PXF Subscriber Tournament Final Table

So since I'm busto from taking my BR out to pay bills(BLAH), I haven't played in roughly 2 1/2 weeks except for the occasional MTT or SNG. Thus the reason why there has been no posting. I didn't have a reason for you to visit. Until tonight when I played in this tournament. I was cruising along playing a fundamental TAG style. That is until these two gentleman joined me.

In all actuality, they didn't really affect me at all, nor did I play any pots with them. I would have loved to, but the situation just didn't present itself. For those that don't know the 2 people I am referring to are Seat 1 and Seat 5. In Seat 1 is sheets(Eric Haber), who is a sng expert and co-trainer/owner on the site. He's just a great poker player overall and you may have seen him on this years broadcast of the USPC. In Seat 5 is BeL0WaB0Ve aka Kevin Saul who you WILL see on TV. Kevin is one of the most dominant MTT players on the net. He recently just took down the Bellagio Cup III for a little over 1.3 million. They got moved and I started turn on the boom switch.

I doubled up, tried to abuse a $4 money bubble lol, then stole some and found myself 2nd in chips when a ss shoved 4s into my Kings. That really didn't lost too long though because of the short stacks shoving and me not having hands to call them with. So I just kept playing patiently. I was re-stealing once every 2-3 orbits to slowly move my stack up. On the FT bubble, I caught a ss trying to steal with T7. I had AJ and held to move my stack up to 55k or so. There was a lot of people using the stop and go maneuver and it got hold. Usually I call with just A high in my spots. This one really beat me up though. We were 10 handed, next one out bubbles the FT and I had raised to 9k with A9. Blinds were 1500/3000, with a 150 ante. The guy had an M of under 5 so I knew he would be pushing probably with a lesser than made hand. Here he cold calls...sigh we know where this is going. With a flop of 6 8 9 and 20k in the pot he shoves for 13k more. This was an easy call and he flips over 56o. The turn brings him a lovely 6 and I am knocked down to 33k or so. I maintained my chip stack for a good 3 orbits or so and I moved to the Final Table with the same amount.

The first hand was the one in the screenshot, and it was an easy shove. That's all I really could afford to do. I was shoving in position whenever I could and was building back up very slowly. I didn't seem to really get called when I had a hand. I may have missed a spot or two to shove, but I thought I had to get through too many people at the time. The blinds went to 2k/4k 200 ante and I shoved over a maniac who would later take 3rd with AK. I flopped 4 to the flush and I was free rolling against his AK also. Lee didn't hook me and we split the blinds and antes.

I was constantly forced to shove because of the blinds and I eventually got caught running the monster 24 into Redd's AQ. Oh well. I'll shove almost any time there with all the dead money in the pot. I went out 7th for $69.30. For now, I believe I'm going to be starting the SNG grind to get the BR bigger. I played a $5 regular sng the other day and crushed it for first. The only problem was that it lasted an hour and a half. Not a good $/hr rate. Anyway, hopefully I'll have more to post about soon.

Records - Records - Records

Thats what Phil Hellmuth preaches and just like Phil this year, Nick captures another title. Number 7 to be exact!

Another update coming later this evening.

Absolutely Hilarious!!!

Oh my lord, I'm doubled over in my chair right now.

$3r - The Biggest Tournament Ever - Home Game

I think it was Thursday that I played the $3r. I havent been playing this tournament at all recently. I have no idea why because it's one of my favorite tourneys on the internet. I had a great table during the rebuy period and managed to get a stack of 17k at the first break. Now I would be able to play a super tight aggressive game till the antes kicked in and the blinds got bigger. I just wanted to really maintain my stack more than anything else. Depending on my opponents stack size, I didnt really want to get in any big confrontations early.

The first big hand that came after the break, a guy opened for a min-raise to 400 with blinds 100/200. I popped to 1200 with KK, he re-min raised me to 2000 and I just shoved for his last 2k. He flipped QQ and I held. With 23k and blinds 150/300 Ante 25, we come to our next big hand. A player utg who was really bad, limped and it went around to me holding Q4. I check my option and we see a flop of Qs Qc Js. I lead out for 600 into the 1125 pot and utg flat calls. On the turn comes a 5, I lead out for 1200 into the 2325 pot and find myself getting raised to 3000. I really don't know what he has at this point. I kind of thought he might have hit a set of 5s for a boat on the turn. Or really seeing if i have a queen or what. I call the raise and see what hes going to do on the river. It was a 6 of clubs. I think this case was one of those where if I was ahead I was really ahead, and if i wasnt then I'm obv beat. I was planning on calling a bet here on the river, but when I checked he shoved his entire 8500 chip stack into the 8300 chip pot. Once I saw that I knew I had him. He flips over A2 of clubs for no pair no draw. Now we're sitting really nice with 35k at the 150/300 level.

I played 2-3 orbits just sitting back and maintaining my chip stack. Picking up no real big hands in the process. Our next big hand came at the 300/600 level. Starting with UTG and going for the next 4 positions all limped. In the small blind with 53o getting over 10-1, I flick in the 300 chips. We get an awesome K 5 3 flop with 2 clubs. I overbet the pot for 5000 into the 4050 pot. Figuring I'm only going to get played back at with a King. If they have a set of 5's or 3's then so be it. I get a really scary flat call from a guy with 18k. I wasn't paying attention to how he was playing at all. I didn't think the 2d turn helped him at all so I bet pot again which was 14k. This had him covered by 10 chips and he called and flipped over KQ. The river bricks and we now have a monster stack of 54,515. After that hand blinds went up to 400/800 and I had 68 bb's.

We were on the money bubble so I tried to apply some pressure to the rest of the table. What I got was the complete opposite. Almost everyone was using their entire timebanks to stall. I started to get extremely frustrated. To add on to that, people were limping when they started to see what I was doing. By this time it was the 500/1k level, in which you just dont limp! I was just on complete tilt at this point because we were getting maybe 10 hands in a level. It just wasn't fun at all. It was the same guy doing it over and over and over. Here these people are trying to work their way up the pay ladder by $3 each 150 or so entrants. I'm trying to win this thing not make $3.

With blinds at 600/1200, I raised in LP with KJ(new nuts) and got re-shoved by a shorty who had a static stack of 8 bb's. His range could be so big and I was gettin the right price so I called and he flipped KQ. He holds and I'm down to 44k. The same guy limps for 1600 utg now and I have 77 in lp. I raise it up and he re-shoves yet again. I hate calling with small pp's late in tourneys but I did yet again. Plus the fact that he was utg doesnt sit well with me. But to my surprise he flips JT......Sigh we know where this is going. He flops a Ten and we're down to 22k. I steal a little bit and we're up to 32k. Now at 36k, it's folded to the sb who shoves with 8 bb's and I snap call with 99, he flips up 55. Awesome I'm thinking, until the board pairs twice and we chop the pot. With 7 bb's i shoved 33 into 88 and that was that. I think I got like 150 something out of 2700 people. Not where I want to be.

Pokerstars added 2 new tournaments to the Sunday schedule. A $10k heads up tourney which stevesbets won, and a $10 100k guaranteed lottery. I say lottery, cuz thats pretty much what it was. All week stars was running 70 fpp, $1.10 and $2.20 satty's to this thing. Altogether they hit the max of 15,000 people. But hey, I'll give it a shot because most likely these people are pretty bad. The structure was the usual stars one. They gave us 3k in chips but only 10 minute levels. Which means that there was going to be no play after the first couple rounds or so and it would turn into a giant sng.

I doubled up 30 hands in when I turned a straight with 88. The river put a straight on the board with 34567 and I just shoved. The guy had a 3k stack so I took it all. I was up to 6232 after this hand. With blinds 50-100 and still the same 6k stack I limped utg with KK. It folded around to the bb who raised 400. I decided to just flat call in pos. The flop was 89T. Not the best of flops in the world for my hand. He led out for 600 and I just shipped it in. He flipped over AJ for a couple outs and hit his Queen on the rivshow. I doubled up a few hands later with JT when I had an oesd and flush draw. Surprisingly I hit and was up to 8530 in chips. Up to 9k now at the 75/150 level I open to 450 with AK. The bb cold calls and we see a A 8 2 flop with 2 clubs. I lead for 1k into the 1k pot and he re-raises to 2550 leaving behind 1300 or so. I shove and he flips AQ. And hits his Queen on the river. Sigh we didn't need 14k or anything. I went out a lil while later when I had to shove from the button with T3.

In the home game world, Citro's buddy Justin took it down Saturday Night. He must have went on the biggest heater I have ever seen. At one stretch he got 6 pp's in a row and flopped a straight another time within the matter of 25 minutes or so. He played well otherwise and won fairly easily. Nice job man.

Best of Luck

To lucko in the Main Event. Good Luck buddy, we're pullin for ya!

The Main Event in a nutshell

Level 3 Blinds 200/400

With two limpers in front of him, Amarillo Slim pushed all-in for 20,000 with A-K and was called by an opponent holding pocket tens. Slim didn't improve by the river and was eliminated.

PLO and July 4th Winnings

I've been up early enough to play the $8.80 3k chips Pot Limit Omaha tournament. The last 2 times I've played it, I was top 10 in chips after the first break. The first time I donked off my stack. The 2nd time I got a real nice one going and we hit the bubble. I was taken back when I saw all the big stacks sit out during this period. I'm like wtf are they doing? My table was playing 3 handed half the time because of this. This guy kept playing me in position and position is like HUGE in PLO. Although I dropped down to about 10k trying to abuse the other 2 people on the bubble but they had nothin of it. I doubled back up to 8k after it burst and the next hand I had a wrap and some guy had less than me with a wrap that was 1 card better, and obv it hit. I expect a FT in that tournament soon.

On the 3rd I watched the FT of the $10k PLO tourney at the posw(backwards). Antonius is just a friggin genius. For 73 Doyle is still up there with the best of them with his analytical play. Robert Mizrachi played lights out tho to take the bracelet. European pro, Marc Goodwin seemed to know what he was doing, as he was one of the other commentators. I really can't stand the regular 2 guys.

I did play a little bit last night after the 4th of July festivities. I got paid off on pretty much all of my hands thanks to some poor play on my opponents part. I think I have been suffering from "fancy play syndrome". I know what people have and I try to make plays on them thinking they are good enough to fold. You just can't do that though. It's like playin against a bunch of Shawn's. He's calling you whether he has anything or not. Here are some of the hands and the graph from last night.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1235981 - Not the best way to play Aces.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1236005 - Not the best way to play AK either haha.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1236009 - Well, I mean you shouldn't be calling pf with J7 lol.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1236016 - Only way I really get paid on this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1236019 - Weeee

And the graph..

Something Different

I think I'm going to do 2 hour sessions today, take a half hour break or so, and post my results on here each session. And I'm going to do that Phil Hellmuth style...starting now..

2:00pm - Ok so I got up this morning feeling great, I went for a run, meditated for a little bit, then started my session up for the day. I'll tell you what I started out on fire. I was up a 1.5 buyin's within 250 hands and feeling spectacular. My parents flew in to watch me play on the internet and they are over there(points over to couch). They always give me inspiration while I'm playing. Then things started to go down hill. These people think they can mess with me and try to bluff the best holdem player in the world. Who are they kidding? They kept getting it in bad and sucking out. What can I do though? Within 15 hands I was down $60. Great to some spectacular play by my counterparts(snickers, yea right). 2 hours of play all for nothing. We're back to where we started. Here are the big hands so far with descriptions.

1 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227242 - I mean I have been aggressive the entire time, but this was the first 4 bet by anyone on this table(do i go in the record books for that) and the guy shoves on me with 2 Jacks. 2 Jacks are you kidding me? And of course it comes right in the door those mother fuckers.

2 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227244 - Then this donkey comes to the table and is playing like a maniac. With our previous history with the guy next to me he doesn't fold anyway, So why not try to win a big pot. I get it in with the best again and this guy who can't even spell poker hits a 3rd 8 on the turn. I mean can I play any better?

3 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227249 - We come to this hand. Now this guy utg has been limping every time, and every time he did that and this guy was in the sb, he would raise big. I was tired of this and said to myself, this guy can't isolate every time he limps. So i go ahead and re-raise him since im the best player in the world and he cold calls. I fire out a c-bet and he insta-calls. I thought he was weak still though. He shoves and thats the end of that. Figures the time i try and pick him off the deck bails him out.

4 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227254 - This was the crazy guy. He 3 bet me with KQ. I said, "dont you know who i am, I'm an 11 time world champion." Of course I flop my straight and It didnt take any skill to win this.

5 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227256 - The table was extremely passive and I was taking advantage of it. Of course the time I get two kings, and theres only 2 aces in the deck since they both have the same hand, one flops. That's great, ya know if i just had some average luck I'd win every pot.

6 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227262 - Just such an above the rim play by me. I totally outclassed this guy with my super reading abilities.

7 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227264 - Ya know this shows how I run at 25NL. First the guy makes a horrible call pre flop with 64dd oop. Then he calls 4.5x his bet with a gutshot and flush draw. Of course he hits cuz I run so bad. I don't like the way he played it at all, I thought I had the Jd but I misread the card through my sunglasses(btw I really did think I had it).

So yea, as you can see things would have been much better if I ran decent. The only hand I regret is the JJ one on the end. Here is the graph for the first 2 hours, hopefully I can get some hands to hold. Cya in a bit.

5:00 pm - Wow, it just keeps getting grosser and grosser. I'm not gonna talk like Phil this time. I played ok, but it just never fails. I keep running into people who play 70 percent of their hands and don't miss a flop. Or i have them dominated and they hit their off card. I got set over set in a non limped pot which I was going to lose money on either way. Heres the hands.

1 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227836 - new player to the table i gave him credit for an ace but not two pair.

2 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227841 - was bound to go broke

3 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227846 - sigh, i thought he was weaker than he really was. I think my line on this hand is ok. I tried to represent a big hand, but he called anyway. weee

4 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227851 - surprised he didnt hit a j or 6.

5 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1227857 - me over playing AK

There were other smaller hands but it's just not worth it. I'm gonna have some dinner and be back at it around 6-630. Later

Yea I pussed out. I didn't feel like playing at all after this.

Fun Cash Game on Saturday

Shawn, Barry, Nick and I traveled up to Pottsville, Pennsylvania this past Saturday night. Naturally going to a place in the middle of no where you get lost, as we did...twice. A simple hour or so ride, turned into a hefty 2 hours. Fortunately for us, we got to see all of the locals in action while the sun was still shining. I'm not sure we would have found the place at night. There was 8 of us playing all variations of games. Ranging from your typical No Limit Hold Em to No Limit "Jerk the Jack" with the Queen of Spades washing the hand out. As the night went on we got crazier and crazier.

No matter what I did, I kept getting fucked over in the stud variation games. I would have a flush on 5th street, and have the Qs coming on the board and declaring the hand dead. Then I would run into Shawn's never ending streak of boats or 4 of a kinds. That happened maybe 3 or 4 times. Then, while we were playing Omaha on a 6 T J 6 8 board while it was checked through, I held the AK88. No aggression at all during the hand, and hep leads out on the river for $6, I re-raise to $18 and Toth(who was first to act) flat calls and shows tens full. ALKSDJFLA;SKDL;F. Oh no, we didnt stop there. While we were playing NL towards the end of the night, I flopped a baby flush with 34s on a A 5 9 board. I get c/r for $4 more dollars from a short stacked Ernesto only to have him flip over the nuts. It was just one of those nights I guess. I was down about $19 which is ok since I was down about $60 close to the end of the night.

After a solid 8 hours of playing, in which I had been up for 24 hours straight, we headed home. We stopped at Coney Island burger at like 5 am. I really felt like we were going to get murdered in this god damn town. It just had an eerie feeling about it lol. The food was pretty gross, but what can you expect that late..or early in the day. It was a fairly uneventful ride home as we were able to find our way out of the town pretty easily. I got home around 7 am and passed out till 8pm the same night. I got up, checked my phone and saw that everyone was playing ball. I felt like shit and said...biedrins..got something to eat and crashed again at about 11:30. I slept through till about 7 am'ish this morning. I hope to get a good start on the day and want to play around 6 hours. I want to get around 25k hands in this month and see what happens. Maybe I'll have such a great day I'll post again tonight, wouldn't that be great?