When I came back from the WSOP I spent some time neglecting my cash games and instead playing multitable tournaments. In Vegas it took me 7 playing days to play 4 tournaments. But back at home base I could play 10 (or more) in a day with little difficulty. It was very hard to resist and I was salivating thinking about winning something outright or at least going deep.
But after a bunch of bricks I instead moved my focus back to cash games. There's nothing sexy about $15/$30 limit hold'em, but it pays the bills and that is always the primary goal for me.
In order to get my multitable fix a few time recently I found myself playing multitables recreationaly. Almost all of my playing is at my desktop with my 30 inch monitor and no distractions. It's serious business and requires maximum focus. When I say recreational I mean smaller stakes, in front of the TV on my laptop, with a beer or a glass of wine.
On Friday I spent the morning playing tennis and the early afternoon at a movie. I banged out about 500 hands of cash games in the late afternoon and even though I intended to play 2 or 3 times that much, I hit and ran when I found myself up $1,500.
That night seemed the perfect time for some recreational play. At 7:45 I jumped into a $33 with rebuys towards the end of the rebuy period on Absolute and shortly after I was in two $75 tournaments on Full Tilt and a $77 6-max NL on pokerstars. That is also when I started drinking.
When I first started playing online in 2004 it was not unusual for me to have a drink or two or three when I was playing. But it became perfectly clear in no time at all that it was affecting my results. I felt like I was making the same decisions, but clearly I wasn't. After this realization, I had a span of years in the middle of my career where I never had a drop of alcohol while I was playing.
While it's certainly not optimal, after a few million hands and a thousands of tournaments (ten of thousands if you count sit-n-go's), a few drinks doesn't throw me off like it used to. I guess I'd say it takes my "A' game out of play, but usually I'm still capable of my "B" game.
Fast forward a few hours into my story and I'm still in the the $33 with rebuys. We started with about 175 players and 18 spots paid. I made the money with more than twice an average stack.
This was the ultimate no fear situation. I was up $1,500 on the day in the cash games, I'd been drinking for 3 or 4 hours, and while 1st place was just over $4,500, 9th was less than $300. This was a situation where I was not fucking around. I was going for the top.
On the other hand my opponents went into full blown pussy mode. I was raising at least 50% of the hands that were folded to me and getting away with it. Soon I was in the tournament chip lead. If someone played a hand and didn't move all in, I was frequently reraising no matter what my cards looked like.
There really weren't many big hands to speak of, because on so many pots my cards didn't matter. From the time we made the money until the end I never had more than half my stack in the pot.
The biggest break I got was playing 3 handed when I called a massive all in with 99 and beat AQ. When we started heads up play I had 600,000 chips to my opponents 300,000. After 10 or 15 hands I knew it would take a massive run of bad luck to lose against this guy. He was clearly nervous and I quickly ground him down to under 200K. On the final hand I reraised him all in with KJ suited, he called with A5 and I made a flush.
Like I said 1st place was little over $4,500!
At the same time I was also in a $55 tournament that started at 9:00 with 236 players. I made the final table of that one too. The first tournament wrapped up at about 12:30, but this one lasted until 2 am. I can't say I recall many of the details, but I know I finished 3rd which paid about $1,200.
All together it was about a $7,000 day!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Reflecting on the 2010 WSOP
I'm a big sports fan. With the odd exception of sports that involve goals (specifically hockey and soccer), I love it all. While most of my favorite players are big names, I certainly find myself rooting for the underdog more often than not.
In the past week two unknown players have had maybe their greatest moments on the big stage. In the U.S. open a Frenchman named Havret who was ranked 391st in the world had a chance to win on the last few holes. In the end a top 20 player came through (like they usually do) and won the tournament.
In tennis 148th ranked Nicholas Mahut was part of the longest tennis match in professional history, lasting more than 11 hours over the span of three days (the match was stopped because of darkness twice!). It was just a second round match in a tournament with 128 players and Mahut was unable to outlast his opponent. But he was still part of the biggest story at Wimbledon this year and part of a match that will be remembered for years to come.
How do you think those guys feel right now? They can't feel bad. But I'm sure playing a practice round to get ready for the next cookie cutter golf tournament or hitting backhands to gear up for some second rate tennis event is not enough the get the juices flowing for these guys.
That's a little bit how I feel right now. I got relatively close to something special at this years WSOP. I was a long way from winning an event, but making day 2 three times I wasn't that far from making a final table which in and of itself is a big deal.
More to the point it was 9 days where I was part of something big and the chance of something big happening was right there, just out of my grasp. It was exhausting, but exhilarating.
When the time came to head home, I was more than ready. I missed my family desperately and my day to day life is great on just about every level. But it's not so easy to step out of the bright lights and just snap back into the normal routine.
I'm sure that Havret and Mahut are already thinking about next year (or the next major). And however hard I try, I can't help but do the same.
In the past week two unknown players have had maybe their greatest moments on the big stage. In the U.S. open a Frenchman named Havret who was ranked 391st in the world had a chance to win on the last few holes. In the end a top 20 player came through (like they usually do) and won the tournament.
In tennis 148th ranked Nicholas Mahut was part of the longest tennis match in professional history, lasting more than 11 hours over the span of three days (the match was stopped because of darkness twice!). It was just a second round match in a tournament with 128 players and Mahut was unable to outlast his opponent. But he was still part of the biggest story at Wimbledon this year and part of a match that will be remembered for years to come.
How do you think those guys feel right now? They can't feel bad. But I'm sure playing a practice round to get ready for the next cookie cutter golf tournament or hitting backhands to gear up for some second rate tennis event is not enough the get the juices flowing for these guys.
That's a little bit how I feel right now. I got relatively close to something special at this years WSOP. I was a long way from winning an event, but making day 2 three times I wasn't that far from making a final table which in and of itself is a big deal.
More to the point it was 9 days where I was part of something big and the chance of something big happening was right there, just out of my grasp. It was exhausting, but exhilarating.
When the time came to head home, I was more than ready. I missed my family desperately and my day to day life is great on just about every level. But it's not so easy to step out of the bright lights and just snap back into the normal routine.
I'm sure that Havret and Mahut are already thinking about next year (or the next major). And however hard I try, I can't help but do the same.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
WSOP Main Event Satellites
I'm in a $370 Satellite on Pokerstars and a $530 Satellite on AP. They're both about an hour into the action and I'm off to a good start in both. Check twitter (dave_huff) for live updates. Or if you want to watch I'm acesedai on Pokerstars and acessedai on Absolute.
Friday, June 18, 2010
2010 WSOP Final Thoughts
I ended up making a small profit of about $800 in the 2010 WSOP, but that was more than eaten up by the expense of 10 days in Vegas.
Even still this year was a success. I played better than I ever have at the WSOP and I made it to day 2 in three of the four tournaments I entered. While it would have been great to catch one or two more breaks and go a little (or a lot) deeper I'll have nothing but good memories of the tournaments I played.
I think I also got a small confidence boost from how well I played against the strongest competition. I got the best of a few world class players and instead of thinking I have what it takes to make a final table or win an event, I know I have what it takes.
I now have 6 WSOP cashes on my resume and I'm already looking forward to next year.
In the mean time I'm going to take a few shots to qualify for the main event. I'll be playing a $700 and a $370 qualifier on pokerstars and a $530 on Absolute over the weekend. If I can catch a few breaks my 2010 WSOP might not be over just yet!
Even still this year was a success. I played better than I ever have at the WSOP and I made it to day 2 in three of the four tournaments I entered. While it would have been great to catch one or two more breaks and go a little (or a lot) deeper I'll have nothing but good memories of the tournaments I played.
I think I also got a small confidence boost from how well I played against the strongest competition. I got the best of a few world class players and instead of thinking I have what it takes to make a final table or win an event, I know I have what it takes.
I now have 6 WSOP cashes on my resume and I'm already looking forward to next year.
In the mean time I'm going to take a few shots to qualify for the main event. I'll be playing a $700 and a $370 qualifier on pokerstars and a $530 on Absolute over the weekend. If I can catch a few breaks my 2010 WSOP might not be over just yet!
WSOP $1,500 HORSE Day 2 Recap
As per usual, I find myself a little blogged out at the end of a series of tournament that required tons of blogging. As a result I'm going to make this quick.
I got off to a terrible start on Day 2, despite being at a great table. I had 19,000 when I looked at my first hand of the day and at the end of that hand I had about 14,000. Not what I was hoping for!
It was all down hill from there. I won a few small pots here and there, but after close to two hours I was down to 5,000 chips playing Omaha with 400/800 blinds. On my final hand I found myself all in on the turn. Another player was also all in and when the two of us and a third player turned up our cards I saw that if I could hit a heart (any heart - amazingly there was no low draw and neither of my opponents had a full house draw that would be completed by a heart) I would scoop the entire 20,000 chip pot. A black river card put an end to my tournament.
I finished about 170th of 827.
I got off to a terrible start on Day 2, despite being at a great table. I had 19,000 when I looked at my first hand of the day and at the end of that hand I had about 14,000. Not what I was hoping for!
It was all down hill from there. I won a few small pots here and there, but after close to two hours I was down to 5,000 chips playing Omaha with 400/800 blinds. On my final hand I found myself all in on the turn. Another player was also all in and when the two of us and a third player turned up our cards I saw that if I could hit a heart (any heart - amazingly there was no low draw and neither of my opponents had a full house draw that would be completed by a heart) I would scoop the entire 20,000 chip pot. A black river card put an end to my tournament.
I finished about 170th of 827.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
WSOP $1,500 HORSE Day 1 Recap
We started this $1,500 HORSE tournament with 824 players each with 4,500 chips. This is a ton of players for a HORSE tournament!
Looking around many of the top pros were mixed into the field, but there were also a slew of older players who tend to be much weaker than the players in their 20's and 30's. Why is that? We'll when you're 22 and you have no one but yourself to take care of, you have roommates, and can live on the cheap it's easy to get into playing poker for a living (like I did). But when you're 55 and you have kids in college, a house and a car payment, it's always just going to be a hobby.
Of course there are plenty of online no limit hotshots who don't know shit about playing HORSE who are even better to play against, but also a little more volatile.
I got off to very slow start in this one. I was between 2,500 and 3,500 chips for pretty much the first 4 hours of play. I won a few split pots during that time, but no big pots or even significant pots at all.
After the dinner break we started level 5 and during levels 5 and 6 I made up for the first 4. By the even of level 6 I was up to 12,000. A few minutes into level 7 I was up to 16,000. Average at that point was about 7k or 8k so I was really liking my chances.
Then I went stone cold. I couldn't make anything and of course the stakes kept getting higher. The end of level 8 which would mark the end of day 1 was looming and I thought the worst thing would be to make it to day 2, but have almost no chips. My plan was to fly home Thursday afternoon and another day in Vegas would mean added expense and more time away from my family who I'm missing like crazy right now.
At the same time if I had 4,500 chips they were still worth $1,500 and even if I had 2,250 (an amount I could get all in before the flop) the were worth $750. That's not the kind of money you want to just throw away, but I was in go for it mode as we approached the end of day 1.
I found myself with 3,500 chips playing hold'em (the H of the HORSE) with the blinds at 300/500 (stakes of 500/1,000) and I picked up 22 in middle position. Normally I would fold here, but I knew at most we'd be looking at 5 or 6 more hands before the end of the day.
So I raised, got reraised, the big blind came along and I made it 4 bets. Now 2,000 of my 3,500 was in the pot and I was committed. I prayed for a deuce on the flop and instead got J 8 5. I bet anyway and both opponents called. The turn was a 9 and I went all in for my last 1,000 getting one call. I was against AT who shockingly missed all of his 14 outs.
This old timer in seat 1 gave me a little smile and I said "The worst thing is to make it to day 2 with no chips."
Two hands later he raised and I looked down at JJ. I three bet it and he four bet it it. I thought he had a real hand, but I knew he was also thinking about those deuces. Amazingly the flop came down jack high! BOOM! Now I was really hoping he had something. He bet the flop, I raised him, and he three bet me. Ah ha! I'm going to punish this guy!
The turn was a queen, he bet, I raised, he reraised, and I raised again. The river was a brick and he bet out into me! I put in my last 1,600 and he called. He rolled over AA like he thought he was getting that pot, but when I showed him my JJ he knew that he'd over played it.
There were 19,000 chips in that pot and two hands later I bagged them up. They'll be there waiting for me at the Rio at 3. Right now I'm in 79th of 280. 80 spots pay.
After three day 2's let's hope I can make my first day 3!!!
Looking around many of the top pros were mixed into the field, but there were also a slew of older players who tend to be much weaker than the players in their 20's and 30's. Why is that? We'll when you're 22 and you have no one but yourself to take care of, you have roommates, and can live on the cheap it's easy to get into playing poker for a living (like I did). But when you're 55 and you have kids in college, a house and a car payment, it's always just going to be a hobby.
Of course there are plenty of online no limit hotshots who don't know shit about playing HORSE who are even better to play against, but also a little more volatile.
I got off to very slow start in this one. I was between 2,500 and 3,500 chips for pretty much the first 4 hours of play. I won a few split pots during that time, but no big pots or even significant pots at all.
After the dinner break we started level 5 and during levels 5 and 6 I made up for the first 4. By the even of level 6 I was up to 12,000. A few minutes into level 7 I was up to 16,000. Average at that point was about 7k or 8k so I was really liking my chances.
Then I went stone cold. I couldn't make anything and of course the stakes kept getting higher. The end of level 8 which would mark the end of day 1 was looming and I thought the worst thing would be to make it to day 2, but have almost no chips. My plan was to fly home Thursday afternoon and another day in Vegas would mean added expense and more time away from my family who I'm missing like crazy right now.
At the same time if I had 4,500 chips they were still worth $1,500 and even if I had 2,250 (an amount I could get all in before the flop) the were worth $750. That's not the kind of money you want to just throw away, but I was in go for it mode as we approached the end of day 1.
I found myself with 3,500 chips playing hold'em (the H of the HORSE) with the blinds at 300/500 (stakes of 500/1,000) and I picked up 22 in middle position. Normally I would fold here, but I knew at most we'd be looking at 5 or 6 more hands before the end of the day.
So I raised, got reraised, the big blind came along and I made it 4 bets. Now 2,000 of my 3,500 was in the pot and I was committed. I prayed for a deuce on the flop and instead got J 8 5. I bet anyway and both opponents called. The turn was a 9 and I went all in for my last 1,000 getting one call. I was against AT who shockingly missed all of his 14 outs.
This old timer in seat 1 gave me a little smile and I said "The worst thing is to make it to day 2 with no chips."
Two hands later he raised and I looked down at JJ. I three bet it and he four bet it it. I thought he had a real hand, but I knew he was also thinking about those deuces. Amazingly the flop came down jack high! BOOM! Now I was really hoping he had something. He bet the flop, I raised him, and he three bet me. Ah ha! I'm going to punish this guy!
The turn was a queen, he bet, I raised, he reraised, and I raised again. The river was a brick and he bet out into me! I put in my last 1,600 and he called. He rolled over AA like he thought he was getting that pot, but when I showed him my JJ he knew that he'd over played it.
There were 19,000 chips in that pot and two hands later I bagged them up. They'll be there waiting for me at the Rio at 3. Right now I'm in 79th of 280. 80 spots pay.
After three day 2's let's hope I can make my first day 3!!!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
WSOP $2,500 6-max recap
I finally found myself with some time to kill, so after much delay here is the recap of Event #26!
As I mentioned briefly before, I got off to an INSANE start in this tournament. I've never picked up so many chips so quickly at the WSOP despite the fact that just about every player at our table for the whole day was a pro of some kind.
1,254 players entered this one and we started with 7,500 chips each. For me the first two hours were about chopping out small pots. I made a few check raise bluffs, won the blinds plenty of times, and picked up some chips with standard continuation bets. I was at 11,000 after two hours.
Then I got involved in one of three huge pots that I'd play against Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet. Jon has won a couple million dollars in online tournaments and wrote a book with John "pearljammer" Turner. I've played against him many time online and he's a very strong player. He also seemed like a good dude from the little interaction we had.
In the first hand blinds were 75/150 and apestyles raised to 400 in the cutoff. He'd been very active this level, always making it 400 to go. I looked down at KT suited (a hand I would have folded against someone playing fewer hands) and raised to 1,200. Apestyes just called which turned out to be a big mistake for him!
The flop came down T T 3 giving me trips! Now I just had to hope he had something. I bet 2,000 into the 2,600 chip pot and got called. The turn was a queen, I bet 2,500, and again I got called. The river was a blank and I looked over at my opponent's stack. A quick glance told me he had 5K-6K chips. I thought if I put him all in he might fold, but if I bet a little less I'd get paid off since I was pretty sure he had something at this point. In the end I settled on 3,500 and I got a call with body language that said "I think, I'm beat, but I can't fold this hand." Later unprovoked when he was listing some other complaints it came out that he had AA on this hand!
Then I went on a busting streak. KT flopped a ten vs my QQ and was out the door. AK missed against my 88. And then AK hit for me against 88! HA!
Just before dinner I got involved in another big one where I put the screws to Apestyles. Although I had him down to about 2,000 chips after I cracked his AA, he built it back up to about 11,000 just so I could take some more from him!
The blinds were 200/400 with a 25 chip ante and he raised to 900 which seemed to be a standard raise at our table for some reason. I looked down at A7s and reraised him to 2,500. This is not normally a play I'd make, but I had a tight image and three times as many chips as he had so I figured I'd push him around. Well he had a strong hand again and this time he reraised me to 4,500. I would have folded to anything over 5,000, but I was getting 4 to 1 on my money, in position so even though I was sure to be dominated I decided to see the flop.
The flop came down queen high and to my shock Apestyles checked. What? He had less than a pot sized bet left and to me this meant that he had a rock solid hand (QQ, KK or AA) and was trying to get me to take a shot at the pot. But I wasn't biting. I checked behind him and the turn was an ace. Now this was getting interesting!
I could tell from his very subtle, but visible reaction that he didn't like the ace and he checked again. Or there was some chance he had AA and just made top set. At this point I figured him for KK. Given that, there was no reason for me to bet. If he has KK he folds, and if he has a monster hand I'm cooked so why bet?
The river was a brick and he checked again. Now I thought "how much is the most that I can bet that he'll call me with KK?" I decided on 3,000 and sure enough he called me and he did in fact have KK! Again I had him on the ropes, but he'd be up to 30,000 chips by our next confrontation! Dammit Apestyles why can't I kill you!
At the dinner break (after 6 levels) I had 45,000 which was six times what we started with. After level 8 I had 67,000! It was so much fun! I was blowing people to pieces and I was sure to be in the top 10 if not the top two or three chip stacks in the entire tournament.
Then I had two major miscues. On the first Apestyles got his revenge. The blinds were 300/600 and he raised to 1,400. I had AK and made it 3,500 to go. I'd actually been reraising him a lot all day and getting away with it. A few hands earlier I'd made the exact same play with 99 and won the pot on the flop. So when he made it 8,000 I thought there was some chance he was just getting fed up with me reraising him left and right. I had AK so I figured I'd put him to the test. I moved all in and he called me in a microsecond and rolled over AA! ACK! I was about 7% to win and I didn't. I lost 30,000 chips on that pot!
To make matters worse I lost another 20,000 with AQ to another guy who had AA a little while later! Bastards!
Now I was feeling like I'd totally blown it. After having 70,000 chips at my peak I was down to less than 20,000 with less than an average stack.
Sometime later 2006 WSOP player of the year Jeff Madsen got moved to our table, directly to my left. Jeff is a very aggressive player and I knew he'd be big trouble if he got some chips. The good news was he only had about 10,000. The better news is shortly after we started level 9 I took him out. I raised with AK suited, he moved all in with QQ and I flopped an ace. Bye Jeff!
I was hoping to get someone soft to fill that seat since the rest of my table was a bunch of ball busters. Instead I got Shaun Deeb who either wins or finishes in the top 3 on the yearly pokerstars tournament leader board every year. Can you imagine how hard that is? It's not like he got hot for a week and won the weekly tournament leaderboard on some bullshit site. He's had great results year after year on pokerstars. Well I busted his ass too.
In that hand the blinds were 400/800 and I raised to 2,500 with AQ from the small blind. He thought for about 2 seconds and moved all in for 28,000 from the big blind. I knew that couldn't be a strong hand so I called for about 28,000. He rolled over 55 which meant he was ahead. The flop came down K T 4 with two spades (I had the Q of spades). The turn was another spade. I saw the river was a 2 and I was like "fuck, I'm out! Oh shit it's a spade! It's a spade! I'm the king of the world! Suck it Deeb!" We counted down our stacks and I had him covered by 100! Ha!
I finished day 1 with 46,400 chips. 154 players made it through the day and 126 spots paid. I was in 90th place going into day 2 and my plan was to play tight until we made the money and then go for it.
As you may have seen in my Day 2 preview I got a great table draw. My table for day two had one player with about 50K and everyone else between 20K and 30K. When I got to the table it was better than I hoped. It seemed like only one of these guys was a strong player. But 15 minutes in, just when I was getting pumped about my chances of smashing these jokers, they broke our table.
My new table was much tougher and I saw Apestyles sitting in seat 6 with over 100,000 chips! Why aren't you dead Apestyles?
Despite my plan to play conservatively I couldn't help but be aggressive. And it didn't work out. The blinds were 600/1,200 and the under the gun player raised to 3,000. I was in the big blind with 44 and I called. The flop came down 9 9 3 which meant if my opponent didn't have a pocket pair or a 9 I was ahead. I checked, he bet, and I decided to put him to the test. When the hand started he had 28,000 and I had 50,000. We were 10 players away from the money and while I was hoping he didn't have anything, I thought there was some chance he might fold a strong hand given the circumstances. Sadly he called me with TT and I was down to 22,000.
Right after that I was moved to an even tougher table where everyone but one guy had over 100,000 chips!
Happily I was still able to cruise into the money. Actually it took quite a while, but not too many hands. When we got down to 128 players they started hand for hand play. The way that works is every table plays one hand and then the dealer stands up so the people in charge can see that the table is done with the hand. Once one hand has completed at every table they deal another one. And so on until we make the money. The do this to prevent people from stalling. With 22 tables it took at least 5 minutes for every hand and it took over an hour to go from 128 players to 126.
The very first hand after we made the money I picked up KK for the first time in the tournament! A player with 66 raised, I reraised and he put me all in. That had took me up to about 37,000.
The blinds were 800/1,600 at this point so I had plenty of chips to work with, but then one of those situations where there's nothing to do but go broke came up. I got dealt AKs, raised, got reraised by the big blind, went all in and he had JJ. I couldn't win this race and I was out.
I finished 98th which paid $5,211. A strong finish which gives me two cashes in three tournaments at the 2010 WSOP. Not to shabby!
When I went to get paid out, there was Apestyles at the cage getting his money too. I guess someone had finally taken him out. Nice playing with you Apestyles.
As I mentioned briefly before, I got off to an INSANE start in this tournament. I've never picked up so many chips so quickly at the WSOP despite the fact that just about every player at our table for the whole day was a pro of some kind.
1,254 players entered this one and we started with 7,500 chips each. For me the first two hours were about chopping out small pots. I made a few check raise bluffs, won the blinds plenty of times, and picked up some chips with standard continuation bets. I was at 11,000 after two hours.
Then I got involved in one of three huge pots that I'd play against Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet. Jon has won a couple million dollars in online tournaments and wrote a book with John "pearljammer" Turner. I've played against him many time online and he's a very strong player. He also seemed like a good dude from the little interaction we had.
In the first hand blinds were 75/150 and apestyles raised to 400 in the cutoff. He'd been very active this level, always making it 400 to go. I looked down at KT suited (a hand I would have folded against someone playing fewer hands) and raised to 1,200. Apestyes just called which turned out to be a big mistake for him!
The flop came down T T 3 giving me trips! Now I just had to hope he had something. I bet 2,000 into the 2,600 chip pot and got called. The turn was a queen, I bet 2,500, and again I got called. The river was a blank and I looked over at my opponent's stack. A quick glance told me he had 5K-6K chips. I thought if I put him all in he might fold, but if I bet a little less I'd get paid off since I was pretty sure he had something at this point. In the end I settled on 3,500 and I got a call with body language that said "I think, I'm beat, but I can't fold this hand." Later unprovoked when he was listing some other complaints it came out that he had AA on this hand!
Then I went on a busting streak. KT flopped a ten vs my QQ and was out the door. AK missed against my 88. And then AK hit for me against 88! HA!
Just before dinner I got involved in another big one where I put the screws to Apestyles. Although I had him down to about 2,000 chips after I cracked his AA, he built it back up to about 11,000 just so I could take some more from him!
The blinds were 200/400 with a 25 chip ante and he raised to 900 which seemed to be a standard raise at our table for some reason. I looked down at A7s and reraised him to 2,500. This is not normally a play I'd make, but I had a tight image and three times as many chips as he had so I figured I'd push him around. Well he had a strong hand again and this time he reraised me to 4,500. I would have folded to anything over 5,000, but I was getting 4 to 1 on my money, in position so even though I was sure to be dominated I decided to see the flop.
The flop came down queen high and to my shock Apestyles checked. What? He had less than a pot sized bet left and to me this meant that he had a rock solid hand (QQ, KK or AA) and was trying to get me to take a shot at the pot. But I wasn't biting. I checked behind him and the turn was an ace. Now this was getting interesting!
I could tell from his very subtle, but visible reaction that he didn't like the ace and he checked again. Or there was some chance he had AA and just made top set. At this point I figured him for KK. Given that, there was no reason for me to bet. If he has KK he folds, and if he has a monster hand I'm cooked so why bet?
The river was a brick and he checked again. Now I thought "how much is the most that I can bet that he'll call me with KK?" I decided on 3,000 and sure enough he called me and he did in fact have KK! Again I had him on the ropes, but he'd be up to 30,000 chips by our next confrontation! Dammit Apestyles why can't I kill you!
At the dinner break (after 6 levels) I had 45,000 which was six times what we started with. After level 8 I had 67,000! It was so much fun! I was blowing people to pieces and I was sure to be in the top 10 if not the top two or three chip stacks in the entire tournament.
Then I had two major miscues. On the first Apestyles got his revenge. The blinds were 300/600 and he raised to 1,400. I had AK and made it 3,500 to go. I'd actually been reraising him a lot all day and getting away with it. A few hands earlier I'd made the exact same play with 99 and won the pot on the flop. So when he made it 8,000 I thought there was some chance he was just getting fed up with me reraising him left and right. I had AK so I figured I'd put him to the test. I moved all in and he called me in a microsecond and rolled over AA! ACK! I was about 7% to win and I didn't. I lost 30,000 chips on that pot!
To make matters worse I lost another 20,000 with AQ to another guy who had AA a little while later! Bastards!
Now I was feeling like I'd totally blown it. After having 70,000 chips at my peak I was down to less than 20,000 with less than an average stack.
Sometime later 2006 WSOP player of the year Jeff Madsen got moved to our table, directly to my left. Jeff is a very aggressive player and I knew he'd be big trouble if he got some chips. The good news was he only had about 10,000. The better news is shortly after we started level 9 I took him out. I raised with AK suited, he moved all in with QQ and I flopped an ace. Bye Jeff!
I was hoping to get someone soft to fill that seat since the rest of my table was a bunch of ball busters. Instead I got Shaun Deeb who either wins or finishes in the top 3 on the yearly pokerstars tournament leader board every year. Can you imagine how hard that is? It's not like he got hot for a week and won the weekly tournament leaderboard on some bullshit site. He's had great results year after year on pokerstars. Well I busted his ass too.
In that hand the blinds were 400/800 and I raised to 2,500 with AQ from the small blind. He thought for about 2 seconds and moved all in for 28,000 from the big blind. I knew that couldn't be a strong hand so I called for about 28,000. He rolled over 55 which meant he was ahead. The flop came down K T 4 with two spades (I had the Q of spades). The turn was another spade. I saw the river was a 2 and I was like "fuck, I'm out! Oh shit it's a spade! It's a spade! I'm the king of the world! Suck it Deeb!" We counted down our stacks and I had him covered by 100! Ha!
I finished day 1 with 46,400 chips. 154 players made it through the day and 126 spots paid. I was in 90th place going into day 2 and my plan was to play tight until we made the money and then go for it.
As you may have seen in my Day 2 preview I got a great table draw. My table for day two had one player with about 50K and everyone else between 20K and 30K. When I got to the table it was better than I hoped. It seemed like only one of these guys was a strong player. But 15 minutes in, just when I was getting pumped about my chances of smashing these jokers, they broke our table.
My new table was much tougher and I saw Apestyles sitting in seat 6 with over 100,000 chips! Why aren't you dead Apestyles?
Despite my plan to play conservatively I couldn't help but be aggressive. And it didn't work out. The blinds were 600/1,200 and the under the gun player raised to 3,000. I was in the big blind with 44 and I called. The flop came down 9 9 3 which meant if my opponent didn't have a pocket pair or a 9 I was ahead. I checked, he bet, and I decided to put him to the test. When the hand started he had 28,000 and I had 50,000. We were 10 players away from the money and while I was hoping he didn't have anything, I thought there was some chance he might fold a strong hand given the circumstances. Sadly he called me with TT and I was down to 22,000.
Right after that I was moved to an even tougher table where everyone but one guy had over 100,000 chips!
Happily I was still able to cruise into the money. Actually it took quite a while, but not too many hands. When we got down to 128 players they started hand for hand play. The way that works is every table plays one hand and then the dealer stands up so the people in charge can see that the table is done with the hand. Once one hand has completed at every table they deal another one. And so on until we make the money. The do this to prevent people from stalling. With 22 tables it took at least 5 minutes for every hand and it took over an hour to go from 128 players to 126.
The very first hand after we made the money I picked up KK for the first time in the tournament! A player with 66 raised, I reraised and he put me all in. That had took me up to about 37,000.
The blinds were 800/1,600 at this point so I had plenty of chips to work with, but then one of those situations where there's nothing to do but go broke came up. I got dealt AKs, raised, got reraised by the big blind, went all in and he had JJ. I couldn't win this race and I was out.
I finished 98th which paid $5,211. A strong finish which gives me two cashes in three tournaments at the 2010 WSOP. Not to shabby!
When I went to get paid out, there was Apestyles at the cage getting his money too. I guess someone had finally taken him out. Nice playing with you Apestyles.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Day 1 update delay.
I'm going to rest before my tournament instead of rushing to put up a post. I'll get to it later today or tomorrow. It was interesting so hopefully it will be worth the wait.
WSOP Event #26 ($2,500 6-max NL) Day 2 Preview
I ended day 1 playing on a total ball buster table, with 5 opponents who all play poker for a living (one big name - 2007 WSOP main event champ Jerry Yang - and 4 online pros). At the end of day 1 we all put our chips into tamper proof plastic bags and they magically appear at a new table with new opponents the next day.
I was able to find my table redraw online and here is what it looks like:
Seat 1: Mitchell Kelly - 23500
Seat 2: Petr Bartagov - 49900
Seat 3: Shawn Hattem - 28900
Seat 4: Wesley Huff - 46400
Seat 5: Samuel Ngai - 22600
Seat 6: Erich Kollmann - 29800
I don't know any of these guys which is good. More importantly 4 of them have significantly fewer chips than I do and everyone has a below average stack. That means I'll be the one who is able to apply the pressure as we approach the money bubble.
Right now we have 156 players left and 126 spots pay. I'm in about 90th and given my table I have a great chance to make the money. You can check out all the chip counts here.
You can check out all the prizes here.
The highlights are: 126th pays $4,782, I need to make it to the top 36 to net $10,000, 6th is $77,000 and 1st is an insane $630,000!!! I have at least a 1 in 150 chance of winning outright.
Look at twitter for updates and pokernews.com for general tournament coverage.
I was able to find my table redraw online and here is what it looks like:
Seat 1: Mitchell Kelly - 23500
Seat 2: Petr Bartagov - 49900
Seat 3: Shawn Hattem - 28900
Seat 4: Wesley Huff - 46400
Seat 5: Samuel Ngai - 22600
Seat 6: Erich Kollmann - 29800
I don't know any of these guys which is good. More importantly 4 of them have significantly fewer chips than I do and everyone has a below average stack. That means I'll be the one who is able to apply the pressure as we approach the money bubble.
Right now we have 156 players left and 126 spots pay. I'm in about 90th and given my table I have a great chance to make the money. You can check out all the chip counts here.
You can check out all the prizes here.
The highlights are: 126th pays $4,782, I need to make it to the top 36 to net $10,000, 6th is $77,000 and 1st is an insane $630,000!!! I have at least a 1 in 150 chance of winning outright.
Look at twitter for updates and pokernews.com for general tournament coverage.
WSOP Event #26 Day 1 Recap (Under Construction)
WSOP event #26 was $2,500 No limit 6 handed. I had a crazy day 1 and I'll have a recap up by 2 (hopefully).
Saturday, June 12, 2010
WSOP Schedule Update
After yesterday's tournament and three days of play I felt like I needed a break so I opted to skip the $1,000 NL event that started today at noon. The noon start time and the fact that this is the blandest of events, made it an easier decision to skip it. Instead I plan to take this $1,000 and use it to try to qualify for the Main event once I get back to California (backers, you'll be in for the attempt - more details coming later).
My friends Jake and Chrissy are in town for the weekend and my wife Jen is arriving this afternoon. We're going to do the $155 a person chefs tasting menu at Latalier at the MGM tonight followed by some heavy drinking and negative EV gambling. Then tomorrow night Jen and I are going to see the Elvis Cirque du Soliel at Aria.
Poker is on hold until Monday (I'm already registered for $2,500 6 handed no limit), but I'm sure this is going to be a fun weekend.
My friends Jake and Chrissy are in town for the weekend and my wife Jen is arriving this afternoon. We're going to do the $155 a person chefs tasting menu at Latalier at the MGM tonight followed by some heavy drinking and negative EV gambling. Then tomorrow night Jen and I are going to see the Elvis Cirque du Soliel at Aria.
Poker is on hold until Monday (I'm already registered for $2,500 6 handed no limit), but I'm sure this is going to be a fun weekend.
WSOP Event #23 Recap
I went into event #23 $2,500 limit 6 handed feeling good about my chances. But, if you read my tweets you know that this tournament was like my own personal hell.
I was playing my best game, against VERY weak competition, at the WSOP and I could not make ANYTHING! It was ridiculous!
I had 5 opponents. Seat 1 was played with seeming randomness before the flop, but was totally ABC after the flop.
Seat 2 kept limping before the flop with hands like J8 off suit or 56 suited and was generally clueless.
Seat 3 was solid, but nothing special.
Seat 4 had backed a buy who finished 2nd in a tournament a few days ago so he was playing this tournament even though he'd never played limit hold'em before. Some people say that and you know it's bullshit, but he said it ten times, and it was obvious that it was true based on his plays and the questions he was asking.
The guy in seat 6 was absolutely spewing chips. He was in half the hands, played them all like shit, and blamed every dealer for his bad luck. I swear to God that at one point he said to the dealer in all seriousness "the reason I lost that last hand was because you didn't pull the bets into the pot before you put out the river." I've heard all sorts of crazy superstitions, but that was a new one.
The fucking guy who had never played limit hold'em before was the second best of my opponents! AHHHHHHHH!!!! How did I not destroy these guys?
It boils down to this. In the first two hours we probably got dealt 80 hands. 70 of those hands were totally unplayable garbage. Of the other ten I won one pot with a bet on the flop, maybe 5 I took to showdown with a 2nd best hand of top pair or better, and 4 I folded post flop with total confidence that I was beaten.
There were two hands that maybe I could have folded on the turn, but they were both top pair aces and I lost to better kickers both times. Other than that I feel like I lost the minimum on every hand.
On the last hand before the first break I was down to 425 chips from 7,500 that we started with. I got AK, flopped top two, there was 4 way action and I quadrupled up. That was about the only thing that well in this tournament.
After the break I got it back up to 2,500, before getting blinded back down to 1,300or so. On the final hand I raised with K9 of spades, the spewmaster called me, and seat 1 reraised me. The flop came J 7 2 with two spades. I check raised the flop which unloaded seat 6, but seat 1 called. The turn was a 7, I bet and got raised all in. The river was a jack and my opponent showed me J5. Jack five? You three bet two players with J5? What - the - fuck? How did I not destroy these guys?
Now that this post is done this tournament is behind me.
I was playing my best game, against VERY weak competition, at the WSOP and I could not make ANYTHING! It was ridiculous!
I had 5 opponents. Seat 1 was played with seeming randomness before the flop, but was totally ABC after the flop.
Seat 2 kept limping before the flop with hands like J8 off suit or 56 suited and was generally clueless.
Seat 3 was solid, but nothing special.
Seat 4 had backed a buy who finished 2nd in a tournament a few days ago so he was playing this tournament even though he'd never played limit hold'em before. Some people say that and you know it's bullshit, but he said it ten times, and it was obvious that it was true based on his plays and the questions he was asking.
The guy in seat 6 was absolutely spewing chips. He was in half the hands, played them all like shit, and blamed every dealer for his bad luck. I swear to God that at one point he said to the dealer in all seriousness "the reason I lost that last hand was because you didn't pull the bets into the pot before you put out the river." I've heard all sorts of crazy superstitions, but that was a new one.
The fucking guy who had never played limit hold'em before was the second best of my opponents! AHHHHHHHH!!!! How did I not destroy these guys?
It boils down to this. In the first two hours we probably got dealt 80 hands. 70 of those hands were totally unplayable garbage. Of the other ten I won one pot with a bet on the flop, maybe 5 I took to showdown with a 2nd best hand of top pair or better, and 4 I folded post flop with total confidence that I was beaten.
There were two hands that maybe I could have folded on the turn, but they were both top pair aces and I lost to better kickers both times. Other than that I feel like I lost the minimum on every hand.
On the last hand before the first break I was down to 425 chips from 7,500 that we started with. I got AK, flopped top two, there was 4 way action and I quadrupled up. That was about the only thing that well in this tournament.
After the break I got it back up to 2,500, before getting blinded back down to 1,300or so. On the final hand I raised with K9 of spades, the spewmaster called me, and seat 1 reraised me. The flop came J 7 2 with two spades. I check raised the flop which unloaded seat 6, but seat 1 called. The turn was a 7, I bet and got raised all in. The river was a jack and my opponent showed me J5. Jack five? You three bet two players with J5? What - the - fuck? How did I not destroy these guys?
Now that this post is done this tournament is behind me.
Friday, June 11, 2010
WSOP Event #23 Preview
Today at 5 I have $2,500 6 handed limit hold'em. This is my specialty. Coming off a cash in another limit hold'em event I feel great about my chances.
I played this event last year and we got something like 500 or 600 players. But last year there was a $2,500 no limit event at noon which drew off a lot of the players. This year the noon event is the $1,000 buy in ladies only event so I'd expect more players. I'd also expect more players who don't normally play limit who are here for a few weeks like me and want to play something today.
We'll be playing 8 levels today so I'll be looking at a 2:45 am finish if I make it to day 2. In fact if I make it to midnight I'm very likely to skip tomorrows $1,000 no limit at noon which would have me off until Monday.
When I went to sign up I peaked in on the ladies event. It was very surreal. Normally the fields in these tournaments are 90%-95% men. I played against 30 or 40 players in the limit event and two of them were women. So seeing a huge room filled with 1,000 women and no men playing poker was odd to say the least. For some reason it seemed a much more positive and light hearted environment.
I played this event last year and we got something like 500 or 600 players. But last year there was a $2,500 no limit event at noon which drew off a lot of the players. This year the noon event is the $1,000 buy in ladies only event so I'd expect more players. I'd also expect more players who don't normally play limit who are here for a few weeks like me and want to play something today.
We'll be playing 8 levels today so I'll be looking at a 2:45 am finish if I make it to day 2. In fact if I make it to midnight I'm very likely to skip tomorrows $1,000 no limit at noon which would have me off until Monday.
When I went to sign up I peaked in on the ladies event. It was very surreal. Normally the fields in these tournaments are 90%-95% men. I played against 30 or 40 players in the limit event and two of them were women. So seeing a huge room filled with 1,000 women and no men playing poker was odd to say the least. For some reason it seemed a much more positive and light hearted environment.
WSOP Event #18 Day 2 Recap
We started with 109 players needing to get to 45 to make the money. I was in 79th place chip wise to start the day, knowing I'd need to win a few pots early to survive.
But my only plan was to play my best and take it one hand at a time. With that said it's really difficult NOT to plan. I had 13 hours between day 1 and day 2 and you can bet that the majority of my thoughts during that span were about what was going to happen on Day 2. But there's no reason to go into it thinking I'm going to do this and I'm not going to do that. Even saying I want to have X chips by the next break is dangerous. You have to let the situation dictate your actions and if you follow a plan you came up in a vacuum you're doomed to make mistakes.
Everyone redrew for seats at the end of day 1 and happily I went from a miserable table where everyone could play and had a ton of chips to a table with a few soft spots. If fact once again the two worst players at the table were sitting on my left and my right.
Even better I got off to a great start. We were playing 1,000/2,000 stakes so every pot I won added to my stack significantly. I stole the blinds a few times. I won a pot or two with a continuation bet on the flop. I finally got pocket aces for the first time in the tournament and won a fair sized pot that was three bets preflop, one bet on the flop and no call on the turn. I won with JJ at showdown.
By the time the stakes went up to 1,200/2,400 I was up to 37,000 in chips! It was about the best possible day 2 start that I could imagine.
Then I didn't win a pot for the next hour and to make matters worse I played one hand very poorly. I raised in the cutoff with T9 suited and got called by the fishy player on the button. The flop was K 9 2, I bet and got raised.
The only thing he could have here is a king (or AA maybe). There were no draws, KQ, KJ, and QJ were what I figured to be his most likely holdings given the preflop action, and I knew he didn't have a pocket pair since he 3 bet me a little earlier with 66 (that was the hand with JJ).
I called the flop which is defensible, but I also called the turn and the river which is nothing short of foolish. He rolled over KQ suited and took down the pot. This was the worst hand I played in the entire tournament.
By the time we made it to the first break of day 2 (2 hours in) I had 21,000. More than I started with but much less than I had before.
While all this was going on players were blowing themselves up all over the place and we were down to 69 players as we started level 13 which was 1,500/3,000.
My 21,000 chips were equivalent to having $210 in a $15/$30 game, an amount that could go in on one pot. Even worse I went cold for almost an hour folding 100% of my hands preflop.
At the very end of level 13 I was down to about 9,000 chips when a big hand came up. Pokernews.com actually reported this hand in their tournament coverage, but they were not even close to what actually happened. Here is what they said:
When we arrived at the table the board was reading 3h Qh Kd 3d 5d and Donev was holding pocket tens. Wesley Huff tabled pocket queens and doubled up through Donev.
Huff is now up to 21,000 chips and Donev slipped to 50,000.
OK. About the only thing they got right here is the players involved and the chip counts at the end of the hand (some of the cards are similar I guess).
What really happened is I had KT of spades and I raised to 3,000. Donev in the small blind reraised to 4,500 with QQ (with the Q of clubs). The flop came down K T 3 with two clubs (notice it was all red cards in the pokernews version) which of course was a monster flop for me. The first card I saw was the king and given that I had half my stack in the pot already it was a welcome sight.
On the flop Donev checked which I thought meant he had a big hand, but I put him on AA or AK and no matter what he had I was getting it all in with this hand. I bet and he just called. The turn was the A of clubs which was the worst card in the deck (not knowing what he had). Donev checked again and I put in my last 3,200.
Before he turned over his hand he said "I just have a draw." This was good because it gave me a chance to say "good, I hope you miss it!" This little micro conversation kept me from thinking about the fact that a club, a jack or a queen (14 cards out of 44) would put an end to my tournament. It was about 2 seconds from the time I saw his hand to the time the river card was on the table. I hadn't processed what he needed to beat me yet, but I knew a ten made me a full house and I was still alive.
KT beating QQ on a A K T T 3 board is a little different from QQ beating TT on a K Q 5 3 3 board. Boo pokernews!
That pot kept my head above water for a while, but soon the blinds sucked the life out of me. I got absolute garbage after that hand. Nothing even close until I was down to 7,000. At that point we had 50 players left. 5 spots out of the money and the blinds were taking 3,000 chips out of my stack every round. It did not look good.
Finally I got QJ suited which was the best hand I'd seen for almost an hour! The under the gun player raised, but I still thought I had to go for it. I three bet making it 6,000, he put me all in and I was pumped to see him turn over TT. I expected to be behind 60/40 or maybe even worse, but instead I was 50/50. Even better I flopped a queen and my hand held up.
Maybe 5 minutes later we went on a 60 minute dinner break with 47 players left. I had 18,000 and looking around at the other stacks there were two players with about 6,000 (the blinds would be 1,500/3,000 when we came back) and 4 others with between 8,000 and 15,000. So my chances were very, very good of making the money. But it's not like I was going back to the table and folding AA or KK so if I made a big hand and lost I could still come up short.
I had an hour to let my mind spin all the scenarios. Every time I thought about missing the money I made sure I thought about winning the tournament outright. Looking back I think I had a much better chance of making the final table than of going broke short of the money.
Two hands after we came back my resolve got put to the test. The under the gun player who might have been the tournament chip leader raised. This guy was very aggressive and I was 100% sure if I'd get more action than I wanted. I looked down at QQ...
Jesus. Can I really fold QQ here? I knew calling was not an option. If I reraised it would be to 9,000. Then if I bet the flop that's another 3,000. And since I was all but sure I'd get check raised I'm looking at getting it all in by the flop or the turn.
Did I really want to get it all in with QQ two spots from a $4,000 payout? No I didn't. This was the first time in over 2,000,000 hands of limit poker that I folded QQ before the flop.
After I folded another mega stack in the small blind three bet it and the flop came down ace high. There was a bet and a raise on the flop so I'm confident I didn't fold a winner.
5 minutes later we were in the money! Whoo! 2 hands after that I was out. Boo!
I got dealt Q9s in the small blind and I raised. The big blind called and the flop came down A K 9. Not great, but at least I had a pair. I had to bet and I got called. The turn was a brick, but I bet my last 6,000. My opponent thought for 20 seconds and called with K8. No help on the river and that was it.
I finished in 45th place which paid $4,097. Also I missed the Stud event so I have $5,597 more in my fat roll of hundreds than I could have at this point in my trip.
A very good start and a good boost for the confidence.
But my only plan was to play my best and take it one hand at a time. With that said it's really difficult NOT to plan. I had 13 hours between day 1 and day 2 and you can bet that the majority of my thoughts during that span were about what was going to happen on Day 2. But there's no reason to go into it thinking I'm going to do this and I'm not going to do that. Even saying I want to have X chips by the next break is dangerous. You have to let the situation dictate your actions and if you follow a plan you came up in a vacuum you're doomed to make mistakes.
Everyone redrew for seats at the end of day 1 and happily I went from a miserable table where everyone could play and had a ton of chips to a table with a few soft spots. If fact once again the two worst players at the table were sitting on my left and my right.
Even better I got off to a great start. We were playing 1,000/2,000 stakes so every pot I won added to my stack significantly. I stole the blinds a few times. I won a pot or two with a continuation bet on the flop. I finally got pocket aces for the first time in the tournament and won a fair sized pot that was three bets preflop, one bet on the flop and no call on the turn. I won with JJ at showdown.
By the time the stakes went up to 1,200/2,400 I was up to 37,000 in chips! It was about the best possible day 2 start that I could imagine.
Then I didn't win a pot for the next hour and to make matters worse I played one hand very poorly. I raised in the cutoff with T9 suited and got called by the fishy player on the button. The flop was K 9 2, I bet and got raised.
The only thing he could have here is a king (or AA maybe). There were no draws, KQ, KJ, and QJ were what I figured to be his most likely holdings given the preflop action, and I knew he didn't have a pocket pair since he 3 bet me a little earlier with 66 (that was the hand with JJ).
I called the flop which is defensible, but I also called the turn and the river which is nothing short of foolish. He rolled over KQ suited and took down the pot. This was the worst hand I played in the entire tournament.
By the time we made it to the first break of day 2 (2 hours in) I had 21,000. More than I started with but much less than I had before.
While all this was going on players were blowing themselves up all over the place and we were down to 69 players as we started level 13 which was 1,500/3,000.
My 21,000 chips were equivalent to having $210 in a $15/$30 game, an amount that could go in on one pot. Even worse I went cold for almost an hour folding 100% of my hands preflop.
At the very end of level 13 I was down to about 9,000 chips when a big hand came up. Pokernews.com actually reported this hand in their tournament coverage, but they were not even close to what actually happened. Here is what they said:
When we arrived at the table the board was reading 3h Qh Kd 3d 5d and Donev was holding pocket tens. Wesley Huff tabled pocket queens and doubled up through Donev.
Huff is now up to 21,000 chips and Donev slipped to 50,000.
OK. About the only thing they got right here is the players involved and the chip counts at the end of the hand (some of the cards are similar I guess).
What really happened is I had KT of spades and I raised to 3,000. Donev in the small blind reraised to 4,500 with QQ (with the Q of clubs). The flop came down K T 3 with two clubs (notice it was all red cards in the pokernews version) which of course was a monster flop for me. The first card I saw was the king and given that I had half my stack in the pot already it was a welcome sight.
On the flop Donev checked which I thought meant he had a big hand, but I put him on AA or AK and no matter what he had I was getting it all in with this hand. I bet and he just called. The turn was the A of clubs which was the worst card in the deck (not knowing what he had). Donev checked again and I put in my last 3,200.
Before he turned over his hand he said "I just have a draw." This was good because it gave me a chance to say "good, I hope you miss it!" This little micro conversation kept me from thinking about the fact that a club, a jack or a queen (14 cards out of 44) would put an end to my tournament. It was about 2 seconds from the time I saw his hand to the time the river card was on the table. I hadn't processed what he needed to beat me yet, but I knew a ten made me a full house and I was still alive.
KT beating QQ on a A K T T 3 board is a little different from QQ beating TT on a K Q 5 3 3 board. Boo pokernews!
That pot kept my head above water for a while, but soon the blinds sucked the life out of me. I got absolute garbage after that hand. Nothing even close until I was down to 7,000. At that point we had 50 players left. 5 spots out of the money and the blinds were taking 3,000 chips out of my stack every round. It did not look good.
Finally I got QJ suited which was the best hand I'd seen for almost an hour! The under the gun player raised, but I still thought I had to go for it. I three bet making it 6,000, he put me all in and I was pumped to see him turn over TT. I expected to be behind 60/40 or maybe even worse, but instead I was 50/50. Even better I flopped a queen and my hand held up.
Maybe 5 minutes later we went on a 60 minute dinner break with 47 players left. I had 18,000 and looking around at the other stacks there were two players with about 6,000 (the blinds would be 1,500/3,000 when we came back) and 4 others with between 8,000 and 15,000. So my chances were very, very good of making the money. But it's not like I was going back to the table and folding AA or KK so if I made a big hand and lost I could still come up short.
I had an hour to let my mind spin all the scenarios. Every time I thought about missing the money I made sure I thought about winning the tournament outright. Looking back I think I had a much better chance of making the final table than of going broke short of the money.
Two hands after we came back my resolve got put to the test. The under the gun player who might have been the tournament chip leader raised. This guy was very aggressive and I was 100% sure if I'd get more action than I wanted. I looked down at QQ...
Jesus. Can I really fold QQ here? I knew calling was not an option. If I reraised it would be to 9,000. Then if I bet the flop that's another 3,000. And since I was all but sure I'd get check raised I'm looking at getting it all in by the flop or the turn.
Did I really want to get it all in with QQ two spots from a $4,000 payout? No I didn't. This was the first time in over 2,000,000 hands of limit poker that I folded QQ before the flop.
After I folded another mega stack in the small blind three bet it and the flop came down ace high. There was a bet and a raise on the flop so I'm confident I didn't fold a winner.
5 minutes later we were in the money! Whoo! 2 hands after that I was out. Boo!
I got dealt Q9s in the small blind and I raised. The big blind called and the flop came down A K 9. Not great, but at least I had a pair. I had to bet and I got called. The turn was a brick, but I bet my last 6,000. My opponent thought for 20 seconds and called with K8. No help on the river and that was it.
I finished in 45th place which paid $4,097. Also I missed the Stud event so I have $5,597 more in my fat roll of hundreds than I could have at this point in my trip.
A very good start and a good boost for the confidence.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
WSOP Event #18 Day 2 Preview
To start here is a list of the payouts if you want to check them out. Also here is a list of the chip counts going into day 2.
We get underway at 2:30 with 109 players left. I'm in 79th place. When we go back we'll have 10 more minutes of playing 800/1,600 stakes (400/800 blinds) before we go to 1,000/2000.
The average stack is 26,200 which means if I can win one good pot I'll be there. It's also very heartening to see that the chip leader only has 87,000 and I only need to get to 55,000 to be in the top 5.
Today the plan is to play 8 levels or down to the final table. I'd guess that it will be 8 levels and the top 20 or so will come back tomorrow.
The $1,500 7-card stud event goes off at 5 and I can register as late as 7:15 so if I don't make it in the limit, I'll likely play that tournament as planned.
But fuck that. Anything can happen. I'm only 108 players away from winning the title and $200,000.
We get underway at 2:30 with 109 players left. I'm in 79th place. When we go back we'll have 10 more minutes of playing 800/1,600 stakes (400/800 blinds) before we go to 1,000/2000.
The average stack is 26,200 which means if I can win one good pot I'll be there. It's also very heartening to see that the chip leader only has 87,000 and I only need to get to 55,000 to be in the top 5.
Today the plan is to play 8 levels or down to the final table. I'd guess that it will be 8 levels and the top 20 or so will come back tomorrow.
The $1,500 7-card stud event goes off at 5 and I can register as late as 7:15 so if I don't make it in the limit, I'll likely play that tournament as planned.
But fuck that. Anything can happen. I'm only 108 players away from winning the title and $200,000.
WSOP Event #18 Day 1 - The Long Version
We started Event #18 with 476 players each with 6,000 chips. I got a great table draw. 15 minutes in I felt like I had everyone figured out to some extent. Happily the two best players were across the table and the two worst were directly to my left and my right (you tend to be involved in more hands with people sitting close to you).
My toughest opponent was a guy who I played at a final table in a $2,000 buy in no limit tournament in L.A. last year (only 60 entrants in that one - I finished 4th). I have never seen anyone at the poker table look more calm, and quiet. The only way you know he's not dead is periodically his chips end up in the pot. I kept rooting for something terrible to happen to him, but that guy is good and he's still in it. Also of note, he opened up his laptop and got in a few hands of online poker while we were on a 20 minute break! Some people just can't get enough poker!
The biggest thing that happened in the first few hours was the soft spot to my left went broke and got replaced with 23 year old poker freak of nature Tom "Durrrr" Dwan. Don't let his stupid nick name (it's actually his online poker screen name) fool you. This guy is as good as they get.
Let me tell you how good this guy is. He posted an open challenge to anyone in the world to play him 50,000 hand of online, heads up (one on one), $200/$400 blinds no limit hold'em or pot limit Omaha. If he came out ahead (even $1) his opponent would owe him $500,000 (plus he would keep any money he won playing). But if his opponent beat him (again even by just a dollar) he'd pay out $1,500,000!!
There are a few people who are interested and so far only one player has given him action. At last check which was 33,000 hands into the match Patrick Antonius (one of the worlds best cash game players) was losing $1,900,000 to Dwan.
Another thing I'd heard about Tom is that he has major side bets (like all the top pros do) for this world series. I'd heard a few different things, but word on the street is that he bet $2,500,000 to win $8,000,000 that he'd win at least one of the 57 WSOP events this year. He got incredibly close finishing 2nd of 2,500+ players in a $1,500 no limit event a few days ago.
So this is the fucking guy I have dead to my left (which means he's acting after me - a big deal - every hand except when I'm the button). After a little while I asked him about the side bets since I'd heard different amounts. Let me just pause here to say how cool is that? The guys picture is all over the place here, he's on the cover of poker magazines left and right, everyone is speculating about this stuff and I get to sit next to him and just ask him what's going on in between hands!
What he told me was it would be his "biggest win ever" meaning middle seven figures. But it turns out that on top of his bet to win an event this year, he has some other two and three year bets as well as money won bets and head to head who has a better series bets with several other top pros.
Which brings me to the story of a ridiculous hand that I played against him. We were playing 200/400 stakes, I had about 7,000 chips and we'd just come back from our second break (it was 4:45). Tom had mentioned that he had to play the $10,000 2-7 lowball event which started at 5. That event was likely to only draw about 100 players which would give him a great chance to win even though that's not his game. It's just easier to get through 100 people than the 1,000+ you get in most of the events. When you have millions on the line for victory you need to give yourself every chance. The buy ins are nothing and even the prize money is not much compared to the side bets.
So he started raising every hand without even looking at his cards! Remember we're playing limit poker here so you can just move all in; you can only raise a specific amount. He said his goal was to take his stack of about 4,000 chips up to 8,000 or go broke. The thing is that he can go off and play that other tournament, but his chips stay on the table and his blinds get taken as if he were folding 100% of the hands. He thought if he had 8,000 or so that was enough that his chips would last a few hours and he might be able to make it back to them on breaks of the other tournament (or if he went broke in the 2-7 tournament of course he'd come back to them).
Amazingly he was having trouble getting action from the players at our table. After a few hands I picked up T9 suited. While I'd greatly prefer a hand with some showdown value like an ace or a pair, I figured it was worth it to take a risk here. I raised knowing 100% that I was going to get three bet by a player who hadn't seen his cards and I would probably end up heads up against him with a slightly above average hand.
So I made it 400, Tom made it 600, the small blind called and so did I. The flop came down T 3 3, the small blind checked, I checked, and still not having seen his cards Tom bet 200. The small blind made it 400 and I made it 600 with my top pair. At this point Tom looked and called. I figured he'd call with as little as one over card here.
The turn was a 9 which was a great card because now I could beat any other player with a ten (unless it was TT or T3). The small blind checked, I bet 400, Tom went all in for 525 and after lots of hemming and hawing the small blind folded 77 face up.
The river was a 7! The small blind went semi crazy and I thought "wow I dodged a bullet there!" So I rolled over my two pair ready to take down the 5k chip pot. WRONG! Very quietly Tom rolls over 23 off suit and wins with trips! Curse you Tom Dwan! I hope you lose all your side bets you bastard!
I'm just kidding. My impression of Tom was nothing but favorable. He seemed like a nice guy and I wish him the best. But it's not every fucking day that someone three bets you dark with 23 off, and flops trips in a $2,000 tournament!
A few hands later Tom went down the tubes, strolled off to play his $10,000 tournament and things went back to normal.
About that time I got dealt KQ and came in for a raise. I got three bet by a solid player and I just called. The flop came down K J 8 and I check called the flop with the plan to check raise the turn. When it came out it was a 9 and like clock work I check raised. But them my opponent reraised me! Yikes! All of a sudden I did not like my hand, but I figured a T or maybe a K or Q would make me a winner. When the river came out - BING! - it was a ten making me a straight. I check raised my opponent again and took down a huge pot. If I miss the river I have less than 1,000 chips left.
But I took that money and ran with it.
In level 8 we were playing 500/1000 and my biggest hand of the day came up. I had stormed up to 17,000 chips and I got dealt KT of hearts on the button. I raised, the small blind reraised, the big blind made it 4 bets and we both called. The flop came down Q T 5 with one heart. The small blind checked, the big blind bet, I called, now the small blind raised and the big blind reraised! ACK!
I knew I was beat, but there was a 9,000 in the pot and it would only cost me another 1,000 to see the turn card. I figured my opponents for hands like AQ or AA or even AK with flush draw. I thought for 30 seconds and decided since I had a backdoor flush draw to go with my pair it was worth it to see the turn. It was a total brick - a six. SHIT! Now what?
The big blind bet the turn and now I'm getting 12.5 to 1 on my money (assuming the small blind also calls, which I was sure he'd do) when I'm about 8 to 1 to make two pair or trips. The problem is if I'm against a set I'm drawing dead.
In the end I went for it and I hit a ten on the river! Slot machine noises instantly went off in my head. I got one call on the river and was up to 27,000 as we went on break after level 8.
From there I took it all the way up to 33,000 when average was less than 20,000. Those 33,000 chips had a value of $11,000 real dollars. But the last hour really sucked! Unlike the first 9 levels I was faced with a handful of tough decisions and I missed the flop over and over when I had a hand to play.
I ended the day with 16,300. You can check out my Day 2 Preview which will be up shortly for what comes next.
My toughest opponent was a guy who I played at a final table in a $2,000 buy in no limit tournament in L.A. last year (only 60 entrants in that one - I finished 4th). I have never seen anyone at the poker table look more calm, and quiet. The only way you know he's not dead is periodically his chips end up in the pot. I kept rooting for something terrible to happen to him, but that guy is good and he's still in it. Also of note, he opened up his laptop and got in a few hands of online poker while we were on a 20 minute break! Some people just can't get enough poker!
The biggest thing that happened in the first few hours was the soft spot to my left went broke and got replaced with 23 year old poker freak of nature Tom "Durrrr" Dwan. Don't let his stupid nick name (it's actually his online poker screen name) fool you. This guy is as good as they get.
Let me tell you how good this guy is. He posted an open challenge to anyone in the world to play him 50,000 hand of online, heads up (one on one), $200/$400 blinds no limit hold'em or pot limit Omaha. If he came out ahead (even $1) his opponent would owe him $500,000 (plus he would keep any money he won playing). But if his opponent beat him (again even by just a dollar) he'd pay out $1,500,000!!
There are a few people who are interested and so far only one player has given him action. At last check which was 33,000 hands into the match Patrick Antonius (one of the worlds best cash game players) was losing $1,900,000 to Dwan.
Another thing I'd heard about Tom is that he has major side bets (like all the top pros do) for this world series. I'd heard a few different things, but word on the street is that he bet $2,500,000 to win $8,000,000 that he'd win at least one of the 57 WSOP events this year. He got incredibly close finishing 2nd of 2,500+ players in a $1,500 no limit event a few days ago.
So this is the fucking guy I have dead to my left (which means he's acting after me - a big deal - every hand except when I'm the button). After a little while I asked him about the side bets since I'd heard different amounts. Let me just pause here to say how cool is that? The guys picture is all over the place here, he's on the cover of poker magazines left and right, everyone is speculating about this stuff and I get to sit next to him and just ask him what's going on in between hands!
What he told me was it would be his "biggest win ever" meaning middle seven figures. But it turns out that on top of his bet to win an event this year, he has some other two and three year bets as well as money won bets and head to head who has a better series bets with several other top pros.
Which brings me to the story of a ridiculous hand that I played against him. We were playing 200/400 stakes, I had about 7,000 chips and we'd just come back from our second break (it was 4:45). Tom had mentioned that he had to play the $10,000 2-7 lowball event which started at 5. That event was likely to only draw about 100 players which would give him a great chance to win even though that's not his game. It's just easier to get through 100 people than the 1,000+ you get in most of the events. When you have millions on the line for victory you need to give yourself every chance. The buy ins are nothing and even the prize money is not much compared to the side bets.
So he started raising every hand without even looking at his cards! Remember we're playing limit poker here so you can just move all in; you can only raise a specific amount. He said his goal was to take his stack of about 4,000 chips up to 8,000 or go broke. The thing is that he can go off and play that other tournament, but his chips stay on the table and his blinds get taken as if he were folding 100% of the hands. He thought if he had 8,000 or so that was enough that his chips would last a few hours and he might be able to make it back to them on breaks of the other tournament (or if he went broke in the 2-7 tournament of course he'd come back to them).
Amazingly he was having trouble getting action from the players at our table. After a few hands I picked up T9 suited. While I'd greatly prefer a hand with some showdown value like an ace or a pair, I figured it was worth it to take a risk here. I raised knowing 100% that I was going to get three bet by a player who hadn't seen his cards and I would probably end up heads up against him with a slightly above average hand.
So I made it 400, Tom made it 600, the small blind called and so did I. The flop came down T 3 3, the small blind checked, I checked, and still not having seen his cards Tom bet 200. The small blind made it 400 and I made it 600 with my top pair. At this point Tom looked and called. I figured he'd call with as little as one over card here.
The turn was a 9 which was a great card because now I could beat any other player with a ten (unless it was TT or T3). The small blind checked, I bet 400, Tom went all in for 525 and after lots of hemming and hawing the small blind folded 77 face up.
The river was a 7! The small blind went semi crazy and I thought "wow I dodged a bullet there!" So I rolled over my two pair ready to take down the 5k chip pot. WRONG! Very quietly Tom rolls over 23 off suit and wins with trips! Curse you Tom Dwan! I hope you lose all your side bets you bastard!
I'm just kidding. My impression of Tom was nothing but favorable. He seemed like a nice guy and I wish him the best. But it's not every fucking day that someone three bets you dark with 23 off, and flops trips in a $2,000 tournament!
A few hands later Tom went down the tubes, strolled off to play his $10,000 tournament and things went back to normal.
About that time I got dealt KQ and came in for a raise. I got three bet by a solid player and I just called. The flop came down K J 8 and I check called the flop with the plan to check raise the turn. When it came out it was a 9 and like clock work I check raised. But them my opponent reraised me! Yikes! All of a sudden I did not like my hand, but I figured a T or maybe a K or Q would make me a winner. When the river came out - BING! - it was a ten making me a straight. I check raised my opponent again and took down a huge pot. If I miss the river I have less than 1,000 chips left.
But I took that money and ran with it.
In level 8 we were playing 500/1000 and my biggest hand of the day came up. I had stormed up to 17,000 chips and I got dealt KT of hearts on the button. I raised, the small blind reraised, the big blind made it 4 bets and we both called. The flop came down Q T 5 with one heart. The small blind checked, the big blind bet, I called, now the small blind raised and the big blind reraised! ACK!
I knew I was beat, but there was a 9,000 in the pot and it would only cost me another 1,000 to see the turn card. I figured my opponents for hands like AQ or AA or even AK with flush draw. I thought for 30 seconds and decided since I had a backdoor flush draw to go with my pair it was worth it to see the turn. It was a total brick - a six. SHIT! Now what?
The big blind bet the turn and now I'm getting 12.5 to 1 on my money (assuming the small blind also calls, which I was sure he'd do) when I'm about 8 to 1 to make two pair or trips. The problem is if I'm against a set I'm drawing dead.
In the end I went for it and I hit a ten on the river! Slot machine noises instantly went off in my head. I got one call on the river and was up to 27,000 as we went on break after level 8.
From there I took it all the way up to 33,000 when average was less than 20,000. Those 33,000 chips had a value of $11,000 real dollars. But the last hour really sucked! Unlike the first 9 levels I was faced with a handful of tough decisions and I missed the flop over and over when I had a hand to play.
I ended the day with 16,300. You can check out my Day 2 Preview which will be up shortly for what comes next.
WSOP Event #18 Day Recap coming soon!
I had a solid, productive day at the tables today. The short version is after 13 hours I made it to day 2 of WSOP event #18 $2,000 buy in limit with 16,300 chips. We have 109 players left, 45 spots pay, the average stack is around 25,000 and we get back to it tomorrow at 2:30.
The long version is much more interesting, but since it's 1:30 I'm going to save the details for tomorrow morning.
The long version is much more interesting, but since it's 1:30 I'm going to save the details for tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Twitter News and WSOP Event #18 Preview
I've discovered that the poker players I follow on twitter who are playing in WSOP event #17 have all been including #WSOP17 in their posts. Then when I clicked on that notation it brought me to all the tweets that included #WSOP17.
So tomorrow I'll be including #WSOP18 in all of my tweets. If you click on that you can read the tweets of all the other players who are tweeting about WSOP event #18 and of course anyone who is following those other players will be able to read my tweets. If you want other news and updates I'd encourage you to check out pokernews.com, pokerpages.com or cardplayer.com (probably in that order). It's doubtful that there will be anything about me on there (unless I tangle with someone famous or end up with the chip lead), but you'll be able to check out stuff about the tournament in general.
On to the Event #18 Preview! This tournament is $2,000 limit hold'em. I've spend the past almost 3 years of my career playing limit hold'em day after day. If I get anything between an OK and a good run of cards I should make the money and if I get a great run of cards, the sky is the limit. I have no doubt that I could win this tournament.
Last year there were 446 entrants and 45 spots paid with anything at the final table paying over $20,000 and 1st place being $190,000.
We're starting with 6,000 chips, stakes of 50/100, and 60 minute levels. Every two hours we get a 20 minute break and after 6 hours of play we get a 90 minute dinner break. If I make it through 10 levels (by then the stakes will be 800/1,600) I'll be on to day 2 which will start Thursday at 2:30.
Look for twitter updates and send me all the mojo you can muster!
So tomorrow I'll be including #WSOP18 in all of my tweets. If you click on that you can read the tweets of all the other players who are tweeting about WSOP event #18 and of course anyone who is following those other players will be able to read my tweets. If you want other news and updates I'd encourage you to check out pokernews.com, pokerpages.com or cardplayer.com (probably in that order). It's doubtful that there will be anything about me on there (unless I tangle with someone famous or end up with the chip lead), but you'll be able to check out stuff about the tournament in general.
On to the Event #18 Preview! This tournament is $2,000 limit hold'em. I've spend the past almost 3 years of my career playing limit hold'em day after day. If I get anything between an OK and a good run of cards I should make the money and if I get a great run of cards, the sky is the limit. I have no doubt that I could win this tournament.
Last year there were 446 entrants and 45 spots paid with anything at the final table paying over $20,000 and 1st place being $190,000.
We're starting with 6,000 chips, stakes of 50/100, and 60 minute levels. Every two hours we get a 20 minute break and after 6 hours of play we get a 90 minute dinner break. If I make it through 10 levels (by then the stakes will be 800/1,600) I'll be on to day 2 which will start Thursday at 2:30.
Look for twitter updates and send me all the mojo you can muster!
News From Vegas
Ok, not really news per se, but more an update of what I've been doing and how I've been feeling. Nothing and shitty! Good night!
Just kidding. My flight in was a smooth as can be without the normal terror producing turbulence that you get flying into Vegas in the summertime. My cab driver saw my Ipod and spent the whole ride grilling me for tech support about how to get video onto his ipod. I was smart enough to get a room in the part of the Rio that is slightly closer to the convention area.
I had Chinese for dinner which was interesting for two reasons. First the Chinese place here is right next to the sports book and game 3 of the NBA finals was going on at the time. If you want to hear people cheer with conviction, and groan with true pain you should watch a major sporting event in a sports book.
Secondly I got a great fortune in my fortune cookie. It read "Listen attentively. You will come out ahead in the coming week." If a verbal tell leads to me doing something in one of these tournaments I'm framing that fortune!
After dinner I made my way down to the tournament area. The first year I came to the WSOP in 2005 everything was packed into the Amazon Room. The main tournaments, cash games, satellites, other nightly tournaments, tournament registration, the cashier, and the televised feature table were all packed into that one room. It's a huge ass room (40,000 square feet), but it was still crowded.
Now everything has it's own room and the main tournaments go off in the TWO biggest rooms in the massive Rio convention area. It's pretty amazing.
Noon to 5 is when there is the most hustle and bustle down there, but there was still some electricity in the air at 9 pm when I went down to register for tomorrow's tournament.
Phil Helmuth was sitting at table that was on the corner of the playing area and about 75 people were gathered around watching him in the $5,000 no limit hold'em event. No doubt they were wondering if he's the same in person as he is on TV. He is. I've played with him 3 times and he is always talking and always talking about himself.
In other goings on the final table of Event #16 $10,000 7 card stud hi-lo was going on with Jennifer Harmon, John Junada, Dario Minieri, and Steve Zolotow in the action. I didn't recognize anyone else at first glance, but you can bet that no one who sucks is playing that game for that cash.
The final two tables of event #13, $1,500 no limit were in action and the final 50 or so players in the $1,500 6 handed were also fighting it out.
The ten minutes I spent walking around checking what was going on really made me want to play! I'm ready!
Just kidding. My flight in was a smooth as can be without the normal terror producing turbulence that you get flying into Vegas in the summertime. My cab driver saw my Ipod and spent the whole ride grilling me for tech support about how to get video onto his ipod. I was smart enough to get a room in the part of the Rio that is slightly closer to the convention area.
I had Chinese for dinner which was interesting for two reasons. First the Chinese place here is right next to the sports book and game 3 of the NBA finals was going on at the time. If you want to hear people cheer with conviction, and groan with true pain you should watch a major sporting event in a sports book.
Secondly I got a great fortune in my fortune cookie. It read "Listen attentively. You will come out ahead in the coming week." If a verbal tell leads to me doing something in one of these tournaments I'm framing that fortune!
After dinner I made my way down to the tournament area. The first year I came to the WSOP in 2005 everything was packed into the Amazon Room. The main tournaments, cash games, satellites, other nightly tournaments, tournament registration, the cashier, and the televised feature table were all packed into that one room. It's a huge ass room (40,000 square feet), but it was still crowded.
Now everything has it's own room and the main tournaments go off in the TWO biggest rooms in the massive Rio convention area. It's pretty amazing.
Noon to 5 is when there is the most hustle and bustle down there, but there was still some electricity in the air at 9 pm when I went down to register for tomorrow's tournament.
Phil Helmuth was sitting at table that was on the corner of the playing area and about 75 people were gathered around watching him in the $5,000 no limit hold'em event. No doubt they were wondering if he's the same in person as he is on TV. He is. I've played with him 3 times and he is always talking and always talking about himself.
In other goings on the final table of Event #16 $10,000 7 card stud hi-lo was going on with Jennifer Harmon, John Junada, Dario Minieri, and Steve Zolotow in the action. I didn't recognize anyone else at first glance, but you can bet that no one who sucks is playing that game for that cash.
The final two tables of event #13, $1,500 no limit were in action and the final 50 or so players in the $1,500 6 handed were also fighting it out.
The ten minutes I spent walking around checking what was going on really made me want to play! I'm ready!
It's Go Time!
I'm off to the airport in a few minutes to head to Vegas for the WSOP! I'm fired up!
In Huff WSOP tradition my wife Jen took some pictures of our son Peyton holding and playing with the $13,000 I'm rolling into Vegas with. They should be up soon.
In Huff WSOP tradition my wife Jen took some pictures of our son Peyton holding and playing with the $13,000 I'm rolling into Vegas with. They should be up soon.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
$550 Lucky Chances Tournament Recap
I wanted to get in a tournament or two of in person play before I headed off to the WSOP and sure enough Lucky Chances in Colma is running a series of tournaments this week.
Sunday's event was a $550 10 handed NL hold'em event that drew just over 200 players. I played against about 30 different players in this one and 25 of them couldn't carry a bag of shit if it said poker on the side. I feel like I've never had higher positive expected value in a $500+ tournament in my entire career.
I played well and ran my starting stack of 6,000 up to 10,000 without ever making a real hand or ever having to show my cards. Everyone was so transparent that I just waited until I was confident no one hand anything and then fired at the pot.
About 2 hours in I got one of my legs cut out from under me. The blinds were 100/200 and I was in the cutoff with pocket tens. The player to my right made it 700 to go and I made it 2,100. He thought for a long time and he was not the type of player who would do this as an act. After a solid 60 seconds he moved all in for 5,000. Getting 7 to 3 on my money with only half my stack at risk I couldn't see folding to an opponent who honestly seemed unsure. When I called he acted like he was dead, but then he flipped up JJ and happily took the pot when no tens showed up.
I bounced around a little bit, but eventually went down the tubes almost 4 hours in when my JJ lost to AT. I finished about 100th. I played great all day and got my money in with way the best of it. I can't ask much more of myself than that.
Tomorrow I expect to face a lot of the same players in a $330 NL tournament with the same structure and then Tuesday it's off to Vegas!
Sunday's event was a $550 10 handed NL hold'em event that drew just over 200 players. I played against about 30 different players in this one and 25 of them couldn't carry a bag of shit if it said poker on the side. I feel like I've never had higher positive expected value in a $500+ tournament in my entire career.
I played well and ran my starting stack of 6,000 up to 10,000 without ever making a real hand or ever having to show my cards. Everyone was so transparent that I just waited until I was confident no one hand anything and then fired at the pot.
About 2 hours in I got one of my legs cut out from under me. The blinds were 100/200 and I was in the cutoff with pocket tens. The player to my right made it 700 to go and I made it 2,100. He thought for a long time and he was not the type of player who would do this as an act. After a solid 60 seconds he moved all in for 5,000. Getting 7 to 3 on my money with only half my stack at risk I couldn't see folding to an opponent who honestly seemed unsure. When I called he acted like he was dead, but then he flipped up JJ and happily took the pot when no tens showed up.
I bounced around a little bit, but eventually went down the tubes almost 4 hours in when my JJ lost to AT. I finished about 100th. I played great all day and got my money in with way the best of it. I can't ask much more of myself than that.
Tomorrow I expect to face a lot of the same players in a $330 NL tournament with the same structure and then Tuesday it's off to Vegas!
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Angry Dealings with Carbon Poker
I miss pokerstars. Their customer service is better than any customer service in any industry I've ever encountered in my life. I've e-mailed their support a few dozen times over the years and without fail I've gotten a response within the hour (sometimes in less than 10 minutes) written by a human, who knows how to read, and addressing my precise problem.
Little in the world makes me more aggravated than waiting 48 hours for a response and getting a form letter that barely has anything to do with my problem. I want to write back "What's wrong with you fucking morons? Didn't you read my e-mail?"
I could write pokerstars an e-mail right now that says "Hey Ass lickers! I think you should go hump a turtle! What do you think of that?" In 20 minutes they'd write me back with something like this:
Dear AceSedai:
Thanks for your e-mail! We are thrilled that you've noticed our ass licking! We here at pokerstars want to be the best at everything, from tournaments to cash games to ass licking!
As far as humping turtles goes, at this time we don't have access to any live turtles, but we are currently humping a stuffed turtle. To compensate you for any inconvenience this turtle substitution may have caused we are going to credit your account with $100.
Furthermore we have added both live and stuffed turtles with a variety of feed and clothing options to the Pokerstars FPP store.
Don't hesitate to contact us in the future with any other ass licking or turtle humping concerns! Good luck at the tables!
Chris Moneymaker
I bring this up because Carbon poker is making me angry. After finishing the last level of "The Race" promotion I went to make a cashout. When I did, $200 I earned as part of that promotion disappeared from my account. "Whoops!" I thought as I do when I make a mistake. Looking back on the terms and conditions of that promotion (no surprise that it was in fine print) I saw that I have to wait 7 days after the end of the promotion before I can cashout.
Luckily there is a happy little button that allows me to cancel a pending cashout. So that's what I did, maybe 10 minutes later. Of course my $200 was still gone, but I figured a short e-mail to support would fix the problem. WRONG!
37 hours later (literally) I got a response telling me that my $200 was gone because I had cashed out. What's wrong with you fucking morons? Didn't you read my e-mail? I never actually cashed out!
I'm tempted to write them an e-mail that says "Hey Ass lickers! I think you should go hump a turtle! What do you think of that?"
I'm sure 3 days later I'd get a response that said:
Dear Player
We are directing your e-mail to the appropriate department. Expect a response in 15 business days. We have charged your account a $100 processing fee for this e-mail. Marginal luck at the tables!
Support
I bet they do have a turtle humping department at Carbon poker. Ass lickers!
Little in the world makes me more aggravated than waiting 48 hours for a response and getting a form letter that barely has anything to do with my problem. I want to write back "What's wrong with you fucking morons? Didn't you read my e-mail?"
I could write pokerstars an e-mail right now that says "Hey Ass lickers! I think you should go hump a turtle! What do you think of that?" In 20 minutes they'd write me back with something like this:
Dear AceSedai:
Thanks for your e-mail! We are thrilled that you've noticed our ass licking! We here at pokerstars want to be the best at everything, from tournaments to cash games to ass licking!
As far as humping turtles goes, at this time we don't have access to any live turtles, but we are currently humping a stuffed turtle. To compensate you for any inconvenience this turtle substitution may have caused we are going to credit your account with $100.
Furthermore we have added both live and stuffed turtles with a variety of feed and clothing options to the Pokerstars FPP store.
Don't hesitate to contact us in the future with any other ass licking or turtle humping concerns! Good luck at the tables!
Chris Moneymaker
I bring this up because Carbon poker is making me angry. After finishing the last level of "The Race" promotion I went to make a cashout. When I did, $200 I earned as part of that promotion disappeared from my account. "Whoops!" I thought as I do when I make a mistake. Looking back on the terms and conditions of that promotion (no surprise that it was in fine print) I saw that I have to wait 7 days after the end of the promotion before I can cashout.
Luckily there is a happy little button that allows me to cancel a pending cashout. So that's what I did, maybe 10 minutes later. Of course my $200 was still gone, but I figured a short e-mail to support would fix the problem. WRONG!
37 hours later (literally) I got a response telling me that my $200 was gone because I had cashed out. What's wrong with you fucking morons? Didn't you read my e-mail? I never actually cashed out!
I'm tempted to write them an e-mail that says "Hey Ass lickers! I think you should go hump a turtle! What do you think of that?"
I'm sure 3 days later I'd get a response that said:
Dear Player
We are directing your e-mail to the appropriate department. Expect a response in 15 business days. We have charged your account a $100 processing fee for this e-mail. Marginal luck at the tables!
Support
I bet they do have a turtle humping department at Carbon poker. Ass lickers!
The Race - Conclusion
When I first looked at Carbon poker's "The Race" promotion I was sure it was going to be a slam dunk pile of cash for me. It was on the border of too good to be true at first glance, but the deeper I dug the worse and worse the promotion got.
Why did I believe that this was going to be such a big deal? The reason is poker sites need players. The more players they have the more than can expect to get. If I know there are going to be games going on a site at the stakes I'm interested in I'll keep money on that site and check it often. If they don't have the players once or twice I might never look back.
For the casual player it's hard to find a reason to NOT play on pokerstars. If you want to play $5/$10 limit poker on Carbon you'll probably find one game going. It might be 2 on the weekend or zero on a weekday morning. If there is one game you might have to wait 15 minutes to get into it. That's not long at a card room, but it's forever sitting in front of your computer. On the other hand pokerstars will have somewhere between 10 and 40 games going 24 hours a day. Right now (11 am on a Thursday) there is one $5/$10 game on Carbon and 20 on pokerstars.
What about no limit? Let's look at a popular level like $1/$2 blinds NL. On carbon poker they have eight 6 handed games going (4 of them actually have 5 or less players) and zero 9 handed games. Not bad right. Well pokerstars has 75 6-max games and 60 9 handed games going.
It's hard to compete with that huge load of games. Never longer than 30 seconds to get into a game and if you don't like the players, pick a new game!
The only way to lure players away from pokerstars to other sites is promotions. I thought The Race was carbon making a huge push to lure players away. I thought they might be willing to lose money in the short term to bring in new players and fill up their tables. I was wrong.
After my last post about The Race I realized when I put all of the promotions together I was making about 68% rakeback. I get a flat 75% on cake and on Absolute if you pile up the rakeback, rake races, deposit bonuses, and absolute points it's over 70%. Plus the games are better on AP.
So I bailed on the race. I completed 9 levels and made about $500.
Why did I believe that this was going to be such a big deal? The reason is poker sites need players. The more players they have the more than can expect to get. If I know there are going to be games going on a site at the stakes I'm interested in I'll keep money on that site and check it often. If they don't have the players once or twice I might never look back.
For the casual player it's hard to find a reason to NOT play on pokerstars. If you want to play $5/$10 limit poker on Carbon you'll probably find one game going. It might be 2 on the weekend or zero on a weekday morning. If there is one game you might have to wait 15 minutes to get into it. That's not long at a card room, but it's forever sitting in front of your computer. On the other hand pokerstars will have somewhere between 10 and 40 games going 24 hours a day. Right now (11 am on a Thursday) there is one $5/$10 game on Carbon and 20 on pokerstars.
What about no limit? Let's look at a popular level like $1/$2 blinds NL. On carbon poker they have eight 6 handed games going (4 of them actually have 5 or less players) and zero 9 handed games. Not bad right. Well pokerstars has 75 6-max games and 60 9 handed games going.
It's hard to compete with that huge load of games. Never longer than 30 seconds to get into a game and if you don't like the players, pick a new game!
The only way to lure players away from pokerstars to other sites is promotions. I thought The Race was carbon making a huge push to lure players away. I thought they might be willing to lose money in the short term to bring in new players and fill up their tables. I was wrong.
After my last post about The Race I realized when I put all of the promotions together I was making about 68% rakeback. I get a flat 75% on cake and on Absolute if you pile up the rakeback, rake races, deposit bonuses, and absolute points it's over 70%. Plus the games are better on AP.
So I bailed on the race. I completed 9 levels and made about $500.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
WSOP Warm Up
I've been playing a few multitables here and there in an effort to get ready for the WSOP. Yesterday I finished 2nd of 137 in a $55 NL hold'em tournament which paid $1,200. That's not off the charts money by any means, and the field wasn't exactly loaded with pros, but it was still good for some momentum heading into the series.
Also in an effort to warm up for the WSOP, I'll be playing two tournaments in person just before I head out to Vegas. Both tournaments are taking place at Lucky Chances in Colma, CA. The first is on Sunday and features a $550 buy in and a guaranteed 1st place prize of $40,000. The second is on Monday, has a $330 buy in and a $20,000 1st place guarantee.
My guess is that each tournament will have about 200 entrants and feature the regular bay area tournament players. Hopefully I can book a nice cash and go into the WSOP feeling sharp. I'll let you know how it goes.
Also in an effort to warm up for the WSOP, I'll be playing two tournaments in person just before I head out to Vegas. Both tournaments are taking place at Lucky Chances in Colma, CA. The first is on Sunday and features a $550 buy in and a guaranteed 1st place prize of $40,000. The second is on Monday, has a $330 buy in and a $20,000 1st place guarantee.
My guess is that each tournament will have about 200 entrants and feature the regular bay area tournament players. Hopefully I can book a nice cash and go into the WSOP feeling sharp. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
WSOP 2010 Starts Tomorrow
While I won't be in Vegas until June 8th, the 2010 World Series of Poker kicks off tomorrow with 57 bracelet events with buy ins ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
I spent an hour this morning sitting at Starbucks reading Bluff Magazine and it feels like just about every article in the June issue is about the WSOP. Reading about how many of the big name pros are getting excited about the series makes me excited to get there and start playing!
I have a very positive feeling about this year which will be my 6th at the WSOP. I have more experience under my belt and compared to many of the players I'll be an old veteran.
But there are other things working in my favor as well. For one I've lost 20 pounds since last summer (Almost 30 since January of 2009). Playing from noon until 2 in the morning takes it's toll on everyone and I'm hoping that my improved physical fitness will help me deal with the long hours.
Another advantage I'll have over many of my opponents is I'm totally Vegased out. When I was 21 and even when I was 25 (I'm 30 now) I wanted to go out and get rip roaring drunk and gamble it up non stop! Hit me! Yo eleven! More Whisky! Clackity clack!
I've spent over 100 days in Vegas over the past 10 years (Plus a few dozen in Tahoe, Reno, Atlantic City, etc.)and I've had my fill. I still have fun playing negative EV games with my friends, but I no longer feel like spending time in my hotel room is wasting precious Vegas moments. While many of my opponents will be getting shit faced, trying to get laid, going to clubs, getting lap dances and playing craps long into the night, I'll be asleep.
Also working for me is, I've done this all before. I know where the bathrooms are and that I have to leave the table 20 seconds before the breaks start (have you ever seen 2,000 people get up to go to the bathroom at the same time?). I know where I like to eat at the Rio on dinner break and to not eat too much and cause a food coma. I know that I need to bring a snack to get me from the noon start time to the dinner break. I know that if you drink a red bull and a coffee you're going to miss two hands while you go take a piss. I'm not star struck by any of the players (Phil Helmuth? Yeah I've played against him 3 times, busted him once and saw him almost eat a graham cracker he found on the floor - REALLY!). I'm extremely good looking which distracts all of my opponents and lulls them into submission. I know it takes about 16 minutes to get from a room in the Masquerade tower at the Rio to the Amazon room. Did I mention the bathrooms, because that really is a big deal?
It really is exciting. There is nothing like the feel of a fat roll of hundred dollar bills in your pocket and peeling off 20 or 30 of them like it's nothing to buy into one of these tournaments. Or even better having so many that you need to carry around $1,000 chips instead because the roll of hundreds is so bulky that it won't fit in your pocket comfortably anymore.
More on the WSOP soon. I really feel like this is going to be my year!
I spent an hour this morning sitting at Starbucks reading Bluff Magazine and it feels like just about every article in the June issue is about the WSOP. Reading about how many of the big name pros are getting excited about the series makes me excited to get there and start playing!
I have a very positive feeling about this year which will be my 6th at the WSOP. I have more experience under my belt and compared to many of the players I'll be an old veteran.
But there are other things working in my favor as well. For one I've lost 20 pounds since last summer (Almost 30 since January of 2009). Playing from noon until 2 in the morning takes it's toll on everyone and I'm hoping that my improved physical fitness will help me deal with the long hours.
Another advantage I'll have over many of my opponents is I'm totally Vegased out. When I was 21 and even when I was 25 (I'm 30 now) I wanted to go out and get rip roaring drunk and gamble it up non stop! Hit me! Yo eleven! More Whisky! Clackity clack!
I've spent over 100 days in Vegas over the past 10 years (Plus a few dozen in Tahoe, Reno, Atlantic City, etc.)and I've had my fill. I still have fun playing negative EV games with my friends, but I no longer feel like spending time in my hotel room is wasting precious Vegas moments. While many of my opponents will be getting shit faced, trying to get laid, going to clubs, getting lap dances and playing craps long into the night, I'll be asleep.
Also working for me is, I've done this all before. I know where the bathrooms are and that I have to leave the table 20 seconds before the breaks start (have you ever seen 2,000 people get up to go to the bathroom at the same time?). I know where I like to eat at the Rio on dinner break and to not eat too much and cause a food coma. I know that I need to bring a snack to get me from the noon start time to the dinner break. I know that if you drink a red bull and a coffee you're going to miss two hands while you go take a piss. I'm not star struck by any of the players (Phil Helmuth? Yeah I've played against him 3 times, busted him once and saw him almost eat a graham cracker he found on the floor - REALLY!). I'm extremely good looking which distracts all of my opponents and lulls them into submission. I know it takes about 16 minutes to get from a room in the Masquerade tower at the Rio to the Amazon room. Did I mention the bathrooms, because that really is a big deal?
It really is exciting. There is nothing like the feel of a fat roll of hundred dollar bills in your pocket and peeling off 20 or 30 of them like it's nothing to buy into one of these tournaments. Or even better having so many that you need to carry around $1,000 chips instead because the roll of hundreds is so bulky that it won't fit in your pocket comfortably anymore.
More on the WSOP soon. I really feel like this is going to be my year!
Monday, May 17, 2010
SCOOP Recap
When you add it all up I lost $3,314 in the FTOPS and SCOOP combined. I played a total of 28 tournaments and had 4 money finishes. Under these conditions I'm shooting for something cloer to 25% in the money rather than 1 in 7.
Of course I had my opponent all in more than once with a chance to make the money if I won one of those confrontations in the both the triple shootout and the first heads up matches event. I easily could have (and probably should have) had 6 cashes instead of 4.
Looking ahead, I'm really excited about the WSOP this year. I feel like I've found the perfect mix of tournaments to play and I'm coming into the series more focused than ever. This will be my sixth year at the WSOP, I'm playing 6 tournaments, so I'm going to go on the record and predict a finish of 6th place or better on one of these events!
The action kicks off at the Rio the last few days in May, but my 2010 WOSP will start June 9th.
Of course I had my opponent all in more than once with a chance to make the money if I won one of those confrontations in the both the triple shootout and the first heads up matches event. I easily could have (and probably should have) had 6 cashes instead of 4.
Looking ahead, I'm really excited about the WSOP this year. I feel like I've found the perfect mix of tournaments to play and I'm coming into the series more focused than ever. This will be my sixth year at the WSOP, I'm playing 6 tournaments, so I'm going to go on the record and predict a finish of 6th place or better on one of these events!
The action kicks off at the Rio the last few days in May, but my 2010 WOSP will start June 9th.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Race Days 5-14
When I first saw the race promotion I thought "holy shit, they are giving me $25,000." At first glance it looked like all I needed to do was earn 100,000 points or pay $10,000 in rake to hit all of the race prizes. But then I saw that the list of point milestones were not cumulative targets, but rather 15 individual promotions that had to be hit independent of one another. At that point it looked like I'd need to pay over $30,000 in rake to hit them all.
In an equally disappointing moment I learned that because of my 35% rakeback deal I would only be earning points at 65% the rate of normal players. It makes sense, but I didn't know about it. Factoring that in I'd need to pay an insane $46,000 in rake in one month to hit all the levels.
Also I was expecting (foolishly) that rake back nation would be having their normal rake race for Carbon, which was canceled. That's another $1,000 I thought I'd get.
Also I learned that since I have a rakeback deal I'm not eligible for other parts of the Carbon VIP program.
Add all of this up and instead of making enough from this promotion to buy a car, it looks more like flat screen TV kind of money. I'm not going to look a gift few grand in the mouth, but it's not as earth shattering as I'd hoped.
So far I've earned about 20,000 points which has allowed me to hit the first 8 milestones and pick up a whopping $302.50. I expect to finish the month with about 50,000 which will mean I'll end up making an extra $1,502 from the race.
To get there I will have ended up paying $7,693 in rake. Factoring in the money from the race, the value of the actual points, my 35% rakeback, and clearing of two deposit bonuses, I'll be getting back $5,282 or 68% of my rake. Not too bad at all. Not the 100% I was hoping for at the start, but still solid.
In an equally disappointing moment I learned that because of my 35% rakeback deal I would only be earning points at 65% the rate of normal players. It makes sense, but I didn't know about it. Factoring that in I'd need to pay an insane $46,000 in rake in one month to hit all the levels.
Also I was expecting (foolishly) that rake back nation would be having their normal rake race for Carbon, which was canceled. That's another $1,000 I thought I'd get.
Also I learned that since I have a rakeback deal I'm not eligible for other parts of the Carbon VIP program.
Add all of this up and instead of making enough from this promotion to buy a car, it looks more like flat screen TV kind of money. I'm not going to look a gift few grand in the mouth, but it's not as earth shattering as I'd hoped.
So far I've earned about 20,000 points which has allowed me to hit the first 8 milestones and pick up a whopping $302.50. I expect to finish the month with about 50,000 which will mean I'll end up making an extra $1,502 from the race.
To get there I will have ended up paying $7,693 in rake. Factoring in the money from the race, the value of the actual points, my 35% rakeback, and clearing of two deposit bonuses, I'll be getting back $5,282 or 68% of my rake. Not too bad at all. Not the 100% I was hoping for at the start, but still solid.
Friday, May 14, 2010
More SCOOP Bad News
I came up short in the $33 and $320 8-game as well as the $55 and $530.
This is a major disappointment, not so much because of the money, but because these should be the tournaments in which I have the highest expected value and I didn't even sniff the money. Frustrating to say the least.
5 tournaments left in the SCOOP: $270 heads up matches, $215 HORSE, $215 NL hold'em, $109 NL hold'em (the low stakes main event - $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool), and $1,050 NL hold'em (the medium stakes main event - $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool). The go off in that order starting Saturday morning.
Even in the worst case scenario if I blank in all of these I'll have about $3,000 of my $7,500 FTOPS/SCOOP bankroll left.
Of course the best case scenario is a mid six figure pay day, which is why we play. Let's hope I finish out the 2010 SCOOP with a bang!
This is a major disappointment, not so much because of the money, but because these should be the tournaments in which I have the highest expected value and I didn't even sniff the money. Frustrating to say the least.
5 tournaments left in the SCOOP: $270 heads up matches, $215 HORSE, $215 NL hold'em, $109 NL hold'em (the low stakes main event - $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool), and $1,050 NL hold'em (the medium stakes main event - $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool). The go off in that order starting Saturday morning.
Even in the worst case scenario if I blank in all of these I'll have about $3,000 of my $7,500 FTOPS/SCOOP bankroll left.
Of course the best case scenario is a mid six figure pay day, which is why we play. Let's hope I finish out the 2010 SCOOP with a bang!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday's Action.
$33 and $320 8 game mixed games today starting right now. I'm going to late register. I always like my chances when we're playing more than one game.
SCOOP Event #28 ($109 w rebuys) Recap.
We started this tournament with 2,066 entrants all shooting for the $103,856 first place prize or at least the $551 for 270th. At the end of the rebuy period I had about 11,000 chips which was what I got for my buy in, one rebuy and the add on. About 4 hours into the tournament I was all the way up to 15K. What a boring 4 hours!
At that point an interesting hand came up. The blinds were 150/300 and the under the gun player made it 750 to go. He got called by a player a few spots to his left and I made it 3,000 to go with TT. The UTG player who had about 60,000 chips called. The other guy thought for about 30 seconds and then went all in for about 18K.
This seemed very suspicious. I thought maybe the all in player thought I was putting on a squeeze play and decided to "resqueeze." I couldn't rule out AA or AK, but looking back a hand like 77 or 88 makes the most sense. In the end I folded, because I was worried I might get called by both players and TT plays like shit against two hands. The UTG player folded so I have no idea what they both had.
I finally caught a break when I got dealt AA. A player in early position raised to 1,200 with KJ and I just called (the blinds were 250/500 by that point). The flop came down J T 8. He bet, I moved all in and he called.
One or two hands later I got dealt KQs. A player in middle position made it something like 1,100 to go and I just called. The flop came down J T 2 giving me two overs and a straight draw. My opponent bet about half the pot on the flop and again I opted to just call thinking I could hit or if he missed I'd likely be able to steal the pot with a bet on the turn.
The turn was a brick and my opponent checked. I bet 6K into the 7K pot and he called. Yikes! The river was another blank, he checked and without hesitation I moved all in for 20K. Scary! He thought for 10 seconds and folded leaving me with a stack of 41K when average was about 30K.
A little while later I got a big boost and then a big screw job. On the first one I reraised a guy all in who had about 20K. I had AQs and he had KK. I made a flush and was up to 60k. Then I got a cheap look in the big blinds with 89. The flop came with an 8 and a 9 making me two pair. But I was against 88 who flopped a set! ACK! After those two hands I was at 20K.
With about 450 players left I had 14K and average was 53K. I caught a huge break when I got it all in and flopped a Q with AQ vs AK! I caught another break when I folded 77 after being very close to raising it. It turns out I would have been against 88 and the flop came with a 7 and an 8! That would have been curtains for sure.
I won several small pots and one moderate one to take my stack to 60K when we made the money.
On my final hand I had JJ. The blinds were up to 1K/2K with a 250 ante and a player opened for something like 6K. I had a little over 50K and I thought about making it 15K to go, but I decided I should just get it all in there and pick up the 11,000 that was lingering out there in the pot. I got called by AK and he hit an ace. That's usually how a tournament ends.
I finished 185th which paid $681. Again not a ton of money, but it always feels good to cash.
At that point an interesting hand came up. The blinds were 150/300 and the under the gun player made it 750 to go. He got called by a player a few spots to his left and I made it 3,000 to go with TT. The UTG player who had about 60,000 chips called. The other guy thought for about 30 seconds and then went all in for about 18K.
This seemed very suspicious. I thought maybe the all in player thought I was putting on a squeeze play and decided to "resqueeze." I couldn't rule out AA or AK, but looking back a hand like 77 or 88 makes the most sense. In the end I folded, because I was worried I might get called by both players and TT plays like shit against two hands. The UTG player folded so I have no idea what they both had.
I finally caught a break when I got dealt AA. A player in early position raised to 1,200 with KJ and I just called (the blinds were 250/500 by that point). The flop came down J T 8. He bet, I moved all in and he called.
One or two hands later I got dealt KQs. A player in middle position made it something like 1,100 to go and I just called. The flop came down J T 2 giving me two overs and a straight draw. My opponent bet about half the pot on the flop and again I opted to just call thinking I could hit or if he missed I'd likely be able to steal the pot with a bet on the turn.
The turn was a brick and my opponent checked. I bet 6K into the 7K pot and he called. Yikes! The river was another blank, he checked and without hesitation I moved all in for 20K. Scary! He thought for 10 seconds and folded leaving me with a stack of 41K when average was about 30K.
A little while later I got a big boost and then a big screw job. On the first one I reraised a guy all in who had about 20K. I had AQs and he had KK. I made a flush and was up to 60k. Then I got a cheap look in the big blinds with 89. The flop came with an 8 and a 9 making me two pair. But I was against 88 who flopped a set! ACK! After those two hands I was at 20K.
With about 450 players left I had 14K and average was 53K. I caught a huge break when I got it all in and flopped a Q with AQ vs AK! I caught another break when I folded 77 after being very close to raising it. It turns out I would have been against 88 and the flop came with a 7 and an 8! That would have been curtains for sure.
I won several small pots and one moderate one to take my stack to 60K when we made the money.
On my final hand I had JJ. The blinds were up to 1K/2K with a 250 ante and a player opened for something like 6K. I had a little over 50K and I thought about making it 15K to go, but I decided I should just get it all in there and pick up the 11,000 that was lingering out there in the pot. I got called by AK and he hit an ace. That's usually how a tournament ends.
I finished 185th which paid $681. Again not a ton of money, but it always feels good to cash.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
SCOOP Event #28 Underway.
After a day off yesterday I'm back in SCOOP action today with $109 with rebuys 9 handed no limit hold'em. You get 3,000 chips for the buy in, 3,000 chips for a rebuy (you can only rebuy if you have 3,000 chips or less) and 5,000 for the add on at the end of the first hour. So I should have at least 11,000 chips at the end of the first hour when the blinds go from 30/60 to 40/80.
That's right. 140 or so big blinds at the end of the first hour. That is deep stack poker! This one is going to take FOREVER! Probably 7 hours to make the money. Luckily I feel rested and ready. Look for twitter updates.
That's right. 140 or so big blinds at the end of the first hour. That is deep stack poker! This one is going to take FOREVER! Probably 7 hours to make the money. Luckily I feel rested and ready. Look for twitter updates.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
SCOOP Update
Since my last post I've played 4 (well three and a half) SCOOP tournaments and come up short in them all.
The biggest disappointment came in the $215 triple shootout. Starting at a table of 10 players and needing to beat all of them to make the money I made it down to 1 opponent. And I was much better than him. And at one point I had a 33,000 to 17,000 chip lead.
He beat me because I did exactly what I shouldn't have done; I played big pots. If you have the skill advantage you want to play small pots and let your edge kick in over time. If you just throw your chips in there who knows what might happen. I can't remember the last time I felt so frustrated about a tournament result. I totally blew it! I won $1,700 in the cash games that day and still felt super pissed at the end of my work day.
The other 3 tournaments were two turbo limit tournaments ($22 and $215) that ended very quickly without much fanfare and a $162 half pot limit hold'em, half pot limit Omaha. In that one I got dealt AA on the button, raised, got reraised and I raised again (I considered calling, but decided to be aggressive). The flop came down jack high garbage and my opponent check raised me all in. I called and he showed me JJ! BOO!
I'm losing $1,689 for the SCOOP, and my $7,500 FTOPS/SCOOP bankroll sits at $5,248.
Nothing today, but $109 with rebuys tomorrow at 2 PT and $320 8 game at 11 on Thursday.
The biggest disappointment came in the $215 triple shootout. Starting at a table of 10 players and needing to beat all of them to make the money I made it down to 1 opponent. And I was much better than him. And at one point I had a 33,000 to 17,000 chip lead.
He beat me because I did exactly what I shouldn't have done; I played big pots. If you have the skill advantage you want to play small pots and let your edge kick in over time. If you just throw your chips in there who knows what might happen. I can't remember the last time I felt so frustrated about a tournament result. I totally blew it! I won $1,700 in the cash games that day and still felt super pissed at the end of my work day.
The other 3 tournaments were two turbo limit tournaments ($22 and $215) that ended very quickly without much fanfare and a $162 half pot limit hold'em, half pot limit Omaha. In that one I got dealt AA on the button, raised, got reraised and I raised again (I considered calling, but decided to be aggressive). The flop came down jack high garbage and my opponent check raised me all in. I called and he showed me JJ! BOO!
I'm losing $1,689 for the SCOOP, and my $7,500 FTOPS/SCOOP bankroll sits at $5,248.
Nothing today, but $109 with rebuys tomorrow at 2 PT and $320 8 game at 11 on Thursday.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
SCOOP Event #13 $162 "Ante Up" Recap
This tournament had a very interesting format. I thought it was just going to be antes from hand #1, but it turns out it was increasing antes with blinds of 5/5 the whole way through. After the first few levels there were effectively no blinds.
My opponents clearly had no idea how to adjust to this format. I'd say about 2/3 of the pots were being raised preflop. That means 1/3 of the time you could see a flop for 5 chips. We started with 5,000. I can see when the antes are 10 chips a player, or even 25, folding might be an option. But when the antes are 100 and there's 900 in the pot and 1/3 of the time you get to see a flop with a shot of hitting big and winning that 900, folding for 5 chips is crazy.
But EVERY SINGLE HAND 2, 3 or 4 players would fold preflop with no raise. Even when the antes got up to 500 a player and there was 4,500 in the pot before anyone had done anything and these guys had 50,000 chips they were STILL not putting in those 5 chips to see the flop. It's flabbergasting! What are you worried about someone popping it and losing .01% of your stack? PUSSIES!
I committed to playing every hand for 5 chips early on as did some of my thinking opponents. I think the fact that I play limit all day and am used to seeing flop after flop in spots where my opponents could have a wide range of hands and playing pots on the turn and river helped me a lot.
Early on I was on the button and a few people had called the 5 chips. The ante was 50 a player so there was close to 500 in the pot. Confused by the format everyone was playing really tight and passive. I decided I was going to just start shooting at the pots with air for a while until I got some resistance. So I made it 400 to go with T2.
I got called by one player in the field and the flop came down Q 9 8. My opponent checked to me and I bet out 600 still on a bluff. He called me and the turn came down a jack. BINGO! My total bluff turned into a straight! My opponent checked and I checked behind him hoping to convince him that I didn't have a ten in my hand.
The river was a brick and my opponent moved all in! HA! I had about 4,000 left in my stack and snap called him. He had QJ and I was up to 11,000.
At this point he went ballistic going on about how I was a moron and how could I play T2 and how he was rich because of players like me. For 30 minutes every time I'd lose a pot he'd call me an ATM or a donk or my favorite a "Donk ATM." Clearly he was rattled big time (he raised to 900 on the very next had with only 450 in the pot)and this hand helped me later on.
I flopped a straight vs a set and busted a short stack who had AJ vs my AK and found myself with 18K. We started with 2,007 players, at that point there were 575 left and I had a dead average stack.
I was up to 25K when I got into it with Mr. Donk ATM again. We were 4+ hours into the tournament and we were still at the same table which was a little surprising. The antes were 200 a player at this point and I made it 1,200 to go with AK. Mr. Donk called me and the flop came down A 8 2 rainbow.
I knew he was thinking about the hand with the T2. He'd mentioned it hours after it happened. I was sure he'd call me with anything at all if I bet the flop and there was no way he'd have me on AK. So I bet and he called. The turn was a blank and I checked hoping he'd bet, but he checked behind. The river was another blank and I decided to overbet the pot to make it look like a bluff. There was about 6,000 in the pot and I bet 7,000. He insta called me with QQ. He was down to 5K and I was up to 35K. SUCK IT JERK!
I still had about 35K which was average when we made the money with 288 players left.
I caught a nice break beating JJ with AQ which took me up to 62K and had me in great shape. At that point I was in 60th of 219 remaining players.
I'd faded down to less than 40K when the following hand came up. I had J9s and I made it to the flop cheap (for more than 5, but not a ton). The antes were about 500 at this point and the flop came down K T 8 with two spades. My lone opponent bet out 10,000 into the pot of about 10,000 and I decided to go for it. So I moved all in for something like 35K. He called me with AT of spades! Whoops! The turn was an ace, but the river was a queen and I was up to 77K!
At that point I started dreaming big, but I was done in soon after by a hand I might have misplayed or at the very least could have played differently.
I had about 60K, got 88 and made it about 4K to go. I got reraised to 10K and I called. The flop came down 2 3 4, I checked, my opponent bet 15K and I went all in. He thought for a little bit and called me with 99. No miracles and that was it. When I got reraised preflop it felt like a big pair and I feel like maybe I could have check folded the flop. Of course if he has 77 I feel like a genius so who knows.
I finished 153rd which paid $376. Not off the charts by any means, but it felt good to make the money.
My opponents clearly had no idea how to adjust to this format. I'd say about 2/3 of the pots were being raised preflop. That means 1/3 of the time you could see a flop for 5 chips. We started with 5,000. I can see when the antes are 10 chips a player, or even 25, folding might be an option. But when the antes are 100 and there's 900 in the pot and 1/3 of the time you get to see a flop with a shot of hitting big and winning that 900, folding for 5 chips is crazy.
But EVERY SINGLE HAND 2, 3 or 4 players would fold preflop with no raise. Even when the antes got up to 500 a player and there was 4,500 in the pot before anyone had done anything and these guys had 50,000 chips they were STILL not putting in those 5 chips to see the flop. It's flabbergasting! What are you worried about someone popping it and losing .01% of your stack? PUSSIES!
I committed to playing every hand for 5 chips early on as did some of my thinking opponents. I think the fact that I play limit all day and am used to seeing flop after flop in spots where my opponents could have a wide range of hands and playing pots on the turn and river helped me a lot.
Early on I was on the button and a few people had called the 5 chips. The ante was 50 a player so there was close to 500 in the pot. Confused by the format everyone was playing really tight and passive. I decided I was going to just start shooting at the pots with air for a while until I got some resistance. So I made it 400 to go with T2.
I got called by one player in the field and the flop came down Q 9 8. My opponent checked to me and I bet out 600 still on a bluff. He called me and the turn came down a jack. BINGO! My total bluff turned into a straight! My opponent checked and I checked behind him hoping to convince him that I didn't have a ten in my hand.
The river was a brick and my opponent moved all in! HA! I had about 4,000 left in my stack and snap called him. He had QJ and I was up to 11,000.
At this point he went ballistic going on about how I was a moron and how could I play T2 and how he was rich because of players like me. For 30 minutes every time I'd lose a pot he'd call me an ATM or a donk or my favorite a "Donk ATM." Clearly he was rattled big time (he raised to 900 on the very next had with only 450 in the pot)and this hand helped me later on.
I flopped a straight vs a set and busted a short stack who had AJ vs my AK and found myself with 18K. We started with 2,007 players, at that point there were 575 left and I had a dead average stack.
I was up to 25K when I got into it with Mr. Donk ATM again. We were 4+ hours into the tournament and we were still at the same table which was a little surprising. The antes were 200 a player at this point and I made it 1,200 to go with AK. Mr. Donk called me and the flop came down A 8 2 rainbow.
I knew he was thinking about the hand with the T2. He'd mentioned it hours after it happened. I was sure he'd call me with anything at all if I bet the flop and there was no way he'd have me on AK. So I bet and he called. The turn was a blank and I checked hoping he'd bet, but he checked behind. The river was another blank and I decided to overbet the pot to make it look like a bluff. There was about 6,000 in the pot and I bet 7,000. He insta called me with QQ. He was down to 5K and I was up to 35K. SUCK IT JERK!
I still had about 35K which was average when we made the money with 288 players left.
I caught a nice break beating JJ with AQ which took me up to 62K and had me in great shape. At that point I was in 60th of 219 remaining players.
I'd faded down to less than 40K when the following hand came up. I had J9s and I made it to the flop cheap (for more than 5, but not a ton). The antes were about 500 at this point and the flop came down K T 8 with two spades. My lone opponent bet out 10,000 into the pot of about 10,000 and I decided to go for it. So I moved all in for something like 35K. He called me with AT of spades! Whoops! The turn was an ace, but the river was a queen and I was up to 77K!
At that point I started dreaming big, but I was done in soon after by a hand I might have misplayed or at the very least could have played differently.
I had about 60K, got 88 and made it about 4K to go. I got reraised to 10K and I called. The flop came down 2 3 4, I checked, my opponent bet 15K and I went all in. He thought for a little bit and called me with 99. No miracles and that was it. When I got reraised preflop it felt like a big pair and I feel like maybe I could have check folded the flop. Of course if he has 77 I feel like a genius so who knows.
I finished 153rd which paid $376. Not off the charts by any means, but it felt good to make the money.
Friday, May 07, 2010
A Big 4 days of SCOOP Action
Brick city in the Mixed hold'em and the 7-card stud. Not much to tell. If you want a little more detail you can look back at my twitter updates.
At 11 PT Friday I have $162 NLH with antes from the start and I might play $55 limit Omaha 8 at 3.
On Saturday I have $215 triple shootout in the morning and then $22 and $215 limit turbo (5-minute limits) at 5 PT.
On Sunday we're back with $215 NLH "big antes" (not sure exactly what that means) in the morning and $215 NLH in the afternoon
Monday is $162 PL hold'em/PLO at 11 am, and maybe $11 and $109 with rebuys turbo at 5 pm.
Tuesday is going to be an off day with 5 days of SCOOP after that.
It only takes one good one to make this whole thing a big success.
At 11 PT Friday I have $162 NLH with antes from the start and I might play $55 limit Omaha 8 at 3.
On Saturday I have $215 triple shootout in the morning and then $22 and $215 limit turbo (5-minute limits) at 5 PT.
On Sunday we're back with $215 NLH "big antes" (not sure exactly what that means) in the morning and $215 NLH in the afternoon
Monday is $162 PL hold'em/PLO at 11 am, and maybe $11 and $109 with rebuys turbo at 5 pm.
Tuesday is going to be an off day with 5 days of SCOOP after that.
It only takes one good one to make this whole thing a big success.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Wednesday's Action
Today I have $215 half Limit hold'em, half NL hold'em which is underway, with about 900 entrants. The action is 6 handed, so this one is right in my wheelhouse (whatever that means).
At 3 PT I have $320 Stud. I've actually played a fair amount of Stud (50 times more than your typical online poker pro) so I like my chances in that one too.
I'm ready for a SCOOP victory!
At 3 PT I have $320 Stud. I've actually played a fair amount of Stud (50 times more than your typical online poker pro) so I like my chances in that one too.
I'm ready for a SCOOP victory!
The Race - Days 3,4
These Carbon Poker games are making me crazy! For some reason I'm not playing well in them. Many times at the end of a hand I ask myself "why the hell did I do that?"
I have played in all kind of limit poker games. After a couple million hands I feel like I've played just about every type of opponent you could face. But some weak players are easier for me to beat than others. The players easiest to beat are the ones who play too tight and are predictable. That's not how the games play on Carbon.
The Carbon games are really loose with lots of multiway action and frequent raising and reraising. The players are much more showdown bound than their AP counterparts and while in the long run I know I'm going to crush them (because they suck!), I can't just go on autopilot and use my standard plays. I have to do things like check when I miss the flop (gasp!) or check when I miss the turn (double gasp!).
My default when I raise preflop and am only facing one opponent is to fire the flop and the turn (and often the river too) whether I have it or I don't. It makes it tough for my opponents to put me on a hand and if we both miss the flop (which is the most likely thing to happen) then I usually win. You might think that players would catch on to this and start coming after me with nothing, but it takes balls to bluff hard enough to be effective and of course some of the time I have a good hand. After you crash face first into a real hand with a total bluff it's really hard to summon the courage to try another one right away.
Anyway, these fuckers on Carbon Poker seem to be calling me down left and right no matter what they have so I need to change my tactics a little bit. It's not hard, I just need to be explicitly conscious of what I'm doing.
With all that bitching you'd think I was getting killed, when I'm actually just about even. I just feel like I should be winning more.
As far as the race itself I've earned 9,000 points in 4 days. In order to make it through level 13 of the race and pick up $5,000 in prizes I need to make it to 75,250. I think that's my target right now, since I'm way behind pace to make it to the next level which is 125,000. Actually I need to step it up a little to just make it to the 75K mark, but I think I have it in me.
In other news, I'm still beating the shit out of the players on Absolute Poker. I'm +$3,000 or so this month on AP in 2,000 hands of action.
I have played in all kind of limit poker games. After a couple million hands I feel like I've played just about every type of opponent you could face. But some weak players are easier for me to beat than others. The players easiest to beat are the ones who play too tight and are predictable. That's not how the games play on Carbon.
The Carbon games are really loose with lots of multiway action and frequent raising and reraising. The players are much more showdown bound than their AP counterparts and while in the long run I know I'm going to crush them (because they suck!), I can't just go on autopilot and use my standard plays. I have to do things like check when I miss the flop (gasp!) or check when I miss the turn (double gasp!).
My default when I raise preflop and am only facing one opponent is to fire the flop and the turn (and often the river too) whether I have it or I don't. It makes it tough for my opponents to put me on a hand and if we both miss the flop (which is the most likely thing to happen) then I usually win. You might think that players would catch on to this and start coming after me with nothing, but it takes balls to bluff hard enough to be effective and of course some of the time I have a good hand. After you crash face first into a real hand with a total bluff it's really hard to summon the courage to try another one right away.
Anyway, these fuckers on Carbon Poker seem to be calling me down left and right no matter what they have so I need to change my tactics a little bit. It's not hard, I just need to be explicitly conscious of what I'm doing.
With all that bitching you'd think I was getting killed, when I'm actually just about even. I just feel like I should be winning more.
As far as the race itself I've earned 9,000 points in 4 days. In order to make it through level 13 of the race and pick up $5,000 in prizes I need to make it to 75,250. I think that's my target right now, since I'm way behind pace to make it to the next level which is 125,000. Actually I need to step it up a little to just make it to the 75K mark, but I think I have it in me.
In other news, I'm still beating the shit out of the players on Absolute Poker. I'm +$3,000 or so this month on AP in 2,000 hands of action.
SCOOP Badugi and Heads Up Matches Recap
The Badugi tournament was interesting, but not profitable.
One of the things that is frustrating about badugi is that your hand doesn't often improve that often. In hold'em the best hand you can start with is one pair, and you only have two of the seven cards that go into making a showdown hand.
In Badugi if you have a playable hand it means you have 3/4 of or your entire showdown hand already. If you have A23 (the best possible draw) - let's say it's one club, one diamond, one heart - then the only cards that improve your hand are the 4-K of spades. That's only 10 cards out of the remaining 49 in the deck. Clearly starting out with a made 4 card hand is a huge advantage.
In the end I played for about 4 hours, but never got my starting stack of 5K over 7K. $162 out the window in that one.
I got much closer in the heads up matches. We started that tournament with 2,048 players. It takes 3 match wins to make the money and 11 to win the tournament. Somehow it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to only beat 11 guys.
In my first match my opponent was not great. I'd say under these conditions I could beat him 7 or 8 times out of 10. We went back and forth for a long time and while I was ahead almost the whole time it took 120 hands for me to finish him off. In the end he got his money in good with JJ against my 77, but I hit a 7 on the river to win the match.
In match #2 my opponent was much better. I'd say we were very evenly matched. After 82 hands we got it all in (I had him significantly covered) with a small pair for him and A9 for me. A nine came on the river and I was on to match #3.
Match #3 came to an end much quicker. About 10 hands in I got dealt AKs. He raised, I reraised, he popped it again and I put him all in. He called me with 88 and I missed. I still had 1,000 chips to his 9,000 and actually got it back to 2,500 when I got it all in with AJ vs 55. If I win that pot we are back to even. Instead I was out the door, just short of the money.
After 13 tournaments in the FTOPS and SCOOP my $7,500 bankroll is at $6,183.
One of the things that is frustrating about badugi is that your hand doesn't often improve that often. In hold'em the best hand you can start with is one pair, and you only have two of the seven cards that go into making a showdown hand.
In Badugi if you have a playable hand it means you have 3/4 of or your entire showdown hand already. If you have A23 (the best possible draw) - let's say it's one club, one diamond, one heart - then the only cards that improve your hand are the 4-K of spades. That's only 10 cards out of the remaining 49 in the deck. Clearly starting out with a made 4 card hand is a huge advantage.
In the end I played for about 4 hours, but never got my starting stack of 5K over 7K. $162 out the window in that one.
I got much closer in the heads up matches. We started that tournament with 2,048 players. It takes 3 match wins to make the money and 11 to win the tournament. Somehow it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to only beat 11 guys.
In my first match my opponent was not great. I'd say under these conditions I could beat him 7 or 8 times out of 10. We went back and forth for a long time and while I was ahead almost the whole time it took 120 hands for me to finish him off. In the end he got his money in good with JJ against my 77, but I hit a 7 on the river to win the match.
In match #2 my opponent was much better. I'd say we were very evenly matched. After 82 hands we got it all in (I had him significantly covered) with a small pair for him and A9 for me. A nine came on the river and I was on to match #3.
Match #3 came to an end much quicker. About 10 hands in I got dealt AKs. He raised, I reraised, he popped it again and I put him all in. He called me with 88 and I missed. I still had 1,000 chips to his 9,000 and actually got it back to 2,500 when I got it all in with AJ vs 55. If I win that pot we are back to even. Instead I was out the door, just short of the money.
After 13 tournaments in the FTOPS and SCOOP my $7,500 bankroll is at $6,183.
Monday, May 03, 2010
The Race - Day 2
I was mostly focused on tournament on race day 2, but I did manage 2,100 points, which was enough to finish the 2,000 point milestone 4 and get most of the way through the 2,500 point milestone 5.
Once I get through milestone 5 I will have made $67.50 from the race which is of course total bullshit. But significant prizes are right around the corner.
As far as the game play goes these Carbon poker players are making me crazy! On AP I know everybody and have notes on them all. I don't have a feel for the field on Carbon yet. I'm getting a handle on it, but it's taking longer than I'd hoped.
The thing that's throwing me off is some of the players are pretty good and the rest are incredibly bad but in a very aggressive way. I'm taking a lot of weird bad beats which I know is a good thing in the long run, but tough in the short run.
I hope today is a good one!
Once I get through milestone 5 I will have made $67.50 from the race which is of course total bullshit. But significant prizes are right around the corner.
As far as the game play goes these Carbon poker players are making me crazy! On AP I know everybody and have notes on them all. I don't have a feel for the field on Carbon yet. I'm getting a handle on it, but it's taking longer than I'd hoped.
The thing that's throwing me off is some of the players are pretty good and the rest are incredibly bad but in a very aggressive way. I'm taking a lot of weird bad beats which I know is a good thing in the long run, but tough in the short run.
I hope today is a good one!
Sunday, May 02, 2010
Monday SCOOP Plan
Tomorrow in the morning is 6 max NLH with rebuys. The medium stakes is $55 with rebuys which is nothing special and the high stakes is $530 with rebuys and is a little too steep. 1% chance of my playing either of those.
At 2 PT is limit badugi which I'm about 85% to play. For those of you who don't know what badugi is, let me give you a quick run down. The way it works is you get 4 cards and then there is a round of betting with blinds just like in hold'em. Instead of a flop there is a draw where you can throw away cards from your hand and get new ones. Instead of a turn there is another draw, and instead of a river there is another draw.
The goal of the game is to get the four lowest cards you can with all four suits represented. A 2 3 4 with four different suits is the best possible hand. If you make a pair or if you have two cards that are the same suit then you can only use three of your cards to make your hand. Any four card hand (ie one with four different ranks and suits) beats any three card hand.
Of course if you're comparing 3 card hands to each other the lowest one wins (IE 5677 beats 3389).
Sometime you'll only be able to use two cards to make a hand if you have for example two hearts and two spades in you hand or two pair or three spades and a club. Any three card hand beats any two card hand. Similarly any 1 card hand loses to everything.
A little confusing, but not once you get the hang of it! We'll see what I can do.
At 2 PT is limit badugi which I'm about 85% to play. For those of you who don't know what badugi is, let me give you a quick run down. The way it works is you get 4 cards and then there is a round of betting with blinds just like in hold'em. Instead of a flop there is a draw where you can throw away cards from your hand and get new ones. Instead of a turn there is another draw, and instead of a river there is another draw.
The goal of the game is to get the four lowest cards you can with all four suits represented. A 2 3 4 with four different suits is the best possible hand. If you make a pair or if you have two cards that are the same suit then you can only use three of your cards to make your hand. Any four card hand (ie one with four different ranks and suits) beats any three card hand.
Of course if you're comparing 3 card hands to each other the lowest one wins (IE 5677 beats 3389).
Sometime you'll only be able to use two cards to make a hand if you have for example two hearts and two spades in you hand or two pair or three spades and a club. Any three card hand beats any two card hand. Similarly any 1 card hand loses to everything.
A little confusing, but not once you get the hang of it! We'll see what I can do.
Sunday, Shitty Sunday.
I won't leave you in suspense. 4 tournaments, 4 bricks.
In the first event which was SCOOP #1 I went down the tubes with AA. At one point I had my starting stack of 10K up to 15K, but was back down to 10k when the following hand came up.
The blinds were 150/300 and my opponent made it 600 under the gun. I reraised to 1,500 and he called. The flop came down 8 3 2 all clubs and I had the ace of clubs. He checked I bet 1,800 and he put me all in with 44 (with the 4 of clubs). 4 on the turn, no club, ace or 5 on the river and that was it. That was a very frustrating hand.
The second tournament was the FTOPS knockout. I did bust two players and picked up $80 in bounties. I don't know if I played this hand poorly, but I would have won a huge pot if I played it differently. We started that one with 5,000 chips and I was up to almost 15K when I got dealt QQ. I made it 600 to go and got called by the button and the small blind. The flop came down 9 high with two spades. I bet the pot which was 2,000, the button who had about 10K left called and the small blind moved all in for about 8K.
When the button smooth called me preflop I was thinking it could easily be AA or KK, and after he called my bet on the flop I couldn't think of what he could have that I could beat. Add in the other player raising us both and I thought it was time to bail out. It turns out the button had TT (he called the raise) and the other player had 87 of spades. The turn was a red ten and the river was a red queen. ACK!
I got it all the way up to 22K before coming back to earth. I drizzled away about 6K. Then with blinds of 250/500 the small blind raised to 1,500 and I put him all in for 10,000 with A9s. He called with AQ and I was down to 6,500.
On my final hand I had about 8,000 and went all in vs a raise to 1,500. I had KQs (which was a little thin given my opponents position) and he called me with AJ. The flop came with an A and a J. While the turn gave me a flush draw and some hope, the river was a blank.
That tournament felt like a wasted opportunity.
In SCOOP #2 I got KK twice, was able to reraise twice, but had to fold on A high flops after getting resistance twice. On my final hand I had about 5,500 and got dealt AQ in the small blind. I raised to 600 and got called. THe flop came down 6 7 3 and I bet out 1,200. My opponent put me all in. Given his stack size, my stack size and the flop texture I felt like his raise was total bullshit. I called and he showed me 89 which was more than I gave him credit for. The river came a 9 and that was it.
The FTOPS main event was also a wasted opportunity. Early on I made a straight on the turn when a player with KK got cute before the flop and then checked a set of kings on the flop. When I made my straight on the turn he bet I raised and he called. On the river he just blew all in, I called and took him out. I had my starting stack of 7,500 up to 16,000 after that one.
Later I won a few small pots, and then took out a short stack who went all in with AK vs my 55. I made a successful bluff at a big pot and found myself with 35,000 chips and in the top 100 of the 3,000 remaining players (we started with about 4,500).
Even after a few miscues I was in 429th of 2,300. Then I let someone double through me when I overplayed 99 and they had JJ. After that one I had 7k left and by that time the blinds were 250/500. I never recovered.
In the first event which was SCOOP #1 I went down the tubes with AA. At one point I had my starting stack of 10K up to 15K, but was back down to 10k when the following hand came up.
The blinds were 150/300 and my opponent made it 600 under the gun. I reraised to 1,500 and he called. The flop came down 8 3 2 all clubs and I had the ace of clubs. He checked I bet 1,800 and he put me all in with 44 (with the 4 of clubs). 4 on the turn, no club, ace or 5 on the river and that was it. That was a very frustrating hand.
The second tournament was the FTOPS knockout. I did bust two players and picked up $80 in bounties. I don't know if I played this hand poorly, but I would have won a huge pot if I played it differently. We started that one with 5,000 chips and I was up to almost 15K when I got dealt QQ. I made it 600 to go and got called by the button and the small blind. The flop came down 9 high with two spades. I bet the pot which was 2,000, the button who had about 10K left called and the small blind moved all in for about 8K.
When the button smooth called me preflop I was thinking it could easily be AA or KK, and after he called my bet on the flop I couldn't think of what he could have that I could beat. Add in the other player raising us both and I thought it was time to bail out. It turns out the button had TT (he called the raise) and the other player had 87 of spades. The turn was a red ten and the river was a red queen. ACK!
I got it all the way up to 22K before coming back to earth. I drizzled away about 6K. Then with blinds of 250/500 the small blind raised to 1,500 and I put him all in for 10,000 with A9s. He called with AQ and I was down to 6,500.
On my final hand I had about 8,000 and went all in vs a raise to 1,500. I had KQs (which was a little thin given my opponents position) and he called me with AJ. The flop came with an A and a J. While the turn gave me a flush draw and some hope, the river was a blank.
That tournament felt like a wasted opportunity.
In SCOOP #2 I got KK twice, was able to reraise twice, but had to fold on A high flops after getting resistance twice. On my final hand I had about 5,500 and got dealt AQ in the small blind. I raised to 600 and got called. THe flop came down 6 7 3 and I bet out 1,200. My opponent put me all in. Given his stack size, my stack size and the flop texture I felt like his raise was total bullshit. I called and he showed me 89 which was more than I gave him credit for. The river came a 9 and that was it.
The FTOPS main event was also a wasted opportunity. Early on I made a straight on the turn when a player with KK got cute before the flop and then checked a set of kings on the flop. When I made my straight on the turn he bet I raised and he called. On the river he just blew all in, I called and took him out. I had my starting stack of 7,500 up to 16,000 after that one.
Later I won a few small pots, and then took out a short stack who went all in with AK vs my 55. I made a successful bluff at a big pot and found myself with 35,000 chips and in the top 100 of the 3,000 remaining players (we started with about 4,500).
Even after a few miscues I was in 429th of 2,300. Then I let someone double through me when I overplayed 99 and they had JJ. After that one I had 7k left and by that time the blinds were 250/500. I never recovered.
The Race - Day 1
I ended up earning about 2,800 points on Day 1 of my quest to beat the shit out of Carbon poker's Race promotion. Coupled with day 0's 700 points I knocked out out the 250, 500, and 1,000 point milestones and got most of the way to the 2,000.
I found out a little bit of bad news about carbon poker in general. I thought I'd paid $350 in rake to get my 3,500 points, but because of my 35% rakeback deal I only generate points at 65% of the normal pace. I guess the good news is I paid over $500 in rake so when I got my daily rakeback payment I got close to $200 which was 35% more than I expected.
I didn't have a great day in the games losing $700 or so after being up $500 early, but there were two $10/$20s and two $5/$10's at one point which is promising.
The Race isn't going to be a huge as I thought, but it's still worth thousands of dollars and will be great motivations to get me working hard.
I found out a little bit of bad news about carbon poker in general. I thought I'd paid $350 in rake to get my 3,500 points, but because of my 35% rakeback deal I only generate points at 65% of the normal pace. I guess the good news is I paid over $500 in rake so when I got my daily rakeback payment I got close to $200 which was 35% more than I expected.
I didn't have a great day in the games losing $700 or so after being up $500 early, but there were two $10/$20s and two $5/$10's at one point which is promising.
The Race isn't going to be a huge as I thought, but it's still worth thousands of dollars and will be great motivations to get me working hard.
Big Sunday Action!
The FTOPS winds down today with $256 knockout, and the $640 main event while the SCOOP kicks off with $216 no limit 6-max and a standard $215 no limit hold'em.
SCOOP #1 is underway and looking at the structure this thing is going to take forever! 10,000 chips to start, 20 minute levels and blinds starting at 25/50, then 30/60, then 40/80, then 50/100 and so on. I'm thinking 6 or 7 hours to make the money and maybe 15-18 to win.
I registered late so I've only played 15 hands, but the tournament is an hour underway and I'm up to 13,830 after taking out someone who way overplayed a hand. I had about 9k and raised to 240 with TT. He moved all in for 4,000 which was clearly not a big hand. I snap called him, he showed me A9 and I managed to dodge an ace.
6,783 players to start, with a 1st place prize of $203,493 and the edge of the money at 1,020th place which pays $310.
Starting now (11 PT) is the Knockout on fulltilt. The FTOPS main event goes off at 3 PT and SCOOP #2 starts at 2.
SCOOP #1 is underway and looking at the structure this thing is going to take forever! 10,000 chips to start, 20 minute levels and blinds starting at 25/50, then 30/60, then 40/80, then 50/100 and so on. I'm thinking 6 or 7 hours to make the money and maybe 15-18 to win.
I registered late so I've only played 15 hands, but the tournament is an hour underway and I'm up to 13,830 after taking out someone who way overplayed a hand. I had about 9k and raised to 240 with TT. He moved all in for 4,000 which was clearly not a big hand. I snap called him, he showed me A9 and I managed to dodge an ace.
6,783 players to start, with a 1st place prize of $203,493 and the edge of the money at 1,020th place which pays $310.
Starting now (11 PT) is the Knockout on fulltilt. The FTOPS main event goes off at 3 PT and SCOOP #2 starts at 2.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Race - Day 0
I took advantage of the fact that I'm on the west coast and played a little bit tonight on Carbon poker after the day changed over and it became May on Carbon time. Inexplicably, Carbon is on Central time! WTF is that about! When I logged on at 9 pacific ready to go I found out that I'd have to wait another hour to get started.
The good news is I played a few hundred hands and the games were fantastic. Granted it's Friday night, but all the regulars are there on Pokerstars and AP so I'm guess I'll see some of these jokers again.
I got off to a terrible start and my $1,700 Carbon roll was down to $700 at one point. But with a little luck and after I figured out that these clowns are all a bunch of whackjobs (think raising 24 or capping Q9s vs 2 players out of position), I got back to even before calling it a night.
I picked up 700 points which isn't a ton, but it's a start. Tomorrow I'm really going to put the heat on and see what I can do.
The good news is I played a few hundred hands and the games were fantastic. Granted it's Friday night, but all the regulars are there on Pokerstars and AP so I'm guess I'll see some of these jokers again.
I got off to a terrible start and my $1,700 Carbon roll was down to $700 at one point. But with a little luck and after I figured out that these clowns are all a bunch of whackjobs (think raising 24 or capping Q9s vs 2 players out of position), I got back to even before calling it a night.
I picked up 700 points which isn't a ton, but it's a start. Tomorrow I'm really going to put the heat on and see what I can do.
"The Race" Big Bucks for Me?
Carbon Poker (Carbon Poker? - yes Carbon Poker - not surprised you haven't heard of it) is running a promotion in May called "The Race." It is going to be a big deal for me.
I heard about Carbon Poker through the website that does my rakeback (rakebacknation.com) and I opened an account there in January with the hopes of getting some unqualified people to play head up against me. At the time there were very few if any limit games going on the site. But in April Carbon joined up with a bunch of poker rooms that were being run by various sports betting websites and now they have some actual traffic (those of you who read my tweets will know that I took $1,000 off two $10/$20 games there yesterday).
So what is this race all about? Well, like all poker websites carbon has a points system (and a VIP system with levels like pokerstars). The way it works is for every dollar you pay in rake you get 10 points. Pay $100 in rake, get 1,000 points.
The race is essentially 15 point milestones that each come with a cash prize. The lowest is 250 points and pays $2.50. As soon as you earn 250 points (or in other words pay $25 in rake) you get $2.50 in your account. The next level is 500. After you earn ANOTHER 500 points you get $5. Another 1,000 and you get $10 more dollars. There are actually 15 levels with the top level being 100,000 points which pays an insane $15,000.
They call it the race, because there are only a certain number of prizes at each level. The first level has 1,500, $2.50 prizes. The next level has 1,250 $5 prizes and so on.
Here is a chart with all of the levels (sorry this chart looks like shit! It didn't past very well!).
Level Points Prize Total Prizes
1 250 $2.50 1,500
2 500 $5 1,250
3 1,000 $10 1,000
4 2,000 $20 700
5 2,500 $30 600
6 3,000 $40 500
7 3,500 $70 400
8 5,000 $125 300
9 7,500 $200 200
10 10,000 $250 125
11 15,000 $750 75
12 25,000 $1,000 50
13 50,000 $2,500 25
14 75,000 $5,000 10
15 100,000 $15,000 5
So what are my chances of hitting all 15 levels? I'd say less than 1%. If you add it all up I'd have to pay $30,000 in rake to hit the top level. I've actually done that much in a month before. In fact in December 2008 on my way to Supernova Elite I paid about $45,000 in rake. But that was on pokerstars playing 6 $10/$20 games, many hours a day, 30 of 31 days that month (I lost over $10,000 that month). There just aren't that many games on Carbon poker and I don't want to torture myself like that again.
Last month I raked about $11,000 on AP and Cake combined without working too hard at it. That's kind of my baseline. I know I'm going to have to play $5/$10 games and even $3/$6 games which is going to be boring, but it should be worth it.
If I can rake $12,500 I'll pick up $5,002 in bonus money from this promotion alone. I'll also get a $1,000 bonus from rakeback nation when for raking more than $5,000 in a month and I'll get back 35% of whatever rake I pay as part of my rakeback deal. Add that up and it's $10,377!
But wait! There's more! If that wasn't enough Carbon poker has a ridiculously complex VIP system with various levels and rewards! A quick set of dirty calculations has me picking up an extra $2,000 by cashing in the points I earn and hitting other goofy ass milestones and parameters that they've set up.
So I'm going to pay $12,500 in rake and get back 99% of it. That's my plan.
If I go buck nuts and make it to $20,000 in rake which would be enough to hit level 14 of "The Race" I'll get about $23,000 in bonuses which is 115% rakeback!
Three things are going to hold me back and make it tough to do as much as I want. First and foremost is a potential lack of games. Right now there is one $10/$20 and three $3/$6 games. Nothing bigger or in between. If that line up was available 24/7 I think I could do it. Typically there has been at least one $10/$20 and one $5/$10 going the past few days with smattering of lower games. I'm hoping that I'll be able to help start more games since I'm willing to play heads up.
The second thing that's going to hold me back is money. Right now I have $1,700 in Carbon Poker and it's going to take me a few days to get more in. The only way for me to get money in there is through ewalletexpress.com. I can send money to ewallet from my bank, but I have to pay them 8.8% of whatever I deposit. Not a great option. The other way is to cashout from AP or Cake to ewallet and then send it over to carbon. I've started the process, but it's going to take a few days. So if I run bad at the start I could blow though my $1,700 and have to wait a day or two to resume play. Working for me in this regard is Carbon pays rakeback every day and I'll get the race prizes as soon as I earn them.
Third, the SCOOP. I might trim down my SCOOP schedule, but I'm still going to be playing one or two tournaments a day for two weeks.
Actually there is a 4th concern which is minute, but still there. And that it that I could have some competition for the prizes. I don't see anyway for 25 people to rake $12,500 on Carbon poker. There are hundreds who do that on pokerstars and fulltilt, but not on Carbon. I'm going to log on at minute 1 and start play to make sure I don't get jacked out of the first few prizes which I'm sure will be hit by the limiting number of players pretty quickly.
May is going to be a looooooong month, but I'm hoping it's a profitable one! Let's hope I have the mental fortitude to make this happen!
I heard about Carbon Poker through the website that does my rakeback (rakebacknation.com) and I opened an account there in January with the hopes of getting some unqualified people to play head up against me. At the time there were very few if any limit games going on the site. But in April Carbon joined up with a bunch of poker rooms that were being run by various sports betting websites and now they have some actual traffic (those of you who read my tweets will know that I took $1,000 off two $10/$20 games there yesterday).
So what is this race all about? Well, like all poker websites carbon has a points system (and a VIP system with levels like pokerstars). The way it works is for every dollar you pay in rake you get 10 points. Pay $100 in rake, get 1,000 points.
The race is essentially 15 point milestones that each come with a cash prize. The lowest is 250 points and pays $2.50. As soon as you earn 250 points (or in other words pay $25 in rake) you get $2.50 in your account. The next level is 500. After you earn ANOTHER 500 points you get $5. Another 1,000 and you get $10 more dollars. There are actually 15 levels with the top level being 100,000 points which pays an insane $15,000.
They call it the race, because there are only a certain number of prizes at each level. The first level has 1,500, $2.50 prizes. The next level has 1,250 $5 prizes and so on.
Here is a chart with all of the levels (sorry this chart looks like shit! It didn't past very well!).
Level Points Prize Total Prizes
1 250 $2.50 1,500
2 500 $5 1,250
3 1,000 $10 1,000
4 2,000 $20 700
5 2,500 $30 600
6 3,000 $40 500
7 3,500 $70 400
8 5,000 $125 300
9 7,500 $200 200
10 10,000 $250 125
11 15,000 $750 75
12 25,000 $1,000 50
13 50,000 $2,500 25
14 75,000 $5,000 10
15 100,000 $15,000 5
So what are my chances of hitting all 15 levels? I'd say less than 1%. If you add it all up I'd have to pay $30,000 in rake to hit the top level. I've actually done that much in a month before. In fact in December 2008 on my way to Supernova Elite I paid about $45,000 in rake. But that was on pokerstars playing 6 $10/$20 games, many hours a day, 30 of 31 days that month (I lost over $10,000 that month). There just aren't that many games on Carbon poker and I don't want to torture myself like that again.
Last month I raked about $11,000 on AP and Cake combined without working too hard at it. That's kind of my baseline. I know I'm going to have to play $5/$10 games and even $3/$6 games which is going to be boring, but it should be worth it.
If I can rake $12,500 I'll pick up $5,002 in bonus money from this promotion alone. I'll also get a $1,000 bonus from rakeback nation when for raking more than $5,000 in a month and I'll get back 35% of whatever rake I pay as part of my rakeback deal. Add that up and it's $10,377!
But wait! There's more! If that wasn't enough Carbon poker has a ridiculously complex VIP system with various levels and rewards! A quick set of dirty calculations has me picking up an extra $2,000 by cashing in the points I earn and hitting other goofy ass milestones and parameters that they've set up.
So I'm going to pay $12,500 in rake and get back 99% of it. That's my plan.
If I go buck nuts and make it to $20,000 in rake which would be enough to hit level 14 of "The Race" I'll get about $23,000 in bonuses which is 115% rakeback!
Three things are going to hold me back and make it tough to do as much as I want. First and foremost is a potential lack of games. Right now there is one $10/$20 and three $3/$6 games. Nothing bigger or in between. If that line up was available 24/7 I think I could do it. Typically there has been at least one $10/$20 and one $5/$10 going the past few days with smattering of lower games. I'm hoping that I'll be able to help start more games since I'm willing to play heads up.
The second thing that's going to hold me back is money. Right now I have $1,700 in Carbon Poker and it's going to take me a few days to get more in. The only way for me to get money in there is through ewalletexpress.com. I can send money to ewallet from my bank, but I have to pay them 8.8% of whatever I deposit. Not a great option. The other way is to cashout from AP or Cake to ewallet and then send it over to carbon. I've started the process, but it's going to take a few days. So if I run bad at the start I could blow though my $1,700 and have to wait a day or two to resume play. Working for me in this regard is Carbon pays rakeback every day and I'll get the race prizes as soon as I earn them.
Third, the SCOOP. I might trim down my SCOOP schedule, but I'm still going to be playing one or two tournaments a day for two weeks.
Actually there is a 4th concern which is minute, but still there. And that it that I could have some competition for the prizes. I don't see anyway for 25 people to rake $12,500 on Carbon poker. There are hundreds who do that on pokerstars and fulltilt, but not on Carbon. I'm going to log on at minute 1 and start play to make sure I don't get jacked out of the first few prizes which I'm sure will be hit by the limiting number of players pretty quickly.
May is going to be a looooooong month, but I'm hoping it's a profitable one! Let's hope I have the mental fortitude to make this happen!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Early SCOOP Schedule
I bricked in the cashout FTOPS without winning a single pot. My last hand was QQ vs AA. BOO!
After 7 tournaments my FTOPS/SCOOP Bankroll is up to $7753 from $7,500. Not great but as they say, better than a kick in the nuts!
I'm taking today off with plans of playing little if at all on Friday and Saturday so I can rest up for playing 15 days is a row.
Here the first week of my SCOOP schedule (I might add or subtract one or two tournaments). Man it looks like a lot! I copy and pasted from the web so all of the times are eastern.
May 2 13:00 NL Hold’em [6-max]$215
May 2 17:00 NL Hold’em [2-day] $215
May 3 14:00 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Rebuys] $55
May 3 17:00 FL Badugi $162
May 3 20:00 PL Omaha [Turbo, 1R1A] Low: $11 Med: $109
May 4 14:00 PL 5-Card Draw $109
May 4 17:00 NL Hold’em [Heads-Up Match Play] $162
May 5 14:00 Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Low: $22 Med: $215
May 6 17:00 NL Hold’em [Knockout] $265
May 7 14:00 NL Hold’em [Ante Up!] $162
May 7 17:00 FL Omaha Hi-Lo $55
May 7 20:00 NL Hold’em [2X Chance, Turbo] Low: $16.50 Med: $162
May 8 14:00 NL NL Hold’em - Triple Shootout $215
May 8 17:00 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys] $16.50
May 8 20:00 FL Hold’em [Turbo] Low: $22 Med: $215
Sunday is going to be a big day. On top of the two SCOOP events I've also decided to fire in FTOPS event #28 $256 NLH knockout 6-max and the $640 FTOPS main event ($3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool for that one - 1st should be over $500,000!!). Cancel all of your plans and start your laptops charging now!
After 7 tournaments my FTOPS/SCOOP Bankroll is up to $7753 from $7,500. Not great but as they say, better than a kick in the nuts!
I'm taking today off with plans of playing little if at all on Friday and Saturday so I can rest up for playing 15 days is a row.
Here the first week of my SCOOP schedule (I might add or subtract one or two tournaments). Man it looks like a lot! I copy and pasted from the web so all of the times are eastern.
May 2 13:00 NL Hold’em [6-max]$215
May 2 17:00 NL Hold’em [2-day] $215
May 3 14:00 NL Hold’em [6-Max, Rebuys] $55
May 3 17:00 FL Badugi $162
May 3 20:00 PL Omaha [Turbo, 1R1A] Low: $11 Med: $109
May 4 14:00 PL 5-Card Draw $109
May 4 17:00 NL Hold’em [Heads-Up Match Play] $162
May 5 14:00 Mixed Hold’em [6-Max] Low: $22 Med: $215
May 6 17:00 NL Hold’em [Knockout] $265
May 7 14:00 NL Hold’em [Ante Up!] $162
May 7 17:00 FL Omaha Hi-Lo $55
May 7 20:00 NL Hold’em [2X Chance, Turbo] Low: $16.50 Med: $162
May 8 14:00 NL NL Hold’em - Triple Shootout $215
May 8 17:00 PL Omaha [6-Max, Rebuys] $16.50
May 8 20:00 FL Hold’em [Turbo] Low: $22 Med: $215
Sunday is going to be a big day. On top of the two SCOOP events I've also decided to fire in FTOPS event #28 $256 NLH knockout 6-max and the $640 FTOPS main event ($3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool for that one - 1st should be over $500,000!!). Cancel all of your plans and start your laptops charging now!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
$50/$100 Beat Down
First of all thanks to whoever posted the comment on the Cashout tournament strategy. That makes perfect sense. Not sure I'll be able to resist the temptation to cashout, but I'll hold out as long as I can.
While I was playing the HORSE tournament I was also playing cash games. Normally, I find myself in the $10/$20 and $15/$30 limit games on absolute poker, but from time to time I will sometimes venture higher if conditions are right.
Yesterday I looked at a $50/$100 6-max game that had 5 players sitting at it. 3 were average, $15/$30 players who are pretty much break even, one was a solid $30/$60+ regular and the other was a total fish who I've played before and just dumps money at any limit. The seat open was to the left of the fish and I have visions of his stack pouring into mine.
On the other hand $50/$100 is a terrifying limit. It's not hard to drop 5 grand if you lose your composure and it is 5 times my normal limit. But I've been playing great lately so I decided to give it a shot. Here is a recap of a session was very short but went perfectly (the highlight was hand #14).
On hand #1 I got dealt KQ suited in the big blind. The under the gun player raised, I called and the flop came Q high. I check raised him and he three bet me. The turn was an ace and we both checked. I bet the river and he folded. A very normal pot. +$272 so far.
On hand #2 I got dealt AJ in the small blind. I three bet the cutoff, flopped an ace and won with a bet. +$469.
Hand #3 94o.
Hand #4 I raised pocket jacks and everyone folded. I avoided the temptation to say "Aw man!" and instead thought "hey I just made $75 in 2 seconds!"
Hand #5 T5o.
Hand #6 Q8o.
Hand #7 62s in the big blind. folded to a raise
Hand #8 I three bet a button raise with 77 and won with a bet on a Q high flop. +$691 for the session.
Hand #9 T5o
Hand#10 J8o
Hand #11 A7o (almost raised this one but opted to fold)
Hand #12 53o
Hand #13 62o
In hand #14 the cutoff raised and I called in the small blind with QT of hearts. The big blind came along too and the flop was 7 6 3 with one heart. The big blind and I both called a bet of $50 on the flop and the turn came down the ace of hearts giving me a flush draw. I decided to go for the check raise semibluff thinking that if my opponent bet, but didn't have an ace I could win with a checkraise. And even if I did get called I could still hit my flush. Like clock work the cutoff bet $100, I made it $200 and the big blind folded.
Not like clockwork my opponent called and the river came the 3 of diamonds. YUCK! But in a moment of sheer bravado I fired another $100 into the pot. My opponent thought and thought for what seemed like an hour and I couldn't help but explicitly think "Holy shit there's $947 out there! I have a god damn thousand bucks riding on this guy calling or folding. I'd have to be nuts playing in this game. What in the world am I doing!?"
And then he folded. "I am the king of all who play poker! Of course he was going to fold. No one would ever put me on a check raise semi bluff!" +$1,138 for the session at that point.
Hand #15 I raised with AJ and got called by the fishy player that I'd been targeting in the first place who was in the big blind. The flop came down 8 5 4 and he called my continuation bet. The turn was an ace (DING!) and he bet into me (DING DING!) I raised him and he called. The rive paired the 5 and he folded when I bet. +$1,510.
In hand #16 I raised A8o and got called by the big blind. The flop came down KK2 and he folded when I fired out $50. +$1,632.
Hand #17 J3.
Hand #18 K3.
And that was it. Maybe I should have kept going, but I'm not above a hit and run every now and then.
I have been on a killer run lately. I've had 6 winning days in a row and the worst of those was +$800. I hope I can keep it up!
While I was playing the HORSE tournament I was also playing cash games. Normally, I find myself in the $10/$20 and $15/$30 limit games on absolute poker, but from time to time I will sometimes venture higher if conditions are right.
Yesterday I looked at a $50/$100 6-max game that had 5 players sitting at it. 3 were average, $15/$30 players who are pretty much break even, one was a solid $30/$60+ regular and the other was a total fish who I've played before and just dumps money at any limit. The seat open was to the left of the fish and I have visions of his stack pouring into mine.
On the other hand $50/$100 is a terrifying limit. It's not hard to drop 5 grand if you lose your composure and it is 5 times my normal limit. But I've been playing great lately so I decided to give it a shot. Here is a recap of a session was very short but went perfectly (the highlight was hand #14).
On hand #1 I got dealt KQ suited in the big blind. The under the gun player raised, I called and the flop came Q high. I check raised him and he three bet me. The turn was an ace and we both checked. I bet the river and he folded. A very normal pot. +$272 so far.
On hand #2 I got dealt AJ in the small blind. I three bet the cutoff, flopped an ace and won with a bet. +$469.
Hand #3 94o.
Hand #4 I raised pocket jacks and everyone folded. I avoided the temptation to say "Aw man!" and instead thought "hey I just made $75 in 2 seconds!"
Hand #5 T5o.
Hand #6 Q8o.
Hand #7 62s in the big blind. folded to a raise
Hand #8 I three bet a button raise with 77 and won with a bet on a Q high flop. +$691 for the session.
Hand #9 T5o
Hand#10 J8o
Hand #11 A7o (almost raised this one but opted to fold)
Hand #12 53o
Hand #13 62o
In hand #14 the cutoff raised and I called in the small blind with QT of hearts. The big blind came along too and the flop was 7 6 3 with one heart. The big blind and I both called a bet of $50 on the flop and the turn came down the ace of hearts giving me a flush draw. I decided to go for the check raise semibluff thinking that if my opponent bet, but didn't have an ace I could win with a checkraise. And even if I did get called I could still hit my flush. Like clock work the cutoff bet $100, I made it $200 and the big blind folded.
Not like clockwork my opponent called and the river came the 3 of diamonds. YUCK! But in a moment of sheer bravado I fired another $100 into the pot. My opponent thought and thought for what seemed like an hour and I couldn't help but explicitly think "Holy shit there's $947 out there! I have a god damn thousand bucks riding on this guy calling or folding. I'd have to be nuts playing in this game. What in the world am I doing!?"
And then he folded. "I am the king of all who play poker! Of course he was going to fold. No one would ever put me on a check raise semi bluff!" +$1,138 for the session at that point.
Hand #15 I raised with AJ and got called by the fishy player that I'd been targeting in the first place who was in the big blind. The flop came down 8 5 4 and he called my continuation bet. The turn was an ace (DING!) and he bet into me (DING DING!) I raised him and he called. The rive paired the 5 and he folded when I bet. +$1,510.
In hand #16 I raised A8o and got called by the big blind. The flop came down KK2 and he folded when I fired out $50. +$1,632.
Hand #17 J3.
Hand #18 K3.
And that was it. Maybe I should have kept going, but I'm not above a hit and run every now and then.
I have been on a killer run lately. I've had 6 winning days in a row and the worst of those was +$800. I hope I can keep it up!
Two Tournaments Today
Event #16 $216 7-game mixed games is underway. This is a mix of all the HORSE games plus NL hold'em and PLO.
At 3 I have $216 "cashout." I've never played a cashout tournament before, but here is how I understand that it works. Of my buy in $16 goes to the house, $100 goes to the main prize pool and $100 goes to the cashout prize pool. At any time, but only one time, during the tournament you can "cashout" half of your chips and get paid for their value. For example. If you start the tournament with 5,000 chips on hand 1 you could sell off 2,500 chips for $100 and be left with 2,500 chips. Or if you had 20,000 you could sell off half for $400 and be left with 10,000. I'm not sure what the optimal strategy is, but I hope I'll know the time to cashout when I see it.
At 3 I have $216 "cashout." I've never played a cashout tournament before, but here is how I understand that it works. Of my buy in $16 goes to the house, $100 goes to the main prize pool and $100 goes to the cashout prize pool. At any time, but only one time, during the tournament you can "cashout" half of your chips and get paid for their value. For example. If you start the tournament with 5,000 chips on hand 1 you could sell off 2,500 chips for $100 and be left with 2,500 chips. Or if you had 20,000 you could sell off half for $400 and be left with 10,000. I'm not sure what the optimal strategy is, but I hope I'll know the time to cashout when I see it.
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