My First Win in a 180 player SNG

I won a 180 person $12 Turbo Sit N Go on Poker Stars last night for the first time ever. As I explained in my previous post, I really think Arnold Snyder’s Poker Tournament Formula book has hit the nail right on the head when it comes to tournaments like these with short chips and fast blind levels. I have posted the hands that I played below.

1. Jc7s in cutoff. First hand of tournament with $1,500 in chips and 5 minute blind levels. I open raise to 60 and SB calls. Flop is 4s-5h-7c. SB leads out for 140. I am surprised by this. Maybe I should raise, but I just call to see what happens on the turn. Turn is 8s. SB bets 500. I put him on an over pair like 9’s or 10’s so I fold. He wins pot and shows AQ for a 2 barrel bluff.

2. 25-50 blinds I start with 1,240 in chips. I have 6d 6s in the hi-jack. One limper and I raise to $200. Everyone folds and the limper calls. Flop is Ts 3s 8s. Opponent shoves all in for 1145. I fold and he shows 4s 4h. Two hands played and bluffed out twice.

3. 50-100 blinds and I have 1,040 in chips. Qc Tc in early position. I open shove and win the blinds.

4. 75-150 blinds and I have 1,040 in chips. Qh 5s in UTG plus 1. The blinds are coming and I am short so I open shove. I get called in two places. This may be a short tournament. I am up against Ad 9c and Jh 8h. What was J8 thinking? Board runs out Ts Qd 3d Tc 7s and just like that I am up to 3,120 in chips.

5. Blinds are 100-200 and I have 2,970 in chips. Snyder’s book says I am desperate and need to shove any two. I have As 7c UTG so that’s what I do. Everyone folds.

6. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. I have 2720 in chips and have Ah Td UTG plus 1. I open shove all in and win the blinds and antes.

7. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. I am in the SB with 3020 in chips and 2d 2c. The cutoff raises all in to 1830 and I call. He shows Qh 5s. The board is Ks Tc Kd 6s Qs. I get rivered on my coin flip and am down to 1,165 in chips.

8. Blinds are 200-400 with 50 ante. I am UTG with 770 in chips and I push with 4d 2s. A player behind raises all in to isolate. He shows Qc As. Hey I am live! Board is 8d 5d 4c 5c 9c and I suck out.

9. Very next hand in the BB I pick up Ac Qd and I have 2440 in chips before the blinds and ante. UTG raises all in for 4,145 and I call. He shows Ad 8h. The board is 5h Kh Js 2h 7s and my AQ holds up. I went from less than 2 BB to 5,380 chips in two hands.

10. Blinds 300-600 with 50 ante. I have 5,130 in chips. I am dealt 7h 7c on the button. The cutoff raises to 1800 and push all in. The raiser calls and shows Ac 7s. I dodge his Ace outs and double up again. Now I am up to 11,410.

11. Blinds 300-600 with 50 ante. I am in the big blind with 4s 3h. It’s folded to the SB who limps in and has 4437 left in chips. I raise to 1800 and he folds.

12. Blinds are 400-800 with 75 ante. I have 11,610 in chips. I am in the cutoff with Ad 2s. UTG +1 with 7,480 in chips limps for 800. It’s folded to me and I raise to 3,200. The limper calls. I think the correct play is to push all in here, but the limp seems suspicious to me. I was planning on folding if he raised all in even though I would be getting good odds to call. The board is Qc Kd 5h. My opponent moves all in for his last 4,205 and I fold.

13. Blinds are still 400-800 with 75 ante. I have 8,035 in chips. I have Ac 7h UTG and open shove. A player with 4,612 in chips calls all in and turns over 9s Th. Huh? The board is 5h Qd 3h As 3s and my hand is good.

14. Blinds 400-800 with 75 ante. I have $14,447 in chips and Ah7h in the small blind. I open raise all in and the BB calls all in for 6,860 with 9s Qd. The board is 8c 2s 4d 7s Kc. The best hand holds up again and now I have 22,632 in chips.

15. Blinds 500-1000 with 100 ante. I am big stack at the table. I raise with 2s 5s to steal the blinds. It works and I pick up 3,200 in chips.

16. Two hands later I pick up pocket 8’s. I open raise and win the blinds again.

17. Blinds 600-1200 and 125 ante. I have 25,332 in chips and KsQs in the small blind. It’s folded to me and I raise enough to cover the BB. He folds and I pick up 3,275 in chips.

18. Blinds 600-1200 and 125 ante. I have Ad Th and raise at UTG+1 to 3,600. I win the blinds again.

19. Blinds 800-1600 and 125 ante. I get a walk in the BB.

20. Blinds 800-1600 and 125 ante. I have 31,032 in chips and pick up pocket 9’s in the small blind. A short stack with 2713 in chips moves all in. I call hoping the BB will play nice and just call so we can eliminate a player. He does. The board runs out 8h 7h 8s 5s 8c as we check it down. The short stack wins the pot with Qc Js and stays alive.

21. The next hand I have 7d6h on the button. It’s folded to me and I raise to 6000 and win the blinds.

22. Still 800-1600 with 125 ante. I pick up 8c 8h in middle position. I open raise to 4,800. A player behind me moves all in for 6,479 and I make the call. He shows Ts Td. I do not suck out for once and lose a decent sized pot.

23. The blinds are 1500-3000 with 300 ante. I have folded for a round of blinds so my image may be a little tighter now. I have Ad 7h. The table is 6 handed and I am UTG +1. I have 20,140 in chips and I open shove all in. A player with only 7,911 in chips makes the call. He shows As Ts. The board is 3c 3h 8h 6h Qh. I catch the runner-runner flush to suck out. Yea me! I am up to 34,051 in chips and tied for the chip lead at my table.

24. I get a walk in the BB and collect 4,500 in chips. Nice!

25. Blinds are still 1500-3000 with 300 ante. I have As 7h in the small blind. The table is now 5 handed. The button open shoves for 8,780 and I call. He shows Ah 9d and I am dominated again. The board is Tc 7c Ad 9h 6h. After a brief smile when I flopped two pair, it turns to a frown when he hits a better two pair on the turn. I am down to 27,371 in chips.

26. I push all in with As8s and win the blinds and antes for a 9,000 pot.

27. I have 32,771 in chips with 2000-4000 antes and 400 ante. I push all in for the second consecutive hand with KcQd. Nobody calls and I win $12,000. We have been at the final table bubble since it got down to 5 handed.

28. 2000-4000 with 400 ante. I have 35,971 in chips and Kc 9c in the small blind. It’s folded to me and I raise all in. The BB with 11,568 left in chips calls with Ah 6c. The board is 8s 3h 5d 7s 6h. I suck out and hit a straight on the river to get us to the final table.

29. Here is the final table seating chart:

a. Seat 1 Tilt u_15 (36660 in chips)

b. Seat 2 larryvq (53139 in chips)

c. Seat 3 stupidnub (13974 in chips)

d. Seat 4 tkavv (13736 in chips)

e. Seat 5 Toughloose (22260 in chips)

f. Seat 6 Ni_Liv (42753 in chips)

g. Seat 7 Timesmog (38520 in chips)

h. Seat 8 demo0013 (23,962 in chips)

i. Seat 9 rutasasha (24996 in chips)

30. There are a couple of short stacks that I would not mind seeing go bust before I get too active. On the other hand, even though I am the chip leader, I only have 13x the Big Blind so I can’t wait too long.

31. I fold a few hands including KdQd on the BB to an all in shove from Timesmog for 39k.

32. I have been blinded down to 40,139 in chips when I finally pick up a good hand. I have Kd Ks UTG. I limp for the first time in the tournament hoping to reraise. I figure that half of the table has not seen me play so it may work. Nobody bites and the BB checks. The flop is 5c Jd 4d and the BB shoves all in for 18,160. I call and he shows 8s 7h. The board runs out 5c Jd 4d 5h 4c and my hand holds up.

33. Other players bust quickly and we are down to 5 players. I have 65,199 in chips and blinds are 3000-6000 with 600 ante. I open raise Kd Qc and win the blinds for a 18,000 pot.

34. Still 5 players and I have Kh 8d on the button. The short stack pushes all in for 10,656. I call hoping for others to join in. The BB comes along as well. The board runs out 4d 7c Td 2h 3c. The short stack survives with his Qh Th and now he is up to 37,968.

35. I open shove As 3h and win the blinds and antes

36. Down to 4 players and I have 60,543 in chips. Blinds are up to 3,500-7000 with 700 ante. I get a walk in the BB.

37. Next hand I push all in with Qs Jh in the SB and win the blinds and antes.

38. 3500-7000 with 700 ante. I have 74,543 in chips. I am in second place, but the 4^th place player only has 17,368 in chips and he’s on the BB. I have Ah 2d and I raise to 21,000 figuring I will try and take out the shorty. Instead the big stack stupidnub with 110389 reraises all in. The BB folds and I have to fold. I think the better play would have been to limp and wait for the BB to push all in.

39. The shorty busts a couple of hands later and we are three handed.

a. Larryvq (45143 in chips)

b. Stupidnub (143289 in chips)

c. Timesmog (81568 in chips)

40. On the button with 3500-7000 blinds and 700 ante I have Ah3s. I push all in. Timesmog calls and shows As 3c. We chop up the BB.

41. Still 3 handed on the button again. I push all in with Js 8d for 47,243. Stupidnub reraises all in and I figure I am screwed now. He turns over Ks Jc. The board is 2s 9s Qh 8c 8h. SHIP IT!!!

42. Here are the chip counts:

a. Larryvq (103586 in chips)

b. Stupidnub (82746 in chips)

c. Timesmog (83668 in chips)

d. Blinds are 3500-7000 with 700 ante.

43. Qs Jh on the button. I move all in and win the 19,600 in blinds and ante’s

44. I have the BB and 103,586 in chips. I am the chip leader by a small amount. Stupidnub folds and Timesmog shoves all in from the SB for 70,368. I have Kh Jh and figure that’s ahead of his range of nearly any two cards so I call. He shows Ts 6c. The board runs out Qc Kd 7s 4s 6s. Boo yah! We are heads up and I have the chip lead.

45. The heads up battle lasted for 19 hands. I had him all in for his life with my AQs versus his Th Kd but he flopped a King. So then he had me by about 2-1 in chips. I kept the pots small and kept winning with small bets on the flop. I eventually made it all the way back to the chip lead with 174708 in chips to his 95292. The blinds were 5000-10000 with 1000 ante. I decided to start raising every button all in. The first hand I decided to do this with is Js 9s. He calls with Ac 8d. The board is 8s 3d 6s. Crap! The turn is a Jack. Yes! The river is ………………………………Queen and I win the tournament!!!!!! $594 for first place.

So I count 6 suck outs on my way to the title including a couple for my tournament life. I don’t think any of them were worse than 2-1 dogs before the flop so that’s not bad. I was also sucked out on a few times as well. The key was that once I got healthy I was aggressive and kept building up my chips so that when I did lose a hand or two, I was not eliminated and still had enough chips to keep players afraid of me.

The final stats were 158 hands. I had a VPIP of 31% and a PFR of 22%. My aggression factor was 2.44.

I think I could kiss Arnold Snyder right about now. That was easily the best $15 I have ever spent on a poker book.

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Larry and Billy Golf Bet Match #3

We played our third match last Sunday. I was up 2-0 coming and feeling very confident.


Once again I jumped out to an early lead by playing the first two holes in 1 under par. By the time we were through the first 7 holes I was up by 4 strokes. It could have been more. On the 3rd hole, Bill hit his tee shot out of bounds and was staring triple bogey in the face. My second shot was pulled left and hit a palm tree up near the fronds. We were looking all around the tree for the ball and could not find it. Finally I looked up in the tree and there it was, lodged in the palm fronds 35 feet above me. The good news was that I could take an unplayable lie and only take one stroke for a penalty. The bad luck came from the fact that this was the first time I have ever hit a tree and not had the ball fall out.


I was cruising along just fine until the 8th hole. It was here that I started to miss my short putts. I bogeyed 8 and double bogeyed 9 to shoot a 41 on the front 9. My lead was gone and so was my confidence.


I continued to play poorly including missing a couple more short putts. The coup de grace was having the cart girl fire up the engine on her gas cart right in the middle of backswing when I was trying to pitch out of trouble on 17. I proceeded to pull the shot left and it landed right behind another tree and I had no shot at hitting the green.


The final score was Bill 83 and I had an 87.


I am going to take a series of lessons from Byron, our teaching pro at the club starting on January 19th. Hopefully he can straighten out my game quickly.

A Strategy Eye Opener for Low Limit Tournaments

I picked up the Poker Tournament Formula I and II by Arnold Snyder on Amazon the other day. I have pretty much finished volume 1 which caters to small buy in fast tournaments. This book really drives home how important position is in poker tournaments.

The main theme of the book is that you need to play fast and aggressive poker to stay ahead of the rising blind levels in these tournaments. He makes a great point in saying instead of relying on luck to bring you good cards to double up, why not bet on the fact that your opponents will not have good cards?

The chapter on position was the real eye opener for me. His strategy in late position is extremely aggressive, but I really think it would work well in the tight passive games I’ve seen at Casino Arizona.

All of these plays assume you have at least 30 blinds in your stack.

Here is a brief summary:

If it’s folded to you in the button, cutoff, or hi-jack raise with any 2 cards. If you get a caller, fire ½ the pot or more on any flop. If you are called again, be looking to bet the turn as well unless it looks like suicide.

If the pot is unraised, but there are one or two limpers, go ahead and raise any two. Same strategy on the flop and turn applies.

If someone raises in front of you and he is the only one in the pot, call with any two on the button. Your opponent will usually bet on the flop. If he doesn’t, try to take the hand away with a bet. Otherwise call the continuation bet. If he checks the turn, make a big bet to take it away. If he bets the turn, look to raise all in.

This may seem crazy aggressive, but when you stop and think about it, these situations do not come up very often. It is not folded to you very often in late position, so I think you can get away with most of these steals. Calling a raise of one player does not happen very often as well, only because a lot of times the raise gets multiple callers. I think I have probably raised without looking at my cards 15 times in late position, over all the tournaments I’ve played and I think my success rate is nearly 100%.

The position plays where you call a pre-flop raise to take the pot away on the flop or turn can also be very strong. Snyder’s book made me think of all the times I have raised up AK, AQ, QQ, JJ, or TT in early or middle position only to see me miss the flop or have an over card hit. I usually make the continuation bet on the flop and I absolutely hate it when I get called. I rarely will fire two bullets on these bluffs. Even when I have an over pair and I like the flop, I usually bet the flop then check the turn for pot control. If my opponent, who has position on me, fires a big bet on the turn or raises my turn bet, I’m probably throwing away everything but the nuts.

The key is to pick your spots carefully. You need to have a good idea of where your opponent stands in chips and plan your bets accordingly. If your plan is to call the raise and a flop bet, but then realize that your opponent has now put half his stack in the middle, he may feel pot committed and make the call. We definitely want the opponent to feel comfortable in folding. Plus this play can pick up a lot of chips. For example let’s say a middle position player opens for 3x the BB and I call on the button. My opponent fires on the flop and I call. Now he checks the turn and bet and win the pot. That’s 7-9 BB that I pick up on that play. Even more, if I make the risky play where I raise a turn bet from my opponent. I would have to steal the blinds 5 times to make the same amount as this one play.

Now I know that the tight conservative player would argue, “What happens if you run into an opponent with a real hand? You just lost 7-12 BB running a bluff!” I have found that there are some days when every move you make seems to work out and there are other days where every time you make a move, someone raises you. The objective is to accumulate chips and it just seems much more difficult to do waiting for good cards and hoping you get paid off.

The one part of his strategy that I do not agree with is that if you are under 20 blinds that you should push all in if you are the first player to enter the pot. I believe the hands he mentions are QQ – 77, AKs, AQs, AJs, AKo, AQo, KQs, and QJs. If you are under 10 blinds then the range is even wider. I think the 20 BB shove is not the most optimal way to play. If the table is playing tight, and you get called, your hand will probably be crushed. Now it’s great if you get called and win since you may win up to 20 BB. I just think that a standard 3x or even a 5x raise will work the same and allow you to get away from the hand if someone pushes over the top and you don’t like your hand. I may experiment more with this theory in the turbo Sit-N-Gos to see if I’m right.

Snyder likes to break down his strategy into a Rock – Paper – Scissors theme. He says Position beats Cards, Stacks beat Position, and Cards beat Stacks. You have three weapons at your disposal. Cards are only one of them. He estimates that in his tournament wins he has won 40% of his chips from cards, 40% from position, and the other 20% from using his stack. My results are probably more like 70% cards, 15% position, and 15% stack. Snyder likes to say he would almost rather play a tournament without getting good cards because those are the ones you tend to bust out with.

I did fire up a 90 player turbo Sit-N-Go and a 180 player turbo Sit-N-Go on Poker Stars after getting half way through the book. I incorporated some of his moves and did very well. I finished in the top 20 in the 90 player tournament and I finished 5^th in the 180 player tournament. I managed to build up a big stack in both of the tournaments. I ran into a maniac in the 180 player tournament at the final table that was calling all in bets with nearly any two cards and getting lucky. He picked me off in the end, even though my hand was a slight favorite before the flop.

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Bill and Larry Golf Bet Round 2

I am up 1-0 in out best of 10 rounds bet. Today was round number 2. I made the classic mistake of taking a lesson yesterday and trying to change a couple of things in my swing. As Tin Cup said, "my swing feels like an unfolded lawnchair!"

We started today on the 10th hole. I picked up a stroke as Bill double bogeyed the first hole and I scraped out a bogey. Bill got the stroke back on the 12th with a par and another bogey from me. Then he picked up 2 more strokes on 14 when he made birdie to my bogey.

I was not starting off well since I had bogeyed the first 6 holes. I finally made my first par on 16, but I slipped back with a bogey on 17 to fall 3 strokes behind.

Bill let me back into the match on 18. It is a 512 yard par 5 which Bill can reach in 2 if he hits a strong tee shot. With my weak driving, I have never been close to reaching it. I hit a good drive off the tee, but Bill hit a tree with his tee shot, and his second shot was not much better. I laid up with a 5 iron and had 105 yards to the pin. Bill was looking at 230 yards with water on the right front of the green and bunkers on the left. He tried to hit 2 iron left of the green, but he pushed it into the water. I hit my wedge to about 15 feet and missed the birdie putt. I made the 3 foot come backer for another par. Bill took a drop and then hit another bad wedge shot short of the green. He finally chipped on and one putted for a 7.

After making up 2 shots on 18, I was only one shot behind going into our final 9 holes. I proceeded to give Bill a big cushion again as I missed a short putt for par on #1 and then 3 putted #2. Meanwhile Bill made a miraculous par on #1 after getting stuck behind the huge pine trees left of the green and then birdied #2. So it's back to a 4 shot cushion with 7 holes to play.

In a common theme throughout the day, Bill let me right back into the match on #3. We both hit good drives off the tee. We each had 200 yards to the green for our second shot. Somehow Bill hit his 3 iron 30 yards right and out of bounds. After taking the stroke and distance penalty, he hit his next shot into the greenside bunker on the right. I hit my long awaited first solid shot of the day with my 4 iron replacement to the middle of the green. Bill hit a good long bunker shot, but could not convert the putt and had to settle for a 7. I two putted for my par 4 and picked up 3 strokes to close Bill's lead to one.

The 4th hole is a tough 383 yard par 4 with fairway bunkers on the left and right and deep greenside bunkers as well. Plus the front half of the green slopes severely from back to front. Bill and I both hit strong drives that finished up within 1 yard of each other. Bill hit his pitching wedge and it landed on the front right of the green. I hit the same club and once again our balls were within 3 feet of each other. Unfortunately, my ball was farther away from the hole so I had to putt first and show Bill the break on the putt. I hit a good one to gimme range and made par. Bill then stepped up and drained the 25 footer for his 3rd birdie of the day.

I dropped another stroke on #6 to fall 3 strokes behind with 3 to play. Then I made an incredible comeback. Hole number 7 is the longest par 5 on the course at 547 yards. We both hit lousy drives left into the trees. I punched out down the fairway leaving me 230 yards to the green. Bill punched out into the fairway bunkers 125 yards from the green. I took my 3 wood and hit a really solid shot that ended up just short of the green with a front pin. Bill had to carry a pretty high lip in the bunker. While Bill was getting ready to hit his difficult bunker shot, I mentioned that I might just hole my chip for birdie so he better not play it safe wedging it out short of the green. Bill hit a good shot, but he pushed it right and into the back greenside bunker. I hit my 60 degree wedge pitch shot and it looked like it was going right into the cup....but it broke hard to the left at the last second and I had to settle for par. Bill could not get up and down from the bunker and I picked up one stroke.

Two strokes down with two to play. Number 8 is a 169 yard par 3. They had tucked the pin behind the greenside bunker on the left. Since I was behind, I felt compelled to shoot at it. I hit the ball solidly, but put some hook spin on it and missed the green to the left. Bill hit a good shot to about 20 feet from the cup. I was lucky enough to have a clear shot at the pin, but there was a pine tree just to the left of my line that would restrict my follow through. Plus I had short sided myself so I did not have a lot of green to work with. My short pitch shot came off perfectly as it bunced twice in the fringe and then trickled down to the hole where it came up 12 inches short of perfection. I was very happy to escape with a par 3. Bill in trying to break my heart and spirit by making birdie, ran his putt eight feet by the hole. I had to stifle a chuckle as he missed the par putt and let me back into the match for the third time today.

Our final hole was #9. It's a 381 yard par four with fairway bunkers on the left and a huge pine and olive tree on the right. It's important to find the fairway on this hole if you want any chance at birdie or an easy par. I was really proud of myself as I hit one of my best drives of the day right down the middle. Bill continued to choke by firing his drive out to the right. Sometimes you can hit it far enough to the right that you avoid all the trouble and have a clear shot at the green. Bill was not quite that lucky. He had 148 yards to the pin, but he would have to hit about a 10 yard draw to avoid the tree in front of him. He hit a pretty good shot, but he did not account for the fact that when you hit a draw, you tend to hit the ball a little farther than when you hit a straight ball or a fade. His ball bounced off the back of the green into the rough.

I was sitting in the middle of the fairway with 150 yards to go. The pin was on the back edge of the green and to go long would be an impossible up and down. I usually hit my 8 iron 140-145 yards so that seemed like the club. However I had been hitting my irons short all day and I needed to make sure I had a chance a birdie. I decided to hit a choked up 7 iron. I figured that by choking up, it would also help me keep the ball flight straighter. The shot came off perfectly and it looked like it was going to end up in birdie range. It landed pin high, but because of the lower shot trajectory, it did not stop right away and trickled forward and just into the fringe at the back of the green. I was going to have a chance at winning this round.

With a one stroke lead, Bill's main objective should have been to finish with no worse than a bogey. If he bogeys, then that would force me to birdie the hole for the win. That means that at a minimum he needed to hit his pitch shot on the green and two putt. Instead he tried to be a hero and hit the perfect pitch. It came up short and he had to hit another pitch. His second attempt was not that good either as it left him 8 feet for bogey.

I decided to putt from the fringe. It was 20 feet with about 3 feet of break from left to right. I hit the putt with good speed, but misread the break just a little. It was a good putt and I made the two footer for par to put all the pressure on Bill. He still had 8 feet to try and tie the match. It never had a chance as it started out to the right from the beginning. Bill finished with a soul crushing double bogey and handed me the match. The final score was 83 - 84 to give me a 2-0 lead in our best of 10 matches.

Good Article on Tells

Joe Navarro is an expert on tells. He wrote a great book called "Read'em and Reap" and currently writes for Bluff Magazine. I found this article online and I want to remember to look for these tells of the mouth. I will update you the next time I play live to see if I noticed it.

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/Tells-of-the-Mouth-Joe-Navarro-1297.htm

Bill and Larry Golf Bet year 3

The matchup to decide the best golfer between the two of us for 2009 started today. 10 rounds of golf. Each round will be stroke play. Each win counts as one point. The first one to 5.5 points win the bet. Bill had made some noise a couple of weeks ago about not betting any money on it due to the economy. I of course, questioned his man hood and goaded him into agreeing to a $500 wager. He finally accepted.

Due to the crowd of players today we started on hole number 10. In a surprise, Bill's 5 year old son, joined us for the first 7 holes. I knew this might be a distraction for Bill and sure enough, he had a couple of bad holes when he got distracted.

Bill had jumped out to an early lead as I bogeyed the first 4 holes. My first stroke of luck happened on 14. I hit a 3 wood left, that hit a tree and managed to stay in bounds by about 6 inches. I had to lay up to 50 yards in front of the green and made a bogey 5. The good news was that Bill had hit his tee shot out of bounds and missed the green on his approach. He finished with a 7 to my 5 and I suddenly had a 2 shot lead.

Then I got lucky and birdied the next two holes including number 16 where I sank a 35 foot putt. In the mean time Bill continued his downward spiral by bogeying 15 and double bogeying 16. Suddenly I had a 7 stroke lead after 7 holes.

In my usual fashion I proceeded to give back a bunch of strokes. I got an unlucky bounce off the cart path on 17 and make double bogey. Then I managed to hit the ball in the water on 18 and my lead was back down to 3.

The backsliding continued as we made the turn. To make things worse we had been playing behind a very slow group of 5 old men who would not do the courtesy of letting our foursome play through. It was cold and threatening rain plus the group behind us was losing patience and had yelled at us a couple of times to hurry up. I went back to talk to one of them and let them know that it wasn't our fault. They ended up skipping a couple of holes to get in front of the both of us.

By the time we arrived at the third hole, my lead was down to one. I finally found my groove and went on a run and played the last 7 holes in 1 over par. Bill had some chances to put the pressure on me, but he 3 putted on 7 to miss an opportunity to pick up a stroke and he missed the birdie putt on 18 that would have put the pressure on me to make my 3 footer for par.

The final score was Larry 81 and Bill 83. I now lead the best of 10 rounds 1-0 and the momentum continues from 2008 into 2009.

Short Stack Tournament Strategy

I have been on a bit of a good run at the casino recently. On Friday after work I played in the 5-150 game at Casino Arizona. I sat and folded for 2 hours and was down $100 when lightning struck. In the span of 5 minutes, I flopped the nut straight and doubled up and then I flopped a set of 7's and turned the full house and won another $250.



At the high point I was up $400. I lost some of it back with Queens when a King flopped and ended the day up over $300.



I had to come back on Saturday morning to play in the Bubble Boy Free Roll. This was the tournament for all the players that had finished on the bubble in all the previous tournaments throughout the year. It was a $25 service fee plus you could get 1500 extra chips for an additional $10, 5 of which went to the dealers and a $5 Keno card.



There were 185 players and they were paying the top 40 a minimum of $50.



Once again I started out fast. In the first hour I had quad 6's and got paid, a straight, and a flush. I won nearly every hand I played in this tournament except for 3.



The first one was early and I'm not sure if I played it wrong or not. I raised one limper with KJs in late position. The button called, the BB called and the limper called. The flop was King high with no straight or flush possible. I did not like the preflop call behind me and I was worried about getting sucked in to a big pot. It was checked to me and I checked as well to see what the button would do. He checked behind.



The turn was a 9, which seemed innocent enough. Except the BB led out for the size of the pot. The early player folded. I still had the button behind me left to act, but I was pretty sure he was going to fold since he didn't act on the flop. I still thought I was ahead, but I wanted to protect my chips. I just called and hoped he would not fire again on the river.



The river was meaningless and he put in the rest of his chips. I could still call and have over 20 BB left, which is a big stack in this tournament. I called and he showed me trip 9's. He had hit the two outer on the turn.



So with results oriented thinking, I should have bet the flop and he probably would have folded. I think with 3 other people in the hand, I need to bet to protect my hand and find out where I am. I could probably bet half the pot and figure that out. If it's heads up, I can check it, because I am either way ahead or way behind. He either has a King with a better kicker or something better. Or he is drawing to 2-5 outs to hit his trips or second pair.



Another hand was a raise with KJ where a short stack pushed all in from the BB. I was getting over 2-1 on my call and felt like I had to make it. I lost the race against AQ.



I easily made it into the top 40 and actually made it down to the final two tables. I was fluctuating between 8-12 BB and the blinds were now going to double every 30 minutes. If I had to guess, the average stack was probably 7-9 BB, but I had the two chip leaders on my left with 20-40 BB. My stealing options were going to be a bit limited.



I made a push all in with A2o in early position and the big stack on my left called with JJ and I did not improve. I finished in 15th for $100. When I added that to the $135 I won in the morning playing 3-6 limit hold'em, it made for a very profitable day.



I was a little disappointed in myself that I made the raise with A2. After thinking about for a while, I thought that maybe I should have waited for a better spot.



I am going to discuss two things relating to late tournament strategy. The first is simple push or fold calculations preflop. The second is a proper strategy for stealing blinds when all the other players have 8-12 BB in their stacks.



I posted the hand for help on two plus two and they told me about the statistical formula to calculate the fold percentage for multiple players.



If people are calling with probability x, the formula for the chances that someone out of y number of players calls is:1 - (1-x)^y.



So, for 5 players left to act and they are calling with the top 10% of their hands, someone will call 40.9% of the time.







The second part of strategy is what to do when everyone is playing tight and they have short stacks. You have a few different options:



1. Play tight and wait for good cards to double up. Wait for premium hands, raise enough to put your opponents all in and hope they double you up.



2. Raise 3x the blind and widen your range a little. If they reraise, you are priced in to call so be sure to play cards you don't mind going all in with. Usually they will call the raise and see if they hit the flop. So you may be forced to go all in on the flop if you want to win the pot.



3. Raise 2-2.5x the blind. In this case, if your opponent reraises all in, you may be able to find a fold and save yourself a little money. The draw back is that more players will be enticed to call the smaller bet and you will be forced to play post flop.



The players seem to play so tight that I am starting to think that option 3 may work in the Casino Arizona tournaments.

a) The players are bad enough that some feel a raise of the BB of 3000 to 6000 seems like a big raise and they may fold, when they are getting 2.5 to one to make the call. They are seldom that big of an underdog to anything.

b)It will let you get away a little cheaper if someone plays back at you for 8-12BB.

c) It will also get you a little more action on your high pocket pairs.

Now I posed this question on 2+2 and they all recommended that I raise enough to put my opponents all in. Maximum pressure. You get called less, and if you do get called and double up you win even more chips. I think I'll try the min raise the next time and see what happens.

Golf Tournament and New Monitor

I played in the Member-Member with Bill last weekend at Phoenix CC. Bill claimed that he should be deemed a Saint since he performed a miracle and convinced Alisha that he could play golf for 3 straight days.

It was a stressful tournament as after the first few holes on Friday, my back tightened up and I was sure I was going to be on my back the rest of the weekend. For once, it actually loosened up on Saturday and felt 100% on Sunday. Usually if I feel the twinge, it means the full blown spasm is coming soon.

We were only 4 shots back of the leaders in our flight going into the last round. However the format was a modified chapman. I don't know why it's called a "chapman" but it's alternate shot with a dash of scramble. We both hit our tee shots, then switch balls (I hit his tee shot and vice versa), then we pick the best of the two and alternate shots from there. This format will test the bounds of friendship in a hurry if you have any competitive spirit.

In spite of Bill's excitement to play 3 straight days of golf, he showed up 10 minutes before our tee time on Sunday and played with no warm up. Any kind of warm up would have been a good idea since it was 50 degrees and the greens were running extra fast. So because he was cold and the jacket he wore was restricting his swing, he managed to put 4 balls in the water on the first 6 holes. I seriously wanted to quit and go home when we made the turn. I have never seen him play that bad. Especially when he's motivated to play. I don't know where we finished in the flight but with a net 77, I'm sure it was near the bottom.

The big news for poker is that I bought a new wide screen monitor. Now I can tile 6 Full Tilt tables without any over lap. I can also do it for Poker Stars but they are a little small for my taste. I gave it a test run tonight and I played 5 tables of .25-50 No Limit on Poker Stars. I managed to play 433 hands in one hour. Unfortunately I lost about $40, but it was good to know that I did not have too much trouble handling the volume.

This will come in handy if I ever decide to bonus whore or try to rack up FPP's on Poker Stars for some of their benefits.

I think for the most part, I will continue with 2 tables at higher stakes and concentrate on becoming a better player.

Plus the new monitor has a built in webcam so I will be able to video conference with people on skype once I sign up for an account.

A New Move

andyH333 is a good tight aggressive player. I have over 200 hands of history on him where he almost never limps in a pot and raises about 22% of his hands preflop.

jimbobjones2006 is a loose passive player. My stats show him playing 38% of his hands preflop (the ideal is 15-22%) and only raising 8% of the time.

I have seen andyH333 raise jimbo after he limps a couple of times. It looks like a standard isolation play. Punishing the limpers is something I like to do.

In the example below, jimbo limps, and andy raises. I am in the small blind. For once I make a play based on the situation and not my cards. jimbo is probably weak and doesn't have a hand that can call two raises. andyH333 is probably not that strong since he is just trying to isolate jimbo. I raise to $15 and win the pot.

I must be getting comfortable at these levels because not once in the hand did I think about "oh my gosh it's $15 I just bet!" The great players are this comfortable at every level. I am working on it.

FullTiltPoker Game #9397726407: Table Requa (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:48:38 ET - 2008/12/08
Seat 1: mmmpotbrownies ($101.40)
Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 ($119.30)
Seat 3: You Dont See Me ($205.60)
Seat 4: GreatWent ($106.70)
Seat 5: jimbobjones2006 ($145.40)
Seat 6: andyh333 ($106)
mmmpotbrownies posts the small blind of $0.50
Poker_Bully1 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [6d 5c]
You Dont See Me folds
GreatWent folds
jimbobjones2006 calls $1
andyh333 raises to $4.50
mmmpotbrownies folds
Poker_Bully1 has 15 seconds left to act
Poker_Bully1 raises to $15
jimbobjones2006 fold
sandyh333 has 15 seconds left to act
andyh333 is sitting out
andyh333 has timed out
andyh333 folds
Uncalled bet of $10.50 returned to Poker_Bully1
Poker_Bully1 mucksPoker_Bully1 wins the pot ($10.50

Bubble Boy and 60 Minutes

Well it finally happened in a live tournament. I played the $85 afternoon tournament at Casino Arizona on Friday afternoon. There were 180 players and they would pay 20 players. I finished in 21st.

It did not take me long to build up a stack in this tournament. I was all in by the second hand of the tournament. I had AcQc on the button. There was one limper and I raised to 200. The blinds folded and the limper called. The flop was Jc-Td-6c. He checked to me and I bet 300. He raised me to 1000. I had about 3000 left.

Before I did anything, I stopped to try and read his hand. He limped before the flop, which could mean something bad like he flopped a set of 10's or 6's. He could also do this with Ace-Jack or a draw. I figure that I need to accumulate chips quickly in these tournaments and even if he has a set, I still have 12 clean outs to the nuts. I move all in.

He says, "Hmmmm I guess I call" He turns over Q9 offsuit. What a dummy! My hand held up and I was off to a quick start. This player still had about 500 in chips left after he lost the hand because he had received a starting chip bonus for his cash game play before the tournament. I tried to finish him off a little while later when I had an over pair to his pair of 5s. Unfortunately he spiked a 5 on the river and eventually had built back up to a decent stack. I did not see him after our table broke, but he did not make it to the last 2 tables.

Once again, most of the players in this tournament were way too tight and passive. I think there was one point in the tournament where my raises went uncalled before the flop 10 straight times. Don't get me wrong, I was picking my spots well and not playing too crazy. I was picking up legitimate raising hands 90% of the time with the others being bluffs in late position or against tight blinds.

I also managed to win my races when I needed to. I don't consider it good or bad luck when I win a race, but if you win a few in a row, then it's definitely a good run of cards. Just before the last break, I won a big race for 3/4 of my stack with AK vs QQ. That left me with 30,000 in chips and the blinds at 1,000-2,000. We had 3 tables left and 21 players. 20th-11th place paid $100. The decent money was in the top 3 spots.

The last big tournament score at CAZ, I was a little miffed at myself because I felt like I could have taken advantage of the tight players more to build up my stack for the final table. Since I didn't really care if I "win" my money back, I decided that I was going to raise every time it was folded to me, until someone pushed back. Why not, since no one had pushed back thus far?

The one problem with this plan was that there were 2 other players that had me covered by 10-20k. One was three to my right and the other was 3 to my left. So basically one of them was going to have position on me in every hand.

I was under the gun plus one for the first hand back on the bubble. I picked up 97 offsuit and raised to 5k. Everyone behind me folded, except the big stack on the button who raised me to 10k. The blinds both folded. Now I really wanted to throw my hand away, but it was only 5k more to call into a 18k pot. The math says call, so that's what I did.

The flop was A-T-6 rainbow. I checked my inside straight draw praying he'd give me a free look at it. He checked behind. The turn was another ten. Since he checked and didn't seem to like the flop, I thought I would bet and maybe convince him I had a ten. I bet 8k and he min raises me again to 16k. I contemplate calling and hoping for the miracle, but I decide if I fold, I can still push all in on another hand and win the blinds a couple of times or find a better spot. He told me he had Ace-Ten for a full house. Nice timing there Lar!

I fold the next few hands including the blinds and I'm left with 9k. It's folded to me in the cutoff and I raise with Jack-Eight offsuit all in. I raised because one of the short stacks was in the big blind and it seemed he was trying to squeek into the money. Especially since there was another player on my right who only had 4,000 left. Unfortunately he called me with King Ten. I did not get lucky, except for the fact that he had less money than me, so I was still alive with 3,500 in chips.

I folded the remaining hands until it got to my blind. Unfortunately there was a raise and a call before it got to me and I looked at Ace-8. I could not come up with a decent reason to fold, so I put the rest of my chips in and hoped to get lucky. The two other players checked down all the streets as they came out - Q-J-9-2-10. Hey I have a straight, that has to be good right? Nope, they both had Ace-King.

I still think my strategy was a good one and that I just got a bit unlucky to run into some decent hands behind me. I do think I could have found a fold on the 9-7 just on the fact that I would still have 25k left and enough to scare people from calling me on future raises. The good news is that they are having a "free roll" for a $25 service fee in December for all the bubble boys and girls from the tournaments throughout the year. So I have a chance to redeem my pride.

The other big poker news is that 60 Minutes finally aired their expose on the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet cheating scandals. Overall I thought the piece was pretty fair. They definitely stuck it to UB and AP as well as Russ Hamilton. The main focus was on how the players playing the game caught the cheaters, not the companies themselves, and how the cheating players had yet to charged or prosecuted for any crimes.

The big problem with the story was that they failed to differentiate that playing online poker is not illegal. Owning an online poker company in the US is illegal. Funding the poker account is now illegal for the banks. But it's always been legal to play.

They also did not bring up anything about the passage of the UIGEA or the legislation that is out there to regulate online poker. The Washington Post will be publishing a companion piece tomorrow discussing whether online poker should be "legal" and regulated, so maybe some important players in Washington will see this article and look further into the subject. It's really going to suck if the banks actually start enforcing these regulations.

Another Win at Casino AZ

I passed a milestone this week. Back in January, I had set my annual life goals for 2008. I made goals relating to life, work, golf, tennis, and poker. One of my goals for poker was to increase my bankroll to at least $5,000 using the "Chris Ferguson" method of bankroll management.

While playing online last weekend, I managed to cross the $5,000 total bankroll mark for about 10 seconds. The plan was to pass it and quit so I could at least say I was there for one day. However as I passed it, I was dealt pocket jacks before I could close out of the table. In short I lost about $70 on that hand, so I was beneath the goal again.

Yesterday, I went to the Casino Arizona after work to play in the 5-150 game. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, but I am starting to recognize some of the players at my table. A person of Asian descent, named Dan was on my left and he said he played with me two weeks ago. The younger, blond haired guy, who kept me from reraising my pocket Aces last week was at the table. And for the third time, the older man who is a member of Whisper Rock Golf Club, was on my right.

For a brief moment in time, one of biggest fish I have ever seen, was sitting at the table as well. I believe he is of Indian (the country) descent. I think he was playing last week and someone at my table pointed him out at another table. He said that he just kept moving all in for $150 and driving everyone nuts at the table. This time he was at my table and after watching the first rotation of blinds, I was starting to get excited. He was awful! Unfortunately, before I had a chance to play a hand with him, he went broke and asked for a table change. The rest of us at the table joked that we were all going to go up to the front desk and request a table change to his new table but no one actually had the balls to go up and do it. When I left for the day, I saw him at the ATM pulling out $1,000. I hope I see him again.

I ended up winning $200 for the session with most of it from just two hands. I flopped two pair and got an old man drawing to a flush to call $210 to do it. Then the very next hand I picked up pocket Jacks and raised in position. A shortish stack called for about 25% of his remaining chips. When the flop came out 8 high, he moved all in and I called. He had Ace-King and did not improve.

Before these hands, I was down about $100 from one hand. It was the most interesting one of the session so here it is:

I have $250 in front of me and Ac8c in middle position. There is a raise in front of me to $15. I call, Dan calls behind me, and the big blind calls. 4 players to the flop for $60.

The flop is Qc-Qh-9c. It's checked to me and I bet $30 with my club flush draw. Dan calls behind me and the other two players fold.

The turn is a 4d. Now I look at Dan and he has about $150 left. He could be on a weaker draw than me or he has a Queen. I decide to bet $60. He thinks for about a second and moves all in. So it's $90 more to win $60+$60+$60+$150=$330. So it's not quite the right odds to call assuming my flush wins the pot. He could have Q-9 and I would be drawing dead. He could hit the King or Jack of clubs and crush me there, so I think it's a pretty fundamental fold.

I initially bet on the flop, hoping to take down the pot. I figured with the board being so draw heavy that someone with a Queen would raise immediately to price out the draws. When Dan called, I thought there was some chance he was drawing, although a Queen was definitely in his range.

I think the bet on the turn was probably a bad play on my part. I think that bet folds out the worse draws and only gets called or raised by better hands. Plus I almost made it enough to force me to throw good money after bad and chase the flush. If I check, I give Dan the chance to make a silly small bet and give me the odds to chase the flush or bet enough to make me give up the hand. Plus if he checks behind with say a King high flush draw or a straight draw, then I can bluff the river, or better yet, hit a club and win the rest of his stack.

Can you win a big 4 way pot with Aces?

After another brutal day in the financial markets I decided to relieve some stress by playing the 5-150 game at Casino Arizona. My luck was not any better for the first 2 hours as I was card dead and decided to run bluffs against the two biggest calling stations at the casino. To be fair, on one of the bluffs, I happened to run into top two pair and made a bad read. He stared right at me when he bet which I thought was the classic tell of strong means weak. I guess strong means strong in this case. Plus this was early in the session before I realized how bad these players were.



So I had dug myself a $200 hole by 5:15 PM and it was time to go. I had one hand left before the blinds hit me and I picked up pocket Aces. I raised to $20. The high school basketball coach on my left called, one more call, loose hispanic player raises to $65. The other big calling station calls and then the old man goes all in for $140.



I of course try to raise the full $150 again and make it $290 total. Then the player in the 7 seat, who was not in the hand, tells the dealer that I am not allowed to raise. I ask for the floor supervisor to come over and straighten this out, since the basketball coach and the player on his left had folded, and the other caller, had put in more chips to call my raise.



The supervisor came over and explained that there is a 3 raise limit (due to the game technically being a "limit" game). So the dealer gave me back $150 and the other player $150 and we see the flop 4 handed with one all in. $600 in the pot and I am convinced there is no way that my Aces are going to hold up.



The flop is Qs-8s-3s. Oy vey! I'm pretty sure someone probably has pocket Queens. I notice that everyone starts looking at their hole cards again. I say, "why don't we all take a moment to check our hole cards for a spade?" I peek at my cards and lo and behold I have the Ace of spades.



The loose player on my left tries to argue that I checked. Everyone else at the table talks him down after they all confirm that I said, "let's check our hole cards". I bet $150 and loose player calls and other loose player calls. Sheesh I may just have the best hand! If someone hit a set on a monotone board, you have to raise right? $1050 in the pot.



The turn is an Ace. All right! Now this pot is all mine. I am going to value town here. Rats! I only have $27 left in my stack. I bet it and get two callers. $1131 in the pot.



The river is a deuce and the two other players make their small bets for a side pot. The side pot is won by the first loose player on my left with pocket Queens. The main pot is won by me when the old man rolls over pocket Kings.



SHIP IT!


This $1,131 pot was by far the largest I had ever won, breaking my previous $700 record from my trip to Vegas last December. It took me 4 hands to stack and rack all my chips. I apologized for leaving so soon after cleaning everyone out and left with a $606 profit. This definitely cheered me up after a bleh day at work.

Cheating? Misclick? Stupid?

I was not involved in this hand, but I couldn't believe it when it was over and the cards were turned up.

FullTiltPoker Game #9033243967: Table Highland (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:39:20 ET - 2008/11/17
Seat 1: KORsung ($101.05)
Seat 2: Poker_Bully1 ($96.70)
Seat 3: CaseAce84 ($99.05)
Seat 4: MTY-BEAT ($118.55)
Seat 5: Ship it Strange ($105.60)
Seat 6: Fighting Tilt ($124.40)
Fighting Tilt posts the small blind of $0.50
KORsung posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Poker_Bully1 [Tc 5c]
Poker_Bully1 folds
CaseAce84 folds
MTY-BEAT raises to $2
Ship it Strange folds
Fighting Tilt folds
KORsung calls $1

*** FLOP *** [3h 4d Jd]
KORsung checks
MTY-BEAT bets $1
KORsung raises to $10
MTY-BEAT calls $9

*** TURN *** [3h 4d Jd] [Kc]

KORsung bets $24.50
MTY-BEAT calls $24.50

*** RIVER *** [3h 4d Jd Kc] [6s]

KORsung bets $64.55, and is all in
MTY-BEAT calls $64.55

*** SHOW DOWN ***
KORsung shows [3d 4c] two pair, Fours and Threes
MTY-BEAT mucks
KORsung wins the pot ($199.60) with two pair, Fours and Threes

*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $202.60 Rake $3
Board: [3h 4d Jd Kc 6s]
Seat 1: KORsung (big blind) showed [3d 4c] and won ($199.60) with two pair, Fours and Seat 4: MTY-BEAT mucked [2d 9d]

MTY-BEAT bet, called the raise on the flop with the flush draw, check called the turn, and then called the river with 9 high!

Now I thought that maybe they were colluding so I looked up where they say they are from. KORsung is from South Korea and MTY-BEAT is from Mexico. I don't think they are close friends since they are half way around the world from each other.

I did manage to take the rest of MTY-BEAT's money when he went all in with middle pair and I called with top pair, top kicker.

Should I send this hand history to Full Tilt security? Any thoughts from my readers?

Internet Blackout and Sunday Tournaments

As I write this, they are playing the final table of the WSOP Main Event. I am going to do my best to avoid finding out who won and watch it "live" on Tuesday night. Of course this will require me to avoid surfing poker blogs and watching ESPN in case they show the winner on the crawl below the main screen. I don't know, but I'm thinking it might be kind of tough.



Today was the monthly rakeback freeroll with a $20,000 prize pool. In two previous attempts at this tournament, I may have played a combined 20 hands. They were quick and inglorious exits. Especially embarrasing after clearing the afternoon with my wife, and coming out of the "man cave" fifteen minutes later saying, "I'm done".



So in my tradition of over analysis I thought I would review all the hands I played:



1500 in starting chips. 563 players and they were paying 89 players.



Starting blinds were 15-30.



1. Ad6d utg. I raised since it was the second hand of the tournament and I figured half the table probably was not at their computer yet. Instead I get called in 3 other spots. The flop is 8-7-4 with one diamond.



The blind checks and I check. The player behind bets 250 and the button calls 250. The blind folds and I decide that it's too much to draw to my inside straight. Of course there is a 5 on the river and I would have got there. Not a good start.



2. KsJc in the cutoff. 1335 in chips. I open raise to 100 and win the blinds.



3. Blinds are 20-40. 1335 in chips. I have KsKc in the cutoff. I open raise to 100 and win the blinds.



4. Blinds are 25-50. I have 1,255 in chips. AhQd in middle position. I open raise to 150 and win the blinds. By now I figured out three different players that registered and did not show up to play the tournament. They are getting blinded off. Thanks to poker tracker I can figure this out quicker than the guys without it. We'll see how long until they catch on.



5. Blinds are 30-60. I have 1,240 in chips. JhQd on the button. Folded to me, I raise to 180 and win the blinds.



6. 30-60 blinds and 1,330 in chips. The blinds are on two players who are absent. I am ready to raise with any two cards except I wake up with AhQd. I open raise to 180 and win the blinds. I am going to need some action eventually.



7. Very next hand I raise QJo and win the blinds again.



8. 30-60 blinds and 1,510 in chips. Tc9c in late position. I open raise to 180 and win the blinds.



9. I steal the absent guys blinds again with QhTh.



10. 1570 in chips. Blinds are 40-80. One of the absent guys is in the big blind. I open raise with JdTd to 240. The small blind who is playing and has a decent sized stack catches on to my game and reraises all in. I fold.



11. 1,250 in chips. Blinds are 40-80. I have K7o on the BB. The SB is one of the other absent players. By now it should be apparent to anyone who has been paying attention which players are not there. It's folded to the button with 1,930 in chips. He raises to 240. I reraise all in, figuring it's a straight steal. He folds and I finally win a pot with more than the blinds in it.



12. 1,570 in chips. Blinds are still 40-80. The blinds are on the two absent players again. Once again I wake up with a real hand, two jacks. I open raise to 240 and win the blinds. Sigh.



13. 1,570 in chips. I complete with T8o in the small blind. There is one late limper. I check fold the flop.



14. Blinds 50-100. I have 1,530 in chips and Ac9h in the cutoff. It's folded to me and I raise to 300. MaliceUW in the BB with 1,960 in chips makes the call. The flop is 5d-As-5c. MaliceUW checks and I check behind. I check because I am either way ahead or way behind. This way I can keep the pot smaller and possibly induce a bluff from a small pocket pair. The turn is the Td. MaliceUW checks again. I bet 300 and he calls. The river is the 8d completing a backdoor flush draw. He checks and I check behind. I win after MaliceUW rolls over QcTs. I guess I could have value bet the river there again, but I would have been totally committed to the hand and I was happy to get to showdown cheap.



15. Blinds 50-100. I have 2,180 in chips. One of the absent players finally showed up and busted the first hand he played. The other guy is still there and in the big blind. There is no small blind. It's folded to me and I raise with A8o and win the one blind.



16. Blinds 50-100. I have 2,280 in chips. On the button with JTo and it's folded to me. Instead of the obvious raise, I decide to limp in for 100. The small blind folds and the BB checks. The flop is 9-Q-9. It's checked to me and I bet 200 and win the pot.



17. I raise the absent guy's blind again and win without contest.



18. 2530 in chips. I have AQo utg. I raise to 350 and it's folded to the button who calls. The blinds fold and there is 850 in the pot. The flop is 9s-7c-8s. I swallow hard and make my continuation bet bluff of 450 and the button folds.



19. 2,880 in chips. Blinds are 50-100. I am in the small blind with AQo. The BB is short with only 220 in chips after posting the 100 blind. It's folded to the cutoff who open limps. He has 3,900 in chips. The button who is also short, folds and it's to me. I feel like I should isolate the short BB so I move all in. The BB folds and the limper folds and I win the pot.



20. 3,330 in chips. Blinds are still 50-100. I am on the button with Ac3c. It's folded to me. The small blind has only 170 left after the blinds. I am hoping if I limp, the big blind will come along and we can try to eliminate him. Instead the small blind folds and we see the flop heads up with the BB who has 4,125 in chips. The flop is As-4s-3s. I have top and bottom pair, but now I have to worry about the flush. Cha59 leads out for 150 into the 250 pot. I play small ball and just call. The turn is a 2h. Cha checks and I check behind. I know I am giving away a lot of draws here, but my hand is really nothing but a bluff catcher and why face calling a big raise? The river is a Jd. Cha checks again and put out a little bet of 200 that maybe a naked ace or smaller two pair might call. He folds and I win a small pot.

21. I have 3,630 in chips. Blinds are 60-120. I am in middle position with AdKs. It's folded to me and I open raise for 360. The big blind is absent and everyone else folds. I win the blinds again.

22. 3,810 in chips. Very next hand I pick up JcTc. It's folded to me again and this time I try limping. Everyone else folds to the BB who has 5,434 in chips. He checks. I flop top two pair and put out a small 120 bet and scare him off. I wonder how many chips I might have had if I had managed to get any action at all on these hands?

23. 3,810 in chips. I open raise AQo and win the blinds.

24. 3,990 in chips. I am finally moved to a new table. I assume the stacks with less than 500 are others that have not shown up for the tournament and are being blinded off. I see 3 such stacks. I have AhQs utg and the BB is one of the short stacks. I decide to min raise to 240. It's folded to the cutoff who reraises all in for 2,686. I decide to be patient and not take the possible coin flip and fold. I believe I was distracted on this hand by my son. If I look at the odds, I would have to call 2,246 to win 3,100. I am only crushed by AA, KK, QQ, and AK. I am not exactly crushed by QQ but it's not good. There may be an argument for calling, except I know nothing about this player and I don't know if only raises with good hands or sees my small raise as a steal?????

25. Blinds are 80-160. I pick up pocket 9's and raise to 400 and win the blinds.

26. 3,950 in chips. Very next hand I pick up AdQs. I open raise to 400 and sun4ever in the small blind calls with 2,866 behind. He is the one who reraised me in hand 24. The flop is 6c-Th-Qc. Sun4ever checks and I bet 500. He folds.

27. Blinds are up to 100-200. I pick up 8d9d in middle position. I raise to 600 and everyone folds.

28. 4,270 in chips. Blinds 100-200. I have JdJs utg. I min raise to 400 and everyone folds except PKRPORO in the BB who calls the 200. The flop is Th-Qh-Ad. Yuck! He checks and I check behind. The turn is the 4c. He checks again. I think about betting. Nope I want a cheap showdown and the free chance at my straight draw, so I check again. The river is the 3s and PKRPORO leads out for 600. I figure I have to call and he shows me AQ for two pair. I was behind the whole way and got away pretty cheap. One of the very few hands I have played that made it to the river and I lost.

29. 3,070 in chips. I have 8s7d in the small blind. Everyone folds to me and I complete. The BB checks. I whiff the flop and it goes check-check. The turn is another blank and I bluff 200. It works and he folds.

30. The very next hand I have A4s on the button. It's folded to me, I raise and win the blinds.

31. The very next hand I pick up AQs in the cutoff. I open raise and win the blinds again. 3,870 in chips now.

32. Blinds are 120-240 with 25 ante. I have 3,820 in chips and AdQc in early position. I raise to 720 and win the blinds and antes.

33. I open raise KQo in the cutoff and get reraised all in by the big blind and fold.

34. 3125 in chips and I pick up Jacks in middle position. I open raise to 720. It's folded to sun4ever on the button and he reraises to 2,665 total. It's folded back to me. I thought that was the rest of my chips so I just called. It turns out I still had 485 left. The flop was kind of ugly as it was Qs-5d-Ks. I figure I meant to go all in anyway so I put in my last 485 in chips and get called. He shows 99. Sweet! The turn is 5 and the river is another Queen and I double up!

35. 5,675 in chips. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. I have AdKc on the button. Tony63 open raises all in for 2,972. I reraise all in to isolate. He turns over Qd7d. The flop is Js-Ks-9s. Neither one of us has spades, but now I have to fade a Ten instead of his pair cards. The turn is a King and the river is a 2 and I win another race.

36. 9,197 in chips. I pick up Kings utg+1. I raise to 750 and get reraised all to 1,899. I call and he shows pocket 7's. I win again!

37. Blinds are 250-500 with 50 ante. I have 9,046 in chips and AJo on the button. I open raise and win the blinds.

38. 10,046 in chips. Blinds 250-500 with 50 ante. I have QdTd in middle position. I open raise to 1,250. I am called by the cutoff and the small blind. I finally get action when I have a crappy hand. The flop is 3-8-7 rainbow. In spite of the innocuous flop, I am not interested in c-betting with two other players in the pot. It's checked around. The turn is a Jack and the small blind bets 2,900 into a 4,650 pot. I fold and the cutoff folds.

39. 7,496 in chips. I have AhQh in the cutoff. Blinds are 300-600 with 75 ante. Mary Van King with 21,000 in chips opens for 1,689 in early position. It's folded to me and I just call. The flop is 2c-4c-2h. Mary leads into me for 1925 into a 4,953 pot. I fold.

I guess the play was to reraise all in or fold. There is no reason to call off over 20% of my stack. I think I was confused because Mary had enough chips to call my raise and not be too concerned. Plus I think we were getting close to the money bubble.

40. 5,582 in chips. Blinds are 300-600 with 75 ante. I pick up pocket tens in middle position and raise all in. Everyone folds and I add 1400 to my stack.

41. Blinds up to 400-800. I have been blinded down to 3,457 in chips. I have pocket 7's in the small blind. LE2Jog with 13k in chips raises to 2,300 in middle position. We are already in the money and I am ready to take a race. I reraise all in. LE2Jog is priced in to call with any two, but he rolls over 99. I don't hit the miracle and I am out in 59th place. I win $70 and I am happy to finally cash in the big free roll.

The overall summary is that there were 243 hands and I played 17% raising 14% and my total aggression factor was 4.3. I really could have used a little action on my hands. In 20 of the 41 hands I played, my raise went uncalled and I just won the blinds. I played a couple of hands badly, but overall I am happy.

While the Free Roll was going on, I decided to open another tournament just to keep me from getting bored. I found a $26 satellite into the FTOPS 9 for $322. They were guaranteeing 20 seats and 15 minutes before the start time there was going to be an overlay. Suddenly a rush of registrations hit and they had enough players to guarantee 27 spots and 28th would get $60. There were 365 players.

I did some quick math and figured out that the average chip stack when the tournament would end was $19,500.

I wish I had the hand histories of the other tables. When it got down to the last 34 players, I opened up the other tables to see where I stood. I never had more than 11,000 in chips and I was getting short towards the end. I kept looking for a spot to move in, but either my cards were horrible or some other short stack had already moved all in in front of me. Plus the player directly to my left had over 30,000 in chips and had shown a propensity for calling light.

Here were my hands towards the end:
This is starting with 7,580 in chips and the blinds were 800-1600 with 200 antes.
A4s on button, raise in front of me
42o
43s
T7o
Q7o
T7o
T5o
Q6s
62s By this time I was so low, that I was guaranteed to be called.
Q7s I only need one more player to bust.
T5s
62o
J4o
T6o
J4s I am all in due to the big blind. Two players call and the small blind calls all in, but he has more chips than I do, so if we both lose, he still finishes ahead of me.

The flop is 4c-Js-Ts. I'm pretty sure I'm ahead. The King comes on the turn. That makes me squirm. The river is a 5. The players turn over A9o, QTs, and Q3s. I quadruple up! The bad news was the other all in had the ten, so he was not eliminated either.

In the mean time I see a couple of other all ins suck out to stay alive on the other tables. Finally 4 hands later, the bubble finally bursts and I win the satellite! Ship the $322

So my final take for the weekend was $366. That was definitely a nice comeback from the beating I have been taking at the cash tables.

Grrrrrrr I'm frustrated

The golf course has reopened at Phoenix Country Club after overseeding. Bill and I got to play our first round together in a long time along with Bill's dad, Ron. We were playing for a rather pedestrian $25 and currently we are both playing to a 8 handicap.

Bill started fast with a birdie on 1 and I had a par. Bill then faltered on the short par 3 second hole when he hit his shot in the water. I missed my 15 footer for birdie and took a one stroke lead. The missed putt was one of many on the day. I did not 3 putt all day, but I don't think I one putted either. I don't know what is wrong with my putting, but I can't recall a time when I've putted worse. I'm still making the short 4-5 footers, but I'm not even close to making anything inside of 20 feet.

Bill's game was rusty and he was going to be hard pressed to catch me. My game was pretty solid except for the putting. I wasn't hurting myself, but I wasn't helping either. By the 14th hole I had built a 3 shot lead.

I led off with a driver down the middle of the fairway. Bill, who was struggling with his driver, hit 2 iron off the tee. He pulled it way left and it went into the landscaping equipment storage area which is out of bounds. He hit his third shot off the tee and it was also left and looking like it was heading out as well. Bill pulled out a third tee ball as a provisional and finally pushed one out to the right. We went to check on his ball on the left and it was in bounds by maybe an inch. He hit his approach shot into the bunker 20 yards short of the green. From there he skulled his shot over the green and into the back yard of a homeowner. This was also out of bounds.

Needless to say, the match was well in hand. Of course it wouldn't be a golf match with Bill unless we pressed the bet on 18. This time it was my turn to choke. 18 is a par five with wather on the right side of the green. We were both in trouble off the tee, but our lay up shots were both within 5 yards of each other. I had 135 yards to the green. I took my swing and it felt good coming off the club face. I looked up to follow the ball and it was heading frighteningly to the right and into the water.

Bill hit the middle of the green to put a stranglehold on the hole. I could still hope for a miracle chip in to tie. I carefully placed my ball on the steep bank of the lake (dropping the ball would only add to the collection of balls in the water so we skip the dropping and go right to placing). I tried to hit my delicate pitch and managed to double hit the ball ala TC Chen. So much for the miracle. I carded an 85 and called it a day. Even on all the bets.

Today I stopped by the Gila River Casino after work to play some 3-6 limit hold'em with Carlo and Rob. It's been a while since I played limit so my game was a little rusty. What followed was a series of beats so gut wrenching, I have acquired a new found distaste for the game.

It took a while for a seat to open up and by that time, Rob had taken a couple of beats and given up. I took Rob's seat (9) while Carlo remained in seat 5. Next to Carlo was a loud guy named Ron wearing a new Jet's jersey. On my second or third hand, I picked up pocket Kings. I had a few limpers to me and I raised. It was called in a couple of places, including by Ron in the big blind. Then Carlo does something strange and reraises from under the gun. It's called by everyone between us and I cap it. So it's 5 ways for 4 bets a piece before the flop.

The flop is J-6-2. Carlo leads out after Ron checks. It's called in a couple spots and I of course raise. Ron calls 2, Carlo calls, and the other two call as well. The turn is a blank and they all check to me. I bet and Ron and Carlo call. The river is a 5 which looks harmless. Ron blurts out that, "I think I caught you" and bets 6. Carlo finally gives up and I make the crying call into the humongous pot. Ron turns over 5-2 and wins with two pair. Ouch my balls hurt!

Now Ron admits that he is playing crappy cards and mentions that I want him to play that way. I respond by saying that I may buy him a lunch to make sure he doesn't leave with all my money.

A few hands later, Ron does it to me again with the 2-5 and beats me on the river for a medium sized pot.

Now in between, I manage to win a couple of pots, so I am still up $20 in spite of everything.

Then I go and lose when I flop a set of 5's and my opponent had flopped a set of 7's. Followed by rivering a King high flush, to lose to the old man's full house on my right.

I make a quick comeback when I win a big pot with Ace-King. The very next hand, I pick up Ace-King again. This time Carlo is coming along for the ride. I flop an Ace again and Carlo check calls my bet. The turn is an innocuous 8. This time Carlo leads out. My radar is up and I think Carlo may have turned two pair. But I also saw him screwing around by limp-reraising King-Jack offsuit. I can't help myself and I raise. Carlo calls and we see the river. It completes a low 4 card straight. One of the players who folded on the flop makes a gesture of frustration which obviously means he folded the card that would have made the straight. Carlo checks and once again I bet. Carlo is nice to me and just calls and rolls over 8-3 for two pair. This game is so rigged!

So I was ahead for one hand and just lost it all back in the very next hand.

Carlo is up $50 and ready to leave the casino. He starts trying to talk me into playing $50 worth of slots with him. I say no at first, but eventually give in. Carlo leads me to the "Deal or No Deal" slots. We pump in $100 and play as a team. Carlo says the key is to get the briefcase bonus. When you hit that, you get to play Deal or No Deal on the video screen for a grand prize amount determined by your spin.

It took us about 10 spins before we hit the briefcase and got to play. Our first offer was $65. We said no deal and we opened a couple of medium sized cases, but our offer went up to $135. Nowwe had the $500 case and 4 other cases all under $50. Since there was a 1 out of 5 chance that we would select a low case, we declined the deal.

Now I realize that the Expected Value in this game is to add up the remaining cases and divide by the number of cases. However, I was there to gamble and not to explain to Carlo how the math would work. We said, "No Deal" and because I am running so good, the computer picked the $500 case and knocked our deal down to $35. We dejectedly took the deal and moved to a different Deal or No Deal machine.

We put our $90 into the new machine and started again. This time we hit the spin wheels right and won $200! So amazingly enough, after splitting the winnings, I finished the day up $3!

That's right after all those bad breaks and getting beat by 8-3 and 5-2 twice, I still managed leave with $3 of profit. Maybe I run better than I thought?

Why I have not posted lately

Thank god October is over!

The worst month in the stock market in 21 years has kept me from playing my best poker. Obviously my mind has been occupied.

I Love PLO....no I don't

I am down over $100 for the session after being up close to $200 so my mood is not especially good when this hand comes down.

Icky Ole Witch I have marked as a fish.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players

PISIHASI (CO): $76.85
Tastefull (BTN): $44.80
Icky Ole Witch (SB): $88.50
nikander27 (BB): $150.65
Hero (UTG): $117.55
CHAI525 (MP): $141.45

PISIHASI posts a big blind ($1)

Pre Flop:($2.50) Hero is UTG with 9h Ac Kc Jh

This seems like a decent hand to raise even if it is under the gun. Naturally my raise gets no respect at all as everyone calls.

Hero raises to $4.50, 1 fold, PISIHASI calls $3.50, Tastefull calls $4.50, Icky Ole Witch calls $4, nikander27 calls $3.50

Flop:($22.50) 2:club: 8:club: 7:heart:

Ok nut flush draw and inside straight draw to the nuts. Icky bets the pot which could mean an over pair, big wrap draw, or a set. nikander27 calls which now gives me odds to chase my hand. If there was a fold in between, I might have to let this one go with players to act behind me.

Icky Ole Witch bets $22.50, nikander27 calls $22.50, Hero calls $22.50, PISIHASI folds, Tastefull folds

Turn:($90.00) T:diamond:

Gin! I have the nut straight with a nut flush redraw! I can't lose! Ok if the board pairs I'm not going to be happy, but I'm happy to get all my money into this monstrous pot with the nuts and a nut redraw.

Icky Ole Witch bets $61.50 all in, nikander27 calls $61.50, Hero raises to $90.55 all in, nikander27 calls $29.05

River:($332.60) J:diamond: (3 players - 2 are all in)

Yes the board did not pair, ship it! What the hell? Why is my money going to Icky Ole Witch?
DAAAAAMMMMIIIIITTTT

Final Pot: $332.60
Icky Ole Witch shows Ts Qc Tc 9s (a straight, Queen high)
nikander27 shows 8h 6c 4d 8d (three of a kind, Eights)
Hero shows 9h Ac Kc Jh (a straight, Jack high)
Hero wins $58.10
Icky Ole Witch wins $271.50
(Rake: $3.00)

I ran this hand on Poker Stove and I was surprised to learn that I was only a 3-1 favorite going to the river. At least I wasn't drawing to one out like nikander27.

Still it really stung to lose that pot.