Monday, June 30, 2008

Ups, Downs, and Comical Poker Names

Alright, let's go in chronological order here, starting with last night...

Last night I arranged a rare live cash game featuring myself, the lady friend, my sis and her husband, and three friends. We just played some standard nickel-dime no-limit, with a $15 max buy-in, or as my sister's husband would describe it, "enough to make it interesting, but not painful," which, as my friend pointed out, "could refer to a lot of fun things." But anyways, to sum the night up for me, it was freaking brutal. I took a beating like none other, with solid starting hands either completely missing flops or connecting well only to get drawn out on time and time again on wicked turns and rivers. Meanwhile the brother-in-law was playing crap like J4o and hitting crazy boards... he seriously hit quads at least three times during the night, and without a pair in the hole. To give you a feeling on how ridiculous the night got, I'll recount one of the wildest hands from the night, though I was not personally involved in this one...

(Names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty)

Preflop:
"Sticky Chips" Malloy: raises it up from $0.10 to $0.60
"Sloppy Deuce" Stevenson: reraises to $1.20
"Big Flop" Johnson: calls $1.20
Sticky Chips: reraises to $3.70
Sloppy Deuce: reraises to $7.40
Big Flop: groans and calls $7.40
Sticky Chips: calls $7.40

Flop: (something like 7h-8h-xh, where x was a 2 or 3... also about $23 in the pot)
Sloppy Deuce: checks
Big Flop: checks
Sticky Chips: goes all-in for $21-change
Sloppy Deuce: calls $21, with chips remaining
Big Flop: calls $21, also with chips remaining

Turn: (random low heart) both Deuce and Flop check

River: (another low heart) both players check again

Outcome:
So there's a flush on the board, with the highest card being the 8h, about $85-90 in the pot. Hands are flipped over...

Sticky Chips: KcQc
Sloppy Deuce: KsKd
Big Flop: Jd7d

All 3 players play the board and split the biggest pot of the night. Deuce was about a 69% favorite before the flop, about 74% on the flop, and about 69% again on the river, with a 21% chance to tie. Big Flop was 17% preflop, 20% on the flop, and about 10% going to the river. Sticky Chips was 13% before the flop, and pretty much dead (0.33%, with 1% tie) when he pushed the rest of his chips in.

But yeah, this kind of stuff was going on all night, just in smaller amounts, and it kept eating away at my stack beat after beat. All-in-all it was a fun night, but sweet hey-zeus did I ever get hosed...

... which is why the online win I squeezed out earlier today was even more satisfying. Not only was it much needed in restoring my confidence as a poker player to its previous level of sub-amateur mediocrity, but it was also my 4th win in the first 5 $10 SNG's I've played... a streak I hope to continue but will realistically fail to do so. Still a fairly impressive beginning to this new stage of my bankroll building process. Here's a summary...

$10 SNG's:
1st place - 4
6th place - 1
Total: 5
Average Finish = 2.00

Invested: (10+1) x 5 = $55
Return: 45 x 4 = $180
Net Profit = 180-55 = $125
ROI = 227.27% (not too shabby)


... and a comparison to the $5 SNG data, for which I have a more decent sample size...

$5 SNG's:
Average Finish = 3.94
Total: 101

Invested: $555.50
Return: $720.00
Net Profit = $164.50
ROI = 29.61% (more realistic, and decent I suppose)

Funny enough my start at $5 SNG's was straight into the red, and I didn't even have a dollar of profit to show until after my 17th game. Up to +$32 at game 22, back down to +$8.50 at 32, and then things finally took off (learning curve?) at 34, with gradual upswings. Hopefully I can keep the sharp climb of this one going. For now I'm just gunning for 5 wins out of 6... my bankroll is loving this swing.

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