...and it was so much fun I went ahead and won another one. With no $100K sponsorship package and still a little pissed about the whole ordeal it was clear I had to take matters into my own hands and go get paid. Of course seeing as it was Sunday that meant trying to luckbox some donkaments. Unfortunately all the US-based sites tournaments start super late here and I have a flight at 8am so I didn't really want to bother playing all the late ones and risk having to miss my flight if I was at a final table or something (unless it was a really big final table). Fortunately there are a lot of Euro-donkaments that start at more Euro-friendly times so I just played everything that started from 12pm EST to 5pm EST (6pm-11pm here). Timex told me about a $550 tournament on Betfair that had a $100K guarantee so I made an account there and gave that a shot as well. Lucky he did, because that was where I finally broke my ~9 month slump. It only had 156 players so there was a nice overlay and after a roller coaster final table I finally ran (really) good at the end for once and took it down for $30K.
I guess when it rains it pours though. One tournament I've finished 2nd in at least twice without winning (possibly 3 times not sure) is the Full Tilt $163 tournament. I usually only play the evening one but they now have the usual 3pm one on Sundays as well and it gets a big field. 699 players meant first paid just over $25K and I ran insanely good in this one as well (the first 3 times I got all-in preflop in this tournament in the early-mid stages I was dominated but got there). I cardracked pretty hard at the final table again and shipped this one too. No luck in the other donkaments but +$50k is definitely one of my best days ever and easily my best ever Sunday. Not bad considering I stopped registering 4 hours earlier than usual. Anyways my flight leaves pretty soon so I better go. Peace,
Mike
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sigh.....
Well I'm out of the Everest contest. I don't imagine I ever actually had a chance. The day went pretty well, we played a few sit n gos and I finished 4th and 2nd which is reasonably solid. The interview was two questions, one about Everest and one about poker in general. You get 5 minutes to prepare your thoughts then go in and do a 5 min interview. I got a couple tricky questions but I think I actually handled them pretty well. Anyways then they narrow it down to 20 people at the end of the day. I wasn't selected, but I kind of wasn't surprised. It seemed pretty obvious that their objective point system they claimed would be used was complete bs. Choose one/all of these reasons: I'm Canadian and they're concentrating on the European market. I only recently joined the site mainly for this contest and they wanted to reward their regulars more. They wanted people who were legitimate amateurs to give a shot to "Live the Dream" like the contest name, not someone who was kind of already doing that. Whatever the case, I don't think anything I said could have given me much of a chance as it turns out. I guess I still got paid to hang out in Vienna for a few days which is alright. Vienna seems like a really nice city, but I'm still probably not going to get to seeing much of it with tomorrow being the last Sunday of the quarter hence $1K buy-in Sunday million. I'm pretty much planning to watch March Madness all night, sleep forever because I'm tired and jetlagged as hell, then get up and play Sundays all night. Next up is EPT San Remo which I head to on Monday, I really wish I was playing but it's sold out. Despite the disappointment I somehow still feel really good about this trip, for whatever the hell that's worth.
Mike
Mike
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Everest Contest Preview
I didn't play at all this weekend hence the absence of blog updates. I spent Thursday-Sunday visiting family and friends in the area and enjoying that special holy weekend that comes but once a year: the first weekend of March Madness, when anything can and invariably does happen. Today I played a nice long session to make up for it a little bit though, and made two final tables. I finished 5th in Party Super Monday for ~$1700 and 2nd (siiiiiiiiiigh) in the iPoker (Titan) network $50 rebuy for ~$8K. So I finished up about $6K at tournaments but lost the same amount playing cash so the day was more or less a wash. I'm leaving for Europe on Thursday, with the first stop being Vienna for the Everest Poker live casting (March 28-31). I haven't really gone through what this involves on here yet so I'll take the time to do so now. The 200 players invited compete for 10 sponsorship packages. We are judged in 7 categories:
Blogging Skills: 10
This category was basically just graded on how many entries you write during the last 4 weeks. I wrote more than required so presumably I received 10/10 points.
Internet Voting: 10%
This is the part where all of you came in. We were divided into the groups of 10 players at the final tables we qualified from. I finished 2nd in my group (the winner had ~8500 hits, I got around 6000, and the next guy had under 3000) for 9 points. Thanks!
Online Poker Skill: 20%
Live Poker Skill: 20%
Presumably these are my strongest categories. Very few if any players in the competition will have the kind of poker resume I've built up in both live and online events over the last year or two. There will also be some tournaments played between us at the live casting which will have some weight on the live portion but I don't imagine that will weigh very heavily compared to results in major tournaments.
Personality: 15%
This is the part where you guys deliver your best one-liners. I'm certainly not the biggest personality out there but I'm fairly certain I'm not too big of a douchebag either.
Everest Poker Knowledge: 15%
I've been doing some studying. I'm not really sure how they will test this category or what types of things they expect me to know but I've been absorbing whatever information I can find.
Speaking Skills: 10%
Perhaps not my strongest category but the experience from being on TV for the World Cup of Poker and doing the interviews for that will help a lot as well as experience giving academic presentations and such. Again nothing I'm too concerned about.
So overall I definitely like my chances and I think it'll be a fun weekend in Austria.
After that it's off to EPT San Remo (April 1-5) which has unfortunately sold out. I hadn't bought in yet so I'll probably have to miss the main event, but there's a 2K Euro 2nd chance event and having to just hang out in Italy isn't a terrible fate. Then there's a week to travel around a bit before EPT Monte Carlo (April 11-18) which I've won a package for already. This is the big one. 10K Euro buy-in, last year first was over $2M USD/CAD and it's looking even bigger this year. Winning this would be a pretty good birthday present to myself. As always blog updates should be more frequent when I'm on the road so check back often starting this weekend.
Mike
Blogging Skills: 10
This category was basically just graded on how many entries you write during the last 4 weeks. I wrote more than required so presumably I received 10/10 points.
Internet Voting: 10%
This is the part where all of you came in. We were divided into the groups of 10 players at the final tables we qualified from. I finished 2nd in my group (the winner had ~8500 hits, I got around 6000, and the next guy had under 3000) for 9 points. Thanks!
Online Poker Skill: 20%
Live Poker Skill: 20%
Presumably these are my strongest categories. Very few if any players in the competition will have the kind of poker resume I've built up in both live and online events over the last year or two. There will also be some tournaments played between us at the live casting which will have some weight on the live portion but I don't imagine that will weigh very heavily compared to results in major tournaments.
Personality: 15%
This is the part where you guys deliver your best one-liners. I'm certainly not the biggest personality out there but I'm fairly certain I'm not too big of a douchebag either.
Everest Poker Knowledge: 15%
I've been doing some studying. I'm not really sure how they will test this category or what types of things they expect me to know but I've been absorbing whatever information I can find.
Speaking Skills: 10%
Perhaps not my strongest category but the experience from being on TV for the World Cup of Poker and doing the interviews for that will help a lot as well as experience giving academic presentations and such. Again nothing I'm too concerned about.
So overall I definitely like my chances and I think it'll be a fun weekend in Austria.
After that it's off to EPT San Remo (April 1-5) which has unfortunately sold out. I hadn't bought in yet so I'll probably have to miss the main event, but there's a 2K Euro 2nd chance event and having to just hang out in Italy isn't a terrible fate. Then there's a week to travel around a bit before EPT Monte Carlo (April 11-18) which I've won a package for already. This is the big one. 10K Euro buy-in, last year first was over $2M USD/CAD and it's looking even bigger this year. Winning this would be a pretty good birthday present to myself. As always blog updates should be more frequent when I'm on the road so check back often starting this weekend.
Mike
Monday, March 17, 2008
I'm Back!
So the Everest competition ends this Friday and my position in the online popularity contest part is unlikely to change so I've decided to start cross-posting back here again. I'm sorry I was away for so long but the Everest competition is obviously a pretty big deal for me and even though I like my chances I have to take it seriously and do everything I can to try to win. On to the blog.
It might seem like this a copy/paste of last weekend's blog but I assure you that's not the case. I slept really poorly this weekend for some reason even though I was exhausted. Still, being the hard worker/addict that I am I just grabbed some caffeine and played the usual schedule. On Saturday I busted out of everything super fast except for the Absolute $500 tourney. Again this week I managed some key suckouts and survived pushbotting my shortstack for quite a while as we neared the final table (the structure gets really bad towards the end in this tournament). I held on until the final table slowly increasing my stack. More of the same at the final table as I played very patient (but not passing on any good spots myself) watching the other shortstacks around me bust out and moved up several spots. I managed to win a couple key pots all-in preflop where I had the best hand for a change and get heads up with around 40% of the chips. Unfortunately I then lost a coinflip to finish 2nd for the second week in a row. Another $24K certainly doesn't hurt, but I kinda wonder if I'll ever win one of these things again.
Sunday was a typical disaster so I won't waste too much time on it. I cashed the warmup on Stars but I'm pretty sure that was the only one. I just slept for 15 hours though so I'm feeling pretty good and ready for St. Paddy's day etc... On that note I must go get ready. Even though I'm crossposting here please take the time to continue to visit me over at http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799 and click on all my blog entries until this weekend when the contest is over. Thanks again for all your support.
Mike
It might seem like this a copy/paste of last weekend's blog but I assure you that's not the case. I slept really poorly this weekend for some reason even though I was exhausted. Still, being the hard worker/addict that I am I just grabbed some caffeine and played the usual schedule. On Saturday I busted out of everything super fast except for the Absolute $500 tourney. Again this week I managed some key suckouts and survived pushbotting my shortstack for quite a while as we neared the final table (the structure gets really bad towards the end in this tournament). I held on until the final table slowly increasing my stack. More of the same at the final table as I played very patient (but not passing on any good spots myself) watching the other shortstacks around me bust out and moved up several spots. I managed to win a couple key pots all-in preflop where I had the best hand for a change and get heads up with around 40% of the chips. Unfortunately I then lost a coinflip to finish 2nd for the second week in a row. Another $24K certainly doesn't hurt, but I kinda wonder if I'll ever win one of these things again.
Sunday was a typical disaster so I won't waste too much time on it. I cashed the warmup on Stars but I'm pretty sure that was the only one. I just slept for 15 hours though so I'm feeling pretty good and ready for St. Paddy's day etc... On that note I must go get ready. Even though I'm crossposting here please take the time to continue to visit me over at http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799 and click on all my blog entries until this weekend when the contest is over. Thanks again for all your support.
Mike
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
LAPC Day 5
Hey I'm 6th/18 in LAPC Main Event heading into Day 5 with 987K chips. Just a spot for you to post your comments here since you can't afaik on Everest's site.
Mike
Mike
Friday, February 22, 2008
Help me win a $100K Sponsorship!
Sorry to do this but a part of the competition for the Everest Poker sponsorship is getting a lot of hits on my blogs and any videos I might post over on their website. So please go check out my profile and read my blogs over there for a while! (and tell all your friends!)
http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799
http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Trip Report: Box Seats at the Lakers
First of all, huuuuuuuuge thanks to Scot and Kyle at TwoRags and Dave and everyone else at the Commerce Casino for making this happen. It was a great time, and very much appreciated. One of my favourite parts of traveling for poker is going to different sporting events around the world. So the deal was that the Commerce had arranged for a limo to pick us up and drive us to and from the game, and we had VIP tickets for the Commerce's box. Myself, Thayer, Vivek, and Ray ended up going.
The limo was set to pick us up at 7 at the casino. We had a little trouble finding the driver but we still managed toget to the Staples Center in time for tipoff. As we're walking around the side of the stadium to the VIP entrance we get a little taste of Hollywood. Some perfect 10 blonde girl is walking up to the gate and paparazis are going crazy snapping photos of her. Unfortunately I never got a good enough look to see who she was, but it was definitely one of those things you just don't really see anywhere else. So we get up to the booth and find Scot, and meet Dave from the Commerce (thanks again guys). The booth is nothing overly spectacular, but there's lots of free food and drink so I'm quite happy with it. The first half of the game is probably the biggest annihalation I have ever seen in professional basketball. LA was pressing hard on defense and Atlanta couldn't hold on to the ball for 10 seconds at a time. It took a string of miracle threes before the end of the half for Atlanta to not finish down 40. When coach was teaching them to beat the press during timeout they must have been as distracted by this as I was:
Anyways around half time Norm McDonald came up to the booth and he was a lot of fun to hang out with, definitely a funny guy in person. Here's a shot of everyone in the booth:
And another shot of the Laker girls just because. Unfortunately we were a bit too high up and I didn't quite have enough zoom on my camera to get a real good shot. This time they're wearing the traditional Laker gold.
So all-in-all it was a great night. VIP treatment, basketball, free beer, Laker girls, and celebrities. What more could you ask for? Back on the grind with the $1500 LAPC event tomorrow.
Mike
The limo was set to pick us up at 7 at the casino. We had a little trouble finding the driver but we still managed toget to the Staples Center in time for tipoff. As we're walking around the side of the stadium to the VIP entrance we get a little taste of Hollywood. Some perfect 10 blonde girl is walking up to the gate and paparazis are going crazy snapping photos of her. Unfortunately I never got a good enough look to see who she was, but it was definitely one of those things you just don't really see anywhere else. So we get up to the booth and find Scot, and meet Dave from the Commerce (thanks again guys). The booth is nothing overly spectacular, but there's lots of free food and drink so I'm quite happy with it. The first half of the game is probably the biggest annihalation I have ever seen in professional basketball. LA was pressing hard on defense and Atlanta couldn't hold on to the ball for 10 seconds at a time. It took a string of miracle threes before the end of the half for Atlanta to not finish down 40. When coach was teaching them to beat the press during timeout they must have been as distracted by this as I was:
Anyways around half time Norm McDonald came up to the booth and he was a lot of fun to hang out with, definitely a funny guy in person. Here's a shot of everyone in the booth:
And another shot of the Laker girls just because. Unfortunately we were a bit too high up and I didn't quite have enough zoom on my camera to get a real good shot. This time they're wearing the traditional Laker gold.
So all-in-all it was a great night. VIP treatment, basketball, free beer, Laker girls, and celebrities. What more could you ask for? Back on the grind with the $1500 LAPC event tomorrow.
Mike
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Another good day
I'm running so hot online since I arrived in LA. Today I played a tournament on Everest Poker. $100 freezeout and I finished 7th for $1100. So what you ask? Check this out:
http://www.everestpoker.com/en/livethedream/
If you read through all the information on that page and then realize that most of the people that have qualified seem to be $5 satellite winners you'll understand why I think I should hopefully be a lock to sign a $100K sponsorship deal with Everest Poker at the end of March. I'm looking forward to hearing more details about the live casting from them. Strange as it seems this may very likely be my biggest tournament score ever.
Right after this tournament ended I met Scot from TwoRags and got a ride to the studio for the single table tournament. The lineup was me, Thayer, Deeb, Serge (adanthar), Nath, Vivek (psyduck), Shane (shaniac), Todd Brunson, Layne Flack, and Jose Canseco. It was definitely an interesting mix of players and the table was a lot of fun for the short time I spent at it. Sadly, I was the first person to bust, and I was eliminated by none other than Jose Conseco. I basically played 3 hands.
Hand 1: 4K starting chips, 25/25 blinds. Shaniac raised UTG to 100, Nath calls UTG+1, I make it 400 2 seats later with AKss. Todd Brunson in MP thinks for a bit and then cold calls which is really confusing, I know he has a huge hand but I don't really think he'd play AA this way, even KK I think he reraises a lot. Shane folds but Nath comes along as well. Flop K87 2 diamonds. Nath checks, I bet 800, Todd shoves for 1450 more, Nath folds, and I call. Todd has the AKdd and I'm getting freerolled. He catches a diamond on the river and I'm left with 1300.
Hand 2: Jose Canseco opens to 200 in MP, I shove 1225 in the SB with AKo and pick it up.
Hand 3: 25/50 now. Canseco opens to 200 in MP, Nath calls in late position, I shove 88 in the BB for 1400, Canseco instacalls which forces Nath to fold 99. Canseco has ATo (not exactly the best call), and flops an A to bust me.
After I busted though I got to go in the other room and watch the hole card cameras and do some commentary on the tournament. It definitely took some getting used to but I think I actually did a fairly decent job, and it was a fun experience. They hooked us up with all sorts of snacks and alcohol too so it was a good time despite the early bustout. So, what am I going to do tomorow to follow a day like this you ask? Probably just relax all day, maybe play a little bit of live cash or something, and then Scot came through with the hookup for box seats at the Lakers game in the evening. Life is going pretty ok right now.
Mike
http://www.everestpoker.com/en/livethedream/
If you read through all the information on that page and then realize that most of the people that have qualified seem to be $5 satellite winners you'll understand why I think I should hopefully be a lock to sign a $100K sponsorship deal with Everest Poker at the end of March. I'm looking forward to hearing more details about the live casting from them. Strange as it seems this may very likely be my biggest tournament score ever.
Right after this tournament ended I met Scot from TwoRags and got a ride to the studio for the single table tournament. The lineup was me, Thayer, Deeb, Serge (adanthar), Nath, Vivek (psyduck), Shane (shaniac), Todd Brunson, Layne Flack, and Jose Canseco. It was definitely an interesting mix of players and the table was a lot of fun for the short time I spent at it. Sadly, I was the first person to bust, and I was eliminated by none other than Jose Conseco. I basically played 3 hands.
Hand 1: 4K starting chips, 25/25 blinds. Shaniac raised UTG to 100, Nath calls UTG+1, I make it 400 2 seats later with AKss. Todd Brunson in MP thinks for a bit and then cold calls which is really confusing, I know he has a huge hand but I don't really think he'd play AA this way, even KK I think he reraises a lot. Shane folds but Nath comes along as well. Flop K87 2 diamonds. Nath checks, I bet 800, Todd shoves for 1450 more, Nath folds, and I call. Todd has the AKdd and I'm getting freerolled. He catches a diamond on the river and I'm left with 1300.
Hand 2: Jose Canseco opens to 200 in MP, I shove 1225 in the SB with AKo and pick it up.
Hand 3: 25/50 now. Canseco opens to 200 in MP, Nath calls in late position, I shove 88 in the BB for 1400, Canseco instacalls which forces Nath to fold 99. Canseco has ATo (not exactly the best call), and flops an A to bust me.
After I busted though I got to go in the other room and watch the hole card cameras and do some commentary on the tournament. It definitely took some getting used to but I think I actually did a fairly decent job, and it was a fun experience. They hooked us up with all sorts of snacks and alcohol too so it was a good time despite the early bustout. So, what am I going to do tomorow to follow a day like this you ask? Probably just relax all day, maybe play a little bit of live cash or something, and then Scot came through with the hookup for box seats at the Lakers game in the evening. Life is going pretty ok right now.
Mike
Monday, February 18, 2008
I must be the greatest!
This title would have worked a lot better if I was able to win a tournament today, but I'm going to use it anyways. I managed to save my Sunday with a 3rd place finish in the $150 tournament on Full Tilt for $11.6K. I was also chipleader in the $200 rebuy as we reached the money but I lost some small pots somehow and then lost a coinflip so I only cashed for $1800. Before those tournaments the day was going pretty terribly. I was busting every tournament I played in record time, which wasn't so bad because it's relatively painless compared to going deep in everything then bubbling. The biggest success of the weekend though was finally winning my EPT Monte Carlo package. I had finished 2nd in two of the Step 6 STT Monte Carlo satellites when only first gets the seat, including one where I lost A8o to A6s all-in preflop for almost all the chips. This time I managed not to bubble the $1000 MTT supersatellite after having the chiplead for a decent amount of the middle stages of the tournament. The package includes the $10K Euro buy-in, hotel for the week, and $1500 for travel expenses. I'm also planning to play EPT San Remo in Italy a couple weeks before Monte Carlo and then figure out some plans for hanging out in Europe for the week in-between the tournaments. I haven't won a seat for that one yet though.
So tomorrow the guys from TwoRags are organizing a single table tournament that will be filmed by the Live at the Bike guys with hole cards and everything to put on their new website I'm told they're working on. It's going to be a $1000 buy-in, with a line-up of mostly TwoRags bloggers and online guys, but I think Vanessa Rousso is also going to play, and there is one other special player: Jose Canseco. Yup, that Jose Canseco. I'm looking forward to this one for sure, it should be a lot of fun and a good experience. Check the blog tomorrow to find out if Roger did it.
So far the guys from TwoRags have been great. I met Kyle the other night and he took a bunch of us for dinner during the $1K event. Definitely seems like a real nice guy with a lot of good ideas. I finally get to meet Scot tomorrow before the tournament, he's been the guy I've mostly talked to on AIM about all the different ideas and things they have going on with the site, and is at least partly responsible for getting me to haul my lazy ass out here. They definitely do have some connections in the city, and it's nice to finally be able to put faces to names to screennames. A lot more online players I know are arriving this week for the main event so there should be a lot of fun times ahead. Now that FTOPS is over I'll be leaving the hotel room a lot more.
Mike
So tomorrow the guys from TwoRags are organizing a single table tournament that will be filmed by the Live at the Bike guys with hole cards and everything to put on their new website I'm told they're working on. It's going to be a $1000 buy-in, with a line-up of mostly TwoRags bloggers and online guys, but I think Vanessa Rousso is also going to play, and there is one other special player: Jose Canseco. Yup, that Jose Canseco. I'm looking forward to this one for sure, it should be a lot of fun and a good experience. Check the blog tomorrow to find out if Roger did it.
So far the guys from TwoRags have been great. I met Kyle the other night and he took a bunch of us for dinner during the $1K event. Definitely seems like a real nice guy with a lot of good ideas. I finally get to meet Scot tomorrow before the tournament, he's been the guy I've mostly talked to on AIM about all the different ideas and things they have going on with the site, and is at least partly responsible for getting me to haul my lazy ass out here. They definitely do have some connections in the city, and it's nice to finally be able to put faces to names to screennames. A lot more online players I know are arriving this week for the main event so there should be a lot of fun times ahead. Now that FTOPS is over I'll be leaving the hotel room a lot more.
Mike
Saturday, February 16, 2008
I must be the worst ever
OK not really but the stuff I do sometimes makes me wonder. I fucked up really bad today in the $2500 NL LAPC event. I'm not going to tell you the hand because it's too embarassing and you'd lose any respect you may happen to have for me as a poker player, but the cliffs notes is I made a terrible laydown preflop with 16 players left. To rub it in I obviously had the best hand and would have held up to give me an average stack which would be pretty sweet so deep in the tournament, espeically considering I'd been struggling on a shortstack for a while. Then I shoved TT over a raise 2 hands later and a guy behind me obv woke up with aces to punish me for my idiocy. So anyways I cashed for a bit under $6k or something. I guess fatigue probably was a factor playing for 11 hours but that's part of the game and no excuse. Seriously I'm really bad at poker stop reading this blog. Anyways tomorrow is the big $2500 FTOPS event which I get to play now at least. Hopefully I can sleep off my tilt. I mean seriously good players are supposed to capitalize on these few opportunities we get late in tournaments not do stupid shit and blow every chance at a 6-figure win. Sorry for the swearing mom. I'm done now.
Mike
Mike
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I just won $42,500 and I'm incredibly disappointed
I know that's an enormous amount of money. To be able to win that much in a day I should be ecstatic. Lots of people probably don't make that in a year and just think I'm an asshole for not appreciating how lucky I am. I guess you'd have to be a poker player, in particular a tournament player, to really understand. That's just the game. I just finished 6th in the FTOPS Event #12, a $300 rebuy tournament with 6-handed tables and over 1300 players, for $42.5K. I played for 9 hours, generally getting very lucky, overcoming the few times I got unlucky, and for the most part playing some pretty damn good poker, especially towards the end. But then I ran into an unfortunate spot at the final table where I got put to a tough decision, and in retrospect, not because of the results of the hand but because of all the factors I failed to consider, I think I made a mistake which cost me tens of thousands of dollars in equity. I was so focused on just playing well and winning, and to fall short is incredibly disappointing. 1st place paid over a quarter million dollars, it was the biggest final table I've ever made, and to screw it up after getting so close is just a huge letdown.
Anyways here's the hand. It's obviously a spot that can go either way based on so many situational factors. I feel like the key factor I missed is that the villian doesn't really know much about me, and from what he's likely seen of my play probably does not think I'm very good as I've gotten my money in bad and drawn out a few times leading up to the final table when he likely had my table open to watch. He's therefore significantly less likely to be bluffing when he makes the large turn bet and I think I should have gotten away from my hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2100640
For some reason I seem to go through these stretches where instead of making a lot of these good but tough folds like I usually do I just start calling everything. I had several hands like this today where I paid off big bets in spots I typically get away from, though everything is so situational some of those calls may have been correct. Anyways I'm off to replay these hands in my head a few thousand more times before I can get to sleep. Next live tournament will be the $2500 NL event on Friday, probably play some more online stuff today I guess.
Mike
Anyways here's the hand. It's obviously a spot that can go either way based on so many situational factors. I feel like the key factor I missed is that the villian doesn't really know much about me, and from what he's likely seen of my play probably does not think I'm very good as I've gotten my money in bad and drawn out a few times leading up to the final table when he likely had my table open to watch. He's therefore significantly less likely to be bluffing when he makes the large turn bet and I think I should have gotten away from my hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2100640
For some reason I seem to go through these stretches where instead of making a lot of these good but tough folds like I usually do I just start calling everything. I had several hands like this today where I paid off big bets in spots I typically get away from, though everything is so situational some of those calls may have been correct. Anyways I'm off to replay these hands in my head a few thousand more times before I can get to sleep. Next live tournament will be the $2500 NL event on Friday, probably play some more online stuff today I guess.
Mike
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
LA Days 1&2
Hey hey, I got in safely yesterday in time to play Sunday tournaments online. No luck in the tournaments but I had a profitable day because of a good cash session. Cash has continued to go well overall. I've been playing a lot of 25/50 NL so the swings are pretty solid, I had a +$44k day and -$26K day last week, but overall I seem to be moving in the right direction. The games I've been playing have been really good, and I've been putting in a decent amount of hands lately, it kind of reminds of the good ol Cake Poker days of last summer. Anyways today I played my first event of the LAPC, a $2500 event with 167 players. It went a little something like this.H
Hand 1: A bunch of small pots have happened and I'im up to 6K from 5K starting stack. I've opened a few pots but nothing particularly exciting. In one hand I opened UTG to 200 at 25/50 with AKo, a donk calls, and the SB makes it 700, I reluctantly fold. Now in this hand I make it 300 UTG @ 50/100 with AKs. Donk makes it 900, I decide screw these guys I don't really want to fold again (notice the expert thought process and decision making skills used here) even though he seems to be the loose passive type who wouldn't reraise without a huge hand, so I make 2K more and call his instashove. His AA is good and I have 900 left, looks like I'm going to make it back to the hotel in time for the $1K FTOPS event online.
Hand 2: Shove 725 UTG with A3cc. Get called by AT and 66 so I'm basically drawing dead but flop trip threes.
Hand 3: Jason (JP_OSU) opens to 450 UTG, I shove 2250ish with AK and he said he miscounted the pot and called with AQs so I'm back around starting chips when I hold.
Hand 4: I raise TT in the CO to 450, SB calls. Flop A56 two spades, he checks and I decide to check behind. Turn T, he bets 250 and I make it 1000. He calls. Turn Js. He bets 3000, I tank for a bit and call. He says "2 pair" and I table the winner.
Hand 5: I'm not in this hand but it was pretty hilarious. Middle-aged Asian guy who limps a fair bit and loves angle-shooting and giving reverse tells limps UTG and says something about how he always miss the flop, try one more time. Another guy limps, Jason has recently bluffed off his stack and shoves his last 800. BelowAbove is in the BB and raises to 2200 to isolate. UTG now makes it 3600 more. Folds to below who tanks for a while and calls. Flop KTx, below shoves 13K, asian guy beats him into the pot and obv shows AA. Below has QJo???!!! and misses. Jason has KQ and rivers trips to get back in the game.
Hand 6: I raise AJs with 6 players behind me. Guy on my left who seems to always call my raises calls, and now below on his left shoves 5K more. It folds back to me and I figure it's got to be really unlikely that he'd shove on me light there since I usually have a pretty big hand and I'm not going to give him any credit. But on the other hand he is belowbove.... I finally decide to fold but I'm not entirely sure it's right.
Hand 7: I have around 8300 now. Open the HJ to 600 with TT, guy on my left calls yet again. Now the asian guy from before very quickly makes it 2600 on the button without saying anything. I figure this is far too good a spot for him to squeeze, and as much as I hate putting much faith in my live reads, the speed of his action and the fact he didn't try to Hollywood at all makes me think he's weak. I think for a bit and decide I just can't fold, so I stick it in and he tanks for a bit and eventually folds.
Hand 8: I now have about 11.3K, and a very solid table image. Folds to the CO who seems not overly loose or overly tight so far, he hasn't really showed any hands since he got moved here, who open to 625 at 100/200 a25, his standard open size. I reraise to 1825 in the BB with 76o, but he quickly calls. Flop 542r, I check intending to checkraise all-in, but he bets only 1200. I sense a trap and decide to call. Turn Qc starting a backdoor flushdraw, I check he bets 2500. This time I just can't resist the temptation to shove on him, but he instacalls and table the nuts and more: 63cc. I don't get there and that's that. It would be fair to say most people at the table were a little surprised when the hands got turned over. I overheard him make some comment about how he thought I had a monster preflop but I "priced him in if I could hit the right flop". lol.
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k tourney which I guess I'll play. I'm a bit unimpressed by the size of the field today though and it's kind of tempting to skip some of these prelims and just grind online if they're not going to be very big, or maybe even play some live cash. Anyways I'll be blogging more regularly for the next couple weeks as always when I'm on the road. Talk to y'all later,
Mike
Hand 1: A bunch of small pots have happened and I'im up to 6K from 5K starting stack. I've opened a few pots but nothing particularly exciting. In one hand I opened UTG to 200 at 25/50 with AKo, a donk calls, and the SB makes it 700, I reluctantly fold. Now in this hand I make it 300 UTG @ 50/100 with AKs. Donk makes it 900, I decide screw these guys I don't really want to fold again (notice the expert thought process and decision making skills used here) even though he seems to be the loose passive type who wouldn't reraise without a huge hand, so I make 2K more and call his instashove. His AA is good and I have 900 left, looks like I'm going to make it back to the hotel in time for the $1K FTOPS event online.
Hand 2: Shove 725 UTG with A3cc. Get called by AT and 66 so I'm basically drawing dead but flop trip threes.
Hand 3: Jason (JP_OSU) opens to 450 UTG, I shove 2250ish with AK and he said he miscounted the pot and called with AQs so I'm back around starting chips when I hold.
Hand 4: I raise TT in the CO to 450, SB calls. Flop A56 two spades, he checks and I decide to check behind. Turn T, he bets 250 and I make it 1000. He calls. Turn Js. He bets 3000, I tank for a bit and call. He says "2 pair" and I table the winner.
Hand 5: I'm not in this hand but it was pretty hilarious. Middle-aged Asian guy who limps a fair bit and loves angle-shooting and giving reverse tells limps UTG and says something about how he always miss the flop, try one more time. Another guy limps, Jason has recently bluffed off his stack and shoves his last 800. BelowAbove is in the BB and raises to 2200 to isolate. UTG now makes it 3600 more. Folds to below who tanks for a while and calls. Flop KTx, below shoves 13K, asian guy beats him into the pot and obv shows AA. Below has QJo???!!! and misses. Jason has KQ and rivers trips to get back in the game.
Hand 6: I raise AJs with 6 players behind me. Guy on my left who seems to always call my raises calls, and now below on his left shoves 5K more. It folds back to me and I figure it's got to be really unlikely that he'd shove on me light there since I usually have a pretty big hand and I'm not going to give him any credit. But on the other hand he is belowbove.... I finally decide to fold but I'm not entirely sure it's right.
Hand 7: I have around 8300 now. Open the HJ to 600 with TT, guy on my left calls yet again. Now the asian guy from before very quickly makes it 2600 on the button without saying anything. I figure this is far too good a spot for him to squeeze, and as much as I hate putting much faith in my live reads, the speed of his action and the fact he didn't try to Hollywood at all makes me think he's weak. I think for a bit and decide I just can't fold, so I stick it in and he tanks for a bit and eventually folds.
Hand 8: I now have about 11.3K, and a very solid table image. Folds to the CO who seems not overly loose or overly tight so far, he hasn't really showed any hands since he got moved here, who open to 625 at 100/200 a25, his standard open size. I reraise to 1825 in the BB with 76o, but he quickly calls. Flop 542r, I check intending to checkraise all-in, but he bets only 1200. I sense a trap and decide to call. Turn Qc starting a backdoor flushdraw, I check he bets 2500. This time I just can't resist the temptation to shove on him, but he instacalls and table the nuts and more: 63cc. I don't get there and that's that. It would be fair to say most people at the table were a little surprised when the hands got turned over. I overheard him make some comment about how he thought I had a monster preflop but I "priced him in if I could hit the right flop". lol.
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k tourney which I guess I'll play. I'm a bit unimpressed by the size of the field today though and it's kind of tempting to skip some of these prelims and just grind online if they're not going to be very big, or maybe even play some live cash. Anyways I'll be blogging more regularly for the next couple weeks as always when I'm on the road. Talk to y'all later,
Mike
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Timex is the sickest
He won EPT Dortmund yesterday for 933K Euro or just shy of $1.4M USD. He's just been on a tear to start the year. Sadly I didn't have any of his action for this. I'm taking a rare Sunday off today to go to a Super Bowl party. I figure I'm probably saving around $6K this way anyways so it's all good. I guess there should be some kind of content in this post. Here is my January graph where I crush over an insignificant number of hands.
Almost $8/hand, wish it was always that easy.
Mike
Almost $8/hand, wish it was always that easy.Mike
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
lol I lied
It all started when Scot from TwoRags IM'd me to ask if I was going to the LA Poker Classic. I explained to him, as I wrote 2 days ago in my last entry, that I most likely was not. He said that was too bad as TwoRags has some connections in the area with the Commerce etc (I'm pretty sure he lives in LA)... and he had some special events planned. This was somehwat enticing but I still wasn't too interested. Nonetheless I checked the schedule of events again on the CardPlayer website and it turned out it was much better than I remembered. I thought it was basically all $1000 buy-ins with one $2500 and one $1500 mixed in or something. It turns out there are three $2500 events though (one is limit holdem but that's ok), a couple $1500s, and then several smaller ones. Not so bad I thought....
Kyle (grafyx) had asked me if I was going since he needed a roommate. I'd of course said no at the time but I messaged him back and he was still looking for one and had already done the work looking into hotel rooms. So I then decided to go ahead and have a look at flights just in case. It turns out Air Canada has a seat sale on and I could book a round trip flight for just $400. Well now... It seemed like everything was just falling into place but I still wasn't sure. I had to check how this fit my schedule. Ideally I would show up for the $2500 event on Monday the 11th, the first of the big events, and then stay until the end. I have Raptors tickets for the 8th and had made plans a while ago with a friend for that night. Perfect timing there. I also have tickets for the game on the 20th, but Scot said he might be able to hookup a Lakers game for us there, so that's at least an even tradeoff. Damn, I guess someone out there really wants me in LA. And finally, I'm up around $40K so far this month online, so even if I 0-for another series losing 20-30K down there wouldn't be the end of the world. LA, here I come.
Anyways to add some poker to this here are some cash hands. I realize I haven't posted any cash game stuff in a while and that's one thing I want to do more of. I'm going to concentrate on some hands from my best session of the month. I'm playing two 25/50 NL full ring tables with this fish VARBED. When there's a big fish playing way too many hands it basically becomes a big fight among the other players to try to get his money. I'm going to be raising almost anything playable to try to isolate him when he limps in, or sometimes limping behind speculative hands hoping to flop big on him. That's the dynamic that is important in these hands.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020495 - The session actually got off to a poor start with this cooler. I think the lead on the flop is the best way to get max value from AK or AQ.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020483 - He liked to minraise with all sorts of garbage so I put in a reraise here to isolate him in position with the best hand. Postflop I have to figure I have the nuts against a player like this, especially given his weak little lead, so no slowing down to control pot size here, I want to get stacks in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020506 - This biggest pot I won was actually not from VARBED but resulted because of the dynamic he created. As I'd been isolating him a lot with weakish hands trying to keep him to myself, the other players obviously pick up on what I'm doing and want to stop me so that they can play more pots with him too, so the obvious idea is to just reraise me. I'd had to fold to these reraises a couple times but this time I have a hand I can make a stand with. I make a smallish reraise to $2250 to make it look like I have room to fold if he moves in on me, and give him the chance to make a bad bluff. Fortunately that's exactly what happened and I won a big pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020523 - I got really lucky here. He telegraphs his hand as a big one preflop and gives everyone the odds to try hit a flop on him and crack it. Luckily I'm able to do just that. I guess either leading or checkrasing here are both good options on the flop, I went for the lead again.
Mike
Kyle (grafyx) had asked me if I was going since he needed a roommate. I'd of course said no at the time but I messaged him back and he was still looking for one and had already done the work looking into hotel rooms. So I then decided to go ahead and have a look at flights just in case. It turns out Air Canada has a seat sale on and I could book a round trip flight for just $400. Well now... It seemed like everything was just falling into place but I still wasn't sure. I had to check how this fit my schedule. Ideally I would show up for the $2500 event on Monday the 11th, the first of the big events, and then stay until the end. I have Raptors tickets for the 8th and had made plans a while ago with a friend for that night. Perfect timing there. I also have tickets for the game on the 20th, but Scot said he might be able to hookup a Lakers game for us there, so that's at least an even tradeoff. Damn, I guess someone out there really wants me in LA. And finally, I'm up around $40K so far this month online, so even if I 0-for another series losing 20-30K down there wouldn't be the end of the world. LA, here I come.
Anyways to add some poker to this here are some cash hands. I realize I haven't posted any cash game stuff in a while and that's one thing I want to do more of. I'm going to concentrate on some hands from my best session of the month. I'm playing two 25/50 NL full ring tables with this fish VARBED. When there's a big fish playing way too many hands it basically becomes a big fight among the other players to try to get his money. I'm going to be raising almost anything playable to try to isolate him when he limps in, or sometimes limping behind speculative hands hoping to flop big on him. That's the dynamic that is important in these hands.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020495 - The session actually got off to a poor start with this cooler. I think the lead on the flop is the best way to get max value from AK or AQ.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020483 - He liked to minraise with all sorts of garbage so I put in a reraise here to isolate him in position with the best hand. Postflop I have to figure I have the nuts against a player like this, especially given his weak little lead, so no slowing down to control pot size here, I want to get stacks in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020506 - This biggest pot I won was actually not from VARBED but resulted because of the dynamic he created. As I'd been isolating him a lot with weakish hands trying to keep him to myself, the other players obviously pick up on what I'm doing and want to stop me so that they can play more pots with him too, so the obvious idea is to just reraise me. I'd had to fold to these reraises a couple times but this time I have a hand I can make a stand with. I make a smallish reraise to $2250 to make it look like I have room to fold if he moves in on me, and give him the chance to make a bad bluff. Fortunately that's exactly what happened and I won a big pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2020523 - I got really lucky here. He telegraphs his hand as a big one preflop and gives everyone the odds to try hit a flop on him and crack it. Luckily I'm able to do just that. I guess either leading or checkrasing here are both good options on the flop, I went for the lead again.
Mike
Monday, January 28, 2008
A decent little week capped off with some rare Sunday success
Hey everyone, I'm back safely in Toronto just chilling. Really it was a super lazy week. Anyways my plan for the next couple months is to get back to really griding online and putting in some hands. I've had a lot of fun lately travelling around, and while I play a lot of poker on those trips, if I really want to make some money I'm much more profitable online. Even though the games are tougher on average, being able to play 4-8 tables at once just lets me play so many more hands that live can't really compete. Also, being able to table select across multiple sites allows me to find the best games to help offset the generally tougher opponents. Also, it's important for me to play a lot more cash game hands since my hourly rate is much higher in those than in almost any tournament assuming I can find good games.
Tthis week I put in a decent number of hours playing both tournaments and cash games, and was lucky to run pretty well so I turned a nice profit. I've been playing 10/20 and 25/50 on mostly some of the smaller sites, and the games have been pretty good. I've also been playing the usual evening and weekend tournaments, and after a ton of close calls and a lot of frustration I finally broke through for a nice score in a major Sunday tournament, the new "Sunday Brawl" on Full Tilt. It's a $240 buy-in where $200 goes to the prize pool like usual and $40 goes towards your bounty, meaning whoever busts you gets your $40. Of course whenever you bust anyone you get their $40 bounty, so it's a nice little twist added to the usual tournament format. It certainly adds a little incentive to go out of your way to try to bust people, though the strategic adjustments required are nothing major as the bounties are not too big compared to the prize pool. This week's tournament had almost 1600 runners.
I managed to finish 5th for $19K, plus I believe 8 bounties ($320) to top it off. The final table was both lucky and unlucky for me. I picked up more premium hands than I ever have in such a short period at a final table, but unfortunately they did not hold up in some key pots. I lost a big coinflip with TT vs AKs, and then on the very next hand I slowplayed KK by just calling a raise. A shortstack moved in behind me with AK, the raiser folded and I called, but an ace flopped for the 2nd hand in a row. Fortunately as I'd been picking up so many hands I still had some chips left and managed to double up and hang around for a while, but eventually I lost another all-in preflop as a decent favourite (KQs vs JTo) on the shortstack to bust 5th. Still, it was nice to make a major final table and book a nice win for the weekend. The 1600ish players was the biggest field I've ever gotten through to the final table since my $10 freezeout days. Like I mentioned I had close calls in several other tournaments, in particular the late $100 rebuy where I finished 16th for $2K.
So the plan for coming weeks is to keep putting in a lot of hands and get myself nicely into the black on the year. There's a small chance I may decide to go to the LA Poker Classic for the main event and the legendarily soft cash games at the Commerce towards the end of February, but most likely I won't be playing any more live events until EPT Monte Carlo (the one in Europe not the one that was on fire in Vegas) in April, and possibly the EPT in Italy just before Monte Carlo. Well I'm out. Take it easy,
Mike
Tthis week I put in a decent number of hours playing both tournaments and cash games, and was lucky to run pretty well so I turned a nice profit. I've been playing 10/20 and 25/50 on mostly some of the smaller sites, and the games have been pretty good. I've also been playing the usual evening and weekend tournaments, and after a ton of close calls and a lot of frustration I finally broke through for a nice score in a major Sunday tournament, the new "Sunday Brawl" on Full Tilt. It's a $240 buy-in where $200 goes to the prize pool like usual and $40 goes towards your bounty, meaning whoever busts you gets your $40. Of course whenever you bust anyone you get their $40 bounty, so it's a nice little twist added to the usual tournament format. It certainly adds a little incentive to go out of your way to try to bust people, though the strategic adjustments required are nothing major as the bounties are not too big compared to the prize pool. This week's tournament had almost 1600 runners.
I managed to finish 5th for $19K, plus I believe 8 bounties ($320) to top it off. The final table was both lucky and unlucky for me. I picked up more premium hands than I ever have in such a short period at a final table, but unfortunately they did not hold up in some key pots. I lost a big coinflip with TT vs AKs, and then on the very next hand I slowplayed KK by just calling a raise. A shortstack moved in behind me with AK, the raiser folded and I called, but an ace flopped for the 2nd hand in a row. Fortunately as I'd been picking up so many hands I still had some chips left and managed to double up and hang around for a while, but eventually I lost another all-in preflop as a decent favourite (KQs vs JTo) on the shortstack to bust 5th. Still, it was nice to make a major final table and book a nice win for the weekend. The 1600ish players was the biggest field I've ever gotten through to the final table since my $10 freezeout days. Like I mentioned I had close calls in several other tournaments, in particular the late $100 rebuy where I finished 16th for $2K.
So the plan for coming weeks is to keep putting in a lot of hands and get myself nicely into the black on the year. There's a small chance I may decide to go to the LA Poker Classic for the main event and the legendarily soft cash games at the Commerce towards the end of February, but most likely I won't be playing any more live events until EPT Monte Carlo (the one in Europe not the one that was on fire in Vegas) in April, and possibly the EPT in Italy just before Monte Carlo. Well I'm out. Take it easy,
Mike
Saturday, January 19, 2008
$5K HU and $2K 6-max
So I bubbled both of these. I played pretty well though, there were some sweet hands. In the first round of the HU I played Doug Lee. As far as I know he's basically a terrible spewbox, but I didn't play very well against him and didn't make many hands. Fortunately I luckboxed some coinflips to scrape by after losing the first game in the best of 3. In the next round I played Anna Wroblewski. I thought she was spewy aggro too but she was actually kind of solid but on the passive side. Anyways in this match I stopped being a pussy like I was against Lee and started trusting my hand reading to make some good river calls.
Hand 1: She limps and I check T3o in the BB. Flop J73 chk/chk. Turn Kc starting a possible flush draw. I check/call her bet. River K, I check, she bets and I figure enough draws and stuff missed that I should call and beat her 45.
Hand 2: She limps I check 96o. Flop 644, both check. Turn 5, I bet 3/4 pot she calls. River 2, I check and she bets some normal amount. I don't think she'd call the turn with just a 3, but probably would with a 7 which she'd be likely to bluff with here, so I call and win again.
I ran pretty good against Anna and made some hands at key times to win the match 2-0. In the third round I played timex though and he kicked my ass. I got behind in both, then won key races to get the lead, then lost really key races to lose. Fortunately we had traded a lot of % so I still got some money out of this tournament.
Today was the $2K 6-max which had a really great structure. I was doing really well for a while, and played some pretty interesting hands, unfortunately I busted 29th when 24 paid in the end though.
Hand 1: There's an aggressive player on my left who's 3-bet light already preflop against other players but not me. I can tell from the way he's played other hands though that he really knows what he's doing, he's not just some crazy spewtard. At 75/150 I open A6s UTG 5-handed to 450 with about 12K. I've been semi-active and as Im putting the chips for my raise in the pot I'm thinking this guy is going to 3-bet me soon, possibly this hand in fact. He quickly makes it 1350 and it folds back to me. It's a lot easier to trust your read and make a biggish move in a situation like this when you can predict his move, so I make it a goofy 3350 representing a monster but leaving room to fold to a push and he folds.
Hand 2: I've since 4-bet the same guy again, this time with AK, and had him fold again, and also been raising a ton of pots since I keep picking up pretty good hands and opening. It folds to me in the SB, I now have 15K and the BB covers, and I raise to 450 with A4ss. BB calls and we see a flop of 663 2 spades. I bet 600 and he makes it 1600. I don't really believe him because he's some middle aged guy and they would almost always slowplay trips here to trap the young overaggressive kid, but we're deep enough that I don't really want to pop him back since if he does happen to have a big hand I would pot-commit myself in a bad spot. Also my ace-hi can easily be the best hand if he's bluffing so I don't necessarily need to bluff him back. The turn is an offsuit 8, I check and call 2500, still hoping to make my hand but also thinking my ace may well be the best hand. The river is another 6, I check and he bets 3500. At this point he's representing basically nothing. It's so unlikely he has quads (he was already unlikely to have a 6 because he didn't slowplay, and now with 3 of them on the board and his small bets it's almost certain he doesn't), and he wouldn't play a 3 or 8 this way, he'd check at least one of the turn and river probably. So A-hi basically looks like the nuts to me here, pretty sure he has to be bluffing, so I call and he taps the table and says nice call. Then turns over his ATo. Damn.
Hand 3: So I'm down to around 7K, then get down to 4K. Still 75/150, CO, button and SB all limp. I check Q3o in the BB. Flop QT3 2 clubs. I lead 450 and the CO calls. Turn K, I bet 1K and he calls. River T, counterfeiting my hand. I check with 2850 left and he quickly put me all-in. I'm pretty frustrated, but then start thinking about what could he possibly have. I dont think he'd bet a king this big. If he was ahead on the turn he would have raised. How can he have a ten? JT maybe makes sense. So does busted clubs though. Eventually I stick it in, and he taps the table (he didn't accidentally have a better hand this time). Nice.
Hand 4: I win a race with KQ vs A8 aipf to get some chips, then pick up KK and AA and bust players on consecutive hands to get to 55K at 200/400 a50, around a twice average stack. Then I donk a bunch off though at 300/600 a50. It folds to the HJ who is pretty new table. As far as I can tell he just plays every pot. I can't recall a time in the 3 or so orbits he's been here that it folded to him and he didn't raise. He makes it 1700, and I find 66 in the CO and decide to just reraise to 5100 and take my chances since it seems like he's so ridiculously out of line. Instead he moves all-in for 20K more and I'm getting too good a price to fold against a guy who as far as I know could just be a psycho. He has JJ though and I lose half my pretty stack. I really hate playing for so many chips prelop with 66 I would never normally do this, but as far as I could tell he was raising practically any 2 cards.
From there less interesting stuff happened. I got into shortstack ninja mode and did my thang. Eventually with 30 left, 24 getting paid, Joe Sebok limped UTG at 800/1600 a200, CO limped, and the button raised to 8500. He was very aggressive so I figured he could easily be raising pretty light. I found 99 in the SB and shoved my 29K stack, and he called with J9s. Door card J, fun way to spend a day. Tomorrow is my last day here in Australia. There's a $1k event. I'll see how many players it gets, decent chance I'll play I suppose but I may just pass on it and make the most of my last day here instead. I did get around to going to watch some Australian Open tennis a few days ago which was really fun. We didn't get to see any big names, but watched some pretty competitive matches and I got a nice sun burn. OK bed time for me I guess. Later,
Mike
Hand 1: She limps and I check T3o in the BB. Flop J73 chk/chk. Turn Kc starting a possible flush draw. I check/call her bet. River K, I check, she bets and I figure enough draws and stuff missed that I should call and beat her 45.
Hand 2: She limps I check 96o. Flop 644, both check. Turn 5, I bet 3/4 pot she calls. River 2, I check and she bets some normal amount. I don't think she'd call the turn with just a 3, but probably would with a 7 which she'd be likely to bluff with here, so I call and win again.
I ran pretty good against Anna and made some hands at key times to win the match 2-0. In the third round I played timex though and he kicked my ass. I got behind in both, then won key races to get the lead, then lost really key races to lose. Fortunately we had traded a lot of % so I still got some money out of this tournament.
Today was the $2K 6-max which had a really great structure. I was doing really well for a while, and played some pretty interesting hands, unfortunately I busted 29th when 24 paid in the end though.
Hand 1: There's an aggressive player on my left who's 3-bet light already preflop against other players but not me. I can tell from the way he's played other hands though that he really knows what he's doing, he's not just some crazy spewtard. At 75/150 I open A6s UTG 5-handed to 450 with about 12K. I've been semi-active and as Im putting the chips for my raise in the pot I'm thinking this guy is going to 3-bet me soon, possibly this hand in fact. He quickly makes it 1350 and it folds back to me. It's a lot easier to trust your read and make a biggish move in a situation like this when you can predict his move, so I make it a goofy 3350 representing a monster but leaving room to fold to a push and he folds.
Hand 2: I've since 4-bet the same guy again, this time with AK, and had him fold again, and also been raising a ton of pots since I keep picking up pretty good hands and opening. It folds to me in the SB, I now have 15K and the BB covers, and I raise to 450 with A4ss. BB calls and we see a flop of 663 2 spades. I bet 600 and he makes it 1600. I don't really believe him because he's some middle aged guy and they would almost always slowplay trips here to trap the young overaggressive kid, but we're deep enough that I don't really want to pop him back since if he does happen to have a big hand I would pot-commit myself in a bad spot. Also my ace-hi can easily be the best hand if he's bluffing so I don't necessarily need to bluff him back. The turn is an offsuit 8, I check and call 2500, still hoping to make my hand but also thinking my ace may well be the best hand. The river is another 6, I check and he bets 3500. At this point he's representing basically nothing. It's so unlikely he has quads (he was already unlikely to have a 6 because he didn't slowplay, and now with 3 of them on the board and his small bets it's almost certain he doesn't), and he wouldn't play a 3 or 8 this way, he'd check at least one of the turn and river probably. So A-hi basically looks like the nuts to me here, pretty sure he has to be bluffing, so I call and he taps the table and says nice call. Then turns over his ATo. Damn.
Hand 3: So I'm down to around 7K, then get down to 4K. Still 75/150, CO, button and SB all limp. I check Q3o in the BB. Flop QT3 2 clubs. I lead 450 and the CO calls. Turn K, I bet 1K and he calls. River T, counterfeiting my hand. I check with 2850 left and he quickly put me all-in. I'm pretty frustrated, but then start thinking about what could he possibly have. I dont think he'd bet a king this big. If he was ahead on the turn he would have raised. How can he have a ten? JT maybe makes sense. So does busted clubs though. Eventually I stick it in, and he taps the table (he didn't accidentally have a better hand this time). Nice.
Hand 4: I win a race with KQ vs A8 aipf to get some chips, then pick up KK and AA and bust players on consecutive hands to get to 55K at 200/400 a50, around a twice average stack. Then I donk a bunch off though at 300/600 a50. It folds to the HJ who is pretty new table. As far as I can tell he just plays every pot. I can't recall a time in the 3 or so orbits he's been here that it folded to him and he didn't raise. He makes it 1700, and I find 66 in the CO and decide to just reraise to 5100 and take my chances since it seems like he's so ridiculously out of line. Instead he moves all-in for 20K more and I'm getting too good a price to fold against a guy who as far as I know could just be a psycho. He has JJ though and I lose half my pretty stack. I really hate playing for so many chips prelop with 66 I would never normally do this, but as far as I could tell he was raising practically any 2 cards.
From there less interesting stuff happened. I got into shortstack ninja mode and did my thang. Eventually with 30 left, 24 getting paid, Joe Sebok limped UTG at 800/1600 a200, CO limped, and the button raised to 8500. He was very aggressive so I figured he could easily be raising pretty light. I found 99 in the SB and shoved my 29K stack, and he called with J9s. Door card J, fun way to spend a day. Tomorrow is my last day here in Australia. There's a $1k event. I'll see how many players it gets, decent chance I'll play I suppose but I may just pass on it and make the most of my last day here instead. I did get around to going to watch some Australian Open tennis a few days ago which was really fun. We didn't get to see any big names, but watched some pretty competitive matches and I got a nice sun burn. OK bed time for me I guess. Later,
Mike
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sigh...
Yet another early bustout for me in a major tournament. Considering how conservative I tend to play this is getting kind of ridiculous. My table draw wasn't especially good even though there was only one good player and he busted very early (Brandon Adams). I had terrible relative position though, the two maniacs were on my left and three nits on my right. After the maniacs was an aggressive young Norwegian player so I was basically forced to play pretty ABC poker. Anyways I won and lost some small pots for the first 2 levels. Got up to 22K but then started bleeding off some chips when the maniacs on my left reraised me a few times or I missed flops and either gave up or fired once and then gave up.
I was down to about 15K in level 3, 100/200 a25, when I found QQ in the hijack and made it 600. The Norwegian kid made it 2000 from the SB. I considered my options and decided to just shove to make my hand look like AK or a frustrated bluff since he'd reraised me a few times before. He called after a short think with JJ and I was looking good for a double up until a jack turned. Anyways, there are some more events here later in the week and I do really like this city so things could be worse. I think the Australian Open tennis has started too so I definitely want to go check that out at some point.
Mike
Edit: I'm on the TV in Canada on The Score right now apparently, World Cup of Poker from Barcelona is on.
I was down to about 15K in level 3, 100/200 a25, when I found QQ in the hijack and made it 600. The Norwegian kid made it 2000 from the SB. I considered my options and decided to just shove to make my hand look like AK or a frustrated bluff since he'd reraised me a few times before. He called after a short think with JJ and I was looking good for a double up until a jack turned. Anyways, there are some more events here later in the week and I do really like this city so things could be worse. I think the Australian Open tennis has started too so I definitely want to go check that out at some point.
Mike
Edit: I'm on the TV in Canada on The Score right now apparently, World Cup of Poker from Barcelona is on.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Day 1A I guess?
Yoooooooooooo. So I was playing some drunk kickball with the rest of the poker nerds today. Team Goggles kicked some ass imo. After that great victory all hands headed to the Belgian beer garden to continue the good times. I don't think I should have to explain why drinking Belgian beer surrounded by gorgoeus landscape and Australian women with all my homies was one of the best times ever, but in case it's not obvious I loved that place. Then we went for a great meal at the Meat and Wine Co. After that we went to a bar where a seemingly low key night took a turn for the potentially epic when Mark Vos showed up. Several shots later we were headed to the infamous Spearmint Rhino, but they wouldn't let us some of us in due to our kickball attire. Despite our best efforts to bribe the bouncers several of us could not get in. The bouncers were being dicks, so I finally just told them to **** themselves and walked back to Crown by myself. Pokerstars had already bought me into the main event so I stopped by the poker room just to register, planning to play day 1B because I'm kind of drunk right now. As it turns out I was signed up for Day 1A by default at the feature table. I'm not sure if that means TV coverage or not, but I know the table is next to the rail at least so friends here can sweat me. I could have changed my Day 1 but that seemed worth keeping I guess. So I'm going to bed now so I can be ready to ship it crucial tomorrow. I suspect Day 1A will be the softest day 1 so I don't mind playing tomorrow anyways. Table 31, seat 7. Holla back,
Mike
Mike
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
$1K rebuy tournament report
I promised a tourney report and today had some interesting hands so it should make a decent one.
Rebuy period: I usually clown around a bit in live rebuy tournaments in the rebuy period. I kept my 4 $1K chips to rebuy with on the table, and then try to make a few "crazy" image plays. Most people in these tournaments aren't planning to really rebuy at all, maybe if they bust or something, so you can get away with a lot knowing you can always rebuy if something backfires. One of my favourites is to shove from the binds when a bunch of players limp with any two cards since they basically never have a hand to call. Then you show your rags and start setting up an image. So I did that a few times today which was ok. The best hand was when I limped 44 UTG and announced I was setting the trap. Mark Goodman raised my limp and he was the only guy who seemed to not be averse to gambling a little. The BB called his raise and he has nothing approximately always. I now sprung the trap and moved in, Goodman called with KTo and I won the race. From there people didn't fold when I bet, but I never had a hand so I lost the chips I had won. Double add-on and on to the real poker, I'm in for the "minimum", $4K.
Hand 1: I had won a small flip with 99 vs AJ but then lost some back as my bets still weren't getting much respect and I wasn't making pairs. with around 6600 I raise UTG with T9dd to 300 at 50/100. Probably a somewhat questionable raise but whatever. A late position player calls and the BB who is pretty bad calls. Flop TT5, I bet 650 and the BB calls. Turn 5, I bet 1250 hoping to induce a bluff shove and the BB calls. River 7, he checks again, I bet 2750, he moves me in for 1700 more, I obviously call and he has 66 for some reason.
Hand 2: I went on a bit of a rush from here but I can't really remember all the hands. I know i busted Mark Goodman when he called my position raise and checkraised all-in with a flush draw on the flop. He was short though so I had an easy call with top pair which held. I'm now up to about 22K.
Hand 3: I have a semi-active image but have mostly shown down good hands lately and I've never reraised anyone. It folds to a young Aussie guy in MP who raised to 600 at 100/200 a25. He's been pretty active and seems to know what he's doing, and he also has a pretty decent sized stack. I decide to make it 1850 in the CO with Q9o, but he calls. Not sure what he has here, could be trapping with a big hand, could have small pair or suited connector hoping to flop big and bust me, or maybe some random big cards he doesn't want to fold if he's worse than I think he is. Flop A87, he checks and I have to bet this flop as it he shouldn't usually like the ace. I bet 2750, he hums and haws about how unlucky it he is that an ace flopped and calls. The turn is an A, I obviously don't put any more money in. It checks down, and a key point in Australia is that the last aggressor always has to show their hand first. So I roll my Q9o so I can see his hand, and he the AA for quads. Anyways now my image obviously sucks, which is important for this hand.
Hand 4: A young German player Daniel Zink makes it 550 in EP. I still have around 16K and he covers me, and I find T9dd in the SB. I figure with my new bad table image I should get some action if I flop big and call. The flop comes 875 two diamonds, and I lead 1150, intending to reraise all-in if he raises my bet. He just calls though and the tuen is the 8d completing my flush b ut pairing the board. I bet 2675 and he calls. The river is a 5. I really think he has a big pair that he's playing pot control with, and given my new bad image I just might get a river bet paid off. It seems very unlikely he has a fullhouse given he didn't raise the flop, and a bigger flush is only a little worrisome. I make a fairly big bet of 6425, and he thinks for a bit and moves me in for 4250 more. I think I thought for 3 minutes or so, though most of my energy was probably dedicated to being angry and hating my life more than figuring out what to do. I really didn't see how it made sense for him to have a big hand here unless he slowplayed a monster on the flop, which on such a draw heavy board should be less likely. Anyways eventually I just talked some sense into myself and realized that he probably played his hand poorly on some street, but it's impossible for him to be bluffing and this is an easy fold. So I folded angrily.
Hand 5: Steveol7 raises to 800 at 150/300 a 25 on my right. I move in with 66, the button shoves over the top and I outflip his AK to get back to 10Kish. OK maybe I have a chance again.
Hand 6: From here not much happened. I blinded down a bit, I tried to raise the blinds twice butgot reraised both times despite they were the only two times I put chips in the pot during the 200/400 level. I got into pushbot mode to stay afloat. Eventually I got moved tables with 7500 at 300/600 a75. A player who Bond had told me is rkruok from online shoved his very short stack on my BB. I found AQ and instacalled but lost to his T6o. I then beat JJ with KT0 the next hand though to get right back where I was. My bustout hand was when I shoved 66 in EP with around 7K at 300/600 a75. The BB called with 88 and that was that.
Tomorrow is a $1500 bounty tournament that has a kind of weird structure I need to check out. In other news, the Full Tilt plane from LAX got in today with all the Full Tilt pros and people who won seats to the main event on their site, as well as some others who hitched a ride, so pretty much everyone is here now. I crashed the Full Tilt party for a bit tonight with Leo and a couple others which was alright. I also had kangaroo for dinner tonight, and it was actually pretty good. Still haven't headbutted or boxed any kangaroos yet though. They're avoiding me imo.
Mike
Rebuy period: I usually clown around a bit in live rebuy tournaments in the rebuy period. I kept my 4 $1K chips to rebuy with on the table, and then try to make a few "crazy" image plays. Most people in these tournaments aren't planning to really rebuy at all, maybe if they bust or something, so you can get away with a lot knowing you can always rebuy if something backfires. One of my favourites is to shove from the binds when a bunch of players limp with any two cards since they basically never have a hand to call. Then you show your rags and start setting up an image. So I did that a few times today which was ok. The best hand was when I limped 44 UTG and announced I was setting the trap. Mark Goodman raised my limp and he was the only guy who seemed to not be averse to gambling a little. The BB called his raise and he has nothing approximately always. I now sprung the trap and moved in, Goodman called with KTo and I won the race. From there people didn't fold when I bet, but I never had a hand so I lost the chips I had won. Double add-on and on to the real poker, I'm in for the "minimum", $4K.
Hand 1: I had won a small flip with 99 vs AJ but then lost some back as my bets still weren't getting much respect and I wasn't making pairs. with around 6600 I raise UTG with T9dd to 300 at 50/100. Probably a somewhat questionable raise but whatever. A late position player calls and the BB who is pretty bad calls. Flop TT5, I bet 650 and the BB calls. Turn 5, I bet 1250 hoping to induce a bluff shove and the BB calls. River 7, he checks again, I bet 2750, he moves me in for 1700 more, I obviously call and he has 66 for some reason.
Hand 2: I went on a bit of a rush from here but I can't really remember all the hands. I know i busted Mark Goodman when he called my position raise and checkraised all-in with a flush draw on the flop. He was short though so I had an easy call with top pair which held. I'm now up to about 22K.
Hand 3: I have a semi-active image but have mostly shown down good hands lately and I've never reraised anyone. It folds to a young Aussie guy in MP who raised to 600 at 100/200 a25. He's been pretty active and seems to know what he's doing, and he also has a pretty decent sized stack. I decide to make it 1850 in the CO with Q9o, but he calls. Not sure what he has here, could be trapping with a big hand, could have small pair or suited connector hoping to flop big and bust me, or maybe some random big cards he doesn't want to fold if he's worse than I think he is. Flop A87, he checks and I have to bet this flop as it he shouldn't usually like the ace. I bet 2750, he hums and haws about how unlucky it he is that an ace flopped and calls. The turn is an A, I obviously don't put any more money in. It checks down, and a key point in Australia is that the last aggressor always has to show their hand first. So I roll my Q9o so I can see his hand, and he the AA for quads. Anyways now my image obviously sucks, which is important for this hand.
Hand 4: A young German player Daniel Zink makes it 550 in EP. I still have around 16K and he covers me, and I find T9dd in the SB. I figure with my new bad table image I should get some action if I flop big and call. The flop comes 875 two diamonds, and I lead 1150, intending to reraise all-in if he raises my bet. He just calls though and the tuen is the 8d completing my flush b ut pairing the board. I bet 2675 and he calls. The river is a 5. I really think he has a big pair that he's playing pot control with, and given my new bad image I just might get a river bet paid off. It seems very unlikely he has a fullhouse given he didn't raise the flop, and a bigger flush is only a little worrisome. I make a fairly big bet of 6425, and he thinks for a bit and moves me in for 4250 more. I think I thought for 3 minutes or so, though most of my energy was probably dedicated to being angry and hating my life more than figuring out what to do. I really didn't see how it made sense for him to have a big hand here unless he slowplayed a monster on the flop, which on such a draw heavy board should be less likely. Anyways eventually I just talked some sense into myself and realized that he probably played his hand poorly on some street, but it's impossible for him to be bluffing and this is an easy fold. So I folded angrily.
Hand 5: Steveol7 raises to 800 at 150/300 a 25 on my right. I move in with 66, the button shoves over the top and I outflip his AK to get back to 10Kish. OK maybe I have a chance again.
Hand 6: From here not much happened. I blinded down a bit, I tried to raise the blinds twice butgot reraised both times despite they were the only two times I put chips in the pot during the 200/400 level. I got into pushbot mode to stay afloat. Eventually I got moved tables with 7500 at 300/600 a75. A player who Bond had told me is rkruok from online shoved his very short stack on my BB. I found AQ and instacalled but lost to his T6o. I then beat JJ with KT0 the next hand though to get right back where I was. My bustout hand was when I shoved 66 in EP with around 7K at 300/600 a75. The BB called with 88 and that was that.
Tomorrow is a $1500 bounty tournament that has a kind of weird structure I need to check out. In other news, the Full Tilt plane from LAX got in today with all the Full Tilt pros and people who won seats to the main event on their site, as well as some others who hitched a ride, so pretty much everyone is here now. I crashed the Full Tilt party for a bit tonight with Leo and a couple others which was alright. I also had kangaroo for dinner tonight, and it was actually pretty good. Still haven't headbutted or boxed any kangaroos yet though. They're avoiding me imo.
Mike
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Aussie Update
Hey, we're 4 events into the Aussie Millions now and I'm still having a blast. I haven't had too much success myself so far, but friends have already put up some good finishes. timex got 2nd in the opening $1K NL event after chopping for $90K. For some reason he thought it was a good idea to trade 10% with me for the entire series so that has me in good shape thus far. Also, Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke won Event 3, the mixed stud tournament, for $17K. gobbo finished 2nd in the main event here last year for $1 million AUD, so he was definitely very pleased to come back and win an event this year. I had my first cash in the $1K limit holdem event today. I was min-betting along pretty well, but then I got caught making a move on the bubble which cut into my stack. After that I went card dead, and finally made a stand with ATo in my BB. Unfortunately I ran into the CO raiser's 93s, and that was that. I finished 15th for $1230. So once the $1100 buy-in is accounted for and the $123 I owe timex for our 10% swap, I finished ahead $7 on the day. Then I drank a $9 Crown Lager from the mini-bar in our hotel room. Sigh.
Outside of poker Melbourne has been a lot of fun. I've been hanging out with all the other online players that are already here a lot. We usually just end up going for dinner, having some drinks, and then end up back at Tony's place for Wii, chinese poker, more drinks, etc.... Tomorrow is the $1K rebuy, which should be a great tournament. It's the biggest effective buy-in preliminary event that I plan to play. Playing rebuy tournaments live is always a lot of fun because you get to do crazy stuff and laugh at the silly live nits who don't even rebuy off the start. Also, I'm 2/2 lifetime in cashing $1K rebuys, so I have a record to maintain. I haven't really given any tournament reports yet, but I'll get around to doing more of those at some point. The last thing anyone wants is to listen to me try to give limit holdem strategy, considering I was a losing 5/10 player on Party before I switched to mostly tournaments. It doesn't really matter though, because everywhere you go people are just awful at limit holdem. Keep in mind that limit holdem was the main game played in most casinos before the poker boom, so you'd think at least some of the old time players might be decent. Again, you would be wrong. Almost everyone has so many glaring fundamental leaks that it's ridiculous. Anyways, going to get some rest and hopefully put in a good showing in the rebuy tomorrow. Peace,
Mike
Outside of poker Melbourne has been a lot of fun. I've been hanging out with all the other online players that are already here a lot. We usually just end up going for dinner, having some drinks, and then end up back at Tony's place for Wii, chinese poker, more drinks, etc.... Tomorrow is the $1K rebuy, which should be a great tournament. It's the biggest effective buy-in preliminary event that I plan to play. Playing rebuy tournaments live is always a lot of fun because you get to do crazy stuff and laugh at the silly live nits who don't even rebuy off the start. Also, I'm 2/2 lifetime in cashing $1K rebuys, so I have a record to maintain. I haven't really given any tournament reports yet, but I'll get around to doing more of those at some point. The last thing anyone wants is to listen to me try to give limit holdem strategy, considering I was a losing 5/10 player on Party before I switched to mostly tournaments. It doesn't really matter though, because everywhere you go people are just awful at limit holdem. Keep in mind that limit holdem was the main game played in most casinos before the poker boom, so you'd think at least some of the old time players might be decent. Again, you would be wrong. Almost everyone has so many glaring fundamental leaks that it's ridiculous. Anyways, going to get some rest and hopefully put in a good showing in the rebuy tomorrow. Peace,
Mike
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