I've decided to start a poker blog. The purpose of this is to record my progress and thoughts on hands/sessions/said progress for my own gratification and perhaps if someone happens across this they may be interested.
I have been a poker player for over seven years. I'm 23. Why do I want to start a blog now of all times? In truth I've never done one. The reason I want to start now is that I feel that my game and ability are reaching new heights and also I have started a new leaf on Full Tilt Poker. I play as LUCIUS VARENUS.
Yesterday I was staked 40/60+SB by TwoPlusTwo's Oscillator who plays as 'her ghost' on Full Tilt to play in the $20+$2 Stud Hi/Lo Eight or Better MiniFTOPS Event. The event had 1973 players and I finished in the money in 111th place. Not the greatest of cashes but I played phenomenally well and sadly ran into a period of being card dead as the limits went up into the thousands. I busted in the 2500/5000 level, getting my last 1k into the pot with a paltry 458. I had to gamble as I could barely afford to bring it in and ante. Things looked OK on 4th Street when I hit a 6. But by 5th Street three of the 7s had gone and I ended up making a pair of Eights with no low.
Needless to say I won $55.24 for my efforts, more than a 100% ROI! That means I had to transfer 'her ghost' a total of $41.94 leaving me with $13.30 for myself. I then had $13.39 in my account total as I had 9 cents left before the tournament began.
Just some background. I've been playing so long that I've seen it all. The lofty highs and the crushing lows, the beats, the suckouts, the spectacular bluffs and the downright maniacal. I've played as high as $5/$10 and in the past 2 years I have played as much as 200,000 hands of various variants and stakes online. But I haven't made a deposit in at least 18 months and have relied heavily on staking deals, two of which fell through. The reason for this is that I unemployed and have had to cash out on numerous occasions. If you can't afford to live, you can't afford to play poker. I kinda need to be concious and alive in order to play and that means a man's gotta feed himself!
My bread and butter game in the past couple of years has been Omaha 8. For a long time I considered myself to have great ability in that game. And it was proven by my $1800 in cash game winnings from all Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit. Most of my PokerStars tournament winnings come from Omaha 8 too. I was beating the $6.50 turbo sit & go's pretty good. Just check out my Sharkscope, I'm called 78OFFTILT on PokerStars.
Recently however I feel I have developed strength in other games and my Omaha 8 game has deteriorated probably because of not playing it nearly as much as I used to and also playing in shorthanded PL games has definitely screwed with my starting hand range in FL Full Ring for example. I know that I have to tighten up and reel in the aggression that works well in 6max games if I want to beat the Full Ring games again. When you're so used to betting pot every time someone checks to you it's hard to get used to the fact that people don't fold in Limit poker and the betting increments (poor implied odds) and more multiway action deny you the leeway of playing less than premium hands that is afforded in PL 6max.
I should mention that today I played my first session using that $13.39. I jumped into a $0.05/$0.10 Razz cash game. It was quite a random decision - my game selection was predicated on the fact that there were no other $0.05/$0.10 Stud games that weren't full. It was shorthanded and I played a bunch of hands heads up. The plays made by my opponents were alarmingly poor and I was glad to be in the game.
Unfortunately I booked a $1.81 loss but I don't feel bad about it at all. I got my money in as a favourite on a couple of big hands but I kept making pairs! You don't get nothing for a pair - NOT IN THIS GAME! For example I had the fortune of running 456AQ into 23Q69 heads up against a gamble-happy aggro monkey. He shamelessly open-completed the bet with a Q door card. I merely called as a 2.6 to 1 favourite to let him commit/hang himself on later streets, led when I was dealt the Ace and I check-raised 5th street. We capped it! I was approximately 63.5% favourite. He paired the 3 and I paired the Ace on 6th but I merely called his bet since I couldn't know it. I was an even bigger favourite there. He checked the river, begging me to bluff, I didn't bite as I winced after receiving a King.
That was the story pretty much for that session, the other losing hands were much like that.
"Bankroll", if you can call it that, now $11.58.
Signing off,
LUCIUS VARENUS
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