Nice!

I just took 3rd in the 3 dollar rebuy for a nice cash of $1540.81 I played very well but of course i went out in true stars fashion again. To start the FT i had very bad position. To my left i had the 2 chip leaders and to my right i had short stacks. This is incredibly bad. For one its hard to steal from the big stacks because if they have a hand they can just re raise or put you all in and you are surviving for your tournament life if you dont have the best hand. To my right the short stacks dont have enough chips to play poker so they just go all in 24/7.

For the entire FT i was completely card dead. I would take what i was givin by the other players. The first 2 got out pretty quickly which put us down to 7. Then it became a blind situation. I was in the sb with 3s 5s and elected to just call. The bb called also. The flop came 4h 7h 6d. It's always fun to flop a straight. With blinds at 30k/60k i bet out 120k to see if he caught a piece. I got better than that when he went all in. I immediately called and he flips over Jd 6c. No redraw possible, the pot was mine. The stacks looked like this at that point

Seat 2: buffman (3648034 in chips)
Seat 3: whiteal (958120 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (1571138 in chips)
Seat 5: Pass_72 (554028 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (4086465 in chips)
Seat 7: haiau (1744215 in chips)

After that hand, it litterally went form 6 anded to 3 handed in 10 hands. I could have spun this 2 ways. It was good because i was guaranteed no less than 3rd or $1540 dollars, but it was bad because it left me with only 1.5 million. Here were the chip stacks going into 3 handed play.

Seat 2: buffman (5529249 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (1237138 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (5795613 in chips)

As you can see i was at a considerable disadvantage. I was definitely holding my own and winning pots. I was chipping away at buffman because he was the weaker of the 2 other players at the table and i had a very good read on him. I won a very nice all in from him and i was 2nd in chips.

Seat 2: buffman (3473249 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (1313138 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (7775613 in chips)
buffman: posts the ante 4000
trixter23: posts the ante 4000
Hustler1985: posts the ante 4000
trixter23: posts small blind 40000
Hustler1985: posts big blind 80000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trixter23 [Kh Td]
buffman: raises 160000 to 240000
trixter23: calls 200000
Hustler1985: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd 8s 2h]
trixter23: checks
buffman: bets 320000
trixter23: raises 749138 to 1069138 and is all-in
buffman: calls 749138
*** TURN *** [Kd 8s 2h] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 8s 2h Qd] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trixter23: shows [Kh Td] (a pair of Kings)
buffman: shows [Jc Ac] (high card Ace)
Hustler1985 said, "nh"
trixter23 collected 2710276 from pot
trixter23 said, "ty"
*** SUMMARY ***

After that hand the stacks looked this way.

Seat 2: buffman (2160111 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (2710276 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (7691613 in chips)

After that hand i got A9 and raised on the button and buff went all in, he could be pushing with any 2 and i felt like i needed a made hand so i folded. He then took another pot when he did the same thing to hustler and just like that im back down to 3rd in chips.

Seat 2: buffman (2588111 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (1638276 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (8335613 in chips)

After a while stealing and trying to get some other pots i picked up KK. buffman raised and i didnt have enough to re raise so i put it all in. He called with A8 and flopped 2 8's. After playing that long it sucks going out that way but what are you going to do? I took $15 and turned it into $1540 so i guess i cant complain. A couple more of these and ill be on my way to the WSOP.


Seat 2: buffman (3592111 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (1166276 in chips)
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (7803613 in chips)
buffman: posts the ante 4000
trixter23: posts the ante 4000
Hustler1985: posts the ante 4000
buffman: posts small blind 40000
trixter23: posts big blind 80000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trixter23 [Kd Kh]
Hustler1985 said, "k"
Hustler1985: folds
buffman: raises 240000 to 320000
trixter23: raises 842276 to 1162276 and is all-in
buffman: calls 842276
*** FLOP *** [8s 8h 2c]
trixter23 said, "ffs"
*** TURN *** [8s 8h 2c] [6h]
Hustler1985 said, "ouch"
*** RIVER *** [8s 8h 2c 6h] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buffman: shows [8c Ah] (three of a kind, Eights)
trixter23: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
buffman collected 2336552 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2336552 | Rake 0
Board [8s 8h 2c 6h 9h]
Seat 2: buffman (small blind) showed [8c Ah] and won (2336552) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 4: trixter23 (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 6: Hustler1985 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

What do i have to do?

It's such a coincidence that i wrote about how i wanted a huge stack going into the final table of the 3 or 5 rebuy. I was in the 3 dollar rebuy today, and playing awesome poker. I wasnt getting dealt any hands what so ever. But like Mike Matusow said to Phil Hellmuth, some people need cards to win at poker and some people dont. At the first break i had a nice amount of 20k. I was only in for yet again $9 dollars my investment was great.

I wanted to work on gear changing and i think i worked that to perfection today. I had players confused with my bets and that really contributes to what i was trying to do. The p5 article on blind steal has really helped out tremendously. With blinds at 8000/16000 Ante 800 the follow hand occurred

Dealt to trixter23 [Js Jc]
vitesse2: folds
hoyts2005: folds
KrutMoney: folds
trixter23: raises 32000 to 48000
Dr Leusse: folds
tosseper: folds
virre86: raises 129198 to 177198 and is all-in
jslk: folds
ottley: folds
trixter23: calls 129198
*** FLOP *** [5s 4d 2s]
*** TURN *** [5s 4d 2s] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [5s 4d 2s 7s] [8d]
KrutMoney said, "nh"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trixter23: shows [Js Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
virre86: shows [Kh Ad] (high card Ace)
trixter23 collected 385596 from pot
ottley said, "gg m8"


I was utterly surprised my JJ held up. I hadnt gotten a hand in a while and i needed chips. I had the right read on the guy and thought it would be a coin flip and it held up. Another move i made was this one right here. I have wanted to do this all tourney and it was the perfect guy to do it against at the perfect time with the perfect board. Im going to talk more about this hand a little later but here it is.

PokerStars Game #5071374954: Tournament #25061163, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVIII (6000/12000) - 2006/05/27 - 18:57:50 (ET)Table '25061163 10' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: virre86 (221798 in chips)
Seat 2: jslk (61180 in chips)
Seat 3: ottley (447330 in chips)
Seat 4: JBLinWis (196260 in chips)
Seat 5: hoyts2005 (195228 in chips)
Seat 6: KrutMoney (76004 in chips)
Seat 7: trixter23 (201104 in chips)
Seat 8: buck10957 (120444 in chips)
Seat 9: tosseper (210056 in chips)
virre86: posts the ante 600
jslk: posts the ante 600
ottley: posts the ante 600
JBLinWis: posts the ante 600
hoyts2005: posts the ante 600
KrutMoney: posts the ante 600
trixter23: posts the ante 600
buck10957: posts the ante 600
tosseper: posts the ante 600
KrutMoney: posts small blind 6000
trixter23: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trixter23 [8c As]
buck10957: folds
tosseper: folds
virre86: folds
ottley said, "dont like A s hitting when i get cowboys"
jslk: folds
ottley: folds
JBLinWis: folds
hoyts2005: raises 24000 to 36000
KrutMoney: folds
ottley said, "just in case u were wondering"
trixter23: raises 44000 to 80000
hoyts2005: calls 44000
*** FLOP *** [3d 2h 6d]
tosseper said, "nope"
trixter23: checks
hoyts2005: bets 36000
trixter23: calls 36000
*** TURN *** [3d 2h 6d] [Kd]
trixter23: bets 84504 and is all-in
hoyts2005: folds
trixter23 collected 243400 from pot
trixter23: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot 243400 Rake 0 Board [3d 2h 6d Kd]

Then this ridiculous hand occurred and i was out. Again ill elaborate later

Seat 1: jslk (136580 in chips)
Seat 3: ohmyohmy77 (259293 in chips)
Seat 4: haktar (419231 in chips)
Seat 5: trixter23 (472702 in chips)
Seat 6: arzCARDZfan (564688 in chips)
Seat 7: bpstar (337880 in chips)
Seat 8: psavoie (180136 in chips)
Seat 9: Ripall (215171 in chips)
jslk: posts the ante 800
ohmyohmy77: posts the ante 800
haktar: posts the ante 800
trixter23: posts the ante 800
arzCARDZfan: posts the ante 800
bpstar: posts the ante 800
psavoie: posts the ante 800
Ripall: posts the ante 800
arzCARDZfan: posts small blind 8000
bpstar: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trixter23 [Jc Jh]
psavoie: folds
Ripall: folds
jslk: folds
ohmyohmy77: folds
haktar: folds
trixter23: raises 48000 to 64000
arzCARDZfan: raises 499888 to 563888 and is all-in
bpstar: folds
trixter23: calls 407902 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [7h 2d Td]
*** TURN *** [7h 2d Td] [2c]
trixter23 said, "unreal"
*** RIVER *** [7h 2d Td 2c] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
arzCARDZfan: shows [Ts Th] (a full house, Tens full of Deuces)
trixter23: shows [Jc Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)
arzCARDZfan collected 966204 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 966204 Rake 0 Board [7h 2d Td 2c Kh]

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere

In the past week i've made 3 FT's and bubbled 3. While this is a decent week, I'm trying to make money to get into the WSOP Main Event if i can't satellite in. These aren't final tables of the 1 or 2 dollar tournaments either. I got 11th in the $10+1 MTT which first was around $1700. The $5 rebuy where first was a cool $6000, which i got 11th. And another rebuy, where yet again i got 11th.

Maybe it would be acceptable if 11th got paid first place money but it doesnt lol. I have some holes in my game that i do want to improve on. I need to steal more in position to have enough chips to get people off hands in the later portion. Those 3 final tables i went in either middle of the 9 remaining or with a short stack. I would love to get there with the 1st 2nd or 3rd biggest stack so i can really use my chip position to make that stack grow.

That's about all im in the 3 dollar rebuy on stars now. I'll update once thats over, Laters.

$3 rebuy on Stars

Hey guys, i recently posted this on cardplayer.com's forums to see what others thought. I thought i would post it here also

Hey guys, Unfortunately 7 hours and 35 minutes into the $3 dollar rebuy i just busted out in 6th position, but i won a nice chunk of change. I do have some questions though. The situation is this. We reach the final table and everyone sighs a breath of relief. Bubble play on the 12th, 11th, and 10th finishers was brutal. I was able to pick up blinds and antes off the short stacks and had a nice stack of about 1.2 million in chips. A cool 20 minutes in we had already lost 2 players. The other players were talking about a 7 player chip count chop. I told them i wont guarantee anything, but i will take a look at the numbers. Cards didnt seem to come and at the time i was the 2nd shortest stack with about 1 million in chips. Everyone was guaranteed 7th place money and then would be divided among chips.

Here were the payouts.
1st - $4959.25
2nd - $2930.47
3rd - $1916.08
4th - $1420.15
5th - $1149.65
6th - $901.69
7th - $676.27

Now again as i said, i was 6 of 7 in chips. What was being offered to me was $1525.64 or a little more than 4th place. I was only $9 dollars deep in this thing. So $1500 is a nice net from what i paid to play. Then i looked at what was going on at the table. Everyone was talking about how tired they were and how they would just like to chop after this amount of time playing, etc etc. I told everyone i would like $2k or we can keep playing. Surprisingly i was the only one who objected to chopping. Everyone was grumbling. What contributed to making my decision was for a couple of different reasons.

1) The table has already stated they were tired and didnt want to play, hence they are probably going to play bad or worse than their "A' game.

2) The player directly to my left was an extremely (and i mean extremely, you'll see) loose aggressive player. With blinds as high as they are, i figured i can get some nice pots off of him.

3) Most likely other people are going to go out and ill upgrade pay levels.

4) Again the +EV i could be getting on my $9 fee in a rebuy was incredibly too good to pass up.

5) Im playin to win.

With everything stated, i told support we can play on. So we started and a player was knocked out shortly there after. While had passed and i was the shortstack when i caught the extremely loose player trying to steal(well who knows with this guy). Hand below. So i guess luck wasnt on my side for that hand. That was the 2nd hand of 24 that i had lost when showing a hand down to the river. So instead of $1525 i netted $901 Please dont gauge the hand history as the topic of this conversation. I'm more interested on the chop discussion more than anything else. As i said i play to win and i dont regret my decision. With all those facts, what do you do?

Deal or No deal?

PokerStars Game #5004124173: Tournament #24673738, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXVII (40000/80000) - 2006/05/21 - 03:36:39 (ET) Table '24673738 82' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: nicktg18 (2087081 in chips)
Seat 2: trixter23 (783480 in chips)
Seat 5: kasin (3419778 in chips)
Seat 6: anticon (1232126 in chips)
Seat 7: chansmaster (941016 in chips)
Seat 9: lilsewon (3307519 in chips)
nicktg18: posts the ante 4000
trixter23: posts the ante 4000
kasin: posts the ante 4000
anticon: posts the ante 4000
chansmaster: posts the ante 4000
lilsewon: posts the ante 4000
nicktg18: posts small blind 40000
trixter23: posts big blind 80000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trixter23 [6h Ad]
kasin: folds
anticon: folds
chansmaster: folds
lilsewon: folds
anticon said, "yes"
nicktg18: raises 2003081 to 2083081 and is all-in
trixter23: calls 699480 and is all-in
nicktg18 said, "uh oh"
*** FLOP *** [Ts 5s Qh]
lilsewon said, "lets gooo"
anticon said, "i was under trixter"
*** TURN *** [Ts 5s Qh] [As]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 5s Qh As] [Qs]
nicktg18 said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nicktg18: shows [4h 9s] (a flush, Ace high)
trixter23: shows [6h Ad] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
lilsewon said, "oooooo"
lilsewon said, "snap"
nicktg18 collected 1582960 from pot
nicktg18 said, "chop guys?"
anticon said, "wow gg trix"
nicktg18 said, "chop?"
*** SUMMARY *** Total pot 1582960
Rake 0 Board [Ts 5s Qh As Qs]
Seat 1: nicktg18 (small blind) showed [4h 9s] and won (1582960) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: trixter23 (big blind) showed [6h Ad] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 5: kasin folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: anticon folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: chansmaster folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: lilsewon (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Hey Folks!

I have been extremely busy with a lot of stuff. I havent had a chance to write at all this past month and a half, but i wanted to let everyone know I will be participating in this!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476