I admit I don’t play every hand I get dealt perfectly. While that is not a shocking statement, I will tell you that I do try and play each hand to the best of my ability. So here is a recent hand I played that I would like some feedback on. Most well thought out analysis wins a prize. You can choose either a one year subscribption to Pokerfox.net or two hours of coaching lessons with yours truly.

I will not reveal what actions I took or the results of the hand just some background information for the setup.

Full Tilt $30 Rebuy 14k GNTD
It is the second hr of the tournament, I am chip leader at my table and top 20 overall. 199 players entered the event and approx 120 are left with top 18 spots getting paid. Villain has played pretty straightforward overall and accumulated most of his chips with a set of JJs in the rebuy hr. He just won a 1500 chip pot 2 hands prior to this one and we have not played any pots together post rebuy hr. I only showed down premiums during the rebuy hour getting paid each time with AA, AA, AK, and TT.

Seat 1: THE GODFATHER (6,525)
Seat 2: Francix (9,590)
Seat 3: RAWilson (9,750)
Seat 4: PearlJammed (4,770)
Seat 5: Simbaku (3,460)
Seat 6: AKALEFTY (9,225)
Seat 7: mscell (14,280)
Seat 8: schwags33 (10,620)
Seat 9: Nut Insider (13,280)
RAWilson posts the small blind of 100
PearlJammed posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mscell [Kc Ks]
Simbaku folds
AKALEFTY folds
mscell raises to 600
schwags33 folds
Nut Insider folds
THE GODFATHER folds
Francix calls 600
RAWilson folds
PearlJammed folds
*** FLOP *** [3s 5d 7s]
mscell bets 1,100
Francix raises to 3,200
mscell ?

So here is where I want all of your analysis including what you would do and your rationale based on all the information I have provided. Include information about opponent’s range of hands, etc. Be as specific as possible. Please post your response as a comment to this post directly on the blog. Emails and PM’s will not qualify for the contest.

Good luck!

When I begin a poker session, I try to get everything in order before I begin playing. Drinks, snacks, music, etc. Since I am a tournament player, I don’t usually plan on having short sessions. My goal is to usually have a 5-6 hr session which means I’m getting to a FT and hopefully winning a tournament. Since I have been playing a while now, I have a pretty good routine for getting ready. It includes going to the gym each morning and eating a good lunch before I start the afternoon tournaments.

One thing I don’t always pay as much attention to as I should is my emotional state of mind. I have learned not to play when I am tired or aggititated but what about when my emotional state of mind is less obvious? Last week, I thought I was playing amazing poker but had nothing to show for it after my afternoon session. Rather than keep on playing with no regard to my emotional state, I called a good friend before signing up for the nightly tournaments. I did not even discuss or ask this person about poker, we simply had a normal everyday conversation. I then asked me friend if I seemed upset, annoyed or angry. He said “No. Actually you sound pretty upbeat.” I thanked him for his time and then enrolled in my nightly set of games and managed a few cashes and a win. I wasn’t sure if I was tilting or in a bad mood because we cannot always judge our own emotional state. So I phoned a friend before I spent anymore money at the tables.

This week I had a pretty strange day on Wednesday. I had taken Tuesday night off to spend time with my children and felt fresh and ready to go. But I had a bunch of things going on outside of poker that were not very fun. I didn’t think much of it until after a long cashless day at the tables, I realized that I didn’t have any fun at all playing that day. My emotions were getting the best of me. I was playing solid poker but I didn’t have that extra edge that I normally do and it showed in my results. Unfortunately I didn’t phone a friend this time until my afternoon and nightly sessions were over. Checking in with someone earlier in the day would probably have saved me some money.

So before you sit down to play, ask yourself if you are ready to play your A+ game for the whole session. Get yourself physically ready and then determine if your emotionally ready to play. If you can’t tell( and most of us usually can’t), phone a friend and let them be the judge.

- Mark

PS I would also recommend picking up “Your Worst Poker Enemy: Mastering the Mental Game” by Alan Schoonmaker. I am halfway through the book and it has given me a good perspective on the emotional side of the game.

Don’t give up too easily; persistence pays off in the end”

Most of us have probably heard this saying once or twice before. Well at least the first part of it anyway. I think this sentence describes my journey in poker. I have tried different sites and different types of games over the years. I am always looking for new ways to keep the game interesting and trying to find other ways to make money.

In October of 2006, I quit playing on Pokerstars. That site was so rigged against me that I could not handle it. I withdrew most of my money and moved over to Full Tilt. I played almost exclusively on Full Tilt for the next month. I managed three cashes and one win in a small $10 MTT. I played a few tournaments on Pokerstars with the peanuts I had left in my account but that was it. My account was now empty and I wasn’t going back to that site. I swear the deck of cards on Pokerstars must have like six aces in it when you have pocket QQs or KKs but only 1 when you have AK and are all in preflop. Nope, I had found my new online home and I was going to “learn, chat and play with the pros” from now on!

Then a funny thing happened – one of my students asked me to help him out with a tourney on Stars and so I did. He had a nice run that night and he paid me for the coaching with a cash transfer on Pokerstars. After helping him that night, I was craving to play in one of the Stars rebuy tournaments. So the next night I used the money he sent me to play the $10r on Stars. I don’t remember much about that tournament but my records tell me I finished in 6th place. That paid over $1k and I now had a small Stars BR again.

What I gained even more that night though was confidence. On those 2 back to back nights, one coaching and one playing, I was able to overcome my frustration with Pokerstars and play my best game. Don’t get me wrong, I was not a tin foil hat wearing conspriacy theorist – just a frustrated poker player. And maybe not as good a player as I thought I should be. But my time away had allowed my wounds to heal. And my game had improved as I had to learn how to play on a new site with new players. My focus had returned.

Since then I have done pretty well for myself at Pokerstars and basically stopped playing anywhere else because I didn’t want to mess with a good thing.

Then the other day I get home to see one of my friends is deep in an MTT on Full Tilt. She ends up with an even chop after getting HU. And I decided it was time to give Full Tilt a try again. My first night back I’m CL in two MTTs at the same time and I’m crusing along. One bad call and one bad play cost me one tournament. But I was still killing it in the other. Lost a race for half my chips but I’m still fine. Super aggressive donkey at my table will dbl me up on the bubble if I can just get a hand. Oh hi der AA!

UTG raises – I flat call knowing the aggro donk will move all in behind me. he shoves, UTG folds, I instacall obv. He tables T5o – flop comes T5x – turn and river brick out and I’m done. But I know I played pretty well so I jump right back in the next night. 30 hours after re-entering the Full Tilt universe – I take down the $14K GNTD $30Rebuy MTT.

So the moral of this very long, well disguised brag post is this: Keep learning from your mistakes, keep trying, keep working, and don’t give up. And it doesn’t hurt to have someone transfer you lucky money! (If you believe in that sort of thing…..)