Just got the hedge bet on for the Steelers game to ensure a $480 win as long as this game doesn't end in a tie.
Time to let all my buddies know how to put this thing on... hopefully a few of them thought the cash was worth it!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Another Wednesday night live action
Kat called me yesterday and said that Astin and her were going to go take down some cash at the poker club. Looking outside it was a beautiful looking night so I asked Mrs. Guin if I could go play some poker. She understood but mostly I think she agreed because of my comment "I am in the zone and should win this evening." We are going to LA in a couple weeks and she probably has a few things she *needs* prior to the trip. So off to the club I go....
Played alright in the $40 tournament but the hammer couldn't hold up all night long. Got reraised preflop by the tightest player at the table on the first attempt. Tried to push a shortstack off of their blinds with it and somehow lost the race. That left me very short and I found myself in the SB with 77 with a raise and then a push ahead of me. With more chips I let that hand go no problem but figured that if I got lucky and found myself against two AK-Ax type hands I might be in good shape. Instead vs. 1010 and A9 and the 2 outer didn't find the board and I finish 12th (Out of 30).
Astin was already crushing the cash tables when I sat down while Kat continued to the final table of the tournament quite shortstacked. My buddy L had already headed home after donating to the cash table yet again. Kat did join us soon after and having 2 other bloggers at a table makes for a fun evening despite being card dead. Lost $57 of my $200 starting stack (1/2 NL) with AQ on a Ad 10d 8x board and I cbet $25 and called the min raise. We both checked it down and he showed the AK. Good thing I didn't go broke with TPGK but would have laid it down to any large bets on 4th or 5th street. The guy I was playing against knows me quite well so I knew he wasn't trying to pull a move with that min raise.
About an hour into playing at the table and I realize that I have only raised 2 hands thus far. I did call a few times with hands that didn't seem to want any part of the flop. Like Astin said "I would have had a boat if the Q I had, was a K, and that 2 I had, was a 4!" True enough.
Kat was winning lots of hands and Astin hit a straight flush against me. Sadly he didn't have to use both cards or he could have won 2 jackpots with that hand. Just as Astin took off for the evening on my last orbit I finally hit my hand.
910d in MP, 5 of us limp (including blinds) and see a flop of 9c 10c 4s. Top two pair and when it checks to me I bet $10, SB reraises to $20, BB smooth calls. Darn min raise... so I decide to call and figure I am done with the hand if a scare card hits. The BB I know from playing against him in the past that he chases draws. The SB has been loose and somewhat agressive but 44 could cause him to min raise to build the pot.
Turn is a 5s so it is a brick in my book but it might give these guys more outs. Pot is $70 so when checked to me I bet $50 (no free cards) hoping to isolate the BB since his hand range is easier to determine. Instead the sound of "call" and "call" makes this a big pot.
River is a 2h. It also dawns on me from the SB's chatter that he could have been playing an overpair in a very weird way. I figure that if I bet less than the $97 I have left into this $220 pot then I have to call a reraise. Checking is out of the question because then one of them pushes and I probably have to call. So I push all in and when I get called by the SB I figure I am toast. Two pair was good and I end up the evening +$180.
Kat's bike was acting up when I was heading out. Hopefully CAA managed to get her bike going so she could get home. She said she had lots of fun meetings to attend today.
Played alright in the $40 tournament but the hammer couldn't hold up all night long. Got reraised preflop by the tightest player at the table on the first attempt. Tried to push a shortstack off of their blinds with it and somehow lost the race. That left me very short and I found myself in the SB with 77 with a raise and then a push ahead of me. With more chips I let that hand go no problem but figured that if I got lucky and found myself against two AK-Ax type hands I might be in good shape. Instead vs. 1010 and A9 and the 2 outer didn't find the board and I finish 12th (Out of 30).
Astin was already crushing the cash tables when I sat down while Kat continued to the final table of the tournament quite shortstacked. My buddy L had already headed home after donating to the cash table yet again. Kat did join us soon after and having 2 other bloggers at a table makes for a fun evening despite being card dead. Lost $57 of my $200 starting stack (1/2 NL) with AQ on a Ad 10d 8x board and I cbet $25 and called the min raise. We both checked it down and he showed the AK. Good thing I didn't go broke with TPGK but would have laid it down to any large bets on 4th or 5th street. The guy I was playing against knows me quite well so I knew he wasn't trying to pull a move with that min raise.
About an hour into playing at the table and I realize that I have only raised 2 hands thus far. I did call a few times with hands that didn't seem to want any part of the flop. Like Astin said "I would have had a boat if the Q I had, was a K, and that 2 I had, was a 4!" True enough.
Kat was winning lots of hands and Astin hit a straight flush against me. Sadly he didn't have to use both cards or he could have won 2 jackpots with that hand. Just as Astin took off for the evening on my last orbit I finally hit my hand.
910d in MP, 5 of us limp (including blinds) and see a flop of 9c 10c 4s. Top two pair and when it checks to me I bet $10, SB reraises to $20, BB smooth calls. Darn min raise... so I decide to call and figure I am done with the hand if a scare card hits. The BB I know from playing against him in the past that he chases draws. The SB has been loose and somewhat agressive but 44 could cause him to min raise to build the pot.
Turn is a 5s so it is a brick in my book but it might give these guys more outs. Pot is $70 so when checked to me I bet $50 (no free cards) hoping to isolate the BB since his hand range is easier to determine. Instead the sound of "call" and "call" makes this a big pot.
River is a 2h. It also dawns on me from the SB's chatter that he could have been playing an overpair in a very weird way. I figure that if I bet less than the $97 I have left into this $220 pot then I have to call a reraise. Checking is out of the question because then one of them pushes and I probably have to call. So I push all in and when I get called by the SB I figure I am toast. Two pair was good and I end up the evening +$180.
Kat's bike was acting up when I was heading out. Hopefully CAA managed to get her bike going so she could get home. She said she had lots of fun meetings to attend today.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Donkey to Shark and WWdN
I have to say I think I played quite well last night. Managed to extract maximum value when I had the best hand and also played tight while for most of the evening. I did end up pushing in the WWdN due to other issues and flopped a set to suck out but the resuck showed up.
Anyway, it was my first D2S event and had a chance to see some of the PXF guys in action. Overall, it is a much easier game to be patient rather than blogger events where you almost always get reraised. As a few more bloggers get over there to play I think it will impact the pace of the game a bit.
Looking forward to next week's event:
Lets find out where the star players are online!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Fun Baseball game
Had great seats near first base which were 12 rows up. Had a great view of the Jays dugout when they all rushed underneath when the manager and pitcher started to get rowdy.
All I can say about the Jays is that only an idiotic team could lose an 8-0 lead. I was shocked it took so long to change the pitcher when everyone started swatting all of his pitches. Why wait for 8-5 to pull him? Anyways, it was a good game with tons of scoring.... my buddy hadn't been to a game in years so it was cool to drag him out.
No poker last night as I was out socializing two nights in a row... I think I will be in bed early this evening.
All I can say about the Jays is that only an idiotic team could lose an 8-0 lead. I was shocked it took so long to change the pitcher when everyone started swatting all of his pitches. Why wait for 8-5 to pull him? Anyways, it was a good game with tons of scoring.... my buddy hadn't been to a game in years so it was cool to drag him out.
No poker last night as I was out socializing two nights in a row... I think I will be in bed early this evening.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Over 100 rambling posts
Didn't get much time to play on the weekend... been donking it up at Pacific working on that PokerSavvy bonus. Not having much luck at the tables as SNGs and MTTs really mess with my cash game.
I finally got Doubleas book on friday and have only read about 30 pages. Looking forward to the rest of the book.
Tonight I will miss the Hoy because of a baseball game that I am attending... Jays vs. A's. Should be some fun as I had an extra ticket and invited a buddy to join me and someone else is paying for our dinner and drinks. Only way to go to a baseball game... lets hope this nice weather holds up.
I finally got Doubleas book on friday and have only read about 30 pages. Looking forward to the rest of the book.
Tonight I will miss the Hoy because of a baseball game that I am attending... Jays vs. A's. Should be some fun as I had an extra ticket and invited a buddy to join me and someone else is paying for our dinner and drinks. Only way to go to a baseball game... lets hope this nice weather holds up.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
No 3peat
Well I wasn't able to defend the 2 week reign as the local poker champ. I think I did play solid poker with one bad blind steal and also some bad luck.
Got all in preflop with my AA vs. K2o. Managed to split that pot. Here is how pokerstove looks at my odds:
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 88.5015 % 88.30% 00.21% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 11.4985 % 11.29% 00.21% { Kh2s }
Not sure how often I have hit that 0.21% type of outs but after the flop I am lucky I didn't lose the hand!
Board: 5c 4d 3h
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 78.1818 % 76.46% 01.72% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 21.8182 % 20.10% 01.72% { Kh2s }
Still well in the lead and the odds of splitting are still quite low.
Board: 5c 4d 3h 2d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 93.1818 % 86.36% 06.82% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 06.8182 % 00.00% 06.82% { Kh2s }
Back to being safely in the lead. The the river comes down with a 6 and ruins my little party.
I did get QQ really early on the button and had both blinds call my raise and had to fold on a scary flop. One guy flopped the nut straight and busted the other guy so glad the A on the board made it easy to fold. Also had JJ and just took it down on the flop when a flush draw flopped and I bet more than pot into a calling station. He decided to not call this time which was good and bad for me.
Astin was out again last night and he outlasted me but we didn't have a last longer bet in place. In the end I bailed from the ring game quickly because one of my buddies lost about $400 and wasn't in a great mood. So we went out for a few beers and that probably cost me less than playing in that crazy loose aggressive table.
Got all in preflop with my AA vs. K2o. Managed to split that pot. Here is how pokerstove looks at my odds:
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 88.5015 % 88.30% 00.21% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 11.4985 % 11.29% 00.21% { Kh2s }
Not sure how often I have hit that 0.21% type of outs but after the flop I am lucky I didn't lose the hand!
Board: 5c 4d 3h
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 78.1818 % 76.46% 01.72% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 21.8182 % 20.10% 01.72% { Kh2s }
Still well in the lead and the odds of splitting are still quite low.
Board: 5c 4d 3h 2d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 93.1818 % 86.36% 06.82% { AcAd }
Hand 2: 06.8182 % 00.00% 06.82% { Kh2s }
Back to being safely in the lead. The the river comes down with a 6 and ruins my little party.
I did get QQ really early on the button and had both blinds call my raise and had to fold on a scary flop. One guy flopped the nut straight and busted the other guy so glad the A on the board made it easy to fold. Also had JJ and just took it down on the flop when a flush draw flopped and I bet more than pot into a calling station. He decided to not call this time which was good and bad for me.
Astin was out again last night and he outlasted me but we didn't have a last longer bet in place. In the end I bailed from the ring game quickly because one of my buddies lost about $400 and wasn't in a great mood. So we went out for a few beers and that probably cost me less than playing in that crazy loose aggressive table.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Poker Savvy Summer League
BrainMc beat me up HU to take down the first league event. Hopefully I can put in a few other good finishes and get some of that prize money.
Just started playing on Pacific Poker and they have some of the craziest turbo tourneys I have ever played. Starting stacks are 800 so basically hit TP and push and hope for the best. That strategy managed to take down a 35 man event and also a 5 man event last night. The problem is that I need to get on the cash tables to earn off my bonus so I can get my ipod.... just a couple more sites to clear with Poker Savvy and it will be done. I might just get the cash and then buy an ipod video at bestbuy. Not sure yet but I do have some points with PSO that I have yet to spend and poker wants to buy me a gift.
Oh I did try to play solid poker for a while in the WWdn: Not but then when Hoy went out with AA vs. his bro's KK I lost focus. Aquaverse has improved so much as a player over the past few weeks it is amazing. He pulled a squeeze play on me last night which I didn't expect to see... grrr. Now the penguin is growling!
Just started playing on Pacific Poker and they have some of the craziest turbo tourneys I have ever played. Starting stacks are 800 so basically hit TP and push and hope for the best. That strategy managed to take down a 35 man event and also a 5 man event last night. The problem is that I need to get on the cash tables to earn off my bonus so I can get my ipod.... just a couple more sites to clear with Poker Savvy and it will be done. I might just get the cash and then buy an ipod video at bestbuy. Not sure yet but I do have some points with PSO that I have yet to spend and poker wants to buy me a gift.
Oh I did try to play solid poker for a while in the WWdn: Not but then when Hoy went out with AA vs. his bro's KK I lost focus. Aquaverse has improved so much as a player over the past few weeks it is amazing. He pulled a squeeze play on me last night which I didn't expect to see... grrr. Now the penguin is growling!
Live Event - Defending My Title
Managed to take down the $40 buy in event at my local card club. The prize for first was $460 this week so over two weeks I have managed to turn $40 into $820 of pure profit. It is amazing what can happen when your big hands hold up for an entire event.
I did pull off a suckout when I was shortstacked. Raise standard 3x bb with QJo from MP. A microstack pushes all in which is less than my raise and another guy pushes and it will cost me 1/2 of my stack to call. Blinds were increasing next hand and my read was that one would have Ax and the other would have a small pocket pair. So I called and they both had AQo! So I call for 2 J's to hit the board and I get one on the flop and the other on the turn to win the hand. Talk about establishing yourself as a loose insane player early. Stole the blinds a couple times to get to the final table.
Got JJ when we were six handed and the wife calls me to tell me she is going to the gym in the morning. So when it is raised and then a super tight player pushes all in I fold because everytime the wife chats with me it is super bad luck! The guy can't believe I folded J's and shows me pocket 9's. Great timing sweetheart! A maniac at the table started busting people with junk but he raised every pot for the next 15 mins. Finally, we get to the final four and a super tight player turns push monkey now that we are in the money. He gets called by maniac and the maniac puts him out 4th. This is the point where I felt that I could really win this because I felt that I was a best player playing. Blinds are now 1,500 / 3,000 and I have 20k when 3 handed play starts. Time to steal blinds just to stay alive and they both tightened up to help me out! Finally the maniac calls my all in bet from the SB when I have KJo vs. his J5s! Nice call out of him and my hand holds up and now I am the big stack at the table. He goes out in the next hand and we are HU. First hand I get A4o and decide to push to keep him guessing and he first asks how much are the prizes for 1st and 2nd. The answer is $460 for 1st or $230 for 2nd. Based on that info I put him on a weak ace but I was very happy to see A3o when he called.
He was left with 4k of chips and that became the new BB! It felt good to win the same tournament two weeks in a row to make me feel like my play can be good sometimes. For a live event I find that mentally it is easier to prepare than when playing online. Now if I could just put that type of concentration to my online game I am sure that my results would improve.
I did pull off a suckout when I was shortstacked. Raise standard 3x bb with QJo from MP. A microstack pushes all in which is less than my raise and another guy pushes and it will cost me 1/2 of my stack to call. Blinds were increasing next hand and my read was that one would have Ax and the other would have a small pocket pair. So I called and they both had AQo! So I call for 2 J's to hit the board and I get one on the flop and the other on the turn to win the hand. Talk about establishing yourself as a loose insane player early. Stole the blinds a couple times to get to the final table.
Got JJ when we were six handed and the wife calls me to tell me she is going to the gym in the morning. So when it is raised and then a super tight player pushes all in I fold because everytime the wife chats with me it is super bad luck! The guy can't believe I folded J's and shows me pocket 9's. Great timing sweetheart! A maniac at the table started busting people with junk but he raised every pot for the next 15 mins. Finally, we get to the final four and a super tight player turns push monkey now that we are in the money. He gets called by maniac and the maniac puts him out 4th. This is the point where I felt that I could really win this because I felt that I was a best player playing. Blinds are now 1,500 / 3,000 and I have 20k when 3 handed play starts. Time to steal blinds just to stay alive and they both tightened up to help me out! Finally the maniac calls my all in bet from the SB when I have KJo vs. his J5s! Nice call out of him and my hand holds up and now I am the big stack at the table. He goes out in the next hand and we are HU. First hand I get A4o and decide to push to keep him guessing and he first asks how much are the prizes for 1st and 2nd. The answer is $460 for 1st or $230 for 2nd. Based on that info I put him on a weak ace but I was very happy to see A3o when he called.
He was left with 4k of chips and that became the new BB! It felt good to win the same tournament two weeks in a row to make me feel like my play can be good sometimes. For a live event I find that mentally it is easier to prepare than when playing online. Now if I could just put that type of concentration to my online game I am sure that my results would improve.
Friday, August 04, 2006
WWdN Not the way I wanted to lose!
Kat crushed my chances last night when she smoked my AA's all in on the turn vs. her TPSK but she picked up a flush draw as well... Just so no one thinks I played it slow I did my usual raise preflop (which was slightly more than 3x bb to round to the nearest 66 - 666 in this case). She leads out at me on the flop with an approx. 1/2 pot bet (666) I reraised her by almost 5.4x her bet (3636 - double lucky bet! which was larger than pot to prevent flush draws). How she called that is beyond me (maybe the beer she was drinking was having an effect on her pot odds calcs!)other than my image might have her thinking that she was ahead. I was surprised that she called and then I figured that if she had a set then I would pay her off, since most of the cash was in the middle at this point. So all in we go on the turn and the river kills me.
Board: Jc 9c 5d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 72.6263 % 72.63% 00.00% { AhAs }
Hand 2: 27.3737 % 27.37% 00.00% { JdTd }
Not sure on the 3rd board card but I remember a rag being there. So I picked a great time to get a lot of her chips into the middle.
Board: Jc 9c 5d 2d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 68.1818 % 68.18% 00.00% { AhAs }
Hand 2: 31.8182 % 31.82% 00.00% { JdTd }
Added the flush draw which improves her chances but no way either of us are backing down now from any bet due to pot odds. All in time!
Lets look at the hand that rspr41 managed to beat me on to make me a super short stack.
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 64.3397 % 64.11% 00.23% { Ac4s }
Hand 2: 35.6603 % 35.43% 00.23% { Jd3h }
My read was that it was his 15th push in about 5 orbits! Get my money in ahead and hope he doesn't hit. Damn J is the first card off of the damn deck. I need bigger edges but I am not one to back down from a race!
I noted on slb's blog that he played awesome and he amazed me with his quiet way of handling his bad beat when his AK vs. my QQ had a K hit on the turn... river is a Q and I survive. Nice that as a shortstack I can win the coinflips... but when you need one to take a commanding lead you just can't get it done. Riverstars... I am starting to hate the site... I do prefer Full Tilt as I get rakeback on that site. The point I was making is that slb deserved this win and it won't be the last.
So 4th was my best showing in a couple weeks and I was pleased with my final table performance. Tough crowd to beat so I should be happy but being bubble boy is always tough to accept.
2 posts in one day... it must be a friday before a long weekend... well I am spending this afternoon sailing and drinking beer on a beautiful sunny day. Should be a blast.
Board: Jc 9c 5d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 72.6263 % 72.63% 00.00% { AhAs }
Hand 2: 27.3737 % 27.37% 00.00% { JdTd }
Not sure on the 3rd board card but I remember a rag being there. So I picked a great time to get a lot of her chips into the middle.
Board: Jc 9c 5d 2d
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 68.1818 % 68.18% 00.00% { AhAs }
Hand 2: 31.8182 % 31.82% 00.00% { JdTd }
Added the flush draw which improves her chances but no way either of us are backing down now from any bet due to pot odds. All in time!
Lets look at the hand that rspr41 managed to beat me on to make me a super short stack.
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 64.3397 % 64.11% 00.23% { Ac4s }
Hand 2: 35.6603 % 35.43% 00.23% { Jd3h }
My read was that it was his 15th push in about 5 orbits! Get my money in ahead and hope he doesn't hit. Damn J is the first card off of the damn deck. I need bigger edges but I am not one to back down from a race!
I noted on slb's blog that he played awesome and he amazed me with his quiet way of handling his bad beat when his AK vs. my QQ had a K hit on the turn... river is a Q and I survive. Nice that as a shortstack I can win the coinflips... but when you need one to take a commanding lead you just can't get it done. Riverstars... I am starting to hate the site... I do prefer Full Tilt as I get rakeback on that site. The point I was making is that slb deserved this win and it won't be the last.
So 4th was my best showing in a couple weeks and I was pleased with my final table performance. Tough crowd to beat so I should be happy but being bubble boy is always tough to accept.
2 posts in one day... it must be a friday before a long weekend... well I am spending this afternoon sailing and drinking beer on a beautiful sunny day. Should be a blast.
Tough hand - read prior post first
So here are some stats from that hand I mentioned in the prior post… looking at top 2 pair and I figured he hit his set, but the straight was a definite possibility to me as well. Tight passive players just don’t lead out for 60% of their remaining stack with junk, but I knew that he wanted to end it here.
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 17.5758 % 16.77% 00.81% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 82.4242 % 81.62% 00.81% { TcTd }
I am not good against a set.
---
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 17.9293 % 17.47% 00.45% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 82.0707 % 81.62% 00.45% { QdJd }
I am not good against a straight.
---
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 91.0101 % 90.20% 00.81% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 08.9899 % 08.18% 00.81% { KcTd }
In actual fact I was crushing the guy but with my luck buddy would have hit his 2 outer!
---
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 17.5758 % 16.77% 00.81% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 82.4242 % 81.62% 00.81% { TcTd }
I am not good against a set.
---
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 17.9293 % 17.47% 00.45% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 82.0707 % 81.62% 00.45% { QdJd }
I am not good against a straight.
---
Board: As Kh Th
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 91.0101 % 90.20% 00.81% { AcKd }
Hand 2: 08.9899 % 08.18% 00.81% { KcTd }
In actual fact I was crushing the guy but with my luck buddy would have hit his 2 outer!
---
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Won a live MTT ... Game Turning Around?
Wow, I almost can't believe I won that tournament last night. 3 table MTT with $40 buy in and I took down the $400 for first place. Kat and Astin were also playing in the event, with Astin to my right for the first table. Kat got frisky early, and found herself on the rail waiting for the lucrative cash game. Don't ask her about her hand with the boat!
These tournaments look great with 4k in starting chips and a 25/50 starting blind structure, but in the end the blinds go up too fast. 15 min levels means only a few hands before you start to get to the 200/400 level and hopefully you have chips to fight back the blind stealers. My first big hand was 64h UTG (50/100 level) with me limping in. I was playing tight (limping with this hand to switch gears a bit) at this super aggressive table and it gets around to CO who raises to 2.5x bb. Astin calls and I follow suit and see a 763 rainbow hit the board. Checked to the raiser and he makes it 300 to go. That was quite a small bet into an 800 pot so I called figuring that a 4, 5 or 6 give me a hidden made hand. Turn is a 6 and I check raise him all in. He calls with J's and bricks the river and I am chipped up.
Got to the final table with about 3.5k in chips and then robbed Astin of all of his to start my final table domination. I pushed with AJs and Astin had AKo and I manged to hit my 3 outer. Felt bad taking out a blogger at the final table, since there were others I would rather eliminate. My AKs rivered 10's to knock out another player. In another hand, a Q on the river gave me a set of Q's to put a guy out who paired his K on the turn.
Now we get to the hand of the evening for me.... AKo and blinds are 500/1000 so I raise to 3k from MP. There are three shortstacks left, out of 6 players (less than 5k) and I am the chipleader with about 35k in front of me. BB has 20k and he calls my raise. My read on the BB is that he is tight passive, and he was at my first table to my left and had not see me show any poor hands when I turned over my cards. So the pot is 6500 and he leads out with a 10k bet on a flop of Ax Kh 10h. Damn top two pair.... either I am really ahead or really behind in this situation. Why would he leave 7k behind? What would you guys do in this situation? Raise, call or fold? What hand does the opponent have?
I will wait for someone (if anyone gets this far!) to respond before I reveal what happened.
These tournaments look great with 4k in starting chips and a 25/50 starting blind structure, but in the end the blinds go up too fast. 15 min levels means only a few hands before you start to get to the 200/400 level and hopefully you have chips to fight back the blind stealers. My first big hand was 64h UTG (50/100 level) with me limping in. I was playing tight (limping with this hand to switch gears a bit) at this super aggressive table and it gets around to CO who raises to 2.5x bb. Astin calls and I follow suit and see a 763 rainbow hit the board. Checked to the raiser and he makes it 300 to go. That was quite a small bet into an 800 pot so I called figuring that a 4, 5 or 6 give me a hidden made hand. Turn is a 6 and I check raise him all in. He calls with J's and bricks the river and I am chipped up.
Got to the final table with about 3.5k in chips and then robbed Astin of all of his to start my final table domination. I pushed with AJs and Astin had AKo and I manged to hit my 3 outer. Felt bad taking out a blogger at the final table, since there were others I would rather eliminate. My AKs rivered 10's to knock out another player. In another hand, a Q on the river gave me a set of Q's to put a guy out who paired his K on the turn.
Now we get to the hand of the evening for me.... AKo and blinds are 500/1000 so I raise to 3k from MP. There are three shortstacks left, out of 6 players (less than 5k) and I am the chipleader with about 35k in front of me. BB has 20k and he calls my raise. My read on the BB is that he is tight passive, and he was at my first table to my left and had not see me show any poor hands when I turned over my cards. So the pot is 6500 and he leads out with a 10k bet on a flop of Ax Kh 10h. Damn top two pair.... either I am really ahead or really behind in this situation. Why would he leave 7k behind? What would you guys do in this situation? Raise, call or fold? What hand does the opponent have?
I will wait for someone (if anyone gets this far!) to respond before I reveal what happened.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Live Action & Playing Online Tired
On Saturday night I managed to play a bit of live poker with a loose bunch that don't know the rules well. Shit like raising less than the BB works in this game and I try to not sound like such a picky guy when it happens. One hand I raised a hand (blinds 25/50) to 150 and got reraised to 200... I ask what the hell is that type of raise and the table thinks it is acceptable. 3 callers and it gets back to me so I push. Hate min raisers who can't put in a real raise.... hate calling stations who don't know how to fold unless they think they are against a monster.... they all folded in this case and I turned over my cards which I hadn't looked at... Q7o.
Big hand of the night for me was in a side game of 5 players with winner getting 80% and 2nd getting their money back. 25 minutes into the HU I get all in with my A9o vs. K6o ... the the flop is just beautiful!
Board: Kh Ks 6c
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 00.3042 % 00.32% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 99.6958 % 105.98% 00.00% { Kd7s }
Turn is A….
Board: Kh Ks 6c Ad
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 04.5448 % 04.56% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 95.4551 % 95.70% 00.00% { Kd7s }
River is another A. And all is right in the world again!
Played a bit of cash last night on FT with slb and he managed to bubble a Paris Hilton token after stacking me with his runner runner straight. Pushed with AK on a K high board and figured that one of the guys would call with a worse K (other guy in the hand had bottom two pair). I doubt he will have a post on his site with a bunch of ranting from me. Bad read but good result... that happens in poker. Made a few dollars playing the cash tables but I have to work on TPTK vs. 40% of full buy in stacks. Hard to make any bet at all without getting the odds to call the reraise.
Big hand of the night for me was in a side game of 5 players with winner getting 80% and 2nd getting their money back. 25 minutes into the HU I get all in with my A9o vs. K6o ... the the flop is just beautiful!
Board: Kh Ks 6c
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 00.3042 % 00.32% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 99.6958 % 105.98% 00.00% { Kd7s }
Turn is A….
Board: Kh Ks 6c Ad
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 04.5448 % 04.56% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 95.4551 % 95.70% 00.00% { Kd7s }
River is another A. And all is right in the world again!
Played a bit of cash last night on FT with slb and he managed to bubble a Paris Hilton token after stacking me with his runner runner straight. Pushed with AK on a K high board and figured that one of the guys would call with a worse K (other guy in the hand had bottom two pair). I doubt he will have a post on his site with a bunch of ranting from me. Bad read but good result... that happens in poker. Made a few dollars playing the cash tables but I have to work on TPTK vs. 40% of full buy in stacks. Hard to make any bet at all without getting the odds to call the reraise.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
DADI: Got Smokkee'd!
Built a good 7k stack early in the DADI due to a player who rebought and pushed all in on every hand. My problem had is when I flopped top two pair with a flush draw on the board. So I bet more than pot and Smokkee called. Turn puts the flush on the board and I bet trying to figure out if he has the flush. Both of us are capable of representing a hand so that makes it even tougher on me to put him on anything. He calls and the river doesn't give me the boat and I end up calling his value bet and there goes my big stack.
Next hand AKs doesn't hit my flush and my stack dwindles some more. Then I end up putting about 6 buyins into the pot and endured bad mouthing from a serious player. Luckily I joined Waffles for some NL25 action and ended up $100 so a plus evening overall.
Next hand AKs doesn't hit my flush and my stack dwindles some more. Then I end up putting about 6 buyins into the pot and endured bad mouthing from a serious player. Luckily I joined Waffles for some NL25 action and ended up $100 so a plus evening overall.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Blah Blah Blah
Damn I suck at poker right now. Going to only play blogger events and small cash games.... lost over 300 last night playing like a donk... I don't know where the loose passive crap comes from and I know it is wrong but I want to see a flop! The confidence isn't there so I think I will spend more time reading and much less time playing.
To top all of that off I think I am going to try to get to bed much earlier.
To top all of that off I think I am going to try to get to bed much earlier.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
SNG Challenge - Suckout night
1st event tonight reraised preflop all in with JJ (my computer was acting up so I couldn't stop and go) vs. AK and K on river. Out 32nd.
2nd event flopped top two pair vs. flush draw with mid pair all on on the flop and flush hits on river. Out 42nd.
WWdN: Not the is going to start soon so I will play another 45 SNG. Lets hope I can win a race in the next one. Or at least let me suckout against MiamiDon in the blogger event! Well donked out of that as well tonight.
3rd SNG lost to another flush draw with TPGK. Amazing how I can't get anyone to fold with a push. I think betting smaller might get a couple more folds.
4th SNG tried to wield the hammer and could not get a guy to fold KQo while reraising preflop.
5th SNG got 18th place when my JJ got up against 88 and he hit his straight on the river.
Ouch .... beat up hard two days in a row.... time to catch up on some sleep.
2nd event flopped top two pair vs. flush draw with mid pair all on on the flop and flush hits on river. Out 42nd.
WWdN: Not the is going to start soon so I will play another 45 SNG. Lets hope I can win a race in the next one. Or at least let me suckout against MiamiDon in the blogger event! Well donked out of that as well tonight.
3rd SNG lost to another flush draw with TPGK. Amazing how I can't get anyone to fold with a push. I think betting smaller might get a couple more folds.
4th SNG tried to wield the hammer and could not get a guy to fold KQo while reraising preflop.
5th SNG got 18th place when my JJ got up against 88 and he hit his straight on the river.
Ouch .... beat up hard two days in a row.... time to catch up on some sleep.
Donking it up live
Had a blast playing poker with Kat last night. Unfortunately, I was donking it up pretty badly but hopefully they remember that the next time we sit down. The reraising a buddy with junk probably contributed to the situation where getting respect at the tables was difficult. The biggest change playing live vs. playing in the blogger events is the number of calls. Live play usually reminds me of a couple levels lower online.
Of course I made mistakes ... TPTK lost half of a buy-in on that one, flopped two pair and saw the flush hit on turn and straight hit on river (folded to bet), bluff got called (don't bluff calling stations), lost an all in with AQs vs a buddy with 73o (he called me without looking at his cards - he was defending his blinds) and vs. K10 where a pair of 3's is good. That and one last missed flush draw with an overcard and couldn't connect. See you later $300. Get it back next week.
Kat bubbled because she doesn't have any use for cash or something like that! :-(
Looking forward to putting up more points in the SNG Challenge but I won't drop to the $1 tables to get that done!
Of course I made mistakes ... TPTK lost half of a buy-in on that one, flopped two pair and saw the flush hit on turn and straight hit on river (folded to bet), bluff got called (don't bluff calling stations), lost an all in with AQs vs a buddy with 73o (he called me without looking at his cards - he was defending his blinds) and vs. K10 where a pair of 3's is good. That and one last missed flush draw with an overcard and couldn't connect. See you later $300. Get it back next week.
Kat bubbled because she doesn't have any use for cash or something like that! :-(
Looking forward to putting up more points in the SNG Challenge but I won't drop to the $1 tables to get that done!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Bad Start to the Day
I knew I should have ordered this book direct from the author but I wanted it quick.... Grrr.
Order Placed: July 6, 2006
Delayed items--your approval required
Items Ordered
Approve
Pressure Poker : Poker Strategy and Tools to Improve Your Game, Scott Gallant
Updated Shipping Estimate: August 12, 2006 - August 26, 2006
Updated Delivery Estimate: August 23, 2006 - September 12, 2006
Your approval required by: August 14, 2006
So I guess I will be donking it up until mid-September now. If you haven't ordered yet you might want to get to the front of the waiting list.
Order Placed: July 6, 2006
Delayed items--your approval required
Items Ordered
Approve
Pressure Poker : Poker Strategy and Tools to Improve Your Game, Scott Gallant
Updated Shipping Estimate: August 12, 2006 - August 26, 2006
Updated Delivery Estimate: August 23, 2006 - September 12, 2006
Your approval required by: August 14, 2006
So I guess I will be donking it up until mid-September now. If you haven't ordered yet you might want to get to the front of the waiting list.
SNG Challenge - Slow Start
So tonight I started the SNG Challenge and things were not going my way. In the first tournament I got into a blind war with the chip leader on the final table bubble. When my flush didn't hit IGH in 10th. That was all I could play while little Guin was sleeping.
Later in the evening figure I will give it a shot and put up some early pressure. The donk in me was fighting to be let loose and this resulted in a finish of 30th when I raise 5x bb against an aggro player. K high flop and I drop the hoy only to be called not just by K better kicker but K better kicker which is also 2nd pair!
Third event.... this one was the one that put me on tilt... call a min raise (lots of that in these tournaments) and flop comes down giving me nut flush draw. I push and buddy calls with 2nd pair! Of course that holds and I finish in 45th! How many points do I get for that?!
4th event... 44th place 'enuff said! Grumble.... go tell the wife that I suck and she laughs at me and heads to bed.
On the girlie thing I am chatting with Pres Lee and mention that in the next one I want to finish higher than the 40's or last 10 mins at least. I find if I reset the bar low then it is easier to get off of tilt.
Had a beautiful hand that gave me the chiplead which I had for most of the tournament. Get KQo in MP2 and come in for my standard raise (rounded to the nearest 36 - so instead of 120 which would be 3x bb it was a 136 raise) and get one caller and then the BB min raises me. Call and other guy calls. Flop is AJ10d and I have Kd. So nut straight with nut flush draw. I can't put either on two d's since all face cards except for the Q is accounted for. The min raiser bets out 60 into an approx. 600 pot. The guy was annoying and I figured he had AA that he couldn't laydown so I pushed. It surprised me when both called. Min raiser has KK (okay what a donk!) while the other guy at least has J10 and is drawing to a full house. My hand holds up and they both go home.... 40th and 39th.... my first goal is met and I have a bunch of chips to play with.
So I get to the final table and get over the darn bubble and then start to have some fun. We are 5 handed and I have lost 2 hands to the same idiot calling station that has been able to stick around far too long... So he comes in with a min raise and I reraise him so he will be all in if he calls because I hold the holy grail of starting hands.....
As you can imagine there are some that wouldn't make the reraise play like that but lets see how it turned out:
Took the lead on the flop and that increased a bit of hope for the villian but the Hammer is GOOT! Back in the chip lead and ready for more soul crushing. This move really puts the table on edge because they have no clue what you are holding now.
On the next hand that I have a picture of is where I get min raised (no respect for the min raise - NONE) and flop an OESD so I lead out and end up all in with villian holding Q8o. If they were willing to get all in at that point you figure they could have pushed preflop and I would have folded.
So now I hit and they go home in 4th. In the end (this post is too long and I need to get to bed!) I took down 2nd place. So not bad overall but a few big suckouts for me to do that well. Thanks to all those who spent time cheering for my donk moves. Presdavelee liked watching me push a guy all in on a 10 high board (he reraised me preflop and I called)... somehow he called my raise with KK and I proceeded to turn my 103s into two pair on the turn to send the guy home.
How about my 33 holding up vs. 1010 heads up? The guy did get lucky a little later on when he thought his A4o was good against my AQs. Rivered a K so my kicker didn't count and that would have left him crippled. Oh well win some and lose more!
Friday, July 14, 2006
WWdN Not The Winner Again
Had to settle for third last night when Iakaris finally decided to stop letting me go over the top of him again. I did get a little careless on that one with Q8o vs. his A10o. Good job Iak and Wes for outlasting my push monkey style at the end there. I was playing for first and wanted those 1k of chips to end up in front of me.
Pokerstove results:
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 63.6679 % 63.47% 00.20% { AcTh }
Hand 2: 36.3320 % 36.13% 00.20% { Qh8d }
I feel if I actually concentrate I can go far in almost any MTT I am playing in. Last night I don't recall any suckouts and my big pocket pairs held up. Looking forward to the SNG challenge.
Also decided that if I was going to play some cash games then winning some money should be the goal. So 200 hands of NL100 yesterday +$80 and 60 or so hands against the bloggers (plus assorted donks) +$14. So a step in the right direction for a change.
MiamiDon thought I either read him too easily or just misplayed my hand to put him out of the tournament last night. I raise with 33 and call his min raise (I don't fold to min raises Don very often!) and the flop is 9 4 4. At work so I don't have suits but I might edit later with a pic if I took one. I lead out and he raises (he has been playng a TAG style so I have him on high cards and I don't think this flop helped him) so I reraise to put him basically all in. Also of note is that I would still be alive if I double him up so max pressure applied to the shorter stack. He pushes with AJ and I take down the hand. Good read or just lucky?! Let me know.
Going to be trying to get into a bit better shape (couldn't get much worse) and I hope that will help me concentrate longer while playing. Always a poker angle to most things these days but it makes things easier with the wife when I am home more often as well.
Pokerstove results:
Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 63.6679 % 63.47% 00.20% { AcTh }
Hand 2: 36.3320 % 36.13% 00.20% { Qh8d }
I feel if I actually concentrate I can go far in almost any MTT I am playing in. Last night I don't recall any suckouts and my big pocket pairs held up. Looking forward to the SNG challenge.
Also decided that if I was going to play some cash games then winning some money should be the goal. So 200 hands of NL100 yesterday +$80 and 60 or so hands against the bloggers (plus assorted donks) +$14. So a step in the right direction for a change.
MiamiDon thought I either read him too easily or just misplayed my hand to put him out of the tournament last night. I raise with 33 and call his min raise (I don't fold to min raises Don very often!) and the flop is 9 4 4. At work so I don't have suits but I might edit later with a pic if I took one. I lead out and he raises (he has been playng a TAG style so I have him on high cards and I don't think this flop helped him) so I reraise to put him basically all in. Also of note is that I would still be alive if I double him up so max pressure applied to the shorter stack. He pushes with AJ and I take down the hand. Good read or just lucky?! Let me know.
Going to be trying to get into a bit better shape (couldn't get much worse) and I hope that will help me concentrate longer while playing. Always a poker angle to most things these days but it makes things easier with the wife when I am home more often as well.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Mookie Mookie Mookie
I managed to luckbox my way to the final table last night in the Mookie. At the first break I had a 2k chiplead but then started to get tired. What that means is that I stopped attacking the blinds and stopped defending until about three other people at the table had similar stacks.
Luckbox moment of the night happened with 15 people left and Up4Poker sat down to my right. He proceeded to raise about 3 out of 4 pots and mentioned that he was working on his image to exploit it later. Since we were getting closer to the bubble I figure he will laydown A-small to a reraise especially since my stack was 60% of his stack. He raises again and I assume he is stealing so I reraise all in with K9o (but this is based on the fact that he hasn't seen me play a pot yet and he has been raising the last few hands) and he calls with JJ. I river the 9 high straight and back to 1st in chips overall.
It is at that point that I should and I knew I should tighten up my play. Instead I end up raising with Ax and Mookie comes over the top. I end up folding to his lead out bet on the flop and my stack advantage is gone. So instead of using the luck I was given to a good advantage I end up donating chips away. Eventually I was put between Garthmeister and Hoyazo and it was a blind stealing chipfest at that table. Dnasty13 who eventually won the entire tournament played some awesome poker at that table to stay above water.
Iakaris was bubble boy last night and he stayed very level headed about getting reraised at least 6 or 7 times preflop. He is a tight player and I know he isn't raising with junk like most in the event, so going over the top on him (happened twice last night - showed him JJ the second time) could get a person into a lot of trouble.
CC showed some awesome play that even after I was out of the tournament I wanted to see more of his LAGGY style (only reason for going to the cash table). He sure knows how to committ to a hand and apply maximum pressure.... once I read Doubleas book I should be able to deal with this type of player! slb was unstoppable in the cash game last night (he rivered me again for a few dollars!) which is good because he can crush that level consistently. I learned the hard way that playing calling station with bloggers will get you hurt (one typo cost me a bit as well when I overbet a pot with KK on J high flop $22 into a $3 pot!). MiamiDon is another player that I want to watch closer going forward as he is so solid. They probably wouldn't believe me when I say that I am usually just a TAG style player.
My death in the tournament came with a stupid push with 55. I was going to fold since Up4Poker limped from UTG which was weird (he said he had 55!). In MP and I should have been thinking more about other shortstacks and moving up the ladder a bit instead of pushing. If I limp then Hoy raises big and the BB calls and then I can get away from that hand.... so easy with hindsight. That is the problem of playing tired in that you eventually can't think properly... small pocket pairs try to see the flop cheap. Hoyazo pushes and so did the BB (can't remember who it was) and it was 10's for Hoy holding up to give him a huge chip lead.
Lately, I have been working on the LAG style of play a bit more especially in MTTs. Twice last night I managed to get guys to go all in against me on a flop with nothing but 2nd pair. Nice when you hit a hand that you can get paid off since most think I am donking around by reverse hoying them for the 3rd time in 3 hands!
Luckbox moment of the night happened with 15 people left and Up4Poker sat down to my right. He proceeded to raise about 3 out of 4 pots and mentioned that he was working on his image to exploit it later. Since we were getting closer to the bubble I figure he will laydown A-small to a reraise especially since my stack was 60% of his stack. He raises again and I assume he is stealing so I reraise all in with K9o (but this is based on the fact that he hasn't seen me play a pot yet and he has been raising the last few hands) and he calls with JJ. I river the 9 high straight and back to 1st in chips overall.
It is at that point that I should and I knew I should tighten up my play. Instead I end up raising with Ax and Mookie comes over the top. I end up folding to his lead out bet on the flop and my stack advantage is gone. So instead of using the luck I was given to a good advantage I end up donating chips away. Eventually I was put between Garthmeister and Hoyazo and it was a blind stealing chipfest at that table. Dnasty13 who eventually won the entire tournament played some awesome poker at that table to stay above water.
Iakaris was bubble boy last night and he stayed very level headed about getting reraised at least 6 or 7 times preflop. He is a tight player and I know he isn't raising with junk like most in the event, so going over the top on him (happened twice last night - showed him JJ the second time) could get a person into a lot of trouble.
CC showed some awesome play that even after I was out of the tournament I wanted to see more of his LAGGY style (only reason for going to the cash table). He sure knows how to committ to a hand and apply maximum pressure.... once I read Doubleas book I should be able to deal with this type of player! slb was unstoppable in the cash game last night (he rivered me again for a few dollars!) which is good because he can crush that level consistently. I learned the hard way that playing calling station with bloggers will get you hurt (one typo cost me a bit as well when I overbet a pot with KK on J high flop $22 into a $3 pot!). MiamiDon is another player that I want to watch closer going forward as he is so solid. They probably wouldn't believe me when I say that I am usually just a TAG style player.
My death in the tournament came with a stupid push with 55. I was going to fold since Up4Poker limped from UTG which was weird (he said he had 55!). In MP and I should have been thinking more about other shortstacks and moving up the ladder a bit instead of pushing. If I limp then Hoy raises big and the BB calls and then I can get away from that hand.... so easy with hindsight. That is the problem of playing tired in that you eventually can't think properly... small pocket pairs try to see the flop cheap. Hoyazo pushes and so did the BB (can't remember who it was) and it was 10's for Hoy holding up to give him a huge chip lead.
Lately, I have been working on the LAG style of play a bit more especially in MTTs. Twice last night I managed to get guys to go all in against me on a flop with nothing but 2nd pair. Nice when you hit a hand that you can get paid off since most think I am donking around by reverse hoying them for the 3rd time in 3 hands!
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