Poker Frustration and Random Musings

So my goal for this past Friday was to play 1000 hands of poker because I know that I have to get a lot more hands in to get the kind of experience that I need. To sum it all up, I only managed 650 hands before I became too disgusted with myself. I know I'm a pretty patient guy when it comes to things I'm motivated in and I was doing pretty well up to the 400 hand mark where it all went downhill. I got my money in good against a 1/2 stacker with QQ (My notes on him told me he was going in with KT, Ax, etc.) and of course when I finally go head to head with him, he has KK. That didn't really hurt me too much because I know I'd own his stack a lot of the time but it seemed that like that was the play that got the ball rolling on my tilt. My stats were 13.6/11/2.4 >650, which were super tight, but could have been profitable if I kept my cool. Here are some plays that I didn't like:

Seat 1: mack87 ($11.25)
Seat 2: Furry Nut ($19.95)
Seat 3: CRHardHitter08 ($5.25) -
Seat 4: hersheymaster ($2.05) -
Seat 5: gensing ($3.70) -
Seat 6: 4 King Luck ($10)


PRE-FLOP:

hersheymaster posts small blind $0.05
gensing posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87


RAISE mack87 ($0.45)
FOLD Furry Nut
RAISE CRHardHitter08 ($1.50)
FOLD hersheymaster
FOLD gensing
RAISE mack87 ($5)
RAISE CRHardHitter08 ($5.25)
CALL mack87 ($0.25)


FLOP:

Pot: $10.65




TURN:

Pot: $10.65




RIVER:

Pot: $10.65




SHOWDOWN:
CRHardHitter08:

mack87:


CRHardHitter08 collected $9.65 from main pot with three of a kind, Kings

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $10 Rake: $1

Final Board:



Like I said, this was the one that got me tilting somewhat. I knew I was a dog once the cards were shown but the Q on the flop gave me hope, only to have a K on the river. Ugh that hurt. I got my money in good against this guy but to think that I almost sucked out definitely didn't help.

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Seat 1: Tunny55 ($12.55)
Seat 2: fullyloaded777 ($5.55) Sitting Out
Seat 3: jxxr ($4.05)
Seat 4: macbball31 ($9.40) -
Seat 5: mack87 ($10) -
Seat 6: POPPY5252 ($7.55) -


PRE-FLOP:

mack87 posts small blind $0.05
POPPY5252 posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87


CALL Tunny55 ($0.10)
CALL jxxr ($0.10)
CALL macbball31 ($0.10)
CALL mack87 ($0.05)
RAISE POPPY5252 ($0.40)
CALL Tunny55 ($0.30)
FOLD jxxr
CALL macbball31 ($0.30)
CALL mack87 ($0.30)


FLOP:

Pot: $1.7


BET mack87 ($1)
RAISE POPPY5252 ($2)
FOLD Tunny55
FOLD macbball31
CALL mack87 ($1)


TURN:

Pot: $5.7


BET mack87 ($3)
CALL POPPY5252 ($3)


RIVER:

Pot: $11.7


CHECK mack87
BET POPPY5252 ($2.15)
CALL mack87 ($2.15)


SHOWDOWN:
POPPY5252:

MUCK mack87

POPPY5252 collected $15 from main pot with a straight, Ten high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $16 Rake: $1

Final Board:


Seat 1: Tunny55 folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 2: fullyloaded777 is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: jxxr folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.1)
Seat 4: macbball31 button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 5: mack87 small blind mucked [6s 6d] - three of a kind, Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-7.55)
Seat 6: POPPY5252 big blind showed [9h Qc] and won 15 with a straight, Ten high - Net Gain/Loss: ($7.45)



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This hand with 66 was ugly from the get-go but I held on because I put Poppy on a two pair type hand which of course he didn't have. After the 7 came down on the turn, it should have been an easy c/f which I had been pretty good at doing earlier in the session but my old habits came to haunt me. After he called on the turn, I knew I was done but I was already committed to the pot. When he finally bets into my on the riv (another ugly card) I just feel obligated to call the remaining part of his stack. For next time, I know that if the board wasn't as ugly I'd probably call, but I should have c/f on the turn card. Blah.

I also had another almost identical hand with AQs and TPTK on a very drawy board, except villain slowplayed AK on turned the nut straight. Another c/f type situation on a very drawy board.

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Seat 1: SBucko ($8.20)
Seat 2: rman62 ($6.75)
Seat 3: alexandra5 ($9.15) -
Seat 4: mack87 ($11.65) -
Seat 5: OSUalltheway ($3.90) -
Seat 6: dgtlblcknss ($11.15) Sitting Out


PRE-FLOP:

mack87 posts small blind $0.05
OSUalltheway posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87


CALL SBucko ($0.10)
FOLD rman62
CALL alexandra5 ($0.10)
RAISE mack87 ($0.40)
FOLD OSUalltheway
CALL SBucko ($0.30)
CALL alexandra5 ($0.30)


FLOP:

Pot: $1.3


BET mack87 ($0.80)
CALL SBucko ($0.80)
FOLD alexandra5


TURN:

Pot: $2.9


BET mack87 ($1.50)
CALL SBucko ($1.50)


RIVER:

Pot: $5.9


BET mack87 ($3)
RAISE SBucko ($5.50)
CALL mack87 ($2.50)


SHOWDOWN:
SBucko:

MUCK mack87

SBucko collected $15.9 from main pot with a straight, Six high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $16 Rake: $1

Final Board:


Seat 1: SBucko showed [4h 5d] and won 15.90 with a straight, Six high - Net Gain/Loss: ($7.7)

Seat 2: rman62 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: alexandra5 button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 4: mack87 small blind mucked [Ad Ac] - a pair of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($-8.2)
Seat 5: OSUalltheway big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.1)
Seat 6: dgtlblcknss is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)


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This hand absolutely killed me. I had a dream flop here with Kxx and unless Sbucko has KK (which he definitely didn't), I had by far the best hand. Turn card was blank but here was my mistake I believe. Pot was at $3 and bet only 1/2, I still think it was a bad call on Sbucko to call my bet with basically only a 7 or 2 as an out but he rivered the two and went AI with me and I was forced to call the extra 2.50. Ugly.

Those four hands described were my biggest losers and other than that, I was very happy with my play although disappointed with the outcome obviously. Another weakness in my game though I noticed on two of my hands was when I had the nut straight when the river completes a flush draw. Although I won both as neither of the opponents were playing to the flush, I could have extracted a lot more out of them. I can't become scared once that flush draw hits, especially if they aren't playing like they would be drawing to a flush. Just a thought.

On non-poker news, I have an interview tomorrow for my summer job, a camp counselor at the U of M summer camps so I'm pretty psyched for that. I realized during the last year at the bank that I can't stay in one spot (an office) for very long, it drives me crazy. I also hate working Saturdays as it kills my weekends, especially in the summer. So I'm banking a lot on this interview, if I don't get it there could be some potential waterworks.

Last on the agenda is to report I bought some BMO stock a couple weeks ago when it hit $41.68cdn. I only purchased $1 500 worth (that's all I have lying around) but I think it's a good start. A lot of people think I'm crazy for buying a financial stock right now but here are my reasons why I bought it:
1) I'm not looking to flip right away - I figure I have a 1 year time line (roughly) on holding this stock and I believe that the finance industry stocks will be going very far up (and down) over that time. Buying at its 5 year low gives me pretty good odds.
2) I have a 7% div on that stock ($100/yr). So long as BMO doesn't cut it's div %, I believe I do have some leverage.
3) The entire industry is depressed right now, if I thought BMO would be tanking irregularly compared to other banks, I obviously wouldn't have invested in it.

There are of courses risks involved. The assets BMO holds in the subprime market are pretty volatile and could lead to more write-downs and issuing of equity (just released that BMO restructured it) and that was a gamble for sure, but only a short-term one. If the div % is cut, that'll send the stock downward, but since banks rarely do that for shareholders, I'm saying 80/20 that it won't happen.

Anyways, I wrote a lot today, gotta let it all sink in a look to be more profitable this week.
BTW, goal for the end of march is to have 10 000 hands under my belt. I thought of quitting after Friday but I cooled off and I'm ready to get back into the saddle.

S