Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Life Tilt

I didn't play any poker today, mostly because my internet connection was fading in and out, so I didn't wanna chance getting in the middle of a huge hand and my connection going down. I've decided that every once in awhile I'll do a "Life Tilt" blog about things that are pissing me off whether poker related or not.

My current state of life tilt is focused on the movie Ghost Rider. I rented it tonight and couldn't believe how awful this movie was. This movie is about as worthless as foot fetish porn. Im pretty sure a 13 year old wrote this script. The movie already has Eva Mendes and it's pretty hard to fuck up a movie with her in it, but to make things worse the concept itself is off the charts awesome. The dude makes a pact with the devil and rides around all night on fire pimpin' a sick ass chopper fighting demons with a flaming chain from hell. How in the hell does someone fuck this up? There are more corny one liners than a Schwarzenegger movie. In once scene, Ghost Rider busts out of jail (he got caught by the cops in human form) and a cop chases him out of the station and hits him in the back with his club. Ghost Rider turns around and puts his finger up and goes, "uh uh uhhhh". Pathetic. They seriously couldn't think of anything better for him to say? Also, this movie features the guy from Road House who played Patrick Swayze's awesome bouncer buddy (evidently 60 year old dudes that weigh 140 lbs kick a lot of ass). It's amazing to me this guy isn't dead yet. He looked near death in the 80's but is somehow still playing the role of a badass at the age of 91. The one thing this movie had going for it was the phenomenal special effects. They really owned hard in that department. Other than that this shit is unwatchable and that pisses me off. Fuck this movie. Im so tilted.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I Hate Live Poker

I think I'm starting to come to the realization that the live games around here are really a waste of time. I remember talking to Kevin (Lucko) when I first started going and he told me he would never go to games like that because they're probably rigged. All the guys there are really awesome and a lot of fun to play with, but is it possible they're ripping me off? I honestly couldn't say a definite no, which didn't bother me before, but is starting to bother me.

I ended down $1,000 tonight at the 5/10 game. It really does seem odd to me though how badly people play and how consistently they get bailed out. I came home after the live game and won $1,600 online in a few hours against much better players. There are a number of things this could be. Online you see more hands allowing variance to even out quicker, the players are better, which means they are less likely to chase trash and make really spewy plays, etc. But I've been playing these games for a number of months now and I'm a significant loser in them. I hardly ever walk away with a win. Contrast this to Las Vegas where I have never walked away a loser and in fact have crushed the cash games out there. It is all just getting a bit too fishy for me. Is it possible Im just running bad? Of course. And that is more than likely the case. But there is doubt in my mind and that makes me a bit uncomfortable. A few hands that I've lost really couldn't have been written better in novel form for my opponents.

Moving on though, I pretty much crushed FTP tonight. I played HU and 6 max 2/4 just 2 tabling and focusing. I know that a lot of players like to play 6-8 tables at once and that really used to be me, but I have found that focusing on one or two tables has significantly improved my play. I just see so many things that others that are playing a lot of tables may miss. I get away with a lot of bluff raises and very thin value bets simply because I'm paying attention to everything going on while my opponents may not. I'm currently running at 17BB/100 at 2/4 HU. Im not really sure if that's great or anything since I don't have any numbers to compare this to, but I suspect winning $136 every 100 hands HU at 2/4 is pretty damn good. I ended the night on a very sour note. I had about 3K on one table and was playing a guy with a full buyin. He was a good player and the game was incredibly aggressive. We got AI prf me with QQ and him with AA. I immediately left after this hand as it is very easy to tilt after a cooler like that. One thing I have improved 100 fold in my game is the mental aspect. I don't play drunk anymore and I really feel no tilt at all because I leave when I feel my play deteriorating. I don't play when Im tired or don't feel like it. Back in the day I used to log in and just auto-pilot to "get hands in". Im fully convinced I can make more money playing 100% my best on a few tables rather than 50% at 6 tables and my results are proving this. Well, it's 7AM and I just finished a long session, so Im gonna head to bed. Good luck at the tables.