Pato's Poker Blog

October 08 Goals

2008-10-06T09:32:00.002-04:00

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.

Weekend Wrapup

2008-07-07T09:02:00.002-04:00

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.

Just finished a sick session

2008-07-04T01:58:00.002-04:00

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.

Another night of PLO

2008-07-03T09:36:00.002-04:00

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.

Back from the Dead!!

2008-07-02T08:59:00.002-04:00

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.

Weekly Update

2008-03-04T10:40:00.001-05:00

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

Weekend Wrapup

2008-02-25T15:19:00.000-05:00

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.

FTOPS Main Event

2008-02-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

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 2^nd 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 4^th 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 4^th 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 3^rd 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.

Thank you that is all,
Pat

Pictures from ne college wsop

2008-02-13T12:38:00.001-05:00

Boston Globe Article

2008-02-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

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.

Poker Goals 2008

2008-02-11T09:42:00.001-05:00

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

time to bring the blog back

2008-02-11T09:23:00.000-05:00

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

Two funny screenshots I had lying around

2007-10-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

WCOOP Hand-

Scums Full Tilt SNG

WCOOP wrap up

2007-10-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

Well, the WCOOPs finished last night.

I wound up playing in 3 events. I played the 1k nlhe 2million guarantee, and finished around 1000 with 500 getting paid. Made a bluff river shove on a 34569 board with 810, and bb snap called with AA. Theres a lot more to the hand then that, but I'm not in the mood to relive that melt down.

I also played the 320 Horse Event. I busted around 3rd hour of this tourney playing razz, when my A2346 lost to the wheel of my opponent. My hand was (hole cards in bold) A246233. Thought I was in good shape. Villain had 3547AJ2. Puke.

Finally, last night I played the 2500 Main Event. I didn't get much going, but got my way up to 25k at a high point (starting with 20k). Finally, I lost a 7k pot when I had 15k at 100/200 25. I raised AQcc UTG +3 to 850 with one limper UTG+2. Limper called. Flop 7c9c9x. Check I bet 2200. Call. Turn Kd. Check, I bet 4400. He tank calls. River 9. He shoves. I fold. I obviously dont like how this hand turned out, but I'm not sure what I should do differently. Do I give up on the turn and hope to hit my free card? Or do I just limp? Blah
Anyway, busted a half hour later when I raised AQss, and an active player put me all in. He had 50k and I thought his range was large enough that I have to gamble my last 7k with AQss here. His AK looked good though. GG me.

I also played the WCOOP 2nd chance 500 buy in yesterday. I faired better in that, making the money and finishing 73rd. Good for 1300. Still down for the day and for WCOOPS, but not gonna complain about a cash. Atleast it stops the bleeding for a bit.

I'm gonna get back into the nightly 20r, 109, 100k, etc etc, so hopefully I'll start winning some small mtts again.

TTYL

Back to Playing

2007-09-18T10:59:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the couple weeks of between posts. I took some time off from poker because I was just not feeling it. I was so burnt out that I was spewing money, so I needed a break. Couple that with the start of football season and some hectic things around the house, and I just forgot about poker for a while.

Anyway, I played last night. Heres the recap:

I played poker last night for the first time in a week. realllly wasn't feeling it, shit away some sngs on full tilt to start, and thought that the break needed to continue.

Then fired up stars, played the 11pm 30 freezeout (1500 chips), the 11pm 100 freezeout (3000 chips), and a 2000fpp rebuy to wcoop 14.

11pm 30 freeze i entered midnight break with 4600, then lost on first hand after break. utg limps, I 4x AA in mid pos. UTG calls. Flop Q46, he leads out 400, I shove, he calls AQ, finds a Q on the turn.

11pm 100 freeze i entered midnight break with 4200. around 12:45 i'm sitting on 5700 and i limp utg with AA. 4 callers @ 100 200, gets to button who makes it 800. BB calls (stack of 7500), I reraised to 2200. folds to button, he folds, BB calls. Flop KQJhhh, I have Ah. He checks, I shove, he calls. Kx10h for him. Turns a 9 gg.

So fish that I lose two tourneys in a row with AA. It's like the reverse bluechip corollary.
Guess I should explain that- the bluechip corollary is when you'find an opponents AA to lose greater than 50% of your tournaments over a given sample size.

11:15pm 2000 fpps rebuy turbo wcoop sat. I have 20,000 fpps by the way. I rebuy for 4000 to start. It plays really tight, and we start with 1k chips. I stack a guy with 33 on a 348 flop vs his JJ to double. Then 1 min before break, I find KK utg. I open shove at 100 200 for 4600. 4 callers. Peal a K to quad up. I addon at the last second of break to try to get the total seats up to 3 (didn't get there). After break I nit around and make it to final two tables. Blinds are now obscene, 500/1000 avg stack 8000. I get to final table short. I somehow survive to final 6. We play 6 way for on unheard of 1 hour with avg stacks ~12000 and 1500/3000 blinds. Then we lose 2 on one hand when JJ open shoves, AK calls button, A10 suited calls bb as big stack and sees a board of A24410 to ellim two. 4 way big stack is horribly bad, he is my small blind and folds the blinds to me each time without ever challenging. Occasionally he limp folds to my shove. We get three way and me and other guy both have 17000, big stack has 40000. We play 3 way for 30 minutes. My position is amazing- big stack keeps folding to me, and the bb is so tight that I can steal his blind fairly quickly. Other short stack finally shoves on big stack. QK < A9, so I won the seat. OMFG I can't believe I won a tournament. Too bad it was a zero buy in, but hey still got the seat. Now here's the bankroll management question: what to do with the $1040 W dollars. I can exchange them at cashmanbrian.com for $832, and try to build my roll on stars back from $1000. Conversely, I can play the 1000 buy in wcoop event. I'm leaning towards playing the event and possibly cashing, maybe even ft'ing, and slight chance of winning. I think I gotta go for it now. Also, I might try to win this same tournament every night this week, since it is so fish. If I win it a 2nd time I'm deffinetly playing.

Alright that is all for today. I'm back to the blog scene so keep reading, tell all your college friends who are learning poker about the site, and if you live in new england and have a live game going post it in the comments section.

Pat

Weekend Wrapup (8/27)

2007-08-27T09:26:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Kind of a shitty last couple days for poker. Last thursday I won a 75mtt for a seat in the 1k Aussie Million satty. Played that and lost on hand 6 with AA. Details- utg 3x, I 10x, he calls, flop 3h4cJh, he checks, I pot he shoves. I thought his range was JJ+, AKhh on this shove. I call- he shows 44. Super light call pre, but I guess his set mining worked. GG me.

Friday night was a joke too. I played all the normal tournaments, and had good runs in a bunch of them. In the FTP 30 rebuy with 28 ppl left I had 60k, avg ~35k, and I got it all in for my remaining 35k on the turn with 8s8c on a 10s6s7h9d board. I was INSTA called by QJo when I craised the turn for 35k into a 50k pot. INSTA. river 8 (only two of them left in the deck I think?) sends me to the rail.

55k on full tilt I lost a couple crucial coinflips in a row and wound up finding the rail. Ditto for the 25k. In the 20 rebuy on stars, I was 10 off the money and short, so I decided to nit it up and make the money or bust with a premium hand. I wound up making the money and busting on the first hand ITM when I shoved A10 and bb had JJ. GG.

Saturday I only played two tournaments, the 320 on stars and the 320 Turks and Caicos WPT satty on full tilt. Lost the stars 320 in hour 1 when utg bad player limps, along with two others, I 8x it with KsKc, utg calls. Flop is Kh4h2h. He checks I quickly pot it he insta calls. Hmm, I'm hoping for a board pair now but also thing he could have AhXx. Turn Qd. He checks, now I know that if he was on AhXx, its either AK or AQ, so hes calling a shove. He could also have an underset or a flopped flush. I ship it in, he instacalls Qh9h. Another speculative preflop call gets me, gg. I guess my opening raise with an utg raiser has to go to 15x? LOL

Sunday I went to nemostars22's house to play the warmup and the 1pm 109 on stars. I figured I'd win one of these. I got lucky and doubled early in the warmup when I reshoved a flush draw and guy had KK but I got there, which put me at 18k. This guy proceeded to flame me for about 5 minutes when I picked up AQcc. I limped knowing he would shove on me if he had anything marginal. True to form he shoved I called he shows AJo I turned a flush to end the drama. GG sir sorry I sucked out but ty for stacking off your other 15k to me!! This put me at a high of 33k. I get moved to a new table with Moorman1, a solid nitty player. Moorman has about 10k and is playing tight when the following hand comes up. Moorman raises to 2.5x at 300/600 to 1350. I call on BB with 22, we see a flop headsup. 2h7h9s flop. Wee please have an overpair. I checked because I felt that if I lead out he folds AK AQ etc, but a check raise has more value. Also if he has an overpair the best way to get all the money in is to checkraise him huge on the flop. He checks behind me though. Turn is Qc. I decide to check again, thinking that he must have hit his raising range at this point. He checks behind, river is 10d. I lead out for 3500 into ~4k pot. He pauses a moment and shoves. ashgasdkdfgkasda1eds. What hand does he shove here that I have beat?!!! Honestly my best hope is a terribly played AQ, AK bluff, or wierd two pair like 910ss. So unlikely though. I can't put him on a set on the flop because he doesnt check the turn as well. I can put him on QQ because he bets the flop, nor 1010 for the same reason. As my time bank runs down and I just cant put him on a hand he plays like this, I call and he shows Kjo for the 9-K straight. This sucks, but that's what I get for checking a set to the river. I hang around 23k now for a bit, lose 4k in blinds and antes etc, when I get JJ on the sb with 18k. Cutoff open shoves 16k at 500/1000. Hmm I have JJ I call. He shows QKoff one club. Flop 91010 two clubs, turn 2 clubs, river J clubs. I fill to win the pot. Up to 34k again. Then my most interesting hand comes up. Blinds are now 600/1200 ante ~100? And I have 24k in the BB. Folds around to cutoff who makes it 4800, standard open. Button short stack, fairly quiet, shoves 12k. SB INSTA shoves 80k stack. SB has been very aggressive, huge fluctuation in his stack etc. I look down at pocket 10s. Hmm. Normally this is a fold, but I see all this dead money in the pot, and I felt like SB shove is AQ/AK 90% of the time. Other 10% of the time it is 99-JJ. note I discount QQ-AA, AJ, and lower pairs because he instashoved, and most of these hands would require some thought before making the decision. I look and see the 4800 original raise + 2600 in blinds and antes = 7400 in dead money in the pot. Button's reshove raise on an lp raiser is Any pair, A10+, KQ+ with his short stack. I decide to call. Button shows JJ :( . SB shows AKo which is what I expected. The main pot had 42000. Side pot between me and SB had 24k, so if I win my flip I stay where I was in chips, if I get lucky I'll be at 76k with avg of 35k, so a great spot. Flop comes Kxx though and I find the rail. GG me. I'm okay with my play here because I thought through the hand and was dead on with my read of the SB. You're going to have to flip at some point, and this was a big pot.

Next up is the Sunday Million. 530 buy in this week. Doubled up around the end of the first hour with QQ on a JJ9 board when I led out and button caller reshoved 810 and missed his 4 outer. At my next table I picked up a few pots, nothing big, when I found AK in lp. mp limps, I riase to 2600. Folds back to mp who shoves for 12k. I don't like this spot, but the mp limper was a wierd player and I def thought he was capable of reshoving 88+, AQ+ so I called. He had AA, which was in his range lol. I short stack ninja'ed for a bit then lost 1010 < JJ to end it.

At this point I left nemos and went home to play the FTP night stuff- 750k, Mulligan, 25K, 55K.
Pulled a big 0fer here. First, 25k nothing special just lost a flip. 55K, raised AQss, button calls, flop is 10JQ 2 spades, we get it in he has AA and I brick out. GG. Mulligan lost a flip 3 hours in, AK to QQ. 750k, two hours in i'm in good shape with 13.5k when avg is 7k. Then I just shit the bed. First I raise K10dd to 400 at 75/150. BB calls, flop 6c7d9d. Check I bet 1k. He calls. Turn 9x. Villain leads all in for 6k. I fold, down to 11.9k. I raise AQ to 450, one caller, I cbet flop for 800 and villain shoves. down to 9k. Then I had an unsuccessful squeeze knocking me down to 6.5k. blinds are now 250/500 and I find A10hh on button. MP raises to 1k, cutoff calls, I shove in 6500 with A10hh. SB COLD CALLS. Other two fold. SB (10k stack) shows AJo, I brick out. WTF thats a risky cold call I think. ohh well.

Hopefully tonight goes better- I've got a backer now, but there have been some issues transferring funds to me, but hopefully I get them tonight so that I can play the 100mtts sats the monday 1k on full tilt. For some reason I really think I'm going to win that mtt- I always have a good stack, I've just been getting fcked lately in big pots. We'll see.

1 last thing- I've moved up to 8th on the pocketfives rankings for Massachusetts. Win the 1k and I should crack the top 5. Will post a screenshot for those of you who don't know how to find the rankings later. TYVM

Pat

A Couple good runs last night.. win 1 time?

2007-08-22T13:36:00.001-04:00

Last night I played a bunch of tourneys. I'm going to give you a recap of how the night went in a running diary view. here goes:

Tourneys I played: 7pm 25k FTP, 8pm 27.5 PS, 55K FTP, 8:30 30rFTP, 9pm 100k PS, 20r PS

7:01 pm 25k - lost 500 chips in 25K bluffing into the nuts.

7:59 pm 25k - entered the break with 2200 hands- did not win a pot all hour.

8:08 pm 55k - Doubled with a set of 3's on a Q3kA6 board. Villain check raised me ai on the river after leading all streets. I nearly folded but I'm a call station. He showed QJo.

9:01 pm 100k - Lost on first hand. Folds around to sb who min raises. I call with A2ss. Flop A27. Villain checks. I bet pot. Villain shoves all in? I call he shows AQ. River Q fucks me.

Alright running diary is too anoying back to regular typing.
I ended break of 20r with 12k. I stack a fish with AdQx on a AxXdXdXd board ai on the turn when he was drawing dead with KdJx. 20k. I hang around until 100 ppl left then lose on a flip. GG.

I ended break of 30r with 10k. I stack off with KQ v AQ off Horryclutch when I 4x utg he calls and flop comes Q high. I felt like his reshove on flop was a bluff so I called. I don't think it was afterall. GG.

27.5 on PS, I made a nice deep run with a good stack. Then aggro player at my table raises 3x to 2400. I have 20k behind and decide to call on bb with 910ss. Flop is 8JK. I know he is aggro so he will bet if I check. I decide to lead out for 3/4 the pot, he promptly shoves. I call with my open ended because the pot was too juicy. He shows AA I don't get there. GG.

Down to two tourneys left, my two favorite FTP tourneys. 55K I am near the money bubble with 33k, good for 10/63. I raise 3x with 88 to 3k. Player to my left shoves 10k. I hem and haw and eventually make the call grudgingly, hoping for AK. It's JJ I don't suck out. 23k. After blinds hit me and a raise that gets reshoved, I have 16k. ~60 ppl left, money is at 54, I 3x AKdd utg + 2. Button is XtraceyX, she ships it in, having me slightly covered. I think about folding (jk I never fold AKdd short!!!!) I insta call, she shows 1010 , I lose the flip. GG money bubble.

25K on FTP I'm just sorta hanging around not doing much, when the following hand comes up. I'd appreciate if people would post their thoughts on this hand in the comments section, I think it's pretty strange. Anyway I have 6200 chips on the button. Blinds are 400/800 small ante I believe. MP player limps. He's been limping alot this doesn't concern me. Cutoff limps as well, a lag player. Blinds + ante pot is ~3200. I raise to 3200 on button with A8o. I do this because I think the money in the pot is mine for the taking because I've been tight and they've been passive. Blinds fold, mp folds, button waits a good amount of time and then calls. Here's where things get dicey. The pot is now 3200 + 3200 + 3200 = 9600. I'm pretty much pot committed on the flop now with 3k behind me. Furthermore, I can elliminate the following hands from cutoff's range, because she just wouldn't limp with them, and certainly wouldn't just call here, she would reshove- A9ss+, AQ+, 88+. I'm putting her on a hand such as 22-77, two broadway, suited connectors, suited Ace. Flop comes 6KK. Cutoff waits half her time bank and shoves all in, putting me all in. Once she shoves I can elliminate some more hands from her range- she would certainly check a K or 66 knowing I will shove and not afraid of a drawout. So her range is 22-55,77, an Ace or a Bluff (QJ/Q10 types). I call. She shows 55 v my A8. Turn x river A, I double. Villain begins berating me for this call obv, and some of her friends at the table agree. I'd like you all to think about the call and decide if my reasoning makes sense or if I'm just an idiot? TY.

Anyway, from there I turn it on. Stack a short stack, get up to 18k when I get QQ utg. 3 away from money. I 3x, utg+1 shoves 15k. I call after short thought he shows 88 I double to 30k. Once we hit the money I take out a 12k stack with JJ to 55. I start picking up small pots etc and reach final two tables with ~40k. Avg here is 70k. I survive stealing once per orbit. With 40k on the bb at 3k 6k 500 ante, I get 1010. MP raises to 16k. I know he is calling my shove so I decide to stop and go. Flop comes 9QA rainbow. I put on the breaks and check fold it- that flop just hits his range so hard, as he is deffinetly calling me with a Q. Back to 28k, I shove fold around with 16 ppl left with 99, The D Ry is bb, he folds so I'm back to 40k. Then 4 hands later UTG+1 I shove 1010 for 60k after two successful steals. D Ry calls with 66, I hold, 120k. Nice. I lose ~ 20k in blinds over the next few orbits and we hit the break w 12 ppl left. At my table now are The D Ry, Amak 316, Omaholic, in that order to my left. between me and Omaholic are 2 unknowns. D ry stacks one unknown first hand, now our table is 5 way. Amak raises to 16500, Omaholic instashoves 90k on button, I instacall BB with QQ, Amak folds, Omaholic shows 83o, I win and have 200k. Good shit. 3 hands later, after I raised each of the past 3 hands, unknown to my right raises to 40k at 5k/10k. I ship it all in with JJ, he calls his last 55k with A10o. No A for you sir, I have 300k. I take down a few more pots and enter final table ~400k. Final table I take someone out 3rd hand when they shove a fold around with A2 I call A9 turn 9 gg. 455k. Now I'm 2nd in chips with one other guy to my left having 500k, everyone else is short. We get down to 5 way with me raising alot of pots. Then one guy busts to the guy to my right, so we have CL at 500k, me at 485k, guy to my right 300k, guy to my right +1 85k. I raise K7ss utg to 3x. BB calls. Flop k86 hh. He checks i bet 60k, he min raises me. I've been so aggressive that I think he craises me with A6 / A8, flush draw, as well as K. I put him to the test he calls KJ, I brick out. Down to 180k, kinda sucks. Few hands later SS shoves 50k on button, sb calls, I call aswell with K7. This is fish I should reshove to iso here. oops. flop A22, turn 2, river 7, I win. We get 3 way I have 300k, Left of me is 450k, right of me is 520k. I steal some blinds etc and it is 400k for me, 400k to my left, 470k to my right. The other two guys get it all in KK to AJ. KK holds and the guy to my right is crippled to 70k. He survives a few orbits because the idiot bigstack gives him two walks. This is killing me though because whenever I raise big stack is reshoving on me (good strat obv). I get AK with 320k behind. I raise to 60k on button, big stack shoves all in, small stack folds. I call to find AQ. Same story though Qxxxx board and I'm done in 3rd for $4300. As I lose I get roughly 5 of the following ims "hey you suck at AK to AQ" "Everytime you lose with AK or KK" and my personal favorite "you suck at flipping AK v AQ". LOL ty rail support. I can't complain at all about this tournament though, as I most likely kill this guy HU if I win this flip since he wasn't very good. Oh well I'll just try to win it tonight instead.

That is all, ttyl gg.

Weekend Wrapup

2007-08-21T13:07:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

This weekend was very frustrating. The notable tournaments I played were the 2500 Ftop, the 500 Ftop ME, and the Sundays.

2500 Ftop. Started with 5k chips. I somehow knew nobody except Imsolucky0 (Jordan Morgan) at my table. Likely suspects: high stakes cash players, high stakes sng players, live pros, multiaccounters. I got a good feel for my table and left there after 1.5 hours with 8500. Felt pretty good considering we didn't lose a player, so chips were hard to come by. At my 2nd table, there were again no known players. Between 2+2, p5s, and general results scanning, I have a pretty good feel for top mtt players, so this was really unusual. 4 or 5 orbits in, I hadn't really dont much, sitting around 9200 after taking down 1 pot with AA where utg 3x it to 150, 4 callers, I made it 1k and lost all action. Following hand takes place:

Pato: sb KdKh. Folds around to cutoff, semi aggro player who just lost 2k pot. He has 6800 chips. He raises to 225 on the fold around at 25/50. I reraise to 775, bb folds. Action back on the cutoff. Player runs his time bank down to 4 then ships all in for 6800 chips. Woah. My first thought is a pit in my stomach- am I going to be making a post later today on 2+2 about why I couldn't fold KK preflop here to a shove of 130bb's? After considering his aggro play, coupled with the big pot he just lost, I decided that his shove range here is probably 1010+. I'm a new TAG player at the table, and I probably need KK+ to call. Even then, I might fold KK. I decide to call. He shows JsJh. Flop Ad4d3h, turn Jd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! grose, now I need to hit one of my 12 outs please? No go. This pot pulls me down to 2400. Such a sick hand because at the time there were only 4 ppl with over 10k in the tournament. In a tournament this deep, having 16000 chips at 25 50 would be unreal. 320bb's!!

I'm pretty heated by this, but try to not busto my computer. Next orbit 4 limpers I find QJhh on button. I 4x to 200, bb calls, mp calls. we see a flop of Q104 rainbow with 1 heart. BB leads out for 500. I call, planning to reevaluate on the turn. Turn comes 8h. BB leads for 1k. I have ~2k behind at this point (stole a couple pots after my KK bust). I'm thinking his most likely holding here is 2 pair, very likely top 2, or KQ/AQ. Also outside chance of 44 / 1010, but I would imagine he'd check the flop with those types. If he has top 2, I'm drawing to 9 hearts, + 3 other 9's, + 3 J's = 15 outs. top 2 and AQ/KQ are all essentially the same here. I ship it in, and he calls showing AdAc. Actually more outs then I thought- 15 outs + 2 Qs = 17 outs. Brick the river though, gg me. Bright side of this tourney was that I once again saw how bad ppl will play in a big buy in deep tourney, and also make ~ 1500 in the qualifiers to the event.

Next up is the FTOPS ME. Played semi Laggy at first to build an image (nemostars idea) ,and it worked as I doubled on a J34 board with JJ v 66 when we both had starting stacks of 5k. I'm sitting on 9500 when the following hand comes up. MP villain, semi well known player, 3.5x it to around 280. 3 callers, I find KK on sb.. I reraise to 1590. MP calls, other fold. Flop comes 8 9 10. I bet out the pot, MP reshoves. I call his reshove, he shows J8. Turns the nut 7 and gg. Lost 6500 on this hand. Why doesnt KK hold anymore? Lost this tourney a little later on a standard flip when I was coasting around 2k. GG.

Other sunday stuff went shitty. Busted a big stack in the million when I had 99 on a 249 board all spades. I was the sb, button had raised, I reraised, he called. I led out all in for ~3x the pot, villain tanked and called with As Jx. Spades the turn for a go fuck yourself Pat. Mulligan on FTP I made a bad call v Hixx with JJ after I raised pre to 1000 at 150 300, he called button. We both had ~ 6000. Flop is 4x4s8s. I lead out for 1300, he min raises me, I somehow ship it in and he tank calls me with QQ. I guess this is a tough spot but I could have found the fold but didn't. Finally, sunday night horse, I was chipleader for 2 hours and then bubbled when we got to limit holdem and I lost 7 straight huge pots. Each one was 4 bet preflop against short stacks. Most devestating was first hand. I 4 bet AhQh against utg raiser. I have 24k, he has 15k. Flop QQs4s. Pot flop. Turn 6s. Pot turn- I just don't put him on a flush draw on the flop. River Xs. Check call he shows KsJh. WTF? Then next hand I have AA run into KK and he hits a K, this gets me down to 7k. Lose AA to QQ on a 4 straight board down to 3k. AcQc < 22 on a 1010cJc flop where I brick out hardcore sends me to the rail. grose.

I'm going to start focusing on ACT 3s at foxwoods soon, trying to get a seat for the WPF main event. TY for reading sorry it's just bad beats and no wins this week, hopefully I'll have some good news soon.

TTYL GG NH GFKY

Pato

Weekly Wrapup - FT 55K, etc. etc.

2007-08-17T12:47:00.000-04:00

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delay in posts, I know its been a week.

This has been a exciting week of poker. Sunday, my buddy nemostars22 final tabled the sunday warmup on stars. He finished 4th for ~24k. Sick run kid, sucks when AQ < A4 on last hand. Can't complain too much about a 24k cash though.

As for my play, Saturday night I took 2nd place in the FTP winner choice mtt. I was pissed I didn't win. First place was a seat to any wpt event, package worth 12k, 2nd place was 2k. I lost with JJ to KQ when we were even stacked. Villain had been firing at every flop with a pot bet. He raised 3x pre, I repopped him to 12x, he called. Flop is 89K, he leads out pot, 8, i ship it in and he calls. I'm not too upset with my play because my JJ crushes his lead out range of any two he calls a reraise with but doesnt 3 bet me with, so 22-JJ, A4ss+, JQ+. OH well.

Then this week I sucked it up at mtts, until wednesday night when I ft'ed the FTP 55k. Came into final table 2nd in chips, then got down to ~ 180k after lossing a flip when utg+1 made it 26k at 4/8. I find AQhh in the cutoff, i made it 78k. Villain thinks roughly 2 seconds then ships it in. I fold fairly quickly- I thought this player was raising light in EP since that is the new button, but he shoved so quickly when he had 150k to start that I'm probably looking at a range of QQ+, AK. Meh. 2 hands later I get 88 in EP and 3x it, mp insta min reraises to 62k. I can either shove and pray for AK or fold, so I fold. This sucks though because I lost half my stack without seeing a flop on these two hands. Ugh I suck. One orbit later utg 3xs it and I shove JJ for 100k. UTG instacalls AA, I can't find a J and finish in 8th for 2k. GG blowing a good chance at big money.

So that was the gist of my week- two cashes for 2k, nothing more, blowing a chance at big money.

On the bright side, I cracked the top 10 on P5's sliding plb for Massachusetts. I hear that P5's is interviewing the top 10 from each state so that will be pretty cool, I just have to keep a hold of my spot here. Here is the top 15:

As you can see, some good names here. 5th on the list is my buddy bluechip, would be cool to get that big score this weekend to put me up there wit blue, so we can put some pressure on each other. For now i'm happy to crack the top 10, since when the rankings started I was 15th.

This weekend I'm already in the FTOPS main event, 500 buy in superstack, so that should be sweet. Also trying to win my way into the 2500, since I don't really want to buy directly into it. between those and the sunday mill hopefully I'll have something good to write about next week.

I've also joined AbsolutePoker. Apparently I created an account there long ago, because PAto610 was already taken, so my name is 016otaP. Get it? I deposited 400 and I'm playing .50/1 nl to build it up. So fish but boring to play small stakes, needs to be done though since I don't want to pull a lot off full tilt for the sake of AP.

Alright that's all I got this week, ttyl gg nh etc.

Pato

FTOPS have begun / Week of running like SH!T

2007-08-10T10:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry everyone for the lack of updates (all 4 of you who read this blog).

Since the last post I've been on a sick cooler run, and writing down the results would have just tilted me before now. Last Sunday I made a couple nice runs but wound up down a bit for the night. The ..er lowlight of the day came around 1am when I was top 5 in the FTP mulligan with 50 left, and Top 3 in the 109 on stars with 16 ppl left. I was feeling good and playing well, when In the mulligan an aggro player shoved 55 on the button. I had 99 on the sb and reshoved. The BB, who had just moved to the table and had me slightly covered, tanked and made the overcall with JJ :(. Didn't really matter because board came 5xxxx and the button shover stacked up. GG mulligan.

The 109 really kicked me in the balls. I'm sitting on a top 3 stack when I find kk utg. I 3x it with 100k behind me and blinds ~2k 4k. LP reshoves 65k, I call, he shows JJ. Board brings me no worries until river J. AHHHHH. Crippled? I double through with 1010 to 55 and then run a big bluff though and am back to 100k with 14 left, and an aggrotard reshoves an lp raiser for 85k. Dude is so loose I can't find the fold and look him up w AQ. he shows A10. Board 269 turn 6 river 9 ahhh I hate poker. He gets the chop split. I steal some blinds get up to 125k, 4th in chips, with big stack of 300k on the bb to my left. I find KK on the button. UTG shoves in for 100k at 5k10k. I reship KK. BB uses his whole time bank, I start getting a hard on at the thought of the tripple up, etc. when boom- he calls showing AA- WTF slowrolled on final table bubble by chipleader? AHHHHHHHHHHH I dont hit gg me.

So that sucked.

Fast Forward to Monday. Win two seats to the FTP 1k off of 1000 invested in sattys so was happy about that. Top 45 paid, 48 ppl left, I have 18k, avg ~22k. UTG I get AKhh. Blinds are 400/800. I make it 2400. Utg +2, shitty player, reraises to 8k. I put him on 22+, A9s+, KJs+, A10+ here. No joke. I reshove, he calls with AQ. Thats cool. Q22 flop kicks me to the curb. GG.
Almost instantaneously in the 30r on FTP, 28 ppl left, top 27 paid. I have 55k, good for 8th. Folds around to UTG who limps, I'm BB with A10ss. I shove in on him (unnecessary mistake) he instas AK. I flop the 10, but J Q runs down to give him straight. I'm down to 25k, bottom 10 stack. Same guy opens for 3x, I shove huge overshove, he calls AQ. Finds a Q and I'm done. Two bubbles at the same time where AK < AQ will tilt you sometimes.

Tuesday night had a softball game so only played some sngs.

Wednesday night played FTOPS 1 and Stars 320 150k. FTOPS I lost early getting it all in with super draw on 2h3h4xKx board with AKhh v 88, 8 on the river non heart crippled me. 1 outers happen though. Stars 320 I made the money and then bled some chips away and lost in 46th or so when my A10 < 99. Cashd for ~650.

Thursday night I played some sngs late and some 5/10nl. Did fairly well: Played 4 Sngs, all turbos: 60, 75, 119, 236 Results: Win in 60 (+190), 7th in 75, (-75), Win in 119 (+376), 2nd in 236 (+358). In 5/10nl, I bought in short for 400, won some pots up to 520, then virtually doubled with AJ on J3457 board v A8 bluffer. Left table with 1020, (+620). Haven't had a day like that in a while so was nice. Up ~1500.

Huge weekend up ahead for me - Tonight I'm giong to play the regular shit, plus possibly the FTOP event. Tomorrow I have the ironman freeroll, plus the 320 on stars, and maybe the afternoon 100r on FTP (this might be the FTOP not sure). Sunday, FTOP 3 is 320 buy in replacing the 500k, so that should have a million prize pool, plus I have FTP monthly TLB freeroll, and the other sunday shit. Hopefully I'll win enough this weekend to buy a new condo.

GG GL NH TTYL

Pat0

Weekend Results

2007-07-31T10:41:00.000-04:00

So this weekend I played a lot of poker. I lost a lot of money playing all this poker, because I only made two final tables. On sunday I ft'ed the afternoon 20r on FTP, finishing 6th, when I called an all in with 88 as the short stack, only to have shaundeeb reshove behind me with KK!. Original all in guy had A5ss, and made a runner runner flush, so I came in 3rd in the hand. Cashed for like 1200 for this. Later that night, I ft'ed the 30r on FTP. Took 8th for ~600 when my AQ < QJ. GG. I'm on a decent downswing the last week, about 4k total, but that's to be expected, since I was up 20k the previous week, these things will happen. My new focus has been winning small MTTs, mostly sattys to FTOPS, as roll builders / confidence boosters. I've won 3 seats to FTOPS6, the 300+22 buy in, and the satellitte challenge leader for this event has won 5 seats. I might take this seriously and try to win this challenge, just because it will give me something to shoot for.

Speaking of FTOPs, so far I've won seats in events 1 (NL 216), 3 (PL 216), 6 (NL 322), 8?(7stud 216), ME (530). I've invested about 600 in FTOPS qualifiers, so this puts me way ahead, considering the cash from the 2 other Event 6 seats covers all my buyins.

Another point of interest is I achieved Iron Man status for the month on FTP, and silver VIP status for the month on Stars. Iron man is the top level of FTP, so I'll play in a 30k freeroll without a lot of people. Maybe I'll win? Silver vip on stars is level 2 of their 6 levels or so, so not that big of a deal, but you gotta start somewhere.

I plan to play tonight, so I'll try to get a good update in for tomorrow.

GG

Pato

Thursday's Results = 1000.00

2007-07-27T08:10:00.000-04:00

I didn't get a chance to start the Hendon Mob shootout 1 until 2:45, so I missed a good portion of the first hour. I never really got much going and busted on a wierd hand. I have QKdd, villain raises 3x in mp. I call on button. Flop is 9s10dAd. He leads out for 300 into ~500. I call. Turn brick, He leads out 1200, I raise him to 3200. He waits and calls. River 9h, he checks, I ship in my last 2500 on a prayer, he calls with 89dd. GG, sucks that 5 outer on the river or else he is deffinetly folding. If not, why wouldnt he just get it all in on the turn? Oh well.

I also lost a 60 sng, 36 sng, and 26 mtt during this time span. Then I played some Omaha hi lo. I played 5/10 and 3/6, walked away after an hour with ~200 profit. Down 100 for the afternoon, I can deal. I went out on this boat cruise at night, and came home moderately drunk. I decided to play 6 max 5/10 no limit. I know what you're thinking- bye bye bankroll. I actually watched the game for 20 minutes before joining though, so I had a good feel for the game. I bought in short for 500 at two tables. First hand of one table I pick up A10cc. UTG raises to 35, I call. Flop is 2c10sJc. He bets 60, I call. Turn is Js. He bets 150- I thought this was a scared bet, so I decided to ship it. Good read, he insa calls J8 and I brick out. I reload for 500 at this table. On the other table, I take down a couple pots, and am sitting with 600. I get KK on the sb, utg raises to 35, utg+1 calls, co calls, button calls, I raise to 150 and take it down. 150 pot gets me to 750. Then I flop a set of 4s and win 40 bucks, flop a set of 7s on the bb v sb and win 50 bucks, I have about 825 in front of me when I get 99. UTG whose been active raises to 50, I call. Flop is 772, check check. Turn 4, check check. River 2, I value bet pot ~135, he calls with AK. I should deffinetly bet the turn there, but I'm a nit. I left this table the next orbit up 460.

Back to my other table. After rebuying I started playing more aggro, and built up to 600 when following hand came up. MP raises to 35, i call on button with AJ, sb makes it 120. I look him up, flop is kqj. He bets 80, I call. Turn J. He shoves in, I call. He has KQ, AJ for me wins. 1200 stack now. I hung out another orbit or so and then let here, leaving myself up a little over a grand at 5/10 for the night. This isn't something I plan to do regularly, but I thought the game looked weak and went with it. GG.

I'm going to foxwoods in a few hours, I'll post results etc tomorrow.

Pato

Wednesday's Results = ??????

2007-07-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

Die Full Tilt. Full Tilt's server decided to crash for the ~10th time this year last night, right around 10:30pm. Such a shitty time for a crash, as this was when all the big tourneys are going on. Per their tournament cancellation policy, I guess I'll get my buy in plus a bit back, weee. What really sucks is that I was in the 6max 100r on FTP, really short, and lost two hands before the disconnect. Would have been nice if I outlasted that to recoup some of the 1000 I donated to that tournament. I hate that the 100r on FTP is 6 max, I'm going to stop playing it. 9 way rebuys are much better IMO. Do I have results to support this? Stay tuned...

So I was down ~1200 in buy ins on FTP, but I'll probably get ~ 250 back for the 30 rebuy (I was top 10 stack when FTP went busto). Down 1k on FTP for the night sucks though, esp because the 30 rebuy field is so weak and First was ~6k last night.

On the PokerStars front, their website didn't crash, because they have good servers! So I played the 320 buy in weekly tournament last night, and the following came up:

I'm on button with AJs (2500 chips), MP 3x raise to 90, lag cutoff smooth calls, I call, sb folds, BB raises to 500. Original raiser folds, and lagtard calls. Maybe this is my first mistake, but I call, and here is why- BB's huge reraise screams 99-QQ to me here, and I don't think the CO has AQ or AK, because he would have reraised the MP player. So anyway I call, we see a flop of 99A. Flop can be so much trouble for me, because if my read is off, and there is a better Ace out there, I'm gonna lose some money. BB and CO both check to me, and I decide to take the free card- not a whole lot of cards that kill me here if I'm putting them on lower pairs, and if they're checking an ace i'm behind. Turn falls a magical J. BB checks, and CO bets 600. Pot now has 2200 in, and I have 2000 chips. I decide to shove, with my thought being that if I was wrong and he has Ak or Aq I get called, and with the J he might call with Ax because the J kicker plays. Folds around to cutoff who hollywoods me for whole timebank, then calls with 89. WTF?! I thought a 9 was out of his range once the BB made it 500 to go at 15/30, bad read I guess. GG 320.

Also played the stars 20 rebuy, which you might remember I took 2nd in Friday night. I decided I didn't want to spew tons of money in the rebuy period if possible, because my game has been leaking in this regard lately. One guy at my table is shoving every hand though. 5 hands in I get 77, limp, full table of limpers, aggro guy shoves 3k. I say fck it and call, and so does button. They show AJ and 55. Flop 447, turn 5, no one outer on river and I'm up to 9k. Weeee. I decide at this point to see flops cheap and only get it in pre with solid (read 99+,AK) holdings. We hit the break and I have 13k after the rebuy. Wait, I only spent 60 bucks on the 20rebuy?! That's amazing!!

Shortly after break ends, I play Aces badly and dont get all of some fish's chips when he has QQ on a 22673 board. I have 16k when Apestyles moves to my direct right. At this point he has 25k, top 10 stack. He is raising a lot of fold arounds, so I start floating him, but not hitting any flops. I take down a pot off a short fish and I'm at 18k, Ape has 24k, when the following comes up. I'm BB he is SB. I have QTo. Ape 4x the fold around at 200/400, and I defend. Flop is 358, two diamonds. He leads for 3200, I float. Turn is 7, he checks, I bet 4400, he calls. River comes an Ace. He waits and checks. For some reason I think the Ace put him in check call mode, like maybe he had an A high diamond draw or something. I decide to shove in my last 10k. He waits out his whole time bank and folds. Success! I'm up to 28k and he has 14k. I float him next hand with KT0 on his fold around 4x, and BB reraises to 4800. Ape calls, and I do to. Flop is 4KT rainbow (Luckbox = me). BB checks, Ape bets 4800, I min raise to 9600, BB folds, Ape min raises to 14400, I wait and call. I thought to get it all in here, but I didn't want to lose him. Turn is a 7 of hearts, putting a heart draw on the board. He checks, I bet 5200, he folds. GG up to ~50k, chipleader. Micon gets moved to our table at this point and has my button. Ape is elliminated in a few hands, and I stay around 50k until we get down to 90 ppl left (45 pay). I 3x to 2400 utg with AKdd, tight player shoves in for 15k. I call he shows TT, he flops a 10 and I'm down to 39k. Now the table has tightened up, and Micon starts raising my BB. He raises and I repop once and take it down with A5o. Next orbit he raises 3x, I reraise to 10x with 55 on the sb. He shoves in for 25k, I wait a few seconds then decide to call- I figure with my repop last time his range is wide enough here that there is a 75% chance we're flipping, so its a call. He shows AK, and bricks out. I pull in here with 68k. I get moved now to a new table, get repopped my first hand and am down to 50k. This table was a rollercoaster for me, I was up and down the whole time. Get as high as 95k, as low as 25k. With 60 ppl left JohnnyBax comes to my table, as do all the railbird fags. Around this time I get JJ, at 2500/5000, I make it 15k with 60k total. BB reraises to 40k, I shove he calls with AKss. I take down another flip and have 140k. Crazy thing is that at this point I am 8th in chips, but 4th at my table. Makes it hard to abuse the bubble needless to say. With 47 ppl left, UTG limps, I have TT on the button and make it 20k. TAG player on SB calls, as does utg. 70k in the pot preflop here, big time. Flop AdJxTd. Both players check to me, I bet 30k, sb calls, utg, who only has 27k left, tanks and folds. Turn is 7h. Check, I bet 40k, he shoves. I'm like ughhh QK? I call he shows AJ brick out and I have ~300k. BTW, small stack claims to have folded AK. Fish.

I'm chip leader here and decide to keep it tight. 10 hands later I get TT utg. 3x to 18k. SB and BB call. Flop Ac4c10x. SB checks, I bet 30k, he raises to 60k, I shove, he calls (started hand with 180k) with AQo. no runner runner and I have 550k. Time for me to really tighten up now. I tighted till we get to two tables left, and my stack gets kind of low after a few tough hands. I raise 3x to 24k on button with KT spades. BB calls, flop AsJs4x, and he open shoves 120k. Pokerstove his range as any ace rag, and we're a coinflip. I call he shows A3o, turn K, giving me 14 outs to the river, I brick out and am down to 400k. Next hand its 5k/10k, Shorty shoves 98k, I call with 99 on the SB and his A5 gets there to knock me down to 300k. I get reshoved on a button raise and am down to 270k. We're down to 12 ppl left, and my table is letting me get away with a lot of raises, and I work my way up to 450k when we finally get to final table. GB2005 and some Norway kid Bjullo or something are only players I recognize at final table. GB is short though and busts in 9th. I go down to 210k on a couple raises reshoved on and a hand I played like shit, when we get 6 way. I start raising and reshoving and fight my way back into the tournament. 4 way arrives and it is Bjullo 1.1mm to my right, TAG two to my right 1.4mm, weak tight to my left 250k, me 450k. Bjullo decided to double up weak tighty with k7 vs his A8, so now the two smalls are even and the two bigs are even. Bjullo is playing like shit and running like god, when following comes up. 10k/20k, I'm button. Bjullo utg min raise to 40k. I see TT, which has been my hand this tourney. I ship 480k into the pot. As I told Bluechip on the phone, I'm value shoving because he will call me so light. Sure enough, he commits another 440k with A7o LOL ROFLMAO. Flop is 552, two hearts, turn A of hearts!!!!, and I don't hit my river heart or 10, and I'm out in 4th. 3001 dollars paid, but would have been nice to hold there- I double and I can take it down. Oh well, can't complain about another 4 figure final table score, and final tabling this tourney twice in a weeks time is impressive. GG me. Pending my FTP reimbursements, I spent ~1500 on buyins for a profit of +1500 for the night. GG.

Hendon Mob shootouts start today, which I won seats in by beating Bluechip heads up in a MTT satty two weeks ago (brag post). Hopefully I'll win and he will get 2nd.
GG GL TTYL TYVM GFKY.

Pato

oh by the way I posted an article yesterday that has disappeared- I'm still new to this blog thing, but basically lost 400 bucks playing sngs.

Tuesday's Results = ~(400.00)

2007-07-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

OK so I'm a fish. I made a spreadsheet of my sng grinding last night, but neglected to mark down whether each sng was a 119 turbo or 60 turbo. Accordingly, the spreadsheet is screwed for the night and I don't know my exact results. I'm fairly confident I was down a couple hundo though... gg bankroll management not knowing what you're results are at the end of the night. Anyway though the spreadsheet got screwed because of my tilt. I was 8 tabling sngs, 4 119 turbos on my left monitor, 4 60 turbos on the right monitor. After I made it to the top 5 of all 8, only to take an astonishing 3 5ths and 5 4ths, I fired up a new set of 8. When I went to tile the tables, however, the 60's and 119's got mixed up (ie didnt stay on their respective monitors). I didn't realize this on the next set, so as I would busto from one on the right I assumed it was a 60, and a 119 for the left, which was wrong. I didn't realize my mistake till the end of my 3rd session, when I won two 60 sngs only to realize they were both 119s. Wee that was good, but I'm pissed that I screwed up the spreadsheet. Oh well, will have to be more careful next time.

Tonight I don't have anything to do, except put the new rims on my car (ty full tilt), so I'll run all the multi tables. Schedule tentatively:

7pm 75 FTP, 109 PS
8pm 163 FTP, 26 FTP
8:30 33rebuy FTP
9pm 162 PS, 22rebuy PS

Hopefully I can keep the spreadsheet together for these results.

Also, I may be going to foxwoods friday night, so I'm going to have to think about how to keep accurate results from my live session, since I'll likely be getting very drunk once I'm done poker. GG TTYL

Pato

Monday's Results = (2460.00)

2007-07-24T09:13:00.000-04:00

I started the night off with my normal schedule, plus I fired up 3 109 turbo mtts and 2 265 sng qualifiers to the monday $1k. I lost 7 straight flips and didnt win one of the qualifiers. I decided to buy right in to the $1k, where I finished around 80th of 350 with 36 places paid. I was absolutely card dead, it was comical- I do think this tournament is +EV, because a lot of the people who qualify are just too weak to ever have success in this field. Regardless though, that cost me ~2000 between the buy in and the qualifiers. I plan on only playing it if I qualify in the future, but since I was up alot last week I decided to take a shot. BTW, first place in this tourney was 80k- it's just sick to think of a field of less then 400 people paying out that much money.

Nothing too exciting to report on the mtt's in my normal schedule - I bubbled the 109 on stars on a stupid bluff, and lost the 55k on full tilt when my JJ ran into KK on the big blind.

I won't get to play my normal mtt's tonight because I have a softball game, so it will be sngs for me. I'll post a chart tomorrow of how I do.

Pato

Sunday's Results = (2005.00)

2007-07-23T00:41:00.001-04:00

Shitty fcking Sunday in progress. I'm out of everything, all I have left if 10% equity in Bluechip in the 200 horse on FTP.

Basic rundown of the day- I played every major on FTP and PStars and did not cash in one mtt. Not one - lol @ running bad. I also played the two 100 rebuys on PStars. I played them very tag, not wanting to donk off too much money in them. I lost the first 100r when my AK < AQ from Intervntion. Sweet. Lost the second one with KQ to AQ. Down ~1500 on stars for the night.

On to FTP- got jacked up in the MTT's, the only legit run I made was in the Mulligan, where I made the 3rd hour. Never got a whole lot going on, and got my money in with 8k behind and AJ vs 88. Flopped the J, turn an 8, gg. Also just ended my night getting 3rd in a qualifier to the 1k monday where it paid a seat for top 2- did get 440 for 3rd though, helps stop the bleeding a bit. Down ~500

No Graphs today since I was on a different computer- back to normal tomorrow.

Pato

Saturday's Results = (426.30)

2007-07-23T00:32:00.000-04:00

Not Much to say about Saturday- only big tourney I played was the 320 afternoon mtt on Stars. Stayed around average until 2nd hour when I chipped up to 11k, a top 10 stack, with 99 v AQ hh when I called an all in from a known 100r player on a 10x2x2h4h turn. I dodged 15 outs on the river and was in good shape. A very loose player raised my bb and I called with 89. Flop came 249, I check called his half pot bet. He 3/4 the turn, I pushed in and he showed KK on the button :( . Just unlucky to see an aggro player wake up with KK on your button and then hit top pair no draw on the flop. Oh well GG.

I'll give you my sunday info later. Peace.

Pato

Friday's Results = 4137.00

2007-07-21T11:05:00.000-04:00

Played a shitload of tourneys today- sucked it up on FTP, only worthwhile result was winning my seat for the $500k tommorow- not even that big of a deal either because it is a 216 this week. Didn't run poorly, just made some bad plays- only shitty loss was trip jacks to flush in the $55k, but that'll happen.

PStars was looking poorly too. I invested an unheard of $300 in the 20 rebuy, and came to the break with 5k in chips (for those of you scoring at home,that means a double rebuy and addon only). Bluechip was making a run in the $55k, so I was railing him and treating the 20r as an afterthought. 20 off the bubble, my KK ran into QQ aipf, and the turn and river were both Qs, moving my stack down below 5k. Somehow I short stack ninja'd back into the game, and was sitting on 30k on bubble. I 4x 55 in cutoff and bb shoves all in- i look him up and he has AQ, I hold to 60k. Now its time for me to abuse bubble. I raise a shitload and finally play a pot where i get it aipf with A5 to 1010. I turn the wheel though and am up to 100k. I hang around till we're down to ~ 30 ppl left when I get moved to a table with GBoro and some fish. Following hand comes up that set me up for an FT run:

PokerStars Game #11049816181: Tournament #55434171, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (2500/5000) - 2007/07/21 - 01:25:27 (ET)
Table '55434171 37' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: profontaine (49558 in chips)
Seat 2: sugweed (42918 in chips)
Seat 3: gouths (233116 in chips)
Seat 4: buck2348 (49424 in chips)
Seat 5: pato610 (213120 in chips)
Seat 6: Nick147 (37064 in chips)
Seat 7: gboro780 (76070 in chips)
Seat 8: WOODY3033 (110070 in chips)
Seat 9: jimeny999 (36785 in chips)
profontaine: posts the ante 500
sugweed: posts the ante 500
gouths: posts the ante 500
buck2348: posts the ante 500
pato610: posts the ante 500
Nick147: posts the ante 500
gboro780: posts the ante 500
WOODY3033: posts the ante 500
jimeny999: posts the ante 500
WOODY3033: posts small blind 2500
jimeny999: posts big blind 5000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pato610 [Kd As]
profontaine: folds
sugweed: folds
gouths: raises 5000 to 10000
buck2348: folds
pato610: raises 30000 to 40000
Nick147: calls 36564 and is all-in
gboro780: folds
WOODY3033: folds
jimeny999: folds
gouths: calls 30000
*** FLOP *** [Ac 3s 4h]
gouths: bets 30000
pato610: raises 30000 to 60000
gouths: raises 132616 to 192616 and is all-in
pato610: calls 112620 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Ac 3s 4h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 3s 4h 2h] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gouths: shows [Qh Ad] (a pair of Aces)
pato610: shows [Kd As] (a pair of Aces - King kicker)
pato610 collected 352112 from side pot
Nick147: shows [7h 7s] (a pair of Sevens)
pato610 collected 121692 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 473804 Main pot 121692. Side pot 352112. | Rake 0
Board [Ac 3s 4h 2h Td]
Seat 1: profontaine folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: sugweed folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: gouths showed [Qh Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: buck2348 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: pato610 showed [Kd As] and won (473804) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Nick147 showed [7h 7s] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 7: gboro780 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: WOODY3033 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: jimeny999 (big blind) folded before Flop

When a donk cant muck AQ there, I win. weeeeee.

So at this point I abused the bubble all the way to FT bubble, where I got ahead of myself and doubled up a guy. So final table I'm 2nd in chips. After putting a nasty beat on GBoro A9 v 1010 on a 92543 board, I had a massive chip lead 3 way.

We got to heads up and i was 3 to 1 chip leader. I got it all in with the guy on a 6c7cks flop, me holding Q7, him 9c10c. River 8 gets us back to even. Then I lose 1 million chips with JJ on a KQ board, and I am short stacked. I run a bluff into 2 pair and take 2nd. Sucks because I should have won, but I had such a donk image that I couldn't take down any pots pre or post flop vs the guy, he was looking me up everytime. Oh well, ~6k win is still cool. BTW the deal I have with Bluechip is that we take 10% of each others 4 figure + wins when we both play in the tourney, as a way to reduce variance. We're looking forward to a big Sunday, so hopefully I'll be shipping him some loots.

Here is last night's Excel:

Thursday's Results = 8390.13

2007-07-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

Good night of poker last night.

Came home and played an MTT satty into the FTOPS Main Event. Took it down for the $535 buy in, so a good start to the night. I also played a MTT satty for the hendon mob shootout, but lost 3 way vs USCphido.

Fired up the 7pm tournaments, and felt in control the whole time. Huge hand in the 7pm 100 on stars- i have 15k, chiplead, and i open to 3x utg with JsJd at 100 / 200 / 25. Folds to lp lagtard who shoves 6k in. I'm deffinetly calling him, because his range is 77-JJ, AQ+ with this open shove. BB decides to call too for his last 4.5k, making my decision a bit tougher. I wait it out for almost all my time bank and decide to call, because I think that BB is calling with 99+, AQ+. So I'm thinking I'm a favorite to take the 1.5k off the lagtard on the side at a minimum, meaning that IF BB has a monster, my net loss would only be 1.5k, plus I could be flipping, and the pot is 15k- so I called. lagtard shows other two Jacks, bb shows AK. Flop comes 2 spades all rags, turn is a spade, river is a spade- weeeee SCOOOOP. Its so nice to run good! This gives me a big chiplead. As the blinds get up, and PS goes aggrotard, my stack moves closer to the average. I wind up being a shorty with 3 tables left, but I manage to steal blinds to keep me afloat until we get down to 12 ppl left. I have 55k, avg = 80k. blinds 3k/6k forget the ante- shorty with 28k shoves button, I have 1010 and call. Jerk shows JJ!! I get my 10, but it is after an 89Q board, so he makes a straight and I don't pair the river. I shove short for a bit then take the FT bubble at 12th. Cashed for ~600, GG.

In the 7pm Full Tilt $25K, I had a big stack pretty early after some good flops and a donk who decided to double me to 12k with his 6k stack on a AQ4 board with his AK v my AA. I'm sorry but when you have 6k, the bb is 50, you don't lose your stack with top top IMO. Whatever though i'll take the double up. Near the bubble I have 40k stack and get to a table with theHebrewHammer and some other ppl. The guy to my right has 55k, and I take all his money over the course of two hands. first, my JJ vs his 88 that I played horribly and would have folded to a river bet, but it went check check luckily. That made it 60k to 35k. The I get AA on the button, he 3x it to 1800 in the cutoff. I smooth, flop is Q high, he bets pot, I call. Turn is 10, he bets pot, I shove, he calls shows AQ. No 2 outer on the river and I have 95k. I ride this stack into the money, building it as high as 135k when we are 10 handed. Terrible player to my right, short stack, shoves in for 55k at 2k/4k. I have 100k behind and AK, I call. A4Q board no help turn and river and I'm short stack. I find a double up and go to final table with 80k, 2nd shortest. Thehebrewhammer is to my right, and he has been AGGRESSIVE. Folds to him on button, he 3xs to 18k. I'm sb with KcJc. I call with the intention of check raising all in any paired board, or leading all in at a good draw. flop comes 910Q, hmm guess I'll check. The hammer shoves all in, I call he has K4. No J to chop and I have 185k. We get to 5 way after about an hour, and blinds are 10k/20k. UTG shoves 68k in after losing a huge hand. I look him up w K2 spades, he has KJ off. OOPS. I spike a 2 like its my job and he's done, we're 4way. 4 way was wierd- all 3 players were terrible, so it was like walking through a mine field. At any moment they might decide to shove it in. I'm built up to 300k, big stack to my left has 600k, two to my left has 240k, guy to my right has 180k. I've been raising a ton and they're obviously sick of it. I open utg with A8hh to 70k. Sb with 240k waits forever and shoves in. I tank it here- I'm thinking fold initially, but I play back some of his previous shoves- when he showed down AQ on a shove it was an instashove, and he had been playing desperate the past few levels. I decide that he is shoving any pair, any two broadway, any ace. Vs. this range, needing to call 170k to win 540k pot, I call. He has KcJc, flop two clubs, he doesnt get any of his 15 outs and my A high wins. 3way, big stack is reshoving on me periodically, so I start limping to mix it up. I take maybe 50k off him in 3way, when I bust the short stack. folds around to him, he shoves 160k at 15k/30k. I call with 33, spike a 3 to get to heads up. Heads up he has a slight cl, we go back and forth a few hands, then I get QsJs. I 3x to 90k. He calls. Flop Kc9s2c. He checks and I check behind, because he has been repopping me all in a ton. Turn 6c, he bets 30k into 200k. I call with my gutshot, not sure what his bet means here- I think it is weak but I want to keep this pot small since we just started HU. River is 10s. He leads out for 100k, around half the pot. I shove, he calls after a bit with Q10?!!!!?!!?! Hmmmm. I have 1.4mm to his 90k now. Two hands later I end it shoving KJ and he calls K8, no 8. GG me for 8690. Me and bluechip had swapped 10% for the night in tournaments we played together, so I shipped him 870 (10 dollar bonus for rail support at FT). Seriously though a shoutout to blue, he had some good words of wisdom for me HU. I also cashed in a few other MTTs for the night, nothing big. Good night overall though. Always nice to finish the deal and win an MTT- top 3 is the goal in any MTT, but the wins are what build a bankroll.

Here is the excel for the night:

Pato

Tuesday's Results = (283.50)

2007-07-18T08:54:00.000-04:00

So the first night of poker with the new blog was very meh.

I went out to dinner with my GF, so by the time I got home it was 9:30, meaning I missed all the good FTP tourneys (55k, 25k, 16k,50k). Luckily, Bluechip registered me for the 100k on stars and the 20 rebuy, so I had something to play.

1st hand of 100k I find AdAh on the button. I'm worried I'll get no action, since I've been away and this is literally the first hand I've played, but wait- it's PokerStars!! I 3x on the button to 90, sb insta calls, BB reraised to 420 with 1750 behind. Too often this is AJ, so if I shove pre I lose him, so I call with position. Flop is Qxx 2 hearts, he leads out for 600. I wait .2 seconds and ship it, he insta calls shows KdKh. Weeeee running good. WAIT K on the turn ugh. Down to 200 chips at 25/50 after playing 1 hand. Fun. Very next hand get dealt AA again, I limp for 50 with 200 behind, willing to risk playing it 6 way because I'm so low. Button limps, sb (same guy as last hand) reraises 3x. I go all in, button calls, sb reshoves, button folds, sb shows QQ. My AA holds here, back to 600. 1 orbit later utg limps for 50 (very weak player limping alot) so i ship in 550 or so with 88. folds around to utg who instas with 55. I hold and am back to 1600. Maybe I can play this tourney after all? Take down some blinds, etc. and at start of 2nd hour have 2200. at 50/100 button raises a fold around to 300. Standard raise, I find QQ on bb. I over shove all in, thinking this is the best way to get a call from A10+, 55+. He calls with JJ. xJx flop, gg. Tourneys are so fun when you're 50% in your 80/20's!!!

20 rebuy was standard tourney, I made break with 7k, forgot to addon like a donk, then lost on a JK4 board when my JJ was no good vs KK.

Here are my total results for the night- winning 119 sngs really helps even out a losing night of mtts!

2007-07-17T13:45:00.000-04:00

Hello and welcome to my blog- how the fck did you find this thing?!

I'll be using this space to give periodic updates on my poker performance. Basically, I'm writing this today with a $10,000 poker bankroll. My goal is to play my best game and turn this 10k into a whole lot more.

There are several reasons I started a blog.
1. many successful online players have blogs- maybe they're on to something?
2. It will force me to honestly re-examine my play more frequently. Writing a post about how i fcked up the 30 rebuy with 12 left will make me a better player. I think.
3. it will be fun to post hand histories when i'm running good, and funny for people to read hand histories when I'm running bad- so HH's = Fun!
4. Maybe this blog can help some new players develop their game.

I will try to put an update in after every decent session I play- at very least, I will give an update after every $200 + live mtt I play or every Sunday.

Well thats it for the first post- thanks for stopping by. A poker update will come later today.

Pato