The Hammah challenge...

I play 4 tables of rush, which is a little more than 1000 hands per hour.

Managed to hobble home , slept for 6 hours and woke up feeling better in the head. My knee doesn't feel any better. So I decided to stay home and play follow the donkey short stack style. Won about 10 bucks. And that's after getting a couple of horrible calls losing aq to aj and aa to 10s all in pre. What I like about short stacking is I get a lot more action then I feel I do deep also the decisions are much easier as it's basically all in on flop. Good thing I am very close to another 35 bucks in bonuses again. Should be able to get those by the end of the week. I will still short stack for a while though

Will keep everyone posted on the knee and my progress on the challenge

H

Boy I am just really really stupid. stupid to challenge myself to this challenge.. one with no real end game other than to just keep building my online bankroll and keep moving up.

I made it home from hawaii and my knee was feeling pretty shitty and I was very very down in the dumps. What made it worse was what was happening at the 2c 5c tables. It seemed everytime I was poised to win a big pot I got rivered. If I raised with a big ace the flop would come all small cards. If I called a raise an ace would flop. it was sick. I think last week I tallied in excess of 15k in hands which is a lot for me. at the start of last week I was at $165 and my low was around $110.. I earned another $10 bonus and that helped a lot.

I tried the shortstacking but I thought about what was happening and I realized the game differences between 1c 2c made it that I was raising too much preflop and was giving the ultra aggressive players chances to steal raised pots from me. That meant I had to be a bit more passive and throw in a big pocket everyone once in a while to punish these guys.

Well that little change seems to have worked.. oh and not getting coolered over and over again. I even got super lucky tonight when a player donk bet into me and I shoved only to yet again see he had a set. I turned the bigger set and won my biggest pot in weeks.

I also found some really great bad players and when I see them playing I immediately try to get on their tables.

I am also feeling better about my knee too. The doctor doesnt think there is any permanent damage and I need some rather intensive PT to build my muscles which made me feel better. I also ventured out after we got in so cal half a years worth of rain in one week. yep we get around 15 inches of rain and we got over 8 inches last week. So I celebrated by going to my local casino and won about $700 bucks.

Funny my online play is teaching me a few things about playing live and I am a better player for it. all in all not a bad end to the week. As it stands now I am sitting on $150 plus I have qualified for another $25 bonus. If I can log enough fpps between now and the end of january I can get another $25 bonus. Its not rakeback but I'll take free money any day.

merry xmas everyone.

ps. you can always follow my progress on pokertableratings .. my handle is of course thehammah..

h

So just to give you all an idea of the types of coolers I have been dealing with .. this is a perfect example... this is why i gave up on online poker before.. total bs...


PokerStars Game #54781090087: Hold'em No Limit ($0.02/$0.05 USD) - 2010/12/24 12:07:35 PT [2010/12/24 15:07:35 ET]
Table 'Antilia II' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: chrisdj80 ($5.26 in chips)
Seat 2: thehammah ($4.73 in chips)
Seat 3: Lechistan ($5.27 in chips)
Seat 4: Litvinoff ($16.47 in chips)
Seat 5: ribolov2505 ($7.11 in chips)
Seat 6: 13VINT ($3.83 in chips)
ribolov2505: posts small blind $0.02
13VINT: posts big blind $0.05
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to thehammah [Qc Qd]
chrisdj80: folds
thehammah: raises $0.10 to $0.15
Lechistan: folds
Litvinoff: folds
ribolov2505: raises $0.45 to $0.60
13VINT: calls $0.55
thehammah: raises $4.13 to $4.73 and is all-in
ribolov2505: calls $4.13
13VINT: calls $3.23 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Qh Ad Kc]
*** TURN *** [Qh Ad Kc] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Qh Ad Kc 3h] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ribolov2505: shows [Ks As] (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
thehammah: shows [Qc Qd] (a full house, Queens full of Aces)
ribolov2505 collected $1.71 from side pot
13VINT: shows [Kh Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Kings)
ribolov2505 collected $5.46 from main pot
13VINT collected $5.46 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $13.29 Main pot $10.92. Side pot $1.71. | Rake $0.66
Board [Qh Ad Kc 3h Ah]
Seat 1: chrisdj80 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: thehammah showed [Qc Qd] and lost with a full house, Queens full of Aces
Seat 3: Lechistan folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Litvinoff (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: ribolov2505 (small blind) showed [Ks As] and won ($7.17) with a full house, Aces full of Kings
Seat 6: 13VINT (big blind) showed [Kh Ac] and won ($5.46) with a full house, Aces full of Kings


60% equity preflop.. 90% equity on the flop and of course 1 of the only 2 outs came on river. for a huge $13 pot..

h

I am thinking of quitting the challenge... I am currently around $150 and had some horrible beats the last time I played and you know.. I just hate playing online poker...

I got into poker because I couldnt do sports anymore because of my knee... The idea was that it was a great way to be social that didnt involve standing or exercise... I still like playing live at my local or vegas casinos for these reasons. For online poker its the exact opposite. Holed up in the house talking to no one getting slapped around by bad players and not being able to get past the flood of bad beats hitting me at hyper spead because of my 3 tabling..

So I decided to take a 7 day break to see how I feel. In the mean-time had an MRI that shows I have now torn a nice chunk of cartilage underneath my knee cap and will probably have problems forever or until I get a knee replacement. In other words my surgery last year has done nothing and now I have a worse problem. My knee swelled up even walking around Costco yesterday for 20 minutes. So I am back to where I was over a year ago physically but emotionally I am much worse off.

I just cant take the bad beats coming at me that fast.. When I play live at least when I have three coolers a night for $3000k in pots its over 10 hours so I can process it. Online they can come in 1 minute. I just dont think I have the make up to grind anymore.

I mean what do I have to prove? I really dont want to be the invalid who just sits around for the rest of my life playing 2c 5c. Thats no life and I think I would rather just not live at all if thats what life has to offer..

So your thoughts? I generally dont think of myself as a quitter but if I am not happy then why am I doing it?

h

I don't think you're a quitter, either, but in this case, it's a no-brainer. Quit.

Playing 2c-5c online would be like torture, especially if you're playing against a bunch of kooky boys who never saw a 7-2 offsuit they didn't love.

As for your knees, I know it sucks. About 15 years ago, I tore a lateral miniscus playing beach volleyball. Had it scoped and the doc told me I'd be looking at 6 to 8 weeks of recovery time. In truth, it took about a year before I could walk without pain. Now I'm fine, but my tear likely wasn't as bad as yours. Was yours an ACL tear?

Joe Namath had his knees operated on like 6 or 7 times, but kept delaying having them replaced. When he finally did replace them, he said it was the best thing he ever did. YMMV.

I don't like or trust most surgeons. They have a service to sell and they often minimize the recovery time while overstating the benefits of the surgery. They're basically salesmen with a scalpel.

Anyway, quit playing online and play more live. Becoming an online recluse would be terrible.

My problem is with what is called Hyline cartilage or the piece directly on the joint surface. Without it you have no ability to withstand weight or any kind of rubbing. There is no fix other than the transplant operation I had or having a knee replacement.

Considering my knee if so bad and basically worse than it was before the surgery I am probabably going to need a knee replacement sooner than later.. I am not a happy camper.. I was hoping to get back some assemblance of my active lifestyle but that wont be the case for a very long time. I need to see how my stregthening goes and if that doesnt work then plan for the knee replacement at some point.

In the mean-time I really cant do much cept sit ..

h

So I took a week off and thought about what I wanted to do. And I decided to keep playing but go back to my "roots" as it was.. When I played the 1c 2c I played rather tight but hyper aggressive . I also would sit at tables where the vpip was highest as I wanted more dead money in pots.. I will also only play 2 tables at a time and for only short sessions. I think this is the best way for me to manage the emotional factors for this..

I also tried the 20-50bbs 5c 10c tables and wow what a difference. Maybe I am running better I dont know but there sure seems to be worse players at those tables. I can only guess that it has to do with the nature of the stack sizes and more "action" players like the shorter stacks.. cept they arent short enough to shove with J8 os..

I may just kiss 2c 5c goodbye in the rear view mirror .. for sure!

h

I am officially stopping the challenge. problem is I cant cash out for less than $500 so I am going to just play until its all gone. I hate playing online and am not enjoying myself. If someone wants some money on stars I will trade for paypal etc...Just PM me..

h

I always have more fun playing tournaments, maybe try that and focus more on the fun that the "work." It's also a good way to gamble away the money. It's probably a EV neutral way of dealing with the money too.