Monday, August 17, 2009
Weekly Davespeak Mention
I got a mention in the Dave Matthews Band fansite Weekly Davespeak's email today - how cool is that ? you can hear the interview here .
Monday, April 13, 2009
Honk If You Love Live Donks
OK first the I-didn't-cash news. Played in the Pokerstars VIP freeroll and also the$16.50 SCOOP #3 on 4/4 at 1430 and failed to cash in either. I was card dead in the VIP and out within the first hour losing a flip. In the SCOOP I played really well but missed a few big draws and lost a flip at the end to bubble. I also played in a $20 NLHE tourney yesterday on Stars and got bumped in the 2nd hour when my QQ < AK all-in preflop as the flop obviously came A-K-2.
On Saturday I got the chance to play some live $1/$2 NL (60 min / 300 max buy-in) at Foxwoods. I've played a lot of 1/2, 2/4, 4/8 limit live but had played live NL only once before, a few months back at Mohegan, where I lost less than a buy-in. I was fortunate enough to sit down at a new table with a bunch of guys eager to spew chips in my direction. I brought $120 to seat five.
On the very first hand I looked down at two beautiful red ladies and made it $8 from middle position after it had folded to me. The button and both blinds called and we saw a Jc-7c-7x flop. I c-bet $10 and was called in all 3 spots. The turn was a total blank, I bet $10 again for value, all 3 called. The river was the 10s, I chose to check this time and it checked around and my queens were good for about an $80 profit. The only reason I checked the river was because I did not want to get check-raised and have to call - it was the first pot at a new table so it was more than possible that someone had a 7 in their hand. As it turned out that I did avoid a check raise - one of the blinds had Jack-Ten and was poised to reraise me thinking that he'd just beaten AJ KJ and QJ. And overpairs - the dealer had to explain to him that Queens and 7's are better than Jacks and Tens.
I continued to run hot. In one hand I raised to $10 with AKss preflop and was able to get someone to call me for $15 on all 3 streets after a King hi flop. One pair = nuts against that guy. I made a double-barrel bluff with Queen-hi on a low card board with 3 clubs and got opp't to fold on the river. Sadly, when I got Aces and raised, everyone folded behind me. I won a nice side pot when I fished with AcJh, catching Jd on the turn after a QcJc2x flop and getting called for $30. Of course the river King gave the main pot to the all-in guy who held KJss. Nevertheless, after about 40 minutes of play I had turned my $120 stack into over $350.
I played about another half-hour and one more hand of consequence took place. A woman who had just sat down 3 seats to my right raised it up to $15, after having made the same raise on the previous hand with AK off (she won that pot). I looked down at red QQ and flat-called. The guy two to my left (who had been paying me off and rebuying every 20 minutes) also called. The flop came Jx-6s-4s, she bet $15, I raised to $30 both for value and for info, the 3rd player called all-in, and she called. The turn came the 8s, she checked, and I once again made it $30 and was called. At this point I suddenly figured I wasn't getting the best of it, unless she somehow had exactly AJ or 10-10, and when the 6c came pairing the board on the river I checked behind and saw that indeed she had the AKss. Curiously enough the other player in the hand ALSO had a flush, meaning she hit one of only 7 spades (and meaning he called $15 with no better than QJss). I really don't know if it was a mistake to bet the turn when the flush hit - I guess I was trying to build a side pot in case the 3rd player had me beat, not considering that the woman could also have me crunched. After that big loss I decided to quit while I was ahead and left the table with $260. Book $140 profit. And then lose most of it at the craps table...ohhhh forget about that part...
On Saturday I got the chance to play some live $1/$2 NL (60 min / 300 max buy-in) at Foxwoods. I've played a lot of 1/2, 2/4, 4/8 limit live but had played live NL only once before, a few months back at Mohegan, where I lost less than a buy-in. I was fortunate enough to sit down at a new table with a bunch of guys eager to spew chips in my direction. I brought $120 to seat five.
On the very first hand I looked down at two beautiful red ladies and made it $8 from middle position after it had folded to me. The button and both blinds called and we saw a Jc-7c-7x flop. I c-bet $10 and was called in all 3 spots. The turn was a total blank, I bet $10 again for value, all 3 called. The river was the 10s, I chose to check this time and it checked around and my queens were good for about an $80 profit. The only reason I checked the river was because I did not want to get check-raised and have to call - it was the first pot at a new table so it was more than possible that someone had a 7 in their hand. As it turned out that I did avoid a check raise - one of the blinds had Jack-Ten and was poised to reraise me thinking that he'd just beaten AJ KJ and QJ. And overpairs - the dealer had to explain to him that Queens and 7's are better than Jacks and Tens.
I continued to run hot. In one hand I raised to $10 with AKss preflop and was able to get someone to call me for $15 on all 3 streets after a King hi flop. One pair = nuts against that guy. I made a double-barrel bluff with Queen-hi on a low card board with 3 clubs and got opp't to fold on the river. Sadly, when I got Aces and raised, everyone folded behind me. I won a nice side pot when I fished with AcJh, catching Jd on the turn after a QcJc2x flop and getting called for $30. Of course the river King gave the main pot to the all-in guy who held KJss. Nevertheless, after about 40 minutes of play I had turned my $120 stack into over $350.
I played about another half-hour and one more hand of consequence took place. A woman who had just sat down 3 seats to my right raised it up to $15, after having made the same raise on the previous hand with AK off (she won that pot). I looked down at red QQ and flat-called. The guy two to my left (who had been paying me off and rebuying every 20 minutes) also called. The flop came Jx-6s-4s, she bet $15, I raised to $30 both for value and for info, the 3rd player called all-in, and she called. The turn came the 8s, she checked, and I once again made it $30 and was called. At this point I suddenly figured I wasn't getting the best of it, unless she somehow had exactly AJ or 10-10, and when the 6c came pairing the board on the river I checked behind and saw that indeed she had the AKss. Curiously enough the other player in the hand ALSO had a flush, meaning she hit one of only 7 spades (and meaning he called $15 with no better than QJss). I really don't know if it was a mistake to bet the turn when the flush hit - I guess I was trying to build a side pot in case the 3rd player had me beat, not considering that the woman could also have me crunched. After that big loss I decided to quit while I was ahead and left the table with $260. Book $140 profit. And then lose most of it at the craps table...ohhhh forget about that part...
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Pulled Off a Decent Cash in SCOOP Event #1
I played the first SCOOP event on Pokerstars today and managed to cash in the top 10% of the field. It was the NLHE 6-max $5 rebuy and had a whopping 27000+ entrants. Initially there were only 4 players at my table and two were sitting out so I immediately began raising every pot and scooping up the dead money. Stupidly, I had failed to rebuy right out of the box, and so after about the first half-hour I ended up donking off a bunch of chips (with top pair no kicker vs. top pair good kicker) just so I could rebuy and get up to 5000 chips. Shortly after that I chipped up nicely when a player on the button tilt-shoved 50BB's with Ace-4 off and I snap-called with QQ in the blinds and it held. I made it to the end of the first level with 12000 chips after the add-on, which was slightly above average. Since I only had to rebuy once, I used $15.50 of the W$22 I had, leaving me with W$6.50 and making this tourney a freeroll as I had invested only $6.20 in the satellite to get the W$22.
The only big mistake I made on the day came halfway through the 2nd level. An opponent who played a lot of pots limped and I saw a free flop from the BB with 9-2 off and about 14000 chips. The flop came Ace-9-5, he min-bet, and I called (an image call - he could easily have no hand and it was a cheap call). A 9 turned, I checked again, and he checked. When the river came with a 5 I made a solid value-bet of about 400, hoping to get called by his probable ace-rag or even mid-pair but instead he raised it up to 1400. I thought that he was capable of making that raise with a big Ace or even a 5, and since he had called light a few times before I made it 3100 to go, only to have him fire back and make it 5100. I cried and called and hoped for a chop but oppt had slow-played Ace-9 and I lost over a third of my chips. I guess I could just call his first raise but I HAD A BOAT for cryin out loud...By the end of the level I had rebuilt my stack to 14500 thanks to the LAG on my right who finally played back at me when I had QQ. He was raising about half the hands preflop and I had reraised him a few times with big hands only to see him fold. This time he had raised to 300, I had reraised to 800 with about 8k behind, and he re-reraised me another 1200 or so, which was the first time he had 3-bet me. I decided to just call, see a flop, and basically hope it didn't have and Ace or King in it before I comitted the rest of my chips. The flop came 8s-8x-3s, he bet about 2200, I insta-shoved my remaining 6k or so, and he folded. I won a couple of small pots after that and got up to about 14500 by the end of the level.
The next 2 levels were like a kiddie roller coaster. At one point I had lost most of my chips on a failed bluff but then doubled up on the very next hand with AA. I then went on a heater, getting KK QQ and JJ in the course of about 5 hands. I doubled up off the LAG with KK in the small blind after he had reraised a 1200 raise and a call to 4200 with Ace-6 and called my 14k shove. Shortly after that LAG got knocked out and my table broke.
By the time we got close to the money bubble(a giant 5400 spots paid) I slowed down to ensure that I cashed. I played it pretty close to the vest as there were players who had me seriously out-chipped and I still had 20+ BB's so I could be patient. Just before the bubble I made a HUGE fold which turned out to be a GREAT fold. I had KsKd UTG, raised pre-flop, and got flat-called by the big stack. He had shown up at the table with over 100k chips, had chipped down to 90k or so by this time, and seemed to be playing super-tight despite his chip stack. The flop came Jh-Ts-6s, I bet out 3k with about 24k more behind, and he immediately made it 9k to go. I looked over at my wife and said "now what?" She said "call and see a turn card", and I agreed, so I did, the 7h. I checked and he shoved. At an earlier or later point in the tourney I probably go with my hand, but here, so close to the bubble, I thought instead. He saw me raise, bet the flop, and call a raise on the flop, but yet he still shoved the turn, so he's not scurred by whatever I'm holding. The only hands I really beat here that could make that play are QQ or AsJs, and he's not been out-of-line with any of his plays so even those hands seemed unlikely. After using about a minute of my time bank, I folded and typed "kings" in the chat box. He SHOWED AA. Nobody at the table could believe I'd folded Kings. But it's true.
I was able to survive thru to the end of level 5 on a very short stack. First hand back from the break, I'm UTG with about 10k chips at 800/1600 and have two red 9's. ONE more person needed to be eliminated for me to move up to the next money level, so I time-banked until that happened and shoved. A player behind me reshoved AQo, and the board came 7-A-7-10-x. I ended up in 2380th place, good for $39.15. I was extremely pleased with the way I played, and am very satisifed to have done well in a 6-max event as short-handed games are not my strength. Next up - the Saturday VIP freeroll and $11 Omaha at 1430. C U at the tables !
The only big mistake I made on the day came halfway through the 2nd level. An opponent who played a lot of pots limped and I saw a free flop from the BB with 9-2 off and about 14000 chips. The flop came Ace-9-5, he min-bet, and I called (an image call - he could easily have no hand and it was a cheap call). A 9 turned, I checked again, and he checked. When the river came with a 5 I made a solid value-bet of about 400, hoping to get called by his probable ace-rag or even mid-pair but instead he raised it up to 1400. I thought that he was capable of making that raise with a big Ace or even a 5, and since he had called light a few times before I made it 3100 to go, only to have him fire back and make it 5100. I cried and called and hoped for a chop but oppt had slow-played Ace-9 and I lost over a third of my chips. I guess I could just call his first raise but I HAD A BOAT for cryin out loud...By the end of the level I had rebuilt my stack to 14500 thanks to the LAG on my right who finally played back at me when I had QQ. He was raising about half the hands preflop and I had reraised him a few times with big hands only to see him fold. This time he had raised to 300, I had reraised to 800 with about 8k behind, and he re-reraised me another 1200 or so, which was the first time he had 3-bet me. I decided to just call, see a flop, and basically hope it didn't have and Ace or King in it before I comitted the rest of my chips. The flop came 8s-8x-3s, he bet about 2200, I insta-shoved my remaining 6k or so, and he folded. I won a couple of small pots after that and got up to about 14500 by the end of the level.
The next 2 levels were like a kiddie roller coaster. At one point I had lost most of my chips on a failed bluff but then doubled up on the very next hand with AA. I then went on a heater, getting KK QQ and JJ in the course of about 5 hands. I doubled up off the LAG with KK in the small blind after he had reraised a 1200 raise and a call to 4200 with Ace-6 and called my 14k shove. Shortly after that LAG got knocked out and my table broke.
By the time we got close to the money bubble(a giant 5400 spots paid) I slowed down to ensure that I cashed. I played it pretty close to the vest as there were players who had me seriously out-chipped and I still had 20+ BB's so I could be patient. Just before the bubble I made a HUGE fold which turned out to be a GREAT fold. I had KsKd UTG, raised pre-flop, and got flat-called by the big stack. He had shown up at the table with over 100k chips, had chipped down to 90k or so by this time, and seemed to be playing super-tight despite his chip stack. The flop came Jh-Ts-6s, I bet out 3k with about 24k more behind, and he immediately made it 9k to go. I looked over at my wife and said "now what?" She said "call and see a turn card", and I agreed, so I did, the 7h. I checked and he shoved. At an earlier or later point in the tourney I probably go with my hand, but here, so close to the bubble, I thought instead. He saw me raise, bet the flop, and call a raise on the flop, but yet he still shoved the turn, so he's not scurred by whatever I'm holding. The only hands I really beat here that could make that play are QQ or AsJs, and he's not been out-of-line with any of his plays so even those hands seemed unlikely. After using about a minute of my time bank, I folded and typed "kings" in the chat box. He SHOWED AA. Nobody at the table could believe I'd folded Kings. But it's true.
I was able to survive thru to the end of level 5 on a very short stack. First hand back from the break, I'm UTG with about 10k chips at 800/1600 and have two red 9's. ONE more person needed to be eliminated for me to move up to the next money level, so I time-banked until that happened and shoved. A player behind me reshoved AQo, and the board came 7-A-7-10-x. I ended up in 2380th place, good for $39.15. I was extremely pleased with the way I played, and am very satisifed to have done well in a 6-max event as short-handed games are not my strength. Next up - the Saturday VIP freeroll and $11 Omaha at 1430. C U at the tables !
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Playing in SCOOP $5 Rebuy Thursday
Thursday is my day off AND I won W$22 in a satellite so I am playing in the $5 Rebuy SCOOP event tomorrow on Pokerstars. It starts at 1430 Eastern time and I may do some Twitter updates in the first few hours, assuming I last that long. I will rebuy at the start and will do one double-rebuy if I lose all my chips. That'll cover most of the W$ and I can pay for the add-on. I invested $6.20 in the sat so the max I'll be in for is $9.70. That works. And yes I do plan on playing in the VIP and Omaha tourneys on Saturday.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
2 For 2 On Saturday
I played in the VIP NLHE freeroll and the $11 2K Guaranteed PL Omaha on Saturday on Pokerstars at 1430 and managed to squeeze out a cash in both of 'em. At one point early in the freeroll I managed to win 5 pots in a row without having to show my hand once (I did show the 4th of 5 because it was the second hand in a row I had reraised a limper preflop and I wanted to show off my red Aces) and that run doubled my starting stack. I then treaded water until I got KK and managed to triple up vs Ace-2 suited and 66. As the bubble got close I didn't have enough chips to maneuver with so I just folded my way into the money (except when I shoved AK once and AA once), ending up about 1050th/6900+ for a min cash of $6.
The PL Omaha tourney had close to 300 runners and paid 45 spots. Although I rarely play Omaha, I did manage to Final Table the same type of tourney a while back so I felt pretty confident going into this one. Early on, my tablemates wanted to see a lot of flops, and then not bet them, so I was able to steal some pots in position and also get paid a lil bit when I hit a few big hands. I also ran really g00t, getting it in with KK76 vs AAK3 and making 7's and 6's vs his AA, and sticking it in with KK-10-x vs 10-7-x-x on a 10-7-6 flop and turning a King. The roller coaster hand of the day occurred about an hour in. Several players limped for 50, I potted it to 650 with A-Ah-10-6h, and got one caller. The flop came 9-8-7 with two hearts, he bet 2K, and I obviously shoved my 4000+ with the nut flush draw and the 2nd nut straight. He insta-called and showed me 8-8-7-6 and after a blank turn we CHOPPED when a non-heart Ten came on the river. Could have been worse...
Once we got close to the money there were two kinds of stacks left in the tourney - monsters and survivors - and I unfortunately was in the latter category after suffering a bad beat with about 60 players left. Since the blinds were still low I basically shut it down and waited for either a monster hand or for a bunch of limpers to give me a chance to see a flop. With about 50 left I somehow managed to find AA45 in the small blind, chose to just complete after a bunch of limpers, and potted for 3200 on an Ace-3-7 flop only to see eveyone fold behind me. At the time that was exactly what I wanted (gimme the pot now, I have the nuts but I don't want to get sucked out on and not cash), but in retrospect, since my hand and redraws were SO strong and there were 4 or 5 other players in the pot I should have given one of them the chance to stab at it and in the process enrich me further. That being said, if an opponent had had a set, two pairs, or something like Ace-4-5-6 they probably would have called off anyways so maybe I didn't lose much in the way of equity. In addition, although the tourney paid 45 spots, the pay bump for getting to 36th and then 27th was only about $1.40 (it was like 17.20/18.60/20) so it was more in my interest to just survive the bubble. After that hand I had enough chips to easily make the money so I continued my folding ways, finally shoving about 2.5BB's in early position with Ad4d3d4x and losing to AKJ6 on the obv A-J-6 flop. I did manange to make the first pay jump as I finished 35th.
This weekend I will probably play both of these tourneys again. CU at the tables !!
The PL Omaha tourney had close to 300 runners and paid 45 spots. Although I rarely play Omaha, I did manage to Final Table the same type of tourney a while back so I felt pretty confident going into this one. Early on, my tablemates wanted to see a lot of flops, and then not bet them, so I was able to steal some pots in position and also get paid a lil bit when I hit a few big hands. I also ran really g00t, getting it in with KK76 vs AAK3 and making 7's and 6's vs his AA, and sticking it in with KK-10-x vs 10-7-x-x on a 10-7-6 flop and turning a King. The roller coaster hand of the day occurred about an hour in. Several players limped for 50, I potted it to 650 with A-Ah-10-6h, and got one caller. The flop came 9-8-7 with two hearts, he bet 2K, and I obviously shoved my 4000+ with the nut flush draw and the 2nd nut straight. He insta-called and showed me 8-8-7-6 and after a blank turn we CHOPPED when a non-heart Ten came on the river. Could have been worse...
Once we got close to the money there were two kinds of stacks left in the tourney - monsters and survivors - and I unfortunately was in the latter category after suffering a bad beat with about 60 players left. Since the blinds were still low I basically shut it down and waited for either a monster hand or for a bunch of limpers to give me a chance to see a flop. With about 50 left I somehow managed to find AA45 in the small blind, chose to just complete after a bunch of limpers, and potted for 3200 on an Ace-3-7 flop only to see eveyone fold behind me. At the time that was exactly what I wanted (gimme the pot now, I have the nuts but I don't want to get sucked out on and not cash), but in retrospect, since my hand and redraws were SO strong and there were 4 or 5 other players in the pot I should have given one of them the chance to stab at it and in the process enrich me further. That being said, if an opponent had had a set, two pairs, or something like Ace-4-5-6 they probably would have called off anyways so maybe I didn't lose much in the way of equity. In addition, although the tourney paid 45 spots, the pay bump for getting to 36th and then 27th was only about $1.40 (it was like 17.20/18.60/20) so it was more in my interest to just survive the bubble. After that hand I had enough chips to easily make the money so I continued my folding ways, finally shoving about 2.5BB's in early position with Ad4d3d4x and losing to AKJ6 on the obv A-J-6 flop. I did manange to make the first pay jump as I finished 35th.
This weekend I will probably play both of these tourneys again. CU at the tables !!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Made it to Silvah Stah
Just made my 1200th FPP for the month so I am now a Silver Star on Pokerstars. Been playing 90% Hi-Lo Stud to get there and am down about a c-note, mostly thanks to one session where I could not hit a single hand and lost about 80-90 bucks. Half of that loss however was the $50 deposit bonus I earned a couple of weeks ago. I will definitely be playing in the VIP weekly on Saturday at 1430 eastern, and if I get up early enough I might try to qualify for the monthly.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The More Things Change...
...the more they remain the same. Except for this blog's layout LOL. Still waiting for that big breakthrough. At one point I was considering the $300 shootout coming up next Monday at the Foxwoods Poker Classic because they had also offered me a free slot tourney entry (so there was added value in going) but obv the seats for the slot tourney filled up quick so I missed out. The last time I played at the Woods I continued my streak of cashing in every sit-n-go I've ever played there by luckboxing a 3rd in a $100 one-tabler.
I went on a trip to Disney World during February school vaction with my wife, her parents, her sister, and my niece and nephew. I hadn't been there in 30+ years and we all had a fantastic time. On Wednesday of that week the wife and I, along with her dad, headed down to the Hard Rock in Tampa to play in a $100 daily tourney that runs at 12:30. Sadly we all whiffed, as my wife was out EARLY with AK < QQ AIPF, while I maintained an average stack for several levels until finally losing with AQ < Jd9d after he limped UTG, I shoved, and he robo-donk-called for like 1/2 his stack and was rewarded for his donkishness with a Jack-high flop. I lost about 3 60/40's like that, but it was nothing compared to what happened to my father-in-law. He had about 7500 chips and just shoved 'em in preflop with AA after a raise to 400 and a couple of callers. So with maybe 1700 in the pot and a raise of 7000 more a guy calls off half his stack with - get this - 7d3d ! The board came Ad-x-Qd-x-5d and flopped trips got rivered. The worst part (per usual) is that the guy was a truly terrible player and just bled chips - in one hand he called a pot-sized flop bet with a pair of deuces in the hole and no help on the board ! It doesn't matter where you are, live poker is FULL of terrible players just gettin their gamble on.
Since PokerStars lowered their Silver Star requirement to 1200 FPP's this month I've been playing a lot of hi-lo stud trying to get there. I'd been running pretty badly up until today, when in not even a half an hour I managed to win over 60 bucks at $1/$2. On one table I sat down with $40 and left with $88 !! I'm gonna try to grind a lot of hands later this week since I'm only about halfway there.
And one more thing - Twitter. It's way too much fun. I just joined in the past week. You can check out my page at twitter.com/DJELove .
I went on a trip to Disney World during February school vaction with my wife, her parents, her sister, and my niece and nephew. I hadn't been there in 30+ years and we all had a fantastic time. On Wednesday of that week the wife and I, along with her dad, headed down to the Hard Rock in Tampa to play in a $100 daily tourney that runs at 12:30. Sadly we all whiffed, as my wife was out EARLY with AK < QQ AIPF, while I maintained an average stack for several levels until finally losing with AQ < Jd9d after he limped UTG, I shoved, and he robo-donk-called for like 1/2 his stack and was rewarded for his donkishness with a Jack-high flop. I lost about 3 60/40's like that, but it was nothing compared to what happened to my father-in-law. He had about 7500 chips and just shoved 'em in preflop with AA after a raise to 400 and a couple of callers. So with maybe 1700 in the pot and a raise of 7000 more a guy calls off half his stack with - get this - 7d3d ! The board came Ad-x-Qd-x-5d and flopped trips got rivered. The worst part (per usual) is that the guy was a truly terrible player and just bled chips - in one hand he called a pot-sized flop bet with a pair of deuces in the hole and no help on the board ! It doesn't matter where you are, live poker is FULL of terrible players just gettin their gamble on.
Since PokerStars lowered their Silver Star requirement to 1200 FPP's this month I've been playing a lot of hi-lo stud trying to get there. I'd been running pretty badly up until today, when in not even a half an hour I managed to win over 60 bucks at $1/$2. On one table I sat down with $40 and left with $88 !! I'm gonna try to grind a lot of hands later this week since I'm only about halfway there.
And one more thing - Twitter. It's way too much fun. I just joined in the past week. You can check out my page at twitter.com/DJELove .
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Another Live Cash
Well I played me another one of them there Foxwoods daily tourneys today and gol-durnit I actually cashed this time ! My wife and I headed on down to the 'Woods Tuesday, played a few slots, went to the "Price Is Right" show, and didn't win anything (but didn't lose much either). Today we both entered the 11am daily $100+20 tourney they run, the same type of one referenced in the previous entry. In that previous tourney, I finished 12th out of exactly 100 entrants, missing the money by 2 spots. Sadly, if there had been ONE more entrant in that tourney it would have paid 15 spots and I would have cashed. Today's tourney attracted about 73 entrants and also paid 10 places, with a top prize of over two grand. Unfortunately my wife finished in the middle of the pack after having built up a nice chip stack early, but I survived long enough to make it to the final table. I played great and had a lot of good hands that essentially played themselves, and I was only involved in one raised pot that I can recall where I folded post-flop.
In the first level I was able to amass a pretty good stack early, once making the nut flush and getting someone else to bet it for me and also repopping limpers with AA in the blinds and getting flop and turn calls on a 10d-8d-2x-2x-10x board. I then went card dead for an entire level + but won a late pot to carry about 10k (we had begun with 5000) to the first break.
The second 4 levels started with me folding for about 20 minutes and then picking up a bunch of pots, usually with a pretty good hand. I was fortunate to pick up a lot of premium pairs today, get action on them, and get them to hold. I beat an all-in from the button's K-8 when I woke up with JJ in the small blind, and just before the second break repopped a "serial" limper on the button with KK and got the shorty next to me to shove with 77. I obviously called and he was drawing dead on the K-K-3 flop :). He was a nice enough older guy who methinks was tilting a little after I beat him with 6-4 suited on a 6-3-5-K-4 board (he had bet the turn when the king came and checked the river) a few hands earlier. I went to the second break with over 20k.
Once we got to level nine, there were about 23 players left and I was probably in the middle of the pack. I hunkered down and maintained my stack as the shorties fell one by blessed one. When we got down to about 13 left, 2 of the 3 shortest stacks were to my immediate left, and I turned into a card rack, waking up with KK, QQ, AJ, 88, and JJ everytime they were in the blinds and just shoving and getting folds. I finally did double up the very shortest stack when I shoved 77 on the button and he called with 10h8h in the blinds and hit a 10, but that was a small hit. I felt pretty good about cashing until I raised AK off to 8k at 1.5/3k with about 22k behind, got a call from the chip leader in one of the blinds, and had to fold when he shoved the 10-9-4 flop. He showed QJo for some reason, probably to get back at me for having been very active recently, but in hindsight even if I had KNOWN what his cards were I might not have made the call as we would have been flipping (he had 3 K's, 3 Q's, 3 J's, and 4 8's as outs), so I was not upset about the fold. After that dent to my stack I was forced to re-tighten to ensure that I made the money, and was very pleased to see the shortest stack at the other table finally bust a few hands later, sending me to the final table.
At the final table the two shorties from my earlier table were all-in in a three-way pot and both got eliminated by the chipleader's Ace-Ten when he spiked a Ten on the turn after an Ace-high flop and beat 66 and AQ. The chipleader had been running like Usain Bolt, really, having hit a two-outer set in one hand, having tripled-up with KK vs. QQ and JJ, and of course he made me his next victim. Blinds 2000-4000, I'm most likely the shortest stack with 11,900, chipleader limps in early position, I look down at 10h10c, and instashove. They guy next to me ponders for a few seconds and flat-calls my all-in, and the chipleader calls as well. I am 100% sure that my hand is good and am just hoping it holds up. The board comes Qd-3d-2x-4d-Qc, they both check it down, and just as I am about ready to sit back down and start stacking my chips, the chipleader says "flush", and flips over 6d7d. I uttered a few choice obscenities (I think "you gotta be f'ing kidding me" was one), talked about donkeys for a minute, and then went to the window to collect my 8th-place prize of $283. "At least I got my money in good..."
In the first level I was able to amass a pretty good stack early, once making the nut flush and getting someone else to bet it for me and also repopping limpers with AA in the blinds and getting flop and turn calls on a 10d-8d-2x-2x-10x board. I then went card dead for an entire level + but won a late pot to carry about 10k (we had begun with 5000) to the first break.
The second 4 levels started with me folding for about 20 minutes and then picking up a bunch of pots, usually with a pretty good hand. I was fortunate to pick up a lot of premium pairs today, get action on them, and get them to hold. I beat an all-in from the button's K-8 when I woke up with JJ in the small blind, and just before the second break repopped a "serial" limper on the button with KK and got the shorty next to me to shove with 77. I obviously called and he was drawing dead on the K-K-3 flop :). He was a nice enough older guy who methinks was tilting a little after I beat him with 6-4 suited on a 6-3-5-K-4 board (he had bet the turn when the king came and checked the river) a few hands earlier. I went to the second break with over 20k.
Once we got to level nine, there were about 23 players left and I was probably in the middle of the pack. I hunkered down and maintained my stack as the shorties fell one by blessed one. When we got down to about 13 left, 2 of the 3 shortest stacks were to my immediate left, and I turned into a card rack, waking up with KK, QQ, AJ, 88, and JJ everytime they were in the blinds and just shoving and getting folds. I finally did double up the very shortest stack when I shoved 77 on the button and he called with 10h8h in the blinds and hit a 10, but that was a small hit. I felt pretty good about cashing until I raised AK off to 8k at 1.5/3k with about 22k behind, got a call from the chip leader in one of the blinds, and had to fold when he shoved the 10-9-4 flop. He showed QJo for some reason, probably to get back at me for having been very active recently, but in hindsight even if I had KNOWN what his cards were I might not have made the call as we would have been flipping (he had 3 K's, 3 Q's, 3 J's, and 4 8's as outs), so I was not upset about the fold. After that dent to my stack I was forced to re-tighten to ensure that I made the money, and was very pleased to see the shortest stack at the other table finally bust a few hands later, sending me to the final table.
At the final table the two shorties from my earlier table were all-in in a three-way pot and both got eliminated by the chipleader's Ace-Ten when he spiked a Ten on the turn after an Ace-high flop and beat 66 and AQ. The chipleader had been running like Usain Bolt, really, having hit a two-outer set in one hand, having tripled-up with KK vs. QQ and JJ, and of course he made me his next victim. Blinds 2000-4000, I'm most likely the shortest stack with 11,900, chipleader limps in early position, I look down at 10h10c, and instashove. They guy next to me ponders for a few seconds and flat-calls my all-in, and the chipleader calls as well. I am 100% sure that my hand is good and am just hoping it holds up. The board comes Qd-3d-2x-4d-Qc, they both check it down, and just as I am about ready to sit back down and start stacking my chips, the chipleader says "flush", and flips over 6d7d. I uttered a few choice obscenities (I think "you gotta be f'ing kidding me" was one), talked about donkeys for a minute, and then went to the window to collect my 8th-place prize of $283. "At least I got my money in good..."
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Call Me "Bubble Boy"
This past weekend the wife and I went to Foxwoods. On Sunday my father-in-law and I both entered a $100+20 poker tourney which attracted exactly 100 entrants and paid 10 places. Unfortunately neither of us cashed, as I was knocked out in a very frustrating 12th place and he lost with AQ vs KJ on a Q-T-x-x-9 board to finish 24th. I am constantly amazed at how bad most live players are, although I realize that a lot of the folks in a tourney like this are "gambling", which obviously makes me so +EV it's not funny. As usual I was killed by the blind increases - we had 5000 chips and 20 minute levels, so the first 10 or so levels had reasonable blinds but once they got up to 500-1000 instead of continuing to increase incrementally they moved right up to 1000-2000, 1500-3000, 2000-4000, 3000-6000, etc. You're able to play solid, low-risk poker for 8-10 levels and then it becomes a shove-fest. On to the hands...
Very first hand at my table - flop comes with 3 low hearts, and a player in early position with Kh3h bets all 3 streets and 3-bets the river only to ship all his chips to the player to my left, on the button, with Ah9h.
I raised hands like Ace-9 and K-J a couple of times but got 3 bet every time and had to fold. At least it happened with easy-fold hands. Once I raised AhQs UTG and got reraised by the very active player two to my left who was then flat-called by a low stack. I chose to fold, and the reraiser shoved QQ (no diamond) on the flop and lost to low stack's Kd-Jx on a d-d-d-x-d board.
I won a very nice pot a few levels in when I held Q-9 offsuit in the big blind and check-called 3 bets by a late-position player on a Q-9-x-x-Kd board with 3 diamonds. I was going to raise on the river but the Kd filled both the straight and the flush so I could only call his 1500 bet. He claimed top pair, I believe meaning the Q.
In another blind hand, I was in the big blind with Jx5d and 4 of us saw a 5h-3c-2c flop. The small blind bet 400, I called, and the other two players folded. The turn was a delicious 5s, he bet 400, I made it 1000, and he called. The river was the 9h, he shoved about 2950, and I called to find that he had 9c8c. I love me some blind hands !
I limped 7-7 behind a few limpers early, bet 400 on a 10-7-6 flop, and got called by a player on my left. I bet 500 on the 5 turn and 500 more on the Jack river and got paid off by J-T. After he told me what he had I knew I had missed some value on the river.
Several hands later I had an easy isolation reshove over a small stack's early position all-in with 7-7. The player to my left hemmed and hawed for a good two minutes, saying "I don't think I can fold this hand" and such. The last thing I wanted was for him to call. I couldn't see him calling with a hand I was way ahead of, because earlier he had been adamant about his preference for two paints over a small pair, and when he finally called he indeed showed K-Q offsuit, while the small stack showed KhTh. I was able to scoop that pot though, flopping trip 7's again and surviving the 9-7-6-J-9 board. Afterwards I commented to the guy next to me "For future reference, K-Q is NEVER ahead of my all-in".
Soon after, we got entangled in another hand, one which I will never forget. A couple of players limped in at 200-400, so I decided to complete the small blind with 7-6 offsuit, and 4 of us saw a 7-6-3 rainbow flop. I checked, the guy next to me bet 500, it folded to me, and I called. The turn was a Q, and I checked to my neighbor, who bet 1500 this time around. I IMMEDIATELY overshoved all-in for about 10k chips, and once again he went into the tank. After about two minutes, he FOLDED Qd6d face up. I think I turned ghost-white. The funny thing is, 90% of the time against me, that's a great fold, because I either have a set or a 4-5 for the straight. The dealer pulled my cards into the muck and I admitted that I had 7-6, further tilting my new best friend on my left. He said that since it was a limped pot I could easily have the 4-5 or a set, and the dealer also commented that he put me on 3-3.
I felt like Daniel on this hand. With 20 or so players left a guy with a good stack raised it up preflop and got flat-called by a player in the blinds who had only about twice as many chips as the size of the bet. I commented to the guy sitting next to me "boy that's a weird call - maybe he's got a mid-pair and wants to stop-and-go." Well sure enough, the flop came 7-4-3 and the blind shoved all-in, eventually getting a fold from the original raiser who claimed overcards. I said to the guy next to me "he must have 9's", and lo and behold he flipped over two black 9's !
When we got down below 20 players the blinds were going up fast, the tables became short, and my stack was not improving. I was able to tread water though, picking up a few pots by shoving Ace-x-type hands and not getting called. I also shoved AcKc UTG and took that one too, flipping my cards over while saying "best hand I've seen all day" (I had 10-10 once and took the blinds with a raise, and had earlier reraised a short stack's all-in with AK off and beat his KT on a K-hi flop).
On my final hand, my earlier admonition came back to haunt me. We were down to 12 players, playing two tables of 6 players each, meaning the 2000-4000 blinds were coming around fast and furious. I was in the small blind with 21200 chips (19200 plus the 2000 blind) putting me in about 11th place. I knew at least that I was the short stack at my table. It was the last hand before the break, so the blinds would be 3000-6000 next hand. The big stack at the table, who had been raising about every other hand and who had been at the table with me the whole tourney, made it 12000 to go. It folded around to me and I looked down at 8-8. Decision time. If I call, I have 9200 chips left. I can't really stop-and-go and I certainly can't check-fold, so a call is out. If I fold, I have 19200 left, but will be in the 6000 big blind in 4 more hands. If I shove, the pot will be roughly 40k and he will have to call 9200 more, meaning I should have no fold equity. But if I win the pot I'll have about 50k which should ensure that I cash, and I am probably ahead preflop. After pondering my decision for about a minute I decided to shove. My opponent goes into the tank. After a minute he says "I know I'm not ahead but I don't think I can fold for these odds". I say something like "Well at least I am sure that I am ahead" and he says "Oh I KNOW you are ahead," so now I'm hoping he's got something like Ace-rag, and still praying that he somehow makes a terrible fold. Eventually he calls, and obviously flips over the ol' K-Q offsuit !!! He was right, he wasn't ahead, but sadly the board came K-9-x-9-x and I was out. Can't complain though - I played great poker, almost cashed despite getting few good hands, and got my money in good on my final hand with a chance to move way up on the leaderboard.
Very first hand at my table - flop comes with 3 low hearts, and a player in early position with Kh3h bets all 3 streets and 3-bets the river only to ship all his chips to the player to my left, on the button, with Ah9h.
I raised hands like Ace-9 and K-J a couple of times but got 3 bet every time and had to fold. At least it happened with easy-fold hands. Once I raised AhQs UTG and got reraised by the very active player two to my left who was then flat-called by a low stack. I chose to fold, and the reraiser shoved QQ (no diamond) on the flop and lost to low stack's Kd-Jx on a d-d-d-x-d board.
I won a very nice pot a few levels in when I held Q-9 offsuit in the big blind and check-called 3 bets by a late-position player on a Q-9-x-x-Kd board with 3 diamonds. I was going to raise on the river but the Kd filled both the straight and the flush so I could only call his 1500 bet. He claimed top pair, I believe meaning the Q.
In another blind hand, I was in the big blind with Jx5d and 4 of us saw a 5h-3c-2c flop. The small blind bet 400, I called, and the other two players folded. The turn was a delicious 5s, he bet 400, I made it 1000, and he called. The river was the 9h, he shoved about 2950, and I called to find that he had 9c8c. I love me some blind hands !
I limped 7-7 behind a few limpers early, bet 400 on a 10-7-6 flop, and got called by a player on my left. I bet 500 on the 5 turn and 500 more on the Jack river and got paid off by J-T. After he told me what he had I knew I had missed some value on the river.
Several hands later I had an easy isolation reshove over a small stack's early position all-in with 7-7. The player to my left hemmed and hawed for a good two minutes, saying "I don't think I can fold this hand" and such. The last thing I wanted was for him to call. I couldn't see him calling with a hand I was way ahead of, because earlier he had been adamant about his preference for two paints over a small pair, and when he finally called he indeed showed K-Q offsuit, while the small stack showed KhTh. I was able to scoop that pot though, flopping trip 7's again and surviving the 9-7-6-J-9 board. Afterwards I commented to the guy next to me "For future reference, K-Q is NEVER ahead of my all-in".
Soon after, we got entangled in another hand, one which I will never forget. A couple of players limped in at 200-400, so I decided to complete the small blind with 7-6 offsuit, and 4 of us saw a 7-6-3 rainbow flop. I checked, the guy next to me bet 500, it folded to me, and I called. The turn was a Q, and I checked to my neighbor, who bet 1500 this time around. I IMMEDIATELY overshoved all-in for about 10k chips, and once again he went into the tank. After about two minutes, he FOLDED Qd6d face up. I think I turned ghost-white. The funny thing is, 90% of the time against me, that's a great fold, because I either have a set or a 4-5 for the straight. The dealer pulled my cards into the muck and I admitted that I had 7-6, further tilting my new best friend on my left. He said that since it was a limped pot I could easily have the 4-5 or a set, and the dealer also commented that he put me on 3-3.
I felt like Daniel on this hand. With 20 or so players left a guy with a good stack raised it up preflop and got flat-called by a player in the blinds who had only about twice as many chips as the size of the bet. I commented to the guy sitting next to me "boy that's a weird call - maybe he's got a mid-pair and wants to stop-and-go." Well sure enough, the flop came 7-4-3 and the blind shoved all-in, eventually getting a fold from the original raiser who claimed overcards. I said to the guy next to me "he must have 9's", and lo and behold he flipped over two black 9's !
When we got down below 20 players the blinds were going up fast, the tables became short, and my stack was not improving. I was able to tread water though, picking up a few pots by shoving Ace-x-type hands and not getting called. I also shoved AcKc UTG and took that one too, flipping my cards over while saying "best hand I've seen all day" (I had 10-10 once and took the blinds with a raise, and had earlier reraised a short stack's all-in with AK off and beat his KT on a K-hi flop).
On my final hand, my earlier admonition came back to haunt me. We were down to 12 players, playing two tables of 6 players each, meaning the 2000-4000 blinds were coming around fast and furious. I was in the small blind with 21200 chips (19200 plus the 2000 blind) putting me in about 11th place. I knew at least that I was the short stack at my table. It was the last hand before the break, so the blinds would be 3000-6000 next hand. The big stack at the table, who had been raising about every other hand and who had been at the table with me the whole tourney, made it 12000 to go. It folded around to me and I looked down at 8-8. Decision time. If I call, I have 9200 chips left. I can't really stop-and-go and I certainly can't check-fold, so a call is out. If I fold, I have 19200 left, but will be in the 6000 big blind in 4 more hands. If I shove, the pot will be roughly 40k and he will have to call 9200 more, meaning I should have no fold equity. But if I win the pot I'll have about 50k which should ensure that I cash, and I am probably ahead preflop. After pondering my decision for about a minute I decided to shove. My opponent goes into the tank. After a minute he says "I know I'm not ahead but I don't think I can fold for these odds". I say something like "Well at least I am sure that I am ahead" and he says "Oh I KNOW you are ahead," so now I'm hoping he's got something like Ace-rag, and still praying that he somehow makes a terrible fold. Eventually he calls, and obviously flips over the ol' K-Q offsuit !!! He was right, he wasn't ahead, but sadly the board came K-9-x-9-x and I was out. Can't complain though - I played great poker, almost cashed despite getting few good hands, and got my money in good on my final hand with a chance to move way up on the leaderboard.
Monday, August 18, 2008
I've Played a LOT of Hi-Lo Stud...
...but I've never seen this happen. First, though, I have a couple of basic rules for Hi-Lo Stud -
1) Don't play pairs from 99-KK. They can't help you make a low hand and when an opponent catches an Ace it's always hard to tell where you stand in the hand. I will play them if they are hidden, or with a suited connecting card (like QdQhJh), but only if a bunch of folks have limped in to the pot giving me a good price to hit trips or a connected flush card on 4th. I will not play these hands if one of my pair cards is out.
2) Unless your table is filled with very solid players ALWAYS raise rolled-up trips coming in. (Solid players will "know" you have trips and will not pay you off.) It is the best way to get value for your hand and get money in the pot before everyone catches 9's on 4th street and folds. I will sometimes make an exception to this policy with 999-KKK if a bunch of folks are already in the pot with low cards and/or if my case card for quads is already out.
3) Bet your big draws hard. You have to gamble with these kinds of hands, and you can sometimes get late folds and/or force out better hi hands giving you a greater chance to scoop.
Ok, here they are. These hands were back-to-back on the same table.
PokerStars Game #19716645645: 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit ($1/$2) -
Seat 1: tomovermeers ($24.95 in chips)
Seat 2: franknew ($33.85 in chips)
Seat 3: vegasmissy ($12.75 in chips)
Seat 5: oeycsu ($54.20 in chips)
Seat 6: cps4712 ($35.20 in chips)
Seat 7: djelove1 ($38.90 in chips)
Seat 8: friederike_a ($38.95 in chips)
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to tomovermeers [6s]
Dealt to franknew [8c]
Dealt to vegasmissy [Qs]
Dealt to oeycsu [5h]
Dealt to cps4712 [Jd]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad] [WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s]
friederike_a: brings in for $0.50
tomovermeers: folds
franknew: folds
vegasmissy: folds
oeycsu: calls $0.50
cps4712: folds
djelove1: raises $0.50 to $1 [ALWAYS]
friederike_a: calls $0.50
oeycsu: calls $0.50
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to oeycsu [5h] [4c]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad] [4d]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s] [7s]
djelove1: bets $1 [I'M NOT HAPPY THAT THEY BOTH CAUGHT LOW]
friederike_a: calls $1
oeycsu: calls $1
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to oeycsu [5h 4c] [9d]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d] [3c]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s 7s] [9h]
djelove1: bets $2 [THEY BOTH COMPLETELY MISS]
friederike_a: calls $2
oeycsu: folds
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d 3c] [6d]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s 7s 9h] [2d]
djelove1: bets $2 [SHE COULD VERY EASILY HAVE A MADE LOW BUT I HAVE THE BEST HI HAND AND VERY SOLID LOW REDRAWS]
friederike_a: calls $2
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d] [8h] [I'M PRETTY PSYCHED TO HAVE MADE A LOW HERE]
djelove1: bets $2
friederike_a: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djelove1: shows [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d 8h] (HI: three of a kind, Aces; LO: 8,6,4,3,A)
friederike_a: mucks hand
djelove1 collected $9 from pot
Djelove1 collected $8.95 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $18.70 Rake $0.75
Seat 5: oeycsu folded on the 5th Street
Seat 7: djelove1 showed [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d 8h] and won ($17.95) with HI: three of a kind, Aces; LO: 8,6,4,3,A
Seat 8: friederike_a mucked [7h 6c 3s 7s 9h 2d 2s]
very next hand...
PokerStars Game #19716664317: 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit ($1/$2)
Seat 1: tomovermeers ($24.85 in chips)
Seat 2: franknew ($33.75 in chips)
Seat 3: vegasmissy ($12.65 in chips)
Seat 5: oeycsu ($52.10 in chips)
Seat 6: cps4712 ($35.10 in chips)
Seat 7: djelove1 ($48.75 in chips)
Seat 8: friederike_a ($30.85 in chips)
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to tomovermeers [Kh]
Dealt to franknew [As]
Dealt to vegasmissy [Kc]
Dealt to oeycsu [Ks]
Dealt to cps4712 [Th]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh] [I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN BEFORE]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac]
cps4712: brings in for $0.50
djelove1: raises $0.50 to $1 [WHILE PRAYING THAT SOMEONE HAS ACES OR A LOW DRAW]
friederike_a: calls $1
tomovermeers: folds
franknew: raises $1 to $2 [THIS RAISE MAKES MY DAY]
vegasmissy: folds
oeycsu: folds
cps4712: folds
djelove1: raises $1 to $3 [OBV]
friederike_a: calls $2
franknew: calls $1
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to franknew [As] [Td]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh] [5s]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac] [9c]
franknew: checks
djelove1: bets $1
friederike_a: calls $1 [MAYBE SHE HAS A FLUSH DRAW]
franknew: calls $1
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to franknew [As Td] [Kd]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s] [8d]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac 9c] [Ts]
franknew: checks
djelove1: bets $2
friederike_a: raises $2 to $4 [NOW I THINK SHE HAS SLOW-PLAYED ACES]
franknew: folds [WHICH IS FINE WITH ME]
djelove1: raises $2 to $6 [I CAN'T BE BEHIND]
frederike_a: calls $2
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d] [6s]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac 9c Ts] [5d]
friederike_a: bets $2 [THIS IS LIKE AN XMAS GIFT - I STILL CAN'T BE BEHIND]
djelove1: raises $2 to $4
friederike_a: calls $2
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s] [4d]
friederike_a: checks
djelove1: bets $2 [I KNOW I'M NOT BEAT - IF SHE HAD BET INTO ME I CAN'T RAISE]
friederike_a: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djelove1: shows [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s 4d] (HI: three of a kind, Queens)
friederike_a: mucks hand
djelove1 collected $36.20 from pot
No low hand qualified
franknew said, "wow"
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $37.20 Rake $1
Seat 1: tomovermeers folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 2: franknew folded on the 5th Street
Seat 3: vegasmissy folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 5: oeycsu folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 6: cps4712 folded on the 3rd Street
Seat 7: djelove1 showed [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s 4d] and won ($36.20) with HI: three of a kind, Queens
Seat 8: friederike_a mucked [Tc Ah Ac 9c Ts 5d 6d]
As I had suspected friederike_a did indeed raise Aces Up on 5th. Since a 10 and an Ace were both gone I knew she had two outs and was thankful she didn't hit them.
Two other hands of note today. In the first one, I played KcQcJc behind several limpers, caught the 9c on 4th, blanked 5th, caught 5c on 6th, and got paid off by an obvious straight (he had something like J-10-8-7 showing). The interesting part of that hand was that I was in 1st position and the button caught the 10c on 4th street, meaning if he had folded pre-4th I would have made a straight flush on 5th. In the other hand, I called with 4 low cards on 4th and made an 8-low on 5th, so I started raising, and I got my lone remaining opponent to fold when I bet 7th st with only a pair of deuces for hi. Now 9 times out of 10 I will make a (rake-saving) check behind on the river in this spot, because 9 times out of 10 my opponent has been calling with a big pair or two and isn't going to fold getting 9:1 (or 4.5:1 if they don't have low and "know" I have low), but in this spot I knew my opponent was a total fish and was confident she could fold a lot of crappy hi hands on the river.
1) Don't play pairs from 99-KK. They can't help you make a low hand and when an opponent catches an Ace it's always hard to tell where you stand in the hand. I will play them if they are hidden, or with a suited connecting card (like QdQhJh), but only if a bunch of folks have limped in to the pot giving me a good price to hit trips or a connected flush card on 4th. I will not play these hands if one of my pair cards is out.
2) Unless your table is filled with very solid players ALWAYS raise rolled-up trips coming in. (Solid players will "know" you have trips and will not pay you off.) It is the best way to get value for your hand and get money in the pot before everyone catches 9's on 4th street and folds. I will sometimes make an exception to this policy with 999-KKK if a bunch of folks are already in the pot with low cards and/or if my case card for quads is already out.
3) Bet your big draws hard. You have to gamble with these kinds of hands, and you can sometimes get late folds and/or force out better hi hands giving you a greater chance to scoop.
Ok, here they are. These hands were back-to-back on the same table.
PokerStars Game #19716645645: 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit ($1/$2) -
Seat 1: tomovermeers ($24.95 in chips)
Seat 2: franknew ($33.85 in chips)
Seat 3: vegasmissy ($12.75 in chips)
Seat 5: oeycsu ($54.20 in chips)
Seat 6: cps4712 ($35.20 in chips)
Seat 7: djelove1 ($38.90 in chips)
Seat 8: friederike_a ($38.95 in chips)
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to tomovermeers [6s]
Dealt to franknew [8c]
Dealt to vegasmissy [Qs]
Dealt to oeycsu [5h]
Dealt to cps4712 [Jd]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad] [WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s]
friederike_a: brings in for $0.50
tomovermeers: folds
franknew: folds
vegasmissy: folds
oeycsu: calls $0.50
cps4712: folds
djelove1: raises $0.50 to $1 [ALWAYS]
friederike_a: calls $0.50
oeycsu: calls $0.50
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to oeycsu [5h] [4c]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad] [4d]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s] [7s]
djelove1: bets $1 [I'M NOT HAPPY THAT THEY BOTH CAUGHT LOW]
friederike_a: calls $1
oeycsu: calls $1
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to oeycsu [5h 4c] [9d]
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d] [3c]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s 7s] [9h]
djelove1: bets $2 [THEY BOTH COMPLETELY MISS]
friederike_a: calls $2
oeycsu: folds
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d 3c] [6d]
Dealt to friederike_a [3s 7s 9h] [2d]
djelove1: bets $2 [SHE COULD VERY EASILY HAVE A MADE LOW BUT I HAVE THE BEST HI HAND AND VERY SOLID LOW REDRAWS]
friederike_a: calls $2
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to djelove1 [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d] [8h] [I'M PRETTY PSYCHED TO HAVE MADE A LOW HERE]
djelove1: bets $2
friederike_a: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djelove1: shows [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d 8h] (HI: three of a kind, Aces; LO: 8,6,4,3,A)
friederike_a: mucks hand
djelove1 collected $9 from pot
Djelove1 collected $8.95 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $18.70 Rake $0.75
Seat 5: oeycsu folded on the 5th Street
Seat 7: djelove1 showed [As Ac Ad 4d 3c 6d 8h] and won ($17.95) with HI: three of a kind, Aces; LO: 8,6,4,3,A
Seat 8: friederike_a mucked [7h 6c 3s 7s 9h 2d 2s]
very next hand...
PokerStars Game #19716664317: 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit ($1/$2)
Seat 1: tomovermeers ($24.85 in chips)
Seat 2: franknew ($33.75 in chips)
Seat 3: vegasmissy ($12.65 in chips)
Seat 5: oeycsu ($52.10 in chips)
Seat 6: cps4712 ($35.10 in chips)
Seat 7: djelove1 ($48.75 in chips)
Seat 8: friederike_a ($30.85 in chips)
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to tomovermeers [Kh]
Dealt to franknew [As]
Dealt to vegasmissy [Kc]
Dealt to oeycsu [Ks]
Dealt to cps4712 [Th]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh] [I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN BEFORE]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac]
cps4712: brings in for $0.50
djelove1: raises $0.50 to $1 [WHILE PRAYING THAT SOMEONE HAS ACES OR A LOW DRAW]
friederike_a: calls $1
tomovermeers: folds
franknew: raises $1 to $2 [THIS RAISE MAKES MY DAY]
vegasmissy: folds
oeycsu: folds
cps4712: folds
djelove1: raises $1 to $3 [OBV]
friederike_a: calls $2
franknew: calls $1
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to franknew [As] [Td]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh] [5s]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac] [9c]
franknew: checks
djelove1: bets $1
friederike_a: calls $1 [MAYBE SHE HAS A FLUSH DRAW]
franknew: calls $1
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to franknew [As Td] [Kd]
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s] [8d]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac 9c] [Ts]
franknew: checks
djelove1: bets $2
friederike_a: raises $2 to $4 [NOW I THINK SHE HAS SLOW-PLAYED ACES]
franknew: folds [WHICH IS FINE WITH ME]
djelove1: raises $2 to $6 [I CAN'T BE BEHIND]
frederike_a: calls $2
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d] [6s]
Dealt to friederike_a [Ac 9c Ts] [5d]
friederike_a: bets $2 [THIS IS LIKE AN XMAS GIFT - I STILL CAN'T BE BEHIND]
djelove1: raises $2 to $4
friederike_a: calls $2
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s] [4d]
friederike_a: checks
djelove1: bets $2 [I KNOW I'M NOT BEAT - IF SHE HAD BET INTO ME I CAN'T RAISE]
friederike_a: calls $2
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djelove1: shows [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s 4d] (HI: three of a kind, Queens)
friederike_a: mucks hand
djelove1 collected $36.20 from pot
No low hand qualified
franknew said, "wow"
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $37.20 Rake $1
Seat 1: tomovermeers folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 2: franknew folded on the 5th Street
Seat 3: vegasmissy folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 5: oeycsu folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 6: cps4712 folded on the 3rd Street
Seat 7: djelove1 showed [Qd Qs Qh 5s 8d 6s 4d] and won ($36.20) with HI: three of a kind, Queens
Seat 8: friederike_a mucked [Tc Ah Ac 9c Ts 5d 6d]
As I had suspected friederike_a did indeed raise Aces Up on 5th. Since a 10 and an Ace were both gone I knew she had two outs and was thankful she didn't hit them.
Two other hands of note today. In the first one, I played KcQcJc behind several limpers, caught the 9c on 4th, blanked 5th, caught 5c on 6th, and got paid off by an obvious straight (he had something like J-10-8-7 showing). The interesting part of that hand was that I was in 1st position and the button caught the 10c on 4th street, meaning if he had folded pre-4th I would have made a straight flush on 5th. In the other hand, I called with 4 low cards on 4th and made an 8-low on 5th, so I started raising, and I got my lone remaining opponent to fold when I bet 7th st with only a pair of deuces for hi. Now 9 times out of 10 I will make a (rake-saving) check behind on the river in this spot, because 9 times out of 10 my opponent has been calling with a big pair or two and isn't going to fold getting 9:1 (or 4.5:1 if they don't have low and "know" I have low), but in this spot I knew my opponent was a total fish and was confident she could fold a lot of crappy hi hands on the river.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Love Me Some Donks
I think I am the king of the value-bet...
PokerStars Game #19408965307: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25)
Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: cap. marb ($27.90 in chips)
Seat 2: djelove1 ($26.60 in chips)
Seat 3: fatedmirage ($9.75 in chips)
Seat 4: nbgen4321 ($23.25 in chips)
Seat 5: PaulWilson ($25 in chips)
Seat 6: ptitlouis38 ($15.45 in chips)
Seat 7: henrik albin ($13.95 in chips)
Seat 8: xaucomet ($25 in chips)
Seat 9: porkygirl ($13.55 in chips)
fatedmirage: posts small blind $0.10
nbgen4321: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qh]
PaulWilson: folds
ptitlouis38: folds
henrik albin: folds
xaucomet: raises $1 to $1.25
porkygirl: folds
cap. marb: folds
djelove1: calls $1.25 [I'm never folding QQ on the button]
fatedmirage: folds
nbgen4321: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 9h Td]
xaucomet: bets $3
djelove1: raises $3 to $6 [I raised to see where I was at - I wasn't sure if he had anything]
xaucomet: calls $3 [when he flat-calls I know he has nothing - AA and KK shove almost always]
*** TURN *** [9s 9h Td] [Jc]
xaucomet: checks
djelove1: bets $4 [the Jack is absolutely the grossest card that could come, but it does give me a straight draw, and since I am still sure he has nothing I value-bet]
xaucomet: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [9s 9h Td Jc] [Qs] [GIN !!!!]
xaucomet: bets $13.75 and is all-in [I love the -EV shove - maybe if I have KK I call but without a boat I have to fold otherwise]
djelove1: calls $13.75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xaucomet: shows [As Kd] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
djelove1: shows [Qd Qh] (a full house, Queens full of Nines)
djelove1 collected $47.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $50.35 Rake $2.45 Board [9s 9h Td Jc Qs]
Seat 1: cap. marb folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: djelove1 (button) showed [Qd Qh] and won ($47.90) with a full house, Queens full of Nines
Seat 3: fatedmirage (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: nbgen4321 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: PaulWilson folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ptitlouis38 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: henrik albin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: xaucomet showed [As Kd] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 9: porkygirl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
PokerStars Game #19408965307: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25)
Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: cap. marb ($27.90 in chips)
Seat 2: djelove1 ($26.60 in chips)
Seat 3: fatedmirage ($9.75 in chips)
Seat 4: nbgen4321 ($23.25 in chips)
Seat 5: PaulWilson ($25 in chips)
Seat 6: ptitlouis38 ($15.45 in chips)
Seat 7: henrik albin ($13.95 in chips)
Seat 8: xaucomet ($25 in chips)
Seat 9: porkygirl ($13.55 in chips)
fatedmirage: posts small blind $0.10
nbgen4321: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djelove1 [Qd Qh]
PaulWilson: folds
ptitlouis38: folds
henrik albin: folds
xaucomet: raises $1 to $1.25
porkygirl: folds
cap. marb: folds
djelove1: calls $1.25 [I'm never folding QQ on the button]
fatedmirage: folds
nbgen4321: folds
*** FLOP *** [9s 9h Td]
xaucomet: bets $3
djelove1: raises $3 to $6 [I raised to see where I was at - I wasn't sure if he had anything]
xaucomet: calls $3 [when he flat-calls I know he has nothing - AA and KK shove almost always]
*** TURN *** [9s 9h Td] [Jc]
xaucomet: checks
djelove1: bets $4 [the Jack is absolutely the grossest card that could come, but it does give me a straight draw, and since I am still sure he has nothing I value-bet]
xaucomet: calls $4
*** RIVER *** [9s 9h Td Jc] [Qs] [GIN !!!!]
xaucomet: bets $13.75 and is all-in [I love the -EV shove - maybe if I have KK I call but without a boat I have to fold otherwise]
djelove1: calls $13.75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
xaucomet: shows [As Kd] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
djelove1: shows [Qd Qh] (a full house, Queens full of Nines)
djelove1 collected $47.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $50.35 Rake $2.45 Board [9s 9h Td Jc Qs]
Seat 1: cap. marb folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: djelove1 (button) showed [Qd Qh] and won ($47.90) with a full house, Queens full of Nines
Seat 3: fatedmirage (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: nbgen4321 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: PaulWilson folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ptitlouis38 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: henrik albin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: xaucomet showed [As Kd] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 9: porkygirl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
No Respect For My Authorita
Well I put in some volume today but sadly the cards were not with me, so I am gonna have to abandon my quest for a sit-n-go leaderboard spot this week. I played 4 $5 9-player SNG's and finished 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 9th, so I gained 63 more points in that go-round along with a few dollars. In my first-place finish I was trailing in chips a bit when we got heads up (after having basically controlled play) but was able to eek out the win when I pushed 3-3, he called all-in short-stacked with King-ten off, and I spiked a 3 on the turn after a ten came on the flop. In the 9th place finish my QQ lost to his AK off all-in preflop only a few hands in. After that round I decided to play 3 $6 turbo SNG's and unfortunately failed to cash in any of them, finishing 9th to a donk who runner-runnered a flush after calling a big preflop raise with J7 suited, 8th with AK losing to 88 AIPF, and 4th after I tried to bluff a guy with air on a J-J-x-x-x board and he couldn't fold his limped KK. So now I would need to earn some 300 points in 8 SNG's which would require that I come in 1st five times and 2nd three times. Even for me, the low-limit SNG master, that's asking waaaay too much. At least I am up !
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Day Two = Not So Good
I played two $5 sit-n-go's today, an 18-player and a 27-player, and while I managed to final table both of them I finished in 7th in both, winning no money and no leaderboard points. I was dealt pretty much nothing in both games, and was able to stay afloat in one of them solely on my ability to steal blinds with my change-raises and three-barrell bluff a passive guy who called my bets on the flop and turn and then folded to a large river bet when the flush came. Tomorrow I will try a couple of more games and if I fail to earn more points I'll be done with trying to crack the leaderboard this week.
Monday, July 21, 2008
It's Been a Looooong Time...
I haven't updated this blog for ages, primarily because I haven't had anything exciting to talk about. I've been playing a lot of 10c/25c cash games and low-level sit-n-go's and have had decent success but am still waiting for that big tourney breakthrough. This week Pokerstars is doubling the cash prizes they award the top finishers on the sit-n-go leaderboard and also doubling the cash being awarded in the Battle of the Planets weekly leaderboard tourney so, since sit-n-go's are my strength, I am going to concentrate on $5-6 sit-n-go's this week hoping to qualify. So far I am doing great. I played 2 $5 9-player SNG's today and was able to grab a first and a third, and also played an 18-player SNG and grabbed a 3rd-place finish there as well, so after 3 tourneys (of the 20 I need to play to qualify) I have 93 leaderboard points, which is an excellent result. I plan to update my results each day this week.
You will also notice that I have added a few clickable "ads" on the left side of this page. These are all for charitable organizations and you are encouraged to check them out, especially the rainforestsite, breast cancer site, and hungersite - all you need to do is click on the page that appears and you will be helping support several great causes at absolutely no cost but a few seconds of your time. GoodSearch is also an excellent site, and if you are planning to purchase something from an online retailer and go through GoodSearch they will donate a % of your purchase to charity. I use it for all my eBay and Amazon purchases.
Also, I would like to congratulate Shannon Shorr and SirWatts on their big victories this month. Links to their blogs are located in the left-hand column as well, and are worth a read. Two young guys who have had much success and will likely continue to pwn.
You will also notice that I have added a few clickable "ads" on the left side of this page. These are all for charitable organizations and you are encouraged to check them out, especially the rainforestsite, breast cancer site, and hungersite - all you need to do is click on the page that appears and you will be helping support several great causes at absolutely no cost but a few seconds of your time. GoodSearch is also an excellent site, and if you are planning to purchase something from an online retailer and go through GoodSearch they will donate a % of your purchase to charity. I use it for all my eBay and Amazon purchases.
Also, I would like to congratulate Shannon Shorr and SirWatts on their big victories this month. Links to their blogs are located in the left-hand column as well, and are worth a read. Two young guys who have had much success and will likely continue to pwn.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Sometimes, You Just Know It's Not Your Day...
I guess today is truly nasty gross beats day...
Hand One - 15/30 blinds I'm down to 600 or so. LP limps, and I reraise the button with AA to 120. He's loose, and a donk, so he calls. Flop K -8-9 rainbow, he checks, I bet 180, he puts me all-in, I call, he has As9s. 9 on turn, gg me.
Hand Two - small limit tourney, 25/50 with 1050 chips, I limp KdJd UTG, there's a caller, and then big stack who min raises every pot and seems loose makes it 100. Couple of callers behind and then I push over top feeling pretty sure I have the best hand. Big stack calls with Ks2h and flops two spades, turns one, and rivers the Jack of Spades just to add insult to injury.
Hand Three - small limit tourney, I hold Q3 offsuit in the small blind. Flop comes A-Q-3 rainbow, I bet out, get called, and then LP makes a big raise. Since it's early, I push, and both players call. Turned out reraiser had AQ and other guy had A3 so I am drawing totally dead.
Hand Four - Double shootout to Sunday Mil, first round, table of 4 players. I get JJ UTG and make it 80 at 10/20, player to my left calls, blinds fold. Flop K-J-4 rainbow, I lead out for 100 to look weak and hopefully get raised by other guy but he smooth calls. Turn is a 3, I check, and he bets 100. Normally, I reraise here, but I had a strong feeling he didn't have much and that I could get more money out of the hand if I just called, so I called. The river was a 10, I checked, and he bets 200 into 590. I value-raise to 500, he pushes, I call, and lo and behold he has AQ and has rivered the NUTS. Thaaaaaat's poker...
Hand One - 15/30 blinds I'm down to 600 or so. LP limps, and I reraise the button with AA to 120. He's loose, and a donk, so he calls. Flop K -8-9 rainbow, he checks, I bet 180, he puts me all-in, I call, he has As9s. 9 on turn, gg me.
Hand Two - small limit tourney, 25/50 with 1050 chips, I limp KdJd UTG, there's a caller, and then big stack who min raises every pot and seems loose makes it 100. Couple of callers behind and then I push over top feeling pretty sure I have the best hand. Big stack calls with Ks2h and flops two spades, turns one, and rivers the Jack of Spades just to add insult to injury.
Hand Three - small limit tourney, I hold Q3 offsuit in the small blind. Flop comes A-Q-3 rainbow, I bet out, get called, and then LP makes a big raise. Since it's early, I push, and both players call. Turned out reraiser had AQ and other guy had A3 so I am drawing totally dead.
Hand Four - Double shootout to Sunday Mil, first round, table of 4 players. I get JJ UTG and make it 80 at 10/20, player to my left calls, blinds fold. Flop K-J-4 rainbow, I lead out for 100 to look weak and hopefully get raised by other guy but he smooth calls. Turn is a 3, I check, and he bets 100. Normally, I reraise here, but I had a strong feeling he didn't have much and that I could get more money out of the hand if I just called, so I called. The river was a 10, I checked, and he bets 200 into 590. I value-raise to 500, he pushes, I call, and lo and behold he has AQ and has rivered the NUTS. Thaaaaaat's poker...
Friday, November 9, 2007
One Step Up, Two Steps Back
Tonight I played in Step Four, using my ticket worth $215, and I came in a lovely 9th place. Out of 9. Sigh. In both of my previous tourneys I had doubled up early when I had big pairs and other players had smaller pairs that they couldn't fold. This time around, I found QQ in the Small blind and decided to just flat call a button raise to 80 at the 10/20 level. Normally, I repop here, with no intention of folding, but this time around I wanted to slow-play my Queens, and trap the button for some more chips. The big blind also called, and we saw a J-8-5 flop with two spades. I checked, as did the big blind, and then the button bet 175 into the 240 pot. I flat-called, and then the big blind check-raised and made it 500+ to go. the Button obv folded, and it was decision time for me. Unfortunately I didn't think about it for long, pushed, and got called by his flopped trips with 88. That left me with 80 chips, which i managed to triple to 240 on the very next hand (AQ on the button), but within a few more hands I was out.
My mistake in the QQ hand was not taking enough time to consider what the big blind could be repopping with. Even if he was only raising with a King-hi or Ace-hi flush draw I'm about 50/50 to win. If he has a flush draw with the 8 of spades I'm barely ahead (I had the Q of spades so that was not an out), and that's also the case versus the 10-9 of spades or 7-6 of spades. Plus I only had 255 chips invested in the pot, so if I had folded I would still have 1250 or so. The other thing I needed to consider was the flop itself. In the previous two tourneys, all three times I got it all-in versus a medium pair on a small-card flop. This time, the flop's highest card was one rank below my pair, and the big blind's big raise should have suggested to me that he was neither fazed by the Jack nor by my flat-calls pre- and post-flop. So really, the only hand I had soundly beaten was Ace-Jack. It's a difficult fold, but it's a fold I could have and more to the point SHOULD have made considering the stakes.
After that debacle I decided to start again at the beginning and played a 500 FPP Step One tourney. After a bluff gone bad (hard to bluff the guy with the nuts, good thing for me i checked the river), I was down to 800 chips early. But after that, I caught fire and went on to crush the table, finishing first and winning a Step Two seat. I then played Step Two, got lucky early on when I stacked KK with my QQ on a Q-hi flop (eerily reminiscent of earlier, but in my favor this time around), and maintained one of the top two stacks all the way into the money. I donked off a bunch of chips with 4 players left, but then got them donked right back (Ace-2 is NEVER ahead of my all-in). Shortly after that, though, the prettiest hand in poker did me wrong, as with three players left, I called a button push with Ace-King of Spades and lost to his Ace-8 off when an 8 flopped. (God Damn Eights). That hand crippled me, and I finished in 3rd a few hands later, giving me yet another Step Two ticket. So far, I've invested $21 and 1000 FPP's and I have a Step Two seat. Back to the grind...
My mistake in the QQ hand was not taking enough time to consider what the big blind could be repopping with. Even if he was only raising with a King-hi or Ace-hi flush draw I'm about 50/50 to win. If he has a flush draw with the 8 of spades I'm barely ahead (I had the Q of spades so that was not an out), and that's also the case versus the 10-9 of spades or 7-6 of spades. Plus I only had 255 chips invested in the pot, so if I had folded I would still have 1250 or so. The other thing I needed to consider was the flop itself. In the previous two tourneys, all three times I got it all-in versus a medium pair on a small-card flop. This time, the flop's highest card was one rank below my pair, and the big blind's big raise should have suggested to me that he was neither fazed by the Jack nor by my flat-calls pre- and post-flop. So really, the only hand I had soundly beaten was Ace-Jack. It's a difficult fold, but it's a fold I could have and more to the point SHOULD have made considering the stakes.
After that debacle I decided to start again at the beginning and played a 500 FPP Step One tourney. After a bluff gone bad (hard to bluff the guy with the nuts, good thing for me i checked the river), I was down to 800 chips early. But after that, I caught fire and went on to crush the table, finishing first and winning a Step Two seat. I then played Step Two, got lucky early on when I stacked KK with my QQ on a Q-hi flop (eerily reminiscent of earlier, but in my favor this time around), and maintained one of the top two stacks all the way into the money. I donked off a bunch of chips with 4 players left, but then got them donked right back (Ace-2 is NEVER ahead of my all-in). Shortly after that, though, the prettiest hand in poker did me wrong, as with three players left, I called a button push with Ace-King of Spades and lost to his Ace-8 off when an 8 flopped. (God Damn Eights). That hand crippled me, and I finished in 3rd a few hands later, giving me yet another Step Two ticket. So far, I've invested $21 and 1000 FPP's and I have a Step Two seat. Back to the grind...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Another Step Up !!
Tonight, I decided to use my ticket for Step 3, a $82 buy-in sit-n-go that paid the top two finishers a Step Four ticket worth $215 and paid 3rd, 4th, and 5th another Step Three ticket. Well I RUN GOOT. About 10 hands in I got QQ UTG, made a raise to 80 at 10/20, and got called only by the big blind. The flop came 6-5-3 with two clubs, I bet 100, got check-raised to 300, pushed, and got called by his 77. He missed on the turn and river and I doubled up early. Since 5 places paid back at least the buy-in, I decided to play pretty tight after the double-up, and maintained my stack for the next level or two. I raised coming in several times, and the only times I got played back at were when I had low pairs, which I naturally folded. It was down to five players (so we were all In The Money) when the key hand of the tourney came up. I raised to 900 at 150/300 with 10-10 UTG, and the button pushed for about 2200 total, which I called. He flipped over QJ off, and I won the conflip, which gave me about a 2-1 chip advantage over each of the remaining players. After that I re-tightened, raising only when I was not going to fold to a push and settling for letting the smaller stacks fight it out for the other top spot. Eventually one of my opponents doubled up and took a big chip lead, but fortunately I had position on the shortest stack and he was loathe to challenge me. On the final hand, the big stack limped, the shorty pushed with 33, and the big stack woke up with QQ and won, giving himself and ME the Step Four tickets !
So now I have a ticket worth $215, and my total investment so far is $21 plus 500 FPP's. Not Too Shabby. I have been playing very solid sit-n-go poker and have been fortunate to get action on my big hands. Let us hope the string can continue ! !
So now I have a ticket worth $215, and my total investment so far is $21 plus 500 FPP's. Not Too Shabby. I have been playing very solid sit-n-go poker and have been fortunate to get action on my big hands. Let us hope the string can continue ! !
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
On To Step Three !
Tonight after work I played in a Step Two satellite on Pokerstars and WON a seat for Step Three worth $82 ! This was one of the more interesting sng's I've played, as there were two players involved in the sng who were from the same town (in a foreign country) and after about ten minutes of play I could plainly see that they were colluding. They were inolved in a lot of pots, and there was a lot of chip movement between the two players - on a lot of hands one would raise, the other would reraise, and the first would fold. Fortunately for me I picked up KK a few hands in and got doubled up by 10-10 on an all-undercards flop, and then got JJ in the blinds and was able to get it all-in vs. 55 on a 222 flop, giving me a sizeable stack early. I managed my stack well, and because of the two aggressive guys, I played pretty basic poker with a few timely bluffs mixed in for balance. I also gained from the fact that I played both the KK and the JJ hands very fast, so when I played other hands full speed ahead it looked to the field like I had a monster. Four-handed, we had one extremely tight short stack who played NO hands, and fortunately for me he was SB when I was BB and he gave me a LOT of walks. When he finally busted I had a slight chip lead, and I was able to use my knowledge of how my opponents were betting and my tight image to maintain my lead. On the final hand, the smaller stack of the two min-raised the button (which he had done a bunch of times), I repopped with 66 in the SB, and he snapped off the call with QQ. Luck was on my side however- the flop came A-7-6, and my trips held up. That hand was the only time I got my money in bad, and it turned out good. And "cheaters never win". Next up - Step Three !
Friday, November 2, 2007
Going for the PCA
Pokerstars is once again offering packages to the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure, except this year they have come up with a great way to give even low-limit players like myself who can't cough up the 10 grand a chance to get a seat. They are offering Step tournies, which are 9-player sit-n-go's in which the top 2-3 players win seats to the next "step". The buy-in for the cheapest one starts at $7.50, and if you finish in the top two you get a seat for the next round which has a $27 buy-in, until after six steps you get to play in a $2100 sit-n-go for a PCA seat. Probably the coolest thing about the Step tourneys is that they pay out 4-6 places, with the top two being seats to the next round and then the next place or two being seats for the same step you just played, so that if you make it through a few steps and then come in 3rd or 4th you don't have to start all over again at the beginning. (for more info click here).
I've played several times, and am going to post my results so far here. Hopefully I will move higher and get that seat ! !
played 500 FPP buy-in Step One - finished 9th (AQ all-in on an Ace hi flop - guy hit a flush)
played $7.50 buy-in Step One - finished 1st - won a ticket for Step Two worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 3rd - won a Step Two ticket worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 5th (lost with KK to AA all-in preflop) - won a Step One ticket
Played Step One - finished Out Of The Money
Played Step One - finished 4th - won $1.50
Played Step One - finished 3rd - won Step One Ticket
Played Step One - finished 2nd - won a Step Two ticket thanks to a rotten beat - Ac8c chipleader beats 99 short stack all-in preflop - board came 9-7-6-x-10.
total investment so far is $21.00 plus 500 FPP's, and I have a Step Two ticket.
I've played several times, and am going to post my results so far here. Hopefully I will move higher and get that seat ! !
played 500 FPP buy-in Step One - finished 9th (AQ all-in on an Ace hi flop - guy hit a flush)
played $7.50 buy-in Step One - finished 1st - won a ticket for Step Two worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 3rd - won a Step Two ticket worth $27
Played Step Two - finished 5th (lost with KK to AA all-in preflop) - won a Step One ticket
Played Step One - finished Out Of The Money
Played Step One - finished 4th - won $1.50
Played Step One - finished 3rd - won Step One Ticket
Played Step One - finished 2nd - won a Step Two ticket thanks to a rotten beat - Ac8c chipleader beats 99 short stack all-in preflop - board came 9-7-6-x-10.
total investment so far is $21.00 plus 500 FPP's, and I have a Step Two ticket.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
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