Cash Game or SNG?

Before I move on to the main topic of conversation, I must pause and blow my own trumpet for a minute. Never have I seen anything like this before, such a momentous occurance, so I must tell the world.

Is it that I managed to lose my connection just as a SNG was about to start, and manage to finish 3rd without playing a hand (thanks to Rosie)? Oh no, much better than that.

I sit down in a 5£ SNG and am the BB for the second hand. I check with K9.
Flop is K x x, so I bet 75 chips and get 1 caller. turn is another K, so I bet half my stack, again he calls. River is an 8. I move all in and my opponent calls and turns over K8. Doh! I'm left with 30 chips.

Damn. Not the best start, a bit unlucky, but there you go these things happen. Few hands later get dealt 22 and think, ah well, not much more to lose and push all my chips in. 6 or 7 callers see a flop of 2 x x (can't remember the other cards, just the 2!) and I take a side pot of about 230 chips. From here on, the next few hands took me on a run on dream proportions. Firstly my all-in with KQ had a caller who lost with low pair to a K on the flop, then my AKs got a caller of A9s and I doubled up without either of us hitting, then my pocket 10's were called by AQ for me to double up again. Just when I thought, I can get in the money here, dealt AA and an opponent before me moves all in with his 750 or so chips! I have about 1700 now, so push them all in and get another caller. My aces stand up and now I'm over 4000 chips.

The stuff of dreams. A bit like scoring the winning goal in the world cup final, I think. I go on and win the tourny to many congrats from my opponents. I accepted their comments with humility and graciousness, but to be fair, the run of cards I had did not require a difficult decision making process. Can anyone beat this, down to 30 chips and winning?

Just a small point to make on the payments of these £ SNG, rather than the $ ones. If you play an Inter £5 plus 60p SNG, you are debited with 10.15$ from your account at Inter's rate of exchange. I placed 2nd in mine and noticed that they only credited my account with 26$ (£15 prize at the same rate of exchange would be almost 30$). A little naughty I think and have e-mailed them for an explanation. I've placed in 5 SNG in the last few days so this would amount to about 20$ had the same rate of exchange been used. Hmmmmmm.

Been playing a lot of SNG's lately and went on a run of 4 £5 tournies placing in only one (3rd), as I only got 17$ back from an outlay of 41$ left me down. Playing on a 50$ buy in and leaving after losing 30$ to pocket 9's taking my aces down - and my Inter challenge had taken a bashing and was down to $299. OK, still good I know but 74$ down from the peak.
And I was thinking I've been playing too many SNG and not enough cash games. I used to see SNG's as a good distraction if you like, and the banter with Acorn, Rosie et al makes it enjoyable, but I don't think I'm gonna hit my 1000$ challenge playing SNG's all the time. Or am I?

Maybe if I could multi table SNG's (with an average time of 30mins at Inter) I could play 4 an hour. If I could emulate Acorn's recent run of placing 8 out of 10 times, this would return a healthy profit around the 70$ mark. Can I earn 70$ on a cash table for 2 hours? Not very often at all. Maybe more thought needs to be given to these.....

On a more positive note, hit a £1 limit table this morning whilst playing a couple of SNG (bubble boy in one and won the other) and quit £20 ahead, so my Inter account has recovered to 355$. I have set myself the target of breaking 400$ tonight.

We're off to the park shortly, then Cathy is going out this evening so once I've fed and put Mia to bed, it's a poker and footy night. Looking forward to a couple of the games today, as the world cup hits the real business stages. Don't want to think too much about England's game tomorrow, I think they'll win it, but don't have any confidence in them going any further.

So, to be or not to be, SNG or cash game, that is the question.

What to Do?

Very strange day today, was my final interview for a very big job, and I am one of two candidates left. The other guy has much more experience than me, but apparantly isn't a very good people's person, which is one of my strenghts. Over the years I have learnt that you get more done by being nice to people, rather than slamming your fists on the desk and demanding it be done 'now, right now!!'

My job involves a lot of people management, and getting the most and the best out of them involves being respectful and endearing yourself to people, rather than aggressively demanding. I find I get 110% out of people because they respect me too, rather than them doing what I ask out of fear.
So we will see how things go, but I think I did really well, and it's now up to someone else to make the decision.

Driving home, I got to just around the corner from where I live and pulled up at a queue of cars at a junction. Sat almost right next to me, on a wall, was a girl crying. I had to look twice to make sure she wasn't laughing, with a phone pressed to her ear. But she was clearly crying and shaking, with a tissue pressed to her cheek.
I know most of the kids in my immediate neighbourhood, having played football, cricket or just waterfights with them on the street or at BBQ's or just having a mess about, but I didn't recognise this girl at all. I'd say she was about 13, but doing some voluntary work with kids, it is very hard these days to put kids at an age. (As a friend will testify, who came very close to bedding a 21 year old he met at a night club, only to find out she was still 14. Fortunately he found out in time.)

What do you do in these cases? Had it been a child I knew, I would have stopped the car where it stood without hesitation and took them home. I didn't know this girl and wondered how she might take it if a stranger pulled over and asked if she was OK and offered his mobile phone if she needed to call someone. Already hysterical, would I make it worse, or would the dumped boyfriend be around the corner ready to take his frustration out on me? What if another driver also stopped as he thought 'a single bloke in his car stopping to grab a young girl' All these thing crossed my mind of why I shouldn't stop and check she was OK.

And you know what? I didn't stop. I drove home and did nothing. I hope the poor girl was OK, and it was nothing more than a falling out with a friend, or an argument with her mum. But I can't help feeling how bad society has become today, when there are more reasons to drive away, than to check a fellow member of the human race needs a hand. And I still feel bad about it.

So got home, played with Mia, cooked Cathy and I one of my famous Chilli's, then heard that a friend's child had been poorly and wanted to do something to help, but really there is nothing but a little time that will help. And a mothers loving care of course, which I know the little one will get.

So I'm off to the tables where I hope my mood will improve as well as my pot balance :-)

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

After a what seemed like the longest session of poker I have embarked upon (8pm - 1.30am), I left Acorn and Rosie at it on the tables (so to speak...) and headed for bed. It had been a good night overall, playing in 4 SNG's with them, joined at some point by The Edge and Juice, and managed to win 2, come second in one and flunked the other. Played and won 2 more this morning, so the SNG's were showing a profit and I'm really on a roll at Inter after my poor start.

Had a good time on the tables too, with my str8 beating trips to take a big pot, then went on one of those runs where, even if I bet lowest pair, I'd match my second or hit a third and take down the player with top pair. These runs are fantatsic when you are on them, and I quit at my peak before I got to cocky. Sometimes, that feeling of 'can't do wrong' breeds poor calls you wouldn't normally make, and the pot starts to dwindle, so I left before this happened.

Had an interesting chat with Rosie and Acorn last night about luck, and the part this plays in our game. We'd had a party at the house in the afternoon to celebrate Cathy's parents Ruby wedding anniversary (40 years of marriage!) and by 8pm, the crowd was dwindling and the footy came on and I was left in the front room (of the east wing) with them both. The topic of conversation turned to Poker as they asked me how things were going.

'You've been playing a while now, you must be getting good' they said

So began a thought process that took me through all aspects of my game,. Even the times I know I've made poor calls and played like an idiot, to the times when I've played a hand so well and gotten maximum calls from my opponents. Am I getting good, or is it all just luck?
Luck that you hit your hand, even more luck that someone else has also hit a big hand (but not as big as yours) or just luck that the river gave you your straight or flush to knock off a set?

For sure, lady luck plays a massive part in this game, and we've all seen both sides of her at various times. But just how much is luck the over-riding factor? Rosie made a good point when she said that, as I've been playing for 18 months, luck has nothing to do with it as this will have evened itself out over that time frame.
Sat at a the table last night and seeing flush draws hit, gutshot str8's hit, trips hitting the river - all in my favour and I was getting more than my fair share of luck. Occasionly, the 'nice hand' and 'well played' was typed in, and I was close to replying sometimes 'it was an ace high flush, my daughter could play that', but I didn't and accepted their congrats graciously. Does this run make me a better player? There were times when I'd bet the pot with nothing and everyone would fold as they'd seen my run of cards - that bit was good play on my part, taking advantage of what others fear I may have. So I guess a combination of the two are essential ingredients to the consistent poker player.
Acorn summed it up with his final comment along the lines of 'buy something for the family with your poker winnings and see how that makes you feel'.

Update on the Inter account after last night / this mornings SNG play - $276. Poker Room suffered a setback when my pocket 8's on a 8 9 2 flop, ran into pocket 9's - and this has knocked me back down to 590$. An hour at Titan saw this improve to 210$.

On a final note, if the football is becoming a but tiresome as we head to the the halfway mark in games, click here for a bit of footy humour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaFm47lsL2g

When Not To Slow Play

After a topsy turvy night at the Inter tables and a steady, break even night at Poker Room, want to talk about a hand and how it was played.

Before, a little background. Having a pretty bad night after AA got taken down by lower pockets 4 times in about 20 mins, so my Inter stack was about 50-60$ down. One hand at Poker Room cost me 50$ after flopping a set of Kings and losing to a flush on the river. Then, was invited to a few SNG's with Rosie, Acorn Man and The Edge, which ws enjoyable, if a little strange playing with a few people you know. Broke even after a second place finish in one, and nothing in the other two, but enjoyed the chat and banter that went with it.

Clawed myself back to even at Poker Room, and was in the process of doing so at Inter, when the following hand happened.

1$ PL Table
On the button, dealt Ah Kh. Raise to 5$ and get three callers (ouch, I thought at the time)

Flop is As Ks 4s. Good and bad at the same time, 2 pair but with three spades. It's checked to me so I bet 7$ and get 2 callers, one folds.
Trying to think what the other players may have, it's been a pretty steady table with no maniac raises or overbets, and I hadn't seen any stupid calls with 72s or anything to indicate fishes or poor standard players.
As the A and K of spades are on the table, the best (or worse for me) hand he can have is Qs Js - and maybe he would call a 5$ raise with that? I wouldn't, but he's not me.

Turn is a 2h, bet another 7$ and again both flat call.

Starting to get worried now, has someone hit their flush and are slow playing to the river? If I had one and seen the bet on the flop, I would have called the flop but put a big raise in on the turn, to scare him away in case he had something like pocket Q's (one spade) and therefore the nuts if another spade hits the river. Also, I'm only (!!) betting 7$ into a pot of 36$ after the turn, are they correct to call if maybe AQ or maybe one has pocket 4s and have hit a set? But 7$ to call on a 50$ buy in table, is still a big bet?

So pot is now $57 and my memory is a bit hazy on the next bit as all I saw was the Kd hit the river. Now I'm praying that they both have flushes, or flopped a set, as, apart from AA - I have the nuts.

I bet 5$ this time, hoping that my opponents pick up this lower bet as a sign of weakness. Player 1 raises to 15$ and then I was amazed to see player 2 move all in. I re-raise, as player 1 has more chips than me, and he calls. Player 1 turns Qs 7s, player 2 did have pocket 4s - also a full house, but mine was the bigger and I take the 140$ or so pot.

It got a bit manic after this, player one pointed out (in a very unfriendly manner) how lucky I was, and got a bit angry when I corrected him by telling him HE got lucky, calling a 5$ raise with Q7, and the river just evened up the luck in the favour of the strongest hand pre-flop. He got quite abusive and other players also joined in my 'lol' when he said the words we love to hear from the fish. It wasn't Q7 m8, it was Q7 suited'. I sypathised with the other player, he took his bad luck well and wished me 'gl' before leaving.

The guy got lucky on the flop, played the hand badly, in my opinion, not re-raising the flop or certainly the turn, and then paid the consequences of giving two opponents' free' cards, allowing us both to hit our full houses.

So a bad night evened itself out and a quick check, the Poker Room account sits at 599$, The Titan account at $198 and the Inter account $186. Think this is about what I started at, so happy to finish about the same after my poor start.

See you later at the tables maybe?