Well, it is Friday afternoon and I am about to head out with my wife to go to a mandatory "Leader's Retreat" for couples for the weekend. Apparently, the Army is going to attempt to teach us how to "enrich" our marriage. Here's an idea, don't deploy me for 15 months at a time so that I actually have time to live with my wife. I digress, but one of the many reasons that I"m getting out of the Army in the next 6 months, can't wait!

So the one good thing about this leader retreat this weekend is that it is in Ruidoso, NM, and there are casinos there that have poker rooms. I plan on playing a bit tonight and tomorrow night after my wife goes to bed. She's an early bird. It has been quite some time since I"ve played live poker as opposed to online, and I've never played in the state of NM before either, so it should be interesting. I'm not sure, but I just hope they don't have that $150 betting cap per street on all streets like they do in AZ. That is really annoying when you are in a big pot with a big hand. So we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, here is one hand that I played last night where I sucked out big time on. Props to the villain for getting me to commit my stack here even though I sucked out. I don't know, maybe I should have tried to play for more pot control on the flop and just checked, or just checked the turn since he was a 12/3 NIT. It's just very very hard to get rid of an overpair on this dry board.

Is anyone out there good enough to get away from this on the turn? I think if it is a smaller raise, I can profitably just flat and C/C the river, but to such a big raise, it just seems like he's slowplayed TT-KK here a lot of times. Not sure. I figured I can't just call because the money is going in on the river anyway, so I just got it in. I guess I did it to myself betting on the turn because any raise would be close to half of his stack, but whatever. Anyway, I suck, and here is the hand:

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106736

I played another solid session on Tuesday afternoon. I ended up plus 5 BI's, and at one point, I had a $650 stack on a deep NL100 table. So that felt really great. Looking over the HH's, I really don't see anything that I don't like. The biggest pot that I lost was only for $38.50, and was an AI situation against a SSer where I got it in pre with AKs, so no worries there. The only possible hand that I can criticize myself on is a hand where I pussed out with AKo. A reg opened from EP, and there were 3 callers when I had AKo in the BB. I don't knoy why, but instead of re-popping it, I elected to smooth call and I ended up paying off a fish on a board of AQQ where he had like Q9 or some crap. But other than that, I am very pleased with this session.

Late last night (and early this morning) is a different story. I can't say I am too thrilled about this marathon 6 hour session. It was one of those sessions where I took a couple early bad beats and was down 2 BI's, so I had to "win it back" and ended up playing until 3am because I am a degenerate junkie who would rather stay up late and gamble instead of feeling refreshed and ready for work the next morning. I ended up finishing the session only losing 1/2 a BI, so I did play somewhat good to get it back. But I can't say that I didn't have a couple episodes of complete gorilla monkey tilt along the way.

Here are a couple retarded hands that I played last night. Good examples of monkey tilt. On this one, I'm not sure why the hell I bet the turn......really really stupid. Enjoy!

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106561

Here's another stupid hand. Not sure why I thought I could push a 63/25 off of a weak King here:

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106560

And here's the last one. I guess if I would have checked the turn, I likely would have been able to fold this weak draw to a strong bet by either guy. However, when I make my flush, I'm sorry, but I just had a tough time folding it to a raise by a guy running like 70/20 or something like that. LOL. Anyway, I did it to myself on this one.

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106563

Haha, now that's how not to play poker! Anyway, it was a fun night of degenerate gambling. Again, I ended the night only down a half BI, so not a bad day of plus 4.5 BI's. If I can just eliminate some of this stupidity, then I'll be well on my way.

Hopefully my next blog entry can be one where I brag about good hands that I played!

I only got to play a really quick session yesterday only for about 90 minutes. I ended up breaking even. Going over the hands, I was a little disappointed, but really didn't make too many large mistakes.

Really my biggest mistake was doubling up the same SSer 3 times, LOL. The first time, he put a beat on my when his 88 rivered a straight against my 99. The next time, this was the bad one, I called his shove with KQs and his 99 held up. Then when he was halfstacked, I 4bet him with AKo and he called with 66 and held up. His 3bet% was through the roof at like 12% or something, so in hindsight, it is not good to 4bet this guy with AKo because he's not folding. Could have just flatted and folded and saved $40.

Anyway, I have off from work today, so I am planning on putting in a huge session this afternoon. I'm going to the gym now, then after lunch I'll start. Looking forward to it!

I had another solid session this afternoon. Ended up + a little over 4 BI's for the afternoon. I got off to a really rocky start, but I showed good discipline and did not tilt. This was one of my first hands. I flopped excellent but got hit with the absolute worst turn and river cards in the deck. Feel free to comment on this hand. Does anyone make a blocker bet on the river of like $12-$18 here? I don't think villain is calling worse, IE, with any lower Ace. But by checking I open myself up to him bluffing me with any missed FDs. It really sucks because he is a complete unknown with no stats.

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106311

Anyway, after that hand, I got coolered and was down a BI, but I didn't tilt and played solid. However, I must say that it is really easy when someone just hands you their money like in these 2 hands. These 2 hands were back to back hands from my BB and SB. The villain was a Mega-Fish running 98/12/6.5 over 100 hands or so. These 2 hands were just too easy! I really like my PF smooth call with AA on the second hand as I think I do not get him to spew his stack if I make a standard 3bet. Enjoy, this was too easy!

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106309

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106310

I had a solid session yesterday afternoon. Nothing spectacular, won about 2 BI's, but much needed for me after the roller coaster that was Friday. Friday I went down as much as 5 BI's, but ended up the day at minus 2 BI's. So it felt good to get back on track with this solid afternoon. The only negative about this session was that I really NITTED it up. I find that after bad sessions where I struggle, I automatically NIT it up and stick to the basics. It's just a little embarassing to run at like 9/7 nowadays! LOL.

I'll talk about 1 good hand and 1 bad hand. This first hand I think is pretty standard because of the opponent. Against a REG, I'm not so sure that I make this river bluff into an obvious overpair. But given this guy's weak-ass stats (like 13/3 or something, I think he folds the majority of the time since he didn't barrel the turn. On the turn, I'm not sure if I should have donked into him again or not. I guess my flop and turn actions are both questionable, but as played, I like my river bluff.

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106233

In this next hand, this is just a frustrating hand because I am much stronger than I look. On the flop, my hand strength definitely looks like a bluff or an overpair, not top 2. In the end, I figured that there was too much in his range that beat me. JJ-AA, any 7, a flopped straight. Not sure if I should have just B/Fed the turn or just got it in, but I guess I don't have the discipline to let go of this yet. Feel free to criticize my line on this one:

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/replayer/replayer.php?session_id=106234

Well, it has been over a year since I've been a member of CR, and it is pathetic that I haven't been able to consistently maintain a blog. So here goes round 2. I've deleted all other old entries and decided to start fresh.

I just got back from being out of the country for a while, and I'm excited about playing more regularly. While gone for 3+ months, I actually did get to play just enough to maintain my Iron Man Status, but that's it. I showed a small profit, but I was bothered by shitty WiFi connections and a single screen to only play 6 tables on. Now I must say that it is much nicer to be back home with a normal connection and my 25 inch for MTing.......so much easier and more convenient! Honestly, the internet connections were so bad that I really should not have even played. But I was obcessed with keeping my Iron Man status that I played the bare minimum. Got my mind set on that free 50 inch TV I guess! A word to the wise, don't play poker for reasons other than to just win. That's what I did the past 3 months, and although I turned a profit, I DEFINITELY did not play optimally.

Since being back home this week, one problem that I've run into is the number of tables that I am playing. For the past 3 months, I got used to only playing 4-6 tables. So even though I have normally played 10-12 tables before I left, I will say that my first session here with 10 tables was a disaster. I struggled to keep up with the action and I tilted off a good amount of money. I guess I'll have to re-teach myself now and stick to 6-8 tables.

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to try to include an entry into this blog after each session that I play to discuss some key hands.