My year so far...

With my lack of posting over the last week or so, you think I’d have been bereft of poker games. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Our Thursday league had it’s season ending tournament – and it was a disappointment. I gained a lot of chips early on, and lost them shortly after the break. But I wasn’t all that disappointed in my play – I had AK 6 times before the break…in the league structure, 2 or 3 continuation bets that don’t pan out can ruin your stack, and that’s what happened. Que sera sera.

What I was really disappointed about happened after Banky and I left. He wrote about it, so I won’t bother rehashing all the details. But it just struck me as so sad and pathetic that people would chop 5 ways in a 13 player game. How desperate must you be to leave with money in your pocket that you’d have so little regard for the game that you’d chop when barely over half of the players were gone? If people need money that bad, they shouldn’t be playing in the game to begin with.

I can understand if HUGE amounts of money are on the line. I hate chops (the few times I’ve succumbed to them, I’ve felt very dirty afterwards) – but if I was at a WPT final table, where the difference between 4th and 1st is hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’d definitely consider a chop - especially if I doubted my skills in comparison to the other players. But on Thursday we were talking about a total prize pool of less than $1000.

The whole thing grossed me out – especially when the story that was related to us included the host of the league literally yelling “chop” after every hand for 5 minutes. Asking for a chop is one thing, intimidating other players into chopping is another.

I told Banky that I was unequivicably done with the league – at least for the next season. The league was no longer fun for me – and I suspect for other players as well. I was done before the beginning of this season, but gave it ‘one more try’ because we’ve been with the league since the beginning – but I can’t keep spending a night a week in a game that frustrates me so much. Not when there are so many other fun options.

We also had the final game of the season at Woody’s. It was on New Year’s Eve – so was a mix of a poker game and a party. We had tons of fun. Even though I busted first (I think), I had a smile on my face. We played a second SNG, I didn’t make the money again – and then after midnight decided to play a cash game. About 2:00 in the morning, I was felted when a VERY drunk player flopped a straight on me, and I decided not to buy back in. Banky was having fun, and another player begged me not to stop playing, so I bought back in. And doubled up with Kings on the very next hand. Sometimes poker is so funny. Banky and I ended up slightly up for the night (good cash game results made up for the bad tourney results).

Finally, last night was the Woody’s TOC. I did my usual – build up a nice big stack early on, and then blind it away in the late stages. I think I went out 6th. I was very card dead, but I can’t fully blame that. I should have used my big stack to my advantage more. You can’t always wait for good cards. I also made a HUGE mistake early on by not raising with the nuts on the river. I was so distracted that I didn’t make the flush I was hoping to make, that I only called with my nut straight. Had I thought for 2 seconds I would have realized I had the nuts. D’oh.

I’ve also been playing some online poker again. I got a 3rd place finish in a $20+2 HORSE MTT on FullTilt. Which was a good thing, because I had run my online bankroll dangerously close to nada. I decided that I needed some focus and discipline (I get bored easily online and play above my bankroll, stay longer than I should, and pretty much just piss my money away) – so I looked up the rules that Chris Ferguson used to turn his $0 into $10,000. I’ve been using the rules to manage my play at the low-limit HORSE games, and have been having fun. I’ve increased my FT bankroll by 14% - not too shabby.

So that's the start to my 2008. I think it's going to be a very good year for the Bankster and I. I'm going to focus on playing games I enjoy, and with discipline that makes it profitable.

2 posts in 1 day. I'm exhuasted!