Poker Doodling
Is that a real phrase? "Poker Doodling". That's what I've been doing the past few days. Doodling. Just sort of playing here and there. No real purpose or goal. Just messing around.
I started at a 6-seat $1+.25 at Pitbull Poker last night. After 2 orbits there were two players out, the same guy getting both their stacks. I hadn't had anything but my blinds in the pot yet, being cautious and observant and not having anything to play. I raised with a QTs and got two callers. The flop was all rags, and my flush draw. I pushed first in, hoping to take it down. Big stack called with NOTHING. That's right, NOTHING. He had an ace-high hand. I really liked that call, but I failed to improve, and he busted me. I just laughed, though - which is a good sign, I think. I should post this hand in the forum and ask for opinions.
I decided to look into the fishiest site I ever remember playing - Pacific Poker. I bellied up to a $1/2 table and took down a quick $20. Its still fishy there. I remembered liking the 20-seat $8+.80s there, so I punched off my cash game after only a few orbits, and invested my winnings in an $8+.80 SNG.
I started off down, but picked up an AA in MP during level 3. UTG raised first in and I re-raised all-in. You start with only 800 chips in these SNGs, so there's not much room for finesse. It folded around and UTG called with KJs, so I doubled up. After that I think I played very well. I was probably a little too tight when we were down to about 10 players left. My cards were not great, but it frequently folded around to me, and I never pounced to steal the blinds. I thought the 6-way bubble play was pretty good, and I did steal a few here, being a medium stack at that time. When it got down to 3-way, it seemed that my opponents had given up. They played really awfully, and I busted them both out for first. Perhaps they were satisfied with the payouts at third and better.
I was very happy with that victory, of course. More than usual, as I think a few positive results will be very useful in promoting a more balanced view of poker, my downturn, and what actions I should be taking. I realize that I shouldn't need some wins to established an objective, balanced view - but it would be dishonest for me not to admit that I do. And I think that dishonesty would be more harmful in the long term than the inability to have an objective outlook in the face of beat after beat. I have many things to work on in my poker game, not the least of which is me. And within the "me" category, there are many things to work on.
One at a time, I will fix them all.