Well the last month has been inconsistent to say the least. I keep trying to write about either a downswing or an upswing that has been affecting me recently, then it all switches up and I have to rethink my post again.
In the beginning of february, I had a terrible run which brought me down about $140 in losses, and I even had to drop down a notch in stakes to the $5 and $6s at PokerStars. Neither were doing me any good; I placed in 3 of the 4 $6 STT Turbos I played, getting a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but the multitable SnGs were doing me in. I was playing very solid by my standards, but kept getting bubbled or bad beat playing against the maniacs at that level. Eventually, I won a 27-seater $6 turbo, but even that ~$85 win only just nullified all my losses from the first week of february.
I haven’t played much in the last few days both because my internet has been down and I’ve been just taking a little break from poker. Came back yesterday and played absolutely horrid on the FT 25NL tables. Dropped about 3 buyins playing like an absolute maniac. Note to self: tighten up, or at least smarten up if you’re going to play loose. Not only did I play poorly, but the poker gods haven’t been too kind to me lately either. Flopped a pair and flush draw with one of my many connectors, made a big move over the top of an aggressive player who ended up having a set, and I missed my flush. Played a couple qualifiers; one I got KK first hand, and got outflopped by AK and was gone. In the other I made a play on the bubble and got busted. Also just played the $10, $15000 guaranteed at Stars, and got my ace-high flush crushed by a straight flush on the river.
Well everything’s been going relatively well for me lately. Outside of poker, I got a few connections that might actually get me a job with some kind of trade. I haven’t looked into it too much, but doing electrical work or carpentry sounds about right for me. I love hands-on work, and I also do enjoy a bit of math and science, so I think that those two aspects would work perfectly with my personality. One of my good friend’s cousins is also a construction worker, and although it’s the middle of winter right now I might be able to tag along with my friend in getting a job with him.
I think I can safely say that my poker progress has been less than stellar since my last blog post - and I apologize for not writing for so long, but it’s hard to come up with something worthwhile to write when I’m running this bad. I haven’t done well at all in the last few games and this run has shot my confidence. With my new flat panel and HD from rogers hooked up, it’s easy to just play video games or watch HDTV instead of play poker and get myself out of this rut. I almost avoid playing because I’m so ’sure’ that I’ll either get another terrible beat (see today’s gem) or donk myself out and lose another buyin.
Well last week was pretty slow for my SnG challenge progress. My ISP’s server, which supports the login page, was down for about 4 days last week so I had no way of playing any games. No work and no play make ChuckTs a dull boy. Actually that’s a lie - my best friend had a housewarming party on saturday at his new apartment which was an absolute blast. I woke up sunday afternoon with an empty wallet, a faint memory of getting pancakes at 4AM and I don’t remember much else which means it must have been fun.
Consistency is something I’ve been seriously lacking in - at least up until most recently. I think it’s actually my recent consistency that has made me realize just how big my swings were before.
Well it took me roughly 3 or 4 months to complete, but I finally finished the 200 SnG challenge. I had plenty of ups and downs with some nice winning streaks (5 wins in a row at one point) and some terrible losing streaks (I’d rather not recall how many losses in a row).
With Titan’s decision not to allow US players to make any money transfers, I decided to withdraw most of my funds there. Cardschat’s events will be held elsewhere as soon as Nick finds a site we all agree upon which has good enough representatives to make sure our events and such go through smoothly; I plan to deposit a large portion, if not my whole bankroll at that site. Until Nick makes his decision, I’m going to make a deposit at maybe Stars or FullTilt and play there. I’m going to have to withdraw around $400 from my Neteller account to use to pay some dues which leaves me with a little more than $800 to deposit where I like. I also left $100 at Titan for buyins to CC events and for the odd overlayed MTT (the previously largely overlayed tourneys have started filling up more recently since people seem to have noticed it).
Well things have gone well for me lately, to say the least. Since the 23rd of september, which was when I started playing frequently again at Titan, my bankroll has ballooned from $100 or $200 to $1300. $750 of those profits can be credited to my first-ever MTT win last night; $15 freezout, 134 entrants, and a very nice overlay. The rest has been from both wins in CC events, and the rest to SnGs. Needless to say, I’m very pleased.
My apologies go out to both Nick and to anyone who read my blog when I was still writing on a regular basis. I’ve played very little poker since making a big withdrawl about a month or so back, and thus have had very little to write about as I’ve had very few new experiences with my poker playing.
Only very recently have I started playing with my Titan bankroll some more due to my lack of hours at my job which is slowing down with the season. I work in landscaping/gardening, which surprisingly goes well into december, but this happens to be the slowest part of the working season being in between the bloom of spring and all the leaf cleanup of fall.
