Pushing 93 uphill

I am not confident in my ability in poker, which I think is a good thing. I have plenty of evidence that I'm not rock bottom, but I'm not sure whether I'm one rung, two or several above that. So I'm playing a thousand sngs or thereabouts at $5, rather than moving up now, which my bankroll would allow.

The main reason is that if I have a decent ROI after a thousand tourneys, I'll at least believe I beat this level. After a couple of hundred tourneys, I just might have been running hot, rather than playing well, and my ROI, which is not too bad, might be an artefact of luck.

Some days I tend to think the opposite! Check out the past couple of days.

8th standard BB push ran into limped AA in SB

Note that there were still seven villains hanging around! We must have been at t150. I am suffering a lot from getting trapped by limped big pairs. I'm thinking I need to play top pairs and overpairs just a bit more cautiously.

6th pushed KQ, called by K8, flopped K8. Ran 87 into A8, flopped 7 he sucked flush

The first hand nearly busted me. I pushed from the button, and the fishtard in the big blind decided K8 was enough to call. The bustout hand was just one of those pick one and pray hands.

5th AQ vs AJ, of course he flopped and turned a J

If you have AJ against me, and I get the money in, call it every time. It *always* beats me.

5th turbo ran 93 into JJ on BvB push short

It's a general principle that you push from the small blind with less than ten big blinds. The big blind should fold a lot if he has a stack that is neither very big nor very small. But they're never folding JJ!

5th caught by trapper then A5 into 77

The trapper hit the flop hard and slowplayed. I helped my hand on the river and bet, he raised and I called. I generally believe raises but I had most possible hands beaten -- I forget the hand but we're talking something like TT3, turn 7, river A and I have A7. He had QT or something like that. It's always possible you are going to run into trips on this board, but the other guy has AQ or something like that enough not to throw away your two pair.

6th QQ into AA

This was in a tourney in which I literally had not played a hand! I pick up QQ and raise, he reraises and I push. I was too short to fold to his raise, and he wasn't tight enough to make me want to anyway.

1st tight and tough, but nice patient play to win

I make these notes to remind myself that patience and discipline win me more money than anything else.

5th didn't pick up a hand and ran A5 into TT

If I'm pushing A5, I'm likely pretty short unless I'm restealing.

3rd ran A7 into limped ATs

Button limped, SB completed, I pushed. Don't ask me why the guy on the button limped ATs. I have zero idea.

7th 99 vs AA on A95 flop, recovered but then pushed KK on A high flop, caller had A

Tilt is always a worry for me. I came all the way back from 20 chips to 650, bet 200 with KK at t50, and this guy calls. When I see the ace, I know I have to checkfold, because the guy will have an ace *every fucking time*. Which he did. AJ yet again. Why does he call a 4BB raise with AJ? I don't pretend to understand the tards. They just think As are so so pretty.

5th 73 on T77 flop, turn J. I push, he rivers gutshot straight

I pick up 73 in the big blind. I played the flop a bit too cutely and checked. Villain also checked, which surprised me because he had a big stack and this was the kind of flop I could count on him to bet. So I pushed the turn and he called. He had a nine but I forget what he had with it. I was hoping for the call because I was pretty sure I would be ahead. I was, but he hit his fourouter.

6th ran AJ into limped AKs, then pushed 98s into 77, no love

So you have a premium hand at t100. What's your play? Well, if you are this donkey, it's limp it and give the blinds the chance to outflop you. In his shoes, I'm looking to play a big pot. I raise and hope that someone with a mid ace will push over me. If all fold, oh well. The bustout hand, I was on the button and pushed with about 5BB. I actually have a coinflip with 77 but I don't win too many races.

2nd short HU and no luck

I don't mind being the shortstack heads up. If someone has a much bigger stack, they usually sucked out to get it, and I fancy my chances to outplay them sufficiently to win. But the odds are against you, and if the other guy keeps getting smacked in the face by the flop, you're just going to lose.

5th kk vs 98, he flopped straight

It's about t100. I raise to, I think, 4BB, because this guy is pretty loose and I want him to put plenty in the pot with whatever shit he calls with. The flop comes 765 with two clubs. I have no club. I don't like it but I push the rest of my stack in. I had about 950 so the raise potcommitted me pretty much. I know that no club draws are ever folding, but I'm hoping he has a bare 9 and calls with the gutty. Sigh.

1st played very nicely and patiently even when quite short

Go me! So I played breakeven poker, which means a loss, because the rake cost me a fiver, roughly. I don't think I did much wrong. The one KK hand, flopping an ace, was bad, but the rest is a mixture of horrible fishy calls from villains who proceeded to suck out on me horribly, and "traps" that were so retarded that I don't think it's feasible to avoid them. You just are going to run AJ into AK sometimes anyway. It can't be helped. If you never did, you'd have an ROI of 90%. But I know that I need to think more deeply about some spots, and I'm clearly missing some concepts, because I play okay but I'm not ultracrushing the game, and I think I'd need to if I hope to translate it to a higher level. Having said that though, I railed a $100 tourney the other day, and I couldn't believe how bad the play was.

Of course, I know a couple of things I need to improve on. First of all, I am a bit too willing to get it in with top pair/overpair. This is a hangover from playing limit, where I'll just about never fold an overpair, and I'll be right not to, and where TPTK is an excellent hand. In no limit though, it's only an excellent hand until a shitload of money goes in. Then it starts looking a bit less than fantastic. Still, the other side of the coin is that the fishtards will quite often get their stack in with top pair against your overpair, and they are loath to fold flush draws, regardless what the odds to continue are. So the thinking I need to do is about when, on what kind of boards and with what action, my pair is good. The other thing is to be more active in tight games. The difficulty is that I'm generally a shorter stack, so I can't steal too many blinds unless I play hands that I'll be willing to get it in with. But I doubt I'm pushing enough with trash, and I need to train myself on that.

There are other things to learn, of course. My instincts are quite good, but they're no substitute for a deep knowledge of ICM. And of course experience helps. You can start to get a feel for what different types of players will call with and what they'll push with. I think that's the bottom line in sngs. Knowing that a guy will raise this range, push this range, limp with this, and so on...

But sometimes it looks like a mountain. And you're pushing 93 up it.