i only played a couple tournies last nite.
6pm was fun. i was down to 500 chips early after flopping 2 pair and getting away from it on the river. it's kind of fun trying to rebuild from being so low early and i enjoy the challenge. i worked it back up to 1150 w/o playing any big pots until i a lost a race w/ AK vs 77 early in the 2nd hour.
i chipped up beautifully in the 7pm until this hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1309259
this is as close to a 50/50 as possible so no regrets.
then i played this hand pretty poorly. my flop decision was based totally on his bet size. i thought before hand if he made a 2/3 or 3/4 pot size bet i would fold but anything that looked a little weaker i was going to shove since i was pretty sure we would fold better hands (TT-QQ).
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1309266
in hindsight i think i can actually fold pre. i've played a little cash w/ this player and he's not getting out of line utg. i don't have near enough chips to set mine and im not going to be happy about putting it all-in if i flop an overpair to the board.
i played a $26 sat to ftops event 1. 24 runners and top 2 got seats w/ 3rd and 4th paying cash. i built up a top stack early but had dwindled down to 7/9 by the time we reached the final table. i played aggressively knowing that i had build a stack to get top 2 so i took a few gambles and won a race to get down to the final 3. from there i hit/smashed every flop and slowly chipped up to the chip lead. then i got lucky to seal the deal.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1309393 <<<<<<<<<<<<< i didn't feel bad, i've been on the receiving end of this lately.
so im in event #1 which is great.
after that i only had the limit holdem event left. i just left that table up and played pretty abc while i went over the latest annette_15 100r hh on pxf. i plugged away and never really had chips until we got down to 30 or so. i picked up a couple nice pots and all of a sudden was looking good to cash. (top 18 paid, 151 runners)
then i went on absolutely sicko run picking up AA, KK and QQ in the span of 5 hands and got paid on all of them. w/ 18 left i was chip leader w/ 40k to 2nd places 20k.
unfortunately due to some absolutlely horrific play (by my opponents) i ended up losing half my stack in the span of 5 hands and by the time we reached the final table i was 7/9.
i stuck tough though and waited my way out and w/ 5 remaining i had like 3bb's. the once chip leader (who had absolutley destroyed me playing horribly) went from over 100k to busto in 5th and i happened to win a big pot w/ AA in eliminating her. this put me 3/4 and before long the 4th place player busted.
i was way behind in chips when my busto hand came up.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1309427 - i know im toast on the flop but the pot is so huge and i've already got 2/3 my stack in so i went with it.
oh well, 3rd paid $462 which will help pay for some mtt buy-ins. it's my 3rd final table in this event in the last month or so i have been playing it so thats a good sign.
i'll be playing a bunch today so here's to running gooooooooooot.
tg
** on a side note i caught myself yelling "PASS THE SUGAR" when winning a few races last nite. damn you Joe Hachem!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
so close yet so far
played a pile of tournaments last night.
the 6pm $26 nlh started off crazy as i doubled up on the first hand w/ AA vs AJ on a J hi flop and just kept going from there. i believe i had close to 7k at the break. in the 2nd hour i kept on running until i picked off a short stack move-in w/ TT vs his A5. the flop came down AAx and it took a chunk of my stack. i lost another good sized pot and all of a sudden i was down to about 13 bb's. the earlier short stack was now the big stack and was playing uber laggy and calling all-ins w/ K hi on an A hi board? he made a lp raise again and i re-shipped my 88 from the sb and he made the call w/ A9s and bounced me when he paired the board.
the 7pm $75 nlh also started off really well. about 15 mins i doubled through w/ a set of 6's against QQ. i slowly kept chipping away well into the 2nd hour until i doubled through the chip leader.
i had 11k to start and chip leader had 41k in the bb.
he had played very loose in the few hands since he had moved to my table so i was pretty certain he was calling my raise in the bb.
w/ blinds at 200/400/50a i raised to 1100 from ep w/ 99. it folded around to chip leader who called.
the flop came Js7s3h and he immediately led out for pot (2850). with 9900 behind it was either push or fold. i hit the time bank even though i was pretty sure i was calling. there is no way he leads w/ a good Jack, a set or a random 2 pair as it would be a pretty standard c/r w/ those hands. i think for him to make this bet he either has to have a weak Jack, middle or bottom pair or a flush draw. the way he was trying to bully the table around it seemed pretty clear that this bet was meant to intimidate and push me out of the pot. after thinking for a couple seconds i was fairly certain that it was a flush draw and shoved.
he called and showed a King rag of spades for the flush draw and i held.
i was now sitting on a really good chip stack and was pumped that my read was right. over the next hour and a half i stayed aggressive and bobbed and weaved my way through a pretty tough field. when we got into the money i had slowly started to become short chipped but managed to make a few re-steals against one of the big stacks to stay alive. i stole and re-stole to keep my head above water and when we got down to the final two tables i was 3rd in chips w/ 112k.
when down to 16 players a big hand came up.
w/ blinds at 2k/4k/500a a fairly aggressive player shoved 42k from mp. i was in the bb w/ my 112k stack and insta-called him w/ TT. he showed QJs and i was racing for a final table stack. unfortunately the door card was a Jack and i was down to 70k.
i was whittled down to 40k at 2.5k/5k/600a w/ 13 players left. i shoved utg once w/ 55 and picked up the blinds. i shoved from lp w/ 33 and picked up that pot. down to 6 handed (12 left total) i shoved 50k utg w/ 66 and picked up the blinds again.
4th time was not a charm and i shoved 60k utg w/ 66 again and ran it into a player that called an all-in for 42k w/ 88. we both flushed and i was down to 18k w/ 5k going into the bb the very next hand.
same player i just doubled isolated me w/ A6o and i called off my remaining 13k w/ J3sooooted.
i flopped a 3, he turned a wheel and i rivered a flush to get back up to 40k.
i don't even rememeber the busto hand but i went out shortly after in 12th. i believe it was my A2 shove against A4 and he paired the 4 to send me packin but its all kind of a blurr since i was busting in the 8pm $26 at the very same time.
the 8pm went great and i had an absolute sicko stack by the 2nd hour. @ 150/300/25a i had a 26k stack! almost 100bb's deep in a online freezeout is pretty sick but the best part was there were tons of players at my table that were also deep stacked so i could bully but still play post-flop.
i pretty much did whatever i wanted and would chip up to 27 or 28k and then lose a 6k pot. chip back up and go back down. it was like this until i was getting kinda short just inside the money.
when down to 135 players (top 180 paid, over 1200 runners) i picked up AA. utg raised and i made a smallish re-raise hoping he would shove me. he did w/ JJ and i obv called. he flopped a jack and once again i was pretty much poofed. i battled for a while before going in 120 something. (i believe full tilt crashed again before this tourny finished so the bad beat might have actually saved me from going on connection tilt)
the rest of the tournies were kinda sour. i played a few satellites for ftops events w/ no success. i think i played 5 45 person sngs and didn't crack the top 15 in any. the limit holdem was going very well until an opponent hit runner runner on me for a massive pot. i think i went out 35th in that. i also played the 8:15pm $26 razz tourny and while razz is one of my favorite games in the horse rotation it got pretty old pretty quick. i managed to give it my all but my premium starting hands were getting destroyed on 4th and 5th street.
so all in all it was a bitter sweet night. the sweetness is how proud i am of my play in the 7pm. i think it's my best played tournament ever which kind of makes it bitter than i didn't hit the big score (8.3k for first). i guess the 60k push utg 6 handed is somewhat debatable. i have 11.5 bb's and i have shoving a lot so i'm bound to get called. the other factor is that the bb had like 260k so he probably has a wider calling range than most at that point in the tournament. not sure.
oh well, i guess all i can do is take another stab tonite. i'll probably only play the few earlier evening tournaments tonite but tomorrow will be an absolute marathon as i have the whole day and night cleared for whatever i want to play.
special thanks goes out to Rex55 who gave me some top notch rail support when i needed it the most!
tg
the 6pm $26 nlh started off crazy as i doubled up on the first hand w/ AA vs AJ on a J hi flop and just kept going from there. i believe i had close to 7k at the break. in the 2nd hour i kept on running until i picked off a short stack move-in w/ TT vs his A5. the flop came down AAx and it took a chunk of my stack. i lost another good sized pot and all of a sudden i was down to about 13 bb's. the earlier short stack was now the big stack and was playing uber laggy and calling all-ins w/ K hi on an A hi board? he made a lp raise again and i re-shipped my 88 from the sb and he made the call w/ A9s and bounced me when he paired the board.
the 7pm $75 nlh also started off really well. about 15 mins i doubled through w/ a set of 6's against QQ. i slowly kept chipping away well into the 2nd hour until i doubled through the chip leader.
i had 11k to start and chip leader had 41k in the bb.
he had played very loose in the few hands since he had moved to my table so i was pretty certain he was calling my raise in the bb.
w/ blinds at 200/400/50a i raised to 1100 from ep w/ 99. it folded around to chip leader who called.
the flop came Js7s3h and he immediately led out for pot (2850). with 9900 behind it was either push or fold. i hit the time bank even though i was pretty sure i was calling. there is no way he leads w/ a good Jack, a set or a random 2 pair as it would be a pretty standard c/r w/ those hands. i think for him to make this bet he either has to have a weak Jack, middle or bottom pair or a flush draw. the way he was trying to bully the table around it seemed pretty clear that this bet was meant to intimidate and push me out of the pot. after thinking for a couple seconds i was fairly certain that it was a flush draw and shoved.
he called and showed a King rag of spades for the flush draw and i held.
i was now sitting on a really good chip stack and was pumped that my read was right. over the next hour and a half i stayed aggressive and bobbed and weaved my way through a pretty tough field. when we got into the money i had slowly started to become short chipped but managed to make a few re-steals against one of the big stacks to stay alive. i stole and re-stole to keep my head above water and when we got down to the final two tables i was 3rd in chips w/ 112k.
when down to 16 players a big hand came up.
w/ blinds at 2k/4k/500a a fairly aggressive player shoved 42k from mp. i was in the bb w/ my 112k stack and insta-called him w/ TT. he showed QJs and i was racing for a final table stack. unfortunately the door card was a Jack and i was down to 70k.
i was whittled down to 40k at 2.5k/5k/600a w/ 13 players left. i shoved utg once w/ 55 and picked up the blinds. i shoved from lp w/ 33 and picked up that pot. down to 6 handed (12 left total) i shoved 50k utg w/ 66 and picked up the blinds again.
4th time was not a charm and i shoved 60k utg w/ 66 again and ran it into a player that called an all-in for 42k w/ 88. we both flushed and i was down to 18k w/ 5k going into the bb the very next hand.
same player i just doubled isolated me w/ A6o and i called off my remaining 13k w/ J3sooooted.
i flopped a 3, he turned a wheel and i rivered a flush to get back up to 40k.
i don't even rememeber the busto hand but i went out shortly after in 12th. i believe it was my A2 shove against A4 and he paired the 4 to send me packin but its all kind of a blurr since i was busting in the 8pm $26 at the very same time.
the 8pm went great and i had an absolute sicko stack by the 2nd hour. @ 150/300/25a i had a 26k stack! almost 100bb's deep in a online freezeout is pretty sick but the best part was there were tons of players at my table that were also deep stacked so i could bully but still play post-flop.
i pretty much did whatever i wanted and would chip up to 27 or 28k and then lose a 6k pot. chip back up and go back down. it was like this until i was getting kinda short just inside the money.
when down to 135 players (top 180 paid, over 1200 runners) i picked up AA. utg raised and i made a smallish re-raise hoping he would shove me. he did w/ JJ and i obv called. he flopped a jack and once again i was pretty much poofed. i battled for a while before going in 120 something. (i believe full tilt crashed again before this tourny finished so the bad beat might have actually saved me from going on connection tilt)
the rest of the tournies were kinda sour. i played a few satellites for ftops events w/ no success. i think i played 5 45 person sngs and didn't crack the top 15 in any. the limit holdem was going very well until an opponent hit runner runner on me for a massive pot. i think i went out 35th in that. i also played the 8:15pm $26 razz tourny and while razz is one of my favorite games in the horse rotation it got pretty old pretty quick. i managed to give it my all but my premium starting hands were getting destroyed on 4th and 5th street.
so all in all it was a bitter sweet night. the sweetness is how proud i am of my play in the 7pm. i think it's my best played tournament ever which kind of makes it bitter than i didn't hit the big score (8.3k for first). i guess the 60k push utg 6 handed is somewhat debatable. i have 11.5 bb's and i have shoving a lot so i'm bound to get called. the other factor is that the bb had like 260k so he probably has a wider calling range than most at that point in the tournament. not sure.
oh well, i guess all i can do is take another stab tonite. i'll probably only play the few earlier evening tournaments tonite but tomorrow will be an absolute marathon as i have the whole day and night cleared for whatever i want to play.
special thanks goes out to Rex55 who gave me some top notch rail support when i needed it the most!
tg
Monday, July 23, 2007
changing gears
i played a little last night for the first time in a while. i've been too busy to get a session in but managed to sneek in a couple tournies.
i started with the 7pm $75.
as the title of the blog mentions, i've decided that i haven't been changing gears enough (or at all) and it has really been costing me. actually, when thinking back on my play for the past month or two i've basically been playing tight aggressive early and then falling into a weak tight style during the mid to late stages. this is not a winning style and i've been hungry to set out and change my game for the better.
so in the 7pm i came out and wanted to convey a somewhat loose image so that i would hopefully get paid off if i picked up a hand. early on i made a few late position raises and either picked up the blinds or won the pot w/ a cont-bet on the flop.
here's an interesting hand where i went w/ my read and it was right.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290175
for some reason, when he donked the turn i just put him on a flush draw. i just didn't see what else he would be doing it with. i think the majority of the made hands that are beating me would probably c/r the flop so when he led the turn i decided to just call. i only called because although i was pretty confident in my read i wanted him to bluff me on the river as well and i don't think im getting him off his flush draw by raising. also by just calling i keep the pot relatively small so i can't get blown out by a pot sized river bet. the big river bet actually made me even more confident in my original read. i just had to hope he wasn't semi-bluffing KQ of hearts and rivered me. i made the call and berated me for the next 10 min. explaining to the table how horrible of a call it was. i liked it.
after that hand i was feeling great about the tournament, i had a great image to get paid off on now. (and added to it showing down 54s from middle position to take down another pot)
the good vibe wouldn't last, a laggy player raised from mp and a short stack shoved over the top for 800, i re-shipped w/ AKo and got heads-up w/ the shorty. he had KQo and i was in great shape until he turned a Q.
it was a bit disheartening but i kept up my play and managed to chip back up to 4k. i was splashing around quite a bit crafting my image until i got moved just after the 1st break. my new table was crazy aggressive and almost every pot was opened by the time the action got to me so i was forced to play tight. 20 min. in i decided to use my tight image to fire a rare 3 barrel bluff which didn't work out.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290179 - obv it didn't work out but i was actually quite happy w/ the play. usually when i make a play like this im so pissed off with myself but here i actually thought there was a good chance he would lay his weak looking hand down on all streets.
i survived as a short stack for quite a while moving my 12bb's around and picking up uncontested pots.
since the 3 barrel bluff hand, the villain had continued to limp the sb into my bb. every time i checked and i was pretty sure that he was looking to trap me into shipping some garbage all-in. so when this hand came up i was praying he was trapping, he was but it wasn't my night.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290184
during this i was also playing a couple other tournies.
the 7:15pm limit holdem ended badly. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290186
i also played a super satellite to the ftops omaha hi/lo event. i came in 3rd out of 24 players so im in another satellite the day of the event that pays 30 seats. it was good practice and although i got max value out of an early hand and played well at the end i think my play overall was fairly poor. i'll look to improve before the actual event.
the ftops is coming up again as it seems full tilt is gonna run one every 2 months. it kinda sucks because i don't have the br to buy directly in and im also going to be away for the final weekend of it so i for sure won't have a shot at playing the main event.
in the past i've really blown a lot of bankroll trying to satellite into these big buy-in events. at one point i blew over $600 trying to satellite into a $500 sunday event. the only time i ever seem to show a bit of degeneracy is when trying to satellite into big events. im not going to let it happen again. (basically cuz i can't afford it)
so my plan as of now is to try and satellite my way into the following events:
event 1 - $200 nlh
event 2 - $200 horse
event 6 - $300 nlh
event 8 - $200 o8
i might also take a shot at event 3 - $200 plh but since i've never really played pot limit im not sure.
all other events i either have no interest in the game, the buy-in is too steep or im just not able to play on that day.
i played a horse sng w/ the winner getting an entry but busted 7th out of 8th.
i also picked up the full tilt tourament strategy book and it's actually pretty good. i wasn't originally gonna get it since i figured it would have a lot of abc kind of stuff (which it does) but it also has some great stuff in there as well. im only partially through it but it's worth the money already.
not sure when i'll play again this week but hopefully soon.
tg
i started with the 7pm $75.
as the title of the blog mentions, i've decided that i haven't been changing gears enough (or at all) and it has really been costing me. actually, when thinking back on my play for the past month or two i've basically been playing tight aggressive early and then falling into a weak tight style during the mid to late stages. this is not a winning style and i've been hungry to set out and change my game for the better.
so in the 7pm i came out and wanted to convey a somewhat loose image so that i would hopefully get paid off if i picked up a hand. early on i made a few late position raises and either picked up the blinds or won the pot w/ a cont-bet on the flop.
here's an interesting hand where i went w/ my read and it was right.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290175
for some reason, when he donked the turn i just put him on a flush draw. i just didn't see what else he would be doing it with. i think the majority of the made hands that are beating me would probably c/r the flop so when he led the turn i decided to just call. i only called because although i was pretty confident in my read i wanted him to bluff me on the river as well and i don't think im getting him off his flush draw by raising. also by just calling i keep the pot relatively small so i can't get blown out by a pot sized river bet. the big river bet actually made me even more confident in my original read. i just had to hope he wasn't semi-bluffing KQ of hearts and rivered me. i made the call and berated me for the next 10 min. explaining to the table how horrible of a call it was. i liked it.
after that hand i was feeling great about the tournament, i had a great image to get paid off on now. (and added to it showing down 54s from middle position to take down another pot)
the good vibe wouldn't last, a laggy player raised from mp and a short stack shoved over the top for 800, i re-shipped w/ AKo and got heads-up w/ the shorty. he had KQo and i was in great shape until he turned a Q.
it was a bit disheartening but i kept up my play and managed to chip back up to 4k. i was splashing around quite a bit crafting my image until i got moved just after the 1st break. my new table was crazy aggressive and almost every pot was opened by the time the action got to me so i was forced to play tight. 20 min. in i decided to use my tight image to fire a rare 3 barrel bluff which didn't work out.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290179 - obv it didn't work out but i was actually quite happy w/ the play. usually when i make a play like this im so pissed off with myself but here i actually thought there was a good chance he would lay his weak looking hand down on all streets.
i survived as a short stack for quite a while moving my 12bb's around and picking up uncontested pots.
since the 3 barrel bluff hand, the villain had continued to limp the sb into my bb. every time i checked and i was pretty sure that he was looking to trap me into shipping some garbage all-in. so when this hand came up i was praying he was trapping, he was but it wasn't my night.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290184
during this i was also playing a couple other tournies.
the 7:15pm limit holdem ended badly. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1290186
i also played a super satellite to the ftops omaha hi/lo event. i came in 3rd out of 24 players so im in another satellite the day of the event that pays 30 seats. it was good practice and although i got max value out of an early hand and played well at the end i think my play overall was fairly poor. i'll look to improve before the actual event.
the ftops is coming up again as it seems full tilt is gonna run one every 2 months. it kinda sucks because i don't have the br to buy directly in and im also going to be away for the final weekend of it so i for sure won't have a shot at playing the main event.
in the past i've really blown a lot of bankroll trying to satellite into these big buy-in events. at one point i blew over $600 trying to satellite into a $500 sunday event. the only time i ever seem to show a bit of degeneracy is when trying to satellite into big events. im not going to let it happen again. (basically cuz i can't afford it)
so my plan as of now is to try and satellite my way into the following events:
event 1 - $200 nlh
event 2 - $200 horse
event 6 - $300 nlh
event 8 - $200 o8
i might also take a shot at event 3 - $200 plh but since i've never really played pot limit im not sure.
all other events i either have no interest in the game, the buy-in is too steep or im just not able to play on that day.
i played a horse sng w/ the winner getting an entry but busted 7th out of 8th.
i also picked up the full tilt tourament strategy book and it's actually pretty good. i wasn't originally gonna get it since i figured it would have a lot of abc kind of stuff (which it does) but it also has some great stuff in there as well. im only partially through it but it's worth the money already.
not sure when i'll play again this week but hopefully soon.
tg
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