Grinding it out, one day at a time

I’ve not really played much poker since my last update mainly due to eating and drinking my own body weight in alcohol and fatty foods! Well it is Christmas afterall! In between the festivities I’ve managed to fit in around 500 hands and turned a nice little $55 profit, including a cash in a 90 man deep stack SnG.

I entered the SnG on a whim on Saturday night when I’d finished my bar shift mainly because I had never entered a deep stack game before. It was only a $5.50 buy in so I went for it and within 10-15 minutes 89 others joined me. I tried to see a few cheap flops but never really hit anything but the players seemed tighter than usual so I started to loosen up. I rode my luck a little during the 3rd level when I raised to 4xBB in EP with my 88 and only the Rock on the button called. My 88 was an overpair on a rainbow board of 537 and I bet the pot and was minraised by the Rock, something told me to push here (think it was the numerous beers and brandy’s I’d consumed earlier) so push I did and was insta-called by the Rock who flipped QQ Turn brought another 7 and the river a beautiful 8 to fill my boat and I was one of the chip leaders. I stole a lot of pots preflop by 3-betting and was sat in the top 6 in chips for most of the game.

By the time I hit the 3rd break I was stuggling to keep awake but I could smell the final table and was uber-confident of finishing in one of the top 3 places where the actual money was. The bubble burst soon after the break and we were down to 16 players when my final hand occured. It was folded to the SB, who had been on one of my previous tables for over an hour and he’d commented on how he knew I was stealing and raising light and he seemed pretty solid and capable of making moves, and he limped. I made it 4xBB from the BB with AJs and he raised to 10xBB. I knew this was going to be a critical hand as if we end up all-in once is going to be the chip leader. From our previous play and comments he could have anything at all here and decide he’s doing this with 22+, A9+, 76s+, KTs+ and I’m here to win the whole thing so I push into him. He calls right away and shows AKo. FFS! Neither of us improved and I go out in 16th. I think I made the right move to win. I could have folded here and limped a few spots higher (I was 7th in chips at the time) but I read him for making a play based on my image and made a move based on these factors. Meh. $8.10 won which equates to $2.60 for 3.5 hours work,

I’ve played around 280 hands of 6-max NL10 and shipped around $1.20 which isn’t the best result in the world but by no way disasterous, nothing really of note to be honest. I’m around $50 up from 6-max NL25 which is nice! I’ve only played around 200 hands and have been paid off with my big hands which helps things. Here’s an example. I’d only played 20 hands here but was at something stupid like 75/60/8 due to picking up KQs, AQ, KK, 88, JT, 98s and obviously AA! I guess he thought he could bluff me off the pot! LMAO!

I probably won’t get to play now until the New Year mainly because tonight I am going to kick Mrs Pudding’s arse at 10-pin bowling, Friday I have Pudding Jr and Saturday and Sunday are going to be crazy in the pub with it being New Year’s weekend so I’ll probably be in no fit state! I do have the following week off though and plan to log a whole bunch of hands during my time off. I originally booked it off as I thought Mrs Pudding was having that time off too but she’s had to take this week instead so why not utilise my spare time by logging a few hands and making some cash?! Even if I don’t play I’ll still be checking out your blogs so please upate them!

Best of luck at the tables and if I don’t update before the New Year, I wish you and your family all the best for 2007! :)