June: Good and Bad

I'm done with MTTs for June, and things didn't really go as well as I hoped. I had a good FT performance in a Stars $20, but pretty much bombed everything else. Last night I went deep in the Party 40k again (still a minefield, not sure how I get that far), but had my KK cracked by AK when he hit his six outer on the turn. I ended up going out in 40th, but I win that pot and I'm FTing that thing easily.

Still no WSOP seat, I've been trying pretty much everything. The Party steps haven't been good to me, and I can't get anything going on Stars or Party. I really want to qualify for the Stars $650 on Sunday, it seems like my best shot, as I only have to make top 5% or so.

Here's the stats for June. At least I'm in the black, but I've got a lot to work on.

Total Tournaments: 52
Total Buy-Ins: $1,663.50
Total Winnings: $2,457.77
Total Profit: $794.27
$/Hour: $9.66
ROI: 47.7%
ITM%: 15.6%
FT%: 6.7%

The ITM and FT %s seem fine, maybe a little low, but the ROI is way below what it should be. I don't think I'm getting deep enough into the money when I actually make it.

I feel like my game has turned a corner and my analysis is much stronger than it used to be. Here's an example where I extracted a LOT more chips than I used to because I had better reads and a better thought process.

POKERSTARS GAME #5396044429: TOURNAMENT #26990392, $5.00+$0.50 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IX (300/600) - 2006/06/28 - 20:50:43 (ET)
Table '26990392 99' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: RyeWhiskey (12555 in chips)
Seat 2: JSOTT (10580 in chips)
Seat 3: VT HokieBird (53936 in chips)
Seat 4: smith007 (8271 in chips)
Seat 5: moneytree300 (19500 in chips)
Seat 6: tucaluc (36020 in chips)
Seat 7: tajpokerbabe (19215 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: bambam16 (15369 in chips)
Seat 9: thopra (29813 in chips)
RyeWhiskey: posts the ante 50
JSOTT: posts the ante 50
VT HokieBird: posts the ante 50
smith007: posts the ante 50
moneytree300: posts the ante 50
tucaluc: posts the ante 50
tajpokerbabe: posts the ante 50
bambam16: posts the ante 50
thopra: posts the ante 50
thopra: posts small blind 300
RyeWhiskey: posts big blind 600

POT: 1,350

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bambam16 [Ad Ts]
JSOTT: calls 600
VT HokieBird: folds
smith007: folds
moneytree300: folds
tucaluc: folds
tajpokerbabe: folds
bambam16: calls 600
thopra: calls 300
tajpokerbabe is connected
tajpokerbabe has returned
RyeWhiskey: checks

POT: 2,850

*** FLOP *** [Th Td 4c]
thopra: checks
RyeWhiskey: checks
JSOTT: bets 1200
bambam16: raises 2400 to 3600
thopra: folds
RyeWhiskey: folds
JSOTT: raises 6330 to 9930 and is all-in
bambam16: calls 6330
*** TURN *** [Th Td 4c] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Th Td 4c 8d] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JSOTT: shows [7c 7h] (two pair, Tens and Sevens)
bambam16: shows [Ad Ts] (three of a kind, Tens)
bambam16 collected 22710 from pot

I had seen Villian limp a lot of mid and small pairs here, so that was the first hand I put him on. I didn't think he limped with JJ-AA, AK, or AQs because he probably would have raised (based on his previous action). I could see him limping with 99-66, maybe AQo. But the odds favored a small pair. His smallish flop bet made me believe it even more, as he could get away from it if there was heavy action behind him. However, this is where things get interesting. Now it is to me, with three 10s, to figure out how to get all his chips.

My image had been relatively solid, stealing from late position, and showing down mostly good cards from other positions. When I limped in after him preflop in late position, he couldn't put me on a very good hand, as I probably would have raised to try and steal the blinds. He may put me on a QJ, KJ, or KQo, or other random suited connectors. Based on my image, plus my knowledge of him, I raised enough to make it look like I had enough chips left to fold if he pushed all in. This added even more credibility to making it look like an attempt from high cards to steal the pot, as most people would not raise three 10s here. As expected, he pushed all in, and I gleefully called with my trips and took down the pot.

This was something I was not able to pull off even a month ago, and it's hands like this that keep me studying and playing. When you can think clear enough, it's like you're playing with your opponent's cards face up. The trick is extracting the most value out of hands. Hands like that give me a huge amount of confidence that I can think my way through difficult situations, and in turn, improve my results.