2018 In Review & Upcoming WTSOP Tournament

With only a few hours left in the year and no plans to play cards tonight, I think it is safe to calculate my totals for the year and see how I did in poker.

My goal for the year was to play at least 150 hours of poker and earn an hourly rate of $17, which would have resulted in approximately $2,500 in profit. Of that I was hoping to have built up a poker bankroll of about $1,500. The good news is I met one of my yearly goals and the bad news is it wasn't the monetary one. I was able to log 164.5 hours of play, but my hourly rate was only $5.59. Excluding the one year I lost money, this is my lowest hourly rate ever since starting to keep details statistics.

Despite not meeting my financial goals, I did finish with a profitable year. I won a total of $920, which is not a very good considering my peak was $2,165 in profit after five months of play. I also lost a lot in the final stretch of the last five months of play, so my bankroll is non-existent.

As for the upcoming 2019, I would like to again have the same goals as I did for 2018: 150 hours of play, $17 hourly rate, $2,500 in profits, and a bankroll of $1,500. However, I probably need to add an additional goal that isn't something calculated in an Excel spreadsheet. The final goal I have for 2019 is in regard to my mental game. I need to keep my emotions in check, whether I win or lose. Poker isn't a single game. It is a marathon of games that culminates in getting better, not just from a strategic point of view, but also a mental one and emotional one. In addition to the financial goals, I want to take the wins and losses in stride.

Coming up on Saturday I have my year-end tournament with the Weatherford group. In years past I have had a starting chip stack of $4,150 and $6,800. This year's starting stack is in the middle at $6,025, which makes me third in chips and above the average chip count of $5,100. There are a total of 13 players and the possible draw I will have for tables includes Darrell (chip leader), Randall, Mark T., Dennis W., Andy, and Wes.

I don't plan to change up my tournament strategy too much for this tournament. I will probably be patient while the blinds are small and once we combine to a single table of nine and the blinds have increased to a significant amount that it is worth trying to steal some pots I will open it up a bit.

The past two years I've finished ninth and eighth. I'm hoping Saturday ends with a much better finish than those.

Weatherford (March 29)

With only eight players showing up for my weekly tournament last night the winnings weren't expected to be too great, so losing a  massive chip lead and going out in sixth wasn't too crushing of an experience. Besides, I still profited $120 for the night from the cash game afterward.

Speaking of the cash game, I had one hand I wanted to get down on paper. I don't think I misplayed it or anything like that, except maybe making an overcall at one point, but it was an interesting situation to be in and I question whether I should have gambled a little bit more in this particular situation.

We were playing $1-3 hold'em and there were six of us at the table. I was in the cutoff spot. Everyone limped into a family pot and with 7-5 of spades I saw a flop against five opponents. The pot has $18 in it.

The flop was 2d-3s-4s and it checked around to me. Sometimes I bet these kinds of hands when I have multiple draws and overcards to the board, but with five opponents I elected to check and see if a free card would be available. After checking the button player bet $15. The small and big blinds fold. The under-the-gun player puts in a minimum raise of $15, making it $30. The player on my right folds.

There is now $63 in the pot and it is $30 to call. I obviously don't have the best hand right now, but if I hit a 6 or an ace I am sitting pretty and a spade gives me a mediocre flush (unless it is the 6 of spades, in which case "YAHTZEE!!!"). I probably have to rule out winning if I hit just a five or a seven and I'm probably not good hitting two pair or three fives (since a lone ace would make the straight). Even going runner-runner sevens might not be a good thing as one of the two players I am against could have flopped a set of twos, threes, or fours.

Drawing to a straight flush is always fun, but I don't want to commit everything I have right now to a straight draw I know will be good and a flush draw I can't be too sure is going to hold up. I decided to simply flat call the $30 and see what developed from the button or how the under-the-gun player decided to play the turn. So I call $30 and action moves back to the button.

Well, the fun of a possible straight flush ends when the button re-raises $50 more. And things get even more clear when the under-the-gun player moves all in for $85 total ($35 on top of the $50). So it comes back to me. Let's recap the betting really quick. After the pre-flop limp-fest, we have $18 in the pot. It checks around to the button, who bets $15 (pot is $33). Under-the-gun check-raises to $30 (pot is $63). I call $30 ($93). Button re-raises to $80 ($158). Under-the-gun goes all in for $85 ($243).

It is now $85 to me and I am covered by the button. I had another $150 behind the $85 and was pretty confident I would have to call an all-in from the button if I simply called the $85 before seeing a turn card, much less a river. At this point I am 100% sure I am beat by either a set or a flopped straight (most likely from the under-the-gun player) and the other player (probably the button) either has two pair, a set, a straight, or a better flush draw than me. This is a pretty easy fold at this point, but I know it is going to hurt if I end up folding the winning hand after all is said and done.

After I fold, the button calls the $35 (pot now has $278). He said he was going to move all in had I called. The under-the-gun player shows a set of threes and the button shows queen of spades and four of hearts (not expected). He said he put us both on drawing hands and thought he had the best hand at that point. The turn was the queen of hearts, which created more drama by giving the button more outs, and the river was an inconsequential eight of hearts. I ended up missing all my draws and the set of threes took it down.

I was correct in thinking I needed a straight or flush to win, but I was wrong in thinking my flush might not have been good had I needed it.

Benbrook (March 17)

It's been nearly two weeks since I played poker and I am still haunted by a hand I misplayed at a home game in Benbrook on St. Patrick's Day. This is an example of not paying attention to the amount of money in the pot and only focusing on the opponent's bet size.

It was a $1-3 game and I was the big blind with 7-6 of hearts. I ended up calling a raise of $10 from the button and going against two opponents (the other being the small blind). $30 was in the pot. I was second in chips among the three of us, with the button having about $75-100 less than me and the small blind having about $100 more than me.

The flop came out 8s-5d-2c and it went check, check, and the button bet $20. The small blind called and I passively called with my open-ended straight draw (probably my first mistake for not raising). Pot now had $90.

The turn was the queen of diamonds. Again, the small blind checked and I checked (possibly my second mistake in not leading out). The button bet $50 and the small blind folded. I called (again, another mistake in not raising or folding). Pot now has $190.

The river was the jack of diamonds, making a back-door flush and straight possible. I checked, with the intention to fold my seven-high hand when he checked behind or raise if he put in another bet and try to scare him into thinking I rivered a big hand. He bet $75 and I almost immediately raised it to $175. The biggest mistake of the entire hand was not waiting a little longer to calculate what was in the pot and going all in (which really would have meant I was putting my opponent all in since he had less money than me).

At the time of my raise, I made it the amount I did because I wanted him to think I was making such a small raise because I had a hand I knew to be best and I wanted him to make a crying call, which was reverse psychology because he would know I was doing that and he would make the "correct" play, which was folding and saving $100. He ended up turning his cards over while thinking and showed me A-Q for top pair, top kicker. He took so long that the clock was called by another player at the table. He ended up being counted down to 10 seconds and finally threw in the $100. I didn't even show my hand and said it was a good call.

I am 100% sure that had I put him all in for the additional $75-100 he had behind the $100 raise he would have folded. I didn't take my time and factor in how much was already in the pot after his river bet and my raise. It was only $100 to call and there was $440 in the pot after my raise. There was just too much money out there to fold for $100. However, if I had gone all in, that would have resulted in him having to call $175-200 to win $515-540. That is a little tougher to do, especially considering he was having such a hard time calling for such a little wager.

I wanted to type this out as a lesson to myself that I need to take a little bit longer before making my bets to actually calculate what is already in the pot and how much my bet is in proportion to the pot. It is also a lesson in controlling my emotions after a big loss because this hand sent me into a downward spiral of depression that resulted in only winning $65 for the evening, which I was up about $450 prior to this hand.

WinStar (March 14)

With the reignited flame of poker in my life thanks to a quick start in profits in 2018, I made a trip to WinStar last night. I didn't get many great hands to start. The best I had was kings that nearly doubled me up when a guy hit top pair on the flop and a flush draw. He missed the flush and didn't improve on the pair of jacks.

The best hand of the night for me was when I held A-4 of diamonds and called a guy down with just the pair of aces on the flop. He raised pre-flop and bet every street, but I kept hanging with him. Normally that isn't the best strategy and I would be compared to a call station, however, the hands I had seen my opponent play before had been aggressive with weak holdings and I believed my pair of aces was the best. I ended up winning about $140 on that hand alone when I called his pre-flop raise, flop bet of $20, turn bet of $35, and river bet of something like $80. I never even asked for a count when he put the tall column of chips in the middle on the river. I simply said call, pushed a similar stack to the middle and figured if I had misread the hand I would complete the bet. Thankfully my read was correct and I simply pulled back both columns of chips and started stacking the other chips the dealer pushed my way.

In the past my trips to WinStar have not been very profitable, but since I've started taking poker more seriously and listening to strategy podcasts, my game has improved considerably. I hope this trend continues and I keep growing my bankroll to meet the yearly goals I've set for myself.

2017 Year-End Weatherford Tournament And 2018 Goals

Last month I took part in my year-end Weatherford Tournament Series of Poker event. Following my 2016 play I qualified with 4,150 points, needing 3,000 to get a seat in the tournament, and this was good enough to be 12 out of 18 players. This year my point value (which is also your chip value) increased to 6,800 and I was starting third in chips out fo 22 players.

Despite starting with below the average chip count last year, I was able to make the final table and finished ninth. This year wasn't much better despite the higher starting chip stack. I ended up in 8th place.

Ramping up toward this tournament I had been eager to learn new strategies and implement more aggressive tendencies in recent games, but I told myself to play my normal game as it usually gets me  deep into tournaments. Although, the downside to my normal style of play is that I am struggling with a short stack near the end and am hardly ever one of the chip leaders. I had hoped with the third-highest starting stack in the tournament that defect would be overcome, but unfortunately it didn't help very much.

I have noticed that it seems the more I try new tactics, the more uncertain I get in specific situations. I think I am overloading myself with new strategies and need to focus on only one or two new tips to master before taking on another.

Things have started well for me so far this year in poker. I have built my bankroll up to more than $1,000 in the first two months, which is an hourly rate that I will not be able to sustain. I am hoping by the end of the year to have played approximately 150 hours and logged an hourly rate of $17. Those amounts should equate to an annual earning of $2,550 in poker. Although not everything I make from poker stays in the bankroll, I do hope to have approximately $1,500 in a poker-only account.