Getting Caught Up

So, this year started off with a renewed interest in poker, probably because my husband had a great run in an event in December at Gold Strike's Winter Poker Classic taking a 2nd place finish and making it onto the Hendon Mob database. He beat me on there and I am not happy about it. ;)

I played that same trny, but didn't even get close to cashing. It started off great, tho, I had a great table draw, a great image and lots of 'girl equity'. Then a LAG got moved 2 to my left and 3 bet every single time I opened. I didn't adjust well, gave him too much credit when I should've just been prepared to 4 bet shove any hand I opened, instead I let him run all over me and my stack took a big hit. I never recovered and was soon out (as was he, for the record). So I railed my husband for the rest of the night and he did very well. That was exciting.

Then I played a nightly during that series and ended up chopping HU with another woman. She obviously didn't want to play it out, I was fine with it either way, but I was not going to do a bad chop when she was only ahead by a little, so I was able to negotiate a great chop with her after her initial decline. In hindsight, I feel I could've closed it out, but it's really a crap shoot by the end and although I'm confident in HU play, I felt a good chop and 2nd place was fine with me.

With that boost to our bankrolls (what was left of it after Christmas anyway lol), we drove down to the Beau Rivage in Biloxi for a big guarantee they were having in January. I don't remember the name of the series, but neither of us cashed there, even though Russell did make day 2. I had a tough table draw, several trny grinders and Beau regs and the runouts were just killing me, like having to fold a flopped set of Kings to an obv turned straight. I really think I played that hand poorly, though. I screwed it up from the beginning and let him get there...totally my fault and it went downhill from there.

After the Biloxi trip, I decided I was going to switch to NL cash games instead of tournaments. They say there's not as much variance in cash games as trnys, so I thought I'd give it a shot after all these years. The only cash games I'd  played previously were limit games; 3/6 and 4/8 because I'm very conservative with money and betting the amount you need to bet in NL seemed really scary to me! I had to get over it tho, so I jumped in and realized it's not so bad. Nothing to be scared about at all. I'd like to say I won a ton, but after 65 hours of playing 1/3NL, I am actually down $50 and on a cash game break. Meh. I'll play again soon, but I want to do some reading and study more before I return to the cash tables.

In June, I played my 4th tournament of the year, the Ladies Event in the Horseshoe Summer Classic in Tunica. It was a very small turnout, but I won it! I guess Horseshoe doesn't report their series cashers because I'm still not on Hendon Mob.  :(

The ladies trny was like no other tournament I've ever played. They were soooo passive, it seemed too good to be true really. It was on the same day as the Main Event and I guess most of the better female players were in that, thankfully. We were playing short handed for a long time due to a cashier who signed a player up for the wrong trny and so that stack was just getting blinded off and keeping us 11 handed on 2 tables. That worked out so well for me. I had stacks and stacks of ante and blind chips. Stealing the blinds and limps and antes is what put me in the chip lead. Hands were not going to showdown often, so they never saw my hands and just assumed I was on the rush of a lifetime with big pocket pairs..so not true, but I just smiled and agreed with them lol. When they finally realized the entry mistake and combined the tables to one, those women were so mad! They didn't like playing short handed and were really upset with the TD. On the other hand, I had loved every minute of it!

One hand at the final table that just blew my mind: It folded to the HJ who limped in, I raised 2.5x in the CO with QcJc. All fold. The button says she folded 99 and the limper said she folded 88. I have no reason to doubt either of them. They both had decent stacks to call there, or even 3 bet..I had been so active, it actually would've been a perfect spot for the button to 3 bet me..but both assumed I had AA and folded. After that, I said to myself, if I don't ship this, I am quitting poker forever lol.

It was all pretty crazy and when we got down to 3 handed, I had a massive chip lead against a bad LAG and a folding station. I doubled up the LAG twice. She was open shipping any Ace and I took 3 shots at knocking her out. The 3rd time was the charm when she shoved A5o and I rivered a flush with KdJd. Heads up only lasted one hand. I raised A9, she shoved KJ and my A high was good. :)

This was the first live tournament I've won without chopping. I've had several cashes and near misses, but this was my first straight up win! (Wish I had taken a pic, but didn't think about it 'til after.) It was a fun one and I'm glad I decided to play it.

I know this was pretty long and wordy, sorry about that. I don't like long blog posts, either! I'm caught up for the year now, so future posts should be shorter! Now I've got to figure out how to do the blogroll thing and refresh my memory with blogger. I'm kinda lost right now, but I'll get it together, hopefully.