So I did something the other week that I had only done once before, and when I had done it, I knew right away it was a mistake.
I went to HPC after work.
It's so tempting, the casino is a mere 20 minutes south of my office; the evening tournaments are $100 no-rebuys and the field is generally pretty soft. This night was no exception, as spread out over the two tables was perhaps overall the worst playing bunch I've ever encountered at Hollywood Park. I only recognized one or two regulars, the rest were NLHE home game schmucks like me.
But what should have been a fun evening of donkey owning, was instead a bleary and frustrated slog of even worse play on my part. And the best part is, when I busted after overplaying AK to a wannabe (you know the type, dirty and douchey) instead of calling it a night, I reregistered at a point just before the break when a starting stack was barely 30 big blinds. Big mistake.
The crux of it all was, after working for 9 hours, sedentary though my job is; I was in no shape whatsoever for the concentration that successful tournament poker play demands, despite the brain damage level of the players around me. The 730pm tournament is a big waste of time and money for me, and I should have known better - as I had the same experience at HPC almost 3 years ago. In fact, I shouldn't say "in spite" of the brain damaged players, I should probably say I was tilted because of the bad play. I got very frustrated, knowing I was probably the best player at the table, and yet I couldn't accumulate whatsoever, while the luck-boxes seemed to hit every 3 outer despite their ridiculous bet sizing and read-deficient play.
Oh yeah, and I stuck it in at the end with an open ended straight and got called by a four flush that promptly binked it on the turn.
There are two parts to this failure - 1, I was tired. and 2, because I was tired I didn't have fun. And not having fun at HPC is probably the worst sin of all, because if you're not having fun, you're putting yourself in a place of utter misery and degeneracy that will inevitably permeate every pore in your body if you let it.
Resolution; no evening weekday tournaments, ever!
On the flip side, when I come home, and my angel is in bed and I've hit the elliptical machine and am showered and relaxed - sitting down for Flatline (which this spring is FlatWorld - we're playing for a World Series of Poker seat) is actually a pretty great way to enjoy the evening.
I always try to play for fun when I play poker online with friends, and now PokerStars has made this even easier with their new "Home Games" option. We have set up our own online poker club, and now we have the one of the two best software clients in the world running our little operation - it's slick, it's cool and it's something I'll be looking forward to every week.
So last night was pretty awesome, because I not only played well, my shifting gears was especially in tune - I could be a maniac or a rock, depending on the stacks and level, but for once when I got it in (which actually wasn't too many times) I always got it in good, AND (most importantly) my better hands actually held up.
Particularly satisfying was my Ad10d call of a shove pre-flop by a long time player in the league who tilts me with his passive play and under bet sizing who had a third of my stack - he flipped up KQ and promptly hit the flop, But there was a diamond, and then another one on the turn and finally a beautiful blue diamond on the river. He was incredulous in the chat box over my "runner-runner" but he was also oblivious that he had gotten it in behind and spiked a six outer on the flop. Whateves. I happily pounded "GG" into the chat box and never looked back.
Actually, I had been stealing from the correct targets all tournament long. Raising from the button, cutoff or hijack with absolute trash. Then, if I got a caller, c-betting with the correct targets and check folding with the wrong ones. It was greatly to my benefit that at the first table I had three of the tightest players in the league to my left, thankfully one of the stronger players busted early on.
It was probably when we got 5 handed when I realized that if I could just avoid getting hugely unlucky (get someone dominated and lose) or coolered (my premium running into a bigger premium) that this tournament was mine for the taking. All the better players were long gone. The best of the remaining was my only real concern, and thankfully he fell into my trap when we got three handed by fighting back to my merciless raises at the wrong time when I actually had a hand.
So then I was heads up with a relatively new player to the bunch; he seemed really nice and we had a pleasant little chat, but he couldn't stand up to aggression. I pillaged him over and over, literally raising every single hand from the button, and thankfully, when he finally got around to fighting back I could call off light and lose and not be damaged whatsoever. My KQ ran into his AQ and it didn't even matter, three button raises later we were back to where we started. He simply didn't get that I absolutely couldn't have it every time. He would fold and fold and fold. But even better, he didn't grasp that with the blinds so big, EVERY pot he lost was crucial - he thought he could wait for a monster, problem was though, when he did get one it was super obvious and I could either get away or as I said, call off light and have a chance at sucking out on him without any real risk.
I had KQ on the button again, raise - AGAIN, and he'd had enough, he shoved his 6K into my 40K and I once again snap called. He had K3 suited and that was all she wrote.
Now if he had been shoving much earlier on with K3 instead of waiting until it was far too late, the evening might have turned out differently. But I had been watching him for much of the night, and he was very predictable, when he missed a flop he would check, if I checked behind he would min-bet the turn with nothing. If I c-bet he would call with a draw, if a scare card didn't come on the turn I could fire a big bet with nothing and he would go away (this happened probably half a dozen times).
I hope to see a lot more of him and all the other profitable players as our quest for a WSOP seat continues. The stronger players, not so much! But whoever I face, I hope I can mix it up enough to be deceptive and also be able to put people on hands. Last night was also a particularly good evening for the former - one guy (a solid but probably too tight player) and another (who has great instincts, but is shaky on the math) in particular were playing me with their cards face up. I even managed to get the second dude off a better hand than what I had - which is a first for me with him.
Good times.
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