Finally back in the saddle again...

Wowie, this thing hasn't been updated in a while. Truth is for those who know me closely you know why for the most part.

Since this is a poker blog I won't go into incredible detail about everything, but suffice it to say, I've had a hard start to 2009, and frankly 2009 sucks. I've had some real bad family news regarding my dad's ongoing battle with cancer which has become a real drain on the house. Without getting too in detail, suffice it to say, he went up North for a few weeks to visit family, because he is concerned he may never be able to see them again. That's how bad that's gotten.

On a slight up note for me, I did get accepted to the College Of Sports Media in down-town Toronto, a private school run by Jim Van Horne, Elliote Friedman, David Lanys and other people from in the industry. However I'm not sure I'll even be enrolling this fall, or asking Dave for a year extension on coming because of how bad dad's health has gotten.

With all that going on, the family issues and saving for the school(which is not cheap, $35,000 in tuition for a 2 year course, plus living expenses in Toronto) I haven't been able to dedicate much time to poker.

I am glad to say that is ready to change however, I'm eagerly finally at a place personally where I'm ready to get back at poker and make it work. I remember the last time I updated I listed a bunch of personal goals for myself, things like "be making a living playing by the end of this year" and "play at least one major buyin tournament" this year, unfortunately that looks like it won't be happening, but that's fine, when life hands you lemons you make lemonade...and since lemonade is delicious that phrase always appealed to me.

So, I started my grind back up by heading on down to Fallsview Casino(which I will be frequenting now no less than 3 times a week so you can expect semi-frequent updates starting in a few weeks when this all goes into action) to play some 2/5 NL. I used to play 5/5 and even 5/10 there, but again with having to set aside like $50,000 for school, the old bankroll ain't what she used to be, so we're back to the 2/5 grind.

So finally, onto some hands on my poker blog! Yay! Oh wait, they didn't go good...bummer.

First big pot I play is shortly after sitting at the table, so I'm still $300 deep. It's a limped pot around to me in the BB and I have 88, so with 7 limps infront I give breif thought to raising, but considering how easy it is to take money off the average 2/5 player, I decide to just check instead and play fairly fit or fold against them for the session, especially with no reads. That works nicely when the flop peels A/8/2 rainbow. SB checks, I check, and it eventually checks right around to the button who bets $25 at the $40 pot. SB flats, and I decide to make a small raise to get everyone comitted relatively early, so I make it $60 to go. I know the min-raise(or basically min-raise) isn't the best play ever, but it's only exploitable against players that aren't garbage, here I can do all sorts of transparant bet sizing because the average player won't notice or think about why. Both players call. $220 in the pot. Turn is a 9. SB checks and I bet out $80. Button shoves, SB calls and I obviously call. Pot is ~$900. The SB has AQ, the button has A8. The river is an ace to fill up the A8. Presto, one buyin down.

So, after a quick rebuy there's only a few more smaller hands of note, there was alot of general bad fortune during the session. Alot of spots where I would raise with a hand like AK, AQ, and not only wiff flops but find myself OOP in multiway pots holding those cards and the flop would be too terrible to even c-bet or try and run a bluff on(K/10/8 with 2 diamonds or something).

I did win one coin flip with AK vs QQ to restore some of the loss, then wound up bluffing off alot of that restored loss in what was a great spot for me, just more bad fortune.

The hand was, I had 3s/4s on the button, there was a big fish(bad player but not necessarily a calling station, just a generally bad player) in the BB. I raised to $20, he called. Flop was Jd/7h/5d. He checked, I bet $35, he called. Turn was a great card to barrel, Ac. He checked, I bet $80, he called. The river wasn't the best card, an 8d completing a flush and a few goofy straight draws. However, he checked once again, which I knew meant he didn't have any of those hands, he was deffinitely not the type of player that would be checking back a made hand he drew to. At this point I figured my read of him being weak(a 7 or a 5) or drawing was alot more complete, because I could rule out any draw that got there on the river, and I was left with just a 7 or a 5 as his potential holdings. My only concern as I decided to bluff the river was there was an outside chance he had a hand like 8/7 which would now have to call after spiking a 2nd pair on the river(or at least probably would call given his general fishiness). So I barrelled $150 at him, and he called with 8/5. Like I said, I think my read was strong and I think it's a great spot to be barelling as the board kept running worse and worse, unfortunately he improved his hand on the river without hitting a draw to lead at me, but hit the river enough to be in check call mode instead of check fold.

All told I dumped $500, but I actually got a real motivation to get going at the live play again and get back into the swing of poker. I've been neglecting it for quite a while now, I can't wait to get back into it more fully in a few weeks. Look forward to regularily updating this blog when I start.