Happened in my final SNG last night too, I put my opponent all-in with trips but ran into better trips. As far as I'm concerned, trips heads-up in Five Card Draw are an automatic all-in starting at a certain blind level, which you will have certainly reached by that point in a SNG.
Notifications
Clear all
Today's lesson would be that I really shouldn't play when I'm not in a good mental state for it.
My mood had been soured early today already after some stressful and ultimately fruitless email conversations with a "professional useless person" from a public agency. At least I was wise enough to skip my afternoon session, but then went all out with a big grind in the evening, as I had planned the day before. Unfortunately, I underestimated how tilted I still was, which only gets amplified when things don't start out your way and tiny annoyances begin to pile up.
I took a shot at a $11 non-turbo PL 5CD MTT, where my performance had been mediocre at best, I'd say. There were definitely some noticeable tilt issues already. In any case, my run was unsuccessful. Nothing to get in Badugi either. I planned to play that $7.50 turbo PL 5CD MTT that I tried the day before, but decided against it, noticing my bad mental state. I did still reg for another $1.10 8-Game, which started sooner, and even still managed to get a pretty good run started in there, until I inevitably donked everything off on tilt again because I just wanted my session to end by that point, it was the last thing still running.
Despite this bad state of affairs, the 5CD SNGs didn't go too badly. Five were played, three cashed, one was shipped. The heads-up phase was where my tilt issues had the biggest impact, resulting in those unnecessary 2nd places. Still good for $4.25 in profit in those games, which of course won't come close to covering the MTT losses. Nevertheless, it is good to see that even when I'm on my B- or possibly even C-game, I'm sometimes able to pull off at least some marginal wins in there. Too bad this doesn't seem to carry over into the MTTs yet. I think I will stick to the $7.50 turbos late in the evening, and see if I can get some cashes in the next 1-2 weeks.
Oh, and I lost at OFC too, undoing a chunk of my previous progress, but was just plain foolishness on my part. I should have known by now that this is a terrible game to play while on tilt.
Poker had a bit of a break in the last few days. But I made another B-52 attempt today.
This time, I used some little attachments that I found at home recently:
You simply put them on top of any bottle you intend to use, like this:
The booze then comes out much more slowly. With stuff like Bailey's or Grand Marnier, you can almost pour it out drop by drop if you're really careful.
For the B-52s, it worked great:
Finally they look like they're supposed to look. 
Now that we got this down, maybe I can try those other variations involving Frangelico and amaretto and other stuff next week. This may require some experimentation on which layer belongs where, especially because I've seen conflicting information on that.
And one day, I may even try the flaming version... ♠_o:
when you're done pouring, is there a cap or other stopper that goes with the spigot — or do you remove it and put the cork back in?
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
when you're done pouring, is there a cap or other stopper that goes with the spigot — or do you remove it and put the cork back in?
No, I just removed them and put the cork or cap of the bottle back in. It worked pretty well with the Grand Marnier, the bottle of Bailey's was more of a struggle. I assume those rings at the bottom of those attachments are designed to ensure a snug fit for bottles of various sizes - maybe I forced it down a bit too much on that bottle.
I still used the standard technique where I poured the booze in off the back of a bar spoon, btw, but used those bottle attachment in addition to that.
After an amazing upswing across the board, and a bit of a break in the last couple of days, things went really badly tonight.
We're obviously still doing fine overall, but it's about time that some good results start coming in again. I may have a limited amount of time for poker next week again, especially some evening sessions will have to be sacrificed, but I don't feel like giving the slightly higher MTTs a chance right now either. It feels like I need to correct the course in the SNGs first in order to get some confidence back.
Not a great week on all fronts, really. Hopefully, it will start to go better now.
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 25/50 (5 ante) - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 3,036 (61 bb)
BU: 2,150 (43 bb)
SB (Hero): 2,070 (41 bb)
BB: 1,744 (35 bb)
Deal: (95) Hero is SB with J♣ T♥ K♥ Q♦ A♠
UTG raises to 100, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets to 300, 1 fold, UTG calls 200
Draw One: (670) J♣ T♥ K♥ Q♦ A♠ (2 players)
SB (Hero) stands pat, UTG draws 1
Hero bets 335, UTG calls 335
Total pot: 1,340
Showdown:
SB (Hero) shows J♣ T♥ K♥ Q♦ A♠ (a straight, Ten to Ace)
UTG shows T♣ 3♣ 4♣ 9♣ 2♣ (a flush, Ten high)
UTG wins 1,340
Still going poorly. We are now on a six game losing streak, and it has been nine games since the last 1st place.
I may have some more time tomorrow, maybe I can finally get something going.
Originally posted by Harrier88
After an amazing upswing across the board, and a bit of a break in the last couple of days, things went really badly tonight.
:spit::spit::spit::spit::spit:
I have had the exact opposite well over 10 buy-ins this month
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Originally posted by Harrier88
After an amazing upswing across the board, and a bit of a break in the last couple of days, things went really badly tonight.:spit::spit::spit::spit::spit:
I have had the exact opposite well over 10 buy-ins this month
I saw it. Tough times for the trolls... 
I think I'm doing a decent enough job of curbing my enthusiasm when I'm on an upswing like in the beginning of this month, because I know that there are good and bad phases and that the good ones won't last forever.
The opposite case of curbing my frustration when things are going badly always seems so much tougher, at least for me, even though it would follow the same logic.
Well, on a positive note... Mahjong is going really well at the moment. 
Yet again, I'm going to be careful with this, because I have only played 14 games so far this year, which is almost nothing. Besides, I had started on similarly hot streaks in previous years, and the results always eventually returned back to break-evenish somehow. I see no reason yet why it should be different this year. It's simply a very variance-heavy game.
Still, the few games that were played so far went really nicely, I'd be quite happy with those kinds of stats in SNGs. Maybe things will at least keep going well enough to present some nice-looking graphs at the end of the month - would be pretty cool, wouldn't it?
Mahjong at least seems like a much better choice for a quick late night gambling fix than OFC, in any case.
Okay, as Vorpal spits in the blog, I will do that too, because this is how PLO is going for me at the moment:
:spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit::spit:
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 50/100 (10 ante) - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,435 (14 bb)
CO: 630 (6 bb)
BU (Hero): 4,155 (42 bb)
SB: 760 (8 bb)
BB: 2,020 (20 bb)
Deal: (200) Hero is BTN with 7♠ 7♥ K♦ K♥ K♣
UTG calls 100, 1 fold, Hero raises to 250, 2 players fold, UTG calls 150
Draw One: (700) 7♠ 7♥ K♦ K♥ K♣ (2 players)
UTG draws 1, BU (Hero) stands pat
UTG checks, Hero bets 350, UTG raises to 1,175 (all-in), Hero calls 825
Total pot: 3,050
Showdown:
UTG shows 5♦ 8♦ 7♦ 6♥ 9♦ (a straight, Five to Nine)
BU (Hero) shows 7♠ 7♥ K♦ K♥ K♣ (a full house, Kings full of Sevens)
BU (Hero) wins 3,050
That's more like it.
Played three SNGs so far today, where I placed 3rd, 2nd and 1st. This included a $5 SNG, which was the one where I finished 2nd.
So far, so good. Let's keep it going...
Very odd that UTG would fall on his sword with a 9-high straight.
If you're just snowing, he has you, if you're not, he is very rarely ahead.
I hope you took notes...
Those extra three outs do come in handy sometimes...
PokerStars, $4.56 + $0.44 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 15/30 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,495 (50 bb)
MP: 1,630 (54 bb)
CO (Hero): 2,410 (80 bb)
BU: 1,585 (53 bb)
SB: 1,180 (39 bb)
BB: 700 (23 bb)
Deal: (45) Hero is CO with T♦ K♦ Q♦ 6♥ 9♦
1 fold, MP raises to 105, Hero calls 105, 3 players fold
Draw One: (255) T♦ K♦ Q♦ 9♦ J♥ (2 players)
MP draws 3, CO (Hero) draws 6h
MP bets 255, Hero calls 255
Total pot: 765
Showdown:
MP shows A♣ A♠ 5♥ 8♦ 8♠ (two pair, Aces and Eights)
CO (Hero) shows T♦ K♦ Q♦ 9♦ J♥ (a straight, Nine to King)
CO (Hero) wins 765
Not sure why I didn't re-raise postdraw. The pot-size bet by my opponent may have been a bit scary, but what are the chances that my opponent improved to something better than a straight here? Most likely, this kind of line would mean trips, I believe, with a couple of good two pairs like this one thrown in.
Anyway, SNGs had some shockingly bad traffic tonight, but I got two more of them in, one of them being the $5 tournament above. This one also required a tough ICM fold (or whatever it's called) on the bubble later on. I'm glad I didn't re-raise and therefore commit with my good aces up.
PokerStars, $4.56 + $0.44 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 75/150 (15 ante) - 3 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
BU: 3,465 (23 bb)
SB (Hero): 2,485 (17 bb)
BB: 3,050 (20 bb)
Deal: (270) Hero is SB with Q♠ J♣ A♦ Q♦ A♠
BTN raises to 300, Hero calls 225, BB 3-bets to 900, BTN calls 600, SB (Hero) folds
Draw One: (2,145) (2 players)
BB draws 1, BU draws 2
BB bets 1,073, BTN raises to 2,550 (all-in), BB calls 1,062 (all-in)
Total pot: 6,415
Showdown:
BU shows 4♣ 4♥ 4♦ 7♦ 7♠ (a full house, Fours full of Sevens)
BB shows K♠ K♣ J♥ K♦ 5♠ (three of a kind, Kings)
BU wins 6,415
This one and the $2 game both finished 2nd. That means that four out of five SNGs today cashed, which is good, but I need to do better heads-up. There have been more 2nd places than 1st places by now this year for me. Still, thanks to the two $5 SNGs, today was technically the most profitable day this year so far when it comes to SNGs, with a $13.70 profit.
Also, there was some Badugi tonight again. 
I hadn't played this game in a week, so it kind of felt like I had to find my way back into it. It went pretty well early on, I managed to get a couple of bounties from players who didn't know the rules, which also gave me a decent stack. There have been some close hands on both the winning and losing end for me later on, but this hand in particular was especially sick:
PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 125/250 - 8 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 5,687 (23 bb)
UTG+1: 3,000 (12 bb)
MP: 13,660 (55 bb)
MP+1: 4,850 (19 bb)
CO: 6,134 (25 bb)
BU: 14,011 (56 bb)
SB: 13,576 (54 bb)
BB (Hero): 6,784 (27 bb)
Deal: (375) Hero is BB with 3♦ 7♦ A♥ 7♠
4 players fold, CO calls 250, 1 fold, SB calls 125, Hero checks
Draw One: (750) 3♦ A♥ 7♠ 2♠ (3 players)
SB draws 2, BB (Hero) draws 7d, CO draws 2
SB checks, Hero bets 500, CO calls 500, SB folds
Draw Two: (1,750) 3♦ A♥ 2♠ 6♣ (2 players)
BB (Hero) draws 7s, CO draws 1
Hero bets 1,000, CO raises to 2,000, Hero raises to 6,034 (all-in), CO calls 3,384 (all-in)
Draw Three: (13,168) 3♦ A♥ 2♠ 6♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)
BB (Hero) stands pat, CO stands pat
Total pot: 12,518
Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 3♦ A♥ 2♠ 6♣ (a Badugi: 6,3,2,A)
CO shows 2♦ 4♣ 3♠ 5♥ (a Badugi: 5,4,3,2)
CO wins 12,518
But guess what? I somehow recovered and cashed, and the player who coolered me here ended up being the bubble boy, losing to another cooler himself.
As for how I recovered, it all started with this hand:
PokerStars, $3.92 + $0.48 - Badugi Pot Limit - 150/300 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 3,000 (10 bb)
CO: 3,000 (10 bb)
BU (Hero): 525 (2 bb)
SB: 3,000 (10 bb)
BB: 3,000 (10 bb)
Deal: (450) Hero is BTN with 5♠ 7♦ J♣ 4♦
UTG calls 300, 1 fold, Hero raises to 525 (all-in), 1 fold, BB calls 225, UTG calls 225
Draw One: (1,725) 5♠ 4♦ 9♠ K♣ (3 players, 1 all-in)
BB draws 2, UTG draws 1, BU (Hero) draws 7d Jc
BB checks, UTG checks
Draw Two: (1,725) 5♠ 4♦ 2♣ 7♣ (3 players, 1 all-in)
BB draws 2, UTG draws 1, BU (Hero) draws 9s Kc
BB checks, UTG checks
Draw Three: (1,725) 5♠ 4♦ 2♣ T♦ (3 players, 1 all-in)
BB draws 2, UTG stands pat, BU (Hero) draws 7c
BB checks, UTG checks
Total pot: 1,725
Showdown:
BU (Hero) shows 5♠ 4♦ 2♣ T♦ (a 3-card: 5,4,2)
BB shows A♦ A♥ 8♣ 2♥ (a 3-card: 8,2,A)
UTG mucks T♠ A♠ 4♠ 9♥
BU (Hero) wins 1,725
I got ready to close the table and note down my returns when my opponent stood pat and I failed to improve, then this showdown...
Anyway, I was already freerolling through bounties and got another mincash on top of it, for $9.55 in returns, a bit over a double up. Picked up $1.62 at FL 5CD cash too, so it was a successful day overall. Maybe we can continue this trend, though there won't be much time for poker tomorrow.
Originally posted by Harrier88
But guess what? I somehow recovered and cashed, and the player who coolered me here ended up being the bubble boy, losing to another cooler himself.
What goes around comes around...
Justice!
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Very odd that UTG would fall on his sword with a 9-high straight.
If you're just snowing, he has you, if you're not, he is very rarely ahead.I hope you took notes...
I rarely take notes anymore, but with such a limited player pool, I usually do well enough remembering the other players' tendencies (at least I like to think so).
I believe the only notes I ever took, or at least the vast majority of them, are all 5CD related and mostly come from the time when FL cash had better traffic and I found myself playing it a lot. The notes were mostly about the situations when my opponents discard 1 vs 2 cards (i.e. how many cards they draw to trips, and whether they like to keep a kicker to their pairs), and if they were caught snowing before.
But you're right, it was an odd move by my opponent here. I think I've won a few times with pat hands in that game before (all showdowns, if I remember correctly), so maybe their ego got in the way and they wanted the satisfaction of having shoved me out of a pot rather than just calling what they must have thought was a snowing attempt.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I admire the Aces-up fold.
Well done
Thank you! It was basically an ICM-fold, and not the easiest of laydowns. If my other opponent on the button had folded, I probably would have called. If I had entered with a raise rather than a flat call, I would have felt more committed and also would have played it, possibly pushing all-in predraw. I also would have probably called in this situation if this had been a cash game. Either way, I then would have assumed that my opponent drawing 1 to the trip kings would have had another good, but slightly worse two pair, so postdraw would have been costly for me too.
The way it played out, I figured that no matter which player loses, it would put me into a good position in the game, and I also expected some fireworks postdraw, so I got out. I'm lucky that it turned out exactly like that.
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 50/100 (10 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 1,755 (18 bb)
MP: 1,745 (17 bb)
CO: 1,380 (14 bb)
BU: 1,830 (18 bb)
SB: 915 (9 bb)
BB (Hero): 1,375 (14 bb)
Deal: (210) Hero is BB with K♠ 6♠ J♠ T♦ 3♠
4 players fold, SB calls 50, Hero checks
Draw One: (260) K♠ 6♠ J♠ 3♠ A♥ (2 players)
SB draws 3, BB (Hero) draws Td
SB checks, Hero checks
Total pot: 260
Showdown:
SB shows A♦ Q♦ 8♥ 9♥ T♠ (high card, Ace)
BB (Hero) shows K♠ 6♠ J♠ 3♠ A♥ (high card, Ace - higher kicker)
BB (Hero) wins 260
That one was a weird game... only made a third place in there, unfortunately.
Three out of five SNGs cashed today, with one of them shipped. A $5 SNG was included, which finished 2nd - again.
I've upgraded my tracking spreadsheet tonight to yield separate stats for $2 and $5 SNGs. So far, there were only six $5 games played. One finished 4th, and five of them finished 2nd. This is both good and bad - good because it means an insanely high ITM%, and some nice returns ($17.85 so far), bad because we need those 1st places.
Badugi didn't go too well tonight, only earned a few bounties. Tried a $1.10 8-Game too, but shouldn't have. Honestly, I wasn't all that focused tonight. Good thing the SNG profits carried me once again, so we could collect a few bucks even on a bad day.
Too many tables? Too much coffee? Too much crazy stuff on the news? I'm not sure what happened, but tonight, my head just wasn't in the game, at least from a certain point on. I could hardly think straight anymore, let alone play some decent poker.
It started out all right, with three more $2 SNGs, one shipped and one 2nd place. The third one finished on the bubble, and by that point, things really seemed to be going downhill already. At the same time, I played some PLO8 for my Troll Challenge with Prim, and also a $4.40 Courchevel8 PKO. I had a decent start in both, but then those careless mistakes started to slide in... admittedly, I don't have a ton of experience with either game, but I should already know better.
Both games scored me a bounty, but nothing else. I was looking for some other stuff to play until my usual Badugi MTT starts, and made a surprising discovery: There's a $5.50 8-Game PKO tournament now at 20:33 my time... is that a new one, or why did I never notice it before? This is exactly the kind of 8-Game MTT that I've been looking for the whole time: A reasonably low buy-in that is comparable to my standard Badugi game, a starting time close to my usual grinding hours, and 90 minutes of late reg are also acceptable, even though less would have been appreciated. As for the PKO part, I could take it or leave it, it at least doesn't bother me. I really couldn't have asked for much more.
I played it today, and it went decently. I've seen some of the same mistakes that I believed were typical of the $1.10 tournament I sometimes played before. Got a $1.88 bounty, came close to ITM... then it was buried aces vs buried Jacks in Stud hi, and the Jacks hit trips. I got out, no ITM, and by that time, I definitely wasn't in the zone anymore, mentally speaking. 
Careless behavior in the Badugi almost resulted in an early brick, but I came back a bit with what little chips I had to at least collect two bounties, but that's all.
So all four MTTs earned bounties, yet none cashed. SNGs turned a profit, yet not enough to pay for everything else tonight. Next time... I just need to get my act together. Tonight was just pure chaos at times.
The best thing about tonight's session was really the discovery of that $5.50 8-Game MTT, I believe. Regardless of short-term results, I should definitely stick around, it is exactly what I've been looking for. I didn't have any plans yet to focus that much on 8-Game, but I suppose I should now.