NLHE

After foolishly losing hundreds of thousands of dollars by playing in the 100K SnGs, I nearly lost my entire bankroll. This is the first time I've been below 100K in about a year. I don't know why I risked such a large percentage of my roll, but I can only assume it has something to do with the fact that it's not real money. I seem to have forgotten that the play in the lower level games is so atrocious that it makes me want to kill myself.

I only have 30K left, but I'm playing in the 10K SnG's nonetheless. I realize that it would be only too easy to go broke, but my play has been stellar lately and I can't bring myself to drop down to the 2K level. I've been keeping myself afloat the last few days with cashes in nearly every SnG I've played, including a couple wins. I lost 20K yesterday playing the HA cash game (which is half PL Hold Em and half PL Omaha Hi). I was about to break back to even and just leave the game when my A8 got out drawn by A6 when the guy hit a 6 on the river. The flop had come with an A and I knew I had the best hand based on the history of hands he plays and how he plays them. I tried to force him out of the hand after the turn, but to no avail. I give hi credit on the river though, because he checked it to me and instead of going for the safe check, I bet into him and he raised me. There was little doubt I was beaten, but I had so little left and I had put so much in that I decided to satisfy my curiosity. Needless to say, I was a little peeved.

In the past few days, I've won two HORSE tournaments, taken a 2nd, and three 3rds. I have three no cashes.

For the first time in months, I decided to play a NLHE SnG. My play has been a little erratic in NL games, but I was feeling pretty good about my play and thought I would give it a shot. I normally go for the short handed or turbo games, but I felt that just a normal 9-person table would be best.

I lingered around my starting stack until we were four handed. I had been playing moderately tight because everybody else was a calling station. I finally won a big pot to get me up to about 2500. Then this hand came along...

I was in the big blind and dealt K8 of spades. My favorite hand is K8 of clubs, but that is just a fun little side note. Two players called the blind, the small blind folded, and I checked. The flop came down with a K and a diamond flush draw.. I was pretty happy with my hand and bet half the pot. I got one caller and the other folded. Turn was a blank. I bet half the pot again and again he called. River was a blank. I put him on a busted draw and fired a 3rd bullet. He popped me for a minimum raise. I was definitely beaten. The old me would have called here since my bluff paranoia would get the best of me. I had about 1200 left and needed to call another 500. Calling would leave me crippled. I was playing well enough that I figured 1200 would be enough to play with for a bit longer. I let the hand go.

That hand, despite losing it, was the highlight of my game. I rallied back and took the chip lead by the time we were 3 handed. The short stack was playing very patiently and folding a lot of hands. He eventually pushed in his small blind after the button folded and I called him with A7. His range of hands was pretty wide despite how patient he had been playing. His chip stack was fairly low (around 500-700 or so). He had A 10 and won the hand. I dropped just under the chip lead. The other guy ended up eliminating him and taking a chip lead into head up play.

Heads up lasted only one hand. I had low suited connectors, flop came Q high with my flush draw. We both checked the flop. Turn was an ace. I fired out, he made a slight raise. I considered and ending up moving all in. He surprisingly didn't give it much thought when he called with his pair of queens. The river bricked out and he took it down.

I probably didn't have to make that move right there, but I felt there was a pretty good chance that he would lay down since I had been playing so tight. I also thought the ace might scare him a bit, although obviously it didn't. Even if he called, I felt I still had a good chance at the flush. I was a little disappointed, since I had played so well, but it was nice to cash regardless.

Later I played a short handed NLHE game and finished in 3rd, which is the bubble in short handed games.

I currently just got up from a HORSE ring game. I sat down with 4K and left with around 5K. I had been up to about 8K, but felt it was better to leave with something, however little. A HORSE SnG table had just started and I wanted to invest all my attention in that.

There was a very interesting hand during the ring game that I was to post after this SnG is over. I'm currently in 3rd place with 4 people left. I have around 2K and the short stack is sitting on 700. Hopefully she'll bust soon and I'll grab another cash.