Poker is a funny game...

My recent cash game performance has been less than admirable. It's not because I am losing because of outdraws but more so because I believe my decision making is not that great right now. So, I have decided to concentrate on my strength in poker, sit and go tournaments.

Recently, I have played around 15, $6.50 turbo SNGs, 5, $3.40 turbo SNGs, and a few 180 man, $4.40 tournament. Congratulations to me for being up a total of 4 dollars. I understand variance, and it comes with the structure and nature of SNGs. Frustrating as it is, my decision making has been real good and I find myself ahead in the majority of the pots I play. Hopefully, I will start to run better and reap the benefits of my decision making. Kudos to Don and his play in a recent rebuy tourney on Full Tilt Poker, where he was badly outdrawn late in a large pot.

Up and Down, and Around...like a carosel, circle, circular...

Here's a couple interesting hands that came up on my cash tables today.

The Bluff:
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to drallen1 [Ks Jd]
NickePicke: calls $0.25
Boxers7: raises $0.75 to $1
rickmorey: folds
Kapoera85: folds
drallen1: calls $1
JERONIMOX10: calls $1
knight177: folds
jcaugusta: calls $0.75
NickePicke: calls $0.75
*** FLOP *** [Th Tc Ah]
LuckyToto007 joins the table at seat #4
jcaugusta: checks
NickePicke: checks
Boxers7: bets $1.25
drallen1: raises $2.50 to $3.75
JERONIMOX10: folds
jcaugusta: folds
NickePicke: calls $3.75
Boxers7: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [Th Tc Ah] [7d]
NickePicke: checks
Boxers7: checks
drallen1: bets $9
NickePicke: folds
Boxers7: folds
drallen1 collected $15.55 from pot
drallen1: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.35 | Rake $0.80
Board [Th Tc Ah 7d]
Seat 1: drallen1 collected ($15.55)

Best hand I've played in a while. I set this guy up with a shown bluff the previous hand.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to drallen1 [Ac Ad]
THEGAMEISOVA: folds
vince_APC: folds
rez2: folds
ryang421: folds
Horadim: folds
tituschalas: raises $0.50 to $0.75
drallen1: calls $0.65
Danylein2007: folds
*** FLOP *** [6c 6d Ts]
drallen1: checks
tituschalas: bets $1
drallen1: raises $2.50 to $3.50
tituschalas: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [6c 6d Ts] [Kh]
drallen1: bets $6
tituschalas: raises $6 to $12
drallen1: calls $2.30 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [6c 6d Ts Kh] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
drallen1: shows [Ac Ad] (a full house, Sixes full of Aces)
tituschalas: mucks hand
drallen1 collected $24.15 from pot

The guy had K10 so not much you can do to get away from that, but I certainly disguised my aces well.

A Good Day...

Today, I resumed the training in the pool. The workout was rather challenging... 4 x 400 yd swims followed by 4 x 200 freestyle sprints. My lap times are pretty solid, but not as good as I would like. I don't think I have the upper body strength yet to get me there, soon I hope.

After the pool I decided to grind a bit. I played a $4.40 180 MTT only to bust in the first 10 hands to a nutball. I was dealt AA utg and made a smallish raise, knowing the nutball who had moved in the previous 3 hands, would do it again. I had 1500 chips to his 1600, and as I predicted, he moved in from utg+3. I thought about folding...not so much. I called and he revealed a monster, J5 offsuit. With a flop of AK10 I knew I was not winning this hand. Sure enough the river Q came and I busted in 178th place. Fucking sweet. My luck changed soon thereafter however. I played in a $3.40 turbo sng and came in 2nd. With four people left and me with the chip lead I picked up KK on the button. At 75-150 blinds, utg made it 450 to go. I popped it to 1100 and he smooth called leaving himself with around 2800 chips to my 4300. With a flop of 9109 he checked, and I moved in as there was a club draw. He insta-called with QJ and nailed his 8 on the turn. Fucking sweet. I battled back and ended up losing to him heads up. When we arrived at HU play, I had 800 chips left...he had 12700. One hand and it was done. After that, I pushed on to play two .15-.25 cash tables where I ran really well. On the advice of my friend, I bought in short (15 on each table) with the intention of trying to get my money in with a big hand. The strategy worked today, and after a few quick decent pots, I was up on both tables. My biggest hand of the day came when I picked up A7c on the button and called a standard raise from utg+2. Normally, I would muck the hand, but the player was weak and I figured I could outplay him being in position. The small blind called as well and we went three handed to the flop. The flop came 7-10-K with two clubs, a monster for me. SB checked, the original raiser bet 2 dollars, and I just smooth called trying to disguise my hand but also entice the sb into the action. He obliged. The turn brought an Ace, which was actually a scare card for me, completing the open-ended straight draw that the SB could easily have had. Still, I was reasonably sure I held the best hand. The SB checked, and the raiser be out 2 again, to which I just smooth called fearing the SB was going to move in. However, the SB just called leaving himself with 5 dollars. The river came a off suit 3 and the SB checked again. The original raiser checked which left it to me. I thought about betting this board, almost certain my hand was best. I decided to check however, feeling that I would not get a call, only a re-raise if I was beat. The two players showed KJ (sb) and KQ(raiser) and I scooped a 12ish pot. I got off the tables up around $40, so all in all not a bad little session.

So Close

This hand came up in a 180 man $4.40 MTT. 20 people left. I played the hand well, and have been playing the tournament well. Like Don, the inevitable bad beat late in the tournament ensued. I suppose I was wrong for betting the remainder of the opponent's chips on the turn, but I was sure I had the best hand both pre and on the flop. How he can smooth call out of position with just ace high, for half is stack, is beyond me.

marlboro102: posts small blind 150
p°keheard: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to drallen1 [Ad Kd]
RainerBIuff: folds
calvin8: folds
4Criminoles!: folds
drallen1: raises 800 to 1100
Momheno: folds
LGHammer: folds
marlboro102: calls 950
p°keheard: folds
*** FLOP *** [9c 4h 7h]
marlboro102: checks
drallen1: bets 2000
marlboro102: calls 2000
*** TURN *** [9c 4h 7h] [Jd]
marlboro102: checks
drallen1: bets 2800
marlboro102: calls 2770 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [9c 4h 7h Jd] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
marlboro102: shows [Ac Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
drallen1: shows [Ad Kd] (high card Ace)
marlboro102 collected 12240 from pot
drallen1 said, "unbelievable"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12240 | Rake 0
Board [9c 4h 7h Jd 2s]
Seat 1: LGHammer (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: marlboro102 (small blind) showed [Ac Jc] and won (12240) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 8: drallen1 showed [Ad Kd] and lost with high card Ace

Phenom?

My workouts for this weekend were a 40 mile bike/3 mile run on Saturday and then an 8 mile run on Sunday. Well, yesterday I was hungover so just decided to run and bike on Sunday instead. However, when I started running I felt very good. So instead of doing 8 I did 16.5 miles which is the farthest I've ever ran. This proves I know nothing about training. Thursday I had to run 5 miles at a pace 15 seconds faster than my goal. I could barely do that. But, hungover and off of 5 hours sleep I managed to run 16.5 miles at a sub 2 hour pace. Ridiculous.

This was my downfall last night. So good. Unfortunately it does not go well with my 40 mile bike ride and 3 mile run today.

Last night some friends and I went to a new local bar and had some drinks. We ended up staying there til it closed, only to find some random drunken people stumbling around outside in the parking lot. Turns out one of my friends knew one of the guys who was smashed and planning to drive home. We managed to get his keys and call him a cab but not before this drunk guy's friend almost fought us for the keys. Have to love drunk southerners who can't even talk (when sober) who are drunk try to explain to me that they just need their keys but aren't going to drive. Shenanigans.

Today's Picture

In an effort make this blog a little more exciting, I am going to include a picture in each post that is of particular importance to me. This comes from Costa Rica, a country I've spent many months in.

The Blog Begins....

Fresh off a five mile sprint I figured its time to christen the new blog.  Actually, I should say the only blog as this is my first one.  I have my friends to thank for that.  I don't read blogs really, a few here and there, but might as well give it a go.  This blog will mostly be about my experiences on the way to becoming a doctor.  It will also highlight my different hobbies; poker, triathlons, friends, and whatever else I feel like discussing.  The name, 'first impressions,' was developed by me and a friend whom I worked with this past summer.  It turned out neither of us initiated conversation with each other for weeks into the summer because we were intimidated.  I have a bad habit of forming first impressions of people that aren't true.  Suffice to say I've been proved wrong about people many times in the past.  Maybe my readers will withhold judgement on me until they have met me...or at least read more than one post!  Sadly, I expect most of the people who will read this are people I already know.

The past few months have been entirely dedicated to school and training for my first triathlon.  I am taking two classes at UNC Greensboro, Biology and Physics, and am doing well in both of them.  Physics is rough, mostly cause I have not had the math in years and its not calculus based.  Biology has always been easy for me, and seeing how I have a 98 average after two exams, I don't imagine the rest of it will cause any problems.

The triathlon training has been going well too.  I started in late December, barely able to run three miles at a snail's pace.  The totals on the main page are what I have done since December, it has certainly been a journey.  Not many people can go out and ride 40 miles on a bike and run 3 at a fast pace directly after that, but I still consider myself out of shape.  The results have been tremendous over the first three months, so I am interested to see what they will be once June 21st rolls around, the date of my tri.  

I also started playing poker again.  After a fatal night by one of my friends on Full Tilt Poker (you know who you are!) its back to building a bankroll.  I deposited $100 on Poker Stars yesterday and have had two losing sessions thus far.  From time to time I will post interesting hands that come up.  I stick mostly to grinding out $4 180 man MTTs.  Takes a while to crack into the money, but the competition is weak-sauce and the payouts are good.  I've played three and failed to cash in any of them but not because of bad play.  We'll see what this weekend brings.