Hella Hold'em

I've been running quite well in the $20 SnG's on Full Tilt the past couple weeks - so much so that I thought maybe I should stick to those online, since the low limit cash games seem to kill me. Then, for some reason, I got the itch to play some ring games. What I really had an itch for was to go to Empress, since Wednesday nights are my 2nd most profitable nights there, but I got home a little too late, and some Chinese food made me thankful that the bathroom is nearby the computer at home. Not so at Empress.

So I pulled up Full Tilt Poker and went against my urges; I started a $20 SnG. I was reminded quickly why I hate playing the first hand. I limped into a 4-way pot with pocket 9's and flopped 2nd set. I bet the pot on the flop, and got called. There was a K onboard as well, so I put the guy on a pair of kings. (There was no raise preflop). Long story short, turns out he limped with KK and flopped top set. Sets are gold, right? Jebus Priced. Out in 9th place on the first hand.

My rule is, bust out early in 2 SnG's in a row, and I'm done with SnG's for the day. So, I tried another. Was it an omen that the first person to bust out in that tourney was again, set over set on the first hand? In the second hand, I had AA in position on my lone opponent. The board was Q-J-4-2, and he called my bets all the way. I had notes on him that he liked to chase, and his stats in Poker Tracker were those of a loose/passive calling station. I put him all in on the turn. He called with his gutshot straight draw, and hit. We had the same amount of chips (being only the second hand of the game), and I was out in 8th place.

I hate hate hate playing big hands early. They're just soooo not worth it compared to the value of the blinds. However, doubling up early almost guarantees that I make the money (in my experience), so I don't avoid playing if I've got a monster. Play to win, right?

I should have logged off for the night, but was really in the mood to play, so I pulled up a 3/6 limit holdem table. There I found DonkeyPuncher and a cool cat named Oven. I chatted with the boys and caught up on my blog reading while single-tabling the 3/6 game. This proved only as more evidence as to why I have much more success when I multi-table and focus strictly on the games I'm playing, as opposed to single table while reading or responding to email or other non-poker-related tasks. I got myself stuck pretty quickly, falling in love with top pair too often and calling too much. (In my defense, I was running into wacky 2-pairs left and right, but still... I was calling too much. Calling down with QJ on a J-high flop is not the smartest thing in the world. KJ beats me, AJ beats me, sets beat me, and the variety of 2-pair combinations all beat me, and still I called called called).

I realized I was bleeding profusely, and closed down Bloglines and opened up a 2nd 3/6 table. This helped my focus, and I was doing alright on both tables for a while. DP then bid me farewell, taking a nice profit off of the table, and I hunkered down to make back my losses. Then came just plain ol' bad luck. At one point, I told Randy, "If one more dumbass calls down my bets with a gutshot and catches, I'm going to scream." (Of course they were calling without odds to chase the river - and of course, that's where the miracle card always came). Such is life in poker, though, and I eventually gave up, $150 in the hole and quite dejected.

I have an hour and a half before I need to leave for work today, and I think I'm going to hit up FTP and get some of my money back.