Sloe Times

So I'm back at the tables and I come back to a nice cold streak of cards. I figured that it was time to make a real try to come back after the pummeling my bankroll took at the $200 NL ring table I'd do a few strong games of 20+2 or maybe some 30+3 and build the bankroll back up. Well, nothing doing there. I sunk down to around $200 on party and figured that maybe a change of scenery would help. I pulled $100 out of Paradise to move over to Party and see if the move and new faces changes things up a little. I do like the party interface a little better than Paradise (being able to type in my raises rather than mess with the damn slider is a big improvement) but one of the things I had forgotten about is that in the SNGs on Party you start with T800 and not T1000. Ok, no big deal really. Let's check the highlight reel for last nights game. For the record I was playing on free money. Apparently, Party deposited $20 into my account at the end of last month for a reason I don't understand. But since my transfer to neteller hadn't completed yet, I was happy just the same.

I'm sitting tight through the first orbit, had tried to play a few hands, but the folks on Party, at this table, like to throw their stacks around, there were two people gone before the first orbit completed and things calmed down. Blinds are 30/60 and I'm UTG with Kh, Ah. I go ahead and raise to 110 figuring that the uber aggressive fellow to my right who is the BB will try to bully me out of the pot and I'm rewarded with a raise making it 300 to go. The flop comes 4h, 3s, 2h and I'm relatively happy with that until Mr. HyperAgro bets 1000 (I've only got 410 left) putting some serious weight on me. Well, if I fold I'm down to half my stack and the bully to my left who's been stealing pots after a lucky suck out in the beginning will just get bigger so I'm pushing my chips to the middle. This turns out to be the right play because the turn brings me Jh giving me the nut flush to his pair of 7s and he's drawing dead to the final card, 3c, giving him two pair. Hurrah, I double up and live to play another hand.

I don't get to play another hand until much later mostly because I'm trying to play it tight and survive until the final 3. The blinds are 100/200 now and I'm down to 1155 and the bully to my right is running away with the game at 4652. *sigh* I'm UTG+1 and catch Kd Kh. Every other play from the field has been all in, so I follow suit and shove. My only caller is the BB who was down to 176 after the blind. Nothing helped him out and the field drops to 4 and I'm sitting second in chips.

I'm the BB and have 1431 after paying the blind. The deal comes Th, Jh and the button shoves. I'm thinking that this is a steal attempt and the hand while not the greatest is not too bad and I call. I'm heads up against a pair of Qs and while the flops pairs the ten, nothing else happens and I'm down to T599 and officially the low man and the blinds are about to go up to 200/400. I catch a pair of 7s in the hole and UTG bets 400. I probably could have/should have folded and taken my chances as the BB but I figured this may be as good as it gets and shoved. I'm heads up against Jd, Th and not feeling too bad. Yes they're over cards, but maybe I'll hold up. I was even thinking I was in real good shape when the flop brought 5h, 6d, and 8s. Now with my 7s I've also got an open ended straight possibility. Then comes the first nail on the turn, Js. The final blow comes with Ah on the river and my 7s fall to his Js. I'm out in 4th and that's the ball game.

Played a home game with my friend Steel_Rain and his brother. Met a couple of good guys there as well, looks like it may become a regular event. The lessons learned in this session were that 5 card draw and 7 card stud are not good games for me. I held my own for about 5 hours before busting out but there wasn't an opportunity to make any moves because two of the guys were calling stations that were getting whittled down but you definitely needed to have something because even the strong possibility/threat of a better hand on the board wouldn't scare them out of a pot. Aw well. I picked up another book while I was on vacation. I grabbed Doyle's Supersystem book and am about half way through the 7-card stud section now. My current plan at this point is to put in some more study time and become a better all around player. I'm ok with my Hold'em game right now but with some more live games on the horizon I figure I want to shore up my knowledge of how the other forms of poker really work and maybe learn something I can take away to improve my poker game in general.