$50k recap part 1

Things didnt start off well for me in this tournament. At the first break I was down to 1500 from the starting stack of 3000, mostly due to two stupid bluff attempts. With the blinds up to 75/150 to start the second hour, I was going to need to make a move soon. I shoved a couple of times in late position and won the blinds. Then here I make an aggressive shove and my hand somehow holds up:



The early position limper had just been moved to the table, so I didnt know much about him. Someone with that big a stack this early probably didnt get it by playing tight, so theres a good chance he's limping a wide range. Still a marginal shove with a lot of people left to act though.

So just like that I was back to an average stack. I won some small pots to chip up to about 8k, then I won two huge pots in 4 hands to become one of the chip leaders:





Nothing too fancy for me on either of those hands. The second one was just a dream situation. The guy who limped UTG was so loose and spewy I was pretty confident a lot of money was going into the pot. I was lucky enough to dodge 14 outs on the river and bust him.

Ok I was gonna do this all as one big post, but the hand replayer is busto right now and I would like to display all the hands with that. So this is just part 1, I'll have a lot more hands when I get back from Long Island Monday night.

Thanks for reading,

George

Stars 50k final table

lengthy post with HHs to come later. for now, sleep.

Sunday Heads Up update: Full Tilt support having issues

In a previous post, I mentioned that I would email Full Tilt and have them change the Sunday Heads Up format to eliminate 1st round byes and the resulting uneven stacks. Here is their response:

"Unfortunately at this time, we do not have the option to
unregister players when the number players exceeds 8, 16, 32 or 64"

this is retarded considering they have the software to do this, and do it for their nightly heads up tournament. so i guess we are stuck with the current format.

of course, another alternative would be to just get 64 people to play every week and eliminate the problem that way. =)

anyways, the tournament will be played again this sunday night. i will be out of town sunday night and wont be playing, but if people do want to play, its at 9 PM eastern on Sunday night. password is still shovemonkey.

Thanks for reading,

George

Sunday Million Double Shootout Ownage

I just finished playing a Sunday Million double shootout. There wasn't anything fascinating strategy-wise, but the chat at the final table was priceless. One clown at the final table, who is obviously a very lonely individual, saw my girly name and avatar and decided he was going to try to throw some e-game my way:

slurpee50 said, "loretta,,,,u live in cambridge, mass?" <---starts off with an icebreaker about my location, well played
Loretta8 said, "yes"
slurpee50 said, "who's the pic of?" <--he's imagining i look like my avatar
Loretta8 said, "evangelline lilly"
Loretta8 said, "from lost"
slurpee50 said, "are u a student" <--clearly picturing a sexy coed
Loretta8 said, "no"

I dont exactly respond with enthusiasm, so he gives up for a while. The tournament continues, and being a turbo the blinds get huge. So obviously I am shoving preflop a lot. He is to my left, so I shove on his blind a few times. This leads to some amazing unintentional comedy:

slurpee50 said, "loretta"
slurpee50 said, "u like to go all the way i see :)" <-LOL

Tsk, tsk. Goes with the sexual innuendo way too early. Time to give him a virtual slap:

Loretta8 said, "[ ] you have e-game"

He seems confused:

slurpee50 said, "e?"
slurpee50 said, "e game?"

I dont answer, and he shuts up for a bit, as he realizes his dreams have been dashed. But eventually we get down to 3 handed. 1st and 2nd place get a $215 Sunday Million seat, and 3rd gets a mere $35. So its a really sick bubble. Anyways, I lose some pots and get shortstacked. So as Im about to push in the remainder of my micro stack, he decided to get his revenge:

PokerStars Game #17554713510: Tournament #88683862, $10.70+$1.00 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level IX (300/600) - 2008/05/19 - 22:16:46 (ET)
Table '88683862 1' 10-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: Loretta8 (1481 in chips)
Seat 3: slurpee50 (6662 in chips)
Seat 9: matasonzos (6857 in chips)
Loretta8: posts the ante 50
slurpee50: posts the ante 50
matasonzos: posts the ante 50
Loretta8: posts small blind 300
slurpee50: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [2d Qc]
matasonzos: folds
slurpee50 said, "congrats on third place" <--wow what a dick
Loretta8: raises 831 to 1431 and is all-in
slurpee50: calls 831
Loretta8: shows [2d Qc]
slurpee50: shows [Ah Jc]
*** FLOP *** [7s 9c 8d]
*** TURN *** [7s 9c 8d] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [7s 9c 8d Jd] [Qh] <-obv
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [2d Qc] (a pair of Queens)
slurpee50: shows [Ah Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
Loretta8 said, "orly?"
slurpee50 said, "grrrrrrrrrrrrrr" <--this gets a 9.8 out of 10 on the gay-o-meter

and a couple hands later, he continues to show his confusion:

slurpee50 said, "what is e game?"
Loretta8 said, "something you do not possess"

And from this next hand, its clear he doesnt have any poker skill either:

PokerStars Game #17554742343: Tournament #88683862, $10.70+$1.00 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level IX (300/600) - 2008/05/19 - 22:18:12 (ET)
Table '88683862 1' 10-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: Loretta8 (3362 in chips)
Seat 3: slurpee50 (3731 in chips)
Seat 9: matasonzos (7907 in chips)
Loretta8: posts the ante 50
slurpee50: posts the ante 50
matasonzos: posts the ante 50
Loretta8: posts small blind 300
slurpee50: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [6d Kc]
slurpee50 said, "u are no fun" <---awwwww
matasonzos: folds
Loretta8: raises 2712 to 3312 and is all-in <--its the bubble and we have even stacks, he cant call me here without a monster
slurpee50: calls 2712 <--insta-call, crap I'm obv behind
Loretta8: shows [6d Kc]
slurpee50: shows [4c Qs] <---call off your stack with a worse than random hand on a satellite bubble, well played
*** FLOP *** [9d 2h 7d]
*** TURN *** [9d 2h 7d] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [9d 2h 7d 5s] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [6d Kc] (high card King)
slurpee50: shows [4c Qs] (high card Queen)
Loretta8 collected 6774 from pot

so he was left with almost nothing, and I busted him soon after. Sadly Stars turns off chat after the tournament is over, so I couldnt make fun of him any more. Oh well.

I gave 20 of the resulting tournament dollars to help the China earthquake relief fund. Its really easy to do, just go to the tournaments tab on Stars, then click the special tab, and scroll down. Obv a good cause.

Thanks for reading,

George

the first Sunday Heads Up

We had a solid turnout of 40 players for the first Sunday Heads Up. I wish I could say that things went off without a hitch, but sadly I cannot. Full Tilt has a bizarre way of handling the first round byes that are pretty much inevitable in heads up shootouts. Under Full Tilt's system, players who didnt get a first round bye and won their first match got to go into the second round with 3000 starting chips, while those with a bye started with 1500. This led to uneven chip stacks throughout the tournament, leading to bizarre situations like in the final four when I started with 18,000 chips to my opponents 12,000.

The whole uneven chip stacks thing came as a big surprise to me. I just assumed that Full Tilt would run their shootouts the same was Stars does. On Stars, everyone has the same chip stack in every round regardless of whether they got a bye, which I think is a better way to do it. By far the best way to do it is to give the players who dont get a 1st round bye half their money back, since having to play an extra match cuts your equity in half. No site I know of has figured that out though.

Ok enough about the structure. As for me in the tournament, I got a first round bye, but in the second round I had to play VinNay with 1500 chips to his 3000. I was fortunate enough to overcome the deficit and win. I played very aggressively and ran him over for the most part, and got paid off on one hand where I had a straight against his top pair.

In the next round I played RaisingCayne, who was playing a very loose aggressive style. It was a fun match because there were a lot of big pots and tough decisions. I was able to bluff him in a couple of big pots to take a lead, and finally won when my A5 rivered two pair to crack his KQ on a AK7Q5 board.

In the final eight I played twoblackaces, which was another fun match. Both of us were playing very aggressively and got caught in big bluffs early in the match. But eventually I ground him down and took a 2 to 1 lead, then got very lucky when I flopped a full house against his nut flush draw and got all the money in with him drawing dead.

That got me into a final four match against NewinNov, and I loved my chances as I got to start with an 18k to 12k chip lead. It was a weird match, as in the early going he started making massive overshoves, at one point open-shoving for 70 times the big blind. This led to some weird chat:

Tony Eusebio (Observer): shove o rly?

NewinNov: against superior player, yes

Tony Eusebio (Observer): lol loretta sucks

I cant really tell if he seriously thought I had an edge and was using a Kill Phil strategy, or if he was just being sarcastic. Strange either way. After winning his previous 3 matches, youd think he'd go into the match against me with more confidence. And I'm not exactly durrr or jman, I play $20 SNGs for chrissake. I'm thinking it was some elaborate level.

Anyways, I slowly chipped away at him and finally had him down to 4k to my 26k. But by this time the blinds were huge, and it became pretty much a preflop game. I had him all in with Q8 against my K8, but he hit a queen and doubled. Then he doubled thru me again with A6 against my KQ, and finished me off when his KK held off my ATo. Frustrating loss as I was so close to advancing to the finals.

In the finals, warriorsxxx (better known as Shabba to those on the cardplayer forums) defeated NewinNov to become the first SHU champion. I know Shabba plays a lot of HU SNGs, so it was no fluke. Congrats to him on the win.

This tournament will run again next week. I will not be playing though; I'm going away for the holiday weekend. I just emailed full tilt and asked them to eliminate first round byes, so that the field will be cut off to form a perfect bracket. That means the field will be 8, 16, 32 or 64. So if 40 people sign up like this week, the 33rd thru 40th people to sign up will be unregistered. Its first come first serve from now on, so make sure you register early if you plan to play on Sunday. password is still shovemonkey.

Thanks for reading,

George

Sunday Heads Up

Tomorrow night at 9 PM eastern. Password is shovemonkey. screenshot isnt up to date, we've got 19 in already, lets see if we can fill it up with the max of 64. hope to see everyone there.

Thanks for reading,

George

$20 180 man SNG win

I played a few of these 180 mans yesterday, and made a couple final tables. The first one ended in disappointment though, as I went out 9th when I ran AK into aces. But fortunately I was able to close out this one.

With about 20 players left, I had an above average stack, and this hand gave me a huge stack:



I get a great flop obviously, and I decide to just bet right out so I can get value from a king or a weaker nine, or possibly induce a bluff. Then on the turn my opponent makes a costly second best hand he cant get away from.

It didnt take long to get down to the final table; the action was fast and furious. I had 40k in chips when the final table started, which was good for third place. The blinds were still a very reasonable 400/800/75, so there was going to be a lot of play.

I chipped up to about 50k and was chip leader with 7 left, but this hand knocked me down to 7th:



Pretty standard stuff here, obv an overpair blind vs. blind is a monster hand.

I was happy with how I reacted to this hand though. It would have been easy for me to tilt and just ship the rest of my stack in right away, but I was patient and found a couple of good spots. First I doubled with AK against JT, then a short stack shoved 96o into my BB and my AK held him off. So I was back to 50k in chips and right back in the tournament.

Then I had a very interesting series of hands with the player to my left. I need to post the raw HHs to show chat and timing tells. As a side note, hopefully people can let me know what they think of the animated hand replayer.

Seat 2: rent boy (51,886 in chips)
Seat 3: dadyk00l33 (65,277 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (58,144 in chips)
Seat 6: RAMS1380 (74,236 in chips)
Seat 8: brofell (20,457 in chips)
5 players ante 150
Loretta8: posts small blind 800
RAMS1380: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [9d 8c]
brofell: folds
rent boy: folds
dadyk00l33: folds
Loretta8: calls 800

As long as the BB lets me get away with it, I will often limp from the SB.

RAMS1380: checks
*** FLOP *** [2d 6d 7s]
Loretta8: bets 3200

good flop with 2 overcards and a straight draw, but for now I only have 9 high so I'd be fine with taking the pot down now.

RAMS1380 has requested TIME
RAMS1380 said, "k 7..."
RAMS1380 said, "u gott a monster you have limped n a while"
RAMS1380: folds

LOL. Absolutely terrible fold, especially considering the guy has seen me raise with aces from the small blind. It took a lot of restraint not to make fun of the guy in the chat. But I'm glad I didnt because it set up this next hand.

Seat 2: rent boy (51,303 in chips)
Seat 3: dadyk00l33 (53,477 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (75,444 in chips)
Seat 6: RAMS1380 (68,595 in chips)
Seat 8: brofell (21,181 in chips)
5 players ante 200
Loretta8: posts small blind 1000
RAMS1380: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Th As]
brofell: folds
rent boy: folds
dadyk00l33: folds
Loretta8: raises 4000 to 6000

Standard raise from the SB here obv.

RAMS1380 has requested time

Let's try to get into this guy's head. For one thing he has somehow gotten it into his head that I limp with big hands in the SB, so he probably doesnt give much credit to my raise. Also, he had 3-bet shoved over me earlier in the final table when he was short, and that time he had insta-shoved. I folded that hand so I didnt know what he had, but it seemed likely he was strong that hand. So now with him time banking and our history, I was expecting him to make a light 3-bet.

RAMS1380: raises 11777 to 17777

Sure enough, he 3-bet me. I was already confident he would be doing this without a hand, but his raise size confirmed for me he was stealing. Its a small re-raise, small enough that he wont be pot-committed to call a 4-bet shove. So combining all these factors, I shoved.

Loretta8: raises 57467 to 75244 and is all-in
RAMS1380: folds

He folded pretty much instantly. ATo is certainly near the top of my small blind raising range, so a 4-bet here wouldnt be unreasonable regardless of reads, but I would have shoved here with my entire range. I cant remember ever being more confident in a preflop read before.

I hung in there around 90k for a while, and here I cooler an opponent to get it heads up:



So when heads up play started I had a very small chip lead, 138k to 131k. But he really took it to me for a while, and took a 3 to 1 chip lead. Then I got lucky here to get things back to even:



On the flop, I'm not going to fold a pair to a min-bet heads up. Then on the turn, I pick up an open-ended straight draw. In previous hands I had seen my opponent bet the turn after I check-called the flop, and on those occasions I had folded. So I thought there was a good chance he was bluffing, and if I did get called I still had outs. He called me very quickly with his top pair no kicker, which surprised me because he can only beat a bluff here.

The boomswitch was now in full effect, as I crippled him on the next hand:



This hand clearly illustrates the power of position. If I were in the BB here, the hand probably doesnt even get to a turn. But because I'm in position I can just check behind. This isnt a great spot to c-bet because by betting he only folds weaker hands and I risk getting blown off a strong draw by a check-raise.

So I hit my gin card on the turn, doubled up and had him crippled. I doubled him up once, but finally finished him off with another river miracle:



It feels great to win a tournament, and the $1080 is certainly a nice bankroll boost. Hopefully I can keep the hot streak going.

Thanks for reading,

George

PS. let me know what you think of the hand replays