SNG Challenge Update 1

My first weekend of play in the Challenge I played 42 tournaments. Here are my relevant stats:

Amount won: $128
ROI%: 27.71%
1st Place: 5
2nd Place: 6
3rd Place: 8
Finish in the Money: 45%

The level of play is much worse than the $55's. There are usually 2 players out by the end of the first 2 levels. That almost never happens at the higher levels. Plus you tend to see much bigger bluffs in the $11's.

Here were some interesting hands:
4 handed, blinds 75-150
I'm BB with 3720
SB is Stu1971 with 1265
Button is 575
UTG is 2215

Obviously the correct play is to play tight here since the button is due to go broke soon. UTG and the button fold and the small blind completes. I have 7-3 offsuit.

The flop is 4d 4h 3s. He checks and I bet 300 which is the amount of the pot. The SB then check raises me all in with a bet of 1190. This seems weird. He could have a 4 but it just doesn't seem very likely. If he did, he would probably just call and slow play it. He could have Ace-3, but I think he would have went all in preflop.

I decide to call because I can afford the chips and it smells like a bluff. He turns over Ad Kd and hits runner runner flush to beat me. OK, bad beat, but I made a good call. Naturally I begin to look for revenge.

Later in the same tournament, it's down to heads up between me and stu1971. He had a big chip lead at the start but I have almost pulled even. He has been playing very conservative and I have been abusing his blinds. I have 3705 and he has 4295. The blinds are 200-400. I have the small blind and the button and I finally get dealt Pocket Aces.

My first instinct was to slow play it. Then I thought that he's probably getting tired of being bullied and maybe he's ready to defend his blind. So I raise to 1200. He falls for the bait and raises all in at 3800. I call quicker than Hugh Grant says yes to a hooker.

He turns over Kd Qc. So he was justified in pushing back. The flop is Kh Ks Th.

He goes on to turn a full house and I am out. I guess this one wasn't meant to be.

The other thing that hampered my returns was the fact that I went on a 7 tournament streak of not cashing. Of course that happened right after I had cashed in 7 straight and got all cocky.

I probably will not get to play the next couple of days because I am going to the casino tonight and playing in a charity poker tournament tomorrow.

This might be tougher than I thought.

SNG Challenge

I've read posts before with these challenges and they have always seemed like fun except, I have a real job and can't play more than 15 hours a week.

So I am going to give myself a smaller one and see if I can get some others to join me.

My goal is to take $200 and play the $11 Sits at Party Poker. I will turn the $200 into $1000 by November 15th. I think I can do it in under 230 tournaments.

I will post this on 2+2 and see if I can get anyone to follow along. Hopefully this will add to the bankroll a little bit as well.

Clarification of Large Tourney Strategy

Just read a decent article on large field tournament strategy. http://www.pocketfives.com/ACA97406-83C6-45EC-B775-5AA30E8EEAE5.aspx

The punctuation is crappy, but I think he makes a lot of sense. Here are the basics:

Early stage: Your goal is to see the flop cheaply and out flop your opponents. You are basically looking for two pair or better and trying to trap your opponents. Bluffs at abandoned pots are ok only if they are done very cheaply.

Middle stage: Play tight solid poker. Raise big cards preflop and if you hit top pair and good kicker, bet big. If you miss, do not bluff. It costs too much money if you are called.

Late stage: Blinds are big and you should be happy just winning them. You want to win all of your hands preflop. Steal in the right spots with good cards. Other players will start getting desperate and it will be easy to chip up quickly if you are picking on the right players.

I have played in these modes at different times in tournaments, but I don't think it was ever quite in that order. This is definitely something I will have to experiment with.

As for my bad run, I have avoided playing poker the last 2 days. On Monday I played 1 $55 sit at Party. My idea was to record every hand and submit it to 2+2 for evaluation. The problem was, it took too long to record my hands and I don't think there is a good way to summarize everything so someone would take the time to read it.

I think the only way to do it is copy my tournament summary into a post with a link to the party poker hand replayer. Then you can just sit back and watch the tournament play out. It may take too long for someone to watch the entire thing, so maybe I could edit out the hands I don't play except for hands where I see someone do something stupid to give my critics some background on my opponents.

The funny thing was, I did not play a hand for the first 3 rounds. I got short stacked and went into all in mode and I was not called the first 5 or 6 times I did it. Then in the middle of writing down the previous hand I was dealt 88. There was a small raise in front of me so the play was all in or fold. I wasn't quite sure that my reraise would be enough to get him to fold. While I am thinking about it, Party Poker timed me out. It did not even go into my timebank!. After it folded me, two other players called and it turned out that the original raiser had 99 and one of the callers had over cards. I would have lost the hand.

The very next hand I was dealt AK and went to bet. Unfortunately it folded me, because I forgot to hit the "I am Back" button. Dammit. I pretty much stopped writing everything down after that.

Somehow I managed to make it in the money by continuing to move all in and winning blinds. I made it to the final two and I was down in chips 2-1. We traded blinds back and forth and then he raised 2x the blind from the button. That seemed weak, so I moved all in with 98 suited. He turned over a pair of tens. I should have remembered from earlier that he raised 2x the blind with a good hand when it was 3 or 4 handed. I should have taken my time. Anyway, the $150 came in handy.

Losing Sucks!

I absolutely hate reading posts from players that complain about a 200 or 300 BB losing streak and wonder what they should do about it. I am not going to write one of those posts.

I will say that I dropped $1500 over the last few days. I was playing 4 tables at a time in 3-6 on the bad beat jackpot tables at Party Poker and the $55 sit and gos. The jackpot was up over $650,000 so I thought it was a smart play to give myself a chance at it.

Was I unlucky? Yes. Could I have played better? Yes.

Now I am forcing myself to move back down to the $33 sits and 2-4 in limit. I am going to limit myself to two tables at a time as well. I also want to play more Omaha 8OB if I can find decent games. There is quite a mental challenge involved in this. There is a strong urge to make my money back as quickly as I lost it. I know that moving down will delay the accomplishment of that goal. However, it should also prevent me from losing any more money.

My main short term goal is to have a fat bankroll for my Wedding in Vegas in December. Since I know there will be at least one or two sessions of black jack or craps, I am going to need some money that, "I can afford to lose."

I think one of the issues I encountered with the 3-6 games over the weekend was game selection. When I could get Poker Tracker to work with Game Time, I seemed to find 2-4 other players at the table that looked pretty good. I didn't have the discipline or the tools to find other softer tables. No matter how many fixes I try, I cannot get Poker Tracker to work in real time. It always freezes up on me after about 45 minutes.

As for Omaha, I think I have finally settled on a preflop strategy. I will only play A2XX or A3XX hands along with 23XX hands if the other two cards give me good cards for a high. I will also play 4 cards over a 9 if there are a lot of players already in the pot. This alone should give me enough of an advantage to make up for lack of skill post flop. I have noticed that players will play absolute crap online. I still need to get better at figuring out when I am drawing to a nut straight, but I am improving. It's a shame that there are hardly any limit tables available in this game, even on Party Poker.

The Best Non Winning Session Ever?

They say that in poker you should concentrate on making the best decision possible in every hand. Money won or lost is outcome based thinking. If you make the correct play, you will win in the long run.

Last night was one of those sessions. I went to the Casino AZ for the Monday Night Football specials. I sat down at the usual loose passibe 4-8 table determined to play tight solid poker. As I said last time, I think I have been trying to mix up things too much in play in the erroneous assumption that my opponents are paying attention. This time I would play tight and solid until they make a move that tells me they are noticing what I am doing.

I did really well in sticking with that strategy. I was patient and even keeled for the 4 hours I was there. I was going to show a profit for the night until I lost the last hand.

I was in middle position with the 5-7 of diamonds. This is not a text book call, but there had been very little preflop raising and at least 5 players seeing every flop so I thought it was a good idea. The flop was 8x-9x-Kd. The small blind bets and there are two more callers before it gets to me. I have an inside straight draw and back door flush draw. I'm getting 8-1 probably 10-1 when the rest of the players call so I am actually getting the correct odds so I call. Using Phil Gordon's 2-4 rule I have 4 6's and give me one out for the back door flush, so 5 outs total. 5 times 4 = 20% chance to win. 5 big bets to the turn.

Everyone calls and the turn is the 10 of diamonds. The small blind checks and everyone checks to the button who bets. The small blind check raises. Two players fold and it's to me. First I try to calculate my pot odds. 8 big bets in pot with one player behind me to act. I have the open end straight draw but the low end for 8 outs. I now have a low flush draw which would be 9-2 = 7 outs. So 15 outs. 15 x 2 = 30% so my odds are ok to call the raise. The button calls with a puzzled look on his face.

The river was a diamond. The small blind bets, and I raise. The button calls and the small blind calls. The button had the 8-9 of diamonds for a bigger flush. He had two pair on the flop. The small blind had top pair and a busted straight draw.

Man I really wanted that pot. But that is the way it went most of the night. I ended the night down $7 and I lost 3 decent pots where I was rivered on the end by someone who played bad cards preflop. I made a couple of really good folds to save myself some money.

On an unrelated topic. I think I am going to by Eastbay's Sit-n-Go power tools to help with my game. It looks like an integrated EV solution for figuring out when to push all in. I still think my biggest weakness is heads up, but maybe if I accumulate more chips in the bubble and in the money stage, I will be able to compensate for it.

Can I play any worse?

Went to the Gila River for the first time in months. I played in one of the softest 4-8 games ever and lost $175.

The first hour was spent folding bad cards. I knew I wasn't going to play well because I was having trouble following the action when I was out of the hand. A good player pays attention and trys to play along with the others in the game. Time and again I was missing possible flushes and straights on the board. Of course it didn't help that most of the players were playing any two cards so hand reading was becoming exceedingly difficult.

I dug for another $100 and went on a rush. My best hand was 4 sevens on the flop. I was in late position and I just called after a couple of bets in front of me. On the turn, a flush draw came up. Unfortunately nobody bet and it was checked to me. I decided to check and see if someone could hit a card. This was a horrible decision. When playing with a bunch of calling stations, make the bet.

The river made 4 of the same suit on the river. There was a bet and a raise in front of me. There was still 2 players left to act, plus the original better. I asked for time, so I could think about reraising or going for the over call. I decided to just call and hope others would come along. Unfortunately, everyone else folded.

So I won a big pot, but I probably left 5 bets out there.

Since I was obviously the tightest player at the table, occasionally I would try to make a bluff or a hyperaggressive move to sustain my action on my good hands. The problem was I didn't get much show down value because I would be forced to fold before the river or the table was not paying attention. I think the better strategy in that situation is to just play tight, solid poker. If I get a couple hands in a row where players start to fold to my bets, then it's time to open up. After all there was a very good chance that in this game it would not matter since nobody was paying much attention.

Eventually things started to go haywire. I did not hit a single draw all night. There was a fat guy in the 8 seat that just seemed to have my number. Every time I had top pair, he had two pair. If I had 3 of a kind, he had a straight or flush.

In addition it was smoky and incredibly noisy due to the band in the bar. Eventually it was all giving me a headache.

The only positive is that I had the discipline to finally get up from the table and leave when I knew I was not playing my best.

Friendly Pot Limit and SNG Strategy

Last weekend I went to Rob's house to watch the ASU vs USC football game and play some poker.

We played 1-2 blinds and pot limit raises. I played with Jon, Rob, Carlo, Ryan, and Ken.
I am becoming more and more convinced that pot limit and no limit cash games are not my best game. It is so much more of an art of reading people as weak or strong and being willing to put all your chips in the middle. In limit poker, I can only make small mistakes and I take great pleasure in making one or two extra bets. Plus reads are much less important since the math basically dictates your decision on the turn and river.

We all started with $40 to $60 and Jon went on a heater right away. He is great at playing with his friends. He talks all the time and really mixes up his chatter well. So far, I can never tell when he's telling the truth. With some well timed bluffs and some good cards, Jon made $180 in less than 2 hours.

I lost $45 and only won one pot. I gave two pots away. Once I had Ace King offsuit in the small blind. Carlo and Ken folded then Ryan raised to $4. Rob folded, but as he did, he turned over a King. Jon then reraised to $10. If Rob doesn't turn over the King, I probably call. As it was, Ryan is pretty tight when it comes to preflop raises. Jon usually doesn't reraise so I thought he must have a pretty good hand as well. Thinking that one King was dead for sure and that there might be one or two other Aces and Kings in Jon and Ryan's hand, I folded.

Sure enough an Ace came on the flop and Ryan and Jon ended up checking it down. Ryan had something like Ace-10 and Jon only had Queen-10 suited. I really looked into their soul on that one.

The other hand I gave away was when I had AJ suited on the button. It was folded to Jon and he raised to $4. I made it $10. It felt like I challenged Jon's manhood, so he called. The flop was all low cards and I totally whiffed. Jon checked. I didn't want to give Jon a chance to check raise me, so I checked as well. The turn missed me again. Jon checked again. For some reason I thought he was in call mode so I did not bet again. The river missed again, but this time Jon put in $10. I think I only had about $20 left so I could not raise him out of the pot. All I had was Ace high and I felt like it was the best hand. I ended up folding and he turned over a rivered flush. I let him check into runner-runner. More evidence that I suck at No-Limit and Pot-Limit.

As for the Sits I have been doing pretty well. I have my overall rate of return on the $55's up to 11% from a low of 1%. I was browsing the two plus two website and I came across an interesting strategy. Here is the post http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=3564205&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1
I have been frustrated by playing tight early and not getting any value from the hands that I do play. In other words if I have Ace-King and raise preflop. I get one caller and the flop has a King. Usually I bet 1/2 to 2/3 of the pot. It seems like 75% of the time they fold and I just win the preflop bets. This post suggests over betting the pot or even pushing all in. This looks so strange that a lot of players will think it's a bluff and call with 2nd or 3rd pair.

I know that I will not call my opponent's all in bet in the early stages even if I feel it's a bluff because I have the discipline to wait for a better opportunity. I usually just make a note that this players overuses the all in bet and look to trap him later. I think most players see the overbet and think bluff. Then they think," I don't want to be bluffed by this retard so I will call."

I am going to give this approach a try and see if I get anyone to bite.

WBPT Tournament sucks

I tried to play in the WBPT tournament at Titan Poker last night. What a bore fest!

I was under a little time pressure trying to get my withdrawal from Party Poker to clear so I could move some money over to Titan. The money hit my Neteller account with about 15 minutes to go until tournament time. In the mean time, I was still finishing up 2 $55 sit n go's where I ended up taking first place in both of them.

This also happened to be the time that Carlo came over to look at taking one of our refrigerators, so the 4 dogs went crazy, barking and running around the house. I am amazed I got everything set up.

The tournament started at 6:00 and I had to put it on auto post and fold because Carlo was still there and Michele had just came home. After I got rid of Carlo, I sat down. I did not recognize anyone at my table. I searched the other tables and found Iggy and Pauly and opened up their tables just to see if there was any good chat. This is where we had the big problem.

The chat software at Titan was almost unusable. Everytime you start to type, you are interrupted by action at the table. This interruption bounces the cursor back to the beginning of the box. The only time you could type in peace is when it was your turn. Of course then you have to deal with the alarm clock buzzing sound telling you it's time to bet. After you type your witty remarks, the bubble comes up on the screen and blocks your avatar and chip count so you have no idea how many chips you have.

Titan has a dollar for dollar bonus and it didn't look too hard to reach at first glance, but I may not have the patience for their software. It had a lot of Noble Poker's features which makes me think that they are skin for them.

Back to the tournament. I was a little bored with it, because there was no chat and I had just made $450 from the party sits. I only got to play for 15 minutes, before dinner was ready and I was on auto post again. I quickly scarfed down a couple of pieces of pizza with Michele and then went back to the computer. I was still stuck around my original 1500 in chips.

Honestly after the break I lost all interest in the tournament. I was waiting for a decent hand and pushing all in to double up. Eventually I lost a race and I was out.

As for my other poker....the wins in the Party sits pushed my bankroll over $5500 now. That's starting to turn into real money.

My next trip to Vegas is being planned in December. It will be for my wedding, so I don't know how much time I will have to play poker. I am coming in on a Thursday for my bachelor party, so maybe I'll get in a few hands before Michele comes in on Friday.

Finally a Big Tournament Win!

Yesterday I went a little tournament crazy and entered some small stakes tourneys online. On some of the less trafficked sites you can sometimes find an overlay of money with their guaranteed prize pools. For instance if it's $20 to enter and the prize pool is guaranteed at $2000, all you have to do is find out if they have less than 100 players.

I was splashing around on Full Tilt yesterday and noticed their $24+2 guaranteed $3500. Therefore it needs 146 players to break even. I signed up with about 15 minutes until cards in the air and there was less than 100 players. Unfortunately, there was a late rush and I think they pushed over 150.

At the beginning I did not do much of anything. I really wasn't getting much to play with and I was just hanging around. I was happy that Full Tilt gives you 1500 chips to start and the blinds move up rather slowly so I could afford to be patient. This was the point where I started to pull some unbelievable suckouts from my ass. Here is a sample of some of my hand histories:

FullTiltPoker Game #221483751: $3,500 Guarantee (1394091), Table 3 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:43:04 ET - 2005/09/17
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 (4,490)
Seat 2: Scubatoast (1,970)
Seat 3: Captian Eric (1,660)
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 (3,580)
Seat 5: taxationfinance (1,480)
Seat 6: aslatman (1,275)
Seat 7: MELCOCHON (1,750)
Seat 8: Buzman (2,660)
Seat 9: rommmi (3,890)
rommmi posts the small blind of 40
JACKSCHIPS46 posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [9c 9s]
Scubatoast folds
Captian Eric folds
Poker_Bully1 calls 80 I had been raising a lot and felt I should play this one for set value or a limp reraise.
taxationfinance folds
JACKSCHIPS46: IM NO GOOD JUIST LUCKY
aslatman folds
MELCOCHON folds
Buzman calls 80
UTfan (Observer): i can tell
JACKSCHIPS46: YOU ARE WORSE
rommmi has 15 seconds left to act
rommmi is sitting out
rommmi has timed out
rommmi folds
JACKSCHIPS46 checks
*** FLOP *** [8h 6h 7c]
JACKSCHIPS46 bets 80
rommmi has returned
Poker_Bully1 has 15 seconds left to act
Poker_Bully1 raises to 360 I feel I have the best hand so I raise to charge any possible flush draws
Buzman folds
JACKSCHIPS46 calls 280
*** TURN *** [8h 6h 7c] [Qh]
JACKSCHIPS46 bets 80
Poker_Bully1 calls 80
*** RIVER *** [8h 6h 7c Qh] [2h]
JACKSCHIPS46 bets 80
Poker_Bully1 calls 80
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JACKSCHIPS46 shows [9h 7d] (a flush, Queen high) I'm lucky he didn't bet more.
Poker_Bully1 mucks
JACKSCHIPS46 wins the pot (1,320) with a flush, Queen high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,320 Rake 0
Board: [8h 6h 7c Qh 2h]
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 (big blind) showed [9h 7d] and won (1,320) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 2: Scubatoast didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Captian Eric didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 mucked [9c 9s] - a pair of Nines
Seat 5: taxationfinance didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: aslatman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: MELCOCHON didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Buzman (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: rommmi (small blind) folded before the Flop


FullTiltPoker Game #221487253: $3,500 Guarantee (1394091), Table 3 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:47:19 ET - 2005/09/17
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 (5,170)
Seat 2: Scubatoast (2,090)
Seat 3: Captian Eric (1,780)
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 (2,900)
Seat 5: taxationfinance (1,600)
Seat 6: aslatman (1,275)
Seat 7: MELCOCHON (1,750)
Seat 8: Buzman (2,500)
Seat 9: rommmi (3,690)
Poker_Bully1 posts the small blind of 40
taxationfinance posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [8c Kc]
aslatman calls 80
MELCOCHON folds
Buzman folds
rommmi calls 80
JACKSCHIPS46 folds
Scubatoast calls 80
Captian Eric calls 80
Poker_Bully1 calls 40
Buzman: can't win on skill alone, we all know that
taxationfinance checks
*** FLOP *** [8s Jc 4c] I limp into pot with suited King and the flop looks good. I briefly consider betting, but maybe I can get better odds if I check, so I do.
Poker_Bully1 has 15 seconds left to act
Poker_Bully1 checks
taxationfinance checks
aslatman bets 1,195, and is all in The pot was 480 and he overbets it. Usually that's a flush draw. I have the 2nd nut flush draw, plus I already have a pair of 8's
rommmi folds
Scubatoast folds
Captian Eric folds
Poker_Bully1 raises to 2,820, and is all in I decide I am going to play. I raise all in to make sure the last guy in the pot doesn't play with me
taxationfinance folds
Poker_Bully1 shows [8c Kc]
aslatman shows [Jh Qs] Oops he has top pair. C'mon flush!
Uncalled bet of 1,625 returned to Poker_Bully1
*** TURN *** [8s Jc 4c] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [8s Jc 4c Qd] [2d] No flush for me. :-(
Poker_Bully1 shows a pair of Eights
aslatman shows two pair, Queens and Jacks
aslatman wins the pot (2,870) with two pair, Queens and Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,870 Rake 0
Board: [8s Jc 4c Qd 2d]
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Scubatoast folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Captian Eric (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 (small blind) showed [8c Kc] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 5: taxationfinance (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: aslatman showed [Jh Qs] and won (2,870) with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 7: MELCOCHON didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Buzman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: rommmi folded on the Flop

Here is where my luck turns around.

FullTiltPoker Game #221513688: $3,500 Guarantee (1394091), Table 3 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:19:20 ET - 2005/09/17
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 (1,810)
Seat 2: Scubatoast (7,360)
Seat 3: Captian Eric (2,380)
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 (1,565)
Seat 5: Btrain83 (945)
Seat 6: aslatman (1,550)
Seat 7: MELCOCHON (3,205)
Seat 8: Buzman (895)
Seat 9: rommmi (4,000)
JACKSCHIPS46 posts the small blind of 80
Scubatoast posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [Ac 3c]
Captian Eric folds
Poker_Bully1 raises to 1,565, and is all in
Btrain83 folds
aslatman folds
MELCOCHON folds
Buzman folds
rommmi folds
JACKSCHIPS46 folds
Scubatoast calls 1,405
Poker_Bully1 shows [Ac 3c]
Scubatoast shows [Kh Kd]
*** FLOP *** [5c 4c 5d]
*** TURN *** [5c 4c 5d] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5c 4c 5d 2h] [Jd]
Poker_Bully1 shows a straight, Five high Nothing like cracking pocket kings! Now I have a little breathing room.
Scubatoast shows two pair, Kings and Fives
Poker_Bully1 wins the pot (3,210) with a straight, Five high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,210 Rake 0
Board: [5c 4c 5d 2h Jd]
Seat 1: JACKSCHIPS46 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Scubatoast (big blind) showed [Kh Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 3: Captian Eric didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Poker_Bully1 showed [Ac 3c] and won (3,210) with a straight, Five high
Seat 5: Btrain83 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: aslatman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: MELCOCHON didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Buzman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: rommmi (button) didn't bet (folded)


FullTiltPoker Game #221526683: $3,500 Guarantee (1394091), Table 13 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:34:18 ET - 2005/09/17
Seat 1: ksay1122 (12,395)
Seat 2: Dlorican (11,505)
Seat 3: HASITNOW (11,120)
Seat 4: forkmule (4,670)
Seat 5: J111333444 (1,745)
Seat 6: scooter02 (4,460)
Seat 8: SurfinC (11,575)
Seat 9: Poker_Bully1 (4,590)
Dlorican posts the small blind of 100
HASITNOW posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [Qd Ks]
forkmule folds
J111333444 calls 200
scooter02 folds
SurfinC folds
Poker_Bully1 raises to 800
ksay1122 folds
Dlorican folds
HASITNOW folds
J111333444 calls 600
*** FLOP *** [7c Kh As]
J111333444 checks
SurfinC: short stack bullying is what it was right kojack
Poker_Bully1 bets 950 Smaller stack shows weakness on the flop so I put him to a decision for all his chips. It wasn't a very hard decision since he was trapping me.
J111333444 calls 945, and is all in
Poker_Bully1 shows [Qd Ks]
J111333444 shows [Ah Tc]
Uncalled bet of 5 returned to Poker_Bully1
*** TURN *** [7c Kh As] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [7c Kh As 5h] [Kc] YES! One of my 5 outs hits on the river.
Poker_Bully1 shows three of a kind, Kings
J111333444 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
Poker_Bully1 wins the pot (3,790) with three of a kind, Kings
J111333444 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,790 Rake 0
Board: [7c Kh As 5h Kc]
Seat 1: ksay1122 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Dlorican (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: HASITNOW (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: forkmule didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: J111333444 showed [Ah Tc] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 6: scooter02 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: SurfinC didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Poker_Bully1 showed [Qd Ks] and won (3,790) with three of a kind, Kings

FullTiltPoker Game #221533795: $3,500 Guarantee (1394091), Table 13 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:41:28 ET - 2005/09/17
Seat 1: ksay1122 (12,300)
Seat 2: Dlorican (11,790), is sitting out
Seat 3: HASITNOW (9,645)
Seat 4: forkmule (3,715)
Seat 5: Whitey72 (5,885)
Seat 6: scooter02 (5,685)
Seat 8: SurfinC (10,880)
Seat 9: Poker_Bully1 (6,700)
ksay1122 antes 25
Dlorican antes 25
HASITNOW antes 25
forkmule antes 25
Whitey72 antes 25
scooter02 antes 25
SurfinC antes 25
Poker_Bully1 antes 25
forkmule posts the small blind of 120
Whitey72 posts the big blind of 240
Dlorican has returned
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [7c Jc]
scooter02 folds
SurfinC folds
Poker_Bully1 raises to 800 I had been quiet for a while so I decide to try and steal the blinds.
ksay1122 calls 800 Dammit! a caller and now I am out of position.
Dlorican is sitting out
Dlorican folds
HASITNOW folds
forkmule folds
Whitey72 folds
*** FLOP *** [Qc Jh Jd] Bingo, Bango, Bongo I have 3 Jacks! Time to play for all my chips. As Vince Van Patten would say, I set the trap and I am putting branches and leaves over it.
Poker_Bully1 checks
ksay1122 bets 6,240 He falls into the hole!
Poker_Bully1 calls 5,875, and is all in
ksay1122 shows [Js Kc] Sarcasm alert: He's right where I want him now. I only need the 2 remaining 7's or to split I need one of 3 Queens or runner runner Aces.
Poker_Bully1 shows [7c Jc]
Uncalled bet of 365 returned to ksay1122
*** TURN *** [Qc Jh Jd] [7h] Yahtzee!
Dlorican has returned
*** RIVER *** [Qc Jh Jd 7h] [Td]
ksay1122 shows three of a kind, Jacks
Poker_Bully1 shows a full house, Jacks full of Sevens
Poker_Bully1 wins the pot (13,910) with a full house, Jacks full of Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 13,910 Rake 0
Board: [Qc Jh Jd 7h Td]
Seat 1: ksay1122 showed [Js Kc] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: Dlorican folded before the Flop
Seat 3: HASITNOW (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: forkmule (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Whitey72 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: scooter02 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: SurfinC folded before the Flop
Seat 9: Poker_Bully1 showed [7c Jc] and won (13,910) with a full house, Jacks full of Sevens

Eventually I made it all the way to the final table and finished 5th for $262. I chuckled to myself that when you get to the final table, the backround changes into a studio similar to the World Poker Tour.

Later in the day, I found a $5 turbo tournament on Noble Poker that was guaranteeing $1250. So that means there has to be 250 players. When I signed up for this one there was just over 100. After I signed up, I realized that it was a rebuy and add on tournament. So once again it looks like Noble Poker will make money. Oh well.

Since it was a turbo and only $5 rebuys, I figured I would see some really crazy plays. To my surprise, most of the players played conservatively. The blinds increased every 5 minutes so there is no time to wait for good hands. You need to push every small edge and hope you get lucky. I was planning to take advantage of my opponents' stupidity.

I doubled up early with a straight. Then lost it all when my Kings with a Queen kicker went down to Kings with an Ace kicker. Rebuy! I bled off some chips and had about 600 left with Ace 5 suited utg. I limped and 4 other guys went all in. I figure what the hell, so I call. No flush so I rebuy. This time I win a couple of small pots but I run out of time as the break hits with 50-100 blinds and $5 add ons for $1,000 chips. I only have $1100 so I need the chips badly.

Back from the break and I think the blinds were 60-120. The other players just had no idea how to play in this format. 90% of the time when I was first in the pot in middle or late position, I raised all in. I was seldom called. When I was called, it was usually by a hopelessly short stacked player. This went on and on all the way to the final table.

Amazingly they stop raising the blinds once it gets to 5000-10000. There were 4 of us left and we played for probably 20 minutes. I was usually fluctuating between 80 and 120k in chips so there still wasn't much room for creativity. I really felt like the best player of the bunch due to my experience with all the bubble play in Sit-n-Go's.

Finally I made it to heads up with a 2-1 chip lead. Again, I tried to remember what Harrington said in his book and call with any 2 from the small blind, and mix up my play once in a while. The great thing was, that once it was down to 2 players we actually had a lot of chips to play with since the blinds had stopped going up. I finally ground him down to about 60k in chips and just started putting him all in, every chance I could.

Then the miracle happened. He called my all in bet and my hand held up. Mother fucking Champion of a 150 player tournament. $478 to the winner.

Learning Curve on Omaha 8OB

I played my first session in Omaha at the casino last week. I'd give myself an overall grade of a C. I missed a couple of bets with my good hands, and I chased a couple of hands too far. Overall I lost $40 over 2 hours.

Surprisingly the thing I struggled the most with, was how to look at my cards. I tried two at a time in the hold'em mode or stacking all 4 on top of each other and picking them up. Sometimes I just looked one at a time. I tried to watch how the others did it, but they seemed to all do it differently.

These are just random things I have figured out finally in Omaha that should help:
1. You need both cards of the same suit to make a flush. This also means that once 3 of the same suit hit the board, the other suits do not matter. In other words, you are not charging someone with a flush draw if there are 3 of the same suit on the board. He already has the flush or he can't get there. That is different from Hold'em
2. Be aware that playing for one side of the pot also opens you up to being quartered which very rarely makes you any money.
3. It probably only takes one or two big pots in a session at Omaha to make money. The casino has a kill pot, if the previous pot is over $50. This means that at least 25% of the hands dealt are kill pots.

I have also had the urge to play more big tournaments lately after reading Harrington's second book. My results have been the same, so basically I have been pissing money away. It is mind boggling to consider how tough it would be to be a pro player that only plays tournaments. Not only do you have to be lucky enough to have your big favorite hands hold up, but invariably you will be in pots where you are only slightly ahead or even behind. Guess what? You need to win most of those too.

My last tournament was a $22 with over 2000 players. I managed to build my stack up to 4000 and was the chip leader at my table by at least 1000. I had hit 3 different sets to build this up. Then everything turned.

I bluffed off a good amount of chips with a busted straight draw and flush draw. I chased about 3 other straights (with the correct odds) and didn't hit one. Finally I am short stacked and after one limper, I move all in with A6 off. Everyone folds past the blinds and the original limper calls and turns over Ace Queen. I hate it when someone limps with good cards. It just seems so stupid to me. So I think I finished in 800 something place.

On Monday 9-12 I played 4-8 Holdem at the Casino during their Monday Night Football promotion. My table was the perfect combination of a couple of tight players that could be pushed around and a bunch of loose passive calling stations. Unfortunately I dug myself a hole and couldn't climb out. A few times I won a couple of hands in a row to get back to even and then the chips just slowly bled away again waiting for a good hand. I lost $40 by the end of the night.

My one highlight was a great laydown. I had won the previous two pots so I had the Kill. I posted $8. A middle position player went all in for $16. The player on the big blind to my right reraised to $24. I looked down and found two Queens. The same hand I won the last pot with.

The player on my right was just having horrible luck. In the 2 hours I had played with him he had at least 4 high pocket pairs beaten by straights or flushes. Plus he always called down with top pair and bad kickers. But the big tell, is that he never raised preflop unless he had a good high pocket pair. Knowing this I decided to just call his raise instead of reraising.

The flop came Ace-7-Jack rainbow. The BB led out. Seeing the Ace I decided to fold. He turned over Ace-10 of diamonds and beat the all in player for the pot.

Now running the play over again in my head, there are other ways to play this hand. I could have reraised preflop. Knowing what he had now, he probably calls and check raises me on the flop. If he caps it preflop I can be pretty sure that I am only playing for set value. If he was really smart he would check the flop and see if I bet. Then he could check raise me. I think if he had AA or KK though he might have just led out.

All in all, my read was not perfect but I did manage to lose the least amount possible.

Another rule I learned the hard way for hold'em. When you flop two pair with Ace little, play it as fast as possible. I slow played my hand into oblivion when the board paired and my kicker sucked. No more check raises, just lead out or raise when it's bet to you. Maybe I can squeeze out the other Ace or someone with the middle or low pair who might hit the set down the road.

I Met a Poker Star!

I was in Maui last week for my girlfriend's brother's wedding. It was my second time on the island and it is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

One of the events scheduled, was a luau at the Renaissance Hotel in Waliea. While everyone was being seated I noticed that Daniel Negraneau (sic) was also at the luau with his new wife. I went up and introduced myself and told him congratulations on the wedding. He seemed to be enjoying the dinner. I read on his blog that some drunk guy kept inviting him to play golf, but I never saw anyone bothering him. I chickened out on getting a picture with him. I had the perfect opportunity while everyone was waiting for the valet to get our cars. I just hate playing the role of "my life sucks so I live vicariously through yours on TV". I'd rather have a conversation and find out something interesting about him than pester him for a picture.

During the vacation I started reading two books on poker. The first one is Michael Cappeletti's book on Omaha Hi-Lo and the second is volume 2 of Harrington on Hold'em.

The Omaha book is solid so far. I totally understand that the number one strategy for beating the average loose game is to play tight preflop and only draw to the nuts. In probably ten different tables of play at Party Poker, I have probably come out ahead on 9 of them in the .50-$1 level. I think I am ready to take a stab at the live casino 3-6 game. I watched a little of one game while I was on a break from the hold'em tournament and I watched two people fight over which was the low hand on the board. If they are playing and can't figure out the low within 10 seconds, then they obviously don't know much about how to play the game.

My main weakness right now in Omaha is knowing when it makes sense to raise. My mind is still cluttered with figuring out the nut lows and highs on the board and figuring out how many outs I have to the nuts. There is no time for higher level strategy just yet. Once I can figure out these other details quicker, I will have more time to spend on figuring out what my opponents might have and whether I should raise for value or raise to narrow the field.

The second volume of Harrington on Hold'em is excellent. I have finished about 1/3 of the book by skipping around to the sections that interest me the most. The first section I read was on heads up play. There is an excellent analysis on the heads up match between Phil Ivey and John D'Agostino at the end of the big poker tournament in New Jersey last year. He presents a lot of interesting stats to consider on how often someone hits the flop and what you should be thinking about when you are on the button vs. first to act.

Here are a couple of the helpful tips I gleaned from the book:
1. It is always correct to at least call from the small blind. With 3-1 odds on your call, even 2-7 versus a random hand has better odds than that. Now if your opponent always raises you when you call, then it may be ok to fold occasionally.
2. Most flops miss both players, so the first one to bet, or the one who plays most aggressively usually wins the pot.
3. Calling down with Ace high is ok if you can get there cheaply.

I played a set of 3 sits last night and made it to heads up in one of them. I tried to use his tips and came back from a 3-1 deficit to pull slightly ahead. Unfortunately I got a bit unlucky as I flopped top pair, check raised the flop and he called. On the turn he only had about 1500 left so I decided to check and see if he would put the rest in. He did and I called with only about 200 left over. Unfortunately, the turn filled his inside straight and he won. So I think I played it right and did charge him for the draw. Oh well.

Now that my back is almost 100% I am looking forward to putting in some time in the live casinos again.

7th Place

The big tournament sponsored by Jeff was last Saturday. The turnout was not as big as expected as we only had 22 players. The garage that we had the tables set up in was awesome. The owner of the house buys/sells cars and trucks after fixing them up so he had a great garage with refrigerators, bathroom, and heavy duty air conditioning as it was 112 degrees outside.

We started with 1000 in chips and the blinds were 5-10 at the start. They were supposed to go up every 1/2 hour but that was a best case scenario as we would have to depend on Jeff to remember to tell everyone.

My strategy was to play tight for a couple of rounds and get a feel for the players at my table and then try to be aggressive and acquire a big stack. We had unlimited rebuys for the first 2 hours and I was prepared to buy in 2 more times if necessary.

Basically there were a lot of loose players at my table limping in. They also would call down with bad kickers so this was a good table. The problem was that I was getting horrible cards for the first hour and saw a flop maybe twice. Eventually the blinds were getting a little higher and I was down to about 700. I got AQ on the button and raised to 150. Jeff called me. The flop was something like 7-5-2. He checked and I moved all in. My thinking was that the flop probably did not hit him. If I bet 300 he is likely to call anyway since he had the chips. If I bet 300, I have nothing left on the later streets. Plus it was getting about to the time that I needed chips or to bust out and rebuy. Jeff folded reluctantly.

The very next hand I was dealt KK. I raised again and a short stack came over the top all in. I called and took his chips and suddenly I was up to about 2000. I got lucky once when I was dealt K-3 in the big blind. I flopped a King and bet on the flop and the turn. On the turn, I was raised all in. The board was K-5-2-4. So had top pair and the open end straight draw. If I lose, I am pretty short stacked again. Because I had the draw, I decided to call. I expected my opponent to have a King, but he also had a 5 for two pair. Of course I got my 6 on the river and hit the straight to bust him out.

Once we hit the break, I added on and had about 4,000. I think the blinds were up to 100-200. We consolidated to two tables and I confirmed that the top 8 would pay. I basically held steady and people busted out left and right. We made it to the final table and then quickly into the money with 8 people left. The blinds were now 200-400 and I only had about 3200 left. I just was not getting any cards, and the big stack held by a guy named Frank was doing a good job of being aggressive and making people define their hands.

Now because of my rebuy I was only going to make money if I finished in 6th or better. I made it to the final 7 with about the same amount of chips, when my unlucky break occurred. Comically I was not even in the hand. One of the shorter stacks at the table got involved with the chip leader. The chip leader had top pair and strong kicker. When the money went all in after the turn, the short stack turned over an inside straight draw. If he is eliminated, I move up to 6th and make money. Also one of the other players mentions that he folded one of the 4 remaining outs. Sure enough, he hit the straight on the river and doubled up.

A couple more rotations went by and I was still at about 7 x the big blind. I was dealt KJ offsuit on the big blind. The 2nd chip leader raised to 1000. The chip leader called. It was folded to me. They didn't feel that strong so I thought it was time to make a move and I raised all in. Now I did not specifically think to myself that I should make the "squeeze play" I like to think that I made it on instinct instead of impatience. I don't know for sure. Anyways, the initial raiser folded, but the big stack called me with KQ suited. There were no more Jacks in the deck and I flamed out in 7th. I spent $250 and received $180 back.

Overall I played well. There is one hand that I am still questioning. At the final table I was dealt J7 in the big blind. The big stack called and the small blind completed. The flop was J-J-3 with two clubs. It was checked to me. I think there was 300 in the pot. I bet 200 because I wanted to charge any flush draws. In retrospect, the chances of the big stack having a flush draw were pretty slim. The chances were pretty good that he would have bet at the pot if it was checked to him since he had been pretty aggressive. I guess I should have let him catch up or only bet 100 to make it look like I was trying to steal it. I really wanted to make that a big pot because I saw it as the chance to double up, but I got too excited. Not a horrible play, but not the most effective.

As for my online play, I was subjected to some bad beats again in the 50's. I find it fascinating to play when one player goes on a huge lucky roll and gets to 5,000 in chips with 5 or 6 players left. I usually have close to what I started with and there are usually a couple of players with only 500 left. I think the best strategy is to try and play a pot with the big stack with a strong hand and trap him. If I have seen him make bad plays I think that will be the easiest money to win.

The first situation occurred when I had about 1000 chips with 5 left. I was dealt 33 in late position. The big stack was under the gun and just doubled the blind. My original thinking was I can push him around and if he does call me, he probably just has over cards and I'll be a slight favorite. Of course he woke up with QQ and I was gone. My strategy was sound, except I probably should have only done that with 99 or better. 33 is just too weak.

The second situation really pissed me off. I had close to 2000 in chips and was in great shape with 4 left. The chip leader had over 5000 and was horrible. He was in the small blind and I was in the big blind with AJ of spades. I think the blinds were 75-150. He just called the blind. I raised to 450. He called. The flop came A-10-7 rainbow. He minimum bet the flop and I went all in. He called quickly with Ace-5. The turn was a blank, but the river hit his 5 and I was out again.

I remember Phil Hellmuth interviewing Greg Raymer after the WSOP main event this year. Phil was lamenting the fact that Greg had totally outplayed his opponent on a hand, but his opponent had hit a runner, runner flush to beat him. "You work so hard the entire tournament to set up a player like that, and just when you have him right where you want him, he sucks out on you. Doesn't that drive you crazy?!" Greg gave some gracious answer that sometimes you just have to get lucky and that all he can control is the decisions he makes, blah, blah, blah. I agree with Phil, it sucks!

Tune up

First a comedy break brought to you by David Letterman and AOL.

http://television.aol.com/franchise/tv_viewer_awards

That is why dogs are the best.

I played in the Casino AZ $130 NL tournament last night to tune up for the tournament at Jeff's this weekend. 170 players, 2000 in starting chips, 20 minute levels. Blinds started at 25-50.

My first table was very passive. Lot's of limping preflop and not a lot of betting after the flop. So blind stealing was out since it was very rare that I would get to open a pot in late position. There were usually at least 2 callers before it got to me. However it was a good strategy to put in a raise preflop and then a continuation bet after the flop. I did this about 3 times and never got called. One time I checked the flop and then bluffed the turn. I was called so I figured I was done with the hand. He checked to me on the river and I just turned over my cards. I won with Ace high as he had a busted straight draw.

It was one of those weird sessions where every time I folded a marginal hand (one you could play under the right circumstances) the flop came up huge. I also seemed to be dealt Ace-little a lot. Well I was slowly chipping up and then was dealt KK in the hole. I raised to 400 after one limper came in for 100. He called and it was heads up. The flop was nine high and he bet 100 into the pot. It was a weak bet, but I wanted to make sure he made a mistake if he had a straight draw. He only had 800 left so I put him all in. He turned over Ace-9. My Kings held up and I busted him out. I looked around the table and noticed that I was the chip leader by a couple thousand now. Tonight might be the night.

A few more hands go by and I am dealt AA. Utg raises the 200 big blind to 500. It's folded to me 2 off the button and I reraise to 1500. Everyone folds to the initial raiser. He does what I am dreaming of and goes all in which is really just calling my bet plus a 200 raise so 1700 total. The pot has 3700 and it will put me in great position if I win. He turns over 33. Way to overplay that worthless hand!

You all know what's coming next....The guy next to me said, "Ha I folded an Ace". I said, "It would be better if you told me you folded a 3." The flop was safe. So was the turn. The river was another ugly 3 and he wins the pot. A hit to my stack but nothing too terrible.

The next hand I am dealt KQ suited. Its folded to me and raise to 600. It's folded to the big blind (pocket 3's guy) and he calls. The flop is A-3-9. This time he bets out 600. I look at him trying to get a read. I ask, "You don't have pocket 3's again do you?" He smiles. I lay it down and he's nice enough to show me his Ace.

Now that I've blown off 2300 in chips I get more bad news in that my table is breaking. I get moved to another table where a guy in an ASU hat has at least 10,000 in chips and another old guy has just about as many on his left. The blinds have gone up to 150-300 which means I have just over 10 BB left.

Of course this is where I go card dead. One funny moment is when I am blinded down to about 8 times the big blind and 3 off the button. The ASU hat limps in, weakly I feel, and it's folded to me. This feels like a time to move all in and steal the blinds. Unfortunately I actually look at my cards first and they are 10-5. So much for that idea and I fold. Well it ends up as the 2 blinds and ASU in the pot and the flop is 10-10-5. I think they all check it down and then I announce, "I'd play this game much better if I didn't look at my cards. I had 10-5. I felt like I should move in because you guys were weak, but I couldn't do it after I looked at my cards." The very next hand I was dealt KK. ASU had limped in again. This time I raised to 1000. It's folded through the blinds. ASU asks me if I looked at my cards this time and I said I did. He folds and tells me he had an Ace. That would have made a great angle if he had called.

Eventually I was blinded down and went all in with my last 1200 with 9-5 suited. I was called by Queen Jack and he hit his Queen on the flop. Suprisingly there were still about 70 left.

Overall I think I made the right decision almost every time so I can't really complain about how I played. Just need to be a little more lucky.

Big Tournament Coming Up

The bankroll has been replenished and back over $4,400 thanks to some nice scores in the 50 Sits and a first place in a 3 table $33 sit. I still have a long way to go to clear the bonuses on Full Tilt and Noble but I hope that playing 6 handed in 2-4 will improve my limit hold'em play. Short handed is such a totally different game.

The big day on this week's agenda is Saturday. My friend Jeff is organizing a poker tournament at a friends house. The first two that I played in were definitely juicy. The first one, I came in Third and probably should have won except that I got impatient at the end. The second one, I was in great shape until a guy on tilt pushed all his chips in with nothing and I called with 3 of a kind, only to see my chips go away when he hit the runner runner flush. I win that pot and I am the chip leader with about 20 left.

So this tournament has a $150 buy in for $1000 in chips. There are $100 rebuys for the first 2 hours. The evite says there are about 40 players signed up so far. The tricky part about these tournaments is that a majority of the players have no idea about tournament strategy. It's important to identify these players quickly and figure out a way to trap them.

The usual mistake I see in this type of tournament is very passive play preflop and then if they get a good hand, they love to slow play it. This makes it very hard to put a player on a hand. The key to playing these players is to make sure you are in position so you can see what they do first. So if I flop top pair and good kicker on the flop and it's checked to me, I can make a bet and see what they do. If they just call they may be trying to slow play. If the turn doesn't improve my hand, I may just check it through and see what happens on the river. At least this keeps the pots small, early on.

I also think I will be playing lots of small pairs and suited connecters for cheap trying to make a big hand. I swear some of these players may not even realize a flush or straight is possible when they look at certain boards.

The rebuys will help as well since I can afford to be a little more aggressive and try to get chips early. I think my back is healthy enough to attempt a tournament at Casino Arizona on Tuesday or Wednesday just to get some practice in at reading people again.

The win in the 3 table tournament was pretty amusing. I got short stacked with about 20 players left when someone put a bad beat on me. I stayed patient and moved in a couple of times to keep my stack at 5-7 times the blinds. It was amazing I was still in, because i really hadn't had any decent starting cards.

Suddenly I began to get cards and the timing was right because others got cards that were just a little bit worse than mine. Before I know it, I'm in the money at the final 5. There were 30,000 chips in play and I had about 5000 with 250-500 blinds. There were a couple of guys over 10,000 and they swapped chips around. I won a couple of hands and finally everyone was just about even in chips around 6,000. For the most part, the table was still playing kind of tight with just min raises and every once in a while someone would come over the top and they would all fold. Very few flops.

I decide that now is the time to be aggressive because the blinds had just moved up to 400-800. I felt like if I start pushing all in, 75% of the time I am going to win the 1200 in blinds and the other 25% I may just have to get lucky. But the great part is, if I get lucky I am then in prime position to win. So here is the hand history from that point forward:

Opponent chat is in blue. Mine is in purple.


#Game No : 2568758431
***** Hand History for Game 2568758431 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:03:52 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: jcsmitty22 ( $7255 )
Seat 4: naguara ( $4610 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $6853 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $5710 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $5572 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ Ah 3s ]
larryvq is all-In [5710]
Pitbull201 folds.
jcsmitty22 calls [5710].
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, Qs, 2d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]
larryvq shows [ Ah, 3s ] a pair of threes.
jcsmitty22 shows [ Ks, As ] high card ace.
larryvq wins 12620 chips from the main pot with a pair of threes.
yeah dude
good one
fckin retard
yes!!!
Game #2568760468 starts.

#Game No : 2568760468
***** Hand History for Game 2568760468 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:04:17 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: jcsmitty22 ( $1545 )
Seat 4: naguara ( $4210 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $6053 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $12620 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $5572 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ As 2s ]
Pitbull201 folds.
jcsmitty22 folds.
jcsmitty22: way to be a fckin assclown
RTL43: brutal
jcsmitty22: when u steal blinds u raise them 3-4 times so u can lay down to a better hand
jcsmitty22: you dont just go all in under the gun like a fkcing retard
jcsmitty22: jesus christ
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
larryvq does not show cards.
larryvq wins 1200 chips
learn how to fckin play poker
Game #2568763472 starts.

#Game No : 2568763472
***** Hand History for Game 2568763472 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:04:54 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: jcsmitty22 ( $1545 )
Seat 4: naguara ( $4210 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $5653 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $13020 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $5572 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ 2h 8d ]
jcsmitty22 is all-In [1545]
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
larryvq folds.
larryvq: here's 400 back
Pitbull201 calls [745].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 3c, 6s ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
jcsmitty22 shows [ 8c, Jc ] high card queen.
Pitbull201 shows [ Tc, Kd ] high card king.
Pitbull201 wins 3490 chips from the main pot with high card king.
Player jcsmitty22 finished in 5 place and received $90
no crying JC it is poker
what a joke
jcsmitty22 has left the table.
Game #2568767452 starts.

#Game No : 2568767452
***** Hand History for Game 2568767452 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:05:42 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 4: naguara ( $4210 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $5653 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $12620 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $7517 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ Kh 9c ]
jcsmitty22: larry what a joke you are
RTL43: gg
jcsmitty22: risk 6k to win 1200
RTL43 folds.
jcsmitty22: what a fckin douche
jcsmitty22: not a gg
jcsmitty22: a ridiculously stupid game
naguara: gl JC
jcsmitty22: just keep hittin buttons larry
larryvq: tilt much?
jcsmitty22: keep it up
larryvq raises [2500].
Pitbull201 folds.
naguara folds.
larryvq does not show cards.
larryvq wins 3700 chips
learn how to play poker
then come to the 33 buy-ins
Game #2568771246 starts.

#Game No : 2568771246
***** Hand History for Game 2568771246 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:06:28 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 4: naguara ( $3410 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $5653 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $13820 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $7117 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ Th Ad ]
jcsmitty22: jesus christ moron
larryvq raises [2400].
Pitbull201 folds.
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
larryvq does not show cards.
larryvq wins 3600 chips
i only 7xx blind, all in is good bet
Game #2568774099 starts.

#Game No : 2568774099
***** Hand History for Game 2568774099 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:07:02 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 4: naguara ( $3010 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $4853 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $15020 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $7117 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ 2h 3c ]
Pitbull201 folds.
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
larryvq does not show cards.
larryvq wins 1200 chips
Game #2568775229 starts.

#Game No : 2568775229
***** Hand History for Game 2568775229 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:15011432 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Saturday, August 20, 19:07:16 EDT 2005
Table 3 - Table(433627) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 4: naguara ( $3010 )
Seat 6: RTL43 ( $4453 )
Seat 8: larryvq ( $15420 )
Seat 9: Pitbull201 ( $7117 )
Trny:15011432 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to larryvq [ 5c 9c ]
naguara folds.
RTL43 folds.
larryvq: seeing guys go crazy like that is half the fun of online poker
larryvq folds.
Pitbull201 does not show cards.
Pitbull201 wins 1200 chips
Game #2568777616 starts.

Anyways I started to get some great cards and the other players were moving in on me and I busted them fairly quickly after that. What sucks is that first place is only $270. First place on the $55 one tables is $250 and much easier to win. Still it was fun to book a nice win.

Regrouping

I decided to move down to the 33 Sits at Party to rebuild the bankroll and my confidence. I really hate not having the extra 200 in starting chips but the level of skill in the 33's is so much lower that it makes up for it. Starting Friday I played 19 tournaments and cashed in 11 of them. 2 Firsts, 2 Seconds, and 7 Thirds. I made $273. Not a ton of money, but over the last week I have built up the party poker bankroll back to $1800 from a low of approximately $1200.

I still have no clue what I am doing heads up. I am basically just trying to mix things up with my bet amounts and my bluffs. Usually it's so late in the game that there is really no move except to go all in.

Here are the differences between the 33 and 55 sits:
1. There are at least 2 players in the 33's who will go broke within 10 hands. It is a great advantage if you can be one of the lucky recipients of their stupidity.
2. They play super tight when it gets to 5 handed and like to min raise when the proper bet is all in.

I think I am playing a little better, but it's probably also that my luck has been a little better as well.

Here are the problem's I am still having:
1. I still feel I should have more firsts and less seconds and thirds. Part of this is that I play tight so its unusual for me to be the chip leader when it gets to 3 players. The other part is that I am probably making some mistakes in timing my pushes to steal blinds.

2. Overpairs. I have been chastised plenty on message boards for thinking of folding KK with a board of 10-7-3 when someone goes all in or raises me all in. I have been calling more and I would say that 2/3 to 3/4 of the time I am in the lead. Yes I run into the set on occasion but I guess that's why they call it gambling.

3. When does it make sense to semibluff a flush draw? I always seem to make this play at the wrong time. I hardly ever hit my flush. When I lead out, I get raised and then I am forced to call because of the pot odds. When I check, my opponent seems to price me out of the pot. Maybe I need to semibluff when my opponents seem to be weaker? Like maybe after an unraised pot preflop? A check through on the flop?

I also signed up on a rakeback site that got me on Full Tilt. The last time I played there it was impossible to hit the bonus. I logged on, and it looks like more of the same. I thought with all their advertising during the WSOP they would have more players. Apparently not. As soon as I get my money from Poker Stars I will give it another shot. My back is almost healthy enough to play at my desk, so maybe I will just set up Full Tilt on one screen and Noble on the other and do some bonus whoring.

Ouch!!!!

The latest news in my life is I have a herniated disc in my L4 vertabrae. I have been having some problems on and off for the last couple of months and 2 weeks ago it got so bad that I would almost shed tears of pain when getting out of bed. I think I am finally on the road to recovery with Physical Therapy but it has not been easy to play poker. Worse it may be months before I can pick up a golf club again.

During the last few days of staying home and laying around I have managed to play some online poker. The $50 sits at Party Poker have really been pissing me off. I tried to be a good player and go back and analyze my play. Basically I have figured out that I am losing most of my money at the 25-50 level. When I go back and look at the hand histories of my worst losing hands, I feel like I played 95% of them correctly. Maybe I need to look at the profitable hands and see if I could have won more money? I've even downloaded the entire summary and replayed it on the party poker replayer http://www.tightpoker.com/replayer.html
I hate it when players say they are just running bad, because I always think that is the losers "theme song" but I am starting to wonder. I have something like 125 sits at the $50's now and I think I am break even. Granted it could be worse, but it sure seems like it should be a lot better.

I've also decided to try and tackle the big bonus at Noble Poker. I saw somewhere that they are now owned by Empire Poker, so that makes me feel a little more comfortable about having my money there. I still have no idea how many hands I am going to have to play to work it off, but they are nice enough to pay it off $10 at a time. In order to get more hands in, I have been playing in the 6 handed games at 2-4. This is definitely a much different strategy than a full ring game. Middle pair is often good and there is a lot more bluffing at this game. I am still trying to find the right balance. I am also going to give their SNG promotion a shot. If you win 7 in a row, you can win $1,000,000. Of course this is probably impossible, but they have some other prizes at less than 7 and something if you make the top 2 for 7. So far I am 1 for 1. 6 more to go.

For the next couple of weeks I think I will concentrate on building up my bankroll again by playing the ring games and staying away from the Party Sits. I think I just need a break from NL for a while.

The losing streak and Omaha

Good News: I've discovered Omaha 8 or better. After reading some posts on 2+2, it seems to be the consensus that O8 is the easiest game to take money off of players who don't know what they are doing. Holdem is a game of small edges, while Omaha is a game of big edges. I have been dabbling with the .50-1.00 games and I have won money in 3 out of 4 sessions. I am getting a better idea of good starting cards, but I am still lost on when to raise and when to just call. I'm sure I will get much better with experience and reading a book or two.

Bad News: I'm still getting my ass kicked in the Sit-n-Go's. I'm still positive over all my $55's but not by much as I close in on 100 played. I watched some of the hand histories on the party poker replayer online and I think my problem has been over aggression. I have been bluffing too much and betting at the first sign of weakness. I need to be more patient, especially near the bubble. I just finished playing 3. In one I was crippled early when my KK ran into a slow played two pair on the flop. I didn't get anything playable the rest of the way. The other was another bad beat. The third, I was doing really well and made the final 3. While in 3rd, the shorter stack went all in and I had Aces in the big blind. I called and he made two pair to beat me. That left me with the short stack. I waited for Ace anything and ran into a higher Ace. I still made a couple of silly over aggressive moves, but I thought my play was much better.

Apparently Josh and Chris have discovered this blog, so I just wanted to say welcome and feel free to comment or add your opinion to any of my stories. My friend Bill thought I was a freak for doing this. Oh well. I'm sure he'll never look at it again anyways. Besides why would he want to read about all the times he has lost money to me on the golf course.

WSOP fever and random musings

I have main event fever. I have been checking the internet postings of pokerwire and the Tao of Poker for chip counts and seriously wishing I was there to take it all in. It is freaking unbelievable that Greg Raymer has a legitimate chance to go back to back and win this thing. As of today there are 60 players left and he has about an average chip stack. He was the leader at the start of the day yesterday, but lost a big chunk of chips when he was outkicked with KQ vs AK when his King paired up on the flop. Also I think the world may be coming to an end if Mike Matusow wins the Main Event. He is second in chips right now. I can't imagine what the that fame and money would do to him. He would be dead within 2 years.

My poker updates......last weekend I tried to play a bunch of $55 sit-n-gos on Party. I played 3 at a time and managed to squeeze in 21 tournaments. I may be reverting back to the mean. I lost $255. I had 1 first, 3 seconds, and 2 thirds. Playing 3 tables at a time is not all that difficult, although surprisingly I find it hard to concentrate on the other players and look for tells and patterns. I guess my main focus is just playing my cards and making sure that I don't time out, that I put note taking on a low priority. That definitely needs to change.

I also had some tilt creep in. It is way too easy to get frustrated by one hand and have it seep into your other tournaments that are going on at the same time. In a ring game it may only cost me a couple of bets before I calm down. In a sit-n-go at a later level, one false move can bust me out.

I was stuggling with a couple of situations. I had medium pocket pairs in late position and facing a raise in front of me. With a lot of chips left is it best to reraise and take control? Or is it best to just call, keep the pot small and see what happens on the flop. With AA, KK, or AK I almost always raise, because I don't mind someone reraising all it. With QQ, JJ, or 10-10 I may have to lay them down to a reraise.

A few times late in the tournament I was forced to reraise all in with medium pairs and I kept running into overpairs. Earlier, I always seemed get overcards and I was winning my coin flips. Oh I how I love the luck factor!

Another struggle is when to go to war with an overpair to the board. I heard Phil Gordon say that it's a cardinal sin to go broke with a lot of chips with only a pair. I went broke with a pair of Aces in my only WSOP satellite even though I was a huge favorite when I made the call. There I had the benefit of being able to read my opponent's body language. Online it's a totally different matter. Online players tend to gamble much more and I can't tell you how many times I have seen players go all in with top pair and medium kicker. Is it worth taking the risk early in the tournament?

From now on I will concentrate more on following the action even when I am out of the hand and I will consider being less aggressive with my medium and low pairs and see how that goes.

New Limits

It's been a few days since my last post on moving up in limits. I've given it some thought and I think I will move up, but not to 10-20. I am going to try the 5-10 games. I may also have to try the 6 max games at 3-6 and 5-10. Party Poker has just opened the 3-6 6 max games and according to the message boards, all of the bad players from the full 5-10 games have moved down to the 6 max games at 3-6.

My decision comes down to my hatred of losing money. I think I would need to slowly adjust to the higher limits so I don't go crazy when I have a losing session of 20 BB's. at 5-10 that is only $200. At 10-20 that would be $400 which is like a bad Vegas trip. Once I play around 10,000 hands at these levels, I will reevaluate. Hopefully the new broadcast of the WSOP 2005 on ESPN in July will stir up all the fish again and there will be even more new players on the net.

An interesting thing happened while playing a Sit-n-Go over the weekend. There were 5 left with similar chip stacks. I was on the button with 99 and UTG raised all in. It would have taken 95% of my stack to call him. I still had a lot of chips left and I felt like it would be a coin flip if I call. I decided to adhere to the cardinal rule of sits which is raise when folded to and fold when raised to.

Later I wanted to see if that was a good play, so I posted the hand history on 2+2. There were a few off the cuff responses, but one guy put up an analysis using ICM and poker stove. I had seen ICM but I was not aware that poker stove was free. I did the long hand version of my EV on the hand on paper and it came out slightly ahead for me to call. If you plug in the numbers to ICM it truly becomes a coin flip because if you lose, you are out of the tournament. The great thing is that poker stove will do the EV calculations for me automatically. So now I have a new toy.

On another topic, I have been following the results of the World Series of Poker closely and I am amazed at how many pros are still wading through the fields of thousands and taking down these titles. The fact that Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Barry Greenstein, and Phil Ivey have won bracelets this year is a true testament that the balance between skill and luck in poker, is still heavily weighted in the skill category. I can't wait to see how the main event turns out.

Should I make a big move up?

The poker bankroll currently sits at $4,000. This is quite comfortable for 3-6 ring games or $55 sit-n-gos. I have won back all the money I lost in the last Vegas debacle. Here's the dilemna. I am making close to six figures off of a real estate deal and it will hit my bank account on Friday. After paying off a second mortgage and buying my country club membership, I will still have plenty left over.

I am thinking of adding $6,000 to the bankroll and taking a stab at the higher games. Maybe the $109 sit-n-go's and the 10-20 or 15-30 ring games. I think there will never be another time in my life when there is so much easy money in high limit poker games. This poker boom cannot last forever and the losers cannot lose money forever. There may definitely come a time when all that is left at the high levels are the sharks who have eaten all the fish.

I am sure there is a difference in ability and level of play at the higher games. My question is how much? Is it so much that I could not adapt to it after a few thousand hands? I have averaged 2.36 BB/100 at 2-4 and 3-6 over the 18,000 hands I have in Poker Tracker. I can average 1 BB/100 at 10-20 and make substantially more money. My breakeven point is 0.7 BB/100.

The conservative route is to move up slowly and win my way up to 10,000. The problem is I play 10-15 hours a week. At that rate it will take me 2 years to make it to that level. All the fish may be gone by then. I have no desire to play poker full time and quit my job, but it would be nice to make 10-20k a year as a second income.

The other question is would I be able to take the losses mentally? Right now I look at it like I am playing with house money. All of the money in my poker accounts are winnings. If I add to my account and I lose the add on, how will I feel? If I lose 20 BB in a session at 10-20, that is $400. How pissed off will I get? Plus every time in the past I have taken a stab at a much higher game, I have been crushed. I never felt like I was outplayed but just unlucky. Who knows, I could be wrong.

Does anybody out there think I can do it?