Playing Poker Tournaments
I’ve decided that in order to build a nice bankroll, I need to play tournaments. Building an online bankroll from just strictly ring games is too difficult. I find that I have far too many swings playing cash games. I even consider myself a decent cash game player, but I just can’t seem to stay consistent enough online to build a big enough roll. I’ve been practicing playing tournaments and have seem to fair very well. I can consistently build an above average chip stack by the late, middle stages of the tournament, but that’s when I find I seem to screw up. I need to work on that part of my game. I’ve been playing 6-7 single table sngs a day. I try not to play more than $5 – $10 sngs. It’s time to put my patience to its truest test. We’ll see if I’ve increased my bankroll noticeably in the next few months. I’ll post some of my experiences and strategies as I continue to play, so check it out!
The Expansion of Home Poker Blog!
Well, I’ve been out of commission for 20 days. Originally, I started this blog with intentions of making at least one post a day. So that’s 20 posts that I have to make up for 
. In better news though, I have new plans for Home Poker Blog. I plan on bringing in other bloggers to blog about home poker. So expect for this blog to really kick off. A new design will be in place as well. I apologize for my lack of posting as I just haven’t gotten around to make quality posts. Hopefully, with the addition of some help, that’ll change in the near future 
. I haven’t been playing much poker lately, but I did play in a qualifier last night and the result was not good. My first hand dealt in the SB was AA. I raised it 3x the BB and had 3 callers. The flop came 3A7, 2 spades. We all checked the flop. The turn came 4, no spade. I checked the flop again, 2 more checked, then the 3rd player bet. I raised, he re-raised, and I raised all in. He turns over A6, and sure enough, the river brought a 5, for his straight . What a way to go huh? Lol, anyhow, I’ll make a better post later on today, just wanted to let you guys know that I’m still breathing
Playing Live Poker
I went out last night and decided to get back to playing cards a few times a week. I was a little nervous and rusty at first, but it didn’t take me long to settle in. I didn’t catch very many cards, but I was extremely patient. It was an extremely loose $1/$3 game where the average pre-flop raise was $20 – $25. I really don’t like that because I always raise the same pre-flop, and I like to keep my pre-flop raises on the lower end, so I don’t over-commit myself to a hand. However, if I wanted some isolation, I had to raise it up a bit more than I usually do, so I made my standard pre-flop raise $15. My first big hand was KK in middle position, in which everyone had limped to me, and I decided to make it $10 to go. I had 4 callers, so I was already a little nervous going to the flop, lol. The flop came 10J10. A player before me who had about $400 behind him made it $35. I made it $75 and he quickly puts me all-in. Back in my old days, I probably would have instant-called this. However, I made sure I took everything into consideration. What else would he limp, call my raise pre-flop, and then so confidently come over top and raise me all-in. I could tell by the look on his face and his demeanor that he was not at all concerned with what I had. After about 2-3 minutes of pondering, I laid down the hand. I was sure hat he had a 10 in his hand. Anyhow, I won a much bigger hand later with QQ, but then lost another big hand later to gut-shot straight draw against my two-pair. So the end result was a 9 hour session which resulted me down a little bit from my buy in. But it was due to hands that were behind catching up. If I’m ahead, I’ll always put my money in. Nonetheless, I was proud of my play, and I know I can beat that game.
I also played a little bit tonight, I never won a huge pot, just took down a few multi-way pots. I pretty much floated around what I bought in for. Though it’s only been two nights of playing, I’m feeling confident about my poker game. I’m playing less hands than I used to and picking my spots very carefully. Anyhow, we’ll see what the rest of this week and month bring .
Home Poker Blog Promotion
I’ve been thinking of some ideas to get more content for my blog. I think I’m going to let some of my friends who run poker games contribute their ramblings to this blog as well. I’d like to get an idea of what are some of the other headaches that keep hosts of home poker games up at night. I’m sure there are tons of headaches that they have in addition to the ones I have. Of course, we all share the universal issue with loans, so I’d like to get others’ issues with that. Giving out loans is such a hassle! I still have about $600 that still hasn’t been paid back to me. Although I’m sure I won’t ever get any of it back. Hmmm, that’d be a nice poll/survey to take. In fact, that’s a great idea. Man I amaze myself sometimes. I’m going to take survey and poll of all the local home poker game hosts. Let’s get their feedback . Damn, I should get the players too. Man, I’m just full of amazing ideas tonight, lol. Anyhow, I need to stop amazing myself and start writing some of these ideas down. In the meantime, you know how I’m always praising great lay downs over great calls, check out this awesome lay-down by Josh Arieh. For those of you who don’t know him, Eric Lindgren considers him the best poker player that’s “unheard of.”
Home Poker Games are Loose
I was talking to one of my players earlier at the gym about another home game in my area. I was conversing with him how loose that game is. He said something which made me think a bit. He said that “all home poker games are usually loose.” I stood in silence for a second, then continued on. But after having some time to think about it, I realize how loose all the home games I’ve been to. At first I thought it was just the higher stakes games because of the older crowd who have money to gamble with. But I realized that even the games with the younger, college crowds who don’t have as big a bankroll are equally loose.
There are few professionals and semi-professionals that play at home poker games. One of the first things you learn in any poker book is that the most common amateur mistake is playing too many hands. That’s what separates a professional from an amateur, patience. Professionals know that it only takes one big pot to make their night. And they’ll wait all night long until that one big hand comes up where they double, triple, quadruple up. Amateurs don’t possess that same patience. At first I thought the looseness was just a result of the big bankrolls, but that’s not it. It’s because the home games are just flooded with amateurs. All too often I hear players that take a lot of pride in their game, “you can’t win because they’re too loose,” or “how can he make that call?” If the stakes were high enough, the professionals would absolutely LOVE these games because they would just eat up these players. Professionals know when and who to get involved with. They don’t blame the other player for their loss or mistake. It’s poker and they realize shit happens. But in the long run, the professionals will eat these games up. Lol, I think I’m going to start exploring more of these home poker games now. I think I should just take my own advice, lol. Damn, I just suddenly got the urge ;p
Out of Commission
Sorry I’ve been out for a few days, been much more busier than anticipated. I had hoped to add quite a few posts this past weekend, but
that didn’t happen, lol. Nonetheless, the next post is a very common issue among home poker games: loans. Enjoy!
Bad Call
I decided to go play at friend’s game the other night. The stakes were pretty low, .50/$1. Anyhow, I’d been playing pretty tight all night. Been getting shitty cards too, but finally, in late position, I see a decent hand, AQo and get somewhat excited. This loose player (we’ll call him Player 1) raises to $4 preflop. He’s a pretty loose player and is just one of those players that plays the game to get lucky. Any face card is good, any potential draw is good, one of those type players. With that in mind, I decided to just call, pretty confident that he’s holding some K9o, A9o, something along those lines. The player (another extremely loose player that we’ll call Player 2) to my left calls. The flop comes QJ9 rainbow. With these 2 players in the hand, I’m pretty confident my hand is the best hand and am hoping to double up on this hand. Player 1 goes all in for $17 and I call. Player 2 raises to $50. So now I’m sitting and thinking, hmmm…. twice so far, I’ve seen this guy make a huge raise on a draw. I start to think about potential hands he could have, KQ? Q10? J10? Then it crosses my mind that he could potentially have 108. Then I think, “wait, there’s no way he has 108. He didn’t flop a straight.” So I go all in for $5 more and turn over my AQ. And of course, he turns over 108. What’s worst is that Player 1 turns over Q10 and hits his straight on the turn.
Oh well, what can you do? “That’s poker baby!”
Home Poker Blog Begins!
When I first had thoughts of starting a regular home poker game, I did quite a bit of research. I talked with the few guys that I knew that ran a regular home poker game and just asked as many questions as possible. I was surprised to learn though, there really wasn’t an abundance of information on the web about starting or hosting one. There are a few articles here and there, but none dedicated to running a successful one. Lol, probably because it’s not really a “legal” thing, although there are probably thousands of games in this country. Anyhow, after starting my own game and being successful with it, I think I’ll show those aspiring to start their own successful home poker game how to make it happen .