So I finally took the plunge and purchased Pokertracker 3. The program is pretty sick, offers a lot of good data analysis and the HUD overlay is much better than PT2 + PAHUD. I'm hoping it will help me improve my cash game. Over the last couple months I've been break even or less at various cash games. I'm beginning to think that my late 2007 success at 9 way 1/2nl was a product of the stats I was recieving from pokertracker. I'm going to commit a lot of time to reviewing my hands more dilligently and trying to find leaks, so hopefully we turn the cash problems around.
On a high note, I've been doing pretty well at SNG's since I committed myself to playing them more regularly. On Stars, I've been playing the PCA steps. I've invested $100 at step 1, and though I've technically got nothing to show for it yet, I've played 5 step 4s and 2 Step 5s so far. Its only a matter of time before I break through one of my step 5s and get to the big step 6 sng.
I've also been playing a lot of SNG's on Full Tilt. I'm really digging the 24+2 DS KO Turbo 90 man sng's (that's a mouthful). I played 4 of them yesterday, and won two. In my first of the day, I finished 12th after Flopping a boat on a K5k board with 55, and getting it in vs 99. He found one of his 4 outs on the turn and the 9 sent me to the rail. Not sure on my knockout stats in this one, I think it was 3 or 4 KO's. In the second of these tourneys, I had 8 KO's in addition to the $576 for first, for a grand total of $608. Not bad. After this I fired up the next two that filled. In the third one, I had 4 KO's but finished in the mid 30's. The nice thing about KO's is it offsets the cost of these tourneys. In the 4th one of these of the night, I shortstacked most of the way until Full Tilt flipped the God switch for me. After winning a shove with k4 v a9, I successfully stole some blinds then won a flip with AQ v 33, then found KK on the big blind and had a 10k stack open shove. Now chiplead with 4ok, I never relented. I opened every pot to 5k on the bubble, with blinds at 1k 2k. All good, entered final table with 50k. There I dominated the fishies who are obviously sng players not mtt players. 4 way I had 180k or the 270k in play. I steamrolled to HU, where I briefly lost the CL after making a marginal reshove with Q6ss and getting caught by A8o. I fought back to even, then found AA at 2.5k/5k. Awful opponent limps, I make it 16500, he calls. Flop is J82, I lead 16.5k, villain waits and ships it in. Snap call, K2o is no good. GG second win of the day. I had 11 ko's in this tourney, $620 total for first. One problem with PT3 and these sng's is that PT3 doesn't record ko's. This is kind of annoying, because the summary.txt file for each ko tournament says how many ko's you had at the top. It doesn't seem like a huge script change would be needed to include this in PT3. Maybe it will be a later update though, we'll see.
Conceptually I think that these 24+2 90's are extremely +EV for me. They play similar to a mtt to start, where you're deep and people call raises very light. The turbo structure causes people to have very low m's as we get to 45-50 ppl left. I'll see spots where there is 800 in the pot at 200/400, most of the table has 4-8k, and this is when ppl start tightening up. WTF? This is when I'm getting aggressive and chipping up. Also, I'm amazed at the amount of ppl who flat call off all their cips. If someone shoves from middle position and I'm the button with KQ, A10, 44 and an average stack, I'm looking for a better spot. Not these idiots. So many all ins are called and we see races of A8ss vs KJ vs 66. Such a joke! I think that because of the ko value, people are more apt to call all ins. I understand the value of the ko, but it only marginally makes me more likely to call an all in. I'm playing to win the tournament, not pick up an additional 4 bucks.
When I get home tonight I will post my pt3 tournament graph from oct1 to today. I'll post a new graph every monday, as a way to keep me on my game and track my progress.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Weekend Wrapup
Finished this weekend up a couple buy ins, mostly playing PLO. I also found a new fun game, the super turbo 9 way SNG's. These things appear pretty soft, and probably are because every one I've played so far has had 3 people who have no idea what they are doing. Donks shipping it in first orbit with A rag or suited connectors, to steal 45 chips, only to be looked up by a similar hand. I have no problem with trying to steal the blinds, but early position it makes no sense with those hands.. I also hate the call behind, but knowing people do it should affect your play. Oh well the point is I think this is another niche where I can make some good money. PLO has been going well and the rakeback is sick, but I can see the volatility every session I play - I would have been up huge this weekend if not for a hand I played Sunday morning. I was at a deep table sitting on $850 and got it in on a 7910 rainbow flop with 6789 (2nd straight + bottom 2) vs an opponent who 3 bet preflop (smells like AA).. he shows JJKK and turns a Q for $1700 :( I'd post the hand here so we can look at the exact equity, but I insta slammed the laptop shut and dont want to dig through my hand history folder to find it.
I will post my sharkscope after a couple days of these Super Turbos to see how I'm doing.. I'm going to try to consciously split my time between 6 max 1/2 PLO and 48+2 super turbos to see how the ROI is on each.
I will post my sharkscope after a couple days of these Super Turbos to see how I'm doing.. I'm going to try to consciously split my time between 6 max 1/2 PLO and 48+2 super turbos to see how the ROI is on each.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Just finished a sick session
So I wasn't planning on a post tonight, but I just had a stackathon vs this guy at a deep 1/2 plo table and need to share these hands. Literally made $1200, mostly off him, in 1 hour at this table.. lol. Here are the big pots we played- I'll put the equity for each of us below to give you an idea of how spewy he was.
Hand 1
61/39 in my favor when we get it in on the flop. My 4 bet shove range here is 44, 64, AKQ6?? Just getting to know him, but the hand right after this he stacks off the remainder and reloads.. a hint of what is to come ?
Hand 2
93/7 in my favor on the flop.. he improves to 82/17 on the turn when he reships on my with no FE :)
Hand 3
89/11 in my favor on the flop.. he was a bit short here so its not as bad as hand 2, and I'm sure he was tilting- still awful play though..
Hand 4
75/25 me on the flop.. 85/15 me on the turn. GG Fish, this was his last buyin.
All told, he gives me $1030 in 34 minutes. Well done.
Hand 1
61/39 in my favor when we get it in on the flop. My 4 bet shove range here is 44, 64, AKQ6?? Just getting to know him, but the hand right after this he stacks off the remainder and reloads.. a hint of what is to come ?
Hand 2
93/7 in my favor on the flop.. he improves to 82/17 on the turn when he reships on my with no FE :)
Hand 3
89/11 in my favor on the flop.. he was a bit short here so its not as bad as hand 2, and I'm sure he was tilting- still awful play though..
Hand 4
75/25 me on the flop.. 85/15 me on the turn. GG Fish, this was his last buyin.
All told, he gives me $1030 in 34 minutes. Well done.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Another night of PLO
Last night I 5-tabled 1/2 PLO for 2 hours. I buy into these games at $160, and I finished the night up just over 2 buy ins. Overall it was a good session, but I was up 6 buyins at one point, so I gave a bit more back then I would have liked. I was at one table that was really juicy. A fish at the table had ~$600 in front of him after putting a good cooler on an opponent on a 2 spade board when they got it in and his low flush draw ran down to pair to beat the other guys nut flush draw+AA. ooops. This fish was raising ridiculously, and calling every 3 bet pre, so I was really happy to get in pots with him. Here is a hand I played with said fish where I got fairly lucky when we both had AA. This is such a good spot for me because he jams the shit out of a marginal AA holding while my AA is stacked. AA is such a tough hand to play in PLO, and this is a great example. Do you really want to lose 4 buy ins with AA pre all in? You're only a 60 40 vs 6789 2x suited hands, and you are in pretty bad shape if you're up against another pair of AA. In this hand I think my hand was pretty transparent but it didn't matter.
Hand 1
This next hand is good too. I find the nuts on the turn, and the villain decides that the turn is the best time for him to make his big raise, now that the straight has hit. Sometimes I just don't get peoples' play in PLO... I guess I tricked him by smoothing first position's bet here. Maybe it was just well played.. anyway check it out
Hand 2
This last hand came at the end of the session and really hurt. After I call the first raise and two people call the 3 bet, I'm obviously coming along to try to stack the AA guy. Well I hit my nice flop, but once I got it in vs two guys I know I'm not in great shape as I'm racing a flush draw and a wrap draw. Pair the board one time!
Hand 3
That's going to do it for today. As you can see, in PLO one or two big pots really swings a session- I started out on fire when my AA busted the other AA and then when the guy had a set vs my straight.. then later in the session I was on the other side of an AA vs AA and I lost the huge top set pot for a million bucks. Such is poker though, esp PLO.
Have a good July 4th, I probably won't post again until Sunday.
Hand 1
This next hand is good too. I find the nuts on the turn, and the villain decides that the turn is the best time for him to make his big raise, now that the straight has hit. Sometimes I just don't get peoples' play in PLO... I guess I tricked him by smoothing first position's bet here. Maybe it was just well played.. anyway check it out
Hand 2
This last hand came at the end of the session and really hurt. After I call the first raise and two people call the 3 bet, I'm obviously coming along to try to stack the AA guy. Well I hit my nice flop, but once I got it in vs two guys I know I'm not in great shape as I'm racing a flush draw and a wrap draw. Pair the board one time!
Hand 3
That's going to do it for today. As you can see, in PLO one or two big pots really swings a session- I started out on fire when my AA busted the other AA and then when the guy had a set vs my straight.. then later in the session I was on the other side of an AA vs AA and I lost the huge top set pot for a million bucks. Such is poker though, esp PLO.
Have a good July 4th, I probably won't post again until Sunday.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Back from the Dead!!
Hey Folks,
I'm starting the blog back up again. I stopped posting for a while, and didn't want to throw random posts in until I was committed to updating it every few days and making it a worthwhile read again. The flavor of the blog is sure to change a bit, because I've changed my focus. When the blog first started, I was hammering out multitable tournaments and printing money, and it was sweet. Then the variance bug bit me and I switched to 9 way 1/2 NL, yawn most boring game eva.. So the boredom drove me to the occasional mtt, and I basically played break even poker for 6 months. I took some time off to get things settled in my new house (read: disaster), and started back up a couple weeks ago. My buddy Tim turned me on to 6 max Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), so that’s what I'm rolling with now. There were a couple reasons I decided to make the switch:
1. PLO is a harder game, therefor you can develop a bigger edge over weak players.
2. Eurodonks play tons of PLO, and everyone knows they donate with their aggrotard styles.
3. Because Eurodonks play, the games are going pretty strong from 7pm-midnight here on the East Coast, which is my preffered time to play. Theres nothing like finding some Russian rolling in from a 6 hour booz and coke bender sitting down to play some PLO Deep at 4am his time :)
The only drawbacks I see to playing PLO is that the variance can kick you much harder, because compared to NLH you are getting it in sooooo often. When a hand gets 3 bet preflop, 33% of the time there is going to be an all in on the flop. Just the way the game plays out- so many times you will see a 60/40 come down when dry top set shows down vs Wrap straight draw, or open ended straight flush draw, etc etc. You definetly need a strong stomach for PLO.
Right now I'm only 4 tabling, because I'm still developing my game, and it deffinetly takes more concentration and focus than NLH. Also, my desktop is busto due to a flood in my house, so I'm working off the laptop where any more than 4 screens is microscopic.
So with that in mind, my journey into PLO has begun. Last night I had a particularly good session, winning 10 buy ins at one of the tables I was sitting at. Here are two hands below from my session last night.
Hand 1
This hand was a huge pot, the one that really got my night going. With all the action in front of me, I felt like AA wasn't out there, so my KK was good if I was going to play it headsup. With the A and the J there as well, I'm looking at some good broadway potential, and the nut club draw throws a little more security into the mix. Also I've noticed tons of people smooth pre with hands like 4567 and 7889. These are the hands I'm hoping to smash off here.
Hand 2
This hand was good because I'd been playing a lot of pots with this guy. I burn him on the flop here by flopping the nuts, but here was my strategy. When I check and opponent 1 bets, I'm thinking small flush or set. When the guy behind pops him, its gotta be the nut flush, and he's not folding. The reason I pot is that I know nut flush isn't folding, and if the 2nd pos guy has a set, esp top set, he might decide to roll with us knowing we're flushed, and try to pair off to scoopp the pot with a boat. He folded and told me in the chat that he folded a smaller flush, so I wasn't getting any value out of him anyway.
Alright that’s all for the first installment of Omaha blog action- check out the new link I added to Tim's blog, he is one of the King's of the Internet.
I'm starting the blog back up again. I stopped posting for a while, and didn't want to throw random posts in until I was committed to updating it every few days and making it a worthwhile read again. The flavor of the blog is sure to change a bit, because I've changed my focus. When the blog first started, I was hammering out multitable tournaments and printing money, and it was sweet. Then the variance bug bit me and I switched to 9 way 1/2 NL, yawn most boring game eva.. So the boredom drove me to the occasional mtt, and I basically played break even poker for 6 months. I took some time off to get things settled in my new house (read: disaster), and started back up a couple weeks ago. My buddy Tim turned me on to 6 max Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), so that’s what I'm rolling with now. There were a couple reasons I decided to make the switch:
1. PLO is a harder game, therefor you can develop a bigger edge over weak players.
2. Eurodonks play tons of PLO, and everyone knows they donate with their aggrotard styles.
3. Because Eurodonks play, the games are going pretty strong from 7pm-midnight here on the East Coast, which is my preffered time to play. Theres nothing like finding some Russian rolling in from a 6 hour booz and coke bender sitting down to play some PLO Deep at 4am his time :)
The only drawbacks I see to playing PLO is that the variance can kick you much harder, because compared to NLH you are getting it in sooooo often. When a hand gets 3 bet preflop, 33% of the time there is going to be an all in on the flop. Just the way the game plays out- so many times you will see a 60/40 come down when dry top set shows down vs Wrap straight draw, or open ended straight flush draw, etc etc. You definetly need a strong stomach for PLO.
Right now I'm only 4 tabling, because I'm still developing my game, and it deffinetly takes more concentration and focus than NLH. Also, my desktop is busto due to a flood in my house, so I'm working off the laptop where any more than 4 screens is microscopic.
So with that in mind, my journey into PLO has begun. Last night I had a particularly good session, winning 10 buy ins at one of the tables I was sitting at. Here are two hands below from my session last night.
Hand 1
This hand was a huge pot, the one that really got my night going. With all the action in front of me, I felt like AA wasn't out there, so my KK was good if I was going to play it headsup. With the A and the J there as well, I'm looking at some good broadway potential, and the nut club draw throws a little more security into the mix. Also I've noticed tons of people smooth pre with hands like 4567 and 7889. These are the hands I'm hoping to smash off here.
Hand 2
This hand was good because I'd been playing a lot of pots with this guy. I burn him on the flop here by flopping the nuts, but here was my strategy. When I check and opponent 1 bets, I'm thinking small flush or set. When the guy behind pops him, its gotta be the nut flush, and he's not folding. The reason I pot is that I know nut flush isn't folding, and if the 2nd pos guy has a set, esp top set, he might decide to roll with us knowing we're flushed, and try to pair off to scoopp the pot with a boat. He folded and told me in the chat that he folded a smaller flush, so I wasn't getting any value out of him anyway.
Alright that’s all for the first installment of Omaha blog action- check out the new link I added to Tim's blog, he is one of the King's of the Internet.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Weekly Update
Hi Guys and girl,
Quick update on the weekend- I ft'ed two mtts and got 7 and 8th, gg I suck. Full recap to follow, in the meantime here are some great youtube poker clips- enjoy.
Jennifer Tilly is an awesome poker player:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tN6wAHTWeEA
Quick update on the weekend- I ft'ed two mtts and got 7 and 8th, gg I suck. Full recap to follow, in the meantime here are some great youtube poker clips- enjoy.
Jennifer Tilly is an awesome poker player:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tN6wAHTWeEA
Monday, February 25, 2008
Weekend Wrapup
Hello Hello
Another weekend has come and gone. Yesterday I went over to bluechip's condo for a MTT marathon session. We started by playing the $26 KO tournament on FTP. I had a good run in the tournament, knocking out 9 people for (9x4) $36. Ship it. Oh yea I final tabled the tourney too. Made it to final table in 6/9, then ran the table over until we got 4 way. Chipped up from 260k to 650k with only one showdown, was really funny. 3 way we had a long battle, then I finally got hu as a 3 to 1 dog. I doubled through after getting pretty low when I spiked a river straight on a 2KQ 10 turn that I reshipped all in and the villain called with K4. Then I had him 3 to 1, and he played really strange. Open shoving sometimes, min raising others, really varying his raises. Deffinetly confused and got the best of me. I made a bad read 3 bet with Q10 and he shipped in with QQ, and pot committed I called. Now I am short, and I shoved next hand with K9 and his AJ held to send me to rail in 2nd place. $2400 though so not a bad pay.
I also played a bunch of big Sunday tournaments- Sunday Mill, 750k, Sunday Mulligan, 25K, 55K, 24K. Here are the summaries of these tournaments:
Sunday Million- 500 buy in. Middle of first hour, Active player raised to 350 at 50 100 in cutoff. I reraised to 750 from button with 79ss. He reraised to 1350. I feel sick and call hoping to bury him. Flop 7x9cQc. Hehe. He checks, I bet 1800, he insta ships it in. I call after a brief deliberation, and he shows Akcc. Harmless turn, club on the river GG. People love thee flush draw.
750k- 200 buy in. Played good in first hour, but had this weird hand comeup. I raise 99 to 180 at 30 60 in mp. SB and BB call. Flop 6h8h9h. SB checks, BB bets 80, I raise to 280, SB raises to 580. WTFaments? I hate it, so I call. Turn is offsuit Q… SB shoves 2500 into 1300 pot. I fold the top set. I think he had a small flush, but bluechip was leaning towards a call thinking he could have lower set or Ah and a pair. Oh well. Then I dominated this fish at my table and doubled through him twice before stacking him, and I had 7500. Cruise through hour two with this stack, and then in hour 3 I raise Ajcc in lp to 580. Button overshoves 5500. It folds to me and I decide to call, his bet just felt like a semi bluff steal. He shows 55. Flop A102 turn 3 river 4!!!!! Wtf gfky!!! I am crippled and shove and lose soon after.
Mulligan- 200 buy in. Nothin doing really, lost when I rivered a flush that filled a villain and I craised him all in. GG.
55K- Doubled up with QQ early when utg raised, I reraised, flop comes 668, utg checks, I shove 2200 into 400 pot, he calls with 1010. Did my bet look like AK!? Cruised here for a while, then lost a big pot with 99 on a 678 board vs JJ. Then on the BB I have Q8cc, utg min raised, button calls, I call. Flop two clubs with a gutshot, check, utg bets, button calls, I shove, utg folds, button calls with 1010. I miss 15 outs blah.
25K- Don't remember how I lost- doubled early though so probably donked it off.
24K- No recollection of this tournament whatsoever.
All in all a decent Sunday, building the roll slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll win the Sunday mill or something next weekend tho, would be nice.
Another weekend has come and gone. Yesterday I went over to bluechip's condo for a MTT marathon session. We started by playing the $26 KO tournament on FTP. I had a good run in the tournament, knocking out 9 people for (9x4) $36. Ship it. Oh yea I final tabled the tourney too. Made it to final table in 6/9, then ran the table over until we got 4 way. Chipped up from 260k to 650k with only one showdown, was really funny. 3 way we had a long battle, then I finally got hu as a 3 to 1 dog. I doubled through after getting pretty low when I spiked a river straight on a 2KQ 10 turn that I reshipped all in and the villain called with K4. Then I had him 3 to 1, and he played really strange. Open shoving sometimes, min raising others, really varying his raises. Deffinetly confused and got the best of me. I made a bad read 3 bet with Q10 and he shipped in with QQ, and pot committed I called. Now I am short, and I shoved next hand with K9 and his AJ held to send me to rail in 2nd place. $2400 though so not a bad pay.
I also played a bunch of big Sunday tournaments- Sunday Mill, 750k, Sunday Mulligan, 25K, 55K, 24K. Here are the summaries of these tournaments:
Sunday Million- 500 buy in. Middle of first hour, Active player raised to 350 at 50 100 in cutoff. I reraised to 750 from button with 79ss. He reraised to 1350. I feel sick and call hoping to bury him. Flop 7x9cQc. Hehe. He checks, I bet 1800, he insta ships it in. I call after a brief deliberation, and he shows Akcc. Harmless turn, club on the river GG. People love thee flush draw.
750k- 200 buy in. Played good in first hour, but had this weird hand comeup. I raise 99 to 180 at 30 60 in mp. SB and BB call. Flop 6h8h9h. SB checks, BB bets 80, I raise to 280, SB raises to 580. WTFaments? I hate it, so I call. Turn is offsuit Q… SB shoves 2500 into 1300 pot. I fold the top set. I think he had a small flush, but bluechip was leaning towards a call thinking he could have lower set or Ah and a pair. Oh well. Then I dominated this fish at my table and doubled through him twice before stacking him, and I had 7500. Cruise through hour two with this stack, and then in hour 3 I raise Ajcc in lp to 580. Button overshoves 5500. It folds to me and I decide to call, his bet just felt like a semi bluff steal. He shows 55. Flop A102 turn 3 river 4!!!!! Wtf gfky!!! I am crippled and shove and lose soon after.
Mulligan- 200 buy in. Nothin doing really, lost when I rivered a flush that filled a villain and I craised him all in. GG.
55K- Doubled up with QQ early when utg raised, I reraised, flop comes 668, utg checks, I shove 2200 into 400 pot, he calls with 1010. Did my bet look like AK!? Cruised here for a while, then lost a big pot with 99 on a 678 board vs JJ. Then on the BB I have Q8cc, utg min raised, button calls, I call. Flop two clubs with a gutshot, check, utg bets, button calls, I shove, utg folds, button calls with 1010. I miss 15 outs blah.
25K- Don't remember how I lost- doubled early though so probably donked it off.
24K- No recollection of this tournament whatsoever.
All in all a decent Sunday, building the roll slowly but surely. Hopefully I'll win the Sunday mill or something next weekend tho, would be nice.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
FTOPS Main Event
So this weekend I got back to the MTT grind. A lot of nondescript performances and finishes, but here are two that stand out. Sunday I played two FTOPS – the KO tourney hosted by dmmikel, and the Main Event. The knockout tourney I busted in a standard flip, AK reshoving over mp raiser in 2nd hour who called with tens. GG. In FTOP Main Event, we started with 5k chips, a super stack tournament. These usually bode well for me, so after unsuccessfully qualifying, I bought in directly (insert fish comment here). I built a decent stack after first hour, up to around 7k. Then in second hour I made a good river call with A high against Bashara, and was up to 11k at the break. My next big hand came in hour 3, after I was down to 8k. I limped utg with 77. Aggro player with 7k made it 750 in LP. I called, flop came 2x7c2c LOLOLOL. I check, villain bets 1000. I smooth. Turn Qc. I decide to lead the turn here, because I didn’t want to give him a chance to check behind, and get scared off by a 4th club or a Queen. I bet a modest 1800. Villain thinks a big and min raises me to 3600. I don’t even think about what he has, I just look at his stack and see that he really cant fold, and I ship it in. He TANKS, and finally calls and shows 10Jcc. Nice flush gg sir. Weee 15k. Next orbit, I find 55 on the bb. Player who just lost an 8k pot, and currently has 12k, opens to 900 in the cutoff. I call with my 55. The flop comes 5c7c8c. As far as flopping a set goes, this is about as bad a flop as you can run into. The clubs are grose, as are the two over cards. I decided to open shove, because I don’t want to let him draw to a club if I bet a small amount, and also because I don’t think he can fold 99+ if he has it with a club, in which case I’m getting my money in good. Villain waits a bit and then calls, showing KK no club. Hmm, welcome to super deep tournaments, where we aren’t supposed to throw it away with one pair no draw. LOL.
Sitting on between 25-30k for the whole 4th hour, when at the end of the level I make a donkament special bluff blowup. I’m on the bb with 78ss. I’ve been at this table now for the whole tournament, and haven’t been out of line at all. A tight player raises in LP to 3x, and I call. Flop comes K44, two hearts. I lead out for 3 quarters of the pot. I thought that I could this pot off the villain if he has an in between pair, and if he raised my plan was to repop. Well he raised, and I was going to shove on him when I thought it might look more convincing to reraise him without getting it in. I made the sketchy 3 bet raise, and as he was timebanking, I received two different IM’s- xmikex137: A4 one time? And theycallmedidle: a4 gg. Clearly the bluff worked on them. The guy finally decided to call. Hmm. Immediately now I know he isn’t on a 4. The turn comes a blank, and I fire all in. In hindsight I should have let it go here, but I’m a fish. He tanked down his timebank to the brink, and finally called With AhKx. I had no outs and was down to 10k. He nearly folded, so my analysis here is that he called the 3 bet to see if the turn brought a 3rd heart to give him more outs, or to see if I slowed down. I think he was prepared to fold, but couldn’t find the fold button ultimately. Good call by him.
So this is where the story ends, right? Nope. Deck slaps me and I double up twice to get to 25k, and I’m on tilt from my stupid blowup and playing like a nit. Quick note- if I hadn’t bluffed off my stack, I would be chip leader now, because my double ups were AA v KK and AA v QQ against two other huge stacks, AIPF. Oops.
So hour 5 comes around and I get moved to a new table. Unbelievably passive, I build my stack to 45k without a showdown at this table. God I love satellite-tards. I get as high as 50k, before I have QQ and run into a very weird spot where I ultimately fold after losing 15k. I put around as a low stack for a while, shipping it in finally in hour 6 at the beginning with A8. I get called by 77, and snap an Ace to double. This is just inside the money, with 700ppl remaining. I glide through the field for a while again, getting up at max around 65k, when we hit hour 7. This would prove to be my last hour. A lot of agro people enter the table, and my stealing opportunities are minimal. I dwindle down to 38k, when EricaShoenberg, a Full Tilt Pro (OMFG a Pro!!!) is seated to my right. I figure she will try to steal in mp-lp, as all solid players do. After watching here for an orbit, I pick up KJhh in the cutoff. Erica standard 3xs it to 7200, and I shove all in for 38k. My stack was in a good spot for restealing, and this pot would have bumped me back to 50k, closer to the 75k avg. She had about 70k total to start the hand, but after a bit of analysis she called with AQhh. Woulda been nice to have the suit as an out, but ah well. Brick out the board and I’m out. Don’t remember my finish position off the top of my head, but cashed for $1200-$1300. Disappointing, but nice to make the money. I continue to prove to myself that my best game is deep stacked, high stakes tournament poker. Now if anyone has 10k lying around to put me in WPT Foxwoods, IM me.
Another post to come later tonight or tomorrow, on my experience last night in the FTP 1k monday, 55k, and 120 KO mtt.
Pat
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Boston Globe Article
Hi Guys,
Today there was an article in the Boston Globe about poker that mentioned me quite a few times. I was flattered at first, until I read it and saw that the author misrepresented the final hand!! Read the article here (link).
Now to set the record straight- this is how the tourney ended. Heads up, 3k/6k/1k blinds and antes. I have 80k, opponent has 144k. He wants to chop, with him getting 200 more than me. I turn it down. He is very easy to read- reminds me of playing poker against a foxwoods fish. I steal the blinds 3x in a row, to pick up 18k to make it 98k me 126k him. Next hand, I flop open ended straight draw, in a limped pot. Villain leads out for 10k, I call, turn is blank, villain bets 10k, I raise to 34k, villain waits and calls. River is an Ace, missing me completely. Villain checks, I ship it in on the prayer bluff, villain instamucks. Now I have 131k, he has 93k. Here is the hand wrongly represented by the paper- I have AQss on the sb. I raise to 10k total. Villain reraises to 20k total. I call. Flop is QJ4. Villain open shoves remaining 73k into 42k pot. I briefly consider the possibility that he would open shove AA or KK, then slap myself for being so foolish. I call, he shows AK0, turn x, river Q. GG Pat Wins.
The paper was correct in stating that he had a better hand to start the hand, but when the vast majority of the chips were put into play, I was well ahead. K thanks.
Anyway, enjoy the article. Please note that I am also 23, not 22, and already graduated college. Details.
Today there was an article in the Boston Globe about poker that mentioned me quite a few times. I was flattered at first, until I read it and saw that the author misrepresented the final hand!! Read the article here (link).
Now to set the record straight- this is how the tourney ended. Heads up, 3k/6k/1k blinds and antes. I have 80k, opponent has 144k. He wants to chop, with him getting 200 more than me. I turn it down. He is very easy to read- reminds me of playing poker against a foxwoods fish. I steal the blinds 3x in a row, to pick up 18k to make it 98k me 126k him. Next hand, I flop open ended straight draw, in a limped pot. Villain leads out for 10k, I call, turn is blank, villain bets 10k, I raise to 34k, villain waits and calls. River is an Ace, missing me completely. Villain checks, I ship it in on the prayer bluff, villain instamucks. Now I have 131k, he has 93k. Here is the hand wrongly represented by the paper- I have AQss on the sb. I raise to 10k total. Villain reraises to 20k total. I call. Flop is QJ4. Villain open shoves remaining 73k into 42k pot. I briefly consider the possibility that he would open shove AA or KK, then slap myself for being so foolish. I call, he shows AK0, turn x, river Q. GG Pat Wins.
The paper was correct in stating that he had a better hand to start the hand, but when the vast majority of the chips were put into play, I was well ahead. K thanks.
Anyway, enjoy the article. Please note that I am also 23, not 22, and already graduated college. Details.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Poker Goals 2008
Glad to see the feedback coming in so quickly!
I was asked about my poker goals for the year. here is a quick rundown of what I hope to accomplish this year:
1. Since I started over from scratch, my primary goal is to rebuild the bankroll. Get to 5k bankroll and move up to 2/4 nl plus mtt's. 15k bankroll brings us to 5/10 nl, plus all the bigger mtt's and rebuys.
2. play live at least twice a month, and build my live roll independent of my online bankroll. Here the focus will be on 1/2 nl and 2/5 nl at foxwoods, plus 150 6 way sngs at Rockingham and Seabrook, and the usual live mtt's 200-500 buy in. Mix in some qualifiers for larger events, such as WPT at foxwoods, Empire State Championship at Turning Stone, etc. etc.
3. I always play better when I have something I'm playing for. For the past two years, my goal was to win the cash for a condo. Now that we've taken care of that, my new goal is to make enough this year to buy a new car next spring when my lease is up. Target 45k. GL me.
Finally, I've got a sick new deal with rakebrain.com to get rakeback. If you are interested in signing up, post something here and I'll send you the referral link. You get bonus money and so do I by getting referred.. its a win win.
Pat
I was asked about my poker goals for the year. here is a quick rundown of what I hope to accomplish this year:
1. Since I started over from scratch, my primary goal is to rebuild the bankroll. Get to 5k bankroll and move up to 2/4 nl plus mtt's. 15k bankroll brings us to 5/10 nl, plus all the bigger mtt's and rebuys.
2. play live at least twice a month, and build my live roll independent of my online bankroll. Here the focus will be on 1/2 nl and 2/5 nl at foxwoods, plus 150 6 way sngs at Rockingham and Seabrook, and the usual live mtt's 200-500 buy in. Mix in some qualifiers for larger events, such as WPT at foxwoods, Empire State Championship at Turning Stone, etc. etc.
3. I always play better when I have something I'm playing for. For the past two years, my goal was to win the cash for a condo. Now that we've taken care of that, my new goal is to make enough this year to buy a new car next spring when my lease is up. Target 45k. GL me.
Finally, I've got a sick new deal with rakebrain.com to get rakeback. If you are interested in signing up, post something here and I'll send you the referral link. You get bonus money and so do I by getting referred.. its a win win.
Pat
time to bring the blog back
Hi Everyone,
So I decided to bring the blog back into existence. I'd given up on poker for a while to deal with the purchase of a condo, and now that that is squared away, it's time to get back to the grind.
I got back into things 3 weeks ago by depositing $600 on full tilt. I know what you're thinking- he is going to play over his head and bust that $600 in a week. First couple days I played solid 22 sng turbos, built up to around 900. Then I went to foxwoods that weekend, had a 72 hour session of 1/2 nl, with a 560 mtt mixed in. Lucky me, I ft'ed the mtt and got 6th place for $1650. Easy Game.
I made a handful of good runs in mtt's, but didn't get any big scores. I was getting frustrated because the bankroll was dropping again, so after a talk with old friend Bluechip, I took his advice and started on 1/2nl on the side of my mtt's. So far, so good. I'm using pokertracker, pahud, and playing an overall solid game on the cash front while trying to win my mtt's at the same time. FTOPS are going on right now too, so I'm playing some of those for the backer. I'm just getting started back on the poker front, but so far so good, and I'm glad to be back.
Oh one other live tournament note- I played in the New England College World Series of Poker yesterday (website here). It was advertised as a 300 person tournament with ~20k to first place, but oops it only had 30 people, so first was < 2k. I won though, so I guess if you want my autograph or something just send me an address and I'll get that to you.
That is all for now, I'll try to get an update in every day or so for a while to keep you all interested again.
-Pato
So I decided to bring the blog back into existence. I'd given up on poker for a while to deal with the purchase of a condo, and now that that is squared away, it's time to get back to the grind.
I got back into things 3 weeks ago by depositing $600 on full tilt. I know what you're thinking- he is going to play over his head and bust that $600 in a week. First couple days I played solid 22 sng turbos, built up to around 900. Then I went to foxwoods that weekend, had a 72 hour session of 1/2 nl, with a 560 mtt mixed in. Lucky me, I ft'ed the mtt and got 6th place for $1650. Easy Game.
I made a handful of good runs in mtt's, but didn't get any big scores. I was getting frustrated because the bankroll was dropping again, so after a talk with old friend Bluechip, I took his advice and started on 1/2nl on the side of my mtt's. So far, so good. I'm using pokertracker, pahud, and playing an overall solid game on the cash front while trying to win my mtt's at the same time. FTOPS are going on right now too, so I'm playing some of those for the backer. I'm just getting started back on the poker front, but so far so good, and I'm glad to be back.
Oh one other live tournament note- I played in the New England College World Series of Poker yesterday (website here). It was advertised as a 300 person tournament with ~20k to first place, but oops it only had 30 people, so first was < 2k. I won though, so I guess if you want my autograph or something just send me an address and I'll get that to you.
That is all for now, I'll try to get an update in every day or so for a while to keep you all interested again.
-Pato
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)