Winding down November

Thankfully it has been a postive swing to end the month. I have ran pretty well in $1/2 NL and had some success in the $16 turbo sngs on Stars.

Looking for a huge rakeback amount and then I plan on winning the $30k Ironman Freeroll on FTP. I released some minor bonuses on FTP and Stars too which always help.

Some donk made a post about my play on pocketfives where I pushed an overpair into his tiny stack and sucked out. His assertion is that when people 3-bet preflop in 6-handed games they only do so with premium pairs. Check it out for a good laugh.

Everyone flops sets!

Every pot I play lately with a huge hand someone flops a set. I haven't had any of those overpair vs. TPTK situations that help to even out when people set mine either. Yesterday I got stacked 3 times, all with AA or KK vs. some donk who overplays a pocket-pair for 20% of his stack and sucks out. Sick.

That being said, I'm treading water and going to make a killing off rakeback.

I hope ND beats USC so we can atleast have the option of a rematch. I don't know if we deserve one, but I would like that door to remain open. Neutral site and 52 days of rest might be the edge the Wolverines need. Go Irish.

Enjoy your time with your families. Happy Thanksgiving.

No Tilt; No Quit

After something like this hand most people would probably quit poker. This guy was just giving chips away for the better part of 2 hours and I was 100% sure I had the best hand. Sick, sick game.

Puke. Gag. Punch Something. Angry chat. Deep breath Kush.

At this point I'm stuck something like 4 buy-ins and I hate poker. I decided that I would prove my ability to stay off tilt and kept playing. Things turned around and I managed to turn a small profit but when you're stuck close to $1k any profit feels terrific.

Rare slowplay from me.

Another horrible player--stuck with my read.

I am proof that a horrible day can turn out OK if you keep playing good poker and wait for good spots. Most people would have done something stupid like moved up a limit or started pushing draws. I played my game and things worked out. Not to mention I played about 5,500 hands today and probably made $500+ in rakeback.

Going home for the holiday tomorrow. Probably will be 4-tabling at max because of my laptop's tiny screen. Still going to play enough hands/day to keep my IronMan status.

Checking in

Sportsbetting was so-so at best this weekend. Netted +$100 but Texas Tech and New Orleans both had those games locked up and fell apart late. I sports-bet for fun, but making a little extra cash is always nice.

First Michigan Poker League meeting tonight. Lots of talk of getting together a $1/2 NL cash game. I really am looking forward to playing deep-stacked, live poker. I also look forward to getting to know the guys and learning from them. Any chance to talk to intelligent people about poker is +EV for every game you play after that.

Ran really well tonight after an early sick beat. I did re-suck hard on the KK hand but in my defense he shouldn't be cold-calling with that stack preflop anyway so I deserve that pot. Probably one of the longer NLHE sessions I've logged lately at just under 3,000 hands with about $521 in profit.

Hand One - Full ring set mining is so fun.
Hand Two - This one stings
Hand Three - Best hand wins
Hand Four - I value bet QJ?

Hand Four left me scratching my head for awhile. The hand before I laid down AA on the river on a pretty scary board to this player. Perhaps it was a bad laydown in retrospect but I think a huge part of the reason I can beat cash games is my ability to make semi-big laydowns.

As promised

Here is a list of the action I'm taking this weekend along with a brief reason why:

Alabama (+18.5) - LSU is a tough place to play, but not that tough. Roll Tide.

Minnesota (-2) - I have officially given up any hope that State will right their ship. The blowout to Indiana was laughable and they couldn't recover last week either. Anytime you're an underdog at home to the Gophers that's a bad sign.

Texas Tech (+8.5) - OU has had to really emphasize the passing game lately and have had only moderate success. Looking for a Red Raider victory here actually.

Saints (+4) - 1 game wasn't enough to convince me that the Steelers are anything like they were a year ago. This was my Pick of the Week.

Dolphins (+1) - Huge win last week. Underdogs are home. I'll take a chance.

Being degenerate has some perks

College Spring Break is a right of passage. Going somewhere warm, drinking yourself silly, and spending time with your best friends is really what college should be all about. Thanks to poker I get to enjoy my 2nd spring break in a row doing exactly that without any financial worries whatsoever. Last year it was skiing in Winter Park, Colorado. This year it is a Western Caribbean cruise to Fort Lauderdale, Cozumel, Belize City, and the Florida Keys. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot.

I have a new suggestion for playing poker. Go to solopianoradio.com (or open it via iTunes) and listen to some soothing music while you play. It has been shown that classical music helps sharpen your mind and it definitely is relaxing. Being in "the zone" is a key part of playing good poker for me, and listening to this music really seems to help. Much more effective that listening to Lil Wayne or watching TV as I usually do.

Do your civic duty and vote tomorrow. Even more importantly give blood this week and save a life while beating OSU in the Blood Battle. Your vote probably won't matter, a pint of blood definitely will save multiple lives.

Sportsbetting picks will be up Wednesday.

Sports betting

I forgot to post my picks but I took action on the following teams...

Ball State - Played us very tight. Michigan rarely covers these large, blowout style spreads--even late in the season and at home. Another consideration of mine was that even if we get up 21 we're going to play a lot of senior backups during their final game in the Big House. Easy money was won here--wish I would have went with my head and bet more.

(+$100)

Tennessee - I rarely, rarely bet on the SEC because every game is so tight and all the teams are so competitive in this conference. That being said, I have a hard time not taking a very small underdog (+2.5) at home in UT's situation. LSU scored a TD with :09 left to secure a 4 point victory. Still a good bet IMO.

(-$50)

Colts - I will take the Colts as an underdog (+3) just about any time. Playing in NE may be the one exception but I feel like Peyton will come through for me where his former Vols let me down. EDIT: Indy's defense comes through for me.

(+$50)

Not a ton of action this week because I really didn't spend much time researching any of the matchups as I usually do. Last week I had a lot of free time and put action on 9 or 10 games. Hopefully I'll find some good matchups next week and post them early enough for other's to offer opinions on or perhaps join in the action.

Holla

Been playing PLO lately and really enjoying myself. Every day I find new situations and honestly make notes on a piece of paper about what I could have done better. I have ran so-so. I can't remember dealing any incredible beats but I have gotten home on a few draws against semi-made hands. I also have had the extreme disfortune of getting my money in as a huge favorite with a combo-draw against some bottom two-pair trash just to have the guy draw full on the turn and crush my hopes and dreams. I basically play very aggressively from late position and I love to see a lot of pots in position even without premium hands after a raise just because I think most people make their mistakes post-flop in PLO vs. pre-flop in HE.

Tonight I also played some HU NLHE on FTP. I usually don't like playing HU but tonight it just felt right. I cleared a guy for about $160 on a $1/2 before he decided he'd had enough. I played really passively preflop but I seemed to win a ton of pots post-flop by using position to my advantage. Raising the button every time when HU seems like a pointless strategy unless your opponent is a) clueless or b) a pussy.

Watched a ton of CR videos lately. Downloaded some $tinger885 MTT videos to watch tomorrow.

Big sports-betting weekend. I'll post my picks tomorrow.

PLO Hand One
PLO Hand Two
PLO Hand Three