2006 - Not so Good

2006 hasn’t exactly started out as planned.  I’ve been playing a lot a PokerRoom.  They have this promotion going where for every 100 player points you earn, between Dec 27th and Jan 8th you get a raffle ticket for a drawing where the top prize is a ticket to the 2006 WSOP main event.  Do you like how I don’t tell you about the promotion until it’s almost over?   I don’t need you jerks playing there and earning raffle tickets and thus decreasing my odds of winning. Sorry suckers.  Better luck next year.

So anyway, the way things have been going, it might just have been cheaper to buy my way into the main event directly.  My bankroll has pretty much taken a nose dive. I’ve been playing a variety of ring games and SNG’s and nothing has been working.  Well, I take that back.  I did win a $5 short handed SNG which paid out a fat $17 or so.  In the first week of this year I already surpassed my number of last place finishes for all of last year.  Rock.  

I don’t think I’ve been playing all that poorly in the ring games.  I’ve found myself making a few stupid mistakes, but nothing out of the ordinary.  I think more often than not the cards just aren’t falling my way.  I guess when luck is on your side you can afford some bad plays.  When its not, then you better be playing some damn good poker, and I haven’t been.  The most frustrating thing is that in two separate instances this past week, some clown at my table was playing over 80% of the hands, and he kept winning.  I was card dead in both cases and had to watch as he lucked into more than his fair share of pots and then just gave away his chips to the rest of the table.  And then the one time he would actually have a hand is the time I would get a piece of the flop.  And of course I couldn’t put him on any sort of decent hand, so I donated to the rest of the table through him.  Fun.  

SNG’s are another story.  I’m definitely not playing well in those.  I’m having issues controlling the size of the pot when I’m not certain how strong my hand is, and I’m getting impatient way too early.  In one case I had wired tens in relatively early position and over the coarse of the hand proceeded to bet my entire stack into someone with pocket kings when the board showed all under cards.  The fact that he kept calling should have set off warning lights and caused me to slowdown, but I figured it would be much more fun to lose all my chips and start over in another tournament.  Brilliant.

Another problem is that I’m not focused enough.  In the early stages I’m playing maybe 20% of the hands so I get bored, and watch tv/surf the web/write blog entries.  As a result I don’t have a very good read on any of the other players, or the table in general.  I think that’s killing me, and I have to either stay focused or stop playing, because more often than not I’m not making good informed decisions.  

That’s enough bitching for now.  The monthly home game tournament has been resurrected after a six month or so hiatus.  I’ve done quite well in these in the past, so hopefully that trend will continue.  I’ve already taunted a few of the other participants, so I should probably back that up.  I’ll have a recap of my victory tomorrow.