I decided to pass on the 180 person sng’s and stick to the single table ones. I started with a nice warm up, a $5+.50 nine person sng and finished 3rd. Then I decided to track down one type a friend of mine had told me about, a six person $12+1 sng. So I sat down, played it and took 1st. Well that was sweet so I decided to try another, and took 1st again. Well, since it was now double sweet, how could I possibly resist one more? So I fired up yet another one and this time took 1st again!
I always considered myself to be a decent player at a short-handed table, and a pretty good heads up player at my level of play. I’m not sure if this confirmed that theory or if I just happened to find myself up against some really bad players, especially heads up. In fact, every time heads up started, I found myself to be out stacked by about 3:1 and in one case by more than 5:1. Fortunately for me, they usually would let me at least limp in from the small blind, and most of them did not seem to realize you could do more than a min raise. And a pot sized bet—forget it! I found a formula that worked well there, any raise of 4x the BB would get a fold about 75% of the time, a pot sized bet, usually on the turn or river (assuming there had been previous betting) would buy you the pot about 95% of the time, and a raise or re-raise of 3x their original bet got folds to me 100% of the time.
It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. It’s probably just Variance tossing her hair back and giving me that seductive stare, just trying to lure me onto a path of destruction and –EV play. What can I say, I’m weak and I will follow her for a while. If I’m lucky, I may have actually just found that sweet spot for my level of play. Time will tell!
Friday, June 09, 2006
Thursday, June 08, 2006
For tonight
I think that tonight I'll be playing some sng's and then move on to a ring game or two. Right now I'm debating if I want to tackle another one of the 180 person sng's or just play a couple single table ones. So far I've done all right with the 180's, cashed in about 1/2 of them, but sadly two of them were not the final table, so overall I'm still negative on them. I guess we'll see once I get home and how we are for time.
Well, my friend had fun in the last WWdN and then we moved onto a ring game. She keeps telling me how she hates the ring games and would prefer to stick with the sng's and the tourneys. While I too prefer the sng's and tourneys, it did not take me long to realize that if that is all you play, it makes for an excellent way to piss away your bankroll. The ring games are defiantly where the money is. While it is too soon for me to tell for sure, I think her main problem is that she plays the ring games the same way she does the tourneys. There is some difference in how you have to approach these two very different styles of Hold'em if you want to remain profitable.
At least she's a lot closer than Sue is, Sue plays tourneys live but opts for Limit Hold'em online. Sadly, she also tries to play the game the same when for all intents and purposes; they are two completely different games!
Well, my friend had fun in the last WWdN and then we moved onto a ring game. She keeps telling me how she hates the ring games and would prefer to stick with the sng's and the tourneys. While I too prefer the sng's and tourneys, it did not take me long to realize that if that is all you play, it makes for an excellent way to piss away your bankroll. The ring games are defiantly where the money is. While it is too soon for me to tell for sure, I think her main problem is that she plays the ring games the same way she does the tourneys. There is some difference in how you have to approach these two very different styles of Hold'em if you want to remain profitable.
At least she's a lot closer than Sue is, Sue plays tourneys live but opts for Limit Hold'em online. Sadly, she also tries to play the game the same when for all intents and purposes; they are two completely different games!
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Donking on the WWdN
Last night was a fun WWdN. I convinced my fried MsJoanne to join us, so I spent about ½ my time sweating on her, and as a result, play quite poorly early on. She went out in 44th, so not too bad for her first time there. I lasted a bit longer and went out in 24th (I think, we were down to 3 tables). After that we hopped onto a micro NLH game where I just had some fun donking off chips while drinking some Dt. Mountain Dew and tequila.
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Monday, June 05, 2006
The name is DuMass...
Last night, I started at an interesting table. For some strange reason, one guy decided he would spend the first level just trying to buy all the blinds. That translates to betting 200-400 on every hand at the 10/20 blinds. Of course all that meant was that after an orbit or two people would call then raise him on the flop and he would end up losing. He did get one person out and got a caller to fold when he raised her (she should have re-raised him from the start) and got himself a nice stack to keep up his hyper-aggro (stupid) play. Eventually he got all in with her before the blinds went up…it went something like this…
Him: Raise, 300.
Her: Re-raise 600.
Him Call.
Flop: K Q A
Him: 600
Her: Call
Turn: Q
Him 1200
Her: Call
River: Brick
Him: All-in
Her: Call
Showdown:
Him: Q full of A
Her: K full of Q
Him: Cool—starts to scoop the pot.
Table: No, she won it.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Her three Kings beat your Three Queens.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: The pair only counts if the trips are the same.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Sorry man.
Two hands later he went all in with his 97o UTG and lost his last 340.
About two weeks ago I saw a hand that I will probably never see again. Two people in, Flop is 2c3c5c and betting goes on. Turn is a brick and they check. River is 4c and they bet, raise, re-raise re-re-raise and call. She showed an Ac5h and he had a 6c8c. We were all shocked to see two straight flushes in the same hand. It was funny when he started pushing the chips to her before we stopped time to let him know that his 6 beat her A. He called himself an idiot for not realizing that and just habitually pushing to the A ‘high’ flush. The TD bought the table a round to celebrate this most rare occurrence.
As for me, I’ve had a pretty decent run online. In my past six sng’s I’ve bubbled 3 times and finished 1st three times so all in all not too bad. Now if I can just keep that going along with ring game winnings my bankroll should be pretty healthy by the end of the month.
Him: Raise, 300.
Her: Re-raise 600.
Him Call.
Flop: K Q A
Him: 600
Her: Call
Turn: Q
Him 1200
Her: Call
River: Brick
Him: All-in
Her: Call
Showdown:
Him: Q full of A
Her: K full of Q
Him: Cool—starts to scoop the pot.
Table: No, she won it.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Her three Kings beat your Three Queens.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: The pair only counts if the trips are the same.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Sorry man.
Two hands later he went all in with his 97o UTG and lost his last 340.
About two weeks ago I saw a hand that I will probably never see again. Two people in, Flop is 2c3c5c and betting goes on. Turn is a brick and they check. River is 4c and they bet, raise, re-raise re-re-raise and call. She showed an Ac5h and he had a 6c8c. We were all shocked to see two straight flushes in the same hand. It was funny when he started pushing the chips to her before we stopped time to let him know that his 6 beat her A. He called himself an idiot for not realizing that and just habitually pushing to the A ‘high’ flush. The TD bought the table a round to celebrate this most rare occurrence.
As for me, I’ve had a pretty decent run online. In my past six sng’s I’ve bubbled 3 times and finished 1st three times so all in all not too bad. Now if I can just keep that going along with ring game winnings my bankroll should be pretty healthy by the end of the month.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Nimrods
<rant> Don’t you just love nimrods? There is something about people who just don’t seem to grasp basic poker strategy that makes you feel like you’re going to have a stroke. It seems to be happing more lately in my local tourney circuit. Sometime after break around level 4-6, the field starts to thin. Pre-flop there are let’s say 4 people in and then the flop is laid on the board. Short stack decides it’s time to push and the other three call. Then on either the turn or river some nimrod will make a very sizeable bet and drive the other two out of the pot. At least 50% of the time the all-in will now quadruple up and of those, at least 50% of the time one of the folders would have taken him out.
What is so hard to grasp about the concept of everyone checking down to increase the chances of getting one more person out of the tourney and moving everyone one-step closer to the final table? I can see hitting and then making a min-bet to start building a small side pot that may be called to the river for the sake of building a few more chips, but these morons will make huge bets (about the size of the pot or more) and just drive people out cause they finally hit something.
My best guess is that these are the people who have hear the word ‘isolation bet’ and are now applying the word without understanding the concept. I expect these people are the same ones who then the blinds are 10/20 and then someone raises 100 figures they are getting 130:1 pot odds on their money. I wish these people would learn the concept of the big words they know before applying them incorrectly. Well, maybe not that last one, I like it when they don’t know how to calculate their odds correctly or apply them.</rant>
What is so hard to grasp about the concept of everyone checking down to increase the chances of getting one more person out of the tourney and moving everyone one-step closer to the final table? I can see hitting and then making a min-bet to start building a small side pot that may be called to the river for the sake of building a few more chips, but these morons will make huge bets (about the size of the pot or more) and just drive people out cause they finally hit something.
My best guess is that these are the people who have hear the word ‘isolation bet’ and are now applying the word without understanding the concept. I expect these people are the same ones who then the blinds are 10/20 and then someone raises 100 figures they are getting 130:1 pot odds on their money. I wish these people would learn the concept of the big words they know before applying them incorrectly. Well, maybe not that last one, I like it when they don’t know how to calculate their odds correctly or apply them.</rant>
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Nice for a Change
Well after a particularly abysmal month, things have turned around for me, at least for now. I’ve managed to make four final tables of my last five tourneys, and even had a first place finish! Nice to see the slump finally giving way, now if I can just keep it going for tonight’s WWdN Up4Poker Invitational on Stars tonight, trust me, my bankroll there could use the boost!
Anyways, last nite started out rather brutal, found myself out kicked three hands in a row, which led to pretty large dents in my stack. Just before the break, David sucked out on my Hammer while holding top two pair. I kept pounding away at it, 5x BB preflop, ½ the pot on the turn, then, instead of my normal ½ to full pot bet on the river, I made a ¼ pot bet. That pretty much stopped him in his tracks and really made him wonder what I had. He went through the hands that would beat him based on the board and really though I was trying to lure him into the pot to make sure I would get more chips. Eventually he did end up calling so I had to stand up, take my cards and slam them down with the traditional call of “Hammer!!” and then told him that I could not believe that he sucked-out on me like that. Oh well, das pokah.
Right after break I found myself moved to a new table with a paltry 3,000 in chips and the mega short stack at the table, the next shortest had me out stacked 4:1. Fortunately, the table was a wonderful semi-lose passive table and it didn’t take me too long to double up and get myself back in the game. It was ye olde JJ in mid-position that did me in. Made it 4x BB and got folds to the BB who called. Flop was 876r so I bet the pot, the BB thought about it and push in the rest of his chips, which was basically 2x my bet. I called and he flipped over ATh. The turn was a T as was the river and that left me with just enough to cover the Blind when it got to me one hand later and off to the rail I was sent.
All in all, it was interesting play. I don’t think I had to call more than a couple raises all nite, as most people were limping/min-betting/calling. Been a long time since I’ve seen that much weak/passive play at our tables. It was fun to be able to play looser than I normally do, but obviously I still need to put a bit of polish on that so I don’t loose too many pots in the future.
Anyways, last nite started out rather brutal, found myself out kicked three hands in a row, which led to pretty large dents in my stack. Just before the break, David sucked out on my Hammer while holding top two pair. I kept pounding away at it, 5x BB preflop, ½ the pot on the turn, then, instead of my normal ½ to full pot bet on the river, I made a ¼ pot bet. That pretty much stopped him in his tracks and really made him wonder what I had. He went through the hands that would beat him based on the board and really though I was trying to lure him into the pot to make sure I would get more chips. Eventually he did end up calling so I had to stand up, take my cards and slam them down with the traditional call of “Hammer!!” and then told him that I could not believe that he sucked-out on me like that. Oh well, das pokah.
Right after break I found myself moved to a new table with a paltry 3,000 in chips and the mega short stack at the table, the next shortest had me out stacked 4:1. Fortunately, the table was a wonderful semi-lose passive table and it didn’t take me too long to double up and get myself back in the game. It was ye olde JJ in mid-position that did me in. Made it 4x BB and got folds to the BB who called. Flop was 876r so I bet the pot, the BB thought about it and push in the rest of his chips, which was basically 2x my bet. I called and he flipped over ATh. The turn was a T as was the river and that left me with just enough to cover the Blind when it got to me one hand later and off to the rail I was sent.
All in all, it was interesting play. I don’t think I had to call more than a couple raises all nite, as most people were limping/min-betting/calling. Been a long time since I’ve seen that much weak/passive play at our tables. It was fun to be able to play looser than I normally do, but obviously I still need to put a bit of polish on that so I don’t loose too many pots in the future.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Nothing Special
After break last night I was looking pretty bad with only 2,000 in chips and blinds at 100/200. Then finally it happened, that magical combination of cards and callers. By the time our table was broken up I had pretty much quadrupled up, if not more. As time progressed and blinds hit 1,000/2,000 I hadn’t done too much and only had around 15bb or so in chips when we were down to three short handed tables. By some miracle, I managed to catch just enough to keep me between 10-15bb in chips to the final table.
This past month has been pretty brutal and this was my first final table in weeks. It started out pretty crazy at first and didn’t take long to lose a couple people (2,000/4,000 blinds). Unfortunately, it was the stacks who kept taking them out so it was getting a bit tougher to play them cause you knew you would be raised on any bet. Fortunately for me, that actually worked to my advantage every time except for two, the last one sending me to the rail in third. The one that damaged me the most was when I managed to get a good chuck of my chips into the pot with one of the stacks. He didn’t seem to want to push against me, probably because he didn’t have me covered by all that much (I had been putting dents into his stack for awhile now). Turns out we were pretty much playing the same hand, he just had me outkicked, A9 to AT. Oh well, 4 handed and blinds at 5,000/10,000 ya do what you gotta do.
Since the crowd that night was a bit light, there were only a total of about 150,000 chips in play between us, so even the stacks had M’s less than 10. Needless to say, there was either pushing to get a fold or just folding to any raise. When we got down to three I found my self in the bb with 15,000 left. After I posted, I didn’t even bother to look at my cards and just went all in with my remaining 5,000. The limper called and the other folded and he flipped over a nice AJo. I really didn’t want to flip my cards, but when I did I looked down at a T6o. Imagine my surprise when by the river I had a boat! Last hand was nothing special, A8o v 67s. The flop had both an 8 and a 7, the turn had a 6 and the river was a 2 and I was on my way to the rail.
All in all, it was a decent night. I didn’t make too many bad calls or plays, made several good lay downs and avoided being a donkey when it mattered. Though I must admit to being confused by that one lay down one guy made, and AK pre-flop to a min-raise at a five-handed table….
This past month has been pretty brutal and this was my first final table in weeks. It started out pretty crazy at first and didn’t take long to lose a couple people (2,000/4,000 blinds). Unfortunately, it was the stacks who kept taking them out so it was getting a bit tougher to play them cause you knew you would be raised on any bet. Fortunately for me, that actually worked to my advantage every time except for two, the last one sending me to the rail in third. The one that damaged me the most was when I managed to get a good chuck of my chips into the pot with one of the stacks. He didn’t seem to want to push against me, probably because he didn’t have me covered by all that much (I had been putting dents into his stack for awhile now). Turns out we were pretty much playing the same hand, he just had me outkicked, A9 to AT. Oh well, 4 handed and blinds at 5,000/10,000 ya do what you gotta do.
Since the crowd that night was a bit light, there were only a total of about 150,000 chips in play between us, so even the stacks had M’s less than 10. Needless to say, there was either pushing to get a fold or just folding to any raise. When we got down to three I found my self in the bb with 15,000 left. After I posted, I didn’t even bother to look at my cards and just went all in with my remaining 5,000. The limper called and the other folded and he flipped over a nice AJo. I really didn’t want to flip my cards, but when I did I looked down at a T6o. Imagine my surprise when by the river I had a boat! Last hand was nothing special, A8o v 67s. The flop had both an 8 and a 7, the turn had a 6 and the river was a 2 and I was on my way to the rail.
All in all, it was a decent night. I didn’t make too many bad calls or plays, made several good lay downs and avoided being a donkey when it mattered. Though I must admit to being confused by that one lay down one guy made, and AK pre-flop to a min-raise at a five-handed table….
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