Like Falling of a Bike

Back to some poker on the weekend. Played me some cash games on Stars and FCP, the 20k on FT, and finished off with a $6+.50 Turbo SnG on Stars. All-in-all, I did alright.

I'm loving the cash games these days, playing the low-limits (either 0.25/0.50 or 1/2 NLHE) introduces all kinds of fun. My favourite moment was playing in a game on Stars while waiting for some laundry to be done. Played for 20 min, made about $80 in 1/2... looked back at the history and it was essentially my name in green over and over again, with the odd non-me breaking it up. I think I won something like 15 hands over that time, only 2 of them went to showdown. Amazing how the live mentality and online ones are different. In the live 1/2 cash I play in, a pre-flop initial raise to $10 isn't uncommon, and it'll get called... online, a raise to $6 scares off everyone. I did, however, donk off around $100 in a game late Friday night (ie.- early Saturday morning)... won most of it back by Sunday night though.

20k - first time I've played it. I bought in, figuring the $26 was worth a few hours. Wow, I can see why it's popular... donkeriffic. 994 entrants... my best place was 12th/596 or thereabouts. Playing just old-fashioned solid poker worked well, keeping me up in chips, with a deep M. I made one bad call later on... when I missed a 4-card straight draw on the board and realized he had the 8 he needed just as I hit the "call" button, beating my 2 pair. Oh for an extra .5 seconds to pull back the mouse. Anyway, recovered from that, and then lost a few big hands that I was ahead in, only to be outdrawn. Finished 112th, top 90 paid... not bad, and I regret almost nothing.

Then the final SnG. Been awhile since I've played in one, but needed to kill 50 minutes. 18 player, $6+0.50 Turbo. I decided that instead of going with the "play only premium hands at the beginning" mentality that seems to be popular among turbos (due to the luck factor involved) that I'd instead play it like a cash game. So I widened my range, called small raises with questionable hands, etc.. Didn't work so well at first, as I lost about 600 in chips before I won anything... but then I came back from dead last to finishing 3rd. Once the blinds got up and people's stacks got a lot more shallow in comparison, it was easy to take blinds, slow-play, and stay alive. The hand I went out I don't regret. 3-handed on the button with a rapidly dwindling M with A7o in front of me. I raised, SB folded, BB (chip leader) thought and said "hmmm..." I knew he had an A or a high pair... but I was committed. He re-raised and I called.. he fliped over AQs, Qx7 on the flop, and that was it for me. But, it killed exactly the amount of time I needed, and I walked away with a decent return on $6.

I think I'll likely miss the Hoy tonight though, which is a shame... but I'll endeavour to hit the WWdN tomorrow. Need to keep fresh fo' Vegas. Maybe I should re-install Hoyle's Casino and play a few other games while I'm at it.