SNG Slump and Random Stuff.

The first SNG I played this month I managed to win. Since then I’ve only finished in the money three times out of 17 attempts, and those three were all third place finishes. I was on an 0/12 streak before finally taking third this afternoon.

At first I thought that it was because I was playing two or three at a time or doing other things while playing and so my concentration was what it should have been. So I cut down to one table at a time, and eliminated web-surfing/blog reading, but that didn’t help much. I still lost. And lost bad. It wasn’t the “taking a bad beat on the bubble” type of loss, it was more the “Making a dumbass move, and then following it up with more crappy play” types of losses. I was coming in seventh, eight, and ninth a lot more than fourth and fifth.

Then I wanted to blame on Party Poker’s SNG structure, and their small $T800 starting stack size. It seemed like I would see a few flops early, and not connect with anything, and before I know it I’m down to $T500 and the blinds are $50/$100 and I’m at all-in or nothing mode. And the all-ins just haven’t been going my way.

So I switched back to PokerRoom, and their $T1500 starting chips, thinking I’d have some more room to go after some pots and not feel crippled if I didn’t win them all. I promptly finished in eight, and then tenth. Great plays on my part let me tell you. And by great I mean moronic.

Three out of the next five split between Party and PokerRoom earned me third places finishes. Better, but I could really use a win to balance out the month of suck that I’ve shown so far.

So what’s the problem? Well today, I’ve just been making terrible decisions. I’ve been combining a horrific blend of weak/tight play with ill timed stupid aggression, and gotten the results I deserve. I’m giving my opponents way too much credit for hands and folding the best hand, and then I’m also overvaluing my good hands, and not picking up on the fact that my opponent is pretty much jumping up and down in his chair yelling “I have the nuts”. A great example, an aggressive player limps and I check in the big blind with Qx. The flop is AQT rainbow, and I bet at it. I don’t think he has an ace because he’s been raising with any ace. He calls, and the turn is another ace. I’m still pretty sure that I’m good, and I bet again. He raises all in, and I call confident that my queen beats anything he’s holding. He had KJ for the flopped straight, which had I actually though about before betting/calling would have made perfect sense. There was absolutely no reason for me to go broke on that hand.

The most frustrating thing is that I know I can do better, and now I’m determined to stick at it until I can win a few. Of course, focusing on that is probably not helping my overall results. Bah. Maybe I’ll play a few more and see what happens. Who was it that said SNG’s are the crack cocaine of online poker?

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In other news, I went to the wedding of a former coworker this weekend. It was weird because there were only a few other coworkers there, yet I knew a large percentage of the attendees. The groom is the guy who usually organizes our poker get-togethers, so I knew most everyone from playing cards with them. Since the groom has spent a good deal of his time prepping for a wedding, we haven’t had our monthly game in a while. He needs to get his priorities straight.

Just about everyone there commented that we needed to get a game going, and soon. It could be because I only know them through card games so that was all we had to talk about, or it could be that everyone is just itching to get a game going again. I’m going with the latter.

I could really use some live poker. In the last three gatherings that we have had, we have played a total of seven tournaments with anywhere from nine to twenty some people. I’ve won four of them. I obviously can’t expect to continue that kind of success, but I’d like to think I will at least come out ahead on the evening, and I could sure use some extra cash.

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Speaking of the wedding, just in case anyone is wondering, having to wear a suit in 90-100 degree weather with high humidity in an unconditioned church is not exactly fun.

The last three weekends have gone from obscenely hot and humid to pleasant to obscenely hot and humid. The first weekend I spent in my attic laying conduit and pulling wires so that I can run more than one air conditioner upstairs without blowing a fuse. I think I lost a good 20-30 pounds that day. The next weekend, we just relaxed at home and at our parents houses, and then last weekend, I had to put on twelve layers of clothing and sit in an unconditioned church. I think mother nature and I are not quit on the same page. She’s going to have to work on that if we are going to remain on speaking terms.

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I don’t know how this happened, but somehow the Cubs managed to win 2/3 from the best team in baseball this weekend. Maybe the Sox let them win out of pity, who knows, but I’ll certainly take it. I think I personally know every single Sox fan in the country. All 30 of them. My wife and her family, my best friend, my brother and most of my coworkers are all Sox fans, and if the Cubs had lost like they were supposed to this weekend, I would have had to listen to them rub it in for the next four months. Right up until the Sox choked in the playoffs.

I put the over-under on Mark Prior’s return to the disabled list at three weeks from today.