This afternoon I wasn't feeling motivated enough to play any big Sunday tournaments, so I decided to try out some SNGs on Stars, and registered for a couple $72+$6 6 max turbos. They were so soft that I ended up playing 25 over the course of the day, and I had 5 wins and 7 seconds for a profit of just over $500. I decided to ride the momentum and jumped in 3 $110+$9 SNGs, and I ran like Usain Bolt in them with 2 wins and a second place, and I finished the day up over $1200.
While there's no denying I ran at an unsustainably high rate, I just couldn't believe how bad a lot of the players were. There was a minimum of two terrible players at every table, and often it was more. Here are just two examples of the many absurd hands played:
PokerStars Game #36016885147: Tournament #217161385, $72+$6 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2009/11/29 14:07:09 ET
Table '217161385 1' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: losechips97 (2185 in chips)
Seat 2: darinvg (1200 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (1470 in chips)
Seat 4: nutjob 1 (1275 in chips)
Seat 5: nutjob 2 (1435 in chips)
Seat 6: MyNameWuzBoB (1435 in chips)
nutjob 1: posts small blind 15
nutjob 2: posts big blind 30
* HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Loretta8 [7s 9h]
MyNameWuzBoB: folds
losechips97: folds
darinvg: folds
Loretta8: folds
nutjob 1: raises 60 to 90
nutjob 2: calls 60
** FLOP * [3h Ts 7h]
nutjob 1: bets 120
nutjob 2: calls 120
* TURN * [3h Ts 7h] [7d]
nutjob 1: bets 150
nutjob 2: calls 150
* RIVER * [3h Ts 7h 7d] [7c]
nutjob 1: bets 150
nutjob 2: raises 925 to 1075 and is all-in
nutjob 1: calls 765 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (160) returned to nutjob 2
* SHOW DOWN ***
nutjob 2: shows [Qh 6h] (three of a kind, Sevens)
nutjob 1: shows [Ah 4d] (three of a kind, Sevens - Ace kicker)
nutjob 1 collected 2550 from pot
PokerStars Game #36013480981: Tournament #217139759, $72+$6 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/11/29 12:47:21 ET
Table '217139759 1' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: tnick2 (1500 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: nutjob 4 (1460 in chips)
Seat 3: Sao Paulo 76 (1460 in chips)
Seat 4: nutjob 3 (1580 in chips)
Seat 5: barrybab333 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: Loretta8 (1500 in chips)
Sao Paulo 76: posts small blind 10
nutjob 3: posts big blind 20
* HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Loretta8 [Th Kh]
barrybab333: folds
Loretta8: raises 40 to 60
tnick2: folds
nutjob 4: calls 60
Sao Paulo 76: folds
nutjob 3: raises 120 to 180
Loretta8: folds
nutjob 4: calls 120
** FLOP * [8c 8h Ts]
nutjob 3: bets 260
nutjob 4: calls 260
* TURN * [8c 8h Ts] [8d]
nutjob 3: bets 1140 and is all-in
nutjob 4: calls 1020 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (120) returned to nutjob 3
* RIVER * [8c 8h Ts 8d] [5h]
* SHOW DOWN ***
nutjob 3: shows [Qs Kd] (three of a kind, Eights)
nutjob 4: shows [7s 7d] (a full house, Eights full of Sevens)
nutjob 4 collected 2990 from pot
and the play didn't exactly improve at the $119 level:
PokerStars Game #36038621467: Tournament #217302418, $110+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2009/11/29 22:32:55 ET
Table '217302418 1' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: Loretta8 (4760 in chips)
Seat 3: nutjob 5 (4240 in chips)
Loretta8: posts the ante 25
nutjob 5: posts the ante 25
Loretta8: posts small blind 100
nutjob 5: posts big blind 200
* HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Loretta8 [7d 5h]
Loretta8: raises 200 to 400
nutjob 5: raises 200 to 600
Loretta8: calls 200
** FLOP * [5d 3d 6h]
nutjob 5: bets 800
Loretta8: raises 3335 to 4135 and is all-in
nutjob 5: calls 2815 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (520) returned to Loretta8
* TURN * [5d 3d 6h] [9s]
* RIVER * [5d 3d 6h 9s] [Ad]
* SHOW DOWN ***
nutjob 5: shows [Kd 7h] (high card Ace)
Loretta8: shows [7d 5h] (a pair of Fives)
Loretta8 collected 8480 from pot
I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the min-raise preflop on the button, most opponents either won't play back enough or will call too much out of position and not play well postflop. Here he makes the min 3-bet so I'm priced in, and then I hit a pair and a gutter on the flop and shove over his c-bet, figuring I have the best hand a lot and decent equity when behind. There's the added bonus of getting snapped off by K high with a gutter, which I have to admit I didn't consider.
There are definitely some good regulars in these games, but there are also some pretty nitty/bad regulars. One guy who was in a lot of the SNGs was running at 10/8 over 350 hands. For those wondering what the hell 10/8 means, those are PokerTracker stats. The 10 means he voluntarily puts money in the pot with 10% of his hands, and the 8 means he raises preflop 8% of the time. For some perspective, playing at 10/8 would be considered tight at a 9 handed table, so at 6 max (and often 3 to 5 handed as people bust), its ridiculously tight. 17/15 or so is considered tight by 6 max standards, and that's almost twice as loose as this guy. It's a testament to just how many terrible loose stations there are that a guy playing so nitty can survive.
Now I may be getting a little ahead of myself, as it was a Sunday and there are certainly a lot more recreational players at the tables then. But even with a good percentage of the fish gone, I should still be able to beat these games. Many moons ago I built up my roll playing small stakes 6 max SNGs on UB, but I've gotten away from them in recent years. As long as I tighten up my push/fold ranges and keep studying my opponents tendencies for weakness I can exploit, I should be able to beat these games at a decent rate. Now let's see if I can manage not to tilt off my profits like the last time I made a brag post about how soft the games were.
Thanks for reading,
George
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
$5r win recap: conquering the crazy euros
So at long last I'll post an abbreviated recap of my luckboxing of the Full Tilt $5 rebuy 6 max. I had a crazy starting table and built up nicely during the rebuy period. My experience has always been that small stakes rebuys on Full Tilt are much nittier during the rebuy period than on Stars for whatever reason, but this was an exception. I chipped up pretty consistently after that, including one big pot where I flopped a set of aces and turned quads on a AAQxx board and got 3 streets of value from Q9.
The key hand of the tournament was just into the money with about 80 players left. Blinds were 600/1200 with an ante, and I had 105k which was top 5 in the tournament. I was in the BB with QQ, and the CO made it 3600 on a shortish stack and the button 3-bet to 9k. The button was new to the table and had 120k in chips. My only read on the guy was that he was from France, which generally means loose and aggressive. I decided that button vs blind that I was going with the QQ vs a random french guy pre, and 4-bet to 25k. The inital raiser folded and the french guy called very quickly. I wasn't expecting to get called here, as with the pot so big I'd expect him to either fold or get it in. His quick call indicated to me that he didn't have a big hand, as you'd think he'd at least consider getting the money in pre with JJ+,AK.
The flop was a bad one for me, AJ4 with 2 hearts (I did not have a heart). With 80k behind and 54k in the pot, I decided to check and re-evaluate, as I didn't think my opponent would continue with many worse hands but certainly wasn't folding an ace. He made a very small bet of 15k and I called. The turn was an offsuit 3, I checked and he quickly checked behind. The river was an offsuit 5, I checked again and he quickly shoved. It seemed pretty impossible for him to have a 2 in his hand, so I wasn't worried about a straight. It was conceivable that he checked back an ace on the turn, but given my preflop timing tell and his quick turn check, I thought he was weak and made the call. It turned out he was packing the 98 of diamonds for a stone bluff, and I doubled up and took a massive chip lead.
I pretty much cruised into the final table, not playing many big pots without big hands and steadily chipping up. I also got a couple gifts, one when a guy shoved 40 BBs over my 2.5x button open with 33 and my TT held, another when a guy shoved 27 BBs over my UTG open when I was new to the table with 98s, and my QQ faded his turned straight flush draw. When the final table started I was 2nd in chips, with a comfortable 900k at 10k/20k.
Early in the final table I got another gift from a crazy Russian. He opened to 50k UTG (6 handed, remember) on a 700k stack, and I 3-bet to 130k on the button with KK. He called, and the flop came ten high without many draws. He then donk-shoved into me, I called of course and held off his AKo and took a big chip lead.
From there, play got 3 handed very quickly, as a loose wild Belgian on my right busted two other players, one when he cracked AA with A8 all in on an 8 high flop, and the other when he hit a 2 outer on the river. So three-handed the Belgian and I each had about 1.8 million and the other guy (who put on a clinic in nitting it up to move up the payout ladder) had about 700k.
During 3-handed play, the Belgian and I were playing street poker, constantly raising and re-raising each other. I got off to a great start by picking off his bluff when I had trip aces. And when he'd finally had enough of my 3-bets and tried a 4-bet bluff preflop, I had AK and wasn't going anywhere, so he folded to my shove and shipped 400k my way on that hand. But I got a little too crazy and doubled him up on a weird hand. I opened 96o on the button and he called from the BB. The flop was J87 with a flush draw and we both checked. The turn was an 8, putting two flush draws on the board, he checked again and I bet about half pot. He quickly check-raised me, putting it about a third of his stack. He had made some check-raise bluffs in the past, and it seemed unlikely to me that he would check a big hand twice on such a drawy board. So I shoved and he called with 85 and I didn't hit my 4 outer. He definitely outplayed me on that hand, was a very good turn check by him. I also think the two flush draws on board make my shove a lot more questionable, since he could be committing himself with a draw.
A few hands later, we played the biggest pot of the tournament. I opened with T8 of spades on the button and he 3-bet me. He had been 3-betting me a lot, and we were very deep stacked so I decided to call and see a flop in position. The flop with 544 with two spades, and he bet out for pot, which was about 350k. He still had over a million chips behind, and I had him covered but only by about 200k. It seemed to me that on such a non-threatening flop for a 3-bet pot he wouldn't bet so big with a big hand, and since I have two overcards to the board and a flush draw I still have good equity when called, I decided to shove. Unfortunately he had AA with the ace of spades, so I wasn't in good shape, but I hit a spade on the turn and faded the redraw on the river. I don't know if he bet the flop so big purposefully to make himself look weak, or if he was just scared of me getting lucky, but it got me to shove somewhat light either way. That hand was the only one of the tournament where I got most of my chips in bad, and I got lucky and went to heads up with a huge chip lead.
Heads up I considered making a deal, but thankfully lucko and eusebio talked me out of it, and I quickly won as my opponent shoved A4 over my button open and I called with AJ and held for the win.
It's always nice to win, especially on Full Tilt where to put it mildly I haven't had success in big field MTTs. Even with this win I'm still slightly in the red for Full Tilt MTTs, and that wasn't helped by my 0 for in Sunday tournaments there yesterday. But I did have a great session of heads up cash today, winning just over $700 in 200 hands at 100NL. $613 of that came from one absolute maniac, who lost that to me in just 97 hands. I ran very well in preflop all-ins against him and was lucky enough to pick up big hands when he attempted crazy bluffs. Always fun to be in god mode vs weak opponents, hopefully I can keep the momentum going tonight in MTTs.
Thanks for reading,
George
The key hand of the tournament was just into the money with about 80 players left. Blinds were 600/1200 with an ante, and I had 105k which was top 5 in the tournament. I was in the BB with QQ, and the CO made it 3600 on a shortish stack and the button 3-bet to 9k. The button was new to the table and had 120k in chips. My only read on the guy was that he was from France, which generally means loose and aggressive. I decided that button vs blind that I was going with the QQ vs a random french guy pre, and 4-bet to 25k. The inital raiser folded and the french guy called very quickly. I wasn't expecting to get called here, as with the pot so big I'd expect him to either fold or get it in. His quick call indicated to me that he didn't have a big hand, as you'd think he'd at least consider getting the money in pre with JJ+,AK.
The flop was a bad one for me, AJ4 with 2 hearts (I did not have a heart). With 80k behind and 54k in the pot, I decided to check and re-evaluate, as I didn't think my opponent would continue with many worse hands but certainly wasn't folding an ace. He made a very small bet of 15k and I called. The turn was an offsuit 3, I checked and he quickly checked behind. The river was an offsuit 5, I checked again and he quickly shoved. It seemed pretty impossible for him to have a 2 in his hand, so I wasn't worried about a straight. It was conceivable that he checked back an ace on the turn, but given my preflop timing tell and his quick turn check, I thought he was weak and made the call. It turned out he was packing the 98 of diamonds for a stone bluff, and I doubled up and took a massive chip lead.
I pretty much cruised into the final table, not playing many big pots without big hands and steadily chipping up. I also got a couple gifts, one when a guy shoved 40 BBs over my 2.5x button open with 33 and my TT held, another when a guy shoved 27 BBs over my UTG open when I was new to the table with 98s, and my QQ faded his turned straight flush draw. When the final table started I was 2nd in chips, with a comfortable 900k at 10k/20k.
Early in the final table I got another gift from a crazy Russian. He opened to 50k UTG (6 handed, remember) on a 700k stack, and I 3-bet to 130k on the button with KK. He called, and the flop came ten high without many draws. He then donk-shoved into me, I called of course and held off his AKo and took a big chip lead.
From there, play got 3 handed very quickly, as a loose wild Belgian on my right busted two other players, one when he cracked AA with A8 all in on an 8 high flop, and the other when he hit a 2 outer on the river. So three-handed the Belgian and I each had about 1.8 million and the other guy (who put on a clinic in nitting it up to move up the payout ladder) had about 700k.
During 3-handed play, the Belgian and I were playing street poker, constantly raising and re-raising each other. I got off to a great start by picking off his bluff when I had trip aces. And when he'd finally had enough of my 3-bets and tried a 4-bet bluff preflop, I had AK and wasn't going anywhere, so he folded to my shove and shipped 400k my way on that hand. But I got a little too crazy and doubled him up on a weird hand. I opened 96o on the button and he called from the BB. The flop was J87 with a flush draw and we both checked. The turn was an 8, putting two flush draws on the board, he checked again and I bet about half pot. He quickly check-raised me, putting it about a third of his stack. He had made some check-raise bluffs in the past, and it seemed unlikely to me that he would check a big hand twice on such a drawy board. So I shoved and he called with 85 and I didn't hit my 4 outer. He definitely outplayed me on that hand, was a very good turn check by him. I also think the two flush draws on board make my shove a lot more questionable, since he could be committing himself with a draw.
A few hands later, we played the biggest pot of the tournament. I opened with T8 of spades on the button and he 3-bet me. He had been 3-betting me a lot, and we were very deep stacked so I decided to call and see a flop in position. The flop with 544 with two spades, and he bet out for pot, which was about 350k. He still had over a million chips behind, and I had him covered but only by about 200k. It seemed to me that on such a non-threatening flop for a 3-bet pot he wouldn't bet so big with a big hand, and since I have two overcards to the board and a flush draw I still have good equity when called, I decided to shove. Unfortunately he had AA with the ace of spades, so I wasn't in good shape, but I hit a spade on the turn and faded the redraw on the river. I don't know if he bet the flop so big purposefully to make himself look weak, or if he was just scared of me getting lucky, but it got me to shove somewhat light either way. That hand was the only one of the tournament where I got most of my chips in bad, and I got lucky and went to heads up with a huge chip lead.
Heads up I considered making a deal, but thankfully lucko and eusebio talked me out of it, and I quickly won as my opponent shoved A4 over my button open and I called with AJ and held for the win.
It's always nice to win, especially on Full Tilt where to put it mildly I haven't had success in big field MTTs. Even with this win I'm still slightly in the red for Full Tilt MTTs, and that wasn't helped by my 0 for in Sunday tournaments there yesterday. But I did have a great session of heads up cash today, winning just over $700 in 200 hands at 100NL. $613 of that came from one absolute maniac, who lost that to me in just 97 hands. I ran very well in preflop all-ins against him and was lucky enough to pick up big hands when he attempted crazy bluffs. Always fun to be in god mode vs weak opponents, hopefully I can keep the momentum going tonight in MTTs.
Thanks for reading,
George
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Exploiting your opponents: live vs online
I was in Atlantic City last weekend and played some poker at the Borgata (when I wasn't succumbing to AC's various vices, that's another story.) Anyways, while players at $1/$2 and $340 MTTs are for the most part really really bad at poker, I'm so inexperienced live that I have trouble figuring out exactly how they're terrible and how to best exploit it. I've played so many hands online that I can usually size up an opponent pretty quickly and figure out how to take advantage of his weaknesses. Here's an example hand where I played a hand in a very bizarre way to exploit my opponent:
Full Tilt Poker Game #15923166887: Satellite to FTOPS Event #13 (116741668), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:01:57 ET - 2009/11/10
Seat 1: Villain (1,620)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (1,470)
Seat 3: johnsonck69 (1,500)
Seat 4: ftfk (1,500)
Seat 5: ihorKIM (1,500)
Seat 6: Shanet2014 (1,410)
Loretta8 posts the small blind of 15
johnsonck69 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
* HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Loretta8 [8d 8h]
ftfk folds
ihorKIM folds
Shanet2014 folds
Villain raises to 90
Loretta8 calls 75
Against some opponents I would 3-bet here, but I just called for a couple reasons. For one thing, this is an FTOPS satellite where the top 2 get seats and third gets nothing. That means that survival is more important than chip accumulation, so you don't want to play big pots unless you're a big favorite. Also, my opponent is a tight SNG regular who will fold everything I'm beating to a 3-bet, so there's no value in raising.
johnsonck69 folds
** FLOP * [8c 4s Kh]
Loretta8 checks
Villain checks
* TURN * [8c 4s Kh] [9c]
Loretta8 checks
My flop check is pretty standard, but my check on the turn definitely isn't. Against most people I would just bet here, but I'd expect a tight SNG player to fold all hands with no pair and even some smaller pairs like 66 or 77. He's probably going to call at least once with TT-QQ, but I'd also expect him to value bet those hands since he'd definitely expect me to bet a king or better on the turn. But if I check, he might take a stab at the pot with air since my hand looks so weak, so I trap a bet out of those hands. There's the added benefit that a turn check-raise looks very bluffy and I might get him to call with TT or QQ.
Villain checks
* RIVER * [8c 4s Kh 9c] [As]
Loretta8 checks
The ace doesn't complete any draws, so I now have the effective nuts since he would 100% bet a bigger set before now. When he checks back on the turn, I think his range is either Ax or 77-22 (minus 44). If he had something with no showdown value he either bets the flop or turn, he bets all kings and sets on the flop of turn, and he probably value bets TT-QQ on the turn. So what's the best way to get value? If he has a small pair, he's not going to call a river bet with 4 over cards to his pair, and isn't going to bet either since that ace could definitely have helped me. So I won't get value from that hand either way. If he has an ace, he's definitely calling a river bet from me, but probably won't raise unless the ace gave him two pair. I think A4 is the only two pair hand he can have though, he probably bets A9 or A8 on the flop or turn, and its hard for him to have A8 since I have two of the eights. If I check to him, he probably bets an ace, and there's a decent chance he calls a check-raise since he'll never believe I could have checked the effective nuts 3 times.
Villain bets 210
Loretta8 raises to 1,380, and is all in
Villain calls 1,170
* SHOW DOWN **
Loretta8 shows [8d 8h] three of a kind, Eights
Villain mucks
Loretta8 wins the pot (2,970) with three of a kind, Eights
** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,970 | Rake 0
Board: [8c 4s Kh 9c As]
Seat 1: Villain (button) mucked [Ad Js] - a pair of Aces
So for the first time I can remember, I managed to successfully execute the triple check. I was able to make a weird line like this work because I had a good read on the type of player I was against. I didn't have much history with this particular player, but I have a ton of history with players like him; tight, straightforward SNG players. When I play live, I have so little experience that I can't peg my opponents right away. They're usually bad, but there are all sorts of bad players, so that's not enough information. It's so different from online play that in many ways it's a completely different game.
I often see hand histories from big live tournaments like the WSOP main event, and a lot of them seem absurd because of what I'm used to in online tournaments. Many top pros do things that make no sense to me, like calling off 20% or more of effective stacks with marginal hands, raise/folding on very short stacks, or attempting weird bluffs by doing stuff like betting 1/5th of the pot with air. Stuff like that would never fly online, but live it often seems to work. I think one big reason it works is that live players don't put anywhere close to as much importance on the size of the pot and the effective stacks behind. When you're online the stack sizes and pot size are both clearly labeled and easy to see, but live it takes more effort to figure out. That leads to people folding in spots where they're obviously pot-committed, not realizing that they're getting great odds and don't need to be good very often to call.
I'd be curious to hear examples of people doing weird stuff live to exploit their opponents, because I'm pretty terrible at it right now. I definitely need more experience before I become a good live poker player.
Thanks for reading,
George
Full Tilt Poker Game #15923166887: Satellite to FTOPS Event #13 (116741668), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:01:57 ET - 2009/11/10
Seat 1: Villain (1,620)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (1,470)
Seat 3: johnsonck69 (1,500)
Seat 4: ftfk (1,500)
Seat 5: ihorKIM (1,500)
Seat 6: Shanet2014 (1,410)
Loretta8 posts the small blind of 15
johnsonck69 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
* HOLE CARDS **
Dealt to Loretta8 [8d 8h]
ftfk folds
ihorKIM folds
Shanet2014 folds
Villain raises to 90
Loretta8 calls 75
Against some opponents I would 3-bet here, but I just called for a couple reasons. For one thing, this is an FTOPS satellite where the top 2 get seats and third gets nothing. That means that survival is more important than chip accumulation, so you don't want to play big pots unless you're a big favorite. Also, my opponent is a tight SNG regular who will fold everything I'm beating to a 3-bet, so there's no value in raising.
johnsonck69 folds
** FLOP * [8c 4s Kh]
Loretta8 checks
Villain checks
* TURN * [8c 4s Kh] [9c]
Loretta8 checks
My flop check is pretty standard, but my check on the turn definitely isn't. Against most people I would just bet here, but I'd expect a tight SNG player to fold all hands with no pair and even some smaller pairs like 66 or 77. He's probably going to call at least once with TT-QQ, but I'd also expect him to value bet those hands since he'd definitely expect me to bet a king or better on the turn. But if I check, he might take a stab at the pot with air since my hand looks so weak, so I trap a bet out of those hands. There's the added benefit that a turn check-raise looks very bluffy and I might get him to call with TT or QQ.
Villain checks
* RIVER * [8c 4s Kh 9c] [As]
Loretta8 checks
The ace doesn't complete any draws, so I now have the effective nuts since he would 100% bet a bigger set before now. When he checks back on the turn, I think his range is either Ax or 77-22 (minus 44). If he had something with no showdown value he either bets the flop or turn, he bets all kings and sets on the flop of turn, and he probably value bets TT-QQ on the turn. So what's the best way to get value? If he has a small pair, he's not going to call a river bet with 4 over cards to his pair, and isn't going to bet either since that ace could definitely have helped me. So I won't get value from that hand either way. If he has an ace, he's definitely calling a river bet from me, but probably won't raise unless the ace gave him two pair. I think A4 is the only two pair hand he can have though, he probably bets A9 or A8 on the flop or turn, and its hard for him to have A8 since I have two of the eights. If I check to him, he probably bets an ace, and there's a decent chance he calls a check-raise since he'll never believe I could have checked the effective nuts 3 times.
Villain bets 210
Loretta8 raises to 1,380, and is all in
Villain calls 1,170
* SHOW DOWN **
Loretta8 shows [8d 8h] three of a kind, Eights
Villain mucks
Loretta8 wins the pot (2,970) with three of a kind, Eights
** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,970 | Rake 0
Board: [8c 4s Kh 9c As]
Seat 1: Villain (button) mucked [Ad Js] - a pair of Aces
So for the first time I can remember, I managed to successfully execute the triple check. I was able to make a weird line like this work because I had a good read on the type of player I was against. I didn't have much history with this particular player, but I have a ton of history with players like him; tight, straightforward SNG players. When I play live, I have so little experience that I can't peg my opponents right away. They're usually bad, but there are all sorts of bad players, so that's not enough information. It's so different from online play that in many ways it's a completely different game.
I often see hand histories from big live tournaments like the WSOP main event, and a lot of them seem absurd because of what I'm used to in online tournaments. Many top pros do things that make no sense to me, like calling off 20% or more of effective stacks with marginal hands, raise/folding on very short stacks, or attempting weird bluffs by doing stuff like betting 1/5th of the pot with air. Stuff like that would never fly online, but live it often seems to work. I think one big reason it works is that live players don't put anywhere close to as much importance on the size of the pot and the effective stacks behind. When you're online the stack sizes and pot size are both clearly labeled and easy to see, but live it takes more effort to figure out. That leads to people folding in spots where they're obviously pot-committed, not realizing that they're getting great odds and don't need to be good very often to call.
I'd be curious to hear examples of people doing weird stuff live to exploit their opponents, because I'm pretty terrible at it right now. I definitely need more experience before I become a good live poker player.
Thanks for reading,
George
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Outplayed
To start today I was within 2, 25-23, but the Fiend dominated today and won the challenge handily. He took a huge lead early on as I couldn't win a SNG to save my life. I tried to rally but he easily held me off.
Given the way things were going, I'm happy that I was able to salvage an overall profit over the course of the challenge, as I was stuck about $2k at one point this morning. Overall it looks like I'll finish up about $1k once I get the $300 bonus for finishing 2nd. It still sucks to lose though, maybe one day I'll manage to beat him.
Thanks for reading,
George
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Quick Satellite Challenge update
I've cut The Fiend's lead to 13-10, and with the 3rd place person having only 4, I'm pretty much a lock to get at least 2nd unless a challenger emerges. Right now the biggest problem I'm having is the SNG satellites just aren't filling. I'm been sitting here for about 2 hours waiting with no action, pretty annoying. I guess most people's attention is focused on the Sunday FTOPS satellites for now and I'm assuming things will heat up tomorrow and Tuesday morning.
I've seen some comically bad plays in these, especially on the bubble. Might post some HHs later.
Thanks for reading,
George
I've seen some comically bad plays in these, especially on the bubble. Might post some HHs later.
Thanks for reading,
George
Friday, November 6, 2009
FTOPS Satellite Challenge
FTOPS is back, and so is their satellite challenge, which is a great promotion that Stars would do well to copy.
"Win more event entries than anyone else and receive the T$ equivalent of two more buy-ins. Finish in second place in any of our FTOPS XIV Satellite challenges and receive the T$ equivalent of one more tournament buy-in."
The best way to go about winning these is to grind the Sit N Go satellites. This isn't the first time I've attempted to win one of these contests, here were the results from last time:
Even though I finished in 2nd I had a lot of fun grinding all those SNGs; I won those 55 seats in about a 48 hour span. And while Miguel Santiago has moved on to become a very good MTT player, The Fiend 34 is still grinding SNGs. He's a very high volume SNG grinder and wins most of these satellite challenges. Even though he's a much more experienced SNG player than me, I've got a couple things working to my advantage. For one thing, he's playing 10+ tables and a lot of them are for different types of SNGs, whereas I'm going to focus on a specific event (Event #13 $300 + $22 NL Hold 'em - 4xShootout 6max) and will have better reads on the other players. Also he's more used to 9 handed SNGs and his game isn't really geared towards 6 max. And finally, he's too balla to play the $24+2 double shooutouts that run every couple hours, and despite those not giving out many seats, they're extremely soft.
There are probably more profitable games I could spend my time playing, but I love a challenge and I think this will be a lot of fun. I'm a better SNG player and better multi-tabler than I was last year when I tried this, so I think I have a good chance. He started grinding these earlier than me and has a 9-3 lead right now, but it's a marathon not a sprint, there's a ton of time to come back. Hopefully I can close things out this time and take the lead by 2 PM on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading,
George
"Win more event entries than anyone else and receive the T$ equivalent of two more buy-ins. Finish in second place in any of our FTOPS XIV Satellite challenges and receive the T$ equivalent of one more tournament buy-in."
The best way to go about winning these is to grind the Sit N Go satellites. This isn't the first time I've attempted to win one of these contests, here were the results from last time:
Even though I finished in 2nd I had a lot of fun grinding all those SNGs; I won those 55 seats in about a 48 hour span. And while Miguel Santiago has moved on to become a very good MTT player, The Fiend 34 is still grinding SNGs. He's a very high volume SNG grinder and wins most of these satellite challenges. Even though he's a much more experienced SNG player than me, I've got a couple things working to my advantage. For one thing, he's playing 10+ tables and a lot of them are for different types of SNGs, whereas I'm going to focus on a specific event (Event #13 $300 + $22 NL Hold 'em - 4xShootout 6max) and will have better reads on the other players. Also he's more used to 9 handed SNGs and his game isn't really geared towards 6 max. And finally, he's too balla to play the $24+2 double shooutouts that run every couple hours, and despite those not giving out many seats, they're extremely soft.
There are probably more profitable games I could spend my time playing, but I love a challenge and I think this will be a lot of fun. I'm a better SNG player and better multi-tabler than I was last year when I tried this, so I think I have a good chance. He started grinding these earlier than me and has a 9-3 lead right now, but it's a marathon not a sprint, there's a ton of time to come back. Hopefully I can close things out this time and take the lead by 2 PM on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading,
George
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