Challenging the Big Leagues (took a shot last night)

OK, so I know I am comfortable playing 1 - 3 NL both financially and mentally. But last night I wanted to play some poker, and was pretty confident in my game lately. So being that it was Wednesday night and that means weekly tournament night at Shorty's, I knew there was at least ONE no limit game going on......And there was....The game I always try to avoid....The game where I have had more horror stories then success stories simply because I am not rolled for this crazy game. The 5 5 NL Holdem game at Shorty's is so juicy, So much money is on the table, but the players are the Loose Aggressive kind that will bet at you just to see you fold. The hands that I saw last night were unspeakable... It wasn't normal poker....not to say the least. This was regulars that knew each other and were making big bets and even bigger calls in BIG pots. The best way I can compare it is....Remember when you first learned what poker is, you had a hand full of change (quarters, dimes, pennies) and you and your friends would get together and just have fun, play around and make some crazy bets on pretty much nothing, but just want to see if you can out bluff one another??? Well yea, Try that but with $5 blinds and $10 straddle and the standard raise varied between $40 - $75.

As I was playing "tight" while watching all these calling stations and LAG Maniacs go at it, I was quietly dodging bullets, over stepping mines, and planting a few booby traps of my own. Of course the very first hand I play was AA on the button where I open to $25 and this was when the game was more of a $5 -5 game and not a $5 5 10 raise 40 game (but I'll get to that later). I get a caller from the BB who is this really old TAG player and some Asian dude in EP. flop comes 10 9 8 and I C-bet to $40 (Bought in for $200 initially and had 180 at this point) BB calls and EP folds. Turn falls an ugly J giving a 4 card straight on the board and I know he hit alot of it but not sure how much. So I check and BB bets $75 and I go in the tank for a while then look at him. He frowns triumphantly with his nose in the air, and waves his hand as if he was dismissing me and says "I got you son, go ahead and lay it down" Usually this is an ACT of strength but I took it as honesty (wont tell you why though, you'll just have to read one of the books on psychology and tells that I suggested in a past blog when I was suggesting Poker Literature ;) ) and showed my AA as I folded. He showed 10d 8d and scooped the pot. I was like NH, hope this isn't a sign lol. Very next hand in Late position alot of people (6 players) limp to see a flop and I have Qs 3s and figure OK lets give it a shot (have 115 behind) flop is Q 3 2!! sweeeet guy in early position bets out $65 into a $35 pot LOL I think it was because there was a flush draw out there and he wanted them out of the way. So I shoved over the top and he instantly called and showed Qc 2c for a cooler. I held and doubled up now with $240

As we continue to play and my stack goes back down to $180, the guy directly to my right has been known to be a super loose aggressive calling station....pretty much what you wanna get involved against when you get a big hand. Well he is in the SB and I am in the BB look down at Ad Qd and people limp as he raises to $50 with about 35 in dead money already in the pot I figure this would be a perfect squeeze play so I shove for $180 to either take the pot right there or go for a double up. Well needless to say he wakes up with AA and happily calls to take my stack. Horrible spot by me lol. This isn't the last time we tango in the blinds.

I felt like a kid in a Candy Store last night.

The next time I am in the BB vs a straddle of $10 and about 4 limpers, super LAG Raises to $95 preflop this time. I look down at QQ and think about re raising but this is a huge bet (I re bought in for $300 and now have about $580 after playing a few hands) I figured to just flat call and hope to spike a queen or give a wet board with good outs. Surprisingly another player flats behind and it is 3 to a flop with about $320 already in the pot. I have about 380 behind and the flop comes K 9 4. I hate this flop and hate it even more when the SB bets out $300. I instantly put him on AA or KK and say NH and fold. Other guy tanks then finally folds and Super LAG laughs and shows his Kd after saying "Pick one" with a smile.

The Final Time we got into it in the blinds (yes 3 times, 3 big hands) I have a stack of about $410 and SB raises to $65, I kinda roll my eyes and look down at......QQ again...wow I KNOW I'm ahead this time and instead of flatting I min raise to try to get him to shove on me preflop. Well he looks at me and says "REALLY?? well I guess you're ahead this time...definitely if you have a pair..." Then he calls the $140, Again it is heads up to the flop, Again the flop comes and it is K 8 6. But I am sticking to my read and put him on the range of 1010 or 99 or just air trying to push me off as he saw me folding often and figured me as a timid player. He bet $300 and I have $270 left. I laugh and told him, "dude if you really got me again then I guess tonight is not my night, so here take my chips." and I made the call. He was like, "wow, you really got QQ again?!?! I turned over my Queens and he kept his hidden. The turn was the Ac completing the flush and giving another over card and I said...well shit I guess you win...he said "Nope, I need to hit your queen"
I laughed and said "Oh, OK" (that means he had J10 and was just trying to push me around). I scooped the pot of $820 and now have a profit of about $320.

Well Like I said earlier they were straddling $10 almost every other hand and they wanted me to join in but I kept refusing. So Super LAG to my right said, What if we do it for one round would you agree to that? I said sure if every one does it I will too. Of course this was during about 2 hours of just getting cold decked and no cards so my $820 stack was decimated to $465 after losing a few pots that were either second best or missing about 11-16 outs twice. Well I was trying to stay patient (Thanks Mike Fontenot fellow APP'er  for keeping my head composed as well...he chopped 5 ways in the weekly tournament for a nice $900 profit) and then the mega hand I was waiting for came to reward me of my patience. I folded suited weak aces and weak kings in early and mid position spots 3 times and saw them make the flush for a monster pot but didn't let it get to me, just kind of annoyed that the times that I chose to play I would miss lol. Well I get dealt Ks 9s in Late position and an EP raiser who was playing fairly LAG raised to $20 preflop. it folded to me which I called and 3 others called behind. $105 in the pot and one player behind me) The flop comes 7s 8h 5s giving me a gut-shot straight draw with the flush draw and two overs, but I think I rather see a K hit and not the 9 hit) well it is checked to me and I bet $40 into the $105 pot. A guy behind me calls and the EP raiser calls. The turn is a 4c and it is checked to me again. I bet $140 representing my straight now (But still have a lot of outs vs. a made straight, set, or 2 pair and surprisingly BOTH call. This swells the pot to $645 and I have $235 left. The river gives me my spade but it is the 4s pairing the board. Even though This card was scary, I had committed almost all of my money for this card and if someone called all the way down with 2 pair or a set on the way I played the hand then I was willing to give them my chips but As played I was still representing my straight. I shoved All in and the guy behind tanks for a while again...then finally puts in the $230, and AGAIN the EP raiser Check calls $230 (She has been calling light for the whole night so I wasn't worried about her hand and put the guy behind me on a straight) Guy behind shows his 7 for the straight and before the EP raiser turned over her hand I showed my K9 spades for Second flush and they both shook their heads and threw the cards in the muck! Finally got the taste of a pot over $1k and tipped the dealer a couple redbirds for the gift on the river!!

How I felt after winning that huge pot!

I go order food then come back and play for a few more rounds win a few pots, lose some pots Before I start winding down my game there was a ridiculously huge pot that 2 out of the 3 players had no business being in and basically donated to the guy with a legitimate hand. But its like I said Earlier....This was not normal poker, lol. There was a pre-flop raise of $65 vs a $10 straddle and I was pretty much the only one that didn't call the raise looking at 10 4 off lol. Pretty much every one was licking their chops to this pot that didn't even see a flop yet at about $450. The flop was Q 8 4 with 2 spades and the lady that paid me off earlier was again in EP (She had no since of position and plays often lol) bets $95. 2 fold then it gets to a very aggressive guy to my left who raises to $250 (has about $1150 to start the hand) an older gentleman after him opts to Just call the $300 (has about $1400 to start the hand) and the lady in EP was all in for $245. At this point everyone was huddling around the table as the main pot has now swelled to almost $1200 and the side pot had $110. The turn fell a red K and the Aggressive guy to my left shoved for his remaining $650. This sent the guy in LP in the tank for a good while as this was a huge decision and if he were wrong, he'd be left with about $300-400. They were all regulars and the super aggressive started saying "I got you beat, You should fold." "I don't want your money, Just fold and let me take this pot, I got you beat" "You're gonna regret it if you call, don't do it." IDK if the LP just wanted to gamble or just didn't believe him, but he slowly slid in the $650 for the call and the pot had well over $2500 in it. The river was a club and the Aggressor showed a Set of Queens as the other two mucked their hand!!

I checked my phone and saw it was now almost Midnight.(I arrived at 6:20 and was on call so didnt want to be stuck in a tournament if I got called out) I figured it was time to call it a night even though I wanted to stay at the table cause the game was perfect and I adapted to it well. I was in for $500 and ended up cashing out $1450 and for once I can share a success story and not a horror story from the crazy 5 5 NL game at shorty's that plays like a 5 5 10 and sometimes 5 10 20 game! I could have won my last hand but every one knows the dreaded last hand play so I chose not to get to fancy with 10d 6d even though they were betting crazy and my 10 on the river would have scooped another $500ish. I was very satisfied with my night and hopefully the next time I sit at that game, I will be properly bankrolled to play it, but sometimes you just gotta take shots to get where you want to be.

Hope you enjoyed the read
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 2

When you last read, I was explaining the occurences of my first melt down involving my Poker bankroll that did not completely make me broke but put a healthy dent in my Roll. Enough of which would stick to my mind and possibly affect my play leading to the next meltdown that resulted Early this year.

Louisiana State Poker Championships, Isle of Capri Lake Charles
Once again, I regained my confidence, Cashed or Won 4 straight weekly tournaments at the local casino as well as went on a span of either Winning or cashing consecutively in my home game as well from Early January up until Late march. I was close to being back even from what I lost in the time span of October-November 2010 and couldn't wait to continue climbing up the later. I went spend a weekend in Lake Charles for the Louisiana State Poker Championships in the month of April 2011 and pulled of a Nice profit playing the 5 5 NL cash games there but the first day was rocky as I was in the negatives. The following day I had a huge day grinding the cash games from 10 am - 9 pm to pull a $1200 profit, giving me a $400 profit for the weekend. This was a good thing, but again, I felt a need to chase the money I had loss and showed more compulsive tendencies rather than well thought out calculated risks. I was playing in Lake Charles in preparation for the next upcoming Tournament event series in New Orleans, LA in May.

The WSOP Circuit Regional stop Harrah's New Orleans
I was going to make my name here, I was planning to play multiple tournaments and go deep in atleast one. I brought a significant amount of my bankroll to do so and only planned on using half of it. This was another bad idea and lack of discipline managing my bankroll. Especially with the previous occurences I have been having with my brand new habit of chasing my money. The first day I arrived, I went directly to the 1/2 NL table as I never had a losing session (out of about 8 experiences) at Harrahs casino in New Orleans. knowing this I was extremely confident, but needless to say I was about to get the coldest deck I could ask for and definitely the worst timing possible. It started out with my AA getting cracked by KK for a $300 pot leaving me short stacked so I bought in for another $200. I then got involved with a guy who fell in love with his flush draw and shoved the flop when I flopped 2 pair. Naturally the pattern of this trip was I call when way ahead and get drawn out on saying good bye to my chips. I ended the day with a $400 loss and figured I would make up for it on day 2.

I entered the biggest field in a $340 tournament with 676 entrants (I believe Captain Tom Franklin went on to win this event) and was put at the same table as a friend of mine oddly enough. I really liked my table as they were very easy to read. I picked my spots perfectly, avoided players when I had to, got involved with the weak players when I had to, things were going great. got passed the dinner break. Our table broke up and I was moved to a new table on the short stack and the aggressive Chip Lead of the table was to my direct Right. This sucked for me as I had to pick spots to take blinds and rebuild my stack but yet avoid getting derailed by this guy who seemed to almost raise every other hand. The first two times I shoved my 12-17bb stack everyone folded and i raked the antes and blinds. but the last time....the Big Blind decided to wake up with KK and my 10 9 suited didnt touch the flop what so ever. I was out 130-140ish and the top 80 paid.
I still wanted to play though (thinking I can try to atleast get my buyin back....more chasing thoughts) and buy in to a $125 sit n go. I come out 5th when I shove 77 and get called by JJ and get knocked out.

I have $180 left in my wallet and decide to put it down at 1/2 NL again. My table is mostly filled with loose drunks and passive nits. I am doing great and taking advantage of this table. I work my stack up to $735 and did something I told myself I wouldnt do. I gave myself a number to reach before I got up from the table. I was shooting for $800 when 3 hands knocked me down to $320. First, 2 pair lost to a rivered straight. Next, drunk guy was calling with A high and I have JJ on 10 high flop trying to bet him off the hand. Ace hits turn and drunk guy went from talking non stop to immediately quiet (while rotating in circular motions of drunkness of course) then shoves all in.....we both had about $500 and I just rolled my eyes then folded. Very Next hand I am UTG and look down at QQ. the standard raise was $12-15 and I had a very loose image and was raising alot so this passive nit in late position reraised to $40. I go in the tank, try to put her on a hand and figure she thinks im trying to bully the table again so I reraise her to $150 (I now wish I would have just flatted to see the flop and spike the Q because I would have stacked her if I did so.) She immediately goes all in for about $600 and has me covered. If I call this and lose I would be broke and just the way she played it screamed AA or KK here. I go in the tank...I then look at her and she is looking at the felt, not me and I ask her....Do you have Aces or Kings?? and she looks at me and say, "Which one do you want it to be." (I was thinking to myself JJ but I knew I was beat and folded the Queens face up to show her I had a huge hand. She later told me it was Aces and I played with the person back home that was sitting on the left of her that she flashed her cards to. When I brought the story back up again at our local casino she did confirm that it was pocket aces. Back to the cash game I managed to get back to $500 after a couple hours, then at 3 am, my last hand I played was 9d 8d and flop fell 8s 9h 3s. I bet got 2 callers and a drunk rich looking frat kid says "All in" then smirks at his goofy Frat brother who thought he was the comedian of the table. I Called and the other 2 folded. the pot was just over $1000 and the frat boy showed As 5s...I needed to sweat any spade to take down this pot...and of course on the river. the Q of spades slaps me in my face.

Local Casino Tournaments
This was just disgusting and I continued to try to play the local casinos tournaments and cash game but could tell that I was playing bad due to the beats that I have experienced in New Orleans. I wasn't playing my A game and was trying to play through it instead of taking a much needed break. I continued to play once or twice a weak until mid July at casinos when my last straw was 3 horrible cold decks in a row. The First experience seemed like every other pot I was involved I had 2nd best and then left when I misplayed AA in early position against a super aggro rich guy and allowed pocket 8s to see a flop as well because I failed to Reraise everyone else off the hand preflop. Naturally on the flop he gets his 8 and I don't catch up. The next week I play the tournament and flop top 2 pair and lose because someone decided to try and be superman by shoving Ah Qs on a Kh 10d 9h board and I have Ks 9s not going anywhere. The turn and river are running Hearts and I get knocked out because a guy who normally plays super Tight and I put him on AK shoves with Ace high and sucks out. Finally I am getting bad beats and shove my short stack with AK off and get called by 3 4 off and he said he was calling cause 4s having been hitting every flop. This may be true because the dealers are incapable of correctly washing the deck after each hand and of course the 4 hit and I don't catch up. This hurt my roll down to about $400. I was no longer able to play at the casino safely and needed to take a break for multiple reasons but mostly to build my confidence back up.

Since that time I have not been at the casino and been just playing home games and small cash games .25 .50 to try and rebuild as well as putting money to the side. I have learned from my mistakes and trying to practice better bankroll management skills. I have been studying more and more during the days that I do not play. I will do my best to make sure I don't repeat the faults that I have recently because with proper bankroll management I could be sitting on a profit instead of in the negatives for trying to chase my money. I did not respect my limits and showed poor decisions rather than keeping a level head and trying to make the best decisions financially and strategically.Since then, I have noticed a turn around in profits once again and my confidence is beginning to come back.

I hope you can learn from the mistakes that I have made reading this. Success in poker is majorly correlated with the management of your bankroll. The best players in the world could also go broke with poor habits or decisions. Good practice will create more success!

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud

BankRollerCoaster Pt. 1

I'm sure if I put this much effort into anything in life that I would find great success. I would have probably got my degree without losing my scholarship in college (Even though I lost it because I had finished a semester with 11 credits instead of 12 after dropping one class and the administration didn't even give me a chance to take a summer class to regain my scholarship GRRR) I could have maybe started my own business. There are endless possibilities that my mind, hell anyone's mind, is capable of accomplishing but it is just amazing that it depends on how much passion you have in something that you are willing to truly excel in what grasps the majority of your attention. For me its something that its a constant struggle. It is something that I have to try to be successful at with a limited amount of funds to do so, never really having a lot of wealth but working my ass off just to get where I am today.

At the beginning of the year I was doing pretty well at poker but over a course of 2010-2011, I was managing my bankroll horribly. It started with me having success on Full Tilt poker back in February and March of 2010. I did my usual $50 deposit and decided to play a cheap satellite to a $535 tournament (Forgot which one) but there were like 64 people that entered and was a huge overlay, but unfortunately only 1 place was paid for the seat.....well that person was me. I grinded out the win and instead of playing the

How I felt when talking to Full Tilt support when trying to cash out.

tournament, I unreg'd and traded the T$ for about $503.25 real money. I decided to play (Out of my bankroll btw) Six handed 1/2 cap NL poker. I liked this because there was a cap to the size of money you can bet per hand. I believe at 1/2 it was $60-80, 2/4 it was $100-140, and 3/6 was $150-200. I can't remember exactly but I would play 1/2 and got my bankroll up to $860 so I decided to play 2/4 cap and worked it up to $1500. I mainly stayed at 2/4 and played around in 3/6 every now and then until about March I wanted to cash out what I worked up to $2600. I was going to keep the original $500 in the FTP account and cash out $2100 when the cashier and support were making it extremely difficult. They wanted more identification so I provided it with my Driver's License. 2 days later they wanted me to provide monthly billing statements which I questioned at first then provided proof of address and blocked out the rest of the information (Which I saw to be private that wasn't their business) and they said it must be the full document. I wasn't going to choose the wire transfer option because the bank was going to reject the transaction and I would have been out of my money completely. Well during this whole process I was slowly beginning to go on tilt, and ended up staying at the current limits I was at and it was affecting my play. Needless to say by May 2010 I lost what I built up on Full Tilt and this made me feel like shit. I vowed I would never play online poker again. I dabbled in and out of different websites but never for a lot of money and by January 2011 I requested Support closed any accounts I had online and that was that. Luckily I got this done before Black Friday of Online Poker occured!!

When I started playing more live poker, I experienced some success Late August - October 2010. I was cashing my home games and local casino tournaments, went down to Lake Charles and Played the Fall Poker Classic in September and cashed in both events that I played but had to go back to work and missed out on the main event which I was feeling completely confident in playing. I then went to IP Biloxi in October for their WSOP circuit and played in a $235 Mega-satellite. It awarded $2000 in tournament chips and $250 in cash for every 10 players that entered the tournament. There were 86 players that entered and top 8 got this prize. I was once again playing superb poker and my fundamentals were dead on as I was able to make the top 8 and was prepared to free roll for the rest of my weekend. Well I decided to play one more tournament (A $340 buy in) and then play just cash games. I lost the tournament i entered halfway through the field then had minimal success at the cash games finishing -$250 and ended up bringing home $1350 after paying for hotel and expenses as well. This is a pretty good weekend but It also made me get greedy and want more. So I got cocky and made another trip the very next weekend and met up with a couple poker buddies that allowed me to crash in their room. I brought $1000 in cash with me and went back to the 1-2 NL cash game. I would buy in for $200 at a time and had the worst run of luck I have ever witnessed. Got 3 outed twice, was in a huge pot in the lead with a set when someone  rivered the flush against me and after 1 more buy in I was busted at 3 a.m.on a Saturday morning. I was playing like a compulsive gambler chasing my money and not like a level headed poker player making calculated risks. I could feel myself getting more and more angry or frustrated but instead of leaving, I stayed and played in hopes that my luck would change. But the fact of the matter is, I didn't want to accept that it wasn't my luck that was bad, it was my mental image. It was my lack of confidence. I was off my game and stayed there dumping my chips until they were all gone. I immediately left without telling the guys bye. I called them about 25 minutes away from home and said sorry but I just had to get out of there. During  my 4 hour journey home I was stuck thinking of the stupid actions that I decided to take in blowing my winnings, but didn't have an answer to avoid it from happening again.

My success of 2010 was short lived as I quickly expended the winnings in hopes to jump up in bigger stakes and get a larger bankroll. I was trying to get ahead of myself and instead of thinking rationally and actually taking my time to build my bankroll, I would risk it at every possible chance and would play out of my bankroll trying to beat the fish at the game. Unfortunately, when I would take a bad beat I would not have enough funds to reload and keep playing, thus leaving the game with a loss and another dent to my funds.
I didn't see the pain of this until my next encounter since I began to flirt with going broke while experimenting with my strategy and seeing my balance after paying bills....