My Poker Journal

[Joe]

I just finished the night owl $1.10 tournament on carbon. Its a $50 guarentee tournament with rebuys. When I started the tournament I think there was 30 participants still in the tournament and I actually finished in 25th place so my results weren't that great and right now at 1:51 am there is still time for late registration/re-entry into the tournament.
So my last hand is what you want to know about. Preflop the opponent under the gun minimum raised. I think there was an opponent between us who folded. I had ace king offsuite in middle position and I reraised pretty big, 5 or six big blinds I think. It folded back around to the original raiser who re-raised all in. I reasoned that this opponent would of open much bigger if they had something bigger than me and the caluculater that carbon poker provides for you said that I had the right pot odds to call so that is what I did.
I caught an ace on the flop but then my opponent made his set on the turn or fourth street.
Preflop after my opponent's initial raise I think I should of just called or maybe minimum re-raise.
After my opponent re-raised I had ten big blinds left at that point and I wished I would of just folded at that point because I would of had enough chips to had a chance in the tournament.
So what did I learn today?
Don't re-raise someone in early position and I really don't like ace-king offsuite.

[Joe]

I missed the 10pm po freeroll on carbon or maybe it wasn't scheduled but anyways I didn't play a po tournament today. I played the $1.10 double up sng over at carbon. I finished in the money and this is my favorite sng to play.
I spent most of the tournament in the all-in or fold mode because I made a full dumb plays because I wasn't really giving it all of my attention. When I'm playing online I'm tempted to look at other places on the web and sometimes like today my play suffers.

[Joe]

I just finished the 10pm po freeroll on carbon. I finished in 4th out of 109. I lasted in the tournament for almost two and half hours. The time that I finished 2nd on this po freeroll I thought the tourney lasted less than two hours.
I had about 33k which was about ten big blinds and the other three opponents at the table had 50 to 60k. It was either folded to me or I was first to act and I had king ten offsuite. My opponent had ace-jack offsuite but he still caught a flush on the board.
I'm happy with my finish. I stuck to my all or fold strategy because I was so far behind and I was already deep in the money.

[Joe]

I played in the 10pm po freeroll on carbon and I didn't last very long.
I'm so embarrassed that I don't want to talk about it.

[Joe]

I just finished the 7pm po tournament on carbon and I lasted alot longer than I did last night. I finished 23 out of 80 I think. I was doing ok for most of the tournament and then all of a sudden the blinds move up and a few minutes later I'm down to about five big blinds. I'm in middle position with a pair of nines and its folded to me, and the guy that calls has ace-king offsuite. He paired his ace on the flop and I was out.
I think my last play was good. I just need to stop getting to the position where i'm at 10 or less big blinds.
see you at the 10 pm po tourney!

[EddieTorr]

Keep doing the post-game reviews and paying attention to lessons learned and you'll be amazed at how quickly you progress. Keep us posted.

[Joe]

Thanks for your interest Eddie.
I do this journal because I want to get better at poker cause if I can't make money playing poker then I don't think I would play anymore.
I don't want to post entries on here about how I donk out, so knowing that I'll have to say something about my performance makes me concentrate a little more.
I also realized that if make a post each day those points will start to add up which means more freerolls.
I want your opinions about my play!

[Joe]

I already posted my results for the 7pm po freeroll.
Starting at about 9:30pm I played a sng on carbon, it was the $2.20 double or nothing. I won. I eventually got into the 10 big blind range again, but I don't think I really went all in during this one because by this time there were other players worse off and we were getting close to the top five. If you haven't play the double or nothing sng on carbon they're probably the easiest sng's your ever going to play because there is ten people that start the game and the top five finishers win almost double the buy in. I think this was the first time that I have played $2.20 double or nothing sng. Previously I had been grinding away at the $1.10 level.

At about the same time I also signed up for the $1.10 18 person sng. I've played tournaments on seals with clubs that were about the same the size but it wasn't a sng. For this sng the top four people get paid and I didn't. I finished ninth or tenth. I went out on an all in or fold situation. It was folded to me and I was in middle position and I had ace-x unsuited, I think I had 5 big blinds, and I don't remember what my opponent had. It was a better hand than mine and it held up against mine.
I ended up playing the 10pm po freeroll at about the same time as the 18 person sng. I think the sng started at about 10:30pm or maybe it was a little earlier than that. I made it to atleast an hour deep into the sng and I made it about 1.5 hrs into the freeroll.
I finished 19th out of 93 at the 10pm po freeroll and I got eliminated in a similar fashion as the sng.
I got greedy. I thought I could play more than one at a time. I shouldn't of the played the 18 sng because I have a long history of not multi-tasking very well.
So what did I learn today? I learned again that I am not very good at multi-tabling. I also learned that there are actually people out there that are kind of interested in what I have to say.

[Joe]

10pm po freeroll on carbon results: 41st place out of 89. Again my results are horrible. I wasn't getting very good cards most of the game and I got into the 10 big blinds or less range before the first break even started. The hand that really killed me was when I was the first seat after under the gun and I got a pair of aces. It was folded to me and I raised 3 big blinds with the hopes that either everyone would fold or someone would re-raise so that I could shove all-n. Someone in late position shoved all-in with a smaller stack than mine and I shoved. When I say I shoved I mean that I raised all-n, I didn't get violent and push someone. My opponent had queen-ten suited. My opponent made his or her flush on the river. I don't remember how much chips I was left with after that(I had less than five big blinds) but the very next hand I received a pair of eights and I was under the gun so I raised all-n. I was beat. The end.

[Joe]

10pm po freeroll on carbon: I finished in 45th place out of 89. My results are not very good. I got in trouble again early so I ended up having to shove or fold alot sooner than I wanted to. I need to concentrate more.