Adventures in Low Limit

Busto - Baby - Break - Back?

2010-01-22T12:52:00.002+10:00

I went busto a little while ago, nothing surprising there as I was playing a high variance game (mtts) without any real bankroll management (because it's a hobby for fun so who wants to play $1 mtts to grind a banklol).

My son, Sean Nathaniel, was born 14th November, so understandably I've had a big break from online poker.

Other than that, I ended up playing a big session at the Treasury and from being up nearly $700 (which should've been more like $1k+ if the beats hadn't kept on coming), I ended the night $300 or so in the black after yet another shit beat where a guy runner runner'd me for the straight against my top two.

Then while I was down in Melbourne this week, during Aussie Millions, I made a cool $400 on cash tables in about 4 hours. Not bad. There were a lot of tilt-tards around, so lots of big talk, fists pounding on tables and drunken calling stations, not to mention profitability!

I've got my eye on ANZPT Qld, but that's a long ways off in August, and I'd like to play more cash. I love the buy-in structure of Crown and loathe the shit-house $2.50/5 crap of the Treasury - I'm not totally comfortable flipping for $1k against retarded house-regs just yet... if only they'd have a $2/3 or $1/2 game with similar buy-in structure. I'd be there weekly.

Got an itch to play an mtt online again... it's been a while, but I'm inherently not an online player. So I'll avoid that itch for as long as possible.

Unkind Game

2009-11-07T16:22:00.000+10:00

Run disgustingly average over about 12 mtts today.

Ended up minnish cashing the Daily Dollar.

The biggest fucking insult of the whole thing, I reckon.

Goal setting

2009-11-02T17:39:00.001+10:00

Last month I set myself the following goals.

[ ] Make at least one FT of a reasonable field MTT
[ ] Lock in a 4-figure score
[ ] Generate at least $1k profit
[ ] Get decently into the money in ANY Stars MTT

- My best finishes were 15th, 30th, 48th, 56th - abysmal in other words
- My best cash was for the 15th place spot for $104
- I'm about $0.5k down for the month
- I ended up taking my money off Stars entirely, so consider that a fail

I've started the month strong with a 2-outer gaying in the $3k turbo cashout to take 11th and the whopping bumper payout of $49...

But I'm not going to set any goals, primarily because I'm expecting our second child to be born this month which will mean very little poker... but also because I'm not going to set goals for a hobby. It's unrealistic and I simply can't put in any volume whatsoever.

I'll hope that I can get a nice bankroll booster before I busto on FTP.

We'll see.

Full TILTED Poker

2009-11-01T18:50:00.000+10:00

Bit of a tilting session today. Busted out of the shot-taking $20k guarantee ($75 bi) with Kings when a guy thought my UTG raise which prompted a short stack shove (spastic with 75off) wasn't strong, so he flatted with the veritable monster Ace Ten suited. My reshove didn't trouble him in the slightest, since he'd already invested 33% of his stack...

Naturally, an Ace flops.

I played the $3k turbo cashout and at one stage was tempted to cashout... a $350 cashout stack... but I was running well and we were down to the final 3 tables. So it seemed stupid to risk a bigger payoff.

Naturally I lose AQ to KQ on a KAx flop when he 2 outers me on the turn for a top 3 stack with 16 left.

Next I steal shove TJ w 15bbs on the button and run into a 5bb AK in the bb.

With my remaining 8 or so bbs I ship Q9 into 45 off. I flop a gutter, he hits a 5 of course and that's that. Out in 15th or so for $50... Should've cashed out? lol.

Playing the $10k Guarantee tonight and if I cannot close out anything then I am fucking done with poker for a while because I'm starting to get tilted (away from the game... just personally, I can feel it troubling me emotionally to keep losing big game-changing hands).

Deep Runs, No Conversions

2009-10-30T23:36:00.000+10:00

Busted 15th of the $10k Guarantee tonight.

Very frustrated as I effectively levelled myself against a non-thinking player. I had a note that read: "don't bluff, can't fold a pair". Yet I raised 77 under the gun, he flatted in the BB and when he check-minraised me, I sensed bullshit weakness and shoved - ignoring my own advice and he of course snap calls with K9 ... because he has TOP PAIR.

Why can't he do that when I actually have TT+ there?

Ugh.

That crippled me and I went out TT < AQ a hand later.

Rough. I really thought I was going to ship it. I was chipleader with 150 left and never dropped out of the top 10 until we got down to 3 tables, I went card dead and it was flippaments everywhere with the shorter stacks.

Unfortunately my few blind steal attempts got shot down and sniffed out, and I also missed the opportunity to 3bet resteal at least 3 times that I can remember because I just couldn't pull the trigger.

Again, my own weakness. Anyway, enough griping. On with it.

See you at the tables over the weekend.

Frustrating night

2009-10-27T22:14:00.000+10:00

I played three of the new and improved guarantees on Full Tilt tonight (they pumped up a few of the guarantees recently) and had a deep run in one, two ridiculously short runs in the others.

I fire up the $26 $10k Guarantee and the toughest spot I face is a 929 board with KK against a serial spewer who open shoves the Ace turn. I'm invested so I sigh-call and he flips King-Ten for no pair no draw. I continue to chip up...

On the $11 $5k Guarantee - 3 hands in I get AQo on the button. 5 limpers. I raise to 140. A guy with 100% limp stats reshoves.
Ooooohhh I wonder if this is a pocket pair less than 9s?
Flipping time.
He turns over 77. Flop 77 ... I can't remember the rest for some reason.

At the same time I'm relatively deep in the $10k guarantee and lose a couple of steals at 250/500 to knock me down to 10,000 and bottom 20% of players.
I get AA UTG and raise it up, UTG+1 flats and SB calls, we see a flop of AT5 2 clubs. I cbet and he snap shoves AQhh and I fistpump call.

I start up the $26 $9.5k Guarantee, 16 hands in and my table has been going completely spastic. I get AQ and raise it up from the CO, SB w 42/22 stats snaps and we see a Q9x rainbow flop. He checks raises me and while I know he's on a drawing TJ or shitty Q (or maybe AQ), I just elect to call and let him spew the turn.
Turn is a Jack and he dutifuly spew-shoves. I snap call and he flips ATclubs for ... well, an open ender now... nice flop check-raise though, I like the line!
River 8. Sigh.

Back to the $10k Guarantee and first hand after the break is AsKs. There's an MP raise, a LP flat. I shove on the button and LP snaps with 88. Unfortunately the favourite...
Bit of a story here: he earlier autoshipped a MP open with 8-2 offsuit.
Anyway, I brick and a few hands later I'm nearly in the blinds with a 4k stack at 400/800. He limps UTG and I shove UTG+1 with AdQd. One of the blind flats and my heart sinks. Fortunately old spaztard reships with Ace Jack and we go heads up and I win a 10,000 chip pot to put me in the bottom feeders but a double-up away from getting deeper.

We're 56 left, 45 pay.
I openship 10bbs with QJo from the CO and button tanks before folding, I'm like PHEWWWW when SB snaps and flips 99.
Again I lose the race.

sigh

Goodbye Stars, Goodbye FTP Bankroll

2009-10-27T10:23:00.000+10:00

Last week was rough.

I cashed out my few remaining dollars on Stars after a hilarious attempt at the $22R APPT Sydney direct qualifier when my Aces failed to hold up in a four way pot against Kings, 67 suited and A5 suited when the King flopped. I got AK in against AQ earlier and lost to a Q, after the Aces hand I got AT in against A9 and lost to the river 9. GG Stars. I played a bunch of turbo mtsngs and just about broke even on them all so I decided enough was enough.

I took my remaining dollars to FTP, but my dry spell continues in tourneys; I got literally no action on any good hands in any tournament I played all week/weekend and it seemed like every bluff got picked off and every draw missed.

Saturday evening I decided to play a little 0.25/.50 HU NL cash and went on a screamer of a heater, particularly against a guy called Karoothers who I stacked 5 times only for him to claw $100 or so back by the end of the session.

Next day, apart from my very average run in MTTs, I sat down at 2 HU NL tables and proceeded to get raped for about 4 buyins. Equalizing my profitable stretch somewhat. In one pot in particular after I'd been raped a bunch, I had $80 or so and my opponent was sitting on $120.

I get KTspades on the button and open, he flats and on a 4s9sJs flop he donks out for pot. Hello. If he's on a Ace of spades draw, we're probably getting it in the flop I imagine - if he's flopped the nuts on me, congratulations, here's $80.

I raise. He snap calls.

Turn, he checks. I lead for close to pot and he instantly flats. Our history makes this action very easy for him to do with a wide range of hands (similarly with me, I'd been very aggressive and he'd been good at calling me down), but at this stage I'm about 99% sure I have the best hand. I was sure he was on a set.

River pairs the board and he instajams. I only have $30-odd behind so it's a disgusting spew spot. I pretty much knew he had it but couldn't fold. I called to see 44 for the flopped set, rivered boat and immediately gave up for the day.

I'm a bit down and out at the moment when it comes to poker.

I'm trying to keep my enthusiasm up... but is waning a bit in the face of some cold deckage.

With my bankroll (lol) on FTP at a new low for the past six months... it's back to micro MTTs. I think a few weeknight $11s will open that back up for me again... we'll see.

Not much to report

2009-10-19T10:35:00.000+10:00

I played no poker for the rest of the working week. True to my word.

Friday night I got blottoed and hit up the Treasury again, got on a table around midnight and played for 2 or so hours. I slowly chipped up to around $700 from a $300 buy-in and then got involved in two large pots to close out the night which dropped me back sub-$400.

The first one that didn't go my way, I looked down at K8 in a multiway limped pot and I limped on the button.

The flop was a pleasing 9J7

There was a bet of $20 from the BB and folds to a MP player who'd been spazzing out a lot, he puts in a raise to $50 with maybe $40 behind. I stack up chips and raise to $150, putting both in.

The BB called for $80 or so more instantly, which worried me, then he tabled JT.

The MP player flips QQ for the surprising preflop favourite.

I've got 49% equity in the hand with my draws.

Turn is a brickish 6, though I'm still on par equitywise with the Queens to win.

River is a sickening 3 to give the BB the pot with a running flush.

The next hand that went whoopsie wrong I had QToff and saw a rainbow board of J93. I was in the pot with the two biggest losers of the night, a guy so drunk he had to have the bets repeated to him probably four times before folding or calling, and another guy who busted himself twice already with any pair and any kicker on any kind of board.

The superdrunk guy bets $10 with maybe $60 behind. Any pair guy calls. So does one other.
I raise $100 with the open ender. They both call and the other person gets out of the way.

Drunk flips over 47off. Seriously.
Other guy A3off. Yes, seriously.
I've got a surprising 51% equity.
Turn bricks and river is a 7 to scoop the drunk the pot, lol.

Saturday I didn't play any poker at all, instead enjoyed the pool, the sun and the company of friends.

Sunday I played in the morning, got deep in the $5r 40k guaranteed on Stars and lost a big pot to the table drooler after I raised AK and got check-shoved on a Q34 flop. WP sir. I went out a few orbits later iso-shoving him with A8hh on the button and ran into KK in the BB. I minnish cashed that for $35.

On FTP I played the $34.5k guarantee early and ran top pair into flopped set who massively overshoved my "cbet" with TPTK.

Much later (after a bunch of chores, shopping, cooking) in the evening on the $14k guarantee I looked down at AKdd in the BB facing a minraise to (80) and a 3bet (240) - I 4bet to (750) looking to get my 3k in the middle and I do, versus QQ and KK.

Very standard all round.

My slow but steady downswing on FTP continues:

My "cant close out a win" on Stars also continues but at least the rate of decline has slowed:

Fuck you, Poker Stars

2009-10-14T02:23:00.000+10:00

Tonight Pokerstars brought me under its wing, it nuzzled me, made me think everything was going to be alright... I had AA hold up against an OESD for a monster 200k pot and the CL, I won all my races, I flopped sets against overpairs and stacked them all. With 100 or so players remaining I was 1st with a clear margin of 100k for error. Apparently it did this merely as a ruse, so that I'd let me guard down, allow Pokerstars into my heart... just so it could fuck me over.

Well, not error, just FUCK YOU variance, Stars style.

Raise A9ss, flatted on button, on Ac9cQd flop I get my cbet hugely overshoved. AQo.

This cut me down to short stackish status.

I get KK on the button and raise two of the biggest stack's blinds. Not a peep. Instafolds.

NEXT FUCKING HAND: AA, JJ gets cute and limp-shoves me. A32 flop. 5 turn. 4 river.

Well FUCK YOU TOO Stars.

Then the bust out hand: I have 17bbs and raise 55 intending to get it in preflop, bb is the only customer and on a glorious 346 flop he check-raises me all in. I happily get my chips in the middle against 66 only to be dead on the turn when the 4 hits.

River 2 just rubs salt in the wound.

Seriously considering taking my last measly $220 and bolting from Stars. I fucking loathe that place.

Edit: All that said, it was actually a glorious night of poker. Ran deep in the above $11 $7.5k guarantee on Stars that had over $17k in the prizepool, and also ran deep in the $11 $7.5k guarantee on FTP, making final 20 or so in both (lost 99 to AK for a top 5 stack with 40 left then shoved AJ on button with 10bbs into AK). Makes me feel a bit better after a bunch of mid-late busts to make some genuine lategame near-FT busts.

Of course, making FT and some cash would be nicer... Patience, petal.

BUT ABSOLUTELY NO MORE MTTS MIDWEEK fuck me it's just a Very Bad Idea... 3am bed for 7am rises... Hrrrr.

Hrrrrr

2009-10-12T00:15:00.000+10:00

Very depressing run at the moment. I'm trying to keep positive but it's hard. My feeling of having an edge is quickly retreating in the face of surrendering to blind fucking luck like my retarded villains who seem to know their magical card is coming.

Preflop raise, Jack 3 of clubs? Sure. I'll see the flop, then chase my flush to the river against odds. Thanks for beating my top 2.

I raise 77 into a few limpers and one of the limpers (a spewy spazfuck) decides to call, on a Ace high board, he calls a cbet... standard, whatever. He checks to me on King turn and I put in enough to commit myself and make him fold any weak Ace. Instead he shoves... what the fuck? I know for a fact he doesn't have Ace King... this guy was super bad and overraised his big hands pre, but it's almost like he KNOWS I don't have it.

Ugh. Just annoying. I'm done for a while.

Oh, I also played the $20 rebuy satellite to the Brisbane Poker Champs... I managed to build a very respectable stack and bullied the table for a while, was probably 3rd in chips for most of it, then I bluffed a ton with AQcc into pocket eights, big flip with 99 < AK and then last of my chips in with AJ against AK, J-hi flop but I got 4 flushed. Play was very average so I imagine the "Champs" will be teeming with fish but I ain't stumping up $500 for some local tourney with the Aussie Mill on the horizon.

Decision has been made - satellite into ME of Aussie Mill on a juicy package or play the first event $1,100 NLHE with my own cash.

Off poker for a while, seriously... bye for now.

Stars Tilt

2009-10-07T20:31:00.000+10:00

Stars solidly tilted me tonight. I'm so fucked off right now... it's amazing how bad I flip on this site and how much it continues to screw me.

Tonight in consecutive hands I had shit like AQcc vs AQdd flopping the diamond flush, AQo vs QJo rivering the Jack, losing another Aces to turned garbage 2 pair, attempting to run a bluff against a guy who is calling 60% of his hands on a double paired board, of course he has Quads.

Just ridiculous. Makes last night look good in comparison.

I did a couple of tilt SNG buy-ins to solidly cripple my bankroll on Stars tonight, which wasn't great to begin with. So I think we can definitely qualify this as my last dalliance on Stars after tonight.

I have enough left to take a decent one-time-dealer! stab at a satellite into the APPT Sydney.

If I decide to do so...

On the live side, I'm going to play a rebuy satellite to the Brisbane Poker Championships this Sunday. $20 rebuy for a $500 seat. The Champs are aiming for a $30,000+ prizepool. They take place on the 7th/8th of November.

After that, I'm looking at Seagulls club in Tweed Heads which has weekly tournaments so I might rustle up a buddy or two to have a crack at a live game.

Running Good

2009-10-07T01:11:00.000+10:00

Tonight was utterly fucking shit.

Aces part 1

Aces part 2 - Stars Edition with bonus KK limper who fails to reisolate... mbn

To anyone who thinks I should raise more pre, I'd just raised the previous two orbits with AK and AA, ridiculously. I was pretty sure either utg or utg+1 was reshipping me, or someone later.

Obviously I should fold AA pre 2nd time. I've got Daniel Negreanu's Aces curse from WSOPE.

Stepping down a notch

2009-10-04T22:35:00.000+10:00

After this weekend, no more buy-ins greater than $26 on FTP with an average buy-in gravitating more toward $11 than mid-$20s and my rebuy range is solely $5Rs now. I'd been taking a few shots at $75s and $10Rs and $33 1R1As and getting reasonably deep but no cigar, so the bankroll has sustained some shrinkage like I did when I first jumped in my frigid swimming pool on Saturday.

Not a worry, really, because I'm relatively comfortable with my mindset and my game at present, just having a bit of a teensy dry run.

I'm running dangerously close to the wire on Stars, I may have to consider jumping down to micro-mtt-sngs to attempt to grind up something resembling a bankroll as my repeated hits from $11 to $33s... plus the fact that Stars simply does not like me.

I'm still in the hunt in an $11 on Stars just now, my last for the weekend and I'll be taking a minibreak for a few days just so that I remain fresh and have my full game face on whenever I return.

I've also been seriously jonesing for some live mtt action... I am seriously considering satting into the Aussie Mill or at the very least blagging my way down to Melbourne on a work visit and playing a $500 side-event.

Jesus, LOL Poker Stars:

PokerStars Game #33619923553: Tournament #199550257, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2009/10/04 8:50:55 ET
Table '199550257 70' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: DocDean (4510 in chips)
Seat 2: retu 1 (3840 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: og1963 (9105 in chips)
Seat 4: balduti (7589 in chips)
Seat 5: Tidado (25175 in chips)
Seat 6: stan89 (10145 in chips)
Seat 7: drkjade (2674 in chips)
Seat 8: rand0 (8915 in chips)
Seat 9: eastside1313 (18745 in chips)
DocDean: posts the ante 25
retu 1: posts the ante 25
og1963: posts the ante 25
balduti: posts the ante 25
Tidado: posts the ante 25
stan89: posts the ante 25
drkjade: posts the ante 25
rand0: posts the ante 25
eastside1313: posts the ante 25
rand0: posts small blind 125
eastside1313: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to rand0 [Jd Jh]
DocDean: calls 250
retu 1: folds
og1963: folds
balduti: folds
Tidado: folds
stan89: folds
drkjade: calls 250
rand0: raises 8640 to 8890 and is all-in
eastside1313: folds
DocDean: calls 4235 and is all-in
drkjade: folds
Uncalled bet (4405) returned to rand0
*** FLOP *** [Ah Kd Th]
*** TURN *** [Ah Kd Th] [2c]
rand0 said, "lol"
*** RIVER *** [Ah Kd Th 2c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rand0: shows [Jd Jh] (a pair of Jacks)
DocDean: shows [Jc Qs] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
DocDean collected 9695 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9695 | Rake 0
Board [Ah Kd Th 2c 4h]
Seat 1: DocDean showed [Jc Qs] and won (9695) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 2: retu 1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: og1963 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: balduti folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Tidado folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: stan89 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: drkjade (button) folded before Flop
Seat 8: rand0 (small blind) showed [Jd Jh] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 9: eastside1313 (big blind) folded before Flop

I shove precisely because I know UTG calls any raise there with whatever he's limping (his stats were incredibad) and if he does then maybe shorty in LP shoves and caps out the betting, making it pretty tough for me to continue on a lot of flops, and also because they may call any random shit (like he did). Unfortunately I wasn't hoping to go from solid to his 3 outs to desperately needing his 3 outs. A bit shit. GG Stars.

October Goals

2009-10-01T20:17:00.000+10:00

Crossposted from 2+2:

[ ] Make at least one FT of a reasonable field MTT
[ ] Lock in a 4-figure score
[ ] Generate at least $1k profit
[ ] Get decently into the money in ANY Stars MTT

It may be tough to do without a serious lack of volume to counter the mtt variance game... I only need to play perfect poker to be blameless come the end of next month when it comes to not meeting my goals.

Would you kindly die, please?

2009-09-28T22:33:00.000+10:00

Bad night. Ran bad and played bad. It's pretty much the worse combo ever, right?

I mean, it took titanic effort for my hands to hold.

Like AA vs 106off flopping trip 10s and me needing my backdoor Ace to give me a win with my obviously crap hand.

A9 obviously flops one of the 3 outs against KK and wow can I hit a 2 outer to stay alive? Thank you. One time, random card generator!

QQ does not stand a chance in a coinflip with AK, I suspect the ladies have been overeating and weighed their side of the coin down.

Or how about the non-all-ins, halfstack pots Ax vs A2 where x is ANY NUMBER GREATER THAN TWO, doesn't matter when you flop a deuce.

And of course, don't ever, ever, ever try to play back at continually active players pre or postflop because this time THEY HAVE THE NUTS.

That is all.

Variance ----.

No more poker this week - relatives over visiting.

Cashaments and Weekend MTTs

2009-09-28T15:46:00.000+10:00

FullTiltaments

On Saturday, I played a few.

Went out on the bubble of the $18,000 Guarantee: AK < QQ AIPF. I played solidly in this for a few hours (lots of resteals, not many cards to speak of - I'll post a lovely 4bet resteal with 93cc that got me a bunch of chips) but needed to win a flip to get a stack worth playing once we got deep... next time, maybe.

Went out around the bubble on a blind steal in the $17,000 Guarantee: 89cc < AJdd AIPF. Had a great stack in this and was frustrated to go out after losing a huge pot trying to pick up the blinds against a lag-tard and a tight-tard. Got my stack whilst deep after flopping trips and an obvious bare flush draw decided to call me down for 2 streets of value after I check-raised him on the flop and he failed to get it in, but still called off 60% of his stack by the turn then folds the blank river. Well played.
Same douche minraises UTG and I 3bet him in LP w AKss, he flats on a slightly scary board of AJ10. Check calls flop and turn like before and checks river... I deliberated forever before putting him in, he played it exactly like a draw with QQ/KK or an unsure AQ/AK, I'm 100% sure he never checks river with the flopped nut straight or a set, unfortunately he was check-calling with AT for flopped 2 and I threw away about 70% of my chips on that one. I guess on the river I turn my hand into a bluff with a shove but he was such a bad player that I felt like he'd call there with AQ, especially after I bet him in with trips and he missed his flush previously.

Went out of the $33 cubed on my first flip after floating around starting stack for 2.5 hours: 88 < AK.

Sunday I played an ill-advised multitable session of 200NL full-ring, won't be doing that again in a hurry... gotta love short-stackers, raping me for a buyin and a half. I seem to really suck at online cash and it still gets close to tilting me so I think it's better if I give it a miss.
Starsaments

Saturday: zilch, and Sunday: Only played a $33 mtt last night and after an hour or so, reshoved QQ over flopped set of Jacks. GG.

So not much to report on that side...

Cash at Treasury however, jesus, hilarious. I sit down around midnight completely smashed, I'd been at a corporate Oktoberfest and since I'm allergic to beer was chugging champagne in giant beer tankards. Needless to say about a litre of Champagne gets me tipsy. Anyway, I sit down at the $250 table with two double rums and coke (ill-advised, I paid the full price of admission the next morning) and proceed to tilt it to the max. I'm a chatty person and like to get them a little off balance with constant gag-jabs at their hand selection and some of the loltastic river showdowns. I also claimed to fold the "preflop nizzles" a lot... for some reason people didn't like this.

Anyway, I was playing a lot of pots and hitting everything. I actually raised 5s over a bunch of limpers, saying "no limpers", got nineteen calls on a nine-handed table and flopped quads ... that is good enough on its own, but I actually said "FIVE FIVE ACE" before the flop was dealt 5d5c7d. The table goes eerily quiet and I get this ridiculous shit-eating grin on my face (even the dealer hated me, I could tell). I proceed to bet it for a little over half pot and get a lone wolf caller. Praying to God he is slowplaying me with a boat but more than likely he has the flush draw, I fire the turn for around half pot and he calls AGAIN. PLEASE JESUS LET HIM CALL ME ON THE RIVER. River is a blank, the flush draw missed, I lead for a little under half pot on the river and he disgustedly instamucks 46dd face-up. That would have been the cooler to end all coolers if he'd got there.

There was one guy on the table who I'll love forever, he couldn't fold preflop, couldn't fold if he got a piece of the flop and paid me off for two buyins. I played for 2 hours and probaby played about 70% of my hands, so inevitably I bled a little. I still walked away over 2.5 buy-ins up for the session around 2am after getting into an argument with the dealer and floor over an action. A bunch of limpers, I raise ATdd on the button and UTG deliberates, counts out the call, pushes it over the line and then just as quickly draws it back and folds. I said he couldn't do that. Dealer said he could. I said bullshit that's like me pushing my cards forward and then pulling them back (I did this to demonstrate), then he and another guy on the table pounced on me: your hand is dead. Oh, okay. Floor please. We had it out and they killed the hand dead for the purposes of settling the argument but I had words with the manager afterwards and he asked me to "pretend the line doesn't exist".

Excuse me? Okay! Last time I play at Treasury for a while obviously.

I have family over for the next week so I won't get any poker in so my Sept goal is well and truly dead. Given that I threw away a bit of cash on fullring 200NL too I don't think I'll be doing that again, ever. I'm contemplating e-mailing support to get them to blacklist me from the tables altogether!!

And Again.

2009-09-24T01:28:00.000+10:00

Out in 23rd of 731 runners... piddly $5k guarantee on FTP, but still... deep yet again.

I'm not entirely convinced my $2k profit goal is unattainable, if I fire up a bunch of MTTs on Saturday I might just get there. We'll see...

Bust out hand.

Bad spot? I don't think so. Both UTG/UTG+1 were incredibad and were snap folding to my shove, regardless of the action behind me. I think this is one of those truly icky spots were I lose the hand the 1 out of 10 times I'm called where someone behind me wakes up with a hand or if UTG truly has AK/AA/KK/QQ here, which according to his stats isn't that often!

Frustrating to say the least. I was easily one of the best players left in that damn thing. Scoped a few of their stats out and they were all abysmal.

And on Stars, of course, the $11R holds no joy. I cannot win a motherfucking flip post-antes.

Bust out hand part dos.

Tomorrow I'm getting boozed in the city at a corporate function with the potential for drunken casino shenanigans after... don't wait up.

Deepish again

2009-09-22T10:12:00.000+10:00

I wish oh wish there were some decent MTTs on FTP in Aussie time :[

41st of 468 last night in the piddling $8.5k guarantee on FTP... I lost the majority of my chips in a bit of a standard spot with AKo in BB and a 28/23 player who'd been raising a ton of pots EP of course has Aces when I reship over his 4x open. With 2k left I got it in with 910dd and doubled in flip against 88 and then lost my last 6k shoving 33 into big blind's A8o which outflopped me.

Not much that can be done there, however I am going to have to watch out on my 3betting spots - I reckon I should try to get a sample of at least 50 hands before speculative 3betting. In a spot against a guy over 30 hands who was 23/18 with a disposition towards LP steals, I 3bet his CO standard open with 58hh and he 4bet shoved. I'm probably running about breakeven profitwise with lategame 3bet resteals with garbage however I think a little moderation in understanding players better before employing LAG high-risk tactics such as these is wise.

I ran disgustingly pedestrian in the $5r on Stars. I need a case of the run goods on Stars as I keep making it to the mid-late stages and losing the key big stack flip to run deep into the money. My bankroll on Stars is sub-optimal now but without another score to supplement my current FTP bankroll I'm probably going to have to let it peter out playing the $11s and $5rs until I get a score.

My September goals at the outset of the month were:
[x] Final Table a decent Guarantee MTT - FT'd the $12.5k $33 cubed
[ ] Profit of at least $2k for the month in MTTs

Big fat fail on that second one so far... only a week left in the month so unless I carve it up through the week and on the weekend, I'm likely to see that goal fail more than likely due to a lack of volume and running below expectation in a few spots.

September
32 games played - Avg BI: $31 - Profit: $154 - ITM: 13% - ROI: 15%

My stats on previous months since I got back on my game:

August
80 games played - Avg BI: $24 - Profit: $3,483 - ITM: 19% - ROI: 182%

July
6 games played - Avg BI: $18 - Profit: $1,568 - ITM: 33% - ROI: 1,494% (lol sample size++)

Blind vs Blind Anonymous

2009-09-21T15:28:00.000+10:00

I busted the $75 KO in the early hours of Saturday morning in an ugly spot - blind versus blind - to go out in 46th of 300+ runners.

[ ] strength
[ ] leak
[x] gaping hole

I regularly spazz out here mid-to-late game... I'm not quite sure what it is. I mean, if it folds around to me in the SB with an offsuit ace-rag and I have a big blind hugely covered, I'm typically putting him in and not worrying about it. IMO that's not a leak... if he wakes up with a bigger hand then good on him. If I don't have BB massively covered then I'm raise-folding marginal holdings like suited Kings and offsuit Ace rags, I'm raise-calling a lot of pairs and suited broadways KQ+ and any ace A9o+ .... or at least I should be. This is the first component of the leak. I should not call a shove with a wide range, I can MAKE the shove with a wide range but I cannot call off with it.

On the other hand, if I'm in the BB I think open shoving the sb fairly wide is fine if I know that sb is a limp-folder and his stats are on the tight side. Also, if he's tightish I'm raising a ton of very marginal holdings when we're reasonably stacked in this spot and if worst comes to worst I'm playing a speccy hand in position or I fold to a trap reshove if he limped a big hand hoping to induce. Again, no leak there, and I'm generally following this without any problems.

However if sb is competent and has me covered, he shoves a lot of wide range of hands to induce a fold, raises a bunch of marginal hands to take it down pre but gets out of the way when I reshove, raises decent hands to induce spazzouts or build a pot, and let's say 80% of time he folds his absolute garbage.

My major leak, where I pull the all-in at-risk trigger in blind versus blind most often, is where I open shove a small blind complete or reshove an open.

I need to identify as soon as possible what my feel is against my BB and SB to determine how aggressive and/or tight I need to be. Too often do I survive a brutal earlier hand only to chuck away my equity in these marginal spots where I really need a better read on the villain to be shopping 10-20bbs on a resteal while HU.

If I can shitcan this tendency then I can close out a signifcant gap in my game.

Here's hoping.

HH Review & Recent Play

2009-09-17T11:30:00.001+10:00

I had my session on the weekend past with mlagoo and got a lot out of it. Stuff we covered that were leaks in my game were:
- post-flop bet-sizing
- maximising value in made hands
- profitability of resteal spots
- occasional aggressive spazz-outs

There were some really good tidbits in there to take away, but for the most part (and to blow my own trumpet a bit) there weren't a ton of hands to analyse and for those not analysed he pointed out that my play was generally solid, patient and smart poker. He said I didn't miss a lot of resteal opportunities, made a lot of disciplined folds and generally played well enough to be a "big winner at these stakes", which I take as a real compliment.

He jokingly put a challenge to me to best a student of his who - on the same night as a HH session - went on to final table two MTTs for around $3k US.

I nearly did. I got down to the final 12 of a $16k guarantee that ended up being close to $22k prizepool with around $7k for first... I busted in a spot (I was 7 or 8th of 12) where I reshoved A6o on a Euro-LAG opening 50% of hands with a steal percentage of 35% on the button and of course, he wakes up with Jacks and I don't suck out. Gross spot, but I reckon that's such a lucrative move the majority of the time that I don't even think about regretting the play.

Anyway, I had a very average Sunday afternoon session of about 6 tournaments where I either busted out early in the hunt for a stack or lost my crucial all-in flips in the mid-late stages and last night I got it in poorly early on in the hunt for a stack, open ended broadway against Aces (there go 2 outs!) and a bizarre open shove from sb on a 10-high board after flatting my MP open with 99. I sat there thinking and the only likely option seemed to be a flush draw to the two hearts on the board. I finally called and saw J10. Weird. MSMTTs!

Sunday after the tourneys I had a little 50PLO session and carved up 6 buy-ins in half an hour, which was a nice recoup of losses for the day...

So, I'm going to keep at the MTT malarky, avoiding cash (NL, anyway) for the time being and sticking to MTTs until I can eke out a roll of $5k+.

Recent success

2009-09-11T10:36:00.001+10:00

I've got a focus that I haven't possessed for as long as I've been playing the game (2 years) and I've got a clarity of emotion and passion for the competition that I've really tapped into. I hardly ever tilt, except in cash (and only a little), and I've been making good plays for going on 2 months. Sure, I've got leaks but I'm aware of them and actively trying to plug them.

In past 2 months, with a fairly low sample size, I have:
- Final tabled 3 guarantee tournaments, a standard freezeout, a rebuy and a 1r1a
- Gone deep in about 10 reasonable-field MTTs
- Took It Down once (~$1,500)
- Chopped it up once (~$3,300)
- Crashed out in 5th somewhat unnecessarily (~$900)

I'm very happy with my game but I'm hoping over the latter half of this year to step it up a notch. I'm going to exclusively play MTTs in the $10-50 range for freezeouts and $5-10 range for rebuys. I may even take one or two $75-100 potshots, but that'll be requisite on making some kind of return on my investment over the next few weeks.

Tonight I'm sitting down with mlagoo... a man with a graph a little like this...

... which doesn't include his Sunday Million win. Siiiiiick. He'll be analysing my HH from the $11r and it's very good timing because right after I finish my midnight session with him...

I'm playing the $150k guaranteed $20+2 1-rebuy 1-add-on. GO GO GO GOOOOO.
If I get relatively deep in this one it should be interesting... awake for 24+hrs on a poker all-nighter.

Good luck at the tables everyone.

Cross post from 2+2

2009-09-11T09:55:00.000+10:00

My name is Chris. I was born in Scotland and lived there for 24 years, before getting two mathematical Masters degrees (Math/Stats + Operational Research/Management Consultancy) and leaving for Australia. I'm now living in Brisbane and have been for 3 years with my lovely wife and daughter. I'm a Product Manager for a niche Insurance company and am responsible for a portfolio of some $120m AUD, I love my job as it allows me to apply numerical problem solving to real world problems but it's largely about being a troubleshooter and responsible for a portfolio with a vast array of attributes needing constant supervision. Yes, I'm a bit of a stress junkie.

Anyway, I hadn't really heard of poker before I came to Australia and in fact, I used to use the Bravo airings of the WSOP as a cure for insomnia during University - it put me to sleep very easily! I guess I thought the game looked boring or maybe it was the dulcet tones of Lon McEachern that lulled me to sleep.

My best friend over here in Australia had very irregular homegames and at this stage considered himself a bit of a poker novice, he was an avid CS (counterstrike) gamer and so had a very competitive group of friends so poker fits that dynamic pretty well. Unfortunately the games are always played completely blasted drunk, so there was very little proper playing going on and lots of nuttiness. I played my first homegame and bombed out early, I remember folding a set on a totally innocuous board to a raise because I thought it was a weak hand and didn't understand anything (the rum was to blame, I'm sure).

Anyway, I slowly became intrigued and played (and won) home games, my analytical side wanted to know the numbers so I read Sklansky and Super System and then tossed all that, watched WSOP and read Harrington and so on, then the online degeneracy began.

Like a lot of the stories on here, I was your standard micro-depositor tilt-beast with no real understanding of the game beyond the basics and a fundamental lack of bankroll-management... I busted a bunch of times on Stars and Tilt. I nearly smashed my monitor to bad beats a dozen times. Got ridiculously angry at players and raged in chats and so on.

My friend, a more emotionally equalised fellow, was playing at the same time and enjoying more success than I due to a greater ability to handle his tilt factor, but ultimately we were still very average students of the game. We occasionally played tourneys together and ended up chopping a rather decent second place in a guarantee for around $1,500 each which gave us our first poker bankrolls.

He headed off to $1/$2 and decimated a lot of it. I cashed off a bit to recompense and then tilted a ton off in med-stake turbo SNGs.

I quit poker, became older and wiser, and my friend became a "pro".

Every so often I would get beguiled by my friend's victories (nothing major, but doing well enough, went to EPT with it and had a few successive $5k scores) to return with more micro deposits and this time I had more success (a few minor mtt cashes that I'd then donk up in $1/$2 and treble then cash out or bust) but I still had tilt and bankroll management issues.

I ended up quitting again, this time it took for about 6 months.

About two months ago I found $11 left on FTP. Played a low guarantee and came first for $1,500. My first real MTT score. I felt a discipline and focus I hadn't felt since I'd started playing the game. I then played a bunch more and went deep in a few of them, just falling shy of getting into the final 18 or so. Then I chopped the $11r on FTP $12.5k guarantee two weeks back for $3,400. My biggest score yet! Just 4 days ago I played a $33 1r1a on FTP and made the Final Table... crashing out a little unnecessarily in 5th for $900 but still a good outing!

I've been on here since I hit that $1,500 score and learning more every day. I'm reading books again and watching videos and even taken on a tutor for MTTs (mlagoo) with my first HH session this Friday before the MINIFTOPS begins.

I need to recognise I'm not much of a cash game player at this stage and most of my winnings have been lucky, with a lot of losings being tiltish or dumb, so I'm restricting myself from those for now with a real focus on $10-$50 MTTs with the intention of building a $10k roll to play the majors wherever possible, but I never intend to "go pro". Just have a profitable hobby that I love to play for learning and the competitive spirit.

Geez that's long... hope you enjoyed reading it. I've enjoyed a lot of people's stories thus far.

An Ignominious Return

2008-12-03T15:27:00.000+10:00

Haven't played for quite some time, decided to try to swing back into it spurred on by my good friend taking down a satellite event securing his entry to an EPT event in France - my two teeny tiny deposits on Full Tilt were met by sniggers from the Poker Gods, who decreed: It Shall Not Be So. And I quickly lost that.

Fast forward to last night, accompanying my friend to a B&M to improve on stack sizing, reads, tells, etc. I waited around on the $250 buyin list for over 20 minutes and there's no budging just after they switch decks - another seat opens on the $500 and I decide fuck it, let's go. The buy-in level was a little out of my comfort zone financially, but not out of my league play-wise.

So I get on the table and steadily bleed $300 bucks over the course of 3 hours. 2 hands before the table breaks to change decks, I flop the wheel in a straddled pot preflop with A4 suited (out of the big blind) and jam, get a call from middle pair who thought I was a bare draw and get as close to even as I've been all night. Then the table breaks and apart from oscillating up and down between $500-$600 I didn't get up to much for another hour or so.

My friend on the other hand, who dropped a buy-in early shoving his trips over an open-ended straight draw and got called and lost, had just lost another huge pot - he's got about $280 or so left. I'm sitting with about $420 or so when this hand happens.

I'm on the button, there are two limps and then my buddy slowly draws out a raise of $30. I put him on a medium to strong ace and can tell he's probably going to go with it.

I look down to see 2 red kings. I think for a bit and announce a raise, putting in $50 more for $80 total - this was a pretty small raise in retrospect.

Old guy in the blind, horrible retard, insta-super-snap calls $75 - he's doing this with any 2 suited cards, pairs or face cards.

The iranian gambler who limped doesn't hesitate in calling.

My buddy puts in the extra $50.

Not a great result for me.

Flop: 10clubs 10diamonds Jdiamonds
Pot: ~$300

Retard instashoves all in for around $250.
Gambler thinks for a minute then calls.
My buddy puts in his last $200 or so.
I vomit on the table.

Pot: ~$1000

Given how utterly horribly loose the table had been, especially with massive bets getting no respect - I instantly worry about the 10, but am honestly more dead certain that at least one of the hands is the flush draw. I start to evaluate possible holdings...

Retard would stack off with the 10 obviously, any Jack, any flush draw, perhaps a straight draw if it was open ended. So I'm thinking, if he's hit a 10 on me, fine, but I can't fold to his bet on the flop if it was just he and I. He's fucking terrible.

Gambler I'm almost certain has the flush draw from the way he deliberated then flat called, sure, it could be a 10 but he'd played his made hands much more aggressively. I felt I was ahead of him.

My buddy? Well, I felt he had a medium ace - AJ is definitely in his range. Friends are friends, but I'm ahead of that.

There's so much money in the pot, I can't fold and witness a bunch of draws and top pair Jack, or worse - all draws. Even if the 10 is out there, I've got outs - not many, but I've got outs. I feel sick and don't want to see a 10, but I don't see how I can ever fold here on this table and given the action. And so I don't.

I don't have much more than the bet so I put it in and gambler is the only who has me covered and calls for the extra.

Pot: $1350+

Obviously you don't have to show your cards in a cash game but out of the fact it was the largest pot I played, I laid it on the line and asked if they'd show their cards out of sportsmanship. So I know what to avoid...

I threw my Khearts Kdiamonds down.

My buddy turns over AJ of clubs. Top pair. Right, so I need to avoid a Jack or an Ace.

Retard flips Q7 of diamonds for the flush draw - nice call pre, buddy. No diamonds please, dealer.

Gambler rather uncharacteristically bashful turns over the Adiamonds Kclubs. No queen while you're at it, thanks.

I'm basically gone from a 50% favourite pre to a 40% favourite on the flop. A lot of cards fuck me over.

Turn: 6clubs

My buddy just picked up a flush draw.

Now I have to avoid any diamond, any club, any ace, any queen, any jack.

Roughly half the deck.

I am a 47.5% favourite with one card to come. I'm losing 1 in every 2 pots.

That sound you're hearing is blood rushing through your ears as your heart rate goes through the roof.

River: 6hearts

Aheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Swongs

2008-05-26T15:45:00.000+10:00

A bit of a spewy week. Very up and down. Didn't March pass already? Cos it feels like I'm doing the poker version of what rabbits spent all of Spring down, up then down, up then down, barfing chips all over the table like loads of ... uh, okay, stop the metaphor now.

I guess that's PLO for you. On Saturday night I went from around a total BR of $1.2k (high watermark) to $800 playing a whole bunch of nut-hands that didn't hold til the river, I also dropped 2 full buy-ins against a remarkably idiotic Greek PLO player who called off all-in on the flop with merely a flopped pair against my very strong combodraws who later commented: this ain't NLHE.

No shit, buddy, and I'm sure calling off full buy-ins with just a flopped pair will be a losing proposition over time when your opponent at the best (from his point of view) is holding ridiculously strong combodraws that practically have the deck begging to hit them, or at worst are up against top two, sets, flopped straights and so on.

Ugh. So yeah, hence the title. Swingy PLO will cause much swinginess. I'm still having fun though, mostly. I was down to $700 after more PLO on Sunday and a healthy tilt-buy-in to a $55+5 got me third place and back to $800, though I deserved first and should've been at $950 by the end. Idiot spewstack with an ROI worse than I (a worthy feat) calls my bb-jam (having him covered 6k to 4k) after he limps to induce the shorty (who folded) with 99 and I have AKsuited. I miss and he becomes the prohibitive chipleader, leaving both of us in gamboolsville, population me and retardo short stack who kept sucking out to stay alive. Hurrr.

Not the best weekend. I'll keep plugging away at .25/.50 PLO and hopefully get back over a grand, when I do I might try to fire up some 11+1s, though my win rate in them is presently horrible - I might be getting some hints and tips from what Card Player magazine is calling "the hottest young SNG player alive". :p

Sunday night drama

2008-05-19T10:19:00.000+10:00

I was trying to do two things successfully last night, which become a trio of dramas:
- Win a 200 or so man $30+3 with 2 tables left and in middling chip position
- Make a proper Italian-style thin-crust pizza from scratch (yes, dough and all)

You could say things got stressful. I got Aces and the button raised, I reraised and the big blind jammed - I call, he flips up Queens and flops a set, I turn my two-outer and punch the air, letting out a hearty COME ONNNNN!

Then just as we were ready to make the pizza sauce and fry the onions/bacon for the toppings, the gas supply ran out (we use cylinders)! So I had to dash to the local servo to replace it, managing to do so while on break. After that I chipped up a little and sat card-dead through the FT until there were 7 left, I flopped top pair 5s on a 522 board, let the original limper bet out before I check-jammed him and he instantly called with A5. Unlucky for my 9 kicker. Oh well.
Still good for around $200, but top three were >$750, so I'm a little cut at my placing.

Apart from that, I seem to be bleeding cash at $6.50 SNGs my sharkscope stats are horrific, I'm struggling to cash (much less win). I'm not sure what's doing it, but the SNG challenge is off the cards again now that I'm healthier post-$75 win / post-PLO cash winnings / post $30+3 win, as that was to be a BR making exercise - plus I'm running shit in them anyway. The only SNGs I plan to play are 18man turbos for $26 tokens and perhaps one or two non-turbo 18/45 mans.

Aside from that I think I might exclusively play low stakes PLO and NLHE mtts, yesterday was funny, I sit down on a PLO table (.05/.10) and flop the nut straight in the 2nd hand. It gets all in 4-ways, with bottom set, top set and the same straight (with the flush draw). Amazingly, at only 30% to win, top set fills up, and if that hadn't happened I would have split the $40 pot with the other straight (flush didn't hit). I chatted to this guy about getting it all in there with a set on that board (because he got it all in for an extra $10 in a sidepot against the flopped straight/flush draw guy) and he starts giving me shit, challenging me to .25/.50 HU. At first I'm just amused and bullshit the guy, then I think about it and decide: this is one of those really profitable areas of poker I'm always hearing about, HU play, people angry/tilty, and I've never been confident enough in HU NLHE, so why not PLO where the pre/post-flop play is considerably easier?

So I went in and accepted his challenge. In the space of 10 minutes I'd stacked him once, and in the space of 20 minutes I'd stacked him twice. He then started begging for money back.

My Edge

2008-05-17T00:18:00.000+10:00

I'm cursed. My edge is shown to be consistently outside my bankroll. I'm really a $5/$10 omaha cash game player... I just don't know it yet.

Sat down with approximately 35% of my BR tonight - $100 - on a .50/1 PLO table and turned it into $700.

Yeah, you read that right. I fucking dominate.

A 3 hr session turning a $600 profit? $200/hr?

Fuck yeah.

PROOF OF RUNNING HOT -

That's right, uh huh, yeah, c'mon!

* The entirety of this post may or may not have been tongue in cheek but the results clearly speak for themselves.

Tilt Buy-ins: not just for the rich and famous

2008-05-16T00:59:00.000+10:00

Okay, so warts and all I expose my retardedness during the SNG challenge -

I didn't say I was ever in this for seriousness!

Okay, so that was a bit insane, but a first place win in the tilt-bought-in $55+5 worked out. Pretty easy to get to the final 3 as I was running pretty well, but HU was a tense battle - started with raises and quickly devolved into pushing ranges. I was playing against a scary multitabler so while that meant he probably had a wide range, I wasn't going to go with my hunch when facing an all-in bet with King-4 offsuit (unless I was forced to due to stack sizes). Anyway, with Hugh offering the occasional whisper of "you fold now", I managed to get it in good most of the time, except when I was down to 1k or so chips to his 10k and then battled back to take the lead and finally put him out with an Ax versus a Kx hand.

Just so you know though, my tilt was justified! I was having a REALLY shitty run at the $6.50s, including witnessing play so foul, so abhorrent, so incomprehensible, that I was sure I was playing a charity poker game at a downsyndrome connvetion. That, and I got really quite unlucky on occasion...

Yeah, you know what happened.

So we'll see how this fares. I now have double the BR to continue with... but no more cash games! I dropped a few buy-ins at .05/.10 Omaha and one at .10/.25 NL.

Next Challenge

2008-05-13T15:25:00.000+10:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, for my next trick I will attempt to achieve supreme profitability by doing the SNG challenge, I will attempt to level up by starting out at the $6.50 SNG stage.

Given the payout structure of 1st - $27, 2nd - $16, 3rd - $11, I plan to take the full return (not just profit) and reinvest all in the appropriate level-up of SNG. So, if I get 1st I'll do a $24+2, if I get a 2nd I'll do a $11+1, if I get a 3rd I'll stay where I am, and so on up through the levels.
I'll cap it out at $69+6 though, so even if I win a first place $24+2 for $104 I'll retain $29 after the $75, which I will finally take a slice of profit from and start again at $6.50.

I'll report back once I've attempted to level up 10 times with my successes and failures, warts and all.

Obviously the "risk" inherent in this procedure is that you risk all earned "profit" thus far by playing outside the limits of your bankroll, but seeing as I'm playing for "fun" more than "serious bankroll building", I think it'll be more interesting for me to take risks!

For now, I'll leave you with my dream graph for those 10 games:

$8.80 mtt - 1st place - $104

2008-05-12T23:10:00.000+10:00

Wasn't much of an achievement to final table this, considering as there were only 29 runners for a grand $232 prize pool, but it was fun nonetheless and I was on fire with my reads and instincts. I made a number of good laydowns and solid reshoves preflop, not facing many difficult decisions postflop.

I got propelled into the top 3 in chips, with 8 remaining, after getting my Aces in against the big stack's Kings. The usual shenanigans went on for a while (with only hand worthy of comment below), as for the rest of the action:
-I rejammed AQ over a big raise pre to become chipleader
- a shorty and I split a pot when I held AQ suited against his A6 and the board double paired
- my 10s beat a 4k shorty's AQ all in pre
- QK rivered a straight against a 4k shorty's 62-offsuit (thank fuck)

On the bubble I was a prohibitive chipleader, 25k to 2nd place's 15.5k, but with the blinds at 150/300 (ante 25) I was afforded plenty of time to sit back and play sensibly. No reraising shorty's with A9 pre or anything, hehe. The action went as follows:
- my Aces got the blinds (in big blind, lol, fuck me)
- A5 lost to a tiny stack's Q10
- AA got the blinds again, lol

Post bubble, I immediately picked up AK and put out the tiny stack rivering a straight against his pocket 3s. The action was pretty insane, next hand I picked up A8, flopped an Ace and took out the next shortest stack who couldn't fold A2. I was relentlessly aggressive HU, pretty much raising and reraising any two preflop, my opponent was very weak and soon I had him at a 3:1 chip disadvantage. Once there it was a case on waiting for the perfect storm... which took a while. I always had the advantage but there was once we got as low as 2:1 which was a bit of a worry. It was back and forth for ages until he was down to 5:1 when I got A6 in pre against his QK and it held up, good for a $104 first place finish!

I dub thee an undead blog

2008-05-12T13:17:00.000+10:00

Don't ask me why but I've decided to resurrect this.

It all began on a rum-fuelled Friday night, playing .10/.25 NLHE for some laughs and ended up quadrupling my $50 to $200 (high point of the night was continually butting heads with a guy who started off extremely solid and eventually spewed by rejamming a buy-in with AQ suited over my Aces preflop).

Saturday I ran out of the $7k guarantee in 189th (of 700+) after playing okay but making a bad call of a big stack who (first hand after getting moved to my table) rejammed my UTG raise with 8s and he was holding 10s, but it was a decent run for my first mtt in a while.

I'm thinking 99% of the time it's a horrible call because my UTG raise shows strength (it was around 30% of my stack pre and the blinds were up there, I was half the average stack before raising) and he's blatantly disregarding whatever strength I may be showing. Later in the game it's probably an easy call off because more players start raising UTG to blindsteal wanting to look more dangerous thatn they are, so savvy players are reraising a lot more in very lategame MTT. Still, if I fold I'm not really in great shape either as I'm immediately in the big blind and around 25% of my stack is represented in the blinds and antes, not a good spot to be in. I guess it was just one of those days where it wasn't meant to be.

Sunday I played a token SNG and got one in the bag, then went on an unfortunate rollercoaster with .05/.10 PLO dropping three buyins (nut boat versus quads, two openender nutflush combodraws that missed) and then getting most of it back by getting it all in with a nutflush draw (and very little else) in a hotly contested 3 way all-in pot and rivering the flush draw.

So I'll be playing some low-limit cash (NLHE and PLO) and the odd SNG/MTT, purely for fun, and documenting any craziness here.