Loretta8

180s

2010-09-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

In part because I have gotten involved in a TLB contest on Two Plus Two, and in part because I like being miserable (I am after all a diehard follower of Northwestern basketball, see Sippinonpurple.com for details), I have decided to go back to grinding the $12 180s on Stars. The good news is I have running hot in them, but the bad news is they are slightly tougher than I remember them. In the good ole days, there were at least 5 or 6 complete morons per table, now it's down to 3 or 4. Even a lot of the fish seem to have made slight adjustments in their calling ranges and aren't giving up their blinds as easily.

That being said, these are still good value if you have the bankroll for them, so I'm going to keep at it for as long as I can stay sane. I'd really prefer to be playing regular MTTs, but I'm having trouble finding the time for long sessions especially now that football season has started. The WCOOP is underway and I hope to be able to play a few events, but my motivation isn't what it used to me and playing WCOOPs requires a pretty huge commitment, both in terms of time and the mental focus necessary, so we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading,

George

Slump

2010-08-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

haven't been posting because I haven't been doing anything worth noting. I got owned in FTOPS satellites and took a week off, came back yesterday and had a disappointing Sunday, although I did win a couple satellites to nearly get back to even on the day.

I'm back to the grind starting now though and to get ready for WCOOP. The extreme satellites Stars is running are a brilliant promotion; they add at least 25 seats to the prize pool and in exchange they make the tickets must play, which will make the actual events much softer. So we'll see if I can turn things around.

Thanks for reading,

George

FTOPS

2010-08-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

I've played 3 FTOPS events so far, min-cashing in one and ~bubbling two others. The min-cash came Wednesday night in Event #1, a $216 no limit tournament. I was short stacked pretty much the entire time and could never get anything going, finally busting just after the bubble when I shoved A9o into aces.

The two bubbles came yesterday, as I was able to accumulate stacks in both the $129 and $322, but both times I went out near the money. That was certainly frustrating, but I'm not too disappointed as I felt I played pretty well and the cards just didn't fall my way. Playing in majors has really motivated me to step up my game; recently I've found that I get easily bored while grinding my normal schedule of smaller stakes MTTs in the $25 average buy in range, and my game often suffers as a result, but in the bigger FTOPS events I'm focused from the beginning and playing my A-game the whole time.

Lucko made a great run in the $129 FTOPS yesterday, but eventually bowed out with 3 tables left, so congrats/condolences to him.

Thanks for reading,

George

How MTTs have been going for me lately

2010-07-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Full Tilt Poker Game #22564727203: $18,500 Rush Guar (Rebuy) (174069986), Table 309 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:43:57 ET - 2010/07/24
Seat 1: abigballer (28,990)
Seat 2: Fast Louie1 (47,616)
Seat 3: KingPeKKa (34,630)
Seat 4: Onatole (59,165)
Seat 5: ALEMONTOYA (76,075)
Seat 6: Loretta8 (57,689)
Seat 7: kidkronik420 (120,991)
Seat 8: MoneysNewHome (13,753), is sitting out
Seat 9: rafitona01 (29,039)
abigballer antes 75
Fast Louie1 antes 75
KingPeKKa antes 75
Onatole antes 75
ALEMONTOYA antes 75
Loretta8 antes 75
kidkronik420 antes 75
MoneysNewHome antes 75
rafitona01 antes 75
Fast Louie1 posts the small blind of 300
KingPeKKa posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [6h 6c]
Onatole has 8 seconds left to act
Onatole raises to 1,500
ALEMONTOYA folds
Loretta8 calls 1,500
kidkronik420 folds
MoneysNewHome folds
rafitona01 folds
abigballer folds
Fast Louie1 calls 1,200
KingPeKKa folds
*** FLOP *** [6d 6s Ad]
Fast Louie1 bets 600
Onatole has 15 seconds left to act
Onatole raises to 2,950
Loretta8 calls 2,950
Fast Louie1 folds
*** TURN *** [6d 6s Ad] [9s]
Onatole checks
Loretta8 bets 6,900
Onatole calls 6,900
*** RIVER *** [6d 6s Ad 9s] [Ts]
Onatole has 15 seconds left to act
Onatole bets 17,500
Loretta8 raises to 46,264, and is all in
Onatole has 15 seconds left to act
Onatole calls 28,764
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8 shows [6h 6c] four of a kind, Sixes
Onatole shows [8s 7s] a straight flush, Ten high
Onatole wins the pot (118,603) with a straight flush, Ten high

rigged site

Atlantic City trip report

2010-07-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, a lot of what happened in Atlantic City is unprintable on this blog. I can tell you about some poker hands I played though. My first night down there I jumped into a $1/$2 no limit game while severely intoxicated and lost a couple hundred, mostly on this hand:

I'm on the button with about $300 in front of me, a couple limpers, I decide to make it $15 with the mighty 72 of diamonds (it seemed like a good idea at the time). I get one caller, a middle aged Asian man who has been in almost every pot. The flop comes JT7 rainbow, he checks I decide just to check for pot control. The turn pairs the 7, he checks, I bet $20 and he calls. The river is a 6, no flushes possible. He checks, I bet $40 and he mini-checkraises me to $80. At this point it's so obvious he has it but I can't fold to a min-raise on general principle so I call and he has 76o and I lose a big pot. Thankfully I won back the money I lost there at Pai Gow.

I also played in a $100 live SNG at the Borgata with Kimmer. Right away I get AJo in the big blind, there are 3 limpers at 25/50 with 3k starting stacks and I decide to make it 300, which was probably too aggressive that early. I get one caller (a middle aged white guy) and the flop is 942 rainbow. I bet out 350 and he calls. The turn is a king and I decide to try to represent it and bet 700, he thinks for a bit and calls. River is a ten, and I decide to just give up at this point and he checks back right away and shows J9o. So I lose half my stack right away.

A couple orbits later though I get KK in middle position, a guy in EP limps, I make it 200, the guy I'd just lost to calls in the SB, Kimmer calls in the BB and the limper calls. Flop is JT5 with a flush draw, SB leads for 500 and it folds to me and I shove, he calls with QJ and I hold and get back to just over the starting stack.

There was a hilarious hand I wasn't involved in, UTG makes it 200, a girl in late position raises to 700, middle aged guy calls, UTG calls. Flop is 973r it checks around, turn is a 7 it checks to the girl who bets 1500 leaving herself 300 behind. Middle aged guy immediately says all-in, and he barely has her covered. UTG folds and the girl immediately folds getting about 15 to 1. Middle aged guy then shows 77 for quads, and the girl asks him why he didn't just call and thinks his shove was a mistake because it forced her out of the hand, so great.

Anyways, I played very few interesting hands the rest of the tournament, I mostly just shoved on people in late position and I won a ton of pots with no showdown. I won a couple 60/40s against tiny stack's all-ins and eventually got down to 3 handed. The structure paid $700 for first and $300 for second. I was comfortably in 2nd, with the middle aged guy the chip leader on my left and a short stacked nitty old guy to my right. The bubble lasted forever as the old guy would keep waking up with hands when he got down to 2 BBs, so he'd double and hang around a few more hands. The nice thing was that the middle aged man didn't want to mess with me at all on the bubble and let me steal a lot, so I took over a small chip lead.

Finally the old nit busted and I was heads up, but at a slight chip disadvantage. He asked me if I wanted to do an even chop and I agreed to it. It may have been slightly -EV but I was getting tired and the blinds were huge so I don't think my edge was that big. $500 was still solid especially since I was so short early.

I also had another winning session at $1/$2, but I don't remember it well due to all the white russians. Overall I won money for the trip though, both at poker and at -EV pit games, so I ran incredibly hot. I should definitely quit while I'm ahead at pit games.

I haven't been playing online at all, maybe I'll get back into that soon.

Thanks for reading,

George

Atlantic City

2010-07-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

spending the holiday weekend there with Kimmer and a couple of our other friends, probably going to break the casinos.

Trip report to come

Sad Day for Online Poker

2010-06-26T07:33:00.001-07:00

no more French fish =(

Me getting owned, part 1 of many

2010-06-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking of making this a regular feature on this blog for a while, mostly to laugh at myself and the absurd things that happen in MTTs.

ITM in the $5r on FTP. CO has been opening a ton of pots, so I decide to take a stand with the QTs, and then the BB looks into my soul.

Full Tilt Poker $12,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t500/t1000 Blinds + t125 - 6 players - View hand 767437

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: t16500 M = 7.33

Hero (SB): t20737 M = 9.22

BB: t26732 M = 11.88

UTG: t57373 M = 25.50

MP: t14921 M = 6.63

CO: t64102 M = 28.49

Pre Flop: (t2250) Hero is SB with T Q

2 folds, CO raises to t2389, 1 fold, Hero raises to t20612 all in, BB raises to t26607 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t44363) 2 5 5

Turn: (t44363) Q

River: (t44363) 8

Final Pot: t44363

Hero shows T Q

BB shows Q J

BB wins t44363

capping off a pretty crappy day.

Thanks for reading,

George

Poker Stars being incompetent

2010-06-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Before I start on this rant let me first say that generally I think Stars does a great job with customer support and listening to customer feedback, and I'd really rather not rip them apart, but they have left me no choice after this thread.

To sum up, a TwoPlusTwo'er made it down to the final 5 of a 4 max MTT, meaning that there are two tables left, one with 3 players and one with two. He was at the table with 3 people and opened up the other table to see both players sitting out, and they weren't both disconnected: the two were chatting with each other. Clearly the two of them were sitting out to ensure both made the final table and moved up the payout ladder, which is about the most blatant collusion possible. So he emailed support to complain about this, and got a pretty horrifying response:

"Hello Mickey,

Thanks again for your report of this incident. Our review of 'm0difi3d' and 'Krümel&St.' is now complete. These players had no prior relationship or play together. Also, neither of them has ever violated any of our cardroom or tournament rules in the past. While the particular chat in question could constitute collusion, we found the result of the tournament was very unlikely affected by the players sitting out.

We carefully reviewed the hands dealt during the period in which both players were sitting out and can say with reasonable certainty the players would not have had any major confrontations if both had been playing. As such, a disqualification from the tournament would simply be too harsh. If, on the other hand, the players were dealt cards that would have likely lead to a confrontation, a disqualification may have been the result of our investigation .

Nevertheless, the players' agreement is still a violation of our tournament
rule #20 as posted on our website:

http://www.pokerstars.com/tournamentsrules.html

It is not uncommon to find that players are not aware of the seriousness of such actions in tournament play. The overall review, which included requests for explanations from the players and consideration of all account information, led us to conclude that their action was not malicious. They will be allowed to continue playing on the site; however, both players received a warning about rule violations, and we have taken measures to ensure they neither play in the same Sit & Go tournaments, nor at the same cash game tables in the future."

The logic used by Stars here is about as sound as a teenage girl who thinks she can take it up the ass and still be a virgin. First of all, there is no gray area here; both players choosing to sit out has to be collusion. Think about it, if one player decided to sit out the other player would just steal his blinds, the only way it could happen is if the two agreed to it beforehand, the dictionary definition of collusion.

Secondly, the cards they were dealt while sitting out are irrelevant, as there is no way to predict what would have happened had the two been playing. Even if neither player were dealt a strong starting hand and the chances of both of them getting all in preflop are small, it's very conceivable they could have played a huge pot after the flop. And even if they were dealt aces vs. kings, who's to say what would have happened. Maybe both of them decide to slowplay and an ace flops and the guy with kings gets away cheap. The point is, the cards they were dealt don't matter at all, what matters is they colluded to make the final table. Now if both players were sitting in and voluntarily folding every button, then the cards would matter since it would be very strong evidence of collusion if someone chose to open fold a big pair heads up. But that's not what happened here.

Frankly, the incompetence here is disturbing. Anything can happen playing heads up and you'd think Stars' employees would be smart enough to understand that. As for the punishment they handed out, I don't really have a huge problem with it. I think a better punishment would have been to give these two 4th and 5th place money, but a stern warning for people with no history of collusion isn't that terrible. However, the logic used to arrive at that decision is appalling. There are several PokerStars representives who typically post on Two Plus Two; hopefully one of them will soon post in that thread and listen to reason, as I find it a bit worrying that they can be so stupid, you'd think AP/UB is the only site to be this stupid.

Thanks for reading,

George

update: Stars compensated the players at the 3 handed table with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place money.

Sweat the man, the myth, the legend

2010-06-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Kevin O'Brien aka lucko21 aka Sucko aka Melonhead is in 7th of 21 in the WSOP $1500 no limit! $581,000 for first, gogogogogogogogogogogo!

2nd in the $8 turbo

2010-06-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting for the past couple weeks, mostly because I haven't been doing very well at poker. I usually find that the best way to get out of a downswing is to focus more on grinding softer, smaller stakes tournaments instead of chasing the big score at higher stakes. So I fired up a lot of tables last night and bounced back yesterday by getting 2nd in the $8 turbo on Stars for around $2300.

In a turbo with 2400 entrants like this, obviously a ton of rungood is needed, and I got it in bad a bunch of times in the middle stages and got there, once with 44 against JJ and another time with A3 against AJ. Once we got down to about 45 left, I benefited from a different form of rungood; namely people gifting me chips. One hand I opened KQ in middle position and the button min-raised me. Generally these raises are very strong, but I was getting such great odds I felt compelled to call the 3-bet. The flop was a great one for me, K32. I checked to him and he bet 30k into a 60k pot, leaving himself with 33k behind. I had him covered by a bit and shoved, and somehow the guy folded with over half his stack in, and I won a big pot.

Then an absolutely absurd hand came up. A good loose-aggressive player raised in mid position, and got two callers from late position. I was in the SB with 88 and about a 30 BB stack. This is a great spot to squeeze since there's a ton of money in the pot already and I have decent equity when called by the opener, so I shoved. The raiser and the first caller folded, and it was on the second caller, who had about 13 big blinds left after his call. He went into the tank, and eventually decided to call off his tournament with 35 left with the mighty 95 (it was suited though). Just a ridiculous call, stuff like that is fairly common at these stakes in the early going but you don't usually see it this late in tournaments. Anyways, I held somehow and became one of the chip leaders, and I cruised into the final table in second place.

At the final table, I won a big flip with 6 left, and eventually got heads up with a decent chip lead against a good aggressive Norwegian. I doubled him up when my A4s couldnt hold vs. his KQs, and then he kept shoving my opens in my face and was grinding me down. I finally decided to take a stand with 87o, shoving over his button raise, but he woke up with 99 and held. Sucks to lose heads up but at least I lost to a good player and not one of the many clowns in this field.

This cash took care of my losses over the past couple weeks and then some, hopefully I can keep it going.

Thanks for reading,

George

Live blogging a night of MTTs

2010-05-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

We'll see how this goes, I may get too lazy and/or have too many tables going to give timely updates, but I'm going to give it a try.

7:08: Registered for a ton of stuff on Stars tonight:

$109 40k
$11 25k
$11 cubed 20k
$5r $25ao 4k
$3r 40k
$27.50 30k
$55 6 max 7.5k
$22r 20k
$11 12k
$55 70k
$11r 55k
$55 6 max 7.5k

plus I'll play the $162 100k if the hyper satellites to it go well

7:13: already busted my first tourney, rigged

PokerStars Game #44890256719: Tournament #314010861, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2010/05/31 19:09:52 ET
Table '314010861 67' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Loretta8 (2970 in chips)
Seat 2: zippo-1337 (2830 in chips)
Seat 3: zeroberti (3200 in chips)
Seat 4: igorcampanha (3000 in chips)
Seat 5: FraGeL_30x (2990 in chips)
Seat 6: akh_170 (2970 in chips)
Seat 7: skyboy69 (3020 in chips)
Seat 8: brogz11 (3130 in chips)
Seat 9: SAYLEFISH (2910 in chips)
FraGeL_30x: posts small blind 10
akh_170: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Kd Kc]
skyboy69: folds
brogz11: folds
SAYLEFISH: folds
Loretta8: raises 40 to 60
zippo-1337: folds
zeroberti: folds
igorcampanha: folds
FraGeL_30x: calls 50
akh_170: raises 100 to 160
Loretta8: raises 340 to 500
FraGeL_30x: folds
akh_170: calls 340
*** FLOP *** [8h Th 7c]
akh_170: checks
Loretta8: bets 700
akh_170: raises 700 to 1400
Loretta8: raises 1070 to 2470 and is all-in
akh_170: calls 1070 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [8h Th 7c] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [8h Th 7c 4h] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
akh_170: shows [Qd Qh] (a flush, Queen high)
Loretta8: shows [Kd Kc] (a pair of Kings)

tough start but it's still very early and at least I got it over with quickly

7:27: First tricky spot of the day, in the $11 cubed

PokerStars Game #44890806680: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2010/05/31 19:23:12 ET
Table '314010871 13' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: ship_it_cfb (5970 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (5930 in chips)
Seat 4: THE_ALPACA (6130 in chips)
Seat 5: Søren Smith (8970 in chips)
Seat 6: trickslick85 (3000 in chips)
Seat 7: bluefish22 (5920 in chips)
Seat 8: Feri$taH (5890 in chips)
Seat 9: fat&50 (3050 in chips)
THE_ALPACA: posts small blind 10
Søren Smith: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Kd Qd]
trickslick85: folds
bluefish22: folds
Feri$taH: folds
feltsy05 is connected
fat&50: calls 20
ship_it_cfb: folds
Loretta8: raises 80 to 100
THE_ALPACA: calls 90
Søren Smith: folds
fat&50: folds
*** FLOP *** [4s 4d Qh]
THE_ALPACA: checks
Loretta8: bets 140
THE_ALPACA: calls 140
*** TURN *** [4s 4d Qh] [Tc]
THE_ALPACA: bets 340
Loretta8: calls 340
*** RIVER *** [4s 4d Qh Tc] [Ah]
THE_ALPACA: bets 760
Loretta8: folds

bad river for me, i chop with worse queens and I cant see him taking this line with worse than a queen

7:44 Went 2 for 4 in hypers to the 100k, so playing it now. This was a fun hand, don't usually get people these bad in the $55s

PokerStars Game #44890714273: Tournament #278446763, $54+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (25/50) - 2010/05/31 19:19:53 ET
Table '278446763 1' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: DatWillDoPig (500 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (385 in chips)
Seat 4: robbieneuro1 (1055 in chips)
Seat 6: lanacido (1060 in chips)
DatWillDoPig: posts the ante 10
Loretta8: posts the ante 10
robbieneuro1: posts the ante 10
lanacido: posts the ante 10
DatWillDoPig: posts small blind 25
Loretta8: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [6h Kc]
robbieneuro1: folds
lanacido: calls 50
DatWillDoPig: folds
Loretta8: raises 325 to 375 and is all-in
lanacido: calls 325
*** FLOP *** [Qs Ad Ks]
*** TURN *** [Qs Ad Ks] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [Qs Ad Ks 8c] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [6h Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
lanacido: shows [Td 9d] (a pair of Kings)
Loretta8 collected 815 from pot

Also this was a fun hand

PokerStars Game #44891361746: Tournament #278451226, $54+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (50/100) - 2010/05/31 19:36:01 ET
Table '278451226 1' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Loretta8 (230 in chips)
Seat 2: DatWillDoPig (690 in chips)
Seat 3: yong_yong999 (245 in chips)
Seat 4: RGAWAY (380 in chips)
Seat 6: detach (1455 in chips)
Loretta8: posts the ante 20
DatWillDoPig: posts the ante 20
yong_yong999: posts the ante 20
RGAWAY: posts the ante 20
detach: posts the ante 20
detach: posts small blind 50
Loretta8: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [3s Jc]
DatWillDoPig: raises 570 to 670 and is all-in
yong_yong999: calls 225 and is all-in
RGAWAY: folds
detach: folds
Loretta8: calls 110 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (445) returned to DatWillDoPig
*** FLOP *** [Ah 6d 2d]
*** TURN *** [Ah 6d 2d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 6d 2d 5c] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DatWillDoPig: shows [Jd Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
yong_yong999: shows [Kc Tc] (high card Ace)
DatWillDoPig collected 30 from side pot
Loretta8: shows [3s Jc] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
Loretta8 collected 780 from main pot

skill game

up to 9300 in the $11 cubed, still at about starting stack in the $109

7:55 first break, nothing interesting since last update.

never mind, this was the last hand before break in the $109, pretty absurd

PokerStars Game #44892036032: Tournament #314010851, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2010/05/31 19:54:33 ET
Table '314010851 33' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Hashpapa (6360 in chips)
Seat 2: Jurgent (1565 in chips)
Seat 3: fel_iv (3863 in chips)
Seat 4: felixb19 (7287 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (2728 in chips)
Seat 6: pokernjal (2590 in chips)
Seat 7: gses75 (3000 in chips)
Seat 8: Mr Relaxxx (5754 in chips)
Seat 9: dr.gust (3788 in chips)
pokernjal: posts small blind 50
gses75: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [3c 6h]
Mr Relaxxx: raises 200 to 300
dr.gust: folds
Hashpapa: calls 300
Jurgent: folds
fel_iv: folds
felixb19: folds
Loretta8: folds
pokernjal: folds
gses75: folds
*** FLOP *** [2d 8c Jd]
Mr Relaxxx: bets 600
Hashpapa: calls 600
*** TURN *** [2d 8c Jd] [5h]
Mr Relaxxx: bets 800
Hashpapa: calls 800
*** RIVER *** [2d 8c Jd 5h] [6s]
Mr Relaxxx: bets 4054 and is all-in
Hashpapa: calls 4054
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Mr Relaxxx: shows [Td 4d] (high card Jack)
Hashpapa: shows [Jh 9d] (a pair of Jacks)
Hashpapa collected 11658 from pot
Mr Relaxxx finished the tournament in 398th place

yikes

8:08: doubled in the $109

PokerStars Game #44892499612: Tournament #314010851, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2010/05/31 20:08:07 ET
Table '314010851 33' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Hashpapa (9279 in chips)
Seat 2: Jurgent (1415 in chips)
Seat 3: fel_iv (9776 in chips)
Seat 4: felixb19 (7137 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (3000 in chips)
Seat 6: pokernjal (2540 in chips)
Seat 7: atleee (6100 in chips)
Seat 8: boss_bobo (3200 in chips)
Seat 9: dr.gust (3588 in chips)
Loretta8: posts small blind 75
pokernjal: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [9s 9c]
atleee: raises 238 to 388
boss_bobo: folds
dr.gust: folds
Hashpapa: folds
Jurgent: folds
fel_iv: folds
felixb19: folds
Loretta8: raises 2612 to 3000 and is all-in
pokernjal: folds
atleee: calls 2612
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 6c]
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 6c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 6c 2s] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [9s 9c] (two pair, Nines and Deuces)
atleee: shows [Kd Ah] (a pair of Deuces)
Loretta8 collected 6150 from pot

99 is probably the worst pair i shove there vs an UTG raise, wasn't excited about 99 but thought I had to go with it

8:18 annoying hand here

PokerStars Game #44892792571: Tournament #314010931, $25.00+$2.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2010/05/31 20:15:43 ET
Table '314010931 36' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Loretta8 (3060 in chips)
Seat 2: Play_Hard_16 (3440 in chips)
Seat 3: MUFFMANZ (3020 in chips)
Seat 4: fikus91 (3090 in chips)
Seat 5: dinglecherry (2430 in chips)
Seat 6: TeamHonda3 (3250 in chips)
Seat 7: LittleHippie (3080 in chips)
Seat 8: dfiler (2920 in chips)
Seat 9: reckacer (2850 in chips)
Play_Hard_16: posts small blind 15
MUFFMANZ: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Jh 8d]
fikus91: folds
dinglecherry: folds
TeamHonda3: folds
LittleHippie: folds
dfiler: folds
reckacer: folds
Loretta8: raises 60 to 90
Play_Hard_16: calls 75
MUFFMANZ: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ac 2s 6c]
Play_Hard_16: bets 30
Loretta8: raises 120 to 150
Play_Hard_16: calls 120
*** TURN *** [Ac 2s 6c] [Ks]
Play_Hard_16: bets 30
Loretta8: raises 270 to 300
Play_Hard_16: calls 270
*** RIVER *** [Ac 2s 6c Ks] [9d]
Play_Hard_16: bets 2900 and is all-in
Loretta8: folds

those stupid min-bets often induce spazz outs from me, i've got no idea what this guy had, pretty bizarre line regardless. $55 6 max just started and I have a really
tough table, hopefully it breaks soon

8:37 Lost a big flip vs the same guy in the $109

PokerStars Game #44893538249: Tournament #314010851, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2010/05/31 20:36:04 ET
Table '314010851 33' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Hashpapa (7536 in chips)
Seat 2: ThePortuguee (7267 in chips)
Seat 3: fel_iv (12187 in chips)
Seat 4: felixb19 (13197 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (6950 in chips)
Seat 6: vegasvegas50 (12297 in chips)
Seat 7: atleee (4001 in chips)
Seat 8: IMVDJJ (4146 in chips)
Seat 9: dr.gust (3711 in chips)
felixb19: posts small blind 100
Loretta8: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Th Ts]
vegasvegas50: folds
atleee: raises 299 to 499
IMVDJJ: folds
dr.gust: folds
Hashpapa: folds
ThePortuguee: folds
fel_iv: folds
felixb19: folds
Loretta8: raises 3501 to 4000
atleee: calls 3501
*** FLOP *** [4s Ac 4c]
Loretta8: bets 200
atleee: calls 1 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (199) returned to Loretta8
*** TURN *** [4s Ac 4c] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [4s Ac 4c Kh] [6d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Th Ts] (two pair, Tens and Fours)
atleee: shows [Jh Kd] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
atleee collected 8102 from pot

not a huge fan of his call, oh well. not much happening in everything else, got a stack in the $3r but its still the rebuy period.

8:46 out of the $109, standard hand

PokerStars Game #44893836975: Tournament #314010851, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2010/05/31 20:44:37 ET
Table '314010851 33' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Hashpapa (8536 in chips)
Seat 2: ThePortuguee (5035 in chips)
Seat 3: fel_iv (11387 in chips)
Seat 4: felixb19 (16292 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (2724 in chips)
Seat 6: vegasvegas50 (11822 in chips)
Seat 7: atleee (9027 in chips)
Seat 8: IMVDJJ (3108 in chips)
Seat 9: dr.gust (3361 in chips)
Hashpapa: posts the ante 25
ThePortuguee: posts the ante 25
fel_iv: posts the ante 25
felixb19: posts the ante 25
Loretta8: posts the ante 25
vegasvegas50: posts the ante 25
atleee: posts the ante 25
IMVDJJ: posts the ante 25
dr.gust: posts the ante 25
dr.gust: posts small blind 125
Hashpapa: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ad Qs]
ThePortuguee: folds
fel_iv: raises 450 to 700
felixb19: folds
Loretta8: raises 1999 to 2699 and is all-in
vegasvegas50: folds
atleee: folds
IMVDJJ: folds
dr.gust: folds
Hashpapa: folds
fel_iv: calls 1999
*** FLOP *** [Kh 5d 2c]
*** TURN *** [Kh 5d 2c] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 5d 2c 8s] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fel_iv: shows [Td Ts] (a pair of Tens)
Loretta8: shows [Ad Qs] (high card Ace)
fel_iv collected 5998 from pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 203rd place

8:58: 10k in the 11 cubed, 8600 in the weird 5r, 4600 in the $25, 9300 in the 3r, and 2k in the 55 6 max can't win a pot

9:01 unregistering from the 9:15 11fo, too many tables going. also just lost a big pot in the $5r, set no good vs flush, really short now.

9:08 apparently no one is going to fold to my shoves tonight

PokerStars Game #44894568769: Tournament #314010981, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2010/05/31 21:07:35 ET
Table '314010981 3' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Travo (6521 in chips)
Seat 3: Oneazy (3176 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (1915 in chips)
Seat 5: mjsecret (3088 in chips)
Seat 6: buckguy2200 (6355 in chips)
buckguy2200: posts small blind 50
Travo: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [8d 8s]
Oneazy: raises 200 to 300
Loretta8: raises 1615 to 1915 and is all-in
mjsecret: folds
buckguy2200: folds
Travo: folds
Oneazy: calls 1615
*** FLOP *** [Jd As 7c]
*** TURN *** [Jd As 7c] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Jd As 7c Js] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Oneazy: shows [Th Qc] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
Loretta8: shows [8d 8s] (two pair, Aces and Jacks - lower kicker)
Oneazy collected 3980 from pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 151st place

9:09: Ok this is getting ridiculous

PokerStars Game #44894606034: Tournament #314010931, $25.00+$2.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2010/05/31 21:08:42 ET
Table '314010931 105' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: loulou111 (3237 in chips)
Seat 2: Wanbo (1230 in chips)
Seat 3: MaryJanesMan (4647 in chips)
Seat 4: assadipa (4160 in chips)
Seat 5: njterp99 (3775 in chips)
Seat 6: Loretta8 (4685 in chips)
Seat 7: firuddih (3575 in chips)
Seat 8: tincup17 (9700 in chips)
Seat 9: halvornaldo (1530 in chips)
halvornaldo: posts small blind 75
loulou111: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qd Qs]
Wanbo: raises 1080 to 1230 and is all-in
MaryJanesMan: folds
assadipa: folds
njterp99: folds
Loretta8: raises 3455 to 4685 and is all-in
firuddih: folds
tincup17: calls 4685
halvornaldo: folds
loulou111: folds
*** FLOP *** [5d 5h Ks]
*** TURN *** [5d 5h Ks] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [5d 5h Ks Tc] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Qd Qs] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
tincup17: shows [As Kc] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
tincup17 collected 6910 from side pot
Wanbo: shows [9s Ts] (two pair, Tens and Fives)
tincup17 collected 3915 from main pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 836th place
Wanbo finished the tournament in 837th place

Also busted the $5r, shoved KJs into QQ and AK

down to 4 tables now, don't call it a comeback

9:16 my head hurts, need a banana break. come on 9:55!

9:20 ez game

PokerStars Game #44894949637: Tournament #314011041, $150+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2010/05/31 21:19:13 ET
Table '314011041 44' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Loretta8 (2970 in chips)
Seat 2: soso9200 (2950 in chips)
Seat 3: jpapola (2925 in chips)
Seat 4: jbjustblaze2 (2925 in chips)
Seat 5: baron_w_02 (3050 in chips)
Seat 6: paulgees81 (3090 in chips)
Seat 7: theproksa (2699 in chips)
Seat 8: jonito21 (3226 in chips)
Seat 9: werpennst23 (2950 in chips)
paulgees81: posts small blind 15
theproksa: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [As Ac]
jonito21: folds
werpennst23: folds
Loretta8: raises 60 to 90
soso9200: folds
jpapola: calls 90
jbjustblaze2: folds
baron_w_02: folds
paulgees81: folds
theproksa: folds
*** FLOP *** [Td 3s 9c]
Loretta8: bets 150
jpapola: raises 270 to 420
Loretta8: calls 270
*** TURN *** [Td 3s 9c] [Ah]
Loretta8: checks
jpapola: bets 600
Loretta8: raises 1860 to 2460 and is all-in
jpapola: calls 1815 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (45) returned to Loretta8
*** RIVER *** [Td 3s 9c Ah] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [As Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
jpapola: shows [Ts Tc] (three of a kind, Tens)
Loretta8 collected 5895 from pot
jpapola finished the tournament in 486th place

pretty gross spot on all turns but that one, nice to have such an easy decision

9:23 another easy spot

PokerStars Game #44895020867: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2010/05/31 21:21:25 ET
Table '314010871 13' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: kaboom2 (9959 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (8037 in chips)
Seat 3: creepers74 (15807 in chips)
Seat 4: Roroflush (14005 in chips)
Seat 5: skysnolimit (16951 in chips)
Seat 6: trickslick85 (6870 in chips)
Seat 7: JPHeathcott (17308 in chips)
Seat 8: Feri$taH (8022 in chips)
Seat 9: acipayam (11499 in chips)
kaboom2: posts the ante 25
Loretta8: posts the ante 25
creepers74: posts the ante 25
Roroflush: posts the ante 25
skysnolimit: posts the ante 25
trickslick85: posts the ante 25
JPHeathcott: posts the ante 25
Feri$taH: posts the ante 25
acipayam: posts the ante 25
skysnolimit: posts small blind 150
trickslick85: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Kc Ks]
JPHeathcott: folds
Feri$taH: folds
acipayam: folds
kaboom2: folds
Loretta8: raises 459 to 759
creepers74: folds
Roroflush: folds
skysnolimit: folds
trickslick85: calls 459
*** FLOP *** [2s 2d Jh]
trickslick85: checks
Loretta8: bets 900
trickslick85: raises 1200 to 2100
Loretta8: raises 5153 to 7253 and is all-in
trickslick85: calls 3986 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1167) returned to Loretta8
*** TURN *** [2s 2d Jh] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [2s 2d Jh 4c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trickslick85: shows [Qs Jd] (two pair, Jacks and Fours)
Loretta8: shows [Kc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
Loretta8 collected 14065 from pot
trickslick85 finished the tournament in 556th place

9:32 Blah

PokerStars Game #44895305795: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2010/05/31 21:30:11 ET
Table '314010871 13' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: kaboom2 (12519 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (14157 in chips)
Seat 3: creepers74 (15607 in chips)
Seat 4: Roroflush (10527 in chips)
Seat 5: skysnolimit (19811 in chips)
Seat 6: Mr.wing666 (1850 in chips)
Seat 7: JPHeathcott (19706 in chips)
Seat 8: Feri$taH (6622 in chips)
Seat 9: acipayam (10134 in chips)
kaboom2: posts the ante 25
Loretta8: posts the ante 25
creepers74: posts the ante 25
Roroflush: posts the ante 25
skysnolimit: posts the ante 25
Mr.wing666: posts the ante 25
JPHeathcott: posts the ante 25
Feri$taH: posts the ante 25
acipayam: posts the ante 25
JPHeathcott: posts small blind 150
Feri$taH: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qd Qc]
acipayam: folds
kaboom2: folds
Loretta8: raises 450 to 750
creepers74: folds
Roroflush: calls 750
skysnolimit: folds
Mr.wing666: folds
JPHeathcott: folds
Feri$taH: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ah As 2c]
Loretta8: checks
Roroflush: checks
*** TURN *** [Ah As 2c] [3d]
Loretta8: bets 1200
Roroflush: calls 1200
*** RIVER *** [Ah As 2c 3d] [7c]
Loretta8: bets 2100
Roroflush: raises 2700 to 4800
Loretta8: folds
Uncalled bet (2700) returned to Roroflush
Roroflush collected 8775 from pot
Roroflush: doesn't show hand

He so obviously has me beat but I hate folding to those tiny raises, meh.

9:41 guy had been opening a ton in late position, thought I had to go with it, and like a true professional I get there

PokerStars Game #44895656471: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2010/05/31 21:40:52 ET
Table '314010871 13' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: kaboom2 (10069 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (8208 in chips)
Seat 3: creepers74 (8557 in chips)
Seat 4: Roroflush (15788 in chips)
Seat 5: skysnolimit (25686 in chips)
Seat 6: DON_CABR0N (20474 in chips)
Seat 7: JPHeathcott (23655 in chips)
Seat 8: Feri$taH (6172 in chips)
Seat 9: acipayam (10059 in chips)
kaboom2: posts the ante 50
Loretta8: posts the ante 50
creepers74: posts the ante 50
Roroflush: posts the ante 50
skysnolimit: posts the ante 50
DON_CABR0N: posts the ante 50
JPHeathcott: posts the ante 50
Feri$taH: posts the ante 50
acipayam: posts the ante 50
kaboom2: posts small blind 200
Loretta8: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qd Ts]
creepers74: folds
Roroflush: folds
skysnolimit: folds
DON_CABR0N: folds
JPHeathcott: folds
Feri$taH: folds
acipayam: raises 800 to 1200
kaboom2: folds
Loretta8: raises 6958 to 8158 and is all-in
acipayam: calls 6958
*** FLOP *** [Th Jc Kd]
*** TURN *** [Th Jc Kd] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [Th Jc Kd Qh] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Qd Ts] (a full house, Queens full of Tens)
acipayam: shows [Ac Td] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Loretta8 collected 16966 from pot

9:50 i take a weird line and lose a huge pot

PokerStars Game #44895864553: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2010/05/31 21:47:22 ET
Table '314010871 39' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: flopnutset (15850 in chips)
Seat 2: teamram555 (8431 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: tzahi2008 (17710 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (19767 in chips)
Seat 5: tonio du71 (16462 in chips)
Seat 6: JustLikeGus (8806 in chips)
Seat 7: NAOMI222 (12393 in chips)
Seat 8: tk10009 (15370 in chips)
Seat 9: laruegg (11084 in chips)
flopnutset: posts the ante 50
teamram555: posts the ante 50
tzahi2008: posts the ante 50
Loretta8: posts the ante 50
tonio du71: posts the ante 50
JustLikeGus: posts the ante 50
NAOMI222: posts the ante 50
tk10009: posts the ante 50
laruegg: posts the ante 50
flopnutset: posts small blind 200
teamram555: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ah Kd]
tzahi2008: raises 480 to 880
Loretta8: calls 880
tonio du71: calls 880
JustLikeGus: raises 7876 to 8756 and is all-in
NAOMI222: raises 3587 to 12343 and is all-in
tk10009: folds
laruegg: folds
flopnutset: folds
teamram555: folds
tzahi2008: folds
Loretta8: raises 7374 to 19717 and is all-in
tonio du71: folds
Uncalled bet (7374) returned to Loretta8
*** FLOP *** [7s 9s 4s]
*** TURN *** [7s 9s 4s] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [7s 9s 4s 9h] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Ah Kd] (a pair of Nines)
NAOMI222: shows [Jh Js] (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
NAOMI222 collected 7174 from side pot
JustLikeGus: shows [Kc Qs] (two pair, Queens and Nines)
JustLikeGus collected 29078 from main pot

called the first time because 3-betting looks absurdly strong and worse hands all fold, also I can induce a squeeze, wasn't counting on 2 reshoves but im getting over 2 to 1 with AK, can't fold.

10:01 peeled a banana, ready to go now. Stacks are...

11 cubed: 8k
3r: 23k
22r: 4300
Stuper: 6k
55fo: 2500
11r: juust started, 3k

unregisted for the $55 6 max in 15 minutes, 6 tables is plenty

10:15 getting there like a pro

PokerStars Game #44896647979: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (400/800) - 2010/05/31 22:13:53 ET
Table '314010871 39' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: bejafava (7892 in chips)
Seat 2: teamram555 (3681 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: tzahi2008 (17075 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (8074 in chips)
Seat 5: tonio du71 (99082 in chips)
Seat 6: supernono16 (70180 in chips)
Seat 7: weHAVEaPROB (49466 in chips)
Seat 8: tk10009 (11720 in chips)
Seat 9: butyh (17222 in chips)
bejafava: posts the ante 75
teamram555: posts the ante 75
tzahi2008: posts the ante 75
Loretta8: posts the ante 75
tonio du71: posts the ante 75
supernono16: posts the ante 75
weHAVEaPROB: posts the ante 75
tk10009: posts the ante 75
butyh: posts the ante 75
Loretta8: posts small blind 400
tonio du71: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Jd Ac]
supernono16: folds
weHAVEaPROB: folds
tk10009: folds
butyh: raises 1020 to 1820
bejafava: calls 1820
teamram555: folds
tzahi2008: folds
Loretta8: raises 6179 to 7999 and is all-in
tonio du71: folds
butyh: raises 6179 to 14178
bejafava: folds
Uncalled bet (6179) returned to butyh
*** FLOP *** [Ah Th 2d]
*** TURN *** [Ah Th 2d] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Ah Th 2d 7d] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Jd Ac] (a pair of Aces)
butyh: shows [Qd Qh] (a pair of Queens)
Loretta8 collected 19293 from pot

pretty clear shove with my stack so short

10:20 WAT

PokerStars Game #44896822678: Tournament #314011041, $150+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2010/05/31 22:19:35 ET
Table '314011041 34' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: a$$ou (9083 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (6303 in chips)
Seat 3: celticceo (5075 in chips)
Seat 4: robjrs1 (2252 in chips)
Seat 5: wono23 (8970 in chips)
Seat 6: Emad Tahtouh (3469 in chips)
Seat 7: ibluffheaps (3371 in chips)
Seat 8: YIKESS111 (5902 in chips)
Seat 9: xthesteinx (2850 in chips)
celticceo: posts small blind 75
robjrs1: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [As Ac]
wono23: folds
Emad Tahtouh: folds
ibluffheaps: folds
YIKESS111: folds
xthesteinx: folds
a$$ou: folds
Loretta8: raises 150 to 300
celticceo: folds
robjrs1: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [9c 7h 3d]
robjrs1: bets 1952 and is all-in
Loretta8: calls 1952
*** TURN *** [9c 7h 3d] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [9c 7h 3d Qs] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
robjrs1: shows [3c 7c] (two pair, Sevens and Threes)
Loretta8: shows [As Ac] (a pair of Aces)
robjrs1 collected 4579 from pot

bizarre, bizarre hand

10:27 didnt this hand already happen tonight?

PokerStars Game #44897044891: Tournament #314011081, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2010/05/31 22:26:58 ET
Table '314011081 39' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: matthew119 (3150 in chips)
Seat 2: HR_Dub (925 in chips)
Seat 3: gastonb111 (1375 in chips)
Seat 4: Jimmy BoSox (5595 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (2800 in chips)
Seat 6: crawdad205 (5655 in chips)
Seat 7: pedro&holly (2925 in chips)
Seat 8: playchipgod (5130 in chips)
Seat 9: VegasDietz (2680 in chips)
Loretta8: posts small blind 50
crawdad205: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qh Qd]
pedro&holly: folds
playchipgod: folds
VegasDietz: folds
matthew119: raises 200 to 300
HR_Dub: folds
gastonb111: raises 1075 to 1375 and is all-in
Jimmy BoSox: calls 1375
Loretta8: raises 1425 to 2800 and is all-in
crawdad205: folds
matthew119: folds
Jimmy BoSox: calls 1425
*** FLOP *** [2s 7d 4s]
*** TURN *** [2s 7d 4s] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [2s 7d 4s Ks] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Qh Qd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
Jimmy BoSox: shows [Ah Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
Jimmy BoSox collected 2850 from side pot
gastonb111: shows [6c 6s] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
Jimmy BoSox collected 4525 from main pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 1073rd place
gastonb111 finished the tournament in 1074th place

10:44 Just busted the 100k and the 20r within seconds of each other

PokerStars Game #44897531403: Tournament #314011041, $150+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2010/05/31 22:43:34 ET
Table '314011041 34' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: a$$ou (12655 in chips)
Seat 2: Loretta8 (4226 in chips)
Seat 3: celticceo (8825 in chips)
Seat 4: robjrs1 (2379 in chips)
Seat 5: wono23 (9254 in chips)
Seat 6: germain133 (4345 in chips)
Seat 7: ibluffheaps (3646 in chips)
Seat 8: Improved (9230 in chips)
Seat 9: xthesteinx (3550 in chips)
a$$ou: posts the ante 25
Loretta8: posts the ante 25
celticceo: posts the ante 25
robjrs1: posts the ante 25
wono23: posts the ante 25
germain133: posts the ante 25
ibluffheaps: posts the ante 25
Improved: posts the ante 25
xthesteinx: posts the ante 25
a$$ou: posts small blind 125
Loretta8: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [As Jh]
celticceo: folds
robjrs1: folds
wono23: folds
germain133: raises 4070 to 4320 and is all-in
ibluffheaps: folds
Improved: folds
xthesteinx: folds
a$$ou: folds
Loretta8: calls 3951 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (119) returned to germain133
*** FLOP *** [Td 5d 5h]
*** TURN *** [Td 5d 5h] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [Td 5d 5h 4d] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [As Jh] (a pair of Fives)
germain133: shows [Ad Kc] (a flush, Ace high)
germain133 collected 8752 from pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 266th place

My call might be bad here, not sure but I think so. Gonna run some numbers later.

20r I made a standard shove with KJ and lost to 55.

I did just beat AK with A9s in the 11 cubed, so in good shape in that

10:53 holy shit this hockey game

11:00 another break. I have 34k in the 11 cubed, getting close to the money. 35k in the 3r and 4k in the 11r. and the Flyers lost and the bananas are ripe. Things could be a lot worse.

11:34 it's a tarp!

PokerStars Game #44898897535: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (1500/3000) - 2010/05/31 23:34:36 ET
Table '314010871 49' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: ~Azztastic~ (88724 in chips)
Seat 2: el ligador (27562 in chips)
Seat 3: d0r1t0s (75437 in chips)
Seat 4: abogadoXXX (61192 in chips)
Seat 6: thipoker10 (121837 in chips)
Seat 7: Loretta8 (46839 in chips)
Seat 8: kam3047 (133719 in chips)
Seat 9: Dummski (78809 in chips)
~Azztastic~: posts the ante 300
el ligador: posts the ante 300
d0r1t0s: posts the ante 300
abogadoXXX: posts the ante 300
thipoker10: posts the ante 300
Loretta8: posts the ante 300
kam3047: posts the ante 300
Dummski: posts the ante 300
thipoker10: posts small blind 1500
Loretta8: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [As 8c]
kam3047: folds
Dummski: folds
~Azztastic~: folds
el ligador: folds
d0r1t0s: folds
abogadoXXX: folds
thipoker10: calls 1500
Loretta8: raises 43539 to 46539 and is all-in
thipoker10: calls 43539
*** FLOP *** [9c Ad Kh]
*** TURN *** [9c Ad Kh] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [9c Ad Kh 5h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
thipoker10: shows [Qd Jd] (a pair of Kings)
Loretta8: shows [As 8c] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
Loretta8 collected 95478 from pot

in the money there now, still a ways to go though

11:46 I have a Brazilian fan club

PokerStars Game #44899188729: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (1500/3000) - 2010/05/31 23:45:49 ET
Table '314010871 49' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ~Azztastic~ (37576 in chips)
Seat 2: OldRufus (39902 in chips) out of hand (moved from another table into small blind)
Seat 3: tkenobi (79468 in chips)
Seat 4: abogadoXXX (139628 in chips)
Seat 5: Luiz Cilenti (105456 in chips)
Seat 6: thipoker10 (89398 in chips)
Seat 7: Loretta8 (63990 in chips)
Seat 8: kam3047 (142969 in chips)
~Azztastic~: posts the ante 300
tkenobi: posts the ante 300
abogadoXXX: posts the ante 300
Luiz Cilenti: posts the ante 300
thipoker10: posts the ante 300
Loretta8: posts the ante 300
kam3047: posts the ante 300
tkenobi: posts small blind 1500
abogadoXXX: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [7c 7h]
Luiz Cilenti: folds
thipoker10: folds
Loretta8: raises 3444 to 6444
kam3047: folds
~Azztastic~: raises 30832 to 37276 and is all-in
tkenobi: folds
abogadoXXX: folds
Loretta8: calls 30832
*** FLOP *** [6c 4s 7d]
*** TURN *** [6c 4s 7d] [4d]
Luiz Cilenti said, "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS"
*** RIVER *** [6c 4s 7d 4d] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [7c 7h] (a full house, Sevens full of Fours)
~Azztastic~: shows [Js Ac] (a pair of Fours)
Loretta8 collected 81152 from pot
~Azztastic~ finished the tournament in 88th place and received $51.87.

ElieltonPKR [observer]: LORETTAAAAA
Loretta8: hello
ElieltonPKR [observer]: hi
Luiz Cilenti: essa mulher me ama
ElieltonPKR [observer]: ta sempre na sua mesa
Luiz Cilenti: loretta
testabr [observer]: ela me ama
testabr [observer]: uhauhauha
Luiz Cilenti: you love me ?
Loretta8: lol
Luiz Cilenti: i love you =)

12:09 goddammit

PokerStars Game #44899698528: Tournament #314010871, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (2000/4000) - 2010/06/01 0:08:07 ET
Table '314010871 49' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: yoram55555 (189214 in chips)
Seat 3: tkenobi (41168 in chips)
Seat 4: Babygoor (255106 in chips)
Seat 5: Luiz Cilenti (213863 in chips)
Seat 6: thipoker10 (187085 in chips)
Seat 7: Loretta8 (102378 in chips)
Seat 8: kam3047 (195428 in chips)
Seat 9: hookem78 (90654 in chips)
yoram55555: posts the ante 400
tkenobi: posts the ante 400
Babygoor: posts the ante 400
Luiz Cilenti: posts the ante 400
thipoker10: posts the ante 400
Loretta8: posts the ante 400
kam3047: posts the ante 400
hookem78: posts the ante 400
tkenobi: posts small blind 2000
Babygoor: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Td Ks]
Luiz Cilenti: folds
thipoker10: folds
Loretta8: raises 4777 to 8777
kam3047: calls 8777
hookem78: folds
yoram55555: folds
tkenobi: folds
Babygoor: calls 4777
*** FLOP *** [Kh 3d Tc]
Babygoor: checks
Loretta8: bets 14999
kam3047: calls 14999
Babygoor: folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 3d Tc] [Ad]
Loretta8: checks
kam3047: bets 15500
Loretta8: raises 62702 to 78202 and is all-in
kam3047: calls 62702
*** RIVER *** [Kh 3d Tc Ad] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Td Ks] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
kam3047: shows [Ac Th] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
kam3047 collected 217933 from pot

cashed for about $60 there. down to two tables, the 11r and the 3r, and I'm short in both. Not the best night.

12:13 Down to 1 table, AK into AA in the 11r.

12:40 Solid players in the 3r

PokerStars Game #44900404264: Tournament #314010921, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (1500/3000) - 2010/06/01 0:38:35 ET
Table '314010921 255' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: bsbarber (83849 in chips)
Seat 2: mÄc riDD (67145 in chips)
Seat 3: maurantonas (98011 in chips)
Seat 4: peterw80 (61513 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (45541 in chips)
Seat 6: HeeHaw_ULose (173669 in chips)
Seat 7: patrice233 (184422 in chips)
Seat 8: nacheyras (31724 in chips)
Seat 9: batiln boosu (312360 in chips)
bsbarber: posts the ante 300
mÄc riDD: posts the ante 300
maurantonas: posts the ante 300
peterw80: posts the ante 300
Loretta8: posts the ante 300
HeeHaw_ULose: posts the ante 300
patrice233: posts the ante 300
nacheyras: posts the ante 300
batiln boosu: posts the ante 300
mÄc riDD: posts small blind 1500
maurantonas: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Jh Qd]
maurantonas said, "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"
peterw80: raises 6000 to 9000
Loretta8: folds
HeeHaw_ULose: folds
patrice233: folds
nacheyras: folds
batiln boosu: folds
bsbarber: folds
mÄc riDD: folds
maurantonas: raises 33000 to 42000
peterw80: raises 19213 to 61213 and is all-in
maurantonas: calls 19213
*** FLOP *** [Qc 9c 8c]
*** TURN *** [Qc 9c 8c] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 9c 8c Ah] [4d]
Loretta8 said, "sick cooler"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
maurantonas: shows [3d 8s] (a pair of Eights)
peterw80: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Aces)
peterw80 collected 126626 from pot

12:42 And that's gonna do it

PokerStars Game #44900489380: Tournament #314010921, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (1500/3000) - 2010/06/01 0:42:30 ET
Table '314010921 255' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bsbarber (141302 in chips)
Seat 2: mÄc riDD (63845 in chips)
Seat 3: i am musashi (163585 in chips)
Seat 4: peterw80 (122126 in chips)
Seat 5: Loretta8 (42586 in chips)
Seat 6: HeeHaw_ULose (214093 in chips)
Seat 7: patrice233 (169122 in chips)
Seat 9: batiln boosu (306060 in chips)
bsbarber: posts the ante 300
mÄc riDD: posts the ante 300
i am musashi: posts the ante 300
peterw80: posts the ante 300
Loretta8: posts the ante 300
HeeHaw_ULose: posts the ante 300
patrice233: posts the ante 300
batiln boosu: posts the ante 300
bsbarber: posts small blind 1500
mÄc riDD: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ah Ks]
i am musashi: folds
peterw80: folds
Loretta8: raises 3666 to 6666
HeeHaw_ULose: folds
patrice233: folds
batiln boosu: folds
bsbarber: raises 8334 to 15000
mÄc riDD: folds
Loretta8: raises 27286 to 42286 and is all-in
bsbarber: calls 27286
*** FLOP *** [3h 6c 8d]
*** TURN *** [3h 6c 8d] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [3h 6c 8d 7d] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bsbarber: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
Loretta8: shows [Ah Ks] (high card Ace)
bsbarber collected 89972 from pot
Loretta8 finished the tournament in 236th place and received $24.40.

not the best night. if anyone is still reading this,

Thanks for reading,

George

33rd in the Quarter Million

2010-05-27T08:53:00.000-07:00

Decided to play a degen $130 hyper turbo satellite to the $300 Wednesday Quarter Million, and was lucky enough to win it. I had a decent run, but eventually busted out a disappointing 33rd. That paid $1,125 but wasn't quite the $46k for first.

I was pretty happy with how I played, I was tight for the most part but found some spots to bluff where I used my tight image to my advantage. I also ran hot and had cards at the right time, which you have to do vs. a tough field like this, of which a substantial percentage is professionals.

My final hand I shoved KQ over a middle position raise and lost to AK. I think the shove was ok there but I should probably run some numbers to make sure.

I also busted from the Mookie quickly last night, so no TOC for me. Too bad but I played so few events that I didn't give myself much of a chance. Good luck to everyone who's qualified.

Thanks for reading,

George

$20 rebuy recap

2010-05-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

The night started off great for me, as I went on a huge rush in $55 hyper turbo satellites to the nightly $162. These SNG satellites start with 6 people, and top 2 get a seat. I was in can't lose a showdown mode and managed to win 7 in a row, which is a 1 in 2187 chance assuming players of equal skill. It's hot streaks like these that keep me playing hypers, the structure is so absurd that your edge is pretty minimal, but the potential to make $700 in 10 minutes is too much to resist. I get an email whenever I cash in a tournament, here were the times I got the 7 emails on the wins:

8:23, 8:26, 8:27, 8:28, 8:30, 8:30, 8:30

So quite a run. I played a bunch of MTTs after that, including the aforementioned $162. I had a couple of mini-cashes in smaller tournaments, but busted the $162 before the antes and at around 1 AM I was down to just 1 table, the $20 rebuy. I'd had a big stack in that tournament the night before and punted it short of the money, so I was looking for retribution. Here I make a move on the exact bubble:

Seat 2: willecho (67436 in chips)
Seat 3: matori0406 (31786 in chips)
Seat 4: Name omitted (6700 in chips)
Seat 5: Unicum next (90963 in chips)
Seat 6: Drunk dealer (31068 in chips)
Seat 7: GiveGnrsly (52251 in chips)
Seat 8: eizool (13411 in chips)
Seat 9: Loretta8 (56984 in chips)
8 players ante 150
Unicum next: posts small blind 800
Drunk dealer: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qs 8h]
GiveGnrsly: raises 2400 to 4000
eizool: folds
Loretta8: raises 6599 to 10599
willecho: folds
matori0406: folds
Pessagno: folds
Unicum next: folds
Drunk dealer: folds
GiveGnrsly: folds
Uncalled bet (6599) returned to Loretta8
Loretta8 collected 11600 from pot

that opponent had been active but seemed like a smart player, and I took advantage of my tight image to bluff. It's a tough spot for him even with a lot of the better hands in his range, since I look super strong 3-betting an UTG raiser from that position.

The bubble took forever, including this hand which can't be real:

Seat 2: willecho (62787 in chips)
Seat 3: matori0406 (35236 in chips)
Seat 4: Name omitted (29050 in chips)
Seat 5: Unicum next (71113 in chips)
Seat 6: Drunk dealer (25718 in chips)
Seat 7: GiveGnrsly (42501 in chips)
Seat 8: eizool (23760 in chips)
Seat 9: Loretta8 (60434 in chips)
8 players ante 150
Drunk dealer: posts small blind 800
GiveGnrsly: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [8s 3c]
eizool: folds
Loretta8: folds
willecho: folds
matori0406: folds
Name omitted: raises 1800 to 3400
Unicum next: raises 4400 to 7800
Drunk dealer: folds
GiveGnrsly: folds
Name omitted: raises 11100 to 18900
Unicum next: raises 52063 to 70963 and is all-in
Name omitted: folds
Uncalled bet (52063) returned to Unicum next
Unicum next collected 41400 from pot

I just have no idea what the hell this guy is doing, I mean he puts in 65% of his stack and folds. Not even lighting would do that as far I know (I kid, I kid).

It took forever, but the bubble eventually burst with 45 paying. From there to the final table I played pretty tight. I wasn't getting many hands and the table was playing aggressive, so I stayed patient. I did win one big flip with QQ vs AK, then near the final table bubble I made a big call with my favorite hand (the ole KQ) and won a big pot:

Seat 1: michalicek (22779 in chips)
Seat 3: calvo1989 (499643 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (92112 in chips)
Seat 5: mjsecret (79116 in chips)
Seat 6: vcehorosho (138760 in chips)
Seat 7: willecho (69793 in chips)
Seat 8: element64 (165771 in chips)
7 players ante 500
calvo1989: posts small blind 2500
Loretta8: posts big blind 5000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qc Ks]
mjsecret: folds
vcehorosho: folds
willecho: folds
element64: folds
michalicek: folds
calvo1989: raises 494143 to 499143 and is all-in

It's blind vs blind and my opponent has shoved for 18 big blinds effective. Against some players this would be a fold, but this guy seemed like a good regular, and thus knows he can shove a wide range profitably with antes in play. With KQ I am almost never dominated, especially since a lot of players would just make a standard raise with QQ+,AQ+ rather than make such a big shove. And there are plenty of hands I have dominated that he'd shove with, so I made the call.

Loretta8: calls 86612 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (407531) returned to calvo1989
*** FLOP *** [Ts 5c 4s]
*** TURN *** [Ts 5c 4s] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 5c 4s Qd] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
calvo1989: shows [Qs Jc] (two pair, Queens and Fours)
Loretta8: shows [Qc Ks] (two pair, Queens and Fours - King kicker)
Loretta8 collected 186724 from pot

I held and went into the final table 4th out of 9. But as soon as it started I was completely card dead and blinded down for a while. There weren't many weak spots at the final table so it was tough to steal. When we were 8 handed I was in 7th, but I busted the 8th place guy with AK vs his AQ, then managed to move two spots up the ladder to 5th. Then I got into a huge pot:

Seat 2: Butano (541199 in chips)
Seat 3: calvo1989 (549691 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (142833 in chips)
Seat 6: Princesa (129351 in chips)
Seat 9: golfmainiac0 (570926 in chips)
5 players ante 800
Butano: posts small blind 4000
calvo1989: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [4d 4c]
Loretta8: raises 134033 to 142033 and is all-in

This is a big shove, but I don't really see any better options. Open-folding is too weak, raise/fold kinda sucks with 18 BBs, raise/call is an ICM disaster. So I decided shoving was the best option.

Princesa: folds
golfmainiac0: folds
Butano: calls 138033
calvo1989: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd 7s 9c]
*** TURN *** [Kd 7s 9c] [6d]

I'm just about to close the window at this point.

*** RIVER *** [Kd 7s 9c 6d] [4s]

Bink.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Butano: shows [Kc Ad] (a pair of Kings)
Loretta8: shows [4d 4c] (three of a kind, Fours)
Loretta8 collected 296066 from pot

So that was an exciting way to win a flip. A few hands later I won another huge pot against that guy, who was probably about ready to break his computer screen.

Seat 2: Butano (454165 in chips)
Seat 3: calvo1989 (549691 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (280866 in chips)
Seat 6: Princesa (94352 in chips)
Seat 9: golfmainiac0 (554926 in chips)
5 platers ante 1000
Butano: posts small blind 5000
calvo1989: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ad Ac]
Loretta8: raises 11999 to 21999
Princesa: folds
golfmainiac0: folds
Butano: raises 38001 to 60000
calvo1989: folds
Loretta8: raises 219866 to 279866 and is all-in
Butano: calls 219866
*** FLOP *** [9c 8s Kh]
*** TURN *** [9c 8s Kh] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [9c 8s Kh 4d] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Butano: shows [Ks As] (two pair, Kings and Nines)
Loretta8: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
Loretta8 collected 574732 from pot

nothing to analyze, a totally standard hand.

The two short stacks busted out quickly, and we were 3 handed with very deep stacks for this stage of the tournament. Right away, golfmainiac asked if we wanted to make a deal, but I didn't want to and neither did calvo, so we played it out. And very soon after, a huge pot came up between me and golfmainiac:

Seat 3: calvo1989 (748989 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (573085 in chips)
Seat 9: golfmainiac0 (611926 in chips)
3 players ante 1000
golfmainiac0: posts small blind 5000
calvo1989: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [8c 7c]
golfmainiac0 said, "deal?"
Loretta8: raises 10000 to 20000
golfmainiac0: calls 15000
calvo1989: folds
*** FLOP *** [6s 5s Jc]
golfmainiac0: checks
Loretta8: bets 23000
golfmainiac0: raises 27000 to 50000
Loretta8: calls 27000
*** TURN *** [6s 5s Jc] [3c]
golfmainiac0: bets 89999

Ok, preflop and the flop are pretty standard here, but now on the turn things get interesting. With such a huge draw for me, folding is out of the question, but I thought for a bit on whether to shove on a semi-bluff or just call. Eventually I decided on calling because I really didn't think the guy was bluffing right after saying he wanted to make a deal.

Loretta8: calls 89999
*** RIVER *** [6s 5s Jc 3c] [Qd]
golfmainiac0: checks

so the turn misses every possible draw, and he quickly checks to me. There's 330k in the pot and I have 412k left, with him having me barely covered. When he checks to me so fast, I think his two most likely hands are a missed draw or a jack, weighted towards a jack since I'm not sure if this guy would play a draw that aggressively. Against a good player, bluffing here is pretty suicidal because my hand looks like exactly what it is, a busted a draw. So against a good regular I would never attempt to make them fold a jack. But against this guy, I thought there was a good chance he would, because he won't want to risk being wrong and crippling himself so early in 3 handed play. I'd looked at his OPR and seen this was more money than he'd ever played for online, and that combined with him wanting to make a deal I didn't think he'd be able to pull the trigger on a call with just a jack.

Loretta8: bets 412086 and is all-in

When he didn't call me right away, I liked my chances, and as his timebank started ticking down I liked them even more. In my experience, people very rarely call after they've gone well into their timebank, and I was sure it would succeed as his timebank ran down below 5 seconds. But with 1 freaking second left on his timebank, he made the call.

golfmainiac0: calls 412086
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [8c 7c] (high card Queen)
golfmainiac0: shows [Ks Js] (a pair of Jacks)
golfmainiac0 collected 1157170 from pot

So that was that. I don't regret the move at all, it came pretty damn close to working, but my opponent made the right call in the end, hats off to him.

I was doing some thinking after I busted, and I realized that the hand I just posted are why I love tournament poker. I'm addicted to the feeling of getting to the end of a big tournament and all the tense moments that come with it, in particular when you've just emptied the clip on a huge bluff and the other guy is tanking. It's hard to explain unless you've been in that spot, but it's an amazing combination of hope and fear mixed together. So even though the play didn't work out this time, it was still a solid cash ($2,648), and I still got the feeling of making tough decisions with lots of money on the line. Moments like that really make the grind of tournaments worth it.

Thanks for reading,

George

3rd in the Stars $20 rebuy

2010-05-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

just busted, recap tomorrow. it paid $2600 and change.

i also went on a massive heater in hyper turbo satellites, so a good night overall.

Thanks for reading,

George

Tournament Pie chart

2010-05-20T11:59:00.001-07:00

Obviously this is just a play on the mediocre song, but it's a surprisingly accurate representation of what it's like being an MTT player.

Big Satellite Bubbles: What should be considered cheating?

2010-05-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

The TOC for BBT5 soon, and most likely I won't be playing in it. I've missed half the qualifying tournaments so far for various reasons, and even if I do qualify I might not even be able to play that day. Oh well.

Although I almost certainly won't be playing, I've been thinking about potential issues in TOC, most notably on the satellite bubble. This thread on Two Plus Two really got me wondering about what should be considered acceptable on a satellite bubble and what should be considered cheating.

Problems can come up in satellites due to the nature of the payout structure. In a normal tournament, the ultimate goal is to finish in 1st place because that's how you get the most money. So the best play is usually the one that maximizes your chances of getting all the chips in play. Because you get more money for moving up the ladder, there are sometimes spots where $EV trumps chipEV, but for the most part the goal is to keep accumulating.

Unfortunately, things are a lot different in satellites, especially ones like this year's TOC where 1st, 2nd and 3rd place all pay the same thing. Let's take a look at a hypothetical situation with 4 left in the TOC; 1st through 3rd get a $10k main event seat, and 4th I think gets $2k.

Stack sizes:

Player A: 100,000
Player B: 3,000
Player C: 3,000
Player D: 3,000

Such extreme stack sizes are pretty rare in satellites, but they do occur from time to time, such as in the thread I linked above. It happens because once one player gets a dominating chip lead, the correct strategy for the medium stacks is to fold everything to the big stack and hope the shorter stacks eventually bust. So the big stack will win every pot and get a huge lead.

The reason problems can arise is players in the same tournament are playing for different stakes. Player A is all but guaranteed a set unless he is a complete moron. You could re-create this situation a thousand times and it's unlikely Player A will ever not win a $10k seat. The value of his stack is probably in the neighborhood of 9,999 dollars and 99 cents. However, Players B through D have a stack worth a lot less. Each of those three is going to win a $10k seat about 2 times in 3, and bubble 1 time in 3, for a total stack value of about $6,666. So the stakes are totally different. Player A basically has nothing on the line and can do pretty much whatever the hell he wants, while the other three players have thousands of dollars on the line.

To further clarify, lets look at a situation that could arise with these stacks. The blinds are 1000/2000 with a 200 ante.

Player C (Cutoff): 3000
Player D (Button): 3000
Player A (Small Blind): 100,000
Player B (Big Blind): 3,000

The first two players fold, and it's on Player A. The big blind player has already posted 2200 in blinds and antes, and has to call a shove from Player A. The two other players not in the hand would certainly love for Player A to shove, because then Player B will bust 50% of the time, dramatically increasing their $EV in the satellite. But for Player A, he really has no financial motivation to shove here. With the pots he's getting, shoving is certainly +chipEV, but in terms of $EV the difference between shoving and folding is a small fraction of a penny. Certainly shoving would end the satellite quicker, but in terms of money it essentially makes no difference what he does. However, there are lots of other potential factors that could influence Player A's decision.

The issue here is that Player A can essentially play God and decide who bubbles. So if Player A wants one of his three opponents to get the seat, or wants to screw over one of his remaining opponents, he has the power to do so. There are any number of reasons why Player A could be doing this, and my question is which reasons are legitimate and which would be cheating.

1. Player A folds because he is backing and/or has some sort of financial interest in Player B and wants him to advance.

To me this one is pretty clear cut cheating, and should certainly be punished.

2. Player A folds, and shoves the next hand on Player C's blind because he dislikes Player C for whatever reason and wants him to bubble.

Personally I don't think this is cheating, but it's a bit of a gray area. It's certainly an asshole move by Player A, but if his intentions are merely to screw over Player C, then I don't really see how that's cheating. If I were in Player's A spot, and Player C was berating me or others in chat and just generally acting like a douchebag, or was a known scammer/thief who had a history of ripping off me or any other poker player, I would probably do the same thing. Certainly spiteful but I don't think it's chearing.

3. Player A folds because he thinks Player B is clearly the worst of the 3 remaining players, and wants the field in the main event to be as weak as possible.

While pretty much irrelevant in this specific situation because of how huge the main event field is and the fact that the fish doesn't even have to play, this can certainly take on importance in other satellites. Like in a Step 5 SNG on Poker Stars, where the 2 winners both have to play in a Step 6 SNG, it would make a lot of sense to do everything you can to bring the fish to the next level. I think this is perfectly acceptable, as long as you're not working with the fish to help him get the seat.

4. Player A folds because he is friends with Player B and wants Player B to advance so the two can meet up in Vegas and both play the main event.

This scenario is by far the toughest one to judge whether or not it's cheating, but after some thought I've decided that it is. Helping one player get the seat purely to help your own EV in the next tournament is ok, but doing it for non-poker related reasons crosses the line into cheating, at least in my opinion.

Of course, all this is merely a discussion of morality, because it would be impossible for the site to do anything unless there was a long history of money transfers between the two accused colluders, or if they were stupid enough to let AIM logs end up in the hands of site security. Despite that caveat, I still think it's important to think about, because there's a distinct possibility a situation like this could come up in a couple of weeks. I've thought for a while about potential solutions, but I'm not really seeing any. One idea I heard was to automatically remove giant stacks from the tournament and give them the seat once they reach a certain % of the chips in play, but that would be extremely difficult to execute in practice, because at what point do you decide the guy's stack is big enough?

This is an unfortunate down side of satellites, and there's really no way to prevent it from happening, but I'm still posting this to get other people's thoughts, and to get anyone already in the TOC thinking about how they would handle having a massive stack on the bubble.

Thanks for reading,

George

Heater

2010-05-08T16:59:00.001-07:00

Not really too much to analyze, there's a huge luck factor in any tournament where you start with 10 big blinds. I just won a ton of flips and 60/40s and ran really hot. Also I got good table draws with tight players I could steal from and steadily build a stack, which is an underrated part of run-good.

So it's been quite the week poker-wise, and it's a good thing too given how much money I've been spending on Bruins playoff tickets. I'll be at Game 5, 9 rows from the ice, let's go Bruins!

Thanks for reading,

George

Won a Rush Poker Tournament

2010-05-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

It was one of the $24+$2 Rush tournaments that Full Tilt caps at 135 players, and paid $923. Not bad for an hour and a half of playing. When we were 8 handed at the final table, several players were trying to negotiate a deal, which I certainly wasn't interested in. The blinds do get huge pretty quick at Rush final tables after the Rush portion of the tournament ends, but it's not like we're playing for huge amounts of money, and with the table seemingly scared I figured their calling ranges would be way too tight and I could run them over. And that was pretty much what happened, I went from 40k to 80k without a showdown, and then won a couple flips and 60/40s to close things out. LJ made an appearance on the rail while she was winning her TOC seat, so thanks for the rail and congrats.

With the average stack being 12 big blinds while 4 handed, I'm thinking maybe I should have tried to negotiate a better than ICM deal, not really sure what the best move was. Dealing for an extra couple hundred dollars feels weak, but the goal is to maximize EV and getting people to make stupid deals is one way to go about that. Who knows.

I played the Mookie last night as well, and I don't think I won a pot, it was pretty ugly. Eventually I busted when 88 was no good BvB vs. lightning. So I'm running out of chances to win my way into the TOC. Normally that would suck, but this year it's not as big a deal since I probably wouldn't be able to make it out to Vegas anyways.

Thanks for reading,

George

$18k recap: breaking out the milly chip

2010-05-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

At the start of the night, I was getting killed in every tournament I was in. Beats, coolers, me spewing off chips, it wasn't pretty. And after I took a beat in the $18k to get back down to the starting stack at 75/150, I was about ready to quit tournament poker. Thankfully, I was able to keep it together and regroup on break, and I built up stacks in both the Stars $18k and the 11 PM $26 6 max on Full Tilt.

My key hand in the $18k before the final table came with about 75 left. I opened J9 of clubs in the cutoff with about 60k at 600/1200, and got called by the button and the big blind. The button had me covered and had been playing very aggressively and seemed like a pretty good player. I got a great flop, as it came KQT with two hearts. The big blind checked, and I decided to get fancy (probably too fancy) and checked, in the hopes the aggressive button would bet. My thinking was that he would expect me to bet all my big hands on such a coordinated board, so I could trap a bet out of his air hands and hopefully get him to put a lot of chips in with a marginal hand, since a flop check-raise from me would look suspicious. Sadly the trap failed and he checked behind, and the turn was the 4 of hearts, a bad card for me. The big blind checked, I bet 5500 into 10k, and the button raised me to 18k. The big blind folded and now I had a tough decision. He's representing a pretty narrow value range, as if he'd flopped a big hand he'd almost certainly bet it on the flop. So his value hands are flushes and maybe 44, and obviously I'm in bad shape against that range. But my line doesn't look very strong and he has good reason to think I'm folding to a raise, so I decided to call. The river was a total brick, an offsuit 3 I think. I checked and he shoved for the rest of my stack, which was a bit less than the pot. I tanked for a while, but eventually I concluded it was such a good bluffing spot for him and his vaue range was so narrow that I couldn't fold. So I called and he had A5o with the ace hearts, which gave me a giant pot and the chip lead.

From there I went on a huge rush, winning a bunch of flips, 3-betting light and generally just steam-rolling to the final table. I hit a bit of a speed bump on the final table bubble when a solid reg on my left called SNGWizard owned me by calling down my 2-barrel bluff with 33 unimproved with 4 overcards on the board and a possible flush. Despite that, I still went into the final table with the chip lead, although I was bit annoyed as I'd just busted the Full Tilt 6 max in 8th after AQ ran into AK blind vs blind. Here were the stacks to start the Stars final table:

Seat 1: Magic_JD (230214 in chips)
Seat 2: pjfabbri (189308 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (497110 in chips)
Seat 4: Schumann106 (134706 in chips)
Seat 5: SNGWizard (255120 in chips)
Seat 6: Jymaster11 (316838 in chips)
Seat 7: pokerPreston (305173 in chips)
Seat 8: horabora (134651 in chips)
Seat 9: TeddyKGB109 (477880 in chips)

I lost the chip lead early on when I doubled up Schumann after he flopped a set and turned a full house vs me, but shortly after I went on another big rush and took over the tournament. Before that though, hilarity ensued when Stars support showed up.

StarsSupport said "Anyone interested in discussing a deal?"
pjfabbri said, "sure, I'll talk numbers"
StarsSupport said "sorry, wrong window"

and then left and wasn't heard from again. So awesome.

This was the hand that gave me a huge lead, not much to analyze it's just me running hot:

Seat 1: Magic_JD (208614 in chips)
Seat 2: pjfabbri (366616 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (429504 in chips)
Seat 4: Schumann106 (54504 in chips)
Seat 5: SNGWizard (382571 in chips)
Seat 6: Jymaster11 (402338 in chips)
Seat 7: pokerPreston (318773 in chips)
Seat 9: TeddyKGB109 (378080 in chips)
8 players ante 800
pokerPreston: posts small blind 4000
TeddyKGB109: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ah As]
Magic_JD: folds
pjfabbri: folds
Loretta8: raises 9788 to 17788
Schumann106: folds
SNGWizard: raises 17983 to 35771
Jymaster11: raises 35479 to 71250
pokerPreston: folds
TeddyKGB109: folds
Loretta8: raises 357454 to 428704 and is all-in
SNGWizard: folds
Jymaster11: calls 330288 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (27166) returned to Loretta8
*** FLOP *** [9c 4s Ts]
*** TURN *** [9c 4s Ts] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [9c 4s Ts 5h] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Ah As] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
Jymaster11: shows [Ac Kc] (a pair of Tens)

Jymaster is in a really tough spot there after my 5-bet shove, a fold might be right but it's a fold I'd have a hard time making.

A few hands later I took a commanding lead:

Seat 1: Magic_JD (128310 in chips)
Seat 2: pjfabbri (318016 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (841769 in chips)
Seat 4: Schumann106 (208630 in chips)
Seat 5: SNGWizard (348550 in chips)
Seat 7: pokerPreston (351995 in chips)
Seat 9: TeddyKGB109 (343730 in chips)
7 players ante 1000
SNGWizard: posts small blind 5000
pokerPreston: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [3s Ad]
TeddyKGB109: folds
Magic_JD: folds
pjfabbri: folds
Loretta8: raises 12222 to 22222
Schumann106: folds
SNGWizard: folds
pokerPreston: calls 12222
*** FLOP *** [3d 9d 7d]
pokerPreston: checks
Loretta8: bets 30000
pokerPreston: raises 298773 to 328773 and is all-in
Loretta8:

I have a pair and the nut flush draw, so I can't justify folding, but I'm not exactly excited about calling since he most likely has a better pair than mine. Of course, sometimes he shows up with a hand I have crushed...

Loretta8: calls 298773
pokerPreston said, "whoops"
*** TURN *** [3d 9d 7d] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [3d 9d 7d Ac] [4d]
pokerPreston said, "gl guys"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pokerPreston: shows [Kd Js] (a flush, King high)
Loretta8: shows [3s Ad] (a flush, Ace high)

I'm not a huge fan of his shove there, but since I made a similar move to bust out deep in the $500 WCOOP I got 99th in last fall, I can't really hate on it too much. Now I had over 1 million chips and a chance to make one of my favorite plays:

Seat 1: Magic_JD (145810 in chips)
Seat 2: pjfabbri (231677 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (1493547 in chips)
Seat 4: Schumann106 (120136 in chips)
Seat 5: SNGWizard (391500 in chips)
Seat 9: TeddyKGB109 (158330 in chips)
6 players ante 1000
Loretta8: posts small blind 5000
Schumann106: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [8c 9c]
SNGWizard: folds
TeddyKGB109: folds
Magic_JD: folds
pjfabbri: folds
Loretta8: raises 1000000 to 1010000
SNGWizard said, "breaks out the milly Chip"

The big blind has only 12 bets, so this is a pretty obvious shove with antes. But instead of just going all in, I pull the ole million chip trick. This is an advanced play where you bet one million + one big blind, and on the screen you get to see the 1 million chip sitting by itself next to your match of the big blind. And with the good karma from making this move, I obviously get there with 9 high:

*** FLOP *** [5c 8s 3d]
*** TURN *** [5c 8s 3d] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [5c 8s 3d 5s] [6c]
SNGWizard said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [8c 9c] (two pair, Eights and Fives)
Schumann106: shows [Qc Jc] (a pair of Fives)
Schumann106 said, "lol"
Loretta8 collected 244272 from pot

Then when we were down to 4, I won a flip against the best player left (SNGWizard) to take a stranglehold on the tournament:

Seat 1: Magic_JD (228443 in chips)
Seat 2: pjfabbri (247577 in chips)
Seat 3: Loretta8 (1698260 in chips)
Seat 5: SNGWizard (366720 in chips)
4 players ante 1200
Loretta8: posts small blind 6000
SNGWizard: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Qh 6h]
Magic_JD: folds
pjfabbri: calls 12000
Loretta8: calls 6000
SNGWizard: checks
*** FLOP *** [8h 3h 5c]
Loretta8: bets 24000
SNGWizard: raises 36000 to 60000
pjfabbri: folds
Loretta8: raises 1625060 to 1685060 and is all-in
SNGWizard: calls 293520 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1331540) returned to Loretta8
*** TURN *** [8h 3h 5c] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [8h 3h 5c 3s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Qh 6h] (a flush, Queen high)
SNGWizard: shows [Ac 8c] (two pair, Eights and Threes)
Loretta8 collected 747840 from pot

pretty standard, SNGWizard can have a lot of worse draws, one pair hands I have nearly 50% against, or be bluffing and will fold to a shove. I get there and now it's going to be near impossible to blow it. pjfabbri asks for a deal, but it's not happening:

pjfabbri said, "wanna discuss a deal now?"
pjfabbri said, "just sit out and callmoderator"
Loretta8 said, "i want $4675.65" (first place was $4675.66)

so that was the end of that.

I busted pj in third when my AT held vs his A9, then closed out Magic_JD heads up when I was lucky enough to pick up aces again:

As you can see, I wasn't exactly making a bunch of huge bluffs or hero calls, I just ran really hot at the right times and cruised to victory. It's always fun when the stars align like that, hopefully it continues.

Thanks for reading,

George

$18k win

2010-05-01T02:46:00.001-07:00

Was a great night for me after a slow start, as I won the nightly $33 freezeout on Stars, and also got 8th in a $26 6 max MTT on Full Tilt. I'll post a longer recap sometime soon, right now it's time to go to sleep though as I need to get to the Garden for Bruins-Flyers Game 1 by 12:30.

Thanks for reading,

George

Mookie and Actuarial Quiz

2010-04-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

Played the Mookie last night and got 5th. Apparently some prop-betting fish bet on me to win the tournament when I had about 2% of the chips in play, sorry to disappoint.

Sadly, I have not had much time for poker recently; instead I am studying for SOA Exam #3. Here are some sample terms and how they relate to the world of poker bloggers:

Waiting Time

a) The two weeks at the end of every month when Waffles is busto and needs to wait for advertising revenue before he can play online poker again.

b) The two years Lucko has been waiting to go back to running good in MTTs

C) A probability distribution representing the time until the first occurrence of an event

Memoryless Property

A) A feature of the exponential distribution, it is that P(X > s+t given X > s) = P (X > t)

B) Bloggers having no memory of when they got lucky in a hand, and instead only focusing on when they were unlucky.

C) My own terrible memory, which will likely be a handicap when I have to take this exam

Exposure

A) All the naked hookers on Stoner's blog.

B) A measure of how many life years were covered over x amount of policies.

C) The open wound TonyEusebio will have after he loses his weight loss bet with me.

Joint Distribution

A) Given two random variables X and Y defined on the same probability space, the joint distribution for X and Y defines the probability of events defined in terms of both X and Y

B) The reason I forgot to show up for last Monday's bloggament

C) A past-time that will go the way of the dinosaur once VapeNow takes over.

Multiple Decrement Model

A) A model of my steadily decreasing bankroll, with the decrements being 100 chippers on FTP and turbo night on Stars

B) An insurance model for a person who is affected by more than one type of event

C) The girls in the kind of porn Waffles enjoys (ok, so that's an excrement model, but work with me here)

Common Shock

A) My reaction when someone plays a hand well in a blogger tournament (like when KeepFloppin busted me in the Mookie last night after playing KQ well)

B) An event, such as a hurricane or plane crash, that can similarly impact two otherwise independent lives.

C) The reaction of VeryJosie after Waffles goes Filthy Nixon on her (I'm warning you, continuous flirtation and real life contact with Waffles cannot possibly end well).

Thanks for reading,

George

Sunday

2010-04-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

Was a disappointing Sunday for me. I busted the Warmup in the first level after playing AK about as bad as the hand can possibly be played. In the $129 FTOPS, I was cruising along and made the money with a good stack, but busted about 900th after making a marginal call preflop with JJ. Right after it happened I was really pissed at myself, looking back it couldn't have been that bad a call, but I'm mad at myself for acting too quickly. It was a huge pot and I should have at least taken my time and thought things through. Oh well.

I also played the BBT invitational last night and couldn't get much going. I was probably should have gone broke about 3 times before I did finally bust; thankfully slow playing big hands is just as prevalent in today's bloggaments as it was in the past, and I was able to lose a lot less than I should have in a few spots. But it was simply delaying the inevitable and I busted well short of the money.

I'll be at the Bruins-Sabres Game 6 tonight, so no BBT for me, maybe Wednesday.

Thanks for reading,

George

Rush Poker Tournaments

2010-04-19T14:46:00.001-07:00

are the greatest thing ever. Full Tilt just started doing these, and I couldn't be more addicted to them. What's so great about them is that you get to see a ton of hands, and the stacks remain relatively deep (comparable to the regular tournaments at the same buy-in levels), yet the tournament goes by really fast. I just bubbled a $24+2 6 max Rush tournament, and normally I'd be miserable after bubbling since it would mean 3+ wasted hours. But it only took me 40 minutes to bubble, so it's not even really that disappointing.

I definitely miss the leveling wars that occur in normal tournaments, where you build up an image and a history with your opponents and try to stay one level ahead, and I certainly wouldn't be in favor of every tournament becoming Rush, but it's an awesome change of pace. And once it gets down to the final table, it becomes like a regular tourney, so you'll be able to build up reads when the real money is on the line.

Tonight BBT5 open events start, and I'll be back for a belated title defense after sitting out BBT4. Sadly I wasn't balla enough to get invited to the Sunday freerolls, which was somewhat disappointing, but they only took old-school bloggers who date back to the pre BBT days, and I didn't meet that criteria. Oh well, I'll have plenty of chances to play my way in. See everyone tonight.

Thanks for reading,

George

MIA

2010-02-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

sorry I have seemingly abandoned this blog, been playing very little poker and don't have much to say. did get involved in double guarantee week on FTP, and got owned for the most part, oh well it happens. my game is definitely a bit rusty and feel like i have a lot of work to do to get back into the groove.

That's it for now, if anything interesting happens I'll post about it.

Thanks for reading*,

George

*It's been so long I almost forgot to add this last line.

Meh

2009-12-17T12:34:00.001-08:00

nothing too interesting going on, which is why I haven't been updating this blog. I've been getting owned in MTTs the past few weeks, thankfully I've been doing well in SNGs to make up for it. I had a big stack in the mini FTOPS $30 rebuy last night but punted it and didn't cash, really annoying.

Stars brought back their passport promotion for December, and I was planning on trying to qualify for the juicy freeroll like last year, but I've gotten owned in turbo 180s and I don't have the motivation to keep grinding. I'm really impressed by people who can get up every day and grind 180s, they are so miserable and so high variance with only 10% of the field cashing; it takes a better man than I to withstand the swings. I suspect many of those people are using performance enhancing drugs, but it's impressive nonetheless.

That's it for now, I'll try to put together a strategy post at some point if nothing interesting happens.

Thanks for reading,

George

SNG heater

2009-11-29T21:49:00.000-08:00

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

$5r win recap: conquering the crazy euros

2009-11-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

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

Won the $5r on FTP

2009-11-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

Recap to come

Exploiting your opponents: live vs online

2009-11-19T10:20:00.000-08:00

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

Outplayed

2009-11-10T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

Quick Satellite Challenge update

2009-11-08T17:57:00.000-08:00

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

FTOPS Satellite Challenge

2009-11-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

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

HU cash and Waffles

2009-11-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Recovered from my horrible HU cash session, mostly thanks to a crazy Russian. The 4-bet/fold preflop was a particular favorite of his. One hand when we were $145 deep he opened to $4, I made it $13, he made it $50, I shoved and he folded. The guy also did not shut down postflop, it was 3 barrels or nothing. I was lucky enough to pick up some big hands and have them hold up.

In playing heads up cash, I find there are a lot of pretty embarrassing regulars. I don't mean embarrassing as in bad at poker, instead I'm talking about their table etiquette. Getting hit and run is expected from random clowns who are too busto to risk losing their profits, but when regulars who are on all the time immediately leave the table after winning a stack and turn around and sit at another table should be humiliated.

Another thing that really bothers me is regulars refusing to play other regulars. I like to play against people on 2 different tables at the same time, because you can learn a lot about a guys tendencies and adjust in a short period of time. So if I see someone sitting alone on 2 tables in the lobby, I'll often sit at both. I'm amazed by how many regulars immediately sit out when I do this, or sit out after about 10 hands when it's clear I'm not a massive fish. There's something to be said for game selection, but we're playing 100NL here, it's not exactly high stakes. And if you refuse to play anyone you think is halfway decent, you're never going to improve as a player. I could be wrong but I doubt there are any professionals living exclusively off winnings from 50 cent/1 dollar heads up cash. Show some self respect and play someone.

And it's not like I'm some huge winner who's feared throughout the HU cash world. I'm a marginal winner at 100NL and I'm still learning the game and still have a lot of leaks. If you're not playing someone with my resume, I can't imagine there's too many people you'd be willing to play. Personally I'll play anyone who sits at my cash table, and the only way I'll quit them is if they're up on me and seem to have a great read on me. I'm never going to get better and move up in limits if I don't challenge myself against good players from time to time.

Ok, rant over. I'd like to give a shout out to Waffles. Since sprstoner retired from blogging, Waffles has taken over the title of best blogger in our ~community. Lucko has basically thrown in the towel, LJ is talented but inconsistent, and Eusebio is just posting about stuff I've already heard about through AIM and forums. On the other hand, Waffles is a 5-tool blogger, he's got poker content, intentional comedy, unintentional comedy, profane rants, and consistent updates. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for reading,

George

Face Plant

2009-10-23T08:34:00.000-07:00

A few hours after posting about how I felt I'd turned a corner at heads up cash games, I managed to lose $600 in just over 200 hands yesterday. I ran terrible during that time, but also badly misplayed several hands including a retarded bluff to end my session. I'm really embarrassed about it, as I let emotion get the better of me. My opponent was a pretty weak player getting great cards, and at first I made some disciplined folds with marginal hands, in spots where I previously would have made bad pay-offs. But I got coolered in a 3-bet pot for a buy in and lost another buy-in on a bad beat all in preflop, and went on stone tilt and lost way more money than I should have.

I usually don't post about when I get owned at the tables, but I am now to hold myself accountable. Really sucks to have to make a post like this, hopefully I won't have to make any more.

Thanks for reading,

George

Liar Liar

2009-10-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

Been doing pretty well this month. Here's my October graph in 100NL HU:

I think (or at least I hope) that I've finally turned the corner at heads up cash. When I first started I didn't really know what I was doing, but I ran way above expectation and it made me overconfident. Then I had a long stretch of losing/breakevenness and got frustrated, and I was thinking about going back to tournaments full time. But I've worked hard on my heads up game, reading forums, talking about hands with friends on AIM, and watching Cardrunners videos (hi LJ!).

I've made a few tweaks that have really helped me. One is not calling as much from the BB. I realized I was defending too much with hands I should either be 3-betting or folding, so I've fixed that with good results. Another is not letting emotion factor into decision making. It can be incredibly frustrating in heads up when you just cant hit a hand, and in the past I'd fire multiple barrels with air in bad spots and end up compounding my losses. Now I've gotten better at staying patient and recognizing that its very important to minimize your losses when you don't have the best of it.

I also had a hilarious hand the other night (opponents name changed to protect the innocent):

PokerStars Game #34255241347: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD) - 2009/10/19 22:39:15 ET
Table 'Golia' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Loretta8 ($118.50 in chips)
Seat 2: mouth-breather ($158.55 in chips)
Loretta8: posts small blind $0.50
mouth-breather: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Ad 2d]
Loretta8: raises $2 to $3
mouth-breather: raises $6 to $9
Loretta8: calls $6
*** FLOP *** [7c Ah 3s]
mouth-breather: checks
Loretta8: checks
*** TURN *** [7c Ah 3s] [2s]
mouth-breather: bets $12
Loretta8: raises $23 to $35
mouth-breather: calls $23
*** RIVER *** [7c Ah 3s 2s] [Ts]
mouth-breather: checks
Loretta8: bets $74.50 and is all-in
mouth-breather: folds

mouth-breather said, "lol folded AA there"
mouth-breather said, "actually"
Loretta8 said, "lol"
Loretta8 said, "no way"
mouth-breather said, "err"
mouth-breather said, "yes way, you want the suits? doesnt matter cause you cant confirm but i did fold a set of aces"
Loretta8 said, "LOL"
mouth-breather said, "not sure if you had a flush or 45"
Loretta8 said, "lets hear the suits"
mouth-breather said, "sec"
mouth-breather said, "AcAd"
Loretta8 said, "nice try"
mouth-breather said, "i can screenshot it and send you a pm on 2p2 with it"
Loretta8 said, "go ahead"
mouth-breather said, "sn"
Loretta8 said, "same as here"
mouth-breather said, "sec"

if you're going to lie about your hand, make sure you don't claim to have a card your opponent had. sadly he never sent me a PM on Two Plus Two, would have been awesome if he'd made a photoshop.

Thanks for reading,

George

E-game: rambling incoherent Spanish edition

2009-10-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Got 9th in a big field $11 mtt last night for pennies, pretty frustrating. But during the tournament I was entertained by some goofball from Spain. Fooled by my girly name and Marie Digby avatar, he was immediately smitten.

yonymelavo said, "loreta loreta te boy a morder una teta"
Loretta8 said, "wat"
yonymelavo said, "que estas muy buena"
yonymelavo said, "hello loreta"
yonymelavo said, "se me ha roto la brageta"
Loretta8 said, "hello"
yonymelavo said, "please"
yonymelavo said, "is posibol chips for my?loreta you 269000"
yonymelavo said, "please"
yonymelavo said, "i only 13110"
Loretta8 said, "no sorry"
yonymelavo said, "ok no chips and you telefon?"
yonymelavo said, "y telefon you"
yonymelavo said, "you holithais tenerife"

he doubles up to about 5 BBs

Loretta8 said, "nh"
yonymelavo said, "thank loreta"
yonymelavo said, "thank you loreta my love"
yonymelavo said, "loretaaaaa my love you relax you win and tomorro flay tenerife my haus"
yonymelavo said, "holidais"
yonymelavo said, "play poker in my haus"
Loretta8 said, "sounds like a plan"
yonymelavo said, "ok"
yonymelavo said, "mi namber apunta 648751935"
yonymelavo said, "only loreta no more"
yonymelavo said, "mi namber only loreta ok"

he finally busted after this, sadly Stars HHs dont save observer chat, I did save a little of it though

yonymelavo [observer]: LORETAAAA OK YOU IS BERY BEUTIFUL AUNQ ESA CARA DE DOLOR NO SE
yonymelavo [observer]: ESTRECHITA NO?
yonymelavo [observer]: PEOPLE PLEASE LORETA IS MY GIRL FRIEND LORETA WINS NECESARY FOR MARRIED WHIT MYY FREENS PLEASE
yonymelavo [observer]: CAMON MI LOVE
yonymelavo [observer]: TOMORRO MARRIEZ OK

he also mentioned something about strip poker, lol

if I have any Spanish speaking readers, a translation of some of this would be much appreciated. and if anyone wants to call his number, feel free.

Thanks for reading,

George

Preflop maths: A2s on the button

2009-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Been running bad at tournaments and running/playing bad at heads up cash, it sucks, we've all been there, blah blah blah no one wants to hear me whine. Anyways, I've been doing a lot of math the last couple days to tighten up my preflop game, and I was very surprised by some of the results I got, in particular the following situation:

Middle Stages of a big field Stars MTT. Blinds are 125/250/25. 9 handed table, we're on the button with 5000 chips, both blinds cover. It folds to us on the button with A2s. Whats the play?

First let's determine if shoving is profitable, because if it is then folding can't be right. Assuming perfect calling ranges from the blinds (A2+,22+), shoving shows a small profit of 52.1 chips (plugging the ranges into SNG Power Tools), not much but worth taking and better than folding. However that's a totally unrealistic calling range; vs a more realistic but still pretty loose range of (55+,A7s+,ATo,KQs), shoving shows a very substantial profit of 298.8 chips, more than a big blind. So folding is out.

The question now is whether making a standard raise is going to be more profitable than shoving. Let's say we decide to make a raise to 600 and fold if anyone re-raises. So when both blinds fold we win 600 and when one of them re-raises we lose 600. For this option to be better than shoving, we need both blinds to fold about 3/4 of the time, so each player has to be folding about 86% of the time (or re-raising about 14% of the time. Against anyone with a clue how to play tournaments, you are going to get reshoved by any pair, any suited ace, most offsuit aces, and most broadway hands, and probably some other smaller suited hands. That range is a lot more than 14% of all hands, so raise/fold is not going to be better than shoving. Your opponents would have to be extremely tight for raise/folding to be better than shoving, and most opponents aren't nearly that tight.

What I didn't consider here is how much of a profit we'll show when someone calls our raise. It's impossible to calculate what will happen on every single flop, but A2s isn't going to flop very well and I doubt we'll show a huge profit postflop with the stacks so shallow that our opponents probably wont fold if they hit something.

Another option is raise/calling, but thats only going to work well if your opponents are each re-raising about 38% of their hands, and without reads people aren't going to be nearly that crazy. This option is also much much higher variance since you're going to be all-in without great equity vs your opponents ranges a huge % of the time. While shoving seems like it would be high variance, its actually not that high since both of your opponents will be folding over 3/4s of the time. Raise/folding is by far the lowest variance option if your opponents are never calling, but if they do call your raise there's gonna be a ton of variance postflop.

When I started cranking out these calculations, I was surprised by how much better shoving was. Even though these big overshoves are becoming more and more popular, it still feels weird to just bomb in 20 BBs in a spot where you're behind when called. But when you start running the numbers you realize why it's become so popular.

I recognize I didn't show my work here, I didn't cuz I thought it would be too boring, if people really want me to I will.

Thanks for reading,

George

Worst played hand in 100NL HU history?

2009-09-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 286854

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $156.30

BB: $87.75

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN/SB with A A

Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $10, Hero raises to $24, BB calls $14

Flop: ($48.00) 9 Q 6 (2 players)

BB bets $63.75 all in, Hero calls $63.75

Turn: ($175.50) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($175.50) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $175.50

Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Threes)

BB shows J 4 (a pair of Threes)

Hero wins $175.00

(Rake: $0.50)

As you can see, not the toughest opponents at 100NL. I sent this hand to LJ when it happened, and she immediately sat down at heads up cash and did well, so give it a shot if you like action and terrible opponents. I've been trying to focus more on heads up cash recently, as it's much more convenient to play than grinding out 10 hour sessions in MTTs. One thing I need to work on though is focusing for more than an hour at a time. Heads up cash is much more mentally taxing than tournaments, since you're constantly involved in hands and always getting into tricky postflop spots. After a few hundred hands I start getting tired and sloppy and making a lot of mistakes. If I work hard to improve that though I think these games will prove to be very lucrative, and with less misery and better sleeping patterns than MTTs.

Thanks for reading,

George

Hand of the Day

2009-09-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

Was watching ESPN's coverage of the main event and saw some interesting hands played. One in particular stood out, involving WSOP player of the year Jeff Lisandro (as an aside, a note to ESPN: no one gives a damn about the player of the year race, especially since you hardly showed any prelim events, stop mentioning it every 5 minutes) and Paulus Valkenburg.

The hand occurs around the 5 minute mark. Blinds are 1200/2400 with an ante, and effective stacks looks to be around 150,000, hard to tell though.

Action folds to Valkenburg in the SB, who raises to 6300 with 86o. Nothing wrong with just giving Lisandro a walk here, but he's European and they don't like folding, and raising is certainly fine. Lisandro has QTo in the BB and calls, totally standard.

Flop comes T92 with 2 diamonds, Valkenburg checks and Lisandro bets 10,000. Valkenburg then decides to make a move and check-raises to 28k. Valkenburg is representing a huge hand by check-raising, as he almost certainly wouldn't do this for value with anything worse than QT. He's trying to represent an overpair or better to get Lisandro to fold a nine or a ten.

However, this should look suspicious to Lisandro for several reasons. One, the board is very drawy, with a flush draw and lots of straight draws. So if Valkenburg had a monster, he would often just bet the flop to get value from all the draws and avoid giving a free card. It looks more like Valkenburg is trying to get Lisandro to fold, so while he could have a huge hand, he also is doing this with a draw a lot of the time, and since he's a European he could even have total air. Recognizing this, Lisandro calls.

The turn is an offsuit 5, a complete brick that changes nothing. This is a great card for Lisandro since it missed every draw out there. Valkenburg decides to keep firing and bets 41,000.

It's easy for me to say this since I know Valkenburg's cards, but I think this is an easy call on the turn for Lisandro. It couldn't possibly have helped Valkenburg, and he's gotta expect Valkenburg to fire at least one more barrel with draws. So if he's going to fold to a bet on the turn on one of the best possible cards for him, then it probably wasn't such a good idea to call on the flop. Lisandro does end up folding the hand, and Valkenburg wins a nice pot. I guess Lisandro doesnt play much online and doesnt realize that top pair is the stone cold nuts blind vs blind vs a European. Lisandro was less than impressive during this ESPN broadcast, getting bluffed off the best hand a couple times and making a couple of spewy preflop calls in bad spots.

There have been several interesting hands during the ESPN broadcasts, and I plan to post analysis of a few more, including Kenny Tran being the world's biggest calling station.

Thanks for reading,

George

Owned in the WCOOP heads up

2009-09-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

Had a very frustrating showing yesterday in the $530 WCOOP heads up shootouts. I cruised to wins in my first two matches, but then lost a grueling two hour battle against a very weak player to bubble. This player was extremely passive pre-flop and pretty passive postflop as well. I used to really struggle with players like this, as I lacked the patience needed to slowly grind them down. But yesterday I played very patiently and chipped away very slowly, eventually building a 3 to 1 chip lead. But then we got back to even after my KJ was no good vs AJ on a J83 flop. Then I just couldn't make a pair to save my life and steadily bled away my stack until I had just 10 big blinds. I managed to double up with A6>AT all in preflop, but then lost when 98 was no good vs 75 on a 975 flop.

I can't remember ever being that frustrated after busting out of a tournament, only one that compares was getting knocked out of the WSOP main event last year. I handled my frustration by getting really drunk last night and my head still hurts this morning and I'm pretty angry at poker in general, so I'm not in a good state of mind to play the $1k this afternoon and I've unregistered. Apologies to my investors, but I'd be wasting your money if I played today.

So that concludes the events people invested in. I'll be shipping out my investors profits shortly, which is their % of the $3078 I cashed for in the 3 events I played, plus their share of the $1050 I didn't use on the $1k. Email me or PM me on the forums to let me know where you want the money sent, and thanks again for investing.

Thanks for reading,

George

$530 WCOOP triple shootout

2009-09-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Played this yesterday, and got third at my table, which paid the same as getting 10th at my table ($0) and took a lot longer, so that was annoying. Probably playing the $320 tomorrow night, and the next event for my investors is the $530 heads up on Saturday.

I recognize this blog has sucked for a while now, I'm going to try to change that in the near future though, with more strategy/hand analysis and less boring recaps of tournaments I've played.

Thanks for reading,

George

99th in WCOOP #11

2009-09-07T16:31:00.000-07:00

Cashed for about $3100, disappointed it wasn't more though obviously. Good news is eveyrone who bought pieces is now guaranteed to profit.

Back to the grind Wednesday in the $530 triple shooutout.

Thanks for reading,

George

WCOOP

2009-09-07T02:46:00.000-07:00

Been a good day for me, got 137th out of over 11,000 runners in WCOOP#9, a $215 tournament, and I've made Day 2 of Event #11, a $530. It started with 6219 players, and right now 104 of 214, with a comfortable 50 big blind stack. Can't say enough about the structure, so much deep stacked play I've really enjoyed it.

Hopefully I can continue the deep run tonight at 5 PM, now I'm gonna pass out as I've been playing poker for almost 18 hours.

Thanks for reading,

George

Selling WCOOP Shares

2009-09-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, I didn't really make things clear in my last post, so I will clarify now. I am selling shares for 4 WCOOP events, a $530 freezeout, a $530 triple shootout, a $530 heads up shootout, and a $1050 freezeout. Each 1% is $26.4, and its a package deal, if you buy 1% of my action then you get 1% of whatever I cash for in the 4 events combined.

Obligatory OPR brag:

With so many satellite winners and inexperienced players, I really like my edge in all these tournaments. So far I have sold 27%, and I am selling another 23%, so get in now before the first event on Sunday afternoon.

Email loretta8poker@gmail.com if you are interested.

I played the first WCOOP yesterday, a $215 6 max, and I busted in the 2nd level when my flopped set of threes went down to a flopped set of sixes. Just a stupid cooler, but my starting table was really bad and I'm more confident than ever for future events. So get your shares now before I sell out.

Thanks for reading,

George

edit: sold out, thanks to everyone who bought pieces.

Meh

2009-09-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

I made two final tables last night, but due to the frustrating nature of tournament poker I'm still pretty miserable the day after. Most of the misery is due to me getting 8th in a huge $11 MTT, after I came into the final table as the chip leader. Wasn't really anything I could have done about it, as I lost a gigantic pot with JJ vs a very weak player's A8, then lost a standard flip to go out the next hand. Extremely annoying to play over 7 hours and not get much out of it (~$500 when first place was ~$5k).

My other final table was in the $5r with a $25 add-on, where I got third for $875. It was my second 3rd place finish in a week in this MTT. So overall it was a good night, but it had the potential to be much better.

Also, I will be selling action for the following WCOOP events:

Sunday, September 6th
16:30 ET - Event 10: $530 NL Hold'em [2-day], $3,000,000 guaranteed

Wednesday, September 9th
14:30 ET - Event 16: $530 NL Hold'em Triple Shootout [10-max], $500,000 guaranteed

Saturday, September 12th
14:30 ET - Event 22: $530 NL Hold'em [Heads-Up Match Play], $1,000,000 guaranteed

Sunday, September 13th
16:30 ET - Event 26: $1,050 NL Hold'em [2-day], $3,000,000 guaranteed

and if I do well in the earlier events I may try to satellite into the main event.
If you want to buy any action, email loretta8poker@gmail.com and let me know.

Thanks for reading,

George

Sunday Grind

2009-08-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

I played 21 MTTs yesterday, and was fortunate enough to cash in 8 of them. The most notable cashes were 2nd in a $36 180 for $1188 and a mini-cash in the Sunday Million for $378. It's tiring playing all that volume, but on Sundays there are so many huge field MTTs with soft competition that it's worth it. Stars has recently added synchronized breaks for MTTs, which helps out a ton.

My biggest disappointment of the day was probably punting a good stack with 250 left in a mega-field $11 freezeout that had 7500 people, as I made a bad call on the turn for my whole stack against a guy who had me covered. Pretty annoying as I didn't think through the hand as much as I should have. But overall it was a profitable day so I can't be too disappointed.

WCOOP starts Wednesday, and I will probably be selling some action for a few $500 and $1k events, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,

George

Regression to the Mean

2009-08-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

as you can see from my August graph at 100NL HU, I didnt run quite as well as I have in the past, in fact it was pretty much the complete opposite. But I bounced back at the end of the month to get into the black, which I'm pretty proud of, as I was second guessing myself and my game for a while.

Today is Sunday and I'm about to start grinding tournaments, let's see if I can manage not to completely lose my mind by around midnight tonight.

Thanks for reading,

George

HU cash run good

2009-08-01T14:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, not sure why I haven't posted more as I've been playing a lot. I've been focusing more on playing heads up cash and less on tournaments. I'm finding 9 handed tournaments to be very boring when compared to heads up cash, where you're seeing tons of flops and having numerous challenging post flop spots every session. It's certainly a lot more challenging than push-botting at any rate.

Here's my graph from my first 12,800 hands:

The darker line is my winnings, and the lighter line is my all-in EV adjusted winnings. So clearly I have been running miles above expectation, which is always nice. Clearly this kind of run can't continue forever, but I'm happy that I'd still be in the black running at expectation, as I'm still learning heads up and making lots of mistakes.

I won't be playing at all for the next two weeks, as real life obligations have come up, but I'll be back strong after that getting ready for the WCOOP. There's a decent chance I'll be selling some of my action in the medium buy-in WCOOP events, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,

George

Made a final table

2009-07-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

It's a nice cash for me, but its frustrating not to win. In fact, I was pretty frustrated for a lot of the tournament, as I had ImaLuckSac (a professional who normally plays much higher stakes) on my left from when there were 36 left until I busted. He was playing hella aggressive, opening a ton of pots pre-flop and 3-betting me light on several occasions. To wit, one of my first hands at his table I opened 99 in the cutoff, he 3-bet on the button, I shoved for 30 BBs effective and he folded. A couple orbits later I opened on the button, and he 3-bet K9s from the SB and ended up being committed vs the short stacked BB.

So him playing back that much prevented me from opening too light, and I played a solid game, won a big flip with AKs vs 99 and was up to 2nd in the tournament with 13 left. Then I opened the button and both blinds folded. Next hand, I opened in the cutoff with A8s, and sure enough I got 3-bet again by ImaLuckSac in the small blind. I started the hand with about 50 BBs and he had 35 BBs. I thought for a while but since he'd been so aggressive and since it was the 2nd hand I'd opened in a row, I decided 4-bet bluff him and shoved. Unfortunately for me he had JJ and I didn't get there. That left me with 15 BBs and one of the shortest stacks, but I doubled with AK vs AQ a few hands later and went to the final table in 5th out of 9 players:

At the final table I wasn't really getting cards, and on a shortish stack I couldn't really raise/fold especially with ImaLuckSac potentially shoving on me. I also had this maniac named Askesis on my right who was opening a ton of pots. I think I should have tried to re-steal more against him, thats definitely my biggest regret about this tournament.

When we got down to 5 left, ImaLuckSac and Askesis were the two massive chip leaders with 1.5 million, there was one guy with 700k, I had 360k and the short stack had 170k. Blinds were 15k/30k/3000 and it folded to Askesis in the SB. With two tables left, I had opened the other table and seen Askesis shove extremely light in late position with short stacks in the blinds, it seemed like he was shoving pretty much any two cards. I saw one hand where he shoved 14 BBs effective from the SB with J6o and lost to A7. So I figured he was shoving pretty much any two cards. And sure enough he shoved on me, and I had QTo. Now it may sound insane to even consider calling with a hand as weak at QTo, but I'm 57% against an any two cards range, and with the pot laying me odds it's certainly going to be a +chipEV call. The only concern is the presence of the short stack with 170k, who is likely to bust soon and guarantee me another $700. The thing is though, with my stack this short I'm going to have trouble finding better spots for two reasons. One is that Askesis has been opening a ton of pots and my stack is too short to have any fold equity, and another is that even when it does fold to me, ImaLuckSac is going to be calling my shoves much lighter than your average $25 MTT player. So I decided to gamble and called, and unfortunately lost to his A2o and busted 5th.

It's a decent cash but anything short of winning is definitely a disappointment. I'll probably get back into heads up cash the next few days, and be back at donkaments on Sunday.

Thanks for reading,

George

Heads Up Cash

2009-07-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a fellow blogger's dominance of heads up cash, I've jumped into some 100NL HU and been doing pretty well so far:

It's a pretty massive adjustment between playing 9 handed MTTs and heads up cash, and I'm still making plenty of rookie mistakes, but I think I've improved a lot since I first started. When I first started with cash games I too often looked at the chips in front of me as real money and was scared at times to put all of it in the pot in marginal spots. But I'm past that now and I can just look at it as chips, a tool to make more money.

Another mistake I've been making is not quitting strong opponents. As a tournament player you cant change your table and have to find a way to beat tough opponents, but in cash games you can just leave the table and find a weaker opponent. This is something I need to do more.

It's been nice to take a break from the grind of tournaments; I definitely needed some time off from the 10 hour sessions that are necessary as a tournament player. I'm still a tourney donk at heart so I'll be playing more of those sometime soon, but heads up cash games have been a lot of fun, hopefully I can keep doing well.

Thanks for reading,

George

Boring Theory Post

2009-07-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been playing a lot recently but been too lazy to post for some reason.

Anyways, thanks to the bankroll boost from my $3r win, I've been playing at higher stakes online, in tournaments with buy-ins from $109 to $215. I've taken shots at these tournaments in the past and never been able to do much, but now for the first time I really feel comfortable at those stakes and that I belong.

It's certainly a big adjustment though. For one thing, at these stakes there are a lot of professionals, who obviously are very tough to play against. There are still plenty of bad players, but the bad players tend to be bad because they're overly aggressive. The biggest adjustment to my game has been to not open as much in late position. In lower stakes you can open any two in late position once the antes come in, but I've found you can't get away with that in these tournaments.

I've come up with a theory on why there are so many more wackjobs, its long but bear with me. Let's divide tournament poker players into 3 categories: good players, overly aggressive players, and overly nitty players. For the most part, the good players will eventually rise to the top, build their bankrolls, and move up in stakes. The overly nitty players will lose money over the long term; they might make the money in mtts a decent % of the time, but because they're folding too much they won't be able to accumulate enough chips to get the top 3 finishes you need to be a winning MTT player. So almost all of them will lose money and not make it out of the lower limits.

Now for the overly aggressive players, most of them will lose money because they'll flame out of tournaments early on due to their crazy play. But occasionally, guys like this will suck out a couple times, run up a massive stack, and then steamroll their way to a big cash. The difference between these guys and the nitty players is that the maniacs are at least giving themselves a chance to get lucky, while the nitty players are just folding away any chance. A quick glance at the WSOP Main Event over the last few years will show you plenty of overly aggro guys who didn't know what they were doing making deep runs, but very few weak tight nut-peddlers.

Meh, that whole thing feels rambling, hopefully it made sense. So I've been going up against a lot of these guys, no big cashes yet, hopefully one comes soon. Good luck to everyone playing the main event, especially the people I have a piece of.

Thanks for reading,

George

Sweat your balla Cardrunners blogger!

2009-06-16T14:24:00.001-07:00

is currently 5th of 18 on Day 3 of a $1500 HORSE event at the WSOP. Updates here

win plz lj

Thanks for reading,

George

Won the $3 rebuy

2009-06-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

It was a very long night of donkamenting. From about 80 left down to 12 I was below average and just tried to stay patient. There were several wackjobs at my table so I couldn't open light, I just had to wait for hands before coming into pots. Finally with 12 left I got some cards and went on a huge rush. I got it in with QQ vs the maniac chip leader's JT on a ten high flop. A ten came on the turn, but the river gave me a flush and I survived.

That moved me up to 3rd, then a few hands later he doubled me up again. I raised the SB with 44 and he called. Flop was 864. Normally I would bet such a drawy board but this guy was a maniac I figured he'd bet his whole range if I checked it to him. So I checked, and he shoved 2.4 million into a 400k pot, I called, he had 82 and I held. That gave me the chip lead, and a few hands later I won another huge pot with AA vs KQ all in pre, adding to my chip lead. Then I just started raising every single hand, busted two more players and went into the final table with 11.3 million. 2nd place had 3.3 million and everyone else was under 2.5 million.

At the final table I continued to raise a ton and put pressure on the shorter stacks. Eventually we got down to 4 handed with me having about 60% of the chips in play. It took forever for someone to bust out though. I kept doubling up the short stacks, then stealing constantly and beating them back down, then doubling them up again, etc. But at long last it was down to heads up, with me holding an 18 million to 11 million chip lead over Misclick, who was the only other good player at the final table. I chipped away at him and took the lead when he tried to run a bluff into my top pair. Then I shoved 11 BBs with 86 and got there against his K9 for the win.

It feels awesome to win, I've made several deep runs in this tournament over the last couple weeks but wasn't able to break though. It's such a massive field you need a lot of luck and need to dodge a lot of landmines, so it's great that the stars aligned for me. The first time I played this tournament two years ago(back when I was terrible) I got 2nd, and I had no appreciation at the time of just how tough it is to beat out that many people, even though most of them are very weak players. Thanks for pauliec84, rc33, lj and lucko for the rail.

Thanks for reading,

George

End of the BBT

2009-06-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

BBT5 has just come to the end, with actyper and jjok winning the main event seats. Congrats to both players. Now comes the question of whether they will actually play in the main event, or just pocket the money. During the TOC, Al said in the chat that this would be the last BBT, mainly because most people seem to be keeping the money instead of going to Vegas and playing. He makes a good point, because there's no benefit for Full Tilt if they're just giving money away and not getting the publicity of having qualifiers from their site play in the biggest tournament in the world. And while I think it's pretty disingenuous to play in the BBT and the TOC if you have no intention of playing in the World Series, I don't think that's whats happening in a lot of cases. Instead, it's Full Tilt's own disinterest in the BBT as a whole that's causing the problem.

To illustrate what I mean, I'll take you through what happened after I won a main event seat during last year's TOC. A few days after the TOC, Full Tilt added $10,000 to my account and sent me an email congratulating me on winning a main event seat. I was a bit surprised at this point because almost all the WSOP packages Full Tilt gives out for their regular satellites are worth $12,000, $10,000 for the tournament and another $2,000 for expenses. I was disappointed, but still ecstatic about the chance to play in the World Series. So the next step was of course to get the $10,000 off the site and into my bank account. This turned out to be a difficult process, as the only withdrawal method available to me was a check, and the maximum withdrawal was $5,000. This meant all I could do was a wire transfer, but the minimum for a wire transfer was $20,000. So I had to email Full Tilt support asking for special permission to make a $10,000 wire transfer. They approved it, but only I after I sent them a scanned copy of my drivers license and a scanned copy of a bank statement.

Once I finally got the $10,000, that was the last I heard from anyone at Full Tilt. They never offered me any free Full Tilt gear to wear when I played, or contacted me at all asking if they could use me to help promote the site, as in "Here is the story of busto donk Loretta8. Thanks to this great promotion we have at Full Tilt, Loretta8 won a trip to Vegas to play for millions in the world's biggest poker tournament. Next year, this could be you, etc."

Now this may come across as whiny, but I don't mean it that way at all. It was a fantastic opportunity for me, and I greatly enjoyed my time at the World Series. But for someone who's actually a responsible adult with a family to provide for like PokerFool, I can understand perfectly why he chose not to play. Here's how Full Tilt should handle the BBT, in my humble opinion:

1. Actively promote it. Whenever I log into Poker Stars, a window pops up telling me about the latest promotions on the site, from main event satellites to the big winners in their Sunday tournaments to Stars' own blogger freeroll. Full Tilt makes almost no effort to promote the BBT, so it's no wonder they don't get more players who want a cheap way to win their way to Vegas.

2. Make a better effort to get the winners to play in the event. The first step is to make the packages worth $12,000. You're already giving away 10 grand, what's another two so the player doesn't have to go into his own pocket for expenses? Additionally, the email I got congratulating me on my win should have contained detailed instructions on how to get the $10k off the site and to the Rio. Full Tilt wants me to play, so they should make it as easy as possible. And throw in some bonuses for the winners once they get to the Rio as well, like giving them access to the Full Tilt VIP suite where all their pros hang out. And in exchange for all these perks, have the winner agree to wear Full Tilt gear when he plays. This to me is the most baffling part of the whole thing; what the hell is the point of giving someone $10,000 to play in the main event if you don't give them Full Tilt gear to wear, and don't use their story to promote your site? I really don't understand it.

Al and Full Tilt have been very generous in setting up the BBTs, and if they're really coming to an end, it's too bad. But with some simple changes and a little more hands on the effort on the part of Full Tilt, prize pools would soar, Full Tilt would get more rake, and they'd be much more likely to have the TOC winners play in the main event.

In other news, Stoner finished 3rd in the WSOP $2500 no limit tournament, taking home over $200,000. Congrats to him, $200k will buy quite a lot of hookers.

Thanks for reading,

George

Gooooooo Stoner!

2009-06-07T09:34:00.001-07:00

Best of luck to Stoner, who's 8th of 20 going into Day 3 of a $2500 WSOP event. You can get live updates at PokerNews.

Also the BBT TOC is tonight, good luck to everyone playing, especially these three people.

Nothing too exciting going on for me in poker, made some deep runs in some huge field Stars MTTs but haven't been able to break though late. Hopefully I'll bink something today.

Thanks for reading,

George

I won me a donkament

2009-05-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

I've always liked heads up tournaments, as it's a fun challenge to be playing for more and more money as you advance. Last night I was lucky enough to win 8 matches in a row and the tournament.

The toughest opponent I faced was in the round of 32. He took a 2 to 1 chip lead on me early as he was folding when I had it and not folding when I didn't. He was playing so aggressive I decided to 3-bet/call 35 BBs with A8o, and I hit an ace on the river to beat his 66. Then I made a big call on the river with 3rd pair against his over-bet shove, and he showed me jack high and I advanced.

In the round of 16 I chipped away at my opponent and eventually busted him when my KJo held against his JTs all-in preflop.

In the round 8, I played by far my weakest opponent yet. The guy had very erratic bet-sizing and almost no hand-reading ability. Once I figured out that his min-bets postflop were always weak, I got a bit of a chip lead then busted him when he couldn't fold TT on a QQ88 board vs my QJ.

My final four match lasted 8 hands, we went back and forth stealing the blinds at first and then my opponent 4-bet shoved 88 into my KK, and I was lucky enough to hold.

At the final table, I won the first biggish pot when I rivered two pair and he paid me off with 2nd pair. Then I ground him down to about half the starting stack, mostly being lucky enough not to run into hands with my constant shoves over his button opens. Finally he got sick of me re-shoving and open shoved 14 BBs with K3o into my TT, and the tens held for the win.

It feels great to win and I'm very happy with how I played; I felt I adjusted quickly to a wide array of opponents and avoided the crazy/hopeless bluffs that are often my undoing in heads up poker.

I also managed to make another final table, but it didn't finish up well:

So overall a very good night, hopefully I can keep it going.

Thanks for reading,

George

Common tournament mistakes and the Professional Fold

2009-05-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts, haven't been playing any poker at all, that will hopefully change soon though. So since I have no poker playing of my own to report on, I thought I'd point out a couple of the biggest mistakes I see small stakes tournament players make:

Not having a plan

This is by far the most common mistake I see. Way way too many players will put in significant chunks of their stack without having any idea what they'll do if they get raised. To illustrate what I mean, here's a hypothetical example:

Huge field Stars tournament with about 800 players left, 500 get paid. You are in the cutoff on a stack of 17,000 chips. Blinds are 500/1000 with a 100 ante. You are dealt KQ of clubs. The other stacks are:

Button: 75,000
SB: 11,000
BB: 22,000

Any decent player knows KQ suited in the cutoff is strong enough to raise for value, so they raise. But if theres a re-raise, they have no idea what they should do.

This is a problem for several reasons. One, the amount of chips you're raising is a significant portion of your stack, so you have to make sure you're investing it wisely when you do choose to raise. Two, you've yet to consider reads on your opponents. In a 100 BB deep cash game, it's pretty much always going to be right to make your standard raise, so you don't have to be so careful before raising. But your reads on your opponents are hugely hugely important with this high a % of your stack on the line.

Here are a few examples of what you should be thinking, based on differing opponent tendencies:

1. the button has been playing his big stack highly aggressively, the small blind seems decent but just lost a big pot to get short stacked, and the big blind has been very tight. so I'll make my standard 2.5x the blind raise, get it in vs the button if he re-raises, call the short stacked small blind since he'll pushing a fairly wide range for value and I'll be getting good odds, and fold to a raise from the big blind.

2. all three players are very aggressive, plus i've been playing a lot of hands and have a loose, wild image. so if i raise, i'll be forced to call an all-in from all 3 of them. therefore it might be a better option to open shove and force my opponents to fold small pairs and weak aces and take the play away from them.

3. all 3 players are extremely tight and seem to be waiting for big pairs and AK. they also don't like to call raises even when getting good odds, so I'll make a tiny raise thats barely more than the minimum and fold if anyone shoves. that way my steal doesnt have to work as often to be profitable, and i can steal with pretty much any two against my weak opponents.

Planning things out allows you to make the most of your opponents weaknesses, as it will help you easily see good spots to steal and spots where you should never be raise-folding. This way, you'll be able to adjust your opening range depending on table conditions, and you won't make the mistake of having the same opening range for every position like many strategy books advise. If you're not sure whether or not you should be raise-calling or raise-folding in a spot, save the hand history, then after your session use pokerstove to assign an approximate range to your opponent. The more you do this, the easier your decisions will become, allowing you to play more tables at once and make more money.

Overestimating your own edge

Another huge mistake I see many poker players make is passing up too many +EV spots because they think they can find better spots in the future. In a cash game that you're properly bankrolled for, this is a mistake 100% of the time. In tournaments though, there are some situations that can be +chipEV but -$EV. These effects are most pronounced on satellite bubbles, tournaments in which your goal is not to get all the chips but merely to go broke the slowest. And good SNG players of course know that because of the flat payout structures in SNGs, its often right to fold the best hand on or near the bubble.

But in big field MTTs where most of the money is in the top 5 spots, its almost never going to be right to pass up a +chipEV spot. Situations like this could arise at or near the final table if there are a bunch of very short stacks, but such spots are very rare, and they're pretty much non-existant early in the tournament. The illusion of time fools many poker players; they believe that the longer they stay in the tournament, the better their chances are of winning. Assuming you are equally as skilled as your opponents, this is completely false, as your chances of winning are directly proportional to the the percentage of chips in play you currently have. In big field MTTs just trying to survive is not going to be a winning strategy; you may make the money more often but you won't finish in the top five nearly enough to be profitable.

I constantly see tournament players saying they folded in a close spot because they felt they were better than their opponents. And in ~neutral EV spots, there's some merit to that. However, what you very rarely see is a player who decided to gamble with slightly the worst of it because he felt his opponents were better than him and that this was his best chance. I understand most poker players have big egos and are very confident in themselves, but in tournaments you can't table select like you can in cash games, so you're sometimes going to end up at tough tables with very good players on your left, or heads up against someone who you'd swear can see your cards.

We've all been in that spot, but I can only think of one occasion where I've seen a player recognize he was outclassed at the time and adjust accordingly, and that was Shaun Deeb in an FTOPS tournament last year. It was a $500 heads up shootout, and Deeb was matched up with Annette_15. Annette was reading him like an open book and getting the best of him, so Deeb decided his best chance was to play big pots preflop and neutralize her post flop skill advantage. Using this strategy, he went on to win the match and eventually the whole tournament. Deeb has won well over a million dollars in online tournaments, so when I read his post on Two Plus Two after the tournament where he said he felt he was being outplayed and switched to playing huge pots preflop, I was impressed to say the least. To me it takes a great poker player to swallow their pride and change their gameplan to give themselves the best chance.

In conclusion, I leave you with one of my all time favorite televised hands, as a precaution for what can happen when you bet without a plan and overestimate your edge:

Thanks for reading,

George

Youtube extravaganza

2009-04-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Meh, nothing interesting going on in poker, so I'll go the youtube route instead.

- The Sacramento Kings have just retired Vlade Divac's number. Sadly, Shaq wasn't on hand for the ceremony:

- The NHL playoffs start tonight, and the matchup I'm most interested in is Columbus vs. Detroit, pitting great goal scorers Rick Nash and Pavel Datsyuk:

And hopefully this dude from Sweden will be in the NHL soon:

And please get it together Red Sox

Thanks for reading,

George

The original all in with any draw donkey, mexicans and mcnuggets

2009-04-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

A few things:

-The other night I was re-reading a strategy book by a very famous and respected poker player, and I found some of his points very interesting. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was written by some clown who loses at $5 online MTTs. Here are two choice excerpts...

"Every time a big pot comes up, I usually have the worst hand."
"If I've got any kind of hand, any kind of draw, I bet. If I get raised, I don't quit. I go ahead and get all my money in the pot, if it's a reasonable amount, knowing I probably have the worst hand and am an underdog to win the pot."

For those who haven't read Super System, that was written by Doyle Brunson, one of if not the greatest no limit hold 'em player of all time. It's funny because you often hear people rip other players, saying "most of these donks on PokerStars couldnt fold a draw or top pair if their life depended on it, blah blah blah". Yet here's Doyle Brunson, considered a great player by everyone, advocating playing draws very aggressively and saying how he's usually taking the worst of it in big pots.

Of course theres a lot more to Doyle's strategy, the key to it being "my opponents are afraid to play back at me because they know I'm liable to set them all in." So he picks up so many pots without showdown that by the time a big pot comes up, he's free-rolling with the all the money he won in small and medium pots. And of course when he does pick up a big hand, he gets paid off because of his aggressive image.

The point I'm making here is you can't judge a poker player solely by just looking at his odds of winning when all the money goes in before the river, because youre ignoring all the non-showdown pots. And since its hard to make a big hand in no limit, the non-showdown pots are the vast majority of the pots. So if you're wondering why you're having trouble making money despite usually getting your money in good, it could be because you're running bad, but more likely its because you're playing too nitty, not semi-bluffing enough, folding the best hand too often, and not getting enough value for your big hands. Everyone remembers the big pots when the cards are turned up, but theres much much more to the game.

- Tony Eusebio has started a blog, and so far its been very good. He does a great job of taking you through his thought process, and is always honest about his play. Check it out, just make sure to never bluff him if you see him at the tables, because he hasn't folded a pair in at least 6 months.

- I played two SCOOP events on Sunday, the $33 no limit and the $320 no limit. I was lucky enough to cash in both, but I only cashed for about double the buy in. The structures in the SCOOP events are fantastic and theres a ton of play. Between the great structures and the 3 different buy-in tiers, Stars has done an excellent job with this series, completely blowing FTOPS out of the water. Hopefully the guy who thought of having 3 different buy-in tiers has made his way out of the basement:

Thanks for reading,

George

Dumby Loratta

2009-04-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

I played SCOOP event #1 on Thursday, a $5r that drew a ridiculous 27,000+ players. I ended up getting 1600th or so for a minimal cash. It was a tough ending, but I cant say enough about the structure, as the tournament played over 100 BBs deep for most of the time I was in. I'm becoming a huge fan of playing 6 max, you can play so many more hands and way more interesting spots come up.

An added benefit was the comedy provided from some goofball at my starting table.

l'armenien: STUPID NOOB U ARE LORATTA DUMB

He said that after I called him down with middle pair during the rebuy period and was good. Then after this hand he completely lost it.

PokerStars Game #26645686506: Tournament #200904011, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/04/02 14:37:42 ET
Table '200904011 4199' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: JDforce (4790 in chips)
Seat 3: l'armenien (5160 in chips)
Seat 4: Loretta8 (10170 in chips)
Seat 6: gman385 (2380 in chips) is sitting out
JDforce: posts small blind 10
l'armenien: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Jd Kd]
Loretta8: raises 40 to 60
gman385: folds
JDforce: folds
l'armenien: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [As Ad Qd]
l'armenien said, "stupid gambler u are"
l'armenien: checks
Loretta8: bets 100
l'armenien said, "stupid way donk"
l'armenien: calls 100
*** TURN *** [As Ad Qd] [Jc]
l'armenien: checks
Loretta8: checks
*** RIVER *** [As Ad Qd Jc] [4d]
l'armenien: checks
Loretta8: bets 10010 and is all-in
l'armenien: calls 5000 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (5010) returned to Loretta8
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Loretta8: shows [Jd Kd] (a flush, Ace high)
l'armenien: shows [Qh 2h] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Loretta8 collected 10330 from pot
l'armenien said, "stupid donkey site"
l'armenien re-buys and receives 5000 chips for $10.00

nothing like shoving for 15 times the pot on the river and getting snapped off by 2nd pair. and the ranting continued...

l'armenien: 15 K FOR STUPID DUMB
l'armenien: WELCOME TO PS DONKEYSTAR

l'armenien: I WILL WATCH YOU ALL THE DAYS DUMBY LORETTA SHHT STUPID NOOB
l'armenien: BELIEVEME
l'armenien: IM ALL DAY ON PS DUDE

then a 2p2er showed up to help tilt him even more.

l'armenien: GREAT DONKEY SITE
CarlYork [observer]: i heard loretta8 is the best player ever
CarlYork [observer]: and l'armenien sucks
l'armenien: LORETTA IS A REAL FCKN STUPID DONKEY
CarlYork [observer]: he has your chips amirite?
l'armenien: YOU CAN LAUGHT DUMBY
CarlYork [observer]: therefore he>you ducy?
l'armenien: U WILL SEE DONK

Thanks for reading,

George

Weekend Warrior

2009-03-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a little bit the last couple of weekends, and I've done ok in a couple of Full Tilt MTTs, but both times I've gone out just short of the final table. My career track record on Full Tilt in MTTs with more than 180 players is laughably bad, but I think I'm close to breaking through. Full Tilt made a great change a couple months ago and made the blind levels longer later in the tournament, so it's nice to have a little more play late. So now all I need to do is not spew off a top 4 stack on a move with 11 left like I did with 11 left last night.

I've also been watching the new season of High Stakes Poker, and it's been very entertaining so far. The first four episodes have been a showcase for Tom Dwan, better known on the internet as durrr. Despite his rather metro persona, Dwan has shown more aggression and heart than anyone else at the table. While most of the table seems to playing fit or fold poker, Dwan has been highly aggressive and is always trying to find a way to win every pot he's in. His most notable play was an incredible bluff against Barry Greenstein and Peter Eastgate, which I may analyze in a later post. GSN has been generous enough to upload all of the episodes onto Youtube, so check them out if you want to see some world class poker.

Thanks for reading,

George

Still Alive

2009-02-26T17:19:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted in almost a month, which is probably the longest I've gone without posting here since I started this blog. The reason is that I'm taking a lengthy break from poker; more important things have come up in my life and I just won't have the time.

BBT4 is starting Sunday, as Al has once again come through big time and gotten Full Tilt to put up $30k in seats to the WSOP. Unfortunately I won't be able to play in any of these events, but I will be staking a friend of mine for at least part of the BBT (and no, its not Waffles). With all that extra equity combined with what should be soft fields, I had to get involved somehow.

I've played almost every event in the last 2 BBTs, and it's been a lot of fun. Yet somehow in the past BBTs there's been no shortage of drama. To name a few:

1. lucko getting accused of collusion while abusing the bubble
2. lots of bloggers getting their panties a bunch because someone didn't squeeze out every cent they could when chopping for a TOC seat
3. the infamous ICrushBloggers saga
4. the same tired old posts whining about bad beats and bad play

Most of this drama is just stupid and is a case of people getting way too worked up about nothing (except for the ICrushBloggers thing, Hoyazo was a douchebag and deserved to be called out). But anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that there's altogether way too much whining and complaining. The BBT series is probably the most +EV series of tournaments anywhere in online poker. Most of the participants are small stakes recreational players who should be very grateful to even have the opportunity to compete for WSOP seats. You can certainly put me in that category, I'd never have come close to getting a main event seat if it wasn't for BBT.

Now I recognize that there are only 7 WSOP seats being given out, and quite a few more than 7 players will be competing for them, so there will be a lot of disappointed bloggers. But that's a big part of tournament poker; in every MTT the vast majority of the field doesn't cash, and most of those that cash end up disappointed they didn't cash for more. If you can't handle it, then tournament poker isn't for you. So try to take advantage of the fantastic opportunity Al and Full Tilt are providing. And as lucko once told me when I was playing nitty at a final table, stop being a vagina.

Thanks for reading,

George

Two Final Tables in One Night

2009-01-31T10:52:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately neither final table turned out very well. At the $5r I started the final table as one of the chip leaders but I lost a big pot all in pre with AA and then lost a flip to go out 6th.

The $30fo was a great opportunity for me because the final table was full of inexperienced and mostly weak players. Sadly though with 5 left I got coolered with AK into AA and couldnt get there.

I also won a $12 180 yesterday so it was a good day, but it's frustrating to not be able to break though at the bigger final tables. As long as I keep working on my game though I will eventually.

Thanks for reading,

George

Overdue 40k recap

2009-01-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

I said I was gonna do a tournament recap in my last post, but I haven't yet. So here it is at long last.

I was short stacked for most of the tournament and on into the money. This weird hand gave me a big stack though and some room to manuever:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t800/t1600 Blinds + t150 - 9 players - View hand 14343
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (MP2): t17584 M = 4.69

gcampane (CO): t125762 M = 33.54

SpaceLordOO (BTN): t34756 M = 9.27

Kris Merlot (SB): t24903 M = 6.64

makojim (BB): t59604 M = 15.89

HotKarlMC (UTG): t63718 M = 16.99

905er (UTG+1): t12903 M = 3.44

Mercusen (UTG+2): t62727 M = 16.73

Aryamehr (MP1): t35312 M = 9.42

Pre Flop: (t3750) Hero is MP2 with A K

3 folds, Aryamehr raises to t4278, Hero raises to t17434 all in, gcampane raises to t125612 all in, 3 folds, Aryamehr calls t30884 all in

Flop: (t91508) 8 7 A (3 players - 3 are all in)

Turn: (t91508) 5 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: (t91508) K (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: t91508

Hero shows A K (two pair, Aces and Kings)

gcampane shows Q Q (a pair of Queens)

Aryamehr shows Q Q (a pair of Queens)

Aryamehr wins t17728

gcampane wins t17728

Hero wins t56052

Its not often you flop one pair in a 3 way pot and have both opponents drawing stone dead.

And here I win another 3 way preflop all-in:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2000/t4000 Blinds + t400 - 8 players - View hand 17735

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

squasher8 (CO): t99552 M = 10.82

tdrot (BTN): t25364 M = 2.76

waterlandse (SB): t153110 M = 16.64

Jamroom (BB): t35719 M = 3.88

tonywhitcomb (UTG): t92696 M = 10.08

Hero (UTG+1): t59748 M = 6.49

SoClever (MP1): t147026 M = 15.98

Napboy (MP2): t58840 M = 6.40

Pre Flop: (t9200) Hero is UTG+1 with A A

1 fold, Hero raises to t9999, SoClever calls t9999, 1 fold, squasher8 calls t9999, 2 folds, Jamroom raises to t35319 all in, Hero raises to t59348 all in, 1 fold, squasher8 calls t49349

Flop: (t169214) 4 8 7 (3 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t169214) 9 (3 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t169214) 3 (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t169214

squasher8 shows A K (high card Ace)

Jamroom shows K J (high card King)

Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)

Hero wins t48058

Hero wins t121156

This hand is a great example of the hidden luck in tournaments. After the hand, SoClever said he folded 99 to my shove after flat-calling. Had he re-raised initially, which would have been my preferred play with his hand, I go out way short of the final table. But luckily he folded and I won a huge pot.

A couple orbits later I won another huge pot:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2500/t5000 Blinds + t500 - 8 players - View hand 17736

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

makojim (MP2): t131964 M = 11.48

waterlandse (CO): t244080 M = 21.22

AGRESIVO1 (BTN): t106465 M = 9.26

WillyFanny (SB): t180298 M = 15.68

smoke2012 (BB): t185920 M = 16.17

Hero (UTG): t167878 M = 14.60

SoClever (UTG+1): t107888 M = 9.38

Napboy (MP1): t53780 M = 4.68

Pre Flop: (t11500) Hero is UTG with J J

Hero raises to t12500, 3 folds, waterlandse raises to t40000, 3 folds, Hero raises to t167378 all in, waterlandse calls t127378

Flop: (t346256) 4 7 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t346256) K (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t346256) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t346256

waterlandse shows J A (high card Ace)

Hero shows J J (a pair of Jacks)

Hero wins t346256

With 33 BB effective stacks I wasn't thrilled about JJ after my UTG open got re-raised, but I'd seen this opponent make a couple of goofy plays so I felt like I had to go with it. He called me so fast I thought for sure I was behind, but he had a poorly played AJo and I luckily held. A few hands later I busted someone with AK over AQ and became the chip leader with 4 tables left.

I wasn't really able to build on my chip lead though, as people were playing back at me and I wasn't getting hands. But here I won a pretty big pot:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t4000/t8000 Blinds + t800 - 7 players - View hand 17740

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

makojim (SB): t240105 M = 13.64

cejka1 (BB): t249009 M = 14.15

danskemann (UTG): t777173 M = 44.16

WillyFanny (UTG+1): t172268 M = 9.79

Hero (MP): t309596 M = 17.59

aq12 (CO): t259370 M = 14.74

xoliveoilx (BTN): t146224 M = 8.31

Pre Flop: (t17600) Hero is MP with 8 9

2 folds, Hero raises to t20000, 3 folds, cejka1 calls t12000

Flop: (t49600) 3 9 4 (2 players)

cejka1 bets t32000, Hero calls t32000

Turn: (t113600) J (2 players)

cejka1 bets t48000, Hero calls t48000

River: (t209600) 5 (2 players)

cejka1 bets t56000, Hero calls t56000

Final Pot: t321600

cejka1 shows 7 Q (high card Queen)

Hero shows 8 9 (a pair of Nines)

Hero wins t321600

I open with a suited connector and get called by the big blind, who didnt seem like the strongest opponent. That read was confirmed by his weird bluff here. Once I call 48,000 on the turn it should be clear I'm not folding to a 56,000 bet on the river, especially on such a dry board.

But again I couldnt keep the momentum going and my stack dwindled as the final table approached. I wasn't getting hands and when I tried to steal I got played back at, so I just tried to be patient. I managed to make the final table, but as one of the short stacks with only 16 BBs or so.

Then as soon as the final table started I had this tough spot come up:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t8000/t16000 Blinds + t1600 - 9 players - View hand 17745

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

makojim (MP1): t298759 M = 7.78

rakeinfools (MP2): t230750 M = 6.01

UPS_NL_PLAYA (CO): t432140 M = 11.25

cubsrock1 (BTN): t524353 M = 13.66

df1986 (SB): t914959 M = 23.83

danskemann (BB): t1181706 M = 30.77

AllybabyMN (UTG): t851938 M = 22.19

Hero (UTG+1): t263196 M = 6.85

HotKarlMC (UTG+2): t999199 M = 26.02

Pre Flop: (t38400) Hero is UTG+1 with 8 8

1 fold, Hero raises to t36666, 4 folds, cubsrock1 raises to t101000, 3 folds

Final Pot: t111732

cubsrock1 wins t111732

This was a really tough spot. I hate to raise preflop and then fold on such a short stack as it costs me such a significant % of my stack. But I figured from early position on such a stack I would get credit for a big hand and that I wouldnt get re-raised light at all. So I raise/folded. I didnt like doing it at all, but I think its an ok play. I posted the hand on 2p2 and everyone said shove, which seemed like a big overbet to me. However I did some math and was surprised to learn that shoving is +chipEV. That doesnt necessarily make it the best play though, as with the flat payout structure at Stars final tables doubling up doesnt double my equity in the tournament, so the risk of busting 9th has to be considered. Overall a very tricky spot.

Soon after that the blinds went up and I was now really short, but I was lucky enough to pick up a hand here vs a loose and wild opponent:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10000/t20000 Blinds + t2000 - 8 players - View hand 17753

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

rakeinfools (SB): t199150 M = 4.33

UPS_NL_PLAYA (BB): t294540 M = 6.40

cubsrock1 (UTG): t522319 M = 11.35

df1986 (UTG+1): t991359 M = 21.55

danskemann (MP1): t1491265 M = 32.42

AllybabyMN (MP2): t923838 M = 20.08

Hero (CO): t186930 M = 4.06

HotKarlMC (BTN): t1087599 M = 23.64

Pre Flop: (t46000) Hero is CO with A Q

3 folds, AllybabyMN raises to t55000, Hero raises to t184930 all in, 3 folds, AllybabyMN calls t129930

Flop: (t415860) J 2 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t415860) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t415860) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t415860

AllybabyMN shows 9 8 (a pair of Jacks)

Hero shows A Q (a pair of Jacks - Ace kicker)

Hero wins t415860

That gave me some breathing room. Here I win another pot against that same player:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t12500/t25000 Blinds + t2500 - 6 players - View hand 17754

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UPS_NL_PLAYA (CO): t213540 M = 4.07

df1986 (BTN): t1599773 M = 30.47

danskemann (SB): t1879035 M = 35.79

AllybabyMN (BB): t591191 M = 11.26

Hero (UTG): t343862 M = 6.55

HotKarlMC (MP): t1069599 M = 20.37

Pre Flop: (t52500) Hero is UTG with J J

Hero raises to t56999, 4 folds, AllybabyMN calls t31999

Flop: (t141498) 4 9 A (2 players)

AllybabyMN checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t141498) K (2 players)

AllybabyMN bets t87775, Hero raises to t284363 all in, AllybabyMN folds

Final Pot: t317048

Hero wins t317048

On the ace high flop I decided to check behind and hopefully induce a bluff from an aggressive opponent. The Kd turn was interesting, as it put another overcard out there but also gave me a flush draw. He bet out as expected and now I had a decision. Folding seemed out of the question since this guy never folded his blind and was very aggressive. I would usually call in spots like this since he's not calling with worse, but I decided to shove because I thought my hand would look really strong. I was trying to represent that I'd checked the flop with a monster to trap and then stopped slowplaying because of the third diamond. So I can get him to fold a king hopefully and I also avoid a tricky river spot, as if I'd called his turn bet I may face another barrel on the river.

I now had a great re-steal stack and started punishing the aggressive players to my right by shoving over their raises. By doing this I was able to stay ahead of the blinds and chip up from 500k to 670k during 4 handed play. I was very unlucky in that the other 3 players were all very strong and very experienced MTT players; between them they had nearly 10,000 MTTs played and nearly $400,000 in lifetime MTT winnings. That just shouldnt happen in a $25 MTT, you'd expect something like that from a $100 rebuy final table.

Anyways, I finally busted out after df1986 got tired of my constant resteals and made a hero call:

Poker Stars $25.00+$2.50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15000/t30000 Blinds + t3000 - 4 players - View hand 17758

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

df1986 (CO): t1803255 M = 31.64

danskemann (BTN): t1862392 M = 32.67

Hero (SB): t687901 M = 12.07

HotKarlMC (BB): t1343452 M = 23.57

Pre Flop: (t57000) Hero is SB with A J

df1986 raises to t69999, 1 fold, Hero raises to t684901 all in, 1 fold, df1986 calls t614902

Flop: (t1411802) 9 7 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t1411802) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t1411802) 2 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t1411802

df1986 shows 8 A (two pair, Nines and Eights)

Hero shows A J (a pair of Nines)

df1986 wins t1411802

There is another dynamic that you can't tell from the hand history, which was that HotKarl in the big blind had disconnected and was sitting out. When the big blind is disconnected it leads to leveling wars between the other players, as everyone just assumes you dont have anything and are just raising because of the dead big blind. It's much like the situation I described in an earlier post about blind stealing, where trying to steal a tight player's blind isn't necessarily a good idea if the players behind you realize that's what youre trying to do and start re-raising you with garbage.

So the combination of the dead big blind and my constant resteals led df1986 to conclude I was full of it and didn't have it, as he beat me into the pot after I shoved with his A8o. Sadly I didn't hold and that was that.

I'm very happy with how I played though, and hopefully another final table is coming soon. Thanks to lucko, eusebio, lj, roflcopter and anyone else who was railing.

Thanks for reading,

George

Made a Final Table

2009-01-20T09:21:00.001-08:00

I've made several deep runs in this tournament in the past but I wasn't able to break through and make the final table until last night. Definitely a nice cash for me but I'm kinda disappointed it wasn't more as I took a pretty rough beat 4 handed to bust out. I'm very happy with how I played though, and hopefully there are plenty more final tables in my immediate future.

At some point I'll probably post some key hands, right now I'm too tired though as the tournament went late into the night.

Thanks for reading,

George

Passport Freeroll

2009-01-18T13:56:00.000-08:00

Just busted from the Passport freeroll, obviously it didn't go as I'd hoped. The structure was pretty bad with 2000 starting stacks and 10 minute levels, kinda disappointing given how much was on the line, dont think it would have been too much to ask for them to give us 3000 chips and 15 minute levels.

Anyways, I steadily chipped up to 4200, only hand I showed down was AA where I got 3 streets of value from 88 on a jack-high board. Then with blinds 75/150/20 I opened AK in early position, the big blind 3-bet, I shoved he called with JJ and he won the race. Standard hand, I just couldn't win the flip.

It definitely sucks to not get anything out of the freeroll, but I'm happy with how I played and least I got the bust out over with early and didn't take a soul-crushing beat on the bubble. And even though I didn't cash in the freeroll, I still benefited from it as it motivated me to play a lot of volume in December and I had by far my best month ever. Hopefully Stars has this promotion every year.

Thanks for reading,

George

Fooled by Randomness: applied to poker

2009-01-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was the book Fooled by Randomness. I just started reading it and so far I've found it to be very interesting. One topic discussed is that in the financial world, many traders who have made a lot of money and are seen as smart traders are actually just the beneficiaries of the randomness in the market, and eventually go broke. The author also argued that a trade shouldn't be judged by whether or not it made money but instead on the logic behind the trade.

Given my poker-obsessed brain, I immediately got to thinking about how much this relates to poker. Any good poker player knows to avoid results-oriented thinking (ROT), which can come in multiple forms. The most blatant example of ROT is the beginner who gets all in with the nuts, loses on the river, and wonders if the loss could have been avoided. The answer (barring some contrived bubble situation) is that getting the money in as a big favorite is a good thing, and that his subsequent bad luck is just part of the game.

Another example of ROT is when someone makes a terrible play, but because the terrible play results in winning the pot, the player feels like he made a good play. Quick example: you have 33 and raise to 3 BBs UTG at a full table. A tight player than shoves for 20 BBs. You call, the tight player has AK, and you win the pot and think you made the right play. But a tight player likely has a range of JJ+,AK, so your call was a poor one against the tight players range.

I know most of my readers already know what ROT is, but I think its important to explain it so we can examine it more deeply. As poker players, we know we shouldn't get too hung up on the results of individual hands, individual tournaments, or even individual sessions. However, I always click on the cashier button at the end of my sessions to see how much I won or lost. Most tournament players (myself included) become obsessed with results graphs on Sharkscope, and ROI and total profit on oprankings. Cash game players with their constant PokerTracker graphs are probably even worse.

Obviously a larger sample size gives a more telling indication of a player's true ability, but even that can be very misleading. For example, take me. On the two sites oprankings.com tracks (Full Tilt and Stars), I've played almost 1600 MTTs, and I've played hundreds more on Ultimate Bet. From that many MTTs, you'd think you could get a good idea of my overall tournament skill. But there are several huge problems. One is that the sample covers a time span of over 2 years. I was a completely different player in the summer of 2006 when I first deposited on UB than I am now. Also, the average player has become much stronger over that time period, thanks to the UIGEA and the myriad training sites that have been formed. And don't forget I've played in tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $1 to $500, so the strength of the opposition has been drastically different. And not all $30 freezeouts are created equal. Sometimes I'll be at a table with two strong LAGs on my left making my life miserable, and other times I'll have position on two fish trying to give their stacks away. So I don't think 1600+ tournaments over 2.5 years is anywhere close to a large enough sample to determine my true expectation in tournaments.

As more and more of my friends and relatives have learned about my poker-playing, they almost invariably ask me if I make money. Talking poker with people who know nothing about it can be frustrating, summed up by the old joke:

-"How much have you won at poker?"
-"About $20,000"
-"But how much did you lose?"

Anyways, I always try to be modest and mention that while I've made some money, there's a lot of variance and I'm certainly not making enough to support myself. But questions like that aren't just limited to poker novices. Most players often ask themselves that same question, but they phrase it slightly differently, instead asking "Am I a winning player?" or, more specifically, "Am I profitable in $50 SNGs?" or "Am I +EV at $2/$5 live cash games?"

But many players go about finding the answer in completely the wrong way, by looking towards the past. They look at their past results, usually over a sample size that is way too small, and get their answer that way. These players aren't answering the question "Am I a winning player?", they're answering "Was I a winning player?" It's a key distinction. The bottom line is that your past results don't matter when you start a tournament; what matters is the quality of your poker decisions at every decision point during that tournament. When you flop a set in that tournament, you won't get maximum value by having won a big tournament the day before, you'll get maximum value by making good poker decisions; knowing when to play the set slow to trap your opponent, or when to bet and raise aggressively.

The bottom line is to make sure you avoid thinking about results as much as possible. Instead focus on improving your decision making. I know that's my goal for 2009 and beyond. I just capped off my most profitable year ever with by far my most profitable month ever, but will that help me on Sunday in the TLB Passport freeroll? Of course not. What will help me is making the best possible decisions throughout the tournament. I was a profitable player in 2008, but I won't be in the future if I get content and don't keep trying to improve my game.

The massive amount of variance in poker is what makes it so great. Even terrible players can go on long hot streaks, run up a huge bankroll, and think they're great. But if they keep making bad decisions, they'll eventually be broke, and the people making good decisions will end up with the money. No matter who you are, if you work hard enough at your game, you'll end making the right decisions more often than not, and become a profitable player. So when setting goals for yourself in the new year, stop worrying about results and instead worry about making good decisions. Find your leaks (whether its tilting, bluffing too much, not bluffing enough, not value-betting enough, not balancing your range, etc.) and try to plug them. Make enough good decisions, and the good results will come.

Thanks for reading,

George

Clay Davis (extended version)

2009-01-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

yep, thats how things have been going lately for me in poker. oh well, it happens.

for some entertainment, here's a link to a great top 25 involving Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson.

I should have some poker content up in the next couple days, sorry for the lack of content recently.

Thanks for reading,

George

Quick Update

2009-01-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

I was able to hang on to the top 100 for the December monthly TLB, as I finished 59th. Stars gave me $100 for that, which I didn't know about, but more importantly I am all set for the Passport freeroll on the 18th of January. The combined lifetime profit of those 100 is well into 7 figures, so it will be a very tough field. Hopefully I can luck-box a win.

I plan to get back to playing tonight, hopefully I can keep running good. In December I played way more volume than I ever have, and not coincidentally it was also my most profitable month ever. I doubt I will have the motivation or the spare time to play that much this month, but I will certainly be playing as much as I can. The variance in MTTs is huge, but I'll try my best to withstand the downswings and keep playing my best .

Thanks for reading,

George

A change has occurred, yeah yeah

2008-12-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

The last two nights I've bounced back and then some. I won 3 more $12 180s and got 2nd in another, and as you can see from the screenshot I got 2nd in a $33 MTT after playing late into the night and into Christmas morning.

There weren't really too many interesting hands; for the most part I just played a solid game, coolered a bunch of people, and had several people gift me their stacks, and subsequently I had a top 5 stack for basically the entire tournament. It's always nice to run that good.

When it got heads up I was down over 2 to 1 in chips, but I chipped away at him and took a small chip lead. On the deciding hand, I opened the button with A7s with 22 BB effective stacks and my opponent 3-bet me. He had been aggressive and since I'd been raising pretty much every button I figured he was playing back with a very wide range and decided to go with it. Unfortunately he had AJs. I flopped a flush draw but couldnt get there, and I busted a few hands later.

A win would definitely have been nice, but I'm very happy with how I played. I'm also happy with the 458 TLB points that 2nd place finish got me. In the last two days I've catapulted from 70th to 20th on the monthly leaderboard, so I'm looking good to make the top 100.

Merry Christmas and thanks for reading,

George

And of course as a matter of course

2008-12-23T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well it was bound to happen eventually:

Doomswitched

I had an awful day yesterday, I played a ton of 180 mans and a few bigger MTTs and my only cash was an 8th in a $12 180 man. The only bright spot of the day was in that 180 man: I may have set an all time record, as I managed to turn my 1,500 starting stack into 14,700 after just 15 hands. Having 300 BBs in a turbo 180 man is a pretty rare occurrence, but I wasnt able to turn it into a win and some much needed TLB points. I have fallen to 67th on the monthly leaderboard, and since I'll be on vacation from the 28th until New Years, I dont have much time to add to my total. So plz to be shipping the rungood.

Thanks for reading,

George

The earth was quaking, my mind was aching

2008-12-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

I had two great chances for great scores on Sunday, but I came up short both times. The first was in the Stars WBCOOP (World Blogger Championship of Online Poker). Stars put together a great freeroll, where the top 100 got prizes, ranging from seats in live tournaments all the way down to Step 3 tickets.

I loved the structure of the tournament, as we started with 250 BBs and the antes came in very early. Just about everyone at my table was playing tight so I raised a ton of pots and built up a big stack. With about 115 players left I was 2nd in chips and cruising. But I lost a gigantic pot on the bubble to knock me back down to average. A short stack shoved !0 BBs in late position and I reshoved with AJo on the button. The two players in the blinds had about 30 BBs (I started the hand with about 70 BBs) so I didnt think either would call without a monster. But the player in the SB made a very good call with TT. TT is certainly ahead of my iso-shoving range there, but I was surprised by his call given how tight everyone was playing. Anyways, I lost the flip and fell to a slightly above average stack. I was able to rebuild my stack on the bubble, but just after the bubble burst I got most of my chips in preflop with aces and lost, and busted shortly after. Very frustrating. I did get a Step 3 ticket out of it at least. Thanks again to Stars for putting together an awesome freeroll, and good luck at the PCA to whoever won.

I also made a deep run in the $22 cubed on Stars, but I couldnt get anything going late and I busted out 9th for $592. From about 50 down to the final table, the play was very aggressive with lots of raising and re-raising. I wasn't getting good cards so it wasn't easy to build my stack. I found a few spots to re-steal, but when the final table started I was in 8th place, and I was quickly down to 9th as the short stacked player doubled up right away. I ended up busting blind vs. blind when I shoved into the big blinds 99 and couldnt get there.

I did have one fun hand in this tournament on the bubble, where I took advantage of my opponents fear:

PokerStars Game #23133971653: Tournament #127009098, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (1500/3000) - 2008/12/21 18:31:21 ET
Table '127009098 6' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: MaybeRiver (54420 in chips)
Seat 2: I_BLADE_U (101664 in chips)
Seat 3: scuty06 (81844 in chips)
Seat 4: Mr. Q You (67492 in chips)
Seat 5: rz133 (44558 in chips)
Seat 6: Loretta8 (120915 in chips)
Seat 7: JopperHarryN (128736 in chips)
Seat 8: Pardal77 (41831 in chips)
Seat 9: Ranbo85 (91367 in chips)
9 players ante 300
I_BLADE_U: posts small blind 1500
scuty06: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Loretta8 [Jd Td]
Mr. Q You: folds
rz133: folds
Loretta8: raises 4499 to 7499
JopperHarryN: raises 13501 to 21000
Pardal77: folds
Ranbo85: folds
MaybeRiver: folds
I_BLADE_U: folds
scuty06: folds
Loretta8: raises 99615 to 120615 and is all-in

Jopper and I are both top 10 stacks in the tournament; there are about 105 players left and 99 get paid.

While shoving here may seem suicidal, several factors led me to shove. I'd been raising a lot of pots so it was quite possible he was 3-betting light. His raise size also didn't seem very strong. A pot size raise would be to about 30,000, and he's only making it 21,000, which made it seem to me like he was leaving himself room to fold to a shove. He also thought for a while before raising, which made me think he was unsure of what to do with his hand. And since it was the bubble, I thought he would be less likely to call off basically his entire stack.

He thought forever and eventually timed out and folded:

JopperHarryN has timed out
JopperHarryN: folds
Uncalled bet (99615) returned to Loretta8
Loretta8 collected 49200 from pot

Since he used that much time, he obviously laid down a big hand. But I had no idea how big until he started chatting:

JopperHarryN: QQ :S
JopperHarryN: u had AK?
Mr. Q You: obv ak <-- sick soul read
JopperHarryN: think u just called with AA, maybe u had KK

Wow, I definitely wouldn't expect anyone to 3-bet/fold QQ with 40 BBs. If he's not going to call a shove with QQ there he is much better off flatting my raise.

I guess the moral of this hand is that there's a very very fine line in poker between looking like a genius and looking like an idiot. Had this guy made the right decision and called, I look like a complete donkey. But you can't be scared about looking like an idiot at the table. If you really think the guy's going to fold, then pull the trigger. If you can't trust your reads then there's really no point in having reads in the first place. And don't get discouraged if the play doesn't work once, you're not going to be right every single time, no one is. I've gotten caught 4-bet bluffing before and I'm sure I will be again in the future, but I'm certainly not going to take the play out of my repertoire. Good luck to everyone at the tables, and may you 4-bet bluff your way to victory.

Thanks for reading,

George

UB has reached a new low

2008-12-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

As just about everyone knows, Ultimate Bet doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation these days. Traffic on the site has taken a significant hit after the superuser scandal that was recently made public on 60 minutes. But as a recent 2p2 thread shows, the hits just keep on coming.

Cliff notes: In a $200/$400 heads up limit hold'em cash game on UB, a player called DoubleBaller was playing against Phil Hellmuth. In one hand, after betting and raising on each street, the board was KKJ92, with no flushes possible. DoubleBaller bet the river and Hellmuth called. Doubleballer showed KQ, and Hellmuth mucked his hand (he had T2). But the pot was shipped to Hellmuth! It's just mind-boggling that a site's software could make a mistake like that.

What's even shadier about the hand though is Hellmuth not realizing a mistake was made until DoubleBaller pointed it out in the chat. Hellmuth even wonders why DoubleBaller won't play him anymore. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why DoubleBaller is quitting a guy who can win showdowns with the worst hand:

Total Pot($5600) | Rake ($1)
Board [Js Kc Kh 2h 9c]
Seat 4: PHILHELLMUTH (dealer) (small blind) won Total ($5599) HI: ($5599) [Mucked] [2s 10s]
Seat 6: DOUBLEBALLER (big blind) HI:lost with Three of a kind, kings [Kd Qh]

It turns out UB refunded DoubleBaller the pot after he complained to support, but Hellmuth comes off looking terrible. If I were playing on a site I represented and some horseshit like this happened, I would immediately transfer the money back to my opponent and demand an investigation into how such a colossal mistake could possibly happen. But that doesn't seem to be Phil's reaction:

PHILHELLMUTH: U wanna play or what?
DOUBLEBALLER: no
DOUBLEBALLER: 5600 pot
DOUBLEBALLER: they are gonna credit it to me
PHILHELLMUTH: I play U limit, right now
DOUBLEBALLER: how the **** can that happen phil??
DOUBLEBALLER: that is such a major error!!!!
PHILHELLMUTH: good thing U found it, no wonder we differed about who was w
PHILHELLMUTH: winning
DOUBLEBALLER: i am just in awe

Now maybe Phil was drunk or doing a bunch of other stuff and didnt notice what was going on, I don't know. But given UB's history, I'd definitely be suspicious of an inside job. Hopefully for Phil's sake he had nothing to do with this, as I don't know how many more scandals online poker can withstand.

Thanks for reading,

George

Another good night

2008-12-18T00:30:00.002-08:00

I won another 180 man, but this time it was a $36 for my biggest cash of the month. I ran amazing at the final table, I got it in bad 3 times and was lucky enough to get there. I ran pretty bad in everything else I played tonight, including losing a giant pot in a $33 freezeout with set over set, but this more than makes up for it. It's gonna be impossible to keep running like this, so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm going to add a best-of section for some of my newer readers, hopefully you guys enjoy that.

Thanks for reading,

George

Stars Blogger Freeroll

2008-12-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

I played in one of the Stars blogger freerolls tonight and I ended up getting 12th out of 500 or so players. For my efforts I get a seat in the blogger main event on Sunday as well as a Step 3 ticket (worth $82). It was definitely frustrating to get that deep in the tournament and not win or at least make the final table, but at least I have something to show for it.

A couple notes on the tournament:

-With about 100 players left I was one of the chip leaders with almost 40k at 200/400. I had a good table with some other deep stacks and it was a great spot to really build a monster stack for a deep run. But two players at my table who were short stacked started stalling in hopes of reaching the top 72 and assuring themselves of a seat in the main event. It was really annoying because they slowed the play down a crawl, and with so few hands per level the blinds went up quickly and the stacks got much shallower, which I felt cut into my edge. Finally on the bubble when there were 73 players left, one of them kept stalling even though it was hand for hand. I'd had enough and flipped out in the chat. At the time I was really pissed off, but looking back on it I acted like a douchebag. I checked the OPR for these players and they were both micro stakes players for whom making the blogger main event was definitely a big deal. I certainly don't want to become like the guy Stoner talked about recently and start looking down on players who play lower stakes. So I apologize to the people I berated. That being said, stalling during hand for hand is pointless, please stop doing that.

Once the bubble finally burst, I won a couple flips to build my stack and I was in good shape with 2 tables left. But then I got owned by a player on my left with a huge stack called malice51. Every time I came into a pot he either 3-bet me or flatted me in position and took the pot away. Finally I got down to a push or fold stack and shoved KJ into his AA and busted. malice said while we were playing that he was reading my blog, so if you're reading this now, well played.

Thanks for reading,

George

Quick Update

2008-12-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

I've been grinding really hard all month at MTTs; I've played over 400 on Stars already in just over two weeks. My dreams of the 6 stamp passport are still alive, as I'm well within the top 100 as of now:

Right now there are 2 big problems standing in the way. The first is that I'm going on vacation on the 28th, so I'll miss the last 4 days of the month, including the final Sunday of the month. That sucks a lot because Stars is going to attempt to break the all time record for biggest tournament on that Sunday, so there will be tons of TLB points up for grabs. The second problem is that the TLB system only counts your top 20 scores, so even if I win 20 $12 180 mans that only gives me about 5500 points which probably wont be enough. The key will be to hit a big cash in a mega-field MTT where they give out a ton of TLB points. I've had two great chances, getting 11th out of over 1600 in a $25 MTT, and tonight I got 15th out of over 2500 in an $8 turbo donkfest. The one tonight was especially frustrating since I took two beats when we were down to two tables.

I've already won 6 $12 180 mans this month for 275 tlb points apiece, and the other two deep cashes got me 290 and 250 points respectively. If I can win 6 or 7 more 180 mans and make a couple final tables in mega-field events I should be golden. The biggest problem for me will be staying positive and finding the drive to play enough tournaments. I've had a couple rough days so far but I haven't had any extended periods of run-bad yet this month and I'm overdue for one. As long as I can fight through the rough patches I should be ok, but it won't be easy. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading,

George

Blind stealing/defending: common misconceptions

2008-12-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a strategy post in a while so I thought I would cover a much discussed topic in tournament poker: stealing the big blind and defending your big blind.

As any tournament player worth his salt knows, stealing the blinds is very important to building your stack and surviving when you aren't getting good cards. It is of course better to steal in late position, because there are fewer players behind you who can wake up with a real hand and play back at you. And it's definitely useful to have reads on your opponents, as stealing from tight players is going to be more profitable than stealing from loose players.

But one thing I have noticed many players get way too hung up on is how tight the player in the big blind is. Unless it folds to you in the small blind, you don't just have to get past the big blind, you have to get past the other players still to act as well. And if those players are noticing the same things you are, they'll recognize that you may very well be raising light and play back at you. So it ceases to become a good spot to steal.

Here is an example of such a situation from the final two tables of the WSOP Europe Main Event, involving Scott Fischman. Let's take a look at an excerpt:

"Interviewer: You were involved in a hand last night that has sparked a lot of debate when you ended up in a huge all-in confrontation with 10-2 against Brian Townsend's pocket kings. Can you explain the reasoning behind that fascinating hand?

Fischaman: The first thing was that the guy in the big blind was the tightest player in the entire world. The first hand on his big blind went raise, reraise, and then a squeeze, which just made me think “wow.” The next round on his blind, it went exactly the same. Everybody knew that this guy's blind was the one to go after, and it was creating a lot of action between Kongsgaard and [Johnny] Lodden, especially.

Anyway, so the next time it was on his blind, I raised with 10-2 to 11,000,"

Let's stop right here. Now I certainly haven't had the results Scott Fischman has had, but he's not making too much sense here. Trying to steal this guys blind hasn't been working, yet he raises in early position with T2. There is a raise and re-raise back to him, he decides both guys are full of it and shoves, and runs into KK. Oops. He never says why he opened the T2, but if it was with the plan of 5-bet shoving that seems on the suicidal side to me. But as he says later in the article, "obviously it was the right play by me." Umm, ok.

The second misconception is on the subject of how to go about defending your blind. Many players seem to think that when their big blind gets raised, the best way to go about defending it is to call. After all, against one of the 2.5x raises that are becoming very popular in online tournaments once the antes come in, the player in the big blind has to call 1.5 big blinds to call 2.5+1+0.5+1 = 5 big blinds, so 3.33 to 1 odds. Against all but the nittiest of raising ranges, most hands have 30% equity, so players figure it is correct to call very wide.

But here's the problem: preflop pot odds are consistently mis-applied when there is still postflop play. If someone moved all in for 2.5 BBs, then you would be correct to call with any two cards. But when there is postflop play, the hand is not going to be checked down. You are only paying to see the 3 cards on the flop, and you will likely face a continuation bet. The majority of the time you will miss the flop, and even when you do hit the flop you will often have middle pair or bottom pair and be in a difficult spot and have to fold to resistance. So if you are calling to hit a flop, you're going to be check-folding more than 70% of the time, and those pot odds aren't looking as good any more.

When considering the preflop pot odds from the big blind, you shouldnt be thinking about what your equity is against his range. Instead, think about how often you are going to be able to win the pot. If your opponent is weak-tight and will check/fold postflop when he misses, then you can call with weak hands and take the pot away enough to make it profitable. But if your opponent is a strong player who will c-bet often and play well postflop, youre going to have a tough time winning the pot out of position with a weak hand, so you are probably better off folding.

Another factor is implied odds, as in how much you can win when you do make a hand. So if the stacks are really deep and your opponent is a maniac who will almost never fold, you can call raises with weak hands with the expectation of winning a huge pot when you do hit. But thats a rare combination in an online tournament, as the stacks aren't usually deep enough to allow for this.

So calling raises from your big blind hoping to hit is not a very strong defense. Most good players will actually be more likely to go after your blind if you do this. The best way to defend your blind is to instead go on the offensive and re-raise. I know that when someone starts re-raising my blind steals, I'm definitely not going to steal as aggressively.

Thanks for reading,

George

Random Musings

2008-12-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

A few things:

-I had a disappointing Sunday, but overall it was a very good week for me. I won 4 $12 180 mans and got 2nd in a couple others. I've been playing very high volume on Stars in an attempt to finish in the top 100 on their monthly leaderboard. That's because Stars is running an amazing promotion called PokerStars Passport.

"Players that finish in the top 100 will battle for the biggest prize of all - a 6-stamp PokerStars Passport!

Winners can use their Passport to enter the Main Event of any PokerStars-sponsored live tournament. This means you can play at any stop on the European Poker Tour, Latin American Poker Tour or the Asia Pacific Poker Tour! You can even use your Passport to play at the World Series of Poker* Main Event.

The roll-call of amazing destinations where your travels could take you includes Las Vegas, Barcelona, Budapest, London, Rio, Sydney and many more."

So that would be awesome to say the least. There are other prizes for 2nd thru 9th in the freeroll as well. I'm currently in good shape at 46th on the December leaderboard.

- To help motivate me to play enough volume, I've entered a TLB contest on Two Plus Two. There are several high volume MTT heavyweights involved in this contest, including the legendary Shaun Deeb and fellow blogger sprstoner, so it will hotly contested. Hopefully I can have some good cashes in the next two weeks and help my team out.

- Speaking of sprstoner, his blog has become appointment reading. Between all the hooker pics and expert analysis, his rants on politics and some of the douchebags who he plays 45 man SNGs, and his seemingly daily MTT win, its one of the best blogs out there for sure. Check it out, but be careful at work as there are usually naked hooker pics.

- My sympathies to LJ, who got very deep in two mega-field MTTs yesterday, only to lose on two soul-crushing beats. First she was about 10 of 50 in the Stars 200k (which started with 23,000+ runners), but her KK went down to 77. Then she was down to 16 in the Full Tilt double deuce (which started with 7,000 players), but her AA went down to JJ with a jack on the river. So fucking sick. Great runs, LJ, keep on grinding and you'll have a breakthrough win soon.

- A quick note on a hand from a $20 180 man SNG I played yesterday. On the bubble I got it in with AA vs 99 button vs blind and lost to a 9 on the river. Whatever, it was a standard cooler for my opponent and shit happens. But some douchebag at the table with an Ohio State avatar who wasn't even in the hand felt the need to type YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS in the chat after the 9 hit the river. Congratu-fucking-lations on the $40 cash, which I'm sure was your biggest cash ever you busto in-bred piece of shit. I've always said Ohio State had the most obnoxious, retarded fans of any team I'd ever seen, and this definitely confirms it. Pretty standard for a school at which being able to read isn't even an admissions requirement.

- And finally, a shout out to a player on Stars named loballr, who mentioned he was a fan of this blog, and was a gentleman after I won a flip against him early in a $12 180 man.

Thanks for reading,

George

Shameless Plug

2008-12-04T10:16:00.001-08:00

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

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 119793

I didn't even have to use my A.K...

2008-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

..I gotta say it was a good day.

I've been grinding the 180 man SNGs on Stars the past couple days, and Tuesday I ran like a Kenyan on steroids and won a $12 180 man turbo, got 2nd in two others, and had another 2nd in a $22 180. I capped off the night by winning a $11 super turbo private tournament that Stoner was promoting for $221. Overall it was a profit of about $1600 for one of my best days ever.

For some reason I stopped playing the 180 man SNGs once I was rolled for higher buy in tournaments, and it was definitely a mistake. The fields are incredibly weak and there is less variance than in the mega-field MTTs with thousands of players. I would especially recommend the $12 180 man turbos, they only take an hour and a half tops and since the stacks are shallow you won't have tough decisions and can play a lot at once.

Obviously days like this aren't sustainable, but I'll certainly take it.

Thanks for reading,

George

Book Review: Winning Poker Tournaments: One Hand at a Time

2008-12-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Winning Poker Tournaments: One Hand at a Time by online poker pros Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, Eric "Rizen" Lynch , and Jon "Apestyles" Van Fleet. As a whole I found the book to be very interesting and would definitely recommend it.

The book does not feature a lot of flowery prose and general poker theory. Instead its a collection of online hand histories from each of the 3 authors. The authors then explain their plays from a variety of online tournaments, anywhere from $10 rebuys to $2500 freezeouts. I personally loved the format and I think learning from specific hand histories is the best way to learn. I dont find it very helpful to just hear someone say "you should raise small suited connectors in early position to balance your range", because such advice doesnt help you play the hands postflop when you inevitably get into tricky situations with middle pair or a draw. This book takes you through every step of a hand and explains the thought process behind every play on every street. Each author has his own section.

PearlJammer: to say he plays a tight style is putting it mildly. At first I wondered how he could ever make money at high stakes MTTs given that he never seems to put a chip in without the nuts. But as the hands progress, it was clear he loosens up his game later in tournaments and uses his nitty image to his advantage. He also explained one very interesting play called the limp and go, which I plan on incorporating into my game.

Rizen: he definitely plays a more aggressive style than PearlJammer. His postflop analysis was particularly useful for me, as he makes some interesting bluffs and light calldowns and explains his thought process very well.

Apestyles: he plays an aggressive style as well. In one hand he does a great job explaining his reasoning for a resteal he makes, and backs up his argument with some quick math that was easy to follow. He also presents a series of 25 consecutive hands from the bubble of a $1k event, where he plays a big stack very aggressively and takes advantage of other players' fear of bubbling.

The final section is 20 more hand histories that weren't played by the pros. Instead, all 3 are asked what they would do in a given situation. This section is very interesting as it contrasts the differences in style and thought process between the 3 authors.

My one big criticism of the book is there is no discussion of playing at a final table. I really would have liked to see how these guys play at final tables when the big money is on the line. But this is only volume 1, hopefully final table hands are coming in the next volume.

My overall review of this book is positive and I would advise any tournament poker players out there to check it out.

Thanks for reading,

George

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T16:40:00.001-08:00

Monkey off my back

2008-11-18T07:12:00.000-08:00

I broke a very depressing streak last night by finally cashing in an MTT with a buy in of $150 or more, in the Nightly Hundred Grand on Stars. I got in via satellite, so the ~$440 I got for finishing 46th was decent, but it could have been a lot better.

I was in god mode in the early and middle stages and was the chip leader when the money bubble burst, but I took a hit when my AKs lost to AA all in pre, and then in a stunning development my internet went down for about half an hour. When I finally reconnected I was 39 of 60 and went out 46th when I shoved 11 BBs on the button with A8 and ran into AQ. Probably going to play a bunch more MTTs tonight.

Thanks for reading,

George

Stoner owns the 150r

2008-11-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

Sprstoner won the Full Tilt $150 rebuy for the second time in about a month. Such a sicko, and always helps to run like a Kenyan at the final table. $67k is a pretty good showing for an afternoon's work, congrats!

Thanks for reading,

George

Know Your Enemy

2008-11-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I came up just short in the FTOPS #17 Satellite Challenge and the $400 first prize. While I will get $200 for finishing 2nd, 2nd place sucks. As I played SNG satellite after SNG satellite after SNG satellite after SNG satellite after SNG satellite, it stopped being about the $400 bonus and started being about just crushing the souls of The Fiend and Miguel Santiago.

When I went to bed last night, I had a comfortable lead of 5; I think it was 40 to 35, not positive though. But when I woke up this morning both of them were within 1. I expected them to fade eventually since both of them had to have stayed up all night. but somehow neither did.

With the challenge closing at 2 PM, time was short, but because FTOPS #17 was starting soon the SNG satellites filled much more quickly. So I was 9 tabling SNGs for four straight hours this morning and afternoon trying to keep up with these two sickos. My laptop screen is too small for that many tables, and my computer lagging wasn't helping matters either. Since there were so many tables I couldnt get any reads and had to tighten up, and my performance suffered. With a late charge, The Fiend was able to overtake me at the last second and claim victory.

I finished up about $1,000 over the 48 hours of grinding (and that's not counting the $200 bonus), but I couldnt be more pissed off. I really thought the win was in the bag, and I'm not one to take losing well. The Fiend is a high volume SNG grinder with nearly 60k lifetime profit in SNGs, so losing to him is nothing to be ashamed of. However, for the next FTOPS, my goal is to beat him in one of these satellite challenges. He puts in absurd volume in the satellites for all the no limit events, but I think if I pick a specific event I can out-grind him.

But until that day, 56-55 will keep stinging, and will be great motivation for next time. I'm reminded of a story I heard about Coach K at Duke. When he got there, Duke was at the bottom of the ACC, and in one of his first few years there, Duke's season ended with a 101-60 loss to Virginia in the ACC tournament. After the game on the plane ride home, one of his assistants said "Here's to forgetting tonight." Coach K responded by saying "Here's to never forgetting tonight." And until the first game of the next season, 101-60 was constantly on the scoreboard at Cameron to motivate his players. Duke reached the final four that season and never looked back.

56-55. Never forget.

Thanks for reading,

George

Come with it now

2008-11-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Like most poker fans, I watched the main event broadcast last night, and I was way off in my previous when I put Dennis Phillips on QQ in that key early hand against Ivan Demidov. Turns out he had AK and was somehow ahead as Demidov was making a move with AQ. There were a couple other interesting hands, I may motivate in the coming days and fully dissect a hand, stay tuned...

As for my own poker game, I'm trying to win the satellite challenge for FTOPS #17. Full Tilt runs a great promotion where whoever wins the most satellites to each FTOPS event wins twice the buy in for that event, and whoever gets second gets one buy in. So for Event 17, a $200 tournament, the winner gets $400 and 2nd place gets $200. Right now I'm looking good for the $400:

With another good day today in the SNG satellites I should be golden.

Thanks for reading,

George

WSOP Main Event Final Table (with spoilers)

2008-11-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Before we start, I'm going to be talking about hands that went down at the main event final table, so if you'd prefer to not know what happens when they show the final table on ESPN tomorrow night, stop reading.

After a seemingly endless delay, they finally began the final table of the main event yesterday, and played down to heads up. I was following the action online while watching football, and I noticed some absolutely awful plays. Here are a couple examples (hand descriptions from Pokernews.com):

"Hand #18: Ivan Demidov has the button in Seat 7. Dennis Phillips limps in from under the gun. All fold to Demidov, who raises to 1,025,000. Both blinds get out of the way, allowing Phillips to quickly reraise to 3.525 million. Demidov thinks for a while then re-raises to 8.225 million. After thirty seconds, Phillips makes the call.

Each player has committed over a third of his stack to see a flop of {8-Diamonds} {10-Clubs} {J-Spades}. With the blinds and antes, more than 17 million chips are up for grabs. Demidov has position and his Phillips covered.

Phillips leads out with a relatively small bet of 4.5 million. Demidov takes a deep breath and then announces, "I'm all in." It's 9.395 million more back to Phillips, which is more than he has. Demidov has Phillips covered by about 800,000. After 5 minutes, Phillips folds. Demidov is now the far-and-away chip leader with 35,875,000. It's a huge blow for Phillips, who now has less than 9 million chips."

I have no idea what Phillips had here, but I think he badly misplayed his hand regardless of what he had. Both players started the hand with about 23 million in chips. Once Demidov 4-bets to 8.2 million, putting over 1/3 of his stack in, Phillips has only 2 options: shove or fold. The stacks aren't anywhere near deep enough to call and play postflop. The only way I could see calling the 4-bet being reasonable would be if Phillips has AA or KK and thinks Demidov is on a stone bluff and will monkey off after the flop. But clearly Phillips wasn't thinking along those lines, given his postflop fold.

It would be bad enough if Phillips had called the raise and then check-folded the flop with over 1/3 of his stack in, but he bizarrely led out for 1/4 of the pot and then folded to a shove getting 4 to 1 on a call. If I had to guess what Phillips had here, I would say he had QQ and bet the flop "to see where he was at," and when Demidov shoved he decided his QQ was no good and folded. Given the situation, I would think QQ is behind Demidov's range, but Phillips' play is still terrible. By leading the flop with the intention of folding to a raise, he's turning his hand into a bluff, since Demidov is either going to move all in or fold against that bet. So it doesn't matter whether Phillips has QQ or 32o, since the hand is never getting to showdown anyways.

If I had QQ in Phillips' spot, I'm not exactly sure what I'd do, as its a very difficult situation. But Phillips has to make his decision before the flop. If he think Demidov is capable of making a move, then he should shove, and if he thinks Demidov has to have a monster to 4-bet vs an UTG limp-reraise, then he should fold. This hand is somewhat reminiscent of the infamous Lee Childs vs Jerry Yang hand from last years final table. Childs was widely criticized because he laid down the best hand, but his play would have been bad even if he had folded the worst hand, as turning QQ into a bluff is pretty much always a mistake. I'm just guessing Phillips had QQ of course, we'll see tomorrow night. Any other guesses as to what he might have?

Here's another hand from the final table that left me scratching my head:

"Darus Suharto opens for 1,100,000 from the cutoff, only to be met with a reraise to 3,300,000 from Ivan Demidov in the small blind. Suharto makes the call.

The flop is {K-Clubs} {9-Spades} {7-Clubs}. Demidov leads out for 3,325,000. Suharto tanks silently for about two minutes before announcing a reraise. Suharto makes it 5 million more to go and Demidov immediately moves all in. Suharto folds less than a minute later and Demidov takes down the monster pot. Suharto is left with 4 million."

God only knows what hand Suharto had here, as he puts in 75% of his stack then folds to a shove getting over 7 to 1. Not much analysis necessary to point out how bad a play that is.

I also feel like I should mention a hand that will get the results-oriented crowd fired up:

"Action folds to Scott Montgomery in the small blinds, who raises to 1.5 million. The big blind, Ivan Demidov, reraises to 4.025 million.

"How much do you have behind?" Montgomery asks. By our count, the answer is roughly 20 million.

After one minute in the tank, Montgomery raises all in. Demidov snap-calls for 24.375 million, drawing a grimace from Montgomery"

Montgomery had A9s to Demidov's KK, and the KK held. Montgomery was left with just 7 million.

While Montgomery certainly looks like a maniac here, I'm not so sure. A9s is a strong hand in a blind vs blind situation. Again, I don't know much about how Demidov plays, but if he's an aggressive player capable of 3-betting light, the shove is certainly reasonable. The stacks aren't deep enough to call and play a flop out of position, and any raise commits Montgomery to the pot, so shoving and putting Demidov to a big decision for his whole stack is a decent option. There's a very fine line at the poker table between looking like a genius and looking like an idiot. If Demidov had air and folds (which I'm sure he has a significant percentage of the time), Montgomery's play looks brilliant.

And say what you want about Montgomery, but at least he wasnt playing scared and was going for the win. The same cannot be said for Kelly Kim, who came into the final table on the short stack. Instead of making a move early in hopes of doubling up, he nitted it up and twice allowed himself to be all in in the big blind. The first time it happened he was lucky enough to pick up KK and double up, but that still left him with a tiny stack, and the next time he got blinded off he wasn't so lucky and was eliminated in 8th place. Yes, he moved one spot up the ladder by being a nit and won an extra $300k, but he gave himself no chance to win the $9.1 million for first place and achieve poker immortality. $300k is nothing to sneeze at, but making the main event final table is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I can't imagine doing anything other than playing for the win.

For those who don't know, play ended for the night last night when things got heads up between Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov. They will resume today, and it should be a great match as both players are 100 BBs deep. I'm looking forward to watching the broadcast tomorrow night.

Thanks for reading,

George

I like pleasure spiked with pain...

2008-11-03T07:56:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update, not much to report. I've played very few MTTs this week, I just havent been motivated. I have played a fair amount of turbo 180 man SNGs and 45 man SNGs on Stars, with mixed results. They are definitely profitable but the variance is massive, and they are very mechanical and boring. A lot of people play huge volume and do well, but they have more focus and discipline than I possess. So I probably wont play too many more. I would like to see Stars add higher buy in non turbo 180 man SNGs, a $33 or $55 with the normal blinds would be awesome.

I've also been playing heads up SNGs on Full Tilt and been doing pretty well. I've been experimenting with a small ball strategy, that involves limping almost every button and trying to play a lot of flops in position. It's been working pretty well so far, as I think it reduces variance and lets me use my position more. The downside of a strategy like this is of course that I fail to get much money in the pot with my bigger hands, and I often lose value. So I'm not sure if I'm gonna stick with it, but it's definitely good to have it in my arsenal against the right opponent, as heads up is all about adjustments.

FTOPS X starts Wednesday, and I'll be playing in Event #1, a $215 6 max with a $1 million guarantee. Good luck to anyone playing.

Thanks for reading,
George

Go the whole weekend, without cashing in one tournament?

2008-10-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

I'll leave it to Clay Davis for my thoughts on that development:

Thanks for reading,

George

Let's describe a certain female...

2008-10-24T05:51:00.000-07:00

I played in NumbBono's 10 cent rebuy last night, and I had a very strong 128 rebuys, which was probably one of the highest totals. It was my understanding that the purpose of having such a tiny stakes tournament was so people could shove every hand and gamble like crazy. But I guess rebuying for 20 cents at a time was a little too big of a bankroll hit for a lot of people. My table featured lots of folding preflop, checking down side pots, and even some moron on my right who limp folded a few times, despite the fact I moved all in every single hand. Just mind-bendingly foolish.

Anyways, I have a message for those of you who nitted it up in the rebuy period, courtesy of Eazy E, Ice Cube, Dre, and the rest of NWA:

A trip to CVS for a tube of Vagisil may also help with your condition.

Thanks for reading,

George

It's just an unfriendly game

2008-10-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

I had another deep cash in a Stars MTT, getting 3rd in the $22 cubed:

But 3rd was a huge disappointment for several reasons, the first being how big a chip lead I had to start the final table:

As you can see, I had more than 3 times the second place stack, by far the biggest chip lead I've ever had late in a tournament. Here's how I got it:

Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1500/t3000 Blinds + t300 - 7 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

alexche (BTN): t119048

JackAdi (SB): t122157

zacmanolis (BB): t104233

LongTom3333 (UTG): t153822

EeSheeBee (UTG+1): t198853

Hero (MP): t195244

schaefer (CO): t27568

Pre Flop: (t6600) Hero is MP with A Q

2 folds, Hero raises to t7499, 1 fold, alexche calls t7499, 2 folds

Flop: (t21598) 3 Q 2 (2 players)

Hero bets t13999, alexche calls t13999

Turn: (t49596) 2 (2 players)

Hero checks, alexche bets t27000, Hero raises to t173446 all in, alexche calls t70250 all in

River: (t244096) K (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t244096

alexche shows T T (two pair, Tens and Deuces)

Hero shows A Q (two pair, Queens and Deuces)

Hero wins t244096

This pot gave me the chip lead with 45 left. After standard preflop and flop play, I get a perfect turn card and am confident I have the best hand. So I figured I get more value by checking and hoping he bets and commits himself. He made a hero call with tens and my hand held.

Then with about 35 left I win another gigantic pot:

Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t2500/t5000 Blinds + t500 - 7 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Kroe-Poekk (UTG+1): t240869

LastChance11 (MP): t150423

EeSheeBee (CO): t185208

Hero (BTN): t321046

Softy25 (SB): t49717

BigDennys (BB): t128879

nileviper (UTG): t54892

Pre Flop: (t11000) Hero is BTN with Q Q

1 fold, Kroe-Poekk raises to t14500, 2 folds, Hero raises to t39999, 2 folds, Kroe-Poekk calls t25499

Flop: (t90998) 7 2 K (2 players)

Kroe-Poekk checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t90998) 5 (2 players)

Kroe-Poekk bets t50000, Hero calls t50000

River: (t190998) J (2 players)

Kroe-Poekk bets t150370 all in, Hero calls t150370

Final Pot: t491738

Kroe-Poekk shows A 9 (high card Ace)

Hero shows Q Q (a flush, King high)

Hero wins t491738

Preflop I decided to make a small 3-bet in position. A lot of players would make a big raise here with QQ, trying to "charge A-rag from drawing out." Personally I think playing that way is playing scared poker. Its a good thing to play a flop in position when you are ahead of your opponents range.

I dont get a very good flop and decided to check behind for pot control. On the turn I pick up a flush draw and call his bet since my hand is very underrepresented. Then on the river I make the second nut flush, and although I wasnt thrilled about it, I made the call and won a gigantic pot.

Then with 20 players left I won a mega-equity flip to take a massive chip lead:

Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t3000/t6000 Blinds + t600 - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

EeSheeBee (SB): t516538

Hero (BB): t518616

Softy25 (UTG): t125468

BigDennys (MP): t250858

a.S.e High (CO): t76176

nileviper (BTN): t58568

Pre Flop: (t12600) Hero is BB with T T

2 folds, a.S.e High raises to t75576 all in, 1 fold, EeSheeBee calls t72576, Hero raises to t518016 all in, EeSheeBee calls t440362 all in

Flop: (t1111052) J 4 K (3 players - 3 are all in)

Turn: (t1111052) 5 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: (t1111052) 7 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: t1111052

EeSheeBee shows Q A (high card Ace)

Hero shows T T (a pair of Tens)

a.S.e High shows A 3 (high card Ace)

Hero wins t880724

Hero wins t230328

So a short stack shoves from the cutoff for 12 BBs, and EeSheeBee flats, and he did so quickly. EeSheeBee had shown himself to a loose and wild player, so I figured his range to call the shove was very wide. There was already about 160,000 in the pot, so I decided to iso-shove for my 520,000 stack, thinking that EeSheeBee would almost always fold and I could get heads up against the short stacks wide range with tons of dead money in the pot.

EeSheeBee called my shove within a couple seconds, and I almost fell off my couch. I was absolutely shocked at his call, no idea how he can call off his whole stack against the other massive chip leader with AQo. Thankfully my tens held and I took a massive chip lead, almost 4 to 1 over 2nd place.

For most of the rest of the tournament though, I wasnt able to steam-roll people with my big stack. I opened a lot of pots, but most of my opponents weren't scared and played back at me constantly; I don't think I've ever been moved in on more in my entire life. After a lengthy 4-handed battle, the short stack finally busted and I was just two players away from victory. But it was not meant to be:

Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30000/t60000 Blinds + t6000 - 3 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Horst Heftig (BTN): t499591

rocco2505 (SB): t1313301

Hero (BB): t2075108

Pre Flop: (t108000) Hero is BB with 7 6

1 fold, rocco2505 calls t30000, Hero raises to t190000, rocco2505 calls t130000

Flop: (t398000) 4 A 6 (2 players)

rocco2505 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t398000) 7 (2 players)

rocco2505 bets t60000, Hero raises to t410999, rocco2505 raises to t1117301 all in, Hero calls t706302

River: (t2632602) 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t2632602

rocco2505 shows 4 4 (three of a kind, Fours)

Hero shows 7 6 (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)

rocco2505 wins t2632602

Given that the third player is so short-stacked, I would have raised the small blinds limp here with any two cards. On the flop I checked middle pair for pot control, and then I hit two pair on the turn and obviously had no chance of getting away from the hand. Very frustrating.

But I stayed composed and had a great chance to get heads up:

Poker Stars $20+$2 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t30000/t60000 Blinds + t6000 - 3 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Horst Heftig (BB): t601591

rocco2505 (BTN): t2632602

Hero (SB): t653807

Pre Flop: (t108000) Hero is SB with 9 9

1 fold, Hero raises to t647807 all in, Horst Heftig calls t535591 all in

Flop: (t1209182) 5 3 4 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t1209182) 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t1209182) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t1209182

Horst Heftig shows 3 A (a straight, Ace to Five)

Hero shows 9 9 (two pair, Nines and Threes)

Horst Heftig wins t1209182

Obviously a standard shove for me, I just couldnt hold. Very very frustrating to have such a massive stack and be unable to win.

But its still a very nice cash, and right now I feel like I'm on the top of my game. I just gotta keep on keeping on, and soon the win will come.

Thanks for reading,

George

Just wakin' up in the morning, gotta thank God

2008-10-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

I made another final table last night in the $11 cubed on Stars, but I wasn't there for very long, going out 9th for $250 and change. It was definitely a disappointing finish, as I was one of the chip leaders with 4 tables left. But I had trouble accumulating as I wasnt getting hands and I had two loose players with big stacks on my left. By the time we got to the final table I was 9 of 9, and I busted when I open-shoved T9o from the small blind. The player in the big blind had been very tight and seemed to be playing scared, but he made a good call with A4s and it held.

It sucks to get that deep in a tournament and not have much to show for it, but as long as I keep giving myself chances I will eventually break through. I feel like I'm getting a stack in almost everything I play of late; last night I had stacks in both the Stars 40k and Full Tilt 40k and got bad beat out of both in giant pots. Tournament poker can be very frustrating, but I've been having fun playing lately and my confidence level is high. I recently read a blog post from pro Alec Torelli that really hit home:

"My friend once told me something very wise that can be applied to many areas of our lives. He asked me if I knew the easiest way to double the amount of girls I went out with. After pondering for some time several things came to mind. Get better at this or that, change something superficial about myself, etc. But I was shocked at the simplicity of his answer. "Talk to twice as many." That really hit home for me. Not necessarily literally but I thought about all the areas I can apply this to better my life. Back to tournaments. I was struggling to think of the best way to increase my potential for winning. I thought and thought and while I did many worth while things I never increased my chances mathematically. If you double the number of tournaments you play; guess what? You double your chances of winning. It's as simple as that. While trivial, I feel like many of us overlook perhaps the most important thing."

It's a great point and something any MTT player should try to abide by. As long as I stay focused and keep playing a high volume, I'm confident a breakthrough win is right around the corner.

Thanks for reading,
George

Yesterday, just a dream I don't remember

2008-10-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the screenshot I got 3rd in a Stars MTT last night. It was definitely disappointing not to win, as I am still winless in MTTs with more than 180 players. But it was still a very nice cash and a solid bankroll boost.

With about 50 left I became one of the chip leaders after some idiot tried to stop and go me in a 3-bet pot on a T52r flop. I called him with AK high and held off his monstrous Q7. From there I was patient and chipped up steadily without playing big pots until we were down to about 15. Then I lost over half my stack when an aggressive player made a resteal with QJo into my AJo. He rivered a flush and I was down to about 15 BBs and on a short stack. But I was able to keep my composure and stay patient, and I doubled with AA on the final table bubble and started the final table in 6th or so. Then on about the 2nd hand of the final table I doubled with QQ>AQ and was back to being one of the chip leaders.

Most of the players at the final table were really bad, and with the great structure on Stars I was able to pick my spots well and take advantage of these clowns overplaying hands. When we got down to 3 I was a slight chip leader. But then I lost most of my stack in a huge pot when I 4-bet shoved 99 for 35 BBs and my opponent insta-called with KQo and won the flip. Definitely frustrating, if I win that I'm heads up with a 2 to 1 chip lead against a very weak player. From there I couldnt recover. I doubled up once, but then I got caught 4-bet bluffing and busted.

On that hand I opened the button with J8o on about a 35 BB stack. The small blind then made a very small 3-bet that was almost a min raise. He had been aggressive in the past and I'd noticed that he had made normal sized 3-bets with hands he wanted to get it in with and small 3-bets when he was bluffing. So I shoved on him and he called with KK and it held. Kind of a maniac play but I had a reason for it and dont really regret it, I think he folds the vast majority of the time,

So it was a good run and a nice cash after a disappointing and frustrating week. Thanks to everyone who railed, especially Tony Eusebio who was there for a while and was cracking me up the whole time.

Thanks for reading,

George

Mistakes were made

2008-10-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I decided I would play a ton of MTTs and hopefully make a run in something. But my inner degenerate took over and I somehow found myself in 10 MTTs at once across two different sites. My laptop screen couldnt handle it, and I kept timing out and misclicking and just generally getting owned. I managed to cash in 3 tournament but didn't come close to making any final tables.

In other news, a certain well-known Korean has decided to join the ranks of the blogosphere. The kid has been on one of the sickest heaters on record, with 4 5 figure cashes in the last month. So check out his blog and absorb his wisdom on everything from making final tables to rolling gorilla fingers to stealing lawn chairs to grinding with rhinoceroses.

Thanks for reading,

George

With a whole leap of style and intelligency

2008-10-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

Some fun hands from a Stars MTT last night:

Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t125/t250 Blinds + t25 - 8 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

911trix (CO): t11465

bezerker44 (BTN): t11560

Pistolpeak (SB): t8810

Coach4U (BB): t2775

Hero (UTG): t6805

SnapShip (UTG+1): t7460

GeorgiaFrank (MP1): t13564

JBlaze20 (MP2): t10660

Pre Flop: (t575) Hero is UTG with K A

Hero raises to t630, 3 folds, 911trix says "ill show", 911trix raises to t1010, 3 folds, Hero raises to t6780 all in, 1 fold, 911trix says "77"

Final Pot: t2595

Hero mucks K A

Hero wins t2595

Pretty standard 4-bet shove here, his raise size makes it seem to me like he's trying to leave himself room to fold. You can see his chat during the hand, and then said this after the hand:

911trix: ok now we're at war

Good to know. One orbit later:

Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t125/t250 Blinds + t25 - 8 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

911trix (SB): t10655

bezerker44 (BB): t11410

dolfan (UTG): t3805

Coach4U (UTG+1): t2850

Hero (MP1): t7865

SnapShip (MP2): t8285

GeorgiaFrank (CO): t13039

JBlaze20 (BTN): t19870

Pre Flop: (t575) Hero is MP1 with 7 7

2 folds, Hero raises to t630, 3 folds, 911trix raises to t1500, 1 fold, Hero raises to t7840 all in, 1 fold

Final Pot: t3450

Hero mucks 7 7

Hero wins t3450

I would have shoved with any hand I opened with here, as its a pretty transparent 3-bet bluff coming right after his declaration of war.

And about 20 minutes later I win the war:

Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200/t400 Blinds + t50 - 9 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

911trix (MP2): t6855

bezerker44 (CO): t15134

RockyNorth (BTN): t22136

slacka10 (SB): t10339

Coach4U (BB): t6406

Hero (UTG): t7290

shock200 (UTG+1): t9180

GeorgiaFrank (UTG+2): t10139

JBlaze20 (MP1): t26070

Pre Flop: (t1050) Hero is UTG with A A

Hero raises to t1050, 3 folds, 911trix raises to t6805 all in, 4 folds, Hero calls t5755

Flop: (t14660) T 7 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: (t14660) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t14660) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t14660

911trix shows A 9 (a pair of Nines)

Hero shows A A (a pair of Aces)

Hero wins t14660

Hopefully I run into more morons declaring war on me and dusting off chips in the future.

And in honor of the start of hockey season, I'm going to put up one of my favorite YouTube videos of all time, starring the most talented player in the league, Alexander Ovechkin:

Thanks for reading,

George

OH MY GOD ITS CLAY AIKEN

2008-10-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

(We will now return to your regularly scheduled poker content)

I was perusing 2+2 yesterday and discovered that someone had produced and written his own poker rap. As a sucker for goofy white people rapping, I couldnt resist and checked it out. And it drastically exceeded my expectations. Guy actually has some talent, and he's even managed to avoid unintentional comedy for the most part, which is quite an accomplishment. Check it out here.

Thanks for reading,

George

There is a lot of stupid in the sports media

2008-10-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Before I start today's rant, let me first congratulate stoner on taking down the $150r on Full Tilt last night for over $58k. A much deserved huge cash for a guy who's been grinding for a long time.

As for me, I didn't play any poker this weekend, but I did watch a lot of the baseball playoffs. And some of the analysis I heard was jaw-droppingly stupid. Stupidity in the sports media is not exactly a novel concept, in fact I link a blog whose sole purpose is to make fun of dumb baseball media members. But nothing brings out stupidity like the playoffs.

The reason for this is simple; the MLB playoffs, especially the first round, are way too short and are basically a crapshoot. In the regular season, teams play 162 games. The best teams win about 60% of those games, while the worst teams win about 40%. Thats a very small difference when you compare it with the NFL, where the best teams win over 80% of their games. So clearly there is a ton of short term variance in baseball. Strange things happen over 3 games. It was barely over a month ago that the Washington Nationals, the worst team in baseball, swept the Manny Ramirez led LA Dodgers in a 3 game series, outscoring them 18-7 over the 3 games. So when the Dodgers (84-78 in the regular season) sweep a 3 game series from a clearly superior Cubs team (97-64 in the regular season), it should be written off by anyone who knows baseball as a fluke caused by small sample size.

But the media can't do that. Rather than stating the obvious, they feel the need to justify their own existence by coming up with elaborate reasons why the Cubs failed and were a flawed team. In general, these reasons are idiotic. Take ESPN's Tim Kurkjian, who was being interviewed Sunday morning on Sportscenter in regard to the Cubs loss. When asked what the Cubs should do in the offseason, he offered the following (I'm paraphrasing):

The Cubs need to improve their offense. Even though they scored more runs than anyone in the National League,

Ok lets stop right there. Tim is right, the Chicago Cubs scored more runs than anyone in the National League. In fact, they scored 855 runs, 56 more than the next closest team. So its hard to imagine how this could possibly be an area of concern. But I'm sure Kurkjian, a man who makes his living on the basis of his baseball knowledge, will be able to justify such an absurd claim:

they lack a star in the middle of the line-up who can put a team on his back and carry them when everyone else is struggling."

Nope, he's an idiot. It doesn't take a deep trip into the memory bank to come up with a great team that fit that same criteria. That team would of course be the New York Yankees from 1996-2000, who won 4 of 5 World Series with a deep and balanced lineup that didnt have any Manny Ramirez/Albert Pujols type sluggers. Its pretty simple: runs are runs no matter the construction of your lineup. A team of 9 Ichiros would score a ton of runs, and so would a team of 9 Adam Dunns. It would be too easy for Kurkjian to just say the Cubs hitters underachieved due to small sample size and a very strong Dodger pitching staff, and that if they keep their current lineup they'll probably lead the NL in runs again next year. You can easily imagine what happened: Kurkjian saw the Cubs not hit in the NLDS, so he did some research to see if they didn't hit in the regular season as well. But when he discovered they hit great, he found a way to spin their success as a weakness. Sound logic took a beating in the process.

The second piece of stupid I heard was on sports radio today in Boston, as Dale Arnold and Michael Holly broke down last nights Angels Red Sox marathon. In finding people to blame for the Red Sox loss, they focused their ire on MVP candidate Dustin Pedroia, who is 0 for 13 in the 3 game series. After some research, they discovered Pedroia was 2 for 13 in last years Division Series. Apparently, this showed a pattern of post-season failure and an inability to come through in the clutch like he did in the regular season.

Now had they done a little more research, they would have seen Pedroia's line for each of the 4 playoff series he's played in his career:

2007 ALDS: 2 for 13, .154/.214/.308, 2 doubles, 1 RBI
2007 ALCS: 10 for 29, .345/.406/.552, 3 doubles, 1 HR, 5 RBI
2007 World Series: 5 for 18 .278/.350/.500, 1 double, 1 HR, 4 RBI
2008 ALDS: 0 for 13, 2 walks

But Holley and Arnold didnt mention his LCS and World Series success, instead harping on his 2 for 26 during the Division Series, making it sound like he was a huge choker. Yup, definitely a choker. Here are two horrible playoff series from another player I will call Chokey McChokerson:

2001 ALCS: 2 for 17, .118/.200/.118, 2 RBI
2001 World Series: 4 for 27, .148/.179/.259 1 HR, 1 RBI

What a clown. 6 for 44 over the 2 most important series of his team's season? Awful. Definitely wouldn't want him up in clutch situations.

Here are two bad series from another noted wimp who caves under pressure, a player I will call Epic O'Failie:

1973 ALCS: 3 for 21, .143/.143/.143, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 walks
1981 ALCS: 2 for 18, .111/.200/.278, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 walks

Another awful player who I bet has never done anything in the clutch! 5 for 39 with the season on the line? Atrocious.

Ok, enough sarcasm. Chokey McChokerson is actually Derek Jeter, a man widely considered one of the great playoff performers of all time. Epic O'Failie is Reggie Jackson, who was nicknamed Mr October for all his post-season success. All I did here was cherry pick the two worst series each of those guys had. Using that method, you can make two Hall of Fame caliber players look terrible.

Just like you can make Dustin Pedroia, a very good young player who had a terrific postseason last year, look like a choker if youre lazy and only report the facts that help your argument. To somehow imply that Pedroia cant hit in the division series because of the pressure but somehow overcomes it in future rounds is flat out retarded. And its not like Pedroia has looked horrible in this series. In Game 2 Garrett Anderson robbed him of a home run in left, on a ball that would have been an easy double at Fenway. And last night in the 11th he hit a rocket to third base that Chone Figgins made a great backhanded play on. If the ball is a foot farther to the left, it goes down the line, drives in the game winning run, and these same clowns are talking about how Pedroia is a grinder who embodies clutch and always comes through with the game on the line. Ok, enough baseball rants for now. I'll leave stuff like this to the pros at firejoemorgan.com.

Thanks for reading,

George

Oliver Tse

2008-10-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

I was checking out the NVG section of 2+2 yesterday in search of a train wreck to entertain me, and I wasn't disappointed by this thread about poker agent and all around scumbag Oliver Tse. Here is a picture of Mr. Tse:

Tse, who posts under the moniker olivert, started the previously mentioned thread to announce that JJ Liu was no longer a red Full Tilt pro because she wore a PokerStars patch during a tournament. Considering Tse used to be JJ Liu's agent, not exacty the most professional conduct. Such behavior is nothing new for Tse though, as Liu fired him for posting her personal business on 2+2.

Many professionals then came into the thread and pointed out all of Tse's unprofessional behavior, including:

- routinely following players into the bathroom during tournament breaks in an attempt to sign them
- then, if a player refused to sign with him, he would spread the word to anyone who would listen that said player was not trustworthy
- this one is by far the worst, ill just quote someone in that thread: "Robert Neary, a kid on a golf scholarship at Sonoma State Univ. won a satellite on Party Poker to the Aussie Millions in 2006. As is standard, he had to wear Party Poker gear while he played.

The kid finished 2nd and took home $500,000 USD. Olivert decided that it was his duty to report the kid to the NCAA for violating NCAA amateur regulations because the Party Poker gear he wore constituted prohibited 'sponsorship'. That's right: Olivert ratted the kid out to the NCAA on an inconsequential technicality, and later tried to defend his actions by claiming that he only did so because he thought the kid was being "exploited" by Party in that they 'forced' him to wear their gear without additional compensation. The kid was suspended from the golf team."
-and last but not least, he was so aggressive in his attempts to sign players who were deep in this years main event that Harrah's security had to boot his worthless ass out of the Amazon room. Here is a pic of him sitting out in the hallway after getting the boot:

So if you're into train wrecks and complete self-ownage and have an hour or so to kill, check out that thread. And if you're ever lucky enough to get deep in a big live tournament, watch out for this guy.

Thanks for reading,

George

7th in the Mookie

2008-09-25T16:23:00.001-07:00

got 7th in the Mookie last night for a massive cash of $37. I got off to a great start thanks to several donations. The first was from smokkee, who had to have been drunk or something. He called my 4-bet out of position with KT then shoved into me on an AK7 flop. I had AK. The second was from NYRambler who called big barrels out of position on the flop and turn with KQ on a ATxx board. And the third was from TripJax who made one of the sickest calls I've ever seen:

Full Tilt Poker The Mookie No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 8 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

TripJax (SB): t6860

Hero (BB): t9817

SirFWALGMan (UTG): t5285

DonkeyPuncher74 (UTG+1): t3434

ck31 (MP1): t4074

schlepp571 (MP2): t9012

twoblackaces (CO): t2708

PinkyStinky (BTN): t6120

Pre Flop: (t560) Hero is BB with K 9

6 folds, TripJax raises to t600, Hero calls t360

Flop: (t1400) 9 7 7 (2 players)

TripJax checks, Hero bets t960, TripJax raises to t2101, Hero raises to t9192 all in, TripJax calls t4134 all in

Turn: (t13870) T

River: (t13870) 3

Final Pot: t13870

TripJax shows 4 A

Hero shows K 9

Hero wins t13870

It's really amazing how bad my image is, people call me with the craziest hands and never think I have anything.

So after that hand I was the chip leader, but it was downhill from there until the final table. My undoing was a guy who is quickly becoming my nemesis, NewinNov.He was right on my left and owned me a couple times blind vs blind. I made two pretty big river folds that I am still unsure of. The problem is I have played big pots with NewinNov in past tournaments and he's shown me the nuts every time, so I'm hesitant to make big calldowns. Frankly he has gotten into my head pretty good and I'm kinda pissed about it. I've played so many bloggaments by now that I have a good sense of what all the regulars are capable of and there are very few who give me trouble. But I've yet to figure out NewinNov. Hopefully I get another shot at him soon.

So I went into the final table as the short stack, managed to double up once, but finally went out 7th when I shoved 9 BBs in late position with T8o and ran into JJ.

On Stars, satellites for the PokerStars Carribean Adventure have started running. It should be a great tournament and I'd love another shot at a big live MTT after my disappointing day 2 bustout at the main event. So I'm gonna play some satellites and hopefully luckbox my way into it and not busto my roll in the process.

Thanks for reading,

George