When thinking about your opponents, you can actually put everything between you and him (or them) under two umbrellas...capacity and intent.

What are some of the things that may fall under capacity?

Stack size in relation to yours.
Stack size in relation to the blinds.
Position.
Poker ability.
Style (mostly loose, mostly tight, situational, weak)
Experience.

There are a few others, but the main point is that when you study this way, and you study it enough, all the sudden you've created a "pointer" to a large amount of information. All the sudden you don't ask yourself 20 questions in the heat of the moment, you ask yourself one question. What is his capacity? It's as if a "feel" is created this way.

Won some money yesterday, so the roll is up a little.

Capacity, and intent.

We've talked about control of emotions, basic strategy, and proper judgment. Not at length for all three, but they've been mentioned. Although we are going to go into those, I would like to also add capacity, and intent to the list of concepts to describe.

The thing is, when you outline a concept, you are actually aiding a person's ability to "feel." It's hard to write about helping a person develop feel, and I surely don't claim that I'll be able to. But, when you think about it, everything in poker can fall under two umbrellas as it relates to playing your opponent:

Capacity, and intent.

Down? Yes.

But, not out.

I still have a roll, and for the buy in I have had to drop down to, I have about 65 buy ins. Frankly, though, it would probably be more +EV to just freaking make a deposit, and stop being so bent on not depositing again.

I.just.don't.want.to.deposit.again.

I played a 400 fpp, and made it to the 4,000 over the weekend. I unregistered, and had plenty of fpps. I played a 400+r+a event to the Sunday guarantee, and figured myself to be a lock to get into it. The amount of fpps people spend in these things, you are pretty much a 1 in 10 shot...AT LEAST. No, I should rephrase that...top 10 percent goes, and I felt pretty much like a lock to get into that.

I spent most of my fpps to crash in the 2nd hour. Pretty much nothing went my way during the rebuy, but I was gambling nonetheless. No big hands at all. So, I wrecked my fpp stockpile completely to try to get into a 215.00 event so I could unregister and add to my roll. Smart.

In the 400 to 4000 event, here was my grade:
Control of emotions: A
Basic Strategy: A
Proper Judgment: A

400 rebuy to 215?
Control of emotions: A
Basic Strategy: D
Proper Judgement: D

I controlled my emotions, however, I gambled TOO much in the rebuy, and didn't use the best judgement after the rebuy in trying to accumulate.

I also played a 2.00 event with 991 entrants, and was well on my way to the final table. I had plenty of chips, twice the average, less than ten tables, and in two hands, I was gone.

2.00 tournament w/991 entrants.
Control of emotions: D
Basic Strategy: A
Proper Judgement: D

It's hard not to make them all bad grades, but my strategy was great in this event. However, at one point, after a player reraised me all in after I raised his blinds twice in a row, I called out of madness (why?) with 74o. He had A9. So, essentially, he felt that his A9 was good enough if I called with whatever I had (and he was right). I was thinking, "How dare you fucking reraise me like that, you better fucking fold when I raise your blinds." HA! No one has to fold SHIT when you raise their blinds. Kudos to him for reraiseing me. I am not sure what tipped him off that I was raising with crap, however, it doesn't really matter. I just fold my crap to an all in like anybody would. I did almost win the hand though...lol.

So, earlier today, I contemplated quitting. Then, I thought...why? As poker players, we're always knocked down. Every day. We should just get right back up. Then, I asked, do I have a gambling problem? I don't think so. If I do, I would like to know what context it is in. For example, my spending on poker doesn't in any way impact my financial resources. I don't forgo doing the things I need to do for poker. I don't miss appointments, or skip work for poker (I did skip work to play golf by myself a few times, was that something I should seek help for?). I've lost money in poker...I've lost about as much money as a ranked player spends on tournaments in three days. Maybe not even that much. It's still a loss....I've heard of 100x (litterally 100) worse losses. And, those losses would have HAD to impact the player's financial resources, whereas mine doesn't. My losses are probably the equivalent to a person's spending on going out to bars on the weekend.

So, I haven't quit. And, I won't. If I lose what's in my account now...I'll probably quit. I just don't want to deposit ever again.

I did play a live event, and went on tilt again. I still cashed, got 5th, however, I was on tilt from something the dealer did. I won't go into it, it happened, I went on tilt, shouldn't have, it's my fault, move on.

It was a shootout, and you had to get top two at your table, then you move to the final table. I pretty much steadily moved up in chips at the first table, and I had good cards. I might have only had one showdown, and that was against an all in players, and I had 3 of a kind.

At the final table, I had two players to my left that were just bad. I mean BAD! They were the worst two players at the final table, yet they continued to stay. Eventually, one of them busted out, and the other was left. I felt he was so weak that he would fold to any raise I made, and I was right. However, I had been raising with such crap, and having to show that eventually no one wanted to put up with my shit. Eventually, I went out because a player picked up KJ suited, and he thought for a while, but called me when I pushed his blind with 95. Good call actually, as it was short handed, and I couldn't get a thing going. I hated losing that final table though because I felt I was the best player at the table. But, it doesn't mean anything if you can't control your emotion, and my emotion was fucked by the dealer doing something unethical to me.

Of course, in my next post, I'll be talking about using proper judgement. This is part of three things I mentioned earlier:

Emotional Control
Basic Strategy
Proper Judgement

5 table SnG, won.

Okay, look, I know it was low limits, but when you're in a downswing, you'll freaking take anything. I actually like a couple of folds I had. They seemed to be situations that I wasn't folding in over the past week.

When it got down to three of us, there were very few hands until I got the win which was one win. I had a 55k to 12k lead, and put him mostly in w/Q7 suited, he called with T9, and I hit a Q.

But, I had stole a LOT of blinds and antes in this particular game...however, at one point, it got me in trouble. In fact, I was down at the final table with 6 to go, to not even a big blind in the 400/800. Two people got in, and I had T8 suited, and it won. So, now I have a little less than t3,000. I have a few more hands that I win small pots with, and I steal blinds a few times, and at one point I have about 8,000 and I had A3. I pushed all in and got two callers. I flopped a strait, and I all the sudden am in the chip lead (barely). I basically use that stack to steal blinds, and take it to the win.

I don't know if I had any real hands (I didn't have JJ-AA the whole time), but I hit a few flops, and I stole a LOT of blinds. I played the players really well, and it just feels good even if it's only one game.

Basic Strategy...

Oh, I hope you weren't thinking I would give you a formula for how to play in every situation were you? Of course you weren't.

A basic strategy is gained in two ways. One from getting ass-raped while you play when you do something stupid, and the other is from your discussions with players or literature.

Many ideas in your basic strategy will be "general" ideas. For example, in general, you don't want to bluff someone that you know is extremely loose all the way to the river. In general, you should loosen up and steal some blinds when the table is playing tight.

Ah, but there is much more to basic strategy than this, isn't there?

Yes, there is. In fact, there is much more because your basic strategy encompasses all of the poker knowledge you possess. And, the more you gain, the better. Someone might try to tell you otherwise, but you can't read enough books, visit enough forums, or get in enough poker discussions. Of course, you have to sift out the poor information from the excellent information, but you're smart enough to do that.

One place you can start to add to your basic strategy is David Sklansky and Dan Harrinton. Sklansky has numerous books on poker, and you couldn't go wrong with Theory of Poker. Harrington on Hold 'Em 1 and 2 are also two books that you could not go wrong with at all, and in fact, I think these three are the best out there. The no limit section of Super System 2, and Tournament poker for the advanced player from Sklansky are two other books that you should read if you're playing tournament style poker. But, of course, you have to understand them, and that's where the forums, and discussions come in. You will simply have to ask your questions, or search for posts where the question has been asked, and thouroughly answered.

When you take in all of this information, you have aided your static knowledge, kind of like a kid who just memorized his phone number, and address. But, that same kid, having memorized that information, hasn't improved his ability to memorize, nor his ability to recall. He's just added information to his static knowledge base.

Something I should add to this. David Sklansky probably writes the best books on no limit hold 'em. But, he's not some big time tournament or cash game winner. He has more strategy information in his head than you or I put together (and then some) but with that same amount of information, you or I might be able to play better than him. That is because, the bottom line is, there is a part of our intelligence that you're just going to either have, or not have.

Take any two different people in the world and surround them with the most brilliant minds, and best education around. Give them exactly the same input and output. In general, one of them will do better than the other. One of them will be quicker to solve problems than the other although both of them know 'how' to solve problems. That same one will probably recognize patterns better, recall information quicker, and eventually have to be 'taught' less because he will be able to indirectly infer a certain amount of information.

So is the case in poker. You can be the most informed player in the world having worked on your basic strategy for hours on end. But, if you don't have the street smarts that another player has, he will beat you up and down the table.

There is good news though....for the most part, the more informed you are, the more profitable you can become if you control your emotions, nail down your basic strategy, and use proper judgement at the table. It's just, some of you might get to a limit where you plateau, and you just shouldn't go beyond that limit. Kind of like the baketball player who scored 40 a night in high school, went to college and was player of the year, went to the NBA and couldn't keep his job. His skills just couldn't go beyond collegiate level. One is physical, the other mental, but the same concept applies...you still need to work hard, but eventually you could hit a limit where you can't go further.

Basic strategy is built through intense study of the best books, great posts in forums, and great discussion with peers. Through all of this, you should have a good idea of the things that constitute making a mistake, and what doesn't.

I've lost over 50 percent of my roll in the last week with very good bankroll management.

Isn't that great?

It's a huge, huge downswing for me. Probably the worst I have ever had. Oh well, good thing I built it up so high before this. It's tough losing all those SnGs...but you have to move on.

I'm going to get back to something I started the live 4.40 180 man SnG disaster blog. Did that suck, or what? I plan on doing another one, I'm sure you're glad. Seriously, everyone posts their winning history. How about watching someone not catch anything?

We had talked about three things you need for winning at poker:

Emotional Control at all times.
A basic strategy that you adhere to (this does not mean formula).
Proper judgement during play.

I have talked about emotional control. However, I'll go over a few more things.

Certainly we're talking about going on tilt. Tilt destroys your game if you let it. There are many forms of tilt, and one that I'm on right now is "downswing tilt."

This type of tilt really sucks because it effects your confidence. That is deadly for your game. You begin to think, "Can I win again?" Shouldn't I be folding more often? I have QQ, maybe I should just fold it, or not raise.

Of course, I raise with QQ, and I even get aggressive with it, but the point is, there is a new fear because you keep getting ass raped with good hands running into better hands.

If you're on this type of tilt, it's time for a break. Something. You have to drop down in levels (which is what I'm doing), and take a break. This way, if the downswing continues, you're at least limiting your losses. One thing you can count on is...if you play poorly, the downswing will continue. But, what are some things that you would do on tilt that is poor play?

1. Calling even though you know you're beat.

This one sucks because you know you're on a downswing, and you're trying to prevent yourself from being TOO tight (which you can't be too tight in a downswing). You call with your QQ with a K on the board, and you know he COULD have a K, but you hope he doesn't. Generally, when you HOPE someone doesn't have a K, and you're CALLING...they will have it. Your instinct is telling you for a reason, and you should trust it. I don't know how much money I would save (because I wouldn't have seen the winning hand of my opponent) if I had just layed down my GOOD hand that I thought was beaten over the past week alone. It would have been quite a bit.

2. Trying to hit big, and quick.

Poker seems like it could be a get rich quick venture...but it is not. Making money in poker takes a LOT of time. Every time you're on an upswing you're not making as much money as you really think because at one point, you're going to have a downswing, and it is part of the game. The only thing you can count on is your good play, and with good play....over time...you will make money. You not only need patience during the game, but you need it outside the game because it takes so much time to make money in poker. If you graphed your money making over time, and you were a very good player, it wouldn't be a strait diagonal line. There would be many peaks and valleys, and the peaks would, in general, be JUST a little taller than the valleys. Think about it...you win 1000 one day. Lose 1200 the next. Win 1300 the next. You've made a small amount, almost break even, yet you've had 1300 dollar profit days, and 1000 loss days.

Trying to hit big and quick while playing in SnGs is also something that you could do. You might start out with 1500 at a 9 person table, and 10/20 blinds. Fast forward to the 25/50 levels, and no one is out, and you're pissed. How is the table so tight that no one is going out, yet I can't raise anyone off a hand no matter what I do?

Have you had this thinking? It doesn't cross your mind, while on tilt, that the players you are raising on the flop might actually have something.

So, you're down to about 1100 in the 50/100, with 8 people at the table, you start pushing, someone calls you with a better hand, you're out, and the tilt continues. What you are failing to think about, however, is that if your pushes were the right play at the time (late position with it folding to you, etc.) then you have nothing to be upset about. All you can do is your best play.

3. Moronic early play.

This is when the tilt is really bad, and is a combination of every bad play you can make. Full table, and it's 10/20, and you have Q4 off suit, and you raise from MP. You get four callers, and you bet the pot, and someone raises you, and you call them having not even paired anything. You call the turn bet, and the river bet, and you're even somewhat satisfied that everyone can see that you have absolutely fucking nothing, and look like a donkey's donkey. King of donks.

There are a few others, but the point is that tilt alters your play. You have to actively work, off the table, for ways to combat your tilt. If not, when it comes, you will not be prepared for it, and it can destroy your game.

The next thing we want to talk about is a basic strategy that you actually adhere to. Because I don't want to make any one blog too long, I'll start with how we do that in the next blog which will be later today.

During current Hold'em session you were dealt 60 hands and saw flop:
- 4 out of 7 times while in big blind (57%)
- 3 out of 6 times while in small blind (50%)
- 5 out of 47 times in other positions (10%)
- a total of 12 out of 60 (20%)
Pots won at showdown - 1 of 2 (50%)
Pots won without showdown - 3

I know you were trying to play the players, but you got QQ, lost a good portion of your stack, then went TOTALLY card dead. You were screwed from the start dude.

Those three without showdown were pushes with very mediocre hands. The showdown I lost was my last hand. The one I won was actually the chop that I got saved on from being dumb.

Those 5 times out of 47 in other positions were drawing hands like 76 suited where the table mostly limped. Of course, nothing hit, and most hands weren't as good as 76 suited. You really need to play the players and the situation, but when the situations are not there for you, and when the players are raising in front of you, and you have a smaller stack, things are much tougher for you.

I could have played better. I might have taken a few more chances early...who knows. I could have just went all in with the QQ, who knows, maybe the guy didn't have a K.

Well...AKs was no match for QTo. I was glad to get in against that type of hand pre-flop though, I mean, the hand holds up, I actually have a fighting chance. But, not to be.

8:12.

8 tables. 50/100.

NOTHING happening. I'm down to 968, and I really can't find a situation to even push.

But, people are dropping like flies from HORRIBLE play. All I can do is watch.

We're at the break.

Admittedly, I would probably have taken a few more chances at other times...but, if I would have taken some of those chances in this one, I would probably be out now (from what I've seen at showdowns).

You almost feel like you're playing too tight, or even too weak...but, you go down early with a good hand, and you have no chips, and everyone is raising. You either have to just take huge gambles (which isn't actually a bad idea at all), or tell yourself that you can come back from having nothing (which might prove you're a good player, but isn't a position you want to always be in because you might be making more money playing in something else).

My next post will be if I double up or bust. I'm not going to wait around, and really I haven't been waiting around....

8:00

New table. Last one didn't work.

I am, by far, the shortest stack at the table with 818.

When the blinds get to 50/100, I'm going to have to just start pushing.

But, I'm going to have to find some reasonable hands to push with.

As I type this, a stack went smaller than me. I'll have to watch that he doesn't want to get reckless.

7:51

You can't say I didn't get a hand...QQ.

But, crap, nothing is happening. I'm just too short to have any power, and I'm too big to start pushing with any two because it really isn't worth it. I would have fold equity, but I would be risking too much for 75 chips.

Patience.

7:46.

NOTHING happening. I'm moved to a new table.

M of like 13 in the 25/50...lol.

I have two shorter stacks to my left combined with a stack 3x my size. This really sucks because I don't know when the short stacks will want to move in (if they're bad players they could react unfavorably to having a short stack).

7:40p

Dumb........

But, saved.........

I'm down to like 980, and it's still 15/30.

I get A7, and a certain player is raising often. I relax my calling standards a bit, and call. So does one other player.

I pair the ace...I'm in trouble. To make a long story short, the 'other' player check raised the original raise, and I essentially gave up and called. He had me dominated with A8, but the board paired, and a K came on the river so we could chop.

Incidentally, the player to my right is hitting a lot of shit against donkey's (which is good, just not for me). I'm so glad he's on my right though.

Man I hate getting a hand like QQ early. It's almost a trouble hand, but not quite. You can make a lot, and you can lose a lot (whereas a trouble hand makes you little, plus loses a lot).

7:31.

Get QQ.

First hand I raise with.

15/30 bb, folds around to me in MP, and I raise to t120.

Two callers immediately, and a reraise. I call the reraise (min), the flop has a K, he goes all in, I fold. Lovely.

I'm down to t1090. 16 tables, and average stack is 1888.

I have an M of 24! I'm fine.

But, not for long.

7:25 Completely uneventful. No situations to exploit, no cards, etc.

Live 4.40 180 blog.

7:12 pm. Obviously start 1500 in chips, 10/20 blinds.

Just playing tight, profiling the players.

Emotion is good.
Basic Strategy is to fucking profile and be rather tight.
Judgement...I ain't getting shit to play...

Time to get live blogging baby....

Later today, for your enjoyment (oh you're going to have so much fun) you get to witness the live blog of a player in the 4.40 180 man SnGs on stars. I will be putting it all on the line. Seriously. 4.40 dude!! C'mon, you know you can't afford 4.40.

Here's how it should break down....

I am going to post the time, and my chips. I will talk about players at the table, and include hand histories of certain hands whether I'm in them or not. I type like 85 wpm, so this shouldn't be too much of a distraction.

I can't wait for you to have this much fun.

Emotional Control.

Of the three things I mentioned yesterday, this is perhaps the most difficult one to quantify or measure. It's hard for people to see, in themselves, when they are emotionally "off." For example, I remember watching a friend one time who was blowing up because a guy called him with A3 off suit, and won. I tried to reason with him, but he finally made the determination that no one in the universe shall ever call one of his bets with A3 off suit...and of course he proceeded to lose the rest of his stack. He's a slightly above average player, and he was mad about that call for a few days.

What I tried to tell him was, "You want people to call your raises with AK suited with hands like A3 off suit." It didn't get through at the time.

When people lose control of their emotions, they do all kinds of stupid shit while playing. There are so many forms of tilt, and you will generally experience them all at one point. Here are some of the forms of tilt:

Boredom tilt. Otherwise, you just can't stand playing the limits you are playing in.

Cold Deck tilt. You're not getting a freaking hand, and you're pissed about it. Sure, we have to play the players. But, we can only get by with bluffing players with absolute crap so much. I've won SnGs without ever having a monster...but would I have lasted in a 500 entrant tourney?

Mediocre cards, no flop tilt. You know the situation. You get KJ suited five handed, play it, and the flop doesn't even sniff you. It doesn't just happen once though...you get about seven or eight of these hands with no help whatsoever. You bluff and get a few pots, and if you're playing the player it shouldn't matter...but some people can go on tilt with this situation.

One phrase tilt. I've seen it online. Someone says ONE thing, and that one thing is enough to push someone into tilt.

Trash talking tilt. Either you go on tilt because someone is talking shit to you, or even if you're talking shit to someone else.

Bad beat tilt. This is obvious.

Suck out tilt. Bad beats and suck outs might be different by definition, but they surely feel the same.

I'm sure you can think of other forms of tilt, but the main point is there are many things that could put a person on tilt. One way to avoid some of these is to not be so results oriented. If you think that winning the hand or SnG is all that matters, you will be let down each time you lose, and that will just compound your tilt. If, however, your main concern is to make correct plays all the time, the results will speak for themselves over the long run.

Don't get me wrong, no one is able to get to where they NEVER go on tilt. If they say they do, they're lying. But, you can control it, and minimize it. For example, a year ago, aces getting cracked would make me blow up...now, it's just a minor annoyance to me. You start to realize that you are going to win overall when you get your aces in against someone with a worse hand...but you WON'T win 100 percent of the time.

Here's the thing that makes me go on tilt THE MOST: Making stupid plays.

One thing that you'll find common amongst all those forms of tilt is that you can actually do something (whether before the situation occurs like realizing that nothing wins 100 percent of the time, or during if someone is talking trash just put on some headphones if it pisses you off, of course there are other examples) about it.

And, if you can do something about it, you can control it. And, if you can control it, you can prevent yourself from making decisions based on emotion.

Rather than go through all the different ways someone can piss you off, I think that it would be better for anyone reading this to just outline the things that put them on tilt for themselves. Someone might be mad when they get reraised. The first question to ask, then, is why? The other person is trying to win just like you. They won't lay down to aggression, just like you. And, whenever a person makes a bet, they're giving you information. It's just your job to interpret it. But, one thing you can count on is that the information isn't derogatory against you. They're not getting personal with you.

Control of emotions is essential to winning in poker. Write down what makes you mad, and develop ways to minimize it, understand it, and control it. It will take time, but once it happens you'll notice that making decisions in the game becomes easier because you're basing it on things other than your hatred for another player, or at how events are transpiring.

Crap I am on a HUGE downswing online. I mean huge.

No complaints though...my bankroll mgmt rules are allowing me to continue playing. I'm mad, yeah, but I'll fight through it. I'm thinking of a few days off from online. Kinda like I'm just letting the negative energy filter out or something all cheesey like that.

My downswing is mostly do to bad play. Some beats, but nothing out of the ordinary. A lot of hands are running into better hands that they weren't before. I mighta been catching people on bluffs before that are now monster hands. It happens.

You have to have 3 things though:
Emotional Control.
Basic Strategy.
Great Judgement.

Those three things can emcompass every part of your game. Bankroll management is somewhat outside those things, and needs adhered to just as importantly. But, you can put all else about your game under that and over the next few days I'll explain what I mean. Right now, I'm going to go punch a rabbit in the face, and kick a cat (if I can find one).

27 showed for the live Omaha Hi/Lo event on Saturday. I cashed in 4th place (top 4 get paid). I probably played my most focused live game in some time. Of course, that was due to the fact that you have so many freaking cards and outs to think about. I played well though, especially at times that we were short handed, and the blinds were high. I was able to aggressively build my stack through stealing the blinds.

When it got down to the final table, however, I really just couldn't battle with the players that were trying to make a move for first. There was always a raise in front of me, and I would have something like 9739. Yeah, I have a pair of 9's, but believe me, a hand like that would have not once won the pot.

I did steal the blinds enough to hold on for a while, and I was SO looking for a spot to just steal, and hopefully steal the pot on the flop or turn, but I really just couldn't get in too many hands with the raises in front of me. I still cashed, and if my opponent didn't hit his flush on my last hand, I have to believe I could have won it. No problem, it was fun.

Online..I'm doing horrible. I've had such a bad run, mostly due to stupidity, and lack of emotional control. Getting 2nd best hand seems to also be the flavor of the day, however, there is not much of an excuse for my overall play. I'm probably on tilt as I write this for that matter.

I'm unsure if I should take a couple days break or not.

Anyhow, next Friday is the live Razz tournament, and I will most certainly be there. The next day is a live NLHE Shootout tournament, I'll play that as well.

I expect to win the Razz, and at least cash in the NLHE shootout. I really do. I live live so much more than online anyhow...at least right now where I'm getting screwed online.

If I can't start winning again, I'm actually going to have to move down a level. I don't know if I can go back, and play effectively. Seriously. I'm so bored with these low limits that I just couldn't even dream of going lower.

A bit of an answer to the question posed yesterday. One thing that I overlooked was my expectation with the stack I had at the time.

At the time of the bet my M was a whopping 32! Approximately. I wasn't in bad shape, obviously. It wasn't a turbo, and I was in top 10 position. The truth is...I could probably have gotten to at least 5th (the position I spoke of yesterday) without this double up. I would have only had to pick up 1 or 2 average pots at best in order to do that. That is not without reason.

So, let's say I'm in this position ten times, and I fold all ten times. Now, I call ten times. If you were to do the math on both, you would still be making many assumptions on expectation. Maybe in the double up I was underrating my expectations. But, thinking about it further I feel that the difference between the double up vs. folding would be difficult to determine.

This is mostly due to the fact that I was in good position in the tournament at the time. As I said, I had a M at the time of 32, and if I were to fold to final table, based on my experiences, I would start the FT with an M of at least 10, maybe a little more.

On one hand, the double up makes me feel as if I would actually do much better than 5th each time it occurred, and on the other hand I feel that the results wouldn't be dramatically different when the double up is successful PLUS everytime the double up attempt is unsuccessful I make nothing whereas when I fold I'm still VERY much in the tournament.

At this point I'm going to work on the math further on the side, and at one point, I'll give a more detailed breakdown of why this is somewhat of an option (in special circumstances) or not.

Negative EV. Way negative...but!

Okay, here's the hand. I'll give the explanation (as cracked out as it is) afterward. Before you even see the hand, though, know that I don't think this would normally be a good play (not right now):

Seat 1: foxy293 (6753 in chips)
Seat 2: hkycrazy (19444 in chips)
Seat 3: glenmawr70 (16275 in chips)
Seat 4: jlukaj (10955 in chips)
Seat 5: suezbhere (18631 in chips)
Seat 6: luke5150 (16730 in chips)
Seat 8: seehound13 (3021 in chips)
foxy293: posts the ante 25
hkycrazy: posts the ante 25
glenmawr70: posts the ante 25
jlukaj: posts the ante 25
suezbhere: posts the ante 25
luke5150: posts the ante 25
seehound13: posts the ante 25
suezbhere: posts small blind 100
luke5150: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to glenmawr70 [Td Jh]
seehound13: folds
foxy293: folds
hkycrazy: folds
glenmawr70: raises 400 to 600
jlukaj: folds
suezbhere: raises 600 to 1200
luke5150: folds
glenmawr70: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [9s Ac 8d]
suezbhere: bets 17406 and is all-in
glenmawr70: calls 15050 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [9s Ac 8d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [9s Ac 8d 5c] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
suezbhere: shows [Ad Ks] (a pair of Aces)
glenmawr70: shows [Td Jh] (a pair of Tens)
suezbhere collected 32875 from pot

Okay. Now...I really just wanted to steal the blinds/antes at this point.

Suez was a very aggressive player with his stack oftentimes going all in either pre-flop, or on the flop (when an ace was there). But, this player wasn't that smart. Essentially, his only moves were limp, and all in. That's not too important here.

As expected, he goes all in on the flop. He reraised me with a good hand, however, it was only 600 for about a 2300 pot. Pretty good odds with my JT, as well as tremendous implied odds if I hit the flop pretty hard.

So, he goes all in, and I see that I have an OESD.

My hand stacks up to his if I think he has an ace (I wasn't sure about AK, however, he wasn't the type (from what I'd seen) to reraise with A and a card under T) at around 65-35 (I'm obviously the dog). I express that in terms of pot equity...

As you can see, I'm not completely dominated. I 'expect' to win this about 3 times out of 10, if not 4. But, next, we're going to get into the donkish, cracked out, poorly thought? idea I have on this hand. Even as I write this I almost want to delete it because I know that NO ONE that's a good player would agree with this...

Okay, this was a 4.40 180 man SnG. There were 28 of us left. 18 get paid. My opponent was 2nd in chips, and the chip leader was at another table.

I felt that no one at the table threatened me at all. In fact, the only threat that was there was this opponent and that was because of the size of his stack, and his position.

If I won this pot, I would have pretty much took out the only threat at the table (he would have had ~2200 in chips), and I would have been the chip leader. Here's where the possibly flawed IDEA (I say idea because I'm in no way suggesting that I'll ever do this again) comes into play...

As with any theory or idea, there comes assumptions (yeah, I'm stalling)...

If we think in terms of real dollars instead of chips, and we factor in some expectation we begin to get to my idea. Okay, I feel that I can expect (based on my experiences playing these tournaments) to not only get to the FT, but at least around 5th place which would give me a profit of 40.00 IF I hit this hand. Otherwise, with my chip lead, and the play of the others, I feel I could pick my spots properly, and expect at least 5th. Heck, I've got as far with much less.

Certainly that's an expectation...but, let's just say that hitting that does allow me to get at least 5th (3 tables at the time, and the FT would have been at 300/600 to 400/800 blinds), and I profit 40.00. That's 10x what I invested, yet the hand will hit more than 1 time out of 10. You could then say, in terms of a dollar expectation that this was a good call.

If I were much further out, even if it was for the same amount of chips, it would be much harder to make these assumptions...but, so close to the FT combined with the play in these tournies, and my experience, you could make a case (maybe?) that this was a good call if you run it through a bunch of trials. Otherwise, if I do that same thing 10x, I stand to make a profit.

Wacked out? Or not?

Probably wacked out.

When can other people's advice throw a wrench in your skills?

Normally, I would say never if you know how to think for yourself. But, when you have an egomaniac friend who constantly holds the fact that he has more final tables over your head, and as such, he should be much more knowledgeable than you, you occasionally hear things that make you question your own play.

If you're losing, maybe that's a good thing.

Now, I'm winning (for a small sample of about 1.5 months), and I have the most cash I've ever had in my account. At the same time, I KNOW I have significant amounts of improvement that I have to make to my game. There is so much more than I want to learn.

But, this egomaniac likes to make observations of my game that are indirect insults. He does it in such a manner that he can't be accused of insulting your game.

Today, he basically acts as if the way I think about the game is inferior to the way he thinks about the game. He says I comparmentalize the game into three parts, early, middle, and late. Which, if I did, who cares? I recount the game that way...I think of the game in terms of the players and the situations we are in. If that happens to be late in the game when we're in the money, I might mention that. I suppose I could, instead of saying early, middle, or late, only say the blinds (which I say anyhow), but when you recount things...that's all you're doing. You're trying to paint a picture. People generally respond to discriptions of time...early in the SnG, late in the SnG, and so on.

He says that he thinks of the game as a whole.

Okay!? That doesn't matter to me. I mean, that doesn't help our discussion at all. So, you think of it as a whole. Do you describe it as a whole? I suppose the only way you could desribe the game as a whole would be to only say thing like:

I got 1st, and it was against a weak table.

I busted out 4th against a table full of donks.

That seems results oriented to me, and you can't play that way. In fact, this person said to me many times that the results are all that matters. I don't know if he still feels that because some time has passed, and he might have gotten past that. The results don't matter if you are playing great poker.

I guess this all irritates me because I'm playing so well, then he comes around questioning my thinking.

At the same time, I think it's good to get tested like this. I don't want to stop learning, or ever be satisified with my current level of knowledge. So, in some ways it might be good that he's pissing me off because it forces me to validate and articulate my own thinking.

How much of this have you read?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3436856&an=0&page=0#Post3436856

It's late Thursday night, and I've just finished playing for the night.

Things just didn't seem like they were getting better. It wasn't cards, or players, it was my own dumb freaking play. The best way to describe my play was "lazy."

I would say it was lazy because it's as if I didn't feel like having the patience or discipline early that I need in these SnGs. I think that I wanted to try to "get lucky" early so I could just push people around until bubble time and turn it up even more and go for the win.

I came home and went out early in a 4.40. Then, I went out early in a one table SnG.

I took a long break, got a latte, and came back to it. But, before I started, I wrote this:

Early on, you're not getting involved in any big pots. Big pots are something that can develop, and you should realize or recognize ahead of time pots that are going to be big. If you have a great hand, that's one thing, but a pair, even top pair, isn't worth getting into a big pot early.

Early, you want to profile your opponents, and see who's weak, and loose, and so on. You want to get down to about 7 people, and you increase your pre-flop aggression somewhat.

Early on, in the first few positions against a loose table, hands like KQ, AJ, and so on, you do not have to play. You can if you want, but you don't have to. The truth is, you just don't have to get involved early. You don't want to really be in a position where you HAVE to hit the flop.

When it gets finally down to 6, this is when you start picking up the blinds, and so on. If you go out here, so be it. You are taking chances, and you are going for first, there is no shame in that.

Of course, you want to make sure you make good decisions here, but you don't have to fault your aggression at all.

Summary:
Tight early, no big pots without big hands.
Profile early. Who's weak, who's wild.
Get down to seven to increase agg.6, 5, 4 increasing agg. No shame in agg.
ITM most agg. Win it.

I wrote that to myself, and I think you'll notice that it focuses on my early play the most. I think that a lot of my problem was that I was neglecting these very fundamental and simple rules because I was a little impatient, and a little undisciplined.

So, right afterward, I end up winning. I pretty much stayed tight early getting only in a few hands. I increase aggression when it got down to 6. In this particular SnG, however, enough people went out quickly that when it was down to 6, the blinds were very low still. So, I didn't panic that I was like 5th out of 6th, but I also didn't tighten up more. I just played how I have been playing when it gets shorter handed.

During the play of this, I was also at a cash table because Stars was having a hand celebration. I thought I would just hang around and try to catch that hand, and in the process I made an additional 14 bb's! We obviously didn't hit the celebration hand though. So, I made more than my SnG buy in at the cash game, and I was really only playing the very best hands, and some middle pairs.

Tomorrow, I'll play more online, and on Saturday, I'll be in a live limit Omaha Hi/Lo tourney.

Last night, I get home, and I play two SnGs, and I'm done. I was disgusted with my play totally.

In one SnG, it's early in the 10/20 blinds. In MP, I get KQo, and I have one limper in front of me. I raise to 60 (I would be just as fine folding here seriously), and only he calls me.

The flop doesn't help me at all. He checks, I put out a weak assed bet of 60 chips, and he raises. I could fold right there....but I don't. I should have, and I normally would have. I love those situations because what seems to happen later is that the same guy, or someone paying attention ends up trying it on me when I have something. Then, they can't get off their hand, or they're afraid they'll be caught bluffing, so they give me a lot of chips.

Instead, I reraised him about 1.5x what he put in the pot on his check raise. He just calls. He had paired the middle pair...but, I think that he was putting me on two higher cards, and as long as there wasn't any, he felt safe that his middle pair was good.

The turn gave him trips, and by that time, I was in moron tilt, and reraised him all in with nothing but KQ, and of course he called. I'm done.

I play a turbo right after, and fare much better. In fact, I'm the slight chip leader with 6 players left, and a guy goes all in for about 4/5 of my stack, and I have Q9. I think (not really) for a while, and I call him, and lose. I end up going out 6th.

At that point, I'm totally done. I thought of playing through it, but I was so mad at myself that I just couldn't.

Tonight, I'll have a lot more time to play, and hopefully I've prepared myself to fold moronic situations tonight. I sent my home e-mail account all kinds of "advice" about my early play, and short handed play in SnGs. Hopefully I follow the advice. I won't be playing any tournies tonight unless I can catch a 400 fpp to 4000 fpp tournament on Stars.

I played a 4.40 180 man on Stars last night, and had I not made two very horrible plays, I would have not even made the money.

That's horrible to say, and don't take it as advice. But, it's true.

I had been playing fine, and had accumulated about 6k in chips. At the point that this hand came up, I was about 1k below average. Because I know many of the hands that came after this hand, I can comfortably tell you that this pot was vital to me getting ITM, and I played extremely well after this pot. If that doesn't make sense, I'd be glad to explain further.

Anyhow, I had a pair of 8's in MP, and raised it to 3xbb. The CL in the tournament was in the BB, and called. The flop came Q 4 9, and he bet about 3/4 of the pot. I insta-called like a donk. I strongly felt that he didn't have a Q, however, what basis did I have for such a thought? The only thing I can say is that his betting didn't seem the same as it normally was. Otherwise, if he had a great hand he would have bet less, and I think that if he had the Q, he would have bet less than he was. He was one of those players that play opposite of normal play often (bet small with big hands to trap which is not a great strategy in the long run although it is good to mix it up).

The turn was a T, he bets big again, however, it's virtually the same amount, and the river was a King. The King actually scared me a little, however, I had put so much in already, and he bet virtually the same amount as he did on the turn.

We flipped over, and he had nothing, AJ suited, and my 8's held up. So, I went to about 10k in chips, and I had just completed making the worst play I made all tournament.

Some time passed with me stealing pots here and there, and at one point I'm in the SB in the 100/200 w/ante. The BB was a tight player who hadn't been in too many pots. I raise him with KQ suited, and he calls. The flop is A 8 5, and I have nothing and I decide to take this pot off...bad thought, but I had nothing. I check, he bets really big, and I fold. He shows 52, and of course, he paired up the 5.

Now, this shouldn't have pissed me off. I had nothing. I typed in nh, and moved on, but truthfully, it did piss me off, and it caused me to make the next big pot that I had no business in:

We're in the 200/400, and again, it folds around to me on the button with A4. I raise, and he calls (the BB folds). The flop doesn't hit me at all, and he bets about 1/2 the pot. I insta-call out of donkish madness. The turn doesn't help, and he bets about 3/4 of the pot, and I insta-call out of donkish madness. The river is an ace, and I think he smells something, and he bets, but not much, and I call in case I have kicker problems (bad move), and I win. He types in something about the river, and I typed in, "52?" as if to ask if he had 52 again. I'm an ass.

To his credit, he said nothing back concerning what I said about 52, and in fact, he never really butted heads with me after that.

Now, had I not got these pots, I WOULD NOT have made it in the money. Don't get me wrong, I don't suddently feel that you need to play bad to win. I'm just telling you how things went down.

Anyhow, I went out on some further donkish play, but made some money, and was up for the day.

Tonight, I'll be laying one table SnGs only because of the amount of time I'll have, and I'll probably get in about 2-3.

Two 4.40 180 mans....bust. Not even a chance. I think I went out in the first five tables on both. I played a 5.50, got 2nd (played against the most patient 5.50 player ever, however, you could also say he was a weak player...but, he beat me), and got 1st in a 6.50. That's about all I played Monday, but ended the day up. At the current pace, I could be playing the 11.00 SnGs in two weeks. We'll see. A couple of things going right with the bankroll:
- Pretty sure I've had my longest period without depositing, and if I stick to my bankroll rules, that should continue for quite some time.
- Have the most cash I've had in my account (although I've had more when you count T$).

I do want to look into how I fare by day. I think, for reasons I can't yet articulate, that Monday players could be slightly more difficult to play against (if you don't adjust to them properly). And, it's maybe not just Monday's. To me, it doesn't make a lot of sense to just say Monday players are different, you should be able to give a very good reason why. So, I'll start breaking my stats down by day as well. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm more tired, or more aggravated on Monday.

I just didn't have a chance in those 4.40s. My patience was not there. I wanted to bust people early, or bust myself. I was able to calm down for the SnGs, but you can see people busting out, and see the table getting noticeably smaller in a quicker amount of time. Obviously, patience is a big part of playing any tournament.

I forgot to tell you about this...

Okay, I know that some poker sites have been shady in the past. In fact, today, some sites are not ran well...but it is a TREMENDOUS risk for any site to do some of the things that player contend that they do. I'll get to that in a second...

Anyhow, I'm sitting at the table with a guy that by all accounts seems like your everyday average poker player. Then he starts talking conspiracy...

He says that while playing on Stars, he can tell when someone has a special piece of software that changes the river card to their advantage. Evidently, this software can tell what cards the other players have, and if the river card is NOT in their hands, it can change it. I've actually heard of this, on sale, for something like 39.95 somewhere. In fact, he mentioned that he saw it for sale somewhere himself.

I laughed a little, but he didn't see. I thought maybe he was joking, but he was dead serious. He said, "When I see that bullshit happening, I just get off. You have to watch Stars man."

Wow.

Anyhow, someone asked him what limit he was playing, and he was playing a lower limit. I didn't say anything because you can't say anything to brainwashed people, but let's just look at the logic here.

1st, how? How do you write a piece of software that will hack into a multi-million (if not more) dollar company's servers without being detected, and change information? The Pokerstars client that we run on our PC is basically like a picture viewer that receives pictures every few moments. Their servers send us pictures of the actions of the others. It then waits for us to make an action....and we can only do specific actions...the servers at Stars WON'T ACCEPT A .EXE FILE as one of your options!!! Anyhow, I think it's possible someone could write such a program because there are some VERY intelligent people out there....BUT...

Why would they play lower limits? If I were smart enough to even write this program, I'm not even sure I would even mess with something as piddly as an online poker site. But, IF I DID, I would make sure I was winning on very high levels. Period. And, don't tell me that it would be easier to detect on higher levels because they monitor those more....they monitor EVERYTHING. It's their servers, and their livelihood, nothing goes unmonitored.

Plus, you wouldn't sell the freaking program to ANYONE for a small price (if you sold it at all). There just is no logic behind this type of thinking. And, it's painful because it chases away the fish that I like to collect from on Stars. If they think people are changing the river cards, they won't play there.

Lastly, sites do not juice their action by changing cards, or giving one player better cards than others. They make SO MUCH money, and people keep SO MANY statistics on their hands that they KNOW they would be jeopardizing a billion dollar operation to make a few extra bucks.

Okay, talked it over at length on 2+2 about the 180 man 4.40 SnG decision on Stars (the one before I tilted off the rest of my stack), and obviously I don't give up a +EV decision. Case hopefully closed on that one.

I played a live limit Stud tourney on Friday, and out of 32 people (approx) I came in 11th, but never really had a chance. In no limit, I feel like you really play the people, but in a limit game, especially early on, it's not like I can bet people off a hand. I had two hands that allowed me to even survive to 11th, the rest were seriously not even playable (although I played them in late position when many players were in).

I had AA3, and capped it against another short stack who had KK9, and it held up. That was in about the 3rd level. This is pretty much a drawing game, and you need some draws to hit...none did. Seriously, I had no straits, nor flushes the entire night. That's surprising, but obviously many people have experienced that, so it's nothing new. My last hand of the night, I was drawing to the nut flush, and it also had me all in, and the flush never came. If it had, I actually would have had enough to make the final table, however, I would have needed some more help to actually cash.

In the limit hold'em event, it was pretty much the same. I couldn't bet people off of hands, and I played a little tighter than the stud tourney. Early on, I get AA against four other players (I raised), and it held up. That helped me, and at our first break, I was up an additional 40 percent of my original stack. However, not too long after the break, I get AQ, and raise from late position. The BB calls with KQ, and I flop a Q. I bet he raises, I reraise. Then, I made a mistake of sorts...in the WSOP (these tournies use WSOP rules), I suppose they have a rule in limit HE where if you're heads up with someone, there is no cap on raises. I could have asked him if he wanted to just go all in. I should have at least done that...the truth is, he wouldn't have laid down his hand. And, the river was a K, so I suppose I would have lost more if he agreed, however, I still think it was a mistake regardless of results. We were short handed (temporarily) and I felt I had the best hand pre-flop, and on the flop (which was true) so I felt sure I was in the lead. However, when the K on the river came, he checked (he had been betting), and I knew he hit it so I checked.

I did make the final table (9 handed) with the smallest stack by far. At one point, I had such a short stack, and there were two raises in front of me. I had K3, and decided this was the hand I was going out on, and I raised it to go all in. I ended up getting a boat to prolong the madness, and eventually I went out on a middle pair that I had hoped would hold up against one opponent.

I don't have as much experience playing limit games, however, and I hate to say that I needed cards, but if I hit any draws, and got any cards, I have to think I would have cashed in both. I was playing mistake free for the most part, and reading players well.

Mother's Day went really well with family, and it was a nice break. I actually played one SnG later that night, and got 1st.

Next week, I'll be in a live Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tourney, and I'll update regarding that. I am NOT good at O Hi/Lo, so I'll probably take first...lol.

Also, I'll update during the week on my SnG stats, and so on. My roll is slowly increasing, and I'm continuing to use good BR mgmt. I'm sticking with not using more than 5 percent of my roll at any one time and it is a great way to manage your roll. I intend to drop that percentage to 4 percent in the near future, with my overall attempt being to get down to only using 2 percent, yet being able to play the 100.00 tournies, and SnGs (eventually higher obviously, but it's going to be a while).

This coming weekend I'll be in a live LHE tourney, and a live limit Stud tourney. I'll update this blog with regard to those on Monday. Sunday, I'll be visiting mom's since it is Mother's Day after all. Gotta have some type of priority I suppose.

Last night I'm in a 180 man SnG on Stars. These things are flat out easy.

But, I took a bit of advice...or I should say, I let a statement by a player affect my judgement during the tourney.

First, his bit of advice: You're going to have to win some coin flips to get to the FT of any tourney.

Now, how that doesn't apply to what I was playing: I was playing in a 180 man tourney where players will pay you off HUGE when you're ahead. You simply don't have to get in coin flip situations (unless in desperation) if you're ANY type of good in these 180 man tournies on Stars. You just don't. I mean, maybe you're at the final table, and you have an M of 4, and it's down to 5 players, and you push a player with a pair of 9's, and he calls with AK. No prob. I'm just saying that during the tournament, because of the skill level of the players, you have no need to take flips.

How this somewhat bit me during the tourney: This isn't a horrible mistake, in fact, if you do the math it's +EV. Some say to take all +EV situations. And, I agree to some extent...however, if you're better than everyone at the table, COUPLED with the fact that they will pay you off with their entire stack when you have a 70/30 situation, there isn't much need to take a flip even if it is +EV. You'll see what I mean as we go along...

It is the 100/200 w/25 ante level. The table had tightened up considerably, and I actually built my stack to just barely the CL at my table just through blinds and stealing pots on the flop in the 100/200 (no ante) level.

I'm 2nd to act with a pair of 8s. UTG folds. The only person I felt would call any type of raise, or even reraise was a player that was shortstacked on the CO. He had ~1500, and I had ~5300.

I raise to 600, the player in question indeed goes all in, everyone else has folded. There's around 2600 in the pot, and it's 900 to me, so this is a +EV situation for me based on the range I put him on. He calls with a hand in the range I felt he would have, KQo. I lose the hand.

No problem, I have plenty of chips left at around 3400 or so. But, I was pissed. I was pissed that I listened to the guy about the coinflips because of all places, I just did not have to take a coinflip here. If I'm the best player, and if I am going to get paid off when I hit hands, then taking a flip is a bad move. I already have a skill edge against the players at my table, so when I take a flip on an all in pre-flop move, I'm negating my skill edge.

So, what do I do? I prove that I suck, and that I'm a tilting maniac, and I raise UTG w/J6 of diamonds the next hand, the guy that was just in the hand with me reraised me all in, I call, he has AA, I'm down to 120 chips and basically done. So much for emotional control.

I'll be talking with others over the next few days about taking flips in tournies where you are one of the better players playing, and certainly the best at your table. That sounds overconfident, but we don't play poker without confidence do we?

A great post concerning how we should approach poker mentally (from a bird's eye view) is here:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=1825403&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1

The poster, Gigabet, is a very successful online, and live player (understatment).

Okay, it's Sunday, and as promised, an update.

Online, I've continued to perform well. I had lost about 20.00, and gained it back. I'm doing fine online. In about ten minutes, I'll be playing an fpp tourney to a larger fpp tourney (400 to 4000).

The live rebuy tournament...wow. The live rebuy tournament I was in was very disappointing, but not for normal reasons that a tournament would be disappointing.

Here are some of the good things that happened:
Even though I brought 120.00 to it, I only had to spend 40.00, and I had a very competitive stack for a large portion of the tournament.
I made some great calls that I really focused on.
I made an excellent trap on a player that typically doesn't give up too many chips. I got him all in on nothing but top pair, and I had trips. Big pot.

But, at one point, I went on complete tilt, and donked off all my chips, and it had nothing to do with a beat, or the normal things that might put someone on tilt.

First off, I rarely go on tilt live. Not while playing. I might bust out of a tournament, and be on tilt after it's all over, but I rarely if ever go on tilt live. I just don't. But, this pissed me off.

Okay...the situation.

We were playing a 10.00 rebuy. You start with 1,000 chips, and when you're at 1,000 or below you can rebuy during the first two levels. Typically everyone double rebuys. The first two levels were 45 minutes each, so we had 90 minutes for rebuys. At the end of that time, you could actually get a double add-on. So, the minimum amount you should have after the r+a is 4,000 chips. Going into this, I thought that if I had at least 8,000 chips, I would be in contention for a win. I would obviously like to have more, but having 8,000 would be nice because the next two levels were 50/100, and 100/200 and they would be 30 minutes a piece. With 8,000 chips and an hour of flexibility I could seriously accumulate.

And, I did accumulate, although I was not able to get too much. I took a big pot with KK, and stole the blinds and antes, and got up to around 15,000 in chips. We had went from 4 tables down to 3, down to 2 and we had a break. The person to my left, a quiet, tight, lady who was very nice had about 4,000 in chips.

When we got back from break, however, she was not sitting there. Her husband was. Her husband was probably 10x her skill level, however, he had busted out much earlier. Probably 4 levels earlier, he had busted out. I thought, "he's just going to sit there, but he won't play."

We're in the 200/400 w/ante at this point after the break, and I'm stealing blinds with A4 off suit. I'm not getting too invovled at a full table with A4, it's no different than 85 to me in this particular situation, so to me I was stealing with trash.

The guy had folded some hands before this steal attempt, and I had been thinking, "What the fuck is he still doing here?" But, he was folding hands, and I think I was just dumbfounded that someone was taking over for someone else. I couldn't believe it. Looking back, I most certainly should have said something, and I've learned a lesson in that regard.

So, I raise with A4, and he goes all in, and my first thought is, "I just got raised by a stack that isn't even here!" Incidentally, the lady was too tired to play the rest, so that's the reasoning her husband gave for even being there. I'll tell you that I saw them talking outside on break, and I think he convinced her to let him take over for her. But, that's only speculation. Also, you should know that this guy put the most into the prizepool. I spent 40.00 in the tournament, he probably spent about 220.00 (possibly more, I don't know how much his wife spent). So, it's possible he felt entitled.

I ended up reluctantly folding the A4. It was an easy fold, however, I wanted the hand to be done over. This guy shouldn't have been in it.

I was on tilt. Of course, as you know my being on tilt is my fault. I should have been able to deal with this situation, however, I was so pissed, and I let it completely affect my play which is completely my fault. Even though that guy did something unethical, it doesn't give me an excuse to go nuts.

So, I get 45 in the bb, and another player raises, and I call. I hit a 5, and I call down to the river which cost probably half my stack (the player is a very aggressive post flop player). Calling down like this is something I would never do in the situation I was in. Especially against a very tight, aggressive, intelligent player that I knew could beat freaking bottom pair.

Now, I'm down, and I'm even more on tilt, and I'm thinking about this player that shouldn't even be there, and I get a pair of 6's. I raise from late position, the unethical player goes all in with about 4500, and the player behind him reraises to more than my stack. I'm on such tilt that I think for about 30 seconds, and say "fuck it." I'm done.

The unethical player busted, and the player that was behind him got a very nice pot with a set of jacks. I actually hit a set myself, however, his set beat mine. I mean it when I say it, had I won the pot, I would have taken out around 3800 (what I think he started with when he took over) chips, and put them where he was sitting, and let that stack blind out because that would have been the most fair thing to do for all the players in the tournament.

So, I didn't cash, although I played great, then ran into a situation I thought I would never encounter.

If he had won, who would be credited for the win? His wife? She didn't play the second half of the tournament. Him? He busted out for all his chips much earlier.

Let's say Dan Harrington started a rebuy, then busted out. His wife was playing, and it was the first time she ever played a tourney. Dan's wife decides to go, and Dan takes over for her. You really think ANYONE in the tourney would go for that? Obviously not.

Well, I talked to the host of the game, and he felt the way I do, but just did not expect something like that to ever happen. He assured me it would never happen again.

Forgot to mention that I had a 2nd final table in the 180 man SnGs. Got a little higher, 5th, and I was totally amped. I could have won, but played the whole thing extremely well.

Last night I played a 40+1r&a fpp tourney, and won. Then, I realized that the day I would be playing the 4000 fpp tourney I actually had a 10.00 rebuy game that I would be playing locally. Oops!

No problem, I unregistered, took the 4000 fpps, and I'll probably use them to sat into the Sunday guarantee tournies (and unregister from those).

April, for me, on Stars was big. Look, I'm not a big time online player, I'm still learning, but I've gained the most cash in my account I've ever had. I've had more when you count T$, but right now, I have the most cash I've ever had.

Bankroll mgmt, and keeping stats were the keys to me having a profitable month. I will continue those disciplines, and hope to do as well or better in May.

I'll post the results of my rebuy tournie on Sunday. It's 10.00 plus rebuys, and you'll have rebuys for the first 90 minutes of play. Also, at the end of that there is a double add on. We start with 1000 chips.