Unfortunately i didnt have a great day today either. I made a sick play on a guy i have been playing with the last week or so the 3rd hand i played when i sat down. The flop came 2 4 5. I had the 56 after he raised pre flop to 12 bucks. Yea i know its a loose call, but i felt like making a play, what do you want. There were 2 diamonds on the board so i checked. He over bet the pot and bet 30 dollars. I flat called looking to make a play on this guy, NOT because i had top pair..he obv had a little bit better hand then i did. I knew he wasnt the type of player to bet into his flush draws. The turn brought a brick i checked again and he bet out 60 dollars. I flat called again. The river brought the King of Diamonds. Wow i couldnt ask for anything more perfect. I go all in and he yells out loud in his thick english accent "why does everyone hit there draws on me" and throws his cards away. I flip over the 56o and raked the pot. He was stunned but said "nice play". You damn right it was!
Well then later on a Q 8 6 board, and 35 dollars in a pot, he checked from the sb, UTG + 2 bet 30 and i re raised to 95 with KK. He was in the sb and quickly shoved his chips in. UTG+2 folds and its 42 more to me and i call. He says i have the best hand at hte moment. turn and river both come JJ and he flips over 9T for the double gutshot straight draw. Sigh..2nd bad beat in 2 weeks.
When it was all said and done i was down $150 in poker and tried to make it back on the big wheel with black and red spaces they call roulette. I lost $200 and was quickly on my way. I've been good on staying away from the viruses they call blackjack and roulette. If i ever want to move out here and try and make it just playing poker, thats something i cant do.
I went back later on and was up $100, so i was only down a quarter of a buy-in for the day, but down another $200 in roulette. That goes in the tally also.
Days in Vegas: 10
Net Winnings Today: (-$250)
Net Winnings Total : $2426
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Controversy..
Obviously played at the venetian last night. It was a roller coaster all night. I was down then up then down then up again. I just couldn't stay in one consistent path. I had my QQ cracked by 99, then QJ cracked my JJ. Those were all ins pre flop when the other players had only about 30-40 bucks behind.
A little vietnamese man came to the table and was stacked the 2nd hand he played. I gave him more chips a few hands later..he was the one who had 9s and cracked my queens. I raised utg and he came over the top for a raise so i just put him all in. That's not where the story is though.
I had limped from the sb with A4o to see a flop and it came A A 3 with 2 clubs. I bet out 10 bucks into a 20 dollar pot to see where i was at and the newcomer called. The turn was an 8. I bet out 20 bucks and he re raised to 60. I was pretty sure i was ahead considering how this guy has been playing. Now right before the river hit the felt he said "I go all in". So the river was a queen of diamonds but i still thought i had the best hand. So i say out loud "You acted out of turn, but i call anyway". I push my stack into the middle and flip over my cards showing what i had. The guy says "what are you doing you cant do that". I go "um sir you said, you're all in". I turn to the dealer and ask her if she heard the same and she said, "yes he said he was all in".
To make a long story short, the gentleman to his left said that he did indeed say "no all in". It doesnt matter though. All the dealer heard was all in and the rule for The Venetian card room states that out of turn verbal comments are binding. So he was forced to pay me. He shouldnt be saying anything referring to being all in because of things like that. He flipped over T8c for the flush draw and said "do you really think i would go all in with that". I semi-politely said "Sir, this is poker...the cards are irrelevant" So that was the end of that...And besides that bastard sucked out on me before, he had it coming hehe.
Days in Vegas: 9
Net Winnings Today: $100
Net Winnings Total: $2676
A little vietnamese man came to the table and was stacked the 2nd hand he played. I gave him more chips a few hands later..he was the one who had 9s and cracked my queens. I raised utg and he came over the top for a raise so i just put him all in. That's not where the story is though.
I had limped from the sb with A4o to see a flop and it came A A 3 with 2 clubs. I bet out 10 bucks into a 20 dollar pot to see where i was at and the newcomer called. The turn was an 8. I bet out 20 bucks and he re raised to 60. I was pretty sure i was ahead considering how this guy has been playing. Now right before the river hit the felt he said "I go all in". So the river was a queen of diamonds but i still thought i had the best hand. So i say out loud "You acted out of turn, but i call anyway". I push my stack into the middle and flip over my cards showing what i had. The guy says "what are you doing you cant do that". I go "um sir you said, you're all in". I turn to the dealer and ask her if she heard the same and she said, "yes he said he was all in".
To make a long story short, the gentleman to his left said that he did indeed say "no all in". It doesnt matter though. All the dealer heard was all in and the rule for The Venetian card room states that out of turn verbal comments are binding. So he was forced to pay me. He shouldnt be saying anything referring to being all in because of things like that. He flipped over T8c for the flush draw and said "do you really think i would go all in with that". I semi-politely said "Sir, this is poker...the cards are irrelevant" So that was the end of that...And besides that bastard sucked out on me before, he had it coming hehe.
Days in Vegas: 9
Net Winnings Today: $100
Net Winnings Total: $2676
Friday, August 04, 2006
Madness last night
I made out very well last night. I got over to the venetian around 7pm. I sat down and didnt recognize any of the players at my table again. As the night progressed a few people i knew started to show up. The first 3 hours didnt go my way at all. I wasn't hitting flops, and i had to lay down a few hands against weaker players because i didnt know how they played at all.
So i decided to take a break and go to the Grand Lux Cafe to get something to eat. I could have gotten table side service, but it was in my best interest to go there for a few reasons. 1) I like a change of scenery. 2) i didnt want to fug up the cards or the chips. 3) I dont like watching other people eat meals at the table, so i would assume some people dont like watching others eat also.
I returned around 10:30 after eating a terrific steak and was feeling refreshed. As i was about to sit down there were 2 kids from denmark about to take a seat to. One of them was directly to my right and i started up a little conversation with him. It seemed that he and his buddies were out here for the series and played 10/20 and 25/50 on all the very small european sites that are out there. They were playing the 100/200 mixed game last night and decided they just wanted to have a little bit of fun.
They continously were pushing all in with 34 and other ridiculous hands because the money just wasnt an issue with them. I doubled up my stack when a guy called my all in with a flush draw and missed. That was the only time i could reap the benefits of them because they moved to a table which had all their buddies on it except for 2 or 3 people. All during the night they would have swarms of people lurking around their table since they were going all in pre flop every hand. Each pot was around 2-3k and they easily had 10k on the table in a 1-2 game lol.
Antonio Esfandiari briefly made an appearance and walked around the venetian poker room to check it out. Then Bill Gazes actually sat at our 1-2 table with his buddy who was learning the game. Gazes was hammered and didnt play a hand, his buddy broke even after a little while.
I caught another little nice pot when there was a straddle and a raise to 10 bucks with 5 callers. I called with 7s 8s and flopped a straight. A guy hit a set on the turn that only improved my straight and i felted him. Then really late around 5 am, i made a guy fold JJ on a Q J 5 Q board when he thought i had quads. I played it really scary he said. He was hammered and also from sweden. I had raised pre flop with AQ to 12 bucks and he re raised to 40. I flat called and we saw a flop. I bet out 14 dollars to see what he was going to do and was dumbfounded. He flat called and said the only thing that beats me is queens. The turn brought a 3rd queen and i just went all in. He had about 300 behind but i didn't think he was going to call. He indeed let it go and said wow i cant believe im laying this down, but you have quad queens so w/e. If i had that he was losing the whole way. So i threw over the one queen, and then the ace and he was disgusted.
At that point i had a little over $1200 in front of me so i decided to leave at about 6:12 am.
Days in Vegas: 8
Net Winnings Today: $854
Net Winnings Total: $2576
So i decided to take a break and go to the Grand Lux Cafe to get something to eat. I could have gotten table side service, but it was in my best interest to go there for a few reasons. 1) I like a change of scenery. 2) i didnt want to fug up the cards or the chips. 3) I dont like watching other people eat meals at the table, so i would assume some people dont like watching others eat also.
I returned around 10:30 after eating a terrific steak and was feeling refreshed. As i was about to sit down there were 2 kids from denmark about to take a seat to. One of them was directly to my right and i started up a little conversation with him. It seemed that he and his buddies were out here for the series and played 10/20 and 25/50 on all the very small european sites that are out there. They were playing the 100/200 mixed game last night and decided they just wanted to have a little bit of fun.
They continously were pushing all in with 34 and other ridiculous hands because the money just wasnt an issue with them. I doubled up my stack when a guy called my all in with a flush draw and missed. That was the only time i could reap the benefits of them because they moved to a table which had all their buddies on it except for 2 or 3 people. All during the night they would have swarms of people lurking around their table since they were going all in pre flop every hand. Each pot was around 2-3k and they easily had 10k on the table in a 1-2 game lol.
Antonio Esfandiari briefly made an appearance and walked around the venetian poker room to check it out. Then Bill Gazes actually sat at our 1-2 table with his buddy who was learning the game. Gazes was hammered and didnt play a hand, his buddy broke even after a little while.
I caught another little nice pot when there was a straddle and a raise to 10 bucks with 5 callers. I called with 7s 8s and flopped a straight. A guy hit a set on the turn that only improved my straight and i felted him. Then really late around 5 am, i made a guy fold JJ on a Q J 5 Q board when he thought i had quads. I played it really scary he said. He was hammered and also from sweden. I had raised pre flop with AQ to 12 bucks and he re raised to 40. I flat called and we saw a flop. I bet out 14 dollars to see what he was going to do and was dumbfounded. He flat called and said the only thing that beats me is queens. The turn brought a 3rd queen and i just went all in. He had about 300 behind but i didn't think he was going to call. He indeed let it go and said wow i cant believe im laying this down, but you have quad queens so w/e. If i had that he was losing the whole way. So i threw over the one queen, and then the ace and he was disgusted.
At that point i had a little over $1200 in front of me so i decided to leave at about 6:12 am.
Days in Vegas: 8
Net Winnings Today: $854
Net Winnings Total: $2576
Thursday, August 03, 2006
WSOP Player Opinion
I havent made a meaningful post in a while so i thought i would do that. Some of the plays that i have seen are absolutely horrendous. The one time i was watching the rail there was a big play in front of me. It was Day 1C. It was late in the day, could have been the last level of the night. It is folded around to the button who has approximately 18k, raises to 1200(200/400) blinds. I saw his cards when he lifted them up and he had J6o. The big blind calls and has the button raiser covered by a few thousand. The flop comes 9 9 6. The big blind checks and the button raiser fires out 3000. The big blind immediately pushes his whole stack into the middle of the table.
Now if i am this guy i am not calling with J6. You cant beat anything. Not to mention you are staring at 2 9s on the board. What do you think the BB is pushing with here? As i was watching i could have sworn this guy had a 9. After deliberating for maybe 2 minutes, he calls and proudly flips over his J6 thinking he was ahead. The bb surpisingly(to me) flips over the A6. The A on the turn seals the buttons fate, only being able to tie if the case 6 hit on the river. It didn't and he went packing. All the while thinking, i could have been that guy with 20k sitting there, what is he doing?
About 5 minutes later they bring another guy to the table and he has A LOT of chips. He has around 85k and is reallly in no danger considering the second biggest stack at the table is around 35k. Plus its the last level of the night, why would you want to get involved now, when you can come back on monday or tuesday and have a very healthy amount of chips, when you got a great night of sleep. Well of course this guy didnt wan't to do that. I should also mention he was a party poker qualifier. I brought my cousin over and pointed to his stack. In a low voice, he says "it will be gone in 30 minutes". Well it only took about 18. What this guy mistakenly did, was try to take over the table without gaining respect. Sure he has a lot of chips, but when you get moved to a new table, you have a fresh image. He procedeed to double the guy up 2 to his left, then doubled up the guy to his immediate left, then doubled up the guy immediately to his right. He could have gotten away from all of the hands easily, except for the last one when he flopped top two with AQ on an A Q 3 board , when the guy flopped top set with 3 aces. People dont understand that you CAN NOT win the tournament on the FIRST day.
Now it brings us to an interesting hand that i saw on cardplayer. I dont really understand this play, but it worked out for the guy and now he has lots of chips.
5-4 Kills Aces and Kings
The player in seat 1 raises to $3,000 from early position, and two players call the raise. Jon Lane re-raises to $20,000 from middle position, and seat 9 moves all-in for $35,000 total. Seat 1 calls the all-in, and action is folded to Lane. Lane calls the raise. The flop comes A73. Seat 1 tries to bet $20,000, but only brings out $10,000 first and is cited for a string-bet; Lane makes the call of $10,000. The turn is the 6, seat 1 bets $20,000, Lane moves all-in, and seat 1 calls for his last $21,000. Seat 9 shows KK, seat 1 has AA, and Lane has 54. Lane yells, "Don't pair the board!" and the 2 peels off on the river to secure Lane a huge pot and eliminate two players. Lane is now up to $350,000.
What do you guys think of that play?
And this brings us to our chip leader for the WSOP so far. His pokerdb *online* stats for MTT's are as follows.
Est Winnings: $0
Est Buy-ins: $ 900
Rake: $65
Est Profit: -$965
To his credit he has only played 5 mtt's. I say online because it looks like he is a live player. I dont know how he got his chips but it wouldnt surprise me if it was somehow like up top. The play has been less than stellar here at the WSOP. Hopefully as the event goes deeper, play will get better.
Now if i am this guy i am not calling with J6. You cant beat anything. Not to mention you are staring at 2 9s on the board. What do you think the BB is pushing with here? As i was watching i could have sworn this guy had a 9. After deliberating for maybe 2 minutes, he calls and proudly flips over his J6 thinking he was ahead. The bb surpisingly(to me) flips over the A6. The A on the turn seals the buttons fate, only being able to tie if the case 6 hit on the river. It didn't and he went packing. All the while thinking, i could have been that guy with 20k sitting there, what is he doing?
About 5 minutes later they bring another guy to the table and he has A LOT of chips. He has around 85k and is reallly in no danger considering the second biggest stack at the table is around 35k. Plus its the last level of the night, why would you want to get involved now, when you can come back on monday or tuesday and have a very healthy amount of chips, when you got a great night of sleep. Well of course this guy didnt wan't to do that. I should also mention he was a party poker qualifier. I brought my cousin over and pointed to his stack. In a low voice, he says "it will be gone in 30 minutes". Well it only took about 18. What this guy mistakenly did, was try to take over the table without gaining respect. Sure he has a lot of chips, but when you get moved to a new table, you have a fresh image. He procedeed to double the guy up 2 to his left, then doubled up the guy to his immediate left, then doubled up the guy immediately to his right. He could have gotten away from all of the hands easily, except for the last one when he flopped top two with AQ on an A Q 3 board , when the guy flopped top set with 3 aces. People dont understand that you CAN NOT win the tournament on the FIRST day.
Now it brings us to an interesting hand that i saw on cardplayer. I dont really understand this play, but it worked out for the guy and now he has lots of chips.
5-4 Kills Aces and Kings
The player in seat 1 raises to $3,000 from early position, and two players call the raise. Jon Lane re-raises to $20,000 from middle position, and seat 9 moves all-in for $35,000 total. Seat 1 calls the all-in, and action is folded to Lane. Lane calls the raise. The flop comes A73. Seat 1 tries to bet $20,000, but only brings out $10,000 first and is cited for a string-bet; Lane makes the call of $10,000. The turn is the 6, seat 1 bets $20,000, Lane moves all-in, and seat 1 calls for his last $21,000. Seat 9 shows KK, seat 1 has AA, and Lane has 54. Lane yells, "Don't pair the board!" and the 2 peels off on the river to secure Lane a huge pot and eliminate two players. Lane is now up to $350,000.
What do you guys think of that play?
And this brings us to our chip leader for the WSOP so far. His pokerdb *online* stats for MTT's are as follows.
Est Winnings: $0
Est Buy-ins: $ 900
Rake: $65
Est Profit: -$965
To his credit he has only played 5 mtt's. I say online because it looks like he is a live player. I dont know how he got his chips but it wouldnt surprise me if it was somehow like up top. The play has been less than stellar here at the WSOP. Hopefully as the event goes deeper, play will get better.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Day 5
Not much to mention today. The roads around vegas were so much more manageable then what it was like on the weekend. Although when i got to the poker room at the venetian i was number 16 on the waiting list.
They finally opened up a brand new table. This was ok because everyone started with the same amount of chips(usually $200). But play would be relatively tight in the early going.
I played for about 2 hours and was up $400 even and then went over to the rio to watch the ME for a little bit. Thats all for now.
Days in Vegas: 5
Net Winnings Today: $400
Net Winnings Total: $1517
They finally opened up a brand new table. This was ok because everyone started with the same amount of chips(usually $200). But play would be relatively tight in the early going.
I played for about 2 hours and was up $400 even and then went over to the rio to watch the ME for a little bit. Thats all for now.
Days in Vegas: 5
Net Winnings Today: $400
Net Winnings Total: $1517
Monday, July 31, 2006
Little bit of a hiccup
Im tired. 6:30am. Lost. ill cut to the chase
Day 4
Net Winnings Today - (-$185)
Net Winnings Total - $1117
Day 4
Net Winnings Today - (-$185)
Net Winnings Total - $1117
Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Venetian Poker Room
This is the only poker room I've played at so far this go around in Vegas. When you get to the main casino floor its only a few feet from the escalators. It's a very spacious room that accomodates 39 tables. Games run 24/7 with a variety of types of poker and limits to choose from. They have 6/12 mixed games, 9/18 limit, 1-3 NL and a few other limits that are a changeup from your regular games.
Even during peak times you dont have to wait very long to get on a table. The longest i waited, was the first time i went when it took about 10 minutes to get on one. Other than that i get there and go right to playing.
The staff there is great. They are very friendly and treat the players well. I haven't had nor seen 1 complaint since i have been there.
The dealers vary like any other poker room. Some get in lots of hands an hour while there are 2-3 of them who take a little bit of time to get the cards in the air.
Skill levels vary depending on what game you're playing. I've only played 1-2 so i cant comment on the higher skill sets. I did run into Jean-Robert Bellande last night, as i was cashing out. I asked what he was playing and he said 10-20 NL. I wished him luck in the Main Event and was on my way.
You're also able to get food orders sent directly to your table. There are waiters who give you a menu and you can order a variety of foods and they bring it to you in a good amount of time. The food is pretty good and its not really that expensive either.
The only real complaint that i would make, which the other players make a fuss about also is the amount of time it takes to get a cocktail waitress in the room. There usually is around 2-3 of them and they take forever to get.
Other than that i give The Venetian Poker Room an 8.5/10.
Even during peak times you dont have to wait very long to get on a table. The longest i waited, was the first time i went when it took about 10 minutes to get on one. Other than that i get there and go right to playing.
The staff there is great. They are very friendly and treat the players well. I haven't had nor seen 1 complaint since i have been there.
The dealers vary like any other poker room. Some get in lots of hands an hour while there are 2-3 of them who take a little bit of time to get the cards in the air.
Skill levels vary depending on what game you're playing. I've only played 1-2 so i cant comment on the higher skill sets. I did run into Jean-Robert Bellande last night, as i was cashing out. I asked what he was playing and he said 10-20 NL. I wished him luck in the Main Event and was on my way.
You're also able to get food orders sent directly to your table. There are waiters who give you a menu and you can order a variety of foods and they bring it to you in a good amount of time. The food is pretty good and its not really that expensive either.
The only real complaint that i would make, which the other players make a fuss about also is the amount of time it takes to get a cocktail waitress in the room. There usually is around 2-3 of them and they take forever to get.
Other than that i give The Venetian Poker Room an 8.5/10.
3rd session
Well tonight i again headed back down to the venetian around 8 oclock or so and got right to a table. I drew a nice table yet again and got great reads on players. I dont know what it is, but online im pretty much solely a tournament player. I can't play cash games at all. But live, i just shoot into some sort of mode. I will save all the specifics for another post but in an hour and a half i was up $602 dollars. Yes, this is 1-2 NL im playing. I am making nice reads on people and just playing very well. Tomorrow im going to put up a review on The Venetian and talk about the WSOP so far. The stuff i have seen is absolutely horrendous. I was just in utter shock at some of the plays that were being made.
Days in Vegas: 3
Net Winnings Today: $602
Net Winnings Total: $1302
Days in Vegas: 3
Net Winnings Today: $602
Net Winnings Total: $1302
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Day 2
I woke up around 1pm vegas time(4 est) and was just lounging around for a little bit. Grabbed a quick shower and went to get some groceries at Albertsons and got some lunch. My cousin had to go to the Rio at 6 for work so i thought i would leave a little bit before him and head on over and admire the debaccle they call the Main Event. Reading the updates in the morning they said they were going to have around 500 alternates each first day. That adds up to about 10k people, if the max of 2000 people was reached each day.
As i reached the Amazon Room i just happened to notice Layne Flack 2 tables from the rail. He had a very low chip stack and was looking very bored. He also didnt look to fond of the railers. A couple tables down, a table directly on the rail i found Minh Ly. He played a couple of hands when i was there and surprisingly got bullied out of all of them. I walked to the ESPN Feature table and Scotty Nguyen was there, but i just kept walking. And after about 30 minutes i was bored and wanted to play, so i headed over to The Venetian.
I sat down at another 1/2 NL table and recognized a kid that i played with last night and got into some chit chat with him. I was playin the same as last night and was gettin a feel for my table. 2 to my left was a laggy asian kid. He liked to 3 bet with nothing a lot, but stayed unpredictable and was quite crafty.
I wasnt winning any pots and had about $165 in my stack when i picked up AK in the sb. There were 5 limpers in the pot and i wanted to take the pot down right there since i was OOP so i made it $17 to go. The laggy asian kid(we'll use lak) was the only caller and we see a flop. It comes Ah 4d 6h. Nice flop for me. I bet out $40 into the $46 dollar pot or so and he flat calls. So im yelling black in my head. Turn comes 4c, which is a great card. I lead out and go all in, or so i thought. I forgot i had a $5 chip capped on my cards so i had 5 bones left over. After about a minute and a half he calls. The Qc comes on the river and i throw my last 5 in the pot and he goes "I think i just caught it". So im thinking he had QQ, well no he flips over AQ for the rivered better 2 pair....wonderful. So me being the person that i am, i threw a small fit about him calling 100 dollars on the turn with AQ. He kept saying sorry every 3 and a half seconds and i told him it was no problem to shut him up after a while.
Of course i reload to $200 to win my money back. Some interesting hands occured that i took note of. You always have to be paying attention. I picked up some great info on a player which later helped me rake a HUGE pot. This guy across from me in a yellow cap was just awful. But he was aggressive and was able to push people out of a lot of pots. There were 2 hands in particular. The one time he was on the button and the cutoff made it 15 to go. He re-pops to 40 and the cutoff pushes in for about $120 total. He calls after thinking for literally 3 seconds. The cutoff shows AA and he shows the J9o. Well i think we know whats coming. Flop 7 8 T. Yep you saw that correctly. He takes it down when the guy fails to catch runner runner. Another hand comes by where there is a 3 way all in and it is obvious the other 2 guys have AA and KK, which they did, but it has them both covered and shows A7s. Flops the 2 spades and gets there on the turn. I was dieing of laughter and could not wait to catch this guy.
Then it came. With 5 limpers i get AK in the sb yet again and make it $15 to go. The LAK folds and it goes to the Psycho who goes all in for $233 total. Everyone folds to me and im like, what is going on here. I tell the dealer im gonna need a few minutes because this was a huge pot. I start talkin to him to get some info and i ask what you have J9 again? He goes you have to pay to find out brotha. $233 is a lot of money for AK pre flop. This isnt a tournament its a cash game. He could have a low pp like 66 or 77. I thought at WORST i was a 60-40 dog. So after about 4 minutes of thinking i put my $233 in the pot(i had him covered by about 45 bucks) and he flips over Ah 7h. Flop comes 6c Qh 3d, Turn 6h, and at that point i say out loud, you have got to be kidding. River...8....spades. I didnt go nuts i said yessssss and said nh and sat back down. After that hand i finally got into a groove and ended the night up $185. From being down $225 and then fighting back and making a profit was great. It's 5:37am and its time for bed.
Days in Vegas: 2
Net Winnings Today: $185
Net Winnings Total: $770
As i reached the Amazon Room i just happened to notice Layne Flack 2 tables from the rail. He had a very low chip stack and was looking very bored. He also didnt look to fond of the railers. A couple tables down, a table directly on the rail i found Minh Ly. He played a couple of hands when i was there and surprisingly got bullied out of all of them. I walked to the ESPN Feature table and Scotty Nguyen was there, but i just kept walking. And after about 30 minutes i was bored and wanted to play, so i headed over to The Venetian.
I sat down at another 1/2 NL table and recognized a kid that i played with last night and got into some chit chat with him. I was playin the same as last night and was gettin a feel for my table. 2 to my left was a laggy asian kid. He liked to 3 bet with nothing a lot, but stayed unpredictable and was quite crafty.
I wasnt winning any pots and had about $165 in my stack when i picked up AK in the sb. There were 5 limpers in the pot and i wanted to take the pot down right there since i was OOP so i made it $17 to go. The laggy asian kid(we'll use lak) was the only caller and we see a flop. It comes Ah 4d 6h. Nice flop for me. I bet out $40 into the $46 dollar pot or so and he flat calls. So im yelling black in my head. Turn comes 4c, which is a great card. I lead out and go all in, or so i thought. I forgot i had a $5 chip capped on my cards so i had 5 bones left over. After about a minute and a half he calls. The Qc comes on the river and i throw my last 5 in the pot and he goes "I think i just caught it". So im thinking he had QQ, well no he flips over AQ for the rivered better 2 pair....wonderful. So me being the person that i am, i threw a small fit about him calling 100 dollars on the turn with AQ. He kept saying sorry every 3 and a half seconds and i told him it was no problem to shut him up after a while.
Of course i reload to $200 to win my money back. Some interesting hands occured that i took note of. You always have to be paying attention. I picked up some great info on a player which later helped me rake a HUGE pot. This guy across from me in a yellow cap was just awful. But he was aggressive and was able to push people out of a lot of pots. There were 2 hands in particular. The one time he was on the button and the cutoff made it 15 to go. He re-pops to 40 and the cutoff pushes in for about $120 total. He calls after thinking for literally 3 seconds. The cutoff shows AA and he shows the J9o. Well i think we know whats coming. Flop 7 8 T. Yep you saw that correctly. He takes it down when the guy fails to catch runner runner. Another hand comes by where there is a 3 way all in and it is obvious the other 2 guys have AA and KK, which they did, but it has them both covered and shows A7s. Flops the 2 spades and gets there on the turn. I was dieing of laughter and could not wait to catch this guy.
Then it came. With 5 limpers i get AK in the sb yet again and make it $15 to go. The LAK folds and it goes to the Psycho who goes all in for $233 total. Everyone folds to me and im like, what is going on here. I tell the dealer im gonna need a few minutes because this was a huge pot. I start talkin to him to get some info and i ask what you have J9 again? He goes you have to pay to find out brotha. $233 is a lot of money for AK pre flop. This isnt a tournament its a cash game. He could have a low pp like 66 or 77. I thought at WORST i was a 60-40 dog. So after about 4 minutes of thinking i put my $233 in the pot(i had him covered by about 45 bucks) and he flips over Ah 7h. Flop comes 6c Qh 3d, Turn 6h, and at that point i say out loud, you have got to be kidding. River...8....spades. I didnt go nuts i said yessssss and said nh and sat back down. After that hand i finally got into a groove and ended the night up $185. From being down $225 and then fighting back and making a profit was great. It's 5:37am and its time for bed.
Days in Vegas: 2
Net Winnings Today: $185
Net Winnings Total: $770
Friday, July 28, 2006
1st Session
Well after i got situated here at the apartment, we wasted no time in getting out to the rio. It's just like anything else in life. You start seeing people on TV and your awe struck. They started the Poker expo today and we saw numerous faces. First off, the amazon room is gigantic..i cant imagine all those tables being played at once. I saw Mickey Appleman, Greg Raymer, Kenna James, Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, and Chris Ferguson. Tomorrow when the ME starts im sure that room will be electrifying.
I put in my first session over at The Venetian. We played for about 8 hours on 1-2 no limit tables. Right now im just going to give a report on what happened, ill post my review and hands at the end. I left with a Net Win of $585 dollars. My inital buy in was the max for $200 and i ran it up to $785. Not bad for my first 1-2 session. I actually think that is pretty impressive.
Anyway i didn't want to type too much cuz im tired as shit. Till next time.
I put in my first session over at The Venetian. We played for about 8 hours on 1-2 no limit tables. Right now im just going to give a report on what happened, ill post my review and hands at the end. I left with a Net Win of $585 dollars. My inital buy in was the max for $200 and i ran it up to $785. Not bad for my first 1-2 session. I actually think that is pretty impressive.
Anyway i didn't want to type too much cuz im tired as shit. Till next time.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Vegas Baby!
I just got to my cousins apartment in Las Vegas. Everything is all set up and we're about to head over to the rio to watch the FT of the $1500 NL Event. Wow this is going to be a show.
Viva Las Vegas
In about 2 hours im going to get in my car and head off to the airport...5 and a half hours later, ill be in the city that never sleeps..Las Vegas. I absolutely can not wait to get out there. I haven't been there since last year when i went for my 21st Birthday. Even though I wont be playing it, im still going to be at the Main Event living through friends that i know will be playing. I wish everyone safe travels and the BEST of luck going into the biggest tournament, not just of your lives, but the BIGGEST tournament man kind has ever seen. Fuck, now i want to play, anyone want to go half and half?
P.S. Home game tonight took 2nd in the $50 buy in end of the month tourney. Was heads up with a slight chip lead and got it all in with AK vs Q9(blinds were astronomical) and she spiked a Q on the turn. Still $270 bones isnt bad, but $485 would have been better.
P.S. Home game tonight took 2nd in the $50 buy in end of the month tourney. Was heads up with a slight chip lead and got it all in with AK vs Q9(blinds were astronomical) and she spiked a Q on the turn. Still $270 bones isnt bad, but $485 would have been better.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
2 weeks...2 Final Tables
For the second consecutive week i went deep in the CardPlayer weekly forum tournament. Last week i ran through 46 or so people and took 3rd. This week while getting all the money in with the best hand after the flop, i finished 2nd after a guy spiked an ace on the turn.
Nothing much else to talk about...gettin amped for vegas. Here is an updated picture of the way i 8 table with stars' new resizable table feature.
Nothing much else to talk about...gettin amped for vegas. Here is an updated picture of the way i 8 table with stars' new resizable table feature.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Telling a Consistent Story
I'm playing in a $5 MTT Freezeout right now and a hand just came up that i thought i would discuss.
The situation is that its fairly early in the tournament, i dont yet have an image, nor does any other player at the table. I don't recognize any of the people at the table and i dont have any notes on them. I havent been playing too many hands because i had to take out the dog and had to do something else. The blinds are at 25/50 and i have 1300 in chips. I'm in pretty good shape still and dont need to make any drastic plays. So we go to the hand..
Dealt to trixter23 [7c 5s]
dapper4: calls
EL CAP 2006: raises 50 to 100
trixter23: calls 50
dapper4: calls 50
So im in the BB and a guy from the cutoff mini raises $50 to $100. Even though i have a pretty crappy hand in the 7c 5s, its mathematically wrong to fold here. The other limper calls and we see a flop.
*** FLOP *** [2d 7h Jc]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: bets 50
trixter23: calls 50
dapper4: calls 50
I check and the mini raiser, makes yet another mini raise at the pot here to 50. What do you guys put him on here? If he had a set, i doubt he would be betting out on that board. Did he miss and is making a continuation bet? Does he have a Jack? I dont really know yet. But what i do know is he bet 50 into a pot of 300. With 2nd pair and those odds im not going anywhere.
*** TURN *** [2d 7h Jc] [Qc]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: checks
What was so special about this Qc that made him check? Did he finally hit something? Or did he give up at the fact that he still has nothing that he cant bet out.
*** RIVER *** [2d 7h Jc Qc] [4s]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: bets 250
trixter23: calls 250
dapper4: folds
So the 4s rattles off on the river. That couldn't have helped him. So when the Qc comes off he checks and the 4s comes he bets out again. Does he think we are afraid of the board and wont call here? Im not sure. Something about his play didn't make sense. If he bets the turn, i go away. I'll be convinced he has a better hand. I actually put him on a busted back door flush draw of some kind. The 2nd club comes to him on the turn, and he decided he wanted to take a free card on the river to see if he gets there. But most likely he isnt going to get paid off if he makes it.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
EL CAP 2006: shows [Ah Ks] (high card Ace)
trixter23: shows [7c 5s] (a pair of Sevens)
trixter23 collected 975 from pot
Well we werent right, but we werent wrong either. He shows AK for a weakly played hand on his part. We take down 975 chips, which is 475 or so net at the 25/50 level. Little pots like these do a lot for ya. For one, they boost your confidence. They also give you a great read on the player for the future. Not only in the same tournament, but other ones you may see him in. Take notes, or even post the HH from that hand in the note box. The more knowledge you have about a player, and how he plays particular hands will help you out in the long run.
Good luck to you all
The situation is that its fairly early in the tournament, i dont yet have an image, nor does any other player at the table. I don't recognize any of the people at the table and i dont have any notes on them. I havent been playing too many hands because i had to take out the dog and had to do something else. The blinds are at 25/50 and i have 1300 in chips. I'm in pretty good shape still and dont need to make any drastic plays. So we go to the hand..
Dealt to trixter23 [7c 5s]
dapper4: calls
EL CAP 2006: raises 50 to 100
trixter23: calls 50
dapper4: calls 50
So im in the BB and a guy from the cutoff mini raises $50 to $100. Even though i have a pretty crappy hand in the 7c 5s, its mathematically wrong to fold here. The other limper calls and we see a flop.
*** FLOP *** [2d 7h Jc]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: bets 50
trixter23: calls 50
dapper4: calls 50
I check and the mini raiser, makes yet another mini raise at the pot here to 50. What do you guys put him on here? If he had a set, i doubt he would be betting out on that board. Did he miss and is making a continuation bet? Does he have a Jack? I dont really know yet. But what i do know is he bet 50 into a pot of 300. With 2nd pair and those odds im not going anywhere.
*** TURN *** [2d 7h Jc] [Qc]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: checks
What was so special about this Qc that made him check? Did he finally hit something? Or did he give up at the fact that he still has nothing that he cant bet out.
*** RIVER *** [2d 7h Jc Qc] [4s]
trixter23: checks
dapper4: checks
EL CAP 2006: bets 250
trixter23: calls 250
dapper4: folds
So the 4s rattles off on the river. That couldn't have helped him. So when the Qc comes off he checks and the 4s comes he bets out again. Does he think we are afraid of the board and wont call here? Im not sure. Something about his play didn't make sense. If he bets the turn, i go away. I'll be convinced he has a better hand. I actually put him on a busted back door flush draw of some kind. The 2nd club comes to him on the turn, and he decided he wanted to take a free card on the river to see if he gets there. But most likely he isnt going to get paid off if he makes it.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
EL CAP 2006: shows [Ah Ks] (high card Ace)
trixter23: shows [7c 5s] (a pair of Sevens)
trixter23 collected 975 from pot
Well we werent right, but we werent wrong either. He shows AK for a weakly played hand on his part. We take down 975 chips, which is 475 or so net at the 25/50 level. Little pots like these do a lot for ya. For one, they boost your confidence. They also give you a great read on the player for the future. Not only in the same tournament, but other ones you may see him in. Take notes, or even post the HH from that hand in the note box. The more knowledge you have about a player, and how he plays particular hands will help you out in the long run.
Good luck to you all
Sunday, July 16, 2006
2 9 9
That number you see in big bold letters up there is the amount of people that kept me from the Main Event. As i said in the previous post, it is one of my dreams to play in this tournament. When i got my computer loaded up and saw the amount of people that i was going to have to run through, i almost withdrew. Seeing how the odds were going to be better on Full Tilts seat guarantee tournament i was going to play there. Then i decided, you know what, im stayin on stars no matter how many people sign up. I know the structure 10x better, the players 10x more, and im 10x more comfortable. You have to face obstacles on your way to your dreams, and this was mine.
It started with Lee Jones - Poker Room Manager giving us a nice little message.
Before i start this, i want to talk a little bit about my gameplan. I didn't want to play big pots unless i was 99.99999% sure i had the best hand. There is no reason to mix it up early when i dont need to be. A lot of people had a set number of chips they wanted to get. This wasnt the case for me. I just wanted them all. The more chips i can get a hold of the better. The chip count goal is a little off because it depends on when you get a hold of that number. If i get 50k in chips in the first 3 hours and then keep folding, chances are im going to get blinded out. As you'll see i make a couple of lay downs, where if it was a cash tournament i woiuld have pushed over the top or called. Comments are great so leave plenty!
It was great to play in the biggest satellite in history, but it wasn't going to be fun running through the 7300+ people. So without further interuption, i give you the 150 seat guaranteed tournament history of trixter23.
4:38 - Im in the sb and pick up Ac Qc. There are a few limpers ahead of me, so instead of makin a raise i just complete from the sb.
Flop - 9d 4h Qs
Hero - Bets 60
Villain 1 - Calls 60
Villain 2 - Calls 60
Turn - 9d 4h Qs [As ]
Hero - Bets 85
Villain 1 - Calls 85
Villain 2 - Calls 85
River - 9d 4h Qs As [4d]
Hero - Bets 100
Villain 1 - Folds
Villain 2 - Calls 100
trixter23: shows [Ac Qc] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
DarthJ7: mucks hand
Seat 8: DarthJ7 mucked [Jd Qd]
4:42 - Get dealt KK and raise it up and everyone folds.
4:48 - Everyone folds to the sb and he completes, i check and we see a flop.
Hero - 10d 7d
Flop - 3d 7c Kc
Hero - Bets 20
Villain - Folds
Blinds go up to 15/30
4:58 - Folded to me in the cutoff and i hold Ah 8h and make a raise.
Hero raises 60 to 90
Villain calls 75
Flop - Kh 4c 6s
Hero - Bets 120
Villain - Folds
Half way through first level - 6889 of 7377 left.
I have $2925 chips which is good for 1947 of 6889.
5:08 - Get dealt KK again. I'm in the big blind and actually was more worried about the flat caller from the sb, so i re-pop and they both fold.
Button - Raises to 90
SB - Calls 90
Hero - Raises to 230 to 320
Button - Folds
SB - Folds
Blinds go up to 25/50
5:21 - Get dealt AK UTG, make a standard 3x raise to 150, UTG+2 (who is a new player to the table) re-pops me with a 4x raise and after a few seconds i fold and he shows KK. Which boosted my confidence. Never show your cards unless you have to.
Hero - Raises 100 to 150
Villain - Raises 450 to 600
Hero - Folds
Villain shows [Ks Kd] (a pair of Kings)
5:21 - Dealt Jc 8c in the big blind. Everyone folds to the sb and he completes and we see a flop. Again i probably should have made more off him but if he has spades im done, so i was making very small bets so i could get away from the hand later. I was very surprised to see what he mucked.
Flop - 7s 9s 10s
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
Turn - 7s 9s 10s [4d]
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
River - 7s 9s 10s 4d [Jh]
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
Seat 3: Fantini21 (small blind) mucked [Tc Qh]
5:22 - Dealt 77 in the sb, i make it 150 to go and the bb folds.
First break - 1 hour mark
avg stack - 3030 my stack - 3220
5974 of 7377 left.
im 2152 of that 5974.
5740 left to go.
Blinds go up to 50/100
5:40 - Very interesting hand. Villain 1 wins me a nice side pot when he limps and brings the guy next to him into the pot. Plus, looking back, its a good thing Villain 1 didnt have that many chips.
Dealt to Hero: QQ
Villain 1: calls 100
Villain 2: calls 100
Hero: raises 300 to 400
Villain 3: folds
Villain 1: calls 185 and is all-in
Villain 2: calls 300
Flop - 5d 9c 7d
Hero - Bets 750
Villain 2 - Calls 750
Turn - 5d 9c 7d [5h]
Hero - bets 2020 and is all-in
Villain 2 - Folds
River - 5d 9c 7d 5h [Td]
Hero: shows [Qd Qs] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Hero collected 1730 from side pot
Villain 1: shows [Ks Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
Villain 1 collected 955 from main pot
5:46 - Get TT and limp. bb makes it 700 to go and i fold. - he shows JJ. After a 7x raise, unless i flop a set i cant continue the hand. So i fold and it was the correct fold.
5:47 - I get KK and raise it to 350 and everyone folds - stack at T3800.
5:56 - Ausing the guy in the bb yet again. This guy is a goldmine. Everyone folds to the sb yet again who completes. This time if i hit, i take him to the bank.
Dealt to Hero [Ah 3h]
Flop: 2h Ac 4d
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 200
Villain 1: calls 200
Turn: 2h Ac 4d [7s]
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 300
Villain 1: calls 300
River: 2h Ac 4d 7s [9d]
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 500
Villain 1: Folds
Hero collects 1200 from pot
Blinds go up to 75/150
my stack T4200
avg stack T3625
4966 players of 7377
im 1592 of that 4966
6:18 - dealt AK on the button. I see tons of people do this and im not sure why. Maybe if you were in EP and actually had a hand, this would have raised a red flag for me and im not sure if i would have called. This guys image was horrible as i saw him as a gold mine. Lucko always talks about telling a consistent story and this guy didnt do it. When he calls from the cutoff it screams, I want to play my hand, but it's just not quite good enough to raise with it. I think i beat him into the pot when he pushed.
Villain: calls 150
Hero: raises 300 to 450
sb: folds
bb: folds
Villain: raises 1660 to 2110 and is all in
Hero: calls 1660
Flop: 5c 3c 2d
Turn: 3h
River: Tc
Hero collects T4445 from pot and my stack is now at $6010.
6:22 - I get a walk in my bb, awesome
Blinds go up to 100/200
avg stack is 4808, my stack is 6010
3819 of 7377 and i rank 1074
3585 to go
6:31 - I pick up AA in mid to late position. UTG Raises and i repop, he calls and we see a flop.
Villain: raises 400 to 600
Hero: raises 1000 to 1600
Villain: calls 1000
Flop: Js 4s Th
Villain checks
Hero bets 2500
Villain folds
Hero collects 3500 from pot
2nd break.
avg stack is 5558 i have 7010
3199 left and im 747 out of that group.
2965 left to go.
Blinds go up to 100/200 Ante 10
6:53 - dealt AK and raise from EP and everyone folds.
7:00 - dealt AK in the BB, folds to sb who completes, i raise and he folds like a little girl. Stack $7120.
7:03 - dealt AK in cutoff, a raise comes from UTG, i flat call, and fold to a bet on a horrible flop.
UTG raises 400 to 600
Hero calls 600.
Flop: 8s 9h 4h
UTG bets 800
Hero folds - Stack $6480
7:07 - Get a walk in my bb - Stack at $6520
7:09 - Loosening up a little bit, i get dealt 9T in the cutoff and make it 600 to go, and everyone folds. Stack at $6890
blinds go up to 150/300 Ante 15
7:18 - Dealt TT UTG+1 and make it 900 to go and everyone folds. Stack at $6815.
7:19 - get a free pass in the bb. Stack at $7010.
7:22 - Neat little hand. Cutoff makes it 1200 to go and i re pop to 3000.
Hero: Q Q
Villain: raises 900 to 1200
Hero: raises 1800 to 3000
Villain: "whens the last time you raised? lol"
Hero: "about 4 minutes ago"
Villain: folds
Villain: "I had a big hand to.
Stack at $8660
7:23 - Raise with AK and everyone folds. Stack at $9250
Blinds go up to 200/400 Ante 20
7:30 - This was one of many big hands i had throught the night. This guy raises 7x the blind from UTG+1. When i usually see overbets like this, it means this guy doesnt want to see a flop and wants to take the pot down now. He could have a mid pp like 66-JJ, which im a favorite over. He doesn't have AA or KK or he wouldnt be raising that much, because he would want action. After about 30 seconds off my time bank i come over the top and go all in. Looking back again, i realize how big of a decision this is, i forgot he had so many chips. If i lose this hand my tourney is pretty much over.
Seat 4: Hero (8675 in chips)
Seat 1: Villain (7394 in chips)
Villain: raises 2400 to 2800
Hero: raises 5855 to 8655 and is all-in
Villain: calls 4574 and is all-in
Hero: QQ
Villain: AK
Flop: 7h 2c Js
Turn: Jh
River: 6c
Stack is now at $16,809
7:47 - dealt KK and raise it up and everyone folds. Stack at $15,199
Break time - 3rd break.
1556 of 7377 left.
im 421 of 1556.
avg stack is 11852 and im at 14749.
1322 to go.
Blinds go up to 300/600 ante 30
8:00pm - raise from cutoff+1 and get re raised all in and have to fold. I figure ive been showing down good hands, i should take advantage of that and try and start stealing some pots.
Dealt: Ad 3d
Hero: raises 1200 to 1800
Villain: raises 5579 to 7379 and is all-in.
Hero: folds.
Stack at $12,499
8:11 - call an all in with AQ and chop the pot. I called with AQ because he had 7 bb's left and could be pushing with anything. my stack at the time was a meager $10,609. You have to pick up all the dead money you can to be good for later. I almost hit the spades.
Villain raises 4165 to 4765 and is all-in
Hero: calls 4465
Flop: 4h Ks 2d
Turn: Qh
River: Kh
8:15 - get dealt As Ts, raise it up, 1 caller and we go to the flop. I make a continuation bet and take the pot.
Hero raises 1200 to 1800
Villain: calls 1800
Flop: 6s 3s Jc
Hero: bets 2400
Villain: Folds
Stack at $13,804
8:17 - Another nice little hand. Get dealt KK for the 4234th time this tourney. I didn't want to see an ace flop and have to fold so i push all in over the top and he calls.
Villain raises 1800 to 2400
Hero raises 11,374 and is all-in
Villain calls 8107 and is all-in
Flop: Kc Ac 9d
Turn: 7h
River: Ah
Hero shows KK a full house, Kings full of Aces
Villain shows 88 for two pair, Aces and Eights.
Stack is now at $24,850
8:22 - get a walk in my bb and stack is now at $24,531
8:24 - raise from the CO with Kc 4h to steal and i get re popped and have to fold. Stack at $22,011
Blinds have increased to 400/800 Ante 40
8:26 - This is a very cool hand. I love post-flop play with deepstacks and being able to maneuver and go with your reads. This is just the case with this hand. This guy told me he was weak all around.
Dealt to Hero: Ah Kd
Hero: raises 1600 to 2400
Villain 1: calls 2400
BB: calls 1600
Flop: 8s 8c 4c
BB: bets 1600
Hero: calls 1600
Villain: folds
I make a little different play here and flat call his bet. There are a couple reasons why i made this play. 1) By flat calling, hopefully it scared him a little bit. I'm in position and i want to keep the pressure on him and decide how/if to bet. 2) No matter what card comes, he is going to dictate what i do on the turn. If he makes the same 1600 chip bet, i raise. If he goes lower, i raise. If he goes higher, well it depends on how high. 3) He bet 1600 chips into a 7200 chip pot or so which is extremely weak.
Turn: Js
BB: bets 800
Hero: raises 4000 to 4800
BB folds
Hero collects 12,760 from pot
Stack is now at $30k
It's hands like those that make a difference. In satellites everything is almost all pre flop play. I would have loved to play more suited connectors and such in position but it just wasnt the case tonight. If you would raise, no one would flat call, they would come over the top for all their chips. So you were forced to play premium hands.
8:32 - raise on the button with KQ and get re popped all in and i fold.
Hero: raises 1600 to 2400
Villain: raises 10640 to 13040 and is all-in
Hero folds
Stack $26,011
8:35 - Another huge hand. Again im happy these guys didn't have more chips or i would have some decisions to make. I was a little worried after i re raised when Villain 2 went all in also. I made it clear i wanted to be heads up with Villain 1 and i had a hand. I think he could have gotten away from Queens here, but he chose this spot.
Villain 1: raises 4362 to 5162 and is all-in
Hero: raises 4838 to 10000
Villain 2: calls 2213 and is all-in
Villain 1 shows Th Th
Hero shows Ah Kh
Villain 2 shows Qd Qh
Flop: 9s As 8c
Turn: 4s
River: 3s
Hero collects 14097 from pot
Stack is now at $35k.
Blinds increase to 500/1000 Ante 50
8:53 - raise it up with A8s and steal blinds. Stack at $29,406. I didn't play any hands for a while and was getting blinded down.
8:55 - I got moved to a new table and my image is clear again. I wanted to stay at that table because i knew i was going to get respect with my raises and get people to lay down hands. When i moved to this one i had to build a new one. I think i made the right plays here, but who knows. How would you guys have played these next few hands?
Seat 6: Hero (29356 in chips)
Seat 8: Villain (23176 in chips)
Dealt: Tc Ts
Hero(UTG): raises 2000 to 3000
Villain: raises 20,126 to 23126 and is all-in
I think i have to fold here. I mean i dont know how this guy plays at all. It's pretty much for my tourney life and i cant put him on a hand. I believe it was a good move. Stack is now at $26,256
8:53 - i get 77 and raise and everyone folds. Stack at $26506
4th break.
my stack is at $26,456
avg stack is $26,122
706 of 7377 left and im 280th.
472 to go.
Blinds go up to 600/1200 Ante 60
9:13 - I fold to an all in, in the BB. Even though its a short stack, i cant call this. I'm not getting odds to call and im dead to 3 outs if that. He does have 11 bb's and still has room to maneuver. So again i think this is the right play.
Seat 6: Hero (23936 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (13890 in chips)
Hero folds from the bb
9:19 - This was just bad luck. I am greatful i actually ran into a hand then a bad beat. My table image here is that i keep folding to re raises. I decide to take a stand here. I can't keep folding to re raises. I'm getting about 2.1-1 on my money and am only a big dog to an over pair. I usually dont play anything UTG unless its AA KK or QQ, but i was getting desperate. How would you have played this?
Seat 2: Villain (13504 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero ( 21656 in chips)
Hero: raises 2400 to 3600
Villain: raises 8344 to 13444 and is all in
Hero: calls 9844
Hero shows As Qh
Villain shows Qd Qs
Flop: Js Kh 4d
Turn: 3h
River: Kc
Sometime later - I was crippled and passed an orbit waiting for a hand. I pick up 33 utg and go all in.
Hero: raises 6952 to 8152 and is all in
BB: calls 6952
Hero shows 33
BB shows AK
Flops: 6c 6c 8s
Turn: Kd
River: 7h
And just like that, it was over. Before the AQ hand that crippled me i hadn't lost a hand all tournament and being 8 for 8 when i went to a showdown. I think i played pretty well. I should be happy that i ran through almost 7000 people to get where i was. I played to the best of my ability and thats all i can ask for. I wish everyone the best of luck that qualified, and i'll see you in vegas.
It started with Lee Jones - Poker Room Manager giving us a nice little message.
Before i start this, i want to talk a little bit about my gameplan. I didn't want to play big pots unless i was 99.99999% sure i had the best hand. There is no reason to mix it up early when i dont need to be. A lot of people had a set number of chips they wanted to get. This wasnt the case for me. I just wanted them all. The more chips i can get a hold of the better. The chip count goal is a little off because it depends on when you get a hold of that number. If i get 50k in chips in the first 3 hours and then keep folding, chances are im going to get blinded out. As you'll see i make a couple of lay downs, where if it was a cash tournament i woiuld have pushed over the top or called. Comments are great so leave plenty!
It was great to play in the biggest satellite in history, but it wasn't going to be fun running through the 7300+ people. So without further interuption, i give you the 150 seat guaranteed tournament history of trixter23.
4:38 - Im in the sb and pick up Ac Qc. There are a few limpers ahead of me, so instead of makin a raise i just complete from the sb.
Flop - 9d 4h Qs
Hero - Bets 60
Villain 1 - Calls 60
Villain 2 - Calls 60
Turn - 9d 4h Qs [As ]
Hero - Bets 85
Villain 1 - Calls 85
Villain 2 - Calls 85
River - 9d 4h Qs As [4d]
Hero - Bets 100
Villain 1 - Folds
Villain 2 - Calls 100
trixter23: shows [Ac Qc] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
DarthJ7: mucks hand
Seat 8: DarthJ7 mucked [Jd Qd]
4:42 - Get dealt KK and raise it up and everyone folds.
4:48 - Everyone folds to the sb and he completes, i check and we see a flop.
Hero - 10d 7d
Flop - 3d 7c Kc
Hero - Bets 20
Villain - Folds
Blinds go up to 15/30
4:58 - Folded to me in the cutoff and i hold Ah 8h and make a raise.
Hero raises 60 to 90
Villain calls 75
Flop - Kh 4c 6s
Hero - Bets 120
Villain - Folds
Half way through first level - 6889 of 7377 left.
I have $2925 chips which is good for 1947 of 6889.
5:08 - Get dealt KK again. I'm in the big blind and actually was more worried about the flat caller from the sb, so i re-pop and they both fold.
Button - Raises to 90
SB - Calls 90
Hero - Raises to 230 to 320
Button - Folds
SB - Folds
Blinds go up to 25/50
5:21 - Get dealt AK UTG, make a standard 3x raise to 150, UTG+2 (who is a new player to the table) re-pops me with a 4x raise and after a few seconds i fold and he shows KK. Which boosted my confidence. Never show your cards unless you have to.
Hero - Raises 100 to 150
Villain - Raises 450 to 600
Hero - Folds
Villain shows [Ks Kd] (a pair of Kings)
5:21 - Dealt Jc 8c in the big blind. Everyone folds to the sb and he completes and we see a flop. Again i probably should have made more off him but if he has spades im done, so i was making very small bets so i could get away from the hand later. I was very surprised to see what he mucked.
Flop - 7s 9s 10s
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
Turn - 7s 9s 10s [4d]
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
River - 7s 9s 10s 4d [Jh]
Villain - Checks
Hero - Bets 100
Villain - Calls 100
Seat 3: Fantini21 (small blind) mucked [Tc Qh]
5:22 - Dealt 77 in the sb, i make it 150 to go and the bb folds.
First break - 1 hour mark
avg stack - 3030 my stack - 3220
5974 of 7377 left.
im 2152 of that 5974.
5740 left to go.
Blinds go up to 50/100
5:40 - Very interesting hand. Villain 1 wins me a nice side pot when he limps and brings the guy next to him into the pot. Plus, looking back, its a good thing Villain 1 didnt have that many chips.
Dealt to Hero: QQ
Villain 1: calls 100
Villain 2: calls 100
Hero: raises 300 to 400
Villain 3: folds
Villain 1: calls 185 and is all-in
Villain 2: calls 300
Flop - 5d 9c 7d
Hero - Bets 750
Villain 2 - Calls 750
Turn - 5d 9c 7d [5h]
Hero - bets 2020 and is all-in
Villain 2 - Folds
River - 5d 9c 7d 5h [Td]
Hero: shows [Qd Qs] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Hero collected 1730 from side pot
Villain 1: shows [Ks Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
Villain 1 collected 955 from main pot
5:46 - Get TT and limp. bb makes it 700 to go and i fold. - he shows JJ. After a 7x raise, unless i flop a set i cant continue the hand. So i fold and it was the correct fold.
5:47 - I get KK and raise it to 350 and everyone folds - stack at T3800.
5:56 - Ausing the guy in the bb yet again. This guy is a goldmine. Everyone folds to the sb yet again who completes. This time if i hit, i take him to the bank.
Dealt to Hero [Ah 3h]
Flop: 2h Ac 4d
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 200
Villain 1: calls 200
Turn: 2h Ac 4d [7s]
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 300
Villain 1: calls 300
River: 2h Ac 4d 7s [9d]
Villain 1: checks
Hero: Bets 500
Villain 1: Folds
Hero collects 1200 from pot
Blinds go up to 75/150
my stack T4200
avg stack T3625
4966 players of 7377
im 1592 of that 4966
6:18 - dealt AK on the button. I see tons of people do this and im not sure why. Maybe if you were in EP and actually had a hand, this would have raised a red flag for me and im not sure if i would have called. This guys image was horrible as i saw him as a gold mine. Lucko always talks about telling a consistent story and this guy didnt do it. When he calls from the cutoff it screams, I want to play my hand, but it's just not quite good enough to raise with it. I think i beat him into the pot when he pushed.
Villain: calls 150
Hero: raises 300 to 450
sb: folds
bb: folds
Villain: raises 1660 to 2110 and is all in
Hero: calls 1660
Hero shows As Kh
Villain shows Ac Jh
Flop: 5c 3c 2d
Turn: 3h
River: Tc
Hero collects T4445 from pot and my stack is now at $6010.
6:22 - I get a walk in my bb, awesome
Blinds go up to 100/200
avg stack is 4808, my stack is 6010
3819 of 7377 and i rank 1074
3585 to go
6:31 - I pick up AA in mid to late position. UTG Raises and i repop, he calls and we see a flop.
Villain: raises 400 to 600
Hero: raises 1000 to 1600
Villain: calls 1000
Flop: Js 4s Th
Villain checks
Hero bets 2500
Villain folds
Hero collects 3500 from pot
2nd break.
avg stack is 5558 i have 7010
3199 left and im 747 out of that group.
2965 left to go.
Blinds go up to 100/200 Ante 10
6:53 - dealt AK and raise from EP and everyone folds.
7:00 - dealt AK in the BB, folds to sb who completes, i raise and he folds like a little girl. Stack $7120.
7:03 - dealt AK in cutoff, a raise comes from UTG, i flat call, and fold to a bet on a horrible flop.
UTG raises 400 to 600
Hero calls 600.
Flop: 8s 9h 4h
UTG bets 800
Hero folds - Stack $6480
7:07 - Get a walk in my bb - Stack at $6520
7:09 - Loosening up a little bit, i get dealt 9T in the cutoff and make it 600 to go, and everyone folds. Stack at $6890
blinds go up to 150/300 Ante 15
7:18 - Dealt TT UTG+1 and make it 900 to go and everyone folds. Stack at $6815.
7:19 - get a free pass in the bb. Stack at $7010.
7:22 - Neat little hand. Cutoff makes it 1200 to go and i re pop to 3000.
Hero: Q Q
Villain: raises 900 to 1200
Hero: raises 1800 to 3000
Villain: "whens the last time you raised? lol"
Hero: "about 4 minutes ago"
Villain: folds
Villain: "I had a big hand to.
Stack at $8660
7:23 - Raise with AK and everyone folds. Stack at $9250
Blinds go up to 200/400 Ante 20
7:30 - This was one of many big hands i had throught the night. This guy raises 7x the blind from UTG+1. When i usually see overbets like this, it means this guy doesnt want to see a flop and wants to take the pot down now. He could have a mid pp like 66-JJ, which im a favorite over. He doesn't have AA or KK or he wouldnt be raising that much, because he would want action. After about 30 seconds off my time bank i come over the top and go all in. Looking back again, i realize how big of a decision this is, i forgot he had so many chips. If i lose this hand my tourney is pretty much over.
Seat 4: Hero (8675 in chips)
Seat 1: Villain (7394 in chips)
Villain: raises 2400 to 2800
Hero: raises 5855 to 8655 and is all-in
Villain: calls 4574 and is all-in
Hero: QQ
Villain: AK
Flop: 7h 2c Js
Turn: Jh
River: 6c
Stack is now at $16,809
7:47 - dealt KK and raise it up and everyone folds. Stack at $15,199
Break time - 3rd break.
1556 of 7377 left.
im 421 of 1556.
avg stack is 11852 and im at 14749.
1322 to go.
Blinds go up to 300/600 ante 30
8:00pm - raise from cutoff+1 and get re raised all in and have to fold. I figure ive been showing down good hands, i should take advantage of that and try and start stealing some pots.
Dealt: Ad 3d
Hero: raises 1200 to 1800
Villain: raises 5579 to 7379 and is all-in.
Hero: folds.
Stack at $12,499
8:11 - call an all in with AQ and chop the pot. I called with AQ because he had 7 bb's left and could be pushing with anything. my stack at the time was a meager $10,609. You have to pick up all the dead money you can to be good for later. I almost hit the spades.
Villain raises 4165 to 4765 and is all-in
Hero: calls 4465
Flop: 4h Ks 2d
Turn: Qh
River: Kh
8:15 - get dealt As Ts, raise it up, 1 caller and we go to the flop. I make a continuation bet and take the pot.
Hero raises 1200 to 1800
Villain: calls 1800
Flop: 6s 3s Jc
Hero: bets 2400
Villain: Folds
Stack at $13,804
8:17 - Another nice little hand. Get dealt KK for the 4234th time this tourney. I didn't want to see an ace flop and have to fold so i push all in over the top and he calls.
Villain raises 1800 to 2400
Hero raises 11,374 and is all-in
Villain calls 8107 and is all-in
Flop: Kc Ac 9d
Turn: 7h
River: Ah
Hero shows KK a full house, Kings full of Aces
Villain shows 88 for two pair, Aces and Eights.
Stack is now at $24,850
8:22 - get a walk in my bb and stack is now at $24,531
8:24 - raise from the CO with Kc 4h to steal and i get re popped and have to fold. Stack at $22,011
Blinds have increased to 400/800 Ante 40
8:26 - This is a very cool hand. I love post-flop play with deepstacks and being able to maneuver and go with your reads. This is just the case with this hand. This guy told me he was weak all around.
Dealt to Hero: Ah Kd
Hero: raises 1600 to 2400
Villain 1: calls 2400
BB: calls 1600
Flop: 8s 8c 4c
BB: bets 1600
Hero: calls 1600
Villain: folds
I make a little different play here and flat call his bet. There are a couple reasons why i made this play. 1) By flat calling, hopefully it scared him a little bit. I'm in position and i want to keep the pressure on him and decide how/if to bet. 2) No matter what card comes, he is going to dictate what i do on the turn. If he makes the same 1600 chip bet, i raise. If he goes lower, i raise. If he goes higher, well it depends on how high. 3) He bet 1600 chips into a 7200 chip pot or so which is extremely weak.
Turn: Js
BB: bets 800
Hero: raises 4000 to 4800
BB folds
Hero collects 12,760 from pot
Stack is now at $30k
It's hands like those that make a difference. In satellites everything is almost all pre flop play. I would have loved to play more suited connectors and such in position but it just wasnt the case tonight. If you would raise, no one would flat call, they would come over the top for all their chips. So you were forced to play premium hands.
8:32 - raise on the button with KQ and get re popped all in and i fold.
Hero: raises 1600 to 2400
Villain: raises 10640 to 13040 and is all-in
Hero folds
Stack $26,011
8:35 - Another huge hand. Again im happy these guys didn't have more chips or i would have some decisions to make. I was a little worried after i re raised when Villain 2 went all in also. I made it clear i wanted to be heads up with Villain 1 and i had a hand. I think he could have gotten away from Queens here, but he chose this spot.
Villain 1: raises 4362 to 5162 and is all-in
Hero: raises 4838 to 10000
Villain 2: calls 2213 and is all-in
Villain 1 shows Th Th
Hero shows Ah Kh
Villain 2 shows Qd Qh
Flop: 9s As 8c
Turn: 4s
River: 3s
Hero collects 14097 from pot
Stack is now at $35k.
Blinds increase to 500/1000 Ante 50
8:53 - raise it up with A8s and steal blinds. Stack at $29,406. I didn't play any hands for a while and was getting blinded down.
8:55 - I got moved to a new table and my image is clear again. I wanted to stay at that table because i knew i was going to get respect with my raises and get people to lay down hands. When i moved to this one i had to build a new one. I think i made the right plays here, but who knows. How would you guys have played these next few hands?
Seat 6: Hero (29356 in chips)
Seat 8: Villain (23176 in chips)
Dealt: Tc Ts
Hero(UTG): raises 2000 to 3000
Villain: raises 20,126 to 23126 and is all-in
I think i have to fold here. I mean i dont know how this guy plays at all. It's pretty much for my tourney life and i cant put him on a hand. I believe it was a good move. Stack is now at $26,256
8:53 - i get 77 and raise and everyone folds. Stack at $26506
4th break.
my stack is at $26,456
avg stack is $26,122
706 of 7377 left and im 280th.
472 to go.
Blinds go up to 600/1200 Ante 60
9:13 - I fold to an all in, in the BB. Even though its a short stack, i cant call this. I'm not getting odds to call and im dead to 3 outs if that. He does have 11 bb's and still has room to maneuver. So again i think this is the right play.
Seat 6: Hero (23936 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (13890 in chips)
Hero has Ah Td
Villain raises 12630 to 13830 and is all inHero folds from the bb
9:19 - This was just bad luck. I am greatful i actually ran into a hand then a bad beat. My table image here is that i keep folding to re raises. I decide to take a stand here. I can't keep folding to re raises. I'm getting about 2.1-1 on my money and am only a big dog to an over pair. I usually dont play anything UTG unless its AA KK or QQ, but i was getting desperate. How would you have played this?
Seat 2: Villain (13504 in chips)
Seat 6: Hero ( 21656 in chips)
Hero: raises 2400 to 3600
Villain: raises 8344 to 13444 and is all in
Hero: calls 9844
Hero shows As Qh
Villain shows Qd Qs
Flop: Js Kh 4d
Turn: 3h
River: Kc
Sometime later - I was crippled and passed an orbit waiting for a hand. I pick up 33 utg and go all in.
Hero: raises 6952 to 8152 and is all in
BB: calls 6952
Hero shows 33
BB shows AK
Flops: 6c 6c 8s
Turn: Kd
River: 7h
And just like that, it was over. Before the AQ hand that crippled me i hadn't lost a hand all tournament and being 8 for 8 when i went to a showdown. I think i played pretty well. I should be happy that i ran through almost 7000 people to get where i was. I played to the best of my ability and thats all i can ask for. I wish everyone the best of luck that qualified, and i'll see you in vegas.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Huge Weekend
This weekend coming up, i very well could say is the biggest tournament of my life to date. There are 150 seats being given away on PokerStars and 100 seats being given away on Full Tilt. Yes, i am talking about seats to the Main Event at the World Series of Poker. I am registered for the 150 seat on PokerStars already. If anyone wants to buy directly in, check out Pocket5's W$ Transfer promo Nat is doing. He is selling W$370 for W$330. I did that and bought directly in.
There are going to be TONS of satellite players in this event and i want to get in the mix early. I don't mean playing huge pots but playing small pots where i can see all 5 cards and really outplay these guys. Building a stack early on is so crucial in satellites. You can sit back and push people around 10x more in sats than a reg tournament. It's a dream of mine to play in the Main Event and if i can even play in the tournament, it would be something i would never forget.
There are going to be TONS of satellite players in this event and i want to get in the mix early. I don't mean playing huge pots but playing small pots where i can see all 5 cards and really outplay these guys. Building a stack early on is so crucial in satellites. You can sit back and push people around 10x more in sats than a reg tournament. It's a dream of mine to play in the Main Event and if i can even play in the tournament, it would be something i would never forget.
Even if i dont make it into the ME, im still going to Vegas baby. My cousin is working for CardPlayer at the WSOP and has an apartment there. Basically that will be the place ill just be crashing at when i need sleep. It is very nice. I'll be out there from July 27th(1 day prior to the start of the ME) through August 9th. I rented a car while im out there because taxi's are ridiculously over priced there and hes a couple miles off the strip for the shuttles. A roundtrip taxi fare where he is, is $50. Im stayin for approx 2 weeks, and that would come to $800 minus tip for the trip. And thats only if i stay at the same place all day! So i rented a car. I lucked out because i got a Jeep Grand Cherokee - Laredo. This is awesome because i have the exact same car, but mine is fully loaded and is the Limited version. I'll be saving atleast $500 by doing it this way. I know lucko21 will be out there playing so i'll watch him play for a little bit and maybe a few others. If you're planning on being out there shoot me an email or a comment and we could possibly get together.
New Home Game
My buddy Greg has wanted me to go to his home game for a couple weeks now. I've always had things to do on Wednesday nights, but i cleared my schedule after my basketball game last night and headed on over. I only knew 2 other people that were there so it would be a fun night. Reason being is because i get to make a first impression. None of these guys have seen how i play, nor have i seen how they play. So who has the advantage? Did you really think i was going to say anyone but myself? Going into a room of new players it's fun because you dont have an image. It's like if you were not popular at a school, then you moved across the country you can start off fresh.
We had a total of 22 people. I must say everything was very organized. I didn't get the name of the program the guy used, but he had a tournament program that would keep tract of avg chip count, levels, etc etc. He had the main computer, and 2 monitors in each corner of the room. He had 3 poker tables set up, 1 that was very nice, an octagon table that was good and another 9 man table that was clean also. I felt like i kind of got the shaft on the first couple of tables. The reason i say that is 4 people didnt show up. So we had to blind off their stacks. This meant that i couldn't take their chips.
I only had to identify how 2 players at my table played. The guy directly to my left played a very LAG type. I would be able to get him later. I didn't get any cards in the early going at all. So i was playing pretty tight. Then 2 more players filled the seats and we could get going. I got half of LAG players chips when i flopped a pair of aces and turned 2 pair, he folded to my river bet. One of the new players on the table was raising and everyone would fold and respect those raises and he would show an ace after the folds. He made a 3x raise UTG and i had AQ on the button so i repopped to 400, he re raised again and i folded and he again showed an ace saying, i wouldnt mess around with you UTG. I then took LAG players last chips when my AQ out raced his 77 when i turned a queen.
i had about 2200 when i picked up KK on the button. The UTG raiser from before was in the bb and he was the only one who called my 3x raise. The flop came Q 5 2. Excellent flop for Kings. I made a continuation bet of 400, he thought for a moment and re popped to 800. I went hollywood for a couple seconds and just went all in. I had him covered by about 400 chips and he folded. So i only had to showdown 1 hand while i was at the table.
With starting stacks of T1000, i managed to triple my stack, then a little more and ended up with T3200 at the FT. Well again as i said we had less players than the other tables, everyone else had about an average of T6000. I didnt do anything crazy and found myself easily short stacked. I pushed in on the button for T1600 with blinds at 200/400 with A6. The big blind had a little bit more chips than me called with 33. He hit his set on the flop and just to taunt me the Ace came, but i was done. I will definitely be playing there again because i can see already it will be very profitable.
We had a total of 22 people. I must say everything was very organized. I didn't get the name of the program the guy used, but he had a tournament program that would keep tract of avg chip count, levels, etc etc. He had the main computer, and 2 monitors in each corner of the room. He had 3 poker tables set up, 1 that was very nice, an octagon table that was good and another 9 man table that was clean also. I felt like i kind of got the shaft on the first couple of tables. The reason i say that is 4 people didnt show up. So we had to blind off their stacks. This meant that i couldn't take their chips.
I only had to identify how 2 players at my table played. The guy directly to my left played a very LAG type. I would be able to get him later. I didn't get any cards in the early going at all. So i was playing pretty tight. Then 2 more players filled the seats and we could get going. I got half of LAG players chips when i flopped a pair of aces and turned 2 pair, he folded to my river bet. One of the new players on the table was raising and everyone would fold and respect those raises and he would show an ace after the folds. He made a 3x raise UTG and i had AQ on the button so i repopped to 400, he re raised again and i folded and he again showed an ace saying, i wouldnt mess around with you UTG. I then took LAG players last chips when my AQ out raced his 77 when i turned a queen.
i had about 2200 when i picked up KK on the button. The UTG raiser from before was in the bb and he was the only one who called my 3x raise. The flop came Q 5 2. Excellent flop for Kings. I made a continuation bet of 400, he thought for a moment and re popped to 800. I went hollywood for a couple seconds and just went all in. I had him covered by about 400 chips and he folded. So i only had to showdown 1 hand while i was at the table.
With starting stacks of T1000, i managed to triple my stack, then a little more and ended up with T3200 at the FT. Well again as i said we had less players than the other tables, everyone else had about an average of T6000. I didnt do anything crazy and found myself easily short stacked. I pushed in on the button for T1600 with blinds at 200/400 with A6. The big blind had a little bit more chips than me called with 33. He hit his set on the flop and just to taunt me the Ace came, but i was done. I will definitely be playing there again because i can see already it will be very profitable.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Limit Omaha 8/B FT Part 2
So looking at the chip stacks, it looks like i have my work cut out for me, but it's limit and the blinds are ginormous so we're ok. My gameplan going in was to catch someone with their pants down like i did in the previous post.
About 20 hands into the FT, we still had 8 players remaining. Stacks looked a little bit like this..
Seat 1: Gabrielucas (21216 in chips)
Seat 2: *AUM* (115455 in chips)
Seat 3: Smarky G (123696 in chips)
Seat 4: connjurer (132006 in chips)
Seat 5: booya25 (105942 in chips)
Seat 6: trixter23 (82392 in chips)
Seat 7: dracula15thc (138275 in chips)
Seat 9: CLUBN (169018 in chips)
booya25: posts small blind 4000
trixter23: posts big blind 8000
So we're in the big blind and get dealt -
4s 8c 3d 5s
Considering im in the bb, if no one opens for a raise ill just check to see a flop. In some cases early on in the tournament, i'll raise with this hand. Reason being people who play A2 w/out a backup(1 or 2 more low cards other than A2) can get caught very easily. If the flop comes A 2 x for instance, their 2 pair maybe good, but ill have the hammer lock on the low if it comes and possibly even the wheel which would then turn into a 6 or 8 high straight. The action goes like this.
dracula15thc: calls 8000
CLUBN: folds
Gabrielucas: folds
*AUM*: folds
Smarky G: calls 8000
connjurer: calls 8000
booya25: folds
trixter23: checks
The flop comes..
Kd 6h 4d
This is a decent flop for my hand. I picked up a wrap draw. Im not going to get fancy here, the right thing to do is check call, because of the sheer fact that we have 3 players left to act behind us.
trixter23: checks
dracula15thc: bets 8000
Smarky G: calls 8000
connjurer: calls 8000
trixter23: calls 8000
Size of Pot = $68000
The Turn:
7c
Jackpot! Right now i have the current nuts. This is a great card for that reason and because it gave someone the low. There is 1 problem though. There are 2 diamonds on the board. After the turn hit i think i immediately starting saying to myself, NO DIAMOND, NO DIAMOND! Knowing someone has the low, i checked so that whoever has it will bet out, then i can re raise. If a diamond comes on the river, what can i do? Id rather maximize the value of my hand and make them pay for their flush rather then just play it soft and let it come. So i check and the awesome guy bets out and i re pop it up to 32k. Everyone calls so i know i can get beat.
trixter23: checks
dracula15thc: bets 16000
Smarky G: calls 16000
connjurer: calls 16000
trixter23: raises 16000 to 32000
dracula15thc: calls 16000
Smarky G: calls 16000
connjurer: calls 16000
Size of Pot = $196,000
The River brings.
10s
This wasnt such a great card for me at all. Someone could very easily have A289 and im on my way out the door. I bet out hoping to get raised, because 1) that will tell me that im able to go to bed because someone hit their straight or 2) I get ALL my chips in the middle with the current nuts going to 1 card on the river. I almost can live losing like that. Nah i cant. Here is the final action.
trixter23: bets 16000
dracula15thc: raises 16000 to 32000
Smarky G: calls 32000
connjurer: calls 32000
trixter23: raises 2392 to 34392 and is all-in
dracula15thc: calls 2392
Smarky G: calls 2392
connjurer: calls 2392
Size of Pot = $333,568
We all know what i have, but lets see what everyone else has.
trixter23: shows [4s 8c 3d 5s] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,3)
dracula15thc: shows [Jd As 2c Qc] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
Smarky G: shows [Ad 8h 2h Qd] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
connjurer: shows [Kc 9c 2s Ah] (HI: a pair of Kings; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
It was an absolute miracle that a diamond didn't come on the river. But needless to say I literally thanked dracula for raising. When you look at the action he raised with his low draw. All 3 of these guys had the A2 and got quartered. I was in bliss when i saw their hands. Their ROI was horrible because.....
trixter23 collected 166784
potdracula15thc collected 55595
Smarky G collected 55595
connjurer collected 55594
And that ladies and gentleman, is how you grab the chip lead.
Like i said though, in limit its easy to lose a lead.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403711 - Almost hit the 200k mark on this hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403716 - 230K working the magic. After this hand i didnt play some for a while because people got short stacked and they somehow made recoveries. 2 of the Players were horrible. So i took the scenic route and tried to fold to more money. Which is something you shouldn't really do. Because when hands like this next one come up, you get crippled.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403719 - I was sick this hand. I knew i should have just checked behind on the river but i had to throw money out there. Im not sure what that guy is thinking playing that hand, but he did. I had the intention of just check calling all the way down but why would he just check the river? You put 56k in the pot, why not another 32? And of course he knew his 4 high flush was good. This hand killed me and sent me to 126k in chips.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403734 - I raised 1 hand after that and got re popped and made a flat call. I completely missed the board and had to fold which put me down to 60k. With blinds 8/16k this was not fun. AUM was all in maybe 4 times ahead of me and no one could knock him out. I inevitably had to make a stand.
I played well, but when you get that deep you always want to win. Tonight i have the CP tourney which i have to make a splash in. I've missed the last 2 and i have to start pushing to get points for not only my team but to make the Table of Champions. See ya all there!
About 20 hands into the FT, we still had 8 players remaining. Stacks looked a little bit like this..
Seat 1: Gabrielucas (21216 in chips)
Seat 2: *AUM* (115455 in chips)
Seat 3: Smarky G (123696 in chips)
Seat 4: connjurer (132006 in chips)
Seat 5: booya25 (105942 in chips)
Seat 6: trixter23 (82392 in chips)
Seat 7: dracula15thc (138275 in chips)
Seat 9: CLUBN (169018 in chips)
booya25: posts small blind 4000
trixter23: posts big blind 8000
So we're in the big blind and get dealt -
4s 8c 3d 5s
Considering im in the bb, if no one opens for a raise ill just check to see a flop. In some cases early on in the tournament, i'll raise with this hand. Reason being people who play A2 w/out a backup(1 or 2 more low cards other than A2) can get caught very easily. If the flop comes A 2 x for instance, their 2 pair maybe good, but ill have the hammer lock on the low if it comes and possibly even the wheel which would then turn into a 6 or 8 high straight. The action goes like this.
dracula15thc: calls 8000
CLUBN: folds
Gabrielucas: folds
*AUM*: folds
Smarky G: calls 8000
connjurer: calls 8000
booya25: folds
trixter23: checks
The flop comes..
Kd 6h 4d
This is a decent flop for my hand. I picked up a wrap draw. Im not going to get fancy here, the right thing to do is check call, because of the sheer fact that we have 3 players left to act behind us.
trixter23: checks
dracula15thc: bets 8000
Smarky G: calls 8000
connjurer: calls 8000
trixter23: calls 8000
Size of Pot = $68000
The Turn:
7c
Jackpot! Right now i have the current nuts. This is a great card for that reason and because it gave someone the low. There is 1 problem though. There are 2 diamonds on the board. After the turn hit i think i immediately starting saying to myself, NO DIAMOND, NO DIAMOND! Knowing someone has the low, i checked so that whoever has it will bet out, then i can re raise. If a diamond comes on the river, what can i do? Id rather maximize the value of my hand and make them pay for their flush rather then just play it soft and let it come. So i check and the awesome guy bets out and i re pop it up to 32k. Everyone calls so i know i can get beat.
trixter23: checks
dracula15thc: bets 16000
Smarky G: calls 16000
connjurer: calls 16000
trixter23: raises 16000 to 32000
dracula15thc: calls 16000
Smarky G: calls 16000
connjurer: calls 16000
Size of Pot = $196,000
The River brings.
10s
This wasnt such a great card for me at all. Someone could very easily have A289 and im on my way out the door. I bet out hoping to get raised, because 1) that will tell me that im able to go to bed because someone hit their straight or 2) I get ALL my chips in the middle with the current nuts going to 1 card on the river. I almost can live losing like that. Nah i cant. Here is the final action.
trixter23: bets 16000
dracula15thc: raises 16000 to 32000
Smarky G: calls 32000
connjurer: calls 32000
trixter23: raises 2392 to 34392 and is all-in
dracula15thc: calls 2392
Smarky G: calls 2392
connjurer: calls 2392
Size of Pot = $333,568
We all know what i have, but lets see what everyone else has.
trixter23: shows [4s 8c 3d 5s] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,3)
dracula15thc: shows [Jd As 2c Qc] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
Smarky G: shows [Ad 8h 2h Qd] (HI: high card Ace; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
connjurer: shows [Kc 9c 2s Ah] (HI: a pair of Kings; LO: 7,6,4,2,A)
It was an absolute miracle that a diamond didn't come on the river. But needless to say I literally thanked dracula for raising. When you look at the action he raised with his low draw. All 3 of these guys had the A2 and got quartered. I was in bliss when i saw their hands. Their ROI was horrible because.....
trixter23 collected 166784
potdracula15thc collected 55595
Smarky G collected 55595
connjurer collected 55594
And that ladies and gentleman, is how you grab the chip lead.
Like i said though, in limit its easy to lose a lead.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403711 - Almost hit the 200k mark on this hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403716 - 230K working the magic. After this hand i didnt play some for a while because people got short stacked and they somehow made recoveries. 2 of the Players were horrible. So i took the scenic route and tried to fold to more money. Which is something you shouldn't really do. Because when hands like this next one come up, you get crippled.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403719 - I was sick this hand. I knew i should have just checked behind on the river but i had to throw money out there. Im not sure what that guy is thinking playing that hand, but he did. I had the intention of just check calling all the way down but why would he just check the river? You put 56k in the pot, why not another 32? And of course he knew his 4 high flush was good. This hand killed me and sent me to 126k in chips.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?403734 - I raised 1 hand after that and got re popped and made a flat call. I completely missed the board and had to fold which put me down to 60k. With blinds 8/16k this was not fun. AUM was all in maybe 4 times ahead of me and no one could knock him out. I inevitably had to make a stand.
I played well, but when you get that deep you always want to win. Tonight i have the CP tourney which i have to make a splash in. I've missed the last 2 and i have to start pushing to get points for not only my team but to make the Table of Champions. See ya all there!
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Limit Omaha 8/B Final Table
Before i get to the main post, a quick couple of things. I was able to add live updates of the WSOP under the affiliate link. It's a nice little way to get their real quick if need be. I had planned to have another post about the AC trip because there was a hand i wanted to talk about in the tournament and a couple of other things. I made it real deep so ill post about that tomorrow.
I don't know what i was thinking but i decided to get in the Omaha 8/b $5 rebuy tournament at about 1:30 am last night. I guess it was because i was having a ridiculous day filled with some stupid hands that lost me some money. I love playing Omaha, but this late was not very smart. Not to toot my own horn but whenever i usually play this game i cash, and thus being a rebuy would be longer to get in the money, etc etc.
Let me tell you a little something about the rebuy period in a limit game. It's absolutely horrible. People were just playing every hand and capping the betting each street. I managed to get to 6385 after the break which was the 41st best stack of the remaining 170 people or so. With only 18 places being paid, i would have to accumulate. I play less hands in this game rather than NLHE, because you will get paid off on your hands ten fold. In limit sheer aggression is one of my main factors for winning. You can figure out pretty easily what people are drawing to. Take this hand for instance.
Seat 1: Tenace (7723 in chips)
Seat 2: dragonlore (10605 in chips)
Seat 3: Quebeker1 (12774 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (6785 in chips)
Seat 5: FOX 27 (6172 in chips)
Seat 6: Bevo05 (8350 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: griga (7602 in chips)
Seat 8: Rencius (3092 in chips)
Seat 9: philsky2003 (5169 in chips)
Tenace: posts small blind 150
dragonlore: posts big blind 300
Dealt to trixter23 Ah 4h Qc Tc
CALL Quebeker1, 300
RAISE trixter23 , 300 to 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 300
With Stakes being at 300/600 and me only having T6785 in chips i wasnt worried about having to make some plays yet. But a weak player entered the pot in front of me and i wanted to try and isolate with him and the blinds. You should always know where your chips are going to come from, and when the opportunity presents itself you have to take advantage of it. Also my hand is very susceptible, it's by far a made hand and needs work, a lot like almost every other hand.
Flop: 8s 9s 5c
BET Quebeker1, 300
RAISE trixter23 , 300 to 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 300
This flop barely hit me. I have 4 to the low but it's not the nut low. A backdoor straight and flush draw. Here im keeping my aggressive style, and im doing this because i don't want to stay predictable! I can't say it enough, if someone catches onto your style of play, especially in omaha, your a dead duck! I was a little worried here that maybe someone flopped a straight, in which case i wasnt in great shape.
Turn: 9c
CHECK Quebeker1:
BET trixter23 , 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 600
Now right here i begin to think that all 3 of these guys are on low draws. Any card that is Ten or higher i'm pretty much going to bet out on the river. If someone had a 9 they would have re popped there. If someone had a straight they would have done the same thing. They would have seen the 2 flush draws out there and made someone pay to get there.
River: Jh
CHECK Quebeker1:
BET trixter23 , 600
FOLD FOX 27
FOLD Rencius
FOLD Quebeker1
trixter23 collected 7650 from pot
trixter23 : doesn't show hand
To be honest even though i got a straight there, it did'nt even matter what my cards were. They made it so obvious they were on a low draw. I can't stress it enough, you have to stay unpredictable. If i know you only raise with cards for the low then im gonna adjust when i play you. I doubled up here and i didn't even have to showdown my hand, beautiful!
Here are some hands that helped me reach the FT for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401643 - No idea what is going on there.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401645 - This one was even worse.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401648 - That's gg to you sir.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401649 - Thank you for playing.
I pretty much played every hand on the bubble of the FT to get to $100k in chips. A guy made a ridiculous call the final hand of the bubble and i went in with 76k.
A guy went out in the first hand, so i couldn't get a screenshot of the full final table. In my next post ill talk about what place i finished.
I don't know what i was thinking but i decided to get in the Omaha 8/b $5 rebuy tournament at about 1:30 am last night. I guess it was because i was having a ridiculous day filled with some stupid hands that lost me some money. I love playing Omaha, but this late was not very smart. Not to toot my own horn but whenever i usually play this game i cash, and thus being a rebuy would be longer to get in the money, etc etc.
Let me tell you a little something about the rebuy period in a limit game. It's absolutely horrible. People were just playing every hand and capping the betting each street. I managed to get to 6385 after the break which was the 41st best stack of the remaining 170 people or so. With only 18 places being paid, i would have to accumulate. I play less hands in this game rather than NLHE, because you will get paid off on your hands ten fold. In limit sheer aggression is one of my main factors for winning. You can figure out pretty easily what people are drawing to. Take this hand for instance.
Seat 1: Tenace (7723 in chips)
Seat 2: dragonlore (10605 in chips)
Seat 3: Quebeker1 (12774 in chips)
Seat 4: trixter23 (6785 in chips)
Seat 5: FOX 27 (6172 in chips)
Seat 6: Bevo05 (8350 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: griga (7602 in chips)
Seat 8: Rencius (3092 in chips)
Seat 9: philsky2003 (5169 in chips)
Tenace: posts small blind 150
dragonlore: posts big blind 300
Dealt to trixter23 Ah 4h Qc Tc
CALL Quebeker1, 300
RAISE trixter23 , 300 to 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 300
With Stakes being at 300/600 and me only having T6785 in chips i wasnt worried about having to make some plays yet. But a weak player entered the pot in front of me and i wanted to try and isolate with him and the blinds. You should always know where your chips are going to come from, and when the opportunity presents itself you have to take advantage of it. Also my hand is very susceptible, it's by far a made hand and needs work, a lot like almost every other hand.
Flop: 8s 9s 5c
BET Quebeker1, 300
RAISE trixter23 , 300 to 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 300
This flop barely hit me. I have 4 to the low but it's not the nut low. A backdoor straight and flush draw. Here im keeping my aggressive style, and im doing this because i don't want to stay predictable! I can't say it enough, if someone catches onto your style of play, especially in omaha, your a dead duck! I was a little worried here that maybe someone flopped a straight, in which case i wasnt in great shape.
Turn: 9c
CHECK Quebeker1:
BET trixter23 , 600
CALL FOX 27, 600
CALL Rencius, 600
CALL Quebeker1, 600
Now right here i begin to think that all 3 of these guys are on low draws. Any card that is Ten or higher i'm pretty much going to bet out on the river. If someone had a 9 they would have re popped there. If someone had a straight they would have done the same thing. They would have seen the 2 flush draws out there and made someone pay to get there.
River: Jh
CHECK Quebeker1:
BET trixter23 , 600
FOLD FOX 27
FOLD Rencius
FOLD Quebeker1
trixter23 collected 7650 from pot
trixter23 : doesn't show hand
To be honest even though i got a straight there, it did'nt even matter what my cards were. They made it so obvious they were on a low draw. I can't stress it enough, you have to stay unpredictable. If i know you only raise with cards for the low then im gonna adjust when i play you. I doubled up here and i didn't even have to showdown my hand, beautiful!
Here are some hands that helped me reach the FT for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401643 - No idea what is going on there.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401645 - This one was even worse.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401648 - That's gg to you sir.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?401649 - Thank you for playing.
I pretty much played every hand on the bubble of the FT to get to $100k in chips. A guy made a ridiculous call the final hand of the bubble and i went in with 76k.
A guy went out in the first hand, so i couldn't get a screenshot of the full final table. In my next post ill talk about what place i finished.
Friday, June 30, 2006
AC Trip Report 2
We all had comps at harrah's at 1 of the cafe's so we went there for lunch. After lunch considering the poker room is right next to the cafe, barry and i sat down at a $1/$2 NL table.
The rest of the table didn't know barry and i knew each other. This will be signifant later for reasons ill state. No we dont collude, but nor do we play pots against each other usually. At harrah's max buy-in for 1/2 is $200 so i bought in for that amount. I took a look around the table and see about all average stacks ranging from 150-300 stacks, but this 1 guy had a stack of about 11 black $100 chips. So i thought to myself, either this guy is pretty good or hes a super donk who is getting lucky. I guess ill find out in a little bit.
First couple of hands i folded to get a read at the table a little bit. The 2nd hand i was there the guy next to me open raised to $30! Right then and there i thought this was going to be bad. I should have picked up my chips and left. Now i know opening raises live are a little on the high side, but thats 15x the blind. Thats getting ridiculous. I asked what he had that he could be raising so much just to see if he would budge, and he flipped over AK.
After that hand i was kind of giggling to myself. Approximately 15-20 hands later i pick up 6c 7c on the button. The guy with a huge stack made a small raise to $10. I flat called and both the blinds fold. The flop comes 2c 5h 8c. He makes a standard continuation bet of $18. Now against an overpair of any kind im almost a 60-40 favorite here. With this guy having a huge stack, i can double up through him. I haven't played with him enough yet to know if hes paying off hands or really what hes been doing. So i raise it up to $50. Which keep in mind is 1/4 of my stack. He calls my raise.
The turn brings the 10s. He just checks here to me. If he thought i was on a draw he definitely wouldn't have checked. So the nice guy that i am, i give myself a free card and check behind. The river brought the Kh. Then the guy asks how much i have left, and i told him about $150 or so. He bets out $90 and after doing some hollywood i fold. What he had really doesnt matter, but i played the hand pretty normal and ill usually win that most of the time.
This next hand is the one that really set me off. Again the guy with the huge stack makes a raise of $12 UTG. I get dealt KK on the button and smooth call not wanting to give away my big hand. Again everyone folds and we go to the flop. It comes Qd Jh 6s. I dont really like this flop too much because i dont have enough to push him off his hand if hes on a straight draw with KT or AK, etc etc. He makes yet another cont bet of $25 and i re pop to $75. If he comes over the top im not sure what i would have done but he smooth calls here. The next card brings an Ac. He checks and i bet out $25. He mini raises to $50. Now if you saw one of my last posts, where i flopped a set of kings against a set of aces the guy mini raised pre flop to signify his monster. I wasn't so sure this guy had one. The river brings a blank and he checks. Why would he check? What hand could he have that he can re raise me on the turn and not bet the river? With an Ace Queen and Jack out there im not betting anyway and i check. And here comes the shocker, he flips over A4.
I almost fell off my chair. I made a casual comment of "nice flop" and flipped my kings. He said well i had the Ace of diamonds with the diamond draw. I was like "um, it was a rainbow flop pal and you only had 1 diamond." This conversation was going on after the hand was cleared from the board and he wanted to argue with me that i was wrong. I had about $25 bucks left and instead of pick up my chips and leave i went all in blind. And of course a $25 dollar raise warrants a call from the guy next to me with T7. I got up and was walking from the table and i said "barry watch for the A4 its the new nuts".
I'm guessing they didn't know who i was talking to because after i had left, everyone at the table (not including barry obv) said that i had no business at the table and i was afraid of losing money. Even the dealer said this. My first reaction was to go back in the poker room and give them a piece of my mind but i wanted to be a bigger person and just let it go.
Sometimes you get these idiots and you can't do anything about it except to just walk away. I know i was a better poker player than any of those people at the table and if i know that, that's all that matters.
This post is getting long and its 5:30 in the morning AND ON TOP OF THAT, sigh my TT just lost to J8 all in pre flop, when the guy caught a flush. What is stars coming to!?!? Anyway, next post ill talk about the 11 am tourney the next day at the showboat.
And if you dont have a stars account already, check on the right of the page and sign-up!
The rest of the table didn't know barry and i knew each other. This will be signifant later for reasons ill state. No we dont collude, but nor do we play pots against each other usually. At harrah's max buy-in for 1/2 is $200 so i bought in for that amount. I took a look around the table and see about all average stacks ranging from 150-300 stacks, but this 1 guy had a stack of about 11 black $100 chips. So i thought to myself, either this guy is pretty good or hes a super donk who is getting lucky. I guess ill find out in a little bit.
First couple of hands i folded to get a read at the table a little bit. The 2nd hand i was there the guy next to me open raised to $30! Right then and there i thought this was going to be bad. I should have picked up my chips and left. Now i know opening raises live are a little on the high side, but thats 15x the blind. Thats getting ridiculous. I asked what he had that he could be raising so much just to see if he would budge, and he flipped over AK.
After that hand i was kind of giggling to myself. Approximately 15-20 hands later i pick up 6c 7c on the button. The guy with a huge stack made a small raise to $10. I flat called and both the blinds fold. The flop comes 2c 5h 8c. He makes a standard continuation bet of $18. Now against an overpair of any kind im almost a 60-40 favorite here. With this guy having a huge stack, i can double up through him. I haven't played with him enough yet to know if hes paying off hands or really what hes been doing. So i raise it up to $50. Which keep in mind is 1/4 of my stack. He calls my raise.
The turn brings the 10s. He just checks here to me. If he thought i was on a draw he definitely wouldn't have checked. So the nice guy that i am, i give myself a free card and check behind. The river brought the Kh. Then the guy asks how much i have left, and i told him about $150 or so. He bets out $90 and after doing some hollywood i fold. What he had really doesnt matter, but i played the hand pretty normal and ill usually win that most of the time.
This next hand is the one that really set me off. Again the guy with the huge stack makes a raise of $12 UTG. I get dealt KK on the button and smooth call not wanting to give away my big hand. Again everyone folds and we go to the flop. It comes Qd Jh 6s. I dont really like this flop too much because i dont have enough to push him off his hand if hes on a straight draw with KT or AK, etc etc. He makes yet another cont bet of $25 and i re pop to $75. If he comes over the top im not sure what i would have done but he smooth calls here. The next card brings an Ac. He checks and i bet out $25. He mini raises to $50. Now if you saw one of my last posts, where i flopped a set of kings against a set of aces the guy mini raised pre flop to signify his monster. I wasn't so sure this guy had one. The river brings a blank and he checks. Why would he check? What hand could he have that he can re raise me on the turn and not bet the river? With an Ace Queen and Jack out there im not betting anyway and i check. And here comes the shocker, he flips over A4.
I almost fell off my chair. I made a casual comment of "nice flop" and flipped my kings. He said well i had the Ace of diamonds with the diamond draw. I was like "um, it was a rainbow flop pal and you only had 1 diamond." This conversation was going on after the hand was cleared from the board and he wanted to argue with me that i was wrong. I had about $25 bucks left and instead of pick up my chips and leave i went all in blind. And of course a $25 dollar raise warrants a call from the guy next to me with T7. I got up and was walking from the table and i said "barry watch for the A4 its the new nuts".
I'm guessing they didn't know who i was talking to because after i had left, everyone at the table (not including barry obv) said that i had no business at the table and i was afraid of losing money. Even the dealer said this. My first reaction was to go back in the poker room and give them a piece of my mind but i wanted to be a bigger person and just let it go.
Sometimes you get these idiots and you can't do anything about it except to just walk away. I know i was a better poker player than any of those people at the table and if i know that, that's all that matters.
This post is getting long and its 5:30 in the morning AND ON TOP OF THAT, sigh my TT just lost to J8 all in pre flop, when the guy caught a flush. What is stars coming to!?!? Anyway, next post ill talk about the 11 am tourney the next day at the showboat.
And if you dont have a stars account already, check on the right of the page and sign-up!
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
AC Trip Report
The night before i went down to AC, we had home game action. To make a long story short after a 1 hour 35 minute heads up battle with nick i took it down for $200. It's always nice to get a little bit extra spending money on the way down to AC.
So we got down to AC around 12 and couldnt check into our rooms until about 1-ish. So we decided to go down to the hilton and register for the $40+10 tourney they had starting at 2pm. I haven't seen the new poker room there yet. I must say they put it together pretty nicely. We got our registration complete and went to check in. Luckily we did that pretty quickly because we just made our tables to start the tournament. I didn't know the structure for this tournament. I found out we're only starting with 3k in chips, so if i dont build a stack in the early going this is going to be a short tourney. About 20 minutes in i looked for Barry and Tom at their tables and they were no where to be found. They busted out apparently.
I started out pretty aggressively taking stabs at mid sized pots that no one wanted to take. On one instance i picked up TT in the UTG+2 and raised it up to 300 with blinds at 50/100. A guy in mid position calls and we see a flop of 8 6 2. I bet out 450 on the flop and the guy raised to 900. I just jam the pot and go all in for 2500 more. He says "i probably have ya but ill let it go". I'm guessing A8 or so. I continue my aggression and have about 5200 in chips.
I then get moved to a new table. Blinds are at 200/400 at this point and on the button i get AK. There really wasnt any significant big stacks at my table other than 1 other guy who had slightly more than myself. So now i see UTG+1 limp for 400, UTG+2 limp for 400, MP limp for 400, Cutoff limp for 400. Combined with the blinds thats 2400 in the pot without my chips in there. I raised to 2000 hoping to take down the pot right there and then and increase my stack size about 40%.
Everyone folds around to the MP player who goes all in for 4k total. Then it folds around back to me. So this guy limps in, then thinks his hand is good enough to go all in with. You see this being done online all the time and people showing garbage. If he had a had like JJ-AA he would have re-popped the pot when the UTG players limped in. He could have 22-99 and think i was just trying to steal the pot. He leaned back in his chair like he had a good hand. So i called and he flipped over 88. The guy to his left said, that guys not gonna be happy i folded an 8. The flop comes A K 3, and im in very good shape. That is until the turn brought the last 8 in the deck and i didnt catch an Ace/King and i was crippled down to 1200.
A few hands later i get JJ. The guy next to me raises and i just jam the pot. He calls and flips over QQ and i dont improve and go out.
Altogether i didn't like the amount of starting chips that we had, but being a newer poker room they dont have as many dealers to commit to the tourney when they're only getting $10 out of everyone.
I'll write about everything else later
So we got down to AC around 12 and couldnt check into our rooms until about 1-ish. So we decided to go down to the hilton and register for the $40+10 tourney they had starting at 2pm. I haven't seen the new poker room there yet. I must say they put it together pretty nicely. We got our registration complete and went to check in. Luckily we did that pretty quickly because we just made our tables to start the tournament. I didn't know the structure for this tournament. I found out we're only starting with 3k in chips, so if i dont build a stack in the early going this is going to be a short tourney. About 20 minutes in i looked for Barry and Tom at their tables and they were no where to be found. They busted out apparently.
I started out pretty aggressively taking stabs at mid sized pots that no one wanted to take. On one instance i picked up TT in the UTG+2 and raised it up to 300 with blinds at 50/100. A guy in mid position calls and we see a flop of 8 6 2. I bet out 450 on the flop and the guy raised to 900. I just jam the pot and go all in for 2500 more. He says "i probably have ya but ill let it go". I'm guessing A8 or so. I continue my aggression and have about 5200 in chips.
I then get moved to a new table. Blinds are at 200/400 at this point and on the button i get AK. There really wasnt any significant big stacks at my table other than 1 other guy who had slightly more than myself. So now i see UTG+1 limp for 400, UTG+2 limp for 400, MP limp for 400, Cutoff limp for 400. Combined with the blinds thats 2400 in the pot without my chips in there. I raised to 2000 hoping to take down the pot right there and then and increase my stack size about 40%.
Everyone folds around to the MP player who goes all in for 4k total. Then it folds around back to me. So this guy limps in, then thinks his hand is good enough to go all in with. You see this being done online all the time and people showing garbage. If he had a had like JJ-AA he would have re-popped the pot when the UTG players limped in. He could have 22-99 and think i was just trying to steal the pot. He leaned back in his chair like he had a good hand. So i called and he flipped over 88. The guy to his left said, that guys not gonna be happy i folded an 8. The flop comes A K 3, and im in very good shape. That is until the turn brought the last 8 in the deck and i didnt catch an Ace/King and i was crippled down to 1200.
A few hands later i get JJ. The guy next to me raises and i just jam the pot. He calls and flips over QQ and i dont improve and go out.
Altogether i didn't like the amount of starting chips that we had, but being a newer poker room they dont have as many dealers to commit to the tourney when they're only getting $10 out of everyone.
I'll write about everything else later
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
PokerXFactor
Before i get into my post, you'll notice a little change to the site. If you look just to your right you'll notice a banner to pokerstars. I joined their affiliate program, so if you dont have a pokerstars account as of yet, get moving and signup.
Now about the post. I joined a site entitled pokerxfactor.com. It's a poker training site with people such as cliff"johnnybax"josephy and eric"sheets"haber doing most of the teaching. I've watched a few of the videos so far and implemented sheets' strategy for SNG's. I dropped down a level to see how it would work. Take a look at these stats.
Buy-in: $10
Fee: $1
Times: 30
$Won: $603
Net $Won: $273
ROI%: 82.73
ITM%: 60
1st Place: 8
2nd Place: 7
3rd Place: 3
All in all i couldn't say enough great things about this site. It's definitely worth the price of subscription
Now about the post. I joined a site entitled pokerxfactor.com. It's a poker training site with people such as cliff"johnnybax"josephy and eric"sheets"haber doing most of the teaching. I've watched a few of the videos so far and implemented sheets' strategy for SNG's. I dropped down a level to see how it would work. Take a look at these stats.
Buy-in: $10
Fee: $1
Times: 30
$Won: $603
Net $Won: $273
ROI%: 82.73
ITM%: 60
1st Place: 8
2nd Place: 7
3rd Place: 3
All in all i couldn't say enough great things about this site. It's definitely worth the price of subscription
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Weekend action
Nothing big to report over the weekend as far as wins. I've mainly been playing a gazillion SNG's. Im tryin to find a level that is going to be profitable and that i can consistently beat. The $10 level ive been absolutely crushing. Out of 25 sng's my ROI is 67% and im ITM 58% of the time. You really cant base anything on 25 sng's but that is pretty damn good. The $20 level i can beat easily as well, but i've found i can only play 2 or 3 of those at a time. I have to concentrate a little more. Even though i have the BR for it, i haven't dabbled in the $30 sng's which i hope to do.
Saturday night i played in my home game. Everything was goin good, got paid off with 2 full houses and made a couple nice calls. Blinds were getting a little high and a kid who i havent played with before raised it up. Blinds were 200/400 and he made it 1000 to go. We started with 10k in chips and at the time i had about 14k. I looked down and i had two red aces. I reached for my chips and shawn, who was next to me, said stop. I'm like uh why. He goes "because i have 3 cards". As soon as i saw that i almost puked. He was in mid position so it screwed with everyone elses cards. The hand was declared dead and we were going to re-deal. I just shook my head and threw over my aces. The guy who raised next to me had Queens. Little things like that can turn the night around like that. A few bad calls later and i was done.
Sunday i played in the 2nd annual WBCOOP(World Bloggers Championship of Online Poker). For the first hour, it was me and another guy and that was it. Everyone else was sitting out. So we took turns raising and at the end of the first hour i had about 9k in chips. When we actually had to play poker it was horrible. In one instance i tried to push someone off a hand and they called all the way down. Lucko21 found out the same thing a little later in the tourney. I busted out 230th of 2247. Top 54 i believe got prizes.
Later that night, i dabbled into a $5 MTT. This was an interesting hand and explanation from my opponent that utterly lead to my demise. Stacks looked like this.
Seat 1: dinosaur7 (2270 in chips)
Seat 2: trixter23 (1760 in chips)
Seat 3: sosumome (5420 in chips)
Seat 4: wdprsns (4575 in chips)
Seat 5: nuuuuubie (5375 in chips)
Seat 6: elk_metal (4775 in chips)
Seat 7: frenzykid (1265 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: quiltyf (3615 in chips)
Seat 9: indyo (1515 in chips) is sitting out
indyo: posts small blind 50
dinosaur7: posts big blind 100
UTG i pick up [Ac Kd] and raise it up 300 to 400 total. Normally i wouldnt raise UTG with AK i usually fold since im oop, but im getting short stacked and up to this point i havent had anything to play with. Everyone folds to the BB who flat calls my raise. The flop comes
*** FLOP *** [3c 5d 6c]
I totally missed the flop, but i make a continuation bet. I want to take this pot down right now.
dinosaur7: checks
trixter23: bets 600
dinosaur7: calls 600
Now, there was 850 in the pot and i bet 600. I don't him drawing to anything and if he re raises i know im beat. The smooth call kind of confused me. It was a quick call also which means he could have had something like pocket 4's, and he was drawin to a straight, or he could have had a flush draw. The turn comes.
*** TURN *** [3c 5d 6c] [9h]
This is where i probably made my mistake on this hand. He checks and i check behind. If i bet here and he was on a draw, or possibly go all in he is folding. Then again we are playing in a $5 dollar tournament and if he has anything hes calling.
dinosaur7: checks
trixter23: checks
*** RIVER *** [3c 5d 6c 9h] [Jh]
The river comes Jh. He kind of thinks about it a couple seconds, then throws out 100 chips. So im guessin he had AJ or KJ or somethin and hit his jack. It was 100 chips to win 2050, so i make the call. I was shocked when i saw his cards.
dinosaur7: shows [3s Qc] (a pair of Threes)
trixter23: mucks hand
trixter23 said, "oh my"
So lets see. He's calling my raise OOP with Q3?!? Then on the flop calling 600 with bottom pair? He wasnt drawing anything, why didnt he just raise or go all in like the rest of the donks. So me being the good guy that i am start the conversation.
trixter23 said, "hey lets call raises with q3 woooooo"
dinosaur7 said, "lol"
dinosaur7 said, "ok"
dinosaur7 said, "take it it was AK......played terribly"
trixter23 said, "AK isnt aces"
dinosaur7 said, "or AQ...."
dinosaur7 said, "er......good point........well noticed"
dinosaur7 said, "if u had gone all in u woulda won........do it with A7 but not AK......." ( 2 hands later i pushed with A7 because no one opened and i was in the cutoff with 5 bb's so i moved all in)
dinosaur7 said, "interesting"
trixter23 said, "are u dumb?"
trixter23 said, "why would i go all in with AK and nothing on the board?
trixter23 said, "im short stacked i have 5 bb's"
trixter23 said, "why wouldnt i with an ace"
trixter23 said, "just like im doing now"
trixter23: raises 435 to 535 and is all-in
dinosaur7 said, "no i read u like a book....and not a very good book"
That last hand i had AJ and lost to A3. But it just goes to show how people think AK is like AA or KK, it STILL NEEDS HELP PEOPLE!
I thought that hand was funny.
Anyway, next weekend im heading down to AC to play a little bit. Pick on the bad players in 1/2 and maybe dabble in 2/5 a little bit depending on how im doing. I love playing cash games 10x better than online. For multiple reasons.
1) I actually get to see what my players look like. Girls/guys..young/old...etc etc. It all makes a difference
2) They are 10x easier to read then trying to pick up betting patterns.
3) I absolutely love the opening raises live. Online its the usual 2x or 3x raise. Live its 15x the blind. It's great.
Plus they're many other reasons but those are the main ones. I'll definitely have some news about that when i get back. Other then that, i have nothing.
Good luck to everyone at the tables
Saturday night i played in my home game. Everything was goin good, got paid off with 2 full houses and made a couple nice calls. Blinds were getting a little high and a kid who i havent played with before raised it up. Blinds were 200/400 and he made it 1000 to go. We started with 10k in chips and at the time i had about 14k. I looked down and i had two red aces. I reached for my chips and shawn, who was next to me, said stop. I'm like uh why. He goes "because i have 3 cards". As soon as i saw that i almost puked. He was in mid position so it screwed with everyone elses cards. The hand was declared dead and we were going to re-deal. I just shook my head and threw over my aces. The guy who raised next to me had Queens. Little things like that can turn the night around like that. A few bad calls later and i was done.
Sunday i played in the 2nd annual WBCOOP(World Bloggers Championship of Online Poker). For the first hour, it was me and another guy and that was it. Everyone else was sitting out. So we took turns raising and at the end of the first hour i had about 9k in chips. When we actually had to play poker it was horrible. In one instance i tried to push someone off a hand and they called all the way down. Lucko21 found out the same thing a little later in the tourney. I busted out 230th of 2247. Top 54 i believe got prizes.
Later that night, i dabbled into a $5 MTT. This was an interesting hand and explanation from my opponent that utterly lead to my demise. Stacks looked like this.
Seat 1: dinosaur7 (2270 in chips)
Seat 2: trixter23 (1760 in chips)
Seat 3: sosumome (5420 in chips)
Seat 4: wdprsns (4575 in chips)
Seat 5: nuuuuubie (5375 in chips)
Seat 6: elk_metal (4775 in chips)
Seat 7: frenzykid (1265 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: quiltyf (3615 in chips)
Seat 9: indyo (1515 in chips) is sitting out
indyo: posts small blind 50
dinosaur7: posts big blind 100
UTG i pick up [Ac Kd] and raise it up 300 to 400 total. Normally i wouldnt raise UTG with AK i usually fold since im oop, but im getting short stacked and up to this point i havent had anything to play with. Everyone folds to the BB who flat calls my raise. The flop comes
*** FLOP *** [3c 5d 6c]
I totally missed the flop, but i make a continuation bet. I want to take this pot down right now.
dinosaur7: checks
trixter23: bets 600
dinosaur7: calls 600
Now, there was 850 in the pot and i bet 600. I don't him drawing to anything and if he re raises i know im beat. The smooth call kind of confused me. It was a quick call also which means he could have had something like pocket 4's, and he was drawin to a straight, or he could have had a flush draw. The turn comes.
*** TURN *** [3c 5d 6c] [9h]
This is where i probably made my mistake on this hand. He checks and i check behind. If i bet here and he was on a draw, or possibly go all in he is folding. Then again we are playing in a $5 dollar tournament and if he has anything hes calling.
dinosaur7: checks
trixter23: checks
*** RIVER *** [3c 5d 6c 9h] [Jh]
The river comes Jh. He kind of thinks about it a couple seconds, then throws out 100 chips. So im guessin he had AJ or KJ or somethin and hit his jack. It was 100 chips to win 2050, so i make the call. I was shocked when i saw his cards.
dinosaur7: shows [3s Qc] (a pair of Threes)
trixter23: mucks hand
trixter23 said, "oh my"
So lets see. He's calling my raise OOP with Q3?!? Then on the flop calling 600 with bottom pair? He wasnt drawing anything, why didnt he just raise or go all in like the rest of the donks. So me being the good guy that i am start the conversation.
trixter23 said, "hey lets call raises with q3 woooooo"
dinosaur7 said, "lol"
dinosaur7 said, "ok"
dinosaur7 said, "take it it was AK......played terribly"
trixter23 said, "AK isnt aces"
dinosaur7 said, "or AQ...."
dinosaur7 said, "er......good point........well noticed"
dinosaur7 said, "if u had gone all in u woulda won........do it with A7 but not AK......." ( 2 hands later i pushed with A7 because no one opened and i was in the cutoff with 5 bb's so i moved all in)
dinosaur7 said, "interesting"
trixter23 said, "are u dumb?"
trixter23 said, "why would i go all in with AK and nothing on the board?
trixter23 said, "im short stacked i have 5 bb's"
trixter23 said, "why wouldnt i with an ace"
trixter23 said, "just like im doing now"
trixter23: raises 435 to 535 and is all-in
dinosaur7 said, "no i read u like a book....and not a very good book"
That last hand i had AJ and lost to A3. But it just goes to show how people think AK is like AA or KK, it STILL NEEDS HELP PEOPLE!
I thought that hand was funny.
Anyway, next weekend im heading down to AC to play a little bit. Pick on the bad players in 1/2 and maybe dabble in 2/5 a little bit depending on how im doing. I love playing cash games 10x better than online. For multiple reasons.
1) I actually get to see what my players look like. Girls/guys..young/old...etc etc. It all makes a difference
2) They are 10x easier to read then trying to pick up betting patterns.
3) I absolutely love the opening raises live. Online its the usual 2x or 3x raise. Live its 15x the blind. It's great.
Plus they're many other reasons but those are the main ones. I'll definitely have some news about that when i get back. Other then that, i have nothing.
Good luck to everyone at the tables
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Cash Game Hand
Im going to skip part 3 of the series entitled "rebuy madness". I may get back to it at some point but who knows. This hand come up when i was 8 tabling .25/.50 NL. The way i played it was very different then i would normally play. I trusted my instincts and my read and in the long run, saved me half my stack to play on with.
Seat 5: trixter23 ($52.45 in chips)
Seat 6: Nazareen ($52.35 in chips)
RAISE trixter23 , $2 to $2.50
I pick up KK UTG and make a 5x the blind raise. At the .25/.50 level you see many robots. Who only raise with monsters or AK and AQ. I switch up my play and raise and re raise with suited connectors or i flat call with kings or aces. You have to switch up your play or you become predictable to your opponent.
RAISE Nazareen, $2.50 to $5
The guy immediately to my left MINI raises to $5. Right now bells are going off in my head. To warrant a re raise on this level he has to have a monster. AA, AK or KK come to mind. Yes he can have KK. I think about and figure im 90% sure he has aces and 5% for AK/KK. Only $2.50 more to call i decide to put the money in to see if i can get lucky and catch a king if he doesnt have KK that is.
Flop: (Pot: $10.75) As Kh Td
Well now this is going to be very interesting. He doesnt have KK since i just flopped one. I HIGHLY doubt and hope hes not re raising me with QJ. So that leaves AK and AA. Im going to go with my read here. Instead of check calling, i bet into him. Yes, you heard me right. If he does have aces if i bet into him hes more than likely to smooth call till the river. I want to control how much i'm going to lose on this hand. So i make small "value" bets toward the pot. Would you be able to lay down Kings at this point?
BET trixter23 , $3
CALL Nazareen, $3
Turn: (Pot: $16.75) As Kh Td 4d
The turn puts a diamond draw on the board. But if my read is right he cant be on it. So i fire a bet 1/4 the size of the pot.
BET trixter23 , $4
CALL Nazareen, $4
River: (Pot: $24.75) As Kh Td 4d 9h
There is $25 dollars in the pot. I don't want to check and have him bet, to put me in decision making mode and have to call $25 more for an all in. So i bet $5 into a $25 dollar pot. He doesn't hesitate and re raises to $15. Thus making the pot around $40. To call $10 more dollars to win the size of that pot is nothing. The problem is i know im beat. Do you guys call $10 more dollars to take this pot down? Before i get to that part this chat ensued on the table.
BET trixter23 , $5
RAISE Nazareen, $10 to $15
trixter23 said, "did u really flop 3 aces"
trixter23 said, "i think u did"
trixter23 said, "devil this is sick"
EVDevil03 said, "yeah i know"
trixter23 said, "i have to pay him off"
AArbrad3 said, "jq"
I dont know what the guy saying QJ was thinking. Did he watch the whole hand? I make the call and our read was dead on.
trixter23 : shows (three of a kind Kings)
Nazareen: shows (three of a kind Aces)
The way i played the hand was very uncommon. I stuck with my read and controlled the betting throughout the hand. If i played it like i had the nuts, i would have been out of my whole stack. Well i cant say that because i had him covered by 10 cents. Im happy this was a cash game hand rather than a tournament hand. If it was a tournament hand i probably would have gone bust. Im interested to hear from you guys how i played this hand, and how you might have played it differently. Here is the link to the hand from pokerhand.org.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?372235
Seat 5: trixter23 ($52.45 in chips)
Seat 6: Nazareen ($52.35 in chips)
RAISE trixter23 , $2 to $2.50
I pick up KK UTG and make a 5x the blind raise. At the .25/.50 level you see many robots. Who only raise with monsters or AK and AQ. I switch up my play and raise and re raise with suited connectors or i flat call with kings or aces. You have to switch up your play or you become predictable to your opponent.
RAISE Nazareen, $2.50 to $5
The guy immediately to my left MINI raises to $5. Right now bells are going off in my head. To warrant a re raise on this level he has to have a monster. AA, AK or KK come to mind. Yes he can have KK. I think about and figure im 90% sure he has aces and 5% for AK/KK. Only $2.50 more to call i decide to put the money in to see if i can get lucky and catch a king if he doesnt have KK that is.
Flop: (Pot: $10.75) As Kh Td
Well now this is going to be very interesting. He doesnt have KK since i just flopped one. I HIGHLY doubt and hope hes not re raising me with QJ. So that leaves AK and AA. Im going to go with my read here. Instead of check calling, i bet into him. Yes, you heard me right. If he does have aces if i bet into him hes more than likely to smooth call till the river. I want to control how much i'm going to lose on this hand. So i make small "value" bets toward the pot. Would you be able to lay down Kings at this point?
BET trixter23 , $3
CALL Nazareen, $3
Turn: (Pot: $16.75) As Kh Td 4d
The turn puts a diamond draw on the board. But if my read is right he cant be on it. So i fire a bet 1/4 the size of the pot.
BET trixter23 , $4
CALL Nazareen, $4
River: (Pot: $24.75) As Kh Td 4d 9h
There is $25 dollars in the pot. I don't want to check and have him bet, to put me in decision making mode and have to call $25 more for an all in. So i bet $5 into a $25 dollar pot. He doesn't hesitate and re raises to $15. Thus making the pot around $40. To call $10 more dollars to win the size of that pot is nothing. The problem is i know im beat. Do you guys call $10 more dollars to take this pot down? Before i get to that part this chat ensued on the table.
BET trixter23 , $5
RAISE Nazareen, $10 to $15
trixter23 said, "did u really flop 3 aces"
trixter23 said, "i think u did"
trixter23 said, "devil this is sick"
EVDevil03 said, "yeah i know"
trixter23 said, "i have to pay him off"
AArbrad3 said, "jq"
I dont know what the guy saying QJ was thinking. Did he watch the whole hand? I make the call and our read was dead on.
trixter23 : shows (three of a kind Kings)
Nazareen: shows (three of a kind Aces)
The way i played the hand was very uncommon. I stuck with my read and controlled the betting throughout the hand. If i played it like i had the nuts, i would have been out of my whole stack. Well i cant say that because i had him covered by 10 cents. Im happy this was a cash game hand rather than a tournament hand. If it was a tournament hand i probably would have gone bust. Im interested to hear from you guys how i played this hand, and how you might have played it differently. Here is the link to the hand from pokerhand.org.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?372235
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Part 2
I pick up today with the 2nd part of a 3 part series. When i left off yesterday, i had T70 in chips very early on in a sit and go and had no shot of winning, let alone cashing. I was on a mission, and acesofclubs was a marked man. I'm going to update my stack and acesofclubs stack at the same time. He says hes not a "bad player", but i was out to prove otherwise and eliminate him.
The first hand after the loss to AQ, it should have just ended right here. In MP i get A8c and raise 40 to 70 and go all in. This is when blinds are 15/30 mind you. No one calls and i take down the pot. My stack T115: aoc(acesofclubs) T2815. A few hands later i get Kh Td. UTG makes it 90 to go and i re-raise all in for a massive 25 chips more. He flips over AK and i am dominated. This was the only time i came back to win a pot as an underdog when the board comes [3h 5c Th 4c] [6h]. Trix T245: aoc T2635.
Blinds are at 25/50 now and im still very much in danger with only 5 bb's. A little bit of retribution comes on the next hand. I pick up As Ad in MP. Our buddy aces is UTG and smooth calls. With my stack as short as it is, there's no fancy way you play aces. It's all in why? because all in is fun baby! So i raise 170 more and go all in for my remaining 220 chips. He calls and flips over pocket 8s. I believe it was stu ungar who said, "aces are only good to win a small pot, or lose a big one". Luckily this didnt happen and i flopped an ace giving me my set. If i didnt, he hit an 8 on the river to give him a set and knock me out. I double through aces and he adds "atta boy". Trix T515: aoc T2415. I go all in with As Ts and get 0 callers. Trix T640:aoc T2340. I get Ks 3s and i feel good about it, raise it up 100 to 150 and get no callers. Trix T615:aoc2340. The next hand there is a stack smaller than me with 480 chips in the bb. I make a standard 3x raise to 150 with As 7d and get 0 callers again. Trix T690:aoc T2340.
Blinds have gone up to 50/100 now. Of course it goes up on me, it's only natural. I get the juggernaut of 2c 4s in my BB. Everyone folds around to the small blind who smooth calls. I check and the flop comes Qc 7h 7c. He checks and i check behind. Turn brings a 4 and he bets 100 and I call with my 2 pair. The river brings the Ts. He bets 100 again and I raise 390 more to 490 and go all in. He folds and im back in the game, well sort of! Trix T990:aoc T2265. I pick up Jc Js in the big blind and have the intent to push if anyone raises. The short stack, yes i said short stack im still not the lowest one, raises 230 to 330 and goes all in. zeebaron to my right flat calls 280 more. I dont want to let him see a flop, so i re raise 610 more to 940 and go all in. Baron folds and short stack flips over 4s and doesnt improve, i did i turned a Jack for a boat and i took down the pot. Trix T1600:aoc T2265. The gap is closing!
I get 8h 8c in late position and raise and everyone folds. Trix T1700:aoc T2315. We lose another player and now have 7 left. aoc raised and someone came over the top and he folded. What a little girl. Blinds have increased to 75/150 now. Trix T1475:aoc T1490. Wow are we joking? The guy had a 25-1 chip lead on me and now im only 15 chips away from this idiot! I dont think i played a hand at the level and got blinded down. Blinds escalate to 100/200 and im sitting with T900 in chips and in desperation mode once again. Our buddy aces has T1115 and isnt doing that hot either. In the sb i make a push with nothing and take the bb. Trix T1100:aoc T1115. 5 chips away! We lose another player and go to 6 handed.
Blinds are getting ridiculous, im tryin to double up incredibly bad at this point. I get A8 and push all in and everyone folds. I've done it! I achieved 1 of my goals and i have more chips than aoc. Trix T1300:aoc T915. And no lie The 2nd time aces has stepped into a pot since we bucked heads he goes all in for his last 915 and gets a call. He flips over QT and baron flips over A4. Both the and the queen come and aces is gone! I achieve my 2nd goal of lasting longer than him. Then the magic phrase comes, trixter23 said, "gg aces". He left gracefully and didnt say a word.
To make a long story short, I got heads up with baron the guy who was calling all ins with Ax no matter how much. I picked up AK and we 3 bet and get it all in pre flop. I flipped over AK and he flipped over 82. I had 4k in chips so it wasnt like he HAD to call, but he flipped over 82. Of course the 2 hits and i go out in 2nd place. But after what i went through to even get to that point i felt like i was on a free roll. If anyone has been watching the new US Poker championship you have seen brian haveson come back from 475 chips to over 44k. That is an amazing feat. In part 3 ill discuss the madness of people in the $3 rebuy, but for right now i guess i can really believe in the phrase "a chip and a chair"
The first hand after the loss to AQ, it should have just ended right here. In MP i get A8c and raise 40 to 70 and go all in. This is when blinds are 15/30 mind you. No one calls and i take down the pot. My stack T115: aoc(acesofclubs) T2815. A few hands later i get Kh Td. UTG makes it 90 to go and i re-raise all in for a massive 25 chips more. He flips over AK and i am dominated. This was the only time i came back to win a pot as an underdog when the board comes [3h 5c Th 4c] [6h]. Trix T245: aoc T2635.
Blinds are at 25/50 now and im still very much in danger with only 5 bb's. A little bit of retribution comes on the next hand. I pick up As Ad in MP. Our buddy aces is UTG and smooth calls. With my stack as short as it is, there's no fancy way you play aces. It's all in why? because all in is fun baby! So i raise 170 more and go all in for my remaining 220 chips. He calls and flips over pocket 8s. I believe it was stu ungar who said, "aces are only good to win a small pot, or lose a big one". Luckily this didnt happen and i flopped an ace giving me my set. If i didnt, he hit an 8 on the river to give him a set and knock me out. I double through aces and he adds "atta boy". Trix T515: aoc T2415. I go all in with As Ts and get 0 callers. Trix T640:aoc T2340. I get Ks 3s and i feel good about it, raise it up 100 to 150 and get no callers. Trix T615:aoc2340. The next hand there is a stack smaller than me with 480 chips in the bb. I make a standard 3x raise to 150 with As 7d and get 0 callers again. Trix T690:aoc T2340.
Blinds have gone up to 50/100 now. Of course it goes up on me, it's only natural. I get the juggernaut of 2c 4s in my BB. Everyone folds around to the small blind who smooth calls. I check and the flop comes Qc 7h 7c. He checks and i check behind. Turn brings a 4 and he bets 100 and I call with my 2 pair. The river brings the Ts. He bets 100 again and I raise 390 more to 490 and go all in. He folds and im back in the game, well sort of! Trix T990:aoc T2265. I pick up Jc Js in the big blind and have the intent to push if anyone raises. The short stack, yes i said short stack im still not the lowest one, raises 230 to 330 and goes all in. zeebaron to my right flat calls 280 more. I dont want to let him see a flop, so i re raise 610 more to 940 and go all in. Baron folds and short stack flips over 4s and doesnt improve, i did i turned a Jack for a boat and i took down the pot. Trix T1600:aoc T2265. The gap is closing!
I get 8h 8c in late position and raise and everyone folds. Trix T1700:aoc T2315. We lose another player and now have 7 left. aoc raised and someone came over the top and he folded. What a little girl. Blinds have increased to 75/150 now. Trix T1475:aoc T1490. Wow are we joking? The guy had a 25-1 chip lead on me and now im only 15 chips away from this idiot! I dont think i played a hand at the level and got blinded down. Blinds escalate to 100/200 and im sitting with T900 in chips and in desperation mode once again. Our buddy aces has T1115 and isnt doing that hot either. In the sb i make a push with nothing and take the bb. Trix T1100:aoc T1115. 5 chips away! We lose another player and go to 6 handed.
Blinds are getting ridiculous, im tryin to double up incredibly bad at this point. I get A8 and push all in and everyone folds. I've done it! I achieved 1 of my goals and i have more chips than aoc. Trix T1300:aoc T915. And no lie The 2nd time aces has stepped into a pot since we bucked heads he goes all in for his last 915 and gets a call. He flips over QT and baron flips over A4. Both the and the queen come and aces is gone! I achieve my 2nd goal of lasting longer than him. Then the magic phrase comes, trixter23 said, "gg aces". He left gracefully and didnt say a word.
To make a long story short, I got heads up with baron the guy who was calling all ins with Ax no matter how much. I picked up AK and we 3 bet and get it all in pre flop. I flipped over AK and he flipped over 82. I had 4k in chips so it wasnt like he HAD to call, but he flipped over 82. Of course the 2 hits and i go out in 2nd place. But after what i went through to even get to that point i felt like i was on a free roll. If anyone has been watching the new US Poker championship you have seen brian haveson come back from 475 chips to over 44k. That is an amazing feat. In part 3 ill discuss the madness of people in the $3 rebuy, but for right now i guess i can really believe in the phrase "a chip and a chair"
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Unbelievable comeback and madness
This will be a 3 part post since it will be pretty long. While i was in the $3 rebuy i hopped in a $20 sng. The hand that happens is only what drove me to success.
It was the 9th hand of the tournament and i picked up QQ on the cutoff. With blinds at 15/30, UTG+1 makes it 90 to go. I re-raise to 360 showing strength. Everyone else folds to the original raiser who calls. The flop comes 4c 7s As. I didnt have any particular read on this guy considering its fairly early in the tournament. He checks to me and i throw a bet of 300 into a pot of 745. He thinks for a minute, literally, then raises 710 more and is all in. We both turn over and he shows Ah Qd. Before i made the call i thought he had AK, which i would have been able to live with considering its basically a coin flip. When he flipped over AQ, it just sent me over the edge seeing he hit his 3 outer and called a pre flop raise OOP with that hand. So now im pretty much done considering i have $70 in chips left. This is the chat that we had over probably 25 hands or so.
trixter23 said, "of course"
trixter23 said, "re raise and the donk calls with aq"
AcesOfClubs said, "donk? lol"
AcesOfClubs said, "feel free to check my stats"
trixter23 said, "i dont care about stats"
trixter23 said, "that was a horrible plya"
AcesOfClubs said, "i think you are the donk for calling"
AcesOfClubs said, "learn to fold"
trixter23 said, "u should learn to fold when ur beat"
trixter23 said, "aq"
trixter23 said, "woooooo"
AcesOfClubs said, "you gotta be kidding"
trixter23 said, "catch that 3 outer stars"
AcesOfClubs said, "if it bothers you this much to lose with QQ, you need to find another game"
AcesOfClubs said, "perhaps checkers"
AcesOfClubs said, "you didnt lose to a bad player, just take it in stride"
AcesOfClubs said, "but you made a really bad call, so you have no room to argue"
trixter23 said, "i dont care about losing with queens its the fact people with ace anything calls no matter what"
trixter23 said, "u had that magic ace so u had to call"
AcesOfClubs said, "that makes no sense"
Wilsen said, "he is saying aq not the nuts lol"
trixter23 said, "so ur saying with blinds 15/30 and u raise to 90 and i re raise u to 360, u think u had the best hand?"
AcesOfClubs said, "but if you bet 300 and i put you all in with an ace showing...."
AcesOfClubs said, "its ok to call?"
trixter23 said, "the only logical thing u could have called my re raise with would have been AK"
trixter23 said, "and if u hit ur 3 outer im fine with that"
AcesOfClubs said, "logical?"
trixter23 said, "but AQ i just dont agree with"
AcesOfClubs said, "maybe i just think you are a bad player"
trixter23 said, "hey im not the one whose calling re raises with aq"
AcesOfClubs said, "and thought I could outplay you"
AcesOfClubs said, "and I did"
trixter23 said, "u didnt outplay ****"
trixter23 said, "no one outplayed anyone"
trixter23 said, "u got lucky and hit ur ace"
AcesOfClubs said, "ok 115"
After he said that i didnt talk to him again. Pre-flop i was absolutely positive i had the best hand. When he check-raised all in then it was pretty obvious he had an ace. With only 480 chips left i decided there was too many chips in the pot to just fold. He could have been on a flush draw also. It was a bad play by him pre flop, and most likely a bad play by me afterwards. But its a sit and go, you need chips, and you need them quick. In my next post i'll tell you about how i made a triumphant comeback and i was the one who said "gg acesofclubs"
It was the 9th hand of the tournament and i picked up QQ on the cutoff. With blinds at 15/30, UTG+1 makes it 90 to go. I re-raise to 360 showing strength. Everyone else folds to the original raiser who calls. The flop comes 4c 7s As. I didnt have any particular read on this guy considering its fairly early in the tournament. He checks to me and i throw a bet of 300 into a pot of 745. He thinks for a minute, literally, then raises 710 more and is all in. We both turn over and he shows Ah Qd. Before i made the call i thought he had AK, which i would have been able to live with considering its basically a coin flip. When he flipped over AQ, it just sent me over the edge seeing he hit his 3 outer and called a pre flop raise OOP with that hand. So now im pretty much done considering i have $70 in chips left. This is the chat that we had over probably 25 hands or so.
trixter23 said, "of course"
trixter23 said, "re raise and the donk calls with aq"
AcesOfClubs said, "donk? lol"
AcesOfClubs said, "feel free to check my stats"
trixter23 said, "i dont care about stats"
trixter23 said, "that was a horrible plya"
AcesOfClubs said, "i think you are the donk for calling"
AcesOfClubs said, "learn to fold"
trixter23 said, "u should learn to fold when ur beat"
trixter23 said, "aq"
trixter23 said, "woooooo"
AcesOfClubs said, "you gotta be kidding"
trixter23 said, "catch that 3 outer stars"
AcesOfClubs said, "if it bothers you this much to lose with QQ, you need to find another game"
AcesOfClubs said, "perhaps checkers"
AcesOfClubs said, "you didnt lose to a bad player, just take it in stride"
AcesOfClubs said, "but you made a really bad call, so you have no room to argue"
trixter23 said, "i dont care about losing with queens its the fact people with ace anything calls no matter what"
trixter23 said, "u had that magic ace so u had to call"
AcesOfClubs said, "that makes no sense"
Wilsen said, "he is saying aq not the nuts lol"
trixter23 said, "so ur saying with blinds 15/30 and u raise to 90 and i re raise u to 360, u think u had the best hand?"
AcesOfClubs said, "but if you bet 300 and i put you all in with an ace showing...."
AcesOfClubs said, "its ok to call?"
trixter23 said, "the only logical thing u could have called my re raise with would have been AK"
trixter23 said, "and if u hit ur 3 outer im fine with that"
AcesOfClubs said, "logical?"
trixter23 said, "but AQ i just dont agree with"
AcesOfClubs said, "maybe i just think you are a bad player"
trixter23 said, "hey im not the one whose calling re raises with aq"
AcesOfClubs said, "and thought I could outplay you"
AcesOfClubs said, "and I did"
trixter23 said, "u didnt outplay ****"
trixter23 said, "no one outplayed anyone"
trixter23 said, "u got lucky and hit ur ace"
AcesOfClubs said, "ok 115"
After he said that i didnt talk to him again. Pre-flop i was absolutely positive i had the best hand. When he check-raised all in then it was pretty obvious he had an ace. With only 480 chips left i decided there was too many chips in the pot to just fold. He could have been on a flush draw also. It was a bad play by him pre flop, and most likely a bad play by me afterwards. But its a sit and go, you need chips, and you need them quick. In my next post i'll tell you about how i made a triumphant comeback and i was the one who said "gg acesofclubs"
Friday, June 09, 2006
Pot-Limit Omaha
For some reason i havent played an omaha tournament in a long time. I'm not sure why this was, but in the coming weeks im going to try and play more. I've had much more success with this type of game in such a short period of time. I think Josh Arieh was correct in stating that with WSOP fields being so large, you have to focus on more than just hold'em if you're really in the hunt for a bracelet. Playing online especially, people dont really know what they're doing. In the early going you get a lot of people who go all in with AA49, etc etc and either suck out on ya or lose. You want to take advantage of those people with the hands like AKQT, double suited connectors, hands like those. Here are some of my stats on PL-Omaha from thepokerdb.com
12/7/2005 - $10 Omaha Pot-Limit - Rank 2(chopped 1st and 2nd) - $390
1/11/2006 - $20 Omaha Hi/Lo-Limit - Rank 1 - $743
2/6/2006 - $10 Omaha Pot Limit - Rank 3 - $281
I have tons more in the top 18 range but those are my bigger finishes. This leads me into the tournament i played last night. We started with 166 people and top 18 getting money. At one point i was chip leader but played a hand and a guy hit his set on the river. I should have played the hand way different. Then another hand came up, which i will illustrate now.
I was dealt Kc Qh Jd Jh in the cutoff and with blinds at 100/200 i made it 600 to go. This is a decent hand, but it needs help to win, if someone calls with an ace and one comes on the board and i dont get a flush or straight draw, i have to dump if re raised. The flop comes Js 5h As. Giving me 2nd set and a straight draw. I know this guy doesnt have Aces in the hole so my set is looking ok. Unlike hold em when you get a hand here you really cant slow play because there is always a drawing hand around the corner usually. Before the hand started i had 7785 in chips and my opponent had 5542 in chips. I bet the pot, which was $1300, the guy thinks and uses his time bank for a little bit then re raises and goes all in. The only thing i can comprehend him having is a spade draw and i make the call. He flips over Ad 9s 8d Qc. At this point im actually laughing to myself wondering how this guy makes the call pre flop and how he thinks his Ace is good. Even if he thinks im on a flush draw, his hand is to susceptible.
Now remember in Omaha you have to play 2 and only 2 cards in your pocket. He has a pair of aces and no re-draw at all. I'm feelin great about havin 14k and gettin to the FT. I forgot i was playing on pokerstars though. The turn comes a 10d. This is the 2nd worst card i would have saw in the deck. I cant lose the hand at this point. But i can tie it. And of course the river brings the Kh, giving us each broadway and we split the pot.
This was just me being unlucky at that point. This hand happened on the bubble and it would have put me in the top 10 in chips with about 15k. I ran the numbers on cardplayer and pre flop i was a 60-40 fav. On the flop i was 95-5. On the turn it went to me being a 92 percent fav and him drawing dead and only being able to tie at 7 percent. I eventually went out 13th when i failed to improve on a hand.
Hopefully i have some better luck in my next tournament.
12/7/2005 - $10 Omaha Pot-Limit - Rank 2(chopped 1st and 2nd) - $390
1/11/2006 - $20 Omaha Hi/Lo-Limit - Rank 1 - $743
2/6/2006 - $10 Omaha Pot Limit - Rank 3 - $281
I have tons more in the top 18 range but those are my bigger finishes. This leads me into the tournament i played last night. We started with 166 people and top 18 getting money. At one point i was chip leader but played a hand and a guy hit his set on the river. I should have played the hand way different. Then another hand came up, which i will illustrate now.
I was dealt Kc Qh Jd Jh in the cutoff and with blinds at 100/200 i made it 600 to go. This is a decent hand, but it needs help to win, if someone calls with an ace and one comes on the board and i dont get a flush or straight draw, i have to dump if re raised. The flop comes Js 5h As. Giving me 2nd set and a straight draw. I know this guy doesnt have Aces in the hole so my set is looking ok. Unlike hold em when you get a hand here you really cant slow play because there is always a drawing hand around the corner usually. Before the hand started i had 7785 in chips and my opponent had 5542 in chips. I bet the pot, which was $1300, the guy thinks and uses his time bank for a little bit then re raises and goes all in. The only thing i can comprehend him having is a spade draw and i make the call. He flips over Ad 9s 8d Qc. At this point im actually laughing to myself wondering how this guy makes the call pre flop and how he thinks his Ace is good. Even if he thinks im on a flush draw, his hand is to susceptible.
Now remember in Omaha you have to play 2 and only 2 cards in your pocket. He has a pair of aces and no re-draw at all. I'm feelin great about havin 14k and gettin to the FT. I forgot i was playing on pokerstars though. The turn comes a 10d. This is the 2nd worst card i would have saw in the deck. I cant lose the hand at this point. But i can tie it. And of course the river brings the Kh, giving us each broadway and we split the pot.
This was just me being unlucky at that point. This hand happened on the bubble and it would have put me in the top 10 in chips with about 15k. I ran the numbers on cardplayer and pre flop i was a 60-40 fav. On the flop i was 95-5. On the turn it went to me being a 92 percent fav and him drawing dead and only being able to tie at 7 percent. I eventually went out 13th when i failed to improve on a hand.
Hopefully i have some better luck in my next tournament.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Sigh...
Took down another $20 sng on FT, those things are pie. Didnt cash in either the rebuys and i was killin the $10 MTT on stars till i took these 2 beats. The 2nd one isnt really a bad beat but its just a HORRIBLE way to lose.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?359450
http://www.pokerhand.org/?359460
I did get a visitor at my $5 rebuy though. I did have fun stacking him twice. Seat 5 is none other than Scott Fishman
http://www.pokerhand.org/?359450
http://www.pokerhand.org/?359460
I did get a visitor at my $5 rebuy though. I did have fun stacking him twice. Seat 5 is none other than Scott Fishman
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Slow day..
It's been pretty slow the last 2 days. The rebuy tournaments I have been getting my nice starting stack in the 10-20k range, but after the break it seems like I just can't do anything. Cards go completely dead, and when I play in position, short stacks(around 8k) just push. This is at the point where I'm plan tight as can be and only playing premium hands. I realize people dont pay attention as much as they do playing in a live tournament but still. You dont need to be pushing 12k all in when blinds are still 75/150 or 100/200. Anyway I've had KK cracked by JJ twice all in pre flop when a J hit and then I had this catastrophe to sum up my day.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?358396
So after cashing out some of my winnings, I deposited $500 on full tilt and $500 on bodog. I put money on full tilt because its my 2nd fav site and they are running sats to the pre lim events at the wsop. I'm definitely going to play atleast 1 event but IM not sure which one. I would love to play more, but it all hinges on what I do the next month or so. I played a quick $10 sng and it was the easiest tourney I have ever played. I took it down in, get this, 80 hands. I started at 7:24 and was done at 7:57. This wasn't a turbo it was a normal sng.
It was my first time putting money into bodog so I didn't really know what to expect. I signed up and when I tried to login it gave me an error stating that I didn't have access to the poker room. Traditionally I'm not a superstitious(sp) person but when it comes to money I am. I called up customer service and got through. They had to delete my account and I had to delete all aspects of bodog and re install it again. I got everything up and running and played a $10 sng. If you have never played on bodog its truly a changeup. You start with 1k in chips and blinds start at 5/10. I didn't like the structure at all! Overall it just didn't have the same feel as a pokerstars or FT. When I'm playing, I want to be comfortable, so after a couple more tournaments I cashed out(with a $50 dollar profit).
Hopefully the rest of the weekend ill catch a nice run and make some money. On a sidenote lucko is deep in the $5 rebuy and would like to say gl and hopefully ya take it down. Peace
http://www.pokerhand.org/?358396
So after cashing out some of my winnings, I deposited $500 on full tilt and $500 on bodog. I put money on full tilt because its my 2nd fav site and they are running sats to the pre lim events at the wsop. I'm definitely going to play atleast 1 event but IM not sure which one. I would love to play more, but it all hinges on what I do the next month or so. I played a quick $10 sng and it was the easiest tourney I have ever played. I took it down in, get this, 80 hands. I started at 7:24 and was done at 7:57. This wasn't a turbo it was a normal sng.
It was my first time putting money into bodog so I didn't really know what to expect. I signed up and when I tried to login it gave me an error stating that I didn't have access to the poker room. Traditionally I'm not a superstitious(sp) person but when it comes to money I am. I called up customer service and got through. They had to delete my account and I had to delete all aspects of bodog and re install it again. I got everything up and running and played a $10 sng. If you have never played on bodog its truly a changeup. You start with 1k in chips and blinds start at 5/10. I didn't like the structure at all! Overall it just didn't have the same feel as a pokerstars or FT. When I'm playing, I want to be comfortable, so after a couple more tournaments I cashed out(with a $50 dollar profit).
Hopefully the rest of the weekend ill catch a nice run and make some money. On a sidenote lucko is deep in the $5 rebuy and would like to say gl and hopefully ya take it down. Peace
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
