Tales of an Poker Grinder

So today I played in a tourney with 533 players playing pot limit hold'em 6 seated. I was playing well early on but lost a big hand right up to where we were about to get into the money. So I decided just to sit back play tight with only coming into the pot with good hands and make the money. I make in the money of course, now I want to move up or bust out of course. But the problem starts, my mouse will not let me drag to raise, so I'm stuck playing limit poker in pot limit which is not good at all of course. Some how playing with no ability to raise more than the blind I make it all the way to 7th place, one spot off of making the final table.

I've been playing good poker these last couple weeks. Online I've been doing well in large tournaments on PokerStars, finishing in the money in sit'n'go's on UltimateBet, and last week during my poker tourney's at home while we watched the WSOP Main Event pay-per view I took 3rd place in all 3 games we played.

I just plan to keep playing patient aggressive poker and continue to build my bankrolls up. I need to get on Fulltilt and play and double my bankroll there. I have the least amount of money there and haven't had great luck there at all. It's really the only site I seem to lose money at. I really want to change that. It seems when I get up there I lose it all back and then some. I'm going to just play sit'n'go's there for a while instead of playing the 180 man tourney's there and see how I do.

The last couple of weeks I've been playing some good poker, making the right bets, laying down hands knowing I'm beat. I've cashed in the money in 5 large online field tournaments. And I won my last Thursday night poker game hands down. In a field of 1500 I made it to 17th, twice I've made it into the top 150 players with the field being over 2500 players, and made it to the last 2 tables in the stud high/low game with a field over 500 players. Stud is not my game but I like to play HORSE so I will play Stud and Omha tourney's once and a while for practice. I do well at Razz tourney's and will play those more often than the stud and Omha games because I usually always place in the money in Razz.
I've been playing really focused poker and playing more aggressive. I would say smart aggressive. Really playing position poker and letting hands go if I know I'm beat. The biggest mistake I see right now is players can't let that ace go, especially big ace after the flop. I don't understand why players will call off all there chips with big slick or worse ace five. I won a hnad with pocket two's recently because I knew the player had big slick. He bet all the way to the river with big slick. Sometimes after the turn you have to say I'm beat, especially against a solid player. Every large field online tournament I play in half the field is gone in the first hour, it never fails. The first hour in a tourament you should really play solid hands, wait for loose players to make mistakes and grab theri chips. If you get knocked out because of some donkey suck-out, let it go, that's poker. You want the donkey's in the game, they bring money into the game and most of the time they lose. Yes they may win a game here or there but 98% of the time they are losing. Play solid poker and win! When the donkey beats you say good game, remember what he did so you get him next time.

Well it's been some time since I've posted. So far I have had a very busy summer. When you are father of 5 you can get busy. To be honest I don't think things will slow down for me until the end of fall. I'm trying to have my Thursday night games this month after almost skipping all of June. Soon I start coaching football and I will be really busy. I will be a head coach after years of being an assistant head coach. I'm pretty exciting running my own offense, I've always been the defensive coach, so no worries there, my team will shut down teams like before. If you loved the 85 Bears defensive that is what I run, attacking at all times and you never know where that extra guy is coming from. It's very hard for parks to stop, unless you practice against it.
As for poker, I haven't played that much. I think 3 home games in the last 2 months. As for online, I haven't had much time other than to play a sit'n'go here and there. On Bodog I've been averaging 2nd place everytime I sit at the table. I think maybe 2 times out of maybe 15 tourney's I haven't finished in the money. But on any other site I play on I haven't finished in the money at any of them. Bad beat after bad beat, I kid you not. I always have had the best hand preflop and post flop only for some crazy to call me to the river and hit their magic card or they go all-in after the flop on some crazy draw and they hit, especially on Full Tilt. I know that's just part of the game but it's frustrating when you run into that guy willing to gamble all his chips away and they get lucky. That's poker.
As for my quest of 10k on each of the five sites I play on it's going to be a while before I get back on the poker run since I'm so busy. That's another reason why I'm trying to not just play Bodog, even though I've been doing very well there I want to keep my accounts balanced. Right now I have the most money on Poker Stars, second is UB, 3rd is now Bodog, then Absolute, and last Fulltilt which everytime I win money in a big tourney 180+ players, I lose it all playing sit-n-go's there. Maybe I just play 180+ player tourneys there and forget the sit-n-go's.