Turning of the tides??

Not a lot going on lately.  I've been playing a lot of poker online since the poker room is still being built.  Looks like it could be November before it is done.  

I finally cashed in on a MTT.  First one ever.  It was a $5 R + A NL Hold em tournament.  There were about 750 entrants and I finished 60th.  The payout?  $29.  You may say, that's nothing and if you know rebuy and add on tournaments, you are probably thinking I didn't make any money.  However, I didn't have to make any rebuys and I did the add on just because.  So $10 was my total buy in.  I saw one guy make 9 rebuys while I was at his table.  So I did pretty damn good.  I played a bit conservative once we got to the 10th level and higher.  I had to, I was always around 10 BB's.  No matter what, I'm happy to finally cash in a MTT (multi table tournament).    This was probably my 15th MTT.  Very stressful.  

While I was waiting for the MTT to start, I played some cash game and doubled my buy in.  Always nice.  I don't remember the big hand where I doubled up, but I remember one hand where the player that lost went crazy on me.  

First of all, I hate it when people take it out on me because they played a hand bad.  But maybe you'll agree with him.  Here's the hand:

I'm in BB with KJo.  He is in the cutoff and raises to $0.75.  A raise to $0.75 in a $0.10/$0.25 game is pretty standard these days.  This guy had been doing this a lot and I wanted to catch him.  So I called.  

Flop comes down 4c Js Qc.  I have middle pair but do fear the Q.  I check and he bets $1 into a $1.55 pot.  I look at this as a scared bet.  I take this bet as a "I think you might have a flush draw but I have top pair and don't want to lose a lot of money if you hit it".  I also take this as "I have a draw and might not hit it".  So I call.  

Turn is a blank.  I act first and bet $2, which is about half the pot.  He calls me.  River is a Jc.  So there are 3 cards to a flush on the board now and I have a set.  I check thinking he hit his flush.  He checks.  He turns up Qs10s and proceeds to tell me how horrible of a call it was I made with middle pair on the flop.  Then tells me I'm lucky and blah blah.  I fight back.  I hate it when this crap goes on.  I usually keep my mouth shut so I don't give away information about the way the player plays or how I'm playing, but this guy wouldn't stop.  

So we went back and forth for awhile.  Then a few hands later, I have A6o in the BB and it comes around to me with 4 limpers, he is one of them.  Flop comes down 6 J 6.  I flop the set.  I check, being I'm first to act.  Everyone else checks and he bets.  I raise.  He calls.  I put him on a jack.  Turn is a blank.  I bet the pot and he just calls.  I know he has a 6 now, but my ace will help me win the pot.  On the river, the board pairs, full house.  I check, he checks and turns up 6c2c.  I remind him about his "lucky" comment and he says "Agreed.  Let's drop it".  And that was it.  

In poker, remember you will sometimes be on the end of bad luck and sometimes be on the end of good luck.  It depends on what you do with it.  

On a even better note, I hit quad 2's, quad 10's twice, and quad Q's at the casino on video poker last week.  Then I hit a royal flush.  Walked away $1200 up.  Here's proof:

Roller Coaster

I was just able to win a $6 8-game SnG.  Games played were the following:

2-7 Triple Draw Lowball

Limit Hold Em

Limit Omaha H/L

Limit Razz

Limit Stud

Limit Stud H/L

NL Hold Em

Pot Limit Omaha

It was a fun game and a good win.  

Then I went and lost in the first hand of a $13 NLHE SnG.  See, I got dealt QQ on the first hand and raised it to $60 in the $10/$20 Level.  It was reraised by the BB to $160 and I made it $400, knowing he had AK or any pocket pair of JJ or lower.  And you are asking, how do you know that?  

Here's how, he pushed all in after my $400 raise.  See, if he had AA or KK, he would have pushed all in to my $60 raise because he obviously was ready to get all the chips in the center.  So I call.  And he had 99.  God I'm so fucking smart!  

Then a 9 hits on the flop.  I'm out.  Time to hit the cash game tables.  

Cheers

$1/$2 NL

I'm writing you from Cumberland, WI which is about 15 minutes north of Turtle Lake, WI.  In Turtle Lake, there is the St. Croix casino which houses a nice poker room and No Limit Hold Em, which cannot be found in Minnesota due to laws.  

This was the first time I have ever played live No Limit cash game with people I have never played with.  And at $1/$2 blinds, pots can reach $100 pre flop, so you have to be ready to play.  I bought in for $200 and had an extra $100 waiting in case of a reload.  I sat down a the table and the button was 1 seat to my left.  Dealer asked if I wanted to by in for $2 and I declined.  The look he gave me was amazing since I would have to wait 7 hands before I could play 1.  What did I do in these 7 hands?  I watched and learned.  I learned a lot of about some of the players there.  The 65 year old woman with about $100 in chips, sunglasses, and white hair who would cold call you if she had the nuts and would fold if she missed.  Or how about the middle aged man that would raise a lot of pots in early position and then check if he missed.  Or the guy that raised to $14 EVERY time he had a pocket pair.  Idiot.  

OK, so I played from 9PM to 11PM and in this time, I walked away up $123.  So now the stories.  The first hand I played, I had 10h 9 h in late position and called a preflop raise of $10.  On the flop, I flopped a King high flush with a straight flush draw.  The preflop raiser bet and I called.  On the turn was a Qh, which gave the board 4 cards to a flush, but there was now a royal flush draw on the table.  Preflop raiser checked and I bet $30 and he folded.  

Next big hand was where I was able to limp preflop with As 7c.  4 other players in the game limped and the flop was Kc Ah 7c.  BB bet $8 and UTG + 1 called.  I raised in middle position to $24.  It was folded around to UTG + 1 and he called.  Guess what he has, flush draw.  I knew it.  I'm not an idiot.  So the turn is a 10s and it is heads up and checked to me.  I bet $40.  $40 into about a $56 pot I think.  UTG + 1 calls.  Turn is his club and he goes all in.  Now why the hell would I call?  Idiot.  Seriously.  I fold, stating that I know he hit his flush and I showed my Aces up and half the table knew this guy was possibly the luckiest guy in the world.  However, only me and 1 other guy knew the guy should have folded after the turn.  Not too bad of a hit to me since I was up going into the hand but I wasn't too happy.  

Final big hand that needs to be talked about is where I got KK in UTG + 1.  I raised to $10 preflop and got 1 called.  Flop comes down 3d 2s 2d.  I bet $16 and this guy in late position went all in.  I knew he didn't have a 2 because he was a very tight player.  Probably had Ad 10d or something, but I never really looked at his hand.  I called after much thought and told him he was drawing, flipped over my Kings and they held up.  HUGE POT.  In all, I think it was about $170.  This put me at $300.  I hung around for a couple more hands and the last hand I had was Ad Kd, raised $10 preflop with 3 callers.  Bet $20 on the turn when my King hit and everyone folded.  2 people called out that I had AK, it was sick.  

So none the less, I had a successful night with my first attempt at $1/$2 NL.  It was a good night.  I'm sure I will make my way back for some more action.  

Now I'm off to bed...

See you at the tables.

SnG's, family games, and the WSOP

Hello to the one person that reads this.  

Just some quick updates for you and where I am at right now and what I am doing.  Been playing a lot of Sit N Go's online lately.  Played games ranging from $5 to $13 for the buy in.  Haven't had a lot of success until today where I was able to take down two $13 6-handed games.  Both games I had to concentrate and play good poker, no mistakes.  I was actually short stacked early in both games but got my money in right and made some good moves.  

One thing I've learned on PokerStars is that you have to expand your hand requirements, which isn't too difficult for me, but when K6o hits a set of 6's on the flop and you can get the best value out of it, you know you have to switch things up.  

What else has been going on?  Well let me tell you this now, never make a bet with me that you will last longer in a poker game than me, especially when I have played with these people for more than 2 years.  See, Chad Hurst made a horrible mistake of putting $10 on the line that he would outlast me in the latest Hurst house game.  I took the challenge of course and took full advantage of this bet.  See, knowing that Chad Hurst wanted to last longer than me in this game told me that he would play tighter than normal, because one screw up by him would mean he was out $5 for the game and another $10 to me.  The worst part about it though would be the fact that I could brag about this victory.  

So I was aggressive towards him and made crazy moves, like all in with 10c 2c.  I knew he would fold unless he had a monster and his body language will tell you a lot.  

Long story short, I won and he finished 2nd and it was a great heads up match and I was happy to share it with Chad Hurst.  He can be a good poker player, when he had side bets on the line.  Larry Pfost once again did not win and that has got to irritate him greatly.  It makes me laugh.  He taught all of us this game and then we sat down, practiced, read books, and watched TV and now we destroy him.  

Finally, I want to share some thoughts on the most recent WSOP event aired on ESPN.  It was the $50K HORSE event and Scotty Nguyen won.  On paper, this all appeared fantastic, but when ESPN showed us what really happened, I think it left a lot of amateur poker players sitting there wondering "What?".  

The attitude that was shown at the final table by Scotty Nguyen was horrible and I think uncalled for.  He was dropping the F bomb non-stop, he was showing the crowd his cards, and just acting like an ass.  I hope he sees this and doesn't allow it to happen again, but I have read that this is the true Scotty Nguyen when he drinks and that it will not change.  We will see.  

Attitude aside, I think he played ok.  I got lucky a lot and needs to realize that, but he is an amazing tournament player and will go down as one of the greatest when it's all said and done.  

That's my time.  I'm out.

Update

So again it has been forever since my last post and I apologize. I haven't been playing a lot of poker, but have still been getting my share of games in.

In the last post I talked about how I was going to get rich by playing nothing but SnG's. Well, I still play nothing but SnG's but I'm not rich yet. Full Tilt was not very good to me in the $10 SnG's. I dominated the $2 SnG's, winning like 8 out of 9 that I played and having a 5 game win streak. It was crazy. Then I'd move up and nothing. Eventually, I ran out of my money on Full Tilt. However, I played 30 SnG's with an average by in of about $7 approximately and I ended up spending over $200 on SnG's, but I only won like, $180, so back at zero.

Since then I have taken a break from Full Tilt and moved on to Poker Stars. I have put in $116 in my account and right now am at $98. I was down to $0 at one point and had to reload. Poker Stars is a completely different site. The players are aggressive to the point they are silly. I've seen raises with 92o, calls of 4x raises with 86o, all-in with 72o and they still had 8 BB's. I know the standard is 10, but with 8, you can wait for better cards. These people tend to give up easily and will call with Jack high and hit their miracle card.

You can't control them, but you can control the way you play, which is what I have been trying to do. I just finished up a 9 man $11 SnG where I took 1st place for a nice $45 payout.

Onto the live game, Season 2 of the Poker League will be starting September 9th. $12 buy-in with $10 going to the prize pool and $2 going to the end of the year pool. 18 games total to be played. Should be fun. I hope we have at least 6 a week. Played some cash game at my place a couple weeks ago and I cleaned up. I sat down with $40 and had 4 other people. 2 bought in for $20, 1 for $40 and 1 for $18. 1 person walked away with $23 and I walked away with the rest. You do the math.

It's a $75 profit for me.

I guess that's it for now. I'll try and update more often.

I'm back

It was brought to my attention weeks ago that I have not blogged lately concerning the poker life.  There's a few reasons for that.  I've been busy, I've been watching a lot of baseball as the Cubs are on fire, and I've been getting my ass kicked in poker.  3 weeks ago, I was up to $200 available to play.  2 weeks ago I was at $44 and yesterday I was at $27.  What a swing right?  Cash game has been killing me so I have decided to go back to what I know and I have a plan.  6 handed SnG's and that is it.  I started last night and here are my stats so far:

$10 + $1 NLHE - 4th

$10 + $1 NLHE - 2nd

$10 + $1 NLHE - 1st

$10 + $1 NLHE - 3rd

$10 + $1 PLO - 1st

The 6 handed games pay out the top 2 and it's $39 and $21.  So you can do the math or I will do it for you.  I have invested $55 and have made a profit of $44 (1st, 1st, 2nd = $99 in winnings).  So yesterday afternoon I was at $27 and now, about 36 hours later, I am at $71.  I'm on the comeback trail.  

I have been playing very conservatively and waiting for the right move.  I'm not taking risks and am getting my money in good.  My goal is to cash in 2 out of 3 games a day.  If I can do that, I could be close to $1000 by the end of the month.  

I'll keep you posted.  

Chip and a chair

"There's an old saying in poker that all you need is a chip and chair" - Doyle Brunson

Tonight I was not supposed to play poker.  I didn't feel well and probably should have gone to sleep around 12midnight.  However, I had a high class meal of 2 frozen burritos with cheese and salsa on top and a coke.  Then I started watching "Poker After Dark" and decided to fire up a little Sit N Go action.  

My first choice was a $5  + $0.50 6 handed game.  Sat down and started watching the field, taking my notes of their different betting patterns and tendencies.  A lot of poker is played when you watch your player and read what they do.  Online, you can't see the person reacting.  You can't see the twitch or the "look away" when they are trying to make you believe they have nothing.  However, you can watch a played limp in a pot and then re-raise a raise with AA, KK, QQ, or AK.  But don't forget, people are watching you too.  

Back to the game.  

A few hands in, I'm in the big blind and everyone folds to SB.  SB calls so I make an attempt to see where I'm at, so I raise.   SB folds and so I know where I stand and I begin to steal some blinds and punish the limpers.  Then I got punished.  

I woke up with Jc 8d in the BB and UTG and SB call.  I check.  Flop comes Jh Qs 8c.  I flop 2 pair.  Very nice hand.  Not a total monster as the Q can hurt me.  SB bets 40 and I raise to 160.  UTG raises to 280.  SB folds and I call because its only 120 to call into a 500 pot and I have two pair.  I'm putting UTG on an Ace.  Maybe AK, maybe AJ or AQ.  

Onto the turn, an As.  I check, UTG bets 255, half the pot.  So now I'm thinking, does he have a flush draw?  I call.  Bad move #1.

River is Qh.  No flush draw on the table and the pot is a little over 1000 and I have about 1100 left.  I push.  UTG calls and has Qs Js and he wins.  Bad move #2 was moving all in before he could make a move.  

So this leaves me with 65 in chips and blinds at 20/40.  From here, I picked the right spots to go all in, I got some great hole cards and I started doubling up.  Eventually, I got back into the chip lead and was able to win the tournament.  This was probably my best comeback ever.  It was a good win for me.  

From there I went on to a $6 turbo 6 handed SnG and didn't do to well.  I think the turbo games are not for me anymore because I spend the first few levels watching instead of playing and you can't always protect your blinds and stay around the starting stack.  

---------------------------------------------------

Cash game was good to me tonight, sat at a $0.10/$0.25 6 handed table and took advantage of a lot of sloppy players.  It also helped that I got KK, KK, QQ, JJ, 44, AK, AK.  Got nice hands.  

Best hand was waking up with AK and flopping the nut straight.  I was heads up with a very loose player and I bet half the pot.  He doubled it.  I raised the pot.  He went all in.  Only thing I was concerned about was a flush draw that he could hit.  I called.   He turned up 9h Kd and I took down the $45 pot.  

I was about to get up to $53 and walked away.  Not bad when I sat down with $25.  

So now I'm going to go to bed, get zero sleep since it's storming outside and get back to it tomorrow.  

Ciao

KFAN poker lounge, $0.25/$0.50 cash game

For the past few weeks, one of the local Minneapolis radio stations has put on a Poker talk show on Monday nights. It's called the KFAN Poker Lounge and the 3 guys talk poker strategy, they talk about some of the games they've played, some of the hands, hands they've seen on TV, some of the big stories in the poker world, and they make fun of each other. The show is pretty good. I think it could be better because I really don't care about people bad beats and I am trying to not talk about my bad beats anymore, but none the less, I listen to the podcasts on Tuesday mornings.

They also have a poker chat room where local players can talk about the same stuff and I have actually read some pretty good posts. So recently, a poker chat (or rube chat as they call it) member decided to get a private tournament setup on Full Tilt.com and have players join in. The game happened last night. The buy-in was $5 + $.50 and we had 7 players. Not the best turn out, but it was fun. Here's some highlights:

- I started off early, firing fast and trying to take down some pots. Wanted to play aggressive early and get that loose image across the table. I think it worked actually. I was raising a lot preflop and narrowing the field down. I was about 50/50 in taking down pots after the flop.

- Due to my aggression, chips started dwindling away so I slowed down and concentrated more. From this point, I started limping preflop then firing post flop. This strategy was actually working a lot better and I was able to get back up to my original starting stack quickly.

- Then I got some hands. All while this was going on, the other players were playing pretty tight. Each hand was 2 or 3 handed and it would be a raise preflop, then a continuation bet or a reraise would usually take the pot down. Didn't see many showdowns.

- 2nd biggest hand of the night was against Ralvek (Andy) where I woke up with 2 beautiful ladies in my hand. I raised 3x and had 1 caller, Andy. Flop was all low, no draw, just dead. I bet about 2/3 of the pot I believe and Andy reraised me. There was now about 1K in the pot and I had around 750 left so I pushed all in and after some thinking, Andy folded. Good fold son.

- Biggest hand of the night was against PMAC. He is one of the KFAN Poker Lounge hosts and he talks a lot of talk. Just go here and you will see what I mean - http://www.kfan.com/pages/Poker.html. He is "Mackey" in the blogs.

Anyways, I'm in early position, and I wake up with the bullets. I have about 1100 in chips and I make it 300 to go, the standard 3x raise which a lot of people don't like. PMAC raises all-in to a total of about 800. I figure he has a pair or AK and I think he is putting me on either a middle pair, AQ, KQ, or a total bluff and steal attempt. I instacall and it's just him and I, heads up. AA vs KK. I love it. He laughs and I take the pot down. PMAC is quiet now and my goal of taking him out is complete.

Now I'm not saying I'm a great poker player because of this but the following factors did help me because he pushed when some would just call (though I was always ahead) :

- I bet 3x the BB. As I said, a lot of people think this is too low, while some people think this is standard. Since people think this is standard, a lot of people will put someone on Ax when they make this kind of move, making any pocket pair a monster.

- I played loose all night and kept the same betting patterns for all of my hands.

- No one can get away from KK, not even me, not even PMAC, when you are preflop and don't even have 10 BB's left in your chip stack.

So basically this hand just worked out in my favor this time. It bites me hard later.

Back to the game - I ended up finishing 4th when Andy got the last laugh and took me out with my so called "favorite hand" in poker, the Q2. I was SB, Andy on the button, blinds 60/120, here we go....

Andy calls the 120, I call with J10 offsuit. BB checks and we see a flop of Q J x rainbow. I'm first to act so I make about a 2/3 pot sized bet. BB folds and Andy reraises. Now I'm in the tank and I'm thinking of all the hands Andy could have. I come to the conclussion that he has a Q, but I can go over the top of him and either push him off his hand if he doesn't have AQ or hit 1 of my MANY outs and get lucky (50% of poker is luck right? RIGHT?). With this process, I push all in and Andy thinks for about 2 seconds before calling and flipping up Q2o. Q2o. Say it with me, Q2 offsuit. So Andy takes down the pot, I'm out of the game and a little annoyed because Andy tells me "I had to play it".

Why did you have to play it Andy, because you had a paint card in a 4 handed poker game and thought it would hold up against the 2 other players after you just smooth called preflop? No that's not why.

It's because I won a hand once with Q2 where I hit quads on the river and knocked a guy out of a game because the guy was drunk and stupid. From there, I joked that Q2 was my favorite hand and I would always play it, I even named a blog after Q2. However, I never play this hand unless I am in a small or big blind and stealing a pot at which point I would be raising preflop. And even if I did hit and someone went over the top of my reraise with All-in, I would call maybe 1% of the time because Q3 and every other kicker beats me. But Andy was the chip leader and could afford to lose 1000 chips to me if I did have AQ so he called my all-in anyways.

I'm not complaining, I'm just telling you about the hand that took me out and the reasoning behind the hand. You make your own judgement.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

$0.25/$0.50 cash game

Moving on to my cash game later that night. I sat down at the 25/50 cent table on Full Tilt with $50 to my name and started off hot. I was raising a lot preflop, reraising continuation bets and taking down some pots, playing really good poker I thought. I was up about $15 when I woke up with KK in late/middle position. The pot has already been raised to $2.25 so I reraised to $5. The SB reraises to $13. I think 1 thing and 1 thing only, he has aces. I even say it outloud. And then I push all my chips in to the middle and he calls. This is now a $90 pot and I have $20 left in my stack. My call was right and he has AA to my KK and he takes it down. What can you do there? Do you fold KK when you get reraised preflop? Maybe, maybe not. This guy had played a lot of hands already so I was thinking he could have anything but I knew he had a pair or AK. It was a race because at any point a K could have hit the table, but it didn't.

I accepted, and added more chips to bring me back to $50. About 20 minutes later, I had something like A8 and raised. BB called and the flop came down giving me the A, but there were 4 spades on the table. So the process was, I bet $2 into a $3.50 pot on the flop with an instacall from the BB. Check/ check on the turn and check/check on the river. My hand was good, but I was upset because I should have made a potsize bet on the river after he checked the flush draw on the table. I was upset because I didn't get the best value out of my hand. Then 10 minutes later, I had another chance with the same guy.

This time I have pocket 10's and I raise to $2. Same guy calls me, I think his name was WhiteClrRedNeck or something. We will him Joe. So the flop comes 10 4 5 with 2 spades again. I am first to act and I bet 2/3 the pot, instacall. I'm on to something here.

Turn is an 8s. Flush draw on the table, I have a set, I bet the pot to see where I am, $10 into it. Instacall. He doesn't have a flush or he would have reraised me and if he is slow playing, good for me because I could pair the board and dominate him. River is an 8c. I have my boat, he has maybe a flush, maybe 2 pair, maybe a smaller boat. I bet the pot, $25 and put him all in. He calls and I take the $90 pot down. He had A10o the whole time and though his kicker was good. He probably peed a little when he got 2 pair with top kicker.

So with this hand, that put me actually $10 ahead of my original starting point, so my lose earlier with KK to AA was nullified and I was happy. I played a little more and finally walked away with $71, $8 down. Not a bad night. And I had fun.

See you at the tables..

Reflecting on tournament play

So I posted a pretty quick post last night after finding my way to the rail during the Omaha Limit Hi/Lo game I was involved in and I wanted to reflect a little more today on my game.

As I stated last night, there were a few maniacs at my table that I think held me back from playing hands I normally would. I was playing the players last night more than I was playing the cards and I think in Omaha, you have to play the cards more the sense of hitting flushes and straights. Also, since it was Hi/Lo, I knew I wanted to get my money in good when I could possibly scoop with the high and the low so I wanted to get in against players that would play higher cards and I would go in with lower cards, maybe a wheel draw or something. I think this hurt me.

One hand I folded that is sticking with me was last, when I was down to about 700 in chips and needs to make a move. I had a call and a raise behind me with a very loose player to my left so I was expecting a reraise from him, which happened and the pot was actually capped before the flop (4 bets made). However, I should have been in this hand from the start. I had Ad Jd 10h ?. I know the 4th card was a black 7,8, or 9. I folded.

The flop came J J 2 and the turn was an Ace. This would have been a big hand for me even if I split the pot and I would have been resurrected. However, I didn't play and shortly after I was out.

The only other hand I think I should have played different was when I flopped quad Kings. Yup, quads. There was 360 in the pot and 3 players after the flop. UTG checked, I checked and cutoff bet 120, the max. UTG folded and I called. And there is the problem, I just called. I think if I would have raised here, the cutoff would have maybe folded, fearing a set on my end and I would have taken down the whole pot. What my call did was tell him that I have maybe 2 pair and he was ahead of me. The turn was a 5d to make the board K 2 K 5. I checked again and the cutoff bet. This time I did reraise and he just called me. The river was a 7. check, bet, call was the sequence and I show my quads but he shows that he is eligible for the low and we split the pot. Very sick. Instead of moving up to over 3K in chips, I was stuck at 1600, where I started the hand pretty much.

So there is a little more analysis of the game. Overall, I'm about 50/50 satisfied with my play.

After I said goodbye to the Omaha game, I fired up a quick 6max $6 + $0.50 SnG that would pay out $23.50 to the winner. I was very satisfied with my play here. I got my money in good, folded when I felt like my hand was second best and was able to win the game, took about an hour. 3-handed was very back and forth and it took awhile to get down to heads up, but I was able to eliminate the 3rd place player with pocket 9's up against A x with a dead board. Heads up saw 2 lead changes as my 7's lost to 9's to swap the chip lead and then my J's held up to Q 10 to give me the lead back and I closed out the game about 3 hands later.

Up next is possibly the KFAN SnG on Full Tilt tonight at 8PM. If I don't play that, I will maybe play some cash game and then I will be in a $10 + $1 NL Hold Em tournament on Sunday starting at 2:00PM. This game is $5,000 guaranteed prize pool.

See you then.

View from the rail

It's been exactly an hour and I just busted out in 594th place.  I made it half way through the field.  

Unfortunately, I was at a table with a lot of maniacs chasing straights and the low hand and then calling the river just to see if their 8 wins them the low.  I folded a lot of hands I probably shouldn't, but my strategy was to play tight until at least the 3rd hour but that bit me in the ass.  

Next game is Sunday, June 8th.  $10 + $1 NL Hold 'em, $5,000 guaranteed.  See you then.

MSOP Update: Event 6 - $15 + $1.50 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo

Just throwing a quick update as we reach our first break.  An hour in and I am about 300 under my starting stack.  I'm playing pretty tight and actually lost 1 hand on the river that I had after the flop.  It was pretty sick, but it happens in early levels.  

Here's the starting numbers in the tourney:

1,072 entries

$16,080 Prize pool

$3,618 to the winner

After break one, there are 1,008 players left.  It's going to be a long night and hopefully I will have more updates.  One more quick note, Full Tilt Poker pro Scott Fischman is playing in the game.  Pretty cool.  

See you in an hour.

I'm back

I have been gone way to long from this blog. I feel like I abandoned it so it's time to pick up the pace again.

Since my last blog, I have not played too much poker but what I have played took a lot of energy. After my 3rd place finish at my families home game, I played some cash games with my brothers where I was up and down. I was able to come out firing early and steal a lot of blinds. I also make a lot of continuation bets and was able to take down pots using such madness.

Chad Hurst finally caught on after I kept showing bluff and bluff to put him on tilt. He raised me one hand with nothing and I got caught, but I was able to use that to my advantage once the big hand showed up and Chad came along for the ride.

After that, I started playing a lot of tournaments online at FullTiltPoker.com. The first game I played was a $10 PL Omaha Hi with re-buys and 1 add-on. I used 2 rebuys and the add-on for a total of $40 into the game. Winner of the game would take home over $900 while to top 18 got paid. I played for about 4 hours before busting out in the top 25.

It sucked because I was so close to the money, but it was a good game, I thought I played well and my time will come.

Next up was a $1 NLHE game with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on. Again, I used the rebuy and the add-on for a total of $3 spent. This game had over 600 people in the game and when all the dust settled, I came in 9th. 9th out of 600 which means a final table. This was huge and I felt really good about my play. I was able to get into some cheap pots and lay down my hand when I knew I was beat. I was able to maximze my winnings while minimizing my loses. The final hand was a tough pill to swallow but finishing 9th was well worth the 4 hours I played.

Other than that, I played a few cash game hands over the last 2 weeks and that's about all the poker I have played. Last night, I played 3 $10 + $1 SnG's, finished 3rd, 1st, and 3rd. They were 6 man games, so the 3rd and 3rd got me no money, but the 1st payout left me ahead. Again, very satisfied with my playing as I was able to control a lot of my own action and trap a lot of players with their Ace rag. I think the best thing I did last night which gave me good finishes was that I took a lot of notes on different players and instead of saying "this guy raises with Ace/race", I would keep notes like "this guy played this hand this way with this flop". The notes were more detailed. I used it to my advantage a lot.

Another thing that has started is the World Series of Poker. I have been following the games online and a lot of the big named pros have been non-existent. However, the $10K PLHE game had an amazing final table and I can't wait to watch it on TV.

With the WSOP comes Full Tilt's "Mini Series of Poker". The games started May 30 and will go until July 5th, when the $100 + $9 NLHE game will be played with a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000. I'm about 90% sure the prize pool will greatly exceed $250K. My thought is that there will be about 4000 players involved in the main event.

From now until then however, there are a lot of games being played daily and I have decided to play some of them. Here is my schedule of games:

Event Date Time (EST) Game Guaranteed Prize Pool
6 June 3rd 20:20 $15 + $1.50 Omaha Hi/Lo $3,000
15 June 8th 15:20 $10 + $1 NL Hold 'em $5,000
39 June 21st 15:20 $15 + $1.50 NL Hold 'em $7,500
49 June 28th 15:20 $15 + $1.50 NL Hold 'em $5,000
50 June 29th 15:20 $100 + $9 PL Omaha $20,000
54 July 5th 18:00 $100 + $9 NL Hold 'em $250,000

Events 50 and 54 will be decided on how well I am playing. The events leading up to those will cost me a total of $60 with the change to win some big prize pools. Like I said, I think all of the guarantees will be exceeded as there is also a watch up for grabs that will let everyone know you were a MSOP winner. It's not the WSOP yet, but I'm excited for this.

That's it for now. Cheers.

Change of pace and scenary

I have been away for awhile as far as poker comes so I guess I should fill you in on what has been going on. The poker league finished season 1 a couple weeks ago. We had 2 games to finish everything up on Tuesday, May 6th. It ended up coming down to the final game and literally, the final hand as to who won. There was a 3 way tie going into 3 handed action during the final game. The winner of game 2 went on to win the points and the big money. $80 paid out to the points winner with 2nd and 3rd place money being added together and split evenly to pay out the tie for 2nd place.

All in all it was a good time. There are many things that are going to be changed for the next season and that will include rules, chip stacks, blinds, and the introduction of antes. I think having the antes added in will create more pots and will get players to see more flops instead of just folding around until they get AA in the hole. Afterall, after the 5th level, it's going to cost you $100 just to see that AA in the hole. So we will see. I will start posting the points on this page so everyone can see them and the players involved will not be breathing over my shoulder and bugging me every Monday when the points get updated.

What else....I took a break from poker for a bit after the May 6th game. I was having a bad streak online and just not feeling well about my game. I took this time to catch on some Grand Theft Auto, baseball, and some reading. As I mentioned before, I read Kid Poker's book and now I am on the finishing pages of Gus Hansen's newest book "Every Hand Revealved". It's a great look into the Aussie Millions in which Gus took home the $1.5 Million prize.

Reading this book has helped me to understand playing the player and not the cards a little better. I am also learning more when it comes to pot odds and implied odds, such as, though you are getting 4 to 1 to call a bet, are you getting 4 to 1 to hit the card you need. So if it is $500 to call into a $2000 pot and the only card out there for you to hit is the only 5 left in the deck, do you call?

Anyways, I have just got back into playing online again and I played a live game the other night here with my family. I am back in Indiana for now so playing here is a lot different then playing in Minnesota. I know how these players play more often, very predictable. I took 3rd in the game we played Saturday night. I was in control going into 3 handed, but doubled up Kalvin on a race. All in all, a good game and I was VERY satisfied with my play.

Hopefully the end of May and a new month will bring some more ups. See you then.

Daniel Negreanu

I just finished and I mean just finished Daniel Negreanu's book, Hold 'Em Wisdom for All Players. It is his 50 best tips for any poker player. He talks a lot of bankroll management, certain cards to play and when to play them. He also dives into certain hands he has played, how to setup a home game and how the WSOP has grown.

One of the items he talked about was Poker on TV. As you know there is the WSOP on ESPN, the WPT on Travel Channel and GSN, and the High Stakes Poker on GSN. He states that High Stakes Poker is the best poker to watch on TV because they take 24 hours of footage and break it up into 13 weeks of shows. So do the math, you are seeing more hands played. The good thing there though is that you see the hands where the cut-off 3 bets and everyone folds around because they have crap or they fear the player. You don't just see the hands where you can deem them the "Degree All-In moment". I have learned a lot from watching High Stakes Poker, more than when I watch a WPT or WSOP event.

Anyways, the book has a lot of good information in it that I have begun using online and in some of my live cash games. Some of the information has helped, some I need to read again to get a better grasp of what he is really saying. The next book I have is Super System 2. I don't think it will take me a week to read this one, but I will start it tomorrow.

Tonight is the last game for Season 1 of the poker league. It doesn't have a name yet and I think it should have one. Mathematically, I can still finish in a tie for 2nd but I can't go any higher. Unfortunately, the top 4 get points and only players are playing. I have 3 people in front of me in the points so...you do the math there.

Anyhow, I will post who the winner is sometime this week. Then there will be a break in the action before Season 2 but hopefully there will still be some cash games and other SnG style games throughout the summer. I love playing poker so nothing is going to really get me to stop unless I lose all of my jobs and have no source of income.

That's all for now, see you at the tables.....

Going, going, gone!

No this is not about my bankroll so do not worry.  

My home tournament is coming to a close.  May 18th will be the last game.  It will be good to finally end a tournament that started in mid January and has been played about 2 weeks a month.  Having 2 games every time we play had taken a toll on me but it has been fun.  It will be interesting to see who will win the big prize.  It is a tight race for sure.  The top 3 are separated by only 3 points.  I will keep you posted. 

On another note, the swings are starting to swing up for me again.  I'm working on getting my Full Tilt account back up and my brother convinced me to join Ultimate Bet Poker which has been fun.  However, they have Blackjack on the site and that seems to be my downfall.  I need to stop.  I will.  

With joining Ultimate Bet, I used a site called "Rake the Rake", which gives me a percentage of every hand I play in's rake.  I haven't received any of my rake back yet, but when I do I will let you know if it is worth it.  

So that's it for now, nothing too excited, been taking it slow this week.  I'm sure there will be more updates and better stories soon.  

Cheers

The swings of poker

There are many aspects of poker one must be able to handle in order to succeed and earn money. There is the obvious aspect of patience. If you don't have patience and can't sit at a table and fold every hand you look at for an hour, you will be looking at felt a lot. Patience also comes into play when you are actually in a hand. If you loose a hand to someone that won on the river or hit runner runner for the straight or flush, and then go right back after that player or any player to regain your chips, you're not going to be successful. I've seen a lot of players go on tilt over one hand (I'm guilty of it to) and then the next thing you know, they are out of the game.

This coincides with the next aspect that I have trouble with in poker. The swings of poker. Whether it be the way the cards are falling or how your bankroll is fluctuating, the swings of poker can be disheartening and frustrating. For example, yesterday, I couldn't get a good hand to save my life. I saw a lot of 8 5 off, K 2 off, and more Ace/rag's then I could dream of. But based on my position or my chip stack, I just couldn't gamble and play with these cards. Then to add to the frustration, I saw 4 6 off twice and both times folded. Of course, two 6's hit on the flop both times.

So as my chip stack dwindled and I got busted out of tournament after tournament outside of the money, I decided to take a break and come back to it in about an hour. After that break, I was still getting cold cards and whenever I would get a good hand, everyone would fold around to me. Winning the blinds isn't bad unless you only win $0.35.

However, finally, after playing poker for almost 3 hours, I woke up with pocket Kings. Of course I raised and made it $1 to go. I was then re-raised and it was back to me. I had to pay $1.5 more to go. So I doubled that, making it $5 just to see the flop. I was called. I put my opponent on a pocket paid immediately, but I knew it was smaller than my kings. If it were Aces, he would have pushed all-in after my re-raise.

Flop comes down 8d 2h 10d. I push all-in for another $18. His hesitation in calling me tells me I am ahead. I've already told myself he doesn't have Aces and he doesn't have a set because he is thinking too much. He eventually calls and turns up Jacks.

My Kings hold up and just like that, I double up in my cash game funds for the day. After 3 hours of loosing money I come out ahead for the day.

So remember, patience and knowing that you're not going to win every hand will help you out in the future. Of course there are many other aspects to winning in poker, but we will talk about how to handle those later.

Can I get a rag to clean up my Ace?

I have something that is bothering me still to this day. I would like to present a question that I would love any response to. Let me setup the situation.

SnG game, $11 buy-in. 5 players left in the game. You are on the big blind. The first player to your left folds. The next player, in early position, raises 3 times the big blind. This player generally plays tight early and is a solid player. The player has a good hold on poker strategy and rules and knows how to play position.

The next 2 players, including the small blind, fold. Now it's up to you. Its $80 to call and take a stab at a pot of $250, so about 3 to 1 to call. You look at your cards and see As 5d (Ace spade, 5 diamonds for those new to this).

What do you do?

Welcome to Poker 101

Welcome. This is a little blog I'm going to try and keep track of and keep updated on a regular basis. This is not a blog of funny jokes, this blog is going to be about nothing but Poker. Online poker, live poker, tournaments, cash game, hold 'em, omaha, and other subjects. I will talk about some hands I have seen or played and share some thoughts.

Let's get started, shall we?

I should be in bed right now and I should have been in bed about an hour ago. I got home late from bartending tonight and I had to do some things with my finances before I went to bed that were bothering me. However, since I took a shower first, I was still wide awake when I got my tasks done. So I climbed in bed and signed on to my Full Tilt account. This is where I play online.

Over the past 2 years, I have deposited $50 to my Full Tilt account 5 times. My last deposit was in December 2007 and I have not made a deposit since. So my bankroll is at $69. That was until I played poker instead of going to bed. Don't be angry.

So I was torn on what to play. I didn't want to play long, just see some hands and get my body sleepy. My plan is to only play stakes where I have AT LEAST enough money to see 50 hands (when playing cash games) and play 50 tournaments (when I play SnG's). So with $69 in my bankroll, I figure I can play $0.50/$1 cash games. However, I am hesitant so I go to a $0.25/$0.50 game. And it's heads up.

Side note - I love heads up play. You have to be certain you have got the hand to beat. You have more outs which means you see and can play a lot more hands, but I think the skill level to play a heads up match is the same as playing a 9 man table. End side note.

I have a guy join my table and we both have bought in for $50. The cards start falling. I am trying to feel this guy out and I get a good read on him within the first 5 hands. Every time he is small blind, he raises 3 times the big blind. Every time he is big blind, he folds if I raise unless he have an over card. Also, if he doesn't hit the flop, he gets out of any bet, even if he is getting 4 to 1 on a call.

So I start taking some pots but I never see his cards, I just have an idea of how he is playing. After a few hands, I'm already up $7. Then I lose $12 on 2 hands where I was beat after the flop but the money was right to see the turn both times to see if I could hit my straight. Each time I folded when the money was no longer right.

Then, I am in the big blind and I have 6 7 off. Of course, this guy raises to $1.50 in the small blind (what he has been doing all night). I am now tired of him pushing me around in this situation and I have connected cards and loosen up. I call.

Flop comes down Q 8 9 rainbow. I have an open ended straight draw, with a possible straight on the board if this guy has J 10. I am first to act and check. He bets about $2 and I call. Turn comes down 5. I have hit my 9-high straight. I bet half the pot, $4. He raises to $16. I think about for a bit, wondering if he has J 10. I think if he does though, he would have bet more after the flop. I'm thinking he would have bet double the pot if he had the straight. So I figure he has a Q and my straight it good. I push all-in for $47. This is 80% of my bankroll but I know I have this hand and if he sucks out, he sucks out. I'm prepared to lose my money.

He doesn't even hesitate and calls. He turned up Q K off. There is not flush draw, he just has Queens with 2nd best kicker. River is a 4 and I take the pot down. I'm surprised by his call, but I think he underestimated me. I think what helped me is that a few hands earlier, I have K J suited and I called all of his bets with K high, while he had a pair the whole time. This probably made him think I was bluffing and trying to imply the straight. None the less, i won the hand and that made my night.

So, I hope you enjoyed this story. There will be more to come as I will begin discussing the poker league that is held at my house as it comes to a close. We will have the first ever winner crowned soon. I hope it's me. If not, I'll be ok.

Cheers!