Hella Hold'em

Today started out like a typical Sunday in my world... tons of stuff to finish before Monday rolls around. I had a paper to write (ayayay), a web site project to work on (which is finally almost done), and some miscellaneous school tasks - finish filling out the financial aid paperwork, etc. I was glad to finish those tasks within a few hours - much shorter than I'd anticipated. Usually those 10 page papers kill at least 4 or 5 hours right there.

Happy with my early departure from work related duties, I decided to play some poker. (Shocker!) I was doing my usual 3-table with two 25NL tables and one 50NL table on Full Tilt Poker. It was a wild and crazy ride. I was up some, down some, up big, down big. Ridiculous swings. It was getting exhausting, actually! I started thinking, what is up with me today? I'm making much more aggressive plays than usual, and some are working out fantastically while others are costing me big pots.

I had a poker bloodthirst that was bordering on recklessness. I was still playing tight preflop, but was betting big with my draws and 2nd-bests. Like I said - it was uncharacteristically bold of me. I wasn't liking the swings, but couldn't seem to stop the monster inside.

Then, it hit me. Where does bold, aggressive play and bloodthirst pay off?

In tournaments, of course!

I quickly closed out my ring games, down about $40. Add that to yesterday's -$55-ish and I was sitting at a hundred dollar loss. My playstyle wasn't adjusting, so my play location had to. Despite the fact that I started reading "Zen and the Art of Poker" last night, my mental state was about as un-Zen-like as possible.

First up: I two-tabled a $20+2 single table SnG and a $5+.50 2-table SnG on Full Tilt. I was doing well in both, and managed to finish 3rd in the $20 game. I bubbled out in 4th in the two-table game.

Net profit: +$8.50

Next up: The $20+2 SnG was empty, so I put my name on the list, and signed up for the $10+1 SnG, which was almost filled. The $10 game started, and soon after, the $20 picked up. Here we go! Next thing you know, I've got Glyphic on the rail (we're goin' to SIZZLER!), and also noticed a cool cat named Hecka-something (can't remember the rest of his name, I just called him Hecka! Cuz it's kinda like Hella) was at both of my tables. The $10 game wasn't going so well. A big semi-bluff resulted in me folding on the river and losing a big chunk of my chips. Those moments acted as mini wake up calls, and I chilled out for a bit. It got down to bubble time, and Hecka and I were in bad shape. I prayed he'd push and go out before me, but that was not the case and I ended up going out in 4th place. Good for Hecka though - he hung in there and made a bit of a comeback, finishing 2nd. (By this time we'd made friends and Glyphic and I stayed on the rail for him).

The $20 game was going better. Hecka went out in that game right before I went out in the $10 game, and I was taking some pots. I had 44 and 99 both end up hitting sets for me, two hands in a row (I think those were the pockets...), which was nice, if not statistically bizarre. Of course, with my swingy play today, it was a roller coaster ride, and I'd given away a hunk of chips on another semi-bluff to one of my opponents at the $20 table. Gotcha420 or something like that was his name - another cool cat. I like it when players are cool. Makes the game so much more enjoyable. Hecka hung around to catch the end of my game. I had a few "hey phlyer, where'd your chips go?" comments from the railbirds (told ya - it was a swingy day!) Anyway, I ended up winning the $20 SnG. W00t!

Net profit: +$57
Total profit so far: +$65.50

I decided to stop and eat some dinner (cherry pop tarts... cupboards are a little bare right now!), and then sat in one more $20 SnG on Full Tilt. End result: 3rd place.

Net profit: +$14
Total so far: +$79.50

My Full Tilt account was now back to a respectable $593, only $7 or so down from a couple days ago when I cleared my bonus. I was tempted to play some more, but figured I'd be mad at myself if I just finished repairing the damage from the last couple days only to break things again. So I logged out of FTP content to break even on the weekend.

My mind switched to Poker Stars... I had deposited $50 a few days ago to cover my WPBT WSOP Satellite buy-in (Iggy rules!), and had the remaining $17 just hanging around in my account. You can't deposit less than $50, and you can't cash out less than $50, so that money was just sitting there. What to do? Go play with it, of course!

I've been reading lately how MissT74 enjoys the turbo SnG's on Stars (I linked ya up, Tanya - no idea how I missed you before!), and my friend Scott (of the Diamond games) enjoys them as well. So, I decided to give them a shot. I signed up for the $15+1 Turbo NL SnG. Wow - are those things WILD! It fit perfectly with my frame of mind for the day. People are just running and gunning from the get-go. It felt like a bit of a whirlwind and I had to get my bearings a bit, and managed to pull out a 3rd place finish in the first one.

Net profit: +$11

What the heck, let's try another! Around this time, SirTripsMasterWaffle shows up on AIM, and I've got a virtual railbird. Tweet! (What sound does a platypus make?) After the common experience of being beat to a pulp last night in our respective poker games, sweet revenge was in the air. SirF wailed on some unsuspecting fishes, particularly those not-so-ethical ones who abuse Party Poker's disconnect protect feature to see free cards on drawing hands. Bastards! And he thought his Ace high was good. WAFFLE-IZED!

Anyway, so I started up another $15+1 Turbo SnG on Stars and went to town. It was more of the same - wild n' crazy. It got down to bubble time and I was scratching the felt. Not where I want to be, but upon unleashing my bad ass self, I picked up some blinds and won a couple pots. (Anyone who knows me should be laughing hysterically at the mere thought of a "bad ass" version of me). Next thing ya know, I'm 2nd in chips - not by much, but indeed no longer on life support. Much to my glee, an opponent got bounced on the bubble, and I'm in the money. Blinds were 400/800, and within a few hands, blinds kicked up, shorty was down to 1BB left. Eureka! I took him out and now we're heads up. I was feeling like I had a shot at winning the thing, but blinds were moving very quickly (thus the "turbo" part) at 600/1200, and with less than 5k in my stack, I didn't last long. That's OK - I took 2nd place and was happy as a clam on my mad SnG rush.

Net profit: +$24.50
Profit on Stars: $35.50

Profit from all SnG's: +$115

Wheeeeeeeee!!

With my Stars account now at $52 (not counting the already-registered $33 for the WPBT satellite), I wanted to suck that cash out of there and back into Neteller for my Vegas fund. Unfortunately, I have to wait at least 48 hours, since I only deposited the money yesterday. So, I'll wait.

What a day! I feel good going to bed with some profit and breaking even at Full Tilt. Basically, I just bought myself a freeroll into the WPBT game, and repaired this weekend's damage. Time to be profitable again! Thankfully this week at work doesn't look nearly as busy as last week was. I should get in some evening poker sessions.

With that, I think I need to go read a bit more about Zen and the art of poker!