Billy's Poker Blog

I play in $55 rebuy live tournament every Sunday at my local game. This used to be a really good tourney with 3 tables and $2,000 guaranteed for 1st but lately it has only been 2 tables. Today there were only 15 players. Payouts were 1200, 600, 300 for 1st-3rd. I had to rebuy early when my AA got cracked by 65. After the rebuy period I had a better than avg. stack. I lost a couple of hands early and got shortstacked. I pushed with K6 and the BB called with 55. He hit a 5 on the flop while I made 2 pair and I was out 8th.

On U.B. I played the $1 turbo rebuy tourney. I really like this tourney. I’ve played it 4 times in the past 2 weeks and finished 4th last week. Tonight I was the chip leader at the 1st break after I tripled up with AA. My stack never went down from there. I didn’t stay the chip leader long and actually got down to 30th or so even though I was steadily building my stack. This tourney is crazy b/c the blinds escalate every 5 min. There were 239 entries and 1st place was $273. I was in for $4 b/c I rebought at the very beginning to have double stack and then I doubled added on at the end of the rebuy period. I was able to move through the field picking up mostly uncontested pots. I played pretty tight but I did steal from some limpers preflop a few times by pushing pot sized bets to make everyone fold.

When we got down to 2 tables I hit my rush. I won a couple of big pots in a row knocking out 4 players to become the chip leader once again. I had 4 times the chips that #2 had. By this time the blinds are like $20K and $40K and I have $850K in chips so it’s all in or fold for most of the stacks. We get to the final table rather quickly. From there we got down to 3 pretty quick and the stacks are fairly even with me having the slight lead. I get QQ on the button and make a pot-sized raise and SB calls and BB folds. Flop comes 457 rainbow and I bet the pot after he checks to me. He reraises all in and I call. He is open-ended with A6. Hits his A on the turn to double up. I am now down to $200K while he has $1.6mil and other guy has about $700K. Looks bad for me after cruising this entire tourney. To make a long story short I double up twice in a row then #1 knocks out #2 and heads up lasts for maybe 3 hands and I took him out on the last hand with A7 vs. AQ when I hit my 7. Yea me.

That gets me closer to my goal of $1,000 by the end of this month on UB. I better win a big one tomorrow or the next day to get there.

I got a day off from baseball b/c of the weather so I thought I would take the chance to play some live poker. I went to a local game here in Austin. First there was a $210 buy in tourney that had about 20 people in it. I catch a lot of hands early but they always seemed to be the 2nd best. Either that or I was being bluffed but I wasn’t ready to mix it up yet b/c I felt like I was the best player at my table. Finally, I pick up AA and more than double when a guy pushes a J high flop with AJ. When we get to the final table the blinds escalate quickly and I’m under the gun with about $5,500 chips and the big blind is $600 and there are 8 people left. I decide to limp in with 77 and 2 after me raises it to $1500. I call and the flop comes 4,3,6 rainbow. The villain has me covered. Only top 4 get paid. I am pretty short so I decide this is time is as good as any to put my chips in. He calls with JJ and I’m out.

There is a 5/5 and a 5/10 cash game going on and that’s the reason I came to play anyway. The 5/10 game is full so I sit down at the 5/5 game to make it 9 handed. Long story short I tried to catch too many draws and none of them hit so I was down a couple hundred fairly quickly. Then the most aggressive player at the table who was stuck for about $1500 already makes if $45 to go and I look down at KQ of spades. He is a terrible player and he is on tilt so I make the call hoping to catch something. This was my mistake the entire day. Why just call? I should have reraised if I am going to play this pot with this guy. Because what happened by me calling? It invited the button to call. Now I don’t like my KQ near as much versus 3 people. Anyway the flop comes down Q,Q,J with 2 clubs. Original raiser is 1st to act and he makes it $100. I think for a minute. If I call then button guy may have 2 clubs or even possibly a str8 draw and I will let him in too cheap. I only have $400 behind so what would be the point of raising to just $300 so I decide to push knowing that original raiser is probably going to call from what I know about him. Well, here’s the problem. The button insta-calls. Not good, b/c he can only call with a better hand than mine. The original raiser loses it. Starts cussing and slams his AJ face up in the muck. The button guy shows AQ and I’m dead to a K and of course.

Of course most people would chalk this up as bad luck but while it may be it was still a bad play on my part. I was in middle position and I invited other people in the pot by only calling. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but my reason for being in the hand in the 1st place was to get the tilter’s money. I should have isolated him by reraising. AQ on the button would have folded. Most of the time AJ would fold to a reraise but not this guy. He was stuck and steaming and wanted to catch up quick. I would have took his stack b/c he wouldn’t been able to get away from that flop, but instead I lost my stack.

Our game broke up pretty quickly and I moved to the 5/10 game which was really a 5/10/20 game b/c most everyone was straddling. I lost my stack here when I semi-bluffed a tight player. I raised preflop with QJ of hearts and the BB just called. I flopped a flush and str8 draw with A,T,8. He bets the flop and I push all-in. He thinks for a long time and finally calls. He has KK. Very surprised he called with that knowing him. I guess me pushing set him off that I might be on a draw, but I certainly didn’t put him on KK with him just calling preflop, but it didn’t matter what he had if I hit. I don’t hit obviously and he apologizes for what he calls a terrible call. Something told him to call so I told him I thought he made a great call.

Anyway I’m down $2K for the day in cash and didn’t make anything in the tournament either. Too bad it rained otherwise I would have been coaching instead of donking money away.  Lesson for today?  Well here I am thinking that I’m this world class player, but yet I am still making amateur mistakes.  I have to get better and not lose my focus if I want to become a millionaire poker player.

I am starting this blog for self reflection.  Hopefully in the process my game will continue to improve.  Maybe in the future I will share it with others.