Did I forget how to play Hold 'em?

After a considerable slow and dragging downswing, I had several decent results this past week.

3rd in the Full Tilt $75 on Wednesday for about $5k which resulted in a net profit of $3500 on the day because I blanked in all the other majors.

1st in the Pokerstars $215 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo for $7k giving me about a $5k profit on the day because Saturdays are also expensive and I bricked in all the Hold 'em events.

4th in the Pokerstars $215 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo for $3k giving me about a break even Sunday after I bricked my first 19 tournaments. I bricked 19 straight tournaments. This is leading me to believe something is seriously flawed with my early stage Hold 'em game.


Before I hit the panic button, I have ran considerably bad on Sundays in the past month or so. There were probably 12 tournaments that I really felt I played fine in on Sunday and it just wasn't meant to be. Because I do a great job of managing my bankroll, all it really takes is one win to give me a great month or 2 month period, but it just hasn't happened lately. The shortcomings of my tournament results have really given me a lot of drive to get better. I've watched countless videos and tried to read about poker whenever I'm not playing. Then I have brief spurts of playing really well followed by some calling station atrocities. These are essentially when I decide to lose my mind and become a calling station. I'm not totally discouraged by my hold 'em game because I don't believe it to be bad as a whole. In fact, I played extremely well in the 3rd place finish on Full Tilt using my big stack to my advantage and finding great points of the tournaments to pick up and slow down the aggression. When I don't have a huge stack though, I'm probably just a little too tight in a lot of situations. I'm going to be doing everything I can to figure this out and try to get better.

SCOOP Day #1 and #2

So there is good news and bad news.

I played Day 1 and Day 2 of the SCOOP and will be playing likely every day for the rest of the series. On Day 1, I had nice stacks in both the 5 rebuy and 55 rebuy, but cashed in neither. I cashed in both the 11 and 109 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better and made a grand total of $21 on Day 1. Fortunately, I've been using all W$ that I won initially off of a $44 satellite. Basically, I just keep playing tourneys to win W$, which can buy into any of these major events. In essence, I'm paying no cash out of my bankroll to play, but I get paid in cash.

On Day 2, I cashed in the PL 5 card draw $11 and failed in the 109. I played all 3 NL Hold 'em tourneys or 16.5, 162, 1575 (I won a w$ satellite into this one through a 280 turbo). I got around 420th in the 162 good for $0 as it paid 414. I ran AQ into AK in both big ones in completely standard plays with under 10 bb and with the blinds going up at such a rapid pace. All in all, it was a negative day, but Day 2 is probably the biggest joke games of the series as it's on a Friday when no one plays anyway.

I'm also in a leaderboard contest on Pocketfives with over 40 teams. It is 3 man teams with the top 15 scores of the group counting towards a final point total. It is for all the Low events. There are really two links to this. The most important one is probably here with the final scorings even though it is lagging behind. My name on there is iacog4.

SCOOP contest scoring

SCOOP contest rules and team listings

Hmmmmm....

Sometimes you just have to wonder. I'm in the midst of the first sit n go session of the day. This is the 3rd set over set where I was on the bottom end. It just makes you wonder sometimes. After posting my best sit n go session of my life last night, it seems convenient to have 3 set over set hands. Enjoy!

PokerStars Game #26605790684: Tournament #152497880, $25+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2009/04/01 12:27:37 ET
Table '152497880 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Crisper (1670 in chips)
Seat 2: quinitto (2570 in chips)
Seat 3: GoeliO1 (2945 in chips)
Seat 4: danzin79 (1830 in chips)
Seat 5: iacog4 (730 in chips)
Seat 7: periko77 (1420 in chips)
Seat 8: hansapils82 (1260 in chips)
Seat 9: Trudoy (1075 in chips)
quinitto: posts small blind 25
GoeliO1: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to iacog4 [Qs Qh]
danzin79: calls 50
iacog4: raises 680 to 730 and is all-in
periko77: folds
hansapils82: folds
Trudoy: raises 345 to 1075 and is all-in
Crisper: folds
quinitto: raises 1495 to 2570 and is all-in
GoeliO1: folds
danzin79: folds
Uncalled bet (1495) returned to quinitto
*** FLOP *** [2d 7s 8c]
*** TURN *** [2d 7s 8c] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [2d 7s 8c Qc] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
quinitto: shows [Ac Ks] (a pair of Aces)
Trudoy: shows [As Ah] (three of a kind, Aces)
Trudoy collected 690 from side pot
iacog4: shows [Qs Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)
Trudoy collected 2290 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2980 Main pot 2290. Side pot 690. | Rake 0
Board [2d 7s 8c Qc Ad]
Seat 1: Crisper (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: quinitto (small blind) showed [Ac Ks] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 3: GoeliO1 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: danzin79 folded before Flop
Seat 5: iacog4 showed [Qs Qh] and lost with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 7: periko77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: hansapils82 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Trudoy showed [As Ah] and won (2980) with three of a kind, Aces