I got "Rampaged"... and won $300 in 15 minutes

So If playing poker everyday for the last 6 months has tought me anything, it's this:

I cannot win tournaments on the weekends.

Just for fun, I went back through PokerTracker and broke my stats down by day of the week since November. This was hillarious:

Mon - Friday: + $3,720.72
Sat & Sun: - $910.12

So I decided to tempt fate this weekend when I logged on Saturday morning and said to the computer screeen, "Not this weekend, donkeys!! I will prevail!"

... I proceeded to finish out of the money in all 4 of my first buy-ins.

So, frustrated, I shut down PP and pulled out my homework. The mother-in-law was downstairs with the baby and I had the whole morning to myself, so I might as well be productive and get some work done...

That lasted about 15 minutes. I re-opened PP and signed back on after I got bored being productive.

I was done with tournaments so I decided to sweat the high-limit game. I opened the $2000 NL game and watched people raise $400 pre-flop just to steal the blinds. I got bored pretty quickly as there was very little post-flop play.

I went over to the limit section and started watching the 100/200 game. I watched as people went down to the showdown with hands like 10-6s and pocket 4s with 3 overs on the board. I thought to myself how easy this game would be for a tight-agressive player like myself...

Just one problem though... uh the bankroll needed to sit in a 100/200 game? Sklansky says that the minimum bankroll requirements are 300 x the BB of the limit you're playing. So lets see... that would mean I would only have to have a bankroll of $30,000.

I've got $600 in my PP account and $700 in my B & M bankroll...

So I headed over to the 5/10 table. I thought, how much different could this level be? I mean, there are donkeys at every level, right? I thought back to a comment RiverRat made to me a few months back... "The 8/16 guys are just as bad as the 4/8 guys... they just have bigger bankrolls."

I searched for an open 5/10 table and picked the one that had the largest average pot. This is usually a good sign of donkeys waiting to lose all their money. I noticed that most of the 5/10 tables were averaging between $35 - $40 a pot. This one table was averaging almost $100 per pot. Hmmmm... worth checking out.

I opened up the table and watched a few hands. I noticed this guy in the #6 seat was limping into every pot and playing uber agressive after the flop. He would bet out in early posistion and raise every hand in late position. The other guys were just letting him bully them. I watched this for about 5 minutes and decided I was going to take a seat.

I bought in for $200 and took a seat directly to the right of the maniac (named sistrluk). I planned on just waiting until a seat to the maniac's left opened up, but after just a few minutes, I quickly realized it didn't matter where I sat...

#Game No : 3492158949
***** Hand History for Game 3492158949 *****
$5/$10 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, February 04, 11:45:57 EDT 2006
Table Table 66065 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: Ikerath ( $135 )
Seat 2: walleyesrok ( $212 )
Seat 3: ALLIE24111 ( $87 )
Seat 4: kenrof777 ( $412 )
Seat 6: sistrluk ( $140.50 )
Seat 5: NoBlackAces ( $173 )
walleyesrok posts small blind [$2].
ALLIE24111 posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ 9d 9c ]
kenrof777 folds.
NoBlackAces raises [$10].
sistrluk calls [$10].
Ikerath folds.
walleyesrok folds.
ALLIE24111 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 2s, 6s ]
NoBlackAces bets [$5].
sistrluk raises [$10].
NoBlackAces raises [$10].
sistrluk calls [$5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7s ]
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 8s ]
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
sistrluk shows [ 8c, 6c ] two pairs, eights and sixes.
NoBlackAces shows [ 9d, 9c ] a straight, six to ten.
NoBlackAces wins $174 from the main pot with a straight, six to ten.

Even though he raised me on every street, I knew I had the guy beat the whole way... when that 3rd spade came on the turn, it didn't slow me down one bit. When that river spade came I almost shit myself when he re-reraised me but I figured if he had a spade, I could pay another $10 to see it. When he flipped over two pair I literally laughed out loud.

I had been at the table for all of 4 hands and was already up almost $100.

A few minutes later:

#Game No : 3492198596
***** Hand History for Game 3492198596 *****
$5/$10 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, February 04, 11:01:45 EDT 2006
Table Table 66065 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6
Seat 1: Ikerath ( $365 )
Seat 2: walleyesrok ( $177 )
Seat 3: ALLIE24111 ( $116 )
Seat 4: kenrof777 ( $353.50 )
Seat 6: sistrluk ( $183 )
Seat 5: NoBlackAces ( $237 )
ALLIE24111 posts small blind [$2].
kenrof777 posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ Ah Th ]
NoBlackAces raises [$10].
sistrluk calls [$10].
Ikerath folds.
walleyesrok folds.
ALLIE24111 folds.
kenrof777 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, Td, 7s ]
NoBlackAces bets [$5].
sistrluk raises [$10].
NoBlackAces raises [$10].
sistrluk raises [$10].
NoBlackAces calls [$5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
sistrluk raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
sistrluk shows [ Js, Ts ] two pairs, tens and nines.
NoBlackAces shows [ Ah, Th ] two pairs, tens and nines.
NoBlackAces wins $184 from the main pot with two pairs, tens and nines with ace kicker.

Again, I bet into this maniac on every street, and in turn, raised and re-raised me every time. I had seen him play like this for the last 20 minutes and I was certain I had him. How often do you see someone take down a pot for 18 x the big bet with only top pair when it gets heads-up preflop!?

The guy busted a few minutes later and never rebought. I spent about 10 more minutes on the table chatting with the other players:

Ikerath: rebuy sis
NoBlackAces: can you beleive that guy?
ALLIE24111: he sat down with $50 and just started betting like crazy with trash flops
ALLIE24111: he was up a couple hundred quick cause nobody could keep up with him
Ikerath: i guess his luck ran out when you got here aces
NoBlackAces: lol... my lucky night i guess


Up over $200 in just over 20 minutes, I was satisfied enough to go back to my homework.

A few hours later, I got the itch again and remembering RiverRat's wise observation, I thought to myself, "if they play like this at the 5/10 limit, I bet they play like this at the 10/20 limit!"

I logged back on and looked for a 10/20 game. Again, I wanted to sit at a 6 handed table with higher average pot sizes than the other tables. I found one that i liked and took a seat. I bought in for only $300 as I wanted to get a sample of the play at this level. This is the very first hand I played:

#Game No : 3493741356
***** Hand History for Game 3493741356 *****
$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, February 04, 13:58:53 EDT 2006
Table Table 64718 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6 Seat
1: RainingD ( $554.57 )
Seat 2: OnTwo ( $165.88 )
Seat 4: matchuman ( $328.17 )
Seat 5: netlemming ( $303 )
Seat 6: yuma23 ( $500 )
Seat 3: NoBlackAces ( $300 )
OnTwo posts small blind [$5].
NoBlackAces posts big blind [$10].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ Ts 9c ]
matchuman folds.netlemming folds.
yuma23 folds.RainingD folds.
OnTwo raises [$15].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, 8c, 7s ]
OnTwo bets [$10].
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
OnTwo calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4d ]
OnTwo checks.NoBlackAces bets [$20].
OnTwo calls [$20].
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
OnTwo checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
OnTwo folds.
NoBlackAces does not show cards.
NoBlackAces wins $137

Okay, so I turned the nut straight no my first hand out of the BB... I know that had more to do with luck than anything. But I had gotten my first hand out of the way and picked up a $137 pot without showing. This could be good...

#Game No : 3493751949
***** Hand History for Game 3493751949 *****
$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, February 04, 14:01:08 EDT 2006
Table Table 64718 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6
Seat 1: RainingD ( $428.69 )
Seat 2: OnTwo ( $123.76 )
Seat 4: matchuman ( $435.17 )
Seat 5: netlemming ( $288 )
Seat 6: yuma23 ( $514 )
Seat 3: NoBlackAces ( $352 )
yuma23 posts small blind [$5].
RainingD posts big blind [$10].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ Kh Jh ]
OnTwo folds.
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
matchuman folds.
netlemming folds.
yuma23 folds.RainingD calls [$10].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, Js, Jd ]
RainingD checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
RainingD calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4c ]
RainingD checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
RainingD calls [$20].
** Dealing River ** [ Ts ]
RainingD bets [$20].
NoBlackAces raises [$40].
RainingD raises [$40].
NoBlackAces raises [$40].
RainingD calls [$20].
NoBlackAces shows [ Kh, Jh ] a full house, Jacks full of tens.
RainingD doesn't show [ Qh, 8s ] two pairs, jacks and tens.
NoBlackAces wins $262 from the main pot with a full house, Jacks full of tens.

He called me all the way down with a gutshot draw and then on the river tried to pick it up with Q high. I knew at this point, it was going to be easy to win at this level.

At work that night I was surfing the rec.gambling.poker newsgroup and noticed about 20 posts about this new strategy "rampaging". I tracked it back to a post on this site.

Apparently this idiot FellKnight has convinced a lot of people to try this stupid strategy. I guess that guy sistrluk on the first table thought he would try it at the 5/10 limit level instead of the micro NL level that Fell suggests.

So anyways, on Sunday I thought I would try to break the curse and played 5 tourneys before the Super Bowl started. I cashed in only 2... 1 second place and 1 third place. Again, I found myself down for the weekend in tournament play.

So back to the 10/20 game!

#Game No : 3502357644
***** Hand History for Game 3502357644 *****
$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 05, 21:44:47 EDT 2006
Table Table 65271 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the buttonTotal number of players : 6
Seat 1: jaggm ( $1071.25 )
Seat 2: Lestat__ ( $357 )
Seat 3: GoldenGus ( $1002 )
Seat 5: tgililland ( $192 )
Seat 6: ImOldHickory ( $955.50 )
Seat 4: NoBlackAces ( $285 )
ImOldHickory posts small blind [$5].
jaggm posts big blind [$10].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ Ah As ]
Lestat__ raises [$20].
GoldenGus folds.
NoBlackAces raises [$30].
tgililland folds.
ImOldHickory folds.
jaggm calls [$20].
Lestat__ raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
jaggm calls [$10].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, Qs, 6h ]
jaggm checks.Lestat__ bets [$10].
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
jaggm calls [$20].
Lestat__ calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
jaggm checks.Lestat__ checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
jaggm calls [$20].
Lestat__ folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
jaggm checks.
NoBlackAces checks.
jaggm shows [ 7c, 8h ] two pairs, nines and eights.
NoBlackAces shows [ Ah, As ] two pairs, aces and nines.
NoBlackAces wins $222 from the main pot with two pairs, aces and nines.

I got scared on the river when the board paired 9s and pussed out on a value bet. I know I could have made anotgher $20 there, but all I could think about was how this guy just sucked out on me.

8 hours of playing tournaments = - $115
1 hour of playing ring games = + $572

It's going to be really hard to go back to those measily $20 SNGs...