of the tournament but unfortunately I wasn't getting paid on any of them.

I had gotten a royal flush which only got in a measly 1,500 chips and another hand I folded pre-flop with A-9 which would have turned quad 9s.

I had also gotten great starting hands that came up one card short of allowing me to triple up. I had called a small raise with 9-9 and the flop came K-J-7 rainbow. Pot bet got me out and turn brought the 9. The pot became massive versus K-J 2 pair and AA which won in the end when the board paired the 7. Sigh what could have been!

These cards, although good got me a little tilting which is weird. Then came the fateful hand where I held J-J where there was a raise and reraise. Auto fold right? Of course not I was running hot and called. Flop was rags and I bet the pot and my opponent raises all-in. I called covering him and he had KK which held up.

Reduced my starting stack of 15,000 to 12,300 (had it all the way up to 22K) so still in there. Need to get my mind on track.... I am playing soooo badly but getting really lucky. That's always a bad combination as it never holds up in consistency.

Let's see how this comes along.

Second break.... NOT

Well that was quick. Blinds now at 300-600 with antes of 100. I got blinded down to 8500 given I had absolutely no playable hands along with early raises which I couldn't reraise. First time it comes to me unraised I push all-in with 4-4 and 11finger calls me down with 10s. No miracle card for me and I am out.

If anything, I just realized my live game sucks so bad now. Gotta get out of the online thinking...